have UNION so also COMMUNION with the Divine and Humane Nature of Christ respectively Both as they will be the Objects of our Souls most noble and Constant acts and as they will be the Fountain or Communicative cause of our receptions § 15. 1. We find now that our various Faculties have various Objects suitable to their Natures The Objects of Sense are things sensible and the Objects of Imagination things Imaginable and the Objects of Intellection things Intelligible and the Objects of the Will things amiable The Eye that is a nobler Sense than some others hath Light for its Object which to other Senses is none and so of the rest Therefore we have cause to suppose that as far as our Glorified Souls and our Spiritual Glorified Bodies will differ so far Christ's Glorified Soul and Body will respectively be their several Objects And beholding the Glory of both will be part of our Glory § 16. Yet is it not hence to be gathered that the separated Soul before the Resurrection shall not have Christ's Glorified Body for its Object For the Objects of the Body are also the Objects of the Soul or to speak more properly the Objects of Sense are also the Objects of Intellection and Will though all the Objects of the Intellect and Will are not Objects of Sense The Separated Soul can know Christ's Glorified Body though our present Bodies cannot see a Soul But how much our Spiritual Bodies will excel in Capacity and Activity these passive Bodies that have so much Earth and Water we cannot tell § 17. And though now our Souls are as a Candle in a Lanthorn and must have extrinsick Objects admitted by the Senses before they can be understood yet it followeth not that therefore a separated Soul cannot know such Objects 1. Because it now knoweth them Abstractively per species because its act of Ratiocination is Compound as to the Cause Soul and Body But it will then know such things Intuitively as now it can do it self when the Lanthorn is cast by 2. And what ever many of late that have given themselves the title of Ingenious have said to the contrary we have little reason to think that the sensitive faculty is not an Essential inseparable power of the same Soul that is Intellectual and that sensation ceaseth to separated Souls however the modes of it may cease with their several Uses and Organs To Feel Intellectually or to understand and will feelingly we have cause to think will be the Action of separated Souls And if so why may they not have communion with Christ's Body and Soul as their Objects in their separated State 3. Besides that we are uncertain whether the separated Soul have no Vehicle or Body at all Things unknown to us must not be supposed True or False Some think that the sensitive Soul is Material and as a Body to the Intellectual never separated I am not of their Opinion that make them two substances but I cannot say I am certain that they err Some think that the Soul is Material of a purer substance than things visible and that the common Notion of its substantiality meaneth nothing else but a pure as they call it Spiritual Materiality Thus thought not only Tertullian but almost all the old Greek Doctors of the Church that write of it and most of the Latine or very many as I have elsewhere shewed and as Faustus reciteth them in the Treatise answered by Mammertus Some think that the Soul as Vegetative is an Igneous Body such as we call Aether or Solar Fire or rather of a higher purer kind and that Sensation and Intellection are those formal Faculties which Specifically difference it from inferior meer Fire or Aether There were few of the Old Doctors that thought it not some of these ways Material And consequently extensive and divisible per potentiam Divin 〈◊〉 though not Naturally or of its own inclination because most strongly inclined to Unity And if any of all these uncertain Opinions should prove true the Objections in hand will find no place To say nothing of their conceit who say that as the Spirit that retireth from the falling Leaves in Autumn continueth to animate the Tree so Man's Soul may do when departed with that to which it is United to animate some more Noble universal Body But as all these are the too bold Cogitations of men that had better let unknown things alone so yet they may be mentioned to refel that more perillous boldness which denyeth the Souls Action which is certain upon at best uncertain Reasons § 18. I may boldly conclude notwithstanding such Objections that Christ's Divine and Humane Nature Soul and Body shall be the felicitating Objects of Intuition and holy Love to the separated Soul before the Resurrection and that to be with Christ is to have such communion with him and not only to be present where he is § 19. 2. And the chief part of this communion will be that in which we are Receptive even Christ's Communications to the Soul And as the Infinite Incomprehensible Deity is the Root or first Cause of all Communication Natural Gracious and Glorious to Being Motion Life Rule Reason Holiness and Happiness and the whole Creation is more dependant on God than the Fruit on the Tree or the Plants on the Earth or the Members on the Body though yet they are not parts of the Deity nor Deified because the Communication is Creative so God useth Second Causes in his Communications to inferiour Natures and it is more than probable that the Humane Soul of Christ primarily and his Body secondarily are the chief second cause of Influence and Communication both of Grace and Glory both to Man in the Body and to the separated Soul And as the Sun is first an Efficient communicative second Cause of seeing to the Eye and then is also the Object of our sight so Christ is to the Soul For as God so the Lamb is the Light and Glory of the heavenly Hierusalem and in his light we shall have light Though he give up the Kingdom to the Father so far as that God shall be all in all and his Creature be fully restored to his favour and there shall be need of a healing Government no more for the recovering of lapsed Souls to God yet sure he will not cease to be our Mediator and to be the Churches Head and to be the conveying cause of Everlasting Life and Light and Love to all his Members As now we live because he liveth even as the Branches in the Vine and the Spirit that quickneth enlightneth and sanctifieth us is first the Spirit of Christ before it is ours and is communicated from God by him to us so will it be in the state of Glory For we shall have our Union and Communion with him perfected and not destroyed or diminished And unless I could be so proud as to think that I am or shall be the most excellent of all the Creatures
of God and therefore nearest him and above all others how could I think that I am under the Influence of no second Cause but have either Grace or Glory from God alone 20. So far am I from such arrogancy as to think that I shall be so near to God as to be above the need and use of Christ and his Communications as that I dare not say that I shall be above the need and help of other subordinate Causes As I am now lower than Angels and need their help and as I am under the Government of my Superiors and as a poor weak Member am little worth in comparison of the whole Body the Church of Christ and receive continual help from the whole So how far it will be thus in Glory I know not but that God will still use second Causes for our Joy I doubt not and also that there will not be an equality and that it will be consistent with God's Allsufficiency to us and our felicity in Him that we shall for ever have use for one another and that to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and to be in Abraham's Bosom and sit at Christ's Right and Left hand in his Kingdom and to be Ruler over ten Cities and to join with the heavenly Host or Chore in the joyful Love and Praise of God and of the Lamb and many such like are not false nor useless notes and notions of our Celestial Glory § 21. And certainly if I be with Christ I shall be with all that are with Christ Even with all the heavenly Society Though these Bodies of gross passive Matter must have so much room that the Earth is little enough for all its Inhabitants and those at the Antipodes are almost as strange to us as if they were in another World and those of another Kingdom another Province or County and oft another Parish yea another House are Strangers to us so narrow is our Capacity of Communion here Yet wâ—â—ave great cause to think by many Scripture expressions that our heavenly Union and Communion will be nearer and more extensive and that all the Glorified shall know each other or at least be far less distant and less strange than now we are As I said before when I see how far the Sun beams do extend how they penetrate our closest Glass and puzzle them that say that all Bodies are impenetrable when I see how little they hinder the placing or presence of other Creatures and how intimately they mix themselves with all and seem to possess the whole Region of the Air when yet the Air seemeth it self to fill it c. I dare not think that glorified Spirits no nor Spiritual Bodies will be such Strangers to one another as we are here on Earth § 22. And I must needs say that it is a pleasant Thought to me and greatly helpeth my willingness to die to think that I shall go to all the Holy ones both Christ and Angels and departed blessed Souls For 1. God hath convinced me that they are better than I each singly and therefore more amiable than my self 2. And that many are better than one and the whole than a poor sinful part and the New Hierusalem is the Glory of the Creation 3. God hath given me a Love to all his Holy Ones as such 4. And a Love to the work of Love and Praise which they continually and perfectly perform to God 5. And a Love to the Celestial Jerusalem as it is compleat and to his Glory shining in them 6. And my old acquaintance with many a holy Person gone to Christ doth make my Thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to me O how many of them could I name 7. And it is no small encouragement to one that is to enter upon an unseen World to think that he goeth not anâ— â—â—trodden Path nor enters into a solitary or singular state but followeth all from the Creation to this day that have passed by death to endless life And is it not an emboldening consideration to think that I am to go no other way nor to no other place or state than all the Believers and Saints have gone to before me from the beginning to this time Of this more anon TO DEPART § 1. But I must be Loosed or Depart before I can thus be with Christ And I must here consider I. From what I must depart II. And How or in what Manner And I must not refuse to know the worst § 2. I. And 1. I know that I must Depart from this Body itself and the Life which consisteth in the animating of it These Eyes must here see no more this Hand must move no more these Feet must go no more this Tongue must speak no more As much as I have loved and overloved this Body I must leave it to the Grave There must it lie and rot in darkness as a neglected and a loathed thing § 3. This is the Fruit of Sin and Nature would not have it so I mean the Nature of this compound MAN But what though it be so 1. It is but my Shell or Tabernacle the cloathing of my Soul and not it self 2. It is but an elementary Composition dissolved and Earth going to Earth and Water to Water and Air to Air and Fire to Fire into that Union which the elementary Nature doth incline to 3. It is but an Instrument laid by when all its work is done and a Servant dismissed when his Service is at an end And what should I do with a Horse when I shall need to ride or travel no more or with a Pen when I must write no more It is but the laying by the Passive receiver of my Souls Operations when the Soul hath no more to do upon it As I cast by my Lute or other instrument when I have better employment than Musick to take up my time 4. Or at most it is but as Flowers die in the fall and Plants in Winter when the retiring Spirits have done their work and are undisposed to dwell in so cold and unmeet a Habitation as the Season maketh their former matter then to be And its retirement is not its annihilation but its taking up a fitter place 5. It is but a separation from a troublesome Companion and putting off a Shoe that pinched me many a sad and painful Hour I have had in this frail and faltring flesh Many a weary Night and Day What cares what fears what griefs what groans hath this Body cost me Alas how many Hours of my precious time have been spent to maintain it please it or repair it How considerable a part of all my life hath been spent in necessary sleep and rest And how much in eating drinking dressing physick And how much in labouring or using means to procure these and other necessaries Many a hundred times I have thought that it costeth me so dear to live yea to live a painful weary life
and such as will fully convince the Communicants Without such a miraculous glimpse of Glory God sometime giveth some of his Servants such a Mental illustration and inward glimpse and taste of Heaven as greatly overcometh all the fears of Pain and Death such many old and later Martyrs have had It was a strange word of the godly Bishop of St. Davids Mr. Farrar to his Neighbours If I stir in the Fire believe not my Doctrin and accordingly he stirred not If he had not had some Prophetical Inspiration this could not have been justified from being a presumptuous tempting God And Mr. Baynam's case was a meer wonder who in the Flames called to the Papists to see a Miracle professing to them that in the Fire he felt no more pain than if he had been laid in a Bed of Down or Roses I am just now reading in Adam's Lives of the German Philosophers the Life of Olympia Fulvia Morata which ended with some such experience In many Ages there hath been some one rare Woman who hath excelled men in the Languages Philosophy and other humane Learning Such a one was this Olympia Fulvia Morata of Ferrarrie She married Andr. Gundler a Physician She removed with him into Germany being by the way convinced of the Guard of Angels by her young Brothers falling out of a high Window on cragged Stones without any more hurt than if it had been on the soft ground In Germany she thus wrote to Anna Estensis a Guisian Princess As soon as by the singular goodness of God I was departed from the Italian Idolatry and came with my Husband into Germany it is incredible how God changed my Soul or mind which being formerly most averse or abhorring to the Divine Scriptures am now delighted in them alone and place in them all my Study Labour Care and Mind And as much as possible contemn all the Riches Honours and Pleasures which formerly I was wont to admire But the Cross presently following in God's usual Method her Husband and She were by Souldiers stript naked save the shift next the Body and narrowly scaping with life were put so to wander from place to place none daring to entertain them even when she was sick of a Feaver till at last they found liberal entertainment in which she shortly fell into a mortal Disease of which she died And in her last Sickness and after much torment of Body near Death she pleasantly smiled Her Husband asked her the Cause who said I saw a certain place which was full of a most clear and beauteous Light Intimating that she should be quickly there and saying I am wholly full of Joy And spake no more till her Eye-sight failing she said I scarce know any of you any more But all things else about seem to be full of most beauteous Flowers which were her last words having a long time professed that nothing seemed more desirable to her than to be dissolved and to be with Christ in all her sickness magnifying his Mercies to her Many have thus joyfully laid down the Flesh to go to Christ What wonder then if Peter was loth to lose the pleasure of what he saw Two things are necessary to great and solid joy First That the Object be truly and greatly amiable and delectable and Secondly That the apprehensions of it be clear and strong As to the first we have so great and glorious things to delight us as would feast our Souls with constant Joy were not the Second alas much wanting What Man could choose but be even in Peter's rapture continually if he had but ascertained heavenly Glory apprehended by him in as satisfactory a manner as these sensible things are If I lay in Prison yea or in torment of Colick Stone or any such Disease and had but withal such apprehensions or sight of assured Glory surely the pain would not be able to suppress my joy What a mixture what a discord would there be in my expressions Torment would constrain my Flesh to groan and the sight of Heaven would make me triumph I cannot but think how this great discord would shew the difference between the Spirit and the Flesh What a strange thing it would be to hear the same Man at the same time crying out in pain with groans and magnifying the love of God with transporting joy But we are not yet fit for such joyful apprehensions our weak Eyes must not see the Sun but through the allaying Medium of a humid Air at a vast distance and by the Chrystalline humour and organical parts of the Eye Fain we would get nearer and have sight or clearer apprehensions of the Spiritual Society and glorious World We study we pray we look up we groan under our distance darkness and unsatisfying conceptions But yet it must not be We must be ripened before the Shell will break or the dark Womb will deliver us up to the Glorious Light But Christ vouchsafed that to his three Apostles which we are unworthy of and yet unfit for O happy sight O happy men It is incongruous to say What would I not give for such a sight Lest it should savour of Simon Magus folly And I have nothing to give But it is not incongruous to say What would I not do And what would I not suffer for such a fight Yea Christ puts such kind of Questions to us O that I had better answered them in the Hour of Duty and in the Hour of Temptation When he asked Can ye drink of the Cup that I drink of and be Baptized with the Baptism that I am Baptized with I have been ready with James and John to say I can but when the trial comes as they after in his suffering forsook him and fled how insufficient is my own strength to perform my promise When he imposeth on me the denying of my self forsaking all and taking up the Cross and following him I yielded and covenanted by Vow to do it but it was By the help of the Holy Spirit which he promised to give me I stand Lord to my Covenant Help me to perform it and give me though not his present sight yet some of Peter's Mental apprehensions and a glimpse a taste of that which transported him with delight Let who will or who Thou wilt take the Riches and Grandeur of the World O give me some delightful taste of that which I am made for redeemed for and which thy Spirit hath long taught me to seek and hope for as my All. § 25. Peter was not weary with the sight of this heavenly Apparition Why should I be weary of the believing contemplation of greater things Though sight affect us more sensibly than meer believing and thinking yet these have their happy Office which may be effectual And Christ who thus appeared in Glory to Peter hath said Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed And Peter himself saith of them that see not Christ that They rejoice with joy unspeakable
an universal Soul And so that either every man is God as to his Soul or that it is the Body only that is to be called Man as distinct from God But this is the Self-ensnaring and self-perplexing temerity of busie bold and arrogant heads that know not their own capacity and measure And on the like reasons they must at last come with others to say that all passive matter also is God and that God is the Universe consisting of an Active Soul and Passive Body As if God were no cause and could make nothing or nothing with Life or Sense or Reason § 22. But why depart we from things certain by such presumptions as these Is it not certain that there are baser creatures in the World than Men or Angels Is it not certain that one Man is not another Is it not certain that some men are in torment of body and mind And will it be a comfort to a man in such torment to tell him that he is God or that he is part of an universal Soul Would not a man on the Rack or in the Stone or other misery say Call me by what name you please that caseth not my pain If I be part of God or an universal Soul I am sure I am a tormented miserable part And if you could not make me believe that God hath some parts which are Serpents Toads Devils or wicked or tormented men you must give me other senses and perceptive powers before it will comfort me to hear that I am such a part And if God had wicked and tormented parts on Earth why may he not have such and I be one of them hereafter And if I be a holy and happy part of God or of an universal Soul on Earth why may not I hope to be such hereafter § 23. We deny not but that God is the continued first cause of all Being whatsoever and that the branches and fruit depend not as effects so much on the causality of the Stock and Roots as the creature doth on God and that it is an impious conceit to think that the World or any part of it is a Being independent and separated totally from God or subsisting without his continued causation But cannot God cause as a Creator by making that which is not himself This yieldeth the self-deceiver no other honour nor happiness but what equally belongeth to a Devil to a Fly or Worm to a Dunghill or to the worst miserablest man § 24. II. As Man's Soul is a SUBSTANCE so is it a Substance differenced formally from all inferiour Substances by an Innate indeed Essential Power Virtue or Faculty of Vital-Action Intellection and Free-will For we find all these Acts performed by it as Motion Light and Heat are by the Fire or Sun And if any should think that these Actions are like those of a Musician compounded of the Agents principal and organical several parts could he prove it no more would follow but that the lower powers the Sensitive or Spirits are to the higher as a Passive Organ receiving its operations and that the Intellectual Soul hath the power of causing Intellection and Volition by its Action on the inferiour parts as a man can cause such motions of his Lute as shall be melody not to it but to himself And consequently that as Musick is but a lower operation of man whose proper acts of Intellection and Volition are above it so Intellection and Volition in the Body are not the noblest Acts of the Soul but it performeth them by an Eminent Power which can do greater things And if this could be proved what would it tend to the unbelievers ends or to the disadvantage of our hopes and comforts § 25. III. That man's Soul at death is not annibilated even the Atomists and Epicurians will grant who think that no Atom in the Universe is annihilated And we that see not only the Sun and Heavens continued but every grain of matter and that compounds are changed by dissolution of parts and rarefaction or migration c. and not by Annihilation have no reason to dream that God will annihilate one Soul though he can do it if he please yea and annihilate all the World It is a thing beyond a rational expectation § 26. IV. And a destruction by the dissolution of the parts of the Soul we need not fear For 1. Either an Intellectual Spirit is divisible and partible or not if not we need not fear it if it be either it is a thing that Nature tendeth to or not But that Nature doth not tend to it is evident For 1. There is naturally so strange and strong an inclination to unity and averseness to separation in all things that even Earth and Stones that have no other known natural motion have yet an aggregative motion in their gravitation But if you will separate the parts from the rest it must be by force And Water is yet more averse from partition without force and more inclined to union than Earth and Air than Water and Fire than Air so that he that will cut a Sun-beam into pieces and make many of one must be an extraordinary Agent And surely Spirits even Intellectual Spirits will be no less averse from partition and inclined to keep their Unity than Fire or a Sun-beam is so that naturally it is not a thing to be feared that it should fall into pieces 2. And he that will say that the God of Nature will change and overcome the Nature that he hath made must give us good proofs of it or it is not to be feared And if he should do it as a punishment we must find such a punishment somewhere threatened either in his Natural or Supernatural Law which we do not and therefore need not fear it § 27. 3. But if it were to be feared that Souls were partible and would be broken into parts this would be no destruction of them either as to their substance powers form or action but only a breaking of one Soul into many For being not compounded of Heterogeneal parts but as simple Elements of Homogeneal only as every Atom of Earth is Earth and every drop of Water in the Sea is Water and every particle of Air and Fire is Air and Fire and have all the properties of Earth Water Air and Fire so would it be with every particle of an Intellectual Spirit But who can see cause to dream of such a partition never threatened by God § 28. V. And that Souls lose not their formal Powers or Virtues we have great reason to conceive because they are their Natural Essence not as mixt but simple substances And though some imagine that the Passive Elements may be attenuation or incrassation be transmuted one into another yet we see that Earth is still Earth and Water is Water and Air is Air and their conceit hath no proof And were it proved it would but prove that none of these are a first or proper Element
I know that it is the sinful Soul that is in all this the chief cause and agent But what is it but Bodily Interest that is its temptation bait and end What but the Body and its Life and Pleasure is the chief Objective alluring cause of all this sin and misery And shall I take such a Body to be better than Heaven or be loth to be loosed from so troublesom a Yoak-fellow on to be separated from so burdensom and dangerous a Companion § 3. Obj. But I know this Habitation but the next I know not I have long been acquainted with this Body and this World but the next I am unacquainted with Ans 1. If you know it you know all that of it which I have mentioned before you know it to be a burden and snare I am sure I know by long experience that this Flesh hath been a painful lodging to my Soul and this World as a tumultuous Ocean or like the uncertain and stormy Region of the Air. And well he deserveth bondage pain and enmity who will love them because he is acquainted with them and is loth to leave them because he hath had them long and is afraid of being well because he hath been long sick 2. And do you not know the next and better Habitation Is Faith no knowledge If you believe God's Promise you know that such a state there is And you know in general that it is Better than this World And you know that we shall be in Holiness and Glorious happiness with Christ And is this no knowledge 3. And what we know not Christ that prepareth and promiseth it doth know And is that nothing to us if really we Trust our Souls to him He that knoweth not more Good by Heaven than by Earth is yet so earthly and unbelieving that it is no wonder if he be afraid and unwilling to depart § 4. II. In Departing from this Body and Life I must depart from all its ancient Pleasures I must taste no more sweetness in meat or drink or rest or sport or any such thing that now delighteth me House and Lands and Goods and Wealth must all be left and the place where I live must know me no more All my possessions must be no more to me nor all that I laboured for or took delight in than if they had never been at all And what though it must be so Consider O my Soul 1. Thy ancient Pleasures are all past already Thou losest none of them by Death for they are all lost before if immortal Grace have not by sanctifying them made the benefits of them to become immortal All the sweet draughts and morsels and sports and laughters all the sweet Thoughts of thy worldly Possessions or thy Hopes that ever thou hadst till this present Hour are past by dead and gone already All that Death doth to such as these is to prevent such that on Earth thou shalt have no more 2. And is not that the Case of every Bruit that hath no comfort from the prospect of another Life to repair his loss And yet as our dominion diminisheth their pleasure while they live by our keeping them under fear and labour so at our will their lives must end To please a Gentleman's Appetite for half an hour or less Birds Beasts and Fishes must lose life itself and all the pleasure which life might have afforded them for many Years yea perhaps many of these Birds and Fishes at least must die to become but one Feast to a rich Man if not one ordinary Meal And is not their sensual pleasure of the same Nature as ours Meat is as sweet to them and ease as welcome and lust as strong in season And the pleasure that Death depriveth our Flesh of is such as is common to Man with Bruits Why then should it seem hard to us to lose that in the Course of Nature which our Wills deprive them of at our Pleasure When if we are Believers we can say that we do but exchange these delights of Life for the greater delights of a Life with Christ which is a comfort which our fellow Creatures the Bruits have not 3. And indeed the Pleasures of Life are usually embittered with so much pain that to a great part of the World doth seem to exceed them The Vanity and Vexation is so great and grievous as the pleasure seldom countervaileth It 's true that Nature desireth Life even under Sufferings that are but tolerable rather than to die But that is not so much from the sensible Pleasure of life as from meer Natural Inclination which God hath laid so deep that free will hath not full power against it As before I said that the Body of Man is such a thing that could we see through the Skin as men may look through a Glass Hive upon the Bees and see all the parts and motion the filth and excrements that are in it the Soul would hardly be willing to actuate love and cherish such a mass of unclean matter and to dwell in such a loathsom place unless God had necessitated it by Nature deeper than Reason or sense to such a Love and such a labour by the Pondus or Spring of Inclination Even as the Cow would not else lick the unclean Calf nor Women themselves be at so much labour and trouble with their Children while there is little of them to be pleasant but uncleanness and crying and helpless impatiency to make them wearisom had not necessitating Inclination done more hereto than any other sense or reason Even so I now say of the pleasure of Living that the sorrows are so much greater to Multitudes than the sensible delight that life would not be so commonly chosen and endured under so much trouble were not men determined thereto by Natural necessitating Inclination or deterred from Death by the fears of misery to the separated Soul And yet all this kept not some counted the best and wisest of the Heathens from taking it for the Valour and Wisdom of a Man to make away his life in time of extremity and from making this the great answer to them that grudge at God for making their lives so miserable If the misery be greater than the good of life Why dost thou not end it Thou maist do that when thou wilt Our Meat and Drink is pleasant to the healthful but it costeth poor men so much toil and labour and care trouble to procure a poor Diet for themselves and their families that I think could they live without eating and drinking they would thankfully exchange the pleasure of it all to be eased of their care and toil in getting it And when sickness cometh even the pleasantest Food is loathsom 4. And do we not willingly interrupt and lay by these Pleasures every Night when we betake our selves to sleep It 's possible indeed a Man may then have pleasant Dreams But I think few go to sleep for the pleasure of Dreaming
that is every where but by a peculiar operation and relation And so holy Souls being under a more felicitating operation of God may well be said to have a Nearer Union with him than now they have § 35. 〈◊〉 And I observe that as is aforesaid all things have naturally a strong inclination to Union and Communion with their like Every clod and stone inclineth to the Earth Water would go to Water Air to Air Fire to Fire Birds and Beasts associate with their like And the noblest natures are most strongly thus inclined And therefore I have natural reason to think that it will be so with holy Souls § 36. 3. And I find that the inordinate Contraction of Man to himself and to the interest of this Individual-Person with the defect of Love to all about us according to every creatures goodness and specially to God the Infinite good whom we should love above our selves is the very sum of all the pravity of man And all the injustice and injury to others and all the neglect of good works in the world and all our daily terrours and self-distracting self-tormenting cares and griefs and fears proceed from this inordinate Love and Adhesion to our selves Therefore I have reason to think that in our better state we shall perfectly Love others as our selves and the selfish Love will turn into a common and a Divine Love which must be by our preferring the common and the Divine Good and Interest § 37. And I am so sensible of the power and Plague of selfishness and how it now corrupteth tempteth and disquieteth me that when I feel any fears lest individuation cease and my Soul fall into one common Soul as the Stoicks thought all Souls did at death I find great cause to suspect that this ariseth from the power of this corrupting selfishness For Reason seeth no cause at all to fear it were it so § 38. 4. For I find also that the nature of Love is to desire as near a Union as is possible And the strongest Love doth strongliest desire it Fervent Lovers think they can scarce be too much One. And Love is our Perfection and therefore so is Union § 39. 5. And I find that when Christians had the first and full pourings out of the Spirit they had the ferventest Love and the nearest Union and the least desire of propriety and distance § 40. 6. And I find that Christs prayer for the felicity of his disciples is a prayer for their Unity Joh. 17. 22 23. And in this he placeth much of their Persection § 41. 7. And I find also that man is a sociable nature and that all men find by experience that conjunction in societies is needful to their Safety strength and Pleasure § 42. 8. And I find that my Soul would fain be nearer God and that darkness and distance is my misery and near communion is it that would answer all the tendencies of my Soul Why then should I fear too near a Union § 43. I think it utterly improbable that my Soul should become more nearly united to any creature than to God though it be of the same kind with other Souls and infinitely below God For God is as near me as I am to my self I still depend on him as the effect upon its total constant cause And that not as the fruit upon the Tree which borroweth all from the Earth Water Air and Fire which it communicateth to its fruit but as a creature on its Creator who hath no Being but what it receiveth totally from God by constant communication Hence Autonine Seneca and the rest of the Stoicks thought that all the World was God or one Great Animal consisting of Divine Spirit and Matter as Man of Soul and body Sometime calling the supposed Soul of the World GOD and sometime calling the whole World God But still meaning that the Universe was but one Spirit and Body united and that we all are parts of God or of the Body of God or Accidents at least § 44. And even the Popish Mystical Divines in their pretensions to the highest Perfection say the same in sense such as Benedict Anglus in his Regula Perfectionis approved by many Doctors who placeth much of his Supereminent Life in our Believing verily that there is nothing but God and Living accordingly Maintaining that all creatures are nothing distinct from God but are to God as the Beams are to the Sun and as the Heat is to the Fire which really is it self And so teaching us to rest in all things as Good as being nothing but Gods essential will which is himself resolving even our sins and Imperfections accordingly into God so that they are Gods or None § 45. And all these men have as fair a pretence for their conceits of such a Union with God now as for such an Union after death For their Reason is 1. That God being Infinite there can be no more Beings than his own But God and the smallest Being distinct would be more Entity than God alone But Infinity can have no addition 2. Because Ens Bonum Convertuntur But God only is good And if we are notwithstanding all this distinct Beings from God now we shall be so then For we shall not be Annihilated and we shall not be so advanced as to be deified and of creatures or distinct Beings turned into a Being infinitely above us If we be not Parts of God now we shall not be so then But if they could prove that we are so now we should quickly prove to them 1. That then God hath material divisible parts as the Stoicks thought 2. And that we are no such parts as are not distinct from one another but some are tormented and some happy And 3. That as is said it will be no abatement of the misery of the tormented nor of the felicity of the blessed to tell them that they are all parts of God For though the manner of our Union with him and dependance on him be past our comprehension yet that we are distinct and distant from each other and have each one a joy or misery of his own is past all doubt Therefore there is no Union with God to be feared by holy Souls but the utmost possible to be highliest desired § 46. And if our Union with God shall not cease our Individuation or resolve us into a Principle to be feared we may say so also of our Union with any common Soul or many If we be Unible we are Partible and so have a distinct though not a divided substance which will have its proper Accidents All Plants are parts of the Earth really united to it and radicated in it and live and are nourished by it And yet a Vine is a Vine and an Apple is an Apple and a Rose is a Rose and a Nettle is a Nettle And few men would be toiled Horses or Toads if it were proved that they are animated by a common Soul § 47.
and ease a Man's Faith is not tried to the uttermost by actual forsaking all And yet an easy Death alone doth not fully try a Man For they that know that all must die may submit to this who cannot bear long pains before it But great and long pains and the Sentence of Death together are the trial And if God will so try me why should I repine Flesh will groan but the Mind may obediently submit It is but Flesh that Flesh that hath tempted and imprisoned my Soul I have too much loved it and am too loth to leave it And is it not Mercy from God to make me weary of it God is engaged against Idols that is all that is loved and pleased before him and if any thing that 's likest to be this Flesh It 's corruptibility tells us that both its pleasure and its pain will be but short Long pain is usually tolerable And intolerable pain will conquer Nature and not be long The Grace of Christ is sufficient for us and his strength is manifested in our weakness when he will not take the Thorn out of our Flesh though as Christ and Paul did we pray thrice or oftner And to be impatient with Death is to repine that we are born Mortal men and to fly from Heaven and all true Hopes and all the Felicity purchased by Christ And is this renouncing the World and trusting Christ for Life everlasting And why fear we that which endeth all our pains and fears A true Believer never suffereth so much but his Mercies are far more and greater than his sufferings His Soul is united to Christ His hopes of Heaven have a sure Foundation He is sealed up to Glory Rest and Joy are near at hand And former Mercies should not be forgotten And should not such men patiently endure O what a shameful contradiction is it to choose Heaven as our only Portion to believe in Christ for it and to seek it as the business of all our lives and yet to be loth to die that we may obtain it and to fly with fear from that which we so seek and hope for What a contradiction is it to call God our God and Father the God of Love and to call Christ our Gracious glorified Redeemer and yet to Fly from his presence with distrustful fear Almighty love may correct us may kill us but it cannot finally hurt true Believers So much of Moses and Elias discourse of the Sufferings and Death of Christ § 13. Sure it is not true that the Souls of the Fathers before Christ's coming did not enter into Heaven but lay in some inferiour Limbus For Moses and Elias came from Heaven their shining glory shewed that and their discourse with Christ and the Voice and glory that went with them And it is not to be thought that they were separated from the rest of the Souls of the Faithful and with Henoch were in Heaven by themselves alone and the rest elsewhere Though it 's said that God's House hath many Mansions and there are various degrees of Glory yet the blessed are all Fellow-Citizens of one Society and Children in one Family of God And they that came from East and West shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom and the believing Thief with Christ in Paradise § 14. It seems that Moses and Elias appeared thus to fore shew the Resurrection of Christ and of the Faithful and to make it easier to the three Disciples to believe it Why should they doubt whether Christ should rise when they saw Moses that was risen before him And why should they doubt of the Resurrection of the Faithful and the Glory following when they saw these glorified Saints Some think that this Apparition was for the strengthening of Christ himself whose humane Nature had use for such Ministry also of Angels But it 's more certain that it was for the strengthening of the Disciples Faith and of ours by their Testimony As it 's said Joh. 12. 30. This Voice came not because of me but for your sakes § 15. It is much worth our noting in what a Communion this Specimen of the Kingdom of Heaven was represented in the holy Mount Here was a Voice of God and a glimpse of his Glory Here was our Redeemer in a glimpse of his Glory Here was a Moses and Elias in a glimpse of their Glory And here were three beloved Disciples yet in the Flesh and in weakness of Faith which needed such confirmation God our Father and our Saviour the Saints of Heaven and those on Earth are all of one Society or Kingdom there is a near relation and a near communion among them all When the Eternal Word disdained not so wonderful condescension as to come to us in the form of a Servant even of a poor despised Crucified Man it 's less wonder that Moses and Elias should come down as his Witnesses and Servants Heb. 12. 23 c. The heavenly Jerusalem and City of the Living God of which we are Enrolled Burgesses or Heirs hath many parts There is the Assembly of the first Born and innumerable Angels and the Spirits of the Just made perfect and Jesus the Mediator of the New Covâ—nant and God the Judge of all O what holy glorious joyful Company shall we have above Christ and his Angels will not despise the least of Saints § 16. But what was the Introduction to this Apparition and Transfiguration It was Christ's praying Luk. 9. 28 29. He went up into a Mountain to pray and as he prayed he was transfigured Surely this is written to invite and encourage us to pray We are in greater need than Christ It 's folly in Unbelievers to think Prayer vain because God is unchangeable We are not unchangeable And the exercise of Faith dependance on God and true desires being the Conditions required in a due Receiver maketh those Blessings become ourâ—s which else we had been uncapable of God who commandeth fervent Prayer hath promised to answer it Though we must not think to be the Rulers of the World nor have whatever our Flesh or solly doth desire because we ask it earnestly yet true Prayer is the appointed way for obtaining what we need and is best for us and we are fitted to receive And as Christ had this wonderful return to his Prayers his Servants have experience that their choicest Mercies for Soul and Body have come this way § 17. Though the three Disciples were admitted to this glorious Society how different was their case from that of Christ and Moses and Elias In the beginning of the heavenly concourse they were asleep with heaviness Even while this glorious Company stood near them Alas such is our infirmity in Flesh and such a Clog are these earthly Bodies to us that when God is present and Heaven is before us and we have the greatest cause to watch and pray a heavy weary sluggish Body even
not how erroneously they think The sensible souls of Bruits are substance And therefore are not annihilated at death But God put them under us and made them for us and us more nearly for himself Bruits have not Faculties to know and love God to meditate on him or praise him or by moral agency to obey his Precepts They desire not any higher felicity than they have God will have us use their service yea their lives and Flesh to tell us they were made for us He tells us not what he doth with them after death But whatever it is it is not annihilation and it 's like they are in a state still of service unto Man Whether united or how individuate we know not Nor yet whether those Philosophers are in the right that think that this Earth is but a small Image of the vast superiour Regions where there are Kingdoms answerable to these here where the Spirits of Bruits are in the like subjection in aerial Bodies to those low rational Spirits that inhabite the Aerial Regions as in Flesh they were to Man in Flesh But it 's enough for us that God hath given us Faculties to know love praise and obey him and trust him for Glory which he never gave to them because they were not made for things so high Every Creatures Faculties are suited to their use and ends And Love tells me that the blessed God who giveth to Bruits that life health and pleasure which they are made and fitted for will give his Servants that heavenly delight in the fulness of his Love and Praise and and mutual joyful Love to one another which Nature fundamentally and Grace more immediately hath made them fit for Blessed Jehovah for what tasts of this effused Love thou hast given me my Soul doth bless thee with some degree of gratitude and joy And for those further measures which I want and long for and which my pained languid state much needs and would raise my joyful hopes of Glory I wait I beg from day to day O give me now at the Door of Heaven some fuller taste of the heavenly Felicity Shed more abroad upon my Heart by the Holy Ghost that Love of thine which will draw up my longing Soul to thee rejoicing in hope of the Glory of God FINIS This is the true mean between George Keith the Quakers Doctrine of Continued Inspiration Intuition and that on the other extream Matth. 28. 18. Joh. 5. 22. Joh. 17. 2. Joh. 12. 26. Joh. 3. 16. Rom. 8. 35 36 37 30. * 1 Pet. 4. 6. They that died to or in the Flesh according to Men do live in the Spirit according to God * Indeed if the Soul were not Immortal the Resurrection were impossible It might be a new Creation of another Soul but not a Resurrection of the same if the same be annihilated It 's certain that the Jews believed the Immortality of the Soul in that they believed the Resurrection and future life of the same Man * Psal 34. 7. 91. 11 12. Luk. 15. 10. 1 Cor. 11. 10. Heb. 1. 14. 12. 22. 13. 2. Mat. 18. 10. 25. 31. 13. 39 49. Act. 5. 19. 8. 26. 12. 7. 23. * Of this see the Second Edition by Dr. More of Mr. Glanvile's Book of Apparitions called Atheismus Triumphatus †For the truth of this read Mr. Fairclough's Life * See what I have said of particular Testimonies in my Saints Rest and unreasonableness of Infidelity * 1 Joh. 5. 9 10 11. Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. Phil. 3. 7. to the 15. * Eph. 1. 14. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Rom. 8. 23. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Eph. 1. 13. 4. 30. 1 Joh. 5. 9 10. Heb. 10. 15. * This one Truth will give great Light into the Controversies about God's gracious Operations on the Soul For when he useth second Causes we see he Operateth according to their limited aptitude And Christ's humane Nature and all other second Causes are limited and operate variously and resistibly according to the Recipients capacity * Treat of Infidelity Luke 15. 10. And Mr. Beverly in his Great Soul of Man ☞