here below and that they shall obtain the reward that is promised them above by a manner of speech frequent in the Scripture where that which goes before is put for that which follows he makes no scruple to name one for the other Now the gratuitous reward of good works consists not in a privation of all perception but in the possession of Contentment and glory In the same Book the Souls of those that had been Martyred for the word of God are represented crying how long Lord just and true wilt thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth which is a proof that there is in them memory and apprehension And it cannot be said here that this cry is attributed to them as in the eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans sighs and groans and desires are ascribed to the whole frame of Heaven and Earth or as the cry of vengeance is attributed to the blood of Abel by a kind of Prosopopeia or ficttion of personality because it being notorious that the Heavens and the Earth and the blood of a man have no knowledg or preception there is no danger that such manner of figurative expressions should beget erroneous opinions in the mind of any one the nature of the thing gives sufficient notice that necessarily there must be some figure in the enunciation or discourse but where 't is said of the Souls of men which we see during the time that they are in the body endued with lively and excellent perception supposing that they were extinct or at least wholly asleep after death who can hinder himself by Reading these words from drawing opinions of a quite contrary nature Now to the end that no man may doubt of the meaning of this Text it is appointed them to rest and expect a little while Now although by a kind of Prosopopeia or fiction of person we may attribute such voices to things void of all perception who ever saw God introduced making answer to them or any one for him forming a Dialogue in the manner with things without all understanding To conclude there is given unto them white garments which can signifie nothing less than some great light of knowledg and some great purity of holiness or perfection of sanctification Now neither the one nor the other can subsist without a perfect use of the understanding faculty and all the affections of the Soul And although these white Robes should signify either the grace of justification or the hope of happiness and glory because sometimes white Robes were the marks of those that aspired to the most eminent Offices in the Roman Common Wealth yet that cannot be without some perception and affection For if it be the first in as much as these Souls are represented in a place whether they could have had no admission if they had not been justified and their sins pardoned it is not properly justification which they have already which is given to them 't is the Taste and Sense of it whereof the fulness is bestowed on them whereas here below we have nothing but the foretasts of it in the peace and joy of our Souls and if it be the second that can represent nothing but the desire of their full and perfect glorification accompanied with assurance and by consequence with incredible contentment which cannot be reconciled with the sleep of the Soul and the extinction of all its powers The Apostle writing to the Philippians saith that he was ballanced or in a strait between two thoughts whether he ought to desire death or to continue a longer time in the World Because if he had regard to the Edification that his Ministry might give to the Church and the profit that it might draw from hence he ought much rather to chuse a longer life but if he had regard to his own particular good death was more desirable to him than life I pray if he had believed that all the powers of his Soul as well as those of the body had remained at death benummed for so long a time would he have thought that death would have been more advantageous to him I do acknowledge that he had endured many evils for the confirmation of the truth that he Preached from which a death such as those against whom I dispute do represent it drousie and void of all understanding would have secured him but so it is that the knowledg he had of our Lord Jesus whilst alive the marvellous Revelations that had been made unto him the Joy and Consolation that came unto him from the sense of the love and peace of God and the exercise of so many excellent Virtues wherewithal he was endued were in my opinion things of such importance that they should rather cause him to prefer life in which he retained the possession of them though accompanied with many afflictions than to embrace death which what ever it might be otherwise deprived him of the enjoyment of them But the reason that he adds wherefore he ought to chuse death if he had no regard but to his own person that it is much better to be with Christ cuts off all occasion of doubting concerning the mind of St. Paul in this matter For those without doubt are not with Christ which sleep without perception and without any knowledg of their felicity though they were received into the most holy and most illustrious place of his glory Otherwise those might be said to live and dwell with Kings which are interred in the Chappels of their Palaces whether the least ray of the glory that compasses them about cannot enter That other passage seems not to me less express 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3. where the Apostle explains himself in these words we know that if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens wherefore we groan desiring earnestly to be clothed with our house that is from Heaven For is there any probability that he should desire with so much vehemency to be stripped of this Tabernacle of earth to be clothed with that which is from Heaven if he not only got nothing new but lost all the knowledg of things that he had in this life totally and altogether Now that he intends to speak there of the change that was to betide him before the Resurrection is a thing clear and manifest by the whole issue of the discourse 't is true he had said before that he knew that he that raised up the Lord Jesus would raise us up also by Jesus and cause us to appear in his presence and 't is for that reason that he testifies that he fainted not in his Tribulations and adds that though our outward man grew into decay nevertheless the inward man was renewed day by day going on from strength to strength and if we are exposed to several afflictions he says that our light affliction that is but
the universe must fall into a dreadful ruin So that if it had pleased God in his just severity to have forsaken man in his accursed State the entire destruction of the World had unavoidably followed thereupon For as when a subject hath committed Felony or Treason against his Soveraign we are not content only to punish his person we cut down his woods pull down his Houses and in a word we make all things that have any necessary dependance on him bear some marks of the indignation of his Prince so it was convenient that the world that was made for man and consequently depended on him as its end should follow his condition and as it were pass with him under the same condemnation but also since it hath pleased God to shew mercy to man and to promise Redemption to him and to decree to gather his Church out of his Posterity It is agreeable both to the wisdom and mercy of God to use the same conduct towards the World For first of all he ought to sustain it that it may be the Habitation of his Church during the time that it sojourns here below Even as after a Prince is reconciled to his subject he is not content to testify that he hath received his person into his favour he permits him to restore his Houses to their former State yea he furnishes him out of his bounty wherewithal to make them more bountiful and magnificent Not only to the end that he may obliterate all footsteps of his indignation but also that all things may bear the undoubted marks of his Clemency and Favour and 't is this that hath caused the subsistance of the World hitherunto and will yet cause that at the last day it shall not only be delivered from the disorders which are here seen but honoured with a Communication of the glorious liberty of the Sons of God after which St. Paul says it hath groaned and travailed for so many ages Therefore one part of our happiness will consist in the contentments of seeing the breaches which the order and beauty of the world hath suffered for our sakes magnificently repaired and the resplendent glory that we expect for our selves spread universally over all the parts thereof I very well understand that there have been some that have held an opinon quite contrary and have believed that as the World was produced of nothing it shall be reduced to nothing to the end that the maxim of the Philosophers as nothing is made of nothing so nothing can be reduced to nothing may remain totally confounded For they think 't is a maxim prejudicial to the glory of the Divine power and that the event of things must necessarily confute it But 't is an opinion that hath no firm foundation either in Scripture or Reason Touching Scripture all that it says is that the Heavens and the earth shall pass away but the word of God shall never pass away that the Heavens and the Earth shall pass away but God remains Eternally the same which easily receives two answers The one that the meaning is that although the Heaven and the Earth should pass away Nevertheless the word of God would remain immutable and of such manners of speech or affirmation which seeming strict and absolute which must be interpreted by a simple supposition examples are found elsewhere as Psal 45. the Earth is removed and the Mountains are carried into the midst of the Sea the Waters thereof roar and are troubled the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof the streams of the River shall make glad the City of God For so the words are read in the Original and yet we Translate them although the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea and the waters thereof Roar and be troubled and the rest in the same manner And the nature of the thing and design of the Author of this Divine Song do demonstrate clear as the day that so it ought to be understood The other Answer is that things pass away after two Fashions That is to say by a perfect abolition of their essence or by so great and considerable a change in their qualities that there appears no trace or footstep of what they were before For when things suffer so great a change that we know them no more at all we may certainly very well say in some sort that they are passed away Now without doubt these Texts may be understood in this manner and 't is plainly said Psal 110. that the Heavens shall be changed which shews that the Holy Spirit understands no otherwise that they shall pass away but by suffering a change marvellously considerable To conclude St. Peter who describes so gloriously the ruin of the world at the last day adds immediately after that according to the promise of God we expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in which righteousness shall dwell Which foretells a change of things into a better State not an utter abolition of their essence Touching reason there is no appearance of it in saying that because the world proceeded from nothing that therefore it must return to nothing again If that pass in such manner very strange consequence will follow concerning the Church and the humane nature of Jesus Christ which reason doth not so much reject as Piety and Conscience doth abhor God hath given proofs sufficiently certain of his infinite power in creating the World as he hath done without any need of giving Testimony of it by an entire and universal abolition of its essence And those miserable Philosophers if they have believed that Creation from nothing and the abolition of things to nothing doth surpass the power of God will be sufficiently convinced and punished for their errour although God do not destroy and abolish his own work for their confutation To conclude the glory of his power will not remain so illustrious if he reduce it to nothing as that of his goodness and mercy will remain darkned and dishonoured if after having given Being to the World and had such particular consideration of man as to punish it only for his sake he should soon after totally ruin it although he received man to favour who alone was guilty of those things which drew all this curse upon the World It remains therefore that we see what will be the constitution of the World by this great and memorable change that will happen to it at the last day Upon which I shall make some general considerations following the method of our preceeding discourses The first is that all things that appear to have come into the world in consequence of sin and not being of the first institution of the Creation must undoubtedly be abolished For since they have no subsistance but in vice or the depravation of sin Sin being in all regards obliterated there remains no place for the fruits and consequences of it If then there be any evil influence in the Stars or any pestilential exhalation in the
that serve for the local motion of its members and on the incomparable disposition that nature hath established among the parts which are to digest distribute receive and appropriate that which is necessary for their nourishment To conclude the last reason hath no more force than the precedent For seeing Angels which are as I have said Beings totally separate from Matter or Body have nevertheless certain means which in truth we cannot easily comprehend but yet certainly believe of knowing things sensible and Corporeal and forming excellent discourses upon them whereof the Scripture furnishes us with indubitable proofs wherefore the Soul being a substance well nigh like that of Angels should it not be capable of the same operations let us imagin that by the power of God an Angel should be incarnate in such manner that he become the form of a humane Body and that he animate it after the manner of a reasonable Soul without doubt whiles he lodges there he will see and perceive things Corporeal by the Organs of sense and reason upon the Images which are brought from and perfected in the Phantasy as we now do And if actually he become the Soul of this body it will be as much subject to the use of its Organs for the exercise of his understanding as our Soul is at this time for the exercise of its most excellent faculties but if after this it should please God to disintangle it from the bonds of of the Body will it lose the use of those powers wherewith he served himself so advantageously without the use of Organs before it was made to serve there But there is something more 't is a constant truth and all the World assent to it that there is nothing in the understanding which was not in some manner first in the sense but this which is so indubitable to speak generally is not without difficulty when it comes to be explained because it may be taken in this sense viz. that universally we can have no other Idea's of things in our minds than such as have proceeded from things material and which our eyes or our ears or our other senses have been capable of receiving and again it may be so explained that although these be in our mind Idea's purely intellectual and which retain nothing of the nature of Body yet so it is that they are not formed but by occasion of the Images of Corporeal things which are received in the Phantasy upon which the Intellect makes its first Reflections And I think that if a man make but little use of his reason he shall find that 't is in this second manner but the aforesaid truth must be understood For to say nothing of our passing from Physicks or natural Philosophy to that of Metaphysicks or which is above nature by the means of certain obstructions which conduct the Spirit of a man from the Contemplation of Bodies to that of Spirits and things Immaterial I think Religion puts the thing out of all controversy and doubt For 't is indeed by the interposition of our Senses that we see the Heavens and the Earth and that we hear the word of God Preached and 't is upon the Idea's which the exercise of our senses introduce upon our Phantasy that we put our selves upon reasoning concerning the Deity But 't is a thing known by our proper experience that when we have sometimes seriously applied our selves thereunto from the consideration of things sensible which have given us the first notions or knowledg thereof we ascend to speculations concerning the nature of God and his properties which are entirely and absolutely separated from the qualities and matter of Bodies Although then our minds produce no operations whereof things Corporeal have not presented them the occasions as Saint Paul says Rom. 1. that from the workmanship of the World we come to the knowledg of the eternal power and goodness of the Divinity or Godhead nevertheless there are some actions of our minds which are purely Spiritual and which in no wise depend on Bodies any further than that Corporeal objects do furnish us with occasions to produce them by discourse now if there be any of the actions of our minds which to speak properly have nothing in common with Bodies even during the time that they inhabit there and are in some kind fastened and bound to their instruments why should they not be capable of producing them without the service of the Senses then when they are altogether losened from the bonds that have joyned and united them if then we can have any proofs from the Scripture that Souls use their faculties after the death of the Body that Divine Revelation ought not only to have sufficient Authority to impress this belief upon our minds notwithstanding the contradiction of the pretended discourses of our reason but these difficulties which some persons think to be in the thing it self ought not to leave in our minds the least hesitation or suspition Let us see then what the word of God doth teach concerning it Those Divines which have attempted to derive a proof of this verity from the Parable of the wicked Dives and Lazarus have received this contradiction on the part of those who believe that the Soul loses the use of its faculties in death viz. that what our Saviour says there is no History but only a Parable and that it is an impertinence to endeavour to make such discourses pass for narrations of things effectively accomplished And thereupon there is much and great Contestation because on one hand there is no other Parable in the Scripture where the persons that are there introduced are designed by their names and represented exactly by many circumstances as Lazarus is described in that place or Paragraph and on the other hand the discourse which our Saviour reports that Abraham and the Rich man had the one with the other or cross the great Gulph or Abyss hath no appearance or likeness of an Historical narration to commend it to acceptance as a real truth Wherefore seeing it may be in part an History and in part a Parable let us examine it briefly under this last Consideration in all the Parables which our Saviour makes use of in the Gospel we must have regard to the end whereunto it tends and also to what he says that he may come to it as to what concerns the end of this Parable 't is sufficiently apparent by its Conclusion that our Lord had in design to shew that the obstinacy of mans mind in opposition to things proposed unto him on the part of God is so great that neither Revelations made by the word of God nor Miracle laid open before our eyes is capable of moving or affecting us In such sort that although the dead themselves should rise we should give no more credit to their Testimony than we do to the writings of Moses and the Prophets if God touch us not inwardly by his Spirit All the rest
well what to hold or affirm have left the Question undecided Now as to what concerns the bosom of Abraham as when our Lord saith Mat. 8. 11. that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. He never intended to design or determin the place where these Patriarchs are together so that if the place where they are may be gathered from this Text 't is from those words in the Kingdom of Heaven And not from those and shall sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob So there is no appearance that he intended to determine any certain place by those words in Abrahams bosom Because in his time there were two manners of eating together the one by sitting round a Table as we now do the other by lying on beds in such fashion that their heads were near each other and one did repose himself as it were in the bosom of his neighbour in the one of those Texts the Lord hath respect to one of these customs and in the other to the other to signify one and the same thing viz. that they shall eat with Abraham And because to eat together after this manner is a Testimony of a Familiar Conversation and of a Society full of friendship to signifie that Lazarus had this strict familiarity with Abraham he says that he was in his bosom as to signifie that others shall enjoy the same sweet society with him he says they shall be with him at Table Which shews without doubt that they must be in the same place but doth in no manner determine whether this place be above the Heavens or beneath the earth As to the meaning of the other Text surely those that make use of it to exclude the Spirits of the Fathers from entring into Heaven before the Ascension of Christ are deceived in the interpretation of it The Apostle means nothing thereby but that by the Ceremony of the High Priests entring once a year into the Holy of Holies with Blood for the expiation of Sins the holy Spirit did give them sufficiently to understand that the true High Priest was not as yet entred into the Sanctuary of Heaven and that the means by which that was to be accomplished was not yet made evident or revealed and indeed it could not be made evident but by the coming of the Thing it Self now the Thing it Self and the Ceremony could not subsist at the same time for the one had the place of a Figure the other of Reality and Truth and the Figure and Truth are appointed for divers times and differing dispensations the Truth therefore existing the Figure necessarily ceases And therefore as long as the Figure did by the appointment of God subsist the Truth could not be presumed actually exhibited But be the interpretation that they have given to this Text What it will it will be of no great importance whether they be deceived in it yea or no since that which the most part of them hold is a constant truth and the whole World are at an agreement with them in it And 't is that since our Lord Jesus is ascended on high the entrance into the Heavens hath been open not only to the faithful that have departed since him but also generally to all those that have lived under the dispensation of the times passed as well since as before the publication of the Law upon the mountain For what doth it concern me that Abraham and the other Patriarchs Fathers Believers and good men that lived in former times had not the advantage of entring into Heaven till our Saviour ascended thither since I my self shall enter there at death and meet them all there to partake with them in the same joy I say what doth it import me that God hath at other times taken the Souls of Believers as Elias speaks of his own and hath lodged them apart in some place at a distance from him until the ascension of our Saviour since that when he takes mine he will place it in his Sanctuary But because all Christians are not of this Opinion and that some have thought that although the faithful after death do enter into a deep Repose accompanied with Consolation and joy marvellously sensible nevertheless they will not be permitted to enter into the presence of God in the Heavens nor to enjoy the Vision of him until the Resurrection I think my self obliged briefly to examine the Texts and Reasons upon which they do establish their Persuasion They say therefore that the holy Scripture doth ordinarily remit us to the Resurrection for the accomplishment of our hopes and that it is on that day alone that our Lord doth promise to give Rewards to those that believe in him as may be seen Joh. 6. and in many other places of like nature even some have made no scruple to alledge to this purpose that Text of St. Peter where he says that Christ was quickened in the Spirit by which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison because although he there speaks of the Spirits of those that lived long before the Revelation of the new Covenant nevertheless according to their opinions there is a likeness of Reason and that we ought to make the same judgment of Believers now and those of times past in this matter and behold well near how they explain themselves There is none say they that is either rewarded or punished with those Rewards or Punishments that are appointed by the Laws until the Sentence be given and pronounced judicially now the Judgment that must pass judicially upon us is differred till the last day so that it will be contrary to all ordinary forms of Administring Justice that the Spirits of Believers should be admitted to the Vision of God before our Lord shall have pronounced Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the World for I was an hungry c. Therefore as Criminals were kept in Prison and that 's it which is signified by the word Prison 1 Pet. 3. 19. until the pronunciation of Judgment and as they are not brought forth in publick to be punished till after Judgment is pronounced so it is reasonable that some place be appointed for the Reception of those which shall be absolved at the Coming of Christ which is different from the place wherein they shall receive their Reward but as those that are in Prison are racked and tormented in their Consciences by the fear of Judgment and the punishment that doth attend them which is properly in their opinion the pain that the damned at this time endure so it is reasonable that those that expect their Reward in the place of Repose should enjoy Consolation in the assurance of their future absolution and hopes of Glory Now if this Consideration be valid for the Fathers of the most ancient times without doubt it will be as good for the faithful of the new Covenant as for
Since our head is there and the Communion that we have with him is so strict and indissoluble wherefore doth not he assemble his members about him although by his wise dispensation some part of them remain yet a while on Earth Since he hath prayed that where he is we may be also why is the fruit of this prayer which without doubt God did hear differred for so many ages Since he hath said that he went thither to prepare a place for us why should we doubt that he doth receive us to the place that he hath designed and marked out for us To conclude since he shews himself to those that enquire not after him why doth he depart or withdraw himself so far from those that seek and desire him with so great passions and affections When Mary cast her self at his feet to embrace him he said touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Without doubt because this woman transported with the pleasure of seeing him raised again was willing as we say to rejoyce and congratulate with him in so glorious a Victory and because she and his other disciples had hitherunto had some hope that the Lord would remain on Earth with them to re-establish the Kingdom of Israel she was ravished with joy as if henceforth there were nothing that could hinder but that she might enjoy his presence according to her wish and content there with all the desires of her Soul For that reason he repressed this heat and ardour and tells her that 't is not yet done it remains as yet that he ascend on high ere they must see the accomplishment of their expectations For according to his admirable goodness and wisdom he knew so to dispose his actions and discourses to his servants and to accommodate them for a little time to the quality of their knowledg and understanding but at this time that he is ascended upon high wherefore in expectation that he will descend thence to raise our Bodies should he not permit our Souls to go cast themselves at his feet and refresh themselves with the pleasant enjoyment of his presence all these considerations certainly ought to make very great impressions upon our minds but that which ought fully to perswade them is that the holy Scriptures given us most evident and indubitable instructions concerning it Let us therefore chuse some passages very express and which will render the thing wholly manifest St. Paul in the place that I alledged above saith that if the earthly House of our Body be dissolved we have a Building of God an House eternal in the Heavens And we have seen above that he speaks of what happens to the faithful immediately after death and not only of what they expect at the last Resurrection Will any one say that these words in the Heavens do not signify the place but the condition that is to say that Habitation is called Heavenly not because 't is in the Heavens but because 't is very holy and happy Certainly this neither can nor must be For besides that we may not have recourse to interpretations which seem a little forced without an absolute and invincible necessity he says 't is an house Eternal in the Heavens Now the Court of Heaven which is appointed for the faithful may well be called Eternal although it be necessary that Souls leave it for a moment at the time of the Resurrection Because things that are done for a very little space of time and only by dispensation are not at all considered and so small an interval hinders not but that we say they have always continued in that same place Even as we do not quit our dwelling by making a voyage into the Country and although the Angels come sufficiently often on Earth yet we do not cease to name them the Angels of Heaven but if Souls be in any place out of Heaven until the day of the Resurrection that Habitation being to be abandoned for ever it cannot in any wise be said to be Eternal The same Apostle says that he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ Forasmuch as it was much better for him without doubt Jesus Christ is in the Heavens and if St. Paul had not believed that he should go thither when he died but that he must be confined in some other place of the world wherever it be out of the presence of our Lord he had not served himself of such expressions our Lord promised the Thief that he should that day be with him in Paradise now Paradise is in Heaven and although our Lord did soon redescend from thence to reunite himself to his body the thief without all controversy continued there having no need or occasion to return to this Earth In the Book of the Revel Chap. 14. Vers 4. All the faithful departed hence are represented under the number of an hundred and forty and four thousand gathered together in the Heavens in the company of the Lamb and following him whithersoever he goes Now there is no probability that God would represent to his Prophet Visions of this nature for the confirmation and consolation of his Children if they were contrary to the truth of things In the Epistle to the Hebrews 't is said that we are come to the assembly and Church of the first born whose names are written in Heaven Now 't is not the manner to enrol and make men free of a City and soon after exile them for a very long time into the Countrey Besides 't is apparent that this word written or enrolled signifies in this Text assembled for here are no publique Rolls or Records in the Heavens where the names and qualities of believers are actually written But because those that are admitted to the priviledges of Freemen in a City are wont first of all to be Enrolled after that manner of speaking which I have before remarked where that which goes before is put for that which follows and that which follows for that which goes before the holy Apostle calls those written or enrolled which are actually received into the possession of their Heavenly freedom and truly it seems to me that there is no reason to doubt of a thing whereof God hath been pleased to give most express assurance in all the periods and parts of the holy Scriptures For why think we did he raise and Translate Enoch before the Law Elias under the legal Oeconomy and Jesus Christ under the Gospel so apparently and manifestly that no man could doubt but that they are carried to Heaven if it were not to this end that we might raise our desires thoughts and affections thither after them I very well know that these things have a particular regard to the hope of the Resurrection but I do also maintain that God would not have drawn the hearts of men so visibly to himself if he had had any intention to command their Souls separated from their Bodies to remain I know not where
are done there and that if all of a sudden he should be taken thence and the Heavens and the Earth the Sun the Moon the Stars the Clouds the force and power of the Winds and in general all that is peculiarly worthy of knowledge in all the parts of nature be shewed unto him 't is indubitable that he would fall into a very great admiration and that he would immediately cry out this is the Work and Habitation of the Gods themselves And there is no Person that Considers the thing as it ought which doth not easily apprehend that this Philosopher had reason For although the custom of seeing all these marvellous Objects diminishes the admiration of them 't is nevertheless from thence that all Nations have first learned that there is an infinite Being that by the wisdom of his understanding and power of his hand hath given being to all these things What may we then think of the ravishments that the Souls of the Faithful have experience of then when being delivered from the chains of the body and carried on high between the hands of Angels after having passed all the extent of the Air and gone through the vast and immense spaces of the Celestial Orbs and considered near at hand the vast and prodigious greatness the marvellous splendour of the Sun and other Stars they come to enter that stately Palace where God and our Lord Jesus dwell in glory When Jacob saw a Ladder which reached from Earth to Heaven and the Angels that ascended and descended from above he cried out this is the House of God or at least it is certainly the Gate of Heaven and testified that this place so venerable filled his Soul with fear and wonder both together David placed among his most earnest desires that of entring into the Tabernacle of God and of seeing on all sides the marvels that shined there And truely I do not doubt but that Spectacle was capable of overwhelming the Spirit with unspeakable content the matter it self was illustrious and amazing but the work and design much exceeded the matter But what is all that in comparison of what we may presume concerning the Heavens and the wonders that on all sides shine and sparkle there When we view the palaces of Kings the costliness of their Houses the stateliness of their seylings the variety of their Pictures the richness of their Tapestry the rarity of their Statues the lofty grandeur of their Pillars and Arches give a pleasure marvellously sensible and affecting to all men that have eyes and have not their internal senses marvellously stupid and blockish those that are knowing in Arts and well understand Building Painting Carving Embroidery and other things of that nature do there take much more content than others because they discover all the beauties that are in those Objects the most curious stroaks and the most delicate devices cannot escape them Whereas the generality observe nothing there but the various sparkling of Colours some order and general harmony and proportion which the most gross cannot be ignorant in and in such or such a Picture some likeness to persons that at some time they have seen If there be either Histories or Emblems Riddles or Devices in the Tapestries or Pictures those which are conversant in good Learning and pride themselves either in quickness of wit or the knowledg of Histories and Fables do there receive yet more satisfaction if they can lay open what is wrapt up there and go to the bottom of what others see nothing but the bark And if with so many other things the Spirit of Prophecy had given to David some understanding of the Mysteries which were vailed under the Types and Allegories of the Old Testament I do believe that in the contemplation of the Tabernacle neither the price of the matter whereof it was composed nor the Divine industry that Bezaleel and Aholiab employed there did never so much content either his senses or his understanding as he felt of ravishment in the marvellous wisdom wherewith God directed the design of all these things to represent by them others incomparably more excellent which were yet hid in the darkness of time to come Imagine you therefore a Soul first of all ready instructed in the truths of Christianity and purified from all false impressions which may have been mingled with them then afterwards extraordinarily illuminated by the Spirit of God and by that means made capable of all that the most sublime intelligences are capable of to be introduced into this place so full of Magnificence and splendor and there finding the substance of that whereof the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle was heretofore but a shadow If you do so I assure my self that you will fall so short of being able to conceive all the contentment that it will find there that you cannot attentively affix your Spirit thereon but it will remain swallowed up and fall and faint under the admiration of the knowledg that it will obtain there although you be not able to comprehend it There remains the third of these objects which is the presence of our Lord Jesus and our Communion with happy Spirits and Holy Angels To begin there as I believe that there is no reason to doubt but that Angels can communicate among themselves So I hold for certain that happy spirits can do the same and that Angels and Souls can mutually entertain each other What is the manner of this communication is a thing as difficult to explain as is the nature of Angels themselves and the substance of Spirits For such as is the nature of things such is the manner and quality of their Operations and no man will ever well explain the one if he have not first of all perfectly comprehended what may be understood of the other But although we do not well understand the manner nevertheless we do not fail to be fully assured of the thing it self Every understanding Being is enclined to society as on the other side no Beings have any society among themselves but those that are endued with understanding 'T is for that reason that among Animals man alone is Politick and Sociable as therefore with an understanding but which is inclosed in a Body God hath given us speech which is a Corporeal means of mutual Conversation so to substances separate from Body but nevertheless endued with understanding he hath given some power to entertain society and converse although it be not Corporeal And those that imagine that neither Angels nor Souls can move themselves unless it be by the means of a Body nor discover their thoughts and sentiments to each other unless it be by some Corporeal medium to say no more pretend to know what they do not at all understand For seeing they dare to determine the nature of the faculties of Spirits and the manner of their Operations they must be presumed to have an exact and perfect knowledg of the nature of substances purely Spiritual Therefore
air if there be any Curse on the Earth or disorder in the Sea If there be any irregularity in the other Elements or fault in their mixture for the constitution of things if there be any venom in plants or ferocity in Animals which may bring damage to mankind in a word if there be any disorder in the Laws of nature and in their Conduct if the world receive no other advantage 't is necessary that it be freed from all that and that it be restored to that Constitution in which it was placed in its first Creation Imagine therefore a little the world new clad in an instant from East to West and from North to South of that air so gay and flourishing and in manner so smiling and full of assurances of the goodness of its Creatour as that it had at the beginning Imagine that the Heavens hath no Stars which do not send down even to the envy of each other benign influences and favourable aspects that in the clouds there are no Lightnings Thunders or Poysonous Exhalations which threaten by their open violence or secret venom that in the Earth all seeds of hurtful plants are utterly extinguished and that it furnishes all sorts of pleasant and agreeable fruits for the nourishment of man that the Sea hath no Tempests nor other agitations but those of its reflux no winds any farther than is necessary to prevent the languishing of Ships at Anchor and to favour Navigation that the Rivers never overflow their banks that the Fire never commit any spoil that the heat and cold and other qualities of the Elements keep universally a very regular temper and such as does no hurt neither by its excesses or defects That the Fishes and Birds and the most Savage beasts of the Earth have laid aside their savage humour and all their ferocity that they may be familiar with man and ready to all his Commands In a word form in your mind the most lively and perfect image that you are able of that admirable Paradise where God placed the first man and as much as 't is possible to your thoughts plant this first Eden in all the World and you will conceive the beginning of that lovely State after which St. Paul says that the whole Creation ardently groans with restlessness and loud sighings which give Testimony to its impatience The second Consideration is that since the World follows the Condition of man and that God hath been so good towards him that he is not content only to restore him to the Estate of his Original Integrity but will raise him to a supernatural State 't is agreeable to the same goodness of God that he not only restore the World to its own natural constitution but that he raise the quality of its being to a degree more glorious In such manner that by how much the Bodies of believers at the Resurrection must be more Excellent then that of Adam at the time of his Creation and we have seen above that the difference is very great by so much the quality of the new World must excel that of the Old how ever perfect it might be in the integrity of its nature Therefore all those alterations and continual vicissitudes according to which nature moves continually in the generation and corruption of things that are produced out of the composition of Elements will then cease and whatever be the things that are found in the world they will have a permanent and invariable Being Finally to proceed to the third consideration as I have said above concerning the future condition of our Bodies that it is much more easy to say what they shall not be than what they shall be so is it much more easy to define what qualities and what conditions will not then be found in the World than to determine those wherewithal it will be adorned And for that reason 't is not less rash to say boldly what the World will be in its restauration whether the days and the nights will be made by the revolution of the Sun or whether the Sun will remain fixed in the one or other Hemisphere whether the Sea shall have its flux and reflux and the earth be covered with plants whether it shall be dark as it is now or whether it shall be Luminous and Transparent and things of like nature than to pronounce boldly concerning the qualities of our Bodies in their glorification modesty and humility is not less necessary in this subject than in the other Therefore it shall suffice me to say that when Adam was Created he was without doubt marvellously moved at the aspect of this World and of all the marvels which were therein presented to him and that besides the admiration of the beauty of the work he had experience without doubt of contentment singularly great when he made this reflection thereon that it was particularly designed for him and that God had made him Lord thereof willing that it should Minister to his happiness In like manner 't is necessary that the believer be overwhelmed altogether with satisfaction and wonder when this new World shall be presented to his eyes in an Estate so flourishing and glorious and that if I may so say he may there read on all sides that 't is to encrease his happiness that God hath renewed this Stately Fabrick and reinvested it with a form beyond Comparison more beautiful and advantageous than what it had before There remains the third respect under which man ought to be considered in as much as he is a part of the Church of God and the happiness of the whole Body must encrease the sense that each member hath of its own Now without scruple there are divers things here which do raise our happiness to a pitch marvellously high For because the Apostle St. Paul writing to the Thessalonians says that those which sleep shall rise first and afterwards that those that shall be found alive shall be changed the first spectacle that the believer will have before his eyes will be the resurrection of all those that in all ages have dyed When we read Ezek. 37. That magnificent promise which God there makes to the Children of Israel concerning their restauration representing it under the figure of a Resurrection the only reading of this Divine vision forms in our minds an Idea that gives them cause of admiration and makes them easily conceive that it must be that the Spirit of God had seised that of the Prophet certainly for this reason because of it self the imagination of man was not capable of such Meditations He reports that this Spirit placed him in the midst of a large plain all covered with bones Though he says that it caused him to turn all round to the end that he might attentively consider them and that he might observe their quantity which was great to Admiration and their dryness which was such as there did not appear the least sign that ever they had either life
part Corporeal there is great probability that this faculty being extinct with the Body its images will by that means be obliterated in such sort that there is no great appearance that we can call to mind at the Resurrection the sensible and Corporeal shape of those that we have seen and known during the time of life But though we should retain some memory of them knowledge depends on the conformity that is found between the qualities which at present you find in the objects that are offered to your eyes and other senses and the images of those qualities which they had when you formerly knew them which are remaining in your memories So that if you find them such as you have seen them you may indeed remember them But if they be so changed that there be no likeness between their qualities and the Idea's which you have formerly received of them as if you had known some infant and should see him again along time after well advanced in years it would be impossible for you ever to recal him to mind Now we have already said that there will be a change marvellously great in all the constitution of our Bodies so that those that have seen us here below will find nothing at all of that by which we may become knowable unto them Moreover whilst the state of nature subsists the natural affections are both necessary to its subsistance and very beautiful and lovely in themselves when they are governed and conducted by that judgment and right reason that ought to preside over all our passions So 't is supreamly agreeable that Husbands love their Wives and Wives their Husbands and that Parents have great tenderness for their Children and Children vehement affections and profound respects for their Parents And by consequent it agrees perfectly well to the institutions of nature that those should cordially love each other between whom it hath established these Relations but when the estate of nature shall be changed and all things put in a supernatural state there is great probability that the necessity of these affections ceasing they will either be totally extinct or at least they will certainly lose much of their heat and vigour and our Lord Jesus answering to the Question which was made to him concerning the Woman that had seven Husbands and teaching us that in the Kingdom of Heaven all these Relations will cease hath as it seems likewise taught us that the affections that depend thereon will also be reduced to nothing Add to this that we know nothing more sweet nor more affecting in this life than the affections that we mutually bear to each other be it that they proceed from the inclinations and sentiments of nature and the Relations that it doth establish between us be it that familiar conversation and a conformity of humours and inclinations do generate and produce them Therefore as we are inclined to measure all things by the knowledg that we have and as it were conceive nothing above it Scarcely can we imagin that in the Heavens there be enjoyment more agreeable and pleasant than those that we have here on earth even our Lord accommodating himself to these inclinations and to the capacity of our minds promises us as it hath been said above that we shall there sit at Table with the Ancient Patriarchs but nevertheless there is great probability that as when St. Peter saw the transfiguration of Christ he was so swallowed up in the admiration of those objects that he forgot all those that at other times he knew and said 't is good for us to be here So then when we shall have our Souls filled with that love and joy which the presence of the Redeemer and the vision of God himself will beget within us we shall no more remember any of all that tenderness of affection that we had experience of in the present life Notwithstanding I shall not in this place neglect to observe two things that concern this matter the first is that St. Paul writing to the Thessalonians and being willing to exhort them effectually to something of importance speaks to them after this manner Brethren we beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him the meaning is without doubt that he conjured them by that which might be most glorious and most desirable for them in the coming of our Saviour and by all that which might be one day most sweet and consolatory in our Holy Communion then when we shall be found together and from all our dispersions assembled round about him which seems to signify that he expected to enjoy content in their presence as they should enjoy in his at the coming of our Lord. Now 't is difficult to conceive what that manes if their be no mutual knowledge of each other I think therefore if it may be permitted to speak our apprehensions in things concerning which we have but little light from the word of God that the intellectual memory that is in us retaining the remembrance of general things which have been committed to it neither the Apostle St. Paul will forget that he Preached the Gospel to the Thessalonians nor will the Thessalonians forget that by the Preaching of St. Paul they had been called to the Communion of the Gospel If then St. Paul have any signal or mark by which he may be known among the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ and we shall see by and by what can be said about it the memory of it may awaken in the Thessalonians their ancient affections so that they may approach St. Paul and give unto him and receive from him as far as the glory of their Condition will permit them mutual Testimonies of their love and good will And forasmuch as our happiness will not be only for that day but for all Eternity and this Eternity will not pass in Solitude but in most pleasant and agreeable Communication who doubts but that in so long a consequence of Ages there may be presented an infinite number of accidents which may awaken in us those general remembrances which do remain of what we have seen here below and which by this means will reanimate our affections towards those persons which we have dearly loved in this life But as a Father which equally loves his Children perceives his love for a time more lively towards him among them which returns from a far Country after a very long absence than towards those that have been always with him but afterwards when time hath quieted that extraordinary emotion he returns to that equality of affection wherewithal he doth embrace them in like manner that joy which St. Paul and the Thessalonians will have to find themselves together at the appearance of Christ will not hinder but that in a short time their love will return and equally divide it self to all the faithful which they shall see partaking with them in the glory of the Saviour of
causes in nature hath certain fluxes and refluxes more or less observable on such and such Shores according as it hath pleased the Providence of God to dispose of them 't is true we see the Sea all entire though we see it not entirely for if we should encompass the World by all sides of the Ocean we should not find there any other sort of Sea than what we see in our own Harbours and Havens But if the Sea signifie all that extension of Water which encompasses the World in such manner that as we say its desinition includes universally all its parts and that if we divide it then it loses the name and nature of Sea without doubt he doth not see the Sea who sees nothing of it but an Arm or a Haven Now such is the nature of God that his infinity enters its definition or to express it otherwise his immensity is of the nature of his Essence so that he sees not God in his Essence which sees him not infinite and he cannot see him infinite that is to say know him such as he is in that respect who hath not an immense capacity of understanding But there is yet more We cannot only not see the Essence of God by portions but although we could see some portion of it that is not properly the thing in which our happiness doth consist I say we cannot see it by portions for the Properties of things are conceived by certain degrees which do in some sort divide their efficacy and virtues but Essences are absolutely indivisible to our understanding and if they could be conceived they would not be conceived but as a point so that either we do not comprehend that of God or we must comprehend it all intire though we do not consider it as infinite Now this is a thing absolutely impossible to our understandings moreover it will not be in that that our felicity will consist for 't is very true that the happiness of our understandings will consist in the supream excellence of their operations and that the excellence of their operations in great measure depend on the perfection of the Objects upon which they are employed Now 't is very true without doubt that the Essence of God is something supreamly perfect nevertheless this perfection of the Divine Essence is not acknowledged principally in that 't is an Essence but in that 't is an Essence which hath such Properties as that 't is supreamly powerful supreamly wise supreamly merciful that 't is eternal immutable and most happy in it self and things of like nature in such sort that to the end that the operations of our understanding may be as perfect as they ought to be that we may be accounted happy in that we do produce them there is no need that they fix themselves on the Essence of God in such sort as 't is an Essence 't is nccessary that they employ themselves in the knowledge of those virtues which I have named and of all others that may be mentioned of the same sort Besides to the end that these operations of our understanding be such as they ought to be 't is necessary that they produce in us conformity with God for we must be made like him because we shall see him as he is Now our happiness in this respect cannot consist in being made like to God in this that we shall have an Essence much less in this that our Essence be Divine but in this that we be holy just and good as he is And therefore this Vision of God which will make us such must consist in the knowledge of his admirable properties and perfections Behold then well nigh what it is to see God as he is and how the words of St. John must be understood 't is that now we know the virtues and perfections of God but it is not but very imperfectly as well because the revelation doth not discover him fully as principally because of the imperfect constitution of our Faculties and Beings Then we shall understand them as perfecty as they can be understood by a created understanding when 't is exalted to as high a degree of perfection as it can ascend unto and according to the most excellent degree of revelation in which they can be presented to a Creature which hath attained the highest degree of perfection in the constitution of his Faculties and Essence for as long as a thing doth not discover its qualities and virtues perfectly whatsoever attention we bring to the consideration of them we can neither see nor know it as it is and when 't is perfectly discovered we know it not as it is if we be not in a condition to know and consider it But when these two things meet together then a perfect vision or knowledge of it is made or obtained The declaration that God gives of his Properties to his Creatures consists either in the testimony that he gives to himself that such and such perfections are in him or in this that he doth some works and displays himself in some operations in which he puts the marks and impressions of them for every Effect bears some Character of its Cause and the more excellent the Cause and the more elaborate the Effect is the more evident and knowable are the Characters thereof Now as to what concerns testimony that consists in the word either which God himself pronounces or which he causes to be pronounced by his Servants therefore because 't is a means which he employs forasmuch as men have not understanding sufficiently clear nor strong to be able to perceive in the works of God the Virtues and Perfections whereunto his word gives testimony Then when man shall be put in such estate that his understanding shall be endowed with all necessary light to be able to know in the works of God his marvellous virtues 't is easie to imagine that this mean will then cease St. Paul says That since in the wisdom of God the World by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe When therefore the World shall be re-establisht in such an estate that it by wisdom can know God and that the objects that will be in his marvellous works can lead it to all the raised and sublime knowledge to which the ministry of the Word is capable of advancing it there will be without doubt no more need of making use of it so that we shall know God chiefly by the Contemplation of his Works when God created man he gave him the works of Heaven and Earth and all things contained in them for the object of his Contemplation and because the faculty of his understanding was then in condition so perfectly good as the condition of nature would bear he was able to see God in them that is to say to know the Virtues whose Characters he had impressed upon them And the chief of those virtues were his goodness which alone induced him
to create the World his wisdom which is so admirably discovered in all the parts whereof it is composed and his power which appears not only in the greatness of the work and in the great variety of forms wherewith it is replenisht but especially in this that it was drawn from nothing and formed without the aid of any pre-existent matter And that leads him to the knowledge of the infinity and immensity of the nature of God for the World could not be created of nothing unless by an infinite power and an infinite power cannot reside in a finite or limited Essence from the infinity of his Essence he was able to ascend to his Eternity for it is impossible but that a thing that had a beginning should have a limited nature to which the cause that produced it doth necessarily determine it so that what is infinite in its Essence hath no beginning of its Existence and what hath no beginning of its Existence can have no end 't is for this reason that St. Paul in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans saith that men may know the Eternal Power of God in his works by the Creation of the World joyning with the declaration of his Power the revelation of his Eternity from thence he was able to conduct his discoursive power a little farther and know yet some other attributes of this blessed Essence and see God a little farther Nevertheless to see him in this fort is not called properly the seeing of him as he is and the reasons of it are evident Firstly In that the perfections which God hath displayed in this work of nature might have been more magnificently discovered if God had set it as one day it must be in a Supernatural State for as I have said already the more excellent the work is the more clearly doth it give us to understand the virtues and properties of its Cause Again though God hath revealed therein some of his Perfections nevertheless he hath not revealed all of them for as to his Justice he hath given no other knowledge of it besides what may be contained in that threatning Thou shalt dye the death now there is a great deal of difference between the knowledge that these threatnings may give us of it and that which is made from experience of the thing it self for what concerns his mercy there was no declaration made of it and therefore Adam could have no understanding of it After the fall till the first coming of Christ God hath revealed among others these two attributes for death and other sorts of judgments which he hath caused to fall upon men have given testimony to his Justice and his mercy is made known in the promise of Remission of Sins so that the faithful that have known them have in some sort seen God in that respect but nevertheless diverse things hinder so that we cannot say that they did see him as he is the one is that as to what concerns his Justice though death and other judgments of God do bear evident testimonies thereof nevertheless the punishment that God made of our Sins on the person of his only Son was a far more apparent evidence and more authentick demonstrations thereof until then it appeared that God was just but it did not appear that he was inflexible and altogether inexorable in his Justice but when he delivered his welbeloved Son unto death for the punishment of our Sins he gave us to understand that his nature did so abhor Sin that 't is absolutely impossible that he should suffer it without punishing it in a very dreadful manner this is it which St. Paul teacheth Rom. 3. That God had made his Son a propitiatory through faith to the end that he might demonstrate his Justice which had not been sufficiently known during the forbearance of the times past for how ever it was God as says the same St. Paul did as it were connive during the times of the ignorance of Gentilism and permit that men should entertain thoughts of his severity less congruous than became a Nature so holy and exactly just as is his the other is that where the Justice of God is not known to the utmost the Mercy of God is not known neither for he that knows not perfectly the whole greatness of the Evil cannot sufficiently comprehend the whole excellence of the Remedy add to this that the mercy of God was then indeed known by excellent premises but it was not sufficiently known by the experience of the effects themselves for death always reigned and Believers were always exposed to afflictions which did precede death and all this bore the Characters or were Signs of that inclination that solicited God to punish Sin so that all these things did in a manner obscure the splendor of this Mercy the third is that the mean by which this mercy makes it self known to be shed abroad upon us being not yet manifest the wisdom of God that reconciled justice and mercy between themselves could not be known in this affair which is the most magnificent and most admirable of all the works that ever it did produce for all the marvels that it hath so liberally scattered in the Heavens and in the Earth approach not that of the incarnation of our Saviour by which God was made capable of suffering the pains which the Sins of men deserved man knows God just by the threatnings of his Laws and merciful by the sweetness of his Promises and the Efficacy whereby he accompanies his word render the one and the other of these two Properties sensible to the Consciences of those whose hearts he touches and besides he is not ignorant that God is sufficiently wise in reconciling them together but nevertheless what sublimity of knowledge and understanding could divine that the mean of this accord was to consist in making God become man and this same man God without mixture or confusion between the natures that constitute his Person or the Properties that do accompany them To conclude man being not only in a State of Nature but also in a State of Corruption and having not received the Spirit of Illumination then unless in some small measure he could not apprehend all the beauties of his Perfections though they had been much more clearly and illustriously revealed From the first Coming of Christ until the second the faithful are in that Condition that we cannot sufficiently express how much of encrease their knowledge hath received For the Justice of God hath appeared in the highest degree in the death of Christ his Mercy in the effect of his satisfaction his Wisdom in the conduct of the mystery of our Salvation his Power in the Resurrection of our Saviour and in the Conversion and Sanctification of our Souls so far that Saint Paul says that we have believed according to the excellent greatness of the mighty power of God himself and although we see not with our bodily eyes the Lord Jesus nevertheless
this time like those that Sail along by the borders and which by the fear that they have of Pirates and Tempests do not put themselves out upon the main Sea Then there being nothing to fear in Voyages of the longest circuit we Sail with assurance upon the deepest Gulphs and in no wise fear any danger in discovering new Seas and unknown Lands But what need is there of going farther than the objects that are continually exposed to our senses to know how God and nature hath prepared matter for mens Meditation There is in the production of the qualities of things that touch our senses and the images by the interposition whereof they do come thither and in the manner after which our Nostrils our Taste our ears and particularly our eyes do exercise their functions on them so many Miracles that the custom of experiencing them or despair of being able to Fathom them hinders us from searching them but if we had obtained only some little part of the knowledg of them we should be equally touched with the admiration of their beauty and an astonishment at our former ignorance Certainly those that take some little notice of things find matter of admiration on which side soever they turn And when I consider that as yet we know not what is either the nature of the light that doth enlighten us or that of fire that doth warm us or that of the Air which we breath and that some maintain that there are no such things as Colours and that 't is the Earth that moves and the Sun stands still by such reasons as 't is the hardest thing in the World to confute them I am almost ready to say that we shall be long in the spaces of Eternity before we shall exhaust all that is found difficult in things on which at present we scarcely form any at all Now how will it be then when besides the employment that the remembrance of the natural state of the universe will give us We shall moreover have it before our eyes in that supernatural state without comparison more rich and more glorious and besides that we shall have also so many Divine Mysteries in Religion to know and contemplate Certainly when I set before my mind the beauties which we find in the truths of the Gospel and the admirable agreement of all those truths among themselves the correspondencies that are found between the old World and the New whereof St. Paul hath given us notice as I have said above the allegories that are found in the Histories of Genesis whereof the birth of Isaac and Ishmael of Jacob and Esau is but a small part which we do but imperfectly understand the Mysteries that are covered in the History of the people of Israel and in the institution of their Ceremonies whereof the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews hath only shewed us a little part the Visions of the Prophets of the old Covenant in Ezechiel Daniel Zachary and many others whereof at present we scarce understand the least fully and distinctly and the Revelations of the Apocalypse which will never exactly be unfolded unless it be after we shall have had a perfect knowledge of an infinite number of events which at this time we know not at all or do not know how to apply to those Mysteries whereof they are the Explication my mind is swallowed in astonishment of that which we are ignorant of and in the joy of the hope that I have to see removed one day from before our eyes the band that hides from us so many marvels Add to this that although it be true that the Operations of our minds do become a little more languishing when they apply themselves to objects that are known already so it is that it never almost happens unless it be then when the things that we Contemplate are not in themselves very excellent But because there are objects so excellently lovely and beautiful that although we have seen them many times and perfectly understand them so it is that of it self their excellency gives content and admiration in as much as their beauty doth not diminish by the knowledge that we have of them we do not cease to return often to the Contemplation of them and find almost as much satisfaction at the last as at the first And I imagine that if we could see the Sun near at hand and observe all the marvels of his Body and his Light Nevertheless we should never distaste it and that if the novelty should not draw us thither the sole magnificence of the object would be capable of fixing our eyes and thoughts steddily upon it Therefore where there will be a marvellous variety of things whereof every one will surpass all that can be most attractive and shining in the Sun can it be feared that there should not be enough wherewith to content the activity of our mind to all Eternity As to what concerns the cause whence all these things proceed when we shall come to make Reflexions on it to admire the perfections thereof according to the measure that we advance in the knowledge of its effects we shall find it so infinite in all respects that on which side soever we turn the eyes of our minds we lose our selves in the largeness of it Shall we set our selves to consider his goodness There we cannot content our selves to admire how God possessing in himself eternally his own felicity and having no need of the Existence of any thing For his satisfaction was notwithstanding willing to give Being to the universe and man Shall we cast our eyes upon his Justice We can never sufficiently admire neither the invariable rectitude of its conduct in all things nor the inexorable rigour of its severity in the punishment of our sins on his Son Shall we affix our minds on the Consideration of his power The Testimonies which the effects thereof that are before our eyes give us will indeed astonish us But as much as the immensity of the void Spaces above the Heavens do exceed the extensions of the Heaven of Heavens themselves so much shall we be ravished in admiration by knowing and understanding that this power of God which might have filled these infinite spaces with thousands and thousands of worlds if he had pleased exceeds that which was necessary to be displayed in the Creation and Restauration of the Heavens and the Earth Shall we attempt to enter the wonders of his wisdom They are curiosities beyond all imaginations agreeable But nevertheless inexplicable to all Eternity and although we never wander yet we shall never be able to get out of those Labyrinths Shall the Immensity the Eternity the Simplicity of the nature of God be presented to the Consideration of our minds There will be neither strength nor subtilty of Spirit that can ever attain to a sufficient Conception of them And although our understandings be not repelled by the impossibility of success and do desire to
we love One whereof are insensible of our love because they are so in themselves The other have knowledge of our affection and on their part correspond unto it the love that we have for the first gives not a pleasure that comes near that of the love that we have for the second then when we are assured that they love us reciprocally And the reason thereof is two fold The first is that the things that cannot love us reciprocally however excellent they may otherwise be are nevertheless void of understanding those that are capable of a true affection for us are partakers of it Now things endued with understanding are infinitely better than those that are not if therefore the satisfaction that we receive either from our contemplation or from our love encreaseth as we have seen above according to the proportion of the excellency of the object upon which our faculties display and exercise themselves the love that we have for things endued with understanding must infinitely over-weigh the other The second is that as we love nothing earnestly which we do not value much so we cannot perceive our selves loved but we perceive our selves also valued and esteemed by those that love us Now 't is a thing supreamly sweet and pleasant to be valued and esteemed by those that we believe do exactly know us and which otherwise we know are themselves to be valued and esteemed in a Soveraign manner For either they esteem us for the sake of our proper worth as when we love our Friends for the sake of their virtue Or else they esteem us for this that although in our selves in comparison of them we be of no marvellous great price so it is nevertheless that they have made us and 't is by them that we are what we are So we love our Children so every understanding Cause loves the work that he hath produced with some Understanding and Art The first is marvellously pleasant For if it be a thing agreeable to be and to know that we are how much more is it to possess a Being accompanied with commendable qualities The second ought to be much more For although we do not perceive our selves commendable in our selves 't is no small commendation to be dependances of a great Cause and parts of a Noble Principle from whom we are derived Now in the Estate in which we shall be in the Kingdom of Heaven we shall possess both all these degrees and all these kinds of happiness For as we shall love both the Angels and the faithful that shall there be partakers with us in one and the same glory with tenderness unimaginable so will they on their part love us so heartily that they will perfectly correspond to our affections And in the same manner that we shall love them as well with that kind of love wherewith we embrace our Friends by reason of their Holiness and virtue which we shall see arrived at the highest pitch of its perfection as with that kind of love wherewith we love our Brethren For the sake of the Communion we shall have with one and the same Heavenly Father So we do certainly know that we shall be perfectly loved of them on the same considerations because our virtue and perfections will be the same with theirs and we shall be equally the Sons of God So that as by the love that we shall bear to them we shall be so closely joined to them that we shall have them perpetually in our minds they will be joyned so closely to us by the affection wherewith they will embrace us that they will have us perpetually in theirs and so our Souls shall be as it were melted and mingled together And this will be wonderful in the vehemence and sincerity of this love that whereas 't is impossible here below to have many such Friends for whom we have such deep and great affection there will be above in the Heavens Millions with whom we shall have these indissoluble Tyes and Obligations For on one side here are found but few that upon Trial we have judged or can judge worthy of this degree of love and on the other side our minds in this natural Constitution in which they are cannot supply to so many Operations of so great and extraordinary vehemence Whereas there we shall be fully assured of the excellency and merit of all our Objects without any need of Tryal and our minds having obtained by their glorification a supernatural and extraordinary vigour they will become as it were fruitful and inexhaustible fountains of these kinds of operations from whence love and kindness will run down not as little streams or brooks which presently grow dry but as floods abounding and remaining to eternal ages Again as we shall love the Lord Jesus and the Heavenly Father all as much as the properties infinitely and supremely amiable that are in them shall be known by faculties such as ours will be that is to say with the whole extent of the power of a reasonable Creature raised to glory in like manner they both the one and the other will love us all as much as such Creatures can be loved by those that are wholly love Insomuch that although we do not find in our selves to whatever perfection we do arrive what may correspond to the honour of so great love Nevertheless we shall not cease to esteem our selves supremely happy in it and to receive unspeakable joy from it For this Relation which we shall have with God of being his Children and that which we shall have with Jesus Christ of being his beloved Brethren will certainly be sufficient to give us esteem and value and to make us eternally the objects not only of those which shall partake with us in the same Salvation but the admiration of Angels themselves Behold will they say those that were taken from the Earth raised above the Heavens those that had deserved Eternal confusion advanced to the top of glory and honour those that have deserved to inhabite Hell with Devils partaking Heaven with the Son of God Those that were sometimes worthy that God should separate them from his presence Eternally received into his own bosom there to enjoy the Communion of his Holy Spirit in Eternal life and glory Now to him that shall have all the powers of his Soul filled with so great and perfect contentment what can be wanting of a most perfect and Soveraign happiness Observe principally as I have above represented it that the Body shall become shining incorruptible and immortal and that the enjoyment of this happiness will be given us in an Habitation Eternally glorious For it is not for nothing that St. John representing the Jerusalem that is on high saith that 't is full of the glory of God and that its light is more sparkling than that of Pretious Stones That the wall thereof is Jasper the buildings thereof of pure Gold like unto transparent glass The foundations thereof so many Quarries of Pretious Stones That its twelve gates were twelve Pearls its Streets paved with Gold and that the Lord Almighty and the Lamb that accomplished our Salvation is the Temple thereof That it hath no need of Sun nor Moon For God enlightens it on all sides and the Lamb is the Torch which makes it sparkle with an Eternal light For although these terms be Prophetick and Mysterious their sense is nevertheless a representation of a magnificence which cannot be expressed And although it have a particular regard to the light of knowledge and the perfect holiness of the Church of God nevertheless it includes the quality of its remaining happiness and the beauty of its Habitation Now although it be not unprofitable thus to bring down if I may so express it Heaven to Earth by our Meditation and from thence to form some imperfect Idea thereof in our minds 'T is yet notwithstanding incomparably more advantageous to raise as far as our infirmity will permit Earth to Heaven and even now to fix our hearts and affections on high expecting that the Lord Jesus will do us the favour and bestow on us the priviledge really to contemplate there what we do not yet see but in the promises that he hath given us to him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory power and dominion for ever and ever Amen FINIS ERRATA PAge 3 l. 14 r. merry l. 16 r. occurence p 4 l. 1 r. of p 5 l. 7 r. fails l. 21 r. consequence p 6 l. 14 blot out forms p 9 l. 22 for to r. so p 14 l. 25 r. there p 15 l. 4 r. that l. 9 r. abstractions p 17 l. 1 r. those l. 28 r. on p 18 l. 8 r. he p 19 l. 22 r. how p 21 l. 12 r. affixed l. 22 r. retained p 22 l. 28 r. Spirits p 26 l. 8 r. this p 30 l. 27 r. therein p 31 l. 9 r. so p 33 l. 27 r. Christ p 35 l. 13 r. buried l 16 r. so p 39 l. 20 r. Orpheus p 52 l. 10 r. entred p 59 l. 3 r. it p 75 l. 9 r. may p 81 l. 12 r. there p 83 l. 21 r. consists p 85 l. 4 r. them not p 97 l. 27 r. already p 109 l. 12 r. of r. All l. 15 blot out now p. 111 l. 8 r. love p 114 l. 3 r. so 122 l. 14 r. raised p 123 l. 1 blot out of p 126 l. 23 r. precedent p 131 l. 15 r from p 147 l. 11 r. then p 148 l. 22 r. wraps p 150 l. 20 r. will appear p 153 l. 8 r imbued p 157 l. 15 r. means l. 16 r. Brethren p 163 l. 3 r. Calvin p 165 l. 23 r. Flaminius And Also p 166 l. 6 and p 170 l. 12 r. and Prophets