Expectation of a Resurrection We shall now begin to cite our Proofs in order as they rise in other Books of the New Testament Mat. 10.15 It shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Judgement then for that City There must be a Day of Judgement and consequently a Resurrection Chap. 12. Men shall give account for every idle word at the Day of Judgement Chap. 13.39 The harvest is the end of the World the Reapers are the Angels Ver. 49. The Angels shall sever the Wicked from among the Just at the end of the World Chap. 16.27 The Son of Man shall come in glory and then shall he reward every man according to his Works Chap. 19.28 Ye who have followed me when the Son of Man shall sit on the Throne of his glory shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Chap. 22.31 cites Exod. 3.6 for proof of the Resurrection against the Sadduces Chap. 24.30 Christ's Coming with the Clouds of Heaven and gathering his Elect together Chap. 25.31 Is a large Description of the Last Judgement and that all Nations shall be gathered before his Seat of Judgement Mark 8.13 Those who are ashamed of Christ he will be ashamed of them when he comes in glory with his holy Angels Chap. 13.26 Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory and he shall send his angels and gather his elect from all parts of heaven and earth Luke 21.27 Then shall men see Christ come in a cloud with power and great glory and then their redemption draweth nigh Chap. 22.30 Ye shall eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom Ver. 69. Christ shall sit on the right hand of the power of God Chap. 24.51 Christ was parted from them and carried up into a heaven And Acts 1.11 This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven John 5.25 The dead shall hear Christ's voice and they that hear shall live Ver. 28. All that are in the graves shall hear his voice Chap. 6.44 He that comer to me I will raise him up at the last day without mention of a Soul in Separation Chap. 11.23 Jesus to Martha Thy brother shall rise again she replies I know he shall in the resurrection at the last day Jesus says He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Chap. 12.48 He that receives me not my words shall judge him at the last day not mentioning or supposing any intermediate Judgment Acts 3.21 Heaven must receive Christ until the time of the restitution of all things foretold by the prophets and so it seems must earth and the grave receive all other people Chap. 4.2 The Jews were grieved that the Apostles preached through Jesus the Resurrection of the dead Chap. 17.18 Paul preached to the Athenians Jesus and the Resurrection Chap. 23.8 The Sadduces say there is no Resurrection Angel nor Spirit but the Pharisees confess both seems confess all these but still no mention of a Separated Soul Chap. 24.14 Paul believed as the Jews also allowed that there should be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Unjust Rom. 14.8 Whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords So Ver. 9. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Ver. 10. We shall all stand before the Judgement seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body whether good or bad thus knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men from that Argument to a holy life Philip. 3.10 To know the power of Christs Resurrection and by any means to attain to the Resurrection of the Dead Ver. 20. and 21. We look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven who shall change our vile body and make it like unto his glorious body Colos 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Seems not before then 1. Thess 3.13 Be found in holiness at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints If so we die we shall so be found Chap. 4.14 If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Ver. 15. And we who live at the time shall not prevent them which are asleep Ver. 16. But the dead in Christ shall rise first Chap. 5.10 Christ died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him viz. at his Coming 2 Thess 1.7 God will give to you who are troubled rest with us when our Lord shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire Chap. 2.8 The Man of Sin shall be destroyed by the brightness of Christs coming Chap. 1.10 Wait for Christs coming from heaven as for the time of the Resurrection 1 Thess 4.16 The Lord himself shall descend with a shout the voice of the Archangel and the Tromp of God and these shall allarm the dead and those dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this commandment without spot unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ which in his times he shall shew 2 Tim. 2.12 If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him Ver. 18. Some said the Resurrection was past already which was an errour and had an ill effect Chap. 4.1 I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Ver. 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give to me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing Heb. 4.3 We which have believed in Christ do enter into his rest Ver. 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Ver. 10. A ceasing from our own works as God did from his And we must labour therefore to enter into that rest Chap. 9.27 It is appointed unto men once to die but after this the Judgenment And Christ once offered for sin shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation Chap. 10.37 Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Ver. 35. and 36. We must wait with patience and confidence till the time promised do come Chap. 11.35 Persons were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain not a happy Separated Estate but a better Resurrection James 1.12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Chap. 5.8 Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord
wrath Chap. 12.7 The dust shall return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it We say this may be expounded by Gen. 7.22 and 1 Sam. 30.12 and Job 12.10 all before Cited Then Chap. 34.14 If God set his heart upon man if he gather unto himself his Spirit and his Breath All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again unto Dust Psal 31. Prays Let me not be put to confusion but deliver me be thou my Rock and Defence Into thy hand I commit my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me And Psal 104.29 When thou takest away their breath they die and are turned again to their dust When thou lettest thy breath go forth they shall be made and thou shalt renew the face of the earth Zech. 6.5 These are the four spirits of the heavens noted on the Margent or Winds These places make Breath and the Spirit mentioned by Solomon to be much if not altogether the same thing And it seems remarkable that when David prays for Deliverance from Dangers that were temporal as in Psal 31. he uses this Expression Into thine Hand I commit my Spirit this makes it seem to intend his whole Person himself both Soul and Body as hath been shewn to be usual and common in the Usage of the Word Soul Isa 29.24 They who erred in Spirit shall come to Vnderstanding Here Spirit seems to signifie a Faculty of the Man viz. his Mind or Intellect Upon the Whole it seems the Spirit 's Return to God in Solomon's Sence might be a willing Submission of the Mind or Understanding to that Dissolution by Death which he hath appointed to be the Natural End of all Mankind This makes Death appear a willing Return of a meek and quiet Spirit to God by an easie Surrender of its Fort and Hold the Body when others and they if they did not so meekly surrender would be Stormed and forced against their Wills to let go their Holds and be driven out of Forts which they have not Power to defend and maintain against the violent and prevalent Assaults and Storms of Death We meet in Isaiah Ch. 53.10 such an Addition concerning the Term of Soul as we judge not fit to omit viz. When thou shalt make his Soul an Offering for Sin This intended his whole Person And he shall see of the Travail of his Soul Chap. 57.16 I will not contend for ever for so should the Spirit fail before me and the Souls which I have made viz. the People which I have made So Is it such a Day for Man to afflict his Soul viz. himself And If thou draw out thy Soul to the Hungry if thou minister unto him Ezek. 37.14 I will put my Spirit in you Bodies rising from dry Bones and ye shall live And this was executed by the Four Winds blowing upon them Whence it seems Spirit Wind and Breath have a great Congruity one with another and are put one for another divers times And this helps to declare what Solomon meant by Spirit Dan. 2.3 The King's Spirit was troubled to know the Dream viz. his Vnderstanding Chap. 5.20 An excellent Spirit Knowledge and Vnderstanding was found in Daniel One of these Words expound another Micah 6.7 Shall I give my First-born the Fruits of my Body for the Sin of my Soul seems to import Shall I give or Sacrifice my Child for my own Sin Soul being here put for Person as we have shewn was very usual Zech. 6.5 These are the Four Spirits or Winds of the Heavens Chap. 12.1 The Lord that formeth the Spirit of Man within him viz. who hath given him Faculties of Sense Memory Vnderstanding c. Thus the Texts of the Old Testament which make most for the Proof of a Separate and Self-subsisting Soul of Man have been quoted and such Expositions made of them and Answers thereby made to them as appear to us sufficient to abate and take away the Violence or proving Force of them by shewing that they do not necessarily or strongly compel to the Belief of such a Separated Subsistance of Humane Souls But that they only be solved and answered by Senses or Constructions more Natural and likely and more consentaneous to the Natural Conceptions of a Humane Reason unbiassed or distorted by the Prejudices of formerly received and radicated Opinions We proceed to Texts of the New Testament which have been or may be quoted to the same Intent and Purpose Mat. 16.25 He that will save his Life shall lose it and he that for Christ's sake loses it shall find it For what is a Man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works Here it seems the Word Soul intends the Life or Person of the Man and what shall a Man get by grasping or gaping after the whole World if he lose his own Life for without Life to enjoy it what Profit or Benefit can one make of the whole World if it could be gotten and no Man in his Wits will take the whole World in Exchange for his Life for he can have no Profit but plain Damage and Loss by that Exchange And yet says our Lord He that loses his Life for my sake shall find it viz. shall find Profit by that Exchange For he shall be recompenced at the Resurrection For the Son of Man shall come in his Father's Glory and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works The Man shall then receive an Eternal Recompence and be made a great Gainer by that Exchange Chap. 13.42 For then the Wicked shall be cast into a Furnace of Fire and the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Next is quoted Matth. 17. the Relation of our Lord's Transfiguration repeated Mark 9. and Luke 9. There appeared to them viz. the three Disciples Moses and Elias talking with him They all saw the Appearances It must be true then that these Prophets have a Subsistence after their Departure out of this our World And for Elias his creates no great Difficulty in the Case upon Supposal that his Body went to Heaven and was changed as S. Paul says in a Moment into a Spiritual Body and there may well enough be still continuing And for Moses his Body it could never be found what became of it seems not very certain but not being to forth-come it was conjectured and concluded to be buried no Man ever knew where nor that there was or is a Certainty in that Fact It seems he went up the Hill alone and never returned nor was his Body found what therefore became of him we may think remains a Mystery and that he died may be taken for a Conjecture from common Probability He never returned nor was after to
Men seem encouraged or even pressed to undergo the Trial by what follows viz. He who doth the Truth cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Hence he whoso fears to bring his Works to the Light as to put them rather in a secret Place and smother them seems convinced or under a strong Suspition that they are not wrought in God For he who doth Truth comes willingly to the Light for the Manifestation of his Deeds And we would have it taken and accepted as the true and only Design of making this Argument publick believing it a Discovery of Truth wrought in God without any crooked Biass or Design and not unfit or improper to be set upon a Candlestick that Men may have Opportunity to see and discover and to examine its Light viz. the Truth of it and may use it accordingly Having made such Search after Souls as we are able we go on to enquire concerning other Spiritual Operations in Man And do say that we have taken the Occasion of this Enquiry from the Book before-cited called Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts Perusing what he said there concerning the Soul I met with Doctrines about the Operations of God's Spirit acting in Man such as were very different from my own Apprehensions and thereupon entred into a Design of enquiring farther into the Truth of what there is asserted and to approve or endeavour to confute what we there met with concerning this Subject as it shall appear agreeable to Truth or otherwise deviating from or opposite unto the same Page 47. He says This Spirit works in all Believers and either in them only or eminently above all others Pag. 48. But this is not discoverable to those who have had a pious Education and have pursued that Course from their Youth They cannot discover the Spirit 's Renovation in themselves but are left to make such Discovery of Renovation in others who have been changed from Evil to Good Without Christ's Spirit we can do nothing and better have no Souls than be void of that Spirit Hereupon I observe That those who cannot discern this sort of Spirit working in themselves seem to be very incompetent Judges of its working in other People or of knowing that such Change was wrought by that Spirit They may guess and mistake but we deny that they can know it We agree that no Man can act any thing without God's Assistance for in him we live move and have our Being We cannot do a good Work nor any Work without him and our Dependence is upon him both for Life and Action And this Divine Energy Men may call the Spirit of God within us But we deny that this is peculiar to Believers more than to other People although it seem often confounded with the Holy Spirit of God and of Christ Pag. 49 He says Heaven is the Summ and End of all the Spirit 's Operations viz. Man's Salvation purchased by Christ and given by Covenant Take up the Cross forsake all and follow me and thou shalt have Reward in Heaven For this he quotes Luke 14. Ver. 26. 33. The Words are Those who do not forsake all cannot be Christ's Disciples And he quotes Luke 18.22 where the Words are Sell all and distribute and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven How far these Words prove his Assertion we leave to Judgment It follows God sends his Spirit to good Purposes and to illuminate and make Holy And we grant where it comes it doth so But to know where or in whom this Holy Spirit resides will be the Difficulty between us Pag. 50. He quotes 16 Texts of Scripture to prove God hath promised this Spirit to Believers in a Special Manner I have perused them all and do not find one of them come home to his Assertion viz. That God will give to all Believers his Spirit in a Special Manner And yet that they are all under the Conduct of that Spirit and are moved and led thereby we do grant but do say that it works generally by Natural Ways and Means of Illuminating the Understandings of Men and their Faculties of Perception inclining their Judgments and thereby their Wills regulating their Affections quieting their Passions subduing all to the Obedience of Christ by Natural and therefore Imperceptible Working in them upon them and by them so as the Working may not be perceptible to themselves or others who converse them But the prime or sole Appearance of this ordinary Conduct of Gods Spirit must be sought for and found in the Fruits not in the Leaves the Bustling Noise or Rattling Professions or Contendings about or for Religion Galat. 5.22 Gives us a Catalogue of these Fruits The Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Where these Fruits grow and flourish and the Works of the Flesh here mentioned wither and die Men have great Reason to conclude the Person so walking is under the Conduct of God's Holy Spirit because it is beyond Humane Power to produce these Effects without the Divine Assistance or Aids from Heaven and thus we join with our Author at the Journeys End although we travel in different Roads towards it We both say God's Spirit conducts and leads Believers in a particular Manner but we do not agree about the Manner I say The ordinary Working of God's Spirit is by Natural Means perfecting and regulating the Man's Powers and Actions till they arrive to a Conformity with their highest Intention and the Will and Appointment of God unperceivably in the Operation or Conduct both to other People or even to the Party upon whom this Grace is bestowed for that it is Naturally effected and so without any violent or perceptible Motion or Action and therefore cannot be known but by the Evidence of Fruits Our Author By God's Spirit gives to Believers in a Special Manner agreeing in general with those of his Practices doth intend such a perceivable and vigorous Working of God's Spirit in Men as excites their Zeal and Concernment for the Gospel-Interest and what they believe tendent and conducing to the Glory of God although in their Proceedings to such Purposes there appear neither Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness nor Meekness and although there do appear Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions and such like This Tenet I pretend to oppose as an Erroneous and Dangerous Doctrine opposing our Lord's Direction By their Fruits ye shall know them The Pharisees and Jewish Nation of Christ's Time were as zealous for God and his Law as the most Devoted of our Time can shew themselves for the Gospel Their Hatred to him grew the most apparently from his not strictly observing the Sabbath Day and not Washing before Meat and other Religious Practices then used and his Pretending to introduce a New Mode of Religion different from that given by God at Mount Sinai But they proceeded in Opposition by Unjust and Faulty Methods
in us to will and to do by those Ordinary Operations before described improving our Reason to a right Apprehension and Understanding of them and our Discretion to a right Choice and Practice St. Paul tells his Corinthians I speak as unto wise Men judge ye what I say He doth not refuse the Judgment arising from the Reason or Wise Men. Let Men now tell a Quaker what the Words of Scripture are and what Consequence from thence must reasonably and necessarily follow his Answer is ready He cares not what either of them says for he hath a Light within him the very Holy Spirit of God which tells him and witnesseth with his Spirit That all which he believes and professes is true and the only salutary Way for his Soul and so for all other Mens if God will please to communicate to them the like Perceptible Illuminations and Special Impulses of his Holy Spirit which the World doth not cannot receive nor can the Natural Man do it but such Things are to him direct Foolishness and he cannot know them because they are Spiritually discerned and cannot be so by Reason or any Humane Power or Means whatsoever Now whil'st this Man is thus certainly perswaded in his own Mind and that he who is Spiritual viz. endowed with such Light within him judgeth all things and yet himself is judged of no Man nor will submit himself to be so He seems to be past all Conviction or Cure by reasonable Remedies or Applications having thus passed beyond the Bounds of Humane Reason and Scripture he is become excentrick to all Humane Perswasion and Government and as incurable Phreneticks must be born withal so far as their Phantasies are only detrimental to themselves And it we may place all other Dependers upon Perceptible Extraordinary Motions of God's Spirit in a Form or Classis next below them differing in the Degrees of a like Infirmity all holding the same Original Ground and growing from the same Root and defending themselves in the same Fortresses and by like Weapons only the first Sort have passed to a farther Degree in the Distemper than the rest have hitherto done We must leave them upon this Account to the great Power of God who only can and in his Time may and perhaps will give them Convictions in a miraculous and powerful Manner and really such as they do now but pretend unto The Distemper it seems hath grown from the ill Digestion of some of St. Paul's Expressions wrested by Men both unlearned and unstable as other Scriptures may be to the Perverting if not the Destruction of themselves and their Proselites and to the great Disturbance of the Protestant Churches Pag. 278. Says God's Cures by his Spirit are wrought with great Pangs of Repentance I say That upon every notorious Sin committed these are rational and necessary Consequences as well at last as at first and no more to be enquired after in Youth than in Age nor in one Part of a Man's Life than in another But such Carriage ought to be both expected and performed whensoever there is a just and reasonable Cause for the so doing Pag. 280. Says God is all in all things It may pass for a Cloudy Expression And we agree That God and Christ are what Christians acknowledge and adore Also that we are generally under the ordinary Guidance of God's Spirit and are thereby led into all Truth directed therein by the Scriptures confirmed by Sacraments instructed and excited by sound Teaching and the Acts of God's Providence amongst us for us towards us the Convictions of Humane Reason and our sound Senses and the like usual and common Manuductions for establishing of our Faith and perfecting the Practice and due Performances of a holy Life That God can do this by eminent and perceptible Emotions of his Spirit in a Supernatural and Miraculous Manner is granted and certain And this was common in the Church during all the Time of St. Paul's Life But that God doth still continue those Supernatural Actings in his Church ordinarily and at this Day hath been and will be continually denied and that none can be saved who do not feelingly perceive in themselves such Impulsions or Emotions of God's Spirit working in them to such Purposes we not only deny but do condemn and explode as a great Instrument of Deceipt and a most pernicious Error Pag. 291. Says The Christian Church needs no Testimony of Miracles of new Upon this I demand What these Eminent and Perceptible Emotions of the Spirit are to be counted Natural they are not as their Defenders assert and we agree therefore they are Preternatural or Supernatural and they pass for Acts of the later Sort whensoever they do happen And our Opposers maintain they are very frequent and ought not only to be Common but Universal amongst Christians amongst whom every one should have a Taste and Feeling of them and consequently a daily Exhibition of New Miracles Pag. 308. Says Many of his Friends Holy Persons are gone to Heaven and that is spangled with these Spiritual Stars the Place is honoured with them and they with it We think our dead Friends are almost lost to us till the Heavenly Spirit tell us where they are and prepare us to desire our being there Observe from hence we may what our Author means by his Term of Heavenly Spirit viz. his own and his Followers eager and hot Phantasy or Conceipt For if he had obtained any Perceptible Spiritual Revelation concerning his dead Friends or any one of them we do very much assure our selves he would have made us acquainted with it For his Expression That Heaven is honoured with the Presence of the holy Persons his dead Friends it tastes of an arrogant Conceipt not warranted by Scripture or Reason but sutable to his Spiritual Vehemencies and Impulses Pag. 348. Says It is the Will of God that the Ministry and Testimony of Man shall be a Means of our Believing and he will use Man for the Instruction and Salvation of Man and not send Angels with every Message To this we agree and say the Perceptible Actings of God's Spirit may be as rare as the Ministry of Angels in our Times Page 353. Says Grace is not a Brutish Principle but works by Reason having also its natural inclining Force We account this Expression as one of our own extracted from him by inadverted Power of Truth Pag. 359. All true Believers are justified that consent to the Baptismal Covenant chusing God for their God Christ for their Saviour and the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier though this be done with so great Weakness as neither ends Mens Doubts nor quiets their Minds It seems the Perceptible Actings of the Spirit are wanting in such Cases and he seems either to have forgot or to distrust the Necessity of that Assistance Pag. 368. Says The Soul hath no distinct Idea of its Future State out of the Body and we see not whither it is that we must go
it Hence we may perceive that our Author instead of proving by Reason or from Nature That the Humane Soul is an Immaterial Self-subsisting Spirit is turned about to vain Jangling and with a wilful Blindness such as will not see he balks the known and ancient Opinion of the Primitive Fathers of the Church before cited by himself viz. That the Humane Soul was a Material Spirit kindled by our Creator in the Body of Man when he breathed into Adam 's Nostrils the Breath of Life and thereby made him a Living Soul We read that when Prometheus had framed and made a perfect Humane Body he could not enliven it for want of Heavenly Fire which he therefore stole from Jupiter and was condemned to have his Heart eternally torn and devoured by the incessant Gripes and endless Voracity of a Vulture or Raven Whether this shadow to us Lucifer's Offence in such Atempt we dispute not but apparent it is that this is the adequate Emblem of a guilty and tormenting Conscience for a Crime of the highest Nature and Provocation that possibly can be committed Ezek. 37. we meet with an Adumbration of such an enlivening Breath God directs his Words Say to the Wind thus saith the Lord Come from the four Winds O Breath and breath upon these Slain that they may live And the Bodies arose and they lived accordingly 1 Cor. 15.44 There is a Natural Body and there is a Spiritual Body The first Man Adam was made a Living Soul and the last Adam a Quickening Spirit For the truer Understanding of what is meant by the Term Living Soul parallel Expressions of Scripture shall be cited to that Intent Gen. 7.22 All in whose Nostrils was the Breath of Life upon the dry Land died in the Flood For the Use of the Word Soul Levit. 17.11 Ye shall have a holy Convocation and ye shall afflict your Souls viz. your selves 1 Sam. 10. Hannah was in bitterness of Soul and prayed and wept she was sore afflicted Ch. 2.16 Take as much as thy Soul desireth viz. as much as you will Ch. 18.1 The Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul of David and he loved him as his own Soul viz. his Affection was knit to him and he loved him as himself Ch. 25.29 A Man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy Soul viz. pursue thy Person and seek thy Life Ch. 30.12 When the Egyptian taken at Ziklag had eaten his Spirit came again to him viz. his Vital Spirit 2 Sam. 30.39 The Soul of David longed to go forth unto Absalom Next Verse David 's Heart was towards Absalom seems the Heart Affection Life Person used to be expressed by the Term Soul Job 12.10 In God's Hand is the Soul of every living thing and the Breath of all Mankind Ch. 16.4 If your Soul were in my Soul's stead viz. if you were in my Case Ch. 21.4 Why should not my Spirit be troubled viz. why should I not be grieved Ch. 30.15 Terrors pursue my Soul viz. me And my Soul is poured out upon me viz. I am exceedingly afflicted Ch. 33.30 To bring back his Soul from the Pit to the Light of the Living viz. save his Life Ch. 34.14 If God gather to himself Mans Spirit and his Breath he shall turn to his Dust. We have proceeded thus far of the Bible to collect Texts to our Intent and should we go through the Psalms and forward it would be hard to recite the Collections and it seems the Texts cited are enough to establish the Sense of our Expression Man became a Living Creature or Person And thus by the Breath of Life derived from Heaven was the Flammula Vitalis the Promethean Fire enkindled in the Blood Spirits and Parts of Man's Body and by Breath it hath ever since been refreshed and maintained and when God takes this from us we die and are turned to our Earth and all our Thoughts perish our Fancies Intellects and Memories our Learning and Abilities as well as our Love and our Hatred our Passions and Affections The Vital Flame kindled in the first Man passing intermixed with the Seminal Substance and Prolifick Virtue and received in Habitacles fitting and proper for its Fomentation and Nutriment is first fermented by the Prolifick Energy or Internal Principle of Inclination to be coagulated and knit one Part of it to the other and by Fomentation is strengthened whence arises a Power of assimilating to it self such Nourishment as comes within the narrow Sphere of its Activity which being by its own Tendency to Heat and the Natural Warmth and Fomentation of its Receptacle compacted to and settled in a terminated Consistency and somewhat a fixed Unity of Coherence the Formation of Parts doth consequently commence and as Men have by a daily Observation found it in Eggs under a Hen it likely doth proceed viz. Two harder Accrescencies are principally framed and compacted viz. the Primum Vivens and Vltimum Moriens the Triangle of our Hearts and the Circular or Globular and Chief Member of our Bodies the Head and these are presently knit together first by small Ligatures Strings and Films and from those two Parts as Principal Pillars and Fountains of Life Motion and Action there are extruded and produced first the Fibres and Nervous Parts and Ligatures of the Body then the Arteries Veins and Muscles and lastly the Flesh and Bones and such Blood as may be required in an Embrion State or a Chile analogous thereunto proper to nourish and apt to be converted into Blood and to catch and maintain the Vital Flame which shall be kindled upon the first Breath and Fanning of the Ambient Air at its coming into the World And like to this is the common Fate and Form of all other Animals and the Production of Living Bodies whatsoever if we shall examine them and begin with Vegetables and take for Standards the Acorn and the Mustard-seed they and whatsoever other Seed it be if it fall upon unnatural or barren and unhospitable Places viz. into Waters barren and dry Sands upon bare Rocks or salt Marishes or the like the Seed missing and failing of a Sutable Receptacle and agreeable to its Nature cannot be expected to fructifie according to its Natural Inclination and Power but must needs prove abortive unfruitful and improlifick But where Seeds fall into good and tolerable Grounds agreeable to their Seminal Virtues Inclinations and Powers and wherein they may meet with a Nutritive Reception there they are first somewhat melted or softned and then they ferment and finding a sutable Fomentation in their Recipient they germinate and sprout and as the Sprouts bear upwards so from the other end of the Acorn proceed Fibres or thin very small Strings moist and somewhat glutinous or clammy Threads impregnated not only with its proper Juice but indued with a catching and penetrating Quality enabling it to fix and fasten it self in its hospitable Recipient where finding still a friendly and benigne Fomentation and Acceptance it
and therefore we are willing rather to be absent from this Body to have it changed into a Spiritual Body and therein to be present with the Lord And however in the one Body or in the other we labour present or absent to be accepted of God for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ sooner or later that every Man Body and Soul may receive the Things done in his Body viz. when he was alive according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad And this seems to apply all that he had before spoken as designed a Relation to the Resurrection and the Last Judgment and not to make or afford any Proof of the Separate Subsistence of a Soul after Death of the Body Philip. 1.21 For me to live is Christ and to die is Gain what I shall chuse I wot not for I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Nevertheless to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you This sounds as if upon Death of the Body something were still left in such a State and Being as should immediately thereupon go to be with Christ and this can be no other but the Man's Soul subsisting in a State of Separation We read Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them 2 Tim. 1.10 Christ abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel Whence Death now to the Godly is but a Sleep or Resting in Christ Acts 7.60 Stephen cried Lord lay not this sin to their charge and when he said this he fell asleep 1 Cor. 15.6 Christ risen was seen of five hundred Brethren of whom then some were fallen asleep Ver. 18. If there be no Resurrection then they who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Ver. 51. We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed 1 Thess 4.15 We who are alive at our Lord 's coming shall not prevent them who are asleep Ver. 14. But those who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him 2 Thess 1.6 It is righteous with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with us when Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels seems this Rest with us must be future to this World and most likely in Death Heb. 4.3 We who have believed do enter into Rest Ver. 9. There remains a Rest to the People of God Ver. 10. A ceasing from our own Works as God did from his and we must labour to enter into this Rest seems properly a Dying in the Lord. And Job testifies There the weary are at Rest Upon the Evidences thus quoted by us it seems our Proving Text may be construed in this manner I know that to die is Gain and for me to depart out of this world and to be at rest in Christ and in expectation of a joyful Resurrection is far better but for me to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you And this Consideration puts me into a Strait between two Things so as what I shall chuse I wot not and doubtless it is better and far more easie and desirable for a godly Man to sleep and be at rest in Christ than to be in the Troubles Temptations and Persecutions of this World as S. Paul was when he was in it Daniel 12.13 the Angel says to him Go thy way till the End be for thou shalt rest and stand in the Lot at the End of the Days And this hath been the Lot of the Godly in all Ages and the Wisdom of the World hath been able to teach that the Day of a Man's Death is better than that of his Birth and if generally how much better then must it needs be for a good Christian to depart and be at rest in Christ Lying down in a sure Faith and stedfast Hope of a joyful Resurrection when the Lord himself shall defend from Hevean with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God for then the Dead in Christ shall rise first and be caught up into the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall they ever be with the Lord. What Earthly Thing can be compared with such a State so much Joy and so great an Assuranee No wonder then that our Apostle calls his Death a Gain being then in a Condition so to die and so he continued as he says 2 Tim. 4.7 I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that Day and not to me only but unto them also that love his Appearing But it seems he did not expect it before that Day the Day of Christ's Second Coming to reward every Man according to his Works And we conclude the Apostle in our Proving Text intended rather a going to rest in Christ than a going into Heaven to him in the State of a Separated Soul Heb. 12.22 Ye are come to an innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of just Men made Perfect to God the Judge and to Jesus the Mediator and to the heavenly Jerusalem Some have raised an Argument of the Souls Separate Subsistence from this Text. The Words Ye are come in the present Tense spoken unto living People cannot be literally intended unless the Words be intended of the Doctrine viz. You are come to a Gospel or Doctrine which teaches to believe and expect such Things in future Times or you are come to such Things in Faith which is the Evidence of Things not seen better things than appeared at Mount Sinay So 2 Pet. 3.12 Look for and haste unto the Coming of the Day of God wherein all shall be burnt up as in Noah 's Time it was drowned But we look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness And seeing ye look for such Things what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness without spot and blameless This expounds how we come to the Heavenly Jerusalem viz. to that Doctrine Faith and Expectation to be fulfilled and enjoyed at the Coming of the Day of God without any mention at all of a Soul in the State of a Separate Subsistence or discoverable Intention concerning it 1 Pet. 3.19 Christ was quickned in the Spirit by which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison when Noah prepared the Ark. To this we say the Text is very mystical and obscure and so every Part and Sentence of it And what is here meant by the Spirits in Prison or the Preaching to them we humbly confess Ignorance and that we do not know Therefore the Text and Consequences of it shall be left to Consideration of the more Learned better versed in the Writings of Fathers and Commentators but till the Meaning of it
to such purposes 1. Making the Soul Tota in qualibet parte 2. Setting on foot a New Creation of Souls by God every day and for Adulterous Incestuous and Buggered Procreations where the Shape is Humane by a Creando infunditur 3. It immerses pure young innocent Souls newly created in the filth of Original Sin without any Cause given or Offence committed by them 4. St. Austin had thereby his Imagination confounded not knowing if such Soul was One and not Two or Two and not One or were at once both one and Two and made him think the last though a Paradox to be the most likely 5. Upon this Errour is grounded the Prae-existence of such Souls and the Consequences thereof viz. their hovering in the Air their attending New Procreations of Bodies that thence they may glide down into them and forsaking Dying Bodies return again into those Aiery Habitations 6. The Transmigration of such Souls from one Humane Body to another and some made the Transmigration Common between Men and Beasts as the Pythagorean Schools maintained at this day by the Eastern Indians and the Chineses 7. Hence have grown the Inventions of Mahomet's Paradises his Purgatories and his Gehenna's as formerly the Heathens had their Eliziums and Barathrums supposed Receptacles in the Bowels of the Globe of our Earth Such a Case we find argued in Salust betwixt Caesar and Cato Caesar calls Mortem aerumnarum requiem jam cuncta mortalium mala dissolvere ultra neque curae neque gaudio locum esse Cato answers that by this Speech it appears what Caesar thought of Death Credo falsa existimans ea quae de inferis memorantur diverso itinere malos à bonis loca tetra inculta foeda atque formidolosa habere 8. Hence hath arisen the Popish Purgatorium where his Holiness is allowed to have an absolute Command and by which he makes Profit accordingly 9. Hence hath grown the Errour of Praying for the Dead in the Romish Churches 10. Those Churches have upon this Errour followed the Heathen Practices of Adoring Dead Persons the one as Gods and the other as Saints Pliny in his Natural History lib. 7. cap. 55. says That the Body or Soul of Man hath no more Sense after Death than they had before their Nativity and yet the folly and vanity of Men says he is so great as that they imagine the Humane Soul extends even to future Ages and that they have Sense whereupon Men render them honour and worship making a God of him who is not so much as a Man as if the manner of Mens breathing differed from that of other Creatures And thus hath the Popish World practised to make them Images and to believe their Personal Appearances as Saul believed the Soul of Samuel appearing in the Witches Specter and to it Saul stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself so worshipping the Devil instead of the Prophet as the Papists do instead of their Saints who likely have no manner of being nor shall have until the Resurrection at the Last Day You say That a Separate Subsistence of Souls doth not infer Purgatory And I grant it but it is the causa sine qua non of that Opinion for if no Separate Subsistence then no Purgatory nor no Prayers for or to Persons departed this life and returned to the dust from whence they were taken Farther to evince a Sparate State of the Soul you offer to raise Evidence out of a Collect in the Office of our Burial Praying That we and those departed may have a perfect consummation of Bliss in Eternal Glory I say this Consummation of Bliss is to be intended after the Resurrection without necessarily supposing any Intermediate State unless it be to such as are before-hand perswaded that there is such a State In the close of your 6th Paragraph you say That your Zeal against the Opinion of the Materiality is grounded upon your own apprehensions that this conceipt would introduce an inundation of Atheism and Prophaneness Looseness and Sensuality To me these Consequences do not appear at all likely Not of Atheism for that it asserts God the Creation Generation and Resurrection all acted by Divine Power Nor of any the other three for that it approves and maintains the extreamest Recompences dispensable in a Future State after the Resurrection And my Apprehension is That although in your Future Ministration you should never insist more upon the Souls Immortality but inforce your Exhortations pertaining to Future Recompences from the Certainty and Concernment of the Resurrection the Last Judgment and Execution of the same your Auditors would not thereby become any whit more Atheists than they were before or more Sensual Loose or Prophane upon that Occasion but probably would continue to act and live as formerly they have done without that any alteration would thereupon be visible or consequent And for the Intermediate State you say The Fathers owned a Middle State which was neither Heaven nor Hell and because they either could not tell what that State was or not agree about it we seem left at liberty by them to think as we may concerning it We have not found any Text of Scripture positively asserting the Separate Subsistence nor such a Doctrine concerning it as that the principal aim and intent of it was to teach this Assertion for a Truth The Fathers Opinions about it are disagreeable to one another and unknowing of what was the clear Truth in this Poin. You say They thought Souls were neither in Heaven nor Hell I have quoted to you Mr. Baxter's Book p. 398. where he tells us That many of his friends holy persons were gone to Heaven and that is spangled with their spiritual stars the place is honoured with them and they with it This his Opinion of going to Heaven or Hell upon Death I take to be the most commonly embraced amongst us and I shall be glad to receive your particular Opinion thereupon but these Uncertainties concerning the Separate State the Manner and Places thereto belonging make me more to question the Verity of it and to conclude upon it rather in the Negative You quote to me a Saying of Cicero That if the Opinion of the Immortality be an Errour libenter erro this you translate the Opinion pleaseth me well it is an innocent Disception as if the liking of an Opinion and the innocency of it were the same thing whereas it is evident Men like and chuse sometimes false and harmful Opinions before those which are tried innocent and beneficial as I doubt not but you think I do in this Point not sub nomine erroris but by a deceived heart carried and drawn away by pride conceitedness contumacy and disobedience to the Ordinance of God as you word it and yet you do not cite one Ordinance of God to which the Opinion of the Materiality is contrary but I desire you will do it in your next Return You say You do not require an implicit
Considerable in the Degrees of them for that he had Collected together all that I had met with in my former Authors for the Maintenance of his Tenet and had placed and used them Dexterously and as they appeared to serve the most Advantageously for his Deign So as it seemed I had not much more to expect from Dr. Bentley or any other Writer who should or might Undertake the maintenance of that Opinion I thought it deserved my serious Consideration yet found it not convictive of my Judgment in the Point nor able to give any considerable stagger to it And therefore for my own Satisfaction in the first place and Assistance of others in the next place I undertook to make a stricture upon all the Arguments delivered in this Book for Proof of the Point Controverted and this by Pages according to his Order used in the delivery of them And as he brings no new Arguments but only uses those which in my former Writings have been mentioned so are my returns thereunto but a Repetition of things before delivered applied to the Particulars as they are urged by him And because the Answers are Repetitions my intent is to abbreviate them as much as I can without rebating the edge or taking from the vigour of them Pag. 5. He comes to the Soul of Man and says God's Breath infused it and our Breath continues its Vnion with the Body Here though I conceive not that God hath Breath or doth breath yet I grant that God did by an Animating Breath give Life to the Body of Man first fitted and prepared to receive and act by the same He remarks the Ability of Speech is conferred on no other Soul but Mans This I should Word It was conferred on no other Body but Mans for that Mans Soul cannot speak without his Tongue and if there be a defect in that Organ the Soul can neither help it nor act to Speak without it Pag. 6. Says That by calling Mans a living Soul it is distinguished from all other Souls This I deny and say That Beasts Souls are living as well and as Naturally as Mens Pag. 7. Amongst his many Expressions not granted I grant this That Adam's Soul came by Inspiration from the Lord. He says It it a most astonishing Mystery to see the dust of the Ground and an Immortal Spirit clasping each other with such dear Embraces I confess this Mystery is so astonishing as quite discourages my belief of the thing He quotes Austin for the infundendo creatur but not any part or place of that Author where the Words quoted may be found and I doubt he is wrong in it and that this Expression is of latter date than Austin's time Pag. 8. The Breath of our Nostrils he says and nothing else links and holds these Two Natures viz. the Mortal and Immortal together for the Soul comes and goes with the Breath and cannot stay one minute after the Breath is gone I grant That as Fire for want of Air is suffocated so both the Humane and Bestial Soul for want of Breath but that is not the only want which can extinguish or dislodge such Souls the want of Blood will do it and so will the want of Food or Nourishment For Breath Blood and Food are all of necessity for the Life and Support of an Humane as well as of a Brutal Soul they cannot subsist if any of these be wanting to them And it passes with me for a strong evidence that the thing which cannot subsist without all these Material Supports is it self also Material viz. both the Brutal and the Humane Souls which therefore I take for Material Spirits Our Author here says No Elixir or Worldly Power can make the Soul stay one minute after the Breath is gone And I say so for the Blood and so when all the Nouriture is spent the Soul can stay no longer says he live no longer in the Body say I. Here he says The Humane Soul is of Divine Original Created and Inspired by God I refuse the Word Created for that it is not in Moses's Text here expounded neither in Letter nor Sense that I can perceive And for the Divine Original and Inspiration it seems the Brutal Soul and first Breath may lay a good claim to them both although Moses have not so fully declared the manner of God's acting with or upon them Pag. 9. Says The Nature of the Soul cannot be perfectly known Pag. 11. To prove the Humane Soul is in strict and proper sense created by God he cites Zech. 12.1 The Lord who stretcheth out the Heavens and layeth the Foundation of the Earth and formeth the Spirit of Man within him Comenius tells us That the Word here Translated formeth is in the Hebrew Jatzar used for the forming of Mans Body out of the Ground viz. a Formation from some Prae-exsistent Matter I say from these Words the Formation of a Material Soul Vital Animal Rational may very well be intended and that this seems most likely to be the sense and intent of it To prove the Soul created he Cites farther 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer commit the keeping of their Souls to God as unto a faithful Creator I demand of what God was the Creator not of Souls singly but of Bodies also and here commit the keeping of their Souls intends themselves or their Persons An usual Scripture Expression in the like Cases thus his Proofs for the single Creation of Souls out of nothing are answered which renders his Design vain viz. of proving that the Soul is a Substance because created out of nothing I grant the Material Soul to be a Substance but says he Not a substance created out of nothing Yours say he Flows from the Matter and depends upon it And say I so doth the Humane Soul do as appears before and he hath yet made no good Proof of a single Creation of it out of nothing Well but he hath another Argument to prove that the Soul is such a Substance viz. the Soul doth exist and subsist by it self alone when separated from the Body by Death And I grant if he proves this it will do his Work and he Cites in Proof Luk. 23.43 the Case of the Thief upon the Cross and Christ's promise to him And Matth. 10.28 Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul To each of these Texts I have answered before as fully as I can and hold it not fit to repeat those Answers here St. Matthew's Text I grant is a clear Proof that he was of our Authors Opinion viz. That the Soul might have a Subsistence separate from the Body but St. Paul in St. Lukes Gospel 12. â—4 hath otherwise worded Our Lord's Doctrine upon that occasion and it seems by 1 Cor. 15.18 and 2 Thes 4.15 and 1 Cor. 4.5 Chap 1. vers 7. and 8. that Paul did not hold or know the Separate Subsistence of Souls and so an intermediate State betwixt
do deny and he proves it not For other Brute Creatures I say it is very probable God gave them their first Breath though Moses have not expressed it He says The Opinion of the Souls Propagation from the Parents by Generation is very Antient and Tertullian and divers of the Western Fathers closed with it And so do I. He says Antiquity is no pasport for errors and so say I He cites an Objection against the daily Creation of Souls and in Proof of their Generation out of Dr. Brown's Religio Medici Pag. 32. He pretends to Answer this Objection but uses to that purpose only Scholastical Distinctions and Niceties and brings no material or solid Reason from Nature so as I think the Objection is not enough Answered but holds still good against the Creation and for the Generation of the whole both Body and Soul Pag. 33. Cites Gen. 22. God rested on the seventh day from all his Work which he had made Pag. 34. This says he Intends he ceased from making any new Species or Kinds of Creatures but he still creates Individual Souls of the same kind and nature with Adam 's Soul and he means all Humane Souls So as upon Fruitful Coition of Man and Woman or of Man and Beast where the product is of Humane shape God creates a new young Soul to enliven and inform every such Body whence every day hour and moment he is creating such Souls for all the Earth over I would know where he found his Distinction of God's ceasing from Creation of New Species but not of New Individuals he quotes no Author or Original for it and till he so do it will pass with Readers for his own Fiction and do him no service at all And his Proof of his New Creation is a kin to this Distinction he cites for Proof of it Our Lord's Words My Father worketh hitherto and I work How this proves Gods Continual New Creation of Souls I do not perceive and I suppose sew others will be drawn to believe such New Creations upon this Proof He says To me it is clear that the Soul is not generated for that which is generable is corruptible This I agree and thence infer The Humane Soul both generable material and extinguishable He Reasons against this but by Arguments before Answered Pag. 35. Farther to prove a New Creation of Souls he quotes again Heb. 12.9 Men must be in subjection to the Father of Spirits intending it to signifie the Father of their Spirits or Souls This I do not grant but say This Sense restraining to Humane Spirits only is against the express Words of the Text as well as the intent of it He quotes again Zech. 12.1 before examined he quotes Isa 42.5 God that giveth Breath unto the people upon the Earth and Spirit to them that walk therein I take Breath and Spirit here for the same thing Here he cites Chap. and Vers of four places more I have searched them and find no mention of Spirit or Soul in any of them Pag. 36. He says These Texts speak of Creating Heaven and Earth yea and their Souls also Of Heaven and Earth they all speak but of Souls not a word whence it is not safe to take even a good Mans word in Matter of Controversie Pag. 36. Cites Solomon's Text again Dust returns to the Earth and the Spirit to God who gave it The Soul and Body says he Are the two Constitutive Parts of Man and have two distinct Originals the Body is of the Earth the Soul a Spirit given by God who gave it Being by Creation I say God gave the Body a Being by Creation as well as the Soul and as the Elements of the Body are Earth and Moisture so that of his Soul are likely Air and Fire and at Death the Body goes to the Earth the Fire extinguisheth and Air vanisheth What Solomon's Expression intended and the manner of that Expression hath been before disputed Pag. 37. Says The Soul hath no Principle out of which by Order of Nature it did arise I say the Body had no such Principle neither God created it of the Earth and breathed into Adam 's Nostrils the Breath of Life and he became a living Soul whence the Man was created Body as well as Soul He agrees the Souls of Brutes are generated but says he There is a Specifick Difference betwixt the Brutal and Rational Soul This I deny and say The Soul is not Rational but is so in the Head only where there are Organs created proper for that Faculty and in no part of the Body can the Soul act rationally but in the Head Pag. 38. He demands Why are not Brutes capable of performing Rational and Religious Acts I Answer because God hath not given them Rational Powers and Organs in so high a degree as he hath done to Men nor can one Man perform like another in such occasions But whatsoever their Souls are the People can act but according to the Capacity of their Organs and the Temperament of their Bodies and Complexions and Humours Men have a different Posture of Body from other Creatures more Capacious Heads in Proportion and store of Brains and finer Matter and they have Heads and Tongues whereby they can better learn direct and act than any Brutes These Differences set Humane Bodies far above the Brutes and yet it seems they may be acted as the Brutes are by a Material Spirit for the Flesh and Blood are Materials of both sorts and that which nourishes is alike in both without Breath Blood and Food both sorts perish and their Souls depart or vanish and yet as Mens Bodily Organs exceed the Brutes for Use and Aptitude so may their Spirits for fineness of Matter and plenty of it and purity and brightness of that flame of Life in them Pag. 39. Says Seed of the Soul is not to be found in Man because the Soul is a Spiritual Essence I say this begs the Question but if this Spirit be Material he will not deny that the Seed of it may be found in Man Pag. 40. Upon this I say Remove the Opinion or later Invention of the new Creation of Souls for all Adulterous Incestuous Buggerly Humane Procreations and then all his Questions here argued are needless and useless He confesses he cannot tell how a Newly Created Spirit should come to be defiled with Original Sin I say he need not trouble himself about it for that the thing is not at all so Pag. 41. He asks How so many Souls become foolish forgetful injudicious It seems he means Men. He supposes it to come from the Bodily Temper and Organs and I grant that very often it doth so But yet I say that my sort of Soul viz. the Flame of Life or the Material Spirit is subject to Defects Infirmities and Obstructions as well as the Body Pag. 42. His Deduction of Original Sin upon Man draws it only from his being a Child of Adam whence it seems his
Jesus shall God bring with him and the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Tromp of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then the Elect living Persons shall be Translated and caught up to the Clouds and both sorts together shall meet the Lord in the Air and so shall they ever be with the Lord. Here we may perceive or collect That St. Paul directs to look after the Resurrection for Comfort at or immediately after the Death of the Party Had he known or believed a Separate Subsistence of Souls and a going to Heaven of the good immediately after Death of the Party Our Author gives it us in these Words Pag. 326. Little says he do Believers think what Visions of God and Ravishing Sights of Christ the Souls of their Friends have when they are closing their eyes with tears It seems strange St. Paul did not know any thing of this delightful Scene and pity it is doubtless that he was ignorant of such Ravishing Enjoyments and the quick attainment of them Acts 20.20 He kept nothing back that was profitable to his Auditors Ver. 27. But declared to them all the Council of God Had he known or believed the Separate Subsistence or the particular Judgment or the immediate going to Heaven by Angels or the Ravishing Sights and Joys so soon accruing he would not have kept back all or any of them from his Proselites the Thessalonians But we have Reason to think he would fully and freely have communicated the same to them and have raised Edifying and Comfortable Exhortations if he had found or known of sound ground to erect them upon Our Ministers and People fetch not their Comforts so far as the Resurrection but fetch them from Heaven immediately and hope with as much likelihood that all their Friends Souls go thither by the Conveyance of Angels But because St. Paul here gives us no Encouragement to believe them for my Part I cannot do it but fix my self for Comfort in such Cases upon the Rocky Ground which our Apostle here gives us the Certainty and Assurance of a General Resurrection and Judgment Our Apostle's former Text 1 Cor. 15.32 says thus What shall all the Afflictions that I have undergone profit me if the dead rise not But if the-Case be so Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die and there 's an end casting the whole Expectation of Recompences future to this Life upon the Resurrection without mention or regard of any Intermediate State Rom. 2.5 Thou treasurest up unto thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God Ver. 6. Who will render to every Man according to his Deeds Honour and Immortality to some but Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish to all who work evil c. to Ver. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Plainly the Day of the Last Judgment so as Recompences shall then be distributed according to what Men have done here and only then for any thing that appears in this Text without mention or regard to an Intermediate State 1 Cor. 1.7 8. Ye come behind in no Gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus who also shall confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Plainly intending his Second Coming to Judgment as the only known Time for the Expectation of future Recompences 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden Works of Darkness and manifest the Counsels of Hearts and then shall every deserving Man have Praise of God Plainly denoting the Resurrection as the Time of Judgment and Recompences 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body whether good or bad Still without hinting any other Time or Place for future Recompences Philip. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord of Glory who shall change our vile Body and make it like his Glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Still no mention of any Expectation future to this Life till our Lord's Second Coming 2 Thes 1.7 It is right for God to recompence harm to them which trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with us when the Lord shall appear from Heaven with his mighty Angels Chap. 3.5 The Lord airect your hearts into the Love of God and unto the patient waiting for Christ His Coming again 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this Commandment until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ which in his times he shall shew as the only time for Recompences 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing viz. his Second Coming And this applies Chap. 1.12 I suffer without being ashamed for I know whom I have believed and that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day And so Ver. 18. The Lord grant to Onisephorus that he may find Mercy of the Lord in that day Chap. 4.1 I Charge thee before God and Christ who shall Judge the Quick and Dead at his Appearing and his Kingdom All harping upon the same string viz. the Resurrection and General Judgment without one word mentioning a Particular Judgment or an Intermediate State Tit. 2.13 Teach to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ No mention of the Hope of a Blessed Intermediate State Heb. 6.2 He will go on to the Doctrines of the main Duties to be performed in this world and to the Resurrection of the dead and that of eternal Judgment for the world to come as the only considerable things Chap. 9.27 It is appointed unto Men once to die and after that the Judgment The Last Day or Judgment Not Two one Particular and the other General No mention of more than One Chap. 11.35 Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain What Not an immediate going to Heaven of their Souls but a better Resurrection Chap. 12.22 Ye are come to the Heavenly Jerusalem to God and Angels to the General Assembly and Church and just Spirits made perfect And see that ye refuse not him that speaketh in the Gospel whose Voice then shook the Earth yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also Heaven which signifies the removing of them at the Last Day aad then we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot he moved And then enjoy the Heavenly Jerusalem God Christ Angels the Assembly of the Church perfected unto which things
we are now come in Faith Hope and Expectation having received a full and true Declaration of them We have thus traversed the large Fields of St. Paul's Epistles collecting Evidences concerning his Doctrine and Opinion touching the Future State of Mankind after a Death in this World The Texts of his which have been quoted treat particularly of such Future State and intend to teach concerning the same delivering thereupon according as in the said Quotations hath been expressed Before have been quoted on the other hand Four Texts of his said Writings alledged in Proof of the Immateriality viz. 2 Cor. 5. Ver. 6. 8. and Phil. 1.23 and Heb. 12.9 and Heb. 12.22 To these I say none of those Places treat particularly of the Future State of Mankind or intend to Teach or Examine what the same shall be Next I say that of these four Places none speak Provingly But Phil. 1.23 viz. His desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ I say the Question made thereupon is concerning the Meaning or Sense of the Expression of being with Christ It intends a State more desireable than that which at that time he enjoyed I take a sleeping in Jesus to be so viz. a more desireable State than that which at that time he enjoyed That this is a Blessed State we read Revel 14.13 after mentioning the Patience and Faith of the Saints under Persecutions the Text says Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them And that it is a State cared for by God and under his Protection appears Rom. 14.7 None of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself Ver. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord 's Verse 9. For Christ died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Ver. 10. We shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ So Chap. 4.17 God who quickneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as though they were and so he is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob for all live unto him though the Body turn to dust and the Soul expire yet neither of then are lost Joh. 11.23 Our Lord says to Martha Thy Brother shall rise again She Answers I know that he shall rise again at the Resurrection of the Last Day He Replies I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whoso liveth and believeth in me shall never die Viz. So as to fall out of my Care or Protection or Knowledge thy Brother shall rise again speedily and for others Joh. 6.39 Of that which my Father hath given me I will lose nothing but will raise it up at the Last Day Ver. 40. All who believe in me shall have Everlasting Life and I will raise them up at the Last Day Which Paul to Tim. calls That Day So Ver. 44. 54. All speak of raising Believers up at the Last Day to receive Blessings and Rewards whereas the rising of the Wicked shall be attended with a Second Death This intends an Answer additional to Paul's Desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ And touching the whole Course of this Apostle's Writings concerning a State of Mankind after Death my Quotations make it appear That either he knew of no Intermediate State betwixt Death and the Resurrection or else he did not Acknowledge or Believe it For his Knowledge that there was an Opinion in the World of Souls Subsisting in a Separate State from their Bodies there are great Probabilities as that Solomon's Text The Spirit returns to God And St. Matthew's Text of Cannot kill the Soul And both Heathen and Jewish Opinions to that purpose it seems could hardly escape his Knowledge But most likely it is that he did not acknowledge or believe the Truth of that Opinion for that in any of his Writings upon that Subject he doth neither relate to it nor mention it much less doth he confirm or approve it but puts all Expectation of Rewards or Punishments Future to this World upon the Score and Account of the Resurrection And upon the foot of that Account I leave it with this Apostle intending to Examine what other Apostles have written to the same Purpose I proceed to the Epistle of St. James and quote out of it Chap. 1.12 Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him In Words very like 2 Tim. 4.8 and of the same Import and that applies the receiving of the Crown to that Day or the Last Day So Chap. 5.7 Be patient Brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Ver. 8. Again Be patient for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Gives no Expectatation of Recompences till the coming of the Lord. I go on to St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.4 You are begotten to an Inheritance incorruptible reserved in Heaven for you Ver. 5. Who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time Does not say to be revealed at the times of your Death So Chap. 5.4 When the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Agreeing with Paul and James just before Chap. 4.5 Those who speak evil of you shall give account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead This must intend the Resurrection for that no Judgment shall pass of the quick and the dead together till that time Ver. 13. Rejoyce in as much as ye are Partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding Joy This proves to my understanding that the Ravishing Joys of a newly departed Soul were unknown to this Prime Apostle 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord knows to deliver the Godly and to reserve the Vnjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished So Ver. 4. Evil Angels are delivered into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment Jude Ver. 6. Those Angels are reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the Great Day This shews what sort of Judgment was before intended Chap. 3.12 What manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein all shall be burnt up but we look for new Heavens and Earth and seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without spot and blameless Thus he exhorts to a Holy Life from the expectation of the Great Day of Judgment and Dissolution of the Earth Sky and Elements about it without a word of Separated Souls or a particular Judgment or an Intermediate State between Death and Judgment