The fading of the flesh and flourishing of faith, or, One cast for eternity…

There are two special faculties in Mans Soul, which must be answered with suitable and adequate objects, or the heart (like the sea) cannot rest. The understanding must be satisfied with truth, and the will with good. For the filling of these two faculties men are as busy as Bees, flying over the field of the world, and trying every flower for sweetness; but after all their toil and labour, house themselves like wasps in curious combs without any honey. The understanding must be suited with the highest truth; but the world is a lye, Psal. 62. and the things thereof are called lying vanities, they are not what they seem to be. Jonah. 2.8. and hence are unable to satisfy the mind; but God is aeterna veritas, & vera aeternitas, eternal truth, and true eternity. All truth is originally in him; his nature is the Idea of truth, and his will the standard of truth; and its eternal life and utmost satisfaction to know him, because by it the understanding is perfected; for the Soul in God will see all truth; and that not only clearly (I speak of the other world where the Christians happiness shall be completed) face to face, but also fully. Aristotle though an Heathen, thought happiness to consist in the knowledge of the chiefest good. If Archimedes when he found out the resolution of one question in the Mathematics was so ravished that he ran up and down crying I have found it, I have found it. How will the Christian be transported when he shall know all that is knowable, and all shadows of ignorance vanish as the darkness before the rising Sun. The will also must be suited with good and according ⟨p. 164⟩to the degree of goodness in the object, such is the degree of satisfaction to the faculty. Now the things of this life, though good in themselves, yet are vain and evil by reason of the sin of man. Rom. 8.20. And likewise are at best but bodily, limited, and fading good things; and therefore uncapable of filling this faculty. As truth in the utmost latitude is the object of the understanding; so Good in the universality of it is the object of the will. Further that good which satisfieth, must be (optimum) the best, or twill never (sister appetitum) the Soul will otherwise be still longing; and maximum the most perfect, or twill never (implere appetitum) fill it. But God is such a good, he is essentially, universally, unchangeably, and infinitely good;