the universe must fall into a dreadful ruin So that if it had pleased God in his just severity to have forsaken man in his accursed State the entire destruction of the World had unavoidably followed thereupon For as when a subject hath committed Felony or Treason against his Soveraign we are not content only to punish his person we cut down his woods pull down his Houses and in a word we make all things that have any necessary dependance on him bear some marks of the indignation of his Prince so it was convenient that the world that was made for man and consequently depended on him as its end should follow his condition and as it were pass with him under the same condemnation but also since it hath pleased God to shew mercy to man and to promise Redemption to him and to decree to gather his Church out of his Posterity It is agreeable both to the wisdom and mercy of God to use the same conduct towards the World For first of all he ought to sustain it that it may be the Habitation of his Church during the time that it sojourns here below Even as after a Prince is reconciled to his subject he is not content to testify that he hath received his person into his favour he permits him to restore his Houses to their former State yea he furnishes him out of his bounty wherewithal to make them more bountiful and magnificent Not only to the end that he may obliterate all footsteps of his indignation but also that all things may bear the undoubted marks of his Clemency and Favour and 't is this that hath caused the subsistance of the World hitherunto and will yet cause that at the last day it shall not only be delivered from the disorders which are here seen but honoured with a Communication of the glorious liberty of the Sons of God after which St. Paul says it hath groaned and travailed for so many ages Therefore one part of our happiness will consist in the contentments of seeing the breaches which the order and beauty of the world hath suffered for our sakes magnificently repaired and the resplendent glory that we expect for our selves spread universally over all the parts thereof I very well understand that there have been some that have held an opinon quite contrary and have believed that as the World was produced of nothing it shall be reduced to nothing to the end that the maxim of the Philosophers as nothing is made of nothing so nothing can be reduced to nothing may remain totally confounded For they think 't is a maxim prejudicial to the glory of the Divine power and that the event of things must necessarily confute it But 't is an opinion that hath no firm foundation either in Scripture or Reason Touching Scripture all that it says is that the Heavens and the earth shall pass away but the word of God shall never pass away that the Heavens and the Earth shall pass away but God remains Eternally the same which easily receives two answers The one that the meaning is that although the Heaven and the Earth should pass away Nevertheless the word of God would remain immutable and of such manners of speech or affirmation which seeming strict and absolute which must be interpreted by a simple supposition examples are found elsewhere as Psal 45. the Earth is removed and the Mountains are carried into the midst of the Sea the Waters thereof roar and are troubled the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof the streams of the River shall make glad the City of God For so the words are read in the Original and yet we Translate them although the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea and the waters thereof Roar and be troubled and the rest in the same manner And the nature of the thing and design of the Author of this Divine Song do demonstrate clear as the day that so it ought to be understood The other Answer is that things pass away after two Fashions That is to say by a perfect abolition of their essence or by so great and considerable a change in their qualities that there appears no trace or footstep of what they were before For when things suffer so great a change that we know them no more at all we may certainly very well say in some sort that they are passed away Now without doubt these Texts may be understood in this manner and 't is plainly said Psal 110. that the Heavens shall be changed which shews that the Holy Spirit understands no otherwise that they shall pass away but by suffering a change marvellously considerable To conclude St. Peter who describes so gloriously the ruin of the world at the last day adds immediately after that according to the promise of God we expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in which righteousness shall dwell Which foretells a change of things into a better State not an utter abolition of their essence Touching reason there is no appearance of it in saying that because the world proceeded from nothing that therefore it must return to nothing again If that pass in such manner very strange consequence will follow concerning the Church and the humane nature of Jesus Christ which reason doth not so much reject as Piety and Conscience doth abhor God hath given proofs sufficiently certain of his infinite power in creating the World as he hath done without any need of giving Testimony of it by an entire and universal abolition of its essence And those miserable Philosophers if they have believed that Creation from nothing and the abolition of things to nothing doth surpass the power of God will be sufficiently convinced and punished for their errour although God do not destroy and abolish his own work for their confutation To conclude the glory of his power will not remain so illustrious if he reduce it to nothing as that of his goodness and mercy will remain darkned and dishonoured if after having given Being to the World and had such particular consideration of man as to punish it only for his sake he should soon after totally ruin it although he received man to favour who alone was guilty of those things which drew all this curse upon the World It remains therefore that we see what will be the constitution of the World by this great and memorable change that will happen to it at the last day Upon which I shall make some general considerations following the method of our preceeding discourses The first is that all things that appear to have come into the world in consequence of sin and not being of the first institution of the Creation must undoubtedly be abolished For since they have no subsistance but in vice or the depravation of sin Sin being in all regards obliterated there remains no place for the fruits and consequences of it If then there be any evil influence in the Stars or any pestilential exhalation in the
causes in nature hath certain fluxes and refluxes more or less observable on such and such Shores according as it hath pleased the Providence of God to dispose of them 't is true we see the Sea all entire though we see it not entirely for if we should encompass the World by all sides of the Ocean we should not find there any other sort of Sea than what we see in our own Harbours and Havens But if the Sea signifie all that extension of Water which encompasses the World in such manner that as we say its desinition includes universally all its parts and that if we divide it then it loses the name and nature of Sea without doubt he doth not see the Sea who sees nothing of it but an Arm or a Haven Now such is the nature of God that his infinity enters its definition or to express it otherwise his immensity is of the nature of his Essence so that he sees not God in his Essence which sees him not infinite and he cannot see him infinite that is to say know him such as he is in that respect who hath not an immense capacity of understanding But there is yet more We cannot only not see the Essence of God by portions but although we could see some portion of it that is not properly the thing in which our happiness doth consist I say we cannot see it by portions for the Properties of things are conceived by certain degrees which do in some sort divide their efficacy and virtues but Essences are absolutely indivisible to our understanding and if they could be conceived they would not be conceived but as a point so that either we do not comprehend that of God or we must comprehend it all intire though we do not consider it as infinite Now this is a thing absolutely impossible to our understandings moreover it will not be in that that our felicity will consist for 't is very true that the happiness of our understandings will consist in the supream excellence of their operations and that the excellence of their operations in great measure depend on the perfection of the Objects upon which they are employed Now 't is very true without doubt that the Essence of God is something supreamly perfect nevertheless this perfection of the Divine Essence is not acknowledged principally in that 't is an Essence but in that 't is an Essence which hath such Properties as that 't is supreamly powerful supreamly wise supreamly merciful that 't is eternal immutable and most happy in it self and things of like nature in such sort that to the end that the operations of our understanding may be as perfect as they ought to be that we may be accounted happy in that we do produce them there is no need that they fix themselves on the Essence of God in such sort as 't is an Essence 't is nccessary that they employ themselves in the knowledge of those virtues which I have named and of all others that may be mentioned of the same sort Besides to the end that these operations of our understanding be such as they ought to be 't is necessary that they produce in us conformity with God for we must be made like him because we shall see him as he is Now our happiness in this respect cannot consist in being made like to God in this that we shall have an Essence much less in this that our Essence be Divine but in this that we be holy just and good as he is And therefore this Vision of God which will make us such must consist in the knowledge of his admirable properties and perfections Behold then well nigh what it is to see God as he is and how the words of St. John must be understood 't is that now we know the virtues and perfections of God but it is not but very imperfectly as well because the revelation doth not discover him fully as principally because of the imperfect constitution of our Faculties and Beings Then we shall understand them as perfecty as they can be understood by a created understanding when 't is exalted to as high a degree of perfection as it can ascend unto and according to the most excellent degree of revelation in which they can be presented to a Creature which hath attained the highest degree of perfection in the constitution of his Faculties and Essence for as long as a thing doth not discover its qualities and virtues perfectly whatsoever attention we bring to the consideration of them we can neither see nor know it as it is and when 't is perfectly discovered we know it not as it is if we be not in a condition to know and consider it But when these two things meet together then a perfect vision or knowledge of it is made or obtained The declaration that God gives of his Properties to his Creatures consists either in the testimony that he gives to himself that such and such perfections are in him or in this that he doth some works and displays himself in some operations in which he puts the marks and impressions of them for every Effect bears some Character of its Cause and the more excellent the Cause and the more elaborate the Effect is the more evident and knowable are the Characters thereof Now as to what concerns testimony that consists in the word either which God himself pronounces or which he causes to be pronounced by his Servants therefore because 't is a means which he employs forasmuch as men have not understanding sufficiently clear nor strong to be able to perceive in the works of God the Virtues and Perfections whereunto his word gives testimony Then when man shall be put in such estate that his understanding shall be endowed with all necessary light to be able to know in the works of God his marvellous virtues 't is easie to imagine that this mean will then cease St. Paul says That since in the wisdom of God the World by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe When therefore the World shall be re-establisht in such an estate that it by wisdom can know God and that the objects that will be in his marvellous works can lead it to all the raised and sublime knowledge to which the ministry of the Word is capable of advancing it there will be without doubt no more need of making use of it so that we shall know God chiefly by the Contemplation of his Works when God created man he gave him the works of Heaven and Earth and all things contained in them for the object of his Contemplation and because the faculty of his understanding was then in condition so perfectly good as the condition of nature would bear he was able to see God in them that is to say to know the Virtues whose Characters he had impressed upon them And the chief of those virtues were his goodness which alone induced him
most part of those faculties that we have in common with beasts are more excellent in us our memory without doubt is more strong and of larger capacity than theirs and our imagination more clear and full of Light but so it is that Dogs and Horses and Elephants and Foxes know infinite things by their figures and colours and other sensible marks of that kind and 't is also seen that sometimes they act by simple memory although they have no objects before their sences Therefore seeing 't is a Corporeal faculty 't is to be presumed that death hath great power upon it when it dissolves and universally ruines all the Organs of the Body So that I do not doubt but that our Souls do forget an infinite number of the little singularities and particularities of sensible things at their departure hence which we easily remember whilst we are living here But as to the other because 't is a power of the Soul it self as endowed with reason it must most necessarily remain So that we may by no means doubt whether they do remember that they have here seen a World and learnt by the Preaching of the Gospel that the Sun of God came thither to save sinners They will Remember that there is a Church on Earth and that they were members of it having believed in this Redeemer And generally all the Doctrines of the Gospel wherein they had been instructed for their Consolation and Salvation will remain most firmly impressed upon their memories and that 't is so appears by the Book of the Revelation where the Holy Spirit attributes unto them the memory of their Martyrs and charity for the Church and gratitude towards God and the Lamb for the benefit of their Redemption and other things of like kind Concerning which I conceive it will be necessary to make two Considerations The first is that if in the ordinary Preaching of the Gospel or in the study of things that do concern Religion the minds of the faithful have received any impressions less true than might be desired as there is none so advanced in the knowledg of this Divine truth who is not deceived on divers occasions at death they shall be delivered from those errors For that which occasions our mistake in these matters is that although we very well believe the principal and fundamental Articles of Religion and if we know well how to draw our Conclusions from these principles we should certainly preserve our selves from these false impressions so it is that we commit many faults in the conduct of our reason and joyn together perswasions that do not well agree Whereof we do not see the discord and contradiction for besides that naturally since the fall there is some weakness in our discursive faculty especially when there is any Question of things that are a little distant from their principles we there mingle our passions and our interests and permit our selves easily to be carried to that natural obstinacy which causes us to hold fast the things that we have once preconceived even without any appearance of reason The Souls of the faithful being therefore delivered not only from the trouble of the Body but also from all sorts of vices and passions and endued by the presence of the Holy Spirit with a light totally new they then find no difficulty to discern truth from falshood and by consequence to deliver themselves from all false opinions wherewith they may have been prepossessed The second consideration is that although we have been instructed in the belief of the fundamental truths of the Gospel nevertheless we do not as yet comprehend them perfectly enough there remains always some darkness in our conceptions some remnants of incredulity which shake sometimes this way and sometimes that way the things that the word of God hath established in our belief Whereas separate Souls see all these truths so clearly that there remains no darkness in their knowledg of them So that they lose their errors if they had any before they retain the belief of things certain and veritable which they had already received into their minds and those very objects which they had known before they shall perceive by a view incomparably more distinct more perfect and more clearly enlightned As to what concerns the Works of God which are presented to their Contemplation if they were to remain within the compass of this Elementary World it were to be presumed that active and awake as we suppose them they would employ themselves in a great measure in the Contemplation of the most excellent things of the Universe to the end they might observe the marvellous Perfections of their Author Even as I believe that 't is not to be doubted that the Angels that God employs here and there in all parts of the World have derived an infinite number of good and excellent knowledge thence I know not whether I may dare to say that as the Apostle teaches us that the Angels are present in our Assemblies for which reason he commands that women behave themselves there with humilty that they may not offend their eyes by any indecency Souls may be found there voluntarily present to entertain with us a holy Communion as far as they can but we have already said and proved that they are assembled in Heaven and even in that Heaven where our Lord Jesus is in magnificent glory Now it is not my intention carefully to enquire how this Heaven is made and those that permit themselves to be transported by the elevation of their thoughts do much more deserve the blame of rashness and presumption than the praise of subtility or sublimity in their Speculations I will only say two things which cannot be accused of too much curiosity the one is that as if ascending from Earth to the more raised parts of the World we find that progress is made for the better The Water being more transparent than the Earth the Air more transparent than the Water the Fire more pure than the Air and yet the Heavens more pure and luminous than the Fire we should imagine as it is very reasonable that things always advance after the same manner and proportion certainly the Heaven of Heavens must be incomparably beautiful and of a structure most excellent The other is that God having built this lower World to be the Habitation of man nevertheless made it so beautiful that on which side soever we turn our eyes if we be attentive we find not only matter of satisfaction but also of admiration surely seeing he hath chosen this Heaven for his Habitation it must be that the whole Constitution thereof must be infinitely more glorious whereupon I make this Consideration A Pagan Philosopher sometimes entertained this Meditation that if some one had been nourished till the age of five and twenty years in some Cavern where he had never seen the light and where he could learn nothing of the form of the World nor of the things that
Saint John Collects the brief sum of our happiness in these few words we shall be like him in as much as we shall see him as he is Certainly to see God as he is is to acquire the supream degree of perfection in matter of knowledg and understanding and to be made like unto him is to attain the supream pitch of Holiness and Virtue Forasmuch therefore as the first is the cause of the second and that on the knowledg of God as he is depends necessarily our transformation into his likeness it behoves us to enquire what is meant by seeing God as he is and what is the nature of that knowledg Because God is a Spiritual Essence and totally separate from the matter of Bodies 't is absolutely impossible that he should be seen as he is with our bodily eyes and therefore 't is necessary that we refer the word see by a Metaphor to that faculty of our minds that consists in understanding Now although the nature of God be marvellously one and simple so it is that according to our manner of conception we distinguish his virtues and Properties from his Essence Concerning his properties we conceive them under very different respects and pretend not when we say that he is merciful to beget an apprehension in the minds of those that hear us that he is just or when we say that he is wise to give occasion to think of his power and might as his Attributes have very different Objects so we comprehend them in our understandings under very different Idea's But then when we speak of his Essence we make a kind of abstraction of it from his Properties and represent it as a single and simple thing in which all his Attributes exist as in a common Subject As to what concerns his Attributes we see them in some sort in this life in that we understand at least in some degree what is the nature of those Operations by which they display themselves upon their Objects For we are not perfectly ignorant what may be that inclination in God of pardoning sins to the penitent and punishing the obstinate and impenitent and things of like nature But as to his Essence there is no man that doth not acknowledg that we understand it not at all in this life that is to say we are not able to form any conception in our minds which hath any respect to the nature of his Essence only some think that when we shall be received into the Heavens our supream happiness will consist in the vision of this Essence which certainly seems extream difficult to be imagined for since the question here is not concerning the Corporeal Vision seeing God is absolutely invisible after that manner But concerning the Vision of the Mind our understandings here below know not in any wise the Essence of things but fix themselves alone on the Contemplation of their Properties so that it is not at all possible for us now to comprehend how this faculty of understanding shall be so changed in the Heavens that not fixing it self on the Contemplation of the Properties of things it should pass on to the very Essence it self Add to this that if there be any Being in the World whose Essence is incomprehensible 't is that of God for all others have at least this conformity with us that they are Created and by consequence there being some proportion between their Essence and ours it will not be so strange if there should be some proportion between them and the operation of our faculties whereas God being an Increated Being which exists by it self it is more than difficult to conceive how created faculties can attain to the comprehension of his Essence as long as we are encompassed with this body although we be Spiritual as to the most excellent part of our Essence so it is that we know not at all what is the nature of Spirits and however subtilly we do contemplate however precise and delicate be the Abstractions by which we endeavour to withdraw our minds from all Commerce with matter in our Contemplations so it is that if we try to form any conception in our minds as they speak which we will accommodate to the nature of a Spirit we know not how to hinder some Corporeal Idea from gliding insensibly on our thought and imagination Now I am of this opinion that though our Souls be truely Spiritual if you compare them with the nature of bodies nevertheless they are in some sort Corporeal if you do compare them with the nature of God that is to say there is as much disproportion betwixt the simplicity of the nature of God and the quality of our minds as there is between the nature of our minds and the quality of that part in us that is Corporeal and for that reason there seems to be a like impossibility for our Spirits to comprehend the nature of the Essence of God as there is for us whilst we are clothed with this body to conceive the nature of our own Souls and that of Angels Lastly The Divine nature cannot be Divine that is to say endued with the Perfection that becomes the excellency of its Being if its Essence be not altogether infinite Either then this conception of our minds by which we comprehend the Essence of the Deity equalleth it self to the whole extent of this Essence so as entirely to comprehend it or else it comprehends only as much as is proportionable to its capacity and to its extent to that same Essence if it be equal to the nature of God it will become infinite and we shall become so many Gods which is too absurd and erroneous to be received by any understanding of regular apprehensions if it comprehend only what will be proportionable to its capacity seeing this capacity is finite and that between finite and infinite there is no proportion there will always be an immense disproportion between the Essence of God and what we comprehend concerning it I know well that here are alledged certain subtil distinctions which put us to as much trouble to confute them as they give us trouble to understand them For some say that we see the Essence of God all entire but that we do not see it entirely Well near as if we said that on the Sea Shore we see the Sea in whole but not in all its latitude and extension for we see it in whole or in its integrity in that it is the Sea and because in all the parts of the World it hath no other nature than that which it hath upon our Shores But we do not not see it in all its latitude because our sight cannot extend it self so far as the extent of our Horizon so far is it short of being able to see what is at the Antipodes But this doth not at all weaken my Argument for if the word Sea signifie nothing but a certain kind of water salt in its original and which by hidden