A Discourse of the Judgments of God, Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII. The ſecond Reaſon, ſhewing the neceſſity of a purgation upon the ſinful World.
Reaſ. 2 THe defilement that ſin loads the world with, requires a preſent exoneration by the Judgments of God. The day of his righteous Judgment is the great purification of it, when wickedneſs and wicked men ſhall be ſecluded the Creation into their own place. But though this be perfect and final, the Holineſs of God, and his goodneſs to his Creatures require a ſooner mitigation of ſo great an evil; which he provides for by theſe Ante-judgments.
For ſin lying as an impurity upon the moral Creation of God, and under that upon the very natural, there muſt be a purgation ſuitable. All pollutions require ſome kind of removal, elſe accumulating themſelves, they overload and deſtroy. In Nature things run through their own circle, wherein lye ſeveral expedients by which they acquit themſelves from that Sordes they contract: when this is interrupted, ruine is their laſt reſort. The body dyes, and reſolves it ſelf, that it may part with that it had not power to expel, while it held together. Earth and air ſuffer thoſe convulſions and violent ſchiſms upon themſelves, to work out of their bowels and boſoms unfriendly mixtures. The foulneſſes of ſin require higher and nobler purifications, or more ſevere depurgations: For the ſtain they caſt, being upon a more excellent ſtate, argues a deeper vitiouſneſs in that which defiles ſo high, and a more worthy expiation neceſſary; as the Apoſtle ſaies, the patterns of heavenly things (which he calls worldly) are purified with theſe legal ſacrifices; but heavenly things with better then ſuch. Our Saviours diſcourſe of meats not defiling the man, but that which comes out of the heart only, confines things within their own kind, natural within natural, ſpiritual within ſpiritual, and their defilements are peculiar to themſelves. Material things cannot riſe above themſelves in what they pollute, they cannot defile the man: All they do is within their Sphere, in which they roll out of one thing into another. Meats go in at the mouth, enter into the belly, and are caſt out into the draught: They run their round, and finiſh their motion among themſelves. To morrow blots out to day, and is it ſelf defaced by aftertime. One thing wears off another, and all things are in the conſtant flux of the water, for their own purification. The body as it ſtands in a line with theſe things, is of no greater remark, the actions of it come into no greater account.
But the ſpiritual ſtate is in all things great, the Laws of it are Royal, Laws of liberty, wiſdom, juſtice, and goodneſs, elder then time, as ancient to the world as the decrees for the Sea, and rain, for the way of Thunder; then were they ſearched out and declared to man; equal they are as the ballance of the Clouds; juſt as the weights for the winds, as the ſcales in which the mountains were weighed; certain as the Trochees of Nature, ere it was out of tune. All theſe have relation to God, who is the head of this order, and gives a virtue and greatneſs to it. They are all everlaſting, and bear up themſelves conſolidate by Eternity.
Man by his Soul is ſet in this heavenly world, and can no more remove himſelf out of it, then he can his body out of the material one; let his mind be never ſo high in its own elevation, it cannot keep the impreſſions of matter off from his earthy part; much leſs can he by ſenſuality untye his relation to ſpirituality, to which his Soul knits him ſo faſt; God having given a touch and feeling, a ſenſe and judgment, though it be not improved. Whatever a Soul doth, or doth not, that is, wherein it refuſes, or through neglect minds not to act, becomes moſt momentany; for all partakes the ſpirituality of its nature, and receives beauty or deformity, purity or defilement from the powers of that Law within it. A man cannot be a beaſt, though he degenerate like one.
Sin then receiving force from the Soul that commits it, mounts the ſpiritual Creation, and reſts it ſelf in the world of Righteouſneſs, as a defilement in it adheres to it; as death, deformity, ſickneſs, emptineſs, darkneſs, do to the ſolid parts of the Creation; and thereby challenge a place in this world, which yet in themſelves are nothing but the want of the due perfection of the ſubject to which they adjoyn.
Thus have we conſidered theſe two worlds as diſtinct; yet is there in this world an Ordo ad Spiritualia, through which it is inclaſped under the Government of the higher, having a capacity to be ſublimated to ends above it ſelf, which is as a cement betwixt them both; whence it comes to paſs, that ſin deſcends upon the lower by neglect, or inverſion of the order wherein it ſtands: the firſt of which is to depreſs the works of God below his intention and aim at his own Holineſs in them, and is to diſanul it: the latter is to debauch the Creatures of God to luſt, blotting out his ſuperſcription, and ſetting that of ſin in the room; and both are to build up evil grounded in matter to the third Heaven. Thus though meats cannot defile the man, yet the man may defile himſelf by meats, and defile the meats; as on the other ſide, meats commend him not to God; yet he may by a holy uſe, by the Word, and prayer, commend himſelf, and ſanctifie them: he is able by his Soul to touch them into gold, or to taint them with his own impurity.
And this very innate power, though a man never conſiders it, nor behaves himſelf worthily by his judgment and caution of it, is yet the ſame as to the ſubſtance, as if he had a Soul never ſo greatned and inlarged by improvement.
When there is a defilement among ſpiritual things, every thing in the whole ſpiritual Nature keeps it extant, and puts a ſeal upon it; the certainty and unchangeableneſs of thoſe holy Laws; the all-ſeeing Eye of God; an infinite mind and underſtanding, an infinite purity, an everlaſting Juſtice and Judge; the conſent of the whole world of ſpirits with him; the immortality of the Soul, from which the defilement immediately riſes, and recoiling reſts. From whence it comes to paſs, that what men do with their Souls, they never loſe, but live in the midſt of all their actions, whether good or evil. For God keeping in force theſe Laws, retains and binds the Soul ſinning under the ſenſe of what it hath done, and ſends down the charges of his wrath into the conſcience, and diſpatches puniſhments as he pleaſes, ever preſerving inviolable records of every tranſgreſſion, laid up within his own Juſtice, and regiſtred in the guilty breaſt, which ſucks in the air it hath breathed out, and if evil, is ſetled into a defilement ſo great, that nothing is pure to it.
Let us then compute things, and when we find ſo many men in the world, whoſe actions are going out by hundreds and thouſands, having no ballance of righteouſneſs upon them, nor ſifted by any examination; but rolling down that great precipice and declivity of humane Nature all corrupted, not only with their own violence, but by the force of that power of darkneſs that concurs with them, what muſt the amount of the impurity then be?
That an Eternal Judgment countervails all this evil in number, weight, duplicate page duplicate page duplicate page and meaſure, ſhall be hereafter diſcourſed: But how Judgments take off the foulneſs of ſin at preſent, is now to be conſidered; which may better be conceived by applying their efficacies to every of the particulars of its defilement, in theſe following obſervations.
1. That prime and eternal Holineſs, which with its Glory governs the ſpiritual order and beauty of things in a conform Holineſs, Righteouſneſs, and Purity, as their firſt conſtitution; when offended by the ſin of any of the proper ſubjects of it, is ſecondarily repaired by puniſhment upon the ſinner.
We may conſider this as abſtracted into its own moſt ſpiritual Nature, or formed into Laws, and either way puniſhment repairs it.
1. If in its own ſpiritual Nature we look upon it, there is a ſplendour in punitive Juſtice, which is another mode of that Eternal Holineſs ſhewing it ſelf; it is the zeal and earneſt intention of it, meeting with any thing aliene and receded from it.
The wrath of God is the flame, or light-fire of his infinite purity, in conteſt with iniquity; which gives ſuch a luſtre, that all the Earth is filled with this glory, and is an accidental illumination of the ſuperior ſtate of things: For which had there been no place, undoubtedly all entrances of ſin had been precluded. The Apoſtle ſpeaks of God, that he willing to ſhew his wrath, and make his power known, endured with much long-ſuffering the veſſels of wrath fitted to deſtruction. Knowing how to give reparations to himſelf, he permits to ſin and ſinners a ſcope in their own actions: There is yet no communion betwixt light and darkneſs, only another kind of efficacy of light. For that which endures not the approach of the leaſt evil, but by its own vigour and perfection throws it off with abhorrence and diſdain, can never be defiled; but hath occaſion from evil to manifeſt its own intenſeneſs and ſupremacy, and preſerve in another way the ſame luſtre and greatneſs of the whole ſtate under it.
2. If we conſider this Holineſs, as it is formed into Laws, wherein the ſtate of it is more plain, the firſt honour of a Law is obedience; if that be not paid, the ſecond is puniſhment, which keeps up the Majeſty and greatneſs of it, and even eſtabliſheth its authority; thoſe Laws being only weakned and infringed by tranſgreſſion, which go unrevenged; for then the power paſſes out of the Law, and ſettles in the tranſgreſſion, which from thence aſſumes an authentickneſs, and damnes the Law to an obſoletion. But if the Law hath the offender in its hand to deal ſeverely with, and to condemn, the power is apparently with it, & it can terrifie into its obſervation, thoſe whom it cannot allure by its direction, equity, and rewards; which makes evil a feeble and weak thing: for whoever is bold in it, preſumes upon his own ruine, not only ſerving without protection, but under the certain penalty of dying the death. Thus a further potency of the Law is explained and opened, that elſe had lain hid at leaſt in the effect, viz. that it cannot only command, but avenge. It is true, the natural deſire of every good Law is to be obeyed, and to have the hearts of men burn in innocent flames of affection and devotion to it, rejoycing more in its power to rule well, and do good: but when this is not accepted, the violater is ſtruck by the hand of it, that it may not betray its power to Anarchy and wickedneſs. All the Laws of God have therefore come armed into the world with threats and denunciations of wrath, that the rebellions he foreſaw might not diminiſh ought from the greatneſs of them; and the Judgments that gave being to thoſe threats, and made them true thunderbolts, have come profeſſedly to recompence the injuries done to his commands, and revenge their quarrel, that all may know There is a Government in the world.
2. Judgments are a great expiation of the ſpiritual world it ſelf. God inſtructs the vicegerent powers under him to aſſoil themſelves and a Nation from community in piacular actions, by heaping the guilt upon the offenders head; which proceeding ſeparates the malefactor from the common maſs, and diſmembring him from the ſociety of which he was, diſintereſts that in the perpetration. This is the great meaning of that excommunication recommended by the Apoſtle as of ſo much uſe in the Church of God. This was the ſenſe of Sacrifices, in which beaſts commuted for men, attracted like common ſponges, ſymbolical guilt upon themſelves, and bydeath or that ceremonial exile of the Scape-Goat, were thruſt out of the world for the atonement of it. As therefore things ſet apart to holy ends, and diſtinguiſhed from the ordinary heap, were Nazarited to God; ſo are perſons under this kind of devotion alſo, and have a more unhappy ſacredneſs upon them to his Juſtice, being herein Catharmatical to the reſt, put out from among them, & forced down into the common receptacles of impurity. For when unclean things or perſons are reduced to their own place, as the Apoſtle ſpeaks of Judas, they ceaſe to defile. We ſee throughout the world, pollution ariſes from the boldneſs of things (that for their unworthineſs and impurity ought to be by themſelves, and bound in dark…eſs) appearing openly, and joyning with b…tter company; or when that which is of … b…tter alloy moves downwards, and ſubmits it ſelf to mean allays; like the Sons of God falling in love with the daughters of men: But when noiſomneſs is ſtopped up in its own vaults, and caſt into its own lake, thoſe depurations preſerve the common air wholſome and free, and the great complex is not indamaged.
That therefore which the Juſtice of man is too little and weak for, God who hath a much wide… Jurisdiction, performs by extending his Anathematiſms, his greater or leſſer excommunications (as to his Juſtice appertains) upon greateſt Princes and Nations, till at laſt by that Anathema Maran-atha of caſting into Hell, he makes a purgation ſo perfect, that nothing out of it hath the leaſt breath or exhalation of that great Sewer upon it. For were not that ſegregation to the very utmoſt, it would certainly have been an annihilation; ſo incompatible is the foul ſtate of things with the pure, when brought to their everlaſting and incommutable point.
3. God gives a period to evil, and iniquity comes to an end by his Judgments, which ſometimes fall upon the great Engineers, the workers of iniquity, and either cauſing them to drink the wine of aſtoniſhment, that they have no further ſpirits and life for ſin, or cutting them off in the midſt of their work, force them to leave off to build their Babel; ſometimes he takes from them the inſtruments and matter with which they are at work, ſo that they have no more to do; or laſtly, the very Scene or Stage upon w…ich they are acting; the Cities and Countries that bore them, are as it were removed. Now when God doth any of theſe, there follows a great ſilence of evil, and a ceſſation of the further defilement of it; as a calm and ſtilneſs enſues, when great Tyrants that have made a huge noiſe in the world, go down into the nethermoſt parts of the Earth, and lay their Swords under their heads: or as when Cities that have filled that circuit of Earth they took up with the ſound of their pomp and buſineſs, become a deſolation, an unwonted quiet ſucceeds there, even then there is a preſent ſtop upon that conſtant ſtream of wickedneſs that ran along with the duration of Princes and Cities in their flouriſh, till as their power and greatneſs riſes in ſome other part of the world, ſo a like impiety grows up out of their ruines; the whole courſe of time being ſpent in mowing down thoſegreat repullulations of ſin that are no ſooner cut and gathered in one Age or place, but they ſpring in another, until the harveſt of the Earth is fully ripe, and the laſt time reaped by that ſickle that leaves nothing to be done after it: till then Hiſtory ſwells with theſe deſcriptions, and prophetick Writings moſt livelily repreſent ſuch vindemiations, and to the ends we have now diſcourſed.
4. Herein alſo are the Creatures freed from their unworthy ſervices; the righteous uſe that God makes of them, reſtoring them to that ſanctity that ſtood in dedication to himſelf; in which, if they ſuffer a reſemblance of puniſhment, as they firſt received a ſeemingly culpable imitation of mans ſin, it is but purgatorial; for the whole Creation is by Judgments in a degree now, at laſt perfectly freed from ſoil, and reſtored to its firſt and genuine clearneſs.
5. Man himſelf who is the defiler and moſt defiled, is led by affliction to purification, if ſin hath not eaten ſo deep into him, that he is become one with that accurſed thing, and ſo himſelf fit to be made a curſe. This uſefulneſs of Judgments ſhall be diſpoſed into a diſtinct head of reaſon.