Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A65568
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The state of blessedness by W.W.
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W. W., M.A. and chaplain to a person of honour.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing W153; ESTC R26302
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19,505
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32
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Though as St. Paul calls them they are the very bondage of corruption the most fordid slavery in the VVorld But they that dub their Lusts by the name of Light and their vices by that of Liberty deserve to be unnam'd unchristian'd themselves another profession would befit them better an Alcoran would more become them then the Bible for there they will be match'd with a debauch't Prophet and a beastly Paradise to their debauch't and beastly Religion But the liberty of Saints is an unrestrained power to render themselves as Holy and Perfect and therein as happy as glorious as 't is possible for humane nature to be 4. Light and darkness are often used for Life and Death so often that I need not instance For Life and Death and all their attendants that wait upon them and administer unto them The Life of Saints is a life indeed exempted both from the cause and symptoms of mortality Sin that usher'd Death into this World shall never gain admittance into the next the Blessed who have outliv'd it's poison are now above it's influence all their former sins are pardon'd and forgotten and their souls eternally secur'd from renewing them The possibility of sinning is taken away and all propensions to it lost and bury'd in the Grave A Saint cannot think of Sin but with horrour and indignation he cannot see Temptation in it nor will the Devil himself have the confidence to propose it Temptations were not prepared for any Life but this where every Condition is tedious and tiresome and poor uneasie mortals are willing to turn every way for rest and to close with any thing that hath but the face of pleasure and diversion that the wonder is not so great if some be baited and befool'd into their own ruine But Heaven is a place of that satisfaction and delight that nothing like an argument can be offer'd for a change Nothing can be proposed so tempting as what they enjoy those glories are so incomparably surpassing that the subtle Spirit can think of nothing like them So then Heaven hath not one hole for sin to enter at but it shall descend into the dark Regions from whence it came there to remain for ever And if sin be routed none of its black Guard none of its dismal effects shall stay behind Sorrow shall be a stranger to all Hearts and Tears to all Eyes Diseases and Anguish shall have no ill humors to work upon Death shall have no claim to our Lives because we shall not sin to forfeit them our bodies shall be raised glorious and immortal fit for eternal conjunction with glorify'd Spirits fit for the Society of Angels and Communion with their Maker prepared for eternity extracted from every thing that 's fading and corruptible delicately made up in wonderful Beauty and Splendor to attract and entertain the Holy Love and Admiration of all that see them curiously temper'd with exquisite sence for the delicious rellish of pure and refined pleasures How unconceivable then shall the joys of that enlightened state be when the ignobler part of man the gross and Elementary substance of our Bodies this sordid lump of corrupt Flesh which here the soul in time grows weary of and lays aside as an ungrateful burden shall at the great day rise out of its ashes a Spiritual Body bedect with Light and Glory and Immortality 5. The felicities of a glorifyed state are call'd Light because they principally consist in Vision and Knowledge The Understanding is the noblest faculty of the Mind And the infinite improvements the perfect illumination the enlargeing and fulfilling the capacities of it the settling it in its Empire and Government of the Soul the setting it upon objects worthy of its Contemplation the adapting those objects to its Apprehensions or rather raising it's conceptions to such infinite heights that it may be capable of reaching and fathoming the profoundest Mysteries the strengthning its powers that it may be able to look upon and consider the most Glorious lustre's without dazling or being confounded these make up in a great measure the happiness of Souls And therefore it is often exprest by seeing of God and seeing of his Kingdom and seeing his Glory c. And this is the felicity of the Saints that they shall have a full sight an open view of all that 's glorious and know all things that make for their Everlasting Comfort and Satisfaction But that you may the better understand the nature of this Beatifick Vision Consider 1. What it is that the Saints shall know And 2. After what manner 1. What it is that the Saints shall know I have told you in general that they shall know every thing that may confirm or increase their Joy And if we could tell particularly what they know Bonum esset nobis c. It were good for us to be Here and we should enjoy a Heaven as well as they We may make a general imperfect judgement of what they know but to give you a distinct account of all that comes within the vast comprehension of their inlightned Thoughts is a work as much above a man as the Saints are in Glory above us And they whose souls have been taken up to the habitations of the Blessed with purposes that they might return again have lost those Visions by the way as not fit to be brought down to the notices of men being so infinitely beyond the fathom of their Reason St. Paul who was wrap't up to the Regions of Glory what a broken account doth he give of what he there saw and heard 2 Cor. 12.2 c. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago whether in the Body I cannot tell or whether out of the Body I cannot tell God knoweth such an one caught up to the third Heaven And I knew such a man whether in the Body or out of the Body I cannot tell God knoweth how that he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable Words which it is not lawful or possible for a man to utter No wonder he could not retain the Vision when he had thus lost himself St. John was of all the inspired Penmen pickt out on purpose to take a view of the New Jerusalem and to give the World a description of it Yet how imperfect is his model How does his Relation savour of Earth What gross and Elementary materials hath he chosen to describe it by as Gold and Pearl and pretious Stones Into what a narrow compass hath he contracted the infinite dimensions of it The height and length and breadth equally twelve thousand Furlongs and all this to shape and little it to our understandings to represent it to the esteem of mortals in such a form so furnish't and adorn'd made up of such materials as are most pretious and valuable in the Eyes of Men and in such low expressions as reason is capable of apprehending Because our short sight can discern but a little way therefore this infinite World