questions let us remain content and labour with faith and patience with hope and charity to be made worthy to partake of those comforts after which when we have long inquired when at last we come to try what they are we shall finde them much better and much otherwise then we imagine 3. I am to admonish this also that although our Blessed Saviour is in the Creed said to descend {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} into hell so we render it yet this does not at all prejudice his other words this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifies indefinitely the state of separation whether blessed or accursed it means only the invisible place or the region of darkness whither who so descends shall be no no more seen For as among the Heathens the Elysian fields and Tartara are both {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} so amongst the Jews and Christians Paradisus and Gehenna are the distinct states of Hades Of the first we have a plain testimony in Diphilus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} In Hades there are two wayes one for just men and another for the impious Of the second we have the testimony of Iosephus who speaking of the Sadduces says {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they take away or deny the rewards and punishments respectively which are in Hades or in the state of separation so that if Christs soul was in Paradise he was in Hades In vain therefore does S. Augustine torment himself to tell how Christ could be in both places at once when it is no harder then to tell how a man may be in England and at London at the same time 4. It is observable that in the mentions of Paradise by S. Iohn he twice speaks of the tree of life but never of the tree of knowledge of good and evil because this was the Symbol of secular knowledge of prudence and skill of doing things of this world which we can naturally use we may smel and taste them but not feed upon them that is these are no part of our enjoyment and if we be given up to the study of such notices and be immerged in the things of this world we cannot attend to the studies of religion and of the Divine service But these cares and secular divertisements shall cease when our souls are placed in Paradise there shall be no care taken for raising portions for our children nor to provide bread for our tables no cunning contrivances to be safe from the crafty snares of an enemy no amazement at losses no fear of slanderings or of the gripes of Publicans but we shall feed on the tree of life love of God and longings for the comming of Christ We are then all spirit and our imployment shall be symbolical that is spiritual and holy and pleasant I have now made it as evident as questions of this Nature will bear that in the state of separation the spirits of good men shall be blessed and happy souls they have an antepast or taste of their reward but their great reward it self their crown of righteousness shall not be yet that shall not be until the day of judgement and this was the third proposition I undertook to prove the consummation and perfection of the Saints felicity shall be at the resurrection of the dead {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} at his coming so S. Iohn expresses the time that we may not then be ashamed For now we are the sons of Gods but it does not yet appear what we shall be But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like unto him and see him as he is 1 Iohn 2. 28. 1 Iohn 3. 4. At his glorious appearing we also shall appear glorious we shall see him as he is but till then this beatific vision shall not be at all but for the interval the case is otherwise Tertullian affirms puniri et foveri animam interim in inferis sub expectatione utriusque judicii in quadam usurpatione et candida ejus lib. de anima e. lib. adv. Marcion the souls are punished or refreshed in their regions expecting the day of their judgement and several sentences habitacula illa animarum promptuaria nominavit scriptura saith S. Ambrose de bono mortis cap. 10. The Scripture calls these habitations the promptuaries or repositories of souls There is comfort but not the full reward a certain expectation supported with excellent intervals of joy Refrigerium so the Latins call it a refreshment Donec consummatio rerum resurrectionem omnium plenitudine mercedis expungat tune apparitura coelesti promissione saith Tertullian until the consummation of all things points out the resurrection by the fulness of reward and the appearing of the heavenly promise So the Author of the questions ad Orthodoxos quaest. 75. Immediately after death presently there is a separation of the just from the unjust for they are born by Angels {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} into the places they have deserved and they are in those places {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} kept unto the day of resurrection and retribution But what do they in the mean time How is it with them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Nazianzen orat funebr Caesar fratris They rejoyce and are delighted in a wonderful joy They see Angels and Archangels they converse with them and see our B. Saviour Iesus in his glorified humanity so Iustin Martyr ubi suprà But in these great joys they look forgreater They are now In Paradiso but they long that the body and soul may be in heaven together but this is the glory of the day of judgement the fruit of the resurrection And this whole affair is agreeable to reason the analogy of the whole dispensation as it is generally and particularly described in Scripture For when the greatest effect of the Divine power the mightiest promise the hardest thing to Christan faith that impossible thing to Gentile Philosophy the expectation of the whole world the New Creation when that shall come to pass viz. that the souls shall be reinvested with their bodies when the ashes of dissolved bones shall stand up a new and living frame to suppose that then there shall be nothing done in order to Eternity but to publish the salvation of Saints of which they were possessed before is to make a great solemnity for nothing to do great things for no great end and therefore it is not reasonable to suppose it For if it were a good argument of the Apostle that the Patriarks and Saints of the old Testament received not the promises signified by Canaan and the land of promise because God had provided
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Aristotle But the soul only comes from abroad from a Divine principle for so saith the Scripture God breathed into Adam the spirit of life and that which in operation does not communicate with the body shall have no part in its corruption Thus far they were right but when they descended to particulars they fell into error That the rewards of vertue were to be hereafter that they were sure of that the soul was to survive the calamities of this world and the death of the body that they were sure of and upon this account they did bravely and vertuously and yet they that thought best amongst them believed that the souls departed should be reinvested with other bodies according to the dispositions and capacities of this life Thus Orpheus who sang well should transmigrate into a Swan and the soul of Thamyris who had as good a voice as he should wander till it were confined to the body of a Nightingal Ajax to a Lion Agamemnon to an Eagle Tyrant princes into wolvs and Hawks the lascivious into Asses and Goats the Drunkards into Swine the Crafty Statesmen into bees and pismires and Thersites to an Ape This fancy of theirs prevailed much amongst the common people and the uninstructed amongst the Jews for when Christ appeared so glorious in miracle Herod presently fancied him to be the soul of Iohn the Baptist in another body and the common people said he was Elias or Ieremias or one of the old Prophets And true it is that although God was pleased in all times to communicate to mankind notices of the other world sufficient to encourage vertues and to contest against the rencontres of the world yet he was ever sparing in telling the secrets of it and when St. Paul had his rapture into Heaven he saw fine things and heard strange words but they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} words that he could not speak and secrets that he could not understand and secrets that he could not communicate For as a man staring upon the broad eye of the Sun at his noon of Solstice feels his heat and dwells in light and loses the sight of his eyes and perceives nothing distinctly but the Organ is confounded and the faculty amazed with too big a beauty So was S. Paul in his extasy he saw that he could see nothing to be told below and he perceived the glories were too big for flesh and blood and that the beauties of separate souls were not to be understood by the soul in Conjunction and therefore after all the fine things that he saw we only know what we knew before viz. that the soul can live when the body is dead that it can subsist without the body that there are very great glories reserved for them that serve God that they who die in Christ shall live with him that the body is a prison and the soul is in fetters while we are alive and that when the body dies the soul springs and leaps from her prison and enters into the first liberty of the sons of God Now much of this did rely upon the same argument upon which the wise Gentiles of old concluded the immortality of the soul even because we are here very miserable and very poor we are sick and we are afflicted we do well and are disgraced we speak well and we are derided we tell truths and few believe us but the proud are exalted and the wicked are delivered and evil men reign over us and the covetous snatch our little bundles of money from us and the Fiscus gathers our rents and every where the wisest and the best men are oppressed but therefore because it is thus and thus it is not well we hope for some great good thing hereafter For if in this life only we had hope then we Christians all we to whom persecution is allotted for our portion we who must be patient under the Crosse and receive injuries and say nothing but prayers we certainly were of all men the most miserable Well then in this life we see plainly that our portion is not here we have hopes but not here only we shall goe into another place where we shall have more hopes our faith shall have more evidence it shall be of things seen afar off and our hopes shall be of more certainty and perspicuity and next to possession we shall have very much good and be very sure of much more Here then are three propositions to be considered 1. The Servants of God in this world are very miserable were it not for their hopes of what is to come hereafter 2. Though this be a place of hopes yet we have not our hopes only here If in this life only we had hopes saith the Apostle meaning that in another life also we have hopes not only metonymically taking hopes for the things we hope for but properly and for the acts objects and causes of hope In the state of separation the godly shall have the vast joyes of a certain intuitive hope according to their several proportions and capacities 3. The consummation and perfection of their felicity when all their miseries shall be changed into glories is in the world to come after the resurrection of the dead which is the main thing which S. Paul here intends 1. The servants of God in this life are calamitous and afflicted they must live under the Crosse He that will be my Disciple let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me said our Glorious Lord and Master And we see this Prophetic precept for it is both a Prophecy and a Commandment and therefore shall be obeyed whether we will or no but I say we see it verified by the experience of every day For here the violent oppress the meek and they that are charitable shall receive injuries The Apostles who preach'd Christ crucified were themselves persecuted and put to violent deaths and Christianity it selfe for three hundred years was the publick hatred and yet then it was that men loved God best and suffered more for him then they did most good and least of evill In this world men thrive by villany and lying and deceiving is accounted just and to be rich is to be wise and tyranny is honourable and though little thefts and petty mischiefs are interrupted by the laws yet if a mischief become publick and great acted by Princes and effected by armies and robberies be done by whole fleets it is vertue and it is glory it fills the mouths of fools that wonder and imployes the pens of witty men that eat the bread of flattery How many thousand bottles of tears and how many millions of sighs does God every day record while the oppressed and the poor pray unto him worship him speak great things of his holy Name study to please him beg for helps that they may become gracious in his eyes and are so and yet never
though this life be lost yet they shall have another and a better a life in which God shall manifest himself to be their God to all the purposes of benefit and eternal blessings This argument was summed up by St. Peter and the sense of it is thus rendred by St. Clement the Bishop of Rome as himself testifies si Deus est juslus animus est immortalis which is perfectly rendred by the words of my text if in this life only we have hope then are we of all men the most miserable but because this cannot be that God who is just and good should suffer them that heartily serve him to be really and finally miserable and yet in this world they are so very frequently therefore in another world they shall live to receive a full recompence of reward Neither is this so to be understood as if the servants of God were so wholly forsaken of him in this world and so permitted to the malice of evil men or the asperities of fortune that they have not many refreshments and great comforts and the perpetual festivities of a holy Conscience for God my Maker is he that giveth songs in the night said Elihu Iob 35. 10. that is God as a reward giveth a chearful spirit and makes a man to sing with joy when other men are sad with the solemn darkness and with the affrights of conscience and the illusions of the night But God who intends vast portions of felicity to his children does not reckon these little joys into the account of the portion of his elect The good things which they have in this world are not little if we account the joys of religion and the peace of conscience amongst things valuable yet whatsoever it is all of it all the blessings of themselves and of their posterity and of their Relatives for their sakes are cast in for intermedial entertainments but their good and their prepared portion shall be hereafter But for the evil it self which they must suffer and overcome it is such a portion of this life as our B. Saviour had injuries and temptations care and persecutions poverty and labour humility and patience it is well it is very well and who can long for or expect better here when his Lord and Saviour had a state of things so very much worse then the worst of our calamities but bad as it is it is to be chosen rather then a better because it is the high way of the cross it is Iacobs ladder upon which the Saints and the King of the Saints did descend and at last ascend to heaven it self and bad as it is it is the method and the inlet to the best it is a sharp but it is a short step to bliss for it is remarkable in the parable of Dives and Lazarus that the poor man the afflicted Saint died first Dives being permitted to his purple and fine linnen to his delicious fare and which he most of all needed to a space of repentance but in the mean time the poor man was rescued from his sad portion of this life and carried into Abrahams bosome where he who was denied in this world to be feasted even with the portion of dogs was placed in the bosome of the Patriarch that is in the highest room for so it was in their discubitus or lying down to meat the chief guest the most beloved person did lean upon the bosome of the Master of the feast so S. Iohn did lean upon the breast of Jesus and so did Lazarus upon the brest of Abraham or else {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sinus Abrahae may be rendred the bay of Abraham alluding to the place of rest where ships put in after a tempestuous and dangerous Navigation the storme was quickly over with the poor man and the Angel of God brought the good mans soul to a safe port where he should be disturbed no more and so saith the spirit Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their labours But this brings me to the second great inquiry If here we live upon hopes and that this is a place of hopes but not this only what other place is there where we shall be blessed in our hope where we shall rest from our labour and our fear and have our hopes in perfection that is all the pleasures which can come from the greatest and the most excellent hope Not in this life only so my Text Therefore hereafter as soon as we die as soon as ever the soule goes from the body it is blessed Blessed I say but not perfect it rejoyces in peace and a holy hope here we have hopes mingled with fear there our hope is heightned with joy and confidence it is all the comfort that can be in the expectation of unmeasurable joyes it is only Not fruition not the joyes of a perfect possession but less then that it is every good thing else But that I may make my way plain I must first remove an objection which seems to overthrow this whole affaire S. Paul intends these words of my text as an argument to prove the resurrection we shall rise again with our bodies for if in this life only we had hopes then were we of all men most miserable meaning that unless there be a resurrection there is no good for us anywhere else but if they that dye in the Lord were happy before the resurrection then we were not of all men most miserable though there were to be no resurrection for the godly are presently happy So that one must fail either the resurrection or the intermedial happinesse the proof of one relies upon the destruction of the other and because we can no other wayes be happy therefore there shall be a resurrection To this I answer that if the godly instantly upon their dissolution had the vision beatifical it is very true that they were not most miserable though there be no resurrection of the dead though the body were turned into its original nothing for the joyes of the sight of God would in the soule alone make them infinite recompence for all the sufferings of this world But that which the Saints have after their dissolution being only the comforts of a holy hope the argument remains good for these intermedial hopes being nothing at all but in relation to the resurrection these hopes do not destroy but confirme it rather and if the resurrection were not to be we should neither have any hopes here nor hopes hereafter And therefore the Apostles word is if here only we had hopes that is if our hopes only related to this life but because our hopes only relate to the life to come and even after this life we are still but in the regions of an inlarged hope this life and that interval are both but the same argument to inferre a resurrection for they are the hopes of that state and the joyes of those hopes and
it is the comfort of that joy which makes them blessed who die in the love of God and the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus And now to the proposition it selfe In the state of separation the souls departed perceive the blessing and comfort of their labours they are alive after death and after death immediately they finde great refreshments Iustorum animae in manu Dei sunt non tanget illos tormentum mortis Wisd. 3. The torments of death shall not touch the souls of the righteous because they are in the hands of God And fifteen hundred years after the death of Moses we finde him talking with our Blessed Lord in his transfiguration upon the Mount Tabor and as Moses was then so are all the Saints immediately after death praesentes apud Dominum they are present with the Lord and to be so is not a state of death and yet of this it is that S. Paul affirms it to be much better then to be alive And this was the undoubted sentence of the Jews before Christ and since and therefore our Blessed Saviour told the converted thief that he should that day be with him in Paradise Now without peradventure he spake so as he was to be understood meaning by Paradise that which the Schools and Pulpits of the Rabbins did usually speak of it By Paradise till the time of Esdras it is certain the Jews only meant that Blessed Garden in which God once placed Adam and Eve but in the time of Esdras and so downward when they spake distinctly of things to happen after this life and began to signifie their new discoveries and modern Philosophy by Names they called the state of souls expecting the resurrection of their bodies by the name of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the garden of Eden Hence came that forme of comprecation and blessing to the soul of an Israelite Sit anima ejus in horto Eden Let his soul be in the garden of Eden and in their solemn prayers at the time of their death they were wont to say let his soule rest and let his sleep be in peace untill the Comforter shall come open the gates of Paradise unto him expresly distinguishing Paradise from the state of the Resurrection And so it is evident in the entercourse on the Crosse between Christ and the converted thief That day both were to be in Paradise but Christ himself was not then ascended into heaven and therefore Paradise was no part of that region where Christ now and hereafter the Saints shall reign in glory For {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} did by use and custome signifie any place of beauty and pleasure So the LXX read Eccles. 2. 5. I made me gardens and orchards I made me a Paradise so it is in the Greek and Cicero having found this strange word in Zenophon renders it by agrum conseptum ac diligentèr consitum a field well hedg'd and set with flowers and fruits Vivarium Gellius renders it a place to keep birds and beasts alive for pleasure Pollux sayes this word was Persian by its original yet because by traduction it became Hebrew we may best learn the meaning of it from the Jews who used it most often and whose sense we better understand Their meaning therefore was this that as Paradise or the Garden of Eden was a place of great beauty pleasure and tranquillity so the state of separate souls was a state of peace and excellent delights So Philo allegorically does expound Paradise {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For the trees that grow in Paradise are not like ours but they bring forth knowledge and life and immortality It is therefore more then probable that when the converted thief heard our Blessed Saviour speak of Paradise or Gan Eden he who was a Jew and heard that on that day he should be there understood the meaning to be that he should be there where all the good Jews did believe the souls of Abraham Isaac and Iacob to be placed As if Christ had said Though you only ask to be remembred when I come into my Kingdome not only that shall be performed in time but even to day thou shalt have great refreshment and this the Hellenist Jews called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the rest of Paradise and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the comfort of Paradise the word being also warranted from that concerning Lazarus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} He is comforted But this we learn more perfectly from the raptures of S. Paul He knew a man meaning himself rapt up into the third heaven And I knew such a man how that he was caught up into Paradise 2 Cor. 2. 3. The raptures visions were distinct for S. Paul being a Jew and speaking after the manner of his Nation makes Paradise a distinct thing from the third Heaven For the Jews deny any orbes to be in Heaven but they make three regions only the one of clouds the second of starrs and the third of Angels To this third or supreme Heaven was S. Paul wrapt but he was also born to Paradise to another place distinct and separate by time and station For by Paradise his Countreymen never understood the Third Heaven but there also it was that he heard {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} unspeakable words great glorifications of God huge excellencies such which he might not or could not utter here below The effect of these considerations is this that although the Saints are not yet admitted to the blessings consequent to a happy resurrection yet they have the intermedial entertainments of a present and a great joy To this purpose are those words to be understood To him that overcomes will I give to eate of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Revel. 2. 7. that is if I may have leave to expound these words to mean what the Jews did about that time understand by such words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Tree of life does signifie the principle of peace and holiness of wisdome and comforts for ever Philo expounding it calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The worship of God the greatest of all vertues by which the soul is made to live for ever as if by eating of this tree of life in the Paradise of God they did mean that they who die well shall immediately be feasted with the deliciousness of a holy Conscience which the spirit of God expresses by saying They shall walke up and down in white garments and their works shall follow them their tree of life shall germinate they shall then feel the comforts of having done good works a sweet remembrance and a holy peace shall caresse and feast them and there they shall walk
without scandal but he knew he had not lived without error but as God had assisted him to avoid the reproach of great crimes so he doubted not but he should finde pardon for the less and indeed I could not but observe that he had in all the time of his sickness a very quiet conscience which is to me an excellent demonstration of the state of his life and of his state of grace and pardon For though he seemed to have a conscience tender and nice if any evil thing had touched it yet I could not but apprehend that his peace was a just peace the mercy of God and the price and effect of the bloud of Jesus He was so joyfull so thankfull so pleased in the Ministeries of the Church that it gave in evidence where his soul was most delighted what it did apprehend the quickest where it did use to dwell and what it did most passionately love He discoursed much of the mercies of God to him repeated the blessings of his life the accidents and instruments of his trouble he loved the cause of his trouble and pardoned them that neither loved it nor him When he had spent great portions of his time of sickness in the service of God and in expectation of the sentence of his life or death at last he understood the still voice of God and that he was to goe where his soul loved to be he still increased his devotion and being admonished as his strength failed him to supply his usual forms and his want of strength and words by short exercise of vertues of faith and patience and the love of God he did it so willingly so well so readily making his eyes his hands and his tongue as long as he could the interpreters of his minde that as long as he was alive we would see what his soul was doing He doubted not of the truth of the promises nor of the goodness of God nor the satisfaction of Christ and the merits of his death nor the fruit of his resurrection nor the prevalency of his intercession nor yet doubted of his own part in them but expected his portion in the regions of blessedness with those who loved God and served him heartily and faithfully in their generations He had so great a patience in his sickness and was so afraid lest he should sin at last that his piety out-did his nature and though the body cannot feel but by the soul yet his soul seemed so little concerned in the passions of the body that I neither observed nor heard of him that he in all his sickness so much as complained with any semblance of impatience He so continued to pray so delighted in hearing Psalms sung which I wish were made as fit to sing by their numbers as they are by their weight that so very much of his time was spent in them that it was very likely when his Lord came he would finde him so doing and he did so for in the midst of prayers he went away and got to Heaven as soon as they and saw them as we hope presented to the throne of grace he went along with them himself and was his own messenger to heaven where although he possibly might prevent his last prayers yet he would not prevent Gods early mercy which as we humbly hope gave him pardon for his sins ease of his pain joy after his sorrow certainty for his fears heaven for earth innocence and impeccability instead of his infirmity Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urget cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides Nudaque veritas Quando ullum inveniet parem Faith and justice modesty and pure righteousness made him equal to the worthiest examples he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a good man loving and humble meek and patient he would be sure to be the last in contention and the first at a peace he would injure no man but yet if any man was displeased with him he would speak first and offer words of kindness If any did dispute concerning priority he knew how to get it even by yeelding and compliance walking profitably with his neighbours and humbly with his God and having lived a life of piety he died in a full age an honourable old age in the midst of his friends and in the midst of prayer And although the events of the other world are hidden to us below that we might live in faith and walke in hope and die in charity yet we have great reason to bless God for his mercies to this our Brother and endeavour to comport our selves with a strict religion and a severe repentance with an exemplar patience an exemplar piety with the structures of a holy life and the solemnities of a religious death that we also may as our consident and humble hope is this our Brother doth by the conduct of Angels pass into the hands and bosome of Jesus there to expect the most mercifull sentence of the right hand Come ye blessed Children of my Father receive the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world Amen Lord Jesus Amen Grant this Eternal God for Iesus Christ his sake to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honour service and dominion love and obedience be confessed due and ever paid by all Angels and all men and all the creatures this day henceforth and for evermore Amen FINIS
A SERMON PREACHED at the Funerall of that worthy Knight Sr. GEORGE DALSTON of DALSTON in Cumberland September 28. 1657. By I. T. D. D. LONDON Printed for Iohn Martin Iames Allestrye and Thomas Dicas 1658. 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable WHen God in his infinite and eternal wisdome had decreed to give to man a life of labour and a body of mortality a state of contingency and a composition of fighting elements and having design'd to be glorified by a free obedience would also permit sin in the world and suffer evil men to goe on in their wickedness to prevail in their impious machinations to vex the souls and grieve the bodies of the righteous he knew that this would not only be very hard to be suffered by his servants but also be very difficult to be understood by them who know God to be a Law-giver as well as a Lord a Iudge as well as a King a Father as well as a Ruler and that in order to his own glory and for the manifestation of his goodness he had promised to reward his servants to give good to them that did good therefore to take off all prejudices and evil resentments and temptations which might trouble those good men who suffered evil things he was pleased to do two great things which might confirme the faith and endear the services and entertain the hopes of them who are indeed his servants but yet were very ill used in the accidents of this world 1. The one was that he sent his son into the world to take upon him our nature and him being the Captain of our salvation he would perfect through sufferings that no man might think it much to suffer when God spared not his own son and every man might submit to the necessity when the Christ of God was not exempt and yet that no man should fear the event which was to follow such sad beginnings when it behoved even Christ to suffer and so to enter into glory 2. The other great thing was that God did not only by revelation and the Sermons of the Prophets to his Church but even to all mankinde competently teach and effectively perswade that the soul of man does not die but that although things were ill here yet they should be well hereafter that the evils of this life were short and tolerable and that to the good who usually feel most of them they should end in honour and advantages And therefore Cicero had reason on his side to conclude that there is to be a time and place after this life wherein the wicked shall be punished and the vertuous well rewarded when he considered that Orpheus and Socrates Palamedes and Thraseas Lucretia and Papinian were either slain or oppressed to death by evil men But to us Christians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Platoes expression is we have a necessity to declare and a demonstration to prove it when we read that Abel died by the hands of Cain who was so ignorant that though he had malice and strength yet he had scarce art enough to kill him when we read that Iohn the Baptist Christ himselfe and his Apostles and his whole army of martyrs died under the violence of evil men when vertue made good men poor and free speaking of brave truths made the wise to lose their liberty when an excellent life hastened an opprobrious death and the obeying God destroyed our selves it was but time to look about for another state of things where justice should rule and vertue finde her own portion where the men that were like to God in mercy and justice should also partake of his felicity and therefore men cast out every line and turned every stone and tried every argument and sometimes proved it well and when they did not yet they believed strongly and they were sure of the thing even when they were not sure of the argument Thus therefore would the old Priests of the Capitol and the Ministers of Apollo and the mystic persons at their Oracles believe when they made Apotheoses of vertuous and braver persons ascribing every braver man into the number of their gods Hercules and Romulus Castor and Pollux Liber Pater him that taught the use of Vines and her that taught them the use of Corne For they knew that it must needs be that they who like to God doe excellent things must like to God have an excellent portion This learning they also had from Pherecydes the Syrian from Pythagoras of Samos and from Zamolxis the Gete from the Neighbours of Euphrates and the inhabitants by Ister who were called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Immortalists because in the midst of all their dark notices of things they saw this clearly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that vertuous and good men do not die but their souls do go into blessed regions where they shall enjoy all good things and it was never known that ever any good man was of another opinion Hercules and Themistocles Epaminondas and Cicero Socrates and Cimon Ennius and Phidias all the flower of mankind have preached this truth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The discoursings and prophesyings of Divine men are much more proper and excellent then of others because they do equal and good things until the time comes that they shall hear well for them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And this is the sign that when we die we have life and discerning because though the wicked care not for believing it yet all the Prophets and the Poets the wise and the brave Heroes say so they are the words of Plato For though that which is compounded of elements returns to its material and corruptible principles yet the soul which is a particle of the Divine breath returns to its own Divine original where there is no death or dissolution and because the understanding is neither hot nor cold it hath no moisture in it and no driness it follows that it hath nothing of those substances concerning which alone we know that they are corruptible There is nothing corruptible that we know of but the four elements and their Sons and Daughters nothing dies that can discourse that can reflect in perfect circles upon their own imperfect actions nothing can die that can see God and converse with spirits that can govern by laws and wise propositions For fire and water can be tyrannical but not govern they can bear every thing down that stands before them and rush like the people but not rule like Judges and therefore they perish as tumults are dissolved {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
some better thing for us that without us they should not be made perfect it must also conclude of all alike that they who died since Christ must stay till the last day that they and we and all may be made perfect together And this very thing was told to the spirits of the Martyrs who under the Altar cried How long O Lord c. Rev. 6. 10. that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also shall be fulfilled Upon this account it is that the day of judgment is a day of recompence So said our Blessed Lord himself Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just Luke 14. 14. and this is the day in which all things shall be restored for the Heavens must receive Jesus till the time of restitution of all things Acts 3. 7. and till then the reward is said to be laid up So S. Paul Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the righteous Iudge shall give me in that day and that you may know he means the resurrection and the day of judgment he addes and not to me only but to all them that love his coming 2 Tim. 4. 8. of whom it is certain many shall be alive at that day and therefore cannot before that day receive the crown of righteousness and then also and not till then shall be his appearing but till then it is a depositum The summe is this In the world we walk and live by faith In the state of separation we live by hope and in the resurrection we shall live by an eternal charity Here we see God as in a glass darkly In the separation we shall behold him but it is afar off and after the resurrection we shall see him face to face in the everlasting comprehensions of an intuitive beatitude In this life we are warriors In the separation we are conquerors but we shall not triumph till after the resurrection And in proportion to this is also the state of Devils and damned spirits Art thou come to torment us before the time said the Devils to our B. Saviour there is for them also an appointed time and when that is we learn from S. Iud. 6. They are reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Well therefore did S. Iames affirme That the Devils believe and tremble and so do the damned souls with an insupportable amazement fearing the revelation of that day They know that day will come and they know they shall finde an intolerable sentence on that day and they fear infinitely and are in amazement and confusion feeling the worme of conscience and are in the state of Devils who fear God and hate him they tremble but they love him not and yet they die because they would not love him because they would not with all their powers and strengths keep his Commandments This doctrine though of late it hath been laid aside upon the interest of the Church of Rome and for compliance with some other Schools yet was it universally the doctrine of the Primitive Church as appears out of Iustin Martyr who in his dialogues with Tryphon reckons this amongst the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} errors of some men who say there shall be no resurrection of the dead but that as soon as good men are dead {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} their souls are taken up immediately into heaven and the writer of the questions ad Orthodoxos asks qu. 76. q 60. q. 75. whether before the resurrection there shall be a reward of works because to the thief Paradise was promised that day He answers it was fit the thief should goe to Paradise and there perceive what things should be given to the works of faith but there he is kept {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} untill the day of resurrection and reward But in Paradise the soul hath an intellectual perception both of her self and of those things which were under her Concerning which I shall not need to heap up testimonies this only It is the doctrine of the Greek Church unto this day and was the opinion of the greatest part of the Antient Church both Latine and Greek and by degrees was in the West eaten out by the doctrine of Purgatory and invocation of Saints and rejected a little above two hundred years agoe in the Councel of Florence and since that time it hath been more generally taught that the souls of good men enjoy the beatific vision before the resurrection even presently upon the dissolution According to which new opinion it will be impossible to understand the meaning of my text and of diverse other places of Scripture which I have now alledged and explicated or at all to perceive the Oeconomy and dispensation of the day of judgment or how it can be a day of discerning or how the reapers the Angels shall bind up the wicked in bundles and throw them into the unquenchable fire or yet how it can be useful or necessary or prudent for Christ to give a solemn sentence upon all the world or how it can be that that day should be so formidable and full of terrors when nothing can affright those that have long enjoyed the beatific presence of God and no thunders or earthquakes can affright them who have upon them the biggest evil in the world I mean the damned who according to this opinion have been in hell for many ages and it can mean nothing but to them that are alive and then it is but a particular not an universal judgment and after all it can pretend to no piety to no Scripture to no reason and only can serve the ends of the Church of Rome who can no way better be confuted in their invocation of Saints then by this truth that the Saints do not yet enjoy the beatific vision and though they are in a state of ease and comfort yet are they not in a state of power and glory and kingdome till the day of judgment This also perfectly does overthrow the doctrine of Purgatory For as the saints departed are not perfect and therefore certainly not to be invocated not to be made our Patrons and advocates so neither are they in such a condition as to be in torment and it is impossible that any wise man should believe that the souls of good men after death should endure the sharp pains of hell and yet at the same time believe those words of Scripture Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works doe follow them Rev. 24. 13. If they can rest in beds of fire and sing hymns of glory in the torments of the damned if their labours are done when their pains are almost infinite then these words of the spirit of God and