Sol. For the clear stating and satisfying this question, I will lay
♦ The understanding and •will are the primary faculties of the soul, and there- fore are called inorganical, because not fixed to any member of the body, as the sensitive appetite and loco-motive powers are to their proper organs. The soul therefore hath the free use and exercise of them in its separate state.
4 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 63
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 gra- cious soul and another, in point of safety. Every regenerate soul is fully secured, in and by Jesus Christ, from the danger of perish- ing, 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 differ- ence, to them all ; Rom. iii. 22. " Even the righteousness of God, ** which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them " that believe, for there is no difference :" by virtue whereof, they are all equally secured from wrath to come, one as well as another. As all that sailed with Paul, so all that die in Christ come safe to the shore of glory, and not one of them is lost. The sting of death smites none that are in Christ.
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, Psal. xci. 15. "I will be with him in trouble," and so doth that, Heb. xiii. 5. " I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Their God is certainly with them all, to order the circumstances of their death, and all the occurrences of that day, to his glory, and their good. Supports I have, (said a good man in such an hour) though suavities I want ; and so they have also who meet with the hardest conflict at death.
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
Q t\ ] c 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, Isa. xxviii. 10, 12. what he feared, many feel. O how nmny days, yea, weeks
64? A TREATISE OF THE SOtJL OF MAN.
and months, have many gracious souls dwelt upon the brink of the pit, crying. How long, Lord, how long?
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 emphatical than the groans and sighs of the living use to be : but yet, comparatively speaking, the death of one, may be stiled 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 differ- ence is found in the worst, as well as in the best men ; some like sheep are laid in the grave, Psal. xhx. 14. others die in the bitter- ness of their soul, Job xxi. 25. and by this no man knows either love or hatred.
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 ariseth 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 re- pose their hearts : and thus they die, much at the rate they lived, poor doubting, and cloudy, though gracious souls. They can nei- ther speak much of the comfort of past experiences, nor of the pre- sent 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 oft-times the most violent con- flicts. 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.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MA^. 65
All darkness disposes to fear, but none like inward darkness. They must like a ship in distress, venture into the harbour in the darC, though they see not their land-marks.
2^/z/, But others have the privilege of an gy^avatf/a, 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 ever- lasting kingdom. What a difference doth God make, not only be- twixt 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, Isa. xxxiii. 24. The sense of pardon swal- lows up the sense of pain.
2. A heart weaned from this world, Heb. xi. 9, 13, 16. A heart loosed from the world, is a foot out of the snare. Mortified limbs are cut off" from the body with little pain.
3. Fervent love to Christ, and longings to be with him, Phil, i. 23. He that loves Christ fervently, must needs loathe absence from Christ proportionably.