they, with Pharaoh's courtier, forgotten their fellow-prisoner? Far be it from us to entertain so injurious a thought of those blessed spirits, whose charity is no less exalted than their knowledge.

Some graces they necessarily leave behind them. There is no room for faith, where there is present vision; no room for hope, where there is full fruition; no room for patience, where there is no possibility of suffering. But charity can never be out of date, charity both to God and man. As the head and body mystical are undivided, so is our love to both. We cannot love the head, and not the body: we cannot love some limbs of the body, and not others. The triumphant part of the church above, doth not more truly love each other glorified, than they love the warfaring part beneath. Nor can their love be idle and fruitless; they cannot but wish well to those they love.

That the glorified saints above, wish for the good estate and happy consummation of their conflicting brethren upon earth, is a truth, not more void of scruple, than full of comfort. It is not so much revenge, which the souls under the altar pray for upon their murderers, as the accomplishment of that happy resurrection, in which that revenge shall be fully executed. The prayer of Zechariah is like that of the saints above: Oh Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation? Zech. i. 12. Rev. vi. 10.

We rejoice only in what we wish for. There is joy in heaven, in the presence of the angels, for sinners repenting; in the presence of the angels therefore on the part of the saints, for none but they dwell together. Oh ye blessed saints, we praise God for you, for your happy departure, for your crown of immortality. Ye sue to God for us, as your poor fellow-members, for our happy deliverance out of those miseries and temptations, wherewith we are continually conflicting here below, and for our society with you in your blessedness. Other terms of communion we know none. As for any local presence, or particular correspondence, that ye may have with any

of us, we cannot come to know it; or if we could, we should have no reason to disclaim it.

As for the state of the souls of Lazarus, of the Widow's son, of Jairus's daughter, and of Tabitha, whether there were, by divine appointment, a suspension of their final condition for a time; their souls awaiting not far off from their bodies, for a further disposition; or whether they were, for the manifestation of the miraculous power of the Son of God, called off from their settled rest, some great divines may dispute; none can determine. Where God is silent, let us be willingly igno

rant.

With more safety and assurance may we enquire into the relations which the departed soul bears to the body which it left behind for a prey to worms, a captive to death and corruption; for though the parts be severed, the relations cannot be so. God made it intrinsically natural to that spiritual part, to be the form of man, and therefore to animate the body. It was, in the very infusion of it, created; and in the creating, infused into this co-essential receptacle; wherein it holds itself so interested as to know there can be no full consummation of its glory, without the other half. It was not therefore more loth to leave this old partner, than it is now desirous to meet him again; well knowing that they shall meet in a much happier condition than when they formerly parted. Before, this drossy piece was cumbersome, and hindered the free operations of the active spirit: now that by a blessed glorification it is spiritualized, it is every way become pliable to its renewed partner, the soul; and both of them to their infinitely glorious Creator.

SECTION 8.

The re-union of Body and Soul.

THE happy reunion of a blessed soul, meeting with a glorified body, for the peopling of the new heaven, is what this material world is not capable of, till the last fire shall have refined it. And who can but rejoice in spirit, to for see such a glorious communion of perfected saints? To see their bodies with a clear brightness, without the least obscurity; with agility, without any dulness; with subtlety, without grossness; with impassibility, without the reach of annoyance or corruption?

There and then shalt thou see, oh my soul, looking through clarified eyes, and rejoice to see, that glorious body of thy dear Saviour which he assumed here below, and in which he wrought out the great work of thy redemption. There shalt thou see the radiant bodies of all those eminent saints, whose graces thou hadst wont to admire, and weakly wish to imitate. There shall I meet with the visible companions of the same unspeakable glory, my once dear partners, children, friends; and if there can be room for any more joy in the soul that is taken up with God, shall both communicate and appropriate our mutual joys. There shall we, indissolubly, with all the choir of heaven pass our eternity of bliss, in lauding and praising the incomprehensibly glorious majesty of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, in perpetual hallelujahs to him that sits upon the throne.

And canst thou, oh my soul, in the expectation of this happiness, be unwilling to take leave of this flesh for a minute of separation? How well art thou contented to give way to this body, to shut up the windows of thy senses, and to retire after the toil of the day, to a nightly rest, from whence thou knowest the body is not sure to rise; or if it do, it shall only rise such as it lay down, a little fresher but no whit better. And art thou so loth to bid a cheerful good-night to this

piece of myself, which shall more surely rise than lie down; and not more surely rise, than rise glorious! Away with this weak and wretched infidelity: without which the hope of my change would be my present happiness, and the issue of it my eternal glory. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

BOOK III.-OF THE EVIL ANGELS.

SECTION 1.

Their first Sin and Fall.

HITHERTO Our thoughts have walked through the lightsome and glorious regions of the spiritual world. Now it is no less requisite to cast some glances towards those dreadful and darksome parts of it, where nothing dwells but horror and torment. Of the former, it concerns us to take notice for our comfort; of these latter, for terror, caution and resistance.

The condition of apostate angels and reprobate souls, is that of palpable darkness. They have only light enough to see themselves eternally miserable, nor are they capable of the least glimpse of comfort or mitigation. But as it falls out with those who in a dark night bear their own light, that they are easily discerned by an enemy that waits for them, and good aim may be taken at them, even while that enemy lurks unseen; so is it in these spiritual ambushes of the infernal powers: their darkness, and our light, gives them no small advantage against us. The same power that clears and strengthens the eyes of our soul to see those excelling glories of the good angels, can also enable us to pierce through that hellish obscurity; and to descry so much of the natures and condition of those evil spirits, as may render us both wary and thankful.

In their first creation there were no angels, but angels of light. That any of them should bring evil with him from the moment of his first being, is utterly inconsistent with the character of their Creator; for from absolute goodness, what can proceed but good? And if any of those spirits could have been originally evil, 'whence could he pretend to fetch it? Either there must be a predominant principle of evil, or a derivation of it from the fountain of infinite goodness; either of which suppositions are full of impiety. All were once glorious spirits: sin changed their hue, and made many of them ugly devils.

How should sin come into the
God made all things good: sin
How should the good that he

Now I am apt to ask, world; how into angels? could be no work of his. made, produce the evil which he hates?

The great God, when he would make his noblest creature, found it fit to produce him in the nearest likeness to himself, and therefore to endue him with perfection of understanding and freedom of will: either of which being wanting, there could have been no excellency in that which was intended for the best. Such therefore did he make his angels. Their will being made free, had power over their own inclinations. The free inclinations of some of them swayed them aside from that highest end, which they should have solely aimed at, to seek after ends of their own. Hence the beginning of sin; for as there can be no possible fault incident to the will of him who proposes to himself as his only good, the utmost end of all things, which is God himself; so where a person's own particular good is put in the place of another and a higher good, there must happen a sin in the will. Thus it was with revolting angels: they did not order their own particular, supposed good, to the supreme and utmost end, but suffered their will to dwell in an end of their own. By this means they put themselves in the place of God; not regulating their wills by a superior, but making their will the rule of their own desires. This was to affect an equality with the Highest. Not that their ambition went so high as to aspire to a height of goodness or greatness equal to their infinite Creator, for