CHRIST MYSTICALL OR The blessed union of Christ and his Members Also AN HOLY RAPTVRE OR A Patheticall Meditation of the Love of Christ. Also The Christian laid forth in his whole Disposition and Carriage By J. H. D. D. B. N. LONDON Printed by M. Flesher and are to be sold by William Hope Gabriel Beadle and Nathaniel Webbe 1647. TO The only Honour and Glory of his blessed Saviour and Redeemer And to the comfort and benefit of all those members of his Mysticall Body which are still labouring and warfaring upon earth I. H. their unworthiest servant humbly dedicates this fruit of his old age The CONTENTS § 1. HOw to be happy in the apprehending of Christ. § 2. The honour and happinesse of being united to Christ. § 3. The kinde and manner of our union with Christ. § 4. The resemblance of this union by the head and members of the body § 5. This union set forth by the resemblance of the husband and wife § 6. This union resembled by the nourishment the body § 7. The resemblance of this union by the branch and the stock the foundation and the building § 8. The certainty and indissolublenesse of this union § 9. The priviledges and benefits of this union The first of them life § 10. A complaint of our insensiblenesse of this mercy and an excitation to a chearfull recognition of it § 11. An incitement to a joy and thankfulnesse for Christ our life § 12. The duties we owe to God for his mercy to us in this life which we have from Christ. § 13. The improvement of this life in that Christ is made our Wisdome § 14. Christ made our Righteousnesse § 15. Christ made our Sanctification § 16. Christ made our Redemption § 17. The externall priviledges of this union a right to the blessings of earth and of heaven § 18. The means by which this union is wrought § 19. The union of Christs members with themselves First those in heaven § 20. The union of Christs members upon earth First in matter of judgement § 21. The union of Christians in matter of affection § 22. A complaint of Divisions and notwithstanding them an assertion of unity § 23. The necessary effects and fruits of this union of Christian hearts § 24. The union of the Saints on earth with those in heaven § 25. A recapitulation and sum of the whole Treatise I Have with much comfort and contentment perused these divine and holy Meditations entituled Christ Mysticall An holy Rapture and The Christian laid forth or characterised in his whole disposition and carriage and relishing in them much profitable sweetnesse and heavenly raptures of spirituall devotion I doe license them to be Printed and published JOHN DOVVNAME CHRIST MYSTICALL OR THE BLESSED Union of CHRIST and his Members THERE is not so much need of Learning as of Grace to apprehend those things which concern our everlasting peace neither is it our brain that must be set on work here but our heart for true happinesse doth not consist in a meer speculation but a fruition of good However therefore there is excellent use of Scholar-ship in all the sacred imployments of Divinity yet in the main act which imports salvation skill must give place to affection Happy is the soul that is possessed of Christ how poor so ever in all inferiour endowments Ye are wide O ye great wits whiles you spend your selves in curious questions and learned extravagancies ye shal find one touch of Christ more worth to your souls then all your deep and laboursome disquisitions one dram of faith more precious then a pound of knowledge In vain shall ye seek for this in your books if you misse it in your bosomes If you know all things and cannot truly say I know whom I have beleeved you have but knowledge enough to know your selves truly miserable Wouldst thou therefore my son finde true and solid comfort in the houre of temptation in the agony of death make sure work for thy soul in the days of thy peace Finde Christ thine and in despight of hell thou art both safe and blessed Look not so much to an absolute Deity infinitely and incomprehensibly glorious alas that Majesty because perfectly and essentially good is out of Christ no other then an enemy to thee thy sinne hath offended his justice which is himself what hast thou to doe with that dreadfull power which thou hast provoked Look to that mercifull and all-sufficient Mediator betwixt God and man who is both God and man Jesus Christ the righteous It is his charge and our duty Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me Yet look not meerly to the Lord Jesus as considered in the notion of his own eternall beeing as the Son of God co-equall and co-essentiall to God the Father but look upon him as he stands in reference to the sons of men and herein also look not to him so much as a Law-giver and a Judge there is terror in such apprehension but look upon him as a gracious Saviour and Advocate and lastly look not upon him as in the generality of his mercy the common Saviour of mankind what comfort were it to thee that all the world except thy selfe were saved but look upon him as the dear Redeemer of thy soul as thine Advocate at the right hand of Majesty as one with whom thou art â—hrough his wonderfull mâ—rcy inseparably united Tâ—us thus look upon him firmly and fixedly so as he may never be out of thine eiâ—s and what ever secular objects interpose themselves betwixt thee and him look through them as some slight mists and terminate thy sight still in this blessed prospect Let neither earth nor heaven hide him from thee in whatsoever condition And whiles thou art thus taken up see if thou canst without wonder and a kinde of ecstaticall amazement behold the infinite goodness of thy God that hath exalted thy wretchednesse to no lesse then a blessed and indivisible Union with the Lord of glory so as thou who in the sense of thy miserable mortality maist say to corruption Thou art my father and to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister canst now through the priviledge of thy faith hear the Son of God say unto thee Thou art bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Surely as we are too much subject to pride our selves in these earthly glories so we are too apt through ignorance or pusillanimity to undervalue our selves in respect of our spirituall condition wee are far more noble and excellent then we account our selves It is our faith that must raise our thoughts to a due estimation of our greatnesse and must shew us how highly we are descended how royally we are allied how gloriously estated that onely is it that must advance us to heaven and bring heaven down to us Through the want of the exercise whereof it comes to passe that to the great prejudice
are enlightned by his vvisdome justified by his merits sanctified by his grace are yet conflicting vvith manifold temptations and strugling with varieties of miseries and dangers till upon their happy death and glorious resurrection they shall be fully freed by their ever-blessed and victorious Redeemer He therefore vvho by vertue of that heavenly union is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification is also upon the same ground made unto us our full Redemption Redemption implies a captivity We are naturally under the vvofull bondage of the Law of sin of miseries of death The Law is a cruell exactor for it requires of us vvhat vvee cannot now doe and vvhips us for not doing it for the Law worketh wrath and as many as are of the workes of the Law are under the curse Sinne is a vvorse tyrant then he and takes advantage to exercise his cruelty by the Law For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Upon sinne necessarily follows misery the forerunner of death and death the upshot of all miseries By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned From all these is Christ our Redemption from the Law for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us From sin for we are dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace From death and therein from all miseries O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then let the Lavv doe his vvorst we are not under the Law but under Grace The case therefore is altered betwixt the Law and us It is not now a cruell Task-master to beat us to and for our vvork it is our School-master to direct and to whip us unto Christ It is not a severe Judge to condemne us it is a friendly guide to set us the vvay towards heaven Let sin joyn his forces together vvith the Law they cannot prevail to our hurt For what the Law could not doe in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his owne Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Let death joyn his forces vvith them both vve are yet safe For the Law of the spirit of life hath freed us from the Law of sin and of death What can vve therefore fear vvhat can vve suffer vvhiles Christ is made our Redemption Finally as thus Christ is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification Redemption so whatsoever else he either is or hath or doth by vertue of this blessed union becomes ours he is our riches our strength our glory our salvation our all he is all to us and all is ours in him From these primary and intrinsecal priviledges therefore flow all those secondary and externall vvherewith vve are blessed and therein a right to all the blessings of God both of the right hand and of the left an interesse in all the good things both of earth and heaven Hereupon it is that the glorious Angels of Heaven become our Guardians keeping us in all our ways and vvorking secretly for our good upon all occasions that all Gods creatures are at our service that we have a true spirituall title to them All things are yours saith the Apostle and ye are Christs and Christ Gods But take heed my son of mis-laying thy claime to what and in what manner thou ought'st not There is a civill right that must regulate our propriety to these earthly things our spirituall right neither gives us possession of them nor takes away the right and propriety of others Every man hath and must have what by the just Lawes of purchase gift or inheritance is derived to him otherwise there would follow an infinite confusion in the world we could neither enjoy nor give our owne and onely will and might must be the arbiters of all mens estates which how unequall it would be both reason and experience can sufficiently evince This right is not for the direption or usurpation of that which civill titles have legally put over to others there were no theft no robbery no oppression in the world if any mans goods might be every mans But for the warrantable and comfortable injoying of those earthly commodities in regard of God their originall owner which are by humane convciances justly become ours The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse of it in his right what ever parcells doe lawfully descend unto us we may justly possesse as we have them legally made over to us from the secondary and immediate owners There is a generation of men who have vainly fancied the founding of Temporall dominion in Grace and have upon this mistaking outed the true heyres as intruders and feoffed the just and godly in the possession of wicked inheritors which whether they be worse Commonwealths-men or Christians is to me utterly uncertaine sure I am they are enemies to both whiles on the one side they destroy all civill propriety and commerce and on the other retch the extent of the power of Christianity so far as to render it injurious and destructive both to reason and to the Lawes of all well-ordred humanity Nothing is ours by injury and injustice all things are so ours that we may with a good conscience enjoy them as from the hand of a munificent God when they are rightfully estated upon us by the lawfull convention or bequest of men In this regard it is that a Christian man is the Lord of the whole universe and hath a right to the whole creation of God how can he challenge lesse he is a son and in that an heire and according to the high expression of the holy ghost a co-heir with Christ As therefore we may not be high-minded but fear so we may not be too low-harted in the under-valuing of our condition In God we are great now mean soever in our selves In his right the world is ours what ever pittance we enjoy in our owne how can we goe lesse when we are one with him who is the possessour of heaven and earth It were but a poore comfort to us if by vertue of this union wee could only lay claime to all earthly things alas how vaine and transitory are the best of these perishing under our hand in the very use of them and in the meane while how unsatisfying in the fruition All this were nothing if we
were given us not to engrosse and hoard up superfluously but to distribute and dispense As we have therefore opportunity let us doe good unto all men especially them who are of the houshold of faith Such then is the union of Gods children here on earth both in matter of judgement and affection and the beneficiall improvement of that affection whether in spirituall gifts or good offices or communicating of our earthly substance where the heart is one none of these can be wanting and where they all are there is an happy communion of Saints As there is a perfect union betwixt the glorious Saints in heaven and a union though imperfect betwixt the Saints on earth So there is an union partly perfect and partly imperfect between the Saints in heaven and the Saints below upon earth perfect in respect of those glorified Saints above imimperfect in respect of the weak returns we are able to make to them again Let no man think that because those blessed souls are out of sight farre distant in another world and we are here toyling in a vale of tears wee have therefore lost all mutuall regard to each other no there is still and ever will be a secret but unfailing correspondence between heaven and earth The present happinesse of those heavenly Citizens cannot have abated ought of their knowledge and charity but must needs have raised them to an higher pitch of both They therefore who are now glorious comprehensors cannot but in a generality retain the notice of the sad condition of us poor travellers here below pāting towards our rest together w th thē and in common wish for the happy consummation of this our weary pilgrimage in the fruition of their glory That they have any Perspective whereby they can see down into our particular wants is that which we finde no ground to beleeve it is enough that they have an universall apprehension of the estate of Christs warfaring Church upon the face of the earth and as fellow-members of the same mysticall body long for a perfect glorification of the whole As for us wretched pilgrims that are yet left here below to tugge with many difficulties we cannot forget that better half of us that is now triumphing in glory O ye blessed Saints above we honour your memories so far as wee ought wee doe with praise recount your vertues wee magnifie your victories we blesse God for your happy exemption from the miseries of this world and for your estating in that blessed immortality Wee imitate your holy examples we long and pray for an happy consociation with you we dare not raise Temples dedicate Altars direct prayers to you we dare not finally offer any thing to you which you are unwilling to receive nor put any thing upon you which you would disclaim as prejudiciall to your Creator and Redeemer It is abundant comfort to us that some part of us is in the fruition of that glory whereto we the other poor labouring part desire and strive to aspire that our head and shoulders are above water whiles the other lims are yet wading through the stream To winde up all my son if ever thou look for sound comfort on earth and salvation in heaven unglue thy self from the world and the vanities of it put thy self upon thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Leave not till thou findest thy self firmly united to him so as thou art become a limb of that body whereof he is head a Spouse of that husband a branch of that stemme a stone laid upon that foundation Look not therefore for any blessing out of him and in and by and from him look for all blessings Let him be thy life and wish not to live longer then thou art quickned by him find him thy wisdome righteousness sanctification redemption thy riches thy strength thy glory Apply unto thy self all that thy Saviour is or hath done Wouldst thou have the graces of Gods Spirit fetch them from his anointing Wouldst thou have power against spirituall enemies fetch it from his Soveraignty Wouldst thou have redemption fetch it from his passion Wouldst thou have absolution fetch it from his perfect innocence Freedome from the curse fetch it from his crosse Satisfaction fetch it from his sacrifice Cleansing from sin fetch it from his bloud Mortification fetch it from his grave Newnesse of life fetch it from his resurrection Right to heaven fetch it from his purchase Audience in all thy suits fetch it from his intercessiō Wouldst thou have salvation fetch it from his session at the right hand of Majesty Wouldst thou have all fetch it from him who is one Lord one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all And as thy faith shall thus interesse thee in Christ thy head so let thy charity unite thee to his body the Church both in earth and heaven hold ever an inviolable communion with that holy and blessed fraternity Sever not thy selfe from it either in judgement or affection Make account there is not one of Gods saints upon earth but hath a propriety in thee and thou maist challenge the same in each of them so as thou canst not but be sensible of their passions and be freely communicative of all thy graces and all serviceable offices by example admonition exhortation consolation prayer beneficence for the good of that sacred community And when thou raisest up thine eyes to heaven think of that glorious society of blessed saints who are gone before thee and are now there triumphing and reigning in eternall and incomprehensible glory blesse God for them and wish thy self with them tread in their holy steps and be ambitious of that crown of glory and immortality which thou seest shining upon their heads AN HOLY RAPTURE OR A Patheticall Meditation of the love of Christ. BY J. H. B. N. The CONTENTS § 1. THe love of Christ how passing knowledge how free of us before we were § 2. How free of us that had made our selves vile and miserable § 3. How yet free of us that were professed enemies § 4. The wonderfull effects of the love of Christ 1. His Incarnation § 5. 2. His love in his sufferings § 6. 3. His love in what hee hath done for us and 1. in preparing heaven for us from eternity § 7. His love in our redemption from death and hell § 8. His love in giving us the guard of his Angels § 9. His love in giving us his holy Spirit § 10. Our sense and improvement of Christs love in all the former particulars and first in respect of the inequality of our persons § 11. A further improvement of our love to Christ in respect of our unworthinesse and of his sufferings and glory prepared for us § 12. The improvement of our love to Christ for the mercy of his deliverance of the tuition of his Angels of the powerfull working of his good Spirit for the accomplishment of our
stranger to us there is nothing wherewith we are so well acquainted yea we feel continually what it is and what it produceth It is that from whence all sense action motion floweth it is that which gives us to be what we are All this is Christ to the regenerate man It is one thing what he is or doth as a man another thing what he is or doth as a Christian As a man he hath eyes ears motions affections understanding naturally as his own as a Christian he hath all these from him with whom he is spiritually one the Lord Jesus and the objects of all these vary accordingly His naturall eyes behold bodily and materiall things his spirituall eyes see things invisible His outward eares hear the sound of the voice his inward ears hear the voice of Gods Spirit speaking to his soul His bodily feet move in his own secular ways his spirituall walk w th God in all the ways of his Commandements His naturall affections are set upon those things which are agreeable thereunto he loves beauty fears pain and losse rejoyces in outward prosperity hates an enemy his renued affections are otherwise and more happily bestowed now he loves goodnesse for its own sake hates nothing but sin fears onely the displeasure of a good God rejoyces in Gods favour which is better then life His former thoughts were altogether taken up with vanity and earthed in the world now he seeks the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Finally he is such as that a beholder sees nothing but man in him but God and his soul finde Christ in him both in his renued person and actions in all the degrees both of his life and growth of his sufferings and glory My little children saith Saint Paul of whom I travell in birth again untill Christ be formed in you Lo here Christ both conceived and born in the faithfull heart Formation follows conception and travell implies a birth Now the beleever is a new-born babe in Christ and so mutually Christ in him from thence he grows up to strength of youth and at last to perfection even towards the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ And in this condition he is dead with Christ He is buried with Christ He is alive again unto God through Christ he is risen with Christ and with Christ he is glorified Yea yet more then so his sufferings are Christs Christs sufferings are his He is in Christ an heir of glory and Christ is in him the hope of glory Dost thou not now finde cause my son to complain of thy self as I confesse I daily doe that thou art so miserably apt to forget these intimate respects between thy Christ and thee art thou not ashamed to think how little sense thou hast had of thy great happinesse Lo Christ is in thy bosome and thou feelst him not It is not thy soul that animates thee in thy renued estate it is thy God and Saviour and thou hast not hitherto perceived it It is no otherwise with thee in this case then with the members of thine own body there is the same life in thy fingers and toes that there is in the head or heart yea in the whole man and yet those lims know not that they have such a life Had those members reason as well as sense they would perceive that wherewith they are enlived thou hast more then reason faith and therefore maist well know whence thou hast this spiritual life therupon art much wanting to thy self if thou dost not enjoy so usefull and comfortable an apprehension Resolve therefore with thy self that no secular occasion shall ever set off thy heart from this blessed object and that thou wilt as soon forget thy naturall life as this spirituall and raise up thy thoughts from this dust to the heaven of heavens Shake of this naturall pusillanimity and meane conceit of thy self as if thou wert all earth and know thy self advanced to a celestiall condition that thou art united to the Son of God and animated by the holy Spirit of God so as the life which thou now livest in the flesh thou livest by the faith of the Son of God who loved thee and gave himself for thee See then and confesse how just cause we have to condemn the dead-heartednesse wherewith we are subject to be possessed and how many worthy Christians are there in the world who bear a part with us in this just blame who have yeelded over themselves to a disconsolate heartlesnesse and a sad dejection of spirit partly through a naturall disposition inclining to dumpishnesse and partly through the prevalence of temptation For Satan well knowing how much it makes for our happinesse chearfully to reflect upon our interest in Christ and to live in the joyfull sense of it labours by all means to withdraw our hearts from this so comfortable object and to clog us with a pensive kinde of spirituall fullennesse accounting it no small mastery if he can prevail with us so far as to be reave us of this habituall joy in the holy Ghost arising from the inanimation of Christ living and breathing within us So much the more therefore must we bend all the powers of our souls against this dangerous and deadly machination of our spirituall enemy and labour as for life to maintain this Fort of our joy against all the powers of darknesse and if at any time we finde our selves beaten off through the violence of temptation we must chide our selves into our renued valour and expostulate the matter with our shrinking courage with the man after Gods own heart Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Neither is here more place for an heavenly joy then for height of spirit and raptures of admiration at that infinite goodnesse and mercy of our God who hath vouchsafed so far to grace his elect as to honour them with a speciall inhabitation of his ever-blessed Deity Yea to live in them and to make them live mutually in and to himself What capacity is there in the narrow heart of man to conceive of this incomprehensible favour to his poor creature Oh Saviour this is no small part of that great mystery wherin to the Angels desire to look and can never look to the bottome of it how shall the weak eyes of sinfull flesh ever be able to reach unto it When thou in the estate of thine humane infirmity offeredst to goe down to the Centurions house that humble Commander could say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof What shall we then say that thou in the state of thine heavenly glory shouldst vouchsafe to come down and dwell with us in these houses of clay and to
had not hereby an interesse in the best of all Gods favours in the heaven of heavens and the eternity of that glory which is there laid up for his Saints far above the reach of all humane expressions or conceits It was the word of him who is the eternall word of his father Father I will that they also whom thou hast given mee be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me and not only to be meere spectators but even partners of this celestiall blisse together with himselfe The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one Oh the transcendent and incomprehensible blessednesse of the beleevers which even when they enjoy they cannot be able to utter for measure infinite for duration eternall Oh the inexplicable joy of the ful everlasting accomplishment of the happy union of Christ the beleeving soule more fit for thankfull wonder and ravishment of Spirit then for any finite apprehension Now that we may looke a little further into the meanes by which this union is wrought Know my Sonne that as there are two persons betwixt whom this union is made Christ and the beleever so each of them concurres to the happy effecting of it Christ by his spirit diffused through the hearts of all the regenerate giving life and activity to them the beleever laying hold by faith upon Christ so working in him and these doe so re-act upon each other that from their mutuall operation results this gracious union whereof wee treat Here is a spirituall marriage betwixt Christ and the soule The liking of one part doth not make up the match but the consent of both To this purpose Christ gives his spirit the soule plights her faith What interesse have we in Christ but by his spirit what interesse hath Christ in us but by our faith On the one part He hath given us his holy Spirit saith the Apostle and in a way of correlation we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God And this spirit we have so received as that he dwells in us and so dwells in us as that we are joyned to the Lord and he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit On the other part wee have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and reioice in hope of the glory of God so as now the life that wee live in the flesh we live by the faith of the sonne of God who dwells in our hearts by faith O the grace of faith according to St. Peters style truly precious justly recommended to us by S. Paul above all other graces incident into the soule as that which if not alone yet chiefly transacts all the maine affaires tending to salvation for faith is the quickning grace the directing grace the protecting grace the establishing grace the justifying grace the sanctifying and purifying grace faith is the grate that assents to apprehends applyes appropriates Christ and hereupon the uniting grace and which comprehends all the saving grace If ever therefore we looke for any consolation in Christ or to have any part in this beatificall union it must be the maine care of our hearts to make sure of a lively faith in the Lord Jesus to lay fast hold upon him to clasp him close to us yea to receive him inwardly into our bosomes and so to make him ours and our selves his that we may be joyned to him as our head espoused to him as our husband incorporated into him as our nourishment engrafted in him as our stock and layd upon him as a sure foundation Hitherto wee have treated of this blessed union as in relation to Christ the head it remaines that we now consider of it as it stands in relation to the members of his mysticall body one towards another For as the body is united to the head so must the members be united to themselves to make the body truly compleat Thus the holy ghost by his Apostle As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so is Christ. From this entire conjunction of the members with each other arises that happy communion of Saints which wee professe both to beleeve and to partake of This mysticall body of Christ is a large one extending it self both to heaven and earth there is a reall union betwixt all those farre-spred limmes betweene the Saints in heaven betweene the Saints on earth between the Saints in heaven and earth We have reason to begin at heaven thence is the originall of our union and blessednesse There was never place for discord in that region of glory since the rebellious Angels were cast out thence the spirits of just men made perfect must needs agree in a perfect unity neither can it be otherwise for there is but one will in heaven one scope of the desires of blessed souls w ch is the glory of their God all the whole chore sing one song and in that one harmonious tune of Allelujah We poor parcell-sainted souls here on earth professe to bend our eyes directly upon the same holy end the honour of our Maker and Redeemer but alas at our best we are drawn to look asquint at our own aims of profit or pleasure Wee professe to sing loud praises unto God but it is with many harsh and jarring notes above there is a perfect accordance in an unanimous glorifying of him that sits upon the throne for ever Oh how ye love the Lord all ye his Saints Oh how joyfull ye are in glory The heavens shall praise thy wonders O Lord thy faithfulnesse also in the congregation of the Saints O what a blessed Common-wealth is that above The City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem ever at unity within it selfe therin the innumerable company of Angels and the generall Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven the spirits of just men made perfect and whom they all adore God the judge of all and Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament All these as one as holy Those twenty thousand chariots of heaven move all one way When those four beasts full of eyes round about the throne give glory and honour and thanks to him that sits upon the throne saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come then the four and twenty Elders fall down before him and cast their crownes before the throne No one wears his crown whiles the rest cast down theirs all accord in one act of giving glory to the Highest After the sealing of the Tribes A great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the
Lamb cloathed with white robes and palmes in their hands And cryed with a loud voice Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb And all the Angels stood about the throne and about the Elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God saying Amen Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto God for ever and ever Lo those spirits which here below were habited with severalll bodies different in shapes statures ages complexions are now above as one spirit rather distinguished then divided all united in one perpetuall adoration and fruition of the God of spirits all mutually happy in God in themselves in each other Our copy is set us above we labour to take it out here on earth What doe we but daily pray that the blessed union of souls which is eminent in that empyrcall heaven may be exemplified by us in this region of mortality For having through Christ an accesse by one spirit unto God the Father being no more strangers and forainers but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God we cease not to pray Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Yea O Saviour thou who canst not but be heard hast prayed to thy Father for the accomplishment of this union That they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one What then is this union of the members of Christ here on earth but a spirituall onenesse arising from an happy conspiratiō of their thoughts and affections for whereas there are two main principles of all humane actions and dispositions the brain and the heart the conjuncture of these two cannot but produce a perfect union from the one our thoughts take their rise our affections from the other in both the soul puts it self forth upon all matter of accord or difference The union of thoughts is when we minde the same things when we agree in the same truths This is the charge which the Apostle of the Gentiles lays upon his Corinthians and in their persons upon all Christians Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement And this is no other then that one faith which makes up the one Church of Christ upon earth One both in respect of times and places Of times so as the Fathers of the first world and the Patriarks of the next and all Gods people in their ages that lookt together with them for the redemption of Israel are united with us Christians of the last days in the same beleef and make up one entire body of Christs Catholik Church Of places so as all those that truly professe the name of Christ though scattered into the farthest remote regions of the earth even those that walk with their feet opposite to ours yet meet with us in the same center of Christian faith and make up one houshold of God Not that we can hope it possible that all Christians should agree in all truths whiles wee are here our mindes cannot but be more unlike to each others then our faces yea it is a rare thing for a man to hold constant to his own apprehensions Lord God! what a world doe we meet with of those who mis-call themselves severall Religions indeed severall professions of one and the same Christianity Melchites Georgians Maronites Jacobites Armenians Abysines Cophti Nestorians Ruffians Mengrellians and the rest that fill up the large Map of Christianography all which as whiles they hold the head Christ they cannot be denyed the priviledge of his members so being such they are or should be indissolubly joined together in the unity of spirit and maintenance of the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints It is not the variety of by opinions that should or can exclude them from having their part in that one Catholick Church and their just claim to the communion of Saints whiles they hold the solid and precious foundation it is not the hay or stubble which they lay upon it that can set them off from God or his Church But in the mean time it must be granted that they have much to answer for to the God of peace and unity who are so much addicted to their own conceits and so indulgent to their own interesse as to raise and maintain new Doctrines and to set up new Sects in the Church of Christ varying from the common and received truths labouring to draw Disciples after them to the great distraction of souls and scandall of Christianity With which sort of disturbers I must needs say this age into which we are fallen hath been and is above all that have gone before us most miserably pestered What good soul can be other then confounded to hear of and see more then an hundred and fourscore new and some of them dangerous and blasphemous opinions broached and defended in one once famous and unanimous Church of Christ Who can say other upon the view of these wild thoughts then Gerson said long since that the world now growne old is full of doting fancies if not rather that the world now near his end raves and talks nothing but fancies and frenzies How arbitrary soever these selfe-willed fanaticks may think it to take to themselves this liberty of thinking what they list and venting what they think the blessed Apostle hath long since branded them with an heavy sentence Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and by fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple But notwithstanding all this hideous variety of vain and heterodoxall conceptions he who is the truth of God and the Bridegroom of his Spouse the Church hath said My Dove my undefiled is one One in the main essentiall fundamentall verities necessary to salvation though differing in divers mis-raised Corollaries inconsequent inferences unnecessary additions feigned traditions unwarrantable practises the body is one though the garments differ yea rather for most of these the garment is one but differs in the dressing handsomely and comely set out by one disguised by another Neither is it nor ever shall be in the power of all the fiends of hell the professed make-bates of the world to make Gods Church other then one which were indeed utterly to extinguish and reduce it to nothing for the unity and entity of the Church can no more be divided then it self It were no lesse then blasphemy to fasten upon the chaste and most holy husband of the Church
salvation AN HOLY RAPTVRE OR A Patheticall Meditation of the love of CHRIST WHat is it O blessed Apostle what is it for which thou dost so earnestly bow thy knees in the behalf of thine Ephesians unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Even this that they may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Give me leave first to wonder at thy suit and then much more at what thou suest for Were thine affections raised so high to thine Ephesians that thou shouldst crave for them impossible favours Did thy love so far over-shoot thy reason as to pray they might attain to the knowledge of that which cannot be known It is the love of Christ which thou wishest they may know and it is that love which thou sayest is past all knowledge What shall we say to this Is it for that there may be holy ambitions of those heights of grace which we can never hope actually to attain Or is it rather that thou supposest and prayest they may reach to the knowledge of that love the measure whereof they could never aspire to know Surely so it is O blessed Jesu that thou hast loved us we know but how much thou hast loved us is past the comprehension of Angels Those glorious spirits as they desire to looke into the deep mystery of our redemption so they wonder to behold that divine love whereby it is wrought but they can no more reach to the bottome of it then they can affect to be infinite For surely no lesse then an endlesse line can serve to fadome a bottomlesse depth Such O Saviour is the abysse of thy love to miserable man Alas what doe we poor wretched dust of the earth goe about to measure it by the spans and inches of our shallow thoughts Far far be such presumption from us Onely admit us O blessed Lord to look at to admire and adore that which we give up for incomprehensible What shall wee then say to this love Oh dear Jesu both as thine and as cast upon us All earthly love supposeth some kinde of equality or proportion at least betwixt the person that loves and is loved Here is none at all so as which is past wonder extreams meet without a mean For lo thou who art the eternall and absolute Beeing God blessed for ever lovedst me that had no beeing at all thou lovedst me both when I was not and could never have been but by thee It was from thy love that I had any beeing at all much more that when thou hadst given me a beeing thou shouldst follow mee with succeeding mercies who but thou who art infinite in goodnesse would love that which is not Our poor sensuall love is drawn from us by the sight of a face or a picture neither is ever raised but upon some pleasing motive thou wouldst make that which thou wouldst love and wouldst love that which thou hadst made O God was there ever love so free so gracious as this of thine Who can be capable to love us but men or Angels Men love us because they see something in us which they think amiable Angels love us because thou dost so But why doest thou O blessed Lord love us but because thou wouldst There can be no cause of thy will which is the cause of all things Even so Lord since this love did rise onely from thee let the praise and glory of it rest onely in thee Yet more Lord we had lost our selves before we were and having forfaited what we should be had made our selves perfectly miserable even when wee were worse then nothing thou wouldst love us was there ever any eye enamoured of deformity Can there bee any bodily deformitie comparable to that of sin yet Lord when sin had made us abominably loathsome didst thou cast thy love upon us A little scurf of leprosie or some few nastie spots of morphew or but some unsavory sent sets us off and turns our love into detestation But for thee O God when we were become as foul and ugly as sinne could make us even then was thy love inflamed towards us Even when we were weltring in our blood thou saidst Live and washedst us and anointedst us and cloathedst us with broidered work and deckedst us with ornaments and graciously espousedst us to thy self and receivedst us into thine owne bosome Lord what is man that thou art thus mindfull of him and the son of man that thou thus visitest him Oh what are we in comparison of thine once-glorious Angels They sinned and fell never to bee recovered never to be loosed from those everlasting chains wherein they are reserved to the judgement of the great day Whence is it then O Saviour whence is it that thou hast shut up thy mercy from those thy more excellent creatures and hast extended it to us vile sinfull dust whence but that thou wouldst love man because thou wouldst Alas it it is discouragement enough to our feeble friendship that he to whom we wisht well is miserable Our love doth gladly attend upon and enjoy his prosperity but when his estate is utterly sunke and his person exposed to contempt and ignominy yea to torture and death who is there that will then put forth himself to owne a forlorn and perishing friend But for thee O blessed Jesu so ardent was thy love to us that it was not in the power of our extream misery to abate it yea so as that the deplorednesse of our condition did but heighten that holy flame What speak I of shame or sufferings Hell it self could not keep thee off from us Even from that pit of eternall perdition didst thou fetch our condemned souls and hast contrarily vouchsafed to put us into a state of everlasting blessednesse The common disposition of men pretends to a kind of justice in giving men their own so as they will repay love for love and thinke they may for hatred return enmity nature it self then teacheth us to love our friends it is onely grace that can love an enemy But as of injuries so of enmities thereupon grounded there are certain degrees some are sleight and trivial some main and capitall If a man doe but scratch my face or give some light dash to my fame it is no great Mastery upon submission to receive such an offender to favour but if he have endevoured to ruine my estate to wound my reputation to cut my throat not onely to pardon this man but to hug him in my arms to lodge him in my bosome as my entire friend this would be no other then an high improvement of my charity O Lord Jesu what was I but the worst of enemies when thou vouchsafedst to embrace me with thy loving mercy how had I shamefully rebelled against thee and yeelded up all my members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sin how had I crucified thee the Lord of life how had I done little other then trod under foot thee the blessed Son of God
and counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing how had I in some sort done despight unto the spirit of grace yet even then in despight of all my most odious unworthinesse didst thou spread abroad thine arms to receive me yea thou openedst thine heart to let me in O love passing not knowledge onely but wonder also O mercy not incident into any thing lesse then infinite nor by any thing lesse comprehensible But oh dear Lord when from the object of thy mercy I cast mine eyes upon the effects and improvement of thy divine favours and see what thy love hath drawn from thee towards the sons of men how am I lost in a just amazement It is that which fetcht thee down from the glory of the highest heavens from the bosome of thine eternall Father to this lower world the region of sorrow and death It is that which to the wonder of Angels cloathed thee with this flesh of ours and brought thee who thoughtst it no robbery to be equall with God to an estate lower then thine own creatures Oh mercy transcending the admiration of all the glorious spirits of heaven that God would bee incarnate Surely that all those celestiall powers should be redacted to either worms or nothing that all this goodly frame of creation should run back into its first confusion or be reduced to one single atome it is not so high a wonder as for God to become man those changes though the highest that nature is capable of are yet but of things finite this is of an infinite subject with which the most excellent of finite things can hold no proportion Oh the great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels Those heavenly spirits had ever since they were made seen his most glorious Deity and adored him as their omnipotent Creator but to see that God of spirits invested with flesh was such a wonder as had been enough if their nature could have been capable of it to have astonished even glory it self And whether to see him that was their God so humbled below themselves or to see humanity thus advanced above themselves were the greater wonder to them they onely know It was your foolish misprison O ye ignorant Listrians that you took the servants for the Master here onely is it verified which you supposed that God is come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men What a disparagement doe wee think it was for the great Monarch of Babylon for seven years together as a beast to converse with the beasts of the field Yet alas beasts and men are fellow-creatures made of one earth drawing in the same ayre returning for their bodily part to the same dust symbolizing in many qualities and in some mutually transcending each others so as here may seem to bee some tearms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like unto beasts and some beasts are in outward shape somewhat like unto men But for him that was and is God blessed for ever eternall infinite incomprehensible to put on flesh and to become a man amongst mē was to stoop below al possible disparities that heaven and earth can afford Oh Saviour the lower thine abasement was for us the higher was the pitch of thy divine love to us Yet in this our humane condition there are degrees One rules and glitters in all earthly glory another sits despised in the dust one passes the time of his life in much jollity and pleasure another wears out his days in sorrow and discontentment Blessed Jesu since thou wouldst be a man why wouldst thou not be the King of men since thou wouldst come down to our earth why wouldst thou not enjoy the best entertainment that the earth could yeeld thee Yea since thou who art the eternall Son of God wouldst be the son of man why didst thou not appear in a state like to the King of heaven attended with the glorious retinue of blessed Angels O yet greater wonder of mercies The same infinite love that brought thee down to the form of man would also bring thee down being man to the form of a servant So didst thou love man that thou wouldst take part with him of his misery that he might take part with thee of thy blessednesse thou wouldst be poor to enrich us thou wouldst be burdened for our ease tempted for our victory despised for our glory With what lesse then ravishment of spirit can I behold thee who wert from everlasting cloathed with glory and majesty wrapped in rags thee who fillest heaven and earth with the majesty of thy glory cradled in a manger thee who art the God of power fleeing in thy mothers arms from the rage of a weak man thee who art the God of Israel driven to be nursed out of the bosome of thy Church thee who madest the heaven of heavens busily working in the homely trade of a foster-father thee who commandest the Devils to their chains transported and tempted by that foul spirit thee who art God all-sufficient exposed to hunger thirst wearines danger contēpt poverty revilings scourgings persecution thee who art the just Judge of all the world accused and condemned thee who art the Lord of life dying upon the tree of shame and curse thee who art the eternall Son of God strugling with thy Fathers wrath thee who hadst said I and my Father are one sweating drops of bloud in thine agony and crying out on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me thee who hast the keys of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carried thee what sighs and groans and tears and blood hast thou spent upon us wretched men How dear a price hast thou paid for our ransome What raptures of spirit can be sufficient for the admiration of thy so infinite mercy Be thou swallowed up O my soul in this depth of divine love and hate to spend thy thoughts any more upon the base objects of this wretched world when thou hast such a Saviour to take them up But O blessed Jesu if from what thou hast suffered for me I shall cast mine eyes upon what thou hast done for my soul how is my heart divided betwixt the wonders of both and may as soon tell how great either of them is as whether of them is the greater It is in thee that I was elected from all eternity and ordained to a glorious inheritance before there was a world we are wont O God to marvell at and blesse thy provident beneficence to the first man that before thou wouldst bring him forth into the world thou wert pleased to furnish such a world for him so goodly an house over his head so pleasant a Paradise under his feet such variety of creatures round about him for his subjection and attendance But how should I magnifie thy mercy who before
hast so loved us that thou wouldst become the Son of man for our sakes that vve vvho are the sons of men might become the sons of God Oh that vve could put off the man to put on Christ that we could neglect and hate our selves for thee that hast so dearly loved us as to lay aside thine heavenly glory for us How shall I bee vile enough O Saviour for thee who for my sake being the Lord of life and glory wouldst take upon thee the shape of a servant How should I welcome that poverty which thy choice hath sanctified How resolutely shall I grapple with the temptations of that enemy vvhom thou hast foiled for me How chearfully should I passe through those miseries and that death which thou hast sweetned With vvhat comfortable assurance shall I look upon the face of that mercifull Justice vvhich thou hast satisfied But oh vvhat a blessed inheritance hast thou in thine infinite love provided for me an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for me so as when my earthly house of this Tabernacle shall be dissolved I have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens An house Yea a Palace of heavenly state and magnificence neither is it lesse then a kingdome that abides there for mee a kingdome so much more above these worldly Monarchies as heaven is above this clod of earth Now Lord vvhat conceits vvhat affections of mine can be in the least sort answerable to so transcendent mercy If some friend shall have been pleased to bestow some mean Legacy upon me or shall have feoffed me in some few acres of his Land how deeply doe I finde my self obliged to the love and memory of so kinde a Benenefactor Oh then Lord how can my soul be capable of those thoughts and dispositions vvhich may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty vvho of a poor worm on earth hast made me an heir of the kingdome of heaven Wo is me how subject are these earthly Principalities to hazard and mutability whether through death or insurrectiō but this Crown w ch thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible and shall sit immoveably fast upon my head not for years not for millions of ages but for all eternity Oh let it be my heaven here below in the mean vvhile to live in a perpetuall fruition of thee and to begin those Allelujahs to thee here vvhich shall be as endlesse as thy mercy and my blessednesse Hadst thou been pleased to have translated me frō thy former Paradise the most delightfull seat of mans originall integrity and happinesse to the glory of the highest heaven the preferment had been infinitely gracious but to bring my soul from the nethermost hell and to place it among the Chore of Angels doubles the thank of thy mercy and the measure of my obligation How thankfull was thy Prophet but to an Ebedmelech that by a cord and rags let down into that dark dungeon helpt him out of that uncomfortable pit wherein he was lodged yet what was there but a little cold hunger stench closenesse obscurity Lord how should I blesse thee that hast fetcht my soul from that pit of eternall horrour from that lake of fire and brimstone from the everlasting torments of the damned wherein I had deserved to perish for ever I will sing of thy power unto thee O my strength will I sing for God is my deliverer and the God of my mercie But O Lord if yet thou shouldst leave me in my own hands where vvere I how easily should I be rob'd of thee with every temptation how should I be made the scorn and insultation of men and devils It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou hast given thine Angels charge over me Those Angels great in power and glorious in Majesty are my sure though invisible guard Oh blessed Jesu what an honour what a safety is this that those heavenly spirits which attend thy throne should be my champions Those that ministred to thee after thy temptation are readie to assist and relieve me in mine they can neither neglect their charge because they are perfectly holy nor fail of their victory because they are under thee the most powerfull I see you O ye blessed Guardians I see you by the eye of my faith no lesse truly then the eye of my sense sees my bodilie attendants I do truly though spirituallie feel your presence by your gracious operations in upon and for me and I doe heartilie blesse my God and yours for you and for those saving offices that through his mercifull appointment you ever doe for my soul. But as it was with thine Israelites of old that it would not content them that thou promisedst and wouldst send thine Angel before them to bring them into the Land flowing with milk and hony unlesse thy presence O Lord should also goe along with them so is it still with me and all thine wert not thou with and in us what could thine Angels doe for us In thee it is that they move and are The same infinite Spirit which works in and by them works also in me From thee it is O thou blessed and eternall Spirit that I have any stirrings of holy motions any breathings of good desires any life of grace any will to resist any power to overcome evill It is thou O God that girdest me with strength unto battell thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation thy right hand hath holden me up thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies Glory and praise be to thee O Lord which alwaies causest us to triumph in Christ vvho crownest us with loving kindnesse tender mercies and hast not held us short of the best of thy favours Truly Lord hadst thou given us but a meer beeing as thou hast done to the lowest rank of thy creatures it had been more then thou owest us more then ever we could be able to requite to thy divine bountie for every beeing is good and the least degree of good is farre above our worthinesse But that to our beeing thou hast added life it is yet an higher measure of thy mercy for certainly of thy common favours life is the most precious yet this is such a benefit as may be had and not perceived for even the plants of the earth live and feel it not that to our life therefore thou hast made a further accession of sense it is yet a larger improvement of thy beneficence for this facultie hath some power to manage life and makes it capable to affect those means which may tend to the preservation of it and to decline the contrary but this is no other then the brute creatures enjoy equallie with us and some of them beyond us that therefore to our sense thou hast blessed us vvith a further addition of reason it is yet an higher pitch of munificence for hereby we are men and as