Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

3. They cannot therefore be fit for a soul, which was made to have an interest in Gods Eternity. The soul being of a perpetual nature, was made for the fruition of an Eternal good; without such a good it can never be perfect. Perfection, that noble thing, riseth not from any thing in this world, nor is a title due to a Soul while in this world; 'tis then they are said to be made perfect, when they arrive at that entire conjunction with the eternal God in another life.^* The soul cannot be ennobled by an acquaintance with these things, or established by a dependence on them, they cannot confer, what a rational nature should desire, or supply it with what it wants.

3. They cannot therefore be fit for a soul, which was made to have an interest in Gods Eternity. The soul being of a perpetual nature, was made for the fruition of an Eternal good; without such a good it can never be perfect. Perfection, that noble thing, riseth not from any thing in this world, nor is a title due to a Soul while in this world; 'tis then they are said to be made perfect, when they arrive at that entire conjunction with the eternal God in another life.^* The soul cannot be enobled by an acquaintance with these things, or establish'd by adependence on them, they cannot confer, what a rational nature should desire, or supply it with what it wants.

1. *Heb. 12.23.

The soul hath a resemblance to God in a post-Eternity: Why should it be drawn aside by the blandishments of earthly things, to neglect its true establishment, and lackey after the Body, which is but the shadow of the Soul, and was made to follow it, and serve it? But while it busieth it self altogether in the concerns of a perishing body, and seeks satisfaction in things that glide away, it becomes rather a body than soul, descends below its nature, reproacheth that God, who hath imprinted upon it an image of his own Eternity, and loseth the comfort of the everlastingness of its Creator. How shall the whole world, if our lives were as durable as that, be an happy Eternity to us, who have Souls, that shall survive all the delights of it, which must fry in those flames, that shall fire the whole frame of nature at the general conflagration of the world?