Sword & Trowel 2015: Issue 1
The Mathematical Bridge and Queens’ College, Cambridge where Palmer was Master for the last three years of his life.
unworthy of the smallest of the blessings he enjoys already, yet (Jacob-like) he will not let God go without a new blessing. 76. He sometimes thinks himself to have no grace at all; and yet, no mat- ter how poor and affl icted he is, he would not change place with the most prosperous worldling on earth. 77. He sometimes thinks that the ordinances of God do him no good at all, and yet he would rather part with his life than be deprived of them. 78. He believes he was born dead, and yet capable of being murdered. 79. He believes life was put into him some time after his birth, with some, not until they learned to speak, and with others, in adulthood, and with others, when they are ready to drop into the grave. 80. After he begins to live, he is constantly dying; and though eternal life has begun in him, yet he believes he has yet to pass through death. 81. He regards self-murder as a most heinous sin, yet he is continually crucifying his fl esh, and putting to death his earthly, bodily passions. 82. He believes that his soul and body shall in eternity be as full of glory as those that have more, and yet not more full than those that have less. 83. He has a spiritual life invisible to
those that know him best; yet they sometimes see further into him, and judge more truly of him than he does of himself. 84. The world sometimes counts him a saint, when God counts him a hypocrite; and the world brands him a hypocrite, when God owns him for a saint. 85. In the end, his death does not make an end of him. His soul, which was created for
his body, and is not to be perfected without his body, is more happy when it is separated from it than it was all the while it was united to it. His body, though torn in pieces, burnt to ashes, ground to powder and putrefi ed, shall be no loser. His Advocate and his Surety shall
be his Judge.
His mortal part shall become im- mortal.
What was sown in corruption, shall be raised in incorruption and glory.
His spiritual part, though it had a
beginning, shall have no end; and he, though a fi nite creature, shall possess infi nite happiness.
Paradoxes & Seeming Contradictions in the Christian page 33
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