the God of my heart and of my salvation and my portion for ever Vpon and out of this double love of the infinite goodnesse of God both as it is in himselfe essentially himselfe and to his elect by participation not now absent from them but most intimely present with them there ariseth a double A double glorious ioy joy and gladnesse joy to see God whom they so dearely love infinitely good and happy in himselfe joy to see themselves in full and secure possession of that infinite good as their last end and the compleat object of their happinesse This joy is that wherof Augustine very excellently There is a joy which is not graunted to the August lib. 9. Confesse wicked but to those who worship thee freely whose joy thou thy selfe art and that is the very life of happinesse to joy in thee and for thee that is the blessed life and there is no other Of this we are to understand those joyous words of Christ Welcome well done good and faithfull servants you have beene faithfull Matt. 25. 21 24. in a little I will make you rulers over much enter into thy Masters joy Loe the Master of this joyous feast calls his owne joy the joy of his faithfull servants which is so great and so surpassing that holy David dareth thus by a familiar metaphore to expresse the exceeding sweetnesse of the same They shall be satiated he speakes of the Beatified with an over plentifullnesse Psal 36. 8. of thy house and with a torrent or river of thy pleasures thou shalt inebriate them and make them dronke O most dviine satiety O most sacred inebriation of the beatified soules Seeing loving delighting enjoying God of love of adoration of admiration of astonishment of content of satiety of rest of delight of joy of enjoying O blessed Spirits O Beatified Soules so satiated so inebriated that seeing and admiring they cannot but admire at and delight in so infinitely good so infinitely sweet so infinitely joyous a good Holy David considering the same could not but with an elevated Spirit cry out O how amiable are thy dwelings Psal 84. 1. 2. thou Lord of hosts my soule longeth and fainteth after the Courts of the Lord. Bernard most sweetly The sweet aboundance of that house and the Torrent of that pleasure neither eye hath seene or eare heard Bernard in dedicat serm 4. nor the heart of man hath conceived Doe not thinke therefore O man to heare that which the eare of man hath not heard neither seeke thou of man to know what that is which the eye of man hath not seene nor the minde of man hath conceived Let us rather manfully and couragiously labour in these our tabernacles that in the end we may be gloriously glorified in the house of Gods blisse and glory above and be made partakers of that joy which shall never fade nor fall away which shall be such as it shall fully satiate and yet never cloy ever be had or enjoyed and yet ever be desired not with anxiety after more or other but with a most assured continuance of the same Againe thereof Austine very divinely There shall be whatsoever shall bee worthy of love neither shall any thing Austine his 12. de â—â—â—itate be desired which shall not bee there all that shall be there shall be good and the supreame God shall be the soveraigne good and most happy it shall be to knowe and to be assecured that that good shall ever be There shall wee be at rest and see thee there shall we see and love thee wee shall love and prayse thee which shalt bee our end without end For what other is our end than to come to a kingdome which hath no end thus he Besides the above expressed actions and operations of the beatified soules and spirits I doe observe another which I call a retention or holding or possession of God which whether it be all these actions together as they are exercised upon God so intimely and gloriously present or whether there be besids them another action of conquiescency and resting in and upon God as the last and compleat end of the beatified it is not easie to distinguish Sure I am that such a rest and conquiescency there is the which in all humility and modesty I will endeavour to difference and distinguish and O most happy my Soule when I shall come clearely to behould and know the same O how with the very heartstrings of my soule do I not onely desire but long after the same O the God of my heart my Soule longeth after thee to see thee ' O love thee to delight in thee and to live and rest in thee and by thee for ever and ever O fill and replenish my Soule here so to feare thee that in the end I may attaine thee to enjoy thee Amen It cannot have beene uathought of by any who have arightly thought of their last end and of that happinesse which is layed up for all 2 Tim. 4. 8. these that love God and his comming but that they have in their soules conceived a living hope and fervent desire of attaining unto the same We glorye saith St. Paul in the hope of glory of the sonnes Rom. 5. 2. of God Iob laid up in his breast as a most pretious jewell the hope that he had that he should by himselfe see God his redeemer and Saviour We are Iob. 19. 27. Heb. 10. 23. all encouraged to hould fast the confession of our hope a hope firme and unmooveable The Apostle he desired Phi 1. 23. to be dissolved and to be with Christ. And what faithfull soule is there who longeth not for and desires not after the comming of the Lord that he may enjoy that crowne of glory and happinesse 2 Tim. 4. 8. which God hath laid up for all those that love his comming Now this hope of the last happinesse and longing after the same if it be arightly considered will be found according to the doctrine of all sound Divines to be specially an action or affection of the will of man enabled and illustrated by grace tending to and longing after God absent which affection of hope and desire ceaseth not untill the good that is desired and hoped for is obteined and made present but the good being had and attained unto then the affection of hope ceaseth for what we have and injoy we hope not for nor long after That which a man seeth that is as I interpret him seeth and by sight injoyeth how can he hope for saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 24. 25. Austen excellently Hope is a child of faith by which August de spirit et lit man hopeth from him whom he knoweth for that which he yet hath not which hope being in this state the expectation of an immortall life I do fitly call it the very life of this our mortall life the which though fortune often failes
will never faile nor in the end deceave the upright and Innocent Who because by hope he waiteth on God and hath his heart reposed upon God as Susanna Dan. 13. 35. had hers is as confident as a lion Now when as these affections of hope and desire by reason that the good which was hoped for is obteined doth end and cease there must needes Some glorious action of the will must needs succeed in roome of the action of hope in lieu and place of these former succeede and follow some other action and affection of the will which formally and respectively must answere unto the former The former was hope to this must be a tention and possession the former was desire after this must be use the former was longing after this must be fruition and injoying the former was tending to the good to attaine it this a tention rest and conquiescency in the good attained The motion of the stone to the center and the resting of the stone at or so neere the center as possibly it may is like the hope or desire and tention or possession of man to and in its last end Now as the motion of the stone to and the rest of the stone in or at the center ariseth from and is agreeing to the naturall inclination which the stone hath to its center so likewise the deliberate hope desire or inclination whether naturall and rationall and sapientiall and supernaturall of the soule and blessed spirits to their last end whether naturall or supernaturall and their rest and conquiescency in the same is from one and the same faculty of the soule to weet the will whether naturally if to her naturall end or supernaturally if to her supernaturall end shee bee enabled strengthened and illustrated for the same And although it falleth out often that the same faculty which inclines to good things doth not alwayes by it selfe attaine and apprehend the said good things but they are attained and apprehended by some other powers yet the same power and faculty that desires them and inclines to them doth rest in them and delight in them being had and attained For example the heart of man desires some rich treasure of Iewell for Matt. 6. 21. where the treasure is there is the heart also saith our Saviour and yet the hand and other powers of man take immediate possession and apprehend the same nâ—verthelesse the same being attained the heart or appetite of man takes content pleasure and rest in the Iewell or treasure obtained So likewise the will of man is that which enclines whole man either naturally by her naturall force to some naturall good or supernaturally by abundance of Grace supernaturall and sapientiall to her last end and happinesse But the attaining and apprehension thereof is by the cleare vision and fervent love of God as he is in himselfe And yet neverthelesse the eternall rest repose and conquiescency which I call fruition in the same God so clearely and intuitively sceene so sweetely beloved is immediately from in and of the glorified will whose proper action as it is to desire and hope for so it is eternally to rest and repose herselfe and all other faculties of the soule yea the soule herselfe in the last end of her happinesse and her cheefest and onely good So that it is shee that commands this conquiescency and rest unto hereselfe Be turned O my soule into thy rest For the Psa 116. 7. Lord hath done well for thee It is shee that exults This is my rest here will I abide for ever This is Psa 132. 14. my joy which no power shall take from me This this is that eternall rest and conquiescency which the Apostle adviseth us so servently to pursue Heb. 4. 10. 11. This is that happy and most sweet repose which the restlesse Ambitious Avaricious Presumptuous Contentious Blasphemous Luxurious perjurious spirits shall never injoy For as it is in the Revelation They shall have no rest neither day nor night because Revel 4. 1. 14. 11. they serve such Gods in their workes although they may have tongues and lookes as Angells of light Gods their owne lusts which shall give Ierem. 16. 13. them no rest neither day nor night On that such wretched soules who imitating Satan seeke rest in such drye places of Pride Avarice periury Blasphemy returning into themselves and repenting them of their manifold transgressions whether by their walking in the counsell of the ungodly or standing in the way of sinners or sitting on the chayres of Psa 1. the pernicious scorners would endeavour for Psa 95. 11. that rest which God hath sworne he would never give to those who haue hardened their hearts against his calls And will he then give it to those who shall willingly and deliberately either for gaine or envy forsweare themselves and abjure themselves out of his protection So helpe us God so helpe us God O the most fearefull and execrable evill of perjury of Elder and of Latter times That worthy Cardinall of Cambrey Peter de Aliaco hath a fearefull saying touching the coruption of the Popish church of his times to weet at and about the time of the Councell of Constance That the Church was come to that passe that shee was worthy to be ruled and governed by reprobates which his saying may we not interpret in respect of most fearefully Blaspheming the Majestie of heaven by most execrable false oathes and perjuryes And surely who may or can be reputed to sinne more fearefully than those who by false oathes and perjuries do willingly and premeditatly put themselves out of Gods protection If they who Matt. 10. 33. shall deny God before men shall be denyed of him before his Angells what shall or can become of them who shall deliberately abjure him before men But to returne to our purpose touching the rest and repose of the soule in God and his Graces Peeter upon the mount no sooner beheld the glorious Matt. 17. 4. transfigured body of Christ but he cryes out with a most fervent longing desire of and repose in that object Let us make here saith he to Christ three tabernacles one for thee a second for Elias a third for Moyses So naturall it is for the will to rest and content herselfe in Good present apprehended by the understanding as Good that it is impossible that the will should not according to the measure of the Good take content therein How then is it imaginable or possible but that God infinitely good being as such proposed to the will beloved dearely and enjoyed happily but that the will possessed with such a sweet trinity of sight love and joy should solacing her owne soule with infinite content thus crie out to her selfe This is my rest here Psal 132. 14. will I dwell and abide for ever The heart of man is restlesse till it come to its last end which being once attayned her aeternall rest
wanting to them yet nothing that is hurtefull with them Christ present shall fill and satiate everye desire of them they shall not waxe ould they shall not languish they shall not rott A perpetuall sanitye a happy aeternity shall confirme the sufficiency of that happinesse there shall be no concupiscence in the members there shall arise noe rebellion of the flesh but the whole state of man shall be chaste and peaceable last of all God shall be all in all his presence shall fill and satiate all the powers and facultyes both of body and mind all needfull service and ministration of Angells shall cease the whole City being filled and arightly ordered the state of this consummate happinesse shall neyther bee innovated nor chaunged Thus hee with many more excellent prayses of that glory and yet hee expresseth not the least part of the excellent joyes which shall be injoyed there for to conclude August this poynte in Austens phrase VVee maye more easily shew what is not there then what is there wee may more easily declare what ill is not there then expresse the gloriouse eminency of all good that is there Though I dare not distinguish peremptorily with eyther Sect of the Schoolemen wherein the formality of mans happinesse doth consist yet wee may not deny but that in that most gloriouse estate three gloriouse Actions are most specially recommended and spoken of by the Scriptures to witt Vision Dilection and Ioye or Fruition which three certeyne schoolmen call A mistake of the schoolmen What is the dowrie of the beatified the dowrie of the Beatified Spirits but they are undoubtedly mistaken for as in carnall marriage the dowrie which eyther the Parents of the Bride doe give that the husband may better undergoe the charges and burden of marriage or which the Bridegroome maye give out of excesse of love to please and honour the Bride are not actions nor operations but gifts of Iewells Ornaments Moneyes or such like so likewise in that gloriouse Marriage above when the Lambe Revel 19. 7. and his Spousesse are knitt togeather in the linke or wedding-ring of a gloriouse aeternitye the dowrie is not operations and actions for those are the verie exercise fruition and consummation if I may so write of the gloriouse marriage it selfe But they are gloriouse Habitts Ornaments and Iewells of the Soules of the Bride called Psal 36. 10. by holy David the light wherewith God is to be seene by the Prophet in his Revelation The Revel 21. 11. and 19 8. brightnes of God and his light agayne fine white Revel 6. 11. 2. Timoth. 4. 8. 1. Pet. 6. 4. silke wherewith the spousesse is to adorne herselfe agayne white stoles wherewith the beatified Soules are to bee adorned and honnoured and the Scriptures elsewhere call them crownes of glory names written in the foreheades of the beatified Thrones of glory with many such like glorious epethites So then the gloriouse actions of the beatified are not the dowrie it selfe but suppose a dowrie which to expresse wants not great difficulty yet if I bee not mistaken as for the act of Vision there is required a gloriouse habitt of the Light of glory so likewise for the act of Love a gloriouse habitt of glorified Charity for the act of Ioy and fruition a gloriouse habitt answering to the habitt of Hope and Desire And these if I be not mistaken are that splendent silke those gloriouse whites those new-names those seates and Reve. 3. 4. 12. 21. et 6. 11. et 7. 9. et 19. 14. et 21. 11. thrones of glory those glorified stoles that clarity and brightnes of God whereof the holy Prophet makes so cleare and expresse mention And in truth the dowrie of the beatified Spirits and Soules can be no other then that glorious treasurye of glorious ornaments graces and gifts whereby they are prepared and fitted for the wedding of God the marriage of the Lambe and whereby they are enabled to all those glorious actions and operations in which as the glorious issue and offspring of that Marriage they are for all aeternities incessantly and joyously to exercise and there with to solace themselves in the present vision and fruition of God This state being such and so glorious it were idle with the schoolemen to inquire whether in An idle question of lome schoole-men such a state be required a rectitude and uprightnesse of the will or not For how is it possible but that there should be a rectitude of the will True happines cannot be with out a rectitude of the will when as there is such a cleare intuitive vision of all good so fully injoyed and possessed Is not the wil of herselfe a blind power seeing no otherwise then by her understanding how then can she incline too or prosecute any evill when as the understanding proposes no evill nor can propose evill unto her For in God whom the understanding so clearely and intuitively proposes to the will what evill or shadow of evill can be found or what want of good can be apprehended And here I cannot but admire Orig I. periarch cap. 7. hom 33. et 35. in Lucam how Origen that flower of witts amongst the Ancients could find unlesse his writings be corrupted that the beatified Soules and Spirits might sinne and transgresse which his errour we may observe too too clearely in his writings against it we may thus argue most unanswerably If the blessed Soules and Spirits may sinne then by sinne they may loose their happinesse which is so contrary to the essentiall condition thereof that it were dotage so to imagine that to be the true happinesse of man which is defectible amissible and may be lost most cleare it is that that cannot be true happinesse the aeternity whereof may be doubted of Or else we must admitt that the beatified together with the complacence of sinne may continue happy the which is impossible and implies contradiction For if perfect happinesse do necessarily yea essentially exclude all evill how then can it admitt that evill which Pro. 14. 34. Mat. 25. 48. is the evill of all evills the evill that made mankind miserable the evill that onely makes nations miserable the evill for the punishing of which the evill of hell fire was onely provided and for ever against the reprobates foreknowne and designed How then I say can the last happinesse of man admitt this evill which is so contrary to that most happy and holy state that nothing which is polluted with him can ever or shall ever enter Reve. 21. 27. August in psal 119. thereinto But so it is not above at the Lambes table there the pure truely pure and onely pure have admittance Austen aptly Blessed are the pure and unspotted in the way as if the Prophet should have said I know what thou wouldest thou desirest happinesse if then thou willt be happy be thou pure be thou unspotted So then cleare it
destroyed but perfected Secondly 2. shall these elementary qualities by Gods hand be limited and stayed in their actions and operations that they shall not worke one against another for their mutuall destruction Not so for then this impassibility should not be an internall vertue as a dowry immanent in the glorified body which is against the Apostles intention but onely an outward assistance of God Againe these elementary parts and qualities Impassibility is internall must have their severall mixtions for the making of diverse and distinct parts corporall which cannot be without a refraction and composition of the elementary qualities themselves one with another Or Thirdly may we thinke that 3. this vertue is a coelestiall kinde of substance or substanciall quality which united with the elementary qualities and substances doth temper and make thereby the bodies which are to be glorified fit receptacles for their glorious soules This though it seeme very probable yet I will rather resolve with Aquinas that this vertue and Supplem q. â—2 art 1. power of Impassibility flowes immediately from the soule herselfe which informing the body doth so perfectly and fully subdue all the powers and qualities of the same unto herselfe that no contrary agent can be able to make any violent impression or action upon or against the body for the corruption destruction of the same or may be able to draw it from that quiet and peaceable state wherein it rests Austen excellently God hath made the Soule of so powerfull a nature August epist 66. ad Diosâ—orum that from her glorious happinesse there redounds to the body the vigour of incorruption Cleare it is that no agent can worke with any violent or contrary impression upon or against any other Agent or subject to hurt or alter the same unlesse the same Agent be more powerfull then the other is on which or against which it worketh which being clearely true likewise cleare it is that no corporall creature which hath in it contrary elementary quallities can be of greater power and force then a glorified body is to worke against or upon the same So long therefore as the glorified Soule shall be subject to God and the glorified body be subject to the Soule so long it shall be impossible for any corporall agent whatsoever to have a transeunt action or impression which may any way alter or hurt the same And this is that immutation and change whereof the Apostle not onely speakes but glories 1 Cor. 15. 51. We shall not all sleepe but wee shall all be changed Where he makes this immutation to be a chaunge from passibility to impassibility and to be peculiar onely to the elect whereof the reprobate shall have no part nor portion at all And yet though we graunt an impassibility to the bodies glorified so that they shall not be subject to any violent or contrary impressions The Beatified shall have all such sensitive actions which include not Corruption yet we may not deny but that there shall be all such sensitive actions and consequently answerable passions which include not corruption of seeing hearing feeling smelling tasting and such like as may be fitting for that place Of sight cleare Iob. 19. 26. it is for Iob professes that his eyes shall behold God his Saviour and most frequent are other testimonies of Scripture for the same Hearing cannot be denyed for as the Saints shall incessantly with vocall praise the Psalmist professing that the exultations Psal 149. 6. of God shall be in their throates magnifie God so no doubt may be made but that their vocall Alleluâ—as shall be mutually heard and understood yea who can doubt but that the beatified shall speake to Christ and Christ to them Goe too Good and faithfull Servants saith Christ all haile Glorious God and Lord sing they Benediction thanksgiving is their glorious note for ever and ever Feeling we may not deny for that includes not any corruption and if agreeing to sense it is a perfection not a defect of nature And that glorified bodies be palpable and may be felt Luc. 24. 39. that of Christ makes it most cleare Feele and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see mee to have Neither of the sense of smelling may any question be made because for the sensation thereof there is no corruptible or corporall immutation necessarily required Touching the sense of taste some difficulty may be made and yet though there be no delicious taste by eating or drinking delicious meates or dainties such as the voluptuous of these times make their God notwithstanding it is not absurd to thinke that the glorified bodyes by Gods ordinance shall have some delicious and pleasant moysture resting upon the place of tast that so by such a meanes that sensible part may have her full rest and content The best reasons for this which I have said touching the perfection of corporall senses I take to be these few first that as the body shall have her perfection and reward because shee was so familiar and individuall a companion of the Soule in the suffering for Reasons why there shall be glorious actions of Sensation in the glorified Christ or her subjection to Christ So likewise the sensitive parts and faculties which have been instruments of the Soule in the exercise of righteousnesse shall also have their appointed reward Againe there can be no sufficient reason brought Rom. 6. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 19. Luk. 10. 27. 2 Cor. 5. 10. against what I have said why it should not be so Againe he that will seriously peruse the 5. and 25. chapters of St. Matthewes Gospell and the 22. of St. Luke where Christ promises and performes Mat. 5. and 25. Luk 22. his glorious rewards to his faithfull followers and where Lazarus is described to have tasted his very felicity a thing which the rich glutton importunely desired will not easily be induced to thinke this which I have here set downe to be untrue or false And so I conclude this point with this observation that if as I have shewed above there be in the Soule glorified an impeccability and indefectibility so that they cannot sin in the body an impassibility not to receive any the least impression of coÌ„trariety and corruption that may be how firme then how stable then yea how everlasting then is that glorious state which hath this participated aeternity aeternally that it cannot perish nor decay Who arightly considers this and longs not to have a speedy dissolution of this terrestriall house of this cotage of dirt and clay that so he may be Iob. 4. 19. present with the Lord and have a house aeternall and 2. Cor. 5. 1. everlasting not made with hands but such a one as the spirit of the Lord shall frame and establish O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of hosts my Soule Psal 84. 2. longeth and my heart fainteth after the Courts
of the Lord. Subtilitie THis dowrie gift which is generallie called Subtilitie I would rather speaking with the Apostle call Spiritualty for in his Epistle to the Corinthians hee affirmeth thus It is sowed a naturall body but it riseth a spirituall body and againe 1 Cor. 15. 44 47. 48. 49. The first man is of the earth earthly The second man is the Lord from heaven As is the earthy such are they that are earthy and as is the heavenly such also are they that are heavenly And as wee have borne the Image of the earthy wee shall also beare the Image of the heavenly Thus the Apostle whereout many excellent observations might bee made But I call it Spiritualty not as though which some falsly have affirmed the body were chaunged into the Soule and Spirit for so that which is raysed should not bee man consisting of Soule and Body but a third distinct thing different from Man and consequently the mystery of the resurrection of the flesh should bee quite taken away for Resurrection requires that the same thing which fell bee raysed up againe Neyther doe I call it Spiritualty as though the body after resurrection were made thin and rare like the wynd and ayre as the Eutychians of ould did affirme denying the bodyes glorified to bee palpable but I call it Spiritualty by reason of a more powerfull influence and that dominion which the Soule shall have into and over the Body after the resurrection then it ever had or could have in the time of her mortalitye This though it bee hard to explicate yet sure I am that in so affirming calling of it Spiritualty I speake in the phrase of the Apostle but as for Subtility 1. Cor. 15. 44. which in true and proper signification signifyes a property whereby such things as are spirituall have a penetrative and piercing vertue to passe and Aristo lib. 2. de Generat tex 50 pierce into and through the corpulent parts of any thing that hath a bodye and is corpulent having dmensions and parts I cannot see how it can bee given to the glorified bodyes which after resurrection have the same extensive and corpulent parts for quantity and fulnes of matter or bodilinesse as they had before the resurrection and can no more penetrate pierce or enter into or thorough any true bodily and corporall substance which hath the dimensions of quantity to weet thicknes breadth length then they could August tract 121 in Ioh. Chrysost hom 89. in Ioh. Ambros in 24. luc Hiâ—ar ub 3 definit Hiero-Epist ad Pammach Ioh 20 26. before their resurrection in the time of their mortality and corruption And although it may bee probably affirmed with diverse Ancient Fathers that the body of our saviour who entered into his disciples the dores beeing shut did by powerfull penetration passe thorough the doore yet wee maye not attribute the same as a thing naturall to his glorified body it having the same dimensions of quantity for bodilines and fulnes of matter which it had before but wee must with Antiquity attribute the same to the power of his Godhead Luc. 137. August Eps 3. ad Volusianum Heb. 4. 18. Iob. 37. 18 to whom no word is impossible for he that could enter into the wombe the secret of the most pure vergin not violated as Augustine and Nazianzene excellently Hee who could penetrate the heavens which are more solid and strong then brasse and yet receaue no bruise in his body nor make any rent in them wee may not doubt but that by the omnipotenty of his power hee could enter in into his disciples the dores being shut But to conculde this point wherein the holy Scriptures bee so sparing though with the Apostle wee give Spiritualty to the glorified bodyes whereby it may seeme that in truth they are become Spirituall which is true in the sense I have expressed yet are they not so Spirituall but that they are palpaple and may bee touched Luc. 24. 39. and felt Feele see sayth Christ to his Apostles for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see mee to have Where I note that a body which is truly spiritual may withall bee really palpaple and bee touched and felt also though it bee against that knowen Gregor hom 26 in Euangel saying of Gregory called the great a Pope of Rome Of necessity all what so ever may bee felt or handled is subject to Corruption But perhaps hee meant that so it was ordinarily according to the course of naturall things as they are in this state of mortality The reader may here expect that I should more amply open and explicate what this Spiritualty may bee I confesse my Ignorance I had rather heare a master then bee my self a Teacher only I resolve that it is a spirituall influence into and a powerfull Dominion of a Soule Glorious over a Glorified Body whereby the Body may seeme as it were to bee freed and cleared from all such corporall imperfections and defections as are incident to substances that are bodily and Corporall I meane such imperfections and defects as doe not essentially follow the nature of quantity and Bodilines it self that is all such defects and imperfectious as precede and goe before accompany or follow after Generation Augmentation or such like corporall motions which serve for the increase or conservation of humane nature And surely most necessary it is that all such defects and imperfectious should cease for without the cessation of them it cannot bee well understood how the Beatified both in body and Soule should bee elevated into that liberty of Glory which Rom. 8. 21. Galat. 4. is promised to the childeren of God the Citisens of that Hierusalem above which is both Glorious and freed from all servitude of corruption Cleare experience teacheth that to bee most true which the booke of Wisedome complayningly Sap. 9. 15 delivereth That the Corruptible body over-loadeth and aggravateth the soule And that the earthly habitation presseth downe the mynde meditating upon many things Most necessary then it is that in that state of felicity and full liberty where the Soules Beatified incessantly see God and meditate upon God that they should bee freed from all grosse and heavy clogs and hinderances that so with all their forces and endeavours they may bend themselves to the contemplation loue and fruition of the infinit Goodnes of God so clearely and presentially proposed unto them And this is that which wee must call Spiritualty wherein if I may seeme to the Learned to be mistaken I desire from them some better and more full declaration of this dowry of Subtility Agility THis dowry gift of Agility is a glorious quality or vertue whereby the bodyes of the glorified are totally subject to the Soules as to most powerfull Movers to be moved by them without all resistance or least reluctancy that may be thought on which Agility or Facility as I conceive they have because the
operations The estate of happinesse requires that the soules of the beatified should be in a continuall glorified exercise of glorious actions of every power and faculty of the soule nay it is impossible to conceive how there should be a glorious satiety of happinesse if there be not an incessant and never intermitted exercise of glorious operations and a very apprehension of that glorious estate and condition of happinesse wherein the beatified are This truely is most apparent The Cherubins and Seraphins with incessant admiration sing the thrice holy holy holy holy Lord God of Saboth The sweet singer of Israell accounts all those blessed that dwell in the house of the Lord for that they shall for all eternities blesse and sing praises unto the Lord Now these divine cries Isa 6. 3. and elevations of admiration holy holy holy Lord God of Sabboth of the Cherubins and Seraphins these praises and collaudations of the Saints those Alleluias praise ye the Lord praise ye the Lord recounted by the Prophet in the Revelation are they ought else or can they be ought else then thir severall actions and operations of vision love joy delight reverence admiration which the Angells and Saints seeing God have with God in God and of God with God because they are made partakers of the very joy of the Lord in God because they shall see him as he is of God because he is the eternall fountaine of light streaming into the soules and spirits of the beatified a most glorious light whereby they see God and his glorious Majesty most clearely and consequently they cannot but love him but delight in him admire reverence and adore him 〈…〉 bâ—fâ—â—â— him thereby acknowledging him for the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of themselves of their 〈◊〉 and oâ— all creatures whethâ—r 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 above or on the earth 〈…〉 within the 〈◊〉 of the â—arth beneath Fifthly I suppose that this glorious exercise 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 glorious 〈◊〉 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 of the 〈…〉 God Some there are who do thinke that there is in the 〈◊〉 an abstractive knowledge of God by his creatures and 〈◊〉 an answerable love arising from the same but without all question they are herein mistaken for seeing the knowledges of God by 〈◊〉 13. 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 as being obsâ—uâ—e in part and imperfect and of God 〈◊〉 are to cause and to be 〈◊〉 when as the clâ—are and iâ—tuitive vision of him 〈…〉 given unto the bâ—â—tified why then shall 〈…〉 knowledge of God by and thâ—ough his creatures whenas 〈◊〉 shall be 〈…〉 is in 〈…〉 whenas he shall be 〈…〉 whenas we shall kâ—â—w 〈◊〉 even as wâ—◠〈…〉 not obseurely in a â—haâ—ow 〈◊〉 clearely 〈…〉 face to face By 〈…〉 vision the spirits and soules of the 〈◊〉 shall be 〈…〉 〈◊〉 and so swallowed up that the pretended abstractive knowledge of God by and in his creatures shall be altogether needlesse yea perhaps impossible if we would stand longer to 〈◊〉 the same And so I come more specially to distinguish the principall actions and operations which the beatified have in 〈…〉 God The first and paine action of the beatified about and on God the fountaine of all the rest is a cleare and 〈◊〉 vision oâ— him as he is in 1 Ioâ— â— 2. himselfe Iâ— is 〈…〉 with God before God and 〈…〉 presence of God thereby not onely The first 〈◊〉 aâ—â— on 〈◊〉 the beatified seeing that which is â—â—nifest of God in regard of his creatures but also that which is manifest of God in himselfe by his owne 〈◊〉 â—â—sential light For God is light and in him there is no darknesse at all And by this intuitive vision of God 1 Ioh. â— the beatified spirits so see God their intellective powers being enabled thereunto by the light of glory that their powers are thereby fully satiated and at rest most sweetely and joyously injoying that which God promised to Moyses I will shew thee all good Out of this presentiall and Exod. 33. 19. intuitive vision of good all good clearly beheld there followeth necessarily a double love of God I said necessarily for it is impossible that good Second glorious action all good essentially good having no evill in it should clearely bee proposed to the understanding and that the will whose proper and formall object is good should not love and embrace the same Now this love is a double tendency or embracing of the soule into and of that infinite goodnesse which is in God first of that infinite goodnesse of God as he is good in himselfe goodnesse it selfe secondly of the very same goodnesse of God as by participation it is imparted and coÌ„municated as their last end and finall good unto the soules and spirits of the Beatified This with reverence I presume to declare by that which the Apostle delivereth in his Epistleto the Corinthians to weet that love never fadeth away whereby it is most apparent 1 Cor. 13. 8. that the love of the regenerate in this life the love of the beatified in the life of blisse and glory is one and the same essentially and in nature the onely diversity is that by an excesse of perfection that of the beatified doth exceedingly surpasse that which is of the Pilgrimes in this valley of mortality If then the love of the Elect whilst they are in the way absent from God and the love of the Elect when they are in their country and at their end present with God be one and the same then must it needs follow that as the love of the Elect in the way tendeth with a double respect to God to love A double kind of glorious love God as he is good in himselfe and to himselfe which is the love of friendship and amity and to love him as he is good to his elect their totall and finall good which is a love of a holy and sacred concupiscence so likewise the love of God in the beatified inclineth them to love God as hee is good to himselfe and in himselfe and as he is most graciously good unto themselves And can there be made any doubt of this what shall the habit of love charity moove incline us most divinely to love God in both respects as he is obscurely seene by faith whilest wee are Pilgrims and travellers in this mortall life and shall not the same habitt of love and charity being now perfected and glorious necessarily and ineviâ—ably moove us to love God in both respects for his goodnesse as it is infinitely in himselfe and for his goodnesse it as it is and as he is by participation communicated unto us Yea this is so apparent that the man according to Gods owne heart professes what his love was in this life of mortality and what he longed for and longed after in that life of glory and immortality thus What is there saith he for me in heaven Psal 73. 25. 26. besides thee and besides thee what would I upon earth
is that the beatified cannot sinne for beatified they cannot be unlesse they be first purified from all sinne how then being beatified may they committ sinne The truth of this point of the impeccability of the beatified Soules and Spirits I declare thus The beatified and happy by How the beatified be come impeceable the cleare vision of God are so determined and inclined with a glorious necessity to love him that as they cannot but love him as their last end and cheefest good so they cannot but referre all other actions and affections whatsoever else they may there have to the glory of him as to their last end how then is it possible that they should transgresse or swarve from God and so sinne Surely they cannot and this impeccability they have not by any extraordinary grace graunted unto them For that purpose for their very estate and condition of seeing God with so cleare a vision of loving him with so unmooveable a love of delighting in him with so unspeakeable a joy requires that they should not have any left a possibility to swarve from him And in truth to stand within the principles of the light of nature the Rules of divinity and Philosophy it is more possible and probable that a heavy milstone should naturally moove and ascend upwards from the Center of the earth unto which or neere unto which it hath a naturall inclination by the whole force of his nature then that the beatified Soules and Spirits should swarve and cease from their love of God and delight in God whom they so clearely and presentially see and behold as their last end the marke of their desires the totall object of their happinesse their onely and cheefest good And so we may observe how idle that reason is wherewith some endeavour to proove that the beatified Soules and Spirits are peccable because forsooth the nature of their wills which intrinsecally requires that they should be free and at liberty is not chaunged nor altered True the liberty of their wills is not perverted nor destroyed but they The will of men beatified hath no liberty about her last end are so perfected in the highest degree of their perfection unto which they can possibly attaine And here I cannot passe to note as a point of ignorance for any one to thinke that the will hath or can have a liberty of freedome to love See Aquinas 1. q. 81. et 1. 2. or not to love to embrace or not to embrace her last end her cheefest and onely good the object of her happinesse so clearely and presentially proposed unto her and as such embraced by her The jester in the play could tell what end man desired yea what end man necessarily desired yea could not but desire to weet to be happy and yet these can finde or presume to finde how the beatified Soules and Spirits can in their very state of happinesse have a liberty or indisserency to love or not to love to embrace or not to embrace the infinite Godnesse of God and their last happinesse which with such unspeakeable joy peace and rest they hould and possesse in their bedds of that celestiall paradise And of August in psal â—6 the purity and necessity whereof Austen most divinely thus What shall be the delights of Saints they shall be delighted in a multitude of peace Let the wicked here rejoyce in multitude of gold store of silver abundance of servants excesse of riotous and luxurious feasts but thou O thou Lover of God what shall thy delights be Thou shalt be delighted in multitude of peace and rest thy gold peace thy silver peace thy possession peace Thy life peace thy God peace yea whatsoever thou canst desire shall be to thy peace and peace to thee here that which is gold to thee cannot be silver that which is wine cannot be bread that which is light cannot be to thee as food and drinke but there thy God shall bee to thee all in all thou shalt eate him that thou hunger not thou shalt drinke him least thou thirst thou shalt be lightened of him that thou be not blinde thou shalt be held up by him that thou fall not from him he whole and entire shall possesse thee wholy and intirely want there with him thou shalt not suffer any with whom thou shalt possesse all Thou shalt have all of him and hee all of thee because hee and thou shalt be but one which one and all he shall have who shall possesse and hold his Saints in rest and peace Thus that Father most aptly and sweetely shewing God to be so possessed of the beatified and the beatified so to possesse God that they cannot desire ought else no not have so much as a velleity or weake desire to delight or rest in ought else then in God the God of their hearts Psa 73. desire and their portion for ever Where then is that idle conceipt of those who affirme that although the blessed cannot see any thing in God that may moove them or incline them to sinne yet in respect of other I cannot tell what particuler actions wherein God may imploy them they may have some either inconsideration or ignorance and so consequently may in the doing of the same sinne and transgresse and so to them even to them being happy that of the Poet may be applyed It is the part of a foole to say I had not thought of it I did not consider it arightly O the presumption of witts to thinke that those blessed Spirits can have any such ignorance or inconsideration as not to do the will of God clearely proposed unto them how shall not they know the will of him whose face they so clearely see and Mat. 18. 20. behold how should not they doe his will who delight in nothing more then in the performance of his will The Church by Christs owne commaund prayes thus to God Thy will be done in earth as Mat. â— 10. it is in heaven Whereby shee professes that in the heavens above there is most perfect obedience yeelded by the beatified unto God because nothing can be there done or admitted against his will either out of intended wilfullnesse or pretended negligence Mat. 18. 10. Those blessed Spirits that ever behold the face of God that is in heaven cannot have the least veleity Baruch 3. 39. orinclination not to doe the will of their God which is in heaven Those glorious starres no sooner heare the call of their God but they answere we are ready doth not David give unto them as a peculiar of their honnour and happinesse that they Psa 103. 21. ever doe the will of the Lord Prayse the Lord all yee his hosts yee his servants that doe his pleasure prayse the Lord. And so I conclude this point affirming that the beatified Soules and spirits are unpeccable being by contemplation made immutable and by an euerlasting love made undefectible I have sufficiently shewed that
there cannot be a deficiency in the last happinesse by reason of the commitment of any sine by the beatified but what can there be any deficiency or defectibility thereof upon any other head or respect Surely no for then unworthily should it be reputed the last end of those Spirits which shall have no end and of those soules which being immortall shall never dye nor cease to bee True happinesse that cannot be of the aeternity and endlesse durance whereof doubt may be made Austen Austen de Civitat lib. â—2 most excellently What other is our end then to come to that kingdome whereof there is no end Divers do here question whether the last happinesse in part to weet of the glorious love of God and joyous delight in God may cease and fade notwithstanding the cleare vision and sight of God do still continue where in to resolve is smal or no difficulty at al for if the questioÌ„ be whether God out of his absolut power can shew himselfe as he is in himselfe infinitely good c. to any of the beatified yet they not love him nor actualy delight in him I answere that it is morally impossible except in such a case onely that God would not concurre with such his beatified to the act of love and affection of delight and then most cleare it is that in such a case though they follow naturally one upon another yet because they are really distinguished that one may be effected and not the other God concurring with the power intellective for the action of vision but not with the power of the will for the act of love and affection of delight But what a vanity of witts to seeke a knot where none is Cleare it is that the state of the last happinesse of man shal be so perfect and consummate that well may there be some new addition of adventicious and accidentall glory but to thinke that there should be any fading in that happinesse in which as Bernard divinely the Beatified are ever greene and growing in aeternity were an injurious vanity and blasphemous dotage against the glory and honour of the Citty of God SIXTH SECTION Conteines certaine observations touching the glorified bodyes of the beatified and their glorious qualities WHat hath beene said touching the glory of the soules of the beatified comes very short of that which in truth it is For if an admiring soule cannot how shall a speaking tongue be able to expresse the excellent eminencyes of the same But it being so that the beatified Soules want part of their consummation untill their bodies shall be joyntly glorified with them This place requires that wee should adde somewhat touching First observation the glorious conditions and states of their glorified bodies For which purpose I observe first that though at the dissolution of man by death the Soule being separated from the body shee if holy and regenerated be elevated to blisse and glory her body on earth rotting and falling away into dust and corruption yet there remaineth in the Soule a naturall and most intime inclination to have her body by information and naturall conjunction reunited to her againe which inclination St. Austen conceived to be August lib. 12 in Gen. cap. 35. so great that he thought by the meanes thereof the soules beatified to be so letted and hindred that they cannot see and behold God before the resurrection so perfectly as they shall do after the same In which his opinion though with reverence be it written he was mistaken for the cleare vision and fruition of God depends nothing of the body or animall affections thereof yet hereby it is evident that the Soule hath not her full and compleat happinesse untill her yoke-fellow after whom shee so naturally longeth be to her unâ—ted againe I say longeth for the desire after the body is not immoderate nor anxious for shee knoweth that at the time and houre appointed her body shall be reformed in the likenesse Phil. 3. 20. of Christs glorified body and be renuited to her againe which time because God hath so appointed it she dutifully and obediently tarrieth and expecteth knowing assuredly that though it bee long yet that at length coming it will come Secondly I observe that this inclination of the Soule arises from this that the Soules of men are not as the Spirits of Angells are compleate and perfect Substances subsisting by themselves The Soule and body are as naturall parts for the Constituting of the nature of man but they are parts onely of humane nature the Soule one part the body another both concurring to make a perfect subsisting nature of man the Soule and body of both of them parts separable yet herein differing that the Soule whether separated or united is naturallie immortall the body whether separated or united by nature mortall and yet herein agreeing that as being naturall parts if united they make one compleat whole substance so if separated they have an inclination most intime and natural for the making up of the whole to be reunited agayne But to declare this point more clearely The inclination of any thing that is but a part of a whole to be united to that part wherewith it maketh the whole is so naturall that the same inclination cannot be removed unlesse the thing it selfe which is the part bee first destroyed for example the parts of a greene tree being but halfe cleft and pulled asunder doe not with a naturall force more endevour to reunite them selves together then the naturall and essentiall parts of any compleat substance upon any separation doe incline to bee reunited together agayne the reason of which inclination I take to be this that everye thing hath a naturall propension for the conservation of it selfe and his owne being Now cleare it is that the esse and being of a part as a part is for the making of the whole so then a part hath never a more perfect being then when it is in the whole for whose being making constitution naturally it is What marvaile then that every part naturall and essentiall if separated from the whole have an inclination for the making up of the whole to be reunited to her fellowe part agayne and so no merveyle it is that the Soule being an Essentiall and Naturall part together with the body for the making up of the substance of man if she being separated from the body have a naturall inclination to bee reunited to the body agayne that by the meanes of such a union man who by death was dissolved and become no man may by the resuscitation of the body and the reunition of the body to the Soule bee made man agayne Though this point be most cleare both in Divinity and Philosophy yet is it not conceipted by those who make the Soule only to bee the whole man and the body to be no other then the Soules waggon or chariot so that the Soule is no otherwise in the body
then as the mariner is in the shipp or the inhabitant in his dwelling house Of this opinion Porphirie seemed to bee who as Austen writes Austen 12. de Civit. of him affirmed that the Soule if she would bee happie was of necessity to bee separated and freed from the body And likewise of this opinion al those Heritickes of necessity must bee who make and teach a duality of God a good one and a bad one the good God author of Spirits and Soules the bad God author of the bodies and all such habituall corruptions as are in them needes I say must theese latter so teach for if Soules bee not naturall formes of bodies to quicken them give life unto them and with them as comparts to make compleat composed substances of the Persons of men and women then assuredly no naturall inclination or propension can bee in them being separated from the bodies to bee reunited to them agayne no more inclination certeynly then there can be in him who having once tasted of the tyrannie of the Popish Inquisition can desire to returne into it agayne Thirdly I observe the just disposition of God who hath ordeyned a generall resuscitation of bodies at the last day that man accordingly as hee may have done eyther good or evill may receave eyther a glorious reward or an ignominiouse punishment in the bodye Cleare it is that not only the Soule or only the body but men and women composed both of body and soules are those who worke and doe for actions and deedes are of the Persons themselves are those I say who doe eyther good or evill and consequently whole man and woman perfect and compleat Persons must appeare to receave according as they have done in their bodie eyther good or evill Wee must all appeare before the judgement seate of Christ sayth the Apostle that every one may 2. Cor. 5. 10. ceceave according as hee maye have done in his body eyther good or evill Not onely bodies then nor Soules alone but men and women Persons compleate and consummate must appeare I say consummate for such is the Phrase of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrewes where speaking of Heb. 11. 13. the Fathers and Ancients of the old testament who by the testimonie of Fayth were approved sayth thus They receaved not the repromission and promise God providing better for us that without us they should not be consummated so hee speaketh And this cōsummation which is when the bodie being raysed up and shall be joyned to the Soule agayne is that whereof holy Iob speaketh thus Iob. 14. 15. making it the verie worke of the right hand of God himselfe Thou shalt reach out thy right hand to the worke of thy handes or as the Chaldaicke paraphrase hath it Thou shalt be gracious to the worke of thy hands How this but by a powerfull and gracious resuscitation and raysing up of her body from her bed of dust and corruption and reuniting the same agayne unto the Soule whereby it being reunited becomes quickened Iob. 9. 25. 26. with the Spirit of life The hope of this was so deare and preciouse to holy and most venerable Iob that on the dunghill of his miseries with a triumphant kind of joy hee layed up in his bosome the joy full expectation hereof I know sayth he that my redeemer liveth and that at the last day I shall be compassed about with my skinne and that in my flesh I shall see God my Saviour and that myne owne eyes shall behould him and not any other for mee And in this expectation hee dayly dwelt according as he professes in another place All the dayes of this my warfarre I expect and looke untill my chaunge and immutation be come Which Iob. 14. 14. chaunge and immutation is that verie thing which now wee have in consideration to weet the glorious state and condition of the bodies of those who in this their pilgrimage may have walked in true fayth towards their God It is not doubted of amongst Christians but that the same individuall Person is to appeare is or shall bee glorified both in body and soule who in this mortall life hath kept his fayth faythfullie and obediently seruing God not taking or receaving his Soule in vayne and consequently Psal 24. 4. as the Soule is the same individuallye for it never perished so likewise the verie body must bee the same individuallye yea and the substantiall union and conjunction whereby the Soule and body are joyned together must be the same individuallye and in unity of number which though reason conceaves not yet fayth assecures and warrantes And so consequently cleare it is that the immutation and chaunge whereof the Apostle and holy Iob speake is not because there is another Soule or another body or another union of body and Soule for all these three are the same individuallye and numerically but the whole chaunge and immutation is in respect of some glorious properties and qualities which the bodies resuscitated to glorie shall have which they never had whilst they were yet mortall fro as the Soules and Spirits have their speciall glories so likewise shall the bodies have theirs These Foure glorious qualities of the glorified bodies qualities and properties are commonly distinguished to bee fowre to weet Impassibilitie Subtillity Agility Clarity Impassibilitie whereby the body is made uncapable of any contrary passion or violent impression Subtillity whereby the body is made not a Spirit but like unto a Spirit to bee able to penetrate or passe where it could not before Agility whereby it is indewed with such a velocity and Swifenes that the beatified may followe the Lambe whithersoever he goeth Clarity whereby al deformitie or naturall obscurenesse being taken away the body becomes bright shining and resplendent but wee must explicate these things more particularlye and yet with all brevitie possible I beginne with the first Impassibilitye Impassibilitye must needes be graunted as a partiall dowrie to glorified bodies for if they should be passible as before then consequently they should bee corruptible which as it is agaynst the nature of felicity that essentially includes a participated aternity so is it expressely agaynst the Apostles doctrine where he professes that our bodies which are sowne in corruption shall rise up in incorruption But though it be most apparant that glorified bodies shall bee impassible yet is it not so easily to explicate and open from whence this impassibility doth immediately arise or what is the immediate cause thereof The Apostle tells us that what is sowed in weakenesse and infirmity riseth up in power and vertue which vertus or power I take to be the immediate cause of impassibility or else to be impassibility it selfe But what is this vertue and power Is it 1. a supernaturall vertue making the elementary parts and qualities to be of another nature then now they are Not so for nature must not be chaunged or
thy selfe art the too to great reward thou the Crowner and the Crowne thou the promiser and the promised thou the giver and the gift thou the rewarder and the reward itselfe of aeternall felicity O be thou this to us in the truth of that glory when we shall enter into thy owne joy and see thee as thou art in thy selfe to this guide us with thy Counsell and enable us with thy Spirit of grace that running the way of thy Commandements we may in the end attaine thee the God of our hearts our parts and our Portion for ever Amen SEVENTH SECTION Wherein is breefely and in generall laid downe the meanes and way whereby eternall happinesse is to be attained FOr the more cleare handling of this point we are to suppose that whatsoever thing hath any perfection due unto it as the end and consummate perfection thereof If that perfection be not naturall and essentiall to the thing it selfe the same cannot be had without some action or motion leading thereunto for example God who Exod. 3. 14. is most essentially his owne I am that I am and whole infinite perfection is his owne being most necessarily and essentially needes not nor requires not any action or motion to any thing that is without himselfe for his end and perfection But so it is not in Creatures whose natures being limited and in themselves imperfect neede and require some action or motion to that which is without themselves for the attaining of their ends and final perfection which motion is that which now we have in handling whereby man is to attaine his last end and consummate happines For this purpose I ponder that Principle of the Apostle He that cometh to God must beleeve that Heb. 11 6. he is and that he is a rewarder of all those that enquire after him In which words I find clearely that the accession and comming to God in this life which is the way to that vision and fruition of God in the nextlife the finall end of man is by Faith and a religious inquisition of and after him which religious inquisition of and after him if I should thinke not to be cheifely by Faith hope and love as the heads of this way out of which many particular paths doe follow I should wrong the judgement of all Orthodoxe Divines whatsoever who doe distinguish the vertues that are conversant and immediately exercised upon and about God into three to weet Faith Hope and Love The later of which the Apostle himselfe termes the more excellent way writing thus to the Corinthians Cor. 12. 31. And yet shew I you a more excellent way which more excellent way alone is to be taken as the spirit and path of Faith and Faith againe is to be reputed as the head way and soule of it two individuall inseparable twinnes mutually ever imbracing each other and working each by other And though there bee infinite ianglings and questions about the vertue extent and causalitie of these severall vertues in the matter of justification and about their manner of merrit or concurrence to saluation yet doe I not remember that ever I have read of any except the ungodly Anomists August ad quod vult de heres 14. and prophane Libertines a broode of Ennomius or some indiscret Predicants who have denyed the necessitie of the two later hope and love As for the first Faith all requyre the same absolutely necessary to salvation Yea the Papists themselves require the same as the very first meanes and foundation for justification and sanctification Coun Trident Bellar Omnes Pontificii out of an absolute necessitie but not solely and alone without hope and loue The Reformed Churches generally hould her to weet faith to be the sole and onely instrumentall cause of Iustification by which as by a hand the justice righteousnesse of Christ is applyed unto the justified soule So then by confession of all an accession and motion to God there must be in this life or else there can be no possession of him in fruition in the next life The happinesse of this life is the way and motion to the happinesse of the next life The happinesse of the next life which is the happinesse of the end can be no other then the vision and fruition of God The happinesse of this life which is the happinesse of the way is also a vision and fruition of God but it is by faith and love and that which Eusebius calleth the worship of God not onely externall but especially internall and yet not so internall but that there must also necessarily Eusib de moust evanglica be externall for no man shal be crowned unlesse he shall manfully and lawfully have fought and 2 Timoth. 2. 5. againe the Spirit of God saith thus Hould that Reve. 3. 11. which thou hast lest another take thy crowne Which wee are not onely to understand of the internall sight of the soule and inward constancy of our Faith but also of the outward profession thereof Rom. 10. 10. and the externall exercise of piety and godlinesse If I be demaunded what I would call this I cannot bethinke of a better name then Christian warfare or the Imitation of Christ The holy Apostle chearing Tit. 2. 12. up the faithfull puts them in minde of a joyous expectation after the comming of the glory of the great God but he prefixes before by the way of necessary preparation that they must live soberly piously and justly in this world so that sobriety which conteines the well ordering of man in himselfe against excesse c. Piety which comprehends the whole worship of God Iustice which comprises all duties that appertaine to equity right betwixt man and man are prerequired as the very motion and way by which they shall come to the ioyous meeting and glorious enioying of the glorie Via Regni of the great God Thus then holy life and Christian workes are the very way and motion to the glorious vision and fraition of God It is said generally yea received by all Orthodoxe Divines that good and godly workes are the way to the kingdome of glorie Which we are not to understand by the way of comparison onely to the materiall way by which men in their corporall journies doe walke from place to place from Citie to citie but even by the way of comparison to the very motions walkings and passings of men upon and along the same wayes which we may call mens wayes to such and such places so the pious and godly life of the faithfull is their very moving passing and walking to their journies end the glorious vision and fruition of God And so in what manner wee may hold the movings and passings of men along their wayes necessary for their arriving to such and such places In like sort we must hould the moving and passing of man by godly life to be necessary for his arriving to the
them should have had for their deliverance Is it not sufficient for the gamester and wrastler to know that except he contend manfully and worthily he shall have no reward So so let it be aboundantly sufficient for Christians to know and understand that unlesse they fight a good fight they 2 Timoth. 2. 5. shall not be crowned unlesse they hould fast that which Reve. 3. 11. they have another shall take their crowne unlesse their righteousnesse abound more then the righteousnesse Mat. 5. 20. of the Scribes and Pharises they shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Vnlesse they be diligent and painefull labourers in the vineyard they shall receive no Mat. 20. 8. day penney unlesse they have the cable of faith and repentance they shall not avoyd shipwracke except they persevere in faith and piety unto the end they shall never attaine that last happy end salvation Finally that according to their very workes so they shall receive either glory honour and immortalite 2 Cor. 5 10. Reve. 10. 12. Rom. 2. 9 10. or shame dishonour anguish and confusion as the Apostle St. Paule hath plainely delivered and St. Peter most resolutely Of a truth I have found that there is no acception of persons with God but in every nation hee that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse Act. 10. 34. 35 is accepted with him Thus the word of God most clearely accursed then be he that addeth or detracteth any thing or disputes against this truth so clearely delivered so strongly confirmed Venerable Austen reproved some rash and presumptuous August de vit Christ cap. 14. 10. 6. wits of his times daring to blaspheme against this truth And I have knowne others saith he whom the darke and obscure cloud of folly and imprudence so deludeth and deceiveth that they thinke and affirme that the faith which they pretend themselues to have shall profit them without workes of justice before God being deceived with this kynd of errour without al feare they cōmit greivous crimes whilst they beleeve God to be onely a revenger and Punisher of Infidelity Mat. 15. 14. Luc. 6. 39. but not of other crimes And such as these are not content themselves to perish alone but they also endevour to entrappe others in whom there is no light of divine knowledge and the sentence of our Saviour is fulfilled in them The blinde if he lead the blinde they shall both fall into the ditch Thus he which censure of his doth it not concerne those who in these dayes dare affirme that Obedience appertaines not to the Gospell and that of the lawe do this and thou shalt live appertaines not to the Gospell and againe that whatsoever sinnes the elect may commit they are not lesse acceptable in the sight of God By which prodigious paradoxes it is evident that they have placed all religion in apprehension and opinion which in the end will but deceave them Thus having in generall shewed the way to the last end of man endlesse happinesse and felicity to be faith and pious godly life it shall not be amisse to adde a few words touching that source roote whereout and whence out a godly and pious life doth spring yea solely and infallibly doth spring and arise Cleare it is that the life of every man is called his daily study and conversation and as cleere it is that the daily studie and conversation of every man are the vsuall actions and operations of every man which actions and operations if pious godly leading to glorie they must needes proceede from a man renewed in spirit and regenerate in his soule so that though the very faculties powers of the soule to weet the understanding will and memorie with such like doe really and truely effectuate and produce such actions and operations yet they doe it by the vertue and efficacy of grace which is in them I sayeth the Apostle have laboured 1 Cor. 15. 10. more then they all but not I but the grace-of God which is with me or thus which is in me or thus with me upholding divers readings Againe Christ to his faithfull when you shall stand before your adversaries Luc. 21. 14. do yee not premeditate what or how to speake for I will give unto you a mouth and wisdome which all your adversaries shall not be able to withstand for it is not you that speake but the Spirit of my Father which is in you Of the Apostles it is affirmed that they were Act. 2. 4. all filled with the holy Ghost and beganne to speake as the holy Ghost gave them utter ante So in these so in all actions godly and supernaturall man worketh according to that measure of grace which is given unto him When given unto him Surely Ephe 4 7. most specially in Regeneration where as that which Ioh. 3. 6. is borne of the spirit is become Spirit not by ceasing to be that substantiall naturall spirit which it was Isa 11. 2. Galat. 5. 22. Ephes 4. 23. 24. Rom. 8. 20. 21. before but because invested in herselfe and in every faculty of herselfe with the gifts and graces of the Spirit she is by them truely renewed and innovated yea changed from the servitude of sin full corruption into the libertie of the children of God Yea so changed that by the Spirit of God 2 Cor. 5. 17. Galat. 6. 15. Ephes 5. 6. 2 Cor. 6. 7. they are called new Creatures light in the Lord Temples of God seates of wisdome with many such like glorious appellations And no marvell for the graces and gifts of the Spirit of God are so deare and so gracious that the Apostle Saint Peter dares to affirme that by them the faithfull are made 2 Pet. 1. 4. Partakers of the Divine nature it selfe And these graces and giftes precious so called by Saint Peter are the very Source roote or fountaine of all those graces and motions which leade to aternity and these graces the Apostle intendeth when he thus divinely admonisheth It is good to confirme and establish the heart with grace not with meates which Heb. 13. 4. have not profited those which walked in them Now the reason why the sweete providence of God doth invest the Regenerate soules with these graces and precious giftes whereby the holy Ghost is said to dwell in them is not onely because they should have internall garments of sanctitie befitting his service but also because he would have those that doe his service and be his servants to doe him acceptable service yea such acceptable service as may leade and conduct them to glory immortall He made man without man man in his making doing nothing but he wil not so save man doing nothing hand in hand leaning his soules elbowes on the cushion of presumption no no hee will not save man without man as Austen truely not because man with by virtue of his naturall power can cooperate with God to
salvation but because man being in his soule and powers thereof changed renewed and enabled by the precious giftes of grace shall and may cooperate to his salvation yea the Apostle dares to professe himselfe 2 Cor. 3. 9. and such like to be Gods-helpers in the ministery of salvation If God did not requyre mans good and pious conversation as a meanes and necessary way leading to salvation then should not the faculties powers of mans soule neede to be sanctified and elevated with such supernaturall giftes and graces for the working and effecting of such actions of pietie and godlines but seeing he requires them yea most necessarily requires them as welnye every page of sacred Scripture proclaimes it should seeme a kinde of iniquity in God which be farre from him to require such actions of man yea and to condemne for the want of them if hee should not by his graces be ready to enable man for the doing and performing of the same Hee doth it then and this surely by no other meanes then by investing the soule and every power of her with such divine gifts graces and vertues as so divine actions doe require Bernard truely to Bern. ser 83. in canst this purpose The soule cannot seeke after God unlesse she be prevented by grace Austen more fully Grace is therefore given not because wee have done works but that we may doe them that is not because Epist 105. a sixt to 2 circaâ—med we have kept the law but that wee may keepe the law And againe Even as man should not have wisedome understanding counsell fortitude knowledge piety the Isa 11. 2. feare of God except according to the Propheticall saying he had received the Spirit of wisedome and understanding and counsell and fortitude and knowledge and piety and the feare of God and even as he should not have vertue charity continency except he should have received the holy Spirit whereof the Apostle speaketh you have not received the Spirit of feare but of vertue charitie contineney so neither should hee have faith unlesse he had received the Spirit of faith according as it is written I have beleeved therefore Psal 115. I have spoken and we also doe beleeve and therefore wee speake So then the source roote and fountaine of all these godly actions and motions which leade to salvation are the graces of God because proceeding from his graces enabling us for them which Sap. 10. 25. graces he who hateth nothing of all that he hath made he that willeth all should be saved and come to the knowledge of his truth He who delighteth not in the 1 Timoth. 2. 4. death of a sinner but that he turne from his wickednes Ezec 33. 11. and live He who lightneth every man that commeth Ioh. 1. 9. into the world Hee who hath placed his Tabernacle in the Sunne to runne his race with swiftnes and Psaâ— 19. 6. to spread his beames with graciousnesse that nothing can scape the warmth of his illuminations He who Reve. 3. 20. standeth at the dore and knocketh that if any man open to him he will enter in sup with him and bee his guest He I say who is out of his goodnesse thus Reve. 22. 17. graciously disposed towards his creatures freely and frankely offers and presents the same unto them in a holy serious manner that they may have life yea have it more abundantly according Ioh. 10. 10. to that of himselfe I am come that they may have life and have it more aboundantly And thus it appeareth how by grace presented and received received by the efficacy of it selfe the Saints and servants of God do walke in those wayes where by they come to be saved whereby they are enabled in some good measure truely to doe that which otherwise should be impossible to nature vitiated and corrupted Austen for De grat et lib. arbitrio cap. 16 â—07 this purpose excellently thus It is certaine we may keepe the Commandements if wee will but because the will must be prepared by the Lord we must aske of him that we may have a will to do so much as wee ought willingly to doe It is certeine that we do then well when we will but he maketh us able that we may will good of whom that is written which I expressed a litle aboue The will is prepared of the Lord of whom it is said The wayes of men are directed of the Lord. And he it is that willeth their way of whom it is said It is God that doth worke in us both to will to doe It is certaine that we doe when we doe but he maketh that we may doe giving most powerfull strength and ability to the will who hath said I will make you able that you may walke in my justifications and keepe and doe my judgements Thus he most excellently declaring the working of grace in us and our working by grace Grace the reward whereof is eternall life and our good keeping of Gods Commandements in a partiall measure according to this state not in a full perfect measure of degrees Thus concluding these my meditations touching the last end of man I earnestly intreate the religious Reader seriously to thinke and meditate on the glory and aeternity of this Land of promise both shewed and promised so faithfully and seriously unto him in sacred Scriptures The glories and excellencies thereof do infinitely surpasse the fruites that were brought unto the children of Israel out of the Land of promise which Num. 13. 28. notwithstanding did so prevaile on the hearts of the faithfull that the desire to obtaine the said fruits enabled them with a spirit of courage to undergoe all perills and hazards for the attaining of them many there were indeed whom the spirit of feare and trembling restreined from going into that happy land because they heard that the sonnes of Enacim giants robustious men were therein and thereby perished deservedly for their incredulity and disobedience Oh let not the like spirit of Incredulity and disobedience have dominion over the hearts of any Christians I especially meane those who professe to know God arightly for if we know God arightly let us walke to him arightly diligently fervently O gracious God thou the onely wise and most powerfull God doe thou vouchsafe for thy deare Sonnes sake to enlarge and widen our streightened hearts by the Spirit of grace that we may runne to thee and in the end also attaine thee by the way of thy Commandements preset to us by thy selfe To my soule I say and resolue that it be praying to God the Father in his Sonns name that shee may be endewed with such a spirit of grace that enamoured with the consideration and love of this happines shee may in the imitation of that holy man ever breathe out thus O my soule if we ought continually to endure torments that we may see Christ in his glory with God the Father and to be associated to the fellowship of his Saints were it not meete patiently and willingly to suffer all that is sorrowfull that we might bee made partakers of so great a good and so great a glory Let the Devills therefore lye in waite and prepare their temptations let fastings and hard-clothings breake and sub due our bodies let labours oppresse watchings afflict let that man disquyet me this man crie out against me let cold bowe and pinch me heate burne me let my head ake my brest faint my stomacke swell my face waxe wanne pale let me in every part be weakened and let my life faile me in griefe sorrow my soule in mourning heavinesse let rottennes enter into my bones and abound under me so that I may find rest in the day of Tribulation and may ascend up to the people of God O my God giue me a spirit to awake early in the morning unto thee and that my soule may thirst after thee yea that my very flesh may be manifestly and manyfoldly even bent unto thee O be thou the Horizon of my heart at noone day the desire of my soule at midnight O let all that is within me long after thee that I may in the end come to see and behold thee as thou art in thy selfe my blessed end my happinesse the God of my heart my part and my portion for ever AMEN Recensui hunc Tractatum cui Titulus est Mans last end c. unà cum Epistola Dedicatoria ad Serenissimum Regem Carolum et praefatione ad Lectorem qui quidem liber continet pag. 83. in quibus omnibus nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quo minus cum utilitate publica imprimatur ita tamen ut si non intra septem menses proxime sequentes Typis mandetur haec licentia sit omnino irrita Ex aedibus Fulhamiensibus prid Calend. Septem 1633. Guil. Bray The Errata Page 10. lin 8. for that read and p. 20. l. 5. reade is his end pa. 57 l. 29 for him r sinne p. 82 l. 30. for roule r. walke pa. 87 r. If we be found p 99 l. 2 r. or as meâ—rits pag 100. l 31 r. table of faith p. 102 l. 29 according to diverse readings In the notes Pag 25 read presences pa 43 for Trinitate r Civitate pag 60 r q. 82. p. 68 r. 19. p. 103. r. Cor. v 16.