of the Lord. Subtilitie THis dowrie gift which is generallie called Subtilitie I would rather speaking with the Apostle call Spiritualty for in his Epistle to the Corinthians hee affirmeth thus It is sowed a naturall body but it riseth a spirituall body and againe 1 Cor. 15. 44 47. 48. 49. The first man is of the earth earthly The second man is the Lord from heaven As is the earthy such are they that are earthy and as is the heavenly such also are they that are heavenly And as wee have borne the Image of the earthy wee shall also beare the Image of the heavenly Thus the Apostle whereout many excellent observations might bee made But I call it Spiritualty not as though which some falsly have affirmed the body were chaunged into the Soule and Spirit for so that which is raysed should not bee man consisting of Soule and Body but a third distinct thing different from Man and consequently the mystery of the resurrection of the flesh should bee quite taken away for Resurrection requires that the same thing which fell bee raysed up againe Neyther doe I call it Spiritualty as though the body after resurrection were made thin and rare like the wynd and ayre as the Eutychians of ould did affirme denying the bodyes glorified to bee palpable but I call it Spiritualty by reason of a more powerfull influence and that dominion which the Soule shall have into and over the Body after the resurrection then it ever had or could have in the time of her mortalitye This though it bee hard to explicate yet sure I am that in so affirming calling of it Spiritualty I speake in the phrase of the Apostle but as for Subtility 1. Cor. 15. 44. which in true and proper signification signifyes a property whereby such things as are spirituall have a penetrative and piercing vertue to passe and Aristo lib. 2. de Generat tex 50 pierce into and through the corpulent parts of any thing that hath a bodye and is corpulent having dmensions and parts I cannot see how it can bee given to the glorified bodyes which after resurrection have the same extensive and corpulent parts for quantity and fulnes of matter or bodilinesse as they had before the resurrection and can no more penetrate pierce or enter into or thorough any true bodily and corporall substance which hath the dimensions of quantity to weet thicknes breadth length then they could August tract 121 in Ioh. Chrysost hom 89. in Ioh. Ambros in 24. luc Hiâ—ar ub 3 definit Hiero-Epist ad Pammach Ioh 20 26. before their resurrection in the time of their mortality and corruption And although it may bee probably affirmed with diverse Ancient Fathers that the body of our saviour who entered into his disciples the dores beeing shut did by powerfull penetration passe thorough the doore yet wee maye not attribute the same as a thing naturall to his glorified body it having the same dimensions of quantity for bodilines and fulnes of matter which it had before but wee must with Antiquity attribute the same to the power of his Godhead Luc. 137. August Eps 3. ad Volusianum Heb. 4. 18. Iob. 37. 18 to whom no word is impossible for he that could enter into the wombe the secret of the most pure vergin not violated as Augustine and Nazianzene excellently Hee who could penetrate the heavens which are more solid and strong then brasse and yet receaue no bruise in his body nor make any rent in them wee may not doubt but that by the omnipotenty of his power hee could enter in into his disciples the dores being shut But to conculde this point wherein the holy Scriptures bee so sparing though with the Apostle wee give Spiritualty to the glorified bodyes whereby it may seeme that in truth they are become Spirituall which is true in the sense I have expressed yet are they not so Spirituall but that they are palpaple and may bee touched Luc. 24. 39. and felt Feele see sayth Christ to his Apostles for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see mee to have Where I note that a body which is truly spiritual may withall bee really palpaple and bee touched and felt also though it bee against that knowen Gregor hom 26 in Euangel saying of Gregory called the great a Pope of Rome Of necessity all what so ever may bee felt or handled is subject to Corruption But perhaps hee meant that so it was ordinarily according to the course of naturall things as they are in this state of mortality The reader may here expect that I should more amply open and explicate what this Spiritualty may bee I confesse my Ignorance I had rather heare a master then bee my self a Teacher only I resolve that it is a spirituall influence into and a powerfull Dominion of a Soule Glorious over a Glorified Body whereby the Body may seeme as it were to bee freed and cleared from all such corporall imperfections and defections as are incident to substances that are bodily and Corporall I meane such imperfections and defects as doe not essentially follow the nature of quantity and Bodilines it self that is all such defects and imperfectious as precede and goe before accompany or follow after Generation Augmentation or such like corporall motions which serve for the increase or conservation of humane nature And surely most necessary it is that all such defects and imperfectious should cease for without the cessation of them it cannot bee well understood how the Beatified both in body and Soule should bee elevated into that liberty of Glory which Rom. 8. 21. Galat. 4. is promised to the childeren of God the Citisens of that Hierusalem above which is both Glorious and freed from all servitude of corruption Cleare experience teacheth that to bee most true which the booke of Wisedome complayningly Sap. 9. 15 delivereth That the Corruptible body over-loadeth and aggravateth the soule And that the earthly habitation presseth downe the mynde meditating upon many things Most necessary then it is that in that state of felicity and full liberty where the Soules Beatified incessantly see God and meditate upon God that they should bee freed from all grosse and heavy clogs and hinderances that so with all their forces and endeavours they may bend themselves to the contemplation loue and fruition of the infinit Goodnes of God so clearely and presentially proposed unto them And this is that which wee must call Spiritualty wherein if I may seeme to the Learned to be mistaken I desire from them some better and more full declaration of this dowry of Subtility Agility THis dowry gift of Agility is a glorious quality or vertue whereby the bodyes of the glorified are totally subject to the Soules as to most powerfull Movers to be moved by them without all resistance or least reluctancy that may be thought on which Agility or Facility as I conceive they have because the
difficulty if not of impossibility of being well used or that salvation may be obteined by the posessioners of them for so we are to understand that of the Sonne of God It Mat. 19. 14. is easier for a Camell to passe through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Some of the wiser Ancients to expresse the difficulty which pleasures honour and riches do bring against the exercise of vertue have feigned a Virgin by name Aclanta of such admirable beauty that the Worthies of that time were all enamoured with the love of her but as her beauty was surpassing great so was her swiftnesse in running farre greater so that in running shee could not be overtaken by any of the Valiants of those times though she had often proffered her selfe to be his who in running could out go her At last one Hippomenes presents himselfe unto her who that the better he might obteine his purpose in out running the faire Aclanta had secretly provided three balls of gold the which one after one as they were in their course of running he casts before her for the taking up of which the beautifull maid makes such stayes and so many stops that shee was out-runne by Hippomenes and so was obteined of him Now who is this faire Atlanta but the soule of man adorned with sundry heavenly graces whose power by grace was to have not sinned but to have stood and continued in grace had shee not beene overtaken and over prised in the course of her obedience by the infernall Hâ—ppomenes First apple of Pleasures the forbidden fruit the 2 of pride you shal be like God the 3 of Covetousnesse knowing good and evill Gen 3 4. 5. who casting before her the three bâ—lls of riches pleasures and honoures letted her from the attaining of that glory and happinesse for which shee was made and designed Thus are riches eagerly desired and heaped up for the hurt of the possessioner So are honours the bellowes of Satan blowing up the fire of arrogancy So are pleasures the snares and gives of Satan wherewith he leades sensuall minds captives to that place of torments where such a measure of torments shall be given according as the guilty shall be found to have exceeded in the riot of their pleasures The third reason I frame thus The happinesse Third reason of man must be such that as no man can use it ill so must it not have any evill unavoydable accompanying and adjoyned with it But what sweet proffitable or glorious thing is there in the world which hath not ever some evill either of bitternesse or disproffit or dishonour or infirmity of the body or anxiety of the minde intermixt therewith that whosoever shall sett his soule upon any thing or all the things that are in this world he cannot but be thought to have received his soule in vaine resting upon vanity what happinesse for such a soule to have gained the world if Mat. 16. 26. it perish with the world and what a felicity to have gained the world when as all that is in the world is but a puffe of vanity Seneca very excellently O how ridiculous is the boundes of mortall men it is but a point which with sword and fier is devided into so many nations above there are infinite spaces into the possession whereof the soule may be admitted Fourthly I argue thus The last end of man Fourth reason because the last and because of man who in his soule is immortall and never dieth must be also immortall never dye nor fade away but who seeth not by dayly experience that of the beloved Apostle to be most true The world and the lust 1 Ioh. 2. 17. thereof passeth away If then that be true as it is most true that that cannot be true happines the eternity whereof is not certeine then assuredly that cannot be the matter and object of true happinesse whose instability and dayly mutability is most certeine Salomon having had a full taste even to satiety of all the glorious delicacyes of the world cries out with a most humble note and loud crie O the vanity of vanityes and all things vanity O the vanity of vanityes Vanity then and most vaine should the last end of man then be if placed in such vanities of honours riches or pleasures Fifthly the last end naturall of man is that Fifth reason whereunto by God as Author of nature he is ordeined the last end supernaturall is that whereunto God as the Author of Grace hath designed and ordeined him But cleare it is and it needs no proofe that all the good terrene things of the world cannot be the end supernaturall for which man was made and as easily it is shewed that they cannot be the end naturall of man for as it hath beene already prooved they let and hinder man from the atcheiving of his supernaturall ends But as Grace hurts not but perfects nature so nature as nature though as vitiated it hinders hinders not Grace but being elevated and renewed by Grace is by Grace made able to be concurrent with Grace O with how few things is nature ordinate content Socrates the wise and temperate observing the superfluity of humane cares cries out O how many things are there which I do not want Againe do we not see that honours riches especially pleasures are very frequently attendant upon those in whom nature is rather destroyed and corrupted than in part impaired or diminished Of such manner of men the Apostle Iude very fiâ—ly That in those things which they naturally know Iud. epist v. 10 not as man but as brute beasts in them they are corrupted It is true that as God often favours the famous in giving them wealth so sinn for most part infatuates where God giveth wealth so that the wealthy as they often glory inordinately in honour so they surfet immoderately in Pleasures And where are the persons that do not so Let the Iovinianists of latter times be an example for all And who observes not that this tendes not to the perfection but to the corruption of nature Sixtly the last end of man must bee immediatly Sixth reason attained possessed injoyed by the best and cheefest actions which are in man to weet the actions of the cheefest powers and faculties of the soule the will and understanding But riches pleasures honour fame glory are immediately apprehended felt and injoyed by the outward senses of man and do only appertaine to the soule by the way of approvance or rejectioÌ„ for the good and usefull service of her body and sensuall parts for the soule being spirituall and immateriall cannot have or receive any immediate impressions from things corporall and materiall Which being so and most clearely so how idle were it in these corporall and materiall things to place the last end of man and to make them the object of his happinesse and felicity Seventhly as the
there cannot be a deficiency in the last happinesse by reason of the commitment of any sine by the beatified but what can there be any deficiency or defectibility thereof upon any other head or respect Surely no for then unworthily should it be reputed the last end of those Spirits which shall have no end and of those soules which being immortall shall never dye nor cease to bee True happinesse that cannot be of the aeternity and endlesse durance whereof doubt may be made Austen Austen de Civitat lib. â—2 most excellently What other is our end then to come to that kingdome whereof there is no end Divers do here question whether the last happinesse in part to weet of the glorious love of God and joyous delight in God may cease and fade notwithstanding the cleare vision and sight of God do still continue where in to resolve is smal or no difficulty at al for if the questioÌ„ be whether God out of his absolut power can shew himselfe as he is in himselfe infinitely good c. to any of the beatified yet they not love him nor actualy delight in him I answere that it is morally impossible except in such a case onely that God would not concurre with such his beatified to the act of love and affection of delight and then most cleare it is that in such a case though they follow naturally one upon another yet because they are really distinguished that one may be effected and not the other God concurring with the power intellective for the action of vision but not with the power of the will for the act of love and affection of delight But what a vanity of witts to seeke a knot where none is Cleare it is that the state of the last happinesse of man shal be so perfect and consummate that well may there be some new addition of adventicious and accidentall glory but to thinke that there should be any fading in that happinesse in which as Bernard divinely the Beatified are ever greene and growing in aeternity were an injurious vanity and blasphemous dotage against the glory and honour of the Citty of God SIXTH SECTION Conteines certaine observations touching the glorified bodyes of the beatified and their glorious qualities WHat hath beene said touching the glory of the soules of the beatified comes very short of that which in truth it is For if an admiring soule cannot how shall a speaking tongue be able to expresse the excellent eminencyes of the same But it being so that the beatified Soules want part of their consummation untill their bodies shall be joyntly glorified with them This place requires that wee should adde somewhat touching First observation the glorious conditions and states of their glorified bodies For which purpose I observe first that though at the dissolution of man by death the Soule being separated from the body shee if holy and regenerated be elevated to blisse and glory her body on earth rotting and falling away into dust and corruption yet there remaineth in the Soule a naturall and most intime inclination to have her body by information and naturall conjunction reunited to her againe which inclination St. Austen conceived to be August lib. 12 in Gen. cap. 35. so great that he thought by the meanes thereof the soules beatified to be so letted and hindred that they cannot see and behold God before the resurrection so perfectly as they shall do after the same In which his opinion though with reverence be it written he was mistaken for the cleare vision and fruition of God depends nothing of the body or animall affections thereof yet hereby it is evident that the Soule hath not her full and compleat happinesse untill her yoke-fellow after whom shee so naturally longeth be to her unâ—ted againe I say longeth for the desire after the body is not immoderate nor anxious for shee knoweth that at the time and houre appointed her body shall be reformed in the likenesse Phil. 3. 20. of Christs glorified body and be renuited to her againe which time because God hath so appointed it she dutifully and obediently tarrieth and expecteth knowing assuredly that though it bee long yet that at length coming it will come Secondly I observe that this inclination of the Soule arises from this that the Soules of men are not as the Spirits of Angells are compleate and perfect Substances subsisting by themselves The Soule and body are as naturall parts for the Constituting of the nature of man but they are parts onely of humane nature the Soule one part the body another both concurring to make a perfect subsisting nature of man the Soule and body of both of them parts separable yet herein differing that the Soule whether separated or united is naturallie immortall the body whether separated or united by nature mortall and yet herein agreeing that as being naturall parts if united they make one compleat whole substance so if separated they have an inclination most intime and natural for the making up of the whole to be reunited agayne But to declare this point more clearely The inclination of any thing that is but a part of a whole to be united to that part wherewith it maketh the whole is so naturall that the same inclination cannot be removed unlesse the thing it selfe which is the part bee first destroyed for example the parts of a greene tree being but halfe cleft and pulled asunder doe not with a naturall force more endevour to reunite them selves together then the naturall and essentiall parts of any compleat substance upon any separation doe incline to bee reunited together agayne the reason of which inclination I take to be this that everye thing hath a naturall propension for the conservation of it selfe and his owne being Now cleare it is that the esse and being of a part as a part is for the making of the whole so then a part hath never a more perfect being then when it is in the whole for whose being making constitution naturally it is What marvaile then that every part naturall and essentiall if separated from the whole have an inclination for the making up of the whole to be reunited to her fellowe part agayne and so no merveyle it is that the Soule being an Essentiall and Naturall part together with the body for the making up of the substance of man if she being separated from the body have a naturall inclination to bee reunited to the body agayne that by the meanes of such a union man who by death was dissolved and become no man may by the resuscitation of the body and the reunition of the body to the Soule bee made man agayne Though this point be most cleare both in Divinity and Philosophy yet is it not conceipted by those who make the Soule only to bee the whole man and the body to be no other then the Soules waggon or chariot so that the Soule is no otherwise in the body
then as the mariner is in the shipp or the inhabitant in his dwelling house Of this opinion Porphirie seemed to bee who as Austen writes Austen 12. de Civit. of him affirmed that the Soule if she would bee happie was of necessity to bee separated and freed from the body And likewise of this opinion al those Heritickes of necessity must bee who make and teach a duality of God a good one and a bad one the good God author of Spirits and Soules the bad God author of the bodies and all such habituall corruptions as are in them needes I say must theese latter so teach for if Soules bee not naturall formes of bodies to quicken them give life unto them and with them as comparts to make compleat composed substances of the Persons of men and women then assuredly no naturall inclination or propension can bee in them being separated from the bodies to bee reunited to them agayne no more inclination certeynly then there can be in him who having once tasted of the tyrannie of the Popish Inquisition can desire to returne into it agayne Thirdly I observe the just disposition of God who hath ordeyned a generall resuscitation of bodies at the last day that man accordingly as hee may have done eyther good or evill may receave eyther a glorious reward or an ignominiouse punishment in the bodye Cleare it is that not only the Soule or only the body but men and women composed both of body and soules are those who worke and doe for actions and deedes are of the Persons themselves are those I say who doe eyther good or evill and consequently whole man and woman perfect and compleat Persons must appeare to receave according as they have done in their bodie eyther good or evill Wee must all appeare before the judgement seate of Christ sayth the Apostle that every one may 2. Cor. 5. 10. ceceave according as hee maye have done in his body eyther good or evill Not onely bodies then nor Soules alone but men and women Persons compleate and consummate must appeare I say consummate for such is the Phrase of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrewes where speaking of Heb. 11. 13. the Fathers and Ancients of the old testament who by the testimonie of Fayth were approved sayth thus They receaved not the repromission and promise God providing better for us that without us they should not be consummated so hee speaketh And this cōsummation which is when the bodie being raysed up and shall be joyned to the Soule agayne is that whereof holy Iob speaketh thus Iob. 14. 15. making it the verie worke of the right hand of God himselfe Thou shalt reach out thy right hand to the worke of thy handes or as the Chaldaicke paraphrase hath it Thou shalt be gracious to the worke of thy hands How this but by a powerfull and gracious resuscitation and raysing up of her body from her bed of dust and corruption and reuniting the same agayne unto the Soule whereby it being reunited becomes quickened Iob. 9. 25. 26. with the Spirit of life The hope of this was so deare and preciouse to holy and most venerable Iob that on the dunghill of his miseries with a triumphant kind of joy hee layed up in his bosome the joy full expectation hereof I know sayth he that my redeemer liveth and that at the last day I shall be compassed about with my skinne and that in my flesh I shall see God my Saviour and that myne owne eyes shall behould him and not any other for mee And in this expectation hee dayly dwelt according as he professes in another place All the dayes of this my warfarre I expect and looke untill my chaunge and immutation be come Which Iob. 14. 14. chaunge and immutation is that verie thing which now wee have in consideration to weet the glorious state and condition of the bodies of those who in this their pilgrimage may have walked in true fayth towards their God It is not doubted of amongst Christians but that the same individuall Person is to appeare is or shall bee glorified both in body and soule who in this mortall life hath kept his fayth faythfullie and obediently seruing God not taking or receaving his Soule in vayne and consequently Psal 24. 4. as the Soule is the same individuallye for it never perished so likewise the verie body must bee the same individuallye yea and the substantiall union and conjunction whereby the Soule and body are joyned together must be the same individuallye and in unity of number which though reason conceaves not yet fayth assecures and warrantes And so consequently cleare it is that the immutation and chaunge whereof the Apostle and holy Iob speake is not because there is another Soule or another body or another union of body and Soule for all these three are the same individuallye and numerically but the whole chaunge and immutation is in respect of some glorious properties and qualities which the bodies resuscitated to glorie shall have which they never had whilst they were yet mortall fro as the Soules and Spirits have their speciall glories so likewise shall the bodies have theirs These Foure glorious qualities of the glorified bodies qualities and properties are commonly distinguished to bee fowre to weet Impassibilitie Subtillity Agility Clarity Impassibilitie whereby the body is made uncapable of any contrary passion or violent impression Subtillity whereby the body is made not a Spirit but like unto a Spirit to bee able to penetrate or passe where it could not before Agility whereby it is indewed with such a velocity and Swifenes that the beatified may followe the Lambe whithersoever he goeth Clarity whereby al deformitie or naturall obscurenesse being taken away the body becomes bright shining and resplendent but wee must explicate these things more particularlye and yet with all brevitie possible I beginne with the first Impassibilitye Impassibilitye must needes be graunted as a partiall dowrie to glorified bodies for if they should be passible as before then consequently they should bee corruptible which as it is agaynst the nature of felicity that essentially includes a participated aternity so is it expressely agaynst the Apostles doctrine where he professes that our bodies which are sowne in corruption shall rise up in incorruption But though it be most apparant that glorified bodies shall bee impassible yet is it not so easily to explicate and open from whence this impassibility doth immediately arise or what is the immediate cause thereof The Apostle tells us that what is sowed in weakenesse and infirmity riseth up in power and vertue which vertus or power I take to be the immediate cause of impassibility or else to be impassibility it selfe But what is this vertue and power Is it 1. a supernaturall vertue making the elementary parts and qualities to be of another nature then now they are Not so for nature must not be chaunged or
destroyed but perfected Secondly 2. shall these elementary qualities by Gods hand be limited and stayed in their actions and operations that they shall not worke one against another for their mutuall destruction Not so for then this impassibility should not be an internall vertue as a dowry immanent in the glorified body which is against the Apostles intention but onely an outward assistance of God Againe these elementary parts and qualities Impassibility is internall must have their severall mixtions for the making of diverse and distinct parts corporall which cannot be without a refraction and composition of the elementary qualities themselves one with another Or Thirdly may we thinke that 3. this vertue is a coelestiall kinde of substance or substanciall quality which united with the elementary qualities and substances doth temper and make thereby the bodies which are to be glorified fit receptacles for their glorious soules This though it seeme very probable yet I will rather resolve with Aquinas that this vertue and Supplem q. â—2 art 1. power of Impassibility flowes immediately from the soule herselfe which informing the body doth so perfectly and fully subdue all the powers and qualities of the same unto herselfe that no contrary agent can be able to make any violent impression or action upon or against the body for the corruption destruction of the same or may be able to draw it from that quiet and peaceable state wherein it rests Austen excellently God hath made the Soule of so powerfull a nature August epist 66. ad Diosâ—orum that from her glorious happinesse there redounds to the body the vigour of incorruption Cleare it is that no agent can worke with any violent or contrary impression upon or against any other Agent or subject to hurt or alter the same unlesse the same Agent be more powerfull then the other is on which or against which it worketh which being clearely true likewise cleare it is that no corporall creature which hath in it contrary elementary quallities can be of greater power and force then a glorified body is to worke against or upon the same So long therefore as the glorified Soule shall be subject to God and the glorified body be subject to the Soule so long it shall be impossible for any corporall agent whatsoever to have a transeunt action or impression which may any way alter or hurt the same And this is that immutation and change whereof the Apostle not onely speakes but glories 1 Cor. 15. 51. We shall not all sleepe but wee shall all be changed Where he makes this immutation to be a chaunge from passibility to impassibility and to be peculiar onely to the elect whereof the reprobate shall have no part nor portion at all And yet though we graunt an impassibility to the bodies glorified so that they shall not be subject to any violent or contrary impressions The Beatified shall have all such sensitive actions which include not Corruption yet we may not deny but that there shall be all such sensitive actions and consequently answerable passions which include not corruption of seeing hearing feeling smelling tasting and such like as may be fitting for that place Of sight cleare Iob. 19. 26. it is for Iob professes that his eyes shall behold God his Saviour and most frequent are other testimonies of Scripture for the same Hearing cannot be denyed for as the Saints shall incessantly with vocall praise the Psalmist professing that the exultations Psal 149. 6. of God shall be in their throates magnifie God so no doubt may be made but that their vocall Alleluâ—as shall be mutually heard and understood yea who can doubt but that the beatified shall speake to Christ and Christ to them Goe too Good and faithfull Servants saith Christ all haile Glorious God and Lord sing they Benediction thanksgiving is their glorious note for ever and ever Feeling we may not deny for that includes not any corruption and if agreeing to sense it is a perfection not a defect of nature And that glorified bodies be palpable and may be felt Luc. 24. 39. that of Christ makes it most cleare Feele and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see mee to have Neither of the sense of smelling may any question be made because for the sensation thereof there is no corruptible or corporall immutation necessarily required Touching the sense of taste some difficulty may be made and yet though there be no delicious taste by eating or drinking delicious meates or dainties such as the voluptuous of these times make their God notwithstanding it is not absurd to thinke that the glorified bodyes by Gods ordinance shall have some delicious and pleasant moysture resting upon the place of tast that so by such a meanes that sensible part may have her full rest and content The best reasons for this which I have said touching the perfection of corporall senses I take to be these few first that as the body shall have her perfection and reward because shee was so familiar and individuall a companion of the Soule in the suffering for Reasons why there shall be glorious actions of Sensation in the glorified Christ or her subjection to Christ So likewise the sensitive parts and faculties which have been instruments of the Soule in the exercise of righteousnesse shall also have their appointed reward Againe there can be no sufficient reason brought Rom. 6. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 19. Luk. 10. 27. 2 Cor. 5. 10. against what I have said why it should not be so Againe he that will seriously peruse the 5. and 25. chapters of St. Matthewes Gospell and the 22. of St. Luke where Christ promises and performes Mat. 5. and 25. Luk 22. his glorious rewards to his faithfull followers and where Lazarus is described to have tasted his very felicity a thing which the rich glutton importunely desired will not easily be induced to thinke this which I have here set downe to be untrue or false And so I conclude this point with this observation that if as I have shewed above there be in the Soule glorified an impeccability and indefectibility so that they cannot sin in the body an impassibility not to receive any the least impression of coÌ„trariety and corruption that may be how firme then how stable then yea how everlasting then is that glorious state which hath this participated aeternity aeternally that it cannot perish nor decay Who arightly considers this and longs not to have a speedy dissolution of this terrestriall house of this cotage of dirt and clay that so he may be Iob. 4. 19. present with the Lord and have a house aeternall and 2. Cor. 5. 1. everlasting not made with hands but such a one as the spirit of the Lord shall frame and establish O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of hosts my Soule Psal 84. 2. longeth and my heart fainteth after the Courts
City where shall be no night nor darkenesse saith the Prophet Againe I have beene more large in this to confirme that truth which some most idly as not loving nor desirous to excell in those vertues which must be as measures of distinct degrees of Reve. 21. 17. glory for one and the same is the measure of men and Angells I say as some most idly would call in question to weet that there shall be a true variety and diversitie of glories and glorious Mansions 1 Cor. 15. in that triumphant City Some cleare like Chrystall some bright like Saphire some glittering like Iasper others fresh and greene like Emerald c. Mens Soules shall there differ in glory and their bodyes in Clarity even as the starres in the firmament do differ in Clarity each from other This though it be a most evident truth yet the wanton wills of many who have placed al sanctity in conceit apprehension perswasion I might say presumption will not admit of the same charme the Charmer never so wisely But let the pious read seriously the 20. of this prophesie Reve. 20. 12. and he shall finde that the very Iudgements of God touching great and small great and smal shal be according to what is written in the bookes And that the levell measure and square is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their workes that is faith love patience zeale truth c. So just is God that he is to all those that seeke after him in a holy feare a faithfull rerewarder Heb. 11. 6. giving to every man according as he may have done Againe thirdly I have beene herein the more large to shew the surpassing felicity of that place where the whole bodyes of the Saints and every part of them yea those parts that are now esteemed basest and vilest shall shine and glitter like most precious Margarites and Pearles they shall not onely then appeare without blemish and free from all deformity cleare from corruption without all difficulty but they shall be filled within and compassed about without with Clarity they shall be indowed and invested all over with Spiritualty they shall be quickned and enlived with Agility they shall be replenished and possessed 1 Cor. 15. 43. 44. with Impassibility for that which was sowne in corruption shal rise in incorruption that which was sowne in dishonour shall be raised in glory that which was sowne in weakenesse rising againe in power that which was sowne a naturall body rising againe a spirituall body Seneca perhaps had some obscure knowledge hereof when as he writes thus of the state of the Godly after this life ended These things saith he speaking of the joyes of this life cease but they perish not yea Seneca epist 36. death which we feare and shunne changeth but taketh not away life the day will come which will place us in rest and light Thus he like a Christian though not so fully nor so clearely as that renowned Father St. Austen most sweetly and divinely There shall be life without death Youth Angust in Soloqui without ould age beawty without deformity strength without debility joy without dolour rest without labour such an aeternall refection shall be to the glorified bodyes thus he Surely the splendour and glory of the body is so great that passes all explication it goes beyond all apprehension and accordingly not onely in respect of the happinesse of the soule but also in respect of the glory of the body we may well take up that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 2 Cor. 4. 17. 4. 17. That the momentany and short tribulations of this life doe worke in us and for us a weight of aeternall glory O that the wantons of these dayes so full of vanity and presumption who thinke themselves nobly adorned by their Pearles Diamonds and other costly ornaments would seriously thinke of the glorious and resplendaÌ„t Clarity of the bodyes of Saints glorified how would they despise all those vanities in comparison where on now they set their fancyes If we call to minde how St. Peters soule was gladded and ravished with the only beholding of Christs glorified body upon Mat. 17. 2. Mark 9. 3. mount Thabor though his body at that time received no part thereof we cannot otherwise thinke but that the joy of the beatified shall be exceedingly and surpassingly great when they shall not onely behold the glorified body of Christ and see his glory but withall shall see their owne bodyes and soules participants of the same Phil. 3. 20. brightnesse and glory So So shall God heale the infirmities of his Saints crowning them in mercyes Psal 103. 3. 4. and miserations So so shall the faithfull be delivered from the servitude of Corruption into the liberty Rom. 8. 21. of such glory as beseemes the Sonnes of God So so shall all those who instruct others to Godly Dan. 12. 3. life shine as starres in the firmament for all aeternities O that our soules might be truely enamoured with the love and desire of this Celestiall place and state O how would we despise all transitory flashes and sparkes of earthly pleasures if we could but seriously thinke of those joyes and Psal 16. 10. pleasures which are layed up in Gods right hand for his Saints for evermore Iacob served seven yeares twice told to obteine his beautifull Rachell and the dayes though so many seemed to him but as few in respect of the greatnesse of his love O that the love of our soules were in like sort great after the Celestiall Rachell so comely in state and glory then should we think all the labours but light all the tarriance but short all the dayes but as moments wherein and wherewith our heauenly Laban shall exercise us in these dayes of our Pilgrimage and mortality O thou gracious God Father of lights Illustrate our understandings O thou God fountaine of life refresh our memories O thou God burning fire of love enflame our wills and sanctifie our affections O thou God our cheefest last and only good the God of our hearts and our portioÌ„for ever be thou to us all in all things O thou that hast made us for thy selfe thou hast framed us according to thy owne Image we know none we acknowledge Gen. 1. 27. none nor desire any other end of our selves to make us happy but thy selfe O do vouchsafe to conduct us safe and to bring us sure to the heaven of thy happinesse to the haven of our eternall felicity teach us thy paths wherein we shall walke guide us with thy Counsell and receive us into thy glory To thee we confesse in all humble longing desires of our soules Truely O Lord August â—n Soâ—â—q about the end thou art great aboue all Gods and great is thy reward for thou art not great and thy reward litle but as thou art great so also is thy reward great for thou art not one thing and thy reward another but thou
draw men to so servile a bondage of sinne to place happinesse in that which inevitably leadeth to death and destruction unlesse he had first deprived him of the light of his mind I said above that the last end in some is truely directly and deliberatly intended to shew the very manner how the true servants of God doe preset and prefixe vnto themselves God and his glory for the last totall and compleat end of themselves and all their actions that whether they eate or drinke or what else soever 1 Cor. 10. 32. they do in word or worke they do all to the glory of God alwayes and in al things giuing thaÌ„ks to God Col. 3. 17. and the Father by Iesus Christ But I must not on to fast and involue this truth with obscurity I repeate againe these words Truly directly and deliberatly Sap. 7. 5. Truly for that into feined soules and deceitfull minds wisdome will not enter but onely unto such as thinke of God in goodnesse and in the sincerity of their heart do seeke him Directly to shew that the Archer aimeth not more directly at the white in the shooting than the servant of God doth looke on God in working To him his soule walketh on him his soule wayteth after him his soule thirsteth Psal â—3 â— â— yea to him both soule and flesh is manifestly fastned and fixed I say deliberately to shew that the soule not onely upon a first motion and as it were by an impetuosity of sanctified nature is bent and inclined to God but that vpon cleare consideration he doth most fervently pursue and intend after God only God That of the Schooles is most true The causality of the end is the reason of all because the first that mooveth and the moover of all other causes So in God so in all intelligent creatures the end prefixed mooves all which end in God though without himselfe he ordeined one thing for another Grace for Glory damnation for sinne only sinne is no other than himselfe his owne glory mooving himselfe to doe all things for the same In like sort the end is that which first mooveth in all intelligent creatures how then can it be but that the end is truly directly deliberatly intended whenas for the attaining of it all other things are intended it being the good one that guids and directs all Againe say the Schooles and truly The end is pursued without measure but those things which are for the end according as the further and conduce unto the end how then shall not the last end be pursued directly and deliberatly yea with a Mat. 22. 33. sweet kind of impetuossity and violence of Grace with the whole heart all the soule with the whole mind and with all the strength of him who arightly apprehends the end This David feelingly professes Psal 42. 1. wheÌ„ as he thus breathes out Even as the Hart panteth after the fountaines of waters so my soule thirsteth and longeth after thee O my God Herehence it is that in so much every thing is the more perfect in how much it is more efficaciously ordered and directed to the end and that as in naturall motions the neerer the end the swifter the motions are so in motions of grace and supernall the neerer to God the swifter and the more sweetly violent and efficacious the motions are So so the soule which living only desireth God delighted Psal 73. 25. on God dying and parting from the body longeth and panteth only after God nothing but God Yet againe saith the Schooles and truly That all things which as meanes are for and conduce to the end are not intended nor prosecuted but out of a deliberate and full intention of the end So then in man there can be no deliberate actions but such as are intended either for the true and happy end of all God or else for such imagined and supposed ends which the corruption of man presets vnto himselfe Austen excellently That is the end of all our good for which all other things are loved and it for it selfe Thus have wee shewed though breefely yet sufficiently that man every man hath not only in all his severall and particular actions some speciall privat ends but further also that man every man hath some compleate and finall end both of himselfe and of all his actions But what is the last end of man THE SECOND SECTION Wherein is ioyntly shewed by sundry arguments and cleare demonstrations that the obiect of humane felicity or last end of man cannot be riches pleasures nor honours taken severally or ioyntly THough common experience excludes from being the object of humane felicity or last end of man that three headed monster concupiscence 1 Ioh. 2. 16. of the flesh lust of the eyes and pride of life joyntly or severally taken wherein the Apostle confines all that is excellent delightfull or profitable in the world yet by way of prelude to our following discourse I have thought good to adde a few morall reasons and demonstrations eight in a perfect number that these three which are formally or reductively all that is excellent pleasant or proffitable in the world whether taken vnitedly together or apart are not the last end of man or the obiect of his felicity for which 1 Reason purpose I argue thus first The object of mans felicity or last end of man must in respect of that which is cheefe in man to weet the soule of man be so perfect that it must give full content The last end of man must give full content to man and rest thereunto that is to man as man But out alasse who ever whose soule hath beene endowed with least sparke of wisdome hath found full content in riches honour or pleasures against which Salomon the wisest amongst all the wise exclaimes O the vanity of vanities and all vanity Ecl. 1. Yea so contrary is the operation of these to the wisdome of the soule that to surfet with these is to piâ—e in reason to languish in piety and Eph. 4. 18. with deepest ignorance to have the soule obscured and darkned And surely by these * Occasionaly the God of this world doth blind the hearts of such as doe perish And in this respect is Saâ—han called God 2 Cor. 4. 4. of this world bâ—cause by these three as it were the life and marrow of the world pride riches pleasures glory c. He hath abusively rule and reigneth over the children of misbeleefe and disohedience Secondly the last end or felicity of man must Second reason be so good that no man may use the same ill but these both joyntly and severally taken are such as by the possessiones of them may be used so ill that for the abusing of them they may with the reprobate glutton perish eternally yea they are so Luk. 16. 15. fit and apt to be ill used that they carry with them a crosse barre of
cheefest actions of the soule Seventh reason must be the immediate apprehension possession and fruition of those things which must be the The last end of man must bee the cheefest good that man can attaine vnto last end of man so the cheefest good and best thing which the soule can attaine unto by knowledge can embrace by love can injoy by delight must be his last end and the object of his happinesse felicity Now to thinke of any other thing for this purpose besides God were the greatest dotage that might be imagined For not speaking onely of things sublunary but even the celestiall Gen. 1. 17. themselves what are they all but either images as men and Angells or footings or shadowes of Psa 19. the creator himselfe as all other creatures are And what a vanity were it to thinke that the Image of the Creator should have for the object of her happinesse and last end those things which are onely as footings or darke foote impressions of the Creator Or how vaine to thinke that those things which are made for the use and service of man as all terrene things were should be the end of man Sweetly was this understood by most Intelligent David who ballancing all things that were in the heavens above or on the earth belowe cries out What is there for me in heaven Psal 73. And besides thee what would I upon earth the Gen. 2. 9. Psa 23. 25. 26 God of my heart and portion for ever As if he should have said O thou my God thou thou that A most divine elevation of Davids spirit art my ever and last end the very joy and happinesse of my hart how glorious thou in the heavens above and what happinesse is there provided for me in thee above how then may I or can I take full content or delight in any thing that is here below Basill elegantly compares them that fixe their hearts upon any earthly good thing whatsoever appretiating them before God to him who hearing some exquisite and most divine Doctor preaching or teaching out of a chaire standing in the Sunne should neglecting both the Teacher his words and gestures attend and observe only the shadow of the teacher and such severall motions or gestures as are represented thereby So he very excellently accounting all the best and good creatures of God being compared to God to be no more nor better indeed they are not somuch than the shadow of the teacher and his gestures represented therein are being compared to the Teacher himselfe and unto his actions of life Eightly and lastly as the understanding of Eight reason man is by nature apt and hath an apprehensive power to apprehend all that is cognoscible or may God onely can be the full obiect of mans knowledge and love be knowne or vnderstood vnder the condition of truth so the will of man whose proper object is good as by nature it embraceth nothing but what is good or under the apparance of good so it hath a propension and inclination to pursue all good either to be attained dispersedly in severall creatures or in some one fountaine and roote of all goodnesse which inclinations both of the will and understanding unlesse they be fully satisfied and quieted by that cheefest good and purest truth which is and are the last end and object of their happinesse they shall never be found truly to have attained their last end and finall happinesse But if we consider the most glorious of Gods creatures in no one no in no one million of them can be found all that may be understood by the understanding or be desired and embraced by the will and consequently no one of them nor no infinite multitude of them together can be the full object of mans last end and happinesse no God God alone is this purest truth and cheefest good the full and compleate object both of the wills and understandings of all his Intelligent creatures who being presented to the beautified Soules enabled with the light of glory to see him as he is in himselfe even face to face how unenarrable unspeakeable and incomprehensible is the joy of such Soules so intuitively beholding so joyously possessing of their God and most sweetly delighting in their God Of this Ambrose sweetly What good better then this good What felicity greater then this to live to God in God and to live of God Bernard like himselfe divinely Barnard seâ—m 31 in Cantiâ—a To whom God appeareth they will see nothing more desiredly nor can see nothing more delightfully when then will either desire of seeing lothe or sweetnesse withdraw herselfe or truth deceive or aeternity faâ—le to whom opportunity of seeing and a will to see is graunted for ever and ever how then shall their felicity not be full for nothing is either wanting to them that alwayes see or is tedious to them who have a desire alwayes to see but this vision is not of this present life but is reserved for the last end of man THIRD SECTION Shewing that God onely is the last end of man and his finall happinesse VVHen I thinke of that precept of God knowne by the lawe of nature directed by the law of Moyses renewed in the law of grace Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Deut. 6. 5. with all thy soule with all thy strength and with all thy mind I cannot but make a speedy resolution Mat. 22. 37. who and what is the last end of mans heart his soule his strength and his mind for if God be to be beloved with the whole heart soule minde and strength of man it were a vanity and a dotage to â—â—â—ke any other last end for man then God Nay love as saith Austen very excellently Is my weight and poyse with it and by it I am carried whither to soever I am carried A totall and compleat love then of the whole heart Soule and minde of man and all that is in man cannot other whither carry him or leade him then to that which is the very center of his rest and happinesse Thou fast made us O Lord for thee and unquiet is our heart till it come to thee and Boetius very fitly We must of necessity confesse that God is the very blessednesse of man But when we affirme that God is the last end of man and his finall happinesse we must for the clearer understanding of the same distinguish thus the last end of man and his happinesse may be A necessary distinction considered in two sorts either the last end which or the last end wherewith or thus in other termes the objective beatitude of man or the formall beatitude of man I explaine my selfe The end which is that which is the very thing where in the soule of man doth finally rest and eternally joy it selfe the end wherewith are the cheifest action or actions operation or operations of the soule
wherewith the end attained is injoyed and possessed In like sort the objective beatitude is the very object whereon these cheife actions are exercised which the Soule seeing and enjoying is thereby made happy Beatitude formall is the very seeing enjoying and possessing of this object We may take some familiar examples hereof To the avaritious Person who should indeed have only God for his lott and portion his end which is his Mony and whatsoever else is for Money estimable his end wherewith is his base whoording up increasing and possession of the same The Intemperate mans end which is every voluptuous thing he takes pleasure in his end wherewith is his solace pleasure and delight which he takes therein even so the last end of man wherewith is the adeption and fruition of God the end which is God himselfe so injoyed and possessed It is true that God who is his owne end essentially God happy by himselfe both objective and formall is not happy by any any thing that is without himselfe or that is dependently of himselfe but as he is essentially his owne existence and being so is hee essentially his owne happy being Austen excellently what soever is in God is God there is no accidentall compaction or composition So then God being happy in himselfe and by himselfe himselfe is both the object of his happinesse and his owne formall happinesse But creatures intelligent to weet men and Angells having not an infinite and essentiall happinesse but a happinesse only by participation can have the same by no other meanes nor wayes then by some limited operations and actions of their intellectuall parts understanding and will which actions and operations must needs have some happy and singular object wherein and whereon they are conversant and exercised which object also must or can fully satiate content and glad the soule which that it is God the one onely cheefe and infinite good of the soule is so cleare and evident that it were dotage to stand long in the proofe of the same And though it be most cleare that God onely God is this last object which onely must and can give happinesse Rom. 1. 11. unto the Soule yet so obscured are the hearts of some foolish men that though they cannot say in their hearts there is no God yet they say that God is not the last end of their soules nor the object of their happinesse But O that they would consider and seriously ponder in their soules oh how easily should they finde in God all reasons that might moove them to take him and to embrace him only for their last end and the totall object of their happinesse Where there is an infinite pyle of wood kindled it cannot bee but the fier kindled may burne for an infinite time and without end how then shall not the soule infinitely and for ever In God is all that is to bee beloved burne with love and joy it selfe with delight which hath God in whom there is an infinite abysse of goodnesse power Majesty beawty for her present and happy object O thou soule Whosoevers thou art and wheresoever thou art O that thou wouldest seriously consider this thy last and best good the very place and center of thy sefe consider seriously whether there can be any perfect happy place of rest for thy selfe besides Gen. 1. 27. God Art not thou made to the Image and likenesse of God Then thy essentiall and totall dependency is from God then thy totall inclination and propension ought onely to be to God Inquire into thy soule and aske whose Image it is whose inscription is ingraved therein And thou shalt finde that it is only God it is onely he that hath marked thee and signed thee for himselfe yea immediately for himselfe O the honours of intelligent creatures by their institution to have God only God for their last and immediate end wherewith they must be eternally conversant and to have him for the full and compleate object of their happinesse in the contemplation of whose beauty they must be eternally exercised O the best of all best parts for by participation it is the Mat. 25. 27. Luk. 10. 42. Psa 73 26 very joy of the Lord himselfe O choose this thou my soule it shall never be taken from thee the God of my heart and portion forever O that my very flesh and soule would exult and rejoyce after this living God for ever O the sweetest water springs my soule thirst thou after them for ever It is said of those that love God sincerely and make him the object of their hearts in this life 1 Ioh. 4. 7. that they abide in God and God in them holily and graciously O how joyous holy and gracious then in that glorious estate shall our abiding in God and his abiding in us bee to our soules for the dayes of his owne aeternity in himselfe and our Coaeternity with himselfe But in this last end of man and object of his happinesse we are to consider that which is observable in every object to weet in what formality or formall respect God is found to be the object of mans happinesse and felicity whether in the formality of goodnesse To what formall respect God is the obiect of mans happinesse as he is infinitely good or in the formality of power as he is omnipotent or of knowledge as he is omniscious or of wisdome as he infinitely wise or of truth as he is infinitely cognoscible and intelligible or justice as he is infinitely just faithfull in his promises and upright in his judgements mercifull in his rewards or in the formality of any other of his attributes vnity simplicity verity c. Wherein the observation and question being novell and new I had farre rather heare a master then be a teacher my selfe Sure I am that the beautified and happy see God in his owne very 1 Ioh. 3 2. presence face to face for so the beloved Disciple who sucked this truth from the brest of truth hath himselfe pronounced wee shall see him saith hee as hee is not obscurely as Timeus and Simonides Plato in dialog Philosophers who both being required to speake what God was the first answers onely by negation shewing what God was not but not what he was the other the more he considers God seene by the beatified as he is in him selfe God the longer time he requires to answer the King what God was but wee shall see him with eyes intuitive as he is in himselfe A most pure and perfect Act all existence and being all essence and nature and essentiall existence and Act most pure without all manner of potentiallity and imperfection And because whatsoever is in God is God it cannot bee but that hee who seeth God must needs see all that is in God his power justice wisdome bonity purity verity which seeing hee seeth them all to be the very deity and Godhead it selfe wherewith he is
soule hath a most absolute dominion over them and doth by a redundancy and emanation impart unto them a glorious quickning and vivacity or livelines farre beyond that which any mortall creature in their bodily heavy parts can have And this either by the meanes of a greater perfection of glorified Soules or by the meanes of more perfect instruments for motion then those which corruptible bodies usually have This Agility or Facility for motion although it make the bodies glorified very tractable to the soules for motion so that we may in a sort say with St. Austen Whereto soever the will shal intend August lib 22. de Civit. cap. altimo there presently the body as it were in a momēt shall or may be yet we may not graunt unto the said bodies any instant tanean motion so that in an imagined instant of time I say imagined instant for time hath no true or reall instant either as part or period and end of it selfe they may make any true reall corporall motion or mooving Howsoever diverse Schoolemen may to the contrary have dreamed For doth it not imply in termes and involve contradiction that that motion which is a successiue passing over or in space from place to place as all corporall motion and moving is should be and not in some durance and continuance of time according to the greater or lesse velocity and swiftnesse thereof And yet notwithstanding the corporall motion of glorified bodies may be very sodaine and in as it were imperceptible moments of time like as the Sunne beames the which as it were in a moment because in an unperceivable moment of time doe fill this whole hemisphere with their glorious Aug. epist 44. Sap. 3. 7. Lustre Austen affirmes it and I dare not deny it And so I interpret those words of the booke of Wisdome if they are to be understood of the glorified The righteous shall shine and as Ioh. 20. and 21. Luk 24. sparks among the stubble they shall runne too and fro Whereby I take it their agility and facility for motion is figured And if we arightly consider what is recorded in sacred Scriptures touching the sundry soudayne corporall apparitions and disapearings of our Saviour after his resurrection and how that the bodyes of the beatified shall be made conformable to the Clarity and so answerably Phil. 3. 20. to other glorious qualities of his glorified body there will no just reason be shewed for denying such a glorious agility either to the body of Christ or to the glorified bodyes of his Saints And although we give to the glorified bodyes of Christ and his Saints such a glorious nimblenesse and Agility yet if we observe the phrases of sacred Scriptures we shall finde that the glorified in that glorious state of happinesse are seldome recorded to have used such extraordinary agility and nimblenesse of motion We reade that they shall follow the Lambe whithersoever he Reve. 14. 4. goeth which following is interpreted even by the Lambe himselfe to be a walking which must be so decent and grave as becomes that glorious state For thus he professeth hereof They shall Reve. 3. 4. walke with me in whites for they are worthy Now this walking must be such as beseemes the glorious Majesty of Christ and the honour of his Saints Glorious Grave Divine Magnificent Aud surely it were no lesse then folly once to dreame that the glorified shall have any games or sports in coursing and running up and downe No no such vanities which earthly minds do over highly prise do not beseeme their states of glory and Majesty And yet though we deny them to have any unseemely runnings or dancings we may not affirme them to be so penned up as though they had no glorious restings perambulations and walkings They have doubtlesse their sittings on seates of Iudgement They have their religious and Reverentiall standings up bowing downe prostrations and Ephe. 2. 5. Revelat. 3. 2. Luk. 22. 30. Mat. 19 28. Revelat. 4. 4. 10. and 7. 9. the casting downe of their Crownes before the state of Majestye How then can we deny unto them seemely divine motions And notwithstanding whitherto soever their motions leade them they have the glorious presence of God with them for God by the vertue and immensity of his all-presence being in all his Creatures the glorified Mat. 18. 10. weresover they be they alwayes see his face not onely above in the heavens but even in the lowest bowells of the earth if any occasion of service should require their presence there And can wee otherwise dreame but that those glorious Angells who did minister to Christ in the Mat. 4. 12. wildernesse did there for by definitive presence the substances and natures were in the wildernes not in heaven did there I say behold the glorious Majesty of the Father And surely that which Gregory affirmes of the Angells truely That they Greg. hom 34. in Ezekiel runne as it were within God and in God whitherto soever they are sent may also be truely affirmed of the glorified Saints wheretosoever they roule and wheresoever they abide they abide in God and roulle in God It was truely said by the Poet and afterwards confirmed by the Apostle that in God we live we moove and have our being as certainly Act. 17. 28. it may be said of the beatified that they live moove are and have their glorious being in him live of him by partaking of his glorious life move before him by most prompt and ready obedience alwayes doing his will are in him by a glorious inpresence of God in them and they in God being entered Mat. 25. 23. into his owne glory Againe in him with him and before him with him never to be separated from him in him diving into and swimming in the infinite ocean of his joy before him alwayes beholding and delighting to behold the glory of his Majesty and the Majesty of his glory So likewise God in them with them and before them In them by the glorious bright and light of his countenance illustrating them within with them ever supporting them with the left hand of his protection and filling them with the joyes and pleasures of his right hand of consolation before Psal 16. them for all aternityes by their glorious vision and fruition of him himselfe to satiate them but never to sade or cloy them ever desirous to see and delighting to see O how amourously in longing desire after these things cryed out that sweet singell of Israell Glorious things are spoken of thee O Psal 87. 2. City of God! O thou City of God so glorious are the things which are in thee that no tongue can with sufficiency speake the least part of them and no marvell for what tongue can speake them which Isa 64. 4. 1 Cor. 2. 9. eye hath not seene eare hath not heard neither the heart of man hath conceived neither can conceive in this
state of mortality what God hath prepared for those that love him Clarity THat which the Apostle calls glory speaking 1 Cor. 15. 43. thus The body is sowen in ignoblenes it riseth againe in glory is generally by Divines termed and called Clarity and this nothing at all from the Apostles sense for in the place alleaged he teaching that at the Generall resurrection the Glories of the bodies glorified shal be different and diverse one exceeding the other hee useth this declaration 1 Cor. 15. 45. for the same Like as onestarre differeth from another in Clarity the brightnesse of the starres being more properly called Clarity then glory so shall the resurrection of the dead bee Now what manner of Clarity this shall bee it is not difficult to expesse if wee call to mynd what manner of Clarity and Glory that was wherwith the body of Christ was adorned at the time of his Mat. 17. 2. Transfiguration when his face did shyne as the sun and his rayment was white as the light S. Mark addes that his rayment became shyning exceeding whyte as the snow so as no fuller on the earth can whyten them Mark 9. 3. But cleare it is that our vile and humble bodyes at the daye of the Resurrection shall bee transformed and by a glorious immutation bee made like to the resplendant and bright shinning body of Christ so sayth Paule in his Epistle to the Philippians Phil. 3. 20. And Christ promiseth in the Gospell That the Righteous shall shyne like the Sun in the kingdome of their Father Loe Christs face on earth did shine Mat. 13. 43. and now in heaven doth shyne like the Sun and to the Righteous it is promised that though now they are as the very of scumme of the world yet their faces shall shyne like the Sun in the kingdome of their Father But here note that though it bee sayd that Christs body the Saynts bodies shall shyne like one and the same thing never the lesse this must not bee taken in full equality of Clarity brightnes Chrysost in Mat. Chrysostome excellently But if the face of the Lord did shyne as the Sun and the Saynts shall shyne as the Sun shall then the Lords Clarity and his servants bee equall Not so but because nothing is found to bee more bright then the Sun therefore to give an example of the future resurrection both the face of our Lord is sayed to shyne and the righteous also are sayd to shyne as the Sun Whereby wee cannot but observe how exceeding bright and resplendant the Clarity of our glorified bodies shall bee for if they shall shyne as the Sun and the Sun shall Isa 30. 26. Chrysost in Mat. shyne at the day of Iudgement seventimes brighter then now it doth then may wee boldly with Chrysostome say though there shall bee no chaunge in nature yet there shall be the addition or putting to of an unenarrable Clarity and brightnes Which brightnes and Clarity we may not only conceave that it shall bee a transeunt Light upon the superficies and out syde of the body like as the Suns beames without any immutation internall doe spread themselves upon a wall No no there shall bee a true internall immutation by a glorious Clarity and brightnes which shall make the glorified bodies not only bright and cleare without but also fulgent and shyning within and thoroughout So that the glory of the Soule may thorough the body is it were by a glasse in such a manner bee seene and beheld in such sort as a spirituall glory may bee beheld and seene somewhat in like sort as the Coulour of the body may be seene in a glasse or rather as the life of the soule is seene and observed in and by the vivacity and Livelines which it imparts by action and motion to the outward visible parts of the body And if I misconceane not in respect of this glorious translucency and transparency the brightnes and Clarity of the celestiall Hierusalem is in the Revelation of S. Iohn thus in like sort described And hee caryed mee away in the spirit into an high Reve. 21. 10. 11. and great mountayne and shewed mee the great City holy Hierusalem which I interpret the Glorious state of the Saints Triumphant descending out of heaven from God having the glory of God And her light was like unto a stone most precious even like a Iasperstone as cleare as Chrystall And agayne in v. 18. 19. 20. c. the 18. and other verses following And the building of the wall of it was of Iasper and the City was pure gould like unto cleare glasse and the foundations of the wall of the City were garnished with all manner of precious stones The first foundation was Iasper the second Saphire the third a Chalcedonye the fourth an Emerauld the fifth a Sardonix the sixth a Sardius the seventh a Chrysolite the eighth a Berill the ninth a Topaz the tenth a Chrysoprasse the eleventh a Hiacinth the twelfth an Amethist And the twelve gates were twelve pearles every severall gate one pearle And the streete of the City was pure gould as it were transparent glasse Thus farre the Prophet giving almost in every word a touche and description of some one or other Clarity and brightnes of that Triumphant City O let us pondering and ballancing these things in the scales of our Soules say unto them Arise ye up and be illightened for the Light of the Lord is comming and the glory of God shall appeare both over us and in us if we find truely to feare him sincerely to love him and faithfully to expect his comming Amen I have here set downe more at large the words of the Prophet that the Godly reader may well observe these things first what I have sayd to be most true touching the glorious translucency and splendour of the glorified bodyes described to be like Iasper or Crystal or Saphire or Chalcedon or some other precious pearles or Margarites the excellency and surpassing brightnesse whereof especially of Christ conformable whereunto the glorified Phil. 3. 20. bodyes of the Saints shall be made I gather out of the 23. verse of this said chapter wherein the Prophet having described that the glorious City needeth neither light of the Sunne nor of the Moone and Reve. 21. 23. gives a reason thereof for that the Clarity and brightnesse of God shall illighten the same he adds in the same verse that the Candell thereof was the Lambe Glorious brightnesse of Christs body distusing it selfe Who hath ever observed a candel lighted at noon dayes and bright to have given any light No no the brightnesse of the Sunne obscures the same be the candell never so great And yet the Lambs clarity and brightnesse that is the brightnesse of Christ as man shall through and by his glorified body be so shining resplendant that it shall be as a bright shining Sunne in that Triumphant
is that the beatified cannot sinne for beatified they cannot be unlesse they be first purified from all sinne how then being beatified may they committ sinne The truth of this point of the impeccability of the beatified Soules and Spirits I declare thus The beatified and happy by How the beatified be come impeceable the cleare vision of God are so determined and inclined with a glorious necessity to love him that as they cannot but love him as their last end and cheefest good so they cannot but referre all other actions and affections whatsoever else they may there have to the glory of him as to their last end how then is it possible that they should transgresse or swarve from God and so sinne Surely they cannot and this impeccability they have not by any extraordinary grace graunted unto them For that purpose for their very estate and condition of seeing God with so cleare a vision of loving him with so unmooveable a love of delighting in him with so unspeakeable a joy requires that they should not have any left a possibility to swarve from him And in truth to stand within the principles of the light of nature the Rules of divinity and Philosophy it is more possible and probable that a heavy milstone should naturally moove and ascend upwards from the Center of the earth unto which or neere unto which it hath a naturall inclination by the whole force of his nature then that the beatified Soules and Spirits should swarve and cease from their love of God and delight in God whom they so clearely and presentially see and behold as their last end the marke of their desires the totall object of their happinesse their onely and cheefest good And so we may observe how idle that reason is wherewith some endeavour to proove that the beatified Soules and Spirits are peccable because forsooth the nature of their wills which intrinsecally requires that they should be free and at liberty is not chaunged nor altered True the liberty of their wills is not perverted nor destroyed but they The will of men beatified hath no liberty about her last end are so perfected in the highest degree of their perfection unto which they can possibly attaine And here I cannot passe to note as a point of ignorance for any one to thinke that the will hath or can have a liberty of freedome to love See Aquinas 1. q. 81. et 1. 2. or not to love to embrace or not to embrace her last end her cheefest and onely good the object of her happinesse so clearely and presentially proposed unto her and as such embraced by her The jester in the play could tell what end man desired yea what end man necessarily desired yea could not but desire to weet to be happy and yet these can finde or presume to finde how the beatified Soules and Spirits can in their very state of happinesse have a liberty or indisserency to love or not to love to embrace or not to embrace the infinite Godnesse of God and their last happinesse which with such unspeakeable joy peace and rest they hould and possesse in their bedds of that celestiall paradise And of August in psal â—6 the purity and necessity whereof Austen most divinely thus What shall be the delights of Saints they shall be delighted in a multitude of peace Let the wicked here rejoyce in multitude of gold store of silver abundance of servants excesse of riotous and luxurious feasts but thou O thou Lover of God what shall thy delights be Thou shalt be delighted in multitude of peace and rest thy gold peace thy silver peace thy possession peace Thy life peace thy God peace yea whatsoever thou canst desire shall be to thy peace and peace to thee here that which is gold to thee cannot be silver that which is wine cannot be bread that which is light cannot be to thee as food and drinke but there thy God shall bee to thee all in all thou shalt eate him that thou hunger not thou shalt drinke him least thou thirst thou shalt be lightened of him that thou be not blinde thou shalt be held up by him that thou fall not from him he whole and entire shall possesse thee wholy and intirely want there with him thou shalt not suffer any with whom thou shalt possesse all Thou shalt have all of him and hee all of thee because hee and thou shalt be but one which one and all he shall have who shall possesse and hold his Saints in rest and peace Thus that Father most aptly and sweetely shewing God to be so possessed of the beatified and the beatified so to possesse God that they cannot desire ought else no not have so much as a velleity or weake desire to delight or rest in ought else then in God the God of their hearts Psa 73. desire and their portion for ever Where then is that idle conceipt of those who affirme that although the blessed cannot see any thing in God that may moove them or incline them to sinne yet in respect of other I cannot tell what particuler actions wherein God may imploy them they may have some either inconsideration or ignorance and so consequently may in the doing of the same sinne and transgresse and so to them even to them being happy that of the Poet may be applyed It is the part of a foole to say I had not thought of it I did not consider it arightly O the presumption of witts to thinke that those blessed Spirits can have any such ignorance or inconsideration as not to do the will of God clearely proposed unto them how shall not they know the will of him whose face they so clearely see and Mat. 18. 20. behold how should not they doe his will who delight in nothing more then in the performance of his will The Church by Christs owne commaund prayes thus to God Thy will be done in earth as Mat. â— 10. it is in heaven Whereby shee professes that in the heavens above there is most perfect obedience yeelded by the beatified unto God because nothing can be there done or admitted against his will either out of intended wilfullnesse or pretended negligence Mat. 18. 10. Those blessed Spirits that ever behold the face of God that is in heaven cannot have the least veleity Baruch 3. 39. orinclination not to doe the will of their God which is in heaven Those glorious starres no sooner heare the call of their God but they answere we are ready doth not David give unto them as a peculiar of their honnour and happinesse that they Psa 103. 21. ever doe the will of the Lord Prayse the Lord all yee his hosts yee his servants that doe his pleasure prayse the Lord. And so I conclude this point affirming that the beatified Soules and spirits are unpeccable being by contemplation made immutable and by an euerlasting love made undefectible I have sufficiently shewed that