here below and that they shall obtain the reward that is promised them above by a manner of speech frequent in the Scripture where that which goes before is put for that which follows he makes no scruple to name one for the other Now the gratuitous reward of good works consists not in a privation of all perception but in the possession of Contentment and glory In the same Book the Souls of those that had been Martyred for the word of God are represented crying how long Lord just and true wilt thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth which is a proof that there is in them memory and apprehension And it cannot be said here that this cry is attributed to them as in the eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans sighs and groans and desires are ascribed to the whole frame of Heaven and Earth or as the cry of vengeance is attributed to the blood of Abel by a kind of Prosopopeia or ficttion of personality because it being notorious that the Heavens and the Earth and the blood of a man have no knowledg or preception there is no danger that such manner of figurative expressions should beget erroneous opinions in the mind of any one the nature of the thing gives sufficient notice that necessarily there must be some figure in the enunciation or discourse but where 't is said of the Souls of men which we see during the time that they are in the body endued with lively and excellent perception supposing that they were extinct or at least wholly asleep after death who can hinder himself by Reading these words from drawing opinions of a quite contrary nature Now to the end that no man may doubt of the meaning of this Text it is appointed them to rest and expect a little while Now although by a kind of Prosopopeia or fiction of person we may attribute such voices to things void of all perception who ever saw God introduced making answer to them or any one for him forming a Dialogue in the manner with things without all understanding To conclude there is given unto them white garments which can signifie nothing less than some great light of knowledg and some great purity of holiness or perfection of sanctification Now neither the one nor the other can subsist without a perfect use of the understanding faculty and all the affections of the Soul And although these white Robes should signify either the grace of justification or the hope of happiness and glory because sometimes white Robes were the marks of those that aspired to the most eminent Offices in the Roman Common Wealth yet that cannot be without some perception and affection For if it be the first in as much as these Souls are represented in a place whether they could have had no admission if they had not been justified and their sins pardoned it is not properly justification which they have already which is given to them 't is the Taste and Sense of it whereof the fulness is bestowed on them whereas here below we have nothing but the foretasts of it in the peace and joy of our Souls and if it be the second that can represent nothing but the desire of their full and perfect glorification accompanied with assurance and by consequence with incredible contentment which cannot be reconciled with the sleep of the Soul and the extinction of all its powers The Apostle writing to the Philippians saith that he was ballanced or in a strait between two thoughts whether he ought to desire death or to continue a longer time in the World Because if he had regard to the Edification that his Ministry might give to the Church and the profit that it might draw from hence he ought much rather to chuse a longer life but if he had regard to his own particular good death was more desirable to him than life I pray if he had believed that all the powers of his Soul as well as those of the body had remained at death benummed for so long a time would he have thought that death would have been more advantageous to him I do acknowledge that he had endured many evils for the confirmation of the truth that he Preached from which a death such as those against whom I dispute do represent it drousie and void of all understanding would have secured him but so it is that the knowledg he had of our Lord Jesus whilst alive the marvellous Revelations that had been made unto him the Joy and Consolation that came unto him from the sense of the love and peace of God and the exercise of so many excellent Virtues wherewithal he was endued were in my opinion things of such importance that they should rather cause him to prefer life in which he retained the possession of them though accompanied with many afflictions than to embrace death which what ever it might be otherwise deprived him of the enjoyment of them But the reason that he adds wherefore he ought to chuse death if he had no regard but to his own person that it is much better to be with Christ cuts off all occasion of doubting concerning the mind of St. Paul in this matter For those without doubt are not with Christ which sleep without perception and without any knowledg of their felicity though they were received into the most holy and most illustrious place of his glory Otherwise those might be said to live and dwell with Kings which are interred in the Chappels of their Palaces whether the least ray of the glory that compasses them about cannot enter That other passage seems not to me less express 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3. where the Apostle explains himself in these words we know that if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens wherefore we groan desiring earnestly to be clothed with our house that is from Heaven For is there any probability that he should desire with so much vehemency to be stripped of this Tabernacle of earth to be clothed with that which is from Heaven if he not only got nothing new but lost all the knowledg of things that he had in this life totally and altogether Now that he intends to speak there of the change that was to betide him before the Resurrection is a thing clear and manifest by the whole issue of the discourse 't is true he had said before that he knew that he that raised up the Lord Jesus would raise us up also by Jesus and cause us to appear in his presence and 't is for that reason that he testifies that he fainted not in his Tribulations and adds that though our outward man grew into decay nevertheless the inward man was renewed day by day going on from strength to strength and if we are exposed to several afflictions he says that our light affliction that is but
very far from the place whereof he had raised in them very strange and pleasant hopes and expectations And this good God which hath had so much care by all means to provide for the comfort of our faith would not have commanded us to embark with so much Courage and Resolution upon a Sea so troublesome and full of darkness and Abysses as is death if he had not clearly shewed us the Haven where our Souls must arrive after such troublesome agitations The other point which concerns the quality and degree of the blessedness of those Souls that are gathered together in Heaven will put us to some little more trouble whether it be seriously to search what may be said concerning it from the word of God which speaks not so plainly of it or whether it be to contain our selves modestly within the bounds of what it hath revealed and of what we can comprehend by the Analogy of Faith without passing the limits of it I shall endeavour notwithstanding to do the one and the other I must lay down here for the foundation of our discourse that the Souls of the faithful are put by death into a state of perfect sanctification seeing they enter into Heaven For nothing enters there that doth pollute or foul In short seeing that sin either in Bodily affections such as the Schools call the Irascible and Concupiscible or in the habits of the mind it self and in the evil dispositions of the understanding and will death must enfranchise them from subjection to the one and the other For first of all the Soul being delivered from the body it can be no longer subject to its affections and that among others is the reason why we die that the affections and desires of our members which have not been perfectly mortified by the grace of God which we receive here below might entirely be extinguished by the destruction and dissolution of the members themselves which 't is like the Apostle would signify when he says the body is dead because of sin that is to say mortal or subject to death to the end that sin might be extinguished Moreover as to what concerns the habits of the Spirit as it was that of God that began to dissipate them here below to the end that he might introduce those that are better so it is he himself that doth altogether cleanse us of them after death and impress upon us a perfect and compleat sanctity Now compleat Holiness doth necessarily suppose some perfection of knowledg For we are so framed that the love and affection of our wills is generated by the light that is in our understandings and this Frame or Constitution being essential to our Souls and by consequence absolutely inseparable from them in what place or in whatsoever state they be it must be that they be such as well after as before their separation from the Body for it cannot be conceived either that we can love those things that we do not at all understand or that we cannot love those which we do know to be truly lovely or that we love more or less in proportion to the knowledg we have of them In the mean time the perfection of knowledg depends of two things the one is the object which is presented to us the other is the manner in which we receive it the object may have the advantage of being presented to us after an excellent manner but if we be not well disposed to receive it the effect which it ought to produce in our Souls is not produced at all And on the other side we may be well disposed to receive it but if it be not presented to us in good manner we cannot derive those lights from it which otherwise we might Now as to the disposition of the faculties of our Souls we do here suppose that after death they will be perfectly well constituted since they will be delivered from sin by the extinction of the lusts and desires of the Body and be rendred incomparably more strong and luminous than naturally they could be by the presence of the Holy Ghost It remains now that we consider what may be the objects that present themselves to the contemplation of Souls thus qualified and prepared It seems to me that we may boldly say they are necessarily of three kinds The first are such as our Souls may have had some knowledg of whilst we lived and whereof we continue to retain the memory The second contain those works of God which are presented to their eyes The third are the persons that will there be seen and the Communion which they will have on high with those other Spirits which are found there Now as touching memory I think there is no person which doth not easily conceive that we have two sorts thereof For their is one that consists in the retention of things sensible and singular with their circumstances and particularities according to which our memories received the images of them which we recal in our Fantasy when occasions are presented or our Spirits engage themselves in the search of them for there is no person that knows not by experience what it is to review his memory there to recover the Idea's or Images of diverse sensible things which are there laid in reserve almost as a person passes his eyes over the Books in his Closet to find one there that he hath present use of But there is another also which consists in things more universal and which have their foundation in reason and discourse For there never were men which have not or might not make this Observation in themselves that after having as it seemed so forgotten certain conclusions which at some other times we had known that at the first attempt they did not present themselves to our thoughts but when we come attentively to consider the principles whereon they depend immediately we find the foot-steps of our reasonings and without any great difficulty return to the consequences that we had drawn from them in such manner that there is a like difference between a man that never knew science and another that hath had knowledg of it but the discontinuance of Meditating thereon hath a little obscured the Idea's thereof in his mind as there is between a man which never was in a Country and another who after having exactly known it hath been a stranger to it for some few years the one finds much difficulty in obtaining the knowledg of it and if he wander never so little from the beaten rode behold him utterly bewildred the other immediately recollects himself and the least thing which presents it self before his eyes replaces in his memory the Situation of the whole Country and if I may so say repaints in his mind the Map of a Province As to what concerns this first sort of memory 't is a corporeal faculty in us whereof I desire no other argument but that 't is found among beasts 'T is very true that as the
THE EVIDENCE Of things not SEEN OR Diverse Scriptural AND Philosophical Discourses Concerning the State of Good and Holy men after Death In Answer to these following Questions 1. Whether the Soul after death be endued with perception or sleeps without exercising any of its Faculties until the day of Judgment 2. What is the place of the Souls abode Immediately after death and what is then the measure of the happiness of the Faithful 3. What will be the Condition of the Soul and Body at the Resurrection when they shall be Joyning and Re-joyned together 4. What will be the Nature of a good Mans Happiness in Eternal Glory after the Resurrection By that Eminently Learned Divine MOSES AMYRALDUS Translated out of the French Tongue By a Minister of the Church of England LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Sign of the Three Legs in the Poultry THE TRANSLATOR TO HIS Dearest CONSORT My Dear THE Excellent Author of the following Discourses wrote them for the only use of his Dear Wife without any intention of Printing them but some Friends obtaining a sight of them in Manuscript were so delighted with them and so satisfied with the Philosophy and Reason of them together with the Scriptural evidences here made use of which do clearly reveal and plainly Manifest very much of the nature of mans future State and Condition as that they did not only judge them worthy of the Publick view but making it their earnest request to him did by the Mediation of so prevalent a person as his nearest Relation gain his consent as he tells us for the publishing of them Dear Heart I did sometimes since Translate them also for your use and now at your desire I do suffer them to pass the Press you have Communicated them to some of your Relations who think that they may be of great advantage to devout and pious Souls I do therefore willingly commit them to your and their Disposal and if they may promote and increase a love to and a faith in that blessed future State which is the Subject of them I shall most Heartily Rejoyce therein I very well know that such subjects are very congruous suitable and pleasant to your Soul and it was the knowledge thereof that did engage me at some Vacant hours to Translate them You have Experienced much good already by them and I doubt not but they will tend yet further to encrease a passion in you for God and Heaven It may be also that God may bless them to produce the same Effects upon many others that shall peruse them But as the Author inscribed them to no other Name than Hers for whose sake he Wrote them So I having made them English for your Use in a Especial manner do now make the Dedication of them only to your self always praying that God would so bless them to the profit of all that shall Read them that they together with us may be made Partakers of that blessed Inheritance a clear Map whereof is herewith so lively Delineated and so plainly Exhibited to our and their Eyes Now the God of peace fill thee my Dear with all joy through Believing which is the Dayly Prayer of thine G. J. Concerning the STATE Of the FAITHFUL After Death ALthough the Apostle St. Paul writing to the Thessalonians exhorts them to derive their Comforts in the loss of their Friends from the hopes of a happy Resurrection and tho the full Revelation of our happiness be reserved indeed till the day when that shall be Nevertheless we do not cease to Comfort those to whom such accidents arrive by this Consideration that assoon as the Soul is separate from the body it is received into a place of refreshment and repose where expecting this Resurrection it enjoys a Contentment greater than can be expressed We have been accustomed to give this hope to the diseased that we see in danger of death that if they be removed from this life it will be to enter into a better where they shall forthwith possess joy and happiness which we essay to describe in the most Illustrious manner that we are able But the thing it self must infinitely surpass all that we can in our words say concerning it And forasmuch as 't is apparent that naturally things a far off touch us little whereas those that are near and such as we think under our hand give to our Spirits motions and perceptions far more lively this Consolation hath I know not how more of efficacy both to sweeten the trouble of those that live and to abate the regret of those that die than the expectation of the re-establishment of this Body which according to all appearance of things seems to be differred to a time sufficiently long Now as 't is suitable to the Christian Religion and to the Office of those that are to Publish it to fill the minds of men with generous hopes and to make them feel the most lively Consolations so 't is worthy of its Excellence that these hopes and Consolations be true and certain and that those that do receive them have a full perswasion of it For the efficacy of such things depends on the evidence and solidity of their truth and in what degree a man doubts the truth of what is promised or whereof he receives assurance in the same degree the content that he receives from it doth weaken and diminish Forasmuch then as there is nothing the use whereof returns more frequently in the life of man and that there is not a Family among Christians that doth not sometimes need such Consolations and that the infirmity of the flesh finds always much of difficulty to impress on us aforehand the belief of these things and that even among Christians themselves some have doubted of the Estate of Souls after death and that it cannot be avoided but that in the particular Entercourse and Conversation of men they will happen on the discourse of this matter I do believe that it will not be altogether without reason to bestow some hours on the attentive Consideration of this Subject If my thoughts about it be of no use to the Edification of the Publick at least my near Allies may derive with me some particular utility from them in the Afflictions of this sort wherewith God hath visited us I propound to my self therefore to examine by the word of God for 't is from thence only that we can fetch such light as may satisfy us in these matters principally four things First what is the Estate of the faithful Soul after death Whether it be endowed with perception or whether it remain asleep without any use of its faculties until the day of Judgment Secondly it being supposed which we shall make appear that it exercises them with much joy and satisfaction what is the place where 't is received and what is the measure of the joy and happiness that it doth enjoy Thirdly what will be its State at the Resurrection and
for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Which shews sufficiently that he hath some respect to the day of the full Revelation of our Salvation but that which follows of the destruction of this earthly Tabernacle can it be understood otherwise than of the dissolution of the body That which he writes immediately afterwards that as long as we are lodged in this body we are absent and as it were strangers from our Lord but that through the assurance that we have of our Salvation we desire rather to be strangers from the body and be with the Lord can it be understood of the blessed Resurrection Shall we be then absent and strangers from our bodies or rather will not our Spirits have thereon eternal Habitations I therefore think that the Apostle in that place opposes the time in which we are in this life to that in which we shall be in it no more and that he says that as long as we are in this life we are absent from the Lord but when we are dislodged we are present with him and because although this future time consist of two parts the one wherein we are stripped of our bodies by death the other wherein we are reinvested in them by the Resurrection it is to that in the one and the other our condition must always be the enjoyment of the presence of Jesus Christ he considers it not but as one and the same tract of time in the first part whereof our happiness begins and is compleated in the second which excites our desires and affections to be now stripped of these bodies that we may enter on the possession of those happy beginnings till the time of full and compleat perfection shall come Now this is marvellously far from the opinion of those that take from the Souls of believers all sense and perception whatsoever even that of their proper faculties and essence St. Luke reports that St. Stephen being about to die recommended his Spirit to our Lord Christ saying Lord Jesus into thy hands I commend my Spirit and our Lord himself commended his to his Father on the Cross To what purpose was this then It was not without doubt to secure it from perishing and being reduced to nothing For the substance of the Soul contains nothing of matter nor of the mixture of the Elements 't is of its nature incorruptible and imperishable as are the Angels Was it then to be protected from the Temptations and assaults of the Devil or to be put into the fruition of happiness and glory As to the first it can have no place if the Spirits of the faithful remain swallowed of a sleep so deep that they absolutely lose all use of their understandings For the Temptations of the Devil consist either in an Artificial external presenting to our senses such objects as are proper to move our desires and appetites or in this that internally he forms in our Phantasy such Images of things as may stir and provoke us and in favouring with his efficacy such as are already there or in moving our humours and by our humours soliciting the appetites and passions of our Souls what can these attempts do upon substances which are not at all subject to the motion of humours which in death have lost the faculty of imagination which have no Corporeal senses seeing they are not Bodies and all whose Spiritual capacities are so fettered in the excercise of their powers that neither exteriour objects can by any means touch them nor visions from within be get the least thought there As to the second there is neither felicity nor glory can happen to Spirits without the exercise of their understanding and will There is not a person to whom we say that the Spirits of the faithful gone hence are happy and glorious which doth not immediately conceive that they are so far from being swallowed up in a profound drousiness or sleep that on the contrary they have a very lively and notable sense of their happiness and glory I am much of the opinion of those that think that in the words of our Saviour John 11. 26. and John 5. 24. he that believeth in me shall never see death He is passed from death to life There is a particular Emphasis which makes much to our present purpose I very well know that in divers places it seems probable that what interprets these words by that promise I will raise him up at the last day Nevertheless if since the time wherein he spake those words believers that are departed hence have slept unto this day and must yet sleep till the consummation of Ages without any bodily or mental sense of their condition or essence I am not able to comprehend how the hopes of the Resurrection can perfectly satisfy and compleat the sense and magnificence of the words Although the body sleep after that manner if the principal part of man and that whereof the Scriptures sometimes speaks as if it were the man and the body nothing but its Habitation live and be awake and perceive and exercise with content and joy such operations as are worthy the dignity of his nature death is not properly death nor doth it seem to deserve a name so terrible and odious 'T is much rather a sleep as the Scripture sometimes speaks wherein man entertains himself with visions very pleasant and delightful But if the perception of the Soul and body both be equally extinct and that not only for a little time but for I know not how many Ages how comes it to pass that it is not called death but a passing from death to life And it will appear yet much more strange if we apply it to the Fathers and Patriarchs that lived in the first Ages Such as were Adam Noah Seth and Abraham For since the Apostle Heb. 11. Attributes unto them one and the same faith with us although the things which faith embraces were not so plainly revealed to them as to us yet they ought to produce one and the same effect with respect to them and us Jesus Christ being the same yesterday and to day and for ever Are those then passed from death to life who from before the deluge and soon after were as to their bodies reduced to dust and as to their Souls carried in a profound sleep and total insensibility Truly it seems manifest that they had other hopes and expectations When Jacob after too many afflictions and irksom and troubleous Pilgrimages comforted himself with this that he hoped for the Salvation of God Gen. 49. 18. If he had no hope but that of losing the sense of all good and evil for so long a succession of Ages he would have had more occasion to be afflicted than to rejoyce to fear death than to draw comfort from the near approach and prospect of it besides 't is here very considerable that as he was at a greater distance from the day of judgment
than we are now and as he did not perceive unless it were a far off in the darkness of what to come the manifestation of a Redeemer so also he did not see so clearly as we do the hopes of the Resurrection nor had not such distinct knowledg of the glory that attends us in Heavenly places I observe that David as he approached nearer to the time of our Saviours appearance did both receive from God and deliver to his Church much greater explanations upon these matters than did any of his Ancestors and yet nevertheless had experience of very different emotions of Spirit when he saw himself in danger or in likelyhood of death Sometimes in the Psalms he gives evidence that he was much afraid of death and desires of God with great earnestness that by his good providence and the power of his hand he would hinder his falling under it and these motions of his so frequently reported and repeated in his Writings accompanied with vows so ardent and praises so vivid and full of Devotion when God had rescued him from his dangers do sufficiently shew that this object when it presented it self unto him occasioned terrible agitations to his mind And nevertheless when he was to die he disposed himself to it with great Tranquillity and gave no Testimony of fear or any the least alteration If you enquire of those that think the perceptions of the Soul perish and die with those of the body why David feared death so very much they will say that he himself gives the reason of it 'T is because in death he makes no mention of the name of God nor sings unto him any Songs of praise Psal 6. which proves according to their opinion that death takes away at once both from Soul and Body the knowledg of all things But if this were the only reason why did he not fear death as much when he was old Will it hinder the loss of all sense and memory of objects to die old Or would it be a greater affliction to David when in the flower of his age to lose by losing life the means and opportunity of singing the praises of God than to be deprived of this pleasure and content by dying in a good old age It is therefore much more reasonable to say that David and other Saints of times past did think that God sent them into the world for two ends the one which respects his glory was to advance and celebrate it as much as they were able the other was to enjoy therein for a long time the Testimonies of his Faviour in those Temporal blessings the promises whereof he had given unto them When therefore any danger of death did threaten them before the time which nature seems to have appointed for it viz. seventy or eighty years or if there were in the time of David any other natural and ordinary term of life They were extraordinarily moved and troubled because it seemed that death before full age was a Testimony of the anger and curse of God So that to prevail with God to protect them from it after having begged the pardon of their sins they alledge this reason that otherwise he himself will in some sort be deprived of the end to which he had respect when he sent them into the world For it is as if some young plant should complain to the Gardiner or Master of the plants that having put him in the rank with others to bear some quantity of fruits he would nevertheless cut it off at the root when it began to bud and to give some good hopes thereof But concerning that great tranquillity of Spirit wherewith they received death when it came in such time wherein the untimeliness of it was no mark of the anger of God it came without doubt from hence that it was accompanied with the peace of God and some hope of happiness for their Souls Otherwise by the confession of those with whom I now discourse the being deprived of praising God after death and of perceiving any taste of his love towards them should have given them great fears and inconceivable aversions Some of the Pagans as Socrates have sometimes supported themselves by this meditation against the fears of death that either it did or it did not take from them all sense and perception of things If it did not those that die ought if they be honest men to hope for Contentments after death in the Conversation of those persons that had gone hence before them the company of Cepheus Museus Homer Hesiod Vlysses and Agamemnon without doubt as they imagined would give them incomparable satisfaction if it did there was no reason to fear death since it reduced men to a state of utter insensibility but these persons never tasted any thing of the sweetness of the peace of God nor of the Contentment that arises from the assurance of his paternal love Having therefore no experience of any other good things than such as this world affords they might well depart from life as they themselves do express it as from a banquet after they had been satisfied therewith without much complaint that they are obliged to leave the fruition and use of it to those that were to come after but as for David and other servants of God to whom he had given the beginnings and foretasts of his glory with what grief ought they to receive the news of death whensoever it should be if they had been not only reeling and staggering as were the Pagans between the hope of seeing Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the fear of losing all kind of sense and perception but deeply and fully perswaded that in stead of being put into the full fruition of what they had had some foretasts here below death would utterly ravish from them even the total memory of it This same David testifies in many places a very sensible and deep regret and trouble for being separated from the Ark of God because 't was there that God gave demonstrations of his presence in an extraordinary manner Nevertheless in Caves and Deserts and the wildest Forests he might entertain himself with God and derive from the Fountains of his own Meditations as it appears he often did abundance of pleasant consolations to allay the trouble which was occasioned by his estrangment and separation from it I pray you therefore if he had believed that death would have taken from him all knowledg and memory of God for so many ages what Lamentations would he have made Or could he have found words sufficient to express the anguish of his Soul on this occasion Ever and anon he enquires with some kind of impatience when shall I see the face of my God If by these words he understands the Ark how much more ought he to desire to see the face of God after his death and with what unquietness must he be filled when he considers that death takes from him not only the pleasure of seeing the
face of God but even the memory of ever having seen him or learned any thing of him either in the Tabernacle or in the World If he understands by seeing the face of God seeing him as he is seen in Heaven how could David make this wish or holy aspiration if he were of this opinion that sleep should lock up the eyes of his understanding for so long a time Certainly this was not the opinion of David nor any of the faithful of that time or age their common opinion was that which is plainly expressed in the Book of Ecclesiastes That when man dies the body returns to the dust from whence 't was taken and the Soul returns to God that gave it Now to believe that the Spirits of the faithful can be with God without having any knowledg of his presence or enjoying one beam of his happiness is a thing altogether without reason or probability At such times as God promises some particular assistance to his faithful ones he says I will be with you And 't is also their common and ordinary wish for those to whom they wish grace and benediction the Lord be with you If God then cannot be with any person without giving him some taste of his favours how can our spirits be with God without enjoying some gracious effect of his presence Certainly though we had no other proof of the state of the faithful after death than those words of our Saviour to the Thief that was Converted upon the Cross this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise they would be sufficient unless we were willingly blind to assure us that they are at rest but 't is such a rest as is accompanied with much content and joy For that the word to day ought to be taken in the ordinary and common sense to signify the time that was immediately to follow the death of our Lord whilst his Soul remained separate from his body is a thing that cannot be doubted unless by those that out of jocundness of humours abuse their reason In what place of the New Testament doth our Saviour or any one else use it in any other sense And although the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews having met with it in Psal 95. 7 8. to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Understands it of the time of the Preaching of the Gospel of Salvation is there any probability that in imitation of him we should expound those words of Jesus Christ after this manner Verily verily I say unto thee that in the day of the Resurrection I will receive thee to a participation of my own glory in Paradise If such comments be allowed will there be any thing certain either in the word of God or Language of men Doth it not plainly appear that our Lord seeing this Thief in anguish of Spirit through the fear of the judgment of God the execution whereof he expected according to the common sense and apprehension of Conscience immediately after death was willing to comfort him by the assurance of the pardon of his sins and hope of happiness which his Soul should enjoy assoon as it was separated from his Body Either the Spirit of Christ being dislodged from the body ascended into Paradise or not If it did not ascend thither our Lord promised nothing but that the Soul of this person should on that very day be present with his Deity in Heaven Now though our Lord were God blessed for ever there is no probability that he had any regard to his Deity in the speaking of those words For besides that his Divinity was not then so clearly Revealed as that from thence he should begin to give knowledg of what he was to that man who can doubt but that seeing both their Bodies in one and the same condemnation he was willing to raise the hope of this Wretch who in the midst of his anguish discovered some faith and expectation from him by the assurance that he gave him that within a few moments their spirits should be well near in the same Condition in a place of bliss and happiness But let it be granted that he understands his Divinity So it is in my opinion that it cannot come into a sound mind that Christ should promise to the Soul of this person to give it from that same hour the enjoyment of Paradise and yet notwithstanding it should have no knowledg of the glory thereof or the happiness that doth attend it Moreover it had been much more to the purpose to have been content to have consented to be mindful of him when he came into his Kingdom as he desired then by great words to give him occasion to hope for content and happiness near at hand and afterwards fill this Soul which he had made so desirous of happiness with nothing but darkness and forgetfulness If the spirit of our Lord ascended into Paradise doubtless it was not to sleep there for the little time of its separation from the body but to receive inexpressible Consolations in the bosom of his Father Otherwise to what purpose was it to transport it on high Had it not been more to the purpose to leave it buried in the same Tomb with the Body to the end that it might be there united again when the time should come Now if the Soul of Christ could be sensible of some Contentments after death ours may be sensible of them also And no inconsistance will be found between their separation from the Organs of their Bodies and the use of their Powers and Capacities But what need is there of so many Texts and of so much discourse in a case so plain that nature it self seems to have taught it us For certainly it is not more generally believed among men that their Souls are immortal and subsist after the Body than it is generally acknowledged that they subsist with knowledg and sense either of some felicity for those that lived in the practice of Piety and Vertue or of some punishment for those that have given up themselves to Impiety and Vice From thence comes the hopes of the Elysian fields among the Pagans and the fear of the Torments of Hell From thence is preserved among the Jews the expectation of Paradise and the fear of the bottomless Pit Thence is produced among the Turks the opinion of their Paradise and the fear of an infernal state and that without attending the Resurrection immediately after the dissolution of the Body and the separation of the Soul Lastly thence comes among Christians to some a belief of Purgatory to others a hope of a better life than this and to others dreadful frights concerning what will betide them after death when they are not in their Consciences assured of the forgiveness of their sins I say that nature it self teaches it Because things that are so universal and concerning which there is no controversy among Nations whose inclinations are divers whose professions are different and
Since our head is there and the Communion that we have with him is so strict and indissoluble wherefore doth not he assemble his members about him although by his wise dispensation some part of them remain yet a while on Earth Since he hath prayed that where he is we may be also why is the fruit of this prayer which without doubt God did hear differred for so many ages Since he hath said that he went thither to prepare a place for us why should we doubt that he doth receive us to the place that he hath designed and marked out for us To conclude since he shews himself to those that enquire not after him why doth he depart or withdraw himself so far from those that seek and desire him with so great passions and affections When Mary cast her self at his feet to embrace him he said touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Without doubt because this woman transported with the pleasure of seeing him raised again was willing as we say to rejoyce and congratulate with him in so glorious a Victory and because she and his other disciples had hitherunto had some hope that the Lord would remain on Earth with them to re-establish the Kingdom of Israel she was ravished with joy as if henceforth there were nothing that could hinder but that she might enjoy his presence according to her wish and content there with all the desires of her Soul For that reason he repressed this heat and ardour and tells her that 't is not yet done it remains as yet that he ascend on high ere they must see the accomplishment of their expectations For according to his admirable goodness and wisdom he knew so to dispose his actions and discourses to his servants and to accommodate them for a little time to the quality of their knowledg and understanding but at this time that he is ascended upon high wherefore in expectation that he will descend thence to raise our Bodies should he not permit our Souls to go cast themselves at his feet and refresh themselves with the pleasant enjoyment of his presence all these considerations certainly ought to make very great impressions upon our minds but that which ought fully to perswade them is that the holy Scriptures given us most evident and indubitable instructions concerning it Let us therefore chuse some passages very express and which will render the thing wholly manifest St. Paul in the place that I alledged above saith that if the earthly House of our Body be dissolved we have a Building of God an House eternal in the Heavens And we have seen above that he speaks of what happens to the faithful immediately after death and not only of what they expect at the last Resurrection Will any one say that these words in the Heavens do not signify the place but the condition that is to say that Habitation is called Heavenly not because 't is in the Heavens but because 't is very holy and happy Certainly this neither can nor must be For besides that we may not have recourse to interpretations which seem a little forced without an absolute and invincible necessity he says 't is an house Eternal in the Heavens Now the Court of Heaven which is appointed for the faithful may well be called Eternal although it be necessary that Souls leave it for a moment at the time of the Resurrection Because things that are done for a very little space of time and only by dispensation are not at all considered and so small an interval hinders not but that we say they have always continued in that same place Even as we do not quit our dwelling by making a voyage into the Country and although the Angels come sufficiently often on Earth yet we do not cease to name them the Angels of Heaven but if Souls be in any place out of Heaven until the day of the Resurrection that Habitation being to be abandoned for ever it cannot in any wise be said to be Eternal The same Apostle says that he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ Forasmuch as it was much better for him without doubt Jesus Christ is in the Heavens and if St. Paul had not believed that he should go thither when he died but that he must be confined in some other place of the world wherever it be out of the presence of our Lord he had not served himself of such expressions our Lord promised the Thief that he should that day be with him in Paradise now Paradise is in Heaven and although our Lord did soon redescend from thence to reunite himself to his body the thief without all controversy continued there having no need or occasion to return to this Earth In the Book of the Revel Chap. 14. Vers 4. All the faithful departed hence are represented under the number of an hundred and forty and four thousand gathered together in the Heavens in the company of the Lamb and following him whithersoever he goes Now there is no probability that God would represent to his Prophet Visions of this nature for the confirmation and consolation of his Children if they were contrary to the truth of things In the Epistle to the Hebrews 't is said that we are come to the assembly and Church of the first born whose names are written in Heaven Now 't is not the manner to enrol and make men free of a City and soon after exile them for a very long time into the Countrey Besides 't is apparent that this word written or enrolled signifies in this Text assembled for here are no publique Rolls or Records in the Heavens where the names and qualities of believers are actually written But because those that are admitted to the priviledges of Freemen in a City are wont first of all to be Enrolled after that manner of speaking which I have before remarked where that which goes before is put for that which follows and that which follows for that which goes before the holy Apostle calls those written or enrolled which are actually received into the possession of their Heavenly freedom and truly it seems to me that there is no reason to doubt of a thing whereof God hath been pleased to give most express assurance in all the periods and parts of the holy Scriptures For why think we did he raise and Translate Enoch before the Law Elias under the legal Oeconomy and Jesus Christ under the Gospel so apparently and manifestly that no man could doubt but that they are carried to Heaven if it were not to this end that we might raise our desires thoughts and affections thither after them I very well know that these things have a particular regard to the hope of the Resurrection but I do also maintain that God would not have drawn the hearts of men so visibly to himself if he had had any intention to command their Souls separated from their Bodies to remain I know not where
beloved thereof The believing Soul therefore ardently loves the happy Spirits which are received on high and likewise the Holy Angels and being likewise reciprocally loved by them and loving our Lord Jesus with an affection far above what it bears to Angels and Spirits and being much assured that it is yet much more beloved of him and to conclude seeing in its Habitation in the Heavens in the aspect of the marvellous things that are there in the company of Holy Spirits in the Society of Angels in the presence and Communion of Jesus Christ so many and such irrefragable Testimonies of the love of God towards it it plunges and drowns and totally swallows it self in the love that it bears to him and finds in all these motions a sensible and sublime taste of unspeakable felicity What it is that the Resurrection will add to the blessedness of the believing Soul The Third Discourse THis which I have said hitherunto very imperfectly concerning the happiness of the believing Soul after it is separate from the Body may enable us to conceive something of its grandeur as by the lightning that passes before our eyes we do in some manner judge of the quantity of fire that is wrapt up in the dark clouds But although there be attractives enough in what we understand of it to excite the desire and admiration of it in our hearts yet it falls far short of its perfection as long as man remains deprived of the other half of his essence For the believer of whose happiness we are now discoursing may be considered after three manners First in himself then as the world hath some Relation to and Connexion with him And lastly as he hath some Relation to the Church as a member hath Relation to his Body Now to consider him in himself seeing he is composed of a Soul and a Body to whatsoever perfection the Soul be advanced so it is that whilst the Body remains under the power of death its happiness is not compleat To consider it in the Relation that it and the World have between each other forasmuch as the World was made for-man and hath been made subject to vanity by reason of him when man shall be placed all entire in perfect happiness as far as precisely concerns himself nevertheless he cannot be said to be absolutely and entirely happy as long as the World remains subject to misery by reason of him and by occasion of him bears the marks of the cruse of God Lastly to consider him after the third manner Forasmuch as he is a part of that whereof the Church is the whole although he should behold himself perfectly happy in himself and although he should see the World delivered from the curse that it incurred for his sake nevertheless he cannot be said to enjoy a full felicity until the whole Church on its part partake in the enjoyment of it If Esther esteemed her self miserable although she were advanced to the glory of a great Empire whilst she beheld her Nation in danger of desolation the Believer may not account it self happy whilst some of his brethren are fighting upon Earth and others with respect to their Bodies are under the power of death and rotting in their graves Forasmuch then as the Soul in that beatitude that it enjoys in the Heavens hath sufficient knowledge of all these Relations 't is impossible that it should not desire the Resurrection of its Body to the end that it may be united with it and the deliverance of the World out of its misery and vanity so that it may no longer be subject to corruption for its sake and the glorification of the Church in a perfect felicity so that the state of that wherewith it hath such inviolable ties may not divide its thoughts betwixt grief and and joy Now he is not happy perfectly that doth desire and hath yet reason and subject to desire something 'T is very true the desire of the Soul in all these regards is without inquietude and anxiety for these passions are generated either from the impatience of our spirits or the uncertainty of the event of what we desire or from hence that although the event that we expect is sure yet the condition that we are in in the mean while is troublesome in it self and uneasy to be born As to what concerns impatience there is not the least string or fiber there-of in the Souls that are on high they are endued with all sorts of Virtues principally they are all swallowed up in a profound respect to the providence of God And as to the assurance of their hope they are more than most assured that it will never fail them since God hath promised it and the power that he hath to execute his Counsels finds no where either difficulty or impossibility to arrest or hinder it to conclude as to what respects their condition the little which I have above reported of it represents it capable of swallowing up in the sweetness of its contents all resentments they may have for the length of their expectations When the Holy Ghost in the Revelation causeth us to hear them cry how long Lord wilt thou not avenge our blood we may not take that for any mark of inquietude of mind any more than for an inordinate desire of vengeance Forasmuch as in this place they consider their enemies as reprobated and adjudged by God to the suffering of punishment and are no longer obliged to have any charity for them Our charity having none for its object but such as may have some access to the mercy of our Heavenly Father Is the gate then closed upon any one Yea as it hath been from the beginning upon Devils or on those that have sinned against the Holy Ghost or on those against whom God hath pronounced an irrevocable sentence of death and condemnation our charity remains utterly extinct in respect of them And to desire the Execution of this condemnation as the Souls of the faithful do is nothing but a conformity to the Divine Justice and will So that the words how long are purely and simply a Holy breathing of Zeal which they have to see the glory of God shining in the Execution of his judgments which doth not pass the bounds of respect which they owe to the conduct of his wisdom Nevertheless although they be without inquietude so it is as I have said they are not without out desire Now he which desires gives evidence that something is wanting to his condition and by consequent is not accomplished in all things And 't is for this reason that we must see what will be the happiness of believers in these three respects at the last day For the first it seems that there are principally two things to be considered that is to say what will be the quality and condition of the body when it shall be raised again and then what will be the estate of the Soul when it shall be rejoined unto
by the Doctrine of the Gospel in which he is represented so lively the Divine Perfections that are there displayed in him are set before our eyes with so much lustre that we may now say that he which knoweth and seeth Christ in some sort seeth the Father Nevertheless 't is certain that as yet we do not see God as he is for on the one side the Spirit that is given us doth not perfectly illuminate us to be able to perceive all that is in the lovely Objects of the Gospel and it cannot be that the remainders of the darkness of our understandings should not obscure its brightness on the other the Objects themselves are not arrived at that high degree of Revelation which may give them all their splendor and glory We do not see as yet the love that God bears us but through Tribulations and the Cross we do not see the wonder of his Wisdom in our Salvation unless it be through an infinity of difficulties which are not as yet cleared in the Gospel we do not as yet see the greatness of his Power unless it be through the shadows of death and the natural infirmities of our bodies which make our Resurrection a thing comprehensible with great difficulty in a word God doth indeed reveal himself in the Gospel and we may there contemplate his glory in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ but there are so many Shadows and Clouds thereon so many dark stroaks and aenigmatick lines that the greatest Saints of God and those that have had the greatest occasion of praising him by reason of the excellency of his Revelations have nevertheless always acknowledged and frankly confessed the imperfection and obscurity of their knowledge As to what appertains to the State of the believing Soul I have already said above that it obtains very much light by death but that nevertheless many things are yet wanting to the plenitude of its happiness because it sees not as yet the real and effectual accomplishment of those things that were promised to it as well touching its re-union with its body and for what concerns the renovation of the World and the entire redemption of the Church it remains now that we endeavour to see what accomplishment of the Promises will add to the knowledge that we may have of these admirablevirtues of God I will repeat nothing of the Constitution in which we shall then be for the application of our Faculties to the consideration of the Objects that will be presented to us to the end that we may profit by them in proportion to their excellency I have said above that our Souls will be in such estate that the operations of our understandings can be no less than admirable in all kinds One thing only I will add 't is that Saint Paul says That God will be all in all then when the Lord Jesus shall have delivered up the Kingdom into the hands of his Father which signifies in my opinion that our Lord Jesus must exercise the Office of Mediator till the works of Salvation be finished 't is by his interposition that we receive the favour of that Spirit of illumination which makes us whilst here below more and more capable of receiving the knowledge and assurance of all the Christian verities in our minds in such manner that we have no communion with God as long as yet remains any remnant of Sin or any enemy of our Salvation to be overcomed unless it be that whereof Christ is if I may so speak the Buckle and Bond but when the work of Salvation shall be finished the Office of the Mediator being to cease and the Communion that we shall have with God being then immediate he will himself fill us with his Spirit in such manner that all the powers of our Souls will be fully and perfectly enlightned thereby now they cannot be filled in that manner but they will be marvellously strengthened in their operations and by consequence the productions that will follow thereon will be supreamly exquisite and admirable therefore we have nothing to consider here unless it be the Objects which we shall have for our Contemplation the time during which we shall be exercised therein with other circumstances which will accompany it and to conclude the Fruit which this Contemplation will produce for the advantage of our own happiness Now for what concerns Objects I will reserve them all to two the World and the Church As to the World though it should continue such as it was when it was first Created it bears so many marks of the goodness of God in the Creation and Production of its being so many proofs of the Wisdom of God in the variety of its forms and in their fitness for their operations so many Testimonies of his power in that 't is made so vast and great and drawn from the womb or bosom of nothing and to conclude so many demonstrations of all his properties in its Conservation and Government that there will be enough to raise faculties such as ours will then be to knowledg marvellously sublime and raised Therefore since the Estate wherein it will be then set will be incomparably more rich in all effects of the Divine perfections what may be the thoughts which our Souls will form upon such admirable objects For from henceforth 't will not be his goodness only which will be resplendent there ' twâ—â—â— be his mercy yea his Mercy in its most Glorious Lustre and in its brightest splendour his Wisedom will there sparkle of all sides far above what the State of nature can furnish us with any arguments or proofs of and his Power which hath given to it an incorruptible Essence and perpetually immutable will ravish our hearts without doubt in the admiration of its infinite extension and although this natural constitution of things will be changed Nevertheless the memory of them will not be obliterated and the Idea that we shall have of them in our minds will help much to furnish matter to our Speculations be it that we consider it in it self be it that we compare it with the constitution in which the World will then be First in it self for at present we do only touch the surface of the wonders of nature and Fathom nothing to the bottom Because the edge of our minds is blunted at the occurrence of the first difficulty and our understandings are perplexed and wearied immediately in the search of things profound and difficult whereas then the light of our understandings will find nothing so dark and so intricate which they cannot disintangle and make plain and the facility that we shall have in our ratiocinations which will be that we shall be able to attempt all sorts of objects without any pain will cause that we shall use this Contemplation as with a success eternally happy so with content wholly incomprehensible And if Pythagoras or Archimedes or some other such renowned Mathematicians have been Transported with joy in