X.Whether the souls departed enjoy this rest before the resurrection
You see, then, reason enough why our rest should remain till the life to come. O take heed, then, christian reader, how thou darest to contrive and care for a rest on earth; or to murmur at God for thy trouble and toil, and wants in the flesh. Doth thy poverty weary thee? thy sickness weary thee? thy bitter enemies and unkind friends weary thee? why, it should be so here. Do thy seeing and hearing the abominations of the times, the ruins of the church, the sins of professors, the reproach of religion, the hardening of the wicked, all weary thee? why, it must be so while thou art absent from thy rest.
Do thy sins, and thy naughty distempered heart weary thee? I would thou wast wearied with it more. But, under all this weariness, art thou willing to go to God, thy rest; and to have thy warfare accomplished; and thy race and labour ended? If not, O complain more of thy own heart, and get it more weary, till rest seem more desirable.
CHAP. X Whether the Souls departed enjoy this Rest before the Resurrection.
SECT. I. I have but one thing more to clear, before I come to the use of this doctrine; and that is, whether this rest remains till the resurrection, before we shall enjoy it; or whether we shall have any possession of it before? The Socinians, and many others of late among us, think the soul separated from the body, is either nothing, or at least not capable of happiness or misery. Truly, if it should be so, it would be somewhat a sad uncomfortable doctrine to the godly at their death, to think of being deprived of their glory till the resurrection; and somewhat comfortable to the wicked to think of tarrying out of hell so long. But I am in strong hopes that this doctrine is false; yea, very confident that it is so. I do believe, that as the soul separated from the body, is not a perfect man, so it doth not enjoy the glory and happiness so fully and so perfectly, as it shall do after the resurrection, when they are again conjoined. What the
difference is, and what degree of glory souls in the mean time enjoy, are too high things for mortals particularly to discern. For the great question, what place the souls of those before Christ, of infants, and all others since Christ, do remain in, till the resurrection? I think it is a vain inquiry of what is yet beyond our reach. It is a great question what place is; but if it be only a circumstant body, and if to be in a place, be only to be in a circumstant body, or in the superficies of an ambient body, or in the concavity of that superficies, then it is doubtful whether spirits can be properly said to be in a place. We can have yet no clear conceivings of these things.o But that separated souls of believers do enjoy inconceivable blessedness and glory, even while they remain thus separated from the body, I prove, as followeth. (Besides all those arguments, for the soul's immortality, which you may read in Alexander Ross's 'Philosophical Touchstone,' part last; and in abundance of writers, metaphysical and theological.)
1. Those words of Paul, (2 Cor. 5:8,) are so exceedingly plain, that I yet understand not what tolerable exception can be made against them. "Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord." (Ver. 6–8.) What can be spoken more plainly. So also verses 1–4 of the same chapter.
2. As plain is that in Phil. 1:23. "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better."
What sense were in these words, if Paul had not expected to enjoy Christ till the resurrection? Why should he be in a strait, or desire to depart? Should he be with Christ ever the sooner for that? Nay, should he not have been loath to depart upon the very same grounds? For while he was in the flesh, he enjoyed something of Christ; but being departed, (according to the Socinians' doctrine,) he should enjoy nothing of Christ till the day of resurrection.
3. And plain enough is that of Christ to the thief, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." The dislocation of the words "This day" is
but a gross evasion.
4. And surely if it be but a parable of the rich man in hell, and Lazarus; yet it seems unlikely to me, that Christ would teach them by such a parable, what seemed evidently to intimate and suppose the soul's happiness or misery presently after death, if there were no such thing.
5. Doth n othis argument against the Sadducees, for the resurrection run upon this supposition, that (God being not the God of the dead, but of the living, therefore) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were then living, i.e., in soul, and, consequently, should have their bodies raised at the resurrection?
6. Plain also is that in Rev. 14:13, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them;" i.e., close as the garments on a man's back follow him, and not at such a distance as the resurrection; for if the blessedness were only in resting in the grave, then a beast or a stone were as blessed; nay, it were evidently a curse, and not a blessing. For was not life a great mercy; was it not a greater mercy to enjoy all the comforts of life; to enjoy the fellowship of the saints, the comfort of the ordinances, and much of Christ in all; to be employed in the delightful work of God, and to edify his church? &c. Is it not a curse to be so deprived of all these; do not these yield a great deal more sweetness, than all the troubles of this life can yield us bitterness? Though I think not, as some, that it is better to be most miserable, even in hell, than not to be at all; yet it is undeniable, that it is better to enjoy life, and so much of the comforts of life, and so much of God in comforts and affliction as the saints do, though we have all this with persecution; than to lie rotting in the grave, if that were all we could expect. Therefore it is some further blessedness that is there promised.
7. How else is it said, "that we are come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of
angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect?" (Heb. 12:22, 23.) Surely, at the resurrection the body will be made perfect, as well as well as the spirit. To say (as Lushington doth) that they are said to be made perfect, because they are sure of it as if they had it, is an evasion so grossly contradicting the text, that by such commentaries he may as well deny any truth in Scripture; to make good which, he as much abuseth that of Phil. 3:12.
8. Doth not the Scripture tell us, that Enoch and Elias are taken up already: and shall we think that they possess that glory alone?
9. Did not Peter, and James, and John, see Moses also with Christ on the mount? yet the Scripture saith Moses died. And is it likely that Christ did delude their senses, in showing them Moses, if he should not partake of that glory till the resurrection?
10. And is not that of Stephen as plain as we can desire? "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Surely, if the Lord receive it, it is neither asleep, nor dead, nor annihilated; but it is where he is, and beholds his glory.
11. The like may be said of that, "The spirit shall return to God who gave it." (Eccles. 12:7.) 12. How else is it said, "that we have eternal life already?" (John
6:54.) And that "the knowledge of God (which is begun here) is eternal life?" (John 17:3.) So 1 John 5:13, "And he that believeth on Christ, hath everlasting life. He that eateth this bread shall not die.
For he dwelleth in Christ, and Christ in him. And as the Son liveth by the Father, so he that eateth him, shall live by him." (John 3:36;
John 6:47, 50, 56, 57.) How is "the kingdom of God and of heaven (which is eternal) said to be in us?" (Luke 17:21; Rom. 14:17; Matt.
13.) Surely, if there be so great an interruption of our life as till the resurrection, which with some will be many thousand years, this is
no eternal life, nor everlasting kingdom. Lushington's evasion is, "that because there is no time with dead men, but they so sleep that when they awake, it is all one to them as if it had been at first; therefore the Scripture speaks of them as if they were there already."
It is true, indeed, if there were no joy till the resurrection, then that consideration would be comfortable; but when God hath thus plainly told us of it before, then this evasion contradicteth the text.
Doubtless there is time also to the dead, though, in respect of their bodies, they perceive it not. He will not surely think it a happiness to be putrified or stupified, whilst others are enjoying the comforts of life: if he do, it were the best course to sleep out our lives.
13. In Jude 7, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are spoken of, as "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire:" and if the wicked do already suffer eternal fire, then no doubt but the godly do enjoy eternal blessedness. I know some understand the place, of that fire which consumed their bodies, as being a type of the fire of hell: I will not be very confident against this exposition, but the text seemeth plainly to speak more.
14. It is also observable, that when John saw his glorious revelations, he is said to be "in the Spirit," (Rev. 1:10, and 21:10,) and to be
"carried away in the Spirit." (Rev. 17:3, and 21:10.) And when Paul had his revelations, and saw things unutterable, he knew not whether it were in the body, or out of the body. All implying that spirits are capable of these glorious things, without the help of their bodies.
15. And though it be a prophetical, obscure book, yet it seems to me, that those words in the Revelation do imply this, where John saw the souls under the altar. (Rev. 6:9, &c.) 16. We are commanded by Christ, "not to fear them that can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." (Luke 12:4.) Doth not this plainly imply, that when wicked men have killed our bodies, that is, separated the souls from them, yet the souls are still alive?
17. The soul of Christ was alive when his body was dead, and therefore so shall ours too; for his created nature was like ours, except in sin. That Christ's human soul was alive, is a necessary consequent of its hypostatical union with the divine nature, as I judge. And by his words to the thief, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise:" so also by his voice on the cross, "Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit." (Luke 23:46.) And whether that in 1 Pet. 3:18, 19, that he went and preached to the spirits in prison, &c., will prove it, I leave to others to judge. Read Illyricus's arguments in his 'Clavis
Scripturæ' on this text. Many think that the opposition is not so irregular, as to put the dative σαρκὶ for ἐν σαρκι, as the subject recipient, and the dative πνεύματι for διὰ πνεύματος, as the efficient cause; but that it is plainly to be understood as a regular opposition, that Christ was mortified in the flesh, but vivified in the spirit, that is, in the spirit which is usually put in opposition to this flesh, which is the soul, by which spirit, &c. But I leave this as doubtful; there is enough besides.
18. Why is there mention of God's breathing into man the breath of life, and calling his soul a living soul? There is no mention of any such thing in the creating of other creatures, surely, therefore, this makes some difference between the life of our souls and theirs.
19. It appears in Saul's calling for Samuel to the witch, and in the Jews' expectation of the coming of Elias, that they took it for current, then, that Elias and Samuel's souls were living.
20. Lastly: If the spirits of those that were disobedient in the days of Noah, were in prison, (1 Pet. 3:19,) then certainly the separated spirits in the just, are in an opposite condition of happiness. If any say that the word "prison" signifieth not their full misery, but a reservation thereto, I grant it, yet it importeth a reservation in a living and suffering state, for were they nothing, they could not be in prison.
Though I have but briefly named these twenty arguments, and put them together in a narrow room, when some men cannot see the truth without a multitude of words; yet I doubt not but, if you will well consider them, you will discern the clear evidence of scripture verity. It is a lamentable case that the brutish opinion of the soul's mortality, should find so many patrons professing godliness, when there is so clear light of Scripture against them, and when the opinion tends to no other end than the emboldening of sin, the cherishing of security, and the great discomfort and discouragement of the saints, and when many pagans were wiser in this without the help of Scripture: surely, this error is an introduction to paganism itself. Yea more, the most of the nations in the world, even the barbarous Indians do, by the light of nature, acknowledge that, which these men deny, even that there is a happiness and misery which the souls go presently to, which are separated from their bodies. I know the silly, evading answers that are usually given to the forementioned scriptures, which being carried with confidence and subtle words, may soon shake the ordinary sort of Christians that are not able to deal with a sophister. And if they be thoroughly dealt with, they presently appear to be mere vanity or contradiction. Were there but that one text, 2 Cor. 5:8; or that, 1 Pet. 3:19; or that, Phil.
1:23; all the seducers in the world could not answer them.
Believe, therefore, steadfastly, O faithful souls, that whatever all the deceivers in the world shall say to the contrary, your souls shall no sooner leave their prisons of flesh, but angels will be their convoy,
Christ will be their company, with all the perfected spirits of the just: heaven will be their residence, and God will be their happiness. And you may boldly and believingly, when you die, say, as Stephen, "Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit," and commend it, as Christ did, into a Father's hands.