Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A08457
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The pearle of perfection sought after by Charles Odingsells, Doctour of Divinitie
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Odingsells, Charles, d. 1637.
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1637
(1637)
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STC 18782; ESTC S113411
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51,839
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106
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enigmatically but then we shall know him with a perfect cleare Meridian knowledge we shall know him as we are knowne of him and as he is known of the Angels in Heaven The man which was called by the Lord Iesus in a Vision the man which was taken up into the third heaven and saw things not to be uttered hath revealed this unto us in those words 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as I and knowne Aquin. in 2 Cor. 3.18 What is knowledge but assimilatio cognoseentis ad cognitum a making of the subject knowing like to the object which is knowne So by knowing God perfectly we are made perfectly like unto him and being made perfectly like unto him we know him perfectly So the Virgin-Apostle and Prophet of the New Testament divinely argueth saying but wee know that when He shall appeare 1 Iohn 3.2 wee shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is As touching perfection in the will the estate of the Saints in heaven shall farre excell that of Adam in Paradise for he in his innocency there as St. Bernard notes Bern. de gra lib. arb had but an inferiour freedome Posse non peceare a power not to sinne whereas the glorified ones in heaven shall haue a superiour freedome Non posse peccare no power to sinne For they shall alwayes behold God the chiefe good the fountaine of good who maketh all them blessed who so behold him and that blessednes is such as includes all sufficient good and excludes all deficient evill from them that haue it Seeing they are now free Denizens and glorious Citizens of that holy Ierusalem whereof St. Gregorie saith Greg. in sept Psal paen in fine In eam nullus ingreditur impius nullus habitat iniquus nullus intrat immundus None that is ungodly goeth into it none that is unjust dwelleth in it none that is uncleane entreth into it There is no impietie no iniquirie no impuritie no evills no sinnes approach thither for as St. Prosper saith Nec peccata ibi ulla Prosp de vita contempl li. 1. cap. 4. nec peccatores erunt qui ibi fuerint jam peccare non poterint There shall neither be any sinnes nor sinners and they that shall be there shall now haue no power to sinne For they can will nothing but that which is good seeing they be now necessarily good not by any iron necessitie of compulsion or coaction for there is no such thing there but by a golden necessitie of immutabilitie which never altereth never changeth Such shall be the ineffable felicitie of the glorified Saints in heaven being now blessed with Angelicall perfection being made like unto the Angels in heaven God is righteous and therefore blessed wee are now unrighteous and therefore miserable but then being conformed to the image of God we shall be righteous and therefore blessed and consequently free from all miserie both in soule and bodie For whereas Adam had in this also Bern. de Gra. lib. Arb. an inferiour freedome Posse non turbari a power not to be troubled We shall then haue as St. Bernard noteth a superiour freedome a non posse turbari no power to be troubled to suffer any afflictiue misery whatsoever Our soules shall be free from any distemper passion and perturbation Aquin. in 1 Cor. cap. 15. lect 6. Our bodies shall be qualified with foure endowments like to the Sunne First claritie secondly agilitie thirdly subtilitie fourthly impassibilitie But what did I say like to the Sunne nay rather like to the sonne of God for we shall be like him in corporis gloria Ambr. in ca. 6. ad Roman non in divinitatis natura in the glory of his bodie not in the nature of his divinitie saith St. Ambrose For in the resurrection He will change us in a moment then as the Apostle teacheth us Phil. 3.21 He shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body So that we shall be free from all misery as he is free in his bodie Our senses and other faculties shall not be subject to any offence or hurt Our bodies shall no more be exposed to wounds maimes defects no distemper or paine no disease or infirmitie shall annoy them All tarditie and slownes of the mooving facultie shall be taken away for the bodie being now spirituall shall goe without any delay Prosp de vita contemp lib. 1. cap. 11. hindrance or difficultie Quecunque ire voluerit Spiritus angelicae beatitudinis aqualitate perfectus whither soever the Spirit will goe being perfect in equalitie with Angelicall blessednesse as St. Prosper saith Thus where the cause is taken away the effect must needs cease the evill of punishment shall alwayes be absent where the evill of sinne is never present For how is it possible that any miserie should be there where there is perfect charitie without dissimulation or hatred perfect peace without dissension or discord perfect health without languor or infirmitie where there is nothing but eternall happinesse and everlasting felicitie And the reason of all this is given by St. Iohn saying for the Lambe Revel 7.17 which is in the midst of the throne shall feede them and leade them unto living fountaines of waters and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes CHAP. XXXIIII Of perfection by immortalitie in glorie THe first act of our essence is life without which wee haue no motion or sense no understanding willing or working Hereupon blessednesse which consisteth in act is properly ascribed to life and to that life which is eternall and immortall Many of the old Philosophers held immortalitie of the soule but not of the bodie that was an idle fancie grosse and absurd with them But we know by the Christian veritie and steadfastly beleeue that our bodies in the resurrection shall rise incorruptible and liue ever For although the bodies of reprobates shall me againe and liue ever Quead substantiam vivendi in respect of the substance of life yet quoad qualitatem vivendi in regard of the qualitie of life they being in perpetuall horror and torments are rightly said to perish and die eternally Aug. 〈◊〉 cap. 92. Seeing as St. Augustine saith Vera vita non est nisi ubi faliciter vivitur It is not true life but where there is an happie life Neither may it seeme strange that a body glorified should be immortall seeing the body of Adam in the state of innocency in that earthly Paradise was immortall For as St. Augustine affirmeth that the body of Adam before sinne was both mortall and immortall Aug. in Gen. ad lit lib. 6. cap. 25. mortall quia poterat mori because it had a power to die and immortall quia poter at non mori because it had a power not to die Adam no doubt