To the much honoured, his dear kinsman, Mr. John Flavel, and Mr. Edward Crispe, of London, Merchants; and the rest of my worthy friends in London, Ratcliffe, Shadwell, and Lymehouse, grace, mercy, and peace.
Dear Friends,
"Among all the creatures in this lower world, none deserves to be styled great, but man; and in man nothing is found worthy of that epithet, but his soul."
The study, and knowledge of his soul was, therefore, always reckoned a rich and necessary improvement of time. All ages have magnified these two words, "Know thyself as an oracle descending from heaven."
"No knowledge, says Bernard, is better than that whereby we know ourselves; leave other matters therefore, and search thyself; run through thyself, make a stand in thyself; let thy thoughts, as it were, circulate, begin and end in thyself; Strain not thy thoughts in vain about other things, thyself being neglected.
The study and knowledge of Jesus Christ must still be allowed to be the most excellent and necessary: But yet the worth and necessity of Christ is unknown to men, till the value, wants, and dangers of their own souls be first discovered to them.
The disaffectedness, and aversion of men to the study of their own souls, are the more to be admired; not only because of the weight and necessity of it, but the alluring pleasure, and sweetness that are found therein. What Cardan speaks, is experimentally felt by many, "That scarce any thing is more pleasant and delectable to the soul of man, than to know what he is, what he may and shall be; and what those divine and supreme things are, which he is to enjoy after death, and the vicissitudes of this present world." For we are creatures conscious to ourselves of an immortal nature, and that we have something about us which must overlive this mortal flesh, and therefore it is ever and anon some way or other hinting and intimating to us its expectations of, and designation for a better life than that it now lives in the body, and that we shall not cease to be, when we cease to breathe.
And certainly, my friends, discourses of the soul, and its immortality; of heaven and of hell, the next, and only receptacles of unbodied spirits, were never more seasonable and necessary than in this atheistical age of the world, wherein all serious piety and thoughts of immortality are ridiculed, and hissed out of the company of many: As if those old condemned Heretics, the "Tnelopsuchitai", who asserted the corruptibility and mortality of the soul as well as the body, had been again revived in our days.
And as the Atheism of some, so the tepidity, and unconcerned carelessness of the most, need and call for such potent remedies, as discourses of this kind do plentifully afford. I dare appeal to your charitable judgements, whether the conversations and discourses of the many, do indeed look like a serious pursuit of heaven, and a flight from hell?
Long have my thoughts bended towards this great and excellent subject, and many earnest desires I have had, (as I believe all thinking persons must needs have) to know what I shall be when I breathe not. But when I had engaged my meditations about it, two great rubs opposed the farther progress of my thoughts therein: Namely,
I. The difficulty of the subject I had chosen: And,
II. The distractions of the times in which I was to write upon it.
I. As for the subject, such is the subtilty and sublimity of its nature, and such the knotty controversies in which it is involved, that it much better deserves that inscription, than Minerva’s temple at Saum did, "Never did any mortal reveal me plainly.
"It is but little that the most clear and sharp-sighted do discern of their own souls, now in the state of composition; and what can we positively and distinctly know of the life they live in the state of separation? The darkness in which these things are involved doth greatly exercise, even the greatest wits, and frequently elude and frustrate the most generous attempts." Many great scholars whose natural and acquired abilities singularly furnished and qualified them to make a clearer discovery, have laboured in this field, usque ad sudorem et pallorem, even to sweat and paleness, and done little more but entangle themselves, and the subject more than before; this cannot but discourage new attempts.
And yet, without some knowledge of the inability, and subjective capacity of our souls to enjoy the good of the world to come, even in a state of absence from the body, a principal relief must be cut off from them, under the great and manifold trials they are to encounter in this evil world.
As for myself, I assure you, I am deeply sensible of the inequality of my shoulders to this burden; and have often thought (since I undertook it) of that grave and necessary caution of the poet, to wield and poise the burden as porters use to do, before I undertook it. Zuinglius blamed Carolostadius (as some may do me) for undertaking the controversy of that age; because, says he, Non habet satis humerorum; his shoulders are too weak for it.
And yet I know men's labours prosper not according to the art and elegancy of the composure, but according to the divine blessing which pleaseth to accompany them. Ruffinus tells us of a learned philosopher at the Council of Nice, who stoutly defended his thesis against the greatest wits and scholars there, and yet was at last fairly vanquished by a man of no extraordinary parts: of which con quest the philosopher gave this candid and ingenuous account;— Against words (said he) I opposed words; and what was spoken I overthrew by the art of peaking: But when, instead of words, power came out of the mouth of the speaker, words could no longer withstand truth; nor man oppose the power of God.
O that my weak endeavours might prosper under the influence of the like Spirit, upon the hearts of them that shall read this inartificial, but well meant discourse.
I am little concerned about the contempts and censures of fastidious readers. I have resolved to say nothing that exceeds sobriety, nor to provoke any man, except my dissent from his unproved dictates must be his provocation.
Perhaps there are some doubts and difficulties relating to this subject which will never fully be solved till we come to heaven. For man, by the fall, being less than himself, doth not understand himself, nor will ever perfectly do so until he be fully restored to himself; which will not be while he dwells in a body of sin and death. And yet it is to me past doubt, that this, as well as other subjects, might have been much more cleared than it is, if instead of the proud contendings of masterly wits for victory, all had humbly and peaceably applied themselves to the impartial search of truth.
Truth, like an orient pearl in the bottom of a river, would have discovered itself by its native lustre and radiancy, had not the feet of Heathen philosophers, cunning Atheists, and daring school divines disturbed and fouled the stream.
II. And as the difficulties of the subject are many, so many have been the interruptions and avocations I have met with, while it was under my hand: which I mention for no other end but to procure a more favourable censure from you, if it appear less exact than you expected to find. Such as it is, I do with much respect and affection tender to your hands, humbly requesting the blessing of the Spirit may accompany it to your hearts. If you will but allow yourselves to think close to the matter before you, I doubt not but you may find somewhat in it apt both to inform your minds and quicken your affections. I know you have a multiplicity of business under your hands, but yet I hope your great concern makes all others daily to give place; and that how clamorous and importunate soever the affairs of the world be, you both can and do find time to sit alone, and bethink yourselves of a much more important business you have to do.
My friends, we are borderers upon eternity, we live upon the confines of the spiritual and immaterial world: we must shortly be associated with bodiless beings, and shall have, after a few days are past, no more concerns for meat, drink, and sleep, buying and selling, habitations and relations, than the angels of God now have. Besides, we live here in a state of trial: Man, (as Scaliger fitly calls him,) is utriusque mendi nexus, One in whom both worlds do meet; his body participates of the lower, his soul of the upper world; Hence it is that he finds such tugging and pulling this way and that way, upward and downward; both worlds, as it were, contending for this invaluable prize, the precious soul. All Christ's ordinances are instituted, and his officers ordained for no other use or end but the salvation of souls. Books are valuable according to their conducibility to this end: how rich a reward of my labours shall I account it, if this treatise of the soul may but promote the sanctification and salvation of any reader's soul.
To your hands I first tender it: it becomes your property, not only as a debt of justice, the fulfilling of a promise made you long since, upon your joint and earnest desires for the publication of it; but, as an acknowledgement of the many favours I have received from you: To one of you I stand obliged in the bond of relation, and under the sense of many kindnesses, beyond whatever such a degree of relation can be supposed to exact.
You have here a succinct account of the nature, faculties and original of the soul of man, as also of its infusion into the body by God, without intitling himself to the guilt and sin resulting from that their union
You will also find the breath of your nostrils to be the nexus, tie, or bond, which holds our souls and bodies in personal union; and that, while the due crasis and temperament of the body remains, and breath continues, your souls hang, as by a weak and slender thread, over the state of a vast eternity in heaven or in hell; which will inform you both of the value of your breath, and the best way of improving it, while you enjoy it.
The immortality of the soul is here asserted, proved, and vindicated from the most considerable objections; so that it will evidently appear to you, by this discourse, you do not cease to be, when you cease to breathe: and, seeing they will overlive all temporal enjoyments, they must necessarily perish as to all their joys, comforts, and hopes, (which is all the death that can be incident to an immortal spirit,) if they be not in the proper season secured and provided of that never perishing food of souls, God in Christ, their portion for ever.
Here you will find the grounds and reasons of that strong inclination, which you all feel them to have to your bodies, and the necessity notwithstanding that, of their divorce, and separation from their beloved bodies; and that it would manifestly be to their prejudice, if it should be otherwise: and to overcome the unreasonable aversations of believers, and to bring them to a more becoming cheerful submission to the laws of death, whensoever the writ of ejection shall be served upon them; you will here find a representation of that blessed life, comely order, and most delightful employment of the incorporeal people inhabiting the city of God; wherein, beside those sweet meditations which are proper to feast your hungry affections, you will meet with divers unusual, though not vain or unuseful, questions stated and resolved, which will be grateful entertainment to your inquisitive and searching minds.
It is possible they may be censured by some as underminable and unprofitable curiosities, but as I hate a presumptuous intrusion into unrevealed secrets, so I think it is a weakness to be discouraged in the search of truth, so far as it is fit to trace it, by such damping and causeless censures. Nor am I sensible I have in any thing transgressed the bounds of Christian sobriety, to gratify the palate of a nice and delicate reader.
I have also here set before the reader an idea or representation of the state and case of damned souls, that, if it be the will of God, a seasonable discovery of hell may be the means of some men's recovery out of the danger of it; and close up the whole with a demonstration of the invaluable preciousness of souls, and the several dangerous snares and artifices of Satan, their professed enemy, to destroy and cast them away for ever.
This is the design and general scope of the whole, and of the principal parts of this treatise. And, O that God would grant me my heart's desire on your behalf; in the perusal of it! Even that it may prove a sanctified instrument in his hand both to prepare you for, and bring you in love with the unbodied life, to make you look with pleasure into your graves, and die by consent of will, as well as necessity of nature. I remember Dr. Stoughton, in a sermon preached before king James, relates a strange story of a little child in a shipwreck, fast asleep upon its mother’s lap, as she sat upon a piece of the wreck amidst the waves; the child being awaked with the noise, asked the mother what those things were? She told it, They were drowning waves to swallow them up. The child, with a pretty smiling countenance, begged a stroke from its mother to beat away those naughty waves, and chide them as if they had been its play-mates. Death will shortly shipwreck your bodies; your souls will sit upon your lips ready to expire, as they upon the wreck ready to go down. Would it not be a comfortable and most becoming frame of mind, to sit there with as little dread, as this little child did among the terrible waves? Surely, it our faith has but first united us with Christ, and ten loosed our hearts off from this enchanting and ensnaring world, we might make a fair step towards this most desirable temper; but unbelief and earthly-mindedness make us loth to venture.
I blush to think, what bold adventures those men made, who, upon the contemplation of the properties of a despicable stone first adventured quite out of sight of land, under its conduct and direction, and securely trusted both their lives and estates to it, when all the eyes of heaven were veiled from them, amidst the dark waters, and thick clouds of the sky, when I either start, or at least give an unwilling shrug, when I think of adventuring out of the sight of this world, under the more sure and steady direction and conduct of faith and the promises. To cure these evils, in my own and the reader's heart these things are written, and in much respect and love tendered to your hands, as a testimony of my gratitude, and deep sense of the many obligations you have put me under. That the blessing of the Spirit may accompany these discourses to your souls, afford you some assistance in your last and difficult work, of putting them off at death with a becoming cheerfulness, saying in that hour, Can I not see God till this flesh be laid aside in the grave? must I die before I can live like myself? then die my body, and go to thy dust, that I may be with Christ. With this design, and with these hearty wishes, dear and honoured cousin, and worthy friends, I put these discourses unto your hands, and remain,
Your most obliged
kinsman and servant,
JOHN FLAVEL.
Among many other largesses and rich endowments, bestowed by the Creator's bounty upon the soul of man, the sentiments and impressions of the world to come, and the ability of reflection and self-intuition, are peculiar, invaluable, and heavenly gifts. By the former, we have a very great evidence of our own immortality, and designation for nobler employments and enjoyments than this embodied state admits. And by the latter we may discern the agreeableness of our hearts, and therein the validity of our title to that expected blessedness.
But these heavenly gifts are neglected and abused all the world over. Degenerate souls are every where fallen into so deep an oblivion of their excellent original, spiritual and immortal nature, and alliance to the Father of spirits; that (to use the upbraiding expression of a great philosopher) "they seem to be buried in their bodies, as so many silly worms that lurk in their holes, are loth to peep forth, and look abroad.
So powerfully do the cares and pleasures of this world charm all, (except a small remnant of regenerate souls) that nothing but some smart stroke of calamity, or terrible messengers of death can startle them; (and even those are not always able to do it,) and when they do, all the effect is but a transient glance at another, and an unwilling shrug to leave this world, and so to sleep again. And thus the impressions and sentiments of the world to come (which are the natural growth and offspring of the soul) are either stifled and suppressed, as in Atheists; or borne down by impetuous masterly lusts, as in Sensualists.
And for its self reflecting and considering power, it seems in many to be a power received in vain. It is with most souls as it is with the eye, which sees not itself, though it sees all other objects. There be those that have almost finished the course of a long life, (wherein a great part of their time has lain upon their hands, as cheap and useless commodity, which they knew not what to do with) who never yet spent one solemn entire hour in discourse with their own souls. What serious heart doth not melt into compassion over the deluded multitude, who are mocked with dreams, and perpetually busied about trifles? Who are, (after so many frustrated attempts both of their own, and all past ages) eagerly pursuing the fleeting shadows, who torture and rack their brains to find out the natures and qualities of birds, beasts, and plants; indeed any thing rather than their own souls, which are certainly the most excellent creatures that inhabit this world. They know the true value and worth of other things? but are not able to estimate the dignity of that high born spirit that is within them. A spirit which (without the addition of any more natural faculties or powers, if those it has be but sanctified and devoted to God) is capable of the highest perfections and fruitions, even complete conformity to God, and the satisfying visions of God throughout eternity. They herd themselves with beasts, who are capable of an equality with angels. O what compassionate tears must such a consideration as this draw from the eyes of all that understand the worth of souls!
As for me it has been my sin, and is now the matter of my sorrow, that while myriads of souls, (of no higher original than mine) are some of them beholding the highest Majesty in heaven, and others giving all diligence to make sure their salvation on earth, I was carried away so many years in the course of this world, (like a drop with the current of the tide) wholly forgetting my best self, my invaluable soul; while I prodigally wasted the stores of my time and thoughts upon vanities, that long since passed away as the waters which are remembered no more. It shall be no shame to me to confess this folly, since the matter of my confession shall go to the glory of my God. I studied to know many other things, but I knew not myself. It was with me as with a servant to whom the master committed two things, viz. the child, and the child’s clothes; the servant is very careful of the clothes' brushes and washes, starches and irons them, and keeps them safe and clean, but the child is forgotten and lost. My body which is but the garment of my soul, I kept and nourished with excessive care, but my soul was long forgotten, and had been lost for ever, as others daily are, had not God roused it, by the convictions of his Spirit, out of that deep oblivion and deadly slumber.
When the God that formed it, out of free grace to the work of his own hands, had thus recovered it to a sense of its own worth and danger, my next work was to get it united with Christ, and thereby secured from the wrath to come; which I found to be a work difficult to effect, if it be yet effected) and a work of time to clear, though but to the degree of good hope through grace.
And since the hopes and evidences of salvation began to spring up in my soul, and settle the state thereof, I found these three great words, viz. Christ, soul, and eternity, to have a far different and more awful sound in my ear, than ever they used to have. I looked on them from that time, as things of the greatest certainty and most awful solemnity. These things have laid some weight upon my thoughts, and I felt, at certain seasons, a strong inclination to sequester myself from all other studies, and spend my last days, and most fixed meditations upon these three great and weighty subjects.
I know the subject matter of my studies and enquiries (be it never so weighty) doth not therefore make my meditations and discourse upon it great and weighty; nor am I such a vain opinionator, as to imagine my discourses every way suitable to the dignity of such subjects; no, no, the more I think and study about them, the more I discern the indistinctness, darkness, crudity, and confusion of my own conceptions, and expression of such great and transcendent things as those; but In magnis voluisse sat st, I resolved to do what I could; and accordingly some years past I finished and published, in two parts, the Doctrine of Christ; and by the acceptation and success the Lord gave that, he has encouraged me to go on in this second part of my work, how unequal soever my shoulders are to the burden of it.
The nature, original, immortality, and capacity, of mine own soul, for the present lodged in and related to this vile body, destined to corruption; together with its existence, employment, perfection, converse with God, and other spirits, both of its own, and of a superior rank and order: when it shall (as I know it shortly must) put off this its tabernacle; these things have a long time been the matters of my limited desires to understand, so far as I could see the pillar of fire (God in his word) enlightening my way to the knowledge of them. Yea, such is the value I have for them, that I have given them the next place in my esteem, to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and my interest in him.
God has formed me, as he has other men, a prospecting creature. I feel myself yet uncentered, and short of that state of rest and satisfaction to which my soul, in its natural and spiritual capacity, has a designation. I find that I am in a continual motion towards my everlasting abode, and the expense of my time; and many infirmities tell me that I am not far from it: by all which I am strongly prompted to look forward, and acquaint myself as much as I can, with my next place and employment. I look with a greedy and inquisitive eye that way.
Yet would I not be guilty of an unwarrantable curiosity in
searching into revealed things; how willing soever I am to put my
head by faith into the world above, and to know the things which
Jesus Christ has purchased and prepared for me, and all the rest
that are waiting for his appearance and kingdom, I feel my
curiosity checked and repressed by shat elegant paronomasia,
The helps philosophy affords in some parts of this discourse are too great to be despised, and too small to be admired. I confess I read the definition of the soul given by the ancient philosophers with a compassionate smile. When Thales calls it a nature without repose; Asclepiades, an exercitation of sense! Hesiod, a thing composed of earth and water: Parmenides, a thing composed of earth and fire; Galen says it is heat; Hippocrates, a spirit diffused through the body; Plato, a self-moving substance; Aristotle calls it Entelechia, that by which the body is moved: If my opinion should be asked which of all these definitions I like best, I should give the same answer which Theocritus gave an ill poet, repeating many of his verses, and asked which he liked best; Those (said he) which you have omitted. Or if they must have the garland as the prize they have shot for, let them have it upon the some reason that was once given to him that shot wide.—Ditficilius est toties non attingere,—Because it was the greatest difficulty to aim so often at the mark, and never come near it. One word of God gives me more light than a thousand such laborious trifles. As Caesar was best able to write his own commentaries, so God only can give the best account of his own creature, on which he has impressed his own image.
Modern philosophers, assisted by the divine oracles, must needs come closer to the mark, and give us a far better account of the nature of the soul. Yet I have endeavoured not to cloud this subject with their controversies, or abstruse notions; remembering what a smart but deserved check Tertullian gives those, Qui Platonicum et Aristotelicum Christianismum producunt Christianis. Words are but the servants of matter, I value them as merchants do their ships, not by the gilded head and stern, the neatness of their mould, or curious flags and streamers, but by the soundness of their bottom, largeness of their capacity, and richness of their cargo and loading. The quality of the subject necessitates, in many places, the use of scholastic terms, which will be obscure to the vulgar reader: but apt and proper words must not be rejected for their obscurity, except plainer words could be found that fit the subject as well, and are as fully expressive of the matter. The unnecessary I have avoided, and the rest explained as I could.
The principal fruits I especially aim at, both to my own and the reader's soul, are, That while we contemplate the freedom, pleasure, and satisfaction of that spiritual, incorporeal people, who dwell in the region of light and joy, and are hereby forming to ourselves a true scriptural idea of the blessed state of those disembodied spirits, with whom we are to serve and converse in the temple-worship in heaven; and come more explicitly and distinctly to understand the constitution, order, and delightful employments of those our everlasting associates; we may answerably feel the sound and inordinate love of this animal life sub-acted and wrought down; the frightful vizard of death drop off, and a more pleasing aspect appear; that no upright soul that shall read these discourses may henceforth be convulsed at the name of death, but cheerfully aspire, and with a pleasant expectation wait for the blessed season of its transportation to that blessed assembly. It is certainly our ignorance of the life of heaven, that makes us dote as we do upon the present life. There is a gloom, a thick mist overspreading the next life, and hiding, even from the eyes of believers, the glory that is there. We send forth our thoughts to penetrate this cloud, but they return to us without the desired success. We reinforce them with a sally of new and more vigorous thoughts, but still they come back in confusion and disappointment, as to any perfect account they can bring us from thence; though the oftener and closer we think, still the more we grow up into acquaintance with these excellent things.
Another benefit I pray for, and expect from these labours, is, that by describing the horrid estate of those souls which go the other way, and shewing to the living the dismal condition of souls departed in their unregenerate state, some may be awakened to a seasonable and effectual consideration of their wretched condition, while they yet continue under the means and among the instruments of their salvation.
Whatever the fruit of this discourse shall be to others, I have cause to bless God for the advantage it has already given me. I begin to find more than ever I have done, in the separate state of sanctified souls, all that is capable of attracting an intellectual nature; and if God will but fix my mind upon this state, and cause my pleased thoughts about it to settle into a steady frame and temper, I hope I shall daily more and more depreciate and despise this common way of existence in a corporeal prison; and when the blessed season of my departure is at hand, I shall take a cheerful farewell of the greater and lesser elementary world, to which my soul has been confined, and have an abundant entrance through the broad gate of assurance, unto the blessed, unembodied inhabitants of the world to come.
And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Three things (says Athanasius) are unknown to men according to their essence, viz. God, angels, and the souls of men." Of the nature of the divine and high-born soul, we may say, as the learned Whitaker doth of the way of its infection by original sin, "it is easier sought than understood, and better understood than explicated." And for is original, the most sagacious and renowned for wisdom amongst the ancient philosophers understood nothing of it. It is said of Democritus, that "there is nothing in the whole workmanship of nature of which he did not write;" and in a more lofty and swelling hyperbole, they stile their eagle-eyed Aristotle, "the rule, yea, and miracle of nature; learning itself, the very son of knowledge:" yet both these are not only said, but proved by Lactantius to be learned idiots. How have the schools of Epicurus, and Aristotle, the Cartesians, and other sects of philosophers abused and troubled the world with a kind of philosophical enthusiasm, and a great many ridiculous fancies about the original of the soul of man! and when all is done three words of God, by the pen of the inspired Moses, enlightens us more than all the subtle notions of he accidential concretion of atoms, their materia subtilis, and anima mundi, and the rest of their unintelligible fancies could ever do.
The account Moses gives us in this context, of the origin of the world, and of man the epitome of it, is full of sense, reason, congruity, and clearness; and such as renders all the essays of all the Heathen philosophers to be vain, inevident, self-repugnant, and inexplicable theories.
The inspired penman gives us, in this context, a compendious narrative of the world's creation, relating more generally the rude, inform, and undigested chaos; and then more particularly the specificating, and diversifying of the various beautiful beings, thence educed by the notion of the Spirit of God upon the face of the waters.
When the first matter was strictly created out of nothing, "the Spirit (as Moses excellently expresseth it, chap. 1:2.) hovered, or moved over it as a bird over her eggs, and, as it were, by way of incubation, cherishing and influencing it, did thereby draw forth all the creatures into their several forms, and distinct particular natures, wherein we now, with delight and admiration, behold them.
In this manner and order was the stately fabric of the world produced and erected; but as yet, it remained as a fair and well furnished house without an inhabitant. God had employed infinite wisdom and power about it, and engraven his name upon the meanest creature in it; but there was no creature yet made (except angels, the inhabitants of another city) to read the name and celebrate the praises of the Almighty Creator.
He therefore thought the world imperfect till there was a creature made that could contemplate, praise, and worship the Maker of it; for this very use and purpose was man created, that he might not only see, but consider the things he saw; discourse, and rationally collect out of them the things he saw not; and both praise, and love the Maker for, and in them all.
The palaces of princes are not beautified and adorned, to the
intent men should pay their respects and honours to the walls, but
to shew the grandeur and magnificence of the king, to whose person
their honour is due, as Athenagoras in his excellent apology for
the Christians, speaks. The world is a glorious and magnificent
pile, raised designedly to exhibit the wisdom and power of its
Creator to the reasonable creature man, that from him God might
receive the glory of all his other works. Of this creature man, the
master-piece of all the visible world, (and therefore crowned king
over it the first moment he was made,
The original of the body of man.
The original of the soul of man.
I. The original of the body of man: "Formed out of the dust of
the ground." "Dust was its original matter; of dust was it made,
and into dust it must be resolved,
We find that the sprinkling of dust upon new writing prevents many a foul blot: I am sure, the sprinkling of our original dust upon our minds by serious consideration, is the way to prevent many a proud boast.
However, the baseness of the matter, and coarseness of the stuff, serves to set off the admirable skill of the most wise and powerful Architect, who out of such mean, despicable materials, has fashioned so exact and elegant a piece. "The Lord God formed man out of the dust."
"The Lord God.] The name of God is here set down at full, to set forth the dignity of man," the subject matter wrought upon, as some conceive.
Formed.] Fashioned, or curiously moulded, and figured it. The
Hebrew verb, primarily signifies "to press, compress, or squeeze
together; and by a metalepsis, by pressing or compressing, to mould
or fashion, as the potter doth his clay." The Psalmist useth
another word to express the artificial elegancy of the body of man,
II. The soul of man: about which we have before us four things to ponder in this text, viz.
(1.) The nature and property of the soul of man.
(2.) The descent, and original of the soul of man.
(3.) The manner of infusion of the soul of man.
(4.) The nexus, or bond that unites the soul of man.
(1.) The nature and property of it, a living soul. The word "nefesh" as also the Chaldee Naphsha; and the Greek "psuche", have one and the same etymology, all signifying to breathe, or respire; not that the breath is the soul, but denoting the manner of its infusion by the breath of God, and the means of its continuation in the body, by the breath of our nostrils. God's breath infused it, and our breath continues it in union with the body. It signifies here the rational soul and the Hebrew "nefesh" has a very near affinity with the word "shayamim", the heavens; and indeed there is a nearer affinity betwixt the things, viz. soul and heaven, than there is betwixt the names.
The epithet "chazah" which we translate living, the Arabic renders a rational soul, and indeed, none but a rational deserves the name of a living soul, for all other forms or souls, which are of an earthly extract, do both depend on, and die with the matter out of which they were educed, but this being of another nature, a spiritual and substantial being, is therefore rightly stiled, a living soul.
The Chaldee renders it, a speaking soul. And indeed, it deserves a remark, that the ability of speech is conferred on no other soul but man's. Other creatures have apt and elegant organs; birds can modulate the air, and form it into sweet delicious notes, and charming sounds; but no creature, except man, whose soul is of an heavenly nature and extraction, can articulate the sound, and form it into words, by which the notions and sentiments of one soul are in a noble, apt, and expeditious manner conveyed to the understanding of another soul. And indeed, what should any other creature do with the faculty or power of speech, without a principle of reason to guide and govern it? It is sufficient to them that they discern each others meaning by dumb signs, much after the manner that we traded at first with the Indians; but speech is proper only to a rational, or living soul, however, we render it a living, a rational, or a speaking soul, it distinguishes the soul of man from all other souls.
(2.) We find here the best account that ever was given of the origin of the soul of man, or whence it came, and from whom it derives its being. O, what a dust and pother have the disputes and contests of philosophers raised about this matter! which is cleared in a few words in this scripture; "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul:" which plainly speaks it to be the immediate effect of God's creating power. Not a result from matter; no, results flow e sinu materiae, out of the bosom of matter; but this comes ex halitu divino, from the inspiration of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; but this is a spirit descending from the Father of spirits. God formed it, but not out of any pre-existent matter, whether celestial or terrestrial; much less out of himself, as the Stoics speak; but out of nothing. An high born creature it is, but no particle of the Deity. The invisible and immutable essence of God is utterly repugnant to such notions; and therefore they speak not strictly and warily enough, that are bold to call it a ray or emanation from God.
A spirit it is, and flows by way of creation, immediately from the Father of spirits; but yet is a spirit of another inferior rank and order.
(3.) We have also the account of the way and manner of its in fusion into the body, viz. by the same breath of God which gave it its being. It is therefore a rational, scriptural, and justifiable expression of St. Augustine, Creando infunditur, et infundendo creatur; it is infused in creating, and created in infusing; though Dr. Brown too slightingly calls it a mere rhetorical antimetathesis. Some of the fathers, as Justin, Ireneus, and Tertullian, were of opinion, That the Son of God assumed a human shape at this time, in which afterwards he often appeared to the fathers, as a prelude to his true and real incarnation; and took dust or clay in his hands, out of which he formed the body of man, according to the pattern of that body in which he appeared: and that being done, he afterwards, by breathing, infused the soul into it. But I rather think it is an anthropopathia, or usual figure in speech, by which the Spirit of God stoops to the imbecility of our understandings, "He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;" Hebrew, lifes. But this plural word "chayim" rather the twofold life of man, in this world, and in that to come; or, "the several faculties and powers belonging to one and the same soul, viz. the intellective, sensitive, and vegetative offices thereof; than that there are more souls than one, "essentially differing, in one and the same man; for that, (as Aquinas truly says,) is impossible." We cannot trace the way of the Spirit, or tell in what manner it was united with this clod of earth. But it is enough, that he who formed it, did also unite, or marry it to the body. This is clear, not by way of natural resultancy from the body, but by way of inspiration from the Lord; not from the warm bosom of matter, but from the breath of its Maker.
4. Lastly, We have here the nexus, copula, the tie or band by which it is united with the body of man, viz. The breath of his (i.e. of man’s) nostrils. It is a most astonishing mystery to see heaven and earth married together in one person; the dust of the ground, and an immortal spirit clasping each other with such dear embraces and tender love; such a noble and divine guest to take up its residence within the mean walls of flesh and blood. Alas, how little affinity, and yet what dear affection is found betwixt them!
Now, that which so sweetly links these two different natures
together, and bolds them in union, is nothing else but the breath
of our nostrils, as the text speaks: it came in with the breath;
while breath stays with us, it cannot go from us and as soon as the
breath departs, it departs also. All the rich elixirs and cordials
in the world cannot persuade it to stay one minute after the breath
is gone. One puff of breath will carry away the wisest, holiest,
and most desirable soul that ever dwelt in flesh and blood. When
our breath is corrupt, our days are extinct,
Out of the text thus opened, arise two doctrinal propositions, which I shall insist upon, viz.
Doct. 1. That the soul of man is of a divine original, created and inspired immediately by the Lord.
Doct. 2. That the souls and bodies of men are linked, or knit together, by the feeble band of the breath of their nostrils.
In the prosecution of these two propositions, many things will come to our hands, of great use in religion; which I shall labour to lay as clearly and orderly to the reader's understanding, and press as warmly upon his heart as I can. And first,
Doct. 1. That the soul of man is of a divine original, created and inspired immediately by the Lard.
In this first proposition, two things are to be distinctly pondered, viz.
1. The nature of the soul.
Or, what it is, and from whence it came.
I. The first thing which arrests our thoughts, and requires their attention and exercise, is the nature of the soul, or what kind of being it is.
Those that are most curiously inquisitive into all other beings, and put nature upon the rack to make her confess her secrets, are in the mean time found shamefully slight and negligent in the study of themselves. Few there are that can prevail with themselves to sit down and think close to such questions as these. What manner of being is this soul of mine? whence came it? why was it infused into this body? and where must it abide, when death has dislodged it out of this frail tabernacle? There is a natural aversation in man to such exercises of thought as these, although in the whole universe of beings in this lower world, a more noble creature is not to be found.
The soul is the most wonderful and astonishing piece of divine workmanship; it is no hyperbole to call it the breath of God, the beauty of men, the wonder of angels, and the envy of devils. One soul is of more value than all the bodies in the world.
The nature of it is so spiritual and sublime, that it cannot be perfectly known by the most acute and penetrating understanding, assisted in the search by all the aid philosophy can contribute.
It is not my design in this discourse to treat of the several faculties and powers of the soul, or to give you the rise, natures, or numbers of its affections and passions: but I shall confine my discourse to its general nature and original. And seeing "none can so well discover the nature of it, as he who is the author of it," as Tertullian speaks, I therefore justly expect the best light from his words, though I will not neglect any other aid he is pleased elsewhere to afford.
The soul is variously denominated from its several powers and offices, as the sea from the several shores it washes. I will not spend time about the several names by which it is known to us in scripture, but give you that description of it, with which my understanding is most satisfied, which take thus:
The soul of man is a vital, spiritual, and immortal substance, endowed with an understanding, will, and various affections; created with an inclination to the body, and infused thereinto by the Lord.
In this description we have the two general parts into which I distributed this discourse: viz. its general nature, and divine original. The nature of the soul is expressed to us in these following terms.
I. It is a substance.
That is to say, not a quality, nor an accident inhering in another being, or subject; as whiteness doth in the snow: but a being by itself. Qualities and accidents have no existence of their own. but require another being, or subject to their existence; but the soul of man is a substantial being of itself, which will evidently appear upon the following grounds.
(1.) Because it is, in a strict and proper sense, created by
God, "He formeth, or createth the spirit in man,"
(2.) This evidenceth the soul to be a substance; that it can,
and doth exist, and subsist by itself alone, when separated from
the body by death,
When the Spaniards came first among tile poor Indians, they thought the horse and his rider to be one creature; as many ignorant ones think the soul and body of man to be nothing but breath and body: whereas indeed, they are two distinct creatures, as vastly different in their natures as the rider with his horse, or the bird and his cage. While the man is on horseback, he moves according to the motion of the horse; and while the bird is incaged, he eats and drinks, and sleeps, and hops and sings in his cage. But if the horse fail and die under his rider, or the cage be broken, the man can go on his own feet, and the bird enjoy itself as well, yea, better in the open fields and woods, than in the cage; Neither depend, as to being, or action, on the horse or cage.
(3.) Both scripture and philosophy consent in this, that the
soul is the chief, most noble, and principal part of man, from
which the whole man is, and ought to be denominated. So
To this we may add,
(4.) It is past all controversy, that the soul is a substance, because it is the subject of properties, affections and habits; which is the very strict and formal notion of a substance. All the affections and passions of hope, desire, love, delight, fear, sorrow, and the rest, are all rooted in it, and springing out of it; and for habits, arts and sciences, it is the soul in which they are lodged and seated. Having once gotten a promptitude to act, either by some strong, or by some frequently repeated acting, they abide in the soul, even when the acts are intromitted, as in sleep, a navigator, scribe, or musician, are really artists, when they are neither sailing, or writing, or playing; because the habits still remain in their minds, as is evident in this, that when they awake, they can perform their several works, without learning the rules of their art anew.
II. The soul is a vital substance, i.e.
A substance which has an essential principle of life in itself;
a living, active being. A living soul, says Moses in the text; and
hereby it is distinguished from, and opposed to matter or body. The
soul moves itself and the body too; it has a self-moving virtue or
power in itself; whereas the matter, or body is wholly passive, and
is moved and acted, not by itself, but by this vital spirit,
All substances are not gross, material, visible and palpable
substances; but there are spiritual and immaterial, as well as
corporeal substances, discernible by sight or touch. To deny this
were to turn a downright Sadducee, and to deny the existence of
angels and spirits,
(1.) It descends, in a peculiar way, from the Father of spirits,
as has been shown in the opening of this text. God stiles himself
its Father,
(2.) It rejoiceth in the essential properties of a spirit: For
it is an incorporeal substance, as spirits are. It has not partes
extra partes, extension of parts; nor is it divisible, as the body
is. It has no dimensions and figures as matter has; but is a most
pure, invisible, and (as the acute Dr. Moore expresseth it)
indiscernible substance. It has the principle of life and motion in
itself, or rather, it is such a principle itself, and is not moved
as dull and sluggish matter is, per aliud, by another. Its efficacy
is great, though it be unseen, and not liable to the test of our
touch, as no spiritual substances are. "A spirit (says Christ) has
not flesh and bones,"
Certainly, the heavenly pure bodies do not differ so much from a dunghill, as the soul and body differ. They differ but as more pure and less pure matter; but these, as material, and immaterial. If we consider wherein consists the being of a body, and wherein that of a soul, and then compare them, the matter will be clear.
We cannot come to an apprehension of their beings, but by considering their primary passions and properties, whereby they make discovery of themselves. The first and primary affection of a body (as is rightly observed) is that extension of parts whereof it is compounded, and a capacity of division, upon which, as upon the fundamental mode, the particular dimensions (that is, the figures) and the local motion do depend.
Again, for the being of our souls, if we reflect upon ourselves, we shall find that all our knowledge of them resolves into this, that we are beings conscious to ourselves of several kinds of cogitations; that by our outward senses we apprehend bodily things present; and by our imagination we apprehend things absent; and that we oft recover into our apprehension things past and gone, and, upon our perception of things, we find ourselves variously affected.
Let these two properties of a soul and body be compared, and upon the first view of a considering mind it will appear, that divisibility is not apprehension, or judgement, or desire, or discourse: That to cut a body into several parts, or put it into several shapes, or bring it to several motions, or mix it after several ways, will never bring it to apprehend, or desire. No man can think the combining of fire, and air, and water, and earth, should make the lump of it to know and comprehend, what is done to it, or by it. We see manifestly, that upon the division of the body, the soul remains entire and undivided. It is not the loss of a leg or arm, or eye, that can maim the understanding or the will, or cut off the affections.
Nay, it pervades the body it dwells in, and is whole in the whole, and in every part, which it could never do if it were material. yea, it comprehends, in its understanding, the body or matter in which it is lodged; and more than that, it can, and does form conceptions of pure spiritual and immaterial beings, which have no dimensions or figures; all which shew it to be no corporeal, but spiritual and immaterial substance.
(3.) As it derives its being from the Father of spirits, in a
peculiar way, and rejoiceth, in its spiritual properties: So at
death it returns to that great Spirit from whence it came. It is
not annihilated, or resolved into soft air, or sucked up again by
the element of fire, or catched back again into the soul of the
world, as some have dreamed; but it returns to God who gave it, to
give an account of itself to him, and receive its judgement from
him. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the
spirit shall return to God who gave it"
By all which we see, that as it is elevated too high on the one hand, when it is made a particle of God himself; not only the creature, but a part of God, as Plutarch and Philo Judeus, and others have termed it, (spirit it is, but of another and inferior kind:) So it is degraded too low, when it is affirmed to be matter, though the purest, finest, and most subtle in nature; when approacheth nearest to the nature of spirit. A spirit it is, as much as an angel is a spirit, though it be a spirit of another species. This is the name it is known by throughout the scriptures. In a word, it is void of mixture and composition; there are no jarring qualities, compound elements, or divisible parts in the soul, as there are in bodies; but it is a pure, simple, invisible, and indivisible substance, which proves its spirituality, and brings us to the fourth particular, viz.
IV. It is an immortal substance.
The simplicity and spirituality of its nature, of which I spake
before, plainly shews us, that it is in its very nature designed
for immortality; for such a being or substance as this has none of
the seeds of corruption and death in its nature, as all material
and compounded beings have. It has nothing within it tending to
dissolution: No jarring elements, no contrary qualities are found
in spirits as there are in other creatures of a mixed nature.
Physicians and Philosophers have disputed and contended eagerly
about the true causes of natural death; "and while they have been
contending about the way, they have come to the end." The ingress
of the soul is obscure, and its egress not clear. But this seems to
be the thing in which they generally centre, that the expense and
destruction of the natural moisture, or radical balsam, as others
call it, which is the oil that maintains natural light, or the
bridle that restrains that flame of life from departing, as others
express it: this is the cause of natural death: Others assign the
unequal reparation of the parts of the body as the cause of death.
But be it one or another, it is evident the soul, which consists
neither of contrary qualities, nor of dissimilar parts, must be
above the reach and stroke of death. For if the soul die, it must
be either from some seeds, and principles of death and corruption
within itself, or by some destructive power without itself. In
itself you see there is no seed or principle of death; and if it be
destroyed by a power without itself, it must be either by the
stroke of some creature, or from the hand of God that first formed
and created it: But the hand and power of no creature can destroy
it; the creature's power reaches no farther than the body,
Well then, I hope so far our way is clear, in the search of the nature of the soul, that it is a substance, a spiritual substance, and being so, it is also an immortal substance. No doubt remains with me as to either of these. Let us then proceed to the consideration of its faculties and powers by which it may be yet more fully known, and we shall find that,
It is a spiritual, and immortal substance, endued with an understanding.
This is the noble leading faculty of the soul: We are not
distinguished from brutes by our senses, but by our understanding.
As grace sets one man above another, so understanding sets the
meanest man above the best of brutes. Strange and wonderful things
are performed by the natural instinct and sagacity of beasts; but
yet what is said of one, is true of them all, "God has not imparted
understanding to them,"
The understanding is a faculty of the reasonable soul by which a man apprehends and judges all intelligible things.
The object of it is every being, so far as it is true in itself, and apprehensible by man. It has a twofold use in the life of man, viz.
(1.) To distinguish truth from error and falsehood. By this
candle of the Lord, lighted up in the soul of man, he may discern
betwixt duty and sin, good and evil: It is the eye of the soul, by
which it sees the way in which we should go, and the dangerous
precipices that are on either side. It is the soul's taster, and
discerns wholesome food from baneful poison,
(2.) To direct and guide us in our practice. This faculty is by philosophers rightly called "to hegemonikon", the leading faculty; because the will follows its practical dictates. It sits at the helm, and guides the course of the soul; not impelling, or rigorously enforcing its dictates upon the will; for the will cannot be so imposed upon; but by giving it a directive light, or pointing, as it were, with its finger, what it ought to choose, and what to refuse.
To this faculty belong two other excellent and wonderful powers of the soul, viz.
1. The power or ability of cogitation; "Thoughts are properly
the actings and agitations of the mind, or any actual operation of
the understanding." They are the musings of the mind, which are
acted in the speculative part of the understanding. It is
observable that the Hebrew word "suach", which is used for
meditation, or thinking, signifies both to think and to speak in
the mind. When the understanding, or mind resolves, and meditates
the things that come into it, that very meditation is an inward
speaking, or hidden word in the heart,
Thoughts are the figments and creatures of the mind: they are formed within it, in multitudes innumerable. The power of cogitation is in the mind, yea, in the spirit of the mind.
"The fancy indeed, while the soul is embodied, ordinarily, and for the most part presents the appearances and likenesses of things to the mind;" but yet it can form thoughts of things which the fancy can present no image of, as when the soul thinks of God, or of itself. This power of cogitation goes with the soul, and is rooted in it when it is separated from the body; and by it we speak to God, and converse with angels, and other spirits in the unbodied state, as will be more fully opened in the process of this discourse.
2. The conscience belongs also to this faculty; for it being the
judgement of a man upon himself, with respect or relation to the
judgement of God, it must needs belong to the understanding part or
faculty. "Thoughts are formed in the speculative, but conscience
belongs to the practical understanding." It is a very high and
awful power; it is solo Deo mi nor, and rides (as Joseph did) in
the second chariot; the next and immediate officer under God. He
says of conscience with respect to every man, as he once said of
Moses with respect to Pharaoh. "See I have made thee a god to
Pharaoh,"
And thus briefly of the understanding, which has many offices, and as many names from those offices.
It is sometimes called wit, reason, understanding, opinion, wisdom, judgement. And why we bestow so many names upon one and the same faculty, the learned author of that small, but excellent tract "de anima", gives this true and ingenious account.
The wit, the pupil of the soul’s clear eye,
And in man's world the only shining star,
Looks in the mirror of the fantasy,
Where all the gatherings of the senses are;
And after by discoursing to and fro,
Anticipating and comparing things,
She doth all universal natures know,
And all effects into their causes brings.
When she rates things, and moves from ground to ground,
The name of reason she obtains by this:
But when by reason she the truth hath found,
And standeth fix'd, she understanding is.
When her assent she lightly doth incline
To either part, she is opinion light:
But when she does by principles define
A certain truth, she has true judgement's sight.
And as from senses, reason's work doth spring:
So many reasons understanding gain;
And many understandings knowledge bring,
And by much knowledge wisdom we obtain.
VI. God has endued the soul of man not only with an understanding to discern, and direct, but also a will to govern, moderate, and over-rule the actions of life.
The will is a faculty of the rational soul, whereby a man either chuseth or refuseth the things which the understanding discerns and knows.
This is a very high and noble power of the soul. The understanding seems to bear the same relation to the will, as a grave counsellor does to a great prince. It glories in two excellencies, viz.
1. Liberty.
2. Dominion.
4. "Draw me, and I will run after thee."
Efficacious grace, and victorious delight, is a thing very different from compulsive force. "Pelagius (as a late author speaks) at first gave all to nature, acknowledged no necessity of divine grace; but when this proud doctrine found little countenance, he called nature by the name of grace; and when that deceit was discovered, he acknowledged no other grace but outward instruction, or the benefit of external revelation, to discourse, and put men in mind of their duty. Being yet driven farther, he acknowledged the grace of pardon; and before a man could do any thing acceptably, there was a necessity of the remission of sin, and then he might obey God perfectly. But that not sufficing, he acknowledged another grace, viz. the example of Christ, which does both secure our rule and encourage our practice. And last of all, his followers owned some kind of internal grace, but they made that to consist in some illumination of the understanding, or moral persuasion, by probable arguments, to excite the will, and this not absolutely necessary, but only for facilitation, as a horse to a journey, which otherwise a man might go on foot. Others grant the secret influences of God's grace, but make the will of man a co-ordinate cause with God, namely, that God doth propound the object, hold forth inducing considerations; give some remote power and assistance; but still there is an indifferency in the will of man, to accept or refuse, as liketh him best." Thus have they been forced to quit and change their ground; but still the pride of nature will not let men see the necessity of divine efficacious influences upon the will, and the consistency thereof with natural liberty.
(2.) Its dignity in its dominion, as well as in its liberty. The will has an empire, and sceptre belonging to it; yea, a double empire, for it rules,
1. Imperium Despoticum, Over the body, imperio despotico, by way of absolute command.
2. Imperium Politicum, Over the other powers and passions of the soul, imperio politico, by way of suasion.
(1.) The will, like an absolute sovereign, reigns over the body,
i.e. its external members by way of absolute command. It says, as
the centurion did, I am in authority, and God has put the many
members of the body in subjection to me; I say to one, move, and it
moves; to another, stop, and it stops; and to a third, do this, and
it doth it. The obsequious members of the body, like so many
servants, have their eyes waiting on the imperial commands of the
will, and it is admirable to behold with what dispatch and speed
they execute its commands, as if their obedient motions were rather
concomitant than subsequent acts to the will's mandates. Let it but
command to have the windows of the body, open or shut, and it is
done in a moment, in the twink of an eye; and so for the rest of
the external senses and members, they pay it most ready obedience.
Yet when I say, the will has a despotical, and absolute sovereignty
over the members, it must be understood with a double limitation.
First, They are only at its beck for use and service; it can use
them while well and rightly disposed; but it cannot perpetuate
them, or restore them when indisposed. If the soul will the health
and life of the body never so intensely and vehemently, it cannot
keep off death one moment the longer from it. And, Secondly, Its
sovereignty no way intrenches upon, nor interferes with the
dominion of providence over the members of the body, and the
various motions of them. God has reserved a sovereign, negative
voice to himself, whatever decrees the will passes. Jeroboam
stretches out his hand against the man of God to smite him; but God
puts a remora in the very instant to the loco-motive faculty, that
though he would never so fain, he could not pull in his hand again
to him,
(2.) It has a political power over the faculties and passions of the soul, not by way of absolute command, but by way of suasion and insinuation. Thus it can ofttimes persuade the understanding and thoughts to lay by this or that subject, and apply themselves to the study of another. It can bridle and restrain the affections and passions, but yet it has no absolute command over the inner, as it has over the outward man. Its weakness and inability to govern the inner man appears in two things, more especially remarkable, viz. 1. It cannot, with all its power and skill command and fetch off the thoughts from some subjects, which are set on, at some times, with extraordinary weight upon the soul. However, the thoughts may obsequiously follow its beck at some times, yea, for the most part; yet there are cases and seasons, in which its authority and persuasions cannot disengage one thought.
As (1.) When God has to do with the soul, in the work of
conversion, when he convinceth of sin and danger, and sets a man's
evils in order before his eyes: These are terrible representations,
and fain would the carnal will disengage the thoughts from such sad
subjects, and strives by all manner of persuasions and diversions
so to do, but all to no purpose,
(2.) When Satan has to do with the soul, in the way of temptation and hellish suggestion: Look, as the carnal will opposes itself to the thoughts in the former case to no purpose; so that the sanctified will opposes itself to them in this case, oft times with as little effect or success, as he that opposeth his weak breath to the strong current of a mighty river. Well were it, if the sanctified will were now the master of the fantasy, and could control the thoughts of the heart; but, like a mad horse, the fancy takes the bit in its teeth, and runs whither it pleaseth; the will cannot govern it. Think quite another way says the will, turn thy thoughts to other things; but notwithstanding, the soul turneth a deaf ear to its counsels. 2. It cannot quiet and compose a raging conscience, and reduce it at its pleasure to rest and peace. This is the peculiar work of God. He only that stills the stormy seas, can quiet the distressed and tempestuous soul. The impotence of the will, in this case, is known to all that have been in those deeps of trouble. And this is the misery of the devil and the damned, that though they would never so lain, yet they cannot get rid of those tormenting impressions made upon them by their own trembling and condemning consciences. There would not be so many pale, sweating, affrighted consciences on earth, and in hell, if the will had any command or power over them.
Tam frigida mens est.
Criminibus; tacita sudant praecordia culpa.
It is an horrible sight to see such a trembling upon all the members, such a cold sweat upon the panting bosom of a self-condemned, and wrath presaging soul, in which it can, by no means relieve or help itself. These things are exempt from the liberty and dominion of the will of man; but notwithstanding these exemptions, it is a noble faculty, and has a vastly extended empire in the soul of man; it is the door of the soul; at which the Spirit of God knocks for entrance. When this is won, the soul is won to Christ; and if this stand out in rebellion against him, he is barred out of the soul, and can have no saving union with it. The truth of grace is to be judged and discerned by its compliance with his call, and the measure of grace to be estimated by the degree of its subjection to his will.
VII. The soul of man is not only endued with all understanding
and will, but also with various affections and passions, which are
of great use and service to it, and speak the excellency of its
nature. They are originally designed and appointed for the
happiness of man, in the promoting and securing its chiefest good,
to which purpose they have a natural aptitude: for the true
happiness and rest of the soul not being in itself, nor in any
other creature, but in God, the soul must necessarily move out of
itself, and beyond all other created beings, to find and enjoy its
true felicity in him. The soul considered at a distance from God,
its true rest and happiness, is furnished and provided with desire
and hope to carry it on and quicken its motion towards him. These
are the arms it is to stretch out towards him, in a state of
absence from him. And seeing it is to meet with many obstacles,
enemies, and difficulties, in its course, which hinder its motion,
and hazard its fruition of him, God hath planted in it, fear,
grief, indignation, jealousy, anger, &c. to grapple with, and
break through those intercurrent difficulties and hazards. By these
weapons in the hands of grace, it conflicts with that which opposes
its passages to God, as the apostle expresseth that holy fret and
passion of the Corinthians, and what a fume their souls were in by
the gracious motion of the irascible appetite;
But the soul considered in full union with and fruition of God, its supreme happiness, is accordingly furnished with affections of love, delight, and joy, whereby it rests in him and enjoys its proper blessedness in his presence for ever. Yea, even in this life, these affections are in an imperfect degree exercised upon God, according to the prelibations and enjoyments it has of him by faith, in its way to heaven. In a word,
The true uses, and most excellent ends for which these affections and passions are bestowed upon the soul of man, are to qualify it, and make it a fit subject to be wrought upon in a moral way of persuasions and allurements, in order to its union with Christ, (for by the affections, as Mr. Fenner rightly observes, the soul becomes marriageable, or capable of being espoused to him) and being so, then to assist it in the prosecution of its full enjoyment in heaven, as we heard but now.
But, alas, how are they corrupted and inverted by sin! The concupiscible appetite greedily fastens upon the creature, not upon God; and the irascible appetite is turned against holiness, not sin. But I must insist no farther on this subject here, it deserves an entire treatise by itself.
VIII. The soul of man has, in the very frame and nature of it, an inclination to the body. There is in it a certain pondus, or inclination which naturally bends or sways it towards matter, or a body. There are three different natures found in living creatures, viz.
1. The brutal.
2. The angelical.
3. The human.
(1.) The soul of a brute is wholly confined to, and dependent on the matter or body with which it is united. It is dependent on it, both in esse et in operari, in its being and working; it is but a material form, which arises from, and perisheth with the body. "The soul of a brute, (says a great person) is no other than a fluid bodily substance, the more lively and refined part of the blood (called spirit) quick in motion, and from the arteries by the branches of the carotides carried to the brain; and from thence conveyed to the nerves and muscles, move the whole frame and mass of the body; and receiving only certain weak impressions from the senses, and of short continuance, hindered and obstructed of its work and motion, vanishes into the soft air.
(2.) An angel is a spirit free from a body, and created without an appetite or inclination to be embodied. The Stoics call the angels "ousias psuchikas", souly substances; and the Peripatetics, formas abstractas, abstract forms. They are spirits free from the fetters and clogs of the body.
"An angel is a perfect soul, and an human soul is an imperfect
angel." Yet angels have no such rooted disaffection to, and
abhorrence of a body, but they have assumed, and can, in a ready
obedience to their Lord's commands, and delight to serve him,
assume bodies, for a time, to converse with men in them, i.e.
aerial bodies in the figure and shape of human bodies. So we read,
(3.) The human soul is neither wholly tied to the body, as the brutal soul is; nor created without inclination to a body, as angels are; but loves and inclines to it, though it can both live and act without it, when it is parted from it at death. The proof of this assertion, and the reasons why God created it with such an inclination, will, in their proper place, be more fully spoken to, in the following discourse. All that I shall add is, that in this, as well as in some other respects, our souls are made a little lower than the angels; but when they are unclothed of the body, and have received it again, in a new edition, a spiritual body, then they shall be "isangeloi", equal unto angels, in the way and manner of life and action.
Thus I have, as briefly as I could, dispatched the first thing propounded, viz. the nature of the soul, in the explication of these seven particulars: it is a substance, a vital, spiritual, and immortal substance, a substance endued with understanding, will, affections, and an inclination to the body. And now we are come to the
II. Branch, viz. Its original and infusion.
I. As to its original, I have described it to be immediately from God, in the way of creation: an honour done to no other living creature except angels. The world has been troubled with a great many extravagant and wild notions about the original of the soul of man; a certain mark and argument of its apostasy from God. "Solinus writes of one, who by a wound in the hinder part of his head, fell into such a degree of ignorance and oblivion, that he forgot his own name, and could not tell whether he had any name at all." But oh! what a stunning blow did man receive by the fall, that he should forget the very Author of his being, and rather claim alliance, and derive the being of his soul from any thing than God; though it bears the very marks and characters of its divine Author and Father upon it! The principal errors about the origin of the soul (for that wild notion of Epicurus has been laid so flat by the pens of many learned men, that it is a vanity to strike one blow more at it) may be reduced to these three heads.
(1.) Some affirm it to be by way of traduction, or natural generation from the parents to the child. This opinion is very ancient; Tertullian, and divers of the Western Fathers, closed with it, as judging it the best expedient to solve the difficulties of the soul's taint and defilement with original sin. But antiquity is no passport for errors. The grey hairs of opinion, as one well notes, are then honourable, when they are found in the way of truth. Doctor Brown tells us, "He should rather incline to the creation, than the traduction of the soul, though either opinion (says he) will consist well enough with religion, did not one objection haunt him, and this is a conclusion from the equivocal and monstrous productions by unnatural copulation, as of a man and beast: for, if the soul of man, says he, be not transmitted and transfused in the seed, why are not these productions merely beasts, but have also an impression and tincture of reason in as high a measure as it can evidence itself in those improper organs?
Which way the doctor's judgement had inclined in this controversy, had been of no great consideration to the determination of it; though it is a pity we should lose his consent and company, for the sake of such a beastly objection as this, which haunts his mind: for if there be any such creatures that seem to have a tincture of reason, it is but a tincture, and a seeming, not a real tincture neither, which many other brutes have.
The doctor is too well acquainted with philosophy, and a man of too much reason to allow himself to think that such a production as he speaks of has two natures and essential forms in one body, as of a man and a horse. He knows that every entity has but one special essence, and can have no more, except he will place one and the same thing under divers species in the predicament of substance. And as there cannot be two distinct forms, so neither can there be a mixture of them in the Centaur or monstrous birth: for, ex duobus entibus perse, non fit unum ens per se. But he confesseth this objection was bred among the weeds and tares of his own brain, (a rank soil no doubt) and I am pretty confident he had weeded it out in his latter years; for I find this notion of the Centaurs, (that is, half horse, half man), put into its proper place among his vulgar errors, B. 1. chap. 4. And so I suppose that rub being out of the way, he returned again to us.
(2.) A second opinion was, That they were procreated by angels: and that which gave the ground, such as it is, to this opinion or fancy, is the similitude or resemblance which is found betwixt angels and the souls of men. But this fancy needs not any industry to overthrow it; for though it be certain there is a similitude and resemblance betwixt angels and souls, both being immaterial and spiritual substances, yet angels neither propagate by generation, nor is it in their power to create the least fly or worm in the world, much less the soul of man, the highest and noblest and most excellent being. Great power they have, but no creating power, that is God's incommunicable property; and procreate our souls they did not, for though they are spirits, yet spirits of another species.
(3.) A third sort there are, who deny that souls are created substances, and proceeded from God; but affirm withal, that he created them simul, et semel, together and at once, as the angels were, and not one by one, as men are born into the world. "Of this opinion was Plato, who thought all human souls to be created together before their bodies, and placed in some glorious and suitable mansions, as the stars, till, at last, growing weary of heavenly, and falling in love with earthly things, for a punishment of that crime, they were cast into bodies, as into so many prisons." Origen sucked in this notion of the pre-existence of souls: and upon this supposition it was that Porphyry tells us, in the life of Plotinus, he blushed as often as he thought of his being in a body, as a man that lived in reputation and honour, blushes when he is lodged in a prison. The ground on which the Stoics bottomed their opinion was, the great dignity and excellency of the soul, which inclined them to think they had never been degraded and abased, as they are by dwelling in such vile bodes, but for their faults; and that it was for some former sins of theirs, that they slid down into gross matter, and were caught into a vital union with it; whereas, had they not sinned, they had lived in celestial and splendid habitations, more suitable to their dignity.
But this is a pure creature of fancy; for, (1.) No soul in the
world is conscious to itself, of such a pre-existence, nor can
remember when it was owner of any other habitation than that it now
dwells in. (2.) Nor does the scripture give us the least hint of
any such thing. Some indeed would catch hold of that expression,
But to me it is clear that the soul receives not its beginning
by traduction or generation; for that which is generable, is also
corruptible; but the spiritual, immortal soul (as it has been
proved to be) is not subject to corruption. Nor is it imaginable
how a soul should be produced out of matter, which is not endued
with reason: or, how a bodily substance can impart that to another,
which it has not in itself. If it be said, the soul of the child
proceeds from the souls of the parents, that cannot be; for
spiritual substances are impartible, and nothing can be discinded
from them. "And it is absurd to think the soul of Adam should
spring from one original, and the souls of his offspring from
another, while both his and theirs are of one and the same nature
and species." To all which let me add, That as the assertion of
their creation is most reasonable, so it is most scriptural. It is
reasonable to think and say, "That no active power can act beyond,
or above the proper sphere of its activity and ability". But if the
soul be elicited out of the power of matter, here would be an
effect produced abundantly more noble and excellent than its cause.
And as it is most reasonable, so it is most scriptural. To this
purpose diverse testimonies of scripture are cited and produced by
our divines, among which we may single out these four, which are of
special remark and use;
Now the two former we find frequently instanced in scripture, as
the effects of his creating power, or works implying the Almighty
power of God; and therefore are presented as strong props to our
faith, when it is weak and staggering for want of visible matter of
encouragement,
Add to this that excellent place of Solomon, in
II. God created and infused it into the body, with an inherent inclination and affection to it. The nature of the soul and body is vastly different, there is no affinity or similitude betwixt them; but it is in this case as in that of marriage. Two persons of vastly different educations, constitutions, and inclinations, coming under God's ordinance, into the nearest relation to each other, find their affections knit and endeared by their relation to a degree beyond that which results from the union of blood: So it is here. Whence this affection arises, in what acts it is discovered, and for what reason implanted, will be at large discovered in a distinct branch of the following discourse, to which it is assigned. Mean while, I find my self concerned to vindicate what has been here asserted from the arguments which are urged against the immediate creation and infusion of the soul, and in the defence of the opinion of its traduction from the parents. To conceal, or dissemble these arguments and objections, would be but a betraying of the truth I have here asserted, and give occasion for some jealousy, that they are unanswerable. To come then to an issue; and first,
Objec. 1. It is urged, that it is manifest in itself, and generally yielded, that the souls of all other creatures come by generation, and therefore it is probable the human souls flow in the same channel also.
Solut. There is a specific difference betwixt rational souls, and the souls of all other creatures, and therefore no force at all in the consequence. A material form may rise out of matter, but a spiritual, rational being (as the soul of man is) cannot so rise, being much more noble and excellent than matter is.
What animal is there in the world, out of whose soul the acts of reason spring and flow, as they do out of human souls? Are they capable of inventing, (or which is much less) of learning the arts and sciences? Can they correct their senses, and demonstrate a star to be far greater than the whole earth, which to the eye seems no bigger than the rowel of a spur? Do they foreknow the positions and combination of the planets, and the eclipses of the sun and moon many years before they suffer them? And if they cannot perform these acts of reason, as it is sure they cannot, how much less can they know, fear, love, or delight in God, and long for the enjoyments of him! These things do plainly evince human souls to be of another species, and therefore of a higher original shall the souls of brutes. If all have one common nature and original, why are they not all capable of performing the same rational and religious acts?
Obj. 2. But though it should be granted, that the soul of the first man was by immediate creation and inspiration of God; yet it follows not, that the souls of all his posterity, must be so too. God might create him with a power of begetting other souls after his own image. The first tree was created with its seed in itself to propagate its kind, and so might the first man.
Sol. 1. Trees, animals, and such like, were not created
immediately out of nothing, as the soul of man was; but the earth
was the pre-existent matter out of which they were produced by the
word of Gods blessing and power; but man's soul was immediately
breathed into him by God, and had no pre-existent matter at all:
And besides, all human souls being of one species, have therefore
one and the same original: The soul of the poorest child is of
equal dignity with the soul of Adam. And if we consult
Sol. 2. But it is evident, souls spring not from the parent, as one plant, or an animal does from another; for they have their seed in themselves, apt and proper to produce their kind; but the seed of souls is not to be found in man: It is not to be found in his body; for then (as was said before) a spiritual and nobler essence must be produced out of a material and baser matter, (i. e.) the matter must give to the soul that which it has not in itself; nor is it to be found in his soul; for the soul being a pure, simple, and invisible being, can suffer nothing to be descinded from it, towards the production of another soul. A spirit, as the soul is, is substantia, simplex et impartibilis; an uncompounded, and indiscernible, or impartible being. Nor can it spring partly from the body, and partly from the soul, as from con-causes; for then it should be partly corporeal, and partly incorporeal, as its causes are. "So that there is no matter, seed, or principles of souls found in man; and to be sure (as Baronius strongly argues) he cannot produce soul without pre-existent matter; for that were to make him omnipotent, and assign a creating power to a creature." Besides, that which is generable, is also corruptible, as we see trees animals, &c. which are produced that way, to be; but the soul is not corruptible, as has in part been already proved, and more fully, in the following discourse. So that Adam's soul, and the souls of his posterity spring not from each other, but all from God by creation.
Obj. 3. If the soul be created and infused immediately by God, either it comes out of his hands pure, or impure; if pure, how comes it to be defiled and tainted with sin? If impure, how do we free God from being the author of sin?
Sol. If the question be, whether souls be pure or impure, as soon as they are united with their bodies? The answer is, they are impure, and tainted as soon as united: For the union constitutes a child of Adam, and consequently a sinful impure creature. But if it respect the condition and state in which God created them, I answer with Baronius. "They are created neither morally pure, nor impure; they receive neither purity nor impurity from him, but only their naked essence, and the natural powers and properties flowing there from." He inspires not any impurity in them; for he cannot be the author of sin, who is the revenger of it. Nor does he create them in their original purity end rectitude; for the sin of Adam lost that, and God justly withholds it from his posterity. Who wonders (says one) to see the children, the palaces and gardens of a traitor to droop and decay, and the arms of his house, and the badge of his nobility, to be defaced and reversed? That which is abused by men to the dishonour of God, may justly be destroyed (I add in this case, or with-held) by God to the detriment of man. Adam voluntarily and actually deprived himself, and meritoriously deprived all his posterity of that original righteousness and purity in which he was created. As an holy God, he cannot inspire ally impurity, and as a just and righteous God, he may, and does withhold, or create them void and destitute of that holiness, and righteousness which was once their yea, of happiness and glory.
Obj. 4. But how come they then to be defiled and tainted with original sin? It is confessed God did not make them impure, an the body cannot; for being matter, it cannot act upon a spirit; itself it is a dead lump, and cannot act at all.
Sol. What if this be one of those mysteries reserved for the world to come, about which we cannot in this state solve every difficulty that may be moved? Must we therefore deny its divine original? What if I cannot understand some mysteries, or answer some questions about the hypostatical union of the two natures, in the wonderful person of our Emmanuel, Must I therefore question whether he be "Theantropos", God-man? We must remain ignorant of some things about our souls, till we come into the condition of the spirits of just men made perfect. Mean time, I think it much more our concernment to study how we may get sin out of our souls, than to puzzle our brains to find how it came into them.
But that the objector may not take this for an handsome slide, or go-by to this great objection, I return to it, in a few particulars.
(1.) What I think not original sin follows either part singly; it comes in neither by the soul alone, nor by the body alone, apart from the soul; but upon the union and conjunction of both in one person. It is the union of these two which constitutes a child of Adam, and as such only we are capable of being infected with his sin.
(2.) And whereas it is so confidently asserted in the objection, that sin cannot come into the soul by, or from the body, because it being matter, cannot act upon a spirit; I say, this is gratis dictum, easily spoken, but difficultly proved. Cannot the body act upon, or influence the soul? Pray then, how comes it to pass that so many souls become foolish, forgetful, injudicious, &c. by their union with ill disposed bodies? Nothing is more sensible, plain, and evident, than that there is a reciprocal communication betwixt the soul and body. The body doth as really (though we know not how) affect the soul with its dispositions, as the soul influences it with life and motion. The more excellent any form is, the more intimate is its union and conjunction with the matter. This soul of man has therefore a more intimate and perfect union with the body, than light has with the air, which is made, by some, to be the emblem and similitude to shadow forth this union. But the union betwixt them is too intimate to be conceived by the help of any such similitudes. That this infection is by way of physical agency, as a rusty scabbard infects and defiles a bright sword when sheathed therein, I will not confidently affirm as some do. It may be by way of natural concomitancy, as Estius will have it; or to speak, as Dr. Reynolds (modestly, and as becomes men that are conscious of darkness and weakness) by way of ineffable resultancy and emanation.
(3.) Upon the whole, original sin consists in two things, viz.
1. In the privation of that original rectitude which ought to be in us.
2. In that habitual concupiscence which carrieth nature to inordinate motions.
This privation and inordinate inclination, made up that original corruption, the rise whereof we are searching for: And to bring us as near as we can come, without a daring intrusion into unrevealed secrets, our solid divines proceed by these steps, in answering this objection.
(1.) If it be demanded how it comes to pass that an infant becomes guilty of Adam's sin; The answer is, because he is a child of Adam by natural generation.
(2.) But why is he deprived of that original rectitude in which Adam was created? They answer, because Adam lost it by his sin, and therefore could not transmit what he had lost to his posterity.
(3.) But how comes he to be inclined to that which is evil? Their answer is, because he wants that original rectitude: For whosoever wants original rectitude, naturally inclines to that which is evil. And so the propension of nature to that which is evil, seems to be by way of concomitancy with the defect or want of original righteousness.
And thus I have given some account of the nature and original of the soul of man, though alas! my dim eyes see but little of its excellency and glory. Yet, by what has been said, it appears the master-piece of all God's work of creation, in this lower world.
But because I suspect the description I have given of it will be obscure and cloudy to vulgar readers, of a plain and low capacity, by reason of divers philosophical terms which have been forced to make use of; and reckoning myself a debtor to the weak and unlearned, as well as others, I will endeavour to strip this description of the soul, for their sakes, out of those artificial terms which darken it to them, and present it once more in the most plain and intelligible epitome I am capable to give it in; that so the weaker understanding may be able to form a true notion of the nature and original of the soul, in this manner.
The soul of mine is a true and real being; not a fancy, conceit, very nothing. It has a proper and true being in itself, whether I conceit it or not. Nor indeed can I conceive of it, but by it. It is not such a thing as whiteness is in snow, a mere accident, which depends upon the snow in which it is for the being it has, and must perish as soon as the snow is dissolved: My soul doth not so much depend upon my body, or any other fellow-creature for its being; but is as truly a substance as my body is, though not of so gross and material a kind and nature. My soul can, and will subsist and remain what it is, when my body is separated from it; but my body cannot subsist and remain what it now is, when my soul is separated from it: So that I find my soul to be the most substantial and noble part of me; it is not my body, but my soul which makes me a man. And if this depart, all the rest of me is but a dead log, a lump of inanimate clay, a heap of vile dust and corruption. From this independent substance it has in itself, and the dependence its properties and affections have upon it, I truly apprehend and call it a substance.
But yet, when I call it a substance, I must not conceive of it as a gross material, palpable substance, such as my body is, which I can see and feel: No, there are spiritual substances, as well as gross, visible, material substances. An angel is a spiritual substance, a real creature, and yet imperceptible by my sight or touch, such a substance is my soul. Spiritual substances are as real, and much more excellent than bodily substances are. I can neither see, hear, nor feel it, but I both see, hear, and feel by it.
My soul is also a vital substance. It is a principle of life to my body: It has a life in itself, and quickens my body therewith. My soul is the spring of all the actions and motions of life which I perform. It has been an error taken in from my childhood, that sense is performed in the outward organ, or members of my body; as touching in the hand, seeing in the eye, hearing in the ear, &c. in them, I say, and not only by them, as if nothing were required to make sense, but an object and an organ. No, no, it is not my eye that seeth, nor my ear that heareth, nor my hand that toucheth, but my soul, in and by them, performs all this. Let but an apoplex hinder the operations of my soul in the brain, and of how little use are my eyes, ears, hands, or feet to me? My life is originally in my soul, and secondarily by way of communication in my body. So that I find my soul to be a vital, as well as a spiritual substance.
And being both a vital and spiritual substance, I must needs conclude it to be an immortal substance. For in such a pure, spiritual nature as my soul is, there can be found no seeds or principles of death. Where there is no composition, there will he no dissolution. My body indeed having so many jarring humours, mixed elements, and contrary qualities in it, must needs fall and die at last: but my soul was formed for immortality, by the simplicity and spirituality of its nature. No sword can pierce it from without, nor opposition can destroy it from within; man cannot, and God will not.
And being an immortal spirit, fitted and framed to live for ever, I find that God has, answerably, endued and furnished it with an understanding, will, and affections, whereby it is capable of being wrought upon by the Spirit in the way of grace and sanctification in this world in order to the enjoyment of God, its chief happiness in the world to come.
By this its understanding, I am distinguished from, and advanced above all other creatures in this world. I can apprehend, distinguish, and judge of all other intelligible beings. By my understanding I discern truth from falsehood, good from evil; it shews me what is fit for me to choose, and what to refuse.
To this faculty or power of understanding, my thoughts and conscience do belong; the former to my speculative, the latter to my practical understanding. My thoughts are all formed in my mind or understanding in innumerable multitudes and variety. By it I can think of things present, or absent; visible, or invisible; of God, or myself; of this world, or the world to come.
To my understanding also belongs by conscience, a noble, divine, and awful power: By which I summon and judge myself, as at a solemn tribunal; bind and lose, condemn and acquit myself and actions, but still with an eye and respect to the judgement of God. Hence are my best comforts, and worst terrors.
This understanding of mine is the director and guide of my will, as the counsellor; and my will is as the prince: It freely chuseth and refuseth, as my understanding directs and suggests to it. The members of my body, and the passions of my soul, are under its dominion: The former are under its absolute command, the latter under its suasions and insinuations, though not absolutely, yet always with effect and success.
And both my understanding and will I find to have great influence upon my affections.
These passions and affections of my soul are of great use and dignity. I find them as manifold as there are considerations of good and evil. They are the strong and sensible motions of my soul, according to my apprehensions of good and evil. By them by soul is capable of union with the highest good. By love and delight I am capable of enjoying God, and resting in him as the centre of my soul. This noble understanding, thoughts, conscience, will, passions, and affections, are the principal faculties, acts, and powers of this my high and heaven-born soul. And being thus richly endowed and furnished,
I find it could never rise out of matter, or come into my body by way of generation; the souls of brutes, that rise that way, are destitute of understanding, reason, conscience, and such other excellent faculties and powers as I find in my own soul. They cannot know, or love, or delight in God, or set their affections on things spiritual, invisible, and eternal as my soul is capable to do; it was therefore created and infused immediately into this body of mine by the Father of spirits, and that with a strong inclination, and tender affection to my flesh, without which it would be remiss and careless in performing its several duties and offices to it, during the time of its abode therein.
Fearfully and wonderfully, therefore, am I made, and designed for nobler ends and uses, than for a few days to eat, and drink, and sleep, and talk, and die. My soul is of more value than ten thousand worlds. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
USE.
From the several parts and branches of this description of the soul, we may gather the choice fruits which naturally grow upon them, in the following inferences and deduction of truth and duty. For we may say of them all what the historian doth of Palestine, that there is nihil infructuosum, nihil sterile, no branch or shrub is barren, or unfruitful. Let us then search it branch by branch: and,
Inf. 1. From the substantial nature of the soul, which we have proved to be a being distinct from the body, and subsisting by itself, we are informed, That great is the difference betwixt the death of a man, and the death of all other creatures in the world. Their souls depend on, and perish with their bodies; but ours neither result from them, nor perish with them. My body is not a body, when my soul has forsaken it; but my soul will remain a soul when this body is crumbled into dust. Men may live like beasts, a mere sensual life; yea, in some sense, they may die like beasts, a stupid death; but in this there will be found a vast difference: Death kills both parts of the beasts, destroys the matter and form; it toucheth only one part of man; it destroyeth the body, and only dislodgeth the soul, but cannot destroy it.
In some things Solomon shews the agreement betwixt our death and
theirs,
How doth this consideration expose and aggravate the folly and madness of this sensual world, who herd themselves with beasts though they have souls so near akin to angels! The princes and nobles of the world abhor to associate themselves with mechanics in their shops, or take a place among the sottish rabble upon an ale-bench; they know and keep their distance and decorum, as still carrying with them a sense of honour, and abhorring to act beneath it: But we equalise our high and noble souls in the manner of life with the beasts that perish. Our tables differ little from the crib At which they feed; or our houses from the stalls and stable, in which they lie down to rest, in respect of any divine worship or heavenly communication that is to be heard there. Happy had it been for such men (if so they live and die) that their souls had been of no higher extraction, or larger capacity, or longer duration than that of a beast: for then, as their comforts, so also their miseries had ended at death. And such they will one day wish they had been.
A separate soul immediately capable of blessedness.
Inf. 2. The soul of man being substance, and not depending in its being on the body or any other fellow-creature, There can be no reason, on the souls account, why its blessedness should be delayed: till the resurrection of the body.
It is a great mistake (and it is well it is so) that the soul is capable only of social glory, or a blessedness in partnership with the body: and that it can neither exert its own powers, nor enjoy its own happiness in the absence of the body. The opinion of a sleeping interval took its rise from this error (as it is usual for one mistake to beget another;) they conceived the soul to be so dependent on the body, at least in all its operations, that when death rends it from the body, it must needs be left in a swoon or sleep, unable to exert its proper powers, or enjoy that felicity which we ascribe to it in its state of separation.
But certainly its substantial nature being considered, it will
be found, that what perfection soever the body receives from the
soul, and how necessary soever its dependence upon it is, the soul
receives not its perfection from the body, nor doth it necessarily
depend on it, in its principal operations; but it can live and act
out of a body as well as in it. Yea, I doubt not but it enjoys
itself in a much more sweet and perfect liberty than ever it did,
or could, while it was clogged and fettered with a body of flesh.
"Doubtless, (says Tertullian) when it is separated, and as it were
strained by death, it comes out of darkness into its own pure,
perfect light, and quickly finds itself a substantial being, able
to act freely in that light." Before the eyes of the dead body are
closed, I doubt not, but the believing soul, with open eyes,
beholdeth the face of Jesus Christ,
Inf. 3. The souls of men being created immediately out of no thing, and not seminally traduced; it follows, That all souls by nature are of equal value and dignity; one soul is not more excellent, honourable, or precious than another: but all by nature equally precious.
The soul of the poorest beggar that cries at the door for a crust, is, in its own nature, of equal dignity and value with the soul of the most glorious monarch that sits upon the throne. And this appears to be so,
1. Because all souls flow out of one and the same fountain, viz.
the creating power of God. They were not made of better or worse,
finer or coarser matter, but "ek me onton", out of nothing at all.
The same Almighty Power was put forth to the forming of one, as of
another. All souls are mine, says he that created them,
2. All souls are created with a capacity of enjoying the infinite and blessed God. They need no other powers, faculties, or capacities than they are by nature endued with (if these be sanctified and devoted to God) to make them equally happy and blessed with them that are now before the throne of God in heaven, and with unspeakable delight and joy behold his blessed face. We pass through the fields, and take up an egg which lies under a clod, and see nothing in it but a little squalid matter; yea, but in that egg is seminally and potentially contained such a melodious lark as, it may be, at the same time we see mounting heavenward, and singing delicious notes above. So it is here, these poor despised souls, that are now lodged in crazy, despicable bodies on the earth, have, in their natures, a capacity for the same employments and enjoyments with those in heaven. They have no higher original than these have, and these have the same capacity and ability with them. They are beings improveable by grace, to the highest perfections attainable by any creature. If thou be never so mean, base, and despicable a creature in other respects, yet thou hast a soul, which has the same alliance to the Father of spirits, the same capacity to enjoy him in glory, that the most excellent and renowned saints ever had.
3. All souls are rated and valued in God's book, and account, at
one and the same price; and therefore by nature are of equal worth
and dignity. Under the law, the rich and the poor were to give the
same ransom,
But yet we must not understand this parity of human souls
universally, or in all respects. Though being of one species or
common nature, they are all equal, and those of them that are
purchased by the blood of Christ are all purchased at one rate; yet
there are divers other respects and considerations, wherein there
are remarkable differences betwixt soul and soul. As, (1.) Some
souls are much better lodged and accommodated in their bodies than
others are, though none dwell at perfect rest and ease. God has
lodged some souls in strong, vigorous, comely bodies; others in
feeble, crazy, deformed, and uncomfortable ones. The historian says
of Galba, Anima Galae male habitat; the soul of Galba dwelt in an
ill body. And a much better man than Galba was as ill accommodated.
John wishes in behalf of his beloved Gaius, that his body might but
prosper as his soul did, Epistle iii. ver. 2. Timothy had his often
infirmities. Indeed the world is full of instances and examples of
this kind. If some souls had the advantages of such bodies as
others have, who make little or very bad use of them; oh, what
service would they do for God! (2.) There is a remarkable
difference also betwixt soul, and soul, in respect of natural gifts
and abilities of mind. Some have great advantages above others in
this respect. The natural spirits and organs of the body being more
brisk and apt, the soul is more vegete, vigorous, and able to exert
itself in its functions and operations. How clear, nimble, and
firm, are the apprehensions, fancies, and memories of some souls
beyond others! What a prodigy of memory, fancy, end judgement, was
father Paul the Venetian! and Suarez, of whom Strada says, "Such
was the strength of his parts, that he had all St. Augustine's
works (the most copious and various of all the fathers) as it were
by heart, so that I have seen him, says he, readily pointing with
the finger to any place or page he disputed of." Our Dr. Reynolds
excelled this way, to the astonishment of all that knew him, so
that he was a living library, a third university. But above all,
the character given by Vives of Budaeus is amazing, That there was
nothing written in Greek or Latin, which he had not turned over and
examined; that both languages were alike to him, speaking either
with more facility than he did the French, his mother tongue; and
all by the penetrating force of his own natural parts, without a
tutor; so that the France never brought forth a man of sharper wit,
more piercing judgement, exact diligence, and greater learning,
nor, in his time, Italy itself. Foelix et foecundum ingenium, quiod
in se uo invenit, et doctorem, et discipulum! A happy and fruitful
life, which in itself found both a master and a scholar! And yet
Pasquier relates what is much more admirable of a young man, who
came to Paris, in the 20th year of his age, and in the year 1445,
shewed himself so excellent and exact in all the arts, sciences,
and languages, that if a man of an ordinary good wit, and sound
constitution, should live an hundred years, and during that time
study incessantly, without eating, drinking, sleeping, or any
recreation, he could hardly attain to that perfection. (3.) And yet
a far greater difference is made between one soul and another, by
the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God. This makes yet a greater
disparity; for it alters and new-moulds the frame and temper of the
soul, and restores the lost image of God to it; by reason whereof
the righteous is truly said to be "more excellent than his
neighbour,"
Inf. 4. If God be the immediate Creator, and former of the soul of man, Then sin must needs involve the most unnatural evil in it, as it is an horrid violation of the very law Of nature. No title can be so full, so absolute, as that which creation gives. How clear is this in the light of reason? If God created my soul, then my soul had once no being at all: that it had still remained nothing, had not the pleasure of its Creator chosen and called it into the being it has, out of the millions of mere possible beings: for as there are millions of possible beings, which yet are nothing; so there are millions of possible beings, which never shall be at all. So that since the pleasure and power of God were the only fountain of my being, he must needs be the rightful owner of it. What can be more his own, than that whose very being flowed merely from him, and which had never been at all, had he not called it out of nothing?
And seeing the same pleasure of God, which gave it a being, gave it also a reasonable being, capable of and fitted for moral government, by laws which other inferior natures are incapable of; it must needs follow that he is the supreme Governor, as well as the rightful owner of this soul.
Moreover, it is plain that he who gave my soul its being, and such a being, gave it also all the good it ever had, has, or shall have: and that it neither is, nor has any thing but what is purely from him: and therefore he must needs be my most bountiful benefactor, as well as absolute Owner, and supreme Governor. There is not a soul which he has created but stands bound to him, in all these ties and titles. Now for such a creature to turn rebelliously upon its absolute Owner, whose only, and wholly it is; upon its supreme Governor, to whom it owes entire and absolute obedience; upon its bountiful Benefactor, from whom it has received all, and every mercy it ever had, or has; to violate his laws, slight his sovereignty, despise his goodness, contemn his threatenings, pierce his very heart with grief, darken the glory of all his attributes, confederate with Satan his malicious enemy; and strike, as far as a creature can strike, at his very being (for in a sense, Omne peccatum est Deicidium, every sin strikes at the life and very existence of God): Blush, O heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid! O cursed sin, the evil of all evils, which no epithet can match; no name worse than its own can be invented, sinful sin. This is as if some venomous branch should drop poison upon the root that bears it. Love and gratitude to benefactors, is an indelible principle engraven by nature upon the hearts of all men. It teacheth children to love and honour their parents, who yet are but mere instruments of their being. O how just must their perdition be, who casting off the very bonds of nature, turn again with enmity against that God, in whom they both live, and move, and have their being! O think, and think again, on what a holy man once said; What a sad charge will this be against many a man at the great day, when God shall say, Hadst thou been made a dog, I never had had so much dishonour as I have had? It is pity God should not have honour from the meanest creature that ever he made, from every pile of grass in the field, or stone in the street; much more that he should not have glory from a soul more precious and excellent than all the other works of his hands. Surely it is better for us, our souls had still remained only in the number of possible beings, and had never had an actual existence in the second rank of beings, but a very little lower than the angels; than that we should be still dishonouring God by them. O that he should be put to levy his glory from us passively; that it should be with us as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, from whom God had more glory when he was driven out amongst the beasts of the field, than when he sat on the throne. In like manner, his glory will rise passively from us, when driven out among devils, and not actively and voluntarily, as from the saints.
Infer. 5. If God create and inspire the reasonable soul immediately, this should instruct and incite all Christian parents to pray earnestly for their children, not only when they are born into the world, but when they are at first conceived in the womb.
It is of great concernment both to us and our children, not only to receive them from the womb, with bodies perfectly and comely fashioned; but also with such souls inspired into them, whereby they may glorify God to all eternity. It is natural to parents to desire to have their children full and perfect in all their bodily members; and it would be a grievous affliction to see them come into the world defective, monstrous, and misshapen births; should a leg, an arm, an eye be wanting, such a defect would make their lives miserable, and the parents uncomfortable. But how few are concerned with what soul they are born into the world? "Good God, (says Musculus,) how few shall we find, who are equally solicitous to have such children as may live piously and honestly, as they are to leave them inheritances upon which they may live splendidly and bravely?" It pleaseth us to see our own image stamped upon their bodies; but, O! how few pray, even while they are in the womb, that their souls may, in due time, bear the image of the heavenly, and not animate and use the members of their bodies, as weapons of unrighteousness against the God that formed them?
Certainly, except they be quickened with such souls, as may in
this world be united with Christ, better had it been for them that
they had perished in the womb, while they were pure embryo's and
had never come into the number and account of men and women; for
such embryo’s go for nothing in the world, having only
rudiments and rough draughts of bodies, never animated and informed
by a reasonable soul,
Think on this particularly, you that are mothers of children, when you find the fruit of the womb quickened within you, that you then bear a creature within you of more value than all this visible world; a creature, upon whom, from that very moment, an eternity of happiness or misery is entailed; and therefore it concerns you to travail as in pain for their souls, before you feel the sorrows and pangs of travail for their bodies. O what a pity is it, that a part of yourselves should eternally perish! that so rare and excellent a creature as that you bear, should be cast away for ever, for want of a new creation super added to that it has already! O let your cries and prayers for them anticipate your kisses and embraces of them. If you be faithful and successful herein, then happy is the womb that bears them; if not, happy had it been for them, that the knees had prevented them, and the breasts they have sucked. O! ye cannot begin your suits for mercy too early for them, nor continue them too long, though your prayers measure all the time betwixt their conception and their death.
Inf. 6. Moreover, if God has created our souls vital substances to animate and act those bodies, How indispensably necessary is it that such a principle of spiritual life do quicken and govern that soul which quickens and governs our bodies and all the members of them? Otherwise, though in a natural sense, we have living souls, yet they are dead while they live.
The apostle, in
Inf. 7. Moreover, from the immaterial and spiritual nature of the soul, we are informed, That communion with God, and the enjoyment of him, are the true and proper intentions and purposes for which the soul of man as created.
Such a nature as this is not fitted to live upon gross,
material, and perishing things as the body doth. The food of every
creature is agreeable to its nature; one cannot subsist upon that
which another doth: as we see among the several sorts of animals,
what is food to one, is none to another. In the same plant is found
a root which is food for swine, a stalk which is food for sheep, a
flower which feeds the bee, a seed on which the bird lives: the
sheep cannot live upon the root, as the swine do; nor the bird upon
the flower as the bee doth: but every one feeds upon the different
parts of the plant which are agreeable to its nature. So it is
here, our bodies being of an earthly, material nature, can live
upon things earthly and material, as most agreeable to them; they
can relish and suck out the sweetness of these things; but the soul
can find nothing in them suitable to its nature and appetite; it
must have spiritual food, or perish. It were therefore too brutish
and unworthy of a man that understood the nature of his own soul to
cheer it up with the stores of earthly provision made for it, as he
did,
Inf. 8. The spiritual nature of the soul farther informs us, That no acceptable service can be performed to God, except the soul be employed and engaged therein.
The body has its part and share in God's worship as well as the
soul; but its part is inconsiderable, in comparison,
No doubt but the service of the body is due to God, and expected
by him: for both the souls and bodies of his people are bought with
a price, and therefore he expects we glorify him with our souls and
bodies which are his: but the service of the body is not accepted
of him otherwise than it is animated and enlivened by an obedient
soul, and both sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Separate from
these, bodily exercise profits nothing,
Holy Paul appeals to God in this matter;
Inf. 9. How much are the spirits of men sunk by sin, below the dignity and excellency of their nature?
Our souls are spirits by nature, yet have they naturally no
delight in things spiritual: they decline that which is homogeneal
and suitable to spirits, and relish nothing but what is carnal and
unsuitable to them. How are its affections inverted and misplaced
by sin! That noble, spiritual, heaven-born creature the soul, whose
element and centre God alone should be, is now fallen into a deep
oblivion both of God and itself, and wholly spends its strength in
the pursuit of sensual and earthly enjoyments, and becomes a mere
drudge and slave to the body. Carnal things now measure out and
govern its delights and hopes, its fears and sorrows. O! how
unseemly is it to behold such a high-born spirit lacqueying up and
down the world in the service of the perishing flesh. "Their heart
(says the prophet) goeth after their covetousness,
O how many are there to be found in every place who melt down
the precious affections and strength of their souls, in sensitive
brutish pleasures and delights?
Our creation did not set us so low; we are made capable of better and higher things.
God did not inspire such a noble, excellent, spiritual soul unto us, merely to salt our bodies, or carry them up and down this world for a few years, to gaze at the vanities of it. It was a great saying of an Heathen, I am greater, and born to greater things, "than that I should be a slave to my body." We have a spirit about us, that might better understand its original, and know it is not so base a being, as its daily employments speak it to be. The Lord raise our apprehensions to a due value of the dignity of our own souls, that we may turn from these sordid employments with a generous disdain, and set our affections on what is agreeable to, and worthy of an high born spirit.
Inf. 10. Is the soul of man a vital, spiritual, and immortal substance? Then it is no wonder, that we find the resentments and impressions of the world to come, naturally engraven upon the souls of men all the world over. These impressions and sentiments of another life after this, do as naturally and necessarily spring out of an immortal nature, as branches spring out of the body of a tree, or feathers out of the body of a bird. So fairly and firmly are the characters and impressions of the life to come sealed upon the immortal spirits of all men, that no man can offer violence to this truth, but he must also do violence to his own soul, and unman himself by the denial of it. Who feels not a cheeriness to spring from his absolving, and an horror from his accusing conscience? neither of which could arise from any other principle than this. We are beings conscious to ourselves of a future state, and that our souls do not vanish when our breath doth: that we cease not to be when we cease to breathe.
And this is common to the most barbarous and savage Heathens: "They shew (says the apostle) the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences also bearing them witness, and their thoughts in the meantime accusing, or else excusing one another." By the work of the law, understand the sum and substance of the ten commandments, comprising the duties to be done, and the sins to be avoided. This work of the law is said to be written upon the hearts of the Gentiles, who had no external written law; upon their hearts it was written, though many of them gave themselves over to all uncleanness; and they shewed or gave evidence and proof, that there was such a law written upon their hearts. They shewed it two ways: (1.) Some of them shewed it in their temperance, righteousness, and moral honesty, wherein they excelled many of us, who have far greater advantages and obligations. (2.) In the efficacy of their consciences; which, as it cleared and comforted them for things well done: so it witnessed against them, yea, judged and condemned them for things ill done. And these evidences of a law written on the heart are to be found, wherever men are to be found. Their ignorance and barbarity cannot stifle these sentiments and impressions of a future state, and a just tribunal to which all must come. And the universality of it plainly evinces, that it springs not out of education, but the very nature of an immortal soul.
Let none say that these universal impressions are but the effects of an universal tradition, which have been, time out of mind, spread among the nations of the world: for as no such universal tradition can be proved; so if it could, the very propension that is found in the minds of all men living, to embrace and close with the proposals of a life to come, will evince the agreeableness of them to the nature of an immortal soul. Yea, the natural closing of the soul with these proposals, will amount to an evidence of the reality and existence of those invisible things. For as the natural senses and their organs prove that there are colours, sounds, savours, and juices; as well as, or rather because there are eyes, ears, &c. naturally fitted to close with; and receive them; so it is here, if the soul naturally looks beyond the line of time, to things eternal, and cannot bound and confine its thoughts and expectations within the too narrow limits of present things, surely there is such a future state, as well as souls made apprehensive of it, and propense to close with the discoveries thereof. So natural are the notions of future state to the souls of men, that those who have set themselves designedly to banish them, and struggled hard to suppress them, as things irksome and grievous to them, giving interruption to their sensual lusts and pleasures; yet still these apprehensions have returned upon them, and gotten a just victory over all their objections and prejudices; they follow them wheresoever they go; they can no more flee from them than from themselves; whereby they evidence themselves to be natural and indelible things.
Inf. 11. Has God endued the soul of man with understanding, will, and affections, whereby it is made capable of knowing, loving, and enjoying God? It is then no wonder to find the malice and envy of Satan engaged against man more than any other creature, and against the soul of man, rather than any thing else in man.
It grates that Spirit of envy to see the soul of man adorning
and preparing, by sanctification, to fill that place in glory from
which he fell irrecoverably. It cut Haman to the very heart, to see
the honour that was done to Mordecai; much more doth it grate and
gall Satan, to see what Jesus Christ has purchased and designed for
the souls of men. Other creatures being naturally incapable of this
happiness, do therefore escape his fury; but men shall be sure to
feel it as far as he can reach them;
Inf. 12. Upon the consideration both of its excellent nature and divine original, it follows, That the corruption and defacing of such an excellent creature by sin deserves to be lamented and greatly bewailed; and the recovery of it by sanctification to he studied and diligently prosecuted, as the great concern of all men.
What a beautiful and blessed creature was the soul of man at
first, while it stood in its integrity? His mind was bright, clear,
and apprehensive of the law and will of God; his will cheerfully
complied therewith; his sensitive appetite and inferior powers
stood in an obedient subordination. God made man upright,
But sin has defaced its beauty, razed out the Divine image which
was its glory, and stamped the image of Satan upon it; turned all
its noble powers and faculties against the author and fountain of
its being. Surely if all the posterity of Adam, from the beginning
to the end of the world, should do nothing else but weep and sigh
for the sin and misery of the fall, it could not be sufficiently
deplored: Other sins, like single bullets, kill particular persons,
but Adam's sin, like a chain-shot, mowed down all mankind at once.
It murdered himself actually, and his posterity virtually, and
Christ himself occasionally. Oh! what a black train of doleful
consequents attend this sin! It has darkened the bright eye of the
soul’s understanding,
How should this consideration provoke us to apply ourselves with the most serious diligence to recover our lost beauty and dignity in the way of sanctification! This is the great and most proper use of the fall, as Musculus excellently speaks; — ut gratiam Christi eo subnixiusa ambimus, to inflame our desires the more vehemently after grace.
Sanctification restores the beauty of the soul, which sin
defaced,
All moral virtues, homilitical qualities, which adorn and
beautify nature, and make it attractive and lovely in the eyes of
men, are but separable accidents, which death discinds and crops
off like a sweet flower from the stalk,
Inf. 13. To conclude. Upon the consideration of the whole matter before us, if this excellent creature, the soul, receive both its being and excellencies from God; Then he that formed it must needs have the full, and only right to possess and use it, and is therefore most injuriously kept out of the possession of it by unsanctified and disobedient persons.
The soul of man is a building of God; He has laid out the
treasures of his wisdom, power, and goodness in this noble
structure, he built it for an habitation for himself to dwell in;
and indeed such noble rooms as the understanding, will, and
affections, are too good for any other to inhabit. But sin has set
open the gates of this hallowed temple, and let in the abomination
which maketh desolate. All the doors of the soul are barred and
chained up against Christ, by ignorance and infidelity; he seeks
for admission into the soul which he made, but findeth none. A
forcible entry he will not make; but expects when the will shall
bring him the keys of the soul, as to its rightful owner. So he
expresseth himself to us in
O the admirable condescension of God to poor sinners! The God that formed you with a word, and can as easily ruin you with a frown, yet waits at the gates of your souls for admission into them. There be many souls within the sound of this complaint, that have kept God out of his own right all their days. They have shut out Jesus Christ, and delivered up their souls to Satan: If he but knock by a slight temptation, the door is presently opened; but Jesus Christ may wait in vain upon them from sabbath to sabbath, and from year to year: But the longest day of his patience has an end; and there is a refusal of grace, after which no more tenders of mercy shall ever be made.
What say you, Souls? Will you at last open the door to Jesus
Christ, or will you still exclude him? If you will open to him, he
will not come empty-handed, he will bring a feast with him, such a
feast as you never tasted any thing like it in your lives: But, if
you will not open to him, then I call heaven and earth to witness
against you this day, that you have once barred the doors of your
soul against him, whose pleasure and power gave them their very
beings; against him who is their sovereign Lord, and rightful
Owner. And consequently this act of yours must stop your mouths,
and deprive you of all pleas and apologies when you shall knock
here after at the door of mercy, and God shall ever shut it up
against you, according to his just, but dreadful threatenings,
Having taken a view of this excellent creature, the soul, in opening the former proposition: we come next to the consideration of its union with the body, in this second proposition.
Doct. 2: That the souls and bodies of men are knit together, by the feeble band of the breath in their nostrils.
"There is (says a learned man) no greater mystery in nature, than the union betwixt the soul and body; that a mind and spirit should be so tied and linked with a clod of clay, that while that remains in a due temper, it cannot by any art or power free itself. It can by an act of the will move an hand, or a foot, or the whole body, but cannot move from it one inch. If it move hither, or thither, or by a leap upward do ascend a little, the body still follows it: it cannot shake or throw it off. We cannot take ourselves out; by any allowable means we cannot; nor by any at all (that are at least, within mere human power) as long as the temperament lasts. While that remains, we cannot go; if that fail, we cannot stay; though there be so many open avenues, (could we suppose any material bounds to hem in, or exclude a spirit) we cannot go out or in at pleasure. A wonderful thing! and I wonder we no more wonder at our own make and frames in this respect. - What, so much a-kin are a mind and a piece of earth, a clod and a thought, that they should be thus affixed to one another?"
My design here is to shew by what ligament, tie, or bond, it has pleased the great and wise Creator, to affix and link these so different parts of man together: And this Moses in the text tells us, is no other but the breath of his nostrils.
The breath and soul of man are two distinct things. His breath
is not his soul, nor his soul his breath, but the nexus or bond
that couples and unites his soul and body in a personal union. The
body has no life in itself, but its life results from its union
with the soul,
That little quantity of air, which we thus breathe in and out at our nostrils, is more to us, than all the three regions of air, which fill up the vast space between earth and heaven. It is, in a sense, our life.
For this use and office of respiration, the lungs were formed and placed where they are, not without the most wise counsel and direction of God. They are that organ in the body, which, by the help of that artery celled arteria trachea, leading to them as channel, for the passage of air from the mouth and nostrils, the air is transmitted to, and ventilated by them for the refreshment of the heart, and exhaling the fumes thereof.
The heart has continual need of such a vent and refreshment; and therefore the lungs, like a pair of bellows, must be kept continually going. No longer than breath is going, is the heart a dying; that which stops the one, suffocates the other.
And here we may, with admiration, contemplate the wonders by which our lives are continued. These lungs are the most frail and tender part of the body, and kept in continual motion and agitation; yet are made serviceable for seventy or eighty years together, which is the wonder of Providence. Were a piece of brass, or iron or steel kept in continual and incessant use, it would not endure half the time. In a word, the heart, that noble part of the body, is the shop wherein the spirits are laboured and prepared, which therefore is in continual motion and heat; and so needs continual cooling and refreshing. We can live no longer than it labours, it can labour no longer than it is refreshed and cooled by respiration.
God has therefore prepared the lungs for this service; which being of a thin, porous, and spungy substance, can easily be dilated and contracted. By dilating themselves, they attract and suck in the air into themselves; first duly to prepare and temper it, and then communicate it to the heart for its refreshment; which being quickly heated in the heart, is again breathed out by the lungs, by contracting themselves again. This double motion of inspiration and expiration, we call respiration; and this respiration is the bond that holds our souls and bodies together.
And indeed, this is but a feeble bond, a very slender and weak
thread, which holds our souls and bodies in union. What more
volatile, evanid and uncertain than a puff of breath? The nostrils
are the outer door of the body, our breath is continually in our
nostrils; and how soon may that depart, which is day and night at
the door, as if it were still taking leave of us? Our breath is
always going; and what is still going, will be gone at last. How
small a difference is there betwixt respiration and expiration, a
breathing and a breathless lump of clay? Breath cannot continue
long, and life cannot stay a moment behind it,
Some conceive Solomon points at the continual motion of the
lungs, in that figurative and elegant description of the death of
man,
1. In respect of our breathing instruments.
2. Or of breath-stopping accidents.
1. Great is the frailty of our breathing instruments. What is
flesh but weakness? even the most solid and substantial; it is as
fading grass,
2. There are a multitude of breath-stopping accidents, which may, and daily do bent the last breath out of men's nostrils, before any decay of nature cause it to expire.
Many mortal diseases are incident to these frail and tender parts. Phtysics, interneations, ulcers, easily bar the passage of our breath there; yea, and slighter accidents, which immediately touch not that part, are sufficient to stop our breath, and dislodge our souls. A fly, a gnat, the stone of a raisin, a crumb of bread, have often done it. There is not a pore in the body but is a door large enough to let in death, nor a creature so despicably small but is strong enough (if God commission it) to serve a writ of ejection upon the soul: The multitudes of diseases are so many lighted candles put to this slender thread of our breath, besides the infinite diversity of external accidents by which multitudes daily perish. So that there are as great and astonishing wonders in our preservation as in our creation.
Inf. 1. How admirable then is the mystery of providence in the daily continuation of the breath of our nostrils?
That our breath is yet in our nostrils, is only from hence, that
he who breathed it into them at first is our life, and the length
of our days, as it is
It is neither food nor physic, but God in and by them, that
"holdeth our souls in life",
We live in the midst of cruel enemies, yea, "among them that
breathe out cruelty," as the psalmist complaineth,
Inf. 2. Is it but a puff of feeble breath which holds our souls and bodies in union? Then every man is deeply concerned to make all haste, to take all possible care and pains to secure a better and, more durable habitation for his soul in heaven, while yet it sojourns in this frail tabernacle of the body.
The time is at hand, when all these comely and active bodies shall be so many breathless carcases, no more capable of any use or service for our souls than the seats you sit on, or the dead bodies that lie under your feet. Your breath is yet in your nostrils, and all the means and seasons of salvation will expire with it; and then it will be as impossible for the best minister in the world to help your souls, as for the ablest Physician to recover your bodies. As physic comes too late for the one, so counsels and persuasions for the other.
Three things are worth thinking on this matter.
1. That you are not without the hopes and possibilities of salvation, while the breath of life is in your nostrils. A mercy, (how lightly soever you value it) that would ravish with joy those miserable souls that have already shot the gulf of eternity, and turn the shrieks and groans of the damned unto joyful shouts and acclamations of praise. Poor wretch, consider what thou readest; that thy soul is not yet in Christ, is thy greatest misery; but that yet it may be in Christ, is an unspeakable mercy; though thy salvation be not yet secured, yet what a mercy is it that it is not desperate?
2. When this uncertain breath is once expired, the last hope of
every unregenerate person is gone for ever: It is as impossible to
recover hope as it is to recover your departed breath, or recall
the day that is past. When the breath is gone, the compositum is
dissolved; we cease to be what we now are, and our life is as water
spilt on the ground which shall not be gathered up till the
resurrection. Our life is carried like a precious liquor in a
brittle glass, which death breaks to pieces. The spirit is
immediately presented to God, and fixed in its unalterable state,
3. And since matters stand thus, it is to be admired what shift men make to quiet themselves in so dangerous a state as most souls live in; quiet and unconcerned, and yet but one puff of breath betwixt them and hell! O the stupefying and besotting nature of sin! O the efficacy and power of spiritual delusions! Are our lives such a throng and hurry of business that we have no time to go alone and think where we are, and where we shortly must be? What shall I say? If bodily concerns be so weighty, and the matters of eternity such trifles; if meat and drink, and trade and children be such great things, and Christ, and the soul, and heaven, hell, and the world to come such little things in your eyes, you will not be long in that opinion I dare assure you.
Inf. 3. Is the tie so weak betwixt our souls and bodies? How close and near then do all our souls confine and border upon eternity?
There is no more than a puff of breath, a blast of wind betwixt this world and that to come. A very short step betwixt time and eternity: There is a breath which will be our last breath: respiration must, and will terminate in expiration: The dead are the inhabitants, and the living are borderers upon the invisible world. This consideration deserves a dwelling place in the hearts of all men whether,
I. Regenerate, or
II. Unregenerate.
I. Regenerate souls should ponder this with pleasure. O it is
transporting to think how small a matter is betwixt them and their
complete salvation. No sooner is your breath gone, but the full
desire of your hearts is come; every breath you draw, draws you a
degree nearer to your perfect happiness;
It is transporting to think how near you approach the region of light and joy. O that you would distinctly consider,
1. Where you lately were.
2. Where now you are.
3. Where shortly you shall be.
1. You that are now so near salvation, were lately very near unto damnation, there was but a puff of breath betwixt you and hell. How many nights did you sleep securely in the state of nature and unregeneracy? How quietly did you rest upon the brink of hell, not once imagining the danger you were in? Had any of those sicknesses you then suffered, been suffered by God, like a candle, to burn asunder this slender thread of life which was so near them, you had been as miserable, and as hopeless as those that now are roaring in the lowest hell. I have heard of one that rid over a dangerous bridge in the night, who, upon the review of that place, fell into a swoon, when he was sensible of that danger which the darkness of the night hid from him. O reader, shall not an escape from hell affect thee as much as such an escape would do?
2. It is no less marvellous to consider where you now are; you
that were afar off are now made nigh,
3. And yet you have more room for joy, while you consider where
you must, and shall shortly be. You are now in Christ, but in a few
days you shall be with Christ as well as in him; it is well now,
but it will be better ere long. Your sin is now fully pardoned, but
not fully purged out of your souls. Your persons are freed from
guilt, but your hearts are not either freed from filth or grief:
But in a little time you shall be absolutely and eternally freed
from both. Your present condition is in heaven, compared with your
former, and your future state will be in heaven indeed, compared
with your present. "The path of the just is as the shining light,
which shineth more and more unto the perfect day,"
II. But on the other side, what meditation can be more startling and amazing to all the unregenerate and christless world? Ponder it, thou poor christless and unsanctified soul. Get thee out of the noise and clamour of this world, which make such a continual din in thine ears, and consider how thou hangest over the mouth of hell itself, by the feeble thread which is spun every moment out of thy nostrils; as soon as that gives way, thou art gone for ever. What shift do you make to quiet your fears, and eat, drink, and labour with any pleasure? It is storied of Dionysius the tyrant, that when Damocles would have flattered him into a conceit of the perfection of his happiness, as he was an absolute sovereign prince, and could do what he pleased with others, as his vassals; Dionysius, to confute his fancy, caused him to be placed at a table richly furnished, and attended with the most curious music, but just over his head hanged a sharp and heavy sword by one single hair; which when Damocles saw, no meat would go down with him, but he earnestly begged for a discharge from that place. This is the lively emblem of thy condition, thou unregenerate man.
There are three things in thy state, sadly opposed to the former state last described.
1. The state you were born in, was bad.
2. The state you are now in, is worse.
3. The state you shall shortly be in, if you thus continue, will be unspeakably the worst of all.
I. The state you were born in was a sad state; you were born in
sin,
2. The state you are in now is much worse than that you were
born in; for what have you been doing ever since you were born, but
treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath?
3. It will be much worse shortly than it is now, except preventing, renewing grace step in betwixt you and that wrath, into which you are hastening so fast. It is sad to be under the sentence of condemnation, but unspeakably worse to be under the execution of that sentence. To be a christless man is lamentable, but to be a hopeless man is more lamentable. For though you be now without Christ, yet while the breath of life is in your nostrils, you are not absolutely without hope. But when once that breath is gone, all the world cannot save or help you. Your last breath and your last hope expire together. Though you be under God’s damning sentence, yet that sentence, through the riches of forbearance, is not executed; but as soon as you die, all that wrath which hanged over your heads so many years, in the black clouds of God's threatenings, will pour down in a furious storm upon you, which will never break up while God is God. O! think, and think again, and let your thoughts think close to this sad and solemn subject, there is but a breath betwixt you and hell.
Inf. 4. Doth God maintain your life by breath? Let not that breath destroy your life, which God gave to preserve it.
No man can live without breath; and yet some might live longer
than they do, if their breath were better employed. "Some
men’s throats have been cut by their own tongues," as the
Arabian proverb intimates. Life and death (says Solomon) are in the
power of the tongue. Critics observe, that a word and a plague grow
upon the same root in the Hebrew tongue. It is certain, that some
men's breath has been baneful poison both to themselves and others.
It was a word that cut off the life of Adonijah,
And the more evil the times are, the stricter guard we should
keep upon our lips. "It is an evil time, the prudent will keep
silence,"
Inf. 5. Employ not that breath to the dishonour of God, which was first given, and is still graciously maintained by him for your comfort and good.
It were better you had never breathed at all, than to spend your
breath in profane oaths, or foolish and idle chat, whereby at once,
you wound the name of God, draw guilt upon your own souls, and help
on the ruin of others. That is a startling text,
To give an account, is here, by a metalepsis of the antecedent for the consequent, put for punishment in hell-fire, without an intervening change of heart, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.
And there is more evil in this abuse of our breath, than we can easily discern, especially upon two accounts; (1.) Because it is a sin most frequently committed, and seldom repented of. The intercourse betwixt the heart and tongue is quick, and the sense of the evil as easily and quickly passeth away. (2.) Because the poisonous and malignant influence thereof abides and continues long after: our words may do mischief to others, not only a long time after they are spoken, but a long time after the tongue that spake them is turned to dust. How many years may a foolish or filthy word, a profane scoff, an atheistical expression, stick in the minds of them that heard them, after the speaker's death. A word spoken is physically transient, and passed away with the breath that delivered it; but morally, it is permanent: For as to its moral efficacy, no more is required, but its objective existence in the minds and thoughts of them that once heard it: And, upon that very ground, Suarez argues for a general judgement, after men at death have passed their particular judgement; because (says he) long after that, abundance of good and evil will be done in this world by the dead, in the persons of others that over-live them. For look, as it was said of Abel, that being dead, he yet speaketh; so it may be said of Julian, Porphyry, and multitudes of scoffing Atheists, that being dead, they yet speak. Oh, therefore, get a sanctified heart to season your breath, that it may minister grace to the hearers.
Inf. 6. Let your breath promote the spiritual life of others, as well as maintain the natural life in yourselves.
Though the maintaining of your natural life be one end why God
gave you breath, yet it is not the only, or principal end of it.
Your breath must be food to others, as well as life to you;
Surely, whether we consider the invaluable worth and preciousness of souls, the benefits you have had from the breath of others yourselves, the innate property of grace, wherever it is, to diffuse and communicate itself, how short a time you have to breathe, and how comfortable it will be, when you breathe your last, to remember how it has been employed for God; all this should open your lips to counsel, reprove, and comfort others, as often as opportunity is ministered.
Did Christ spend his blood for our souls, and shall not we spend our breath for them! Oh! let our lips dispense knowledge. If you will not spend your breath for God, how will you spend your blood for him? If you will not speak for him, I doubt you will not die for him. Away with a sullen reservedness, away with unprofitable chat; all subjects of discourse are not fit for a Christian's lips. It is a grave admonition God once gave his people by the pen of a faithful minister. "You may rue (says he) the opportunities you have lost. Here lay a poor wretch with one foot in hell; would he not have started back, if he had had light to discover his danger? Well, you are now together, something you must say; the same breath would serve for a compassionate admonition, as for a complacent impertinency, which will redound to the advantage of neither. You part, the man dies, and in the midst of hell cries out against you, one word of yours might have saved me; you had me in your reach, you might have told me my danger; you forebore, I hardened; the Lord reward your negligence."
Inf. 7. If breath be the tie betwixt soul and body, How are we concerned to improve, and draw forth the precious breath of ministers and Christians, while it is yet in their nostrils.
The breath of many ministers is judicially stopt already, their breath serves to little other use than to preserve their own lives; it will be stops ere long by death, and then those excellent treasures of gifts and graces, wherewith they are richly furnished, will be gone out of your reach, never to be further useful to your souls. You should do by them therefore (as one aptly speaks) as scholars do by some choice book they have borrowed, and must return in a few days to the owner: They diligently read it night and day, and carefully transcribe the most useful and excellent notes they can find in it, that they may make them their own, when the book is called out of their hands.
But alas! we rather divert, than draw forth these excellencies
that are in them. You may yet converse with them, and greatly
benefit yourselves by these converses; but (as one speaks) by the
stream of your impertinent talk, that season is neglected.
Afterwards You see your lack of knowledge, but then the instrument
is removed. How must it gall an awakened Jew, to think what
discourse he had with Jesus Christ! Is it lawful to give tribute to
Caesar? Why do not thy disciples fast? Oh! had I nothing else to
enquire of the Lord Jesus? Would it not have been here pertinent to
have asked, What shall I do to be saved? But he is gone, and I dead
in my sins. How many persons have we sent away, that had a word of
wisdom in their hearts, having only learnt from them what a clock
it is, what weather, or what news; forgetting to ask our own
hearts, what is all this to us? and to enquire of them things
worthy of their wisdom and experience. "Wherefore is there a price
in the hand of a fool, seeing he has no heart to it?"
Inf. 8. Are soul and body tacked together by so frail a thing as a puff of breath? How vain and groundless then are all those pleasures men take in their carnal projects and designs in this world?
We lay the plot and design of our future earthly felicity in our
own thoughts; we mould and contrive a design for a long and
pleasant life. The model for raising an estate is already formed in
our thoughts, and we have not patience to defer our pleasure till
the accomplishment of it, but presently draw a train of pleasing
consequents from this chimera, and our thoughts can stoop to
nothing less than sitting down all the remainder of our days in the
very lap of delight and pleasure; forgetting that our breath is all
the while in our nostrils, and may expire the next moment: and if
it do, the structure of all our expectations and projects comes to
nothing in the same moment. "His breath goeth forth, he returneth
to his dust: And in that very day his thoughts perish,"
It is become a common observation, that as soon as men have
accomplished their earthly designs, and begin to hug and bless
themselves in their own acquisitions, a sudden and unexpected
period is put to their lives and pleasures, as you may see
Oh then drive moderately; you will be at the end of all these
things sooner than you imagine. We need not victual a ship to cross
the channel, as they do that are bound to the Indies. "What is your
life? It is even a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and
then vanisheth away,"
Inf. 9. Is it but a puff of breath that holds men in life? The build not too much hope and confidence upon any man.
Build not too high upon so feeble a foundation. "Cease ye from
man (says the prophet) whose breath is ill his nostrils; for
wherein is he to be accounted of??
Let not parents raise their hopes too high, or lean too hard
upon their children. Say not of thy child, as Lamech did of Noah,
"This son shall comfort us,"
Inf. 10. To conclude; if this frail breath be all that
differenceth the living from the dead, then fear not man whose
breath is in his nostrils. There is as little ground for our fear
of man, as there is for our trust in man. As death, in a moment,
can make the best man useless, and put him out of a capacity to do
us any good; so it can in a moment make the worst man harmless, and
put him out of capacity to do us any injury. Indeed, if the breath
of our enemies were in their power, and ours at their mercy, there
would be just cause to tremble at them; but they are neither
masters of their own, nor ours. "Who art thou that thou shouldest
be afraid of a man that shall die?" said God to Jacob,
Julian's breath was soon stopt after he threatened to root out
the Galileans. Queen Mary resigned her breath at the very time when
she had filled the prisons with many of Christ's sheep, and
designed them for the slaughter. Read
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
Having from the former text, spoken of the nature of the soul, and the tie betwixt it and the body, I shall, from this scripture, evince the immortality of the soul, which is a chief part of its excellency and glory; and in this scripture it has a firm foundation.
This book of the Revelation completes and seals up the whole
sacred canon,
The first five seals express the state of the church under the bloody, persecuting, Heathen emperors.
SEAL 1
The first seal opened, ver. 2. gives the church a very encouraging and comfortable prospect of the victories, successes, and triumphs of Christ, notwithstanding the rage, subtlety, and power of all its enemies. He shall ride on conquering, and to conquer, and his arrows shall be sharp in the hearts of his enemies, whereby the people shall fall under him. And this cheering prospect was no more than was needful: For,
SEAL 2
The second seal opened, ver. 3, 4. represents the first bloody
persecution of the church under Nero, whom Tertullian calls
Dedicator damnationis nostrae: he that first condemned Christians
to the slaughter. And the persecution under him is set forth by the
type of a red horse, and a great sword in the hand of him that rode
thereon. His cruelty is by Paul compared to the mouth of a lion,
SEAL 3
The third seal opened, ver. 5, 6. sets forth the calamities
which should befal the church by famine; yet not so much a literal
as a figurative famine, as a grave and learned commentator expounds
it, like that mentioned,
SEAL 4
The fourth seal opened, ver. 7, 8. represents a much more sad and doleful state of the church; for under it are found all the former sufferings, with some new kinds of trouble super-added. Under this seal, Death rides upon the pale horse, and Hell, or the Grave, follows him. It is conceived to point at the persecution under Dioclesian, when the church was mowed down as a meadow.
SEAL 5
The fifth seal is opened in my text, under which the Lord Jesus represents to his servant John, the state and condition of those precious souls which had been torn and separated from their bodies, by the bloody hands of tyrants, for his name’s sake, under all the former persecutions. The design whereof is, to support and encourage all that are to come in the same bloody path. I saw under the altar, &c. In which we have an account,
1. We have an account of what he saw; "I saw the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held."
Souls, in this place, are not put for blood, or the dead carcasses of the saints who were slain, as some have groundlessly imagined; but are to be understood properly and strictly, for those spiritual and immortal substances, which once had a vital union with their bodies, but were now separated from them by a violent death; yet still retained a love and inclination to them, even in a state of separation; and therefore here brought in complaining of the shedding of their blood, and destruction of their bodies.
These souls (even of all that died for Christ, from Abel to that
time, John saw, that is, in spirit; for these immaterial substances
are not perceptible by the gross external senses. He had the
privilege and favour of a spiritual representation of them, being
therein extraordinarily assisted, as Paul was when his soul was
wrapt into the third heaven, and heard things unutterable,
(1.) That however men look upon the death of those persons, and
though they kill their names by slanders, as well as their persons
by the sword, yet, in God’s account, they die as sacrifices,
and their blood is no other than a drink-offering poured out to
God, which He highly prizeth, and graciously accepteth. Suitable
whereunto Paul’s expression is,
(2.) That the value and acceptation their death and blood-shed
have with God, are through Christ, and upon his account; for it is
the altar which sanctifieth the gift,
(3.) It informs us, that these holy souls, now in a state of separation from their bodies, were very near to Jesus Christ in heaven. They lay, as it were, at his foot.
Once more, they are here described to us by the cause of their sufferings and death in this world; and that was, "for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held;" i.e. They died in defence of the truths, or will of God revealed in his word, against the corruptions, oppositions, and innovations of men. As one of the Martyrs, that held up the Bible at the stake, said, This is it that brought me hither. They died not as malefactors, but as witnesses. They gave a threefold testimony to the truth; a lip testimony, a life testimony, and a blood testimony; while the hypocrite gives but one, and many Christians but two. Thus we have an account what John saw.
2. Next he tells us what he heard: and that was, (1.) A vehement cry from those souls to God. (2.) A gracious answer from God to them.
(1.) The cry which they uttered with a loud voice was this, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" A cry like that from the blood of Abel. Yet let it be remembered,
1. This cry does not imply these holy souls to be in a restless state, or to want true satisfaction and repose out of the body; nor yet,
2. That they carried with them to heaven any malevolent or
revengeful disposition: that which is principally signified by this
cry, is their vehement desire after the abolition of the kingdom of
Satan, and the completion and consummation of Christ’s
kingdom in this world; that those his enemies, which oppose his
kingdom, by slaying his saints, may be made his footstool: which is
the same thing Christ waits for in glory,
(2.) Here we find God’s gracious answer to the cry of these souls, in which he speaks satisfaction to them two ways:
1. By somewhat given them for present.
2. By somewhat promised them hereafter.
1. That which he gives them in hand; "White robes were given to
every one of them." It is generally agreed, that these white robes
given them, denote heavenly glory, the same which is promised to
all sincere and faithful ones, who preserve themselves pure from
the corruptions and defilements of the world,
2. And this is not all; but the very things they cry for shall be given them also after a little season; q. d. wait but a little while, till the rest that are to follow, in the same suffering path, be got through the red sea of martyrdom, as you are, and then you shall see the foot of Christ upon the necks of all his enemies, and justice shall fully avenge the precious, innocent blood of all the saints which in all ages has been shed for my sake; from the blood of Abel, to the last that shall ever suffer for righteousness sake in the world. From all which, this conclusion is most fair and obvious.
Doct. That the souls of men perish not with their bodies, but do
certainly over-live them, and subsist in a state of separation from
them.
The bodies of these Martyrs of Jesus were destroyed by divers sorts of torments, but their souls were out of the reach of all these cruel engines; they were in safety under the altar, and in glory clothed with their white robes, when their bodies they lately inhabited on earth, were turned to ashes, or torn to pieces by wild beasts.
The point I am to discourse from this scripture, is the immortality of the soul. For the better understanding whereof, let it be noted that there is a twofold immortality.
I. Simple, and absolute in its own nature.
II. Derived, dependent, and from the pleasure of God.
In the former sense, God only has immortality, as the apostle
speaks,
Argument 1
The first argument for proof of the soul’s immortality, may be taken from the simplicity, spirituality, and uncompoundedness of its nature; it is a pure, simple, unmixed being. Death is the dissolution of things compounded; where therefore no composition ar mixture is found, no death or dissolution can follow.
Death is the great divider, but it is of things that are divisible. The more simple, pure, and refined any material thing is, by so much the more permanent and durable it is found to be. The nearer it approaches to the nature of spirits, the farther it is removed from the power of death: but that which is not material, or mixed at all, is wholly exempt from the stroke and power of death. It is from the contrarient qualities, and jarring humours, in mixed bodies, that they come under the law and power of dissolution. Matter and mixture, are the doors at which death enters naturally upon the creatures.
But the soul of man is a simple, spiritual, immaterial, and unmixed being, not compounded of matter and form, as other creatures are, but void of matter, and altogether spiritual, as may appear in the vast capacity of its understanding faculty, which cannot be straitened by receiving multitudes of truths into it. It need not empty itself of what it had received before, to make way for more truth; nor doth it find itself clogged or burdened by the greatest multitudes or varieties of truths; but the more it knows, the more it still desires to know. Its capacity and appetite are found to enlarge themselves according to the increase of knowledge. So that to speak, as the matter is, If the knowledge of all arts, sciences, and mysteries of nature, could be gathered into the mind of one man, yet that mind could thirst, and even burn with desire after more knowledge, and find more room for it than it did when it first sipt, and relished the sweetness of truth. Knowledge, as knowledge, never burdens or cloys the mind; but like fire increases and enlarges, as it finds more matter to work upon. Now this could never be, if the soul were a material being. Take the largest vessel, and you shall find the more you pour into it, the less room is still left for more; and when it is fun, you cannot pour in one drop more, except you let out what was in it before. But the soul is no such vessel, it can retain all it had, and be still receptive of more; so that nothing can fill it, and satisfy it, but that which is infinite and perfect.
The natural appetite after food is sometimes sharp and eager, but then there is a stint and measure beyond which it craves not; but the appetite of the mind is more eager and unlimited; it never says till it come to rest in God, it is enough, because the faculty which produceth it, is more active, spiritual, and immaterial. All matter has its limits, bounds, and just measures, beyond which it cannot be extended. But the soul is boundless, and its appetition infinite; it rests not, but in the spiritual and infinite Being, God alone being its adequated object, and able to satisfy its desires; which plainly proves it to be a spiritual, immaterial, and simple being. And being so, two things necessarily follow there from.
1. That it is void of any principle of corruption in itself.
2. That it is not liable to any stroke of death, by any adverse power without itself
1. It cannot be liable to death, from any seeds or principles of corruption within itself, for where there is no composition, there is no dissolution: the spirituality and simplicity of the soul admit of no corruption.
2. Nor is it liable to death by any adverse power without
itself; no sword can touch it, no instrument of death can reach it:
it is above the reach of all adversaries,
Object. But there seems to be a decay upon our souls in our old age, and decays argue and imply corruption, and are so many steps and tendencies towards the death and dissolution thereof. The experience of the whole world shows us how the apprehensions, judgements, wit, and memory of old men fail, even to that degree that they become children again in respect of the abilities of their minds: their souls only serving, as it were, to salt their bodies, and keep them from putrefaction for a few days longer.
Sol. It is a great mistake; there is not the least decay upon the soul; no time makes any change upon the essence of the soul: all the alteration that is made, is upon the organs and instruments of the body, which decay in time, and become unapt and unserviceable to the soul.
The soul, like an expert, skilful musician, is as able as ever it was, but the body, its instrument, is out of tune: and the ablest artist can make no pleasing melody upon an instrument whose strings are broken, or so relaxed that they cannot be screwed up to their due height.
Let Hippocrates, the prince of physicians, decide this matter for us. "The soul (says he) cannot be changed or altered as to its essence, by the access of meat or drink, or any other thing whatsoever; but all the alterations that are made, must be referred either to the spirits with which it mixeth itself, or to the vessels and organs through which it streameth." So that this roves not its corruptibility: and being neither corruptible in itself nor vulnerable by any creature without itself; seeing man cannot, and God will not destroy it, the conclusion is strongly inferred, That therefore it is immortal.
Argument 2
The immortality of the souls of men may be concluded-from the promises of everlasting blessedness, and the threatenings of everlasting miseries, respectively made in the scriptures of truth, to the godly and ungodly after this life; which promises and threatenings had been altogether vain and delusory, if our souls perish with our bodies.
1. God has made many everlasting promises of blessedness, yea,
he has established an everlasting covenant betwixt himself and the
souls of the righteous, promising to be their God for ever, and to
bestow endless blessedness upon them in the world to come. Such a
promise is that,
Now if these be no vain and delusory promises, (as to be sure they are not, being the words of a true and faithful God) then those souls to whom they are made, must live for ever; for if the subject of the promises fail, consequently the performance of the promises must fail too. For how shall they be made good, when those to whom they are made, are perished?
Let it not be objected here, That the bodies of believers are concerned in the promises as well as their souls, and yet their bodies perish notwithstanding.
For we say, though their bodies die, yet they shall live again,
and enjoy the fruit of the promises in eternal glory; and while
their bodies lie in the grave, their souls are with God, enjoying
the covenant and blessedness in heaven,
On the contrary, many threatenings of eternal misery, after this
life, are found in the scriptures of truth, against ungodly end
wicked persons. Such is that in
You see then, there are everlasting promises and threatenings to
be fulfilled, both upon the godly and ungodly, "He that believeth
on the Son has everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son,
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him,
Argument 3
The immortality of the soul is a truth asserted and attested by the universal consent of all nations and ages of the world. "We give much (said Seneca) to the presumption of all men," and that justly; for it would be hard to think that an error should obtain the general consent of mankind, or that God would suffer all the world, in all ages of it, to bow down under an universal deception.
This doctrine sticks close to the nature of man; it springs up easily, and without force from his conscience. It has been allowed as an unquestionable thing, not only among Christians who have the oracles of God to teach and confirm this doctrine, but among Heathens also, who had no other light but that of nature to guide them into the knowledge and belief of it. Learned Zanchius cites out of Cicero an excellent passage to this purpose. "In every thing says he, the consent of all nations is to be accounted the law of nature; and therefore, with all good men, it should be instead of a thousand demonstrations; and to resist it, (as he there adds) what is it, but to resist the voice of God?" and how much more, when, with his consent, the word of God doth also consent? As for the consent of nations, in this point, the learned author last mentioned, has industriously gathered many great and famous testimonies from the ancient Chaldeans, Grecians, Pythagoreans, Stoics, Platonists, &c. which evidently shew they made no doubt of the immortality of their souls. How plain is that of Phocylides? Psuche de athanatos kai ageros zei dia pantos. Speaking of the soul, in opposition to the body, which must be resolved into dust, he says, "But for the soul, that is immortal, and never grows old, but lives for ever." And Tresmegistus, the famous and celebrated Philosopher, gives this account of man, "That he consists of two parts, being mortal in respect of his body, but immortal in respect of his soul, which is the best and principal part." Plato not only asserts the immortality of the souls of men, but disputes for it: and among other arguments, he urges this; "That if it were not so, wicked men would certainly have the advantage of righteous and good men, who, after they have committed all manner of evils, should suffer none." But what speak I of philosophers? the most barbarous nations in the world constantly believe it. The Turks acknowledge it in their Alcoran; and though they grossly mistake the nature of heaven, in fancying it to be a paradise of sensual pleasures, as well as the way thither, by their impostor Mahomet; yet it is plain they believe the soul’s immortality, and that it lives in pain or pleasure after this life.
The very savage and illiterate Indians are so fully persuaded of the souls immortality, that wives cast themselves cheerfully into the flames to attend the souls of their husbands; and subjects, to attend the souls of their kings into the other world.
Two things are objected against this argument.
1. That some particular persons have denied this doctrine, as Epicurus, &c. and by argument maintained the contrary.
To which I answer, That though they have done so, yet (1.) This no way shakes the argument from the consent of nations, be cause some few persons have denied it: we truly say, the earth is spherical, though there be many hills and risings in it. If Democritus put out his own eyes, must we therefore say all the world is blind?
(2.) It is worth thinking on, whether they that have questioned the immortality of the soul, have not rather made it the matter of their option and desire, than of their faith and persuasion. We distinguish Atheists into three classes, such as are so in practice, in desire, or in judgement; but of the former sorts there may be found multitudes, to one that is so in his settled judgement. If you think it strange that any man should wish his soul to be mortal, Hierocles gives us the reason of it: "A wicked man (says he) is afraid of his Judge; and therefore wishes his soul and body may perish together by death, rather than it should come to God’s tribunal."
Object. 2. Nor can the strength of the argument be eluded, by saying, "All this may be but an universal tradition, one nation receiving it from another.
Sol. For as this is neither true in itself, nor possible to be made good; so if it were, it would not invalidate the argument: for if it were not a truth agreeable to the sight of nature, and so easily received by all men upon the proposal of it, it were impossible that all the nations in the world should embrace it so readily, and hold it so tenaciously as they do.
Argument 4
The immortality of the soul may be evinced from the everlasting habits which are subjected, and inherent in it. If these habits abide for ever, certainly so must the souls in which they are planted.
The souls of good men are the good ground, in which the seed of
grace is sown by the Spirit,
1. That the habits of grace be everlasting;
2. That they are inseparable from sanctified souls;
It must needs follow, That the soul, their subject, is so too,
an everlasting and immortal soul. And how plainly do both these
propositions lie before us in the scriptures? As {or the immortal
and indeterminable nature of saving grace, it is plain to him that
considers, not only what the forecited scriptures speak about it,
calling it incorruptible seed, a well of water springing up into
everlasting life; but add to these, what is said of these divine
qualities in 2 Pet. 1:4. where they are called the divine nature;
and
I know it is a great question among divines, An gratia in renatis sit natura et essentia sua interminabilis? Whether these principles of grace in the regenerate be everlasting and interminable in their own nature and essence? For my own part, I think that God only is naturally, essentially, and absolutely interminable and immortal. But these gracious habits, planted by him in the soul, are so by virtue of God’s appointment, promise, and covenant. And sure it is, that by reason hereof they are interminate, which is enough for my purpose, if they be not essentially interminable. Though grace be but a creature, and therefore has a posse mori, yet it is a creature begotten by the Word and Spirit of God, which live and abide for ever, and a creature within the promise and covenant of God, by reason whereof it can never actually die.
And then as for the inseparableness of these graces from the
souls in whom they are planted, how clear is this from
Object. But this only proves the immortality of regenerate souls.
Sol. It does so. But then consider, as there be gracious habits
in the regenerate that never die, so there are vicious habits in
the unregenerate that can never be separated from them in the world
to come. Hence,
Argument 5
The immortality of the soul of man may be evinced from the duty of man above all other creatures, (angels only excepted) and his dominion over them all.
In this, the scriptures are clear, that man is the master-piece
of all God’s other works;
But wherein is his dignity and excellency above all other creatures, if not in respect of the capacity and immortality of his soul? Sure it can be found nowhere else; for as to the body, many of the creatures excel man in the perfections of sense, greatness of strength, agility of members, &c.
Nos aper auditu praecellit, aranea tactu,
Vultur odorat, lynx visu, simia gustu.
And for beauty, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of the lilies of the field. The beasts and fowls enjoy more pleasure, and live divested of all those cares and cumbers which perplex and wear out the lives of men. It cannot be in respect of bodily perfections and pleasures, that man excels other creatures.
If you say, He excels them all in respect of that noble endowment of reason, which is peculiar to man, and his singular excellency above them all.
It is true, this is his glory: but if you deprive the reasonable soul of immortality, you despoil it of all, both of its glory and comfort, and put the reasonable into a worse condition than the unreasonable and brutish creatures. For if the soul may die with the body, and man perish as the beast, happier is the life of the beast, which is perplexed with no cares nor fears about futurities: our reason serves to little other purpose but to be an engine of torture, a mere rack to our souls.
Certainly, the privilege of man doth not consist in reason, as abstracted from immortality. But in this, it properly consists, that he enjoys not only a reasonable, but also rejoiceth in an immortal soul, which shall over-live the world, and subsist separate from the body, and abide for ever, when all other souls, being but a material form, perish with that matter on which they depend. This is the proper dignity of man, above the beast that perisheth; and to deprive him of immortality, and leave him his reason, is but to leave him a more miserable and wretched creature than any that God has put under his feet. For man is a prospecting creature, and raiseth up to himself vast hopes and fears from the world to come: by these he is restrained from the sensual pleasures, which other creatures freely enjoy, and exercised with ten thousand cares, which they are unacquainted with; and to fail at last of all his hopes and expectations of happiness, in the world to come, is to fall many degrees lower than the lowest creature shall fall; even so much lower as his expectations and hopes had lifted him higher.
Argument 6.
The souls of men must be immortal, or else the desires of immortality are planted in their souls in vain.
That there are desires of immortality found in the hearts of all
men, is a truth too evident to be denied or doubted. Man cannot
bound and terminate his desires within the narrow limits of this
world and the time that measures it. Nothing that can be measured
by time is commensurate to the desires of man’s soul. No
motto better suits it than this, Non est mortale quod opto; I seek
for that which will not die,
And hence is the desire of children, which is, as one says, nodosa aeternitas, a knotty eternity; when our thread is spun out and cut off, their thread is knit to it; and so we dream of a continued succession in our name and family.
Absalom had no children to continue his memory; to supply which
defect, he reared up a pillar,
Argument 7.
Moreover, the account given us in the scripture of the return of
several souls into their own bodies again after death, and real
separation from them, shews us that the soul subsists and lives in
a separate state after death, and perisheth not by the stroke of
death: For if it were annihilated or destroyed by death, the same
soul could never be restored again to the same body. A dead body
may indeed be acted by an assisting form, which may move and carry
it from place to place; so the devil has acted the dead bodies of
many; but they cannot be said to live again by their own souls,
after a real separation by death, unless those souls over-lived the
bodies they forsook at death, and had their abode in another place
and state. You have divers unquestionable examples of the
soul’s return into the body recorded in scripture: As that of
the Shunamite’s son,
It is true, the scripture gives us no account of any sense or
apprehension they retained after their re-union of the place or
state they were in during their separation. There seemed to be a
perfect amnesia, forgetfulness of all that they saw or felt in the
state of separation. And indeed it was necessary it should be so,
that our faith might be built rather upon the sure promises of God,
than such reports and narratives of them that come to us from the
dead,
Argument 8
Moreover, Eighthly, The supposition of the soul’s perishing with the body, is subversive of the Christian religion in the principal doctrines and duties thereof: take away the immortality of the soul, and all religion falls to the ground. I will instance in
1. The doctrines of religion.
2. The duties of religion.
First, It overthrows the main principles and doctrines of the Christian religion, upon which both our faith and comfort is founded and consequently it undoes and ruins us as to all solid hope and true joy. The doctrines or principles it overthrows, are, among many other, such as follow.
1. It nullifies and makes void the great design and end of
God’s eternal election. The scriptures tells us, That from
all eternity God has chosen a certain number in Christ Jesus, to
eternal life, and to the means by which they shall attain it, out
of his mere good pleasure, and for the praise of his grace. This
was (1.) An eternal act of God,
But if our souls be mortal, and perish with our bodies, all this
is a mistake, and we are imposed upon, and our understandings are
abused by this doctrine: For to what purpose are all these decrees
and contrivances of God from everlasting, if our souls perish with
our bodies? Certainly, if it be so, he loses all the thoughts and
counsels of his heart about us; and that counsel of his will, which
is so much celebrated in the scriptures, and admired by his people,
comes to nought. For this is evident to every man’s
consideration, that if the soul (which is the object about which
all those counsels and thoughts of God were employed and laid out)
fail in its being, all those thoughts and counsels that have been
employed about it, and spent on it, must necessarily fail and come
to nothing with it. The thoughts of his heart cannot stand fast, as
it is said,
If the souls of men perish at death, either God never did
appoint any souls to salvation, as the scriptures testify he did,
2. It overthrows the covenant of redemption betwixt the Father
and the Son before this world was made. There was a federal
transaction betwixt the Father and the Son from eternity, about our
salvation,
But certainly, if our souls perish with our bodies, Christ would
be greatly disappointed: Nor can that promise be ever made good to
him;
5. It overthrows the doctrines of Christ’s incarnation,
death, resurrection, ascension and intercession in heaven for us.
And these are the main pillars both of our faith and comfort. Take
away these, and take away our lives too, for these are the springs
of all joy and comfort to the people of God,
His incarnation was necessary to capacitate him for his
mediatorial work: It was not only a part of it, but such a part,
without which he could discharge no other part of it. This was the
wonder of men and angels,
The death of Christ has the nature and respect of a ransom, or
equivalent price laid down to the justice of God for our
redemption,
The resurrection of Christ from the dead has the nature both of
a testimony of his finishing the work of our redemption, and the
Father’s full satisfaction therein,
The ascension of Christ into heaven was in the capacity and
relation of a forerunner,
The intercession of Christ in heaven, is for the security of our
purchased inheritance to us, and to prevent any new breaches which
might be made by our sins, whereby it might be forfeited, and we
divested of it again,
All these jointly make up the foundation of our faith and hope of glory: But if our souls perish, or be annihilated at death, our faith, hope, and comforts, are all delusions, vain dreams, which do but amuse our fond imaginations. For,
(1.) It was not worth so great a stoop and abasement of the
blessed God, as he submitted to in his incarnation, when he
appeared in flesh, yea, in the likeness of sinful flesh,
(2.) And for what, think you, was the blood of God upon the
cross? What was so vast and inconceivable a treasure expended to
purchase? What! the flattering and vain hopes of a few years, of
which we may say, as it was said of the Roman consulship, unius
anni volaticum gaudium; the fugitive joy of a year: Yea, not only
short lived and vain hopes in themselves, but such for the sake
whereof we abridge ourselves of the pleasures and desires of the
flesh,
(3.) To what purpose did Christ rise again from the dead? Was it
not to be the first-fruits of them that sleep? Did he not rise as
the common head of believers, to give us assurance we shall not
perish, and be utterly lost in the grave?
(4.) And to as little purpose was his triumphant ascension into
heaven, if we can have no benefit by it. The professed end of his
ascension was "to prepare a place for us,"
(5.) To conclude; in vain is the intercession of Christ in heaven for us, if this be so. They that shall never come thither, have no business there to be transacted by their advocate for them. So that the whole doctrine of redemption by Christ is utterly subverted by this one supposition.
4. As it subverts the doctrine of redemption by Christ, and all the hopes and comforts we build thereon, so it utterly destroys all the works of the spirit, upon the hearts of believers, and makes them vanish into nothing.
There are divers acts and offices of the Spirit of God about, and upon our souls; I will only single out three, via. his sanctifying, sealing and comforting work: all things of great weight with believers.
(1.) His sanctifying work, whereby he alters the frames and
tempers of our souls,
The declared and direct end of this work of the Spirit upon our
souls, is to attemper and dispose them for heaven,
Object. If you say there is a present advantage resulting to us in this world, from our abstinence and self-denial; we have the truer and longer enjoyment of our comforts on earth by it; debauchery and licentiousness do not only flatten the appetite, and debase and alloy the comforts of this world, but cut short our lives by the exorbitances and abuses of them.
Solut. Though there be a truth in this worth our acting, yet (1.) morality could have done all this without sanctification; there was no need for the pouring out of the Spirit, for so low an use and purpose as this. (2.) And therefore as the wisdom of God would be censured and impeached, in sending his Spirit for an end which could as well be attained without it; so the veracity of God must needs be affronted by it, who, as you heard before, has declared our salvation to be the end of our sanctification.
(2.) His sealing, witnessing, and assuring work. We have a full
account in the scriptures, of these offices and works of the
Spirit, and some spiritual sense and feeling of them upon our own
hearts, which are two good assurances that there are such things as
his bearing witness with our spirit,
(3.) His comforting work is a sweet fruit and effect sensibly
felt and tasted by believers in this world. He is from this office
stiled the Comforter,
Upon the account of these unseen things, he enableth believers
to glory in tribulation,
5. This supposition overthrows the doctrine of the resurrection,
which is the consolation of Christians. We believe, according to
the scripture, that after death has divorced our souls and bodies
for a time, they shall meet again, and be re-united, and that the
joy at their re-union will be to all that are in Christ, greater
than the sorrows they felt at parting. This seems not incredible to
us, whatever natural improbabilities and carnal reasons may be
against it,
We believe this very same numerical body shall rise again,
We believe the souls of the righteous shall be much better
accommodated, and have a more comfortable habitation in their
bodies than now they have,
But if the being of our souls fall at death, all hopes and comforts from the resurrection fail with it; for it is not imaginable that the body should rise till it be revived, nor how it should be revived, but by the re-union of the soul with it: and if it be not the same soul that now inhabits it, we cannot be the same persons in the resurrection we are now; and consequently, this supposition subverts not only the doctrine of the resurrection, but,
6. It overthrows also the faith of the judgement to come. For if the soul perish, the body cannot rise; or if it rise by a new-created soul, the person raised is another, and not the same that lived and died in this world; and consequently the rewards and punishments to be bestowed and awarded to all men in that day cannot be just and equal: for we believe, according to the scriptures, that,
(1.) The actions which men perform in this life, are not
transient, but are filed to their account in the world to come:
(2.) We believe that God has appointed a day in which all men
shall appear before his judgement-seat, to give an account of all
they have done in the body, whether it be good or evil,
(3.) And that in order hereunto, the very same Persons shall be restored by the resurrection, and appear before God, the very same bodies and souls, which did good or evil in this world: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Justice requires that the rewards and punishments be then distributed to the same persons that did good or evil in this world: which strongly infers the immortality of the soul, and that it certainly overlives the body, and must come back from the respective places of their abode, to be again united to them, in order to their great account.
By all which you see the clearest proof of the soul’s immortality, and how the contrary supposition overthrows our faith, duties, and comforts. Yet notwithstanding all this, how apt are we to suspect this doctrine, and remain still dissatisfied and doubting about it, when all is said? Which comes to pass partly from the subtlety of Satan, who knows he can never persuade men to live the life of beasts, till he first persuade them to think they shall die as the beasts do. (2.) And partly from the influence of sense and reason upon us, whereby we do too much suffer ourselves to be swayed and imposed upon in matters of the greatest moment in religion. For these being proper arbiters and judges in other matters within their sphere, they are arrogant, and we easy enough to admit them to be arbiters also in things that are quite above them. Hence come such plausible objections as these:
Object. 1. The soul seems to vanish and die, when it leaves the body: for when it has struggled as long as it can to keep its possession in the body, and, at last, is forced to depart, we can perceive nothing but a puff of breath, which immediately vanishes into air, and is lost.
Solut. We cannot perceive, therefore it is nothing but what we do and can perceive, viz. a puff of vanishing breath. By this argument the being of the soul in the body is as questionable as after its departure out of the body; for we cannot discern it by sight in the body: yea, by this argument we may as well deny the existence of God and angels as of the soul; for it is a spiritual and invisible being as they are; our gross senses are incapable of discerning spirits, which are immaterial and invisible substances.
Object. 2. But you allow the soul to have a rise and beginning, it is not eternal a parte ante; and it is certain, whatever had a beginning, must have an end.
Solut. Every thing which had a beginning may have an end, and what once was nothing, may by the power that created it, be reduced to nothing again. But though we allow it may be so, by the absolute power of God, we deny the consequence, that therefore it shall, and must be so. Angels had a beginning, but shall never have an end. And indeed, their immortality, as well as ours, flows not so much from the nature of either as from the will and pleasure of God, who has appointed them to be so. He can, but never will, annihilate them.
Object. 3. But the soul depends upon matter in all its operations, nothing is in the understanding which was not first in the senses; it useth the natural spirits, as its servants and tools in all its operations, and therefore how can it either subsist or act in a state of separation?
Sol. 1. The hypothesis is not only uncertain, but certainly
false. There are acts performed by the soul, even while it is in
the body, wherein it makes no use at all of the body. Such are the
acts of self-intuition and self-reflection: and what will you say
of its acts, in raptures and extasies, such as that of Paul,
Solut. 2. And though in its ordinary actions in this life, it does use the body as its tool or instrument in working, does it thence follow that it can neither subsist or act separate from them in the other world? While a man is on horseback in his journey, he useth the help and service of his horse, and is moved according to the motion of his horse; but does it thence follow, he cannot stand nor walk alone, when dismounted at his journey’s end? We know angels both live and act, without the ministry of bodies, and our souls are spiritual substances as well as they.
Object. 4. But many scriptures seem to favour the total
cessation of the soul’s actions, if not of its being also,
after separation, as that in
Solut. These words of the woman of Tekoah, are not to be understood absolutely, but respectively: and the meaning is, that the soul is in the body as some precious liquor in a brittle glass, which being broken by death, the soul is irrecoverably gone as the water spilt on the ground, which by no human power or art of man can be recovered again. All the means in the world cannot fetch it back into the body again. She speaks not of the resurrection, or what shall be done in the world to come, by the Almighty power of God, but of what is impossible to be done in this world by all the skill and power of man.
And for the expressions of Heman and Hezekiah, they only respect
and relate unto those services their souls were now employed about
for the praise of God, with respect to the conversion or
edification of others, as
The same answer solves also the objections grounded upon other
mistaken scriptures, as that of
Inf. 1. Is the soul immortal? Then it is impossible for souls to
find full rest and contentment in any enjoyments on this side
heaven. All temporary things are inadequate, and therefore
unsatisfying to our souls. What gives the soul rest and
satisfaction, must be as durable as the soul is; for if we could
possibly find in this world a condition and state of things most
agreeable in all other respects to our desires and wishes, yet if
the soul be conscious to itself, that it shall, and must overlive
and leave them all behind it, it can never reach true contentment
in the greatest affluence and confluence of them. Man being an
immortal, is therefore a prospecting creature, and can never be
satisfied with this, that it is well with him at present, except he
can be satisfied that it shall be so for ever. The thoughts of
leaving our delightful and pleasant enjoyments embitters them all
to us while we have them. All outward things are fluxu continuo,
passing away as the waters,
Inf. 2. Then see the ground and reason of Satan’s envy and
enmity against the soul, and his restless designs and, endeavours
to destroy it. It grates that spirit of envy, to find himself, who
is by nature immortal, sunk everlastingly and irrecoverably into
misery, and the souls of men appointed to fill up those vacant
places in heaven from which the angels fell. No creature but man is
envieth by Satan, and the soul of man much more than his body: it
is true, he afflicts the bodies of men when God permits him, but he
ever aims at the soul when he wounds the body,
Inf. 3. Do the souls of men out-live their bodies? Then it is
the height of madness and spiritual infatuation, to destroy the
soul for the body’s sake; to cast away an immortal soul for
the gratification of perishing flesh; to ruin the precious soul for
ever, for the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment; yet this
is the madness of millions of men. They will drown their own souls
in everlasting perdition, to procure necessary things for the body,
O what soul-undoing bargains do some make with the devil! Some
sell their souls out-right for the gratification of their lusts,
Inf. 4. Then the exposing of the body to danger, yea, to certain
destruction, for the preservation of the soul, is the dictate of
spiritual wisdom, and that which every Christian is bound to choose
and practise, when both interests come in full opposition,
That is a great word of our Lord’s,
Inf. 5. If the soul be an immortal being, that shall have no
end, Then it is the great concern of all men to strive to the
utmost for the salvation of their souls, whatever become of all
lesser temporary interests in this world,
(1.) For it is the greatest concernment of the soul, yea, of our
own souls; we are bound to do much for the saving of
another’s soul,
(2.) Others have done and suffered much for the saving of their
souls; and are not ours, or ought they not to be, as dear to us, as
the souls of any others have been to them?
(3.) The utmost diligence is little enough to save them. Do all
that you can do, and suffer all that you can suffer, and deny
yourselves as deeply as ever any did, yet you shall find all this
little enough to secure them,
(4.) The time to strive for salvation is very short and
uncertain,
(5.) Does not reason dictate and direct you to do now, while you are in the way, as you will wish you had done, and repent with rage, and self-indignation, because you did it not, when you come to the end, and behold the final issues of things? Suppose but thyself now either, (1.) Upon a death-bed launching into eternity; (2.) Or at the bar of Christ; (3.) Or in view of heaven; (4.) Or in the sight and hearing of the damned: what think you? will not you then wish, Oh! that I had spent every moment in the world that could possibly be redeemed from the pure necessities of life, in prayer, in hearing, in striving for salvation? >From a prospect of this it was, that one spent many hours daily on his knees to the macerating of his body; and being admonished of the danger of health, and advised to relax, he answered, I must die, I must die.
Objection 1. Do not say, you have many incumbrances, and other
employments in the world: for (1.) "One thing is necessary,"
Objection 2. Say not, no man can save his soul by his own
striving, and therefore it is to little purpose; for "it is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth
mercy,"
True, this in itself cannot save you; but what then? must we oppose those things which God has subordinated? Bring this home to your natural or civil actions, eating, drinking, ploughing, or sowing, and see how the consequence will look.
Objection 3. Say not, it is a mercenary doctrine, and disparages free grace; for, are not all the enjoyments and comforts of this life confessedly from free grace, though God has dispensed them to you in the way of your diligence and industry.
Objection 4. To conclude, Say not, the difficulties of salvation are insuperable; it is so hard to watch every motion of the heart, to deny every lust, to resist a suitable temptation, to suffer the loss of all for Christ, that there is no hope of over-coming them.
For (1.) God can, and does make difficult things easy to his
people, who work in the strength of Christ,
Inf. 6. Does the soul out-live the body, and abide for ever? Then it is a great evil and folly to be excessively careful: for the mortal body, and neglective of the mortal inhabitant. In a too much indulged body, there ever dwells a too much neglected soul.
The body is but a vile thing,
It is true, the body is beloved of the soul, and God requires
that it moderately care for the necessities and conveniences of it;
but to be fond, indulgent, and constantly solicitous about it, is
both the sin and snare of the soul. One of the fathers being
invited to dine with a lady, and waiting some hours till she was
dressed, and fit to come down; when he saw her, he fell a weeping;
and being demanded why he wept, Oh! said he, I am troubled that you
should spend so many hours this morning in pinning and trimming
your body when I have not spent half the time in praying, repenting
and caring for my own soul. Two things a master commits to his
servant’s care, (says one) the child, and the child’s
clothes: It will be but a poor excuse for the servant to say, at
his master’s return, Sir, here are all the child’s
clothes neat and clean, but the child is lost. Much so will be the
account that many will give to God of their souls and bodies, at
the great day, Lord, here is my body, I was very careful for it, I
neglected nothing that belonged to its content and welfare: But for
my soul, that is lost and cast away for ever, I took little care
and thought about it. It is remarkable what the apostle says,
Inf. 7. How great a blessing is the gospel which brings life and
immortality to light, the most desirable mercies to immortal souls!
This is the great benefit we receive by it, as the apostle speaks,
O therefore study the gospel. "This is life eternal, to know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent,"
Inf. 8. If our souls be immortal, certainly our enemies are not
so formidable as we are apt, by our sinful fears, to represent
these. They may, when God permits them, destroy your bodies, they
cannot touch or destroy your souls,
Inf. 9. If souls be immortal, Then there must needs be a vast difference betwixt the aspects and influences of death upon the godly and ungodly.
Oh! if souls would but seriously consider what an alteration
death will make upon their condition, for evil or for good, how
useful would such meditations be to them! (1.) They must be
disseized and turned out of these houses of clay, and live in a
state of separation from them; of this there is an inevitable
necessity,
(1.) A marvellous alteration will then be made on the souls of
the godly. For, (1.) No sooner is the dividing stroke given by
death, and the parting pull over, but they shall find themselves in
the arms of angels, mounting them through the upper regions in a
few moments, far above all the aspectable heavens,
(2.) A marvellous change will also be then made upon the souls
of the ungodly, who shall then part from (1.) All their comforts
and pleasant enjoyments in the world; for here they had their
consolation;
Inf. 10. If our souls be immortal, then death is neither to he
scared by them in heaven, nor hoped for them in hell. The being of
souls never fails, whether they be in a state of blessedness or of
misery. "In glory they are ever with the Lord,"
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
Having given some account of the nature and immortality of the soul, we next come, from this text, to discourse of its love and inclination to the body, with which it is united. The scope of the apostle is, to press Christians to the exact discharge of those relative duties they owe to each other; particularly, he here urgeth the mutual duties of husbands and wives, ver. 22. wives to an obedient subjection, husbands to a tender love of their wives. This exhortation he enforceth from the intimate union, which, by the ordinance of God, is betwixt them, they being now one flesh. And this union he illustrates by comparing It with,
1. The mystical union of Christ and the church.
2. The natural union of the soul and body.
And from both these, as excellent examples and patterns, he, with great strength of argument, urgeth the duty of love: ver. 28. "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies; he that loveth his wife, loveth himself." Self love is naturally implanted in all men, and it is the rule by which we measure out and dispense our love to others. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
This self love he opens in this place, by,
(1.) The universality of it.
(2.) The effects that evidence it.
1. The universality of it. No man ever yet hated his own flesh.
By flesh, understand the body by an usual metonymy of a part for
the whole, called flesh. By hating it, understand a simple hatred,
or hatred itself. It is usual for men to hate the deformities and
diseases of their own bodies, and upon that account to deal with
the members of their own bodies as if they hated them; hence it is,
they willingly stretch forth a gangrened leg or arm to be cut off
for the preservation of the rest: but this is not a simple hatred
of a man’s self, but rather an argument of the strength of
the soul’s love to the body, that it will be content to
endure so much pain kind anguish for its sake. And if the soul be
at any time weary of, and willing to part, not with a single member
only, but with the whole body, and loaths its union with it any
longer, yet it hates it and loaths it not simply in, and for
itself, but because it is so filled with diseases all over, and
loads the soul daily with so much grief, that how well soever the
soul loves it in itself, yet upon such sad terms and conditions it
would not be tied to it. This was Job’s case,
2. This love of the soul to the body is further discovered by
the effects which evidence it, viz. its nourishing and cherishing
the body, "ektrefei kai talpei". These two comprise the necessaries
for the body, viz. food and raiment. The first signifies to nourish
with proper food; the latter to warm by clothing, as the word
"talpein" is rendered,
Doct. That the souls of men are strongly inclined, and tenderly affected towards the bodies in which they now dwell.
The soul’s love to the body, is so strong, natural, and
inseparable, that it is made the rule and measure by which we
dispense and proportion our love to others,
Two things well deserve our consideration in the doctrinal part of this point.
First, Wherein the soul evidenceth its love to the body.
Secondly, What are the grounds and fundamental causes or reasons of its love to it; and then apply it.
First, Wherein the soul evidenceth its love to the body, and that it does in divers respects.
1. In its cares for the things needful to the body, as the text
speaks, in nourishing and cherishing it, i.e. taking care for food
and raiment for it. This care is universal, it is implanted in the
most savage and barbarous people; and is generally so excessive and
exorbitant, that though it never needs a spur, yet most times, and
with most men, it does need a curb; and therefore Christ, in
2. The soul discovers its esteem and value for the body in all
the fears it has about it. Did not the soul love it exceedingly, it
would never be affrighted for it, and on its account, so much and
so often as it is. What a panic fear do the dangers of the body
cast the soul into?
Upon this ground also it is, that this life becomes a life of temptation to all men, and there is no freedom from that danger, till we be freed from the body, and set at liberty by death. Separated souls are the only free souls. They that carry no flesh about them, need carry no fears of temptation within them. It is the body which catches the sparks of temptation.
3. The soul manifests its dear love and affection to the body,
by its sympathy, end compassionate feeling of all its burdens:
whatever touches the body, by way of injury, affects the soul also
by way of sympathy. The soul and body are as strings of two musical
instruments set exactly at one height; if one be touched, the other
trembles. They laugh and cry, are sick and well together. This is a
wonderful mystery, and a rare secret (as a learned man observes)
how the soul comes to sympathise with the body, and to have not
only a knowledge, but as it were a feeling of its necessities and
infirmities; how this fleshly lump comes to affect, and make its
deep impressions upon a creature of so different a nature from it,
as the soul or spirit is. But that it does so, though we know not
how, is plain and sensible to any man. If any member of the body,
though but the lowest and meanest, be in pain and misery, the soul
is presently affected with it, and commands the eyes to watch, yea,
to weep, the hands to bind it up with all tenderness, and defend it
from the least injurious touch; the lips to complain of its misery,
and beg pity and help from others for it. If the body be in danger,
how are the faculties of the soul, understanding, memory,
invention, &c. employed with utmost strength and concernment
for its deliverance! This is a real and unexceptionable evidence of
its dear and tender love to the body. As those that belong to one
mystical body show their sincere love this way,
4. The soul manifesteth its love to the body, by its fears of
death, and extreme aversion to a separation from it. On this
account death is called in
The sorrows of death are in scripture set forth unto us, by the
bearing throes of a travailing woman,
5. Its desire of re-union continuing still with it, in its state
of separation, speaks its love to the body. As the soul parted with
it in grief and sorrow, so it still retains, even in glory, an
inclination to re-union, and waits for a day of re-espousals: and
to that sense some searching and judicious men understand those
words of Job, chap. 14:14. "If a man die, shall he live again?"
viz. by a resurrection: if so, then all the days of my appointed
separation, my soul in heaven shall wait till that change come. And
to the same sense is that cry of separated souls,
There is an exercise for faith, hope, and desire, on this account in heaven.
The union of soul and body is natural, their separation is not so: many benefits will redound to both by a re-union, and the resurrection of the body is provided by God, as the grand relief against those prejudices and losses the bodies of the saints sustain by separation. I say not that the propension or inclination of the soul to re-union with its body, is accompanied with any perturbation or anxiety, in its state of separation; for it enjoys God, and in him a placid rest; and as the body, so the soul rests in hope, it is such a hope as disturbs not the rest of either; yet when the time is come for the soul to be re-espoused, it is highly gratified by that second marriage, glad it is to see its old dear companion, as two friends after a long separation. And so much of the evidence of the soul’s love to the body.
Secondly, Next we are to enquire into the grounds and reasons of its love and inclination to the body. And,
1. The fundamental ground and reason thereof will be found in
their natural union with each other. There my text lays it: "No man
ever yet hated his [own] flesh." Mark, the body is the soul’s
own; they are strictly married and related to each other: the soul
has a property in its body, these two make up, or constitute one
person. True, they are not essentially one, they have far different
natures, but they are personally one; and though the soul be what
it was, after Its separation, yet to make a man the who he was,
i.e. the same complete and perfect person, they must be re-united.
Hence springs its love to the body. Every man loves his own,
In this propriety and relation are involved the reasons and motives of our love to, and care over the body, which is no more than what is necessary to their preservation. For, were it not for this propriety and relation, no man would be at any more cost or pains for his own body, than for that of a stranger. It is propriety which naturally draws love, care, and tenderness along with it; and these are ordered by the wisdom of providence, for the conservation of the body, which would quickly perish without it.
2. The body is the soul’s ancient acquaintance and intimate friend, with whom it has assiduously and familiarly conversed from its beginning. They have been partners in each others comforts and sorrows. They may say to each other, as Miconius did to his colleague, with whom he had spent twenty years in the government of the Thuringian church: Currimus, certavimus, laboravimus, pugnavimus, vicimus, et viximus conjunctissime. We have run, striven, laboured, fought, overcome, and lived most intimately and lovingly together. Consuetude, and daily conversation, begets and conciliates friendship and love betwixt creatures of contrary natures: Let a lamb be brought up with a lion, and the lion will express a tenderness towards it, much more the soul to its own body.
8. The body is the soul’s house and beloved habitation,
where it was born, and has lived ever since it had a being, and in
which it has enjoyed all its comforts, natural and supernatural,
which cannot but strengthen the soul’s engagement to it. Upon
this account the apostle calls it the soul’s home,
4. The body is the soul’s instrument by which it does its
work and business in the world, both natural and religious,
5. The body is the soul’s partner in the benefit of
Christ’s purchase. It was bought with the same price,
Inf. 1. Is it so? Learn hence the mighty strength and prevalence
of divine love, which, overpowering all natural affections, does
not only enable the soul, of men to take their separation from the
body patiently, but to long for it ardently,
The love of Christ is to be the supreme love, and all others to
be subordinate to it, or quenched by it. It is not its own comfort
in the body, it principally and ultimately designs and aims at, but
Christ’s glory; and if this may be furthered by the death of
the body, its death thereupon becomes as eligible to the soul as
its life,
It is not every Christian that can arrive to this degree of love, though they love Christ sincerely, yet they shrink from death cowardly, and are loth to be gone. There are two sorts of grounds upon which Christians may be loth to be unbodied;
1. The sinful and unjustifiable grounds are such as these, viz.
(1.) Guilt upon the conscience, which will damp and discourage the
soul, and make it loth to die. It arms death with terror, "the
sting of death is sin." (2.) Unmortified affections to the world, I
mean in such a degree as is necessary to sweeten death, and make a
man a volunteer in that sharp engagement with that last and
dreadful enemy. It is with our hearts as with fuel; if green, and
full of sap, it will not burn; but if that be dried up, it catches
presently. Mortification is the drying up of carnal affections to
the creature, which is that which resists death, as green wood does
the fire. (3.) The weakness and cloudiness of faith. You need faith
to die by, as well as live by.
2. There are grounds on which we may desire a longer continuance
in the body, warrantably and allowably: As (1.) to do him yet more
service in our bodies, before we lay them down. Thus the saints
have pleaded for longer life,
3. But though some Christians shun death upon a sinful account,
and others upon a justifiable one; yet others there be, who seeing
their title clear, their work done, and relishing the joys of
heaven, in the prelibations of faith, are willing to be unclothed,
and to be with Christ. Their love to Christ has extinguished in
them the love of life; and they can say with Paul,
Inf. 2. Then the apostasy of unregenerate professors in times of
imminent danger, is not to be wondered at. They will, and must warp
from Christ, when their lives are in hazard for him. The love of
the body will certainly prevail over their love to Christ and
religion. Amor meus pondus meum. Self-love will now draw. Love is
the weight of the soul, which inclines and determines it, in the
competition of interests’ and the predominant interest always
carries it. Every unregenerate professor loves his own life more
than Christ, prefers his body before his soul; such an one may,
upon divers accounts, as education, example, slight convictions of
conscience, or ostentation of gifts, fall into a profession of
religion, and continue a long time in that profession, before he
visibly recede from Christ; hope of the resurrection of the
interest of religion in the world; shame of retracting his
profession; applause of his zeal and constancy in higher trials,
the peace of his own conscience, and many such motives, may prevail
with a carnal professor to endure a while: but, when dangers of
life come to an height, they are gone,
1. Now is the proper season for the predominant love to be
discovered, it can be hid no longer: and the love of life is the
predominant love in all such persons; for do but compare it with
their love to Christ, and it will easily be found so. They love
their lives truly and really, they love Christ but feignedly and
pretendedly; and the real will, and must prevail over the feigned
love. They love their lives fervently and intensely, they love
Christ but coldly and remissly: And the fervent love will prevail
over the remiss-love. Their love to their bodies has a root in
themselves, their love to Christ has no root in themselves,
2. Because when life is in hazard, conscience will work in them
by way of discouragement; it will hint the danger of their eternal
state to them, and tell them they may cast away their souls for
ever in a bravado; for though the cause they are called to suffer
for be good, yet their condition is bad; and if the condition be
not good as well as the cause, a man is lost for ever, though he
suffer for it,
8. Because then all the springs by which their profession was
fed and maintained, fail and dry up. Now the wind that was in their
backs is come about, and blows a storm in their faces; there are no
preferments nor honours now to be had from religion. These
men’s sufferings are a perfect surprise to them, for they
never counted the cost,
O therefore, professors, look to your hearts, try their
predominant love; compare your love to Christ with that to your
lives. Now the like question will be put to you, that once was put
to Peter,
1. You sat down and counted the cost of religion beforehand: if you set out in procession only for a walk, not for a journey? If you go to sea for recreation, not for a voyage; if you be mounted among other processors, only to take the air, and not to engage an enemy in sharp and bloody encounters, you are gone.
2. Except you live by faith, and not by sense,
3. Except you be sincere and plain-hearted in religion, driving
no design in it but to save your souls, you may see your lot in
that example,
4. Except you experience the power of religion in your own
souls, as well as wear the name of it. O my brethren, it is not a
name to live that will do you service now. Many ships are gone down
to the bottom, for all the brave names of the Success, the
Prosperous, the Happy Return, and so will you. There is a knowing
of ourselves by taste and real experience,
5. Except you make it your daily work to crucify the flesh, deny
self for Christ, in all the forms and interests of it. He that
cannot deny himself, will deny Jesus Christ,
Inf. 8. If the souls of men be naturally so strongly inclined and affected towards the body; Then hence you may plainly see the wisdom of God in all the afflictions and burdens he lays upon his people in this world, and find that all is but enough to wean off their souls from their bodies, and make them willing to part with them.
The life of the saints in this world, is generally a burdened
and a groaning life;
Certainly this befals them not, (1.) Casually,
The great design of God in afflicting them, is the same that a tender mother projects in putting wormwood to her breast when she would wean the child.
It has been observed by some discreet and grave ministers, that before their removal from one place to another, God has permitted and ordered some weaning providence to befal them;. either denying wonted success to their labour, or alienating and cooling the affections of their people towards them, which not only makes the manner of their departure more easy, but the grounds of it more clear. Much so it falls out in our natural death, the comfort of the world is imbittered to us before we leave it; the longer we live in it, the less we shall like it. We over-live most of our comforts which engaged our hearts to it, that we may more freely take our leave of it. It were good for Christians to observe the voice of such providences as these, and answer the designs of them in a greater willingness to die.
1. Is thy body which was once hale and vigorous, now become a crazy, sickly, pained body to thee, neither useful to God, nor comfortable to thee? a tabernacle to groan and sigh in; and little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper; God has ordained this to make thee willing to be divorced from it: the less desirable life is, the less formidable death will be.
2. Is thy estate decayed and blasted by providence, so that thy life which was once full of creature comforts, is now filled with cares and anxieties? O it is a weaning providence to thee, and bespeaks thee the more cheerfully to bid the world farewell. The less comfort it gives you, the less it shall entangle and engage you. We little know with what aching hearts, and pensive breasts, many of God’s people walk up and down, though for religion, or reputation sake, they put a good face upon it; but by these things, God is bespeaking and preparing them for a better state.
3. Is an husband, a wife, or dear children dead, and with them the comfort of life laid in the dust? why this the Lord sees necessary to do to persuade you to come after willingly? It is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth, that thou mayest fall the more easily. O how many strokes must God give at our names, estates, relations, and health, before we will give way to the last stroke of death that fells us to the ground?
4. Do the times frown upon religion? Do all things seem to threaten stormy times at hand? Are desirable assemblies scattered? nothing but sorrows and sufferings to be expected in this world? by these things God will imbitter the earth, and sweeten heaven to his people.
5. Is the beauty and sweetness of Christian society defaced and decayed? Is that communion which was wont to be pithy, substantial, spiritual, and edifying, become either frothy or contentious, so that thy soul has no pleasure in it? this also is a weaning providence to our souls: Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus theologorum odiis, from the wranglings and contentions that were in his time. Our fond affection to the body requires all this and much more to wean and mortify them.
Inf. 4. How comfortable is the doctrine of the resurrection to believers, which assures them of receiving their bodies again, though they part with them for a time!
Believers must die as well as others; their union with Christ
privileges them not from a separation from their bodies,
1. Though they part with them, yet they part in hopes of
receiving them again,
2. Though death separates these dear friends from each other,
yet it cannot separate either the one or other from Christ,
3. The very same body we lay down at death, we shall assume
again at the resurrection; not only the same specifical, but the
same numerical body;
4. The unbodied soul shall not find the want of its body, so as
to afflict or disquiet it; nor the body the want of its soul; but
the one shall be at rest in heaven, and the other sweetly asleep in
the grave; and all that long interval shall slide away without any
afflicting sense of each others absence. The time will be long,
5. When the day of their re-espousals is come, the soul will
find the body so transformed and improved, that it shall never
receive prejudice from it any more, but a singular addition to its
happiness and glory. Now it clogs us:
Use second, of reproof.
In the next place, let me press you to regulate your love to your bodies, by the rules of religion and right reason. I must press you to love them, though nature itself teacheth you so to do; but I press you to love them as Christians, as men that understand the right use and improvement of their bodies. There are two sorts of errors in our love to the body, one in defect, the other in excess; both come fitly here to be censured and healed.
First, Some offend in the defect of love to their own bodies, who use them as if they had no love for them, whose souls act as if they were enemies to their own bodies; they do not formally and directly hate them, but consequentially and eventually they may be said to hate them, and that,
(1.) By defiling them with filthy lusts; so the apostle speaks,
1. As our vessel; or
2. As the Spirit’s temple.
1. As our vessel or instrument for natural and spiritual uses
and services: and on that account we should not injure or defile
it,
2. And the injury is yet greater, if we consider it as the
Spirit’s temple. On this ground the apostle strongly
convinceth and dissuadeth Christians from these abuses of the body,
(2.) By macerating them with covetous lusts, denying them their
due comforts and refreshments, and unmercifully burdening them with
labours and sorrows about things that perish. (1.) Some deny their
bodies due comforts and refreshments, which the natural and
positive laws of God both allow and command. Their souls are cruel
step-mothers to their bodies, and keep them too short; not out of a
prudent and Christian design to starve their lusts, but to advance
their estates. Of this Solomon speaks,
The souls of some mourners do willingly excite and provoke their
own grief, when they begin to abate, which is like the whetting of
the knife that grows dull, to make it cut the deeper into the body.
Thus, as Seneca observes, "some parents that have lost their
beloved children, willingly call to mind their pleasant sayings,
and pretty actions to find a kind of pleasure in a fresh shower of
tears for them;" when, poor hearts! sorrow has so broken them
already, that they need consolations under their present sorrows,
rather than irritations of new ones. And the soul’s
unmercifulness to the body, is in such causes farther discovered by
its obstinate refusal of all that is comforting and relieving. So
it is said of Rachel,
Secondly, Others offend in the excess and extravagancy of their love to the body, and these are a hundred to one in number compared with those that sin in defect of love. My friends, upon a due search, it will be found, that the love of our souls generally degenerates into fondness and folly: there is but little well-tempered and ordinary love found among men. We make fondlings, yea, we make idols of our bodies; we rob God, yea, our own souls, to give to the body. It is not a natural and kindly heat of love, but a mere feverish heat, which preys upon the very spirits of religion, which is found with many of us. The feverish distemper may be discovered, by the beating of our pulse, in three or four particulars.
(1.) This appears by our sinful indulgence to our whining
appetites. We give the flesh whatsoever it craves, and can deny it
nothing it desires; pampering the body, to the great injury and
hazard of the soul. Some have their conversation in the lusts of
the flesh, as it is,
It was a rare expression of a Heathen, Major sum, et ad majora
natus, quam ut corporis mei sim mancipium; I am greater, and born
to greater things, than that I should be a slave to my body. And it
was the saying of a pious divine, when he felt the flesh rebellious
and wanton, Ego faciam, aselle, ut ne calcitres; I will make thee,
thou ass, that thou shalt not kick. I know the superstitious
Papists place much of religion in these external things, but though
they abuse them to an ill purpose, there is a necessary and lawful
use of these abridgements and restraints upon the body; and it will
be impossible to mortify and starve our lusts without a due rigour
and severity to our flesh. But how little are many acquainted with
these things? They deal with their bodies as David with Adonijah,
of whom it is said,
(2.) It appears by our sparing and favouring of them, in the
necessary uses and services we have for them in religion. Many will
rather starve their soul, than work and exercise their bodies, or
disturb their sluggish rest: thus the idle excuses and pretences of
endangering our health, oftentimes put by the duties of religion,
or, at least, lose the fittest and properest seasons for them: we
are laying upon our beds, when we should be wrestling upon our
knees: the world is suffered to get the start of religion in the
morning, and so religion is never able to overtake it all the day
long. This was none of David’s courses, he prevented the
dawning of the morning, and cried,
Some, I confess, cannot receive this injunction, being naturally disabled by prevailing infirmities; but those who can, ought to do so. But oh, how many slothful excuses does the flesh invent to put off duty! We shall injure our health, &c. O the hypocrisy of such pleas! If profit or pleasure calls us up, we have no shifts, but can rise early and sit up late.
O, friends, why has God given you bodies, if not to waste and wear them out in his service, and the service of your own souls! If your bodies must not be put to it, and exercised this way, where is the mercy of having a body? If a stately horse were given you on this condition, that you must not ride or work him, what benefit would such a gift be to you? Your bodies, must and will wear out, and it is better to wear them with working, than with rusting: we are generally more solicitous to live long than to live usefully and serviceably; and it may be our health had been more precious in the eyes of God, if it had been less precious in our own eyes. It is just with God to destroy that health with diseases, which he sees we would cast away in sloth and idleness. Think with thyself, had such a soul as Timothy’s or Gaius’s been blest with such a body as thine, so strong and vigorous, so apt and able for service, they would have honoured God more in it in a day, than perhaps you do in a year. Certainly this is not love, but laziness; not a due improvement, but a sinful neglect and abuse of the body, to let it rust out into idleness, which might be employed so many ways for God, for your own and others souls. Well, remember death will shortly dissolve them, and then they can be of no more use; and if you expect God should put glory and honour upon them at the resurrection, use them for God now, with a faithful, self-denying diligence.
(3.) It appears by our cowardly shrinking from dangers that
threaten them, when the glory of God, our own and others salvation,
bid us expose and not regard them. Some there are, that rather than
they will adventure their flesh to the rage of man, will hazard
their souls to the wrath of God. They are too tender to suffer pain
or restraints for Christ, but consider not what sufferings are
prepared for the fearful and unbelieving in the world to come,
There be but few like-minded with Paul, who set a low price upon
his liberty or life for Christ,
We have a great many little politicians among us, who think to
husband their lives and liberties a great deal better than other
plain hearted, and too forward Christians do: but these politics
will be their perdition, and their craft will betray them to ruin.
They will lose their lives by saving them, when others will save
them by losing them,
O my friends, let me beg you not to love your bodies into hell, and your souls too for their sakes: be not so scared at the sufferings of the body, as, with poor Spira, to dash them both against the wrath of the great and terrible God. Most of those souls that are now in hell, are there upon the account of their indulgence to the flesh, they could not deny the flesh, and now are denied by God. They could not suffer from men, and now must suffer the vengeance of eternal fire.
(4.) In a word; it appears we love them fondly and irregularly,
in that we cannot with any patience think of death and separation
from them. How do some men fright at the very name of death! And no
arguments can persuade them seriously to think of an unbodied, and
separated state. It is as death to them, to bring their thoughts
close to that ungrateful subject. A Christian that loves his body
regularly and moderately, can look into his own grave with a
composed mind, and speak familiarly of it, as
Use third, of exhortation.
To conclude; Seeing there is so strict a friendship and tender affection betwixt soul and body, let me persuade every soul of you to express your love to the body, by labouring to get union with Jesus Christ, and thereby to prevent the utter ruin of both to all eternity.
Souls, if you love yourselves, or the bodies you dwell in, shew it by your preventing care in season, lest they be cast away for ever. How can you say you love them, when you daily expose them to the everlasting wrath of God, by employing them as weapons of unrighteousness, to fight against him that formed them? You feed and pamper them on earth, you give them all the delight and pleasure you can procure for them in this world; but you take no care what shall become of them, nor your souls neither, after death has separated them. Oh cruel souls! cruel, not to others, but to yourselves, and to your own flesh, which you pretend so much love to! Is this your love to your bodies? What, to employ them in Satan’s service on earth, and then to be cast as a prey to him forever in hell? You think the rigour end mortification of the saints, their abstemiousness and self-denial, their cares, fears, and diligence, to be too great severity to their bodies: but they know these are the most real evidences of their true love to them, they love them too well to cast them away as you do. Alas! your love to the body does not consist in feeding, and clothing, and pleasing it; but in getting it united to Christ, and made the temple of the Holy Ghost: in using it for God, and dedicating it to God.
I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies living sacrifices to God, which is your reasonable service,
Except you have gracious souls, you shall never have glorified bodies: except your souls be united, with Christ, the happiness of your bodies, as well as your souls is lost to all eternity. Know you not that the everlasting condition of your bodies follows and depends on the interest your souls now get in Christ? Oh that this sad truth might sink deep into all our considerations this day; that if your bodies be snares to your souls, and your souls be now regardless of the future state of themselves, and them; assuredly they will have a bitter parting at death, a terrible meeting again at the resurrection, and horrid reflections upon each other, naturally charging their ruin upon each other to all eternity. While they that are in Christ, part in hope, meet with joy, and bless God for each other for evermore.
Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
At the tenth verse of this chapter, the apostle sums up his foregoing precepts and exhortations in one great and most important duty, the "making sure of their calling and election." This exhortation he enforceth on them by a most solemn and weighty motive, ver. 11. "Even an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom." No work of greater necessity or difficulty, than to make sure our salvation, no argument more forcible and prevalent, than an easy and free entrance into glory at death, an ε υ θ α ν α σ ι α (euthanasia), a sweet and comfortable dissolution, to enter the port of glory before the wind, with our full lading of comfort, peace, and joy in believing, our sails full and our streamers flying: Oh! how much better is this, than to lie windbound, I mean heartbound, at the harbour’s mouth! tossed up and down with fears, doubts, and manifold temptations, making many a board to fetch the harbour, for so much is signified in his figurative and allusive expression, ver. 11.
And for their encouragement in this great and difficult work, he engageth himself by promise to give them all the assistance he can, while God should continue his life; and knowing that would be but a little while, he resolves to use his utmost endeavour to secure these things in their memories after his death, that they might not die with him. This is the general scope and order of the words.
Wherein more particularly we have,
1. His exemplary industry and diligence in his ministerial work.
2. Else consideration stunulating and provoking him thereunto.
1. His exemplary industry and diligence in his ministerial work. In which two things are remarkable, viz. (1.) The quality of his work, which was to stir them up, by putting them in remembrance, to keep the heavenly flame of love and zeal lively upon the altar of their hearts. He well knew what a sleepy disease the best Christians are troubled with, and therefore he had need to be stirring them up, and awaking them to their duty. (2.) The constancy of his work: as long as I am in this tabernacle; i. e. as long as I live in this world. The body is called a tabernacle, in respect of its moveableness and frailty, and in opposition to that house made without hands, eternal in the heavens. And it is observable how he limits and bounds his serviceableness to them, by his commoration in his tabernacle or body, as well knowing after death he could be no longer useful to them or any others in this world. Death puts an end to all ministerial usefulness: but till that time he judged it meet, and becoming him, to be aiding and assisting their faith: our life and labour must end together.
2. We have here the motive, or consideration, stimulating and provoking him to this diligence; "knowing that I must shortly put off this tabernacle, even as the Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me." In which morals he gives an account of, (1.) The speediness; (2.) necessity; (3.) voluntariness of his death, and the way and means by which he knew it. All these must be considered singly and apart, and then valued all together, as they amount to a weighty argument or motive to excite him to diligence in his duty.
(1.) He reflects upon the speediness or near approach of his
death. "I must [shortly] put off this my tabernacle;" which is a
form of speech of the same importance with that of Paul,
(2.) The necessity of his death: It is not I may, but I
must put off this my tabernacle; yea, I must put it off
shortly; for so the Lord hath showed him; Christ had signified it
expressly to him,
(3.) The voluntariness of his death; for voluntariness is consistent enough with the necessity of the event. I must put off, or lay down my tabernacle; he says not, I must be torn, or rent by violence from it, but I must depose, or lay it down. Camero will have the word here used for death, properly to signify the laying down of one’s garments: he made no more of putting off his body than his garment.
Upon the consideration of the whole matter, the speediness of his death which he knew to be at hand; the necessity of it, that when it came he must be gone from, and could be no more useful to them; and his own inclination to be with Christ in a better state, being as willing to be gone, as a weary traveller to be at home; he judged it meet, or becoming him, as he was called of Christ to feed his sheep, as he was gifted extraordinarily for the church’s service, full of spiritual excellencies, all which in a short time would be taken away from them by death: I say, upon all these accounts, he could not but judge it meet to be stirring them up, and every way striving to be as useful as he could. Hence the note will be,
Doct. How strong soever the affections and inclinations of souls are to the fleshly tabernacles they now live in, yet they must put them off; and that speedily.
The point lies very plain before us in the scriptures. That is a
remarkable expression we have in
"There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the
spirit; neither has he power in the day of death, and there is no
discharge in that war,"
The law of mortality binds all, good and bad, young and old, the
most useful and desirable saints, whom the world can worst spare,
as well as useless and undesirable sinners,
The continuance of these our tabernacles or bodies is short, whether we consider them absolutely, or comparatively.
1. Absolutely. If they should stand seventy or eighty
years, which is the longest duration,
2. Comparatively. Let us compare our time in these
tabernacles, (1.) either with eternity, or with him who inhabits
it, and it shrinks up into nothing;
The grounds and reasons of this necessity that lies upon all, to put off their earthly tabernacle so soon, are
1. The law of God, or his appointment.
2. The providence of God ordering it suitably to this appointment.
1. The law or appointment of God which came in force immediately
upon the fall;
2. The providence of God ordering and framing the body of man
suitably to this his appointment; a frail, weak creature, having
the seeds of death in his constitution: Thousands of diseases and
infirmities are bred in his nature, and the smallest pore in his
body is a door large enough to let in death. Hence his body is
compared to a piece of cloth which moths have fretted,
And both these, viz. the divine appointment and providence, are in pursuance of a double design, or for the payment of a twofold debt, which God owes to the first and to the second Adam.
(1.) By cutting off the life, or dissolving the tabernacles of
wicked men, God pays that debt of justice owing to the first
Adam’s sinful posterity, whose sins cry daily to his justice
to cut them off.
(2.) By cutting off the lives of good men, God pays to Christ
the reward of his sufferings, the end of his death which was to
bring many sons to glory,
1. Christ’s.
2. The saints’.
1. Christ’s desires are satisfied; for this is the thing
he all along kept his eye upon in the whole work of his mediation;
it was to bring us to God,
2. The desires of the saints are hereby satisfied, and their
weary souls brought to rest. Oh! what do gracious souls more pant
after than the full enjoyment of God, and the visions of his face!
the state of freedom from sin, and complete conformity to Jesus
Christ! From the day of their espousals to Christ, these desires
have been working in their souls. Love and patience have each acted
its part in them,
The main motives that persuade gracious souls to abide here, are to finish the work of their own salvation, and further other men’s; but as their evidences for heaven grow clearer to themselves, and their capacity of service less to others, so must their desires to be with Christ be more and more enflamed.
Now the case so standing, that Christ’s condition in
heaven, being a condition of desire and longing for the enjoyment
of his people there, and all the glory of heaven would not content
him without that; and the condition of his people on earth being
also a state of longing, groaning, and panting to be with him, and
all the pleasures and delights and comforts they leave on earth,
will not content them without it: How wise and gracious an
appointment of heaven is it, that these our tabernacles shall and
must be put off, and that shortly! For hereby a full and mutual
satisfaction is given to the restless desires both of
Christ’s heart and of theirs: See the reflected flames of
love betwixt them, in
Inf. 1. Must we put off these tabernacles? Is death necessary and inevitable? Then it is our wisdom to sweeten to ourselves that cup which we must drink; and make that as pleasant to us as we can which we know cannot be avoided. Die we must, whether we be fit or unfit, willing or unwilling: It is to no purpose to shrug at the name, or shrink back from the thing. In all ages of the world, death has swept the stage clean of one generation, to make room for another, and so it will from age to age, till the stage be taken down, in the general dissolution.
But though death be inevitable by all, it is not alike evil,
bitter, and dreadful to all. Some tremble, others triumph at the
appearances of it. Some meet it half way, receive it as a friend,
and can bid it welcome, and die by consent; making that the matter
of their election, which, in itself, is necessary and unavoidable;
so did Paul,
That man is happy indeed, whose heart falls in with the
appointment of God, so voluntarily and finely, as that he dare not
only look death in the fact, with confidence, but go along with it
by consent of will. Remarkable to this purpose, is that which the
apostle asserts of the frame of his own heart,
We cannot live always if we would, and our hearts should be
wrought to that frame, as to say, we would not live always if we
could,
Indeed those that have their portion, their all, in this life, have no desire to be gone hence. They that were never changed by grace, desire no change by death, if such a concession were made to them, as was once to an English parliament, That they should never be dissolved, but by their own consent, when would they say as Paul, "I desire to be dissolved?" But it is far otherwise with them, whose portion and affections are in another world; they would not live always if they might; knowing, that never to die, is never to be happy.
Quest. If you say, This is an excellent and most desirable temper of soul; but how did these holy men attain it? or what is the course we may take to get the like frame of willingness?
Sol. They attained it, and you may attain it in such methods as these.
1. They lived in the believing views of the invisible world, and
so must you, if ever death be desirable in your eyes,
2. They had assurance of heaven, as well as faith to discern it.
Assurance is a lump of sugar, indeed, in the bitter cup of death;
nothing sweetens like it.
3. Their hearts were weaned from this world, and an inordinate
affection to a terrene life,
4. They ordered their conversations with much integrity, and so
kept their consciences pure, and void of offence:
5. They kept their love to Christ at the height: that flame was
vehement in their souls, and made them despise the terror, and
desire the friendly assistance of death, to bring them to the sight
of Jesus Christ,
Inference 2. Must we put off these tabernacles of flesh?
How necessary is if, that every soul look in season, and
make provision for another habitation? If you must be turned
out of one house, you must provide another, or lie in the streets.
This the apostle comforted himself with, that "if unclothed, he
should not be found naked,"
I know it is a common presumption of most men, that they shall be in heaven, when they can be no longer on earth. Presumendo sperant, et sperando pereunt. But a few moments will convince them of their fatal mistake; their poor souls will meet with a confounding repulse, like that, Matth. via. 22. There is indeed a city full of heavenly mansions prepared for some; but who are they that are entitled to it, and may confidently expect to be received into it? To be sure, not the presumptuous, who make a bridge of their own shadows, and so fall and perish in the waters. Brethren, it is one of the most solemn enquiries you were ever put upon: and therefore I beseech you, see whether your characters set you among those men, or no.
1. Those that are new-born, shall be clothed with their new
house from heaven, when death unclothes them of these tabernacles:
the New Jerusalem has none but new-born inhabitants,
2. Those that live as strangers, and pilgrims on earth, seeking
a better place, and state, than this world affords them; for them
God has made preparations in glory,
3. Those that live and die by faith, shall not fail to be
received into a better habitation by death. This is another
character of them that shall be received into glory, laid down in
the same place,
4. Those that love the person and appearance of Christ, have a
mark that sets them among the inhabitants of heaven, and glory,
Inf. 3. Must we put off our tabernacles, and that shortly? What a spur is this to a diligent redemption, and improvement of time? This is the use Peter made of it here, and every one of us should make. It was said of Bishop Hooper, he was spare in his diet, spare in his words, but most of all spare of his time. You have but a little time in these tabernacles; what pity is it to waste such out of a little?
(1.) Great is the worth and excellency of time, all the
treasures of the world cannot protract, stop, or call back one
minute of time. O what is man that the heavenly bodies should be
wheeled about by Almighty Power in constant revolutions, to beget
time for him!
(2.) More precious are the seasons and opportunities that are in
time for our souls; those are the golden spots of time, like the
pearl in the oyster-shell, of much more value than the shell that
contains it. There is much time in a short opportunity. There is a
day on which our eternal happiness depends,
(3.) Invaluable are the things which God does for men’s souls in time. There are works wrought upon men’s hearts in a seasonable hour in this life, which have an influence into the soul’s happiness throughout eternity. There is a time of mercy, a time of love, viz. of illumination, and conversion; and on that point of time, eternal life hangs in the whole weight of it.
(4.) Lost opportunity is never to be recovered by the soul any
more, Ezel. xxiv. 13.
(5.) It is wholly uncertain to every soul, whether the present
day may not determine his lease in this tabernacle and a writ of
ejection be served by death upon his soul to-morrow,
(6.) As soon as ever time shall end, eternity takes place. The stream of time delivers souls daily into the boundless ocean of vast eternity. Ab hoc momento pendit aeternitas. We are now measured by time, hereafter by eternity.
(7.) In eternity all things are fixed and unalterable. We have
no more to do, all means and works are at an end,
Inf. 4. Must we shortly put off these our tabernacles?
Then slack your pace, am cool yourselves; be not too eager in
the prosecution of earthly designs. O what bustling is here for
the world, and for provision for futurity, whereas far less would
serve the turn! We need not victual s ship to cross the channel to
France, as if she were bound to the Indies. Most men’s
provisions, at least their cares and thoughts, are far beyond the
preparations of their abode in this world. The folly of this,
Christ discovers in that parable,
Oh the multitude of thoughts and cares this world needlessly devours! We keep ourselves in such a continual hurry and crowd of cares, thoughts, and employments about the concerns of the body, that we can find little time to be alone, communing with our own hearts about our great concernments in eternity. It is with many of us, in respect of our souls, and their great interests, as it is with a man that is deep in thoughts about some subject that wholly swallows him up, he seeth not what he seeth, nor heareth what he heareth of any other matter: his eyes seem to look upon this or that, but it is all one as if he did not. So it was with Archimedes, who was so intent upon drawing his mathematical schemes, that though all the city was in an alarm, the enemy had taken it by storm, the streets filled with dreadful cries, and dead bodies, the soldiers came into his particular house, nay, entered his very study, and plucked him by the sleeve, before he took any notice of it: even so many men’s hearts are so profoundly immersed, and drowned in earthly cares, thoughts, projects, or pleasures, that death must come to their very houses, yea, and pull them by the sleeve, and tell them its errand, before they will begin to awake, and come to a serious consideration of things more important.
Inf. 5. If we must shortly put off these tabernacles, then the
groaning and mourning time of all believers is but short; how heavy
soever their burden be, yet they shall carry it but a little way.
It is said,
But God will put a speedy and final end to all these things.
When you put off this tabernacle, you put off with it all those
burdens, inward and outward. The soul presently feels a great load
off his shoulders; it shall never groan more, God shall thenceforth
wipe away all tears from their eyes; for why are those burdens now
permitted and imposed by the Lord upon you, but (1.) To prevent
sin,
Inf. 6. Must you shortly put of those tabernacles?
Then spare them not while you have them, but enjoy them for God
with all diligence. Shortly they shall be useless to you, yea,
meat for worms; now they may be serviceable, and their service is
their honour: you received them not for such low ends as you employ
them for. See
Inf. 7. Look beyond this embodied state, and learn to
live now as you hope to live shortly; begin to be what you expect
to be. You know the time is at hand, that you shall live above all
bodily concernments and employments, the soul shall be a drudge to
the body no more. You shall be as the angels, Matt. xxii 30. not
marrying, nor giving in marriage, which is, by a
synechdoche, put for all carnal employments and enjoyments;
eat no more, drink no more, sleep no more, buy and sell no more.
Now suit yourselves as much as your state and the duties of
religion will suffer you to that state before hand. The sum of what
I aim at is in
-- Kai pneumasi dikaioon teteleioomenoon. – And to the spirits of just men made perfect.
The particular scope of this context falls in with the general design of the whole gospel, which is to persuade men to a life of holiness. The matter of the exhortation is most weighty, and the arguments enforcing it most powerful: He does not talk, but dispute; he does not say, but prove, that greater and more powerful engagements unto holiness lie upon those who live under the gospel, than upon the people who lived under the law. And thus the argument lies in this context.
If God, at the delivering of the law upon mount
Sinai, strictly enjoined, and required so great purity and
holiness in that people, signified by the ceremonies of two days
preparation, the washing of their clothes, abstinence from conjugal
society, &c.
To make good the sequel, he compares the legal and evangelical dispensations in many particulars, ver. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. giving the gospel the preference throughout the whole comparison.
Hence the privileges of the New-Testament believers are stated, both negatively and positively.
1. Negatively, By showing what we are exempted from.
2. Positively, Showing what we are to come unto.
1. Negatively, What we are exempted, or freed from; ver. 18, 19, 20, 21. "We are not come unto the mount that might be "touched," &c.
The sum of all is this, that the promulgation of the law was accompanied with amazing dread and terror. For, after Moses, by command from God, had sanctified the mount, and set rails about it, that neither priest nor people, man nor beast, might touch the very borders of it, lest they die; the Lord descended in fire upon the top of the mountain the third day, in the morning, with most terrible tokens of divine majesty, to wit, with thunderings, lightnings, dark clouds, and the noise of a trumpet, exceeding loud; the mount was covered with smoke, as the smoke of a furnace, and flames mounting up into the midst of heaven, the whole mountain shaking and trembling exceedingly: Out of this horrid tempest the awful voice of God was heard, all the people in the camp trembling, Yea, and Moses himself quaking for fear.
This was the manner of the law’s promulgation: But to such a terrible dispensation as this we are not come, which is the negative part of our privilege.
2. He opens the positive privileges to which we are come.
(1.) "Ye are come, says he, to mount Sion, not the earthly, but
the spiritual Sion. Mount Sion was the place celebrated above all
the world for the worship of God,
(2.) Ye are come "to an innumerable company of angels." To myriads of angels, a myriad is ten thousand, but myriads in the plural number, and set down indefinitely too, may note many millions of angels: And therefore we fitly render it, "to an innumerable company of angels."
They had the ministry of angels as well as we, thousands of them
ministered to the Lord in the dispensation of the law at Sinai,
(3.) "Ye are come to the general assembly, and church of the
first born, whose names are written (or enrolled) in heaven." This
also greatly commends and amplifies the privileges of the
New-Testament believers. The church of God in former ages was
circumscribed and shut up within the narrow limits of one small
kingdom, which was a garden enclosed out of a waste wilderness: But
now, by the calling in of the Gentiles, the church is extended far
and wide,
(4.) Ye are come "to God, the Judge of all." But why to God the
Judge? This seems to spoil the harmony, and jar with the other
parts of the discourse. No, they are come to God as a righteous
Judge, who, as such, will pardon them,
(5.) "And to the spirits of just men made perfect." A most glorious privilege indeed; in which we are distinctly to consider.
1. The quality of those with whom we are associated or taken into fellowship.
2. The way and manner of our association with them.
1. The quality of those with whom we are associated, or to whom we are said to be come; and they are described by three characters, viz.
(1.) Spirits of men.
(2.) Spirits of just men.
(3.) Spirits of just men perfected, or consummated.
(1.) They are called spirits, that is, immaterial substances, strictly opposed to bodies, which are no way the objects of our exterior senses, neither visible to the eye, or sensible to the touch, which were called properly souls while they animated bodies in this lower world; but now being loosed and separated from them by death, and existing alone in the world above, they are properly and strictly styled spirits.
(2.) They are the spirits of just men. Man may be termed
just two ways, (1.) By a full discharge and acquittance from the
guilt of all his sins, and so believers are just men, even
while they live on earth, groaning under other imperfections,
Or, (2.) By a total freedom from the pollution of any sin. And
though in this sense there is not "a just man upon earth that does
good, and sinneth not," Eccl. vii 22. yet even in this sense Adam
was just before the fall,
(a.) They are called the spirits of just men made perfect, or consummate. The word perfect is not here to be understood absolutely, but by way of synecdoche; they are not perfect in every respect, for one part of these just men lies rotting in the grave: but they are perfected, for so much as concerns their spirit; though the flesh perish and lie in dishonour, yet their spirits being once loosed from the body, and freed radically and perfectly from sin, are presently admitted to the facial vision and fruition of God, which is the culminating point (as I may call it) higher than which the spirit of man aspires not; and attaining to this, it is, for so much as concerns itself, made perfect. Even as a body at last lodged in its centre, gravitates no more, but is at perfect rest; so it is with the spirit of man come home to God in glory, it is now consummate, no more need to be done to malice it as perfectly happy as it is capable to be made; which is the first thing to be considered, viz. the quality of those with whom we are associated.
2. The second follows, namely, the way and manner of our association with these blessed spirits of just men, noted in this expression, [we are come.] He says not, we shall come hereafter, when the resurrection had restored our bodies, or after the general judgement; but, we are come to these spirits of just men. The meaning whereof we may take in these three particulars.
(1.) We that live under the gospel-light, are come to a clearer
apprehension, sight, and knowledge of the blessed and happy estate
of the souls of the righteous after death, than ever they had, or
ordinarily could have, who lived under the types and shadows of the
law,
(2.) We are come to those blessed spirits in our representative,
Christ, who has carried our nature into the very midst of them, and
whom they all behold with highest admiration and delight. By
Christ, who is entered into that holy place where these spirits of
just men live, we are come into a near relation with them: for he
being the common head, both to them in heaven, and to us on earth,
we and they consequentially make but one body or society,
(8.) We are come. That is, we are as good as come, or we are upon the matter come; there remains nothing betwixt them and us but a puff of breath, a little space of time, which shortens every moment: We are come to the very borders of their country, and there is nothing to speak of betwixt them and us: And by this expression, we are come, he teacheth us to account and reckon those things as present which so shortly will be present to us, and to look upon them as if they already were, which is the highest and most comfortable life of faith we can live on earth. Hence the note is,
Doct. That righteous and holy souls, once separated from their bodies by death, are immediately perfected in themselves; and associated with others alike perfect in the kingdom of God.
That the spirits of just men at the time of their separation from their bodies do not utterly fail in their beings, nor that they are so prejudiced and wounded by death, that they cannot exert their own proper acts in the absence of the body, has been already cleared in the foregoing parts of this treatise, and will be more fuller cleared from this text.
But the true level and aim of this discourse is at a higher
mark, viz. the far more excellent, free, and noble life the souls
of the just begin to live immediately after their bodies are
dropped off from them by death, at which time they begin to live
like themselves, a pleasant, free, and divine life. So much at
least is included in the apostle’s epithet in my text,
spirits of just men made perfect; and suitable thereto are his
words in
These two adverbs, now and then, distinguish the twofold state of gracious souls, and show what it is while they are confined in the body, and what it shall be from the time of their emancipation and freedom from that clog of mortality. Now we are imperfect, but then that which is perfect takes place, and that which is imperfect is done away, as the imperfect twilight is done away by the opening of the perfect day.
And it deserves a serious animadversion, that this perfect state does not succeed the imperfect one after a long interval, (as long as betwixt the dissolution and resurrection of the body) but the imperfect state of the soul is immediately done away by the coming of the perfect one. The glass is laid by as useless, when we come to see face to face, and eye to eye.
The waters will prove very deep here, too deep for any line of
mine to fathom; there is a cloud always overshadowing the world to
come, a gloom and haziness upon that state: Fain we would, with our
creak and feeble beam of imperfect knowledge, penetrate this cloud,
and dispel this gloom and haziness, but cannot. We think seriously
and closely of this great and awful subject, but our thoughts
cannot pierce through it: we reinforce those thoughts by a sally,
or thick succession of fresh thoughts, and yet all will not do, our
thoughts return to us either in confusion, or without the expected
success. For alas! how little is it that we know, or can know of
our own souls now while they are embodied! much less of their
unembodied state. The apostle tells us,
Yet all this is no discouragement to the search and regular enquiry into the future state; for though reason cannot penetrate these mysteries, yet God has revealed them to us, (though not perfectly) by his Spirit. And though we know not particularly, and circumstantially what we shall be, yet this we know, that "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." And it is our privilege and happiness, that we are come to the spirits of just men made perfect, i. e. to a clearer knowledge of that state than was ordinarily attainable by believers, under former dispensations.
These things premised, I will proceed to open my apprehensions of the separate state of the spirits of just men made perfect, in twelve propositions: whereby, as by so many steps, we may orderly advance as far as safely and warrantably we may, into the knowledge of this great mystery, clearing what afterwards shall remain obscure, in the solution of several questions relating to this subject, and then apply the whole, in several uses of this great point: And the first proposition is this:
Proposition 1. There is a twofold separation of the soul from the body: viz. one mental, the other real: Or,
1. Intellectual, by the mind only.
2. Physical, by the stroke of death.
1. Of intellectual, or mental separation, I am first to speak in
this proposition; and it is nothing else but an act of the
understanding, or mind, conceiving, or considering the soul and
body, as separate and parted from each other, while yet they are
united in a personal oneness by the breath of life. This mental
separation may, and ought to be frequently and seriously made,
before death make the real and actual separation; and the more
frequently and seriously we do it, the less of horror and
distraction will attend that real and fatal stroke, whenever it
shall be given. For hereby we learn to bear it gradually, and, by
gentle essays, to acquaint our shoulders with the burden of it.
Separation is a word that has much of horror in the very
sound, and uses to have much more in the sense and feeling of it,
else it would not deserve that title,
(1.) As it is preventive of much guilt.
(2.) As it gains a more inward knowledge of its nature.
(1.) The serious and fixed thoughts of the parting hour, is
preventive of much guilt; and the greatest part of the horror of
death rises out of the guilt of sin; "The sting of death is sin,"
Let a soul but seriously meditate what a change death will make shortly upon his person and condition; and the natural effects of such a meditation, through the blessing of God upon it, will be a flatting and quenching of its keen and raging appetite after the ensnaring vanities of this world (which draw men into so much guilt) a conscious fear of sin, and an awakened care of duty. It was once demanded of a very holy man (who spent much more than the ordinary allowance of time in prayer, and searching his own heart) why he so macerated his own body by such frequent and long continued duties! His answer was, O! I must die, I must die! Nothing could separate him from duty, who had already separated his soul from his body, and all this world, by fixed end deep thoughts of death.
(2.) Hereby we gain a more inward knowledge and acquaintance with it, the less it terrifies us. A lion is much more dreadful to him that never saw him, than he is to his keeper who feedeth him every day. A pitched battle is more frightful and scaring to a new-listed soldier, that never took his place in the field before, nor saw the dreadful countenance of an army ready to engage, nor heard the thundering noise of cannon, and volleys of shot, the shouts of armies, and groans of dying men on every side, than it is to an old soldier who has been used to such things. The like we may observe in seamen, who it may be trembled at first, and now can sing in a storm.
Scarce any thing is more necessary for weak and timorous believers to meditate on, than the time of their separation. Our hearts will be apt to start and boggle at the first view of death; but it is good to do by them as men use to do by young colts; ride them up to that which they fright at, and make them smell to it, which is the way to cure them. "Look, as bread, says one, is more necessary than other food, so the meditation of death is more necessary than many other meditations." Every time we change our habitations, we should realise therein our great change: our souls must shortly leave this, and be lodged for a longer season in another mansion. When we put off our clothes at night, we have a fit occasion to consider, that we must strip nearer one of these days, and put off, not our clothes only, but the body that wears them too.
Holy Job had, by frequent thoughts, familiarised death and the
grave to himself, and could speak of them as men use to speak of
their houses and dearest relations,
Philip of Macedon would be awakened by his page every morning with this sentence, memento te esse mortalem: Remember, O king, that thou art a mortal man. A great emperor of Constantinople, not only at his inauguration, but at his great feasts, ordered a mason to bring two stones before him, and say, "Choose, O emperor, which of the two stones thou wilt for thy tombstone?" Reader, thou wilt find mental separation much easier than real separation: it is easier to think of death, than it is to feel it; and the more we think of it, the less we are like to feel it.
Prop. 2. Actual separation may be considered either in fieri, in the previous pangs, and foregoing agonies of it; or in facto esse, in the last separating stroke, which actually parts the soul and body asunder, lays the body prostrate and dead at the feet of death, and thrusts the soul quite out of its ancient and beloved habitation.
Let it be considered in the previous pangs and forerunning agonies, which commonly make way for this actual dissolution: and to the people of God, this is the worst and bitterest part of death (except those conflicts with Satan, which they sometimes grapple with on a deathbed) which they encounter at that time. There is (says one) no poinard in death itself, like those in the way or prologue to it. I like not to die, (said another) but I care not if I were dead; the end is better than the way. The conflicts and struggles of nature with death are bitter and sharp pains, unknown to men before, whatever pains they have endured: nor can it be expected to be otherwise, seeing the ties and engagements betwixt the soul and body are so strong, as we showed before.
The soul will not easily part with the body, but disputes the possages with Death, from member to member, like resolute soldiers in a stormed garrison, till at last it is forced to yield up the fort royal into the hands of victorious Death, and leave the dearly be loved body a captive to it.
This is the dark side of death to all good men; and though it be not worth naming, in comparison with the dreadful consequences of death to all others, yet in itself it is terrible.
Separation is not natural to the soul which was created with an inclination to the body; it is natural indeed to clasp and embrace, to love and cherish its own body; but to be divided from it, is grievous and preternatural.
The agonies of death are expressed in scripture, by a word which
signifies "the travailing pains of a woman", yea, by the sharpest
and most acute pains they at that time feel,
And yet all are not handled alike roughly by the hands of death; some are favoured with a desirable euthanasia, gentle and easy death.
It is the privilege of some Christians to have their souls fetched out of their bodies, as it were by a kiss from the mouth of God, as the Jewish Rabbins use to express the manner of Moses’ death. Mr. Bolton felt no pain at his death, but the cold hand of his friend, who asked him what pain he felt. Yea, holy Bayneham in the midst of the flames, professed it was to him as a bed of roses.
Every believer is equally freed from the sting and curse of death; but every one is not equally favoured in the agonies and pains of death.
2. Separation from the body is to be considered in facto esse, i. e. in the result and issue of all those bitter pangs and agonies, which end in the actual dissolution of soul and body. "Death, or actual separation, is nothing else but the dissolving of the tie or loosing of the bond of union betwixt the soul and body." "Some call it the privation of the second act of the soul, that is, its act of informing or enlivening the body." Others, according to the scripture-phrase, the departing of the soul from the body. So Peter stiles it, 2 Pet. i. 15. Meia ten emen exodon, after my departure, i. e. after my death. Augustine calls it the laying down of a heavy burden, provided there be not another burden for the soul to bear afterwards, which will sink it into hell.
In respect of the body, which the soul now forsakes, it is
called "the putting off this tabernacle," 2 Pet. i. 14. and, "the
dissolving the earthly house or tabernacle,"
In respect of the terminus a quo, the place from which
the soul removes at death, it is called our departure hence,
Our weighing anchor, and loosing from this coast or shore, to sail to another.
In respect of the terminus ad quem, the place to which
the spirits of the just go at death, it is called our going to, or
being with the Lord,
This is its last farewell to this world, never more to return to
a low animal life more.
Prop. 3. The separation of the soul and body, makes a great and wonderful change upon both, but especially upon the soul.
There is a twofold change made upon man by death, one upon his
lady, another upon his soul. The change upon the body is great and
visible to every eye. A living body is changed into a dead carcass:
a beautiful and comely body into a loathsome spectacle: that which
was lately the object of delight and love, is hereby make an
abhorrence to all flesh; "Bury my dead out of my sight,"
What the sun is to the greater, that the soul is to the lesser world. When the sun shines comfortably, how vegete and cheerful do all things look! how well do they thrive and prosper! the birds sing merrily, the beasts play wantonly, the whole creation enjoyeth a day of light and joy: but when it departs, what a night of horror followeth! how are all things wrapped up in the sable mantle of darkness! or if it but abate its heat, as in winter, the creatures are, as it were, buried in the winding-sheet of winter’s frost and snow: just so is it with the body, when the soul shines pleasantly upon it, or departs from it.
That body which was fed so assiduously, cared for so anxiously, loved so passionately, is now tumbled into a pit, and left to the mercy of crawling worms. The change which judgment made upon that great and flourishing city Nineveh, is a fit emblem to shadow forth that change which death makes upon human bodies: that great and renowned city was once full of people, which thronged the streets thereof; there you might have seen children playing upon the thresholds, beauties showing themselves through the windows, melody sounding in its palaces: but what an alteration was made upon it, the prophet Zephaniah describes, chap. ii. 14. "Flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations; both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it: their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds, for he shall uncover the cedar-work."
Thus it is with the body when death has dislodged the soul: worms nestle in the holes where the beautiful eyes were once placed; corruption and desolation is upon all parts of that stately structure. But this being a vulgar theme, I shall leave the body to the dust from whence it came, and follow the soul, which is my proper subject, pointing at the changes which are made on it.
The essence of the soul is not destroyed or changed by the
body’s ruin; it is substantially the self-same soul it was
when in the body. The supposition of an essential change would
disorder the whole frame and model of God’s eternal design
for the redemption and glorification of it,
1. It is not where it was: it was in a body, immersed in matter, married unto flesh and blood; but now it is out of the body, unclothed and stripped naked out of its garments of flesh, like pure gold melted out of the ore with which it was commixed; or as a bird let out of her cage into the open fields and woods. This makes a great and wonderful change upon it.
2. Being free from the body, it is consequently discharged and
freed from all those cares, studies, fears and sorrows to which it
was here enthralled and subjected upon the body’s account: it
puts off all those passions and burdens with it: never spends one
thought more about food and raiment, health and sickness, wives and
children, riches or poverty, but lives henceforth after the manner
of angels,
3. In the unbodied state it is perfectly freed from sin, both in the acts and habits; a mercy it never enjoyed since the first moment it dwelt in the body. The cure of this disease was indeed begun in the work of sanctification; but it is not perfected till the day of the soul’s glorification. It is now, and not till now, a spirit made perfect; that is, a soul enjoying its perfect health and rectitude: no more groans, tears, or lamentations, upon the account of indwelling sin.
4. The way and manner of its converse with, and enjoyment of God is changed. There are two mediums by which souls converse with God in the body, viz.
(1.) One internal, to wit, faith.
(2.) The other external, to wit, ordinances.
(1.) If a man walk with God on earth, it must be in the use and
exercise of faith,
(2.) The external mediums are the ordinances of God, or
duties of religion, both public and private,
But in the same moment the soul is cut off from union with the
body, it is also cut off from both these ways of enjoying God,
Upon this change of the mediums of communion, it will follow, that the communion betwixt God and the separate soul, excels all the communion it ever had with him on earth, in
(1.) The clearness. (2.) The sweetness. (3.) The constancy of it.
(1.) Its visions of God, in the state of separation, are more clear, distinct, and direct than they were on earth; clouds and shadows are now fled away: The soul now seeth as it is seen, and knoweth as it is known; its apprehensions of God there, differ from those it had here, as the crude and confused apprehensions of a child do, from those we have in the manly state.
(2.) They are also more sweet and ravishing: As our visions are,
so are our pleasures; perfect visions produce perfect pleasures:
The faculties of the soul now, and never till now, lie level to
that rule,
(3.) More constant, fixed, and steady. It is one of the greatest difficulties in religion to fix the thoughts and cure the wildness and rovings of the fancy: the heart is not steady with God; and hence are its ups and downs, heatings and coolings; which are things unknown in the perfect state. By all which it appears, the change by dissolution is great and marvellous, both upon the body and soul, but upon the soul more especially
Proposition 4. The souls of the righteous, at the instant of their separation, are received by the blessed angels, and by them transferred unto the place of blessedness.
Though angels are by nature a superior order of spirits,
differing from men in dignity, as the nobles and barons in the
kingdoms of this world, differ from inferior subjects, yet are they
made ministering spirits, i. e. serviceable creatures in the
kingdom of providence, to the meanest of the saints,
They are about our death beds, waiting to receive their precious
charge into their arms and bosoms. When Lazarus breathed out his
soul, the text says it was "carried by angels into Abraham’s
"bosom",
Object. If it be demanded, What need is there of their help or company? Cannot God by his immediate hand and power gather home the souls of his people to himself at death? He inspired them into our bodies without their help, and can receive them again when we expire them, without their aid.
Sol. True, he can do so; but it has pleased him to appoint this method of our translation, not out of mere necessity, but bounty. Souls ascend not to God in the virtue of the angels’ wings, or arms, but of Christ’s ascension. Had he not ascended as our head and representative, all the angels in heaven could not have brought our souls thither: He ascended by his own power, and we ascend by virtue of his ascension. It is therefore rather for state and decurum, than any absolute necessity, that they attend us in our ascension.
God will not only have his people brought home to him safely, but honourably: They shall come to their Father’s house in a becoming equipage, as the children of a king. This puts honour upon our ascension day; that day is adorned by the attendance of such illustrious creatures upon us. It is no small honour which God herein designs for us, that creatures of greater dignity than ourselves, shall be sent from heaven to attend and wait upon us thither.
Yea. that our ascension-day, should, in this, resemble
Christ’s ascension, is an honour indeed. When he ascended,
there were multitudes of these heavenly creatures to wait upon him,
Now, herein God greatly honours his people, that there shall be some resemblance and conformity betwixt their ascension and Christ’s: Angels rejoice to attend those to heaven, who must be their fellow citizens for ever in heaven! It is convenient also, that those who had the charge of us all our life, should attend us to our Father’s house at our death: In the one they finish their ministry; in the other they begin their more intimate society.
Moreover, the angels are they whom God will employ, to gather
together his elect from the four winds of heaven, at the great day,
Object. But the sight and presence of angels is exceeding awful
and overwhelming to human nature: It will rather astonish and
terrify, then refresh and cheer us, to find ourselves, all on a
sudden, surrounded, and beset with such majestic creatures. We see
what effects the appearance of an angel has had upon good men in
this world: "We shall die, (says Manoah) for we have seen God,"
Sol. True, while our souls inhabit these mortal and
sinful bodies, the appearance of angels is terrible to them, and
cannot be otherwise, partly upon a natural, and partly upon
a moral account. The dread of angels naturally falls upon
our animal spirits: They shrink and tremble at the approach of
spirits; not only the spirits of men, but of beasts, quail at it. A
dog, or an ass is terrified at it, as well as a man,
But when the soul is freed, both from flesh and sin, and shall
enjoy itself in a nature, like to these pure and holy spirits, the
dread of angels is then vanished, and the soul will take great
content and satisfaction in their company and communion: The soul
then finds itself a fit companion for them; looks upon them as its
fellow-servants, for so they are,
Prop. 5. The soul is not so maimed and prejudiced by its separation from the body, but that it both can, and does live, and acts without it: and performs the acts of cogitation and volition, without the aid and ministry of the body.
I know it is objected by them that assert the soul’s sleeping till the resurrection, that though its essence be not destroyed by death, yet its operations are obstructed by the want and absence of the body, its tool and instrument. And thus they form their objection.
Object. All that the soul understands, it understands by species; that is, the images of thins which are first formed in the fantasy. As when we would conceive the nature of a house, a ship, a man, or a beast. We first form the image, or species thereof in our fancy, and then exercise our thoughts about it. But this depending upon bodily organs, and instruments, the separated soul can form no such images. It has no such innate species of its own, but comes into the world an abrasta tabula, white paper. And being deprived by separation of the help of senses and fantasms, it consequently understands nothing.
Thus the soul, in its state of separation, is represented to us as Rounded in its powers and operations, to that degree, which seems to extinguish the very nature of it. But,
Sol. 1. We deny that the soul knows nothing now but by phantasms, and images; for it knows itself, its own nature and powers, of which it cannot possibly feign, or form any image, or representation. What form, shape, or figure, can the fancy of a man cast his own soul into, to help him to understand its nature?
And what shall we say of its understanding during an ecstasy, or rapture? Doth the soul know nothing at such a time? Doth a dull torpor seize and benumb its intellectual powers? No; the understanding is never more bright, clear, apprehensive, and perfect, than when the body, in an ecstasy is laid aside, as to any use or assistance of the mind: The soul for that space uses not the body’s assistance, as the very words ecstasy and rapture convince us.
2. To understand by species, does not agree to the soul natural; and necessarily, but by accident, as it is now in union with the body: Were it but once loosed from the body, it would understand better without them, than ever it did in the body by them.. A man that is on horseback, must move according to the motion of the horse he rides, but if he were on foot, he then uses his own proper motion as he pleaseth; so here. But though we grant the soul does in many cases now make use of phantasms, and that the agitation of the spirits, which are in the brain antd heart, are conjunct with its acts of cogitation and intellection: yet, as a searching scholar well observes, the spirits are rather subjects than instruments of those actions; and the whole essence of those acts is antecedent to the motion of the spirits: As when we rise a pen in writing, or a knife in cutting, there is an operation of the soul upon them, before there can be any operation by them: They act as they are first acted, and so do these bodily spirits. So that to speak properly, the body is bettered by the use the soul makes of it in these its noble actions; but the soul is not advantaged by being tied to such a body; it can do its own work without it; its operations follow its essence, not the body to which it is for a time united.
Upon the whole; it is much more absonous and difficult to conceive a stupefied, benumbed, and inactive soul, whose very nature is to be active, lively, and always in motion, than it is to conceive a soul freed frown the shackles and clogs of the body, acting freely according to its own nature. I wish the favourers of this opinion may take heed, lest it carry them farther than they intend, even to a denial of its existence and immortality, and turn them into downright Somatists or Atheists.
Proposition 6. That the separated souls of the just having finished all their work of obedience on earth, and the Spirit having finished all his work of sanctification upon them, they ascend to God, with all the habits of grace inherent in them; and all the comfortable improvements of their graces accompanying and following them.
This proposition is to be opened and confirmed in these four branches.
(1.) When a gracious soul is separated from the body, all its
work of obedience in this world is finished. Therefore death is
called the "finishing of our course,"
I do not say this lower world receives no benefit at all by them
after their death; for though they can speak no more, write no
more, pray for, and instruct the inhabitants of this world no more,
nor exhibit to them the beauty of religion in any new acts or
examples of theirs (which is what I mean by saying they have
finished all their work of obedience on earth); yet the benefit
of what they did while in the body, still remains after they are
gone: As the apostle speaks of Abel,
(2.) As all our work of obedience is then finished by us, so at death all the work of God is finished by his Spirit upon us. The last hand is then put to all the preparatory work for glory, not a stroke more to be done upon it afterwards; which appears as well try the immediate succession of the life of glory, (whereof I shall speak in another proposition) as by the cessation of all sanctifying means and instruments, which are totally laid aside as things of no more use after this stroke is given; Adepto fine, cessant media, means are useless when the end is attained. There is no work (says Solomon) in the grave. How short soever the soul’s stay and abode in the belly were, though it were regenerated one day, and separated the next, yet all is wrought upon it, which God ever intended should be wrought in this world, and there is no preparation-work in the other world.
(3.) But though the soul leave all the means of grace behind it,
yet it carries away with it to heaven all those habits of grace
which were planted and improved in it in this world, by the
blessing of the Spirit upon those means: Though it leave the
ordinances, it loses not the effects and fruits of them; though
they cease, their effects still live "The truth dwelleth in us, and
shall be in us for ever,"
Common gifts fail at death; but saving grace sticks fast in the
soul, and ascends with it into glory. Gracious habits are
inseparable; glory does not destroy, but perfect them: They are the
soul’s meetness for heaven,
Look, therefore, as the same natural faculties and powers which the soul had (though it could not use them) in its imperfect body in the womb, came with it into this world, where they freely exerted themselves in the most noble actions of natural life; so the habits of grace, which, by regeneration, are here implanted in a weak and imperfect soul, go with it to glory, where they exert themselves in a more high and perfect way of acting than ever they did here below. The languishing spark of love is there a vehement flame; the faint, remiss and infrequent delight in God is there at a constant, ravishing and transporting, height.
(4.) To conclude, As all implanted habits of grace ascend with
the sanctified soul to heaven; (for the soul ascends not thither as
a natural, but as a new creature) so all the effects, results, and
sweet improvements of those graces which we gathered as the
pleasant fruits of them on earth, these accompany and follow the
soul into the other world also; "Their works follow them,"
Prop. 7. The souls of the just when separated from their bodies, do not wander up and down in this world, nor hover about the sepulchres where their bodies lie; nor are they detained in any purgatory, in order to their more perfect purification; nor do they fall asleep in a benumbed stupid state: but do forthwith pass into glory, and are immediately with the Lord.
When once the mind of man leaves the scripture guidance and direction, which is it to what the compass or polestar is to a ship in the wide ocean, whither will it not wander? In what uncertainties will it not fluctuate? And upon what rocks and quicksands must it inevitable be cast? Many have been the foolish and groundless conceits and fancies of men about the receptacles of departed souls.
1. Some have assigned them a restless, wandering life, now here, now there, without any certain dwelling-place anywhere. The only grounds for this fancy, is the frequent apparitions of the ghost or spirits of the dead, whereof many instances are given; and who is there that is a stranger to such stories? Now, if departed souls were fixed anywhere, this world would be quiet and free from such disturbances.
I make no doubt, but very many of these stories, have been the industrious fictions and devices of wicked and superstitious votaries, to gain reputation to their way, speaking lies in hypocrisy, to draw disciples after them. And many others have been the tricks and impostures of Satan himself, to shake the credit of the saints’ rest in heaven, and the imprisonment of ungodly souls in hell, as will more fully appear when I come to speak to that question more particularly.
2. Others think, when they are loosed from the body at death,
they hover about the graves and solitary places where their bodies
lie, as devilling, seeing they can dwell no longer in them, to
abide as near them as they can; just as the surviving turtle keeps
near the place where his mate died, and may be heard mourning for a
long time about that part of the wood. This opinion seeks
countenance and protection from that law,
3. The Papists send them immediately to purgatory, in order to
their more thorough purification. This purgatory Bellarmine thus
describes: "It is a certain place wherein, as in a prison, souls
are purged after this life, that were not fully purged here, to the
intent they may enter pure into heaven; and though the church (says
he) hath not defined the place, yet the schoolmen say, it is in the
bowels of the earth, and upon the borders of hell." And, to
countenance this profitable fable, divers scriptures are by them
abused and misapplied, as
4. Another sort there are, who affirm, they neither wander about this world, nor go into purgatory, but are cast by death into a swoon or sleep; remaining in a kind of benumbed condition, till the resurrection of the body. This was the error of Beryllus; and Irenaeus seems to border too near upon it, when he says, "The souls of disciples shall go to an invisible place appointed for them of God, and shall there tarry till the resurrection, waiting for that time: and then receiving their bodies, and perfectly, i. e. corporally, rising again, as Christ did, they shall come to the sight of God."
All these mistakes will fall together by one stroke; for if it evidently appear (as I hope it will) that the spirits of the just are immediately taken to God, and do converse with, and enjoy him in heaven; then all these fancies vanish, without any more labour about them particularly. Now there are four considerations which to me put the immediate glorification of the departed souls of believers beyond all rational doubt.
1. Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them as ever it shall be.
2. They are as ready and fit for heaven as ever they will be.
3. The scripture is plainly for it. And,
4. There is nothing in reason against it.
1. Heaven is as fit and ready to receive them when they die, as
ever it shall be. Heaven is prepared for believers, (1.) By the
purpose and decree of God, and so far it was prepared from the
foundation of the world,
2. This is all that is necessary to be done for the preparation of heaven; and all this is done, as much as ever God designed should be done to it, in order to its preparation for our souls; so that no delay can be upon that account.
2. The departed souls of believers are as ready for heaven as
ever they will be: for there is no preparation work to be done by
them, or upon them after death,
3. The scripture is plain and full for their immediate
glorification;
4. To conclude; there is nothing in reason lying in bar to it. It has been proved before, that the soul in its unembodied state is capable to enjoy blessedness, and can perform its acts of intellection, volition, &c. not only as well, but much better than it did, when embodied. I conclude therefore, that seeing heaven is already as much prepared for believers as it need be, or can be; and they as much prepared from the time of their dissolution, as ever they shall be; the scriptures also being so plain for it, and no bar in reason against it; all the aforementioned opinions are but the dreams and fancies of men, who have forsaken their scripture-guide; and this remains all unshaken truth, that the spirits of the just go immediately to glory from the time of their separation.
Prop. 8. At the time of a gracious soul’s separation from the body, it is instantly and perfectly freed from sin, which, till that time, dwelt in it from its beginning; but thenceforth shall do so no more.
Immediately upon their separation from the body, they are spirits made perfect, as my text stiles them; and that epithet perfect could never suit them, if there were any remaining root or habit of corruption in them.
The time, yea, the set time is now come, to put an end to all
the dolorous groans of gracious souls, upon the account of
indwelling sin. What the angel said to Joshua,
There is a threefold burdensome evil in sin under which all
regenerated souls groan in this life; viz. (1.) The guilt;
(2.) The filth; (3.) The inherence of it in their nature. And there
is a threefold remedy or cure of these evils: the guilt of sin is
remedied by justification; the filth of sin is inchoatively healed
by sanctification: the inherence of sin is totally eradicated by
glorification; For as it entered into our persons by the union of
our souls and bodies, so it is perfectly cast out by their disunion
or separation at death: the last stroke is then given to the work
of sanctification, and the last is evermore the perfecting stroke:
sin languished under imperfect sanctification in the time of life,
but it gives up the ghost under perfected sanctification, from and
after death: sanctification gave it its deadly wound, but
glorification its final abolition. For it is with our sins, after
regeneration, as it was with that beast mentioned,
For, if so great holiness and purity be required in all that
draw nigh to God upon earth, as you read,
When a compounded being comes to be dissolved, each part returns to its own principle; so it is here: the spirit of man, and all the grace that is in it, came from God; and to him they return at death, and are perfected in him and by him: the flesh returns to earth, whence it came, and all that body of sin is destroyed with it; neither the one or the other shall be a snare or clog to the soul any more. A Christian in this world, is but gold in the ore; at death, the pure gold is melted out and separated, and the dross cast away and consumed.
Hence three consectaries offer themselves to us.
Consectary 1. That a believer’s life and warfare
end together. We lay not down our weapons of war, till we lie down
in the dust,
Consectary 2. Separated souls become impeccable,
or free from all the hazard of sin, from the time of their
separation: for, there being no root of sin now inherent in them,
consequently no temptation to sin can fasten upon them; all
temptations have their handles in the corruptions of our natures:
did not Satan find matter prepared within us, dry tinder fitted to
his hand, he might strike in temptations long enough, before one of
his hellish sparks could catch or fasten upon us. Temptations are
grievous exercises to believers; they are darts,
Consectary 3. Separated souls are more lovely companions, and their converses more sweet and delightful than ever they were in this world. It was their corruption which spoiled their communion on earth; and it is their spotless holiness which makes it incomparably pleasant in heaven. The best and loveliest saints have something in them which is distasteful; even sweet briars and holy thistles have their offensive prickles: but when that which was so lovely on earth is made perfect in heaven, and nothing of that remains in heaven, which was so offensive in them on earth; O what blessed, delightful companions will they be! O blessed society! O most desirable companions! let my soul for ever be united to their assembly. I love them under their corruptions; but how shall my soul be knit to them, when it sees them shining in their perfections?
Proposition 9. The pleasure and delights of the separate spirits of the just, are incomparably greater and sweeter than those they did, or at any time could experience in their bodily state.
With what a pleasant face would death smile upon believers! What roses would it raise in its pale cheeks, if this proposition were but well settled in our hearts by faith! And if we will not be wanting to ourselves, it may be firmly settled there, by these four considerations, which demonstrate it.
Consideration 1. Whatsoever pleasure any man receives in this world, he receives it by means of his soul. Even all corporeal and sensitive delights have no other relish and sweetness, but what the soul gives them, which is demonstrable by this; that if a man be placed amidst all the pleasing objects and circumstances in the world, if he were in that centre, where he might have the confluence of all the delights of this world; yet if the spirit be wounded, there is no more relish or savour in them, than in the white of an egg. What pleasure had Spira in his liberty, estate, wife and children; these things were indeed proposed and urged, again and again, to relieve him? but instead of pleasure they became his horror: let but the mind be wounded, and all the mirth is marred: one touch from God upon the spirit, destroys all the joy of this world. Nay,
Let but the intention of the mind be strongly carried another way, and for that time, (though there be no guilt or wound upon the soul) the most pleasant enjoyments lose their pleasure. What delight, think you, would bags of gold, sumptuous feasts, or exquisite melody have afforded to Archimedes, when he was wholly intent upon his mathematical lines? By this then it is evident, that the rise of all pleasure is in the mind, and the most agreeable and pleasing objects and enjoyments signify nothing without it: the mind must be found in itself, and at leisure to attend them, or we can have no pleasure from them.
Consid. 2. Of all natural pleasures in the world, intellectual pleasures are found to be most agreeable, and connatural to the soul of man.
The more refined and remote from sense any pleasure is, the more grateful is it to the soul; those are certainly the sweetest delights that spring out of the mind. A drop of intellectual pleasure is valued by a generous and well-tempered soul, above the whole ocean of impure joys, which come to it sophisticated and tinged through the muddy channels of sense.
No sensualists in the world can extract such pleasure out of gold, silver, meat and drink; as a searching and contemplating wind finds in the discovery of truth. Heinsius, that learned library-keeper of Leyden, professed, "That when he had shut up himself among so many illustrious souls, he seemed to sit down there, as in the very lap of eternity, and heartily pitied the rich and covetous worldlings, that were strangers to his delights."
And when Cardan tells us, "That to know the secrets of nature, and the order of the universe, has greater pleasure and sweetness in it, than the thought of man can fathom, or any mortal hope for." "Yea, such beauties, says Plutarch, there are in the study of the mathematics, that it were unworthy to compare such baubles and bubbles, as riches with it." "Yea, says another, it were a sweet thing to be extinguished in those studies."
Julius Scaliger was so delighted with poetry, that he protested he had rather be the author of twelve verses in Lucan, than emperor of Germany. And to say truth, "there is a kind of enchanting sweetness in those intellectual pleasures and feasts of the mind; such a delight as hardly suffers the mind to be pulled away from them." These pleasures have a finer edge, a higher gust, a more agreeable savour to the mind than sensitive ones; as approaching much nearer to the nature of the soul, which is spiritual.
Consid. 3. And as intellectual pleasures do as far exceed all sensitive pleasures, as those which are proper to a man, do those which we have in common with beasts: So divine pleasures do again much more surmount intellectual ones. For what compare is there betwixt those joys which surprise a scholar in the discovery of the secrets of nature, and those that overwhelm and swallow up the Christian in the discovery of the glorious mysteries of redemption by Christ, and his own personal interest therein.
To solve the phenomena of nature is pleasant, but to
solve all the difficulties about our title to Christ and his
covenant, that is ravishing. Archimedes’ eureka, " I
have found it, was but the frisk, or skip of a boy, to that
rapturous voice of the spouse, "My beloved is mine, and I am his."
These are entertainments for angels,
Consid. 4.All that divine pleasure, which ever the holiest and devoutest soul enjoyed in the body, is but a sip or prelibation, compared with those full draughts it has in the unembodied state.
While it is embodied, it rejoiceth in the earnests and pledges
of joy; but when it is unembodied, it receives the full sum;
1. The spiritual pleasures the soul has in the body, are but by
reflection; but those it enjoys out of the body, are by immediate
intuition,
The pleasures it now has, though they be of a divine nature, yet they are relished by the vitiated appetite of a sick and distempered soul; the embodied soul is diseased and sickly, it hath many distempers hanging about it. Now we know the most pleasant things lose much of their pleasure to a sick man; the separate soul is made perfect, thoroughly cured of all diseases, restored to its perfect health; and consequently, divine pleasures must needs have a higher gust awl relish in heaven, than ever they had on earth.
3. The pleasures of a gracious soul on earth are but rare and seldom, meeting with many and long interruptions. And many of them occasioned by the body, which often calls down the soul to attend its necessities, and converse with things of a far different nature; but from these, and all other ungrateful and prejudicial avocations, the separated soul is discharged, and set free; so that its whole eternity is spent in the highest delights.
4. The highest pleasures of a gracious soul in the body, are but the pleasures of an uncentered soul, which is still gravitating and striving forward, and consequently can be but low and very imperfect, in comparison with those it enjoys, when it is centered and fixed in its everlasting rest. They differ as the shadow of the labourer, for an hour in the day, from his rest in his bed, when his work is ended.
To conclude; the pleasures it has here, are but the pleasures of hope and expectation, which cannot bear any proportion to those of sight and full fruition. O see the advantages of an unbodied state.
Prop. 10. That gracious souls, separated from the body, do attain to the perfection of knowledge, with more ease than they attained any small degree of knowledge while they dwelt in the body.
Great are the inconveniences, and prejudices, under which souls labour, in their pursuits after knowledge in this life, Veritatis in puteo, Truth lies deep. And it is hard, even with much labour, pains, and study, to pump up one clear notion; for the soul cannot now act as it would, but is fain to act as it can, according to the limitations and permissions of the body, to which it is confined. By heedful observations, and painful researches it is forced to deduce one thing from another, and is too often deceived and imposed upon by such tedious and manifold connections.
Beside, truth is now forced, in compliance with our weakness, and distance from the fountain, to descend from heaven under veils, shadows, and umbrages, thereby to contract some kind of affinity with our fancies and exterior senses first, that so it may with more advantage transmit itself to our understanding. It must come under some vail or other to us, while we are veiled with mortality, because the soul cannot behold it with its native lustre, nor converse otherwise with it.
And hence it was that Augustine made his rational conjecture, Why men used to be so much delighted with metaphors, because they are so much proportioned to our senses, with which our reason in this embodied state, has contracted such an intimacy and familiarity. But when the soul lays aside its vail of flesh, truth also puts off her vail, and shows the soul her naked, beautiful, and ravishing face. It henceforth beholds all truth in God, the fountain of truth. There are five ways by which men attain the knowledge of God, say the schools, four of which the soul makes use of in this world; but the fifth, which is the most perfect, is reserved for the separate state. Men discern God here,
(1.) In vestigio, By his footsteps in the works of
creation. God hath impressed the marks of his wisdom and power upon
the creatures, by which impressions we discern that God has been
there. Thus the very heathens arrive to some knowledge of a God,
(2.) In umbra, By his shadow: If you see the shadow of a
man you guess at his stature and dimensions thereby. Thus Christ
made some discovery of himself to the world, in the Mosaical
ceremonies, and ancient types and umbrages,
(3.) In speculo, in a glass: This gives us a much clearer
representation of a person, than either his footsteps or shadow
could; this is an imperfect or darker vision of his face, by way of
reflection. And thus God is seen in his word and ordinances,
wherein, "as in a glass, we behold the glory of the Lord,"
(4.) In Filio, in his own Son, who is the living image and express character of his Father. Thus we sometimes see a child so lively representing his father in speech, gate, gesture, and every lineament of his face, that we may say,
—Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat;—
"Just so his father, so he went, and just such a on he was".
Thus we know God in the face of Jesus Christ,
(5.) Face to face, with a direct vision. This is to
see him as he is. The believer is a candidate for this
degree now, but cannot be harvested with it, till he be divested
from this body of flesh. Yet the soul, when unbodied, and made
perfect, attaineth not to a comprehensive knowledge of God, for it
will still remain a finite being, and so cannot comprehend that
which is infinite. That question,
1. To see God face to face, and know him as he is, will be a
knowledge of the divine essence itself. To see the divine essence,
is to see God as he is; i. e. to see him so perfectly and fully,
that the understanding can proceed no farther in point of
knowledge, concerning that great question, What is God? Thus
no man hath seen or can see God in this world. Even Moses himself
could not see God,
2. In this light they clearly discern those deep mysteries which
they here racked their thought upon, but could not penetrate in
this life. There they will know what is to be known of the union of
the two natures in the wonderful person of our Emmanuel; and the
manner of the subsistence of each person, in the most glorious and
undivided Godhead,
The mysteries of the scriptures and providences of God will be no mysteries then: Curiosity itself will be there satisfied.
3. This immediate knowledge and sight of God face to face, will
be infinitely more sweet, and ravishingly pleasant than any, or all
the views we had of him here by faith ever were, or possibly could
be. There is a joy unspeakable in the visions of faith,
4. This sight of God will be appropriative and applicative. We there see him as our own God and portion. Without a clear interest in laid, the sight of him could never be beatifical and satisfying. Sight without interest is like the light of a glow worm, light without heat. All doubts and objections are solved and answered in the first sight of this blessed face.
5. To conclude: This perfect, and most comfortable knowledge, is attained without labour by the separate soul. Here every degree of knowledge was with the price of much pains. How many weary hours and aching heads did the acquisition of a little knowledge stand us in! But then it flows in upon the soul easily. It was the saying of a great usurer, I once took much pains to get a little, (meaning the first stock) but now I get much without any pains at all. Oh lovely state of separation! That body which interposed, clogged, and clouded the willing and capable spirit, being drawn aside (as a curtain) by death, the light of glory now shines upon it, and round about it, without any interception, or let.
Prop. 11. The separated souls of the just do live in a more high and excellent way of communion with God, in his temple-worship in heaven, then ever they did in the sweetest gospel-ordinances, and most spiritual duties, in which they conversed with him here on earth.
That saints on earth have real communion with God, and that this communion is the joy of their hearts, the life of their life, and their relief under all pressures and troubles in this life, is a truth so firmly sealed upon their hearts by experience, as well as clearly revealed in the word, that there can remain no doubt about it, among those that have any saving acquaintance with the life and power of religion.
This communion with God is of that precious value with believers, that it unspeakably endears all those duties and ordinances to them, which, as means and instruments are useful to maintain it.
At death, the people of God part with all those precious
ordinances and duties, they being only designed for, and fitted to
the present state of imperfection,
But yet think not your souls shall be discharged from all
worship and service of God when you die: No, you will find heaven
to be a temple built for worship, and the worship there to be much
transcendent to all that in which you were here employed. The
sanctuary was a pattern of heaven in this very respect,
Some help we may have to understand the nature thereof, by comparing it with that worship and service which we perform to God here in this state of imperfection, and by considering the agreements and disagreements betwixt them. In this they agree, that the worship above and below are both addressed and directed to ‘one and the same object, Father, Son, and Spirit; all centres and terminates in God. They also agree in the general quality and common nature, they are both spiritual worship. But there are divers remarkable differences betwixt the one and the other, as will be manifest in the following collation.
1. All our worship on earth is performed and transacted by
faith, as the instrument and means thereof,
But in heaven all things are carried at a high rate, the joy of the Lord overflows us without any labour, or pain of ours to procure it.
We may say of it there, as the prophet speaks of the dew and
showers upon the grass, "which tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth
for the sons of men,"
2. No grace is, or can be acted here, without the clog of a
contrary corruption,
3. Here the graces of the saints are never, or very rarely acted
in their highest and most intense degree. When they love God most
fervently, there is some coldness in their love. Who comes up to
the height of that rule,
But in leaven it doth so, and will do so for ever, without any relation or remission of its fervour. Christ, among the saints and angels in heaven, is as a mighty loadstone cast in among many needles, which leap to him, and fix themselves inseparably upon him. They all act in glory as the fire does here, to the utmost of their power and ability. There is no note lower than "Glory to God in the highest."
(4.) The most spiritual souls on earth, who live most with God, have, and must have their daily and frequent intermissions. The necessities of the body, as well as the defectiveness of their graces, require, and necessitate it to be so. Our hands with Moses will hang down and grow weary. Our affections will cool and fall, do what we can.
But as the spirits of just men made perfect know no remissions
in the degree, so neither any intermissions in the acting of their
grace: "They shall serve him day and night in his temple,"
5. If the best hearts on earth be at any time more than ordinarily enlarged in spiritual comforts, they need presently some humbling providence to hide pride from their eyes. Even Paul himself must have a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. Bernard could never perform any duty with comfortable enlargement, but he seemed to hear his own heart whisper thus, Bene fecisti, Bernarde, O well done, Bernard.
But, in heaven the highest comforts are enjoyed in the deepest
humility; and the entire glory is ascribed to God, without any
unworthy defalcations.
6. All assemblies for worship in this world are mixed; they consist of regenerate and unregenerate, living and dead souls: This spoils the harmony, and allays the comfort of mutual communion. In a congregation consisting of a thousand persons, Ah! how few comparatively are there that are heartily concerned in the duty? But it is not so above. There are ten thousand times ten thousand, even thousands of thousands before the throne, loving, adoring, praising, and triumphing together and not a jarring string in all their harps.
7. Here the worship of God is impure, mixed, and adulterated by the sinful additions and inventions of men. This gracious souls groan under as a heavy burden, sighing and praying for reformation; as knowing they can expect no more of God’s presence, than there is of his order and institution in worship. But, above, all the worship is pure, the least pin in the heavenly tabernacle is according to the perfect pattern of the divine will.
8. We have here duties of divers kinds and natures to perform. All our time is not to be spent in loving, praising, and de lighting in God; but we must turn ourselves also to searching, watching, and soul-humbling work. Sometimes we are called to get up our hearts to the highest praise, and then to humble them to the dust for sin and judgments; one while to sing his praises, and another while to sigh even to the breaking of our loins; But the spirits of just men made perfect, have but one kind of employment, viz. praising, loving, and delighting in God. There is no groaning, sighing, searching, or watching-work, in that state.
9. The most illuminated believers on earth have but dark and
crude apprehensions of Christ’s intercession-work in
heaven, or of the way and manner in which it is there performed by
him. We know indeed that our High priest is for us entered within
the vail,
But the immediate intuition of the whole performance, by the person of Christ in heaven, the beholding of him in his work there, with the smiles and honours, the delight and satisfaction of the Father in his person and work. Certainly, this must be a far different thing, and what must make more deep and suitable impressions upon our hearts than ever the most affecting view of them be faith at this distance, could do.
10. In such ravishing sights and joyful ascriptions of glory to him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for evermore, all the separated spirits of the just are employed and wholly taken up in heaven, as they come in their several times thither; and will be so employed in that temple-service unto the end of the world, when Christs shall deliver up the kingdom to His Father, and thenceforth God shall be all in all.
The illustration and confirmation of this assertion we have in these two or three particulars.
(1.) That all the spirits of just men, from the beginning of the
world, until Christ’s ascension into heaven, did enter into
heaven, as a place of rest, as a city prepared for them of God,
Whatever was their rest, refreshment and blessedness, whatever
were their enjoyments of the presence of God, yet was there no
throne of grace erected in heaven, no high-priest appearing before
it, no lamb as it had been slain, no joint ascription of glory unto
him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever.
God having ordained some better thing for as, that they
without should not be made perfect,
Now both the angels and saints in heaven, do behold Christ in his priestly office within that sanctuary; a sight never seen in heaven before.
(2.) This frame of heavenly worship will continue as it is unto
the end of the world, and then another alteration will be made in
the manner of his dispensatory kingdom; "For then he must deliver
up the kingdom to God, even the Father; and then shall the Son also
himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God
may be all in all," as the apostle speaks,
Christ will never cease to be the immediate head of the whole
glorified creation. God having gathered all the elect, both angels
and men, unto a head in him, and he being the knot and centre of
that collective body, the whole frame of the glorified church would
be dissolved, should he lose his relation of a head to it. Yea, I
doubt not but he will for ever continue to be the medium of
communion betwixt God and his glorified church: God will still
communicate himself to us through Christ, and our adherence, love,
and delight, will still be through Christ. In a word, whatever
change shall be made, the person of Christ shall still continue to
be the eternal object of divine glory, praise, and worship,
But when he shall have gathered home all his elect to glory, he
will resign his present dispensatory kingdom, and become subject
(as man, and as head of that body which he purchased) to his
Father himself, "that God may be all in all," as it is
(1.) All in all, that is, all the saints shall be filled,
and abundantly satisfied, in and from God alone; there shall be no
emptiness, no want, no complaint: For, as there is water enough in
one sea to fill all rivers, light enough in one sun to illuminate
all the world; so all souls shall be eternally filled, satisfied
and blessed in one God. Surely, there is enough in God for millions
of souls. For if there be enough in God for all the angels,
(2.) All in all, that is, complete satisfaction to all
the saints, in the absence of all other things, out of which they
were wont to suck some comfort and delight in this world. He will
now be instead of all; eminently all without them. We shall suck no
more sweetness out of food, sleep, relations, ordinances, &c.
There will be no more need or use of them, than there is of candles
in the sunshine,
(3.) All in all, that is, God only shall be loved,
praised, and admired by all the saints; they shall love no creature
out of God, but all in God, or rather God in them all. This is that
blessed state to which all things tend, for which the angels and
glorified souls in heaven long. Hence it is that there is joy in
heaven upon the conversion of any poor sinner on earth; because
thereby the body of Christ musically advances towards its fullness
and completeness,
Prop. 12. It pleases God at some ties, even in this life, to give some men the foresight and foretaste of that blessedness, which holy separated souls do now enjoy, and themselves shall shortly enjoy with God in glory.
Specimens and earnests of heaven are no unknown things upon earth. As the grapes of Eshcol, so the joy of heaven may be tasted before we come thither, and these foresights and prelibations of heaven are either,
1. Extraordinary, or
2. Ordinary.
1. Extraordinary, for the way and manner; when the soul is either, (1.) Caught from the body for a short time in an ecstasy, when in a visional way heavenly things are presented to it; or, (2 ) When the bodily eye is elevated and strengthened above its natural vigour and ability, to behold the astonishing objects of the other world.
(1.) Of the first sort and rank was that famous rapture of Paul,
mentioned
"In ecstasies, all the senses and powers are idle, except the
understanding." His soul, for that time, seemed to be disjointed
from the body, much as a flame of fire, which you shall sometimes
see to play and hover at a distance from the wood, and then
catching the fuel again. Probably, this was that trance he fell
into, in the temple, when he was praying, mentioned in
In this rapture his soul ascended above this world, it was caught up into paradise, into the third heaven, the place in which Christ’s soul was after his death; and there he heard those arrèta rèmata, unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. For, alas! poor mortals cannot pronounce the Shibboleth of heaven. The heavenly inhabitants talk in no other dialect. But the language of heaven is not properly spoken by any but the inhabitants of heaven. Now Paul was not admitted into their society at that time, as he was at his death, but was only a spectator, a stander by, as the angels are in the assemblies of the saints here on earth. But, O what a day was that day to his soul! It was as one of the days of heaven; no words could signify to another man what he felt, what he tasted in that hour. Such favours will not be indulged to many: he was a chosen vessel, and appointed to extraordinary sufferings for Christ, and it was necessary his supports and encouragements should be answerable.
It was no less an extraordinary and wonderful vision, which Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and John had. Such representations of God as overwhelmed them, and made nature faint under them. And no wonder, for if the eyes of creatures are so weak that they cannot directly behold such a glorious creature as the sun, how much less can they bear the glorious excellency and majesty of God?
(2.) And sometimes, without an ecstasy, representations of
Christ, and the glory of heaven, have been made, and the very
bodily eye fortified and elevated above its natural vigour and
ability to behold him. Thus it was with Stephen at his martyrdom.
2. There are also, beside this, ordinary, and more common
foretastes of heaven, and the glory to come, with which many
believers are favoured in this world; and such are those which come
into the heart, upon the steady and more fixed views of the world
to come, by faith, and the more raised spiritual actings of grace
in duty. "Believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of
glory,"
And yet, with the allowance of its allay and rebatement, it is
like new wine put into old and crazy bottles, which is ready to
make them fly, and would do so, should they be of any long
continuance. "Stay me (says the spouse) with flagons, comfort me
with apples, I am sick of love,"
1. Mediate. And
2. Immediate.
1. Mediate, in, and by the previous use and exercise of faith, heart-examination, &c. The Spirit of God concurring with, and blessing such duties as these, helps the soul by them to a sight of its interest in Christ, and the glory to come; which being gained, joy is no more under the soul’s command. I have, with good assurance, this account of a minister, "Who being alone in a journey, and willing to make the best improvement he could of that day’s solitude, set himself to a close examination of the state of his soul, and then of the life to come, and the manner of its being, and living in heaven, in the views of all those things which are now pure objects of faith and hope. After a while, he perceived his thoughts begin to fix, and come closer to these great and astonishing things than was usual; and as his mind settled upon them, his affections began to rise with answerable liveliness and vigour."
"He therefore (while he was yet master of his own thoughts) lifted up his heart to God in a short ejaculation that God would so order it in his providence, that he might meet with no interruption from company, or any other accident in that journey; which was granted him: For, in all that day’s journey, he neither met, overtook, or was overtaken by any. Thus going on his way, his thoughts began to swell, and rise higher and higher, like the waters in Ezekiel’s vision, till at last they became an overflowing flood. Such was the intention of his mind, such the ravishing tastes of heavenly joys, and such the full assurance of his interest therein, that he utterly lost a sight and sense of this world, and all the concerns thereof; and, for some hours, knew no more where he was, than if he had been in a deep sleep upon his bed. At last he began to perceive himself very faint, and almost cloaked with blood, which running in abundance from his nose, had coloured his clothes and his horse from the shoulder to the hoof. He found himself almost spent, and nature to faint under the pressure enjoy unspeakable and insupportable; and at last, perceiving a spring of water in his way, he, with some difficulty, alighted to cleanse and cool his face and hands, which were drenched in blood, tears, and sweat."
"By that spring he sat down and washed, earnestly desiring, if it were the pleasure of God, that it might be his parting place from this world: He said, death had the most amiable face in his eye, that ever be beheld, except the face of Jesus Christ, which made it so; and that he could not remember (though he believed he should die there) that he had one thought of his dear wife, or children, or any other earthly concernment."
"But having drank of that spring, his spirits revived, the blood stanched, and he mounted his horse again; and on he went in the same frame of spirit, till he had finished a journey of near thirty miles, and came at night to his inn, where, being come, he greatly admired how he came thither, that his horse, without his direction had brought him thither, and that he fell not all that day, which passed not without several trances, of considerable continuance."
"Being alighted, the innkeeper came to him, with some astonishment, (being acquainted with him formerly) O Sir, said he, what is the matter with you? You look like a dead man. Friend, replied he, I was never better in my life. Show me my chamber, cause my cloak to be cleansed, burn me a little wine, and that is all I desire of you for the present. Accordingly it was done, and a supper sent up, which he could not touch; but requested of the people that they would not trouble or disturb him for that night. All this night passed without one wink of sleep, though he never had a sweeter night’s rest in all his life. Still, still the joy of the Lord overflowed him, and he seemed to be an inhabitant of the other world. The next morning being come, he was early on horseback again, fearing the divertissement in the inn might bereave him of his joy; for he said it was now with him, as with a man that carries a rich treasure about him, who suspects every passenger to be a thief. But within a few hours he was sensible of the ebbing of the tide, and before night, though there was a heavenly serenity and sweet peace upon his spirit, which continued long with him, yet the transports of joy were over, and the fine edge of his delight blunted. He many years after called that day one of the days of heaven, and professed he understood more of the light of heaven by it, than by all the books he ever read, or discourses he ever had entertained about it." This was indeed, an extraordinary foretaste of heaven for degree, but it came in the ordinary way and method of faith and meditation.
There are also immediate illapses of heavenly joy in the hearts
of believers at some times; of which we may say as the prophet does
of the dew and rain, "that it tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for
the sons of men;" a surprising light and joy, like that,
There is a witness of the Spirit, distinct from that of water
and blood,
(1.) The infinite weight with which the concerns of eternity lie upon the hearts and thoughts of the people of God; nothing lies so near to their spirits in all the world, as the matters of salvation do, and have still done ever since God thoroughly awakened them in their first effectual conviction. It is said of Luther, "There was such a strong impression of God upon his spirit, in his first conviction, that there was neither heat, nor blood, nor sense, nor speech discernible in him." Though it rise to that height but in a few, yet it settles into a deep, serious, and most solemn sense and solicitude in all. This heightens the joy.
(2.) The restlessness of the soul, while matters of salvation hang in a dubious suspense, must needs proportionately overflow it with joy, when God shall clear it. It was the saying of one, and is the sense of many more, "I have borne (said she) seven children, and they have all cost me dear; yet could I be well content to bear them all over again, for one glimpse of the love of God to my soul." This heightens the joy above expression.
And now, having explained the substance of the doctrine in these twelve propositions, it remains, that, as mantissa, or cast upon the whole, I farther clear what belongs to this subject, in the solution of several queries about the soul, in its unbodied and separated state; and though the nature of some of these queries may seem too curious, yet I shall labour to speak according to the rules of sobriety, and contain myself within the line of modesty, in what I shall speak about them. And the first is this.
Query 1. Whether any notion or conception can be formed of a separate soul? And if so, how we may be assisted duly to form it, and conceive of it?
Sol. 1. It must be acknowledged not only very difficult, but an impossible task, for a soul immersed in matter, and so unacquainted with its own nature end powers, as it is in its embodied state, to gain a perfect, clear, and adequate conception of what it shall be in the world to come. Expect not then a perfect image, much less any magnificent draught of this excellent creature; this would be the same thing, as to go about to paint the sun in its glory, motions, and influences with a pencil. I shall think I have done enough, if I can but give you any umbrage, or faint representation of this sublime end spiritual being, and the manner of its subsisting and acting out of the body. For, seeing it is by nature invisible, and in most of its actions (while it is in the state of composition) it makes the same use of the body and natural spirits, that a scribe does of his pen end ink, without which he cannot decipher the characters which are formed in his fancy; it must needs be difficult to conceive how it subsists and acts in a separate state.
Sol. 2. But though we acknowledge it to be a great difficulty to trace it beyond the limits of this world, though we perceive nothing to depart from the body at the instant of its expiration, but a puff of breath which vanishes like smoke into the air: end though atheistic wits daringly pronounce an immaterial substance to be a mere jargon, a contradiction in terminis; which, being joined together, destroy one another: Yet all this doth not make the notion of a separate soul impossible, much less undermine its existence in its unbodied and lonely state; the scriptures having so abundantly obviated all these atheistic suggestions by so many plain discoveries of the happiness of some, and misery of others after this life; yea, my text answers us, that death is so far from destroying; or annihilating, that it perfects the spirits of the just.
Sol. 3. There can be no more difficulty in conceiving of a separate soul, than there is in conceiving of an angel. For it is certain, that a separated soul, and an angel, are the liveliest and clearest representations of each other in the whole number of created being. Some make the difference between them little more then of a sword in the scabbard, from one that is naked. A soul is but a genius in the body, and a genius (or angel) is a soul out of the body. An angel (says another), is a complete and perfect soul, a soul an imperfect and incomplete angel.
The separate soul does not become an angel by putting off the body; they are, and still will be divers species: but in this they agree, that in their common nature they are both spirits, that is, immaterial substances, endued with understanding, will, and active powers. And I know not why the one should not be as intelligible as the other; or if there be any advantage, the soul certainly must have it, seeing our acquaintance with souls is much more intimate than with angels. Angels indeed have larger capacities, and have no natural inclination to be embodied as souls have; but their common nature, as they are spirits are the same: and if we can conceive of one we may also of the other.
Sol. 4. But the difficulty seems to lie in this, how the soul can subsist alone without a body; and how the habits of grace, which were infused into it in this life by sanctification, do inhere in it, or can be reduced into act by it, when it has no bodily organs to work by.
As to the first, there is no difficulty at all, if we once rightly apprehend what is meant, when we call it a spiritual substance; that is, a being by itself, independent upon any other creature as to its existence, as was opened before: the soul depends not for its life upon the body, but the body upon the soul. It is the same sword when it is drawn, as it was when sheathed in its scabbard; the soul is as much itself, when separated from the body, as it was when united with it; its being is independent on it, it can live and act in a body, and it can do so without it; for it is a distinct being from its body; a substantial being itself. And,
Sol. 5. As for the habits of grace which accompany it to heaven, it would much facilitate our apprehensions of it, if we but compare acquired and infused habits with each other. It is true, they are of different natures and originals, but the soul is the subject of them both, and their inhesion and improvement is much after the same manner.
Take we then an acquired habit into consideration, which is nothing else but a permanent quality rendering the subject of it prompt and ready to perform a work with ease: suppose that of music or writing, and we shall find these habits to be safely lodged in the soul, as well when the body is laid into the deepest sleep, which is the image of death, as when it is awake and most active, for they are both artists when asleep, and need learn no new rules to play or write when you awake them; which shows the habits to be permanently rooted in their minds.
Infused habits of grace are as deeply rooted in the soul, yea,
deeper than any acquired habits can be: for when knowledge and
tongues shall be done away, love abideth,
Sol. 6. Add hereto, that these habits of grace are inseparably rooted or lodged in a subject, which is by nature a spirit, that is to say, an intelligent, active being, able to use its faculties of understanding, will and affections, and consequently, in their use, to reduce these habits of grace inherent in them, into act, without the help of the body: for to suppose otherwise, were to de-spirit it, and destroy the very nature of it.
Moreover, let the spirit, thus furnished with gracious habits be
now considered in separation from the body, in which state it
enjoyeth and rejoiceth in a double privilege it never had before,
viz. perfection both of itself, and of its graces, and the nearest
access to God it is capable of,
I will not here make use of the other glass to represent a damned soul, separate for a time from its body, and for ever from the Lord: that will be shown you in its proper place.
Query 2. Whether there be any difference in the separation of gracious souls from their bodies? And if so, in what particular does the difference appear?
Sol. For the clear stating and satisfying this question, I will lay down some things negatively, and some things positively about it. On the negative part, I desire two things may be noted.
1. That there is no difference betwixt the separation of one gracious soul and another, in point of safety. Every regenerate soul is fully secured, in and by Jesus Christ, from the danger of perishing, and is out of hazard of the wrath to come.
This must needs be so, because all that are in Christ are
equally justified by the imputation of Christ’s
righteousness, without difference, to them all;
2. There is no difference betwixt the departing souls of just
men, in respect of the supporting presence of God with them in that
their hour of distress; that promise belongs to them all,
But notwithstanding their equality in these privileges, there is a great difference betwixt the departing souls of just men. And this difference is manifest both in the
1. External circumstances of their death.
2. Internal circumstances of their death.
1. In the external circumstances of their death, all have not one and the same passage to heaven in all respects; for,
(1.) Some go thither by the ordinary road of a natural death from their beds, and the arms of lamenting friends, to the arms and bosom of Jesus Christ, but others swim through the Red-sea to Canaan: from a scaffold to the throne; from a gibbet or stake to their Father’s house; from insulting enemies to their triumph ant brethren, the palm-bearing multitude. This is a rough, but honourable way to glory.
(2.) Some lie long under the hand of death, before it dispatch
them; it approaches them by slow and lingering paces, they feel
every step of death distinctly as it comes on towards them; but
others are favoured with a quick dispatch, a short passage from
hence to glory. Hezekiah feared a pining sickness,
The pains and agonies of death are more acute and sharp to some of God’s people than to others: death is bitter in the most mild and gentle form of it. Two such dear and intimate friends as the soul and body are, cannot part without some tears, groans, or sighs; and those more deep and emphatic than the groans and sighs of the living use to be: but yet, comparatively speaking, the death of one, may be styled sweet and easy to another’s. Latimer and Ridley found it so, though burnt in the same flame.
In this respect all things come alike to all, and the same
difference is found in the worst, as well as in the best men; some
like sheep are laid in the grave,
2. There are besides these, some remarkable internal differences in the dissolution of good men: the sum whereof is this.
1st. That some gracious souls have a very hard, strait, difficult entrance into heaven: just as it is with ships that sail by a very bare wind; all their art, care, and pains, will but just weather some head-land or cape: they steer fast by some dangerous rock or sand, and with a thousand fears and dangers, win their port at last. Saved they are, but yet to use the apostle’s phrase, scarcely saved, or saved as by fire. And this difficulty arises to them from one, or all these causes.
(1.) It ordinarily ariseth from the weakness of their faith, which is in many souls, without either the light of evidence, or strength of reliance; neither able to dissolve their doubts nor steadily repose their hearts: and thus they die, much at the rate they lived, poor doubting, and cloudy, though gracious souls. They can neither speak much of the comfort of past experiences, nor of the present foretastes of heaven.
(2.) The violent assaults and batteries of temptations make the passage exceeding difficult to some. O the sharp conflicts and dreadful combats many poor souls endure upon a death-bed! O the charges of hypocrisy, fortified by neglects of duty, formality and by-ends in duty, falls into sin after conviction and humiliation, &c. all which the soul is apt to yield to, and admit the dreadful conclusion.
These are the last, and therefore oftentimes the most violent conflicts. The malice of Satan will send them halting to heaven, if he cannot bar them out of it.
(3.) To conclude: The hiding of God’s face, puts terror into the face of death, and makes a dying day, a dark and gloomy day. All darkness disposes to fear, but none like inwards. They must like a ship in distress, venture into the harbour in the dark, though they see not their landmarks.
2dly, But others have the privilege of an euthanasia, easy death, a comfortable and sweet passage into glory, through the broad gate of assurance, 2 Pet. i. 11. even an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom. What a difference does God make, not only betwixt those that have grace, and those that have none, but betwixt gracious souls themselves in this matter: the things which usually make an easy passage to heaven are,
1. A pardon cleared,
2. A heart weaned from this world,
3. Fervent love to Christ, and longings to be with him,
4. Purity and peace of conscience make a death-bed soft and
easy. The strains and wounds of conscience, in the time of life,
are so many thorns in our bed, or pillow, in the time of death,
5. The work of obedience faithfully finished, or a steady course
of holiness throughout our life, is that which usually yields much
peace and joy in death,
6. But above all, the preference of the Comforter with us in
that cloudy and dark day, turns it into one of the days of heaven,
Query 3. Whether any souls have notices and forewarnings given them by signs or predictions, in an extraordinary way of their approaching separation?
The terms of this question need a little explanation. Let us therefore briefly consider what is meant by signs, what by predictions, and what by extraordinary sights and predictions.
"A sign is that which represents something else to us than that which is seen or heard." And a sign of death is that which gives notice to our minds that our departure is at hand.
"A prediction is a forewarning of a person more plainly and expressly of any thing which is afterwards to fall out or come to pass;" and a prediction of death is an express notice or message, informing us of our own, or of another’s death, to the end the mind may be actually disposed to an expectation thereof.
Of signs, some are ordinary and natural, some extraordinary and supernatural, or at least preternatural.
There are natural symptoms and prognostics of death which are common to most dying persons, and by which physicians inform themselves and others of the state of the sick. These are out of this question, we have nothing to do with them here; but I am enquiring after extraordinary signs and predictions by words or things forewarning us immediately, or by others, of our approaching death. The question is, Whether such intimations of death be at any time truly given unto men? or, Whether we are to take them for fabulous reports, and superstitious fancies?
For the negative, the following grounds are laid
Reason 1. The sufficient ordinary provision God
has made in this case, renders all such extraordinary notices and
intimations of our death needless: and be sure the most wise God
does nothing in vain. We have three standing, ordinary, and
sufficient means to premonish us of our departure hence, viz. the
scriptures, reason, and daily examples of mortality before our
eyes. The scriptures tell us, our life is but "a vapour, which
appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away",
Reason tells us, so feeble a tie as our breath is can never
secure our lives long. "The living know that they must die,"
And all the graves we see opened so frequently, are sufficient warnings, that we ourselves must shortly follow. Therefore, as there was no need of manna, when bread might be had in an ordinary way, so neither is there need of extraordinary signs, when God has abundantly furnished us with standing and ordinary means for this purpose.
Reason 2. And as the scriptures render such signs
needless, so they seem to be directly against them. Christ commands
us to "watch, because we know not in what hour the Lord cometh."
Yea, even Isaac himself, an extraordinary person, and endowed with
a spirit of prophecy, whereby he foretold the condition of his sons
after him, yet it is said,
Reason 3. All mankind belong either to God or the devil. To such as belong to God, such extraordinary warnings are needless, for they have a watchful principle within them which continually prompts them to mind their change; and besides death cannot endanger those that are in Christ, how suddenly or unexpectedly soever it should befall them.
And for wicked men, it cannot be thought God should favour and
privilege them in this matter above his own children: and as for
Satan he knows not the time of their death himself: and if he did,
it would thwart his design and interest to discover it to them,
But though these reasons make the common and daily use of such signs and predictions needless, yet they destroy not the credibility of them in some cases and at some times. For,
1. There are recorded instances in scripture of premonitions and
predictions of the death of persons. Thus the death of Abijah was
foretold to his mother by the prophet, and the precise hour thereof
which fell out answerably,
2. These predictions serve to other ends and uses sometimes,
than the preparation of the persons warned, even to display the
foreknowledge, power, and justice of God, in marking out his
enemies for ruin. And, thus, "the Lord is known by the judgements
that he executeth,"
Thus Mr. Knox predicted the very place and manner of the death of the laird of Grange. "You have sometimes seen the courage and constancy of the laird of Grange in the cause of God, and now that unhappy man is casting himself away. I pray you, go to him from me, (said Mr. Knox) and tell him, that unless he forsake that wicked course he is in, the rock wherein he confideth shall not defend him, nor the carnal wisdom of that man, (meaning the young Leahington) whom he counteth half a God, shall help him: but he shal1 be shamefully pulled out of that nest, and his carcass hung before the sun. And even so it fell out in the following year, when the castle was taken, and his body hanged out before the sun. Thus God exactly fulfilled the prediction of his death.
The same Mr. Knox, in the year 1566, being in the pulpit at Edinburgh, upon the Lord’s day, a paper was given up to him, among many others, wherein these words were scoffingly written concerning the earl of Murray, who was slain the day before,— "Take up the man whom ye accounted another God." At the end of the sermon, Mr. Knox bewailed the loss that the church and state had by the death of that virtuous man; and then added, "There is one in this company that makes this horrible murder the subject of his mirth, for which all good men should be sorry; but I tell him, he shall die where there shall be none to lament him." The man that wrote this paper was one Thomas Metellan, a young gentleman, who shortly after, in his travels, died in Italy, having none to assist or lament him.
B. And others have had premonitions and signs of their own deaths, which accordingly fell out. And these premonitions have been given them, sometimes by strong irresistible impressions upon their minds, sometimes in dreams, and sometimes by unusual elevations of their spirits in duties of communion with God.
(1.) Some have had strong and irresistible impressions of their approaching change, made upon their minds. So had Sir Anthony Wingfield, who was slain at Brest, anno 1594. At his undertaking of that expedition, he was strongly persuaded it would be his death; and therefore so settled and disposed of his estate, as one that never reckoned to return again. And the day before he died, he took order for the payment of his debts, as one that strongly presaged the time was now at hand; which accordingly fell out the next day.
Much of the same nature was that of the late earl of Marlborough, who fell in the Holland war. He not only presaged his own fall in that encounter, (which was exactly answered in the event) but left behind him that memorable and excellent letter, which evidenced to all the world what deep and fixed apprehensions of eternity it had left upon his spirits. Many examples of this nature might be produced, of such as have in their perfect health, foretold their own death; and others who have dropped such passages as were afterwards better understood by their sorrowful friends, than when they first dropped from their lips.
(2.) Others have been premonished of their death by dreams, sometimes their own, and sometimes others. The learned and judicious Amyraldus gives us this well attested relation of Lewis of Bourbon, That a little before his journey from Dreux he dreamed that he had fought three successful battles, wherein his three great enemies were slain, but that at last he himself was mortally wounded; and that after they were laid one upon another, he also was laid upon the dead bodies. The event was remarkable; for the Mareschal of St. Andree was killed at Dreux, the duke of Guise at Orleans, the constable of Montmorency at St. Denis: and this was the triumvirate, which had sworn the ruin of those of the reformed religion, and the destruction of that prince. At last he himself was slain at Balsac, as if there had been a continuation of deaths and funerals.
Suetonius in the life of Julius Cesar, tells us, that the night before he was slain, he had divers premonitions thereof, for that night all the doors and windows of his chamber flew open; his wife also dreamed that Caesar was slain, and that she had him in her arms. The next day he was slain in Pompey’s court, having received 23 wounds in his body.
Pamelius in the life of Cyprian, tells us for a most certain and well attested truth, that upon his first entrance into Garubis (the place of his banishment) it was revealed to him in a dream, or vision, that upon that very day twelve-month he should be consummate: which accordingly fell out; for a little before the time prefixed. there came suddenly two apparitors to bring him before the new proconsul Galeius, by whom he was condemned, as having been a standard bearer of his sect, and an enemy of the gods. Whereupon he was condemned to be beheaded, a multitude of Christians following him, crying, Let us die together with him.
And as remarkable is that recorded by the learned and ingenious Dr. Sterne of Mr. Usher of Ireland, a man, says he, of great integrity, dear to others by his merits, and my kinsman in blood, who upon the 8th day of July, 1657, went from this to a better world. About four of the clock the day before he died, a matron who died a little before, and while living was dear to Mr. Usher, appeared to him in his sleep, and invited him to sup with her the next night: he at first denied her, but she more vehemently pressing her request on him, at last he consented, and that very night he died.
I have also the fullest assurance that can be of the truth of this following narrative. A person yet living was greatly concerned about the welfare of his dear father and mother, who were both shut up in London, in the time of the great contagion in 1665. Many letters he sent to them, and many hearty prayers to heaven for them. But about a fortnight before they were infected, he fell about break of day into this dream, That he was in a great inn which was full of company, and being very desirous to find a private room, where he might seek God for his parents life, he went from room to room, but found company in them all; at last, casting his eye into a little chamber which was empty, he went into it, locked the door, kneeled down by the out-side of the bed, fixing his eyes upon the plastered wall, within side the bed: and while he was vehemently begging of God the life of his friends, there appeared upon the plaster of the wall before him, the sun and moon shining in their full strength. The sight at first amazed and discomposed him so far, that he could not continue his prayer, but kept his eye fixed upon the body of the sun; at last a small line or ring of black, no bigger than that of a text pen, circled the sun, which increasing sensibly, eclipsed in a little time the whole body of it, and turned it into a blackish colour; which done, the figure of the sun was immediately changed into a perfect death’s head, and after a little while vanished quite away. The moon still continued shining as before; but while he intently beheld it, it also darkened in like manner, and turned also into another death’s heads and vanished. This made so great an impression upon the beholder’s mind, that he immediately awaked in confusion and perplexity of thoughts about his dream; and awaking his wife, related the particulars to her with much emotion and concernment, but how to apply it, he could not presently tell, only he was satisfied that the dream was of an extraordinary nature: at last Joseph’s dream came to his thoughts with the like emblems, and their interpretation, which fully satisfied him that God had warned and prepared him thereby for a sudden parting with his dear relations; which answerably fell out in the same order, his father dying that day fortnight following, and his mother just a month afterwards.
I know there is much vanity in dreams; and yet I am fully satisfied, some are weighty, significant and declarative of the purposes of God.
(3.) Lastly, An unusual and extraordinary elevation of the soul to God, and enlargement in communion with him, has been a signifying forerunner of the death of some good men; for as the body has itslevamen anterferale, lightning before death, and more vegete and brisk a little before its dissolution, so it is sometimes with the soul also. I have known some persons to arrive on a sudden to such heights of love to God, and vehement longings to he dissolved, that they might be with Christ, that I could not but look upon it, as Christ did upon the box of ointment, as done against their death; and so indeed it has proved in the event.
Thus it was with that renowned saint, Mr. Brewen of Stapleford; as he excelled others in the holiness of his life, so much he excelled himself towards his death, his motions towards heaven being then most vigorous and quick. The day before his last sickness, he had such extraordinary enlargements of heart in his closet duty, that he seemed to forget all the concernments of his body, and this lower world; and when his wife told him, Sir, I fear you have done yourself hurt with rising so early; he answered, "If you had seen such glorious things as I saw this morning in private prayer with God, you would not have said so; for they were so wonderful and unspeakable, that whether I was in the body, or out of the body, with Paul, I cannot tell."
And so it was with the learned and holy Mr. Rivet, who seemed as a man in heaven, just before he went thither, and so it has been with thousands besides these. I confess it is not the lot of every gracious soul (as was shown you in the last question) nor does it make any difference as to the safety of the soul, whatever it makes as to comfort. Let all therefore labour to make sure their union with Christ, and live in the daily exercises of grace, in the duties of religion; and then, though God should give them no such extraordinary warning one way or other, they shall never be surprised by death to their loss, let it come never so unexpectedly upon them.
Quest. It may be also queried, whether Satan, by his instruments, may not foretell the death of some men? How else did the witch of Endor foretell the death of Saul? and the soothsayers the death of Caesar upon the Ides, i. e. the fifteenth day of March, which was the fatal day to him?
Sol. Foreknowledge of things to come, which appear not in
their next causes, is certainly the Lord’s prerogative,
And so for the death of Caesar, the devil knew the conspiracy was strong against him, and the plot laid for that day; and so it was both easy for him to reveal it to the soothsayers, and his interest to do it, thereby to bring that cursed art into reputation.
As for other signs and forewarnings of death, by the unusual resort of doleful creatures, as owls and ravens, vulgarly accounted ominous; Wall-watches, upon this account called death-watches; and the eating of wearing apparel by rats; I look upon them generally as superstitious fancies, not worthy to be regarded among Christians. God may, but I know not what ground we have to believe, that he does commission such creatures to bring us the message of death from him. To conclude, therefore,
Let no man expect or depend upon such extraordinary premonitions and warnings of his change, and neglect his daily work and duty of preparation for it. We have warnings in the word, in the examples of mortality frequently before us, in all the diseases and decays we often feel in our own bodies; and by the signs of the times, which threatens death and desolation. Be ye therefore always ready, for ye know not in what watch of the night your Lord cometh.
Query 4. Whether separated souls have any knowledge of, or commerce or intercourse with men in this life; and if not, what is to be thought of the apparitions of the dead?
1. By separated souls, understand the departed souls, both of godly and ungodly, indifferently and not as it is restrained to one sort only in the text; for of both it is pretended there are frequent apparitions after death.
A. By the knowledge such souls are supposed to have after death
both of persons and things in this lower world, we understand not a
general knowledge, which one sort of them have of the state and
condition of the church militant on earth; for this, we think,
cannot be denied to the spirits of the just made perfect, seeing
they are still fellow-members with us of the same mystical body of
Christ; do behold our High priest appearing before God, offering up
our prayers for us; and long for the consummation of the body of
Christ, as well as cry for vengeance against the persecutors
thereof,
But I here understand such a particular knowledge of our personal states and conditions, as they once had when they dwelt among us in the body; and this seems to be denied them by those scriptures alleged against it in the margin below.
3. By commerce and intercourse; understand not their intercession with God for us, which the Papists affirm; but their concernments about our natural, or civil interest in this world, so as to be useful to our persons, by warning us of death, or dangers; or to our estates, by disquieting such as wrong us, in not fulfilling the wills and testaments they once made; or by giving us notice, by words or signs, of the death of our friends, who died at a distance from us, or come to some violent and untimely end.
The sense of the terms being thus determined, and the question so stated, I will, for the resolution of it, give you,
I. The strength of what I find offered for the affirmative.
II. The general concessions, or what may be granted
III. My own judgment about it, with the grounds thereof.
I. Some there are, even among the learned and judicious, who are for the affirmative part of the question, and do with much confidence assert, that departed souls both know our particular concerns in this world, and intermeddle with them: confirming their assertion both by reasons to convince us that it may be so, and a variety of instances that it is so. I will produce both the one and the other, and give them a due consideration and censure.
The substance of what is pleaded for the affirmative, I find thus collected and improved by Dr. Sterne, a learned physician in Ireland, in his book entitled, A Dissertation concerning Death; where he offers us these four arguments, to convince that it is possible for departed souls thus to appear, and perform such offices for their friends on earth.
"Arg. 1. Angels by command from God, are useful and
helpful to men; they are the saints’ guardians, and it is
probable that each Christian has his peculiar angel: whence it will
follow, that separated souls do mingle themselves with human
affairs, and that because they are angels, at least equal unto
angels,
"Arg. 2. The church triumphant and militant are but one body; and how much better the triumphant are than the militant, by so much the more propense they are to succour and help the other that stand in need of it." This being the case, we cannot but imagine but they are inclined to perform all good offices for us; for else they should do less for us now, being in a state of the highest perfection in heaven, than they did, or were willing to do, in their imperfect state on earth."
"Arg. 3. A will, or testament (as Ulpian defines it) is
the just sentence, or declaration of our minds, concerning that
which we would have done after our decease. These testaments have
always, and among all nations, been religiously observed, as the
apostle witnesseth,
"Arg. 4. The scriptures forbid consultations with the
dead,"
These are the arguments of this learned author for the affirmative, which he closes with two necessary cautions: First, That this lays no foundation for religious worship, or invocation of departed souls: those that are helpful to us, are therefore to be worshipped. Secondly, That we must acknowledge ourselves to be under much darkness, as to the way and manner of the converse of spirits with us.
The most acute and learned Dr. Store, I find of the same opinion. He affirms, that departed souls are capable of a vital union with an airy vehicle (or body) in which their can easily move from place to place, and appear to the living; and act in their affairs, as in detecting murders, rebuking injurious executors, visiting and counselling their wives and children, forewarning them of such and such courses, &c. To which we may add, the profession of the spirit thus appearing, of being the soul of such a one; as also, the similitude of the person: And all this a-do is in things very just and serious, unfit for a devil, with that care and kindness to promote; and as unfit for a good genius; it being below so noble a creature to tell a lie. All these things put together and rightly weighed, the violence of prejudice not pulling down the balance, I dare appeal (says he) to any, whether it will not be certainly carried for the present cause? And whether any indifferent judge ought not to conclude, if these stories, which are so frequent everywhere, and in all ages, concerning the ghosts of men appearing, be but true, that it is true also, that they are their ghosts, &c.
These are the strongest arguments I meet with, for the affirmative, that the matter is possible, it may be so; and then adding the credible instances that it is so, the matter seems to be determined.
To this purpose Dr. Sterne alleges several instances out of
scripture; as that appearance of Samuel unto Saul, and the
conference between them. As also, the letters that were sent to
Jehoram by Elijah, and that Elijah was translated to heaven; as
appears by comparing
These are the principal scripture-instances; others are almost in innumerable. From among that vast heap, I will select some few, that are most material, and of clearest credit.
"It is a thing (says my author) both known and frequent, that the inhabitants of the Scottish isles, when their friends are dying, come to them, and request them, that, upon such or such a day, after their death, and in such a place, they would meet them; which the dead accordingly do, at the time and place agreed upon, and have sometimes discourse with them."
Infinite examples of murders (says Dr. More) have been discovered by dreams, the souls of the persons murdered seeming to appear to some or other asleep, and to make their complaints to them; giving us a notable example out of Baronius, of Marcilius Ficinius, who having made a solemn vow with Michael Mercatus, (after they had been pretty warmly disputing of the immortality of the soul, out of the principles of their master Plato) that whether of them two died first, he should appear to his friend, and give him certain information of that truth. It was Ficinius’ fate to die first, and that not long after this mutual resolution: He was mindful of his promise, when he had left the body; for Mercatus being very intent at his studies’ betimes in a morning, heard a horse riding by with all speed, and observed that he stopped at his window, and therewith heard the voice of his friend Ficinius, crying out, aloud, O Michael, Michael, vera, vera, sunt illa; that is, O Michael, Michael, those things are true, they are true, Whereupon he suddenly opened his window, and espying Marcilius upon a white steed, called after him, but he vanished out of his sight. He sent therefore presently to Florence, to know how Marcilius did, and understood that he died about that hour he called at his window.
Much to the same purpose is that so famous and well attested story of the apparition of major George Sydenbam, to captain William Dyke, both of Somersetshire, attested by the worthy and learned Dr. Thomas Dyke, a near kinsman of the captain’s; and by Mr. Douch, to whom the major and captain were intimately known. The sum is this: The major and captain had many disputes about the being of a God, and the immortality of the soul, in which points they could never be resolved, though they much sought for, and desired it: and therefore it was at last fully agreed betwixt them, that he that died first, should, the third night after his funeral, come betwixt the hours of twelve and one, to the little house in the garden adjoining to major Sydenham’s house, at Dulverton, in Somersetshire. The major died first, and the captain happened to lie that very night which was appointed, in the same chamber and bed with Dr. Dyke; he acquainted the doctor with the appointment, and his resolution to attend the place, and hour that night, for which purpose he had got the key of that garden. The doctor could by no means divert his purpose, but, when the hour came, he was upon the place, where he waited two hours and a half; neither seeing nor hearing any thing more than usual. About six weeks after, the captain and doctor went to Eaton, and lay both in the same inn, but not both in the same chamber, as they had done before at Dulverton.
The morning before they went thence, the captain stayed longer then was usual in his chamber, and at length came into the doctor’s chamber, but in visage and form much different from himself, with his hair and eyes staring, and his whole body shaking and trembling: Whereat the tractor wondering, demanded, What is the matter, cousin captain? The captain replied, I have seen my major. At which the doctor seeming to smile, the captain said, If ever I saw him in my life, I saw him but now; adding as follows: This morning (said he) after it was light, someone came to my bed-side, and suddenly drawing back the curtains, calls Cap. cap. (which was the term of familiarity that the major used to call the captain by) to whom I replied, What, my mayor, To which he returns, I could not come at the time appointed, but I am now come to tell you, That there is a God, and a very just and terrible one; and if you do not turn over every leaf; you will find it so. This stuck so close to him, little meat would go down with him at dinner, though a handsome treat was provided. These words were sounding in his ears frequently, during the remainder of his life; he was never shy or scrupulous to relate it to any that asked him concerning it, or ever mentioned it, but with horror and trepidation. They were both men of a brisk humour and jolly conversation, of very quick and keen parts, having been both University and Inns-of-court gentlemen.
The apparition of the ghost of Sir George Villiers, father of the duke of Buckingham, giving three solemn warnings, by three several apparitions to his servant, Mr. Parker, is a known and credible story. But I will wade no farther into particulars, they are almost innumerable: let this suffice for a taste.
II. In the next place, therefore, I will lay down some concessions about this matter: and the
First concession is this: That the separate souls, or spirits of men, are capable of performing and executing any ministry or service of God, (if He should please to commission them so to do) as well as angels are, whom we know He frequently employs about the persons and affairs of His people on earth.
Though souls become not angels by their separation, as Maximus Tyrius calls them, but remain spirits specifically distinct from them; yet are they spiritual substances, as the angels are. This their nature capacitates them either to live, and act out of the body, or to assume (as angels do) an aerial body, for the time of their ministry. Nor do I know any thing in scripture of philosophy repugnant hereunto.
Conces. 2. It cannot be doubted, but upon special and extraordinary reasons and occasions, some departed souls have returned to, and appeared in this world, by order and commission from God.
This is too manifest to be doubted by any that understand and
believe the instances recorded in scripture. Moses and Elias, long
after their departure, appeared to, and talked with Christ upon the
holy mount in the presence of some of his apostles,
"It is therefore most likely they both appeared in their own bodies;". For Moses’ body, we know, was hidden by the Lord, and Elias’ body was immediately translated, with his soul to heaven. When therefore the Lord would send them upon this solemn errand, the soul of Moses probably reassumed that body, which was never found by man, and Elias was already embodied, and fit immediately for this expedition.
In like manner we read,
Nor will I deny, but, upon some lesser (though never without weighty and solemn) occasions and reasons, God may sometimes send the souls of the dead back again into this world, as in cases before recited, to evidence against the atheism of men, &c. Augustine relates a memorable example, which fell out at Milan, where a certain citizen being dead, there came a creditor, to whom he had been indebted, and unjustly demanded the money of his son. The son knew that the debt was satisfied by his father, but having no acquittance to show, his father appeared to him, in his sleep, and showed him where the acquittance lay. Whether it were the very soul of his father, or rather, an angel, as Augustine thinks, is not certain, though the one, as well as the other, is possible. But though rarely, and upon some weighty and solemn occasions, some souls have returned and appeared; yet I judge this is not frequently done upon slight and ordinary errands; and therefore to give you my own thoughts, I judge,
Conces. S. That those apparitions which seem to be, and are generally reputed and taken for the souls of the dead, are not indeed so, but other spirits, putting on the shapes, and resemblances of the dead, and (for the most part) tricks of the devil, to delude or disquiet men.
In this I think the learned Dr. Brown delivered his judgment more solidly and orthodoxly, than in some other points; where he says: "I believe that the whole frame of a beast does perish and is left in the same state after death, as before it was materialised into life; that the souls of men know neither contrary nor corruption; that they subsist beyond the body, and continue, by the privilege of their proper nature, and without a miracle; that the souls of the faithful, as they leave earth, take possession of heaven; that those apparitions and ghosts of departed persons, are not the wandering souls of men, but the unquiet walks of devils, promoting and suggesting us into mischief, blood and villainy." And with this opinion I concur, as to the ordinary and common apparitions of the dead. And the reasons are,
(1.) Because the scriptures every where describe the state of de parted souls as a fixed state, either in heaven or in hell; and assign the good or evil done in this world by spirits, not to the departed spirits of men, but to angels or devils. And it is our duty to regulate our conceits by scripture, and not according to the vain philosophy of the heathens, or the superstitious traditions and opinions of men.
As for the souls of the godly, they are at rest with Christ,
As for the wicked, their spirits are confined, and secured in
hell, as in a prison,
What good offices are to be done by spirits for us, the angels
are God’s commission-officers to do them,
And for the mischief done by spirits in this world, the
scriptures ascribe that to the devils; those unquiet spirits have
their walks in this world, they compass the whole earth, and walk
up and down in it,
(2.) If God should ordinarily permit the spirits of men inhabiting the other world, a liberty so frequently to visit this, what a gap would it open for Satan to beguile and deceive the living! What might he not by this means impose upon weak and credulous mortals? There has been a great deal of superstition and idolatry already introduced under this pretence. He has often personated saints departed, and pretended himself to be the ghost of some venerable person, whose love to the souls of the people, and care for their salvation, drew him from heaven to reveal some special secret to them. Swarms of errors and superstitious and idolatrous opinions and practices, are this way conveyed by the tricks and artifices of Satan, among the Papists, which I will not blot my paper withal. Only I desire it may be considered, that if this were a thing so frequently permitted by God, as is pretended, upon what dangerous terms had he left his church in this world, seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one spirit from another; or a true messenger from heaven, from a counterfeit and pretended one.
But God has tied us to the sure and standing rule of his word,
forbidding us to give heed to any other voice or spirit leading us
another way,
To conclude.—My opinion upon the whole is this, that although it cannot be denied, but in some grand, extraordinary cases, as at the transfiguration and resurrection of Christ, God did, and perhaps sometimes, though rarely, may order or permit departed souls to return into this world; yet, for the most part, I judge those apparitions are not the souls of the dead, but other spirits, and, for the most part, evil ones.
Of this judgment was St. Augustine, who when he had at full related the story above of the father’s ghost directing his son to the acquittance; yet will not allow it to be the very soul of his father, but an angel. Where he farther adds: If (says he) the souls of the dead may be present in our affairs, they would not forsake us in this sort; especially my mother Monica, who, in her life, could never be without me, surely she would not thus leave me being dead.
Obj. 1. But it was pleaded before, that we allow the apparition of angels; and departed souls, if they be not angels, at least are equal to angels, and in respect of their late relation to us, are more propense to help us, then spirits of another sort can be supposed to be.
Sol. It seems too bold and imposing upon sovereign Wisdom to tell him what messengers are fittest for him to send and employ in his service; who has taught him, or been his counsellor?
Obj. 2. But these offices seem to pertain properly to them, as they are not only fellow-members, but the most excellent members of the mystical body, to whom it belongs to assist the meaner and weaker.
Sol. If there be any force of reason in this plea, it carries rather for the angels than for departed souls: for angels are gathered under the same common head with saints; the text tells us, we are come to an innumerable company of angels: they and the saints are fellow-citizens, and we know they are a more noble order of spirits; and as for their love to the elect, it is exceeding great, as great to be sure as the departed souls of our dearest relatives can be. For after death they sustain no more civil relation to us: all that they do sustain is as fellow-members of the same body, or fellow-citizens, which the angels also are as well as they.
Obj. 3. But, says the doctor, the reason why all nations pay so great honour and religious care to the will of the dead, is a supposition that they still continue in the same mind after death, and avenge the falsifications of trusts upon injurious executors, else no reason can be given why so great a stress should be laid upon the will of the dead.
Sol. This is gratis dictum, to say no worse, a cheap and
unwary expression: Can no reason be given for the religious
observance of the testaments of the dead, but this supposition? I
deny it: for though they that made them be dead, yet God, who is
witness to all such acts and trusts, lives. And though they cannot
avenge frauds, and injustice of men, he both can and will do it,
As for the letters of Elijah, it is a vanity to think they came post from heaven; no, no, they were doubtless left behind him, out of due care to the government, and produced on that fit occasion.
Obj. 4. But what need of a law to prohibit necromancy or consultation with the dead, if it were not practicable?
Sol. I do not think the wicked art there prohibited enabled them to recall departed souls; but it was a conversing with the devil who personated the dead, and therein a kind of homage was paid him to the dishonour of God. Or he might possibly raise the bodies of wicked men, and appear in them: but I think the spirits of the dead return not, except as was before limited.
Obj. 5. But the matters they discover are found to be true, and the causes in which they concern themselves are just; real murders are detected by them, and real frauds and injuries corrected and rectified; but the devil being himself a liar, and deceiver, would never do it; it is not his interest to discover or discourage such things.
Sol. Though it be not his interest merely to discover it, yet it is certainly his interest to precipitate wicked men, and hasten their ruin by the hand of justice; and he will speak the truth, and seem to own a righteous cause, to bring about his great design of ruining the souls and bodies of men. I will shut up with three cautions.
Caution 1. Strain not conscience to enrich posterity. Be true to the trusts committed to you by the dead, or by the living. Remembering, that though they be dead, and cannot avenge the fraud, yet the Lord lives, and will surely do it in a severer manner than they could, should they appear in the most terrible and frightful forms to you. Besides, your own consciences will haunt you worse than a ghost. Be just and true therefore in all your promises and trusts, for God is the avenger.
Caution 2. Finish your work for eternity before you die;
for as "the cloud is consumed, and vanished away, so he that goeth
down to the grave shall come up no more, he shall return no more to
his house, neither shall his place know him any more",
Caution 3. Keep yourselves from that heathenish and
accursed practice of consulting the devil about your absent or dead
relations. A practice too common in seaport towns, and of deep and
heinous guilt before God.
You need not call the devil twice; that subtle and officious spirit draws the living into his net by such a bait as this: You meet your mortal enemy under the disguise of your dead friend.
Query 5. Whether the separated souls of the just in heaven have any converse or communication with each other? And how that can be, seeing all the organs and instruments of speech and hearing are laid aside with their bodies.
It seems impossible that separated or unbodied spirits should converse together, seeing the instruments by which the thoughts are communicated from one to another, are perished in the grave. Suppose the tongue of a man to be cut out, his eyes and hands perished or made useless, while the soul remains in the body; it may enjoy its own thoughts within itself, but it is impossible to signify them to another by words or signs.
Or suppose a man in a deep sleep (wherein the senses are only bound for a little time) he may indeed exercise his own fancy in a pleasant dream, but another cannot understand how it is entertained. But in death the senses are not bound, but extinguished.
Beside, we must not think the felicity of the departed holy souls to consist in mutual converses one with another, but in the ineffable visions of God, and communion with him. To him who is omniscient, and understands their most inward thoughts, they can freely communicate them, and receive his, as well as pour forth their own love. But to do it to their fellow creatures, who see not as God does, seems impossible.
Indeed it was never doubted, but after the resurrection they shall both know and talk with one another in a more excellent and perfect manner than now they do. But till that time, the reasons above seem to persuade us, that all the converses above, are only between God and them, which indeed is enough to make them happy. And indeed, if this ability be allowed to separated souls, it seems to render the resurrection of their bodies needless; for they are well enough without them. But certainly the spirits of just men are not mutes; such an august assembly of holy and excellent spirits, do not live together in their Father’s house without mutual converse and fellowship with each other, as well as with God.
That acute and judicious divine, Mr. Joseph Symonds, in his epistle to his book, intituled, Sight and Faith, expresses himself about this matter thus: ‘I often think (says he) of the communion of the spirits of men, which is certainly more than many are acquainted with; though we act one upon another in our present state, by the help of sense; yet we are wrought and designed to a more excellent way. Angels, and the spirits of men made perfect, converse and trade in a mutual communication, not without sense, but without such sense as ours. This, as eternal life, begins here, and is found in some degrees in this mortal state, though not in so visible appearances as to lie open to much observation.’
‘Angels, good and bad, do act upon our spirits, and our
spirits hold converse with them, and with the Father of spirits,
which may be discerned in secret parries and discourses between
them and us. Much of this appears in David’s psalms. And
there passes not only an inward speech, but there are invisible
approaches, entertainments, and touches, which Paul found when
bound in the Spirit, and under the working of God, which wrought in
him mightily,
‘Instances are found, that (as they say of two needles touched with the loadstone) the spirit of one at a distance, has found itself affected with the motion and state of another. And this we are all sensible of, that there is a strong desire in us to communion of spirits. And that, because the way most ready and convenient to our bodily state is by sense, we are carried with much inclination to maintain intercourse of our minds and spirits by sense. But, as being made to a better way, our souls are not satisfied with this present way, as being both painful and short. We cannot give an exact copy of our apprehensions, desires, designs, delights, and other affections, by these two great mediators of communion, the eye and the ear. But because we are in so great a measure confined to this course, our souls, as it were, stand in these two gates, to send and receive mutual embassies from each other. Which way, as it is short in itself, so it is much shortened by distances, affections, impotencies, and disparities.’
I cannot imagine, that men, in a state of imperfection, should have so many ways to communicate their minds, as by speaking, writing, &c. yea, that the very birds and beasts, are, by nature, enabled to signify to each other their inclinations; and that the spirits of just men (which are the best of all human spirits, and that when made perfect too, which is the best and highest state attained by them) should have none, but live at a greater disadvantage in this respect than they did, or the very birds and beasts in this world do. The sum of my thoughts about this matter, I will lay down in the following sections.
Section 1. The state of heaven, (as was at large opened
in our eleventh proposition) being an association of angels and
blessed souls, for the glorifying and praising of God in his temple
there, and this worship being carried on by joint consent, as
appears by their joint ascriptions of glory to God,
Sect. 2. But yet we cannot imagine these communications
between them to be by words, formed by such instruments and organs
of speech as we now use, for they are bodiless beings; wordy and
articulate sounds, are fitted to the use and service of embodied
spirits. It is therefore probable, that they convey and communicate
their minds to one another, as the blessed angels do, not
with tongues of flesh, (though we read of the tongues of
angels,
When Paul was wrapped into the third heaven, where be was
admitted to the sight and hearing of this blessed assembly, it is
said he heard "arretta remmata", words unspeakable, spiritual
language, such as his tongue neither could, or ought to utter. Such
as none but heavenly inhabitants can speak. And,
Sect. 3. The communications of angels, and souls in heaven, is therefore conceived to be an ability in those blessed spirits, silently and without sound, to instil and insinuate their minds and thoughts to each other, by a mere act of their wills; just as we now speak to God, or ourselves, in our hearts, when our lips do not move, nor the least outward sign appears.
There are two ways by which the souls of men speak, one
outwardly, by the instruments of speech, or sensible signs; the
other inwardly, without sound, or sign. This inward, silent speech,
is nothing else but an act of the will, calling forth such things
into our actual thoughts and meditations, which before lay hid and
quiet in the memory, or habit of knowledge. These thoughts, or
actual revolvings of things in the mind, are in scripture called: a
word or speech in the heart,
Object. But you will say, Tough the spirit of a man can thus
talk to, or with itself, yet this can signify nothing to others:
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man
that is in him?
Sol. There is, indeed, a necessity among men in this world, to unlock another door, beside that of the will, to communicate the secrets of their hearts to others; "but angels, and the spirits of men, having no bodies, consequently have but one door, to wit, that of the will, to open; and the opening thereof, which is done by one act or desire, in a moment is enough to discover so much of their minds, as they would have discovered to another spirit. If they keep the door of their still shut, no angel, or Spirit, can know what is in their thoughts, without a revelation from God;" and if they but will, or desire others should know, no words can so fully manifest one man’s mind to another, as such an act of the will does manifest theirs. And this, says learned Zanchy, is the tongue of angels; and the same way the spirits of men have to make known their mind in the unembodied state. It is but the turning the key of the will, and their thoughts, or desires are presently seen and known, by others, to whom they will discover them, as a man’s fate is seen in a glass, when he pleases to turn his face to it. Would one spirit make known his mind to another, it is but to will he should know it, and it is immediately known.
Sect. 4. This internal way of speaking and communication among spirits is much more noble, perfect, and excellent, than that which is in use among us, by words and signs; and that in two respects, viz.
1. Of clearness.
2. Of dispatch and speed.
1. Spiritual language is more clearly expressive of the mind and thoughts, than words, writings, or any other external signs can be. The greatest masters of language do often cloud their meaning, for want of words fit and full enough to express it: truth suffers by the poverty and ambiguity of words; many controversies are but mere strifes about words, and scufflings in the dark, by the mistake of each other’s sense and meaning; few have the ability of putting their own meanings into apt, proper, and full express sign, and, if they can, yet others to whom they speak, want an answerable ability of understanding and clearness of apprehension to receive it. If we could discern the true and natural sense of things, just as it is in the mind of the speaker, or writer, how many controversies would be thereby quickly ended.
But spirits unbodied so convey their sense and mind to one another, that there can be no mistakes, no darkenings of counsel, by words without knowledge; but one receives it just as it lies in the other’s mind.
2. Spiritual language is more easy, and of quicker dispatch; some men have voluble tongues, and are more ready and presential than others; their tongues are as the pen of a ready scribe: and others, no less ready with their hands, which keep pace with, yea, outrun the tongue of the speaker, as Martial notes.
Currant verba licet, manus est velocior illis:
Nondum lingua suum dextra, peregit opus.
Yet all this is but bungling work, to the ready dispatch of spirits; one act of the will opens the window to discern the mind of another clearly; so that the converse of spirits must needs be more excellent, in both respects, than any we are accustomed to, or acquainted with in this world. I will shut up this question with one.
Corollary. Long to be associated with the spirits of just men made perfect. You that are going to join that blessed assembly, will even in this respect, gain an invaluable advantage. It is true, there is much of comfort in the present converses of embodied and imperfect saints; it is sweet to fast and pray, to sigh and groan together; it is sweeter to rejoice and praise our God together; it is sweet to talk of heaven with our faces thitherward; but alas! what is this to the converses that are among the spirits of just men made perfect! With what melting hearts have we sometimes sat, under the doctrine of the gospel! How have our ears been chained with delight to the preacher’s lips, while he has been discoursing of those ravishing subjects, Christ, and heaven! But alas! how dry and dull a thing is the best of this, to the language of heaven! Three things debase and spoil the communications of the saints on earth, viz. the darkness, dullness, and frothiness thereof.
1. The darkness and ignorance of our understandings. How crude,
weak, and undigested are our highest and purest notions of
spiritual things! we speak of them but as children,
2. There is much dullness and deadness accompanying the communion of saints on earth, abundance of precious tings is wasted among us in unprofitable silence, and when we engage in discourses of heaven, that discourse is often little better than silence; our words freeze betwixt our lips, and we speak not with that concernedness and warmth of spirit, which suits with such subjects.
It is not so among our brothers above, their affections are at the highest pitch, giving glory to God in the highest.
3. To conclude; In the discourses of the best of then on earth, there is too much froth and vanity; many words, like water, run away at the waste spout, but there God is the centre, in which all terminates. O therefore let us long to be among the unbodied people! this world will never suit us with companions in all things agreeable to the desires of our hearts. The best company are got together in the upper-room; an hour there is better than an age below. Whatever fellowship saints leave on earth, they shall be sure to find better in heaven.
Query 6. Whether the separated souls of the just in heaven, do incline to a re-union with their own bodies? And how that re-union is at last effected?
That these blessed souls have no such inclination or desire, these reasons seem to persuade.
1. That their bodies, while they lived in them, were no better,
than so many prisons; many were the prejudices, damages, and
miseries they have sustained and suffered in them. It kept them at
all uncomfortable distance from the Lord,
We read, that when a good man in the time of his sickness was told by his friends, that some hopeful signs of his recovery began now to appear, he answered, And must I then return to this body? I was as a sheep driven out of the storm almost to the fold, and then driven back into the storm again: or as a weary traveller near his home, who must go back again to fetch something he had neglected: or as an apprentice whose time was almost out, and then must begin a new term. Of some others it has been also noted, that the greatest infirmities they discovered upon their deathbed, have been their too passionate desires to be dissolved, and their unsubmissiveness to God s will in their longer stay in the body. Now, the bodies of the saints being so cheerfully forsaken, and that only upon a foretaste of heaven by faith; how can it be thought they should find any inclination to a re-union, when they are so abundantly satisfied with the joys of his face in heaven? Certainly the body has been no such pleasant habitation to the soul, that it should cast an eye or thought that way when it is once delivered out of it: if it were burdensome here, a thought of it could be loathsome there.
2. We have showed before, that the separate soul wants not the helps of the body, but lives and acts at a more free and comfortable rate than ever before. It is true, it is not now delighted with meat and drink, with smells and sounds, as it was wont to be; but then it must be considered, that it is happiness and perfection not to need them. It is now become equal to the angels in the way and manner of its living; and what it enjoyed by the ministry of the body, it eminently and more perfectly enjoys without it. What perfections can the soul receive from matter? What can a lump of flesh add to a spirit: And if it can add nothing to it, there is no reason why it should hanker after it, and incline to a re-union with it. It added nothing of happiness to it, but much trouble, and therefore becomes justly undesirable to it.
3. The supposition of such a propension and inclination, seems
no way to suit with that state of perfect rest which the souls of
the just enjoy in heaven. The scripture tells us, that at death
they enter into rest,
But if the matter be weighed once more, with the following reasons in the counter-scale, and prejudice do not pull down the balance; we shall find the contrary conclusion much more strong and rational. For,
Arg. 1. The soul and body are the two constitutive parts of man; either of these being wanting, the man is not complete and perfect. The good of the whole is the good of the parts themselves; and every thing has a natural desire and appetite to its own good and perfection. It is confessed, the soul, for as much as concerns itself singly, is made perfect, and enjoys blessedness in the absence of the body; but this is only the perfection and blessedness of one part of man; the other part, viz. the body, lies in obscurity and corruption: and till both be blessed, and blessed together, in a state of composition and re union, the whole man is not made perfect. For this therefore the soul must wait.
Arg. 2. Though death has dissolved the union, yet it has
not destroyed the relation between the soul and the body; that dust
is more to it than all the dust of the whole earth. Hence it is
that the whole person of a believer is sometimes denominated from
that part of him, namely, his body, which remains captivated by
death in the grave. Hence,
It is difficult to bear the absence of our dear relatives,
especially if we are in prosperity, and they in adversity: As the
case here is between the spirit in heaven, and its body in the
grave; this associated with angels, that preyed upon by worms.
Joseph’s case is the liveliest emblem that occurs to my
present thoughts to illustrate the point in hand. He was advanced
to be lord over all Egypt, living in the greatest pomp and
splendour there; but his father, and brethren, were, at the same
time, ready to perish, in the land of Canaan,
Arg. 3. The regret, reluctance, and sorrows expressed by the soul at parting, do strongly argue its inclination to a re-union with it, when it is actually separated from it: For why should we surmise, that the soul, which mourned, and groaned so deeply at parting, which clasped, and embraced it so dearly, and affectionately, which fought, struggled, and disputed the passage with death, every foot, and inch of ground it got, and would not part with the body, till by plain force it was rent out of its arms, should not, when absent, desire to see, and enjoy its old and endeared friend again? Has it lost its affection, though it continue its relation? That is very improbable: Or does its advancement in heaven make it regardless of its body, which lies in contempt and misery? That is an effect which Christ’s personal glory never produced in him towards us, nor a good man’s preferment would produce in him to his poor and miserable friends in this world, as we see in the case of Joseph, just now instanced in. It is therefore harsh, and incongruous, to suppose the soul’s love to the body was extinguished in the parting hour, and that now, out of sight out of mind.
Object. But was it not urged before, in opposition to this assertion, that the souls of the righteous looked upon their bodies as their prisons, and sighed for deliverance by death, and greatly rejoiced in the hope, and foresight of that liberty death would restore them to? How does this consist with such reluctancies at parting, and inclinations to re-union?
Sol. The objection death not suppose any man to be
totally free from all reluctancies, and unwillingness to die; the
holiest souls that ever lived in bodies of flesh, will give an
unwilling shrug, when it comes to the parting point,
(1.) This willingness to die, does not suppose the soul’s love to the body to be utterly extinguished, but mastered, and overpowered by another, and stronger love. There is in every Christian a double love, one natural to the body, and the things below, the other supernatural, to Christ, and the things above; the latter does not extinguish, though it conquer and subdue the other. Love to the body pulls backward, love to Christ pushes forward, and finally prevails. This is so consistent with it, that it supposes natural reluctance, and unwillingness to part.
(2.) The willingness of Gods people to be dissolved, must not be
understood absolutely, but comparatively; in that sense the apostle
will be understood,
So that the very best desire is but comparative, and it is but few who find the love of this animal life sub-acted and overpowered by high raised acts of faith and love. The generality, even of good souls, feel strong renitencies, and super sharp conflicts at their dissolution; all which discovers with what lothness and unwillingness the soul unclasps its arms to let go its body. Now, as divines argue the frame of Christ’s heart in heaven towards his people on earth, from all those endearing passages and demonstrations of love he gave them at parting; so we here argue the continued love and inclination of the soul to its body after it is in heaven, from the manifold demonstrations it gave of its affection to it in this world, especially in the parting hour. No considerations in all the world, less than the more full fruition of God, and freedom from sin, could possibly have prevailed with it to quit the body, though but for a time, and leave it in the dust. Which is our third argument.
Arg. 4. And as the dolorous parting hour evidences it, so
does the joy with which it receives it again at the resurrection.
If it part from it so heavily, and meet it again with joy
unspeakable; sure, then, it still retains much love for it, and
desires to re-espoused to it in the interval. Now, that its meeting
in the resurrection is a day of joy to the soul, is evident,
because it is called the time of refreshment,
Arg. 5. There are many scriptures which very much favour,
if they do not positively conclude for the soul’s inclination
to, and desire to be re-united with its own body, even while it is
in the state of its single glorification in heaven: Certainly our
souls leave not their bodies at death, as the ostrich does her egg
in the sand, without any further regard to it, or concernment for
it; but they are represented as crying to God to remember, avenge,
and vindicate them,
And to the same sense a judicious and learned pen expounds that place, Job, xiv. 11. (which is commonly, but I know not how fitly accommodated to another purpose) "All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come." Which words, by a diligent comparison, of the context, appears to have this for their proper scope and sense.
‘Job in the former verse had expressed his confidence by way of petition, that at a set and appointed time God would remember him so as to recall him out of the grave; and now, minded to speak out more fully, puts the question to himself, If a man die, shall be live again?’ and thus answers it, ‘All the days of my appointed time, (that is, of the appointed time which he mentioned before, when God should revive him out of the dust) ‘will I wait till my change come;’ that is, that glorious change, when the ‘corruption of a loathsome grave should be exchanged for immortal glory: Which he amplifies, and utters more expressly, ver. 15. Thou shalt call, and I will answer; thou shalt have a desire to the works of thy hands:’ Thou wilt not always forget to restore and perfect thine own creature. And surely this waiting is not the act of his inanimate sleeping dust, but of that part which should be capable of such an action: q. d. I, in that part which shall be still alive, shall patiently wait the appointed time of reviving me in that part also, which death and the grave shall insult over in a temporary triumph in the mean time.’
Upon these grounds I think the inclination of the separated spirits of the just to their own bodies to be a justifiable opinion. As for the damned, we have no reason to think such a re-union to be desirable to them; for alas, it will be but the increase and aggravation of their torments; which consideration is sufficient to overpower and stifle the inclination of nature, and make the very thoughts of it horrid and dreadful. To what end (as the prophet speaks in another case) is it for them to desire that day? It will be a day of darkness and gloominess to them; re-union being designed to complete the happiness of the one, and the misery of the other.
But before I take off my hand, and dismiss this question, I must remember that I am a debtor to two objections.
Object. 1. The soul can both live and act separate from the body, it needs it not; and if it do not want, with should it desire it?
Sol. The life and actings of the glorified are considerable two wars, (1.) Singly and abstractedly for the life and action of one part: And so we confess the soul lives happily, and acts forth its own popovers freely in the state of separation. (2.) Personally, or consecrately, as it is the life and action of the whole man, and so it does both need and desire the conjunction or re-union of the body, for the body is not only a part or Christ’s purchase, as well as the soul, and to have its own glory, as well as it, but it is also a constitutive part of a complete glorified person; and so considered, the saints are not perfectly happy till this re-union be effected, which is the true ground and reason of this its desire.
Object. 2. But this hypothesis seems to thwart the account given in scripture of the rest, and placid state of separate souls: far look, as bodies which gravitate and propend do not rest, so neither do souls which incline arid desires
Sol. There is a vast difference between the tendencies,
and propensions of souls in the way to glory, and in glory: We that
are absent from the Lord, can find no rest in the way; but those
that are with the Lord can rest in Jesus, and yet wait without
anxiety, of self-torturing impatience for the accomplishment of the
promises to their absent bodies,
Corollary. Let this provoke all to get sanctified souls, to rule and use these their bodies now for God. This will abundantly sweeten their parting at death, and their meeting again at the resurrection of the just; else their parting will be doleful, and their next meeting dreadful. And so much for the doctrine of separation.
The Uses of the Point
Our way is now open to the improvement and use of this excellent subject and doctrine of separation; and certainly it affords as rich an entertainment for our affections, as for our minds, in the following uses; of which the first will be for our information in six practical inferences.
Inf. 1. If this be the life and state of gracious souls after their separation from the body, Then holy persons ought not to entertain dismal and terrifying thoughts of their own dissolution.
The apprehensions and thoughts of death should have a peculiar
pleasantness in the minds of believers. You have heard into what a
blessed presence and communion death introduces your souls; how it
leads you out of a body of sin, a world of sorrows, the society of
imperfect saints, to an innumerable company of angels. and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, to that lovely mount Sion, to the
heavenly sanctuary, to the blessed visions of the face of God. Oh!
methinks there has been enough said, to make all the souls, in whom
the well-grounded hopes of the life of glory are found, to cry out
with the apostle, "We are confident, I say, yea, and willing rather
to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord,"
When good Musculus drew near his end, how sweet and pleasant was this meditation to his soul! Hear his swan-like song:
Nil superest, vitae frigus praccordia captat;
Sed, tu Christe, mihi vita perennis ades:
Quid trepidas anima, ad sedes abitura quietis?
En tibi ductor adest angelus ille tuus.
Linque domum hanc miseram, nunc in sua fata ruentem
Quam tibi fida Dei dextera restituet.
Peccasti? Scio, sed Christus credentibus in se
Peccata expurgat sanguine cuncta suo
Horribilis mors est? Fateor, sed prosima vita est,
Ad quam te Christi gratia certa vocat.
Praesto est de Satana, peccato et morte triumphans
Christus; ad hunc igitur laeta alacrisque migra.
Which may be thus translated.
Cold death my heart invade, my life does fly:
O, Christ, my everlasting life draw nigh.
Why quiverest thou, my soul, within my breast?
Thine angel’s come, to lead thee to thy rest.
Quit cheerfully this drooping, house of clay;
God will restore it in the appointed day.
Hast sinn’d? I know it, let not that be urg’d;
For Christ, thy sins, with his own blood hash purg’d.
Is death affrighting? True, but yet withal,
Consider, Christ through death to life does call.
He triumphs over Satan, sin, and death;
Therefore with joy resign thy dying breath.
Much in the same cheerful frame was the heart of dying Bullinger, when his mournful friends expressed their sense of the loss they should sustain by his removal. "Why, said he, if God will make any further use of my labours in the ministry, he will renew my strength, and I will gladly serve him: but if he please (as I desire he would) to call me hence, I am ready to obey his will; and nothing more pleasant can befall me, than to leave this sinful and miserable world to go to my Saviour Christ. O that all, who are out of the danger of death, were thus got out of the thread of death too.
Let them only tremble and be convulsed at the thoughts, and
sight of death, whose souls must fall into the hauls of a
sin-revenging God by the stroke of death; who are to breathe out
their last hope with their last breath. Death is yours, says
the apostle,
Inf. 2. Gather from hence, the absolute, indispensable necessity of your union with Christ, before you dissolution by death.
Woe to that soul which shall be separated from its body before it be united with Christ. None but the spirits of just men are made perfect at death. Righteous souls are the only qualified subjects of blessedness.
It is true, every soul has a natural capacity of happiness, but
gracious souls only have an actual meetness for glory. The
scriptures tell us in the plainest words, that "without holiness no
man shall see the Lord",
What think you, reader? Dare you adventure your soul and eternal happiness upon it, that the work of regeneration and sanctification, that very same work of grace, on which the Spirit of God has placed all your hopes of heaven in these scriptures, is truly wrought by him in your soul? Consider it well, pause upon it again and again before you go forth. Should a mistake be committed here, (and nothing is more easy or common, all the world over, than such mistakes) you are irrecoverably gone. This venture can be made but once, and the miscarriage is never to be retrieved afterwards; you have not another soul to adventure, nor a second adventure to make of this. Well might the apostle Peter call for all diligence to make our calling and our election sure: That can never be made too sure, which is so invaluable in its worth, and to be but once adventured.
Inf. 3. How prejudicial is it to dying men to be then incumbered, diverted, and distracted about earthly concernments, when the time of their departure is at hand.
The business and employment of dying persons is of so vast importance and weight, that every moment of their time needs to be carefully saved and applied to this their present and most important concern. How well soever you have improved the time of life, believe it, you will find work enough upon your hand at death. Dying hours will be found to be busy and laborious hours, even to the most painful, serious, and industrious souls, whose life has been mostly spent in preparations for death. Leave not the proper business of other days to that day, for that day will have business enough of its own. Sufficient for that day are the labours thereof.
Let a few considerations be pondered, to clear and confirm this inference.
Consid. 1. The business and employment of dying persons,
is of the most serious, awful, and solemn nature and importance; it
is their last preparatory work on earth, to their immediate
appearance before God their judge,
Consid. 2. Time is exceeding precious with dying men; the last sand is ready to fall, and therefore not to be wasted, as it was wont to be. When we had a fair prospect of many years before us, we made little account of an hour or a day; but now one of those hours, which we so carelessly lavished away, is of more value than all this world to us, especially if the whole weight of eternity should hang upon it, (as oftentimes it does) then the loss of that portion of time, is the loss of soul, body, and hope for evermore.
Consid. 3. Much of that little precious time of departing souls will be unavoidably taken up, and employed about the inexcusable pressing calls and necessities of distressed nature; all that you can do for your souls must then be done only by fits and snatches, in the midst of many disturbances, and frequent interruptions: So that it is rarely found, that a dying man can pursue a serious meditation with calm and fixed thoughts: for besides the pains and faintings of the body, the abilities of the mind usually fall. Here also they fall into a sad dilemma; if they do not with the utmost intention of mind fix their hearts and thoughts on Christ, they lose their comfort, if godly, and their souls, if ungodly; and if they do, friends and physicians assure them they will destroy their bodies. These are the straits of men bordering close upon eternity; they must hastily catch a few moments in the intervals of pain, and then are put by all again.
Consid. 4. There is no man living but has something to do for his own soul in a dying hour, and something for others also.
Suppose the best that can be supposed, that the soul be in real union with Christ, and that union be also clear: yet it is seldom found but there are some assaults of Satan: Or if not, yet how many relations and friends need our experiences and counsels at such a time? How many things shall we have to do after our great and main work is done? And others leave a great deal more to do, though as safe as the former. O the knots and objections that are then to be dissolved and answered! The usual onsets and assaults of Satan that are then to be resisted! And yet most dying persons have much more upon their hands than either of the former. The whole work of repentance and faith is to do, when time is even done.
Consid. 5. Few, yea, very few, are found furnished with
wisdom, experience, and faithfulness, to give dying persons any
considerable assistance in soul affairs. It may be there may be
found among the visitants of the sick, now and then, a person who
has a word of wisdom in his heart; but then either he wants
opportunity or courage and faithfulness to do the part of a true
spiritual friend. Elihu describes the person so qualified as he
ought for this work,
Consid. 6. How much therefore does it deserve to be lamented, that where there is so much to do, so little time to do it, and so few to help in the best improvement of it, all should be lost as to their souls by earthly incumbrances and worldly affairs, which might have been done sooner and better in a more proper season! O, therefore, let no persuade all men to take heed of bringing the proper business of healthful days to their sick-bed.
Inf. 4. What an excellent creature is the soul of man, which is capable, not only of such preparations for God, while it is in the body, but of such sights and enjoyments of God, when it lives without a body.
Here the Spirit of God works upon it, in the way of grace and
sanctification,
Here the dignity of the soul appears, that no other creature in this world, beside it, has a natural capacity, either to be sanctified inherently in this world, or glorified everlastingly in the world to come; to be transformed into the image, and filled with the joy of the Lord. There are myriads of other souls in this world, beside ours, but to none of them is the Spirit of sanctification sent, but only to ours: The souls of animals serve only to move the dull and sluggish matter, and take in for a few days the sensitive pleasures of the creation, and so expire, having no natural capacity of, or designation for any higher employment or enjoyment.
And it deserves a most serious animadversion, that this cast capacity of the soul for eternal blessedness, must of necessity make it capable of so much the more misery and self-torment, if at last it fail of that blessedness: For it is apparent they do not perish because they are incapable, but because they are unwilling; not because their souls wanted any natural faculty that others have, but because they would not open those they have, to receive Christ in the way of faith and obedience, as others did.
Think upon this you that live only to eat, and drink, and sleep, and play, as the birds and beasts in the field do; What need was there of a reasonable soul for such sensual employments? Do not your noble faculties speak your designation for higher uses? And will not you wish to exchange souls with the most vile and despicable animal in this world, if it were possible to be done? Certainly it were better for you to have no capacity of eternal blessedness (as they have not) if you do not enjoy it; and no capacity of torment beyond this life (as they have not) if you must certainly endure it.
Inf. 5. If our souls and bodies must be separate shortly, how patiently should we bear all lesser separations, that may and will be made, between us and any other enjoyments in this world?
No union is so intimate, strict and dear, as that between our souls and bodies. All your relations and enjoyments in this world, hang looser from your souls than your bodies do: and if it be your duty, patiently and submissively, to suffer a painful parting pull from your bodies; it is doubtless your duty to suffer meekly and patiently a separation from other things, which are but a prelude to it, and a mere shadow of it. It is good to put such cases to ourselves in the midst of our pleasant enjoyments.
I have now many comfortable relatives in the world; wife,
children, kindred, and friends, God has made them pleasant to me,
but he may bereave me of all these. Does not providence ring such
changes all the world over? Are not all kingdoms, cities, and
towns, full of the sighs and lamentations of widows, orphans, and
friends bereaved of their pleasant and useful relations? But if God
will have it so, it is our duty to legend our sorrows, remembering
the time is short,
God may also separate between me and my health by sickness, so that the pleasure of this world shall be cut off from me; but sickness is not death, though it be a prelude and step towards it; I may well bear this with patience, who must submissively bear sharper pains than these ere long. Yea, and well may I bear this submissively, considering that by such embittering and weaning providences, God is preparing me for a much easier dissolution, than if I should live at ease in the body all my days till death comes to make so great and sudden a change upon me.
God may also separate between me and my liberty by restraint. It
has been the lot of the best men that ever were in the world; and
if it should be ours also, we should not be much startled at it,
considering these bodies of ours must be shortly pent-up in a
straiter, darker, and more loathsome place of confinement, than any
prison in this world can be. The grave is a darker, place,
These, and all our other outward enjoyments, are separable things, and it is good thus to alleviate our loss of them.
Inf. 6. How heavenly should the tempers and frames of those souls be who are candidates for heaven, and must be so shortly numbered with the spirits of just men made perfect.
It is reasonable that we all begin to be that which we expect to be for ever; to learn that way of living and conversing, which we believe must be our everlasting life and business in the world to come. Let them that hope to live with angels in heaven, learn to live like angels on earth, in holiness, activity, and ready obedience.
There is the greatest reason that our minds be there, where our souls are to be for ever. A spiritual mind will be found possible, congruous, sweet, and evidential of an interest in that glory, to all those holy souls, who are preparing and designed for it.
1. It is possible, notwithstanding the clogs and entanglements
of the body to be heavenly minded. Others have attained it,
(1.) The natural abilities of the mind.
(2.) The gracious principles of the mind.
(1.) The natural abilities of the mind, which can, in a minute’s time, dispatch a nimble messenger to heaven, and mount its thoughts from this to that world in a moment. The power of cogitation is a rich endowment of the soul, such as no other creature on earth is participant of. Though spiritual thoughts be not the natural growth of the soul, yet thoughts capable of being spiritualised are. And without this ability of projecting thoughts, all intercourse must have been cut off.
(2.) The gracious principles implanted in the soul, do actually incline the mind, and mount its thoughts heaven-ward. Yea, this will prove more than a possibility of a conversation in heaven; while saints tabernacle on earth, in bodies of flesh, it will almost prove an impossibility that it should be otherwise, for these spiritual principles setting the bent and tendency of the heart heavenward, we must act against the very law of our new nature, when we place our affections elsewhere.
2. A mind in heaven is most congruous, decorous, and comely for those that are the enrolled inhabitants of that heavenly city. Where should a Christian’s love be, but where his Lord is! Our hearts and our homes do not use to be long asunder. It becomes you so to think, and so to speak now, as those who make account to be shortly singing hallelujahs before the throne.
3. It is most sweet and delightful: no pleasure in this world is
comparable to this pleasure;
4. To conclude: It is evidential of your interest in it: an
agreeable frame is the surest title,
Use 2. This doctiine of the separation of the spirits of the just from their bodies, as it lies before you in this discourse affords a singular help to all the people of God, to entertain lovely and pleasent thoughts of that day; to make death not only an unregretted, but a most pleasant and desirable thing to their souls.
I know there is a pure, simple, natural fear of death, from which you must not expect to be perfectly freed, by all the arguments in the world. And there is a reverential, artful fear of death, which it would be your prejudice and loss to have destroyed. You will have a natural, and ought to have a reverential fear of death: the one flows from your sensitive, the other from your sanctified nature.
But it is a third sort of fear which does you all the mischief: a fear springing in gracious souls out of the weakness of the graces, and the strength of their unmortified affections: a fear arising partly out of the darkness of our minds, and partly out of the sensuality and earthliness of our hearts; this fear is that which so convulses our souls when death is near, and imbitteres our lives, even while it is at a distance. He that has been overheated in his affections to this world, and overcooled by diversions and temptations, neglects and intermissions, to that world, cannot choose but give an unwilling shrug, if not a frightful screech at the appearance of death.
And this being the sad case of too many, good and upright souls
for the main; and there being so few, even among serious
Christians, that have attained to that courage and complacence in
the thoughts of death, which the apostle speaks of,
Moreover, I am fully convinced, by long and often experience, how unsteady and inconstant the frames and tempers of the best hearts are; and that if it be not altogether, yet it is next to an impossibility to fix them in such a temper as this I aim at is. Where is that man to be found, who after the revolutions of many years, and in those years various dispensations of providence without him, altering his condition, and greater variety of temptations within, can yet say, notwithstanding all these various aspects and positions, his heart has still held one steady and invariable tenour and course?
Alas, there be very few (if any) of such a sound and settled temper of mind, whose pulse beats with an even stroke, through all inequalities of condition, alike free and willing at one time as another, to be unclothed of the body, and to be with Christ. This height of faith, and depth of mortification; this strength of love to Christ, and ardour of holy desire, are decrees of grace to which very few attain.
The case standing thus, it is no more than needs, to urge an sorts of arguments upon our timorous and unsteady hearts; and it is like to prove a hard and difficult task to bring the heart but to a quiet and unregretting submission to the appointment of God herein, though submission be one of the lowest steps of duty in this case.
If it be hard to fix our thoughts but an hour, on such an unpleasant subject as death, how hard must it be to bring over the consent of the will? If we cannot endure it at a distance, in our thoughts, how shall we embrace and hug it in our bosoms? If our thoughts fly back with distaste and impatience, no wonder if our will be obstinate and refractory: we must first prevail with our thoughts to fix themselves, and think close to such a subject, before it can be expected we cheerfully resign ourselves into the hands of death. We cannot be willing to go along with death, till we have some acquaintance with it; and acquainted with it we cannot be till we accustom ourselves to think assiduously and calmly of it. They that have dwelt many years at death’s door, both in respect of the condition of their bodies, and the disposition of their minds, yet find reluctancy enough when it comes to the points.
Object. But if separation from thc body be (as it is) an enemy to nature, and there be no possibility to to extuingish natural eversation; to what purpose is it to argue and persuade where there is no expectation of success?
Sol. Death is to be considered two ways s by the people of God:
1. As an enemy to nature.
2. As a medium to glory.
If we consider it simply in itself as an enemy to nature, there is nothing in it for which we should desire it: but if we consider it as a medium, or pasage into glory, yea, the only ordinary way through which all the saints must pass out of this into a better state; so it will appear not only tolerable, but desirable to prepared souls. Were there not a shore of gloryon the other side of these black waters of death, for my own part, I should rather choose to live meanly than to die easily. If both parts were to perish at death, there were no reason to persuade one to be willing to deliver up the other; it were a madness for the soul to desire to be dissolved, if it were so far from being better out of the body than in it, that it should have no being at all. But Christians, let me tell you, death is so far from being a bar, that it is a bridge in your way to glory, and you are never like to come thither, but by passing over it: Except, therefore, you will look beyond it, you will never see any desirableness in it. "I desire to be dissolved (says Paul) and to be with Christ, which is far better." To be with death is sad, but to be with Christ is sweet; to endure the pains of death is doleful, but to see the face of Christ is joyful; to part with your pleasant habitations is irksome, but to be lodged in the heavenly mansions is most delightful; a parting hour with dear relations is cutting, but a meeting hour with Jesus Christ is transporting; to be rid of your own bodies is not pleasing, but to be rid of sin, and that for ever, what can be more pleasing to a gracious soul?
You see, then, in what sense I present death as a desirable thing to the people of God: and therefore seeing nature teaches us (as the apostle speaks) to put the more abundant comeliness upon the uncomely parts; suffer me to dress up death in its best ornaments, and present it to you in the following arguments, as a beautiful and comely object of your conditional and well-regulated desires. And,
Arg. 1. If upon a fair and just account, there shall appear to be more gain to believers in death, than there is in life; reason must needs vote death to be better to them that are in Christ, than life can be; and consequently, it should be desirable in their eyes.
It is a clear dictate of reason, in case of choice, to choose that which is best for us. Who is there that freely exercises reason and choice together, that will not do so?
What merchant will not part with an hundred pound’s worth of glass beads and pendants for a ton of gold? A few tinsel toys for as many rich diamonds? Mercatura est amittere, ut luceris; that is, true merchandise, to part with things of lesser, for things of greater value.
Now, if you will be tried and determined by God’s book of
rates, then the case is determined quickly, and the advantage
appears exceedingly upon deaths side.
Object. True, it might be so to Paul, who was eminent in grace, and ripe for glory; but it may be loss to others, who have not attained the height of his holiness or assurance.
Sol. The true and plain sense of the objection is this, whether heaven and Christ, be as much gain to him that enjoys them, though behind others both in grace and obedience, as it is to them who are more eminent in grace, and have done and suffered more for their sake? And let it be determined by yourselves. But if your meaning be, that Paul was ready for death, and so are not you; his work and course was almost comfortably finished, and so is not yours; his death, therefore, must needs be gain to him, but it may be loss to you, even the loss of all that you are worth for ever.
To this I say, the wisdom of God orders the time of his people’s death, as well as all other circumstances about it: And in this, your hearts may be at perfect rest, that being in Christ you can never die to your loss, die when you will. I know you will reply, That if your union with Christ were clear, the controversy were ended; but then you must also consider, they are as safe who die by an act of recumbence upon Christ, as those that die in the fullest assurance of their interest in him.
And beside, your reluctancies and aversions to death, are none of your way to assurance; that such a strong aversion to sin, and such a vehement desire after, and love to Christ, as can make you willing to quit all that is dear and desirable to you in this world for his sake, is the very next door or step to assurance; and if the Lord bring your hearts to this frame, and fix them there, it is not likely you will be long without it.
But to return: Paul had here valued life, with a full allowance of all the benefits and advantages of it; "To me to live, is Christ;" that is, if I live, I shall live in communion with Christ, and service for Christ, and in the midst of all those comforts which usually result from both. Here is life, with the most weighty and desirable benefits of it, laid in one scale, and he lays death, and probably, a violent death too, (for of that he speaks to them afterwards chap. ii. 17.) in the other scale. Thus he fills the scale, and the balance breaks on death’s side; yea, it comes down with a πολυς μαλγον χρεισσον, a far, far better.
But here falls in (as an excellent person observes) a rub in the way: there are in this case two judges, the flesh and the spirit, and they cannot agree upon the values, but contradict each other. Nature says, It is far better to live than to die, and will not be beaten off from it. What then? I hope you will not put blind and partial nature in competition with God also, as you do life with death. But seeing nature can plead so powerfully; as well as grace, let us hear what those strong reasons are that are urged by the flesh on life’s side, and what the soul has to reply and plead on death’s side, (for the soul can plead, and that charmingly too, though not by words and sounds) and then determine the matter, as we shall see cause: but be sure prejudice pull not down the balance.
And here the doleful voice of nature laments, pleads, and be moans itself to the willing soul.
‘O my soul, what do you mean by these desires to be dissolved? Are you in earnest, when you say you are willing to leave your own body, and be gone? Consider, and think again, ere you bid me farewell, what you are to me, and what I have been, and am to you; you are my soul, that is, my prop, my beauty, my honour, my life, and indeed all that is comfortable to me. If you depart, what am I but a spectacle of pity, an abhorred carcass in a few moments? a prey to the worms, a captive to death? If you depart, my candle is put out, and I am left in the horrors of darkness.’
‘I am your house, your delightful habitation, the house in
which you have dwelt from the first moment of your creation, and
never lodge one night in any other: every room in me has, one way
or other, been a banqueting-room for your entertainment, a room of
pleasure; all my senses have peen purveyors for your delight, my
members have all of them been your instruments and servants to
execute your commands and pleasure. If you and I part, it must be
in a shower: you shall feel such pains, such travailing throes,
such deep, emphatical groans, such sweets, such agonies as you
never felt before: for death has somewhat of anguish peculiar to
itself, and which is unknown, though guessed at by the living.
Besides, whenever you leave me, you leave all that is, and has been
comfortable to you in this world: your house shall know you no
nature,
‘You have also, since you became mine, contracted manifold relations in the world, which I know are dear unto you: I know it by costly experience: How have you made me to wear and waste myself, in labours, cares, and watchings for them? But if you will be gone, all these must be left exposed, God knows to what wants, abuses, and miseries! for I can do nothing for them, or myself, if once you leave me.’ Thus it charms and pleads; thus it lays, as it were, violent hands upon the soul, and says, ‘O my soul, you shall not depart.’ It hangs about it much, as the wife and children of good Galeacius Caracciolus did about him, when he was leaving Italy, to go to Geneva, (a lively emlem of the case before us). It says to the soul, as Joab did to David, "You have shamed your face this day, in that you love your enemy, death, and hate me, your friend. ‘O my soul! my life! my darling! my dear and only one! let nothing but unavoidable necessity part you and me.’ All this the flesh can plead, and a great deal more than this, and that a thousand times more powerfully and feelingly, than any words can plead the case. And all its arguments are backed by sense; sight and feeling attest what nature speaks.
Let us, in the next place, weigh the pleas and reasons, which notwithstanding all this, do over-power, and prevail with the believing soul to be gone, and quit its own body, and return no more to the elementary world.
And thus the power of faith and love enables it to reply:
‘My dear body, the companion and partner of my comforts and troubles, in the days of my pilgrimage on earth, great is my love, and strong are the bonds of my affections to you. You have been tenderly, yea, excessively beloved by me; my cares and fears for you have been inexpressible, and nothing but the love of Jesus Christ is strong enough to gain my consent to part with you; your interest in my affection is great, but as great as it is, and as much as I prize you, I call shake you off; and thrust you aside, to go to Christ.’
‘Nor may this seem absurd, or unreasonable, considering that God never designed you for a mansion, but only a temporary tabernacle to me: it is true, I have had some comfort during my abode in you; but I enjoyed these comforts only in you, not from you; and many more I might have enjoyed, had you not been a snare and a dog to me.
‘It is you that has eaten up my time, and distracted my thoughts, ensnared my affections, and drawn me under much sin and sorrow: however, though we may weep over each other, as accessories to the sins and miseries we have drawn upon ourselves; yet in this is our joint relief, that the blood of Christ has cleansed us both from all sin.’
‘And therefore I can part the more easily and comfortably from you, because I part in hope to receive and enjoy you in a far better condition than I leave you. It is for both our interests to part for a time, for mine, because I shall thereby be freed and delivered from sin and sorrow, and immediately obtain rest with God, and the satisfaction of all my desires in his presence and enjoyment, which there is no other way to obtain, but by separation from you: and why should I live a groaning, burdened, restless life always, to gratify your fond and irrational desires? If you love me, you would rejoice, not repine at my happiness. Parents willingly part with their children at the greatest distance, for their preferment, how dearly soever they love them; and do you envy, or repine at mine? I have lived many months a suffocating, obscure life, with you in the womb, and neither you nor I had ever tasted or experienced the comforts of this world, and the various delights of sense, if we had not struggled hard for an entrance into this world. And now we are here, alas! though you are contented to abide; I live in you, but as we both lived in the womb, an obscure, uneasy, and unsuitable life; you can feed upon material bread, and delight yourself amidst the variety of sensitive objects you find here; but what are all these things to me? I cannot subsist by them; that which is food to you, is but chaff, wind, vanity to me: if I stay with you, I shall be still sinning, end still groaning; when I leave you, I shall be immediately freed from both, and arrive at the sum and perfection of all the hopes, desires, and whatsoever I have aimed at, and laboured for, in all the duties of my life. Let us therefore be content to part.’
‘Shrink not at the horror of a grave; it is indeed a dark and solitary house, and the days of darkness may be many; but to you, my dear companion, it shall be a bed of rest, yea, a perfumed bed, where your Lord Jesus lay before you: and let the time of your abode there be never so long, you shalt not measure it, nor find the least tediousness in it; a thousand years there shall seem no more in the morning of the resurrection, than the sweetest nap of an hour seemed to be when I was wont to lay you upon the bed to rest.’
‘The worms in the grave shall be nothing to you, nor give you the thousandth part of that trouble that a flea was wont to do; and though I leave you, Jesus Christ shall watch, in the mean time over my dust, and not suffer a grain of it to be lost. and I will return assuredly to you again, at the time appointed: I take not an everlasting farewell of you. but depart for a time, that I may receive you for ever. To conclude, there is an unavoidable necessity of our parting; whether willing or unwilling, we must be separated: but the consent of my will to part with you, for the enjoyment of Jesus Christ will be highly acceptable to God, and greatly sweeten the bitter cup of death to us both.’
This, and much more the gracious soul has to say for its separation from the body; by which it is easy to discern where the gain and advantage of death lies to all believers, and consequently, how much must it be every way their interest to be unbodied.
Arg. 2. To be weary of the lady upon the pure account and reason of our hatred to sin, and longing desires after Jesus Christ, argues strongly grace in truth, and grace in strength; it is both the test of our sincerity, and measure of our attainment and maturity of grace, and upon both accounts highly desirable by all the people of God.
It is so great an evidence of the truth of grace, that the
scriptures have made it the descriptive periphrasis of a Christian:
so we find it in
And as it evidences the truth, so also the strength and maturity of grace; for alas, how many thousands of gracious souls that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, are to be found quite below this temper of mind! O it is but here and there one among the Lord’s own people, that have reached this height and eminence of faith and love. It is with the fruits of the Spirit, just as it is with the fruits of the earth; some are green and raw, others are ripe and mellow: the first stick fast on the branches, you may shake and shake again, and not one will drop; or as those fruits that grow in hedges, with their coats and integuments enwrapping them, as nuts, &c. you may try your strength upon them, and sooner break your nails, than disclose and separate them: so fast and close do their husks stick to them: but when time and the influences of heaven has ripened and brought them to perfection, the apples drop into your hands without the least touch, and the nut falls out of its case of its own accord. So much more does the soul part from its body, when maturated, and come to its strength and vigour.
Arg. 3. It may greatly prevail upon the will and resolution of a believer, to adventure boldly and cheerfully upon death, that our bodies, of which we are bereaved and deprived by death, shall be most certainly and advantageously restored to us by the resurrection. The resurrection of the dead is the encouragement and consolation of the dying; the more our faith is established in the doctrine of the resurrection, the more we shall surmount the fears of dissolution. If Paul urged it as an argument to reconcile Philemon to his servant Onesimus, ver. 15. "That he therefore departed for a season, that Philemon might receive him for ever", the same argument may reconcile every believer to deaths and take off the prejudice of the soul against it. You shall surely receive your bodies again, and enjoy them for ever.
Now the doctrine of the resurrection is as sure in itself as it
is comfortable to us; the depth and strength of its foundation
fully answers to the height and sweetness of its consolation. Be
pleased to try the two pillars thereof, and see which of them may
be doubted or shaken.
And then, for his promise that it shall be so, what can be
plainer? See
Well then, what remains in death to fright and scare a believer?
Is it our parting with these bodies? Why, is it not for ever that
we part with them; as sure as the power and promises of God are
true, firm, and sufficient to accomplish it, we shall see and enjoy
them again. This comforted Job, chap. xix. 25, 26. over all his
diseases, when of all his enjoyments that once he had, he could not
say, my friends, my children, my estate; yet then he could say, my
Redeemer. when he looked upon a poor wasted, withered, loathsome
body of his own, and saw nothing but a skeleton, an image of death,
yet then could he see it a glorious body, by viewing it believingly
in this glass of the resurrection. So then all the damage we can
receive by death, is but the absence of our bodies for a time;
during which time, the covenant-relation between God and them,
holds good and firm,
Arg. 4. The consideration of what we part from, and what we go to, should make the medium, by which we pass from so much evil to so great good, lovely and desirable in our eyes, how unpleasant or bitter soever it be in itself.
No man desires medicine for itself. There is no pleasure in bitter pills and loathsome potions, except what rises from the cud, viz. the disburdening of nature, and recovery of health; and this gives it a value with the sick and pained. Under a like consideration is death desired by sick and pained souls, who find it better to die once, than groan under burdens continually.
Death certainly is the blest physician. next, and under Jesus
Christ, that ever was employed about them; for it cures radically
and perfectly, so that the soul never relapses more into any
distemper. Other medicines are but anodynes, or at best they
relieve us but in part, and for a time; but this does through the
world, and perfects the cure at once. Methinks that call of Christ
which he gives his spouse in
1. From defiling corruptions into perfect purity.
2. >From heart-sinking sorrows into fullness of joy.
3. From entangling temptations into everlasting freedom.
4. From distressing persecutions into full rest.
5. From pinching wants into universal supplies.
6. From distractible fears into highest security.
7. >From deluding shadows into substantial good.
1. From defiling corruptions into perfect purity. No sin hangs
about the separated, though it do about the sanctified soul. They
come out of the body suitable to that character and encomium,
All weeping, all praying, all believing, all hearing, all
sacraments, all the means and instruments in the world, cannot do
what death will do for you. One dying hour will do what ten
thousand praying hours never did, nor could do. In this hour the
design of all those hours is accomplished; as he that is dead by
mortification, is at present freed from sin, in respect of
imputation and dominion,
Oh! What a pure, lovely, shining creature is the separated spirit of a just man? How clear is its judgment, how ordinate its will, how holy, and altogether heavenly are all its affections now! And never till now it feels itself perfectly well, and as it would be.
2. From heart sinking sorrows, into fullness of joy. The life we
now live is a groaning life,
But when we put off these bodies, we put of our mourning
garments with them, and shall never sorrow any more: Thenceforth
God wipes away all tears from his people’s eyes,
3. From entangling temptations into everlasting freedom. It is this body, and the interests and concerns of it, upon which Satan raises most of his batteries against our souls: It is our flesh that causes our souls to sin; and while the soul dwells in the body, it is within Satan’s reach to tempt, and defile, and trouble it. Oh what grievous things do the best souls endure, and suffer on this account!
Temptations are of two sorts; ordinary and mediate, by
Satan’s exciting and managing our corruptions, by presenting
objects to them; or extraordinary and immediate, like fiery darts
shot immediately out of hell into the soul, which puts it all into
a flame and combustion: Of the former you read in
But by the door of death every gracious soul makes its escape from the tempting power of Satan: He can no more touch or affect the soul with any temptation, than we can better the body of the sun with snow balls: For as Satan can have no access to that place of blessedness, where the souls of the saints are; so if he could, he can find nothing in them to fasten a temptation upon. The schoolmen give this as the reason why the saints in heaven are impeccable, because all their thoughts and affections are everlastingly fixed in, and employed about the blessed God, whose face they continually behold in glory.
4. From distressing persecutions, into full and perfect rest. As
death sets us free from the power of Satan, so from the reach of
all persecutors. "There the evicted cease from troubling, and there
the weary are at rest," as it is in
God may put an end to those persecutions before death; and such
a time, according to promise, is to be expected, "when our officers
shall be peace, and our exactors righteousness,"
5. From pinching wants, to universal supplies. This is the day in which the Lord abundantly satisfies the desires, and supplies the needs of all his people. There are two sorts of wants upon the people of God: spiritual and temporal.
Spiritual wants are the just complaints of all gracious souls.
You read,
Temporal outward wants pinch hard also upon many of God’s
people: The greatest number of them consist of the poor of this
world,
And for outward wants, they shall feel them no more: For putting
off the body, we must needs put off all cares and concerns about
it. "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, God shall
destroy both it and them,"
6. From distracting fears, into the highest security and rest of thoughts for evermore. The fears of God’s people are either about their souls, or about their bodies; the fears they have about their souls are inexpressible. Two things especially exercise their fears about their soul. (1.) Whether they be really united to Christ. (2.) Whether they shall be able to continue and persevere in the ways of Christ to the end? They are afraid of their sincerity and of their stability: And these fears accompany many of God’s people from their regeneration to their dissolution. O, what would they not give, what would they not do, yea, what would they not endure to get a full satisfaction in those things! Every working of corruption, every discovery made by temptation, puts them into a fright, and makes them question all that ever was wrought in them.
And, as their fears are great about the inward man, so also about the outward man; especially when such bloody preparations seem to be making by the enemies that have acted such, and so many bloody tragedies already in the world.
But at death they enter into a perfect peace and security,
7. From deluding shadows, into substantial good. This world is
the world of shadows and delusive appearances. Here we are imposed
upon, and teamed by empty and deceitful vanities: All we have here
is little else but a dream; at death the soul awakes out of its
dream, and finds itself in the world of realities, where it feeds
upon substantial good to satisfaction,
Now the advantages accruing to the soul by death, being so great and many, though the medium be harsh and ungrateful in itself, yet there is all the reason in the world we should covet it, for the benefits that come by it.
Arg. 5. The foretastes we have had of heaven already in the body, should make all the saints long to be unembodied for the full and perfect fruition of that joy, seeing it cannot be fully and perfectly enjoyed by the soul, till it has put off the body by death.
That there are prelibations, first-fruits, and earnests of
future glory given at certain seasons to believers in this life, is
put beyond all doubting, not only by scripture testimonies, but
frequent experiences of God’s people. I speak not only with
the scripture, but with the clearest experience of many saints,
when I say, here are to be felt and tasted, even here in the body,
the earnests of our inheritance,
That the fullness of this joy cannot be in us while we
tabernacle in bodies of flesh, is as plain. When Moses desired a
sight of that face which the spirits of just men made perfect do
continually behold and adore, the answer was, "No man can see my
face and live,"
And it is not to be doubted, but one main end and reason why
these foretastes of heaven are given us in the body, is to embolden
the soul to venture through death itself for the full enjoyment of
those delights and pleasures. They are like the grapes of Eshcol to
the faint-hearted Israelites, or the sweet wines of Italy to the
Gauls, which, once tasted, made them restless till they’d
conquered that good country where they grew.
Well then, reflect seriously upon these sweet tastes that you have had of God and his love, in your sincere and secret addresses to him, and converses with him. What a holy forgetfulness of all things in this world has it wrought! How insipid and tasteless has it rendered the sweetest creature enjoyments! What willingness to be dissolved for a more full fruition of it! God this way brings heaven nigh to your souls, out of design to overcome your reluctancies at death, through which we must pass to the enjoyment of it. And after all those sights and tastes, both of the truth and goodness of that state, shall we still reluctate and hang back, as if we had never tasted how good the Lord is! O. you may justly question, whistler you ever had a real taste of Jesus Christ, if that taste do not kindle coals of fire in your bosoms; I mean, ardent longings to be with him, and to be satiated with his love.
If you have been privileged with a taste of that hidden manna, with the sight of things invisible, with joys unspeakable, and full of glory, and yet are loath to be gone to the fountain whence all this flows: certainly you herein both cross the design of the Spirit in giving them, and cast a vile disgrace and reproach upon the blessed God, as thinking there is more bitterness in death, than there is sweetness in his presence. Yea, it argues the strength of that unbelief which still remains in your hearts, that after so many tastes and trials as you have had, you still remain doubtful and hesitating about the certainty and reality of things invisible.
O, what ado has God with his froward and peevish children! If he had only revealed the future state to us in his word, as the pure object of faith, and required us to die upon the mere credit of his promise, without such pawns, pledges, and earnests as these are; were there not reason enough for it? But after such, and so many wonderful and amazing condescensions, wherein he does, as it were, say, Soul, if yet you doubt, I will bring heaven to you, you shall have it in your hand, your eyes shall see it, your hands shall handle it, your mouth shall taste it: How inexcusable is our reluctance?
Arg. 6. It should greatly fortify the people of God against the
fears of dissolution, to consider that death can neither destroy
the being of their souls by annihilation, nor the hopes and
expectations they have of blessedness, by disappointment and
frustration,
Though all earthly things fail at death (upon which account
dying is expressed by failing,
Arg. 7. It may greatly encourage and embolden the people of God to die, considering that though at death they take the last sight and view of all that is dear to them on earth; yet then tney are admitted to the first immediate sight and blessed vision of God, which wil be their happiness to all eternity.
When Hezakiah was upon his supposed deathbed, he complained,
It is the expectation and hope of this which comforts the souls
of the righteous here,
1. That it will not be such a sight of God as we now have by the
mediation of faith, but a direct, immediate, and intuitive vision
of God; (
Some may think such a vision of God to exceed the abilities of
nature, and capacities of any creature. But as a learned man
rightly observes, if the Divine Nature be capable of union
with a creature, as it is evident in the person of Christ, it is
also capable of being the object of vision to the creature. Beside,
we must know the light of glory has the same respect to this
blessed vision, that assisting grace has to the acts of faith and
obedience performed here on earth. It is a comforting, soul
strengthening light, not to dazzle and overpower, but to comfort,
strengthen, and clear the eye of the creature’s
understanding.
2. It will be a satisfying sight,
3. It will be an appropriating vision of God; you shall see him
as your own God, and proper portion; else it could never be a
satisfying vision,
4. It will be a deeply affecting sight: your eyes will now so
affect your hearts as they were never affected before. The first
view of God will snatch away your hearts to him, as a greater flame
does he less. Love will not now distil from the heart, as waters
from a cold still, but gush out as from a sluice or floodgate
pulled up. The soul will not move after God so deadly and slowly as
it does now, but be as the chariots of Amminadib,
5. It will be an everlasting vision of God,
Well then, if such sights as these immediately succeed the sight you have on earth, either by sense of things natural, or by reason of things intellectual, or by faith of things spiritual, who that believes the truth, and expects the fulfilling of such promises as these, would not be willing to have his eyes closed by death as soon as God shall please? I have read of a holy man that had sweet communion with God in prayer, who in the close of his duty cried out claudimini, oculi mei, claudimini, &c., O mine eyes, be shut; you shall never see any thing on earth like that I have now seen. Ah! little do the friends of dead believers think what visions of God, what ravishing sights of Christ the souls of their friends have, when they are closing their eyes with tears.
Arg. 8. The consideration of the evil days that are to come should make the people of God willing to accept of an hiding place in the grave, as a special favour from God.
It is accounted an act of favour by God,
And as there are many evils of sin to come, so there are many
evils of sufferings coming on: "The days of visitation are coming
on, the days of recompense are come, and Israel shall know it,"
The consideration of these things will discover to you the
reason of that strange lavish of Job, chap. xiv. 18. "Oh that thou
wouldst hide me in the grave; that thou wouldst keep me in secret
till thy wrath be past!" And it deserves a serious thought, that
when the Holy Ghost had, in
Arg. 9. Your fixed aversion and unwillingness to die, will provoke God to embitter your lives with much more afflictions than you have yet felt, or would feel, if your hearts were more mortified and weaned in this point.
You cannot think of your own deaths with pleasure, no, nor yet
with patience. Well, take heed, lest this draw down such trouble
upon you, as shall make you at last to say with Job, chap. x. 1.
"My soul is weary of my life;" an expression much like that,
There is a twofold weariness of life; one from an excellency of
spirit, a noble principle, the ardent love of Jesus Christ,
I am convinced that very many of our afflictions come upon this score and account, to make us willing to die.
Is it not sad that God is forced to bring death upon all our
comfortable and desirable things in this world, before he can gain
our consent to be gone? Why will you put God upon such work as
this? Why cannot he have your hearts at a cheaper rate? If you
could die, many of your comforts, for ought I know, might live. Had
Joab come to Absalom when he sent for him the first or second time,
Absalom had never set his field of barley on fire,
Alas! to cut off your comforts one after another, and make you live a groaning life, the Lord has no pleasure in it; but he had rather you should lose these things, than that he should lose your hearts on earth, or company in heaven: Impatiens aegrotus crudelem facit medicum.
Arg. 10. The decree of death cannot he reversed, nor is there
any other ordinary passage for the soul into glory, but through the
gates of death.
There is but one way to pass out of the obscure, suffocating
life in the womb, into the more free and nobler life in the world,
viz. through the agonies of birth: and there is ordinarily but one
way to pass from this sinning, groaning life we live in this world,
to the enjoyment of God and the glory above, viz. through the
agonies of death. You must cast off this mean, this vile body,
before you can be happy. Heaven cannot come down to you, you cannot
see God and live,
Arg. 11. When you find your hearts reluctant at the thoughts
of leaving the body, and the comforts of this world, then consider
how willingly and cheerfully Jesus Christ left heaven, and the
bosom of his Father, to come down to this world for your sakes,
O compare the frames of your hearts with his, in this point, and shame yourselves out of so unbecoming a temper of spirit.
(1.) He left heaven and all the delights and glory of it, to
come down to this world to be abased and humbled to the lowest; you
leave this world of sin and misery to ascend to heaven, to be
exalted to the highest. He came hither to be impoverished, you go
thither to be enriched,
(2.) He came from heaven to earth, to be made sin for us,
(3.) He came to take a body of flesh, to suffer and die in it,
(4.) As his incarnation was a deep abasement, so his death was
the most bitter death that ever was tasted by any from the
beginning, or ever shall be to the end of the world; and yet how
obediently does he submit to both at the Father’s call,
God forsook him when he hanged upon the tree in the agonies of
death,
Yet he regretted not, but went as a sheep or lamb,
Arg. 12. Lastly, Let no Christian be affrighted at death, considering that the death of Christ is the death of death, and has utterly disarmed it of all its destructive power.
If you tremble when you look upon death, yet you cannot but triumph when you look believingly upon Christ.
For, (1.) Christ died (O believer) for your sins,
(2.) The death of Christ, in your room, has utterly destroyed
the power of death, which once was in the hand of Satan,
(a.) Christ has assured us, that his victory over death shall be
complete in our persons. It is already a complete personal victory
in respect of himself,
O that these arguments might prevail! O that they might at last win the consent of our hearts to go along with death; which is the messenger sent by God to bring us home to our Father’s house.
But I doubt, when all is said, we are where we were: all this suffices not to overcome the regrets and reluctancies of nature; still the matter sticks in our minds, and we cannot conquer our disinclined wills in this matter. What is the matter? Where lies the rubs and hindrances? O that God would remove them at last!
Objection 1. This is a common plea with many, I am not ready and fit to die; were I ready, I should be willing to be gone.
Solution (1.) How long soever you live in the body, there will be somewhat still out of order, something still to do; for you must lie in a state of imperfection while you remain here, and according to this plea, you will never be willing to die. (a.) Your willingness to lie dissolved and to be with Christ, is one special part of your fitness for death: and till you attain it in some good measure, you are not so fit to die as you should be. (3.) If you be in Christ you have a fundamental fitness for death, though you may want some circumstantial preparatives. And as to all that is wanting in your sanctification or obedience now, it will be completed in a moment upon your dissolution.
Object. 2. Others plead that the desire they have to live, is
in order to God’s further service by them in this world. O.
say they, it was David’s happiness to die, when he had served
his generation according to the will of God:
Sol. (1.) God needs not your hands to carry on his service in the world; he can do it by other hands when you are gone. Many of greater gifts and graces than you, are daily laid in the grave, to teach you, God needs no man’s help to carry on his work.
(2.) If the service of God be so dear to you, there is higher and more excellent service for you in heaven, than any you ever were, or can be employed in here on earth. Oh! why do not you long to be amidst the company of angels and spirits made perfect in the templeservice in heaven?
Object. 3. O. but my relations in the world lie near my heart, what will become of them when I am gone?
Sol. (1.) It is pity they should lie nearer your heart than Jesus Christ: If they do, you have little reason to desire death indeed.
(2.) Who took care of you, when death snatched your dear
relations from you, who possibly felt the same workings of heart
that you now do? Did you not experience the truth of that word,
Object. 4. But I desire to live to see the felicity of Zion before I go hence, and the answer of the many prayers I have sown for it; I am loath to leave the people of God in so sad a condition.
Sol. The publicness of your spirit, and love to Zion, is
doubtless pleasing to God; hut it is better for you to be in heaven
one day, than to live over again all the days you have lived on
earth in the best time that ever the church of God enjoyed in this
world; the promises shall be accomplished, though you may not live
to see their accomplishment; die you in the faith of it, as Joseph
did,
But, alas! the matter does not stick here: this is not the main hindrance. I will tell you where I think it lies: (1.) In the hesitancy and staggering of our faith about the certainty and reality of things invisible. (2.) In some special guilt upon the conscience, which discourages us. (3.) In a negligent and careless course of life, which is not ordinarily blessed with much evidence or comfort. (4.) In the deep engagements of our hearts to earthly things: they could not be so cold to Christ, if they were not overheated with other things. Till these distempers be cured, no arguments can prosper that are spent to this end. The Lord dissolve all those ties between us and this world, which hinder our consent and willingness to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is far better.
And now we have had a glance and glimmering light, a faint umbrage of the state of the separated souls of the Just in heaven: it remains that I show you somewhat of the state and case of the damned souls in hell. A dreadful representation it is, but it is necessary we hear of hell, that we may not feel it.
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.
In the former discourse we have had a just view of heaven, and the spirits of just men made perfect, the inhabitants of that blessed region of light and glory.
In this scripture we have the contrary glass, representing the unspeakable misery of those souls or spirits which are separated by death from their bodies for a time, and by sin from God for ever; arrested by the law, and secured in the prison of hell, unto the judgment of the great day.
A sermon of hell may keep some souls out of hell, and a sermon of heaven may be the means to help others to heaven: the desire of my heart is, that the conversations of all those who shall read these discourses of heaven and hell, might look more like a diligent flight from the one, and pursuit of the other.
The scope of the context is a persuasive to patience, upon a prospect of manifold tribulations coming upon the Christian churches, strongly enforced by Christ’s example, who both in his own person, ver. 18. and by his spirit in his servants, ver. 19. exercised wonderful patience and long-suffering as a pattern to his people.
This 19th verse gives us an account of his long-suffering towards that disobedient and immorigerous generation of sinners, on whom he waited an hundred and twenty years in the ministry of Noah.
There are difficulties in the text. Estius reckons no less than ten expositions of it, and says, "It is a very difficult scripture in the judgment of almost all interpreters," but yet I must say, those difficulties are rather brought to it, than found in it. It is a text which has been racked and tortured by popish expositors, to make it speak Christ’s local descent into hell, and to confess their doctrine of purgatory; things which it knew not.
But if we will take its genuine sense, it only relates the sin and misery of those contumacious persons, on whom the Spirit of God waited so long in the ministry of Noah; giving an account of,
1. Their sin on earth.
2. Their punishment in hell.
1. Their sin on earth, which is both specified and aggravated. (1.) Specified; namely their disobedience. They were sometimes disobedient and unpersuadable; neither precepts nor examples could bring them to repentance. (2 ) This their disobedience is aggravated by the expense of God’s patience upon them for the pace of an hundred and twenty years, not only forbearing them so long, but striving with them, as Moses expresses it; or waiting on them, as the apostle here; but all to no purpose; they were obstinate, stubborn, and impersuadable to the very last.
2. Behold, therefore, in the next place, the dreadful, but most just and equal punishment of these sinners in hell; they are called spirits in prison, i. e. the souls now in hell.
At that time when Peter wrote of them, they were not entire men, but spirits, in the proper sense, i. e. separated souls, bodiless, and lonely souls: while in the bode, it is properly a soul; but when separated, a spirit, according to scripture language, and the strict notion of such a being.
These spirits, or souls in the state of separation, are said to
be in a prison, that is, in hell, as the word elsewhere
notes,
Thus you have, in a few words, the natural and genuine sense of the place, and it is but a wasting time to repeat and refer the many false and forced interpretations of this text, which corrupt minds, and mercenary pens have perplexed and darkened it withal: That which I level at, is comprised in this plain proportion.
Doct. That the souls or spirits of all men who die in a state of unbelief and disobedience, are immediately committed to the prison of hell, there to suffer the wrath of God due to their sins.
Hell is shadowed forth to us in scripture by divers metaphors;
"for we cannot conceive spiritual things, unless they are so
clothed and shadowed out unto us." Augustine gives this reason of
the frequent use of metaphors and allegories in scripture, be cause
they are so much proportioned to our senses, with which our senses
have contracted an intimacy and familiarity; and therefore God, to
accommodate his truth to our capacities, does as it were, this way
embody it in earthly expressions, according to that celebrated
observation of the Cabbalists,—Lumen supremum nunquam
descendit sine indumento;—the pure and supreme light
never descends to us without a garment or covering. In the Old
Testament, the place and state of damned souls are set forth by
metaphors taken from the most remarkable places and exemplary acts
of vengeance upon sinners in this world; as the overthrow of the
giants by the flood, those prodigious sinners that fought against
heaven, and were swept by the flood into the place of torment. To
this Solomon is conceived to allude, in
Sometimes hell is called Tophet,
In this valley also was the memorable slaughter of eighteen hundred thousand of the Assyrian camp, by an angel, in one night.
There, also, the Babylonians murdered the people of Jerusalem at
the taking of the city,
And in the text, it is called a prison, where the spirits of ungodly men are both detained and punished. This notion of a prison gives us a lively representation of the miserable state of damped souls, and that especially in the following particulars.
First, Prisoners are arrested and seized by authority of
law; it is the law which sends them thither, and keeps them there;
the mittimus of a justice is but the instrument of the law,
whereby they are deprived of liberty, and taken into custody. The
law of God which sinners have both violated and despised, at death
takes hold of them, and arrests them. It is the law which claps up
their spirits in prison, and in the name and authority of the great
and terrible God, commits them to hell. All that are out of Christ,
are under the curse and damping sentence of the law, which now
comes to be executed on them,
Secondly, Prisoners are carried, or haled to prison by
force and constraint; natural force backs legal authority: the law
is executed by rough and resolute bailiffs, who compel them to go,
though never so much against their will; this also is the case of
the wicked et death: Satan is God’s bailiff, to hurry away
the law-condemned souls to the infernal prison. The devil has the
power of death,
Thirdly, Prisoners are chained and bolted in prison, to
prevent their escape; so are dawned spirits secured by the power of
God, and chained by their own guilty and trembling consciences in
hell, unto the time of judgment, and the fullness of misery; not
that they no torment in the mean time: alas! were there no more but
that fearful expectation of wrath and fiery indignation, spoken of
by the apostle,
Fourthly. Prisons are dark and noisome places, not built
for pleasure, as other houses are, but for punishments, so is hell,
Jude, vs. 6. "Reserved in everlasting chains under darkness," as he
there describes the place of torments, yea, ouster darkness,
Fifthly, Mournful sighs and groans are heard in prisons,
Sixthly, There is a time when prisoners are brought out of the prison to be judged, and then return in a worse condition than before, to the place from whence they came. God also has appointed a day for the solemn condemnation of those spirits in prison. The scriptures call it "the judgment of the great day," Jude, ver. 6. from the great business that is to be done therein, and the great and solemn assembly that shall then appear before God.
But I will insist no longer upon the display of the metaphor; my business is to give you a representation of the state and condition of damned souls in hell, and to assist your conceptions of them, and of their state.
It is a dreadful sight I am to give you this day; lout how much better is it to see, than to feel that wrath? The treasures thereof shall shortly be broken up, and poured forth upon the spirits of men.
You had in the former discourse, a faint umbrage of the spirits of just men in glory; in this you will have an imperfect representation of the spirits of wicked men in hell: and look, as the former cannot be adequate and perfect, because that happiness surpasses our knowledge; so neither can this be so, because the misery of the damned passes our fear.
The case and state of a damned spirit will be best opened in these following propositions.
Proposition 1. That the guilt of all sin gathers to, and settles in the conscience of every christless sinner, and makes up a vast treasure of his life in this world.
The high and awful power of conscience belonging to the
understanding faculty in the soul of man, was spoken to before, as
to its general nature, and that conscience certainly accompanies
it, and is inseparable from it, was there showed; I am here to
consider it as the seat or centre of guilt, in all unregenerate and
lost souls. For, look, as the tides wash up, and leave the slime
and filth upon the shore, even so all the corruption and sin that
is in the other faculties of the soul settle upon the conscience;
"Their mind and conscience (says the apostle) is defiled,"
The conscience of every believer is purged from its filthiness
by the blood of Christ,
Conscience is not only the principal engagee, obliged unto God as a judge, but the principal director and guide of the soul, in its courses and actions, and consequently, the guilt of sin falls upon it, and rests in it. The soul is both the spring and fountain of all actions that go outward from man, and the term or receptacle of all actions inward; but in both sorts of actions, going outward, and coming inward, conscience is the chief counsellor, guide, and director in all, and so the guilt which is contracted either way, must be upon its head. It is the bridle of the soul to restrain it from sin; the eye of the soul to direct its course; and therefore is principally chargeable with all the evils of life. Bodily members are but instruments, and the will itself, as high and noble a faculty or power as it is, moves not until the judgment comes to a conclusion, and the debate be ended in the mind.
Now, in the whole course and compass of a sinner’s life in
this world, what treasures of guilt must needs be lodged in his
conscience? What a magazine of sin and filth must be laid up there?
It is said of a wicked man,
Prop. 2. All the sin and guilt, contracted upon the souls arid consciences of impenitent men in this world, accompany and follow their departed souls to judgement, and there bring them under the dreadful condemnation of the great and terrible God, which cuts off all their hopes and comforts for ever.
"If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins."
Now, before that general judgment, every soul comes to its
particular judgment, and that immediately after death: of this I
apprehend the apostle to speak in
This perishing, or cutting off of hope, is that which is called in scripture the death of the soul, for so long the soul will live, as it has any hope. The deferring of hope makes it sick, but the final cutting off of hope strikes it quite dead, i.e. dead as to all joy, comfort, or expectation of any for ever, which is that death which an immortal soul is capable to suffer. The righteous hath hope in his death; but every unregenerate man in the world breathes out his last hope in a few moments after his last breath, which strikes terror into the very centre of the soul, and is a death-wound to it.
Prop. 3. The souls of the damned are exceedingly large and capacious subjects of wrath and torment; and in their separate state their capacity of greatly enlarged, both by laying asleep all those affections whose exercise is relieving, and thoroughly awakening all those passions which are tormenting.
The soul of man being by nature a spirit, an intelligent spirit,
and, in its substantial faculties, assimilated to God, whose image
it bears; it must, for that reason, by exquisitely sensible of all
the impressions and touches of the wrath of God upon it. The spirit
of man is most tender, sensible, and apprehensive creature: the eye
of the body is not so sensible of a touch, a nerve of the body is
not so sensible when pricked, as the spirit of man is of the least
touch of God’s indignation upon it. "A wounded spirit who can
bear?"
And as the spirit of man has the most delicate and exquisite sense of misery; so it has a vast capacity of receive, and let in the fullness of anguish and misery into it. It can drink up, as one speaks, all the rivers of created good, and its thirst not quenched by such a draught; but after all, it cries, Give, give. Nothing but an infinite God can quiet and satisfy its appetive and raging thirst.
And as it is capable and receptive of more good than is found in all the creatures, so it is capable of more misery and anguish than all the creatures can inflict upon it. Let all the elements, all need on earth, yea, all the devils and damned in hell, conspire and unite in a design to torment man; yet when they have done all, his spirit is capable of a farther degree of torment; a torment as much beyond it, as a rack is beyond a hard bed, or the sword in his bowels is beyond the scratch of a pin. The devils indeed are the executioners and tormentors of the damned; but if that there all they revere capable to suffer, the torment of the damned would be, comparatively, mild and gentle to what they are. Oh, the largeness of the understanding of man, what will it not take into its vast capacity!
But add to this, that the damned souls have all those affections laid in a deep and everlasting sleep, the exercises whereof would be relieving, by ~ emptying their souls of any part of their misery; and all those passions thoroughly and everlastingly awakened, which increase their torments.
The affections of joy, delight, and hope, are benumbed in them, and laid fast asleep, never to be awakened into act any more. Their hope, in scripture, is said to perish, i. e. it so perishes, that, after death, it shall never exert another act to all eternity. The activity of any of those affections would be like a cooling gale, or refreshing spring, amidst their torments; but as Adrian lamented himself, Numquam jocos dabis, You shall never be merry more.
And as these affections are laid asleep, so their passions are roused, and thoroughly awakened to torment them; so awakened, as never to sleep any more. The souls of men are sometimes jagged and startled in this world, by the works or rods of God, but presently they sleep again, and forget all: but hereafter the eves of their souls will be continually held waking to behold and consider their misery; their understandings will be clear and most apprehensive; their thoughts fixed and determined; their consciences active and efficacious; and, by all this, their capacity to take in the fullest of their misery, enlarged to the uttermost.
Prop. 4. The wrath, indignation, and revenge of God poured out as the just reward of sin, upon the so capacious souls of the dammed, are the principal part of their misery in hell.
In the third proposition I showed you, that the souls of the
damned can hold more misery than all the creatures can inflict upon
them. When the soul suffers from the hand of man, its sufferings
are but either by way of sympathy with the body; or if immediately,
yet it is but a light stroke the hand of a creature can give: But
when it has to do with a sin-revenging God, and that immediately,
this stroke cuts off the spirit of man, as it is expressed,
And, as if anger and wrath were not worth of a sufficient edge
and sharpness, it is called fiery indignation and vengeance, words
denoting the most intense degree of divine wrath. For indeed his
power is to be glorified in the destruction of his enemies, and
therefore now he will do it to purpose. He takes them now into his
own hands. No creature can come at the soul immediately, that is
God’s prerogative, and now he has to do with it himself in
fury, and revenge is poured out. "Can your hands be strong, or your
heart endure when I shall deal with you?"
What doleful cries and lamenting have we heard from God’s clearest children, when but some few drops of his anger have been sprinkled upon their souls, here in this world! But alas! there is no comparison between the anger or fatherly discipline of God over the spirits of his children, and the indignation poured out from the beginning of revenges upon his enemies.
Prop. 5. The separate spirit of a damned man becomes a tormentor to itself by the various and efficacious actings of its own conscience, which are a special part of its torment in the other world.
Conscience, which should have been the sinner’s curb on earth, becomes the whip that must lash his soul in hell. Neither is there any faculty or power belonging to the soul of man, so fit and able to do it as his own conscience. That which was the seat and centre of all guilt, now becomes the seat and centre of all torments. The suspension of its tormenting power in this world is a mystery and wonder to all that duly consider it. For certainly should the Lord let a sinner’s conscience fly upon him with rage, in the midst of his sins and pleasures, it would put him into a hell upon earth, as we see in the doleful instances of Judas, Spira, etc. But he keeps a hand of restraint upon them, generally, in this life, and suffers them to sleep quietly by a grumbling or seared conscience, which couches by them as a sleepy lion, and lets them alone.
But no sooner is the Christless soul turned out of the body, and cast for eternity at the tear of God, but conscience is roused, and put into a rage never to be appeased any more. It now racks and tortures the miserable soul with its utmost efficacy and activity. The mere presages and foreboding of wrath by the consciences of sinners in this world have made them lie with a ghastly paleness in their faces, universal trembling in all their members, a cold sweating horror upon their panting bosoms like men already in hell: But this, all this, is but as the sweating of the stones before the great rain falls. The activities of conscience (especially in hell) are various, vigorous, and dreadful to consider, such are its recognitions, accusations, condemnations, upbraidings, shamings, and fearful expectations.
1. The consciences of the damned will recognise, and bring back
the sin committed in this world fresh to their mind: For what is
conscience, but a register, or book of records, wherein every sin
is ranked in its proper place and order! This act of conscience is
fundamental to all its other acts: for it cannot accuse, condemn,
upbraid, or shame us for that it has lost out of its memory, and
has no sense of. Son, remember, said Abraham to
Dives, in the midst of his torments. This remembrance of sins past,
mercies past, opportunities past, but especially of hope past and
gone with them, never to be recovered any more, is like that fire
not blown, (of which Zophar speaks) which consumes him, or the
glittering sword coming out of his gall,
2. It charges and accuses the damned soul; and its charges are
home, positive, and self-evident charges. A thousand legal and
unexceptionable witnesses cannot confirm any point more than one
witness in a man’s bosom can do,
3. It condemns as well as charges and witnesses, and that with a
dreadful sentence; backing end approving the sentence and judgement
of God,
- - - - Prima est haec ultio, quod se
Judice, nemo nocens absolvitur, improba quamvis
Gratio fallacis praetoris vicerit urnam.
Juv. Sat. 13.
4. The upbraidings of conscience in hell are terrible and
insufferable things: To be continually hit in the teeth and twitted
with our madness, wilfulness, and obstinacy, as the cause of all
that eternal misery which we have pulled down upon our own heads,
what is it but the rubbing of the wound with salt and vinegar? Of
this torment holy Job was afraid, and therefore resolved what in
him lay to prevent it, when he says,
5. The shamings of conscience are insufferable torments. Shame
arises from the turpitude of discovered actions. If some
men’s secret filthinesses were but published in this world,
it would confound them: what then will it be, when all shall lie
open, as it will, after this life, and their own consciences shall
cast the shame of all upon them? They shall not only be derided by
God,
Lastly, the fearful expectations of conscience, still looking forward into more and more wrath to come, this is the very sum and complement of their misery. What makes a prison so dreadful to a malefactor but the trembling expectation he there lives under of the approaching assizes? Much after the same rate, or rather after the rate of condemned persons preparing for execution, do these spirits in prison live in the other world. But alas! no instance or similitude can reach home to their case.
Prop. 6. That which makes the torments and terrors of the damned spirits so extreme and terrible, is, that they are unrelievable miseries, and torments for ever.
They are not capable either of,
1. A partial relief, by any mitigation, or
2. A complete relief by a final cessation.
1. Not of a partial relief by any mitigation; could they but divert their thoughts from their misery, as they were wont to do in this world, drink and forget their sorrows; or had they but any hope of the abatement of their misery, it would be a relief to them. But both these are impossible. Their thoughts are fixed and determined: to remove them (though but for a moment) from their misery, is as impossible as to remove a mountain. Their sin and misery is ever before them. As the blessed in heaven are bono confirmati, so fixed and settled in blessedness, that they are not diverted one moment from beholding the blessed face of God, for they are ever with the Lord: So the damned in hell are malo obfirmati, so settled and fixed in the midst of all evil, that their thoughts and miseries are inseparable for ever.
2. Much less can their undone state admit the least hope of relief by a final cessation of their misery. All hope perishes from them, and the perishing of their hope is the plainest proof that can be given of the eternity of their misery. For were there but the remotest possibility of deliverance at last, hope would hang upon that possibility: And while hope lives, the soul is not quite dead. The death of hope is the death of a man’s spirit. The cutting off of the soul from God, and the last act of hope to see or enjoy him for ever, is that death which an immortal soul is capable of suffering. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," is that sentence which strikes hope and soul dead for ever. In these six propositions you have the true and terrible representation of the spirits in prison, or the state of dammed souls. I have not mentioned their association with devils, or the dismal place of their confinement, which, though they complete their misery, yet are not the principal parts of it, but rather accessories to it, or rivers running into the ocean of their misery. The sum of their misery lies in what was opened before, and the improvement of it is in that which follows.
Infer. 1. Is this the state of ungodly souls after death? Then it follows, that neither death nor annihilation are the worst of evils incident to man. Aristotle calls death the most terrible of all terribles, and the schoolmen affirm annihilation to be a greater evil than the most miserable being: But it is neither so, nor so; the wrath of God, the worm of conscience, are much more bitter than death. The pains of death are natural and bodily pains: The wrath of God and anguish of conscience are spiritual and inward: Those are but the pains of a few hours or days, these are the unrelieved torments of eternity.
And as for annihilation, what a favour would the damned account
it! Indeed, if we respect the glory of God’s justice, which
is exemplified and illustrated in the ruin of these miserable
souls, it is better they should abide as the eternal monuments
thereof, than not to be at all: but with respect to themselves we
may say as Christ does of the son of perdition,
Inf. 2. Hence it follows, thatthe pleasures of sin are dear bought, and costly pleasures. There is a greater disproportion between that pleasure and this wrath, than between a drop of honey and a sea of gall. Could a man distil all the imaginary pleasure of sin, and drink nothing else but the highest and most refined delights of it all his life, though his life should be protracted to the term of Methuselah’s; yet one day or night under the wrath of God would make it a dear bargain. But,
1. It is certain sin has no such pleasures to give you: They are
embittered either by adverse strokes of providence from without, or
painful and dreadful gripes and twinges of conscience within;
2. It is certain the time of a sinner is near its period when he is at the height of his pleasure in sin: For look, as high delights in God speak the maturity of a soul for heaven, and it will not be long, before such be in heaven; so the heights of delight in sin, answerably speak the maturity of such a soul for hell, and it will not be long ere it be there. Sin is now a big embryo, and speedily the soul travails with death.
3. According to the measure of delights men have had in sin,
will be the degrees and measures of their torments in hell,
4. To conclude, "the pleasures of sin are but for a season", as
you read,
Inf. 3. What a matchless madness is it to cast the soul into God’s prison, to save the body out of man’s prison!
Men have their prisons, and God has his: But because the one is
an object of sense, and the other an object of faith, that only is
feared, and this slighted all over this unbelieving world, except
by a very small number of men, who tremble at the word of God. Now
this I say is the height of madness, and will appear to be so in a
just collation of both in a few particulars. (1.) Man’s
prison restrains the body only, God’s prison soul and body,
Compare these few obvious particulars, and judge then what is to be thought of that man, who stands readier to cast himself into any guilt, than into the least suffering. What is it but as if a man should over his neck to the sword, to save his hand? The Lord convince us what trifles our estates, liberties, and lives are to our souls, or to the peace and purity of our consciences.
Inf. 4. What an invaluable mercy is the pardon of sin,
which sets the soul out of all danger of going into this
prison!. When the debt is satisfied, a man may walk as boldly
before the prison door as he does before his own: They that owe
nothing fear no bailiffs. It is the law (as I said before) that
commits men to prison, a mittimus is but all instrument of
law; but the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them that
believe,
1. It is a free pardon to your soul; though it cost Christ dear,
it costs you nothing. We have redemption, even "the remission, of
sins, according to the riches of his grace,"
2. It is as full as it is free; a complete and perfect cause
produces a complete and perfect erect,
S. It must be as firm as it is free and full, even an
irrevocable pardon for evermore. Christ did not shed his blood at a
hazard; the way of justification by faith, makes the promise sure,
Oh the unspeakable joy that flows from this spring! Oh the triumphs of faith upon this foundation!
Is it not ravishing, melting, overwhelming, and amazing, to
think thus with yourself! Here sit I with a joyful plenary free
pardon of sin in my hand, while many, who never sinned to that
height and degree I have, lie groaning, howling, sweating, and
trembling under the indignation of God, poured out like fire upon
their souls in hell. A greater sinner saved, and lesser damned. Oh
how unspeakably sweet is that rest into which my terrified and
disquieted soul is come by faith!
Here is the law, the wrath of God, and everlasting burnings, the just demerit of sin upon one side, and a poor sinful creature on the other. But the covenant of grace has solved all. An act of oblivion is past in heaven, "I will forgive their iniquities, and their sins and transgressions will I remember no more." In this act of grace my soul is included; I am in Christ, and there is no condemnation. Die I must, but damned I shall not be. My debts are paid, my bonds are cancelled, my conscience is quieted: let death do its worst, it shall do me no harm; that blood which satisfied God, may well satisfy me.
Infer. 5. How amazingly sad and deplorable is the security and stillness of the consciences of sinners, under all their own guilt, and the immediate danger of God’s everlasting wrath!
Philosophers observe that before an earthquake the wind lies, and the weather is exceeding calm and still, not a breath of wind going. So it is in the consciences of many, just before the tempest and storm of God’s wrath pours down upon them. What a golden morning opened upon Sodom, and began that fatal day! Little did they imagine showers of fire had been ready to fall from so pleasant and serene a sky as they saw over their heads. How secure, still, and unconcerned are those today, who it may be shall rage, roar, and tremble in hell tomorrow! Caesar hearing of a citizen of Rome who was deep in debt, and yet slept soundly, would needs have his pillow, as supposing there was some strange, charming virtue in it.
It is wonderful to consider what shifts men make to keep their consciences in that stillness and quiet they do, under such loads of guilt, and threatenings of wrath, ready to be executed upon them. It must be strong opium that so stupefies and benumbs their consciences; and upon inquiry into the matter we shall find it to be the effect of,
1. A strong delusion of Satan
2. A spiritual judicial stroke of God.
1. This stillness of conscience, upon the brink of damnation,
proceeds from the strong delusions of Satan, blinding their eyes,
and feeding their false hopes: He removes the evil day at many
years imaginary distance from them, and interposes many a fair day
between them and it, and in that interposed season, time enough to
prepare for it; without such an artifice as this, his house would
be in an uproar, but this keeps all in peace,
2. This stillness of conscience, in so miserable and dangerous
state, is the effect of a spiritual, judicial stroke of God upon
the children of wrath. That is a dreadful word,
Infer. 6. The case of distressed consciences upon earth is exceeding sad, and calls upon all for the tenderest pity, and utmost help from men.
You see the labouring of conscience, under the sense of guilt and wrath, is a special part of the torments of hell, of which there is not a livelier emblem or picture, than the distresses of conscience in this world.
It must be thankfully confessed there are two great differences between the terrors of conscience here, and there: One, in the degrees of anguish, the other, in the reliefs of that anguish. The ordinary distresses of conscience here, compared with those of the damned, are as the flame of a candle to a fiery oven, a mild and gentle fire; or as the sparks that fly out of the top of a chimney, to the dreadful eruption of Vesuvius, or mount Etna. Besides, these are capable of relief, but those are unrelievable. Their hearts die, because their hope is perished from the Lord.
But yet of all the miseries and distresses incident to men in
this world, none like those of distressed consciences; the terrors
of God set themselves in array, or are drawn up in battalia against
the soul,
All that can be done for their relief, is by seasonable, judicious, and tender applications of spiritual remedies. And what can be done, ought to be done for them. What heart can hear a voice like that of Job, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God has touched me; and not melt into compassion over them? Is there a word of wisdom in your heart, let your tongue apply it to the relief of your distressed brother. While his heart meditates terror, let your meditate his succour. It is not impossible but you, who lend a friendly hand to another, may, ere long, need one yourself; and he that has ever felt the terrors of the Almighty upon his soul, has motive enough to draw forth the bowels of his pity to another in the like case.
Alas for poor distressed souls, who have either none about them that understand, and are able and willing to speak a word in season to their weary souls, or too many about them to exasperate their sorrows, and persecute them whom God has smitten. You that have both ability and opportunity for it, are under the strongest engagements in the world to endeavour their relief with all faithfulness, seriousness, compassion, and constancy. Did Christ shed his blood for the saving of souls, and wilt not you spend your breath for them? Shall any man that has found mercy from God, show none to his brother? God forbid. A soul in hell is out of your reach; but these that are in the suburbs of hell are not. The candle of intense sorrow is put to the thread of their miserable life; and should they be suffered to drop into hell, while you stand by as unconcerned spectators of such a tragedy, you will have little peace. Your unmercifulness to their souls will be a wound to your own.
Inf. 7. Be hence informed of the evil that is in sin; be convinced of the evil that is in it, by the eternal misery that follows it.
If hell be out of measure dreadful, then sin must be out of
measure sinful: the torments of hell do not exceed the demerit of
sin, though they exceed the understandings of men to conceive them.
God will lay upon no man more than is right. Sin is the founder of
hell; all the miseries and torments there, are but the treasures of
wrath which sinners, in all ages, have been treasuring up; and how
dreadful soever it be, it is the ‘
οψωνια, the recompense which is meet,
We have slight thoughts of sin. Fools make a mock of sin.
But if the Lord by the convictions of men’s consciences did
but lead them through the chambers of death, and give them a sight
of the wrath to come; could we but see the piles that are made in
hell (as the prophet calls them,
Cannot the extremity and eternity of hell torments exceed the evil that is in sin? What words then can express the evil of it? Hell flames have the nature of a punishment, but not of an atonement.
O think on this, you that look upon sin as the veriest trifle, that will sin for the value of a penny, that look upon all the humiliations, broken-hearted confessions, and bitter moans of the saints under sin, as frenzy, or melancholy, slighting them as a company of half-witted hypochondriac persons! You that never had one sick night, or sad day in all your life upon the account of sin, let me tell you that breast of you must be the seat of sorrow; that frothy, airy spirit of you must be acquainted with emphatical sobs and groans. God grant it may be on this side hell, by effectual repentance; else it must be there, in the extremity and eternity of sorrows.
Inf. 8. What enemies are they to the souls of men, who are Satan’s instruments, to draw them into sin, or who suffer sin to lie upon them!
When there were but two persons in the world, one drew the other
into sin; and among the millions of men and women now in the world,
where are there two to be found that have in no case been snares to
draw some into sin? Some tempt designedly, taking the devil’s
work out of his hands; others virtually and consequentially, by
examples, which have a compelling power to draw others with them
into sin. The first sort are among the worst of sinners,
Among wicked men, there are five sorts eminently accessory to the guilt and ruin of other men’s souls. (1.) Loose professors, whose lives give their lips the lie; whose conversations make their professions blush. (2.) Scandalous apostates, whose fall is more prejudicial than their profession was ever beneficial to others. (3.) Cruel persecutors, who make the lives, liberties, and estates of men the occasion of the ruin of their consciences. (4.) Ignorant and unfaithful ministers, who strengthen the hands of the wicked, that they should not return from their wickedness. (5.) Wicked relations, who quench and damp every hopeful beginning of conviction and affection in their friends. Of all which I shall distinctly speak in the next discourse, to which, therefore, I remit it at present.
And many there are who suffer sin to lie upon others, without a wise and seasonable reproof to recover them.
O what cruelty to souls is here! The day is coming when they will curse the time that ever they knew you. It is possible you may repent, but then, it may be, those, whose souls you have helped to ruin, are gone, and quite out of your reach. The Lord make you sensible what you have done in season, lest your repentance come too late for yourselves and them also.
Inf. 9. How poor a comfort is it to him that carries all his sins out of this world with him, to leave much earthly treasure (especially if gotten by sin) behind him?
It is a poor consolation to be praised where you are not, and tormented where you are; to purchase a life of pleasure to others on earth, at the price of your own everlasting misery in hell. All the consolation, sensua1, voluptuous, and oppressing worldlings have, is but this, that they were coached to hell in pomp and state, and have left the same chariot to bring their graceless children after them, in the same equipage, to the place of torments. There be five considerations provoking pity to them that are thus cast into a miserable eternity, and caution to all that are following after, in the same path.
First, That fatal mistake in the practical understanding
and judgement of men deserves a compassionate lamentation, as the
cause and reason of their eternal miscarriage and ruin. They looked
upon trifles as things of greatest necessity, and the most
necessary things as mere trifles; putting the greatest weight and
value upon that which little concerned them, and none at all upon
their greatest concernment in the whole world,
Secondly, The perpetual diversions that the trifles of
this world gave them from the main use and end of their time. O
what a hurry and thick succession of earthly business and
encumbrances filled up their days! So that they could find no time
to go alone, and think of the awful and weighty concernments of the
world to come,
Thirdly, The total waste and expense of the only season
of salvation, about these vanishing, impertinent trifles, which is
never more to be recovered,
Fourthly, That these deluding shadows, the pleasures of a
moment are all they had in exchange for their souls, a goodly price
it was valued at,
Fifthly, That by such a life they have not only ruined
their own souls, but put their posterity, by their education of
them in the same course of life, into the same path of destruction,
in which they went to hell before them.
Inf. 10. How rational and commendable is the courage and resolution of those Christians who choose to bear all the sufferings in this world from the hands of men, rather than to defile and wound their consciences with sin, and thereby expose their souls to the wrath of God for ever!
That which men now call pride, humour, fancy, and stubbornness, will, one day, appear to be their great wisdom, and the excellency of their spirits. It is the tenderness of their consciences, not the pride and stoutness of their stomachs, which makes them inflexible to sin; they know the terrors of a wounded conscience, and had rather endure any other trouble from the hands of men, than fall by known sin into the hands of an angry God. Try them in other matters wherein the glory of God, and the peace or purity of their consciences are not concerned, and see if you can charge them with stubbornness and singularity, it was the excellency of the spirits of the primitive Christians, that they durst tell the emperor to his face, when he threatened them with torments; "Pardon us, O emperor, you threaten us with a prison, but God with hell." Do we call that ingenuity and good nature which makes the mind soft and tractable to temptations, and will rather venture upon guilt than be esteemed singular?
Salvian tells us of some in his time, who were compelled to "be evil, lest they should not be accounted vile". And was that their excellence? May I not fitly apply the words of Salvian here: "O in what honour and repute is Christ among Christians, when religion shall make them base and ignoble!" He that understands what the punishment of sin will be in hell, should endure all things rather than yield to sin on earth. Indeed, if you that threaten and tempt others to violate their consciences, could bear the wrath of God for them in hell, it were somewhat; but we know there is no suffering by a proxy here; they tremble at the word of God, and have felt the burden of guilt, and dare not yield to sin, though they yield their estates and bodies to prevent it.
Inf. 11. How patiently should we endure the afflictions of this life, by which sin is prevented and purged?
The discipline of our spirits belong to God the Father of
spirits. He corrects us here that we may not be punished hereafter,
Your chastisements, when sanctified, are preventive of all the misery opened before. It is therefore as unreasonable to murmur against God, because you smart under his rod, as it would be to accuse your dearest friend of cruelty, because he strained your arm to snatch you from the fall of a house or wall, which he saw ready to crush and overwhelm you in its ruins.
If we had less affliction, we should have more guilt. We see how apt we are to break over the hedge, and to go astray from God, with all the clogs of affliction designed for our restraint; what should we do if we had no clog at all? It is better for you to be whipped to heaven with all the rods of affliction, than coached to hell with all the pleasures of the world.
Christian, your God sees, if you do not, that all these troubles
are few enough to save you from sin and hell. Your corruptions
require all these, and all little enough. "If need be, you are in
heaviness",
Inf. 12. How doleful a charge does the death of wicked men make upon them! From palaces on earth to the prison of hell.
No sooner has the soul of a wicked man steeped out of his own
door at death, but the sergeants of hell are immediately upon it,
serving the dreadful summons on the law-condemned wretch. This
arrest terrifies it more than the handwriting upon the plaster of
the wall did him,
How quickly would all a sinner’s mirth be damped, and turned into howlings in this world, if conscience were but thoroughly awakened! It is but for God to change our apprehensions now and it would be done in a moment: but the eyes of most men’s souls are not opened till death has shut their bodily eyes; and then how sudden, and how sad a change is made in one day!
O think what it is to pass from all the pleasures and delights of this world into the torments and miseries of that world; from a pleasant habitation into an infernal prison; from the depth of security to the extremity of desperation; from the arms and bosoms of dearest friends and relations, to the society of damned spirits! Lord, what a change is here; had a gracious change been made upon their hearts by grace, no such doleful change could have been made upon their state by death: little do their surviving friends think what they feel, or what is their estate in the other world while they are honouring their bodies with splendid and pompous funerals. None on earth have so much reason to fear death, to make much of life, and use all means to continue it, as those who will and must be so great losers by the exchange.
Inf. 13. See here the certainly, and inevitableness of the judgement of the great day.
This prison which is continually filling with the spirits of
wicked men is an undeniable evidence of it: for why is hell called:
prison, and why are the spirits of men confined and chained there
but with respect to the judgement of the great day? As there is a
necessary connection between sin and punishment, so between
punishing and trying the offender; there are millions of souls in
custody, a world of spirits in prison; these must be brought forth
to their trial, for God will lay upon no man more than is right;
the legality of their mittimus to hell will be evidenced in
their solemn day of trial. God has therefore "appointed a day in
which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he
has ordained,"
Here sinners run in arrears, and contract vast debts; in hell
they are seized and committed, at judgment tried and cast for the
same. This will be a dreadful day, those that have spent so
prodigally upon the patience of God, must now come to a severe
account for all; they have past their particular judgment
immediately after death,
Inf. 14. How much are ministers, parents, and all to whom the charge of souls is committed, bound to do all that in them lies to prevent their everlasting misery in the world to come!
The great apostle of the Gentiles found the consideration of the
terror of the Lord as a spur urging and enforcing him to a
ministerial faithfulness and diligence;
Oh! consider, my brethren, if your faithful plainness and unwearied diligence to save men’s souls produce no other fruit but the hatred of you now; yet it is much easier for you to bear that, than that they and you too should bear the wrath of God for ever.
We have all of us personal guilt enough upon us, let us not add other men’s guilt to our account: to be guilty of the blood of the meanest man upon earth, is a sin which will cry in your consciences; but to be guilty of the blood of souls, Lord, who can bear it! Christ thought them worthy his heart-blood, and are they not worth the expense of our breath? Did he sweat blood to save them, and will not we move our lips to save them? It is certainly a sore judgment to the souls of men, when such ministers are set over them as never understood the value of their people’s souls, or were never heartily concerned about the salvation of their own souls.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Difficult duties need to be enforced with powerful arguments. In the 24th verse of this chapter, our Lord presses upon his disciples the deepest and hardest duties of self denial, acquaints them upon what terms they must be admitted into his service: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me."
This hard and difficult duty he enforces upon them by a double argument, viz. From,
1. The vanity of all sinful shifts from it, ver. 25.
2. The value of their souls, which is imported in it, ver. 26.
They may shift off their duty to the loss of their souls, or save their souls by the loss of such trifles. If they esteem their souls above the world, and can be content to put all other things to the hazard for their salvation, making account to save nothing but them by Christianity; then they come up to Christ’s terms, and may warrantably and boldly call him their Lord and Master; and to sweeten this choice to them, he does, in my text, balance the soul and all the world, weighing them one against the other, and shows them the infinite odds and disproportion between them: "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?,’
What is a man profited? There is a plain meiosis in the phrase and the meaning is, how inestimably and irreparably is a man damnified! what a soul ruining bargain would a man make!
If he should gain the whole world. There is a plain hyperbole in this phrase; for it never was, nor ever will be the lot of any man to be the sole owner and possessor of the whole world. But suppose all the power, pleasure, wealth, and honour of the whole world were bid and offered in exchange for a man’s soul; what a dear purchase would it be at such a rate! "What were this, says one, but to win Venice, and then be handed at the gate of it?" As that man acts like a mad man, that goes about to purchase a treasure of gold with the loss of his life; for life being lost, what is all the gold in the world to him? He can have no enjoyment of it, or comfort in it: so here, what is all the world, or as many worlds as there are creatures in its when the soul is lost, if he gain this?
And lose his own soul. The comparison lies here between one single soul and the whole world. The whole world is no price for the poorest, meanest, and most despised soul that lives in it.
By losing the soul, we are not to understand the destruction of its being, but of its happiness and comfort, the cutting it off from God, and all the hopes of his favour and enjoyment for ever. This is the loss here intended, a loss never to be repaired. The whole world can be no recompense for the loss to the soul, if it be but the loss of its purity or peace for a time; much less can it recompense the loss of the soul, in the loss of all its happiness for ever. When a man’s chief happiness is finally lost, then is his soul lost: for what benefit can it be, no, how great a misery must it be, to have a being perpetuated in torments for ever? This is the fine or mulct which is set upon sin, as some render the word. What shall a man gain by such pleasures, for which God will mulct, or fine him at the rate or price of his own soul? That is, of all the happiness, joy and comfort of it to all eternity.
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? The question aggravates the sense, and amplifies the loss and damage of the man that sells his soul for the whole world. There is no recompense in all the world for the hazard or danger of the soul one hour; nor would a man that understands what a soul and eternity are, put them into danger for ten thousand worlds, much less for one penny, yea, for nothing, as many do: but to barter or exchange it for the world, to take any thing in lieu of it; this is the height of madness. "The way of buying in former times was not by money, but by the exchange of one commodity for another;" and to this custom Brugensis thinks this phrase is allusive. Now, what commodity is found in all the world; or who, that is not blinded by the god of this world, can think that the whole world itself, if all the rocks in it revere rocks of diamonds, and the seas and rivers were liquid gold, is a commodity of equivalent worth to his own soul? Hence two notes arise naturally.
Doct. 1. That one soul is of more value than the whole world.
Doct. 2. How precious and invaluable soever the soul of man is, it may be lost and cast away for ever.
I begin with the first.
Doct. 1. That one soul is of more value than the whole world.
I need not spend much time in the proof of it, when you have considered, that he who bought them, has here weighed and valued them; and that the point before us is the result and conclusion of one that has the best reason to know the true worth of them. That which I have to do is to gather out of the scriptures the particulars; which, put together, make up the full demonstration of the point, And,
1. The invaluable worth of souls appears from the manner of
their creation. They were created immediately by God, as has been
proved, and that not without the deliberation of the whole Trinity;
And by the way, this may smartly check the pride and arrogance of souls, who dare take it upon them to teach God, as murmurs at his disposals of us. Shall that soul which is the product of his wisdom and counsel, dare to instruct or counsel its maker? But that by the by. You see there is a transcendent dignity and worth in the soul of man above all other beings in the world, by the peculiar way of its production into the number of created beings: no wise man deliberates long, or calls a council about ordinary matters, much less the All-wise God.
2. The soul has in itself an intrinsic worth and excellency, worthy of that divine Original whence it sprang: view it in its noble faculties, and durable powers, and it will appear to be a creature upon which God has laid out the riches of his wisdom and power.
There you shall find a mind susceptive of all light, both natural and spiritual, shining as the candle of God in the inner man, closing with truth, as the iron does with the attractive loadstone; a shop in which all arts and sciences are laboured and formed: what are all the famous libraries and monuments of learning, but so many systems of thoughts, laboured and perfected in the active inquisitive minds of men? Truth is its natural and delectable object; it pursues eagerly after it, and even spends itself and the body too in the chase and prosecution of truth; when it lies deep, as a subterranean treasure, the mind sends out innumerable thoughts, reinforcing each other in thick successions, to dig for, and compass that invaluable treasure, if it be disguised by misrepresentations and vulgar prejudice, and trampled in the dirt under that disguise, there is an ability in the mind to discern it by some lines and features, which are all well known to it, and both own, honour, and vindicate it under all that dirt and obloquy, with more respect than a man will take up a piece of gold, or a sparkling diamond out of the mire: it searches after it by many painful deductions of reason and triumphs more in the discovery of it, than in all earthly treasures; no gratification of sense like that of the mind, when it grasps its prey for which it hunted.
The mind passes through all the works of creation, it views the several creatures on earth, considers the fabric, use, and beauty of animals, the signatures of plants, penetrating thereby into their nature and virtues: it views the vast ocean, and the large train of causes laid together in all these things for the good of man, by God, whose name it reads in the most diminutive creature it beholds on earth.
It can, in a moment, mount itself from earth to heaven, view the face thereof, describe the motions of the sun in the ecliptic, calculate tables for the motions of the planets and fixed stars, invent convenient cycles for the computation of time, foretell, at a great distance, the dismal eclipses of the sun and moon to the very digit, and the portentous conjunctions of the planets, to the very minute of their ingress. These are the pleasant employments of the understanding.
But there is a higher game at which this eagle plays; it reckons itself all this while employed as much beneath its capacity, as Domitian in catching flies; though these be lawful and pleasant exercises, when it has leisure for them, yet it is fitted for a much nobler exercise, even to penetrate the glorious mysteries of redemption, to trace redeeming love through all the astonishing methods, and manifold discoveries of it; and yet higher than all this, it is capable of an immediate sight, or facial vision of the blessed God; short of which it receives no pleasure that is fully agreeable to its noble power and infinite appetite.
View its will, and you shall find it like a queen upon the throne of the soul, swaying the sceptre of liberty in her hand, (as one expresses it) with all the affections waiting and attending upon her. No tyrant can force it, no torment can wrest the golden sceptre of liberty out of its hand; the keys of all the chambers of the soul hang at its girdle, these it delivers to Christ in the day of his power; victorious grace sweetly determines it by gaining its consent, but commits no violence upon it. God accepts its offering;, though full of imperfections; but no service is accepted without it, how excellent soever be the matter of it.
View the conscience and thoughts with their self-reflective abilities, wherein the soul retires into itself, and sits concealed from all eyes but his that made it, judging its own actions, and censuring its estate; viewing its face in its own glass, and correcting the indecencies it discovers there: things of greatest moment and importance are silently transacted in its council-chamber between the soul and God; so remote from the knowledge of all creatures, that neither angels, devils, nor men, can know what is doing, there, but by uncertain guess, or revelation from God. Here it impleads, condemns it, and acquits itself as at a privy session, with respect to the judgment of the great day: here it meets with the latest of comforts, and with the worst of terrors.
Take a survey of its passions and affections, and you will find them admirable: see how they are placed by divine Wisdom in the soul, some for defence and safety, others for delight and pleasure. Anger actuates the spirits, and rouses its courage, enabling it to break through difficulties. Fear keeps centinel, watching upon all dangers that approach us: Hope forestalls the good, and anticipates the joys of the next life, and thereby supports and strengthens the soul under all the discouragements and pressures of the present life: Love unites us to the chiefest good: "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him:" Zeal is the dagger which love draws in Gods cause and quarrel, to secure itself from sin, and testify its resentments of God’s dishonour.
O what a divine spark is the soul of man! well might Christ prefer it in dignity to the whole world.
3. The worth of a soul may be gathered and discerned from its
subjective capacity and inability both of grace and glory. It is
capable of all the graces of the Spirit, of being filled with the
fullness of God,
No other soul besides man’s is marriageable to Christ, or
capable of espousals to the King of glory: they were not designed,
and therefore not endued with a capacity for such an honour as
this: but such a capacity has every soul, even the meanest on
earth, and such honour have all his saints: others may be, but they
are betrothed to Christ in this world,
It is now a lovely and excellent creature in its naked, natural state; much more beautiful and excellent in its sanctified and gracious state: but what shall we say, or how shall we conceive of it, when all spots of sin are perfectly washed of its beautiful face in heaven, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon it! when its filthy garments are taken away, and the pure robes of perfect holiness, as well as righteousness, super-induced upon this excellent creature! If the imperfect beauty of it, begun in sanctification, enamoured its Saviour, and made him say, "You have ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one of the chains of thy neck;" what will its beauty, and his delight in it be in the state of perfect glorification! As we imagine the circles in the heavens to be vastly greater than those we view upon the globe, so must we imagine in the case before us.
4. The preparations God makes for souls in heaven, speak their great worth and value. When you lift up your eyes to heaven, and behold that spangled azure canopy beset and inlaid with so many golden studs and sparkling gems, you see but the floor or pavement of that place which God has prepared for some souls. He furnished this world for us before he put us into it; but, as delightful and beautiful as it is, it is no more to be compared with the Father’s house in heaven, than the smallest ruined chapel your eyes ever beheld, is to be compared with Solomon’s temple, when it stood in all its shining glory.
When you see a stately and magnificent structure built, richest hangings and furniture prepared to adorn it, you conclude some great persons are to come thither: such preparations speak the quality of the guests.
Now heaven, yea, the heaven of heavens, the palace of the great
King, the presence-chamber of the Godhead, is prepared, not only by
God’s decree and Christ’s death; but by his ascension
thither in our nnames, and as our forerunner, for all renewed and
redeemed souls.
And, where is the place prepared for them, but in his
Father’s house? The same place, the very same house where the
Father, Son, and Spirit themselves do dwell: such is the love of
Christ to souls, that he will not dwell in one house, and they in
another; but, as he speaks,
5. The great price with which they revere redeemed and
purchased, speaks their dignity and value. No wise man will
purchase a trifle at a great price, much less the most wise God.
Now the redemption of every soul stood in no less than the most
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Now, who can compute the value of that blood? Such was the worth of the blood of Christ, which, by the communication of properties, is truly styled the blood of God, that one drop of it is above the estimations of men and angels; and yet, before the soul of the meanest man or woman in the world could be redeemed, every drop of his blood must be shed; for no less than his death could be a price for our souls. Hence then we evidently discern an invaluable worth in souls: a whole kingdom is taxed, when a king is to be ransomed; the delight and darling of God’s soul must die, when our souls are to be redeemed. O the worth of souls!
6. This evidences the transcendent dignity and worth of souls, that eternity is stamped upon their actions, and theirs only, of all the beings in this world. The acts of souls are immortal as their nature is; whereas the actions of other animals, having neither moral goodness nor moral evil in them, pass away as their beings do.
The apostle therefore, in
Our actions are considerable two ways, physically and morally;
in the first sense they are transient, in the last permanent; a
word is past as soon as spoken, but yet it must and will be
recalled and brought into the judgment of the great day,
7. The contentions of both worlds, the strife of heaven and hell about the soul of man, speaks it a most precious and invaluable treasure.
The soul of man is the prize about which heaven and hell contend: the great design of heaven is to save it, and all the plots of hell to ruin it. Man is a borderer between both kingdoms, he lives here upon the confines of the spiritual and material world; and therefore Scaliger fitly calls him Utriusque mundi nexus, one in whom both worlds meet: his body is of the earth, earthly; his soul the offspring of the Deity, heavenly. It is then no wonder to find such tugging and pulling, this way and that way, upward and downward, such sallies from heaven to rescue and save it, such excursions from hell to captivate and ruin it.
The infinite wisdom of God has laid the plot and design for its
salvation by Christ in so great depth of counsel, that the angels
of heaven are astonished at it, and desire to pry into it. Christ
in pursuance of this eternal project, came from heaven professedly
to seer; and to save lost souls,
Hell employs all its skill and policy, sets a-work all wiles and
stratagems to destroy and ruin it;
Επλα ωολεις δειριζουσι περι ριζαν Ομηχου
Σμυρια, Ροδοσ, Κολοφων, Σαλαμιν, Χιος, Αργοσ, Αθηναι
Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chius, Argos, and Athens, were all at strife about one poor man, who should crown themselves with the honour of his birth: but when heaven and hell shall contend about a soul, certainly it much more speaks the dignity of it, than the contention of several cities for one Homer.
What are all the wooings, expostulations, and passionate beseechings of Christ’s ministers? What are all the convictions of conscience, and the strong impressions made upon the affections? What are all the strokes from heaven upon men in the way of sin? I say, what are all these but the efforts of heaven to draw souls out of the snares of hell?
And what are the hellish temptations that men feel in their hearts, the alluring objects presented to their eyes, the ensnaring examples that are set round about them, but the attempts of Satan, if possible, to draw the souls of men into the same condemnation and misery with himself?
Would heaven and hell be up in arms, as it were, and strive at this rate for nothing? Your soul, O man, how vilely soever you depreciate and slight it, is of high esteem, a rich purchase, a creature of nobler rank than you are aware of. The wise merchant knows the value of gold and diamonds, though ignorant Indians would part with them for glass beads and tinsel toys. And this leads us to
3. The eighth evidence of the invaluable worth of souls, which is the joy in heaven, and the rage in hell, for the gain and loss of the soul of man.
Christ, who came from heaven, and well knew the frame and
disposition of the inhabitants of that city, tells us, that "there
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that
repenteth,"
We never read that Christ laughed in all his time on earth; but
we read that he once rejoiced in spirit,
And as there is joy in heaven for the saving, so certainly there is grief and rage in hell for the loss of a soul. No sooner had God, by Paul’s ministry, converted one poor Lydia, at Philippi, whither he was called by an immediate express from heaven for that service, but the devil put all the city into an uproar, as if an enemy had landed on their coast; and raised a violent persecution, which quickly drove him thence, Acts phi. 9, 14, 22.
And indeed what are all the fierce and cruel persecutions of God’s faithful ministers, but so many efforts of the rage and malice of hell against them, for plucking souls as so many captives and preys out of his paws? for this he owes them a spight, and will be sure to pay them, if ever he get them at an advantage. But all this joy and grief demonstrates the high and great value of the prize which is won by heaven and lost by hell.
9. The institution of gospel-ordinances, and the appointment of so many gospel officers purposely for the saving of souls, is no small evidence of their value and esteem.
No man would light and maintain a lamp fed with golden oil, and
keep it burning from age to age, if the work to be done by the
light of it were not of a very precious and important nature: what
else are the dispensations of the gospel, but loops burning with
golden oil to light souls to heaven?
Now all this respects the soul of man; that is the object of all ministerial labours. The soul is the terminus actionum ad intra, the subject on which God works, and upon which he spends all those invaluable treasures. It is the soul which he aims at, and principally designs and levels all to, and reckons it not too dear a rate to save it at.
No man will dig for common stones with golden mattocks, the
instruments that would be worn out being of far greater value than
the thing. This may convince us of what worth our souls are, and at
what rates they are set in God’s book, that such instruments
are sent abroad into the world, and such precious gifts and graces,
like golden oil, spent continually for their salvation; "Whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, all are yours,"
10. The great encouragements and rewards God propounds and promises to them that win souls, speak their worth, and God’s great esteem of them.
There cannot be a more acceptable service done to God, than for
a man to set himself heartily and diligently to the conversion of
souls; so many souls as a man instrumentally saves, so many diadems
will God crown him with in the great day. St. Paul calls his
converted Philippians his joy and his crown,
You see what honour God puts upon the very instruments employed
in this work, even the honour to be saviours, under God, of
men’s souls,
And the more to quicken his instruments to all diligence, in
this great work, he works upon their fears as well as hopes;
threatens them with hell, as well as encourages them with the hopes
of heaven; tells them he will require the blood of all those souls
that perish by their negligence: "Their blood (says he) will I
require at the watchman’s hands,"
11. It is no small evidence of the precious and invaluable worth of souls, that God manifests so great and tender care over them, and is so much concerned about the evil that befalls them.
Among many others there are two things in which the tender care of God, for the good of souls, is manifested.
(1.) In his tenderness over them in times of distress and
danger; as a tender father will not leave his sick child in other
hands, but sits up and watches by himself, and administers the
cordials with his own hands; even so the great God expresses his
care and tenderness.
(2.) His special regard to souls is evidenced in his severe
prohibitions to all others to do any thing that may be an occasion
of ruin to them. He charges it upon all, "That no man put a
stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall in his brother’s
way,"
12. Lastly, It is not the least evidence of the dignity of men’s souls, that God has appointed the whole host of angels to be their guardians and attendants.
"Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for
them who shal1 be heirs of salvation?"
Are they not? It is not a doubtful question, but the strongest way of affirmation; nothing is surer than that they are.
All. Not one of that heavenly company excepted. The highest angel thinks it no disparagement to serve a soul for whom Christ died; well may they all stoop to serve them when they see Christ their Lord has stooped, even to death, to save them. They are all of them.
Ministering spirits. Λαετουργικα πνευμαια, public officers, to whom their tutelage is committed. To them it belongs to attend, serve, protect and relieve them. The greatest barons and peers in the kingdom think it not below them to wait upon the heir apparent to the crown, in his minority; and no less dignity is here stamped by God upon the souls of men whom he calls.
Heirs of salvation. And in some respect nearer to Christ
than themselves are; on this account it is, that the angels delight
to serve them. Christ’s little ones upon earth have their
angels, which always behold the face of God in heaven,
The same two offices which belong to a nurse, to whom the father commits his child, belong also to the angels in heaven, with respect to the children of God, viz. to keep them tenderly while they are abroad, and bring them home to their Father’s house at last. And how clearly does all this evince and demonstrate the great dignity and value of souls? Was it an argument of the grandeur and magnificence of king Solomon, that he had two hundred men with targets, and three hundred men with shields of beaten gold for his ordinary guard every day? And is it not a mark of far greater dignity than ever Solomon had in all his glory, to have hosts of angels attending us? In comparison with one of this guard, Solomon himself was but a worm in all his magnificence.
And now lay all these arguments together, and see what they will amount to. You have before you no ordinary creature: For (1.) It was not produced, as other creatures were by a mere word of command; but by the deliberation of the great council of heaven. And (2.) Such are the high and noble faculties and powers found in it as render it agreeable to, and becoming such a Divine original. Yea, (3.) By reason of these its admirable powers, it becomes a capable subject both of grace here and glory hereafter. (4.) Nor is this its capacity in vain; for God has made glorious preparations for some of them in heaven. (5.) And purchased them for heaven, and heaven for them, at an invaluable price, even the precious blood of Christ. (6.) And stamps immortality upon their actions, as well as natures. (7.) Both worlds contend and strive for the soul, as a prize of greatest value. (8.) Their conversion to Christ is the triumph of heaven, and rage of hell. (9.) The lamps of gospel-ordinances are maintained over all the reformed Christian world, to light them in their passage to heaven. (10.) Great rewards are propounded to all that shall heartily endeavour the salvation of them. (11.) The care of heaven is exceeding great and tender over them. And (12.) the heavenly hosts of angels have the charge of them, and reckon it their honour to serve them. These things, duly weighed, bring home the conclusion with demonstrative clearness, to every man’s understanding, That one soul is of more value than the whole world; which was the thing to be proved. What remains, is the improvement of this excellent subject, in these following inferences.
Inf. 1. The soul of man, appearing to be a creature of such transcendent dignity and excellency, this truth appears of equal clearness with it; That it was not made for the body, but the body for it; and therefore it is a vile abuse of the noble and high-born soul, to subject it to the lusts, and enslave it to the drudgery of the inferior and mere ignoble part.
The very law of nature assigns the mast honourable places and
employments, to the most noble and excellent creatures, and the
baser and inferior, to things of the lowest rank and quality. The
sun, moon and stars are placed by this lair in the heavens; but the
ignis fatuus, and the glow worm in the fens and ditches.
Princes are set upon thrones of glory, the beggars lodged in barns
and stables: and if at any time this order of nature is inverted,
and the baser suppress and perk over the noble and honourable
beings, it is looked upon as a kind of prodigy, in the civil world.
And so Solomon represents it,
Now there can never be that difference and vast odds between one
man and another, as there is between the soul and body of. every
man. A king upon the throne is not so much above a beggar that
cries at our door for a crust, an the soul is above the body; for
the soul of a beggar is of the sane species, original, and capacity
of happiness, with the soul of the most illustrious prince; and
sometimes greater excellencies of mind are found in the lowest rank
and order of men. "Better is a poor and wise child, than an old,
and foolish king,"
It was a generous resentment that a Heathen had of the dignity of his own soul, and a very just abhorrence of so vile an abuse of it, when he said, I am greater, and born to greater things, than that I should be a slave to my body.
I know there is a debt of duty the soul owes to its own body,
and few souls are to be found too careless, or dilatory in the
discharge thereof; where one soul needs the spur in this case,
thousands need the curb. Most souls are overheated with zeal for
the concerns of the flesh, worn out and spent in its constant
drudgery, their whole life is but a serving of divers lusts and
pleasures, as the apostle speaks,
O what a perpetual hurry and noise do thousands of souls live in! so that they have no time to retire into themselves, and think for what end and use they were created and sent into this world. All their thoughts, all their cares, all their studies and labours, are taken up about the perishing, clogging, ensnaring body, which must so shortly fall a prey to the worms. How many millions of poor creatures are there that labour and toil all their life long, for a poor, bare maintenance of their bodies, and never think they have any other business to do in this world!
And how many, of an higher rank, are charmed by a thick
succession of fleshly delights and pleasures, into a deep oblivion
of their eternal concerns! So that their whole life is but one
entire diversion from the great business and proper end of it.
Inf. 2. Is the soul so invaluably precious? Then the salvation of the soul is to be the great care, and business of every man in this life.
Where one thought is spent about this question, What shall I eat, drink, and put on? a thousand should be spent about that question, "What shall I do to be saved! If a treasure of ten, or twenty thousand pounds were committed to your trust and charge, and for which (in case of loss) you must be responsible, would not your thoughts, cares, and fears, be working night and day about it, till you are satisfied it is safe and out of danger? And then your mind would be at rest, but not before. Your soul, O man, is more worth than the crowns and treasures of all the princes in the world! If all their exchequers were drained, and all their crown-jewels sold to their full value, they could never make up a half ransom for the soul of the poorest and meanest man. This invaluable treasure is committed to your charge; if it be lost, you are lost for ever. That which St. Matthew calls the losing of the soul in my text, St. Luke calls losing himself; if the soul be lost, the man is lost. The body is but as a boat fastened to the stern of a stately ship, if the ship sink, the boat follows it.
O. therefore, what thoughts, what fears, what cares should exercise the minds of men, day and night, till their precious souls are out of all danger: Methinks the sound of this text should ring a perpetual alarm in the ears of careless sinners, and make them hasten to the insurance-office, as merchants do, who have great adventures in danger at sea. It was counsel given once to a king, and worthy to be pressed upon all, from the king to the beggar, to ruminate these words of Christ one quarter of an hour every day; "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Certainly it would make men slacken their pace and cool themselves in their hot and earnest pursuit of the trifles of this world, and convince them, that they have somewhat else to do of far greater importance.
It was not without great and weighty reason, therefore, that the apostle Peter exhorts to all diligence to make our calling and election sure, 2 Pet. i. 10. There are two words in this text of extra ordinary weight, Ξπουδασατε, Give all diligence; the word is study; the utmost intention of the mind, pondering and comparing things in the thoughts, valuing reasons for, and objections against the point before us, this is study; and such as calls for all diligence where the subject matter is (as to be sure here it is) of the greatest importance: And what is the subject matter of all this study and diligence? Why, it is the most solemn of all works that ever came under the hand of man, to make our calling and election sure, firm, stable, or fixed, as a building raised upon a square and strong foundation; or as a conclusion is sure, when regularly drawn from certain and indubitable premises. There can never be too much care, too much study or pains about that which can never be too well secured.
Many souls never spent one solemn hour in a close and serious debate about this matter; others have taken a great deal of pains about it; they have broken many nights sleep, poured out many prayers, made many a deep search into their own hearts, walked with much conscientious watchfulness and tenderness, proposed many a serious case of conscience to the most judicious and skilful ministers and Christians; and after all, the security is not such as fully satisfies. And probably one reason of it may be the great weight wherewith the matters of their salvation lie upon their spirits. O that these soul concerns did bear upon all, as they do upon some! It requires more time, more thoughts, more prayers to make these things sure, than most are aware of.
Inf. 3. If the soul be so precious, then certainly it is the special care of heaven, that which God looks more particularly after, than any other creature or earth.
There is an active, vigilant providence that superintends every creature upon earth; there is not the most despicable, diminutive creature that lives in the world, left without the line of providence. God is therefore said to give them all their meat in due season, and for that end they all wait upon him, Psal. civ, who, as a great and provident house keeper orders daily, convenient provisions for all his family, even to the least and lowest among them: The smallest insects and gnats which swarm so thick in the air, and of the usefulness of almost being it is hard to give an account; yet as the incomparably learned Dr. More well observes, these all find nourishment in the world, which would be lost if they did not, and are again convenient nourishment themselves to others that prey upon them.
But man is the peculiar, special care of God; and the soul of man much more than the body. Hence Christ fortifies the faith of Christians against all distrusts of Divine Providence, even from their excellency above other creatures.
Hear how his compassionate tenderness is expressed towards
distressed souls.
Sooner shall a woman, the more tender sex, forget, (not the nurse child, that only sucks her breast, but) the child, yea, the son of her womb, and that not when grown and placed abroad, but while it hangs upon her breast, and draws love from her hearts as well as milk from her breast, than God will forget a soul that fears him. Let gracious souls fortify their faith, therefore, in the Divine care, by considering with what a peculiar eye of estimation and care God looks upon them above all other creatures in the world: only beware you so eye not the natural or spiritual excellencies of your souls, as to expect mercy for the sake thereof, as if your souls were worthy for whose sake God should do this: no, she non-suited that plea; all is of free grace, not of debt: but he minds us to what reputation the new creation brings the soul with its God.
Inf. 4. If the soul of man be so precious, how precious and dear to all believers should the Redeemer and Saviour of their precious souls be?
"Unto you therefore that believe, he is precious," says the
apostle,
There is a twofold preciousness of Christ, one in respect of his
essential excellency and glory; in this respect he is glorious, as
the only begotten Son of God, the brightness of his Father’s
glory, and the express image or character of his person,
Inf. 5. How great a trust and charge lies upon them to whom the care of souls is committed, and from whom an account for other men’s, as well as their own souls shall certainly be required?
Ministers are appointed of God to watch for the souls of their
people, and that as men that must give an account,
"God purchased the church with his own blood: O what an argument is here to quicken the negligent! And what an argument to condemn those that will not be quickened up to their duty by it! O, says one of the ancient doctors, if Christ had but committed to my keeping one spoonful of his blood in a fragile glass, how curiously should I preserve it, and how tender should I be of that glass! If then he have committed to me the purchase of that blood, should I not carefully look to my charge?"
"What, sirs, shall we despise the blood of Christ? shall we think it was shed for them that are not worthy our care? O then let us hear those arguments of Christ, whenever we feel ourselves grow dull and careless. Did I die for them, and will you not look after them? Were they worth my blood, and are they not worth your labour? Did I come down from heaven to earth, to seek and to save that which is lost, and wilt not you go to the next door, or street, or village, to seek them? How small is your labour or condescension to mine? I debased myself to this, hut it is your honour to be so employed."
Let not that man think to be saved by the blood of Christ himself that makes light of precious souls, who are the purchase of that blood.
And no less charge lies upon parents, to whom God has committed
the care of their children’s souls; and masters that have the
guardianship of the souls as well as the bodies of their families;
the command is laid express upon you, that they sanctify
God’s sabbaths,
O parents, consider with yourselves what strong engagements lie upon you to do all you are capable of doing for the salvation of the precious souls of your dear children. Remember, their souls are of infinitely more value than their bodies; that they came into the world under sin and condemnation; that you were the instruments of propagating that sin to them, and bringing them into that misery; that you know their dispositions, and how to suit them better than others can; that the bonds of nature give you singular advantages to prevail and be successful in your exhortations, beyond what any others have; that you are always with them, and can choose opportunities which others cannot; that you and they must shortly part, and never meet again till you meet at the judgment seat of Christ; that it will be an inconceivably dreadful day to see them stand at Christ’s left hand among the cursed and condemned, there cursing the day that ever they were born of such ignorant and negligent, such careless and cruel parents, as took no care to instruct, reprove, or exhort them. O who can think without horror of the cries and curses of his own child in hell, cast away by the very instrument of his being!
Is this the love you bear them, to betray them to eternal misery? Was there no other provision to be made but for their bodies? Did you think you had fully acquitted your duty when you had got an estate for them? O, that God would effectually touch your hearts with a becoming sense of the value and danger of their souls and your own too, in the neglect of that great and solemn trust committed to you with respect to them! And you, masters, consider, though God has set you above, and your servants below, yet are their souls equally precious with your own: they have another Master that expects service from them as well as you. Do not only allow them time, but give them your exhortations and commands not to neglect their own souls, while they attend your business: think not your business will prosper the less because it is in the hand of a praying servant: their souls are of greater concernment than any business of yours can be.
Inf. 6. Are soup so precious? Then certainly the means and instruments of their salvation must be exceeding precious too, and the removal of them a sore judgement.
The dignity of the subject gives value to the instruments
employed about it. It is no ordinary mercy for souls to come into
such a part of the world, and in such a time as furnishes them with
the best helps for salvation. Ordinances and ministers receive
their value not from their Author, but from their Object: they have
a dignity stumbled upon them by their usefulness to the souls of
men,
It cannot therefore but be a sore judgment, and a dreadful token
of God’s indignation and wrath, to have a restraint or
scarcity of the means of salvation among us; but should there be
(which God in mercy prevent) a removal and total loss of those
things, wrath would then come upon us to the uttermost. What will
the condition of precious souls be when the means of salvation are
cut off from them? When that famine, worse than of bread and water,
is come upon them?
Matthew Paris tells us, in the year 1072, when preaching was
suppressed at Rome, letters were franked as coming from hell,
wherein the devil gave them thanks for the multitude of souls sent
to him that year. But we need no letters from hell, we have a sad
account from heaven, in what a sad state those souls are left, from
whom the means of salvation are cut off: "Where no vision is, the
people perish,"
It is sad when those stars that guide souls to Christ, (as that which the wise men saw did) are set, and wandering stars shall shine in their places. O if God remove the golden candlestick out of its place, what but the desolation and ruin of millions of souls must follow?
We account it insufferable cruelty for a man to undertake the piloting of a ship full of passengers who never learnt his compass; or an ignorant Empiric to get his living by killing men’s bodies; but much more lamentable will the state of souls be if ever they fall, (which God in mercy prevent) into the hands of Popish guides, or blind leaders of the blind.
Inf. 7. If the soul be of so precious a rapture, it can never live upon such base and vile food as earthly things are.
The apostle, Phil. iii 8, 9. calls the things of this world
dog’s meat; and judge if that be proper food for such
noble and high-born creatures as our souls are. An immaterial being
can never live upon material things; they are no bread for souls,
as the prophet speaks,
1. They are not suitable. What are corn and wine, gold and
silver, pleasures and honours, to the soul? The body, and bodily
senses, can find somewhat of refreshment in them; but not the
spirit: That which is bread to the body, affords no more
nourishment to the soul than wind or ashes,
2. As earthy things are no way suitable to the soul, so neither are they durable. The apostle reduces all earthly things to three heads, "the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life," 2 John ii. 16. He calls them all by the name of that which gives the lustre and beauty to them, and pronounces them all fading, transitory vanities, they all pass away; as time, so these things that are measured by time, are in fluxu continuo, always going, and at last will be all gone. Now the soul being of an immortal nature, and these things of a perishing nature; it must necessarily and unavoidably follow, that the soul must over-live them all; and if it will do so, what a dismal case are those souls in, for whom no other provision is role, but that of which it cannot subsist, while it has them, no more than the body can upon ashes or wind? And if it could, yet they will shortly fall it, and pass away for ever. So then it is beyond debate, that there lies a plain necessity upon every snag to make provision in time, of things more suitable and durable than earthly treasures are, or the soul must perish, as to its comfort, to all eternity.
Hence is that weighty counsel of him that came to save them,
Alas! what are all these things to the soul? They signify somewhat, indeed, to the body, and that but for a little time: for after the resurrection, the bodies of the saints become spiritual in qualities, and no more need these material things than the angels do: It is madness therefore, to be so intent upon cares for the body, as to neglect the soul; but to ruin the soul, and drown it in perdition, for the sake of these provisions for the flesh, is the height of madness.
Inf. 8. If the soul be so invaluably precious, then it is a rational and well advised resolution and practice, to expose all other things to hazard, yea, to certain loss, for the preservation of the more precious soul.
It is better our bodies and all their comforts should perish,
than that our souls should perish for their sakes. Nature teaches
us to offer a hand or arm to the stroke of a sword, to save a blow
from the head, or put by a thrust at the heart. It is recorded, to
the praise of those three worthies,
Then do we live like Christians, when the care of our bodies is swallowed up, and subdued by that of our souls, and all creature-loves by the love of Christ. Those blessed souls hated their own bodies, and counted them their enemies, when they would draw them from Christ and his truths, and plunge their souls into guilt and danger. This was the result of all their delegates with the flesh in the hour of temptation; cannot we live but to the dishonour of Christ, and the ruin of our own souls, by sinful compliance against our consciences? Then welcome the worst of deaths, rather than such a life!
Look into the stories of the martyrs, and you shall find this was the rule they still governed themselves by; a dungeon, a stake, a gibbet, any thing, rather than guilt upon the inner man: death was welcome, even in its most dreadful form, to escape ruin to their precious and immortal souls. One kissed the apparitor, that bolt him the tidings of death. Another being advised, when he came to the critical point, on which his life depended, to have a care of himself: So I will, said he, I will be as careful as I can of my best self, my soul. These men understood the value and precious worth of their own souls; certainly, we shall never prove courageous and constant in sufferings, till we understand the worth of our souls as they did. Consider and conspire these sufferings in a few obvious particulars, and then determine the matter in your own breast.
(1.) How much easier it is to endure the torments of men in our
bodies, than to feel the terrors of God in our consciences. Can the
creature strike with an arm like God? Oh! think what it is for the
wrath of God to cone into a man’s bowels like water, and like
oil into his bones, as the expression is,
(2.) The sufferings of the body are but for a moment. When the proconsul told Polycarp that he would tame him with fire, he replied, Your fire shall burn but for the space of an hour, and then it shall he extinguished; but the fire that shall devour the wicked will never quenched. The sufferings of a moment are nothing to eternal strips.
(3.) Sufferings for Christ are usually sweetened and made easy by the consultations of the Spirit; but hell-torments have no relief; they admit of no ease.
(4.) The life that you shall live in that body, for whose sake you leave damned your souls, will not be worth the having; it will be a life without comfort, light, or joy; and what is there in life, separate from the joy and comfort of life?
(5.) In a word, if you sacrifice your bodies for God and your souls, freely offer them up in love to Christ and his truth, your souls will joyfully receive and meet them again at the resurrection of the just; but if your poor souls be now ensnared and destroyed by your fond indulgence to your bodies, you will leave them at death despairing, and meet them at the resurrection howling.
Inf. 9. To conclude, If the soul be so invaluably precious, how great and irreparable loss must the loss of a soul to all eternity be!
There is a double loss of the soul of man, the one in Adam, which loss is recoverable by Christ; the other by final impenitence and unbelief, cutting it off from Christ; and this is irreparable anal irrecoverable. Souls lost by Adam’s sin, are within the reach of the arms of Christ; but in the shipwreck of personal infidelity, there is no plank to save the soul so cast away; of all losses, this is the most lamentable, yet what more common: O what a shriek does the unregenerate soul make, when it sees whither it must go, and that there is no remedy! Three cries are dreadful to hear on earth, yet all three are drowned, by a more terrible cry in the other world; the cry of a condemned prisoner at the bar, the cry of drowned seamen and passengers in a shipwreck. the cries of soldiers conquered in the field; all these are fearful cries, yet nothing to that of a soul cast away to all eternity, and lost in the depth of hell.
If a man, as Chrysostom well observes, lose an eye, an arm, a hand, or leg, it is a great loss; but yet if one be lost, there is another to help him: for omnia Deus dedit duplicia, God has given us all those members double; Animal vero unam, but we have but one soul, and if that be damned, there is not another to he saved.
And it is no small aggravation to this loss, that it was a wilful loss; we had the offers, and means of salvation plentifully afforded us; we were warned of this danger, over and over; we were entreated, and beseeched, upon the knee of importunity, not to throw away our souls, by an obstinate rejection of Christ, and grace; we saw the diligence and care of others for the salvation of their souls, some rejoicing in the comfortable assurance of it, and others giving all difference to make their calling and election sure: we knew that our souls were as capable of blessedness, as any of those that are enjoying God in heaven, or panting after that enjoyment on earth; yea, some souls that are now irrecoverably gone, and many others who are going after them, once were, and now are not far from the kingdom of God; they had convictions of sin, a sense of their loss, and miserable state; they began to treat with Christ in prayer, to converse with his ministers and people, about their condition, and after all this, even when they seemed to have clean escaped the snares of Satan, to be again entangled, and overcome; when even come to the harbour’s mouth, to be driven back again, and cast away upon the rocks. O what a loss will this be!
O thou that created souls with a capacity to know, love, and enjoy thee for ever; who out of thy unsearchable grace sent thine own Son out of thine bosom to seek and save that which was lost, pity those poor souls that cannot pity themselves: let mercy yet interpose itself between them and eternal ruin, awaken them out of their pleasant slumber, though it be at the brink of damnation, lest they perish, and there be none to deliver them.
Doct. 2. How precious and invaluable soever the soul of man is, it may be lost, and cast away for ever.
This proposition is supposed, and implied in our Saviour’s
words in the text, and plainly expressed in
And though some nations enjoy the inestimable privilege of the
gospel of salvation, yet multitudes of precious souls perish,
notwithstanding, sinking into hell daily, as it were, between the
merciful arms of a Saviour stretched out to save them. The light of
salvation is risen upon us, but Satan draws the thick curtains of
ignorance, and prejudice about the multitude, that not a beam of
saving light can shine into their hearts.
If our gospel. Ours, not by way of institution, as the authors, but by way of dispensation, as the ministers and preachers of it; and certainly, it was never preached with that clearness, authority, and efficacy by any mere man, as it was by Paul and the rest of the apostles; and yet the gospel so powerfully preached, is by him here supposed to
Be hid.] If not as to the general light and superficial knowledge of it, set as to its saving influence and converting efficacy upon their hearts: this never reaches home to the souls and spirits of multitudes that hear it, but it is never finally so hidden, except
To them that are lost. So that all those to whom the converting and saving power of the gospel never comes, whatever names, and reputations they may have among men, yet this text looks upon them all as a lost generation: They may have as many amiable, homiletic virtues, as sweet and lovely natures, as clear and piercing eyes, in all other things, as any others; but they are such, however,
Whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded. Satan is
here called the god of this world, not properly, hut by a mimesis;
because he challenges to himself the honour of a god, and has a
world of subjects that obey him; and, to secure their obedience, he
blinds them, that they may never see a better way or state, than
that he has drawn them into. Therefore he is called the ruler of
the darkness of this world, who rules in the hearts of the children
of disobedience. The eye of the soul is the mind, that thinking,
considering, and reasoning power of the soul; this is, as the
philosophers truly call it, the τοηγεμονιον, the leading faculty to all the rest, the guide to
all the other faculties, which, in the order of nature, follow this
their leader: If this be blinded, the wild, which is caeca
potentia, a blind power in itself, and all affections
blindly following the blind, all must needs fall into the ditch.
And this is the case of the far greater part of even the professing
world. Let us suppose a number of blind men upon an island, where
there are many smooth paths, all leading to the top of a
perpendicular cliff, and these blind men going on continually, some
in one path, and some in another, but all in some one of those many
paths which lead to the brink of their ruin, which they see not; it
must needs follow, if they all move forward, the whole number will
in a short time be cast away, the island cleared, and its
inhabitants dead, and lost in the bottom of the sea. This is the
case of the unregenerate world; they are now upon this habitable
spot of earth, environed with the vast ocean of eternity; there are
multitudes of paths leading to eternal misery; one man takes this
way, and another that, as it is
The first way to hell discovered
1. And to begin where, indeed, the ruin of very many does begin,
it will be found, that ill education is the highway to
destruction; vice need not be planted; if the gardener neglect
to dress, sow, and manure his garden, he need not give the weeds a
greater advantage; but if he also scatter the seeds of hemlock,
docks, and nettles into it, he spoils it, and makes it fit for
nothing. Many parents, and those godly too, are guilty of too many
neglects, through carelessness, worldly incumbrances, or fond
indulgence; and while they neglect the season of sowing better
seed, the devil takes hold of it; if they will not improve it, he
will. If they teach him not to pray, he will teach them to curse,
swear, and lie. If they put not the bible, or catechism in their
hands, he will put obscene ballads into them: and thus the
offspring of many godly parents turn into degenerate plants, and
prove a generation that know not the God of their fathers. This
debauched age can furnish us with too many sad instances hereof.
Thus they are spoiled in the bud; simple ignorance in youth,
becomes affected and wilful ignorance in age; blushing sins in
children become impudent in age; and all this for want of a timely,
and prudent preventing care. Others there are of the rude and
ignorant multitude, who are bred themselves much like the beasts
they daily converse withal; and so they are fitly described,
And others there are, who breed their children as profanely, as these do sottishly; teaching them, by their examples, the newest oaths that were last minted in hell, and to revile and scoff all serious godliness, and the sincere professors of it, smiling to hear with what an emphasis they can talk in the dialect of devils, and how wittily they can droll upon godly ministers and Christians.
Such families are nurseries for hell; and though God, by an
extraordinary hand of providence, now and then snatches a soul by
conversion from among them, as a brand out of the fire; yet
generally, they die as they live, going "to the generation of their
fathers, where they shall never see light,"
The first way to hell barred
1. Let all parents consider, what a fearful thing it is to be the instruments of ruining for ever, those that received their beings instrumentally from them, and to seek whose good they stand obliged, by all the laws of God and nature.
In vain are all your cares and studies for their bodies, while their souls perish for want of knowledge. You rejoiced at their birth, but they will have cause to curse the day they were born of you, and say, "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which I was conceived." You were solicitous for their bodies, but careless of their souls; earnest to see them rich, but indifferent whether they were gracious; you neglected to teach them the way of salvation, but the devil did not neglect to teach them the way of sin. You will one day wish you hall never been parents, when the doleful cries of your damned children shall ring such notes as these in your ears: "O cursed father! O cruel, merciless mother! whose examples have drawn me after you, into all this misery. You had time enough, and motives enough to have warned me of this place and misery while my heart was tender, and my affections pliable: Had it not been as easy to have put a Bible as a play-book before me? To have chastised me when I provoked God by sin, as when I provoked you about a trifle? One word spoken in season might have saved my soul; one reproof wisely given and set on by your example, might have preserved me. Had it not been the same pains to have asked me, child, what will you do to be saved? As, what will you do to live in this world? Or, had I but observed any serious religion in you, had I but found or heard my father or mother upon their knees in prayer, it might have awakened me to a consideration of my condition. In my youth I was shame faced, fearful, credulous, and apt to imitate; had you but had wisdom as other parents have, to have taken hold of any of these handles in time, you had rescued my soul from hell. Nay, so cruel have you been to your own child, that you allowed me no time (if I had had a disposition) for any exercise of religion; yea, you have quenched and stifled the sparks of convictions and better inclinations that sometimes were in my heart. O happy had it been if I had never been born of you, or seen your faces." This must be the result and issue of your negligence, except God, by some other hand (which is no thanks to you) rescue them from their impending ruin.
2. Let all children, whose unhappy lot it is to be born of, and
educated by, carnal and irreligious parents, consider, God has
endued them with reason, and a conscience of their own, to enable
them to make a better choice than their parents did, and that there
is no taking sanctuary from the wrath of God in their
parents’ examples. We read, in
3. Let this consideration work upon the hearts, and bowels of all serious Christians, to pity, and help those that are like to perish under this temptation; and if their parents be so ignorant, that they cannot, or so negligent, that they do not instruct and warn their own children; you that at any time have an opportunity to help them, have compassion on them, and do it. It is true, they are none of your children by nature; but would it not be a singular honour, and comfort to you, if God should make them so by grace? Thousands of children (and, it may be some of you) are more indebted to mere strangers, upon this account, than to their nearest relations; you know not how much good an occasional word may do them: All have not ability to be so publicly useful this way, as a late worthy minister of our own nation has been, who, in compassion to the dark, and barbarous corners in Wales, where ignorance and poverty shut up the way of salvation to them, at a vast expense procured the translation, and printing of the bible in their own tongue, and freely sent it among them. O you that have the bowels of Christians in you, pity, and help them! What is it, for the saving of a precious soul, to drop a serious exhortation, as you have opportunity, unto them, to bestow a bible, or suitable book upon them? Believe it, these little sums of shillings, and pence, so bestowed, will stand for more, in the audit-day, than all the hundreds, and thousands, other ways expended.
The second way to hell discovered
II. A second way to hell, in which multitudes are found
hastening to their own damnation, is the way of affected ignorance.
The generality of people, even in a land enlightened with the
gospel, are found grossly ignorant of Christ, the true and only way
to heaven, and of repentance and faith, the only way to Christ; and
thus the people perish for want of knowledge,
Look over the several countries in the professing world; go into the families of country farmers, day labourers, and poor people, and except here and there a family, or person, into whose heart God has graciously shined; what barbarous, brutish ignorance overspreads them: They converse from morning to night with beasts, though they have souls which are fit companions for angels, and capable of sweet converse with God. The earth has opened her mouth, and swallowed up all their time, strength, thoughts, and sotuls, as it did the bodies of Corah and his company. They know the value of a horse or cow, but know not the worth of Christ, pardon, or their own souls: They mind daily what work they have to do with their hands, but forget all they have to do upon their knees; their whole care is to pay their fine or rent to their landlord, but not a thought who shall pay their debts to God. They are so far frown putting unnecessary business aside to make way for the service of God, that God’s service is put aside as an unnecessary business, to make way for the world: The world holds them fast till they are asleep, and will be sure to visit them as soon as their eyes are open, that there may be no vacancy or door of opportunity left open for a thought of their souls, or another life, to slip in: Or, it at any time they think, or speak of these matters, then the world, like Pharaoh, when Israel spake of sacrificing, is sure to speak of more work.
And thus they live and die without knowledge; there is no key of
knowledge (as it is fitly called,
The second way to hell shut up
1. Let the ignorant consider, God has created their souls with a
capacity of knowing him and enjoying him as well as others that are
famed in the world for knowledge and wisdom. There is a spirit
in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them
understanding. The faculty is in man, but the wisdom and
knowledge that enlightens it from God; as the dial shows the hour
of the day when the sun-beams fall upon it. If, therefore, God be
sought unto in the use of such helps and means as you have, even
the weakest and dullest soul has a capacity of being made wise unto
salvation.
Augustine tells us of a man so weak and simple, that he was commonly reputed a fool in all the neighbourhood; and yet says, I believe the grace and fear of God was in him; for when he heard any swear, or take the name of God in vain, he would throw stones at them, and show his indignation against sin by all the signs he could make.
2. You that are so grossly ignorant in the matter of your
salvation, are many of you very knowing, prudent, and subtle
persons in the affairs of the world.
3. How many are there of your own rank, order, and education, all whose external advantages and helps you have, and all your encumbrances and discouragements they had, who yet have attained to an excellent degree of saving knowledge and heavenly wisdom? How often have I heard such spiritual, savoury, experimental truths, in conference and prayer from plain rustics, such spiritual reasonings about the great concerns of salvation, such judicious and satisfying resolutions of cases depending upon the sensible and experimental part of religion, as have humbled, convinced, and steamed me, and made me say surgunt indocti, &c. these are the men that will take heaven from the proud and scornful ingeniosi of the world; not many wise, not many learned and acute. Many knowing and learned heads are in hell, and many illiterate and weak ones gone to heaven; and others in the way thither who never had better education, stronger parts, or more leisure than yourselves: So that you are without excuse.
To conclude, Would you heartily seek it of God, and would the
Spirit (which he hath promised to give then that ask him) become
your teacher, how soon would the light of the saving knowledge of
God in the face of Christ shine into your hearts! No matter how
ignorant, dull, and weak the scholar be, if God once become the
teacher. You are not able to purchase, or want time to read many
books; but if once you were sanctified persons, the anointing you
would receive from the Father would teach you all things,
The third way to hell discovered
III. A vast multitude of precious souls are lost for ever by following the examples, and being carried away with the course of this world: It is indeed a poor excuse, a silly argument, that the multitude do as we do; yet, as Junius rightly observes, men’s consciences take sanctuary here, and they think themselves safe in it: For thus they reason, If I do as the generality do, I shall speed no worse than they speed: and certainly God is more merciful than to suffer the greatest part of mankind to perish. They resolve to follow the beaten road, let it lead whither it will.
Thus the Ephesians, in their unregenerate state, "walked
according to the course of this world,:
Add to this, That as one sinner confirms and fixes another,
wedging in each other, as men in a crowd, who must move as it
moves; so they make it their business to render all that dither
from them odious and ridiculous: So the apostle notes their
practice and Satan’s policy in it,
The third way to hell shut up
But O! if the Spirit of God would please to set on, and follow home the following considerations to your hearts, you would certainly resolve to take a persecuted path to heaven, though few accompany you therein, rather than swim like dead fishes with the stream into the dead sea of eternal misery.
1. Though you go with the consent and current of the world, yet
you go against the express law and prohibition of God: He has laid
his command upon you, "not to be conformed to the world,"
2. Other men, in all ages of the world, that were as much concerned in the world as you, and valued their lives, liberties, and estates as well as you, have yet got out of the crowd, disengaged themselves from the way of the multitude, and taken a more solitary and suffering path out of a due regard to the safety of their souls: And why should not you love them as well, and care for them as much as ever any that went before you did? Noah walked with God all alone, when all flesh had their ways. Elijah was zealous for the Lord, when he knew of none to stand by him, but thought he had been left alone; Job was upright with God in the land of Uz; Lot stood by himself, a godly nonconformist, in a vile, debauched Sodom; David was a wonder to many; so was Jeremiah, and those few with him, for signs and wonders in Israel; I demand of your consciences what discouragements have you that these men had not? Or what encouragements had they that you have not? Why should not the salvation of sour souls be as precious in your eyes as theirs was in theirs? Shall you be impoverished and persecuted if you embrace the way of holiness? So were they. Shall you be reproached, scorned, and reviled: So were they. All your discouragements were theirs, and all their motives and encouragements are yours.
3. Is not the way which you have chosen marked out by Christ as
the way to destruction? And that which you dare not chase and
embrace as the way to life? See the marks he has given you of both
in that one text,
The fourth way of losing the soul opened
IV. Multitudes of souls are daily lost by rooted habits,
and long continued custom in sin. When men have been long
settled in an evil way, they are difficultly reclaimed:
Physicians find it hard to cure a cacheary, or ill
habit of body; but it is far more difficult to cure an ill custom
and habit in sin.
The fourth way to hell shut up by two considerations
IV. Let it be considered, the longer any man has been engaged
in, and accustomed to the way of sin, the more reason and need that
man has speedily and without delay to repent and reform his course;
there is yet a possibility of mercy, a season of salvation left.
How far soever a soul is gone on towards hell, none can say it is
yet too late. When Mr. Bilney the martyr heard a minister preaching
thus, O you old sinner, you have gone on in a course of sin
these fifty or sixty years; do you think that Christ will accept
you now, or take the devil’s leavings? Good God, said he,
what a preacher of Christ is here! Had such doctrine been preached
to me in my troubles, it had been enough utterly to have
discouraged me from repentance and faith. No, no, sinner, it is not
yet too late, if at last your heart be touched with a real sense of
your sin and danger. The Lord is plain,
An abundant pardon you need; your sins, by long continued custom
and frequent repetitions, have been abundantly aggravated; and an
abundant pardon is with God for poor sinners: he will abundantly
pardon, but then you must come up to his terns: you must not expect
pardon or mercy when your sins have forsaken you, but upon your
forsaking them; yea, such a forsaking as includes a resolution or
decree in your will to return to them no more,
2. Can you not forbear your customary sin, upon lesser motives than the salvation of your soul? And if you can, will you not much more do it for the saving of your precious, immortal soul? Suppose there were but a pecuniary mulet, of an hundred pounds, to be certainly levied upon your estate, for every oath you swear, or every time you are drunk, would you not rather choose reformation than beggary? And is not the loss of your soul a penalty infinitely heavier than a little money? But, as the wise heathen observed, Ea sola emi putamus, pro quibus pecuniam solvinus; ea gratuita vocamus pro quibus nos ipsos impendimus. We reckon those things only to be bought, which we part with money for; and that we have those things gratis, for which we pay ourselves. Is nothing cheap in our eyes but ourselves, our souls! Do we call that gratis, what will cost us so dear? Darius threw away his messy crown when he fled before Alexander, that it might not hinder him in his flight. Sure your souls are more worth than your money, and all the enjoyments you have in this world. It had been an ancient custom among the citizens of Antioch, to wash themselves in the baths; but the king forbidding its they all presently forbore, for fear of his displeasure: whereupon Chrysostom convinced them of the vanity of that plea for customary sinning. "You see, (says he), how soon fear can break off an old custom; and shall not the fear of God be as powerful to overmaster it in us, as the fear of man?" O friends, believe it, it "is better for you to cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye, than having two hands, or eyes to be cast into hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
The fifth way of losing the soul opened
V. The fifth way, by which an innumerable multitude of souls are eternally lost, is by the baits of sensual, sinful pleasures.
Some customary sins have little, or no pleasure in them; as
swearing, malice, etc., but others allure, and entice the soul by
the sensual delight that is in them: this is the bait with which
multitudes are enticed, ensnared, and ruined to all eternity. It is
a true and grave observation of the philosopher, "That we are
impelled, as it were, to that which is evil, by the alluring
blandishments of pleasure." This was the first bait by which Satan
caught the souls of our first parents in innocence,
The fifth way to hell shut up, by three considerations
1. Consider how the morality of Heathens had bridled their sensual lusts and appetites, and caused them with a generous disdain to repel those brutish pleasures, as things below a man. "What more foolish, what more base," says Seneca, "than to patch up the good of a reasonable soul out of things unreasonable?" "That is the pleasure worthy of a man, not to glut his body, nor to irritate those lasts in whose quietness is our safety." This is the constant doctrine of all the Stoics.
O what a shame is it to hear Heathenism out-brave Christianity! and principles of mere morality enable men to live more soberly, temperately, and abstemiously, than those who enjoy the greatest pattern and highest motives in the Christian religion are found to do? "You embrace pleasure, says the Heathen, but I bridle it; you enjoy it, I only use it; you think it your chief good; I esteem it not so much as good; you do all for pleasure’s sake, but I nothing at all an that account." These therefore shall be your judges.
2. Always remember sensual pleasures are but the baits with
which Satan angles for the precious soul. There is a fatal hook
under them. O if men were but aware of this, they would never
purchase pleasure at so dear a rate. "Stolen waters are sweet, and
bread eaten in secret is pleasant; but he knoweth not that the dead
are there; and that her guests are in the depth of hell,"
3. If you are for pleasure, certainly you are out of the way to
it, who seek it in the fulfilling of your lusts. If your hearts
were once sanctified and brought under the government of the
Spirit, you would quickly find a far more excellent pleasure in the
crucifying of your lusts, than now you seek in the gratification
and fulfilling of them.
The sixth way of losing the soul opened
VI. There are also numerable souls lost for ever by the distracting cares of this world which eat up all their time, thoughts, and studies; so that there is no room for Christ, or one serious hour about salvation. It is too true an observation which Sir Walter Raleigh makes upon the common mechanics and poor labourers, their bodies are the anvils of pain, and their souls the hives of unnumbered cares and sorrows, while the voluptuous and rich spend their time and studies in purveying for new pleasures, and filling their heads with projects of that nature. The poorer sort have their heads and hearts filled day and night with anxious thoughts and cares how to get bread, pay their rents or debts, and struggle through the miserable necessities that pinch them on every side; many children, it may be, to provide for, and little or nothing out of which to make it: here is brick that must be made, and no straw to make it of; he borrows here to pay there: debts increase, and abilities decrease; he toils his body all the day, and when his tired carcass calls for rest to enable him for new work tomorrow; the cares of the world invade him on his bed, and keep him sighing or musing there, when, poor man! he had load enough before for one.
And now, what room is there left for salvation work? or how can
any spiritual seed that is cast into such a brake of thorns
prosper? "The cares of this life, (says Christ) spring up, and
choke it,"
The sixth way to hell shut up, by five considerations
1. Bethink yourself, poor soul! as much as you are involved and
plunged in the necessities and distracting cares of this life;
others, many others, as poor and necessitous, and every way as much
embroiled in the cares of the world as you are, have minded their
souls, and taken all care and pains for their salvation,
notwithstanding: yea, though millions of your rank and order are
destroyed by the snares of the devil, yet God has a very great
number, indeed the greatest of any rank of men among those that are
low, poor, and necessitous in the world. The church is called the
"congregation of the poor,"
Now, if others, many others, as much entangled in the necessities, cares, and troubles of the world as you, have yet struggled through all those difficulties and discouragements to heaven; why should you not strive for Christ and salvation as well as they? Your souls are as valuable as theirs, and their discouragements and hindrances as great and as many as yours.
2. Consider your poor and necessitous condition in the world, has something in it of motive and advantage to excite and quicken you to a greater diligence for salvation than is found in a more full, easy, and prosperous state; for God has hereby embittered this word to you, and made you drink deeper of the troubles of it than other men: they have the honey, and you the gall; they have the flower, and you the bran; but then, as you have not the pleasures, so you have not the snares of a prosperous condition, and your daily troubles, cares, and labours in it do even prompt you to seek rest in heaven, which you cannot find on earth. Can you think you were made for a worse condition than the beasts? What, to have two hells, one here, and another hereafter? Surely, as low, miserable, and despicable as you are, you are capable of as much happiness as any of the nobles of the world; and, in your low and addicted condition, stand nearer to the door of hope than they do. Ah! methinks these thoughts do even put themselves upon you, when your spirits are overloaded with the cares, and your bodies tired with the labours of this life. Is this the life of troubles I must expect on earth? Has God denied me the pleasures of this world? O then let it be my care, my study, my business to make sure of Christ, to win heaven, that I may not be miserable in both worlds. How can you avoid such thoughts, or put by such meditations which your very station and condition even forces upon you?
3. Consider how all the troubles in this world would be sweetened, and all your burdens lightened, if once your souls were in Christ, and in covenant with God. O what heart’s ease would faith give you! What sweet relief would you find in prayer! These things, like the opening of a vein, or tumour when ripe, would suddenly cool, relieve, and ease your spirits; could you but go to God as a Father, and pour out your hearts before him, and cast all your cares and burdens, wants and sorrows upon him, you would final a speedy outlet to your troubles, and an inlet to all peace, all comforts, and all refreshments; such as all the riches, honours, and fullness of this world cannot give: you would then find Providence engage itself for your supply, and issue all your troubles to your advantage; you would suck the breasts of those promises in the margin, and say, all the dainties in the world cannot make you such another feast; you would then see your bread, your clothes, and all provisions for you and yours, in God’s promises, when you are brought to an existence, and would certainly find performances as well as promises, all along the course of your life.
4. Say not you have no time to mind another world. God has not put any of you under such an unhappy necessity. You have one whole day every week, allowed you by God and man, for your souls. You have some spare time every day, which you know you spend worse than in heavenly thoughts and exercises, yea, most callings are such as will admit of spiritual exercises of thoughts, even when your hands are exercised in the affairs of this life: besides, there are none of you but have, and must have daily some relaxations and rest from business; and if your hearts were spiritual, and set upon heaven, you would find more time than you think on, without prejudice to your callings, yea, to the great furtherance of then, to spend with God. I can tell you when and where I have found poor servants hard at work for salvation, labour for Christ, some in the fields, others in barns and stables, where they could find any privacy to pour out their souls to God in prayer. As lovers will make hard shifts to converse together, so will the soul that is devoted to God, and in earnest for heaven; and though your opportunities be not so large, they may be as sweet, as successful, and to be sure sincere, as those whose condition affords them more time, and greater external conveniences than you enjoy. More business is sometimes dispatched in a quarter of an hour in prayer, yea, let me say in a few hearty ejaculations of soul to God, in a few minutes, than in many long and elaborate duties. If you cast in your two mites of time into the treasury of prayer, having no more, you may, as Christ said of the poor widow, give more than those that cast in of their great abundance of time and talents.
5. Lastly, Consider, Jesus Christ is no respecter of persons,
the poorest and vilest on earth, are as welcome to him as the
greatest. He chose a poor and mean condition in this world himself,
conversed mostly among the poor, never refused any because of his
poverty: "God accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth
the rich more than the poor: for they are all the work of his
hands",
The seventh way of losing the soul discovered
VII. The seventh beaten path to destruction, is by groundless presumption; praesumendo sperant, et sperando pereunt, by presumption they have hope, and by that hope they perish.
There are divers objects of presumption, amongst which, these three are most usual and most fatal, viz. that they have,
1. That grace which they have not.
2. That mercy in God they will not find.
3. That time before them which will fail them.
1. Many presume they have that grace in them, which God knows
they have not. So did Laodicea,
2. They presume upon such mercy in God, as they will never find; they expect pardoning and saving mercy, out of Christ, in an unregenerate state, when there is not one drop of mercy dispensed in any other way. The whole economy of grace is managed by the Mediator, Jude, ver. 21. All saving mercies come through him, upon all that are in him, and upon no others. God is, indeed, a merciful God, and yet presumptuous sinners wil1 find judgment without mercy, because they are not found in the proper way and method of mercy. Thousands, and ten thousands carve out and dispose of the mercy of God at their own picture, write their own pardons, in what terms they think fit, and if they had God’s seal to confirm and ratify them, it were all well, but, alas! it is but a night vision, a dream of their own brain.
3. But especially, men presume upon time enough for repentance hereafter: they question not but there are as fit, and as fair opportunities of salvation to come, as are already past; and in this snare of the devil, thousands are taken in the very prime and vigour of their youth: that age is voluptuous, and loves not to be interrelated with severe and serious thoughts and courses; and here is a salvo fitted exactly to suit their inclination, and quiet them in their way, that they may pursue their lusts without interruption.
I cannot follow the sin of presumption at present, in all these its courses and ways; and therefore will apply myself to the case last mentioned, which is so common to the world.
The seventh way to destruction shut up by five weighty considerations
1. I would beg all those young, voluptuous sinners, whose feet are fast held in the snare of this temptation, seriously to bethink themselves, whether they are not old enough to be damned, while they judge themselves too young to be seriously godly. There are multitudes in hell of your age and size; you may find graves in the churchyard, of your own length, and skulls of your own size: men will not spare a nest of young snakes because they are little. If you die christless and unregenerate, it is the same thing, whether you be old or young; there is abundance of young spray, as well as old logs, burning in the flames of hell.
2. If you knew the weight and difficulty of salvation work, you would never think you could begin too soon. Religion is a business which will take up all your time; many have repented they began so late, none that they began so soon. Say not, the penitent thief found mercy at the last hour, for his conversion was extraordinary, and we must not hope for miracles: besides, he could never encourage himself in sin, with the hope and expectation of such a miraculous conversion; he was the only example of a sinner that was ever so recovered, in scripture, and this was recorded, not to nourish presumption, but to prevent despair. If ten thousand persons died of the plague, and one only of the whole number infected with it escaped, it is no great encouragement that you shall make the second. O think, and think again, how many thousands now on earth, have been labouring and striving, forty or fifty years together, to make their calling and election sure: and yet, to this day, it is not so sure as they would leave it: they are afraid, after all, time will fail them for finishing, and you think it is too early for beginning so great a work.
3. Others have begun sooner than you, and finished the great and
main work, before you have done any thing. Abijah was very young,
scarce out of his childhood, "when the grace of God was found in
him,"
4. The morning of your life is the flower of your time, the
freshest and fittest of all your life for your great work; now your
hearts are tender and impressive, your affections flowing and
tractable, your heads clear of distracting cares and hurries of
business, which come on afterwards in thick successions: "Remember
mow thy Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come
not,"
5. And if this proper, hopeful season be elapsed, it is very unlikely that ever you be wrought upon afterwards: how thin and rare, in the world, are the instances and examples of conversion in old age! Long continued customs in sin harden the heart, fix the will, and root the habits of vice so deep in the soul, that there is no altering of them; your ears then are so accustomed to the sounds of the world, that Christ and sin, heaven and hell, soul and eternity, have lost their awful sound and efficacy with you. But it is a question only to be decided by the event, Whether ever you shall attain to the years of your feathers? It is not the uprightly vigour of your youth that can secure you from death. What a madness, then, is it, to put your souls and eternal happiness, upon such a blind adventure? What if your presumption, of so many fair and proper opportunities hereafter, fail you, as it has failed millions, who had as rational and hopeful a prospect of them as you can have: where are you then? And if you should have more time and means, than you do presume upon, are you sure your hearts will be as flexible and impressive as they now are? O beware of this sin of vain presumption, to which the generality of the damned owe their everlasting ruin!
The eighth way of losing the soul opened
VIII. The eighth way of ruining the precious soul, is, by drinking in the principles of Atheism, and living without God in the world.
Atheism stabs the soul to death at one stroke, and puts it quite
out of the way of salvation; other sinners are worse than beasts,
but Atheists are worse than devils, for they believe, and tremble;
these banish God out of their thoughts, and, what they can, out of
the world, living as without God in the world,
Some are Atheists in opinion, but multitudes are so in practice;
"The fool has said in his heart, there is no God,"
Others profess to believe his being, but their lives daily give their lips the lie; for they give no evidence in practice, of their fear, love or dependence on him: If they believe his being, they vainly show they value not his favour, delight not in his presence, love not his ways, or people; but lie down and rise, eat and drink, live and die without the worship, or acknowledgement of him, except so much as the law of the country, or custom of the place extorts from them. These dregs of time produce abundance of Atheists, of both sorts; many ridicule and hiss religion out of all companies into which they come, and others live down all sense of religion; they customarily attend, indeed, on the external duties of it, hear the word; but when the greatest, and most important duties are urged upon them, their inward thought is, This is the preacher’s calling, and the man must say something to fill up his hour, and get his living. If they dare not put their thoughts into words, and call the gospel Fabula Christi, the fable of Christ, as a wicked Pope once did; or say of hell, and the dreadful sufferings of the damned, as Galderinus the Jesuit did, Tunc credam cum illuc venero; I will believe it when I see it: yet their hearts and lives, are of the same complexion with these men’s words: they do not heartily assent to the truth of the gospel which they hear, and though bare assent would not save them, yet their assent, or non-assent, will certainly damn them, except the Lord heal their understandings and hearts, by the light and life of religion. To this last sort I shall offer a few things.
The eighty way to hell shut up by six weighty considerations
1. You that attend upon the ordinances, but believe them no more
than so many devised fables, nor heartily assent to the truth of
what you hear; know assuredly, that the word shall never do your
souls good, it can never come to your hearts and affections in its
regenerating and sanctifying efficacy, while it is stopped and
obstructed in your understandings in the acts of assent. And thus
you may sit down under the best ordinances all your livev, and be
no more the better for them, than the rocks are for the showers of
rain that fall upon them;
2. If you assent not to the truth of the gospel, you not only
make God speak to your souls in vain, which is fatal to them: but
you also make God a liar, which is the greatest affront a creature
can put upon his Maker;
3. Dare any of you give the thoughts of your hearts as certain conclusions under your hands, and stand by them to the last, and venture all upon them.
Wretched Atheist! Bethink yourself, pause a while, examine your
own breast; whatever your vile atheistic thoughts sometimes are, is
there not at other times a fear of the contrary? A jealousy that
all these things which you deride and sport the wicked fancy with,
may, and will prove true at last? When you read or hear that text,
4. Has not God given you all the satisfaction you can reasonably
desire of the undoubted truth and certainty of his word? What would
you have which you have not already? Would you have a voice from
heaven? The scriptures you read or hear are a more sure word than
such a voice would be,
5. Satan, who undermines your assent to these things, is forced
to give his own: he that tempts you to look on them as fables,
himself knows and is convinced that they are realities; "The devils
also believe and tremble,"
6. In a word, let your own heart, O Atheist, be judge, whether these be real doubts still sticking in your minds, after you have done all that becomes men to do for satisfaction in such important cases. Or whether they be not such principles as you willingly foment and nourish in your hearts as a protection to your sensual lusts, whose pleasures you would fain leave without interruptions and overawings by the fears of a judgement to come, and a righteous retribution from a just and terrible God! Examine your hearts in that point, and you will soon find the cheat to be in that I here point you to: you have not studied the word impartially, nor brought your doubts and scruples with an humble, unbiased, teachable spirit to those that are wise and able to resolve them, much less prayed for the Spirit of illumination; but willingly entertained whatever atheistic wits invent, or the devil suggests, as a defence against the checks of conscience and fears of hell in the way of sin. You are loath those things should be true which the scriptures speak, and are glad of any colourable argument or pretence to still your own consciences. Is not this the case? The Lord stop your desperate course, your paths lead to hell.
The ninth way of losing the precious soul opened
IX. Precious souls are daily plunged into the gulf of perdition
by profaneness and debauchery. How many every where
lie wallowing in the puddle? glorying in their shame, and running
into all excess of riot? The hypocrite steals to hell in a private,
close way of concealed sin; but the profane gallop along the public
road at noon day; "They declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it
not;"
This age has brought forth multitudes of these monsters, the reproach and shame of the nation that bred them. I have little hope to stop any of them in their career and full speed to hell. They have lost the sense of sin, the restraints of shame and fear; and then what is left to check them in their course? I cannot hope that such a discourse as this shall ever come into their hands, except it be to sacrifice it to the flames; yet not knowing the ways of providence, which are unsearchable, and what use God may make upon one occasion or another of these following considerations, I will adventure to drop a few words upon these forlorn sinners, as far as they seem to be gone beyond recovery; beseeching the Lord to make way for these things to their hands and hearts, and make them the instruments of pulling some of them as brands out of the burning.
The ninth way to hell, by profaneness, stopped
1. And first, let it be laid to heart, that though the case and
state of many thousand souls be doubtful and uncertain, so that
neither themselves nor any other know what they are, or to whom
they belong! yet your condition, O profane sinner, is without
controversy, miserable and forlorn; all men know whose you are, and
whither you are going. The apostle appeals, in this case, to the
bar of every man’s reason and conscience, as a thing allowed
and yielded by all, Eph. v 5. "For this ye know, (says he) that no
whoremonger, or unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an
idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
This is a clear case, there is no controversy about it. Many there
be in a doubtful case, but no doubt of these, they are fast and
sure in the power of Satan: and as sure as God is a God of truth,
they that die in this condition shall never see his face. And to
the same purpose again,
2. As far as you are gone in a course of profaneness, you are
not yet gone beyond the reach of mercy and all hopes of salvation,
if now at last, after all your debaucheries and profaneness, the
Lord touch your hearts with the sense of your sinful and miserable
state, and turn your feet to his testimonies. When the apostle, in
3. Nay, this is not all; but in some respect there is more
probability and hope of your return and repentance, than there is
of many others who have led a more sober, smooth, and civil life
than you have done. Your profaneness has more dishonoured God, but
the morality and civility of some men secure them faster in the
snare of the devil. They have many things in themselves to build up
their presumptuous hopes upon, but you have nothing. It is hard for
conviction to reach that man’s conscience that has
righteousness of his own to trust in; but methinks it should have
an easier access to yours, whose notorious courses lay your
consciences naked and bare before the word to be wounded by it.
Christ’s ministry had little success among the Pharisees, who
were righteous in their own eyes, but it wrought effectually upon
publicans’ and sinners. Hence Christ told them,
The tenth way leading to destruction marked
X. Deep and fixed prejudices against godliness, and the sincere professors thereof, precipitate thousands of souls into their own ruin and damnation.
It was not without a weighty reason, that Christ denounced that
woe upon the world,
The tenth way of destroying souls shut up by two counsels
1. It will be impossible to prevent the ruin of a great part of
the world by prejudices against the ways of godliness, except those
who profess them, walk more holily and conformably to the rule and
pattern of Christ, whose name is called upon by them. I shall
therefore first address my discourse to the professors of religion,
beseeching them, in the bowels of Christ, to take pity upon the
multitude of souls which are daily ruined and destroyed by their
scandals and miscarriages. Did you live according to the rules you
profess, "your well-doing would put to silence the ignorance of
foolish men,"
And how many professors, who pretend to more than ordinary reformation and holiness, do shed soul-blood by their scandalous conversations. Salvian brings in the wicked of his age upbraiding the looseness of Christians, in this manner; "Behold, those men who boast themselves redeemed from the tyranny of Satan, and profess themselves dead to the world, yet are conquered by the lusts of it." And Cyprian, long before his day, brings in the heathens thus insulting over looser Christians: "Where is that catholic law which they believe? Where are the examples of piety and chastity, which they should learn? They read the gospel, yet are immodest; they hear the apostles, yet are drunk." O professors! where are your bowels to the poor souls of sinners? If your neighbour’s ox or ass fall into the pit, you are bound to deliver him, if you can; and will you not do as much for a precious soul, as you would do for a beast? Nay, you dig pits, by your scandalous lives, to destroy them. If you sin, there are instruments enough to spread it, and multitudes of souls ready prepared to take the infection. Say not, if they do, the fault is theirs; for though they are principals in the murder of their own souls, by taking the scandal, yet you are accessories in giving it: He is a mad man that will kill himself with a sword, end he no better that will put it into his hand.
O, therefore, if you have any regard to the precious souls of men, live up to the rules of your profession! O, be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a perverse and froward generation! Let the heavenliness of your conversation stop those mouths that accuse you as men of a worldly spirit; let them see, by your moderation in seeking it, your patience in losing it, your readiness in distributing it, that it is a groundless calumny under which your names suffer. Let them see, by your apparel, company, and discourses, you are not such proud, lofty spirits, as you are represented to be. Convince them, by your flexibleness to all things that are lawful and expedient, by manifesting, as much as in you lies, that it is the pure bond and tie of conscience, which keeps you from compliance in all other things, and by your meekness in suffering, for such non-compliance, that you are not such turbulent, factious incendiaries, as the wicked world slanderously reports you to be. Convince the world by your exact righteousness in all your civil dealings, and by the lip of truth in all your promises and engagements, that you have the fear of God in your hearts, as well as the livery of Christianity upon your backs. In a word, so live, that none may have just ground to believe the impudent slanders the devil raises in the world against you. Let your light so shine before men, that you may glorify your Father which is in heaven. Without your care and circumspection, the shedding of a world of precious soul-blood can never be prevented.
2. Let me advise and beseech all men to be so just to others, and merciful to their own souls, as not to cast them away for ever, by receiving prejudices against godliness, from the miscarriages of some, who make more than a common profession of it. To prevent this fatal effect of scandal and prejudice at religion, I desire a few particulars may be impartially weighed.
First, Very many of those scandals, bandied up and down the
world against the professors of godliness, are devised and forged
in hell, as so many traps and snares to catch and destroy
men’s souls, to beget an irreconcilable aversion and enmity
in men to the ways of God. "They devise deceitful matters (says the
Psalmist) against them that are quiet in the land,"
Secondly, Examine whether the matters that are changed
upon them as their crimes, be not their duties. Sometimes it falls
out to be so; and if so, you fight more immediately and directly
against God, than men. This was David’s case,
Thirdly, If professors of religion do in some things act
unbecoming their holy profession, yet every slip and failing in
their lives, is no sufficient warrant for you to censure their
persons as hypocrites; much less to fall upon religion itself, and
condemn it for the faults of them that profess it. There is many an
upright heart overtaken by temptation. You see their miscarriages,
but you see not their humiliations and self-condemnations before
God for them. "Foul, and fearful (says a grave divine) was the
scandal of David; and what was the issue? Presently the enemies of
God and godliness began to lift their heads, and fall upon
David‘s religion,
O that men would seriously consider their evil in such censures
as these! what is all this to religion? Does religion any way
countenance, or patronise such practices? Nay, does it not
impartially and severely condemn them? It is the glory of the
Christian religion, that it is pure and undefiled,
Fourthly, And as senseless a thing it is to condemn all, for the miscarriages and faults of some; which, yet, is the common practice of the world. Are all that profess godliness loose and careless? No; many are an ornament to their holy profession, and the glory of Christianity, and why must the innocent be condemned for the guilty? What is your reason and ground for that? Why might not the enemies of Christianity have condemned the eleven apostles upon the fall of Judas? Had they not as good a warrant for it, as you have for this?
To conclude, You little know what a snare of the devil is laid for your souls, in all those prejudices and offences, you take at the ways and professors of godliness; and what a woe you bring upon your own souls by them. You speak evil of persons and things you know not, and prejudice is like still to keep you in ignorance of them. "Woe to the world (says Christ) because of offences; and "blessed is he that is not offended at me."
The eleventh way of ruining the precious soul opened
XI. The eleventh way, wherein abundance of precious souls perish in the christianised and professing world, is the way of formal hypocrisy in religion, and zeal about the externals of worship. Such a generation of men have, in all ages, mingled themselves with the sincere worshippers of God; and the inducement to it is obvious; the form of godliness is an honour, but the power of it a burden. By the former, earthly interests are accommodated; by the latter, they are frequently exposed and hazarded.
We find in the Jewish church, abundance of such chaff intermixed
with the wheat, which the doctrine of Christ discovered, and purged
out of the floor,
And well had it been, if this generation had ended with the
state and time of the church; but we find a prophecy of the
increase of these men in the latter days,
The eleventh way to hell, by formality, barred up
1. No sin entangles the souls of men faster, or damns them with
more certainty and aggravation, than the sin of formal hypocrisy;
it holds the soul fastest on earth, and sinks it deepest into hell.
There was no sort of men upon whom the doctrine of Christ and the
apostles, had so little success and effect, as the Scribes nod
Pharisees; they derided him, when publicans and
sinners trembled, and believed,
2. Blind, superstitious zeal, which spends itself only about the
externals of religion, usually prepares, and engages men in a more
violent persecution of those that are really godly, and
conscientious. The Lord opened a great door of opportunity at
Antioch to Paul; the whole city came together to attend the
discoveries of Christ in the first publication of the gospel, and
the poor Gentiles began to taste the sweetness of the gospel; but
the devil, perceiving his kingdom begin to totter, immediately
stirred up his instruments to persecute the apostles, and drive
them out of the country: and who more fit for that work, than the
devout, and honourable women?
3. Nothing is more common, than to find men hot and zealous
against false worship, while their hearts are as cold as a stone in
the vitals, and essentials of true religion. Many can
dispute warmly against adoration of images, praying to angels
and saints departed, who all the while are like those
dead images which others worship. Jehu was a zealot against
idolatry; and yet the vital power of true godliness was a stranger
to his soul,
This was a sad case, yet what more common? The Lord open the eyes of these men, and convince them, in season, that their zeal runs in the wrong channel, and spends itself upon things which shall never profit them. O if they were but as much concerned to promote the love of God, and life of godliness in themselves and others, as they are about some external accidents and appendages of religion, what blessings would they be to the world, and what evidence would they have of their own sincerity?
The twelfth way to hell, opened
XII. The twelfth way to hell, in which many souls are carried on smoothly, and securely, to their own destruction, is, the way of mere civility and moral honesty, wherein men rest as in a sake state, never doubting but a civil life will produce an issue into an happy death. Moral honesty is a lovely thing, and greatly tends to the peace and order of the world; but it is not saving grace, nor gives any man a good title to Christ and salvation. Indeed there can be no grace in that soul in which civility and moral honesty are not found: but these may be found in thousands that have no grace.
That which ruins souls, is not the exercise of moral virtues,
but their reliance upon them: they use their morality as a shield
to secure their consciences from the convictions of the word, which
would show them their sinful and miserable state by nature. Thus
the Pharisee,
This, indeed, is the way to fix them where they are; if Christ had not taken another method with Nicodemus, and his ministers had not pressed the necessity of regeneration, and the insufficiency of moral honesty to salvation, how thin had the number of true converts been, though, at most they are but a handful in comparison of the unregenerate!
O that God would bless what follows, to undeceive and save some poor soul out of this dangerous snare of the devil!
The twelfth way to damnation barred, by three considerations
1. Blind not yourselves with the lustre of your own moral virtues, a life smoothly drawn with civility through the world. For though it must be acknowledged there is a loveliness, and attracting sweetness in morality and civility, yet these things rather respect earth than heaven, and are designed for the conservation of the order and peace of this world, not for your salvation and title to the world to come. Without justice and truth, kingdoms and commonwealths would become mountains of prey, and dens of robbery. Where there is no trust there can be no traffic; and where there is no truth, there can be no trust. Civility is the very basis of human society; a world of good accrues to men by it, and abundance of mischief is prevented by it; but it never gave any man an interest in Christ, or a title to salvation. The Romans and Lacedemonians, who perished in the darkness of heathenism, excelled in morality; there is nothing of Christ or regeneration in these things, how much of excellency soever be ascribed to them. Paul, the Pharisee, was a blameless person, touching the law, and yet, at the same time, not only utterly ignorant of Christ, but a bitter enemy to him, and all that were his. Till you can find another way to heaven than by regeneration, repentance, and faith, never lean upon such a deceitful and rotten prop, as mere civility is.
2. Civilised nature is unsanctified nature still;
and without sanctification there is no salvation,
3. Civility is not only found in multitudes that are out of
Christ, but may be the cause and reason why they are christless:
mistake not, I am not pleading the cause of profaneness, nor
disputing civility out of the world; I heartily wish there were
more of it to be found in every place; it would exceedingly promote
the peace, order and tranquillity of the world: but yet it is
certain, that the eyes of thousands are so dazzled with the lustre
of their own morality, that they see no need of Christ, nor feel
any want of his righteousness, and this is the ruin of their souls.
Thus Christ brings in the Pharisee with his proud boast, that he is
"no extortioner, adulterer, nor unjust, or such an one as that
publican,"
Infer. 1. If there be so many ways of losing the soul, and such multitudes of souls lost in every one of them, then the number of saved souls must needs be exceeding small.
The number of the saved may be considered, either
absolutely or comparatively: In the first
consideration they appear great, and many, even a great multitude,
which no man can number,
It is of trembling consideration, how many thousands of families, amongst us, are mere nurseries for hell, parents bringing forth and breeding up children for the devil; not one word of God (except it be in the way of blasphemy or profaneness) to be heard among them. How naturally their ignorant and wicked education puts them in the course and tide of the world, which carries them away irresistibly to hell; how one sinner confirms and animates another, in the same sinful course, till they are all past hope, or remedy: how the rich are taken with the baits of sensual pleasures, and the poor lost in the brake of distracting, worldly cares, except here and there a soul plucked out of the snare of the devil, by the wonderful power, and arm of God. On the one side, you may see multitudes drowned in open profaneness and debauchery, and, on the other side, many thousands securely sleeping in the state of civility and morality: some key-cold, and without the least sense of religion; others hell-hot with blind zeal, and superstitious madness against true godliness, and the sincere practisers of it. Some living all their days under the ordinances of God, and never touched with any conviction of their sin and misery; others convinced, and making some faint offers at religion; but their convictions (like blossoms nipped with a frosty morning) fall off, and no fruit follows. And as rubies, sapphires, and diamonds are very few, in comparison of the pebbles and common stones of the earth; so are true Christians in comparison of multitudes that perish in the snares of Satan.
Inf. How little reason have the unregenerate to glory, and boast
themselves in their earthly acquisitions and successes, while in
the mean time, their souls are lost! They have gotten other things,
but lost their souls. It is strange to see how some men, by rolling
a small fortune up and down the world (as boys do a snowball) have
increased the heap, and raised a great estate; they have attained
their design and aim in the world, and hug themselves in the
pleased thoughts of their happiness; but, alas, among all the
thoughts of their gains, there is not one thought of what they have
lost. O if such a thought as this could find room in their hearts,
"I have indeed gotten an estate, but I have lost my soul! I have
much of the world, but nothing of Christ, gold and silver I have,
but grace, peace, and pardon I have not; my body is well provided
for, but my soul is naked, empty, and destitute." Such a thought,
like the sentence written on the wall, would make their hearts fail
within them. What a rapture and transport of joy did the sight of a
full barn cast that worldling into!
O how many have not only lost their souls, while they have been drudging for the world, but have sold their souls to purchase a little of the world! Parted, by consent, with their best treasure for a very trifle, and yet think they have a great bargain of it! Surely, if poor sinners did but apprehend what they have lost, as well as what they have gained, their gains would yield them as little comfort as Judas’ money did, for which he sold both his soul and Saviour. Instead of those pleasing frolics of wanton worldlings, what a cold shiver would run through all their bones and bowels, did they but understand what it is to lose a gracious God, and a precious soul, and both eternally, and irrecoverably!
The just God remains still to avenge and punish the sinner; but the favour of God, that friendly look is gone; the peace of God, you heaven upon earth, is gone, the essence of the soul remains still, but its purity, peace, joy, hope, and happiness, these are gone; and these being gone, what can remain, but a tormenting, piercing sight of those things, for which you have sold them?
Infer. 8. Hence let us estimate the evil of sin, and see what a dreadful thing that is, which men commonly sport themselves with, and make so light of: it is not only a wrong and injury to the soul, but the loss and utter ruin of the soul for ever.
It is said,
Sin does not destroy the being of the soul by annihilation, but it does that which the damned shall find, and acknowledge to be much worse; it cuts off the soul from God, and deprives it of all its felicity, joy, and pleasure, which consists in the enjoyment of him. Such is the dolefulness and fearfulness of this result and issue of sin, that when God himself speaks of it, he puts on a passion, and speaks of it with the most feeling concernment. Ezek. xxxii;. 11. "As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked: Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, O house of Israel? q. d. Why will you wilfully cast away your own souls? Why will you choose the pleasures of sin for a season, at the price of my wrath and fury poured out for ever? O think of this, you that make so light a matter of committing sin! We pity those, who, in the depth of melancholy or desperation, lay violent hands upon themselves, and in a desperate mood, cut their own throats; but certainly for a man to murder his own soul, is an act of wickedness as much beyond it, as the value of the soul is above that of the body.
Inf. 4. What an invaluable mercy is Jesus Christ to the world, who came on purpose to seek and to save such as were lost?
In Adam all were shipwrecked and cast away: Christ is the plank
of mercy, let down from heaven to save some. The loss of souls by
the fall, lead been as irrecoverable as the loss of the fallen
angels, had not God, in a way above all human thoughts and counsel,
contrived the method of their redemption. It is astonishing to
consider the admirable harmony and glorious triumph of all the
divine attributes, in this great project of heaven, for the
recovery of lost souls. It is the "wonder of angels,"
But what is most astonishing, is, that so great a person as the
Son of God, should come himself from the Father’s bosom, to
save us, by putting himself into our room and stead, being made a
curse for us,
How seasonable was this work of mercy, both in its general
exhibition to the world, in the incarnation of Christ, and in his
particular application of it to the soul of every lost sinner, by
the Spirit! When he was first exhibited to the world, he found them
all lost sheep gone astray, every one turning to his own way,
And how seasonable was it, in its particular application? How securely were we wandering onwards in the paths of destruction, fearing no danger, when he graciously opened our eyes by conviction, and pulled us back by heart-turning grace! No mercy like this: it is an astonishing act of grace. It stands alone!
Inf. 5. If there be so many ways to hell, and so few that escape it, how are all concerned to strive, to the utmost, in order to their own salvation?
In
By gate understand whatsoever is introductive to blessedness and salvation; by the epithet strait, understand the difficulties and severities attending religion; all that suffering and self-denial, which those that are bound for heaven should reckon upon, and expect: and by striving understand the diligent and constant use of all those means and duties, how hard, irksome, and costly soever they are. The word αγωνιζεσθε has a deep sense and emphasis, and imports striving, even to an agony; and this duty is enforced two ways upon him, and every man else: First, by the indisputable sovereignty of Christ, from whom the command comes; and also from the deep interest and concern every soul has in the commanded duty. It is not only a simple compliance with the will of God, but what also involves our own salvation and eternal happiness in it: our great duty, and our greatest interest are twisted together in this command; your eternal happiness depends upon the success of it. A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully, i. e. successfully and prevalently. O therefore, so run, so strive, that ye may obtain! If you have any value for your souls, if you would not be miserable to eternity, strive, strive! Believe it, you would find that the assurance of salvation drops not down from heaven in a night dream, as the Turks fable their Alcoran to have done in that lailato hazili, night of demission, as they call it; no, no; the righteous themselves are scarcely saved; many seek, but few find. Strive, therefore, as men and women that are heartily concerned for their own salvation; sit not, with folded arms, like so many heaps of stupidity and sloth, while the door of hope is yet open, and such a sweet voice from heaven calls to you, saying, Strive, souls, strive, if ever you expect to be partakers of the blessedness that is here to be enjoyed; strive to the utmost of your abilities and opportunities. Such an heaven is worth striving to obtain, such an hell is worth striving to escape, such an invaluable soul is worth striving to save.
I confess, heaven is not the purchase or reward of your striving: no soul shall boastingly say there, Is not this the glory which my duties and diligence purchased for me? And yet, on the other side, it is as true, that without striving you shall never set foot there. Say not, it depends upon the pleasure of God, and not upon your diligence; for it is his declared will and pleasure, to bring men to glory in the way, though not for the sake of their own striving. As in the works of your civil calling, you know all the care, toil, and sweat of the husbandman, avails nothing of itself, except the sun and rain quicken and ripen the fruits of the earth, and yet no wise man will neglect ploughing and harrowing, sowing and weeding, because these labours avail not, without the influences of heaven, but waits for them in the way of his duty and diligence. Rational hope sets all the world to work. Do they plough in hope, and sow in hope, and will you not pray in hope, and hear in hope? You that know your souls to be hitherto strangers to Christ and the regenerating work of the Spirit; how is it that you take them not aside sometimes out of the distracting noise and hurries of the world, and thus bemoan them?
"O my poor graceless, christless, miserable soul, how sad a case are you in! Others have, but you never felt the burden of sin; thousands in the world are striving and labouring, searching and praying, to make their calling and election sure; while you sit still with folded hands, in a supine regardlessness of the misery that is hastening upon you. Can you endure the devouring wrath of God? Can you dwell with everlasting burnings? Have you fancied a tolerable hell? Or, is it easy to perish? Why do you not cast yourself at the feet of Christ, and cry, as long as breath will last, Lord, pity a sinful, miserable, undone, and self-condemning soul? Lord, smite this rocky heart, subdue this stubborn will, heal and save an undone soul ready to perish: The characters of death are upon it, it must be changed or condemned, and that in a little time. Bowels of pity, hear the cry of a soul distressed, and ready to perish.
And you that do not understand the case and state your souls are
in, have you never a bible near you? O turn to those places,
Redeeming the time (or opportunity) because the days are evil.
Time is deservedly reckoned among the most precious mercies of this life; and that which makes it so valuable are the commodious seasons and opportunities for salvation which are vouchsafed to us therein: opportunity is the golden spot of time, the sweet and beautiful flower, growing upon the stalk of time. If time be a ring of gold, opportunity is the rich diamond that gives it both its value and glory. The apostle well knew the value of time; and seeing how prodigally it was wasted by the most, does therefore in this place, earnestly press all men to redeem, save, and improve it with the utmost diligence. In this, and the former verse, we have,
1st, The duty enjoined, Walk circumspectly.
2ndly, The injunction explained;
1. More generally, Not as fools, but as wise.
2. More particularly, Redeeming the time.
3. The exhortation strongly enforced with a powerful motive, because the days are evil.
Among these particulars, my discourse is principally concerned about the redemption of time, or opportunities, which in this life are graciously vouchsafed us, in order to that which is to come: And here it will be needful to enquire,
1. What the apostle means by time.
2. What by the redemption of time.
1. Time is taken more largely and strictly according to the double acceptation of the Hebrew word תע which signifies sometimes time, and sometimes occasion, season, or opportunity, and accordingly is expressed by χρονος and χαιρος, tempo and tempestivitas: the latter is the word here used, and denotes the commodiousness and fitness of some parts of time above others, for the successful and prosperous management and accomplishment of our main and great business here, which is to secure our interest in Christ, and glorify God in a course of fruitful obedience. For these great and weighty purposes our time is graciously lengthened out, and many fit opportunities presented us in the revolutions thereof.
2. By the redemption of time, we must understand the study, care, and diligence of Christians, at the rate of all possible pains, at the expense of all earthly pleasures, ease, and gratifications of the flesh, to rescue their precious seasons, both of salvation and service, out of the hands of temptations, which so commonly rob unwary souls of them. Satan trucks with us for our time, as we did at first with the silly Indians for their gold and diamonds, who were content to exchange them for glass beads, and tinsel toys. Many fair seasons are forced, or cheated out of our hands, by the importunity of earthly cares, or deceitfulness of sensual pleasures: at the expense and loss of these, we must redeem and rescue our time for higher and better uses and purposes. We must spend these hours in prayer, meditation, searching our hearts, mortifying our lusts, which others do, and our flesh fain would spend, in sensual pleasures and gratifications of the fleshly appetite. If ever we expect to win the port of glory, we must be as diligent and careful as seamen are, to take every gale that blows, directly or obliquely, to set them forward in their voyage. The note from hence is this:
Doct. That the wisdom of a Christian is eminently discovered in saving and improving all opportunities in this world, for that world which is to cone.
God hangs the great things of eternity upon the small wires of times and seasons in this world. That may be done, or neglected in a day, which may be the ground work of joy or sorrow to all eternity. There is a nick of opportunity which gives both success and facility to the great and weighty affairs of the soul as well as body; to come before it, is to seek the bird before it be hatched; and to come after it, is to seek it when it is fled. There is a twofold season, or opportunity of salvation.
1. One was Christ’s season for the purchase of it.
2. The other is ours for the application of it.
1. Christ had a season assigned him for the impetration and
purchase of our salvation; so you hear his Father bespeaking him,
2. Men have their seasons and opportunities for the application of Christ and his benefits, to their own souls:2 Cor. vi. 1, 2. "We then as workers together with God, beseech you also, that you receive not the grace of God in vain; for he says, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee. Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." He exhorts the Corinthians not to dally or trifle any longer in the great concerns of their salvation; for now, says he, is your day. Christ had his day to purchase it, and he procured a day also for you to apply it, and this is that day; you enjoy it, you live under it: that golden day is now running: O! see that you frustrate not the design thereof, by receiving the gospel grace in vain.
Now two things concur to make a fit season of salvation to the souls of men.
1. The eternal means and instruments.
2. The agency of the Spirit internally lay, or with those external means.
1. Men have a season of salvation, when God sends the means and instruments of salvation among them. When the gospel is powerfully preached among a people, there is a door opened to them:2 Cor. ii. 12. "When I came to Troas to preach the gospel, a door was opened to me of the Lord." God, as it were, unlocks the door of heaven by the preaching of the gospel: Souls have then an opportunity to step in and be saved.
2. But yet it is not a wide and effectual door (as the
apostle phrases it,
There is a season, when by the fresh impression of some
ordinance or providence of God, men’s hearts
are awakened, and their affections stirred. It is now with the
souls of men as it is with fruit trees in the spring, when they put
forth blossoms; if they knit and set, fruit follows, if they be
nipped and blasted, no fruit can be expected. For all convictions
and motions of the affections are to grace, much the same thing as
blessings are to fruit, which are but the rudiments thereof,
fructus imperfectus et ordinabilis, somewhat in order to it;
and look, as that is a critical and hazardous season to trees, so
is this to souls. I do not say it is in the power of any soul to
make the work of the Spirit effectual and abiding, by adding his
endeavours to the Spirit’s motions; for then conversion would
not be the free and arbitrary act of the Spirit, as in
1. Deep, serious, and fixed consideration, which lets conviction
deep into the soul, and settles it, and roots it fast in the heart,
2. The first stirrings and motions of the Spirit upon
men’s hearts, do then become a season of salvation to them,
when they are accompanied with spiritual, fervent, and frequent
prayer: so it was with Paul,
3. Then do those motions of the Spirit on men’s hearts
make a season of salvation to them, when they retrain and settle in
the heart, and are in them per modum quietus, by way
of rest and abode, following the man from place to place, from day
to day; so that whatever unpleasant diversions the necessities and
encumbrances of this world at any time give, yet still they return
again upon the heart, and will not vanish or suffer any longer
suspension: but in others, who lose their blessed advantage and
season, it is quite contrary;
4. An anxious solicitude and inquisitiveness about the means and
ways of salvation, speaks an effectual door of salvation to be set
open to the souls of men,
5. Lastly, That which secures and completes this work, is the execution of those purposes and convictions, by falling, without delay, to the work of faith and repentance in good earnest, dallying no quote with so great a concern, standing no longer at shall I? shall I? when meanwhile time flies away, and opportunities may be lost: but bring their thoughts and debates to a peremptory resolution, as the Lepers at Samaria did; and seeing themselves shut up to one only door of hope, there they resolve to take their station, lying at the feet of Jesus Christ, and casting their poor burdened souls upon him, whatever be the issue. When the Spirit of God ripens the first motions to this, and carries them through that critical season thus far, there is an effectual door of opportunity opened indeed: this is an acceptable time, a day of salvation: but oh! how many thousands miscarry in this season, and like trees removed from one soil to another, die in the removal!
But certainly, it is the most solemn and important concern of every soul to watch upon all these scans of salvation, when God comes nigh to them by convictions and notions of his Spirit; and to put the same value upon these things that they do upon their souls, and the salvation of them. This is the door of hope set open, a fresh gale to carry you home to your port of glory. Salvation is now come nigh to your souls; there is but a little between you and blessedness. Arise and happy is that soul which knows and improves its season. To persuade and press men to discern and improve such seasons as these, is the principal work of the preachers of the gospel, and that special work to which I now address myself, in the following motives and arguments.
Arg. 1. And first, who, that has the free exercise of reason, and the sense of a future eternal estate, would carelessly neglect any season of salvation, while he sees all the rational world so carefully attending, and watching all opportunities to promote and secure their lower concerns and designs for the present life?
Is not the saving a man’s soul as weighty a concern as the getting of an estate? You cannot but observe how careful merchants are, to nick the opportunity which promises them a good turn; how do poor seamen look out for a wind to waft them to their port, and industriously shift their sails, to improve every flair that may set them on their voyage; how many miles tradesmen will travel to be in season at a fair, to put off, or purchase goods to their advantage: No entertainments, recreations, or importunities of friends can prevail with any of these, to lose a day on which their business depends; all things must give way to their business; they all understand their seasons, and will not be diverted. But, alas! what childish toys are all these, compared with their salvation! What is the loss of a little money to the loss of a man’s soul? If a man’s life depended upon his being at such a place, by such a precise hour, sure he would not oversleep his time that morning; and had he but the least fear of coming too late, every stroke of the clock would strike to his heart; and yet remissness and carelessness, in such a case as this, is infinitely more excusable than in the matter of salvation. Certainly the solicitude and care of all the world for the interests thereof, yea, your own diligence and circumspection in temporal things, will be an uncontrollable and confounding self-conviction to you in the day of your account, and leave you without plea or apology for your supine neglects of the seasons of salvation.
Arg. 2. The consideration of the uncertainty and slippery
nature of these spiritual seasons, must awaken in us all care and
diligence to secure and improve them: This nick of opportunity is
tempus labile, a slippery season; it is but short in itself;
and very uncertain: "Today, whilst it is said today (says the
apostle) if ye will hear his voice,"
1. Presumptuous hopes.
2. Discouraging fears.
1. Presumptuous hopes, which put it too far forth, and persuade us this season is yet to come; that we have time before us, and that tomorrow shall be as today. "Thus through presumption men hope, and by their presumptuous hopes they perish." This is the ruin of most souls that perish.
2. Discouraging fears put it too far back, and represent it as long since past and gone, while it is yet in being, and in our hands. By such pangs of desperation, Satan cuts the nerves of industry and diligence, and causes souls to yield themselves as by consent for lost, and hopeless, even while the gospel is opening their eyes, to see their sin and misery, which is a part of the work in order to their recovery. Thus the eyes of thousands are dazzled that they cannot discern the season of mercy, and so it slides from them as if it had never been.
God came near to them in the means of their conversion, yea, and nearer in the motions of his Spirit upon their consciences and affections; but they knew not the time of their visitation, and now the things of their peace are hid from their eyes. Had those convictions been obeyed, and those purposes that here begotten in their hearts, been followed by answerable executions of them, happy had they been to all eternity: But their careless neglects have quenched them, and the door is shut and who knows whether it may be opened any more? O dally not with the Spirit of God, resist not his calls! His motions on the soul are tender things; they may soon be quenched, and never recovered.
Arg. 3. Neglect not the seasons of mercy, the day of
grace, because opportunity facilitates the great work of your
salvation; it is much easier to be done in such a season than it
can be afterwards: An impression is easily made on wax, when
melted, but stay till it be hardened, and if you lay the greatest
weight on the seal, it leaves no impression upon it. Much so it is
with the heart, there is a season when God makes it soft and
yielding, when the affections are thawed, and melted under the
word; conscience is full of sense and activity, the will pliable:
Now is the time to set in with the motions of the Spirit; there is
now a gale from heaven, if you will take it, and if not, it tarries
not for man, nor waits for the sons of men: Neglect of the season
is the loss of the soul. The heart, like melted wax, will naturally
harden again, and then to how little purpose are your own feeble
essays?
Arg. 4. The infinite importance and weight of salvation, is alone, instead of all motives and arguments, to make men prize and improve every proper season for it. It is no ordinary concern, it is your life, yea, it is your eternal life; the solemnity and awfulness of such a business as this is enough to swallow up the spirit of man. O what an awful sound have such words as these, Ever with the Lord? Suppose you saw the glory of heaven, the full reward of all the labours and sufferings of the saints, the blessed harvest of all their prayers, tears, diligence, and self-denial in this world; or suppose you had a true representation of the torments of hell, and could but hear the wailings of the damned, for the neglect of the season of mercy, and their passionate, but vain wishes for one of those days which they have lost: Would you think any care, any pains, any self-denial too much, to save and redeem one of these opportunities? Surely you would have a far higher estimation of them than ever you had in your lives.
A trial for a man’s whole estate is accounted a solemn business among men, the cast of a dye for a man’s life is a weighty action, and seldom done without anxiety of the mind, and trembling of the hand: Yet little these are but children’s play compared with salvation work.
Three things put an unspeakable solemnity upon this matter; it is the precious soul, which is above all valuation, that lies at stake, and is to be saved, or lost. The saving or losing of it is not for a time, but for ever; and this is the only season in which it will be eternally saved or cast away. All hangs upon a little inch of time, which, being over-slipped and lost, is never more to be recalled or recovered. Lord! with what serious spirits, deep and weighty considerations, fears, and tremblings of heart, should men and women attend the seasons of their salvation!
Believe it, reader, since your soul projected its first thoughts, there never was a more weighty and concerning, subject than this presented to your thoughts. O! therefore, let not your thoughts trifle about it, and slide from it as they use to do in other things of common concernment.
Arg. 5. If we set any value on the true pleasure of life, or solid comfort of our souls at death, let us by no means neglect the special seasons and opportunities of salvation we now enjoy.
These two things, the pleasure of life, and comforts in death, should be prized by every man more than his two eyes, certainly no being at all is more desirable than a being without these. Take away the true, spiritual pleasure of life, and you level the life of man with the beast that perishes; and take away the hope and comfort of the soul in death, and you sink him infinitely below the beasts, and make him a being only capable of misery for ever.
Now there can be no true, spiritual pleasure found in that soul
that has neglected and lost his only season of salvation: All the
solid delight and comfort of life results from the settlement and
security of a man’s great concern in the proper season
thereof. The true mirth of the converted Prodigal bears date
from the time of his return, and reconciliatory to his
father,
And for hope and comfort in death, let none be fond to expect it, till he has first complied with, and obeyed God’s call in the time thereof: A careless life never did, nor never will produce a comfortable death. What is more common among all that die, not stupid and senseless, as well as unregenerate and christless, than the bitter, dolorous complaints of their misspent time, and losing their seasons of mercy? Reader, if you would not feel that anger you have seen and heard others to be in on this account, know the time of your visitation, and finish your great work while it is day.
Arg. 6. Neglect no season of salvation which is
graciously afforded you, because your time is short; death and
eternity are at the door. "You know that you must shortly put old
these tabernacles," 2 Pet. i. 13, 14. that when a few years are
come, you "shall go the way whence you shall not return",
The Use
I shall close all with a word of exhortation, persuading (if
possible) the careless and unthinking neglecters of their precious
time and souls, to awake out of that deep and dangerous security in
which they lie fast asleep on the very brink of eternity, and
"today, while it is yet called today," to hear God’s voice
calling them to repentance and faith, and thereby to Christ and
everlasting blessedness. "Behold, he yet stands at the door, and
knocks,"
1. What a mercy it is, to have your lot providentially cast
under the gospel; to be born under, and bred up with the means and
instruments of conversion and salvation. We have lived from our
youth up, under the calls of God, and within the joyful sound or
the gospel; "God hath not dealt so with other nations",
2. How great a mercy it is, to have your lines lengthened out hitherto by God’s patience under the gospel! That neither that golden lamp, nor the lamp of your life, (both which are liable to be extinguished every moment) are yet put out. Thousands and ten thousands, your contemporaries, are gone out of the hearing of the voice of the gospel, they shall never hear another call; the treaty of God is ended with them; the master of the house is risen up, and the doors are shut. Your neglects and provocations have not been inferior to theirs: but the patience and goodness of God has exceeded and abounded to you beyond whatever it did to them.
3. Bethink yourselves what an aggravation of your misery it will
be, to sink into lieu with the calls of God sounding in your ears!
To sink into eternal misers, between the tender, out-stretched arms
of mercy! This is the hell of hell, the emphasis of damnation, the
racking engine on which the consciences of the dammed are tortured.
"And you Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven, shall be brought
down to hell",
4. Let no man expect that God will hear his cries and intreaties
in time of misery, who neglects and slights the calls of God in
time of mercy. God calls, but men will not hear: the day is coming,
"when they shall cry, but God will not hear,"
5. Beware of neglecting any call of God, because that call you
are now tempted to neglect, may be the last call that God ever
intends to give your souls. Sure I am, there is a call which will
be the last call of God to rebellious sinners, and after that no
more calls, but an eternal deep silence: his Spirit shall not
always strive with men; and the more motions and calls you have
already slighted, the more probable it is that this may be the last
voice of God in a way of mercy to your soul: and what if, after
this, God should seal up your heart, and judicially harden it? make
your will utterly inflexible, and your ears deaf, as he threatens,
6. While your hearts put off and neglect the calls of God, you
can by no means arrive to the evidence and assurance of your
election; for your election is only secured to you by your
effectual calling, 2 Pet. i. 10. There is no way for men to discern
their names written in the book of life, but by reading the work of
sanctification in their own hearts
7. What reason have you why you should not presently embrace the call of God, and thankfully lay hold only on the first opportunity and season of salvation? Have you any greater matters in hand than the salvation of your precious souls? Is there any thing in this world that more concerns you? If the affairs of this life be so indispensably necessary, and those of the world to come so indifferent; if you think that meat and drink, trade and business, wife, and children are such great things, and Christ, the soul, and eternity, such little things; or if you think salvation to be a work of the greatest necessity, and yet may safely enough be put off to an uncertain time, I may assure you, you will not be long of this mind. How soon are all the mistakes of men in these matters rectified in a few moments after death! Rectified, I say, but not remedied; your opinion will be changed, but not your condition.
8. Do you not every day easily and readily obey the calls of Satan and your own lusts, while God and conscience are suffered to call and strive with you in vain? If Satan or your lusts call you to the tavern, to the world, and sinful pleasures, you speedily comply with their call, and yield a ready obedience; if pride or covetousness call, or passion and revenge call, they need not call twice; and shall God and conscience call only in vain? Lord, what a creature is man become! If a vain companion call, you have no power to deny him; if God call, you have no ear to hear him.
9. You cannot but observe the obedience and diligence of many others, how seriously, painfully, and assiduously they ply, and follow on the work of their own salvation, and yet are no more concerned in the events and consequences of these things than you are. Does it not trouble you when you compare yourselves with them? Do not such thoughts as these sometimes arise in your hearts upon such observations? "Lord, what a difference is there like to be between their end and mine, when there is so apparent a difference in our course and conversation? Does not God distinguish persons in this world by the frames of their hearts, and tenor of their lives, in order to the great distinction he will make between one and another in the day of judgment? Have not I as precious a soul to save or lose as any of them? What is the matter that I sit with folded arms, while they are working out their salvation with fear and trembling? Why should any man or woman in the world be more careful for their souls than I for mine? Surely its capacity and excellency is equal with theirs, though my care and diligence be so unequal."
10. To conclude, God will shortly give you an irresistible call to the grave, and after that his voice shall call to you in your graves, Arise, ye dead, and come to judgement: But woe be to you, woe and alas that ever you were born, if you should hear the call of God to die, before you have heard and obeyed his call to Christ! Will your deathbed be easy to you? Can you with any hope or comfort shoot the gulf of eternity before you have done one act for the security of your own souls from the wrath to come? It is a dreadful thing for a poor christless soul to sit quivering upon the lips of a dying sinner, not able to say, nor yet endure a parting pull from the body, in such a case as it is.
In a word, If that God had made, and will shortly judge you; if the Redeemer that shed his invaluable blood, and now offers you the purchases and benefits of it; if you have any love to, or care of your own souls, which are more worth than the whole world; if you have any value for heaven, or dread of hell, then, for God’s sake, for Christ’s sake, for your precious soul’s sake, trifle with heaven and hell no longer, but be in earnest to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Could I think of any other means or motives to secure your souls from danger, I would surely use them: could I reach your hearts effectually, I would deeply impress this great concern upon them: But I can neither do God’s part of the work, nor yours; it is some ease to me, I have in sincerity, (though with much imperfection and feebleness) done part of my own: The Lord prosper it by the blessing of his Spirit in the hearts of them that read it. Amen.
Genesis
1 1:24 1:24 1:25 1:26 1:27 2:2 2:7 2:17 3:6 3:19 5:29 6:3 7:2 15:16 18:2 18:19 23:4 28:12 32:1 32:2 34:30 43:29 43:30 43:31 46:26
Exodus
6:9 7:1 15:26 19:10 20:10 23:2 28:38 30:15 33:18 33:18 33:19 33:19 33:20 33:20 33:20
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
12:8 12:9 15:9 15:9 18:10 18:10 18:11 18:11 30:20
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
1:6 2:2 2:23 10:10 13:4 14:6 14:12 14:13 14:18 18:12 18:17 21:20
2 Kings
2:11 3:11 4:18 4:19 4:20 4:32 4:33 4:34 4:35 4:36 4:37 10:15 10:16
2 Chronicles
Job
1:7 1:10 3:11 3:12 3:17 4:15 4:21 4:21 5:6 5:40 6:1 6:2 6:3 6:4 7:9 7:9 7:9 7:10 7:10 7:10 7:10 7:11 7:16 7:20 7:21 8:14 9:8 9:25 9:26 10:1 11:7 12:11 12:20 14:12 14:21 16:22 16:22 16:22 17:1 17:13 17:14 17:14 18:14 19:17 19:25 19:25 19:26 19:26 19:26 19:27 19:27 19:27 20:11 20:11 20:11 20:12 20:13 20:14 20:24 21:13 21:25 21:27 22:14 23:12 26:21 27:5 27:6 27:8 27:9 30:6 30:7 30:23 30:24 31:20 33:4 34:19 35:10 36:21 37:1 39:17
Psalms
2:3 5:3 8 8:3 8:5 8:6 9:6 9:16 9:17 13:10 14:1 16:3 16:11 17:13 17:14 17:14 17:15 17:15 17:15 19:7 22 22:10 27:12 27:13 30:8 30:9 30:9 31:15 33:11 34:7 34:12 35:20 38:13 39:4 39:5 39:5 39:11 40:7 49:11 49:13 49:14 49:18 49:19 51:5 55:22 58:4 63:2 65:14 66:9 68:17 68:17 68:18 69:10 74:20 78:39 84 86:7 88:10 88:11 88:11 88:12 88:12 88:13 88:15 88:16 90:10 90:11 90:12 91:15 93:5 95:10 97:11 104:2 104:29 104:29 109:18 110:3 114:19 119:50 119:59 119:147 139:15 139:16 139:21 146:4 147:20 149:2
Proverbs
1:10 1:24 1:24 1:25 1:25 1:26 4:14 4:18 8:30 8:36 8:81 9:17 9:18 10:21 11:7 11:30 11:30 12:26 13:12 13:12 14:32 14:152 17:16 18:14 18:14 18:14 20:17 22:6 22:8 23:5 23:14 23:26 23:31 23:32 23:32 26:5 29:18 29:25 30:8 31:16
Ecclesiastes
3:19 3:20 3:21 4:13 6:22 7:29 7:29 8:8 8:8 8:8 8:8 8:11 9:5 9:10 9:10 9:10 9:10 9:10 10:7 11 11:8 12:1 12:2 12:6 12:7 12:7 12:7
Song of Solomon
1 2 2 2:5 4:7 4:8 4:11 6:12 6:12
Isaiah
1:9 2:22 3:9 6:3 6:10 6:10 7:2 8:19 8:19 12:23 17:12 25:6 26:19 27:9 28:10 28:11 28:12 28:15 29:10 29:20 29:21 30:33 30:33 33:24 35:3 36:9 37:7 37:37 37:38 38:11 38:11 38:11 38:11 38:18 38:18 38:19 38:19 40:6 40:22 44:20 49:8 49:15 51:12 53:6 53:6 53:7 53:11 53:11 53:12 55:2 55:7 57:1 57:2 57:2 57:2 57:2 57:15 57:20 60:17 61:1 63:16 66:1 66:1 66:2 66:2
Jeremiah
7:31 7:32 10:12 13:23 17:1 18:18 31:15 49:11
Lamentations
Ezekiel
18:4 18:4 22:14 24:13 33:6 33:31 33:31 36:26
Daniel
2:12 3:28 3:28 3:28 4:30 5 5:23 8:13 12:3
Hosea
Amos
Micah
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Zechariah
2:5 3:3 3:4 3:9 4:2 4:3 4:4 6:1 6:13 12:1 12:1 12:1 13:6
Matthew
3:9 3:12 5:25 5:26 5:26 6:21 6:25 6:26 6:32 6:33 7:12 7:13 7:13 7:14 7:22 7:22 8:11 8:12 8:12 8:15 8:29 9:2 9:3 9:3 9:4 9:18 9:23 9:24 9:25 10:20 10:28 10:28 10:28 10:28 10:28 10:28 10:31 10:39 11:28 12:36 12:36 13:19 13:21 13:28 14:51 15:7 15:8 15:9 16:24 16:25 16:26 16:26 16:26 16:26 17:3 17:3 18:7 18:8 18:10 18:10 19:19 19:28 20:28 20:28 20:28 21:31 21:32 22:29 22:30 22:32 22:32 22:37 22:37 22:82 23:15 24:8 24:9 24:10 24:31 25:34 25:41 25:46 26:24 26:41 27:52 27:53 28:46
Mark
Luke
7:12 7:13 7:14 7:15 9:24 10:21 10:42 11:21 11:21 11:21 11:52 12:19 12:19 12:19 12:20 12:20 12:20 12:21 12:26 12:26 12:28 12:50 13:23 13:24 13:25 13:25 13:28 13:526 14:28 15:7 15:7 15:10 15:10 15:24 16 16:8 16:14 16:15 16:19 16:22 16:22 16:23 16:25 16:27 16:81 16:81 18:11 18:11 18:12 19:10 19:41 19:42 20:35 20:36 20:36 20:36 20:36 20:37 20:38 21:34 22:20 23:43 23:43 23:46 23:48 24 24:46 24:47 24:89
John
1:13 2:27 3:3 3:3 3:8 3:8 3:16 3:16 3:18 4:14 4:14 4:24 4:36 4:37 4:86 6:10 8 8:24 8:28 9:3 9:4 9:4 9:4 9:4 11:26 11:39 11:40 11:41 11:42 11:43 11:43 11:44 11:45 12:26 12:35 13:34 14 14:2 14:2 14:2 14:3 14:9 14:20 16:7 16:13 17:2 17:3 17:4 17:6 17:8 17:19 17:24 17:24 19:41 21:15 21:18 21:19
Acts
2 2:24 2:24 2:37 3:19 4:21 7:55 7:56 7:59 7:60 9:11 10:43 13:15 13:36 13:39 13:39 13:86 16:25 17:24 17:25 17:27 17:27 17:81 20:24 20:24 20:24 20:24 20:28 20:32 20:37 20:38 21:17 21:18 23:8 24:16 26:8 26:18 28:20 28:20 28:22
Romans
1:9 1:20 2:5 2:5 2:7 2:7 2:15 3:22 3:22 3:24 3:25 4:3 4:16 4:25 5:1 5:4 5:4 5:5 5:8 5:12 6:7 6:9 6:13 6:21 6:23 6:23 7:21 7:24 8:1 8:1 8:1 8:4 8:4 8:6 8:6 8:7 8:8 8:10 8:10 8:10 8:10 8:11 8:12 8:13 8:13 8:16 8:18 8:18 8:23 8:24 8:25 8:28 8:29 8:30 8:33 8:34 8:34 8:38 8:38 8:39 8:89 9:3 9:11 9:15 9:16 9:16 9:22 9:25 10:8 12:1 12:2 12:2 12:3 13:11 14:9 14:13 14:14 14:15 14:15
1 Corinthians
1 2:9 2:11 2:12 2:12 2:14 3:15 3:22 3:22 5:7 6:9 6:9 6:9 6:10 6:10 6:11 6:13 6:13 6:15 6:16 6:18 6:20 6:20 7:29 7:29 7:29 7:30 7:30 7:31 7:31 9:9 9:24 9:27 9:27 12:2 12:25 12:26 12:32 13:1 13:3 13:8 13:10 13:10 13:10 13:11 13:12 13:12 13:12 13:12 13:12 13:21 15:13 15:20 15:24 15:25 15:26 15:28 15:28 15:28 15:42 15:43 15:43 15:43 15:44 15:44 15:45 15:46 15:55 15:55 15:55 15:55 15:55 15:56 15:56 15:56 15:57 16:9
2 Corinthians
1:8 1:12 1:22 3:12 3:18 4:4 4:6 4:8 4:16 4:18 4:18 4:18 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:2 5:2 5:2 5:2 5:2 5:2 5:3 5:4 5:4 5:5 5:5 5:6 5:6 5:6 5:6 5:7 5:8 5:8 5:8 5:8 5:8 5:8 5:10 5:10 5:11 5:17 5:21 5:21 6:5 7:11 8:9 10:4 10:5 11:2 11:29 12:2 12:2 12:2 12:3 12:7
Galatians
1:8 1:16 2:14 3:10 3:13 3:13 3:16 3:18 4:4 4:5 5:14 6:7 6:7 6:8 6:10 6:15
Ephesians
1:4 1:4 1:5 1:6 1:7 1:9 1:14 1:18 1:19 1:23 2:2 2:3 2:3 2:10 2:10 2:12 2:12 2:13 2:13 3:4 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:6 3:19 4 4:12 4:13 4:13 4:18 4:25 4:30 4:80 5:8 5:16 5:27 5:29 6:12 6:12 6:16 6:16
Philippians
1:20 1:21 1:21 1:23 1:23 1:23 1:23 1:23 1:23 1:28 1:28 1:28 2:6 2:7 2:7 2:16 2:17 3:8 3:11 3:20 3:20 3:21 3:21 3:21 3:21 3:21 3:22 4:1 4:13 12:8
Colossians
1:12 1:12 1:18 1:19 1:29 2:14 2:15 3:1 3:2 3:10
1 Thessalonians
1:5 1:6 1:7 2:19 3:10 4:4 4:5 4:6 4:13 4:14 4:14 4:14 4:14 4:15 4:16 4:16 4:17 4:17 4:17 5:8 5:9 5:9 5:17 5:28
2 Thessalonians
1:5 1:6 1:7 1:8 1:8 1:9 1:9 1:9 2:1 2:2 2:13 2:14 3:2 3:5 3:5 4:10
1 Timothy
3:10 3:16 4:8 4:16 5:5 5:8 5:8 6:9 6:10 6:10 6:16 6:16 6:17
2 Timothy
1:9 1:9 1:10 2:19 2:19 2:19 2:19 3:5 3:15 4:1 4:2 4:6 4:7 4:8 4:8 4:8 4:10 4:10 4:17
Titus
Hebrews
1 1:3 1:14 1:14 1:14 1:14 2:10 2:14 2:24 2:24 3:15 3:15 4:2 4:2 4:3 4:7 4:9 5:12 6:18 6:20 6:20 9:4 9:14 9:23 9:27 9:27 9:27 9:27 9:27 9:27 10:1 10:13 10:19 10:20 10:27 10:27 10:31 10:34 10:34 10:37 11:4 11:4 11:6 11:6 11:9 11:13 11:13 11:13 11:13 11:16 11:16 11:16 11:16 11:18 11:24 11:25 11:25 11:35 11:37 11:40 12 12:4 12:6 12:9 12:9 12:10 12:14 12:14 12:14 12:14 12:23 12:23 12:28 13:5 13:5 13:10 13:17
James
1:14 1:15 1:17 1:23 1:24 1:27 2:5 2:5 2:16 2:19 2:26 2:26 4:14 4:14 4:14 4:15 4:16 5:5 5:5 5:6 5:20
1 Peter
1:1 1:2 1:4 1:6 1:7 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:11 1:12 1:18 1:18 1:19 1:19 1:19 1:23 2:7 2:15 3:18 3:19 3:19 3:19 3:19 4:2 4:4 4:4 4:4 4:11 4:18 4:19 5:8 5:8 5:8
2 Peter
1 John
1:9 2:1 2:2 2:17 2:27 3:2 3:2 3:3 3:3 3:9 3:9 3:9 3:14 3:14 3:16 3:21 3:21 4:5 4:6 4:10 4:16 5:6 5:8 5:10
Jude
Revelation
1:5 2:28 2:28 3:12 3:17 3:20 4 4:10 4:11 4:12 4:13 5:6 5:13 5:14 6:9 6:9 6:10 6:10 6:10 6:10 6:10 6:11 6:11 6:11 6:11 7:9 7:9 7:10 7:11 7:12 7:14 7:14 7:15 7:15 7:16 7:17 7:17 8:3 11:4 11:8 12:11 12:11 12:11 14:5 14:9 14:10 14:11 14:12 14:13 14:13 14:18 18:7 19:10 19:20 20:7 20:12 21:4 21:4 21:8 21:10 21:27 22 22 22:4 22:4 22:5 22:5 22:11 22:11 22:18