which by its own acknowledgment of a Judgment made unto God when he shall come to judge binds over it self and with it self the whole Soul for the Payment And upon that account is to be reckoned the chief Obligee and therefore the Execution is justly to be served upon it and through it upon the whole Soul 2. If we take in together with Conscience the understanding part in Man the Intelligentia or the Spirit of the Mind in the summity of it That is really to be accounted also the Principal in respect of its share in the very acts of Sinning so as justly the Guilt of every act is refunded upon it as the principal Actor For it is betrusted by God with the steering and management of the whole Soul with the conduct of it as the General By reason of that Light God at first seated in it it was appointed for ever to be the Guide and Leader of the Will and Affections And therefore God justly requireth the account or the defaults and miscarriages of the whole at its Hands According to the equity of those Rules declared concerning Rulers of the People Jer. 5. 4 5. These have known the way of the Lord c. As also from that other like to it given forth touching the Priests and which we find so often inculcated in Ezekiel I will require their Blood at the Priests Hands And all these founded upon one and the same common ground common unto Conscience with these namely Conscience and Knowledg there being the Guides And yet in that Conscience gives but an ineffectual weak warning against Sin which should powerfully sway the whole and the Spirit of the Mind or the practick Understanding doth still wickedly give secret consent unto Sin c. Hence therefore that denunciation in Ezekiel holds that God will require the Blood of the Soul at its hands Although the Soul the Will and Affections do perish too in their Iniquity as it is there spoken And for this cause it becomes Justice to punish this chief Agent and Offender or this great Minister of State in sinning and to make these the Seat of the Execution above any or all other Faculties 2. It will furthermore agree with the Rules of Justice yea it will be a special Trophy unto Justice to have Sin it self in the Guilt of it made as far as possibly to be it's own Tormentor and Instrument of the highest Punishment in and unto the Soul that hath sinned There is no Sword like unto that will Justice say to slay a Sinner withall It is of all other the most proper and exquisite way of punishing For the Sinner to eat for ever of the Fruit of his own Ways and Prov. 1. 31. to be filled with their own Devices and their Iniquity to slay them This is the justest and highest Doom which Wisdom it self can invent or God's Power execute The very same doth Jeremy also speak Jer. 2. 19. Thine own Wickedness shall correct thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Certainly for the Sinner to feel in the most intimate and immediate manner that may be the bitterness of the Guilt of Sin and to find that that above all other Punishments that can be inflicted is the sharpest and severest this is a transcendent strain of Justice indeed Now this is most exquisitely accomplish'd through that proper capacity which Conscience and the intellectual part in Man have as to this very thing And in their being the Seat of the Guilt of Sin they are thereby further fitted to become the Vessel or Receptacle of this the highest Punishment This is in a great measure verified by that in Isa 59. 11 12. We roar all like Bears And what was it that caused this For our Transgressions are multiplied before thee and our Sins testify against us For our Transgressions are with us they dwell with and possess us and we possess them as Job also speaks And as for our Iniquities we know them It was their very knowing of their Sins as set on by God that made them thus roar which is the loudest and wildest Tone of Grief and Note of insufferable Torment And observe how that that Knowledg had two things in contemplation which caused the Roaring 1. Sin together with the Wrath of God Our Transgressions are multiplied afore thee And so they had God in their eye as a Judge which those words shew We look for Salvation but it is far from us v. 11. And 2. They testify against us This was the accusation of their own Consciences themselves So as it was Conscience which was the Seat the Habitation as it were where these two took up their dwellings continually quartered upon and possessed Jeremy says the same To see and know how bitter a thing it is to sin c. And though these Scriptures speak not immediately of Hell yet they do clearly point out to us what and wherein the most exquisite punishment of Sin lieth and by what effected namely Knowledg of Sin and Wrath whether it be in Men in forerunning Anguish in this Life or hereafter in Hell in the fulness of it 3. It is not nor can it be the meer Spiritual evil that is in Sin as Sin is Sin and an opposite to true Holiness and as it stands in a contrariety to the Holiness and Goodness of God that is not it which Men in Hell shall spiritually know and see so as to lay to heart the evil thereof in that respect No for that is the peculiar effect of Grace and proper to the Saints even as to see the Beauty that is in Holiness as it is Holiness likewise is It is therefore Sin in the bitter effects thereof only whereby Souls still remaining wholly sinful as those in Hell do can come to know this bitterness of Sin Now to prosecute this The evil of Sin is not sufficiently or perfectly felt no not in the effects of it by the Conscience of a Sinner so as it may be until it be felt in that which is the highest and most transcendent and proper most immediate and first-born effect thereof of all other And that is no other than the Wrath and Indignation of the All-powerful God For that his Wrath shall break in upon the Sinner and so considered it is the most proper effect of all other of the demerit of Sin God being stirred up and provoked thereunto by Sin Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousy 1 Cor. 10. 22. The like Jer. 7. 19. Sins are as a heap of Charcoal wicked Mens Consciences the Oven and God's Wrath the Fire Let this Fire be put into this Coal and let both meet in a guilty Conscience and it instantly becomes a fiery Oven within it self And as concerning all other Punishments I may say it That all other of what kind or from whomsoever although they are all the effects and deserts of Sin according to that
the Wrath and Indignation of God himself working immediately in and upon Mens Souls and Consciences that is intended in these and other Scriptures This is the Subject of the first Section of this Discourse And let it be noticed now at the entrance that the same Scriptures and Reasons that shall be brought to prove this in this first Section will be found again to serve as new Arguments by way of inference to set out and infer the latter also that is the dreadfulness of it as will appear in the second Section CHAP. II. The first sort of Proofs from Scriptures First those three prefixed as the Texts LEt us first see what the Scriptures speak more directly to this great Point I. Heb. 10. 28 29 30 31. In order to the Proofs from hence observe the occasion of the Apostle's mention of this Punishment here to be his having treated of the highest Sin and kind of Sinners the Sin against the Holy Ghost By the occasion of which he gives us to understand what for the Substance is indeed the recompence of all manner of other actual Sins small and great the Punishment being in solido one and the same to all though with a vast difference of Degrees And therefore it is said unto all that are found wicked at that day whether of greater or lesser Proportions and Sizes of Wickedness Go into Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels The Devil is the greatest of Sinners yet all go with him into the same Torment that is for Substance the same And upon the like ground what is here spoken by way of eminency concerning the Punishment of these the highest sort of Sinners of the Sons of Men is true of all others there being but one common Fire or Punishment in the Substance of it for all 2. Observe the manner of his setting forth the dreadfulness of that Punishment to us It is only by way of insinuation For seeing he could not express the soreness of it he thought fit to suggest only who is the immediate Author and Inflicter of it And so leaves it to our thoughts to infer how dreadful it is This in General To argue the Point in Hand out of this Text let us take these things along with us 1. You see he here brings in the great God as an enraged Enemy challenging the execution hereof to himself This Vengeance belongeth to me or as Rom. 12. 19. Vengeance is mine I will recompence as if he had said Let me alone with it 2. In that when he would set out the severeness of this Punishment which is his professed aim ver 29. as infinitely exceeding all those kinds of Corporal deaths in Moses Law he inferreth the soreness of this from God himself as the Avenger We know him that hath thus said Vengeance is mine that is what a great and powerful God he is The Saints only know God by Faith in Himself and his Greatness as Heb. 11. and that so as no other Men in this Life do And by what we know of him and the apprehensions we have of Him we cannot but forwarn what that Punishment must needs be when God himself shall thus solemnly profess himself to be the Avenger 'T is argued you see both from what this God is and from that knowledg the Saints have of Him They and they alone know Him in his Love and have tasted and found that his immediate Loving-kindness is better than Life and from the Law of Contraries they know that his Wrath must be more bitter than Death They are able to measure what he is in his Wrath by what he is in his Love And some of the Primitive Saints especially the Apostles who had the first fruits of the Spirit knew and had tasted how good the Lord is in his Love by immediate Impressions of it on their Souls in Communion with Himself The like tenour of speech has that in 2 Cor. 5. 11. We knowing the Terror of the Lord It is termed His Terror as noting out that which is proper to Him and his Greatness in his being able to punish and destroy Sinners Moses who in the Old Testament had seen the Glory of God the most immediately of any Man and was therein a Type of Christ was thereby made sensible of this very thing as touching this Punishment and therefore complains in the very like Language Psal 90. Who knows the Power of thine Anger Lamenting how the generality of Men did not know it because indeed they knew not God But We says the Apostle have known him c. And 3. Thereupon he further calls this Punishment a falling into God's Hands That very Phrase often notes out immediate Execution as in ordinary Speech it doth When a Father or a Master threaten a Child or a young Servant already corrected by other Hands at their appointment yet when either would threaten more severely they 'l say Take heed how you fall into my hands or come under my fingers when they mean to correct them themselves And then 4. That the Apostle thereupon infers from this the dreadfulness thereof even from this It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of God Reason tells us that the soreness of any Torment the fearfulness of any Death ariseth from the Power Force Violence or Efficacy of that which is the immediate Agent or Cause inflicting it As why do we argue burning or dying by Fire a more terrible Death in respect of Torment than drowning in Water But that Fire being the immediate Agent or Instrument applyed to that Execution hath a more fierce and violent working than Water hath which dispatcheth a Man more easily Now therefore the fearfulness and soreness of this Punishment and that with difference from that by Creatures compare for this ver 28 29. being here argued that it is a falling into God's Hands and we knowing this withal that he is in himself able to work by his fierce Wrath more powerfully and exquisitely upon the reasonable Soul of Man Sinful than all created Agents whatever and the Soul it self being also capable of such a working upon by him This doth strongly argue his own immediate Execution by his own Hands to have been intended 5. In ver 27. he termeth the immediate Cause inflicting this Punishment A fiery indignation devouring the Adversaries Indignation or Wrath is of some intelligent Nature provoked And whom should this refer to or whose Indignation can it be supposed but of this God who himself as the Apostle expounds and comments upon it hath said Vengeance is mine saith the Lord And this Indignation is called fiery because it works as Fire is in tormenting like to Fire or as a Flaming Sword red hot when it is made the Instrument of ones Death which wounds and kills and doth torment with a superadded anguish For the further opening of which I shall at present only say two things 1. That God compares himself in this respect unto a devouring or consuming
circa medium Author of Sin Fulgentius among other highly-evincing demonstrations of it casts in this Iniquitatis cujus est Vltor non est Autor God is not the Author of Sin whereof he is the Avenger Which Maxim is founded upon an high Principle of Reason and Equity God puts the whole of this matter so far off from himself that he lays all both Sin and Punishment wholly upon Man so as although the Punishment it self be from his own just Wrath that is provoked to inflict it yet even thereof he thus speaks Do they provoke me to Anger 't is true they do but do they not provoke themselves to the Confusion of their own Faces So as he ascribes his own Wrath that inflicts that Punishment whollly to themselves returns even that upon themselves As if he had said I am angry indeed c. 't is true yet they are more the provoking Causes of that Anger than my self They spight but themselves when they sin against me Like unto which is that Speech also Rom. 2. 4 5. Thou treasurest up Wrath unto thy self Thou to thy Self although it be God's Wrath in his Breast that is treasured up yet the treasuring of it up is aseribed unto themselves God will send his Son Jesus Christ on purpose to clear all such imaginable Suspicions and Suppositions that Men or Devils can cast upon him for condemning of Men or executing this Punishment himself Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him His work at that Day is to convince yea and to convince is named first as well as to execute Judgment And it is certain that in order thereto he will speak all Fairness Equity Justice and Reason 't were not Conviction else and he will have all his Saints and Angels about him as Judges and Witnesses He will have all the World to hear it and how equal it is for him to execute so sore a Vengeance And as he will convince them of their Deeds to be ungodly and deserving it so of their hard Speeches and that whatever his Decrees were they themselves were ungodly and their Deeds ungodly and ungodlily committed Mark but how he doth ungodly them And he will convince them and stop their Mouths for ever Christ sent him in the Parable speechless to Hell Mat. 22. 12. And this is one great Service the Man Christ Jesus is to do for God at the latter day And if he should not do this satisfyingly and clear all these things he must shut up his Books and come off the Bench and proceed no further either to Sentence or Execution A MEDITATION LEt our Meditation upon what hath been delivered be what Moses hath prompted to us and let us make the same use thereof which he also did The 90th Psalm was penned by Moses as the Title shews A Prayer of Moses the Man of God and it was composed by him in his latter days after he had seen in forty years an whole Generation in a Nation of Men removed out of this World and their Carcases fallen in the Wilderness a Spectacle so sad as perhaps not any one Man in the World hath seen or Age afforded but at the Flood afore or since in so short a compass of time His Song is a Funeral Elegy or Meditation of Death made upon that whole Generation verse 3. Thou turnest Man to Destruction and sayest Return ye Children of Men. And verses 5 6. Thou carriest them away as with a Flood In the morning they are like Grass which groweth up in the morning it flourisheth and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth And God from that time began also to stint and limit Man's years to that measure which it hath held to unto this day Vers 10. The Days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of Strength they be fourscore years yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away Our Souls fly away like Birds when the Shell is broke and then Hell follows as the Revelation speaks as in reality so in Rev. 6. 8. Moses's Discourse And that was it which was the matter of deepest and saddest thoughts in this Meditation unto him of any other Verse 11. it follows Who knoweth the Power of thine Anger Even according to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. Which he utters 1. By way of Lamentation He sighing forth a most doleful complaint against the Security and Stupor he observed in that Generation of Men in his times both in those that had already died in their Sins as well as of that new Generation that had come up in their room who still lived in their Sins O! says he Who of them knoweth the Power of thine Anger namely of that Wrath which followeth after Death and seizeth upon Mens Souls for ever that is who considers it or regards it till it take hold upon them He utters it 2. In a way of Astonishment out of the apprehension he had of the greatness of that Wrath Who hath known the Power of thine Anger that is who who hath or can take it in according to the greatness of it Which he endeavours to set forth as applying himself to our own apprehensions in this wise Even according to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. Where those words thy Fear are taken objective and so is all one and the Fear of thee And so the meaning is that according to whatever proportion our Souls can take in in fears of thee and of thine Anger so great is thy Wrath it self You have Souls that are able to comprehend vast Fears and Terrors they are as extensive in their Fears as in their Desires which are stretched beyond what this World or the Creatures can afford them to an Infinity The Soul of Man is a dark Cell which when it begets Fears once strange and fearful Apparitions rise up in it which far exceed the ordinary proportion of worldly Evils which yet also our Fears usually make greater than they prove to be But here as to that Punishment which is the effect of God's own immediate Wrath let the Soul enlarge it self says he and widen its apprehension to the utmost fear what you can imagine yet still God's Wrath and the Punishment it inflicts are not only proportionable but infinitely exceeding all you can fear or imagine Who knoweth the Power of thine Anger It passeth knowledg Now the Use Moses makes of all this Doctrine of Death and Wrath in the next following verse 12. is this So teach us to number our Days that we may apply our Hearts to VVisdom This he spake to God in behalf of that present Generation that then survived and by spreading afore them
to avoid the Terror of thy Looks Now all this I can do says God with a meer Look whenever I please And I can as easily save also as I can thus destroy which thou canst not do thine own Soul as the next Verse insinuates Then will I confess thine own hand can save thee You see he resolves saving and destroying into the same Power of his and maketh the same estimate of either which the Apostle also doth chap. 4. 12. There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy My Exhortation therefore in fine is Let us not fear Creatures but fear Him and make him your dread and learn to know what a God ye walk before every day and have for ever to do withal Christ that came out of his Bosom knowing him doth Luke 12. 4. 5. compared with Mat. 10. 26. 28. upon knowledg of this God make this same Exhortation I say to you says he and I will forewarn you he says it twice and it is as if he had said Take it from me that know him Fear him that is able to destroy Body and Soul The Apostle succenturiates We know him that hath said Vengeance is mine so here Heb. 10. And again We knowing the terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. which they know by an estimate taken from his Goodness that his Wrath must be answerable And Moses also that had seen his Back-parts and his Glory He cries out Who knows the power of thine Anger Hypocrites and carnal Professors as those were whom God professedly takes to task Psal 50. think to play with the great God and deal with him any how as we say as with a Man that is their Fellow They know him not Psal 50. 21. These things hast thou done and I kept silence and thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self And what things they had done and were guilty of see if thou hast not been guilty of the same or like the 18 19 20 verses shew When thou sawest a Thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been partaker with Adulterers Thou givest thy Mouth to Evil and thy Tongue frameth Deceit Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother thou slanderest thine own Mothers Son And God was silent or long-suffering The like you have Isa 57. 11 12. Of whom hast thou been afraid that thou hast lied and hast not remembred me nor laid it to thy Heart Have not I held my peace even of old and thou fearest me not c. But mark what is the issue of all this in Psal 50. 21. it follows But I will reprove thee and set them in order afore thee They had never felt the smart of his Anger in all their Lives and little thought that the Lion was in him but it follows Consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in peices and there be none to deliver Oh take heed and turn to him or on the sudden he will start up like a mighty Lion and tear your Souls in pieces as a Giant might do Cobwebs and prey upon the Blood of your very Souls and break the Bones thereof as a Lion could of the most silly Creature Add to this MEDITATION Consider What it is to die and what the State and Condition of the other World is It is to have to do with God immediately either in Wrath or Love and from his own hands as well as from the immediate Sentence of his Mouth to receive thy Weal or Woe That we come naked into this World and go as naked out of it was Job's Meditation first after that David's Psal 49. 15. We shall carry nothing away that is of what belongs to this World then after him Solomon the Son Eccles 5. 15. As he came forth of his Mothers Womb speaking of Man naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his Labour which he may carry away in his Hand The Effect of which divine Meditation comes to this To put secure and careless Man upon the consideration of his immortal Souls Condition which first cometh into this World naked as well as his Body And poor thing the meaning of its first cry if the Soul it self could then speak out its mind is I am an empty thing and have brought nothing with me who will shew me any good But after its being grown up it begins to find a World richly furnished with all things to enjoy as the Apostle's Phrase is 1 Tim. 6. 17. But yet again when he goes out of this World he is then turned out of House and Home as perfectly naked as he came into it and as Rev. 18. 14. The Fruits that thy Soul lusted after and all things which are dainty and goodly are departed from thee and thou shalt find them no more at all Death is therefore compared unto the breaking or failing of a Merchant or Tradesman proving Bankrupt Luke 16. 9. That when ye fail c. says Christ of which I have elsewhere spoken Now if this be thy case as to this and that other World think with thy self what thine eternal Soul must then betake it self unto and also unto whom in that other World My Doctrinal part hath informed you that it is God himself God immediately Eccl. 12. 7. The Spirit returns unto him that gave it To explain which There was that evident difference put in the making man's Soul at first from that of his Body That God made the Body out of the Earth but the Soul was breathed in by God and therefore not out of any preexistent matter as the Souls and Forms of all other living things are And upon this dissolution or separation of each from other it is that Solomon says Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Soul to God that gave it that is to say the same common Law befalls either in their kind that to other things in their kind they are reduced unto their first Principles And so look as the Body is materially resolved into the Earth which was the first matter of it so according to some kind of Analogy thereunto and so far as the Soul is capable of a like return unto God the Soul returns to God that gave it as having been the immediate Original of it not materially as a Spark is out of the Fire but as the immediate Efficient It came from God by way of Gift God gave it that is freely and voluntarily produced it by a sole single free Act of his Will and Power whereby he created it out of nothing and so in the whole of it it was an entire and meer Gift of his And therefore in the beginning of his Exhortation verse 1 of this Chap. he had aforehand laid this as a Foundation for it Remember thy Creator or Creators and is so stiled because he is in a more special manner thy Creator than of our Bodies or of other Creatures and that because himself
and abiding in it and being not only the immediate Subject thereof but further the first and original Subject from and by which it is derived unto the Body the Womb into which that immortal Seed was first cast and in which the inward Man is formed and in respect of a constant abiding in which it is that Seed is termed incorruptible Hence therefore says God of this Soul It is Life It shall live when this Body dies There is nothing of Christ's Image but is ordained to abide for ever Charity never fails His Righteousness 1 Cor. 13. 8 2 Cor. 9. 9. endures for ever and therefore is ordained to conserve and elevate unto Life the Subject it is in and that is the Soul This as a Foundation of the substantial parts of this first Reason out of this one Scripture thus directly and explicitly holding this forth §. I come 2. to the Argumentation it self which ariseth out of these things laid together 1. That the Soul is the immediate Subject of Grace 2. The first and primitive Susceptive thereof 3. And it self is alone and immediatly capable of Glory which Grace is a preparation to And 4. that God afore our Deaths hath wrought all of Grace he intends to work in preparation to Glory Out of all these a strong Argument doth arise That such a Soul upon Death shall be admitted unto Glory and not be put to stay till the time of the Resurrection when both Soul and Body shall be joined again together And that this holdeth a just and meet conveniency upon each or at least all these grounds when put together First consider the Soul as the immediate Subject of this working and preparation for Glory Hence therefore this will at least arise That the Inherency or Abiding of this Grace wrought in this Soul depends not upon its conjunction with the Body but so as it remains as an everlasting and perpetual Conserver of that Grace stampt on it yea and carries it all with it self as a rich Treasure innate unto it wherever it goes when separate from the Body I say it either hath in it or appertaining unto it all that hath been wrought for it either in it or by it Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord And their Works do follow them They go to Heaven with them and after them And in what Subject else is it that the Seed 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. of God remains incorruptible or the Word of God abides for ever Or how else comes that Saying to be performed 1 John 2. 17. He that doth the Will of God endures for ever Having therefore all these Riches by it and as complete as here it shall be meet it is it should partake the benefit thereof and live upon them now when it is single and alone and in its Widow's condition And it is an opportune season that by a Glory given it for that Holiness this should now appear That it was the Soul which was the sole intrinsick and immediate Receptive of all this Holiness This is the first Add also Secondly It s being the first and primitive Subject of Holiness from vhich it is derivatively in the Body Meet it was this Soul should not be deferred till Magis conveniens videtur ut animae inquibus per prius fuit culpa meritum prius etiam vel puniantur vel praemientur Aquinas cont Gent. lib. 4. cap. 19 § 3. the Appurtenance of it be united to it but be served first and admitted into that Glory ordained and by having it self first possession given of that Inheritance the Body might in its season be admitted derivatively thereinto from it after that renewed Union with it by the Resurrection Reason good that look as in Priority Grace the preparation unto Glory was wrought so in that Order of Priority Glory it self should be communicated And therefore seeing its Fate is to abide a while alone therefore first to enjoy and drink both the Juice and Fruit of that Vine it is the Root of And 3. it being in it self when separate as immediatly capable of this Glory as when it shall be again united to the Body For what is the Essential of Glory the Substance of that Life that swallows up all but as we said on v. 4. God's immediate Presence and our knowing him face to face as we are known Now of this the Apostle doth in these 6 7 and 8 Verses expresly inform us That the separate Soul is not only capable thereof but that it then begins to enjoy it Therefore says he we are always confident knowing that whilst we are in the Body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by Faith not by Sight We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Where to be present with the Lord and to live by Sight is expresly made the Privilege of a Soul absent from the Body which can mean no other State than that of the Soul between the Death of the Body and the Resurrection For whilst it is present in the Body afore Death it is absent from the Lord and when it shall be present with the Lord after the Resurrection it shall not then be any more absent from the Body This Conjunction therefore of absent from the Body and present with the Lord falls out in no State else but only in that Interim or space of time between Let us withal view this Place in the Light by bringing the one to the other which that Passage 1 Cor. 13. 12. doth cast upon it For now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known To see as in a Glass darkly there is to walk by Faith here But to see face to face and to know God as we are known so there is all one and to attain to sight and be in Christ's presence here And to be sure the Body is in no estate whatever capable of knowing God as we are known of him None durst ever affirm that For besides that the Spiritual Knowledg of God is proper to an intellectual Nature Further so to know God as God knows us and so to be elevated to the Similitude of God's Understanding is not communicable to the Body We may as well dare to affirm God himself to be a Body as that our Bodies are capable of ever being raised up thus to know God Hence therefore whether the Soul be out of the Body as after Death or so in the Body as it shall be after the Resurrection yet still it is the Soul that is immediately alone capable of that Sight and Knowledg of God And therefore seeing it depends not on the Body it is as well capable of it afore the Resurrection without the Body as after the Resurrection in the Body Only this must be added That whilst indeed the Soul is