(yet of you too, for with you, I would not be over bold) but I would ask leave of the angels of heaven, leave of the Holy Ghost himself, to venture to say a little, of this everlasting blessedness: the tongues of angels cannot, the tongues of the Holy Ghost, the authors of the books of Scripture have not told us, what this blessedness is; and what then shall we say, but this? Blessedness itself, is God himself; our blessedness is our possession; our union with God. In what consists this? A great limb of the School with their Thomas, place this blessedness, this union with God, in visione, in this, That in heaven I shall see God, see God essentially, God face to face, God as he is. We do not see one another so, in this world; in this world we see but outsides; in heaven I shall see God, and God essentially. But then another great branch of the School, with their Scotus, place this blessedness, this union with God, in amore, in this, that in heaven, I shall love God. Now love presumes knowledge; for, Amari nisi nota non possunt, We can love nothing, but that which we do, or think we do understand. There, in heaven, I shall know God, so, as that I shall be admitted, not only to an adoration of God, to an admiration of God, to a prosternation, and reverence before God, but to an affection, to an office, of more familiarity towards God, of more equality with God, I shall love God. But even love itself, as noble a passion as it is, is but a pain, except we enjoy that we love; and therefore another branch of the School, with their Aureolus, place this blessedness, this union of our souls with God, in gaudio, in our joy, that is, in our enjoying of God. In this world we enjoy nothing; enjoying presumes perpetuity; and here, all things are fluid, transitory: there I shall enjoy, and possess for ever, God himself. But yet, every one of these, to see God, or to love God, or to enjoy God, have seemed to some too narrow to comprehend this blessedness, beyond which, nothing can be proposed; and therefore another limb of the School, with their Bonaventure, place this blessedness in all these together. And truly, if any of those did exclude any of these, so, as that I might see God, and not love him, or 38 Augustine. love God, and not enjoy him, it could not well be called blessedness; but he that hath any of these, hath every one, all: and therefore the greatest part concur, and safely, in visione, that vision is beatification, to see God, as he is, is that blessedness. There then, in heaven, I shall have continuitatem intuendi; it is not only vision, but intuition, not only a seeing, but a beholding, a contemplating of God, and that in continuitate, I shall have an uninterrupted, an unintermitted, an undiscontinued sight of God; I shall look, and never look off; not look, and look again, as here, but look, and look still, for that is, continuitas intuendi. There my soul shall have inconcussam quietum; we need owe Plato nothing; but we may thank Plato for this expression, if he meant so much by this inconcussa quies, That in heaven my soul shall sleep, not only without trouble, and startling, but without rocking, without any other help, than that peace, which is in itself; my soul shall be thoroughly awake, and thoroughly asleep too; still busy, active, diligent, and yet still at rest. But the apostle will exceed the philosopher, St. Paul will exceed Plato, as he does when he says, I shall be unus spiritus cum Deo39, I shall be still but the servant of my God, and yet I shall be the same spirit with that God. When? Dies quem tanquam supremum reformidas, æterni natalis est, says the moral man's oracle, Seneca. Our last day is our first day, our Saturday is our Sunday, our eve is our holyday, our sun-setting is our morning, the day of our death, is the first day of our eternal life. The next day after that, which is the day of judgment, Veniet dies, quæ me mihi revelabit, comes that day that shall show me to myself; here I never saw myself, but in disguises there, then, I shall see myself, and see God too. Totam lucem, et totus lux aspiciam; I shall see the whole light; here I see some parts of the air enlightened by the sun, but I do not see the whole light of the sun; there I shall see God entirely, all God, totam lucem, and totus lux, I myself shall be all light to see that light by. Here, I have one faculty enlightened, and another left in darkness: mine understanding sometimes cleared, my will, at the same time perverted. There, I shall be all light, 39 1 Cor. vi. 17. no shadow upon me; my soul invested in the light of joy, and my body in the light of glory. How glorious is God, as he looks down upon us, through the sun! How glorious is that glass of his! How glorious is God, as he looks out amongst us through the king! How glorious in that image of his! How glorious is God, as he calls up our eyes to him, in the beauty, and splendour, and service of the church! How glorious in that spouse of his! But how glorious shall I conceive this light to be, cum suo loco viderim, when I shall see it, in His own place. In that sphere, which though a sphere, is a centre too; in that place, which, though a place, is all, and everywhere. I shall see it, in the face of that God, who is all face, all manifestation, all innotescence to me, (for, Facies Dei est, qua Deus nobis innotescit, That is God's face to us, by which God manifests himself to us) I shall see this light in his face, who is all face, and yet all hand, all application, and communication, and delivery of all himself to all his saints. This is beatitudo in auge, blessedness in the meridional height, blessedness in the south point, in a perpetual summer solstice, beyond which nothing can be proposed, to see God so, then, there. And yet the farmers of heaven and hell, the merchants of souls, the Roman church, make this blessedness, but an under degree, but a kind of apprenticeship; after they have beatified, declared a man to be blessed in the fruition of God in heaven, if that man, in that inferior state do good service to that church, that they see much profit will rise, by the devotion, and concurrence of men, to the worship of that person, then they will proceed to a canonization; and so, he that in his novitiate, and years of probation was but blessed Ignatius, and blessed Xavier, is lately become St. Xavier, and St. Ignatius. And so they pervert the right order, and method, which is first to come to sanctification, and then to beatification, first to holiness, and then to blessedness. And in this method, our blessed God be pleased to proceed with us, by the operation of his Holy Spirit, to bring us to sanctification here, and by the merits and intercession of his glorious Son, to beatification hereafter. That so not being offended in him, but resting in those means and seals, 4o Augustine. of reconciliation, which thou hast instituted in thy church, we may have life, and life more abundantly, life of grace here, and life of glory there, in that kingdom, which thy Son, our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen. SERMON CXXVI. PREACHED AT ST. DUNSTAN'S, APRIL 11, 1624. DEUTERONOMY xxv. 5. If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without, unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. FROM the beginning God intimated a detestation, a dislike of singularity; of being alone. The first time that God himself is named in the Bible, in the first verse of Genesis, he is named plurally, Creavit Dii, Gods, Gods in the plural, created heaven and earth. God, which is but one, would not appear, nor be presented so alone, but that he would also manifest more persons. As the Creator was not singular, so neither were the creatures; first, he created heaven and earth; both together; which were to be the general parents, and out of which were to be produced all other creatures; and then, he made all those other creatures plurally too; Male, and female created he them; and when he came to make him, for whose sake, (next to his own glory) he made the whole world, Adam, he left not Adam alone, but joined an Eve to him; now, when they were married, we know, but we know not when they were divorced; we hear when Eve was made, but not when she died; the husband's death is recorded at last, the wife's is not at all. So much detestation hath God himself, and so little memory would he have kept of any singularity, of being alone. The union of Christ to the whole church is not expressed by any metaphor, by any figure, so oft in the Scripture, as by this of marriage: and there is in that union with Christ to the whole church, neither husband, nor wife can ever die; Christ is immortal as he is himself, and immortal, as he is the head of the church, the husband of that wife: for that wife, the church is immortal too; for as a prince is the same prince, when he fights a battle, and when he triumphs after the victory: so the Militant, and the Triumphant church is the same church. There can be no widower, there can be no dowager, in that case; he cannot, she cannot die. But then this metaphor, this spiritual marriage, holds not only between Christ and the whole church, in which case there can be no widow, but in the union between Christ's particular ministers, and particular churches; and there, in that case, the husband of that wife may die; the present minister may die, and so that church be a widow; and in that case, and for provision of such widows, we consider the accommodation of this law. If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without, unto a stranger, &c. This law was but a permissive law; rather a dispensation, than a law: as the permitting of usury to be taken of strangers, and the permitting of divorces in so many cases, were. At most it was but a judicial law, and therefore lays no obligation, upon any other nation, than them, to whom it was given, the Jews. And therefore we inquire not the reasons of that law, (the reasons were determined in that people) we examine not the conveniences of the law; (the conveniences were determined in those times) we lay hold only upon the typic signification, and appliableness of the law, as that secular marriage there spoken of, may be appliable to this spiritual marriage, the marriage of the minister to the church: If brethren dwell together, &c. From these words then, we shall make our approaches, and application, to the present occasion, by these steps; first, there is a marriage, in the case. The taking, and leaving of a church, is not an indifferent, an arbitrary thing; it is a marriage, and marriage implies, honour: it is an honourable estate, and that implies charge, it is a burdensome state; there is honos, and onus, honour, and labour, in marriage; you must be content to afford |