and Owls do from the Light of the Day and rather chuse to banish it self into eternal Darkness and Despair than be shut up for ever in a Heaven so infinitely repugnant to its Nature And certainly to be thus excommunicated from the supreme Happiness of our Natures and be forced to live in everlasting Exile from God and blessed Spirits and wander about like wretched Vagabonds that are chased and driven from all Hopes of Contentment will be unspeakable Damage to our Souls 2ly The Soul of Man is liable to the most dreadful Punishment and Correction of the Father of Spirits There is no Doubt but spiritual Agents can strike as immediately upon Spirits as bodily Agents can upon Bodies and though we who are Spectators only of corporeal Action cannot discern the Manner how one Spirit acts upon another net there is no Reason to Doubt of the thing and if there be such a mutual Communication of Action between them there is no Doubt but they can mutually make each other feel each others Pleasures and Displeasures and if so then it is only to suppose that the less powerful Spirits are subject to the violent Impression of the more powerful ones and consequently that all finite Spirits are liable to the Lash of an infinite one for why should it be more difficult for the Father of our Spirits to correct our Spirits than it is for the Parents of our Flesh to correct our Flesh For though our Souls are no more impressible with material Stripes than Sun-beams are with the blows of a Hammer yet are they liable to horrid and dismal Thoughts and to be as much pained and aggrieved by them as our Bodies are by the most exquisite Torments So that if God be displeased with us he can imprint his Wrath upon our Minds in black and ghastly Thoughts and cause it perpetually to drop like burning Sulphur upon our Souls He cannot only abandon us to the furious Reflections of our own natural Consciences which as I shall shew you by and by will be hereafter extreamly painful and vexatious but he can also infuse supernatural Horrors into us and pour in such Swarms of terrible Thoughts upon us as will give us no Rest but sting us perpetually Day and Night with inexpressible Anguish And of this you have a woful Example in that miserable Wretch Francis Spira who upon that fearful Breach he made in his Conscience by a cowardly Renouncing of his Religion was without any Symptoms of a bodily Melancholy immediately seised with such an inexpressible Agony of Mind as amazed his Physicians astonished his Friends and struck Terror into all that conversed with him For he was so near to the Condition of a damned Ghost that he verily believed Hell it self was more tolerable than those invisible Lashes that were continually laid upon his Soul and therefore wished he were in Hell and would gladly have dispatched himself thither in hope to find Sanctuary there from those vengeful Thoughts which continually preyed upon his Soul And if in this World our Soul is so liable to the Rod of the Father of Spirits we may be sure it will be so in the other too where God if he pleases can render it an eternal Hell to it self by pouring continually into it fresh Floods of horrible Thoughts which being thrust on by an Almighty Power and perpetually urged and repeated on the Mind must necessarily create in it not only exquisite but uninterrupted Torment And it being in his Power thus to lash our Souls to be sure when once he is implacably incensed against them as he will be hereafter if we do not appease him he will let loose his Power upon them and make them feel his wrathful Resentments in those dire and frightful Thoughts with which he will Sting and Scourge them for ever And if the Soul carry into Eternity with it those provoking Lusts which do here incense God's Displeasure against it it will there have no Shelter from the Storm of his Vengeance which like a Shower of Fire and Brimstone will be continually pouring down upon it For while it continues in this Shop of Vanities it hath a great Variety of Objects to divert those dismal Thoughts which God many times infuses into it but in the other World all these diverting Objects will be removed and then every dismal Thought which God lets loose will seise and fasten upon it and like Prometheus's Vultures prey on its wretched Heart for ever 3ly The Soul of Man is liable to the Fury and Violence of Devils and other malignant Spirits For when ever the Souls of Men do leave their Bodies they doubtless flock with the Birds of their own Feather and consort themselves with such separate Spirits as are of their own Genius and Temper for besides that Likeness doth naturally congregate Beings and cause them to associate with their own Kind good and bad Spirits are by the eternal Laws of the other World distributed in two separate Nations and there live apart from one another having no other Communication or Intercourse but what is between two hostile Countries that are continually designing and attempting one against another So that when wicked Souls do leave this terrestrial Abode and pass into Eternity they are presently incorporated by the Laws of that invisible World into the Nation of wicked Spirits and confined for ever to their most wretched Society and Converse and then how miserable must their Condition be who are damned to such a hellish Neighbourhood and are allowed no other Company but Devils and devilish Spirits For since as I have already shewed you Spirits can as well act upon one another as Bodies what can be expected when such malignant Spirits meet but that they should be continually snarling among themselves and baiting and worrying one another When Wrath and Envy Malice and Ill-nature are the common Genius that inspires and acts the whole Society what can their Conversation be but a continual Intercourse of mutual Mischiefs and Vexations especially considering how they have here laid the Foundations of an eternal Quarrel against one another For there the Companions in Sin will meet who by their ill Counsels wicked Insinuations and bad Examples did mutually contribute to each others Ruin and when these shall meet in that woful State how will the tormenting Sense of those irreparable Injuries they have done each other incite them to exercise their hellish Fury upon and play the Devils with one another And when a Company of waspish Spirits so implacably incensed against one another shall meet and like so many Scorpions Snakes and Adders be shut up together in the infernal Dens how is it possible they should forbear hissing at and stinging and spitting Venom in one anothers Faces But then besides the mutual Plagues which those incensed and furious Spirits must needs be supposed to inflict upon one another they will be also nakedly exposed to the powerful Malice of the Devils those fierce Executioners of
of the Old Testament and they are they says he which testify of me And to be sure there were no other Scriptures which could testfy of Christ to the unbelieving Jews but only those of Moses and the Prephets these being the only Scriptures whose Testimony they credited But yet the Reason which our Saviour urges to move them to read the Old Testament doth as much oblige us to read the New as well as the Old as it did them to read the Old for in them ye think ye have eternal life that is in them yet think ye have eternal Life promised and all the Necessaries to be believed and done by you in order to your obtaining it proposed to you And indeed as they thought so it was they had eternal Life proposed to them in Hieroglyphicks for that was the Mystery of their Holy of Holies that was the Interpretation of their Land of Canaan and the spiritual Sense of all their general Promises of good Things to come They had all the Articles of Faith and all the Instances of Duty that were necessary to their Attainment of eternal Life exhibited to them in the Writings of their Prophets and the Types and Figures of their Law For it was by this Rule alone that all the Holy Men of the Jewish Nation did live and believe and either this was sufficient to guide and direct them to eternal Life or they were left under a fatal Necessity of falling short of it It was the Law of the Lord that did enlighten their Eyes and rejoyce their Hearts and convert their Souls and it was in keeping it that they found great Reward Ps 19.7 8 11. And therefore either they fell short of the Reward of eternal Life notwithstanding this their Illumination and Conversion or they found it in keeping that Law by which they were illuminated and converted and if in keeping their Law they found eternal Life then it 's certain that in their Law they had it So that these Words of our Saviour for in them ye think ye have eternal life do not imply that they were mistaken in thinking so or at least they only imply that they were mistaken in thinking to obtain eternal Life by adbering to the prime and literal Sense of their Law without pursuing the Mystery and Spiritual Meaning of it which was indeed the Error of the Pharisees with whom our Saviour is here discoursing For the internal Sense and Mystery of their Law was the Gospel all whose Articles of Faith and Precepts of Duty were though darkly and obscurely expressed and represented in the Types and Figures of the Mosaick Institution And hence the Apostle tells that both the Priests and their Oblations did serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Heb. 8.5 So that the heavenly Things contained in the Gospel were the substantial Idea's which those Legal Types and Patterns contained and represented and the same Author calls that Law a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10.1 that is it was an obscure Scheme or Prefiguration of the Mercies of the Gospel of which eternal Life is a principal Part. Since therefore the Law was nothing else but only the Gospel in dark and obscure Cyphers if in this we Christians have eternal Life in that the Jews had it also And therefore the Reason which our Saviour here urges to oblige the Jews to search the Scriptures of the Old Testament for in them ye think have eternal life doth at least equally oblige us Christians to search the Scriptures both of the Old and New For if they had just Reason to think they had eternal Life in the Old Testament and were thereupon obliged to search into it we have rather more Reason to think that we have eternal Life in the New since the New Testament is nothing else but only the Old decyphered and unriddled and therefore we must not only have eternal Life in this as they had in that but we must also have it far more expresly than they In the Prosecution of this Argument therefore I shall endeavour these Two Things I. To shew you that in the Holy Scriptures we have eternal Life II. That this is a very forcible Reason to oblige us to search them I. First that in the Holy Scriptures we have eternal Life that is that in them we have eternal Life proposed to us together with all that is necessary to be believed and practised by us in order to our obtaining it or in other words that the Holy Scripture is a sufficient Rule both of Faith and Manners to guide and direct us to eternal Happiness And this is one Article of the Faith of the Church of England which we are required to explain to the People for so in her sixth Article our Church professes that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein or may be proved thence is not required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Now to make the Scripture a sufficient Rule as to all Things necessary to Salvation there are two Things necessary First That it should be full and Secondly That it should be clear both which the Holy Scripture is in an eminent Degree as containing in it all that is necessary to be believed and done in order to eternal Life And this will evidently appear from these three following Propositions 1. That the Holy Spirit inspired the Writers of the Scripture with all that is necessary to eternal Life 2. That they preached to the World all those Necessaries with which the Holy Spirit inspired them 3. That all those necessary Truths which they preached are comprehended in those Sacred Writings of theirs of which the Holy Scripture consists 1. That the Holy Spirit infpired the Writers of the Scripture with all that is necessary to eternal Life For first our Saviour by whom they were originally instructed declares that as the Father loved him and shewed him all things that himself did Joh. 5.20 so he had made known to them all things that he had heard of his Father Job 17.8 And then when he went from them and ceased to instruct them in his own Person he promised that by his Spirit he would teach them all things and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them Job 14.26 and that by the same Spirit he would guide them into all Truth Job 16.13 If therefore the Spirit did perform this Promise to them as there is no doubt but he did then we are sure that he did teach them over again whatsoever Christ had taught them before and if Christ had taught them whatsoever he had heard of his Father as he declares he had then it is certain either that he taught them all Things necessary to eternal Life or that he himself had not heard from his Father all Things that are necessary thereunto 2. That as they were taught by the Spirit all Things necessary to eternal Life so
IOHANNES SCOTT S. T. P. Printed for S. Manship at the Ship near the Royal Exchange THE Christian Life Wheren is shew'd I. The Worth and Excellency of the Soul II. The Divinity and Incarnation of our Saviour III. The Authority of the Holy Scripture IV. A Dissuasive from Apostacy VOL. V. and Last By JOHN SCOTT D. D. late Rector of St. Giles's in the Fields The Second Edition LONDON Printed for S. Manship and R. Wilkin and are to be Sold by W. Davis at the Black Bull in Cornhill and I. Bonwick at the Hat and Star in St. Paul's Church-yard 1700. To the Honourable SUSANNA NOEL Mother to the Right Honourable Baptist Earl of Gainsborough THis last Volume of the Works of my Dear Deceased Friend the Reverend Dr. Scott is humbly and gratefully Dedicated by Her Honours Most obliged and most Devoted Servant Humphrey Zouch The CONTENTS Discourse I. Of the Worth and Excellency of the Soul THe Connexion and Explication of the Text p. 1 2. The inestimable price and value of the Soul of Man in respect of its own natural Capacities represented under 4 Heads viz. Its Capacity of Vnderstanding p. 4 5. Of Moral Perfection p. 6 7. Of Pleasure and Delight p. 8 9 10. Of Immortality p. 11 to p. 15. Of what Esteem the Soul is in the Judgment of those who know the best worth of it viz. the whole world of Spirits p. 15. to p. 25. Four Inferences from hence p. 26. to p. 34. What is meant by losing ones Soul explain'd p. 34. The Soul liable to a sevenfold Damage in the other World p. 35. to p. 50. Seven Causes of the Danger we are in of incurring this Damage p. 51. to p. 69. Men may forsake Christ and thereby lose their Souls 4 ways By a total Apostacy p. 70 71. By renouncing the profession of his Doctrine p. 72. By obstinate Heresie p. 73. By a willful Course of Disobedience of which there are three degrees the first proceeds from a willful ignorance of Christs Laws the 2d from a willful Inconsideration of our Obligation to them the 3d. from an Obstinacy in Sin against Knowledge and Consideration p. 74. to 80. Four Reasons why our forsaking of Christ infers this fearful loss of our Souls p. 81. to p. 90. That God if he be so Determin'd may without any injury either to his Justice or Goodness detain lost Souls in the bondage of Hell for ever prov'd in 6 Propositions p. 91. to 101. That God is actually determin'd so to do demonstrated by 3 Arguments p. 102. to p. 108. A Comparison between the gain of the VVorld and the loss of a Mans Soul in 6 Particulars whereby it is shewn of which side the Advantage lies p. 109. to p. 128. Discourse II. Of the Divinity and Incarnation of our Saviour A General Explication of this Term The Word P. 130. A full account of it in 4 Propositions shewing that it was derived from the Theology of the Jews and Gentiles 131. to 135. That we ought to fetch the Sense of it from that ancient Theology p. 136 137. That in that Theology it signifies a vital and divine Subsistence p. 138 to 139. And that our Saviour to whom it is applied in the New Testament is that vital and divine Subsistence p. 140 141 142. To be the Word of God denotes 4 Things to be generated of the Mind of the Father To be the perfect Image of that Mind To be the Interpreter of the Fathers Mind and to be the Executor of it and in these is founded the Reason of our Saviours being call'd The Word p. 143. to 153. VVhat we are to understand by the Words being made Flesh p. 153 154. Five Inferences from this Doctrine p. 155 166. VVhat is meant by the Word 's dwelling among us explain'd p. 167. to 174. His dwelling among us full of Grace explain'd in five particulars p. 175. to 190. His dwelling among us full of Truth explained in general 191. to 198. Four Instances of his dwelling among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure typical way of his Tabernacling among the Jews p. 199. to p. 229. Four Inferences the first from his dwelling among us p. 229 to 234. The 2d from his dwelling among us full of Grace and that 1. in respect of his own Personal Disposition p. 235. to 238. 2. Of his Laws p. 238. 239. 3. Of the Gracious Pardon which he hath procured for us and promised to us p. 240 241. 4. Of the abundant assistance he is ready to vouchsafe us p. 242 243. And 5 Of the glorious Recompence he hath promised to and prepared for us p. 244 245 The 3d From his dwelling among us full of Truth p. 246. to 249. The 4th From all these laid together He dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth p. 250 to 256. The Glory of the Word which the Apostles beheld consisted in 4 Things 1. A visible splendor and brightness which encompass'd him at his Baptism and Transfiguration p. 258 259. 2. Those great and stupendous Miracles which he wrought p. 260 261 262. 3. The surpassing Excellency and Divinity of his Doctrine p. 263 264. 4. The incomparable Sanctity and Purity of his Life p. 265 266 267. This Expression The Glory as of the Only-begotten Son explain'd p. 268 269 That the Glory of Christ in the Tabernacle of our Natures was such as became the Only-Begotten Son of the Father prov'd in the several particulars wherein it consists P. 270. to 279. Four Inferences from this fourfold glory of the Word which the Apostles saw p. 280. to the end Dis III. Of the Authority of the Holy Scriptures THe fulness of the Scriptures as a Rule of Faith and Manners prov'd in 3 Propositions 1. That the Holy Spirit inspir'd the Writers of them with all that is necessary to eternal Life p. 301. 2 That they preach'd to the World all those necessaries which they were taught p. 302. 3. That all these necessary Truths which they preached are comprehended in the Scriptures p. 303. to p. 316. The clearness of the Scripture prov'd 1 From express Testimony of Scripture p. 317. to p. 321. 2. From the avowed design of writing it p. 322 323. 3. From the frequent Commands God lays upon us to read it p. 324 325. 4. From the Obligation that lies upon us under pain of Damnation to believe and receive all those necessaries to Salvation contained in it p. 326. Four Considerations in answer to those of the Church of Rome who tell us that though all things are not revealed clearly in the Scriptures yet we have sufficient reason to believe them since God has left us to the Conduct of an infallible Church p. 327. to the end Dis IV. Of the Obligation of the People to read the Scriptures THat the People are obliged to search and read the Scriptures prov'd 1. From the Obligation the Jews were under to read and search the Scriptures of the Old Test p. 343
That a Company of dead Atoms which cannot move unless they are moved can ever be capable of framing Syllogisms in Mood and Figure and disputing pro and con whether they are Atoms or no That such inert and sluggish Bodies should by their impetuous jostling together awaken one another out of their sensless Passiveness and make each other hear and feel their mutual Knocking 's and Jostlings and then from this sense into which they have thus awakened one another and which they are as incapable of as a Musical Instrument is of hearing its own Sounds or taking pleasure in the harmonious Aires that are played upon it should proceed and consult together to make wise Laws and contrive the best Models of Government to investigate the Natures of Things and deduce from them the several Systems of Arts and Sciences in a word how is it possible that a Company of fluid Motes and Particles of Matter should ever be so artificially complicated and twisted one with another as to form an Vnderstanding that can lift up its Eyes and look beyond all this sensible World into that of immaterial Beings and conceive abstracted Notions of things which can never be Objects to any material Senses such as a pure Point Equality and Proportion Symmetry and Asymmetry of Magnitudes the Rise and Propagation of Dimensions infinite Divisibilty and the like Notions that never were in Matter nor consequently could ever be extracted out of it That can correct the Errors of all our material Perceptions and demonstrate Things to be vastly different from what they apprehend and report them can prove the Sun for instance to be one hundred and sixty times bigger than the Earth when to our Eye and Imagination it appears no bigger than a Bushel that can lodge within it self all that Mass of sensible Things which taketh up so much Room without it and when it hath piled them up upon one another in vast and most prodigious Numbers is still as capacious of more as when it was altogether empty in a word that can grasp the Vniverse with a Thought and comprehend the whole Latitude of Heaven and Earth within its own indivisible Center how sensless is it to imagine that such Noble Operations as these can be performed by a meer Complex of dead Atoms and sensless Particles of Matter And if they cannot as doubtless they cannot then from hence it will necessarily follow that the Soul of Man is an immaterial Thing Furthermore we see that tho the Soul takes in Objects of all sizes yet when once they are in they are not as Bodies in a material Place in which the Greater take up more Room than the Less For the Thought of a Mile or ten thousand Miles doth no more fill or stretch a Soul than that of a Foot or an Inch or a Mathematical Point and whereas all Matter hath its Parts and those extended one without another into Length and Breadth and Thickness and so is measurable by Inches Yards or solid Measures there is no such Thing as measurable Extension in any thing belonging to the Soul For in Cogitation which is the Essence of a Soul there is neither Length nor Breadth nor Thickness nor is it possible to have any Conceit of Foot of Thought or a Yard of Reason a Pound of Wisdom or a Quart of Virtue And if what belongs to a Soul be immaterial it will necessarily follow that the Soul it self is immaterial too and as such capable of Immortality For immaterial Natures being pure and simple having neither contrary Qualities nor divisible Parts in them as material Things have can have no Principles of Alteration and Corruption in them and being devoid of these they must needs be capable of living and subsisting for ever What Noble Beings therefore are the Souls of Men which together with those vast capacities of Vnderstanding of Moral Perfection of Joy and Pleasure are naturally capable of Immortality and consequently of improving in Knowledge in Goodness and in Joy and Pleasure unto all Eternity And therefore certainly a Soul must needs be a most precious thing that can thus out-live all sublunary Beings and subsist forever in so sublime a state of Glory and Beatitude Having thus shewn you the invaluable Worth of the Soul in Respect of its own natural Capacities I proceed 2. To shew you of what vast Esteem it is in the Judgment of all those who we must needs suppose to best understand the Worth of it and that is the whole World of Spirits For to be sure Spirits must best understand the Excellency of Spirits because they have a clearer In-sight into each others Natures and a more immediate Prospect of the Virtue Power and Excellency of each others Faculties For as for us whilst we are in this imbodied state and do understand by corporeal Organs we generally judge of the Worth and Excellency of Things by the Impression they make upon our Senses and as these are more or less gratified and affected with them we set a higher or lower Value upon them Since therefore Spirits are a sort of Beings that cannot touch or affect our Bodily Senses it is impossible we should be competent Judges of the true Worth and Value of them and therefore in this matter we ought to be guided by the Judgment of Spirits who must needs be supposed to have a more intimate Acquaintance with one anothers Natures And if we will be guided by these we shall find the whole World of Spirits even from the highest to the lowest unanimously rating the Souls of Men at an inestimable Price and Value And to make this appear I shall shew you the vast Price there is set upon them 1. By God the Father 2. By God the Son 3. By God the Holy Ghost 4. By the Holy Angels 5. By the Devils 1. Let us consider the vast Price which God the Father hath set upon Souls For when he intended to form these Noble Beings and transmit them into terrestrial Bodies that so being compounded with a sensitive Nature they might clasp the Spiritual and Animal Worlds together he being sensible of the vast Hazards and infinite Snares they would be exposed too was so deeply concerned for their Preservation that he thought nothing too dear to save and secure them And fore-seeing their Fall from that terrestrial Happiness which he originally designed them notwithstanding the liberal Care he had taken to preserve them in the State of Innocence he designed to remove the Scene of their Happiness from Earth to Heaven being resolved if possible to repair the Loss of a terrestrial with a calestial Paradise For which end instead of the Covenant of Innocence the Blessings whereof by their Sin they had forever forfeited he introduces the Covenant of Repentance that so by the help of this Plank after their general Ship-wrack they might be preserved and to safe to the Shoar of a happy Eternity And that by this Covenant he might the more effectually recover
the Enemies Harbour with his blessed Motions and Importunities and never gives over the Pursuit of them till he hath either actually recovered or left them past all Hopes of Redemption And when he sees that they are utterly lost by their own Madness and Folly and that it is in vain to follow them any farther he casts a sorrowful Look upon them and like a grieved Friend after the utmost strugglings and extream Efforts of his affronted Goodness unwillingly leaves them to their own sad Fate and gives them up as it were with the Tears in his Eyes And can you think this blessed Spirit would be so industrious as he is in his Ministry for Souls that he would take such infinite Pains to save them be so extreamly urgent and solicitous for their Welface if He did not know them to be a sort of Beings of an inestimable Worth and Value O blessed God what are not our Souls worth that are worth all the Pains thy blessed Spirit takes to save and make them happy That not only thou thought'st worth all those vast Thoughts and Counsels which thou hast spent upon them that not only thy Son thought worth all those vast Condescentions he stooped to to put those Thoughts in Execution but thy blessed Spirit also thinks worth all that unwearied Pains and Endeavour all that incessant Care and Importunity which he employs about them to save and rescue them from Sin and Misery Doubtless those Beings must needs be exceeding precious for whose Safety and Welfare all the blessed Trinity are so unspeakably concerned 4. Let us consider the vast Price which the Holy Angels put upon Souls For tho they are the Crown and Top of all the Creation of God and do by their essential Perfections border nearest upon him yet such is their Opinion of the Souls of Men that they think it no Disparagement to converse with and minister to them but from the beginning of the World till now have been always ready to maintain a close Intercourse and intimate Correspondence with them and so far forth as they are permitted by the Laws of their invisible World they are continually attending to stretch forth a helping Hand to them in all their Needs and Necessities Tho they are the most Illustrious Courtiers of Heaven yet they disdain not to be the Life-Guards of Souls to pitch their Tents round about them as the Psalmist expresses it Psal 34.8 And interpose between them and their Danger to prompt them to and assist them in their Duties to strengthen them against or to remove their Temptations to comfort them in their Sorrows and chase away from them those malignant Spirits that are always about them watching all Opportunities to seduce and destroy them Hence Heb. 1.14 They are said to be ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation And how much they are concerned for the Safety and Welfare of these precious Beings they are charged with is evident by that Passage Luke 15.16 There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth So Considerable are the Lives of Souls to the Angels of God that though they are always entertained with the most ravishing Pleasures yet Heaven it self cannot divert them from being over joyed at the Repentance of a Perishing Soul and celebrating its Recovery with a new Festival And when-ever the happy News is brought them that such a dying Soul is revived they not only attend to it in the midst of all their Joys and Triumphs but upon the hearing of it they shout for Joy and fill the Heavens with a new Acclamation And when-ever such a Penitent Soul hath bidden adieu to the Body those blessed Spirits stand ready to receive and guard it through those Legions of malignant Spirits that do always infest these lower Tracts of Air and to conduct it safe to those happy Abodes where it is to lodge till the Resurrection for it is said of Lazarus's Soul Luke 16.22 That it was carried by Angels into Abraham 's Bosom All which is a clear Demonstration of the vast Esteem which those blessed Angels have of Souls For can it be thought that such noble Beings who have a God and themselves to converse with and have so immediate a Prospect both of his Beauty and their own to exercise their Faculties and employ their Contemplation would be so ready and willing as they are to atttend upon Souls and minister to their Safety and Happyness if they had not a mighty Value and Estimation of them Surely if these immortal Spirits within us were not unspeakably dear and precious those Angelical Beings who have always the most sublime and enravishing Objects before them to employ and entertain their Faculties would never have thought it worth the while to stickle so zealously in their Affairs and concern themselves so much about them And thus our Saviour himself argues Mat. 18.10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven that is do not undervalue any Soul for how mean or little soever some of them may appear to you they are under the Guardianship of those blessed Angels that are the Courtiers of God and do always attend upon his Majestick Presence 5. And Lastly Let us consider the vast Price which the Devils themselves do put upon Souls for ever since those malignant Spirits through their own Pride and Ambition revolted from God and conspired to make War with heaven and revenge their Expulsion thence the constant Drift of all their Designs and Actions hath been to seduce and ruine them being conscious that of all the Beings that are within the reach of their Power there are none so dear to God as these and that by seducing from him these his most precious Creatures they shall do him the greatest spight and most effectually revenge upon him their own Damnation For doubtless were there any Beings below the Moon more dear to God than these they would bend their Force and Malice against them and not make these as they do the only Centers of their mischievous Activity Had they any nobler Game to fly at their ambitious Malice would disdain to stoop to the Quarry of Souls but because of all others These are the noblest and best worth the ruining therefore do these malignant Spirits turn all their Artillery upon them and level all their fiery Darts against them And how ambitious they are of seducing our Souls and training them on to Perdition is evident by the infinite Wiles and Snares and Stratagems they contrive against them by their unwearied Diligence to watch all Opportunities against them to surprize them where they are careless and assault them where they are weakest and cheat them with disguised Suggestions to inspect their Humours and apply themselves to their Interest and nick their Tempers with convenient Temptations And
if after all their Labout Craft and Contrivance they can but seise the Game they hunt for the Blood of a Soul is so rich a Draught that they think it a sufficient Recompence for all their painful and mischievous Devices for St. Peter tells us that they go about like roaring Lions seeking whom they may devour And to be sure those malignant Spirits would never be so impertinently mischievous as to spend their time in catching Flies and did they not know our Souls to be noble Preys they would never go so far about as they do nor take so much Care and Pains to Catch and Insnare them So that from their unwearied Diligence to seduce and ruin us we may most certainly conclude either that they are very foolish Devils or that our Souls are very precious Beings but howsoever their Diligence to destroy them is a plain Argument that they esteem them precious it being by no means to be supposed that such Wise and Intelligent Beings as they are would so much concern themselves as they do about things which they had little or no Esteem for And thus you see at what a vast Rate our Souls are valued by the whole World of Spirits how from the highest to the lowest those best and wisest Judges of the just Worth of Souls do all unanimously concur in a great and high Estimation So that whether we value them by their own natural Capacities or by the Estimation of those who are best able to judge of their Worth and Excellency we have abundant Reason to conclude them most precious and inestimable Beings And now I shall concude this Argument with some Inferences 1. From hence I infer by what it is that we ought to value our selves and estimate the Dignity of our own Natures viz. by our rational and immortal Souls those excellent Beings that are so invaluable in themselves and so highly esteemed by the best and wisest Judges 'T is this intelligent and immortal Nature within us that is the Crown and Flower of our Beings 't is by this that we are exalted above the Level of meer Animals by this that we are allyed to Angels and do border upon God himself And he that values himself by any thing but his Soul and those things which are its proper Graces and Ornaments begins at the wrong End of himself forgets his Jewels and estimates his Estate by his Lumber And yet good God what foolish Measures do the Geneerality of Men take of themselves Were we not forced by too many woful Experiments it would be hard to imagine that any Creature that believes a rational and immortal Soul to be a Part of its Nature should be so ridiculous as to value it self by the little trifling Advantages of a well-coloured Skin a suit of fine Cloaths a Puff of popular Applause or a few Baggs of white and red Earth and yet God help us these are the only things almost by which we value and difference our selves from others You are a much better Man than your Neighbout he alas is a poor contemptible Wretch a little creeping despicblae Thing not worthy to be looked upon or taken notice of by such a one as you Why in the Name of God what is the Matter Where is this mighty Difference between you and him Hath not he a Soul as well as you a Soul that is capable to live as long and to be as happy as yours Yes yes 't is true indeed but notwithstanding God be thanked you are another-guess Man than he for you have a much handsomer Body your Apparel is much more fine and fashionable you live in a more splendid Equipage and have a larger Purse to maintain it and your Name forsooth is more in Vogue and makes a far greater Noise in the World And is this all the Difference between your mighty selves and your pitiful Neighbours Alas poor Men A few Days more will put an End to this and when your rich Attires are reduced to a Winding-sheet and all your vast Possessions to six Foot of Earth what will become of all those little Trifles by which you value your selves Where will be the Beauty or Wealth the Port or Garb which you are now so proud of Alas Now that lovely Body looks as pale and ghastly that losty Soul is left as bare as poor and naked as your despised Neighbours Should you now meet his wandering Ghost in the wide World of Spirits what would you have to boast of more than he now your Beauty is withered your Wealth vanished and all your outward Pomp and Splendor shrouded in the Horrors of a silent Grave Now you will have nothing distinguish you from the most Contemptible unless you have wiser and better Souls and by so much as you were more respected for your Beauty and Wealth your Garb and Equipage in this World by so much will you be more despised for your Pride and Insolence your Covetousness and Sensuality in the other Let us therfore learn to value our selves by that which will abide by us by our immortal Souls and by those heavenly Graces which do adorn and accomplish them by our Humility and Devotion by our Charity and Meekness by our Temperance and Justice all which are such Preheminences as will survive our Funerals and distinguish us from base and abject Souls for ever But for a rational and immortal Creature to prize it self by any such temporary Advantages is altogether as vain and ridiculous as it was for the Emperor Nero to value himself for being an excellent Fidler 2ly From hence also I infer how much we are obliged to live up to the Dignity of our Natures Should a stranger to Mankind be admitted into this busy Stage of humane Affairs to survey our Actions and the paultry Designs we drive at certainly he would hardly imagine that we believed out selves to be such a noble sort and strain of Beings as we are If you saw a Man seriously imploying himself in some sordid and beggarly Drudgery could you imagine that he believed himself to be the Son of a King and the Heir of a Crown And when it is so apparent that the main of our Design is to prog for our Flesh and make a comfortable Provision for a few Years Ease and Luxury who would think that we believed our selves to be immortal Spirits that must live for ever in an inconceivable Happiness or Misery When we consider the high Rank which we hold in the Creation the vast Capacities which there are in our Natures and the noble Ends which we were made and designed for are we not ashamed to think how poorly we prostitute our selves and vilify our own Faculties by the sordid Drudgeries wherein we exercise and imploy'em When we think what a Reputation we have throughout all the World of Spirits what a vast Rate we are valued at by God and Angels and Devils are we not confounded to think how we under-value our selves by those low and
inglorious Ends which we pursue and aim at O good God that thou should'st give me a Soul of an immortal Nature a Soul that is big enough for all the Joys which thy everlasting Heaven is composed of and I be such a Wretch to my self such a Traytor to the Dignity of my own Nature as to give up my self and all my Faculties to the Pursuit of such vain and wretched Trifles That I who am akin to Angels should make my self a Muck-worm and chuse Nebuchadnezzar's fate to leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness That having such a great and noble Nature I should content my self to live like a Beast and aim no higher than if I had been born only to eat and drink and sleep and wake for thirty or forty Years together and then retire into a silent Grave and be insensible for ever Wherefore in the Name of God let us at last remember what we are and what we are born to Let us consider that we have Faculties that are capable of exerting themselves for ever in the most inravishing Contemplation and Love of the eternal Fountain of Truth and Goodness of Copying and Transcribing his most adorable Perfections his Wisdom Goodness Purity and Justice from whence the infinite Happiness of his Nature derives and thereby of glorifying us into living Images of God and rendring us like him both in Beauty and Happiness in a word that we have Faculties to converse with Angels and with blessed Spirits to bear a part in the eternal Confort of their Joys and Praises and to relish all those unknown Delights of which their everlasting Heaven doth consist And having such great and noble Powers in us is it not a burning shame that they should be always condemned to an endless Pursuit of Shadows and Impertinencies Let us therefore rouse up our selves and shake off this sordid and degenerate Temper that sinks and depresses us and makes us act so infinitely unbecoming the Dignity of our immortal Natures And since we are descended from and designed for the Heavenly Family let us learn to demean our selves upon Earth as becomes the Natives of Heaven Let us disdain all base and sordid all low and unworthy Ends of Action as Things beneath our illustrious Rank and Station in the World of Beings and live in a continual Tendency towards and Preparation for that Heavenly State which is the proper Orb and Sphere of our Natures 3ly From hence also I infer how much they undervalue themselves that sell their Souls for the Trifles of this World For since we know before-hand that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men and he hath plainly assured us that our Souls must smart for ever for our Sins it necessarily follows that whenever we knowingly suffer our selves to be inticed into Sin we make a wilful Forfeiture of our Souls He that knows that such a Draught however sweetned and made palatable is yet compounded with the Juice of deadly Nightshade and notwithstanding that will have the poisonous Draught is wilfully bent to Murder and Destroy himself And when we see that the Pleasure of our Sin draws after it the Ruin of our Souls and yet will Sin notwithstanding we do in effect stake our Souls against it and with our Eyes open make this desperate Bargain that upon Condition we may injoy such a sinful Pleasure we will willingly surrender up our immortal Spirits to the Pains of an endless and intolerable Damnation And if so O blessed God how do the Generality of Men depreciate and undervalue themselves For how often do we see Men in their little Frauds and Cozenages sell their Souls for a Penny gain in their lascivious and intemperate Humours barter their Souls for a Moments Mirth or Pleasure in their ambitious Projects and Designs part with their Souls for a Blast of vulgar Breath and popular Noise For in every Temptation to Sin the Dewil cheapens our immortal Souls bids so much Pleasure or so much Profit for them and in every Compliance with the Temptation we take his Offer and strike the fatal Bargain So that if we will Sin we had need Sin for something since we must pay so dearly for it But alas there is no Proffer the Devil can make us that is a tolerable Price for the Blood of our Souls though he should offer us the whole World for it our Saviour assures us that he would bid us infinitely to our Loss and if so what wretehed Sales do we make of our Souls when we Sin for Trifles lie and cheat to get a Penny consent to a wicked Motion for a Pleasure that will wither while we are smelling to it and expire in the very Injoyment For so much we value our Souls at and do in effect declare that in our Esteem these precious Beings which God and Angels set so high a Price on are worth no more than what that Profit or Pleasure for which we Sin amounts to O good God! What cheap and worthless Things then are our Souls in our Esteem who sell and barter them every Day for such mean and worthless Trifles How do we part with our Gold for Dross and exchange our Jewels for Pebbles What sordid Thoughts what wretched vile Opinions have we of our selves that are so ready upon all Occasions to sell our selves for nought or which is next to nought for the sorry Proffers of every base and infamous Lust O would to God we would at last make but a just Estimate of our selves and thereupon resolve as it is most reasonable we should never to comply with any sinful Motion till we can get more by it than our Souls are worth and then I am sure we should be for ever Deaf to all the Proffers which the Devil or World can make us 4ly And lastly From hence also I infer how much we are obliged above all things to take Care of our Souls For since they are Beings of such vast Capacities in themselves and of such an high Estimation in the World of Spirits methinks we should all be convinced that to take leave of their Welfare and prevent their everlasting Miscarriage is the highest Concern and Interest of a Man And yet God forgive us if we consult the common Practice of Mankind we shall find that there is scarce any thing in which we have any Interest at all that is more slighted and disregarded by us Our Body is the Darling that hath our Hearts and takes up all our Care and Thoughts and to entertain its Appetite and accommodate it with Pleasures and Conveniencies there is no Expence either of Labour or Time grudged or thought much of but as for the Soul that precious and immortal Thing which will be living and perceiving unspeakable Pleasures or Pains when this Body is dead and insensible that is overlooked as a Thing not worthy our serious Notice or Regard And though we cannot
but be sensible how much it is diseased in all its Faculties how much its Vnderstanding is overloaded with Error and Ignorance its Will festered with unreasonable Malice and Obstinacy and its Conscience oppressed with Loads of Guilt sufficient to sink it to the nethermost Hell yet we seem for the Generality to be no more concerned at it than if its Ruin or Recovery were equally indifferent to us We can set it perishing before our Eyes without any Remorse or Compassion we can pass Day after Day wihtout making the least Offer or Attempt to recover it without offering up a Prayer for it or entertaining a serious Thought what will become of it for ever O insensible Creatures that we are thus to neglect and abandon the most precious Part of our selves The Part that makes us Men and by which alone we are capable of being happy or miserable for ever Let me therefore beseech and conjure you even by all that is sacred and serious by every thing that is dear and precious to you by your best Hopes and the most important Concern of your everlasting Fate to take pity upon your perishing Souls to consider the amazing Dangers whereunto you have exposed them and to consult the Means of their Recovery to prick and affect your Hearts with the Sense and Consideration of their impending Ruin till you have forced them to cry out what shall we do to be saved to bath their Wounds with the Tears of Repentance and to pour into them that most sovereign Balm of a serious Purpose and Resolution of Amendment to pray earnestly for them and keep a continual Guard about them and to strive vigorously with those sinful Inclinations that threaten to sink and ruin them And if we will be but content to undergo these necessary Cares and Pains to secure them we shall be sure when they leave these Bodies to reap the Fruits of all in the Possession of an unspeakably happy and glorious Eternity II. I proceed now to the Second Proposition contained in these Words that our precious Souls may be lost And this our Saviour here plainly supposes If he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul The Greek Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to receive a Mulct or to suffer Damage and therefore it is here opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he shall gain So that the Word doth not denote the absolute Loss or Extinction of the Soul but its undergoing some dreadful Mulct or suffering some irreparable Damage For as Hierocles hath observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Immortal Substances cannot so die as to lose their Being but so as to lose their Well-being they may And accordingly our Saviour himself calls the Punishment of the Wicked in Hell Fire destroying them Mat. x. 28. Fear not them which kill the Body but fear him which is able destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Where by destroying he doth not mean putting a final End to their Being but putting them into an irrecoverable State of Ill-being for in this State of Destruction they still continue to act to weep and wail and gnash their Teeth as Christ elsewhere tells us Mat. xiii 42. which Actions plainly suppose their Continuance in Being though in a most wretched and deplorable Ill-being So that by the Loss of the Soul here is not meant the Destruction of its Being but its being exposed to an irreparable Damage in the other World And to prove that in this Sense a Soul may be lost I shall endeavour these two Things First To shew you what Damages the Soul is liable to in the other World Secondly Upon what Accounts it is liable to and in Danger of them I. What Damages the Soul is liable to in the other World To which I answer that there is a seven-fold Damage whereunto the Soul of Man may be exposed hereafter 1st It is liable to be deprived of the highest Happiness it is capable of 2ly It is liable to the most dreadful Punishment and Correction of the Father of Spirits 3ly It is liable to the Fury and Violence of Devils and other malignant Spirits 4. It is liable to be confined to the most dismal and uncomfortable Abodes 5ly It is liable to the perpetual Vexations of its own cross wild and furious Passions 6ly It is liable to the intolerable Anguish of its own guilty Conscience 7ly It is liable to indure all these dismal Things for ever 1st The Soul of Man is liable to be deprived of the highest Happiness it is capable of The highest Happiness that a Soul is capable of is to enjoy God that is to know and love and resemble him and to be admitted into the noble Society of those pure and blessed Spirits that do thus enjoy him of all which Happiness a Soul may be for ever deprived by its own vicious and depraved Temper For besides that by such a Temper it may provoke the just and holy God who hath the Disposal of the fate of Souls to deprive it of and banish it from this Happiness for ever it may thereby also utterly incapacitate it self from ever enjoying it it may promote and raise that Temper to such a Degree of Averfation and Antipathy to God and canker it into such an inveterate Enmity to all the Perfections of his Nature as that at last it may be utterly incapable of any such beatifical Knowledge of them as can any ways incline it to love and imitate him For the Apostle tells us that the carnal Mind is empty to God Rom. viii 7. From whence it is evident that in every Degree of Sin there is a Degree of Aversation to God which Aversation may be improved into such an implacable Malice against him as that our Knowledge of him instead of endearing him to us or ingaging us to imitate him may only avert us from provoke and irritate us against him and by presenting to us those immense Perfections for which he deserves our dearest Love and deepest Adoration may only fill our Minds with the greater Rage and more invincible Horror And when the Soul is arrived to such a Degree of Malignity against God it is as impossible for it to injoy him as to be recreated with Torment or delighted with the Objects of its own Antipathies And for the same Reason also it must be incapable of enjoying the Society of blessed Spirits because it hath acquired a Temper that is infinitely repugnant to their Heavenly Genius so that if such a prejudiced Soul should when it is arrived into Eternity find the Gates of Heaven open to receive it it would doubtless be so offended at every thing that is Heavenly so startled at the Sight of God and the Displays of his hated Perfections and seized with such a Horror against those god-like Beings that dwell there and are perpetually contemplating and adoring loving and imitating him that it would fly away of its own Accord from that blissful Habitation as Bats
Gods righteous Vengeance who as we now find by Experience have Power to suggest black and horrid Thoughts and to torture our our Souls with such dreadful Imaginations as are far more sharp and exquisite than any bodily Torment And if now they have such Power over us when God thinks fit to let them loose what will they have hereafter when these our wretched Spirits shall be wholly abandoned to their Mercy and they shall have a free Scope to exercise their Fury upon us and glut their hungry Malice with our Vexations and Torments It seems at least a mighty probable Notion that that horrid Agony of our Saviour in the Garden which caused him to shriek and grone and sweat as it were great Drops of Blood was only the Effect of those preternatural Terrors which the Devils with whom he was then in Combat impressed upon his innocent Mind And if they had so much Power over his pure and mighty Soul that was so strongly guarded with the most perfect and unspotted Virtues what will they have over ours when God hath abandoned us to them and throws us as Preys into their Mouths with what an hellish Rage will they fly upon our guilty and timorous Souls in which there is so much Tinder for their injected Sparks of Horror to take Fire on When therefore our guilty Spirits shall not only be liable to the Scourge of God but Devils and damned Ghosts too shall have their full Swing at them doubtless the Hell within them will be far more intollerable than any Hell of Fire and Brimstone without them 4ly The Soul of Man is also liable to be confined to the most dismal and uncomfortable Abodes What or where the Abode of wicked Spirits is till the Morn of the Resurrection is no where expresly determined in the Holy Scripture but since wheresoever they are they are doubtless under the Power and Dominion of the Devil who as the Scripture assures us is Prince of the Power of the Air it is highly probable that their present Residence is in these lower Regions of the World that either being chased by those infernal Powers under whose Tyranny they are they are continually hurrying about in these inferiour Tracts of Air or which perhaps is more probable that they are imprisoned by those invisible Ministers of the divine Justice within the dark Abysses and under-ground Vaults of the Earth and not permitted but upon special Occasions to come abroad into this upper Region of Light and Liberty But wheresoever they are it is doubtless in some such horrid and dismal Prison as is fit only to receive such vile and desperate Malefactors and secure them till the great Assizes when they shall be brought forth to receive their Tryal and final Judgment And then being united to their Bodies and thereby made liable to corporeal Torments the Scripture expresly affirms that they shall be shut up in everlasting Flames and be tormented for ever in a Lake of Fire and Brimstone for then the Lord himself shall come in Flames of Fire to render Vengance to all those that obeyed not his Gospel and having with those raging Flames set every Part of this lower World on Fire he will re-ascend with all his Train to the celestial Mansions and leave the Wicked weltring for ever in this burning Vault below for it is plain that the everlasting Fire to which he will then Sentence them is the Conflagration of the World which after the Just are raised and caught up in the Clouds above the Reach of its aspiring Flames shall break forth on every side and turn all this Atmosphere into a Furnace of inquenchable Fire and therein shall those wicked Miscreants that would not be reclaimed be condemned to live for ever For the Judgment being ended the Judg and all his Retinue shall return and leave them in the midst of a burning World surrounded with Smoak and Fire Darkness and Confusion and wrapt in fierce and merciless Flames which shall stick close to and pierce through and through their Bodies and for ever prey upon but never consume them And what an intolerable Mulct this is I leave every Mans natural Sense to judge 5ly The Soul of Man is also liable to the perpetual Vexations of its own cross wild and furious Passions We have sufficient Experience in this Life how vexatious our cross and excessive Passions are for when our Passions are divided and contrary Objects have raised contrary Desires and Appetites in us how do they rend and distract our Souls and cause perpetual Mutinies and Tumults within us But by Reason of those many sensual Gratifications with which we now make a shift to stop the Mouths of those Daughters of the Horse-Leech when they cry out give give we cannot be so sensible of the Trouble and Vexation of them unless we now subdue and mortifie them we we shall be forced to carry them into Eternity along with us For by being separated from their Bodies the Souls of Men are never separated from their prevailing Tempers but in their separated State are for the main of the same Disposition as they were here and do retain the same Passions and Appetites 'T is true they cannot be supposed to retain their bodily Appetites after they have thrown off their Bodies but when they have wholly accustomed themselves in this Life to fleshly Pleasures and have never Experienced spiritual ones it is impossible but that in the other they should be tormented with an outragious Desire of being imbodied again that so being incapable of relishing any other they may repeat those fleshly Pleasures which heretofore they were accustomed to and act over the bruitish Scene anew And this vehement Hankering of these earnalized Souls to return into their Bodily State is perhaps the only Sensuality that a separate Soul is capable of but it is such a Sensuality as must necessarily render such Souls extremely miserable for in that State it will be like the Hunger of a Starving Man that is Immured between two dead Walls that is it will be a fierce Desire without Hope of Satisfaction a corroding Hunger sharpened with Despair of Food than which there is nothing more intolerably grievous and tormenting For how will it vex the wretched Spirit to look back from the Shores of Eternity into this corporeal World and to ruminate thus with it self O miserable Creature that I am here am I cast away for ever upon a strange and desolate Shore where I must Famish for want of Food pine away a long Eternity and wander to and fro for ever tormented with restless Rage and hungry unsatisfied Desires where is not one Pleasure that I can relish not an Object that I can taste any sweetness in We is me yonder are all my Joys and Comforts all that is dear and precious to me O that I might go back again and be once more restored to the Injoyment of them but alas between me and them there runs an impassible Gulph
Souls we could purchase a Lease of Life as long as Methuselah's and a Lease of Happiness parallel to that Life yet in the Conclusion we should find it a most woful Bargain because when both these Leases are expired as they must at last though it be long first we must remove into a State of intolerable Misery whose Duration will be always equally because it will be always infinitely distant from a Period and when we are there all that long Train of Happiness that is past will seem but a Minute's Dream in Comparison of that Eternity of Misery that is to come But O good God when for thirty or forty Years Pleasure upon Earth I have suffered a thousand Years Torment in Hell and after that have endless Thousands of Thousands more to suffer how dearly shall I rue my own Folly and Madness that for the sake of a few Moments Pleasure have run my self headlong into such an endless Misery Consider therefore O my Soul within a little while all these outward Goods which I have purchased by my Sin will signify no more to me than if they had never been and all their alluring Relishes will be gone and forgotten for ever but then for Ten thousand Millions of Ages after I shall be feeling the Smart and enduring the Stings of them When all my ill-gotten Wealth is shrunk into a Winding-sheet and my vast Possessions into six foot of Earth and I have none of its Pomps or Pleasures left either to go along with or to follow after me then will the Guilt of all stick close to me and raise a Cry on me as high as the Tribunal of God a Cry that will draw down an everlasting Vengeance on my Head and ring Peals of Thunder in my Conscience for ever Lord what a poor Amends then is the momentary Injoyments of the Goods of this World to me and that after a few Years must pass into another and there languish away a long Eternity under the intolerable Anguish of a damned Spirit And thus you see upon a just Survey of the Gains of this world and the Loss of a Soul how infinitely short the Happiness of the one is to make us any tolerable Compensation for the Miseries of the other And if the Gain of all the World be too little to countervail this Loss what miserable Losers are the Generality of Men that forfeit their Souls upon a far less valuable Consideration For no Man was ever yet or is ever like to be so prosperous in his Sin as to gain the whole World by it that is a Scramble in which Millions are ingaged and of which every one will be catching a Share But alas for the Generality the Purchase of Mens Sin is so small and inconsiderable that it is scarce a valuable Consideration for the Soul of a Rat. For what doth the common Swearer get by all his sensless and impertinent Oaths which are capable of serving no other Purpose but only to stop the Gaps of his Speech or to man his Rage that he may rave and play the Fool a little more genteely What doth the Drunkard gain by all his Intemperances but only a short Fit of frantick Mirth and extravagant Jollity which after a few Hours ends in a sleepless Night a sick and uneasy Stomach and a sottish Confusion over all his Senses What doth the envious and malicious Man get by all his studied Mischiefs and Revenges When he hath pluck'd out his Enemy's Eye he cannot put it into his own Head nor can he increase the Stock of his own Happiness by diminishing his Adversaries When he hath made another the worse he is never the better for it nor do his Injuries grow less by being retaliated So that he vexes and disquiets himself to no purpose but to make his Enemy bleed he keeps his own Wound green and consequently multiplies Evils in vain and prosecutes Mischief only for Mischief's sake I confess there are some Vices that are not altogether so unprofitable as these in some Vices there is a Prospect of worldly Gain and Greatness in others of sensitive Pleasure and Delight but alas when after a few days Injoyment of those Gains and Pleasures I am called away from them and transported into a woful Eternity there to expiate the Guilts of them with those sharp and everlasting Torments I shall be made to endure how shall I be astonished at my own desperate Folly to think what a mad Bargain I have made what an Happiness I have sold to purchase those Gains what a Misery I have incurred to grasp and injoy those Pleasures O! now what would I give for a Goal-delivery from Hell or but for the least Mitigation of my Agonies and Torments If I had all the Wealth that I purchased by my Sin and ten thousand times more how willingly would I part with it to bribe my Flames and corrupt my Tormentors O! now I shall wish a thousand and a thousand times that I had rather chosen to famish for want of Bread than to injoy those accursed Profits and Pleasures that were the Fruits and Wages of mine Iniquities but now alas it will be too late to Repent As yet we have the Opportunity to retrieve our own Folly and to revoke and cancel this our desperate Bargain and by our serious Repentance and hearty Renunciation of the Temptations of this World we may release our selves from our Covenant with Death and Agreement with Hell But if we out-stay our Opportunity a few Moments longer till Death hath put an end to it the fatal Bargain will be sealed past all Revocation OF THE Divinity Incarnation OF OUR SAVIOUR JOHN I. 14. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of his Father full of Grace and Truth THESE Words contain Three distinct Propositions I. The Word was made Flesh II. And dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth III. And we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of his Father Of each of these I intend to discourse in their order I. The first is That the Word was made Flesh In handling of which I shall do these three Things 1. Shew you what we are here to understand by The Word 2. Why it is called The Word 3. What we are to understand by The Word 's being made Flesh 1. What is meant by the Word I answer in general That by the Word here we are to understand Christ For in the following Verse you will find that this Word was He of whom John the Baptist was the Forerunner and to whom he bare Witness saying This was he of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me And in the other Evangelists you will find that it was Christ whose Forerunner the Baptist was and to whom he gave this Testimony as you may see at your leisure Matth. 3.11 and Mark 1.7 Luke 3.16
of all things and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6 De Somn. p. 466. the Vice-roy of God and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7 Lib. Cherub p. 100. that is the Instrument of God by whom he made the World As in Christ the Fulness of the Godhead is said to dwell Colos 2.9 so Plotin tells us of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is filled with God 8 Ennead 5. l. 3. c. 12. As Christ is called the great Shepherd of our Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 so Philo tells us that God who is King and Pastor of the World hath appointed the Word his first-begotten Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9 De Agricult p. 152. to undertake the Care of his sacred Flock as his own Vice-roy and Substitute and accordingly in the same place he makes The Word to be that Angel whom God had promis'd to send before the Camp of Israel to conduct them through the Wilderness In short as the Angels are said to be subject unto Christ 1 Pet. 3.22 and as Christ is said to be the Angel or Messenger of God Joh. 9.4 so Philo calls the most ancient Word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Quaest Rerum divin haer p. 397. that is the Prince of the Angels and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 De Somn. p. 466. the Angel or Messenger of God And to name no more as Christ is called the Mediator of the new Covenant Heb. 12.24 and the Intercessor between God and Man Heb. 7.25 and the Propitiation and Atonement So saith Philo which is highly worthy of our Observation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 3 Quaest Rerum Divin her p. 397. is the Intercessor for Mortals with the immortal God and also the Embassador of that great King to his Subjects which Office saith he he willingly undertook saying I will stand in the middle between the Lord and you as being neither unborn as God nor born as you but being a Medium between those two Extreams I will be a Pledge for both for his Creatures that they shall not utterly apostatize from him for God that he will not be wanting in his Fatherly Care towards them And in another place he tells us that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 De Somniis p. 447. that is the Beginning and the End of God's Good-will to the World which is all one with Propitiation And these Authorities of Philo I have the rather insisted upon because he being a Jew and a Platonick Philosopher must needs understand the Theology of Jews and Gentiles and living about the Time of our Saviour he must be supposed to have written in Terms that were then in use and were very well understood both by Jews and Gentiles And if so then it must necessarily follow that this Phrase The Word so common in that Author was very commonly used both by Jews and Gentiles in our Saviour's Time and consequently that it was derived from them and so appropriated to our Saviour by the inspired Writers of the New Testament And indeed it is not to be imagined how those inspired Writers should ever have so exactly agreed with the Jews and Gentiles in the Titles and Characters of the Eternal Word had not either they themselves or the Spirit of God which dictated to them purposely derived it from them 2. That the New Testament giving no distinct Explication of this Phrase The Word it is most safe and reasonable to fetch the Sense of it from that ancient Theology whence it was derived I do not deny but it is usual with all Writers to use Terms and Phrases by way of Accommodation and to illustrate their Sense by alluding to something that is like it and therefore are not always to be understood in the Sense which those Terms and Phrases do most commonly signify but in a Sense that hath some Proportion with it as the Drift and Connection of their Discourse doth plainly intimate But when Writers use Words in a literal Sense without any Note of Allusion and without explaining themselves into any different Sense either they must mean the same Thing which those Words do commonly signify or else they must mean to deceive and impose upon their Readers And thus stands the Case before us our Saviour is here stiled The Word a Term of Art which was very common both in the Jewish and Gentile Philosophy and neither here nor any where else is there the least Intimation that he is called so only by way of Allusion nor is it in all the New Testament explained into any other Sense than that wherein it was commonly used and therefore the Intent of the Sacred Writers in using it must be either to denote the same thing which it signified before or to deceive and impose upon the World But doubtless if the Holy Spirit which inspired those Writers had meant any thing else by it than what it ordinarily fignifies he would have told us of it and not have given us such an unavoidable Occasion to mistake in so great a Doctrine by clothing its Sense in such a Phrase as generally signifies what he never meant For when he called Christ by the same Name and attributed the same Titles and Characters by which the Jews and Gentiles were wont to describe their ΛΟΓΟΣ he could not but foresee that all inquisitive Persons would be apt to conclude that he meant the same thing and therefore if he had not meant so he would doubtless either not have given him that Name and those Titles or else to prevent our being imposed upon by them he would have explained them into some other meaning which since he hath not done we may safely and rationally conclude that he hath meant the same Thing by this Name and those Titles with those from whom he did derive them and consequently that the most certain way for us to understand what is the Sense of Christ's being The Word is to consider what those Jews and Gentiles meant by it from whose Philosophy it was first borrowed and derived 3. That both the Jewish and Gentile Theology used this Phrase The Word to signify a Vital and Divine Subsistence For as for the Jews it 's plain that by The Word they meant the Messias and therefore Ps 110. which they say contains the Mysteries of the Messias the Chaldee Paraphrase instead of the Lord said unto my Lord read the Lord said unto his Word that is consequently to his Messias And Rab. Arama upon Genesis explaining that Passage in the 107 Ps 20. The Lord sent forth his Word and they were healed expresly tells us that by this Word is meant the Messias And Rab. Simeon the Son of Johni expounding those Words of Job 19.26 Yet in my Flesh shall I see God faith that the Mercy which proceeds from the highest Wisdom of God shall be crowned by The Word and take Flesh of a Woman by which
is that they only released Offenders from the Obligation to Civil and Ecclesiastical Punishments but could by no means free them from the eternal Punishments of the other Life Not that I make the least Doubt but that truly penitent Offenders were forgiven the eternal Punishment then as well as now and forgives too for the sake of Jesus Christ the Lamb that was intentionally slain from the Beginning of the World but by what hath been said it's plain they were not forgiven by Virtue of that Law whereby the Eternal Word reigned over the House of Israel but rather by Virtue of that Gospel which was first preached to Adam and afterwards to the Patriarchs wherein Christ the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of Abraham is promised in whom all Nations of the Earth should be blessed 'T is true the Sacrifices of the Law were typical of the Sacrifice of Christ and so consequently was that temporal Pardon obtained by them typical of that eternal Pardon which we do obtain by the great Propitiation of our Saviour for so the Apostle tells us that the Law had in it a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10.1 But we must not imagine that eternal Remission which is the Effect of Christ's real Sacrifice could ever be obtained by those Sacrifices which were only the Shadows and Resemblances of it So that that Remission of Sins which the Eternal Word gave whilst he tabernacled among the Jews was nothing near so perfect and compleat as that which he afterwards proclaimed in the Tabernacle of our Flesh because it neither extended to all Kinds of Sins nor yet to all Kinds of Punishments it left some unforgiven as to the Punishments of this Life and it left all unforgiven as to the Punishments of the Life to come But having pitched his Tabernacle in our Flesh he did by the meritorious Sacrifice of himself obtain of his Father this publick Act of Grace this free Charter of Mercy for all Mankind That whosoever would repent and amend whatsoever Sins he is guilty of whatsoever Punishments he is obliged to he shall certainly be forgiven them all and be as freely received into God's Grace and Favour as if he never had offended him for he is the Propitiation for the Sins of the World And by him saith the Apostle all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 In this respect therefore the Eternal Word dwelt among us full of Grace in that he proclaimed such a full and perfect Pardon of all Sins and of all Punishments to all that with a true Faith and hearty Repentance should turn unto him and accordingly this Pardon is frequently called by the Name of Grace or of the Grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 15.11 Heb. 12.15 Rom. 3.24 4thly He dwelt among us full of Grace in respect of the internal Grace and Assistance which he so abundantly afforded us above what he did to the Jews under the Law of Moses when he tabernacled among them I make no doubt but God in all Ages hath been always ready to assist good Men in their Duty This the very Heathens themselves believed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God did concur with all good Men and that no Man did ever arrive to any eminent Degree of Virtue without a Divine Afflatus or Assistance And had the good Men among the Jews been ignorant of this what should move them to pray as we find they often do that God would wash and cleanse and quicken and strengthen and inliven them For so in the Book of the Psalms you find good David very often praying that God would teach him his Commandments and incline his Heart to keep them and keep him back from presumptuous Sin By which Prayers it's evident they had good Encouragement to hope that God would be ready to concur with them and to bless their pious Endeavours with the internal Assistance of his Grace and Spirit And this Encouragement I suppose they might have partly from their natural Notions of God which must needs suggest to them that He being infinitely good as he is will never be wanting to his Creatures in any think that is necessary to the obtaining those noble Ends for which he created them and consequently that he will be assistant to them in their Duty which is the way to that End and not leave them to contend with Difficulties which are insuperable to their natural Power and Ability and partly from those general Evangelical Promises which God made to them by the Patriarchs and Prophets from whence they might fairly infer that he who had promised to do so much for them upon Condition they persisted in their Duty and Allegiance to him would never be wanting on his Part to strengthen and enable them to it But I can by no means allow that they were encouraged to hope for any such Assistance from any Promise of that Law which the Eternal Word gave them when he tabernacled among them and by which in his Father's stead he ruled and governed them and that both because there is no such Promise found in all that Law and because the Apostle tells us that the Law was weak through the flesh Rom. 8.3 and calls it the Ministration of Death written and engraven in stones in opposition to the Ministration of the Spirit that is not written in Tables of stone but in fleshly Tables of the heart 2 Cor. 3.7 8. comp with v. 3. And Galat. 3.13 14. you find the Apostle opposes to the Curse of the Law the Blessing of Abraham and the Blessing of Abraham he tells us is the Promise of the Spirit through Faith that is by the Gospel And thus under the Law there was doubtless an internal Grace and Assistance vouchsafed to good Men though not promised by it yet after the Eternal Word forsook the Tabernacle of Moses and came to tabernacle in our Flesh it 's evident that then he did more plentifully communicate this his Grace to the World than ever for then the Spirit was said to be shed upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord and in the 16th ver of this 1st of John we are said of his fulness to receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace upon Grace that is Grace heaped upon Grace and a vast overflowing Abundance according to that of Theognis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is thou givest me Calamities upon Calamities So that unless we will our selves it is now impossible we should fall short either of our Duty or the blessed Reward of it since our Saviour is become such an overflowing Fountain of Grace to us and hath promised to communicate it to us in such plentiful Effusions if we will sincerely ask and honestly endeavour after it and therefore in this respect also he may well be said to dwell among us full of Grace in that while he dwelt among us he obtained for
visible Signs and Pictures the Eternal Word instructed them in the Rules of internal Purity and Goodness so by Circumcision he signified to them the Circumcision of their Hearts and by their several Washings Purity from Hypocrisy and Sensuality yea this was probably the Intent of that Difference of Meats as St. Barnabas in his Epistle tells us that Swines Flesh was pronounc'd unclean to instruct them not to live like Hoggs that clamour when they are hungry and forget their Masters when they are full that Eagles and such ravenous Birds were forbidden to be eat to teach them that those who live not by Industry but Rapine are abominable that Fish without Scales which generally dwell in the Mud were all pronounced unclean to teach them the Evil of Sensuality and Earthly-mindedness Thus by these outward Signs his Intent was to insinuate into them internal Purity of Mind and this was very well understood by those who were good and wise among them Hence we find David gives very high Encomiums of the Law Psal 19.7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul making wise the simple rejoycing the Heart enlightning the Eyes c. which Characters are proper only to that inward and spiritual Sense of the Law that was decyphered upon those outward Signs and Ceremonies Which Sense seems to have been very little taken notice of by the sottish Vulgar for only the Ceremony it self was Matter of Law to them which if they observed they were not punishable by that Law though they never took notice of its spiritual Sense and Meaning which made them neglect that inward Purity which was pictured on those outward Signs and place the whole of their Righteousness in an outside ceremonious Pageantry Hence is that of St. Paul 2 Cor 3.13 14 15. I used saith he great plainness of Speech And not as Moses which put a Vail over his Face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look unto the end of that which is abolished But their Minds were blinded for until this day remaineth the same Vail untaken away in the reading the Old Testament whieh Vail is done away in Christ By which Vail he means those outward Shadows and Types in which the mystical Sense of the Law was wrapt and involved and it seems they were so taken with the Pomp and Gaity of the outside that they never minded that rich Treasure of Sense that was contained within it and which the Apostle here calls the end of that which is abolished yea to this day saith he the Vail of outward Ceremonies stands so much in their Light that they cannot discern the internal Sense of the Old Testament but now saith he it is done away by Christ. Now that the Eternal Word hath pitched his Tabernacle is our Nature those outward Types wherein this inward Purity of Soul was so obscurely intimated are vanished like Clouds before the Sun and in their room are introduced the most pure and spiritual Laws of the Gospel which are no longer couched in Types and Ceremonial Shadows but in plain and naked Propositions Now internal Holiness is palpably declared to be the great Design of Religion that we should cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and perfect Holiness in the fear of God This therefore is another Instance of Christ's tabernacling among us full of Truth viz. the Purity and Spirituality of his Laws which heretofore he mystically represented to the Jews by outward Rites and Ceremonies 3. Another Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure typical Way of his conversing among the Jews is the Condition and Quality of his Church and Kingdom The Eternal Word designing to erect a glorious Kingdom in the World drew as it were a rude Scheme or Draught of it in the Form and Model of the Jewish Polity For first he erects a Kingdom among them of which himself was King to typify the Spiritual Kingdom which afterwards he meant to establish in the World then he adopts the Jews to be his Children by the external Sign of Circumcision who are therefore called a Holy Seed which was an Emblem of that Holy Seed which afterwards he designed to beget to himself by spiritual Regeneration which is therefore called the Circumcision of the Heart whose Praise is not of Men but of God His delivering them from the Bondage of Egypt and leading them through the Red-Sea and the Wilderness into Canaan typified his delivering of his future Church from the Bondage of Sin and Satan and leading it by his own gacious Presence through the Red-Sea of Blood and Persecutions and the Wilderness of the World to the Canaan of eternal Rest His giving the Law on Mount Sinai in Fire was a Figure of his delivering the Gospel by the Spirit which came down in fiery cloven Tongues at the Feast of Pentecost Thus his erecting the Ark in the Wilderness was also another Type of that Spiritual Kingdom which afwards he meant to erect in the World The divers Ornaments and Instruments of that Tabernacle represented the Diversity of spiritual Gifts and Functions in the Christian Church it s being covered with Skins without and adorned with Gold within shadowed the mean and contemptible Form wherein the Christian Church first appeared to the World notwithstanding the inward Glory and Purity with which it was adorned and embellished The Glory of God appearing in the Tabernacle denoted the Presence of Christ in his Church which he hath promised to continue to the end of the World it s being removed from Place to Place and finding no Rest till it was lodged in the Temple prefigured the persecuted State of the Primitive Church which was hunted up and down the World by the mighty Nimrods of the Earth and could find no Rest till it was transported to the Heavenly Temple By these and such like Types and Shadows did the Eternal Word prefigure the State and Condition of his future Church that so when it came to be erected in the World the Jews might know and own it having seen it before-hand so exactly decyphered and adumbrated in the very Frame and Model of their own Polity But when he came to tabernacle in our Nature he gave actual Being to those Things which before he only shadowed and represented for then he erected this glorious Church of which the Jewish was only a Model and Platform delivered it from the Egyptian Bondage of Wickedness and Idolatry and by his own glorious Presence conducted the Members of it through all the Persecutions of an enraged World to the Canaan of eternal Rest and therefore this also is another plain Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth the State and Condition of his Church which before was so obscurely represented 4. And lastly Another Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure and typical Way of his conversing among the Jews is the glorious