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 exam- ples of theirs (which is what I mean by saying they have finished all their icork of obedience on earth) ; yet the benefit of what they did whilst in the body, still remains after they are gone : As the apostle spccfks of Abel, Heb. xi. 4. " Who being dead, yet " speaketh." This way indeed abundance of service will be done for the souls of men upon earth, long after they are gone to heaven. And this should greatly quicken us to leave as much as we can behind us, for the good of posterity, that «/|!^r our decease (as the apostle speaks, 2 Pet. i. 15.) they may have our words and ex- amples in remembrance. But for any service to be done de novo, after death, it is not to be expected : We have accomplished, as a hireling, our day, and have not a stroke more to do.
(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 by 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 ; Adeptofine, cessant media, means are useless when the end is attained. There is no work (saitli Solomon) in the grave. How short soever the soul's stay and abode in the body were, though it were regenerated one day, and separated the next, yet all is wrought upon it, which God ever in-
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 37
tended should be wrouglit in this world, and there is no prepara- tion-work in the other world.
(S.) 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 loseth 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," 1 John ii. 17. " The seed of God remaineth in " us," 1 John iii. 9.
Common gifts fail at death ; but saving grace sticks fast in the soul, and ascends with it into glory. Gracious habits are insepar- able; glory doth not destroy, but perfect them: They are the soul's meetness for heaven. Col. i. 12. and therefore it shall not come into his presence, leaving its meetness behind it. In vain is all the work of the Spirit upon us in this world, if we carry it not along with us into that world, seeing all his works upon us in this life have a respect and relation to the life to come.
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 glorj^ 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," Rev. xiv. 13. They go not before in the notion of merits, to make way for them, but they follow or accompany them as evidences and comfortable experiences. I doubt not, but the very remembrance of what pas- sed betwixt God and the soul here, betwixt the day of its espousals to Christ, and its divorce from the body, will be one sweet ingre- dient in their blessedness and joy, when they shall be singing in the upper region the song of Moses and of the Lamb. They were never given to be lost, or left behind us. And thus you see with what a rich cargo the soul sails to the other world, though if it had no other, it would never drop anchor there.
38 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAK.
Prop. 7. The souls of the just when separated Jrom their bodies^ do not icander up and down in this zcorld^ nor hover about the se~ pulclires where their bodies lie ; nor are they detained in any pur- gatory, in 07'derto their more perfect pur ijication ; nor do they Jail asleep in a benumbed stupid state : but do Jvrthwith 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 pole-star is to a ship in the wide ocean, whither will it not wander ? In what uncertain- ties will it not fluctuate ? and upon what rocks and quick-sands must it inevitably be cast? Many have been the foolish and ground- less 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 any where. The only grounds for this fancy, is the frequent apparitions of the ghost or spirits of the dead, w- hereof many instances are given ; and who is there that is a stranger to such stories .^ Now, if departed souls were fixed any where, this world would be quiet and free from such disturbances.
I make no doubt, but very many of these stories, have been the industrius 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 par- ticularly.