And both these, viz. the divine appointment and pro\4dence, are in pursuance of a double design, or for the payment of a two-fold debt, which God owes to the first and to the second Adam.
(1.) By cutting off the life, or dissolving the tabernacles of wick-
* We die daily, for some part of life is taken away daily, and then also when we in- crease, life decreases, for first we lose infancy, then youth, even to yesterday. What- «ver part of time passes is lost.
8 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
ed 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. Rom. vi. 23. " The wages of sin is death.'' And indeed it is ad- mirable that his patience suffers ungodly men to live so long as thev do, for he endures with much long-suffering, Rom. ix. 22. He sees all their sins, he is grieved at the heart with them ; his for- bearance doth but encourage them the more to sin against him ; Eccl. viii. 11. "Because sentence," Sfc. yet forbears: "Forty years " long was I grieved with this generation," Psal. xcv. 10. And it is wonderful that he hath so much patience under such a load. Ha- bakkuk admired it, Hab. i. IS. " Thou art of purer eyes," Sfc. Yet he suffers them to spend lavishly upon his patience from year to year, but justice must do his office at last.
(2.) By cutting off the Hves 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, Heb. ii. 10. Alas ! it answers not Christ's end and intention in dying, to have his people so remote from him ; John xvii. 24. " He would have them where he is, that they " might behold his glory." Two vehement desires are satisfied by this appointment of God, and its execution, viz.
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, 1 Pet. iii. 18. Though he be in glory, yet his mystical body is not full till all the elect be gathered in by conver- sion, and gathered home by glorification, Eph. i. 23. The church is his fulness. He is not fully satisfied till he see his seed, the souls he died for, safe in heaven ; and then the debt due to him for all his sufferings is fully paid him, Isa. liii. 11. He sees the travail of his soul ; as it is the greatest satisfaction and pleasure a man is ca- pable of in this world, to see a great design which hath been long projecting and managing, at last, by an orderly conduct, brought to its perfection.
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, 2 Thess. iii. 5. Love hath put them into an holy ardour and longing to be with Christ : patience hath qua- hfied and allayed those desires, and supported the soul under the delay. Love cries, come. Lord, come ; patience commands us to wait the appointed time. This appointed time on which so great
A TREATfSE OF THE SOUL OF MAX. 9
hopes and expectations depend, is the time of dissolving these ta- bernacles ; for till then the soul's rest is suspended ; and if it were perfectly freed from all other loads and burdens, both of sin and affliction, yet its very absence from Christ would alone make it rest- less, for it is with the soul in the body, as it is with any other creature that is off its centre, it doth and must gravitate and pro- pend, it is still moving and incHning farther, and feels not itself easy and at rest where it is, be its condition in other respects never so easy. 2 Cor. v. 6. " Whilst we are at home in the body, we *' are absent from the Lord." You have a little shadow, or em- blem of this in other creatures : You see the rivers, though they glide never so sweetly betwixt the fragrant banks of the most plea- sant meadows in their course and passage, yet on they go towards the sea ; and if they meet with never so many rocks or hills to resist their course, they will either strive to get a passage through them, or if that may not be, they will fetch a compass, and creep about them, and nothing can stop them till by a central force they have finished their weary course, and poured themselves into the bosom of the ocean. Or as it is with yourselves, when abroad from your habitations and relations : this may be pleasing a little while ; but if every day might be a festival, it would not long please you, be- cause you are not at home.
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 them- selves, and their capacity of service less to others, so must their de- sires 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 have on earth, will not content them without it : How wise and gracious an appoint- ment 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 Rev. xxii. " The spirit and the bride say. Come. And let him that is athirst " come ; Behold, I come quickly. Even so. Lord Jesus ; Come " quickly." Delays make the heart sad, Prov. xiii. 12. should our commoration on earth be long, our patience had need be much greater than it is ; but under all our burdens here, this is our relief, it is but a little while, and all will be well, as well as our souls can desire to have it.
10 A TKEATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
Inf. 1. ]\Iust we put off these tabernacles ? Is death necessary and Inevitable ? Then it is our icischm to sweeten to ourselves that cup •which we must driiik ; 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 unwilUng : It is to no purpose to shrug at the name, or shrink back from the thing. In ail ages of the world, death hath 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.