portion Else it could never be a satisfying vision Iob 19.27 Whom I shall see for my self Not look on him as anothers God but as my God and Portion for ever Balaam saw Christ by a spirit of prophecy but he had no comfort because no interest in him Numb 24.17 The wicked shall see him but without joy yea with weeping eyes and gnashing of teeth because they cannot see him as their Lord Luke 13.28 'T is but a poor comfort to starving beggars to stand quivering and famishing in the streets in a cold dark night and see the lights in the bridegrooms house the noble Dishes served in and to hear the Musick and mirth of the Guests that feast within Here it will be as clear that he is our God as that he is God Assurance is that which many Souls have desired prayed and panted for but cannot attain There be many rubbs and stumbling blocks in the way to that sweet enjoyment but here we find what we have been so long seeking there be no doubts scruples objections puzling cases to exercise your own or others thoughts But as these did arise from one of these grounds viz the working of corruption the efficacy of temptation or divine withdrawments and the hidings of Gods face so all these being removed perfectly and for ever in that state the Heavens must needs be clear and not a cloud of doubt or fear to be seen for ever 4. It will be a deeply affecting sight your eye will now so affect your hearts as they were never affected before The first view of God will snatch away your hearts to him as a greater flame doth the less Love will not now distill from the heart as Waters from a cold Still but gush out as from a Sluce or flood-Gate pulled up The Soul will not move after God so deadly and slowly as it doth now but be as the Chariots of Aminadab Can. 6.12 We may say of the fraÌ„mes of our hearts there compared with what they are here as it is said Deut. 12.8 9. You shall not love or delight in God as you do this day If the perfection of that state would admit shame or sorrow how should we blush and mourn in Heaven to think how cold our love and how low our delights in God were on Earth 1 John 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God Look as Iron put into the fire becomes all fiery so the Soul dwelling in the God of love becomes all love all delight all joy O what transports must that Soul feel that abides under the line of love feels the perpendicular beams of electing creating redeeming preserving love beating powerfully upon it and melting it into love See some of their transports Rev. 5.13 14. 5. It will be an everlasting vision of God 1 Thes. 4.17 So shall we be ever with the Lord ever with the Lord who can find words to open the deep sence of these few words Vacabimus videbimus videbimus amabimus amabimus laudabimus in fine fine fine said blessed Austine This is the everlasting Sabbath which hath no night Rev. 22.4 5. The eternal happiness purchased for the Saints by the invaluable blood of Christ. If one hours enjoyment of God in the way of faith be so sweet and no price can be put upon it nothing on earth taken in exchange for it what must a whole Eternity in the immediate and full visions of that blessed face in Heaven be Well then if such sights as these immediately succeed the sight you have on Earth either by sense of things natural or by reason of things intellectual or by faith of things spiritual who that believes the truth and expects the fulfilling of such promises as these would not not be willing to have his eyes closed by death as soon as God shall please I have read of an holy man that had sweet Communion with God in Prayer who in the close of his duty cryed out claudimini oculi mei claudimini c. be shut O my eyes be shut you shall never â—ee any thing on Earth like that I have now seen Ah little do the Friends of dead Believers think what visions of God what ravishing sights of Christ the Souls of their Friends have when they are closing their eyes with tears Argument VIII THE consideration of the evil days that are to come should make the people of God willing to accept of an hiding place in the grave as a special favour from God It is accounted an act of favour by God Isa. 57.1 2. to be taken away from the evil to come â—â—ere are two kinds of evils to come the evil of sin and the evil of sufferings Sins to come are terrible to gracious hearts when temptations shall be at their height and strength O what warping and shrinking what dissembling yea downright denying the known truths and ways of God may you see every where Many consciences will then be wounded and wasted Many scandals and rocks of offence will be rolled into the way of godliness Christ will be exposed and put to open shame Should we only be spectators of such Tragedies as these it were enough to overwhelm a gracious and tender heart but what upright heart is there without fears and jealousies of being brought under the guilt of these evils in it self as well as the shame and grief for them in others O it were a thousand times better for you to die in the purity and integrity of your consciences than to protract a miserable life without them O think what a world it is that you are like to leave behind you in respect of sin to come And as there are many evils of sin to come so there are many evils of sufferings coming on The days of visitation are come the days of recompence are come and Israel shall know it Hos. 9.7 All the sufferings you have yet met with have been in Books and Histories you never saw the Martyrdome of the Saints but in the Pictures and Stories But you will find it quite another thing to be the Subjects of these cruelties than to be the meer Readers or Relators of them 'T is one thing to see the painted Lion on a sign Post and another to meet the living Lion roaring upon you Ah! little do we imagine how the hearts of men are convulst what fears what faintings invade their Spirits when they are to meet the King of terrors in the frightful formalities of a violent death The consideration of these things will discover to you the reason of that strange wish of Job chap. 14. v. 13. Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the Grave that thou wouldst keep me in secret until thy wrath be past And it deserves a serious thought that when the holy Ghost had in Rev. 14.9 10 11 12. described the miserable plight of those poor Souls who being overcome by their own fears and the love of this this World should plunge
25 will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Iob 27.9 no no he will not and this is but a just retribution from the righteous God whose calls and counsels men have set at nought but whatever men now think of it it is certainly the greatest misery incident to man in all the world for as no words can make another fully sensible what a priviledge it is to have the ear favour pity and help of God in a day of straits so it is impossible for any words to express the doleful state and case of that Soul whom God casts off in trouble and whose cryes he shuts out 5 Beware of neglecting any Call of God because that Call you are now tempted to neglect may be the last Call that ever God intendeth to give thy Soul Sure I am there is a Call which will be the last Call of God to rebellious Sinners and after that no more Calls but an eternal deep silence his Spirit shall not always strive with man and the more motions and calls you have already slighted the more probable it is that this may be the last Voice of God in a way of Mercy to thy Soul and what if after this God should seal up thy heart and judicially harden it make thy will utterly inflexible and thine ears deaf as he threatens Isa 6.10 What an undone miserable man or woman art thou then O beware of provoking the forest of all Judgments by persisting any longer in a course of rebellion against Light and Mercy 6 Whilst your hearts put off and neglect the Calls of God you can never by any means arrive to the evidence and assurance of your Election for your Election is only secured to you by your effectual calling 2 Pet. 1.10 there is no way for men to discern their Names written in the Book of Life but by reading the work of Sanctification in their own hearts Rom. 10.8 I desire no miraculous Voice from Heaven no extraordinary signs or unscriptural notices and informations in this matter Lord let me but find my heart complying with thy calls my will obediently submitting to thy commands Sin my burden and Christ my desire I will never crave a fairer or surer evidence of thy electing love to my Soul and if I had an Oracle from Heaven an extraordinary Messenger from the other World to tell me thou lovest me I have no reason to give credit to such a Voice whilst I find my heart wholly sensual averse to God and indisposed to all that is spiritual 7. What reason have you why you should not presently embrace the Call of God and thankfully lay hold upon the first opportunity and season of Salvation Have you any greater matters in hand than the Salvation of your precious Souls Is there any thing in all this world that more concerns you If the affairs of this life be so indispensably necessary and those of the world to come so indifferent if you think that meat and drink trade and business wife and children be such great things and Christ Soul and Eternity such little things or if you think the Salvation be a work of the greatest necessity yet it may safely enough be put off to a time of uncertainty I may assure you you will not long be of this mind How soon are all the mistakes of men in these matters rectified in a few moments after death Rectified I say but not remedied your opinion will be changed but not your condition 8. Do you not every day easily and readily obey the Calls of Satan and your own Lusts whilst God and Conscience are suffered to call and strive with you in vain If Satan or your Lusts call you to the Tavern to the World and your sinful Pleasures you speedily comply with their Call and yield a ready obedience if Pride call if Covetousness call if Passion and Revenge call they need not call twice and shall God call and Conscience call only in vain Lord what a Creature is Man become If a vain Companion call you have no power to deny him if God call you have no ear to hear him 9. You cannot but observe the obedience and diligence of many others how seriously painfully and assiduously they ply and follow on the work of their own Salvation and yet they are no more concerned in the events and consequences of these things than you are Doth it not trouble you when you compare your selves with them Do not such thoughts as these sometimes arise in your hearts upon such observations Lord what a difference is there like to be betwixt their end and mine when there is so apparent a difference in our course and conversation Doth not God distinguish persons in this world by the frames of their hearts and tenor of their lives in order to the great distinction he will make betwixt one and another in the Day of Judgment Have not I as precious a Soul to save or lose as any of them What is the matter that I sit with folded arms whilst they are working out Salvation with fear and trembling Why should any man or woman in the world be more careful for their Souls than I for mine Surely its capacity and excellency is equal with theirs though our care and diligence be so unequal 10. To conclude God will shortly give you an irresistible Call to the Grave and after that his Voice shall call to you in your Graves Arise ye dead and come to Iudgment but wo be to you wo and alas that ever you were born if you should hear the Call of God to dye before you have heard and obeyed his Call to Christ. Will your Death-bed be easie to you Can you with any hope or comfort shoot the Gulph of Eternity before you have done one act for the securing your Souls from the wrath to come 'T is a dreadful thing for a poor Christless Soul to sit quivering up on the lips of a dying Sinner not able to stay nor yet to endure a parting pull from the Body in such a case as it is In a word if the God that made and will shortly judge you if the Redeemer that shed his invaluable Blood and now offers you the purchaces and benefits of it if you have any love to or care of your own Souls which are more worth than the whole world if you have any value for Heaven or dread of Hell then for Gods sake for Christs sake for your precious Souls sake trifle with Heaven and Hell no longer but be in earnest to work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling Could I think of any other means or motives that might secure your Souls from danger I would surely use them Could I reach your hearts effectually I would deeply impress this great concern upon themâ—punc but I can neither do Gods part of the work nor yours it is some ease to me I have in sincerity though with much imperfection and feebleness done part of my own
18.14 the King of Terrors or the Black Prince or the Prince of Clouds and Darkness as some translate that place we read it the King of Terrors meaning that the Terrors at Death are such Terrors as subdue and keep down all other Terrors under them as a Prince doth his Subjects Other Terrors compared with those that the Soul conceives and conflicts with at parting are no more than a cut Finger to the laying ones Head on the Block O the Soul and Body are strongly twisted and knit together in dear Bands of intimate Union and Affection and these Bands cannot be broken without much strugling Oh 't is a hard thing for the Soul to bid the Body farewel 't is a bitter parting a doleful separation Nothing is heard in that Hour but the most deep and emphatical Groans I say emphatical Groans the deep sense and meaning of which the Living are but little acquainted with for no Man Living hath yet felt the Sorrows of a parting pull what ever other Sorrows he hath felt in the Body yet they must be supposed to be far short of these The Sorrows of Death are in Scripture set forth unto us by the bearing-Throes of a Travelling Woman Acts 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what those mean many can tell the Soul is in labour it will not let go its hold of the Body but by Constraint Death is a close Siege and when the Soul is beaten out of its Body it disputes the passage with Death as Souldiers use to do with an Enemy that enters by Storm and fights and strives to the last It 's also compared to a Battle or sharp Fight Eccles. 8.8 that war That war with an Emphasis No Conflict so sharp each labour to the utmost to drive the other from the ground they stand on and win the field And tho' Grace much over-power Nature in this matter and reconcile it to Death and make it desire to be dissolved yet Saints wholely put not off this Reluctation of Nature 2 Cor. 5.2 Not that we would be uncloathed as it is with one willing to wade over a Brook to his Fathers House puts his Foot into the Water and feels it cold starts back and is loth to venture in Not that we would be uncloathed And if it be so with Sanctified Souls how is it think you with others Mark the Scripture-Language Iob 27.8 God taketh away their Souls saith our Translation but the Root is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extrahere and signifies to put out by plain Force and Violence A Graceless Soul dieth not by Consent but Force Thus Adrian bewailed his Departure O Animula vagula blandula hen quo vadis Yea though the Soul have never so long a time been in the Body though it should live as long as any of the Antediluvian Father's did for many Hundred Years yet still it would be loth to part yea though it endure abundance of Misery in the Body and have little Rest or Comfort but time spent in Griefs and Fears yet for all that loth to part with it All this shews a strong inclination and affection to it 5. It 's desire of Re-union continuing still with it in its state of Separation speaks its Love to the Body As the Soul parted with it in Grief and Sorrow so it still retains even in Glory an inclination to Re-union and waits for a Day of Re-espousals and to that sense some searching and judicious Men understand those words of Iob Iob 14.14 If a Man die shall he live again viz. by a Resurrection if so then all the Days of my appointed Separation my Soul in Heaven shall wait till that Change come And to the same sense is that Cry of Separated Souls Rev. 6.9 10 11. How long O Lord how long i.e. to the Consummation of all things when Judgment shall be executed on them that killed our Bodies and our Bodies so long absent restored to us again In that Day of Resurrection the Souls of the Saints come willingly from Heaven it self to repossess their Bodies and bring them to a Partnership with them in their Glory for it is with the Soul in Heaven as it is with an Husband who is richly entertained feasted and lodged abroad but his dear Wife is solitary and comfortless it abates the compleatness of his joy Therefore we say the Saints joy is not consummate till that day There is an exercise for Faith Hope and desires on this account in Heaven The Union of Soul and Body is natural their Separation is not so many benefits will redound to both by re-union and the Resurrection of the Body is provided by God as the grand relief against those prejudices and losses the Bodies of the Saints sustain by Separation I say not that the propension or inclination of the Soul to re-union with its Body is accompanied with any perturbation or anxiety in its state of Separation for it enjoys God and in him a placid rest and as the Body so the Soul rests in hope 't is such a hope as disturbs not the rest of either yet when the time is come for the Soul to be re-espoused it is highly gratified by that second Marriage glad it is to see its old dear companion as two Friends after a long Separation And so much of the evidence of the Souls love to the Body II. Next we are to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of its love and inclination to the Body And 1. First the fundamental Ground and Reason thereof will be found in their natural Vnion with each other There my Text lays it No man ever yet hated his own flesh Mark the Body is the Souls own And this is no more than necessary for the conservation of the spâ—cies else the body would be neglected exposed and quickly perish being had in no more regard than any other Body they are strictly married and related to each other the Soul hath a propriety in its Body these two make up or constitute one Person true they are not essentially one they have far different Natures but they are personally one and though the Soul be what it was after its Separation yet to make a Man the who he was i e the same compleat and perfect Person they must be re-united hence springs its love to the Body Every man loves his own Iohn 17.19 All the World is in love with its own and hence it cares to provide for its welfare 1 Tim 5.8 If any man provide not for his own he is worse than an Infidel For nature teacheth all men to do so Why are Children dearer to the Parents than to all others but because they are their own Iob 19.17 But our Wives our Children our Goods are not so much our own as our Bodies are this is the nearest of all natural Unions In this propriety and relation are involved the Reasons and Motives of our love to and care over the Body which is no more than what is necessary
that their lives were cheap and low priz'd things for his enjoyment And here indeed is the glory and triumph of a Christians Faith and love to Christ For 1 it enables him to part chearfully with what he sees and feels for what his eyes yet never saw 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love 2 To part with what is dearest on earth and lies nearest the heart of all he enjoys for Christ's sake 3 To reconcile his heart to what is most abhorrent and formidable to nature 4 To endure the greatest of pains and torments to be with him 5 To cast himself into the vast Ocean of Eternity the most amazing change to be with Christ. O the glorious Conquests of Love Inference II. THen the Apostasie of unregenerate Professours in times of eminent danger is not to be wondered at They will and must warp from Christ when their lives are in hazard for him The love of the Body will certainly prevail over their love to Christ and Religion Amor meus pondus meum Self-love will now draw Love is the weight of the Soul which inclines and determines it in the competition of Interests and the predominant Interest always carries it Every Unregenerate Professor loves his own life more than Christ prefers his body before his Soul such a one may upon divers accounts as Education Example slight Convictions of Conscience or Ostentation of gifts fall into a Profession of Religion and continue a long time in that Profession before he visibly recede from Christ hope of the Resurrection of the Interest of Religion in the World Shame of retracting his Profession Applause of his Zeal and Constancy in higher Tryals The Peace of his own Conscience and many such Motives may prevail with a Carnal Professor to endure a while but when dangers of life come to an height they are gone Matth. 24.8 9 10. And therefore our Lord tells us that they who hate not their lives cannot be his Disciples Luke 12.26 Now will they lose their lives by saving them Matt. 16.25 And the Reasons are plain and forcible For 1. Now is the proper season for the predominant love to be discovered it can be hid no longer And the love of life is the predominant love in all such persons For do but compare it with their love to Christ and it will easily be found so They love their lives truly and really they love Christ but feignedly and pretendedly and the real will and must prevail over the feigned love They love their lives fervently and intensely they love Christ but coldly and remissly And the fervent love will prevail over the the remiss love Their love to their Bodies hath a root in themselves their love to Christ hath no root in themselves Matth. 13.21 and that which hath a root must needs outlast and outlive that which hath none 2. Because when life is in hazard Conscience will work in them by way of Discouragement 't will hint the danger of their eternal state to them and tell them they may cast away their Souls for ever in a Bravado for though the cause they are called to suffer for be good yet their Condition is bad and if the Condition be not good as well as the Cause a Man is lost for ever though he suffer for it 1 Cor. 13.3 Conscience which encourages and supports the upright will daunt and appall the Hypocrite and tell him he is not on the same terms in Sufferings that other men are 3. Because then all the Springs by which their profession was fed and maintained fail and dry up Now the wind that was in their backs is come about and blows a storm in their faces There are no Preferment nor Honours now to be had from Religion These mens Sufferings are a perfect Surprize to them for they never counted the cost Luke 14.28 Now they must stand alone and resist unto bloud and sacrifice all visibles for invisibles and this they can never do O therefore Professors look to your hearts try their predominant love compare your love to Christ with that to your lives Now the like question will be put to you that once was put to Peter John 21.15 Lovest thou me more than these What say you to this You think now you do but alas your love is not yet brought to the fire to be tryed You think you hate sin but will you be able to strive unto blood against sin Hebr. 12.4 Will you chuse suffering rather than sin Iob 36.21 O try your love to Christ before God bring it to the tryal Sure I am the love of life will make you warp in the hour of Temptation except 1. You sate down and counted the cost of Religion before-hand if you set out in Profession only for a Walk not for a Iourney if you go to Sea for Recreation not for a Voyage if you be mounted among other Professors only to take the air and not to engage an enemy in sharp and bloudy Encounters you are gone 2. Except you live by Faith and not by Sense 2 Cor. 4.18 Whilst we look not at the things that are seen You must ballance present Sufferings with future glory You must go by that account and reckoning Rom. 8.18 or you are gone Now the just shall live by faith and if Faith don't support your fears will certainly sink you 3. Except you be sincere and plain-hearted in Religion driving no Design in it but to save your Souls else see your lot in that Example 2 Tim. 4.10 Demas hath forsaken me O take heed of a cunning subdolous double heart in Religion be plain be open care not if your ends lay open to the eyes of all the World 4. Except you experience the power of Religion in your own Souls as well as wear the name of it O my Brethren 't is not a name to live that will do you service now Many Ships are gone down to the bottom for all the brave Names of the Success the Prosperous the Haypy return and so will you There is a knowing in our selves by taste and real experience Hebr. 10.34 which doth a Soul more service in a Suffering hour than all the splendid Names and Titles in the World 5. Except you make it your daily work to crucify the Flesh deny self for Christ in all the Forms and Interests of it He that can't deny himself will deny Jesus Christ Matth. 26.24 let him deny himself take up his Cross and follow me else he can't be my Disciple Ponder these things in your hearts whilst yet God delays the Tryal Inference III. IF the Souls of men be naturally so strongly inclin'd and affected towards the Body then hence you may plainly see the Wisdom of God in all the Afflictions and Burdens he lays upon his people in this World and find that all is but enough to wean off their Souls from their Bodies and make them willing to part with them The life of the Saints in this World
that are intitled to it and may confidently expect to be received into it To be sure not the presumptuous who make a Bridge of their own Shadows and so fall and perish in the waters Brethren it is one of the most solemn enquiries you were ever put upon And therefore I beseech you see whether your Characters set you among those men or no. 1. First Those that are new-born shall be cloathed with their new house from Heaven when death uncloathes them of these Tabernacles The New Ierusalem hath 〈◊〉 but new-born Inhabitants 1 Pet. 1.3 4. and Christ tells us Iohn 3.3 all others are excluded Glory is the Priviledge of Grace Let nature be adorned and cultivated how it will if not renewed by grace there 's no hope of Glory You must be born again or turned back again from the Gates of Heaven disappointed You must be regenerated or damned This alters the temper of thy heart and suits it to the life of God which is indispensably necessary to them that shall live with him Else Heaven would be no Heaven to us Rom. 8.7 and therefore we must be wrought this way to it 2 Cor. 5 5. No Priviledge of Nature no Duties of Religion avail without this Gal. 6.15 If Morality without Regeneration could bring men to Heaven Why are not the Heathens there If strictness in Duty without Regeneration Why not the Pharisees there Believe it neither Names nor Duties no nor the Blood of Christ ever did or shall bring one Soul to glory without it O then thou that boastest of an house in Heaven lay thine hand on thy heart and ask it Am I a new Creature i.e. Am I renewed 1 in my state and condition 1 Iohn 3.14 past from death to life 2 In my frame and temper Eph. 5.8 once darkness now light in the Lord. 〈◊〉 In my Practice and Conversation Eph. 2.12 13.1 Cor. 6.11 if not my Soul is destitute of an habitation in the City of God and when I die my Body must lie in the lonely house of the Grave that dark Vault and Prison and my Soul be shut out from God into outer darkness 2. Secondly Those that live as Strangers and Pilgrims on earth seeking a better place and state than this World affords them for them God hath made preparations in glory Hebr. 11.13 16. If you be strangers on earth you are the Inhabitants of Heaven Now there be six things included in this Character 1. They look not on this World as their own home nor on the people of it as their own people 2 Cor. 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be unpeopled These are none of my fellow Citizens we must go two ways at death 2. They set not their affections on things present as their portion 2 Cor. 4.18 Psal. 17.13 14. Their Bodies are here their Hearts in Heaven 3 Their carriage and manner of life not like the men of this World 1 Pet. 4.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Rule guides them Rom. 12.2 and so their course is steered at least intended Philip. 3.20 our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Trade is in Heaven 4 Their Dialect and Language differs from the Natives of this World Their Language is earthly 1 Iohn 4.5 6. but these have a pure lip Zeph. 3.9 5 Their Society and chosen Companions are not of this World Psal. 16.3 They are a Company of themselves Act. 4 21. 6 Their Spirit and temper of heart is not after the World 1 Cor. 2.12 They have another Spirit Numb 14. 24. These things discover us to be strangers on earth and consequently the men for whom God hath prepared heavenly Habitations when we die 3. Thirdly Those that live and die by faith shall not fail to be received into a better Habitation by death This is another Character of them that shall be recâ—â—ved into glory laid down in the same place Hebr. 11.13 They lived by faith and when they died they died embracing the promises which is Characteristical of those that shall dwell in that heavenly City and implies 1 Intimate acquaintance with the promises they are things well known and familiarized to them The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salutantes Saluting them is a Metaphor from the manner of parting betwixt two dear and intimate Friends The Faith of a Christian embraces the promises in its arms as dear friends use to do at parting and saith farewell sweet promises from which I have sucked out so much relief and refreshment in all the troubles of my life I must now live no more by faith on you but by sight O you have often cheared my Soul and been my Song in the house of my Pilgrimage 2. It implies the firm credit that a Believer gives to things unseen upon the grounds of the promises as if he did sensibly take and grasp them in his very arms and bosome They take Christ and all the invisible things in the promises into their sensible embraces 1 Pet. 1.8 faith is to them instead of eyes 3 It implies the sincerity of a Believers profession who dare trust to that at last gasp which he professed to believe in the midst of life and the Comforts of this World As he professed to believe in health so you shall find his Actings when his eye and heart strings are cracking Rom. 14.9 Christ in the promises was his professed joy in life and this is what he grasps at death and lays his last hold on 4 It shews you whence all a Believers comfort comes in life and death O 't is from the promises Christ in the promises is the Spring of their Consolation This they fetch their comfort from when the World cannot administer one drop of refreshment to them There be two great works faith performs for the Saints one in life the other in death In life it is the Principle of Mortification to their sins in death it is the spring of Consolation to their hearts It makes them die whilst they live and live when they die 4. Fourthly Those that love the Person and Appearance of Christ have a mark that sets them among the Inhabitants of Heaven and Glory 2 Tim. 4.8 but then this love must be 1 Sincere and without Hypocrisie 2 Supream and above all other beloveds 3 Conforming the Soul to Christ if sincere and supream it will be transformative 4 Longing to be with him Such love is a mark of Souls for whom Heaven is prepared Inference III. MUst we put off our Tabernacles and that shortly What a Spur is this to a diligent â—edemption and improvement of time This is the use Peter made of it here and every one of us should make It was said of Bishop Hooper he was spare in his diet spare in his words but most of all spare of his time You have but a little time in these Tabernacles what pity is it to waste much out of a little 1 Great is the worth and excellency of time all the Treasures of the World cannot
and it's Body in the Grave This associated with Angels that prey'd upon by Worms Ioseph's case is the liveliest Embleme that occurs to my present thoughts to illustrate the point in hand He was advanced to be Lord over all Aegypt living in the greatest pomp and splendor there Gen. 43.29 30 31. but his Father and Brethren were at the same time ready to perish in the land of Canaan He had been many years separated from them but neither the length of time nor honours of the Court could alienate his affections from them O see the mighty power of Relation No sooner doth he see his Brethren and understand their case and the pining condition of Iacob his Father but his bowels yearned and his compassions rolled together for them Yea he could not forbear nor stifle his own affections though he knew how injurious his Brethren had been to him and betrayed him as the Body hath the Soul Yet all this notwithstanding he breaks forth into tears and outcries over them which made the house ring again with the news that Ioseph's brethren were come Nor could he be at rest in the lap of honour and plenty until he had gotten home his dear and ancient Relations to him Thus stands the case betwixt Soul and Body Argument III. THE regret reluctancy and sorrows expressed by the Soul at parting do strongly argue its inclination to a re-union with it when it is actually separated from it For why should we surmise that the Soul which mourn'd and groan'd so deeply at parting which clasp'd and embraced it so dearly and affectionately which fought strugled and disputed the passage with death every foot and inch of ground it got and would not part with the Body till by plain force it was rent out of its arms should not when absent desire to see and enjoy its old and endeared friend again Hath it lost its affection though it continue its relation that 's very improbable Or doth its advancement in Heaven make it regardless of its Body which lies in contempt and misery that 's an effect which Christs personal glory never produced in him towards us nor a good mans perferment would produce in him to his poor and miserable friends in this World as we see in the case of Ioseph but now instanced in It is therefore harsh and incongruous to suppose the Souls love to the Body was extinguished in the parting hour and that now out of sight out of mind Object But was it not urged before in opposition to this assertion that the Souls of the righteous looked upon their Bodies as their Prisons and sighed for deliverance by death and greatly rejoiced in the hope and foresight of that liberty death would restore them to How doth this consist with such reluctancies at parting and inclinations to re-union Sol. The objection doth not suppose any man to be totally free from all reluctancies and unwillingness to die The holiest Souls that ever lived in Bodies of flesh will give an unwilling shrug when it comes to the parting point 2 Cor. 5.2 But this their willingness to be gone arises from two other grounds which make iâ— consistent enough with its reluctancies at parting and inclination to a second meeting 1 This willingness to die doth not suppose the Souls love to the Body to be utterly extinguished but mastered and overpowered by another and stronger love There is in every Christian a double love one natural to the Body and the things below the other supernatural to Christ and the things above the latter doth not extinguish though it conquer and subdue the other Love to the Body pulls backward love to Christ pulls forward and finally prevails This is so consistent with it that it supposes natural reluctation and unwillingness to part 2 The willingness of Gods people to be dissolved must not be understood absolutely but comparatively In that sense the Apostle will be understood 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. i. e. Rather than to live always a life of sin sorrow and absence from God Death is not desireable in and for it self but only as it is the Souls outlet from sin and its inlet to God So that the very best desire it but comparatively and it is but few who find the love of this animal life subacted and overpowered by high raised acts of faith and love The generality even of good Souls feel strong renitencies and suffer sharp conflicts at their dissolution All which discovers with what lothness and unwillingness the Soul unclasps its arms to let go its Body Now as Divines argue the frame of Christs heart in Heaven toward his people on earth from all those endearing passages and demonstrations of love he gave them at parting so we here argue the continued love and inclination of the Soul to its Body after it is in Heaven from the manifold demonstrations it gave of its affection to it in this World especially in the parting hour No considerations in all the World less than the more full fruition of God and freedom from sin could possibly have prevailed with it to quit the Body though but for a time and leave it in the dust Which is our third Argument Argument IV. AND as the dolorous parting hour evidenceth it so doth the joy with which it receives it again at the Resurrection If it part from it so heavily and meet it again with joy unspeakable sure then it still retained much love for it and desires to be re-espoused to it in the interval Now that its meeting in the Resurrection is a day of joy to the Soul is evident because it is called the time of refreshment Acts 3.19 And they awake with singing out of the dust Isai. 26.19 If the direct and immediate scope of the Prophet point not as some think it doth at the Resurrection yet it is allowed by all to be a very lively allusion to it which is sufficient for my purpose And indeed none that understands and believes the design and business of that day can possibly doubt but there was reason enough to call it a time of refreshment a singing morning for the Souls of the righteous come from Heaven with Christ and the whole host of shouting Angels not to be speclators only but the subjects of that days triumph They come to re-assume and be re-espoused to their own Bodies this being the appointed time for God to vindicate and rescue them from the tyrannical power of the Grave to endow them with spiritual qualities at their second marriage to their Souls that in both parts they may be compleatly happy O the joyful claspings and dear embraces betwixt them who but themselves can understand And by the way this removes the objection forementioned of the miseries and prejudices the Soul suffered in this world in and from the Body For now it receives it a spiritual Body i.e. so
be too well secured Many Souls never spent one solemn hour in a close and serious debate about this matter others have taken a great deal of pains about it they have broken many nights sleep poured out many prayers made many a deep search into their own hearts walked with much conscientious watchfulness and tenderness proposed many a serious case of Conscience to the most judicious and skilful Ministers and Christians and after all their security is not such as fully satisfies and probably one reason of it may be the great weight wherewith the matters of their Salvation lye upon their spirits O that these Soul-concerns did bear upon all as they do upon some it requires more time more thoughts more prayers to make these things sure than most are aware of Inference III. IF the Soul be so precious then cetainly it is the special care of Heaven that which God looks more particularly after than any other Creature on Earth There is an active vigilant Providence that superintends every Creature upon Earth there is not the most despicable diminutive Creature that lives in the World left without the line of Providence God is therefore said to give them all their meat in due season and for that end they all wait upon him Psal. 104.27 as a great and provident House-keeper orders daily convenient provisions for all his Family even to the least and lowest among them the smallest Insects and Gnats which swarm so thick in the Air and of the usefulness of whose Being it is hard to give an account yet as the incomparably learned Dr. More well observes Antidote p. 82. these all find nourishment in the World which would be lost if they were not and are again convenient nourishment themselves to others that prey upon them But Man is the peculiar special care of God and the Soul of man much more than the body Hence Christ fortifies the Faith of Christians against all distrusts of Divine Providence even from their Excellency above other Creatures Matth. 10.31 Ye are of more value than many sparrows and Matth. 6.26 your heavenly Father feeds the Fowls of the Air and are ye not much better than they and vers 30. he cloaths the grass of the field and shall he not much more cloath you And so the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.9 Doth God take care for oxen or saith he it altogether for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written In all which places the dignity of man above all Animals and Vegetables in respect of both natural Excellency of his reasonable Soul but especially the gracious endowments of it which endear it far more to its Maker this is the very hing of the Argument and a firm ground for the Believers Faith of Gods tender care over both parts but especially the Soul The body of a Believer is Gods Creature as well as his Soul but that being of less value hath not such a degree of care and tenderness expressed towards it as the Soul hath the Fathers care is not so much for the Childs cloaths as it is for the Child himself Besides the immediate wants and troubles of the Soul which are Idiopathetical are far more sharp and pinching than those it suffers upon the bodies account which are but Sympathetical and therefore when-ever such an excellent Creature as a sanctified Soul which is in Christ or a Soul designed to be sanctified which is moving towards Christ fall under those heavy pressures and distresses as they often do and are ready to fail let it be assured its merciful Creator will not fail to relieve support revive and deliver it as often as it shall fall into those deep distresses Hear how his compassionate tenderness is expressed towards distressed Souls Isa. 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Sooner shall a Woman the more tender Sex forget not the Nurse-child that only sucks her breast but the child yea the son of her womb and that not when grown and placed abroad but whilst it hangs upon her breast and draws love from her heart as well as milk from her breast than God will forget a Soul that fears him Let gracious Souls fortifie their Faith therefore in the Divine care by considering with what a peculiar eye of estimation and care God looks upon them above all other Creatures in the World only beware you so eye not the natural or spiritual excellencies of your Souls as to expect mercy for the sake thereof as if your Souls were worthy for whose sake God should do this no no sin hath nonsuited that Plea all is of free Grace not of debt but he minds us what reputation the new Creation brings the Soul into with its God Inference IV. IF the Soul of man be so precious how precious and dear to all Believers should the Redeemer and Saviour of their precious Souls be Vnto you therefore that believe he is precious saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2.7 though he be yet out of our sight he should never be one whole hour together out of our hearts and thoughts 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory The very Name of Christ saith Bernard Mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde Bern. is Honey in the mouth Melody in the ear and a very Jubilee in the heart The blessed Martyr Mr. Lambert made this his Motto None but Christ none but Christ. Molinus was seldom observ'd to mention his Name without dropping eyes Iulius Palmer in the midst of the flames moved his scorched lips and was heard to say Sweet Iesus and fell asleep Paul fastens upon his Name as a Bee upon a sweet flower and mentions it no less than ten times in the compass of ten verses 1 Cor. 1. as if he knew not how to leave it There is a twofold preciousness of Christ one in respect of his essential Excellency and Glory in this respect he is glorious as the only begotten Son of God the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image or Character of his Person Heb. 1. the other is in respect of his relative usefulness and suitableness to all the needs and wants of poor sinners as he is the Lord our righteousness made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption none discern this preciousness of Christ but those that have been convinced of sin and have apprehended the wrath to come the just demerit of sin and fled for refuge to the hope set before them and to them he is precious indeed Consider him as a Saviour from wrath to come and then he will appear the most lovely and desirable in all the World to your Souls he that understands the value of his own Soul the dreadful nature of the wrath of God the near approaches
us it were bad enough a wrong to the Soul is a greater evil than the ruine of the body or estate and all the outward enjoyments of this life can be but to lose the precious Soul and destroy it to all Eternity O who can estimate such a loss Now the result and last effect of sin is death the death of the precious Soul Rom. 6.21 The end of those things is death So Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall dye Sin doth not destroy the Being of the Soul by annihilation but it doth that which the damned shall find and acknowledge to be much worse it cuts off the Soul from God and deprives it of all its felicity joy and pleasure which consists in the enjoyment of him Such is dolefulness and fearfulness of this result and issue of sin that when God himself speaks of it he puts on a passion and speak of it with the most feeling concernment Ezek 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked turn ye turn ye for why will ye dye O house of Israel q. d. why will ye wilfully cast away your own Souls why will ye chuse the pleasures of sin for a season at the price of my wrath and fury poured out for ever O think upon this you that make so light a matter of committing sin We pity those who in the depth of melancholy or desperation lay violent hands upon themselves and in a desperate mood cut their own throats but certainly for a man to murder his own Soul is an act of wickedness as much beyond it as the value of the Soul is above the body Inference IV. WHat an invaluable Mercy is Iesus Christ to the World who came on purpose to seek and to save such as were lost In Adam all were shipwrackt and cast away Christ is the plank of Mercy let down from Heaven to save some The loss of Souls by the Fall had been as irrecoverable as the loss of the fallen Angels had not God in a way above all humane thoughts and counsels contrived the method of their Redemption 'T is astonishing to consider the admirable Harmony and glorious Triumph of all the Divine Attributes in this great project of Heaven for the recovery of lost Souls 'T is the wonder of Angels 1 Pet. 1.21 the great Mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 the matter and burden of the triumphant Song of redeemed Saints Rev. 1.5 and well it may when we consider a more noble Species of Creatures finally lost and no Mediator of reconciliation appointed betwixt God and them this is to save an earthen Pitcher whilst the Vessel of Gold is let fall and no hand stretched out to save it But what is most astonishing is that so great a Person as the Son of God should come himself from the Futhers bosom to save us by putting himself into our room and stead being made a Curse for us Gal. 3 13. he leaves the bosom of his Father and all the ineffable delights of Heaven disrobes himself of his Glory and is found in fashion as man yea becomes as a worm and no man submits to the lowest step and degree of abasement to save lost sinners What a low stoop doth Christ make in his Humiliation to catch the Souls of poor sinners out of Hell Herein was love that God sent his own Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Ioh. 4.10 and so God loved the world Ioh. 3.16 at this rate he was content to save lost sinners How seasonable was this work of Mercy both in its general Exhibition to the World in the Incarnation of Christ and in its particular Application to the Soul of every lost sinner by the Spirit When he was first exhibited to the world he found them all as lost sheep gone astray every one turning to his own way Isa. 53.6 he speaks of our lost estate by Nature both collectively or in general we all went astray and distributively or in particular every one turned to his own way and then in the fulness of time a Saviour appeared And how seasonable was it in its particular application How securely were we wandering onwards in the paths of destruction fearing no danger when he graciously opened our eyes by conviction and pulled us back by heart-turning Grace No Mercy like this it 's an astonishing act of Grace that stands alone Inference V. IF there be so many ways to Hell and so few that escape it how are all concerned to strive to the uttermost in order to their own Salvation In Luke 13.23 a certain person proposed a curious question to Christ Lord are there few that be saved He saw a multitude flocking to Christ and thronging with great zeal to hear him and he could not conceive but Heaven must fill proportionably to the numbers he saw in the way thither but Christs answer ver 24. at once rebukes the curiosity of the Questionist fully solves the question propounded and sets home his own duty and greatest concernment upon him It rebukes his curiosity and is as if he should say Be the number of the saved more or less what is that to thee strive thou to be one of them It fully solves the question propounded by distinguishing those that attend upon the means of Salvation into Seekers and Strivers In the first respect there are many who by a cheap and easie profession seek Heaven but take them under the notion of Strivers i. e. persons heartily ingaged in Religion and who make it their business and so they will shrink up into a small number and it presseth home his great business and concern upon him Strive to enter in at the strait gate By Gate understand whatsoever is introductive to Blessedness and Salvation By the Epithet strait understand the difficulties and severities attending Religion all that suffering and self-denial which those that are bound for Heaven must count and cast upon And by striving understand the diligent and constant use of all those means and duties how hard irksom and costly soever they be The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a deep sense and Emphasis and imports striving even to an agony and this duty is enforced two wayes upon him and every man else first by the indisputable Soveraignty of Christ from whom the command comes and also from the deep interest and concern every Soul hath in the commanded duty It is not only a simple compliance with the will of God but what also involves our own Salvation and eternal Happiness in it our great duty and our great interest are twisted together in this command your eternal happiness depends upon the success of it A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully i. e. successfully and prevalently O therefore so run so strive that ye may obtain If you have any value for your Souls if you would not be miserable to Eternity strive strive Believe it you will find that the assurance of Salvation
to your inquisitive and searching minds 'T is possible they may be censured by some as undeterminable and unprofitable Curiosities but as I hate a presumptious intrusion into unrevealed Secrets so I think it a weakness to be discouraged in the search of truth so far as it is fit to trace it by such damping and causeless Censures Nor am I sensible I have in any thing transgressed the bounds of Christian Sobriety to gratifie the Palate of a nice and delicate Reader I have also here set before the Reader an Idea or representation of the state and case of damned Souls that if it be the Will of God a seasonable discovery of Hell may be the means of some mens recovery out of the danger of it and closed up the whole with a Demonstration of the invaluable preciousness of Souls and the several dangerous snares and artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy and cast them away for ever This is the design and general scope of the whole and of the principal parts of this Treatise and Oh that God would grant me my hearts desire on your behalf in the perusal of it Even that it may prove a sanctified instrument in his hand both to prepare you for and bring you in love with the unbodied life to make you look with pleasure into your Graves and die by consent of Will as well as necessity of Nature I remember Dr. Staughton in a Sermon preached before King Iames relates a strange Story of a little Child in a Shipwrack fast asleep upon its Mothers lap as she sate upon a piece of the Wrack amidst the Waves the Child being awaked with the noise asked the Mother what those things were she told it they were drowning Waves to swallow them up the Child with a pretty smiling Countenance beg'd a stroke from its Mother to beat away those naughty Waves and chid them as if they had been its Play-mates Death will shortly Shipwrack your Bodies your Souls will sit upon your lips ready to expire as they upon the Wrack ready to go down Would it not be a comfortable and most becoming frame of mind to sit there with as little dread as this little One did among the terrible Waves Surely if our Faith had but first united us with Christ and then loosed our hearts off from this inchanting and ensnaring World we might make a fair step towards this most desireable temper but unbelief and earthly mindedness make us loth to venture I blush to think what bold adventures those men made who upon the Contemplation of the Properties of a despicable stone first adventured quite out of sight of Land under its conduct and direction and securely trusted both their Lives and Estates to it when all the eyes of Heaven were vail'd from them amid'st the dark Waters and thick Clouds of the Sky when I either start or at least give an unwilling shrug when I think of adventuring out of sight of this World under the more sure and steady direction and conduct of Faith and the Promises To cure these evils in my own and the Readers heart these things are written and in much respect and love tendered to your hands as a Testimony of my Gratitude and deep sense of the many Obligations you have put me under That the Blessings of the Spirit may accompany these Discourses to your Souls afford you some assistance in your last and difficult work of putting them off at death with a becoming chearfulness saying in that hour Can I not see God till this Flesh be laid aside in the Grave Must I die before I can live like my self Then die my Body and go to thy dust that I may be with Christ. With this design and with these hearty Wishes dear and honoured Cousin and worthy Friends I put these Discourses into your hands and remain Your Most obliged Kinsman and Servant Io. Flavell THE PREFACE AMong many other Largesses and rich Endowments bestowed by the Creators bounty upon the Soul of Man the * Demonstravimus à communâ— omnium jam inde à condito orbe gentium ac populâ—rum prâ—sertim bâ—nâ—rum literatorum Consensione animam humanam incorruptibilem immortalem esse â—oque corrupto corpore ipâ—um â—anere superstitem ut in sempiternum aut pro benefactuà Deo coronetur aut pro malefactâ—â—s puniatur Zanch. de Aâ—lmarum immortalâ—tate p. 653. Sentiments and impressions of the World to come and the ability of reflection and self-intuition are peculiar invaluable and heavenly gifts By the former we have a very great Evidence of our own immortality and designation for nobler employments and enjoyments than this imbodied state admits and by the latter we may discern the agreeableness or disagreeableness of our hearts and therein the validity of our title to that expected blessedness But these heavenly gifts are neglected and abused all the World over Degenerate Souls are every where fallen into so deep an Oblivion of their excellent Original Spiritual and Immortal nature and alliance to the Father of Spirits That to use the upbraiding expression of a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Max. Tyr. Diss. 41. Philosopher they seem to be buried in their Bodies as so many silly Worms that lurk in their holes and are loth to peep forth and look abroad So powerfully do the Cares and Pleasures of this World charm all except a small remnant of regenerate Souls that nothing but some smart stroke of Calamity or the terrible Messengers of death can startle them and even these are not always able to do it and when they do all the effect is but a transient glance at another and an unwilling shrug to leave this World and so to sleep again And thus the Impressions and Sentiments of the World to come which are the natural growth and Off-spring of the Soul are either stifled and supprest as in Atheists or born down by impetuous masterly lusts as in Sensualists And for its self-reflecting and considering Power it seems in many to be a power received in vain It is with most Souls as it is with the Eye which sees not it self though it see all other Objects There be those that have almost finished the course of a long life wherein a great part of their time hath lain upon their hands as a cheap and useless Commodity 〈◊〉 Dei est ista vita mortalis ubi homo vanitati similis factus est dies ejus velut umbra praetereunt Aug. de Civâ—â— lib. 21. c. 24. which they knew not what to do with who yet never spent one solemn entire hour in discourse with their own Souls What serious heart doth not melt into Compassion over the deluded Multitude who are mockt with Dreams and perpetually busied about Trifles Who are after so many frustrated attempts both of their own and all past Ages eagerly pursuing the fleeing shadows who torture and rack their brains to find out the Natures and Qualities
bountiful â—enefactor from whom it hath received all and every mercy it ever had or hath to violate his laws slight his Soveraignty despise his goodness contemn his threatnings pierce his very heart with grief darken the glory of all his Attributes confederate with Satan his â—alicious enemy and strike as far as a creature can strike â—â— his very Being for in a sense Omne peâ—catum est Deicidium every sin strikes at the life and very existence of God Blush O Heavens at this and be ye horribly afraid O cursed sin the evil of all evils which no Epithere can match no name worse than its own can be invented sinful sin This is as if some venemous branch should drop poyson upon the root that bears it Love and gratitude to Benefactors is an indelible principle ingraven by nature upon the hearts of all men It teacheth children to love and honour their Parents who yet are but meeâ— instruments of their Beings O how just must their perdition be who casting off the very bonds of nature turn again with emnity against that God in whom they both live and move and have their Being O think and think again on what an holy * Mr. Bâ—â—rouâ—â—s excâ—llency of the Soul of Man p. 232. Man once said What a sad charge will this be against many a man at the great day when God shall say Hadst thou been made a Dog I never had had so much dishonour as I have had 'T is pity God should not have honour from the meanest creature that ever he made from every pile of grass in the field or stone in the street much more that he should not have glory from a Soul more precious and excellent than all the other works of his hands Surely 't is better for us our Souls had still remained only in the number of possible Beings and had never had an actual existence in the second rank of Beings but a very little lower than the Angels than that we should still be dishonouring God by them O that he should be put to levy his glory from us passively that it should be with us as it was with Nebuchadnezzar from whom God had more glory when he was driven out amongst the beasts of the field than when he sat on the Throne In like manner his glory will rise passively from us when driven out among Devils and not actively and voluntarily as from the Saints Inference V. IF God create and inspire the reasonable â—â—ul immediately this should instruct and incise all Christian Parents to pray earnestly for their Children not only when they are born into the world but when they are first conceived in the Womb. It is of great concernment both to us and our Children not only to receive them from the womb with bodies perfectly and comely fashioned but also with such Souls inspired into them whereby they may glorifie God to all Eternity 'T is natural to Parents to desire to have their children full and perfect in all their bodily members and it would be a grievous affliction to see them come into the world defective monstrous and mis-shapen births should a Leg an Arm an Eye be wanting such a defect would make their lives miserable and the Parents uncomfortable But how few are concerned with what Souls they are born into the world Good God! saith * 〈…〉 quà m paucoâ— reâ—erias qui tam 〈◊〉 quomodo pâ—è honestè 〈…〉 quà m câ—rant ut amplam relinquant 〈◊〉 haereditatem quâ post 〈◊〉 iâ—lorâ—â— splendidè otâ—â—se delâ—â—ientur Muâ—â— in 8 Gen. Musculus how few shall we find who are equally sollicitous to have such children as may live piously and honestly as they are to leave them Inheritances upon which they may live splendidly and bravely It pleaseth us to see our own Image stampt upon their bodies but O! how few pray even whilst they are in the womb that their Souls may in due time bear the image of the heavenly and not animate and use the members of their bodies as weapons of unrighteousness against the God that formed them Certainly except they be quickned with such Souls as may in this world be united with Christ better had it been for them that they had perished in the Womb whilst they were pure Embryoes and had never come into the number and account of Men and Women for such Embryoes go for nothing in the world having only the Rudiments and rough draughts of bodies never animated and informed by a reasonable Soul Iob 3.11 12. But as soon as such a Soul enters into them though for never so little a time it entails Eternity upon them We also know that as soon as ever God breathes or infuses their Souls into them sin presently enters and death by sin and that by us as the next Instruments of conveying it to them Which should have the efficacy of a mighty Argument with us to lay our prayers and tears for mercy in the very foundation of that union Think on this particularly you that are Mothers of children when you find the fruit of the Womb quickned within you that you then bear a creature within you of more value than all this visible world a creature upon whom from that very moment an eternity of happiness or misery is entailed and therefore it concerns you to travel as in pain for their souls before you feel the sorrows and pangs of travel for their bodies O! what a pity is it that a part of your selves should eternally perish That so rare and excellent a creature as that you bear should be cast away for ever for want of a new Creation superadded to that it hath already O! let your cries and prayers for them anticipate your kisses and embraces of them If you be faithful and successful herein then happy is the Womb that bears them if not happy had it been for them that the knees had prevented them and the breasts they have sucked O! you cannot begin your suits for mercy too early for them nor continue them too long though your prayers measure all the time betwixt their Conception and their Death IV A Vital Substance Inference VI. MOreover if God have created our Souls vital Substances to animate and act those bodies How indispensably necessary is it that a principle of spiritual life do quicken and govern that Soul which quickens and governs our bodies and all the members of them Otherwise though in a natural sense we have living souls yet they are dead whilst they live The Apostle in 1 Cor. 15.45 46. compares the animal life we live by the union of our souls and bodies with the spiritual life we live by the union of our souls with Jesus Christ. And so it is written viz. in my Text The first Man Adam was made a living Soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit He opposes the animal to the spiritual life and the two Adams from whom they come And shews in both
Immortality But in this it properly consists that he enjoys not only a reasonable but also rejoyceth in an Immortal Soul which shall overlive the world and subsist separate from the Body and abide for ever when all other Souls being but material forms perish with that matter on which they depend This is the proper Dignity of Man above the Beast that perisheth and to deprive him of Immortality and leave him his Reason is but to leave him a more miserable and wretched Creature than any that God hath put under his feet For Man is a prospecting Creature and raiseth up to himself vast hopes and fears from the world to come by these he is restrained from the sensual pleasures which other Creatures freely enjoy and exercised with ten thousands cares which they are unacquainted with and to fail at last of all his hopes and expectations of happiness in the world to come is to fall many degrees lower than the lowest Creature shall fall even so much lower as his expectations and hopes had lifted him higher Argument VI. THE Souls of Men must be Immortal or else the desires of Immortality are planted in their Souls in vain That there are desires of Immortality found in the hearts of all men is a truth too evident to be denied or doubted Man cannot bound and terminate his desires within the narrow limits of this world I beseech men for Gods sake that if at any time there arise in them a desire or a wish that others should speak well of them rather than evil after their death then at that time they would seriously consider whether those motions are not from some Spirit to continue a Spirit after it leaves its earthly habitation rather than from an earthly Spirit a vapour which cannot act or imagine or desire or fâ—ar things beyond its continuance Halt de Anim p. 73. and the time that measures it Nothing that can be measured by time is commensurate to the desires of Mans Soul No Motto better suits it than this Non est mortale quod opto I seek for that which will not die Rom. 2. v. 7. and his great relief against death lies in this Non omnis moriar That he shall not totally perish Yea we find in all men even in those that seem to be most drowned and lost in the loves and delights of this present World a natural desire to continue their Names and Memories to posterity after death Hence it is said Psal. 49.11 Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling-places to all generations they call their lands after their own Names And hence is the desire of children which is as one saith nodosa Aeternitas a knotty Aeternity when our thred is spun out and cut off their thred is knit to it and so we dream of a continued succession in our Name and Family Absâ—lom had no children to continue his Memory to supply which defect he reared up a Pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 Now it cannot be imagined that God should plant the desire of Immortality in those Souls that are incapable of it nor yet can we give a rational account how these apprehensions of Immortality should come into the Souls of men except they themselves be of an immortal nature For either these notions and apprehensions of Immortality are imprest upon our Souls by God or do naturally spring out of the Souls of men It forms conceptions of things Spiritual and abstract from matter and discerns objects which have no dimensions Figure Colour or affection of matter Si conceptus de immortalitate fons sit ipsamet anima est ipsa immortalis quoâ—iam quod momentan 〈…〉 est ideam natuâ—ae perennis fa 〈…〉 non potest quemadmodum animâ— ratiâ—â—s expâ—â—s conceptum rationeâ—etâ—ttis fom 〈…〉 nequit Sterne de morte p. 198. if God impress them those impressions are made in vain if there be no such thing as Immortality to be enjoyed and if they spring and rise naturally out of our Souls that is a sufficient evidence of their Immortality For we cannot more conceive and form to our selves Ideas and Notions of Immortality if our Souls be mortal than the Brutes which are void of reason can form to themselves Notions and Conceptions of rationality So then the very apprehensions and desires that are found in mens hearts of Immortality do plainly speak them to be of an Immortal Nature Argument VII MOreover the account given us in Scripture of the return of several Souls into their own Bodies again after death and real separation from them shews us that the Soul subsists and lives in a separate state after death and perisheth not by the stroke of death for if it were annihilated or destroyed by death the same Soul could never be restored again to the same Body A dead Body may indeed be acted by an assisting form which may move and carry it from place to place So the Devil hath acted the dead Bodies of many but they cannot be said to live again by their own Souls after a real separation by death unless those Souls over-lived the Bodies they forsook at death and had their abode in another Place and state You have divers unquestionable examples of the Souls return into the Body recorded in Scripture As that of the Shâ—namites Son 2 King 4.18 19 20 32 33 34 35 36 37. That of the Rulers daughter Matth. 9.18 23 24 25. That of the Widows Son Luke 7.12 13 14 15. and that of Lazarus Iohn 11.39 40 41 42 43 44 45. These were no other but the very same Souls Non aliam sed ipsam priorem animaâ— corpori mortuo resâ—itutam esse contra tos qui putaâ—erunt bodie putant animâ—m post mortem corporis nihil esse their own Souls which returned into them again which as Chrysostom well observes is a great proof of their Immortality against them that think the Soul is annihilated after the death of the Body 'T is true the Scripture gives us no account of any sense or apprehension they retained after their re-union of the place or state they were in during their separation There seemed to be perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forgetfulness of all that they saw or felt in the state of separation And indeed it was necessary it should be so that our faith might be built rather upon the sure promises of God than such reports and narratives of them that came to us from the dead Luke 16.31 And if we believe not the word neither would we believe if one came from the dead Argument VIII MOreover eighthly The supposition of the Souls perishing with the Body is subversive of the Christian Religion in the principal Doctrines and Duties thereof take away the Immortality of the Soul and all Religion falls to the ground I will instance in 1. The Doctrines of Religion 2. The Duties of Religion 1. First It overthrows the main Principles and Doctrines of Christian
is generally a burthened and a groaning life 2 Cor. 5.2 In this Tabernaele we groan being burthened Here the Saints feel 1 A burthen of sin Rom. 7.24 this is a dead and a sinking weight 2 A burthen of Affliction of this all are Partakers Hebr. 12. though not all in an equal degree or in the same kind yet all have their burthens equal to and even beyond their own strength to support it 2 Cor. 1.8 pressed above measure 3 A burthen of inward troubles for sin and outward Troubles in the Flesh both together so had Iob Heman David and many of the Saints Certainly this befals them not 1 Casually Iob 5.6 It rises not out of the Dust 2 Nor because God loves and regards them not for they are fruits of his love Heb. 12.6 Whom he loveth he correcteth 3 Nor because he takes pleasure in our groans Lamen 3. To tread under his feet the Prisoners of the earth the Lord hath no pleasure 'T is not for his own pleasure but his Childrens profit Heb. 12.10 And among the prâ—fits that result from these burthens this is not the least to make you less fond of the body than you would else be and more willing to be gone to your everlasting rest And certainly all the Diseases and Pains we endure in the Body whether they be upon inward or outward accounts by Passion or Compassion from God or Men will be found but enough to wean us and loose off our hearts from the fond love of life Afflictions are bitter things to our taste Ruth 1.20 so bitter that Naomi thought a name of a contrary signification fitter for her afflicted condition Call me Marah i. e. bitter not Naomi pleasant beautiful And the Church Lam. 3.19 calls them Wormwood and Gall. The great design of God in afflicting them is the same that a tender Mother projects in putting Wormwood to her Breast when she would wean the Child It hath been observed by some discreet and grave Ministers that before their remove from one place to another God hath permitted and ordered some weaning Providence to befal them either denying wonted success to their labour or alienating and cooling the affections of their people towards them which not only makes the manner of their departure more easie but the grounds of it more clear Much so it falls out in our natural death the comfort of the World is imbittered to us before we leave it The longer we live in it the less we shall like it We overlive most of our Comforts which engaged our hearts to it that we may more freely take our leave of it It were good for Christians to observe the voice of such Providences as these and answer the Designs of them in a greater willingness to die 1. Is thy Body which was once hail and vigorous now become a crazy sickly pained body to thee neither useful to God nor comfortable to thee a Tabernacle to groan and sigh in And little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper God hath ordered this to make thee willing to be divorced from it The less desireable life is the less formidable death will be 2. Is thy Estate decayed and blasted by Providence so that thy life which was once full of Creature-Comforts is now fill'd with Cares and Anxieties O 't is a weaning Providence to thee and bespeaks thee the more chearfully to bid the World farewel The less comfort it gives you the less it should entangle and engage you We little know with what aking hearts and pensive breasts many of Gods people walk up and down though for Religion or Reputations sake they put a good face upon it but by these things God is bespeaking and preparing them for a better State 3. Is an Husband a Wife or dear Children dead and with them the comfort of life laid in the dust Why this the Lord sees necessary to do to perswade you to come after willingly 'T is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth that thou maist fall the more easily O how many stroaks must God give at our Names Estates Relations and Health before we will give way to the last stroak of death that fells us to the ground 4. Do the times frown upon Religion Do all things seem to threaten stormy times at hand Are desireable Assemblies scattered Nothing but Sorrows and Sufferings to be expected in this World By these things God will imbitter the earth and sweeten Heaven to his People 5. Is the beauty and sweetness of Christian Society defaced and decayed That Communion which was wont to be Pithy Substantial Spiritual and Edifying becomes either frothy or contentious so that thy Soul hath no pleasure in it This also is a weaning Providence to our Souls Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus Theologorum odiis from the Wranglings and Contentions that were in his time Our fond affection to the Body requires all this and much more to wean and mortifie them Inference IV. HOW Comfortable is the Doctrine of the Resurrection to Believers which assures them of receiving their Bodies again though they part with them for a time Believers must die as well as others their Union with Christ priviledges them not from a Separation from their Bodies Rom. 8.10 Heb. 9.27 But yet they have special grounds of Consolation against this doleful separation above all others For 1. Though they part with them yet they part in hopes of receiving them again 1 Thessal 4.13 14. They take not a final leave of them when they die Husbandmen cast their Seed-corn into the earth chearfully and willingly because they part with it in hope so should we when we commit our Bodies to the earth at death 2. Though death separate these dear Friends from each other yet it cannot separate either the one or other from Christ Luke 20.37 38. I am the God of Abraham c. Your very dust is the Lords and the Grave rots not the Bond of the Covenant 3. The very same Body we lay down at death we shall assume again at the Resurrection Not only the same specifical but the same Numerical Body Iob 19.25.26 With these eyes shall I see God 4. The unbodied Soul shall not find the want of its Body so as to afflict or disquiet it nor the Body the want of its Soul but the one shall be at rest in Heaven and the other sweet asleep in the Grave and all that long interval shall slide away without any afflicting sense of each others absence The time will be long Iob 14.12 but if it were longer it cannot be afflicting considering how the Soul is cloathed immediately 2 Cor. 5.1 2. and how the Body sleeps sweetly in Jesus 1 Thess. 4.14 5. When the day of their re-espousals is come the Soul will find the Body so transformed and improved that it shall never receive prejudice from it any more but a singuler addition to its Happiness and Glory Now it clogs us
And both these viz The divine Appointment and Providence are in pursuance of a double design or for the payment of a twofold debt which God owes to the first and to the second Adam 1. By cutting off the life or dissolving the Tabernacles of wicked men God pays that debt of Justice owing to the first Adam's sinful Posterity whose sins cry daily to his Justice to cut them off â—om 6 23. The wages of sin is death and indeed it is admirable that his patience suffers ungodly men to live so long as they do for he endures with much long-suffering â—om 9.22 He sees all their sins he is grieved at the heart with them His forbearance doth but encourage them the more to sin against him Eccles. 8.11 Because Sentence c. yet forbears Forty years long was I grieved with this generation Psal. 95.10 And it 's wonderful that patience doth not crack under such a load Habakkuk admired it Habak 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes c. Yet he suffers them to spend lavishly upon his patience from year to year but Justice must do its office at last 2. By cutting off the lives of good men God pays to Christ the reward of his Sufferings the end of his death which was to bring many Sons to glory Hebr. 2.10 Alas it answers not Christs end and intention in dying to have his people so remote from him Iohn 17.24 He would have them where he is that they might behold his glory Two vehement desires are satisfied by this Appointment of God and its Execution viz. 1. Christs viz. 2. The Saints 1. Christs desires are satisfied for this is the thing he all along kept his eye upon in the whole work of his Mediation it was to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 Though he be in glory yet his Mystical Body is not full till all the elect be gathered in by Conversion and gathered home by glorification Eph. 1.23 The Church is his fulness He is not fully satisfied till he see his seed the Souls he died for safe in Heaven and then the debt due to him for all his Sufferings is fully paid him Isai. 53.11 He sees the travel of his Soul As it is the greatest satisfaction and pleasure a man is capable of in this World to see a great design which hath been long projecting and mannaging at last by an orderly conduct brought to its perfection 2. The desires of the Saints are hereby satisfied and their weary Souls brought to rest O what do gracious Souls more pant after than the full Enjoyment of God and the Visions of his face The state of freedom from sin and compleat Conformity to Jesus Christ From the day of their Espousals to Christ these desires have been working in their Souls Love and Patience have each acted its part in them 2 Thess. 3.5 Love hath put them into an holy ardor and longing to be with Christ Patience hath qualified and allayed those desires and supported the Soul under the delay Love cries Come Lord come Patience commands us to wait the appointed time This appointed time on which so great hopes and expectations depend is the time of dissolving these Tabernacles for till then the Souls Rest is suspended And if it were perfectly freed from all other Loads and Burdens both of sin and affliction yet its very absence from Christ would alone make it restless For it is with the Soul in the Body as it is with any other Creature that is off its Centre it doth and must gravitate and propend it is still moving and inclining further and feels not it self easie and at rest where it is be its Condition in other respects never so easie 2 Cor. 5.6 Whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord You have a little shadow or Emblem of this in other Creatures You see the Rivers though they glide never so sweetly betwixt the fragrant banks of the most pleasant Meadows in their Course and Passage yet on they go towards the Sea and if they meet with never so many Rocks or Hills to resist their course they will either strive to get a Passage through them or if that may not be they will fetch a compass and creep about them and nothing can stop them till by a central force they have finished their weary Course and poured themselves into the Bosome of the Ocean Or as it is with your selves when abroad from your Habitations and Relations this may be pleasing a little while but if every day might be a Festival it would not long please you because you are not at home The main Motives that perswade a gracious Soul to abâ—de here are to finish the work of their own Salvation and further other mens but as their Evidences for Heaven grow clearer to themselves and their capacity of Service less to others so must their desires to be with Christ be more and more inflamed Now the case so standing that Christs condition in Heaven being a condition of desire and longing for the enjoyment of his people there and all the Glory of Heaven would not content him without that and the condition of his people on earth being also a state of longing groaning and panting to be with him and all the Pleasures and Delights and Comforts they have on earth will not content them without it How wise and gracious an Appointment of Heaven is it that these our Tabernacles shall and must be put off and that shortly For hereby a full and mutual satisfaction is given to the restless desires both of Christs heart and of theirs See the reflected flames of love betwixt them in Revel 22. The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that is a thirst come Behold I come quickly even so Lord Iesus come quickly Delays make the heart sad Prov. 13.12 Should our Commoration on earth be long our Patience had need be much greater than it is but under all our burdens here this is our relief it is but a little while and all will be well as well as our Souls can desire to have it Inference I. MUst we put off these Tabernacles Is death necessary and inevitable Then 't is our wisdom to sweeten to our selves that Cup which we must drink and make that as pleasant to us as we can which we know cannot be avoided Die we must whether we be fit or unfit willing or unwilling 't is to no purpose to shrug at the name or shrink back from the thing In all Ages of the World death hath swept the Stage clean of one Generation to make room for another and so it will from Age to Age till the Stage be taken down in the general dissolution But though death be inevitable by all it is not alike evil bitter and dreadful to all Some tremble others triumph at the appearance of it Some meet it half way receive it as a friend and can bid it welcome and die by consent making that
protract stop or call back one minute of time O what is Man that the heavenly bodies should be wheel'd about by Almighty power in constant Revolutions to beget time for him Psal. 8.3 2 More precious are the Seasons and Opportunities that are in time for our Souls those are the golden spots of time like the pearl in the Oyster shell of much more value than the shell that contains it There is much time in a short opportunity There is a day on which our Eternal happiness depends Luke 19.41 42. Hebr. 4.7 3 Invaluable are the things which God doth for mens Souls in time There are works wrought upon mens hearts in a seasonable hour in this life which have an Influence into the Souls happinness throughout Eternity There is a time of mercy a time of love viz. Of Illumination and Conversion and on that point of time Eternal life hangs in the whole weight of it 4 Lost opportunity is never to be recovered by the Soul any more Ezek. 24.13 Revel 22.11 To come before the opportunity is to come before the Bird be hatch't and to come after it is to come when the Bird is flown There is no calling back time when it is once past See this in the Examples you find Luke 13.26 Eccles. 9.10 5 It is wholly uncertain to every Soul whether the present day may not determine his Lease in this Tabernacle and a writ of Ejection be served by death upon his Soul tomorrow Iames 4.13 Luke 12.20 6 As soon as ever time shall end Eternity takes place The stream of time delivers Souls daily into the boundless Ocean of vast Eternity Ab hoc momento pendet aeternitas We are now measured by time hereafter by eternity 7 In Eternity all things are fixed and unalterable We have no more to do all means and works are at an end Iohn 9.4 and Eccles. 11.3 As the Tree falls so it lies O that these weighty Considerations might lie upon your hearts as long as you are in these Tabernacles If they did 1 The Unregenerate would not so desperately hazard their eternal happiness by trifling away their precious Seasons under the Gospel O how many aged sinners gray-headed sinners hear me this day who in fifty or sixty years never redeemed one solemn hour to take their poor Souls aside out of the clutter and distracting noise of the World to ask and debate this question with them O my Soul how stands the case with thee in reference to the World to come They have found no time to bethink themselves in what World their Souls shall be landed when time shall deliver them up into Eternity Their whole life hath been but a continual diversion from one trifle to another They have been serious in trifles and trifled in things most serious this will afford horrid reflections in the World to come 2 The Regenerate would not cast away the comfort of their lives in the Evidences of eternal life at so cheap a rate as they do May I not say to you as the Apostle doth Hebr. 5.12 for the time you have had under the Gospel you might have attained a rich treasure both of Grace and Comfort Turpe est senex elementarius Is it not shameful and inexcusable to be where you were twenty years past O let these things sink deep into every Soul Inference IV. MUst we shortly put off these our Tabernacles Then slack your pace and cool your selves be not too eager in the prosecution of earthly Designs O what Bustling is here for the World and for provisions for futurity when as far less would serve the turn We need not victual a Ship to cross the Chanel to France as if she were bound to the Indies Most mens Provisions at least their cares and thoughts are far beyond the preparations of their Abode in this World The folly of this Christ discovers in that Parable Luke 12.19 and on this very account gives him the Title of a Fool who provided for years many years when poor soul he had not one night to enjoy those Provisions O the multitude of thoughts and cares this World needlessly devours We keep our selves in such a continual hurry and crowd of cares thoughts and imployments about the concerns of the Body that we can find little time to be alone communing with our own hearts about our great Concernments in Eternity It is with many of us in respect of our Souls and their great Interests as it is with a man that is deep in thoughts about some Subject that wholly swallows him up he seeth not what he seeth nor heareth what he heareth of any other matter His eyes seem to look upon this or that but it 's all one as if he did not So it was with Archimedes who was so intent in drawing his Mathematical Scheams that though all the City was in an Allarm the Enemy had taken it by Storm the Streets filled with dreadful cries and dead Bodies the Soldiers came into his particular house nay entred his very study and pluckt him by the sleeve before he took any notice of it Even so many mens hearts are so profoundly immersed and drowned in earthly cares thoughts projects or pleasures that death must come to their very houses yea and pull them by the sleeve and tell them its Errand before they will begin to awake and come to a serious consideration of things more important Inference V. IF we must shortly put off these Tabernacles Then the groaning and mourning time of Believers is but short How heavy soever their burden be yet they shall carry it but a little way It 's said 2 Cor. 5 4. We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened Good Souls in this State are every where groaning under heavy pressures Their burdens are of two sorts Sympathetical whereby they grieve with and on the account of others and so every true member of the Church of God ought to sympathize both with God Psal. 1 39.21 Am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee Psal. 42.10 it is as with a Sword in their bones and with the people of God Zeph 3.18 sorrowful for the solemn Assembly so 2 Cor. 11.29 Who is offended and I burn not And indeed it is an Argument of rich as well as true grace that we can and do heartily mourn with and for the Interest and People of God though our own lot in the World as Nehemiah's be never so comfortable Or else our burdens are Idiopathetical i. e. such as we bear upon our own proper account and score And where is the Christian that hath not his own burden yea many burthens on him at once Some groan under the burden of sin Rom. 7.24 Scarce one day are the tears off some eye-lids on this account And who groans not under the burden of affliction either inward upon the Soul Prov. 18.14 Iob 6.1 2 3. or outward upon the Body State Relations c. These things make the people
ejusdem animae id est informationis seu unionis erga corpus Conimâ—r Some call it the privation of the second Act of the Soul that is its Act of informing or enlivening the Body Others according to Scripture phrase the departing of the Soul from the Body So Peter stiles it 2 Pet. 1.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after my departure i.e. after my death Relictio câ—rporis depositio sarcine gravis modo aliea sarcina non patietur qâ—â homo praecipitetur in gehennem August Augustine calls it the laying down of an heavy burthen provided there be not another burden for the Soul to bear afterwards which will sink it into Hell In respect of the Body which the Soul now forsakes it is called the putting off this Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.14 And the dissolving the earthly House or Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 In respect of the terminus à quo the place from which the Soul removes at death it is called our departure hence Phil. 1.23 or our weighing Anchor and loosing from this coast or shoar to sail to another In respect of the terminus ad quem the place to which the Spirits of the just go at death it is called our going to or being with the Lord ibid. To conclude in respect of that which doth most lively resemble and shadow it forth it is called our falling asleep Acts 7. ult our sleeping in Iesus 1 Thes. 4.14 This Metaphor of sleep must be stretched no further than the Spirit of God designed in the choice of it which was not to favour and countenance the fancy of a sleeping Soul after death but to represent its state of placid rest in Jesus's bosom if it refer at all to the Soul for I think it most properly respects the Body Locus Sepulturae consecratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est dormitorium appeâ—iâ—tur and thence the Sepulchres where the Bodies of the Saints were laid got the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dormitories or sleeping places This is its last farewel to this world never more to return to a low animal life more Iob 7.9 10. For as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more The Soul is no more bound to a Body nor a Retainer to Sun Moon or Stars to meat drink and sleep but is become a free single abstracted being a separate and pure Spirit which the Latins call Lemures Manes Ghosts or Souls of the dead and my Text Spirits made perfect a being much like unto the Angels who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodiless Powers An Angel as one speaks is a perfect Soul a Soul is an imperfect Angel I do not say that upon their Separation they become Angels for they will still remain a distinct Species of Spirits Semper à corporis compedibus nexibus liberi Max. Tyr. Angels have no inclination to Bodies nor were ever fettered with cloggs of flesh as Souls were And by this you see what a difference there is betwixt these two considerations of death How gastly and affrighting is it in its previous pangs how lovely and desireable in the issue and result of them which is but the change of Earth for Heaven men for God sin and misery for perfection and glory PROP. III. The Separation of the Soul and Body makes a great and wonderful change upon both but especially upon the Soul THere is a twofold change made upon man by death one upon his Body another upon his Soul The change upon the Body is great and visible to every eye A living Body is changed into a dead carcase A beautiful and comely Body into a loathsome spectacle that which lately was the object of delight and love is hereby made an abhorrence to all flesh Bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23.4 What the Sun is to the greater that the Soul is to the lesser World When the Sun shines comfortably how vegete and chearful do all things look How well do they thrive and prosper The Birds sing merrily the Beasts play wantonly the whole Creation enjoyeth a day of light and joy but when it departs what a night of horror followeth How are all things wrapt up in the sable Mantle of darkness Or if it but abate its heat as in Winter the Creatures are as it were buried in the winding-sheet of Winters frost and Snow just so it is with the Body when the Soul shineth pleasantly upon it or departs from it That Body which was fed so assiduously cared for so anxiously loved so passionately is now tumbled into a pit and left to the mercy of crawling Worms The change which judgment made upon that great and flourishing City Nineveh is a fit emblemâ— to â—hadow forth that change which death makes upon humane Bodies That great and renowned City was once full of people which thronged the streets thereof there you might have seen children playing upon the Thresholds Beauties shewing themselves through the windows Melody sounding in its Palaces But what an alteration was made upon it the Prophet Zephaniah describes Chap. â— v. 14. Flocks shall lye down in the midst of her all the Beasts of the Nations both the Cormorant and the Bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it their voice shall sing in the windows desolation shall be in the thresholds for he shall uncover the Cedar work Thus it is with the Body when death hath dislodged the Soul Worms nestle in the holes where the beautiful eyes were once placed Corruption and desolation is upon all parts of that stately structure But this being a vulgar Theam I shall leave the Body to the dust from whence it came and follow the Soul which is my proper subject pointing at the changes which are made on it The essence of the Soul is not destroyed or changed by the Bodies ruine It is substantially the self same Soul that it was when in the Body The supposition of an essential change would disorder the whole frame and model of Gods eternal design for the Redemption and glorification of it Rom. 8.29 30. but yet though it undergo no substantial change at death yet divers great and remarkable alterations are made upon it by sundering it from the Body As 1. It is not where it was It was in a Body immerst in matter married unto flesh and blood but now it is out of the Body uncloathed and stript naked out of its garments of flesh like pure Gold melted out of the ore with which it was commixed or as a Birdlet out of her Cage into the open Fields and Woods This makes a great and wonderful change upon it 2. Being free from the Body it is consequently discharged and freed from all those â—ares studies fears and sorrows to which it was here enthralled and subjected upon the Bodies account It puts off all those
passions and burdens with it never spends one thought more about Food and Raiment Health and Sickness Wives and Children Riches or Poverty but lives henceforth after the manner of Angels Matth. 22.30 It is now unrelated to and therefore unconcerned about all these things 3. In the unbodied state it is perfectly freed from sin both in the Acts and Habits a mercy it never enjoyed since the first moment it dwelt in the Body The cure of this disease was indeed begun in the Work of Sanctification but is not perfected till the day of the Souls glorification 'T is now and not till now a Spirit made perfect that is a Soul enjoying its perfect health and rectitude No more groans tears or lamentations upon the account of in-dwelling sin 4. The way and manner of its converse with and enjoyment of God is changed There are two mediums by which Souls converse with God in the Body viz 1 One internal sc Faith 2 The other external sc. Ordinances 1 If a man walk with God on earth it must be in the use and exercise of Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 nor can there be any communion carried on betwixt God and the Soul without it Heb. 11.6 2 The external mediums are the ordinances of God or duties of Religion both publick and private Psal. 63.2 Betwixt these two mediums of Communion with God this remarkable difference is sound the Soul may see and enjoy God by Faith in the want or absence of Ordinances but there is no seeing or conversing with God in the greatest plenty and purity of Ordinances without Faith Heb. 4.2 But in the same moment the Soul is cut off from union with the Body it is also cut off from both these ways of enjoying God 1 Cor. 13.12 Isai. 38.11 But yet the Soul is no loser nay it is the greatest Gainer by this change The Child is no loser by ceasing to derive its nourishment by the Navel when it comes to receive it by the mouth a more noble way whereby it gets a new pleasure in tasting the variety of all delectable Food Hezekiah bemoaned the loss of Ordinances upon his supposed death-bed saying I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the living q. d. Now farewel Temple and Ordinances I shall never go any more into his Temple where my Soul hath been so often cheared and refresht with the displays of his grace and goodness I shall never more join with the Assembly of his people on earth And suppose he had not sure he would have lost nothing had he then exchanged the Temple at Ierusalem for the Temple in Heaven and Communion with sinful imperfect Saints on earth for fellowship with Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect By this change we lose no more than he loseth who whilst he stands delightfully contemplating the image of his dearest friend in a glass hath the glass snatcht away by his friend whom he now seeth face to face Upon this change of the mediums of Communion it will follow that the Communion betwixt God and the separate Soul excells all the Communion it ever had with him on Earth in 1 The Clearness in 2 The Sweetness of it in 3 The Constancy 1 Its Visions of God in the state of Separation are more clear distinct and direct than they were on earth Clouds and Shadows are now fled away The Soul now seeth as it is seen and knoweth as it is known its apprehensions of God there differ from those it had here as the crade and confused apprehensions of a Child do from those we have in the manly state 2 They are also more sweet and ravishing As our Visions are so are our Pleasures Perfect Visions produce perfect Pleasures The faculties of the Soul now and never till now lie level to that rule Matth. 22.37 The Visions of God command and call forth all the heart and soul mind and strength into acts of love and delight It was not so here if the Spirit were willing the Flesh was weak but there the clog is off from the foot of the Will 3 More constant fixed and steddy 'T is one of the greatest difficulties in Religion to fix the thoughts and cure the wildness and roveings of the fancy The heart is not steddy with God and hence are its ups and downs heatings and coolings which are things unknown in the perfect state By all which it appears the change by Dissolution is great and marvelous both upon Body and Soul but upon the Soul more especially PROP. IV. The Souls of the Righteous at the instant of their Separation are received by the blessed Angels and by them transferred unto the place of Blessedness THough Angels are by nature a superiour order of Spirits differing from men in Dignity as the Nobles and Barons in the Kingdoms of this World differ from inferiour Subjects yet are they made ministring Spirits i.e. serviceable Creatures in the Kingdom of Providence to the meanest of the Saints Heb. 1.14 and herein the Lord puts a singular honour upon his people in making such excellent Creatures as Angels serviceable to them Luther assigns to them a double office sc. to sing the praises of God on high and to watch over his Saints here below Their Ministry is distinguished into three Branches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Admonition or warning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Protection and defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for succour help and comfort This last office they perform more especially at the Souls departure Like tender Nurses they keep us whilst we live and bring us home in their arms to our Fathers house when we die They are about our death-beds waiting to receive their precious charge into their arms and bosomes When Lazarus breathed out his Soul the Text saith it was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosome Luke 10.22 And upon this account Tertullian calls them Evocatores animarum the Callers forth of Souls At the Translation of Elijah they appeared in the form of Horses and Chariots of fire 2 Kings 2. 11. Horses and Chariots are not only design'd for conveyance but for conveyance in State and truly it is no small honour to have such a noble Convoy and Guard to attend our Souls to Heaven If it be demanded Object What need is there of their help or company Cannot God by his immediate hand and power gather home the Souls of his people to himself at death He inspired them into our Bodies without their help and can receive them again when we expire them without their aid True Sâ—lâ—t he can do so but it hath pleased him to appoint this method of our Translation not out of meer necessity but bounty Souls ascend not to God in the vertue of the Angels wings or arms but of Christ's Ascension Had not he ascended as our head and representative all the Angels in Heaven could not have brought our Souls thither He ascended by his own power and we
and admit the dreadful conclusion These are the last and therefore oft-times the most violent conflicts The malice of Satan will send them halting to Heaven if he cannot bar them out of it 3 To conclude The hidings of Gods face puts terror into the face of death and makes a dying day a dark and gloomy day All darkness disposes to fear but none like inward darkness They must like a Ship in distress venture into the Harbour in the dark though they see not their Land-marks 2. But others have the priviledge of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easy death a comfortable and sweet passage into glory through the broad gate of assurance 2 Pet. 1.11 Even an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom What a difference doth God make not only betwixt those that have grace and those that have none but betwixt gracious Souls themselves in this matter The things which usually make an easy passage to Heaven are 1 A pardon cleared Isai. 33.24 The Sense of pardon swallows up the sense of pain 2 An heart weaned from this world Heb. 11.9 13 16. An heart loosed from the World is a foot out of the snare Mortified limbs are cut off from the Body with little pain 3 Fervent love to Christ and longings to be with him Philip. 1.23 He that loves Christ fervently must needs loath absence from Christ proportionably 4 Purity and peace of Conscience make a death-bed soft and easie The strains and wounds of Conscience in the time of life are so many Thorns in our Bed or pillow in the time of Death 1 Iohn 3.21 But integrity gives boldness 5 The work of obedience faithfully finished or a steddy course of holiness throughout our life is that which usually yields much peace and joy in death Acts 20.24 6 But above all the presence of the Comforter with us in that cloudy and dark day turns it into one of the days of Heaven 1 Pet. 4.14 And thus you see though all dying Christians be equally safe and all supported and carried through by the power of God yet their farewels to the Body are not alike chearful There are many external and internal circumstantial differences in the deaths of good men as well as a substantial and essential difference betwixt all their deaths and the death of a wicked man QUEST III. Whether any Souls have notices and forewarnings given them by Signs or Predictions in an extraordinary way of their approaching Separation Terms open'd The terms of this Question need a little explanation Let us therefore briefly consider what is meant by signs what by predictions and what by extraordinary signs and predictions A sign is that which represents something else to us than that which is seen Signâ—m est quod aliud repraesentat quam quod cernitur or heard And a sign of death is that which gives notice to our minds that our departure is at hand A Prediction is a forewarning of a person more plainly and expresly of any thing which is afterwards to fall out or come to pass Praedicâ—re est aliquem de re aliqâ—a eventuâ—a praemonere and a prediction of death is an express notice or message informing us of our own or of anothers Death to the end the mind may be actually disposed to an expectation thereof Of Signs some are ordinary and natural some extraordinary and supernatural or at least preternatural There are natural symptoms and prognosticks of Death which are common to most dying persons and by which Physicians inform themselves and others of the state of the Sick These are out of this Question we have nothing to do with them here but I am inquiring after extraordinary signs and predictions by words or things forewarning us immediately or by others of our approaching death The Question is whether such intimations of Death be at any time truly given unto men or whether we are to take them for fabulous reports and superstitious fancies For the Negative Reasons for the Negative the following grounds are laid REASON I. The sufficient ordinary provision God hath made in this case renders all such extraordinary notices and intimations of our Death needless And be sure the most wise God doth nothing in vain We have three standing ordinary and sufficient means to premonish us of our departure hence viz. the Scriptures Reason and daily Examples of Mortality before our eyes The Scriptures tell us our life is but a vapour which appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away James 4.14 That our days are but to an hand breadth and that every man in his best estate is vanity Psal. 39.5 Reason tells us so feeble a tye as our breath is can never secure our lives long The living know that they must dye Eccles. 9.5 The radical moisture which is daily consuming by the flame of life must needs be spent ere long And all the Graves we see opened so frequently are sufficient warnings that we our selves must shortly follow Therefore as there was no need of Manna when bread might be had in an ordinary way so neither is there need of extraordinary signs when God hath abundantly furnished us with standing and ordinary means for this purpose REASON II. And as the Scriptures render such signs needless so they seem to be directly against them Christ commands us to watch because we know not in what hour the Lord cometh Yea even Isaac himself an extraordinary person and endued with a Spirit of Prophecy whereby he foretold the condition of his Sons after him yet it 's said Gen. 27.2 That he knew not the day of his death And it is not reasonable to think that common persons should know that which extraordinary and prophetick persons knew not REASON III. All mankind belong either to God or the Devil To such as belong to God such extraordinary warnings are needless for they have a watchful principle within them which continually prompts them to mind their change and besides death cannot endanger those that are in Christ how suddainly or unexpectedly soever it should befal them And for wicked men it cannot be thought God should favour and priviledg them in this matter above his own children and as for Satan he knows not the time of their death himself and if he did it would thwart his design and interest to discover it to them Luke 11.21 So that upon the whole it should seem such signs and predictions are of no use and the relations and reports of them fabulous But though these reasons make the common and daily use of such signs and predictions needless E contra yet they destroy not the credibility of them in all cases and at all times For I. There are recorded instances in Scripture of premonitions and predictions of the death of persons Thus the death of Abijah was foretold to his Mother by the Prophet and the precise hour thereof which fell out answerably 1 King 14.6 12. And thus the death of the
of God herein though submission be one of the lowest steps of duty in this case If it be hard to fix our thoughts but an hour upon such an unpleasing subject as death how hard mâ—st it be to bring over the consent of the will If we cannot endure it at a distance in our thoughts how shall we embrace and hug it in our bosoms If our thoughts flie back with distaste and impatience no wonder if our will be obstinate and refractory We must first prevail with our thoughts to fix themselves and think close to such a subject before it can be expected we chearfully resign our selves into the hands of death We cannot be willing to go along with death till we have some acquaintance with it and acquainted with it we cannot be till we accustome our selves to think assiduously and calmly of it They that have dwelt many years at deaths door both in respect of the condition of their Bodies and disposition of their minds yet find reluctancy enough when it comes to the point Objection But if separation from the Body be as it is an enemy to Nature and there be no possibility to extinguish natural aversation to what purpose is it to argue and perswade where there is no expectation of Success Solution Death is considerable two ways by the people of God 1. As an Enemy to Nature 2. As a medium to Glory If we consider it simply in it self as an Enemy to Nature there is nothing in it for which we should desire it but if we consider it as a medium or passage into glory yea the only ordinary way through which all the Saints must pass out of this into a better state so it will appear not only tolerable but desirable to prepared Souls Were there not a shore of glory on the other side of these black Waters of death for my own part I should rather chuse to live meanly than to die easily If both parts were to perish at death there were no reason to perswade one to be willing to deliver up the other It were a madness for the Soul to desire to be dissolv'd if it were so far from being better out of the Body than in it that it should have no being at all But Christians let me tell you death is so far from being a Bar that it is a Bridge in your way to glory and you are never like to come thither but by passing over it except therefore you will look beyond it you will never see any desireableness in it I desire to be dissolv'd saith Paul and to be with Christ which is far better To be with Death is sad but to be with Christ is sweet to endure the pains of death is doleful but to see the face of Christ is joyful To part with your pleasant habitations is irkesome but to be lodged in the heavenly Mansions is most delightful A parting hour with dear Relations is cutting but a meeting hour with Jesus Christ is transporting To be rid of your own Bodies is not pleasing but to be rid of sin and that for ever What can be more pleasing to a gracious Soul You see then in what sense I present death as a desirable thing to the people of God And therefore seeing nature teacheth us as the Apostle speaks to put the more abundant comeliness upon the uncomely parts suffer me to dress up death in its best ornaments and present it to you in the following Arguments as a beautiful and comely object of your conditional and well regulated desires And Argument I. IF upon a fair and just account there shall appear to be more gain to Believers in Death than there is in Life reason must needs vote death to be better to them that are in Christ than life can be and consequently it should be desireable in their eyes 'T is a clear dictate of reason in case of choice to chuse that which is best for us Who is there that freely exercises reason and choice together that will not do so What Merchant will not part with an hundred pounds worth of Glass Beads and Pendents for a Tun of Gold A few Tinsell Toyes for as many rich Diamonds Mercatura est amittere ut lucreris that is true Merchandize to part with things of lesser for things of greater value Now if you will be tried and determined by Gods Book of Rates then the case is determined quickly and the advantage appears exceedingly upon deaths side Philip. 1.21 To me to live is Christ and to die is gain Objection True it might be so to Paul who was eminent in grace and ripe for glory but it may be loss to others who have not attained the heighth of his holiness or assurance Sol. The true and plain sense of the Objection is this whether Heaven and Christ be as much gain to him that enjoys it though he be behind others both in grace and obedience as it is to them who are more eminent in grace and have done and suffered more for its sake and let it be determined by your selves but if your meaning be that Paul was ready for death and so are not you his work and course was almost comfortably finished and so is not yours his death therefore must needs be gain to him but it may be loss to you even the loss of all that you are worth for ever To this I say the Wisdom of God orders the time of his peoples death as well as all other Circumstances about it and in this your hearts may be at perfect rest That being in Christ you can never die to your loss die when you will I know you will reply that if your Union with Christ were clear the Controversie were ended but then you must also consider they are as safe who die by an act of recumbency upon Christ as those that die in the fullest assurance of their interest in him And beside your Reluctancies and Aversations to death are none of your way to assurance but such a strong aversation to sin and such a vehement desire after and love to Christ as can make you willing to quit all that is dear and desireable to you in this World for his sake is the very next door or step to assurance and if the Lord bring your hearts to this frame and fix them there it is not like you will be long without it But to return Paul had here valued life with a full allowance of all the benefits and advantages of it To me to live is Christ that is if I live I shall live in Communion with Christ and service for Christ and in the midst of all those Comforts which usually result from both Here 's life with the most weighty and desireable benefits of it laid in one scale and he lays death and probably a violent death too for of that he speaks to them afterwards in Chap. 2.17 thus he fills the Scales and the Balance breaks on deaths side yea it
these fears accompany many of Gods People from their Regeneration to their Dissolution O what would they not give what would they not do yea what would they not endure to get full satisfaction in those things Every working of Corruption every discovery made by Temptation puts them into a fright and makes them question all that ever was wrought in them And as their fears are great about the inward man so also about the outward man especially when such bloody preparations seem to be making by the same Enemies that have acted such and so many bloody Tragedies already in the World But at death they enter into perfect peace and security Isai 57.2 No wind of fear shall ever ruffle and disturb their Souls and put them into a storm any more 7. From deluding shadows into substantial good This World is the World of Shadows and delusive appearances Here we are imposed upon and baffled by empty and deceitful Vanities All we have here is little else but a Dream at death the Soul awakes out of its Dream and finds it self in the World of Realities where it feeds upon substantial good to satisfaction Psal. 17.15 Now the advantages accrewing to the Soul by death being so great and many though the Medium be harsh and ungrateful in it self yet there is all the reason in the World we should covet it for the benefits that come by it Argument V. THe foretasts we have had of Heaven already in the Body should make all the Saints long to be unbodied for the full and perfect fruition of that Joy seeing it cannot be fully and perfectly enjoyed by the Soul till it hath put off the Body by death That there are Praelibations First-fruits and Earnests of future glory given at certain seasons to Believers in this life is put beyond all doubting not only by Scripture-Testimonies but frequent experiences of God's People I speak not only with the Scriptures but with the clear experience of many Saints when I say there are to be felt and tasted even here in the Body the Earnests of our Inheritance Eph. 1.14 The first-fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 The sealing of the Spirit Eph. 1.13 The very Ioy of the Lord 1 Pet. 1.8 of the same kind though in a remisser degree with that of the glorified That the fulness of this joy cannot be in us whilst we tabernacle in Bodies of flesh is as plain When Moses desired a sight of that face which the spirits of just men made perfect do continually behold and adore the Answer was No Man can see my face and live Exod. 33.18 19 20. q. d. Moses Thou askest a great thing and understandest not how unable thou art to support that which thou desirest should I shew thee my Glory in this compounded state thou now art it would confound thee and swallow thee up Nature as now constituted cannot support such a weight of Glory a Ray a glimpse of this light overpowers Man and breaks such a clay Vessel to pieces which is the reason why the Resurrection must intervene betwixt this state and that of the Bodies glorification And it is not to be doubted but one main end and reason why these foretasts of Heaven are given us in the Body is to embolden the Soul to venture through death it self for the full enjoyment of those Delights and Pleasures They are like the Grapes of Eshcol to the faint-hearted Israelites or the sweet Wines of Italy to the Gauls which once tasted made them restless till they had conquered that good Countrey where they grew Rom. 8.23 We which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption viz. The Redemption of our Bodies Well then reflect seriously upon those sweet tastes that you have had of God and his love in your sincere and secret addresses to him and converses with him What an holy forgetfulness of all things in this World hath it wrought How insipid and tastless hath it rendered the sweetest Creature-enjoyments What willingness to be dissolved for a more full fruition of it God this way brings Heaven nigh to your Souls out of design to overcome your Reluctancies at death through which you must pass to the enjoyment of it And after all those sights and tastes both of the truth and goodness of that state shall we still reluctate and hang back as if we had never tasted how good the Lord is O you may justly question whether you ever had a real taste of Jesus Christ if that taste do not kindle Coals of fire in your Bosomes I mean ardent longings to be with him and to be satiated with his love If you have been priviledged with a taste of thaâ— hidden Manna with the sight of things invisible with Joys unspeakable and full of glory and yet are loth to be gone to the fountain whence all this flows certainly you herein both cross the design of the spirit in giving them and cast a vile disgrace and reproach upon the blessed God as thinking there is more bitterness in death than there is sweetness in his presence Yea it argues the strength of that unbelief which still remains in your hearts that after so many tastes and tryals as you have had you still remain doubtful and hesitating about the certainty and reality of things invisible O what adoe hath God with his froward and peevish Children If he had only revealed the future state to us in his Word as the pure Object of Faith and required â—s to die upon the meer credit of his promise without such Pawns Pledges and Earnests as these are were there not reason enough for it But after such and so many wonderful and amazing Condescentions wherein he doth as it were say Soul if yet thou doubtest I will bring Heaven to thee thou shalt have it in thy own hand thy eyes shall see it thy hands shall handle it thy Mouth shall taste it how inexcusable is our Reluctancy Argument VI. IT should greatly fortifie the People of God against the fears of Dissolution to consider that death can neither destroy the being of their Souls by Annihilation nor the hopes and expectations they have of blessedness by disappointment and frustration Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death Though all earthly things fail at death upon which account dying is expressed by failing Luke 16.19 Yet neither the Soul nor the well grounded hopes can fail The Anchor of a Believers hope is firm and sure Hebr. 6.18 It will not come home in the greatest Storm that can beat upon the Soul For 1 God hath foreknown and chosen them to Salvation before the World was 1 Pet. 1.2 And this Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 His Decrees are as firm as Mountains of Brass Zâ—ch 6.1 2 God hath justified their persons and therein destroyed the power of death over them 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. O death
where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The sting of death is sâ—n the strength of sin is the Law If all the hurtful power of death lies in sin and all the destructive power of sin rises from the Law then neither death nor sin have any power to destroy the Believer in whom the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled Rom. 8.4 Namely by the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to them in respect of which they are as righteous as if in their own persons they had perfectly obeyed all its Commands or suffered all its Penalties Thus death loseth its sting its Curse and killing power over the Souls of all that are in Christ. 3 God hath sanctified their natures which sanctification is not only a sure evidence of their Election and Iustification 2 Thes. 1.5 6. Rom. 8.1 but a sure Pledge of their Glorification also 2 Cor. 5.4 5. Yea 4 He hath made a sure and an everlasting Covenant with Believers and among other gracious Priviledges thereby conferred upon them death is found in the Inventory 1 Cor. 13.21 Death is yours to die is gain to them it destroys their Enemies and the distance that is betwixt Christ and them 5 He hath sealed them to this Glory by the Holy Spirit Eph. 4.30 So that their hopes are too firmly built to be destroyed by death and if it cannot destroy their Souls nor overthrow their hopes they need not fear all that it can do besides Argument VII IT may greatly encourage and embolden the People of God to die considering that though at death they take the last sight and view of all that is dear to them on earth yet then they are admitted to the first immediate sight and blessed Vision of God which will be their happiness to all eternity When Hezekiah was upon his supposed Death-bed he complained Isa. 38.11 I shall see Man no more with the Inhabitants of the World We shall see thenceforth these Corporeal People no more We shall see our Habitations and dwelling places no more Iob 7.9 10 11. We shall see our Children and dear Relations no more Iob 14.21 His Sons come to honour and he knoweth it not These things make death terrible to men but that which cures all this trouble is that we shall neither need nor desire them being thenceforth admitted to the beatifical Vision of the blessed God himself It is the expectation and hope of this which comforteth the Souls of the Righteous here Psal. 17.15 When I awake I shall behold thy face in righteousness Those weak and dim representations made by faith at a distance are the very joy and rejoycing of a Believers Soul now 1 Pet. 1.7 8. but how sweet and transporting soever these Visions of Faith be they are not worthy to be named in comparison with the immediate and beatifical Vision 1 Cor. 13.12 This is the very summ of a Believers blessedness and what it is we cannot comprehend in this imperfect state only in general we may gather these Conclusions about it from the account given of it in the Scriptures 1. That it will not be such a sight of God as we now have by the mediation of faith but a direct immediate and intuitive vision of God 1 Joh. 3.2 Lumen glorie est actualâ—s illustratio i. e. inflâ—xus Dei supernaturaliâ— elevans intellectum ad visionem essentiae divinae Smiâ—ing Tract 2. dis 6. N. 33. We shall see him as he is 1 Cor. 13.12 Then face to face Which far transcends the vision of faith in clearness and in comport this seems to import no less than the very sight of the divince Essence That which which Moses desired on Earth to see but could not Exod. 33.20 nor can be seen by any man dwelling in a Body 1 Tim. 6.16 nor by unbodied Souls comprehensively so God only sees himself our eyes see the Sun which they cannot comprehend yet truly apprehend God will then be known in his Essence and in the glory of all his Attributes this sight of the Attributes of God gives the occasion and matter of those ascriptions of Praise and Glory to him which is the proper imployment of glorified Souls Rev. 4.11 and Rev. 5 12 13. Which is the proper imployment of Angels Isai. 6.3 O how different is this from what we now have through Faith Duties and Ordinances See the difference betwixt knowledge by reports and immediate sight in that example of the Queen of the South 1 Kings 10.5 The former only excited her desires that latter transported and rapt her very Sâ—ul Some may think such a vision of God to exceed the abilities of nature and capacity of any Creature But as a learned man rightly observes Norton's Orthodox cvâ—n p. 329. if the divine Nature be capable of union with a Creature as its evident it is in the person of Christ it is also capable of being the object of vision to the Creature beside we must know the light of glory hath the same respect to this blessed vision that assisting grace hath to the acts of Faith and Obedience performed here on Earth It is a comforting-Soul-strengthening light not to dazle and over-power but comfort strengthen and clear the eye of the Creatures understanding Rev. 2.28 I will give him the morning star Lumen confortans and Psal. 36.9 in thy light we shall see light 2. It will be a satisfying sight Psa. 17.15 So perfectly quieting and giving rest to the Soul in all its powers that they neither can proceed nor desire to proceed any farther The understanding can know no more the will can will no more the affections of joy delight and love are at full rest and quiet in their proper center For all good is in the chiefest good eminently as all the light of the Candles in the World is in the Sun and all the Rivers in the World in the Sea That which makes the Understanding Will and Affections move farther as being restless and unsatisfied in all discoveries and enjoyments here is the limited and imperfect nature of things we now converse with as if you being a great Ship that draws much Water into a narrow and shallow River she can neither sail nor swim but is presently aground but let that Ship have sea room enough then she can turn and Sail before the wind because there is depth of Water and room enough So 't is here all that delighted but could never satisfie you in the Creature is eminently in God And what was imperfectly in them is perfectly to be enjoyed in him 1 Cor. 15.28 God shall be all in all the comforts you had here were but drop by drop inflaming not satisfying the appetite of the Soul But then the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and lead them unto fountains of living Waters Rev. 7.17 The object fills the faculties 3. It will be an appropriating vision of God you shall see him as your own God and proper
themselves first into a deep guilt by compliance with Antichrist and receiving his mark then into an Hell upon Earth the remorse and horrour of their own consciences which gives them no rest day nor night he immediately subjoyns v. 13. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord yea from henceforth saith the spirit c. Oh 't is a special blessing and favour to be hid out of the way of those temptations and torments in a seasonable and quiet grave Argument IX YOur fixed aversation and unwillingness to die will provoke God to imbitter your lives with much more affliction than you have yet felt or would feel if your hearts were more mortified and weaned in this point You cannot think of your own deaths with pleasure no nor yet with patience Well take heed lest this draw down such troubles upon you as shall make you at last to say with Iob chap. 10. v. 1. My Soul is weary of my life An expression much like that 2 Sam. 1.9 Anguish is come upon me because my life is whole in me My Soul is hardened or become cruel against my life as the Chaldee renders it There is a twofold weariness of life one from an excellency of spirit a noble principle the ardent love of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Another from the meer pressures of affliction and anguish of Spirit under heavy and successive stroaks from the hand of God and men Is it not more excellent and desireable to groan for death under a pressure of love to Christ than of afflictions from Christ I am convinced that very many of our afflictions come upon this score and account to make us willing to dye Is it not sad that God is forced to bring death upon all our comfortable and desireable things in this World before he can gain our consents to be gone Why will you put God upon such work as this Why cannot he have your hearts at a cheaper rate If you could dye many of your comforts for ought I know might live Had Iacob come to Absalom when he sent for him the first or second time Absalom had never set his field of Barly on fire 2 Sam. 14.30 And if we were more obedient to the will of God in this matter 't is likely he would not consume your health and Estates and Relations with such heavy strâ—â—ks as he hath done and will yet farther do except your wills be more compliant Alas To cut off your comforts one after another and make you live a groaning life the Lord hath no pleasure in it but rather he had you should lose these things than that he should lose your hearts on Earth or company in Heaven Impatiens aegrotus crudelem facit Medicum Argument X. THe decree of death cannot be reversed nor is there any other ordinary passage for the Soul into Glory but through the gates of death Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all men once to die but after that the Iudgment There is but one way to pass out of the obscure suffocating life in the Womb into the more free and nobler life in the World viz. through the Throes and Agonies of Birth And there is ordinarily but one way to pass from this sinning groaning life we live in this World to the enjoyment of God and the Glory above but through the Agonies of death You must cast as it were your Secundine once again I mean this vile body before you can be happy Heaven cannot come down to you you cannot see God and live Exod. 33.20 It would certainly confound and break you to pieces like an earthen Pitcher should God but ray forth his Glory upon you in the state you now are and it is sure you cannot expect the extraordinary savour of such a translation as Enoch had Hebr. 11.5 Or as those Believers shall have that shall be found alive at Christ's coming 1 Thes. 4.17 You must go the common road that all the Saints go but though you cannot avoid you may sweeten it God will not reverse his Decree but you may and ought to arm your selves against the fears of it Ahashuerus would not re-call the Proclamation he had emitted against the Iews but he gave them full liberty to take up arms to defend themselves against their Enemies 'T is much so here the Sentence cannot be revoked but yet he gives you leave yea he commands you to arm your selves against death and defie it and trample it under the feet of Faith Argument XI WHen you find your hearts reluctate at the thoughts of leaving the Body and the comforts of this World then consider how willingly and chearfully Iesus Christ left Heaven and the Bosome of his Father to come down to this World for your sakes Pr. 8.30 31. Ps. 40.7 Loe I come c. O compare the frames of your hearts with his in this point and shame your selves out of so unbecoming a temper of Spirit 1 He left Heaven and all the Delights and Glory of it to come down to this World to be abased and humbled to the lowest you leave this World of sin and misery to ascend to Heaven to be exalted to the highest He came hither to be impoverished you go thither to be enriched 2 Cor. 8.9 yet he came willingly and we go grudgingly 2 He came from Heaven to Earth to be made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 we go from Earth to Heaven to be fully and everlastingly delivered from sin yet he came more willingly to bear our sins than we go to be delivered from them 3 He came to take a body of Flesh to suffer and die in Heb. 2.24 you leave your Bodies that you may never suffer in or by them any more 4 As his Incarnation was a deep abasement so his death was the most bitter death that ever was tasted by any from the beginning or ever shall to the end of the World and yet how obediently doth he submit to both at the Father's Call Luke 12.50 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished Ah Christians your death cannot have the ten thousandth part of that bitterness in it that Christ's had I remember one of the Martyrs being asked why his heart was so light at death returned this answer because Christs heart was so heavy at his death O there is a vast difference betwixt one and the other the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law was in his death Gal. 3.13 but there is neither Wrath nor Curse in your death who die in the Lord Rom. 8.1 God forsook him when he hanged upon the Tree in the Agonies of death Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But you shall not be forsaken He will make all your Bed in sickness Psal. 41.3 He will never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13.5 Yet he regretted not but went as a Sheep or Lamb Isa. 53.7 O reason
your selves out of this Reluctancy at death by this great Example and Pattern of Obedience Argument XII LAstly Let no Christian be affrighted at death considering that the death of Christ is the death of Death and hath utterly disarmed it of all its destructive power If you tremble when you look upon death yet you cannot but triumph when you look believingly upon Christ. For 1 Christ died O believer for thy sins Rom. 4.25 his death was an expiatory Sacrifice for all thy guilt Gal. 3.13 so that thou shalt not die in thy sins the pangs of death may and must be on thy outward man but the guilt of sin and the Condemnation of God shall not be upon thy inner man 2 The death of Christ in thy room hath utterly destroyed the power of death which once was in the hand of Satan Heb. 2.14 Col. 2.14 15. his power was not authoritative but executive Not as the power of a King but of a Sheriff which is none at all when a Pardon is produced 3 Christ hath assured us that his Victory over death shall be compleat in our persons It is already a compleat personal Victory in respect of himself Rom. 6.9 he dieth no more death hath no more Dominion over him It 's an incompleat Victory already as to our persons It can dissolve the Union of our Souls and Bodies but the Union betwixt Christ and our Souls it can never dissolve Rom. 8.38 39. and as for the power it still retains over our dust that also shall be destroyed at the Resurrection 1 Cor 15.25 26. comp with verses 54 55 56 57. so that there is no cause for any Soul in Christ to tremble at the thoughts of a separation from the body but rather to embrace it as a priviledge death is ours O that these arguments might prevail O that they might at last win the consent of our hearts to go along with death which is the Messenger sent by God to bring us home to our Fathers house But I doubt when all is said we are where we were all this suffices not to overcome the Regrets and Reluctancies of Nature still the matter sticks in our minds and we cannot conquer our disinclined Wills in this matter What is the matter Where lie the Rubbs and Hinderances O that God would remove them at last Object 1. This is a common Plea with many I am not ready and fit to die were I ready I should be willing to be gone Sol. 1 How long soever you live in the Body there will be somewhat still out of order something still to do for you must be in a state of imperfection whilst you remain here and according to this Plea you will never be willing to die 2 Your willingness to be dissolved and to be with Christ is one special part of your fitness for death and till you attain it in some good measure you are not so fit to die as you should be 3 If you be in Christ you have a fundamental fitness for death though you may want some circumstantial Preparatives And as to all that is wanting in your sanctification or obedience now it will be compleated in a moment upon your dissolution Object 2. Others plead the desire they have to live is in order to God's further service by them in this World O say they it was David 's happiness to die when he had served his Generation according to the Will of God Acts 13.36 If we had done so too we should say with Simeon ` Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Sol. 1 God needs not your hands to carry on his service in the World he can do it by other hands when you are gone Many of greater Gifts and Graces than you are daily laid in the Grave to teach you God needs no mans help to carry on his Work 2 If the service of God be so dear to you there is higher and more excellent Service for you in Heaven than any you ever were or can be imployed in here on earth O why don't you long to be amidst the thick of Angels and Spirits made perfect in the Temple-Service in Heaven Object 3. O but my Relations in the World lie near my heart what will become of them when I am gone Sol. 1 'T is pity they should lie nearer your hearts than Jesus Christ if they do you have little reason to desire death indeed 2 Who took care of you when death snatcht your dear Relations from you who possibly felt the same workings of heart that you now do Did you not experience the truth of that word Psal. 27.10 When Father and Mother forsaketh me then the Lord taketh me up and if you be in the Covenant God hath prevented this Plea with his Promise Ier. 49.11 Leave thy fatherless Children to me I will keep them alive and let their Widows trust in me But I desire to live to see the felicity of Zion before I go hence Object 4. and the answer of the many Prayers I have sowen for it I am loth to leave the People of God in so sad a condition The publickness of thy Spirit and Love to Zion Sol. is doubtless pleasing to God but it is better for you to be in Heaven one day than to live over again all the days you have lived in earth in the best times that ever the Church of God enjoyed in this World the Promises shall be accomplished though you may not live to see their accomplishment die you in the faith of it as Ioseph did Gen. 50.24 But alas the matter doth not stick here this is not the main hinderance I will tell you where I think it lies 1 In the hesitancy and staggering of our faith about the certainty and reality of things invisible 2 In some special guilt upon the Conscience which appals us 3 In a negligent and careless course of life which is not ordinarily blessed with much evidence or comfort 4 In the deep engagements of our hearts to earthly things they could not be so cold to Christ if they were not overheated with other things Till these Distempers be cured no Arguments can prosper that are spent to this end The Lord dissolve all those ties betwixt us and this World which hinder our consent and willingness to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better And now we have had a glance a glimmering light a faint umbrage of the state of separated Souls of the just in Heaven It remains that I shew you somewhat of the state and case of damned Souls in Hell A dreadful Representation it is but it is necessary we hear of Hell that we may not feel it 1 Pet. iii. ver 19. By which also he went and preached unto the SPIRITS in PRISON IN the former Discourse we have had a view of Heaven and of the Spirits of just men made perfect the Inhabitants of that blessed region of light and glory
and the body too in the chase and prosecution of Truth Veritas in putâ—â— when it lyes deep as a subterranean treasure the mind sends out innumerable thoughts re-inforcing each other in thick successions to dig for and compass that invaluable treasure if it be disguised by misrepresentations and vulgar prejudice and trampled in the dirt under that disguise there is an ability in the mind to discern it by some lines and features which are well known to it and both owne honour and vindicate it under all that dirt and obloquy with more respect than a man will take up a pâ—ece of Gold or a sparkling Dâ—amond out of the gutter it searches after it by many painful deductions of reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Archim and triumphs more in the discovery of it than in all earthly treasures no gratification of sense like that of the mind when it grasps its prey for which it hunted The mind passes through all the works of Creation it views the several creatures on earth considers the fabrick use and beauty of Animals the signatures of Plants penetrating thereby into their Nature and Virtues it views the vast Ocean and the large train of Causes laid together in all these things for the good of man by God whose Name it reads in the most diminutive creature it beholds on earth It can in a moment mount it self from Earth to Heaven view the face thereof describe the motions of the Sun in the Ecliptick calculate Tables for the motions of the Planets and fixed Stars invent convenient Cycles for the computations of Time foretel at a great distance the dismal Eclipses of the Sun and Moon to the very Digâ—â— and the â—ortentous Conjunctions of the Planets to the very minute of their Ingress these are the pleasant imployments of the Understanding But there is an higher game at which this Eagle plays it reckons it self all thiâ—â—â—â—â—ile imploy'd as much beneath its capacity as Domitian in catching flies though these be lawful and pleasant exercises when it hath leisure for them yet it is fitted for a much nobler exercise even to penetrate the glorious Mysteries of Redemption to trace redeeming love through all the astonishing methods and manifold discoveries of it and yet higher than all this it is capable of an immediate sight or facial vision of the blessed God short of which it receives no pleasure that is fully agreeable to its noble powers and infinite appetite View its Will and you shall find it like a Queen upon the Throne of the Soul swaying the Scepter of Liberty in her hand Culverwell as one expresseth it with all the affections waiting and attending upon her No Tyrant can force it no torment can wrest the golden Scepter of Liberty out of its hand the keys of all the Chambers of the Soul hang at its girdle these it delivers to Christ in the day of his power victorious Grace sweetly determines it by gaining its consent but commits no rape upon it by unnatural coaction God accepts its offering though full of imperfections but no service is accepted without it how excellent soever the matter of it View the Conscience and Thoughts with their self-reflexive abilities wherein the Soul retires into it self and sits concealed from all eyes but his that made it judging its own actions and censuring its estate viewing its face in its own glass and correcting the indecencies it discovers there Things of greatest moment and importance are silently transacted in this Council-chamber betwixt the Soul and God so remote from the knowledge of all Creatures that neither Angels 1 Cor. 2.11 Devils or men can know what it is doing there but by uncertain guess or revelation from God here it impleads Rom. 2.15 condemns and acquits it self as at a privy Session with respect to the Judgment of the great Day here it meets with the best of comforts 2 Cor. 1.12 and with the worst of terrors Take a survey of its Passions and Affections and you will find them admirable see how they are placed by Divine Wisdom in the Soul some for defence and safety others for delight and pleasure Anger actuates the Spirits and rouzeth its courage enabling it to break through difficulties Fear keeps Sentinel watching upon all dangers that approach us Hope forestals the good and anticipates the joys of the next Life and thereby supports and strengthens the Soul under all the discouragements and pressures of the present life Love unites it to the chiefest Good he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Zeal is the Dagger which love draws in Gods cause and quarrel to secure it self from sin and testifie its resentments of Gods dishonour O what a Divine spark is the Soul of man well might Christ prefer it in dignity to the whole World 3. Thirdly The worth of a Soul may be gathered and discerned from its subjective capacity and hability both of Grace and Glory It is capable of all the graces of the Spirit of being silled with the fulness of God Eph. 3.19 to live to God here and with God for ever What excellent Graces do adorn some Souls How are all the rooms richly hanged with Divine and costly Hangings that God may dwell in them This makes it like the carved works of the Temple overlaid with pure Gold here is Glory upon Glory a new Creation upon the old in the inmost parts of some Souls is a spiritual Altar erected with this Inscription Holiness to the Lord Here the Soul offers up it self to God in the sacred flames of Love and here they sacrifice their vile affections devoting them to destruction to the glory of their God here God walks with delight even a delight beyond what he takes in all the stately Structures and magnificent adorned Temples in the whole World Isa. 66.1 2. No other Soul besides mans is marriageable to Christ or capable of Espousals to the King of Glory they were not designed and therefore not endued with a capacity for such an honour as this but such a capacity hath every Soul even the meanest on Earth and such honour have all his Saints others may 2 Cor. 11.2 Eph. 5.27 but they are betrothed to Christ in this World and shall be presented without spot before him in the World to come It is now a lovely and excellent Creature in its naked natural state much more beautiful and excellent in its sanctified and gracious state but what shall we say or how shall we conceive of it when all spots of sin are perfectly washed off its beautiful face in Heaven and the glory of the Lord is risen upon it When its filthy garments are taken away and the pure robes of perfect Holiness as well as Righteousness superinduced upon this excellent Creature If the imperfect beauty of it begun in Sanctification enamouâ—ed its Saviour and made him say Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one of the
of the wrath to his own Soul and the astonishing love of Christ in delivering him from it by bearing that wrath in his place and room in his own person cannot chuse but estimate Christ above ten thousand Worlds Inference V. HOw great a trust and charge lyeth upon them to whom the care of Souls is committed and from whom an account for other mens as well as their own Souls shall certainly be required Ministers are appointed of God to watch for the Souls of their people and that as men that must give an account Heb. 13.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est noctes insomnes agere quod solent viri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pernox soticitudo The word here translated watch signifies such watchfulness as that of Shepherds which keep their stocks by night in places infested by Wolves who watch whole nights together for their safety If a man were a keeper only of Sheep or Swine it were no great matter if the Wolf now and then carried away one whilst we slept but Ministers have charge of Souls one of which as Christ assures us in the Text is more worth than the whole World Hear what one speaks upon this point God purchased the Church with his own Blood Gildas Salvian p. 260. O what an Argument is here to quicken the negligent and what an Argument to condemn those that will not be quickened up to their duty by it O saith one of the Ancient Doctors if Christ had but committed to my keeping one spoonful of his Blood in a fragil glass how curiously should I preserve it and how tender should I be of that glass If the◠he have committed to me the purchace of that Blood should I not carefully look to my charge What Sirs shall we despise the Blood of Christ shall we think it was shed for them that are not worthy of our care O then let us hear those Arguments of Christ whenever we feel our selves grow dull and careless Did I dye for them and wilt not thou look after them Were they worth my Blood and are they not worth thy labour Did I come down from Heaven to Earth to seek and to save that which was lost and wilt not thou go to the next door or street or village to seek them How small is thy labour or condescension to mine I debased my self to this but it is thy honour to be so imployed Let not that man think to be saved by the Blood of Christ himself that makes light of precious Souls who are the purchace of that Blood And no less charge lyeth upon Parents to whom God hath committed the care of their Childrens Souls and Masters that have the Guardianship of the Souls as well as bodies of their Families the command is laid immediately upon you that they sanctifie Gods Sabbaths Exod. 20.10 to command your houshold in the way of the Lord Gen. 18.19 O Parents consider with your selves what strong engagements lye upon you to do all you are capable of doing for the salvation of the precious Souls of your dear Children Remember their Souls are infinitely of more value than their bodies that they came into the World under sin and condemnation that you were the instruments of propagating that sin to them and bringing them into that misery that you know their dispositions and how to suit them better than others can That the bonds of Nature give you singular advantages to prevail and be successful in your exhortations beyond what any others have that you are always with them and can chuse your opportunities which others cannot That you and they must shortly part and never meet them again till you meet at the Judgment-seat of Christ. That it will be inconceivably dreadful to see them stand at Christs left hand among the cursed and condemned there cursing the day that ever they were born of such ignorant and negligent such careless and cruel Parents as took no care to instruct reprove or exhort them O who can think without horrour of the cryes and curses of his own Child in Hell cast away by the very instrument of its Being Is this the love you bear them to betray them to eternal misery Was there no other provision to be made but for their bodies Did you think you had fully acquitted your duty when you had got an Estate for them O that God would effectually touch your hearts with a becoming sense of the value and danger of their Souls and your own too in the neglect of that great and solemn trust committed to you with respect to them And you Masters consider though God hath set you above and your Servants below yet are their Souls equally precious with your own they have another Master that expects service from them as well as you do not only allow them time but give them your exhortations and commands not to neglect their own Souls whilst they attend your business think not your business will prosper the less because it is in the hand of a praying servant their Souls are of greater concernment than any business of yours can be Inference VI. ARE Souls so precious then certainly the means and instruments of their Salvation must be exceeding precious too and the removal of them a sore Iudgment The dignity of the subject gives value to the instruments imploy'd about it It is no ordinary mercy for Souls to come into such a part of the World and in such a time as furnisheth them with the best helps for Salvation Ordinan ces and Ministers receive their value not only from their Author but their Object they have a dignity stampt upon them by their usefulness to the Souls of men Acts 20.32 it is the seed of life 1 Pet. 1.23 the regenerating instrument It is the bread of life Iob 23.12 more than our necessary food The Word is a Light shining in the dark World to direct our Souls through all the snares laid for them unto Glory It is the Souls Cordial in all fainting fits Psal. 119.50 What shall I say of the Word and Ordinances of God the Sun that shines in Heaven to give us light the Fountains Springs and Rivers that stream for our refreshment the Corn and Cattel on the Earth yea the very Air we breathe in is not so useful so necessary so precious to our bodies as the Word is to our Souls It cannot therefore but be a sore judgment and a dreadful token of Gods indignation and wrath to have a restraint or scarcity of the means of Salvation among us but should there be which God in mercy prevent a removal and total loss of these things wrath would then come upon us to the uttermost What will the condition of precious Souls be when the means of Salvation are cut off from them When that famine worse than of bread and water is come upon them Amos 8.11 When the Ark of God the Symbol of his Presence was taken it is said 1 Sam. 4.13 That
most dangerous instruments the Devil can imploy to the ruine and extirpation of true Godliness Such a Zealot was Paul in his unregenerate state 3. Nothing is more common than to find men hot and zealous against false Worship whilst their hearts are as cold as a stone in the Vitals and Essentials of true Religion Many can dispute warmly against Adoration of Images praying to Angels and Saints departed who all the while are like those dead Images which others worship Iehu was a Zealot against Idolatry and yet the vital power of true Godliness was a stranger to his Soul 2 Kings 10.15 16. The Pharisees spared no pains to make a Proselyte yet all the while were the Children of the Devil themselves Matt. 23.15 This is a sad case yet what more common The Lord open the eyes of these men and convince them in season that their Zeal runs in the wrong Chanel and spends it self upon things which shall never profit them O if they were but as much concerned to promote the love to God and life of Godliness in themselves and others as they are about some external accidents and appendages of Religion what blessings would they be to the World and what evidence would they have of their own sincerity The twelfth way to Hell opened XII The twelfth way to Hell in which many Souls are carried on smoothly and securely to their own destruction is the way of meer Civility and moral Honesty wherein men rest as in a safe state never doubting but a civil life will produce and issue into an happy death Moral honesty is a lovely thing and greatly tends to the peace and order of the World but it is not saving Grace nor gives any man a good Title to Christ and Salvation Indeed there can be no Grace in that Soul in which Civility and moral Honesty is not found but this may be found in thousands that have no Grace That which ruines mens Souls is not the exercise of moral Vertues but their reliance upon them they use their Morality as a shield to secure their Consciences from the convictions of the Word which would shew them their sinful and miserable state by Nature Thus the Pharisee Luke 18.11 12. God I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican he blesseth himself in the conceits of his own safety and happiness Let debauched and prophane persons look to it I am well enough though alas poor man his being less evil at best could but procure him a cooler Hell or a milder flame This was the case of the young Man Matt. 19.20 and like a young man indeed he reasons He summs up all the stock of his civil life and thinks it strange if that be not enough to make a purchace of eternal life What lack I yet Alas poor Soul every thing necessary to Salvation the very first stone was not laid when he thought the building was finished and this is the case of multitudes both young and old and that which greatly confirms and settles them in this their dangerous security is the general indistinct Doctrine of some who pretend to be Guides to the Souls of others the scope of whose Ministry aims at no higher mark than to civilize the people and press moral Duties upon them as if this were all that were necessary to Salvation nay 't is well if some do not industriously pull down the pale of distinction betwixt Morality and Regeneration and tell the world in plain English That there is no reason to put a difference betwixt men that are baptized and live morally honest and those that have saving Grace and they that do so are only a few men who are highly conceited of themselves and censorious of all others whom they please to vote formal and moral This indeed is the way to fix them where they are if Christ had not taken another method with Nicodemus and his Ministers had not pressed the necessity of Regeneration and the insufficiency of moral honesty to Salvation how thin had the number of true Converts been though at most they are but an handful in comparison of the unregenerate O that God would bless what follows to undeceive and save some poor Soul out of this dangerous snare of the Devil The twelfth way to Damnation barred by three Considerations 1. Blind not your selves with the lustre of your own moral Vertues a life smoothly drawn with Civility through the World for though it must be acknowledged there is a loveliness and attracting sweetness in Morality and Civility yet these things rather respect Earth than Heaven and are designed for the conservation of the order and peace of this World not for your Salvation and Title to the World to come Without Justice and Truth Kingdoms and Common-wealths would become Mountains of prey and Dens of robbery Where there is no trust there can be no traffick and where there is no truth there can be no trust Civility is the very Basis of humane Society a world of good accrues to men by it and abundance of mischief is prevented by it but it never gave any man an interest in Christ or a title to Salvation The Romans and Lacedemonians who perished in the darkness of Heathenism excelled in Morality there is nothing of Christ or Regeneration in these things how much of excellency soever be ascribed to them Paul the Pharisee was a blameless person touching the Law and yet at the same time not only utterly ignorant of Christ but a bitter Enemy to him and all that were his Till you can find another way to Heaven than by Regeneration Repentance and Faith never lean upon such a deceitful and rotten prop as meer Civility is 2. Civilized Nature is unsanctified Nature still and without Sanctification there is no Salvation Heb. 12.14 Civility adorneth Nature but doth not change it Moral Vertues are so many sweet flowers strawed over a dead Corps which hide the loathsomness of it but inspire not life into it Morality hides and covers Abscondit non abscindit vitia Lactant. but never mortifies nor cures the corruptions of Nature and mortified they must be or you cannot be saved Take the best Nature in the world and let it be adorned with all the ornaments of Morality which they call Homilitical Vertues and add to these all the common gifts of the Spirit which are for assistance and ministry yet all this cannot secure that Soul from Hell or be the ground-work for a just claim to any promise of Salvation all this is but Nature improved not regenerated Morality is neither produced as saving Grace is nor works such effects as Grace worketh There are no pangs of Repentance introducing it it may cost many an aking head but no asking heart for sin no such distressed out-cries as that Acts 2.37 Men and Brethren what shall we do Nor doth it produce such humility self-abasement heavenly tempers and tendencies of Soul
shall be done for them Is there no way for their deliverance O that God would direct and bless the following considerations to them if it may be expected they may at any time get through the brake in which they are involved and find them at leisure to bethink themselves The sixth way to Hell shut up by five Considerations 1. Bethink thy self poor Soul as much as thou art involved and plunged in the necessities and distracting cares of this life others many others as poor as necessitous and every way as much embroil'd in the cares of the world as you are have minded their Souls and taken all care and pains for their Salvation notwithstanding yea though millions of your rank and order are destroyed by these snares of the Devil yet God hath a very great number indeed the greatest of any rank of men among those that are low poor and necessitous in the world The Church is called the Congregation of the poor Psal. 74.20 because it consisteth mostly of men and women of the lowest and most despicable condition in this world They are all poor in Spirit and most of them poor in purse Hearken my beloved Brethren saith Iames hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom Jam. 2.5 Now if others many others as much intangled in the necessities cares and troubles of the world as you have yet struggled through all those difficulties and discouragements to Heaven why should not you strive for Christ and Salvation as well as they Your Souls are as valuable as theirs and their discouragements and hinderances as great and as many as yours 2. Consider your poor and necessitous condition in the world hath something in it of motive and advantage to excite and quicken you to a greater diligence for Salvation than is found in a more full easie and prosperous state for God hath hereby imbitter'd this world to you and made you drink deeper of the troubles of it than other men they have the honey and you the gall they have the flour and you the bran But then as yoâ— have not the pleasures so you have not the snares of a prosperous condition and your daily troubles cares and labours in it do even prompt you to seek rest in Heaven which you cannot find on Earth Can you think you were made for a worse condition than the Beasts what to have two Hells one here and another hereafter Surely as low miserable and despicable as you are you are capable of as much happiness as any of the Nobles of the World and in your low and afflicted condition stand nearer to the door of hope than they do Ah! methinks these thoughts do even put themselves upon you when your spirits are overloaded with the cares and your bodies tired with the labours of this life Is this the life of troubles I must expect on Earth Hath God denied me the pleasures of this World O then let it be my care my study my business to make sure of Christ to win Heaven that I may not be miserable in both Worlds How can you avoid such thoughts or put by such meditations which your very station and condition even forceth upon you 3. Consider how all your troubles in this World would be sweetned and all your burdens lightned if once your Souls were in Christ and in Covenant with God O what hearts-ease would Faith give you What sweet relief would you find in Prayer These things like the opening of a Vein or Tumor when ripe would suddenly cool relieve and ease your spirits Could you but go to God as a Father and pour out your hearts before him and roll all your cares and burdens wants and sorrows upon him you would find a speedy out-let to yâ—ur troubles and an inlet to all peace all comfort and all refreshments such as all the riches honours and fulness of this world cannot give you would then find Providence engage it self for your supply and issue all your troubles to your advantage Heb. 13.5 Isa. 41.17 Psal. 34.9 10. Psal. 91.15 Rom. 8.28 You would suck the breasts of those Promises in the Margent and say all the dainties in the world cannot make you such another Feast You would then see your bread your cloaths and all provisions for you and yours in Gods promises when you are brought to an exigence and would certainly find performances as well as promises all along the course of your life 4. Say not you have no time to mind another world God hath not put any of you under such an unhappy necessity you have one whole day every week allowed you by God and Man for your Souls you have some spare time every day which you know you spend worse than in heavenly thoughts and exercises yea most Callings are such as will admit of spiritual exercises of thoughts even when your hands are exercised in the affairs of this life Besides there are none of you but have and must have daily some relaxations and rest from business and if your hearts were spiritual and set upon Heaven you would find more time than you think on without prejudice to your Callings yea to the great furtherance of them to spend with God I can tell you when and where I have found poor Servants hard at work for Salvation labouring for Christ some in the Fields others in Barns and Stables where they could find any privacy to pour out their Souls to God in prayer As Lovers will make hard shifts to converse together so will the Soul that is devoted to God and in earnest for Heaven And though your opportunities be not so large they may be as sweet as successful and to be sure sincere as those whose condition affords them more time and greater external conveniencies than you enjoy More business is sometimes dispatcht in a quarter of an hour in prayer yea let me say in a few hearty ejaculations of Soul to God in a few minutes than in many long and elaborate duties If thou cast in thy two mites of time into the Treasury of Prayer having no more thou mayst as Christ said of the poor Widow give more than those that cast in of their great abundance of time and Talents 5. Lastly Consider Jesus Christ is no Respecter of persons the poorest and vilest on earth are as welcome to him as the greatest He chose a poor and mean condition in this World himself conversed mostly among the poor never refused any because of his poverty God accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor for they are all the work of his hands Job 34.19 and that both in respect of their natural constitution as men and their Civil condition as rich or poor men Riches and poverty make a great difference in the respects of men but none at all with God If thou be one of Gods poor he will accept love and honour thee above the greatest if
graceless person in the world Poverty is no bar to Christ or Heaven though it be to the respects of men and pleasures of this life Away then with all vain pretences against a life of godliness from the meanness of your outward condition Heaven was not made for the rich and Hell only for the poor no no how hard soever you find the way thither I am sure Christ saith It 's hard for a rich man to enter into that Kingdom The seventh way of losing the Soul discovered VII The seventh beaten path to destruction is by groundless presumption praesumâ—ndo sperant spirando perâ—unt by presumption they have hope and by that hope they perish There are divers objects of Presumption amongst which these three are most usual and most fatal viz. That they have 1. That Grace which they have not 2. That Mercy in God they will not find 3. That Time before them which will fail them 1. Many presume they have that Grace in them which God knoweth they have not So did Laodicea Rev. 3.17 Thou sayest I am rich and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable poor blind and naked Here is a dangerous Conspiracy betwixt a cunning Devil and an ignorant proud Heart to ruine the Soul for ever they stamp their common Grace for special they put the old Creature by a general Profession into the new Creatures habit and lay a confident claim to all the Priviledges of the Children of God 2. They presume upon such Mercy in God as they will never find they expect pardoning and saving Mercy out of Christ in an unregenerate state when there is not one drop of Mercy dispensed in any other way The whole oeconomy of Grace is managed by the Mediator Iude v. 21. all saving Mercies come through him upon all that are in him and upon no others God is indeed a merciful God and yet presumptuous sinners will find Judgment without Mercy because they are not found in the proper way and method of Mercy Thousands and ten thousands carve out and dispose the Mercy of God at their own pleasure write their own Pardons in what Terms they think fit and if they had Gods Seal to firm and ratifie them it were all well but alas it is but a night-vision a dream of their own brain 3. But especially men presume upon Time enough for Repentance hereafter they question not but there be as fit and as fair opportunities of Salvation to come as are already past and in this snare of the Devil thousands are taken in the very prime and vigour of their youth That age is voluptuous and loves not to be interrupted with severe and serious thoughts and courses and here is a Salvo fitted exactly to suit their inclination and quiet them in their way that they may pursue their lusts without interruption I cannot follow the sin of Presumption at present in all these its courses and ways and will therefore apply my self to the case last mentioned which is so common to the world The seventh way to destruction shut up by five weighty Considerations 1. And in the first place I would beg all those young voluptuous Sinners whose feet are fast held in the snare of this Temptation seriously to bethink themselves whether they are not old enough to be damned whilst they judge themselves too young to be seriously godly There are multitudes in Hell of your age and size you may find Graves in the Church-yard of your own length and Skulls of your own size Men will not spare a nest of young Snakes because they are little If you die Christless and unregenerate 't is the same thing whether you be old or young there is abundance of young Spray as well as old Logs burning in the flames of Hell 2. If you knew the weight and difficulty of Salvation-work you would never think you could begin too soon Religion is a business will take up all your time Poenitet me Domine quod serò te amavi Aug. many have repented they began so late none that they began too soon Say not the penitent Thief found mercy at the last hour for his Conversion was extraordinary and we must not hope for Miracles Besides he could never encourage himself in sin with the hope and expectation of such a miraculous Conversion He was the only Example of a Sinner that was ever so recovered in Scripture and this was recorded not to nourish presumption but to prevent despair If ten thousand persons died of the Plague and one only of the whole number infected with it escaped it 's no great encouragement that you shall make the second O think and think again how many thousands now on earth have been tugging and striving forty or fifty years together to make their Calling and Election sure and yet to this day it is not so sure as they would have it they are afraid after all time will fail them for finishing and you think 't is too early for beginning so great a work 3. Others have begun sooner than you and finished the great and main work before you have done one stroke Abijah was very young scarce got out of his childhood when the Grace of God was found in him 1 Kings 14.13 The fear of God was in Obadiah when but a youth 1 Kings 18.12 Timothy was not only a Christian but a Preacher of the Gospel in the morning of his life 2 Tim. 3.15 What have you to plead for your selves which they had not Or what arguments and motives to godliness had they which you have not You shall be judged per pares by those of your own age and size their seriousness shall condemn your vanity 4. The morning of your life is the flower of your time the freshest and fittest of all your life for your great work now your hearts are tender and impressive your affections flowing and tractable your heads clear of distracting cares and hurries of business which come on afterwards in thick successions Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth whilst the evil days come not Eccles. 12.1 2. If a man have an important business to do he will take the morning for it knowing if that be slipt a crowd and hurry of business will come on afterwards to distract and hinder him I presume if all the Converts in the World were examined in this point it would be found that at least ten to one were wrought upon in their youth that is the moulding age 5. And if this proper hopeful season be elapsed it is very unlikely that ever you be wrought upon afterwards How thin and rare in the world are the instances and examples of Conversion in old age Long continued customs in sin harden the heart fix the will and root the habits of vice so deep in the Soul that there is no altering of them your ears then are so accustomed to the sounds of the Word that Christ and