This is a special season for God to show his Love to such a Soul, if ever afore or after, an opportunity, such as falls not out, neither afore, whilst it was in the Body; nor after, when it is united to the Body again, at the Resurrection: if ever therefore he means to show a respect unto a poor Soul, which is his so near Kindred and Alliance, it must be done now. We read in Psal. 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth (as at Death to be sure it doth) but God is the strength of my Heart, both in this Life and at Death to support me [and my portion for ever] in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time, as that [ever] imports: and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come, when Heart, and Flesh, and all in this World he foresaw would fail him, is evident by what he had immediately meditated in ⟨p. 311⟩the words afore, ver. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, so in this Life, and afterwards (that being ended) shall receive me unto Glory. The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again, ver. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee? for all things else will fail me one day, when my Flesh utterly fails me also: And There is none upon Earth (where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters) in comparison of thee. You see God is the portion of the whole of his time, even for ever, as ver. 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them, and no middle state between both, but when the one ceaseth the other begins, for between them two must be the [for ever,] and when all fail him which he had on Earth, then God alone becomes his Happiness in Heaven. But this only in general shows what God is and will be to a Soul in this condition.
This is a special season for God to shew his Love to such a Soul, if ever afore or after, an opportunity, such as falls not out, neither afore, whilst it was in the Body; nor after, when it is united to the Body again, at the Resurrection: if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor Soul, which is his so neer Kindred and Alliance, it must be done now. We read in Psal. 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth (as at Death to be sure it doth) but God is the strength of my Heart, both in this Life and at Death to support me [and my portion for ever] in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time, as that [ever] imports: and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come, when Heart, and Flesh, and all in this World he foresaw would fail him, is evident by what he had immediately meditated in ⟨p. 311⟩the words afore, ver. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, so in this Life, and afterwards (that being ended) shall receive me unto Glory. The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again, ver. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee? for all things else will fail me one day, when my Flesh utterly fails me also: And There is none upon Earth (where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters) in comparison of thee. You see God is the portion of the whole of his time, even for ever, as ver. 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them, and no middle state between both, but when the one ceaseth the other begins, for between them two must be the [for ever,] and when all fail him which he had on Earth, then God alone becomes his Happiness in Heaven. But this only in general shews what God is and will be to a Soul in this condition.
