by his life Having loved his own to the end he loveth them and without end His Gifts and Calling are without Repentance When Satan and thy Flesh would hide God's love look to Christ and read the golden words of Love in the Sacred Gospel and peruse thy many recorded experiences and remember the convictions which secret and open Mercies have many a time afforded thee But especially draw nearer to the Lord of Love and be not seldom and slight in thy contemplations of his Love and Loveliness Dwell in the Sun-shine and thou wâ—lt know that it is light and warm and comfortable Distance and strangeness cherish thy doubts Acquaint thy self with him and be at peace Yet look up and oft and earnestly look up after thy ascended glorified Head who said Tell my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God! Think where and what he is and what he is now doing for all his own and how humbled abased suffering Love is now Triumphant regnant glorified Love and therefore no less than in all its tender expressions upon Earth As Love is no where perfectly revealed but in Heaven so I can no where so fully discern it as by looking up by Faith to my Father and Saviour which is in Heaven and conversing more believingly with the heavenly Society Had I done this more and better and as I have persuaded others to do it I had lived in more convincing delights of God's Love which would have turned the fears of Death into joyfuller hopes and more earnest desires to be with Christ in the Arms in the World in the life of Love as far better than to be here in a dark a doubting fearing World But O my Father Infinite LOVE though my Arguments be many and strong my Heart is bad and my strength is weakness and I am insufficient to plead the cause of thy Love and Loveliness to my self or others O plead thy own cause and what Heart can resist Let it not be my word only but Thine that thou lovest me even me a Sinner speak it as Christ said to Lazarus Arise If not as thou tellest me that the Sun is warm yet as thou hast told me that my Parents and my dearest Friends did love me and much more powerfully than so Tell it me as thou tellest me that thou hast given me life by the consciousness and works of life That while I can say Thou that knowest all things Knowest that I love Thee it may include therefore I know that I am beloved of thee and therefore come to thee in the confidence of thy Love and long to be nearer in the clearer sight the fuller sense and joyfuller exercise of Love for ever Father into thy Hand I commend my Spirit Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen AN APPENDIX A Breviate of the Helps of Faith Hope and Love A Breviate of the proof of Supernatural Revelation and the Truth of Christianity 1 TIM 3. 16. Without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory THese are the Creed or Six Articles of the Gospel which the Apostles preached § 1. I. God manifested in the Flesh of Jesus is the first and great Article Believe this and believe all No wonder that believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is so often made in Scripture the description of saving Faith the Title to Baptism and Pardon and Salvation the Evidence of the Spirit c. He that truly and practically believeth that God came in Flesh to Man and that Christ is the Fathers Messenger from Heaven must needs believe that God hath a great value for the Souls of men and for his Church that he despiseth not even our Flesh that his Word is true and fully to be trusted that he who so wonderfully came to Man will certainly take up Man to him Who can doubt of the Immortality of Souls or that Christ will receive the departing Souls of the Faithful to himself who believeth that he took Man's Nature and hath glorified it now in Heaven in union with the Divine Who can ever have low Thoughts of God's love and Mercy who believeth this And who can prostitute his Soul and Flesh to wickedness who firmly believeth that he took the Soul and Flesh of Man to sanctifie and glorifie it § 2. II. The holy Spirit is the Justification of the Truth of Jesus Christ He is Christ's Advocate and Witness to the World He proveth the Gospel by these five ways of Evidence I. By all the Prophesies Types and Promises of Christ in the Old Testament before Christs coming II. By the Inherent impress of God's Image on the Person and Doctrine of Christ VVhich Propria luce sheweth itself to be Divine III. By the concomitant Miracles of Christ Read the History of the Gospel for this use and observe each History IV. By the subsequent gift of the Spirit to the Apostles and other Christians by Languages wonders and multitudes of Miracles to convince the VVorld V. By the undeniable and excellent work of Sanctification on all true Believers through all the VVorld in all generations to this day These five are the Spirits VVitness which fully justifieth the certain Truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God § 3. Quest But how are we sure who our selves never saw the Person Miracles Resurrection Ascension of Christ that the History of them is true Answ 1. We may be sure that the Spectators were not deceived II. And that they did not deceive them to whom they reported it III. And that we are not deceived by any miscarriage in the historical Tradition to us § 4. I. It was not possible that men that were not mad that had Eyes and Ears could for three Years and a half believe that they saw the Lame the Blind the Deaf and all Diseases healed the Dead raised Thousands miraculously fed c. and this among crouds of People that still followed Christ if the things had not been true One Man's Senses may be deceived at some one instance by some deceitful accident But that the Eyes and Ears of Multitudes should be so oft deceived many years in the open Light is as much as to say No Man knoweth any thing that he seeth and heareth § 5. II. That the Disciples who received the Apostles and Evangelists report of Christ were not deceived by the Reporters is most evident For 1. They received it not by hearsay at the second hand but from the Eye and Ear Witnesses themselves who must needs know what they said 2. They heard this report from Men of the same Time and Age and Countrey where it was easy to examine the case and confute it had it been false 3. The Apostles appealed to crouds and Thousands of Witnesses as to many of Christ's Miracles who would have made it odious had it not been
honest tender Souls from the damning part of unbelief and by their fears preserveth them from being bold with sin When many bold and impudent Sinners turn Infidels or Atheists by forfeiting the helps of Grace § 23. And indeed Irrational fears have so much power to raise Doubts that they are seldom separated insomuch that many scarce know or observe the difference between Doubts and Fears And many say they not only fear but doubt when they can scarce tell why as if it were no intellectual act which they meant but an irrational Passion § 24. If therefore my Soul see undeniable Evidence of Immortality and if it be able by irrefragable Argument to prove the future blessedness expected and if it be convinced that God's promises are true and sufficiently sealed and attested by him to warrant the most confident belief and if I trust my Soul and all my hopes upon this word and evidences of Truth it is not then our aversness to die nor the sensible fears of a Soul that looketh into Eternity that invalidate any of the Reasons of my Hope nor prove the unsoundness of my Faith § 25. But yet these Fears do prove its weakness and were they prevalent against the Choice Obedience Resolutions and Endeavours of Faith they would be prevalent against the Truth of Faith or prove its nullity for Faith is Trust and Trust is a securing quieting thing Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith was a just reproof of Christ to his Disciples when sensible dangers raised up their fears For the established will hath a political or imperfect though not a despotical and absolute Power over our Passions And therefore our fears do shew us our unbelief and stronger Faith is the best means of conquering even irrational fears Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou so disquieted in me Trust in God c. Psal 42. is a needful way of chiding a timorous Heart § 26. And though many say that Faith hath not evidence and think that it is an Assent of the Mind meerly commanded by the Empire of the Will without a knowledg of the Verity of the Testimony yet certainly the same Assent is ordinarily in the Scriptures called indifferently Knowing and Believing And as a bare Command will not cause Love unless we perceive an Amiableness in the Object so a bare Command of the Law or of the Will cannot alone cause Belief unless we perceive a truth in the Testimony believed For it is a Contradiction or an act without its Object And Truth is perceived only so far as it is some way Evident For Evidence is nothing but the objective perceptibility of Truth or that which is Metaphorically called Light So that we must say that Faith hath not sensible Evidence of the invisible things believed but Faith is nothing else but the willing Perception of the Evidence of Truth in the word of the Assertor and a Trust therein We have and must have Evidence that Scripture is God's Word and that his Word is true before by any Command of the Word or Will we can believe it § 27. I do therefore neither despise Evidence as unnecessary nor trust to it alone as the sufficient total cause of my belief For if God's Grace do not open mine Eyes and come down in power upon my Will and insinuate into it a sweet acquaintance with the things unseen and a tast of their Goodness to delight my Soul no Reasons will serve to stablish and comfort me how undeniable soever Reason is fain first to make use of notions words or signs and to know Terms Propositions and Arguments which are but Means to the knowledg of Things is its first employment and that alas which Multitudes of Learned men do take up with But it 's the Illumination of God that must give us an effectual acquaintance with the Things Spiritual and Invisible which these Notions signifie and to which our Organical Knowledg is but a Means § 28. To sum up all That our Hopes of Heaven have a certain ground appeareth I. From Nature II. From Grace III. From other works of Gracious Providence 1. From the Nature of Man 1. Made capable of it 2. Obliged even by the Law of Nature to seek it before all 3. Naturally desiring Perfection 1. Habitual 2. Active 3. And Objective 2. And from the Nature of God 1. As Good and Communicative 2. As Holy and Righteous 3. As Wise making none of his works in vain § 29. II. From Grace 1. Purchasing it 2. Declaring it by a Messenger from Heaven both by Word and by Christ's own and others Resurrection 3. Promising it 4. Sealing that Promise by Miracles there 5. And by the work of Sanctification to the end of the World § 30. III. By subordinate Providence 1. God's actual Governing the World by the hopes and fears of another Life 2. The many helps which he giveth us for a heavenly Life and for attaining it which are not vain 3. Specially the Ministration of Angels and their Love to us and Communion with us 4. And by accident Devils themselves convince us 1. By the Nature of their Temptations 2. By Apparitions and haunting Houses 3. By Witches 4. By Possessions Which though it be but a Satanical Operation on the Body yet is so Extraordinary an Operation that it differeth from the more usual as if I may so compare them God's Spirit so operateth on the Saints that it is called his dwelling in them or possessing them as different from his lower Operations on others § 1. II. Having proved that Faith and Hope have a certain future Happiness to expect the Text directeth me next to consider why it is described by being with Christ viz. I. What is included in our being with Christ II. That we shall be with him III. Why we shall be with him § 2. To be with Christ includeth 1. Presence 2. Union 3. Communion or participation of Felicity with him § 3. 1. Quest Is it Christ's Godhead or his Humane Soul or his Humane Body that we shall be Present with and united to or All Answ It is all but variously § 4. 1. We shall be Present with the Divine Nature of Christ Quest But are we not always so And are not all Creatures so Answ Yes as his Essence comprehendeth all Place and Beings But not as it is Operative and Manifested in and by his Glory Christ directeth our Hearts and Tongues to pray Our Father which art in Heaven And yet he knew that all Place is in and with God Because it is in Heaven that he Gloriously operateth and shineth forth to holy Souls Even as Man's Soul is eminently said to be in the Head because it understandeth and reasoneth in the Head and not in the Foot or Hand though it be also there And as we look a Man in the Face when we talk to him so we look up to Heaven when we pray to God God who is and operateth as the Root of
great Realities to the Logical and Philological game at Words and Notions it was Socrates his wisdom to call them to more concerning Studies and Pauls greater Wisdom to warn men to take heed of such vain Philosophy and to labour to know God and Jesus Christ and the things of the Spirit and not to overvalue this ludicrous dreaming worldly Wisdom And if I have none of this kind of Notional childish knowledge when I am absent from the Body the Glass and Spectacles may then be spared when I come to see with open Face or as face to Face Our future knowledge is usually in Scripture called SEEING Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 1 Cor. 13. 12. We shall see Face to Face 1 Joh. 3. 2. We shall see him as he is Joh. 17. 24. Father I will that those which thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me c. An Intuitive knowledge of all things as in themselves immediately is a more excellent sort of knowledge than this by similitudes Names and Notions which our Learning now consisteth in and is but an Art acquired by many acts and use § 3. If the Sun were as the Heathens thought it an Intellective Animal and it s emitted rayes were vitally visive and when one of those rayes were received by prepared seminal matter as in Insects it became the Soul of an inferiour Animal in this case the said ray would operate in that Insect or Animal but according to the Capacity of the recipient matter whereas the Sun itself by all it s emitted rays would see all things Intellectually and with delight and when that Insect were dead that Ray would be what it was an Intellective Intuitive emanation And though the Soul in Flesh do not know itself how it shall be united to Christ and to all other holy Souls and to God himself nor how near or just of what sort that union will be yet united it will be and therefore will participate accordingly of the the universal Light or understanding to which it is united The Soul now as it is or operateth in the Foot or Hand doth not understand but only as it is and operateth in the Head And yet the same Soul which is in the Hand understandeth in the Head and the Soul operateth not so selfishly or dividedly in the Hand as to repine there because it understandeth not there but it is quiet in that it understandeth in the Head and performeth its due Operation in the Hand But this diversity of Operations seemeth to be from the Organs and the Bodies use or need But Souls dismissed from the Body seem to be as all Eye or Intuitive Light Therefore though it might content us to say that our Head seeth all things and we are united to him yet we may say further that we our selves shall see God and all things that are meet for us to see § 4. And seeing it is most certain that the Superior glorious Regions are full of blessed Spirits who do see God and one another having much more perfect Operations than we have whose effects we Mortals find here below why should I that find an Intellective Nature in my self make any doubt of my more perfect Operations when I am dismissed hence being satisfied that a Soul will not lose its simple Essence Either those superiour Spirits have ethereal Bodies to act in or are such themselves or not If they are or have such why should I doubt of the like and think that my Substance or Vehicle will not be according to the Region of my abode If not why should I think that my departed Soul may not know or see without an igneous or ethereal Body or Vehicle as well as all those worlds of Spirits And the certainty of Apparitions Possessions and Witches do tell us not only that there are such Inhabitants of other Regions Ordinarily invisible to us but also that we are in the way to that Happiness or Misery which is in our invisible state § 5. These things reviewed being partly mentioned before assuring me that I shall have actual Intellection in my separated state the Region with the Objects but above all the Holy Scriptures will tell me as much as it is meet that I should here know what it is that I shall intuitively understand The Apostle 1 Cor. 13. 10 11 12. doth distinguish our knowing in part and knowing Perfectly knowing as a Child and as a Man knowing darkly and enigmatically as in a Glass and knowing Face to Face as we are known The great Question is When this Time of Perfection is Whether he mean at Death or at the Resurrection If Dr. Hammonds observation hold that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture when The Flesh or Body is not joined with it signifies that Life which the Soul doth enter upon immediately after our Death and so that the Soul hath that after living which is sinified by the very word which we Translate Resurrection then it will lead men to think that there is less difference between Mansstate at his first departure and at his last Resurrection than most think even than Calvin himself thought But the difference between our first and last state of after life or Resurrection cannot be now distinctly known What difference there is now between Henoch Elias and those who rose at Christs Resurrection and the rest of the Saints even the Spirits of the perfected Just and whether the first have as much greater Glory than the rest as it is conceived that we shall have at the Resurrection above that which immediately followeth Death what mortal Man can tell I am past doubt that Flesh and Blood formally so called and not only ab accidente as sinful shall not inherit the Kingdom of God vid. Hammond in loc but that our Natural Bodies shall be made Spiritual Bodies And how a Spiritual Body differeth from a Spirit or Soul I pretend not well to understand but must stay till God by experience or fuller Light inform me But surely the difference is not like to be so great as that a Soul in Flesh shall know in part and a Soul in a Spiritual Body shall know perfectly and a Soul between both shall not know at all If it be Perfection which we shall have in our Spiritual Body it is like that we are nearer to that Perfection in Knowledge and Felicity while we are between both than we are in the Flesh § 6. And sure a Soul that even Solomon saith goeth upward and to God that gave it is liker to know God than that which is terminated in Flesh and operateth ut forma according to its capacity and state And a Soul that is with Christ is liker to know Christ and the Father in him than that which is present with the Body and absent from the Lord. What less can the Promise of being with him signifie § 7.
And 1. as to the Kind of Knowledge how excellent and more satisfactory a way will that of Intuition or Intellective-Sense be than is our present way of abstraction Similitudes and Signs What abundance of Time Thoughts and Labour doth it cost us now to learn our Grammar our Rhetorick and our Logick Our Artes loquendi dicendi disserendi To learn our Wordy Rules and Axioms in Metaphysicks Physicks c. And when we have learnt them all if all can be learned how little the nearer are many to the knowing of the signified Realities We oft get but a Set of Words to play with to take up our time and divert us from the Matter Even as Carnal men use the Creatures which signifie God and are made to lead them up to him to intangle them and be the greatest and most pernicious diversion of their Souls from God so do too many Learned men do by their Organical signal Knowledge They use it as men do Cards and Romances and Plays to delight their Phantasies but they know less of the Things that are worth their knowing than many unlearned Persons do as I said before Had not much of the Athenian Learning been then a meer Game for men to play away their precious time at and to grow proud of while they were ignorant of saving Realities Christ and his Apostles had not so much neglected it as they did nor Paul so much warned men to take heed of being deceived by that vain kind of Philosophy in which he seemeth to me to have greater respect to the universally esteemed Athenian Arts than as Dr. Hammond Thought to the meer Gnostick pretensions This poor dreaming signal Artificial Knowledge is 1. Costly 2. Uncertain 3. Contentious 4. Unsatisfactory in comparison of Intuitive Knowledge 1. It is costly as to the hard labour and precious time which must be laid out for it as aforesaid we grow old in getting us Horses and Boots and Spurs for our Journey and it 's well if we begin it at the last Like a Man that would study the new found Planets and the shape of Saturn and Jupiter's Satellites and the Viam Lacteam c and he spends his whole life in getting him the best Tubes or Telescopes never useth them to his ends Or like one that instead of learning to write doth spend his life in getting the best Ink Paper Pens Or rather like one that learneth to Write and Print exactly and not to understand what any of his words do signifie Men take their Spectacles in stead of Eyes 2. And when this Learning is got how uncertain are we whether the words have no ambiguity Whether they give us the true notice of the Speakers 〈◊〉 and of the Matter spoken of As I said before what a penury and yet redundancy of words have we Of how various and uncertain signification Changed by Custom or Arbitrary design Sometime by the Vulgar use and sometime by Learned men that being conscious of the defectiveness of the speaking-Art are still tampering and attempting to amend it And some men speak obscurely on purpose to raise in their Readers a conceit of their subtile and sublime conceptions And he that understandeth Things most clearly and speaketh them most plainly which are the parts of true Learning shall have much a do to get the Matter out of dark and bewildring uncertainties and to make others understand both it and him 3. And hence come the greatest part of the Contentions of the World which are hottest among men that most pretend to wordy knowledge As in Traffick and converse the more men and business we have to do with usually the more quarrels and differences we have so the more of this wordy Learning instead of Realities meâ—â—pretend to the more Disputes and Controversies they make and the Instruments of Knowledge prove the Instruments of Errour and Contention And alas how many applauded Volumes are the snares and troublers of the World And how great a part of our Libraries are vain janglings and strife of words and traps for the more ingenuous sort that will not be taken with Cards and Dice robbing us of our time destroying our Love depressing our minds that should ascend to God and diverting them from the great and holy Things which should be the matter of our Thoughts and Joys and filling the Church with Sects and Strife while every one striveth for the preeminence of his Wit and Notioâ—s and few strive for holy Love and Unity and good works 4. And all this while alas too many Learned men do but lick the outside of the Glass and leave the Wine within untasted To know God and Christ and Heaven and Holiness do give the Soul a nourishing and strengthning kind of pleasure like that of the Appetite in its food But this game at Words is but a knowing of Images Signs and Shadows and so is but an image and shadow of true Knowledge It is not that Grace which Austine's definition saith Nemo male utitur but it is that which the Sanctified use well and the Unsanctified are puffed up by and use to the opposition of Truth the Ostentation of a Foolish Wit and the deceit of their own Souls And if it be sanctified knowledge it is but Mediate in order to our knowledge of the Things thus signified And it is the real Good which contenteth and beatifieth though the Notions may be a subordinate recreation And Intuition feasteth on these Realities § 9. II. And as to the Objects of this Intuition their excellency will be the excellency of our Knowledge I. I shall know God better II. I shall know the Universe better III. I shall know Christ better IV. I shall know the Church his Body better with the holy Angels V. I shall better know the Methods and Perfection of the Scripture and all God's Dirigent Word and Will VI. I shall know the Methods and Sense of Disposing Providence better VII I shall know the Divine Benefits which are the Fruits of Love better VIII I shall know my Self better IX I shall better know every fellow Creature which I am concerned to know X. And I shall better know all that Evil Sin Satan and Misery from which I am delivered § 10. I. Aquinas and many others took it for the chief Natural proof of the Souls Immortality that Man by Nature desireth not only to know Effects and second Causes but to rise up to the Knowledge of the first Cause and therefore was made for such Knowledge in the state of his Perfection But Grace hath much more of this desire than Nature Not that we must not be content to be without a great deal of Knowledge which would be unmeet for us useless troublesome or dangerous to us nor must we aspire to that which is above our capacity and to know the unsearchable things of God But not to know God is to know nothing and to have an understanding worse than none I presume not to pry into the
more desire it V. I shall better understand all the World of God! The Matter and the Method of it Though I shall shall not have that use for it as I have now in this Life of Faith yet I shall see more of God's Wisdom and his Goodness his Love Mercy and Justice appearing in it than ever Man on Earth could do As the Creatures so the Scriptures are perfectly known only by perfect Spirits I shall then know how to solve all doubts and reconcile all seeming contradictions and to expound the hardest Prophesies That light will shew me the admirable Methods of those Sacred words where dark minds now suspect confusion How evident and clear then will every thing appear to me Like a small print when the light comes in which I could not read in the glimmering twilight How easily shall I then confute the cavils of all our present Unbelievers And how joyfully shall I praise that God and Saviour that gave his Church so clear a light to guide them through this darksom World and so sure a promise to support them till they came to life Eternal How joyfully shall I bless him that by that immortal Seed did regenerate me to the hopes of Glory And that ruled me by so Holy and Just a Law VI. In that World of Light I shall better understand God's present and past works of Providence by which he ordereth the matters of this World The Wisdom and Goodness of them is little understood in little parcels It is the union and harmony of all the parts which sheweth the beauty of them when the single Parcels seem deformed or are not understood And no one can see the whole together but God and they that see it in the light of his Celestial Glory It is a prospect of that End by which we have here any true understanding of such Parcels as we see Then I shall know clearly why or to what use God prospered the wicked and tryed the Righteous by so many afflictions I shall know why he set up the ungodly and put the humble under their Feet Why he permitted so much ignorance ungodliness pride lust oppression persecution falshood deceit and other sins in the World I shall know why the faithful are so few And why so many Kingdoms of the World are left in Heathenism Mahometanism and Infidelity The strange permissions which now so puzzle me and are the matter of my astonishment shall all be then as clear as day I shall know why God disposed of me as he did through all my life and why I suffered what I did and how many great deliverances I had which I understood not here and how they were accomplished All our mis-interpretations of God's works and permissions will be then rectified And all our Controversies about them which Satan hath made so great advantage of by a pretended zeal for some Truths of God will then be reconciled and at an end And all the works of Divine Providence from the beginning of the World will then appear a most delectable beauteous frame VII And among all these works I shall specially know more the nature and excellency of Gods mercies and gifts of Love which here we too unthankfully undervalued and made light of The special works of Love should be the matter of our most constant sweet and serious Thoughts and the fuel of our constant Love and Gratitude The lively sense of Love and Mercy maketh lively Christians abounding in Love to God and Mercy to others But the Enemy of God and Man most laboureth to obscure diminish and disgrace God's Love and Mercys to us or to put us out of relish to them that they be unfruitful as to their excellent ends and uses Little do most Christians know how much they wrong God and themselves and how much they lose by the diminutive poor Thoughts which they have of God's Mercies Ingratitude is a grievous misery to the Sinner as gratitude is a very pleasant work Many a Thousand Mercies we now receive which we greatly undervalue But when I come to the state and work of perfect gratitude I shall have a more perfect knowledge of all the Mercies which ever I received in my Life and which my Neighbours and Friends and God's Church and the World did ever receive For though the thing be past the use of it is not past Mercies remembred must be the matter of our everlasting thanks And we cannot be perfectly thankful for them without a perfect knowledge of them The worth of a Christ and all his grace the work of the Gospel the worth of our Church-priviledges and all God's Ordinances the worth of our Books and Friends and Helps of our Life and Health and all conveniences will be better understood in Heaven than the most holy and thankful Christian here understandeth them VIII And it will be some addition to my future happiness that I shall then be much better acquainted with my self Both with my Nature and with my Sin and Grace I shall then better know the Nature of a Soul and its formal Faculties Three in One I shall know the nature and way of its Operations and how far its acts are simple or compound or organical I shall know how far Memory Phantasie and Sense internal and external belong to the rational Soul and whether the sensitive and rational are two or one and what Senses will perish and what not I shall know how the Soul doth act upon it self and what acts it hath that are not felt in sleep in Apoplexies and in the Womb I shall know whether the vegetative nature be any thing else than Fire and whether it be of the same Essence with the Soul sensitive or rational and whether Fire eminenter be a common fundamental substance of all Spirits diversly specified by the Forms mental sensitive and vegetative or whether it be as a Body or Vehicle to Spirits or rather a nature made for the Copulation of Spirits and Bodies and the Operation of the former on the latter as between both And whether Fire and of what sort be the active forma telluris and of other Globes I shall know how far Souls are One and yet Many and how they are Individuate And whether their Quantitas discreta in being numerically many do prove that they have any Quantitatem continuam and whether they are a purer sort of Bodies as the Greek Fathers Tertullian and others Thought and what Immateriality signifieth and what substantiality of Spirits and how substantia materia differ and how far they are penetrable and indivisible and whether a Soul be properly pars and whether individual Souls are parts of any common Soul and how far the individuation doth continue And whether separated from the Body they operate in and by any other Vehicle or without and how and whether they take with them any of the fiery Nature as a Vehicle or as a constitutive part I shall know how God produceth Souls And how
1 Pet. 2. 5. I refuse not Lord to lie in Tears and Groans when thou requirest it and do not thou refuse those Tears and Groans but O give me better that I may have better of thine own to offer thee And by this prepare me for the far better which I shall find with Christ And that which is Best to us thy Creatures will be accepted as Best by Thee who art glorified and pleased in the Perfection of thy works § 4. II It is at least very probable that God maketh glorified Spirits his Agents and Ministers of much of his beneficence to the Creatures that are below them For 1. We see that where he endueth any Creature with the noblest endowments he maketh most use of that Creature to the benefit of others We shall in Heaven be most furnished to do good and that furniture will not be unused 2. And Christ tells us that we shall be like or equal to the Angels which though it mean not simply and in all things yet it meaneth more than to be above carnal Generation for it speaketh of a similitude of Nature and State as the Reason of the otheâ— And that the Angels are God's Ministers for the good of his chosen in this World and Administrators of much of the Affairs on Faith 〈◊〉 past all doubt 3. The Apostle telleth us 〈◊〉 the Saintâ— shall Judg the World and Angels And Judging in Scripture is oft put for Ruling It is therefore probable at least that the Devils and the Damned shall be put under the Saints and that with the Angels they shall be employed in some Ministerial Oversight of the Inhabitants and Affairs of the promised New-Earth 4. And when even the more noble Superiour Bodies even the Stars are of so great use and influx to inferiour Bodies it is like that accordingly Superiour Spirits will be of use to the Inhabitants of the World below them § 5. But I think it not meet to venture here upon uncertain conjectures beyond the revelation of God's Word and therefore shall add no more but conclude that God knoweth what use to make of us hereafter as well as here and that if there were no more for us to do in Heaven but with perfect Knowledg Love and Joy to hold communion with God and all the heavenly Society it were enough to attract a sensible and considerate Soul to fervent desires to be at home with God § 6. And here I must not overpass my rejection of the injurious opinion of too many Philosophers and Divines who exclude all Sense and Affection from Heaven and acknowledge nothing there but Intellect and Will And this is because they find Sense and Affection in the Bruits and they think that the souls of Bruits are but some quality or perishing temperament of Matter and therefore that Sense and Affection is in us no better § 7. But 1. What felicity can we conceive of without any affection of delight or joy Certainly bare Volition now without these doth seem to be no felicity to us Nor knowledg neither if there were no delight in knowing § 8. 2. Yea I leave it to mens experience to judge whether there be now any such thing in us as proper willing which is not also some internal sense of and affection to the good which we will If it be Complacency or the Pleasedness of the Will this signifies some Pleasure and Love in the first act is nothing else but such an Appetite If it be Desire it hath in it a Pleasedness in the thing desired as in esse cognito as it is thought on by us and what Love is without all sense and affection § 9. 3. Why doth the Scripture ascribe Love and Joy to God and Angels if there were not some reason for it Doubtless there is great difference between the heavenly Love and Joy and ours here in the Body And so there is also between their knowledge and ours and their Will and ours But it is not that theirs is less or lower than ours but somwhat more excellent which ours giveth us some analogical or imperfect formal notice of § 10. 4. And what though Bruits have Sense and Affection doth it follow therefore that we have none now Or that we shall have none hereafter Bruits have Life And must we therefore have no Life hereafter because it is a thing that 's common â—oBruits Rather as now we have all that the Bruits have and more so shall we then have Life and Sense and Affection of a nobler sort than Bruits and more Is not God the Living God Shall we say that he liveth not because Bruits live Or rather that they live a sensitive life and Man a Sensitive and Intellectual because God is Essential Transcendent Infinite Life that makes them live § 11. 5. But if they say that there is no Sensation or Affection but by bodily Organs I answered before to that the Body feeleth nothing at all but the Soul in the Body The Soul uniteth itself most nearly to the Igneous-aereal parts called the Spirits and in them it feeleth seeth tasteth smelleth c. And that Soul that feeleth and seeth doth also inwardly love desire and rejoice And that Soul which doth this in the Body hath the same power and faculty out of the Body And if they judge by the cessation of sensation when the Organs are undisposed or dead so they might as well conclude against our future Intellection and Will whose operation in an Apoplexy we no more perceive than that of Sense But I have before shewed that the Soul will not want exercise for its Essential faculties for want of Objects or bodily Organs and that men conclude basely of the souls of Bruits as if they were not an enduring substance without any proof or probability And tell us idle dreams that they are but vanishing temperaments c. which are founded on another Dream that FIRE or the Motive-Illuminative-Calefactive Cause is no substance neither and so our unnatural Somatists know none of the most excellent substances which actuate all the rest but only the more base and gross which are actuated by them and they think they have well acquit themselves by telling us of subtâ—le actâ—d Matter and Motion without understanding what any Living Active-Motive Faculty or Virtue is And because no Man knoweth what God doth with the souls of Bruits whether they are only one common sensitive soul of a more common Body or whether Individuate still and Transmigrant from Body to Body or what else Therefore they make Ignorance a plea for Errour and feign them to be no substances or to be Annihilate § 12. I doubt not but Sensation as is aforesaid is an excellent Operation of the Essential faculties of real substances called Spirits and that the highest and noblest Creatures have it in the highest excellency and though God that fitteth every thing to its use hath given e. g. a Dog a more perfect Sense of Smelling than a Man
constantly used this same Scripture publickly and privately as the Word of God so that it could not be easily altered 2. They all knew that a Curse is pronounced against every one that addeth or diminisheth Which must needs possess them with fear of corrupting it 3. They took it to be the Charter of their own Salvation 4. The work of the Ministers was to expound it and preserve it against Corrupters 5. These Ministers and Churches were over much of the World and could not agree together to corrupt it And if some did it all the rest would soon detect it 6. Heresies and Quarrels were quickly too rife among them So that cross Interests and Animosities would soon have fallen upon the Corrupters 7. Some Hereticks made some adding and corrupting attempts which the Church presently condemned and turned it to their shame 8. In all the Disputations then managed the same Scriptures were appealed to 9. The Translations into various Languages shew that the Books were the same without any Momentous difference 10. To this Day when Sin and Tyranny have torn the Church into many Factions they all receive the same Canonical Scriptures except that some receive more Apocryphal Writings which yet make no alteration at all of our Gospel Faith Quest But doth not this laying so much on Tradition favour Popery Answ No The difference is here 1. Papists are for Tradition as a supplement to the Scripture as if this were but part of the VVord of God and 2. They plead for a peculiar power of being the Keepers and Judges of that supplemental Tradition which other Churches know nothing of But we 1. Plead for the Infallible Practical Tradition of the Essentials of Christianity by itself and in the Creed c. which is less than the Scripture 2. And next for the certain Tradition of the Scripture itself uncorrupted in all that Faith depends on which Scripture is the compleat Record of God's VVill and Law containing more than Essentials and Integrals So much of God 1. Manifested in the Flesh 2. Justified in the Spirit III. He was seen of Angels that is Angels were the Beholding Witnessing and admiring Servants of this great Mystery God manifested in the Flesh 1. Angels preached Christ at his Incarnation 2. Angels ministred to Christ in his Temptations Agonies c. 3. Angels were Preachers and VVitnesses of his Resurrection 4. Angels rowled away the Stone and terrified the Souldiers 5. Angels preached his return to them that gazed up at his Ascension 6. Angels opened the Prison Doors and set the imprisoned Apostles free once and Peter alone afterwards 7. Angels rejoice in Heaven at the Conversion of all that Christ brings home 8. Angels disdain not to be the Guardians of the least of Christs Disciples 9. Angels are protecting Officers over Churches and Kingdoms 10. Angels have preached to Apostles and been the Messengers of their Revelations 11. Angels have been the Instruments of Miracles and of destroying the Churches Enemies 12. Angels will ministerially convoy departed Souls to Christ 13. Angels will gloriously attend Christ at his return and sever the Wicked from the Just 14. Angels will be our Companions in the heavenly Chore for ever Therefore 1. We should love Angels 2. And be thankful to God for them 3. And think the more comfortably of Heaven for their Society 4. And Pray for the benefit of their Ministry on Earth especially in all our dangers IV. The Fourth Article is Preached to the Gentiles The Jews having the Covenant of Peculiarity were proud of their Priviledge even while they unworthily abused it And despised the rest of the World and would not so much as eat with them as if they had been God's only People And indeed the rest of the World was so corrupted that we find no one Nation that as such renounced Idolatry and was devoted in Covenant to the true God alone as the Jews were Now that God should be manifested in Flesh to reconcile the Heathen World to himself and extend greater Priviledges indefinitely to all Nations than ever the Jews had in their state of Peculiarity this was a Mystery of Godliness which the Jews did hardly yield belief to And that which aggravateth this wonder is 1. That the Gentile World was drowned in all Idolatry and Unnatural Wickedness such as Paul describeth Rom. 1. 2. Eph. 2. 3. 18 c. 2. And that God should suddenly and freely send them the Message of reconciliation and be found of them that sought him not is that wonder which obligeth us Gentiles who once lived as without God in the World to be thankful to him V. The Fifth Article is Believed on in the World The effect of the Gospel on the Souls of men in their Effectual Faith is one of the Evidences of the Christian Truth I told you before that the Fifth Witness of the Spirit on the Souls of all Believers I reserved to be here mentioned Here 1. It is a part of the wonder that Christ should be believed on in the World even with a common Faith For 1. To believe a mean Man to be the Mediator between God and Man and the Saviour of the World yea one that was Crucified as a Malefactor this must needs be a difficult thing 2. The very Jewish Nation was as contemptible to the Romans being one of their poorest subdued Provinces as the Gentiles were to the Jews And Christ was by Birth a Jew 3. The Greatness of the Roman Empire then ruling over much of the World was such that by Preaching and not by VVar to bring them to be Subjects to a Crucified Jew was a marvellous work and so to bring the Conquered Nations to become Christ's Voluntary Subjects 4. The Roman and Greek Learning was then at the height of its Perfection And the Christians were despised by them as unlearned Barbarians And that Learning Arts and Empire should all submit to such a King and Saviour was certainly a work of Supernatural Power Christ did not levy Armies to overcome the Nations nor did Victory move them but the Victors and Lords of the VVorld and these no Fools but the Masters of the greatest humane VVisdom were Conquered by the Gospel preached by a sort of inferior men 5. And this Gospel which Conquered them was still opposed by them and the Christians persecuted as a sort of hated men till it overcame the Persecutors It 's true that Heathenism hath the greatest part of the VVorld and Mahometans have as much as Christians But one sort got it by the Sword and the other by the Doctrine and Holy lives of a few unarmed inferiour men II. But I use this of the Extent of Faith but as a probable and not a cogent Argument But the main Argument is from the Sanctifying effect of Faith I know it will be said that many or most Christians are as bad as other men But it 's one thing to be of a profest Religion because it is the Religion of the
This Nature and its faculties and powers are not made in vain II. Reason assureth me that all men are bound by Nature to prefer the least probability of a Life of Everlasting Joy before all the Prosperity of this World and to suffer the loss of all this short Vanity to escape the least possibility of endless misery And Nature hath such notices of Rewards and Punishments after Death that no Man can say that he is sure there is no such thing From whence it followeth that all men are bound by the very Law of Nature to be Religious and to seek first and most their Salvation in the Life to come And if so It 's certain that there is such a thing to be obtained Else God had made the very Nature of Man to be deceived by itself and to spend the chief part yea all his life through labour and suffering for that which is not and so made his greatest duty to be his greatest deceit and misery And the worst men should be least deceived But all this is not to be imputed to our wise and good Creator III. The universal sense of Moral Good and Evil in all Mankind is a great evidence of another life The vilest Atheist cannot abide to be accounted a Knave a Lyer a bad Man nor will equal a vicious Servant with another All would be thought good who will not be good And doth not God make a greater difference than Man And will he not shew it IV. The World is actually ruled much by the hopes and fears of another life and cannot well be ruled without it according to the Nature of Man But the Almighty most Wise and most Holy God needs not and will not rule the World by meer deceit V. The Gospel of Christ hath brought Life and Immortality into a clearer Light than that of Nature And it must be by believing in Christ that we must have our full satisfaction O what hath God done in the Wonders of Redemption to make us sure And against the doubts that are apt to rise from some hard particular Text of Scripture it must be considered I. That Christ and his Apostles did put the ascertaining Seal of the many uncontrolled Miracles to the Gospel Doctrin primarily which Doctrin 1. Was delivered and sealed Eight years before any of the New Testament was written and almost Seventy before the last 2. And Christ did not speak in the Language that the Gospel is written to us so that being but a Translation as to his own Words the Matter is the thing first sealed II. And that it was the two Legislator-Mediators Moses and Christ who came with the great stream of uncontrolled Miracles It being necessary that men should have full proof that a Law or Doctrin is of God before they believe it But the Priests and Prophets after Moses and the Preachers and Pastors of the Christian Church who were not Commissioned to bring men any New Laws or Gospel but to proclaim and teach that which they received needed no such New Testimony of Miracles III. The Belief of every particular Priest or Prophet after Moses or every Pastor after Christ and his Apostles was not of the same degree of necessity to Salvation as the belief of the Law and Gospel itself Therefore though all the Holy Scripture be true the Law and the Gospel must be much differenced from the rest IV. The History of the Law and Gospel have full ascertaining historical Evidence or else there is none such in the World Therefore the Doctrin must be true V. The Prophesies fulfilled prove the Gospel true VI. And the Divine Impress on the whole VII And the sanctifying work of the Spirit wrought by it in all Nations and Ages on serious Believers is a constant Divine attestation VIII And as my Faith hath so sure a Foundation it confirmeth my Faith and Hope that it hath been so long and great a work of God by his Word and Spirit on my Soul to raise it to believe and love and desire that Holy state of Perfection and Fruition which I hope for That which hath made me so much better than I else had been and turned my Heart and Life though imperfectly to things above the Pleasures of the Flesh must needs be of God And God would never send his Grace to work my Heart to Deceit and Lies and give me such Graces as shall all be frustrate His Spirit is the Earnest and first Fruits of Glory IX And all the course of Religious and Moral duty which he hath commanded me and in which he hath employed my life were never imposed to deceive me I am sure by Nature and Scripture that it is my Duty to love God and my Neighbour to desire Perfection and to serve God and do good with all my time and power and to trust God for my reward believing that all this shall not be in vain nor that which is best be made my loss O blessed be God for Commands and Holy Duty For they are equal to Promises Who can fear that he shall lose by seeking God X. As God hath sealed the Truth of his Word as aforesaid so he hath by an instituted Office and Ordinance sealed and delivered to my self his Covenant with the gift of Christ and Life in Baptism and the Lord's Supper XI He hath given me such a love to Holy Things and Persons that I greatly long to see his Church in perfect Light and Love and Concord Oh how sweet would it be to see all men Wise and Holy and Joyfully praising God Every Christian longs for this And therefore such a state will be XII I have found here the great benefit of the Love and Ministry of Angels such as is described in Psal 91. They have kept me Night and Day which confirmeth my hope that I shall dwell with them for I love them better than men because they love and serve God better XIII That low communion which I have here with God by Christ and the Spirit in his answer to my Prayers Supports Comforts Experiences tends to more XIV The pleasure which I have by Love in thinking of the happiness of my many many many holy departed Friends and of the Glory of Christ and the heavenly Jerusalem is sure some hopeful approach towards their state XV. When I see the Fire mount upward and think that Spirits are of a more sublime and excellent Nature than Fire And when I see that all that is done in this World is done by Spiritual unseen powers which move this gross and drossie Matter it puts me past doubt that my Soul being a Spirit hath a vast and glorious World of Spirits to ascend to God hath by Nature put into all things an aggregative uniting inclination Earth hath no other natural motion The ascent of Fire tells us its Element is above And Spiritâ— naturally incline to Spirits and holy Spirits peculiarly are inclined to the Holy XVI I am sure 1. By understanding
so much under suffering and so little study and exercise Patience and no more rejoice in the exercise thereof IX And Patience Experience It is manifold and profitable Experience which patient suffering brings It giveth us experience as of Natures weakness and the great need of Faith So of the Truth of God's Promises the love and tenderness of Christ the acceptance of our Prayers and the power of the Spirits aid and grace O what abundance of experiences of God and our selves and the vanity of Creatures had we wanted if we had not waited in a suffering state Alas how many Experiences have I forgotten X. And Experience Hope A bare Promise should give us Hope But we are still distrustful of our selves and of all the clearest Evidences till experience help us and set all Home O what an advantage hath a Christian of great and long experience for his hope and joy And yet when notable experiences of God's Providence are past and gone an unbelieving Heart is ready to question whether the things came not by meer natural course and like the Israelites in the Wilderness dangers and fears bear down even long and great experiences This is my sin XI And Hope maketh not ashamed That is true Hope of what God hath promised shall never be disappointed They that trust on deceitful Creatures are deceived and ashamed of their Hope For all men are Lyars that is untrusty but God is true and ever faithful O what a comfort is it that God commandeth me to trust him Sure such a command is a virtual Promise from him that cannot fail that trust which he commandeth Lord help me to trust thee in greatest dangers and there to rest XII Because the Love of God is shed abroad upon our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us It is the Love of God shed abroad on our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which must make us rejoice in hope of the Glory of God even in Tribulation Here I must consider I. What is meant by the Love of God II. Why and how it is shed abroad on the Heart by the Holy Ghost I. By the Love of God is meant the Effects of his Love 1. His special Grace 2. The pleasant gust or sense of it II. God's Love thus shed on the Heart pre-supposeth it exprest in the Gospel and Providence and contains all these particulars 1. The sanctifying of the Soul by renewing Grace This is the giving of the Spirit as he is given all true Christians 2. Herein the Holy Ghost makes us perceive the exceeding desirableness of the Love of God and maketh us most desire it 3. He giveth the Soul some easing Hope of the Love of God 4. He quieteth the doubts and fears and troubles of the Soul 5. He raiseth our Hopes by degrees to confident assurance 6. Then the thoughts of God's love are pleasant to the Soul and give it such delight as we feel in the love and fruition of our most valued and beloved friends 7. The Soul in this state is as unapt to be jealous of God or to question his Love as a good Child or Wife to question the Love of a Parent or Husband or to hear any that speak evil of them 8. This then becomes the habitual state of the Soul in all changes to live in the delightful sense of the love of God as we do live in pleasure with our dearest Friends O blessed state and first fruits of Heaven and happy are they that do attain it And though lower degrees have their degree of happiness yet how far short are such in goodness amiableness and comfort of those that are thus rich in grace This presupposeth 1. Knowledge of God and the Gospel 2. True belief and hope 3. A sincere and fruitful life 4. Mortification as to Idol worldly vanities 5. A conviction of our sincerity in all this 6. A conclusion that God doth love us But yet it is somewhat above all this A Man may have all this in his Mind and Mouth and yet want this gust of effused Love upon his Heart These are the way to it but not itself This is the greatest good on this side Heaven to which all Wealth and Honour all fleshly Pleasure and long Life all Learning and Knowledge are unworthy to be once compared Briefly 1. It is the flower and highest part of God's Image on Man 2. It is the Souls true communion with God and fruition of him which carnal men deride Even as our Eye hath communion with the Sun and the flourishing Earth enjoys its reviving heats 3. It is that which all lower grace doth tend to as Childhood doth to Manhood And what is a world of Infants comparatively good for 4. It is that which most properly answereth the design of Redemption and the wonders of God's love therein And all the tenor of the Gospel 5. It is that which is most fully called The Spirit of God or Christ in us He hath lower works but this is his great work by which he possesseth us as God's most pleasant Habitation For we have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but the Spirit of Power and Love and a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. 6. It is only that which all men in general desire I mean the only satisfying content and pleasure that Man is capable of on Earth All men would have quieting and constant Pleasure and it is to be found in nothing else but the effused love of God 7. It is that which will make every burden light and all affliction easy When the sense of God's love is still upon the Soul all pain and crosses will be but as Blood-letting by the kindest Physician to save the Patients life God will not be suspected or grudged at in suffering his love will sweeten all 8. It will overcome abundance of Temptations which no mens Wit or Learning or knowledge of the words of Scripture will overcome No Arguments will draw a loving Child or Wife from the Parents or Husband that they know doth love them Love is the most powerful Disputant 9. It puts a mellow pleasant sweetness into all our duties When we hear the Word or receive the Sacrament it is to such a Soul as pleasant Food to the most healthful Man When we pray or praise God it comes from a comforted Heart and excites and increaseth the comfort it comes from O who can be backward to draw near to God in Prayer or Meditation who tasteth the sweetness of his Love This is Religion indeed and tells us what its life and use and glory is This is the true walking with God in the best degree When the Soul liveth in the taste of his Love the Heart will be still with him and that will be its Pleasure And God most delights in such a Soul 10. This is it that putteth the sweetest relish on all our Mercies Deny God's love and you deny them all If you tast not his love in them you