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A44675
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A discourse relating to the much-lamented death and solemn funeral of our incomparable and most gracious Queen Mary, of most blessed memory by John Howe.
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Howe, John, 1630-1705.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing H3023; ESTC R7264
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27,333
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50
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can any way be concern'd with With the blessed God himself they are most of all concerned For him they are eternally to adore and enjoy Therefore that their Perfection should be virtually included in Divine Knowledg is congruous to the State of their Case and to the Language of the Holy Scriptures which expresses their most perfect State by the Vision of God in the mention'd 1 John 3. 2. and Mat. 5. 8. Heb. 12. 14 c. Which Phrase is not borrowed from the Sight of the Eye and transferr'd to that of the Mind at random or without most probable Design It most aptly signifies the great Facility of this Knowledg that it is not toilsom there is little Labour in it 't is not such as requires great Pains It is but Intuition not a cautious wary Ratiocination wherein we use to be very solicitous lest we draw any irregular or untrue Consequences We do very easily and on the sudden without Suspicion or Fear of Error only behold what is offer'd to our View This is a great Perfection of Mind with these blessed Spirits to be capable of knowing the greatest things so easily and so soon to know by seeing And their Aptness hereto is a moral Perfection for the Clearness of the Discovery infers their greater Obligation to attend and not to divert from what shall cost them so little The blessed God's Manifestation of himself in that brightest and most glorious Light is not only evidently supposed for in his Light only can we see Light Psal. 36. 9. but it is emphatically express'd in the before-mention'd Text 1 Cor. 13. 12. of seeing Face to Face which signifies on his part gracious Vouchsafement his offering his blessed Face to view that he hides it not nor turns it away as here sometimes he doth in just Displeasure And his Face means even his most conspicuous Glory such as in this State of Mortality 't would be mortal to us to behold For no Man not so divine a Man as Moses himself could see his Face and live And it signifies on their part who are thus made perfect their applying and turning their Face towards his viz. that they see not casually or by fortuitous Glances but Eye to Eye by direct and most voluntary Intuition which therefore on their part implies moral Perfection the Will directing and commanding the Eye and upon unexpressible Relishes of Joy and Pleasure forbidding its Diversion holds it steady and intent Here our Ignorance of God is culpable being voluntary not liking to retain him in our Knowledg Rom. 1. 28. There our Knowledg is inculpable and sinless being chosen purposed and always principally for its most proper Ends the perfect Adoration and Fruition of the blessed Object we so fixedly behold and so earnestly covet to know 'T is also fit to be noted that the very Fruition of the blessed God it self which the holy Scripture includes in our Vision of him is not only our very Blessedness it self but it is our Duty too It is a thing enjoin'd us and comprehended in that first and great Commandment Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and Soul and Might and Mind which who can perfectly do without a complacential Acquiescence and final Rest of their Will in him as the best the most perfect and all-comprehending Good And hereupon tho we are wont to distinguish our glorifying God and enjoying him they are most manifestly coincident and but notionally distinct For in this our fruitive Acquiescence of Will in him stands our highest Veneration our most practical most significant Acknowledgment and Testimony concerning him as the highest the most compleat and most absolutely perfect Good in that we seek no further but take up our final Rest in him This is to give him the proper Glory of his Godhead to glorify him as God And therefore this being the fullest Sense of that great and summary Command it is only a commanding us to be happy As on the other hand the Misery of the intelligent Creature is his greatest and most injurious Iniquity an Aversion of Will from the blessed God a Testimony against him as none of the best Good and the greatest Indignity which created Nature can put upon him who is Goodness it self Thus then is the Knowledg or Vision of God even as it is fruitive a moral Perfection But the divine Knowledg more at large of these Holy Spirits though it be principally conversant about God as its noblest Object excludes not their applying their Minds to other Objects too according to their Concernment with them And yet 2. How aptly this Perfection is included in such Knowledg will further appear if you consider the manner of knowing or the special nature and kind of this Vision or Knowledg viz. that it is not that slight ineffectual meerly notional insipid Knowledg which unregenerate Minds are now wont to have of the most evident Truths viz. that for instance that God is the most excellent the most perfect the most desirable as well as the most adorable Good which Knowledg because it answers not the true End of divine Knowledg is called Ignorance Whereupon they are said to be alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in them Eph. 4. 18. But that Ignorance is paraphras'd by Blindness of Heart i. e. a most perfectly voluntary and chosen Ignorance founded in Aversion of Will And elsewhere Jer. 9. 3 6. by a refusing to know God a saying to him Depart from us we desire not the Knowledg of thy Ways Job 21. 14. Whereupon the Light that is in such is said to be very Darkness and then how great is that Darkness Mat. 6. 23. This Knowledg or Vision now in Perfection is most deeply and inwardly penetrative efficacious and transforming admits a Light which spreads and transfuses it self through the whole Soul So it is at first in every truly regenerate Spirit whereby such an one is begotten into the Divine Likeness his Image is impress'd upon it which as hath been noted is said to be renewed in Knowledg Col. 3. 10. So that as by solemn Message to the Sons of Men God is declared to be pure Light 1 John 1. 5. This then is the Message which we have heard of him and declare to you that God is Light and with him is no Darkness at all And as he is the Original the paternal Light the Father of Lights Jam. 1. 17. so they that are born of him are said to be Light it self and the Children of Light Ye were Darkness but now are you Light in the Lord walk as Children of Light Eph. 5. 8. And they are therefore said as the Sons of God to shine as Lights Phil. 2. 15. or required to do so for the Words bear either Form This so energetical efficacious Light is in the mentioned Texts manifestly intended to connote Holiness as it doth also Rom. 13. 12. which the Antithesis there shews Works of Darkness and Armour of Light