the least of them but a world of light and what are all of them but a confluence of so many thousand worlds of beauty and brightnesse met in one firmament And if this floor of thine heavenly Palace be thus richly set forth oh how infinite glory and magnificence must there needs be within Thy chosen Vessell that had the priviledge to be caught up thither and to see that divine state whether with bodily or mentall eyes can expresse it no otherwise then that it cannot possibly be expressed No Lord it were not infinite if it could be uttered Thoughts go beyond words yet even these come far short also He that saw it sayes Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him SECT 7. His love in our redemption from death and hell YEt is thy love O Saviour so much more to be magnified of me in this purchased glory when I cast down mine eyes and look into that horrible gulf of torment and eternall death whence thou hast rescued my poor soul Even out of the greatest contentment which this world is capable to afford unto mankinde to be preferred to the joyes of heaven is an unconceivable advantage but from the depth of misery to be raised up unto the highest pitch of felicity addes so much more to the blessing as the evill from which we are delivered is more intolerable Oh blessed Jesu what an hell is this out of which thou hast freed me what dreadfull horror is here what darknesse what confusion what anguish of souls that would and cannot die what howling and yelling and shrieking and gnashing what everlasting burnings what never slaking tortures what mercilesse fury of unweariable tormentors what utter despair of any possibility of release what exquisitenesse what infinitenesse of pains that cannot yet must be endured Oh God if the impotent displeasure of weak men have devised so subtle engins of revenge upon their fellow-mortals for but petty offences how can we but think thine infinite justice and wisdome must have ordained such forms and wayes of punishment for hainous sins done against thee as may be answerable to the violation of thy divine Majesty Oh therefore the most fearfull and deplored condition of damned spirits never to be ended never to be abated Oh those unquenchable flames Oh that burning Tophet deep and large and those streams of brimstone wherewith it is kindled Oh that worm ever gnawing and tearing the heart never dying never sated Oh ever-living death oh ever renuing torments oh never pitied never intermitted damnation From hence O Saviour from hence it is that thou hast fetcht up my condemned soul This is the place this is the state out of which thou hast snatcht me up into thy heaven Oh love and mercy more deep then those depths from which thou hast saved me more high then that heaven to which thou hast advanced me SECT 8. Christs love in giving us the guard of his Angels NOw whereas in my passage from this state of death towards the fruition of immortall glory I am way-laid by a world of dangers partly through my own sinfull aptnesse to miscarriages and partly through the assaults of my spirituall enemies how hath thy tender love and compassion O blessed Jesu undertaken to secure my soul from all these deadly perils both without out and within without by the guardance of thy blessed Angels within by the powerfull inoperation of thy good Spirit which thou hast given me Oh that mine eyes could be opened with Elishaes servant that I might see those troops of heavenly souldiers those horses and chariots of fire wherewith thou hast encompassed me every one of which is able to chase away a whole host of the powers of darknesse Who am I Lord who am I that upon thy gracious appointment these glorious spirits should still watch over me in mine uprising and down lying in my going out and coming in that they should bear me in their arms that they should shield me with their protection Behold such is their majesty and glory that some of thy holiest servants have hardly been restrained from worshipping them yet so great is thy love to man as that thou hast ordained them to be ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Surely they are in nature far more excellent then man as being spirituall substances pure intelligences meet to stand before the throne of thee the King of glory What a mercy then is this that thou who wouldst humble thy self to be lower then they in the susception of our nature art pleased to humble them in their offices to the guardianship of man so far as to call them the Angels of thy little ones upon earth How hast thou blessed us and how should we blesse thee in so mighty and glorious attendants SECT 9. His love in giving us his holy Spirit NEither hast thou O God meerly turn'd us over to the protection of those tutelary spirits but hast held us still in thine own hand having not so strongly defenced us without as thou hast done within Since that is wrought by thine Angels this by thy Spirit Oh the Soveraign and powerfull influences of thy holy Ghost whereby we are furnished with all saving graces strengthned against all temptations heartned against all our doubts and fears enabled both to resist and overcome and upon our victories crowned Oh divine bounty far beyond the reach of wonder So God the Father loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life So God the Son loved the world of his elect that he gave unto them the holy Spirit of promise whereby they are sealed unto the day of redemption whereby according to the riches of his glory they are strengthened with might in the inner man by the vertue whereof shed abroad in their hearts they are enabled to cry Abba Father Oh gifts either of which are more worth then many worlds yet through thy goodnesse O Lord both of them mine how rich is my soul through thy divine munificence how over-laid with mercies How safe in thine Almighty tuition How happy in thy blessed possession Now therefore I dare in the might of my God bid defiance to all the gates of hell Do your worst O all ye principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in high places doe your worst God is mine and I am his I am above your malice in the right of him whose I am It is true I am weak but he is omnipotent I am sinfull but he is infinite holinesse that power that holinesse in his gracious application is mine It is my Saviours love that â—ath made this happy exchange of his righteousnesse for my sin of his power for my infirmity Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect
our spirituall life Christ is the utmost and most perfect end of all our living without the intuition whereof we would not live or if we should our naturall life were no other then a spirituall death Oh Saviour let me not live longer then I shall be enlived by thee or then thou shalt be glorified by me And what rule should I follow in all the carriage of my life but thine thy precepts thine examples that so I may live thee as well as preach thee and in both may finde thee as thou hast truly laid forth thy self the way the truth and the life Joh. 14. 6. the way wherein I shall walk the truth which I shall beleeve and professe and the life which I shall enjoy In all my morall actions therefore teach me to square my self by thee what ever I am about to doe or speak or affect let me think If my Saviour were now upon earth would he do this that I am now putting my hand unto would he speak these words that I am now uttering would he be thus disposed as I now feel my self Let me not yeeld my self to any thought word or action which my Saviour would be ashamed to own Let him be pleased so to manage his own life in me that all the interesse he hath given me in my self may be wholly surrendred to him that I may be as it were dead in my self whiles he lives and moves in me SECT 13. The improvement of this life in that Christ is made our wisdome BY vertue of this blessed union as Christ is become our life so that which is the highest improvement not only of the raâ—ionall but the supernaturall and spirituall life is thereby also made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. Not that he only works these great things in and for us this were too cold a construction of the divine bounty but that he really become all these to us who are true partakers of him Even of the wisest men that ever nature could boast of is verified that character which-the divine Apostle gave of them long agoe Rom. 1. 21 22. Their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools and still the best of us if we be but our selves may take up that complaint of Asaph Psal 73. 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and of Agur the son of Jake Prov. 30. 2 3. Surely I am more brutish then man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy and if any man will be challenging more to himself he must at last take up with Solomon Eccl. 7. 23. I said I will be wise but it was far from me But how defective soever we are in our selves there is wisdome enough in our head Christ to supply all our wants He that is the wisdome of the Father is by the Father made our wisdome In him are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge saith the Apostle Col. 2. 3. So hid that they are both revealed and communicated to his own For God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. In and by him hath it pleased the Father to impart himselfe unto us He is the image of the invisible God Col. 1. 15. even the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person Heb. 1. 3. It was a just check that he gave to Philip in the Gospell Joh. 14 9. Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip he that hath seen me hath seen the Father And this point of wisdome is so high and excellent that all humane skill and all the so much admired depths of Philosophy are but meer ignorance and foolishnesse in comparison of it Alas what can these profound wits reach unto but the very outside of these visible and transitory things as for the inward forms of the meanest creatures they are so altogether hid from them as if they had no beeing and as for spirituall and divine things the most knowing Naturalists are either stone-blinde that they cannot see them or grope after them in an Egyptian darknesse For the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. How much lesse can they know the God of Spirits who besides his invisibility is infinite and incomprehensible only he who is made our wisdome enlightneth our eyes with this divine knowledge No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him Mat. 11. 27. Neither is Christ made our wisdome only in respect of heavenly wisdome imparted to us but in respect of his perfect wisdome imputed unto us Alas our ignorances and sinfull misprisions are many and great where should we appear if our faith did not fetch succour from our all-wise and all-sufficient Mediator Oh Saviour we are wise in thee our head how weak soever we are of our selves Thine infinite wisdome and goodnesse both covers and makes up all our defects The wife cannot be poor whiles the husband is rich thou hast vouchsafed to give us a right to thy store we have no reason to be disheartned with our owne spirituall wants whiles thou art made our wisdome SECT 14. Christ made our righteousnesse IT is not meer wisdome that can make us acceptable to God if the serpents were not in their kinde wiser then we we should not have been advised to be wise as serpents That God who is essentiall Justice as well as Wisdome requires all his to be not more wise then exquisitely righteous Such in themselves they cannot be For in many things we sin all such therefore they are and must be in Christ their head who is made unto us of God together with Wisdome Righteousnesse Oh incomprehensible mercy He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. what a marvellous and happy exchange is here we are nothing but sin Christ is perfect righteousnesse He is made our sin that we might be made his righteousnesse He that knew no sin is made sin for us that we who are all sin might be made Gods righteousnesse in him In our selves we are not only sinfull but sin In him we are not righteous only but righteousnesse it self Of our selves we are not righteous we are made so In our selves we are not righteous but in him we made not our selves so but the same God in his infinite mercy who made him sin for us hath made us his righteousnesse No otherwise are we made his righteousnesse then he is made our sin Our sin is made his by Gods imputation so
of those thoughts and dispositions which may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty who 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 insurrection but this Crown which thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible and shall sit immovably 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 while to live in a perpetuall fruition of thee and to begin those Alelujahs to thee here which shall be as endlesse as thy mercy and my blessednesse SECT 1. 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 HAdst thou been pleased to have translated me from 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 nether most 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 were 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 O 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 ready 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 bodily attendants I do truly though spiritually feel your presence by you gratious operations in upon and for me and I do heartily blesse my God and yours for you and for those saving offices that through his mercifull appointment you ever do for my soul But as it was with thine Israelies of old that it would not content them that thou promisedst and wouldst send thine Angell before them to bring them into the Land flowing with milk and honey unlesse thy presence O Lord should also go along with them so is it still with me and all thine wert not thou with and in us what could thine Angels do 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 who crownest us with loving kindnesse and 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 bounty for every beeing is good and the least degree of good is farre above our worthiness 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 faculty 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 equally with us and some of them beyond us that therefore to our sense thou hast blessed us with a further addition of reason it is yet an higher pitch of munificence for hereby we are men and as such are able to attain some knowledge of thee our Creator to observe the motions of the heavens to search into the natures of our fellow-creatures to passe judgement upon actions and events and to transact these earthly affairs to our own best advantage But when all this is done wo were to us if we were but men for our corrupted reason renders us of all creatures the most miserable that therefore to our reason thou hast superadded faith to our nature grace and of men hast made us Christians and to us as such hast given thy Christ thy Spirit and thereby made us of enemies sons and heirs co-heirs with Christ of thine eternall and most glorious kingdome of heaven yea hast incorporated us into thy self and made us one spirit with thee our God Lord what room can there be possibly in these strait and narrow hearts of ours for a due admiration of thy transcendent love and mercy I am swallowed up O God I am willingly swallowed up in this bottomelesse abysse of thine infinite love and there let me dwell in a perpetuall ravishment of spirit till being freed from this clog of earth and filled with the fulness of Christ I shall be admitted to enjoy that which I cannot now reach to wonder at thine incomprehensible blisse and glory which thou laid up in the highest heavens for them that love thee in the blessed communion of all thy Saints and Angels thy Cherubim and Seraphim Thrones Dominions and Principalities and Powers in the beatificall presence of thee the ever-living God the eternall Father of Spirits Father Son holy Ghost one infinite Deity in three co-essentially co-eternally co-equally glorious persons To whom
Vera Effigies Reverendi Do ni Iosephi Hall Norwici nuper Episcopi HOLY RAPTURES OR PATHETICALL MEDITATIONS OF THE LOVE of CHRIST TOGETHER With a TREATISE OF CHRIST MYSTICALL OR The blessed UNION of CHRIST And his MEMBERS ALSO The CHRISTIAN laid forth in his whole Disposition Carriage By Jos. HALL D. D. B. N. London Printed by E. C. for John Sweeting at the Angel in Popeshead-alley 1652. TO The onely 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 Jos Hall their unworthiest Servant humbly dedicates this fruit of his old age 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 characterized in his whole disposition and carriage and relishing in them much profitable sweetnesse and heavenly raptures of spirituall devotion I do license them to be Printed and published JOHN DOVVNAME The CONTENTS of the first PART § 1. HOw to be happy in the apprehending of Christ § 2. The honour and happinesse of being united to Christ § 3. The kind 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 and the body § 7. The resemblance of this union by the branch and the stâ—ck the foundation 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 â— 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 〈◊〉 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 oâ— affection § 22. A complaint of Divisions and notwithstanding them an assertion of unity § 23. The necessary effects and fruits of thâ— union of Christian hearts § 24. The union of the Saints on earth wiâ—â— those in heaven § 25. A recapitulation and sum of the whâ—â—â— Treatise CHRIST MYSTICALL OR The blessed UNION of CHRIST and his Members SECT 1. How to be happy in the apprehending of Christ 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 Oye great wits whiles you spend your selves in curious questions and learned extravagancies ye shal finde 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 bosoms If you know all things and cannot truly say I know whom I have beleeved 2 Tim. 1. 12. you have but knowledge enough to know youâ— selves truly miserable Wouldst thoâ— therefore my son finde true and solâ—d comfort in the hour of temptation in the agony of death make sure work for thy soul in the daies 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 do 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 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Joh. 2. 1. It is his charge and our duty Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me Joh. 14. 1. Yet look not meerly to the Lord Jesus as considered in the notion of his own eternall being 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 mankinde what comfort were it to thee that all the world except thy self 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 through his wonderfull mercy inseparably united Thus look upon him firmly and fixedly so as he may never be out of thine eies 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 them from thee in whatsoever condition SECT 2. The honour and happinesse of being united in Christ ANd whiles thou art thus taken up see if thou canst without wonder and a kinde of ecstaticaâ—l amazement behold the infinite goodnesse 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 Job 17. 14. canst now through the priviledge of thy faith bear the Son of God say unto thee Thou art bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Gen. 2. 23. Eph. 5. 30. 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 we 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
the Spouse of this heavenly Bridegroom whom he marrieth unto himself for ever in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies Esai 62. 5. Hos 2. 9. and this match thus made up fulfils that decretive word of the Almighty They twain shall be one flesh Eph. 5. 31. Gen. 2. 24. O happy conjunction of the second Adam with her which was taken out of his most precious side Oh heavenly and compleat marriage wherein God the Father brings and gives the Bride Gen. 2. 22. All that the Father giveth me shal come to me saith Christ Joh. 6. 37. wherein God the Son receives the Bride as mutually partaking of the same nature and can say This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh Joh. 1. 14. Gen. 2. 23. wherein God the holy Ghost knits our wils in a full and glad consent to the full consummation of this blessed wedlock And those whom God hath thus joyned together let no man no Devill can put asunder What is there then which an affectionate husband can withhold from a dear wife He that hath given himself to her what can he deny to impart He that hath made himself one with her how can he be divided from his other-self Some wilde fancies there are that have framed the links of marriage of so brittle stuffe as that they may be knapt in sunder upon every sleight occasion but he that ordained it in Paradise for an earthly representation of this heavenly union betwixt Christ and his Church hath made that and his own indissoluble Here is no contract in the future which upon some intervenient accidents may be remitted but I am my welbeloveds and my welbeloved is mine Cant. 6. 3. Cant. 2. 16. And therefore each is so others that neither of them is their own Oh the comfortable mystery of our uniting to the Son of God! The wife hath not the power of her own body but the husband 1 Cor. 7. 4. We are at thy disposing O Saviour we are not our own Neither art thou so absolutely thine as that we may not through thine infinite mercy claim an interesse in thee Thou hast given us such a right in thy self as that we are bold to lay challenge to all that is thine to thy love to thy merits to thy blessings to thy glory It was wont of old to be the plea of the Roman wives to their husbands Where thou art Caius I am Caia and now in our present marriages we have not stuck to say With all my worldly goods I thee endow And if it be thus in our imperfect conjunctions here upon earth how much more in that exquisite onenesse which is betwixt thee O blessed Saviour and thy dearest Spouse the Church What is it then that can hinder us from a sweet and heavenly fruition of thee Is it the loathsome condition of our nature Thou sawst this before and yet couldst say when when we were yet in our bloud Live Ezek. 16. 6. Had we not been so vile thy mercy had not been so glorious thy free grace did all for us Thou washedst us with water and anointedst us with oyle and cloathedst us with broidered work and girdedst us about with fine linnen and coveredst us with silk and deckedst us with ornaments and didst put bracelets upon our hands and a chain on our neck and jewels on our fore-heads and ear-rings on our ears a beautifull crown on our own heads Ezek. 16. 9 10 11 12. What we had not thou gavest what thou didst not find thou madest that we might be a not-unmeet match for the Lord of life Is it want of beauty Behold I am black but comely Cant. 1. 5. what ever our hiew be in our own or others eyes it is enough that we are lovely in thine Cant. 1. 16. Behold thou art fair my beloved behold thou art fair yea pleasant Cant. 1. 16. Thou art beautifull O my love as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem How fair and how pleasant art thou O Love for delights Cant. 6 3. 7. 6. But oh Saviour if thou take contentment in this poor unperfect beauty of thy Spouse the Church how infinite pleasure should thy Spouse take in that absolute perfection that is in thee who art all loveliness and glory And if she have ravished thy heart with one of her eyes Cant. 5. 16. 4. 9. how much more reason hath her heart to be wholly ravished with both thine which are so full of grace and amiablenesse and in this mutuall fruition what can there be other then perfect blessedness SECT 6. The resemblance of this union by the nourishment and the body THe Spirit of God well knowing how much it imports us both to know and feel this blessed union whereof himself is the only worker labours to set it forth to us by the representations of many of our familiar concernments which we daily finde in our meats and drinks in our houses in our gardens and orchards That which is nearest to us is our nourishment what can be more evident then that the bread the meat the drink that we receive is incorporated into us and becomes part of the substance whereof we consist so as after perfect digestion there can be no distinction betwixt what we are and what we took Whiles that bread was in the bing and that meat in the shambles and that drink in the vessell it had no relatian to us nor we to it yea whiles all these were on the Table yea in our mouthes yea newly let down into our stomachs they are not fully ours for upon some nauseating dislike of nature they may yet go the same way they came but if the concoction be once fully finished now they are so turned into our bloud and flesh that they can be no more distinguished from our former substance then that could be divided from it self now they are dispersed into the veins and concorporated to the flesh and no part of our flesh and bloud is more ours then that which was lately the bloud of the grapes and the flesh of this fowl or that beast Oh Saviour thou who art truth it self hast said Joh. 6. 51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven v. 55. My flesh is meat indeed and my bloud is drink indeed and thereupon hast most justly inferred v. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him and as a necessary consequent of this spirituall manducation v. 54. whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternal life Lo thou art bread indeed not the cōmon bread but Manna not the Israelitish Manna alas that fell from no higher then the region of clouds and they that are it died with it in their mouthes but thou art the living bread that came down from the heaven of heavens of whom whosoever eats lives for ever Thy flesh is meat not for our stomachs but for our souls our faith receives and digests thee and
Were we left to our selves or could we be so much as in conceit sundred from the body whereof we are alas we are but as other men subject to the same sinfull infirmities to the same dangerous and deadly miscarriages but since it hath pleased the God of heaven to unite us to himself now it concerns him to maintain the honour of his own body by preserving us entire Can they acknowledge the faithfull soul marryed in truth and righteousnesse to that celestiall husband and made up into one flesh withthe Lord of glory and can they think of any Bils of divorce written in heaven can they suppose that which by way of type was done in the earthly Paradise to be really undone in the heavenly What an infinite power hath put together can they imagine that a limited power can disjoyn Can they think sin can be of more prevalence then mercy Can they think the unchangeable God subject to after thoughts Even the Jewish repudiations never found favour in heaven They were permitted as a lesser evill to avoid a greater never allowed as good neither had so much as that toleration ever been if the hard-heartednesse and cruelty of that people had not enforced it upon Moses in a prevention of further mischief what place can this finde with a God in whom there is an infinite tendernesse of love and mercy No time can be any check to his gracious choice the inconstant minds of us men may alter upon sleight dislikes our God is ever himself Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. with him there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Jam. 1. 17. Divorces were ever grounded upon hatred Mal. 2. 16. No man saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 29. ever yet hated his own flesh much lesse shal God do so who is love it self 1 Joh. 3. 16. His love and our union is like himself everlasting Having loved his own saith the Disciple of Love Joh. 13. 1. which were in the world he loved them to the end He that hates putting away Mal. 2. 16. can never act it so as in this relation we are indissoluble Can they have received that bread which came down from heaven and flesh which is meat indeed and that bloud which is drink indeed can their souls have digested it by a lively faith and converted themselves into it and it into themselves and can they now think it can be severed from their own substance Can they finde themselves truly ingraffed in the tree of life and grown into one body with that heavenly plant and as a living branch of that tree bearing pleasant and wholesome fruit acceptable to God Rev. 22. 2. and beneficiall to men and can they look upon themselves as some withered bough fit only for the fire Can they finde themselves living stones surely laid upon the foundation Jesus Christ to the making up of an heavenly Temple for the eternall inhabitation of God and can they think they can be shaken out with every storm of Temptation Have these men ever taken into their serious thoughts that divine prayer and meditation which our blessed Redeemer now at the point of his death left for an happy farewell to his Church in every word whereof there is an heaven of comfort Joh. 17. 20 21 22. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve in me through their word That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one with us And the glory that thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me Oh heavenly consolation oh indefeasible assurance what room can there be now here for onr diffidence Can the Son of God pray and not be heard For himself he needs not pray as being eternally one with the Father God blessed for ever he prayes for his and his prayer is That they may be one with the Father and him even as they are one They cannot therefore but be partakers of this blessed union and being partakers of it they cannot be dissevered And to make sure work that glory which the Father gave to the Son of his Love they are already through his gracious participation prepossessed of here they have begun to enter upon that heaven from which none of the powers of hell can possibly eject them Oh the unspeakably happy condition of beleevers Oh that all the Saints of God in a comfortable sense of their inchoate blessednesse could sing for joy and here beforehand begin to take up those Hallelujahs which they shall ere long continue and never end in the Chore of the highest Heaven SECT 9. The priviledges and benefits of this union The first of them Life HAving now taken a view of this blessed union in the nature and resemblances of it it will be time to bend thine eyes upon those most advantageous consequents and high priviledges which do necessarily follow upon and attend this heavenly conjunction Whereof the first is that which we are wont to account sweetest Life Not this naturall life which is maintained by the breath of our nostrils Alas what is that but a bubble a vapour a shadow a dream nothing as it is the gift of a good God worthy to be esteemed precious but as it is considered in its own transitorynesse and appendent miseries and in comparison of a better life not worthy to take up our hearts This life of nature is that which ariseth from the union of the body with the soul many times enjoyed upon hard termes the spirituall life which we now speak of arising from the union betwixt God and the soul is that wherein there can be nothing but perfect contentment and joy unspeakable and full of glory Yea this is that life which Christ not only gives but is he that gave himself for us gives himself to us and is that life that he gives us When Christ which is our life shall appear saith the Apostle Col. 3. 4. And Christ is to me to live Phil. 2. 21. and most emphatically Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Lo it is a common favour that in him we live but it is an especiall favour to his own that he lives in us Know you your own selves saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 5. how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates and wheresoever he is there he lives we have not a dead Saviour but a living and where he lives he animates It is not therefore Saint Pauls case alone it is every beleevers who may truly say I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me now how these lives and the authors of them are distinguished is worth thy carefullest consideration Know then my son that every faithfull mans bosome is a Rebeceaes womb Gen 25. 22. wherein there are twins a rough Esau
and prevalent Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven saith our Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount Mat. 5. 16. and his great Apostle seconds his charge to his Philippians Phil. 2. 15 16. That ye may be blamelesse and harmlesse the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life Lo the world sits in darknesse and either stirs not or moves with danger good example is a light to their feet which directs them to walk in the wayes of God without erring without stumbling so as the good mans actions are so many copies for novices to take out no lesse instructive then the wisest mens precepts By admonition the sinner is in danger of drowning Seasonable admonition is an hand reacht out that layes hold on him now sinking and drawes him up to the shore The sinner is already in the fire seasonable admonition snatches him out from the everlasting burnings Jude v. 23. The charitable Christian may not forbear this oft times thanklesse but alwayes necessary and profitable duty Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Lev. 19. 17. By exhortation The fire of Gods Spirit within us is subject to many damps and dangers of quenching seasonable exhortation blowes it up and quickens those sparks of good motions to a perfect flame Even the best of us lies open to a certain deadnesse and obdurednesse of heart seasonable exhortation shakes off this perill and keeps the heart in an holy tendernesse and whether awfull or chearfull disposition Exhort one another daily whiles it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sin Heb. 3. 13. By consolation We are all naturally subject to droop under the pressure of afflictions seasonable comforts lift and stay us up It is a sad complaint that the Church makes in the Lamentations Lament 1. 21. They have heard that I sigh there is none to comfort me and David Psal 69. 20. sets the same mournfull ditty upon his Shoshannim Reproach hath broken my heart and I am full of heavinesse and I looked for some to take pity and there was none and for comforters but I found none Wherefore hath God given to men the tongue of the learned but that they might know to speak a word in season to him that is weary Esa 50. 3. That they may strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees and say to them that are of a fearfull heart Be strong fear not Esa 35. 3. The charge that our Saviour gives to Peter Luk. 22. 32. holds universally Thou when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren By prayer so as each member of Christs Church sues for all neither can any one be shut out from partaking the benefit of the devotions of all Gods Saints upon earth There is a certain spirituall traffique of piety betwixt all Gods children wherein they exchange prayers with each other not regarding number so much as weight Am I weak in spirit and faint in my supplications I have no lesse share in the most fervent prayers of the holiest suppliants then in my own All the vigour that is in the most ardent hearts supplies my defects whiles there is life in their faithfull devotions I cannot go away unblessed Lastly where there is a communion of inward graces and spirituall services there must needs be much more be a communication of outward and temporall good things as just occasion requireth Away with those dotages of Platonicall or Anabaptisticall communities Let proprieties be as they ought constantly fixed where the lawes and civill right have placed them But let the use of these outward blessings be managed and commanded by the necessities of our brethren Withhold not thy goods from the owners thereof when it is in the power of thy hand to do it Say not unto thy neighbour Go and come again tomorrow and I will give it when thou hast it by thee Prov. 3. 27 28. These temporall things were given us not to engrosse and hoard up superfluously but to distribute and dispense As we have therefore opportunity let us do good untoall men especially them who are of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. 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 SECT 24. The union of the Saints on earth with those in heaven 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 imperfect 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 far distant in another world and we are here toyling in a vale of tears we 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 panting towards our rest together with them 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 Rev. 6. 10. 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 tug 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 we ought we do with praise recount your vertues we magnifie your victories we blesse God for your happy exemption from the miseries of this world and for your estating in that blessed immortality We 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
a beeing thou shouldst follow me 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 dost 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 only from thee let the praise and glory of it rest only in thee SECT 2. How free of us that had made our selves vile and miserable YEt more Lord we had lost our selves before we were and having forfeited what we should be had made our selves perfectly miserable even when we were worse then nothing thou wouldst love us was there ever any eye enamoured of deformity Can there by any bodily deformity 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 nasty 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 sin could make us even then was thy love inflamed towards us Even when we were weltring in our bloud thou saidst Live and washedst us and anointedst us and cloathedst us with a broidered work and deckedst us with ornaments and graciously espousedst us to thy self and receivedst us into thine own 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 bâ—â—â—covered 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 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 sunk and his person exposed to contempt and ignominy yea to torture and death who is there that will then put forth himself to own 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 SECT 3. How yet free of us that were professed enemies THe common disposition of men pretends to a kinde of justice in giving men their own so as they will repay love for love and think they may for hatred return enmity nature it self then teacheth us to love our friends it is only grace that can love an enemy But as of injuries so of enmities thereupon grounded there are certain degrees some are sleight and triviall some main and capitall If a man do 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 endeavoured to ruine my estate to wound my reputation to cut my throat not only 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 bloud 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 unworthynesse didst thou spread abroad thine arms to receive me yea thou openedst thine heart to let me in O love passing not knowledge only but wonder also O mercy not incident into any thing lesse then infinite nor by any thing lesse comprehensible SECT 4. The wonderfull effects of the love of Christ His Incarnation 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 be 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 only know It was your foolish misprision O ye ignorant Lystrians that you took the servants for the Master here only is it verified which you supposed that God is
him his grave his linnen his winding sheet his sleep death the night the many days of darknesse and shortly he so composeth his soul as if he lookt not to wake till the morning of the resurrection After which if he sleep he is thankfully chearefull if he sleep not his reins chasten and instruct him in the night season and if sleep be out of his eyes yet God and his Angels are not Whensoever he awakes in those hands he finds himself and therefore rests sweetly even when he sleeps not His very dreams however vain or troublesome are not to him altogether unprofitable for they serve to bewray not only his bodily temper but his spirituall weaknesses which his waking resolutions shall endevour to correct He so applies himselfe to his pillow as a man that meant not to be drowned in sleep but refreshed not limiting his rest by the insatiable lust of a sluggish and drowzie stupidnesse but by the exigence of his health and abilitation to his calling and rises from it not too late with more appetite to his work then to a second slumber chearfully devoting the strength renued by his late rest to the honour and service of the giver SECT 11. His carriage HIs carriage is not strange insolent surly and overly contemptuous but familiarly meek humble courteous as knowing what mold he is made of and not knowing any worse man then himself He hath an hand ready upon every occasion to be helpfull to his neighbour as if he thought himself made to do good He hates to sell his breath to his friend where his advice may be usefull neither is more ambitious of any thing under heaven then of doing good offices It is his happinesse if he can reconcile quarrels and make peace between dissenting friends When he is chosen an Umpire he will be sure to cut even betwixt both parties and commonly displeaseth both that he may wrong neither if he be called forth to Magistracy he puts off all private interests and commands friendship to give place to justice Now he knows no cousens no enemies neither cousens for favour nor enemies for revenge but looks right forward to the cause without squinting aside to the persons No flattery can keep him from brow-beating of vice no fear can work him to discourage vertue Where severity is requisite he hates to enjoy anothers punishment and where mercy may be more prevalent he hates to use severity Power doth not render him imperious and oppressive but rather humbles him in the awfull expectation of his account If he be called to the honour of Gods Embassie to his people he dares not but be faithfull in delivering that sacred Message he cannot now either fear faces or respect persons it is equally odious to him to hide and smother any of Gods counsell and to foist in any of his own to suppresse truth and to adulterate it He speaks not himself but Christ and labours not to tickle the ear but to save soules So doth he goe before his flock as one that means to feed them no lesse by his example then by his doctrine and would condemn himself if he did not live the Gospel as well as preach it He is neither too austere in his retirednesse nor too good-cheap in his sociablenesse but carries so eaven an hand that his discreet affablenesse may be free from contempt and that he may win his people with a loving conversation If any of his charge be miscarried into an errour of opinion he labours to reclaim him by the spirit of meeknesse so as the mis-guided may reade nothing but love in his zealous conviction if any be drawn into a vicious course of life he fetches him back with a gentle yet powerfull hand by an holy importunity working the offender to a sense of his owne danger and to a saving penitence Is he the master of a family he dares not be a Lion in his own house cruelly tyrannizing over his meanest drudge but so moderately exercises his power as knowing himself to be his apprentices fellow-servant He is the mouth of his meiny to God in his dayly devotions offering up for them the calves of his lips in his morning and evening sacrifice and the mouth of God unto them in his wholesome instructions and al godly admonitions he goes before them in good examples of piety and holy conversation and so governs as one that hathmore then meer bodies committed to his charge Is he the husband of a wife He carries his yoak even not laying too much weight upon the weaker neck His helper argues him the principall and he so knows it that he makes a wise use of his just inequality so remembring himself to be the superiour as that he can be no other then one flesh He maintains therefore his moderate authority with a conjugall love so holding up the right of his sexe that in the mean time he doth not violently clash with the britler vessel As his choice was not made by weight or by the voice or by the hiew of the hide but for pure affection grounded upon vertue so the same regards hold him close to a constant continuance of his chast love which can never yeeld either to change or intermission Is he a father of children he looks upon them as more Gods then his own and governs them accordingly He knows it is only their worse part which they have received from his loins their diviner half is from the father of lights and is now become the main part of his charge As God gave them to him and to the world by him so his chief care is that they may be begotten again to God that they may put off that corrupt nature which they took from him and be made partakers of that divine nature which is given them in their regeneration For this cause he trains them up in all vertuous and religious education he sets them in their way corrects their exorbitances restraines their wilde desires and labours to frame them to all holy dispositions and so bestows his fatherly care upon and for them as one that had rather they should be good then rich and would wish them rather dead then debaucht he neglects not al honest means of their provision but the highest point he aims at is to leave God their patrimony In the choice of their calling or match he propounds but forces not as knowing they have also wils of their own which it is fitter for him to bow then to break Is he a son he is such as may be fit to proceed from such loins Is he a servant he cannot but be officious for he must please two masters though one under not against the other when his visible master sees him not he knowes he cannot be out of the eye of the invisible and therefore dares not be either negligent or unfaithfull The work that he undertakes he goes through not out of fear but out of conscience and would doe his businesse no