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
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
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
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
infirmities into glory This is he that conversed here below in mean condition among men and behold him raised above the magnificence of all the Angels This is he that suffered the contradiction of sinners but receives now the applause and veneration of all the Inhabitants of Heaven This is he that ignominiously hung upon the Cross but now all Creatures behold him with reverence and trembling This is he that here below suffered death but who now holds in his hand the life of all things and the subsistance of the universe This is he that was seen laid in a dark Tomb in comparison of whom now the splendor of the Sun is but as a shadow This is he that was thought unworthy that the Earth should bear him who now walks upon the Heavens and under whose feet the whole Fabrick of the World doth Tremble This is he in whom sometimes I believed indeed but with a faith always imperfect always spotted with some darkness always mingled with some remainders of incredulity whom I now see fully and manifestly and to whom I have liberty to approach without fear and behold him face to face After having in some sort represented what is the excellence of the knowledg which the believing Soul obtains when 't is received into Heaven there is no need that I should stay long to examine what is the measure of the happiness that it there enjoys For happiness consists as well in the absence of evils as in the fruition of good which are inconsistent or agreeable to the nature of those Beings which we call by the name of happy As for evils there are none that enter the Kingdom of Heaven which is a marvellous happiness to a nature sensible as ours is As for good things what may they be which are suitable to a reasonable Soul notwithstanding 't is separate from the Body Certainly as the happiness of the eye consists in seeing agreeable things and as the happiness of the ear in hearing pleasant and harmonious sounds and generally the happiness of all the other senses in exercising themselves upon those Objects whereunto nature hath appointed them with pleasure and content the happiness of the separate Soul consists in a suitable exercise of its faculties upon the most excellent Objects which can be presented to it and in the joy that is consequent thereunto It s understanding therefore being both perfectly purified in it self and filled with the presence of Objects so admirable its happiness in this respect is proportionable to the excellency of its Operation and those contemplations in which it is perpetually employed If those therefore that have any spark of generosity and any thing brave in their Souls do esteem those happy that have obtained any skill in those Sciences to which men ordinarily apply themselves and yet nevertheless an excellent Philosopher had reason to say that one drop of the knowledg of the nature of Celestial Bodies is more to be desired by reason of the nobleness of their essence and the advantage of their utility than all the Sciences that men have formed upon the other Beings of the World how happy must that Soul be that perfectly knows those things whose excellency as far surmounts the Sun and other the Stars of Heaven as they are to be esteemed more worthy than all the other Bodies of these Elementary Regions And if none of our faculties do employ themselves in their Operations in a suitable manner upon those subjects that are proportionable unto them without receiving some sensible pleasure what may be the satisfaction that a faithful Soul receives in being incessantly exercised in such marvellous Operations Certainly the pleasure of the eyes and ears is great when they are filled with such Objects whose colour or figure or harmony and justness of proportion is capable reasonably as satisfying the hunger that uncorrupted nature hath placed in those Senses For pleasure properly consists in this that now when the Objects that are without do occur unto our faculties and apply themselves to the desires or capacities that are there with so much proportion and equality that the motions that they make there be neither too languishing nor too violent but in an agreeable measure The pleasure of the mind when it employs it self with success in the contemplation of things intellectual is much more great than that of the eyes or ears because 't is a more noble faculty and things Spiritual are more excellent than Bodies and by consequence Operations more exquisite and curious do arise from the occurrence of them From whence it follows necessarily that when the faculties of the Soul are come to that point of perfection in which they do as it were as much surpass themselves when they were in a state of nature as in this state of nature they did surpass the eyes and ears and that when the Objects that are presented to them have as many or more degrees of excellency above those things intellectual which we ordinarily apprehend as they have above sensible and Corporeal Objects it is indubitable that the joy and content that doth accompany Operations so Divine must infinitely excel that which can be Ministred by the knowledg of the most perfect and sublime Sciences The understanding being filled with such excellent knowledg it must necessarily be that the will be full of love marvellously ardent towards those Objects from whence it doth derive For things that are excellent do draw our affections for their own sake and deserve our love by the sole respect of their beauty And the content that we take in the knowledg of them is a cause that we love them also for our own sake because we love our selves it cannot be that in that respect we should not love those things that Minister to our satisfaction Besides we are so naturally disposed that we do not only love those Objects from whence such excellent knowledg derives but we singularly esteem the means by which we do enjoy it and 't is for that reason that some have said that we have our eyes above our other Bodily Senses because they discover to our knowledg a far greater multitude of things than our others and under greater variety And experience teaches us that of all visible Objects light seems to be most beautiful and pleasant which comes to pass not only from its natural constitution in that it seems to be the Object which hath the most proportion with the faculty of seeing but also because 't is that which renders other things visible and which if I may so say doth colour even colours themselves and give the form and figure to the forms and figures of Bodies So that we may not doubt but that blessed Souls are wholly inflamed with the love of the persons and things which on high are perpetually presented to the eyes of their understandings Now love is of it self a thing full of contentment and joy when we enjoy the thing we love and know that we are
faculty which displays it self chiefly in the Operations of sense and motion I know not at all what will be then the constitution of our Organs nor what will be the nature of the Operation of our Soul upon them nor how the species of sensible things will be received by them And what is more I am not afraid to be esteemed an ignorant on this account at least for certain I shall have many Companions to partake with me in the blame thereof For I do not believe there is a man upon Earth that knows it But so it is that I very well know all will be otherwise than now it is the constitution of such Organs as now we have and the dispensation of Spirits whereupon depends all their Operations being a certain consequence of the passible and corruptible state of nature Now that which is natural will be swallowed up with that which is supernatural as that which is sensual by that which is Spiritual and that which is mortal by immortality and life And although we do not know the manner after which the Soul will be then joined to the Body for its Operations they will not be for that either the less certain or the less decorous If the measure of our knowledg were the measure of the Existence of things the greatest part of the objects of our faculties and their Operations would suffer very notable diminutions in the qualities of their Being yea some would be even absolutely expelled out of nature And I do not know whether we have used any of our senses as we ought That is to say whether of any of them we have very exactly and distinctly comprehended what it is that the Soul doth in their Operations what is the agency and activity of the Spirits And lastly what it is that the Organ it self contributes thereunto how ever it be the Organ after what manner so ever it be constituted the Soul after whatsoever manner it operate there will exercise so admirably each one what is proper to it self that they will do it without offence impediment errour or weariness with a vigour and clearness with an exactness and perfection wholly beyond imagination In conclusion to say something also of the appetites which have properly their seat in the Body and which as I have said are included under desire and anger these are passions which forasmuch as they are Corporeal will be so extinguished by death that they will return no more to life by the Resurrection And if it be true that there be virtues which have their seat in these passions as 't is apparent that Philosophy hath there placed those that they call properly moral either they will be no longer necessary because there will be no objects upon which they may be exercised or they consist not in the moderation of those appetites but in an excellent and invariable temper of the mind and will which will then be irrevocably fastened to all sorts of excellent objects by the light of the understanding All these impidements being removed if there were nothing else the reasonings of the Soul must be supreamly excellent For a good part of the failures which happen to us come either by the errour of our senses in the report that they make to us concerning sensible things or from the fumes of our passions which blind our understandings or from this that the aliments being not well concocted the Spirits which are formed out of part of their substance do retain something of their grossness and impurity wherewithal they infect the Organs which serve for the use of discourse or from this that from their first conformation there was some fault in their natural temper and construction But the same change which will put all the other parts of the Body into so excellent a constitution will put also those into the same condition wherein the intellective power of the Soul hath its seat and where it will form its ratiocinations This will be done the rather because all the other parts of the Body are not to be restored unless it be for their own proper felicity these are to serve the Operations of the Soul on which depends the happiness of the whole entire man and all the parts of him the Soul therefore being otherwise full of the illuminations of the Divine Spirit and strengthened by his presence far above the natural vigour of its faculties and coming to be lodged in a Body all whose power will be admirably perfect and bringing thither the impression of much excellent knowledg which it had already gained during the time of its residence in the Heavens it cannot effect any thing but productions worthy of its marvellous essence And as if during the time of a long separation the husband and wife had equally encreased in beauty and virtue and all other advantages they would receive incredible contentment if they might return to each other to enjoy long one and the same common felicity The Soul will rejoyce in its reunion to the Body and the Body will rejoyce in the presence of the Soul and both together composing one onely essence will be equally ravished with the happiness of their condition and with the assurance that they will have that it will be Eternal The second respect according to which man hath a Connexion and Relation to the World will deserve very attentive Consideration many things do manifestly show that the world was created for man The dignity of his nature which raised him infinitely above all other Creatures if he had remained in his integrity would not have permitted that he should have held any other place than that of an end to the use whereof other things were appointed The Empire that God gave him over all Plants and Animals at the beginning when he placed him in the Terrestrial Pardadise confirms it evidently For God would not have so ordained it if it had not been agreeable to the nature of the things themselves But nothing Teaches it unto us more expresly than the misery whereunto the world is subject on the occasion of mans sin For that 's it which the Apostle means when he says that the Creature is made subject to vanity not of it self but by reason of him which hath subjected it Rom. 8. 20. And if it be lawful to illustrate this by a Comparison taken from things Pagan the World was in regard of God as the statue of Minerva in regard of Phidias and man which is the image of God in the middle of the world as the image of Phidias in the middle of her Shield So that all the parts of the Statue were so aptly placed by their Jointures and Colligations that they met all together in the image of the workman in such manner that if it were plucked from thence all the work would fall in pieces all the parts of the World do so Abutt on this image of God that it cannot be corrupted by sin but the whole compages of
Crown his Battels and Victories after this manner A good old man of Lacedemonia that Travelled even to the furthest part of Asia only to see Alexander after he vanquished Darius said with very great emotion and pleasure of mind that the Greeks that died in the Battel of Marathon and that of Salamine were deprived of a marvellous contentment in that they did not see this Prince sitting upon the Throne of Xerxes and Triumphing gloriously over the pride of the Enemies of Greece When we see how Historians report the Proclamation made by Calaminius in favour of all the Greek Nations and how they represent the affections of the people the acclamations that they made the Coronets of Flowers that they wrought and the Garlands that they threw upon him and the incomparable demonstrations of Love which they gave to his person we cannot contain without feeling some emotion of mind and partaking in some sort in their joy Now what is either this assembly of Greece in comparison of that of all the faithful of the Universe or this Calaminius or Alexander in comparison of the Lord Jesus Christ or the liberty of these people in comparison of that of the Sons of God or of deliverance from the dominion of the Persians the Macedonians the Tyrant of Lacedemon and other Usurpers from whom these deliverers set them free in comparison of being delivered from Sathan and Death to be put into the enjoyment of Eternal life and glory Moreover it is said that the comparing of the Calamity of another doth assist in making us more sensible of our own proper felicity And indeed the Poet saith that he took pleasure in seeing upon the bank of the Sea a Ship tossed upon the waves not for that he had any pleasure in the danger of another but for that he saw it from without and that Perils either passed or present but where we have no part do give some sense of joy If it be so certainly the horrour of the condemnation of unbelievers must infinitely add to the joy of our pardon and glory Christ will shew to them a visage severe and full of rigour to us one supreamly pleasant and full of serenity Christ will fill their minds full of trembling and horrour whereas he will overwhelm our hearts with assurance and consolation Christ will set them at his left hand with indignation and us at his right hand with demonstration of love and peace Christ will examine them as a Judge inflexible and implacable to their incredulity And us as our advocate and witness of our faith Christ will pronounce to them go ye cursed into eternal fire to us he will say come ye blessed of my Father Christ will effectively throw them down into Hell and as to us he will advance us to Eternal glory in his Kingdom Concerning the Happiness of Believers after the Resurrection The Fourth Discourse WE are now come to the Consideration of the last degree of that happiness to which we aspire let us therefore see briefly what is revealed concerning it in the word of God and let us not approach it with less discretion and wariness than we have done the former Questions The Apostles writing to the Corinthians and speaking to them of the mysteries of the Gospel whereof the Spirit of God had given the Revelation to him and his Companions in the Apostleship says after the Prophet Esaias that they are things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred in t o the heart of man to conceive what God hath laid up for those that love him words that we use to accommodate to the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven of which we are speaking And truly it is not without good reason For although this way of interpretation be not suitable to the subject whereof they were first spoken so it is that such as was the Condition of the Jews which lived under the old Covenant with respect to us such well nigh is our Condition now with respect to what it will be when God shall have assembled us altogether in the Heavens And as in this comparison of the Jews with us they are compared to Children with respect to the measure and degree of their knowledg and we in the Scripture are esteemed as perfect men so the Apostle in comparing himself with himself makes a different judgment thereon For he says that now he is as a Child that he knows as a Child and speaks as a Child but when that which is perfect shall come and we expect it not absolutely but in the Kingdom of Heaven then that which is in part shall be done away and he shall know as he is known that is to say in a light which will not be mixt with any darkness For he adds that now we see nothing but the simple images of things as in a glass whereas then we shall behold things in their proper realities Moreover we consider not these images but as we regard riddles where we know not what they signify but through a great deal of darkness whereas when the time of perfection shall come we shall see says he face to face When the Jews formerly did attempt to expound the Oracles of the Prophets touching things to come and thence clearly and distinctly to Divine of events they were marvellously mistaken in their conjectures and had apprehensions touching the Kingdom of the Messiah which were found infinitely distant from the nature thereof when it came to be manifest and for that reason 't is necessary that we take head that we do not fall into the same inconveniencies and that being willing to anticipate things to come by the Curiosity of our Spirits depaint imaginations in the fancy which the event of things will one day refute to our shame Notwithstanding provided we be mindful of the modesty that becomes us the search of what it will be is not at all forbidden us And the faults that others have formerly committed in such matters may be helpful to hinder us from falling into errours of like nature in the subject whereof we are discoursing For that which made them to stumble was that they followed the inclinations of the flesh in the interpretation of prophecies and whereas they ought to have placed the Soveraign perfection of the Kingdom of the Messiah in the clear knowledg of the nature of God and the means of their Salvation and in true and spiritual sanctity which this clear knowledg was to produce they dreamt of worldly grandeur and dominion and of the Triumphs of Conquerours Therefore if now we do separate our thoughts from all earthly and carnal imaginations and following the steps of our Lord and his Apostles we place the principal part of this Kingdom in knowledg and sanctity we shall escape the precipice on which these persons have fallen and if it should happen that we should commit any fault in this discourse at the least it will not be of like consequence with theirs
to create the World his wisdom which is so admirably discovered in all the parts whereof it is composed and his power which appears not only in the greatness of the work and in the great variety of forms wherewith it is replenisht but especially in this that it was drawn from nothing and formed without the aid of any pre-existent matter And that leads him to the knowledge of the infinity and immensity of the nature of God for the World could not be created of nothing unless by an infinite power and an infinite power cannot reside in a finite or limited Essence from the infinity of his Essence he was able to ascend to his Eternity for it is impossible but that a thing that had a beginning should have a limited nature to which the cause that produced it doth necessarily determine it so that what is infinite in its Essence hath no beginning of its Existence and what hath no beginning of its Existence can have no end 't is for this reason that St. Paul in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans saith that men may know the Eternal Power of God in his works by the Creation of the World joyning with the declaration of his Power the revelation of his Eternity from thence he was able to conduct his discoursive power a little farther and know yet some other attributes of this blessed Essence and see God a little farther Nevertheless to see him in this fort is not called properly the seeing of him as he is and the reasons of it are evident Firstly In that the perfections which God hath displayed in this work of nature might have been more magnificently discovered if God had set it as one day it must be in a Supernatural State for as I have said already the more excellent the work is the more clearly doth it give us to understand the virtues and properties of its Cause Again though God hath revealed therein some of his Perfections nevertheless he hath not revealed all of them for as to his Justice he hath given no other knowledge of it besides what may be contained in that threatning Thou shalt dye the death now there is a great deal of difference between the knowledge that these threatnings may give us of it and that which is made from experience of the thing it self for what concerns his mercy there was no declaration made of it and therefore Adam could have no understanding of it After the fall till the first coming of Christ God hath revealed among others these two attributes for death and other sorts of judgments which he hath caused to fall upon men have given testimony to his Justice and his mercy is made known in the promise of Remission of Sins so that the faithful that have known them have in some sort seen God in that respect but nevertheless diverse things hinder so that we cannot say that they did see him as he is the one is that as to what concerns his Justice though death and other judgments of God do bear evident testimonies thereof nevertheless the punishment that God made of our Sins on the person of his only Son was a far more apparent evidence and more authentick demonstrations thereof until then it appeared that God was just but it did not appear that he was inflexible and altogether inexorable in his Justice but when he delivered his welbeloved Son unto death for the punishment of our Sins he gave us to understand that his nature did so abhor Sin that 't is absolutely impossible that he should suffer it without punishing it in a very dreadful manner this is it which St. Paul teacheth Rom. 3. That God had made his Son a propitiatory through faith to the end that he might demonstrate his Justice which had not been sufficiently known during the forbearance of the times past for how ever it was God as says the same St. Paul did as it were connive during the times of the ignorance of Gentilism and permit that men should entertain thoughts of his severity less congruous than became a Nature so holy and exactly just as is his the other is that where the Justice of God is not known to the utmost the Mercy of God is not known neither for he that knows not perfectly the whole greatness of the Evil cannot sufficiently comprehend the whole excellence of the Remedy add to this that the mercy of God was then indeed known by excellent premises but it was not sufficiently known by the experience of the effects themselves for death always reigned and Believers were always exposed to afflictions which did precede death and all this bore the Characters or were Signs of that inclination that solicited God to punish Sin so that all these things did in a manner obscure the splendor of this Mercy the third is that the mean by which this mercy makes it self known to be shed abroad upon us being not yet manifest the wisdom of God that reconciled justice and mercy between themselves could not be known in this affair which is the most magnificent and most admirable of all the works that ever it did produce for all the marvels that it hath so liberally scattered in the Heavens and in the Earth approach not that of the incarnation of our Saviour by which God was made capable of suffering the pains which the Sins of men deserved man knows God just by the threatnings of his Laws and merciful by the sweetness of his Promises and the Efficacy whereby he accompanies his word render the one and the other of these two Properties sensible to the Consciences of those whose hearts he touches and besides he is not ignorant that God is sufficiently wise in reconciling them together but nevertheless what sublimity of knowledge and understanding could divine that the mean of this accord was to consist in making God become man and this same man God without mixture or confusion between the natures that constitute his Person or the Properties that do accompany them To conclude man being not only in a State of Nature but also in a State of Corruption and having not received the Spirit of Illumination then unless in some small measure he could not apprehend all the beauties of his Perfections though they had been much more clearly and illustriously revealed From the first Coming of Christ until the second the faithful are in that Condition that we cannot sufficiently express how much of encrease their knowledge hath received For the Justice of God hath appeared in the highest degree in the death of Christ his Mercy in the effect of his satisfaction his Wisdom in the conduct of the mystery of our Salvation his Power in the Resurrection of our Saviour and in the Conversion and Sanctification of our Souls so far that Saint Paul says that we have believed according to the excellent greatness of the mighty power of God himself and although we see not with our bodily eyes the Lord Jesus nevertheless