more impossible for Moses to assume such a Body as he appeared in on the Mount for that occasion than for Angels to appear in humane shapes and departed Souls too as many Apparitions have told men And if bad Souls can do it why not good ones when God will have it The Tradition seemeth but a Jewish Dream that God kept the Body of Moses uncorrupted in the Grave and that this was it that the Devil is said to strive for against Michael that the Body might be corrupted And say others that at this Transfiguration it rose again There need no such conceits to our satisfaction The Soul of Moses could assume a Body § 8. But still the dissimilitude of Henoch and Elias from all the Saints in Heaven is an unresolved difficulty If we knew that God would have it so it might satisfie us But there is a symmetry in the Body of Christ And it 's like that the same Region hath Inhabitants of the same Nature What shall we think then That Henoch and Elias at their entrance into those Regions laid by their Bodies and became such as Abraham and other holy Souls Why are they taken up to be so laid by The corruptibility no doubt they did lay by God knoweth but it s much unknown to us Or shall we think as all those Fathers cited by Faustus Regiensis and as Dr. More and some of late that all Spirits are Souls and animate some Bodies and so that all in Heaven have some Bodies If so what Bodies are they And how differ they from the Resurrection state As the Soul here operateth in and by the Igneous Spirits in our Bodies it may be so lodged in these as to take some of them with it at Death as the life of a dying Plant yet dieth not in the Seed And a Man may be said to go unclothed to Bed though he put not off his shift or nearest Garment and to be clothed again when he puts on the rest And at the Resurrection as there will be a New Heaven and Earth so Spirits now in Heaven may have much more delightful business on the New and Righteous Earth than now they have and therefore may have use for an additional Body as much differing from what they have now in Heaven as the New Earth and their employment there require and as the Seed doth differ from the Plant. And Spirits being communicative will be more happy by more communication As God delighteth to do good to all his works so the Souls now confined to Heaven will delight to be employed in doing good to the New Earth and to animate the Bodies suited to such work Though now they have use for no other than such Spiritual lucid Receptacles as are fit for the Regions where they dwell And it will be no debasement or dejection for a Spirit now in Heaven to animate a Body at the Resurrection fit for the New Earth no more than it was to Angels to speak to Adam and to Moses to Abraham Jacob Manoah and others or then it is to the Sun to enlighten and enliven things on Earth It is a foolish thing to think as some do that departed Souls will be as dormant and unactive as in Apopletick or Sleeping Persons for want of Organized Bodies to act in Spirits are Essentially Active Intellective and Volitive And will God continue such Essential Powers in vain Moses and Elias wanted not Bodies And those in Heaven can praise Jehovah and the Lamb with holy concordant Love and Joy whether in any sort of ethereal Bodies or without we shall shortly know § 8. It is said that Moses and Elias talked with Christ This sheweth that Christ hath familiar communion with the Blessed He that would come into Flesh on Earth and live with Man in an humbled state and refused not familiar converse with poor men and women and would eat and drink with Publicans and Sinners will not refuse everlasting near familiarity with the glorified If the Church be his dearly beloved Spouse and as it were one with him as his Body surely he will be no stranger to the least and lowest Member of it § 9. But what was it that they talkt about Luk. 9. 31. saith They appeared in Glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem This was not to make it known to Christ who came into the World to die for sin What then was it for Did Christ tell them of it as not knowing it before That is not likely neither Did he need their comfort as Angels in his trials ministred to him and strengthned him The particular uses of this speech we know not But in general we know it was somwhat preparatory to his great Sufferings and Death And must Christ's Sufferings and Death have such preparation and must not mine have much premeditation and do I not need the consolatory messages of God Carnal men would rather have chosen pleasanter discourse than the talk of Sufferings and Death But that which must be undergone and requireth greatest strength must be forethought of and requireth the most preparing Thoughts It 's worse than madness to be surprized with Sufferings and Death before it 's seriously forethought of So sharp a trial and so great a change require the greatest preparation He that can refuse to suffer and die may refuse to talk or think of it If Christ must have men from Heaven to talk with him of his Cross what cause have we to study the Cross Even all our lives to foresee it and by obedient consent to submit unto it and take it up to follow Christ and even to determine with Paul to know nothing in the World but Christ and him Crucified that is to take this for the only needful and excellent Learning But alas how senslesly is Death and Suffering talkt of till it comes We are to learn how to suffer when suffering is upon us and to learn how to die till Nature or the Physician pass the sentence of Death on us at hand And it is God's Mercy to some of us to make our sufferings long that we may have a competent time of learning As we learn to write by writing and to discourse by discoursing and every Art and Trade by practice even so by suffering we learn to suffer And the Lesson is very hard Malefactors suffer without Learning whether they will or not but to suffer Obediently with Child-like affections is the Lesson to be learnt O little too little do many honest Christians think how much of their most excellent Obedience consisteth in Child-like holy Suffering Therefore they little expect it and provide for it And then they are overwhelmed with the unexpected surprizal when it comes Even in the sufferings which men bring on the Faithful for Righteousness sake how many shrink and shift off their duty or venture on forbidden things for safety because they were not prepared for it The loss of goods or imprisonment and want seem
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
Either no Dreams or vain or troublesom Dreams are much more common And to say that Rest and Ease is my pleasure is but to say that my daily labour and cares are so much greater than my waking pleasure that I am glad to lay by both together For what is Ease but deliverance from weariness and pain For in deep and dreamless sleep there is little positive sense of the Pleasure of Rest itself But indeed it is more from Natures necessitated inclination to this self-easing and repairing means than from the positive pleasure of it that we desire sleep And if we can thus be contented every Night to die as it were to all our waking pleasures why should we be unwilling to die to them at once 5. If it be the inordinate pleasures forbidden of God which you are loath to leave those must be left before you die or else it had been better for you never to have been born Yea every wise and godly Man doth cast them off with detestation You must be against Holiness on that account as well as against Death And indeed the same Cause which maketh men unwilling to live a Holy life hath a great hand in making them unwilling to die even because they are loth to leave the pleasure of sin If the wicked be converted he must be gluttonous and drunken no more he must live in Pride Vain-glory Worldliness and sensual pleasures no more and therefore he draweth back from a Holy life as if it were from Death itself And so he is the lother to die because he must have no more of the pleasures of his Riches Pomp and Honours his Sports and Lust and pleased Appetite no more for ever but what 's this to them that have mortified the Flesh with the affections and lusts thereof 6. Yea it is these forbidden pleasures which are the great impediments both of our Holiness and our truest pleasures And one of the Reasons why God forbiddeth them is because they hinder us from better And if for our own good we must forsake them when we turn to God it must be supposed that they should be no reason against our willingness to die but rather that to be free from the danger of them we should be the more willing 7. But the great satisfying Answer of this Objection is that Death will pass us to far greater pleasures with which all these are not worthy to be compared But of this more in due place § 5. III. When I die I must depart not only from sensual delights but from the more manly Pleasures of my Studies knowledge and converse with many wise and godly men and from all my pleasure in Reading Hearing publick and private Exercises of Religion c. I must leave my Library and turn over those pleasant Books no more I must no more come among the Living nor see the faces of my faithful Friends nor be seen of Man Houses and Cities and Fields and Countreys Gardens and Walks will be nothing as to me I shall no more hear of the Affairs of the World of Man or Wars or other News nor see what becomes of that beloved Interest of Wisdom Piety and Peace which I desire may prosper c. Answ 1. Though these delights are far above those of sensual Sâ—â—ners yet alas how low and little are they How small is our knowledg in comparison of our Ignorance And how little doth the knowledge of Learned Doctors differ from the thoughts of a silly Child For from our Childhood we take it in but by drops and as trifles are the Matter of childish knowledge so Words and Notions and artificial Forms do make up more of the Learning of the World than is commonly understood and many such Learned men know little more of any Great and excellent Things themselves than Rusticks that are contemned by them for their ignorance God and the Life to come are little better known by them if not much less than by many of the unlearned What is it but a Child-game that many Logicians Rhetoricians Grammarians yea Metaphysicians and other Philosophers in their eagerest Studies and Disputes are exercised in Of how little use is it to know what is contained in many Hundred of the Volumes that fill our Libraries Yea or to know many of the most glorious Speculations in Physicks Mathematicks c. Which have given some the Title of Virtuosi Ingeniosi in these times who have little the more Wit or Virtue to Live to God or overcome Temptations from the Flesh and World and to secure their everlasting Hopes What pleasure or quiet doth it give to a dying Man to know almost any of their Trifles 2. Yea it were well if much of our Reading and Learning did us no harm and more than good I fear lest Books are to some but a more honourable kind of temptation than Cards and Dice Lest many a precious Hour be lost in them that should be employed on much higher matters And lest many make such knowledge but an unholy natural yea carnal Pleasure as Worldings do the Thoughts of their Lands and Honours and lest they be the more dangerous by how much the less suspected But the best is it is a pleasure so feâ—â—ed from the sloathful with Thorny labour of hard and long Studies that laziness saveth more from it than Grace and holy Wisdom doth But doubtless Fancy and the Natural Intellect may with as little Sanctity live in the pleasure of Reading Knowing Disputing and Writing as others spend their time at a Game at Chess or other ingenious sport For my own part I know that the Knowledg of Natural things is valuable and may be Sanctified much more Theological Theory And when it is so it is of good use and I have little knowledge which I find not some way useful to my highest ends And if Wishing or Money would procure more I would wish and empty my Purse for it but yet if many score or hundred Books which I have read had been all unread and I had that time now to lay out upon higher thing I should think my self much richer than now I am And I must earnestly pray The Lord forgive me the Hours that I have spent in reading Things less profitable for the pleasing of a Mind that would fain know all which I should have spent for the increase of Holiness in my self and others And yet I must thankfully acknowledge to God that from my youth he taught me to begin with things of greatest weight and to refer most of my other Studies thereto and to spend my days under the Motives of Necessity and Profit to my self and those with whom I had to do And I now think better of the Course of Paul that determined to know nothing but a Crucified Christ among the Corinthians that is so to converse with them as to Use and Glorying as if he knew nothing else And so of the the rest of the Apostles and Primitive Ages And
The Crown will come in its due time And Eternity is long enough to enjoy it how long soever it be delayed But if I will do that which must obtain it for my self and others it must be quickly done before my declining sun be set O that I had no worse causes of my unwillingness yet to die than my desire to do the work of life for my own and other mens Salvation And to finish my course with joy and the Ministry committed to me by the Lord. Use VI. And as it is on Earth that I must do good to others so it must be in a manner suited to their state on Earth Souls are here closely united to Bodies by which they must receive much good or hurt Do good to mens Bodies if thou wouldst do good to their Souls Say not Things corporeal are worthless Trifles for which the receivers will be never the better They are things that nature is easily sensible of And sense is the passage to the mind and will Dost not thou find what a help it is to thy self to have at any time any ease and alâ—crity of Body And what a burden and hinderance pains and cares are Labour then to free others from such burdens and temptations and be not regardless of them If thou must rejoice with them that rejoice and mourn with them that mourn further thy own joy in furthering theirs and avoid thy own sorrows in avoiding or curing theirs But alas what power hath selfishness in most How easily do we bear our Brethrens pains reproaches wants and afflictions in comparison of our own How few thoughts and how little cost or labour do we use for their supply in comparison of what we do for our selves Nature indeed teacheth us to be most sensible of our own case But Grace tells us that we should not make so great a difference as we do but should love our Neighbours as our selves Use VII And now O my Soul consider how mercifully God hath dealt with thee that thy streight should be between two conditions so desirable I shall either die speedily or stay yet longer upon Earth Which ever it be it will be a Merciful and Comfortable state That it is desirable to depart and be with Christ I must not doubt and shall anon more copiously consider And if my abode on Earth yet longer be so great a Mercy as to be put in the Ballance against my present possession of Heaven surely it must be a state which obligeth me to great thankfulness to God and comfortable acknowledgment And surely it is not my pain or sickness my sufferingâ— from malicious men that should make this Life on Earth unacceptable while God will continue it Paul had his Prick or Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to Buffet him and suffered more from men though less in his Health than I have done And yet he gloried in such Infirmities and rejoiced in his Tribulationâ— and was in a streight between living and dying yea rather chose to live yet longer Alas it is another kind of streight that most of the World are in The streight of most is between the desire of Life for fleshly interest and the fear of Death as ending their felicity The streight of many is between a tiring World and Body which maketh them aweary of living and the dreadful prospect of future danger which makes them afraid of dying If they live it is in misery if they must die they are afraid of greater misery which way ever they Look behind or before them to this World or the next fear and trouble is their Lot yea many an upright Christian through the weakness of their Trust in God doth live in this perplexed streight aweary of living and afraid of dying between grief and fear they are prest continually But Paul's streight was between two Joys which of them he should desire most And if that be my case what should much interrupt my Peace or Pleasure If I live it is for Christ for his Work and for his Church for Preparation for my own and others everasting felicity And should any suffering which maketh me not unserviceable make me impatient with such a work and such a life If I die presently it is my gain God who appointeth me my work doth limit my time and sure his glorious reward can never be unseasonable or come too soon if it be the time that he appointeth When I first engaged my self to preach the Gospel I reckoned as probable but upon one or two years And God hath continued me it above Forty four with such interruptions as others in these times have had And what reason have I now to be unwilling either to live or die God's Service hath been so sweet to me that it hath overcome the trouble of constant pains or weakness of the Flesh and all that men have said or done against me But the following Crown exceeds this pleasure more than I am here capable to conceive There is some trouble in all this pleasant work from which the Soul and Flesh would rest And blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them But O my Soul what need'st thou be troubled in this kind of streight It is not left to thee to choose whether or when thou wilt live or die It is God that will determine it who is infinitely fitter to choose than thou Leave therefore his own work to himself and mind that which is thine whilst thou livest live to Christ and when thou diest thou shalt die to Christ even into his blessed Hands So live that thou maist say It is Christ liveth in me and the life that I live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And then as thou hast lived in the comfort of hope thou shalt die unto the comfort of Vision and Fruition And when thou canst say he is the God whose I am and whom I serve thou maist boldly add and whom I trust and to whom I commend my departing Soul And I know whom I have trusted Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts Philippians 1. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better or for this is much rather to be preferred or better § 1. MAN that is born of a Woman is of few daies and full of trouble He cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not And dost thou open thine Eyes upon such a one and bringest me into Judgment with thee saith Job ch 14. v. 1 2 3. As a Watch when it is wound up or as a Candle newly lighted so Man newly conceived or born beginneth a motion which incessantly hasteth to its appointed period And an Action and its Time that is past is Nothing So vain a thing would
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
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.
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
that were it not for the work and higher ends of life I had little Reason to be much in love with it or to be loath to leave it And had not God put into our Nature itself a necessary unavoidable sensitive Love of the Body and of Life as he puts into the Mother and into every Bruit a love of their young Ones how unclean and impotent and troublesome soever for the propagation and continuance of Man on Earth Had God but left it to meer Reason without this necessary pre-engagement of our Natures it would have been a matter of more doubt and difficulty than it is whether this life should be loved and desired and no small number would daily wish that they had never been Born A wish which I have had much a do to forbear even when I have known that it is sinful and when the work and pleasure of my life have been such to overcome the evils of it as few have had 6. Yea to depart from such a Body is but to be removed from a very foul uncleanly and sordid Habitation I know that the Body of Man and Bruits is the curious wonderful work of God and not to be despised nor injuriously dishonoured but admired and well used But yet it is a wonder to our Reason that so noble a Spirit should be so meanly housed And we may call it Our vile Body as the Apostle doth Phil. 3. 21. It is made up of the Airy Watery and Earthly parts of our daily food subacted and actuated by the fiery part as the instrument of the Soul The greater part of the same food which with great cost and pomp and pleasure is first upon our Tables and then in our Mouths to day is to morrow a fetid loathsom excrement and cast out into the draught that the sight and smell of that annoy us not which yesterday was the sumptuous fruit of our abundance the glory of that which is called great housekeeping and the pleasure of our Eyes and Taste And is not the rest that turneth into Blood and Flesh of the same general kind with that which is turned into loathsom filth The difference is that it is fitter for the Soul by the fiery Spirits yet longer to operate on and keep from corruption Our blood and flesh are as stinking and loathsom a substance as our filthiest excrements save that they are longer kept from putrefaction Why then should it more grieve me that one part of my food which turned into flesh should rot and stink in the Grave than that all the rest should daily stink in the draught Yea while it is within me were it not covered from my sight what a loathsom mass would my Intestines appear If I saw what is in the Guts the Mesentery the Ventricles of the Brain what filth what bilious or mucous matter and perhaps crawling Worms there are in the most proud or comely Person I should think that the cover of a cleaner Skin and the borrowed Ornaments of Apparel make no great difference between such a Body and a Carkass which may be also covered with an adorned Coffin and Monument to deceive such Spectators that see but out-sides the change is not so great of corruptible Flesh repleat with such fetid Excrements into corrupted Flesh as some Fools imagine 7. Yet more to Depart from such a Body is but to be loosed from the Bondage of Corruption and from a Clog and Prison of the Soul I say not that God put a pre-existent Soul into this Prison Penally for former faults I must say no more than I can prove or than I know But that Body which was an apt Servant to Man's Soul is become as a Prison to him now What alteration sin made upon the Nature of the Body as whether it be more terrene and gross than else it would have been I have no reason to assert Of Earth or Dust it was at first and to Dust it is sentenced to return But no doubt but it hath its part in that dispositive depravation which is the fruit of sin we find that the Soul as sensitive is so imprisoned or shut up in Flesh that sometimes it is more than one Door that must be opened before the Object and the Faculty can meet In the Eye indeed the Soul seemeth to have a Window to look out at and to be almost itself viâ—ible to others And yet there are many interposing tunicles and a suffusion or winking can make the clearest sight to be as useless for the time as if it were none And if sense be thus shut up from its Object no wonder if Reason also be under difficulties from coporeal impediments and if the Soul that is yoaked with such a Body can go no faster than its heavy pace 8. Yet further To Depart from such a Body is but to be separated from an accidental Enemy and one of our greatest and most hurtful Enemies Though still we say That it is not by any default in the work of our Creator but by the effects of sin that it is such What could Satan or any other Enemy of our Souls have done against us without our flesh What is it but the Interest of this Body that standeth in competition against the Interest of our Souls and God What else do the prophane sell their heavenly Inheritance for as Esau his Birthright No Man loveth evil as evil but as some way a real or seeming good And what good is it but that which seemeth good for the Body What else is the Bait of Ambition Covetousness and Sensuality but the Interest and Pleasure of this Flesh What taketh up the Thoughts and Care which we should lay out upon things Spiritual and Heavenly but this Body and its Life What Pleasures be they that steal away mens Hearts from the heavenly Pleasures of Faith Hope and Love but the Pleasures of this Flesh This draweth us to sin This hindereth us from and in our duty This Body hath its interest which must be minded and its inordinate Appetite which must be pleased or else what murmurings and disquiet must we expect Were it not for Bodily Interest and its Temptations how much more innocently and holily might I live I should have nothing to care for but to please God and to be pleased in him were it not for the care of this Bodily life What Employment should my Will and Love have but to Delight in God and Love Him and his Interest were it not for the Love of the Body and its concerns By this the mind is darkened and the Thoughts diverted By this our wills are perverted and corrupted and by Loving things Corporeal contract a strangâ—ness and aversation from things Spiritual By this Heaâ—â— and Time are alienated from God our Guilt is increased and our heavenly desire and hopes destroyed Life made unholy and uncomfortable and Death made terrible God and our Souls separated and Life eternal set by and in danger of being utterly lost
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
his saving Grace nor the presence of his Spirit as oft as it loseth heavenly delight Desire sheweth Love to him and to his Holiness And he never forsaketh those that love him As long as the Soul breatheth after Christ and after more communion with God and conscious of its imperfection would fain be perfect and resolveth to continue waiting for increase of Faith and Holiness in the use of the means which Christ hath appointed it is not forsaken Christ by his Spirit dwelleth and worketh in that Soul It may enter into a Cloud and Christ may be unseen and seem quite lost but the Cloud will vanish and he will appear and he will first find us that we may seek and find him If he appear to us but as in his humiliation and as crucified and thereby humble us and crucifie to us the World and the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof and cause us but to seek first his Kingdom and Righteousness he will raise us higher and shew us his Glory when Grace and Conquest and Perseverance have prepared us We are in a cloudy World and Body and our sins are yet a thicker Cloud between God's glorious Face and us But as God is God and Heaven is Heaven so Christ is Christ and Grace is Grace when we see it not but fear that we are undone and entring into outer darkness And at Sun rising all our darkness all our doubts fears will vanish § 32. Luke 9. 15. There came a Voice out of the Cloud This is my beloved Son hear him Had I heard such a Testimony from Heaven would it not have set my Faith above all doubts and unbelief For the Voice that thus owned Christ and his Word might embolden me fully to trust all his Promises as it bindeth me to obey his Precepts God's Love is effective and communicative and as his Life and Light cause Life and Light so his Love causeth Love and Christ that is called his Beloved Son is likest him in Love None loveth us so much as God our Father and his Beloved Son who is also as God Essential Love And shall I think with cold or little Love of such a God and such a Saviour It is as unreasonable to fly from God or Christ as fearing that he wanteth Love to a capable Soul as to fly from the Sun as wanting heat or light O what an unruly froward thing is the corrupted Soul of Man When we think of God's judgment and how we are in his hands as to all our hopes for Soul Body we fear and are uncomfortable lest he have not so much Love and Mercy as should cause us confidently to trust him We could trust some Friends with Life and Soul were we in their power but infinite love itself and a loving Saviour we can hardly trust so far as to quiet us in Pain or Death And yet when Christ to cure this distrust hath manifested his Love by the greatest Miracles that ever God shewed to mortal men even by Christ's Incarnation his Life his Works his Death Resurrection Intercession and the advancement of humane Nature in him above Angels the greatness of this Incomprehensible Love occasioneth the difficulty of our believing it as if it were too great and wonderful to be credible Thus dark and guilty Sinners hardly believe our Fathers Love whether it be exprest by ordinary or by the most wonderful effects § 33. As Christ is called the Son of God so also are all his Members We have so far the same title that we might partake of the same comforts He is God's only Son by Eternal Generation and the hypostatical union upon his miraculous conception But through him we are Sons by Regeneration and Adoption And shall not the love of such a Father be trusted and the presence and pleasing of such a Father be desired If Manoah's Wife could say If he would have killed us Re would not have accepted a Sacrifice of us I may say If he would have damned me or forsaken my departing Soul he would not have Adopted me nor made and called me his Son Christ was made his Incarnate Son that we might be made his Adopted Sons And we are made his Adopted Sons for the sake and by the Grace of Christ his Natural Son § 34. The Command Hear him is Relative as to Moses and Elias 1. Hear him whom the Law and the Prophets typified and foretold and were his Servants and Preparatory Instructors to lead us to him 2. Hear him before Moses and the Prophets where his Coming and Covenant abrogateth the Law of Moses and as a greater Light he obscureth the less He hath revealed more than they revealed and the same more clearly Life and Immortality is more fully brought to light by him His Gospel is as the Heart of the Holy Bible We use the Old Testament Books especially as the Witnesses of Christ § 35. And whom should we hear so willingly so obediently as Christ Abraham sent not Dives's Brethren to the King or to the High-priest to know what Religion he should choose or what he should do to escape Hell torments But it was Moses and the Prophets that they must hear But God from Heaven hath sent us yet a better Teacher and commanded us to hear Him Moses was faithful in God's House as a Servant but Christ as a Son His Authority is above Kings and High-priests and they have no Power now but from him and therefore none against him or his Laws All commands are null to Conscience which contradict him The examples in Da. 3. 6. and of the Apostles tell us whether God or Man should be first obeyed Therefore it is that the Bible is more necâ—ssary to be searcht and learned than the Statute Book or Canons Were Man to be heard before Christ or against him or as necessarily as he why have we not Law Preachers every Lord's day to expound the Statutes and Canons to all the People And why are they not Catechized out of the Book of Canons or Law as well as out of the Bible And sure if we must hear Christ and his Gospel before Priests or Princes or before our dearest friends much more before our fleshly Lusts and Appetites and before a profane and foolish Scorner and before the temptations of the Devil O had we heard Christ warning us when we hearkned to the Tempter and to the Flesh how safely had we lived and how comfortably might we have died § 36. But this word Hear him is as comfortable as obligatory Hear him Sinner when he calls thee to repent and turn to God Hear him when he calleth thee to himself to take him for thy Lord and Saviour to believe and trust him for Pardon and Salvation Hear him he when calleth Come to me all ye that are weaty and heavy laden Ho every every one that thirsteth come whoever will let him drink of the Water of Life freely Hear him when he commandeth and hear