to me saith Christ wherein God the Son receives the Bride as mutually partaking of the same nature and can say This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh wherein God the holy Ghost knits our wils in a full and glad consent to the full consummation of this blessed wedlock And those whom God hath thus joyned together let no man no Devill can put asunder What is there then which an affectionate husband can withhold from a dear wife He that hath given himself to her what can be deny to impart He that hath made himself one with her how can he be divided from his other-self Some wilde fancies there are that have framed the linkes of marriage of so brittle stuffe as that they may be knapt in sunder upon every sleight occasion but he that ordained it in Paradise for an earthly representation of this heavenly union betwixt Christ and his Church hath made that and his own indissoluble Here is no contract in the future which upon some intervenient accidents may be remitted but I am my welbeloveds and my welbeloved is mine And therefore each is so others that neither of them is their own Oh the comfortable mystery of our uniting to the Son of God! The wife hath not the power of her own body but the husband We are at thy disposing ô Saviour we are not our own Neither art thou so absolutely thine as that we may not through thine infinite mercy claim an interesse in thee Thou hast given us such a right in thy self as that wee are bold to lay challenge to all that is thine to thy love to thy merits to thy blessings to thy glory It was wont of old to be the plea of the Roman wives to their husbands Where thou art Caius I am Caia and now in our present marriages we have not stuck to say With all my worldly goods I thee endow And if it be thus in our imperfect conjunctions here upon earth how much more in that exquisite one-nesse which is betwixt thee ô blessed Saviour and thy dearest Spouse the Church What is it then that can hinder us from a sweet and heavenly fruition of thee Is it the loathsome condition of our nature Thou sawst this before and yet couldst say when we were yet in our bloud Live Had we not been so vile thy mercy had not been so glorious thy free grace did all for us Thou washedst us with water and anointedst us with oyle and cloathedst us with broidered work and girdedst us about with fine linnen and coveredst us with silk and deckedst us with ornaments and didst put bracelets upon our hands and a chain on our neck and jewels on our fore-heads and eare-rings on our ears and a beautifull crown on our heads What we had not thou gavest what thou didst not find thou madest that we might be a not-unmeet match for the Lord of life Is it want of beauty Behold I am black but comely what ever our hiew be in our own or others eyes it is enough that we are lovely in thine Behold thou art fair my beloved behold thou art faire yea pleasant Thou art beautifull O my love as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem How fair and how pleasant art thou O Love for delights But oh Saviour if thou take contentment in this poor unperfect beauty of thy Spouse the Church how infinite pleasure should thy Spouse take in that absolute perfection that is in thee who art all lovelinesse and glory And if she have ravished thy heart with one of her eyes how much more reason hath her heart to be wholly ravished with both thine which are so full of grace and amiablenesse and in this mutuall fruition what can there be other then perfect blessednesse The Spirit of God well knowing how much it imports us both to know and feel this blessed union whereof himself is the onely worker labours to set it forth to us by the representations of many of our familiar concernments which we daily finde in our meats and drinks in our houses in our gardens and orchards That which is nearest to us is our nourishment What can bee more evident then that the bread the meat the drinke that we receive is incorporated into us and becomes part of the substance whereof we consist so as after perfect digestion there can be no distinction betwixt what we are and what wee took Whiles that bread was in the bing and that meat in the shambles and that drink in the vessell it had no relation to us nor we to it yea whiles all these were on the Table yea in our mouths yea newly let down into our stomacks they are not fully ours for upon some nauseating dislike of nature they may yet go the same way they came but if the concoction be once fully finished now they are so turned into our blood and flesh that they can be no more distinguished from our former substance then that could be divided from it self now they are dispersed into the veins and concorporated to the flesh and no part of our flesh and blood is more ours then that which was lately the bloud of the grapes and the flesh of this fowl or that beast Oh Saviour thou who art truth it selfe hast said I am the living bread that came down from heaven My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and thereupon hast most justly inferred He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in mee and I in him and as a necessary consequent of this spirituall manducation Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life Lo thou art bread indeed not the common bread but Manna not the Israelitish Manna alas that fell from no higher then the region of clouds and they that ate it died with it in their mouths but thou art the living bread that came down from the heaven of heavens of whom whosoever eats lives for ever Thy flesh is meat not for our stomacks but for our souls our faith receives and digests thee and makes thee ours and us thine our materiall food in these corruptible bodies runs into corruption thy spirituall food nourisheth purely and strengthens us to a blessed immortality As for this materiall food many a one longs for it that cannot get it many a one hath it that cannot eat it many eat it that cannot digest it many digest it into noxious and corrupt humours all that receive it do but maintain a perishing life if not a languishing death but this flesh of thine as it was never withheld from any true appetite so it never yeelds but wholesome and comfortable sustenance to the soul never hath any other issue then an everlasting life and happinesse O Saviour whensoever I sit at mine own Table let mee think of thine whensoever I feed on the bread and meat that is set before mee and feel
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 mindes of us men may alter upon sleight dislikes our God is ever himself Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever with him there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Divorces were ever grounded upon hatred No man saith the Apostle ever yet hated his owne flesh much lesse shall God do so who is love it self His love and our union is like himself everlasting Having loved his own saith the Disciple of Love which were in the world he loved them to the end He that hates putting away can never act it so as in this relation we are indissoluble Can they have received that bread which came down from heaven and that 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 and beneficiall to men and can they look upon themselves as some withered bough fit onely for the fire Can they find 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 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 bee 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 roome can there be now here for our diffidence Can the Son of God pray and not be heard For himselfe hee needs not pray as being eternally one with the Father God blessed for ever he prays for his his prayer is That they may be one w th the Father 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 before-hand begin to take up those Hallelujahs which they shall ere long continue and never end in the Chore of the highest Heaven 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 doe 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 nosthrils Alas what is that but a bubble a vapour a shadow a dreame nothing as it is the gift of a good God worthy to be esteemed precious but as it is considered in its own transitorinesse 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 tearms 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 himselfe to us and is that life that he gives us When Christ which is our life shall appeare saith the Apostle And Christ is to me to live and most emphatically I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee 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 not your own selves saith the Apostle 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 mee 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 Rebeccaes womb wherein in there are twins a rough Esau and the seed of promise the old man and the new the flesh and the spirit and these have their lives distinct from each other the new man lives not the life of the old neither can the old man live the life of the new it is not one life that could maintain the opposite struglings of both these Corrupt nature is it that gives and continues the life of the old man It is Christ that gives life to the new we cannot say but the old man or flesh is the man too For I know saith the chosen Vessell that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing but the spirituall part may yet better challenge the title For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man That old man of ours is derived from the first Adam as we sinned in him so hee liveth in us The second Adam both gives and is the life of our regeneration like as he is also the life of our glory the life that follows our second resurrection I am saith he the resurrection and the life What is it then whereby the new creature lives surely no other then the Spirit of Christ that alone is it that gives beeing and life to the renued soule Life is no
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
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
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-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
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 earthlie affairs to our own best advantage But when all this is done wo were to us if vve vvere 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 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 bottomlesse 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 fulnesse 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 vvhom be blessing honour glory and power for ever and ever Amen Allelujah THE CHRISTIAN LAID FORTH IN His whole Disposition and Carriage BY I. H. D. D. B. N. The CONTENTS The Exhortatory Preface § 1. THe Christians disposition § 2. His expence of the day § 3. His recreations § 4. His meals § 5. His nights rest § 6. His carriage § 7. His resolution in matter of Religion § 8. His discourse § 9. His devotion § 10. His sufferings § 11. His conflicts § 12. His death An Exhortatory Preface to the Christian Reader OVt of infallible rules and long experience have I gathered up this true character of a Christian A labour some will think might have been well spared Every man professes both to know and act this part Who is there that would not be angry if but a question should be made either of his skill or interest Surely since the first name giveÌ„ at Antioch all the beleeving world hath been ambitious of the honour of it How happy were it if all that are willing to wear the livery were as ready to doe the service But it fals out here as in the case of all things that are at once honourable and difficult every one affects the title few labour for the truth of the atchievement Having therefore leisure enough to look about me and finding the world too prone to this worst kind of hypocrisie I have made this true 〈◊〉 not more for direction then for tryall Let no man view these lines as a stranger but when he looks in this glasse let him ask his heart whether this be his own face yea rather when he sees this face let him examine his heart whether both of theÌ„ agree with their pattern And where he findes his failings as who shall not let him strive to amend them and never give over whiles he is any way lesse fair then his copy In the mean time I would it were lesse easie by these rules to judge even of others besides our selves or that it were uncharitable to say there are many Professors few Christians If words and forms might carry it Christ would have Clients 〈◊〉 but if holinesse of disposition and uprightnesse of carriage must be the proof wo is me In the midst of the Land among the people there is as the shaking of an Olive tree and as the gleaming grapes where the Vintage is done For where is the man that hath obtained the mastery of his corrupt affections and to be the Lord of his unruly appetite that hath his heart in heaven whiles his living carcass is stirring here upoÌ„ earth that can see the invisible and sâ—orâ—tly enjoy that Saviour to whom he is spiritually united That hath subdued his will and reason to his beleef that fears nothing but God loves nothing but goodnesse hates nothing but sin rejoyceth in none but true blessings Whose faith triumphs over the world whose hope is anchored in heaven whose charity knows no lesse bounds then God and men whose humility represents him as vile to himself as he is honourable in the reputation of God who is wise heaven-ward however he passes with the world who dares be no other then just whether he win or lose who is frugally liberall discreetly courageous holily temperate who is ever a thrifty menager of his houres so dividing the day betwixt his God and his Vocation that neither shall finde fault with a just neglect or an unjust partiality whose recreations are harmlesse honest warrantable such as may refresh nature not debauch it whose diet is regulated by health not by pleasure as one whose table shall be no altar to his belly nor snare to his soul who in his seasonable repose lies down and awakes with God caring only to relieve his spirits not to cherish sloth Whose carriage is meek gentle compliant beneficiall in whatsoever station In Magistracy unpartially just in the Ministery conscionably faithfull in the rule of his family wisely provident and religiously exemplary Shortly who is a discreet and loving yoke-fellow a tender and pious parent a dutious and awfull son an humble and obsequious servant an obedient and loyall subject Whose heart is constantly setled in the main truths of Christian Religion so as he cannot be removed in litigious points neither too credulous nor too Peremptory whose discourse is such as may be meet for the expressions of a tongue that belongs to a sound godly and charitable heart whose breast continually burns with the heavenly fire of an holy devotion whose painfull sufferings are overcome with patience and chearfull resolutions whose conflicts are attended with undaunted courage and crowned with an happy victory Lastly whose death is not so full of fear and anguish as of strong consolations in that Saviour who hath overcome and sweetned it nor of so much dreadfulnesse in it self as of joy in the present expectation of that blessed issue of a glorious immortality which instantly succeeds it Such is the Christian whom we doe here characterize and commend to the world both for trial and imitation neither know I which of these many qualifications can be missing in that soul who lays a just claim to Christ his Redeemer Take your hearts to task therefore my dear brethren into whose hands soever these lines shall come and as you desire to