my spirit Luke 23.46 in sense the same with the Prophet in the Text Lord take away my soule With such holy expressions as these did holy Men dying take their leave of the World and breathe out their spirits I could instance in many more Bishops Martyrs Confessors and other holy men and Women dying some in my own hearing others in the hearing of other Men and recorded in the stories of their Lives and Deaths with the gratious expressions utter'd by them in their death-beds in words full of faith full of hope full of comfort much to the edification of all that were present and it is a great advantage to be present with such men at such a time for then are they most serious then are their soules loosing from the prison of their bodies and are prominentes as it were looking out before they take their flight then have they clearer Vision of things then they had before when they were in the close prison of their bodies the light breaks in at the chinks and at the doores and windows opening to let out the soule then have many of the Saints had rare Discoveries and Revelations by which they have Prophesied of things to come and the words of dying men are much to be heeded and regarded But if you would have the Lord to draw neer unto you in these wayes when you are dying you must draw neer to God in his wayes while you are living You must acquaint your selfe with God and be at peace with him as Eliphas speaks in Job cap. 22.21 you must live in communion with him you must call upon his Name prayse him and give him thanks worship him and doe his will then will he own you and be mercifull to you at that time and draw neer unto you and have a care of your soule that it shall not miscarry but he himselfe will take it away But secondly If you would have the Lord to take away your soule you must keep your soul with all diligence and preserve it pure and undefiled that the Lord may own it and accept it and place it among the holy souls of his Saints and his redeemed ones The Lord our God is a holy God of pure eyes which cannot behold any thing that is impure but with indignation and there is nothing more odious to him then sinne and corruption nor which renders us more abominable in his sight Compared therefore to Leprosie to the Leopards spots to menstruous pollution If therefore our souls shall be presented unto him stained with sinne polluted with uncleanness defiled with spirituall leprosie of corruption spotted with noysome lusts and pleasures Will the Lord look at them will he own them will he accept them Can we desire the Lord or hope that he will take away such souls or imploy his good Angels to fetch them as he did to receive the soule of Lazarus and carry it into Abraham's bosome No there are other soule-gatherers ready to take away such souls even those which were imployed to fetch away the soule of the covetous rich Man in the Gospel Luke 12.20 If we would have the Lord to take away our souls we must present them pure unto him without spot and blameless They must be wash't cleane in the blood of the Lambe and cleansed by the sanctifying vertue of the holy Ghost our Consciences the highest faculty of the soule Must be purged from dead works to serve the living God We must purge our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and grow up in true holiness in the feare of the Lord The Place which our souls are to goe to it holy the Company holy the exercises holy and so must our souls be also that they may be suitable to all the rest and then the Lord will take away our souls and place them amongst them in joy happiness and glory Thus of The Act. The Object followes My soule 2. Branch The soule is the spirituall part of Man the principall and essentiall part whereof Man doth consist the fountaine of life sense and motion which by the spirits vitall naturall animall the souls cursitors running into all the parts of the body actuates and informes it and useth it as an Organ or Instrument whereby to performe it's severall operations This soule of man is pretious in these seven respects First In respect of the Fountaine of it it proceeds originally from the immediate breathing of God himselfe For when God had made Man of the dust of the earth he breath'd into him the breath of life and Man became a living soul Gen. 2.7 Secondly In respect of the rare faculties of it the Understanding the Will the Memory the Affections Reason Judgement Wisedome Knowledge Conscience the highest of all the rest considered in both the parts of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one The Treasure the other The Soules Controuller c. Thirdly In respect of the immortality of it it dyes not with the body but being taken out of the body is preserv'd unto Eternity Fourthly In respect of the Image of God once stampt upon it which though miserably defac't since by the fall yet not so utterly raz'd out but there are goodly lineaments of that Image yet left upon it Neither is it so irrecoverable but that by the spirit of grace and the grace of sanctification it may be so repaired and renewed as that the soule may be and is said still Thereby to be made partaker of the Divine Nature 2 Peter 1.4 not in the substance of the Deity but in holiness and righteousness wisedome knowledge goodness love and light which are as the beames of the Image of God shining upon it Fifthly In respect of the purchase of it It is the price of blood not of Bulls and Goats but of the Divine blood of Jesus Christ our Redeemer 1 Peter 1.19 Sixthly The pretiousness of souls may appear by the pains and cost that Satan and his Instruments will be at to gaine a soule they will compass Sea and Land to gaine a soule give a Kingdome for a soule Mat. 4.8 All the Kingdoms of the world with the glory of them Omnia haec tibi dabo All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me ver 9. Seventhly By the great care that Almighty God hath taken to preserve souls and to save them from perishing he hath given his Word to direct them his Ministers to instruct them his Sacraments to confirme them his Spirit to guide them and his Angels to guard them and all this to preserve them and to save them from perishing In all these respects it appears that souls are pretious Our blessed Lord which well knew the price of souls lays one soule in one ballance and the whole world in the other against it and upon the tryall tells us That one soule weighs downe the whole world in the other scale What shall it profit a Man to win the whole
world and to lose his foule Vse 1. It should teach all men to value their souls according to the worth of them and not to destroy them nor to pass them away so carelesly and inconsiderately as ordinarily men doe to their eternall undoing Some desperately wound them to death by desperate willfull and presumptuous sins Heale my soule for I have sinned against thee implying that by sinne he had wounded it Some sell their souls and that for triflles that are worth nothing for pleasures of sinne which are but for a season for treasures of wickedness which profit nothing for satisfying some sinfull lusts which are worse then nothing Some give away their souls for nought for sins in which there is neither pleasure nor profit as Cursing Swearing idle and lewd Communication and the like these make the worst bargains of all Others pawne their souls they will give themselves liberty to walk in the sight of their own eyes and in the wayes of their own heart and to serve their lusts but for such a time and then they will take up and repent and recover themselves and their souls again as if it were in their own will and power to come in when they will All these make ill bargains and pass away their pretious souls for a thing of nought which all the Kingdoms of the world cannot buy again We see this we heare it and we condemne them for it yet are there dayly amongst us that are guilty of the same folly and by Covetousness Voluptuousness Ambition Malice Perjury and the like sell themselves and their souls for less and pass them away upon worse termes then they have done Adam sold himselfe for an Apple Esau for a Mess of Pottage Achan for a Wedge of Gold Ahab for a Vineyard Judas for thirty pieces of silver How many are there to be found amongst us which for less matters will lye will sweare will forsweare will steale deceive cheate and cosen and what not That to satisfie their base sinfull and unreasonable lusts and humours will part with a good Conscience forfeit the favour of God their hope of Heaven their interest in Christ and in the Gospel sell themselves and soules and all for less then a Mess of Pottage The resolution of Balaam was good and honest just and religious if he had kept it as well Numb 24.13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I would not goe beyond the Word of the Lord to doe more or less Let it be the resolution of every soul and God give us grace and power to keep it 2. Are souls so pretious Then let us look to them carefully preserve them charily as we would doe our chiefest Jewells Keep thy soule with all diligence examine the state of it see it want nothing of that which should be for the happiness and the prosperity of it Our care is much for the body What shall we eate what shall we drinke wherewithall shall we be clothed in the meane while the soule is neglected set by and least look't after but as our Saviour saies in a like case Mat. 6.25 Is not the body better then the rayment So say I Is not the soule better then the body Is there any comparison between the Jewell and the Cabinet that it is layd up in It was Martha's reproofe That she cared for many things more then she needed And for the one thing that was more necessary less It is our just reproofe in this case We enquire after the health and welfare of our friends and after their prosperity how they thrive in this world but without any regard to their spirituall estate and the wellfare and prosperity of their souls St. John in his Epistle to Gaius with a more spirituall salutation hath a more speciall eye to the prosperity of his soule Beloved I wish chiefly that thou doe prosper as thy soule prospereth 3 John 1.2 David did more rejoyce in the good the Lord had done for his soule then for all the good he had done to him and for him in his body in his estate or in any other his relations Hearken to me saith he all you that feare God and I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soule The Lord had done great things for him otherwise and he could have given them a large narrative of them but in his remembrance of his great favours to him he passes by all these and mentions the other as farr greater then all the rest I wil tell you what the Lord hath done for my soul So the care of all those holy men dying which I have mentioned was chiefly for the safety of their souls Lord Jesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And in the Text Lord take away my soul Though the bodies of the Saints dying are not to be neglected but decently to be inter'd as in hope and expectation of a blessed Resurrection as the body of St. Stephen was and the body of our blessed Lord yet the care they had of their souls swallowed up all the care of their bodies so that it is not so much as mentioned by them nor by our Prophet in the Text but onely his soul Lord take away my soul 3. Are souls so pretious Then this is a severe admonition to us that have undertaken Curam animarum the care of souls to look well to our charge as such as must give an account of the greatest trust in the world even the souls of Gods people committed to our charge I cannot but tremble when I reade St. Paul giving up his account to God to his Peoplae and to his own Conscience in this matter Acts 20.26 I am free from the blood of all Men. What blood doth St. Paul here speak of he was no Sword Man there was no fear of his shedding any mans blood by violence How comes he to clear himself from blood Bel. the blood here meant is more pretious then the life-blood of man can be it is the blood of souls implying That if he had not faithfully and conscionably performed the duties of his Pastorall charge amongst them he had been guilty of the blood of souls Oh let this sink deep into our hearts that we may not become guilty of the blood of souls How earnestly ought we to endeavour the salvation of our people as of our selves and at the hour of death to Pray That the Lord would be mercifull to them and take away their souls Quest But here now ariseth a great question a grand inquiry not without great caution and sobriety to be resolved Touching the state of souls separated and taken out of the body What becomes of them afterward Whether upon their separation they doe presently enter into that state in which they are to remain and continue during this vast space of Eternity without all change or alteration of their condition Ans I answer no For the soule of man
the will of God 2. The second follows and 't is this That it is not enough to doe the will of God Opere operato but they must doe it as it should be done or els it will never reach to the Satis est in the Text Now this Satis est hath respect to two things in doing the will of God First The manner of doing it Secondly The extent of it The first requires that it be done well The second that it be done home they both are included in the Word Zealous I have been Zealous for the Lord God of Hosts Zeale is a vehement affection composed of Love and Anger and Actions flowing from these two are ever done in earnest they are done home and throughly and so ought we to doe all things that we doe for God The Opus operatum the work done will not serve the turne but it must be rightly qualified in all the circumstances of it and done in a right manner If we love the Lord our God we must love him with all our heart with all our soule with all our mind and with all our strength If we serve him we must serve him with reverence and godly seare If we worship him we must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Luther said well That God loves Advers rather then Verbs the manner of doing more then the work done the will more then the deed the mind more then the matter we must not serve God negligently nor we must not serve him by halves either of these make our obedience fall short of Elijah's Satis est in the Text To say we beleeve in God we love God and we feare God and not to obey him to shew our faith by our works and our fear by our worship Non satis est it is not enough but to our faith to joyne our obedience and to our fear to joyne our worship and to our love our care to keep his Commandements Satis est it is enough To profess that we know God to confess his Name to draw neer unto him with our lips and in all outward deportment to have a forme of godliness Non satis est it is not enough but to know God in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe to draw neer unto him with our hearts and dearest affections and with the forme of godliness to shew forth the power of it Satis est it is enough To cry Lord Lord as in the Gospel and Templum Domini Templum Domini The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord as the Jews did in Jeremy Non satis est it is not enough but to doe the will of our Father which is in Heaven and in his Temple to speak of his Honour and to worship him aright Satis est it is enough To make our boast of God and of his Law to heare every day a Sermon to know the Mistery of the Gospel to have a mouth full of Scripture ready at all times to throw at an adversary in dispute or discourse Non satis est it is not enough but to know the truth as it is in Jesus to receive the truth with the love of the truth to answer the end of the Evangelicall Law which is Love out of a pure heart a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned Satis est it is enough To bring multitudes of sacrifices and oblations unto the Lord to stretch out our hands before him and to make many Prayers Non satis est it is not enough but to wash us to make us cleane to take away the evill of our works from before his eyes to cease to doe evill and learne to doe well Satis est it is enough To come before the Lord with thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyle to give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soule Micha 6.6.7 Non satis est it is not enough but to doe Judgement to love Mercy and to walk humbly before the Lord Satis est it is enough To conclude this point to be admitted into the visible Church to be matriculated into it by Baptisme to live in a professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ to come to Church to heare Sermons to sit out the Service and at the appointed times to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper though this be more then we can gaine of many among you Non satis est it is not enough but to make it our care all the dayes of our life to make good the Covenant which we made in our Baptisme to become Members of the invisible Church incorporated into it and united unto it by the bonds of faith and of the spirit to express the power of the Word Sacraments and Spirit working by them in a constant holy walking before the Lord as becomes the Members of that holy Society Satis est it is enough And so we have made good the second Inference drawn out of Elijah's third Satis est in reference to what he had done Satis Feci I have done enough But stay a little before we take our leave of this Satis est it is necessary we should answer an Objection that lyes in our way and must be removed before we can proceed any further Obj. Quid audio What is that I heare Satis feci I have done enough Who can say so be he a Prophet be he an Apostle an Evangelist be he the holiest of Saints that ever lived can he say of himselfe Satis feci I have done enough Is there a Satis in our obedience unto which we may arrive and then say It is enough Our Saviour tells us That when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants How then can any say It is enough or I have done enough Sol. To this I answer by a double distinction First thus There is a Satis ad Justificationem and there is a Satis ad Testificationem there is a Satis as to Justification and there is a Satis as to Testification As to the former there is no man can say He hath done enough Enter not into judgement with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143.2 But as to the later there is a Satis ad testificationem to testification that is To testifie the truth of our faith the sincerity of our obedience and the uprightness of our hearts in the Service of God When Abraham was so ready upon Gods command to offer up his Sonne Isaac in sacrifice to him as to bring him to Mount Moriah there to build an Altar to lay the Wood in order upon it and binde his Sonne to the Wood to take the Knife in his hand and to stretch forth his hand to Slay him God staies his hand bids him hold his hand proceed no further Satis est It is enough for now I know that thou lovest me seeing thou hast not refused to offer up thine onely Sonne in sacrifice to me at my
sweet is theâ—r membrance of thee to the soule that lives in bitterness I doe not think the Lord did impute it for sin to Job or Jeremy that they were so weary of their bitter Lives and did so often wish That their change might come Or that King Edward the sixth did sin when in his death bedsickness he prayd so earnestly Lord take me out of this wretched World Nor Dr. Hamond who under the tortures of the Stone whereof he dyed was so often heard to say Lord make hast though I doubt not but in all these there was implyed a tacit submission to the will of God Thirdly That a man may be taken away frâ—m the evill to come This was a mercy promised to Josiah upon his humiliation 2 Kings 22.19.20 as it was the misery of his surviving Sonne Zedekiah to see the evill which his Father was taken from and to suffer in it Wise men fore-see evill to come in the causes of it and in the â—ore-runners of it And the Lord mentions it as a mercy That he will take them away from those evills and they may without sin Pray for that mercy Isay 57.1 Fourthly That they may be freed from the burden of the flesh and the bondage of corruption inherint in it that Ground Ivie in the Wall which will never be pluckt out root and branch till the Wall be thrown down It was under the sense of this that St. Paul cryes out Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death this will never be done but by the death of this body Fifthly In extremity of old age when a man becomes a burden to himselfe and others when he is fallen into those years of which David saith His life is nothing but labour and sorrow and the years of which he shall say I have no pleasure in them when not onely his body grows weak but his mind also and his intellectuall faculties faile his understanding weak his apprehension dull his memory unfaithfull his affections Childish and he becomes unserviceable not able to doe that good which he hath done and should doe when a man becomes thus superannuate he may doubtless without sin make it his suite to Almighty God To take away his soule Vse This Meditation is usefull to comfort and to confirme us against the feare of death either of our selves or our friends why should we make that the object of our feare which others have made the object of their hope and desire Holy men wise men good men men that have had a great interest in the world have been willing to lay down all and to leave all and made it their suite that they might dye in assurance of a change for a better life To help us to pass through this Gulfe with comfort and courage weigh well but these two things 1. What a world we leave behind us the Terminus à quo 2. What a world we have before us the Terminus ad quem And these two considerations will make the passage through that medium easie First For the Terminus à quo the world we leave behind us a very sink of sin a duâ—ghill of uncleanness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole World lyes in wickedness as St. John speaks nothing in it but sinne and sorrow and travaile and trouble and malice and mischief and that which may well make any wise man out of love with it and even weary of it The best things in it which men make most account of have been weighed to our hands by the wisest of the Sonnes of Men and upon the tryall found To be lighter then vanity it selfe not onely vanity but vexation of spirit For first They are all transitory Secondly They are not all satisfactory Thirdly All imbitter'd with so many cross Ingredients that there is no true contentment in them nor true comfort to be taken out of them We could shew you examples of the greatest of men Kings Emperours Lords of the world such as have had as much of the glory of it and all other worldly good in it as the world could give or lend yet have seen so farr into the vanity and emptiness of it as to despise it to lay down all and take themselves unto a private and monasticall life which is a death to the world and the shaddow of death it selfe Secondly For the Terminus ad quem Consider what a world in dying we are going to it would require a world of time and words to describe it the best description of it is to describe it to be such for the transcendency of the glory of it as that it cannot be described For neither hath the eye seen nor the eare heard nor can the heart of Man comprehend the great things that God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 St. Paul shaddows it out in part Heb. 12.22 where he shows the happiness of the Church militant in their communion with the Church triumphant thus But you are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the Caelestiall Jerusalem and to the company of inâ—numerable Angels And to the Assembly and Congregation of the first borne whose names are Written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just Men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Testament and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel Here 's a description in part of the Place and Society which we shall goe to when we shall come to be joyned with the Church triumphant in glory now be you well assured that all things els there are suitable to these which must needs render it transcendently joyous and glorious O! if we could but draw the Curtaine of Heaven and look in the Sanctum Sanctorum to see the joy and glory that is there we would never care for this world more the most pretious things in it would be despised in our eyes our whole life would be nothing but a Cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ and we would long for the time when the Lord would take away our soul that we might be translated thither I reade of one Cleombrotus that hearing Plato discoursing of the immortality of the soul and the happines of the other life to come Threw himself headlong off from a high Rock to quit himself of this life that so he might enter into that other life that Plato so much commended And if a Heathen man could be so sensible of advantaging himself by his change into the other life upon those weak grounds which Plato's Philosophy could give as to hasten his own death upon the hope of it Surely we that are Christians and have better grounds to build our faith and hope upon then any Plato's Philosophy could give may with much more Comfort think on Death with much more hope and
confidence waite for it and when it comes bid it welcome as our friend that comes to free our soul out of the prison of the body the sole impediment of it's perfection and to open the doore to let us into a better world and into a better life Thus of the Person to whom he makes his suit The Lord. 2. Now we are to consider of the Act Take away my soule How doth the Lord take away souls Not by annihilation or reducing them to nothing as at the first Creation Nor by laying them a sleep together with their bodies till the Resurrection the Opinion of the Arabians Nor by a Metempsuchosis transmitting them into some other body to informe them Nor by fixing them as Starrs in the Firmament Nor by sending them into purgatory as the Papists teach But thou that gavest it me take it unto thy self either by thine own immediate power and grace who art a Spirit and the God of the spirits of all flesh or by the Ministery of thy good Angells let them be ready to receive it at the parting of it out of my body as they did the soul of Lazarus and to carry it up to rest and glory Thus Lord take away my soule From hence note first That our souls are immortall they dye not with the body but when the body at the dissolution returns to the earth from whence it was taken the soul returns to God that gave it All the expressions of holy men dying imports as much Lord Jesus receive my spirit saith St. Stephen Father into thy hands I commend my spirit saith our Saviour Lord take away soul saith our Prophet all expressing their faith in this truth That their souls were immortal Feare not them that can kill the body and are not able to kill the soul saith our Saviour So then the soul cannot be killed Our blessed Lord disputing with the Sadduces concerning the Resurrection Mat. 22. tells them out of the Scriptures That God was the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob who were dead and buried a thousand years before and from thence concludeth the immortality of the soul inasmuch as God was not the God of who dead but of the living ver 32. their spirits did never dye their souls were still alive and in being and he was their God Vses First It is of Use to quiet our spirits and to satisfie our minds sometimes troubled upon the consideration of the perplexities of Providence in the cross dispensation of evill and good to the good and the evill here in this world the unravelling of this Clue of the souls immortality from the beginning to the end will guide us through this Labyrinth so that in the end we shall say The wayes of the Lord are right when a day shall come when it shall be said to the Epicures of this world which have had their portion in this life as in Luke 16.25 Sonne Rentember you have had your pleasure in your life time and my servants received pain now they are comforted and you are tormented 2. This Meditation is of Use to comfort and to confirme us against the fear of death either our own or our friends inasmuch as beleeving in the Lord me shall live though we dye And he that liveth and beleeveth in him shall never dye eternally Indeed we shall not dye at all totally for though we lay down our bodies into the earth to sleep yet our spirits shall not dye at all but being delivered from the burden of the flesh shall live with the Lord and be translated into a state of joy and feliâ—ity Et meliore sui parte superstesâ— erit The better part is still living and therefore the Scripture will hardly call it a death but a Sleep a Change a Dissolution a Departure a Translation 3. It is of use for the contempt of this world in which we have no surer footing and of the best things of this world of which we have no better hold nor longer enjoyment but for this short uncertain life 4. This Meditation of the immortality of the soul is of speciall use to teach and to admonish to prepare and to provide for that our future condition to lay up for our selves treasure in Heaven that we may have something to take to when we come into the other world when we shall leave this and all that we have in it behind us to make us friends of the Mammon of iniquity that when time comes they may receive us into the everlasting habitations to lay here a good soundation against the time to come that seeing our fouls are immortall and shall have an eternall being it may be in well being that seeing they shall live eternally it may be in bliss and happiness now is the time to provide for it O how miscrable will be the condition of those souls which having lost their time here when this life is ended shall be swallowed up into eternity and all that while shall live in woe and misery in pain and torment easeless endless and remediless How much better had it been for such if they had never been born Or being born that their souls had dyed with their bodies or living after them there had been some period of time wherein they might have been extinguished But when they must so continue for ever That the worme shall never dye nor the fire never goe out that they shall continue in torment to all eternity Who can conceive the misery of it That word eternity into what a deep bottomeless gulfe doth it swallow up the mind that thinks upon it Great wonder it is and a miracle indeed that a point of such great importance and high concernment should be no more heeded and regarded Some live as if they had no souls at all or if they have any that they are but as the souls of bruits which perish with their bodies and well were it with them if they did so they live as if they never thought to dye and dye as if they never thought to rise again they have no hope in their death nor any care of their immortall soules ever after To these I say no more but this Lord have mercy upon their poor miserable soules they will have time enough hereafter when it is too late to see their error and to repent of this their stupidity and security Secondly Note here the holy and heavenly expressions of the Saints and Servants of the Lord at their departure out of this life O Lord I have waited for thy salvation saith the Patriarke Jacob upon his death bed Gen. 49.18 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace said old Simeon Luke 2.29 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Saint Stephen the holy Martyr with these words breath'd out his soule Lord Jesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 Our Lord himselfe upon the Cross giving up the ghost with these words breath'd his last Father into thy hands I commend
hollowness of them What is it that sustains the Clouds in the Aire infinitely greater and more weighty then they so as they fly to and fro but as bottles in the Aire as Job speaks or like bladders full of winde that they fall not down in great dashes enough to make another Deluge but the hollowness of them That such a hollowness there is in them appears by the Lightning the Thunder and the Thunder-bolts and the spirituall vapour that proceeds out of them when they break of such force that it penetrates and burns and breaks and tears in peeces all that it lights upon And who can deny but it is agreeable to reason that there may be such a hollowness in the heart of the earth whereby it may by the power and providence of the Creator be susteined in the place which he hath appointed for it and also be a fit receptacle of evill spirits where they may be secured as in a Prison and reserved unto the Judgement of the great day In the Apostolicall Creed we profess to beleeve That Christ descended into Hell And St. Paul tells us He descended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the lower parts of the Earth This cannot be understood of the descent of his body by his buriall that scarce went into the Earth at all but was layd in the Sepulchre which Joseph of Arimathea had made for himselfe in his Garden which was above the ground or at least the most part of it if any part at all of it were under or within the ground it was not so low as that we may say of it It was in the lower parts of the Earth How then will you understand this Article of our Lords descent into Hell except you understand it of his Soule and of his Spirit And where will you finde this Hell more agreeable to Scripture and Reason then as I have described it and that by his Spirit he went to Preach to the spirits in prison there The third vast Prison wherein the evill Angells are secured unto the day of the generall Judgement is The Sea for there are Sea Spirits as well as Land Spirits or Aeriall Spirits When the Disciples being in a Ship saw Christ coming towards them walking upon the Sea the Text sayes They were troubled and thought they had seen a Spirit Mat. 14.26 whereby it appears That there were Spirts that did appear in the Sea as well as on the Land And in St. Mathew 8. we reade That the Devills being cast out of the man which they had possessed entred into an Heard of Swine and carried them headlong into the Sea by which it seems there was their abode And in Mark 5. which by many circumstances seem not to be the same story with this of St. Matthew we reade Of a whole legion of Devills entring into a Heard of no less then two thousand Swine and carrying them with great violence into the Sea these were Sea Spirits whose abode was in the Sea which is the third Prison wherein these evill Angells are secur'd and confin'd unto the Judgement of the great day and with them the souls of wicked men both to be brought in and judged at that general Assizes which though they be not till then cast into the Lake of everlasting burnings yet is their condition in the mean time woefull and miserable 'T is miserable to consider how wilfully they have forsaken their own mercy and what opportunity they have lost of preventing this their misery never to be recovered nor recalled 'T is miserable to lye in Prison in such a Prison and for such Crimes of which they know themselves they shall be found guilty at that day and condemn'd to suffer the vengeance of everlasting sire 'T is miserable to see Hell open before them and ready to receive them 'T is miserable in the mean time to lye under the wrath of the Almighty and under the torments of a wounded soule Yet neither are the torments of the souls of wicked men during this time of their separation from their bodies all aequall as neither shall they be after the generall Judgement as shall be shewed in the sequel of this Treatise but in the mean while having shewed you the state of the souls of wicked men It now rests that I should shew you What is the state of the souls of just men from the time of their separation from their bodies till the time of their re-union again with their bodies at the day of the Resurrection And in answering to this inquiry the Scripture gives us some light in foure expressions When the body returns to dust from whence 't was taken the spirit returns to God that gave it saith Soloman Eccles 12.7 The Angells receive it and carry it into Abraham's bosome saith St. Luke cap. 16.22 It is layd under the Altar saith St. John Rev. 6.9 It is carried into Paradise saith our Saviour to the penitent theese upon the Crosse Luke 23.43 All these are most comfortable and heavenly expressions setting forth the blessed and happy estate of the souls of the just which they enter into when they are delivered from the burden of the flesh the great impediment of their perfection yet they doe not all amount to this That upon their separation they pass into the highest Heaven and into the fruition of the immediate vision of God and that fulness of joy and glory that they shall enter into at the last day when it shall be said unto them Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For we cannot imagine that these words are spoken onely in reference to the bodies then newly raysed out of their graves but to the whole man body and soule united together and so to the entire persons of them Come ye blessed enter into the Kingdom For that of Solomon That the soule returns to God that gave it it is true that is It is taken up into the higher Heavens and is in neerer communion with God then it was before it is admitted neerer into his presence it is taken into his more immediate care to dispose of it in a place and state of bliss and felicity of joy and glory even presently upon the separation of it from the body For that of Saint Luke That the Angells received the soule of Lazarus the meaning is That he was gathered unto the rest of the faithfull of which Abraham is said to be the Father and carried to a place of rest intimated by Abraham's bosome Sinus Patriarcharum recessus quidam est quietis aeternae Ambr. For that of St. John Rev. 6. Where he sees the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar the meaning is That they were in a place of security where no evill should touch them as in the third of the book of Wisedom The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no evill shall touch them v. 1. The Altar
of his glorious appearing as it follows in the same Text When Christ shall appear in flaming fire to render vengeance 2 Thes 1.7 When the Sonne of Man shall come in the Clouds with power and great glory and all his holy Angels with him That 's the day of his appearing at that day shall St. Paul receive his Crowne not before till then it is layd up for him At that day shall those souls under the Altar before mentioned receive their Crowns of Martyrdome also for the present there were white Robes given to every one of them but not the Crowns till that day The same also doth he affirme of the state of the souls of wicked men separated from their bodies Sic puniri ut etiam reserventur in diem judicii longe aliis asperioribus paenis aeternis videlicet in corpore anima cruciandi That they are so punished here during the time of their separation that they are also reserved unto the Judgement of the great day then to be tormented in body and soul with farr more sharp and grievous punishments for evermore But if you would see more of Antiquity in these matters and will be at the pains of it doe but consult Athanasius in an Epistle of his cited by Epiphanius Haeres 77. and in his Book De Incarnatione Verbi St. Cyrill De râ—â—ta side ad Theodosium OeÌ„cumenius and divers others who in their Expositions of that Text in St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.19 Who was put to death as concerning the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit By which Spirit he went and Preach't to the spirits which are in Prison We prove first Christs descent into Hell and upon the words following That he Preach't unto the spirits or souls detained in that Prison As Saint Jude saith of the evill Angells That they are in prison and bound in chains of darkness reserved unto the judgement of the great day The evill Angells and the souls of wicked men both in the same condition both secur'd in Prison both in chains both reserv'd unto the judgement of the great day And it will follow by the rule of opposits That if the souls of the Saints and Martyrs be not yet in the fruition of their perfect and consummate happiness then neither are the souls of wicked men in that exquisite torment which they are condemned unto and into which they shall be cast at the judgement of the great day but that there is an intermediate estate though that very wretched and miserable under which they lye untill that day And I think this is sufficiently proved in both the branches of it by Scriptures strong and cleere for it and by the jugdements of holy and learned men commenting upon them and so is a sufficient answer to the first Part of the exception and enough to free me from Preaching New Doctrine and to declare that I am not alone in this Opinion Of the intermediate estate of souls separated from the body both of the just and the unjust nor walk in an untroden path where no foot is gone before me The second Part of the exception lyes in this That it is useless That admitting these tenents be true yet they are useless It demands therefore Whereto they are usefull To which I Answer Sol. The knowledge of them is usefull to many speciall purposes particularly to these First It is very satisfactory to the minde of every man I think that hath a soule to know the state of it both present and future yea to know as much of it as is knowable Knowledge is pretious and a great delight unto the soule When wisedom entreth into thy heart and knowledge delighteth thy soule saith Solomon Prov 2.10 So knowledge is a delight unto the soule and the more high and excellent the object is about which it is conversant the more excellent and pretious is the knowledge But what more high and pretious object can there be next unto God and the Angells then the spirits and souls of men What more worthy to take up our most serious thoughts and diligent studies then the disquisition of those high things that doe concerne them What more satisfactory then the attaining of them in all those things that are knowable Secondly 'T is usefull for preserving of men against Atheisme that bruitish sinne which doth so spread it selfe in the world and invaded so great a part of the Sonns of men for though they doe not speak out plainly with their Tongues yet how many of them say in their hearts and lives There is no God nor Devill nor Heaven nor Hell nor Angells nor Spirits nor souls of Men and all through their ignorance of this Point That they cannot satisfie themselves what becomes of the souls of men separated from their bodies through so long a tract of time as two three foure or five thousand years intermediate between the time of their dissolution by Death and their re-union again at the Resurrection Thirdly 'T is usefull to confirme men in the assurance of the Immortality of the soule while it informes them what becomes of it where it is and what it does or suffers where is the place of it what the state of it what the imployments what the enjoyments Concerning all which being before ignorant and in the dark they could not tell what to think of the souls of men more then of bruits of which Solomon takes notice Eccles 3.20 21. speaking in their Language Who knoweth whether the spirit of Man ascend upward and the spirit of a Beast descend downward All goe to one place c. and therefore rann away in their own fancies and vain imaginations into divers errors concerning the souls of men dying some imagining they were annihilated and altogether extinguished Some that they were layd asleep as the bodies were till the Resurrection Some that they were transmigrated out of one body into another Some one thing some another in the midst of these doubtfull varieties they began to question whether there were any difference between the souls of men and of bruits as Solomon here intimates and for want of some more distinct knowledge in this matter lived at a venture Against all these errors and evills the truths here delivered are a sure and soveraigne remedy the vain imaginations in which men rann away in the variety of their own fancies concerning the extinction annihilation sleeping transmigration c. of the souls of men dying all dye before these truths here delivered and vanish away and mens minds are setled and confirmed in the assurance of the immortality of the souls while they doe distinctly informe them what becomes comes of them into what receptacles they are received upon their separation and in what severall states they pass their immortality Fourthly It is usefull for admonishing of all men while they are in the body to take care of their souls and to provide for their future condition to preserve them pure that upon their separation they may
be taken up into those pure habitations into which no unclean thing may enter not to defile or clog them with sinne and guilt whereby they may be prest down and hindered in their flight and passage into the higher Heavens the glorious receptacles appointed for them Fifthly It is usefull for the overthrowing of that Limbus Patrum Limbus Infantum and other roomes and spacious places in the Fabricke of the Popish Purgatory which they have erected in their own imaginations for receptacles wherein they would lodge the souls of men when they are separated from their bodies there to remain for a long tract of time in prison and in pain till they be sufficiently purged and punished except there be some extraordinary means used for the reliefe or release of them or for the mitigating of their paine either first by a multitude of Masses dayly said and sung for them Or secondly By the suffrages of the living praying for the dead from whence all these Epitaphs upon their Graves and Tombes Orate pro animâ Pray for the soule of such a one Or thirdly By some munificence or eminent works of Charity done upon their account Or fourthly By applying unto them some of the works of supererogation taken out of the Treasury of the Church and by the Popes special favour confer'd upon them c. These imaginations before the truth in this Discourse declared fall to the ground while it teacheth That there is no such Limbus Patrum as they pretend to nor need there any but that their souls presently upon the separation of them pass into the Etheriall Heavens where they are in rest and peace in bliss happiness and glory that the blood of Christ shed in due time that was in the fulness of time was as effectuall to the purging washing saving and sanctifying of the souls of the Fathers that lived in the first generation of the world before his comming in the flesh as it is now for the purging washing saving and sanctifying of the souls of beleevers since his coming and will be to the end of the world that as to the vertue of his Death Passion Resurrection and Ascension He was a Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world and whose going out have been from the beginning and from everlasting as the Prophet Micah tells us and as the Apostle declares him Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever Lastly It is usefull for the answering of that great question with which we are so frequently and so importunately urged by inquisitive people to shew them where Locall Hell is They cannot satisfie themselves where Locall Hell is and therefore they are apt to beleeve there is none at all This Discourse satisfies them where it is for the present it is where the evill Angells are confin'd and secur'd in chains of darkness It is where the souls of wicked men are imprisoned both reserved to the Judgement of the great day And where that is this Discourse tells and not this Discourse or Treatise but the Apostle St. Jude ver 6. St. Paul Ephes 6.12 Ephes 2.2 St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.19 Those places where those evill Angells and where the souls and spirits of wicked men are imprisoned and secured untill that day are the Locall Hell for the present If you ask further Where Locall Hell shall be after that great day I Answer What need you look any further for it then the vast space conteining this wretched and wicked inferiour world wherein we now dwell You know what St. Peter hath Prophesied concerning it with all the Elements in it all the Creatures and works upon it all the visible Heavens over it that they shall be consumed by fire 2 Peter 3.10 The Heavens shall pass away with a noyse and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and the Earth with the works therein shall be consumed by fire Now when these things shall be destroyed consumed annihilated what need we look any further for a Locall Hell then this vast space which these mighty bodies took up when they were in being When there shall be no Sunne to rule the day nor Moon nor Starrs to govern the Night nor to divide the times there shall be no distinction between day and night but all shall be night without day when the Sunne shall be no more the Sea shall be no more time shall be no more the Earth shall be no more all these visible Heavens within the reach of the conflagration shall be no more there 's space enough for the Locall Hell so much enquired after I have described to you before the present Hell the Prisons in which the evill Angells and souls of wicked men with them are secur'd unto that day and so are already in the beginnings of that Hell kept for fire they shall be burnt up they shall pass away with a great noyse melt with fervent heat be dissolved and all this while and amongst them all not one word of purgation purifying or refining or reserving the substance of it It is clear St. Peter himself speaks not of a refining in respect of the qualities but an utter abolition of the substance it selfe of this old world As the Pageant being finished the Stage is taken away so all the Tragedies which are Acted upon the Stage of this world being ended the Stage shall be pulled down broken in pieces burnt with fire as an Engine or Fabrick of which there is no more use it shall be no more But what shall we say to the other Objection raysed out of the words of St. Peter ver 13. But we look for new Heavens and a new Earth according to his promise wherein dwelleth righteousness Which words seem to import That though this present old World shall then be dissolved consumed burnt up yet if there doe not spring up as a Phoenix out of the Ashes of it another World yet God will Create another new World in the room of it and then we are but where we were in respect of the space and place and room we should have for Locall Hell these new Heavens and Earth will take it up To this I Answer That indeed we doe look for new Heavens and a new Earth according to his promise and according to St. Peters words and shall enjoy them too and dwell in them But what are those Heavens but those highest Heavens the Celestiall Paradise the glorious habitations of the Saints and of Gods Elect which he hath prepared for them from the beginning of the world and into which he will receive them at that day when he shall say unto them Venite benedicti Come ye blessed enter into the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world and these are called New not in respect of their new making but in respect of our new taking possession of them by a most happy change for our new habitations So that New Heavens and New Earth in this place signifieth no more but a