he hath already punished in his Sonne The truth of the Lord endureth for ever As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner but rather that he turn from his wickednesse and live Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will refresh you saith our Saviour Shall we make God a liar and labour by the weight of our sinnes to bear down his mercy To make God a liar and to denie his mercy is a greater sinne then all the sinnes of the whole world and therefore Judas sinned more in despairing then the Jews in crucifying Christ. But rather where sinne hath abounded there also grace hath abounded much more and overweigheth our sinnes by infinite degrees For sinnes are but the sinnes of men but grace is the grace of God Sinnes are temporall but the grace of our Lord is from eternitie to eternitie Satisfaction hath been made for our sinnes and the grace of God is repaired by the death of Christ and is established for ever unto which I betake my self as a devout suppliant Meditat. XI Of the satisfaction made for our sinnes The death of Christ is life to thee If thou a Christian truly be COme unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will refresh you they are the words of our Saviour It is true indeed Lord Jesus I am burdened overmuch and I sigh under the weight of my sinne But I make haste unto thee the fountain of living water Come unto me Lord Jesus that so I may come unto thee I come unto thee Lord because thou first camest unto me I come unto thee Lord Jesus and with anxietie I desire thee for I finde no goodnesse in my self But if I found any goodnesse in my self I should not with such anxietie desire thee True Lord Jesus I labour and am heavy laden neither can I compare my self with any of the saints or penitent sinners unlesse it be with the thief upon the crosse Lord have mercy upon me thou which hadst mercy on the thief upon the crosse I have lived wickedly I have lived iâ— sinne but I desire to die the death of the holy and righteous But holinesse and righteousnes are farre from my heart Therefore to thy holinesse and righteousnesse do I flie Let thy soul Lord Jesus succour me let it succour me seeing that thou layedst it down for a price of redemption for many Let thy most sacred body which was afflicted with rods spittings buffetings and thorns and fastened to the crosse for me let that succour me Let thy sacred and holy bloud O Jesus let that bloud succour me which ran out of thy side at thy death and passion which cleanseth us from all our sinnes Let thy most holy divinitie succour me thy divinitie which upheld thy humanitie at thy passion which also resting and not shewing it self the great mysterie of our redemption was finished which added infinite strength and weight unto thy passion Insomuch that God by his own bloud hath purchased unto himself me miserable man Let thy wounds succour me in which all my cure consisteth Let thy most holy passion succour me Let thy merit succour me as being my last refuge and a remedie against my sinnes For in that thou sufferedst thou sufferedst for me Therefore in that thou meritedst thou meritedst for me and for mine unworthinesse Therefore God commendeth his love towards us and proveth it by a testimonie surpassing the understanding of all men yea of the angels themselves in that Christ died for us when as yet we were sinners and the enemies of God Who can choose but admire this Who can choose but be astonished at it The Sonne of God intreated by no man yea hated of all men in great mercy intreated for us who were sinners and his enemies Neither intreated he onely but also satisfied Gods justice for us by his most poore nativitie by his most holy life by his most bitter passion by his most cruel death O Lord Jesus Thou that intreatedst for me sufferedst for me and diedst for me before I could desire thy merit and passion or move thee by my prayers to pay the ransome for me how canst thou cast me away from thy face How canst thou denie unto me the fruit of thy most holy passion when as now out of the deeps I cry unto thee and beg the fruit of thy merit with tears and sighs I was an enemie by nature when thou diedst for me but I am made by grace thy friend thy brother and thy sonne Thou heardst an enemie before he prayed unto thee and how canst thou despise thy friend which comes unto thee with prayers and tears Thou wilt not cast out him that cometh unto thee because thy word is truth Thou hast spoken unto us in spirit and truth and we have received from thee the words oâ— eternall life Attend and raise up thy self O my soul Before we were sinners by nature but now we are just by grace Before we were enemies but now we are friends and kinsfolks Before our help was in the death of Christ but now it is in Christ his life Before we were dead in sinnes but now we are quickned in Christ Oh the exceeding love of God wherewith he loved us Oh the superabundant riches of his grace whereby he hath in heaven provided a place for us Oh the tender mercie of our God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us But if the death of Christ hath brought unto us righteousnesse and life what shall his life do If our Saviour dying paid the price unto his Father what shall he do now being alive and interceding for us For Christ liveth and dwells in our heart if the remembrance of his most holy merit live and flourish in it Draw me Lord Jesus that I may possesse in the truth of the thing that which here I expect by the firmnesse of hope Let thy servant I pray thee be with thee and let him behold the glorie which the Father hath given to thee and let him inhabit the mansion which thou hast prepared in thy Fathers house Blessed are they that dwell in thy house O Lord They shall praise thee for ever and ever Meditat. XII Of the nature and properties of true faith Faith is not faith or if it be Faith is but dead wants charity O Thou beloved soul consider the power of faith and give thanks unto God who is the onely giver thereof It is faith alone that doth in such manner ingraft us into Christ that as vine-branches do draw their sap from the vine so we also from him do draw life righteousnesse and salvation Adam fell from the grace of God and lost the divine image by his incredulitie But we are again received to grace and the image of God begins to be renewed in us by faith By faith Christ becomes
think upon three things present the brevitie of this present life the difficultie of being saved and the paâ—citie of them that shall be saved Alwayes think upon three things to come Death then which nothing is more horrible judgement then which nothing is more terrible the pains of hell then which nothing is more intolerable Let thy evening prayers amend the sinnes of the day past Let the last day of the week amend the faults of the dayes past In the evening think how many are plunged that day into hell and give thanks unto God for granting thee time to repent There are three things above thee which never let slip out of thy memorie The eye that sees all the eare that heares all and the book wherein all things are written God hath communicated himself wholly unto thee Communicate thou thy self wholly unto thy neighbour That is the best life which is busied in the service of others Shew obedience and reverence to thy superiour give counsel and aid to thy equall defend and instruct thy inferiour Let thy bodie be subject to thy minde and thy minde to God Bewail thy evils past and esteem not the goods that are present and desire with all thy heart the goods which are future Remember thy sinne to grieve for it Remember death that thou mayst cease from sinne Remember Gods justice that thou mayst be kept in fear Remember Gods mercie that thou mayst not despair As much as thou canst withdraw thy self from the world and addict thy self wholly unto the service of the Lord. Alwayes in delights think that thy chastitie is in danger in riches think that thy humilitie is in danger in many businesses think that thy godlinesse is in danger Study to please none but Christ Fear to displease none but Christ. Alwayes pray thou unto God to command what he will and to give what he commands Pray unto him to cover what is past and to govern what is to come As thou desirest to seem so also thou must be For God judgeth not according to the shew but according to the truth In thy words take heed of much babling because for every idle word thou must give an account in the day of judgement Thy works be they what they will do not passe away but are cast as certain seeds of eternitie If thou sowest in the flesh of the flesh thou shalt reap corruption If thou sowest in the spirit of the spirit thou shalt reap life everlasting The honours of the world shall not follow thee after death neither shall thy heaps of riches follow thee neither shall thy pleasures follow thee neither shall the vanities of the world follow thee But after all thy works shall follow thee As therefore thou desirest to be at the day of judgement to day appeare to be such in the sight of God Do not esteem those things that thou hast but rather esteem those that thou wantest Be not proud for what is given thee but be humbled rather for that which is denied thee Learn to live whiles thou mayst live In this life is eternall life either obtained or lost After death there is no time to work but the time of recompense begins In the life to come working is not expected but the reward of working Let holy meditation bring forth in thee knowledge and knowledge compunction and compunction devotion and let devotion make prayer The silence of the mouth is a great good for the peace of the heart The more thou art separated from the world the more acceptable thou art unto God Whatsoever thou desirest to have ask of God whatsoever thou hast give unto God He that is not thankfull for that which is given already is unworthy to receive more Gods graces cease to descend when our thanks cease to ascend Whatsoever happeneth unto thee make use of it for good When thou art in prosperity think that thou hast then an occasion to blesse and praise God When thou art in adversitie think that thou art then put in minde of thy repentance and conversion Shew the strength of thy power in helping the strength of thy wisdome in instructing and the strength of thy riches in doing good Let not adversitie cast thee down neither let prosperitie lift thee up Let all thy life be directed unto Christ as unto the mark Follow him in the way that thou mayst overtake him in thy countrey In all things have a speciall care of profound humilitie and ardent charitie Let charitie lift up thy heart unto God that thou mayest cleave unto him And let humilitie keep thy heart down that thou beest not proud Judge God to be a Father for his clemencie a Lord for his discipline a Father for his power and gentlenesse a Lord for his severitie and justice Love him as a Father piously fear him as a Lord necessarily Love him because he willeth mercy fear him because he willeth not sinne Fear the Lord and trust in him acknowledge thy misery and proclaim his mercy O God thou that hast given us to will give us also grace to perfect Meditat. XXIX Of the shaking off securitie To live it is not but to die To live in all securitie COnsider thou devout soul what an hard matter it is to be saved and thou shalt easily shake off all securitie At no time and in no place is there securitie Neither in heaven nor in paradise and then much lesse in the world An angel fell in the presence of the divinitie and Adam fell in the place of pleasure Adam was created after the image of God and yet notwithstanding he was deceived by the treacheries of the devil Solomon was the wisest of men and yet his wives turned away his heart from the Lord. Judas was in the school of our Saviour and did every day heare the saving word of that chief Doctour and yet was not he safe from the snares of Satan He was plunged headlong into the pit of covetousnesse and so into the pit of eternall punishment David was a man after Gods own heart and he was unto the Lord as a most deare sonne and yet by murder and adulterie he became the sonne of death Where then is there securitie in this life Relie with an assured confidence of heart upon the promises of God and thou shalt be safe from the invasions of the devil There is no securitie in this life but that which is infallibly promised to those that beleeve and walk in the way of the Lord But when we come unto future happâ—nesse then at length we shall have full securitie In this life fear and religion are coupled together neither must one be without the other Be not secure in adversitie but whatsoever adversitie happâ—neth unto thee in this life think that it iâ— the reward of thy sinnes God often punisheth secret offences by open corrections Think upon the grievous stains of
thy sinnes and fear him that shall judge thee for thy sinnes according to his justice Be not secure in prosperitie For God is angry with him that is not punished in this life What are the afflictions of the godly Bitter arrows sent from the sweet hand of God God esteems many in this life unworthy to be punished whom notwithstanding he reprobateth for ever Outward felicitie is oftentimes a signe of eternall damnation Nothing is more unhappy then the happinesse of sinners and nothing more miserable then he that knows no miserie Whithersoever thou turnest thine eyes thou seest cause of grief and findest remedies against securitie Think upon God above whom we have offended Think upon hell beneath which we have deserved Think upon the sinne behinde which we have committed Think upon the judgement before which we stand in fear of Think upon the conscience within which we have defiled And think upon the world without which we have loved Consider whence thou camest and be ashamed Consider where thou art and be sorrowfull Consider whither thou goest and tremble The gate of salvation is narrow but the way of salvation is yet narrower God hath given unto thee the treasure of faith but thou carriest it about thee in vessels of clay He gave thee the angels to be thy keepers But the devil is not farre off and he is ready to seduce thee Thou art renewed in the spirit of thy minde But yet thou hast much of the oldnes of the flesh Thou art set in the state of the grace of God But yet thou art not set in eternall glory There is a mansion prepared for thee in heaven But yet thou must endure first the afflictions and assaults of the world God hath promised forgivenesse to him that repenteth But he hath not promised will to repent to him that sinneth The consolations of eternall life expect thee But yet thou must expect to enter in through many tribulations The crown of eternall reward is promised unto thee But first thou must fight the great fight and be conquerour God doth not change his promise Neither must thou change the study of holy life If the servant doth not what the Lord commandeth then the Lord wil do what he hath threatned Let a man therefore lament grieve shaking off all securitie lest in the just and secret judgement of God he be forsaken and left in the power of the devils to be destroyed If thou hast the grace of God so delight thy self in it as knowing that it is the gift of God and that thou dost not possesse it by any hereditarie right Yet be thou so secure concerning it that thou canst not lose it lest on a sudden when God shall withhold his gift and withdraw his hand thou beest discouraged and become more sorrowfull then is fit But happy shalt thou be if thou labourest with all care and diligence to avoid securitie the mother of all evil God will not forsake thee But take heed that thou dost not forsake God God hath given thee his grace But pray thou unto him that he would also give thee perseverance God bids thee be certain of thy salvation but he bids thee not be secure Thou must fight valiantly that thou mayest at length triumph gloriously Thy flesh within thee fighteth against thee And the enemie the nearer he is the more he is to be feared The world about thee fighteth against thee And the greater the enemie is the more to be feared The devil above thee fighteth against thee And the more potent the enemy is the more to be feared Through the power of God fear not to encounter with these enemies Through the power of God thou shalt be enabled to obtain the victory But thou canst not overcome these so great enemies by securitie but by assiduity in fighting The time of life is the time of fight Then thou art most assaulted when thou knowest not that thou art assaulted Then do thy enemies most gather their forces together when they seem to grant truce They are vigilant And dost thou sleep They make themselves ready to hurt And dost not thou make thy self ready to resist Many faint by the way never come home into their countrey How many of the Israelites died in the wildernes and never came to see the promised land How many spirituall sonnes of Abraham do perish in the wildernes of this world never come to enjoy the promised inheritance of the kingdome of heaven Nothing is more powerfull to make us shake off security then to think of the paucity of them that endure to the last Let it therefore be our onely desire to attain to the glory which is in heaven Let it be our onely love to come thither Let it be our onely grief that we are not alreadie come thither And let it be our onely fear that we come not thither That so we may have no joy but in those things that either further us in the way thither or give us hope of coming thither What profiteth it thee to rejoyce for a moment to lament for ever What joy can there be in this life when that which delighteth passeth away and that never passeth away which tormenteth We live in securitie as if we were past the snare of death day of judgement Christ saith that he will come to judgement at such an houre as we think not of This saith Truth it self and again he repeats it Heare this and fear If the Lord will come at such an houre as we think not of we have great cause to fear that so we come not unto judgement unprovided If we come unprovided How shall we be able to endure the strict examination in judgement Notwithstanding that which is lost in this one moment cannot be recovered again for ever In the shortnes of one moment judgement shall passe what we shall be for all eternitie In this one moment life or death damnation or salvation punishment or eternall glory shall be appointed to every one Lord thou that hast given us grace to that which is good give us also perseverance in that which is good Meditat. XXX Of the holy imitation of Christ his life Christs life must be a rule to thee If Christs disciple thou wilt be THe holy life of Christ is the most perfect pattern of all vertues Every action of Christ serves for our instruction Many would come to Christ but they will not follow him They would enjoy Christ but they will not imitate him Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart saith our Saviour Unlesse thou wilt be Christs disciple thou canst never be a true Christian Let not Christs passion onely be thy merit but let his action also be thy example to live after Thy beloved is white and ruddie Be thou also ruddy by the sprinkling of his bloud and white by the imitation
it with the knife of truth thou shalt see that within there is nothing but worms and rottennesse There are apples growing about Sodom which are pleasing for outward beautie But being touched they fall to dust The felicitie of this life doth outwardly delight but if thou pressest it with a more weightie consideration it will appear to be like unto smoke and dust Therefore O beloved soul do not suffer thy cogitations to set up their rest in this life But let thy minde alwayes pant and breathe after the joyes to come Compare the short moment of time granted unto us in this life with eternitie which never shall have end and it will appear what a foolish thing it is to cleave unto this life that flitteth away and to neglect that which is everlasting This life of ours posteth away And yet in it do we either get or lose everlasting life This life is most miserable And yet in it do we either get or lose everlasting life This life is subject to many calamities And yet in it do we either get or lose everlasting joy If therefore thou hopest for life everlasting in this flitting life desire it with all thy heart Use the world but let not thy heart cleave to the world Negotiate in this world but fix not thy minde upon this present life The outward use of worldly things hurteth not unlesse thy inward affection cleave unto them Heaven is thy countrey the world is but the place of thy sojourning Be not so much delighted with the momentanie entertainment of this world as to have thy minde withdrawn from the desire after thy heavenly countrey This life is our sea but eternitie is our haven Be not therefore so much delighted with the momentanie tranquillity of this sea as that thou canst not attain to the haven of everlasting tranquillity This life is sliding and doth not keep faith with her lovers but doth often flee from them when they never think of it Why therefore wilt thou trust it It is very dangerous for thee to promise unto thy self security for one houre For oftentiâ—es in that one posting houre this lâ—â—e is ended The safest way then is to expect our departure out of this present life every houre and to prepare our selves for it by serious repentance In the gourd wherewith Jonas was delighted God prepared a worm that it might wither So in these worldly things whereunto many cleave so fast as if they were glewed to them there is no certaintie but the worms of corruption do breed in them The world is now so worn away with a long consumption that it hath even lost the face by which it was wont to seduce And therefore they that delight to perish with the world now perishing are as much to be blamed and condemned as they are to be praised and commended that flourished with the world then flourishing Withdraw O Christ our hearts from the love of this world and stirre up in us a desâ—â—â— after the kingdome of heaven Meditat. XXXIX Of the worlds vanitie Love not the world The world is vain But love those things that ay remain SEt not thy love O devout soul upon those things which are in the world The world shall passe away and all the things therein shall be consumed with fire Where shall thy love be then Love that good which is everlasting that so thou mayest live for ever Every creature is subject to vanitie Whosoever therefore cleaveth with his love unto the creatures shall also become vain himself Love that good which is true and stable that thy heart may be quieted and established Why doth worldly honour delight thee He that seeketh the honour of men cannot be honoured by God He that seeketh the honour of the world must be conformed unto the world and he that pleaseth the world cannot please God All things are unâ—â—able and must perish whatsoever are given by those that are unstable and do perish How then can the honour of the world be stable He that was yesterday extolled to the skies by the praises of men is brought down again to morrow with disgrace Desire therefore to please God that thou mayest be honoured of God For that is the true and stable honour What is a man the better for being reputed great by man If a man be great in the sight of God then is he great indeed not otherwise Christ being sought for to take a kingdome fled from it but being sought for to be reproched and to be ignominiously crucified he offered himself Delight therefore rather in the disgrace then the glorie of the world that so thou mayest be conformed unto Christ. He that doth not despise the world for Christ how would he lay down his life for him There is no way to true glory but by contemning the glory of the world for so Christ entred into his glorie by the ignominie of the crosse Be content therefore to be despised to be vilified and to be rejected in this world that thou mayest be honoured in the world to come Christ taught us by his life how we should esteem of the world All the glory of the heavens serveth him yea he alone is even glory it self And yet he rejected worldly glory Therefore the more a man is honoured and the more he aboundeth in bodily consolations the more deeply and inwardly must he become sorrowfull that he is so farre from being conformable unto Christ. Vain is the praise of man if an evil conscience accuseth within What doth it profit a man sick of a fever if he be laid in a bedsted of ivorie when as notwithstanding he is tormented with raging heat within It is the testimonie of thy conscience that is the true honour and praise indeed There is no juster judge of thy doings then God and thine own conscience Desire to approve thy deeds before this judgement Is it not enough for thee to be known of thy self and which is most of all to be known of God But why dost thou so much covet after riches He is too covetous unto whom the Lord is not sufficient This life is the way to our eternall countrey What then do much riches profit They do rather burden the traveller as great burdens do a ship Christ the king of heaven is the riches of Gods servants The true treasure must be within a man and not without him That is the true treasure which thou canst carry with thee to the generall judgement But all these outwaad goods are taken from us in death The goods gathered together do perish but first he that gathered them doth perish unlesse he be rich in the Lord. Poore thou camest into the world and poore must thou go out And why should the middle differ from the beginning and the end Riches are appointed for our use And how few will be sufficient A little gift of grace
Therefore for our sinnes God casts us off Take not thy holy Spirit from me Therefore as bees are driven away with smoak and pigeons with ill savours so by our sinnes is the holy Spirit driven out of the temples of our hearts Restore me the joy of thy salvation Therefore sinne doth torment the minde and dry up the moisture of the heart The earth is defiled by the inhabitants thereof which have transgressed the law crieth Esay Therefore sinne is a contagious and infectious poison Out of the deeps have I cryed unto thee O Lord saith the Psalmist Therefore our sinnes presse us down unto hell We were sometimes dead in our sinnes saith the apostle Therefore sinne is the spirituall death of the soul. By mortall sinne man loseth God God is the infinite and incomprehensible good Therefore to lose God is an infinite and incomprehensible evil As God is the chiefest good so sinne is the chiefest evil Punishments and calamities are not absolutely evil for many times there comes good of them Yea rather it appeares that they are good because they come from God who is the chiefest good from whom can proceed nothing but that which is good They were in the chiefest good to wit in Christ And the chiefest good cannot partake in that which is evil truely so called And moreover they leade us unto the chiefest good that is to life everlasting Christ by his passion entred into his glorie And so do Christians by tribulations enter into eternall life Therefore sinne is the chiefest evil because it withdraws us from the chiefest good The nearer thou comest unto God the further thou departest from sinne The nearer thou comest unto sinne the further thou departest from God How saving therefore is repentance which withdraws us from sinne and brings us back again unto God! Sinne is measured by the greatnesse of him that is offended But him the heavens the earth cannot contain In like manner such is our repentance as he unto whom we return by repentance The sinner is accused by his conscience which he hath defiled by the Creatour whom he hath offended by the sinnes which he hath committed by the creatures which he hath abused and by the devil by whom he hath been seduced How saving then is repentance which frees us from such accusations Let us make haste therefore let us make haste to such a saving medicine for such a grievous disease If thou repentest at thy death thou dost not leave thy sinnes but thy sinnes leave thee Thou shalt scarce finde any one that repented truely at his death unlesse it were the thief upon the crosse Fourteen yeares have I served thee said Jacob to Laban it is time now that I should provide for mine own house And if thou hast served the world and this life so many yeares is it not fit that thou shouldest begin now to make provision for thy soul Every day doth our flesh heap sinne upon sinne Let the Spirit therefore every day wash them away by repentance Christ died that sinne might die in us And shall we suffer that to live and reigne in our hearts for the destroying whereof the sonne of God himself died Christ enters not into the heart of man by grace unlesse John Baptist prepare the way by repentance God poureth not the oyl of mercie but into the vessel of a contrite heart God doth first mortifie us by contrition that afterwards he may quicken us by the consolation of the Spirit He first leads us into hell by serious grief that afterwards he may bring us back again by the taste of grace Elias first heard a great and strong winde overturning mountains and cleaving rocks and after the winde an earthquake and after the earthquake there appeared fire At length there followed a small and still voice In like manner terrour goes before the taste of Gods love and sorrow before comfort God bindes not up thy wounds unlesse thou lay them open by confession and bewail them He covers not unlesse thou first uncover He pardons not unlesse thou first acknowledge He justifies not unlesse thou first condemne thy self He comforts not unlesse thou first despair in thy self This true repentance God by his holy Spirit work in us Meditat. IIII. Of the name of JESVS Blessed blessed name of Jesus Who tormented was to ease us O Good Jesus be thou my Jesus for thy holy names sake have mercy on me My life condemnes me but the name of Jesus shall save me For this thy names sâ—ke do unto me according to thy name seeing that thou art a true and a great Saviour surely thou dost respect those that are sinners indeed yea great sinners Have mercie on me O good Jesus in the time of mercie that I be not condemned in the time of judgement If thou receive me into the bosome of thy mercy thou shalt have never the lesse room If thou bestow upon me the crumbes of thy goodnesse yet thou shalt want never the more For me thou wast born for me thou wast circumcised to me also thou art become a Jesus How sweet and delightfull is this name For what is Jesus but a Saviour and what harm can happen to those that are saved what else can we desire or expect beyond salvation Receive me Lord Jesus into the number of thy sonnes that together with them I may land thy holy and saving name Though I have lost my integritie yet thou hast not forgotten thy mercy Though I had power to lose and condemne my self yet thou in thy mercie art more powerfull to save me Lord do not thou so look upon my sinnes as to forget thy mercy do not so ponder and weigh my offences that they overpoise thy merit do not so remember my wickednesse as therefore to forget thy goodnesse Remember not thy anger against my guiltinesse but remember thy mercie towards my miserie Thou who hast given me a minde to desire thee withdraw not thy self from my desire Thou who hast shewed unto me my unworthinesse and just damnation hide not from me thy merit and the promise of everlasting salvation My cause is to be tried at the heavenly tribunall but this is my comfort that in the court of heaven thou hast assigned unto thee the name of a Saviour for that name was brought down from heaven by an angel O most mercifull Jesus to whom wilt thou be Jesus if not to miserable sinners that seek thy grace and salvation They that trust in their own righteousnesse and holinesse seek salvation in themselves but I flie unto thee my Saviour for I finde nothing in my self worthy of eternall life Save the condemned shew mercie to the sinner justifie the unrighteous absolve the accused Thou Lord art truth thy name is holy and true Let thy name also become true in respect of me and become thou my Jesus and Saviour Be thou unto me Jesus in this present life be thou unto me Jesus in death be thou unto me Jesus in the last judgement be thou unto me Jesus in the life which
is everlasting I know thou wilt sweet Jesus for as thou art immutable in thy essâ—nce so also thou art immutable in thy mercy Thou wilt not change thy name Lord Jesus for my sake alone who am a miserable sinner Yea rather thou wilt become my Saviour For thou dost not cast out him that cometh unto thee Thou that hast given me a will to come unto thee grant also unto me that coming I may be received For thy words are truth and life Let the propagation of originall sinne within me condemne me yet thou art my Jesus Let my conception in sinne condemne me yet thou art my Jesus Let my forming in sinne and under the curse condemne me yet thou art my Saviour Let the corruption of my nativitie condemne me yet thou art my Saviour Let the sinnes of my youth condemne me yet thou art my Jesus Let the course of my whole life defiled with most grievous sinnes condemne me yet thou art still my Jesus Let deâ—th the just punishment of my many and grievous sinnes and offences condemne me yet thou art my Saviour Let the severe sentence in the last judgement condemne me yet thou art my Jesus In me is sinne reprobation damnation In thy name is righteousnesse election salvation I was baptized in thy name I beleeve in thy name In thy name will I die In thy name will I rise again In thy name will I appeare in judgement In this name are all good things prepared for us and shut up as it were a treasure So much are they diminished as my diffidence is increased which that it may be farre from me I beseech thee by this thy name good Jesus that for my sinne and unbelief I be not damned whom by thy precious merit and saving name thou wouldst have saved Meditat. V. An exercise of faith from the love of Christ in the agonie of death The grace of Jesus Christ to me Is th' onely true felicity SEe Lord Jesus how injurious I am to thy passion My heart is vexed and my soul is very sorrowfull because I have no good works of mine own because I have no merits when as thy passion is my action thy works my merits I am injurious to thy passion when as I seek for the supplement of my works whereas it is in it self all-sufficient If I should finde righteousnesse in my self thy righteousnesse would profit me nothing or else I should not so much desire it If I seek for the works of the law by the law shall I be condemned But I know that now I am no longer under the law but under grace I have lived wickedly I have sinned holy Father against heaven and before thee I am not worthy to be called thy sonne yet thou wilt not refuse to call me thy servant Deny me not I pray thee the fruit of thy passion let not thy bloud wax barren but let it bring forth fruit and deliver my soul. My sinnes have alwayes lived in my flesh but I intreat thee let them at length die with me Hitherto the flesh hath alwayes ruled over me but let the Spirit at length triumph Let the outward man be subject to corruption and worms that the inward man may be glorified Hitherto I have alwayes given way to the suggestions of the devil but grant hereafter I beseech thee that I may trample them under my feet Satan is readie at hand to accuse me but he hath nothing in me The sight of death affrighteth me but death is the end of my sinnes and the beginning of an holy life Now at length shall I be able perfectly to please thee O my God Now at length shall I be confirmed in goodnesse and vertue Satan terrifieth me with my sinnes but let him accuse him which took upon him my infirmities whom the Lord hath smitten for my sinnes The debt which I ow is great indeed and I cannot pay any part thereof but my trust is in the riches and bounty of him that hath undertaken the payment Let him discharge me who hath made himself suretie for me Let him pay for me who took my debt upon himself I have sinned O Lord and my sinnes are many and grievous But this horrible sinne I will not commit to make thee a lyar who by thy words works and oath dost testifie that satisfaction is made for my iniquities I am not afraid by reason of my sinnes for thou art my righteousnesse I am not afraid by reason of my ignorance for thou art my wisdome I am not afraid of death for thou art my life I am not afraid of my errours for thou art my truth I am not afraid of corruption for thou art my resurrection I am not afraid of the sorrows of death for thou art my joy I am not afraid of the severitie of judgement for thou art my righteousnesse Distill upon my withered soul the dew of thy grace and quickening consolation My spirit waxeth dry but it shall shortly rejoyce in thee My flesh doth languish and is withered but it shall shortly bud forth I am subject to corruption but thou shalt deliver me from corruption for thou hast delivered me from all evils Thou hast created me How then can the workmanship of thy hands be dissolved Thou hast redeemed me from all mine enemies How then can death have rule over me Thou hast bestowed thy body and bloud and all that thou hadst yea even thy self for my salvation How then shall death withhold them which thou hast redeemed with so precious a ransome Thou Lord Jesus art righteousnesse it self So then my sins cannot prevail against thee Thou art life it self and the resurrection So then my death cannot prevail against thee Thou art God Therefore Satan cannot prevail against thee Thou hast given me the earnest of thy Spirit in that do I glorie in that do I triumph and am fully perswaded without doubting that I shall be admitted to the marriage of the Lambe Most deare bridegroom thou art my wedding-garment which I put on in baptisme thou shalt cover my nakednesse neither will I sow the supplement of my righteousnesse to this most precious and beautifull garment What is mans righteousnes but the cloth of a menstruous woman How then can I dare to patch that most precious garment of Christs righteousnesse with this abominable ragge In this garment will I appear before thy face in judgement when thou shalt judge the world in righteousnesse and equitie In this garment will I appear before thy face in the kingdome of heaven This garment shall cover my confusion and reproch that no man remember it any more for ever There shall I appear glorious and holy in thy sight And this my flesh this my body shall be arayed with beatificall glory which glory shall be
infinite love of the eternall Father in that he would deliver his onely begotten Sonne to death for us He loved us when we were his enemies And can he forget us when we are reconciled unto him by the death of his Sonne Can he forget the precious bloud of his Sonne when as he telleth the tears and the steps of the godly Can Christ in his life forget those for whom he was willing to undergo death Can he in the time of his glory forget those for whom he suffered so great torments Consider thou faithfull soul the manifold fruits of the Lords passion Christ poured forth for us a bloudy sweat that in the agonie of death a cold sweat might not oppresse us It was his pleasure to wrestle with death that we might not faint in the agony of death It was his will to suffer most grievous anxietie and sorrow even unto death that he might make us partakers of everlasting joy in the heavens He would be betrayed with a kisse which is a signe of friendship and good will that he might blot out the sinne by the which Satan betrayed our first parents under the colour of friendship He would be apprehended and bound by the Jews that he might set us at liberty which were bound in the chain of our sinnes and subject to be cast into everlasting damnation He would begin his passion in the garden that he might purge away sinne which took its beginning in the garden of paradise He would be comforted by an angel that he might make us angels fellows in the heavens He was forsaken of his own disciples that he might glue unto himself us who had most shamefully revolted from God Before the Councel he was accused by false witnesses that Satan might not accuse us by the law of God He was condemned on earth that we might be absolved in heaven He that committed no sinne was speechlesse that we might not in the day of judgement be strucken dumbe by reason of our sinnes He was willing to be buffeted that we might be freed from the sting of conscience and buffetings of Satan He suffered himself to be mocked that we might insult over Satan the insulter His face was covered that he might remove from us the vail of sinne by which we were hindred that we could not behold the face of God as being involved in damnable ignorance He would be disrobed that he might restore unto us the robe of innocencie which we had lost by sinne He was pricked with thorns that he might cure the compunctions of our hearts He underwent the burden of the crosse that he might take from us the burden of everlasting punishment He crâ—â—d out that he was forsakâ—n of God that he might purchase for us an everlasting habitation with God He thirsted on the crosse that he might merit for us the dew of Gods grace and free us from everlasting thirst He would be scorched in the fire of Gods anger that he might free us from the fire of hell He stood as guiltie that he might absolve us He was condemned that we might be delivered from condemnation He was scourged by the hands of the unrighteous that he might free us from the scourges of the devil He cried out for grief that he might preserve us from everlasting exclamation He poured forth tears that he might wipe away tears from our eyes He died that we might live He felt the pains of hell that we might never feel them He was humbled that so he might cure our sinfull tumour He was crowned with thorns that he might merit for us a celestiall crown He suffered of all that he might save all His eyes were darkened in death that we might live in the light of celestiall glory He suffered ignominie and reproches that we might heare the angels sing chearfully in heaven Despair not then O faithfull soul An infinite good was offâ—nded by thy sinnes and an infinite price is payed for them Thou shouldest have been condemned for thy sinnes But the Sonne of God took upon him the sinnes of the whole world and was condemned for them Thou deservedst to be punished for thy sinnes But God hath punished them alreadie in his Sonne The wounds of thy sinnes are great But the balsam of Christs bloud is more precious and of vertue to cure them Moses pronounceth thee cursed because thou hast not kept all that was wrote in the book of the law But Christ was made the curse for thee In the court of heaven there is an hand-writing against thee But Christ hath cancelled that with his bloud Let thy passion therefore O Christ be my last refuge Meditat. VIII Of the certainty of our salvation My hope shall never be confounded Because my hope on Christ is grounded WHy art thou troubled O my soul and why dâ—st thou still doubt of the mercie of God Remember thy Creatour Who created thee without thee Who formed thy body in secret in the lower parts of the earth Who took care of thee when thou wast not will not he have care of thee now he hath made thee after his own image I am the creature of God to the Creatour do I convert my self Though my nature be infected by the devil though it be wounded by theeves that is by my sinnes yet my Creatour liveth He which made me can also renew me He which created me without any evil can take all evil from me whatsoever hath entred into me by the suggestion of the devil by Adams prevarication by my own action yea though it hath over-run my whole substance Therefore my Creatour can reform me if so be that it stands with his good pleasure and will and certainly he will for who ever hated his own workmanship Are we not before him like clay in the hands of the potter If he had hated me certainly he would never have created me when I was nothing He is the Saviour of all men but especially of them that beleeve He created me wonderfully but he redeemed me more wonderfully It never appeared more plainly that he loved us then in his wounds and passion Surely he is truly beloved for whose sake the onely begotten Sonne of God is sent from the bosome of his Father Iâ— thou didst not desire my salvation Lord Jesus why didst thou descend from heaven But thou didst descend upon earth to die on the crosse God to redeem a servant spared not his own Sonne Therefore assuredly God loveth man with a wonderfull love seeing that he hath delivered up his Sonne to be afflicted slain and crucified for the redemption of man Very deare and very great was the price of our redemption Therefore great and deare is the mercy of our Redeemer It might seem to some that God loves his adopted sonnes as dearly as his onely begotten Sonne For that on which we bestow any thing is dearer then that which we bestow That he might
grant unto me of his goodnesse that I may beleeve his word and promises I will use the help and support of prayer to strengthen my faith and I will not suffer the Lord to depart out of the chamber of my heart untill I have obtained salvation By the power of the Lord I shall be able to be preserved unto salvation The power of the Lord doth lift me up and comfort me but mine own infirmitie doth cast me down and make me sorrowfull But the power of the Lord shall be perfected in my weaknesse He shall strengthen me from whom cometh all the strength of my faith The grace of God doth lift me up but mine unworthinesse doth cast me down But if there were any worthinesse in me then it were no grace but a reward If of works then certainly not of grace For grace is not any way grace unlesse it be every way gratis Therefore have I no respect unto my works That which is amisse he will amend that which is wanting he will make up that which he will not impute against me shall be as if it were not Therefore is my salvation onely from God and therefore sure Meditat. XLIII That we must think daily upon our death Think every day to be thy last And when night comes thy life is past O Faithfull soul look foâ— death every houre Because it waits for thee every houre In the morning when thou risest O man think that it is thy last day And in the evening when thou goest to bed think that it is thy last night upon earth Whatsoever thou doest whatsoever thou goest about look about thee and consider with thy self first whether thou wouldest do such things or no if thou shouldest die that houre and so go to Gods judgement What! Dost thou think that death doth not approch because thou thinkest not of it or dost thou think that it draweth nearer because thou thinkest upon it whether thou thinkest upon it or no whether thou speakest of it or no it hangs alwayes over thy head Life was lent unto thee not given as a free-hold Upon this condition thou didst enter in that thou shouldest go out Naked thou camest and naked thou must go This life is a pilgrimage when thou hast travelled a good while then thou must return home again Thou art but a farmer and tenant in this world and not a perpetuall lord Every houre think with thy self whither thou hastenest every moment In this we are deceived in that we think we die then when we breathe out our last Every day every houre every moment we die Whatsoever is added unto our life is taken from it and as it increaseth it also decreaseth we fall not into death suddenly but walk into it step after step This life of ours is a way and every day we must ridde some of it Life and death seem to be most distant but they are as neare as neare can be For one passeth away and the other cometh on As it is with those that travel by sea they oftentimes come to the haven and yet they neither feel nor so much as think whither they are carried So likewise it is with us whatsoever we do whether we eat drink or sleep we draw nearer alwayes to our death Many have passed away their life even in the time whiles they were seeking after things belonging to the sustentation of this life No man entertains death joyfully unlesse he hath long before prepared himself for it In this life die daily unto thy self that so in death thou mayst live unto God Before thou diest let thy sinnes die in thee In thy life time let the old Adam die in thee So at thy death Christ shall live in thee In thy life time let the outward man daily decay that at thy death the inward man may be renewed in thee Death translateth thee from time to eternitie for as the tree falls so it lies How carefully then ought we to think upon the houre of death Time passeth away but the infinite space of eternitie remains behinde In time therefore make thy self ready for eternitie What we shall be for ever whether blessed or miserable it shall be decreed at the houre of death In that one moment is eternall felicitie either enjoyed or lost Wherefore O faithfull soul how solicitous and carefull oughtest thou to be in preparing thy self for that houre Thou wilt easily contemn all worldly things if thou considerest with thy self that thou must die Consider that thine eyes shall be darkened in death and thou wilt easily turn away thine eyes from beholding vanitie Consider that thy eares shall wax deaf at thy death and it shall be easie for thee to stop thy eares against impious and filthy speeches Consider that thy tongue shall be tied at thy death and thou wilt have more regard unto thy words Set before thine eyes the cold sweat and anxietie of those that are ready to die and thou wilt easily contemn all worldly delights Look upon the nakednesse of them that depart out of this world and povertie in this life will not seem grievous unto thee Consider the trembling of the whole bodie at the point of death and thou wilt easily contemn the splendour of the world Consider the mourning of the soul being compelled to go out of the house of the bodie and thou wilt easily beware of the guilt of all sinne Consider the corruption that followeth after death and thou wilt easily bring down thy proud flesh Consider how naked thou art left at thy death being forsaken of all the creatures and thou wilt easily turn away thy love from them and turn it towards the Creatour Consider how narrowly death looks to thee that thou carrie away nothing with thee at thy death and thou wilt easily contemn all the riches of the world He that in this life dieth daily through his sinnes doth passe from death temporall unto the punishments of death eternall No man is translated unto everlasting life but he that begins here to live in Christ. That in death therefore thou mayest live be ingrafted into Christ by faith Let death be alwayes in thy thoughts because it is to be expected alwayes We carry death alwayes about us because we alwayes carry sinne about us and the wages of sinne is death But if thou wouldest escape the bitternesse of death keep the word of Christ. Faith doth conjoyn and unite us unto Christ Therefore they which are in Christ die not For Christ is their life He that is joyned unto God by faith is one spirit with him And therefore the faithfull man dieth not for ever because God is his life The people of Israel passed through the Red sea unto the promised land but Pharaoh and his host were drowned So the death of the godly is unto them the beginning of true life and the gate of paradise but the death of the wicked is not
But thou O Christ wast made a curse for me that I might be freed from the curse of the law I shall be cursed by Moses but blessed by thee For I desire to heare that voice Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you Moses will accuse me But thou wilt not accuse me to thy Father yea thou makest intercession for me Therefore I am not afraid of Moses his curse because thou hast blotted out the hand-writing which was against me The damned will accuse me and pronounce me guiltie of the same fault with them I confesse Lord Jesus my guiltinesse doth conjoyn me with them but the acknowledgement of my guiltines and the saving knowledge of thee doth disjoyn me from them He that heareth thy word and beleeveth on him that sent thee hath life everlasting and shall not come into condemnation I heare thy word Lord and in thee I beleeve with weak faith but yet faith Lord I beleeve yet help thou my unbelief Lord I beleeve but yet do thou increase my faith Although I am not free from all the sinnes of the damned yet thou O Lord shalt deliver me from unbelief All my accusers do terrifie me but thou being my Judge dost comfort me To thee hath the Father committed all judgement Into thy hands hath he delivered all things and again thee hath he delivered up for us all and thou hast delivered up thy self for the Church to sanctifie it and cleanse it by the washing of water through the word How canst thou then according to severe judgement judge those for whom thou hast delivered thy self to death even the death of the crosse Thou canst not hate thine own flesh we are members of thy body of thy flesh and of thy bones Meditat. XLVI Of the desire of eternall life All earthly things tread under thee And let thy thoughts in heaven be DEvout soul thou must not love this life which is transitorie but rather that which remaineth for ever Ascend up by thy desires to the place where there is youth without old age life without death joy without sorrow and a kingdome without change If beauty delight thee The righteous shall shine as the sunne If swiftnesse and strength The elect shall be like unto the angels of God If a long and healthfull life There shall be healthfull eternitie and eternall healthfulnesse If fulnesse The elect shall be filled when the glory of the Lord shall appear If melodie There do the quires of angels sing without end If pure pleasure God shall make those that are his drunk in the torrent of pleasure If wisdome The very wisdome of God shall shew it self unto them If love They shall love God more then themselves and one another as themselves and God shall love them more then they themselves If concord delight There they shall be all of one minde If power To the elect shall all things be easie they shall desire nothing but what they shall be able and they shall desire nothing but what God will have them to will and to desire If honour and riches delight God will make his faithfull servants rulers over many things If true securitie They shall be as certain never to want that good as they are certain that they themselves would never lose it willingly and that God that loveth them will never take from them against their wills that which they love and that nothing is more powerfull then God to separate God and them asunder Whatsoever the elect can desire there they shall finde because they shall behold him that is all in all face to face So great are the goods of that life that they cannot be measured so many that they cannot be numbred and so precious that they cannot be valued There shall be eternall health unto our bodies and great puritie unto our souls there shall be glory and fulnesse of divine pleasure there shall we have familiaritie with the saints and angels for ever having our bodies of admirable clearnesse and brightnesse The elect shall rejoyce for the pleasantnesse of the place which they shall possesse for the pleasant societie in which they shall reigne for the glory of their bodies which they shall put on for the world which they have despised and for hell which they have escaped The least crown of eternall life shall be more worth then a thousand worlds because they are all finite but this is infinite Neither is there any fear that they shall envie one anothers brightnesse because there shall reigne in them all unitie of love By reason of that high degree of love whatsoever happeneth to one of the elect the rest shall as much rejoyce at as if it were their own There is no greater good then God in heaven and in earth Therefore there can be no greater perfecter joy then to see possesse God Therefore to see God for one moment shall go beyond all joyes For we shall see God in himself God in us and our selves in God In the way of this life we have Christ with us but hidden under the covering of the word and sacraments We know him not here as he is but in the life to come we shall behold him in presence when he shall distribute unto us the bread that satisfieth for ever As the disciples knew him not upon the way but in the Inne at length when he broke bread unto them The heavenly Jerusalem hath no temple made with hands neither sunne nor moon because the temple thereof is eternall and God is the life thereof Vision succeeds in the place of faith attainment in the place of hope and perfect fruition in the place of love As at the building of Solomons temple there was heard neither the sound of ax nor hammer So in the heavenly Jerusalem there is neither pain nor tribulation felt because the materials of this temple to wit the spirituall stones are prepared by tribulation in the world long before The queen that came to Solomon is the soul travelling to the heavenly Jerusalem unto Christ She entreth in with a great train of the holy angels with gold and precious stones of divers vertues She will wonder at the wisdome of Christ the King the order of his ministers that is the Angels and the Saints the fare of his table that is the fulnesse of eternall repast the price and value of his clothes that is the bodies glorified the beauty of his house that is the greatnesse of the heavenly palace the sacrifices that is the multitude of divine praises She will be turned into astonishment and confesse she could not beleeve what she now seeth with her eyes Therefore let the faithfull soul lift up her self and consider what good things are prepared for her Thither let the spirit be directed whither at length it shall go In time we
unto the angels and even unto himself also Oh most blessed citie Oh heavenly Jerusalem Oh the holy seat of the most holy Trinitie when shall it be that I shall enter into thy temple The Lambe is the heavenly Jerusalem to wit the Lambe which taketh away the sinnes of the world was slain for them from the beginning of the world When shall the time come that I may in that temple worship my God that is God in God when will that sunne rise upon me which enlightneth that holy city I am yet a banished man from my countrey but there is laid up for me an ample inheritance To those that beleeve power is given to be made the sonnes of God And if we be sonnes we are then heirs heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. Lift up thy self O my soul and long to come to thine inheritance The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and my exceeding great reward What could the most ample mercie and bountie of God bestow upon us more than this He bestows life He bestows his Sonne He bestows himself And if he had any thing else greater in heaven or in earth he would bestow even that also upon us In God we live Gods temple we are God we possesse here indeed in the spirit and in a mysterie but there in truth There shall our hope become fruition and there shall we not onely remain but dwell for ever Meditat. XLVIII Of the most comfortable fellowship of the angels in heaven If thou beest here a childe of grace 'Mongst angels thou shalt have a place AT the resurrection of the dead they shall neither marrie nor be given in marriage but shall be like unto the angels of God in heaven Who can worthily set forth with praises this honour of the blessed Into whose heart hath this glorie of the blessed ever entred The elect being renewed by a glorious resurrection shall enjoy the saving vision of God without all fear of death and without any spot of corruption I have seen the Lord face to face and my life is preserved saith the holy Patriarch But if the sight of God for a moment could bring so great joy What joy will it bring to see him for ever If the sight of God appearing in the shape of man brought salvation and life unto the soul Certainly the seeing of him face to face shall bring life and everlasting felicitie What then can be added to this felicitie What can the elect desire beside the fruition of the sight of God And yet notwithstanding they shall enjoy the most sweet and blessed fellowship of the angels Neither shall they onely enjoy their fellowship but they shall be also like unto them for the nimblenesse brightnesse and immortalitie of their bodies We shall be clothed with the same garment that they are we shall stand before the throne of the Lambe clothed with long white robes and sing unto the Lord an everlasting song we shall shine in the same crown of vertues we shall rejoyce in the same priviledge of immortalitie We have seen the angel of the Lord and we shall surely die crieth out Manoah But we shall see thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand angels and yet we shall live for ever And if we shall be like unto angels surely we shall have no cause to fear lest we be separated from them by the unlikenesse of our sinnes We shall put off the ragged coat of our sinfull nature and our nakednesse shall be covered with the garment of salvation and we shall be clothed with the white robe of righteousnesse No man there receiveth hurt no man is angry no man envious there is no slandring no concupiscence there is no ambition after honour and power We shall not be laden with the burden of our sins neither shall we be constrained to weep and wash away the spots of our sinnes with penitent teares neither shall we have cause to fear the deadly wounds of our soul For the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath overcome and through his vertue have we all overcome Again if we shall be like unto the angels we shall have no desire after meat or drink God shall be our meat with whose pleasures we shall be satisfied God shall be our meat which onely doth refresh us and is never deficient The blessed shall neither hunger nor thirst any more the sunne and the heat shall not scorch them because their mercifull Father shall feed them and shall leade them unto the living fountains of waters Out of their bellies shall flow rivers of living waters There shall be a feast prepared of marrow and fatnesse and wine clarified We shall feast and be merry and sing joyfully for the joy of heart Lord Jesus these things shall be fulfilled in spirit in truth Of the fruit of the vine shall we drink in thy Fathers kingdome but yet in spirit and in truth For the words which thou spakest unto us are spirit and life and thou declarest the joy of the world to come by the language of this world Again if we shall be like unto the angels we shall be free from the fear of death For death shall be swallowed up in victory and shall be trod down for ever and God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of his people Therefore there shall be joy without sorrow which containeth everlasting joy health without sicknesse life without death light without darknesse love which shall never wax cold joy which shall never decrease No sighing shall be heard there no grief felt no sorrowfull thing seen but there shall be joy for ever There shall be great and certain securitie secure quietnesse quiet pleasure pleasant happinesse happy eternity eternall blessednesse the blessed Trinitie the Unitie of the Trinitie the Deitie of the Unitie and the blessed sight of the Deitie Lift up thy self O my soul and weigh with thy self the honour conferred upon us by Christ We shall be made fellows with the companies of Angels and Archangels with thrones and dominions with principalities and powers Neither shall we onely be fellows with them but we shall be like unto them We shall there know the angel that was appointed by God to be our keeper in our life time neither shall we stand in need of his ministerie but we shall be delighted with his sweet companie We shall not desire his protection but we shall rejoyce for his good fellowship and we shall behold his brightnesse with eyes enlightned Again if we shall be like unto the angels our frail weak and mortall bodies shall be changed and they shall be made spirituall nimble and immortall They shall be light because they shall be neare unto God who dwelleth in light that no mortall man can approach unto and is covered with light as with a garment They shall
its greatnesse exceeded heaven and earth Imagine also that some bird every thousandth yeare should carrie from this mountain one grain of the smallest dust There might be some hope that at length after the end of many incomprehensible thousands of yeares the greatnesse of that mountain might be consumed But it cannot be hoped that the fire of hell should ever go out The rewards of the elect shall never be ended therefore the punishments of the damned shall never be ended Because as the mercy of God is infinite towards the elect so the justice of God is infinite towards the reprobate Imagine that the damned had so many kindes of torments as there are little drops in the vast sea Imagine also that at every thousandth yeare some little bird should fly thither and suck a small drop thereof There might be some hope that at length the sea would be exhausted and become dry But it cannot be hoped that the punishments of the damned should ever have an end O devout soul think alwayes upon the eternall punishments of the damned To think upon hell preserves a man from falling into hell Have a care to repent whiles yet there is time for pardon What else shall the fire devoure but thy sinnes The more thou heapest up sinnes the more matter thou layest up for the fire O Lord Jesus which by thy passion hast made satisfaction for our sinnes deliver us from eternall damnation Amen Meditat. LI. Of the spirituall resurrection of the godly Doth Adam die Christ in thee live Christ shall eternall life thee give CHrists resurrection profits thee nothing unlesse Christ also rise in thee As Christ must be conceived born and live in thee So also must he rise in thee Before resurrection goes death because none riseth again but he that is fallen And so it fares in this spirituall resurrection Christ riseth not in thee unlesse Adam first die in thee The inward man riseth not unlesse the outward man be first buried The newnesse of the spirit will not come forth unlesse the oldnesse of the flesh be first hidden It is not enough for thee to have Christ once risen in thee because the old Adam cannot be extinct in one moment The old Adam will revive in thee daily And thou must daily mortifie him that Christ may begin to live in thee daily Christ ascended not into heaven neither entred he into his glory before he rose from death So neither canst thou enter into celestiall glory unlesse Christ first rise in thee and live in thee He is not a member of the mysticall bodie of Christ in whom Christ liveth not Neither shall he be brought by Christ into the Church triumphant who hath not been a member of his bodie in the Church militant Betrothing goes before matrimonie And that soul shall not be brought in unto the marriage of the heavenly Lambe which is not in this life betrothed to Christ by faith and sealed by the earnest of the holy Spirit Let Christ therefore rise and live in thee that thou mayst live with him for ever This is the fiâ—st resurrection Blessed and holy it be that hath part in the first resurrection over him shall the second death have no power If thou wilt at the resurrection come forth unto life Christ must daily rise in thee in this life At the resurrection of Christ the sunne rose So if Christ be spiritually risen in thee the light of the saving knowledge of God shall rise in thy soul. How can the light of the saving knowledge of God be there where the darknesse of most grievous sinnes still hath place The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome How then can heavenly wisdome be there where the fear of God hath no place But he that is destitute of the light of divine knowledge in this life how can he be made partaker of eternall light in the life to come The sonnes of light onely do passe unto eternall light but the sonnes of darknesse unto eternall darknesse Christ at his resurrection triumphed over death So he in whom Christ is spiritually risen is passed from death to life For he cannot be overcome by death in whom Christ the conquerour of death doth live Christ rising again brought with him perfect righteousnesse for he died for our sinnes and rose again for our justification So he also in whom Christ is spiritually risen is justified from his sinnes For how can sinne have place there where the perfect righteousnesse of Christ liveth and flourisheth Now this righteousnesse of Christ is applyed unto us by faith Christ rising from the dead got the victory over Satan for in his descent to hell he destroyed his kingdome spoiled his palace and broke his weapons in pieces And so also in whomsoever Christ is spiritually risen against him shall not Satan prevail for how can he be overcome of Satan in whom Christ liveth who overcame Satan At Christs resurrection there was a great earthquake So the spirituall resurrection with Christ is not without the earnest commotion and contrition of heart The old Adam cannot be overcome without striving and resistance Therefore Christ also cannot rise in thee spiritually without great commotion There is no spirituall resurrection with Christ unlesse there be a blotting out of sinne and there is no blotting out of sinne unlesse acknowledgement of sinne go before and there is no true acknowledgement of sinne without serious contrition of heart Therefore there is no spirituall resurrection of Christ in thee without inward contrition of heart Holy Ezechias said As a lion hath he broken in pieces my bones Behold great contrition But he addes presently O Lord so shall they live again and so shall my spirit be quickned Thou shalt correct me and thou shalt quicken me Again Thou hast cast all my sinnes behinde thy back Behold a spirituall resurrection from sinne At Christs resurrection an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and sat upon the sepulchre So if Christ be risen in thee spiritually thou mayest rejoyce in the fellowship of the angels Where the old Adam lives and reignes there is a pleasing bed for the devil But where Christ liveth and reigneth there the angels rejoyce to dwell For it is written There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth But where there is true repentance there also is Christ risen spiritually Where Christ is not yet risen spiritually neither is there yet the grace of God and where there is not yet the grace of God neither is there the guard of angels Where Christ is not yet spiritually risen there still doth the old Adam reigne and where the old Adam doth reigne there doth sinne also yet reigne and where sinne doth reigne there the devil doth reigne And what communion can there be between the blessed angels and the devil Christ after his resurrection presented himself alive unto his disciples So if thou beest
strength and subtilty to oppresse me When by day Satan by his tentations doth set upon me the strength of thy right hand doth most bountifully comfort and strengthen me that the deceitfull tempter may not allure me into his snares When an innumerable host of evils hangs over my head thy blessed angels encamp about me like a fiery wall There is no creature so vile so weak and so little of which I do not stand in danger many wayes How great and immense a benefit is it therefore that thy providence doth preserve me safe from them My soul is prone to sinne and my bodie to falling Therefore O Lord most benigne my soul thou governest by thy blessed Spirit and my body by thy angelicall buckler For thou hast given thy angels charge over me to keep me in all my wayes and to bear me up with their hands that I dash not my foot at any time against a stone To thy mercy I attribute it that I am not consumed New dangers compasse and environ me about every day Thy mercy is therefore renewed unto me every morning Thou dost neither slumber nor sleep O thou faithfull and watchfull keeper of my soul and bodie Thy grace is the shadow on my right hand that the noon-tide rayes of open and violent persecution strike me not nor the darknesse of the night cause me to fall into the secret and hidden snares of the devil Thou dost keep my ingresse thou dost direct my progresse thou dost govern my egresse For which thy great benefit I will sing praises unto thee for ever Amen PRAYER XV. He renders thanks for the promise of everlasting salvation I Render thanks unto thee heavenly Father for that thou hast not onely given me free remission of my sinnes and the inward renewing of the Spirit but also an assured promise of everlasting salvation How great is thy goodnesse that to me poore miserable man and a sinner having had so often experience of thy mercy thou hast given boldnesse to hope even after heavenly things and to conceive an assured hope of habitation in the everlasting mansions of thy heavenly house The goods of that true and everlasting life are so great that they cannot be measured and so many that they cannot be numbred so farre extended that they cannot be termed and of such price that they cannot be valued How great therefore is thy goodnesse and bounty to me undeserving wretch in that thou dost in the prison and work-house of this life make me blessed in part with an infallible promise of those goods That I am already saved by hope the Apostle of the truth doth manifest And that hope maketh not ashamed it is proved by evident testimonie Why therefore is the ship of my heart in which Christ is carried by faith so often tossed up and down with storms and waves of doubtings Thou hast given unto me a promise of salvation O God thou God of truth How can I therefore any longer doubt of the certainty and immutability of thy promise That promise of life comes of thy meer free-will And therefore it depends not upon the merit of my works I am by faith as surely ascertained of the benefits promised of thy grace as I am assured by the sight of mine eyes of those which I already have Thou feedest me with the bodie and bloud of thy Sonne Thou sealest me by the inward testimony of thy Spirit What more certain testimony or more precious pledge can there be to confirm unto me the promise of salvation I finde in very deed that thou art with me in the troubles of this present life How can it otherwise be but that I shall be with thee in that most blessed fellowship of eternall life If thou bestowest upon me such great things in the poore cottage of this world How much greater wilt thou bestow in the palace of the heavenly paradise Whatsoever thing to be hoped for thou hast promised is as certain unto me as all those things which thou hast given me for my use in this world Thy mercy and truth is strengthened and shall be strengthened over me for ever Thy mercy did prevent me and thy mercy shall follow me It prevented me in my justification and it shall follow me in my glorification It prevented me that I might live piously it shall follow me that I may live for ever with thee Therefore I will praise and sing of thy mercy and truth for ever Amen The third part Of Petitions for our selves The Argument The meditation of our own wants doth shew that 〈◊〉 have of our selves no manner of spirituall good And therefore that it becometh â—s to renounce all confidence in our own strength and to flee to the aid 〈◊〉 succour of Gods mercy promised unto us through Christ By this consideration of our manifold wants 〈◊〉 soul is lifted up unto God and begs of him morâ—â—fication of the old man and renovation of the new â—hich is necessarie for all those that are born again â—his renovation consisteth in the conservation and inâ—â—ease of faith hope charitie humilitie patience â—entlenesse chastitie and the other vertues And â—â—erefore we ought with serious prayer to sue unto 〈◊〉 for it Moreover seeing that daily we are assaultâ—â— by the flesh the world and the devil insomuch 〈◊〉 our flesh solicits us uâ—to the love of earthly 〈◊〉 the world with hatred and Satan with his â—â—eacheries oppugnes us We have just cause to pray 〈◊〉 unto the Lord of hosts who proposeth unto us 〈◊〉 battel and a reward of victorie For contempt 〈◊〉 earthly things For deniall of our selves For â—â—nquest over the world For comfort in all adâ—â—rsitie and true tranquillitie of the minde For â—â—ctorie in tentations and preservation from the deâ—â—ls treacheries And to conclude seeing that the aid 〈◊〉 assistance of God in the houre of death and the 〈◊〉 of judgement is most necessary Therefore we must 〈◊〉 day humbly pray for a blessed departure out of 〈◊〉 life and a blessed resurrection unto life 〈◊〉 PRAYER I. He prayes for mortification of the old man MOst holy and most mercifull God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ through the same thy beloved Son by thy holy Spirit I humbly beseech thee that thou wouldest be pleased to work in me a daily mortification of the old man thaâ— according to the inward man I may in thee be strengthened Sinne dwellâ— in my flesh But give thou unto me the strength of the Spirit that I do not suffer it to reigne in me Thou dost set my secret sinnes before thee in the light of thy countenance But set thou them I beseech thee in the light of my heart that I may see them and grieve and humbly sue untâ— thee for pardon I am not as yeâ— altogether free from sinne dwelling in me But grant I beseech thee iâ— mercie that I may be free from thâ— guilt thereof and from condemnation
unto thee his most perfect righteousnesse who fulfilled all thy commandments 6 For our communicating in other mens sinnes we offer unto thee his most perfect righteousnesse communicated unto us 7 8 9 10 For our most wicked and ungodly life we offer unto thee his â—ost cruel and bitter death For us was he conceived for us was he â—orn for us was he crucified His â—loud still cries unto thee in our â—â—half Father forgive them Accept â—e beseech thee the inestimable â—rice of thy Sonnes bloud for a full â—nd plenarie satisfaction for all our â—innes yea O Lord we know that â—hou hast accepted it already Therefore with confidence we put â—p our PETITIONS unto thee As â—hou hast redeemed us by thy Sonne â—o also we beseech thee to sanctifie us â—y thy holy Spirit 1 Mortifie in us â—very day more and more all sinfull â—usts and affections and quicken in â—s all saving graces and vertues 2 Inâ—rease our faith 3 Confirm our hope Inflame our charitie Teach us to â—mitate the life of Christ the true patâ—ern of perfect obedience and onely â—â—ue rule of a godly life Teach us â— Humilitie 6 Patience 7 Meeknesse Gentlenesse 8 Chastitie Temperance Teach us 9 To contemn all earthly â—hings 10 To denie our selves 11 To â—vercome the world 12 Grant us consolation in adversitie and true tranquillitie of the minde Grant us 13 Victory in tentations and deliverance from the devils treacheries Grant us in thine appointed time 14 A blessed departure out of this life and a blessed resurrection unto life everlasting We pray not for our selves alone but in obedience to thy commandmâ—â— we make our SUPPLICATIONâ— unto thee for all men 1 Save and defend thy universall Church enlarge thou her borders and propagate thy Gospel 3 Blesse all Christian kingâ— and governours especially thy servant Charles our most gracious King and governour Blesse together with him our gracious Queen Mary Blesse unto them and us and our posterity after us our hopefull Prince Charles season him betimes with true religion that he may be an instrument of thy glory the joy of his parents and the blessing of thy people Remember David and all his troubles the Lady Elisabeth our Kings onely sister her princely issue Suffer them not still to mourn in a strange land out restore them if it be thy will to â—heir former inheritance Blesse all â—ur kings loyall subjects from the â—ighest unto the lowest Give unto â—he Senatours counsel and wisdome To the magistrates justice and forâ—â—tude to those that are under them Christian subjection and obedience To the ministers of thy word holiâ—esse of life and soundnesse of doâ—trine to the hearers of thy word diâ—â—gent attention to the word preachâ—d and a care and conscience to live â—hereafter Blesse 4 Every family in his kingdome this especially and all â—hat belong unto it Blesse our 5 paâ—ents brethren sisters kinsfolk beâ—efactours and friends 6 Forgive our â—nemies 7 Shew pitie and compasâ—â—on to all those that are afflicted and 〈◊〉 miserie Relieve them accordâ—ng to their severall wants and neâ—essities Be thou a Father to the â—therlesse a Comforter to the comâ—â—rtlesse a Deliverer to the caâ—tives and a Physician to the sick â—rant that the sicknesse of their boâ—ies may make for the good of their â—uls Especially we beseech thee to be present with those that are at the point to die Fit them for their journey before their departure Arâ— them with faith and patience Seal unto them by thy holy Spirit the pardon and forgivenesse of all their sinnes And so let thy servants depart in peace and be translated from death to life to live with thee for evermore Heare us we beseech thee praying for our brethren heare out brethren for us and Jesus Christ our elder brother for us all We know O Lord that thou hearest him alwayes Heare us likewise we beseech thee for his sake and accept our THANKSGIVING We render most hearty thanks unto thee for our Saviours 4 Incarnation for his 5 Passion for our 3 Redemption by his most precious bloud We thank thee for 1 forming us in our mothers wombe for 12 washing us in the laver of baptisme for 6 câ—lling us by thy word for 7 expecting our conversion for 8 converting us unto the faith for 23 strengthening our faith by the participation of Christs bodie and bloud for 9 sealing unto us the pardon of our sinnes for 15 giving us a promise of everlasting life We thank thee for all other thy blessings 11 corporall and spirituall internall and externall for our 10 continuance in that which is good for 14 deliverance from all evil We thank thee for thy often deliverances of this Church and kingdome from forrein invasions and home-bred conspiracies We thank thee for 2 preserving us ever since we were born for defending us this night past from all perils and dangers for the quiet rest wherewith thou hast refreshed our bodies for thy mercie renewed unto us this morning Let thy mercy be continued unto us this day let thy Spirit direct us in all our wayes that we may walk before thee as children of the light doing those things that are pleasing in thy sight Let the dew of thy blessing descend upon our labours for without thy blessing all our labour is but in vain Prosper thou the works of our hands upon us O prosper thou our handy-work Grant that we may consciâ—onably in our callings so seek after things temporall that finally we lose not the things which be eternall We are unworthy O Lord we confesse to obtain any thing at thy hands either for our selves or any others even for the sinfulnesse of these our prayers But thou hast promised to heare all those that call upon thee in thy Sons name Make good therefore we beseech thee thy promise unto us now calling upon thee in thy Sonnes name and praying as he hath taught us in his holy Gospel OUr Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdome the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen An Evening prayer for a familie gathered here and there out of Gerards Meditations and Prayers MOst glorious Lord God whose dwelling is in the highest heavens and yet beholdest the lowly and the humble upon earth we blush and are ashamed to lift up our eyes unto heaven because we have sinned against thee which dwellest in the heavens But look down we beseech thee from heaven thy dwelling-place and behold the humilitie of thy servants here on earth which prostrate themselves at the foot-stool of thy mercie confessing their own guiltinesse and begging pardon for their sinnes We confesse Almighty Creatour that thou madest us at the first after thine own image thou
therefore now to renew it Gerards Meditations had never seen English light for me if yours and others bountie had not set my head on work to finde out some occasion to give publick testimonie of my thankfulnesse If Gerard had not been I might still have been to seek for an occasion As often therefore as Gerard and I live together at every impression you may challenge at my hands a new expression of my service This debt I shall be alwayes readie to pay but not as men pay money for that being once paid can be required no more But this I shall be alwayes paying and still remain your debter Ità testor R. WINTERTON SOme say that plants do better grow When they 're translated to and fro I 'm sure when books translated be They more and more do fructifie Gerard did bring forth fruit before But now it is deriv'd to more What be beyond the sea did sow Now Englishmen at home may mow Come Countreymen take what is yours The crop's brought home unto your doores John Bohâ—am IF pleasure may or profit may thee move Here 's that which may deserve thy chiefest love If thou desirest riches to enjoy The doore is open to the treasurie If beautie please On this glasse cast thine eye Here 's that will soul and bodie beautifie If honour please The way 's prepar'd for thee To honour him whose service honours thee If thou beest hungrie thirstie Taste and see Christs flesh and bloud presented unto thee If thou beest naked To this wardrobe hie Where Christ his robe of righteousnesse doth lie If sick thou art For every maladie Here is a very present remedie If thou thy self defiled hast with sinne Here is a fountain for to bathe thee in If thou delightst in flowers Here do grow Such flowers as Art and Nature ne're could show Choose what thou wilt here 's what thou canst desire Riches and beautie honours and attire Meat drink and med'cine and a living spring A paradise of every pleasant thing Here 's heaven on earth if heaven on earth can be And so I wish thee to go in and see Francis Winterton GErard of late was but in Latine read But now he hath his language altered Behold a change see how Arts pencill can A Latine turn into an English-man Gerard in this ten thousand doth excell In three moneths space to speak our tongue so well Thomas Bonham REader if thou fain wouldst know To whose labours thou dost ow These sacred lines think who't may be Seeks thy souls good and that is he Some say these writings Gerards be He wrote indeed but not to thee He was to those that learned were To thee he was not though be were Before thou couldst not understand He 's now translated to thy hand Reade him and use him as thy friend And hee 'l be thine unto the end William Norrice THou that desir'st on earth a blessed end And seek'st the way to th' heavens to ascend Resort to Gerard hee 'l direct the way Whereby thou mayst ascend and live for ay Thou needst no guide 't is easie to be gone All lets removed are by Winterton The way 's made plain which was before obscure That thou thereby mayst heavenly blisse procure Endeavour then this way to walk aright And it will lead thee to eternall light T. Gore UPon a good the more communicate We alwayes set a better estimate The sunne it self though of it self most bright None would admire did not he see its light Gerard himself though of himself hee 's good Had not been so to us not understood This mov'd my friend this Gerard to translate Gods glory and thy good to propagate Edward Bonham The table for direction to finde out any Meditation contained in this book Meditation 1 OF confession of sinne Page 1 Meditation 2 An exercise of repentance from the crosse of Christ. Page 7 Meditation 3 Of the fruit of true and serious repentance Page 12 Meditation 4 A meditation upon the name of JESVS Page 19 Meditation 5 An exercise of faith from the love of Christ in the agonie of death Page 23 Meditation 6 Consolation for the penitent from the crosse of Christ. Page 28 Meditation 7 Of the fruit of the Lords passion Page 34 Meditation 8 Of the certaintie of our salvation Page 39 Meditation 9 That God alone is to be loved Page 44 Meditation 10 Of our reconciliation with God Page 51 Meditation 11 Of the satisfaction made for our sinnes Page 56 Meditation 12 Of the nature and properties of true faith Page 61 Meditation 13 Of the spirituall marriage of Christ and the soul. Page 68 Meditation 14 Of the mystery of Christs incarnation Page 74 Meditation 15 Of the saving fruit of Christs incarnation Page 80 Meditation 16 Of the spirituall repast of the godly Page 85 Meditation 17 Of the fruits of Baptisme Page 91 Meditation 18 Of the saving communion of the body and bloud of Christ. Page 97 Meditation 19 Of the mystery of the Lords supper Page 102 Meditation 20 Of due preparation before we come to the Lords supper Page 107 Meditation 21 Of Christs ascension Page 112 Meditation 22 An homilie of the holy Ghost Page 118 Meditation 23 Of the Churches dignitie Page 125 Meditation 24 Of predestination Page 132 Meditation 25 Of the saving efficacie of prayer Page 139 Meditation 26 Of the holy angels guarding us Page 146 Meditation 27 Of the devils treacheries Page 153 Meditation 28 Generall rules for the leading of a godly life Page 159 Meditation 29 Of shaking off securitie Page 166 Meditation 30 Of the imitation of the holy life of Christ. Page 174 Meditation 31 Of the denying of a mans self Page 180 Meditation 32 Of the true rest of the soul. Page 187 Meditation 33 Of a pure conscience Page 193 Meditation 34 Of the studie of true humilitie Page 201 Meditation 35 Of fleeing from covetousnesse Page 206 Meditation 36 Of the properties of true love and charitie Page 214 Meditation 37 Of the studie of chastitie Page 222 Meditation 38 Of the flitting swiftnesse of this present life Page 229 Meditation 39 Of the worlds vanitie Page 236 Meditation 40 Of the profit of tentations Page 244 Meditation 41 Foundations of Christian patience Page 250 Meditation 42 How we must overcome tentations by perseverance Page 257 Meditation 43 Of the daily meditation of our death Page 262 Meditation 44 Consolation at the death of friends Page 268 Meditation 45 Of the last judgement Page 277 Meditation 46 Of the desire of eternall life Page 283 Meditation 47 Of the beatificall vision of God in heaven Page 290 Meditation 48 Of our fellowship with the angels in heaven Page 296 Meditation 49 Of the grievousnesse of hell-torments Page 302 Meditation 50 Of the eternitie of hell-torments Page 309 Meditation 51 Of the spirituall resurrection of the godly Page 316 Meditat. I. Of true confession and acknowledâ—ment of sinne Confession is to cure sinne A very present medicine HOly God
of Galilee to shew that he came into the world to spirituall marriages Rejoyce in the Lord with gladnesse and leap thou faithfull soul for joy in thy God who hath clothed thee with the garments of salvation and compassed thee about with the robes of righteousnesse like a spouse adorned with jewels and bracelets Rejoyce for the honour of the bridegroom Rejoyce for the beauty of the bridegroom Rejoyce for the love of the bridegroom His honour is the greatest that can be For he is true God blessed for ever How great then is the dignity of this creature I mean the faithfull soul seeing the Creatour himself is willing to betroth her unto himself His beautie is the greatest that can be For he is beautifull above the sonnes of men for they saw the glorie of him as the glory of the onely begotten of the Father his face shined like the sunne and his garments were white as snow His lips were full of grace and he was crowned with glory and honour How great then is his mercy that he being the chiefest beautie doth vouchsafe to choose the soul of man to be his spouse whereas it is defiled with the stains of sinne On the bridegrooms part there is the greatest majestie On the spouses part there is the greatest infirmitie On the bridegrooms part there is the greatest beautie On the spouses part there is the greatest deformitie And yet farre greater is the love of the bridegroom towards the spouse then of the spouse towards the bridegroom whose honour and whose beauty doth so farre excell Behold thou faithfull soul behold the infinite love of the bridegroom It was his love that drew him down from heaven unto the earth It was his love that bound him to a pillar It was his love that fastened him to the crosse It was his love that enclosed him up in the grave It was his love that he descended into hell What could make him to do all these things Surely it was his love towards his spouse But our hearts are stony and heavier then lead if the bond of so great love cannot draw us unto God whereas it hath drawn God unto us Naked was his spouse and being naked could not be admitted into the royall palace of the heavenly King And he hath clothed her with the garments of righteousnesse and salvation whereas she lay enwrapped and involved in the foul coat of her sinnes and the most filthy rags of iniquitie He hath granted unto her to be arayed in fine linen clean and white the fine linen is the righteousnesse of Saints That garment is the righteousnesse which was obtained by the death and passion of the bridegroom himself Jacob laboured fourteen yeares to obtain Rachel to be his wife But Christ for thirty foure yeares almost endured hunger thirst cold povertie ignominie reproches bonds whips the bitternesse of gall and death upon the crosse to purchase unto himself the faithfull soul to be his spouse Samson went down and chose out of the Philistines which were adjudged to destruction a wife unto himself The Sonne of God came down and chose unto himself a spouse out of men that were condemned and subject to eternall death The whole stock of the spouse was at enmitie with the heavenly Father and he by his most bitter passion hath reconciled it unto his Father The spouse was prostrate upon the face of the earth and polluted in her own bloud But he hath washed her with the water of baptisme and cleansed her with a most holy laver He hath cleansed the bloud of his spouse with his own bloud For the bloud of the Sonne of God doth cleanse us from all our sinnes The spouse was deformed But he hath anointed her with the oyl of grace and mercy The spouse was not honourably apparelled but he hath put bracelets and eare-rings upon her He hath adorned her with vertues and divers gifts of the holy Spirit The spouse was very poore and had no pledge to give unto him Therefore hath he left unto her the pledge of his Spirit received frō her the pledge of his flesh and hath carried it up into heaven The spouse was hungry But he hath given unto her fine flour◠and hony and oyl to eat He doth feed her with his flesh and bloud unto eternall life The spouse is disobedient and often breaketh her marriage faith she committeth fornication with the world and with the devil and yet the bridegroom out of his infinite love doth receive her again into favour as often as she returneth unto him by true repentance Acknowledge and confesse thou faithfull soul these so many and so great arguments of his infinite love Love thou faithfull soul the love of him that for love of thee descended into the wombe of the virgin We must love him that delivered up himself for us so much more then our selves by how much he is greater then us Let us make our whole life conformable unto him who for the love of us made himself wholly conformable unto us He is justly to be accounted most unthankfull who loveth not again him of whom he was first beloved How greatly therefore ought we to love him who for the love of us did as it were forget his own majestie Happy soul which by the bond of this spirituall marriage is joyned unto Christ She doth safely and confidently apply unto her self all the benefits of Christ even as in another case by wedlock the wife doth shine glorious by the reflexion of the husbands rayes upon her Now by faith alone are we made partakers of this blessed and spirituall marriage as it is written I will betroth thee unto me in faith Faith doth ingraft us into Christ as a branch into the spirituall vine that we may suck our life and nourishment from him And as they which are joyned in marriage are no more two but one flesh So they which by faith are joyned unto the Lord become one spirit with him because Christ by faith dwelleth in our hearts And this faith if it be true it worketh by love As in the old Testament the priests were compelled to marry virgins So the celestiall priest doth spiritually couple unto himself such a virgin as doth keep her self pure and undefiled from the embracements of the devil the world and her own flesh Vouchsafe O Christ at length to admit us unto the marriage of the Lambe Amen Meditat. XIIII Of the mysterie of Christs incarnation Admire my soul the mysterie Of Jesus Christs nativitie LEt us withdraw our mindes a while from these temporall things and let us contemplate the mysterie of the Lords nativitie The Sonne of God came down from heaven unto us that we might obtain the adoption of sonnes God is made man that man may be made partaker of divine grace and nature About the
life and the words of eternall life The cup of benediction is the communion of the bloud of Christ and the bread which we break is the participation of the Lords bodie We cleave unto the Lord Therefore we are one Spirit with him We are united unto him not onely by the communion of nature but also by the participation of his bodie and bloud I do not therefore say with the Jews How can this man give us his flesh to eat But rather crie out How doth the Lord distribute unto us his flesh to eat and his bloud to drink I do not prie into his power but do admire his benevolence I do not examine his majestie but I reverence his goodnesse His presence I beleeve the manner of his presence I know not I am certainly assured that it is most neare and inward We are members of his body flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones He dwelleth in us and we in him My soul desireth to dive by cogitation into this most profound abysse but cannot finde with what words to set forth and declare that goodnesse and therefore is altogether amazed at the sight of the greatnesse of the grace of the Lord and the glory of the blessed Meditat. XIX Of the mysterie of the Lords Supper Be wise Do not to farre enquire 'To that thou rather shouldst admire IN the Lords holy Supper there is set before us a mysterie to be trembled at and to be adored of us by all means There is the treasure and treasurie of divine grace We know that there was a tree of life planted by God whose fruit might have conserved our first parents and their posteritie by the fertilitie and felicitie thereof There was also placed in paradise a tree of the knowledge of good and evil But even that which was appointed by God for their salvation and life and for an exercise of their obedience became unto them an occasion of death and condemnation whilest they poore wretches obeyed the devils allurements and their own desires Here also is prepared a tree of life that sweet wood whose leaves are for medicine and whose fruit for meat The sweetnesse thereof doth take away the bitternesse of all evils yea of death it self Unto the Israelites was given Manna that they might be fed with heavenly food Here is that true Manna which came down from heaven to give life unto the world This is the heavenly bread and the angelicall meat of which whosoever eateth shall never hunger The Israelites had the ark of the covenant and the mercy-seat where they might heare the Lord speak face to face Here is the true ark of the covenant that is the most sacred bodie of Christ wherein the treasures of all science knowledge and wisdome are laid up Here is the true mercy-seat in the bloud of Christ which makes us to be beloved in the beloved neither doth he speak unto us onely by his inward consolation but also dwelleth in us neither doth he feed us onely with heavenly Manna but with himself Here is the gate of heaven indeed here is the angels ladder For can heaven be greater then he that is in heaven Can heaven be more nearly united unto God then the flesh and humane nature which he hath assumed Heaven indeed is the throne of God But in the humane nature assumed by Christ resteth the holy Spirit God is in heaven But in Christ dwelleth the fulnesse of the divinitie Certainly this is a great and infallible pledge of our salvation He had no greater thing to give unto us For what is greater then himself What is so closely united unto him as his humane nature which is assumed into the fellowship of the most blessed Trinitie and made the treasurie of all heavenly goods What is so nearly conjoyned unto him as flesh and bloud And yet with these most heavenly nourishments doth he refresh us miserable worms and make us partakers of his nature And shall not he then make us partakers of his grace Who ever hated his own flesh How can the Lord then despise us whom he feedeth with his own flesh and bloud How can he forget those unto whom he hath given the pledge of his own bodie How can Satan be able to overcome us seeing that we are fed with heavenly food that we faint not in battel We are deare unto Christ because he bought us at so deare a price We are deare unto Christ because he feeds us with such deare and precious things We are deare unto Christ because we are his flesh and members This is the onely Panacea of all spirituall diseases this is the medicine of immortalitie For what sinne is there so great that the sacred flesh of God cannot expiate What sinne is so great that the quickning flesh of Christ cannot heal What sinne so mortall that is not taken away by the death of the Sonne of God What fierie darts of the devil can be so deadly that they cannot be quenched in this fountain of divine grace What so great stain of the conscience that this bloud cannot purge The Lord was present to the Israelites in a cloud and in fire But here is no cloud but the sunne of righteousnesse the present light of our souls Here is not felt the fire of Gods fury but the heat of his love neither doth he depart from us but makes his mansion with us Our first parents were brought into paradise that most sweet and fragrant garden the type of eternall beatitude that being put in minde of Gods bountie they might perform due obedience unto their Creatour Behold Here is more then paradise in this place For the creature is filled with the flesh of the Creatour The penitent conscience is cleansed by the bloud of the Sonne of God By the body of Christ are nourished the members of Christ the head The faithfull soul is fed with divine and heavenly dainties The sacred flesh of God which the angels adore in the unitie of person which the archangels reverence at which the Powers do tremble and which the Vertues admire is our spirituall food Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad but much more the faithfull soul upon whom such and so great benefits are bestowed Meditat. XX. Of serious preparation before we come to the Lords Supper A wedding garment put thou on Or keep from this communion HEre is no common cheere nor the feast of some ordinarie king but here is the holy mysterie of the body and bloud of Christ to be handled of us Therefore a due preparation is required lest we finde death in stead of life and receive condemnation in stead of mercy How did that most holy Patriarch so famous for the strength of his faith how did he fear and tremble when the Sonne of God appeared unto him in the
worldly comfort but by tentations Stephen when he was stoned saw the glorie of Christ So Christ manifests himself unto the contrite soul in calamities There is no true and solid joy but where God dwelleth and Gods dwelling is in the contrite and humbled spirit Affliction it is and tentation which humbleth the spirit and maketh it contrite Therefore true and solid joy is in the soul of the afflicted Tentation is the way to come to the knowledge of God Therefore the Lord saith I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and make him see my salvation Blinde Tobie saw nothing either above him beneath him or before him and therefore he saw not himself But being enlightned of God by the angel Raphael he saw all things which before he could not see using no other medicine but the gall of a fish To shew that our eyes are to be anointed with the gall of bitternesse that so we may be enlightned and come to the true knowledge of our selves and worldly things Why saith the Apostle that we know but in a glasse Because in tentations we come to know that God maketh the elect joyfull under the shew of sorrow and quickeneth them under the shew of death and healeth them under the shew of sicknesse and enricheth them under the shew of povertie Therefore must the crosse and tentation be welcome unto him whosoever is not unthankfull to Christ who was crucified and tempted for us O good Jesus Let me be burned here let me be smitten here that I may be spared hereafter O good Jesus Thou which dost often cast us off from thee by sparing us make us to return unto thee by striking us Afflict and presse the outward man that the inward man may grow and increase O good Jesus Fight within me against me Be thou the moderatour of the fight and the crown of my victorie Whatsoever adversitie I feel in this life let it tend to the strengthening and increasing of my faith O good Jesus Help my weak faith For so thou hast promised by thy holy prophet As a mother comforteth her children so will I comfort you As a mother cherisheth and nourisheth her sucking infant with much care So do thou O good Jesus erect and confirm my languishing faith Grant that thy inward comforts may prevail more with me then the contradictions of all men and the devil himself yea and the cogitations of mine own heart O thou good Samaritane poure the sharp wine into the wounds made by my sinnes but poure in also the oyl of divine comfort Multiply my crosses but give me also strength to endure them Meditat. XLI Here are foundations of Christian patience Take up thy crosse do but endure To overcome thou shalt be sure BE quiet O devout soul and endure with patience the crosse which God hath laid upon thee Consider the passion of Christ thy bridegroom He suffered for all of all and in all He suffered for all yea even for them which despise his precious passion and wickedly trample his bloud under their feet He suffered of all He is delivered he is broken in pieces he is forsaken of his heavenly Father he is forsaken of his disciples he is rejected of the Jews his own peculiar people For they preferred Barabbas the thief before him He is crucified of the Gentiles He suffers for the sinnes of all men And therefore he is afflicted of all men He suffered also in all His soul was sorrowfull even unto death and being pressed with the sense and feeling of Gods anger cries out that he was forsaken of God All the members of his bodie are in a bloudy sweat His head is crowned with thorns His tongue tastes a cup of gall and vineger his hands and feet are boared with nails his side is wounded his whole bodie is scourged and he is stretched forth on the crosse He suffered hunger thirst cold contempt povertie reproches wounds death and the crosse And then how unjust a thing were it for the servant to rejoyce when the Lord suffereth How unjust were it that we should rejoyce in our sinnes when our Saviour is so grievously punished for them How unjust were it that the other members should not condole when the head is afflicted But rather it is necessary that we enter through many tribulations into the kingdome of heaven as it was necessary that our Saviour should by his passion enter into celestiall glorie Consider also the bountifull reward The sufferings of this present life are not worthy of the glorie which shall be revealed unto us How great soever our suffering is it is but temporall yea sometimes but for a day But the glorie is everlasting God doth exactly observe all our adversities and will at length bring them to judgement How disgracefull a thing then will it be at the generall assembly of the whole world to appear without the jewels and bracelets of the crosse and passions He shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of those that are his O happy tears which shall be wiped away by the hand of such a great Lord O happy crosse that shall finde a crown in heaven David was not ten whole yeares in his exile but he was fourtie in his kingdome Here we have the shortnesse of our suffering prefigured and the eternitie of the glorie which is to follow It is but a moment of time wherein the Saints are exercised by the crosse But the mercies by which they are comforted are for ever And thus after adversitie in the morning follows prosperitie in the evening Consider also the tribulation of all the Saints Behold Job mourning on the dunghill John hungry in the wildernesse Peter stretched out upon the crosse James beheaded of Herod with the sword Behold Mary the blessed mother of our Saviour standing under the crosse She was the type of the Church the spirituall mother of our Lord. Blessed are ye saith Christ when men shall persecute you for my names sake For so have they done to the Prophets O glorious persecution which makes us conformable unto the Prophets and Apostles and all the Saints and even unto Christ himself Let us therefore suffer with those that suffer let us be crucified with those that are crucified that we may be glorified with those that are glorified If we be true sonnes indeed let us not refuse the condition of the rest of our brethren If we truly desire the inheritance of God let us accept it wholly For the sonnes of God are not onely heirs of joy and glory in the world to come but also of heavinesse and sufferings in this present world For God scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth He punisheth their sinnes here that he may spare them at the judgement to come He multiplies tribulations here that he may multiply their reward hereafter And so not
onely the persecution but the reward also is increased Consider the happy condition of the crosse It plucks the love of the world out of us by the roots but it sows in our hearts the seed of the love of God The crosse begets in us an hate of worldly things and lifts up our minde unto heavenly things When the flesh is mortified the spirit is quickened and when the world waxeth bitter Christ becometh sweet unto us Great is the mysterie of the crosse for by it God calls us to contrition to true fear and to the exercise of our patience Let us open to him when he knocketh and we shall heare what the Lord will say within us The sight of the crosse is contemptible in the sight of the world and in the carnall eyes of the outward man But it is glorious in the sight of God and in the spirituall eyes of the inward man What was reputed by the Jews more base and vile then the passion of Christ And what was more glorious and precious in the sight of God For it was the price paid for the sinnes of the whole world Even so the just man is afflicted the just man dies and no man considereth it But precious is the crosse and precious is the death of the Saints in the sight of the Lord. The church which is the spouse of Christ is black without by reason of calamities and persecutions But she is beautifull within by reason of divine consolation The Church and every faithfull soul is as a garden enclosed and none knows the beauty thereof but he that is in it We shall never fully and perfectly feel the consolation of the spirit unlesse our flesh be afflicted without If the love of the world dwelleth in us the love of God cannot enter in A full vessel cannot be filled with new liquour unlesse the first be emptied Let us therefore poure out the love of the world that we may be filled with the love of God Therefore God by the crosse doth extinguish in us the love of the world that there may be room for the love of God Besides the crosse drives us to our prayers and is an occasion of vertue When the North-winde blows upon the garden that is when persecutions assault the Church then the spices thereof are scattered abroad and the vertues thereof are increased and they cast forth an odour pleasing unto God The beloved bridegroom of my soul is white and ruddy white for his innocency and ruddie for his passion And so is also the beloved spouse of Christ white for her vertues and ruddie for her sufferings And thus the grace of God can produce oyl and hony out of the most hard rock of afflictions And so out of the bitter root of calamities God knows how to bring forth the most pleasant fruit of eternall glory Unto which he bring us and admit us Amen Meditat. XLII How we must overcome tentations by perseverance Let not tentations cast thee down For perseverance shall thee crown HOly Lord Jesus the most loving bridegroom of my soul when will the time come that thou wilt lead me to the solemnitie of thy marriage I am a pilgrim and a banished man from thee But yet I most firmly beleeve and nothing doubt but that I shall be shortly set at libertie out of the prison of my bodie and appear before thy face Fear and trembling are come upon me because I carry my treasure in vessels of clay My minde is prone to errour and my will is prone to sinne and therefore my spirit within me is not alwayes ready but the flesh is alwayes weak Sinne leadeth me captive and the law of my members is repugnant to the law of my minde Fear and trembling are come upon me because Satan lieth in wait for my treasure His subtiltie is great his desire to hurt is most earnest and his power is exceeding great He deceived Adam in paradise and Judas in our Saviours school And how then shall I be safe from his treacheries Fear and trembling are come upon me because I am still in the world which is altogether set upon wickednesse The delights of the world entice me adversities in the way of the Lord affright me sometimes the enticements of the world are pleasing unto me and all the world is full of snares Miserable man that I am how shall I be able to escape them Joyes do assault me and sorrows do assault me Miserable man how shall I be able to stand Fear and trembling are come upon me because it is God that worketh in me both to will and to perfect I am afraid lest I should force God by my negligence and want of care to take from me that good will which he hath given me I make not a right use of remission of sinnes and I refuse the first grace which was given freely And therefore I have cause to fear lest God in his secret and just judgement justly take from me that which I have unjustly abused I am afraid lest I be forsaken of him whom after my first conversion I have so often forsaken How grievously am I vexed when I consider that the heavie and severe judgement of God shall follow after his benefits if I make not a right use of them But the infinite mercie of God raiseth me up because as he hath given me to will he will also give unto me to perfect for he is God and is not changed His mercy also is confirmed towards me and shall not be changed The foundation of God is sure sure indeed because it is in God in whom there is no change Sure indeed because it is confirmed by the bloud of Christ which alwayes speaketh loud before the throne of God Sure indeed because it is signed with the sure seals of the Sacraments If I should seek never so little salvation in my self I must needs doubt of my salvation But as all my righteousnesse is in Christ so in him also is all the hope of my salvation If I had apprehended and laid hold upon Christ of mine own free will I might yet fear lest my will should change and so I should loose Christ But he that was found of him that sought him not will not assuredly withdraw himself again after he is once found He that hath translated me out of the shadow of death unto the participation of light will not suffer me to return again unto my former darknesse The gifts of God are without repentance and our vocation by God as concerning the will of God But I could wish that even I also were unchangeable in that which is good That treasure is alwayes present but the hand that should apprehend it doth sometimes languish But I shall be able to apprehend Christ because as he hath revealed himself unto me in his word and promises so likewise he will
the end of their evils but it coupleth together those evils which are past and those that follow after They passe from the first unto the second death So neare is the union between Christ and the faithfull that death it self cannot dissolve it In the thickest cloud of death the torch of Gods grace shineth before them In their dangerous journey Christ provideth for his beloved the angels to be their protectours The bodies of the Saints are the temples of the holy Ghost The holy Ghost will not suffer his own temples altogether to be destroyed by death The word of God is the incorruptible seed It is not destroyed by death but it is hid in the hearts of the godly and shall quicken them in their due time Meditat. XLIIII Consolations at the death of friends Grieve not when friends and kinsfolks die They gain by death eternitie THink O devout soul upon Christ thy Saviour and thou shalt not be afraid for the terrours of death If the violence of death doth make thee sorrowfull let the power of Christ make thee joyfull The Israelites could not drink the waters of Marah by reason of their bitternesse but God shewed unto Moses a tree which being cast into the waters made them sweet If thou art affrighted by reason of he bitternesse of death God sheweth unto thee a tree which turneth it into sweetnesse that is a branch that did spring from the root of Jesse This branch is Christ and whosoever keepeth his word shall never see death This life is burdensome And therefore it is good to be eased of it The miserie of a Christian dieth But the Christian man dieth not That which we call death is but going a journey it is not an end of life but a beginning of a better life We do not lose our friends at their death but send them before us our friends do not die but life enjoy they go before us they do not go from us for ever It is not death but a departure When the godly depart out of this life they enter again into life The death of thâ— godly is gain unto them Do our friends die Make this interpretation of it That they cease to sinne they cease to be tossed and they cease to be miserable Do they die in the faith Interpret that thus That they depart out of the shadow of life that they may passe unto true life from darknesse to light and from men to God Our life is a navigation and death is the haven of securitie and safetie Therefore we must not grieve that our friends are dead but rather rejoyce in their behalf that out of the turbulent sea they are come safe to the haven This life is the souls imprisonment but death sets her at libertie Therefore old Simeon being about to die crieth out Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace He desires to be set at libertie being shut up in the prison of the bodie We must rejoyce therefore in the behalf of our friends that they are as it were delivered out of prison and received into true libertie In like manner the Apostle desires to be dissolved as being bound to his body of earth in a kinde of miserable servitude What shall we be sorrowfull that our friends are delivered out of their bonds and set at libertie What shall we for their sakes put on black mourning clothes when as they have put on white robes For it is written that unto the elect are given white robes in token of innocencie and palms in their hands in token of victory Shall we macerate our selves with tears and sighs for their sakes when as God hath wiped all tears from their eyes Shall we mourn and trouble our selves with grief when as they are in the place where there is neither mourning nor grief nor any cry heard but they rest from their labours Shall we for their departure kill our selves with immoderate grief when as they do enjoy the fellowship of the angels and true solid joy Shall we for their sakes weep and wail when as they sing a new song of the Lambe having harps and golden phials Shall we grieve that they are departed from the earth when they themselves rejoyce that they are departed What profit it is for to depart out of this world Christ shewed who when his disciples were sad because that he said he should depart answered If ye loved me ye would rejoyce rather If as thou wert sailing a stormie tempest should arise and the windes lift up the waves and threaten shipwrack wouldest not thou haste to the haven Behold the world staggereth and reeleth and threatneth her ruine not onely for her old age but also by the end of things And dost not thou thank God and art not thou glad for thy friends that being departed the sooner they are delivered from ruines shipwracks and imminent plagues In whose hands art thou kept safer then in the hands of Christ In what place can the souls of thy friends rest safer then in the kingdome of paradise Heare what the Apostle saith concerning death Death is gain It is gain to have escaped the increase of sinne it is gain to have left the things that are worse and to have passed to the better Although those whom by death thou hast lost were very deare unto thee yet let God be more deare unto thee whose will it was to take them unto himself Be not angry with the Lord for taking away what he hath given He hath received his own he hath taken nothing from thee Do not take it ill that the Lord doth require what he did onely lend thee It is onely the Lord that foreseeth evils to come It was his providence therefore to take away thy friends that they might not be entangled in the misfortunes to come They that die in the Lord rest sweetly in their graves when those that are alive are tormented grievously even in the palaces of their kingdome If by death thou hast lost those that were deare unto thee Beleeve that thou shalt hereafter receive them more deare unto thee A little distance of time doth separate thee from them But blessed and secure eternitie shall joyn thee again unto them For we hope upon a most true promise that we shall depart out of this life from whence some of our friends are departed before us and that we shall come to that life where the more known the more deare they shall be unto us and amiable without fear of any dissension What'ever souls have been before or shall hereafter be Shall be receiv'd i' th theatre of huge capacitie There shall we know the face of them that of our kindred be And speak answer in our course each interchangeably There with the brother sister shall and sonne with father be And there they shall keep
must strive to go thither where at length we must remain for all eternitie Into this glorie of the Lord shall no man enter but he that desireth to enter Dost thou hope to appear hereafter before the face of the Lord Studie then after holinesse because he is holy Dost thou look for the fellowship of the heavenly angels Take heed then that thou dost not by thy sinnes deprive thy self of their ministerie Dost thou hope after things eternall Why then dost thou so much desire things temporall Dost thou seek for a citie to come Why then dost thou desire here an abiding place Dost thou desire to come to Christ Why then dost thou fear death It is the propertie of him that would not come to Christ to fear death Dost thou desire to enter into the heavenly Jerusalem Why then dost thou defile thy self with so many and such grievous sinnes Whereas it is written that nothing which is defiled shall enter in there Dost thou desire to enjoy at length the tree of life Lay hold then on Christ the true tree of life by true faith in this life For it is written Blessed are they that have their robes washed in the bloud of the lambe that they may have part in the tree of life and enter into the citie by the gates Without are dogs and sorcerers Beware therefore of the losse of chastitie Without are murtherers Take heed therefore of anger Without are idolaters Beware therefore of covetousnesse Without are lyars Beware therefore of all the malice of sinne If thou desirest to enter in to the marriage of the Lambe desire the bridegrooms coming The Spirit and the Spouse say COME If thou hast not the earnest of the Spirit by which thou mayst cry Come Lord the bridegroom will never leade thee in unto the heavenly marriage Thou art not the spouse if thou desirest not the coming of the bridegroom Wouldest thou have a place in the new heaven and the new earth Why then dost thou so cleave unto the old Wouldest thou be made partaker of the Creatour Wherefore then dost thou so cleave unto the simple creatures Dost thou expect the building of God the house not made with hands eternall in the heavens Why then dost thou not desire that this earthly house of thy dwelling may be dissolved Dost thou desire to be clothed Why then dost thou not provide for thy self that thou beest not found naked If the holy Trinitie dwelleth not in thy heart by grace in this life it shall never dwell in thee by glorie in the life to come If thou hast not a taste of eternall felicitie in this life thou shalt never have a full draught in the life to come Meditat. XLVII Of the beatificall vision of God in heaven The saints are pilgrims here below And tow'rds their countrey heaven go IN my Fathers house are many mansions they are the words of our Saviour Lord I desire to see that place where thou hast prepared for me an everlasting mansion For I am a stranger and a sojourner here as all my fathers were The dayes of my pilgrimage are few and evil Therefore in this life wherein I live in exile I do long after my heavenly countrey My conversation is in heaven I desire to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living This life passeth away in a shadow my dayes are measured out and my substance is even as nothing in thy sight What then is my hope Is it not the Lord Lord Jesus when will it be that I shall come unto thee When shall I appeare before thy face As the hart panteth after the fountain of waters so doth my soul after thee O God Oh the true perfect and full joy Oh joy of joyes surpassing all joy without which there is no joy When shall I enter into thee that I may see my God that dwelleth in thee Thou shalt fill me O Lord with the joy of thy countenance At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore I shall be abundantly satisfied with the plentifulnesse of thy house and thou shalt give me to drink of the brook of thy pleasures For with thee is the fountain of life Oh life to be desired Oh blessed felicitie in which the most holy Trinitie shall be the perfection of our desires which we shall see without end love without loathing and praise without being weary To see God will surpasse all joyes To see Christ to live with Christ to heare Christ will surpasse all the desires of our hearts O Jesus Christ the most sweet bridegroom of my soul when wilt thou leade thy spouse into thy royall palace What can there be wanting there What to be desired or expected where God shall be all in all He shall be beautie to the eye hony to the taste musick to the eare balsame to the nose and flower to the touch God shall be all in all and shall distribute unto every one good things according to the desires of his own heart If thou desirest life if health if peace if honour God shall be there all in all The mysteries which are now sealed up in the great doctours of the Church shall be then revealed even unto babes The blessed humanitie of Christ shall be there present unto us and shall preach unto us with a most sweet voice concerning the mysterie of our salvation His voice is sweet and his face is comely Full of grace are his lips And he is crowned with glory and honour But if God shall be all in all then shall he be fulnesse of light to the understanding plenty of peace to the will and continuance of eternitie to the memorie The Sonne will satisfie the understanding with perfect knowledge the holy Ghost will satisfie the will with most sweet love and the Father will satisfie the memory with the remembrance of both Thou O God shalt be our light and in thy light shall we see light that is we shall see thee in thy self in the brightnesse of thy countenance when we shall see thee face to face Neither shall we onely see thee but we shall also live with thee neither shall we onely live with thee but we shall also praise thee neither shall we onely praise thee but we shall also rejoyce with thee neither shall we onely rejoyce with thee but we shall also be like unto the angels neither shall we be like unto the angels onely but even unto God himself blessed for ever Let the faithfull soul be here astonished and adore the mercy of her Saviour He doth not onely receive us his enemies into favour but he doth also forgive our sinnes neither doth he forgive our sinnes onely but he doth also bestow righteousnesse upon us neither so onely but he doth leade us also into our heavenly inheritance yea he makes us like
grace and remission of my sinnes Thy creatures accuse me the book of my conscience accuseth me both the tables of thy divine law accuse me Satan accuseth me day and night But take thou upon thee my patronage O sweet Jesus To thee the poore man is left bereft of all solace of the creatures All my refuge is placed in thy satisfaction for my sinnes and in thy intercession at the right hand of the Father for me My soul take thou the wings of the morning and like a dove hide thy self in the clefts of the rock that is in the wounds of Christ thy Saviour Hide thy self in this rock till the anger of the Lord be passed by and thou shalt finde rest and thou shalt finde protection and thou shalt finde deliverance therein Amen PRAYER VIII He by the effects of contrition argues us to be convicted of the hainousnesse of sinne HOly God and just Judge My heart is contrite and humbled my spirit is heavy and in a great strait by reason of the burden of my sinnes wherewith I am oppressed The courage of my heart hath failed and the sharpnesse of my eyes is decayed My heart is pressed and from thence gush out tears My spirit is oppressed and I forget to take my bread My heart is wounded and from thence gusheth out bloud and a fountain of tears Who knows how oft he offendeth Who knows the sorrow of the heart that is in a great strait by reason of offences My soul is dry and broken in pieces and thirsteth after the fountain of life O Christ feed me with the dew of thy Spirit of grace My heart that is in a great strait sigheth unto thee O thou true joy give unto me peace and quietnesse of heart that being justified by faith I may have peace with God My heart condemneth me But do thou absolve me who art greater then my heart My conscience accuseth me But do thou absolve me who hast fastned to the crosse the hand-writing of my conscience I offer unto thee O my God my contrite and humbled heart for a most acceptable sacrifice I offer unto thee my sighs as the messengers of true and serious contrition I offer unto thee my tears as abundant witnesses of my unfeigned grief In my self I despair In thee is my trust In my self I faint In thee I am refreshed In my self I feel straitnesse In thee again I finde enlargement I am troubled and burdened overmuch Thou shalt refresh me and give rest unto my soul. One deep calleth upon another The deep of my misery calleth upon the deep of thy mercy Out of the deeps do I cry unto thee Cast thou my sinnes into the deep of the sea There is no soundâ—esse in my flesh by reason of thy anger neither is there any rest to my bones by reason of my sinne For mine iniquities are gone over my head and become too heavy for me Cure my soul thou heavenly Physician that I be not swallowed up of eternall death Take the burden of my sinnes from me thou that hast taken it upon thy self on the crosse that I despair not under the intolerable burden thereof Have mercy on me thou fountain of grace and mercy Amen PRAYER IX He declareth the number and greatnesse of Gods benefits unto us and the grievousnesse of our sinnes HOly God and just Judge By how much the more benefits thou hast bestowed upon me by so much the more I grieve that I have so often displeased thee so loving a Father As many gifts as thou hast heaped upon me so many bonds of love hast thou sent over unto me Thou wouldest have bound me unto thy self but I have forgotten thee and thy beneficencie and linked sinne unto sinne Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee I am not worthy to be called thy sonne make me as one of thy hired servants I am altogether displeased with my self Make thou me altogether to please thee Thy large bounty and wonderfull patience have often invited me to repentance But hitherto I have been backward to come Thou hast often called me O most bountifull God by the preaching of thy word by the teaching of thy creatures by the punishment of the crosse and by inward inspiration But I have stopped the eares of my heart altogether at thy call All the faculties of my soul all the members of my bodie are thy gifts I ought therefore with all the powers of my soul and parts of my bodie be ready to do thee all holy service which is due unto theâ— But I have made them the more is my grief the weapons of iniquitie and unrighteousnesse The breath which I fetch is thine the aire which I suck in is thine the sun whose light I see daily is thine All these ought to have been unto me as furtherances and instruments to sanctitie of life But I have abused them the more is my grief to the slavery of sin Thy creatures I should have used to the glory of thee the Creatour But I have wickedly abused them to thy dishonour In the light of the sunne I should have put on the armour of light But therein have I committed the works of darknesse How much soever is added unto my life comes all from thy bountie Therefore my whole life ought to be employed in thy service on whom it doth wholly depend And yet I have scarce bestowed the least part thereof in thy service As many good inspirations as I have felt within me so many hand-maids of thy grace hast thou sent as ambassadours to invite me mosâ— lovingly to return unto thee by true repentance But alas how often have I stubbornly refused to give them audience But yet receive him who now at length returns unto thee with sighing and a contrite heart Sprinkle me with the bloud of thy Sonne that so being purged fâ—om all the pollutions of the flesh and the spirit I may become whiter then snow and with all thy elect praise thee in the heavenly Jerusalem world without end Amen PRAYER X. He considereth the severitie of Gods angeâ— against our sinnes in the death and passioâ— of Christ. HOly God and just Judge I behold thy Sonne hanging upon the crosse and pouring forth plentifull rivers of bloud I behold him and behold for very terrour I faint altogether My sinnes are those iron nails with which I have bored his hands and his feet My sinnes are â—hose pricking thorns with which his most sacred head which is to be reverenced of the angelicall powers was crowned My sinnes are those stinging thongs with which his most â—ure bodie the proper temple of Diâ—inity was scourged A cruel wilde â—east hath torn in pieces the heavenly Joseph and embrewed his coat with his bloud I miserable sinnner am that wicked beast for my sinnes did make an assault and rush upon thy most beloved Sonne If thy most obedient Sonne is so vexed
and my glory for ever Amen PRAYER VI. He prayes for the gift and increase of patience ALmighty eternall and mercifull God with humble sighs I implore thy grace that thou wilt grant unto me true and sincere patience My flesh coveteth after things pleasing unto it that is soft and carnall and refuseth patiently to endure things contrary I beseech thee powerfully to represse in me this desire of the flesh and underprop my weaknesse with the power of patience O Christ Jesu thou doctour of patience and obedience furnish me within with thy holy Spirit that I may learn of thee to renounce mine own will and patiently to bear the crosse that is laid upon me Thou enduredst for me things more grievous then thou layest upon me and I have deserved more grievous punishments then thou inflictest Thou didst bear the crown of thorns and the burden of the crosse thou didst sweat bloud thou didst tread the wine-presse for me Why therefore should I refuse with patience to endure such small sufferings and afflictions Why should I be loth to be made conformable unto thy sorrowfull image in this life Thou didst drink of the brook of passions in the way Why then should I deny to drink a small draught out of the cup of the crosse I have by my sinnes deserved eternall punishments And why should not I suffer a little in this world a fatherly correction Those that thou from eternitie before the foundations of the world were laid didst foreknow thou hast decreed that they should be made conformable unto the image of thy Sonne in the time of this life Therefore if I should not endure patiently this conformitie by the crosse I should despise thy holy and eternall counsel concerning my salvation which farre be from me thy unworthy servant It is for triall and not for deniall that thou dost so exercise me with sundry calamities As much of the crosse and tribulation as thou layest upon me so much light and consolation dost thou conferre upon me neither is my chastisement increased so much as my reward is The sufferings of this life are not worthy of that heavenly consolation which thou sendest in this life and that heavenly glory which thou promisest in the life to come I know that thou art with me in trouble Why therefore should I not rejoyce rather for the presence of thy grace then be sorrowfull for the burden of the crosse that is laid upon me Lead me which way thou wilt thou best Master and Teacher through thorns and bushes I will follow thee onely do thou draw me and make me able to follow thee I submit my head to be crowned with thorns being fully perswaded that thou wilt hereafter crown me with an everlasting crown of glory Amen PRAYER VII He prayes for the gift and increase of gentlenesse and meeknesse O Most gracious Lord that dost so lovingly and kindly invite us to repentance and with such long patience dost wait for our conversion give unto me the riches of long-suffering and meeknesse The fire of anger doth flame in my heart as often as I receive the least detriment from my neighbour Therefore I humbly pray thee that by thy Spirit thou wouldest mortifie this sinfull affection of my flesh What hard words and harder blows and most hard punishments did thy beloved Sonne endure for me Who when he was reproched reproched not again but referred all to him that judgeth all things most righteously What pride is this therefore and stubbornnesse in me that I miserable and mortall dust of the earth and ashes cannot endure a rough word and overcome with meeknesse of heart the offence given me by my neighbour Learn of me O learn of me for I am meek and humble in heart thou cryest out O Christ. Receive me receive me with sighs I humbly intreat thee into that practick school of thy Spirit that I may learn there true meeknesse With what grievous and divers sinnes do I offend thee most gracious Father whose daily pardon I stand in need of Why therefore do I being a man harbour anger against man and presume to ask pardon of thee who art Lord of heaven and earth Were it not absurd for me to take no pitie upon man that is like unto my self and to ask of thee Lord remission of my sinnes Vnlesse I shall remit unto my neighbour his offences neither can I hope for remission of my sinnes Therefore most gracious Lord that art of much mercie and long-suffering give unto me the spirit of patience and meeknes that I do not presently conceive anger when my neighbour offendeth me but that I may shun it as the enemie of my soul or if it steal upon me unawares that I may presently lay it aside Let not the sunne go down upon my wrath lest it depart as a witnesse against me Let not sleep seize upon me whilst I am angry lest he deliver me in my anger to death his sister If I desire to take revenge of mine enemie why do not I set my self against mine anger which is my greatest and most hurtfull enemie seeing that it kills the â—oul and makes me subject to eternall death Set a watch before my mouth and give me prudence to govern the actions of my life that I offend not my neighbour either in word or deed Grant that I may be unto my neighbour by the fragrant smell of my vertues a sweet senting rose and not by offences and detractions a pricking thorn Grant good Jesu that I may insist in the footsteps of thy meeknesse and with a sincere heart love my neighbour Amen PRAYER VIII He prayes for the gift and increase of chastitie HOly God thou which art a lover of modestie and chastitie and a severe hater of filthinesse and lust for Christ his sake the most chaste Bridegroom of my soul I intreat thee to work and increase in me true chastitie inward and outward of the soul and of the body of the spirit and of the flesh and contrariwise to extinguish the fire of evil concupiscence that is in my heart Let the holy fear of thee wound my flesh that it rush not headlong into the fire of lust Let the celestiall love carrie my soul up unto thee that it cleave not through inordinate love unto the unsavourie things of the world Showre down a upon me the streams of thy heavenly grace that the flames of concupiscence may thereby be extinguished as fiery darts are in the water My soul was created after thy image and repaired again by Christ I should offer great injurie unto thee therefore my Creatour and Redeemer and unto my self also if I should be-black the beautifull face of my soul with the smoke and stains of dishonest love Christ dwelleth in my heart The holy Ghost dwelleth in my heart Let him therefore replenish me with the power of his grace and the larges of his spirituall gifts that I may
consequently into the pit of hell Let them remember the commandment of honouring their parents let them be carefull to recompense their parents after the manner of storks let them remember to feed them as they have been fed by them that they precipitate not themselves into the gulf of sundry evils Let parents and children with joynt desires study in this life to worship thee the true God that they may bear parts in consort and together praise thee in the life to come Let servants obey their masters with alacritie and with fear and with singlenesse of heart not with eye-service or to please men but as it becometh the servants of Christ. In like manner let masters embrace their servants with fatherly kindnes that they turn not their just government into tyrannical cruelty Let their societie in their private house be an oeconomicall private Church beloved of God and of the angels Amen PRAYER V. He prayes for parents brethren sisters kinsfolk and benefactours MOst holy and mercifull God from whom large heaps of sundry benefits descend down upon us who hast given unto me kinsfolk and benefactours to be helps unto me in this present life I beseech thee to bestow upon them in the life to come everlasting rewards Those whom thou hast joyned unto me in a speciall bond of nature and bloud I do specially commend unto thy protection Those unto whom I do ow speciall love and respect with serious and fervent prayers I commend unto thy keeping Grant that my kinsfolk may with joynt consent and unanimitie serve thee in the true faith and with true pietie that they may receive all of them hereafter a crown of eternal glory Unto my parents whom thou hast made next after thee the authours of my life and my informers in true pietie I cannot by any means render deserved rewards I humbly beseech thee therefore who art the authour of all good and the rewarder of all benefits to recompense their benefits here with temporall rewards and hereafter with eternall Let the example of Christ thy Sonne who about the agonie of his death commended unto his disciple the care of his mother let his example teach me even to the last breath to take care for my parents Let nature it self by the example of the stork teach me that I ow perpetuall thanks and rewards unto them for their merits Unto thee mercifull Father I commend the care and tuition of my brethren sisters and kinsfolk Let them become the brethren and sisters of Christ and so heirs of the kingdome of heaven Let us all be joined together in the kingdome of grace whom thou hast joined together in the life of nature And let us all together with those whom by death thou hast separated from us and taken unto thy self let us all at length be joined together in the kingdome of glory Make us all citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem as thou hast made us in this life members of the true Church The same likewise I intreat of thee for all my benefactours whose health and welfare both of soul and body I am bound to desire and further even by the law of nature Receive them into the everlasting tabernacles of the citie which is above whom thou hast used as thy instruments to conferre upon me so many and so liberall benefits My heart propoundeth unto thee the infallible promise of thy word that thou wilt of thy meer free grace recompense even a cup of cold water How much more then wilt thou be liberall and bountifull to those that with full hand bestow benefits of all kindes upon those that want Let not thy graces cease to run down upon them that poure forth so plentifully upon others Let the fountain of thy goodnsse alwayes spring unto them from whom such plentifull rivers of liberality do flow Grant I beseech thee most mercifull God that they which sow temporall things so liberally may reâ—p with much increase things spirituall Fill their souls with joy that feed the bodies of the poore with meat Let not the fruit of their bounty perish though they show it by bestowing of the goods that perish Give unto them that give unto others thou that art the giver of every good gift blessed for ever Amen PRAYER VI. He prayes for enemies and persecutours LOrd Jesu Christ the onely begotten Sonne of God that hast prescribed us in thy word this rule of charitie Love your enemies blesse them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you I beseech thee who art most gracious and most readie to forgive to forgive mine enemies and the persecutours of the Church Give unto me the grace of thy holy Spirit that I may not onely forgive mine enemies from mine heart but also pray for their health and salvation even from my soul. Whet not against them the sword of severe revenge but anoint their heads with the oyl of thy mercie and compassion Extinguish the sparks of hatred and anger that are in their hearts that they break not forth into the infernall flames of hell Let them know and acknowledge that our life is but a vapour and a smoke that soon vanisheth away that our bodie is but ashes and dust that flyeth away that they bear not immortall anger in their mortall bodies nor entertain into this brittle tabernacle of clay their souls enemie Let them know likewise that inveterate hatred is their greatest enemie because it kills the soul and excludes them from the participation of heavenly life Illuminate their mindes that they beholding the glasse of thy divine mercie may see the deformitie of anger and hatred Govern their wills that being moved by the example of thy divine forgivenesse they may leave off and cease to be angry and to do harm Grant unto me mercifull God that as much as in me lies I may have peace with all men and turn the hearts of mine enemies to brotherly reconcilement Let us walk with unanimitie and concord in the way of this life seeing that we hope all for a place in our celestiall countrey Let us not disagree upon earth seeing â—hat we all desire to live together hereafter in heaven We all call upon thee our Lord our God which art in heaven And it is not meet for the servants of the same Lord to fall out one with another We are one mysticall bodie under Christ our head And it is base and shamefull for the members of the same bodie to fight one with another They which have one faith and one baptisme ought to have one spirit and one minde Neither do I pray alone for my private enemies but also for the publick enemies and persecutours of the Church O thou which art truth it self bring them into the way of truth O thou which art power it self bring to nought their bloudie endeavours and attempts Let the brightnesse of the heavenly truth open their blinde eyes
clothedst us with innocencie as with a garment thou seatedst us in paradise a place of all delight and pleasure But we have defaced thine image we have cast off our first covering we have thrust our selves out of that pleasant place We ran away from thee and were not obedient unto thy voice We were lost and condemned before we came into this world Our first parents sinned against thee and we sinned in them They were corrupted and we are inheriters of their corruption They were the parents of disobedience and we are by nature the children of wrath Sinfull and unhappie children of sinfull and unhappie parents Thou mightest in thy displeasure after their fall have plunged them into the bottomlesse pit and made them the fewel of hell and sent their posteritie after them And neither they nor we could justly have complained Righteous O Lord art thou in thy judgements And our miserie is from our selves But great was thy mercie unto us We came into this world in a floud of uncleannesse wallowing in our mothers bloud and thou didst set open a fountain for us to wash in We were washed in the laver of Baptisme and we have returned with the swine to our wallowing in the mire We came from a place of darknesse into this world we lived as children of darknesse we sat in darknesse and in the shadow of death Thou gavest us thy word to be a lantern unto our feet and a light unto our paths that in thy light we might see light that so walking in the way of truth we might attain everlasting life But we have loved darknesse more then light and have not been obedient unto thy word We came into this world crooked even from our mothers wombe and thou gavest us thy law to be a glasse wherein we might see our deformitie and a rule whereby to square all our actions words and thoughts But we have shut our eyes that we might not see and we have refused to be ruled by thy law The law of sinne in our flesh doth daily captivate us The root of originall sinne which lieth hidden in us doth every day put forth new branches All the parts and faculties of our bodies and souls are as so many instruments of unrighteousnesse to fight against thy divine Majestie Our hearts imagine wicked things our mouthes utter them and our hands put them in practise Thy mercies every day are renewed unto us and our sinnes are every day multiplied against thee In the day of health and prosperitie we forget thee and we never think upon the day of sicknesse and adversitie Thy benefits heaped upon us do not allure us to obey thee Neither do thy judgements inflicted upon others make us afraid to offend thee What couldest thou O Lord have done more for us or what could we have done more against thee Thou didst send thy Sonne in the fulnesse of time to take our nature upon him to fulfill thy law for us and to be crucified for our sinnes We have not followed the example of his holy life but have every day afresh crucified him by our sinnes And now O Lord if we shall become our own judges we cannot but confesse that we have â—eserved everlasting torments in hellâ—ire But there is mercie with thee O Lord therefore will we not despair Our sinnes are many in number But thy mercies are without number The weight of our sinnes is great But the weight of thy Sonnes crosse was greater Our sinnes presse us down unto hell But thy mercie in Christ Jesus raiseth us up By Satan we are accused But by Jesus Christ we are defended By the law we are convicted But by Jesus Christ we are justified By our own conscience we are condemned But by Jesus Christ we are absolved In us there is nothing but sinne death and damnation In him there is treasured up for us righteousnesse life and salvation We are poore He is our riches We are naked He is our covering We are exposed to thy fury pursuing us He is the buckler of our defence and our refuge He is the rock of our salvation and in him do we trust His wounds are the clefts of the rock Give us we beseech thee the wings of a Dove that by faith we may hide our selves in the clefts of this rock that thine anger wax not hot against us to consume us Let not thy justice triumph in our confusion but let thy mercie rejoyce in our salvation Pardon the sinfull course of our life past and guide us by thy holy Spirit for the time to come Amend what is amisse increase all gifts and graces which thou hast already given and give unto us what thou best knowest to be wanting Be gracious and favourable to thy whole church especially to that part thereof which thou hast committed unto the protection of thy servant and our Sovereigne King Charles Grant that he may see it flourishing in peace and prosperity in the profession and practise of thy Gospel all the dayes of his life and after this life ended crown him we beseech thee with a crown of immortall glorie Let not the sceptre of this kingdome depart from his house neither let there be wanting a man of his race to sit upon his throne so long as the sunne and moon endureth Of this thou hast given us a pledge alreadie in blessing the fruit of the Queens wombe Let the Queen still be like a fruitfull vine And let the Prince grow up like a plant in thine house Let thy mercy be extended to the Ladie Elisabeth our Kings onely sister and her princely issue How long Lord just and true how long shall their enemies prevail and say There there so would we have it It is time for thee to lay to thine hand for they have laid waste their dwelling-place Arise O Lord and let their enemies be scattered and let them that hate them flee before them Carrie them back again into their own countrey if it may be for thy glorie and their good make them glad with the joy of thy countenance and let them rejoyce under their own vines We return home again and beseech thee to be gracious and mercifull to the Kings Counsel the Nobilitie the Magistracie the Ministerie the Gentry and the Commonaltie Give unto those whom thou hast used as instruments for our good rewards temporall and eternall Forgive those that be our enemies and turn their hearts Forget not those that grone under the crosse Clothe the naked feed the hungrie visit the sick deliver the captives defend the fatherlesse and widows relieve the oppressed confirm and strengthen those that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake cure those that are broken in heart speak peace unto their consciences that are tormented with the sense of their sinnes suffer them not to be swallowed up in despair Stand by those that are ready to depart out of this life When their eyes shall be darkned in the agony of death kindle in their hearts the
light of saving faith when their â—ares shall be stopt let thy Spirit speak unto them inwardly and comfort them and when the house of their earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved then Lord receive their souls As we have made bold to make our prayers and supplications unto thee for our selves and others So also we render unto thee all possible praise and thanksgiving for all thy benefits bestowed upon our selves and others We thank thee in speciall for our election creation redemption vocation justification for all the blessed means of our sanctification and for the assured hope of our future glorification We thank thee for our health maintenance and libertie for preserving us ever since we were born for blessing us in all that we have put our hands unto this day Let thy mercy still be continued unto us we beseech thee Let the eye of thy providence which never slumbreth nor sleepeth watch over us and let the hand of thy power protect and defend us Cover us this night under the shadow of thy wings that no evil happen unto us Grant that our bodies may be refreshed this night with such moderate rest that we may be the fitter for the works of our vocation and thy service the nâ—xt morning Heare us we beseech thee for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely Saviour in whose name and words we call upon thee further praying Our Father which art c. FINIS Levit. 1â— 45 Psal. 7.11 2. Coâ— â— 10 Job 9.28 Isa. 64.6 Luk. 17.10 Anselm Gregory in his moralls Isa. 55.8 Psal. 19.12 Austine Hugo Heb. 1 14 Psal. 139.7 Austine upon the 32 Psalme Cant. 2.14 Heb. 12.24 Bernard John 19 1. John 2.2 Matt. 26.38 Matt. 27.46 Luke 22.43 Luke 23.31 Bernard iâ— his sermoâ— of the paâ—â—sion Austine Isa. 59.2 Isa. 43.25 Psal. 51.9 Isa. 59.2 Vers. 12. Psal. 51.2 Psal. 41.4 Exod. 32.32 Psal. 51.11 Basil upon the 33 Psal. Psal. 52.12 Isa. 24.5 Psal. 130.1 Ephes. 2.1 Luke 24.26 Acts 14.22 Aust. of repentance Gen. 31.41 Bernard 1 Sam. 2.6 1 King 19 11. Vers. 12. Bernard Anselm Isa. 9.6 Luke 2.21 John 14.6 John 14.6 Luke 15.2 Rom. 16.20 Isa. 53.4 1. Cor. 1.30 2. Cor. 1.22 Rev. 19.7 Gal. 3.25 Isa. 64.6 Act. 17.31 Rev. 22.20 Bernard Anselm Matt. 7.7 Matt. 7.7 Phil. 2.13 Psal. 139.8 9. 10. Anselm Mat. 3.10 Mat. 25.41 Pet. 4.18 Bernard Psal. 31.1 Bernard upon the Passion Bernard Gen. 22.12 John 3.16 Rom. 5.10 Psal. 56.8 Luther Matt. 27.46 Deut. 27.26 Col. 2.14 Psal. 139.15 Luke 10.30 1. Tim. 3.10 Bernard Clem. Alex. Rom. 8.32 1. Pet 1.18 Joh. 14.2 Matt. 8.20 Rom. 8.34 Phil. 2.8 Bernard Austine Mat. 9.12 Mat. 1 21. 1. Cor. 1.30 Anselm Gen. 8.9 1. John 4.16 Rom. 5.10 8. Wisd. 11.24 1. Cor. 13.12 Savanar 1. Cor. 15 50. Kempis Rev. 7.3 Eph. 3.17 Rom. 5.5 Isa. 53.4 Mat. 8.17 Isa. 53.5 6. Psal. 16. â—0 Psal. 32.1 Isa. 53.8 Joh. 17.3 Rom. 10. â— 2. Cor. 5.21 Joh. 15.14 Ezek. 18.22 Psal. 42.5 Psal. 25.10 Psal. 119.137 Psal. 42.5 Psal. 117.2 Ezek. 33.11 Matt. 11.28 Austinâ— Rom. 5.20 Mat. 11.28 Mat. 20 2â— Joh. 19.34 1. Joh. 1 9â— Iren. Act. 20.28 Rom. 5.8 â—0 Psal. 130.1 Joh. 6.37 68. Eph. 2.4 Luk. 1.78 Joh. 17.24 Joh. 14.2 Psal. 84 4â— Joh. 15.4 Eph 2.8 Heb. 11.4 Heb. 13.15 Heb. 11.5 Philip. 3.20 Heb. 11.7 8. 9. Rev. 21.2 Psal. 39.12 Heb. 11.11 17. Mat. 16.24 Heb 11.20 Gen. 2â— 18 Heb. 11.22 23. 25. 27. 28. Joh. 6.55 Heb. 11.29 Josh. 6. â—0 Heb. 11 3â— 33. Gen. 1.14 Psal. 36.9 Joh. 15.4 2. Cor. 6.14 2. Cor. 6.15 1. Joh. 5.4 Hos. 2.19 John 2.1 â—sa 61.10 Austine Rom. 9 5. John 1.14 Mat. 17.2 Psal. 45.2 Psal. 8.5 Anselâ— Ezek. 16.22 Isa. 61.10 Rev. 19.8 Gen. 29.27 Judg. 14.1 Ezek. 16.22 1. Joh. 1.7 Ezek. 16.9 11. Tertull. Ezek. 16.19 Austine Anselm Hos. 2.19 Joh. 15.5 Mat. 19 6. 1. Cor. 6.17 Eph. 3.17 Gal. 5.6 Lev. 21.13 Rev. 19.7 Gal. 4.5 1. Pet. 1.20 Luk. 2.1 Joh 18. â—6 Tertull. Luke 2 7. Mat. 2.1 2. Cor. 8.9 Luke 2.9 13. 8. 13. 10. 14. 14. 15. 19. 13. Isa. 9.6 2. Sam. 6.15 Joh. 8.56 Gen. 18. â— Anselm Luk. 2.10 Hugo Exod. 3.10 Gen. 8.11 Rom. 5.10 Eph. 5.29 Anselm 2. Cor. 5.19 Act. 20.28 Rom. 5.20 Gen. 2.23 Eph. 5.30 Mat. 22.4 Exod. 16.15 Psal. 78.24 25. Joh. 6.51 Luk. 15.16 Luk. 14.20 2. Cor. 11.2 Luk. 14.18 Mat. 19.22 2. Kings 4.4 Mat. 6 2â— Savanaâ— Luk. 14.19 Psal. â—2 20 Gen. 3.6 1. Joh. 2.17 Luk 14.24 Mat. 11.28 Mat. 25.41 Gen. 19.14 Mat. 25.8 10. Granat Rev. 3.20 1. Thess. 5.19 1. Cor. 3 17. Tit. 3.5 John 3.5 Rom. 8.14 Mat. 3.17 Mat. 10.16 Ravan Gen. 1.2 Gen. 17.11 Gal. 3.27 Rev. 7.14 John 5.4 Mat. 3.16 Luther Exod. 14.27 Rev. 4.6 Ezek. 47.1 Mic. 7.19 Rom. 6.4 Joh. 5.14 Eph. 4.23 2. Cor. 5.17 John 6.54 1. Pet. 1.12 Heb. 2.16 1. John 4.13 Matt. 26.26 28. Joh. 6.54 Matt. 10.30 Luke 10.20 Isa. 49.16 Isa. 46.3 Joh. 6.51 Psal. 34.8 Joh. 1.16 Joh. 6.50 Joh. 6.58 Joh. 6.54 Rom. 8.1 John 6.56 55. Isa. 55.2 Psal. 36.8 John 4.14 Isa. 55.1 Isa. 55.2 John 6.63 1. Cor. 10.15 1. Cor. 6.17 John 6.5 Ephes. 5.30 Joh. 6.56 Gen. 2.9 9. Ezek. 47.12 Exod. 16.15 Joh. 6.51 35. Exod. 28.43 Exod. 33.11 Col. 2.3 Rom. 3.25 Ephes. 1.6 Isa. 66.1 Gen. 28.12 Isa. 11.2 Col. 2.9 Ambrose Eph. 5.29 Eph. 5.30 Ignatius Bernard Exod. 13.21 Mal. 4.2 John 14.23 Gen. 2.8 Psal. 96.11 Gen. 18.2 2. Chr. 26.16.19 1. Cor. 11.27.29 1. Cor. 11.28 Gen. 18.27 Bernard Deut. 4.24 Psal. 90.8 Rom. 8.32 Ephes. 5.29 Nazian 1. Cor. 13.12 John 3.16 Rom. 8.32 Rev. 19.7 Matth. 22.12 Isa. 64.6 2. Cor. 5.3 John 20.29 Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.2 Rev. 10.7 Acts 1.12 Exod. 19.3 Joh. 4.20 Gen. 13.11 12. Joh. 4.24 Gen. 3.24 Acts 1.11 Granat Eph. 5.23.30 Max. of the resurrection Eusebius Bernard Rev. 21.27 Acts 1.10 Eusebius Acts 2.4 Exod. 19.11 Rom. 4.15 Acts 2.1 Zech. 12.10 1. King 8.11 Psal. 50.15 Rom. 8.34 Gal. 4.6 Austine Acts 2.1 Luk. 1.35 Eph. 5.29 1. Cor. 6.17 Mat. 5.45 Wisd. 11 2â— Ambrose John 3.8 Psal. 19.24 Gen. 11 7· 2. Pet. 1.21 Can. 6.9 Rom. 8.9 Gen. 7.21 Austiâ—e Exod. 10.21 Chem. Mat. 8.23 Chrysost. upon Mat. Mat. 21 33 Isa. 5.2 Rev. 12.1 Can. 4.12 Can. 1.5 Psal. 45.13 Matt. 8.24 Rev. 12. â—3 Cant. 2.2 Ambrose John 19.25 Matt. 25.13 Matt. 20.1 John 15.2 Gal. 3.27 Mal. 4.2 Rev. 12.1 Rom. 4.25 Austine Eph. 1.4 Deut. 4.24 1. Tim. â— 16 Psal. 36.9 Luther Psal. 33.5 Ezek. 33.11 ierome 2. Cor. 1.3 Bernard Cant. 2.1 Matt. 11.28 Bernard upon the Cant. Bernard upon the 116 Psal. Psal. 23.6 Austine Savanar Bernard upon the 31 Psal. Isa. 66.2 Isa. 59.1 Eph. 1.4 2. Tim. 2.19 John 10.28 27. Heb. 3.6 Phil. 2.13 Austine Ephes. 6.16 Exod. 17.11 Ambrose Hierome upon Ezek. Nazian Bernard Num. 7.89 Kempis Luke 9.29 Bernard upon the Cant. Chrysost. Matt. 7.7 â—erthâ—r 1. Cor. 10.4 Exod. 17.6 Gen. 8.21 Cyprian Psal. 34.8 Anselm Bernard Mat. 6.6