the dayes of their Pilgrimage upon Earth the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh she who was earst Rebellious is now Obse quious to the Dictates of the Soul now is she wholly subject to the will of her Lord yielding obeysance and obedience with admirable Agility and Celerity of motion now not the least Ponderosity of a Massie substance or Natural body to foreslow her motion appears any more but the Perpensility of a Caelestial and Spiritual body mounted as it were on the wings and Plumes of a Cherub to expedite the Souls Injunctions such Homage and obedience the Body paies unto its Soul that as St Augustine saith ubi volet spiritus ibi protinus erit corpus nec volet aliquid spiritus quod nec spiritum nec corpus possit decere 1. Hereupon is the body enfranchised of sundry Praerogatives and Immunities which are altogether inconsistent with it in its Natural condition whilst it was Elementary its Natural motion tended downward according to the Nature of the Predominant Element the ascendent motion of a Physical body is Excentrique and Irregular which motion is Concentrique and Consonant to a body glorified solo voluntatis impetu c. at the beck and command of the glorious Soul is the body mounted from Earth to Heaven whose Nature it is to be wholly subject to that glorified Spirit from whose Redundancie the body likewise receives its Glorification 2. The Humane body in the state of Nature in a slow Progress marcheth forward step by step and that not without some Earth or other solid body to tread or go on whereupon the Earth is made a cause of our walking Causa fine qua non but in the state of Glory most swiftly and as it were in an instant it moves from place to place from one part of Heaven to another absque adminiculo without the benefit of Earth or other Element to impress the least Vestigias or footsteps of his treadings 3. In the terrene estate the body is Opaque and Luskie Dark and Purblind Beautified onely by the Additaments of External colour but the Spiritual body is Diaphanous transparent transplendent not like those lesser lights which onely appear in the night but like the Sun at noon day in the Firmament of Heaven Matthew 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father The CoÌ„fulgurations of bodies glorifi'd are like the bright shining of the Sun or compare we them to our Saviours glorious Body after his Exaltation which no doubt exceeds all the glory can be expressed or conceived when this transfiguration upon the Mount was so glorious That his face did shine as the Sun Matthew 17.2 and his Raiment was white as the light yet such is the condition and state of these bodies which are fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Phillip 3.21 Yet doth not this transcendent Glory superadded to the Humane body alter the Nature and Essence of the same the same Humanity is retained as well after as before the Resurrection the same body that is laid in the dust the self same body ariseth and ascends into glory that body is resumed in the Resurrection which was assumed in the Conception onely one to a Mortal the other to an Immortal life alterius gloriae sed ejusdem naturae the glory is different but the bodie 's the same The glorified bodies of Saints and the glorious body of our ever blessed Saviour in Heaven all of them of one Nature and Substance made up of Flesh and Blood and Bone Nerves Sinewes Arteries and what else conduceth to the perfection of a Humane body To deny this is to run into the Heresie of Eutiches condemned in the several Councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon who affirmed that the body of Christ was not of the same Nature with ours and that ours also after the Resurrection were not Palpable or Visible but more subtle and slender than VVind or Air. But as we have said the same body that is laid in the dust the same ariseth and puts on Immortality and glory a body of flesh is sown in dishonor but the same body of flesh is raised in glory Consonant hereto are the words of Job Job 19.25 26 27. I know that thy Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day day upon the Earth And though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my Flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and my eyes shall behold and not another though my Reines be consumed within me thus we read and thus is our Creed so is preached and so is believed for the Resurrection of the flesh is an Article of our Faith a Fundamental point of that Religion the Church Catholick professeth and that our Saviours body is of the same Substance is another Fundamental Athanasius is plain perfect God and perfect Man Of a Reasonable Soul and Humane Flesh subsisting yea Palpable flesh and Visible even after his Resurrection our Saviours words are full for it behold saith he my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have And therefore those words of the Apostle flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God are to be understood of sinful lusts and corruptions of the flesh 1 Cor. 15.10 and not of the flesh and blood it self dismantled of these And as the substance of a Humane body continues intire so hath she her faculties and qualities perfect though not all for in as much as the body is purged of sin and corruption those qualities which argue corruption and infirmity must needs be perished also absit labes silicet corruptionis assit effigies assit motio absit fatigatio assit vescendi potestas absit esuriendi necessitas c. Soft soft O my Soul dash not thy self on the Rock of Contention be not prolix in Polemick discourses and points Controversal since thou art devoted to thy calmer Theoremes and Diviner Speculations The case standing thus that none have admittance to those glorious Mansions in the new Jerusalem the City of God but bodies purged from their filthy lusts and sinful corrâ—ption bodies morigerous submisse and pliant to Soul and Spirit see then and lament the wretched estate of us Mortals upon Earth An evil it is under the sun an error proceeding from the ruler folly set in great dignity and the rich set in low place servants on horseback and Princes walking as servants upon the Earth Eccles 10.5 6 7. whose lives and conversations Diametrically oppose the glorified Saints in Heaven Apame was but Concubine to the great and mighty King Darius yet was she seen sitting on his right hand and taking the Crown from off his head did set it upon her own she also stroke the King with her
left hand Semblable to which is the rule and Dominion which Impetuous and Implacable flesh usurpeth and excerciseth over the Souls of Mortal men in their Pilgrimage here below leading them Captive to the Law of sin and death This is that miserable Bondage under which the Sons of men in this Vale of â—ars do groan from which Bondage of Corruption and body of sin they wait with earnest expectation to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And not onely they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies not that we should be found naked and our bobodies unclothed but clothed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of life It is not a change of our bodies but of our Raiment and Vestments which we do look for a Crown of glory for a Crown of thornes the Robes of Righteousness for the Raggs of Sin This change must be inâ—hoate here though compleated hereafter the Foundation must be layed on Earth in Grace but finished in Heaven in Glory the Garments of the Old man laid aside and the Garments of the New man put on the lusts of the flesh mortified the fruits of the Spirit quickned Ephe. 4.22 23 24. We must put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiptful lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of our mind and we must put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness that we may henceforth serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter For if we live after the flesh wee shall die but if we through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Woe is me that I am constrained to live in Mesech to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar my Soul hath long dwelt with them that are Enemies to peace they are daily fighting and troubling it the Body with all its sinful lusts rebel against my Soul and when I labour for Peace they make them ready for Battel they will not have her rule over them whom thou O Lord hast made the Monarch and sole Empress of this little World but attempt by continual Insurrections and Intestine Wars to introduce an Arbitrary Power over an Athenian and Popular Government For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned in the inward Man in the spirit of my mind by the might and Power of his Spirit who raised up Jesus from the dead that as he died for my sin and rose again for my justification so I may die to sin and live unto righteousness and being buried with Christ into death by Baptism may walk in newness of life that being planted together in the likeness of his death I may be also in the likness of his Resurrection kowing this that my old man is Crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth I should not sin And though I live and walk in the flesh yet that I may not war after but against the flesh the weapons of my warfare being Spiritual and mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds to the casting down of Imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience of the flesh against the Law of my mind which is onely subject to the Law of God Help me O God so to keep under my body and bring it into subjection that I my self be no a castaway Thy will O Heavenly Father be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and as thou hast praepared an Heaven and fitted the body with all Obsequiousness to serve and the Soul to rule and command with all just Authority and moderation all this in the Resurrection of the body at the last day when Soul and Body meet again in a glorified estate to Possess the Heavenly Mansions so fit and and prepare them here that whilst they are in this Earthly Tabernacle all Schism being abandoned all Rebellion Anathemaâ—ized the heel may not kick against the body or the foot tread upon the head but however it fareth in the body Politick there may be such an orderly subjection in the body Natural that my flesh may be subject not Predominant to my Spirit my Body unto my Soul and both Soul and Body subject unto thee O my God do thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy Heaven Chap. 2. Book 3. put thou my Soul into this happy condition of an inchoate blessedness so shall I cheerfully spend the remaindâ—r of my daies in a joyful expectation of the full Consummation of my glory Amen Bish Hall his Susurium cum Deo CHAP. II. Of the Organs of the body and the Exercise of the Sensitive faculties of the Soul by them in the state of glory AS the appearance of the Bride newly come from her Chamber in the daies of her Espousals on the Solemnity of her brideale and other Nuptial Rites bedecked and adorned with all the Ornaments both of body and mind that may render her gratious and Amiable in the eyes of her Betrothed or like the Kings Daughter all glorious within and without in clothing of wrought Gold brought into the Kings Palace attended on among the Honorable VVomen by a Train of Virgins that be her fellows Even such is the inward grace and outward Magnificence Pomp and State of the body in the morning of her Resurrection and Ascension from the Chamber of death to be Espoused again to the Soul in an everlast-VVedlock the Bill of Divorcement being cancelled and Nullified by an Act of perpetual Oblivion Her Soporiferous bed of rottenness she thenceforth lotheth and outrunneth leaving behind her load of inward Corruption all waywardness of mind and frowardness of disposition and her Troops of Natural Imperfection Deafness Dumbness Blindless Lameness c. such Sons of sorrow and servants of sin and perdition presume not to approach the marriage Chamber all other her Companions in the flesh that were faithful and serviceable to her and instrumental to the Soul in the Acts of grace are still her attendants and are admitted into the Royal Palace and invested with the Robes of Glory and Immortality as a badge and livery of the glorified Soul whose Servants and Ministers they are Those Organical parts of the body in which the Soul was exercised and without which it could not Operate in which respect the Soul as to such faculties and Operations might be termed Mortal are revived with the body and useful to the Soul in their several Stations I do not I dare not here affirm that all the parts of
this sleep brings us to our bed the grave and this part of our life is attended with those impurer motions of corrupt Nature Diminution and Alteration whose ends are to bring us again to our original our first Parents viz. Corruption our Father and the Worm our Mother and our Sister and thus we tread the Maze and run the round like the Suns yearly course in the Zodiack ascending from the lower most House in Capricorn through those two seasons of the year Spring and Summer to the highest House the Tropick of Cancer and there 's the Solstice where the Sun is got to that height that higher it cannot but turns retrograde and down it descends through the other seasons of Autumn and Winter to its Vertigal point the Tropick of Capricorn from whence it came the four Ages of man to wit Infancy Youth Manhood Old age being like the four seasons in the year viz Spring Summer Autumn Winter or like the Suns Diary course in the Firmament Psalm 19. which goeth forth from the uttermost part of heaven and runneth about unto the end of it again or like the Winds or like the Floods to all which the Wiseman compares the travels of man upon earth saying Eccles 1.4 5 6 7. One generation passeth away another cometh but the earth abideth still the Sun ariseth the Sun goeth down and returneth to his place that he may there rise up again The Wind goeth towards the South and turneth unto the North fetcheth his compass whirleth about goeth forth and returneth again to his circuits from whence he came All Floods run into the Sea and yet the Sea is not filled for look into what place the waters run thence they come to flow again And this is the Felicity that miserable man laboureth for under the Sun and here 's the fruit of all viz. Death for the end of all things is Death And thus much of the Vegetative faculty in the state of corrupt nature There is to answer this sinfull Generation and Procreation by our Parents in the flesh by which we are made corruptible mortal subject to a transitory short and miserable life but to an endless everlasting death For all flesh saith the Apostle is as grass Pet. 1. and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass the grass withereth and the flower thereof sadeth away So doth the Psalmist compare the transitory life of man to the grass Psal 90.6 which in the morning is green and groweth up but in the evening is cut down dried up and withered to answer this I say there is a Spiritual Generation a new Birth and this is not of corruptible Seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever But it is with the Christian as it is with the Natural man in this that none are generated and produced in their full and perfect stature but in the tender age of Infancy there are Babes in Grace as well as in Nature which before they can attain to the stature of a man require daily food and nourishment and much growth and augmentation of parts much is required for the perfecting Eph. 4.13 for the increase and edifying of the body of Christ before any Christian come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ these operations after our Generation then of Nutrition and Augmentation are requisite to bring up a Christian from his Infancy to his Youth and riper years and these continue with us to the day of our departure hence because none attains to full age here our perfection is hereafter But we now begin our growth here after our conversion and new birth first in Childhood and Infancy and in this state we continue so insinuates the Apostle calling us children as long as we are tossed to and fro Ibid. ver 14 and carried about with every wind of Doctrine from Childhood we skip not straight to perfect and full age but by Youth and middle age for after we are born to Christ in Infancy debemus adolescere saith Calvin upon the place we must not stay in Childhood but Youth-out our time here grow on to middle age and be no longer Children in understanding and this stronger and riper age of a Christian the Apostle seems to exhort to where after his dehortation from Childhood Be no longer children he adds but speaking the truth in love grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ and in this age we pass the time of our sojourning here Hitherto this twofold Vegetative faculty by Nature and by Grace have been examined and agree in their operations but now we shall shew a difference and that a vast one 'twixt the workings of the one and the workings of the other and first in the first note of the natural operation in this Chapter observed The Soul in the Natural state cannot be said to be subject to The first difference or passive in those several motions of Generation Corruption Augmentation Diminution c. because it is impatible incorruptible indivisible but the body or compositum onely properly is generated corrupted augmented diminished and the like but in this Spiritual condition the Soul as well as the Body is capable of some of these motions and may be sayd to be begotten nourished increased * Necesse est animam cresci dilatari ut sit capax dei porro latitudo ejus dilectio ejus nam anima minime cum sit spiritus corpoream recipit quantitatem tamen confert illi gratia quod negatum est natura crescit quidem extenditur sed spiritualiter crescit non in substantia sed virtute crescit in gloria crescit denique in virum perfectum in mensuram aetatis plenitudinis Christi crescit etiam in templum sanctum in domino ergo quantitas cujusque animae aestimetur de mensura charitatis quam habet ut verbi gratia quae multum habet charitatis magna est quae parum parva est quae vero nihil nihil Bernardus fol. 30 16. 30 17. F. G. Item super Cant. sermo 27. fol. 647. l. K. to grow as well as the body groweth in a spiritual and intellectual sense for here it is quanta as all abstracted Essences and Intelligences viz. the Angels and Heavens be quantae for as much as they be finite and so fall within quantity but not quantitatem praedicamentalem sed intelligibilem onely within an imaginary intellectual not a predicamental a metaphysical not a physical quantity as hath been said The second That compositum which is generated may be corrupted and that which is augmented may also be diminished this in Nature but otherwaies in Grace we are begotten and born not of corruptible seed but incorruptible which endureth unto eternal life without corruption without putrifaction
imago Dei forma servi My Soul is athirst after Christ my Saviour O when shall I come and appear before him Grant holy Jesu I may so behold thee though veiled here that when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved when it shall turn to the Lord and be clothed upon with our horse of immortality and glory which is from heaven the veil which to this day is upon my heart may be taken away and I may with open face behold the glory of my Lord being changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Amen Christ in the blessed Eucharist is the object of our Ears speaking unto our hearts both in secret whisperings and in shriller notes and holds a familiar conference with us he is an audible Voice and a speaking Word the sound whereof is gone to the ends of the world that Word which in the beginning was with God and was God but was made Flesh and dwelt among us God made Man the Son of God the Son of Man unicus patris filius hominis verbum quippe caro factum this Word incarnate is that Bread of God which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the World This Word is not onely audible to the Ear but penetrable to the Heart piercing like a two-edged sword to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the marrow and the joynts Those reverend thoughts and meditations we have of Christ especially in this Sacrament are nothing else but so many words of his spoken to our Soules though all our cogitations are not Christs locutions nor all his communications our meditations cum enim mala in corde versamus nostra cogitatio est si bona Dei sermo est illa cor nostrum dicit haec audit our good thoughts are Christs words our evill thoughts are our own words The fool hath sayd in his heart there is no God there 's our own words The Lord speaketh peace unto his people those are Christ's one is spoke from the heart the other is to the heart Our own words again are twofold or have two wayes of proceeding one from Natures corruption another from Satans suggestion but of all these bitter fruits and sinfull effects proceeding from within us it is a hard matter to assign a proper cause and author to demonstrate which are the works of the Devill and which be the fruites of the Flesh we are not able so exactly to distinguish inter morbum mentis morsum serpentis inter malum innatum malum seminatum inter partum cordis seminarium hostis only we may know they both are evill and proceed from evill both in the heart though not both from the heart this I know most assuredly though which to ascribe to my heart which to Satan I know not But for my good thoughts since all our sufficiency is from God I doe undoubtedly believe they are the very words of that very Word verba verbi Dei written in my heart by the finger of his blessed Spirit This is that Word which is not sonans onely but penetrans non loquax sed efficax non obstrepens auribus sed blandiens affectibus Happy art thou O my Soul if when thy God calleth thou answerest with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth or with holy David repliest I will hear what the Lord my God will say unto me Christ is the object of our Sense of Olfaction sâ—nding forth most sweet perfumes he is sweet in his Name Christ Jesus Christ i. e. Annâ—inted so much the name imports Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth he is sweet in his name Iesus a Saviour there is no other name given under heaven whereby we shall be saved neither is there any malady of Mind any disease of the Soul which this precious balm and ointment cannot cure Erit tibi sapor odor in medicinam salubrem morbos si qui fuerint repellentem venturosque caventem He is sweet and pleasant to God the Fath r he is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased and the smell of his Son is like the smell of a field whom the Lord hath blessed he is that Lamb slain from the foundaâ—ions of the world whose bâ—dy and blood being offered as an Holocaust unto God the Father smelleth a sweet smelling sacrifise unto him and from whom issueth unto his Spouse the Church to every particular Member and to every worthy Communicant partaking of his Body and Blood such streams of precious ointment and oyl of the Holy Ghost runing down not onely to the beard of Aaron that is as St Bernard expounds it to the Apostles and Ministers of Christ but unto the very skirts of his clothing that is to the meanest of his Members in infima membra Ecclesiae quae est tanquam Christi vestimentum that even these vile bodies and soules being offered an oblation smell also a sweet-smelling sacrifise to God through Christ holy and acceptable we are anointed with oyl of gladness but Christ with holy oyl and oyl of gladness above all his fellows It falls first upon Christ the Head so runs down to his beard so descends to the skirts of his garments the meanest member in hi Church the smell of Christs garment is like the smel of Lebanon but the smel of his ointments super omnia aromata is better than all spices Christ is the object of our Spiritual Tast and that food of Saints and Angels in Heaven of which it hath pleased God to give a tast to his Saints on earth feeding them with the bread of Heaven the food of life which comes from Heaven that Heavenly Manna and food of Angels the Prophet speaks of more pleasant and sweet to the tast than honney or the honney-comb But that we might eat Angels food Christ was Incarnate the Word was made Flesh so all are partakers of Christ the Saints on Earth as well as Saints and Angels in Heaven onely with this difference Comedunt Angeli verbum de Deo natum comedunt homines verbum faenum factum pane suo vivunt Angeli in caelis beati sunt faeno suo vivunt homines in terris sancti sunt Yet doth not every man tast of the food that partakes of the outward Elements the Natural man hath no sense or tast no fruit and benefit of this Sacrament because it is spiritually discerned it is food eternal not temporal spiritual not corporal for supernatural nourishment unto Eternal life not for physical and natural which accomplisheth its ends in this life pereat hic physicale nutrimentum cibis iste non ventris sed mentis we feed on him in our heart by Faith and Thanksgiving My Body is nourished with the outward Elements of Bread and Wine my Soul is 2nourished with the inward Graces the Body and Blood of Christ not with the Bread of Affliction the corn arising from the earth but