was I am all Spirit and life I feel my self disburthened and unclogg'd of all the heavy oppressive weights that hung upon me No body of death doth now incumber me no deadness of heart no coldness of love no drowsie sloth no aversness from God no earthly mind no sensual inclinations or affections no sinful devisions oâ— heart between God and Creatures He hath now the whole of me I injoy and delight in none but him O blessed change O happy day 2. If in contemplating it self cloathed with this likeness it respect the state of damned souls What transporâ—s must that occasion What ravishing resentments When it compares humane nature in its highest perfection with the same nature in its utmost depravation An unspeakably more unequal comparison than that would be of the most amiable lovely person flourishing in the prime of youthful strength and beauty with a putrified rotten carcasse deformed by the corruption of a loathsome grave When glorified Spirits shall make such a reflection as this Lo here we shine in the glorious brightness of the divine Image and behold yonder deformed accursed souls They were as capable of this glory as we Had the same nature with us the same reason the same intellectual faculties and powers but what monsters are they now become They eternally hate the eternal excellency Sin and death are finished upon them They have each of them an hell of horror and wickedness in it self Whence is this amazing difference Though this cannot but be an awful wonder it cannot also but be temper'd with pleasure and joy 3. We may suppose this likeness to be considered in reference to its pattern and in comparison therewith which will then be another way of heightning the pleasure that shall arise thence Such a frame and constitution of Spirit is full of delights in it self but when it shall be refer'd to its original and the correspondency between the one and the other be observ'd and view'd how exactly they accord and answer each other as face doth face in the water this cannot still but add pleasure to pleasure one delight to another When the blessed soul shall interchangeably turn its eye to God and it self and consider the agreement of glory to glory the several derived excellencies to the original He is wise and so am I holy and so am I. I am now made perfect as my heavenly Father is this gives a new relish to the former pleasure How will this likeness please under that notion as it is his a likeness to him O the accent that will be put upon those appropriative words to be made partakers of His holiness and of the divine nature Personal excellencies in themselves considered cannot be reflected on but with some pleasure but to the ingenuity of a child how especially grateful will it be to observe in it self such and such graceful deportments wherein it naturally imitates its father So he was wont to speak and act and demean himself how natural is it unto love to affect and aim at the imitation of the person loved So natural it must be to take complacency therein when we have hit our mark and atchiev'd our design The pursuits and attainments of love are proportionable and correspondent each to other And what heart can compass the greatness of this thought to be made like God! Lord was there no lower pattern than thy self thy glorious blessed self according to which to form a worm This cannot want its due resentments in a glorified state 4. This transformation of the blessed soul into the likeness of God may be viewed by it in reference to the way of accomplishment as an end brought about by so amazing stupendous means which will certainly be a pleasing contemplation When it reflects on the method and course insisted on for bringing this matter to pass views over the work of redemption in its tendency to this end The restoring Gods Image in souls Considers Christ manifested to us in order to his being revealed and formed in us That God was made in the likeness man to make men after the likeness of God That he partook with us of the humane nature that we might with him partake of the divine that he assumed our flesh in order to impart to us his Spirit When it shall be considered for this end had we so many great and precious promises for this end did the glory of the Lord shine upon us through the glass of the Gospel that we might be made partakers c. That we might be changed c. Yea when it shall be called to mind though it be far from following hence that this is the only or principal way wherein the life and death of Christ have influence in order to our eternal happiness that our Lord Jesus lived for this end that we might learn so to walk as he also walked that he dyed that we mught be conformed to his death that he rose again that we might with him attain the resurrection of the dead that he was in us the hope of glory that he might be in us that is that same Image that bears his Name our final consummate glory it self also With what pleasure will these harmonious congruities these apt correspondencies be look'd into at last Now may the glorified Saint say I here see the end the Lord Jesus came into the world for I see for what he was lift up made a spectacle that he might be a transforming one What the effusions of his Spirit were for why it so earnestly strove with my way-ward heart I now behold in my own soul the fruit of the travel of his Soul This was the project of redeeming love the design of all-powerful Gospel grace Glorious atchievement blessed end of that great and notable undertaking happy issue of that high desin 5. With reference to all their own expectations and indeavours When it shall be considered by a Saint in glory the attainment of this perfect likeness to God was the utmost mark of all my designs and aims the term of all my hopes and desires This is that I long'd and laboured for that which I pray'd and waited for which I so earnestly breath'd after and restlestly pursu'd It was but to recover the defaced image of God To be again made like him as once I was Now I have attained my end I have the fruit of all my labour and travels I see now the truth of those often incouraging words Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Be not weary of well doing for ye shall reap if ye faint not What would I once have given for a steady abiding frame of holiness for an heart constantly bent and biassed toward God constantly serious constantly tender lively watchful heavenly spiritual meek humble chearful self-denying How have I cryed and striven for this to get such an heart such a temper of spirit how have I pleaded with God and my own
by the former of these Laws the Righteousness thereof consisting in a perfect and sinless obedience The latter therefore is the onely measure and rule of this Righteousness viz. The Law of Faith or that part of the Gospel-revelation which contains and discovers our duty what we are to be and do in order to our Blessedness being as to the matter of it the whole Moral Law before appertaining to the Covenant of Works attempered to the state of faln sinners by evangelical mitigations and indulgency by the super-added precepts of repentance and faith in a Mediator with all the other duty respecting the Mediator as such and cloathed with a new form as it is now taken into the constitution of the Covenant of grace This Rule though it be in the whole of it capable of coming under one common Notion as being the standing obliging Law of Christs mediatory Kingdom yet according to the different matter of it its obligations and annexed sanctions are different As to its matter it must be understood to require 1. The meer being and sincerity of those gracious principles with their essential Acts as there is opportunity expressed therein in opposition to the nullity and insincerity of them 2. All the possible degrees and improvements of such principles and acts in opposition to any the least failure or defect In the former respect it measures the very effence of this Righteousness and enjons what concerns the being of the righteous man as such in the latter it measures all the super-added degrees of this righteousness which relations where they have a mutable foundation admit injoyning what concern's the perfection of the rightous man In the former respect righteousness is opposed to wickedness as in that of the Psalmist I have kept the wayes of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God therefore hath the Lord recompenced me according to my righteousness In the latter to sin with which the Apostle makes unrighteousness coextent in these words If we say we have no sin re deceive our selves c. if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleansâ— us from all unrighteousness Accordingly are its sanctions divers For wherein it injoyns the former of these the essence of this righteousness in opposition to a total absence thereof it is constitutive of the terms of salvation and obligeth under the penalty of eternal death So are faith repentance lâ—ve subjection c. required If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins He that believeth not is condemned already The wrath of God al ideth on him If ye repent not ye shall all likewise perish Repent that your sins may be blotted out Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me c. If any man come to me and hate 〈◊〉 his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also that is as the former Scripture expounds this loves them not less than me he cannot be my Disciple i. e. While he remains in that temper of mind he now is of he must needs be wholly unrelated unto me and uncapable of benefit by me as well as he is indocible and not susceptible of my further instructions neither capable of the precepts or priviledges belonging to Discipleship He is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him and will come in flaming fire to take vengeance of those that know not God and obey not his Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. Where it is onely the sincerity of those several requisites that is under so severe penalty exacted and called for in as much as he that is sincerely a Believer 〈◊〉 Penitent a lover of God or Christ an obedient Subject is not capable of the contrary denomination and therefore not liable according to the tenour of this Law to be punished as an Infidel an impenitent person an enemy a rebell When it enjoyns the latter viz. All the subsequent duty through the whole course whereof the already sincere soul must be tending towards perfection though it bind not thereto under pain of damnation further then as such neglects and miscarriages may be so gross and continued as not to consist with sincerity Yet such injunctions are not wholly without penalty but here it oblidges under less penalties the hiding of Gods face and other paternal severities and castigations They that thus only offend are chastened of the Lord that they may not be condemned with the world Their iniquity is visited with the Rod and their transgression with stripes though loving-kindnesse be not taken away Yea and while they are short of perfect holiness their blessedness is imperfect also which is to be acknowledged a very grievous penalty but unconceiveably short of what befalls them that are simply unrighteous That it obliges thus diversly is evident for it doth not adjudge unto eternal death for the least defect for then what other Law should relieve against the sentence of this or wherein were this a relieving Law Yet doth it require perfection that we â—erfect holiness in the fear of God that we be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect And otherwise did it bind to no other duty than what it makes simply necessary to Salvation the defects and miscarriages that consist with sincerity were no sins not being provided against by any Law that is of present obligation For â—o suppose the Law of works in its own proper form and tenour to be still obliging is to suppose all under hopeless condemnation in as much as all have sinned And besides it should oblige to cast off all regard to Christ and to seek blessedness without him yea and it should oblige to a natural impossibility to a contradiction to make that not to have been which hath been a sinner to seek happiness by never having sinned Yet though it cannot â—n its own form be mans rule of Duty 't is nevertheless Gods rule of Judgment upon all whom the Law of faith relieves not as not coming up to the terms of it whom also this super-vening Law brings under a super-vening aggravated condemnation For where the obligation to obedience is violated the obligation to punishment naturally takes place The rule of this Righteousness therefore being evidently the Law of Faith the Gospel-revelation wherein it is preceptive of duty This Righteousness can be understood to be nothing but the impresse of the Gospel upon a mans heart and life A conformity in Spirit and Practice to the revelation of the Will of God in Jesus Christ a collection of graces exerting themselves in suitable actions
cannot endure the thoughts of dying And that which I perswade to is That having the true prospect of the future blessedness before our eyes and our hearts possest with the comfortable hope of attaining to it we shake off our earthly inclinations and expect with desire and joy the time of our dismission hence that we may enjoy it which is the design of what was promised in the next place Viz. 2. The inforcement of this instruction Suffer we therefore our selves to be reason'd with about this matter And let us consider whether we can in good earnest think such an aversation as we discover to our blessed translation hence an excusable a tolerable temper or whether it be not highly reasonable that we should entertain the thoughts at least with more content and patience if not with more fervent desire of our departure hence and introduction into that other state Let me demand of thee dost thou this regret the thoughts of death as being unwilling to dye at all or as being unwilling to dye as yet is it the thing it self or only the circumstance of time that thou exceptest against 'T is likely thou wilt say that which will seem more plausible and so fix only on the latter and that thou wilt not profess to desire an eternity on earth but only more time Well let that for present be supposed as it is a more modest so to be a true account of thy desires Yet what is the reason of this moderation with thee herein and that thou so limitest thy self Is it that thou believest the blessedness of the other state will prove better then any thing thou canst enjoy here and that thou art not willing eternally to be deprived of but dost thou not think it is now better also And what canst thou pretend why what is now the best and most desirable good should not be now chosen and desired out of hand or is it that thou thinkest it unbecomes thee to cross the Supreme will of him that made thee who hath determined that all men once shall die And then how knowest thou but he hath also determined concerning thee that thou shalt die the next day or hour and 't is only a present willingness to die in subordination to the Divine Will or upon supposition of it thou art perswaded to Why art thou not affraid lest thy present unwillingness should cross his present will Dost thou not think that Soveraign power is as sufficient to determine of the circumstance as the thing it self And art thou not ashamed to pretend an agreement with God about the thing it self and yet dâ—ffer with him about a circumstance shall that be a ground of quarrel between him and thee But while thou onely professest that more modest desire of more time in the world what security can'st thou give that when that desire hath been liberally gratified it shall at length be laid down and tumultuate no more What boâ—nds wilt thou fix to it which thou darest undertake it shall not pass Art thou sure when thou shalt have lain at the Worlds Breast ten or twenty years longer thou wilt then imagine thy self to have drawn it dry or that then thou shalt begin to nauseate the World and wish for Heaven Or hast thou not reason from thy former experience to suspect that the longer thou dwellest on Earth the more terrene thou wilt grow and that if thou be indisposed to leave it this day or year thou wilt be more so the next and so thy desire be-become boundless and infinite which is to desire to be here alwayes the thing which thou seem'dst so unwilling to own And if that prove at last the true state of thy case art thou then a Christian or art thou a Man that thou harbourest in thy breast so irreligious and irrational yea so sordid a wish What wish eternally to be affixt to a Clod of Earth Is that at length become thy God Or wilt thou say he is thy God whom thou never desirest to enjoy or that thou hast already enough of him but not of the world And yet that he is thy God or would'st thou overturn the Laws of Nature and subvert the most Sacred Divine Constitutions abortive the designes of Eternal Wisdom and Love evacuate and nullifie the great Atchievements of thy merciful and mighty Redeemer onely to gratifie a Sensual Bruitish Humour But evident it is thou dost onely in vain disquiet thy self thou canst not disturb the setled order of things Eternal Laws are not repealable by a fond wish Thou set'st that dreadful thing Death at nothing the further distance by thine abhorrency of it It will overtake thee whether thou wilt or no and methinks thine own reason should instruct thee to a temper and forme thy self to what thou can'st not avoid and possess thee with such thoughts and desires as those of that discreet Pagan Lead me O God saith he whether thou wilt and I will follow thee willingly but if I be rebellious refuse I shall follow thee notwithstanding What we cannot decline 't is better to bear willingly then with a regret that shall be both vain and afflictive And what hast thou hitherto met with in the world that should so highly endear it to thee Examine and search more narrowly into thy earthly comforts what is there in them to make them self-desirable or to be so for their own sakes what is it to have thy flesh indulged and pleased to have thy sense gratified thy phansie tickled what so great good worthy of an immortal reasonable Spirit canst thou find in Meats and Drinks in full Barns and Coffers in vulgar Fame and Applause that should render these things desireable for themselves And if there were any real felicity in these things for the present whil'st thou art permitted enjoy them yet dost thou not know that what thou enjoyest to day thou mayst lose to morrow and that such other unthought of evils may beâ—all thee as may infuse a bitterness into all thou enjoyest which causes immediately the injoyment to cease while the things themselves remain and will be equal to a total loss of all And thus as the Morallist ingeniously speaks thou wilt continually need another happiness to defend the former and new wishes must still be made on the behalf of those which have already succeeded But canst thou indeed think it worth the while that the Maker of the Universe should create a Soul and send it down into the world on purpose to superintend these trivial affairs to keep alive a silly piece of well figured earth while it eats and drinks to move it to and fro in chase of shadows to hold it up while others bow the knee and do it homage if it had not some higher work to mind in reference to another state Art thou contented to live long in the world to such purposes what low worthless Spirit is this that had rather be so imploy'd then in the
he might still be debarr'd of the long expected fruit of the travail of his Soul that the name of God might be still subjected to the blasphemy and and reproach of an Atheistical world who have long ago said with derision where is the promise of his coming Would we have all his Designs to be still unfinisht and so mighty wheeles stand still for us while we sport our selves in the dust of the earth And indulge our sensual inclination which sure this bold desire must argue to be very predominant in us and take heed it argue not its habitual prevalency At least if it discover not our present sensuality it discovers our former Sloth and Idleness It may be we may excuse our aversness to dye by our unpreparedness that is one fault with another though that be besides the case I am speaking of what then have we been doing all this while What were the affairs of thy Soul not thought of till now Take then thy repro of from a Heathen that it may convince thee the more No one saith he divides away his money from himself but yet men divide away their very life but doth it not shame thee he after adds to reserve only the reliques of thy life to thy self and to devote that time only to a good mind which thou canst employ upon no other thing How late is it to begin to live when we should make an end and deser all good thoughts to such an Age as possible few do ever reach to The truth is as he speaks we have not little time but we lose much we have time enough were it well employ'd therefore we cannot say we receive a short life but we make it so we are not indigent of time but prodigal what a pretty contradiction is it to complain of the shortness of time and yet do what we can to precipitate its course to hasten it by that we call pastime If it have been so with thee art thou to be trusted with more time But as thy case is I cannot wonder that the thoughts of death be most unwellcome to thee who art thou that thou shouldst desire the day of the Lord I can onely say to thee hasten thy preparation have recourse to Rule 2. and 3d. and accordingly guide thy self till thou find thy Spirit made more suitable to this blessedness that it become savory and grateful to thy soul and thy heart be set upon it Hence thou may'st be reconciled to the grave and the thoughts of death may cease to be a terror to thee And when thou art attained so far consider thy great advantage in being willing and desirous to dye upon this further account that thy desire shall now be pitch't upon a thing so certain Thine other desires have met with many a disappointment Thou hast set thy heart upon other things and they have deceived thy most earnest thirsty expectations Death will not do so Thou wilt now have one certain hope One thing in reference whereto thou may'st say I am sure Wait a while this peaceful sleep will shortly seize thy body and awaken thy soul. It will calmly period all thy troubles and bring thee to a blessed rest But now if onely the meer terrour and gloominess of dying trouble thy thoughts this of all other seems the most inconsiderable pretence against a willing surrender of our selves to death Reason hath overcome it natural courage yea some mens Atheism shall not Faith Are we not ashamed to consider what confidence and desire of death some Heathens have exprest some that have had no preapprehension or belief of another state though there were very few of them and so no hope of a consequent blessedness to relieve them have yet thought it unreasonable to disgust the thoughts of death What would'st thou think if thou had'st nothing but the Sophisms of such to oppose to all thy dismal thoughts I have met with one arguing thus Death which is accounted the most dreadful of all evils is nothing to us saith he because while we are in being Death is not yet present and when Death is present we are not in being so that it neither concerns us as living nor dead for while we are alive it hath not touch't us when we are dead we are not Moreover saith he the exquisite knowledge of this that Death belongs not to us makes us injoy this mortal life with comfort not by adding any thing to our uncertain time but by taking away the desire of immortality Shall they comfort themselves upon so wretched a ground with a little Sophistry and the hope of extinguishing all desire of immortality and shall not we by cherishing the blessed hope of injoying shortly an immortal glory Others of them have spoken magnificently of a certain contempt of this bodily life and a not onely not fearing but desiring to dye upon a sixed apprehension of the distinct and purer and immortal nature of the soul and the preconcieved hope of a consequent felicity I shall set down some of their words added to what have been occasionally mentioned amongst that plentiful variety wherewith one might fill a volume purposely to shame the more terrene temper of many Christians The Soul saith one of them is an invisible thing and is going into another place suitable to it self that is noble and pure and invisible even into Hades indeed to the good and wise God whether also my Soul shall shortly go if he see good But this he saith in what follows belongs only to such a Soul as goes out of the body pure that draws nothing corporal along with it did not willingly communicate with the body in life but did even fly from it and gather up it self into it self always meditating this one thing A soul so affected shall it not go to something like it self divine and what is divine is immoâ—tal and wise whether when it comes it becomes blessed free from errour ignorance fears and wild or enormous loves and all other evils incident to men One writing the life of that rare person Plotinus sayes that he seemed as if he were in some sort ashamed that he was in body which however it would less become a Christian yet in one that knew nothing of an incarnate Redeemer it discovered a refined noble Spirit The same person speaks almost the language of the Apostle concerning his being rapt up into the third heaven and tells of such an alienation of the soul from the body That when once it finds God whom he had before been speaking of under the name of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the beauty shining in upon it it now no longer feels its body or takes notice of its being in the body but even forgets its own being that it is a man or a living creature or any thing else whatsoever for it is not at leisure to mind any thing else nor doth it desire to be Yea and having sought him out he
glory of God Your hearts being bent thitherward and made willing to run through whatsoever difficulties of life or death to attain it Do not think that Christ came into the world and dyed to procure the pardon of your sins and so translate you to heaven while your hearts should still remain cleaving to the earth He came and returned to prepare a way for you and then call not drag you thither That by his Precepts and Promises and Example and Spirit he might form and fashion your Souls to that glorious state And make you willing to abandon all things for it And low now the God of all grace is calling you by Jesus Christ unto his eternal Glory Direct then your eyes and hearts to that marke the Prise of the High calling of God in Christ Jesus 'T is ignominious by the common suffrage of the civiliz'd world not to intend the proper business of our Callings To your Calling to forsake this world and mind the other make hast then to quit your selves of your entanglements of all earthly dispositions and affections Learn to live in this world as those that are not of it that expect every day and wish to leave it whose hearts are gone already 'T is dreadful to dye with pain and regret To be forced out of the Body To dye a violent death and go away with an unwilling refluctant heart The wicked is driven away in his wickedness Fain he would stay longer but cannot He hath not power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit nor hath he power in death He must away whether he will or no. And indeed much against his will So it cannot but be where there is not a previous knowledge and love of a better state where the Soul understands it not and is not effectually attempered and framed to it O get then the lovely Image of the future glory into your minds keep it ever before your eyes Make it familiar to your thoughts Imprint daily there these words I shall behold thy face I shall be satisfied with thy likeness And see that your souls be inrich't with that righteousness Have inwrought into them that holy rectitude that may dispose them to that blessed state Then will you dye with your own consent and go away not driven but allur'd and drawn You will go as the redeemed of the Lord with everlasting joy upon their heads As those that know whether you go even to a state infinitely worthy of your desires and choice and where 't is best for you to be You will part with your souls not by a forcible separation but a joyful surrender and resignation They will dislodge from this earthly Tabernnacle rather as putting it off then having it rent and torn away Loosen your selves from this body by degrees as we do any thing we would remove from a place where it sticks fast Gather up your spirits into themselves Teach them to look upon themselves as distinct thing Inure them to the thoughts of a dissolution Be continually as taking leave Cross and disprove the common maxime and let your hearts which they use to say are wont to dye last dye first Prevent death and be mortifi'd towards every earthly thing beforehand that death mave have nothing to kill but your body And that you may not die a double death in one hour and suffer the death of your body and of your love to it both at once Much less that this should survive to your greater and even incurable misery Shake off your Bands and Fetters the terrene affections that so closely confine you to the house of your bondage And lift up your heads in expectation of the approaching Jubilee the day of your redemption when you are to go out free and enter into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God When you shall serve and groan and complain no longer Let it be your continual song and the matter of your daily praise that the time of your happy deliverance is hastening on that ete long you shall be absent from the body and present with the Lord. That he hath not doom'd you to an everlasting imprisonment within those closs and clayie walls wherein you have been so long shut up from the beholding of his sight and glory In the thoughts of this while the outward man is sensibly perishing let the inward revive and be renewed day by day What Prisoner would be sorry to see the walls of his Prison House so an Heathen speaks mouldering down and the hopes arriving to him of being delivered out of that darkness that had buried him of recovering his liberty and injoying the free air and light What Champion inur'd to hardship would stick to throw off rotten rags rather expose a naked placid free body to naked placid free air The truly generous soul to be a little above never leaves the body against its will Rejoyce that it is the gracious pleasure of thy good God thou shalt not always inhabit a Dungeon nor lie amid'st so impure and disconsolate darkness that he will shortly exchange thy filthy Garments for those of Salvation and Praise The end approaches As you turn over these leaves so are your days turned over And as you are now arrived to the end of this Book God will shortly write Finis to the Book of your Life on Earth and shew you your names written in Heaven in the Book of that Life which shall never end FINIS Senec. * Pruritus disputandi scobies Ecclesia * Ut ulcera quaedam nocituras manus apoetunt tactu gaudent faedam corporum scabiem delectat quicquid â—xâ—sperâ—t Non alitè◠dixerim his mâ—ntibus in quas voluptates velut mala ulcera crupê unt voluptati esse laborem vexâ—tionemque Sâ—n. de tranquillitate anâ—â—â— Sen de Brev. vit * Nihil est Deo similius aut gratius quam vir animo perfectè bonus c. Apul. de Deo Soâ—â—atis * Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia est conciliante virtute amicitiam dico etiam necessitudâ— similitudâ— c. Sca de prov * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Minâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dyonys Halicar Antiq. Rom. lib. 8. Rom. 2 6 7 8 9. * Rom. 16 18. Phil. 3. 19. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vâ—lgar Latine Eâ—oautem 〈…〉 appaâ—câ—o â—oâ—spectui 〈◊〉 satiabo◠〈◊〉 â—â—pâ—â—uâ—riâ— gloâ—ia tua Exactly following the Seventy as doth the Ethiopique the Chaldee Paraphrase disagrees little the Arabique lesse the Syâ—iâ—ck mistook it seem◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so read that word saith which we read likenesse Hieronymus juxta Hebr. reads the words exactly as we do Ego in justiâ—iâ viâ—â—bo faciâ—m tuam implebor cum evigilavero similitudine tua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seems best to be rendered here by or through righteousness as by the condition
immediately meets it presenting its self to him It onely views him instead of it self and would not now change its state for any thing not if one could give it the whole heaven in exchange And else where discussing whether life in the body be good and desirable yea or no he concludes it to be good not as it is an union of the soul and body but as it may have that vertue annex't to it by which what is really evil may be kept off But yet that that death is a greater good That life in the body is in it self evil but the soul is by vertue stated in goodness not as enlivening the body with which it is compounded but as it severs and so joyns it self from it meaning so as to have as little communion as possible it can with it To which purpose is the expression of another That the soul of an happy man so collects and gathers up it self out from all things into it self that it hath as it were separated it self from the body while it is yet contained in it And that it was possest of that fortitude as not to dread its departure from it Another gives this character of a good man that as he liv'd in simplicity tranquility purity not being offended at any that they believed him not to live so he also comes to the end of his life pure quiet and easie to be dissolved disposing himself without any constraint to his lot Another is brought in speaking thus If God should grant me to become a Child again to send forth my renewed infant-cries from my Cradle and having even run out my race to begin it again I should most earnestly refuse it for what profit hath this life and how much toil Yet I do not repent that I have lived because I hope I have not liv'd in vain And I now go out of this life not as out of my dwelling house but my Inn. O blessed day when I shall enter into that Council and Assembly of souls and depart from this rude and disorderly rout and crew c. I shall adde another of a not much unlike strain and rank that discoursing who is the Heir of Divine things as being either not an open or no constant friend to Christianity Saith he cannot be who is in love with this animal sensitive life but only that purest mind that is inspired from above that partake of an Heavenly and Divine portion that onely despises the body c. with much more of like import Yea so have some been transported with the desire of immortality that being wholly ignorant of the sin of self-murder they could not forbear doing violence to themselves Among the Indians two thousand years ago were a sort of wise men as they were called that held it a reproach to dye of age or a disease and were wont to burn themselves alive thinking the flames were polluted if they came amidst them dead The story of Cleombrotus is famous who hearing Plato discourse of the immortality of the soul by the Sea side leapt from him into the Sea that he might presently be in that state And 't is storied that Nero refused to put Apollonius to death though he were very much incenst against him only upon the apprehension he had that he was very desirous to dye because he would not so far gratifie him I onely make this improvement of all this Christian Principles Rule do neither hurry nor misguide men but the end as we have it revealed should much more powerfully and constantly attract us Nothing is more unsuitable to Christianity our way nor to that blessedness the end of it then a terrene Spirit They have nothing of the true light and impress of the Gospel now nor are they ever like to attain the Vision of the blessed face of God and the impress of his likeness hereafter that desire it not above all things and are not willing to quit all things else for it And is it not a just exprobration of our earthliness and carnality if meer Philosophers and Pagans shall give better proof then we of a spirit erected above the world and alienated from what is temporary and terrene Shall their Gentilism outvy our Christianity Methinks a generous indignation of this reproach should inflame our souls and contribute somewhat to the refining of them to a better and more Spiritual temper Now therefore O all you that name your selves by that worthy name of Christians that profess the Religion taught by him that was not of the earth earthly but the Lord from heaven you that are partakers of the heavenly calling Consider the great Apostle and High-priest of your profession who only took our flesh that we might partake of his Spirit bare our earthly that we might bare his heavenly Image descended that he might cause us to ascend Seriously bethink your selves of the Scope and end of his Apostleship and Priesthood He was sent out from God to invite and conduct you to him to bring you into the Communion of his glory and blessedness He came upon a Message and Treaty of peace To discover his Fathers love and win yours To let you know how kind thoughts the God of love had conceived to you-wards And that however you had hated him without cause and were bent to do so without end he was not so affected towards you To settle a friendship and to admit you to the participation of his eternal glory Yea he came to give an instance and exemplifie to the world in his own Person how much of heaven he could make to dwell in mortal flesh how possible he could render it to live in this world as unrelated to it How gloriously the divine life could triumph over all the infirmities of frail humanity And so leave men a certain proof and pledge to what perfections humane nature should be improv'd by his grace and Spirit in all them that should resign themselves to his conduct and follow his steps That heaven and earth were not so far asunder but he knew how to settle a commerce and intercourse between them That an heavenly life was possible to be transacted here and certain to be gloriously rewarded hereafter And having testifi'd these things he seals the Testimony and opens the way for the accomplishment of all by his death Your heavenly Apostle becomes a Priest and a Sacrifice at once That no doubt might remain among men of his sincerity in what even dying he ceased not to profess and avow And that by his own propitiatory bloud a mutual reconciliation might be wrought between God and you that your hearts might be won to him and possest with an ingenuous shame of your ever having been his enemies And that his displeasure might for ever cease towards you and be turned into everlasting friendship and love That eternal redemption being obtained heaven might be opened to you and you finally be received to the