Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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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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Will shall be imprest upon ours and we shall know his Thoughts by our own his desires and ours will look the same way and it shall be always in our Hearts to do that which he would have done and to serve him after that manner that we shall be infallibly sure to please him Our Judgments shall be wholly resign'd to his and we shall approve whatsoever he does or likes of God and his Saints have but one will and whatsoever pleases God is legibly written in their own understanding which must needs greatly contribute to their happiness for this keeps Heaven in perpetual peace that there can be no debates no differences among them but the judgment of every single member passes the whole assembly Nemine contradicente and hath the Royal assent also This secures the Blessed from all danger of doing amiss and from the doubts and fears of displeasing For they serve God after their own Wills and as they please themselves and what seems right in their own eies that is also acceptable unto him This renders all their Duties easie and pleasurable Whatsoever they do is consistent with their happiness for God requires nothing but what they are willing to nothing but what their own thoughts are inclining to Nay such a mighty force hath the will of God upon theirs and so strongly are they bent unto all that is good that they could not be happy if they did it not That Duty and Felicity there are the same thing and the worship and service of God their unspeakable pleasure and delight Thirdly The Saints are by vertue of that Light in which they dwell not only acquainted with the Will but with the Providences of God also I do not mean that they have an Omniscient understanding of all that God do's in the world No this is a point that Papists themselves dare not always stand by though a matter of great service and concernment to them But my meaning is that there is nothing in the management of the affairs of Providence that now we look upon with amazement and suspition as if they were contradictions to the justice and goodness of God but we shall be able one day to render an account of No Holy and Good man that now groans under the weight of Gods Judgements and knows not why for when he examines his life with Job he perhaps can find no notorious instances of Guilt to provoke God thus to express his Vengeance and Indignation against him but when he comes to heaven he shall be straight in the Light and understand the reason of Gods dealing with him and that there was infinite wisdom and goodness in those proceedings then he will find that God was just in his dispensations to him and that he ought to have no quarrel with Providence upon that account but his soul will bless it's Maker and say with holy David Lord I know that in very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me and it was good for me that I was in trouble Then all those thwart and uneven Providences that Reason is confounded and that Faith staggers at shall entertain the contemplation of the Saints with singular delight They will see how God hath traced the Souls of men through a thousand turnings and by crossing their purposes endeavour'd to chase them from their evil haunts and customs how his Providence hath lain upon the catch and watch't to beguile them into the tracks of vertue and holiness With what holy artifice and stratagem he hath managed the welfare of his Church and what variety of methods he hath taken to secure both her Religion and Peace Sometimes fortifying and encouraging her by mercies and kindnesses and sometimes quite the other way by Judgements and Tryals Sometimes signallizing his Justice in the direct ruine of her Enemies and sometimes tolling them into a Trap and Snare by success and triumph How he hath made hopeful causes to defeat themselves and bring forth contrary effects and on the other hand brought evil out of good and made the designs of Devils and bad men to serve the ends of his mercies and goodness This is a sweet Theme for Saints to compose their thanksgiving Songs upon and to praise God for the wonders that he doth for the Children of men Lastly The Saints shall be in the Light concerning the Judgements and Decrees of God which are matters now of such fierce disputes among us They shall fully understand the nature of the Eternal Covenant between God and Man and the purposes of the Almighty in the Salvation or Condemnation of Sinners And let the victory settle on which side it will yet all parties of the Saints shall then concur in one opinion and praise and admire the justice and wisdom and goodness of God in the excellent contrivance and management of that important affair and nothing shall have past between God and us but we shall be satisfied howsoever we disputed the matter in the world that God was in the right Let him be true and every man a Lyar. And having given you an imperfect account as every thing we say of Eternity must needs be imperfect of what the Saints know I proceed to shew the manner how this knowledge is convey'd into their minds and unto what degrees of understanding it raises them to both which I can only answer Negatively 1. The Saints know immediately they and onely they are above Ordinances and need not to be thus handed to God because they are always with him They need not track the Divine footsteps the farthest way in his Works and Providences nor study Notions of him out of his Holy Word nor take impressions from Signs and Sacraments for they know him infinitely better from the Original then 't is possible to do from Copies and Figures There 's no Temple in the new Jerusalem for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it Rev. 21.22 They need neither Prayer nor Preaching neither Offering nor Receiving For they see more in the face of God then it is possible for these to teach them 2. They know impartially they are ignorant of nothing that 's fit or possible for them to know There 's no Tree in Paradise forbidden but what would be the bane of them that tast it If God have any Reserves of knowledge that he refuses to make over to them they are either such as are inconsistent with their Happiness or with their Being such as would make them miserable as the knowledge and sence of Evil or such as they could not be Men and know For doubtless God hath left some space some degrees of perfection between us and Angels and between them and his own nature and these have their excellencies and distinctions that the Saints can neither arrive at nor desire Now God is so merciful that he will not suffer us to know any thing that may be our ruin and so just that we may not encroach upon the Prerogative of Angels which would be
theirs But we shall be as Glorious as Happy as knowing in our Kind as they and as 't is possible for Men to be And to be somewhat more then Men would as much unman us and make us as monstrous and deform'd as to be somewhat less Again 3. As the Saints shall be ignorant of nothing that is fit to be discover'd to them so they shall erre in nothing that they seem to know God is the Light by which they see and he is Truth and can neither deceive them nor will suffer them to be mistaken No he will not mock our fancies with scene and Pageantry but feed our understandings with blessed Truths He will not tempt our approaches with apparent Glory and when we come to lay hold on it thrust a shadow into our embraces We shall be where he is and our eyes shall be opened that we may see him and he will not shrink up his Beams and Brightness from us to elude our knowledg the Glass the grossness of our Nature that misrepresented things to our understandings shall be taken away and we shall know our God and in him all the objects of our felicity as infallibly as we are known of him 4. We shall know him certainly without haesitancy or dubitation we shall not scruple and quaere as John's Disciples did Art thou he or look we for another But we shall be as bold and positive as the convicted Apostle and say My Lord and my God Thus Lord shall we behold thy face in righteousness and when we awake after thy likeness we shall be satisfied with it And now let me prevail with you by the power of this worthy consideration to observe these following instructions 1. That you let this glory we have been now thinking of be always seated uppermost in your Thoughts and let all other interests give place and administer unto it If you secure this blessed are you though you should be unhappy in all things else This is the great end for which we came into the world and if we fail in the accomplishment it had been better for us never to have been born Methinks this should be a motive of that importance that it should engage all our Desires all our Studies all our Endeavours in the pursuit of it That we should be so concern'd so busi'd and taken up about it that we should have no leasure to consider the addresses of importunate Temptations much less any stomach to be prevail'd with by them Methinks he that hath such a Heaven in his eye should not look upon the World but with contempt and scorn and think it a great debasement to his reason to give it any place in his thoughts and affections that dross and Dung should ever defile that mind that was made for the contemplation of Heaven now and for the enjoyment of it at the next remove How would it daunt and shame the wanton dalliances of the flesh and make it blush at all fond unclean proposals to object against it the Ravishing but chast delights of the Saints in Bliss One serious thought thereof would confront and baffle the Pleasures and Allurements of sence and cause the most confident Temptation disgracefully to slink away and vanish If we were but always arm'd with such Meditations with what courage should we face and outbrave our present calamities and Triumph in Affliction and Death it self With what forward resolution and manly vigor should we press and fight and make our way through all difficulties with what eagerness and speed should we run the race if we did but see the Reward the Crown the Joy that is set before us 2. Let us not endeavour to anticipate Heaven and to be all-wise before our time let us not exercise our thoughts in things that are too high for us But be contented with such proportions of knowledge as God hath revealed and enabled us to understand To what purpose should we puzzle and distract our selves and others with vain disputes about things above us 'T is a dangerous thing to meddle with sacred matters we do not understand we sin in the very presumption we may for ought we know commit a second sin in being mistaken and beleiving a lie and 't is seldom seen but we are betrayed into a third for such disputes seldom are debated but with heat and passion and end in hatred and dissention Let God alone with his Decrees c. And let us mind our own duty see what part we have in the Covenant let that be our Study to know and our business to perform As for Gods part we have no reason to be solicitous about it further then he hath bin pleased to discover himself VVe may be assured what lies upon him shall be saithfully discharg'd he cannot but do all things well and righteously and when we come to Heaven we shall know as much In the mean time let us content our selves with these hopes and have no ill thoughts of God his Judgements are unsearchable but yet they are Just and Righteous VVherefore let us entertain no opinions of him that may impeach his Goodness or Equity and render them suspected here but pray that we may be of the number of those Saints who shall see them brought to Light and clear'd hereafter Lastly Let us chearfully submit to the Providences of God though we cannot solve them Let us conclude that God is just in his dispensations though we be weak and cannot understand them though we see not his Reasons in the Government of the VVorld yet we may know the defects of our own and thereto ascribe the cause why several events seem to happen so preposterous and cross All things work together for good where God has to do this should establish our confidence and silence our complaints and we shall see it though not now this should put bounds to our unreasonable curiosity let us but wait with Patience until our change come and then the crooked paths shall be made straight and the rough places plain Then all accounts between God and us shall be audited and made even and these Providences that appear so perplext and disproportionate shall be evidently made out both to our wonder and fatisfaction So that a man shall say what a happy experience shall infallibly teach him Verily There is a Reward for the Righteous Verily he is a God that Judgeth in the Earth To whom be Glory c. FINIS ERRATA P. 2. l. 29. r. and that those Pleasures l. ult r. rational p. 3. l. 15. r. these blessed Souls these dearest p. 5. l. 28. r. pleasures p. 8. l. 16. r. extent l. 18. r. consists p. 14. l. 24. for to r. so p. 15. l. 9. r. wanting in Our Bodies l. 13. r. our Souls p. 16. l. 34. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 17. l. 29. r. makes them happy p. 19. l. 12. for but perpetual r. by perpetual