TWO DISCOURSES I. Of the Punishment of Sin in Hell Demonstrating the Wrath of God to be the immediate Cause thereof II. Proving a State of Glory for Just Men upon their Dissolution BY THO. GOODWIN D. D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard M. DC XCIII To the Reader THo we judg it needless to speak much of this eminent Author whose Praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches yet we could not but give some account of the publishing of these small Tracts at this time Many who well knew how mighty this Man of God was in the Scriptures and how skilful from his great Abilities and long Experience in the interpreting of them have impatiently desired the publishing of his Labours but that being a Work of time it was thought fit to gratify them in the interim with this short Treatise And tho his excellency lay chiefly in wading into the great Deeps of the Gospel yet among many other Discourses this of Hell was made choice of wherein we think you have the true scriptural Notion of it We judged that such a rousing Argument might not be unseasonable in so secure and Atheistical an Age as this and that the Profound Mysteries of the Gospel excellently discovered in his Lectures upon the Ephesians might be the more welcom to those who have known the Terrors of the Lord or have their Senses exercised to discern spiritual things Upon the request of some we have also added a Discourse of the State of Glory for the Saints immediately after this Life being very suitable to Times of Suffering since it was the constant Method of the Apostles to keep up in the Eyes of the Primitive Saints the Glory of another World as what was proper to support them under the Sufferings of this And 't was one main design of the Transfiguration of Christ in the presence of Peter James and John who were to be great Sufferers in the Times of the New Testament as Moses and Elias had been under the Old intimating what the Saints in after Ages might expect in a Conformity to Christ after all their Sufferings We therefore judg both Treatises fitly joined together Punishments and Rewards being great Motives which God proposeth to Obedience and Perseverance in Holiness and are both necessary at this time to be urged the one to awaken hardened and secure Persons the other to encourage Christians to go on in a holy Course through all the difficulties of this degenerate Age. That both Discourses may be bless'd of God to the ends for which they were designed shall be the Prayer of Thankfull Owen James Barron The Contents HEb 10. 30 31. 2 Thes 1. 8 9. Rom. 22. explained at large from page 1 to 5. § I. Chap. 1. The Subject of the Discourse set out and reduced to 2 Heads 1. That God's Wrath is the immediate Cause of the Punishment of Sin in Hell 2. The dreadfulness of that Punishment inferred and argued therefrom from p. 5. to p. 8. Chap. 2. The first Sort of Proofs from divers Scriptures from p. 8. to p. 21. Chap. 3. Rom. 9. 23. explicated only so far as concerns the Execution Several particulars in the words that shew the power of God's Wrath to be the immediate inflicting Cause and immediately inflicting the Punishment An Explication of Rom. 2. 8 9. added for confirmation of all p. 21 to 35. Chap. 4. That this immediate Wrath of God is set forth in Scripture unto us under the similitude of Fire and fiery Indignation The Examples of persons devoured by Fire in the old Testament shadows of this Punishment by the immediate Wrath of God This the fire wherein the Devil and his Angels be tormented p. 36 to 55. Chap. 5. A second sort of proofs Demonstrations from Instances both of wicked and holy Men who have felt in this life Impressions of God's immediate Wrath And that such Impressions are Evidences of what in the fulness is in Hell p. 55. to 78. Chap. 6. Containing the Reasons 1. God's Justice 2. Avenging Wrath otherwise not satisfied A Demonstration added p. 78 to 111. Chap. 7. A fourth sort of additional Confirmations drawn from the Harmonies that are between it and other divine Truths p. 111 to 115. § II. The dreadfulness of the Punishment in Hell argued from all and each of the particulars treated of in the former section page 115 to 117. § 1. The first head of Demonstrations from this in general that it is a falling into the hands of God immediately p. 117 to 132. § 2. The 2d head of Demonstrations from the capacity of the Soul the subject of this Punishment and this that it is the destruction of the Soul p. 132 to 140. § 3. The 3d. head of Demonstration drawn from the final causes formerly mentioned As 1. The Glory of God 2. The manifestation of his Power p. 141 to 156. § 4. Demonstrations taken from the satisfying God's Justice which is the 2d particular Attribute p. 156 to 167. § 5. Demonstrations taken from the satisfying of avenging Wrath the 3d. particular Attribute p. 167 to 177. § 6. A fourth head of Demonstrations drawn from those Instances both of good and bad Men their having suffered those kind of Terrors in this life p. 177 to 191. § 7. The last head of Demonstrations that it is a falling into the hands of the living God and what that further superadds to the dreadfulness of the Punishment p. 191 to 197. § III. Some Vses Corollaries Meditations p. 197 to 257. A SERMON intituled An immediate State of Glory for the Spirits of Just Men upon dissolution demonstrated from 2 Cor. 5. 5. pag. 259. ad finem A DISCOURSE OF THE Punishment of Sin in HELL DEMONSTRATING That the Wrath of God is the immediate Cause of that PUNISHMENT HEB. 10. 30 31. For we know him that hath said Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord. And again The Lord shall judg his People It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God 2 THESS 1. 8 9. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power ROM 9. 22. What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endureth with much long-suffering the vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction WHat Hell and Destruction are is a Mystery as well as what Heaven is And the true and proper Notion or Conception of either are a Riddle to the most of Men. As Eye hath not seen Ear not heard nor hath it entred into the Heart of Man the Natural Man what God hath prepared for those that love him so nor what God hath prepared for them that hate him For it is the same and no other punishment but that which is prepared
Engravers when they would shew their best Art and chiefest Workmanship they cull out the choicest Materials as either precious Stones Cedar or Marble to work upon and so Embroiderers the finest Stuff or Cloth for the Ground-work they would embroider Gold or Pearls upon Thus hath God singled forth Angels and Men the chief of and more noble Creatures in the Stuff they consist of than the rest of his whole Creation Power and Wisdom is seen in other Creatures but Vindicative Justice as also Grace and saving Mercy only on Men and Angels And 2. Although he hath shewn forth more of Wisdom and Power in the Frame and Fabrick of Men and Angels than in the whole of Heaven and Earth yet still comparatively more of Justice and Mercy in these two than that all or any of the other Attributes shewn forth in and upon them comes unto Whereof this is sufficient evidence that they have the Name of Vessels of Mercy and Vessels of Wrath Rom. 9. You read nowhere that they are termed Vessels of Power or Vessels of Wisdom which is a Token that they are fill'd with these in that they carry away the Denomination which is usually à Principaliori as if no Attributes else in comparison seemed to appear and yet how much of Power and Wisdom is seen in the Fabrick of Man David tells us I am wonderfully or fearfully made So then those that shall prove to be the miserable Vessels of this his Wrath and Justice shall be so fill'd with a Punishment whereby this Justice is made known as shall deservedly bear the Name of Wrath and Judgment engraven upon it of all other Attributes The Day in which he will judg the World Acts 17. 31. is elsewhere called the Day of Destruction the Day of Wrath the Day of Judgment c. It beareth its Denomination from this very Work we speak of And further consider how he hath given out afore-hand almost six thousand years before concerning this Work above all Works else and hath posted it upon Enoch's Pillars you know the Tradition I allude to as you use to do Citations Jude 14 15. or as you do indicere diem set a Day for the most solemn Works Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied hereof saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all c. And further and besides God speaks of Preparations to have been all along made by him during the time of this World against that Day The Persons are a fitting Rom. 9. The Punishment a preparing prepared for the Devil and his Angels even from their very first Fall Now certainly God would never raise up in us by such words given out by himself so great expectations if the Reality the Execution the Thing it self should not answer to all these Yea after all his other Works of Wonder finished and perfected he professeth to come on purpose to be glorified And in what as well in rendring Vengeance in the Destruction of Wicked Men as in the glorifying his Saints 2 Thess 1. 6 7 8 9 10. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you And to you that are troubled Rest with us When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Who shall be punish'd with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe in that day He carries on the glorifying himself and of his Power in the one as well as in the other Yea and to render the Solemnity of this Work and Day yet greater he calls a General Assembly of all Men and Angels that are or have been or of Men that yet shall be in either Worlds to be present and see the Execution To conclude It is therefore called the Great Day as that Reserved to the Judgment of the Great Day Jude 6. and other Speeches And why the Great Day but from this Work of that Day that shall be done upon it which this Day shall then bring forth and produce As Days have their Stile and Denomination from the Work of the Day Opus diei in die suo So this as was said is called the Day of Destruction Wrath c. And if so then that Stile of Greatness must be from the Greatness of the Work that shall be done thereon And so the Judgment of the Great Day because great will the Judgment be that is to be executed on that Day Lastly God hath in the mean time suffered his Glory to be debased himself to be least regarded in the World Sin and the Devil to carry all before them and Sinners to have the Glory relieving himself in the mean time that he hath a Treasure of Glory to be broken up at that day Rom. 2. 3. When he will come on purpose to be glorious He hath suffered an Ecclipse of six thousand Years that in the end he may break forth with a redoubled Glory And all that Glory must come in this way even from this Punishment he shall execute And it must be a recovery of greater Glory than he should have had by Man's Holiness in that first State by Creation or God would never have let Sin have come into the World he meant not to be a Loser §. V. Demonstrations taken from the satisfying of Avenging Wrath The third particular Attribute I Come next to argue this from the third Attribute his Wrath or if you will his Power and Justice as intended and heightned to extremities by Wrath And though he will be just in what he doth yet it is Justice put on by Wrath. He recompenseth Sin not only as Rector Vniversi Judg of all the World and so upon the account of Publick Rules given forth to vindicate the equity and righteousness of which he punisheth the transgressions of them but over and above he doth it as resenting an Injury a personal Affront given to himself his Person and this draws forth his Wrath and Vengeance on his own behalf As it is termed Vengeance so Zeal in Heb. 10. 27. and 1 Cor. 10. 22. Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousy In Nahum 1. 2. See what a Conglomeration there is of Attributes and Effects God is jealous that 's the first He compares that in God unto that in Man which Solomon tell us is the Rage of Man Prov. 6. last Again 2. The Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth That is the Effect and he says it twice as speaking of one who is enflamed with Anger Then 3. To shew how fiercely in revenging he executes it even with Fury he adds The Lord revengeth and is furious who yet professeth elsewhere of himself Fury is not in me that is of my self it is not Isa 27. 4.
and God's Wrath. Again ver 10. destroyed of the Destroyer Who was the Destroyer then Angels So Heb. 11. 28. And what Destruction or Destroyer under the Gospel is it that is typified out by these even God Himself who as by Christ is said to kill the Soul and destroy Body and Soul in Hell So ere the Apostle took off his Pen from prosecuting that Argument in the very same Chapter he in full effect says as much in setting afore them how it was God's Power and Wrath instead of those other Destroyers with which Sinners have now to do ver 22. Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousie are you stronger than he I might confirm this Notion from other Types 1 Cor. 15. 44 45. This fore-laid To approach nearer to our purpose in hand there are two things further to be done 1. as touching the Type it self what kind of Fire that was which devoured them And the manner of their Deaths The Fire was another manner of Fire than this our Elementary common Fire This was Fire from Heaven and therefore said to be a Fire from the Lord that devoured them it was such a Fire as blasts of Lightning are which strike and blast and shrivel the Spirits of a Living Body in an instant which is evident by the manner of their Deaths The Hebrew Doctors say of it that it was a Fire which burnt their Souls not their Bodies their meaning is their Bodies were not consumed or devoured by it for Lev. 10. 5. 't is said They carried their Bodies and Coats into the Tent as untouch'd It was therefore such a Fire as Lightning is from Heaven which useth to strike and lick up Mens Spirits in an instant when yet in the mean time it consumes not breaks not so much as Skin or Flesh which our Elementary Fire preys first and most upon It was therefore a far subtiller Fire then Culinary or Kitchin Fire which suitably served as the fittest and nearest Type of this fiery Indignation and of the vengeance which it executes And this was but the Shadow The second is What the substance answering to these Types should be This I shall set out by two things 1. What is the thing or subject devoured by this fiery Indignation It is the immortal Souls of Men these are the Fewel which this Fire doth prey upon As to the truth of the thing it self I need not insist on it But the Analogy of that as the Shadow and this as typified thereby that is the matter afore me Let it be considered that the Death and Destruction of the immortal Soul in Man could not any other way be more lively shadowed forth than by such a devouring as Moses word is or licking up the vital and animal Spirits that run in the Body when yet the Body it self remains unburnt Thereby demonstrating that it was such a Fire as struck immediately at that which is the Fountain of Life it self in the Body and at that which is the Bond the Vinculum the Tye of Union between Soul and Body for such are those Spirits And yet not so much as to singe the outward bulk or carcase of the Body There could have been nothing invented in the whole compass of Nature to have born a resemblance so near to shadow forth the Immortal Soul as those spirits running in Man's Blood and Arteries do which some affirm to be the very Animal and Vital Soul in Man Sure I am they are as the Oyl whereby Life is preserved and fed and in the Blood is the Life says Moses our best Interpreter in this Neither doth this Shadow hold a Similitude in this particular only but in another like case as evidently The pouring forth of the Blood of the Beasts that were Sacrificed under the Old Law was particularly ordained to signify Christ his pouring forth his Soul unto Death as Esay speaks As well as in general that the Sacrifice of those Beasts did typifie forth Christ's Sacrifice in the whole of it And this was as near a Representation of that Particular as could any way be made by what was corporeal in Beasts or else in the whole Creation for a Sacrifice of Mankind or the Blood of Men God liked not to be made to him in his Worship could possibly have been found to pourtray it forth The second thing is that the substance shadowed forth by that Fire was no other than the Indignation or Wrath of the great God Himself which is termed Fiery Indignation here For Proof of which I insist not that some Shim thereof this Shadow it self doth cast in Moses his saying again and again in Terminis that a Fire from the Lord c. which hath a great Emphasis and Resemblance of this in it But for proof I ask First Where shall we find or how Omnes ignes hujus Mundi sunt ut ignis Pictus ad ignem 〈◊〉 shall we imagine any created Fire so to exceed that Fire from Heaven recorded in that Story and so far exceeding it as the Substance doth a Shadow or such as should melt down Immortal Souls You may sooner invent or imagine a Fire so much comparatively hotter than that of the Sun it self which is the contract of Fire and Light and so much exceeding it as should be able to shrivel up this Sun into a burnt black Coal as to imagine any such created Fire so transcending this of Lightning from Heaven as shall thus devour reasonable Souls and Immortal Spirits that in the substance of them as being Spirits do bear the image of God In what Furnace will you think to find such a Fire No where but in the Bosom of him who hath here said Vengeance is mine even of God himself 2. To confirm this What created Fire can be conceived more subtile or powerful than the Angels themselves are conceived to be whom as Heb. 1. 7. out of the Psalms the Apostle compareth to Flames of Fire that is in our European Language to Lightning Now then I ask when Christ says Mat. 25. 41. Go into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels shewing that Man's Punishment shall be from the same hand that the Punishment of those evil Angels is what Fire can be supposed such that can work on Angelical Natures who themselves have Power over Fire of Fire of Lightning from Heaven as in Jobs case was seen None other but that which as the Apostle resolves us if we will rest in it That our God is a consuming Rev. 14. Fire Heb. 12. ult So that considering the State and Condition of the Devil I cannot but celebrate that fore-cited conclusive Speech of Luthers Ira Dei est infernus Diaboli omnium damnatorum It is the Wrath of God that is the Hell of the Devil and of all the damned For there can be no other Fire in which the Devils can be tormented Outward washings may as soon reach Conscience as Heb. 9. 9. 1 Pet. 3. 21. as such created
all thy Life long For where there is a Register a Clerk of the Assize thus busy at work there is a Judg whose Officer he is Be wary therefore what thou dost Man Thou art surprized and undone if thou heedest not for all this is in order unto Judgment And as Letters written with Onion or Limon Juice appear not at the present so may not the Impresses of these sad Lines against thee yet bring but thy Soul to this Fire we have been speaking of and every Character Tittle yea Accent or Aggravation of Sin will be made visible and legible And hence it is the Books are said to be opened Rev. 20. 2. Again do you not hear daily the Noise of Cannon-shot from Heaven let off and the Bullets fly about your ears and see them strike this Man and that Man in your view It is the Apostle's Conviction to the Gentiles Rom. 1. 18. That therefore there is a Treasury of Wrath to come which he speaks of chap. 2. 4. because at present even in this World The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of Men that withhold the Truth in Vnrighteousness The meaning whereof is There is no sort or kind of Unrighteousness or Ungodliness but in the Instance or Example of some Man or other God hath by some manifest Judgment shewn his Wrath against it in the view and observation of the very Heathens themselves of and to whom it is he speaks this There was never a Nation of the Heathens but the Stories of it would have afforded a Theatre of God's Judgments against all sorts of Evils in in one Person or other singled out by Decimation as it were in this World to shew thereby that there was an hidden Wrath to come in the other World which would fall upon all the rest who yet escaped at present Those few and scattered Instances manifested a Treasury a Magazine of Wrath in Heaven his Phrase is from Heaven that is in and from God which the Heathens also were sensible of witness their Sacrifices of Atonement directed unto Heaven And this to be the Apostle's Scope is clearly seen in that he prosecutes this in the following Chap. 2. v. 1 2 3 4 5. Therefore thou art inexcusable O Man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest doest the same things But we are sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth against them which commit such things And thinkest thou this O Man that judgest them which do such things and doest the same that thou shalt escape the Judgment of God Or despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance But after thy hardness and impenitent Heart treasurest up unto thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God And unto this account you may put the enumeration of those Instances of Judgment made by the other Apostles as those upon the Angels that fell and on the Old World on Sodom and Gomorrah Corah c. whereof though some were outward and temporal Punishments yet because they were Evidences of that Wrath to come upon like impenitent Sinners both these Apostles do to that purpose allege them and make use thereof to beget this Belief in us For so expresly the one begins his Discourse thereof 2 Pet. 2. 3 4 5. Whose Judgment now of a long time lingreth not and their Damnation slumbreth not For if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment and spared not the Old World but saved Noah the eighth Person a Preacher of Righteousness bringing in the Flood upon the World of the Vngodly And turned the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into Ashes condemned them with an Overthrow making them an Ensample unto those that after should live ungodly Then the other Apostle adds Jude v. 7. They suffering the Vengeance of Eternal Fire The Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of Temptations and to reserve the Vnjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished Consider also what his Wrath hath been to whole Nations and how he says he will one day turn all the Nations into Hell that forget God as the Psalmist tells us Psal 9. 7. He hath Prisons large enough and Chains strong enough to hold them all When the Jews saw one hundred eighty thousand of the Assyrians Host killed in a night afore the very Walls of Jerusalem Fearfulness surprized the Hypocrites their Hearts melted with Terror to think what the Wrath of God must be for ever Isa 33. 14 c. USE Then learn to adore and fear the Greatness of our God to the end to turn to him Where he shews Favour his Favour is Life Psal 30. 5. yea his Loving-kindness is better than Life Psal 63. 3. Whom have I in Heaven but thee There needs no other there On the contrary if he be provoked there needs no other Judg or Avenger but himself I may say The Weapons of his VVarfare within himself are mighty to revenge all Disobedience This great General needs not borrow nor call in the Aid of his Creatures though in respect of their being his Militia he is stiled the Lord of Hosts to make War and destroy That very Face of his gives Life and strikes dead and kills In thy Presence is Fulness of Joy Psal 16. ult And from his Presence is Destruction 2 Thess 1. 9. O hide us say they Rev. 6. 16. from the Face of him that sits on the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb. They point to the Fountain of their Anguish and speak what above all was it they dreaded It is greatly observable what and how God talks to Job to this very purpose Says God to Job chap. 40. Wilt thou contend with me So verse 2. he begins to dare him Come says he let this be among other one Trial of thy Power who had been a Prince c. in comparison of mine Take upon thee as I mean to do and be Judg of all the World Put on thy Judges Robes and thy biggest Looks Thus verse 10. Deck thy self with Majesty and Excellency and array thy self with Glory and Beauty And particularly try try what thou canst do or effect when thou art most angry by thy meer Looks Cast abroad the Rage of thy Wrath v. 11. Throw Sparkles of thy most fiery Indignation from thine Eyes Canst thou look a Man dead and cover a Man's Face for ever with Confusion Look on every one that is proud and bring him low So vers 12. Hide them in the Dust together be they never so many and bind their Faces in secret that is cover them with Confusion of Face with a Look or Rebuke of thy Face make them run into Holes or seek Mountains to cover them
redeemeth thy Life from Destruction there is Salvation from Sin and Hell the privative part Who crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender Mercies over and above deliverance and satisfieth thy mouth with good things there you see also is the positive part You might observe the very same in this 49. Psalm Thou shalt redeem me c. and Thou shalt receive me By all that hath been spoken although you are saved from it yet look down into Hell a little as it hath been set out to you And think with your selves Hath God delivered me from so great a Death and given me such a deliverance as this from a death so dreadful and eternal also How would the Devils and Spirits in Prison prize an escape and deliverance from Wrath present and to come if they could be supposed capable thereof yea if they had no more A Nobleman or Favourite that hath run into great and high Treasons to have but meer Life given him how would he value it though he never saw the Court more nor were never restored unto his Estate and Dignities had he but wherewithal to live If a Man were in danger to be drowned and a Rope were thrown him and a Crown and bidden take his choice with promise Thou shalt be King of all the World if thou come to shore safe with the Crown on thy Head of the two he would in this case take hold of the Rope and refuse the Crown And why because it is Salvation and his Life But for a Man to be both wasted safe to shore and then arriving there to have this Crown besides how great Salvation would this be valued stupendous Grace and Love These things the Saints should consider chiefly unto two ends and purposes 1. To be thankful to God and Christ 2. To comfort their own Souls I. To be thankful both to God and Christ 1. To God the Father It was his part to contrive the whole design of our Salvation to the end to set forth his Love to us And the Scripture spreads afore us the Love of the Father herein upon this double consideration 1. That he appointed us not to Wrath which otherwise we should have in the issue and execution by reason of Sin fallen under 2. That he ordained us to Salvation You have an express Scripture for both these setting forth the Love of God the Father hereby 1 Thess 5. 9. God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation Here are first two parts of the Mercy vouchsafed 1. Deliverance from Wrath. 2. Salvation Then the Love of the Father in his not appointing us to Wrath and so not to leave us under it as well as appointing us to Salvation and both as appointments of God the one as well as the other And then in the second Epistle chap. 2. ver 13. he provokes them unto thankfulness for this But we are bound to give thanks always unto God for you who hath from the beginning chosen you unto Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth which he speaks with reference to what was done to others ver 12. compared Let me speak to you then in the Apostles Language Oh what thanks are your selves then bound if the Apostle gave them for others to give unto God for your selves to whom God hath given Faith and Holiness upon both these respects 2. To Jesus Christ for that hand which he had in this our Deliverance from Wrath thus expresly 1 Thess 1. ult Ye wait for his Son from Heaven even Jesus who delivered us from the Wrath to come Here again you have these two parts of Salvation set together 1. His coming from Heaven which they waited for with hopes of his carrying them thither as he tells them chap. 4. ver 17. We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then 2. which the Apostle adds with an Emphasis even Jesus who delivered us from the Wrath to come Take in that too says he and forget it not to endear your Jesus to you and for ever know him by this Character It is that Jesus who delivered you from the VVrath to come It was the Fathers work indeed to appoint and ordain this Deliverance and us unto the benefit of it through Faith but it was our Jesus his Son's work to effect and accomplish it 't was his Soul that paid for all And the manner or way how he delivered us from this Wrath heightens this his Love yet more for he delivered us from it by being made himself a Curse for us Gal. 3. 23. The second thing I propounded was To comfort your Souls in the consideration of this Salvation and Deliverance Thus Christ Psal 16. 9 10. for his deliverance Therefore my Heart is glad my Flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell thou wilt shew me the path of Life c. And David in the 49. Psalm which led on to this doth comfort himself also ver 15. when of wicked Men he had said Like Sheep they are put into Hell as some read it Death shall feed on them He then for his own particular comforts himself with this But God shall redeem my Soul from the power of Hell for he shall receive me And the Apostle to the Thessalonians epist 1. chap. 5. having ver 9. set before them as was afore opened that God had not appointed them to Wrath but to obtain Salvation he subjoins ver 11. Wherefore comfort your selves together FINIS An Immediate STATE OF GLORY FOR THE Spirits of Just Men upon Dissolution DEMONSTRATED BY THO. GOODWIN D. D. LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1680. 2 COR. 5. 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit THere is no Point of more moment to All nor of greater Comfort to Saints than what shall become of their Souls when they die 'T is our next Stage and things that are next use more to affect us And besides it is the beginning and a taking possession of our Eternity That these words should aim at this self-same thing cannot be discerned without consulting the fore-going part of the Apostle's Discourse and yet I cannot be large in bringing down the Coherence having pitched upon what this fifth Verse contributes unto this Argument which alone will require more than this time allotted having also very largely gone through the Exposition of the foregoing verses elsewhere and I now go but on where I left last But yet to make way for the understanding the Scope of my Text take The Coherence in brief thus In the 16th Verse of the fore-going Chapter where the Well-head of his Discourse is to be found he shews the extraordinary Care God hath of our inward Man to renew it day by day where Inward Man is strictly the Soul with its
Soul is left in upon its parting with the Body unless God takes it up into Glory First For its Rank or Kind of Being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first Creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kind thereof and in that respect considered apart for its Union with the Body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other Creatures but Angels are You have the Pedigree of Man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. The Extract of our Bodies in v. 26. He hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men. So then on that side as we say in respect of our Bodies there is a Consanguinity of all Men being made of one Blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are God's Off-spring v. 28. and so on that side there is an Alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and in the very substance of our Souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is only proper to his Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is stiled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies see the words Which Alliance or Fatherhood take it as in common with all Mens Spirits lieth in this That he not only created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which Image or Likeness other Creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of Men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others read it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for Creation differs from Generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas Generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our Bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but the Parents afford the matter and the formative virtue besides by which our Bodies are framed So then in respect of our first Creation our Souls apart considered are thus allied to God to which our Bodies are not being Spirits in the very Being of them that altogether do owe that their Being to him But there is a taint come upon the Souls of all Men by Sin so as this alliance is thereby worn out yea forfeited until it be restored Now therefore these Souls the only subject of our Discourse being such as God hath wrought and so are become his Workmanship by a new and far nobler Creation and thereby created Spirit anew according to what Christ says That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hereupon these Souls are Spirit upon a double account as you say of Sugar it is double-refined so this is now become a spiritual Spirit or Spirit spiritualized and sublimated yea and thereby the inward Sanctuary the Holy Rom. 7. 22. 25. of Holies the seat of God's most spiritual Worship which the Body is not but only as it is the outward Temple or Instrument of this new-made Spirit And hereupon that original Affinity to God of Spirit is not only restored but endeared for now there is both the stuff or the ground-work and then the workmanship or embroidery upon it and both of them the Works of God that so look as the Gold wrought upon commends the Enamel and then again the Enamel enhaunceth the value of the Gold so as both are considered in the price so it 's here with this Soul wrought by God in both respects §. Secondly Consider we now again the Case and outward Condition of such a Soul that of it self would fall out to it upon the Dissolution of the Body 1. It fails of all sorts of Comforts it had in and by its union with the Body in this World Luke 16. 9. When you fail says Christ speaking of Death 't is your City-phrase when any of you break and perhaps are thereby driven into another Kingdom as the Soul now is 2. Then if ever a Mans flesh and his heart fails Psal 73. 26. 3. And which is worse a Man's Faith faileth or ceaseth after Death and all his spiritual Knowledg as in this Life 't is the express phrase used 1 Cor. 13. at the 8th verse and which is prosecuted to the end of that Chapter And so all that communion it had with God in this Life is cut off It is of all Creatures left the most destitute and forlorn if God provides not And yet fourthly It is now upon Death which it never was afore immediately brought into the presence of God Naked Soul comes afore naked God Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God that gave it it is put out of house and home and turned upon its Father again This as to the Souls Condition II. God's part §. This is a special season for God to shew his Love to such a Soul if ever afore or after an opportunity such as falls not out neither afore whilst it was in the Body nor after when it is united to the Body again at the Resurrection if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor Soul which is his so neer Kindred and Alliance it must be done now We read in Psal 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth as at Death to be sure it doth but God is the strength of my Heart both in this Life and at Death to support me and my portion for ever in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time as that ever imports and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come when Heart and Flesh and all in this World he foresaw would fail him is evident by what he had immediately meditated in the words afore ver 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel so in this Life and afterwards that being ended shall receive me unto Glory The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again ver 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee for all things else will fail me one day when my Flesh utterly fails me also And There is none upon Earth where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters in comparison of thee You see God is the portion of the whole of his time even for ever as ver 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them and no middle state between both but when the one ceaseth the other begins for between them two must be the for ever and when all fail him