glory when he maskt it with humanity and the same love makes him as it were dis-esteem his glory that he might confirm his Disciples The Rulers lye saying his Disciples came by Night and stole him away might perchance have been received generally as a truth Or else the believers might have proved as incredulous as Didimus Had not his bodily presence Non-plust falshood and controuled unbelief Forty Days the time appointed for his last sojourning on Earth being now expired Let my faith as it hath followed Him from Heaven so ascend with Him to Heaven The Angels that questioned the Disciples with a Why stand yee gazing did not intend the closing of the Souls eye but the bodies No act of Christ ever wanted a Witness the Foundation of Christianity thereby being as it were semented for ever Whereas all other fabulous Religions moulder away as layed with the untempered Morter of Mans devices The Wise-men and Sheepwards are Witnesses of his birth John and the multitude of his Baptization and Circumcision Pilate of his Innocency the Centurion of his Deity and Crucifixtion the Souldiers of his Resurrection and his Disciples of his Ascension The affection of Christ towards Man is like himself always the same That free and good will of his that brought Him down to suffer lifts Him up to mediate The unspeakable comfort and truth of which office since I am both unable and unworthy to express I refer my self and others to the Scripture of God Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right Hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Whilst the glorious Sun is clouded or eclipsed Man may with an open and undazled eye behold its luminous Orb But when free from all interpositions it shall re-ascend the top of its Meridian What seeing Organ is there that can behold it without being bleard with a review in sign of weakness or incombrance within it self as uncapable of such brightness The eternally begotten Son of the everlasting Father our Son of Righteousness and the only Son of Glory hath been made manifest to the eye of my faith whilst vail'd with an unglorified Humanity he continued his unchangable course through the darkness of suffering Cloudiness of Persecution and Eclipse of Death But now that he hath remounted his solsticial of Glory weak faith thou must with a humble and closed eye endeavour to admire which is thy homage to his Divinity what thou canst not conceive of not being discouraged as though thou hadst lost all with his bodily presence For as we possess light though the Sun be not visible his brightness being conveyed unto us in his beames So thy Saviour though corporeally absent he in his glorious rayes shines forth unto thee that thou mightest enjoy light warmth and comfort O how am I ravisht with this Vision 'T were the worst of unthankfulness to conceal such unspeakable favours With David therefore I must proclaim Mans Jubile Come hither all yee that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for our Souls But I beseech you bring with you Stephens as well as Davids Ear else you may perhaps as blinde Men know my happiness not see it that is not to receive and apply it as your own As in the Divine Essence there is three Persons each of which is God yet not three but one God so in the Person of Christ there is a Trinity of offices each of which is proper to whole Christ as to be King Prophet and Priest not many of them the Man-hood being seperated from the God-head as some would But in all Christ being one the same and all these O these are those solacing rayes I before spake of so beneficial to pernicious Man O suffer not O Lord the Bodies middle Region my Heart to be cold and uncompact like that of the Ayr lest thy beames shine thorough and not warm me But purifie it and create in it such a solidity and soundness by faith that it may be capable of their virtue and inflamed with zeal and gratefulness for and to the glory of thee the giver Christ Jesus is the Christians Sanctuary and these his offices the three precious and unexhaustible Fountains from whence Ezechiel's healing Waters plentifully flow Ghrist Jesus is our Physician and these three are those beautiful Boxes in which the pure balme of Gilead which cures all putrified sores is inclosed Is here a Physician Is here a mundifying River Is here a most approved Balme O my Soul thou must also finde out and that by Faith a diseased Patient a deadly wound a corrupted Cancer for The whole have no need of the Physician but the sick O my Saviour is there any Man living so sound that he hath no need of thee yea sure there are some whose stincking soares which the Devil and their own pride have skinned over Others whose wounds he hath too deeply searched pouring into them instead of comfortable Balsome the deadly corrasives of desperation O Lord the nature of every one of us at the first is to be Sathans Apothecary ayding him with ingredients even from our own corruption to stupifie our sence of sin and mortifie our Souls O thou which art the only skilful and spiritual Cheruâ—gion search with thy spirit and tent with thy Law my gangrened and ulcerated Soul that I may live though with an issue For though the stopping of Bodily issues often times procure death yet my death shall stop my issue The noblest knowledge of things is from their causes not from their effects Lord make me know the state and danger of my Disease from both but from the first even my fall in Adam This self-inspection is a grace by faith conveyed to us from the Prophetick office of Christ. And ought according to my method there to be handled But the agreeableness of the Meditation to this place and the profit which by Gods grace will flow to me in the Meditation to others in the perusal makes me insert here this Anatomy of a dead Man which cannot be too large since none can enough know himself In the profundity of a Well even at mid-day a Man may view the Stars And in the Sun-shine of prosperity if our Souls fathome this our depth of misery we shall free from all impediments more perfectly apprehend our Lucifer Christ Jesus God the universal Creator being perfection it self it must needs follow that the beauty and happiness of the Creature consists in being like to him It being always remembred that what in them hath its measure degree and proportion in Him is boundless unexpressable and infinite If the impression of Gods Image in his Creatures as the Kings Image upon their Coine only makes it Royal and gives it preheminence and excellence it must needs be granted that
Alarm and discover this design Else had I quickly slept in Death been smothered Consum'd as on a Roman Pile upon my Bed At which great noise which did direct my Eyes and Hand I rose with-drew the Vaile and cast the flaming brand Into my Chimny-Fire converting prayer to praise And vowes of gratefulness unto thee all my Dayes Which here I pay adding this Application That when one of the Sex first in transgression Inflam'd by some wanton Insects the Gun-Powder of Lust Barrel'd up in my Heart like that kindling dust I' th Night the Sun-set of thy Grace which Coles did lie Smothering sometimes behind the graceful Tapistry Of my Christian profession yea when that Fire With noise and Hell-assisting fury did conspire To burn and break the Hoops and Bonds of Chastity That so the Dining Room on Fire my Body suddainly My surpriz'd Soul its Guest might sleeping burn and â—lie With all her goods thy grace in this Catastrophie Then didst thou fright my Conscience by guilts Thunder-clap And raised me up with holy speed for to draw back The hangings of hypocrisie And to cast in The renew'd Fire of Zeal this Hell-like Fire of Sin And to pour on the Waters of repenting teares With Daily Prayers and Fasting which this Devil fears Casts out O Lord thy temporal deliverances Of Body have been great but thy Indulgences And Mercies to my Soul exceeds as far As doth the Heaven the Earth the light of Sun a Star For by the one thou hast spun out the slender thread Of my expiring life but by the other thou instead Of Death Eternal the reward and fruit of sin Hast giv'n me Glory everlasting Life in Him Who is my hope O that I had the thankful Tongue Of Men and Angels that I might inrich this Song Of praise for thy redoubled favours and free love Which are beyond expression yea which soar above My weak conceptions Lord accept this Widdowes Mite Because I offer all I have for it 's thy right To me for sin belongs confusion shame of Face But to thee O Lord forgiveness mercy through free grace Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's most gracious and wonderful Providence in preventing and delivering me from being Slain and from committing of Man-slaughter in my Lodgings in Sommerset-House about the Year 1647. Soliloquium or Discourse HE that dwelleth in the secret of the most High shall abide under the shaddow of the Almighty Gracious God I humbly and thankfully acknowledge that thou hast performed to me this thy promise although I come far short of fulfilling the condition For thou art no hard Master as the sloathful Servant slandered thee but the most liberal and bountiful Lord whose grace is free who gives without upbraiding and who savest us temporally spiritually and eternally for thy own Name sake Even when there is but a step betwixt Us and Death This truth was both verified and manifested when I and my Servant in my Lodgings in Somerset House were suddainly awakened out of our sweet and quiet Nights sleep about break of Day on a Summers Morning by a great noise upon my Stairs head seconded by the most forcible breaking open of my Dining Room Door though defended by two great â—olts and a strong Spring-Lock which first assault gave us only time to step out of our Beds in our Shirts to my Chamber-Door with our naked Swords and wound-up and ready-prim'd Pistols charged with Bullets against which Door without any Parly another assault was made by a kind of a Roman battering Ram which 〈◊〉 out and cast into the Flore three strong Staples the security of my Lock and Bolts The Door wide open a Person unknown to me with others following him with drawn Swords would have entred the Chamber not once answering my loud deâ— and of what they came for Whereupon they pressing upon me even to the point of my Sword I verily believed they intended to murder me and the rather because not long before reports were spread abroad of a design of massacring in one Night all the then Parliament Men in their Beds Wherefore in self-defence I presented my Pistol and struck Fire against the Brest of the Leading-man without effect which failure in all likelihood might have encouraged and provoked him and his associates to have rusht in upon us naked Men and to have hew'd us in pieces but certainly there was more with us than was against us else had not a valiant tryed Officer with some Files of Souldiers for such I understood them to be afterwards at the sight only of two Men in their Shirts been struck with such a pannick fear that they suddainly and with great speed ran back through the Dining-Room not stopping in their flight nor recollecting their spirits until they came to the bottom of my Stairs To which Stairs top I in my Shirt with the like speed pursued them where upon a second demand of their intentions and who they were the Officer told me he was sent by Order from Major General Skippon to search a House in Somerset-House Yard and to apprehend two dangerous and disaffected Persons which before they could attach were slipt out of their Beds into the Cellar of that private House which by reason of the height of that great House above that Lean too had a Cellar under the Cellar belonging to my Lodgings from whence forcing up a board of the Flore they crept up into my Cellar and from thence to my Stare-case under which they hid themselves and after our parly were there found and taken These Persons he told me he and his Souldiers pursued through the same Hole into my Cellar and Lodgings supposing all to be but one and the same House whereupon I telling him my Name and rectifying the mistake The Officer came up to the Stair-head and craved pardon for his rash and dangerous Error I returning to my Bed and he with his Prisoners the same way that he came my Door into the House Court or Quadrangle being all this time fast lockt and bolted as we left it at our going to bed O Lord how did this ignorant and innocent mistake by thy all wise permission and ordering involve me into a double danger that thou mightest redouble Mercies had these Souldiers 〈◊〉 more knowing in their actings I had been more ignorant of thine yea if I had not been in so great danger I had not been so graciously delivered Thus to the answering and satisfying of all murmurings and objections against thy Government of the World thou dost exalt and justifie thy Holiness Power Wisdom and Righteousness in bringing forth Light out of Darkness and that not only out of things casually evil as here but out of what is morally evil as in Adam's fall which thy Omnipotency could have impeded did not the conjunction and greater shining forth in the midest of this black â—oile of thy Wisdome Justice Mercy and all other thy Attributes through the darkness and
to me my confiscated Estate but greatly increased it giving to me four good Houses most pleasant Seats which I built and planted not as thou didst once to Israel together with a revenue of about Three Thousand Three Hundered Pounds a Year Lands of Inheritance And now Lord which is a favour above all the rest thou hast been pleased to exchange my earthly possession for an Eternal Inheritance purchast for me by the infinitely precious blood of thy own Son the Lord Jesus Christ And made sure unto me by thy deed and new Covenant of Grace Witnessed Sealed and delivered to me by the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth Thus Lord hast thou made my loss my gain and converted my earthly poverty into the riches of Heaven made me to thy people and to after Ages a Monument of thy mercy and a witness of thy faithfulness in preserving me when thou leadest me through the Fire and through the Water and deliverest me in Six and Seven troubles Yea whatsoever thou didst so largely promise to thine in the Ninety first Psalm by thy Prophet thou hast graciously fulfilled to me Wherefore I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon thy Name O Lord and pay my Vowes unto Thee in the mid'st of the Congregation of thy People Yea by this Paper-Herald I will proclaim and transmit to posterity the many great and unparallel'd favours to me and mine that so the future Generations of those that love and fear thee may trust in thee and praise and serve thee also until time shall be no more Amen The ROYAL EXCHANGE A Corolary Poem upon the former Subject WHen the Almighty Power the Eternal Light The Abyss of Wisdome living Spring Of Life and Goodness out of Nothing 's Night Brought forth the Seeds of every thing All Creatures were Created good no change From their first Law did then produce Any defect in all this lower Range Of Works prepared for Man's Vse Till Man their Lord by Deviation From God's blest Rule brought through his Curse A Change upon this Worlds Creation Yea Death of all things the worst Hence is it that the once pure Elements Corrupt imperfect are yea fight With one another not at all content With Natures bounds and their first right Yea limping Age succeeds our frolick Youth And poverty a prosp'rous State Disgrace high honours and disasters doth Dog our delights now love then hate Affects Vs This Day we speak high The next we cause have for to mourn Now we are well to Morrow sick and die Like Seas our Calmes fore-go a storm Thus living Creatures and Inanimate Prove and obey God's just Decree That Man that was unstedfast and ingrate Might plagu'd be with Inconstancy Of theirs and of his own Condition And as in a cleer Mirror see In order unto his Conversion Their Emptiness and Vanity These are Gods Hieroglyphicks in which we By a conjunct Experience May read all Creatures Mutability If fixt not in the Eternal Ens. Blest be our great Mathematician That from this low'r circumference Drawes all these lines and makes them meet again Fixt in our Centre God Immense Lord to my self and others thou hast me Order'd to be a Map of Change One of these teaching Figures never free From some removes These last more strange Then all forepast As from the second place Of honour in three Nations State To be the Object of this Worlds disgrace Of obliquy and highest hate That after Twenty Years hard service done Vpon my Countreys call wherein I lost Five Thousand Pounds yet askt no boon Nor wages whil'st I sate therein Should now a Prisoner be for life and dead As to the World to Children Wife From Saints and publick Worship separated My food and comfort joy and life That after divers Thousand Pounds a Year Possession in a Moments time I should deprived be of all and fear A starving both of me and mine That of four noble houses and sweet Seats In the prime places of this Ile I should no Hive have for my swarmes receit But live abroad as an Exile Dear Lord am I Elisha-like beset With Troops of troubles doth the World Like to his Servants crie He 's lost a Net Of Misery is on him hurl'd Lord open thou their Eyes and they shall see That more is with me than against That Changes have Exchanges sent from Thee By which my State is much advanst Instead of Mundane honors buble thou Hast me Adopted for thy Son And granted me to know it and to bow Both Knee and Heart for what is done Impris'nment for life and long restraint Thou hast converted made to be A freedome much inlarg'd of which I vaunt As now enjoying more of Thee For Thousands loss of Pounds and annual Rents And Houses like to Paradise Thou hast a Hundred-fold freed from events Giv'n me and life that never dies An House not made with Hands which is above Eternal built by Thee yea more A Crown a Kingdome where there 's no removes Assur'd reserv'd for me in store O! who is like to thee who but a God Can gifts confer so rich as these Who would not service do to thee whose Rod Is dipt in Hony and whose fees Are for our weakness sake set forth compar'd To Empires pretious Diadems But do as far exceed Terrene rewards As Monarchs do our common Men Let Worldly Princes then set a great rate Vpon their Crowns and Signories Wallow in pleasures I 'le not change my State Nor Prison for their Royalties Much less my future hopes and sure intaile On me O Lord through thy free grace Of an Eternal Kingdome not to faile In Heaven at th' end of my short Race Vntil which blessed Hour for which I wait The Dayes of my appointed time With Job my Prison I will dedicate Vnto thy Service as a place Divine To sing thy praises in for this Exchange Of Earth for Heaven So shall I be On Earth in Heaven until I change My Place but not my Company Amen Soli Deo Gloria AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Containing the Subject Matter of the foregoing Treatise to direct the Reader by the Folio to finde readily any of the distinct Meditations and Poems set forth therein Occasional Meditations Corolary Poems upon each immediatly foregoing Subject A Abortion COncerning the Authors Recovery from the danger of an Abortion and untimely Birth The New Birth folio 348 B Breaches Burning Concerning God's gracious prevention of Breaches betwixt him and his own Father and betwixt him and his Father-in-Law The Vmphire folio 381 Vpon God's preservation of him and his Servant from being Burnt in their Lodgings in Sommerset-House The Deliverance folio 410 C Coach Cough Children Concerning his preservation from any harm when being alone in a Coach he was violently cast out by the Jolt of the Coach-whâ—el upon a Stone The Huricane folio 355 Vpon his Recovery from a dangerous Cough and
answ 86 In particular respect of her Sences Tongue and Body 88 Christ answ 89 Of Christs Kingly Office Christs present Kingly Office 93. viz. His Government 99 His excellent person 99 His Laws 101 commended from the Author God 102 Antiquity 102 Holiness 103 His Protection 106 particularly from Satan 107 Sin 108 viz. Adams sin 109 Original 110 Actual 112 World 116 from Its 1 Dart-lust 117 2. Riches 118 3. Honours 119 4. Persecution 120 His conduct encouragement against Coveteousness 123 Sensual pleasures 124 Honour 126 Persecution 128 Death 130 Fear of Death 132 The pain and separation of soul and body 133 Comfort in the Resurrection 135 Christs Kingly Office at the last Judgment 139 Of Eternal life and Glorified state of Man in general 143 149 In particular 1. In Soul The Understanding glorified 148 The Will glorified 149 The Memory glorified 150 The Affections in general 151 In particular Love glorified 151 Fear glorified 153 Zeal glorified 156 Anger glorified 160 Joy glorified 169 2. In Body In general 164. In special Its Spiritualness 169 Its Swiftness 169 Its Splendor 171 Its Incorruptibleness Immortality 175 3. In the Senses In general 188. In particular The Sight glorified 195 The Hearing glorified 199 The Taste glorified 205 The Smelling glorified 210 Touching glorified 215 Of the Tongue the Organ of several senses 222 Twelve wonderful Actings or Works of God to be fulfilled 239 Namely 1. The raising of the Witnesses 239 2. The ruine of Rome 239 3. The ruine of the Papacy 240 4. Israels Conversion 240 5. The destruction of the great Turk 241 6. The binding of the Devil for a thousand years 241 7. The Conversion of the World 241 8. The destruction of all Christs enemies 242 9. The Saints peaceable raign for a thousand years 243 10. The destruction of Gog and Magog and of the World by fire 243 11. The day of Judgment begun with reward to Saints ends with judging the wicked 244 12. Christs Mediatory-Kingdom ends the Saints are translated to Heaven for ever 246 Errata IN the Titles of the Fourth and Fifth Pages for Death Read Faith Page 17. Line 25. f. Nebuchadonazzer Read Nebuchadnezzar p. 26. in the mergine for James r. Lamentations p. 27. l. 29. f. thus r. this p. 29. l. 6. f. affliction r. affection p. 33. l. 34. f. brawl r. crawl p. 39. l. 38. after the word Stephen add â—ye p 40 l. 28. leave out which p. 42. l. 32. f. Lunary r. Lunacy and l. 40 f. are r. were p. 48. l. 33. f. pleasure r. play sure p 49. l. 8. f. Philosophers r. Philosophies p 53. l. 12. for those excess r. whose excess p 54. l. 30 f. inordinate r. inordinacie p. 64. l. 30. f. Nature r. Natures p. 66. l 28. f. halt r. half p 85. l. 30 f. Joshua r. Josiah p. 87. l 31. f. be thy r. be to thy p. 89. l. 4. f. peculiarly r. in part p. 90. l. 17. f. exhautasting r. exhausting p. 92. l. 11. f. England r. Israel p. 105. l. 1. f. of my mind r. of mind p. 116. l. 26. add iâ— before descends p 119. l. 33. f aâ—centing â— accepting p. 130. l. 5. f. their r. these l. 40. f meat r. meal p. 134. l. 19 f. â—â—nding r. bending l. 40. f. yellowed r. Gellied p. 153. l 19. f. lights r. light p. 155. l. 15. f. eye r. eyes p. 157 l. 6. f. preservd r. preserd p. 159 l. 31. f. a spring r. aspâ—ring p. 161. l. 4. f. but its lip r. but in that life l. 22 f. Beasts r. Bâ—ats l. 24 f. thought r. thoughts p. 169 l. 20 f. Locamotion r. Locomotion l 28 f. Port r. Part p. 173 l. 12 f. immund r. immur'd p. 181 l. 9 f. the r. their p. 189 l. 3 f. substraction r. substratum l. 8 f. Elixa r. Elixar p. 193 l. 15 f. so what use r. what use p. 210 l. 17 f. Naâ—al r. Nadab p. 214 l. 26 f. with r. which p. 235 l. 30 f. to r. so p. 249 l. 13 f. I can proceed r. I cannot proceed DIVINE MEDITATIONS ON FAITH OR The Vision Exercise and Triumph of FAITH WHere the Treasure is there 's the Heart the thoughts the affections also A judicious mind is vertuously ambitious only being inamored with that whose true worth invites most its Contemplation glaneing over inferiour things with a superficial and general surview The Soul of Man is never un-imployed though often mis-imployed resembling in the perpetuity though not in the quality of its motion the ever and all-moving Creator who as he ever was so was he never idle as being a most pure act Is this true Is the mind of Man never vacant Art thou never idle O my Soul Strive then not to be idely employed that both in acting and in acting well thou maist be more like thy Maker And let the riches on which thou placest thy love be Heaven and heavenly things Where neither Moth nor rust corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal so shall such Treasure be not the Prison but the Paradise of thy heart Amongst all those precious Graces heapt up in the boundless Store-house of Gods mercy though each particular is to be admired yet are there degrees of preheminence For like as the beautiful Stones set in Aaron's Vestments the Planets amongst the lesser Stars So these three Divine Graces Faith Hope and Charity out-shine the rest attracting the eye of my Soul and as much invite my Contemplation as they necessitate my fruition These these are the Fundamental Graces Superiour to all other both in respect of the Excellency of their Object Christ Jesus and of their Subject wherein they reside a true Christian. The other viz. Temperance Fortitude c. being often-times bestowed by God on many natural Men in whom they shine with a dim Light never with a Sun-like splendor They like the Indians possessing those Treasures which Christians know best the right use of Such Diamonds being then only truly placed when set within a foile of Humility Thus my Soul through the free Grace of thy Heavenly Father hast thou exhibited to thy view and enjoying a Mine of Treasure a Heaven of Happiness Riches which exclude not but command thee to covet O follow thy Saviours Counsel be a joyful Man and industrious Merchant Part with all thy sinful Lusts Sell all thy worldly Vanities purchase this Field and Trade for these Pearls Thy affections are the price which that thou mightest disburse without delay look more seriously into their worth so shalt thou at once affect and possess them As the optick faculty is both weak and useless to us in the Discovery of things that are either too neer or too far distant and so out of the command of its Power so also if we suffer it at once distractedly to wander over several species though within the strength of its speculation it cannot give a true judgment or description of any
particular The same Rules bound our understanding the perspective of our Souls For look we on God that Infinite being further then our limits in his gracious revelation our sight is cataracted and dimned with ignorance View we him too neer in the attribute of his mercy we grow presumptuously blind Or place we terrene vanities in our affections as worthy to be equally gazed on with him our reason will prove both purblinde and false-sighted rendring an untrue and unprofitable discovery to our Souls The last of these Rules let me first apply then follow here the objects proposed to my present Meditation which are the Principal and Evangelical Vertues Shall I then at once superficially glance over them No rather view thou my Soul each grace apart that so thou mayest better discern the dignity of each particular And as Faith hath the preheminence amongst them and the first place in us at our regeneration so in thy Contemplation Phylosophers are beholding to Aristotle for most of their Definitions the Christians to the Scripture as being the truth and so no error in it as being the Foundation and therefore no building without it Wouldst thou know then O my Soul what Faith is Search the Scriptures and thou shalt find that Faith is the Substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen O perfect figure O true Effigies of that Heavenly Grace drawn even to the Life by that only great Arts-Master the Spirit of God! Frail Mortals that we are extraordinary need have we of such exact Descriptions since like weak-sighted Men we multiply our object grasping frequently the shadow in stead of the substance Thus being often times deceived in our judgments by the many counterfeits of Faith Let us upon some Professors thereof that even falshood may not want a witness cursorily gaze as Passengers use to do on executed Traytors learning wisdome from others harms rather pitying their folly than following their example The Sun may rise gloriously and yet suffer an Eclipse before it mount the Meridian Good beginnings may make us expect cannot assure us of good proceedings Many run in a race but he which perseveres to the end obtains the prize Man-kinde doth commonly ascend one degree towards Heaven where frozen with ignorance and folly they afar of with the Owle wonder at the Light not caring by their approach to enjoy its heat or to be enlightned with its brightness like silly Birds hovering over the Devils blaze that fowler of Souls or with ignorant Travellers eying and following that false and wandering Light of Worldly Vanities until they be plunged in their own destruction Amongst these give me leave to point out the Historical Believer who hath waded and in the deep in Ezekiel's River hath ascended one step of Jacob's Ladder yea with the Serpent in Paradise that Devil incarnate hath found out the Tree of whose sweetness he shall never be a happy partaker O the folly and madness of rational Souls who having spyed out the good Land of Canaan choose rather with the murmuring Israelites to wander in the Wilderness of Vanity the Deserts of Evil not only Forty Years but their whole life time then to go in to possess that fruitfull Soile with faithfull Joshuah Tell me O Man why the affection doth as it were loose its appetite change his Channel and dissent from that Rule in Heavenly things which in terrene objects it both allows and follows The Covetous Man having begun but to tast of Riches continues a Midas ever after wishing to touch and feed on nothing but Gold The Voluptuous Man having had but an Airy view of Pleasure is enamoured with it and devotes his strength his time his life to its service And the Ambitious Man having once kneeled on the Foot-stool of honor never rests until he hath ascended the Throne On the other side change we but the Place Earth for Heaven although the objects differ much in worth and our minds change also The Historical Believer by his general knowledge and observation of the Principles of Nature and Justice cannot but confess a God next that his Eternal Beeing is only the unexhausted Ocean from whence all Rich Streams of Graces and Rivers of Life proceed The everlasting Mine and Treasure of Treasures which are as infinite in their quantity as their value Yet for all this proficiency in the theory of Divinity he still remains a drone like a lazie Mathematician only viewing upon his Globe those magazins of wealth the Indies without endeavouring or taking pains to enjoy them He knows that Princes are but Vice-royes Tenants at will Commissioners whose Power lasts not beyond Gods will or the date of their life The Almighty only being the Fountaine of Honour according to that of the Psalmist Promotion cometh neither from the East nor West nor from the South but God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another Notwithstanding this knowledge of Gods preheminence he either like the Barbarians exchanges Gold for Glass his golden Hours for frail and glassy Titles terrene and empty favours which are but the counterfeits of true honour a row of Characters by which we should spell out Heavenly things the substance of these shadowes All Earthly honours are either mediately that is by course of Blood derived from our Parents to us or else immediately by the present favour of the Prince conferred upon Us the worth of them consisting in the height of Title Place or Priviledges above others not so dignified Look then O Glow-worm towards Heaven and thou wilt soon confess how infinitely all Earthly vanities are overmatched they being but rude Patterns helping us to judge of the Original degrees to raise not weights to depress our Meditations a Mount Nebo to view Mount Sion Have we on Earth Kings to create us honourable Behold their Breath is in their Nostrils whereas in Heaven the Lord is King for ever and ever who hath said and verified it that though they are Gods yet they shall die like Men. Further the World gives to its favourites large and magnificent Titles adorning them with splendid Robes which are as it were the Superscription of their Place and Estimation Pharaoh named Joseph Zaphnath Paaneah which signifies Prince Daniel is named Belteshazzar according to the name of the Caldeans God David must be stiled the Kings Son in Law Mordecai goes out from the presence of the King in Royal Apparel of blew and white and with a great Crown of Gold and with a Garment of fine Linnen and Purple We see here how liberal Earthly Kings yea Kings of the Earth have been in the expression of their favours and can any conjecture the eternal God the only Jehovah and King of Heaven and Earth can or will be wanting to his favourites No his Word which is truth it self shall be our assurance Fear not little Flock for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the
toward Zoar that Type of Heaven But no sooner did the Angel leave her but her eyes reversion discover her minds aversion Which her self would have seconded had not the Almighty in Favour to her Husband and in Mercy to Us made her an examplary Monument in a Pillar of Salt Next under the Law behold Saul not only a Member but chosen of God to be the Captain over his Church A man every way well qualified first for his Body his Proportion was so excellent that there was none like him amongst all the people And for his Mind it was endowed it seem'd both with Divine and Moral Vertues witness his joyning in Prophesie his performance of many Pious Duties as his Sacrifices at his Coronation his asking Counsel of God and inquiry after Sin confession and humiliation after Samuels Reproof his humility at his Election his patience and mercy at his Rejection and Defamation his Fortitude against the general and open Enemies of the Church the Ammonite his Zeal against the private and secret Enemies of Religion viz. all Witches and Wizzards Here then is a spring of Piety a profession and expression of Religion a Gourd whose glory may not only serve as a Canopy of state to Saul but as a shade to one of the Prophets A gourd indeed and so it faded For the eave of his last day ruined that frontispiece of Vertue which his whole lifes best Actions had raised towards Heaven For had he been with the Prophets and joyn'd with them in Prophesie His ignorance and wants now send him to enquire of the Devil Did he Sacrifice before to God Now behold the reward of Divination and Witchcraft are in his hand He whose custom was to ask counsel of God now seeks after a Witch and he whose seeming Zeal condemns his Righteous Son for tasting of an Honey-comb although ignorant of any restraint now contrary to his Oath and Covenant made with God without humiliation and judging of himself or confession of his fault willingly and wilfully swallows down the very gall of Sin His Humility did not more grace him when he lay buried in the peoples Stuff than his Pride did debase him when he presumed to be one of Gods Council That patience fortitude and mercy which abounded yea was extended towards others is now deficient to himself For he falls all along upon the Earth becomes sore afraid no strength is left in him and yet he refuses to Eat For having no conscience towards God no wonder if his Body wants the charity of Nature When the Creature abuses the Mercy of the Creator he must expect to taste of his Justice And when he ceases to know Himself he shall be made to know his Punishment Saul hath forgotten both his God and himself and therefore justly is he now forgotten and hears his Funeral censure pronunced by him who never spoke nor wished better to man To morrow shalt thou be with me Forewarning fore-armes not Sinners he that doubted of his Choise though from the mouth of Gods Prophet credits his refusal and death from the Devils Oracle Extraordinary Blessings are the free and voluntary gift of God and not believed of Sinners before enjoyed But his punishments are the due Burden of sins desert and therefore are expected before divulged The Soul being often-times aforehand sensible of that which the Body afterwards endures None but a false or temporary Faith hath a final cessation but such is this of Saul he now beleeves onely that he might dispair The first degree of a true Faith being usually the false ones last step God lifting up the one from the sense of judgement to the faith and sight of Mercy Sin dragging the other from the belief of punishment into the gulf of Despairation Though Saul hath his last day marked out even the morrow yet neither the love towards his Sons whose Lives bore the same date with his nor care for himself begets the least endeavour by delay or otherwise to out-live the fore-going Prophesie inevitable are the Judgements of God nay rather he hastens it shortning his flight that he might shorten his life And that sin according to its nature might have a companion he moves his Armour-bearer to be a traitour to his own Soul by example whom his precept could not force to be a traitour to his Prince For he falls upon his Sword which instead of Defence becomes a weapon of Offence So often-times God deals with the Wicked who as in life themselves are their worst Enemies so in death they prove their own Executioners Thus the Sacred Annals before and since Moses hath by the Deads example given most lively arguments to prove this falshood of the deadness of this seeming life of faith O admire here the infinite extent of the Mercy of God! who out of the carcase of this Lyon Sin this Eater Death brings forth both meat and sweetness for his Sampsons his Nazarites making the Downfal of the Fathers the Rises of the Children their Ignorance our Knowledge their faults and blindness apt spectacles to help the weakness of our sight It now remains that the holy Records of the faithful and powerful Gospel as the Eccho of the Old Testament consort in the like precedents that by so consonant an Harmony the dissonant and ungrounded judgement of the most hypocritical and temporary Believer may be convinced if not converted The purest Gold hath its Dross the best Wheat its Tares Yea the Moon is then most full of Spots when least empty of Light The Church of God in the Primitive times in its Infant Age had many who although they were deemed Members of Christ had not yet put off the Old man The Old Adam Many whose Image and outward Superscription seemed to be our Cesars yet proved to be false and unvaluable Coyn when they came to their test or exchange Witness Ananias and Sapphira a pair doubly united by Sin and Wedlock who before their trial were esteemed as Members of the True Church as Beleevers of the Apostles Doctrine and no doubt baptised in that Faith the effects of which seemed to lead them on to forsake the world for they sold their possessions to works of Charity and Piety And laid it at the Apostles feet Who would not here have parallel'd these with sincere Joses since both parties did the same duty though not with the same heart the one acting truly that Christians part which the other only play'd Mans natural light is comparatively darkness and the height of his Knowledge advantageth him only with a larger prospect of his ignorance he knowing most that confesses to know nothing The conscience of our want being the perfection of our science Only thou O Lord art the Fountain of Knowledge and Wisdom thou triest the Heart and the Reins and seest not as man seeth Shalt not thou who planted the Ear hear Thou that formed the Eye see Thou that teachest man Knowledge know Thou O
O have these fleshy eyes of ours such various presentations of pleasure to delight these Bodies of Clay with and can we imagine Faith the eye of the immortal Soul can be destitute of a subject worthy its view and contemplation O no my Soul The weakest-sighted Faith enjoys a far better and more excellent prospect viz. with Eagles eyes looking abroad upon the glorious Son of Righteousness and Son of God Jesus Christ. The Life of the Body gives the first power and motion to the Eye but this Heaven-aspiring sight gives the Soul its first Life Hear me saith God that is believe in me and your Soul shall live The Earthly Sun suffers sometimes an Eclipse so did ours once for all An interposition caused the one the other not any defect in his own Body or Light but a condense Darkness an Orb of Sin for a time obscured his brightness Women and Children whose shallow reach fathome not the depth of Natures works may with a flying fear hide themselves not daring to behold the labouring Sun when a learned Artist by Water or reflection searcheth out the cause and greatness of an Eclipse Worldly and carnal Men may mask their understanding with a wilfull ignorance But do thou O Lord which hides these things from the Wise and revealest them unto Babes make me to apprehend the reason and admire the infiniteness of thy suffering Earth affords not a neerer Union or Relation than friendship That mysterial incorporation and perfect conjunction of Wedlock is but an inclusive of this that being more particular this more general Society is the happiness of Mans life this is the height of that Conjunction and the perfection of that happiness He is either most miserable or undeserving that hath not had some taste of this reciprocal foelicity Since vice and vertue have both their favourites the one exceeding in number the other in worth Thus far hath my Meditations roved on Earth ascending this height of temporary delight that from such a rise my Soul may take a quick flight to Heaven The friendship of the World and all things else in it eminent or praiseâ—worthy are but dark shadowes of Heavenly things beames derived from that eternal Light to give Light to Man Doth not the Holy Spirit express the exceeding love of the eternal Father to us his Children by the tenderness of Earthly Parents His infinite and free mercy by the charity and friendship of the Samaritan stranger The ardent and unparallel'd affection of our Saviour Jesus Christ to us his Church by a Matrimonial and espousal love O all yee that have any illumination of Faith come and witness with me if there were ever or can be any love amity or affection like unto this which God hath shewed towards us Lord I would fain express thy acts of mercy the witness of thy love and object of my Faith but who is sufficient for these things or able to express what he cannot sufficiently conceive of How or where shall I begin when Lord my beginning was from thee Yea from all beginnings hast thou chosen me and in time hast thou called me void of love desire and freedome of will or any other congruity remote or sufficient to answer thee calling being the servant of Sathan and Bond-slave of Sin and therefore an Aliene from thee and the common wealth of Israel One not only sick but dead in sins and trespasses and therefore unable to move towards thee A natural Man perceiving not the things of God and therefore ignorant of thee Thy love alone was the cause of mine for herein is love not that we loved thee but that thou loved'st us first Nor foreknowledge of my after works or willingness to receive grace occasioned this free Election For not of works which I had done but according to thy mercy didst thou elect and save me From thy free and gracious predestination my faith with a devout affection makes haste to behold the Foundation thy dear Son Jesus Christ my Saviour O wonder O infinite Love O admirable friendship He whose glory and greatness the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain was inclosed within the Womb of a poor though pure Virgin God descends in humility from Heaven that Man might ascend Heaven in Glory becoming like to Man that Man might be like to him Not Rome the Metropolis of the World nor Jerusalem the glory of Judea must tryumph in the birth or be made more honourable by the first presence of Emanuel but Bethlem the least of the Cities of Juda. Which poor place either ignorant or regardless of so high a favour was not only void of thankfulness and common courtesie but of neighbourly hospitality A Stable a Manger and brute Beasts being the Palace the Cradle the company it prepared for the entertainment of the Worlds Saviour Behold here a mystery of mysteries He who knows no beginning now begins to be that his being in nature might give us a being in grace in glory And in his Infancy did our gracious Redeemer begin to suffer the entrance of his life being but the Prologue of his sorrow and the total thereof a continued passion His innocent Child-hood is made the subject of treason and nought but his slaughter must allay the Tyrants suspition What needed any unjustly or violently to have sought his Death who willingly came to Dye only living the life of Man that for Man he might be capable of Death This Herodian cruelty hath a deeper dye than Nero's Tyranny For he destroyed the World only in his wish but this Man by one act would have made not our Bodies only but our Souls mortal O sweet Jesus thou fleddest into Egypt not to preserve life but to die daily avoiding his merciless Power that thou mightest declare thy powerfull mercy Thy Death by which we live must not be constrained least ungrateful Man should esteem it no gift The strength and policy of Herod are unable to wrest that per-force from thee which thou purposest freely to give Infancy must not suffer for Man-hood since the greater includes the less but the lesser cannot comprehend the greater That perfection of Age that made Mans rebellion and sin more full more hatefull must make thy obedience and sufferings more compleat more acceptable Not Bethlem but Jerusalem the center of the World must be the Theatre of infinite mercy of merciless cruelty that thy passion being acted in the place wherein the Legal Ceremonies were celebrated the Types and Figure might more clearly point out the substance All those bloody Sacrifices being abolished by one Sacrifice of blood After this escape of danger in his Child-hood and reprieved of his life for a time did not the increase of his years multiply his sorrows No doubt he suffered as well as fulfilled the Law for us during those thirty years he obscured himself At twelve years of age we finde him disputing in the Temple when surely
And lest Hell should tryumph over us in punishment he in Person tryumphs over it with Victory In Person I say Although his Body lay still in the Grave since its local absence contradicts not his personal presence the inseparable union of the God-head with his Body and Soul even in Death permitting only a separation in nature not of natures a mutation of order no disunion If the Devils fear forced his Prince to supplicate when our Saviour sojourn'd on Earth what unexpressible terrors did then possess them when the Worlds Great Monarch reigned over Hell If in his humiliation they doubted his sudden judgment How did his exaltation assure them of their certain execution Here behold acted that Vision figuratively after manifested unto St. John of Sathans imprisonment for a thousand years although literally it was to be fulfilled many ages after For who hath the Key of the bottomless Pit of Heaven and Hell but he to whom all power is given both in Heaven and Earth He who openeth and no Man shutteth Or when should these Principalities be subdued if not at this general and most glorious Conquest Can any imagine this great Victory to be maymed or imperfect since he then led Captivity captive trampling over all those that resisted either his Power or our Salvation So conclude this what time since his coming doth so evidently demonstrate this truth to be by our Head in part fulfilled as the after events I mean the tranquility and delight of the Church amongst themselves those hundred years immediately succeeding his suffering What though the ten Persecutions did exceedingly rage against the Saints according to the 4th verse of that 20. of the Revelations The blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church Yea they did even then reign most gloriously with Christ. As the Kingdome of our Saviour and the brightness of the Church shined most perspicuously when the purity thereof brake forth in their profession and constancy so the miseries of Christians and the liberty of Sathan is never more apparent then when the damnableness and obscurity of capital Heresies Eclipse the visible face of the Church For in the first we may truly be said to live and tryumph even in death in the last their supposed freedome is the greatest slavery and their seeming life but a cursed and eternal deprivation Three Days continued though not compleat was the proportion of time allotted to measure out my Saviours last sleep Had he dyed and presently revived unbelieving Man would have tearmed such a Death but a Transe Yea the scandalous Rulers would have blasted the wonderfull Miracle of his Resurrection with an accusation of self-contradicting and not performance of his former protestation Destroy this Temple and within three Days I will build it up again Wherefore O my Soul that thy faith might be confirmed in the sure belief of his dying The Jews convicted by the truth of his performance and his own Power magnified by the Divinity of the act he is content to lodge as it were in a second Womb viz. of Clay that all things being perfected the third Day he might lead his the way to a birth of Glory The victorious Soul of my Saviour after the reliction of his Body having trampled upon Death tryumphed over Hell and took a full possession of Heaven that his actions as they were the means so they might be as it were the story and prophecy of our succeeding All the Souls of the faithfull when they part with this hollow Clay in like manner though through his right conculcate Death and Hell enjoying the new Jerusalem Behold he now proceeds by the raising of his Body to assure us that our Bodies shall be like our Souls immortal as our Souls shall be made like unto his most glorious through the re-creation of his beautifull Image in us The object of my Faith hath hitherto been a Night-piece full fraught with Persecution and suffering tears and strong cries dying and burial but now the all-flourishing Rayes of the Immortal Deity personally in the Son of Righteousness at his rising breaks forth changing that Darkness into Light To this may be applied that of the Psalmist Mourning may continue for a Night but joy comes in the Morning Noah's Ark the true Figure of a Christians faith must be drenched in the Waves and driven by the Wind a long time before it shall rest dry and safe upon the Mountains of Ararat The humiliation of my Saviour was his night wherein the humanity did most manifest it self So his exaltation in which his Resurrection hath a part is his Day wherein the brightness and power of his God-head did shew it self most apparently Adam the destroyer of Man first enjoyed a blessing a Paradise before he merited a Curse a Hell But the Messias the restorer of Man must first be made an execration before he can purchase for us a re-possession Not long since I besought all true believers to weep with Christ who wept not for himself but for them But now my Soul breaths forth a more pleasing request which I prefer not to all but to those only which are mourners in Sion That as they have grieved with Him and for themselves in him so now they would be filled with his solace and tryumph in his Victory That as they have sowed in tears they may now reap in joy Every Man was a debtor unto the Almighty untill Christ our surety paid the mortgage and redeemed our Souls He satisfied the debt on the Cross least we should doubt of the sufficiency of his satisfaction For behold here our acquittance and the Bonds rent even the Bonds of Death torne asunder in and by his Resurrection Have we not then cause to rejoyce for so great a deliverance The mirth of Moses Myriam and the Israelites was expressed in a Song of thanksgiving when the Egyptians were entombed in the Sea The joy of Barak and Debora was proclaimed in an Anthem of praise when Sisera and his Chariots were discomfited The Virgins of Israel were not silent when David overthrew Goliah And shall we that are delivered from the slavery of a spiritual Pharaoh sin from the tyranny of a hellish Sysera a strong Goliah Sathan the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr and over all the Children of disobedience be empty of gladness and gratefulness when all the Creatures land and praise our Moses our Barak our David our Jesus shall not all the People especially the redeemed of the Lord say Amen Let us now walk forth with those of Emmaus to meet our Saviour after the Resurrection of his Body Praying earnestly that through the Power of his Spirit he would open the eyes of our faith that we may believe confess and rejoyce in his Resurrection The infinite affection of this Saviour of ours is apparent in every action His love made him depart from glory when he descended from the bosome of his Father his love made him conceal his
all the Children of pride For The Seed of the Woman hath broken this Serpents Head And the Devil shall be cast into Hell What though he be the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr for his number Legions for his strength a Principality a Power a Lion and for the depth of Policy and malice stiled the Ruler of Darkness and also the accuser of the Brethren yet know he is but a Creature and thy Saviours Vassal For By Him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible or invisible whether they be Thrones Dominions Principalities or Powers And he that made him can make his Sword approach unto him And though the number of fallen Angels be great yet the number of the Elect Angels its likely are far greater at least their Power greater as the issue of that great battel in Heaven if literally takeâ— illustrates So that thy eyes being opened by faith there are more that are with us than against us Christ is that Lion of the Tribe of Judah our Sampson to destroy that roaring Lion the Devil the wisdome of the Father and the light that not only enlightens our darkness but dissipates and puts to flight the darkness and subtilties of Sathan the only Mediator betwixt God and Man the Son of God the lover and friend of Men The Brother of the Brethren To conclude he it is to thy comfort whom the Father hath set at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all those Principalities and Powers and all might and dominion Who hath spoiled these Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly tryumphing over them even on his Cross. Therefore rejoyce yee Heavens and yee that dwell therein for now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdome of our God and the Power of his Christ For The accuser of our Brethren is cast down which accused them before God day and night Do I expect thee O my Soul to be a companion of this Heavenly Quire Why then do I hear thee utter nothing but mourning and as it were keep time with sighs Such a Song admits not of a burthen I will not bear a part with thee since in thy tears as in a mirror I see Hanibal ad portas another Enemy at thy Gates At thy Gates did I say nay entred and within thee so that now thy sobs me-thinks are vocal and articulate groaning out nothing but such sad captive complaints as these I am carnal and sold under sin O wretch that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death O my Soul though thy fear questions yet let it not make thee despair of a Deliverer say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord whom he hath sent to be thy Saviour even in the midst of this fiery Furnace So that like those Votive Martyrs though with the Flesh thou obeyest and art invironed with sin yet with the Minde thou servest the Lord. I am not ignorant that like to the City of Ai there are behinde thee ambushes of thy first Parents transgression before thee the Armies of thy many actual offences on both hands of thee the wages of sins of commission and omission yea that the Infantry of thy in-bred and original corruptions have not only taken but begun to Fire thy out-works Yet fear not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord for these spiritual Egyptians thy Enemies which thou hast seen in this short day of thy life and travail thou shalt see no more for ever since the Chariot-wheels of their strength shall be taken off and in conclusion their selves shall be drowned and hid in that red Sea of thy Saviours pretious blood Wherefore armed with a holy and Jehu-like severity command as Joshua once the five Kings so these the heads and chief of these thy Enemies to be brought forth and let them be slain with a Christian magnanimity even with that two-edged Sword which proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Fear not with Gedeons stripling that Goliah-like transgression of Adam though as a second Briarius his many Armies of Pride Blasphemy Rebellion Unthankfulness Discontent Curiosity yea all manner of wickedness seem to threaten Heaven Neither quit thy ground though he brandish against thee that curse that Cherubs flaming Sword in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Let him strike yea let the stroke wound thee and bring thee upon thy knees yea let the wound send forth floods of penitent tears for this thy fall shall be thy rise this thy humiliation thy greatest exaltation This is that Weapon that gives both death and life For this thy misery is become the object of that infinite mercy which not only rescues thee but sheathes this his mortal Sword in this thy Enemies bowels Since by Man came death by Man came also the Resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive And lest he should again revive as Joab did to rebellious Absalom He again pierces his heart with these three Darts As by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all unto justification of life for as by one Mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous That as sin reigned unto death even so might grace reign thorough righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That Cloud is disperst But behold a greater storm arises even such a one as not only shakes and endangers the Battlements of a Christian conversation but blowes up the foundation When an Enemy besieges he ever is within view But if he take a Bulwork he gains possession and the loss seem irrecoverable Adams sin imputed like a furious adversary surrounds beleagures and shatters the whole Fort of Man But that Original corruption that holy David complains of as conceived and born in by propagation makes neerer approaches and undermines the Mud-walls of our Flesh taking possession of the Tryangular and chiefest Cyttadel which once yielded he fills every sconce of the sence with Armed Lusts and mounts through every Loop-hole a murdering piece which continually roares against Heaven And as for the Chief Commander Collonel and Mustar-master the understanding will and memory having put out their Eyes it makes them in the Dungeon of Ignorance grinde like Sampson at the Mill of Lust and fleshly desires Thus miserable and seemingly irrecoverable is our estate in Nature whilst our in-bred corruption that strong Man keeps the hold But let us not be discouraged for the Lord Jesus who is stronger than he is come upon him and hath overcome him taking from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and dividing his spoyles being sent by God in the likeness
who were deprived for a time of their Principalities for their refractoriness to Idolatry In defence against the first assault the pious Christian marching under Christs royal Standard victoriously opposes his Shield of faith with which and the Sword of the Spirit he disorders and puts to flight his Enemies reverberating and expulsing Sathans temptations with the blessed Virgins Antheme God scattereth the proud in the imaginations of their hearts and pulls down the mighty from their Seates and exalts them of low degree With the curse of the holy Prophet Isaiah Woe to the Crown of Pride Yea he concludes the Victory with that holy Maxime of St. James God resists the proud Now who amongst us shall be able to dwell with everlasting burning If the Lord condemns who can justify In pride in all these places the Spirit of God includeth ambition which essentially differs not being connatural and concomitant with her As for the temptation on the left hand the loss of any temporal dignities The valiant Christian poyses them with the glorious promises of Gods faithfull word whereby judging of their lightness he concurs with holy David that surely Men of low degree are vanity and Men of high degree are a lye to be laid in the Ballance they are altogether lighter than vanity And therefore returns this or the like counter-buff Get thee behind me Sathan for I value not thy threats since thou boasts of that which is not in thy power The haires of my Head are numbred the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth low and lifteth up But say the Lord should suffer thee as he did in Job to be the Instrument of my debasement I will kiss Gods Rod even in thy hand and say with that holy Man The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the Name of the Lord and with that tryumphing Apostle In all these things viz. disgraces and losses of what kinde soever I am more than a Conquerour through Christ that loved me For what things were gain to me those I count loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I will suffer the loss of all things accounting them but dung that I may win Christ. The highest favours of Princes from whom flow Earthly dignities are but shadowes of true honour Shadowes for they weakly express them and vanish when their Sun is set or clouded He that pours contempt upon Princes commands me not to rely upon them Put not your trust in Princes nor in the Son of Man in whom there is no help If not in them much less in their gifts For in that very day in an instant they their gifts and thoughts perish My happiness is a better hope My honour is more surely fixt than by Man or Devil to be extirpated or extinguisht Can all thy power O Enemy of Man frustrate my Election whereby from Eternity I am enroll'd a Peer of Heaven Can all thy policy or force dim the splendour or annihilate that title of being called and truly adopted the Son of God Canst thou disrobe me of my honourable red and white Garments of Justification and Sanctification in my Saviour O Father of lyes canst thou turn light into darkness and truth into falshood Deprive me of my Crown and nullify these glorious and infallible promises Fear not my little Flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdome Those that honour me I will honour If any Man serve me him will my Father honour Glory and honour and peace to every one that worketh good I am assured and conclude thou canst not And therefore I trample under foot thy power and vilify thine and the Worlds menaces and offers as believing in the royal might and truth of my Saviour That neither life nor death nor Angels Principalities Powers nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. Having thus routed and discomfitted the Wings and first Squadrons of the Enemy we must not rest here losing both our hopes and advantage A Christians whole life we have heard is a continued warfare To live unto the Lord and by self-denyal to overcome former temptations is a happy progress towards our Victory But to persevere to the end to dye for the Lord is the conclusion the Crown the tryumph of the Christian. By how much the Enemy is more powerfull and terrible by so much is the service more honourable and the conquest more glorious This last Phalanx of the Worlds force Persecutions are her Janizaries her Pretorian bands her last refuge in whom she puts her chiefest confidence led and marshalled by Sathans Lieutenant General described and set forth in the Revelations by him riding upon a red Horse destroying the fourth part of the World who may be also as expressing its mortal effects figuratively called Death whom Hell it self follows and attends Well is this the last and strongest of our worldly adversaries Yea have they begun already or will they shortly certainly assault us and notwithstanding our former Trophies contend with us for our Palme For all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecutions Let us like our English Martyrs with courage leaping and rejoycing run to kiss the Stake to meet our Opposers yea as the Apostle our tortures not accepting deliverance that we may obtain a better resurrection Are we hated by the World It is the surest mark of our Election by God So the word of truth Because yee are not of this World but I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hates you Have we mourning here It ushers in yea accompanies an unutterable and inseparable joy Yee shall be sorrowfull saith our Saviour but your sorrow shall be turned into joy and your joy shall no Man take from you Yea do we so far suffer for well doing that we are delivered over to Death as Malefactors Remember we are not without a companion in our sufferings our blessed Saviour was Crucifyed and reckoned amongst the Transgressors Now the Servant is not greater than the Lord if they have persecuted him they will also persecute you To conclude if we be conformable to Christ in his Death we shall also be like him in his Resurrection we shall have a change rather than a loss For He that loseth his life for his sake shall finde it viz. Immortality which is only the true life This is a faithfull saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him If we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us Thus then have I made good my proposition that this is the Victory that overcomes the World even our Faith Thanks
his faithfull Saints and Servants For there as my Meditations must cease because faith shall be then fruition so also the Kingdome of Grace and Mediatorship shall determine according to that of the Apostle Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God even the Father when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that puts all things under Him that God may be all in all To proceed then the Christian Soul being about to take her Heavenly flight upon the apprehension of her particular together with the General Judgment starts back and trembling with a sudden fear thus revolves and laments Alas why haste I so fast unto the dreadfull Tribunal of a just and sin-revenging God Am I not an infinite offendor indited by Sathan witnessed against by conscience yea found guilty and convicted by self-confession Why flye I then so speedily to hear that sentence of condemnation Goe yee cursed into everlasting Fire Is not this that terrible day of the Lord spoken of A Day of trouble of distress of wastenesse and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess of Clouds and thick darkness The day of Battel the great Day of Gods wrath Surely if it be not it is the parallel the preludium thereof for as the Tree falls so it lies As Death leaves Judgment findes Oh how am I astonished when I but think of the horror and torment of that Hellish Tophet those everlasting burnings merited for me by my sins roomthy enough for Worlds of sinners For God hath made it deep and large never ceasing in its fiery vengeance for want of fuel as sometimes the burnings of Aetna for the Pile thereof is Fire and much Wood ever abounding and continuing in its fury and rigour of punishing For the breath of the Lord doth kindle it There 's weeping wailing and gnashing of Teeth The Worme that gnaws the Chain that enthrals the contempt that vilifies the Fire that torments and burns is without consumption All which therefore are infinite because everlasting Justice requiring that our deficient nature should for our infinite debt be thus eternally extended Nor is this Paena sensus this positive misery although endless easiless remediless all Is there not a far greater because more spiritual and intrinsical that Paena damni that death of the Soul the banishment separation and privation of Gods blessed face and of all hope of happiness for ever O the torture of these premeditations Lord if the thoughts of Hell be a Hell what will the infliction be Blest Saviour which once prayedst to be saved from this hour as being in all things tempted like us sin only excepted be my mercifull high Priest and royal Champion to deliver me in this hour and from this temptation yea let my faith in this her last act and motion be swiftest and strongest because neerest to thee her Centre O my Soul have not I often seen one small Cloud to hide the Sun from our Eyes and finde I not it true spiritually also that one dram of sorrow embitters a great measure of joy A few doubtings to eclipse and for a time obscure the bright beams of true believing But no wonder for this is the hour of darkness therefore the fittest time for the power of darkness to act its part Corruption and infidelity are now to bid adieu and to raise their Siege from the Soul and therefore give the sharpest assault and battery to the Bulworks of thy faith Wherefore let not thy vain fear betray the succours which both faith and reason offer but recollect thy self and consider Is not thy Saviour and King the same yesterday to day and for ever Are not his promises yea and Amen Are not his gifts and callings without repentance Hath he loved thee and will he not love thee to the end Hath he begun and is he not able to perfect Will he even at the point and in the height of his tryumph be overcome in thee one of his Members Hath he made thee yea new-made thee Hath he paid thy ransome with his precious heart-blood Yea with infinite sufferings preserved thee all thy life past from many-fold dangers and Enemies by his gracious providence And will he now to the dishonour of his omnipotency deliver up his glory his prize to his expiring and almost vanquisht adversary O far be from thee such weak and groundless imaginations but because infidelity and temptation are often-times deaf and seem to be of proof even against undeniable arguments and demonstrations mount against all thy scruples and timorous unbeliefs the Canon of Gods word which will quickly level all impediments and through the strongest barrocadoes of Sathans suggestions make way for a safe a happy passage and exit to thy Soul As an Introduction to which let these holy Lights and examples of departing Saints be premeditated of Such as that speech of dying Jacob Lord I wait for thy salvation such the obedience and chearfull dissolution of those two unparalleld Levites Moses and Aaron they went up to the tops of the Mount Hor and Nebo and dyed there such the cruel and voluntary Martyrdome though inspired by an extraordinary Spirit of valiant Sampson such also the last words of royal David He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered and sure for this is all my salvation The expressions also of Job Paul and others might be instanced but I will conclude with pious Simeon's devout wish Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation Further to thy establishment and comfort in that day when God shall judge the secrets of all Men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel consider what firme assurance thou hast of the favour and how neer relation thou hast to the Person of thy Judge For herein as the Apostle speaks is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this World Is not the same Lord Jesus Christ that sole and universal Tribune to whom the Father hath committed all Judgment and to whom all power is given both in Heaven and in Earth As being that Man whom God hath ordained to judge the World in righteousness even the Quick and the Dead And before whose Judgment Seat all must stand Is not he I say by the witness of his own word and undeniable truth so neerly allyed and endeared to thee that the strongest tyes of nature are by him figuratively taken up to shadow out rather then to fully express his indissoluble affection As that he is thy Master nay more O infinite love and humility thy servant That he is thy friend yea more O ineffable honour and exaltation thy brother yea more if this be not enough he
stiled passions shall in that life comparatively exceed but not subjectively the full and lasting gale in that Ocean filling the Sailes not sinking the bottome O my love which art now full of repentings and unconstant because unsatisfyed wishing with Alexander more Worlds to marry thy affections to which hadst thou beyond Arithmetical progression thou wouldst still prove a Harlot and they insufficient For though a Creature thou art fitted only for an infinite object not to comprehend it but to be comprehended of it Wherefore nothing finite can be adequal or proportionable to thy extension Hence even the Worlds darlings the wicked have this Monument of their lost happiness and primitive Creation remaining viz. they live and dye seeking and unsatisfyed But the Elect as they are restless in their search with the Spouse in the Canticles so at length they finde him whom their Soul loves But as yet He standeth behind our Wall he looketh forth at the Window shewing himself thorow the Lattess With him they enter into a mutual contract in Baptisme and receive continual pledges and love-tokens by his Spirit In this life by reason of seeming absence clowdings and intermissions our loves are violent yet pleasing passions But in the other that day of our Nuptials they shall be swallowed up in excelling fruitions Then shall we affect and enjoy in one the all of goodness and loveliness The love which is here different and divided according to the diversity of opinions and objects shall be in God one and concentred in him we both affecting and possessing the eminency of beauty the height of honours the Elixar of pleasures the perfection of wisdome So that the then glorified sences the Windows and ports of the affections though inconceivably enlarged shall then continually receive in even to overflowing spiritual and ravishing object of love and delight For In his presence is fulness of joy and at his right hand pleasures for evermore Lastly which ought most to ravish us neither this nor any other affection or faculty of the Soul shall be limitted or at their heighth of glory Not but that in the first entrance they shall have a present sufficiency and fulness for even in Heaven there shall be no Vacuum but as we have seen a Bladder filled with Wind afterward by a second influx far more extended yet at all times full And as our Saviour is said to increase more and more in knowledge yet from his conception full according to his organical reception so the glorified Saints like the Angels on Jacob's Ladder according to their several degrees shall mount and continually encrease and ascend to higher steps of Glory the influxe of all divine excellencies incessantly and at once both enlarging and filling all their faculties all their affections So then desire of more shall never torture us because ever full nor satiety cloy us because our joyes shall be ever new and encreasing The grounds of this Coelestial and Eternal growth of happiness excellency and glory arises both from Gods Word and Nature The Prophet telling us that those which are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament Our Saviour yet higher The righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father Let Solomon expound both the Path of the Just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day They as the Sun mounting towards their Meridional heighth God to whom they shall be perpetually approaching neerer and more and more like in glory but never shall nor can reach or equalize he being and dwelling in infinite and inaccessable lights Farther our Saviour teaches us that in Heaven we shall be like the Angels Now the Angels have accidental joyes in the repentance of sinners Accidental knowledge by the Church of the mysteries of our Redemption and no doubt if their joyes and wisdome have an accidental encrease through the Creature then much more from God the Fountain This being I conceive one meanes as respecting them subordinate and co-operating with Gods high and eternal decree for their confirmation in Christ it being impossible for that essence to fall away that is continually intent upon and replenisht with new fruitions and manifestations of Gods glory This being a blessedness both to Angels and Men that the Wings of Cherubins and Seraphins though they are without labour and wearisomness and with delight ascending yet they can never out-soar the infinite heights of the divine Majesty and incomprehensible fulness If the affection of love O my Soul shall be perfect in Heaven as hath been declared and perfect love casts out fear as saith the Apostle what place is then left for the affection of fear in glory I answer our divine love both now and then shall exclude all servile and slavish fear but not our filial Espousal and Reverential fear which if found in our sinless Mediator who was heard in that he feared and a duty of the glorious Angels that with this reverential fear serve and praise him and exhort all others to do it then also of glorified Saints who if commanded to fear God for ever and as long as the Sun and Moon endureth shall doubtless thus fear him everlastingly and in Heaven as well as here upon Earth For as love without this fear would be presumptuous so fear without love would be painfull and discouraging But both together are to the sanctified Soul as Ballast to a Ship to keep it steady and doth grandize elevate and enlarge each affection from the awfull apprehensions and adoration of so super-excelling an object of infinite glory as is the Trinity in Unity Jehovah God blessed for ever Further if this saving grace and sanctified affection of holy fear is by Solomon commended to us as the beginning and end of divine wisdome in the Saints on Earth shall they be denuded of it and excluded from it in Heaven Is it held forth in Scripture as the summe and implication of all religious duties and worship and the condition or rather qualification of those holy ones that have right to temporal spiritual and eternal promises in the Word and shall this grace then cease when with other graces it is to be Crown'd with Glory Is this pure affection the Salt to preserve from corrupting not only in the Marriage-state amongst Men but in the conjugal and spiritual union betwixt Christ and his Spouse the Church and shall it not be as lasting as that Union which is everlasting I conclude it shall though with this difference according to our differing condition not a fear of offending because we shall be then in a sinless condition Not such a fear as was in the Spouse in the Canticles because of sin and infirmities nor of Gods hiding his face and with-drawing his presence for former things are past away all things are made new we are entred into life
in its splendour but in its voluntary motion and other glorified qualities Now as he ascended so said the Angels shall he descend not step by step but as it is most like with inconceivable celerity else could not the first Century have confessed him to be at the right hand of his Father in the highest Heavens a hundred of years not being sufficient according to Astronomical discoveries to have ascended so many millions of miles Nor could the Saints after the Judgment past under the expence of many years attain those Heavenly Mansions The glorified Soul being now to re-enter reassume and to be reunited to its own body chearfully takes possession and findes it raised filled and prepared by the Almighty Power of the Creator for its habitation Not as formerly a Prison hindring and streightning its faculties and their enlarged operations by reason of Organical deficiencies but made in every part member and sence capacious and proportionate to its utmost activity Not as formerly a natural weighty dull and earthly body but a Coelestial Heavenly and spiritual body Not as formerly occasioned by the curse of sin corruptible and mortal but incorruptible and immortal Not as formerly weak and infirm especially at Death pale noisome filthy and dishonourable but powerfull and shining with glory according to the Word of Truth declared by the Apostle It is sowne in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption it is sowne in dishonour it is raised in Glory it is sowne in weakness it is raised in Power it is sowne a natural Body it is raised a spiritual Body As we have borne the Image of the Earthly so shall we bare the Image of the Heavenly for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Hosea the thirteenth Vers. the fourteenth Death is swallowed up in Victory From the preceding Scripture is evidently proved that the glorification of our bodies shall principally consist First in being raised spiritual and heavenly bodies Secondly in being made shining and glorious Thirdly in their being incorruptible and immortal of all which more particularly and first of their spirituality and heavenliness Our present bodies although they are compounded of the four Elements yet are made up in an unequal mixture the proportion being much less of Water than of Earth and much less of Ayre than of Water and of Fire than of Ayre Therefore our Bodies have the denomination from Earth and not from any of the rest and are called in the foregoing Text Earthly Bodies And much different in their mixture from the Bodies of Fishes Fowles Meateors This also our natural motion declares For being placed in any one of the three other Elements and left at liberty by reason of our Earthly ponderousness we violently move towards the Centre of the Earth of which we were form'd and upon which is our habitation But our state place and condition being to be changed at the resurrection of the just our bodies that shall be a live at the Lords second coming shall be changed And though the same bodies for matter and substance as saith holy Job shall be raised yet much differing from what they were before as to their mixture and qualities And therefore are said to be raised Spiritual and Heavenly Bodies A further proof whereof the Holy Spirit gives us in that Text wherein he saith the Lord Jesus Christ shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself The same witnesses the beloved Apostle in that his blessed gradation and comparison of our present and future more glorious condition Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Whence note this Apostle or the rest did not yea could not with their then bodily eyes behold him as he was then risen from the dead he vailing his glory in condescention to their present state A second Heavenly and Spiritual quality of the Saints glorified Bodies is a swift and speedy local motion prophesied of as many interpret that place in the Prophet Isay They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with Wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Which I cannot better manifest to our weak apprehensions than by comparing it to a flash of lightning which in an instant passeth from the East to West and from one Port of the vast Canopy of Heaven to the other This quality also was manifested to be in our Saviours glorified Body upon Earth like to which we shall be raised by his swift passage from Jerusalem being many score miles to a Mountain in Galilee when he was seen of five hundred Brethren at once And from Jerusalem to the Sea of Tiberius when he did eat with Peter and the rest after the great draught of Fishes And from thence to Jerusalem again at his Ascention from Mount Olivet And which is also most demonstrable by his discent from Heaven to the Aire when he spoke to and was seen of Paul in the way to Damascus which without doubt was a personal not a visional appearance since the Apostle adds that to his other personal appearances saying last of all he was seen of me which had not it been real had been but a slender proof of our Saviours Resurrection To which end he there vouches it As our Souls are now like the Angels yea Angels in the Flesh so then our Bodies as to this Spiritual quality shall be raised like our Souls That so their future union may be lasting and compleat and this Marriage may continue and be indissolveable In which respect the Apostle saith they shall be raised not only spiritual but heavenly bodies as fitted to dwell in that place which for the matter Philosophers call a Quint-essence far more refined than any or all the four Elements and which the Scripture calls the Heaven of Heavens and the Inheritance of the Saints in light O my Soul shall thy Body at that great change and resurrection of the just be raised heavenly and spiritual like the body of our Lord be pure as the Essence of Angels as speedy and quick as to motion as the lightning and fitted to inhabit Heaven Have a high value and esteem of it and make not this Vessel of honour by sinning a Vessel of dishonour the Members of Christ the Members of a Harlot the Image of God and Christ the Image of Sathan the Temple of the Holy Ghost a Stie yea
glorified in their sinless condition when the whole Soul Body Members and Senses shall all co-operate in their several functions and offices to Gods great glory and their own Further it is not improbable that although the Root Fountain Confirmation and Eternity of the Saints life flowes primarily from their spiritual union and communion with God in Christ yet as a medium or a secondary and natural means for our God is Natura Naturans this way as it was and should have been made use of in Paradise may be still continued to nourish delight and be subservient as the Rain is to the Plants although the Earth is their great Mother to Eternal Life in the Saints And such no doubt was the Tree of Life not excluding it to be of a Sacramental nature also to our first Parents before their Fall All which is evident from the reason God gives of their speedy exclusion from their continuance or return into Paradise to eat thereof Lest they should eat thereof and live for ever Now that Paradise was a Figure and Pattern none I conceive will deny this of the Saints unto which the Lord Jesus was sent to restore us Although this is much better and higher as to the degrees of our happiness and condition by how much the second Adam and publick head of the Saints is much higher and more excellent than the first Adam or common Head and Root of Man-kind Fifthly if no use of the sense of gust or tasting or that in this our glorified state in the new Heaven and the new Earth there shall be no eating or drinking For I presume not to give here any judgment as to the exercise of these two senses of tasting and smelling in the highest degree of the Saints Glory in the Heaven of Heavens when the Mediatory Kingdome of Christ shall have an end and shall be delivered up to God the Father that God may be All in All I having much less light from Scripture or reason probably to know or guess what shall be the exercise and object of these senses in those super-excelling and glorious Regions than in this new Earth which is to be renewed and restored to us by our Lord Jesus the second Adam I say if the Saints glorified shall not eat nor drink in that new Heaven and Earth what shall become of or what use shall be made of most of the internal Members or parts of the Body Of which as to their most excellent frame great number and use skilfull Anatomists have written large Volumes to the glory of the wisdome power and work of God in them Shall the glorified Bodies be like an empty Trunck void of a stomack liver guts bowels bladder and the rest If so as it is contrary to the Scripture which saith The same Bodies shall be raised which includes all the internal as well as the external parts of the Body so what use shall be made of these of the Teeth and the rest if there be no eating or drinking nor employment of them as a natural and secondary means still ordained of God for the nourishment and continuation of a healthfull and equal temperament called by Philosophers Temperamentum ad pondus aequale and as for the everlasting Well-being of the Body Sixthly It is a Maxime in nature and made good by experience that all animate and compounded Creatures on Earth are nourished and preserved in their being by feeding upon such things as are compounded of the like Elements of the which they partake And is it not more than probable that the Saints glorified bodies the time they continue on the renewed Earth shall as by a natural and middle way be delighted nourisht preserved and continued as to their Bodies by drinking the simple and refined Water and juices of the Vine and other the then incorruptible fruits as before in Paradise And by eating the super-excelling fruits Plants and Roots the subject of our Fathers nourishment before Noah's Flood being a mixture and composition even of the same repurged matter and Elements of which our new-raised and glorified bodies consist may therefore both in reason and nature God according to his former Method so ordaining it be most proper and subservient to the end afore-mentioned Which end being finisht these compounded substances being in the body as in a limbeck separated may by insensible transpiration or otherways revert each part of them again to its proper Element and by a circulation as now without annihilation continue and preserve the being of the whole new Heaven and new Earth without the least diminution But it may be objected that our blessed Saviour declares in his answer to the Sadduces that the glorified Saints shall at the Resurrection be as and equal to the Angels but the Angels neither eat nor drink To which objection I give this double answer that first he saith not we shall be like but as and equal to the Angel And besides it is unknown to us as I said before how their life and being is continued and preserved We know they live and believe they shall live ever and that they are spiritual substances but what their formes are whether they can be circumscrib'd as our Bodies are or only defined to be in such or such a place this is discoursed of but not ascertained The curious learned yea some possibly too curious have in their writings affirmed that they have conversed seen and spoken with Angels That they have bodies although so spiritual and like the light that they cannot be seen but when they please themselves and that they have a nourishment conducing to their being of an etherial nature connatural and agreeable to their spiritual substances From all which I infer that unless our Saviours expression that we shall be like the Angels or any other Scripture had excluded the Angels from eating or drinking or receiving any nourishment by which in their manner their substances are refreshed and continued for nothing but God subsists of it self and from its self the Angels may be nourished as aforesaid And as for seeing hearing and touching the Scripture testifie the Angels exercise them all although in a more excellent manner than we do That expression of our Saviour yee shall be like the Angels excludes not nor proves any thing against the eating or drinking of the glorified Saints during their abode in the new Heaven and the new Earth My second answer is that this speech of our blessed Lord is a proper full and positive answer to the question of the Sadduces whose Wife should the Woman be that had seven Husbands at the Resurrection That since the Saints then shall neither marry nor be given in marriage but shall in that respect be like the Angels that their invincible Argument as they conceived it was void and proved nothing against the Doctrine of the Resurrection Therefore it is to be limited and restrained and not to be extended as to exclude the
lascivious or any other evil speeches enter let my heart and Tongue hate scourge and execute thy Law upon them by a zealous and holy reproof if the Speakers be not Dogs or Swine giving them a pass and sending thâ—â— packing O blessed Lord let not the delightfull sounds of Musick nor the natural or artificial pleasing voices of any Creature be thy rival steal away in the least my time or heart from thee Nor let me with the Whore of Babylon and her Imitators carnally legally and only outwardly give thee an unwarrantable and un-Gospel-like Ear and service without my understanding and without my heart But give me to joyn with and delight to hear the Musick of the lower Heaven the Songs Psalmes and praisings of thee in the Congregations of the Saints That being trained up to have a Childs place in this blessed Chore upon Earth I may be fitted and preferred to have a Man's place in the glorious Quire of Saints and Angels in Heaven O Lord let me I beseech thee not only externally but internally hear thy voice for it is sweet that my Soul may be inwardly acquainted with the Dialect of Heaven so shall my Soul speak and answer thee in the same Angel-like Language in mental and Ejaculatory Prayers and praises here a service not only required but most acceptable to thee and with Ear and Heart hereafter hear thee and return unto thee in Soul and Body praises and glorify thee Eternally in the Heavens Amen Having in the six foregoing preliminaries in all humility declared my Opinion answered the chief objections and given the reason and ground thereof both from Scripture and the light of Nature As also shewed the necessary happy and spiritual use and end of the Saints exercise of all the Five Senses as tending much more to the glory of God and the increase of their innocent and spiritual delight compleat happiness and blessedness both in Soul and Body in that their glorified state I shall not need to add much more as concerning the sense of Tasting which undoubtedly shall as well as that of Seeing and Hearing be much meliorated and heightned in this life of Glory It being cleerly evident and agreeable to right reason that as the objects and subjects upon which this Sense shall be frequently exercised be they things potable as Waters Juices and Liquors or things edible as Roots Flowers Plants Hearbs and Fruits shall much excell not only in their powers vertues and beauty but also in their juice and relish the choicest of that kind now in being as hath been formerly evinced and illustrated by reason of their new birth and incorruptible nature so shall our senses and particularly this of the Taste be wonderfully enlarged and raised and proportionably fitted and enabled accurately to distinguish and discern of the different and innumerable excellencies as to their taste by which even now a skilfull Naturalist can give a right judgment as to their vertues of such a multitude of simples and individuals that so by the exquisitness of this sense our Souls and Bodies may not only be made the more happy and blessed but delighted in the use of Gods good Creatures as the medium and conveighance of nourishment ordained of God as formerly in Mans innocency to be usefull and subservient although not absolutely necessary to our glorious and Eternal Life we having a far more virtual and higher Root of Life for our life is hid in Christ with God And also that by the testimony of this sense both Soul and Body may be the more enlarged and lifted up in the praises admiration and adoration of the wisdome power mercy and goodness of our God the Creator giver and free restorer of such manifold and wonderfull blessings in and by his Eternally begotten and only beloved Son our Head and Spouse the Lord Jesus Christ. As for the killing or eating of the Flesh of any of the sensible Creatures I humbly conceive and that upon good grounds there shall not then be any such use of them they being now made incorruptible and in their nature as everlasting as the Elements out of which they are taken and so shall continue by vertue of this new Creation so long as it pleaseth God The food of the Saints in this new Earth being only a lightning and exonerating the fruit-bearing vegitives that so they may be continually bringing forth new harvests to the glory of their Creator not a bringing in bondage or unto destruction any of the Creatures now delivered and admitted to enjoy the glorious liberty of the Children of God This blessed state being as it were Paradise revived a new Creation and restauration of all things in this new Heaven and new Earth by the obedience merit and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ the second Adam although much more transcending of what was lost by the fall sin and disobedience of the first Adam That last Paradise being intended in the Eternal wisdome and decree of God as I humbly conceive and seems to me now to be clearly manifested to be but the Type shaddow and figure of this all things being made by and for him who is the Heir of all things the Head and Spouse of his Church the first-fruits of them that sleep the beginning and the first-born from the dead and the first-born of every Creature and the beginning of the Creation of God I shall now conclude this subject with this monition to all true Christians not to suppose or dream here of the Poets Elysian Field or of a Turkish Paradise in this glorious state nor to be so sinfully carnal as to imagine that the sinless Souls and Bodies of the new raised and glorified Saints either shall or can abuse this Sense by any excess and make it instrumental as now to sensuality gluttony and drunkenness nor on the other extream let no Christian be so unbelievingly spiritual as contrary to Scripture that affirms the same Bodies shall be raised to deny what it asserts as an object of our faith nor so absurd and irrational as the Papists in their Doctrine of Transubstantiation to deny to our Bodies raised the properties parts and senses of which a true Body subsists thereby to destroy the true nature and essence of the Body all that are truly Saints being practically and experimentally assured that if in this life wherein we are incompast about with a Body of Sin and Death this sense and the rest may be and is spiritually made use of by us in the enjoyment of Gods good Creatures to his great praise and admiration then much more will they be beneficial and He be honoured in them by us in that our sinless condition and life of Glory O my Soul shall thy sense of Tasting be not only retained but exceedingly perfected greatly enlarged and elevated at thy Bodies Resurrection and glorious living with thy Head the Lord Jesus Christ upon the renewed Earth Shalt thou eat
and a learned Man was declared an Heretick for holding there was an Antipodes or a new World before its discovery so may possibly these my weak notions and contemplations although of a Divine subject because not heretofore searcht into by others that I know of and therefore if the Lord in his providence shall order them to come to a publick view I only recommend them to the devout perusal and judgment of holy humble regenerate and practical Christians who although in the Body do by divine Meditation as it were live out of the Body and have been so far changed into the Image of Christ and taught and renewed by his holy Spirit that they have brought their Bodies and Senses unto such a spiritual frame and exercise as is declared and exhorted to in the foregoing discourse These will rightly judge of this personal Raign of Christ with his Saints upon Earth and how uncharitably and unjustly and I may add ignorantly many in other respects learned religious and to be honoured have ignominiously and falsely branded this Doctrine as though it was New Epicureal and Sensual whereas the truth is it is a most antient and Primative Doctrine and nothing else but the declaration and affirmation of that glorious condition of Christ and his Saints that he himself the Holy Scriptures and Prophets indited and inspired by his Holy Spirit have throughout witnessed to and promised as by the Scriptures quoted in the Margin besides many others is sufficiently proved That he the second Adam should come to renew and restore all things in this lower Creation freed from the curse of sin to as good yea a far better condition than they had before the Fall When God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Now did not God make this so excellent a work for his Glory and for his Creature Man to enjoy and to serve praise and glorify him in the fruition thereof and in the admiration of him in this its excellency and goodness But did any of Man-kinde but only two Adam and Eve enjoy the Earth and the Creatures thereof in their Primitive and created excellencies and that but for a Day or two How then shall God have his end the Glory of his Power wisdome and goodness and Man the enjoyment of all his liberality and bounty and be Trumpets and witnesses of his excellencies in the Creatures How shall Gods promise be fulfilled Of making a new Heaven and a new Earth and restoring all things by his Son the Heir of all things If Man I mean all the Elect in his Soul Body and Senses shall not be renewed and live personally with Christ at this Renovation of all things for a thousand years according to the Scriptures to enjoy what God hath made and Christ hath purchased for them and to admire adore and glorify him in the Primitive end use and enjoyment of them These then that deny this and in a fervent I forbear to say ignorant hast because every Age hath its measure of light would seat the raised Saints in the highest Heavens before their time and before Gods promises and great designs be fulfilled what do they else in the declining of this great truth but force themselves upon false and Allegorical expositions of cleer and literal Scriptures making ineffectual his promise yea do they not affirm contrary to that undeniable maxime that God made these Heavens and this Earth and all the wonderfull Creatures and admirable Ornaments thereof in vain as not known nor made use of by them for whom at first he created it and again renewed it I might here add many more Arguments for the defence of this truth but I shall at this time no further digress but return to my former Method of Meditation upon this glorified Sense of Feeling Referring the Reader to those most excellent Treatises of Dr. Homes Mr. Archer and many others upon this Subject O my Soul shall this Sense be not only continued but exercised upon such excellent subjects in Glory shall it with thy Body be spiritualiz'd and as to its sensability incomparably exceed what it is now O be carefull not to effeminate or pollute it disdaining to vassalage it to pride covetousness lust or vanity But as it more than all the other Senses declares and manifests thy living in the body So let it by an innocent sober chast and holy acting testify Christs living in thee The Lord Jesus hath taken off all legal impositions such as Touch not taste not but not his Gospel and Spiritual restraining Therefore abuse not nor make use of this Christian liberty which he hath purchased for thee to fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh For if thou livest after the Flesh thou shalt dye but if through the Spirit thou mortifiest the deeds of the Flesh thou shalt live Take heed of covetousness which hath not only its seat in the Eye but in the Hand desire not with Mydas in the Poet that every thing thou touchest may become Gold but remember the issue and moral of the Fable his starving and perishing in his enjoyments Neither imbrace thou the bosome of a strange Woman for he that toucheth her shall not be innocent for her ways draw neer to death and her steps take hold of Hell she being compared by the spirit of God to a deep Ditch and to a narrow Pit out of which very few get out and are delivered For although as in the Poet Ixion-like in the height of thy lustfull pleasure thou thinkest to infold in thy Armes a Juno a Goddess The conclusion will be but the grasping of an Airy Cloud nay which is far worse a Pestilential vapour an inflam'd and killing Granado O my Soul since whilst thou art in this vain World and in this sinfull body thou art incompast about with Legions of evil spirits with innumerable snares and with secret and subtile temptations which with those in the Prophet call good evil and evil good which put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter which call light darkness and darkness light abusing lawfull things and turning them out of their right Channel by excess that so they may overflow and drown the Earth again with a far more dangerous Flood than that of Water which destroyed only a temporal Life even a deluge of sin and of flaming Fire long since foretold the cause of that Fire and without true repentance of Eternal Death watch thou therefore and pray lest thou fall into temptation and this sence be adulterated by thy pride excess and luxury and made instrumental to cause those good Creatures the soft Silks of Persia the warm Furs of Muscovia the fine Wools of Britan and Segovia given thee by God to cover thy sinfull nakedness to become a covering of sin and a Banner of pride and vanity Take heed also that this sense be not bewitched and overcome through voluptuousness and corrupt thee by an
a Glass darkly and imperfectly taken a view of the Land of Promise the Inheritance of the Saints in light and presented to the Lord and to his Spouse the Church what discoveries he hath in great mercy given me as concerning Eternal Life that last and great Article of the Christian faith begun visibly in the Saints glorified condition in the new Heaven and new Earth and continued unto Eternity in the Heaven of Heavens Wherein concluding with the glorification and blessed use and exercise of our Tongues in that happy state I thought it proper both as to the general subject I have been upon as being the Vision exercise and Tryumph of Faith and as to the subject matter both lauditory to God and declarative to one another about which our Tongues shall in our renewed life be imployed to declare in this life with all humility and thankfulness of Heart and Tongue to both which my Pen is but the Secretary in the Ejaculatory part of that Meditation what by faith I behold and am assured from the Word of Truth shall come to pass here and be injoyed by me and all Gods Elect in the life to come and shall be there a blessed Subject of our praises to all Eternity In which Song of 12. parts or Jacobs Laddar of 12. Staves whose foot stands upon Earth and top reaches to Heaven we may by faith ascend beginning here upon Earth in this present Year of our Lord 1666. by twelve successive Steps wonderfull and most signal periods noted afore in the Margint to the last and highest ascent the Glorification of the Saints in the Heavens Being now come to Hercules Pillars the Ne-plus ultra of Faith beyond which all sacred Scripture the light of Faith is silent I can proceed nor walk any further in these Contemplations lest walking without a Light I fall into the Darkness of Error It being alike sinfull curiosity and presumption to inquire what God will do after this silence When time shall be no longer as to ask what he did before time was and before this World was Created Wherefore I shall here conclude these my imperfect Meditations and with all humility and reverence return all Honour Glory and Praise to thee O glorious Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost one God blessed for ever for thy most gracious assistance by the light of thy Word and Spirit in this great Work a subject too weighty for Angels how much more for me a simple sinfull and weak Worm Lord I acknowledge that whatsoever is good right and true in this Treatise is of and from thee who art Goodness Light and Truth and to thee alone belongs the praise and that whatsoever therein is Hay or Stuble is mine who humbly takes shame therefore and Petitions for thy free pardon in my Lord Christ Jesus beseeching thee that in the assurance of thy love and mercy in him and in the faith light and assurance of thy glorious Truths herein declared out of thy Word I may with Holy Job all the Days of my appointed time wait until my Change come And with zealous Paul desire to depart and to be with Christ that so my faith and hope may be swallowed up in the possession of thee and Vision may be changed into fruition Thy Spirit and thy Bride say come And let him that heareth say come Thou O Lord that testifieth these things sayest Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all Amen Soli Deo Gloria An Advertisement by the Author to the Reader FOr the more cleer and fuller proof of the Twelve great things mentioned in the Conclusion of this Work I refer the Reader to my Treatise almost ready to be published Entitled An humble Exposition of most of the Scripture-Prophesies concerning Twelve great Periods to be fulfilled to the Church beginning to be manifested in the Year 1666. and concluding with the end of our Lords Mediatory Kingdome and the Translation of the Saints to the highest Heavens FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Of the Things contained in the TREATISE Intitulated MEDITATIONS ON FAITH A. THe Affections lose their appetite if ye do but change the object viz. Spiritual for Temporal Page 4 Christs Agony as described should much act upon our spirits Page 27 The use and abuse of the Affections Page 45 46 All Arts and Sciences are in the Scripture as Metaphysick Phylosophie Astronomy Chronologie Rhetorick c. Page 71 Christs answer to the soul complaining of her Affections Page 81 The Antiquity of the Scriptures Page 102 Of the Affections glorified Page 151 Of holy Anger glorified Page 160 A Soliloquium upon it Page 161 An Ejaculation upon it Page 161 A caution against blotting Assurance Page 185 B. The Body of man like the pool of Bethesda with its five Porches Page 22 The curse and judgement of the Body Page 52 The Souls complaint against the Body with Christs answer Page 88 89. c. Of the Body glorified Page 164 Of the spirituality and swiftness of our Bodies at the Resurrection Page 169 A soliloquium and ejaculation on those two qualities of the Body Page 170 The glorious shining of the Body at the Resurrection Page 171 A soliloquium on that shining of the Body Page 173 Item an ejaculation upon it Page 174 Of the Immortality of the Body glorified Page 175 C. The Certain condition of man is to be uncertain Page 8 A man may be a Conduit-pipe to others and be a Vessel of dishonour himself Page 15 17 Of Christs Death and Burial Page 33 34 His victory over Hell Page 35 His Resurrection Page 36 His Ascension Page 38 Man in respect of Conscience is as one possessed Page 42 A Contemplation on love Page 47 A Contemplation on the insatisfaction in Riches Honours Pleasures Wisdom Page 49 A Contemplation on fear Page 51 A Contemplation on the sinfulness of the Eyes Ears Nostrils Taste and Touch Page 56 Of Christs Priestly Office Page 57 The occasion of Christs Priest-hood Page 58 A Contemplation upon Christs Priest-hood Page 60 Of Christs satisfaction Page 61 Christs answer to the poor soul complaining of his Conscience Page 75 The souls general Complaint answered by Christ Page 85 86 The souls Complaint against her Senses Tongue and Members of her body and Christs answer to it Page 88 89 A meditation on the excellency of Christs person Page 99 Against Coveteousness Page 123 An Ejaculation upon the glorious Change of the body at the Resurrection Page 185 D. Demas described Page 14 A Dialogue between Christ and the poor complaining soul in many particulars which Christ answers and satisfies Page 74 Our victory by Christ over Death Page 130 Our victory over the fear of Death Page 132 Our victory over the pain and separation by Death Page 133 All things fall short of the Duration of glorified Bodies and Souls and the high
they may have a like effect upon you as to your spiritual food and edification as the â—irst and second concoction hath in the stomack as to a good and perfect digestion and turning the Meat into a fit Chile to be sanâ—â—fied and made good blood and spirits besides an after chewâ—ng of the Cud by remeditation and practice in a Gospel and spiritual signification will much difference and distinguish you that 〈◊〉 clean Christians from those that are unclean who for want of the heat of Divine affections devour but not digest holy things To include I desire my great suffering condition abounding with sorrows hopes and fears and all kinds of Tentations discomforts and distractions my above Twenty removes to several Residences and more than seven years Exile and separation from my â—ooks dearest Friends and Relations my ignorance infirmities and sinfulness as being the greatest of sinners the least of Saints 〈◊〉 excuse and apologize for me to any of my Brethren of the â—hurches of Christ that shall with you read these Contemplations â—â— to any defects or errors therein as being one of the lowest â—â—rms in the School of Christ and therefore ready in all humility to submit any thing herein contained to the Judgement of the Saints that are learned or judicious and to give or receive light or satisfaction to or from any that differ from me in Opinion Which I cannot but expect because of the diversity and rarity of a great part of this subject which may be a reason that plowing with no man's Heifer in some things I may walk alone yet left not in the dark and without as seems to me a clear light of holy Scripture hoping that this Essay of mine as to those great future mysteries and periods of the Churches state may give some new light through the free condescention of God's spirit to me his poor Exile in Patâ—os as to the understanding of many Scripture Prophesies in my Judgment much mistaken by former Expositors both ancient and modern and that though my weak light be but as a rush Candle yet it may be an occasion of the inflaming and lighting up of great and shining Tapers both in this generation and in the Age to come Most loving gracious and faithful Consort and hopeful Children whom I greatly long after in the bowels of Jesus Christ And for whom in the words of the Apostle Paul I frequently pray that your love may aboâ—nd yet more and more in knowledge and in all Judgment that ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ Being filled with the Fruits of Righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.8 9 10 11. For this cause I bow my Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner Man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heigth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes. 3.14 15 16 17 18 19. Having the Eyes of your understanding enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his Calling and what the Riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us wards who believe according to the working of his mighty Power Ephes. 1.18 19. That you all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord may be changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Finally my dear Brethren Sisters and Fellow members in Christ for all other Relation and Denomination shall shortly be laid aside Farewell be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace And the God of peace and love shall be with you 2 Cor. 13.11 Amen Yours in all sincere and tender affection as doubly Obliged by Nature and by Grace W. W. This 29th of June 1666. Sweetnese of Forme Feature Heere 's Combinde Yet much below the Beautie of her minde The True Effigies of the Lady Katherine Harington Wife to Sir James Harington and Baronet AN EPISTLE TO THE ELECT LADY And her Children My true Yoke-fellow and Dearly beloved Children Whom I love in the Truth HEar ye the Instruction of a Father and attend to know understanding forget it not neither decline from the words of my Mouth First seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Wisdome is the principal thing the one thing needful and with all your gettings get understanding forsake her not and she shall preserve you Love her and she shall keep you Exalt her and she shall promote you she shall bring you to honour when you do embrace her she shall give to your Head an Ornament of grace a Crown of Glory shall she deliver unto you and the Years of your Life shall be many When you go your steps shall not be straitned and when you run you shall not stumble Take fast hold of Instruction let her not go keep her for she is your life Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who is the power of God and the wisdome of God God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last Days spoken unto us by his Son who he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Therefore ye ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that ye have heard lest at any time ye should let them slip For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation If he that despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not ye escape if ye turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven Hear ye therefore the word which the Lord Jesus speaketh unto you who spake by the Prophets and is the Lord God of the Holy Prophets since all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God even from him who is the Eternal Word of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works Counsel is mine
my words Faith without works is dead therefore follow peace with all Men and holiness without which no Man shall see God And be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Ye know the Commandments I am the Lord thy God thou shalt have no other Gods before me 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath or that is in the Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them c. 3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain c. 4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God 5. Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. 6. Thou shalt not kill 7. Thou shalt not commit Adultery 8. Thou shalt not steal 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour 10. Thou shall not covet thy Neighbours House c. This is the great Commandment That you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and your Neighbour as your self Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Verily verily I say unto you except you be born again of Water and the Spirit you cannot enter into the Kingdome of God For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me I am the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat and are dead He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever What though I am ascended where I was before It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are spirit and they are life I the Lord Jesus took Bread and blessed it and gave it to my Disciples and said Take eat this is my body And I took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins This do in remembrance of me For as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup you shew my Death till I come Lay up my word in your heart and in your soul And you shall teach them your Children speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way when you lye down and when you rise up And you shall write them upon the Door-posts of your houses and upon your Gates That your days may be prolonged and the days of your Children in the Land as the dayes of Heaven upon Earth Blessed are ye that read and hear my words my Sheep hear my voice Yea blessed are they that hear my word and keep it Let every one of you be swift to hear slow to wrath If any of you hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Wherefore he that hath Eares to hear let him hear My Mother and Brethren are ye that hear the Word of God and do it Be ye that good ground who with honest and good hearts having heard my word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience Let not the Book of my Law my Word depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate therein day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein for then shall you make your way prosperous then shall you have good success Meditate also of all my works Pray without ceasing And when you pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Also after this manner pray ye Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall finde Knock and it shall be opened unto you Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name according to his will he will give it unto you Therefore be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God But ask in faith nothing wavering And when you pray enter into your Closet and when you have shut your Door pray to the Father which is in secret and your Father who seeth in secret shall reward you openly Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Moreover if your Brother shall trespass against any of you go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever my Church shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven I gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of my Body Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of your double honour especially they that labour in word and doctrine Also they that have used the Office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in me Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Be afflicted and mourn and weep humble your selves in my sight and I will lift you up Can Man
of the Lord is Being wise unto that which is good but simple concerning evil For the wisdome of the World is foolishness with God and 't is earthlie sensual and devillish But the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie Wherefore if any of you lack wisdome let him ask of God which giveth to all Men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given you but let him ask in faith nothing wavering Put on humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any Man hath a quarrel against any even as I have forgiven you so do ye For before honour is humility And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted What doth the Lord require of you but to do justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God For God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble Yea I will hear the desire of the humble And although I inhabit Eternity I will dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit Wherefore learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall finde rest unto your Souls Blessed are you that are poor in spirit for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven That mourn for you shall be comforted That are meek for you shall inherit the Earth That hunger and thirst after righteousness for you shall be filled Blessed are you that are merciful for you shall obtain mercy That are pure in heart for you shall see God That are peace-makers for you shall be called the Children of God Blessed are you that are persecuted for righteousness sake for yours is the Kingdome of Heaven Blessed are you when Men shall revile you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Marriage is honourable in all and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Wherefore flee Fornication every sin that a Man doth is without the body But he that committeth Fornication finneth against his own body Know you not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have of God anâ— you are not your own For you are bougâ—â— with a price Therefore glorifie God in yoâ—â— bodies and spirits which are Gods Also 〈◊〉 you not my Members Will you then take 〈◊〉 Members and make them the Members of 〈◊〉 Harlot God forbid What know you 〈◊〉 that he that is joyned to an Harlot is 〈◊〉 body For two saith he shall be one Flesh But he that is joyned unto me is one spirit This is the will of God even your sanctificaâ—tion that you should abstain from fornication And that every one of you should know 〈◊〉 to possess his Vessel in sanctification anâ— honour not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles which know not God Ye 〈◊〉 heard that it was said by them of old 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not commit Adultery But I say 〈◊〉 to you whosoever looketh on a Woman to 〈◊〉 after her hath committed Adultery with 〈◊〉 already in his heart And whosoever toucheth another Man's Wife shall not be innocent Whoredome and Wine and new Wine takâ— away the heart and by means of a 〈◊〉 Woman a Man is brought to a piece of breâ—â— and the Adulteress will hunt for the precâ—â—â— life An Whore is a deep ditch and a straâ—â—â— Woman is a narrow Pit Her House inclinâ—â— unto death and her path unto the dead Lâ—â— not your heart incline to her ways go not stray in her paths for she hath cast down 〈◊〉 wounded yea many strong Men have beâ—â— slain by her her House is the way to Hell gâ—â—ing down to the Chambers of death 〈◊〉 that go unto her return again neither takâ— they hold of the path of life Know this thereâ—fore that no Whoremonger nor unclean Person nor covetous Man who is an Idolater hath any Inheritance in the Kingdome of God Blessed are ye that keep Judgment and thaâ— do righteousness at all times Offer to God thâ— sacrifices of righteousness and put your trusâ— in the Lord For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect thereof quietness and assurance for ever He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life righteousness and honour Therefore yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as Instruments of righteousness unto God For he that doth righteousness is righteous even as I am righteous but whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God And shall utterly perish in their own corruptions and receive the reward of unrighteousness and shall not inherit the Kingdome of God But the righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of my Father And they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect For he that walketh uprightly walketh surely and shall be saved For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth For the integrity of the upright shall guid them Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart But the hope of the hypocrite shall perish Remove from you the way of lying and let every one speak truth to his Neighbour For I am the Lord God of truth Give thanks for all things to God the Father in my name For he that offereth praise glorifieth me By me therefore offer the sacrifice of praise continually that is the fruit of your lips For every Creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving Praise ye therefore the Lord for it is good to sing praises to your God for it is pleasant and praise is comely These things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full Verily verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament but the World shall rejoyce but your sorrow shall be turned into Joy and your Joy no Man taketh from you For the Kingdome of God is not meaâ— and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Yea the fruit of my Spirit is love joy and
not as Fools but as Wise Redeeming the time Eat not the Bread of Idleness for the idle Soul shall suffer hunger And through idleness of the hands the House droppeth through Shun prophane and vain babling for they will increase to more ungodliness And let no corrupt communication come out of your Mouths but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister Grace to the hearers For by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned And of every idle word that you shall speak you shall give an account thereof at the Day of Judgment Swear not at all But let your Communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil Let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Love not sleep lest you come to poverty You shall not hate your Brother in your heart you shall in any wise rebuke your Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Let the righteous reprove you for it shall be an excellent Oyl that shall not break your heads As you have opportunity do good to all Men especially to them who are of the houshold of faith Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God Give thanks alwayes for all things for every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving Let every one of you abide with God in the same Calling wherein he was called Being not slothfull in business serving the Lord. For he that is slothfull in his work is Brother to him that is a great waster Go not beyond and defraud your Brother in any matter for I am the avenger of all such neither lie one unto another Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour your Father and Mother which is the first Commandement with promise That it may be well with you and you may live long on the Earth Parents provoke not your Children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Husbands drink Waters out of your own Cistern Rejoyce with the Wise of your Youth Embrace not the bosome of a stranger Love your Wives as I also loved my Church and gave my self for it So ought you to love your Wives even as your own Bodies He that loveth his Wife loveth himself for they two are one Flesh. Dwelling with them according to knowledge and honouring them as the weaker Vessels and as being Heirs together of the grace of Life Wives let your adorning be not that which is outward but that of the hidden Man of the heart See that you reverence your Husbands submitting your selves unto them as unto the Lord and as to your head For as my Church is subject unto Me as its Head so be you to your own Husbands in every thing Love your Husbands love your Children be discreet chast and keepers at home And of a quiet and meek Spirit Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the Flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your hearts as unto Me not answering again nor purloyning but shewing all good fidelity Not with Eye-service as Men-pleasers but as my Servants doing the will of God from the heart with good-will doing service as to Me not to Men. Knowing that whatsoever any good thing any of you doth the same shall ye receive of Me whether ye be bond or free Masters do the same things unto your Servants forbearing threatning knowing that your Master is in Heaven neither is there respect of Persons with him Walk in wisdome towards them that are without And let your speech be always with grace seasoned with Salt that you may know how to answer every Man That if any Man obey not the Word they may without the Word be won by your Conversation And that they of the contrary part may be ashamed as having no evil thing to say of you Behave your selves wisely in a perfect way Keep your Mouths as with a Bridle while the wicked are before you Cast not your Pearl before Swine nor give that which is holy unto Dogs lest they trample them under their Feet and turn again and rent you Follow not a Multitude to do evil If Sinners entice you consent you not walk you not in the way with them Refrain your Feet from their Path. Judge not one another nor put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in your Brothers way It is impossible but that offences will come but woe unto them through whom they come Be ye all of one minde having compassion one of another love as Brethren be pittiful be courteous not rendering evil for evil nor rayling for rayling but contrariwise blessing Remember my works and wonders of old and forget not all my benefits Meditate also and talk of my doings who hath forgiven your iniquities and healed all your Diseases and redeemed your lives from destruction who crowneth you with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfieth your Mouths with good things so that your Youth is renewed like the Eagles who hath heard your supplications and received your Prayers Stand continually on your Watch-Tower and hearken what I the Lord that heareth Prayer will say unto you You shall call upon Me and I will answer Yea before you call I will answer My Children despise not my chastning nor faint when you are rebuked of Me For whom I love I chasten and scourge every Son whom I receive If you endure chastning I deal with you as with Sons For what Son is he whom the Father chastneth not But if ye be with out Chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye Bastards and not Sons Your Fathers chasten you after their own pleasure but I for your profit that you may be partakers of my Holiness No chastning for the present seems to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them that are exercifed thereby All that will live godly in me shall suffer persecution But as my sufferings abound in you so your Consolations abound by Me. For the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you And your light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for you a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory For if you suffer with
prime Of wit in Sonnets or such Rhime As leaves behind The Savour of a tainted mind Maâ—gre their Witts I tell you true I enjoy none but such as you Not that I know your Birth and Blood Springs high but that I see a good That sets you off Beyond the bitter reach or scoffe Of those loose Tongues Which blast it in their drunken Songs Think no work lovely sweet or witty That is not tun'd to Cupids Ditty On Lovely Sir I speak the truth From Him you think on in your Youth Hee 'l not forget This Labour or Essay but set A mark of note Vpon those Hours which you devote Vnto his Service and will Pay Richly at All-Saints Holy-Day Mean while he pawns his Word to be A Friend unto your hopes and he That never Rights The meanest of his Favourites Will raise your Stock And prove your Sun your Shield your Rock Perfume your Name and make 't as dear As his that dyed the Hopeful Peire Long may the Noble Paire to whom You own your Breath next God become Sutors for you That labour to repay the due You owe to them From whom you Sprang a hopeful stemm To which you have the Heart and Hand Of him that rests Yours to Command W. Mewes MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREATION MANS Fall and Redemption BY CHRIST Presented to his Parents in the XXI Year of his Age. Anno Dom. 1627. London Printed in the Year 1669. Prayer and Meditation are Twins therefore A Preparative Prayer O Almighty God and most gracious Father from thy goodness I acknowledge all good gifts do proceed therefore I humbly and earnestly do beseech thee to illuminate my Soul by thy Spirit that my Vnderstanding being raised above all Earthly Cogitations may through thy merciful assistance so meditate of thee and thy wonderful Works that contemâ—â—ng all Worldly Vanities my delight may only consist in beholding of thy Majesty The Consideration of it being best able both to humble my proud Heart and create in it a love and fear to all thy Precepts that so I beginning although in weakness to live the life of grace here I may through thy favour in Christ live the Life of Glory with thee hereafter Amen DIVINE MEDITATIONS OF GOD'S Majesty IN THE CREATION ALL sublunary things tend and press towards their Centre The Sea-man's Needle always points North and South Nature thereby as it were Lecturing our Souls to behold and move towards none but thee O God our North-Star our Centre Lord I confess it had been a vain presumption in Mortality being defiled with sin to have once conceived a thought of thy Holiness had not thy mercy in Jesus Christ revealed unto us in thy word and promises not only to give us leave but commanded us to know thee that conceiving of thee aright we might love thee with all our hearts fear thee in all our actions and serve thee with our best endeavours Why madest thou Man with his Face erected towards the Heavens when Beasts walk groveling upon the Ground unless thou hast ordained that all Eyes contemning Earth as tramled under Feet should stand open towards the Skies that our Souls through those Casements might behold the Starry out-side of the â—irmament though but a dark reflexion of thy brightness and might view in the Suâ—s splendour a petty Embleme to lead us to the Infiniteness of thy Glory and beautifulness of that new Jerusalem in which thou crownest the Inhabitants with a perpetual Day of Happiness These Objects O Lord damme up the Mâ—uth of Wickâ—dness being sufficient though dumb Witnesses to condemn the wilful ignorance of Senceless Atheists Who behold much Art in a costly Fabrick and applaud not the skill of the Architector Who sees exquisitness in any work and is not forc'd to acknowledge the Work-mans perfection and what Eyes can be so purblinded with folly and perverseness as not to spell out in each Leaf of Natures Book thy Divinity Open thou my Lips O Lord and my Mouth shall shew forth thy Praise Of the Creation THe beginning of all Created Substances was nothing who but thou O Lord Infinite in Power of no Materials could frame so vast a Chaos Before each particulars composure darkness as a Canopy covered the confused Lump of intermixed Bodies when by thy Word O Father of Light was light created the happy Morning to so great a Night the huge Concave of the Firmament being the purest extraction of that gross heap is made to Circle the Earth separating the Waters above from those below by thy Command Where was the naked Earth visible when the Waters covered the Face thereof untill thy will gave them both name and bounds How rude an object were the Towring Hillâ— and humble Valleys then destitute of thy Livery their Ornament until Grass Herbs and fruit-bearing Trees clothed them by thy Ordinance When the Heavens wanted their Ornament the Times and Seasons their Order and distinguishments thou madest two great Lights the Sun to Rule by Day the Moon and Stars to Rule by Night For thy Mercy endureth for ever Were the waste Places of the deep inhabited or the Regions of the Aire fathâ—med before thy Power made the Seas bring forth all manner of Fowles and Fish even that Leviathan whose Scales are his Pride shut up together as with a close Seal which by his neesing a Light doth shine and his Eyes are like the Eye-lids of the Morning upon Earth there is none his like who is made without fear Did not thy Wisdome O God fill the Desarts with wilde Beasts the Earth with creeping things Who made Behemoth which moveth his Tayl like a Cedar His Bones are as strong Pieces of Brass his â—â—â—es are like Barres of Iron he is the chief of thy ways O God thou that madest him canst make thy Sword approach unto him What shall I say Who can express thee which art far beyond expression I will conclude with the conclusion of thy Works the â—â—â—ation of Man In his Body rightly termed a little World as â—â—ing a mixture of the four Elements who can 〈…〉 â—â—e symmetry and proportion of each Member and comâ—linâ—ss of â—â—ch part so â—urious a structure being only a â—iâ— manâ—â—on 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Tenant as the Soul in whose praise which speakâ— thy pâ—â—ise I will only say two words calling it according to thy Word thy â—â—â—ge What is Man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of â—â—an that thou visitest him Thou hast made him little lower â—â—an the Angels and hast Crowâ—â—d him with glory and honour â—â—ou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands â—â—ou hast put all things under his Feet Therefore bless the Loâ—d O my Soul all that is within mâ—â—less his holy name bless the â—ord in all his works in all places of his Dominion bless the Lord O my Soul Of Man's Fall and of God's Mercy and Goodness in our Redemption THe
down and destroyed And that without my suffering of any considerable loss Soliloquium or Discourse OF all inanimated Instruments of God's curse for sin none have been so violent irresistable and destructive to Man as the four Elements because of all sublunary things they possess the largest extent and therefore have the greatest power and influence Witness the Earths tremendious swallowing up the Tents and Families of rebellious Korah Dathan and Abiram and the destructive and ruinating Antiochian Earth-quakes The Universal Deluge in Noah's time by Water The great Mortality and destruction of the Israelites in the Wilderness and our late dreadful Pestilences in London proceeding from the corruption of the Aire and the fearful and unparallel'd Visitation of Sodom and Gomorrah by Elementary Fire Of which four Fundamental Simples and sole Ingredients of our lower Creation None is so terrible so tormenting so swift and so indomitable as the Element of Fire and therefore not only the unsupportable pains of Hell are held forth to us in Scripture by Fire But flaming Fire is already irrevocably ordained by the Lord as the blessed Apostle Peter witnesseth to bring up the rear and to be the last and the most desolating Judgment upon this wicked World The sad yet lively figures of this last Fiery Destruction are the Burnings of Houses Towns and Cities particularly that of the great famous and ancient City of London in the Year 1666. Against which City those Ignation Fires marcht with such a large and fearful front that they destroyed and laid in Ashes in three Days the glory labours and expences of two thousand seven hundred of Years O gracious God! hath Fire been so raging unmerciful and desolating to many thousands of Houses and Palaces in London and England hath it now and heretofore impoverisht and undone many thousands of Persons and good Christians what cause have I a sinner above others to record and acknowledge thy great and continued mercies for no less than Eleven times quenching the Fires begun in Four of my Houses lately in my possession and for preserving our Goods from any considerable Damage O let thy Goodness and Mercy that was virtually Water to allay and put out these judicial and terrene Fires kindled by my sin as well as though the malice of Enemies and carelesness of Servants be as Oyle to cause the Flames of my Love and thankfulness so to mount aloft that they may be heard and seen afar off even of all that serve and trust in thee in these three Nations That they in the consideration of these and of others thy marvellous loving kindness to me declared in this my poor work may praise thee with me also Yea let this holy and Heavenly Fire consume and burn up whatsoever is not thy goods and furniture in me and destroy every Image of Jealousie any Lust that Sathan hath set up in thy Temple my Body or upon thy Altar my heart so shall my whole Man like thy House consecrated by Solomon be replenisht with thy brightness and glory yea being thus filled with the Holy Ghost my Life and Soul shall shine like holy Stephens Face thy Proto-Martyr and Confessor here and both Soul and Body hereafter to Eternity shall be made like unto my Saviour's glorious Body For we know that when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall also appear with him in Glory Amen The EXTINGVISHER Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject HOw blest and Heaven-like was Man's State in Paradice When nakedness with goodness cloth'd was of a greater price By far than Cloth of Gold imbost with Diamonds Rubies great orient Pearles and other precious Stones There was no need nor pompous use of Houses fair To live lodge Banquet in or fence from Wind cold Aire Or Summers heat Grass ever green imbrodered With various colour'd Flowers was his sweet Bed The Earth his Table was spread with variety Of gustful Plants and Herbs yea every fruitful Tree As Servitors present his Smell Eye Hands and Tast With all kinds of the varest Fruits and delicates Above the rest was that Nature-preserving Tree Of Life giv'n him to feed on to Eternity By Day his large previllion was the Azure Skie Glorious like Heaven through the Sun 's light his Canopie Also by Night it was though chang'd and altred clean As being spangled o're with Stars like a new Scene O wretched Man who by thy own rebelliousness Hast forfeited this Patent of true blessedness And art most justly out-law'd and by sin cast out Of this thy first condition And be-set about With miseries hence is it that each Element Of which thou art compounded is revengeful bent Against thee that the glorious Sun whose Heavenly Fire Was made to warm and cherish thee is through God's Ire By its refracted Beams thy great Tormentor Hence The Aire is full of Thunders Tempest and with cold condenst Powers forth the down-Snow and canded Hail with Rains Like Floods Witness the Indian Spouts and Hurricanes The Seas and Rivers now have leave to pass their bounds And make that Sea again or Lakes that was drie ground Hence is it that our Mother Earth out of whose Wombe So many kindes spring forth unnaturally becomes Their Tombe before their time And with a trembling Jaw Devours her Off-spring swallowes up in her vast Maw Whole Townes yea Towring Cities and the swelling Streames Of Rivers deep making proud Mountains humble Plains Hence is it that wild Beasts rebel 'gainst Man their Soveraign Lord Nimrods oppress and Brothers fall by Brothers Sword These fearful fruits of Sin and of first Adam's Fall Was the ground Plot Impulsive cause Original Of Houses Towns and Cities Then necessity Was Man's Surveyor But now Pride and Luxury Which changed hath our Fathers Caves Tents Cottages To Castles Towers like Babel stately Pallaces And costly Buildings Four such Lord for my rich lot Thou gavest me once built furnisht to my hand what not Nay more that love and mercy might thy bounty match Eleven times thy good providence kept only watch And blest the meanes to quench those Flames that had begun To Ceize House Goods upon sins Execution Yea once the side pience of a Garret was on Fire put out Without the knowledg help of any Person wonderful throughout In all these Fires our Damages was very small When Neighbours lost fair Dwellings Houshold-Stuff and all Their precious things Wherefore let this thy goodness be By me O Lord Recorded to Posterity That what 's deficient here to celebrate thy praise May be supplyed by them in time and length of Days Dear God to give preserve from harm Four pleasant Seats Was thy great act of love and care made more compleat In giving gracing me poor sinful Hut of Clay To be thy Temple and thy dwelling Night and Day But wretched Man I am and mad that in return Have oft essai'd thine yea my one House to burn By Flames of Lusts