The Saints Everlasting Rest, Treatise 2 · Chapter 9
CHAP. IX. Whether the Souls departed enjoy this Rest?
SECT. I.§. 1.
I Have but one thing more to clear, before I come to the Use of this doctrine: And that is, Whether this Rest remain till the resurrection before we shall enjoy it?Question. Or whether we shall have any possession of it before? The Socinians and many others of late among us, think that the soul separated from the body, is either nothing, or at least not capable of happiness or misery. Truly, if it should be so, it would be somewhat a sad uncomfortable doctrine to the godly at their death, to think of being deprived of their glory till the resurrection; and somewhat comfortable to the wicked, to think of tarrying out of hell so long. But I am in strong hopes that this doctrine is false; yea very confident that it is so. I do believe, that as the soul separated from the body, is not a perfect man, so it doth not enjoy the Glory and happiness so fully and so perfectly as it shall do after the Resurrection, when they are again conjoined. What the difference is, and what degree of Glory souls in the mean time enjoy, are too high things for mortals particularly to discern. For the great question, what place the souls of those before Christ,It is a doubt, whether to be in place only D…finitive, & not Circumscriptive, do not contradict the definition of place. of Infants, and of all others since Christ, do remaine in till the Resurrection? I think it is a vain enquiry of what is yet beyond our reach. It is a great question what Place is? But if it be only a circumstant body: and if [to be in a place▪] be only [to be in a circumstant bod…] or in the superficies of an ambient body, or in the concavity o… that superficies, then it is doubtfull whether spirits can be properly said [to be in place] We can have yet no clear conceivings of these things. But that separated souls of Believers do enjoy unconceivable Blessedness and Glory, even while they remain thus separated from the body, I prove as followeth▪ (Beside all those Arguments for the souls Immortality, which you may read in Alex. Rosse his Philosophicall Touchstone, part l…st.)
1. Those words of Paul, 2 Corin. 5.8. Are so exceeding plain, that I yet understand not what tolerable exception can be made agai…st them. ‖Vers. 6.7 8.Therefore we are alwayes confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (For we walk by faith, not by sight) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body▪ and present with the Lord What can be spoken more plainly? so also the 1, 2, 3, & 4. verses of the same Chapter.
2. As plain is that in *Crotius his fancie, …hat to be with Christ is no more then to be Christi depositum, is evidently vain: for so to be with Christ, would not be best of all, seeing that our meer deliverance from present sufferings is not so great a good, as our present life in the service and enjoyment of God in his ordinances and mercies, though accompanied with imperfection, and afflictions; Except he take a stone or a carkass to be happier then a man.Philip. 1.23. For I am in a streight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. What sense were in these words, if Paul had not expected to enjoy Christ till the Resurrection? Why should he be in a streight? Or desire to depart? Should he be with Christ ever the sooner for that? Nay, should he not have been loath to depart upon the very same grounds? For while he was in the flesh, he enjoyed something of Christ, but being departed (according to the Socinians doctrine) he should enjoy no thing of Christ, till the day of Resurrection.
3. And plain enough is that of Christ to the thief: This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. The dislocation of the word, [this day] is but a gross evasion.
4. And sure, if it be but a Parable, of the Rich man in hell, and Lazarus; yet it seemes unlikely to me, that Christ would teach them by such a Parable, as seemed evidently to intimate and suppose the souls happiness or misery presently after death, if there were no such matter.
5. Doth not his Argument against the Sadduces, for the Resurrection, run upon this supposition, That (God being not the God of the dead, but of the living, therefore) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were then living? i. e. in soul; and consequently should have their bodies raised at the Resurrection.
6. Plain also is that in the Revelations, chap. 14. vers. 13. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord, from henceforth, yea saith the Spirit, that they may Rest from their labors, and their works do follow them (i. e. close as the garments on a mans back follow him, and not at such a distance as the resurrection.) For if the blessedness were only in R…sting in the Grave, then a beast or a stone were as blessed; Nay it were evidently a curse, and not a blessing. For was not life a great Mercy? was it not a greater mercy to enjoy all the comforts of life? to enjoy the fellowship of the Saints? The comfort of the ordinances? And much of Christ in all? To be imployed in the delightfull work of God, and to edifie his Church? &c. Is it not a curse to be so deprived of all these? Do not these yeeld a great deal more sweetness, then all the troubles of this life can yeeld us bitterness? Though I think not (as *Doct. Twisse. See Barlows Exercit. post Metaph. Schib. Jo. Franciscus Picus Mirand. saith he, heard of a Pope that in his life time told a familiar friend of his, that he believed not the Immortality of souls; His, friend be…ng dead, appeared to him as he watched, and told him that his soul which he believed to be mortall, he should by the Just Judgement of God, prove to be immortall, to his exceeding torment in eternall fire. This Pope seemeth to be Leo the tenth. Vide Du Plessis Mysterie of Iniquity. pag. 641.some) that it is better to be most miserable, even in hell, then not to be at all; yet it is undeniable, that it is better to enjoy life, and so much of the comforts of life, and so much of God in comforts and afflictions as the Saints do, though we have all this with persecution; then to lye rotting in the grave; if that were all we could expect. Therefore it is some further blessedness that is there promised.
7. How else is it said, That we are come to the Mount Zion, the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of Angels, to the generall Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in Heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. 12.22, 23. Sure at the Resurrection the body will be made perfect as well as the spirit. To say (as Lushington doth) that they are said to be made perfect, because they are sure of it, as if they had it: is an evasion to grosly contradicting the Text, that by such commentaries he may as well deny any truth in Scripture: To make good which, he as much abuseth that of Philip. 3.12.
8. Doth not Scripture tell us that Henoch and Elias are taken up already? And shall we think they possess that Glory alone?
9. Did not Peter, and James, and John see Moses also with Christ on the Mount? Yet the Scripture saith, Moses dyed. And is it likely that Christ did delude their senses, in shewing them Moses, if he should not partake of that glory till the Resurrection?
10. And is not that of Stephen as plain as we can desire? Lord Jesus receive my spirit. Sure if the Lord receive it, it is neither asleep, nor dead, nor annihilated: but it is where he is, and beholds his Glory.
11. The like may be said of that, Eccles. 12.7. The spirit shall return to God who gave it.
12. How else is it said that we have eternall life already? John 6.54. and that the knowledg of God (which is begun here) is eternall life?Polycarpus inter multas praeclaras voces quas fl…mmae admot…s… didit, eo die repraesentandum se dixit coram deo in spiritu. Quo e…d…m tempore M…lito Episcopus Sardensis vir paris si…ceritatis librum scripsit de corpor… & anima, &c. Adeo autem haec sententia m…liore illo s…culo valuit, ut Tertullianus reponat eam inter communes & primas animi conceptiones quae natura communiter appraebenduntur. Calvin. in Psychopannyc. vid. Euseb. Histor. lib. 1. c. 15. tit. c. John 17.3. So 1. John 5.13. And he that believeth on Christ hath everlasting life, John. 3.36. John. 6.47. He that eateth this bread shall not dye, vers. 50. For he dwelleth in Christ, and Christ in him, vers. 56. And as the Son liveth by the Father, so he that eateth him, shall live by him, vers. 57. How is the Kingdom of God, and of heaven (which is eternall) said to be in us? Luk 17.21. Rom. 14.17. Mat. 13.
Surely if there be as great an interruption of our life, as till the Resurrection (which with some will be many thousand yeers) this is no eternall life▪ nor everlasting Kingdom. Lushingtons evasion is, That because there is no time with dead men, but they so sleep, that when they awake, it is all one to them, as if it had been at first; Therefore the Scripture speaks of them, as if they were there already. It is true indeed, if there were no joy till the Resurrection, then that consideration would be comfortable: But when God hath thus plainly told us of it before, then this evasion contradicteth the Text. Doubtless there is time also to the dead, though (in respect of their bodies) they perceive it not. He will not sure think it a happiness to be petrified or stupified, whiles others are enjoying the comforts of life: If he do, it were the best course to sleep out our lives.
13. In Jude 7. The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha are spoken of, as suffering the vengeance of eternall fire. And if the wicked do already suffer eternall fire, then no doubt but the godly do enjoy eternall blessedness. I know some understand the place, of that fire which consumed their bodies, as being a Type of the fire of Hell: I will not be very confident against this exposition; but the text seemeth plainly to speak more.
14. It is also observable, that when John saw his Glorious Revelations, he is said to be in the spirit, Revel. 1.10. & 4.2. and to be carried away in the spirit, Rev. 17.3. & 21.10. And when Paul had his Revelations, and saw things unutterable, he knew not whether it were in the body, or out of the body: All implying, that spirits are capable of these Glorious things, without the help of their bodies.
15. And though it be a Propheticall obscure book, yet it seemes to me, that those words in the Revelations do imply this, where John saw the souls under the Altar, Rev. 6.9. &c.
16. We are commanded by Christ, Not to fear them that can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, Luk. 12.4. Doth not this plainly imply, That when wicked men have killed our bodies,If you would see this subject handled more fully, and all the Arguments answered, which are brought to prove, That souls have neither Joy nor Pain, till the Resurrection, See Calvins Treatise hereof called Psychopannychia. (that is, separated the souls from them) yet the souls are still alive?
17. The soul of Christ was alive when his body was dead: And therefore so shall ours too. For his created nature was like ours, except in sin. That Christs human soul was alive, is a necessary consequent of its hypostaticall union with the Divine nature (as I judg) And by his words to the thief. This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise: so also by his voice on the Cross, Luk. 23.46. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And whether that in, 1 Pet. 3.18, 19. that he went and preached to the spirits in prison, &c. will prove it, I leave to others to judg. Read Illyricus his Arguments in his Clavis Scripturae on this Text. Many think that the opposition is not so irregular, as to put the Dative foreign for foreign as the subject recipent, and the Dative foreign for foreign, as the efficient cause: But that it is plainly to be understood as a regular opposition, that Christ was mortified in the flesh, but vivified in the spirit (that is, in the spirit which is usually put in opposition to this flesh, which is the soul) by which spirit, &c. But I leave this as doubtfull; There's enough besides.
18. Why is there mention of Gods breathing into man the breath of life, and calling his soul a living soul? There is no mention of any such thing in the creating of other creatures: sure therefore this makes some difference between the life of our souls and theirs.
19. It appears in Sauls calling for Samuel to the Witch, and in the Jews expectation of the coming of Elias, that they took it for currant then, that Elias and Samuels soul were living.
20. Lastly, if the spirits of those that were disobedient in the dayes of Noah, were in prison, 1 Pet. 3.19. Then certainly the separated spirits of the Just are in an opposite condition of Happiness. If any think that the word [Prison] signifieth not their full misery, but a reservation thereto: I grant it: yet it importeth a reservation in a living and suffering state: For were they nothing, they could not be in prison.
THE SAINTS Everlasting REST.
The Third Part.
Containing Severall Vses of the former Doctrine of REST.
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the City of my God, New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from my God, and my New Name, Rev. 3.12.
Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, For our God is a consuming fire, Heb. 12.28, 29.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. 15.58.
If Children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joynt-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also Glorified together; For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us, Rom. 8.17, 18.
London Printed by Rob. White, for T. Vnderhill, and F. Tyton, and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in great Woodstreet, and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet. 1649.
To my dearly beloved Friends, The Inhabitants of the City of COVENTRY, Both Magistrates and People; ESPECIALLY Col. John Barker, and Col. Tho. Willoughby, late Governors, with all the Officers, and Souldiers of their Garison. Rich. Baxter Devoteth this Part of this Treatise, in thankful acknowledgment of their great Affection toward him, and ready acceptance of his labors among them (which is the highest recompence, if joyned with obedience, that a faithful Minister can expect.)
HUmbly beseeching the Lord on their behalf, that he will save them from that spirit of Pride, Hypocrisie, Dissention, and Giddiness, which is of late yeers gone forth, and is now destroying, and making havock of the Churches of Christ; And that he will teach them highly to esteem those faithful Teachers whom the Lord hath made Rulers over them, 1 Thes. 5.12, 13. Heb. 13.7, 17. and to know them (so to be) and to obey them; And that he will keep them unspotted of the guilt of those sins, which in these days have been the shame of our Religion, and have made us a scandal or scorn to the World.