A30241:290
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
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.
13. This Eternal Life consists in a quick and lively apprehension of this happiness it hath, without which happiness could not be happiness; A man in a Lethargy though he liveth, yet he is as good as dead, because he perceiveth not his own life, neither doth he take any pleasure in any earthly contents; Hence it is, that the inanimate creatures, Trees, and Rocks, though they should be free from pain, yet cannot be said to be happy, because they have no faculty of reflection, They cannot perceive or discern their happiness, but in this eternal life, The knowledge and assurance of their happiness is that which makes it indeed to be a blessed life; The Heavens are not happy though they shall abide ⟨p. 59⟩ever, because they have not life, nor can they reflect upon what they are; A child in the womb, though heir to a vast inheritance, yet cannot take any comfort from it, because he hath no reason to discern it; But then our souls shall have the most accurate quickness, and there will not be the least circumstance that shall aggravate our happiness, but we shall apprehend it, we shall know how to improve every comfortable consideration; Alas, in this life the godly through their weakness of knowledge and faith, make not that advantage of Christ as they may: There are many blessed arguments to refresh their souls, and they know them not or attend not to them, but when we shall come to eat of this bread of life, we shall not lose one crumb of it; Then there is nothing shall be hid from our eyes, but according to our capacity we shall then love God and Christ, and enjoy them to the full.
13. This Eternall Life consists in a quick and lively apprehension of this happinesse it hath, without which happinesse could not be happinesse; A man in a Lethargy though he liveth, yet he is as good as dead, because he perceiveth not his own life, neither doth he take any pleasure in any earthly contents; Hence it is, that the inanimate creatures, Trees, and Rocks, though they should be free from pain, yet cannot be said to be happy, because they have no faculty of reflexion, They cannot perceive or discern their happinesse, but in this eternal life, The knowledge and assurance of their happinesse is that which makes it indeed to be a blessed life; The Heavens are not happy though they shall abide ⟨p. 59⟩