the rest stands upon two strong Grounds First if we consider what is common to God in this with all other but ordinary wise Efficients or Workers that are intent upon their Ends which must be given to him the onely Wise All-powerful God who is here said as an Efficient to work us for this End When any ordinary Efficient hath brought his Work to a period and done as much to such or such an End as he means to do he delays not to accomplish his End and bring it to execution unless some over-powring impediment do lie in his way to it If you have bestowed long and great Cost upon any of your Children to fit and prepare them for any Imployment The University suppose or other Calling Do you then let these your Children lie Truants idle and asleep at home and not put them forth to that which you at first designed that their Education unto Will you suffer them in this case to lose their time Do you know how to do good to your Children and doth not God We see God doth thus in nature We say when the Matter is as fully prepared as ever it shall be that the form enters without delay Now Grace is expresly termed a preparation to Glory Also God doth observe this in working of Grace it self when the Soul is as fully humbled and emptied and thereby prepared for the Lord by John Baptists Ministry as he means to prepare it the Work of justifying Faith presently follows In all his Dispensations of Judgements or Mercies he observes the same When mens sins are at full as of the Amorites he stays not a moment to execute Judgement So in answering the Faith of his People waiting on him for Mercies And thus it is for Glory I have glorified thee on earth the onely place and condition of our glorifying God I have finished the work thou gavest me to do And now what now and presently now remained there follows glorifie me c. Thus spake Christ our Pattern Secondly there is this further falls out in this Case and Condition of such a Soul as doth indeed call for this out of a kinde of necessity and not of congruity onely For whereas by Gods Ordination there are two wayes of Communion with him and but two unto all Eternity either that of Faith which we have at present and of Sight which is for hereafter Into these two the Apostle resolves all Gods Dispensations to us ver. 7. of this Chapter We walk by faith namely in this life not by sight And again 1 Cor. 13. 12. Now we see in a glass Then face to face These two Now and Then do divide the Dispensations for Eternity of time to come The like in Peter 1 Epist. 1. 8. In whom though Now you see him not as you one day shall yet believing If therefore when the Soul goes out of the Body that way of communion with God by Faith utterly ceaseth (a) that door and passage will be quite shut up God having (b) fulfilled all the work of faith The work of God with power that ever he intendeth Then surely Sight must succeed according to Gods Ordination or otherwise this would inevitably follow That the Soul would be for that interim until the Resurrection cut off from all communion with God whatever having yet all its acquired holiness of Sanctification abiding in it and Righteousness accompanying of it all that while Look therefore as a Childe hath two and but two wayes of living and when the one ceaseth the other succeeds or Death would follow In the Womb it lives by nourishment from the Navel without so much as breathing at the mouth but it no sooner comes into the world but that former means is cut off and it liveth by breath and taking in nourishment by the mouth or it must instantly die So stands the case with the Soul here between Faith and Sight So that we must either affirm That the Soul dies to all spiritual actings and communion with God until the Resurrection which those Scriptures so much do contradict He that believeth hath eternal life c. and shall never no not for a moment die and in those Promises it is not simply a sluggish Immortality but to live and act and enjoy God which is our life must needs be meant Or we must on the other side affirm That the life of Faith ceasing and God yet having that way wrought all that ever he intendeth That then Sight of God face to face must come in its place which indeed the Apostle in that 1 Cor. 13. affirms in saying ver. 10. When that which is perfect is come then that which is but in part is done away There is not an utter ceasing of the imperfect and then an interval or long space of time to come between and then that which is perfect is to come but the imperfect is done away by the very coming of that which is thus perfect And in the 12th Verse he explains himself That the imperfect is this our seeing Now in a glass darkly that is by Faith and that perfect to be that seeing God face to face as that which presently entertains us in that other world Nay the Apostle admits not so much as a moment of cessation but sayes That the imperfect is done away v. 10. and vanisheth as v. 8. by the coming in of the perfect upon it and so the imperfect namely Faith is swallowed up of the perfect namely Sight Now if we thus grant as we must this separate Soul to have this sight or nothing now left it to enjoy God any way by Then it is no other than Glory it is admitted unto For the sight of God face to face and to know as we are known is the very essence of Glory as it differs from Faith Neither indeed is that ultimate Enjoyment or happiness in God which Souls shall have after the Resurrection any other in Name or Thing than the sight of God as it is thus distinguished from Faith and therefore the soul is now admitted to the same enjoyment it shall be Then for Kind although it shall be then raised and intended unto far higher degrees of Perfection §. And for a Conclusion of this first Point that which follows in that place lately cited out of 1 Pet. 1. v. 9. Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls may as fitly serve for the confirmation of all these latter fore-going Notions as to any other sense Interpreters have affixed I am aware how these words Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls are interpreted of that joy unspeakable and full of glory which the Verse afore had spoken of In whom though Now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory so as in those joyes vouchsafed the Saints are said to receive the salvation of their souls as being the earnest of it in the same kind
celebrated the fruits and workings of their faith in this life as in supporting them gloriously under the sorest trials v. 7. and then sometimes filling their hearts with joy unspeakable and glorious v. 8. he here at last concludeth with what will be the end or issue of it in that other life when faith it self shall cease and what it is that then they shall receive Receiving after all this the end of your faith the salvation of your souls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the present by a frequent and usual Enallage of time being put for the future for ye shall receive or being about to receive to shew the certainty of it that when Faith shall end you may be sure on 't even of that Salvation that great Salvation so spoken of by the Prophets v. 10. of your souls which as it hath no end to be put unto it as Faith hath so no interruption or space of time to come between during which your souls should not be actually saved A salvation of your souls singly whilest through death they shall so exist as well as of the same souls primarily and more eminently when both soul and body shall be reunited 2. The end of your Faith that is of your aims and expectations in your Faith the end importing the aim or expectation which is also a proper and literall sense of that word And upon this account also the salvation of the soul when they should die that being the very next thing their eyes must needs be upon is therefore here intended And 3. The end of your faith that is as being that for which the great God who keeps us by his power through faith unto salvation v. 5. hath wrought this faith in you Accordingly we find it termed the work of faith 1 Thes. 1. 3. Which when God hath fully wrought and brought to that degree he aimed at in this life or to use the Apostles own expression of it 2 Thes. 1. 11. when God hath fulfilled the work of faith with power he then crowneth it with this Salvation of the Soul without end As James speaks of Patience when it hath had its perfect work ch. 1. 4. compared with v. 12. and so speaks my Text for this self-same thing he hath wrought us And therefore when this Faith shall cease which he wrought for this he will attain his end without delay you says he shall attain your end also and Faith thus ceasing if this salvation of the soul did not succenturiate and recruit it anew the end of this Faith were wholly and altogether present destructive losse unto the soul in its well-being untill the Resurrection 4. The End signifies the perfection and consummation of any thing as Christ is said to be the End of the Law Rom. 10. 4. and so the meaning is That your faith which is but an imperfect knowing God shall then when it ceaseth be swallowed up of sight which is all one with that salvation here tanquam perfectibile a perfection as that which is imperfect is said to be by that which is perfect 1 Cor. 13. 10. Thus much for the literal and proper import of the word End Now then if we take the word End in its proper meaning and the word Soul likewise in its native proper meaning also which sense in Reason should be first served when the scope will bear it then it makes for that purpose more fitly which we have had in hand §. That nothing may be wanting in this last place cited to make up all the particulars in the fore-going Sections insisted on So it is that the Apostle Peter doth further plainly insinuate That this salvation here consisteth in the sight and vision of Christ which was one particular afore-mentioned accompanied with joy unspeakable and glorious The Coherence if observed makes this forth clearly For whereas in the Verse immediately fore-going he had commended their present state of faith by this Whom NOW though you see not yet believing rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious That NOW you see not in this life is set in opposition and carries a promise with it of a Time to come wherein they should see even as Christ said to his Disciples Joh. 13. 33 36. compared Whither I go I NOW say to you ye cannot come but thou shalt follow me AFTERWARDS So here NOW believing which is the Principle at the present which you live upon you see him not but when the end of your faith shall come you shall then see him and in this it is consisteth the salvation of your souls So that still it carries on what I have afore spoken unto That when Faith ceaseth Sight cometh yea perfects and swallows it up as was said even now out of 1 Cor. 13. And let me adde this That the Apostle on purpose doth bring in the mention of this supereminent fruit of faith Even Now when we see not that believing ye yet rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious On purpose I say to make way for the raising up their thoughts and apprehensions how infinitely transcending that salvation of their souls must be when Faith ending they attain to Sight To see him face to face whom their souls have loved It is implicitly as if he had said unto them Oh! think with your selves what Joy what Glory that must needs be which exceedeth and surpasseth this that now accompanies your faith in an answerable proportion as much as sight of Christs presence and face to face must be supposed to excel the knowledge of him by faith which sees him but as absent darkly And further give me leave to improve this Notion You may take this assured evidence That your souls shall then see and enjoy God when your faith shall CEASE which will be when once your souls shall come to be separate from your bodies by death In that even now in this life it is your Souls and Spirits that are the immediate receptives or partakers and subjects of such glorious joys The soul enjoys them though in the body yet without the help or concurrence of the body or the phantasms of it yea such Raptures do pass understanding that is the common way of understanding which by the use and help of the body or images in the fancy the Minde exerciseth in other things and which do concurre with the understanding ordinarily in faith But this joy falls into and is illapsed within the soul it self immediately yea the weakness of your bodies and bodily spirits will not permit you to have so much of this joy as otherwise the soul is now capable of by faith And therefore by this experimental taste aforehand in your own souls you may be ascertained That your souls when separate from your bodies by death as well as when united again unto their bodies shall enjoy this great Salvation And thus much for the first Point raised out of the words which did undertake an Argumentation for a
fathers Gen. 15. 15. There was then a City built and already replenish'd with Inhabitants and amongst others an house provided for him that is his Soul built of God and ready furnished against this removal Verse 2. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven In this Verse he utters the working of the affections of Christians towards their being clothed upon with this house and so in order to this enjoyment of it their DESIRING even to be dissolved which Paul also utters of himself Phil. 1. Now if the first Verse speaks of the glory of a separate Soul when he calls it an house this second Verse must intend the same Verse 3. If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked In this Verse he gives an wholesome Caution by the way and withall insinuates why he used the word clothed upon in the fore-going Verse thus speaking of the glory of such a separate Soul even because it is absolutely necessary that all our Souls be found clothed first and renewed with Grace and Holiness and not be found naked at our deaths that is nor devoid of Grace and so exposed to shame and wrath as Rev. 16. 15. Verse 4. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burthened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life The fourth Verse gives a genuine and sincere account why a Christian doth thus groan and that after dissolution it self in order to this glory which he sets out with an accurate distinction of their desires of dissolutions in difference from like desires in all other men First Negatively not for that being burthened we desire to be unclothed or dissolved that is simply for ease of those burthens nor out of a despising of our bodies we now wear as their Heathen Wise-men and Philosophers did and others do No But secondly Positively For this as the top-ground of that desire That we would be clothed upon with that house spoken of Ver. 1. and that still taken in the sense spoken of in the 2. Ver. to the end that this mortal animal life which the Soul though Immortal in it self now leads in the body full of sins clogg'd with a body of death and miseries each of which hath a Death in it and so it lives but a dying life that this life may be exchanged yea swalloed up by that which is life indeed The onely true Life the knowing God as we are known and enjoying him All which as to our Souls is truly performed at our Dissolution although the final swallowing up the mortality of our bodies also doth yet remain to be accomplish'd which will be done at the latter day at that Change both of Body and Soul though in respect of the Body it will be completed as then more fully This Interpretation and the suiting of all the phrases used in this 4th Verse to hold good of this Exchange at death I cannot through straitness of time give an account of now I have lately and very largely done it elswhere This for the Coherence I hasten to my Text TEXT Ver. 5. Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is GOD who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit THe current of the four former Verses running thus steadily along in this chanell the streame in this verse continues still the same There is one word in this verse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For this self-same thing God hath wrought us which serves as a clue of thred drawn through the windings of the former verses to shew us that one and the same Individuall Glory hath been carried on all along and still is in this verse also So then we see where we are What this self-same thing should be ask the first verse and it will tell you it is That house eternall in the Heavens a building of God prepared by him against the time that this earthly house is dissolved Ask the second verse it is the same house we grone to be clothed upon with when the other is pulled down Ask the fourth verse and more plainly It is that life which succeeds this mortall life the soul now lives in this body and swallows up all the infirmities thereof And then here it followes Even for this self-same thing c. So then if the glory of the separate soul be the subject of any of these verses then of all and so of this verse also And to be sure it cannot be that extraordinary way of entrance into Glory by such a sudden change both of soul and body into glory at once without dissolution should be the self-same thing here aimed at For it was not the lot of any of those Primitive Christians of whom the Holy Ghost here speaks this He hath wrought us for this thing that they should be in that manner changed and so enter into glory but the contrary For they all and all Saints since for these 1600 years have put off their Tebernacles by death as Peter did and speaks of himself 2. Pet. 1. 14. and therefore the Scripture or Holy Ghost foreseeing as the phrase is Gal. 3. 8. this change would be their fate would not have uttered this of them God hath wrought us for this whom he knew God had not designed thereunto Neither is it that those groaning desires spoken of in the foregoing verses 2 3 4. is that self-same thing here as some would for indeed as Musculus well If the Apostle had said He that hath wrought this thing in us c. That expression might have carried it to such a sense But he saith He that wrought us for the self-same thing And so 't is not that desire of glory in us is spoken of But us our selves and souls as wrought for that glory If it be asked what is the special proper scope of these words as touching this glory of the Soul The answer in generall It is to give the Rationall part of this point or demonstrative Reasons to evidence to believers That indeed God hath thus ordained and prepared such a glory afore the Resurrection And it is as if the Apostle had said Look into your own souls and consider Gods dealings with you hitherto viz. First the operation of his hands For what other is the meaning or mysterie sayes he of all that God is daily so at work at with you in this life What else is the end of all the workings of Grace in you and of God that is the worker This is his very design He that hath wrought us that is our souls for this very thing is God Besides the evidence that work gives there is also over and above the earnest of the Spirit given to your souls now whilest in your bodies in joy full of glories of the same kind as earnest are of what fulnesse of glory they are both capable of then and shall be
and so a part of the Reward of Faith received in hand as we say and vouchsafed over and above the ordinary way of living by Faith This Interpretation I no way gainsay nor will go about to exclude for I know it doth consist with that other I am about to give and is subordinate to it But if this Sense should obtain that it were Directly Alone intended yet by consequence and at the rebound it doth strongly argue the point in Hand For if whilest Faith continues God is pleased to vouchsafe such joyes much more when faith ceaseth He will vouchsafe a fuller Enjoyment for why else are these present joyes termed Salvation That is in a sort part of the taking possession of Salvation aforehand and that as distinct from the Right to Salvation which Faith in ordinary gives without such joyes at all times to all believers they have the name given them as being an earnest of the same kind of that greater summe And again why are these present joyes termed the Salvation of their SOULS But because they are intended by God being also now wrought immediately in the Soul without the body's influence to be an earnest that it is their Souls when without their bodies shall have that fuller possession given them and so this earnest assigneth this payment to be made to this Legatee the SOUL specified as the first receiver of it 2. Every payment having a day or set time appointed for it which the earnest obligeth the trustee unto as well as to make payment it self and useth to be at the end of the performance on his part to whom the contract is made this therefore is as elegantly designed to be the end of their faith there 's the day of payment And 3. it would be hard to think that God should give forth joyes whilest faith continues and then for so long a time as till the Resurrection withdraw all communication of himself both of faith and joy through sight also Surely they are not left worse than in this life they were I also know the Soul being the eminent part of man is often in Scripture by a Synecdoche put for the whole And I must not deny but that ultimately it is intended here it extending it self to the whole of Salvation first and last after Faith ended Which sense on the other hand many interpreters are for I onely contend for this That the salvation of the soul is intended also of that Salvation which falls out in the midst between these joyes the earnest in this life and that ultimate Salvation at the Resurrection that is the Salvation of the Soul whilest separate as being the next It hath a weight in it that Salvation and Damnation should so often be said to be of the soul by Christ himself as Mat. 26. 16. What shall it profit a man to gain the whole word and so provide for his body and lose his own soul And again in speaking of the Soul as considered apart from the Body Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them that are able to kill but the body and are not able to kill the soul But that which is more conjunct to my purpose it is observable that this our Apostle Peter should choose to use in this Epistle more than any other Apostle this phrase of Soul in relation to Salvation either as being the eminent subject and sometimes as the single subject both of Grace and Salvation So in this Chapter You have purified your souls c. as the immediate susceptive of the incorruptible seed as was observed Then again in ch. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and 8. 25. Ye are returned to the Bishop of your Souls Which he speaks as being the eminent part and upon separation from the body the speciall charge he hath pastorall care of And more directly to our purpose ch. 4. last v. he exhorts them when they come to die to commit their souls to God as then being to be separate from their bodies Now it were hard to think that this Salvation to come should bear the title and name of the salvation of the soul in this and other Scriptures and that yet when this Soul shall in the other world come to subsist for a long time single and alone and then be properly and without figure A meer soul without a body a lonesome soul That during that state it should not be the subject of this Salvation and so intended here when more properly and literally if ever it is the salvation of the soul And it would be yet more strange that the phrase salvation of the soul should be wholly restrained unto that estate of the soul when remitted to the body at the Resurrection and onely unto that And that word the soul should serve onely synecdochically as a part put to signifie the whole man as then it is to be raised up but especially it were strangest of all if it should be confined and limited in this place of Peter wherein this salvation of the soul is set forth for the comfort of such as were to lay down their tabernacles of their bodies for Christ as this Peter speaks of himself in the next Epistle and whose faith was then to cease with their lives whose expectations therefore he would in this case certainly pitch upon that salvation of the soul which was next which is this of the soul separate To confirm all which That which further invited me to this place was this phrase The end of your Faith especially upon the consideration that he speaks it unto such Christians who in those times were as he foretels ch. 4. v. 4. shortly to be martyred and at present were sorely tried v. 7. of this Chapter and in the last verse of the fourth he thereupon instructeth and exhorteth them to commit their souls when they come to die to be kept by God And so understood in a proper and literall sense this salvation of their souls is in all respects termed The end of their Faith First in that it is the next and immediate event that Faith ends and determines in as Death is said to be the end of life So noting forth that when Faith ends this Salvation of the Soul begins and succeeds it The end of a thing signifies the immediate event issue period thereof As of wicked men it is said whose end is destruction Phil. 3. Heb. 10. last v. Apostasy unbelief are said to be a drawing back unto perdition And on the contrary there Faith is termed a believing to the salvation of the soul And both note out the finall event and consequent of each and salvation of the soul to be the end of faith when men continue and go on to believe untill their faith arriveth at attaineth this Salvation of the Soul To this sense also Rom. 6. 22. You have your fruit in holinesse and the end everlasting life And the Apostle Peter having in the foregoing verses