Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A41090
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The eternal joys of God's presence a sermon / preach'd at the Temple Church upon All Saints Day by Henry Felton.
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Felton, Henry, 1656-1701.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing F664; ESTC R28626
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12,054
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31
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Stomachs of all Men all Beasts Fowls Fishes Things creeping c. require an infinite quantity of Nourishables for their Food yet God hath provided wherewith they all may be filled The Desire and Appetite if I may so call it of the Angels must needs aim at high and transcendent Matters such poor Trifles as make up our Delights here fashionable Dresses Recreations bodily Pleasures c. are nothing unto them yet God hath provided somewhat to satisfy and fill them for otherwise those heavenly Spirits cou'd not be Blessed In like manner though the Desire of Man towards a compleat and eternal Happiness seems to be very high and vast yet he that filleth the vast Sea he that filleth the endless Gulphs of Hunger both in Man and Beast he that filleth the capacious Comprehensions of the Angels it is easy for him to satisfy and fill this Appetite of Man And it is somewhat absurd according to the Dictates of Right Reason to think that of all his Creatures God hath created only the Reasonable Soul of Man for a perpetual Emptiness and hath ordained no Object to fill and satisfy it as 't is plain he hath not in this World And therefore we have good Reason to believe that he hath prepared for it full satisfying Joys and eternal Pleasures in another the transporting Expectation of which is the only true satisfying Pleasure it can enjoy in this Life That the Pleasure of Riches Honour or bodily Pleasures bear no proportion to it every Man 's own Experience may convince him No! they are so flitting and uncertain so empty and unsatisfactory so mixed and alloyed that the most improv'd Enjoyments of them are rather Vanity and vexation of spirit as the Wiseman speaks than any true solid or satisfying Delights But 2. The Second Reason which we shall use to prove the propounded Truth is this If there be no Fulness of Joys and Eternal Pleasures in the Presence of God which Man should seek as his End and may attain as his perfect Happiness then the Reasonable Soul of Man seems to be no better than a Servant or Slave to his Sensual Part and those Advantages and Excellencies which we have above the Beasts are but as Drudges for that part which we have in common with them For if the Soul of Man hath not the Eternal Delight and Contentment of a Supernatural Life with God for her utmost End then of necessity she must stoop down to this as her main End and seek the best Delights this World afford without Thought or Regard of any other And what then serveth our Reason for but that we may with a little more neatness curiousness and stateliness do the very same things which the Beasts do i. e. Eat drink sleep play beget our like please our Senses and the like Yea which is worse what doth our Reason serve us for but to furnish us with such means and devices whereby we may become more brutish than the Beasts themselves And this we see plainly by Experience in such Persons who have cast off the Belief and Care of Heavenly Happiness What doth their height and strength of Wit and Parts serve them for but as a help to wade farther and deeper into the Mud of Sensuality than the Beasts can do And indeed if there be no Supernatural Life for Man who can blame them for so doing or seeking the best Delight and Contentment of this Natural But is it possible that the Reason of Man should digest such a Baseness as this that she is for nothing else but for a Slave and Vassal for the Sensitive Part Nothing methinks is more incongruous to Reason than to think that the Divinae aurae particula the Soul shou'd be given us only to serve such mean Purposes as these Are the Rich and Noble Endowments of it capable of no better employ than to cater exquisitely for the Body They who can entertain such unbecoming Thoughts of the Excellencies of their own Nature show that their own Follies have brought a greater degeneracy upon them than the Curse inflicted upon Adam's Fall We may reasonably conclude then That those Excellencies which Man hath above other Creatures were not given him to be the Vassals of Sensuality but as Advantages as Aids to raise him to the Blessedness of a Supernatural Life with God But it may be said That the Reasonable Soul of a Man hath in this Life an high Flight and an excellent Delight in the Raptures and Sweetness of Contemplation and besides in many Men doth manage Great and Noble Works about Governing and Ruling and therefore though it should have no Supernatural Happiness Eternal in another Life yet it cannot be said to be wholly a Servant and Drudge for the Sensual Part. But to this it may be answer'd First That the Speculations and Contemplations of the Reasonable Soul are all Essays and as it were Flutterings towards her last Perfection which end in the Contemplation of God And if we set aside or deny her such an End then all her Acts which are meerly Speculative and not profitable for this Life are no better than unprofitable Ramblings and wild Vagaries doing more hurt to the Life of Man by wasting it in the pursuit of Shadows and Fancies than they can any ways do good and are more foolish and vain than any other Works wherein she is employ'd for the Service of this Life and may in truth be counted as part of her Weakness and Vanity rather than her Felicity Though indeed if we think of them as we ought that they are as steps of Progress to a higher Contemplation of God then they are otherwise 2dly As to the Works which the Reason of Man doth in well-governing and setling such great Bodies of Society as Empires and Kingdoms they are indeed great admirable and noble If they be consider'd as referring to a Twofold End the One that Men may lead a godly and an honest Life the Other a quiet and peaceable One Both which Ends are briefly express'd by St. Paul 1 Tim. 2. 2. and are such as all Governments take upon them Now so far as the Work of Governing tendeth to uphold Religion as a way for Men to raise themselves to an Eternal Happiness so far the Reason of Man therein is a Servant to a divine and heavenly End But if we set aside this noble and glorious End and propound no other but that Societies of Men may live quietly and peaceably orderly and safely together in this World then all the Contrivances of Government and the Acts of the Rational Soul about it are but Services to the Sensitive Part of Man For what then are they else but agreed and setled Provisions that every Man may Eat and Drink in quiet Sleep Walk Ride Play Enjoy his Pleasures without any unjust disturbance of the Idle and Malicious In conclusion therefore this seems necessary to be granted That either the Reasonable Soul of Man serves to raise him to some happier
of Honour in Honour a want of Strength in Strength a want of Beauty in Beauty a want of Virtue in Virtue a want of Perfection But suppose all these or more than all these were united in one Person yet there is one thing wanting that makes them imperfect and unsatisfying and that is the want of Perpetuity and Eternity Now all Good things meet in God And so firm and immutable is all Good in him that it cannot be server'd from him so Eternal that even Eternity it self can never waste or wear out When Man's Heart therefore shall be enlarg'd to comprehend God and enjoy him then shall he have all Good whatsoever and a perfect Happiness made sure to him for all Eternity Our Reason then must conclude thus much That either Man hath no Fulness of Pleasure or of necessity this must be it To enjoy the Beatifical Vision or Presence of God Besides we may observe in Nature that the Rest of all things is no where else but in their proper place when they have attained to the Center of their Motion they rest and move no farther as if they were fully satisfied Now as gross and massy Bodies whose proper Motion is to descend have their Center below i. e. the Earth So pure and immaterial Spirits such as the Soul of Man is whose proper Motion is to ascend have their Center above which is God Beyond this Center they cannot move in this they rest When therefore the Souls and Spirits of Men shall have attained unto God and shall adhere and cleave unto him then and not elsewhere shall they have perfect Rest and full Contentment To this purpose is the Common but Excellent Saying of St. Austin Fecisti nos ad Te Domine inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in Te Thou hast made us O Lord for thy self and therefore our heart is never lodged at rest until it come to Thee and rest in Thee Since therefore Reason and Revelation Philosophy and Scripture do so well agree in establishing this great Fundamental Article of our Faith I need not trouble you or my self with any farther Proofs of it but shall briefly enquire what these Full Joys are and wherein they do consist In doing this I shall not pretend to give you an exact Idea or Description of them that 's a Task and Province fit only for an Angel or a glorified Spirit All I aim at is to give you such an account of them as God hath thought fit to impart to us Mortals in the Scripture which though it falls short of the Things themselves yet is doubtless the best and the utmost that our narrow Capacities can bear but such as may enflame our highest Endeavours after the Enjoyment of them and such as will satisfy our most extravagant Desires The Scripture leadeth us Two ways to some kind of Comprehension of our Future State of Happiness Per fiam Negationis per viam Eminentiae as the Schoolmen speak By the way of Negation and by the way of Eminence By the way of Negation i. e. by denying all such things to be in our Future State of Happiness which we find any ways troublesome or burthensome to us Thus they speak plainly That there shall be no Hunger or Thirst Rev. 7. 16. That there shall be no more Sorrow nor Tears God shall wipe away all tears v. 17. That there shall be no more Corruption no Mortality For this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality 1 Cor. 15. That there shall be no Power of a second Death Rev. 20. 6. No Death no Crying no Sorrowing no Pain shall accompany us in our Future State of Happiness Here like little Ants we crawl and creep up and down this Mole-hill of Earth each of us with our Burthen on our Shoulders but there all our Burthens shall be taken off Here Hunger and Thirst and Provision for these is one man's Burthen Here Sickness and Craziness Gout or Stone is another man's Burthen but there all these things shall be done away Here unruly Lust is another man's Burthen but there the Fuel and Life of it shall fail Here Sin and Death are the common Burthens of all Mankind but at God's Right hand there shall neither be Sin nor Death nor Fear of either In a word whatsoever here doth pain perplex hinder or any way discontent or vex us shall in the State of Full Joys be removed far from us This is one way by which the Scripture teacheth us to know something of our Future Happiness The other is by way of Eminence i. e. by comparing our Blessed State to the most eminent and glorious Things which by Sight or Experience we have ever known Thus to excite our Desires and Longings after it the Scripture sets it out to us by such glorious Metaphors as these Sometimes the Metaphor of shining like the Sun is made use of Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Matt. 13. Sometimes the Metaphor of a Kingdom Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you Matt. 25. Sometimes that of a Crown You shall receive a crown of glory 1 Pet. 5. Of sitting upon a Throne Ye also shall shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Matt. 19. Of a Marriage-Feast Blessed are they that are call'd to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb Rev. 19. These are glorious Similitudes indeed and as expressive of the thing as our weak Natures are capable of For the greatest visible Brightness in Heaven is the shine of the Sun the greatest Lustre on Earth is the Honour of a Kingdom the Royalest Ornament of a King is his Crown the most Majestical Seat of a Crowned Head is his Throne the most exquisite Rejoycings are commonly at King's Marriage-Feasts Thus Heaven and our Future Joys are represented to us by such things as are in greatest Esteem and thought most desirable by us That our weak Understandings might raise themselves from thence to some high Thoughts of our future Perfection But after all we must own they are but poor and faint Resemblances of those Full Joys and Eternal Pleasures which are at God's Right hand Whereas then the greatest Brightness of Heaven and the highest Lustre of Glory Honour Majesty Mirth and Joy that is on Earth stand but as Shadows in Scripture to set forth the Eternal Pleasures of Heaven how shou'd we poor Mortals be able to conceive them rightly or express them fully St. Austin in one of his Epistles tells us That on the very day St. Jerom died he being in his Study with Pen Ink and Paper about to write to him concerning the Joys of Heaven suddenly he saw a Light breaking into his Study and this Voice he thought he heard O Austin what dost thou dost thou think to put the vast Sea into a small Vessel When the Heavens shall cease from their continued Motion then shalt thou be