for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Which shews sufficiently that he hath some respect to the day of the full Revelation of our Salvation but that which follows of the destruction of this earthly Tabernacle can it be understood otherwise than of the dissolution of the body That which he writes immediately afterwards that as long as we are lodged in this body we are absent and as it were strangers from our Lord but that through the assurance that we have of our Salvation we desire rather to be strangers from the body and be with the Lord can it be understood of the blessed Resurrection Shall we be then absent and strangers from our bodies or rather will not our Spirits have thereon eternal Habitations I therefore think that the Apostle in that place opposes the time in which we are in this life to that in which we shall be in it no more and that he says that as long as we are in this life we are absent from the Lord but when we are dislodged we are present with him and because although this future time consist of two parts the one wherein we are stripped of our bodies by death the other wherein we are reinvested in them by the Resurrection it is to that in the one and the other our condition must always be the enjoyment of the presence of Jesus Christ he considers it not but as one and the same tract of time in the first part whereof our happiness begins and is compleated in the second which excites our desires and affections to be now stripped of these bodies that we may enter on the possession of those happy beginnings till the time of full and compleat perfection shall come Now this is marvellously far from the opinion of those that take from the Souls of believers all sense and perception whatsoever even that of their proper faculties and essence St. Luke reports that St. Stephen being about to die recommended his Spirit to our Lord Christ saying Lord Jesus into thy hands I commend my Spirit and our Lord himself commended his to his Father on the Cross To what purpose was this then It was not without doubt to secure it from perishing and being reduced to nothing For the substance of the Soul contains nothing of matter nor of the mixture of the Elements 't is of its nature incorruptible and imperishable as are the Angels Was it then to be protected from the Temptations and assaults of the Devil or to be put into the fruition of happiness and glory As to the first it can have no place if the Spirits of the faithful remain swallowed of a sleep so deep that they absolutely lose all use of their understandings For the Temptations of the Devil consist either in an Artificial external presenting to our senses such objects as are proper to move our desires and appetites or in this that internally he forms in our Phantasy such Images of things as may stir and provoke us and in favouring with his efficacy such as are already there or in moving our humours and by our humours soliciting the appetites and passions of our Souls what can these attempts do upon substances which are not at all subject to the motion of humours which in death have lost the faculty of imagination which have no Corporeal senses seeing they are not Bodies and all whose Spiritual capacities are so fettered in the excercise of their powers that neither exteriour objects can by any means touch them nor visions from within be get the least thought there As to the second there is neither felicity nor glory can happen to Spirits without the exercise of their understanding and will There is not a person to whom we say that the Spirits of the faithful gone hence are happy and glorious which doth not immediately conceive that they are so far from being swallowed up in a profound drousiness or sleep that on the contrary they have a very lively and notable sense of their happiness and glory I am much of the opinion of those that think that in the words of our Saviour John 11. 26. and John 5. 24. he that believeth in me shall never see death He is passed from death to life There is a particular Emphasis which makes much to our present purpose I very well know that in divers places it seems probable that what interprets these words by that promise I will raise him up at the last day Nevertheless if since the time wherein he spake those words believers that are departed hence have slept unto this day and must yet sleep till the consummation of Ages without any bodily or mental sense of their condition or essence I am not able to comprehend how the hopes of the Resurrection can perfectly satisfy and compleat the sense and magnificence of the words Although the body sleep after that manner if the principal part of man and that whereof the Scriptures sometimes speaks as if it were the man and the body nothing but its Habitation live and be awake and perceive and exercise with content and joy such operations as are worthy the dignity of his nature death is not properly death nor doth it seem to deserve a name so terrible and odious 'T is much rather a sleep as the Scripture sometimes speaks wherein man entertains himself with visions very pleasant and delightful But if the perception of the Soul and body both be equally extinct and that not only for a little time but for I know not how many Ages how comes it to pass that it is not called death but a passing from death to life And it will appear yet much more strange if we apply it to the Fathers and Patriarchs that lived in the first Ages Such as were Adam Noah Seth and Abraham For since the Apostle Heb. 11. Attributes unto them one and the same faith with us although the things which faith embraces were not so plainly revealed to them as to us yet they ought to produce one and the same effect with respect to them and us Jesus Christ being the same yesterday and to day and for ever Are those then passed from death to life who from before the deluge and soon after were as to their bodies reduced to dust and as to their Souls carried in a profound sleep and total insensibility Truly it seems manifest that they had other hopes and expectations When Jacob after too many afflictions and irksom and troubleous Pilgrimages comforted himself with this that he hoped for the Salvation of God Gen. 49. 18. If he had no hope but that of losing the sense of all good and evil for so long a succession of Ages he would have had more occasion to be afflicted than to rejoyce to fear death than to draw comfort from the near approach and prospect of it besides 't is here very considerable that as he was at a greater distance from the day of judgment
where the Book of the Revelation attributes to Angels and Spirits that are assembled in Heaven a voice that says without ceasing Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty and Lord thou art worthy to receive honour and power for thou hast created all things and by thy will they are and were Created and again thou wert slain and hast Redeemed us to God out of every Tribe and Language and People and Nation and hast made us Kings and Priests to our God There are two things distinct the one is the voice it self which St. John represents as if it might be heard by the ears of the Body the other is the thing signified by the voice Forasmuch as 't is that which presents it self to the understanding Now as to what concerns the attributing a voice unto them 't is a thing Symbolical accommodated to the manner of Prophetical Visions which must not necessarily be so taken as if really and indeed the Angels and blessed Spirits had so cried The Angels are indeed represented in the Holy Scripture sometimes as speaking to men and as forming sounds in the air so as it happened in the publishing of the Law upon the mountain and it is certain they have sufficient power and force upon the Elementary Bodies to impress Images and sounds there when it is convenient and to articulate them in such manner that our ears shall be capable of receiving them and presenting them intelligibly to our minds But there is great probability that all the things that St. John reports are Visions the Idea's whereof had no subsistance any farther than the Spirit of God did impress them upon his imagination and not things so really existing that they could be perceived even by his Bodily senses as to what concerns that which is pronounced by the voice there appears a manifest consent in celebrating the nature virtues and Operations of God and our Lord Jesus Christ Now all consent of that kind necessarily infers that those among whom 't is found have knowledg of the minds and affections of each other The Soul therefore is not content to employ it self alone in the contemplation and admiration of those objects which are offered to it it communicates with those of its own kind and they all with the Holy Angels conspire on this occasion to give unto God the praises and blessings that are due unto him St. Paul says that in his ravishment into the third Heaven he heard words and things that could not be uttered that is to say he would not report them to us Nor was it permitted to him that heard them to come from thence either to astonish the Spirits or entertain the curiosity of men For without doubt if he had once given himself the liberty to tell them News from on high they would have forgotten the mystery of the Cross and have so wasted their Spirits in enquiring how Paradise was made that they would have neglected the knowledg of the means by which they might ascend thither Because therefore he did not tell us what it is and he himself hath concealed from whose mouth he understood these marvels 't is neither lawful for us to enquire nor possible to obtain more knowledg than he hath given us concerning it I will only infer this that although God hath had a marvellous care to instruct his Church here below and to this end hath given to his Prophets and Apostles incomparable illuminations and which infinitely exceed the sublimest thoughts that ever entred into humane understanding nevertheless he intends things yet more ravishing in the Heavens seeing St. Paul who hath explained to us so clearly the Mysteries of Religion keeps these other secrets hidden as far surpassing our present condition and the capacity of our understanding As to what concerns the presence of our Lord as we do not willingly behold the Sun it self directly Forasmuch as the lustre of its light doth dazle our eyes therefore we rather behold its image in the water where its splendour is much less illustrious so I shall not dare to fix my mind on the contemplation of the Idea's of his body such as we imagine it to be now on high I believe it will be better to search out some representation of it elsewhere where its glory will give less darkness and confusion to my thoughts the Evangelists report that he was once transfigured upon the mountain in the presence of St. Peter James and John and that his face became shining as the Sun and his garments white and glittering as the light Which was nevertheless but an essay of his glory as we make sometimes an image of the Sun in the night by some kind of Art and notwithstanding St. Peter remained so ravished in the admiration of it that although he did not altogether sink it appears plain enough by his words that his mind staggered under it and that he was not able to bear the weight of a Spectacle so glorious How will it be then with a mind perfectly purified from the infirmities of nature and the Body when it comes to contemplate the Lord Jesus in the Heavens amidst the glory wherewithal he glitters there there is no one among us that reading the History of the Gospel and there observing the discourses of our Lord the sweetness and wisdom of his conversation his wondrous actions the report of his miracles and all that Divine conduct whereof we have the description in the New Testament who doth not esteem them very happy who had the honour not only to converse familiarly with him as his disciples did but even to touch his garments and see that countenance so full of incomparable sweetness and great Majesty both together Notwithstanding that then he was encompassed with infirmity and always carried with him the presages of his Cross and ignominious passion How will it be then with a blessed Soul when it comes to present it self before him and shall see him in that estate that becomes him that is sate down on the right hand of God in infinite Power and Glory And if we that have eyes so weak and understandings so dark do not happen on those words where it is said that he is the brightness of his Fathers glory and the Table which bears a deep and indelible impression of his Power and Authority But the lustre of these expressions and the glory of the thoughts that they produce in our minds do cause within us very extraordinary emotions What must be the vision of this glorious object then when the separate Soul shall apply it self to contemplate him with an understanding full of light There it will remember indubitably what the Holy Gospel learnt it here below there it will enter into these discourses if at least the attempts that we make upon it are capable of representing any of its thoughts This is he will it say which hath put on our nature with its infirmities but by his Resurrection and ascension upon high hath changed his
are done there and that if all of a sudden he should be taken thence and the Heavens and the Earth the Sun the Moon the Stars the Clouds the force and power of the Winds and in general all that is peculiarly worthy of knowledge in all the parts of nature be shewed unto him 't is indubitable that he would fall into a very great admiration and that he would immediately cry out this is the Work and Habitation of the Gods themselves And there is no Person that Considers the thing as it ought which doth not easily apprehend that this Philosopher had reason For although the custom of seeing all these marvellous Objects diminishes the admiration of them 't is nevertheless from thence that all Nations have first learned that there is an infinite Being that by the wisdom of his understanding and power of his hand hath given being to all these things What may we then think of the ravishments that the Souls of the Faithful have experience of then when being delivered from the chains of the body and carried on high between the hands of Angels after having passed all the extent of the Air and gone through the vast and immense spaces of the Celestial Orbs and considered near at hand the vast and prodigious greatness the marvellous splendour of the Sun and other Stars they come to enter that stately Palace where God and our Lord Jesus dwell in glory When Jacob saw a Ladder which reached from Earth to Heaven and the Angels that ascended and descended from above he cried out this is the House of God or at least it is certainly the Gate of Heaven and testified that this place so venerable filled his Soul with fear and wonder both together David placed among his most earnest desires that of entring into the Tabernacle of God and of seeing on all sides the marvels that shined there And truely I do not doubt but that Spectacle was capable of overwhelming the Spirit with unspeakable content the matter it self was illustrious and amazing but the work and design much exceeded the matter But what is all that in comparison of what we may presume concerning the Heavens and the wonders that on all sides shine and sparkle there When we view the palaces of Kings the costliness of their Houses the stateliness of their seylings the variety of their Pictures the richness of their Tapestry the rarity of their Statues the lofty grandeur of their Pillars and Arches give a pleasure marvellously sensible and affecting to all men that have eyes and have not their internal senses marvellously stupid and blockish those that are knowing in Arts and well understand Building Painting Carving Embroidery and other things of that nature do there take much more content than others because they discover all the beauties that are in those Objects the most curious stroaks and the most delicate devices cannot escape them Whereas the generality observe nothing there but the various sparkling of Colours some order and general harmony and proportion which the most gross cannot be ignorant in and in such or such a Picture some likeness to persons that at some time they have seen If there be either Histories or Emblems Riddles or Devices in the Tapestries or Pictures those which are conversant in good Learning and pride themselves either in quickness of wit or the knowledg of Histories and Fables do there receive yet more satisfaction if they can lay open what is wrapt up there and go to the bottom of what others see nothing but the bark And if with so many other things the Spirit of Prophecy had given to David some understanding of the Mysteries which were vailed under the Types and Allegories of the Old Testament I do believe that in the contemplation of the Tabernacle neither the price of the matter whereof it was composed nor the Divine industry that Bezaleel and Aholiab employed there did never so much content either his senses or his understanding as he felt of ravishment in the marvellous wisdom wherewith God directed the design of all these things to represent by them others incomparably more excellent which were yet hid in the darkness of time to come Imagine you therefore a Soul first of all ready instructed in the truths of Christianity and purified from all false impressions which may have been mingled with them then afterwards extraordinarily illuminated by the Spirit of God and by that means made capable of all that the most sublime intelligences are capable of to be introduced into this place so full of Magnificence and splendor and there finding the substance of that whereof the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle was heretofore but a shadow If you do so I assure my self that you will fall so short of being able to conceive all the contentment that it will find there that you cannot attentively affix your Spirit thereon but it will remain swallowed up and fall and faint under the admiration of the knowledg that it will obtain there although you be not able to comprehend it There remains the third of these objects which is the presence of our Lord Jesus and our Communion with happy Spirits and Holy Angels To begin there as I believe that there is no reason to doubt but that Angels can communicate among themselves So I hold for certain that happy spirits can do the same and that Angels and Souls can mutually entertain each other What is the manner of this communication is a thing as difficult to explain as is the nature of Angels themselves and the substance of Spirits For such as is the nature of things such is the manner and quality of their Operations and no man will ever well explain the one if he have not first of all perfectly comprehended what may be understood of the other But although we do not well understand the manner nevertheless we do not fail to be fully assured of the thing it self Every understanding Being is enclined to society as on the other side no Beings have any society among themselves but those that are endued with understanding 'T is for that reason that among Animals man alone is Politick and Sociable as therefore with an understanding but which is inclosed in a Body God hath given us speech which is a Corporeal means of mutual Conversation so to substances separate from Body but nevertheless endued with understanding he hath given some power to entertain society and converse although it be not Corporeal And those that imagine that neither Angels nor Souls can move themselves unless it be by the means of a Body nor discover their thoughts and sentiments to each other unless it be by some Corporeal medium to say no more pretend to know what they do not at all understand For seeing they dare to determine the nature of the faculties of Spirits and the manner of their Operations they must be presumed to have an exact and perfect knowledg of the nature of substances purely Spiritual Therefore
beloved thereof The believing Soul therefore ardently loves the happy Spirits which are received on high and likewise the Holy Angels and being likewise reciprocally loved by them and loving our Lord Jesus with an affection far above what it bears to Angels and Spirits and being much assured that it is yet much more beloved of him and to conclude seeing in its Habitation in the Heavens in the aspect of the marvellous things that are there in the company of Holy Spirits in the Society of Angels in the presence and Communion of Jesus Christ so many and such irrefragable Testimonies of the love of God towards it it plunges and drowns and totally swallows it self in the love that it bears to him and finds in all these motions a sensible and sublime taste of unspeakable felicity What it is that the Resurrection will add to the blessedness of the believing Soul The Third Discourse THis which I have said hitherunto very imperfectly concerning the happiness of the believing Soul after it is separate from the Body may enable us to conceive something of its grandeur as by the lightning that passes before our eyes we do in some manner judge of the quantity of fire that is wrapt up in the dark clouds But although there be attractives enough in what we understand of it to excite the desire and admiration of it in our hearts yet it falls far short of its perfection as long as man remains deprived of the other half of his essence For the believer of whose happiness we are now discoursing may be considered after three manners First in himself then as the world hath some Relation to and Connexion with him And lastly as he hath some Relation to the Church as a member hath Relation to his Body Now to consider him in himself seeing he is composed of a Soul and a Body to whatsoever perfection the Soul be advanced so it is that whilst the Body remains under the power of death its happiness is not compleat To consider it in the Relation that it and the World have between each other forasmuch as the World was made for-man and hath been made subject to vanity by reason of him when man shall be placed all entire in perfect happiness as far as precisely concerns himself nevertheless he cannot be said to be absolutely and entirely happy as long as the World remains subject to misery by reason of him and by occasion of him bears the marks of the cruse of God Lastly to consider him after the third manner Forasmuch as he is a part of that whereof the Church is the whole although he should behold himself perfectly happy in himself and although he should see the World delivered from the curse that it incurred for his sake nevertheless he cannot be said to enjoy a full felicity until the whole Church on its part partake in the enjoyment of it If Esther esteemed her self miserable although she were advanced to the glory of a great Empire whilst she beheld her Nation in danger of desolation the Believer may not account it self happy whilst some of his brethren are fighting upon Earth and others with respect to their Bodies are under the power of death and rotting in their graves Forasmuch then as the Soul in that beatitude that it enjoys in the Heavens hath sufficient knowledge of all these Relations 't is impossible that it should not desire the Resurrection of its Body to the end that it may be united with it and the deliverance of the World out of its misery and vanity so that it may no longer be subject to corruption for its sake and the glorification of the Church in a perfect felicity so that the state of that wherewith it hath such inviolable ties may not divide its thoughts betwixt grief and and joy Now he is not happy perfectly that doth desire and hath yet reason and subject to desire something 'T is very true the desire of the Soul in all these regards is without inquietude and anxiety for these passions are generated either from the impatience of our spirits or the uncertainty of the event of what we desire or from hence that although the event that we expect is sure yet the condition that we are in in the mean while is troublesome in it self and uneasy to be born As to what concerns impatience there is not the least string or fiber there-of in the Souls that are on high they are endued with all sorts of Virtues principally they are all swallowed up in a profound respect to the providence of God And as to the assurance of their hope they are more than most assured that it will never fail them since God hath promised it and the power that he hath to execute his Counsels finds no where either difficulty or impossibility to arrest or hinder it to conclude as to what respects their condition the little which I have above reported of it represents it capable of swallowing up in the sweetness of its contents all resentments they may have for the length of their expectations When the Holy Ghost in the Revelation causeth us to hear them cry how long Lord wilt thou not avenge our blood we may not take that for any mark of inquietude of mind any more than for an inordinate desire of vengeance Forasmuch as in this place they consider their enemies as reprobated and adjudged by God to the suffering of punishment and are no longer obliged to have any charity for them Our charity having none for its object but such as may have some access to the mercy of our Heavenly Father Is the gate then closed upon any one Yea as it hath been from the beginning upon Devils or on those that have sinned against the Holy Ghost or on those against whom God hath pronounced an irrevocable sentence of death and condemnation our charity remains utterly extinct in respect of them And to desire the Execution of this condemnation as the Souls of the faithful do is nothing but a conformity to the Divine Justice and will So that the words how long are purely and simply a Holy breathing of Zeal which they have to see the glory of God shining in the Execution of his judgments which doth not pass the bounds of respect which they owe to the conduct of his wisdom Nevertheless although they be without inquietude so it is as I have said they are not without out desire Now he which desires gives evidence that something is wanting to his condition and by consequent is not accomplished in all things And 't is for this reason that we must see what will be the happiness of believers in these three respects at the last day For the first it seems that there are principally two things to be considered that is to say what will be the quality and condition of the body when it shall be raised again and then what will be the estate of the Soul when it shall be rejoined unto
of this discourse is imployed to come to this Conclusion as we set shadows and leaves round about Pictures which serve for nothing but to fill up the void space and give some little Ornament to the Table so there is something in this discourse of our Lord the use whereof consists wholly in making the Parable more full bright and luminous 'T is therefore to be Considered whether it were the common opinion of the Jews that the Souls of unbelievers are tormented immediately after death or that being deprived of all perception and use of their faculties they remain as if they were in a profound sleep if it were the last of these our Lord did not it seems a thing worthy of his wisdom to establish his Parable upon an Hypothesis contrary to the common belief of the Jews For if a parable be not taken from a truth really and indeed accomplished at least it ought not to contradict the common conceptions of men And our Lord never proposed any in which we might not easily see much reason and appearance of possibility and by how much the more of difficulty there is to comprehend for these two persons could reason together there being too great a gulph between them by so much the rest of the Parable ought to be accommodated to the sense and apprehension of the Auditors to the end that they may not accuse him that speaks of giving them instructions built upon false and extravagant opinions If it were the common opinion of the Jews that Souls enjoy perception after death our Lord sufficiently confirms it not only in that he makes no opposition to it but moreover in that he builds thereupon instructions excellent and full of wisdom I make no doubt therefore but that he gives us to understand in this Emblem that the Souls of the wicked are tormented from the time they go out of this life and that the Souls of the faithful do receive Consolation which cannot be without some notable sense or perception nor can there be so notable a sense if they have not their faculties active and awake When the Apostle St. Paul tells us he was caught up into Paradise where he heard things that could not be uttered 't is true he tells us that he knew not whether'twas in the body or out of the body So that although it be not without probability that it was rather out of the body yet it would be great boldness positively to determine concerning it since he himself would not do it But 't is clear that he supposes that it might be done out of the body and by consequent that Souls can make use of their faculties when they are separated from it for in that estate in which he supposes his Soul was or might be they could not hear things unspeakable soon after without some use of their understanding moreover it must be an excellent use thereof as well because of the greatness of the object which without doubt could not be comprehended unless by an understanding very active as because it so vehemently applyed it self unto it and it received such deep impressions from it that after it was rejoined to its body and again offered unto its Organs as before it nevertheless retains the memory thereof Now it is enough that St. Paul supposes that it might be to rescue our minds from all difficulty and doubt in this matter The Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews representing in a stately manner the condition whereunto Christians are called says that it is to the Heavenly Jerusalem to thousands of Angels to the assembly of the first born who are enrolled or whose names are written in Heaven and to the Spirits of just men sanctified I will not stay to search out what is signified by those words enrolled in the Heavens although it seems to be a manner of speech taken from publick Registers and Rolls wherein are written the names of such Citizens which ought to have the right of Free-men and to partake in the priviledges of the Corporation Which will signify that these first born are already received into the Heavens a place of abode not at all proper for a sleep so profound and void of all perception as is that to which some condemn Souls till the day of the Resurrection I will only say that this word the Spirits doth signify without doubt Souls separated from their Bodies and that the word which we Translate Sanctified signifies properly perfect or accomplished A Title that in the New Testament is not given unless it be to those which be it in knowledg or holiness have obtained that degree of perfection whereunto before they did aspire and whereunto those that they have left behind them are not yet arrived Thus we are said to be perfect in comparison with the Jews who lived under the dispensation of the Law but imperfect in comparison with them that have obtained that knowledg whereunto we cannot come in this life so that these just men made perfect concerning the Spirit of whom he speaks in this Text are those that have obtained a degree of perfection which we have not as yet which cannot be obtained without an excellent use of those faculties which are called Understanding and Will In the Book of the Revelation Chap. 14. Vers 13. It is said that the Spirit declares those happy which are dead in the Lord now happiness and the privation of the use of all their faculties are inconsistent Aristotle himself says that happiness cannot properly be attributed unless it be to such who are actually in the exercise of the most excellent operations of their noblest and most excellent powers and vacant in the contemplation and love of the bravest and sublimest Objects and to the end that we may not think that they are called happy because they are appointed to the injoyment of the happiness which is to be revealed at the last day as the same Philosopher says we call little Children happy by a kind of hope when there is much of probability that one day they will obtain it 'T is said that they rest from their labours and their works follow them Now 't is true indeed that we call sleep by the name of rest in opposition to the labours and troubles of the day but nevertheless if speaking of a person that is returned into his Country after great and memorable battels fought in Forreign Lands we should say that henceforth he rests from his labours I do not think that any one would understand thereby that he had slept for a long time but that he enjoyed in peace and tranquillity the fruit of his former pains and labours and indeed these words and their works follow them do mean they enjoy their reward For because the work and the reward are inseparable by the appointment of the good will of God and the holy Spirit being willing to inform us that believers shall not lose their labours in the good works that they do
face of God but even the memory of ever having seen him or learned any thing of him either in the Tabernacle or in the World If he understands by seeing the face of God seeing him as he is seen in Heaven how could David make this wish or holy aspiration if he were of this opinion that sleep should lock up the eyes of his understanding for so long a time Certainly this was not the opinion of David nor any of the faithful of that time or age their common opinion was that which is plainly expressed in the Book of Ecclesiastes That when man dies the body returns to the dust from whence 't was taken and the Soul returns to God that gave it Now to believe that the Spirits of the faithful can be with God without having any knowledg of his presence or enjoying one beam of his happiness is a thing altogether without reason or probability At such times as God promises some particular assistance to his faithful ones he says I will be with you And 't is also their common and ordinary wish for those to whom they wish grace and benediction the Lord be with you If God then cannot be with any person without giving him some taste of his favours how can our spirits be with God without enjoying some gracious effect of his presence Certainly though we had no other proof of the state of the faithful after death than those words of our Saviour to the Thief that was Converted upon the Cross this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise they would be sufficient unless we were willingly blind to assure us that they are at rest but 't is such a rest as is accompanied with much content and joy For that the word to day ought to be taken in the ordinary and common sense to signify the time that was immediately to follow the death of our Lord whilst his Soul remained separate from his body is a thing that cannot be doubted unless by those that out of jocundness of humours abuse their reason In what place of the New Testament doth our Saviour or any one else use it in any other sense And although the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews having met with it in Psal 95. 7 8. to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Understands it of the time of the Preaching of the Gospel of Salvation is there any probability that in imitation of him we should expound those words of Jesus Christ after this manner Verily verily I say unto thee that in the day of the Resurrection I will receive thee to a participation of my own glory in Paradise If such comments be allowed will there be any thing certain either in the word of God or Language of men Doth it not plainly appear that our Lord seeing this Thief in anguish of Spirit through the fear of the judgment of God the execution whereof he expected according to the common sense and apprehension of Conscience immediately after death was willing to comfort him by the assurance of the pardon of his sins and hope of happiness which his Soul should enjoy assoon as it was separated from his Body Either the Spirit of Christ being dislodged from the body ascended into Paradise or not If it did not ascend thither our Lord promised nothing but that the Soul of this person should on that very day be present with his Deity in Heaven Now though our Lord were God blessed for ever there is no probability that he had any regard to his Deity in the speaking of those words For besides that his Divinity was not then so clearly Revealed as that from thence he should begin to give knowledg of what he was to that man who can doubt but that seeing both their Bodies in one and the same condemnation he was willing to raise the hope of this Wretch who in the midst of his anguish discovered some faith and expectation from him by the assurance that he gave him that within a few moments their spirits should be well near in the same Condition in a place of bliss and happiness But let it be granted that he understands his Divinity So it is in my opinion that it cannot come into a sound mind that Christ should promise to the Soul of this person to give it from that same hour the enjoyment of Paradise and yet notwithstanding it should have no knowledg of the glory thereof or the happiness that doth attend it Moreover it had been much more to the purpose to have been content to have consented to be mindful of him when he came into his Kingdom as he desired then by great words to give him occasion to hope for content and happiness near at hand and afterwards fill this Soul which he had made so desirous of happiness with nothing but darkness and forgetfulness If the spirit of our Lord ascended into Paradise doubtless it was not to sleep there for the little time of its separation from the body but to receive inexpressible Consolations in the bosom of his Father Otherwise to what purpose was it to transport it on high Had it not been more to the purpose to leave it buried in the same Tomb with the Body to the end that it might be there united again when the time should come Now if the Soul of Christ could be sensible of some Contentments after death ours may be sensible of them also And no inconsistance will be found between their separation from the Organs of their Bodies and the use of their Powers and Capacities But what need is there of so many Texts and of so much discourse in a case so plain that nature it self seems to have taught it us For certainly it is not more generally believed among men that their Souls are immortal and subsist after the Body than it is generally acknowledged that they subsist with knowledg and sense either of some felicity for those that lived in the practice of Piety and Vertue or of some punishment for those that have given up themselves to Impiety and Vice From thence comes the hopes of the Elysian fields among the Pagans and the fear of the Torments of Hell From thence is preserved among the Jews the expectation of Paradise and the fear of the bottomless Pit Thence is produced among the Turks the opinion of their Paradise and the fear of an infernal state and that without attending the Resurrection immediately after the dissolution of the Body and the separation of the Soul Lastly thence comes among Christians to some a belief of Purgatory to others a hope of a better life than this and to others dreadful frights concerning what will betide them after death when they are not in their Consciences assured of the forgiveness of their sins I say that nature it self teaches it Because things that are so universal and concerning which there is no controversy among Nations whose inclinations are divers whose professions are different and
well what to hold or affirm have left the Question undecided Now as to what concerns the bosom of Abraham as when our Lord saith Mat. 8. 11. that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. He never intended to design or determin the place where these Patriarchs are together so that if the place where they are may be gathered from this Text 't is from those words in the Kingdom of Heaven And not from those and shall sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob So there is no appearance that he intended to determine any certain place by those words in Abrahams bosom Because in his time there were two manners of eating together the one by sitting round a Table as we now do the other by lying on beds in such fashion that their heads were near each other and one did repose himself as it were in the bosom of his neighbour in the one of those Texts the Lord hath respect to one of these customs and in the other to the other to signify one and the same thing viz. that they shall eat with Abraham And because to eat together after this manner is a Testimony of a Familiar Conversation and of a Society full of friendship to signifie that Lazarus had this strict familiarity with Abraham he says that he was in his bosom as to signifie that others shall enjoy the same sweet society with him he says they shall be with him at Table Which shews without doubt that they must be in the same place but doth in no manner determine whether this place be above the Heavens or beneath the earth As to the meaning of the other Text surely those that make use of it to exclude the Spirits of the Fathers from entring into Heaven before the Ascension of Christ are deceived in the interpretation of it The Apostle means nothing thereby but that by the Ceremony of the High Priests entring once a year into the Holy of Holies with Blood for the expiation of Sins the holy Spirit did give them sufficiently to understand that the true High Priest was not as yet entred into the Sanctuary of Heaven and that the means by which that was to be accomplished was not yet made evident or revealed and indeed it could not be made evident but by the coming of the Thing it Self now the Thing it Self and the Ceremony could not subsist at the same time for the one had the place of a Figure the other of Reality and Truth and the Figure and Truth are appointed for divers times and differing dispensations the Truth therefore existing the Figure necessarily ceases And therefore as long as the Figure did by the appointment of God subsist the Truth could not be presumed actually exhibited But be the interpretation that they have given to this Text What it will it will be of no great importance whether they be deceived in it yea or no since that which the most part of them hold is a constant truth and the whole World are at an agreement with them in it And 't is that since our Lord Jesus is ascended on high the entrance into the Heavens hath been open not only to the faithful that have departed since him but also generally to all those that have lived under the dispensation of the times passed as well since as before the publication of the Law upon the mountain For what doth it concern me that Abraham and the other Patriarchs Fathers Believers and good men that lived in former times had not the advantage of entring into Heaven till our Saviour ascended thither since I my self shall enter there at death and meet them all there to partake with them in the same joy I say what doth it import me that God hath at other times taken the Souls of Believers as Elias speaks of his own and hath lodged them apart in some place at a distance from him until the ascension of our Saviour since that when he takes mine he will place it in his Sanctuary But because all Christians are not of this Opinion and that some have thought that although the faithful after death do enter into a deep Repose accompanied with Consolation and joy marvellously sensible nevertheless they will not be permitted to enter into the presence of God in the Heavens nor to enjoy the Vision of him until the Resurrection I think my self obliged briefly to examine the Texts and Reasons upon which they do establish their Persuasion They say therefore that the holy Scripture doth ordinarily remit us to the Resurrection for the accomplishment of our hopes and that it is on that day alone that our Lord doth promise to give Rewards to those that believe in him as may be seen Joh. 6. and in many other places of like nature even some have made no scruple to alledge to this purpose that Text of St. Peter where he says that Christ was quickened in the Spirit by which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison because although he there speaks of the Spirits of those that lived long before the Revelation of the new Covenant nevertheless according to their opinions there is a likeness of Reason and that we ought to make the same judgment of Believers now and those of times past in this matter and behold well near how they explain themselves There is none say they that is either rewarded or punished with those Rewards or Punishments that are appointed by the Laws until the Sentence be given and pronounced judicially now the Judgment that must pass judicially upon us is differred till the last day so that it will be contrary to all ordinary forms of Administring Justice that the Spirits of Believers should be admitted to the Vision of God before our Lord shall have pronounced Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the World for I was an hungry c. Therefore as Criminals were kept in Prison and that 's it which is signified by the word Prison 1 Pet. 3. 19. until the pronunciation of Judgment and as they are not brought forth in publick to be punished till after Judgment is pronounced so it is reasonable that some place be appointed for the Reception of those which shall be absolved at the Coming of Christ which is different from the place wherein they shall receive their Reward but as those that are in Prison are racked and tormented in their Consciences by the fear of Judgment and the punishment that doth attend them which is properly in their opinion the pain that the damned at this time endure so it is reasonable that those that expect their Reward in the place of Repose should enjoy Consolation in the assurance of their future absolution and hopes of Glory Now if this Consideration be valid for the Fathers of the most ancient times without doubt it will be as good for the faithful of the new Covenant as for
that serve for the local motion of its members and on the incomparable disposition that nature hath established among the parts which are to digest distribute receive and appropriate that which is necessary for their nourishment To conclude the last reason hath no more force than the precedent For seeing Angels which are as I have said Beings totally separate from Matter or Body have nevertheless certain means which in truth we cannot easily comprehend but yet certainly believe of knowing things sensible and Corporeal and forming excellent discourses upon them whereof the Scripture furnishes us with indubitable proofs wherefore the Soul being a substance well nigh like that of Angels should it not be capable of the same operations let us imagin that by the power of God an Angel should be incarnate in such manner that he become the form of a humane Body and that he animate it after the manner of a reasonable Soul without doubt whiles he lodges there he will see and perceive things Corporeal by the Organs of sense and reason upon the Images which are brought from and perfected in the Phantasy as we now do And if actually he become the Soul of this body it will be as much subject to the use of its Organs for the exercise of his understanding as our Soul is at this time for the exercise of its most excellent faculties but if after this it should please God to disintangle it from the bonds of of the Body will it lose the use of those powers wherewith he served himself so advantageously without the use of Organs before it was made to serve there But there is something more 't is a constant truth and all the World assent to it that there is nothing in the understanding which was not in some manner first in the sense but this which is so indubitable to speak generally is not without difficulty when it comes to be explained because it may be taken in this sense viz. that universally we can have no other Idea's of things in our minds than such as have proceeded from things material and which our eyes or our ears or our other senses have been capable of receiving and again it may be so explained that although these be in our mind Idea's purely intellectual and which retain nothing of the nature of Body yet so it is that they are not formed but by occasion of the Images of Corporeal things which are received in the Phantasy upon which the Intellect makes its first Reflections And I think that if a man make but little use of his reason he shall find that 't is in this second manner but the aforesaid truth must be understood For to say nothing of our passing from Physicks or natural Philosophy to that of Metaphysicks or which is above nature by the means of certain obstructions which conduct the Spirit of a man from the Contemplation of Bodies to that of Spirits and things Immaterial I think Religion puts the thing out of all controversy and doubt For 't is indeed by the interposition of our Senses that we see the Heavens and the Earth and that we hear the word of God Preached and 't is upon the Idea's which the exercise of our senses introduce upon our Phantasy that we put our selves upon reasoning concerning the Deity But 't is a thing known by our proper experience that when we have sometimes seriously applied our selves thereunto from the consideration of things sensible which have given us the first notions or knowledg thereof we ascend to speculations concerning the nature of God and his properties which are entirely and absolutely separated from the qualities and matter of Bodies Although then our minds produce no operations whereof things Corporeal have not presented them the occasions as Saint Paul says Rom. 1. that from the workmanship of the World we come to the knowledg of the eternal power and goodness of the Divinity or Godhead nevertheless there are some actions of our minds which are purely Spiritual and which in no wise depend on Bodies any further than that Corporeal objects do furnish us with occasions to produce them by discourse now if there be any of the actions of our minds which to speak properly have nothing in common with Bodies even during the time that they inhabit there and are in some kind fastened and bound to their instruments why should they not be capable of producing them without the service of the Senses then when they are altogether losened from the bonds that have joyned and united them if then we can have any proofs from the Scripture that Souls use their faculties after the death of the Body that Divine Revelation ought not only to have sufficient Authority to impress this belief upon our minds notwithstanding the contradiction of the pretended discourses of our reason but these difficulties which some persons think to be in the thing it self ought not to leave in our minds the least hesitation or suspition Let us see then what the word of God doth teach concerning it Those Divines which have attempted to derive a proof of this verity from the Parable of the wicked Dives and Lazarus have received this contradiction on the part of those who believe that the Soul loses the use of its faculties in death viz. that what our Saviour says there is no History but only a Parable and that it is an impertinence to endeavour to make such discourses pass for narrations of things effectively accomplished And thereupon there is much and great Contestation because on one hand there is no other Parable in the Scripture where the persons that are there introduced are designed by their names and represented exactly by many circumstances as Lazarus is described in that place or Paragraph and on the other hand the discourse which our Saviour reports that Abraham and the Rich man had the one with the other or cross the great Gulph or Abyss hath no appearance or likeness of an Historical narration to commend it to acceptance as a real truth Wherefore seeing it may be in part an History and in part a Parable let us examine it briefly under this last Consideration in all the Parables which our Saviour makes use of in the Gospel we must have regard to the end whereunto it tends and also to what he says that he may come to it as to what concerns the end of this Parable 't is sufficiently apparent by its Conclusion that our Lord had in design to shew that the obstinacy of mans mind in opposition to things proposed unto him on the part of God is so great that neither Revelations made by the word of God nor Miracle laid open before our eyes is capable of moving or affecting us In such sort that although the dead themselves should rise we should give no more credit to their Testimony than we do to the writings of Moses and the Prophets if God touch us not inwardly by his Spirit All the rest
infirmities into glory This is he that conversed here below in mean condition among men and behold him raised above the magnificence of all the Angels This is he that suffered the contradiction of sinners but receives now the applause and veneration of all the Inhabitants of Heaven This is he that ignominiously hung upon the Cross but now all Creatures behold him with reverence and trembling This is he that here below suffered death but who now holds in his hand the life of all things and the subsistance of the universe This is he that was seen laid in a dark Tomb in comparison of whom now the splendor of the Sun is but as a shadow This is he that was thought unworthy that the Earth should bear him who now walks upon the Heavens and under whose feet the whole Fabrick of the World doth Tremble This is he in whom sometimes I believed indeed but with a faith always imperfect always spotted with some darkness always mingled with some remainders of incredulity whom I now see fully and manifestly and to whom I have liberty to approach without fear and behold him face to face After having in some sort represented what is the excellence of the knowledg which the believing Soul obtains when 't is received into Heaven there is no need that I should stay long to examine what is the measure of the happiness that it there enjoys For happiness consists as well in the absence of evils as in the fruition of good which are inconsistent or agreeable to the nature of those Beings which we call by the name of happy As for evils there are none that enter the Kingdom of Heaven which is a marvellous happiness to a nature sensible as ours is As for good things what may they be which are suitable to a reasonable Soul notwithstanding 't is separate from the Body Certainly as the happiness of the eye consists in seeing agreeable things and as the happiness of the ear in hearing pleasant and harmonious sounds and generally the happiness of all the other senses in exercising themselves upon those Objects whereunto nature hath appointed them with pleasure and content the happiness of the separate Soul consists in a suitable exercise of its faculties upon the most excellent Objects which can be presented to it and in the joy that is consequent thereunto It s understanding therefore being both perfectly purified in it self and filled with the presence of Objects so admirable its happiness in this respect is proportionable to the excellency of its Operation and those contemplations in which it is perpetually employed If those therefore that have any spark of generosity and any thing brave in their Souls do esteem those happy that have obtained any skill in those Sciences to which men ordinarily apply themselves and yet nevertheless an excellent Philosopher had reason to say that one drop of the knowledg of the nature of Celestial Bodies is more to be desired by reason of the nobleness of their essence and the advantage of their utility than all the Sciences that men have formed upon the other Beings of the World how happy must that Soul be that perfectly knows those things whose excellency as far surmounts the Sun and other the Stars of Heaven as they are to be esteemed more worthy than all the other Bodies of these Elementary Regions And if none of our faculties do employ themselves in their Operations in a suitable manner upon those subjects that are proportionable unto them without receiving some sensible pleasure what may be the satisfaction that a faithful Soul receives in being incessantly exercised in such marvellous Operations Certainly the pleasure of the eyes and ears is great when they are filled with such Objects whose colour or figure or harmony and justness of proportion is capable reasonably as satisfying the hunger that uncorrupted nature hath placed in those Senses For pleasure properly consists in this that now when the Objects that are without do occur unto our faculties and apply themselves to the desires or capacities that are there with so much proportion and equality that the motions that they make there be neither too languishing nor too violent but in an agreeable measure The pleasure of the mind when it employs it self with success in the contemplation of things intellectual is much more great than that of the eyes or ears because 't is a more noble faculty and things Spiritual are more excellent than Bodies and by consequence Operations more exquisite and curious do arise from the occurrence of them From whence it follows necessarily that when the faculties of the Soul are come to that point of perfection in which they do as it were as much surpass themselves when they were in a state of nature as in this state of nature they did surpass the eyes and ears and that when the Objects that are presented to them have as many or more degrees of excellency above those things intellectual which we ordinarily apprehend as they have above sensible and Corporeal Objects it is indubitable that the joy and content that doth accompany Operations so Divine must infinitely excel that which can be Ministred by the knowledg of the most perfect and sublime Sciences The understanding being filled with such excellent knowledg it must necessarily be that the will be full of love marvellously ardent towards those Objects from whence it doth derive For things that are excellent do draw our affections for their own sake and deserve our love by the sole respect of their beauty And the content that we take in the knowledg of them is a cause that we love them also for our own sake because we love our selves it cannot be that in that respect we should not love those things that Minister to our satisfaction Besides we are so naturally disposed that we do not only love those Objects from whence such excellent knowledg derives but we singularly esteem the means by which we do enjoy it and 't is for that reason that some have said that we have our eyes above our other Bodily Senses because they discover to our knowledg a far greater multitude of things than our others and under greater variety And experience teaches us that of all visible Objects light seems to be most beautiful and pleasant which comes to pass not only from its natural constitution in that it seems to be the Object which hath the most proportion with the faculty of seeing but also because 't is that which renders other things visible and which if I may so say doth colour even colours themselves and give the form and figure to the forms and figures of Bodies So that we may not doubt but that blessed Souls are wholly inflamed with the love of the persons and things which on high are perpetually presented to the eyes of their understandings Now love is of it self a thing full of contentment and joy when we enjoy the thing we love and know that we are