A85440:133
A state of glory for spirits of just men upon dissolution, demonstrated. A sermon…
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: Goodwin, D.D. president of Magd. Coll. Oxon.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.
London: printed by J.G. for Robert Dawlman, 1657
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
1. God is a Spirit, and thereupon in a special manner (as Wisd. 11. 26. The Lord a lover of souls above all his other creation. So it is there, Thou art merciful to all because they are thine, O LORD THOU LOVER OF SOULS [God is a Spirit] when therefore this naked, and withal sublimated spirit (by its being born again by his own spirit) and so assimilated to God himself, a pure spark now freed and severed from its dust and ashes, flying up (or is carried rather by Spirits, 1the Angels, out of their like spiritual love to it as a Spirit) unto that great Spirit, 2that element of Spirits, it will surely ⟨p. 39⟩find union and coalition with him, and be taken up unto him: for if, as Christ speaks, John 4. 23. God being a Spirit, therefore seeks for such as worship in spirit and truth, that is, he loves, delights in such as a man doth in a companion or friend, who suits him. And doth God seek for such whilst they are on Earth? Then surely when such Spirits shall come to him, and have such a grand occasion, and (indeed) the first occasion in such an immediate way to appear before him, in such a manner & upon such a change as this, as they never did before; these Spirits also having been the seat, the inner Temple of all this spiritual worship and sanctifying of him in this world: surely God who sought such afore, will now take them into his bosom and glory: we also read Isa. 57. 16, 17. of the regard he bears to persons of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive them upon this superadded consideration, that they are souls and spirit, & so thereby allied to him, the lofty one. Hear how in this case he utters himself, The Spirit would fail afore me, says he, & the souls which I have made. He speaks of their very souls properly and respectively considered, And [them] it is which he considering, and it moves him unto pity; for he speaks of that in man, whereof God is in a peculiar manner the Maker or Creator [The spirit which I have made] (says he) and it is one of the eminent titles he takes into his coat, The framer of the spirit of man within him,