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. 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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
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
the mean whiles passing its happy time in the company of those Saints and Angels which are in the same expectation The same thing is practised towards Embassadors who first enter as private persons into the capital Cities of those Empires whither their Embassies are addressed and soon after go forth to return again on another day in the glory of a great and courtly Attendance and at the Entry of Princes when they return from some Conquest or some glorious Expedition the same method of proceeding is frequently observed the Pomp and Magnificence is differred to some solemn day but in the mean while they live at home with their ordinary Court To conclude the same thing having been used towards our Lord Jesus it may not be thought strange if God make use of it towards Believers For first of all He fought upon the Cross and by his courage became victorious his Body being laid in the Grave his Soul ascended into Paradise and if I may so say without any noise and afterwards being returned and his Body raised he was carried up on high mounted on the Clouds and entred in triumph into Heaven among the applauses of happy Spirits and the acclamations of Angels in the mean time 't is no wonder if the Scripture speaks something more rarely of the reception of Souls into Heaven than of the glorious day of the blessed Resurrection for those beginnings of our happiness which we enjoy immediately after death are indeed very marvellous if we consider them precisely and in themselves but they are obscure imperfect and of little or no lustre if we compare them with the splendor and magnificence in which we shall see the accomplishment of it therefore as the promises of reward made to Jesus Christ for his obedience to the death of the Cross do properly respect his ascension into Heaven and his exaltation to the right hand of his Father in glory so that St. Paul refers it thither Phil. 2. that hinders not but that his Soul might obtain the right of entring into Paradise during the time of its separation from the body and that he did make use of it so that although the promises of Reward have a particular respect to the Resurrection that doth not infer that our Souls are deprived of the liberty of entring into the heavenly Sanctuary there to live in the expectation of it And if any of us according to the manner of the ancient Romans should adopt any one for his Child with resolution to declare this adoption publickly and according to Law upon some certain day to the end that he may be capable of succeeding to our Estate and Honours nothing hinders but that in the mean time he may lodge in our House though perhaps he may keep a little more close and private till the day apointed for this publick and solemn action or installation 'T is true there are some that make some scruple of lodging the Souls of those in Heaven that God hath raised up with purpose to permit them to live yet a while in the World as that of Lazarus and some others For what likelyhood is there say they of bringing them back from that place of glory and happiness to one so wretched as is that of our Conversation on this Earth Had it not been much better never to have given them any taste of the joys of Heaven than to pluck them thence and return them to live among the infirmities and inconveniencies of the present life They are therefore willingly enclined to say that it would have been more adviseable to have assigned them an Habitation in some place whereof the deprivation would neither be so sensible nor so prejudicial But methinks these men give themselves a great deal of trouble to no purpose For if there be any inconvenience therein is it not easie for God to appoint some particular Habitation for those and in the mean time receive all others into the Heavens to the end that none may go thence till on the final Resurrection A score of Souls it may be which were to be reunited to their Bodies by a particular dispensation must they give Law to so many Millions of Spirits as are not at all subject to it nor must have experience of any other Resurrection than that of the general and last day To which we may add that although they should have been received into Heaven seeing that in their first Creation they were made for the glory of God and on other accounts have so many obligations to him because he hath redeemed them they will have no reason to complain if they suffer something extraordinary for his service Scipio Africanus after very glorious Triumphs went to War for the obtaining of Forreign Conquests under the Authority of his Brother and in the quality of his Lieutenant for the sole love that he bore to him and to assist him in arriving at the highest dignities of the Common-Wealth In which he suffered some diminution of his own besides the incommodities which he received in his own person and the sensible griefs that he had experience of by the captivity of his Son The Angels themselves descend from Heaven where they enjoy the vision of God with unspeakable contentments to the end that they Minister to the Protection and Salvation of believers To conclude in whatsoever place those Souls be lodged which by a particular Resurrection return again to the Habitation of their bodies they are delivered from their infirmities as long as they are separated from them and it seems probable that they cannot re-enter there without some disadvantage by that change of condition Wherefore since they cannot return into the world without some abatement to their felicity it cannot be more troubleous to them to be brought back from the Heavens than from the Elementary Region If it were reasonable absolutely to decide this Question touching the place where the faithful are received after death by simple reasonings drawn either from the probability of things or even from the harmony that the parts of Theology and Religion have among themselves there are those that are clear enough and pregnant enough to perswade us to believe that they are received into the Heavens for since as St. Paul teaches us our Conversation is in Heaven and we have the honour to be Citizens thereof for what reasons are we so long exiled from our Country What sin remains unpardoned which should hinder our return to the place whence we are descended Since we are exhorted to tend thither and henceforth to think of nothing but Heavenly things why are we so long deprived of the fruit of our thoughts and desires How is it that the Gospel labours so powerfully to beget in us a desire after it if it give us not also the enjoyment of it Since we are dead to the World and our life is hid with Christ in God why do we not go to converse where our life is kept in reserve for us
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
most part of those faculties that we have in common with beasts are more excellent in us our memory without doubt is more strong and of larger capacity than theirs and our imagination more clear and full of Light but so it is that Dogs and Horses and Elephants and Foxes know infinite things by their figures and colours and other sensible marks of that kind and 't is also seen that sometimes they act by simple memory although they have no objects before their sences Therefore seeing 't is a Corporeal faculty 't is to be presumed that death hath great power upon it when it dissolves and universally ruines all the Organs of the Body So that I do not doubt but that our Souls do forget an infinite number of the little singularities and particularities of sensible things at their departure hence which we easily remember whilst we are living here But as to the other because 't is a power of the Soul it self as endowed with reason it must most necessarily remain So that we may by no means doubt whether they do remember that they have here seen a World and learnt by the Preaching of the Gospel that the Sun of God came thither to save sinners They will Remember that there is a Church on Earth and that they were members of it having believed in this Redeemer And generally all the Doctrines of the Gospel wherein they had been instructed for their Consolation and Salvation will remain most firmly impressed upon their memories and that 't is so appears by the Book of the Revelation where the Holy Spirit attributes unto them the memory of their Martyrs and charity for the Church and gratitude towards God and the Lamb for the benefit of their Redemption and other things of like kind Concerning which I conceive it will be necessary to make two Considerations The first is that if in the ordinary Preaching of the Gospel or in the study of things that do concern Religion the minds of the faithful have received any impressions less true than might be desired as there is none so advanced in the knowledg of this Divine truth who is not deceived on divers occasions at death they shall be delivered from those errors For that which occasions our mistake in these matters is that although we very well believe the principal and fundamental Articles of Religion and if we know well how to draw our Conclusions from these principles we should certainly preserve our selves from these false impressions so it is that we commit many faults in the conduct of our reason and joyn together perswasions that do not well agree Whereof we do not see the discord and contradiction for besides that naturally since the fall there is some weakness in our discursive faculty especially when there is any Question of things that are a little distant from their principles we there mingle our passions and our interests and permit our selves easily to be carried to that natural obstinacy which causes us to hold fast the things that we have once preconceived even without any appearance of reason The Souls of the faithful being therefore delivered not only from the trouble of the Body but also from all sorts of vices and passions and endued by the presence of the Holy Spirit with a light totally new they then find no difficulty to discern truth from falshood and by consequence to deliver themselves from all false opinions wherewith they may have been prepossessed The second consideration is that although we have been instructed in the belief of the fundamental truths of the Gospel nevertheless we do not as yet comprehend them perfectly enough there remains always some darkness in our conceptions some remnants of incredulity which shake sometimes this way and sometimes that way the things that the word of God hath established in our belief Whereas separate Souls see all these truths so clearly that there remains no darkness in their knowledg of them So that they lose their errors if they had any before they retain the belief of things certain and veritable which they had already received into their minds and those very objects which they had known before they shall perceive by a view incomparably more distinct more perfect and more clearly enlightned As to what concerns the Works of God which are presented to their Contemplation if they were to remain within the compass of this Elementary World it were to be presumed that active and awake as we suppose them they would employ themselves in a great measure in the Contemplation of the most excellent things of the Universe to the end they might observe the marvellous Perfections of their Author Even as I believe that 't is not to be doubted that the Angels that God employs here and there in all parts of the World have derived an infinite number of good and excellent knowledge thence I know not whether I may dare to say that as the Apostle teaches us that the Angels are present in our Assemblies for which reason he commands that women behave themselves there with humilty that they may not offend their eyes by any indecency Souls may be found there voluntarily present to entertain with us a holy Communion as far as they can but we have already said and proved that they are assembled in Heaven and even in that Heaven where our Lord Jesus is in magnificent glory Now it is not my intention carefully to enquire how this Heaven is made and those that permit themselves to be transported by the elevation of their thoughts do much more deserve the blame of rashness and presumption than the praise of subtility or sublimity in their Speculations I will only say two things which cannot be accused of too much curiosity the one is that as if ascending from Earth to the more raised parts of the World we find that progress is made for the better The Water being more transparent than the Earth the Air more transparent than the Water the Fire more pure than the Air and yet the Heavens more pure and luminous than the Fire we should imagine as it is very reasonable that things always advance after the same manner and proportion certainly the Heaven of Heavens must be incomparably beautiful and of a structure most excellent The other is that God having built this lower World to be the Habitation of man nevertheless made it so beautiful that on which side soever we turn our eyes if we be attentive we find not only matter of satisfaction but also of admiration surely seeing he hath chosen this Heaven for his Habitation it must be that the whole Constitution thereof must be infinitely more glorious whereupon I make this Consideration A Pagan Philosopher sometimes entertained this Meditation that if some one had been nourished till the age of five and twenty years in some Cavern where he had never seen the light and where he could learn nothing of the form of the World nor of the things that
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
infirmities into glory This is he that conversed here below in mean condition among men and behold him raised above the magnificence of all the Angels This is he that suffered the contradiction of sinners but receives now the applause and veneration of all the Inhabitants of Heaven This is he that ignominiously hung upon the Cross but now all Creatures behold him with reverence and trembling This is he that here below suffered death but who now holds in his hand the life of all things and the subsistance of the universe This is he that was seen laid in a dark Tomb in comparison of whom now the splendor of the Sun is but as a shadow This is he that was thought unworthy that the Earth should bear him who now walks upon the Heavens and under whose feet the whole Fabrick of the World doth Tremble This is he in whom sometimes I believed indeed but with a faith always imperfect always spotted with some darkness always mingled with some remainders of incredulity whom I now see fully and manifestly and to whom I have liberty to approach without fear and behold him face to face After having in some sort represented what is the excellence of the knowledg which the believing Soul obtains when 't is received into Heaven there is no need that I should stay long to examine what is the measure of the happiness that it there enjoys For happiness consists as well in the absence of evils as in the fruition of good which are inconsistent or agreeable to the nature of those Beings which we call by the name of happy As for evils there are none that enter the Kingdom of Heaven which is a marvellous happiness to a nature sensible as ours is As for good things what may they be which are suitable to a reasonable Soul notwithstanding 't is separate from the Body Certainly as the happiness of the eye consists in seeing agreeable things and as the happiness of the ear in hearing pleasant and harmonious sounds and generally the happiness of all the other senses in exercising themselves upon those Objects whereunto nature hath appointed them with pleasure and content the happiness of the separate Soul consists in a suitable exercise of its faculties upon the most excellent Objects which can be presented to it and in the joy that is consequent thereunto It s understanding therefore being both perfectly purified in it self and filled with the presence of Objects so admirable its happiness in this respect is proportionable to the excellency of its Operation and those contemplations in which it is perpetually employed If those therefore that have any spark of generosity and any thing brave in their Souls do esteem those happy that have obtained any skill in those Sciences to which men ordinarily apply themselves and yet nevertheless an excellent Philosopher had reason to say that one drop of the knowledg of the nature of Celestial Bodies is more to be desired by reason of the nobleness of their essence and the advantage of their utility than all the Sciences that men have formed upon the other Beings of the World how happy must that Soul be that perfectly knows those things whose excellency as far surmounts the Sun and other the Stars of Heaven as they are to be esteemed more worthy than all the other Bodies of these Elementary Regions And if none of our faculties do employ themselves in their Operations in a suitable manner upon those subjects that are proportionable unto them without receiving some sensible pleasure what may be the satisfaction that a faithful Soul receives in being incessantly exercised in such marvellous Operations Certainly the pleasure of the eyes and ears is great when they are filled with such Objects whose colour or figure or harmony and justness of proportion is capable reasonably as satisfying the hunger that uncorrupted nature hath placed in those Senses For pleasure properly consists in this that now when the Objects that are without do occur unto our faculties and apply themselves to the desires or capacities that are there with so much proportion and equality that the motions that they make there be neither too languishing nor too violent but in an agreeable measure The pleasure of the mind when it employs it self with success in the contemplation of things intellectual is much more great than that of the eyes or ears because 't is a more noble faculty and things Spiritual are more excellent than Bodies and by consequence Operations more exquisite and curious do arise from the occurrence of them From whence it follows necessarily that when the faculties of the Soul are come to that point of perfection in which they do as it were as much surpass themselves when they were in a state of nature as in this state of nature they did surpass the eyes and ears and that when the Objects that are presented to them have as many or more degrees of excellency above those things intellectual which we ordinarily apprehend as they have above sensible and Corporeal Objects it is indubitable that the joy and content that doth accompany Operations so Divine must infinitely excel that which can be Ministred by the knowledg of the most perfect and sublime Sciences The understanding being filled with such excellent knowledg it must necessarily be that the will be full of love marvellously ardent towards those Objects from whence it doth derive For things that are excellent do draw our affections for their own sake and deserve our love by the sole respect of their beauty And the content that we take in the knowledg of them is a cause that we love them also for our own sake because we love our selves it cannot be that in that respect we should not love those things that Minister to our satisfaction Besides we are so naturally disposed that we do not only love those Objects from whence such excellent knowledg derives but we singularly esteem the means by which we do enjoy it and 't is for that reason that some have said that we have our eyes above our other Bodily Senses because they discover to our knowledg a far greater multitude of things than our others and under greater variety And experience teaches us that of all visible Objects light seems to be most beautiful and pleasant which comes to pass not only from its natural constitution in that it seems to be the Object which hath the most proportion with the faculty of seeing but also because 't is that which renders other things visible and which if I may so say doth colour even colours themselves and give the form and figure to the forms and figures of Bodies So that we may not doubt but that blessed Souls are wholly inflamed with the love of the persons and things which on high are perpetually presented to the eyes of their understandings Now love is of it self a thing full of contentment and joy when we enjoy the thing we love and know that we are
beloved thereof The believing Soul therefore ardently loves the happy Spirits which are received on high and likewise the Holy Angels and being likewise reciprocally loved by them and loving our Lord Jesus with an affection far above what it bears to Angels and Spirits and being much assured that it is yet much more beloved of him and to conclude seeing in its Habitation in the Heavens in the aspect of the marvellous things that are there in the company of Holy Spirits in the Society of Angels in the presence and Communion of Jesus Christ so many and such irrefragable Testimonies of the love of God towards it it plunges and drowns and totally swallows it self in the love that it bears to him and finds in all these motions a sensible and sublime taste of unspeakable felicity What it is that the Resurrection will add to the blessedness of the believing Soul The Third Discourse THis which I have said hitherunto very imperfectly concerning the happiness of the believing Soul after it is separate from the Body may enable us to conceive something of its grandeur as by the lightning that passes before our eyes we do in some manner judge of the quantity of fire that is wrapt up in the dark clouds But although there be attractives enough in what we understand of it to excite the desire and admiration of it in our hearts yet it falls far short of its perfection as long as man remains deprived of the other half of his essence For the believer of whose happiness we are now discoursing may be considered after three manners First in himself then as the world hath some Relation to and Connexion with him And lastly as he hath some Relation to the Church as a member hath Relation to his Body Now to consider him in himself seeing he is composed of a Soul and a Body to whatsoever perfection the Soul be advanced so it is that whilst the Body remains under the power of death its happiness is not compleat To consider it in the Relation that it and the World have between each other forasmuch as the World was made for-man and hath been made subject to vanity by reason of him when man shall be placed all entire in perfect happiness as far as precisely concerns himself nevertheless he cannot be said to be absolutely and entirely happy as long as the World remains subject to misery by reason of him and by occasion of him bears the marks of the cruse of God Lastly to consider him after the third manner Forasmuch as he is a part of that whereof the Church is the whole although he should behold himself perfectly happy in himself and although he should see the World delivered from the curse that it incurred for his sake nevertheless he cannot be said to enjoy a full felicity until the whole Church on its part partake in the enjoyment of it If Esther esteemed her self miserable although she were advanced to the glory of a great Empire whilst she beheld her Nation in danger of desolation the Believer may not account it self happy whilst some of his brethren are fighting upon Earth and others with respect to their Bodies are under the power of death and rotting in their graves Forasmuch then as the Soul in that beatitude that it enjoys in the Heavens hath sufficient knowledge of all these Relations 't is impossible that it should not desire the Resurrection of its Body to the end that it may be united with it and the deliverance of the World out of its misery and vanity so that it may no longer be subject to corruption for its sake and the glorification of the Church in a perfect felicity so that the state of that wherewith it hath such inviolable ties may not divide its thoughts betwixt grief and and joy Now he is not happy perfectly that doth desire and hath yet reason and subject to desire something 'T is very true the desire of the Soul in all these regards is without inquietude and anxiety for these passions are generated either from the impatience of our spirits or the uncertainty of the event of what we desire or from hence that although the event that we expect is sure yet the condition that we are in in the mean while is troublesome in it self and uneasy to be born As to what concerns impatience there is not the least string or fiber there-of in the Souls that are on high they are endued with all sorts of Virtues principally they are all swallowed up in a profound respect to the providence of God And as to the assurance of their hope they are more than most assured that it will never fail them since God hath promised it and the power that he hath to execute his Counsels finds no where either difficulty or impossibility to arrest or hinder it to conclude as to what respects their condition the little which I have above reported of it represents it capable of swallowing up in the sweetness of its contents all resentments they may have for the length of their expectations When the Holy Ghost in the Revelation causeth us to hear them cry how long Lord wilt thou not avenge our blood we may not take that for any mark of inquietude of mind any more than for an inordinate desire of vengeance Forasmuch as in this place they consider their enemies as reprobated and adjudged by God to the suffering of punishment and are no longer obliged to have any charity for them Our charity having none for its object but such as may have some access to the mercy of our Heavenly Father Is the gate then closed upon any one Yea as it hath been from the beginning upon Devils or on those that have sinned against the Holy Ghost or on those against whom God hath pronounced an irrevocable sentence of death and condemnation our charity remains utterly extinct in respect of them And to desire the Execution of this condemnation as the Souls of the faithful do is nothing but a conformity to the Divine Justice and will So that the words how long are purely and simply a Holy breathing of Zeal which they have to see the glory of God shining in the Execution of his judgments which doth not pass the bounds of respect which they owe to the conduct of his wisdom Nevertheless although they be without inquietude so it is as I have said they are not without out desire Now he which desires gives evidence that something is wanting to his condition and by consequent is not accomplished in all things And 't is for this reason that we must see what will be the happiness of believers in these three respects at the last day For the first it seems that there are principally two things to be considered that is to say what will be the quality and condition of the body when it shall be raised again and then what will be the estate of the Soul when it shall be rejoined unto
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
advance themselves as much as may be from day to day and from much to more in the knowledge of these objects notwithstanding they will always see infinite spaces above their thoughts Shall we call our minds from thence to the Contemplation of his mercy towards us These are Abysses that will never be sounded whose length and bredth whose height and depth will Eternally exceed all understanding and comprehension after this manner as the Eternity of our duration will consist in this that we shall never live so long above but we must yet live there and that the ages to come appear yet infinitely more long than those which we shall have passed already So will our knowledge and Conceptions be infinite in this point that the Eternally Flourishing beauty and the Eternally inexhaustible fertility of our Objects will give us always new matter for Consideration so that the things that remain to be seen will always appear to us as much and more worthy of our Contemplation than those that we shall have seen already Imagine then a Knowing and Curious man to whom every wave of the Sea brings some very fine singularity who at every step that he makes upon the earth finds some Rarity among the Plants and who at every time that he lifts his eyes towards the Heavens discovers some new Star Suppose you that he constantly Recollect them without weariness that he consider them with understanding the one after the other and Contemplate them with admiration Imagine you that he oft casts his eyes upon the vast extent of the Ocean from whence they come then that he recal them to consider in gross the beauties of the earth which doth produce them and afterwards that he pass through in an instant all the extent of the Heavens where so many wonders are scattered Give him friends with whom he may Communicate the content that he receives from thence and receive from them the Communication of that which the Observations which they on their part have made do give unto them Suppose you also that without ceasing he always moves about the World sometimes along the banks of the Sea sometimes amidst the Fields always Contemplating always Learning and never ceasing to Learn always in the company of his Friends without incommodity from the Air without indisposition of Body without unquietness in his mind without fear of any evil accident And above all imagine that without ceasing he lifts up his heart to God to admire and avow that his goodness is without bottom his wisdom inexpressible and you will have formed I know not what shadow of that happiness the substance whereof we shall possess in the Heavenly places Here were properly the place to touch the question concerning the equality or inequality of the glory of the Blessed for as it is certain that happiness will universally fill all the powers both of our souls and bodies so it is not to be doubted but that this plenitude of happiness must adopt it self to the capacity of the faculties that do possess it that it may be more or less great according as the faculties shall be more or less capable so that the understanding being the most noble part of our Being and by consequence most capable of glory and happiness so that it seems indubitable that although the other powers of our souls and all the parts of our bodies shall possess as much of it as they can contain nevertheless according to the proportion of its nature and its greatness our understanding will possess more of it for 't is here that the comparison that we ordinarily make use of on this subject must have place that although diverse Vessels that are plunged into a River at the same time are all equally filled in as much as there is not any one of them which receives not as much Water as the extent of its capacity will bear nevertheless they receive it unequally because this extent of their capacity is not equal such therefore as is naturally the proportion of the excellency of the parts whereof we are composed among themselves such without doubt must be that of the happiness and glory which doth attend them besides in a work so well composed as is man and which will be in much better condition by the Resurrection the most excellent parts and where the understanding resides do hold the government of the rest in such manner that they depend upon it every one in the degree of its subordination from whence it comes to pass that not only the proportion of more and less must be observed in what concerns their glorification in proportion to their natural excellency but it even seems that the glory and happiness of the understanding is in some sense the cause of that of all the other faculties if therefore the glory of the understanding of every Believer be unequal it will be also unequal in all that depends thereon On the contrary if the understanding of each Believer be equally glorified it will follow thence in like manner that they will be also equal in the remainder of their happiness Now we see indeed a marvellous great difference between the quickness the largeness and the vigour of spirit in men such as now we are For there are some that we look on with some kind of admiration and as persons in whom it hath pleased God to shew what he can do if he pleases they have so much both of lively and fruitful imagination a vast and constant memory subtil and curious fancies reasonings sublime vigorous and full of light Some others appear stupid and blockish and as one would think but little raised above the condition of beasts themselves Among believing Christians it cannot be denied but that there are many of whom we cannot speak more advantageously than by saying that they are indifferent But that proceeds either from the variety of their Temperaments and the Constitution of their Organs or from the diversity of their Exercises and Employments or from the great difference that is put in the manner of their Instruction and Education or chiefly from the differing manner after which it pleases God to deal with them be it by the efficacy of his Providence be it by the power of his Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation And all this seems a consequence of Sin and effect of that conduct which it hath pleased God to follow as well in the Establishment and Government of Kingdoms as in the Constitution of his Church and the Edification thereof This notwithstanding there is great probability that the Souls of men are well near all equal and that if they had remained in their integrity as all these differences had been neither equals nor expedients so we had never seen so great an inequality among us Therefore when Sin shall be totally abolished and all variety of Temperaments and Conformation of Organs done away when the Faithful shall be eternally fixed on the same Occupations and shall have perpetually the