Part 6

For this I say, no Spirit or Life that is put to Death whatsoever, could possibly quicken again in the same Body, but the Life of God only, so that Christ must needs be God as well as Man; for it was Christ that was put to Death in the Flesh, and the same Life that was put to Death, and did die, that which did die did quicken again, and so is called a quickening Spirit.

Now observe, it cannot properly be called a quickening Spirit, if it had not been once dead: For if the Spirit and Life of Christ did not die, nor was not dead, then I say, there was no need that this Spirit and Life, should quicken again, for it was always quick and alive.

For the Spirit quickening doth imply, a sensible Life is quickned out of an insensible Life; as a Child in the Womb before it is quick, it feeleth no Pain, neither doth it stir in the Womb, and the Midwife doth not care to destroy it to save the Womans Life, because the Child was not quick, it was an insensible Life, no more capable of Pain then there is in Death, or a dead Lump of Earth; but when a Child is quick in the Womb, it is capable of Pain, though it hath not Strength to express it to us that are strong, yet it is capable of Pain, because it is quickened into a sensible Life, that is, a living Soul, a living Spirit, and so may be called a quickened Spirit of Life, out of that which was dead; yet by the Appointment of God in his Creation, and the Warmness of the Womb, there is new Life or Spirit doth quicken in the Womb in its Season, according to the Appointment of God when he created all Things, and placed a Law of Generation in them.

So likewise the Spirit or Life of Christ was put to Death in his own Body of Flesh, as aforesaid; and in its Season he himself had appointed before, namely three Days and three Nights, this Spirit of Christ so put to Death, it quickened again in the same Flesh a new and Glorious Life, which made that Flesh that suffered Glorious also.

And this is the true Interpretation of Peter's Words, and the Faith of all true Believers, that the Spirit, Life, and Soul of Christ did die, and was put to Death in the Body of his own Flesh, that was Crucified on the Cross by the Jews; and that the same Spirit that was put to Death, it did quicken again out of Death into a new and Glorious Life by his own Power, therefore called a quickening Spirit.

So that here is no Ground at all for that vain Conceit in People, who do believe that Spirits may be raised without Bodies, or appear without Bodies, but altogether to the contrary. And as for that saying of Peter, By which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the Long-suffering of God waited in the Days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing.

These Words do seem to carry some shew, as if the quickening Spirit of Christ, after he was risen from the Dead, or in the time he did lie in the Grave, as if his Spirit in that Interim of Time went into some local Place where Spirits were in Prison without Bodies, to preach unto them, who had been Disobedient in the Days of Noah: This is the vain Conceit of most People from those Words of Peter, who saith, By which he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison, as if the Spirits of the Disobedient People in the Days of Noah had been in Prison in some local Place in the Earth without Bodies, who had been departed in the Days of Noah, in the Destruction of the World by Water.

This the Imagination of Reason in Man doth imagine, that Spirits may be shut up in Prison without Bodies, and that the quickening Spirit Christ might Preach unto them without a Body.

But the true Light and Revelation of faith doth know to the contrary, that no Spirits can have any Being at all without Bodies, neither of God, Angels, nor Man, nor no other living Creature, who hath the Breath of Life in it.

But to give the Interpretation of this Scripture, that the Reader may understand, it is thus; the Spirit of Christ, that quickened from the Dead to Life again, I say, is the same Spirit that preached to the Spirits in Prison in the Days of Noah, and the Spirits of the disobedient World were in Prison in their own Bodies in the Days of Noah, as they were when Christ came upon Earth, for then he opened the Prison to them that were bound, by preaching Glad-tidings of Freedom to those that were bound, and Liberty to those Spirits that were in Captivity.

Now (as I said before) this Captivity is Spiritual Captivity, and to be bound and in Prison, it is meant a Spiritual Imprisonment in the Mind, and not a natural Imprisonment of the Body. And this I say, the very same Spirit of Christ that preached to the Jews when he was upon Earth, did preach to the old World in the Days of Noah, though in a twofold Manner.

And as the Spirits of Men were in Prison in their own Ignorance, Blindness and Darkness of Understandings, in that they were led Captives and Prisoners by their wicked and unnatural Lusts in the Days of Noah: So were both Jews and Gentiles in the Days of Christ when on Earth, their Spirits were led Captive, and into the Prison of Unbelief and Persecution of the Lord of Life, in that their Fathers persecuted the Lord's Prophets and Messengers he did send; so did these Jews persecute the Lord himself, when he preached to their Spirits that were in Prison, and led Captives by their wicked murdering Wills into the Prison of Unbelief; for he did preach when on Earth, that whosoever did believe in him should be saved. And as many as did truly believe in him, their Spirits were brought out of that Captivity of Unbelief, and out of the Prison of Darkness in the Mind, into a glorious Liberty and Light of Life Eternal. And thus did the preaching of Christ Spirit deliver many Spirits of Men and Women out of Prison, in the Days when he was upon Earth.

So likewise this quickening Spirit of Christ, it preached unto the Spirits in Prison in the Days of Noah. And why were their Spirits in Prison in the Days of Noah? Because they were disobedient. And how may they be said to be disobedient? Because they did not believe that good Man Noah, who was a Preacher of Righteousness. And how did he preach Righteousness unto that wicked People? In that he prepared the Ark, and being so many as a hundred Years in building, all that while God is said to wait for their Repentance, and that they might believe that God would destroy the World by Water.

But instead of Repentance and believing they hardened their Hearts, and mocked at Noah and the Ark; so that while the Ark was preparing, God waited for the People's Repentance; and all that while that Noah was building he preached to the People, that the World would be drowned.

And the Spirit of Christ, which is the Spirit of God which was put to Death in the Flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison in the Days of Noah, it was the same Spirit that instructed Noah to build the Ark; so that the building of the Ark by Noah, he being a Preacher of Righteousness, in that he believed God, and built it as the Spirit of God had commanded and instructed him; as God did Moses, shewed him the Pattern of the Tabernacle in the Mount.

And in as much as Noah did obey the Commandment of the Lord, according as the Spirit of the Lord did reveal unto him, Noah may be said to be a Preacher of Righteousness; and he doing all things by Inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, which was not at that time made of Flesh, but in the Fulness of time became pure humane Flesh, and suffered the Pains of Death. And the same Spirit that suffered Death, that very same Spirit that quickened, was that Spirit that preached to the Spirits in Prison in the Days of Noah, as aforesaid.

And the making of the Ark by the Inspiration of God's Spirit in the Sight of the People, who were in Prison in Ignorance and Darkness of Mind, is called by the Revelation of Faith, A preaching to the Spirits in Prison: So that the Spirit of God in Noah may be said to preach unto those Spirits in Prison, in the Days of Noah, and that there was but eight Persons saved from the Flood.

So that this Place of Scripture doth no way prove, that the Spirit of Christ did ever preach to Spirits in Prison without Bodies; neither did Christ's Spirit preach in the Days of Noah without a Body; for he always preached with a Body himself, or else chose Men that have Bodies, and gave them Power to preach to Spirits in Prison, and to deliver the Captives, and to set the Prisoner at Liberty, and the bound in Prison to go free.

So that the Reader may see how and in what Manner the Spirit of Christ did preach unto the Spirits in Prison in the Days of Noah, and how their Spirits may be said to be in Prison, and how their Unbelief in the Days of Noah was called Disobedience, to the preaching of Noah all that while the Ark was building. And being built by the Inspiration of the Spirit of God, it may and is called the preaching of Christ's Spirit to them that were in Prison in Spiritual Darkness in their Minds; for their Minds being darkened, they did those Things that were unseemly; yea, unnatural as the People of Sodom did. Now, were not the Spirits of these People in Prison, and led Captive of those unnatural Lusts, I think no sober Man will deny; yet these were those Spirits in Prison that Christ's Spirit preach unto in the Body of Noah, in the Days of Noah; and that there was but eight Persons in the Days of Noah, that were saved from the Destruction by Water, by the preaching of that Spirit of God in Noah. This is the true Interpretation and Meaning of those Words of Peter the Apostle aforementioned; and how the Spirit of Christ went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison in the Days of Noah.

CHAP. XIV.

Again, there are some other Places of Scripture, which several People have objected, as if the Spirit or Soul of Man might go out of the Body, and subsist in Bliss and Happiness, or in Misery and a tormented Condition, without its Body it always lived in; from that Place Luke xxiii. 43. Jesus said to the Thief on the Cross, Verily I say unto thee, This Day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Now observe, this no way proves that the Thief's Soul went out of his Body into a paradisiacal Place, and so escaped suffering Death, or did not die; for if the Soul of Christ did die at that time, as is clear by Scripture it did; then the Soul and Life of the Thief did die also.

Then where was the Paradise the Thief's Soul, and Christ's Soul that was heavy unto Death, where did they go? To this, I say, they went to a Place of rest, where all righteous Souls go, which is to the sleep of Death, for their was nothing did die but the Souls of them both; and the Paradise Christ and the Thief went into that Day they suffered Death, I declare it was this, that Christ was sure in himself that he should rise from the Dead the third Day, and afterward should enter into eternal Glory, and this Assurance in Christ that he should rise again the third Day, it was Paradise and Peace to his Soul, that he should pass through that Death, he was now to suffer that very Day into a new Life, that should not be capable to die any more.

So likewise when the Thief did truly believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Saviour from eternal Death to those that did believe; as it is certain he did when he said, Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy Kingdom; for he did really believe, that Christ would rise the third Day, and that he would raise him to eternal Joy and Happiness at the last Day; and the Thief dying in this Faith, he entred into Peace of Mind, and had Rest and Freedom to die, in Hope and full Assurance that Christ would raise him up Soul and Body to eternal Happiness at the last Day.

And this was that Paradise that Christ and the Thief were in, that very Day they both suffered Death; for the Assurance of everlasting Life in a Man's self here in Mortality, is the Paradise of Peace in this Life. This I know to be true, and this was the Paradise Christ did mean the Thief should be in that very Day he believed; and not that either of their Souls went out of their Bodies to any other Place or Paradise, then what was in their own Bodies, as aforesaid.

In like Manner People imagine, that the Soul of Man goeth out of the Body at his Death, from that Saying Acts 7. 59. from those Words of Stephen, when he was stoned to Death, he said, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit. The Meaning is this, that when any Man died in the true Faith of Christ, in the Hope and full Assurance that Christ will raise him up to eternal Happiness at the last Day, he commits his Spirit into the Hands of Christ, knowing that though he doth lose his Life for Christ's Sake here, that Christ will raise it again, and save his Soul hereafter; and so Christ may be said to receive his Spirit. For this I must tell the Reader, that there is not a quarter of an Hour's time to the Dead to his rising again, no not a Minute; for there is no time to the Dead, not a Minute of an Hour, though a Man have been dead five thousand Years, yet it is not a Minute of an Hour to him that is dead.

For all time belongs to the living; for after Death there is nothing but Eternity, on the other side of Death either eternal Happiness or eternal Misery: So that when Men die, they may be said to go immediately to Heaven or to Hell, to Joy or Torment, to be receiv'd into Christ's Hands of Mercy, or into the Hands of Christ's Wrath, where they shall be tormented with the Devil and his Angels, yet shall never see the Devil, nor his Angels, nor themselves, to Eternity; as they did not know the Devil here, neither shall they know or see him hereafter, yet be tormented with him.

And in this Sense a faithful Spirit or Soul, as Stephen was, may be said to commit his Spirit into the Hands of Christ, and that Christ doth receive his Spirit into his Hands, and will raise it up at the last Day, which will not be a Minute of an Hour's time to the Dead, as I said before; therefore let not the Seed of Faith think the time long between Death and the Salvation of their Souls, because so many of the Faithful have been so many hundred Years in the Grave: And let not the wicked unbelieving People comfort themselves, that the Dead shall never rise again, because the Fathers are Dead, and the Prophets are dead, and we see none of them rise again; therefore we conclude, their Spirits are gone to Heaven without Bodies, and the Spirits of the Wicked are gone to Hell without Bodies, but a Minute of an Hour's time will decide this Matter, when the dead are raised: For they shall not remember they have been a Sleep in the Dust one Minute of an Hour, for their is no Remembrance of time in the Grave. Therefore let that vain Conceit that is in most People fall, of Spirits going to God without Bodies: For I can assure you there is no such Thing, neither can there be any true Peace in that Conceit. I know it by Faith now, and by Experience, for I was of that Opinion once my self, when I was zealous in Religion according to the Puritan Way; but I knew no Scripture truly, neither was there one true Interpreter of Scripture, no not one in those Days, that could shew a Man the true Righteousness of God, or the true Way to everlasting Life.

CHAP. XV.