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cause_n body_n motion_n reason_n 1,421 5 5.2161 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A27575 A sermon preached before the Queen at White-hall, October 12. 1690 by William Beveridge ... Beveridge, William, 1637-1708. 1690 (1690) Wing B2114; ESTC R2113 15,061 37

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are opened and he is turned from darkness to light as well as from the power of Satan unto God And therefore all such are called the Children of light and the Children of the day because they have a marvellous light as St. Peter calls it constantly shining in them whereby they discover many glorious things which lye perfectly hid to all other mortals By this Elisha's servant when his eyes were opened saw the Mountain full of Horses and Chariots of fire even a whole Legion of the heavenly Host round about his Master By this St. Stephen saw the Heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God yea by this Moses saw him that is invisible God himself And thus all that are real Saints being the Children of light see more or less of God at least so much as to make them love and desire and fear and trust on him above all things in the world Indeed they cannot see his face and live as he himself told Moses But they see him as Moses did in his back-parts in his works the effects and products of his divine Perfections And the reason why they cannot see his face and live in this world is because they are still in their imperfect state and therefore cannot possibly have a perfect sight of so glorious a being or if they had it would strike them dead for they could not possibly bear it or as Job expresseth it by reason of his highness they could not endure so as to live under it But seeing God himself saith that no man shall see his face and live he thereby gives us to understand that some shall see his face when they are dead and departed out of this life And so questionless do all the Saints that are in Heaven For they live in a City which hath no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it For the glory of God doth lighten it and the lamb is the light thereof Or as the Prophet Isaiah words it The Lord is to them an everlasting light So that as the Sun is to us upon Earth the fountain of all that light whereby we see any object here below so to the Saints that are above in Heaven God himself is pleased to issue forth light immediately from himself which exceeds the light of the Sun infinitely more than that exceeds the glimmering of a Glo-worm Neither doth it only shine as the Sun doth upon them but into them and so enlightens themselves too as well as all things that are about them And what is there in the world which they cannot see by such a glorious such an infinite light as this is By this light they see not only the superficies but the very substance and contexture of every creature they have a mind to look upon as exactly as if it was perfectly anatomized and laid open before them By this they see the several vertues qualities and operations of things here below and the great ends and purposes for which they are designed By this they see the causes of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea and other great Phoenomena of nature which so much puzzle Philosophy and make it but a meer conjecture By this they see the secret and wonderfull Powers that God hath put into all Animals and Vegetables of propagating their respective Species so that none of them ever did or can ever fail to be in the world By this they see both the composition and the several motions of the Sun and all the other Planets as well as fixed Stars and what influences they have upon terrestrial bodies By this they see the wise establishment of second Causes how they depend upon one another and all upon the first The sight of which and such-like things must needs be an extraordinary pleasure to them by reason of the most admirable Art and Contrivance they observe in them and also because their faculties are by this means employed to the proper uses for which they were made and to which they therefore tend For as God made all things for the manifestation of his own glory he endued men with reason on purpose that they might behold and admire the glory of those Perfections which he manifested in them And hence it is that all things naturally tending to their end all men naturally desire to know and many apply their minds wholly to find out such things as those are And if they can but guess at any of them with the least shew of reason or so much as probability they are mightily pleased with it But what a pleasure then must it be to have a full view and prospect of them and of that infinite Wisedom Power and Goodness which appeareth in them as the Saints in Heaven have by that light which shines upon their inheritance Moreover by this light they look back upon their former lives and see the steady hand of providence ordering and over-ruling not only the greater occurrences but even the least circumstances in them and the holy Spirit of God making some use or other of every one of them to work them over to himself By this they see God's infinite love and goodness to his Church militant here on earth in all the straits and difficulties he brings it into and how good and necessary it is for it that every thing should be just as it is By this they see the holy Angels and all their fellow Citizens in the new Hierusalem and converse familiarly with them as we do with one another By this they see their ever blessed Saviour the eternal Son of God in their nature exalted at the right hand of the Father far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named in Heaven or Earth By this they see all the glory which the Father hath given him as he himself once prayed they might Yea by this they see the most high God face to face even as we see the Sun by his own light and that too as clearly as fully as perfectly as it is possible for creatures to doe it Which so refreshes enlivens elevates and cheers their Spirits that they are always rejoycing and singing and praising God admiring adoring magnifying and giving thanks to his almighty all-glorious and all-gracious Majesty Father Son and Holy Ghost for his creating redeeming and sanctifying them so as to bring them through the various changes and chances of this mortal life to such an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away eternal in the heavens in glory in bliss in light it self And now we are got upon the Mount how well may we say with the Apostles It is good for us to be here Let us set up our Tents and dwell continually upon the Contemplation of this glorious inheritance of the Saints in light But alas how far as yet are we distant from it how unworthy of it how unmeet for it