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A65802
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The state of the future life, and the present's order to it consider'd by Tho. White, Gent.
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White, Thomas, 1593-1676.
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1654
(1654)
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Wing W1842; ESTC R15645
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17,794
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128
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the Sun beams or the highest Angel a contemptible Worm and infinitely more beyond all comparison The third Point LAstly All other objects of delight may be coÌ„prehended by our Understanding may be contemn'd by our Will as less than our Soul and not able to satisfie it only Almighty God so fills and oversatisfies that entirely possessing our Affections He as it were forces the Soul to love and delight more than of its own nature it possibly could nor can it ever be weary of the good it enjoys but still with its whole and more eager desire will hug and cling to its beloved Object so that a Soul which sees God seeks nothing else but rests fully satisfied as it were lull'd into a dear contentment wherein it remains so absorpt and wholy ravisht that it sweetly languishes and dissolves into Spirits and flames of love the better to inessence and incorporate it self into God Thus then thou feest clearly demonstrated this great-concerning Truth that No delight can be comparable to thy Beatitude and that 't is no wonder to hear our Blessed Lord and Master in a manner labour to express it when He said Mensuram plenam confertam coagitatam supereffluentem dabunt in sinus vestros You shall be paid with good measure heap'd up and press'd down and thrust together and yet running over into your Bosoms Conclusion COnclude therefore with a full resolution by all thy works and best endeavours and even if need be with the hazard and loss of all other Goods to purchase this hidden Treasure this precious Pearl which at length though late thou hast hit on and to think nothing considerable nor to be car'd for in comparison of this to pitty the unhappiness of those poor Souls that spend their whole Affections in toys and trifles of this Life neglecting this only necessary good and to rejoyce in the secret of thy Bosom that being vouchsaf'd grace now to see that the wisdom of this world is in very truth but folly it has pleas'd thy kind Lord to number thee amongst those few that are truly wise The third Consideration The happy State of the Just's Bodys after their Resurrection The first Point COnsider When the last day shall restore thee thy Body again it shall be endow'd with such a degree of health as will be most convenient for all thy operations both Spiritual and Corporal accompany'd with an incapacity of deficience or Corruption and wth such an Agility as the most perfect disposition of the Nerves can cause with access of all possible swiftness and a power of raising or depressing thy self at pleasure as also of consisting with or penetrating any other Body to all which thou shalt have such a graceful Comeliness with so rare a Beauty of Light and Colour whose like shall not be found in any other Body but thine that thereby thou shalt become an ornament to the Universs adding so peculiar a grace to all the rest that without thee that whole mass of glorious Bodies would seem in a manner lame and defective The second Point MOreover All the laudable actions of thy whole life shall be known to all the Men and Angels that are or ever were who admiring all and every perfection in them even to the least circumstances and thoughts that accompany'd them shall from their very hearts and by the force of truth love and praise thee for them nay the very Devils and damned souls shall honour thee but with envy grief and repentance and what may seem more strange thy very sins shall be then a glory to thee both because thou o'recam'st and forsook'st them and that even in their commission there was possibly some laudable circumstance and which avayl'd to thy salvation So that then thou shalt have so many Friends so many Admirers of thy Vertue as there are Saints and Angels so many VVitnesses of thine Excellency as there are damned souls and Devils who obstinate in their own malice by their Torments shall confess and encrease thy Glory The third Point ADde to this Neither the Devils nor damned souls shall be able in any thy least Motion or Will to resist thee all the Saints and Angels shall observe and comply with thy desires more punctually then any obsequious servant ever watch'd their Masters eye and no Corporeal nature shal be able to contest with thee but all Bodies shall obey thee in what ever thou hast a mind to So that there thou shalt neither want Power where none shall contradict thee nor Riches where nothing shall be denyed thee Conclusion COnclude then Whatever Good thou shalt here forsake for God and Vertu 's Love will not be lost but there restor'd with Interest whether Friends Wealth Honour or Dominion Wherefore doubt not like a prudent Merchant to venture thy Goods to the Sea of Fortune and storms of Persecution whence thou shalt find an indefectible Treasure layd up in Heaven for thee or like the good Husbandman to sow in the Winter of Adversities though with some reluctance sorrow thy seed in Vertu 's ground expecting the precious fruit it shall infallibly yield thee in the Summer of Eternity Having so firm an assurance as the express VVord of God They that sow in tears shall reap in jâ—y The fourth Consideration The intollerable Pains of the Damned for the Loss of this happy Knowledge and Sight of God The first Point COnsider Man's Soul being created for the Vision of Almighty God as properly and more than a knife is made to cut any Vessel to be fill'd and all heavy things for their Center and a knowing substance when it wants the good for which it was made being very unquiet and full of Pain and that so much the more as it's Nature is more excellent it's Force greater and Inclination more Violent It must needs follow that such a Soul when it shall know what an infinite Good the Almighty is who alone is able to satisfie its Appetite will be fill'd with a sorrow for so great a Joss equal to the excellency of its Nature and the force of its Inclination Reflect then with what Violence a huge stone falls to it's center or a Mighty Bow of Steel let loose unbends its self or Powder set on fire breaks all to make it's way and be assured the sorrow of an unhappy Soul who now sees of what good it remains depriv'd will be as far more Violent than all these as its Nature and Forces surpass the activivity of the strongest Bodies The second Point AGain When this poor Soul shall be convinc'd how slender base sordid fading and almost momentany all those things were for which it contemn'd and lost this infinite and only Good that might so easily have been obtain'd even with far less pains than were often employ'd on those transitory toys and with far more security since none could hinder it but it self no not it self deprive it self of this when once
it were unreasonable to be colerick at the Ditch or stone and seek revenge like a Dog so no less folly is it to be angry with a Person for doing thee a displeasure Since either 't is done justly or unjustly if justly thou oughtst to turn thine anger on thy self for deserving it and not on the doer if unjustly then certainly he was unjust before he did it and if thou then wert not angry with him for being unjust neither oughtst thou be now for his doing unjustly it being but natural and what in reason thou shouldst expect that an unjust Person should do unjust things Again since no humane Action or Desire is reasonable which aims not at some good to him that wills or does it and Revenge ayms only at the Evill of the Offender which is no ways thy Good but meerly as a satisfaction of thy vindicative appetite in reason thou oughtst not to wish anothers ill but rather repress thine own unreasonable Humour The third Point COnsider the Reward promis'd thee by our kind Master for Meekness You shall find rest says he to your Souls and in another place Blessed are the Meek for they shall possess the Land and again In your Patience that is Meekness you shall possess that is enjoy your Souls Of all which the sense is that besides the Reward in Heaven the greatest sweetness this present Life affords viz. A quiet and contented mind is properly and peculiarly reserv'd for the Meek as a recompence of their Vertue Whereas those that seek Revenge are alwaies in contention and at debate with one another which for the most part costs their Purses well in Sutes and Law-wranglings and many times their skins even their Lives too in desperate quarrels Besides within what tumults of Passion are rais'd in their Souls what cares what fears continually disquiet and torment them that they neither enjoy themselves nor even the temporal blessings God has given them 'T is Meekness alone then you see affords contentment and sweetens our whole Life Conclusion COnclude then What a good God wee serve who is so sollicitous as for our Future so even for our Present happiness that hee 's pleas'd not only most tenderly to recommend and with sweet words allure us to it but even to introduce them by exhibiting himself to us as a Master and Pattern of those means by which true temporal comforts and contentments as much as this present Life admits are to be obtain'd What evasion can there be from such kindness what excuse from so important so pleasant an Interest No either renounce the name of Christian or resolve to addict thy self seriously to the exercise of this Vertue The twelfth Consideration Fraternal Charity is the true Mark of a good Christian and the only sure way to eternal Happiness The first Point COnsider first Our Lord and dear Master to fix on us a greater necessity and as it were a double tye of mutual Love and Charity to one another was pleas'd not only to strengthen the old Cōmandement of loving our Neighbour as our self by commanding it anew as from himself when he said I give you a new Command and This is my Command that you Love one another but also in most particular manner to recommend and appropriate it to the Law of Grace as a special Mark and Sign of Christianity whereby true Christians are distinguisht from false By this men shall know that you are my Disciples If you Love one another Since therefore true Love is never idle nor consists in words only but is active according to its power 't is evident That which Christ commands us is that we be alwaies ready as much as in us lys to do good to all Men but especially to those that are truly Brethren that is good Christians The second Point AGain consider Since as the Apostle says He that Loves his neighbour has fulfill'd the Law 't is evident this mutual Charity ought to be embrac'd not only as a particular Vertue but as the common Mother and producer of all the rest For if he that loves his Neighbour has fulfill'd the Law the whole Law then is nothing but of Love and doing good to our neighbour Wherein admire the tender goodness of God whose care and providence tends wholy to this That it may be well with all and every one of us See how by that Law which commands thee to do good to all thou canst by that very same Law all and every other person is commanded to do thee what good they can O! how holy is this Law of Christ which so carefully provides for the welfare and advantage of all but withall how profitable how gainfull to thee since for that little good thou canst do to others it obliges all others readily to do thee all the good they can which must needs be infinitely more than what thou art able to do for them The third Point LAstly Consider the beloved Disciple St. John's words He that loves not his Brother whom he sees how can he love God whom he sees not and observe that the love of thy Neighbour must be the Touchstone where on to try thy love to God whether indeed it be true or a counterfeit and as they say but a Lip-love having God in thy Mouth but in thy heart the World For if thou lov'st not thy Neighbour 't is evident thou lov'st something else that hinders thee from loving him which because it cannot be God must needs be some created good as Honour Riches Pleasure c. which thou lovest inordinately that is for it self and not in order to God and so clearly as long as thou lov'st not thy Neighbour thou hast not God for thy last end nor lov'st him above all things as is thy duty for as much as thou lovest God so much more doubtless thou lovest those things he loves amongst which the chiefest if not the only thing we know is our Neighbour whose love even by Nature is so recommended to us that without friendship and conversation with one another our very lives would be tedious and miserable Conclusion COnclude therefore with a serious and effectual Resolution in Truth and Actions to love thy Neighbour to contemn none to refuse none in what thou art able to help them but whatever good thou canst do to any person without prejudicing thy self even with a little prejudice to thy self when 't is much for his advantage to do it chearfully and willingly be glad when thou hast oblig'd any esteeming that day lost wherein thou hast done good to none And be certain this Practice will be so far from injuring thee that nothing will more advantage nothing render thee more grateful and acceptable both to God and Man FINIS 1. The future Life preferrable 2. Because knowledge there more perfect 3. God being it's sole Object Therefore only to be minded 1. All delight from the Intellect 2. Whence God transcends all Corporal Pleasures 3. He only filling the Soul Therefore fully resolve for Him 1. Gloriously qualify'd 2. Vniversally honour'd 3. Entirely complyd with Therefore here to be sacrifiz'd up in hope 1. Equal to the Inclination of a Soul's Nature 2. Aggravated by the folly of her choice 3. Especially a Christian Therefore in time prevent It. 1. Missing their unalterable desires 2. Incompossible in themselves 3. Which they see Eternal Therefore regulate the Affections 1. Extream sorrow including All 2. With Contempt on all sides 3. All hightned through the subjection of the Body Therefore Love not thy self here 2. That Best which begets a Love to It. 3. Every deliberate Action important Therefore be careful and diligent 1. The mean's to Natur 's end truly pleasant 2. Whence Vertue brings Peace and Vice disquiet 3. Piety not debarring ev'n temporal Contentments Therefore confidently proceed in It. 1. Creating the World nay Himself for Man 2. Passing through so painful a Life and Death 3. Feeding us with Himself Therefore value thy Salvatition 1. Rendred easily capable of high Mysteries 2. Encourag'd by His Example 3. Endear'd by His sufferings Therefore inexcusably be good 1. No Christian revengeful 2. All anger unreasonable 3. Meekness alone sweetens Life Therefore strongly embrace It. 1. Appropriated to the Law of Grace Wherein every one has an advantage 3. The Touchstone of our Love to God Therefore improve It's occasions