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.

§.

And for a Conclusion of this first Point, that which follows in that place lately cited out of 1 Pet. 1. v. 9. Re∣ceiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, may as fitly serve for the confirmation of all these latter fore-going Notions, as to any other sense Interpreters have affixed.

I am aware how these words, Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, are interpreted of that joy unspeakable, and full of glory, which the Verse afore had spoken of, In whom though, Now, ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory, so as, in those joyes vouchsafed the Saints are said to receive the salvation of their souls, as being the earnest of it in the same kind, and so a part of the Re∣ward of Faith received in hand (as we say) and vouchsa∣fed over and above the ordinary way of living by Faith. This Interpretation I no way gainsay, nor will go about to exclude: for I know it doth consist with

that other I am about to give, and is subordinate to it: But if this Sense should obtain, that it were, Directly, Alone intended, yet by consequence, and at the rebound, it doth strongly argue the point in Hand. For if whilest Faith continues, God is pleased to vouchsafe such joyes, much more when faith ceaseth, He will vouchsafe a ful∣ler Enjoyment: for why else are these present joyes termed Salvation? That is, in a sort part of the taking possession of Salvation aforehand, and that as distinct from the Right to Salvation, which Faith in ordinary gives without such joyes at all times to all believers: they have the name given them, as being an earnest of the same kind, of that greater summe. And again, why are these present joyes termed the Salvation of their SOULS? But because they are intended by God, (being also, now wrought immediately in the Soul, without the body's influence) to be an earnest that it is their Souls, when without their bodies, shall have that fuller possession given them; and so this earnest assigneth this payment to be made to this Legatee, the SOUL specifi∣ed as the first receiver of it. [2.] Every payment having a day, or set time appointed for it, which the earnest ob∣ligeth the trustee unto, as well as to make payment it self, and useth to be at the end of the performance on his part to whom the contract is made, this therefore is as elegantly designed to be the end of their faith; there's the day of payment. And [3.] it would be hard to think that God should give forth joyes whilest faith continues; and then for so long a time as till the Resur∣rection withdraw all communication of himself, both of faith and joy (through sight) also. Surely they are not left worse than in this life they were.

I also know, the Soul being the eminent part of man, is often in Scripture, by a Synecdoche, put for the whole

And I must not deny but that ultimately it is intended here, it extending it self to the whole of Salvation first, and last after Faith ended. Which sense on the o∣ther hand many interpreters are for.

I onely contend for this, That the salvation of the soul is intended also of that Salvation which falls out in the midst between these joyes (the earnest) in this life, and that ultimate Salvation at the Resurrection, that is the Salvation of the Soul, whilest separate, as being the next. It hath a weight in it that Salvation and Dam∣nation should so often be said to be of the soul by Christ himself, as Mat. 26. 16. What shall it profit a man to gain the whole word (and so provide for his body) and lose his own soul? And again, in speaking of the Soul as consi∣dered apart from the Body, Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them that are able to kill but the body, and are not able to kill the soul. But that which is more conjunct to my pur∣pose; it is observable, that this our Apostle Peter should choose to use in this Epistle, more than any o∣ther Apostle, this phrase of [Soul] in relation to Sal∣vation, either as being the eminent subject, and some∣times as the single subject both of Grace and Salvati∣on: So in this Chapter, You have purified your souls, &c. as the immediate susceptive of the incorruptible seed (as was observed.) Then again, in ch. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war [against the soul] and 8. 25. Ye are returned to the Bishop of your Souls. Which he speaks as being the eminent part, and (upon separation from the body) the speciall charge he hath pastorall care of. And more directly to our purpose, ch. 4. last v. he ex∣horts them when they come to die, to commit their souls to God, as then being to be separate from their bo∣dies. Now it were hard to think that this Salvation to

come should bear the title and name of the salvation of the soul in this and other Scriptures;* 1.1 and that yet when this Soul shall in the other world come to subsist for a long time single and alone,* 1.2 and then be properly and without figure: A meer soul without a body, a lone∣some soul: That during that state it should not be the subject of this Salvation, and so intended here, when more properly and literally, if ever, it is the salvation of the soul. And it would be yet more strange, that the phrase, salvation of the soul, should be wholly restrained unto that estate of the soul, when remitted to the body at the Resurrection, and onely unto that; And that word the soul should serve onely synecdochically as a part put to signifie the whole man, as then it is to be raised up: but especially, it were strangest of all, if it should be confined and limited in this place of Peter, wherein this salvation of the soul is set forth for the comfort of such as were to lay down their tabernacles of their bo∣dies for Christ (as this Peter speaks of himself in the next Epistle) and whose faith was then to cease with their lives, whose expectations therefore he would in this case certainly pitch upon that salvation of the soul which was next, which is this of the soul separate. To confirm all which,

That which further invited me to this place, was this phrase [The end of your Faith] especially upon the con∣sideration that he speaks it unto, such Christians, who in those times were (as he foretels, ch. 4. v. 4.) shortly to be martyred, and at present were sorely tried (v. 7. of this Chapter) and in the last verse of the fourth, he thereup∣on instructeth and exhorteth them to commit their souls (when they come to die) to be kept by God: And so under∣stood in a proper and literall sense, this salvation of their

souls is in all respects termed The end of their Faith.

First, in that it is the next and immediate event that Faith ends and determines in, as Death is said to be the end of life. So noting forth, that when Faith ends, this Salvation of the Soul begins and succeeds it. The end of a thing signifies the immediate event, issue, period thereof. As of wicked men it is said, whose end is destru∣ction, Phil. 3. & Heb. 10. last v. Apostasy & unbelief are said to be a drawing back unto perdition. And on the con∣trary, there Faith is termed a believing to the salvation of the soul: And both note out the finall event and conse∣quent of each, and salvation of the soul to be the end of faith, when men continue and go on to believe, untill their faith arriveth at, & attaineth this Salvation of the Soul. To this sense also, Rom. 6. 22. You have your fruit in holinesse, and the [end] everlasting life. And the A∣postle Peter having in the foregoing verses celebrated the fruits and workings of their faith in this life, as in supporting them gloriously under the sorest trials, v. 7. and then sometimes filling their hearts with joy unspea∣kable and glorious, v. 8. he here at last concludeth with what will be the end or issue of it in that other life, when faith it self shall cease; and what it is that then they shall receive, Receiving (after all this) the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the pre∣sent, by a frequent and usual Enallage of time, being put for the future: for ye shall receive (or being about to re∣ceive) to shew the certainty of it: that when Faith shall end, you may be sure on't, even of that Salvation (that great Salvation so spoken of by the Prophets, v. 10.) of your souls, which as it hath no end to be put unto it, as Faith hath: so no interruption or space of time to come between (during which your souls should not

be actually saved) A salvation of your souls singly (whilest through death they shall so exist) as well as of the same souls primarily, and more eminently, when both soul and body shall be reunited.

2. The end of your Faith, that is, of your aims and expectations in your Faith: the end importing the aim or expectation, which is also a proper and literall sense of that word. And upon this account also the sal∣vation of the soul, when they should die, that being the very next thing their eyes must needs be upon, is there∣fore here intended.

And 3. The end of your faith, that is, as being that for which the great God (who keeps us by his power through faith unto salvation, v. 5.) hath wrought this faith in you. Accordingly we find it termed the work of faith, 1 Thes. 1. 3. Which when God hath fully wrought, and brought to that degree he aimed at in this life; (or to use the Apostles own expression of it, 2 Thes. 1. 11. when God hath fulfilled the work of faith with power, he then crowneth it with this Salvation of the Soul without end. As James speaks of Patience, when it hath had its perfect work, ch. 1. 4. compared with v. 12. and so speaks my Text, for this self-same thing he hath wrought us. And therefore when this Faith shall cease which he wrought for this, he will attain his end without delay: & you (says he) shall attain your end also: and Faith thus ceasing if this salvation of the soul did not succenturiate and re∣cruit it anew, the end of this Faith were wholly and al∣together present destructive losse unto the soul in its well-being untill the Resurrection.

4. The [End] signifies the perfection and consum∣mation of any thing,* 1.3 as Christ is said to be the End of the Law, Rom. 10. 4. and so the meaning is, That your

faith, which is but an imperfect knowing God, shall then, when it ceaseth, be swallowed up of sight, (which is all one with that salvation here) tanquam perfectibile, a perfection, as that which is imperfect is said to be by that which is perfect, 1 Cor. 13. 10. Thus much for the literal and proper import of the word [End.]

Now then. if we take the word [End] in its pro∣per meaning, and the word [Soul] likewise in its native proper meaning also, which sense in Reason should be first served (when the scope will bear it) then it makes for that purpose, more fitly, which we have had in hand.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Heb. 10. v. last.
• * 1.2

  Jam. 5. v. last.
• * 1.3

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.