it Touching the Body 't is beyond comparison more easy to tell what it will not be then what it will be For we see very clearly what things it must necessarily be delivered from but we do not see in the same manner the things wherewithal it must be endued on that very happy day There are in us two sorts of infirmities whereof the one are so very natural that we should have been subject to them though we had continued in the state of our integrity The others are so far natural that we are subject to them from the womb and from the first principles of our being and yet notwithstanding they have come upon us since the constitution of our nature and had never come into the world but in consequence of sin with regard to these last such as is the deformity of members the ugliness of the visage the want or weakness of any sense maladies wounds ill proportion of stature and to conclude liableness to death since they have no other cause nor original but sin it must necessarily be that sin being entirely and absolutely abolished all these infirmities will necessarily cease of themselves So that though we had nothing else to expect from the Resurrection it must however replace us in a condition not less excellent in what appertains to the constitution of the Body than was the condition of Adam at the hour of his Creation For 't is neither agreeable to the wisdom or mercy nor it may be to the justice of God that having absolved our whole and entire persons from all kind of sin by justification and having delivered our Souls from all evil habits by Sanctification he should notwithstanding leave on our Bodies some trace of those infirmities which had never come there but for the punishment of sin or which are necessary and indubitable dependances of it Imagine you then the most beautiful man upon earth and the most perfectly composed endued with the most lively and vigorous and exquisite senses that can be imagined free him from the danger of all kinds of incommodities in his health make his vigour always equal and flourishing and suppose you that no consequence of years can ever alter or change him and to conclude give him assurance that he shall continue so everlastingly and you will after a sort have conceived the first beginnings of the perfection which we expect in the happy Resurrection Touching the first sort of infirmities which are absolutely natural they consist in the desire of meat drink and sleep and in all those things which are either in some manner like unto them or depend upon them For without doubt Adam desired all this and this desire in a State so Holy and Perfect as was his is an indubitable argument of need and need a necessary consequence of the estate of nature in which he was placed and which the Holy Scripture expresses by this manner of speech he was made a living Soul that is to say that in this respect he was like to other Animals in which the living Soul which the Scripture also attributes unto them derives all these things in consequence to his being Now we ought also to be delivered from these kind of infirmities For the Heavens whither we aspire are not an Habitation agreable to these things although it be said that we shall be there at the Table with Abraham Isaac and Jacob that we shall there be satisfied with the fatness of the House of God and moistened with the Rivers of his pleasures that doth not mean nevertheless that we must make feasts there or to take it according to the Letter that Rivers of pleasure do actually run there But because as long as we are here below we conceive nothing almost but under the Images of things which we see the Scripture accommodating it self unto us as we do to Children doth as it were cover the Heavenly pleasure under the shadow of those that are earthly And as to what concerns generation For as much as it was not instituted in nature unless first of all for the multiplication of single persons for the peopling of the universe and afterwards for the preservation of the species when death removed the individuals the necessity of these two causes then ceasing 't is no wonder that our Saviour hath told us that in that respect we shall be like the Angels Now 't is no disadvantage to be deprived of these things when we have no need of them But to subsist in our being and to exercise perfectly the Operations which are agreeable to our most noble faculties and nevertheless to be delivered from that condition that makes all these base and wretched Actions of our Bodies absolutely necessary is without lying an Estate that ought to be judged very advantageous by those that are compounded more of Spirit than Body and have a Soul a little roused and generous if therefore you add this to those other perfections of which I have made mention you will yet much advance the excellence of that Estate whereof I have formed the Idea In the mean time all these infirmities have their root in us in that we have a Body compounded of the Elements in the same manner as are the Bodies of all other Animals and in that we are endued with a Soul sensitive and vegetative as they speak which hath faculties altogether like to the faculties of the Souls of beasts unless peradventure we be above them in some higher degree of perfection and this composition of the Elements and of a Soul vegetative and sensitive in the constitution of our essence is a cause that although the providence of God should hinder as it did in our integrity our being sick or wounded so it is that our Bodies in themselves would be capable of the impression of the causes of all these alterations and that although God should perpetually preserve us from death nevertheless the constitution of our Body in it self would be perishable and mortal for that the first man had been exempt from all these evil accidents and immortal if he had persevered in his innocence would have proceeded from the care of the Divine Providence and not from the temperature of his Body 'T is therefore necessary that although our Bodies be raised again and remade of the same matter of which they are now compounded the constitution of them must nevertheless be so changed that nothing must remain of all its natural qualities or of that Animal life which we have in common with Creatures endued with sense and destitute of Reason Let us therefore oppose a little those things that depend on this natural complexion of our Bodies to those qualities that are contrary unto them and so let us Endeavour to come to some knowledg of the perfection of the Estate that we expect our Bodies are now in their nature capable of all sorts of evil accidents and impressions which cause incommodity and grief unto them then they shall be so
what the condition of the Body to which it shall be rejoined Lastly what will be the quality of its happiness then when it shall be received into Heaven with its Body there to live an eternal and glorious Life Whether the SOUL OF A BELIEVER Be indued With Perception after Death The First Discourse THat I may come to the Resolution of the first of these Questions whether the Soul of a believer be indued with perception after death I desire that I may be pardoned if at first I enter upon considerations a little Philosophical which nevertheless I shall endeavour to explain as briefly and intelligibly as I am able I lay down therefore as a foundation a thing which remains indisputable among Christians viz. that the Soul and Body are two substances in their natures marvelously differing and in like manner endowed with faculties altogether various for the Body is in its nature material and taken from the Earth and the other Elements the Soul is a spiritual substance almost of the same kind with those intelligences separate from Matter which we usually call by the name of Angels The Body hath indeed certain Organs as they are called by the mediation whereof it is capable of receiving the Images of sensible things and to judge of their qualities the Hearing the Seeing the Smelling and those other things which we name Senses are without doubt Corporeal powers in us and appointed to judge of Colours sounds odours and other qualities which attend and accompany material objects nevertheless 't is the Soul that Comunicates to the Body the power of using its own Organs and imploying its self in the use of those Senses and this appears manifestly because as soon as the Soul is separate from it all the powers of these Organs are extinct and there remains not the least shadow of their Operations moreover the body seems likewise to be the seat of certain appetites and passions For Choler and lust do very much affect and trouble it when they are moved and the part that the temperament of the Body hath in their motions is a proof sufficiently certain that they also are powers naturally bound and fastened with it the Cholerick would not be naturally subject to anger the Sanguin of good humor and mercy the Melancholick soure and sad the Flegmatick slow and little affected on the accurance of troublesome objects if this mixture of humors out of which the temper of the Body arises had not a marvelous power to give the byass and inclinations to the motions of the Soul But so it is that these passions are not moved but by means of some external object that touches the Phantasy and by the Phantasy moves the affections For 't is offence which awakens Choler and 't is the occurence of objects pleasant and agreeable which makes the bud of joy that lies latent in the blood to put forth bloom now 't is the Soul that gives assistance to the Phantasy to receive the Images as external things which either offend or charm our passions variously according to the difference of our humors and that which is more 't is the Soul that reasons with understanding upon those things that are presented to it by the interposition of the bodily Senses and which bestirs it self either to embrace or reject that whereof it hath endeavoured to know the nature and qualities by its reasonings in such sort that although objects have a great Connexion with our humors and our humors a great power to give a tendency to our motions the Soul nevertheless ought to be the Mistress of them and to put bounds to the efficacy of objects and to the motion of our humors and passions And that which I have already said of the Senses viz. that the Body destitute of the Soul utterly loses them experience obliges me to say also of all those passions which Philosophers comprehend under those two general names of the Irascible and Concupiscible that the separation of the Soul doth equally abolish them Whereof the discourses of reason do easily discover the Cause For be the Constitution of the Organs of the Body what it will be it for the use of the external senses upon the qualities of things sensible be it for the Operation of the internal senses as is the imagination so it is that seeing they cannot Act any further than the Soul moves them as when the main spring in a Watch foiles all the other movements stand in a moment it must necessarily be that when the Soul withdraws all the actions of the Organs cease so that both reason and experience with one consent teach us what we ought to think of the faculties of our bodies Touching the Soul we have no experiences visible and ordinary of what it doth or doth not after death and if we consult the discourses of our reason concerning it we find there difficulties great beyond comparison For first of all every one makes here this consideration which appears to them of no small consideration And 't is this though the Body and Soul be two substances very different nevertheless they are so united in man that they make but one subject so that neither Body apart nor Soul apart do constitute as they say any perfect Being or any compleat Nature neither the Body makes the Man nor the Soul but both together go to his Composition and when they are separated the Body holds no place among the particular kinds of Beings that exist absolutely without dependance on each other nor the Soul neither Of the one we say 't is the body of a man and of the other 't is in like manner his Soul of both if they come to be united we say and that properly 't is the man to whom they have this respective Relation Now it seems that imperfect natures produce no operations Every thing that you observe in nature be they such as have Souls forms which do inform and animate their matter as are Plants and Animals be they such as have only a form which in some sort supplies to them the place of a Soul as are Minerals and Metals if you imagin that after their dissolution the Form subsist a while so as the Matter do not exercise the functions of the whole Composition nor will the Form exercise them neither That is to say as the body of a dead Horse hath no motion his Soul if you imagin it to subsist some time after its separation will be as great a stranger to Horse-like actions and operations moreover as it is true that as long as the Soul of a man is in his Body it gives activity to his Senses so on the other hand it seems that it hath absolutely need of its presence and the mediation of its Organs for the forming of its own discourses and ratiocinations 't is the Soul that gives unto the Body the virtue of Seeing Tasting and Smelling and generally of knowing by the operation of the Senses those 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
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
having been able to find out the truth of some Geometrical Problems even so far as to feel some kind of ravishment therein how will it be with us when there will be nothing in all those secrets of Sciences to which men ordinarily addict themselves which is not exposed to our sight as in perfect light In comparing them also with the estate of things then For although all these wonders of nature be supreamly lovely in themselves so it is that by comparison they cause us to find those of the supernatural State yet infinitely more lovely and will contribute so much the more to our satisfaction and ravishment and if it may be permitted to compare small things with great it will be as if after we had considered a glass of frail and ordinary constitution mingled with store of knots which hindered much of its transparency and luster we should see it in a moment transformed into Christal not only pure and resplendent to a wonder but also easy to be hammered and resisting all kinds of strokes without any offence or damage For it cannot be doubted but that our astonishment would then be very great and that we should enquire with extream care from what cause a change so observable should proceed As to what concerns the Church I shall not consider it at present so much in it self as with respect to that Religion by which it arrives at this glory and which now seems to be composed principally of the Histories of things past of the predictions of those that are yet to come of Doctrines that have no particular regard to any difference of times and of promises in which God hath declared his good will and the riches that he hath designed for us All which things do now compose a Body of science altogether admirable as well in the excellency of the parts whereof 't is constituted as in the wonderful symmetry and agreement that is among them and in the beautiful Harmony which they make with the Ceremonies which have been appointed to confirm the promises of God unto us Now 't is very true that touching Ceremonies we shall make no use of them in the Kingdom of Heaven They are helps for the support of our present infirmities which can have no place in the perfect State that is to come We shall not any more consider the promises as objects of our faith because they will be performed and Faith as the Apostle teaches us will in that respect be abolished We shall no more consider the predictions of things to come in that quality or under that notion because we shall see the events of them accomplished whereof the most part will eternally subsist before our eyes and that which is at this time a prediction will become a History In like manner we shall no more consider the Doctrines that have particular respect to any difference of times as things the belief and assurance whereof is a means to bring us to the fruition of happiness For when we are in the enjoyment of the end the means as such lose their use and value But nevertheless both the Histories appertaining to Religion which at the present we Consider as such and the things contained in the Prophecies to which we give the name of predictions and the Doctrines which we apprehend as Eternal verities and which change not their nature with change of times and that which is contained under the promises and the reasons of the institution of Ceremonies and Sacraments will form in the perfection in which we shall see them Objects so noble and lovely to be presented to our understandings and instructions so illustrious concerning the perfections of God whereof I have spoken before that we know not how to express with what greediness our Souls will continually feed their thoughts on them and we may not reckon what will be their emotions and transports then by that sluggishness and stupid negligence wherewithal we behave our selves very often at present in the contemplation of these Divine Objects The little knowledg that we have of their excellence and the little vivacity of desire that is in our inward thoughts for things of this nature is a cause that very few men apply themselves unto them and even of those few there are not any that have that taste of them as they ought We must measure and reckon them by the inclinations of Angels themselves who find in these Mysteries although they be at this time but imperfectly revealed so many beauties depths and wonders that St. Peter represents them as bending and inclining themselves downwards attentively to consider them and to endeavour to fathom them as far as the light of Intelligences so excellent and perfect can attain But if besides this you add to the consideration of Religion in it self that of the images and types thereof which God hath put in the constitution of the World and the old Covenant you will easily conceive that the searching out of the agreements that ought to be between the figures and the truths is an employment in speculations very profitable and agreeable to our minds For we may not imagine that so many lovely similitudes as are between the first Creation and Redemption of the World whereof the Apostle St. Paul only observes some few nor that so many lovely things as the shadows of the Old Testament do now cover and whereof we shall have little or no knowledge as long as the World endures will remain Eternally buried in obscurity All the marvels which are unknown both in nature and in Religion which notwithstanding have been produced by the Divine wisdom to the end that understanding Creatures might by them be raised to praise and adore it shall one day be unfolded from the darkness in which they are that they may serve the end and use to which they were intended That cause to which they owe their Original is too wise to have them buried like Gold in mines so deep that we shall never be able to fetch them thence 'T is necessary that the nature of things do open if I may so express it its bowels and give us one day a view and enjoyment of the inestimable treasures which the hand of God hath hidden there Now the time that will be given us for this Divine employment with the other circumstances that will accompany it is very considerable For 't is certain that to be profitably employed in the Contemplation of things 't is necessary that we be exempt from all incommodities from elsewhere Because the sense of incommodity carries away the mind from its Object and recalls it however unwilling it be to that which troubles it Now we shall be there both so far removed from all evils and possest of so great an affluence of all sorts of content that there is not the least reason in the World to fear that any thing will divert be it never so little our Spirits or hinder them from remaining fixed upon