be an alteration even in Heaven it self since the Ascension of Christ into it and such an alteration as advanceth the glory thereof both to Angels and Saints Dr. Owen's Coristologia p. 158. Heaven it self saith one who is now there was not what it is before the entrance of Christ into the Sanctuary for the administration of his Office Neither the Saints departed nor the Angels themselves were participant of that glory which now they are Neither yet doth this argue any defect in Heaven or the state thereof in its primitive constitution For the perfection of any state hath respect unto that order of things which it is originally suited unto Take all things in the order of the first Creation and with respect thereunto Heaven was perfect in Glory from the beginning Page 355. c. Whatever was their rest refreshment and blessedness whatever were their enjoyments of the presence of God yet was there no Throne of Grace erected in Heaven no High-Priest appearing before it no Lamb as it had been slain no joint ascription of Glory unto him that sits upon the Throne Priusâ—pâ—am ad noâ—tra tempora pervintum est Camero and to the Lamb for ever God having ordained some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Heb. 11.40 Now both the Angels and Saints in Heaven do behold Christ in his Priestly Office within that Sanctuary a sight never seen in Heaven before 2 This frame of heavenly Worship will continue as it is until the end of the World and then another alteration will be made in the manner of his dispensatory Kingdom For then he must deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father and then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15.24 28. so that as the present state of Heaven is not in all respects what it was before Christ's Ascension thither so after the Consummation of the Mediatorial Kingdom and the gathering all the Elect into Glory it will not in all respects be what now it is Christ will never cease to be the immediate head of the whole glorified Creation God having gathered all the Elect both Angels and Men unto an head in him and he being the Knot or Centre of that Collective Body the whole frame of the glorified Church would be dissolved should he lose his relation of an head to it Yea I doubt not but he will for ever continue to be the medium of Communication betwixt God and his glorified Church God will still Communicate himself to us through Christ and our adherence love and delight will still be through Christ In a word whatever change shall be made the Person of Christ and therein his humane nature shall still continue to be the eternal Object of Divine Glory Praise and Worship Rev. 22.4 But when he shall have gathered home all his Elect to glory Nam si dispensativum hoc regnum nunquam traditurus esset nunquam regni naturalis usum plenum esset recepturus Junius he will resign this dispensatory Kingdom and become subject as Man and as Head of that Body which he purchased to his Father himself that God may be all in all as it is 1 Cor. 15.28 1 All in all that is All the Saints shall be filled and abundantly satisfied in and from God alone there shall be no Emptiness no want no complaint For as there is water enough in one Sea to fill all Rivers light enough in one Sun to illuminate all the World so all Souls shall be eternally filled satisfied and blessed in one God Surely there is enough in God for Millions of Souls for if there be enough in God for all the Angels Matth. 18.10 yea enough in God for Iesus Christ Col. 1.19 there must be enough for all our Souls the capacity of Angels is larger than ours the capacity of Christ is larger than that of Angels he that fills them can and will therefore fill us or be all in all to us 2 All in all that is compleat satisfaction to all the Saints in the absence of all other things out of which they were wont to suck some comfort and delight in this World He will now be instead of all Eminently all without them We shall suck no more sweetness out of food sleep Relations Ordinances c. there will be no more need or use of them than there is of Candles in the Sun-shine Rev. 22.5 3 All in all that is God only shall be loved praised and admired by all the Saints they shall love no Creature out of God but all in God or rather God in them all This is that blessed state to which all things tend for which the Angels and glorified Souls in Heaven long Hence it is that there is joy in Heaven upon the Conversion of any poor sinner on Earth because thereby the Body of Christ mystical advanceth towards its fulness and compleatness Luke 15.10 no sooner is a poor Soul struck by the word to the heart and sent home crying O sick Sick Sick of sin and sick for Christ but the news of it is quickly in Heaven and is matter of great joy there because they wait as well as Christ for the time of Consummation To conclude Those that went first to Heaven before Christ's Ascension were fully at rest in God and blessed in his enjoyment and yet upon Christ's Ascension thither their happiness was advanced 't is a new Heaven as it were to feed their eyes upon the Man Christ Iesus there Those that now stand before the Throne ravished with the face of Christ and ascribing glory to him for ever are also in a most blessed state and are filled with the joy of the Lord. And yet two things still remain to be farther done before they are as they shall be for ever viz. the Restitution of their Bodies which yet lie in the dust and the delivering up of the dispensatory Kingdom upon the coming in of the fulness of all their fellow Saints and after that no more alteration for ever But they shall be both in Soul and Body for ever with the Lord. What Tongue of Man or Angel can give us the compleat Emphasis of that word ever with the Lord or that of Gods being all in all O what hath God prepared for them that love him PROP. XII It pleaseth God at some times even in this life to give some men the foresight and foretaste of that Blessedness which holy separated Souls do now enjoy and themselves are shortly to enjoy with God in Glory SPecimens and Earnests of Heaven are no unknown things upon earth As the Grapes of Eshcol so the joy of Heaven may be tasted before we come thither and these foresights and Praelibations of Heaven are either 1. Extraordinary Or either 2. Ordinary 1. Extraordinary for the way and manner when the Soul is either 1
and it's Body in the Grave This associated with Angels that prey'd upon by Worms Ioseph's case is the liveliest Embleme that occurs to my present thoughts to illustrate the point in hand He was advanced to be Lord over all Aegypt living in the greatest pomp and splendor there Gen. 43.29 30 31. but his Father and Brethren were at the same time ready to perish in the land of Canaan He had been many years separated from them but neither the length of time nor honours of the Court could alienate his affections from them O see the mighty power of Relation No sooner doth he see his Brethren and understand their case and the pining condition of Iacob his Father but his bowels yearned and his compassions rolled together for them Yea he could not forbear nor stifle his own affections though he knew how injurious his Brethren had been to him and betrayed him as the Body hath the Soul Yet all this notwithstanding he breaks forth into tears and outcries over them which made the house ring again with the news that Ioseph's brethren were come Nor could he be at rest in the lap of honour and plenty until he had gotten home his dear and ancient Relations to him Thus stands the case betwixt Soul and Body Argument III. THE regret reluctancy and sorrows expressed by the Soul at parting do strongly argue its inclination to a re-union with it when it is actually separated from it For why should we surmise that the Soul which mourn'd and groan'd so deeply at parting which clasp'd and embraced it so dearly and affectionately which fought strugled and disputed the passage with death every foot and inch of ground it got and would not part with the Body till by plain force it was rent out of its arms should not when absent desire to see and enjoy its old and endeared friend again Hath it lost its affection though it continue its relation that 's very improbable Or doth its advancement in Heaven make it regardless of its Body which lies in contempt and misery that 's an effect which Christs personal glory never produced in him towards us nor a good mans perferment would produce in him to his poor and miserable friends in this World as we see in the case of Ioseph but now instanced in It is therefore harsh and incongruous to suppose the Souls love to the Body was extinguished in the parting hour and that now out of sight out of mind Object But was it not urged before in opposition to this assertion that the Souls of the righteous looked upon their Bodies as their Prisons and sighed for deliverance by death and greatly rejoiced in the hope and foresight of that liberty death would restore them to How doth this consist with such reluctancies at parting and inclinations to re-union Sol. The objection doth not suppose any man to be totally free from all reluctancies and unwillingness to die The holiest Souls that ever lived in Bodies of flesh will give an unwilling shrug when it comes to the parting point 2 Cor. 5.2 But this their willingness to be gone arises from two other grounds which make iâ— consistent enough with its reluctancies at parting and inclination to a second meeting 1 This willingness to die doth not suppose the Souls love to the Body to be utterly extinguished but mastered and overpowered by another and stronger love There is in every Christian a double love one natural to the Body and the things below the other supernatural to Christ and the things above the latter doth not extinguish though it conquer and subdue the other Love to the Body pulls backward love to Christ pulls forward and finally prevails This is so consistent with it that it supposes natural reluctation and unwillingness to part 2 The willingness of Gods people to be dissolved must not be understood absolutely but comparatively In that sense the Apostle will be understood 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. i. e. Rather than to live always a life of sin sorrow and absence from God Death is not desireable in and for it self but only as it is the Souls outlet from sin and its inlet to God So that the very best desire it but comparatively and it is but few who find the love of this animal life subacted and overpowered by high raised acts of faith and love The generality even of good Souls feel strong renitencies and suffer sharp conflicts at their dissolution All which discovers with what lothness and unwillingness the Soul unclasps its arms to let go its Body Now as Divines argue the frame of Christs heart in Heaven toward his people on earth from all those endearing passages and demonstrations of love he gave them at parting so we here argue the continued love and inclination of the Soul to its Body after it is in Heaven from the manifold demonstrations it gave of its affection to it in this World especially in the parting hour No considerations in all the World less than the more full fruition of God and freedom from sin could possibly have prevailed with it to quit the Body though but for a time and leave it in the dust Which is our third Argument Argument IV. AND as the dolorous parting hour evidenceth it so doth the joy with which it receives it again at the Resurrection If it part from it so heavily and meet it again with joy unspeakable sure then it still retained much love for it and desires to be re-espoused to it in the interval Now that its meeting in the Resurrection is a day of joy to the Soul is evident because it is called the time of refreshment Acts 3.19 And they awake with singing out of the dust Isai. 26.19 If the direct and immediate scope of the Prophet point not as some think it doth at the Resurrection yet it is allowed by all to be a very lively allusion to it which is sufficient for my purpose And indeed none that understands and believes the design and business of that day can possibly doubt but there was reason enough to call it a time of refreshment a singing morning for the Souls of the righteous come from Heaven with Christ and the whole host of shouting Angels not to be speclators only but the subjects of that days triumph They come to re-assume and be re-espoused to their own Bodies this being the appointed time for God to vindicate and rescue them from the tyrannical power of the Grave to endow them with spiritual qualities at their second marriage to their Souls that in both parts they may be compleatly happy O the joyful claspings and dear embraces betwixt them who but themselves can understand And by the way this removes the objection forementioned of the miseries and prejudices the Soul suffered in this world in and from the Body For now it receives it a spiritual Body i.e. so
themselves first into a deep guilt by compliance with Antichrist and receiving his mark then into an Hell upon Earth the remorse and horrour of their own consciences which gives them no rest day nor night he immediately subjoyns v. 13. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord yea from henceforth saith the spirit c. Oh 't is a special blessing and favour to be hid out of the way of those temptations and torments in a seasonable and quiet grave Argument IX YOur fixed aversation and unwillingness to die will provoke God to imbitter your lives with much more affliction than you have yet felt or would feel if your hearts were more mortified and weaned in this point You cannot think of your own deaths with pleasure no nor yet with patience Well take heed lest this draw down such troubles upon you as shall make you at last to say with Iob chap. 10. v. 1. My Soul is weary of my life An expression much like that 2 Sam. 1.9 Anguish is come upon me because my life is whole in me My Soul is hardened or become cruel against my life as the Chaldee renders it There is a twofold weariness of life one from an excellency of spirit a noble principle the ardent love of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Another from the meer pressures of affliction and anguish of Spirit under heavy and successive stroaks from the hand of God and men Is it not more excellent and desireable to groan for death under a pressure of love to Christ than of afflictions from Christ I am convinced that very many of our afflictions come upon this score and account to make us willing to dye Is it not sad that God is forced to bring death upon all our comfortable and desireable things in this World before he can gain our consents to be gone Why will you put God upon such work as this Why cannot he have your hearts at a cheaper rate If you could dye many of your comforts for ought I know might live Had Iacob come to Absalom when he sent for him the first or second time Absalom had never set his field of Barly on fire 2 Sam. 14.30 And if we were more obedient to the will of God in this matter 't is likely he would not consume your health and Estates and Relations with such heavy strâ—â—ks as he hath done and will yet farther do except your wills be more compliant Alas To cut off your comforts one after another and make you live a groaning life the Lord hath no pleasure in it but rather he had you should lose these things than that he should lose your hearts on Earth or company in Heaven Impatiens aegrotus crudelem facit Medicum Argument X. THe decree of death cannot be reversed nor is there any other ordinary passage for the Soul into Glory but through the gates of death Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all men once to die but after that the Iudgment There is but one way to pass out of the obscure suffocating life in the Womb into the more free and nobler life in the World viz. through the Throes and Agonies of Birth And there is ordinarily but one way to pass from this sinning groaning life we live in this World to the enjoyment of God and the Glory above but through the Agonies of death You must cast as it were your Secundine once again I mean this vile body before you can be happy Heaven cannot come down to you you cannot see God and live Exod. 33.20 It would certainly confound and break you to pieces like an earthen Pitcher should God but ray forth his Glory upon you in the state you now are and it is sure you cannot expect the extraordinary savour of such a translation as Enoch had Hebr. 11.5 Or as those Believers shall have that shall be found alive at Christ's coming 1 Thes. 4.17 You must go the common road that all the Saints go but though you cannot avoid you may sweeten it God will not reverse his Decree but you may and ought to arm your selves against the fears of it Ahashuerus would not re-call the Proclamation he had emitted against the Iews but he gave them full liberty to take up arms to defend themselves against their Enemies 'T is much so here the Sentence cannot be revoked but yet he gives you leave yea he commands you to arm your selves against death and defie it and trample it under the feet of Faith Argument XI WHen you find your hearts reluctate at the thoughts of leaving the Body and the comforts of this World then consider how willingly and chearfully Iesus Christ left Heaven and the Bosome of his Father to come down to this World for your sakes Pr. 8.30 31. Ps. 40.7 Loe I come c. O compare the frames of your hearts with his in this point and shame your selves out of so unbecoming a temper of Spirit 1 He left Heaven and all the Delights and Glory of it to come down to this World to be abased and humbled to the lowest you leave this World of sin and misery to ascend to Heaven to be exalted to the highest He came hither to be impoverished you go thither to be enriched 2 Cor. 8.9 yet he came willingly and we go grudgingly 2 He came from Heaven to Earth to be made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 we go from Earth to Heaven to be fully and everlastingly delivered from sin yet he came more willingly to bear our sins than we go to be delivered from them 3 He came to take a body of Flesh to suffer and die in Heb. 2.24 you leave your Bodies that you may never suffer in or by them any more 4 As his Incarnation was a deep abasement so his death was the most bitter death that ever was tasted by any from the beginning or ever shall to the end of the World and yet how obediently doth he submit to both at the Father's Call Luke 12.50 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished Ah Christians your death cannot have the ten thousandth part of that bitterness in it that Christ's had I remember one of the Martyrs being asked why his heart was so light at death returned this answer because Christs heart was so heavy at his death O there is a vast difference betwixt one and the other the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law was in his death Gal. 3.13 but there is neither Wrath nor Curse in your death who die in the Lord Rom. 8.1 God forsook him when he hanged upon the Tree in the Agonies of death Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But you shall not be forsaken He will make all your Bed in sickness Psal. 41.3 He will never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13.5 Yet he regretted not but went as a Sheep or Lamb Isa. 53.7 O reason
Iohn saw II. Next he tells us what he heard and that was 1. A vehement Cry from those Souls to God 2. A gracious Answer from God to them 1. The cry which they uttered with a loud voice was this How long O Lord Holy and True dost thou not avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the Earth A cry like that from the blood of Abel Yet let it be remembred 1 This cry doth not imply these holy Souls to be in a restless state or to want true satisfaction and repose out of the Body noâ— yet 2 that they carried with them to Heaven any malevolent or revengeful disposition but that which is principally signified by this Cry is their vehement desire after the abolition of the Kingdom of Satan and the Completion and Consummation of Christs Kingdom in this World That those his Enemies which oppose his Kingdom by slaying his Saints may be made his footstool which is the same thing Christ waits for in glory Heb. 10.13 2. Secondly Here we find Gods gracious Answer to the cry of these Souls in which he speaks satisfaction to them two ways 1. By somewhat given them for present 2. By somewhat promised them hereafter 1. That which he gives them in hand White Robe were given to every one of them It is generally agreed that these white Robes given them denote heavenly Glory the same which is promised to all sincere and faithful ones who preserve themselves pure from the corruptions and defilements of the World Revel 3.4 and it is as much as if God should have said to them Although the time be not come to satisfie your desires in the final ruine and overthrow of Satans Tyrannical Kingdom in the World and Christs consummate Conquest of all his Enemies yet it shall be well with you in the mean time you shall walk with me in white and enjoy your glory in Heaven 2 And this is not all but the very things they cry for shall be given them also after a little season q. d. wait but a little while till the rest that are to follow in the same suffering path be got through the red-Sea of Martyrdome as you are and then you shall see the foot of Christ upon the necks of all his Enemies and justice shall fully avenge the precious innocent blood of all the Saints which in all Ages hath been shed for my sake from the blood of Abel to the last that shall ever suffer for Righteousness sake in the World From all which this Conclusion is most fair and obvious DOCTRINE THat the Souls of men perish not with their Bodies but do certainly over-live them and subsist in a state of separation from them Matth. 10.28 Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul The Bodies of these Martyrs of Jesus were destroyed by divers sorts of torments but their Souls were out of the reach of all those cruel Engines They were in safety under the Altar and in glory cloathed with their white Robes when the Bodies they lately inhabited on earth were turned to ashes and torn to pieces by wild Beasts The point I am to discourse from this Scripture is the immortality of the Soul for the better understanding whereof let it be noted that there is a twofold Immortality I. Simple and absolute in its own Nature II. Derived dependent and from the pleasure of God In the former Sense God only hath Immortality as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6.16 our Souls have it as a gift from him He that created our Souls out of nothing can if he please reduce them to nothing again but he hath bestowed Immortality upon them and produced them in a nature suitable to that his appointment fitted for an everlasting life So that though God by his absolute power can yet he never will annihilate them but they shall and must live for ever in endless Blessedness or Misery Death must destroy these mortal Bodies but it cannot destroy our Souls And the certainty of this assertion is grounded upon these reasons and will be cleared by these following Arguments Argument I. THe first Argument for proof of the Souls Immortality may be taken from the Simplicity Spirituality and uncompoundedness of its Nature It is a pure simple unmixed Being * Interitus est discessus Secretio direptuâ— earum partium qâ—ae conjuctione aliqua tenebaâ—tur Tâ—lly Death is the Dissolution of things compounded where therefore no composition or mixture is found no death or dissolution can follow Death is the great Divider but it is of things that are divisible The more simple pure and refined any material thing is by so much the more permanent and durable it is found to be The nearer it approacheth to the nature of Spirits the farther it is removed from the power of death but that which is not material or mixed at all is wholly exempt from the stroke and power of death It is from the contrariant qualities and jarring humours in mixed Bodies that they come under the Law and power of dissolution Matter and Mixture are the doors at which death enters naturally upon the Creatures But the Soul of man is a simple spiritual immaterial and unmixed Being not compounded of matter and form as other Creatures are but void of matter and altogether Spiritual as may appear in the vast capacity of its understanding faculty which cannot be straitned by receiving multitudes of Truths into it It need not empty it self of what it had received before to make way for more truth nor doth it find it self clogg'd or burthened by the greatest multitudes or varieties of Truths but the more it knows the more it still desires to know It s capacity and appetite are found to inlarge themselves according to the increase of knowledge So that to speak as the matter is if the Knowledge of all Arts Sciences and Mysteries of Nature could be gathered into the mind of one man yet that mind would thirst and even burn with desire after more knowledge and find more room for it than it did when it first sipt and relished the sweetness of truth Knowledge as Knowledge never burthens or cloys the mind but like fire increases and enlarges as it finds more matter to work upon Now this could never be if the Soul were a material Being Take the largest Vessel and you shall find that the more you pour into it the less room is still left for more and when it is full you cannot pour in one drop more except you let out what was in it befoâ—e But the Soul is no such Vessel it can retain all it had and be still receptive of more so that nothing can fill it and satisfie it but that which is infinite and perfect The natural appetite after food is sometimes sharp and eager but then there is a stint and measure beyond which it 〈◊〉 not but the appetite of the mind is more eager and unlimiâ—â—d it never
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
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
and perfect than when the Body in an Ecstasie is laid aside as to any use or assistance of the mind The Soul for that space uses not the Bodies assistance as the very words Ecstasie and Rapture convince us Si autem hoc non est ex natura animae sed per accidens hoc convenit ei ex to quod corpori alligatur sicut Platonics posuâ—runt de facili quaestio solvi possit Nam remoto impedimento corporis rediret anima ad suam naturam Aquin. p. 1. Q. 8. Art 1. 2. To understand by Species doth not agree to the Soul naturally and necessarily but by accident as it is now in Union with the Body Were it but once loosed from the Body it would understand better without them than ever it did in the Body by them A Man that is on Horse-back must move according to the motion of the Horse he rides but if he were on Foot he then uses his own proper motion as he pleaseth So here But though we grant the Soul doth in many cases now make use of Phantasms and that the agitation of the Spirits which are in the Brain and Heart are conjunct with its acts of Cogitation and Intellection Yet as a searching Scholar well observes The Spirits are rather Subjects than Instruments of those actions And the whole essence of those acts is antecedent to the motion of the Spirits As when we use a Pen in writing or a Knife in cutting How 's Blessedness pag. 174 175. there is an operation of the Soul upon them before there can be any operation by them They act as they are first acted and so do these bodily Spirits So that to speak properly the Body is bettered by the use the Soul makes of it in these its noble actions but the Soul is not advantaged by being tied to such a Body It can do its own work without it its operations follow its essence not the Body to which it is for a time united In summ 'T is much more absonous and difficult to conceive a stupefied benumbed and unactive Soul whose very nature is to be active lively and always in motion than it is to conceive a Soul freed from the shackles and clogs of the Body acting freely according to its own nature I wish the favourers of this Opinion may take heed lest it carry them farther than they intend even to a denial of its Existence and Immortality and turn them into down-right Sâ—matists or Atheists PROP. VI. That the separated Souls of the just having finished all their work of obedience on earth and the Spirit having finished all his work of Sanctification upon them they do ascend to God with all the habits of Grace inherent in them and all the comfortable improvements of their Graces accompanying and following them THis Proposition is to be opened and confirmed in these four Branches 1 When a gracious Soul is separated from the Body all its work of obedience in this World is finished Therefore death is called the finishing of our course Acts 20.24 the night when man works no more Iohn 9.4 There is no working in the grave Eccles. 9.10 for death dissolves the Compositum and removes the Soul immediately to another World where it can act for it self only but not for others as it was wont to do on earth I shall see man no more saith Hezekiah with the Inhabitants of the World Isaiah 38.11 that which was said of David's death is as true of every Christian that having served his Generation according to the Will of God he fell asleep Acts 13.36 I do not say this lower World receives no benefit at all by them after their death for though they can speak no more write no more pray for and instruct the Inhabitants of this World no more nor exhibit to them the beauty of Religion in any new acts or examples of theirs which is that I mean by saying they have finished all their work of obedience on earth Yet the benefit of what they did whilst in the Body still remains after they are gone as the Apostle speaks of Abel Hebr. 11.4 Who being dead yet speaketh This way indeed abundance of service will be done for the Souls of men upon earth long after they are gone to Heaven And this should greatly quicken us to leave as much as we can behind us for the good of Posterity that after our decease as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 1.15 they may have our words and examples in remembrance But for any service to be done de novo after death it is not to be expected We have accomplished as an Hireling our day and have not a stroke more to do 2 As all our work of obedience is then finished by us so at death all the Work of God is finished by his Spirit upon us The last hand is then put to all the preparatory work for glory not a stroke more to be done upon it afterward which appears as well by the immediate succession of the life of glory whereof I shall speak in another Proposition as by the cessation of all sanctifying means and instruments which are totally laid aside as things of no more use after this stroke is given Adepto fine cessant media Means are useless when the end is attain'd There is no work saith Solomon in the Grave How short soever the Souls stay and abode in the Body was though it were regenerated one day and separated the next yet all that is wrought upon it which God ever intended should be wrought in this World and there is no preparation-work in the other World 3 But though the Soul leave all the means of grace behind it yet it carries away with it to Heaven all those habits of grace which were planted and improved in it in this World by the blessing of the Spirit upon those means though it leave the Ordinances it loseth not the effects and fruits of them though they cease their effects still live The truth dwelleth in us and shall be in us for ever 1 John 2.17 The Seed of God remaineth in us 1 John 3.9 Common gifts fall at death but saving grace sticks fast in the Soul and ascends with it into glory Gracious habits are inseparable Glory doth not destroy but perfect them They are the Souls meetness for Heaven Col. 1.12 and therefore it shall not come into his presence leaving its meetness behind it In vain is all the work of the Spirit upon us in this World if we carry it not along with us into that World seeing all his works upon us in this life have a respect and relation to the life to come Look therefore as the same natural Faculties and Powers which the Soul had though it could not use them in its imperfect Body in the Womb came with it into this World where they freely exerted themselves in the most noble actions of natural life so the habits of Grace which by Regeneration are here
implanted in a weak and imperfect Soul go with it to glory where they exert themselves in a more high and perfect way of acting than ever they did here below The languishing spark of love is there a vehement flame the saint remiss and infrequent delight in God is there at a constant ravishing and transporting height 4 To conclude As all implanted habits of grace ascend with the sanctified Soul to Heaven for the Soul ascends not thither as a natural but as a new Creature so all the effects results and sweet improvements of those Graces which we gathered as the pleasant fruits of them on earth these accompany and follow the Soul into the other World also Their Works follow them Rev. 14.13 They go not before in the notion of merits to make way for them but they follow or accompany them as Evidences and comfortable Experiences I doubt not but the very remembrance of what past betwixt God and the Soul here betwixt the day of its Espousals to Christ and its Divorce from the Body will be one sweet ingredient into their blessedness and joy when they shall be singing in the upper Region the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. They were never given to be lost or left behind us And thus you see with what a rich Cargo the Soul sails to the other World though if it had no other it would never drop Anchor there PROP. VII The Souls of the just when separated from their Bodies do not wander up and down this World nor hover about the Sepulchres where their Bodies lie nor are they detain'd in any Purgatory in order to their more perfect Purification nor do they fall asleep in a benummed stupid State But do forthwith pass into glory and are immediately with the Lord. WHen once the mind of man leaves the Scripture-guidance and direction which is to it what the Compass or Pole-star is to a Ship in the wide Ocean Whither will it not wander In what uncertainties will it not fluctuate And upon what Rocks and Quick-sands must it inevitably be cast Many have been the foolish and groundless Conceits and Fancies of men about the Receptacles of departed Souls 1. Some have assigned them a restless wandering life now here now there without any certain dwelling place any where The only ground for this fancy is the frequent Apparitions of the Ghosts or Spirits of the dead whereof many instances are given and who is there that is a stranger to such Stories Now if departed Souls were fixed any where this World would be quiet and free from such disturbances I make no doubt but very many of these Stories have been the industrious Fictions and Devices of wicked and superstitious Votaries to gain reputation to their way speaking lies in Hypocrisie to draw Disciples after them And many others have been the Tricks and Impostures of Satan himself to shake the credit of the Saints Rest in Heaven and the imprisonment of ungodly Souls in Hell as will more fully appear when I come to speak to that Question more particularly 2. Others think when they are loosed from the Body at death they hover about the Graves and solitary places where their Bodies lie as willing seeing they can dwell no longer in them to abide as near them as they can just as the surviving Turtle keeps near the place where his Mate died and may be heard mourning for a long time about that part of the Wood. This opinion seeks countenance and protection from that law Deut. 18.10 11. which prohibits men to consult with the dead of which restraint there had been no need nor use if it had not been practised and such practices had never been continued if departed Souls had not frequented those places and given answers to their Questions But what I said before of Satans Impostures is enough for present to return to this also Bell. lib. 2. de Purg. cap. 6. 3. The Papists send them immediately to Purgatory in order to their more thorough Purification This Purgatory Bellarmin thus describes It is a certain place wherein as in a Prison Souls are purged after this life that were not fully purged here to the intent they may enter pure into Heaven and though the Church saith he hath not defined the place yet the School-men say it is in the Bowels of the Earth and upon the borders of Hell And to countenance this profitable Fable divers Scriptures are by them abused and misapplied as 1 Cor. 3.15 Matth. 5.25 26. 1 Pet. 3.19 all which have been fully rescued out of their hands and abundantly vindicated by our Divines who have proved God never kindled that fire to purifie Souls but the Pope to warm his own Kitchin 4. Another sort there are who affirm they neither wander about this World nor go into Purgatory but are cast by death into a Swoon or sleep remaining in a kind of benummed condition till the Resurrection of the Body This was the Errour of Beryllus and Irenaeus seems to border too near upon it when he saith The Souls of Disciples shall go to an invisible place appointed for them of God Discipulorum Animae abibunt in invisibilem locum definitam â—is à Deo ibi usqâ—e ad Resurrectionem commorabuntar sustinentes Resurrectionem Post recipientes corpora perfectè resurgentes i. e. corporaliter quemadmodum dominus resurrexit sic venlent ad conspectum Dei Iren. lib. 5. and shall there tarry till the Resurrection waiting for that time and the receiving their Bodies and perfectly i.e. corporally rising again as Christ did they shall come to the sight of God All these mistakes will fall together by one stroak for if it evidently appear as I hope it will that the Spirits of the just are immediately taken to God and do converse with and enjoy him in Heaven Then all these Fancies vanish without any more labour about them particularly Now there are four Considerations which to me put the immediate glorification of the departed Souls of Believers beyond all rational doubt 1 Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them as ever it shall be 2 They are as ready and fit for Heaven as ever they shall be 3 The Scripture is plainly for it And 4 There is nothing in reason against it 1 Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them when they die as ever it shall be Heaven is prepared for Believers 1 By the purpose and Decree of God and so far it was prepar'd from the Foundation of the World Matth. 25.34 2 By the death of Christ whose blood made the purchace of it for Believers and so meritoriously opened the Gates thereof which our sins had barred up against us Heb. 10.19 20. 3 By the Ascension of Christ into that holy place as our Representative and Forerunner Iohn 14.2 This is all that is necessary to be done for the preparation of Heaven and all this is done as much as ever God design'd should be
Mic. 5.7 2. No grace is or can be acted here without the clog of a contrary corruption upon its heel Rom. 7.21 When I would do good evil is present with me Every beam of faith is presently darkned by a cloud of unbelief Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Saepè in libro experientiae legimus quomodo à corde nostro relinquimar nunc est nobisâ—um nunc alibi nunc avoâ—at nunc recurrit in sola lubricitate manens Bern. We often read in the Book of experience saith one what an inconstant fickle thing the heart is in duties Now it is with us by and by it 's fled away and gone we know not where to find it It is constant only in its inconstancy and lubricity There is iniquity in our most holy things which needs pardon Exod. 28.38 Our best duties have enough in them to damn us as well as our worst sins but in that perfect state above grace flows purely out of the Soul as beams do from the Sun or crystal streams from the purest Fountain No impure or imperfect acts proceed from Spirits made perfect 3. Here the graces of the Saints are never or very rarely acted in their highest and most intense degree When they love God most fervently there is some coldness in their love Who comes up to the height of that rule Matt. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy strength When we meditate on God it is not in the depth of our thoughts without some wanderings and extravagancies 't is very hard if not impossible for the Soul to stand long in its full bent to God But in Heaven it doth so and will do so for ever without any relaxation or remission of its fervour Christ among the Saints and Angels in Heaven is as a mighty Load-stone cast in amongst many Needles which leap to him and fix themselves inseparably upon him They all act in glory as the fire doth here to the utmost of their power and ability There is no note lower than Glory to God in the highest 4 The most spiritual Souls on earth who live most with God have and must have their dayly and frequent intermissions The necessities of the Body as well as the defectiveness of their graces require and necessitate it to be so Our hands with Moses will hang down and grow weary Our affections will cool and fall do what we can But as the Spirits of just men made perfect know no remissions in the degree so neither any intermissions in the actings of their grace They shall serve him day and night in his Temple Rev. 7.15 You that would purchase the continuance of your spiritual comforts but for a day with all that you have in this World will there enjoy them at full without any intermitting throughout eternity 5. If the best hearts on earth be at any time more than ordinarily enlarged in spiritual comforts they need presently some humbling providence to hide pride from their eyes Even Paul himself must have a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet him Bernard could never perform any duty with comfortable enlargement but he seemed to hear his own heart whisper thus benè fecisti Bernarde O well done Bernard But in Heaven the highest comforts are injoyed in the deepest humility and the intire glory is ascribed to God without any unworthy defalcations Rev. 4.10 They put not the Crown upon their own heads but Christs they cast down their Crowns and fall down at the feet of him that sitteth upon the Throne 6. All Assemblies for worship in this World are mixed They consist of Regenerate and Unregenerate living and dead Souls this spoils the harmony and allays the comfort of mutual Communion In a Congregation consisting of a 1000 persons Ah! How few comparatively are there that are heartily concerned in the Duty But it is not so above There are ten thousand times ten thousand even thousands of thousands before the Throne loving adoring praising and triumphing together and not a jaring string in all their Harps 7. Here the worship of God is impured mixed and adulterated by the sinful additions and inventions of men This gracious Souls groan under as an heavy burden sighing and praying for Reformation as knowing they can expect no more of Gods presence than there is of his Order and Institution in Worship But above all the Worship is pure the least pin in the heavenly Tabernacle is according to the perfect pattern of the divine Will 8. We have here Duties of divers kinds and natures to perform All our time is not to be spent in loving praising and delighting in God but we must turn our selves also to searching watching and Soul-humbling work Sometimes we are called to get up our hearts to the highest praise and then to humble them to the dust for sin and judgments One while to sing his praises and another while to sigh even to the breaking of our loins but the Spirits of just men made perfect have but one kind of imployment viz praising loving and delighting in God There is no groaning sighing searching or watching-work in that state 9. The most illuminated Believers on Earth have but dark and crude apprehensions of Christs intercession work in Heaven or of the way and manner in which it is there performed by him We know indeed that our High-Priest is for us entred within the vail Heb. 6.20 That he appears in that most holy place for us Heb. 9.24 That he there represents his sufferings for us to God standing before him as a Lamb that had been slain Rev. 5.6 That he offers up our prayers with his incense to God Rev. 8.3 But the immediate intuition of the whole performance by the person of Christ in Heaven the beholding of him in his work there with the smiles and honours the delight and satisfaction of the Father in his Person and Work certainly this must be a far different thing and what must make more deep and suitable impressions upon our hearts than ever the most affecting view of them by Faith at this distance could do 10. In such ravishing sights and joyful ascriptions of glory to him that sâ—tteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore all the separated Spirits of the just are imployed and wholly taken up in Heaven as they come in their several times thither and will be so imploy'd in that Temple-service unto the end of the World when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father and thenceforth God shall be all in all The illustration and confirmation of this assertion we have in these two or three particulars 1 That all the Spirits of just men from the beginning of the World until Christs ascension into Heaven did enter into Heaven as a place of rest as a City prepared for them of God Heb. 11.16 and did enjoy blessedness and Glory there but yet there seems to
Rapt from the Body for a short time in an Ecstasie when in a Visional way heavenly things are presented to it Or 2 When the bodily eye is elevated and strengthened above its natural vigour and ability to behold the astonishing Objects of the other World 1 Of the first sort and rank was that famous Rapture of Paul mentioned 2 Cor. 12.2 3. I knew a man in Christ fourteen years ago whether in the Body I cannot tell or whether out of the Body I cannot tell God knoweth such an one caught up to the Third Heaven c. * Non constat an Anima Pauli fuerit tunc à corpore separata cum ipse id se nescire fatetur Unde quid illi circae absractionem à sensibus reipsa acciderit affirmare non possumus videlicet num moâ—tuo Corpore per separationâ—m animae extincti fuerint in eo sensus vel non mortuo consâ—piti duntaxat Colâ—eg Connimbr lib. 3. Art 3. p. 512. T is questionable indeed whether the Soul of the Apostle were really separated from his Body whilst he suffered that Ecstasie Or whether his senses were only laid as it were a-sleep for that time he himself could not determine the Question much less can any other but whether so or so this seems evident that his senses were for that time utterly useless to him if his Body was not dead it was all one as if it had been so for any use his Soul then made of it In ecstasi feriari omnes potentias praeter intellectum Aâ—ulen In Ecstasies all the Senses and Powers are idle except the Understanding his Soul for that time seemed to be disjoyned from his Body much as a flame of fire which you shall sometimes see to play and hover at a distance from the Wood and then catching the Fewel again Probably this was that Trance he fell into in the Temple when he was praying mentioned in Acts 22.17 In this Rapture his Soul ascended above this World it was caught up into Paradise into the Third Heaven the place in which Christ's Soul was after his death and there he heard those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter For alas poor Mortals cannot pronounce the Shibboleth of Heaven the heavenly Inhabitants talk in no other Dialect but the Language of Heaven is not properly spoken by any but the Inhabitants of Heaven Now Paul was not admitted into their Society at that time as he was at his death but was only a Spectator a stander by as the Angels are in the Assemblies of the Saints here on earth But O what a day was that day to his Soul It was as one of the days of Heaven no words could signifie to another man what he felt what he tasted in that hour Such favours will not be indulged to many he was a chosen Vessel and appointed to extraordinary Sufferings for Christ and it was necessary his Supports and Encouragements should be answerable Isaiah 6.1 2. Ezekiel 1.1 Dan. 10.8 9. Apoc. 1.17 It was no less extraordinary and wonderful a Vision which Isaiah Ezekiel Daniel and Iohn had such Representations of God as overwhelmed them and made Nature faint under them and no wonder for if the eyes of Creatures be so weak that they cannot directly behold such a glorious Creature as the Sun How much less can they bear the glorious Excellency and Majesty of God 2 And sometimes without an Ecstasie Representations of Christ and the glory of Heaven have been made and the very bodily eye fortified and elevated above its natural vigor and ability to behold them Thus it was with Stephen at his Martyrdom Acts 7.55 56. Who being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God That this was not a sight of faith but an extraordinary sight by the bodily eye is evident from its effect upon his outward man it made his face shine as the face of an Angel 2. There are also beside these ordinary and more common foretasts of Heaven and the glory to come with which many Believers are favoured in this World And such are those which come into the heart upon the steddy and more fixed views of the World to come by Faith and the more raised and Spiritual actings of grace in duty Believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a glorified joy or a joy of the same kind and nature with the joy of glorified Spirits though in an inferiour and allayed degree And yet with the allowance of its allay and rebatement it is like new Wine put into old and crazy Bottles which is ready to make them fly and would do so should they be of any long continuance Stay me saith the Spouse with Flaggons comfort me with Apples I am sick of love Cant. 2.5 The sickness was not the sickness of desires or of grief of that she had complained before But the sickness of Love i. e. She was ready to faint under the insupportable weight of Christs manifested and sealed Love not able to bear what she felt pained with the Love of Christ and the desired cure speaks this to be her Case Stay me with Flaggons comfort me with Apples As if she had said Lord support and under-prop my Soul for it reels staggers and fails under the pressure and weight of thy Love Much like the case of an holy man who cryed out under the overwhelming sense of the Love of Christ shed abroad into his heart in Prayer Hold Lord hold thy poor Creature is a Clay Vessel and can hold no more Though these Joys bring not the Soul into a perfect Ecstasie they certainly bring it as near as may be to it Acts Mon. p. 811. Mr. Fox tells us of one Giles of Bruxels a godly Martyr who in Prison spent most of his time apart from the rest in secret Prayer in which his Soul was so ardent and intent that he often forgot himself and the time and when he was called to Meat he neither saw nor heard those that stood by him till he was lifted up by the arms and then he would gently speak to them as one newly awaked out of a sweet sleep These foretasts of Heaven may from the manner of their conveyance be distinguished into 1. Mediate and into 2. Immediate 1. Mediate in and by the previous use and exercise of Faith heart-Examination c. the Spirit of God concurring with and blessing of such duties as these helps the Soul by them to a sight of its interest in Christ and the glory to come which being gained joy is no more under the Souls command I have with good assurance this account of a Minister who being alone in a Journey and willing to make the best improvement he could of that days Solitude set himself to a close Examination
Dinner though an handsom Treat was provided these words were sounding in his ears frequently during the remainder of his life he was never shy or scrupulous to relate it to any that asked him concerning it nor ever mentioned it but with horrour and trepidation they were both men of a brisk humour and jolly Conversation of very quick and keen parts having been both Vniversity and Inns-of-Court Gentlemen The Apparition of the Ghost of Sir George Villiers Father of the Duke of Buckingham giving three solemn warnings by three several Apparitions to his Servant Mr. Parker is a known and credible Story But I will wade no farther into Particulars they are almost innumerable let these suffice for a taste 2 In the next place therefore I will lay down some Concessions about this matter and the First Concession is this That the separated Souls or Spirits of men are capable of performing and executing any Ministry or Service for God if he should please to commissionate them so to do as well as Angels are whom we know he frequently imploys about the persons and affairs of his people on earth Though they become not Angels by their separation as Maximus Tyrius calls them but remain Spirits specifically distinct from them yet are they Spiritual Substances as the Angels are This their nature capacitates them either to live and act out of the Body or to assume as Angels do an aerial Body for the time of their Ministry nor do I know any thing in Scipture or Philosophy repugnant hereunto Concession 2. It cannot be doubted but upon some special and extraordinary reasons and occasions some departed Souls have returned to and appeared in this World by order and commission from God This is too manifest to be doubted by any that understands and believes the instances recorded in Scripture Moses and Elias long after their departure appeared to and talked with Christ upon the holy Mount in the presence of some of his Apostles Matth. 17.3 nor is there any reason to question the reality of their Apparition or to think it to be no more than a Phantasm Non enim conveniâ—bat ut veritas mendacio vel imaginariis testibus probaretur Maldon Capellus in loc or imaginary resemblance of these persons but very Moses and Elias themselves For they came to be Witnesses to Christs Prophetical office and it was not fit so great a point should be attested by imaginary Witnesses or that they should be called Moses and Elias if they were not the very same persons 'T is therefore most likely they both appeared in their own Bodies Credibilius est verè corporibus suis apparnisse Parcus in loc for Moses's Body we know was hidden by the Lord aud Elias his Body immediately translated with his Soul to Heaven when therefore the Lord would send them upon this solemn errand the Soul of Moses probably re-assumed that Body which was never found by man and Elias was already embodied and fit immediately for this Expedition In like manner we read Matth. 27.52 53. that at the Resurrection of our Lord many Bodies of the Saints arose and appeared unto many these were no Phantasms but the very Souls of the departed Saints returned having re-assumed their own Bodies unto this World not only to confirm the truth of Christs Resurrection and adorn that great day But as a Specimen or handsel of the Resurrection of all the Saints in the vertue of his Resurrection at the great Day Nor will I deny but upon some lesser though never without weighty and solemn occasions and reasons God may sometimes send the Souls of the dead back again into this World as in the cases before recited to evidence against the Atheism of men c. Augustine relates a memorable example which fell out at Millan Aug. in lib. de cura promortuis agenda where a certain Citizen being dead there came a Creditor to whom he had been indebted and unjustly demanded the money of his Son The Son knew the Debt was satisfied by his Father but having no Acquittance to shew his Father appeared to him in his sleep and shew'd him where the Acquittance lay whether it were the very Soul of his Father or rather an Angel as Augustine thinks is not certain though the one as well as the other be possible But though rarely and upon some weighty and solemn occasions some Souls have returned and appeared yet I judge this is not frequently done upon slight and ordinary errands and therefore to give you my own thoughts I judge 3 That those Apparitions which seem to be and are generally reputed and taken for the Souls of the Dead are not indeed so but other Spirits putting on the shapes and resemblances of the Dead and for the most part tricks of the Devil to delude or disquiet men Religio Med. Sect. 37. p. 82. In this I think the learned Dr. Brown delivered his judgment more solidly and orthodoxly than in some other points when he saith I believe that the whole frame of a Beast doth perish and is left in the same State after death as before it was martialled into life That the Souls of men know neither contrary nor corruption that they subsist beyond the body and continue by the priviledge of their proper nature and without a Miracle that the Souls of the faithful as they leave earth take possession of Heaven That those Apparitions and Ghosts of departed persons are not the wandering Souls of men but the unquiet Walks of Devils prompting and suggesting us unto mischief blood and Villany And with this Opinion I concur as to the ordinary and common Apparitions of the dead and my Reasons are 1 Because the Scriptures every where describe the state of departed Souls as a fixed state either in Heaven or in Hell and assigns the good or evil done in this World by Spirits not to the departed Spirits of men but to Angels or Devils and it is our duty to regulate our Conceits by Scripture and not according to the vain Philosophy of the Heathens or the Superstitious Traditions and Opinions of Men. As for the Souls of the godly they are at rest with Christ Rev. 14.13 Isai. 57.2 and as fixed as pillars in the house of God Rev. 3.12 And for the wicked their Spirits are confin'd and secured in Hell as in a Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 there is a fixed Gulph betwixt them and the living Luke 16.27 28 29 30 31. What good offices are to be done by Spirits for us the Angels are Gods Commission-Officers to do them Hebr. 1.14 They are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation these are the Spirits sent forth to walk to and fro through the earth Zech. 1.10 their Ministry was emblematically represented in Iacob's Vision where they were seen ascending and descending as upon a Ladder betwixt Heaven and Earth Gen. 28.12 Yea their very name Angel is a name of office
were in the World and if it should be ours also we should not be much startled at it considering these Bodies of ours must be shortly pent up in a straiter darker and more loathsome place of confinement than any prison in this World can be The grave is a darker place Iob 17.13 And your abode there will be longer Eccles. 11.8 These and all other our outward enjoyments are separable things and its good thus to alleviate our loss of them Inference VI. HOw Heavenly should the tempers and frawles of those Souls be who are Candidates for Heaven and must be so shortly numbred with the Spirits of just men made perfect 'T is reasonable that we all begin to be that which we expect to be for ever To learn that way of living and conversing which we believe must be our everlasting life and business in the World to come Let them that hope to live with Angels in Heaven learn to live like Angels on Earth in Holiness Activity and ready obedience There is the greatest reason that our minds be there where our Souls are to be for ever A spiritual mind will be found possible congruous sweet and evidential of our interest in that glory to all those holy Souls who are preparing and designed for it First it is possible notwithstanding the clogs and entanglements of the Body to be heavenly minded Others have attained it Philip. 3.20 Two things make an heavenly conversation possible to men viz. 1. The natural abilities of the Mind 2. The gracious principles of the Mind 1. The natural abilities of the mind which can in a minutes time dispatch a nimble messenger to Heaven and mount its thoughts from this to that World in a trice The power of cogitation is a rich endowment of the Soul such as no other creature on earth is participant of Though spiritual thoughts be not the natural growth of the Soul yet thoughts capable of being spiritualized are And without this ability of projecting thoughts all intercourse must have been cut off 2. The gracious principles implanted in the Soul do actually incline the mind and mount its thoughts heaven-ward Yea this will prove more than a possibility of a conversation in Heaven whilst Saints tabernacle on earth in Bodies of flesh it will almost prove an impossibility that it should be otherwise For these spiritual principles setting the bent and tendency of the heart heaven-ward we must act against the very law of our new Nature when we place our affections elsewhere Secondly A mind in heaven is most congruous decorous and comely for those that are the enrolled inhabitants of that heavenly City Where should a Christians love be but where his Lord is Our hearts and our homes do not use to be long asunder It becomes you so to think and so to speak now as those who make account to be shortly singing Allelujahs before the throne Thirdly 'T is most sweet and delightful no pleasure in all this World comparable to this pleasure Rom. 8.6 To be spiritually minded is life and peace 'T is a young Heaven born in the Soul in its way thither Fourthly To conclude It is evidential of your interest in it an agreable frame is the surest title Col. 3.1 2. Matth 6.21 If Heaven attract your minds now it will centre them for ever USE II. THis Doctrine of the separation of the Spirits of the Just from their Bodies as it lyes before you in this Discourse affords a singular help to all the people of God to entertain lovely and pleasant thoughts of that day to make death not only an unregretted but a most pleasant and desirable thing to their Souls I know there is a pure simple natural fear of death from which you must not expect to be perfectly freed by all the Arguments in the World And there is a reverential awful fear of death which it would be your prejudice and loss to have destroyed You will have a natural and ought to have a reverential fear of death the one flows from your sensitive the other from your sanctified nature But it is a third sort of fear which doth you all the mischief a fear springing in gracious Souls out of the weakness of their Graces and the strength of their unmortified affections A fear arising partly out of the darkness of our minds and partly out of the sensuality and earthlyness of our hearts this fear is that which so convulseth our Souls when death is near and imbitters our lives even whilst it is at a distance He that hath been over-heated in his affections to this World and over-cooled by diversions and temptations neglects and intermissions to that World cannot chuse but give an unwilling shrug if not a frightful screech at the appearance of death And this being the sad case of too many good and upright Souls for the main and there being so few even amongst serious Christians that have attained to that courage and complacence in the thoughts of death which the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 5.8 to be both confident and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord I will from this discourse furnish them with some special assistance therein But withal I must tell you upon what great disadvantages I am here to dispute with your fears so strong is the current of natural and vicious fear that except a special hand of God back and set on the Arguments that shall be urged they will be as easily swept away before it as so many Straws by a rapid Torrent nor will it be to any more purpose to oppose my breath to them than to the Tides and Waves of the Sea Moreover I am fully convinced by long and often experience how unsteady and inconstant the frames and tempers of the best hearts are and that if it be not full home yet it is next to an impossibility to fix them in such a temper as this I aim at is Where is that man to be found who after the revolutions of many years and in those years various dispensations of providence without him altering his condition and greater variety of temptations within can yet say notwithstanding all these various aspects and positions his heart hath still held one steddy and invariable tenour and course Alas there be very few if any of such sound and Athletick temper of mind whose pulse beats with an even stroke through all inequalities of condition alike free and willing at one time as another to be uncloathed of the Body and to be with Christ. This heighth of faith and depth of mortification this strength of love to Christ and ardour of holy desire are degrees of grace to which very few attain The case standing thus it is no more than needs to urge all sorts of Arguments upon our timorous and unsteady hearts and it 's like to prove an hard and difficult task to bring the heart but to a quiet and unregretting submission to the appointment
your selves out of this Reluctancy at death by this great Example and Pattern of Obedience Argument XII LAstly Let no Christian be affrighted at death considering that the death of Christ is the death of Death and hath utterly disarmed it of all its destructive power If you tremble when you look upon death yet you cannot but triumph when you look believingly upon Christ. For 1 Christ died O believer for thy sins Rom. 4.25 his death was an expiatory Sacrifice for all thy guilt Gal. 3.13 so that thou shalt not die in thy sins the pangs of death may and must be on thy outward man but the guilt of sin and the Condemnation of God shall not be upon thy inner man 2 The death of Christ in thy room hath utterly destroyed the power of death which once was in the hand of Satan Heb. 2.14 Col. 2.14 15. his power was not authoritative but executive Not as the power of a King but of a Sheriff which is none at all when a Pardon is produced 3 Christ hath assured us that his Victory over death shall be compleat in our persons It is already a compleat personal Victory in respect of himself Rom. 6.9 he dieth no more death hath no more Dominion over him It 's an incompleat Victory already as to our persons It can dissolve the Union of our Souls and Bodies but the Union betwixt Christ and our Souls it can never dissolve Rom. 8.38 39. and as for the power it still retains over our dust that also shall be destroyed at the Resurrection 1 Cor 15.25 26. comp with verses 54 55 56 57. so that there is no cause for any Soul in Christ to tremble at the thoughts of a separation from the body but rather to embrace it as a priviledge death is ours O that these arguments might prevail O that they might at last win the consent of our hearts to go along with death which is the Messenger sent by God to bring us home to our Fathers house But I doubt when all is said we are where we were all this suffices not to overcome the Regrets and Reluctancies of Nature still the matter sticks in our minds and we cannot conquer our disinclined Wills in this matter What is the matter Where lie the Rubbs and Hinderances O that God would remove them at last Object 1. This is a common Plea with many I am not ready and fit to die were I ready I should be willing to be gone Sol. 1 How long soever you live in the Body there will be somewhat still out of order something still to do for you must be in a state of imperfection whilst you remain here and according to this Plea you will never be willing to die 2 Your willingness to be dissolved and to be with Christ is one special part of your fitness for death and till you attain it in some good measure you are not so fit to die as you should be 3 If you be in Christ you have a fundamental fitness for death though you may want some circumstantial Preparatives And as to all that is wanting in your sanctification or obedience now it will be compleated in a moment upon your dissolution Object 2. Others plead the desire they have to live is in order to God's further service by them in this World O say they it was David 's happiness to die when he had served his Generation according to the Will of God Acts 13.36 If we had done so too we should say with Simeon ` Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Sol. 1 God needs not your hands to carry on his service in the World he can do it by other hands when you are gone Many of greater Gifts and Graces than you are daily laid in the Grave to teach you God needs no mans help to carry on his Work 2 If the service of God be so dear to you there is higher and more excellent Service for you in Heaven than any you ever were or can be imployed in here on earth O why don't you long to be amidst the thick of Angels and Spirits made perfect in the Temple-Service in Heaven Object 3. O but my Relations in the World lie near my heart what will become of them when I am gone Sol. 1 'T is pity they should lie nearer your hearts than Jesus Christ if they do you have little reason to desire death indeed 2 Who took care of you when death snatcht your dear Relations from you who possibly felt the same workings of heart that you now do Did you not experience the truth of that word Psal. 27.10 When Father and Mother forsaketh me then the Lord taketh me up and if you be in the Covenant God hath prevented this Plea with his Promise Ier. 49.11 Leave thy fatherless Children to me I will keep them alive and let their Widows trust in me But I desire to live to see the felicity of Zion before I go hence Object 4. and the answer of the many Prayers I have sowen for it I am loth to leave the People of God in so sad a condition The publickness of thy Spirit and Love to Zion Sol. is doubtless pleasing to God but it is better for you to be in Heaven one day than to live over again all the days you have lived in earth in the best times that ever the Church of God enjoyed in this World the Promises shall be accomplished though you may not live to see their accomplishment die you in the faith of it as Ioseph did Gen. 50.24 But alas the matter doth not stick here this is not the main hinderance I will tell you where I think it lies 1 In the hesitancy and staggering of our faith about the certainty and reality of things invisible 2 In some special guilt upon the Conscience which appals us 3 In a negligent and careless course of life which is not ordinarily blessed with much evidence or comfort 4 In the deep engagements of our hearts to earthly things they could not be so cold to Christ if they were not overheated with other things Till these Distempers be cured no Arguments can prosper that are spent to this end The Lord dissolve all those ties betwixt us and this World which hinder our consent and willingness to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better And now we have had a glance a glimmering light a faint umbrage of the state of separated Souls of the just in Heaven It remains that I shew you somewhat of the state and case of damned Souls in Hell A dreadful Representation it is but it is necessary we hear of Hell that we may not feel it 1 Pet. iii. ver 19. By which also he went and preached unto the SPIRITS in PRISON IN the former Discourse we have had a view of Heaven and of the Spirits of just men made perfect the Inhabitants of that blessed region of light and glory
They looked upon trifles as things of greatest necessity and the most necessary things as meer trifles putting the greatest weight and value upon that which little concerned them and none at all upon their greatest concernment in the whole World Luke 12.21 Secondly The perpetual diversions that the trifles of this World gave them from the main use and end of their time O what a hurry and thick succession of earthly business and encumbrances filled up their days So that they could find no time to go alone and think of the awful and weighty concernments of the World to come Iames 5.5 Thirdly The total waste and expence of the only season of Salvation about these vanished impertinent trifles which is never more to be recovered Eccles. 9 10. Fourthly That these deluding shadows the pleasures of a moment is all they had in exchange for their Souls a goodly price it was valued at Matth. 16.26 Fifthly That by such a life they have not only ruined their own Souls but put their posterity by their education of them in the same course of life into the same path of destruction in which they went to Hell before them Psal. 49.13 Their posterity approve their saying Inference X. HOw rational and commendable is the courage and resolution of those Christians who chuse to bear all the sufferings in this World from the hands of men rather than to defile and wound their consciences with sin and thereby expose their Souls to the wrath of God for ever That which men now call Pride Humour Fancy and Stubbornness will one day appear to be their great wisdom and the excellency of their Spirits It is the tenderness of their Consciences not the pride and stoutness of their stomachs which makes them inflexible to sin they know the terrours of a wounded Conscience and had rather endure any other trouble from the hands of men than fall by known sin into the hands of an angry God Try them in other matters wherein the glory of God and peace or purity of their Consciences are not concerned and see if you can charge them with stubbornness and singularity It was the excellency of the Spirits of the Primitive Christians that they durst to tell the Emperour to his face when he threatned them with torments Pardon us O Emperour thou threatnest us with a Prison Ignoscâ— Imperator tu carcerem miâ—aris Deus Gehennam but God with Hell Do we call that ingenuity and good Nature which makes the mind foâ—t and tractable to temptations and will rather venture upon guilt than be esteemed singular Salvian tells us of some in his time Mali esse coâ—untur ne viies habiantur who were compelled to be evil lest they should be accounted vile and was that their excellency May I not fitly apply the words of Salvian here O in what honour and repute is Christ among Christians when Religion shall make them base and ignoble He that understands what the punishment of sin will be in Hell should endure all things rather than yield to sin on Earth Indeed if you that threaten and tempt others to violate their Consciences could bear the wrath of God for them in Hell it were somewhat but we know there is no suffering by a Proxy there they tremble at the word of God and have felt the burden of guilt and dare not yield to sin though they yield their Estates and Bodies to prevent it Inference XI HOw patiently should we bear the afflictions of this life by which sin is prevented and purged The discipline of our Spirits belongs to God the Father of Spirits he corrects us here that we may not be punished hereafter 1 Cor 11.32 We are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World It is better for us to groan under afflictions on Earth than to roar under revenging wrath in Hell Parents who are wise as well as tender had rather hear their children sob and cry under the rod than stand with halters about their necks on the ladder bewailing the destructive indulgence of their Parents Your chastisements when sanctified are preventive of all the misery opened before It is therefore as unreasonable to murmur against God because you smart under his rod as it would be to accuse your dearest friend of cruelty because he strain'd your arm to snatch you from the fall of an house or wall which he saw ready to crush and overwhelm you in its ruins If we had less affliction we should have more guilt We see how apt we are to break over the hedg and go astray from God with all the clogs of affliction designed for our restraint what should we do if we had no clog at all It is better for you to be whipt to Heaven with all the rods of affliction than coached to Hell with all the pleasures of the World Christian thy God sees if thou do not that all these troubles are few enough to save thee from sin and Hell Thy corruptions require all these rods and all little enough If need be ye are in heaviness 1 Pet. 1.6 If there be need for it thy dearest comforts on Earth shall die that thy Soul may live but if thy mortification to them render their removal needless thou and they shall live together 'T is better be preserved in brine than rot in Honey Sanctified afflictions working under the efficacy of the blood of Christ are the safest way to our Souls Inference XII HOw doleful a change doth the death of wicked men make upon them from Palaces on Earth to the Prison of Hell No sooner is the Soul of a wicked man stept out of his own door at death but the Serjeants of Hell are immediatly upon it serving the dreadful summons on the Law-condemned wretch This arrest terrifies it more than the hand-writing upon the plaister of the Wall did him Dan. 5.5 How are all a mans apprehensions changed in a moment Out of what a deep sleep are most and out of what a pleasant dream of Heaven are some awaked and startled at death by the dreadful arrest and summons of God to condemnation How quickly would all a sinners mirth be dampt and turned into houlings in this World if Conscience were but throughly awakened It is but for God to change our apprehensions now and it would be done in a moment but the eyes of most mens Souls are not opened till death hath shut their bodily eyes and then how suddain and how sad a change is made in one day O think what it is to pass from all the pleasures and delights of this World into the torments and miseries of that World from a pleasant Habitation into an infernal Prison from the depth of security to the extremity of desperation from the arms and bosoms of dearest Friends and Relations to the Society of damned Spirits Lord what a change is here Had a gracious change been made upon their hearts by grace no such doleful change
chains of thy neck what will its beauty and his delight in it be in the state of perfectâ—punc Glorification As we imagine the Circles in the Heavens to be vastly greater than those we view upon the Globe so must we imagine in the case before us 4. Fourthly The preparations God makes for Souls in Heaven speak their great worth and value When you lift up your eyes to Heaven and behold that bespangled Azure Canopy beset and inlaid with so many golden Studs and sparkling Gems you see but the floor or pavement of that place which God hath prepared for some Souls He furnished this World for us before he put us into it but as delightful and beautiful as it is it is no more to be compared with the Fathers house in Heaven than the smallest ruined Chapel your eyes ever beheld is to be compared with Solomons Temple when it stood in all its shining glory When you see a stately magnificent Structure built richest Hangings and Furniture prepared to adorn it you conclude some great persons are to come thither such preparations speak the quality of the Guests Now Heaven yea the Heaven of Heavens the Palace of the great King the Presence-chamber of the Godhead is prepared not only by Gods Decree and Christs Death but by his Ascension thither in our Names and as our Forerunner for all renewed and redeemed Souls Ioh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And where is the place prepared for them but in his Fathers house the same place the very same house where the Father Son and Spirit themselves do dwell such is the love of Christ to Souls that he will not dwell in one house and they in another but as he speaks Ioh. 12.26 Where I am there shall my servant also be There is room enough in the Fathers house for Christ and all the Souls he redeemed to live and dwell together for evermore His Ascension thither was in the capacity of a common or publick person to take Livery and Seisin of those many mansions for them which are to be filled with their inhabitants as they come thither in their respective times and orders 5. Fifthly The great price with which they were redeemed and purchased speaks their dignity and value No wise man will purchase a trifle at a great price much less the most wise God Now the redemption of every Soul stood in on less than the most precious Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. You know saith the Apostle there that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold But with the precious blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without spot All the gold and silver in the world was no Ransom for one Soul nay all the blood of the Creatures had it been shed as a Sacrifice to the glory of Justice or even the blood which is most dear to us as being derived from our own I mean the blood of our dear Children even of our first-born the beginning of our strength which usually have the strength of affection I say none of this could purchase a pardon for the smallest sin that ever any Soul committed much less was it able to purchase the Soul it self Micah 6.6 7. Thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oyl or our first-born are no ransom to God for the sin of the Soul It is only the precious Blood of Christ that is a just ransom or counterprice as it 's called Matth. 20.28 Now who can compute the value of that Blood such was the worth of the Blood of Christ which by the communication of properties is truly stiled the Blood of God that one drop of it is above the estimations of men and Angels and yet before the Soul of the meanest man or woman in the World could be redeemed every drop of his Blood must be shed for no less than his Death could be a price for our Souls Hence then we evidently discern an invaluable worth in Souls A whole Kingdom is taxed when a King is to be ransomed the delight and darling of Gods Soul must dye when our Souls are to be redeemed O the worth of Souls 6. Sixthly This evidences the transcendent dignity and worth of Souls that Eternity is stampt upon their actions and theirs only of all the Beings in this World the acts of Souls are immortal as their Nature is whereas the actions of other Animals having neither moral goodness or moral evil in them pass away as their Beings do The Apostle therefore in Gal. 6.7 compares the actions of men in this world to seed sown and tells us of everlasting fruits we shall reap from them in the next life they have the same respect to a future account that seed hath to the Harvest he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity i. e. everlasting disappointment and misery Prov. 22.8 and they that now sow in tears shall then reap in joy Psal. 126.5 every gracious action is the seed of joy and every sinful action the seed of sorrow and this makes the great difference betwixt the actions of a rational Soul and those done by Beasts and if it were not so man would then be wholly sway'd by sense and present things as the beasts are and all Religion would vanish with this distinction of actions Our actions are considerable two ways physically and morally in the first sense they are transient in the last permanent a word is past assoon as spoken but yet it must and will be recalled and brought into the Judgment of the great Day Matth. 12.36 whatever therefore a man shall speak think or do once spoken thought or done it becomes eternal and abides for ever Now what is it that puts so great a difference betwixt humane and brutal actions but the excellent Nature of the reasonable Soul 'T is this which stamps immortality upon humane actions and is at once a clear proof both of the immortality and dignity of the Soul of man above all other Creatures in this World 7. Seventhly The contention of both Worlds the strife of Heaven and Hell about the Soul of man speaks it a most precious and invaluable Treasure The Soul of man is the Prize about which Heaven and Hell contend the great design of Heaven is to save it and all the plots of Hell to ruine it Man is a Borderer betwixt both Kingdoms he lives here upon the Confines of the spiritual and material World and therefore Scaliger fitly calls him Vtriusque mundi nexus one in whom both worlds meet his body is of the earth earthly his Soul the off-spring of a Deity heavenly It is then no wonder to find such tugging and pulling this way and that way upward and downward such â—allies from Heaven to rescue and save it such incursions from Hell to captivate and ruine it The infinite Wisdom of God hath laid the plot
and design for its Salvation by Christ in so great depth of counsel that the Angels of Heaven are astonished at it and desire to pry into it Christ in pursuance of this eternal project came from Heaven professedly to seek and to save lost Souls Luke 19.10 He compares himself to a good Shepherd who leaveth the ninety nine to seek one lost sheep and having â—ound it brings it home upon his shoulders rejoycing that he hath found it Luke 15.5 Hell imploys all its skill and policy sets a-work all wiles and stratagems to destroy and ruine it 1 Pet. 5.8 Your adversary the Devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour The strong man armed gets the first possession of the Soul and with all his forces and policies labours to secure it as his property Luke 11.21 Christ raises all the spiritual Militia the very posse Coeli the Powers of Heaven to rescue it 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And do Heaven and Earth thus contend think you de lana caprina for a thing of nought No no if there were not some singular and peculiar excellency and worth in mans Soul both worlds would never tug and pull at this rate which should win that Prize It was a great Argument of the worth and excellency of Homer that incomparable Poet that seven Cities contended for the honour of his Nativity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Smyrna Rhodes Coâ—ophon Salamis Chins Argos and Athens were all at strife about one poor man who should crown themselves with the honour of his birth but when Heaven and Hell shall contend about a Soul certainly it much more speaks the dignity of it than the contention of seven Cities for one Homer What are all the wooings expostulations and passionate beseechings of Christs Ministers what are all the convictions of Conscience and strong impressions made upon the affections what are all strokes from Heaven upon men in the way of sin I say what are all these but the tuggings of Heaven to draw Souls out of the snares of Hell And what are the hellish temptations that men feel in their hearts the alluring objects presented to their eyes the ensnaring examples that are set round about them but the tuggings of Satan if possible to draw the Souls of men into the same condemnation and misery with himself Would Heaven and Hell be up in Arms as it were and strive at this rate for nothing Thy Soul O man how vilely soever thou depreciatest and slightest it is of high esteem a rich purchace a Creature of nobler rank than thou art aware of The wise Merchant knows the value of Gold and Diamonds though ignorant Indians would part with them for Glass-beads and Tinsel toyes And this leads us to 8. The eighth Evidence of the invaluable worth of Souls which is the joy in Heaven and the rage in Hell for the gain and loss of the Soul of man Christ who came from Heaven and well knew the frame and disposition of the Inhabitants of that City Quoties bene agimus gaudent Angeli tristantur Daemones quoties à bono deviamus Diabolum laetificamus Angelos suo gaudio defraudamus August tells us That there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Luke 15.7 10. No sooner is the heart of a sinner darted with conviction broken with sorrow for sin and begins to cry Men and brethren what shall I do but the news is quickly in Heaven and sets all the City of God a rejoycing at it as is in the chief City of a Kingdom when a young Prince is born We never read that Christ laughed in all his time on Earth but we read that he once rejoyced in Spirit Luke 10.21 And what was the occasion of that his joy but the success of the Gospel in the Salvation of the Souls of men Now certainly it must be some great good that so affects Christ and all his Angels in Heaven at the sight of it the degree of a wise mans joy is according to the value of the object thereof no man that is wise will rejoyce feel his heart leap within him for gladness at a small or common thing And as there is joy in Heaven for the saving so certainly there is grief and rage in Hell for the loss of a Soul No sooner had God by Pauls Ministry converted one poor Lydia at Philippi whither he was called by an immediate Express from Heaven for that service but the Devil put all the City into an uproar as if an Enemy had landed on their Coast and raised a violent Persecution which quickly drave him thence Acts 16.9 14 22. And indeed what are all the fierce and cruel persecutions of Gods faithful Ministers but so many efforts of the rage and malice of Hell against them for plucking Souls as so many captives and preys out of his paws For this he owes them a spight and will be sure to pay them if ever he get them at an advantage But all this joy and grief demonstrates the high and great value of the Prize which is won by Heaven and lost by Hell 9. Ninthly The institution of Gospel-Ordinances and the appointment of so many Gospel-Officers purposely for the saving of Souls is no small evidence of what value and esteem they are No man would light and maintain a Lamp fed with golden Oyl and keep it burning from Age to Age if the work to be done by the light of it were not of a very precious and important nature what else are the Dispensations of the Gospel but Lamps burning with golden Oyl to light Souls to Heaven Zech. 4.2 3 4 12. compared a magnificent Vision is there presented to the Prophet viz. a Candlestick of Gold with a Bowl or Cistern upon the top of it and seven Shafts with seven Lamps at the ends thereof all lighted and that these Lamps might have a constant supply of oyl without any accessary humane help there are presented as growing by the Candlestick two fresh and green Olive-trees on each side thereof ver 3. which do empty out of themselves golden Oyl ver 12. naturally dropping and distilling it into that Bowl and the two Pipes thereof to feed the Lamps continually Under this stately Emblem you have a lively representation of the spiritual Gifts and Graces distilled by the Spirit into the Ministers of the Gospel for the use and benefit of the Church as you find not only by the Angels Exposition of it here but by the Spirits allusion to it and accommodation of it in Rev. 11.3 4. See herein what price God puts upon the salvation of Souls Gospel Lamps are maintain'd for their sakes not with the sweat of Ministers brows or the expence and waste of their Spirits but by the precious Gifts and Graces of Gods Spirit continually dropping into them for the use and service of Souls These ministerial Gifts and Graces are Christs
Christs Commission to preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken-hearted Isa. 61.1 and not only inserts it in Christs Commission but gives the same in solemn charge to all his inferior Messengers whom he imploys about them Isa. 35.3 Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong fear not 2. His special regard to Souls is evidenced in his severe prohibitions to all others to do nothing that may be an occasion of ruine to them He charges it upon all That no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way Rom. 14.13 that by the abuse of our own liberty we destroy not him for whom Christ died Rom. 14.15 And what doth all this signifie but the precious and invaluable worth of Souls 12. Lastly It is not the least evidence of the dignity of mans Soul that God hath appointed the whole Host of Angels to be their Guardians and Attendants Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 Are they not It is no doubtful question but the strongest way of affirmation nothing is surer than that they are All Not one of that heavenly Company excepted The highest Angel thinks it no disparagement to serve a Soul for whom Christ die Well may they all stoop to serve them wâ—en they see Christ their Lord hath stooped even to death to save them They are all of them Ministring Spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publick Officers to whom their Tutelage is committed to them it belongs to attend serve protect and relieve them The greatest Peers and Barons in the Kingdom think it not below them to wait upon the Heir apparent to the Crown in his Minority and no less dignity is here stampt by God upon the Souls of men whom he calls Heirs of Salvation And in some respect nearer to Christ than themselves are on this account it is that the Angels delight to serve them Christs little ones upon earth have their Angels which always behold the face of God in Heaven Mat. 18.10 and therefore saith our Lord there Take heed you despise not one of these little ones they are greater persons than you are aware of Nor is it enough that one Angel is appointed to wait upon all or many of them but many Angels even a whole Host of them are sometimes sent to attend upon one of them As Iacob was going on his way the Angels of God met him and when he saw them he said This is Gods host Gen. 32.1 2. The same two offices which belong to a Nurse to whom the Father commits his Child belong also to the Angels of Heaven with respect to the Children of God viz. to keep them tenderly whilst they are abroad and bring them home to their Fathers house at last And how clearly doth all this evince and demonstrate the great dignity and value of Souls Was it an Argument of the Grandeur and Magnificence of King Solomon that he had two hundred men with Targets and three hundred men with Shields of beaten Gold for his ordinary Guard every day And is it not a mark of far greater dignity than ever Solomon had in all his glory to have Hosts of Angels attending us In comparison with one of this Guard Solomon himself was but a Worm in all his Magnificence And now lay all these Arguments together and see what they will amount to You have before you no ordinary Creature for 1. it was not produced as other Creatures were by a meer word of command but by the deliberation of the great Council of Heaven and 2. such are the high and noble faculties and powers found in it as render it agreeable to and becoming such a Divine Original Yeâ— 3. by reason of these its admirable powers it becomes a capable subject both of Grace here and Glory hereafter 4. Nor is this its capacity in vain for God hath made glorious preparations for some of them in Heaven 5. And purchased them for Heaven and Heaven for them at an invaluable price even the precious Blood of Christ. 6. And stampt immortality upon their actions as well as natures 7 Both Worlds contend and strive for the Soul as a prize of greatest value 8 Their Conversion to Christ is the Triumph of Heaven and Rage of Hell 9. The Lamps of Gospel-Ordinances are maintained over all the reformed Christian World to light them in their passage to Heaven 10. Great rewards are propounded to all that shall heartily endeavour the salvation of them 11. The care of Heaven is exceeding great and tender over them And 12. the heavenly Host of Angels have the charge of them and reckon it their honour to serve them These things duly weighed bring home the conclusion with demonstrative clearness to every mans understanding That one Soul is of more value than the whole World which was the thing to be proved What remains is the improvement of this excellent subject in these following Inferences Inference I. THE Soul of man appearing to be a Creature of such transcendent dignity and excellency this truth appears of equal clearness with it That it was not made for the body but the body for it and therefore it is a vile abuse of the noble and high-born Soul to subject it to the lusts and enslave it to the drudgery of the inferior and more ignoble part The very Law of Nature assigns the most honourable places and imployments to the most noble and excellent Creatures and the baser and inferior to things of the lowest rank and quality The Sun Moon and Stars are placed by this Law in the Heavens but the Ignis fatuus and the Glow-worm in the Fens and Ditches Princes are set upon Thrones of Glory the Beggers lodg'd in Barns and Stables and if at any time this order of Nature be inverted and the baser suppress and perk over the more noble and honourable Beings it is looked upon as a kind of Prodigy in the Civil World and so Solomon represents it Eccles. 10.7 I have seen servants upon horses and Princes walking as servants upon the earth i. e. I have seen men that are worthy of no better imployments than to rub Horses heels in the Saddle with their Trappings and men who deserve to bear rule and to govern Kingdoms men who for their great ability and integrity deserved to sit at Helm and moderate the Affairs of Kingdoms these have I seen walking as servants upon the earth and this he calls an evil under the Sun that is an Ataxie confusion or disorder in the course of Nature Now there can never be that difference and vast odds betwixt one man and another as there is betwixt the Soul and the body of every man A King upon the Throne is not so much above a Begger that cryes at our doors for a crust as the Soul is above a body for the
shall be done for them Is there no way for their deliverance O that God would direct and bless the following considerations to them if it may be expected they may at any time get through the brake in which they are involved and find them at leisure to bethink themselves The sixth way to Hell shut up by five Considerations 1. Bethink thy self poor Soul as much as thou art involved and plunged in the necessities and distracting cares of this life others many others as poor as necessitous and every way as much embroil'd in the cares of the world as you are have minded their Souls and taken all care and pains for their Salvation notwithstanding yea though millions of your rank and order are destroyed by these snares of the Devil yet God hath a very great number indeed the greatest of any rank of men among those that are low poor and necessitous in the world The Church is called the Congregation of the poor Psal. 74.20 because it consisteth mostly of men and women of the lowest and most despicable condition in this world They are all poor in Spirit and most of them poor in purse Hearken my beloved Brethren saith Iames hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom Jam. 2.5 Now if others many others as much intangled in the necessities cares and troubles of the world as you have yet struggled through all those difficulties and discouragements to Heaven why should not you strive for Christ and Salvation as well as they Your Souls are as valuable as theirs and their discouragements and hinderances as great and as many as yours 2. Consider your poor and necessitous condition in the world hath something in it of motive and advantage to excite and quicken you to a greater diligence for Salvation than is found in a more full easie and prosperous state for God hath hereby imbitter'd this world to you and made you drink deeper of the troubles of it than other men they have the honey and you the gall they have the flour and you the bran But then as yoâ— have not the pleasures so you have not the snares of a prosperous condition and your daily troubles cares and labours in it do even prompt you to seek rest in Heaven which you cannot find on Earth Can you think you were made for a worse condition than the Beasts what to have two Hells one here and another hereafter Surely as low miserable and despicable as you are you are capable of as much happiness as any of the Nobles of the World and in your low and afflicted condition stand nearer to the door of hope than they do Ah! methinks these thoughts do even put themselves upon you when your spirits are overloaded with the cares and your bodies tired with the labours of this life Is this the life of troubles I must expect on Earth Hath God denied me the pleasures of this World O then let it be my care my study my business to make sure of Christ to win Heaven that I may not be miserable in both Worlds How can you avoid such thoughts or put by such meditations which your very station and condition even forceth upon you 3. Consider how all your troubles in this World would be sweetned and all your burdens lightned if once your Souls were in Christ and in Covenant with God O what hearts-ease would Faith give you What sweet relief would you find in Prayer These things like the opening of a Vein or Tumor when ripe would suddenly cool relieve and ease your spirits Could you but go to God as a Father and pour out your hearts before him and roll all your cares and burdens wants and sorrows upon him you would find a speedy out-let to yâ—ur troubles and an inlet to all peace all comfort and all refreshments such as all the riches honours and fulness of this world cannot give you would then find Providence engage it self for your supply and issue all your troubles to your advantage Heb. 13.5 Isa. 41.17 Psal. 34.9 10. Psal. 91.15 Rom. 8.28 You would suck the breasts of those Promises in the Margent and say all the dainties in the world cannot make you such another Feast You would then see your bread your cloaths and all provisions for you and yours in Gods promises when you are brought to an exigence and would certainly find performances as well as promises all along the course of your life 4. Say not you have no time to mind another world God hath not put any of you under such an unhappy necessity you have one whole day every week allowed you by God and Man for your Souls you have some spare time every day which you know you spend worse than in heavenly thoughts and exercises yea most Callings are such as will admit of spiritual exercises of thoughts even when your hands are exercised in the affairs of this life Besides there are none of you but have and must have daily some relaxations and rest from business and if your hearts were spiritual and set upon Heaven you would find more time than you think on without prejudice to your Callings yea to the great furtherance of them to spend with God I can tell you when and where I have found poor Servants hard at work for Salvation labouring for Christ some in the Fields others in Barns and Stables where they could find any privacy to pour out their Souls to God in prayer As Lovers will make hard shifts to converse together so will the Soul that is devoted to God and in earnest for Heaven And though your opportunities be not so large they may be as sweet as successful and to be sure sincere as those whose condition affords them more time and greater external conveniencies than you enjoy More business is sometimes dispatcht in a quarter of an hour in prayer yea let me say in a few hearty ejaculations of Soul to God in a few minutes than in many long and elaborate duties If thou cast in thy two mites of time into the Treasury of Prayer having no more thou mayst as Christ said of the poor Widow give more than those that cast in of their great abundance of time and Talents 5. Lastly Consider Jesus Christ is no Respecter of persons the poorest and vilest on earth are as welcome to him as the greatest He chose a poor and mean condition in this World himself conversed mostly among the poor never refused any because of his poverty God accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor for they are all the work of his hands Job 34.19 and that both in respect of their natural constitution as men and their Civil condition as rich or poor men Riches and poverty make a great difference in the respects of men but none at all with God If thou be one of Gods poor he will accept love and honour thee above the greatest if
most dangerous instruments the Devil can imploy to the ruine and extirpation of true Godliness Such a Zealot was Paul in his unregenerate state 3. Nothing is more common than to find men hot and zealous against false Worship whilst their hearts are as cold as a stone in the Vitals and Essentials of true Religion Many can dispute warmly against Adoration of Images praying to Angels and Saints departed who all the while are like those dead Images which others worship Iehu was a Zealot against Idolatry and yet the vital power of true Godliness was a stranger to his Soul 2 Kings 10.15 16. The Pharisees spared no pains to make a Proselyte yet all the while were the Children of the Devil themselves Matt. 23.15 This is a sad case yet what more common The Lord open the eyes of these men and convince them in season that their Zeal runs in the wrong Chanel and spends it self upon things which shall never profit them O if they were but as much concerned to promote the love to God and life of Godliness in themselves and others as they are about some external accidents and appendages of Religion what blessings would they be to the World and what evidence would they have of their own sincerity The twelfth way to Hell opened XII The twelfth way to Hell in which many Souls are carried on smoothly and securely to their own destruction is the way of meer Civility and moral Honesty wherein men rest as in a safe state never doubting but a civil life will produce and issue into an happy death Moral honesty is a lovely thing and greatly tends to the peace and order of the World but it is not saving Grace nor gives any man a good Title to Christ and Salvation Indeed there can be no Grace in that Soul in which Civility and moral Honesty is not found but this may be found in thousands that have no Grace That which ruines mens Souls is not the exercise of moral Vertues but their reliance upon them they use their Morality as a shield to secure their Consciences from the convictions of the Word which would shew them their sinful and miserable state by Nature Thus the Pharisee Luke 18.11 12. God I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican he blesseth himself in the conceits of his own safety and happiness Let debauched and prophane persons look to it I am well enough though alas poor man his being less evil at best could but procure him a cooler Hell or a milder flame This was the case of the young Man Matt. 19.20 and like a young man indeed he reasons He summs up all the stock of his civil life and thinks it strange if that be not enough to make a purchace of eternal life What lack I yet Alas poor Soul every thing necessary to Salvation the very first stone was not laid when he thought the building was finished and this is the case of multitudes both young and old and that which greatly confirms and settles them in this their dangerous security is the general indistinct Doctrine of some who pretend to be Guides to the Souls of others the scope of whose Ministry aims at no higher mark than to civilize the people and press moral Duties upon them as if this were all that were necessary to Salvation nay 't is well if some do not industriously pull down the pale of distinction betwixt Morality and Regeneration and tell the world in plain English That there is no reason to put a difference betwixt men that are baptized and live morally honest and those that have saving Grace and they that do so are only a few men who are highly conceited of themselves and censorious of all others whom they please to vote formal and moral This indeed is the way to fix them where they are if Christ had not taken another method with Nicodemus and his Ministers had not pressed the necessity of Regeneration and the insufficiency of moral honesty to Salvation how thin had the number of true Converts been though at most they are but an handful in comparison of the unregenerate O that God would bless what follows to undeceive and save some poor Soul out of this dangerous snare of the Devil The twelfth way to Damnation barred by three Considerations 1. Blind not your selves with the lustre of your own moral Vertues a life smoothly drawn with Civility through the World for though it must be acknowledged there is a loveliness and attracting sweetness in Morality and Civility yet these things rather respect Earth than Heaven and are designed for the conservation of the order and peace of this World not for your Salvation and Title to the World to come Without Justice and Truth Kingdoms and Common-wealths would become Mountains of prey and Dens of robbery Where there is no trust there can be no traffick and where there is no truth there can be no trust Civility is the very Basis of humane Society a world of good accrues to men by it and abundance of mischief is prevented by it but it never gave any man an interest in Christ or a title to Salvation The Romans and Lacedemonians who perished in the darkness of Heathenism excelled in Morality there is nothing of Christ or Regeneration in these things how much of excellency soever be ascribed to them Paul the Pharisee was a blameless person touching the Law and yet at the same time not only utterly ignorant of Christ but a bitter Enemy to him and all that were his Till you can find another way to Heaven than by Regeneration Repentance and Faith never lean upon such a deceitful and rotten prop as meer Civility is 2. Civilized Nature is unsanctified Nature still and without Sanctification there is no Salvation Heb. 12.14 Civility adorneth Nature but doth not change it Moral Vertues are so many sweet flowers strawed over a dead Corps which hide the loathsomness of it but inspire not life into it Morality hides and covers Abscondit non abscindit vitia Lactant. but never mortifies nor cures the corruptions of Nature and mortified they must be or you cannot be saved Take the best Nature in the world and let it be adorned with all the ornaments of Morality which they call Homilitical Vertues and add to these all the common gifts of the Spirit which are for assistance and ministry yet all this cannot secure that Soul from Hell or be the ground-work for a just claim to any promise of Salvation all this is but Nature improved not regenerated Morality is neither produced as saving Grace is nor works such effects as Grace worketh There are no pangs of Repentance introducing it it may cost many an aking head but no asking heart for sin no such distressed out-cries as that Acts 2.37 Men and Brethren what shall we do Nor doth it produce such humility self-abasement heavenly tempers and tendencies of Soul
drops not down from Heaven in a night-dream as the Turks fable their Alcoran to have done in that lailato hanzili night of demission as they call it no no the righteous themselves are scarcely saved many seek but few find strive therefore as men and women that are heartily concerned for their own Salvation Sit not with folded arms like so many heaps of stupidity and sloth whilst the door of Hope is yet open and such a sweet voice from Heaven calls to you saying Strive Souls strive if ever you expect to be partakers of the Blessedness that is here to be enjoyed strive to the uttermost of your abilities and opportunities Such an Heaven is worth striving to obtain such an Hell is worth striving to escape such an invaluable Soul is worth striving to save I confess Heaven is not the purchace or reward of your striving No Soul shall boastingly say there Is not this the Glory which my duties and diligence purchased for me And yet on the other side it is as true that without striving you shall never set foot there Say not it depends upon the pleasure of God and not upon your diligence for it is his declared will and pleasure to bring men to Glory in the way though not for the sake of their own striving as in the works of your civil Calling you know all the care toil and sweat of the Husbandman avails nothing of it self except the Sun and Rain quicken and ripen the Fruits of the Earth and yet no wise man will neglect plowing and harrowing sowing and weeding because these labours avail not without the influences of Heaven but waits for them in the way of his duty and diligence rational hope sets all the world awork Do they plow in hope and sow in hope and will not you pray in hope and hear in hope You that know your Souls to be hitherto strangers to Christ and the regenerating work of the Spirit how is it that you take them not aside sometimes out of the distracting noise and hurries of the world and thus bemoan them O my poor graceless Christless miserable Soul how sad a case art thou in others have but thou never feltest the burden of sin thousands in the World are striving and labouring searching and praying to make their Calling and Election sure whilst thou sittest still with folded hands in a supine regardlesness of the misery that is hastening on upon thee Canst thou endure the devouring wrath of God Canst thou dwell with everlasting burnings Hast thou fancied a tolerable Hell Or is it easie to perish Why dost thou not cast thy self at the feet of Christ and cry as long as breath will last Lord pity a sinful miserable undone and self-condemning Soul Lord smite this rockie heart subdue this stubborn will heal and save an undone Soul ready to perish The characters of death are upon it it must be changed or condemned and that in a little time Bowels of pity hear the cry of a Soul distressed and ready to perish And you that do not understand the case and slate your Souls are in you have never a Bible near you O turn to those places 1 Cor. 6.9 10. where you will presently find the more obvious marks and characters God hath set upon the children of perdition and if you find not your self in that Catalogue among the unrighteous Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners c. then turn to Ioh. 3.3 and solemnly ask thy own Soul this question Am I born again Am I a new Creature Or still in the same condition I was born in What solid evidence of the new birth have I to rely upon if I were now within a few gasps of death Am not I the man or woman who live in the very same sins which the Word of God makes the Symptoms and Characters of Damnation And doth not my Conscience witness against me that I am utterly void and destitute of all that saving Grace and a meer stranger to the regenerating work of the Spirit without which there can be no well-bottom'd hope of Salvation And if so are not the tokens of death upon me Am not I a person markt out for misery And shall I sit still in a state of so much danger and not once strive to make an escape from the wrath to come Is this vile body worth so much toil and labour to support and preserve it And is not my 〈◊〉 worth as much care and diligence to secure it from the everlasting wrath of the great just and terrible God O that the consideration of the wrath to come the multitudes all the world over preparing as fuel for it and the door of opportunity yet held open to Souls by the hand of Grace to escape that wrath might prevail with thy heart Reader to strive and that to the uttermost to secure thy precious Soul from the impending ruine EPHES. 5.16 Redeeming the time or opportunity because the days are evil TIme is deservedly reckoned among the most precious mercies of this life and that which makes it so valuable are the commodious seasons and opportunities for Salvation which are vouchsafed to us therein Opportunity is the golden spot of Time the sweet and beautiful flower growing upon the stalk of Time If Time be a Ring of Gold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opportunity is the rich Diamond that gives it both its value and glory The Apostle well knew the value of Time and seeing how prodigally it was wasted by the most doth therefore in this place earnestly press all men to redeem save and improve it with the utmost diligence In this and the former Verse We have 1. The Duty injoyned Walk circumspectly We have 2. The Injunction explained 1. More generally Not as fools but as wise 2. More particularly Redeeming the time 3. The Exhortation strongly inforced with a powerful Motive Because the days are evil Among these Particulars my Discourse is principally concerned about the Redemption of Time or Opportunities which in this life are graciously vouchsased us in order to that which is to come and here it will be needful To inquire 1. What the Apostle means by Time 2. What by the Redemption of Time 1. Time is taken more largely or strictly according to the double acceptation of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth sometimes Time and sometimes Occasion Season or Opportunity and accordingly is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tempus and Tempestivitas the latter is the word here used and denotes the commodiousness and fitness of some parts of Time above others for the successful and prosperous management and accomplishment of our main and great business in this world which is to secure our interest in Christ and glorifie God in a course of fruitful obedience For these great and weighty purposes our time is graciously lengthened out and many fit opportunities presented to us in the
Πνευματολογια· A TREATISE Of the Soul of Man WHEREIN The Divine Original excellent and immortal Nature of the Soul are opened its Love and Inclination to the Body with the necessity of its separation from it considered and improved The Existence Operations and States of separated Souls both in Heaven and Hell immediately after death asserted discussed and variously applyed Divers knotty and difficult Questions about departed Souls both Philosophical and Theological stated and determined The Invaluable preciousness of humane Souls and the various Artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy them discovered And the great Duty and interest of all men seasonably and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father Son and Spirit for the Salvation of their Souls argued and pressed By IOHN FLAVEL Minister of the Gospel of Iesus Christ late of Dartmouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocylides Quid de Turcis Tartaris Moschis Indis Persis aliisque omnibus nunc temporis Barbaris Nationibus dicâm Nemo tam Barbarus aut impius est qui non sentiat post mortem superesse loca in quibus animae aut pro malefactis puâ—iantur aut coronentur deliciisque perfruantur pro benefactis Zanch. de Animae immortalitate p. 653. London Printed for Francis Tyton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1685. To the much honoured his dear Kinsman Mr. Iohn Flavell and Mr. Edward Crispe of London Merchants and the rest of my worthy Friends in London Ratcliffe Shadwell and Lymehouse Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Friends AMong all the Creatures in this lower World none deserves to be stiled great Nihil interra magnum praeter hominem nihil in homine praeter mentem Favorin Eâ—coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juvenal Nulla scientia melior illa qua homo novit scripsum relinque ergo caetera teipsum discute per te curre in te confiste à te incipiat cogitatio tua in te finiatur but Man and in Man nothing is found worthy of that Epithet but his Soul The study and knowledge of the Soul was therefore always reckoned a rich and necessary improvement of time All Ages have magnified these two words know thy self as an Oracle descending from Heaven No knowledge saith Bernard is better than that whereby we know our selves leave other matters therefore and search thy self run through thy self make a stand in thy self let thy thoughts as it were circulate begin and end in thy self Strain not thy thoughts in vain about other things thy self being neglected The study and knowledge of Iesus Christ must still be allow'd to be most excellent and necessary But yet the Worth of Necessity of Christ is unknown to Men till the value wants and dangers of their own Souls be first discovered to them The disaffectedness and aversation of men to the study of their own Souls is the more to be admired not only because of the weight and necessity of it but the alluring pleasure and sweetness that is found therein What * Quid jucundius quam scire quid simus quid fuerimus quid â—rimus cum his etiam divina atque suprema illa post obitum Mundique vicissitudines Cardan speaks is experimentally felt by many that scarce any thing is more pleasant and delectable to the Soul of man than to know what he is what he may and shall be and what those Divine and Supream things are which he is to enjoy after death and the Vicissitudes of this present World For we are Creatures conscious to our selves of an immortal Nature and that we have something about us which must overlive this mortal flesh and is therefore ever and anon some way or other hinting and intimating to us its expectations of and designations for a better life than that it now lives in the Body and that we shall not cease to bee when we cease to breathe And certainly my Friends Discourses of the Soul and its immortality of Heaven and of Hell the next and only receptacles of unbodied Spirits were never more seasonable and necessary than in this Atheistical age of the World wherein all serious piety and thoughts of immortality are ridicul'd and hissed out of the company of many As if those old condemned Hereticks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who asserted the corruptibility and mortality of the Soul as well as Body had been again revived in our days And as the Atheism of some so the tepidity and unconcerned carelessness of the most needs and calls for such potent Remedies as Discourses of this kind do plentifully afford I dare appeal to your charitable Judgments whether the Conversations and Discourses of the Many do indeed look like a serious pursuit of Heaven and a flight from Hell Long have my thoughts bended towards this great and excellent Subject and many earnest desires I have had as I believe all thinking persons must needs have to know what I shall be when I breathe not But when I had engaged my Meditations about it two great rubs opposed the farther progress of my thoughts therein Namely I. The difficulty of the Subject I had chosen And II. The distractions of the times in which I was to write upon it I. As for the Subject such is the subtilty and sublimity of its nature and such the knotty Controversies in which it is involv'd that it much better deserves that inscription than Minerva's Temple at Saum did * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never did any Mortal reveal me plainly Animam praesentem mentis acie vix aut ne vix quidem assequimur sed qualis sit futura quomodo indagabimus Laboranthic maxima ingenia caligo conatus etiam generosos non rarò eludit Jos. Stern de Morte cap. 20. It is but little that the most clear and sharp-sighted do discern of their own Souls now in the state of composition and what then can we positively and distinctly know of the life they live in the state of Separation The darkness in which these things are involved doth greatly exercise even the greatest Witts and frequently elude and frustrate the most generous attempts Many great Scholars whose natural and acquired abilities singularly furnished and qualified them to make a clearer discovery have laboured in this field usque ad sudorem pallorem even to sweat and paleness and done little more but intangle themselves and the Subject more than before This cannot but discourage new attempts And yet without some knowledge of the hability and subjective capacity of our Souls to enjoy the good of the World to come even in a state of absence from the Body a principal relief must be cut off from them under the great and manifold tryals they are to encounter in this evil World As for my self I assure you I am deeply sensible of the inequality of my shoulders to this Burthen and have often enough since I undertook it of that
to your inquisitive and searching minds 'T is possible they may be censured by some as undeterminable and unprofitable Curiosities but as I hate a presumptious intrusion into unrevealed Secrets so I think it a weakness to be discouraged in the search of truth so far as it is fit to trace it by such damping and causeless Censures Nor am I sensible I have in any thing transgressed the bounds of Christian Sobriety to gratifie the Palate of a nice and delicate Reader I have also here set before the Reader an Idea or representation of the state and case of damned Souls that if it be the Will of God a seasonable discovery of Hell may be the means of some mens recovery out of the danger of it and closed up the whole with a Demonstration of the invaluable preciousness of Souls and the several dangerous snares and artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy and cast them away for ever This is the design and general scope of the whole and of the principal parts of this Treatise and Oh that God would grant me my hearts desire on your behalf in the perusal of it Even that it may prove a sanctified instrument in his hand both to prepare you for and bring you in love with the unbodied life to make you look with pleasure into your Graves and die by consent of Will as well as necessity of Nature I remember Dr. Staughton in a Sermon preached before King Iames relates a strange Story of a little Child in a Shipwrack fast asleep upon its Mothers lap as she sate upon a piece of the Wrack amidst the Waves the Child being awaked with the noise asked the Mother what those things were she told it they were drowning Waves to swallow them up the Child with a pretty smiling Countenance beg'd a stroke from its Mother to beat away those naughty Waves and chid them as if they had been its Play-mates Death will shortly Shipwrack your Bodies your Souls will sit upon your lips ready to expire as they upon the Wrack ready to go down Would it not be a comfortable and most becoming frame of mind to sit there with as little dread as this little One did among the terrible Waves Surely if our Faith had but first united us with Christ and then loosed our hearts off from this inchanting and ensnaring World we might make a fair step towards this most desireable temper but unbelief and earthly mindedness make us loth to venture I blush to think what bold adventures those men made who upon the Contemplation of the Properties of a despicable stone first adventured quite out of sight of Land under its conduct and direction and securely trusted both their Lives and Estates to it when all the eyes of Heaven were vail'd from them amid'st the dark Waters and thick Clouds of the Sky when I either start or at least give an unwilling shrug when I think of adventuring out of sight of this World under the more sure and steady direction and conduct of Faith and the Promises To cure these evils in my own and the Readers heart these things are written and in much respect and love tendered to your hands as a Testimony of my Gratitude and deep sense of the many Obligations you have put me under That the Blessings of the Spirit may accompany these Discourses to your Souls afford you some assistance in your last and difficult work of putting them off at death with a becoming chearfulness saying in that hour Can I not see God till this Flesh be laid aside in the Grave Must I die before I can live like my self Then die my Body and go to thy dust that I may be with Christ. With this design and with these hearty Wishes dear and honoured Cousin and worthy Friends I put these Discourses into your hands and remain Your Most obliged Kinsman and Servant Io. Flavell THE PREFACE AMong many other Largesses and rich Endowments bestowed by the Creators bounty upon the Soul of Man the * Demonstravimus à communâ— omnium jam inde à condito orbe gentium ac populâ—rum prâ—sertim bâ—nâ—rum literatorum Consensione animam humanam incorruptibilem immortalem esse â—oque corrupto corpore ipâ—um â—anere superstitem ut in sempiternum aut pro benefactuà Deo coronetur aut pro malefactâ—â—s puniatur Zanch. de Aâ—lmarum immortalâ—tate p. 653. Sentiments and impressions of the World to come and the ability of reflection and self-intuition are peculiar invaluable and heavenly gifts By the former we have a very great Evidence of our own immortality and designation for nobler employments and enjoyments than this imbodied state admits and by the latter we may discern the agreeableness or disagreeableness of our hearts and therein the validity of our title to that expected blessedness But these heavenly gifts are neglected and abused all the World over Degenerate Souls are every where fallen into so deep an Oblivion of their excellent Original Spiritual and Immortal nature and alliance to the Father of Spirits That to use the upbraiding expression of a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Max. Tyr. Diss. 41. Philosopher they seem to be buried in their Bodies as so many silly Worms that lurk in their holes and are loth to peep forth and look abroad So powerfully do the Cares and Pleasures of this World charm all except a small remnant of regenerate Souls that nothing but some smart stroke of Calamity or the terrible Messengers of death can startle them and even these are not always able to do it and when they do all the effect is but a transient glance at another and an unwilling shrug to leave this World and so to sleep again And thus the Impressions and Sentiments of the World to come which are the natural growth and Off-spring of the Soul are either stifled and supprest as in Atheists or born down by impetuous masterly lusts as in Sensualists And for its self-reflecting and considering Power it seems in many to be a power received in vain It is with most Souls as it is with the Eye which sees not it self though it see all other Objects There be those that have almost finished the course of a long life wherein a great part of their time hath lain upon their hands as a cheap and useless Commodity 〈◊〉 Dei est ista vita mortalis ubi homo vanitati similis factus est dies ejus velut umbra praetereunt Aug. de Civâ—â— lib. 21. c. 24. which they knew not what to do with who yet never spent one solemn entire hour in discourse with their own Souls What serious heart doth not melt into Compassion over the deluded Multitude who are mockt with Dreams and perpetually busied about Trifles Who are after so many frustrated attempts both of their own and all past Ages eagerly pursuing the fleeing shadows who torture and rack their brains to find out the Natures and Qualities
of Birds Beasts and Plants indeed any thing rather than their own Souls which are certainly the most excellent Creatures that inhabit this World They know the true value and worth of other things but are not able to estimate the dignity of that high-born Spirit which is within them A Spirit which without the addition of any more natural Faculties or Powers if those it hath be but sanctified and devoted to God is capable of the highest Perfections and Fruitions even compleat Conformity to God and the satisfying Visions of God throughout eternity They Herd themselves with Beasts who are capable of an equality with Angels O what compassionate tears must such a consideration as this draw from the eyes of all that understand the worth of Souls As for me it hath been my sin and is now the matter of my Sorrow that whilst Myriads of Souls of no higher Original than mine are some of them beholding the highest Majesty in Heaven and others giving all diligence to make sure their Salvation on earth I was carried away so many years in the course of this World like a drop with the Current of the Tide wholly forgetting my best self my invaluable Soul whilst I prodigally wasted the stores of my time and thoughts upon Vanities that long since passed away as the waters which are remembred no more * Nec enim pudet Sanctoâ— viros postquam renovata corda fuerint per resipiscentiam lapsus sui dedecoris ad dei gloriam meminisse Nihil nobis decedit quod cedit in illius honorem qui praeteritis peccatis nostris ab inferno nos transfert in Coelum Brightman in Cantic p. 12. It shall be no shame to me to confess this folly since the matter of my Confession shall go to the glory of my God I studied to know many other things but I knew not my self It was with me as with a Servant to whom the Master commits two things viz. The Child and the Child's Clothes the Servant is very careful of the Clothes washes and brushes starches and steels them and keeps them safe and clean but the Child is forgotten and lost My Body which is but the Garment of my Soul I kept and nourished with excessive care but my Soul was long forgotten and had been lost for ever as others daily are had not God rouz'd it by the Convictions of his Spirit out of that deep Oblivion and deadly slumber When the God that formed it out of free grace to the work of his own hands had thus recovered it to a sense of its own worth and danger my next work was to get it united with Christ and thereby secured from wrath to come Which I found to be a work of difficulty to effect if it be yet effected and a work of time to clear though but to the degree of good hope through grace And since the hopes and evidences of Salvation began to spring up in my Soul and settle the state thereof I found these three great words viz. Christ Soul and Eternity to have a far different and more awful sound in my ear than ever they used to have I looked on them from that time as things of greatest certainty and most awful Solemnity These things have lain with some weight upon my thoughts and I have felt at certain seasons a strong inclination to sequester my self from all other Studies and spend my last days and most fixed Meditations upon these three great and weighty Subjects I know the subject matter of my Studies and Enquiries be it never so weighty doth not therefore make my Meditations and Discourses upon it great and weighty Nor am I such a vain Opinionaâ—or as to imagine my Discourses every way suitable to the dignity of such Subjects No no the more I think and study about them the more I discern the indistinctness darkness crudity and confusion of my own conceptions and expressions of such great and transcendent things as those But In magnis voluisse sat est I resolved to do what I could and accordingly some years past I finished and published in two parts the Doctrine of Christ and by the acceptation and success the Lord gave that He hath encouraged me to go on in this Second part of my work how unequal soever my Shoulders are to the burden of it The Nature Original Immortality and Capacity of mine own Soul for the present lodged in and related to this vile Body destinated to Corruption Together with its Existence Imployment Perfection Converse with God and other Spirits both of its own and of a Superiour Rank and Order when it shall as I know it shortly must put off this its Tabernacle These things have a long time been the matters of my limited desires to understand so far as I could see the Pillar of fire God in his Word enlightening my way to the knowledge of them Yea such is the value I have for them that I have given them the next place in my esteem to the knowledge of Iesus Christ and my interest in him God hath formed me as he hath other men a prospecting Creature I feel my self yet uncentred and short of that state of rest and satisfaction to which my Soul in its Natural and Spiritual Capacity hath a Designation I find that I am in a continual motion towards my everlasting abode and the expence of my time and many Infirmities tell me I am not far from it By all which I am strongly prompted to look forward and acquaint my self as much as I can with my next place state and imployment I look with a greedy and inquisitive eye that way Yet would I not be guilty of an unwarrantable Curiosity in searching into unrevealed things how willing soever I am to put up my head by faith into the World above and to know the things which Iesus Christ hath purchased and prepared for me and all the rest that are waiting for his appearance and Kingdom I feel my Curiosity checked and repressed by that Elegant Paronomasia Rom. 12.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In all things I would be wise unto Sobriety I groan under the effects of Adam's itching Ambition to know and would not by repeating his sin increase my own misery Nor yet would I be scared by his Example into the contrary evil of neglecting the means God hath afforded me to know all that I can know of his revealed Will. * Cui â—niâ— veritas comâ—erta sine Deo Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu Cui Spiritus â—ccommodatus sine fide Tertul de Anima The helps Philosophy affords in some parts of this Discourse are too great to be despised and too small to be admired I confess I read the Definitions of the Soul given by the Ancient Philosophers with a Compassionate smile When Thales calls it a Nature without Repose Asclepiades an Exercitation of sense Hesiod a thing composed of Earth and Water Parmenides
Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word in thy heart so Matth. 9.3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they spake within themselves i. e. they thought in their hearts Matth. 21.25 The Objects presented to the mind are the Companions with whom our hearts talk and converse Thoughts are the figments and Creatures of the mind They are formed within it in 〈◊〉 innumerable The power of cogitation is in the mind yea in the spirit of the mind * Phantasia mâ—nti offert phantasmata Picol The fancy indeed whilst the Soul is embodied ordinarily and for the most part presents the appearances and likenesses of things to the mind but yet it can form thoughts of things which the fancy can present no Image of as when †When we think of God saith â—â—rx Tyr. Diss. 1. we must think of nothing material 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul thinks of God or of itself This power of cogitation goes with the Soul and is rooted in it when it is separated from the body and by it we speak to God and converse with Angels and other spirits in the unbodied State as will be more fully opened in the process of this Discourse 2. The Conscience belongs also to this faculty What Conscience is for it being the judgement of a man upon himself with respect or relation to the judgment of God it must needs belong to the understanding part or faculty Thoughts are formed in the speculative but Conscience belongs to the practical understanding Iudicium appello conscientiam ut ad intellectâ—m eam 〈◊〉 osteâ—â—am Ames It is a very high and awful power it is solo Deo minor and rides as Ioseph did in the second Chariot The next and immediate Officer under God He saith of Conscience with respect to every man as he once said of Moses with respect to Pharaoh See I have made 〈◊〉 a God to Pharoah Exod. 7.1 The voice of Conscience is the voice of God for it is his Vicegerent and Representative What it binds on earth is bound in heaven and what it looseth on earth is loosed in heaven It observes records and bears witness to all our actions and acquits or condemns as in the name of God for them Its Consolations are most sweet and its Condemnations most terrible so terrible that some have chosen death which is the King of terrours rather than to endure the scorching heat of their own Consciences The greatest Deference and Obedience is due to its Commands And a man had better * Quas nos oportet mortes praeeligere quod non supplicium potius ferre immo iâ— quam profundam infeâ—ni Abyssum â—oâ— intraâ—e quà m coâ—tra conscientiam atteâ—tari Zuingâ— indure any rack or torture in the world than incur the torments of it It accompanies us as our shadow whereever we go and when all others forsake us as at death they will Conscience is then with us and is never more active and vigorous than at that time Nor doth it forsake us after death but where the Soul goes it goes and will be its Companion in the other world for ever How glad would the Damned be if they might but have left their Consciences behind them when they went hence but as Bernard rightly * Ipsa judicat ipsa imperat ipsa observat ipsa judicat ipsa toâ—toâ— ipsa carcer Bern. lib. de Conse cap. 9. It is both Witness Judge Tormentor and Prison it accuseth judgeth punisheth and condemneth And thus briefly of the understanding which hath many Offices and as many names from those Offices It is sometimes called Wit Reason Vnderstanding Opinion Iudgment And why we bestow so many names upon one and the same faculty the learned Author of that small but excellent †Nosce Teipsum p. 48 49. Tract de Anima gives us this true and ingenious account THe Wit the Pupil of the Souls clear eye And in mans world the only shining Star Looks in the Mirroir of the Phantasie Where all the gatherings of the Senses are And after by discoursing to and fro Anticipating and Comparing things She doth all universal natures know And all Effects into their Causes brings When she rates things and moves from ground to ground The name of Reason she obtains by this But when by reason she the truth hath found And standeth fixt she Understanding is When her Assent she lightly doth incline To either part she is Opinion light But when she doth by principles define A Certain truth she hath true Judgements fight And as from Senses Reasons work doth spring So many Reasons Vnderstanding gain And many Vnderstandings Knowledge bring And by much Knowledge Wisdom we obtain VI. 6 Endued with a Will What the Will is God hath endued the Soul of man not only with an Vnderstanding to discern and direct but also with a Will to govern moderate and over-rule the actions of Life The Will is a faculty of the rational Soul whereby a man either chuseth or refuseth the things which the understanding discerns and knows This is a very high and noble power of the Soul The understanding seems to bear the same relation to the Will as a grave Counsellour doth to a great Prince It glories in two excellencies viz 1. Liberty 2. Dominion 1. It hath Freedom and Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno. it cannot be compelled and forced Coaction is repugnant to its very nature In this it differs from the understanding that the understanding is wrought upon necessarily but the will acts spontaneously This Liberty of the Will respects the choice or refusal of the means for attaining those ends it prosecutes according as it finds them more or less conducible thereunto The Liberty of the Will must be understood to be in things natural which are within its own proper sphere not in things supernatural It can move or not move the Body as it pleases but it cannot move towards Christ in the way of faith as it pleaseth it can open or shut the hand or eye at its pleasure but not the heart True indeed it is not compelled or forced to turn to God by supernatural grace but in a way sutable to its nature it is determined and drawn to Christ Psal. 1.10.3 It is drawn by a mighty power and yet runs freely Cant. 1.4 Draw me we will run after thee Efficacious grace and victorious Delight is a thing very different from compulsive force Pelagiuâ— as a late * Dr. Manton in Psal. 119. v. 36. Author speaks at first gave all to nature acknowledged no necessity of divine grace but when this proud Doctrine found little countenance he called nature by the name of grace And when that deceit was discovered he acknowledged no other grace but outward instruction or the benefit of external revelation to discourse and put men in mind of their duty Being yet driven farther he acknowledged the grace of Pardon and before a man could do any thing
humane souls to be created together before their bodies and placed in some glorious and suitable Mansions as the Stars till at last growing weary of Heavenly and falling in love with Earthly things for a punishment of that Crime they were cast into Bodies as into so many Prisons Origen suckt in this Notion of the praeexistence of Souls And upon this supposition it was that Porphyry tells us in the life of Plotinus that he blushed as often as he thought of his being in a Body as a man that had lived in reputation and honour blushes when he is lodged in a Prison The ground on which the Stoicks bottomed their Opinion was the great dignity and excellency of the Soul which inclined them to think they had never been degraded and abased as they are by dwelling in such vile bodies but for their faults And that it was for some former sin of theirs that they slid down into gross matter and were caught into a vital union with it Whereas had they not sinned they had lived in celestial and splendid habitations more suitable to their dignity But this is a pure creature of fancy for 1. no Soul in the world is conscious to it self of such a praeexistence nor can remember when it was owner of any other habitation than that it now dwells in 2. Nor doth the Scripture give us the least hint of any such thing Some indeed would catch hold of that expression Gen. 2. 2. God rested the seventh day from all the works which he had made And it is true he did so the work of Creation was finished and sealed up as to any new species or kind of creatures to be created no other sort of souls will ever be created than that which was at first But yet God still creates individual Souls My father worketh hitherto and I work of the same kind and nature with Adams Soul And 3. for their detrusion into these bodies as a punishment of their sins in the former state if we speak of sin in Individuals or particular persons the Scripture mentions none either original or actual defiling any Soul in any other way but by its union with the body Praeexistence therefore is but a Dream But to me it 's clear that the Soul receives not its being by Traduction or Generation for that which is generable is also corruptible but the spiritual immortal Soul as it hath been proved to be is not subject to Corruption Nor is it imaginable how a Soul should be produced out of matter which is not endued with reason Or how a bodily Substance can impart that to another which it hath not in it self If it be said the Soul of the child proceeds from the Soul of the Parents that cannot be for spiritual Substances are impartible and nothing can be discinded from them Absâ—rdum est aliunde esse animam â—â—stâ—am aliunde animam Adae cum omnes sunt ejusdem speciti Zanch. And it is absurd to think the Soul of Adam should spring from one Original and the souls of all his off-spring from another whilst both his and theirs are of one and the same Nature and species To all which let me add that as this Assertion of their Creation is most reasonable so it is most scriptural It is reasonable to think and say †Nalla virtus aâ—liâ—a agit ultâ—a sâ—â—m genus sâ—d Anima â—â—tellectiva excedit totum genus corporae natarae cum sit sâ—bstantia sâ—iritualis c. Conâ—ubâ— that no active power can act beyond or above the proper Sphere of its activity and ability But if the Soul be elicited out of the power of matter here would be an effect produced abundantly more noble and excellent than his cause And as it is most reasonable so it is most Scriptural To this purpose divers Testimonies of Scripture are cited and produced by our Divines amongst which we may single out these four which are of special remark and use Heb. 12.9 Furthermore we had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live Here God is called the Father of Spirits or of Souls and that in an emphatical Antithesis or contradistinction to our natural Fathers who are called the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies only The true scope and sense of this Text is with great judgment and clearness given us by that learned and judicious Divine Mr. * Pembâ—e de Origine Animae p. 59. Nihil apertins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ista Antithesi Carnem corpusque à pareâ—tibâ—s animas à Deo accipimus Quod si vilioris partis Authores qui minus in nos juris habent patienter caâ—ligantes fâ—â—â—imus quà m aequiore animo â—â—remus eâ—m qui sâ—premum in nos jus obtinet utpote partis quae in nobis est praestantiâ—sima unicus Datoâ— Conditorquâ— Pemble in these words Nothing is more plain and emphatical than this Antithesis We receive our flesh or body from our Parents but our souls from God if then we patiently bear the chastisements of our Parents who are Authors of the vilest part and have the least right or power over us with how much more equal a mind should we bear his chastisements who hath the supream right to us as he is the Father and only giver of that which is most excellent in us viz. our souls or spirits Here it seems evident that our souls flow not to us in the material Chanel of fleshly generation or descent as our bodies do but immediately from God their proper Father in the way of Creation Yet he begets them not out of his own Essence or Substance as Christ his natural Son is begotten but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of nothing that had been before as Theodoret well expresseth it Agreeable hereunto is that place also in †Testimonium satis clarum quo docâ—mur pari passâ— haectria ambulare expansionem câ—â—li fâ—â—dationem teâ—rae â—ormationem animae ratioâ—alis Zech. 12.1 The Lord which stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the foundations of the Earth and formeth the spirit of man within him Where the forming of the spirit or soul of Man is associated with those two other glorious effects of Gods creating power namely the expansion of the Heavens and laying the foundations of the Earth all three are here equally assumed by the Lord as his remarkable and glorious works of Creation He that created the one did as much create the other Now the two former we â—ind frequently instanced in Scripture as the effects of his creating Power or works implying the Almighty power of God and therefore are presented as strong props to our Faith when it is weak and staggering for want of visible matter of incouragement Isa. 40.22 and 42.5 Ierem. 10.12 Iob 9.8 Psal. 104.2 q. d. Are my people in Captivity and their Faith nonplust and at a loss
noble Souls in the manner of life with the Beasts that perish Our Tables differ little from the Crib at which they feed or our Houses from the Stalls and Stables in which they lie down to rest in respect of any Divine worship or Heavenly communication that is to be heard there Happy had it been for such men if so they live and dye that their souls had been of no higher Extraction or larger Capacity or longer Duration than that of a Beast for then as their comforts so also their miseries had ended at death And such they will one day wish they had been A Separate Soul immediately capable of Blessedness Inference II. THe Soul of Man being a Substance and not depending in its Being on the Body or any other fellow creature There can be no reason on the Souls account why its blessedness should be delayed till the Resurrection of the Body 'T is a great mistake and 't is well 't is so that the Soul is capable only of social Glory or a Blessedness in partnership with the Body And that it can neither exert its own powers nor enjoy its own happiness in the absence of the body The opinion of a sleeping interval took its riâ—e from this errour as it is usual for one mistake to beget another they conceived the Soul to be so dependent upon the Body at least in all its operations that when death rends it from the Body it must needs be left as in a swoon or sleep unable to exert its proper powers or enjoy that felicity which we ascribe to it in its state of separation But certainly its substantial Nature being considered it will be found that what perfection soever the body recieves from the Soul and how necessary soever its dependence upon it is * Anima rationâ—â—iâ— nihil 〈…〉 possâ—tâ—r 〈◊〉 Coâ—imâ—r Disp. 2. Art 3. The Soul receives not its perfection from the Body nor doth it necessarily depend on it in its principal operations but it can live and act out of a Body as well as in it Yea I doubt not but it enjoys it self in a much more sweet and perfect liberty than ever it did or could whilst it was clogged and fettered with a body of flesh Doubtless * Proculdubio cum â—i mortis expâ—imitur de câ—â—â—â—â—tione caâ—nâ—s ipsa eâ—pressiâ—ne colatu 〈…〉 to de oâ—panâ—o coâ—pore â—umpit in apertâ—m ad mâ—ram pâ—â—am sua◠〈◊〉 statim semetipsam in expeditione substantiae recognoscit ut de somno emergens ab imaginibas ad veritates Tertul. in lib. de Anima saith Tertullian when it is separated and as it were strained by death it comes out of darkness into its own pure perfect light and quickly finds it self a substantial Being able to act freely in that light Before the eyes of the dead body are closed I doubt not but the believing Soul with open eyes beholdeth the face of Jesus Christ Luk. 23.43 Philip. 1.23 but this will also be further spoken to hereafter II Immediately Created Inference III. THe Souls of men being created immediately out of nothing and not seminally traduced it follows That all souls by nature are of equal value and dignity One Soul is not more excellent honourable or precious than another But all by nature equally precious The Soul of the poorest Beggar that cries at the door for a crust is in its own nature of equal dignity and value with the Soul of the most glorious Monarch that sits upon the Throne And this appears to be so 1. First because all souls flow out of one and the same fountain viz. the creating power of God They were not made better or worse finer or courser matter but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of nothing at all The same Almighty power was put forth to the forming of one as of another All Souls are mine saith he that created them Ezek. 18 4. The Soul of the Child as well as the Father the Soul of the Beggar as well as the King Those that had no praeexistent matter but received their beings from the same efficient cause must needs be equal in their original nature and value The bodies of men which are formed out of matter do greatly differ from one another some are moulded as we say è meliori luto out of better and finer Clay some are more exact elegant vigorous and beautiful than others but Souls having no matter of which they consist are not so differenced 2. Secondly All souls are created with a capacity of enjoying the infinite and blessed God They need no other powers faculties or capacities than they are by nature endued with if these be but sanctified and devoted to God to make them equally happy and blessed with them that are now before the Throne of God in Heaven and with unspeakable delight and joy behold his blessed face We pass through the fields and take up an Egg which lies under a clod and see nothing in it but a little squalid matter yea but in that Egg is seminally and potentially contained such a melodious Lark as it may be at the same time we see mounting Heavenward and singing delicious notes above So 't is here Those poor despised souls that are now lodged in crazy despicable bodies on Earth have in their Natures a capacity for the same imployments and enjoyments with those in Heaven They have no higher Original than these have and these have the same capacity and hability with them They are Beings improvable by grace to the highest perfections attainable by any Creature If thou be never so mean base and despicable a creature in other respects yet hast thou a Soul which hath the same alliance to the Father of Spirits the same capacity to enjoy him in glory that the most excellent and renowned Saints ever had 3. Thirdly All Souls are rated and valued in Gods book and account at one and the same price and therefore by nature are of equal worth and dignity Under the Law the Rich and the Poor were to give the same Ransom Exod. 30.15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel The Redemption of Souls by the Blood of Christ costs one and the same price The poorest and most despised Soul that believes in Jesus is as much indebted to him for the Ransom of his Soul as the greatest and most illustrious person in the World Moses Abraham Paul c. did not cost Christ one farthing more than poor Lazarus or the meanest among all the Saints did The Righteousness of Christ is unto all and upon all that believe and there is no difference Rom. 3.22 But yet we must not understand this Parity of humane Souls universally or in all respects Though being of one species or common nature they are all equal and those of them that are purchased by the blood of Christ are all purchased at one rate Yet there are divers other respects and
hath layed out the treasures of his wisdom power and goodness in this noble structure he built it for an habitation for himself to dwell in And indeed such noble rooms as the Understanding Will and Affections are too good for any other to inhabit But sin hath set open the gates of this hollowed Temple and let in the abomination which maketh desolate All the doors of the Soul are barr'd and chain'd up against Christ by ignorance and infidelity he seeks for admission into the Soul which he hath made but findeth none A forcible entry he will not make but expects when the Will shall bring him the keys of the Soul as to its rightful owner So he expresseth himself to us in Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand â—â— the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me his standing at the door denotes his earnest desire and patient waiting in the use of all those means that are introductive of Jesus Christ into the Souls of men His knocking signifies the various essaies he makes by Ordinances and providences externally and the convictions and perswasions of his Spirit and the Consciences of sinners internally every call of the word and every conviction of Conscience is a Call a Knock from Heaven at the door of the Soul for the admission of Christ into it By the souls hearing his voice and opening the door understand its approbation and consent to the motion and offer of God By Christs coming in is meant his uniting that Soul unto himself that opens to him And as his coming in denotes union so his supping with the Soul and the Soul with him denotes his sweet Communion imperfect here compleat and full in Heaven O The admirable condescensions of God to poor sinners The God that formed you with a word and can as easily ruine you with a frown yet waits at the gates of your Souls for admission into them There be many Souls within the sound of this complaint that have kept God out of his own right all their days They have shut out Jesus Christ and delivered up their Souls to Satan if he but knock by a slight Temptation the door is presently opened but Jesus Christ may wait in vain upon them from Sabbath to Sabbath and from Year to Year But the longest day of his patience hath an end And there is a refusal of Grace after which no more tenders of mercy shall ever be made What say you Souls will you at last open the door to Jesus Christ or will you still exclude him If you will open to him he will not come in empty-handed he will bring a feast with him such a feast as you never tasted any thing like it in your lives But if you will not open to him then I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day that you have once more barr'd the doors of your Souls against him whose pleasure and power gave them their very Beings Against him who is their Soveraign Lord and rightful Owner and consequently this Act of yours must stop your mouths and deprive you of all Pleas and Apologies when you shall knock hereafter at the door of mercy and God shall for ever shut it up against you according to his juâ—t but dreadful threatnings Matth. 7.22 Prov. 1.24 25 And thus much of the Divine Original and excellent Nature of the Soul of Man Having taken a view of this excellent Creature the Soul in opening the former Proposition we come next to the consideration of its union with the Body in this second Proposition DOCT. II. Doct. II. THat the Souls and Bodies of men are knit together by the feeble band of the breath in their Nostrils Mr. How in a Funeral Sermon p. 9 10. There is saith a learned Man no greater mystery in nature than the union betwixt the Soul and Body That a mind and spirit should be so tyed and linked with a clod of Clay that while that remains in a due temper it cannot by any art or power free it self It can by an act of the Will move an hand or a foot or the whole body but cannot move from it one inch If it move hither or thither or by a leap upward do ascend a little the body still follows it cannot shake or throw it off We cannot take our selves out by any allowable means we cannot nor by any at all that are at least within meer humane power as long as the temperament lasts While that remains we cannot go if that fail we cannot stay though there be so many open avenues could we suppose any material bounds to hem in or exclude a spirit we cannot go out or in at pleasure A wonderful thing And I wonder we no more wonder at our own make and frame in this respect What so much akin are a mind and a piece of earth a clod and a thought that they should be thus affixed to one another My design here is to shew by what ligament tye or bond it hath pleased the great and wise Creator to affix and link these so different parts of man together and this Moses in the Text tells us is no other but the breath of his nostrils The Breath and Soul of Man are two distinct things His Breath is not his Soul nor his Soul his Breath but the Nexus or bond that couples and unites his Soul and body in a personal union The Body hath no life in it self but its life results from its union with the Soul Iames 2.26 this union is maintained by the breath of our nostrils which upon that account is here called the breath of life What breath is Breath is an act of life proceeding from the Souls union with its Body and ending with the dissolution of it Life is continued by its respiration and ended by its expiration Whilest we live and whilst breath is in our bodies are terms Synonymous That little quantity of air which we thus breath in and out at our nostrils is more to us than all the three Regions of air which fill up the vast space between earth and heaven It is in a sense our life For the use and office of Respiration the Lungs were formed and placed where they are not without the most wise counsel and direction of God What the Lungs are They are that organ in the * Pulmo est spirandi respirandi instrumentum ad pulmones inducitur sâ—â—ula quae dicitur Trachea arteria ad geminos usus condita c. body which by the help of that Arterie called Arteria trachea leading to them as a Chanel for the passage of air from the mouth and nostrils the air is transmitted to and ventilated by them for the refreshment of the * Cor movetâ—r motu duplici nempe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qua caloâ— innatus attracto aëre mitigatur
104.29 Thou takest away their breath they dye and return to their dust 'T is neither food nor Physick but God in and by them that holdeth our Soul in life Psal. 66.9 We hang every moment of our life over the Grave and the gulf of Eternity by this slender thread of our breath but it cannot break how feeble soever it be till the time appointed be fully come if it be not extinguished and suffocated as others daily are it is because he puts none of those diseases upon us as it is Exod. 15 26. or if he do yet he is Iehovah Rophe the Lord that healeth us as it follows in that Text. We live in the midst of cruel enemies yea among them that breath out cruelty as the Psalmist complaineth Psal. 27.12 Such breath would quickly suffocate ours did not he in whose hand ours is wonderfully prevent it O! what cause have we to imploy and spend that breath in his praise who works so many daily wonders to secure it Inference II. IS it but a puff of feeble breath which holds our Souls and Bodies in union then every man is deeply concerned to make all hast to take all possible care and pains to secure a better and more durable habitation for his Soul in Heaven whilst yet it sojourns in this frail Tabernacle of the Body The time is at hand when all these comely and active bodies shall be so many breathless carkasses no more capable of any use or service for our Souls than the seats you sit on or the dead bodies that lye buried under your feet Your breath is yet in your Nostrils and all the means and seasons of salvation will expire with it and then it will be as impossible for the best Minister in the world to help your Souls as for the ablest Physician to recover your Bodies As Physick comes too late for the one so counsels and perswasions for the other Three things are worth thinking on in this matter 1. First that you are not without the hopes and possibilities of Salvation whilst the breath of life is in your Nostrils A mercy how lightly soever you value it that would ravish with joy those miserable Souls that have already shot the gulf of Eternity and turn the shrieks and groans of the Damned into joyful shouts and acclamations of praise Poor wretch consider what thou readest That thy Soul is not yet in Christ is thy greatest misery but that yet it may be in Christ is an unspeakable mercy though thy Salvation be not yet secured yet what a mercy is it that it is not desperate 2. Secondly When this uncertain breath is once expired the last hope of every unregenerate person is gone for ever It is as impossible to recover hope as it is to recover your departed breath or recall the day that is past When the breath is gone the Compositum is dissolved We cease to be what now we are and our life is as water spilt on the ground which shall not be gathered up till the Resurrection Our life is carried like a precious liquor in a brittle Glass which death breaks to pieces The Spirit is immediately presented to God and fixed in its unalterable State Hebrews 9.27 All means of Salvation now cease for ever No Ambassadors of peace are sent to the Dead No more Calls or Strivings of the Spirit no more space for Repentance O! what an inconceivable weight hath God hanged on a puff of breath 3. Thirdly And since matters stand thus it is to be admired what shift men make to quiet themselves in so dangerous a State as most Souls live in quiet and unconcerned and yet but one puff of breath betwixt them and Hell O the stupefying and besotting nature of sin O the efficacy and power of spiritual delusions Are our lives such a throng and hurry of business that we have no time to go alone and think where we are and where we shortly must be What shall I say If bodily concerns be so weighty and the matters of Eternity such trifles if meat and drink and trade and children be such great things and Christ and Soul and Heaven Hell and the world to come such little things in your eyes you will not be long in that opinion I dare assure you Inference III. IS the Tye so weak betwixt our Souls and bodies how close and near then do all our Souls confine and border upon Eternity There is no more but a puff of breath a blast of wind betwixt this world and that to come A very short step betwixt time and Eternity There is a breath which will be our last breath Respiration must and will terminate in Expiration The dead are the Inhabitants and the living are Borderers upon the invisible world This consideration deserves a dwelling place in the hearts of all men whether I. Regenerate or II. Unregenerate I. Regenerate Souls should ponder this with pleasure O 't is transporting to think how small a matter is betwixt them and their compleat Salvation No sooner is your breath gone but the full desire of your hearts is come every breath you draw draws you a degree nearer to your perfect happiness Rom. 13.11 Now is your Salvation nearer than when you believed therefore both your chearfulness and diligence should be greater than when you were * Hoâ— dicit qâ—od in fâ—dâ—i primordiis ferventiores ad opera bona alacriores faissent fideles temporis autem progressu refriguissent Estius in loc in the infancy of your Faith You have run through a considerable part of your Christian course and race and are now come nearer the Goal and prize of eternal life O despond not loyter not now at last who were so fervent and zealous in the beginning 'T is Transporting to think how near you approach the Region of light and joy O that you would distinctly consider 1. Where you lately were 2. Where now you are 3. Where shortly you shall be 1. You that are now so near Salvation were lately very near unto Damnation there was but a puff of breath betwixt you and Hell How many nights did you sleep securely in the state of nature and unregeneracy How quietly did you rest upon the brink of Hell not once imagining the danger you were in Had any of those sicknesses you then suffered been suffered by God like a candle to burn asunder this slender thread of life which was so near them you had been as miserable and as hopeless as those that now are roaring in the lowest Hell I have heard of one that rid over a dangerous Bridge in the night who upon the review of the place next day fell into a swoon when he was sensible of that danger which the darkness of the night hid from him O Reader shall not an escape from Hell affect thee as much as such an escape would do 2. 'T is no less marvelous to consider where you now are you that were afar off are now
made nigh Eph. 2.13 you that were not beloved are now beloved Rom. 9. v. 25. You were in the state of death and condemnation you are now passed from death to life by your free justification 1 Iohn 3.14 Your union with Christ hath set you free from condemnation Rom. 8.1 Dye you must though Christ be in you but there is no hazzard or hurt in your death The stopping of your breath can put no stop to your happiness it will hasten not hinder it If the pale Horse come for you Heaven not Hell will now follow him your sins are pardoned the covenant of your Salvation sealed death is disarmed of its fatal sting and what then should hinder you from a like Triumph even upon your death-bed with that 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 3. And yet you have more room for joy whilst you consider where you must and shall be shortly You are now in Christ but in a few days you shall be with Christ as well as in him 't is well now but it will be better ere long Your sin is now fully pardoned but not fully purged out of your Souls Your Persons are freed from guilt but your Hearts are not either freed from filth or grief But in a little time you shall be absolutely and eternally freed from both your present condition is an Heaven compared with your former and your future state will be â—n Heaven indeed compared with your present The path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 II. But on the other side what meditation can be more startling and amazing to all the unregenerate and Christless world Ponder it thou poor Christless and unsanctified Soul Get thee out of the noise and clamour of this world which makes such a continual din in thine ears and consider how thou hangest over the mouth of Hell it self by the feeble thread which is spun every moment out of thy Nostrils As soon as that gives way thou art gone for ever What shift do you make to quiet your fears and eat and drink and labour with any pleasure 'T is storied of Dionysius the Tyrant that when Democles would have flattered him into a conceit of the perfection of his happiness as he was an absolute Soveraign Prince and could do what he pleased with others as his Vassals Dionysius to confute his fancy caused him to be placed at a Table richly furnished and attended with the most curious Musick but just over his head hanged a sharp and heavy Sword by one single hair which when Democles saw no meat would go down with him but he earnestly begged for a discharge from that place This is the lively emblem of thy condition thou unregenerate man There are three things in thy state sadly opposed to the former state last described 1. The state you were born in was bad 2. The state you are now in is worse 3. The state you shall shortly be in if you thus continue will be unspeakably worst of all 1. The State you were born in was a sad state you were born in sin Psal. 51 5. and under wrath Eph. 2.3 the womb of nature cast you forth into this world both defiled and condemned creatures 2. The state you are in now is much worse than that you were born in for what have you been doing ever since you were born but treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 For every sand of time which run out of the glass of Gods patience towards you a drop of wrath hath been running into the Vials of his Indignation against you O what a treasure of sin and wrath then is laid up in so many years as you have lived in sin Every sin committed every mercy abused every call of God neglected and slighted adds still more and more to this treasure 3. It will be much worse shortly than it is now except preventing renewing grace step in betwixt you and that wrath into which you are hastning so fast 'T is sad to be under the Sentence of Condemnation but unspeakably worse to be under the Execution of that sentence To be a Christless man is lamentable but to be a hopeless man is more lamentable For though you be now without Christ yet whilst the breath of life is in your Nostrils you are not absolutely without hope but when once that breath is goneâ— all the world cannot save or help you Your last breath and your last hope expire together Though you be under Gods damning sentence yet that sentence through the riches of forbearance is not executed but assoon as you dye all that wrath which hang'd over your heads so many years in the black clouds of Gods threatnings will pour down in a furious storm upon you which will never break up whilst God is God O think and think again and let your thoughts think close to this sad and solemn Subject there is but a Breath betwixt you and Hell Inference IV. DOth God maintain your life by breath let not that breath destroy your life which God gave to preserve it No man can live without breath and yet some might live longer than they do if their breath were better imployed Some mens throats have been cut by their own Tongues 〈…〉 Scalig Arab. prov Cent 1. as the Arabian Proverb intimates Life and death saith Solomon are in the power of the Tongue Criticks observe that a Word and a Plague grow upon the same root in the Hebrew Tongue 'T is certain that some mens breath hath been baneful poison both to themselves and others It was a word that cut off the life of Adonijah â— King 2.23 and thousands since his day have dyed upon the point of the same weapon 'T is therefore wholsome advice that is given us Psalm 34.12 What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile And the more evil the times are the stricter guard we should keep upon our lips It is an evil time the prudent will keep silence Amos 5.13 When wicked men watch to make a man an offender for a word as it is Isai. 29.20 21. it behooves us to be upon our watch that we offend not with our lips 'T is good to keep what is not safe to trust David was as a deaf and dumb man when in the company of wicked men Psal. 38.13 he thought silence then to be his prudence It is better they should call you Fools than find you so Inference V. IMploy not that breath to the dishonour of God which was first given and is still graciously maintained by him for your comfort and good 'T were better you had never breathed at all than to spend your breath in prophane Oaths or foolish and idle Chat whereby at once you wound the Name of God draw guilt upon your own Souls
first Seal opened Ver. 2. gives the Church a very encouraging and comfortable prospect of the Victories Successes and Triumphs of Christ notwithstanding the Rage Subtilty and power of all its Enemies He shall ride on Conquering and to Conquer and his Arrows shall be sharp in the Hearts of his Enemies whereby the People shall fall under him And this chearing Prospect was no more than was needful For Seal 2. The second Seal opened ver 3. and 4. represents the first bloudy Persecution of the Church under Nero whom Tertullian calls Dedicator damnationis nostrae Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. He that first condemned Christians to the Slaughter And the Persecution under him is set forth by the Type of a red Horse and a great Sword in the hand of him that rode thereon His cruelty is by Paul compared to the mouth of a Lion 2 Tim. 4.17 Paul Peter Bartholomew Barnabas Mark are all said to dye by his cruel hand and so fierce was his rage against the Christians that at that time as Eusebius saith * Adeo ut videret repletas humanis corporibus civitates jacentes mortuos simul cum parvulis senes foeminarumque absque ulla sexûs reverentia in publico rejesta Cadavera a man might then see Cities lie full of dead Bodies the old and young Men and Women cast out naked without any reverence of Persons or Sex in the open street Tacit. lib. 15. Annal. And when the day failed Christians saith Tacitus were burnt in the night instead of Torches to give them light in the Streets Seal 3. The third Seal opened v. 5.6 sets forth the calamities which should befal the Church by Famine Yet not so much a literal as a figurative Famine as a grave and learned Commentator * Durham in Loc. expounds it like that mentioned Amos 8.11 12. which fell out under Maximinus and Trajan The former directing the Persecution especially against Ministers in which many bright Lamps were extinguished The latter expresly condemned all Christian Meetings and Assemblies by a Law The Type by which this Persecution was set forth is a black Horse A gloomy and dismal day it was indeed to the poor Saints when they eat the bread of their Souls as it were by weight for he that sate on him had a pair of ballances in his hand Then did Iohn hear this sad voice A measure of wheat for a Penny and three measures of Barley for a penny That quantity was but the ordinary allowance to keep a man a live for a day And a Roman Penny was the ordinary wages given for a days work to a labourer The meaning is that in those days all the Spiritual food men should get to keep their Souls alive from day to day with all their travel and labour should be but sufficient for that end The fourth Seal opened Seal 4. ver 7.8 represents a much more sad and doleful state of the Church for under it are found all the former sufferings with some new kinds of trouble superadded Under this Seal death rides upon the pale Horse and Hell or the Grave follows him 'T is conceived to point at the presecution under Dioclesian when the Church was mowed down as a Meadow The fifth Seal is opened in my Text Seal 5. under which the Lord Jesus represents to his servant Iohn the state and condition of those precious Souls which had been torn and separated from their Bodies by the bloudy hands of Tyrants for his name sake under all the former persecutions The design whereof is to support and encourage all that were to come after in the same bloudy path I saw under the Altar c. in which we have an account I. Of what Iohn saw II. Of what he heard I. First we have an account of what he saw I saw the Souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held Souls in this place are not put for the Bloud or the dead Carcasses of the Saints who were slain as some have groundlessly imagined but are to be understood properly and strictly for those Spiritual and immortal substances which once had a vital Union with their Bodies but were now separated from them by a violent death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima proimmortali Spiritâ— hominis capituâ— sicuti Matt. 10.28 hoâ— sensu dicit hîc Iohannes se vidisse animas c. Marlorat in loc yet still retained a love and inclination to them even in the state of Separation and are therefore here brought in complaining of their shedding of their blood and destruction of their Bodies These Souls even of all that dyed for Christ from Abel to that time Iohn saw that is in Spirit for these immaterial substances are not perceptible by the gross external senses Animâ— Coâ—â—oribus exutae invisibileâ— sunt occulis corpoâ—â—is vidit ergo â—as Iohannes Spiritu Paraus in loc He had the priviledge and favour of a Spiritual representation of them being therein extraordinarily assisted as Paul was when his Soul was rapt into the third Heaven and heard things unutterable 2 Cor. 12.2 God gave him a transient visible representation of those holy Souls and that under the Altar he means not any material Altar as that at Ierusalem was but as the holy place figured Heaven so the Altar figured Jesus Christ Heb. 13.10 And most aptly Christ is represented to Iohn in this figure and Souls of the Martyrs at the foot or basis of this Altar thereby to inform us 1 that however men look upon the death of those persons and though they kill their names by slanders as well as their persons by the Sword yet in Gods account they dye as Sacrifices and their blood is no other than a drink-offering poured out to God which he highly prizeth and graciously accepteth Suitable whereunto Pauls expression is Philip. 2.17 2 That the value and acceptation their death and blood shed hath with God is through Christ and upon his account for it is the Altar which sanctifieth the gift Matth. 23.19 and 3. it informs us that these holy Souls now in a state of Separation from their Bodies were very near to Iesus Christ in Heaven They lay as it were at his foot Once more They are here described to us by the cause of their sufferings and death in this World and that was For the word of God and for the Testimony which they held i. e. They dyed in defence of the Truths or will of God revealed in his word against the Corruptions Oppositions and Innovations of Men. As one of the Martyrs that held up the Bible at the Stake saying This is it that hath brought me hither They dyed not as Malefactors but as Witnesses They gave a threefold Testimony to the truth a lip Testimony a life Testimony and a blood Testimony whilst the Hypocrite gives but one and many Christians but two Thus we have an account of what
flows not so much from the nature of either as from the will and pleasure of God who hath appointed them to be so He can but never will annihilate them But the Soul depends upon matter in all its operations Object 3. nothing is in the Understanding which was not first in the Senses it useth the natural Spirits as its Servants and Tools in all its Operations and therefore how can it either subsist or act in a State of Separation 1. The Hypothesis is not only uncertain Sol. but certainly false There are acts performed by the Soul even whilst it is in the Body wherein it makes no use at all of the Body Such are the acts of Self-intuition and Self-reflection and what will you say of its Acts in Raptures and Ecstasies such as that of Paul 2. Cor. 12.2 and Iohn Revel 21.10 what use did their Souls make of the bodily senses or natural Spirits then 2. And though in its ordinary actions in this life it doth use the Body as its Tool or Instrument in working doth it thence follow that it can neither subsist or act separate from them in the other World Whilst a man is on Horseback in his Journey he useth the help and service of his Horse and is moved according to the motion of his Horse but doth it thence follow he cannot stand or walk alone when dismounted at his Journeys end We know Angels both live and act without the ministry of Bodies and our Souls are Spiritual Substances as well as they But many Scriptures seem to favour the total cessation of the Souls actions Object 4. if not of its being also after Separation as that in 2 Sam. 14.14 We must needs dye and are as Water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up and Psal. 88.10 11 12. with Isaiah 38.18 19. The dead cannot praise thee Sol. Those words of the Woman of Tekoa are not to be understood absolutely but respectively and the meaning is that the Soul is in the Body as some precious liquor in a brittle glass which being broken by death the Soul is irrecoverably gone as the Water Spilt on the ground which by no humane power or art of man can be recovered again All the means in the World cannot fetch it back into the Body again She speaks not of the Resurrection or what shall be done in the World to come by the Almighty power of God but of what is impossible to be done in this World by all the skill and power of Man And for the expression of Heman and Hezekiah they only respect and relate to those services their Souls were now imployed about for the praise of God with respect to the conversion or edification of others as Psal. 30.8 9. or at most to that mediate service and worship which they give God in and by their attendance upon his ordinances in this World and not of that immediate Service and praise that is performed and given him in Heaven by the Spirits of just men made perfect such was the sweetness they had found in these Ordinances and Duties that they express themselves as loth to leave them The same answer solves also the Objections grounded upon other mistaken Scriptures as that Psal. 78.39 where man is called a wind that passeth away and cometh not again It is only expressive of the frailty and vanity of the present animal life we live in this World to which we shall return no more after death it denies not life to departed Souls but the end of this animal life at death the life we live in the other World is of a different nature Inference I. IS the Soul Immortal Then 't is impossible for Souls to find full rest and contentment in any enjoyments on this side Heaven All temporary things are inadaequate and therefore unsatisfying to our Souls What gives the Soul rest and satisfaction must be as durable as the Soul is for if we could possibly find in this World a condition and state of things most agreeable in all other respects to our desires and wishes yet if the Soul be conscious to it self That it shall and must over-live and leave them all behind it it can never reach true contentment in the greatest affluence and confluence of them Man being an immortal is therefore a prospecting Creature and can never be satisfied with this That it 's well with him at present except he can be satisfied that it shall be so for ever The thoughts of leaving our delightful and pleasant enjoyments imbitters them all to us whil'st we have them All outward things are in fluxu continuo passing away as the Waters 1 Cor. 7.31 Riches are uncertain 1 Tim. 6.17 They fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven and with Wings of their own making Prov. 23.5 i. e. as the Feathers that enable a Bird to fly from us grow out of his own substance so doth that vanity that carries away all earthly enjoyments This alone would spoil all Contentment Inference II. THen see the ground and reason of Satans envy and enmity against the Soul and his restless designs and endeavours to destroy it It grates that Spirit of envy to find himself who is by nature Immortal sunk everlastingly and irrecoverably into misery and the Souls of Men appointed to fill up those vacant places in Heaven from which the Angels fell No Creature but Man is envied by Satan and the Soul of Man much more than his Body 'T is true he afflicts the Bodies of Men when God permits him but he ever aims at the Soul when he wounds the Body Heb. 10. 37. This roaring Lyon is continually going about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 'T is the precious Soul he hunts after that 's the Morsus Diaboli the Bit he gapes for as the Woolf tears the Fleece to come at the Flesh. All the pleasure those miserable Creatures find is the success of their temptations upon the Souls of Men. 'T is a kind of delight to them to plunge Souls into the same condemnation and misery with themselves This is the trade they have been driving ever since their Fall By destroying Souls he at once exercises his revenge against God and his envy against man which is all the relief his miserable condition allows him Inference III. DO the Souls of Men overlive their Bodies Then 't is the height of madness and spiritual Infatuation to destroy the Soul for the Bodies sake To cast away an Immortal Soul for the gratification of perishing flesh to ruine the precious Soul for ever for the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment yet this is the madness of millions of Men. They will drown their own Souls in everlasting perdition to procure unnecessary things for the Body 1 Tim. 6.9 They that will be rich c. Every cheat and circumvention in dealing every lye every act of oppression is a wound given the Immortal Soul for the procuring some accommodations to
the Body O what Soul-undoing bargains do some make with the Devil Some sell their Souls outright for the gratification of their lusts 1 King 21.20 Many pawn their Souls to Satan in a conditional bargain so do all that venture upon sin upon a presumption of pardon and repentance The Devil is a great trader for Souls he hath all sorts of commodities to suit all mens humours that will deal with him He hath profits for the Covetous Honours for the Ambitious pleasures for the Voluptuous but a Soul is the price at which he sells them only he will be content to sell at a day and not require present pay so that it be paid on a death-bed in a dying hour he is satisfyed But oh What an undoing bargain do sinners make To part with a treasure for a trifle Matth. 16.26 the precious Soul for ever Prov. 20.17 Prov. 23.31 32. Job 20.12 13. Jam. 1.15 for the pleasures of sin which are but for a season Heb. 11.25 We are charmed with the present pleasure and sweetness there is in sin but how bitter will the after-fruits thereof be See the Texts in the Margent you will say hereafter as Ionathan did 1 Sam. 14.31 I tasted but a little honey and I must dye Inference IV. THen the exposing of the Body to danger yea to certain destruction for the preservation of the Soul is the dictate of spiritual wisdom and that which every Christian is bound to chuse and practise when both Interests come in full opposition Heb. 11.35 Dan. 3.28 Revel 12.11 No promises of preferment no threats of Torments have been able to prevail with the people of God to give the least wound or do the least wrong to their own Souls When Secundus was commanded to deliver his Bible he answered Christianus sum non Traditor I am a Christian I will not deliver it then they desired him but to deliver aliquam ecvolam a Chip a Straw any thing that came to his hand in lieu of it he refused to redeem his life by delivering the least trifle on that account to save it That is a great word of our Lords Luk. 9.24 He that will save his life shall lose it and he that loseth it for my sake shall find it Christians this is your duty and wisdom and must be your resolution and practice in the day of Temptation to yield your Bodies to preserve your Souls as we offer our arm to defend the head O better thy Body had never been given thee than that it should be a snare to thy Soul and the instrument of casting it away for ever O how dear are some persons like to pay for their tenderness and indulgence to the flesh when the hour of Temptation shall come Mortifie your irregular affections to the Body and never hazard your pretious Immortal Souls for their sakes 'T is the character of an Hypocrite to chuse sin rather than affliction Iob. 36.21 But if ever thou hast been in the deeps of spiritual troubles for sin if God have opened thine eyes to see the evil of sin the immense weight and value of thy Soul and of Eternity Thou wilt not count thy life dear to thee to finish thy course with joy Act. 20.24 Inference V. IF the Soul be an Immortal being that shall have no end Then 't is the great concern of all men to strive to the utmost for the Salvation of their Souls what ever become of all lesser temporary interests in this world Luke 13 24. There is a gate i.e. an introductive means of life and Salvation this gate is strait i.e. there are a world of difficulties to be encountred in the way of Salvation but he that values and loves his never-dying Soul must and will be diligent and constant in the use of all those means that have a tendency to Salvation be they never so difficult or unpleasant to flesh and bloud There be difficulties from within our selves such as mortification self-denyal contempt of the World parting with all at the Call of Christ and difficulties from without the reproaches persecutions and sufferings for Christ which would not be so great as they are were it not for our unmortified lusts within but be they what they will we are bound to strive through them all for the Salvation of our precious and Immortal Souls 1 For 't is the greatest concernment of the Soul yea of our own Souls we are bound to do much for the saving of anothers Soul 2 Tim. 2.10 much more for our own this is our darling Psal. 22. our only one 2 Others have done and suffered much for the saving of their Souls and are not ours or ought they not to be as dear to us as the Souls of any others have been to them Matt. 21.32 3 The utmost diligence is little enough to save them Do all that you can do and suffer all that you can suffer and deny your selves as deeply as ever any did yet you shall find all this little enough to secure them 1. Pet. 4.18 The righteous themselves are scarcely saved 1 Cor. 9.24 4 The time to strive for Salvation is very short and uncertain Luke 13.25 Iohn 12.35 'T will be to no purpose when the seasons and opportunities of Salvation are once over There is no striving in Hell a death-pang of Despair hath seized them hope is extinguished and endeavours fail 5 Doth not Reason dictate and direct you to do now whilst you are in the way as you will wish you had done and repent with rage and self-indignation because you did it not when you come to the end and behold the final issues of things suppose but thy self now either 1 upon a death-bed lanching into Eternity 2 or at the bar of Christ 3 or in view of Heaven 4 or in the sight and hearing of the damned what think you will you not then with Oh that I had spent every moment in the World that could possibly be redeemed from the pure necessities of life in Prayer in hearing in striving for Salvation From a prospect of this it was that one spent many hours dayly on his knees to the macerating of his Body and being admonished of the danger of health and advised to relax he answered I must dye I must dye Do not say Object 1. you have many incumbrances and other imployments in the Word for 1 one thing is necessary Luke 10.42 Those are conveniences but this is of absolute necessity 2 They will thrive the better for this Matth. 6.33 seek this and they shall be added 3 Do but redeem the time that can be redeemed to this purpose let not so much precious time run waste as daily doth Say not Object 2. no man can save his Soul by his own striving and therefore 't is to little purpose for it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 True this in it self cannot save you but what then must we
is generally a burthened and a groaning life 2 Cor. 5.2 In this Tabernaele we groan being burthened Here the Saints feel 1 A burthen of sin Rom. 7.24 this is a dead and a sinking weight 2 A burthen of Affliction of this all are Partakers Hebr. 12. though not all in an equal degree or in the same kind yet all have their burthens equal to and even beyond their own strength to support it 2 Cor. 1.8 pressed above measure 3 A burthen of inward troubles for sin and outward Troubles in the Flesh both together so had Iob Heman David and many of the Saints Certainly this befals them not 1 Casually Iob 5.6 It rises not out of the Dust 2 Nor because God loves and regards them not for they are fruits of his love Heb. 12.6 Whom he loveth he correcteth 3 Nor because he takes pleasure in our groans Lamen 3. To tread under his feet the Prisoners of the earth the Lord hath no pleasure 'T is not for his own pleasure but his Childrens profit Heb. 12.10 And among the prâ—fits that result from these burthens this is not the least to make you less fond of the body than you would else be and more willing to be gone to your everlasting rest And certainly all the Diseases and Pains we endure in the Body whether they be upon inward or outward accounts by Passion or Compassion from God or Men will be found but enough to wean us and loose off our hearts from the fond love of life Afflictions are bitter things to our taste Ruth 1.20 so bitter that Naomi thought a name of a contrary signification fitter for her afflicted condition Call me Marah i. e. bitter not Naomi pleasant beautiful And the Church Lam. 3.19 calls them Wormwood and Gall. The great design of God in afflicting them is the same that a tender Mother projects in putting Wormwood to her Breast when she would wean the Child It hath been observed by some discreet and grave Ministers that before their remove from one place to another God hath permitted and ordered some weaning Providence to befal them either denying wonted success to their labour or alienating and cooling the affections of their people towards them which not only makes the manner of their departure more easie but the grounds of it more clear Much so it falls out in our natural death the comfort of the World is imbittered to us before we leave it The longer we live in it the less we shall like it We overlive most of our Comforts which engaged our hearts to it that we may more freely take our leave of it It were good for Christians to observe the voice of such Providences as these and answer the Designs of them in a greater willingness to die 1. Is thy Body which was once hail and vigorous now become a crazy sickly pained body to thee neither useful to God nor comfortable to thee a Tabernacle to groan and sigh in And little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper God hath ordered this to make thee willing to be divorced from it The less desireable life is the less formidable death will be 2. Is thy Estate decayed and blasted by Providence so that thy life which was once full of Creature-Comforts is now fill'd with Cares and Anxieties O 't is a weaning Providence to thee and bespeaks thee the more chearfully to bid the World farewel The less comfort it gives you the less it should entangle and engage you We little know with what aking hearts and pensive breasts many of Gods people walk up and down though for Religion or Reputations sake they put a good face upon it but by these things God is bespeaking and preparing them for a better State 3. Is an Husband a Wife or dear Children dead and with them the comfort of life laid in the dust Why this the Lord sees necessary to do to perswade you to come after willingly 'T is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth that thou maist fall the more easily O how many stroaks must God give at our Names Estates Relations and Health before we will give way to the last stroak of death that fells us to the ground 4. Do the times frown upon Religion Do all things seem to threaten stormy times at hand Are desireable Assemblies scattered Nothing but Sorrows and Sufferings to be expected in this World By these things God will imbitter the earth and sweeten Heaven to his People 5. Is the beauty and sweetness of Christian Society defaced and decayed That Communion which was wont to be Pithy Substantial Spiritual and Edifying becomes either frothy or contentious so that thy Soul hath no pleasure in it This also is a weaning Providence to our Souls Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus Theologorum odiis from the Wranglings and Contentions that were in his time Our fond affection to the Body requires all this and much more to wean and mortifie them Inference IV. HOW Comfortable is the Doctrine of the Resurrection to Believers which assures them of receiving their Bodies again though they part with them for a time Believers must die as well as others their Union with Christ priviledges them not from a Separation from their Bodies Rom. 8.10 Heb. 9.27 But yet they have special grounds of Consolation against this doleful separation above all others For 1. Though they part with them yet they part in hopes of receiving them again 1 Thessal 4.13 14. They take not a final leave of them when they die Husbandmen cast their Seed-corn into the earth chearfully and willingly because they part with it in hope so should we when we commit our Bodies to the earth at death 2. Though death separate these dear Friends from each other yet it cannot separate either the one or other from Christ Luke 20.37 38. I am the God of Abraham c. Your very dust is the Lords and the Grave rots not the Bond of the Covenant 3. The very same Body we lay down at death we shall assume again at the Resurrection Not only the same specifical but the same Numerical Body Iob 19.25.26 With these eyes shall I see God 4. The unbodied Soul shall not find the want of its Body so as to afflict or disquiet it nor the Body the want of its Soul but the one shall be at rest in Heaven and the other sweet asleep in the Grave and all that long interval shall slide away without any afflicting sense of each others absence The time will be long Iob 14.12 but if it were longer it cannot be afflicting considering how the Soul is cloathed immediately 2 Cor. 5.1 2. and how the Body sleeps sweetly in Jesus 1 Thess. 4.14 5. When the day of their re-espousals is come the Soul will find the Body so transformed and improved that it shall never receive prejudice from it any more but a singuler addition to its Happiness and Glory Now it clogs us
death a terrible meeting again at the Resurrection and horrid reflections upon each other mutually charging their ruine upon each other to all eternity Whilst they that are in Christ part in hope meet with joy and bless God for each other for evermore TEXT 2 Peter 1.13 14. Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in Remembrance Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle even as our Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me AT the tenth verse of this Chapter The Apostle sums up his foregoing precepts and exhortations in one great and most important duty the making sure of their calling and election This exhortation he enforceth on them by a most solemn and weighty motive ver 11. Even an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom No work of greater necessity or difficulty than to make sure our Salvation no argument more forceable and prevalent than an easy and free enterance into Glory at death an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet and comfortable dissolution to enter the Port of glory before a wind with our full ladeing of comfort peace and joy in believing our Sails full and our Streamers flying Oh how much better is this than to lye Wind-bound I mean heart-bound at the Harbours mouth tost up and down with fears doubts and manifold temptations making many a board to fetch the harbour for so much is signified in his figurative and allusive expression v. 11. And for their encouragement in this great and difficult work he ingageth himself by promise to give them all the assistance he can whilst God should continue his life and knowing that would be but a little while he resolves to use his utmost endeavour to secure these things in their Memories after his death that they might not dye with him This is the general scope and order of the words Wherein more particularly we have I. His exemplary industry and diligence in his Ministerial work II. The consideration stimulating and provoking him thereunto I. His Exemplary industry and diligence in his Ministerial work in which two things are remarkable viz. 1 The quality of his work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excitare expergesacere i. e. mentes vestras tanquam do mitantes ac torpescentes c. Poli Synopsis which was to stir them up by putting them in remembrance to keep the heavenly flame of love and zeal lively upon the Altar of their hearts He well knew what a sleepy disease the best Christians are troubled with and therefore he had need to be stirring them up and awakening them to their duty 2 The constancy of his work as long as I am in this Tabernacle i. e. as long as I live in this World The Body is here called a Tabernacle in respect of its moveableness and frailty and in opposition to that house made without hands eternal in the Heavens And it is observeable how he limits and bounds his serviceableness to them by his commoration in his Tabernacle or Body as well knowing after death he could be no longer useful to them or any others in this World Death puts an end to all our ministerial usefulness but till that time he judged it meet and becoming him to be aiding and assisting their faith Our life and labour must end together II. We have here the Motive or consideration stimulating and provoking him to this diligence knowing that I must shortly put off this Tabernacle even as the Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me in which words he gives an account of 1 The speediness 2 Necessity 3 Voluntariness of his death and the way and means by which he knew it All these must be considered singly and apart and then valued altogether as they amount to a weighty Argument or Motive to excite him to diligence in his his duty 1. He reflects upon the speediness or near approach of his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brevi suturum Every Christian knows not the time of his death as Peter did by special Revelation But though we know it not by a word spoken to us in particular we know it by a word written for all in common Eccles. 9.5 the living know that they must die I must shortly put off this my Tabernacle which is a form of Speech of the same importance with that of Paul 2 Tim. 4.6 The time of my departure is at hand my time in the Body is almost at an end 2. The necessity of his death it is not I may but I must put off this my Tabernacle yea I must put it off shortly for so the Lord had shewed him Christ had signified it expresly to him Iohn 21.18 19. And besides this most Expositors think this clause refers to some special vision or Revelation which Peter had of the time and manner of his own death so that besides the natural necessity or the inevitableness of his death by the law of Nature he was certified of it by special Revelation We have here also 3. The voluntariness of his death for voluntariness is consistent enough with the necessity of the event Deponere dicit ut significet se voluntariè mortem obiturum esse pro Christo. Pool I must put off or lay down my Tabernacle he saith not I must be torn or rent by violence from it but I must depose or lay it down Camero will have the word here used for death properly to signifie the laying down of ones Garments he made no more of putting off his Body than his Garments Upon the consideration of the whole matter the speediness of his death which he knew to be at hand the Necessity of it that when it came he must be gone from them and could be no more useful to them and his own inclination to be with Christ in a better state being as willing to be gone as a weary Traveller to be at home he judged it meet or becoming him as he was called of Christ to feed his sheep as he was gifted extraordinarily for the Churches service full of spiritual excellencies all which in a short time would be taken away from them by death I say upon all these accounts he could not but judge it meet to be stirring them up and every way striving to be as useful as he might Hence the Note will be DOCT I. How sâ—rong soever the Affections and inclinations of Souls are to the fleshly Tabernacles they now live in yet they must put them off and that speedily (1) The certaintâ— of death Ioâ— 16.22 Anni numeri i. e. qui numerati sunt adeo ut brevissimi periodo circumscripti THE point lies very plain before us in the Scriptures That is a remarkable expression we have in Iob 16.22 When a few years are come I shall go the way whence I shall not return in the Hebrew it is when the years of number or my numbred years are come years so numbred that they are circumscribed in
of God a burthen to themselves Iob 7.20 21. Yea under these burthens they would sink did not the Lord sustain them Psal. 55.22 But God will put a speedy and final end to all these things when you put off this Tabernacle you put off with it all those burdens inward and outward The Soul presently feels a great load off its shoulders It shall never groan more God shall thenceforth wipe away all tears from their eyes For why are those burdens now permitted and imposed by the Lord upon you but 1 To prevent sin Hosea 2.6 They are your clogs to keep you from straying 2 To purge out sin Isaâ— 27.9 3 To make you long more for Heaven and the rest to come But all these ends are accomplished in that day you put off your Tabernacles for then sin is gone and rest is come Inference VI. MUst you shortly put off those Tabernacles then spare them not whilst you have them but imploy them for God with all diligence Shortly they shall be useless to you yea meat for Worms now they may â—e serviceable and their Service is their honour Ambrose said of Valentinian No man was ever such a Serâ—ant to hiâ— Master as Valâ—â—tinan's Body was to his Soul you received them not for such low ends as you imploy them for See 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your Souls and Bodies which are his You expect to have them glorious Bodies one day Oh then let them be serviceable Bodies now Be not fond of them to that degree many are who chuse rather to have them eaten out with rust than worn out with service It is your present honour to be active and will be your singular comfort another day What greater comfort when you come to put them off at death than this that you have imployed them faithfully for God Inference VII LOok beyond this embodyed state and learn to live now as you hope to live shortly Begin to be what you expect to be You know the time is at hand that you shall live above all bodily concernments and imployments the Soul shall be a drudge to the Body no more You shall be as the Angels Matth. 22.30 not marrying nor given in Marriage which is Synecdochically put for all Carnal Imployments and Enjoyments eat no more drink no more sleep no more buy and sell no more Now suit your selves as much as your State and the Duties of Religion will suffer you to that State before-hand The summ of what I aim at is in 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Be in all your Relations as if you had none Look on those things as if already they were not which shortly must be none of yours and both acquaint and accustome your thoughts to the life of separation from the Body which you must shortly live which brings me home to the next point viz. The Condition of Humane Souls in the State of Separation TEXT Heb. 12.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to the Spirits of just Men made perfect THE particular scope of this context falls in with the general design of the whole Gospel which is to perswade men to a life of Holiness The matter of the exhortation is most weighty and the Arguments inforcing it most powerful he doth not talk but dispute he doth not say but prove that greater and more powerful engagements unto holiness lye upon those who live under the Gospel than upon the people who lived under the Law And thus the Argument lies in this Context If God at the delivering of the Law upon Mount Sinai strictly enjoyned and required so great Purity and Holiness in that people Exod. 19.10 signified by the Ceremonies of two days preparation the washing of their cloaths abstinence from conjugal society c. much more doth he require and expect it in us who are come under a much more excellent and Heavenly dispensation than theirs was To make good the sequel he compares the legal and the evangelical Dispensations in many particulars verse 18 19 20 21 22 23. giving the Gospel the preference throughout the whole Collation In summ the priviledges of the New Testament-Believers are here stated both negatively and positively 1. Negatively by shewing what we are exempted from 2. Positively shewing what we are come unto First Negatively What we are exempted or freed from verse 18 19 20 21. We are not come unto the Mount that might be touched c. The summ of all is this that the promulgation of the Law was accompanied with amazing dread and terror For after Moses by command from God had sanctified the Mount and set Rails about it that neither Priest nor People Man nor Beast might touch the very borders of it lest they dye the Lord descended in fire upon the top of the Mountain the third day in the morning with most terrible tokens of Divine Majesty sc. with Thundrings Lightnings dark clouds and the noise of a Trumpet exceeding loud the Mount was covered with smoak as the smoak of a Furnace and flames mounting up unto the midst of Heaven Crebris micat ignibus ather the whole Mountain shaking and trembling exceedingly out of this horrid Tempest the awful voice of God was heard all the people in the Camp trembling yea and Moses himself quaking for fear This was the manner of the Laws Promulgation but to such a terrible Dispensation as this we are not come which is the negative part of our priviledge Secondly He opens the positive priviledges to which we are come 1 Ye are come saith he to mount Sion not the Earthly but the Spiritual Sion Mount Sion was the place celebrated above all the World for the Worship of God Psal. 87.7 All my springs saith God are in thee There was the Temple the Ark of the Covenant the glory of the Lord dwelling between the Cherubims The Priests that attended the service of God had their residence there as the Angels have in Heaven Thither the Tribes went up from all quarters of Iudea Psal. 84. as the children of God now do to Heaven from all Quarters of the World Iudea was the best Kingdom in the World Ierusalem the best City in that Kingdom and Sion the most glorious place in that City Here Christ taught his heavenly Doctrine near to it he finished his glorious work of Redemption Hence the everlasting Gospel went forth into all the world and on these considerations it s put to signifie the Gospel-Church or State in this place and is therefore called the heavenly Ierusalem in the following words We do not come to the literal Sion nor to the earthly Ierusalem but to the Gospel Church or State which may be called an Heaven upon earth compared with that literal Ierusalem 2 Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels Gr. to myriads of Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hellenistae dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine alio additamento ad significandam innumeram multitudinem Grot. a myriad is ten thousand
but myriads in the plural number and set down indefinitely too may note many millions of Angels and therefore we fitly tender it to an innumerable company of Angels They had the ministry of Angels as well as we thousands of them ministred to the Lord in the dispensation of the Law at Sinai Psal. 68.17 But this notwithstanding we are come to a much clearer knowledge both of their present Ministry for us on earth Heb. 1.14 and of our fellowship and equality with them in Heaven Luke 20.36 3 Ye are come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written or enrolled in Heaven This also greatly commends and amplifies the priviledges of New Testament-Believers the Church of God in former ages was circumscribed and shut up within the narrow limits of one small Kingdom which was as a garden inclosed out of a waste wilderness but now by the calling in of the Gentiles the Church is extended far and wide Eph. 3.5 6. It is become a great Assembly comprizing the Believers of all Nations under Heaven and so speaking of them collectively it is the general convention or Assembly which is also dignified and ennobled by two illustrious characters viz. 1 that it is the Church of the first-born i. e. consisting of Members dignified and priviledged above others Primogeniti Israelitarum scripti crant in matricula terrestri hi vero in albo coelesti as the first-born among the Israelites did excel their younger Brethreâ— 2 That their names are written in Heaven i. e. registred or enrolled in Gods book as Children and Heirs of the Heavenly inheritance as the first-born in Israel were registred in order to the Priesthood Num 3.40 41. 4 Ye are come to God the Iudge of all But why to God the Judge this seems to spoil the harmony and jar with the other parts of the discourse No no they are come to God as a righteous Judge who as such will pardon them 1 Iohn 1.9 crown them 2 Tim. 4.8 and avenge them on all their oppressing and persecuting Enemies 1 Thes. 1.5 6 7. 5 And to the Spirits of just men made perfect A most glorious priviledge indeed in which we are distinctly to consider 1. The quality of those with whom we are associated or taken into fellowship 2. The way and manner of our association with them 1. The Quality of those with whom we are associated or to whom we are said to be come and they are described by three characters viz. 1 1 Spirits of Men. viz. 2 Spirits of just Men. viz. 3 Spirits of just Men perfected or consummated 1 They are called Spirits that is immaterial substances strictly opposed to Bodies which are no way the objects of our exteriour Senses neither visible to the eye nor sensible to the touch which were called properly Souls whilst they animated Bodies in this lower World but now being loosed and separated from them by death and existing alone in the World above they are properly and strictly stiled Spirits 3 They are the Spirits of just Men. Man may be termed just two ways 1 by a full discharge and acquittance from the guilt of all his sins and so believers are just men even whilst they live on Earth groaning under other imperfections Acts 13.39 or 2 by a total freedom from the pollution of any sin And though in this sence there is not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7.22 yet even in this sense Adam was just before the Fall Eccles. 7.29 according to his original constitution and all believers are so in their glorified condition all sin being perfectly purged out of them and its existence utterly destroyed in them On which account 3 They are called the Spirits of just men made perfect or consummate The word perfect is not here to be understood absolutely but synecdochically they are not perfect in every respect for one part of these just Men lies rotting in the grave but they are perfected for so much as concerns their Spirit though the flesh perish and lie in dishonour yet their Spirits being once loosed from the Body and freed radically and perfectly from sin are presently admitted to the facial vision and fruition of God which is the culminating point as I may call it higher than which the Spirit of man aspires not and attaining to this it is for so much as concerns it self made perfect Even as a Body at last lodg'd in its centre gravitates no more but is at perfect rest so it is with the Spirit of man come home to God in glory 't is now consummate no more need to be done to make it as perfectly happy as it is capable to be made which is the first thing to be considered viz the Quality of those with whom we are associated 2. The second follows namely the way and manner of our association with these blessed Spirits of just Men noted iâ— this expression we are come He saith not we shall come hereafter when the Resurrection hath restored our Bodies or after the general Judgment but we are come to these Spirits of just Men. The meaning whereof we may take up in these three particulars 1 We that live under the Gospel-light are come to a clearer apprehension sight and knowledge of the blessed and happy estate of the Souls of the righteous after death than ever they had or ordinarily could have who lived under the Types and shadows of the Law Eph. 3.4 5. And so we are come to them in respect of clearer apprehension 2 We are come to those blessed Spirits in our Representative Christ who hath carried our nature into the very midst of them and whom they all behold with highest admiration and delight By Christ who is entred into that holy place where these Spirits of just Men live we are come into a near relation with them For he being the common head both to them in Heaven and to us on Earth we and they consequently make but one Body or society Eph. 2.19 whereupon notwithstanding the different and remote Countries they and we live in we are said to sit together with them in Heavenly places Ephes. 3.15 and Ephes. 2.6 3 We are come That is we are as good as come or we are upon the matter come there remains nothing betwixt them and us but a puff of breath a little space of time which shortens every moment we are come to the very borders of their Country and there is nothing to speak of betwixt them and us and by this expression we are come he teacheth us to account and reckon those things as present which so shortly will be present to us and to look upon them as if they already were which is the highest and most comfortable life of Faith we can live on Earth Hence the Note is DOCT. That righteous and holy Souls once separated from then Bodies by death are immediately perfected in themselves and associated with others alike
ejusdem animae id est informationis seu unionis erga corpus Conimâ—r Some call it the privation of the second Act of the Soul that is its Act of informing or enlivening the Body Others according to Scripture phrase the departing of the Soul from the Body So Peter stiles it 2 Pet. 1.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after my departure i.e. after my death Relictio câ—rporis depositio sarcine gravis modo aliea sarcina non patietur qâ—â homo praecipitetur in gehennem August Augustine calls it the laying down of an heavy burthen provided there be not another burden for the Soul to bear afterwards which will sink it into Hell In respect of the Body which the Soul now forsakes it is called the putting off this Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.14 And the dissolving the earthly House or Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 In respect of the terminus à quo the place from which the Soul removes at death it is called our departure hence Phil. 1.23 or our weighing Anchor and loosing from this coast or shoar to sail to another In respect of the terminus ad quem the place to which the Spirits of the just go at death it is called our going to or being with the Lord ibid. To conclude in respect of that which doth most lively resemble and shadow it forth it is called our falling asleep Acts 7. ult our sleeping in Iesus 1 Thes. 4.14 This Metaphor of sleep must be stretched no further than the Spirit of God designed in the choice of it which was not to favour and countenance the fancy of a sleeping Soul after death but to represent its state of placid rest in Jesus's bosom if it refer at all to the Soul for I think it most properly respects the Body Locus Sepulturae consecratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est dormitorium appeâ—iâ—tur and thence the Sepulchres where the Bodies of the Saints were laid got the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dormitories or sleeping places This is its last farewel to this world never more to return to a low animal life more Iob 7.9 10. For as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more The Soul is no more bound to a Body nor a Retainer to Sun Moon or Stars to meat drink and sleep but is become a free single abstracted being a separate and pure Spirit which the Latins call Lemures Manes Ghosts or Souls of the dead and my Text Spirits made perfect a being much like unto the Angels who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodiless Powers An Angel as one speaks is a perfect Soul a Soul is an imperfect Angel I do not say that upon their Separation they become Angels for they will still remain a distinct Species of Spirits Semper à corporis compedibus nexibus liberi Max. Tyr. Angels have no inclination to Bodies nor were ever fettered with cloggs of flesh as Souls were And by this you see what a difference there is betwixt these two considerations of death How gastly and affrighting is it in its previous pangs how lovely and desireable in the issue and result of them which is but the change of Earth for Heaven men for God sin and misery for perfection and glory PROP. III. The Separation of the Soul and Body makes a great and wonderful change upon both but especially upon the Soul THere is a twofold change made upon man by death one upon his Body another upon his Soul The change upon the Body is great and visible to every eye A living Body is changed into a dead carcase A beautiful and comely Body into a loathsome spectacle that which lately was the object of delight and love is hereby made an abhorrence to all flesh Bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23.4 What the Sun is to the greater that the Soul is to the lesser World When the Sun shines comfortably how vegete and chearful do all things look How well do they thrive and prosper The Birds sing merrily the Beasts play wantonly the whole Creation enjoyeth a day of light and joy but when it departs what a night of horror followeth How are all things wrapt up in the sable Mantle of darkness Or if it but abate its heat as in Winter the Creatures are as it were buried in the winding-sheet of Winters frost and Snow just so it is with the Body when the Soul shineth pleasantly upon it or departs from it That Body which was fed so assiduously cared for so anxiously loved so passionately is now tumbled into a pit and left to the mercy of crawling Worms The change which judgment made upon that great and flourishing City Nineveh is a fit emblemâ— to â—hadow forth that change which death makes upon humane Bodies That great and renowned City was once full of people which thronged the streets thereof there you might have seen children playing upon the Thresholds Beauties shewing themselves through the windows Melody sounding in its Palaces But what an alteration was made upon it the Prophet Zephaniah describes Chap. â— v. 14. Flocks shall lye down in the midst of her all the Beasts of the Nations both the Cormorant and the Bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it their voice shall sing in the windows desolation shall be in the thresholds for he shall uncover the Cedar work Thus it is with the Body when death hath dislodged the Soul Worms nestle in the holes where the beautiful eyes were once placed Corruption and desolation is upon all parts of that stately structure But this being a vulgar Theam I shall leave the Body to the dust from whence it came and follow the Soul which is my proper subject pointing at the changes which are made on it The essence of the Soul is not destroyed or changed by the Bodies ruine It is substantially the self same Soul that it was when in the Body The supposition of an essential change would disorder the whole frame and model of Gods eternal design for the Redemption and glorification of it Rom. 8.29 30. but yet though it undergo no substantial change at death yet divers great and remarkable alterations are made upon it by sundering it from the Body As 1. It is not where it was It was in a Body immerst in matter married unto flesh and blood but now it is out of the Body uncloathed and stript naked out of its garments of flesh like pure Gold melted out of the ore with which it was commixed or as a Birdlet out of her Cage into the open Fields and Woods This makes a great and wonderful change upon it 2. Being free from the Body it is consequently discharged and freed from all those â—ares studies fears and sorrows to which it was here enthralled and subjected upon the Bodies account It puts off all those
passions and burdens with it never spends one thought more about Food and Raiment Health and Sickness Wives and Children Riches or Poverty but lives henceforth after the manner of Angels Matth. 22.30 It is now unrelated to and therefore unconcerned about all these things 3. In the unbodied state it is perfectly freed from sin both in the Acts and Habits a mercy it never enjoyed since the first moment it dwelt in the Body The cure of this disease was indeed begun in the Work of Sanctification but is not perfected till the day of the Souls glorification 'T is now and not till now a Spirit made perfect that is a Soul enjoying its perfect health and rectitude No more groans tears or lamentations upon the account of in-dwelling sin 4. The way and manner of its converse with and enjoyment of God is changed There are two mediums by which Souls converse with God in the Body viz 1 One internal sc Faith 2 The other external sc. Ordinances 1 If a man walk with God on earth it must be in the use and exercise of Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 nor can there be any communion carried on betwixt God and the Soul without it Heb. 11.6 2 The external mediums are the ordinances of God or duties of Religion both publick and private Psal. 63.2 Betwixt these two mediums of Communion with God this remarkable difference is sound the Soul may see and enjoy God by Faith in the want or absence of Ordinances but there is no seeing or conversing with God in the greatest plenty and purity of Ordinances without Faith Heb. 4.2 But in the same moment the Soul is cut off from union with the Body it is also cut off from both these ways of enjoying God 1 Cor. 13.12 Isai. 38.11 But yet the Soul is no loser nay it is the greatest Gainer by this change The Child is no loser by ceasing to derive its nourishment by the Navel when it comes to receive it by the mouth a more noble way whereby it gets a new pleasure in tasting the variety of all delectable Food Hezekiah bemoaned the loss of Ordinances upon his supposed death-bed saying I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the living q. d. Now farewel Temple and Ordinances I shall never go any more into his Temple where my Soul hath been so often cheared and refresht with the displays of his grace and goodness I shall never more join with the Assembly of his people on earth And suppose he had not sure he would have lost nothing had he then exchanged the Temple at Ierusalem for the Temple in Heaven and Communion with sinful imperfect Saints on earth for fellowship with Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect By this change we lose no more than he loseth who whilst he stands delightfully contemplating the image of his dearest friend in a glass hath the glass snatcht away by his friend whom he now seeth face to face Upon this change of the mediums of Communion it will follow that the Communion betwixt God and the separate Soul excells all the Communion it ever had with him on Earth in 1 The Clearness in 2 The Sweetness of it in 3 The Constancy 1 Its Visions of God in the state of Separation are more clear distinct and direct than they were on earth Clouds and Shadows are now fled away The Soul now seeth as it is seen and knoweth as it is known its apprehensions of God there differ from those it had here as the crade and confused apprehensions of a Child do from those we have in the manly state 2 They are also more sweet and ravishing As our Visions are so are our Pleasures Perfect Visions produce perfect Pleasures The faculties of the Soul now and never till now lie level to that rule Matth. 22.37 The Visions of God command and call forth all the heart and soul mind and strength into acts of love and delight It was not so here if the Spirit were willing the Flesh was weak but there the clog is off from the foot of the Will 3 More constant fixed and steddy 'T is one of the greatest difficulties in Religion to fix the thoughts and cure the wildness and roveings of the fancy The heart is not steddy with God and hence are its ups and downs heatings and coolings which are things unknown in the perfect state By all which it appears the change by Dissolution is great and marvelous both upon Body and Soul but upon the Soul more especially PROP. IV. The Souls of the Righteous at the instant of their Separation are received by the blessed Angels and by them transferred unto the place of Blessedness THough Angels are by nature a superiour order of Spirits differing from men in Dignity as the Nobles and Barons in the Kingdoms of this World differ from inferiour Subjects yet are they made ministring Spirits i.e. serviceable Creatures in the Kingdom of Providence to the meanest of the Saints Heb. 1.14 and herein the Lord puts a singular honour upon his people in making such excellent Creatures as Angels serviceable to them Luther assigns to them a double office sc. to sing the praises of God on high and to watch over his Saints here below Their Ministry is distinguished into three Branches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Admonition or warning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Protection and defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for succour help and comfort This last office they perform more especially at the Souls departure Like tender Nurses they keep us whilst we live and bring us home in their arms to our Fathers house when we die They are about our death-beds waiting to receive their precious charge into their arms and bosomes When Lazarus breathed out his Soul the Text saith it was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosome Luke 10.22 And upon this account Tertullian calls them Evocatores animarum the Callers forth of Souls At the Translation of Elijah they appeared in the form of Horses and Chariots of fire 2 Kings 2. 11. Horses and Chariots are not only design'd for conveyance but for conveyance in State and truly it is no small honour to have such a noble Convoy and Guard to attend our Souls to Heaven If it be demanded Object What need is there of their help or company Cannot God by his immediate hand and power gather home the Souls of his people to himself at death He inspired them into our Bodies without their help and can receive them again when we expire them without their aid True Sâ—lâ—t he can do so but it hath pleased him to appoint this method of our Translation not out of meer necessity but bounty Souls ascend not to God in the vertue of the Angels wings or arms but of Christ's Ascension Had not he ascended as our head and representative all the Angels in Heaven could not have brought our Souls thither He ascended by his own power and we
the separate Soul is out of Gun-shot 'T were as good discharge an Arrow at the body of the Sun as a temptation at a translated Soul Consectary III. Separated Souls are more lovely Companions and their Converses more sweet and delightful than ever they were in this World It was their corruption which spoil'd their Communion on earth and it is their spotless holiness which makes it incomparably pleasant in Heaven The best and loveliest Saints have something in them which is distastful even sweet Bryars and holy Thistles have their offensive Prickles but when that which was so lovely on earth is made perfect in Heaven and nothing of that remains in Heaven which was so offensive in them on earth O what delightful Companions will they be O blessed Society O most desirable Companions let my Soul for ever be united to their assembly I love them under their Corruptions but how shall my Soul be knit to them when it seeth them shining in their Perfections PROP. IX The Pleasures and Delights of the separate Spirits of the just are incomparably greater and sweeter than those they did or at any time could experience in their bodily state WIth what a pleasant face would death smile upon Believers what Roses would it raise in its pale cheeks if this Proposition were but well setled in our hearts by faith And if we will not be wanting to our selves it may be firmly settled there by these four Considerations which demonstrate it Consideration I. Whatsoever Pleasure any man receives in this World he receives it by means of his Soul Even all corporeal and sensitive delights have no other relish and sweetness but what the Soul gives them which is demonstrable by this that if a man be placed amidst all the pleasing Objects and Circumstances in the World if he were in that Centre where he might have the confluence of all the delights of this World yet if the Spirit be wounded there is no more relish or savour in them than in the White of an Egg. What pleasure had Spira in his Liberty Estate Wife and Children These things were indeed proposed and urged again and again to relieve him but instead of pleasure they became his horrour let but the mind be wounded and all the mirth is marr'd one touch from God upon the Spirit destroys all the joy of this World Nay Let but the intention of the mind be strongly carried another way and for that time though there be no guilt or wound upon the Soul the most pleasant enjoyments lose their pleasure What Delight think you would bags of Gold sumptuous Feasts or exquisite melody have afforded to Archimedes when he was wholly intent upon his Mathematical lines By this then it is evident that the rise of all pleasure is in the mind and the most agreeable and pleasing Objects and Enjoyments signifie nothing without it The mind must be found in it self and at leisure to attend them or we can have no pleasure from them Consideration II. Of all Natural Pleasures in the World Intellectual Pleasures are found to be most agreeable and connatural to the Soul of man The more refined and remote from sense any pleasure is the more grateful it is to the Soul those are certainly the sweetest Delights that spring out of the mind A drop of intellectual pleasure is valued by a generous and well tempered soul above the whole Ocean of impure Joys which come to it sophisticated and tang'd through the muddy Channels of sense No sensualists in the World can extract such pleasure out of Gold Silver Meat and Drink as a searching and contemplating mind finds in the discovery of truth * In qua simulac pedem posui foribus pessulum obdo in ipso aeternitatis gremio inter tot illustres animas sedem mihi sumo cum ingenti quidem animo ut sâ—bindè magnaetum misereat qui hanc faelicitatem ignorant Epist. Prin. Heynsius that learned Library-keeper of Leyden professed that when he had shut up himself among so many illustrious Souls he seemed to sit down there as in the very lap of Eternity and heartily pitied the Rich and Covetous Worldlings that were strangers to his Delights †Arcana coeli naturae secreta ordinem universi scire majoris foelicitatis dulcedinis est quam câ—gitatione quis assequi potest aut mortalis sperare And Cardan tells us that to know the secrets of Nature and the order of the Universe hath greater pleasure and sweetness in it than the thoughts of Man can fathom or any Mortal hope for Yea such beauty saith * Talis est Mathematum pulchritudo ut his indignum sit divitiarum phalâ—ras istas bullas puerilia spectacula comparari Plutarch there is in the Study of the Mathematicks that it were unworthy to compare such Baubles and Bubbles as Riches with it Yea saith another †Dulce est extingui Mathematicarum artium studio Leon. Diggs it were a sweet thing to be extingnished in those Studies Iulius Scaliger was so delighted with Poetry that he protested he had rather be the Author of twelve Verses in Lucan than Emperour of Germany And to say truth there is a kind of * Talis suavitas ut cum quis ea degustaverit quasi circeis poculis captus non potest â—nquam ab illis divelli Cardan enchanting sweetness in those intellectual Pleasures and Feasts of the mind such a delight as hardly suffers the mind to be pull'd away from it These Pleasures have a finer edge an higher gust a more agreeable savour to the mind than sensitive ones as approaching much nearer to the nature of the Soul which is spiritual Consideration III. And as Intellectual pleasures do as far exceed all sensitive pleasures as those which are proper to a man do those which we have in common with Beasts So Divine pleasures do again much more surmount Intellectual ones For what compare is there betwixt those joys which surprize a Scholar in the discovery of the Secrets of Nature and those that overwhelm and swallow up the Christian in the discovery of the glorious Mysteries of Redemption by Christ and his own personal interest therein To solve the Phaenomena of Nature is pleasant but to solve all the difficulties about our Title to Christ and his Covenant that is ravishing Archimedes his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it was but the frisk or skip of a Boy that rapturous voice of the Spouse My Beloved is mine and I am his These are Entertainments for Angels 1 Pet. 1.12 a short Salvation for the season it is felt and tasted 1 Pet. 1.8 after these delights all others are insipid and dry And yet one step higher Consideration IV. All that divine pleasure which ever the holiest and devoutest Soul enjoyed in the Body is but a Sip or Praelibation â—ompared with those full draughts it hath in the unbodied State Whilst it is embodied it rejoyceth in the
in point of knowledg concerning that great Question What is God Thus no man hath seen or can see God in this World Even Moses himself could not so see God Exod. 33.18 19 20. But the Spirits of the just made perfect have satisfying apprehensions though no perfect comprehensions of the Divine Essence 2. In this light they clearly discern those deep mysteries which they here rackt their thoughts upon but could not penetrate in this life There they will know what is to be known of the Union of the two Natures in the wonderful person of our Emmanuel and the manner of the subsistence of each person in the most glorious and undivided God-head Iohn 14.20 The several Attributes of God will then be unfolded to our understandings for his Essence and Attributes are not two things Rev. 4.8 9 10 11. O what ravishing sight will this be The mysteries of the Scriptures and providences of God will be no mysteries then Curiosity it self will be there satisfied 3. This immediate knowledge and sight of God face to face will be infinitely more sweet and ravishingly plasant than any or all the views we had of him here by Faith ever were or possibly could be There is a joy unspeakable in the visions of Faith 1 Pet. 1.8 But it comes far short of the facial vision Who can tell the full importance of that one Text Rev. 22.4 The Throne of the Lamb shall be in it and they shall see his face O for such a Heaven said one as but to look through the key-hole and get one glimpse of that lovely face Earth cannot bear such sights This light overwhelms and confounds the inadequate faculties of imperfect and embodied Souls But there it is lumen confortans a chearing strengthening pleasant light as the light of the Morning star Rev. 2.28 4. This sight of God will be appropriative and applicative We there see him as our own God and portion Without a clear interest in him the sight of him could never be beatifical and satisfying Sight without interest is like the light of a gloworm light without heat All doubts and objections are solv'd and answer'd in the first sight of this blessed face 5. To conclude This perfect and most comfortable knowledge is attained without labour by the separate Soul Here every degree of knowledge was with the price of much pains How many weary hours and aking heads did the acquisition of a little knowledg stand us in But then it flows in upon the Soul easily It was the Saying of a great Vsurer I once took much pains to get a little meaning the first stock but now I get much without any pains at all O lovely state of separation That Body which interposed clog'd and clouded the willing and capable Spirit being drawn aside as a Curtain by death the light of glory now shines upon it and round about it without any inâ—erception or lett PROP. XI The separated Souls of the Iust do live in a more high and excellent way of Communion with God in his Temple-worship in Heaven than ever they did in the sweetest Gospel-Ordinances and most Spiritual Duties in which they conversed with him here on Earth THAT Saints on earth have real Communion with God and that this Communion is the joy of their hearts the life of their life and their relief under all pressures and troubles in this life is a truth so firmly sealed upon their hearts by experience as well as clearly revealed in the Word that there can remain no doubt about it among those that have any saving acquaintance with the life and power of Religion This Communion with God is of that precious value with Believers that it unspeakably endears all those Duties and Ordinances to them which as means and instruments are useful to maintain it At death the people of God part with all those precious Ordinances and Duties they being only designed for and fitted to the present state of imperfection Eph. 4.12 13. but not at all to their loss no more than it is to his that loses the light of his candle by the rising of the Sun A Candle a Star is comfortable in the Night but useless when the Sun is up and in it's meridian Glory Christian Pray much hear much and drive as profitable a trade as thou canst among the Ordinances of God and duties of Religion For the time is at hand that you shall serve and wait on God no more this way But yet think not your Souls shall be discharged from all Worship and Service of God when you dye No you will find Heaven to be a Temple built for worship and the worship there to be much transcendent to all that in which you were here employ'd The Sanctuary was a pattern of Heaven in this very respect Heb. 9.23 And on this very account it is called Sion in my Text and the heavenly Ierusalem as denoting a Church-state and the spiritual Worship there performed by the Spirits of just men made perfect Some help we may have to understand the nature thereof by comparing it with that Worship and Service which we perform to God here in this state of imperfection and by considering the agreements and disagreements betwixt them In this they agree that the worship above and below are both addressed and directed to one and the same Object Father Son and Spirit all centers and terminates in God They also agree in the general quality and common Nature they are both spiritual Worship But there are divers remarkable differences betwixt the one and other as will be manifest in the following collation 1. All our Worship on Earth is performed and transacted by Faith as the instrument and mean thereof Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe c. In Heaven Faith ceaseth and sight takes place of it 1 Cor. 5.7 There we see what here we only believe There are now before us Ordinances Scriptures Ministers and the Assemblies of Saints in the places of worship but if we have any communion with God by or among these we must set our selves to believe those things we see not By realizing and applying invisible things we here get sometimes and with no small pains a taste of Heaven and a transient glance of that glory In this service our Faith is put hard to it it must work and fight at once Resolutely act whilst sense and reason stand by contradicting and quarrelling with it And if with much ado we get but one sensible touch of Heaven upon our Spirits if we get a little spiritual warmth and melting of our affections towards God we call that day a good day and it is so indeed But in Heaven all things are carried at an higher rate the joy of the Lord overflows us without any labour or pains of ours to procure it We may say of it there as the Prophet speaks of the dew and showres upon the grass Which tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men
and admit the dreadful conclusion These are the last and therefore oft-times the most violent conflicts The malice of Satan will send them halting to Heaven if he cannot bar them out of it 3 To conclude The hidings of Gods face puts terror into the face of death and makes a dying day a dark and gloomy day All darkness disposes to fear but none like inward darkness They must like a Ship in distress venture into the Harbour in the dark though they see not their Land-marks 2. But others have the priviledge of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easy death a comfortable and sweet passage into glory through the broad gate of assurance 2 Pet. 1.11 Even an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom What a difference doth God make not only betwixt those that have grace and those that have none but betwixt gracious Souls themselves in this matter The things which usually make an easy passage to Heaven are 1 A pardon cleared Isai. 33.24 The Sense of pardon swallows up the sense of pain 2 An heart weaned from this world Heb. 11.9 13 16. An heart loosed from the World is a foot out of the snare Mortified limbs are cut off from the Body with little pain 3 Fervent love to Christ and longings to be with him Philip. 1.23 He that loves Christ fervently must needs loath absence from Christ proportionably 4 Purity and peace of Conscience make a death-bed soft and easie The strains and wounds of Conscience in the time of life are so many Thorns in our Bed or pillow in the time of Death 1 Iohn 3.21 But integrity gives boldness 5 The work of obedience faithfully finished or a steddy course of holiness throughout our life is that which usually yields much peace and joy in death Acts 20.24 6 But above all the presence of the Comforter with us in that cloudy and dark day turns it into one of the days of Heaven 1 Pet. 4.14 And thus you see though all dying Christians be equally safe and all supported and carried through by the power of God yet their farewels to the Body are not alike chearful There are many external and internal circumstantial differences in the deaths of good men as well as a substantial and essential difference betwixt all their deaths and the death of a wicked man QUEST III. Whether any Souls have notices and forewarnings given them by Signs or Predictions in an extraordinary way of their approaching Separation Terms open'd The terms of this Question need a little explanation Let us therefore briefly consider what is meant by signs what by predictions and what by extraordinary signs and predictions A sign is that which represents something else to us than that which is seen Signâ—m est quod aliud repraesentat quam quod cernitur or heard And a sign of death is that which gives notice to our minds that our departure is at hand A Prediction is a forewarning of a person more plainly and expresly of any thing which is afterwards to fall out or come to pass Praedicâ—re est aliquem de re aliqâ—a eventuâ—a praemonere and a prediction of death is an express notice or message informing us of our own or of anothers Death to the end the mind may be actually disposed to an expectation thereof Of Signs some are ordinary and natural some extraordinary and supernatural or at least preternatural There are natural symptoms and prognosticks of Death which are common to most dying persons and by which Physicians inform themselves and others of the state of the Sick These are out of this Question we have nothing to do with them here but I am inquiring after extraordinary signs and predictions by words or things forewarning us immediately or by others of our approaching death The Question is whether such intimations of Death be at any time truly given unto men or whether we are to take them for fabulous reports and superstitious fancies For the Negative Reasons for the Negative the following grounds are laid REASON I. The sufficient ordinary provision God hath made in this case renders all such extraordinary notices and intimations of our Death needless And be sure the most wise God doth nothing in vain We have three standing ordinary and sufficient means to premonish us of our departure hence viz. the Scriptures Reason and daily Examples of Mortality before our eyes The Scriptures tell us our life is but a vapour which appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away James 4.14 That our days are but to an hand breadth and that every man in his best estate is vanity Psal. 39.5 Reason tells us so feeble a tye as our breath is can never secure our lives long The living know that they must dye Eccles. 9.5 The radical moisture which is daily consuming by the flame of life must needs be spent ere long And all the Graves we see opened so frequently are sufficient warnings that we our selves must shortly follow Therefore as there was no need of Manna when bread might be had in an ordinary way so neither is there need of extraordinary signs when God hath abundantly furnished us with standing and ordinary means for this purpose REASON II. And as the Scriptures render such signs needless so they seem to be directly against them Christ commands us to watch because we know not in what hour the Lord cometh Yea even Isaac himself an extraordinary person and endued with a Spirit of Prophecy whereby he foretold the condition of his Sons after him yet it 's said Gen. 27.2 That he knew not the day of his death And it is not reasonable to think that common persons should know that which extraordinary and prophetick persons knew not REASON III. All mankind belong either to God or the Devil To such as belong to God such extraordinary warnings are needless for they have a watchful principle within them which continually prompts them to mind their change and besides death cannot endanger those that are in Christ how suddainly or unexpectedly soever it should befal them And for wicked men it cannot be thought God should favour and priviledg them in this matter above his own children and as for Satan he knows not the time of their death himself and if he did it would thwart his design and interest to discover it to them Luke 11.21 So that upon the whole it should seem such signs and predictions are of no use and the relations and reports of them fabulous But though these reasons make the common and daily use of such signs and predictions needless E contra yet they destroy not the credibility of them in all cases and at all times For I. There are recorded instances in Scripture of premonitions and predictions of the death of persons Thus the death of Abijah was foretold to his Mother by the Prophet and the precise hour thereof which fell out answerably 1 King 14.6 12. And thus the death of the
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
signifying a Messenger or one sent And for the mischief done by Spirits in this World the Scriptures ascribe that to the Devils those unquiet Spirits have their Walks in this World they compass the whole earth and walk up and down in it Iob 1.7 and 1 Pet. 5.8 they can assume any shape yea I doubt not but he can act their Bodies when dead as well as he did their Souls and Bodies when alive how great his power is this way appears in what is so often done by him in the Bodies of Witches They are not ordinarily therefore the Spirits of men but other Spirits that appear to us 2 If God should ordinarily permit the Spirits of men inhabiting the other World a liberty so frequently to visit this what a gap would it open for Satan to beguile and deceive the living Quid enim idololatriam inter Ethnicos Christianos magis propagavit Hinc fluxâ—runt multae perigrinationes monasteria delubra dits festi alia Lav. In Job 33. What might he not by this means impose upon weak and credulous Mortals There hath been a great deal of Superstition and Idolatry already introduced under this pretence he hath often personated Saints departed and pretended himself to be the Ghost of some venerable person whose love to the Souls of the people and care for their Salvation drew him from Heaven to reveal some special Secret to them Swarms of Errors and superstitious and idolatrous Opinions and Practices are this way conveyed by the tricks and artifices of Satan among the Papists which I will not blot my Paper withal only I desire it may be considered that if this were a thing so frequently permitted by God as is pretended upon what dangerous terms had he left his Church in this World seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another or a true Messenger from Heaven from a counterfeit and pretended one But God hath tied us to the sure and standing rule of his Word forbidding us to give heed to any other voice or spirit leading us another way Isa. 8.19 2 Thes. 2.1 2. Gall. 1.8 It was therefore a discreet reply which one of the Ancients made when in Prayer a Vision of Christ appeared to him and told him Thy Prayers are heard for thou art worthy The good man immediately clapt his hands upon his eyes and said Nolo hic videre Christum c. I will not see Christ here it is enough for me that I shall behold him in Heaven To conclude My Opinion upon the whole matter is this that although it cannot be denied but in some grand and extraordinary cases as at the transfiguration and Resurrection of Christ. God did and perhaps sometimes though rarely may order or permit departed Souls to return into this World yet for the most part I judge those Apparitions are not the Souls of the Dead but other Spirits and for the most part evil ones Lib. de cura pro mortuis Of this Judgment was St. Augustine who when he had at full related the Story above of the Fathers Ghost directing his Son to the Acquittance yet will not allow it to be the very soul of his Father but an Angel where he farther adds If saith he the souls of the dead might be present in our affairs they would not forsake us in this sort especially my Mother Monica who in her life could never be without me surely she would not thus leave me being dead Object 1. Objection 1. But it was pleaded before that we allow the Apparitions of Angels and departed Souls if they be not Angels at least are equal unto Angels and in respect of their late relation to us are more propense to help us than Spirits of another sort can be supposed to be Sol. Solution It seems too bold an imposing upon Soveraign Wisdom to tell him what Messengers are fittest for him to send and imploy in his service who hath taught him or been his Counsellor Object 2. Object 2. But these offices seem to pertain properly to them as they are not only fellow-members but the most excellent members of the mystical Body to whom it belongs to assist the meaner and weaker Sol. Sol. If there be any force of reason in this Plea it carries it rather for the Angels than for departed Souls for Angels are gather'd under the same common head with the Saints the Text tells us we are come to an innumerable company of Angels they and the Saints are fellow Citizens and we know they are a more noble order of Spirits and as for their love to the Elect it is exceeding great as great to be sure as the departed Souls of our dearest Relatives can be For after death they sustain no more civil Relations to us all that they do sustain is as fellow members of the same body or fellow Citizens which Angels also are as well as they Object 3. Object But saith the Doctor the reason why all Nations pay so great honour and religious care to the Wills of the Dead is a supposition that they still continue in the same mind after death and will avenge the Falsifications of Trusts upon injurious Executors else no reason can be given why so great a stress should be laid upon the Will of the Dead Sol. Sol. This is gratis dictum to say no worse a cheap and unwary expression can no reason be given for the religious observance of the Testaments of the dead but this Supposition I deny it for though they that made them be dead yet God who is witness to all such acts and trusts liveth and though they cannot avenge the frauds and injustice of men he both can and will do it 1 Thes. 4.6 which I think is a weightier ground and reason to inforce duty upon men than the fear of Ghosts Besides This is a case wherein all the living are concerned all that die must commit a trust to them that survive and if frauds should be committed with impunity who could safely repose confidence in another Quod tangit omnes tangi debet ab omnibus that which is of general concernment and becomes every mans interest infers a general Obligation upon all As for the Letters of Elijah 't is a Vanity to think they came Post from Heaven no no they were doubtless left behind him out of due care to the Government and produced in that fit occasion Object 4. Object 4. But what need of a Law to prohibit Necromancy or consultation with the Dead if it were not practicable Sol. Sol. I do not think the wicked art there prohibited enabled them to recal departed Souls but it was a conversing with the Devil who personated the dead and therein a kind of homage was paid him to the dishonour of God or he might possibly raise the Bodies of wicked men and appear in them but I think the Spirits of the dead return not
ea alter videat nisi ejus voluntas si enim ea nolit ab altero resciri Nunquam nisi Deo reâ—â—ilante rescientur Zanch. ubi supra but Angels and the Spirits of men having no Bodies consequently have but one door to wit that of the Will to open and the opening thereof which is done by one act or desire in a moment is enough to discover so much of their minds as they would have discovered to another Spirit If they keep the door of their Will shut no Angel or Spirit can know what is in their thoughts without a Revelation from God and if they but will or desire others should know no words can so fully manifest one mans mind to another as such an act of the will doth manifest theirs And this saith learned Zanchy is the Tongue of Angels and the same way the Spirits of men have to make known their minds in the unbodied state It is but the turning of the Key of the Will and their thoughts or desires are presently seen and known by others to whom they will discover them as a mans face is seen in a glass when he pleaseth to turn his face to it Would one Spirit make known his mind to another it is but to will he should know it and it is immediately known §. 4. This Internal way of speaking and Communication among Spirits is much more noble perfect and excellent than that which is in use among us by words and signs and that in two respects viz. in respect 1. Of clearness in respect 2. Of dispatch and speed 1. Spiritual Language is more clearly expressive of the mind and thoughts than words writings or any other External signs can be The greatest Masters of Language do often cloud their meaning for want of words fit and full enough to express it truth suffers by the Poverty and Ambiguity of words many Controversies are but meer strifes about words and scufflings in the dark by the mistakes of each others sense and meaning few have the ability of putting their own meanings into apt proper and full expressions and if they can yet others to whom they speak want an answerable ability of understanding and clearness of apprehension to receive it If we could discern the true and natural sense of things just as it is in the mind of the Speaker or Writer How many Controversies would be thereby quickly ended But Spirits unbodied so conveigh their sense and mind to one another that there can be no mistakes no darkning of Counsel by words without knowledge but one receives it just as it lies in the others mind 2. Spiritual Language is more easie and of quicker dispatch Some men have voluble Tongues and are much more ready and presential than others their Tongues are as the Pen of a ready Scribe and others no less ready with their hands which keep pace with yea out-run the Tongue of the Speaker as Martial notes Martial Epig. lib. 14. Ep. 176. Currant verba licet manus est velocior illis Nondum lingua suum dextra peregit opus Yet all this is but bungling work to the ready dispatch of Spirits one act of the Will opens the Window to discern the mind of another clearly so that the converse of Spirits must needs be more excellent in both respects than any we are accustomed to or acquainted with in this World I will shut up this Question with One COROLLARY Long to be associated with the Spirits of just men made perfect You that are going to joyn that blessed Assembly will even in this respect gain an invaluable advantage 'T is true there is much of comfort in the present Converses of embodied and imperfect Saints 't is sweet to fast and pray to sigh and groan together 't is sweeter to rejoyce and praise our God together 'T is sweet to talk of Heaven with our faces thitherward but alas what is this to the converses that are among the Spirits of just men made perfect With what melting hearts have we sometimes sate under the doctrine of the Gospel How have our ears been chained with delight to the Preacher's lips whilst he hath been discoursing of those ravishing subjects Christ and Heaven But alas How dry and dull a thing is the best of this to the language of Heaven Three things debase and spoil the communications of the Saints on Earth viz. the darkness dulness and frothiness thereof 1. The darkness and ignorance of our understanding How crude weak and indigested are our highest and purest notions of spiritual things We speak of them but as children 1 Cor. 13.11 For alas the vail is yet upon our faces The Body of sin and the Body of flesh cast a very dark shadow upon the world to come But the apprehensions of separated Souls are most bright and clear This darkness begets mistakes mistakes beget so many quarrels and janglings that our fellowship on earth loseth at once both its profit and pleasure 2. There is much dulness and deadness accompanying the Communion of Saints on earth abundance of precious time is wasted among us in unprofitable silence and when we engage in discourses of Heaven that discourse is often little better than silence Our words freeze betwixt our lips and we speak not with that concernedness and warmth of Spirit which suits with such subjects It is not so among our brethren above their affections are at the highest peg giving glory to God in the highest 3. To conclude in the discourses of the best men on Earth there is too much froth and vanity Many words like water run away at the wast spout but there God is the Centre in which all terminates O therefore let us long to be among the unbodied people This World will never suit us with companions in all things agreeable to the desires of our hearts The best company are got together in the upper room an hour there is better than an Age below What ever fellowship Saints leave on earth they shall be sure to find better in Heaven QUERIE VI. Whether the separated Souls of the just in Heaven do incline to a re-union with their own Bodies and how that re-union is at last effected That these blessed Souls have no such inclination or desire these reasons seem to perswade 1. That their Bodies whilst they lived in them were no better than so many Prisons Many were the prejudices damages and miseries they sustained and suffered in them Animam conceptu suo obstruit obscurat concretione carnis inâ—aecat unde illi velut per carneum specular obsoletior lux verum est Proculdubio cum vi mortus exprimitur de concretione carnis ipsa expressione colatur certè de oppanso corporis â—râ—mpit in apertam ad meram puram suam lucem Tertul. de Anima It kept them at an uncomfortable distance from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 Their bemoaning cries spake their uneasie state How often hath every gracious Soul
in se Peccata expurgat sanguine cuncta suo Horribilis mors est Fateor sed proxima vita est Ad quam te Christi gratia certa vocat Praesto est de Satana peccato morte triumphans Christus ad hunc igitur laeta alacrisque migra Which may be thus translated Cold death my heart invades my life doth flie O Christ my everlasting life draw nigh Why quiver'st thou my soul within my Breast Thine Angel's come to lead thee to thy rest Quit chearfully this drooping house of clay God will restore it in the appointed day Has't sinn'd I know it let not that be urg'd For Christ thy sins with his own blood hath purg'd Is death affrighting True but yet withal Consider Christ through death to life doth call He triumphs over Satan sin and Death Therefore with joy resign thy dying breath Much in the same chearful frame was the heart of dying Bullinger when his mournful friends expressed their sense of the loss they should sustain by his reâ—â—val Si Deo visum fuerit mea opera ulterius in Ecclesia ministerio uti ipse vires suffiâ—iet libens illi parebo sin me voluerit quod opto ex hac vita evocare paratus sum illius voluntati obsequi ac nihil est quod jâ—cundius possit mihi contingere quam ex hoc misero corruptissimo seculo ad Christum Servatorem mâ—um migrare idem ibid. Why said he If God will make any farther use of my labours in the Ministry he will renew my strength and I will gladly serve him But if he please as I desire he would to call me hence I am ready to obey his Will and nothing more pleasant can befal me than to leave this sinful and miserable World to go to my Saviour Christ. O that all who are out of the danger of death were thus got out of the dread of death too Let them only tremble and be convuls'd at the thoughts and sight of death whose Souls must fall into the hands of a sin-revenging God by the stroke of death who are to breathe out their last hope with their last breath Death is yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.22 your Friend your Priviledge your passage to Heaven 't is your ignorance of it which breeds your fears about it Inference II. GAther from hence the absolute indispensable necessity of your Vnion with Christ before your dissolution by death Wo to that Soul which shall be separated from its Body before it be united with Christ none but the Spirits of just men are made perfect at death Righteous Souls are the only qualified Subjects of blessedness 'T is true every Soul hath a natural capacity of happiness but gracious Souls only have an actual meetness for glory The Scriptures tell us in round and plain words that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12.14 that except we be regenerate and born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 You make the greatest adventure that ever was made by man indeed an adventure infinitely too great for any man to make when you shoot the Gulph of vast eternity upon terms of hazard and uncertainty What thinkest thou Reader darest thou adventure thy Soul and eternal happiness upon it that the work of Regeneration and Sanctification that very same work of Grace which the Spirit of God hangs all thy hopes of Heaven upon in these Scriptures is truly wrought by him in thy Soul Consider it well pause upon it again and again before thou go forth Should a mistake be committed here and nothing is more easie or common all the World over than such mistakes thou art irrecoverably gone This venture can be made but once and the miscarriage is never to be retrieved afterwards thou hast not another Soul to adventure nor a second adventure to make of this Well might the Apostle Peter call for all diligence to make our calling and our election sure That can never be made too sure which is so invaluable in its worth and to be but once adventured Inference III. HOw prejudicial is it to dying men to be then encumbered diverted and distracted about earthly concernments when the time of their departure is at hand The business and imployment of dying persons is of so vast importance and weight that every moment of their time need to be carefully saved and applied to this their present and most important concern How well soever you have improved the time of life believe it you will find work enough upon your hands at death dying hours will be found to be busie and laborious hours even to the most painful serious and industrious Souls whose life hath been mostly spent in preparations for death Leave not the proper business of other days to that day for that day will have business enough of its own Sufficient for that day are the labours thereof Let a few Considerations be pondered to clear and confirm this Inference Consideration I. The business and imployment of dying persons is of the most serious awful and solemn nature and importance it is their last preparatory work on earth to their immediate appearance before God their Judge Heb. 9.27 It is their shooting the Gulph into eternity and leaving this World and all their acquaintance and interests therein for ever Isai. 28.11 It is therefore a Work by it self to die a Work requiring the most intense deep and undisturbed exercises of all the Abilities and Graces of the inner man and all little enough Consideration II. Timâ— is exceeding precious with dying men the last sand is ready to fall and therefore not to be wasted as it was wont to be When we had a fair prospect of many years before us we made little account of an hour or day but now one of those hours which we so carelessly lavished away is of more value than all this World to us especially if the whole weight of eternity should hang upon it as often times it doth then the loss of that portion of time is the loss of Soul Body and hope for evermore Consideration III. Much of that little precious time of departing Souls will be unavoidably taken up and imployed about the inexcusable pressing calls and necessities of distressed nature all that you can do for your Souls must then be done only by fits and snatches in the midst of many disturbances and frequent interruptions So that it is rarely found that a dying man can pursue a serious Meditation with calm and fixed thoughts for besides the pains and faintings of the Body the Abilities of the mind usually fail Here also they fall into a sad Dilemma if they do not with utmost intention of mind fix their hearts and thoughts on Christ they lose their comfort if godly and their Souls if ungodly and if they do Friends and Physicians assure them they will destroy their Bodies These are the straits of men bordering close upon eternity they must hastily
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
and the body too in the chase and prosecution of Truth Veritas in putâ—â— when it lyes deep as a subterranean treasure the mind sends out innumerable thoughts re-inforcing each other in thick successions to dig for and compass that invaluable treasure if it be disguised by misrepresentations and vulgar prejudice and trampled in the dirt under that disguise there is an ability in the mind to discern it by some lines and features which are well known to it and both owne honour and vindicate it under all that dirt and obloquy with more respect than a man will take up a pâ—ece of Gold or a sparkling Dâ—amond out of the gutter it searches after it by many painful deductions of reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Archim and triumphs more in the discovery of it than in all earthly treasures no gratification of sense like that of the mind when it grasps its prey for which it hunted The mind passes through all the works of Creation it views the several creatures on earth considers the fabrick use and beauty of Animals the signatures of Plants penetrating thereby into their Nature and Virtues it views the vast Ocean and the large train of Causes laid together in all these things for the good of man by God whose Name it reads in the most diminutive creature it beholds on earth It can in a moment mount it self from Earth to Heaven view the face thereof describe the motions of the Sun in the Ecliptick calculate Tables for the motions of the Planets and fixed Stars invent convenient Cycles for the computations of Time foretel at a great distance the dismal Eclipses of the Sun and Moon to the very Digâ—â— and the â—ortentous Conjunctions of the Planets to the very minute of their Ingress these are the pleasant imployments of the Understanding But there is an higher game at which this Eagle plays it reckons it self all thiâ—â—â—â—â—ile imploy'd as much beneath its capacity as Domitian in catching flies though these be lawful and pleasant exercises when it hath leisure for them yet it is fitted for a much nobler exercise even to penetrate the glorious Mysteries of Redemption to trace redeeming love through all the astonishing methods and manifold discoveries of it and yet higher than all this it is capable of an immediate sight or facial vision of the blessed God short of which it receives no pleasure that is fully agreeable to its noble powers and infinite appetite View its Will and you shall find it like a Queen upon the Throne of the Soul swaying the Scepter of Liberty in her hand Culverwell as one expresseth it with all the affections waiting and attending upon her No Tyrant can force it no torment can wrest the golden Scepter of Liberty out of its hand the keys of all the Chambers of the Soul hang at its girdle these it delivers to Christ in the day of his power victorious Grace sweetly determines it by gaining its consent but commits no rape upon it by unnatural coaction God accepts its offering though full of imperfections but no service is accepted without it how excellent soever the matter of it View the Conscience and Thoughts with their self-reflexive abilities wherein the Soul retires into it self and sits concealed from all eyes but his that made it judging its own actions and censuring its estate viewing its face in its own glass and correcting the indecencies it discovers there Things of greatest moment and importance are silently transacted in this Council-chamber betwixt the Soul and God so remote from the knowledge of all Creatures that neither Angels 1 Cor. 2.11 Devils or men can know what it is doing there but by uncertain guess or revelation from God here it impleads Rom. 2.15 condemns and acquits it self as at a privy Session with respect to the Judgment of the great Day here it meets with the best of comforts 2 Cor. 1.12 and with the worst of terrors Take a survey of its Passions and Affections and you will find them admirable see how they are placed by Divine Wisdom in the Soul some for defence and safety others for delight and pleasure Anger actuates the Spirits and rouzeth its courage enabling it to break through difficulties Fear keeps Sentinel watching upon all dangers that approach us Hope forestals the good and anticipates the joys of the next Life and thereby supports and strengthens the Soul under all the discouragements and pressures of the present life Love unites it to the chiefest Good he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Zeal is the Dagger which love draws in Gods cause and quarrel to secure it self from sin and testifie its resentments of Gods dishonour O what a Divine spark is the Soul of man well might Christ prefer it in dignity to the whole World 3. Thirdly The worth of a Soul may be gathered and discerned from its subjective capacity and hability both of Grace and Glory It is capable of all the graces of the Spirit of being silled with the fulness of God Eph. 3.19 to live to God here and with God for ever What excellent Graces do adorn some Souls How are all the rooms richly hanged with Divine and costly Hangings that God may dwell in them This makes it like the carved works of the Temple overlaid with pure Gold here is Glory upon Glory a new Creation upon the old in the inmost parts of some Souls is a spiritual Altar erected with this Inscription Holiness to the Lord Here the Soul offers up it self to God in the sacred flames of Love and here they sacrifice their vile affections devoting them to destruction to the glory of their God here God walks with delight even a delight beyond what he takes in all the stately Structures and magnificent adorned Temples in the whole World Isa. 66.1 2. No other Soul besides mans is marriageable to Christ or capable of Espousals to the King of Glory they were not designed and therefore not endued with a capacity for such an honour as this but such a capacity hath every Soul even the meanest on Earth and such honour have all his Saints others may 2 Cor. 11.2 Eph. 5.27 but they are betrothed to Christ in this World and shall be presented without spot before him in the World to come It is now a lovely and excellent Creature in its naked natural state much more beautiful and excellent in its sanctified and gracious state but what shall we say or how shall we conceive of it when all spots of sin are perfectly washed off its beautiful face in Heaven and the glory of the Lord is risen upon it When its filthy garments are taken away and the pure robes of perfect Holiness as well as Righteousness superinduced upon this excellent Creature If the imperfect beauty of it begun in Sanctification enamouâ—ed its Saviour and made him say Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one of the
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
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
Neighbourhood and yet saith I believe the grace and fear of God was in him for when he heard any to swear or take the Name of God in vain he would throw stones at them and shew his indignation against sin by all the signs he could make 2. You that are so grosly ignorant in the matters of your Salvation are many of you very knowing prudent and subtle persons in the affairs of the world Luke 16.8 The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light Had those parts which you have been improved and heightned by study and observation about spirituals as they have been about earthly things you had neither been so ignorant or dead-hearted as you are you might have been as well verst in your Bibles as you are in the Almanacks you yearly buy and study you might have understood the proper seasons of Salvation as well as of Husbandry The great and necessary points on which your Salvation depends are not so many or so abstruse and intricate but your plain and inartificial heads might have understood them and that with less pains than you have been at for your bodies What though you cannot comprehend the subtleties of Shoolmen you may apprehend the Essentials of Christianity If you cannot strictly and scholastically define Faith what hinders if your hearts were set upon Christ and Salvation but you may feel it which is more than many learned men do that can define and dispute about it You cannot put an Argument in Mood and Figure no matter if you can by comparing your Bibles and hearts together draw savingly and experimentally this conclusion I am in Christ and my sins are pardoned You cannot determine whether Faith goes before Repentance or Repentance before Faith but for all that you might feel both the one and the other upon your own Souls which is infinitely better 'T is not therefore your incapacity but negligence and worldiness that is your ruine 3. How many are there of your own rank order and education all whose external advantages and helps you have and all your incumbrances and discouragements they had who yet have attain'd to an excellent degree of saving knowledge and heavenly wisdom How often have I heard such spiritual savoury experimental Truths in Conference and Prayer from plain Rusticks such spiritual Reasonings about the great concerns of Salvation such judicious and satisfying resolutions of Cases depending upon the sensible and experimental part of Religion as hath humbled convinced and shamed me and made me say Surgunt indocti c. these are the men that will take Heaven from the proud and scornful Ingeniosi of the World not many wise not many learned and acute many knowing and learned heads are in Hell and many illiterate and weak ones gone to Heaven and others in the way thither who never had better education stronger parts or more leisure than your selves so that you are without excuse 4. To conclude Would you heartily seek it of God and would the Spirit which he hath promised to give them that ask him become your Teacher how soon would the light of the saving knowledge of God in the face of Christ shine into your hearts No matter how ignorant dull and weak the Scholar be if God once become the Teacher You are not able to purchase or want time to read many Books but if once you were sanctified persons the anointing you would receive from the Father would teach you all things 1 Ioh. 2.27 your own hearts would serve you for a Commentary upon a great part of the Bible it would make you of a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord one drop of your knowledge would be more worth than all learned Arts and Sciences in the world to you And is God so far from you and his illuminating Spirit at such a distance that there is no hope for you to find him Is there never a private corner about your Houses or Barns or in the fields where you can turn aside if it be but a quarter of an hour at a time to pour out your Souls to God and beg the Spirit of him Miserable Wretch is thy whole life such a cumber and clatter of cares and puzzles about the World that thou hast no leisure to mind God Soul or Eternity O doleful state the Lord in mercy pity and awaken thee Wilt thou not once strive and struggle to save thy Soul What perish as it were by consent how great then is thy blindness The third way to Hell discovered Quam frigida jejuna sit eorum desensio qui exemplo c. potentiorum se tutos pu 〈…〉 Jun. Paâ—â—â— lib. 2. III. A vast multitude of precious Souls are lost for ever by following the Examples and being carried away with the course of this World 'T is indeed a poor excuse a silly Argument that the multitude do as we do yet as Iunius rightly observes Mens Consciences take Sanctuary here and they think themselves safe in it for thus they reason If I do as the generality do Argumentum turpissimum est turba Seneca I shall speed no worse than they speed and certainly God is more merciful than to suffer the greatest part of Mankind to perish they resolve to follow the beaten road let it lead whither it will Thus the Ephesians in their unregenerate state walked according to the course of this world Eph. 2.2 and the Corinthians were carried away unto dumb Idols even as they were led 1 Cor. 12.2 just as a drop of water is carried and moved according to the course and current of the Tide For look as every drop of water in the Sea is of one and the same common nature so are all carnal and unsanctified persons and as these waters being collected into one vast body in the Ocean unite their strength and make a strong current this way or that so doth the whole collective body of the unregenerate World all the particular drops move as the Tide moveth Hence they are said to have received the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2.12 one common Spirit or Principle acts and rules them all and therefore they must needs be carried away in the same course And there are two special considerations that seem to determine them by a kind of necessity to do as the multitude do the one is that they find it the easiest and most commodious way to the flesh here they meet with quietness and safety hereby they are exempt from reproaches losses persecutions and distresses for Conscience sake rest is sweet and here only they think to find it The other is the prejudice of singularity and manifold tribulations they see that little handful that walk counter to the course of the World involved in this startles them from their company and fixes them where they are Against such sensible Arguments it is to no more purpose to oppose spritual Considerations motives drawn from the safety of the Soul
or importance of Eternity than it is for a man to turn the Tide or course of a River with his weak breath Add to this Nemo errat sibi ipsi sed dementiam spargit in proximos Sen. That as one sinner confirms and fixeth another wedging in each other as men in a crowd who must move as it moves so they make it their business to render all that differ from them odious and ridiculous So the Apostle notes their practice and Satans policy in it 1 Pet. 4.4 wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them into the same excess of riot speaking evil of you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they gaze strangely at them as the Hen that hath hatched Partridge-eggs looks strangely after them when she seeth them take the wing and soar aloft not knowing that they are of an higher kind than her own Chickens And that is not all they not only gaze at them as a strange generation making them signs and wonders in Israel as the Prophet speaks but they defame revile and speak evil of them representing them as a pack of Hypocrites as turbulent factious seditious persons the very pests of the times and places they live in and all this not for doing any evil against them but only for not doing evil with them because they run not with them into the same excess of riot Thus the World smiles upon its own and derides those that are afraid to follow them to Hell by which it sweeps away the multitude with it in the same course The third way to Hell shut up But O if the Spirit of God would please to set on and follow home the following Considerations to your hearts you would certainly resolve to take a persecuted path to Heaven though few accompany you therein rather than to swim like dead fishes with the stream into the dead Sea of eternal misery 1. Though you go with the consent and current of the World yet you go against the express Law and prohibition of God He hath laid his command upon you not to be conformed to the world Rom. 12.2 That you live not the rest of your time to the lusts of men but to the will of God 1 Pet. 4.2 That you follow not a multitude to do evil Exod. 23.2 That you go not in the way of evil men Prov. 4.14 That you have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness All these and many more are commands flowing from the highest Soveraign Authority obliging your Consciences to obedience under the greatest penalties by them your state must be cast to all Eternity in the Day of Judgment you may make a pish of the precept but see if you can do so of the penalty 2. Other men in all Ages of the World that were as much concerned in the World as you and valued their lives liberties and estates as well as you have yet got out of the crowd disengaged themselves from the way of the multitude and taken a more solitary and suffering path out of a due regard to the safety of their Souls And why should not you love them as well and care for them as much as ever any that went before you did Noah walked with God all alone when all flesh had corrupted their ways Elijah was zealous for the Lord when he knew of none to stand by him but thought he had been left alone Iob was upright with God in the Land of Vz. Lot stood by himself a godly Non-conformist in a vile debauched Sodom David was as a wonder to many so was Ieremiah and those few with him for signs and wonders in Israel I demand of your Consciences what discouragements have you that these men had not Or what encouragements had they which you have not Why should not the Salvation of your Souls be as precious in your eyes as it was in any of theirs Shall you be impoverished and persecuted if you embrace the way of Holiness so were they Shall you be reproached scorned and reviled so were they All your discouragements were theirs and all their motives and encouragements are yours 3. Is not the way which you have chosen marked out by Christ as the way to destruction And that which you dare not chuse and embrace as the way to life See the marks he hath given you of both in that one Text Matt. 7.13 14. Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it And where now is your encouragement and hope that God will be more merciful than to damn so great a part of the World If you will do as the Many do dream not of speeding as well as that little flock separated by Sanctification from the multitude shall speed You have your choice to be damned with many or saved with few to take the broad smooth-beaten road to Hell or the difficult suffering self-denying path to Heaven O then make a seasonable necessary stand and pause a while consider your ways and turn your feet to Gods testimonies 't is a great and special part of your Salvation to save your selves from this untoward generation The fourth way of losing the Soul opened IV. Multitudes of Souls are daily lost by rooted Habits and long continued Custom in sin When men have been long setled in an evil way they are difficultly reclaimed Physicians find it hard to cure a Cachexy or ill habit of body but it 's far more difficult to cure an ill custom and habit in sin Ier. 13.23 Can the Leopard change his spoes or the Ethiopian his skin then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil The spots of a Leopard and hue of an Ethiopian are not by way of external accidental adhesion if so washing would fetch them off but they are innate and contemper'd belonging to the constitution and not to be alter'd so are sinful habits and customs in the minds of sinners by this means it becomes a second Nature as it were and strongly determines the mind to sin Aâ—tâ—neris assuescero multum est It 's a great matter to be accustomed this way or that saith Senceca yea Caput rei est hoc vel illo modo hominem assuefieri 'T is the very head or root of the matter to be so or so accustomed saith Aristotle very much of the strength of sin rises from customary sinning a brand that hath been once in the fire easily catches the second time Every repeated act of sin lesseneâ—h fear and strengtheneth inclination An Horse that took an ill stroke at first breaking and hath continued many years in it is very difficulty if ever to be brought to a better way What men have been accustomed to from their childhood they are tenacious of it in their old age Hence it is that so
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
without Plea or Apology for your supine neglects of the seasons of Salvation Argument II. SEcondly The consideration of the uncertainty and slippery nature of these spiritual seasons must awaken in us all care and diligence to secure and improve them This nick of opportunity is tempus labile a slippery season it is but short in it self and very uncertain To day whilst it is said to day saith the Apostle if ye will hear his voice Heb. 3.15 q. d. you have now a short uncertain but most precious and valuable season for your Souls lay hold on it whilst it is called to day for if this season be let slip the time to come is called by another name that is not to day but to morrow Your time is the present time take heed of procrastinating and putting it off till that which is called to day which is your only season be past and gone This precious inch of time though it be more worth than all the other greater parts and portions of your time yet it is as much in fluxu in hasty motion and expence as other parts of time are and being once lost is never more to be recalled or recovered Few men know or understand it whilst it is current other seasons for natural or civil actions are known and stated but the time of Grace is not so easily discerned and therefore commonly mistaken and lost and this comes to pass partly through 1. Presumptuous Hopes 2. Discouraging Fears 1. Presumptuous Hopes which put it too far forth and perswade us this season is yet to come that we have before us Praesumendo sperant sperando perâ—unt and that to morrow shall be as to day Thus through presumption men hope and by their presumptuous hopes they perish this is the ruine of most Souls that perish 2. Discouraging Fears put it too far back and represent it as long since past and gone whilst it is yet in being and in our hands By such pangs of desperation Satan cuts the very nerves of industry and diligence and causes Souls to yield themselves as by consent for lost and hopeless even whilst the Gospel is opening their eyes to see their sin and misery which is a part of the work in order to their recovery Thus the eyes of thousands are dazled that they cannot discern the season of Mercy and so it slides from them as if it had never been God came near them in the means of their Conversion yea and nearer than that in the motions of his Spirit upon their Consciences and Affections but they knew not the time of their visitation and now the things of their peace are hidden from their eyes Had those Convictions been obeyed and those purposes that were begotten in their hearts been followed home by answerable executions of them happy had they been to all Eternity but their careless neglects have quenched them and the door is shut and who knows whether it may be opened any more O dally not with the Spirit of God resist not his calls his motions upon the Soul are tender things they may soon be quenched and never recovered Argument III. NEglect not the seasons of Mercy the day of Grace because opportunity facilitates the great work of your Salvation it is much easier to be done in such a season than it can be afterwards an impression is easily made upon wax when it is melted but stay a while till it be hardned and if you lay the greatest weight upon the seal it leaves not its impress upon it Much so it is with the heart there is a season when God makes it soft and yielding when the affections are thawed and melted under the Word Conscience is full of sense and activity the will pliable now is the time to set in with the motions of the Spirit there is now a gale from Heaven if you will take it and if not it tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men Neglect of the season is the loss of the Soul The heart like melted wax will naturally harden again and then to how little purpose are your own feeble essays Heb. 3.15 't is both easie and successful striving when the Spirit of God strives in you and with you you are now workers together with God and such work goes on smoothly and sweetly that which is in motion is easily moved but if once the heart be set you may tug to little purpose Argument IV. THE infinite importance and weight of Salvation is alone instead of all motives and arguments to make men prize and improve every proper season for it It is no ordinary concern it is your life yea it is your eternal life The solemnity and awfulness of such a business as this is enough to swallow up the spirit of a man O what an awful found have such words as these Ever with the Lord Suppose you saw the Glory of Heaven the full reward of all the labours and sufferings of the Saints the blessed harvest of all their prayers tears diligence and self-denial in this world or suppose you had a true representation of the Torments of Hell and could but hear the wailings of the damned for the neglect of the season of Mercy and their passionate but vain wishes for one of those days which they have lost would you think any care any pains any self-denial too much to save and redeem one of these opportunities Surely you would have a far higher estimation of them than ever you had in your lives A Tryal for a mans whole Estate is accounted a solemn business among men the Cast of a Dye for a mans life is a weighty action and seldom done without anxiety of the mind and trembling of the hand yet both these are but Childrens Play compared with Salvation-work Three things put an unspeakable solemnity upon this matter it is the precious Soul which is above all valuation that lies at stake and is to be saved or lost The saving or losing of it is not for a time but for ever and this is the only season in which it will be eternally saved or cast away all hangs upon a little inch of time which being over-slipt and lost is never more to be recalled or recovered Lord with what serious spirits deep and weighty consideration fears and tremblings of heart should men and women attend the seasons of their Salvation Believe it Reader since thy Soul projected its first thought there never was a more weighty and concerning subject than this presented to thy thoughts O therefore let not thy thoughts trifle about it and slide from it as they use to do in other things of common concernment Argument V. IF we set any value upon the true pleasure of life or solid comforâ— of our Souls at death let us by no means neglect the special seasons and opportunities of Salvation we now enjoy These two things the pleasure of life and comfort in death should be prized by every
man more than his two eyes certainly no Being at all is more desirable than a Being without these take away the true spiritual pleasure of life and you level the life of man with the beast that perisheth and take away the hope and comfort of the Soul in death and you sink him infinitely below the beast and make him a Being only capable of misery for ever Now there can be no true spiritual pleasure found in that Soul that hath neglected and lost his only season of Salvation all the solid delight and comfort of life results from the settlement and security of a mans great concern in the proper season thereof The true mirth of the converted Prodigal bears date from the time of his return and reconciliation to his Father Luke 15.24 Two things are absolutely prerequisite to the comfort of life viz. a change of the state by Justification and a change of the frame and temper of the heart by Sanctification To be in a pardoned state is matter of all joy Matt. 9.2 and to be spiritually minded is life and peace Rom. 8.6 no good news comes to any man before this and no bad news can sink a mans heart after this And for hope and comfort in death let none be so fond to expect it till his Soul have first complied with and obeyed the Call of God in the time thereof a careless life never did nor ever will produce a comfortable death What is more common among all that dye not stupid and sensless as well as unregenerate and Christless than the bitter dolorous complaints of their mis-spent time and losing their season of Mercy Reader if thou wouldst not feel that anguish thou hast seen and heard others to be in upon this account know the time of thy visitation and finish thy great work whilst it is day Argument VI. NEglect no season of Salvation which is graciously afforded you because your time is short Death and Eternity are at the door You know that you must shortly put off these Tabernacles 2 Pet. 1.13 14. that when a few years are come you shall go the way whence you shall not return Iob 16.22 All the living are listed Souldiers and must conflict hand to hand with that dreadful Enemy Death and there is no discharge in that War Eccles. 8.8 It will be in vain to say you are not willing to dye for willing or unwilling away you must go when Death calls you It will be as vain to say you are not ready for ready or unready you must be gone when Death comes your readiness to dye would indeed be a Cordial to your hearts in death but then you must improve and ply the time of life and husband your opportunities diligently carelesness of life and readiness for death are inconsistent and exclusive of each other the Bed is sweeter to none than to the hard Labourer and the Grave comfortable to none but the laborious Christian you know nothing can be done by you after death the Compositum is then dissolved you cease to be what you were to enjoy the means you had and to work as you did O therefore slip not the only season you have both of attaining the end of life and escaping the danger and hour of death The VSE I shall close all with a word of Exhortation perswading if it be possible the careless and unthinking Neglecters of their precious Time and Souls to awaken out of that deep and dangerous security in which they lye fast asleep upon the very brink of Eternity and to day whilst it is yet called to day to hear the Voice of God calling them to Repentance and Faith and thereby to Christ and everlasting Blessedness Behold he yet standeth at the door and knocks Rev. 3.20 the door of Hope is not yet finally shut there are yet some stirrings at certain times in mens Consciences God comes near them in his Word and in some rouzing acts of Providence the death of a near Relation the seizure of a dangerous Disease the blasting and disappointment of a mans great Design and Project for this World a fall into some notorious Sin these and many such like Methods of Providence as well as the convincing voice of the Word have the efficacy of an awaking voice to mens drowsie Consciences and if careless Sinners would but attend to them and follow home those motions they make upon their hearts who knows to what these weak beginnings might arise and prosper The Souls of men are as it were imbarked in the Calls of God your life is bound up in them if these be lost your Souls are lost if these abide upon you and grow up to sound Conversion you are saved by them More particularly consider 1. What a mercy it is to have your Lot providentially cast under the Gospel To be born under and bred up with the means and instruments of Conversion and Salvation We have lived from our youth up under the Calls of God and within the joyful sound of the Gospel God hath not dealt so with other Nations Psal. 147.20 Though others should seek the means of life they cannot find them and though you seek them not you can hardly miss them 2. How great a mercy is it to have your lives lengthened out hitherto by the patience of God under the Gospel That neither that golden Lamp nor the Lamp of your life both which are liable to be extinguished every moment are yet put out Thousands and ten thousands your Contemporaries are gone out of the hearing of the voice of the Gospel they shall never hear another Call the Treaty of God is ended with them the Master of the house is risen up and the doors are shut Your neglects and provocations have not been inferiour to theirs but the patience and goodness of God hath exceeded and abounded to you beyond whatever it did to them 3. Bethink your selves what an aggravation of your misery it will be to sink into Hell with the Calls of God sounding in your ears to sink into eternal misery betwixt the tender out-stretched arms of Mercy this is the Hell of Hell the Emphasis of Damnation the racking Engine on which the Consciences of the damned are tortured And thou Capernaum which art exalted to heaven shalt be brought down to hell Matt. 11.23 Such a fall after so high an exaltation is the very Strappado which will torment your Consciences Hell will prove a cooler and milder place to the Heathens that never enjoyed your light means and mercies in this world than it will to you None sink so deep into misery in the world to come as they that fall from the fairest opportunities of Salvation in this world 4 Let no man expect that God will hear his cryes and intreaties in time of misery who neglects and slights the Calls of God in the time of Mercy God calls but men will not hear the day is coming when they shall cry but God will not hear Prov. 1.24
25 will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Iob 27.9 no no he will not and this is but a just retribution from the righteous God whose calls and counsels men have set at nought but whatever men now think of it it is certainly the greatest misery incident to man in all the world for as no words can make another fully sensible what a priviledge it is to have the ear favour pity and help of God in a day of straits so it is impossible for any words to express the doleful state and case of that Soul whom God casts off in trouble and whose cryes he shuts out 5 Beware of neglecting any Call of God because that Call you are now tempted to neglect may be the last Call that ever God intendeth to give thy Soul Sure I am there is a Call which will be the last Call of God to rebellious Sinners and after that no more Calls but an eternal deep silence his Spirit shall not always strive with man and the more motions and calls you have already slighted the more probable it is that this may be the last Voice of God in a way of Mercy to thy Soul and what if after this God should seal up thy heart and judicially harden it make thy will utterly inflexible and thine ears deaf as he threatens Isa 6.10 What an undone miserable man or woman art thou then O beware of provoking the forest of all Judgments by persisting any longer in a course of rebellion against Light and Mercy 6 Whilst your hearts put off and neglect the Calls of God you can never by any means arrive to the evidence and assurance of your Election for your Election is only secured to you by your effectual calling 2 Pet. 1.10 there is no way for men to discern their Names written in the Book of Life but by reading the work of Sanctification in their own hearts Rom. 10.8 I desire no miraculous Voice from Heaven no extraordinary signs or unscriptural notices and informations in this matter Lord let me but find my heart complying with thy calls my will obediently submitting to thy commands Sin my burden and Christ my desire I will never crave a fairer or surer evidence of thy electing love to my Soul and if I had an Oracle from Heaven an extraordinary Messenger from the other World to tell me thou lovest me I have no reason to give credit to such a Voice whilst I find my heart wholly sensual averse to God and indisposed to all that is spiritual 7. What reason have you why you should not presently embrace the Call of God and thankfully lay hold upon the first opportunity and season of Salvation Have you any greater matters in hand than the Salvation of your precious Souls Is there any thing in all this world that more concerns you If the affairs of this life be so indispensably necessary and those of the world to come so indifferent if you think that meat and drink trade and business wife and children be such great things and Christ Soul and Eternity such little things or if you think the Salvation be a work of the greatest necessity yet it may safely enough be put off to a time of uncertainty I may assure you you will not long be of this mind How soon are all the mistakes of men in these matters rectified in a few moments after death Rectified I say but not remedied your opinion will be changed but not your condition 8. Do you not every day easily and readily obey the Calls of Satan and your own Lusts whilst God and Conscience are suffered to call and strive with you in vain If Satan or your Lusts call you to the Tavern to the World and your sinful Pleasures you speedily comply with their Call and yield a ready obedience if Pride call if Covetousness call if Passion and Revenge call they need not call twice and shall God call and Conscience call only in vain Lord what a Creature is Man become If a vain Companion call you have no power to deny him if God call you have no ear to hear him 9. You cannot but observe the obedience and diligence of many others how seriously painfully and assiduously they ply and follow on the work of their own Salvation and yet they are no more concerned in the events and consequences of these things than you are Doth it not trouble you when you compare your selves with them Do not such thoughts as these sometimes arise in your hearts upon such observations Lord what a difference is there like to be betwixt their end and mine when there is so apparent a difference in our course and conversation Doth not God distinguish persons in this world by the frames of their hearts and tenor of their lives in order to the great distinction he will make betwixt one and another in the Day of Judgment Have not I as precious a Soul to save or lose as any of them What is the matter that I sit with folded arms whilst they are working out Salvation with fear and trembling Why should any man or woman in the world be more careful for their Souls than I for mine Surely its capacity and excellency is equal with theirs though our care and diligence be so unequal 10. To conclude God will shortly give you an irresistible Call to the Grave and after that his Voice shall call to you in your Graves Arise ye dead and come to Iudgment but wo be to you wo and alas that ever you were born if you should hear the Call of God to dye before you have heard and obeyed his Call to Christ. Will your Death-bed be easie to you Can you with any hope or comfort shoot the Gulph of Eternity before you have done one act for the securing your Souls from the wrath to come 'T is a dreadful thing for a poor Christless Soul to sit quivering up on the lips of a dying Sinner not able to stay nor yet to endure a parting pull from the Body in such a case as it is In a word if the God that made and will shortly judge you if the Redeemer that shed his invaluable Blood and now offers you the purchaces and benefits of it if you have any love to or care of your own Souls which are more worth than the whole world if you have any value for Heaven or dread of Hell then for Gods sake for Christs sake for your precious Souls sake trifle with Heaven and Hell no longer but be in earnest to work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling Could I think of any other means or motives that might secure your Souls from danger I would surely use them Could I reach your hearts effectually I would deeply impress this great concern upon themâ—punc but I can neither do Gods part of the work nor yours it is some ease to me I have in sincerity though with much imperfection and feebleness done part of my own