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A45630 Horæ consecratæ, or, Spiritual pastime. concerning divine meditations upon the great mysteries of our faith and salvation : occasional meditations and gratulatory reflexions upon particular providences and deliverances, vouchsafed to the author and his family : also a scripture-catechisme dedicated to the service of his wife and children, and now published, together with other treatises mentioned in the following page for common use / by Sir James Harrington ... Harrington, James, Sir, 1607-1680.; Harrington, James, Sir, 1607-1680. Meditations upon the creation, man's fall, and redemption by Christ.; Harrington, James, Sir, 1607-1680. Noah's dove. 1682 (1682) Wing H803E_PARTIAL; Wing H815_PARTIAL; Wing H831_CANCELLED; ESTC R4540 368,029 493

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unhappy Man had not ambition and infidelity Eclipsed the apprehensive brightness of thy understanding thou mightest have made thy Ring-leaders fall a mirrour to view thine own in O blindness the more blame-worthy the less to be pittied 〈…〉 self didst both willingly wilfully and speedily occasion 〈…〉 thy gracious God imprisoned all thy sences within his 〈◊〉 command all Judgments would have condemned thy ungrateful disobedience how much more blameable art thou that mightest have viewed it toucht it and delighted thy self with the fragrancy of that pleasant Fruit eternally without offence and ye● still desirest more even to tast thy Death O bitter sweet sweet in thy deceitful expectation bitter in thy accursed fruition O behold now what knowledge thou hast obtained thou knowest now the good thou hadst and hast lost the evil thou didst want and now enjoyest Momentary was thy imaginary pleasure certain and eternal thy procured curse O the Childishness of Man's perfectest age which sold the little World himself the great World about himself for such a knowledge which made him know good not more but less by knowing evil All things that are good in themselves in their first enjoying gain from us most estimation but Man here blest with the fruition of all happiness which joyntly met in him as in its Centre undervalues it even in the first possession exchanging pleasure for pain knowledge for ignorance Paradice for Hell and Life for Death But what nee● is there of my weak descriptions in delineating the lamentable 〈◊〉 of Man's fall Since if every Christian would but deal faithfully with himself and retire into his own Soul viewing it in th● state of Unregeneration he might in that too lively Picture of d●●d Adam learn the chief point of wisdome to know himself I appeal to the witness of thy Conscience O Christian Reader whither thou findest not naturally the Supream faculties of thy Soul the Enemies of God and goodness the bond-slaves and willing Vassals of sin and Sathan the parts of thy Body the Members of wickedness and ready Instruments of ill Is not thy memory a magazine of evil unhospitable to goodness Thy imagination and intellect like the Northern Seas frozen with ignorance to whom the Sun of wisdome gives so dim a Light that thy highest knowledge is to know thou knowest nothing Is not wickedness the Centre of thy will towards which it moves with a natural swiftness all holy motions being contrary to its course Lastly do not generally the parts of the whole Man which did before by their concordance and harmonious obedience so sweetly express the due praise of the most glorious Creator now rebelliously jar with a hideous and cursed confusion But what need these questions I would to God every Mans unhappy experience did not affirm and ascertain this truth as there is none free from Death so none from sin the cause of Death we all alike come into this World all suck in corruption with their first breath no sooner have our Souls a Beeing but they are in a deep Consumption so that our life is but a continued dying a Prologue of Death according to that of Job 1.21 Naked came we into this World naked of goodness as well as Clothes and naked shall we return again except thou cloath us to Christ our beginnings our foundations are laid with untempered morter Can then our after-works be unlike the Original We must all say with David In ●in hath my Mother conceived me and I was shapen in iniquity 〈◊〉 the Root evil and can the Fruit be good Is the Fountain bit●er and can the streams be sweet Do Men gather Grapes of Thornes or Figges of Thistles Hath Adam fallen and was accursed and shall his Off-spring stand and be justified No assuredly There is none good no not one we are all wrapt up in the same condemnation O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us now having waded in the gulph of 〈◊〉 miseries from that depth behold the height of Gods mercy ●●y mercies O Lord are great and reach unto the Heavens and ●●y truth unto the Clouds Thou hast delivered my Soul from ●ell my Body from Death thy Mercies are above all thy Works ●onderful are they Who can express them This World is a Monarchy the great Emperor thereof is God no admits of no Equal nor Partners in his Government Kings ●rinces and all things else are either Subjects or Subject to ●●m nay more his Creatures For by Him were all things Created ●hich are in Heaven and which are in Earth things visible and invisible Crimes of the highest nature are only accounted Trea●ons in terrene States but the least breach of those general Sta●●tes enacted by the Earths great Law-giver is not only Capital 〈◊〉 infinitely punishable had Man offended either his Superiors 〈◊〉 Angels or his equals as Man it had been possible to have reconciled the one by submission the other by satisfaction but having tra●sgressed the Commandement of God no created and ●nite substance can repair his ruines for infinite is his Justice in●nite our sins and consequently infinite our punishment Thus wretched and miserable are we in our selves by reason of our ●all and thus destitute of redress from others by reason of the ●reatness of our fault and unrecoverableness of our loss and ●●stly O Lord do we deserve to be so since wittingly willingly and wilfully we made our selves so Of Man's Redemption by Christ. GOD is both infinitely just and infinitely merciful as his Mercy hinders not the Execution of his Justice so his Justice bounds not the extent of his Mercy Man is here infinitely indebted to God and utterly unable to pay God's Justice requires payment his Mercy places his Son as principal in the Bond who fully satisfies his Justice and repeales the Judgment pronounced against our Souls and Bodies O gracious Father in this thy Son our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy love is infinite like thy self boundless as thy Divinity and so ineffable that the Tongues of Men and Angels are not able to express it Mercy implor'd hath its first motion or inducement from the suppliant but thy mercy first beheld us when we had no power to view thee being blinded by Sathan thy goodness raised us when we were dead and buried in sin and thy free love only procured thee to move in compassion towards us who were moved through transgression contrary to thee unvaluable and extraordinary gifts are assured although silent expressions of a fixed and ardent affection But who O Lord is able to value thy gift to declare much less apprehend thy love Friendship is reciprocal for a friend can no sooner exhibit any reality of benevolence but as it were by reflection he is presently apprehensive of the like from the receiver though not in quantity as being perhaps less able yet in quality as being
Object of misery is mercy Diseases if known and felt 〈◊〉 often obtain remedies when insensible maladies make Men ●●glect the opportunity of recovery Man's worst Disease is sin ●●iginally rooted in us in Adam nourisht and made fruitful by our 〈◊〉 actual transgressions the feeling and knowledge of whi●●● ●●st first make us witnesses and publishers of our dangers and 〈◊〉 before God's mercy can be the prospect of our wretchedness 〈◊〉 goodness our healing Wherefore O my Soul let thy follow●●● Meditations triply divide themselves First behold what thou 〈◊〉 in thy fall with the fearful adjuncts thereof that a true hu●●●ation may make thee plyable to receive the happy impression 〈◊〉 God's Seal Secondly what thou art through the mercy of 〈◊〉 in Jesus Christ that thy heart being fraught with thankful●●ss may praise him both in word and action Thirdly what 〈◊〉 shalt be The consideration of which may make thee perse●●●● and press towards the mark only Desiring to be dissolved 〈◊〉 to be with Christ. The judgments best evidence to conclude the praise or dif●●ise of things is by contraries therefore the view of our crea●●d happiness will most aptly confirm and discover the infinite ●●supportableness of our loss which a particular demonstration will better illustrate than a general surview The principal parts in the composure of Man is a Soul and Body of which the Soul as first in degree so in our Discourse The Heathens esteem'd the derivation of their Pedigree from famous Ancestors their chiefest honour some even coveting to line out their Originals from the shameful Adulteries of their imaginary Gods but let us in looking back to our Souls Original glorifie our Creator one not 〈◊〉 not fictitious as theirs but the God of Gods the Lord of Lords Thus the Soul in its Creation hath its beginning from God For in him we live and move and have our Beeing Nay Paul further adds that we are his Off-spring What Creature can be capable of more Honour more Glory The Soul is God's off-spring not in respect of its substance but its qualities even so far forth as it was then adorned by him with Divine gifts and therefore called his Image in respect of the whole Man but especially of the Soul created of a spiritual and immortal Essence as St. Augustine divinely glosses consisting and endued with three supream faculties the Memory Imagination and Will that these yet but one Soul might symbolize the Trinity in Unity The Memory could not then be over-burthened but like a constant good Soyle naturally received all Seeds of goodness and returned them with a plentiful encrease The Phantasie and intellect was as apprehensive as the Memory trusty like a mirrour as it were b● reflection discovering to the Souls sight the highest of reveal●d mysteries being then a fit perspective to appropriate and distinguish all far distant and supream Contemplations The will w●● constant like the Sun in a course of goodness and as a shadow followed the substance of vertue bowing with Mordecai to 〈◊〉 but God Thus in respect of himself was Man the Image of 〈◊〉 Creator behold him so in his domination over the Creatures God saying Let them have dominion over the Fish of the Sea and 〈◊〉 the Foul of the Aire and over the Cattel and over all the Earth As if he should say He is my Likeness my Vicegetent you inferiour Creatures obey him but let him love fear and look only towards me O inestimable favour O unvaluable priviledge and yet behold not valued neglected of Man all Earthly object● quickly satiate the sight but who can sufficiently behold thee O Lord Thus have we glanced over the Compendium of the Souls Happiness a brief indeed For who can express it at large Rare objects are most attractive The Eye of my weak Meditations hath so long gazed on this now Eclipsed Sun that it hath almost forgot the Sphear wherein it is fixt the Body then a Chrystaline Lanthorn fit for such a Lamp now a Prison of a twilighted Soul Here needs not much illustration we may guess at Hercules Stature by his Foot but easily of his Foot by the rest of his Body God's works are all full of perfection the whole Creation had not one lame part In the Souls eminence view the Bodies excellence Man was Gods Image not the Soul only the Body was not God's Image in respect of its Forme since he is invisible incomprehens●ble and cannot be by us defined but as it is the inferiour part of Man and inseparable Companion of the rational Soul so it also enjoyed a right in the same Attributes and Priviledges the ●●ul then giving a Majesty to the Face and being made more ●●plendent by the fellowship and harmonious marriage with the ●●dy the Body being necessarily most obvious to be imployed 〈◊〉 all terrene and inferiour actions as the other in Heavenly Con●●mplations Thus with comfort have we gazed upon Man glo●●ous in his Creation as the Sun ascending from Earth 2 ly As 〈◊〉 object to move a religious gratefulness shining in his Meridian of Happiness Let us now in the third place with shame and con●●sion of Face and hearty humiliation of Soul behold him sitting 〈◊〉 darkness quenching his Light in the Ocean of sin and misery Which declining subject that we may more clearly perceive Let 〈◊〉 first consider the causes of our loss 2 ly The fall or act it self dly The fearful effects of so cursed a breach Almighty God ●●ving Created the great World and lastly Man as an Epitome 〈◊〉 the whole Plants a Garden therein placing him both to be a ●●esser and Surveyor of those rarities that with pleasure each ●●ce might view in their Nature the Wisdome in their Forme 〈◊〉 Power of his Creator The merciful Lord makes him and ●●●ves him a Free-holder in this Eden this Heaven upon Earth ●●ly reserves to himself this small Royalty the two Trees the one 〈◊〉 Life the other of good and evil in the midst of the Garden 〈◊〉 we may see it included in that first and general deed of gift ●elivered to Adam And the Lord God commanded the Man ●●ying Of every Tree of the Garden thou mayst freely eat But of ●he Tree of Knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it 〈◊〉 in the Day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye O ●●all command O easie Yoke O the free and infinite mercy of ●hee O Almighty Creator What hast thou made Man and 〈◊〉 the World for Man and yet for all this tyest him to no more ●●vitude than the obedience of one sence Thou shalt not eat O ●●retched Adam Why didst thou entertain such a cursed credulity believing rather thy Slave than thy Lord an inferiour Crea●ure before thy Creator the Father of Lies before the Truth it self Was thy free judgment thus soon captivated Lord leave not us weaklings to our selves but magnifie thy power in our imbecility Surely
though I had not received them Further as thine have many objects of holy joy within them so have they many also without them David preferred Jerusalem above his chiefest joy And the spiritual prosperity and welfare of the Church was St. Paul's hope joy glory and Crown of rejoycing But such O Lord is the natural depravation of my affections that instead of wishing well unto Sion I am ready did not thy grace restrain me to persecute thee with Paul in thy members and to cry with those wicked concerning thy Jerusalem Rase it rase even to the Foundation thereof rejoycing on the contrary part with those reproved by Job and the Apostle who make Gold their hope and whose God is their Belly hungring and thirsting after momentary honours like Balaam and Haman taking the Timbrel and the Harp and rejoycing at the sound of the Organ Lastly as within and without so also above themselves they have their objects of joy even thy glory What else made that royal Prophet so piously nimble and so chearfull and publick a dancer before thy Ark what caused the Songs of Moses Myriam and Deborah yea what occasioned those joyfull expressions of thy blessed Mother of Simeon Zachary and Anna together with those two transcendent and affectionate wishes of St. Paul and Moses I say what but the joyfull magnifying of thy glory in vouchsafeing thy presence in destroying thy enemies in fulfilling thy promises and in the Salvation and Conversion of thy People But in me Lord instead of this lightsomeness in seeking of thy glory there is naturally the sinfull popularity of Absolom yea the hypocritical zeal of Jehu the vain-glorious formality of Magus and the self-seeking pride of Herod So that considering these wants and disorders in my affections no wonder if I distrust my self and cry out to thee with the Publican Lord have mercy upon me a sinner Poor Soul let not these fears and doubts discourage thee they make thy state the better not the worse Ignorance of want is the more dangerous when stomachless and silent as being thereby disabled both to ask and to receive relief Thy many complaints of defects are the true effects of those graces thou desirest Neither canst thou mourn because of no affection without some affection But to answer all thy objections weart thou emptiness it self am not I he that made Heaven and Earth of nothing Do I fill all things with my Essence and cannot I fill thee with my grace Can I be love it self for God is love and not be both willing and able to impart some rayes thereof to thee my Creature The fruits of my Spirit is love and joy which Spirit I give unto all that are mine What though the Chaos of thy corrupted nature yields no such fruits The Paradise of God in which thou art replanted doth as being watered with those Rivers of love which flow from me the Fountain Thou therefore loving me because I loved thee first as I am the only cause of thy love for I loved thee freely so I am the continuer For thou shalt abide in my love yea I will continue to love thee for whom I love I love unto the end Wherefore fear thou not the Eclipses thereof Natural Men do not more certainly expect the one than all my Saints the other As their Sun is not extinct no more is thine I thus ordaining it that in my absence thou mightest have a longing for my presence and in my presence mightest lovingly fear my absence these intermissions preceding the increase not the dimunishment of affection And since thou canst cry with David Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation doubt not but thou shalt also confess with him that my anger endureth but a moment weeping may endure for a Night but joy cometh in the Morning Again whereas thou objectest and bewailest the want of the true spiritual mirth Be not discouraged for this thy humble craving argues that thou art free from pride and self-conceitedness which usually so swells the hearts of natural Men that no place is left for grace Further it assures thee of a present possession for thou could'st never have heartily longed for that which thou never tasted nor have hated this false joy hadst not thou had some experience of the true Lastly thou hast an interest in my promise for I fill the hungry with good things As I am always filling so my servants are always hungry A good Archer is not by thee condemned for sometimes missing his Mark neither will I reject thee for some miscarriage since thy affections are bent towards me and thy constant aime is my glory To conclude Longest thou for the joys of Habakkuk David and the rest of my Saints continually petition me to be indued with the same Holy Spirit which my Father will give to them that aske him and to support thee in thy Prayers Remember and rely upon these my promises Aske and yee shall receive that your joy may be full For I am sent to comfort all that mourn to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with Songs and everlasting joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flie away Lord Kiss me with the kisses of thy Mouth for thy love is better than Wine But O diseased Creature that I am what shall I do or what will become of me The uncovering of one malady discovers more and my infirmities like the Oyl in the Widdows Cruse multiplies upon me So that in me is verified the complaint of thy Prophet The whole Head is sick and the whole Heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds bruses and putrified sores I had no sooner bewailed my want of love but my misgoverned hatred torments me No sooner I accused my self for worldly and exorbitant mirth but carnal sorrow and servile fear overwhelms me Whereas those that love thee hate evil yea every false way with the workers thereof and that with a perfect hatred My cursed nature with the fool hates knowledge Yea and him that rebukes being like to those wicked Israelites the Prophet Micah speaks of That hate the good and love the evil Whereas I should be humbled and penitently chatter thus with David I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my sin And also be so much affected for thy glory as to cry out yea to die with Phineas his Wife because the Ark of God was taken Or be able to say that Rivers of Waters have run down my Eyes because Men keep not thy Laws My carnal and sinful disposition is ready to make me mourn and hang down the head with Haman
and a learned Man was declared an Heretick for holding there was an Antipodes or a new World before its discovery so may possibly these my weak notions and contemplations although of a Divine subject because not heretofore searcht into by others that I know of and therefore if the Lord in his providence shall order them to come to a publick view I only recommend them to the devout perusal and judgment of holy humble regenerate and practical Christians who although in the Body do by divine Meditation as it were live out of the Body and have been so far changed into the Image of Christ and taught and renewed by his holy Spirit that they have brought their Bodies and Senses unto such a spiritual frame and exercise as is declared and exhorted to in the foregoing discourse These will rightly judge of this personal Raign of Christ with his Saints upon Earth and how uncharitably and unjustly and I may add ignorantly many in other respects learned religious and to be honoured have ignominiously and falsely branded this Doctrine as though it was New Epicureal and Sensual whereas the truth is it is a most antient and Primative Doctrine and nothing else but the declaration and affirmation of that glorious condition of Christ and his Saints that he himself the Holy Scriptures and Prophets indited and inspired by his Holy Spirit have throughout witnessed to and promised as by the Scriptures quoted in the Margin besides many others is sufficiently proved That he the second Adam should come to renew and restore all things in this lower Creation freed from the curse of sin to as good yea a far better condition than they had before the Fall When God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Now did not God make this so excellent a work for his Glory and for his Creature Man to enjoy and to serve praise and glorify him in the fruition thereof and in the admiration of him in this its excellency and goodness But did any of Man-kinde but only two Adam and Eve enjoy the Earth and the Creatures thereof in their Primitive and created excellencies and that but for a Day or two How then shall God have his end the Glory of his Power wisdome and goodness and Man the enjoyment of all his liberality and bounty and be Trumpets and witnesses of his excellencies in the Creatures How shall Gods promise be fulfilled Of making a new Heaven and a new Earth and restoring all things by his Son the Heir of all things If Man I mean all the Elect in his Soul Body and Senses shall not be renewed and live personally with Christ at this Renovation of all things for a thousand years according to the Scriptures to enjoy what God hath made and Christ hath purchased for them and to admire adore and glorify him in the Primitive end use and enjoyment of them These then that deny this and in a fervent I forbear to say ignorant hast because every Age hath its measure of light would seat the raised Saints in the highest Heavens before their time and before Gods promises and great designs be fulfilled what do they else in the declining of this great truth but force themselves upon false and Allegorical expositions of cleer and literal Scriptures making ineffectual his promise yea do they not affirm contrary to that undeniable maxime that God made these Heavens and this Earth and all the wonderfull Creatures and admirable Ornaments thereof in vain as not known nor made use of by them for whom at first he created it and again renewed it I might here add many more Arguments for the defence of this truth but I shall at this time no further digress but return to my former Method of Meditation upon this glorified Sense of Feeling Referring the Reader to those most excellent Treatises of Dr. Homes Mr. Archer and many others upon this Subject O my Soul shall this Sense be not only continued but exercised upon such excellent subjects in Glory shall it with thy Body be spiritualiz'd and as to its sensability incomparably exceed what it is now O be carefull not to effeminate or pollute it disdaining to vassalage it to pride covetousness lust or vanity But as it more than all the other Senses declares and manifests thy living in the body So let it by an innocent sober chast and holy acting testify Christs living in thee The Lord Jesus hath taken off all legal impositions such as Touch not taste not but not his Gospel and Spiritual restraining Therefore abuse not nor make use of this Christian liberty which he hath purchased for thee to fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh For if thou livest after the Flesh thou shalt dye but if through the Spirit thou mortifiest the deeds of the Flesh thou shalt live Take heed of covetousness which hath not only its seat in the Eye but in the Hand desire not with Mydas in the Poet that every thing thou touchest may become Gold but remember the issue and moral of the Fable his starving and perishing in his enjoyments Neither imbrace thou the bosome of a strange Woman for he that toucheth her shall not be innocent for her ways draw neer to death and her steps take hold of Hell she being compared by the spirit of God to a deep Ditch and to a narrow Pit out of which very few get out and are delivered For although as in the Poet Ixion-like in the height of thy lustfull pleasure thou thinkest to infold in thy Armes a Juno a Goddess The conclusion will be but the grasping of an Airy Cloud nay which is far worse a Pestilential vapour an inflam'd and killing Granado O my Soul since whilst thou art in this vain World and in this sinfull body thou art incompast about with Legions of evil spirits with innumerable snares and with secret and subtile temptations which with those in the Prophet call good evil and evil good which put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter which call light darkness and darkness light abusing lawfull things and turning them out of their right Channel by excess that so they may overflow and drown the Earth again with a far more dangerous Flood than that of Water which destroyed only a temporal Life even a deluge of sin and of flaming Fire long since foretold the cause of that Fire and without true repentance of Eternal Death watch thou therefore and pray lest thou fall into temptation and this sence be adulterated by thy pride excess and luxury and made instrumental to cause those good Creatures the soft Silks of Persia the warm Furs of Muscovia the fine Wools of Britan and Segovia given thee by God to cover thy sinfull nakedness to become a covering of sin and a Banner of pride and vanity Take heed also that this sense be not bewitched and overcome through voluptuousness and corrupt thee by an