To make this supernatural Blessedness more easy and intelligible to us, the Scripture describes it by sensible Representations. For while the Soul is clothed with Flesh, Fancy has such ⟨p. 276⟩a dominion, that we conceive of nothing but by Comparisons and Images taken from material things. 'Tis therefore set forth by a Marriage-Feast, 1to signify the Joy and Glory of the Saints above. But to prevent all gross Conceits, we are instructed, that the Bodies of the Saints shall be spiritual, not capable of Hunger or Thirst, nor consequently of any Refreshment that is caused by the satisfaction of those Appetites. The Objects of the most noble Senses, Seeing and Hearing, the pleasure of which is mixed with Reason, and not common to the Brutes, are more frequently made use of to reconcile the blessed and Heavenly State to the proportion of our Minds. Thus sometimes the Saints above are represented on Thrones, and with Crowns on their Heads: Sometimes clothed in White, with Palms in their Hands: sometimes singing Songs of Triumph to him that sits on the Throne. But the real Felicity of the Saints infinitely exceeds all those faint Metaphors. The Apostle, to whom the admirable Revelation was exhibited, of the Sufferings of the Church, and the victorious issue out of them in the successive ⟨p. 277⟩Ages of the World, tells us, it does not appear what the Saints shall be in Heaven. The things that God has prepared for those that love him, are far more above the highest ascent of our Thoughts, than the Marriage-Feast of a King exceeds in splendour and Magnificence, the Imagination of one that has always lived in an obscure Village, and never saw any Ornaments of State, nor tasted Wine in his Life. We can think of those things but according to the Poverty of our Understandings. But so much we know as is able to sweeten all the Bitterness, and render insipid all the Sweetness of this World.
To make this supernatural Blessedness more easy and intelligible to us, the Scripture describes it by sensible Representations. For while the Soul is clothed with Flesh, Fancy has such ⟨p. 276⟩a dominion, that we conceive of nothing but by Comparisons and Images taken from material things. 'Tis therefore set forth by a Marriage-Feast, 1to signify the Joy and Glory of the Saints above. But to prevent all gross Conceits, we are instructed, that the Bodies of the Saints shall be spiritual, not capable of Hunger or Thirst, nor consequently of any Refreshment that is caused by the satisfaction of those Appetites. The Objects of the most noble Senses, Seeing and Hearing, the pleasure of which is mixed with Reason, and not common to the Brutes, are more frequently made use of to reconcile the blessed and Heavenly State to the proportion of our Minds. Thus sometimes the Saints above are represented on Thrones, and with Crowns on their Heads: Sometimes clothed in White, with Palms in their Hands: sometimes singing Songs of Triumph to him that sits on the Throne. But the real Felicity of the Saints infinitely exceeds all those faint Metaphors. The Apostle, to whom the admirable Revelation was exhibited, of the Sufferings of the Church, and the victorious issue out of them in the successive ⟨p. 277⟩Ages of the World, tells us, it does not appear what the Saints shall be in Heaven. The things that God has prepared for those that love him, are far more above the highest ascent of our Thoughts, than the Marriage-Feast of a King exceeds in splendor and Magnificence, the Imagination of one that has always lived in an obscure Village, and never saw any Ornaments of State, nor tasted Wine in his Life. We can think of those things but according to the Poverty of our Understandings. But so much we know as is able to sweeten all the Bitterness, and render insipid all the Sweetness of this World.
- 1Rev. 17.7.
