A state of glory for spirits of just men upon dissolution, demonstrated. A sermon preached in Pauls Church Aug. 30. 1657. before the Rt. Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London. / By Tho: Goodvvin, D.D. president of Magd. Coll. Oxon.

§.

I come (2.) to the Argumentation it self, which ariseth out of these things laid together. (1.) That the Soul is the immediate Subject of Grace. (2.) The first and Primitive Susceptive thereof. (3) And it self is alone and immediately capable of Glory, which Grace is a preparation to. And (4.) that God afore our deaths hath wrought all of Grace he intends to work, in pre∣paration to Glory. Out of all these a strong Argu∣ment doth arise, That such a Soul upon death shall be admitted unto Glory; and not be put to stay till the time of the Resurrection, when both Soul and Body shall be joyned again together. And that this holdeth a just and meet conveniency upon each, or at least, all these grounds, when put together.

[ 1] First, consider the Soul as the immediate subject of this working and preparation for Glory. Hence there∣fore this will at least arise, That the inherency or abi∣ding of this Grace wrought in this Soul, depends not upon its conjunction with the Body; but so as it re∣mains as an everlasting and perpetual conserver of that Grace stampt on it; yea, and carries it all with it self, as a rich Treasure innate unto it where-ever it

goes, when separate from the Body. I say, it either hath in it, or appertaining unto it, all that hath been wrought for it, either in it, or by it. Revel. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord: [And their Works do follow them] They go to Heaven with them, and after them. And in what subject else is it that the Seed of God remains incorruptible,* 1.1 or the Word of God abides for ever?* 1.2 Or how else comes that saying to be performed, 1 Joh. 2. 17. He that doth the will of God endures for ever? Having therefore all these riches by it, and as complete (as, here, it shall be;) Meet it is, it should partake the benefit thereof, and live upon them now when it is single and alone, and in its wi∣dows condition. And it is an opportune season, that by a Glory given it for that holiness, this should now appear, That it was the Soul which was the sole in∣trinsick and immediate Receptive of all this Holiness. This the first. Adde also,

[ 2] Secondly, its being the first and primitive subject of Holiness, from which it is derivatively in the body. Meet it was this Soul should not be deferred till the appurtenance of it be united to it, but be served first, and admitted into that Glory ordained; and by having it self first possession given of that inheritance, the Body might in its season be admitted derivatively thereinto from it,* 1.3 after that renewed union with it by the Resurrection. Reason good, that look, as, in pri∣ority, Grace, the preparation unto Glory, was wrought: So, in that order of priority, Glory it self should be communicated. And therefore seeing its fate is to a∣bide awhile alone; therefore first to enjoy, and drink both the juyce and the fruit of that Vine it is the Root of.

And (3.) it being in it self, when separate, as imme∣diately capable of this Glory, as when it shall be again united to the Body: For what is the Essential of Glo∣ry, the substance of that Life that swallows up all? But (as we said on ver 4.) Gods immediate Presence, and our knowing him face to face, as we are known. Now of this the Apostle doth in these 6, 7 and 8 ver∣ses, expresly inform us, That the separate Soul is not onely capable thereof, but that it then begins to en∣joy it: Therefore (sayes he) we are alwayes confident, knowing that whilst we are 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 to be present with the Lord. Where to be pre∣sent with the Lord, and to live by sight, is expresly made the priviledge of a Soul absent from the body; which can mean no other state, than that of the Soul between the death of the Body, and the Resurrection. For whilst it is present in the body afore death, it is absent from the Lord; and when it shall be present with the Lord, af∣ter the Resurrection, it shall not then be any more ab∣sent from the body. This conjunction therefore of ab∣sent from the body, and present with the Lord, falls out in no state else, but onely in that interim or space of time between. And let us withall view this Place in the light, (by bringing the one to the other) which that passage, 1 Cor. 13. 12. doth cast upon it: For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known. [To see as in a glass darkly] there, is to [walk by faith] here: But to see face to face, and to know God as we are known, (so there) is all one; and to attain to sight, and to be in Christs presence (here.) And

to be sure, the Body is in no estate whatever capable of knowing God, as we are known of him: None durst ever ever affirm that. For besides that, the Spiritual Knowledge of God is proper to an Intellectual nature: Further, So to know God, as God known us, and so to be elevated to the similitude of Gods understanding, is not communicable to the Body. We may as well dare to affirm God himself to be a Body, as that our bodies are capable of ever being raised up thus to know God. Hence therefore, whether the Soul be out of the body, as after Death, or so in the body, as it shall be after the Resurrection; yet still it is the Soul that is immediately alone capable of that sight and knowledge of God. And therefore seeing it depends not on the body, it is as well capable of it afore the Resurrection without the bo∣dy, as after the Resurrection in the body.

Onely this must be added, That whilst indeed the Soul is at home in this body, (this earthly tabernacle) it is not capable of this sight, of the Glory of God, that is, so as to continue in the body, and enjoy it; for it would crack this earthen vessel: as 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God. And al∣though Paul, as a stander-by, was an over-hearer, and an eye-witness (by way of Revelation and Vision) of what the Spirits of just men in Glory do enjoy:* 1.4 Even as on the contrary, the Angels are often standers-by on Earth, and overseers of us, what is therein done, (as the phrase is, Zech. 3. 7.) yet he was not estated into it, or admitted a possessor thereof himself, no more than Angels into an earthly estate; and therefore could not say, whether the Revelation vouchsafed him, might not be in the body, as well as out of it: Whereas God had otherwise long since peremptorily determined that

question, That no man could see God, and live; that is, at once continue in this body, and see him face to face. And Paul here in my Text also determines it, That whilst we are at home in the body, (as now) we are absent from the Lord: They are two incompatible estates. But still when that which, thus, lets (this body) is taken out of the way, the Soul it self is sufficiently capable, as truly as ever it shall be.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1 Pet. 1. 23.
• * 1.2

  Ver. 25.
• * 1.3

  Magis conveni∣ens videtur ut animae in qui∣bus per prius fuit culpa & meritum, prius etiam vel puni∣antur vel prae∣mientur. Aqui∣nas cont. Gent. Lib. 4. cap. 91. sect. 3.
• * 1.4

  2 Cor. 12.