itself contained the evidence of its Divinity and of their Truth And Christ then and to this Day hath owned it by the sanctifying Efficacy of the same Spirit upon Millions of Souls How Holy a Doctrin doth Peter himself deliver as confirmed by this Apparition 2 Pet. 1. 16 17 18. We have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known to you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye Witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount The words In whom I am well pleased are only here and in Matthew Mark and Luke omitting them tell us that the Evangelists undertook not to recite all that was said and done but each one so much as seemed necessary for him to say § 42. And now what remaineth O my Soul but that thou take in the due Impression of this Apparition of the Glory of Jesus and his Saints and that thou joyfully obey this heavenly Voice and Hear the Beloved Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased I. As we that are Born in another Age and Land must know what Christ said by the transmission and certain testimony of them that heard him infallible Tradition by Act Word and Record being our way of notice as immediate sensation was theirs so even the glorious Apparition itself may be the mediation of their infallible Record be partly transmitted to our Imagination An Incorporate Soul is so used to a mixed way of knowing by imagined Idea's received by sense that it would fain have such a sort of knowledge of separated Souls and other Spirits and of their glorious state and place and work and is hardly fully satisfied without it Seeing Christ hath partly condescended to this our culpable weakness lose not the help of his condescension Let this clear description of the heavenly sight make it to thee partly as if thou had been one of the three Spectators till thou canst say Methinks I almost see the Face of Christ shine as the Sun and his raiment whiter than the Snow and Moses and Elias no doubt in some degree of glory standing with him Methinks I almost hear them discoursing of Christ's Death and Man's Redemption And by this sight I partly conceive of the unseen heavenly Company and State Methinks I see the Cloud receive them when Peter had been transported with the sight and I almost feel his pleasant raptures and am ready to say as if I had been with him It is good for us to be hear Methinks I almost hear the heavenly Voice This is my beloved Son Hear him And shall I yet doubt of the Celestial Society and Glory Had I once seen that what a sense would it have left upon my Heart of the difference between Earth and Heaven Man and God Flesh and Spirit Sin and Duty how thankfully should I have thought of the work of Redemption and Sanctification And why may I not accordingly put my self as into the case of them who saw all Christ's Miracles and saw him risen and ascend towards Heaven Or at least of all those ordinary Christians who saw all the wonders done by the Reporters of these things I can easily receive a pleasing Idea of some forreign happy Countrey which a Traveller describeth to me though I never saw it and my Reason can partly gather what great things are if I see but lesser of the same kind or somewhat like them A Candle sheweth somewhat by which we may conceive of the greatest flame Even Grace and Gracious actions do somewhat notifie to us the state of Glory But the sight on the Mount did more sensibly notifie it Think not then that heavenly contemplation is an impossible thing or a meer dream as if it had no conceivable subject matter to work upon the visible things of Earth are the Shaddows the Cobwebs the Bubbles the Shews Mummerries and Masques and it is loving them and rejoicing and trusting in them that is the dream and dotage Our heavenly Thoughts and Hopes and Business are more in comparison of these than the Sun is to a glow-Worm or the World to a Mole-hill or Governing an Empire to the motions of a Fly And can I make somwhat yea too much of these almost nothings and yet shall I make almost nothing of the active glorious unseen World and doubt and grope in my Meditations of it as if I had no substance to apprehend If invisibility to Mortals were a cause of doubting or of unaffecting unsatisfying Thoughts God himself who is All to Men and Angels would be as no God to us and Heaven as no Heaven and Christ as no Christ and our Souls which are our selves would seem as nothing to themselves and all men would be as no men to us and we should converse only with Carkasses and Cloaths Lord shine into this Soul with such an heavenly potent quickening Light as may give me more lively and powerful conceptions of that which is all my hope and life Leave me not to the exercise of Art alone in barren notions but make it as Natural to me to love Thee and breath after Thee Thou teachest the young ones both of men and bruits to seek to the Dam for food and shelter And though Grace be not a brutish Principle but work by Reason it hath its Nature and Inclining force and tendeth towards its Original as its End Let not my Soul be destitute of that holy Sense and Appetite which the Divine and Heavenly Nature doth contain Let me not lay more stress and trust upon my own Sight and Sense than on the Sight and Fidelity of my God and my Redeemer I am not so foolish as to live as if this Earth were no bigger than the little of it which I see Let me not be so much more foolish as to think of the vast and glorious Regions and the Blessed Inhabitants thereof and the Receptacles of justified Souls as if they wanted either substantiality or certainty to exercise a heavenly conversation here and to feast believing Souls with joy and draw forth well grounded and earnest desire to depart and be with Christ § 43. II. Hear then and Hear with Trust and Joy the tydings and promises of him whom the Voice from Heaven commanded Man to hear He is the glorified Lord of Heaven and Earth All is in his power He hath told us nothing but what he knew and promised nothing but what he is able and willing to give Two sorts of things he hath required us to Trust him for Things notified by express particular Promises and things only generally promised and known to us 1. We may know particularly that he will receive our departing Souls and justifie them in judgment and raise the Dead and
study it without Love What sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals a lifeless Voice are they that preach of God and Christ and heavenly Glory without Love But gazing upon the face of Love in Christ and tasting of its gifts and looking up to its glorious reign is the way to kindle the Sacred Fire in thee Look upwards if thou wouldst see the Light that must lead thee upwards It is not for nothing that Christ hath taught us to begin our Prayers with Our Father which art in Heaven It is Fatherly Love that must win our Hearts and that must comfort them And it is in Heaven where this is gloriously manifested As I said before as the Soul is in all the Body but yet understandeth not in the Hand as it doth in the Head nor rejoiceth not in the Foot as it doth in the Heart so God that is every where doth not every where glorifie his Love as he doth it in Heaven Thither therefore the Mind and Eye are even by Nature taught to look up as to God as we look a Man in the Face when we speak to him rather than to his Feet though his Soul be also there My sinful Heart hath needed sorrow My careless rash presumptuous Soul hath needed fears and I have had some part of these Mercy saw it good for me as necessary to prevent my more dangerous deceits and lapses And O that in the hour of sensual temptations I had feared more and departed from evil But it is HOLY LOVE that must be my life Or else I am dead notwithstanding fear O come then and study the life of Love It is more of a Holy Nature than of Art but yet study must do much to prepare thee to receive it This is the great use of a heavenly Conversation It is the contemplation belief and hope of the glorious state of Love hereafter that must make us like it and kindle it in us here The burning Glass must be turned directly to the Sun if you will have it set any thing on fire There is a carnal or common love to God which is kindled in men by carnal pleasures But a Holy love like that in Heaven must be studiously fetcht from Heaven and kindled by the fore sight of what is there what we shall be there for ever Faith must ascend and look within the vail thou must not live as a stranger to thy home to thy God and Saviour and thy hopes The fire that must warm thee is in Heaven and thou must come near it or open thy self to its influence if thou wilt feel its powerful efficacy It is night and winter with carnal minds when it is day and summer with those that set their Faces Heavenward § 21. II. But though all my Receivings will be from God they will not be from him alone We must live in perfect Union also with one another and with all the heavenly Society and therefore as we must love them all so shall we be beloved by them all And this will be a subordinate part of our blessedness God there will make use of second causes even in communicating his Love and Glory § 22. 1. The Lord Jesus Christ will not only be the Object of our delightful love but will also love us with an effectual operative love for ever His love will be as the Vital Heat and Motion of the Heart to all the Members the Root of our Life and Joy The Love of our Redeemer will flow out into us all as the Vital Spirits and his Face of Glory will be the Sun of the heavenly Jerusalem and will shine upon us and shew us God And in his light we shall have light Did his tears for a dead Lazarus make men say Behold how he loved him O then what will the reviving Beams of heavenly life make us say of that love which filleth us with the pleasures of his presence and turneth our Souls into JOY it self He comforteth us now by the teaching of his Word but surely the fruition of Salvation will be more gladding then the tidings of it When he that told us of Glory in his Gospel shall give it us we shall not only believe but feel that he loveth us § 23. Believe O my Soul thy Saviours Love that thou maist foretast it and be fit to feel it We were uncapable in sinful Flesh of seeing him otherwise than as cloathed with Flesh and his consolations were administred by a word of Promise suitable to his appearance But when he withdrew his bodily presence the Comforter was sent with a fuller Consolation But all that was but the earnest and the first fruits of what he will be to us for ever Be not seldom not unbelieving nor slight in the thoughts of thy Saviours love for it is he that is the way to the Infinite love Let thy believing be so much of thy daily work that thou maist say that he dwelleth in thy Heart by Faith Eph. 3. 17. and that while thou livest here it is Christ that liveth in thee and that thy life in the Flesh is not a fleshly life but by the Faith of the Son of God that hath loved thee and given himself for thee Gal. 2. 20. And that though thou see him not yet believing thou lovest him also with unspeakable Joy as believing the unspeakable perfect Joy which his Love-will communicate to thee for ever Look upon the Sun and think thus with thy self How wonderful is the Emanation of this Sun Its motion light and heat communicated to so many Millions of Câ—eatures all over the Earth and in the Seas What if all these beams of light and heat were proportionable beams of perfect Knowledge Love and Joy and that all Creatures that are under the Sun had from its influx as much Wisdom Love and Joy as they have Light Heat and Motion Would not then this Earth be as a World of Angels and a Heaven O what a blessed World would it be And what a benefactor would the Sun be to the World Why even such will Jesus Christ be to the Celestial World He is the Sun of Glory His Influence will send forth LIFE and LIGHT and JOYFUL LOVE upon all the blessed from the Face of the God as the Sun sends forth from God its Motion Light and Heat upon this World Now therefore begin and live upon him live upon the influence of his Grace his Teaching Love-kindling and Quickning Grace that thou maist have his Name and Mark and he may find in thee something of himself or of his own when thou comest to his Righteous ryal His Grace is not in my power not at my command It is not meet it should be so But he hath not bid me seek and beg in vain If he had never told me that he will give it me it is equal to a promise if he do but bid me seek and ask But I have more He teacheth me to pray He maketh my Prayers He writeth me
honest tender Souls from the damning part of unbelief and by their fears preserveth them from being bold with sin When many bold and impudent Sinners turn Infidels or Atheists by forfeiting the helps of Grace § 23. And indeed Irrational fears have so much power to raise Doubts that they are seldom separated insomuch that many scarce know or observe the difference between Doubts and Fears And many say they not only fear but doubt when they can scarce tell why as if it were no intellectual act which they meant but an irrational Passion § 24. If therefore my Soul see undeniable Evidence of Immortality and if it be able by irrefragable Argument to prove the future blessedness expected and if it be convinced that God's promises are true and sufficiently sealed and attested by him to warrant the most confident belief and if I trust my Soul and all my hopes upon this word and evidences of Truth it is not then our aversness to die nor the sensible fears of a Soul that looketh into Eternity that invalidate any of the Reasons of my Hope nor prove the unsoundness of my Faith § 25. But yet these Fears do prove its weakness and were they prevalent against the Choice Obedience Resolutions and Endeavours of Faith they would be prevalent against the Truth of Faith or prove its nullity for Faith is Trust and Trust is a securing quieting thing Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith was a just reproof of Christ to his Disciples when sensible dangers raised up their fears For the established will hath a political or imperfect though not a despotical and absolute Power over our Passions And therefore our fears do shew us our unbelief and stronger Faith is the best means of conquering even irrational fears Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou so disquieted in me Trust in God c. Psal 42. is a needful way of chiding a timorous Heart § 26. And though many say that Faith hath not evidence and think that it is an Assent of the Mind meerly commanded by the Empire of the Will without a knowledg of the Verity of the Testimony yet certainly the same Assent is ordinarily in the Scriptures called indifferently Knowing and Believing And as a bare Command will not cause Love unless we perceive an Amiableness in the Object so a bare Command of the Law or of the Will cannot alone cause Belief unless we perceive a truth in the Testimony believed For it is a Contradiction or an act without its Object And Truth is perceived only so far as it is some way Evident For Evidence is nothing but the objective perceptibility of Truth or that which is Metaphorically called Light So that we must say that Faith hath not sensible Evidence of the invisible things believed but Faith is nothing else but the willing Perception of the Evidence of Truth in the word of the Assertor and a Trust therein We have and must have Evidence that Scripture is God's Word and that his Word is true before by any Command of the Word or Will we can believe it § 27. I do therefore neither despise Evidence as unnecessary nor trust to it alone as the sufficient total cause of my belief For if God's Grace do not open mine Eyes and come down in power upon my Will and insinuate into it a sweet acquaintance with the things unseen and a tast of their Goodness to delight my Soul no Reasons will serve to stablish and comfort me how undeniable soever Reason is fain first to make use of notions words or signs and to know Terms Propositions and Arguments which are but Means to the knowledg of Things is its first employment and that alas which Multitudes of Learned men do take up with But it 's the Illumination of God that must give us an effectual acquaintance with the Things Spiritual and Invisible which these Notions signifie and to which our Organical Knowledg is but a Means § 28. To sum up all That our Hopes of Heaven have a certain ground appeareth I. From Nature II. From Grace III. From other works of Gracious Providence 1. From the Nature of Man 1. Made capable of it 2. Obliged even by the Law of Nature to seek it before all 3. Naturally desiring Perfection 1. Habitual 2. Active 3. And Objective 2. And from the Nature of God 1. As Good and Communicative 2. As Holy and Righteous 3. As Wise making none of his works in vain § 29. II. From Grace 1. Purchasing it 2. Declaring it by a Messenger from Heaven both by Word and by Christ's own and others Resurrection 3. Promising it 4. Sealing that Promise by Miracles there 5. And by the work of Sanctification to the end of the World § 30. III. By subordinate Providence 1. God's actual Governing the World by the hopes and fears of another Life 2. The many helps which he giveth us for a heavenly Life and for attaining it which are not vain 3. Specially the Ministration of Angels and their Love to us and Communion with us 4. And by accident Devils themselves convince us 1. By the Nature of their Temptations 2. By Apparitions and haunting Houses 3. By Witches 4. By Possessions Which though it be but a Satanical Operation on the Body yet is so Extraordinary an Operation that it differeth from the more usual as if I may so compare them God's Spirit so operateth on the Saints that it is called his dwelling in them or possessing them as different from his lower Operations on others § 1. II. Having proved that Faith and Hope have a certain future Happiness to expect the Text directeth me next to consider why it is described by being with Christ viz. I. What is included in our being with Christ II. That we shall be with him III. Why we shall be with him § 2. To be with Christ includeth 1. Presence 2. Union 3. Communion or participation of Felicity with him § 3. 1. Quest Is it Christ's Godhead or his Humane Soul or his Humane Body that we shall be Present with and united to or All Answ It is all but variously § 4. 1. We shall be Present with the Divine Nature of Christ Quest But are we not always so And are not all Creatures so Answ Yes as his Essence comprehendeth all Place and Beings But not as it is Operative and Manifested in and by his Glory Christ directeth our Hearts and Tongues to pray Our Father which art in Heaven And yet he knew that all Place is in and with God Because it is in Heaven that he Gloriously operateth and shineth forth to holy Souls Even as Man's Soul is eminently said to be in the Head because it understandeth and reasoneth in the Head and not in the Foot or Hand though it be also there And as we look a Man in the Face when we talk to him so we look up to Heaven when we pray to God God who is and operateth as the Root of
of God and therefore nearest him and above all others how could I think that I am under the Influence of no second Cause but have either Grace or Glory from God alone 20. So far am I from such arrogancy as to think that I shall be so near to God as to be above the need and use of Christ and his Communications as that I dare not say that I shall be above the need and help of other subordinate Causes As I am now lower than Angels and need their help and as I am under the Government of my Superiors and as a poor weak Member am little worth in comparison of the whole Body the Church of Christ and receive continual help from the whole So how far it will be thus in Glory I know not but that God will still use second Causes for our Joy I doubt not and also that there will not be an equality and that it will be consistent with God's Allsufficiency to us and our felicity in Him that we shall for ever have use for one another and that to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and to be in Abraham's Bosom and sit at Christ's Right and Left hand in his Kingdom and to be Ruler over ten Cities and to join with the heavenly Host or Chore in the joyful Love and Praise of God and of the Lamb and many such like are not false nor useless notes and notions of our Celestial Glory § 21. And certainly if I be with Christ I shall be with all that are with Christ Even with all the heavenly Society Though these Bodies of gross passive Matter must have so much room that the Earth is little enough for all its Inhabitants and those at the Antipodes are almost as strange to us as if they were in another World and those of another Kingdom another Province or County and oft another Parish yea another House are Strangers to us so narrow is our Capacity of Communion here Yet wâ—â—ave great cause to think by many Scripture expressions that our heavenly Union and Communion will be nearer and more extensive and that all the Glorified shall know each other or at least be far less distant and less strange than now we are As I said before when I see how far the Sun beams do extend how they penetrate our closest Glass and puzzle them that say that all Bodies are impenetrable when I see how little they hinder the placing or presence of other Creatures and how intimately they mix themselves with all and seem to possess the whole Region of the Air when yet the Air seemeth it self to fill it c. I dare not think that glorified Spirits no nor Spiritual Bodies will be such Strangers to one another as we are here on Earth § 22. And I must needs say that it is a pleasant Thought to me and greatly helpeth my willingness to die to think that I shall go to all the Holy ones both Christ and Angels and departed blessed Souls For 1. God hath convinced me that they are better than I each singly and therefore more amiable than my self 2. And that many are better than one and the whole than a poor sinful part and the New Hierusalem is the Glory of the Creation 3. God hath given me a Love to all his Holy Ones as such 4. And a Love to the work of Love and Praise which they continually and perfectly perform to God 5. And a Love to the Celestial Jerusalem as it is compleat and to his Glory shining in them 6. And my old acquaintance with many a holy Person gone to Christ doth make my Thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to me O how many of them could I name 7. And it is no small encouragement to one that is to enter upon an unseen World to think that he goeth not anâ— â—â—trodden Path nor enters into a solitary or singular state but followeth all from the Creation to this day that have passed by death to endless life And is it not an emboldening consideration to think that I am to go no other way nor to no other place or state than all the Believers and Saints have gone to before me from the beginning to this time Of this more anon TO DEPART § 1. But I must be Loosed or Depart before I can thus be with Christ And I must here consider I. From what I must depart II. And How or in what Manner And I must not refuse to know the worst § 2. I. And 1. I know that I must Depart from this Body itself and the Life which consisteth in the animating of it These Eyes must here see no more this Hand must move no more these Feet must go no more this Tongue must speak no more As much as I have loved and overloved this Body I must leave it to the Grave There must it lie and rot in darkness as a neglected and a loathed thing § 3. This is the Fruit of Sin and Nature would not have it so I mean the Nature of this compound MAN But what though it be so 1. It is but my Shell or Tabernacle the cloathing of my Soul and not it self 2. It is but an elementary Composition dissolved and Earth going to Earth and Water to Water and Air to Air and Fire to Fire into that Union which the elementary Nature doth incline to 3. It is but an Instrument laid by when all its work is done and a Servant dismissed when his Service is at an end And what should I do with a Horse when I shall need to ride or travel no more or with a Pen when I must write no more It is but the laying by the Passive receiver of my Souls Operations when the Soul hath no more to do upon it As I cast by my Lute or other instrument when I have better employment than Musick to take up my time 4. Or at most it is but as Flowers die in the fall and Plants in Winter when the retiring Spirits have done their work and are undisposed to dwell in so cold and unmeet a Habitation as the Season maketh their former matter then to be And its retirement is not its annihilation but its taking up a fitter place 5. It is but a separation from a troublesome Companion and putting off a Shoe that pinched me many a sad and painful Hour I have had in this frail and faltring flesh Many a weary Night and Day What cares what fears what griefs what groans hath this Body cost me Alas how many Hours of my precious time have been spent to maintain it please it or repair it How considerable a part of all my life hath been spent in necessary sleep and rest And how much in eating drinking dressing physick And how much in labouring or using means to procure these and other necessaries Many a hundred times I have thought that it costeth me so dear to live yea to live a painful weary life
great Realities to the Logical and Philological game at Words and Notions it was Socrates his wisdom to call them to more concerning Studies and Pauls greater Wisdom to warn men to take heed of such vain Philosophy and to labour to know God and Jesus Christ and the things of the Spirit and not to overvalue this ludicrous dreaming worldly Wisdom And if I have none of this kind of Notional childish knowledge when I am absent from the Body the Glass and Spectacles may then be spared when I come to see with open Face or as face to Face Our future knowledge is usually in Scripture called SEEING Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 1 Cor. 13. 12. We shall see Face to Face 1 Joh. 3. 2. We shall see him as he is Joh. 17. 24. Father I will that those which thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me c. An Intuitive knowledge of all things as in themselves immediately is a more excellent sort of knowledge than this by similitudes Names and Notions which our Learning now consisteth in and is but an Art acquired by many acts and use § 3. If the Sun were as the Heathens thought it an Intellective Animal and it s emitted rayes were vitally visive and when one of those rayes were received by prepared seminal matter as in Insects it became the Soul of an inferiour Animal in this case the said ray would operate in that Insect or Animal but according to the Capacity of the recipient matter whereas the Sun itself by all it s emitted rays would see all things Intellectually and with delight and when that Insect were dead that Ray would be what it was an Intellective Intuitive emanation And though the Soul in Flesh do not know itself how it shall be united to Christ and to all other holy Souls and to God himself nor how near or just of what sort that union will be yet united it will be and therefore will participate accordingly of the the universal Light or understanding to which it is united The Soul now as it is or operateth in the Foot or Hand doth not understand but only as it is and operateth in the Head And yet the same Soul which is in the Hand understandeth in the Head and the Soul operateth not so selfishly or dividedly in the Hand as to repine there because it understandeth not there but it is quiet in that it understandeth in the Head and performeth its due Operation in the Hand But this diversity of Operations seemeth to be from the Organs and the Bodies use or need But Souls dismissed from the Body seem to be as all Eye or Intuitive Light Therefore though it might content us to say that our Head seeth all things and we are united to him yet we may say further that we our selves shall see God and all things that are meet for us to see § 4. And seeing it is most certain that the Superior glorious Regions are full of blessed Spirits who do see God and one another having much more perfect Operations than we have whose effects we Mortals find here below why should I that find an Intellective Nature in my self make any doubt of my more perfect Operations when I am dismissed hence being satisfied that a Soul will not lose its simple Essence Either those superiour Spirits have ethereal Bodies to act in or are such themselves or not If they are or have such why should I doubt of the like and think that my Substance or Vehicle will not be according to the Region of my abode If not why should I think that my departed Soul may not know or see without an igneous or ethereal Body or Vehicle as well as all those worlds of Spirits And the certainty of Apparitions Possessions and Witches do tell us not only that there are such Inhabitants of other Regions Ordinarily invisible to us but also that we are in the way to that Happiness or Misery which is in our invisible state § 5. These things reviewed being partly mentioned before assuring me that I shall have actual Intellection in my separated state the Region with the Objects but above all the Holy Scriptures will tell me as much as it is meet that I should here know what it is that I shall intuitively understand The Apostle 1 Cor. 13. 10 11 12. doth distinguish our knowing in part and knowing Perfectly knowing as a Child and as a Man knowing darkly and enigmatically as in a Glass and knowing Face to Face as we are known The great Question is When this Time of Perfection is Whether he mean at Death or at the Resurrection If Dr. Hammonds observation hold that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture when The Flesh or Body is not joined with it signifies that Life which the Soul doth enter upon immediately after our Death and so that the Soul hath that after living which is sinified by the very word which we Translate Resurrection then it will lead men to think that there is less difference between Mansstate at his first departure and at his last Resurrection than most think even than Calvin himself thought But the difference between our first and last state of after life or Resurrection cannot be now distinctly known What difference there is now between Henoch Elias and those who rose at Christs Resurrection and the rest of the Saints even the Spirits of the perfected Just and whether the first have as much greater Glory than the rest as it is conceived that we shall have at the Resurrection above that which immediately followeth Death what mortal Man can tell I am past doubt that Flesh and Blood formally so called and not only ab accidente as sinful shall not inherit the Kingdom of God vid. Hammond in loc but that our Natural Bodies shall be made Spiritual Bodies And how a Spiritual Body differeth from a Spirit or Soul I pretend not well to understand but must stay till God by experience or fuller Light inform me But surely the difference is not like to be so great as that a Soul in Flesh shall know in part and a Soul in a Spiritual Body shall know perfectly and a Soul between both shall not know at all If it be Perfection which we shall have in our Spiritual Body it is like that we are nearer to that Perfection in Knowledge and Felicity while we are between both than we are in the Flesh § 6. And sure a Soul that even Solomon saith goeth upward and to God that gave it is liker to know God than that which is terminated in Flesh and operateth ut forma according to its capacity and state And a Soul that is with Christ is liker to know Christ and the Father in him than that which is present with the Body and absent from the Lord. What less can the Promise of being with him signifie § 7.
to our clearest view O what beatifying knowledge will this be All dark Texts concerning his Person his Office and his Works will be then expounded and fully understood All those strange and difficult things which were the great exercise and honour of Faith will then be plain Difficulties will no more be Satans advantage to tempt us to unbelief or doubting The sight of the Glory of my Lord will be my Glory Joh. 17. 24. If Paul had not then attained to Perfection in the knowledge of Christ and the power of his Resurrection but was pressing forward to reach that Crown in the life to come which he calleth The Resurrection of the dead Phil. 3. 9 10 11 12. Such as I must not expect here to attain it but when that which is Perfect is come this imperfect knowledge of Faith will be done away as childish knowledge is in manly And the Glass and Riddle shall be laid aside when we shall see Face to Face and shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13. 10 11 12. as to our sight and knowledge of Christ and his Triumphant Body For I dare not apply that Phrase to the sight and knowledg of the Divine essence nor yet deny it If now though we see not Christ yet believing we love him and rejoice in him with unspeakable glorying joy What love and joy will the Everlasting sight of our blessed head excite there in the Souls of all the glorified IV. I shall better O much better know the heavenly Jerusalem the Triumphant Church the Blessed Angels and glorified Saints And as my love to them so my knowledge of them will not be the least part of my heavenly delight As strangely as I now look upward to that World because I cannot see it with these Eyes it shall be my well known Everlasting habitation O what a sight what a joyful sight will Death shew me by drawing aside the vail Or rather the Lord of Life by turning Death to my advantage When I am there at home I shall no more think with confusion fear or doubting of that blessed place or state My fears which now come from the smalness of my Faith will end when Faith is turned into Vision As I now know the several Rooms in my House and Houses in the Street and Streets in the City so shall I then know the many Mansions which Christ hath said are in his Fathers House Words now give me so poor imperfect a conception of the World and things which I never saw as that somtimes I can scarcely tell whether the Joy of my Faith or the trouble of my dark apprehensions be the greater But when I shall see the Place the Persons the Glory which I heard of that will be the delightful satisfying and possessing kind of knowledge If Nehemiah and the godly Jews made so great a matter of seeing the Walls of Jerusalem repaired and others of the imperfect reedifying of the Temple O what a joyful sight to me will the heavenly Jerusalem then be The most glorious sight will be at the great Marriage day of the Lamb when Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that now believe But the next to that will be the Day of my particular deliverance when I shall come to Christ and see the Saints admiring him in Glory If I were of the Opinion of those Greek Fathers who thought that Stars were Angels or had intellectual Souls matters unknown to us I should love them as my Guardians and take it to be yet more of my concernment to be advanced to the fuller knowledge of them But seeing I know that Angels love us and by Office do attend and keep us and rejoice at our good and at our repentance and which is far more are more holy and excellent Creatures than we are it is therefore my comfort to think that I shall better know them and live in near and perpetual acquaintance and communion with them a more sensible and sweet communion than we can have with them here Devils are aereal and near to this dark and sinful World and ofter appear to men than Angels But the Angels affect not such descending appearances till Love and Obedience to their Lord make it pleasing to them And therefore we have but little knowledge even of those that know and love and keep us But when we come home to their nearest society and converse to know them will be sweet and joyful knowledge For they are more excellent Creatures than the most glorious that are below the Intellective Nature They are full of Light and full of Love to God and Man Had God bid me pray to them I would not have refused it but taken it for my honour But seeing he hath not I will do that which he hath bid me even Love them and rejoice in my relation to the innumerable Company of them in the City of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem Heb. 12. 22. and long to know and love them more expecting long to bear my part in the Praises of God and of the Lamb in the same Chore where they are the Precentors And that I shall know the Spirits of the perfected Just and be of their communion will be no small addition to my joy How sweet hath one wise and holy though weak and blemished companion been to me here on Earth And how lovely have God's Graces in such though smutted appeared to me O then what a sight will it be when we shall see the Millions of Souls that shine in perfect Wisdom and Holiness with Christ To see a Garden that hath some beautiful Flowers in it is somthing But if you saw whole Fields and Countries shining with them it would be a glory though fading to the Earth A well built City is a pleasanter sight than a single House and a Navy than a Ship and an Army than one Man And if this poor low World did all consist of Wise and Just and Holy Persons O what an orderly lovely World would it be If one Kingdom consisted Prince Magistrates Pastors and People all of such what a blessed Kingdom would that be The plague of wicked mens deceits and falshoods oppressions and iniquities may help to make us sensible of this It would be a great temptation to us to be loth to die and leave such a Countrey were it not that the more the beauty of goodness appeareth the more the state of Perfection is desired It is pleasant to me to pray in hope as Christ hath commanded me that Earth may be made liker unto Heaven which now is become so like to Hell But when I shall see the Society perfected in Number in Holiness in Glory in heavenly Employment the joyful Praises of Jehovah the Glory of God and the Lamb shining on them and God rejoicing over them as his delight and my self partaking of the same that will be the truly blessed day And why doth my Soul imprisoned in Flesh no
inclination and such as is agreeable to the nature of his Faculties And therefore our love and delight in all things is that uniting inclination in Man § 14. III. And I shall have a special Love to the Holy Society the triumphant Universal Church consisting of Christ Angels and Saints as they are specially amiable in the Image and Glory of God God himself loveth them more than his inferiour works that is his Essence which is Love and hath no degrees or change doth send forth fuller streams of good upon them or maketh them better and happier than the rest And my love will imitate the love of God in my Capacity And if Societies on Earth more holy and wise than others though imperfectly are very amiable what then will the heavenly Society be Of this I spake before of knowing them § 15. 1. Think here O my Soul how sweet a state unto thee it will be to Love the Lord Jesus thy glorâ—fied Head with perfect love When the glory of God which shineth in him will feast thy love with full and everlasting pleasure The highest created Perfection of Power Wisdom and Goodness refulgent in him will not give leave to thy Love to cease or intermit or abate its fervour When thou shalt see in the glorified Church the precious fruits of Christ's Redemption Grace and Love this also will feed thy love to him from whom this heavenly Glory cometh And when thou shalt feel thy self possest of perfect happiness by his Love to thee will not this also do its part Yea the remembrance of all his former Love what he did for thee and what he did in thee here on Earth how he called thee with a Holy calling how he washed thee in his Blood from all thy sins how he kindled in thee those desires which tended to that perfect Glory how he renewed thy Nature how he instructed and guided and preserved thee from thy Childhood and how many and how great sins enemies dangers and sufferings he saved thee from all this will constrain thee Everlastingly to love him Thus though he give the Kingdom to the Father as ceasing his Mediatory healing saving work of acquisition he will be to thee the Mediator of fruition God in him will be accessible and condescend to a suitable communion with us Joh. 17. 24. And as Christ is thy Life radically and efficiently as he is the giver of Grace and the Spirit of Love so he will be Objectively thy Life as he is Lovely and it will be formally thy Life to Love him and God in him for ever § 16. 2. Think also O my Soul how delectable it will be to Love as well as to know those Angels that most servently love the Lord They will be lovely to thee as they have loved thee and more as they have been Lovers and Benefactors to the Church and to Mankind but far more as they are so many refulgent Stars which continually move and shine and burn in purest love to their Creator O blessed difference between that amiable Society of holy Spirits and this dark mad distracted wicked World Here Devils tempt me within and Devils incarnate persecute me without Blaspheming of God reviling godliness deriding the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred exercises malignant slandering of the Servants of God hating persecuting silencing and saying all manner of evil falsly of them for their Righteousness sake while such Crimes are pretended as they once falsly charged on Christ himself this is the Conversation of those that I have long dwelt with in this World Atheism Infidelity Papal Church tyranny bloody Wars destroying the Righteous oppressing the Poor Adultery and Fornication Stigmatizing-Perjury Ambition Violence Covetousness deceit sottish Ignorance wilfulness in Sin hatred of Reproof revengeful Malice these and such like are the fruits of the Soil where I have long sojourned Though through the Grace of Christ among the faithful there have been better fruits And is not the Company of Holy Angels better than this With whom God is all who are even made up of shining Wisdom and holy Lovâ— and beneficent activity who are the blessed Choâ—e that melodiously sing forth the high Praises of their Maker Among whom God dwelleth as in his presence Chamber or his Temple and in whom he taketh his great delight With these I shall see or hear no evil No mixture of fools or wicked Ones do pollute or trouble their Society There will be no false Doctrine no evil Example no favouring Wickedness no accusing Goodness no hurtful Violence but holy powerful operative Love will be all and do all as their very Nature Life and Work And is it not better be a Door-keeper there than to dwell in the Pallaces of Wickedness And is not a Day with them better than a Thousand here § 17. 3. And with the holy Angels I shall love holy Souls that are made like unto them and joined with them in the same Society and it is likely with them Judge that is Rule the World All their infirmities are there put off with the Flesh they also are Spirits made up of holy Life and Light and Love There is none of their former ignorance errour imprudence selfishness contentiousness impatience or any other troubling hurtful thing When I think with what fervent love to God to Jesus Christ and to one another they will be perfectly united there alas how sad and how shameful is it that they should here be prone to disaffections and divisions and hardly agree to call each other the Servants of God or to worship God in the same Assembliâ—â— But the remnants of dividing Principles viz. Pride Errour and Uncharitableness will be all left behind Society with imperfect Saints is sweet The imperfect Image of God upon them is amiable But their frailties here are so vexatious that it is hard to live with some of them in Peace But perfect Love will make them one and O how delightful will that communion of Saints be I can never forget how sweet God hath made the course of my Pilgrimage by the fragrancy and usefulness of his Servants graces How sweet have my bosom Friends been though mutable How sweet hath the Neighbourhood of the godly been How sweet have the holy Assemblies And how many hours of comfort have I there had How profitable have their Writings their Conference and their Prayers been What then will it be to live in the union of perfect Love with perfect Saints in Heaven for ever and with them concordantly to love the God of Love § 18. III. And as the Act and the Object of LOVE will constitute my felicity so will my Reception from the Love of God and his Creatures be sweeter to me than my own activity can be For it is Mutual Love that makes it up I shall not be the Fountain of my own delights nor can I act till I am acted nor offer any thing to God but what I have first received from him And Receive I shall abundantly
and continually and from thence shall overflow to God and Receiving and Returning are now and will be the circular endless motion and our true perpetual Life and Happiness § 19. I. All my Receivings shall be from God His LOVE is not a meer Immanent Will nor a Wish which toucheth not the Object But it is what Heat is in or from the Sun or Fire It is an efflux of Goodness It is the most powerful sweet communicating Principle or Work All Love is communicative but none in comparison of Gods As there is none primitive and simply good but God How much doth Love in the affairs of men All that is pleasant in the World is it or its effects Were it not for sensual Love there would be no Generation of Man or Bruits God hath made it a generating Principle Hatred causeth not congress but fighting with or flying from one another Were it not for Natural Love Mothers would never endure the pain and trouble and care which is necessary to humane Birth and Education Were it not for Love Parents would never labour all their lives to leave their Children well instructed and well provided for when they are gone My Food would not please me did I not love it and I should neglect it to the neglect of my life Did I not love my Books and Learning itself I should never have bestowed so much of Threescore Years in poring on them and searching for Knowledge as I have done Did I not love my House my Conveniences and necessaries I should neglect them and they would be to me of small use Did I not love my Friends I should be less profitable to them and they to me Did not I love my Life I should neglect it and never have endured the labour and cost about it as I have done If a Man love not his Courtrey Posterity and the common good he will be as a burdensom Drone in the Hive or as pernicious Vermine What is done in the World that is good but by LOVE And if created Love be so necessary so active so communicative how much more will the infinite Love of the Creator be His Love is now the Life of the World His Love is the Life of Nature in the Living the life of Holiness in Saints and the life of glory in the Blessed In this infinite Love it is that I and all the Saints shall dwell for ever more And if I dwell in LOVE and LOVE in me surely I shall have its sweet and plenteous communication and shall ever drink of the Rivers of Pleasure It is pleasant to Nature to be Beloved of others Especially of the great and wise and good much more to have all the communications of Love in converse and gifts in plenty and continuance which may be still expressing it to our greatest benefit Had I a Friend now that did for me but the hundredth part of what God doth how dearly should I love him Think then think believingly seriously constantly O my Soul what a life thou shalt live for ever in the Presence the Face the Bosom of infinite Eternal Love He now shineth on me by the Sun and on my Soul by the Sun of Righteousness but it is as through a Lanthorn or the crevises of my darksom Habitation But then he will shine on me and in me openly and with the fullest streams and beams of Love § 20. God is the same God in Heaven and Earth but I shall not be the same Man Here I receive comparatively little but live in darkness doubtful and frequent sorrows because my Receptivity is less The windows of my Soul are not open to his light Sin hath raised clouds and consequently storms against my comforts The enterances to my Soul by the streights of Flesh and Sense are narrow and they are made narrower by sin than they were by Nature Alas how oft would Love have spoken comfortably to me and I was not at home to be spoken with but was abroad among a world of Vanities or was not at leisure or was asleep and not willing to be awaked How oft would LOVE have come in and dwelt with me and I have unkindly shut my doors against him How oft would he have been with me in secret where he freely would embrace me but I had some pleasing company or business which I was loth to leave How oft would he have feasted me and had made all ready but I was taken up and could not come â—ay when his Table hath been spred before me Christ Grace and Glory have been offered to me my Appetite hath been gone or dull and all hath been almost neglected by me and hath scarce seemed pleasant enough to be accepted or to call off my mind from luscious Poyson How oft would he have shined upon me and I have shut my windows or mine eyes He was jealous indeed and liked not a Partner He would have been All to me if I would have been All for him But I divided my Heart my Thoughts my Love my Desires and my Kindnesses and alas how much did go besides him yea against him to his Enemies even when I knew that all was lost and worse than lost which was not his What wonder then if so foolish and unkind a sinner had little pleasure in his Love and if so great ingratitude and neglect of Soveraign goodness were punished with such strangeness and fears and faintings as I have long with groans lamented Recipitur ad modum recipientis But in Heaven I shall have none of these obstructions All old unkindness and ingratitude will be forgiven The great reconciler in whom I am beloved will then have perfected his work I shall then be wholly separated from the vanity which here deceived me My open Soul will be prepared to receive the heavenly influx With open Face I shall behold the open Face of glorifying Love I shall joyfully attend his Voice and delightfully relish the Celestial Provisions No disease will corrupt my Appetite No sluggishness will make me guilty again of my old neglects The Love of the Father by the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit will have got the victory over all my deadness folly and disaffection and my God-displeasing and self-undoâ—ng averseness and enmity will be gone for ever The perfect LOVE which God doâ—h first effect in me will be my everlasting Receptivity of the fullest Love of God Benevolent love will make me good that is a Holy lover of God and then pleased love will make me his delight and benevolence will still maintain me in my capacity Study this heavenly work of Love O my Soul these are not dead or barren studies These are not sad unpleasant studies It is only love that can relish love and understand it The will here hath its gust so like to an understanding as maketh some Philosophers say that voluntas percipit is a proper Phrase What can poor carnal Worldlings know of glorious Love who
is commended and Truth and Goodness accused and oppressed because mens Minds are unacquainted with them or unsuitable to them And those that are the greatest pretenders to Truth do most eagerly contend against it and oppose it and almost all the World are scolding or scuffling in the Dark And where there appeareth but little hopes of a remedy I say can I love such a World as this And shall I not think more delightfully of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and the uniting Love and joyful praises of the Church triumphant and the heavenly Chore Should I not love a Lovely and a Loving World much better than a World where there is comparatively 〈◊〉 little Loveliness or Love All that is of God is Good and Lovely But it is not here that his Glory shineth in felicitating Splendor I am taught to look upward when I pray and to say Our Father which art in Heaven God's works are amiable even in Hell and yet though I would know them I would not be there And alas how much of the works of Man are mixed here with the works of God Here is God's Wisdom manifest but here is Man's obstinate folly Here is God's Government but here is Mans Tyranny and Unruliness Here is God's Love and Mercies but here are mâ—ns Malice Wrath and Cruelty by which they are worse to one another than Wolves or Tigers depopulating Countries and filling the World with Bloodshed Famine Misery and Lamentations proud Tyrants being worse than raging Plagues which made David choose the Pestilence before his Enemies pursuit Here is much of God's beauteous order and harmony But here is also much of Man's madness deformity and confusion Here is much historical Truth and some Civil and Ecclesiastick Justice but alas with how much odious falsehood and injustice is it mixed Here is much precious Theological Verity But how dark is much of it to such blind and negligent and corrupted minds as every where abound Here are wise judicious Teachers and Companions to be found but alas how few in comparison of the most And how hardly known by those that need them Here are Sound and Orthodox Ministers of Christ But how few that most need them know which are they and how to value them or use them And how many Thousands of seduced or sensual Sinners are made believe that they are but Deceivers or as they called Paul pestilent fellows and movers of Sedition among the People And in how many parts of the World are they as the Prophets that Obadiah hid in Caves or as Micatah or Elias among the Lying Prophets or the Baalites Though such as of whom the World is not worthy And is that World then more worthy of any love than Heaven There are Worthy and Religious Families which honour God and are honoured by him But alas how few And usually by the temptations of Wealth and Worldly Interest how full even of the sins of Sodom Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness if not also Unmercifulness to the Poor And how are they tempted to plead for their sins and snares and account it rustick Ignorance which contradicteth them And how few Pious Families are there of the greater sort that do not quickly degenerate and Posterity by false Religion Errour or Sensuality grow most contrary to the minds of their Pious Progenitors There are many that educate their Children wisely in the fear of God and have accordingly comfort in them But how many are there that having devoted them in Baptism to God do train them up in the service of the Flesh the World and the Devil which they renounced and never understood or at least intended for themselves or Children what they did profess How many Parents think that when they offer their Children to God in Baptism without a sober and due consideration of the nature and meaning of that great Covenant with God that God must accept and certainly regenerate and save them Yea too many Religious Parents forget that they themselves are Sponsors in that Covenant and undertake to use the means on their part to make their Children sit for the Grace of the son and the Communion of the Spirit as they grow up and think God should absolutely sanctifie keep and save them at Age because they are theirs and were Baptized though they keep them not from great and unnecessary temptations nor teach them plainly and seriously the meaning of the Covenant which was made for them with God as to the nature benefits or conditions of it How many send them to others to be taught in Grammar Logick Philosophy or Arts yea and Divinity before their own Parents ever taught them what they did with God in Baptism what they received And what they promised and vowed to do They send them to Trades or secular Callings or to travel in forreign Lands among a Multitude of Snares among tempting Company and tempting Baits before ever at home they were instructed armed and settled against those Temptations which they must needs encounter and which if they overcome them they are undone How ordinarily when they have first neglected this great duty of their own for their fortification do they plead a necessity of thrusting them out on these temptations though utterly unarmed from some Punctilio of Honour or Conformity to the World to avoid the Contempt of worldly men or to adorn their yet naked Souls with some of the Plumes or painted Trifles Ceremonies or Complements which will never serve instead of heavenly Wisdom Mortification and the Love of God and Man As if they were like to learn that fear of God in a croud of diverting and tempting Company Baits and Business which they never learnt under the teaching nurture and daily oversight of their religious Parents in a safer station Or as if for some little reason they might send them as to Sea without Pilot or Anchor and think that God must save them from the Waves Or as if it were better to enter them into Satans School or Army and venture them upon the notorious danger of Damnation than miss of Preferment and Wealth or of the Fashions and Favour of the Times And then when they hear that they have forsaken God and true Religion and given up themselves to Lust and Sensuality and perhaps as Enemies to God and good men destroy what their Parents laboured to build up these Parents wonder at God's Judgments and with broken Hearts lament their infelicity when it were better to lament their own misdoing and it had been best of all to have prevented it Thus Families Churches and Kingdoms run on to blindness ungodliness and confusion Self-undoing and serving the malice of Satan for fleshly Lust is the too common employment of Mankind All is wise and good and sweet which is prescribed us by God in true Nature or Supernatural revelation But folly sin and misery mistaking themselves to be Wit and Honesty and Prosperity and raging against that which nominally
they pretend to and profess are the ordinary case and course of the most of men And when we would plead them out of their deceit and misery it 's well if we are not tempted to imitate them or be not partly infected with their Disease or at least reproached and oppressed as their Enemies Such a Bedlam is most of the World become where madness goeth for the only Wisdom and he is the bravest Man that can sin and be damned with reputation and renown and successfully drive or draw the greatest number with him unto Hell To which the World hath no small likeness forsaking God and being very much forsaken by him This is the World which standeth in competition for my Love with the Spiritual blessed World Much of God's Mercies and Comforts I have here had But their sweetness was their taste of Divine Love and their tendency to heavenly Perfection What was the end and use of all the Good that ever I saw or that ever God did for my Soul or Body but to teach me to Love him and to long for more How many weaning experiences How many Thousand bitter or contemning Thoughts have I had of all the glory and pleasures of this World How many Thousand love tokens from God have called me to believe and taste his Goodness Where ever I go and which way soever I look I see VANITY and VEXATION written upon all things in this World so far as they stand in competition with God and would be the end and portion of a fleshly Mind And I see HOLINESS TO THE LORD written upon every thing so far as it declareth God and leadeth me to him as my ultimate end God hath not for nothing engaged me in a War against this World and commanded me to take and use it as mine Enemy The emptiness dangerousness and bitterness of the World and the All-sufficiency Trustiness and Goodness of God have been the Summ of all the experiences of my life And shall a worldly backward Heart overcome the teachings of Nature Scripture the Spirit of Grace and all Experience Far be it from me But O my God LOVE is thy great and special gift All Good is from thee But LOVE is the God-like Nature Life and Image It is given us from the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the quickning illuminating and sanctifying Operation of the Holy Spirit What can the Earth return unto the Sun but its own reflected Beams If those As how far soever Man is a Medium in Generation Nature and that Appetite which is the moving pondus in the Child is thy work so whatever is Man's part in the Mediate work of Believing and Repenting which yet is not done without thy Spirit and grace certainly it is the blessed Regenerator which must make us New Creatures by giving us this Divine Nature holy LOVE which is the holy Appetite and Pondus of the Soul Come down Lord into this Heart for it cannot come up to thee Can the Plants for Life or the Eye for Light go up unto the Sun Dwell in me by the Spirit of Love and I shall dwell by Love in Thee Reason is weak and Thoughts are various and Man will be a slippery uncertain Wight if LOVE be not his fixing Principle and do not incline his Soul to Thee Surely through thy Grace I easily feel that I love thy Word I love thy Image I love thy Work and O how heartily do I Love to Love thee And long to Know and Love thee more And if all things be of Thee and through Thee and to Thee surely this Love to the Beams of thy Glory here on Earth is eminently so It 's Thee Lord that it meaneth To Thee it looketh It 's Thee it serveth For Thee it mourns and seeks and groans In Thee it Trusteth And the Hope and Peace and Comfort which support me are in Thee When I was a returning Prodigal in rags thou sawest me afar off and mettest me with thy embracing feasting Love And shall I doubt whether he that hath better cloathed me and dwelt within me will entertain me with a Feast of greater love in the heavenly Mansions the World of Love The suitableness of things below to my fleshly Nature hath detained my affections too much on Earth And shall not the suitableness of things above to my Spiritual Nature much more draw up my Love to Heaven There is the GOD whom I have sought and served He is also here but vailed and but litâ—le known But there he shineth to heavenly Spirits in heavenly Glory There is the Saviour in whom I have believed He hath also dwelt in Flesh on Earth Bâ—t cloathed in such meanness and humbled to such a Life and Death as was to the Jews a stumbling Block and to the Gentiles matter of reproach But he Shineth and Reigneth now in Glory above the malice and contempt of Sinners And I shall there Live because he liveth and in his Light I shall have Light He loved me here with a Redeeming Regenerating and preserving Love But there he will love me with a perfecting glorifying joyful Love I had here some Raies of heavenly Light But interpositions caused Eclipses and Nights yea some long and winter Nights But there I shall dwell in the City of the Sun the City of God the heavenly Jerusalem where there is no Night Eclipse or Darkness There are the heavenly Hosts whose holy Love and Joyful Praises I would fain be a partaker of I have here had some of their Loving assistance but to me unseen being above our fleshly way of Converse But there I shall be with them of the like Nature in the same Orb and of the same Triumphant Church and Chore There are perfected Souls gathered home to Christ Not as here striving like Esau and Jacob in the Womb not yet as John when he leaped in the Womb because of his Mothers joy nor as wrangling Children that are hardly kept in the same House in Peace Not like the Servants of Abraham and Lot like Paul and Barnabas like Epiphanius and Chrysostom like Luther and Carolostadius like Ridley and Hooper or the many striving Parties now among us nor like the Disciples striving who should be the greatest Not like Noah's Family in a wicked World or Lot in a wicked City or Abraham in an Idolatrous Land nor like Elijah left alone nor like those that wandred in Sheep Skins and Goat Skins destitute afflicted and tormented hid in Dens and Caves of the Earth not like Job on the Dunghil or like Lazarus at the rich Man's Doors Not like the African Bishops whose Tongues were cut out nor like the Preachers silenced by Papist imposers in German by the Intâ—rim or elsewhere Nor like such as Tzegedine Peucer and many other worthy men whose maturest Age was spent in Prisons Not as we poor bewildred Sinners feeling evil and fearing more confounded in folly and mad contention some hating the only way of Peace and
misery The Perfection of it will be there our perfect Holiness and Joy XXIV Here though the VVill itself be imperfect we cannot be and do what we would There VVill and Deed and Attainment will all be fully perfect XXV Here by Ignorance and Self-Love I have Desires which God denieth There perfect Desires shall be perfectly fulfilled XXVI Here pinching VVants of somthing or other and troublesom Cares are daily burdens Nothing is there wanting and God hath ended all their Cares XXVII Sense here rebelleth against Faith and Reason and oft overcometh Sense there shall be only Holy and no Discord be in our Faculties or acts XXVIII Pleasures and Contents here are short narrow and twisted with their contraries There they are objectively pure and boundless and subjectively total and absolute XXIX Vanity and Vexation are here the Titles of transitory things Reality Perfection and Glory are the Title of the things above XXX This VVorld is a point of God's Creation a narrow place for a few Passengers Above are the vast capacious Regions sufficient for all Saints and Angels XXXI This VVorld is as Newgate and Hell as Tyburn some are hence saved and some condemned The other VVorld is the Glorious Kingdom of Jehovah with the Blessed XXXII It was here that Christ was tempted scorned and crucified It is there where he Reigneth in Glory over all XXXIII The Spiritual life is here as a Spark or Seed It is there a glorious flame of Love and Joy and the perfect Fruit and Flower XXXIV VVe have here but the first Fruits Earnest and Pledge There is the full and glorious Harvest and Perfection XXXV VVe are here Children in Minority little differing from Servants There we shall have full possession of the Inheritance XXXVI The prospect of Pain Death Grave and Rottenness blasteth all the Pleasures here There is no Death nor any fear of the ending of felicity XXXVII Here even God's VVord is imperfectly understood and Errours swarm even in the Best All Mysteries of Nature and Grace are there unveiled in the World of Light XXXVIII Many of God's Promises are here unfulfilled and our Prayers unanswered There Truth shineth in the full performance of them all XXXIX Our Grace is here so weak and Hearts so dark that our sincerity is oft doubted of There the flames of Love and Joy leave no place for such a doubt XL. By our unconstancy here one Day is joyful and another sad But there our Joys have no interruption XLI We dwell here with sinful Companions like our selves in Flesh There holy Angels and Souls with Christ are all our Company XLII Our best friends and helpers are here in parst our hinderers by sin There all concur in the harmony of active Love XLIII Our Errours and Corruptions make us also hurtful and troublesome to our Friends But there both Christ and they forgive us and we shall trouble them no more XLIV Selfishness and cross interests here jar and mar our conversation There perfect Love will make the Joy of every Saint and Angel mine XLV A militant Church imperfectly sanctified here liveth in scandal and sad divisions The glorious Church united in God in perfect Love hath no contention XLVI Sin and Errour here turn our very publick Worship into jars The Celestial harmony of joyful Love and Praise is to Mortals unconceivable XLVII VVeak blind and wicked Teachers here keep most in delusion and division There glorious Light hath banished all Lies deceit and darkness XLVIII The wills of blind Tyrants is the Law of most on Earth The Wisdom and Will of the most holy God is the Law of the heavenly Society XLIX Lies here cloud the Innocency of the Just and render Truth and Goodness odious All false Judgments are there reversed and Slander is silenced and the Righteous justified L. Government is here exercised by terrour and violence But there God ruleth by Light Love and absolute Delight LI. Enemies Reproach and Persecution here annoy and tempt us All storms are there past and the Conquerors crowned in joyful Rest LII The Glory of Divine Love and Holiness is clouded here by the abounding of Sin and the greatness of Satan's Kingdom upon Earth But the vast glorious heavenly Kingdom to which this Earth is but a Point and Prison will banish all such erring Thoughts and Glorifie God's Love and Goodness for ever LIII This is the World which as corrupted is called an Enemy to God and us and which as such we renounced in Baptism and must be saved from That is the World which we seek pray and wait for all our lives and for which all the tempting Vanities of this must be forsaken LIV. This Body an World is like our riding Clothes our Horse our Way and Inn and travelling Company All but for our Journey homeward The other is our City of Blessedness and Everlasting Rest to which all Grace inclineth Souls and all preserâ— Means and Mercies tend LV. The very ignorance of Nature and Sensible things makes this life a very Labyrinth and our Studies Sciences and Learned Conversation to be much like a Dream or Popet Play and a Childish stir about meer Words But in Heaven an Universal knowledge of God's wonderful Works will not be the least of the Glory in which he will shine to Saints LVI Distance and Darkness of Souls here in Flesh who would Fain know more of God and the heavenly World and cannot doth make our lives a burden by these unsatisfied desires There Glorious Presence and Intuition giveth full satisfaction LVII Our sin and imperfection here render us uncapable of being the Objects of God's full complacential Love though we have his benevolence which will bring us to it But there we shall in our several measures perfectly please God and be perfectly pleased in God for ever LVIII All things here are short and transitory from their beginning posting towards their end which is near and sure and still in our Eye so short is time that Beings here are next to nothing the Bubble of worldly Prosperity Pomp and fleshly Pleasure doth swell up and break in so short a Moment as that it Is and and Is not almost at once But the heavenly substances and their work and Joys are crowned by Duration being assuredly EVERLASTING Such O my Soul is the blessed Change which God will make The Reasons and Helps of my Belief and Hope of this Perfection 1. NAtural Reason assureth me that God made all Creatures fitted to their intended use Even Bruits are more fit for their several Offices than Man is He giveth no Creature its faculties in vain Whatever a wise Man maketh he fits it to the use which he made it for But Man's Faculties are Enabled to think of a God of our relation and our duty to him of our hopes from him and our fears of him Of the state of our Souls related to his judgment of what will befall us after Death reward or punishment and how to prepare for it
reasoning deduction from that poor Degree which we here in the Kingdom of Grace possess Can I perceive substantiality in the dark terrene appearances which are but mutable lifeless matter agitated and used by invisible Powers and shall I think of those unseen powerful substances as if they were less substantial for being Spiritual or were not Objects for a knowing Thought Are the Stars which I see less substantial than a Carkass in a darksom Grave The Lord that appeared in shining Glory hath Members in their measure like himself and hath promised that we shall shine as Stars in the Kingdom of his Father If some degree of this be here performed in them who are called the Children of Light and the Lights of the World how much more will they shine in the World of Light They that call Light a quality or an Act must confess it hath a substance whose quality or act it is Alas what a deceived thing is a sensual Unbeliever who spendeth his Life in the pursuit of fugitive shaddows and walketh in a vain shew and thinks of Spiritual glorious substances as if they were the nothings or delusions of a Dream § 6. Christ Moses and Elias here visibly appeared as three distinct individual Persons This tells us that it is a false conceit that Death ceaseth Individuation and turneth all Souls into one of which before Perfect indivisible infinite Unity is proper to God From this One is multiplicity Reason forbids us when we see the numberless individuals in this World and see also the numerous Stars above to imagine that all the Worlds above us have so much of Divine Perfection as to be but one undivided substance and to have no multiplicity of Inhabitants Yea some of those Sadduces hold that the Stars are Worlds inhabited as the Earth is And why then should they think whither soever Souls go that they cease their individuation When they go among individuals But Christ hath confuted them even to Sense Moses is Moses still and Elias is Elias still And all our Friends that are gone to Christ are the same still that they were and may be called by the same Names Abraham Isaac and Jacob are the same in Heaven and Lazarus was Lazarus in Abraham's bosom When we lay by Flesh and are uncloathed we put not off our personality Every one shall receive his own reward according to what he hath done in the Body when every one must give account of his own works and talents Why then may I not with distinct conceptions and joyful desires look after the Souls of my departed Friends that are now in the Celestial Kingdom Though malignity hath scorned me for naming some few in my Saints Rest being such as the Despisers hated yet I forbear not on such accounts to Solace my self by naming more but because they are more than it 's fit to number In all places where I have lived how many excellent Souls though here they were not perfect are gone to Christ How sweet is the remembrance of the communion which I had with many of them in Shrewsbury and other parts of Shropshire Of many at Dudley and the adjoining parts Of Multitudes at Kiderminster Bewdley and other parts of Worcestershire Of abundance at Coventry and other parts of Warwickshire And of many where I have sojourned in other parts of the Land And above all in London and the adjoining parts As Mr. How hath elegantly exprest it in his excellent Character of my excellent and dear Friend Mr. Richard Fairclough What a Multitude of Blessed Saints will arise at the last Day out of London and this Earth is as it were hallowed with the Dust and Relicts of so many blessed Souls But it 's Heaven that is spangled with these Spiritual Stars The place honoured with them and they with it and all by Christ We are like Infants or Lambs or other young ones that cry for their Dams if they be but out of sight though they are never so near if they see them not they cry as if they were not or had forsaken them As Christ told his Disciples that it was needful for them that he departed from them and yet their Hearts for this were sorrowful till the Holy Ghost came upon them as better than Christ's fleshly presence to prepare them joyfully to follow him so we think of our Friends as almost lost to us by separation till the heavenly Spirit tell us where they are and prepare us to desire to be with them § 6. Elias hath a Body now in Heaven and so hath Henoch But can we think that only two or three that are there with Christ do so much differ from all the rest as to have Bodies when the rest have none Is there such a dissimilitude of Saints in Heaven What are two or three in such a Society Doubtless their Bodies are not corruptible Flesh and Blood but such Spiritual Bodies as all Saints shall have at the Resurrection But are they in Heaven such visible and shaped Bodies as they appeared on the Mount The same difficulty poseth us about the risen Body of Christ He would not have Mary touch him because he had not yet ascended to his Father He could appear and vanish from their sight at his pleasure And yet Thomas handled him and felt that he had Flesh and Bones That Body of Flesh ascended visibly up toward Heaven And yet it is not Flesh and Blood in Heaven but a Spiritual Body For it is not worse than he will make his Members What shall we say to these things We must say That we are not capable of knowing them but have Reason to be thankful that we may know so much more necessary for us But yet it seemeth probable that the Bodies of Christ and Henoch and Elias were changeable according to the Region in which they were to be Christ could take up a Body of Flesh and Blood and immediately change that state of it into a pure incorruptible Spiritual Body as it entered into the incorruptible Spiritual Region And so God did by Henoch and Elias As Paul saith that we shall not all die those that live till Christ's appearing but we shall all be changed And yet if Elias have business on the Mount he can put on the cloathing of a grosser Body to be so seen of men and can lay it by or return to his more invisible Spiritual state when he returneth to the place from whence he came And no wonder when Angels and the Ancients say Christ before his Incarnation assumed Bodies suitable to their several businesses on Earth yea such as could eat and drink with men when yet they dwelt not in Heaven so coursly cloathed § 7. But how came Moses to have a Body on the Mount who is said to have been buried and therefore took none with him into Heaven We must still remember that we enquire of things above our certain knowledge But in humble conjecture we may say That it 's no