Bates - HP BX5200 B3 1700

__.__A Funeral Ser"_!!l.!!_!!!_!!_f. William Bate_s ---~L bath told them fo. A divine faith, is full of diuine life, and vigor. The Jubflanci and evidence of what is b1lievcd. The Soul being over-pow'red into this belief by the Majelly, and Authority of the great God revealing it, and the awful nets of his Tefiimony; the word of God revealing this, as other portions of facred truth, works ejftfluafly in them that fo believe it : i. e. that receive it not as the word of man, but tt<J the 1 Theft 2. 'J· word of God They that live in the hope of eternaL life, which God tbat c.tnndt /7e hMh Tic. 1. 2 • promifed, would break through a thoufand deaths to obtain it. This is more than a Jpirit!efs notion. And 2. Such a lively apprehen{ion hath in it fomewhat of a prefent fenfe, and foretajl of that Bleffednefs. An heaven begun. Which is of the fome kind with their {u1ure heaven. They have the Kingdom of God, in them, which flands in righteoujHeji , peace,Rom. 14-17: and jOJ in the Holy Ghofl. Such an earnefl fpeaks their own right, while they are yet fenfible of the great Imperfellion of. their prefent llate. They are therefore willing to dye, that they may be made perfell. They now know by tajl what it is to enjoJ God. V taj! 4n~ fee th4t God is good! ···-- A metr notion informs us not .enough, fo aspfal. 34 , to afiuate our Mmds what that means. Nor:withftanding it, the carnal mtnd can frame no diflinc7 he4rt·moving thougiJt of felicity; other, or more grateful, than the reli!hes of meat and drink, or the fatisfattionof fame, or other, mean, or carna!Jzedappetite. ~~?~~~ ;:rr:a·t~i~i[~~~;;;~c~ '~~y"~:inh;.tsi;~;o~c;;;~d[~;h ~oo~~;af:d moll of all We will not fuppo(e this good Man to have been delliture, of ft"h afai:h, and of ~~:;f,:;, 0!/~~e11%:;;~~df:l~~!~~-of ~,0~oa~~ehe;;~{; }~P~f! hf~,'~~~~au:eaa '~fk~ :;~ prehenfion ro~{~~~(:f;io~~pio;;t :~~:,d:gd ~;~;~ft::fu~tJ{~~ted~~~~r~~~ 7~ffi~~~t~y g!~~ tcnfive Communion in this Bleffednefs. q. a. There is enough for him, and us all. And fuch an apprehenfion, we all ought to have, of the Bletfedners of the Heavenly flare, into which we are to be intromitted by dcat!l, that it IS enough for all that £an be in any poffibility to partake in it. So that the aboU(lding plenitude of no ones par.. tion, can be any diminution to anothers. The kind and nature of material, fenfible good, hath a remarkable, and moll agreeable affinity to what is faid (and what upon very ftriClenquiry, one knows not how, not to fay) of Mmer it Jet(, that it is perpe!llally divifible; but fo, as chat every part, and particle, is flilllefs and lefs. Whereupon it cannot but be, that whatfoever any enjoy of terrene good, _fo much is detraCted from the reft. Of fntellec1Hal, Spiri· t114/ Good, !(now/edge, Wtfdom, Gr4ce, Glory, the cafe is quite different·. Let any poffefs never fo much, it nothing dimini!hes anorhers poffeffion, in the fame lcind. If another Man be never fo wife, good, and happy, it makes nmhing rrom me, I may be as wife, good, and happy- At !call, th&t hinders not, but I may. How pleafant a Contemplation is this! that in the vaft, and numberleCS, Regions of Light, Blifs, and Glory, the bletfed Inhabitants are all drawing from the fame Fountain; folacing themfelves in that fulne{s of )oJ, drinking in from chofe Rivers of pie afore, that flow from the Divine Prefence, for evermore ! All der iving, unto fa~ tiety, from that fulnefs, that filleth all in all. 8. Preference of the Society with Holy Ones, in the Ht,ven(J Statt, aboVe 411) to 6~ enj oJ'd on Emh. The Words, as to their moll obvious fenfe, feem to be full of this: With whom I would live, with him I would die. Is. not this our common fenfe? Not that we can apprehend any thing in the very .A,1, or .Arti&le of dying, chat can ~il~~ i~~~"Yo1r~~Z.on~~~~eufJ~~tb~~v~h~~a:~~~ ~~~~h~;, ; Z~tei~":r:e~~~~~t~n~! ther, after Death; bur fo, as we did not before. 'Tis very probable, our L.ord, and his Difciples, had formerly enjoy'd pleafant Hours with Lazar~U, in his own Houfe. But why doth Thom<U, therefore, defire ther might die, to be with him? ,Excepting him, he might !hll have enjoy'd the fame Soctety on Earth, and of many ooher Chn~ fitan Friends befides. But we fee his propofal concern1d not himfdf on ly. 'Tis, Let. •s go dJ' roith him. He reckon'd they !hou ld all die, and be with him together. And thatthe . llace they ihould then be in, would have, in point of foci ety , and Converfation, fuch advantages, above what their prefent llatc afrorded , as we•e worth dy" ing for. And

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