hast so loved us that thou wouldst become the Son of man for our sakes that vve vvho are the sons of men might become the sons of God Oh that vve could put off the man to put on Christ that we could neglect and hate our selves for thee that hast so dearly loved us as to lay aside thine heavenly glory for us How shall I bee vile enough O Saviour for thee who for my sake being the Lord of life and glory wouldst take upon thee the shape of a servant How should I welcome that poverty which thy choice hath sanctified How resolutely shall I grapple with the temptations of that enemy vvhom thou hast foiled for me How chearfully should I passe through those miseries and that death which thou hast sweetned With vvhat comfortable assurance shall I look upon the face of that mercifull Justice vvhich thou hast satisfied But oh vvhat a blessed inheritance hast thou in thine infinite love provided for me an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for me so as when my earthly house of this Tabernacle shall be dissolved I have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens An house Yea a Palace of heavenly state and magnificence neither is it lesse then a kingdome that abides there for mee a kingdome so much more above these worldly Monarchies as heaven is above this clod of earth Now Lord vvhat conceits vvhat affections of mine can be in the least sort answerable to so transcendent mercy If some friend shall have been pleased to bestow some mean Legacy upon me or shall have feoffed me in some few acres of his Land how deeply doe I finde my self obliged to the love and memory of so kinde a Benenefactor Oh then Lord how can my soul be capable of those thoughts and dispositions vvhich may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty vvho of a poor worm on earth hast made me an heir of the kingdome of heaven Wo is me how subject are these earthly Principalities to hazard and mutability whether through death or insurrectiō but this Crown w ch thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible and shall sit immoveably fast upon my head not for years not for millions of ages but for all eternity Oh let it be my heaven here below in the mean vvhile to live in a perpetuall fruition of thee and to begin those Allelujahs to thee here vvhich shall be as endlesse as thy mercy and my blessednesse Hadst thou been pleased to have translated me frō thy former Paradise the most delightfull seat of mans originall integrity and happinesse to the glory of the highest heaven the preferment had been infinitely gracious but to bring my soul from the nethermost hell and to place it among the Chore of Angels doubles the thank of thy mercy and the measure of my obligation How thankfull was thy Prophet but to an Ebedmelech that by a cord and rags let down into that dark dungeon helpt him out of that uncomfortable pit wherein he was lodged yet what was there but a little cold hunger stench closenesse obscurity Lord how should I blesse thee that hast fetcht my soul from that pit of eternall horrour from that lake of fire and brimstone from the everlasting torments of the damned wherein I had deserved to perish for ever I will sing of thy power unto thee O my strength will I sing for God is my deliverer and the God of my mercie But O Lord if yet thou shouldst leave me in my own hands where vvere I how easily should I be rob'd of thee with every temptation how should I be made the scorn and insultation of men and devils It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou hast given thine Angels charge over me Those Angels great in power and glorious in Majesty are my sure though invisible guard Oh blessed Jesu what an honour what a safety is this that those heavenly spirits which attend thy throne should be my champions Those that ministred to thee after thy temptation are readie to assist and relieve me in mine they can neither neglect their charge because they are perfectly holy nor fail of their victory because they are under thee the most powerfull I see you O ye blessed Guardians I see you by the eye of my faith no lesse truly then the eye of my sense sees my bodilie attendants I do truly though spirituallie feel your presence by your gracious operations in upon and for me and I doe heartilie blesse my God and yours for you and for those saving offices that through his mercifull appointment you ever doe for my soul. But as it was with thine Israelites of old that it would not content them that thou promisedst and wouldst send thine Angel before them to bring them into the Land flowing with milk and hony unlesse thy presence O Lord should also goe along with them so is it still with me and all thine wert not thou with and in us what could thine Angels doe for us In thee it is that they move and are The same infinite Spirit which works in and by them works also in me From thee it is O thou blessed and eternall Spirit that I have any stirrings of holy motions any breathings of good desires any life of grace any will to resist any power to overcome evill It is thou O God that girdest me with strength unto battell thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation thy right hand hath holden me up thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies Glory and praise be to thee O Lord which alwaies causest us to triumph in Christ vvho crownest us with loving kindnesse tender mercies and hast not held us short of the best of thy favours Truly Lord hadst thou given us but a meer beeing as thou hast done to the lowest rank of thy creatures it had been more then thou owest us more then ever we could be able to requite to thy divine bountie for every beeing is good and the least degree of good is farre above our worthinesse But that to our beeing thou hast added life it is yet an higher measure of thy mercy for certainly of thy common favours life is the most precious yet this is such a benefit as may be had and not perceived for even the plants of the earth live and feel it not that to our life therefore thou hast made a further accession of sense it is yet a larger improvement of thy beneficence for this facultie hath some power to manage life and makes it capable to affect those means which may tend to the preservation of it and to decline the contrary but this is no other then the brute creatures enjoy equallie with us and some of them beyond us that therefore to our sense thou hast blessed us vvith a further addition of reason it is yet an higher pitch of munificence for hereby we are men and as
to me saith Christ wherein God the Son receives the Bride as mutually partaking of the same nature and can say This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh wherein God the holy Ghost knits our wils in a full and glad consent to the full consummation of this blessed wedlock And those whom God hath thus joyned together let no man no Devill can put asunder What is there then which an affectionate husband can withhold from a dear wife He that hath given himself to her what can be deny to impart He that hath made himself one with her how can he be divided from his other-self Some wilde fancies there are that have framed the linkes of marriage of so brittle stuffe as that they may be knapt in sunder upon every sleight occasion but he that ordained it in Paradise for an earthly representation of this heavenly union betwixt Christ and his Church hath made that and his own indissoluble Here is no contract in the future which upon some intervenient accidents may be remitted but I am my welbeloveds and my welbeloved is mine And therefore each is so others that neither of them is their own Oh the comfortable mystery of our uniting to the Son of God! The wife hath not the power of her own body but the husband We are at thy disposing ô Saviour we are not our own Neither art thou so absolutely thine as that we may not through thine infinite mercy claim an interesse in thee Thou hast given us such a right in thy self as that wee are bold to lay challenge to all that is thine to thy love to thy merits to thy blessings to thy glory It was wont of old to be the plea of the Roman wives to their husbands Where thou art Caius I am Caia and now in our present marriages we have not stuck to say With all my worldly goods I thee endow And if it be thus in our imperfect conjunctions here upon earth how much more in that exquisite one-nesse which is betwixt thee ô blessed Saviour and thy dearest Spouse the Church What is it then that can hinder us from a sweet and heavenly fruition of thee Is it the loathsome condition of our nature Thou sawst this before and yet couldst say when we were yet in our bloud Live Had we not been so vile thy mercy had not been so glorious thy free grace did all for us Thou washedst us with water and anointedst us with oyle and cloathedst us with broidered work and girdedst us about with fine linnen and coveredst us with silk and deckedst us with ornaments and didst put bracelets upon our hands and a chain on our neck and jewels on our fore-heads and eare-rings on our ears and a beautifull crown on our heads What we had not thou gavest what thou didst not find thou madest that we might be a not-unmeet match for the Lord of life Is it want of beauty Behold I am black but comely what ever our hiew be in our own or others eyes it is enough that we are lovely in thine Behold thou art fair my beloved behold thou art faire yea pleasant Thou art beautifull O my love as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem How fair and how pleasant art thou O Love for delights But oh Saviour if thou take contentment in this poor unperfect beauty of thy Spouse the Church how infinite pleasure should thy Spouse take in that absolute perfection that is in thee who art all lovelinesse and glory And if she have ravished thy heart with one of her eyes how much more reason hath her heart to be wholly ravished with both thine which are so full of grace and amiablenesse and in this mutuall fruition what can there be other then perfect blessednesse The Spirit of God well knowing how much it imports us both to know and feel this blessed union whereof himself is the onely worker labours to set it forth to us by the representations of many of our familiar concernments which we daily finde in our meats and drinks in our houses in our gardens and orchards That which is nearest to us is our nourishment What can bee more evident then that the bread the meat the drinke that we receive is incorporated into us and becomes part of the substance whereof we consist so as after perfect digestion there can be no distinction betwixt what we are and what wee took Whiles that bread was in the bing and that meat in the shambles and that drink in the vessell it had no relation to us nor we to it yea whiles all these were on the Table yea in our mouths yea newly let down into our stomacks they are not fully ours for upon some nauseating dislike of nature they may yet go the same way they came but if the concoction be once fully finished now they are so turned into our blood and flesh that they can be no more distinguished from our former substance then that could be divided from it self now they are dispersed into the veins and concorporated to the flesh and no part of our flesh and blood is more ours then that which was lately the bloud of the grapes and the flesh of this fowl or that beast Oh Saviour thou who art truth it selfe hast said I am the living bread that came down from heaven My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and thereupon hast most justly inferred He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in mee and I in him and as a necessary consequent of this spirituall manducation Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life Lo thou art bread indeed not the common bread but Manna not the Israelitish Manna alas that fell from no higher then the region of clouds and they that ate it died with it in their mouths but thou art the living bread that came down from the heaven of heavens of whom whosoever eats lives for ever Thy flesh is meat not for our stomacks but for our souls our faith receives and digests thee and makes thee ours and us thine our materiall food in these corruptible bodies runs into corruption thy spirituall food nourisheth purely and strengthens us to a blessed immortality As for this materiall food many a one longs for it that cannot get it many a one hath it that cannot eat it many eat it that cannot digest it many digest it into noxious and corrupt humours all that receive it do but maintain a perishing life if not a languishing death but this flesh of thine as it was never withheld from any true appetite so it never yeelds but wholesome and comfortable sustenance to the soul never hath any other issue then an everlasting life and happinesse O Saviour whensoever I sit at mine own Table let mee think of thine whensoever I feed on the bread and meat that is set before mee and feel
make our breasts the Temples of thy holy Ghost When thine holy mother came to visit the partner of her joy thy fore-runner then in the womb of his mother sprang for the joy of thy presence though distermined by a second womb how should we be affected with a ravishment of spirit whom thou hast pleased to visit in so much mercy as to come down into us and to be spiritually conceived in the womb of our hearts and thereby to give a new and spirituall life to our poore souls a life of thine own yet made ours a life begun in grace and ending in eternall glory Never did the holy God give a priviledge where he did not expect a duty hee hath more respect to his glory then to throw away his favours The life that ariseth from this blessed union of our souls with Christ as it is the height of all his mercies so it cals for our most zealous affections and most effectuall improvement Art thou then thus happily united to Christ and thus enlived by Christ how entire must thou needs be with him how dear must thy valuations be of him how heartily must thou be devoted to him The spirit of man saith wise Solomon is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly and therefore cannot but be acquainted with his own inmates and finding so heavenly a guest as the Spirit of Christ in the secret lodgings of his soul applyes it self to him in all things so as these two spirits agree in all their spirituall concernments The Spirit it self saith the holy Apostle beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God and not in this case onely but upon whatsoever occasion the faithfull man hath this Urim in his breast may coÌ„sult with this inward Oracle of his God for direction and resolution in all his doubts neither can he according to the counsell of the Psalmist commune with his own heart but that Christ who lives there is ready to give him an answer Shortly our souls and we are one and the soul and life are so near one that the one is commonly taken for the other Christ therefore who is the life and soul of our souls is and needs must be so intrinsecall to us that we cannot so much as conceive of our spirituall beeing without him Thou needest not be told my son how much thou valuest life Besides thine own sense Satan himself can tell thee and in this case thou maist beleeve him Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life What ransome can be set upon it that a man would stick to give though mountains of gold though thousands of â—â—ms or ten thousand rivers of oyl Yea how readily doe we expose our dear lims not to hazard onely but to losse for the preservation of it Now alas what is our life It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away And if we doe thus value a perishing life that is going out every moment what price shall we set upon eternity If Christ be our life how precious is that life which neither inward distempers nor outward violences can bereave us of which neither can be decayed by time nor altered with crosse events Hear the chosen Vessel What things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ Yea doubtless I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may win Christ and as one that did not esteem his own life dear to him in respect of that better always saith he bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body How chearfully have the noble and conquering armies of holy Martyrs given away these momentany lives that they might hold fast their Jesus the life of their souls and who can be otherwise affected that knows and feels the infinite happinesse that offers it self to be enjoyed by him in the Lord Jesus Lastly if Christ bee thy life then thou art so devoted to him that thou livest as in him and by him so to him also aiming onely at his service and glory and framing thy self wholly to his will and directions Thou canst not so much as eat or drink but with respect to him Oh the gracious resolution of him that was rapt into the third heaven worthy to be the pattern of all faithfull hearts According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldnesse as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain Our naturall life is not worthy to be its own scope we doe not live meerly that we may live our spirituall life Christ is the utmost and most perfect end of all our living without the intuition whereof we would not live or if we should our naturall life were no other then a spirituall death Oh Saviour let me not live longer then I shall be enlived by thee or then thou shalt be glorified by me And what rule should I follow in all the carriage of my life but thine thy precepts thine examples that so I may live thee as well as preach thee and in both may finde thee as thou hast truly laid forth thy self the way the truth and the life the way wherein I shall walk the truth which I shall beleeve and professe and the life which I shall enjoy In all my morall actions therefore teach me to square my self by thee what ever I am about to doe or speak or affect let me think If my Saviour were now upon earth would he doe this that I am now putting my hand unto would he speak these words that I am now uttering would he be thus disposed as I now feel my self Let me not yeeld my self to any thought word or action which my Saviour would be ashamed to own Let him be pleased so to manage his own life in me that all the interesse he hath given me in my self may bee wholly surrendred to him that I may be as it were dead in my self whiles he lives and moves in me By vertue of this blessed union as Christ is become our life so that which is the highest improvement not onely of the rationall but the supernaturall and spirituall life is he thereby also made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption Not that he onely workes these great things in and for us this were too cold a construction of the divine bounty but that he really becomes all these to us who are true partakers of him Even of the wisest men that ever nature could boast
are enlightned by his vvisdome justified by his merits sanctified by his grace are yet conflicting vvith manifold temptations and strugling with varieties of miseries and dangers till upon their happy death and glorious resurrection they shall be fully freed by their ever-blessed and victorious Redeemer He therefore vvho by vertue of that heavenly union is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification is also upon the same ground made unto us our full Redemption Redemption implies a captivity We are naturally under the vvofull bondage of the Law of sin of miseries of death The Law is a cruell exactor for it requires of us vvhat vvee cannot now doe and vvhips us for not doing it for the Law worketh wrath and as many as are of the workes of the Law are under the curse Sinne is a vvorse tyrant then he and takes advantage to exercise his cruelty by the Law For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Upon sinne necessarily follows misery the forerunner of death and death the upshot of all miseries By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned From all these is Christ our Redemption from the Law for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us From sin for we are dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace From death and therein from all miseries O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then let the Lavv doe his vvorst we are not under the Law but under Grace The case therefore is altered betwixt the Law and us It is not now a cruell Task-master to beat us to and for our vvork it is our School-master to direct and to whip us unto Christ It is not a severe Judge to condemne us it is a friendly guide to set us the vvay towards heaven Let sin joyn his forces together vvith the Law they cannot prevail to our hurt For what the Law could not doe in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his owne Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Let death joyn his forces vvith them both vve are yet safe For the Law of the spirit of life hath freed us from the Law of sin and of death What can vve therefore fear vvhat can vve suffer vvhiles Christ is made our Redemption Finally as thus Christ is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification Redemption so whatsoever else he either is or hath or doth by vertue of this blessed union becomes ours he is our riches our strength our glory our salvation our all he is all to us and all is ours in him From these primary and intrinsecal priviledges therefore flow all those secondary and externall vvherewith vve are blessed and therein a right to all the blessings of God both of the right hand and of the left an interesse in all the good things both of earth and heaven Hereupon it is that the glorious Angels of Heaven become our Guardians keeping us in all our ways and vvorking secretly for our good upon all occasions that all Gods creatures are at our service that we have a true spirituall title to them All things are yours saith the Apostle and ye are Christs and Christ Gods But take heed my son of mis-laying thy claime to what and in what manner thou ought'st not There is a civill right that must regulate our propriety to these earthly things our spirituall right neither gives us possession of them nor takes away the right and propriety of others Every man hath and must have what by the just Lawes of purchase gift or inheritance is derived to him otherwise there would follow an infinite confusion in the world we could neither enjoy nor give our owne and onely will and might must be the arbiters of all mens estates which how unequall it would be both reason and experience can sufficiently evince This right is not for the direption or usurpation of that which civill titles have legally put over to others there were no theft no robbery no oppression in the world if any mans goods might be every mans But for the warrantable and comfortable injoying of those earthly commodities in regard of God their originall owner which are by humane convciances justly become ours The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse of it in his right what ever parcells doe lawfully descend unto us we may justly possesse as we have them legally made over to us from the secondary and immediate owners There is a generation of men who have vainly fancied the founding of Temporall dominion in Grace and have upon this mistaking outed the true heyres as intruders and feoffed the just and godly in the possession of wicked inheritors which whether they be worse Commonwealths-men or Christians is to me utterly uncertaine sure I am they are enemies to both whiles on the one side they destroy all civill propriety and commerce and on the other retch the extent of the power of Christianity so far as to render it injurious and destructive both to reason and to the Lawes of all well-ordred humanity Nothing is ours by injury and injustice all things are so ours that we may with a good conscience enjoy them as from the hand of a munificent God when they are rightfully estated upon us by the lawfull convention or bequest of men In this regard it is that a Christian man is the Lord of the whole universe and hath a right to the whole creation of God how can he challenge lesse he is a son and in that an heire and according to the high expression of the holy ghost a co-heir with Christ As therefore we may not be high-minded but fear so we may not be too low-harted in the under-valuing of our condition In God we are great now mean soever in our selves In his right the world is ours what ever pittance we enjoy in our owne how can we goe lesse when we are one with him who is the possessour of heaven and earth It were but a poore comfort to us if by vertue of this union wee could only lay claime to all earthly things alas how vaine and transitory are the best of these perishing under our hand in the very use of them and in the meane while how unsatisfying in the fruition All this were nothing if we
blessed us and how should we blesse thee in so mighty and glorious attendants Neither hast thou O God meerly turn'd us over to the protection of those tutelary spirits but hast held us still in thine own hand having not so strongly defenced as without as thou hast done within Since that is wrought by thine Angels this by thy Spirit Oh the soveraign and powerfull influences of thy holy Ghost whereby wee are furnished with all saving graces strengthned against all temptations heartned against all our doubts and fears enabled both to resist and overcome and upon our victories crowned Oh divine bounty far beyond the reach of wonder So God the Father loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life So God the Son loved the world of his elect that he gave unto thē the holy Spirit of promise wherby they are sealed unto the day of redemption wherby according to the riches of his glory they are strengthned with might in the inner man by the vertue whereof shed abroad in their hearts they are enabled to cry Abba Father Oh gifts either of which are more worth then many worlds yet through thy goodnes ô Lord both of thē mine How rich is my soul through thy divine munificence how over-laid with mercies How safe in thine Almighty tuition How happy in thy blessed possession Now therefore I dare in the might of my God bid defiance to all the gates of hell Doe your worst ô all ye principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in high places doe your worst God is mine and I am his I am above your malice in the right of him whose I am It is true I am weak but he is omnipotent I am sinfull but he is infinite holinesse that power that holinesse in his gracious application is mine It is my Saviours love that hath made this happy exchange of his righteousnesse for my sin of his power for my infirmity Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Who shal separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword Nay in all these things we are more thē conquerors through him that loved us So as neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Lo where this love is placed were it our love of God how easily might the power of a prevalent temptation separate us from it or it from us for alas what hold is to be taken of our affections w ch like unto water are so much more apt to freeze because they have been heated but it is the love of God to us in Christ Jesus which is ever as himself constant and eternall He can no more cease to love us then to be himself he cannot but be unchangeable we cannot but be happy All this O deare Jesu hast thou done all this hast thou suffered for me And oh now for an heart that might be some ways answerable to thy mercies Surely even good natures hate to be in debt for love and are ready to repay favours with interest Oh for a soul sick of love yea sick unto death why should I how can I be any otherwise any whit lesse affected O Saviour this onely sicknesse is my health this death is my life and not to be thus sick is to be dead in sins and trespasses I am rock and not flesh if I be not wounded with these heavenly darts Ardent affection is apt to attract love even where is little or no beauty and excellent beauty is no lesse apt to enflame the heart where there is no answer of affection but when these two meet together what breast can hold against them and here they are both in an eminent degree Thou canst say even of thy poore Church though labouring under many imperfections Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck how fair is thy love my sister my Spouse And canst thou O blessed Saviour be so taken with the incurious and homely features of thy faithfull ones and shall not we much more be altogether enamoured of thine absolute and divine beauty of whom every beleeving soul can say My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand his head is as the most fine gold his eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters his cheekes are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers his lips like lillies dropping sweet smelling myrrhe c. It hath pleased thee O Lord out of the sweet ravishments of thy heavenly love to say to thy poor Church Turn away thine eyes from mee for they have overcome me but oh let mee say unto thee Turn thine eyes to me that they may overcome me I would be thus ravished thus overcome I would be thus out of my self that I might be all in thee Thou lovedst me before I had beeing Let me now that I have a beeing be wholly taken up with thy love Let me set all my soul upon thee that gavest me beeing upō thee who art the eternal absolute Self-beeing who hast said and only could say I am that I am Alas Lord we are nothing but what thou wilt have us and cease to be when thou callest in that breath of life w ch thou hast lent us thou art that incōprehensibly glorious infinite self-existing Spirit from eternity in eternity to eternity in and from whom all things are It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou wouldst condescend so low as to vouchsafe to be loved of my wretchednesse of whom thou mightest justly require and expect nothing but terrour and trembling It is my happinesse that I may be allowed to love a Majesty so infinitely glorious Oh let me not be so farre wanting to my own felicity as to bee lesse then ravished with thy love Thou lovedst me when I was deformed loathly forlorn and miserable shall I not now love thee when thou hast freed me and deckt me with the ornaments of thy Graces Lord Jesu who should enjoy the fruit of thine own favours but thy self How shamefully injurious were it that when thou hast trimm'd up my soul it should prostitute it self to the love of the world Oh take my heart to thee alone possesse thy self of that which none can claim but thy self Thou lovedst me when I was a professed rebell against thee and receivedst me not to mercy onely but to the indearment of a subject a servant a son vvhere should I place the improvement of the thankfull affections of my loyaltie and duty but upon thee Thou O God
his sacrifices unto God his faith listens and looks in at the door of heaven to know how they are taken Every man shows fair in prosperity but the main triall of the Christian is in suffering any man may steer in a good gale and clear sea but the Mariners skill will be seen in a tempest Herein the Christian goes beond the Pagans not practise onely but admiration We rejoyce in tribulation saith the chosen Vessel Lo here a point transcending all the affectatiō of Heathenism Perhaps some resolute spirit whether out of a naturall fortitude or out of an ambition of fame or earthly glory may set a face upon a patient enduring of losse or pain but never any of those heroick Gentils durst pretend to a joy in suffering Hither can Christian courage reach knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed Is he bereaved of his goods and worldly estate he comforts himself in the conscience of a better treasure that can never be lost Is he afflicted with sicknesse his comfort is that the inward man is so much more renued daily as the outward perisheth Is he slandered and unjustly disgraced his comfort is that there is a blessing which will more then make him amends Is he banished he knows he is on his way home-ward Is he imprisoned his spirit cannot be lockt in God and his Angels cannot be lockt out Is he dying To him to live is Christ and to dye is gain Is he dead He rests from his labours and is crowned with glory Shortly he is perfect gold that comes more pure out of the fire then it went in neither had ever been so great a Saint in heaven if he had not passed through the flames of his triall here upon earth He knows himself never out of danger and therefore stands ever upon his guard neither of his hands are empty the one holds out the shield of faith the other manageth the sword of the spirit both of them are employed in his perpetuall conflict He cannot be weary of resisting but resolves to dye fighting He hath a ward for every blow and as his eye is quick to discern temptations so is his hand and foot nimble to avoid them He cannot be discouraged with either the number or power of his enemies knowing that his strength is out of himself in him in whom he can doe all things and that there can be no match to the Almighty He is carefull not to give advantage to his vigilant adversary and therefore warily avoids the occasions of sinne and if at any time he be overtaken with the suddainnesse or subtilty of a temptation he speedily recovers himself by a serious repentance and fights so much the harder because of his foil He hates to take quarter of these spirituall powers nothing lesse then death can put an end to this quarrell nor nothing below victory He is not so carefull to keep his soul within his teeth as to send it forth well addressed for happinesse as knowing therefore the last brunt to be most violent he rouzeth up his holy fortitude to encounter that King of fear his last enemy Death And now after a painfull sicknesse and a resolute expectation of the fiercest assault it fals out with him as in the meeting of the two hostile brothers Jacob and Esau in stead of grapling he findes a courteous salutation for stabs kisses for height of enmity offices of love Life could never befriend him so much as Death offers to doe That tenders him perhaps a rough but a sure hand to lead him to glory and receives a welcome accordingly Neither is there any cause to marvell at the change The Lord of life hath wrought it He having by dying subdued death hath reconciled it to his own and hath as it were beaten it into these fair tearms with all the members of his mysticall body so as whiles unto the enemies of God Death is still no other then a terrible executioner of divine vengeance he is to all that are in Christ a plausible and sure convoy unto blessednesse The Christian therefore now laid upon his last bed when this grim senger comes to fetch him to heaven looks not so much at his dreadfull visage as at his happy errand and is willing not to remember what death is in it self but what it is to us in Christ by whom it is made so usefull and beneficiall that we could not be happy without it Here then comes in the last act and employment of faith for after this brunt passed there is no more use of faith but of vision that heartens the soul in a lively apprehension of that blessed Saviour who both led him the way of suffering and is making way for him to everlasting glory That shews him Jesus the Authour and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God That clings close unto him and lays unremoveable hold upon his person his merits his blessednesse upon the wings of this faith is the soul ready to mount up toward that heaven which is open to receive it and in that act of evolation puts it self into the hands of those blessed Angels who are ready to carry it up to the throne of Glory Sic O sic juvat vivere sic perire FINIS § 1. How to be happy in the apprehending of Christ. 2 Tim. 1. 12. 1 Tim. 2. 5 1 Joh. 2. 1. Joh. 14. 1. Luther in Gal. § 2. The honour and happiness of being united to Christ. Job 17. 14. Gen. 2. 23. Eph. 5. 30. 2 Pet. 1. 4. § 3. The kind and manner of this union with Christ. § 4. The resemblāce of this union by the head body Heb. 2. 16. 1 Cor. 12. 12. § 5. This union set forth by the resemblāce of the husband and wife Esa. 62. 5. Hose 2. 19. Ephe. 5. 31. Gen. 2. 24. Gen. 2. 22. Joh. 6. 37. Joh. 1. 14. Gen. 2. 23. Cant. 6. 3. Cant. 2. 16. 1 Cor. 7. 4. Ezek. 16. 6. 〈…〉 16. 〈…〉 11 Cant. 1. 5. Cant. 1. 16 Cant. 6. 3. Cant. 7. 6. Cant. 5. 16. Cant. 4. 9. § 6. The resemblāce of this union by the nourishment and the body Joh. 6. 51. 55. 56. 54. § 7. This union resēbled by the brāch and the stock the foundation and the building Joh. 15. 5 6 Rom. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 6. 1 Cor. 3. 11 2 Pet. 2. 5. § 8. The certainty indissolublenesse of this union Heb. 13. 8. Jam. 1. 17. Mal. 2. 16. Eph. 5. 29. 1 Joh. 3. 16. Joh. 13. 1. Mal. 2. 16. Rev. 22. 2. Joh. 17. 20 21 22. § 9. The priviledges benefits of this union The first of them Life Col. 3. 4. Phil. 1. 21. Gal. 2. 20. 2 Cor. 13. 5 Gen. 25. 22. Rom. 7. 18 Rom. 7. 22 Col. 3. 1. Gal. 4. 19.