A26919:784
The divine life in three treatises
The divine life in three treatises ... by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Francis Tyton, 1664
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
It is a state too high for such as we, and I think for any mere Creature to live so Immediately and only upon God, as to have no use for any fellow Creature, nor no comfort in them. God can make use of Glorified Creatures, in such subserviency and subordination to himself, as shall be no diminution to his All sufficiency or Honour, nor to our glory and felicity. We must take heed of fancying even such a Heaven it self, as is above the capacity of a Creature; as some very wise Divines think they have done, that tell us we shall immediately see Gods Essence (his Glory being that which is provided for our intuition and felicity, and is distinct from his Essence; being not everywhere as his Essence is.) And as those do that tell us because that God will be All in All, therefore we shall there have none of our comfort by any creature. Though flesh and blood shall not enter into that Kingdom, but our Bodies will then be Spiritual Bodies; yet will they be really the same as now, and distinct from our souls: and therefore must have a felicity suitable to a Body glorified: And if the soul did immediately see Gods Essence, yet as no reason can conclude that it can see nothing else, or that it can see even Created Good, and not Love it, so the Body however must have objects and felicity fit for a Body.
It is a state too high for such as we, and I think for any meer Creature to live so Immediately and only upon God, as to have no use for any fellow Creature, nor no comfort in them. God can make use of Glorified Creatures, in such subserviency and subordination to himself, as shall be no diminution to his All sufficiency or Honour, nor to our glory and felicity. We must take heeed of fancying even such a Heaven it self, as is above the capacity of a Creature; as some very wise Divines think they have done, that tell us we shall immediately see Gods Essence (his Glory being that which is provided for our intuition and felicity, and is distinct from his Essence; being not everywhere as his Essence is.) And as those do that tell us because that God will be All in All, therefore we shall there have none of our comfort by any creature. Though flesh and blood shall not enter into that Kingdom, but our Bodies will then be Spiritual Bodies; yet will they be really the same as now, and distinct from our souls: and therefore must have a felicity suitable to a Body glorified: And if the soul did immediately see Gods Essence, yet as no reason can conclude that it can see nothing else, or that it can see even Created Good, and not Love it, so the Body however must have objects and felicity fit for a Body.