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
folly But to distrust our selves we have great cause So that if we will make sure of Heaven it must be by giving all diligence to make firm our Title our Calling and our Election here on Earth If we fear Hell we must fear being prepared for it And it is great and difficult work that must be here done It 's here that we must be cured of all damning sin That we must be Regenerate and new Born that we must be pardoned and justified by Faith It 's here that we must be united to Christ made wise to Salvation renewed by his Spirit and conformed to his likeness It 's here that we must overcome all the temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh and perform all the duties toward God and Man that must be rewarded It 's here that Christ must be believed in with the Heart to Righteousness and with the Mouth confessed to Salvation It 's here that we must suffer with him that we may reign with him and be faithful to the Death that we may receive the Crown of Life Here we must so run that we may obtain III. Yea we have greater work here to do than meer securing our own Salvation We are 〈◊〉 of the World and Church and we must labour to do good to many We are trusted with our Masters Talents for his Service in our places to do our best to propagaâ—e his Truth and Grace and Church and to bring home Souls and Honour his cause and edifie his Flock and further the Salvation of as many as we can All this is to be done on Earth if we will secure the end of all in Heaven Use I. It is then an errour though it is but few I think that are guilty of it to think that all Religion lieth in minding only the Life to come and disregarding all things in this present life All true Christians must seriously mind both the End and the Means or way If they mind not believingly the End they will never be faithful in the use of means If they mind not and use not diligently the Means they will never obtain the End None can use Earth well that prefer not Heaven And none come to Heaven at Age that are not prepared by well using Earth Heaven must have the deepest esteem and habituated love and desire and joy But Earth must have more of our daily thoughts for present practice A Man that travelleth to the most desirable home hath a habit of desire to it all the way But his present business is his travel And Horse and Company and Inns and Waies and Weariness c. may take up more of his sensible Thoughts and of his Talk and Action than his Home Use II. I have oft marvelled to find David in the Psalms and other Saints before Christ's coming to have expressed so great a sense of the things of this present life and to have said so little of another To have made so great a matter of Prosperity Dominions and Victories on one Hand and of Enemies Success and Persecution on the other But I consider that it was not for meer Personal Carnal interest but for the Church of God and for his Honour Word and Worship And they knew that if things go well with us on Earth they will be sure to go well in Heaven If the militant Church prosper in Holiness there is no doubt but it will triumph in Glory God will be sure to do his part in receiving Souls if they be here prepared for his receipt And Satan doth much of his damning work by men If we escape their temptations we escape much of our danger If Idolaters prospered Israel was tempted to Idolatry The Greek Church is almost swallowed up by Turkish Prosperity and Dominion Most follow the powerful and Prosperous side And therefore for God's cause and for heavenly everlasting interest our own state but much more the Churches must be greatly regarded here on Earth Indeed if earth be desired only for Earth and Prospirity loved but for the present welfare of the Flesh it is the certain Mark of damning carnality and an earthly mind But to desire Peace and Prosperity and Power to be in the hands of wise and faithful men for the sake of Souls and the increase of the Church and the Honour of God that his Name may be hallowed his Kingdom come and his Will done on Earth as it is in Heaven this is to be the chief of our Prayers to God Use III. Be not unthankful then O my Soul for the Mercies of this present life for those to thy Body to thy Friends to the Land of thy Nativity and specially to the Church of God I. This Body is so nearly united to thee that it must needs be a great help or hinderance Had it been more afflicted it might have been a discouraging clog like a tired Horse in a Journey or an ill Tool to a Workman or an untuned Instrument in Musick A sick or bad Servant in an House is a great trouble And a bad Wife much more But thy Body is nearer thee than either and will be more of thy concern And yet if it had been more Strong and Healthful Sense and Appetite would have been strong and Lust would have been strong and therefore danger would have been greater and Victory and Salvation much more difficult Even weak Senses and Temptations have too oft prevailed How knowest thou then what stronger might have done When I see a thirsty Man in a Feaver or Dropsie and specially when I see strong and healthful youths bred up in fulness and among temptations how mad they are in sin and how violently they are carried to it bearing down God's rebukes and Conscience and Parents and Friends and all regard to their Salvation it tells me how great a Mercy I had even in a Body not liable to their case And many a bodily deliverance hath been of great use to my Soul renewing my time and opportunity and strength for Service and bringing frequent and fresh reports of the Love of God If bodily Mercies were not of great use to the Soul Christ would not so much have shewed his saving love by healing all manner of diseases as he did Nor would God promise us a Resurrection of the Body if a congruous Body did not further the welfare of the Soul 2. And I am obliged to great thankfulness to God for the Mercies of this life which he hath shewed to my Friends that which furthers their joy should increase mine I ought to rejoice with them that rejoice Nature and Grace teach us to be glad when our Friends are well and prosper Though all in order to better things than bodily welfare 3. And such Mercies of this life to the Land of our Habitation must not be undervalued The want of them are parts of God's threatned Curse and godliness hath the Promise of this life and of that which is to come and so is profitable to
The Crown will come in its due time And Eternity is long enough to enjoy it how long soever it be delayed But if I will do that which must obtain it for my self and others it must be quickly done before my declining sun be set O that I had no worse causes of my unwillingness yet to die than my desire to do the work of life for my own and other mens Salvation And to finish my course with joy and the Ministry committed to me by the Lord. Use VI. And as it is on Earth that I must do good to others so it must be in a manner suited to their state on Earth Souls are here closely united to Bodies by which they must receive much good or hurt Do good to mens Bodies if thou wouldst do good to their Souls Say not Things corporeal are worthless Trifles for which the receivers will be never the better They are things that nature is easily sensible of And sense is the passage to the mind and will Dost not thou find what a help it is to thy self to have at any time any ease and alâ—crity of Body And what a burden and hinderance pains and cares are Labour then to free others from such burdens and temptations and be not regardless of them If thou must rejoice with them that rejoice and mourn with them that mourn further thy own joy in furthering theirs and avoid thy own sorrows in avoiding or curing theirs But alas what power hath selfishness in most How easily do we bear our Brethrens pains reproaches wants and afflictions in comparison of our own How few thoughts and how little cost or labour do we use for their supply in comparison of what we do for our selves Nature indeed teacheth us to be most sensible of our own case But Grace tells us that we should not make so great a difference as we do but should love our Neighbours as our selves Use VII And now O my Soul consider how mercifully God hath dealt with thee that thy streight should be between two conditions so desirable I shall either die speedily or stay yet longer upon Earth Which ever it be it will be a Merciful and Comfortable state That it is desirable to depart and be with Christ I must not doubt and shall anon more copiously consider And if my abode on Earth yet longer be so great a Mercy as to be put in the Ballance against my present possession of Heaven surely it must be a state which obligeth me to great thankfulness to God and comfortable acknowledgment And surely it is not my pain or sickness my sufferingâ— from malicious men that should make this Life on Earth unacceptable while God will continue it Paul had his Prick or Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to Buffet him and suffered more from men though less in his Health than I have done And yet he gloried in such Infirmities and rejoiced in his Tribulationâ— and was in a streight between living and dying yea rather chose to live yet longer Alas it is another kind of streight that most of the World are in The streight of most is between the desire of Life for fleshly interest and the fear of Death as ending their felicity The streight of many is between a tiring World and Body which maketh them aweary of living and the dreadful prospect of future danger which makes them afraid of dying If they live it is in misery if they must die they are afraid of greater misery which way ever they Look behind or before them to this World or the next fear and trouble is their Lot yea many an upright Christian through the weakness of their Trust in God doth live in this perplexed streight aweary of living and afraid of dying between grief and fear they are prest continually But Paul's streight was between two Joys which of them he should desire most And if that be my case what should much interrupt my Peace or Pleasure If I live it is for Christ for his Work and for his Church for Preparation for my own and others everasting felicity And should any suffering which maketh me not unserviceable make me impatient with such a work and such a life If I die presently it is my gain God who appointeth me my work doth limit my time and sure his glorious reward can never be unseasonable or come too soon if it be the time that he appointeth When I first engaged my self to preach the Gospel I reckoned as probable but upon one or two years And God hath continued me it above Forty four with such interruptions as others in these times have had And what reason have I now to be unwilling either to live or die God's Service hath been so sweet to me that it hath overcome the trouble of constant pains or weakness of the Flesh and all that men have said or done against me But the following Crown exceeds this pleasure more than I am here capable to conceive There is some trouble in all this pleasant work from which the Soul and Flesh would rest And blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them But O my Soul what need'st thou be troubled in this kind of streight It is not left to thee to choose whether or when thou wilt live or die It is God that will determine it who is infinitely fitter to choose than thou Leave therefore his own work to himself and mind that which is thine whilst thou livest live to Christ and when thou diest thou shalt die to Christ even into his blessed Hands So live that thou maist say It is Christ liveth in me and the life that I live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And then as thou hast lived in the comfort of hope thou shalt die unto the comfort of Vision and Fruition And when thou canst say he is the God whose I am and whom I serve thou maist boldly add and whom I trust and to whom I commend my departing Soul And I know whom I have trusted Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts Philippians 1. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better or for this is much rather to be preferred or better § 1. MAN that is born of a Woman is of few daies and full of trouble He cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not And dost thou open thine Eyes upon such a one and bringest me into Judgment with thee saith Job ch 14. v. 1 2 3. As a Watch when it is wound up or as a Candle newly lighted so Man newly conceived or born beginneth a motion which incessantly hasteth to its appointed period And an Action and its Time that is past is Nothing So vain a thing would
Effective Teaching of God doth ordinarily suppose a Rational Objective Organical Teaching and Knowledge And the foresaid unlearned Christians are convinced by good evidence that God's Word is true and his Rewards are sure though they have but a confused conception of this evidence and cannot word it nor reduce it to fit notions And to drive these that have fundamental evidence unseasonably and hastily to dispute their Faith and so to puzzle them by words and artificial Objections is but to hurt them by setting the Artificial Organical lower part which is the body of Knowledge against the real Light and Perception of the Thing which is as the Soul even as carnal men set the Creatures against God that should lead us to God so do they by Logical Artificial Knowledge § 15. But they that are prepared for such Disputes and furnished with all artificial helps may make good use of them for defending and clearing up the Truth to themselves and others so be it they use them as a means to the due end and in a right manner and set them not up against or instead of the real and effective Light § 16. But the Revealed and Necessary part must here be distinguished from the unrevealed and unnecessary To study till we as clearly as may be understand the certainty of a future happiness and wherein it consisteth in the sight of God's Glory and in perfect holy mutual Love in Union with Christ and all the blessed this is of great use to our Holiness and Peace But when we will know more than God would have us it doth but tend as gazing on the Sun to make us blind and to doubt of certainties because we cannot be resolved of uncertainties To trouble our heads too much in thinking how Souls out of the body do subsâ—sâ— and act sensitively or not by Organs or without how far they are one and how far still individuate in what place they shall remain and where is their Paradise or Heaven how they shall be again united to the body whether by their own emission as the Sun beams touch their Objects here and whether the body shall be restored as the consumed flesh of restored sick men aliunde or only from the old materials A hundred of these Questions are better left to the knowledge of Christ lest we do but foolishly make snares for our selves Had all these been needful to us they had been revealed In respect to all such curiosities and needless knowledge it is a Believer's wisdom implicitly to Trust his Soul to Christ and to be satisfied that he knoweth what we know not and to fear that vain vexatious knowledge or inquisitiveness into good and evil which is selfish and savoureth of a distrust of God and is that sin and fruit of sin which the Learned world too little feareth § 17. III. That God is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and that holy Souls shall be in blessedness with Christ these following Evidences conjoyned do evince on which my Soul doth raise its Hopes § 18. I. The Soul which is an Immortal Spirit must be immortally in a Good or Bad condition But Man's Soul is an Immortal Spirit and the good are not in a bad condition Its Immortality is proved thus A spiritual or most pure invisible substance naturally endowed with the Power Virtue or Faculty of Vital-Action Intellection and Volition which is not annihilated nor destroyed by separation of Parts nor ceaseth or loseth either its Power Species Individuation or Action is an Immortal Spirit But such is the Soul of Man as shall be manifest by parts § 19. I. The Soul is a substance For that which is Nothing can do Nothing but it doth move understand and will No man will deny that this is done by something in us and by some substance and that substance is it which we call the Soul It is not Nothing and it is within us § 20. As to them that say It is the Temperament of several parts conjunct I have elsewhere fully confuted them and proved 1. That it is some one part that is the Agent on the rest which all they confess that think it to be the material spirits or fiery part It is not bones and flesh that understand but a purer substance as all acknowledge 2. What part soever it be it can do no more than it is Able to do And a conjunction of many parts of which no one hath the power of Vitality Intellection or Volition formally or eminently somewhat as excellent can never by contemperation do those acts For there can be no more in the effect than is in the cause otherwise it were no effect The vanity of their Objections that tell us a Lute a Watch a Book perform that by cooperation which no one part can do I have elsewhere manifested 1. Many strings indeed have many motions and so have many effects on the Ear and Phantasie which in us are sound and harmony But all is but a percussion of the Air by the strings and were not that motion received by a sensitive Soul it would be no Musick or Melody so that there is nothing done but what each part had power to do But Intellection and Volition are not the conjunct motions of all parts of the body receiving their form in a nobler Intellective nature as the sound of the strings maketh melody in man If it were so that Receptive Nature still would be as excellent as the Effect importeth 2. And the Watch or Clock doth but move according to the action of the spring or poise but that it moveth in such an order as becometh to man a sign and measure of Time this is from Man who ordereth it to that use But there is nothing in the motion but what the parts have their power to cause And that it signifieth the hour of the daies to us is no Action but an object used by a rational Soul as it can use the shadow of a Tree or House that yet doth nothing 3. And so a Book doth nothing at all but is a meer objective ordination of passive signs by which Man 's active Intellect can understand what the Writer or Orderer did intend so that here is nothing done beyond the power of the Agent nor any thing in the effect which was not in the cause either formally or eminently But for a company of Atoms of which no one hath sense or reason to become sensitive and rational by meer conjunct motion is an â—ffect beyond the power of the supposed cause § 21. But as some think so basely of our noblest Acts as to think that contempered agitated Atoms can perform them that have no natural intellective or sensitive virtue or power in themselves so others think so highly of them as to take them to be the Acts only of God or some universal Soul in the body of Man and so that there is no Life Sense or Reason in the World but God himself or such
But God letteth us see that though the World be One yet he delighteth in a wonderful diversity and multiplicity of Individuals How various and numerous are they in the Sea and on the Land and in the Air And are there none in the other World How come the Stars therein to be so numerous which are of the same Element And though perhaps Saturn or some other Planets or many Stars may send forth their radiant Effluvia or parts into the same Air which the Sun Beams seem totally to fill and illuminate yet the Rays of the Sun and of other Stars are not the same how near soever in the same Air. § 48. Were there now no more Contraction by Egoity or Propriety among men nor Mine and Thine did signify no more nor the distance were greater than that of the several drops of Water in the Sea or particles of of Light in the illuminated Air but I had all my part in such a perfect unity and Communion with all others and knew that all were as happy as I so that there were no divisions by cross interests or minds but all were One certainly it would make my own comforts greater by far than they are now Are not an hundred Candles set together and united as splendid a flame as if they wâ—re all set asunder To one Soul one Love one Joy would be § 49. Object But it is only the fomes that individuateth Lights As when the same Sun by a burning Glass lighteth a thousand Candles they are individuate only by the matter contracting being still all united parts of the same Sun Beams And when they are extinct they are nothing or all one again Ans They were before they were extinct both One and many none but fools think that extinction annihilateth them or any part of them They are after as much Substance and as much solar Fire though diffused and as much and no more one than before but not indeed Many as before but Parts of one Nature hath made the equal diffused Sun Beams to be to the Air and surface of the Earth as the blood equally moving in the Body And our Candles and Fires seem to be like the same blood contracted in a bile or Inflammation which indeed is more felt than the equally diffused blood but it is as the pain of a disease And so when our Fires go out they are but like a healed Scattered Inflammation the same substance is more naturally and equally diffused And if the Individuation of Souls were only by Corporeal matter and the Union thus as great at their departure it would not diminish if it did not too much increase their perfection and felicity For there would be no diminution of any Substance or Power or Activity or Perfection whatsoever § 50. And this would confute their fond Opinion who think that separated Souls sleep in nudâ potentiâ for want of an organized body to operate in For no doubt but if all holy Souls were One this World either in Heaven or Earth hath a common Body enough for such a Soul to operate in Even those Stoicks that think departed Souls are One do think that that One Soul hath a nobler operation than ours in our narrow Bodies and that when our Souls cease animating this Body they have the nobler and sweeter work in part of animating the whole World And those that thought several Orbs had their several Souls of which the particular wights participated said the like of separated Souls as animating the bodies of their Globes or Orbs. And though all these men trouble their heads with their own vain imaginations yet this much the Nature of the Matter tells us which is considerable that whereas the utmost fear of the Infidel is that Souls departed lose their Individuation or Activity and are resolved into one common Soul or continue in a sleepy Potentiality for want of a Body to operate in they do but contradict themselves seeing it is a notorious Truth 1. That if all holy Souls were One no one would be a Loser by the Union but it would be a greater Gain than we must hope for For a part of One is as much and as noble and as active a Substance as if it were a separated Person And Annihilation or loss of specifique Powers is not to be rationally feared 2. And that one Soul is now either self-subsisting without a Body or animateth a suitable Body as some Ancients thought the Angels Stars If that One Soul can act without a Body so may Ours whether as parts of it or not If that One Soul animate a suitable Body ours were they united parts of it would have part of that Employment so that hereby they confute themselves § 51. Obj. But this would equalize the Good and Bad or at least those that were good in several degrees And where then were the Reward and Punishment Ans It would not equal them at all any more than distinct Personality would do For 1. The Souls of all holy Persons may be so united as that the Souls of the wicked shall have no part in that Union Whether the Souls of the wicked shall be united in one sinful miserable Soul or rather but in one sinful Society or be greatlier separate disunited contrary to each other and militant as part of their sin and misery is nothing to this case 2. Yet Natural and Moral Union must be differenced God is the Root of Nature to the worst and however in one sense it is said that There is nothing in God but God yet it is true that In Him all Live and Move and have their Being But yet the wickeds Inbeing in God doth afford them no Sanctifying and Beatifying communion with him as experience sheweth us in this life which yet holy Souls have as being made capable Recipients of it As I said different Plants Bryars and Cedars the stinking and the sweet are implanted parts or Accidents of the same World or Earth 3. And the godly themselves may have as different a share of happiness in one common Soul as they have now of Holiness and so as different Rewards even as Roses and Rosemary and other Herbs differ in the same Garden and several Fruits in the same Orchard or on the same Tree For if Souls are Unible and so Partible Substances they have neither more nor less of Substance or Holiness for their Union and so will each have his proper measure As a Tun of Water cast into the Sea will there still be the same and more than a spoonful cast into it § 52. Obj. But Spirits are not as Bodies extensive and quantitative and so not partible or divisible and therefore your supposition is vain Ans 1. My supposition is but the objectors For if they confess that Spirits are Substances as cannot with reason be denyed For they that Specify their operations by Motion only yet suppose a pure proper substance to be the subject or thing Moved then when they
Nature in all the works of Creation for in Him we Live and Move and Are and by the way of Grace in all the Gracious doth Operate and Is by the works and splendour of his Glory eminently in Heaven By which Glory therefore we must mean some Created Glory For his Essence hath no inequality § 5. 2. We shall be present with the Humane Nature of Christ both Soul and Body But here our present narrow Thoughts must not too boldly presume to resolve the difficulties which to a distinct understanding of this should be overcome For we must not here expect any more than a dark and general Knowledge of them As 1. What is the formal difference between Christs glorified Body and his Flesh on Earth 2. Where Christ's glorified Body is and how far it extendeth 3. VVherein the Soul and the Glorified Body differ seeing it is called A Spiritual Body These things are beyond our present reach § 6. 1. For what conceptions can we have of a Spiritual Body save that it is Pure incorruptible invisible to mortal Eyes and fitted to the most perfect state of the Soul How near the Nature of it is to a Spirit and so to the Soul and how far they agree or differ in substance extensiveness divisibility or activity little do we know § 7. 2. Nor do we know where and how far Christ's Body is present by extent The Sun is commonly taken for a Body and its Motive Illuminative and Calefactive Beams are by the most probable Philosophy taken to be a real emanant part of its substance and so that it is Essentially as extensive as those Beams that is It at once filleth all our Air and toucheth the surface of the Earth and how much further it extendeth we cannot tell And what difference there is between Christ's glorified Body and the Sun in Purity Splendour Extent or Excellency of Nature little do poor Mortals know And so of the rest § 8. Let no Man therefore cavil and say How can a whole World of glorified Bodies be all present with the One Body of Christ when each must possess its proper room For as the Body of the solar Beams and the extensive Air are so compresent as that none can discern the difference of the places which they possess and a World of Bodies are present with them both so may all our Bodies be with Christ's Body and that without any true confusion § 9. 2. Besides Presence with Christ there will be such an Union as we cannot now distinctly know A political Relative Union is past doubt such as Subjects have in one Kingdom with their King But little know we how much more We see that there is a wonderful Corporeal continuity or contact among the material works of God And the more Spiritual pure and noble the more inclination each Nature hath to Union Every Plant on Earth hath a Union with the whole Earth in which it liveth they are real parts of it And what Natural Conjunction our Bodies shall have to Christ's and what influence from it is past our Knowledge Though his similitudes in Joh. â—5 Joh. 6. Eph. 5. 1 Cor. 12. seem to extend far yet being but similitudes we cannot fully know how far § 10. The same variatis variandis we may say of our Union with Christ's humane Soul Seeing Souls are more inclinable to union than Bodies when we see all Vegetables to be united parts of one Earth and yet to have each one its proper individuating form and matter we cannot though Animals seem to walk more disjunct imagine that there is no kind of Union or Conjunction of invisible Souls though they retain their several substances and forms Nor yet that our Bodies shall have a nearer Union with Christ's Body than our Souls with his Soul But the nature manner and measure of it we know not § 11. Far be it from us to think that Christ's glorified Spiritual Body is such in form parts and dimensions as his earthly Body was That it hath Hands Feet Brains Heart Stomach Liver Intestines as on Earth Or that it is such a Compound of Earth Water and Air as here it was and of such confined extent for then as his Disciples and a few Jews only were present with him and all the World besides were absent and had none of his Company so it would be in Heaven But it is not such only as Paul but all true Believers in the World from the Creation to the end shall be with Christ and see his Glory And though inequality of Fitness or Degrees of Holiness will make an inequality of Glory no Man can prove an inequality by local distance from Christ Or if such there be for it 's beyond our reach yet none in Heaven are at such a distance from him as not to enjoy the Felicity of his Presence § 12. Therefore when we dispute against them that hold Transubstantiation and the ubiquity of Christ's Body we do assuredly conclude that Sense is Judge whether there be real Bread and Wine present or not But it is no Judge whether Christ's Spiritual Body be present or not no more than whether an Angel be present And we conclude that Christ's Body is not Infinite or Immense as is his Godhead but what are its dimensions Limits or extent and where it is absent far be it from us to determine when we cannot tell how far the Sun extendeth its secondary substance or emanant Beams nor well what Locality is as to Christ's Soul or any Spirit if to a Spiritual Body § 13. Their fear is vain and carnal who are afraid lest their Union with Christ or one another will be too near even lest thereby they lose their individuation as Rivers that fall into the Sea or extinguished Candles whose Fire is after but a Sun-beam or part of the common Element of Fire in the Air or as the Vegetative Spirits which in Autumn retire from the Leaves into the Branches and Trunk of the Tree I have proved before that our Individuation or numerical Existence ceaseth not And that no Union is to be feared were it never so sure which destroyeth not the Being or formal Powers or Action of the Soul and that it is the great radical disease of SELFISHNESS and want of Holy LOVE to God and our Saviour and one another which causeth these unreasonable Fears Even that Selfishness which now maketh men so partially desirous of their own wills and pleasure in comparison of God's and their own Felicity in comparison of other and which maketh them so easily bear God's injuries and the Sufferings of a Thousand others in comparison of their own But he that put a great desire of the Bodies preservation into the Soul while it is its form will abate that desire when the time of separation is come because there is then no use for it till the Resurrection Else it would be a torment to the Soul § 14. 3. And as we shall
have UNION so also COMMUNION with the Divine and Humane Nature of Christ respectively Both as they will be the Objects of our Souls most noble and Constant acts and as they will be the Fountain or Communicative cause of our receptions § 15. 1. We find now that our various Faculties have various Objects suitable to their Natures The Objects of Sense are things sensible and the Objects of Imagination things Imaginable and the Objects of Intellection things Intelligible and the Objects of the Will things amiable The Eye that is a nobler Sense than some others hath Light for its Object which to other Senses is none and so of the rest Therefore we have cause to suppose that as far as our Glorified Souls and our Spiritual Glorified Bodies will differ so far Christ's Glorified Soul and Body will respectively be their several Objects And beholding the Glory of both will be part of our Glory § 16. Yet is it not hence to be gathered that the separated Soul before the Resurrection shall not have Christ's Glorified Body for its Object For the Objects of the Body are also the Objects of the Soul or to speak more properly the Objects of Sense are also the Objects of Intellection and Will though all the Objects of the Intellect and Will are not Objects of Sense The Separated Soul can know Christ's Glorified Body though our present Bodies cannot see a Soul But how much our Spiritual Bodies will excel in Capacity and Activity these passive Bodies that have so much Earth and Water we cannot tell § 17. And though now our Souls are as a Candle in a Lanthorn and must have extrinsick Objects admitted by the Senses before they can be understood yet it followeth not that therefore a separated Soul cannot know such Objects 1. Because it now knoweth them Abstractively per species because its act of Ratiocination is Compound as to the Cause Soul and Body But it will then know such things Intuitively as now it can do it self when the Lanthorn is cast by 2. And what ever many of late that have given themselves the title of Ingenious have said to the contrary we have little reason to think that the sensitive faculty is not an Essential inseparable power of the same Soul that is Intellectual and that sensation ceaseth to separated Souls however the modes of it may cease with their several Uses and Organs To Feel Intellectually or to understand and will feelingly we have cause to think will be the Action of separated Souls And if so why may they not have communion with Christ's Body and Soul as their Objects in their separated State 3. Besides that we are uncertain whether the separated Soul have no Vehicle or Body at all Things unknown to us must not be supposed True or False Some think that the sensitive Soul is Material and as a Body to the Intellectual never separated I am not of their Opinion that make them two substances but I cannot say I am certain that they err Some think that the Soul is Material of a purer substance than things visible and that the common Notion of its substantiality meaneth nothing else but a pure as they call it Spiritual Materiality Thus thought not only Tertullian but almost all the old Greek Doctors of the Church that write of it and most of the Latine or very many as I have elsewhere shewed and as Faustus reciteth them in the Treatise answered by Mammertus Some think that the Soul as Vegetative is an Igneous Body such as we call Aether or Solar Fire or rather of a higher purer kind and that Sensation and Intellection are those formal Faculties which Specifically difference it from inferior meer Fire or Aether There were few of the Old Doctors that thought it not some of these ways Material And consequently extensive and divisible per potentiam Divin 〈◊〉 though not Naturally or of its own inclination because most strongly inclined to Unity And if any of all these uncertain Opinions should prove true the Objections in hand will find no place To say nothing of their conceit who say that as the Spirit that retireth from the falling Leaves in Autumn continueth to animate the Tree so Man's Soul may do when departed with that to which it is United to animate some more Noble universal Body But as all these are the too bold Cogitations of men that had better let unknown things alone so yet they may be mentioned to refel that more perillous boldness which denyeth the Souls Action which is certain upon at best uncertain Reasons § 18. I may boldly conclude notwithstanding such Objections that Christ's Divine and Humane Nature Soul and Body shall be the felicitating Objects of Intuition and holy Love to the separated Soul before the Resurrection and that to be with Christ is to have such communion with him and not only to be present where he is § 19. 2. And the chief part of this communion will be that in which we are Receptive even Christ's Communications to the Soul And as the Infinite Incomprehensible Deity is the Root or first Cause of all Communication Natural Gracious and Glorious to Being Motion Life Rule Reason Holiness and Happiness and the whole Creation is more dependant on God than the Fruit on the Tree or the Plants on the Earth or the Members on the Body though yet they are not parts of the Deity nor Deified because the Communication is Creative so God useth Second Causes in his Communications to inferiour Natures and it is more than probable that the Humane Soul of Christ primarily and his Body secondarily are the chief second cause of Influence and Communication both of Grace and Glory both to Man in the Body and to the separated Soul And as the Sun is first an Efficient communicative second Cause of seeing to the Eye and then is also the Object of our sight so Christ is to the Soul For as God so the Lamb is the Light and Glory of the heavenly Hierusalem and in his light we shall have light Though he give up the Kingdom to the Father so far as that God shall be all in all and his Creature be fully restored to his favour and there shall be need of a healing Government no more for the recovering of lapsed Souls to God yet sure he will not cease to be our Mediator and to be the Churches Head and to be the conveying cause of Everlasting Life and Light and Love to all his Members As now we live because he liveth even as the Branches in the Vine and the Spirit that quickneth enlightneth and sanctifieth us is first the Spirit of Christ before it is ours and is communicated from God by him to us so will it be in the state of Glory For we shall have our Union and Communion with him perfected and not destroyed or diminished And unless I could be so proud as to think that I am or shall be the most excellent of all the Creatures
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
that were it not for the work and higher ends of life I had little Reason to be much in love with it or to be loath to leave it And had not God put into our Nature itself a necessary unavoidable sensitive Love of the Body and of Life as he puts into the Mother and into every Bruit a love of their young Ones how unclean and impotent and troublesome soever for the propagation and continuance of Man on Earth Had God but left it to meer Reason without this necessary pre-engagement of our Natures it would have been a matter of more doubt and difficulty than it is whether this life should be loved and desired and no small number would daily wish that they had never been Born A wish which I have had much a do to forbear even when I have known that it is sinful and when the work and pleasure of my life have been such to overcome the evils of it as few have had 6. Yea to depart from such a Body is but to be removed from a very foul uncleanly and sordid Habitation I know that the Body of Man and Bruits is the curious wonderful work of God and not to be despised nor injuriously dishonoured but admired and well used But yet it is a wonder to our Reason that so noble a Spirit should be so meanly housed And we may call it Our vile Body as the Apostle doth Phil. 3. 21. It is made up of the Airy Watery and Earthly parts of our daily food subacted and actuated by the fiery part as the instrument of the Soul The greater part of the same food which with great cost and pomp and pleasure is first upon our Tables and then in our Mouths to day is to morrow a fetid loathsom excrement and cast out into the draught that the sight and smell of that annoy us not which yesterday was the sumptuous fruit of our abundance the glory of that which is called great housekeeping and the pleasure of our Eyes and Taste And is not the rest that turneth into Blood and Flesh of the same general kind with that which is turned into loathsom filth The difference is that it is fitter for the Soul by the fiery Spirits yet longer to operate on and keep from corruption Our blood and flesh are as stinking and loathsom a substance as our filthiest excrements save that they are longer kept from putrefaction Why then should it more grieve me that one part of my food which turned into flesh should rot and stink in the Grave than that all the rest should daily stink in the draught Yea while it is within me were it not covered from my sight what a loathsom mass would my Intestines appear If I saw what is in the Guts the Mesentery the Ventricles of the Brain what filth what bilious or mucous matter and perhaps crawling Worms there are in the most proud or comely Person I should think that the cover of a cleaner Skin and the borrowed Ornaments of Apparel make no great difference between such a Body and a Carkass which may be also covered with an adorned Coffin and Monument to deceive such Spectators that see but out-sides the change is not so great of corruptible Flesh repleat with such fetid Excrements into corrupted Flesh as some Fools imagine 7. Yet more to Depart from such a Body is but to be loosed from the Bondage of Corruption and from a Clog and Prison of the Soul I say not that God put a pre-existent Soul into this Prison Penally for former faults I must say no more than I can prove or than I know But that Body which was an apt Servant to Man's Soul is become as a Prison to him now What alteration sin made upon the Nature of the Body as whether it be more terrene and gross than else it would have been I have no reason to assert Of Earth or Dust it was at first and to Dust it is sentenced to return But no doubt but it hath its part in that dispositive depravation which is the fruit of sin we find that the Soul as sensitive is so imprisoned or shut up in Flesh that sometimes it is more than one Door that must be opened before the Object and the Faculty can meet In the Eye indeed the Soul seemeth to have a Window to look out at and to be almost itself viâ—ible to others And yet there are many interposing tunicles and a suffusion or winking can make the clearest sight to be as useless for the time as if it were none And if sense be thus shut up from its Object no wonder if Reason also be under difficulties from coporeal impediments and if the Soul that is yoaked with such a Body can go no faster than its heavy pace 8. Yet further To Depart from such a Body is but to be separated from an accidental Enemy and one of our greatest and most hurtful Enemies Though still we say That it is not by any default in the work of our Creator but by the effects of sin that it is such What could Satan or any other Enemy of our Souls have done against us without our flesh What is it but the Interest of this Body that standeth in competition against the Interest of our Souls and God What else do the prophane sell their heavenly Inheritance for as Esau his Birthright No Man loveth evil as evil but as some way a real or seeming good And what good is it but that which seemeth good for the Body What else is the Bait of Ambition Covetousness and Sensuality but the Interest and Pleasure of this Flesh What taketh up the Thoughts and Care which we should lay out upon things Spiritual and Heavenly but this Body and its Life What Pleasures be they that steal away mens Hearts from the heavenly Pleasures of Faith Hope and Love but the Pleasures of this Flesh This draweth us to sin This hindereth us from and in our duty This Body hath its interest which must be minded and its inordinate Appetite which must be pleased or else what murmurings and disquiet must we expect Were it not for Bodily Interest and its Temptations how much more innocently and holily might I live I should have nothing to care for but to please God and to be pleased in him were it not for the care of this Bodily life What Employment should my Will and Love have but to Delight in God and Love Him and his Interest were it not for the Love of the Body and its concerns By this the mind is darkened and the Thoughts diverted By this our wills are perverted and corrupted and by Loving things Corporeal contract a strangâ—ness and aversation from things Spiritual By this Heaâ—â— and Time are alienated from God our Guilt is increased and our heavenly desire and hopes destroyed Life made unholy and uncomfortable and Death made terrible God and our Souls separated and Life eternal set by and in danger of being utterly lost
not when I die The Church dieth not The Praises of God die not the World dieth not And perhaps it shall grow better and those Prayers shall be answered which seemed lost Yea it may be some of the Seed that I have sowen shall spring up to some benefit of the dark unpeaceable World when I am dead And is not this much of the end of life is not that Life good which attaineth its End If my End was to do Good and Glorifie God if Good be done and God be Glorified when I am dead yea though I were annihilated is not my End attained Feign not thy self to be God whose Interest that is the pleasing of his Will is the End of all things And whose will is the measure of all Created good Feign not thy self to be All the World God hath not lost his work the World is not dissolved when I am dissolved O how strong and unreasonable a Disease is this inordinate SELFISHNESS Is not God's Will Infinitely better than mine And fitter to be fulfilled Choose the fulfilling of his Will and thou shalt always have thy choice If a Man be well that can always have his will let this always be thy Will that God's Will may be done and thou shalt always have it Lord let thy Servant Depart in Peace even in Thy Peace which passeth understanding and which Christ the Prince of Peace doth give and nothing in the World can take away O give me that Peace which beseemeth a Soul which is so near the Harbour even the World of endless PEACE and LOVE where perfect UNION such as I am capable of will free me from all the sins and troubles which are caused by the convulsions divulsions and confusions of this divided SELFISH World Call home this Soul by the encouraging Voice of Love that it may joyfully hear and say It is my Fathers Voice Invite it to thee by the heavenly Messenger Attract it by the tokens and the foretasts of Love The Messengers that invited me to the Feast of Grace compelled me to come in without constraint Thy effectual call did make me willing And is not Glory better than preparing Grace Shall I not come more willingly to the Celestial Feast What was thy Grace for but to make me willing of Glory and the way to it Why didst thou dart down thy Beams of Love but to make me Love thee and to call me up to the everlasting Center Was not the Feast of of Grace as a Sacrament of the Feast of Glory Did I not take it in remembrance of my Lord until he come Did not he that told me All things are ready tell me also that He is gone to prepare a place for us and it is his will that we shall be with him and see his Glory They that are Given him and Drawn to him by the Father on Earth do come to Christ Give now and Draw my Departing Soul to my Glorified Head And as I have Glorified thee on Earth in the measure that thy Grace hath prevailed in me pardon the sins by which I have offended thee and Glorifie me in the beholding and participation of the Glory of my Redeemer come Lord Jesus come quickly with fuller Life and Light and Love into this too Dead and Dark and Disaffected Soul that it may come with joyful willingness unto thee § 13. Willingly Depart O lingring Soul It is from a Sodom though in it there be righteous Lots who yet are not without their woful blemishes Hast thou so oft groaned for the general blindness and wickedness of the World and art thou loth to leave it for a better How oft wouldst thou have rejoyced to have seen but the dawning of a Day of Universal Peace and Reformation And wouldst thou not see it where it shineth forth in fullest Glory Would a light at Midnight have pleased thee so well Hast thou prayed and laboured for it so hard And would thou not see the Sun Will the things of Heaven please thee no where but on Earth where they come in the least and weakest influences and are terminated in gross terrene obscure and unkind recipients Away away the vindictive Flames are ready to consume this sinful World Sinners that blindly rage in sin must quickly rage in the effects of sin and of God's Justice The pangs of Lust prepared for these pangs They are treasuring up wrath against this Day Look not then behind thee Away from this unhappy World Press on unto the Mark Phil. 3. Looking towards and hastning to the coming of the Day of God 2 Pet. 3. 10 11 12. As this World hath used thee it would use thee still and it will use others If thou hast sped well in it no thanks to it but unto God! If thou hast had manifold deliverances and marvellous preservations and hast been sed with Angels food love not this Wilderness for it but God and his Angel which was thy Guide Protector and Deliverer And hath this troublesome Flesh been so comfortable a companion to thee that thou shouldst be so loth to leave it Have thy pains thy weariness thy languishings thy labours thy cares and fears about this Body been pleasing to thee And art thou loth that they should have an end Didst thou not find a need of patience to undergo them And of greater Patience than mâ—â—r Nature gave thee And canst thou hope now for better when Nature faileth and that an aged consumed more diseased Body should be a pleasanter habitation to thee than it was heretofore If from thy youth up it hath been both a tempting and a troubling thing to thee surely though it be less tempting it will not be less troubling when it is falling to the Dust and above ground savoureth of the Grave Had things sensible been never so pleasant in thy youth and hadst thou glutted thy self in health with that sort of delight in Age thou art to say by Nature I have no pleasure in them Doth God in great Mercy make pain and feebleness the Harbingers of Death and wilt thou not understand their business Doth he mercifully before hand take away the pleasure of all fleshly things and worldly vanities that there may be nothing to relieve a departing Soul as the shell breaketh when the Bird is hatched and the Womb relaxed when the Infant must be Born and yet shall we stay when nothing holdeth us and still be loth to come away Wouldst thou dwell with thy beloved Body in the Grave where it will rot and stink in loathsome darkness If not why should it now in its painful languor seem to thee a more pleasant habitation than the glorious presence of thy Lord In the Grave it will be at rest and not tormented as now it is nor wish at Night O that it were Morning nor say at Morning when will it be Night And is this a dwelling fit for thy delight Patience in it while God will so try thee is thy duty But is such
secrets of the Almighty nor to pretend to know more of God than indeed I know but O that I might know more of his glorious Perfections of his Will and Love and Ways with that knowledge which is Eternal Life Blessed be that Love that sent the Son of God from Heaven to reveal him to us in the Gospel as he hath done But all that hear the same Words and Believe them have not the same degree of Light or Faith If an Angel from Heaven came down on Earth to tell us all of God that we would know and might lawfully desire and ask him who would not turn his Back on Libraries and Universities and the Learned men to go and discourse with such a Messenger What travel should I think too far What cost too great for one Hours talk with such a Messenger But we must have here but such intimations as will exercise Faith and excite desire and try us under the Temptations of the World and Flesh The glorious Light is the reward of the Victory obtained by the conduct of the Light of Grace God in great Mercy even here beginneth the reward They that are true to the initial Light and faithfully follow on to know the Lord do find usually such increase of Light not of vain Notions but of quickning and comforting knowledge of God as greatly encourageth them and draweth them still on to seek for more It is very pleasant here to increase in holy Knowledge though it usually bring an increase of malignant opposition and so of sorrows to the Flesh The pleasure that the mind hath in common knowledge brings men through a great deal of labour to attain it How many Years travel over Land and Sea do some men take to see and know more of this lower World Though it 's little that they bring home but more acquaintance with Sin and Vanity and Vexation How many more Years do Thousands spend in the reading of multitudes of tedious Volumes that they may know what others knew before them Printers and Booksellors live by our desire of Knowledge What Soul then on Earth can possibly conceive how great a pleasure it will be for a glorified Soul to see the Lord Though I cannot now conceive what that intuition of God himself will be and whether it will not be a glorious kind of concluding or abstractive knolwedge whether the Glory which we shall see be only a created appearance of God or be his very Essence it satisfieth me that it will be as perfect a knowledge as is fit for me to desire and I shall then desire no more than is fit And what it is I shall then know by itself for it is not otherwise to be clearly known And all the pleasure that I shall have in Heaven in knowing any of the works of God will be in my beholding God himself his Being his Vital power and action his Wisdom and his Love and Goodness in those works For he is the Life and Glory of them all Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God II. And doubtless it will be no small part of my delight to see and know God's perfect works I mean the Universe itself I cannot say that I shall have so large a Capacity as to comprehend all the World or know it perfectly and with an adequate knowledge But I shall know it in such Perfection as is suitable to my capacity It is exceeding pleasant to know the least Particles of the works of God With what diligence and delight have men endeavoured to Anatomize a Body yea a small part of a Carkass and to know and describe poor Worms and Insects Plants and Minerals And no Man ever yet perfectly knew the least of them all no Herbalist or Physician ever yet knew the Nature and uses of any one Herb with an adequate knowledge With what delight and diligence are Physical searches carryed on in the World though still we are all but groaping in the dark and ignorant of many things for one that we know and therefore know no one perfectly because we are ignorant of rest But if indeed we were above our dreaming erroneous Hypotheses and saw the Nature of every Creature even in Sea and Land this little Spot of God's Creation and the compages of all Oh what a delightful Spectacle would it be How much more to see the whole Creation yea or one Vortex or Systeme of the Globes and to know their union and communion and to behold their beauteous Symmetry and hear them in concord and melodious Harmony praising the the Glory of their Great Wise Amiable Creator this were a delectable sight indeed I shall have as much of this as I shall be capable of And the wonders and glory of the Works of God shall wrap up my Soul in admiring joyful praise for ever And though here it be but little of God's Works that we know I have great reason to think that it will be far otherwise there 1. Because the state of Perfection must far excel our dark and infant state of imperfection We have now desires after such a knowledge His Works are great sought out of them that have pleasure therein And these desires being of God shall not be frustrate 2. Because there will be a proportionableness of the parts of our Perfection and therefore as our Love to God and his works will be there perfected so will be our knowledge 3. Because we shall know God himself as much as we are capable and therefore we shall know his works in him or by a subordinate knowledge the less being in the greater 4. Because God hath made his works to be known to his glory But it is little that is here known of them by Mortals therefore they are known by them in Heaven who are fitted to improve that knowledge to his praise If Christ who is the wisdom of God will teach me the true Philosophy how to love God and live here in all well pleasing unto him I shall quickly in Heaven be a perfect Philosopher and experience will tell me that the surest way to be truly Learned and know the wonderful works of God was to know love and serve the Great Creator and in Him we shall have all and without him we know nothing and have nothing at all Satan tempted Christ by shewing him the Kingdoms and glory of the World and promising them all to him if he would have worshipped him But God will shew me more than Satan could shew and give me more of that which is best than Satan could give III. And that in Heaven I shall better know Jesus Christ and all the Mystery of our Redemption by him will not be the least of my felicity For in him are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom And to know the Mystery of his Eternal Godhead in the second Person and his created Nature and the Union of these and to see God's wonderful design and work of grace in him laid open
more desire it V. I shall better understand all the World of God! The Matter and the Method of it Though I shall shall not have that use for it as I have now in this Life of Faith yet I shall see more of God's Wisdom and his Goodness his Love Mercy and Justice appearing in it than ever Man on Earth could do As the Creatures so the Scriptures are perfectly known only by perfect Spirits I shall then know how to solve all doubts and reconcile all seeming contradictions and to expound the hardest Prophesies That light will shew me the admirable Methods of those Sacred words where dark minds now suspect confusion How evident and clear then will every thing appear to me Like a small print when the light comes in which I could not read in the glimmering twilight How easily shall I then confute the cavils of all our present Unbelievers And how joyfully shall I praise that God and Saviour that gave his Church so clear a light to guide them through this darksom World and so sure a promise to support them till they came to life Eternal How joyfully shall I bless him that by that immortal Seed did regenerate me to the hopes of Glory And that ruled me by so Holy and Just a Law VI. In that World of Light I shall better understand God's present and past works of Providence by which he ordereth the matters of this World The Wisdom and Goodness of them is little understood in little parcels It is the union and harmony of all the parts which sheweth the beauty of them when the single Parcels seem deformed or are not understood And no one can see the whole together but God and they that see it in the light of his Celestial Glory It is a prospect of that End by which we have here any true understanding of such Parcels as we see Then I shall know clearly why or to what use God prospered the wicked and tryed the Righteous by so many afflictions I shall know why he set up the ungodly and put the humble under their Feet Why he permitted so much ignorance ungodliness pride lust oppression persecution falshood deceit and other sins in the World I shall know why the faithful are so few And why so many Kingdoms of the World are left in Heathenism Mahometanism and Infidelity The strange permissions which now so puzzle me and are the matter of my astonishment shall all be then as clear as day I shall know why God disposed of me as he did through all my life and why I suffered what I did and how many great deliverances I had which I understood not here and how they were accomplished All our mis-interpretations of God's works and permissions will be then rectified And all our Controversies about them which Satan hath made so great advantage of by a pretended zeal for some Truths of God will then be reconciled and at an end And all the works of Divine Providence from the beginning of the World will then appear a most delectable beauteous frame VII And among all these works I shall specially know more the nature and excellency of Gods mercies and gifts of Love which here we too unthankfully undervalued and made light of The special works of Love should be the matter of our most constant sweet and serious Thoughts and the fuel of our constant Love and Gratitude The lively sense of Love and Mercy maketh lively Christians abounding in Love to God and Mercy to others But the Enemy of God and Man most laboureth to obscure diminish and disgrace God's Love and Mercys to us or to put us out of relish to them that they be unfruitful as to their excellent ends and uses Little do most Christians know how much they wrong God and themselves and how much they lose by the diminutive poor Thoughts which they have of God's Mercies Ingratitude is a grievous misery to the Sinner as gratitude is a very pleasant work Many a Thousand Mercies we now receive which we greatly undervalue But when I come to the state and work of perfect gratitude I shall have a more perfect knowledge of all the Mercies which ever I received in my Life and which my Neighbours and Friends and God's Church and the World did ever receive For though the thing be past the use of it is not past Mercies remembred must be the matter of our everlasting thanks And we cannot be perfectly thankful for them without a perfect knowledge of them The worth of a Christ and all his grace the work of the Gospel the worth of our Church-priviledges and all God's Ordinances the worth of our Books and Friends and Helps of our Life and Health and all conveniences will be better understood in Heaven than the most holy and thankful Christian here understandeth them VIII And it will be some addition to my future happiness that I shall then be much better acquainted with my self Both with my Nature and with my Sin and Grace I shall then better know the Nature of a Soul and its formal Faculties Three in One I shall know the nature and way of its Operations and how far its acts are simple or compound or organical I shall know how far Memory Phantasie and Sense internal and external belong to the rational Soul and whether the sensitive and rational are two or one and what Senses will perish and what not I shall know how the Soul doth act upon it self and what acts it hath that are not felt in sleep in Apoplexies and in the Womb I shall know whether the vegetative nature be any thing else than Fire and whether it be of the same Essence with the Soul sensitive or rational and whether Fire eminenter be a common fundamental substance of all Spirits diversly specified by the Forms mental sensitive and vegetative or whether it be as a Body or Vehicle to Spirits or rather a nature made for the Copulation of Spirits and Bodies and the Operation of the former on the latter as between both And whether Fire and of what sort be the active forma telluris and of other Globes I shall know how far Souls are One and yet Many and how they are Individuate And whether their Quantitas discreta in being numerically many do prove that they have any Quantitatem continuam and whether they are a purer sort of Bodies as the Greek Fathers Tertullian and others Thought and what Immateriality signifieth and what substantiality of Spirits and how substantia materia differ and how far they are penetrable and indivisible and whether a Soul be properly pars and whether individual Souls are parts of any common Soul and how far the individuation doth continue And whether separated from the Body they operate in and by any other Vehicle or without and how and whether they take with them any of the fiery Nature as a Vehicle or as a constitutive part I shall know how God produceth Souls And how
sin and discord But there a whole Heaven fulâ— of blessed Spirits will flame for ever in perfect Love to God to Christ and one another Go then go willingly O my Soul Love joineth with LIGHT to draw up thy desires Nature inclineth all things unto Union Even the lifeless Elements have an Aggregative motion by which the parts when violently separated do hastily return to their Natural adhesion Art thou a Lover of Wisdom and wouldst thou not be united to the Wise Art thou a Lover of Holiness and of Love itself and wouldst thou not be united to the Holy who are made of Love Art thou a hater of enmity discord and divisions and a Lover of Unity here on Earth and wouldst thou not be where all the just are One It is not an unnatural Union to thy loss Nothing shall be taken from thee by it Thou shalt receive by it more than thou canst contribute It shall not be forced against thy will It is but a Union of Minds and Wills a perfect Union of Loves Let not natural or sinful selfishness cause thee to think suspiciously or hardly of it For it is thy happiness and end What got the Angels that fell to selfishness from Unity And what got Adam that followed them herein The further any man goeth from UNITY by SELFISHNESS the deeper he falleth into sin and misery from God! And what doth Grace but call us back from sin and selfishness to Gods Unity again Doâ—e not then on this dark divided World Is not thy Body while the parts by a uniting Soul are kept together and make One in a better state than when it is crumbled into lifeless dust And doth not death creep on thee by a gradual dissolution Away then from this sandy incoherent state The further from the Center the further from Unity A Unity indeed there is of all things but it is One heavenly LIFE and LIGHT and LOVE which is the true felicitating Union We dispute here whether the Aggregative Motion of separated parts as in descensu gravium be from a Motive Principle in the part or by the Attraction of the whole or by any external impulse It is like that there is somewhat of all these But sure the greatest cause is like to do most to the effect The body of the Earth hath more power to attract a Cload or Stone than the intrinsick Principle to move it downwards But intrinsick Gravity is also necessary The superior attractive Love and Loveliness must do more to draw up this mind to God than my intrinsick Holiness to move it upward But without this Holiness the Soul would not be capable of feeling that attractive influx Every Grace cometh from God to fit and lead up my Soul to God Faith therefore believeth the heavenly state and Love doth with some Delight desire it and Hope gapeth after it that I may at last attain it They that have pleaâ—ed against Propriety and would have all things common in this World have forgotten that there is a Propriety in our present Egoity and Natural Constitution which rendereth some accidental Propriety necessary to us Every Man hath his own bodily parts and inherent accidents and every Man must have his own Food his own Place Cloathing and Acquisitions his own Children and therefore his own Wife c. But that the greatest Perfection is most for Community as far as Nature is capable of it God would shew us in making the first Receivers of the extraordinary pourings out of his Spirit to sell all and voluntarily make all common none saying This or that is my own which was not done by any constraining Law but by the Law or Power of uniting Love They were first all as of one Heart and Soul Act. 4. 32. Take not then thy inordinate desire of Propriety for thy Health but for thy Sickness Cherish it not and be not afraid to lose it and measure not the heavenly felicity by it Spirits are penetrable They claim not so much as a Propriety of place as Bodies do It is thy weakness and state of Imperfection now which maketh it so desirable to thee that thy House should be Thine and nones but thine thy Land be Thine and nones but Thine thy Cloaths thy Books yea thy knowledge and grace be Thine and Nones but Thine How much more excellent a state were it if we were here capable of it if we could say that all these are as the common Light of the Sun which is mine and every ones as well as mine Why are we so desirous to speak all Languages but that we might understand all men and 〈◊〉 understood of all and so might make our sentiments as common as is possible Whence is it that men are so addicted to talkativeness but that Nature would make all our Thoughts and passions as common aâ— it can And why else are Learned men so desirous to propagate their Learning and Godly men so desirous to make all others wise and godly It seemeth one of the greatest calamities of this life that when a Man hath with the longest and hardest study attained to much knowledge he cannot bequeath it or any part of it to his Heir or any Person when he dieth but every Man must acquire it for himself And when God hath sanctified the Parents they cannot communicate their Holiness to their Children though God promise to bless them on their account Much less can any Man make his Grace or Knowledge common Nature and Grace incline us to desire it but we cannot do it For this end we Talk and Preach and Write for this end we study to be as plain and convincing and moving as we can that we may make our Knowledge and Affections as common to our Hearers and Readers as we can And O what a blessed work should we take Preaching and Writing for if we could make them all know but what we know and love what we are persuading them to love There would then be no need of Schools and Universities A few Hours would do more than they do in an Age. But alas how rare is it for a Father of excellent Learning and Piety to have one Son like himself after all his industry Is not the heavenly communion then desirable where every Man shall have his Own and yet his Own be common to all others My knowledge shall be mine own and other mens as well as mine My goodness shall be my own and theirs My glory and felicity shall be mine and theirs And theirs also shall be mine as well as theirs The Knowledge the Goodness the Glory of all the heavenly Society shall be Mine according to my Capacity Grace is the Seed of such a state which maketh us all one in Christ neither Barbarian nor Scythian Circumcision nor Uncircumcision Bond nor Free by giving us to love our Neighbours as our selves and to love both our Neighbours and our selves for Christ and Christ in all Well might Paul say All things yours But it
hath also used them to do abundance of good against Idolatry in the Heathen World Where-ever they come Idolatry is destroyed Yea the corrupt Christians Greeks and specially Papists that worship Images Angels and Bread are rebuked and condemned justly by Mahometans But O that they who have Conquered so far by the Sword were Conquered by the Sacred Word of Truth and truly understood the Mystery of Redemption and the Doctrin of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Obj. But they think us Idolaters for saying that Christ is God and believing the Trinity I. As to the Trinity it is no contradiction that one Fire or Sun should have Essentially a Virtue or Power to Move Light and Heat Nor that one Soul should have a power of Vegetation Sense and Reason Nor as Rational to have a peculiar power of Vitality Intellection and Free-will Why then should the Trinity seem incredidible II. We do not believe that the Godhead hath any change or is made Flesh or the Manhood made God but that the Godhead is incomprehensibly united to the humane Nature by assumption so as he is united to no other Creature by and for those peculiar Operations on the humanity of Christ which make him our Redeemer They that well think that God is All in All things more than a Soul to all the World and as near to us as our Souls to our Bodies in whom we live and move and have our being will find that it is more difficult to apprehend how God is further from any Soul than that he is so much One with Christ Save that different Operations of God on his Creatures are apparent to us By all this we see that every sanctified Christian hath the certain Witness in himself that Christ is true He is truly a Physician that healeth and a Saviour that saveth all that seriously believe and obey him The Spirit of God in a New and Holy and Heavenly Nature of Spiritual Life and Light and Love is the Witness VI. The Sixth Article in my Text is Received up into Glory That Christ after Forty Days continuance on Earth was taken up into Heaven in the sight of his Disciples is a Matter of Fact of which we have all the forementioned infallible proof which I must not here again repeat And 1. If Christ were not glorified now in Heaven he could not send down his Spirit with his Word on Earth nor have enabled the first Witnesses to speak with all Tongues and heal the Sick and raise the Dead and do all the Miracles which they did A dead Man cannot send down the Holy Spirit in likeness of Firy cloven Tongues nor enable Thousands to do such VVorks nor could he do what is done on the Souls of serious Believers in all Ages and Nations to this Day He is sure alive that makes men live and in Heaven that draws up Hearts to Heaven 2. And this is our Hope and Joy Heaven and Earth are in his Power The Suffering and VVork which he performed for us on Earth was short but his heavenly Intercession and Reign is Everlasting Guilty Souls can have no immediate access to God All is by a Mediator All our receivings from God are by him And all our services are returned by him and accepted for his sake And as he is the Mediator between his Father and us his Spirit interceedeth between him and us By his Spirit he giveth us Holy desires and every Grace and by his Spirit we exercise them in returns to him And our glorified Saviour hath Satan and all our Enemies in his Power Life and Death are at his command All Judgment is committed to him He that hath redeemed us is preparing us for Heaven and it for us and receiveth our departing Souls to his own Joy and Glory He hath promised us that we shall be with him where he is and shall see his Glory He that is our Saviour will be our Judge He will come with Thousands of his Angels to the confusion of wicked Unbelievers and to be glorified in his Saints He will make a New Heaven and a New Earth in which Righteousness shall dwell Angels and Glorified Saints shall with Christ our Head make one City of God or holy Society and Chore in perfect Love and Joy to praise the blessed God for ever I. The differences between this World and that which I am going to I. THis World is God's Footstool That is his Throne II. Here are his Works of Inferiour Nature and of Grace There he shineth forth in Perfect Glory III. Here is gross Receptive Matter moved by Invisible Powers There are the noblest efficient communicative Powers moving all IV. This is the Inferiour subject Governed World That is the Superiour Regent World V. This is a World of Trial where the Soul is his that can win its consent That is a World where the Will is perfectly determined and fixed VI. Satan winning mens Consent hath here a large Dominion of Fools There he is cast out and hath no Possession VII Here he is a 〈◊〉 and Troubler of the Best There he hath neither Power to Tempt or Trouble VIII This World is as the dark Womb where we are regenerated That is the World of Glorious Light into which we are born IX Here we dwell on a World of sordid Earth There we shall dwell in a World of Celestial Light and Glory X. Here we dwell in a troublesom tempting perishing Body There we are delivered from this burden and prison into glorious liberty XI Here we are under a troublesom Cure of our Maladies There we are perfectly healed rejoicing in our Physicians praise XII Here we are using the Means in weariness and hope There we obtain the end in full fruition XIII Here sin maketh us loathsom to our selves and our own annoiance There we shall love God in our selves and our Perfected selves in God XIV Here all our Duties are defiled with sinful imperfection There perfect Souls will perfectly love and praise their God XV. Here Satans temptations are a continual danger and molestation There perfect Victory hath ended our temptations XVI Here still there is a remnant of the Curse and Punishment of sin Pardon and Deliverance are perfected there XVII Repenting Shame Sorrow and Fear are here part of my necessary work There all the troublesom part is past and utterly excluded XVIII Here we see darkly as in a Glass the Invisible World of Spirits There we shall see them as Face to Face XIX Here Faith alas too weak must serve instead of sight There presence and sight suspend the use of such believing XX. Desire and Hope are here our very Life VVork But there it will be full felicity in fruition XXI Our Hopes are here oft mixt with grievous doubts and fears But there full possession ends them all XXII Our holy Affections are here corrupted with Carnal mixtures But there all are purely Holy and Divine XXIII The coldness of our Divine Love is here our sin and
more impossible for Moses to assume such a Body as he appeared in on the Mount for that occasion than for Angels to appear in humane shapes and departed Souls too as many Apparitions have told men And if bad Souls can do it why not good ones when God will have it The Tradition seemeth but a Jewish Dream that God kept the Body of Moses uncorrupted in the Grave and that this was it that the Devil is said to strive for against Michael that the Body might be corrupted And say others that at this Transfiguration it rose again There need no such conceits to our satisfaction The Soul of Moses could assume a Body § 8. But still the dissimilitude of Henoch and Elias from all the Saints in Heaven is an unresolved difficulty If we knew that God would have it so it might satisfie us But there is a symmetry in the Body of Christ And it 's like that the same Region hath Inhabitants of the same Nature What shall we think then That Henoch and Elias at their entrance into those Regions laid by their Bodies and became such as Abraham and other holy Souls Why are they taken up to be so laid by The corruptibility no doubt they did lay by God knoweth but it s much unknown to us Or shall we think as all those Fathers cited by Faustus Regiensis and as Dr. More and some of late that all Spirits are Souls and animate some Bodies and so that all in Heaven have some Bodies If so what Bodies are they And how differ they from the Resurrection state As the Soul here operateth in and by the Igneous Spirits in our Bodies it may be so lodged in these as to take some of them with it at Death as the life of a dying Plant yet dieth not in the Seed And a Man may be said to go unclothed to Bed though he put not off his shift or nearest Garment and to be clothed again when he puts on the rest And at the Resurrection as there will be a New Heaven and Earth so Spirits now in Heaven may have much more delightful business on the New and Righteous Earth than now they have and therefore may have use for an additional Body as much differing from what they have now in Heaven as the New Earth and their employment there require and as the Seed doth differ from the Plant. And Spirits being communicative will be more happy by more communication As God delighteth to do good to all his works so the Souls now confined to Heaven will delight to be employed in doing good to the New Earth and to animate the Bodies suited to such work Though now they have use for no other than such Spiritual lucid Receptacles as are fit for the Regions where they dwell And it will be no debasement or dejection for a Spirit now in Heaven to animate a Body at the Resurrection fit for the New Earth no more than it was to Angels to speak to Adam and to Moses to Abraham Jacob Manoah and others or then it is to the Sun to enlighten and enliven things on Earth It is a foolish thing to think as some do that departed Souls will be as dormant and unactive as in Apopletick or Sleeping Persons for want of Organized Bodies to act in Spirits are Essentially Active Intellective and Volitive And will God continue such Essential Powers in vain Moses and Elias wanted not Bodies And those in Heaven can praise Jehovah and the Lamb with holy concordant Love and Joy whether in any sort of ethereal Bodies or without we shall shortly know § 8. It is said that Moses and Elias talked with Christ This sheweth that Christ hath familiar communion with the Blessed He that would come into Flesh on Earth and live with Man in an humbled state and refused not familiar converse with poor men and women and would eat and drink with Publicans and Sinners will not refuse everlasting near familiarity with the glorified If the Church be his dearly beloved Spouse and as it were one with him as his Body surely he will be no stranger to the least and lowest Member of it § 9. But what was it that they talkt about Luk. 9. 31. saith They appeared in Glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem This was not to make it known to Christ who came into the World to die for sin What then was it for Did Christ tell them of it as not knowing it before That is not likely neither Did he need their comfort as Angels in his trials ministred to him and strengthned him The particular uses of this speech we know not But in general we know it was somwhat preparatory to his great Sufferings and Death And must Christ's Sufferings and Death have such preparation and must not mine have much premeditation and do I not need the consolatory messages of God Carnal men would rather have chosen pleasanter discourse than the talk of Sufferings and Death But that which must be undergone and requireth greatest strength must be forethought of and requireth the most preparing Thoughts It 's worse than madness to be surprized with Sufferings and Death before it 's seriously forethought of So sharp a trial and so great a change require the greatest preparation He that can refuse to suffer and die may refuse to talk or think of it If Christ must have men from Heaven to talk with him of his Cross what cause have we to study the Cross Even all our lives to foresee it and by obedient consent to submit unto it and take it up to follow Christ and even to determine with Paul to know nothing in the World but Christ and him Crucified that is to take this for the only needful and excellent Learning But alas how senslesly is Death and Suffering talkt of till it comes We are to learn how to suffer when suffering is upon us and to learn how to die till Nature or the Physician pass the sentence of Death on us at hand And it is God's Mercy to some of us to make our sufferings long that we may have a competent time of learning As we learn to write by writing and to discourse by discoursing and every Art and Trade by practice even so by suffering we learn to suffer And the Lesson is very hard Malefactors suffer without Learning whether they will or not but to suffer Obediently with Child-like affections is the Lesson to be learnt O little too little do many honest Christians think how much of their most excellent Obedience consisteth in Child-like holy Suffering Therefore they little expect it and provide for it And then they are overwhelmed with the unexpected surprizal when it comes Even in the sufferings which men bring on the Faithful for Righteousness sake how many shrink and shift off their duty or venture on forbidden things for safety because they were not prepared for it The loss of goods or imprisonment and want seem