A69538:52
The last work of a believer his passing prayer recommending his departing spirit to…
The last work of a believer his passing prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ to be received by Him / prepared for the funerals of Mary the widow first of Francis Charlton Esq. and after of Thomas Hanmer, Esq., and partly preached at St. Mary Magdalens Church in Milk-Street, London, and now, at the desire of her daughter, reprinted by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by B. Griffin for B. Simmons, 1682
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
DOCT. 4
The spirit of man doth survive the Body. It dyeth not with it: It is not annihilated: It is not resolved into the essence of some common element of souls, where it loseth its specific form and name: It was still the Spirit of Stephen that was received by Christ. It sleepeth not: To confute the dream of those that talk of the sleeping of Souls, or any Lethargic, unintelligent or unactive state, of so excellent, capacious and active a nature, were but to dispute with sleeping men. When we say it is Immortal, we mean not that it or any creature hath in it self a self-supporting or self-preserving sufficiency; or that they are Necessary Beings, and not Contingent; or Primitive Beings, and not Derived from another by Creation: We know that all the world would turn to nothing in a moment, if God did but withdraw his preserving and upholding influence, and but suspend that Will that doth continue them: He need not exert any Positive Will or Act for their destruction or annihilation. Though ejusdem est annihilare, cujus est creare; none can annihilate but God; yet it is by ⟨p. 12⟩a Positive efficient act of Will that he createth; and by a mere cessation of the act of his preserving Will, he can annihilate. I mean not by any change in him; but by willing the continuance of the creature but till such a period. But yet he that will perpetuate the Spirit of Man, hath given it a nature (as he hath done the Angels) fit to be perpetuated: A Nature not guilty of composition and elementary materiality which might subject it to corruption: so that as there is an Aptitude in Iron, or Silver, or Gold, to continue longer than Grass, or Flowers, or Flesh; and a reason of its duration may be given a natura rei, from that aptitude in subordination to the Will of God; so there is such an Aptitude in the Nature of the Soul to be Immortal, which God maketh use of to the accomplishment of his will for its actual perpetuity.
THe spirit of man doth survive the Body. It dyeth not with it: It is not annihilated: It is not resolved into the essence of some common element of souls, where it loseth its specifick form and name: It was still the Spirit of Stephen that was received by Christ. It sleepeth not: To confute the dream of those that talk of the sleeping of Souls, or any Lethargich, unintelligent or unactive state, of so excellent, capacious and active a nature, were but to dispute with sleeping men. When we say it is Immortal, we mean not that it or any creature hath in it self a self-supporting or self-preserving sufficiency; or that they are Necessary Beings, and not Contingent; or Primitive Beings, and not Derived from another by Creation: We know that all the world would turn to nothing in a moment, if God did but withdraw his preserving and upholding influence, and but suspend that Will that doth continue them: He need not exert any Positive Will or Act for their destruction or annihilation. Though ejusdem est annihilare, cujus est creare; none can annihilate but God; yet it is by