cheefest actions of the soule Seventh reason must be the immediate apprehension possession and fruition of those things which must be the The last end of man must bee the cheefest good that man can attaine vnto last end of man so the cheefest good and best thing which the soule can attaine unto by knowledge can embrace by love can injoy by delight must be his last end and the object of his happinesse felicity Now to thinke of any other thing for this purpose besides God were the greatest dotage that might be imagined For not speaking onely of things sublunary but even the celestiall Gen. 1. 17. themselves what are they all but either images as men and Angells or footings or shadowes of Psa 19. the creator himselfe as all other creatures are And what a vanity were it to thinke that the Image of the Creator should have for the object of her happinesse and last end those things which are onely as footings or darke foote impressions of the Creator Or how vaine to thinke that those things which are made for the use and service of man as all terrene things were should be the end of man Sweetly was this understood by most Intelligent David who ballancing all things that were in the heavens above or on the earth belowe cries out What is there for me in heaven Psal 73. And besides thee what would I upon earth the Gen. 2. 9. Psa 23. 25. 26 God of my heart and portion for ever As if he should have said O thou my God thou thou that A most divine elevation of Davids spirit art my ever and last end the very joy and happinesse of my hart how glorious thou in the heavens above and what happinesse is there provided for me in thee above how then may I or can I take full content or delight in any thing that is here below Basill elegantly compares them that fixe their hearts upon any earthly good thing whatsoever appretiating them before God to him who hearing some exquisite and most divine Doctor preaching or teaching out of a chaire standing in the Sunne should neglecting both the Teacher his words and gestures attend and observe only the shadow of the teacher and such severall motions or gestures as are represented thereby So he very excellently accounting all the best and good creatures of God being compared to God to be no more nor better indeed they are not somuch than the shadow of the teacher and his gestures represented therein are being compared to the Teacher himselfe and unto his actions of life Eightly and lastly as the understanding of Eight reason man is by nature apt and hath an apprehensive power to apprehend all that is cognoscible or may God onely can be the full obiect of mans knowledge and love be knowne or vnderstood vnder the condition of truth so the will of man whose proper object is good as by nature it embraceth nothing but what is good or under the apparance of good so it hath a propension and inclination to pursue all good either to be attained dispersedly in severall creatures or in some one fountaine and roote of all goodnesse which inclinations both of the will and understanding unlesse they be fully satisfied and quieted by that cheefest good and purest truth which is and are the last end and object of their happinesse they shall never be found truly to have attained their last end and finall happinesse But if we consider the most glorious of Gods creatures in no one no in no one million of them can be found all that may be understood by the understanding or be desired and embraced by the will and consequently no one of them nor no infinite multitude of them together can be the full object of mans last end and happinesse no God God alone is this purest truth and cheefest good the full and compleate object both of the wills and understandings of all his Intelligent creatures who being presented to the beautified Soules enabled with the light of glory to see him as he is in himselfe even face to face how unenarrable unspeakeable and incomprehensible is the joy of such Soules so intuitively beholding so joyously possessing of their God and most sweetly delighting in their God Of this Ambrose sweetly What good better then this good What felicity greater then this to live to God in God and to live of God Bernard like himselfe divinely Barnard seâ—m 31 in Cantiâ—a To whom God appeareth they will see nothing more desiredly nor can see nothing more delightfully when then will either desire of seeing lothe or sweetnesse withdraw herselfe or truth deceive or aeternity faâ—le to whom opportunity of seeing and a will to see is graunted for ever and ever how then shall their felicity not be full for nothing is either wanting to them that alwayes see or is tedious to them who have a desire alwayes to see but this vision is not of this present life but is reserved for the last end of man THIRD SECTION Shewing that God onely is the last end of man and his finall happinesse VVHen I thinke of that precept of God knowne by the lawe of nature directed by the law of Moyses renewed in the law of grace Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Deut. 6. 5. with all thy soule with all thy strength and with all thy mind I cannot but make a speedy resolution Mat. 22. 37. who and what is the last end of mans heart his soule his strength and his mind for if God be to be beloved with the whole heart soule minde and strength of man it were a vanity and a dotage to â—â—â—ke any other last end for man then God Nay love as saith Austen very excellently Is my weight and poyse with it and by it I am carried whither to soever I am carried A totall and compleat love then of the whole heart Soule and minde of man and all that is in man cannot other whither carry him or leade him then to that which is the very center of his rest and happinesse Thou fast made us O Lord for thee and unquiet is our heart till it come to thee and Boetius very fitly We must of necessity confesse that God is the very blessednesse of man But when we affirme that God is the last end of man and his finall happinesse we must for the clearer understanding of the same distinguish thus the last end of man and his happinesse may be A necessary distinction considered in two sorts either the last end which or the last end wherewith or thus in other termes the objective beatitude of man or the formall beatitude of man I explaine my selfe The end which is that which is the very thing where in the soule of man doth finally rest and eternally joy it selfe the end wherewith are the cheifest action or actions operation or operations of the soule
hath made us for himselfe and unquiet is mans heart untill it attaine him This nature of an end thus breifly laid open two things will clearely apeare The first that man in all his actions Man hath an end in all his actions hath some speciall end againe that of himselfe and all his actions he hath a last and totall end Concerning the first that man hath an end in all his actions what man that hath the least spaeke of humane knowledge in him is not perswaded yea more who hath arightly thought of man and all other earthly creatures can otherwise thinke but that man onely man doth present unto himselfe some speciall end in all his actions yea a last end for which and the consecutiō of which he doth and intends all he either doth or intendeth Senslesse creatures worke not otherwise too and for their ends but for that without all sense or knowledge they by a naturall poyse bend and are inclined to their ends Sensitiue creatures worke too and for their ends though not knowne to them under the formality of an end yet apprehended by them as the thing unto which for their rest and perfection their nature doth encline them so that they are rather driven and enforced by a naturall propension then moved by apprehension and cogitation This truth if dayly experience did not make manifest yet cleare reason doth evince it for there is not any creature whether sensitive or senslesse which hath not some inclination and proportion whereby it is wayed to some speciall good which good being that for the attaining whereof it is inclined we must and doe call the same an end either partiall or totall And although all sensitiue and senslesse creatures have one and the same last remote end not knowne to themselves but intended by God who hath made all things for himselfe yet their Fro. 16. ◠speciall and peculiarends are severall and distinguished being no other than a naturall conservation or enlarging of themselues A very perfect paterne of that inordinate love the very stones and mortar wherewith the tower of Babell to the contempt of God is built which every inordinate man hath of himselfe for as the sensitive creature hath no other end than by satisfying his lust to conserve it selfe so the inordinate man hath no other end but the selfe content and fruition of himselfe he referrs all things yea God himselfe and his religion asmuch as may lye in his power to himselfe and for his owne content which is the greatest iniquity to use the things which ought to be injoyed and to injoy those things which ought onely to be used And although these brutish sensitiue and Animall men have no other end of themselves but themselves Lovers of themselues more than of God yet God ordeines 2 Tim. 3. 2. Pro. 16. 4. Ier. 46. 11. them to another end the evill day the day of anger and of slaughter It being thus apparent that sensitive vnreasonable senslesse and inanimate creatures have their severall inclinations either innate or upon apprehension by which they are urgently and necessarily carried to their severall ends more apparent it must be that man in such his actions as are humane is swayed in and unto them all upon the apprehension of some good by him intended and prosecuted wherein the formality and nature of an end doth properly consist And we must not onely thinke that man in his severall particular actions hath some particular good things after which he aimerh as the ends of the same but we are further to understand that every man hath some totall compleat last end both of himselfe and all his actions in things which are ordeined one for another as are the actions of man every man there cannot be processe into an infinity In causes finall or ends there cannot be progresse infinite say the Schooles and the reason is manifest for an end is not an end but as it moveth now if there were an infinitie in the ends there could be no mooving nor motion at all for that is infinite which never can be passed over nor mooved unto either in finite time or by a finite cause And againe second causes mooue not unlesse they be mooved but over an infinite distance there is no mooving so then if there were an infinite progresse in causes finall there could be no mooving at all and therefore of necessity it must be graunted that man hath How every man intendeth some end some last totall compleate end to which he ordeineth himselfe and all his actions Only it is to be observed that every man doth so ordeine himselfe and his actions to some last full end either vainely interpretatively and by vaine imagination or else truely and deliberately by sett resolution I said vainely and interpretatively vainely thereby to designe the impious and ungodly who upon vaine imaginations doe presett unto themselves some vaine fading object as their end and last happinesse I said interpretatively for how soever the wicked and ungodly Psal 1. whose thoughts and affections are scattered as dust before the wind do in words pretend God to be their last end yet seeing they vainely solace themselves in the fruition of the creature contrary to the will of God and thereby commit wilfull sinne which is a separation wall betwixt God and Isa 59 themselves they are interpreted to make the creature and not the creator their last end and accordingly their God is said to be their belly their Phi. 3. 19. Col. 3. 4. Luc. 12. 19. gold their idoll their store houses and barns the centers of their rest and repose by which meanes what soever else they may presume or pretend they are for all eternity to be separated from God Againe I said vainely for how vaine is it for By vaine imagination any man to make that his last end which ought not to be any end at all or that to be last end of man to weet delightfull sinne the end whereof is hell and destruction for the wages of sinne is Rom. 6. death death eternall O how vainely then walke sinners in the vanity of their sense having their Eples 4. 18. vnderstandings obscured through the blindnesse of their hearts which is in them Excellently saith the Apostle that the understanding is obscured through the blindnesse of the heart for so blind are they that though they love sinne immoderatly yet they presume that they serue God obsequiously O the lamentable yet unlamented blindnesse of willfull sinners O the fearefull severity of God thus chastening presumption Austen fitly to this purpose If any robbing should In Psa 17. thereby in the very act lose his sight every man would say that Gods judgement was present but having lost the eyes of our minds we thinke God to be both sparing Indg. 16. 27. and indulgent Sampson could not be brought to grind in the mill before his eyes were plucked out so so neither could the Devill
draw men to so servile a bondage of sinne to place happinesse in that which inevitably leadeth to death and destruction unlesse he had first deprived him of the light of his mind I said above that the last end in some is truely directly and deliberatly intended to shew the very manner how the true servants of God doe preset and prefixe vnto themselves God and his glory for the last totall and compleat end of themselves and all their actions that whether they eate or drinke or what else soever 1 Cor. 10. 32. they do in word or worke they do all to the glory of God alwayes and in al things giuing thaÌ„ks to God Col. 3. 17. and the Father by Iesus Christ But I must not on to fast and involue this truth with obscurity I repeate againe these words Truly directly and deliberatly Sap. 7. 5. Truly for that into feined soules and deceitfull minds wisdome will not enter but onely unto such as thinke of God in goodnesse and in the sincerity of their heart do seeke him Directly to shew that the Archer aimeth not more directly at the white in the shooting than the servant of God doth looke on God in working To him his soule walketh on him his soule wayteth after him his soule thirsteth Psal â—3 â— â— yea to him both soule and flesh is manifestly fastned and fixed I say deliberately to shew that the soule not onely upon a first motion and as it were by an impetuosity of sanctified nature is bent and inclined to God but that vpon cleare consideration he doth most fervently pursue and intend after God only God That of the Schooles is most true The causality of the end is the reason of all because the first that mooveth and the moover of all other causes So in God so in all intelligent creatures the end prefixed mooves all which end in God though without himselfe he ordeined one thing for another Grace for Glory damnation for sinne only sinne is no other than himselfe his owne glory mooving himselfe to doe all things for the same In like sort the end is that which first mooveth in all intelligent creatures how then can it be but that the end is truly directly deliberatly intended whenas for the attaining of it all other things are intended it being the good one that guids and directs all Againe say the Schooles and truly The end is pursued without measure but those things which are for the end according as the further and conduce unto the end how then shall not the last end be pursued directly and deliberatly yea with a Mat. 22. 33. sweet kind of impetuossity and violence of Grace with the whole heart all the soule with the whole mind and with all the strength of him who arightly apprehends the end This David feelingly professes Psal 42. 1. wheÌ„ as he thus breathes out Even as the Hart panteth after the fountaines of waters so my soule thirsteth and longeth after thee O my God Herehence it is that in so much every thing is the more perfect in how much it is more efficaciously ordered and directed to the end and that as in naturall motions the neerer the end the swifter the motions are so in motions of grace and supernall the neerer to God the swifter and the more sweetly violent and efficacious the motions are So so the soule which living only desireth God delighted Psal 73. 25. on God dying and parting from the body longeth and panteth only after God nothing but God Yet againe saith the Schooles and truly That all things which as meanes are for and conduce to the end are not intended nor prosecuted but out of a deliberate and full intention of the end So then in man there can be no deliberate actions but such as are intended either for the true and happy end of all God or else for such imagined and supposed ends which the corruption of man presets vnto himselfe Austen excellently That is the end of all our good for which all other things are loved and it for it selfe Thus have wee shewed though breefely yet sufficiently that man every man hath not only in all his severall and particular actions some speciall privat ends but further also that man every man hath some compleate and finall end both of himselfe and of all his actions But what is the last end of man THE SECOND SECTION Wherein is ioyntly shewed by sundry arguments and cleare demonstrations that the obiect of humane felicity or last end of man cannot be riches pleasures nor honours taken severally or ioyntly THough common experience excludes from being the object of humane felicity or last end of man that three headed monster concupiscence 1 Ioh. 2. 16. of the flesh lust of the eyes and pride of life joyntly or severally taken wherein the Apostle confines all that is excellent delightfull or profitable in the world yet by way of prelude to our following discourse I have thought good to adde a few morall reasons and demonstrations eight in a perfect number that these three which are formally or reductively all that is excellent pleasant or proffitable in the world whether taken vnitedly together or apart are not the last end of man or the obiect of his felicity for which 1 Reason purpose I argue thus first The object of mans felicity or last end of man must in respect of that which is cheefe in man to weet the soule of man be so perfect that it must give full content The last end of man must give full content to man and rest thereunto that is to man as man But out alasse who ever whose soule hath beene endowed with least sparke of wisdome hath found full content in riches honour or pleasures against which Salomon the wisest amongst all the wise exclaimes O the vanity of vanities and all vanity Ecl. 1. Yea so contrary is the operation of these to the wisdome of the soule that to surfet with these is to piâ—e in reason to languish in piety and Eph. 4. 18. with deepest ignorance to have the soule obscured and darkned And surely by these * Occasionaly the God of this world doth blind the hearts of such as doe perish And in this respect is Saâ—han called God 2 Cor. 4. 4. of this world bâ—cause by these three as it were the life and marrow of the world pride riches pleasures glory c. He hath abusively rule and reigneth over the children of misbeleefe and disohedience Secondly the last end or felicity of man must Second reason be so good that no man may use the same ill but these both joyntly and severally taken are such as by the possessiones of them may be used so ill that for the abusing of them they may with the reprobate glutton perish eternally yea they are so Luk. 16. 15. fit and apt to be ill used that they carry with them a crosse barre of
operations The estate of happinesse requires that the soules of the beatified should be in a continuall glorified exercise of glorious actions of every power and faculty of the soule nay it is impossible to conceive how there should be a glorious satiety of happinesse if there be not an incessant and never intermitted exercise of glorious operations and a very apprehension of that glorious estate and condition of happinesse wherein the beatified are This truely is most apparent The Cherubins and Seraphins with incessant admiration sing the thrice holy holy holy holy Lord God of Saboth The sweet singer of Israell accounts all those blessed that dwell in the house of the Lord for that they shall for all eternities blesse and sing praises unto the Lord Now these divine cries Isa 6. 3. and elevations of admiration holy holy holy Lord God of Sabboth of the Cherubins and Seraphins these praises and collaudations of the Saints those Alleluias praise ye the Lord praise ye the Lord recounted by the Prophet in the Revelation are they ought else or can they be ought else then thir severall actions and operations of vision love joy delight reverence admiration which the Angells and Saints seeing God have with God in God and of God with God because they are made partakers of the very joy of the Lord in God because they shall see him as he is of God because he is the eternall fountaine of light streaming into the soules and spirits of the beatified a most glorious light whereby they see God and his glorious Majesty most clearely and consequently they cannot but love him but delight in him admire reverence and adore him 〈…〉 bâ—fâ—â—â— him thereby acknowledging him for the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of themselves of their 〈◊〉 and oâ— all creatures whethâ—r 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 above or on the earth 〈…〉 within the 〈◊〉 of the â—arth beneath Fifthly I suppose that this glorious exercise 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 glorious 〈◊〉 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 of the 〈…〉 God Some there are who do thinke that there is in the 〈◊〉 an abstractive knowledge of God by his creatures and 〈◊〉 an answerable love arising from the same but without all question they are herein mistaken for seeing the knowledges of God by 〈◊〉 13. 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 as being obsâ—uâ—e in part and imperfect and of God 〈◊〉 are to cause and to be 〈◊〉 when as the clâ—are and iâ—tuitive vision of him 〈…〉 given unto the bâ—â—tified why then shall 〈…〉 knowledge of God by and thâ—ough his creatures whenas 〈◊〉 shall be 〈…〉 is in 〈…〉 whenas he shall be 〈…〉 whenas we shall kâ—â—w 〈◊〉 even as wâ—◠〈…〉 not obseurely in a â—haâ—ow 〈◊〉 clearely 〈…〉 face to face By 〈…〉 vision the spirits and soules of the 〈◊〉 shall be 〈…〉 〈◊〉 and so swallowed up that the pretended abstractive knowledge of God by and in his creatures shall be altogether needlesse yea perhaps impossible if we would stand longer to 〈◊〉 the same And so I come more specially to distinguish the principall actions and operations which the beatified have in 〈…〉 God The first and paine action of the beatified about and on God the fountaine of all the rest is a cleare and 〈◊〉 vision oâ— him as he is in 1 Ioâ— â— 2. himselfe Iâ— is 〈…〉 with God before God and 〈…〉 presence of God thereby not onely The first 〈◊〉 aâ—â— on 〈◊〉 the beatified seeing that which is â—â—nifest of God in regard of his creatures but also that which is manifest of God in himselfe by his owne 〈◊〉 â—â—sential light For God is light and in him there is no darknesse at all And by this intuitive vision of God 1 Ioh. â— the beatified spirits so see God their intellective powers being enabled thereunto by the light of glory that their powers are thereby fully satiated and at rest most sweetely and joyously injoying that which God promised to Moyses I will shew thee all good Out of this presentiall and Exod. 33. 19. intuitive vision of good all good clearly beheld there followeth necessarily a double love of God I said necessarily for it is impossible that good Second glorious action all good essentially good having no evill in it should clearely bee proposed to the understanding and that the will whose proper and formall object is good should not love and embrace the same Now this love is a double tendency or embracing of the soule into and of that infinite goodnesse which is in God first of that infinite goodnesse of God as he is good in himselfe goodnesse it selfe secondly of the very same goodnesse of God as by participation it is imparted and coÌ„municated as their last end and finall good unto the soules and spirits of the Beatified This with reverence I presume to declare by that which the Apostle delivereth in his Epistleto the Corinthians to weet that love never fadeth away whereby it is most apparent 1 Cor. 13. 8. that the love of the regenerate in this life the love of the beatified in the life of blisse and glory is one and the same essentially and in nature the onely diversity is that by an excesse of perfection that of the beatified doth exceedingly surpasse that which is of the Pilgrimes in this valley of mortality If then the love of the Elect whilst they are in the way absent from God and the love of the Elect when they are in their country and at their end present with God be one and the same then must it needs follow that as the love of the Elect in the way tendeth with a double respect to God to love A double kind of glorious love God as he is good in himselfe and to himselfe which is the love of friendship and amity and to love him as he is good to his elect their totall and finall good which is a love of a holy and sacred concupiscence so likewise the love of God in the beatified inclineth them to love God as hee is good to himselfe and in himselfe and as he is most graciously good unto themselves And can there be made any doubt of this what shall the habit of love charity moove incline us most divinely to love God in both respects as he is obscurely seene by faith whilest wee are Pilgrims and travellers in this mortall life and shall not the same habitt of love and charity being now perfected and glorious necessarily and ineviâ—ably moove us to love God in both respects for his goodnesse as it is infinitely in himselfe and for his goodnesse it as it is and as he is by participation communicated unto us Yea this is so apparent that the man according to Gods owne heart professes what his love was in this life of mortality and what he longed for and longed after in that life of glory and immortality thus What is there saith he for me in heaven Psal 73. 25. 26. besides thee and besides thee what would I upon earth
is that the beatified cannot sinne for beatified they cannot be unlesse they be first purified from all sinne how then being beatified may they committ sinne The truth of this point of the impeccability of the beatified Soules and Spirits I declare thus The beatified and happy by How the beatified be come impeceable the cleare vision of God are so determined and inclined with a glorious necessity to love him that as they cannot but love him as their last end and cheefest good so they cannot but referre all other actions and affections whatsoever else they may there have to the glory of him as to their last end how then is it possible that they should transgresse or swarve from God and so sinne Surely they cannot and this impeccability they have not by any extraordinary grace graunted unto them For that purpose for their very estate and condition of seeing God with so cleare a vision of loving him with so unmooveable a love of delighting in him with so unspeakeable a joy requires that they should not have any left a possibility to swarve from him And in truth to stand within the principles of the light of nature the Rules of divinity and Philosophy it is more possible and probable that a heavy milstone should naturally moove and ascend upwards from the Center of the earth unto which or neere unto which it hath a naturall inclination by the whole force of his nature then that the beatified Soules and Spirits should swarve and cease from their love of God and delight in God whom they so clearely and presentially see and behold as their last end the marke of their desires the totall object of their happinesse their onely and cheefest good And so we may observe how idle that reason is wherewith some endeavour to proove that the beatified Soules and Spirits are peccable because forsooth the nature of their wills which intrinsecally requires that they should be free and at liberty is not chaunged nor altered True the liberty of their wills is not perverted nor destroyed but they The will of men beatified hath no liberty about her last end are so perfected in the highest degree of their perfection unto which they can possibly attaine And here I cannot passe to note as a point of ignorance for any one to thinke that the will hath or can have a liberty of freedome to love See Aquinas 1. q. 81. et 1. 2. or not to love to embrace or not to embrace her last end her cheefest and onely good the object of her happinesse so clearely and presentially proposed unto her and as such embraced by her The jester in the play could tell what end man desired yea what end man necessarily desired yea could not but desire to weet to be happy and yet these can finde or presume to finde how the beatified Soules and Spirits can in their very state of happinesse have a liberty or indisserency to love or not to love to embrace or not to embrace the infinite Godnesse of God and their last happinesse which with such unspeakeable joy peace and rest they hould and possesse in their bedds of that celestiall paradise And of August in psal â—6 the purity and necessity whereof Austen most divinely thus What shall be the delights of Saints they shall be delighted in a multitude of peace Let the wicked here rejoyce in multitude of gold store of silver abundance of servants excesse of riotous and luxurious feasts but thou O thou Lover of God what shall thy delights be Thou shalt be delighted in multitude of peace and rest thy gold peace thy silver peace thy possession peace Thy life peace thy God peace yea whatsoever thou canst desire shall be to thy peace and peace to thee here that which is gold to thee cannot be silver that which is wine cannot be bread that which is light cannot be to thee as food and drinke but there thy God shall bee to thee all in all thou shalt eate him that thou hunger not thou shalt drinke him least thou thirst thou shalt be lightened of him that thou be not blinde thou shalt be held up by him that thou fall not from him he whole and entire shall possesse thee wholy and intirely want there with him thou shalt not suffer any with whom thou shalt possesse all Thou shalt have all of him and hee all of thee because hee and thou shalt be but one which one and all he shall have who shall possesse and hold his Saints in rest and peace Thus that Father most aptly and sweetely shewing God to be so possessed of the beatified and the beatified so to possesse God that they cannot desire ought else no not have so much as a velleity or weake desire to delight or rest in ought else then in God the God of their hearts Psa 73. desire and their portion for ever Where then is that idle conceipt of those who affirme that although the blessed cannot see any thing in God that may moove them or incline them to sinne yet in respect of other I cannot tell what particuler actions wherein God may imploy them they may have some either inconsideration or ignorance and so consequently may in the doing of the same sinne and transgresse and so to them even to them being happy that of the Poet may be applyed It is the part of a foole to say I had not thought of it I did not consider it arightly O the presumption of witts to thinke that those blessed Spirits can have any such ignorance or inconsideration as not to do the will of God clearely proposed unto them how shall not they know the will of him whose face they so clearely see and Mat. 18. 20. behold how should not they doe his will who delight in nothing more then in the performance of his will The Church by Christs owne commaund prayes thus to God Thy will be done in earth as Mat. â— 10. it is in heaven Whereby shee professes that in the heavens above there is most perfect obedience yeelded by the beatified unto God because nothing can be there done or admitted against his will either out of intended wilfullnesse or pretended negligence Mat. 18. 10. Those blessed Spirits that ever behold the face of God that is in heaven cannot have the least veleity Baruch 3. 39. orinclination not to doe the will of their God which is in heaven Those glorious starres no sooner heare the call of their God but they answere we are ready doth not David give unto them as a peculiar of their honnour and happinesse that they Psa 103. 21. ever doe the will of the Lord Prayse the Lord all yee his hosts yee his servants that doe his pleasure prayse the Lord. And so I conclude this point affirming that the beatified Soules and spirits are unpeccable being by contemplation made immutable and by an euerlasting love made undefectible I have sufficiently shewed that
MANS LAST END THE GLORIOVS VISION AND FRVITION OF GOD. By Richard Sheldon Doctor in Divinity one of his Maiesties Chaplines 1 Ioh. 3. 2. Wee know that when he shall appeare wee shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is LONDON Printed by WILLIAM IONES dwelling in Red-crosse-streete 1634. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE DREAD SOveraigne Sacred and divine is Royall MAIESTIE and it is the glorie thereof to protect sacred things This my Meditation vpon Heavens Loadstone the glorious vision fruition of God though in respect of the authour and the stile it may seeme unworthy of your Maiesties iudicious eye yet in regard it is in it selfe asubiect most sacred and sacredly handled agreeing to the rule of holy faith I humbly presume to crave from your Maiesty both prâ—â—ection and gracious acceptance of it which my minde presumes I shall most assuredly haue Protection because I humbly craue it from the Defender of that faith the happy end and fruite whereof is the glorious vision and fruition of God Gracious acceptance because it cannot but be a subiect most acceptable to your religious and pious mind which like that of Moses is daily looking on this most glorious reward For this to the ioy of your people and for the example of all greatnesse Comes testified confirmed both by your Maiesties reverent attention to the word Read or Preached fervent and intentiue devotion to Gods prayses in prayers celebrated but especially by your Maiesties daily often times of prayers O that the whole Britaine-Orbe at least the whole Tribe of Levy therein were composed and ordered according to this your Maiesties example Goe on glorious Prince let not your Hand cease to protect enlarge the virgine-faith which yee professe to raise up despised Discipline for the glory of our Church to mainteyne iustice and iudgement and with Clemency to establish your Throne And that glorious God whom yee serue with feare trembling shall and will in the end bid you enter into that his owne ioye the glorious vision and fruition of himselfe Amen Your most Excellent Majesties loyall subiect and servant Richard Sheldon To the Religious Reader CHristian Reader whosoever thou art into whose hands this Treatise may come I advise thee that howsoever this diamond of thy felicity come thus rudely yet clearly and truely presented unto thee thou make such good use of this and the like that thou mayest happily in the end enjoy the glory it selfe Meditating hereon thou wilt easily see how degenerate thou art from thy owne Originall dignity if by the contagion of unrepented sinne thou deprive thy selfe of that gemme which God hath prepared for thee and all those that feare him and love his comming Had the naturall Sages of the world knowne this end of man whereas some of them as the Grecians called him a little world an Earthly God Others as the Egiptians and their Trismegistus the miracle of the world they would in respect of the glory expected and to be revealed have termed him the miracle of heaven a glorious companion by grace of majesty it selfe thus entring into and diving into the Lords owne Ioy it selfe But whence hath man this but from the free grace of the Father By whom hath hee this but by the humble obedience of the Sonne to the Father By what all this but by obedient faith in the Saviour The first is the fountaine the second is the way and meane of this glory the third is the condition without which this glory is not obtained O then having found this most precious diamond and from whom it is God the Father By whom it is Christ Iesus the Sonne for whom it is the faithfull and loving beleevers Presse thou on towards the marke for the price of this high calling of God in Christ Iesus the glorious vision and fruition of God himselfe AMEN Thine in CHRIST IESVS RICHARD SHELDON THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOKE Section 1. Sheweth joyntly wherein the nature and condition of an end and last end may consist Sect. 2. Wherein is joyntly shewed by sundry arguments and cleare demonstrations that the object of humane felicity or last end of man cannot be riches pleasures nor honour taken severally or joyntly pag. 9. Sect. 3. Shewing that God onely is the last end of man and his finall happinesse pag. 18. Sect. 4. God being the object of mans happinesse and his last end it is shewed by what union he is knitte and united to the Soule and thereby the Soule made happy pag. 25. Sect. 5. Wherein is more particularly handled in what action or actions the last happinesse of man doth specially consist pag. 50. Sect. 6 Conteines certaine observations touching the glorified bodies of the beatified and their glorious qualities pag. 63. Sect. 7. Wherein is breefely and in generall laid downe the meanes and way whereby eternall happines is to be attained pag. 92. MANS LAST END THE GLORIOVS VISION AND FRVITION OF GOD. First Section shewing Ioyntly wherein the nature and condition of an end and last end may consist THE nature and essence of an end in generall is to be that for which another thing is intended as a meanes to attaine the same end Or Wherein the nature of an end doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus An end is that which moveth to motion or action which respect and formality of an end in the last end requires further that it be that for which all other things are intended and it not for any one of them singly taken no nor for all of them taken together and unitedly Whence from by inevitable consequence it followeth that the last end of man is that to which all the actions of man yea man himselfe is to be referred as being that by which and in which his full rest and last perfection is intended Herehence it also followeth most clearely first that the last end of man must needs be farre better than man and all that is in man as being that which must give full perfection and rest to man and all that is in man The end finall is ever better than that which is for the end the house is better than the lime timber and stone which are for the house and man better than the house for whose use the house is so the end of man better then man Secondly the last end of man must be such as doth fully satiate and quiet all the desires of man for that is the last end of every thing which when it is had giveth perfect rest and repose Austin Truly wee say that to be the last end of man not wherewith he is so consumed as that he ceaseth to be but that wherewith he is so perfited that he may fully and perfectly be By which it may appeare that the inordinate love of mans owne selfe is farthest off from being the last end of a mans owne selfe for an inordinate mind is ever a punishment and affliction to it selfe In Austins phrase God
wherewith the end attained is injoyed and possessed In like sort the objective beatitude is the very object whereon these cheife actions are exercised which the Soule seeing and enjoying is thereby made happy Beatitude formall is the very seeing enjoying and possessing of this object We may take some familiar examples hereof To the avaritious Person who should indeed have only God for his lott and portion his end which is his Mony and whatsoever else is for Money estimable his end wherewith is his base whoording up increasing and possession of the same The Intemperate mans end which is every voluptuous thing he takes pleasure in his end wherewith is his solace pleasure and delight which he takes therein even so the last end of man wherewith is the adeption and fruition of God the end which is God himselfe so injoyed and possessed It is true that God who is his owne end essentially God happy by himselfe both objective and formall is not happy by any any thing that is without himselfe or that is dependently of himselfe but as he is essentially his owne existence and being so is hee essentially his owne happy being Austen excellently what soever is in God is God there is no accidentall compaction or composition So then God being happy in himselfe and by himselfe himselfe is both the object of his happinesse and his owne formall happinesse But creatures intelligent to weet men and Angells having not an infinite and essentiall happinesse but a happinesse only by participation can have the same by no other meanes nor wayes then by some limited operations and actions of their intellectuall parts understanding and will which actions and operations must needs have some happy and singular object wherein and whereon they are conversant and exercised which object also must or can fully satiate content and glad the soule which that it is God the one onely cheefe and infinite good of the soule is so cleare and evident that it were dotage to stand long in the proofe of the same And though it be most cleare that God onely God is this last object which onely must and can give happinesse Rom. 1. 11. unto the Soule yet so obscured are the hearts of some foolish men that though they cannot say in their hearts there is no God yet they say that God is not the last end of their soules nor the object of their happinesse But O that they would consider and seriously ponder in their soules oh how easily should they finde in God all reasons that might moove them to take him and to embrace him only for their last end and the totall object of their happinesse Where there is an infinite pyle of wood kindled it cannot bee but the fier kindled may burne for an infinite time and without end how then shall not the soule infinitely and for ever In God is all that is to bee beloved burne with love and joy it selfe with delight which hath God in whom there is an infinite abysse of goodnesse power Majesty beawty for her present and happy object O thou soule Whosoevers thou art and wheresoever thou art O that thou wouldest seriously consider this thy last and best good the very place and center of thy sefe consider seriously whether there can be any perfect happy place of rest for thy selfe besides Gen. 1. 27. God Art not thou made to the Image and likenesse of God Then thy essentiall and totall dependency is from God then thy totall inclination and propension ought onely to be to God Inquire into thy soule and aske whose Image it is whose inscription is ingraved therein And thou shalt finde that it is only God it is onely he that hath marked thee and signed thee for himselfe yea immediately for himselfe O the honours of intelligent creatures by their institution to have God only God for their last and immediate end wherewith they must be eternally conversant and to have him for the full and compleate object of their happinesse in the contemplation of whose beauty they must be eternally exercised O the best of all best parts for by participation it is the Mat. 25. 27. Luk. 10. 42. Psa 73 26 very joy of the Lord himselfe O choose this thou my soule it shall never be taken from thee the God of my heart and portion forever O that my very flesh and soule would exult and rejoyce after this living God for ever O the sweetest water springs my soule thirst thou after them for ever It is said of those that love God sincerely and make him the object of their hearts in this life 1 Ioh. 4. 7. that they abide in God and God in them holily and graciously O how joyous holy and gracious then in that glorious estate shall our abiding in God and his abiding in us bee to our soules for the dayes of his owne aeternity in himselfe and our Coaeternity with himselfe But in this last end of man and object of his happinesse we are to consider that which is observable in every object to weet in what formality or formall respect God is found to be the object of mans happinesse and felicity whether in the formality of goodnesse To what formall respect God is the obiect of mans happinesse as he is infinitely good or in the formality of power as he is omnipotent or of knowledge as he is omniscious or of wisdome as he infinitely wise or of truth as he is infinitely cognoscible and intelligible or justice as he is infinitely just faithfull in his promises and upright in his judgements mercifull in his rewards or in the formality of any other of his attributes vnity simplicity verity c. Wherein the observation and question being novell and new I had farre rather heare a master then be a teacher my selfe Sure I am that the beautified and happy see God in his owne very 1 Ioh. 3 2. presence face to face for so the beloved Disciple who sucked this truth from the brest of truth hath himselfe pronounced wee shall see him saith hee as hee is not obscurely as Timeus and Simonides Plato in dialog Philosophers who both being required to speake what God was the first answers onely by negation shewing what God was not but not what he was the other the more he considers God seene by the beatified as he is in him selfe God the longer time he requires to answer the King what God was but wee shall see him with eyes intuitive as he is in himselfe A most pure and perfect Act all existence and being all essence and nature and essentiall existence and Act most pure without all manner of potentiallity and imperfection And because whatsoever is in God is God it cannot bee but that hee who seeth God must needs see all that is in God his power justice wisdome bonity purity verity which seeing hee seeth them all to be the very deity and Godhead it selfe wherewith he is
the God of my heart and of my salvation and my portion for ever Vpon and out of this double love of the infinite goodnesse of God both as it is in himselfe essentially himselfe and to his elect by participation not now absent from them but most intimely present with them there ariseth a double A double glorious ioy joy and gladnesse joy to see God whom they so dearely love infinitely good and happy in himselfe joy to see themselves in full and secure possession of that infinite good as their last end and the compleat object of their happinesse This joy is that wherof Augustine very excellently There is a joy which is not graunted to the August lib. 9. Confesse wicked but to those who worship thee freely whose joy thou thy selfe art and that is the very life of happinesse to joy in thee and for thee that is the blessed life and there is no other Of this we are to understand those joyous words of Christ Welcome well done good and faithfull servants you have beene faithfull Matt. 25. 21 24. in a little I will make you rulers over much enter into thy Masters joy Loe the Master of this joyous feast calls his owne joy the joy of his faithfull servants which is so great and so surpassing that holy David dareth thus by a familiar metaphore to expresse the exceeding sweetnesse of the same They shall be satiated he speakes of the Beatified with an over plentifullnesse Psal 36. 8. of thy house and with a torrent or river of thy pleasures thou shalt inebriate them and make them dronke O most dviine satiety O most sacred inebriation of the beatified soules Seeing loving delighting enjoying God of love of adoration of admiration of astonishment of content of satiety of rest of delight of joy of enjoying O blessed Spirits O Beatified Soules so satiated so inebriated that seeing and admiring they cannot but admire at and delight in so infinitely good so infinitely sweet so infinitely joyous a good Holy David considering the same could not but with an elevated Spirit cry out O how amiable are thy dwelings Psal 84. 1. 2. thou Lord of hosts my soule longeth and fainteth after the Courts of the Lord. Bernard most sweetly The sweet aboundance of that house and the Torrent of that pleasure neither eye hath seene or eare heard Bernard in dedicat serm 4. nor the heart of man hath conceived Doe not thinke therefore O man to heare that which the eare of man hath not heard neither seeke thou of man to know what that is which the eye of man hath not seene nor the minde of man hath conceived Let us rather manfully and couragiously labour in these our tabernacles that in the end we may be gloriously glorified in the house of Gods blisse and glory above and be made partakers of that joy which shall never fade nor fall away which shall be such as it shall fully satiate and yet never cloy ever be had or enjoyed and yet ever be desired not with anxiety after more or other but with a most assured continuance of the same Againe thereof Austine very divinely There shall be whatsoever shall bee worthy of love neither shall any thing Austine his 12. de â—â—â—itate be desired which shall not bee there all that shall be there shall be good and the supreame God shall be the soveraigne good and most happy it shall be to knowe and to be assecured that that good shall ever be There shall wee be at rest and see thee there shall we see and love thee wee shall love and prayse thee which shalt bee our end without end For what other is our end than to come to a kingdome which hath no end thus he Besides the above expressed actions and operations of the beatified soules and spirits I doe observe another which I call a retention or holding or possession of God which whether it be all these actions together as they are exercised upon God so intimely and gloriously present or whether there be besids them another action of conquiescency and resting in and upon God as the last and compleat end of the beatified it is not easie to distinguish Sure I am that such a rest and conquiescency there is the which in all humility and modesty I will endeavour to difference and distinguish and O most happy my Soule when I shall come clearely to behould and know the same O how with the very heartstrings of my soule do I not onely desire but long after the same O the God of my heart my Soule longeth after thee to see thee ' O love thee to delight in thee and to live and rest in thee and by thee for ever and ever O fill and replenish my Soule here so to feare thee that in the end I may attaine thee to enjoy thee Amen It cannot have beene uathought of by any who have arightly thought of their last end and of that happinesse which is layed up for all 2 Tim. 4. 8. these that love God and his comming but that they have in their soules conceived a living hope and fervent desire of attaining unto the same We glorye saith St. Paul in the hope of glory of the sonnes Rom. 5. 2. of God Iob laid up in his breast as a most pretious jewell the hope that he had that he should by himselfe see God his redeemer and Saviour We are Iob. 19. 27. Heb. 10. 23. all encouraged to hould fast the confession of our hope a hope firme and unmooveable The Apostle he desired Phi 1. 23. to be dissolved and to be with Christ. And what faithfull soule is there who longeth not for and desires not after the comming of the Lord that he may enjoy that crowne of glory and happinesse 2 Tim. 4. 8. which God hath laid up for all those that love his comming Now this hope of the last happinesse and longing after the same if it be arightly considered will be found according to the doctrine of all sound Divines to be specially an action or affection of the will of man enabled and illustrated by grace tending to and longing after God absent which affection of hope and desire ceaseth not untill the good that is desired and hoped for is obteined and made present but the good being had and attained unto then the affection of hope ceaseth for what we have and injoy we hope not for nor long after That which a man seeth that is as I interpret him seeth and by sight injoyeth how can he hope for saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 24. 25. Austen excellently Hope is a child of faith by which August de spirit et lit man hopeth from him whom he knoweth for that which he yet hath not which hope being in this state the expectation of an immortall life I do fitly call it the very life of this our mortall life the which though fortune often failes
will never faile nor in the end deceave the upright and Innocent Who because by hope he waiteth on God and hath his heart reposed upon God as Susanna Dan. 13. 35. had hers is as confident as a lion Now when as these affections of hope and desire by reason that the good which was hoped for is obteined doth end and cease there must needes Some glorious action of the will must needs succeed in roome of the action of hope in lieu and place of these former succeede and follow some other action and affection of the will which formally and respectively must answere unto the former The former was hope to this must be a tention and possession the former was desire after this must be use the former was longing after this must be fruition and injoying the former was tending to the good to attaine it this a tention rest and conquiescency in the good attained The motion of the stone to the center and the resting of the stone at or so neere the center as possibly it may is like the hope or desire and tention or possession of man to and in its last end Now as the motion of the stone to and the rest of the stone in or at the center ariseth from and is agreeing to the naturall inclination which the stone hath to its center so likewise the deliberate hope desire or inclination whether naturall and rationall and sapientiall and supernaturall of the soule and blessed spirits to their last end whether naturall or supernaturall and their rest and conquiescency in the same is from one and the same faculty of the soule to weet the will whether naturally if to her naturall end or supernaturally if to her supernaturall end shee bee enabled strengthened and illustrated for the same And although it falleth out often that the same faculty which inclines to good things doth not alwayes by it selfe attaine and apprehend the said good things but they are attained and apprehended by some other powers yet the same power and faculty that desires them and inclines to them doth rest in them and delight in them being had and attained For example the heart of man desires some rich treasure of Iewell for Matt. 6. 21. where the treasure is there is the heart also saith our Saviour and yet the hand and other powers of man take immediate possession and apprehend the same nâ—verthelesse the same being attained the heart or appetite of man takes content pleasure and rest in the Iewell or treasure obtained So likewise the will of man is that which enclines whole man either naturally by her naturall force to some naturall good or supernaturally by abundance of Grace supernaturall and sapientiall to her last end and happinesse But the attaining and apprehension thereof is by the cleare vision and fervent love of God as he is in himselfe And yet neverthelesse the eternall rest repose and conquiescency which I call fruition in the same God so clearely and intuitively sceene so sweetely beloved is immediately from in and of the glorified will whose proper action as it is to desire and hope for so it is eternally to rest and repose herselfe and all other faculties of the soule yea the soule herselfe in the last end of her happinesse and her cheefest and onely good So that it is shee that commands this conquiescency and rest unto hereselfe Be turned O my soule into thy rest For the Psa 116. 7. Lord hath done well for thee It is shee that exults This is my rest here will I abide for ever This is Psa 132. 14. my joy which no power shall take from me This this is that eternall rest and conquiescency which the Apostle adviseth us so servently to pursue Heb. 4. 10. 11. This is that happy and most sweet repose which the restlesse Ambitious Avaricious Presumptuous Contentious Blasphemous Luxurious perjurious spirits shall never injoy For as it is in the Revelation They shall have no rest neither day nor night because Revel 4. 1. 14. 11. they serve such Gods in their workes although they may have tongues and lookes as Angells of light Gods their owne lusts which shall give Ierem. 16. 13. them no rest neither day nor night On that such wretched soules who imitating Satan seeke rest in such drye places of Pride Avarice periury Blasphemy returning into themselves and repenting them of their manifold transgressions whether by their walking in the counsell of the ungodly or standing in the way of sinners or sitting on the chayres of Psa 1. the pernicious scorners would endeavour for Psa 95. 11. that rest which God hath sworne he would never give to those who haue hardened their hearts against his calls And will he then give it to those who shall willingly and deliberately either for gaine or envy forsweare themselves and abjure themselves out of his protection So helpe us God so helpe us God O the most fearefull and execrable evill of perjury of Elder and of Latter times That worthy Cardinall of Cambrey Peter de Aliaco hath a fearefull saying touching the coruption of the Popish church of his times to weet at and about the time of the Councell of Constance That the Church was come to that passe that shee was worthy to be ruled and governed by reprobates which his saying may we not interpret in respect of most fearefully Blaspheming the Majestie of heaven by most execrable false oathes and perjuryes And surely who may or can be reputed to sinne more fearefully than those who by false oathes and perjuries do willingly and premeditatly put themselves out of Gods protection If they who Matt. 10. 33. shall deny God before men shall be denyed of him before his Angells what shall or can become of them who shall deliberately abjure him before men But to returne to our purpose touching the rest and repose of the soule in God and his Graces Peeter upon the mount no sooner beheld the glorious Matt. 17. 4. transfigured body of Christ but he cryes out with a most fervent longing desire of and repose in that object Let us make here saith he to Christ three tabernacles one for thee a second for Elias a third for Moyses So naturall it is for the will to rest and content herselfe in Good present apprehended by the understanding as Good that it is impossible that the will should not according to the measure of the Good take content therein How then is it imaginable or possible but that God infinitely good being as such proposed to the will beloved dearely and enjoyed happily but that the will possessed with such a sweet trinity of sight love and joy should solacing her owne soule with infinite content thus crie out to her selfe This is my rest here Psal 132. 14. will I dwell and abide for ever The heart of man is restlesse till it come to its last end which being once attayned her aeternall rest
thy selfe art the too to great reward thou the Crowner and the Crowne thou the promiser and the promised thou the giver and the gift thou the rewarder and the reward itselfe of aeternall felicity O be thou this to us in the truth of that glory when we shall enter into thy owne joy and see thee as thou art in thy selfe to this guide us with thy Counsell and enable us with thy Spirit of grace that running the way of thy Commandements we may in the end attaine thee the God of our hearts our parts and our Portion for ever Amen SEVENTH SECTION Wherein is breefely and in generall laid downe the meanes and way whereby eternall happinesse is to be attained FOr the more cleare handling of this point we are to suppose that whatsoever thing hath any perfection due unto it as the end and consummate perfection thereof If that perfection be not naturall and essentiall to the thing it selfe the same cannot be had without some action or motion leading thereunto for example God who Exod. 3. 14. is most essentially his owne I am that I am and whole infinite perfection is his owne being most necessarily and essentially needes not nor requires not any action or motion to any thing that is without himselfe for his end and perfection But so it is not in Creatures whose natures being limited and in themselves imperfect neede and require some action or motion to that which is without themselves for the attaining of their ends and final perfection which motion is that which now we have in handling whereby man is to attaine his last end and consummate happines For this purpose I ponder that Principle of the Apostle He that cometh to God must beleeve that Heb. 11 6. he is and that he is a rewarder of all those that enquire after him In which words I find clearely that the accession and comming to God in this life which is the way to that vision and fruition of God in the nextlife the finall end of man is by Faith and a religious inquisition of and after him which religious inquisition of and after him if I should thinke not to be cheifely by Faith hope and love as the heads of this way out of which many particular paths doe follow I should wrong the judgement of all Orthodoxe Divines whatsoever who doe distinguish the vertues that are conversant and immediately exercised upon and about God into three to weet Faith Hope and Love The later of which the Apostle himselfe termes the more excellent way writing thus to the Corinthians Cor. 12. 31. And yet shew I you a more excellent way which more excellent way alone is to be taken as the spirit and path of Faith and Faith againe is to be reputed as the head way and soule of it two individuall inseparable twinnes mutually ever imbracing each other and working each by other And though there bee infinite ianglings and questions about the vertue extent and causalitie of these severall vertues in the matter of justification and about their manner of merrit or concurrence to saluation yet doe I not remember that ever I have read of any except the ungodly Anomists August ad quod vult de heres 14. and prophane Libertines a broode of Ennomius or some indiscret Predicants who have denyed the necessitie of the two later hope and love As for the first Faith all requyre the same absolutely necessary to salvation Yea the Papists themselves require the same as the very first meanes and foundation for justification and sanctification Coun Trident Bellar Omnes Pontificii out of an absolute necessitie but not solely and alone without hope and loue The Reformed Churches generally hould her to weet faith to be the sole and onely instrumentall cause of Iustification by which as by a hand the justice righteousnesse of Christ is applyed unto the justified soule So then by confession of all an accession and motion to God there must be in this life or else there can be no possession of him in fruition in the next life The happinesse of this life is the way and motion to the happinesse of the next life The happinesse of the next life which is the happinesse of the end can be no other then the vision and fruition of God The happinesse of this life which is the happinesse of the way is also a vision and fruition of God but it is by faith and love and that which Eusebius calleth the worship of God not onely externall but especially internall and yet not so internall but that there must also necessarily Eusib de moust evanglica be externall for no man shal be crowned unlesse he shall manfully and lawfully have fought and 2 Timoth. 2. 5. againe the Spirit of God saith thus Hould that Reve. 3. 11. which thou hast lest another take thy crowne Which wee are not onely to understand of the internall sight of the soule and inward constancy of our Faith but also of the outward profession thereof Rom. 10. 10. and the externall exercise of piety and godlinesse If I be demaunded what I would call this I cannot bethinke of a better name then Christian warfare or the Imitation of Christ The holy Apostle chearing Tit. 2. 12. up the faithfull puts them in minde of a joyous expectation after the comming of the glory of the great God but he prefixes before by the way of necessary preparation that they must live soberly piously and justly in this world so that sobriety which conteines the well ordering of man in himselfe against excesse c. Piety which comprehends the whole worship of God Iustice which comprises all duties that appertaine to equity right betwixt man and man are prerequired as the very motion and way by which they shall come to the ioyous meeting and glorious enioying of the glorie Via Regni of the great God Thus then holy life and Christian workes are the very way and motion to the glorious vision and fraition of God It is said generally yea received by all Orthodoxe Divines that good and godly workes are the way to the kingdome of glorie Which we are not to understand by the way of comparison onely to the materiall way by which men in their corporall journies doe walke from place to place from Citie to citie but even by the way of comparison to the very motions walkings and passings of men upon and along the same wayes which we may call mens wayes to such and such places so the pious and godly life of the faithfull is their very moving passing and walking to their journies end the glorious vision and fruition of God And so in what manner wee may hold the movings and passings of men along their wayes necessary for their arriving to such and such places In like sort we must hould the moving and passing of man by godly life to be necessary for his arriving to the