Object. 2. But this hypothesis seems to thwart the account given hi scripture of the rest^ and placid state of separate souls : for look^ as bodies which gravitate and propend do not rest^ so neither do soids which incline and d.esire.
Sol. There is a vast difference betwixt the tendencies, and pro- pensions of souls in the way to glory, and in glory : We that are absent from the Lord, can find no rest in the way ; but those that are with the Lord can rest in Jesus, and yet wait without anxiety, of self-torturing impatience for the accomplishment of the promises to their absent bodies, Rev. vi. 10, 11.
Corollary. Let this provoke all to get sanctified souls, to rule and use these their bodies now for God. This will abundantly sweeten their parting at death, and their meeting again at the re- surrection of the just ; else their parting will be doleful, and their next meeting dreadful. And so much for the doctrine of separation. The Uses of the Point.
Our way is now open to the improvement and use of this excel- lent subject and doctrine of separation ; and certainly it affords as rich an entertainment for our affections, as for our minds, in the following uses ; of which the first will be for our information in six practical inferences.
Irf. 1. If this be the life and state of gracious souls after their separation from the body. Then holy persons ought not to entertain dismal and terrifying thoughts of their oivn dissolution.
The apprehensions and thoughts of death should have a peculiar pleasantness in the minds of believers. You have heard into what a blessed presence and communion death introduceth your souls; how it leads you out of a body of sin, a world of sorrows, the society of imperfect saints, to an innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, to that lovely mount Sion, to the heavenly sanctuary, to the blessed visions of the face of God. Oh ! methinks tliere hath been enough said, to make all the souls, in whom the well-grounded hopes of the life of glory are found, to cry out with the apostle, " We are confident, I say, yea, " and willing rather to be absent from the bodv, and present with *' the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 8.
When good Musculus drew near his end, how sweet and plea- sant was this meditation to his soul ! Here his swan-like song ;
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 97
* Nil sujyerest, vitccfrigiis praecordia capiat ;
Sed, tu Chi'iste, mihi vita pcrennis ades : Quid trepidas anima, ad sedes abitura quietis ?
En tihi ductor adest angclus ille tuus. Linque domum hanc miseram, nunc in sua fata rucnfcm
Quam t'lM fida Dei dextera restituet. Peccast'i ? Scio, sed Christus credentibus in se
Peccata expurgat sanguine cuncta suo. Horribilis mors est ? Fateor^ sed proxima vita est,
Ad quam te Christi gratia certa vocat. Praesto est de Satana, peccata et morte trluviplians
Christus ; ad hunc igitur laeta alacrisque migra.
Which may be thus translated. Cold death my heart invade, my life doth fly : O, Christ, my everlasting life draw nigh. ;
AVhy quiverest thou, my soul, within my breast ? Thine angel's come, to lead thee to thy rest. Quit cheerfully this drooping house of clay ; God will restore it in the appointed day. Hast sinnM "? I know it, let not that be urg'd ; For Christ,' thy sins, with his own blood hath purg'd. Is death affrighting ? True, but yet withal, Consider, Christ through death to life doth call. He triumphs over Satan, sin, and death ; Therefore with joy resign thy dying breath.
IVIuch in the same cheerful frame was the heart of dying Bul- linger*, when his mournful friends expressed their sense of the loss they should sustain by his removal. " Why, said he, if God will " make any farther use of my labours in the ministry, he will re- " new my strength, and I will gladly serve him: But if he please " (as I desire he would) to call me hence, I am ready to obey his '' will ; and nothing more pleasant can befal me, than to leave this " sinful and miserable world to go to my Saviour Christ." O that all, who are out of the danger of death, were thus got out of the dread of death too.
Let them only tremble and be convulsed at the thoughts and sight of death, whose souls must fall into the hands of a sin-reveng- ing God by the stroke of death ; who are to breathe out their last hope, with their last breath. Death is yours, saith the apostle,
* Mdchior Adams, in vita Masculi, p. 535.
f Si Deo visum Juerii, mea opera ultcrius in ccclesia minislerio lUi; ipse vires svjftciet, et libens i/fi pcirebc ; sinme vohierit f quod optoj ex hac vita evocnre, paratus svni illins- tohmtati obsequi ; ac nihil est quod viiiii jucundius possit contincere, quam ex hac misero et cojnqnissiino scculo ad Chriiium sen'utorem meum mi^randum sit. Idem. p. 5()o,
98 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAX.
1 Cor, iii. 22. your friend, your privilege, your passage to heaven ; it is your ignorance of it, which breeds your fears about it.
Inf. 2. Gather from hence, the absolute, indispensihle necessity of your union wHh Christ, before your dissolution by death.
Woe to that soul which shall be separated from its body before it be united with Christ. None but the spirits of just men are made perfect at death. Righteous souls are the only qualified subjects of blessedness.
It is true, every soul hath a natural capacity of happiness, but gracious souls only have an actual meetness for glory. The scrip- tures tell us in the plainest words, that " without holiness no man " shall see the Lord, Heb. xii. 14. that " except we be regenerate, " and born again, we cannot see the kingdom of God,"" John iii. 3. You make the greatest adventure that ever was made by man ; indeed, an adventure infinitely too great for any man to make, when you shoot the gulph of vast eternity upon terms of hazard and imcertainty.
What thinkest thou, reader? Darest thou adventure thy soul and eternal happiness upon it, that the work of regeneration and sanctification, that very same work of grace, on which the Spirit of God has placed all thy hopes of heaven in these scriptures, is truly wrought by him in thy soul .^ Consider it well, pause upon it again and again before thou go forth. Should a mistake be committed here, (and nothing is more easy or common, all the world over, than such mistakes) thou art irrecoverably gone. This venture can be made but once, and the miscarriage is never to be retrieved afterwards ; thou hast not another soul to adventure, nor a second adventure to make of this. Well might the apostle Peter call for all diligence to make our calling and our election sure : That can never be made too sure, which is so invaluable in its worth, and to be but once adventured.
I}f. 3. How prejudicial is it to dying men to be then incumbered, diverted, and distracted about earthly concernments, when the time of their departure is at hand.