the body do still remain Organicall after this life so as the Soul may exercise all the Powers of her triple life Vegetative Sensitive and Intellectual as she did in her Natural and Physical state according to those several Organs in which the Faculties were resient and peculiarly seated Nourishment Growth and Generation the proper Effects of the Vegetative life accomplish their ends in this life whereunto when they have obtained those Operations cease and the Organs rest from that labour and imployment but since the Senses are Operative in a glorified body for it 's not deprived of Sense I have no reason to think the Soul hath utterly rejected her manner of Operation by bodily Organs declining those old Servants as useless and inconsistent to such a glorified state Eyes Eares Nose Mouth Palat Hands Feet and all to be quite emancipated freed from the service of the glorified body and Soul in their works of that kind but to believe the Senses External and Senses Internal are Organical in Heaven as they were on Earth and subservient to the Soul in their several stations places of residence as Eye Ear Nose Palate Nerves Brain by which the Soul doth exercise its several faculties of Seeing Hearing Smelling Tasting Touching and the rest The eye the Noblest of the External Corporeal Organs offers it self first to our consideration which is not obscurely proved by holy Writ to be usefull and serviceable to those in the state of glory for this the damned in Hell do so far enjoy though to their torment and woe to see Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and they themselves thrust out But the Saints to their endless joy and comfort have the use of their eyes and sight to see and behold the Splendor and Beauty of their own bodies being changed from vile to glorious after the fashion of Christs most glorious body which exceedeth the brightness of the Sun as the Apostle witnesseth Acts 26.13 What delight and pleasure must it needs be unto the Saints in Heaven to see every part of their body Hands Feet and all issuing forth such raies and beams of light sufficient to dispel all mists and darkness from them without further assistance of Sun Moon Stars or other Luminaries Nor is this Optick faculty of the Eye limited to it own body so as not to be of use to discern other Objects for all the Saints and Servants of God whose bodies are likewise glorified yea and the glorious body of Christ himself Christ the head with all his members are all of them Visible Objects of this Sense I know saith holy Job That my Redeemer lyveth and that he shall stand at the latter day vpon the Earth whom I shall see for my self and my eyes shall behold and not another It is not enough for the eye to behold its own glorifi'd Body shining as the Sun but it beholdeth an infinite number of Suns together no Parelia nor yet in their Eclipss but the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs and the holy Church throughout all the World whose bodies do not onely send forth a glorious shine but every member part and Organ of those bodies are bespangled with the like raies of glory and splendor to the admiration of the beholder Who doubts saith Bishop Hall that these eyes shall see the glorious manhood of our blessed Saviour advanced above all the Powers of Heaven and if one body why not more if our elder brother why no more of our Spiritual Fraternity Certum est Bellar. in praefatione ad librum de aeterna felicitate beatos homines omnes ab omnibus videri sciri inter se familiariter versari ut amicos proximos saith another Doctor so then there is a Communion of Saints in Heaven as well as on Earth a society of bodies Visible one to another Besides the Vision of new Jerusalem apperteins to the glorious Saints to them it is given to see Jerusalem built up with Saphires and Emeruads and pretious Stones the Walls Towers and Battlements with pure Gold the Streets thereof paved with Beril Carbuncle and stones of Ophir and the Citizens thereof singing Hallelujah and saying Praised be God who hath exalted it for ever which was the Prophecie of Tobias and of Isaaih which also Saint John in his Revelation saw together with a new Heaven and a new Earth to wit the Holy City the new Jerusalem descending from God out of Heaven having the glory of God and her light was like unto a stone most pretious even like a Jasper stone clear as Christal it had no need of the of Sun nor the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof and the Nations of them that are saved do walk in the light of it Yea we our selves together with the whole Creation do with earnest expectation wait for a Renovation and Melioration of the state of all things at the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens that now are being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and wee shall as it is promised see new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness as the Apostle Peter hath it 2 Peter 3. Chapter and verse 10. What neither the eye here can see nor the ear can hear nor the heart of Man conceive in their Natural state shall all be Object and Visible to the eye in the state of glory so saith St. Bernard Erit quando iam non dicetur Audi filia vide inclina aurem tuam sed leva potius oculos tuos contemplare quid plane ea modo quae interim quidem etsi non videre adhuc audire tamen credere potes verum etiam quod sicut non videt oculus sic nec auris aâ—divit nec in cor hominis ascendit quod praeparavit deus diligentibus se nimirum tant a capiet oculus resurrectionis quanta nec auaitus nec animus nunc captat these eyes shall behold them and not anothers therefore in another place he addeth nec novos tibi instaurandos pates sed tuos utique restaurandos not that they shall be of another Nature but of another glorie The Ear also is exercised with Variety of sounds and voices both Articulate and Inarticulate the Organs of speech are as intire and perfect yea more in Heaven than on Earth we may not conceive a deficiency in any part there are Guttur Lingua Palatum Quatuor dentes duo labra simul For the bodies of the glorified Saints are true real and lively bodies and perfect in every member even as our blessed Saviour after his Resurrection was manifested to be both by his Conversation and Confabulation with his Apostles and Disciples speaking of many things perteining to the Kingdom of God and by his hearing and answering of questions and further
the Devill yet the perfection of the picture is to be drawn like to that Pattern and therefore though the deformity in the Pattern be truely its deformity yet the deformity in the Picture is its beauty But if the Pattern it self be beautiful the Picture then is most exact and perfect if it imitate in its beauty as near as may be the beauty of its Pattern and if every Picture had understanding it would desire nothing more than continually to contemplate its Pattern to frame it self to its imitation and to be made conformato it God thy Pattern O my Soul is infinite beauty a light in Which is no â—aâ—kness at all whose brightness the Sun and Moon admireâ— whose brightness that thou maist with â—ore ease imitate his similitude desire and by all means endeavour in which consisteth all thy perfection Profit Honor Joy Rest and all thy goodâ— Know â—hat the beauty of God thy Patterâ— consisteth in Wisdom and Holiness for as the beauty of the Body ariseth from the due proportion of the Members and pleasantness of Colour so in this spiritual Essence the suavity of Colour is in the light of Wisedom the proportion of Members is in justice But by justice is not meant any one particular Vertue but that general which contains in it all the rest that spiritual substance is the fairest whose mind shines with the light of Wisdom and whose Will is replenisht with perfect justice Now God thy Pattern O my Soul is Wisdom it self Justice itself and therefore is perfect beauty and because these two are in Scripture expressed by the name of Holiness threfore do the Angels crie on Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Isaith 6. Levit. 11. Math. 6. and God himself cries out to us his Image and likeness be yee holy for I your God am holy and Christ in the Gospel be you perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect Therefore O my Soul if thou the Image of God desire to be made like thy exemplar thou must prefer Wisdom and Justice before all things True Wisdom is to judge of all things according to the highest Cause the highest Cause I call the Will of God or the Law which reveals the same to men therefore if thou love Wisdom thou must not regard what the Law of the flesh dictateth what Sense judgeth good what the World allows what kindred perswade much less what flatterers propound but turn thy deaf ear to these and onely harken to the Will of the Lord thy God judging and esteeming that the most profitable most glorious and most desirable good which is most agreeable to the Will and Law of God This is the Wisdom of the Saints of which the wise Man Writes Wisdom 7.10 11. I loved her before health and beauty and chose to have her in stead of light for the light that cometh from her never goeth out All good things together came to me with her and innumerable riches in her hands Furthermore Justice which is the other part of spiritual beauty comprehends all these Vertues which do adorn and perfect the Will but principally Charity which is the Mother and root of all Vertues and of which Saint Augustine saith De natura gratia cap. 70. Charity begun is Justice begun Charirty continued is Justice continued Charity perfected is Justice perfected for who so hath loved hath fulfilled the Law for love worketh no evill Chap. 3. Book 2. therefore love is the fulfilling of Law as the Apostle teacheth and contrariwise he that keeps Gods Word and Commandements Rom. 13. the love of God is perfect in this saith St. John therefore whosoever would be like unto this Divine pattern must obey him saying be ye followers of God as dear Children walk in love for the Son is the Image of his Father now the whole beauty and perfection of the Image is as we have formerly said to be most like the pattern See Bellarm. de ascensione mentis in deum per scalas rerum creaturarum gradu primo CHAP. III. Of the knowledge which the Soul hath of Angels and Saints departed THE state and condition of the Humane Soul is twofold and so hath two several waies of Operation two waies of acquiring knowledge one in the body Natural in this life another out of this body in another life The Operation of the Soul in this life is per corpus which is an impediment and let unto it that it cannot exercise as to all points those other Actions and Operations which are Common to it and separated substances so fully and freely as it doth out of the body So must the knowledge of the Soul in this life especially of Immaterial substances be more imperfect and uncertain by how much more it useth the body For Immateriality is the cause in knowledge and according to the degree of Immateriality is the degree to knowledge therefore as God is said in be summè Immaterialis so is he summè cognoscitivus whereas on the contrary wee see by common experience by how much more any thing recedes from Immateriality the less doth it partake of knowledge as all Corporeal Inanimate substances for their overmuch Materiality have no knowledge at all but your animalia sensitiva Sensitive Souls participate of a certain kind of knowledge because they have some power over their matter and in some measure are capable of Forms without matter and this knowledge is called Sensitive now the Reasonable creatures higher than they have attained to a degree of Intelligence their knowledge is called Intellectual because though their Souls inform the matter they may notwithstanding subsist without the matter so clear it is by how much more the Reasonable Soul in this life stands in need of the body by so much is it less knowing but by how much more freed from the body overcoming the imperfection of matter by so much the more Operative by so much the more Knowing But because the Soul of Man so long as it is in this body cannot exercise all its Operations out of the body therefore the Operation knowledge of the Soul in this life of Spiritual and Immaterial substances especially cannot be so full and perfect as it is out of the body in another life First therefore of the knowledge wee have of Saints and Angells in this life We have no Quidditative knowledge as the Schoolmen call it of abstracted forms essences in this life that is such a knowledge as to define them not onely with their Common but their Proper names also even to the last specficial difference which is the proper and positive knowledge of them such a knowledge we have not which was a question started by Aristotle but not assoiled but a Quidditative knowledge improperly so called to wit a confused knowledge of some Essential predicates but not of all and those too by Imperfect notions partly Common partly Privative or Negative not Proper or Positive such we have Some Essential
Essence or yet of the Operations of these Angels and Spirits Intellectual as a Doctrine less useful and necessary for Mans salvation than of the Nature of Man or God yet so much hath it imparted to her Disciples as may evidence by necessary consequence the truth of this Metaphysical Science of Natures Angelical the Fathers and Doctors of the Church having little varied in judgement from the Curiousest Naturalist and Philosopher in this point all concurring in this particular the School of Christ and School of Nature teaching one and the same thing without any grand Variation and dissenting The Creation of Angels though holy-Churches-creed is no where plainly pointed out in holy Writ otherwise than in the first daies Creation under that General notion of Heaven and Earth which may contain the whole host of Heaven so those words Genesis 1.1 In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth are by most understood viz. by Heaven not onely it but all things therein contained as Angels and the like whose proper seat is Heaven which may seem to be thus also explicated by St. Paul Col. 1.16 For by him are all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth Visible and Invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers viz. four of the Orders of Angels further also by God himself in the 38 Chapter of Job saying where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth when the morning Stars sang together and the Sons of God shouted for joy that is to say the holy Angels who were created together with Heaven and Earth even in the beginning or morning of that first day as some have hence gathered Of all created substances some were created Visible Material Corporeal others were created Invisible Incorporeal Spiritual of their own Nature that the Angels are such created Invisible Incorporeal and Spiritual substances may be gathered out of the word of God David and Paul Prophet and Appostle both terming them Spirits and if Spirits then Invisible by Mortal eye and then Incorporeal at least as unto Humane or other natural body of their own Nature for so our Saviour hath resolved it saying a Spirit hath not flesh and bone as I have And the Schoolmen have decreed and concluded that Angels are meerly Spiritual and Incorporeal substances and no bodies or Corporeal Natures and with them agree the Fathers not a few though Origen and after him Saint Jerome would seem to maintain that Angels as oft as they sinned and fell away were thrust into bodies and there remained as a punishment unto them which opinion is exploded by all both Antient and Modern as savouring of Platonism more than Christianity Yet may we not deny but that Angels have been in bodily shapes and so seen and appeared unto our Fathers of old wherefore we must either grant unto them real bodies or that they did delude and deceive the Patriarches with Phantasms and meer Apparations which is not to be conceived of the holy Angels and therefore St. Bernard put a kind of necessity in it that Angels should have bodies otherwise how could they be ministring Spirits sent out to minister unto them who shall be Heirs of Salvation to men who yet live in the body how shall they perform this Ministerial Function of discoursing of walking and talking of eating and drinking and the like without a body all which notwithstanding Angels have done as sacred Writ accordeth But it may be objected if we do grant unto them true real Visible bodies then must we also grant them all motions and mutations incident to such Bodies to wit of Generation Corruption Augmentation Diminution Altricion alteration then such as may be borne fed and nourished may die may suffer and the like as other corporeall Creatures doe how then are they meerly Spirituall and of an Incorporeall nature To which may be answered First 1 Negatively negatively True humane bodies Angels have not humane nature no spirituall substance ever assumed except the Son of God the second Person in the ever blessed Trinity of whom it is said He took not upon him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham and by whom it is verified A spirit hath no flesh and bone so no humane or fleshly Bodies are ascribed to Angels 2 Affirmatively Secondly affirmatively True reall bodies they have not newly generate created or begotten but assumed of Air and other Elements so condensate consolidate and contract together as that it may be seen felt touched c. Beyond the very nature of Air such a Body as is not essentiall but accidentall taken up for a time as we do put on our Cloathes and may be dissolved again at pleasure as soon as their Ministery is accomplish'd now such a Body is not subject to those Mutations of Generation Corruption and the like nor may it be said to die to suffer to feel o feed or the like as a humane Body may Thus is the nature of Angels Spirituall not carnall Incorporeall not corporeall and surpasseth the humane Nature in Understanding freedom of Will and externall Operations First in Understanding in regard of that Intuitive Vision they have of God per lumen Gloriae besidâ—s those superexcellent naturall Endowments Intellectual of seeing God per lumen naturae alwayes beholding his Face Vid. Hockers Eccles pol. 1. Sect. 4. fol. 53. as the Text expresseth they are so acquainted with the Mind and Will of God that Irrepercussa mentis acie divinorum judiciorum abyssum intuentur as St. Bernard hath it in comparison of which knowledge Angelicall all ours is but as that of Babes and Sucklings Out of whose Mouth notwithstanding God hath perfected his praise See Mr. Hooker his first book of Eccles pol. Sect. 6. fol. 56. or ordained strength as the Psalmist hath it here on Earth till such time as we grow up to perfect Man-hood to the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ where shall be given to us little ones an equality of knowledge with the Angels to be like unto them who alwayes behold the Face of their Heavenly Father As touching their Freedom of Will and Power of working the Angelical far surpasseth the Humane Nature Bellarmine puts these differences betwixt them First in the Power and Rule over Bodies The humane Soul can onely move his own Body at his pleasure it cannot move others after the same sort Again the humane Soul moves its own Body upon the Earth in a slow motion step by step it hath not power to bear it upon the Water or elevate it above the Air or carry it whither it pleaseth but the Angels by the Power and Freedom of Will by the meer force of their spirit can lift up mighty Bodies and carry them whither they please Thus did an Angel take up Habacuc and in a short space brought him to Babylon with a Dinner for Daniel and carried him back again into the Land of Palestine Again
the dayes of their Pilgrimage upon Earth the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh she who was earst Rebellious is now Obse quious to the Dictates of the Soul now is she wholly subject to the will of her Lord yielding obeysance and obedience with admirable Agility and Celerity of motion now not the least Ponderosity of a Massie substance or Natural body to foreslow her motion appears any more but the Perpensility of a Caelestial and Spiritual body mounted as it were on the wings and Plumes of a Cherub to expedite the Souls Injunctions such Homage and obedience the Body paies unto its Soul that as St Augustine saith ubi volet spiritus ibi protinus erit corpus nec volet aliquid spiritus quod nec spiritum nec corpus possit decere 1. Hereupon is the body enfranchised of sundry Praerogatives and Immunities which are altogether inconsistent with it in its Natural condition whilst it was Elementary its Natural motion tended downward according to the Nature of the Predominant Element the ascendent motion of a Physical body is Excentrique and Irregular which motion is Concentrique and Consonant to a body glorified solo voluntatis impetu c. at the beck and command of the glorious Soul is the body mounted from Earth to Heaven whose Nature it is to be wholly subject to that glorified Spirit from whose Redundancie the body likewise receives its Glorification 2. The Humane body in the state of Nature in a slow Progress marcheth forward step by step and that not without some Earth or other solid body to tread or go on whereupon the Earth is made a cause of our walking Causa fine qua non but in the state of Glory most swiftly and as it were in an instant it moves from place to place from one part of Heaven to another absque adminiculo without the benefit of Earth or other Element to impress the least Vestigias or footsteps of his treadings 3. In the terrene estate the body is Opaque and Luskie Dark and Purblind Beautified onely by the Additaments of External colour but the Spiritual body is Diaphanous transparent transplendent not like those lesser lights which onely appear in the night but like the Sun at noon day in the Firmament of Heaven Matthew 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father The CoÌ„fulgurations of bodies glorifi'd are like the bright shining of the Sun or compare we them to our Saviours glorious Body after his Exaltation which no doubt exceeds all the glory can be expressed or conceived when this transfiguration upon the Mount was so glorious That his face did shine as the Sun Matthew 17.2 and his Raiment was white as the light yet such is the condition and state of these bodies which are fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Phillip 3.21 Yet doth not this transcendent Glory superadded to the Humane body alter the Nature and Essence of the same the same Humanity is retained as well after as before the Resurrection the same body that is laid in the dust the self same body ariseth and ascends into glory that body is resumed in the Resurrection which was assumed in the Conception onely one to a Mortal the other to an Immortal life alterius gloriae sed ejusdem naturae the glory is different but the bodie 's the same The glorified bodies of Saints and the glorious body of our ever blessed Saviour in Heaven all of them of one Nature and Substance made up of Flesh and Blood and Bone Nerves Sinewes Arteries and what else conduceth to the perfection of a Humane body To deny this is to run into the Heresie of Eutiches condemned in the several Councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon who affirmed that the body of Christ was not of the same Nature with ours and that ours also after the Resurrection were not Palpable or Visible but more subtle and slender than VVind or Air. But as we have said the same body that is laid in the dust the same ariseth and puts on Immortality and glory a body of flesh is sown in dishonor but the same body of flesh is raised in glory Consonant hereto are the words of Job Job 19.25 26 27. I know that thy Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day day upon the Earth And though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my Flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and my eyes shall behold and not another though my Reines be consumed within me thus we read and thus is our Creed so is preached and so is believed for the Resurrection of the flesh is an Article of our Faith a Fundamental point of that Religion the Church Catholick professeth and that our Saviours body is of the same Substance is another Fundamental Athanasius is plain perfect God and perfect Man Of a Reasonable Soul and Humane Flesh subsisting yea Palpable flesh and Visible even after his Resurrection our Saviours words are full for it behold saith he my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have And therefore those words of the Apostle flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God are to be understood of sinful lusts and corruptions of the flesh 1 Cor. 15.10 and not of the flesh and blood it self dismantled of these And as the substance of a Humane body continues intire so hath she her faculties and qualities perfect though not all for in as much as the body is purged of sin and corruption those qualities which argue corruption and infirmity must needs be perished also absit labes silicet corruptionis assit effigies assit motio absit fatigatio assit vescendi potestas absit esuriendi necessitas c. Soft soft O my Soul dash not thy self on the Rock of Contention be not prolix in Polemick discourses and points Controversal since thou art devoted to thy calmer Theoremes and Diviner Speculations The case standing thus that none have admittance to those glorious Mansions in the new Jerusalem the City of God but bodies purged from their filthy lusts and sinful corrâ—ption bodies morigerous submisse and pliant to Soul and Spirit see then and lament the wretched estate of us Mortals upon Earth An evil it is under the sun an error proceeding from the ruler folly set in great dignity and the rich set in low place servants on horseback and Princes walking as servants upon the Earth Eccles 10.5 6 7. whose lives and conversations Diametrically oppose the glorified Saints in Heaven Apame was but Concubine to the great and mighty King Darius yet was she seen sitting on his right hand and taking the Crown from off his head did set it upon her own she also stroke the King with her
from his voice from Heaven to St. Paul and his reply to the Quaere of St. Paul Such bodies and bodily Organs for Vocal musick have all the Saints to sing hear Halellujahs sung a great voice was heard of much People in Heaven saying and singing Hallelujah in a most Melodious tune the ditty or ballad whereof was Salvation and Glory and Honor and Power unto the Lord our God There is a ful Quire of Saints thousands of thousands harmoniously canting the praises of the Lord and as full a Chorus with the like affectionate melody again and again ecchoing and resounding the like praises and loving kindness of the Lord. And as the company of singers is great so are the songs and Canticles various though all of them Eucharistical some in Memory of our Creation others in Memory of our Redemption some in triumph of the Holy Martyrs some in joy of Converts and Penitents others in Honor of Chastity and Virginity and those who were not defiled with Women the redeemed from amongst men being the first Fruits unto God and to the Lamb others for the Victory of all Saints over the World the Flesh and the Devil over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the number of his Name others for the judgements of God inflicted upon the ungodly ones There is sung the song of Moyses and there is sung the song of the Lamb yea there is sung the Psalm of David misericordias domini in aeternum as St. Augustine affirmeth fortasse non solius dei laudes in civitate illa canentur sed etiam tâ—iumphi sanctorum martyrum confessorum praeconia virginum gloria sanctorum omnium contra diabolum victoriae cantibus extollentur haec enim omnia in dei laudes gloriam redundabunt And all these songs and cantons cannot but be wonderous pleasant and delightsom to the ears of all the blessed and glorified Saints of God for which Cause the Ear is Organical and serviceable to the Soul and Body in their state of glory In the next place consider we the Sense of Olfaction and those sweet smeling savours and Odors in the Nostrils of all the Saints to shew that the body is not destitute of an Organ for the exercise of this Sensitive faculty of the Soul no more than of the rest which are so useful to her in this state For though the Scriptures afford not so pregnant proofs for the two Senses of Smelling and Tasting as for the other three yet may we not in reason conceive a total Deprivation or Annihilation of them more than of the rest nor without injury to the Humane Nature to which we attribute so great perfection and integrity of parts in that condition debar her the freedom of exercising any of her faculties other than what argue and favour Corruption which so much tends to the perfection of a Humane body ther 's no Privation of Sight of Hearing or of Touching why then of the other are the Saints Hosmei and are not Goglites if the want of an eye or an ear be such a blemish and imperfection as may not befall a glorified body is not the want of a nose as great a deformity but Odors and Olfaction there is in this state and this Sense hath its Objects of delight as well as the rest Glorified bodieâ— are Odoriferous bodies sending forth most fragrant sents as they are glorious to the eye so are they Aromatical to the smell St. Hierom of the body of St. Hilarion affirmeth after its ten months burial it was found lively fresh and whole tantis fragrans odoribus ut delibutum unguentis putaretur the like doth St. Gregory witness of St. Servulus saying anima exeunte tanta fragrantia odoris aspersa est ut omnes qui illuc aderant inaestimabili suavi ate replerentur and a little after quousque corpus ejus sepulturae traderent ab eorum naribus odoris itlius fragrantia non recessi and Bellarmine hence inferreth the alive bodies of the Saints in Heaven must needs send forth most sweet perfumes when their dead bodies are so Fragrant But above all is the glorious body of our blessed Saviour being perfumed with Mirrh and Frankincense with all powders of the Merchant and whose Garments smell of Mirrh Alloes and Cassia whereupon the Church that Spiritual Spouse cries unto Christ her Head and her Husband melioria sunt ubera tua vino fragrantia unguentis optimis oleum effusum nomen tuum Ideo Adolescentulaedi lexeruntte trahe me post te curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum thus saith St. Bernard Now if the body of Christ be so Odoriferous it is most propable the Saints are likewise so the Members in a due proportion to their head as in brightness so in sweetness The like probability is of the Sense of Tasting that it should remain in the glorified estate For if the Power of eating then the Sense of tasting but the first is granted then why not the latter adest vescendi potestas abest esuriendi necessitas and so resolves St. Augustine non potestas sed egestas edendi corporibus refurgentium aufertur Lib 13. de civit dei and this puts the difference twixt the Humane Nature Spiritual and Caelestial and the Natural and Terrestrial the one eates necessitatis the other potestatis gratiâ Christ after the Resurrection did eat and drink with his Disciples yet not as his Disciples for refreshment and nourishment non alimentorum indigentiâ sed ea qua hoc poterat popotestate and therefore the Paraphrase of venerable Beda upon those words of our Saviour have you here any thing to eat is worthy our observation Luk. 24 41. Aliter obsorbet aquam terra sitiens aliter solis radius calens illa indigentiâ iste potentiâ manducavit ergo post resurrectionem non quasi cibo indigens sed ut eo modo naturam corporis resurgentis astrueret so glorified bodies may sometimes eat to shew their Power and Freedom but never for hunger or satisfaction of a Natural Appetite or an empty Panch And this Comestion is real and true not a Fictitious and feigned eating of the Angels as that of Raphaels for the bodies which Angels sometimes assume being no Humane lively bodies have not the true and Real faculty of eating though happily of chewing or grinding and swallowing down into the interior parts of the body for a true Comestion is accompanied with a gust or tast which Sense continues to the glorified bodies and hath its recreation and delight as well as the other faculties though not in the Act of eating which they seldom use de sensu gustandi scribunt Theologi non usuros beatos cibis mortalibus sed habituros tamen oblectationem aliquam in eo sensu ne supervac aneus esse videatur futuram tamen oblectationem illam loco statui beaterum immortalium congruentem Bellarmine de aeterna felicitate lib. 4. cap. 8.
As for the Sense of Touching there is no difference amongst Divines nor indeed can be any doubt but that it hath its Operations in this blissful state since the gloried bodies may be felt and touched as all other true and lively bodies may and as our blessed Saviours was after his Resurrection as well Palpable as Visible not miraculously but according to its own Nature handle me saith he and see for a Spirit hath no flesh and blood as you see me have Thus much of the Senses Corporeal External and those parts of the body which are Instrumental and serviceable in the state of glory to the Humane Nature as they were to her in her Natural condition onely with these exceptions and limitations 1. From hence is banisht all sensual lusts and carnal Concupisence the Eye hath no lascivious looks the Ear 's infected with no blasphemous breath or impious sound nor this Sense deflowred with any adulterous touch here is no lust or desire of generation no respect of blood they neither marry nor are given in marriage this grosser acquaintance and pleasure is for the Paradise of Turks not the Heaven of Christians here is as no mariage save betwixt the Lamb and his Spouse the Church so no Matrimonial affections 2. Banish we likewise from hence all Impatibility of Sense sensus non fallitur nec laeditur circa proprium objectum no vehemencie of Object can destroy the Sense in their Natural estate their objects many times confound and wound them too great a light may make a man blind too great a sound may make him deaf we may not long gaze upon the Sun without blemish to our eyes otherwaies here for the Senses are blessed and glorious and so made Impassible and Immortal he who strengthens the Eyes of the Soul with such a measure of light and glory that they may see God face to face and yet not be dasled and confounded with his glory doth also so confirm and strengthen the Eyes of the body that without any hurt or damage to themselves they may behold not one but infinite Suns and Illuminated bodies though in themselves never so glorious 3. All Acts of Necessity are hence excluded the Soul doth not exercise her Sensitive Faculties Necessarily but freely and rules with the body and bodily Organs when she pleaseth and when she pleaseth the Soul rules alone For she hath other waies of Operation out of the body more Excellent and Noble the Senses are Secundary means for acquiring Knowledge not the Primary only subservient and at command of the Soul In the Natural estate the Sensitive Knowledge precedes the Intellectual nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sense and without Sense there is no intelligence Not so in the Resurrection the Soul knoweth all things as fully and infallibly by Intuitive Vision and Inate Forms at once unico intuitu by one single aspect as by those various multiplyed Forms imprinted from sensible Objects under so many several notions and conceptions the Understanding stands not need of an Eye or an Ear or other bodily Organ to evidence the truth of what it apprehendeth it is not subject to Sense but Sense to it not the Soul to the Body but the Body to the Soul for the Nature of a glorified body is to be Spiritual that is subject to the Spirit not that it hath no flesh and bones but that it is so subject to the Spirit that at the beck and command thereof without any pains and difficultie it moves most swiftly Ascending Descending Coming Going and through every place penetrating as if it were not a body but a Spirit Ad hoc autem quod sit omnino corpus subjectum spiritui requiritur quod omnis actio corporis subdatur spiritus volunâ—ati saith Aquinas and therefore it is in the Power of the Soul to see or hear or the like to use or not to use these bodily Organs when and as often as she pleaseth without which in her Natural condition she could not Operate or reduce all her Faculties into Act. This is the state of that Church that part of Christs Body triumphant whose Organs and Senses are Spiritualiz'd to whom that part of Christs Church militant here doth hold resemblance the like Analogy and proportion bearing every Member one to another they on Earth to those in Heaven as every one beareth to Christ the H ad as the Spiritual Body in Heaven is Organiz'd so is the Organical Body on Earth Spiritualiz'd and hath five Spiritual Senses Senses refreshed with Spiritual Objects This I can assure thee O my Soul being a Member of that Mystical Body whereof Christ is the Head thou art entitled to yea and refreshed with such Sensitive Objects as the Saints in Heaven are refreshed and delighted with Objects for thy Eye thy Ear thy Nose thy Palat thy Hand as Form Sound Odor Sapor Spissitude but these made Spiritual and are so to be received I speak of Christ in the Eucharist who is made the Object of every Sense that the excellencie of the Knowledge of Christ may more fully be evidenced to us from him of whose fulness we all receive Christ is Visible to the Eye Audible to the Ear Sweet and fragrant to the Smel Savory to the Tast to the Nose Palat Hand sensible he is meat to the hungry and drink to the thirstie Angels food and mans repast Christ in the Sacrament is the Object of our Eyes and as real y present here as in Heaven and is as really exhibited to us who spiritually discern him though under other Forms hic ibi veritas sed hic palliata ibi manifesta he is palliated here but unveiled in Heaven here we see him darkly through the instrument of Faith for we walk by Faith and not by sight his real presence is believed our Corporal Eyes do not behold him otherwaies than veiled under those outward signes of bread and wine the eys of our Body seeth the signes the Eye of our Faith the thing signified aliud latet aliud patet what we see is Bread and Wine what we believe is the Body and Blood of Christ what our Souls cannot reach with Corporal Eyes it may discern by an Eye of Faith Faith is a director of the Soul or prospective to the Eyes to bring to their sight such things as are not discernable without in this Vale of tears through the prospect of Faith is Christ Visible to us though the Saints in Heaven have a cleaâ—er Viâ—ion of him seeing him face to face 〈◊〉 as they are seen This is but a glimpse of that beatifical Vision the glorified bodies have of Christ here per aenigma there facie revelata here veiled there revealed unde preciosior dicitur faciei visio quam speculi frequens imaginatio non enim pari omnino jucunditate sumitur cortex sacramenti medulla frumenti fides species memoria praesentia aeternitas tempus speculum vultus