D E A T H COMPARED TO A s L E E P. Book IV. P A R A L L E L ~ ·I. SLEEP is· Refl:, or gives Reft to the Body : So Death is or doth give Reft to the Body. And hence Job faith, fpeaking of Death: I Jhould have lain flill, and been quie't: I jhould haveflept, thm had 1been at Rejl, Job iii. 13. We ufually fay, when a ·Man goes to fleep, he goes to reft. There is a four-fold Reft which we obtain in Death. 1. From Labor and Travel ; no work there. 2. There is a Reft from Trouble . and Oppre!Tion : 'There the Wicked ceafe from troubling, and the Weary be at Refl, Job iii. 17. 3· There is a ' Reft from Paffion and Sorrow: No Grief fh all afflict us there. 4· Which is better than all, there is a Reft from Sin, a Reft from the Temptations and Drudgery of Satan, ·a Reft from the Law in our Members. I!. In Sleep the whole Body refttth, bur many times the Spirits of fame Men are troubled ; though the outward Man is at Reft, yet the inward Man is forely diflurbed, whereas the Bodies and Spirits too of others are at Reft and Q:;1iet: So in the Death of the Wicked, though their Bodies be at Reft, yet their Souls are tormented. It is the Opinion of fo me Men that the Soul fleeps with the Body, and is wholly fenfelefs of J oy or Mifery until the Refurre[tion. But that doubtlefs is a great Error : For thourrh it be granted that many Operations of the Soul do ceafe when it departs from the Bad~, · yet the Soul fleeps not. There arc fome Acts of the Soul which are organical, and there are other A& which are inorganical, or immaterial. The organica\ Acts, that is, whatfoever the Soul acts by the Members of the Body, thof~ Acts mull: needs ceafe at Death; but the Soul can a<'l: of itfelf without the Atrd1ance of the Body, as we may collect by many Experiments; while our Bodies and Souls are joined together. How often do we find our Souls at work, when our Bodies lie £\ill and do nothing? When Sleep binds up all our Senli:s, and OJUt' up the Windows of che Body clofe, that we can neither hear nor fee; yet then the Soul frames to itfdf, and beholds a thoufand various Shapes, and hears all Sorts of Sounds and Voices; the Soul then fees, and hears, and devifeth, difcourfeth, grieves, rejoices, hopes, fears, chufeth, and refufeth : All this . the Soul dath in Dreams and Vifions of the Night, when deep fleep falls upon Man. What Meditations have fame good Men had in their Sleep! they have had Scriptures wonderfully opened to them, and have been grieved when they waked to find the Mat– ter gone from them. God feals up Inftruction fometimes to his People in their Sleep. Alfo in EcftaGes and Ravi!hments the Body is, as it were, laid by as ufelefs and inflru– mental to the Soul. I k11ew a Man in Chrifl fourteen Years ago, fo the Apoflle faith, whether in the Body I cannot tell, or out of the Body I cannot tell, God knoweth, &c. 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3· Now, if the Soul was not capable of a Separation from the llody, and in that feparated State capable of fuch divine Ravi!hments, Paul might eafily have re– folved the Cafe, and faid, he was taken up in the Body, but he could not tell whether the Soul aC\ecl with his bodily Organs, or without them. He had mighty Operations in his Soul, his Spirit wrought f\rangely, and then took in fuch Revelations of God . and from God, as his bodily Organs could never fa!hion into Words, or reprelent by Speech. He heard, qu,e fando explicari a quoquara homine nonpoJ!unt~ unfpeakabie JVords, which it is not lawful, or po!Tible, fo;· a Man to utter. The Soul hath an Ear to hear fuch Words that the Body cannot find a Tongue to exprefs. So John, in his divine Ravi!hment, faith : I was in the Spirit on the L ord's Day : As for hJS Body, that was, as to that Bufinefs, laid afide and fufpended as ufelefs in chat Day, and his Spirit called up to that anrrelical Work, viz. the receiving of Vifions and Revelations from on higb, &c. Now a~the Souls of .good Men, whilft they are in this World in Sleep, and in Trances, or Ecftafies, are capable of fuch glorious Ravi!hments, &c. fo when their Bodies die or fall at1eep, their Souls are with Chrift in Heaven: And the Souls of the Wicked they go into Chains of Darknefs, Torment, and Mifery. 'The rich Man died, and was buried, and in Hell he lift up his Eyes, h ivg i11 'Torment, Luke xvi. 22, 23. Ill. Sleep is not perpetual; we fleep and wake again: So though the Body lie in the Grave, yet Death Is but a Sleep as it were; the Man will awake and rife again. IV. The going to fleep, and Oeeping of.fome Men, greatly differs from -others: So the Death of the Saints.greatly differs from the Death of the Wicked. 1 • In the. Preparation the one makes to go to reft over what the other cloth. Some go to fleep before their Wor~ is done: So fom7 die be~ore their Work is done. As no Saint dies before Ins Work rs done: So there IS no w1cked Perfon that d1es, but he dies or goes to. fleep before his Work is done. This is our Workin~-day; ':"hen the Sun of our Life is fet, no more Work can be done. 'I'he 'Ttme comes, fatth Chnft, whm ..3 .'i/0
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