and shall be ever with the Lord. But this glorified fear is the most bright reflection in and from us of Gods glorious Soveraignty according to that of the Prophet If I be a Master where is my fear a fruit and an effect of Gods ravishing and transporting excellency and therefore this heavenly affection being so necessary a requisite in our heavenly condition is so far from lessening our perfection in glory as that without it it cannot be perfectly glorious O my Soul shall thy affections of love and fear be thus glorious in thy Heavenly state Let them not have a lesser or lower object than the most high let not such High-Born Princesses be enamoured with their Slaves Vse the World as not abusing it and as though thou used it not Neither fear any but him that only can cast both Soul and Body into Hell-fire Let these two graces be as Jethro to Moses eye in the Wilderness of this World to admonish and to keep thee from losing thy way when thou art turning to the right or to the left And like the Lords Pillar of a Cloud by Day and of Fire by Night to direct thee according to his holy will in thy Journey towards thy Heavenly Canaan Converse with these two Royal Virgins continually So shalt thou have Communion and fellowship with the Father and the Son in the Spirit be partaker of the Divine nature and begin to enjoy Heaven here upon Earth Prepare and so enlarge these Divine Vessels by a pious use and continued Exercise that they may be the more capacious of Glory For according to the measures and proportions of graces in this life shall be their repletion in the life to come where of Apprehensors the Saints shall be made Comprehensors according to their several enlargements For as one Star differs from another in glory so shall it be at the Resurrection of the Just when we shall see God face to face and know him as we are known and be made like him in Glory O my God my Father are these two sanctified affections of love and fear the two Eyes the two Armes of the Soul with which the Saints behold imbrace and enjoy thee in all thy glorious excellencies Are they the two Centinels and Guards by which every true Christian discovers and repells all sinfull thoughts looks words and actions Doth that root of all saving Graces Faith work by love in the application of what the Father Son and Holy Ghost hath done for us Turning our Hearts of Stone into Hearts of Flesh and melting them into teares of Gospel-Repentance Doth love oile the wheeles of our universal obedience so that they run swiftly in the pathes of thy Commandements when thou thus enlargest the heart And is fillial fear the whip in the hand of zeal the holy Chariteer to drive and carry us manger all stops of Sin Sathan and the World to the end of our race Is this divine love to thee and thy Saints the summe and the fulfilling of thy Law The more excellent way The compleating continuing and the greatest grace as most like unto thee For God is love and who so dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Shall these twin-like graces of love and fear not leave the Soul when it leaves the Body and accompany both Soul and Body at the Resurrection to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb and to the Marriage-Bed of Glory yea shall they be the measures and compleating of our Glory O holy Father who art the essential love my fear and my dread be thou pleased to sanctify inlarge and inflame these my affections that of sinfull passions in the old Adam they may be changed and Heavenized into active and holy graces in me thy new Creature Let them I beseech thee be effectual and usefull to all the aforementioned ends And since it is no sin but a duty to be ambitious of and to covet spiritual things let them be enlarged and heightned like Heaven even to the utmost of a created capacity that I may be as thou hast promised thy dwelling place upon Earth and thou mayest be my inheritance and my Heaven in Heaven Even so Amen Lord Jesus come quickly The sanctified affection of holy zeal in the glorified Saints deserves our next Meditation This to speak properly is not a simple grace but the highest and intense degree of every grace and holy action which if so famous and resplendent in the Saints upon Earth as in Moses in his exemplary Justice upon the false worshippers of the Golden Calf In Phineas his executing judgment upon that Idolatrous and adulterous payre Zimry and Cosby in David who declares that the zeal of Gods House had eaten him up In Elijah when he put to death four hundred of Baals Prophets in one Evening In Paul who preserved the glory of God in the Redemption of his Country-men the Jews before his own salvation and in that highest example of our dear Lord and Saviour in his purging of his Temple Then this Heavenly grace shall undoubtedly not only continue and have then a Beeing in each glorified Saint but shine forth and act in them much more gloriously Is that only infinite and pure Essence our Omnipotent God who is happiness blessedness and life it self so often declared in the Scripture to be zealous for his name and glory And shall not his Saints his Image be like him Is this grace exercised by glorious Angels as when one Angel destroyed all the first-born of Egypt in one Night Another destroyed a hundred fourscore and five thousand Assyrians at the command and in zeal for the glory of God Yea did an whole Host of Angels descend from Heaven and with a holy zeal Celebrate our Lords Nativity and Man-kindes Redemption in an holy Hymne And shall not the glorified Saints overflow and express upon all occasions to Gods glory the like zealous and inflam'd affections assuredly they shall For though Sin Sathan and the wicked World which by a kinde of spiritual Antiperistasis made their zeal here burn the hotter shall be cast out and banisht thence Yet the glorified Saints shall not want nor be without constant objects and continual occasions according to every ones measure to exercise this grace To instance only some successive ones Gods unparallel'd flaming Justice upon Gog and Magog and all wicked Men at our Saviours second coming with ten thousand of his Saints Christs Crowning and rewarding every Elect Member in righteousness according to their works together with all his glorious Administrations in that his holy righteous and personal Reign in the new Heaven and new Earth for a thousand years His powerfull raising of the wicked after the thousand years and curious Inquisition into and perfect discovery and bringing to Judgment of all their evil thoughts words and actions and his
bottomless Pit of Hell Death and Sin out of which eternal love in Christ free grace and infinite mercy hath taken thee Call upon and bless God for this infinite depth of mercy Yea exalt and magnify the height and depth the breadth and length of this love which passeth knowledge O my Soul the mighty Angels leaving their first state as ambitiously seeking a greater as the learned conceive were cast down for their pride and discontentedness from the highest Heaven into the deepest abyss of Hell And our first Parents for the like ambition and desire of bettering their condition were cast out of Paradise From which examples I have reason to think should Man have had a thought or design of or by himself to be possest of so glorious a life prerogative state and condition as our gracious God hath freely given us in Christ It had been so high and unwarrantable a sin and ambition as would have justly deserved as great a curse and punishment O from this experience of infinite love for God is love pray incessantly in return thereof not only to be enlarged and raised to the highest and greatest love and thankfulness that a Creature can be made capable of But that thou mayest hence-forth have no will but his which shall be thy great wisdome in all things submitting all thou hast and thy whole Man solely to his most gracious and All-wise dispose whose free gifts bounty and unconceivable liberality are not such as Creatures bestow on their favourites but such as becomes the Majesty and immensness of a God who gives to his Saints benefits and blessings temporal spiritual and eternal not only above their prayers hopes and expectations but as the Apostle expresses above what we can either ask or think O my Soul shall thy body be incorruptible and immortal defile it not with lust any more neither let sin abound because grace hath abounded Since thou must know that thy incorruptability and immortality must in a true Scripture and spiritual sence begin in this life although they are to be perfected in the next Therefore our Saviour saith He that believeth on him hath everlasting life And the Apostle affirmes that we are made to sit together in Christ in Heavenly places And Saint John declares 1 John 5.12 That he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life And blessed Paul affirms If Christ be in us the Body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Again dost thou live in Christ and Christ in thee Art thou even as to thy body the Habitation and Temple of the Holy Ghost and spiritually and inseparably united to God in Christ and is thy life hid with God in Christ Dally no more with sin for there can be no communion betwixt light and darkness And know this although thou canst not dye eternally yet thy backslidings in wilfull and presumptuous sinnings may through thy Spouse his righteous with-drawing and desertion cast thee into such a swoon and transe that thy life peace and Heaven here may as to thy feeling be turned into emnity death yea and to an Hell upon Earth Give not that subtil destroyer Sathan occasion or advantage by spiritual adulteries and reiterated Rebellions to sue out a divorse in the Court of thy Conscience betwixt thy Spouse and thee For know this that although Whom Christ loves he loves to the end And his gifts and calling are without Repentance and that though thy Husband hath loved thee with an everlasting love yet such a suite will be very troublesome and chargeable and may cost thy Spirit many and unexpressible sighs groans and lamentations And may as it were break thy bones or make thy Body a very Sceleton only fit for a Grave Lastly for as much as the Children of God were partakers of flesh and blood Did the Son of God himself likewise take part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death viz. the Devil to deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject unto bondage And did not take on him the nature of Angels but took on him the Seed of Abraham from which hypostatical union of the two natures in one Person and the union of thy Person to his Person by the Eternal Spirit is given unto thee eternal life in a far higher and more excellent way and manner than to the Elect Angels Did the Lord of Heaven and Earth the Heir of all things not only marry himself to thy nature but also unto thee For I am married unto you saith the Lord in the Prophet and is the honourable Ordinance of Marriage therefore called by the Apostle a great Mystery because even in Eves formation and in its first Institution it was to be a Type and lively Figure of this thy spiritual Marriage and union to the second Adam Hast thou through infinite mercy received assurance hereof that thou art thy Beloveds and that thy Beloved is thine Is the Marriage Day and Supper appointed and declared and in the interim hast thou an Espousal contract subscribed to by thy faith and by his Spirit O be exceeding watchfull and carefull of offending such a loving Spouse and glorious Bridegroom by any sinfull relapses and backslidings into any sin that may move him to jealousie For as jealousie is the rage of a Man so the anger and jealousie of thy God is said to burn like Fire against such unfaithfull and spiritual Adulteresses O as thou tenderest the love of thy God and of thy Spouse and thy peace of Conscience and thy Heaven upon Earth venture not to blot or blur so blessed an assurance and evidence of thy Eternal happiness union and life in him by sin or any presumptuous iniquity and rebellion Nor to crust it over by customary sinning or delay of repentance But by an holy chast and religious walking Keep it so fair written and legible that all other Saints but principly thy self at all times but especially in the time of trouble temptation and hour of death may read it Then though thy Eye-strings are broken the eye of thy faith shall behold it and see thy Name written in Heaven and in the Lambs Book of Life O blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who art the Resurrection and the Life and hast declared in thy Word of Truth that this my vile Body shall be raised and made a Heavenly and spiritual Body like to thine give me to behold this wonderfull change continually by faith the eye of my Soul then shall I not be abashed or dismayed at the baldness and gray-headedness of old age at my hollow Eyes wrinckled Cheeks blindness deafness my toothless Gums and pale countenance nor at the Palsiness lameness and decrepitness of my Hands Feet and
in the Gulph of Despair Lord is it thâ—â— experimentally With my poor Soul are all these dangers nie Incumbent â—â— me during such sad stormes Sleep not dear Saviour in me command Calmes Be thou my Pilot Let thy Spirit Gales Fill constantly all my affections Sailes Let Faith my main most hope my Anchor be And all my Passions quieted by thee So sâ—all I scape all shelves all Syrens charmes All Rocks and Gulphs as imbrac'd in thy Armes Till that my â—ark brought in my Soul on shore May praise thee both for mercies evermore Amen The ANGLER O Lord thy third and great deliverance Of me from Drowning not the Lady chance The wicked's Goddess for my Tribute calls Of Pâ—â—ise deservedly since such sad falls Have Coffin'd Men in Water mud and Death Whereas 〈◊〉 thou gavest me a new breath Even then when Angling Tree Hands Feet betraid And cast me in a watry Pit no Aid Being neer and I alone then did thy Hand Double my strength and drew me out to Land Blest be thy Name for this and what thou didst So often for my Soul when that amidst Hâ—r Angling after Worldly pleasures she Did fall from her false Confidences Tree Into the deep and filthy Pits of sin And Vanity a state neer perishing Yea when unto this dangerous fall My Hands Feet Members did contribute all Then didst thou Lord appear to me alone And helpless Renew'd grace and heard'st my moane Gave to my hand of Faith thy hand of Love In Christ to draw and lift me out above Such dangers That with the wise Merchant I May fish for gems and the best Pearl buy Lord since in thee both soul and body live Accept these double Praises which they give Amen ARGUMENT Vpon a great Snow and God's gracious deliverance of Me and my Servant from being smothered and lost when many others perished therein in our Travel and return Home Soliloquium or Discourse PRaise the Lord Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour stormy Wind fulfilling his word what means this second deluge of Snow burying our Iland as it were in an Alablaster Sepulchre Why are the shewers of mercy descending in Earths refreshing Veins through the cold of the middle Region of the Air or rather of our evil hearts frozen and turned into Snow into a Judgment the Earth seeming to do Pennance for our sins and uncleanness Is our Land become a Romanist and Prelatick that she Cloaths her self with and so much delights in Surplices and white Vestures or hath the Sun as in Hezekiah's time reverted ten degrees whereby our Northern temperate Zone is become a frozen Polar clime Hath any Venetian Artist that can make Glass malliable in a few Hours christalliz'd the fluid Rivers and hardned soft Snow to bear without sinking the pulsation and burthens of Horse and Man or are the Clouds turn'd Levellers as having covered ditches and hedges the distinction of every Man's propriety and turned the surface of our Lands into a Salisbury Plain a Berry as well for Sheep as Rabbets Whence was that faith and courage that spirited me upon the providential call of my necessary return home like as Peter's walking upon the Water to amble over yea gallop upon the hollow Snow not fearing Pit Ditch or danger whence all these Wonders and above all my Preservation when so many perished and were smothered not in Beds of Feathers as by Tyrants some have been but in Beds of Snow Are they not from thee O Lord the great Creator and prime Agent in all the works and admirable Prodigies of nature the only Saviour and Preserver of Man and Beast and of me thy most unworthy Servant Who therefore desires Grace from thee to exalt thee and to perpetuate thy Praises in my own heart and in the hearts of others to all succeeding Generations that shall read this Memorial and sing this Song of Thanksgiving The SNOWIE LANDSKIP Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject LOrd let my Souls Eyes open be As well as Lips to praise That in each mercy I may see Thy Presence all my Days Thou wast my Guide o're snowie Plains Where was no track nor way Thou mad'st the sugarfied Rain As solid as the Clay On which I travell'd many Miles In safety without fear O're Hedge and Ditch o're Gates and Stiles For thou wast with me there Although I past o're many a Pit Fill'd and smooth'd o're with Snow Thou would'st not let me fall in it Though sin deserves a woe Yea many perishing that Day Were buried above Ground Loosing their Lines as well as way Being choaked smother'd drown'd Through all these dangers thou me led Secure unto my place With goodness as with Manna fed Thy Monument of Grace O Lord this World 's a Ball of Snow In Hand it melts away Full of deep Pits which overthrow All those that go astray Cover'd they are also from sight By Sathan and Men's guile With Snow that is pretence of right White Devils most beguile Wherefore O Lord let not my Eye Be dazled with such light But be enabled to espie Their Pits and works of Night Let not my Soul now travelling home Venture without a Guide Thy spirit and Word nor walk where none Of thine have gone aside Nor let me ride o're Hedge and Ditch I mean the sacred Bound Of righteous Laws which Devilish Itch Whole Nations doth confound Lord let these Prayers and Praises be Accepted in thy Son So shall my Soul and Body see Thy great Salvation Amen ARGUMENT Vpon the Lord's Deliverance of Me from a Company of Robbers when I and my Servant having a great Charge of Money was Way-laid by them at my return home in the Forrest of Rockingum about the Moneth of May. Soliloquium or Discourse IN the space of time in which the Sun had almost twice measured the vast Concave of Heaven and taken an exact and curious surveigh of both the Hemispheres of Sea and Land I poor slow Worm and Pilgrim had only paced about thirty Miles towards my home Rackt with my Journey roasted with heat and flowr'd over with sweat and dust when on the suddain my way led me into a most pleasant plain a second Temple or Arcadia for delight and pleasure to guard which from the hot Invasion of the Sun or the suddain irruption of Storms stood round in Rank and deep Filles Armies of sturdy Oakes over-lookt by their tall Chieftains bauld-headed with Age yea some of them possibly free Britains before the Conquest and never since subdued nor subjected instead of the harsh and War-like sounds of Drums and Trumpets there were elevated in their Armes as being Dwarfs several sets of Nature's Musitians cloathed with coloured Liveries of several sorts of Feathers after the America fashion whose diversity and sweetness of Notes and Songs warbled forth through living Cornets and intrals as much excells that of dead Sheeps Guts as the animate the inanimate and Nature doth Arâ—
and other such like Is it so O my Soul And hath the Lord so extraordinarily and abundantly blessed this Ordinance and condition unto thee as thou hast declared in thy foregoing Memorial and thankful Acknowledgment Let upon this occasion thy Meditation be further stirred up and inlarged and from this great temporal blessing and mystery behold declare and point out the far greater and excelling blessings which are and shall be enjoyed by thee and the Church the Spouse of Christ by our spiritual Marriage and Union unto Him As Marriage in the Institution and in the particular Application is the Holy Ordinance of God and the blessed effect of his gracious Providence and Eternal Decree All Marriages according to the Proverb being made in Heaven so is that great Architype thereof the Marriage of the Church and in it of every true believer unto Christ. The Father bringing every one of us to him as he did Eve to Adam For none comes to me but whom the Father draws saith our Saviour Christ yea our Election effectual Calling and Regeneration together with our Union by Faith and spiritual Espousal to Christ our Heavenly Husband is of and from the Eternal Decree Love and Election of God our Father As the Woman was of the Man and not the Man of the Woman and the Woman was Created for the Man and not the Man for the Woman so was the Church typified by Eve taken out of the side of the second Adam the Lord Jesus Christ that she might be made as being his Rib Beloved and neer to his heart Flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone his only Spouse and one with him as the Apostle Paul asserts Eph. the 5. ver 30. This was effectually done when being asleep in Death upon the Cross the Beeing and Redemption of his Church arose and sprung forth of his side in a Flood of infinite precious and Cordial Blood and Water To conclude this our spiritual Union and Marriage is by the Apostle called a great Mystery as being the blessed effect of the free grace of God who is assentially love and therefore it is as to the heighth and depth length and breadth thereof Incomprehensible and passing all understanding By vertue of this Espousal in Baptisme we as Wives amongst us change our names into his and instead of Adamites are called Christians And on our part promise to forsake Father and Mother and all things else for him and to honour love and obey him On the other part the Lord Jesus Christ thus betroth'd to us in holiness and everlasting righteousness becomes thereby our Lord Law-giver and Spouse our Pattern Protector and Saviour as in the Type Husbands amongst us are or ought to be unto their Wives and as they so he endowes us here not only with all temporal blesings so far as shall be for our good For Godliness hath the promises of this Life and of that Life which is to come But with the rich dowry of all the saving Graces of his holy Spirit Cloathing us with the white Robes of his perfect and immaculat righteousness As being made of God unto us righteousness wisdom sanctification and redemption Yea the Lord our righteousness And as for hereafter he gives us the earnest and assurance of being Co-heirs with him of Eternal Life and Glory Amen EPITHELAMIVM Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject BReath not this Aire Men of unchast desires No Fewels here for your unhallow'd Fires Lord I adore thy wisdome and thy love That shadow'st in blest Wedlock things above Teaching Vs that this Vnions Mystical And sets forth thine with Vs Before the Fall A crooked Kib thou streightnest gav'st it Life Mad'st it a Virgin pure first Adam's Wife That she of thy dear Spouse the Type might be Once crookt by sin but now made streight in Thee Yea in the chast delights of Marriage-Bed Her union thou holdst forth with thee her Head In which thou giv'st to her thy loves that she Be'ng first belov'd might flame in love to Thee Kissing her with the kisses of thy Mouth Quickned with sp'rit and life thy sacred Truth Thou also her incirclest in the Armes Of thy protection And her frees from harmes For why thy right hand-power doth her o're-spread And left hand-care supports her graceful head Her sp'rit'al senses ear tast smell touch sight Thou satisfi'st with ravishing delight Her piercing eye of Faith sees and applies Thy excellency hid from Worldly eyes Her eares be'ng fill'd with Musick of thy Voice Doth in thy Word and promises rejoyce Thou altogether lovely art unto Her inward touch whence mutual love doth flow She tasts thy Spice Myrrh Hony Milk and Wine Of Hope Joy Peace Delight all sweets Divine Thy Spicknard Camphire fills her smelling sence Also thy Cassida Aloes Frankinsence And fragrant Oyntments All which well express Thy love truth mercy wisdome holiness Thy power and goodness grace and righteousness Sweet Oders which her cherish and refresh In fine thy Nuptial-Bed is covered o're And pav'd with love and fill'd with Graces store Here in her thou shed'st incorrupted Seed Begets in her a Christ-like forme indeed Whence follows that which joyes both Heaven and Earth Divine Conception and thy Saints new-birth So that one Christ one Sp'rit one flesh and bone One Body is thy Church thus 't was made one Hence as of Faith and mutual love the effects Thou rul'st and in her dwell'st and her protects Cloaths her with Golden Robes thy righteousness Mak'st her within glorious through holiness Giv'st her the promises of this World's life And of that life to come and as thy Wife Crown'st her with Glory sets her on thy Throne With thee on Earth as thy beloved One Next to thy Fathers Kingdome her translates To live with God Thy Churches highest State Another Hymn upon the same blessed Subject being Meditations upon my Marriage-Day The TYPE BLest Miracle of Love whose sacred Rights Restores to Man his own and re-unites Natures Division Two Bodies were combin'd In Adam once Loe here two Souls I find Knit in a purer union How doth the smile of one Attend the others joy her sighs my groane If absence parts us like as though one breath Did fan two hearts both seem to suffer Death If distance Clouds our view the strength of Love Doth make our thoughts as well as Bodies move In visits to each other So though two parts We seem to be we still are one in Heart The Anti Type or Application MY Love my Spouse my Sav'our Can the Fires Sprung from weak Natures notions and desires Produce such Sympathies O let thy flame Spir'd by a purer spirit effect the same In my unworthy Soul The Loves of all Compar'd with that of thine the Original Are but as shades to substances the Ray Vnto its Globe of light as Night to Day Lord in my Baptisme
thy free Grace who delightest to do good as being full of Bowels of pitty and compassion and shews Mercy to whom thou wilt shew mercy Wherefore O Lord since thou art not like to ill-natur'd Man but givest without grudging yea hast promised more to them to whom thou hast already given much Add I beseech thee this Grace that I may exceed others in real thankfulness as thou hast made me to precede many others in this and the like favours In testimony of which great and special Mercy to me and mine in our preservation I humbly present to thee this Cordial acknowledgment in this and the following Psalm of Praise Amen The PROTECTION Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject WHen Sin becomes Vniversal No wonder Epedemical Diseases answer Justice call Making each House an Hospital Such was unhappy England's fate When a Vsurper Rul'd our State Then Lord unto my Family Thou wast a healthful Sanctu'ry Thy Mercies great Indulgency Freed us from this Mortality Made Vs to Goshen-like when fear Sickness and Death Triumphant elswhere Sad was these times whon Corn and Grass Like to their owners withered was For want of help to Inn alas And tend them yea to such a pass Were many Housholds brought before It ceast three parts were sick or more Good God! how free 's thy Grace how great Thy Love how sinful uncompleat Am I the Subject Stage and Seat Of Favours which I here repeat With Praise since thou protection grants To worst of Sinners least of Saints Feavers O Lord of Luxury Tumors of Pride and Vanity Dropsies of swelling Gluttony Agues of sad Apostacy Most Families do now infect Make Sick O do thou mine protect And let not an Egyptian Night Of Error now Eclipse the Light Of Goshen but let thy might Preserve their Families upright So shall our Houses Churches be And give all Glory unto Thee Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious Preservation of my Horses and other Cattle from dying in the time of a great Murrain under Oliver Cromwell's Government when many of my Neighbours were very much damnified Soliloquium or Discourse AS Achan's sin let Israel blood So Saul's guilt of blood made Israel fast perforce in three Years of Famine David's pride in Numeration concludes in Israel's humiliation and Pestilential substraction And the High presumption of the Princes of the Philistines in the captivating God's Ark ends in the shame and reproach Plague and destruction of the People of their principal Cities Ekron and Ashdod to all which Examples the Poet bears witness Delirent Reges plectuntur Achivi As Israel suffered for Korah Dathan's and Abiram's Rebellion So England was punished with several Judgments as I humbly conceive for Cromwel's unfaithfulness and ambition witness the great and strange Plague amongst Horses and other Cattle and which was very remarkable it raged most amongst his Troops the Pillars of his Pride Not but that in all these Inflictions the Peoples Sins was the principal cause and the Princes offence as it were the shooing-horn to pull them on them as the Holy Spirit witnesses as to Israels Plague The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them saying go and number Israel and Judah That is he permited Sathan to stand up against Israel and to provoke David to number Israel as it is clearly held forth in the first of the Chronicles Chapter the 21. Vers. 1. But to return This Plague or Murrain was so contagious that it cleaved unto the very Walls Planks and Mangers of Stables insomuch that the fresh and untainted Horses brought and placed in them to supply the former loss were presently infected and dyed alike Mortality was also amongst other Cattle So that it is hard to say whether the dying groans of Beasts and Horses or the Cryes of the Husband-men and Carriers and those whose livelyhood was swept away by this Beasom of destruction was the greater O most gracious God who in the midst of these general Losses and Complaints preserved my Stock untoucht and intire not for my righteousness sake which is as filthy Rags but for thy mercy sake Accept I beseech thee this my thankful acknowledgment of thy singular goodness and Fatherly providence amongst the rest of thy mercies which according to thy own example and thy Saints my duty and thy command I desire to record and declare to my Childrens Children and to all future Generations that when through the Redemption of my Saviour Jesus Christ thou shalt translate me to praise thee in the Heavenly Chore of glorious Saints and Angels They and thy People in succeeding Ages may continue to praise and bless thy Name here upon Earth and be incouraged by thy manifold favours to me thy poor Servant to fear love and trust in thee for ever Lord since thy Glory and the good of my own Soul and others is my only end in this Work Let it receive a blessing from thee Amen The SHAMBLES A Corolary Poem on the former Subject WHence is it that the stately Stalls for Horse Of Noble Men are empty And perforce The Grooms do idly wait bewaile the fate Of their dead Steeds who seem to lie in state Like some in our proud Age yea Gentry fear No course at Brackly will be run this Year For want of raceing Barbes And that their Hounds Will surfeit with much Horse-flesh be unsound For want of Exercise and Troopers cry Old pay will not suffice new Horse to buy Why are our Fields Vntill'd why doth our Grain Now sow it self before brought home again For want of Teames to Inn it And the Road Through Carriers loss of Horse so thinly's troad Yea Dairy-men and Graziers throw up Ground Because their Sheep and Cattle die unsound Our Oracle God's Word gives answer Thus All Plagues are fruits of sin And the first curse Which like the Jewish Leprosie infects All that is ours though Creatures innocent As be'ng on Vs in part a Punishment Thus Rulers righteously do confiscate Not only Rebels Lives but their Estate And Princes use for faults in the Non-age Of a beloved Son to whip his Page O let our sinless Brutes sad dying moanes Stir up in Vs Offenders hearty groanes For all our sins their Plague so shall this loss To Vs become a blessing not a Cross. Lord though my fault did greatly contribute Vnto this common harm yet at thy suite This Judgment thou on others laid Let fall Sparing my goods who was a principal Preserving unto Admiration My Stock in this so great Contagion Lord as thy Mercy here was singular So let my praise the common pitch as far Transcend That so thy favours magnitude May not bring forth make great ingratitude In Me Who for thy Preservation Offer my self for an Oblation Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious Providence in the seasonable quenching and preserving Eleven times four of my Houses then in my possession from being burnt
Grace ◠The Eye of Faith whose object is the only begotten infinitely Glorious and mercifull Son of God Christ Jesus with all his faithful Promises numberless Merits saving and incomprehensible Graces This then O my Soul is that Sight and Light in comparison of which all other is but Darkness or as Torch-lights to the Sun By this alone a true Christian shall as much transcend the rational as the rational the sensual Creature Doth the momentary splendour of terrene things entice us to affect and prefer them And shall the everlasting and perfectly glorious Vision of Heavenly things even of Him who gave Beauty Form and Beeing to thee and all things prove less deserving less effectual Was the carnal eyes of my First Parents so over-pleased with the transitory Beauty of an earthly Fruit that they forgot their Creator whose Image they bare and entered the death threatning the breach of his Commandement though open to the fury of a double Curse exchanging the eternity of Happiness for a momentary taste And shall not the Pearless splendour of Heavenly things animate me to prepare a hand a heart to receive and taste the Manna of Souls the Fruit of a Tree of Life not guarded with a Cherubs Fiery sword but obvious to all not rooted in Earth but sprang from Heaven being grafted into Humanity that his Living Fruit might become the saving and eternal nourishment of Man O Lord I earnestly cry out with those at Capernaum Give me evermore of this Food Have mercy upon my Infirmities for being Adam◠son I have a withered hand a carnal heart which carnality 〈◊〉 enmity with thee Therefore Create in me a clean Heart and renue a right Spirit within me Relieving my Spiritual wants with this apprehensive Grace by which supernatural gift I may be made able to apply thy saving Promises with all their dependances O Adam I cannot blame thee for the loss of this Grace since thou deprivest thy Posterity of those Treasures only which thou was possest of But in thy Innocency this thou hadst not yet wert thou not therefore defective for thy created purity needed not any imputative righteousness being of it self sufficient because accepted The beauty of thy first Purity was so far from Leprosie that not the least Stain was then apparent to deface its Candor Thy Innocency void of Sin and therefore required not a Saviour Thy Soul was the Resemblance of thy Creator and therefore a pleasing and most proper object for his All-glorious sight There was without Wrath Attonement without Enmity Mediation without Debt satisfaction without Jesus Application is unnecessary Infidelity was the first means of Death Faith is the only instrument of Life By the one came our Descent to Hell through the other our Ascent to Heaven That made us Fly from God offended this makes us Run unto Him appeased Man had his first Spring in the Creation his Summer in Paradise which should ever have continued had not his meridianal height suffered a declination So shortning his happiest dayes he changed both Place and Season As after the Fall Winter ensues so did his For what are our untimely times but as a Winter quarter wherein every Tree is Fruitless we being not seemingly but really dead in Sinnes and Trespasses And if there be any Sap in the Root or Understanding it serves for no other use nourishment or comfort but to leave us without excuse If any Leaves as Moral actions and outward Professions alas these may hide from men our Nakedness producing a supposition of Fruitfulness but cannot deceive God who shall cause such Leavy Fig-trees to wither O Saviour Jesus Christ my Years increase my Life decreaseth neither know I how soon thou wilt visite me by Death or Judgment when if only as outwardly glorious thou sendest me my Portion is with Hypocrites if defective of Fruit thy sentence hath already awarded me fit for the Fire Lord I am a stem of sinfull Adam sprung from a barren Root and therefore a Plant which but Cumbers this Ground O thou which only art Lord and Husband-man of Souls so shine on me by thy favour mould and manure me with thy Grace prune me with thy Fatherly chastisements that the old Man may be rooted up and the new Man spring up and grow that so the Winter of Sin past a Spring of Faith may ensue which in thee being only fruitfully perfect I may with a happy certainty expect an Autumn of Glory Whosoever believeth in me hath everlasting life are the words of our Saviour from whose graciousness every Soul may receive infinite encouragement to pursue the condition or instrumental means of so unvaluable a gift For what is more desired than life What more abhorred than deprivation Let this offer therefore of Immortality the height and accomplishment of Mans happiness like the streams of Paradise direct thee O wandering Soul unto the Eden of Glory In the midst whereof thou shalt finde the Spring of Faith the Fountain of Life even God himself From whom alone all Graces have their right ebulition and procession for God deals to every one the measure of Faith As in the first Creation he gave a Beeing to what was not so in Mans Regeneration his immediate Word wrought the one his written Word the other Pulpits are Heavenly Conduits from whence by Earthy Vessels the Ministers Voices as in smaller Pipes the Waters of Grace are conveyed into every open Ear. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God The life of the Body is the Soul the Soul of the Soul is Faith As the Infant lives not till God hath infused a Soul so the Christian lives not without his gift of Faith O thou whose gifts are the effects of thy free Mercy not our Merit and therefore without Repentance or Changeableness thou being Wisdome it self and therefore Unalterable Omnipotent and therefore above all contradiction and resistance give to me this Seal of thy love this first fruit of thy favour and my Conversion O bestow on me the Grace I ask because thou hast given unto me Grace to ask For thy bounty is not closed up because thou hast been liberal like to Man since thy love is without measure thou therefore give me because thou hast given Thy former favours being but earnests of thy future mercies The Body of Man like to the Pool of Bethesda hath five Porches or senses through which all external pleasure and delectation enters as it were to comfort the imprisoned Soul They being as so many Cranies dimly enlightning her Dungeon that so their poor and weak expressions might make her ambitious of a perfect liberty Amongst these the seeing faculty in comparison of the rest may be stiled the beautifull Gate for its Grace and Ornament and the Bodies mirrour wherein with delight it views the perfection of it self and others So that indeed the better half of Mans temporary felicities consists in outward objects
place a Memento in the midst and as it were in the front thereof Further thy holy Spirit in the Prophet doth brand and note this privation as the root and cause of all Rebellions Because saith he my People have forgotten me they have burnt Incense unto vanity Lastly which adds to and most aggravates this my languor wicked Men are in thy Word thus described and painted out To be without God in the World and not to have thee in all their ways to cast thy Laws behind them and to forget thee as I have done O Lord since I have lost this precious gift in the first Adam let me receive it again in thee the second that my Soul being adorned with holy impressions may become the Temple of thee my Saviour Strengthen thy self in Me O dejected Soul and in these thy wants Look unto me who works in thee both the will and the deed of my good pleasure and will my self also freely give thee all things As I am not ignorant of thy defects so I am not to seek of thy cure I know there is a double forgetfulness in corrupted nature the one of thy sins to repent the other of my Word and Laws to practice But know thou this also that although for a time my Elect may forget me yet they shall never be forgotten of me Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Wombe yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee for I will remember my Covenant with thee and will establish unto thee an everlasting Covenant And because I will do thus thou shalt also remember thy ways and be ashamed and thou shalt loath thy self in thy own sight for all the evil which thou hast committed And as for the other defect be assured that the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom my Father will send in my name he shall teach thee all things and bring all things into thy remembrance whatsoever I have said unto thee For This is the Covenant that I will make with thee I will put my Law into thy inward parts and write it in thy Heart and will be thy God and thou shalt be my Servant O my Lord I can never sufficiently admire thy power thy free Love and the healing vertue of thy sacred and refreshing word But what sweetness or relief what hope of remedy and recovery can my diseased Soul receive from it that wants a will to receive or apply thy comfortable Plaisters unto my festred sores Can the knowledge and sight of Meat feed the hungry Can the beholding of riches satisfie the needy or the Physicians Medicament cure without application No Lord they cannot How then can thy Holy Word work upon me any gracious effects that have a wretched will refractory to hearing reading meditation or any good use thereof If the mind and understanding be evil the will which is their servant and agent must needs be so also And if it hath its work in all evil actions it must not be left out nay cannot be idle or wanting in those that are good But my will is continually opposite to thine which is the rule of equity and justice and therefore cannot work the works of God It is true thou canst not For as I said before I work in thee both to will and to do But because thou canst not wilt thou limit my power also Cannot I that at first gave thee a will now at the last give thee a good will Is it not as easie for me to bend move and change thy nilling will into a willing one as to enlighten and quicken the other dead faculties of thy Soul Or is my free grace and love less benevolent unto it than unto the rest No surely It is not for my honour nor is it in thy power to be primarily and voluntarily assistant in this work For of my own will I beget my Children that those that glory may glory in the Lord humbly confessing that it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Mercifull Saviour I know thou canst cure dangerous yea desperate diseases But Lord I fear that I am too far gone that I have lost and let slip my opportunity and time of grace even that Day wherein thou wilt speak and be spoken to So that now I may justly expect that thou wilt swear in thy wrath that I shall not enter into thy rest And that this my fear may not seem groundless be thou pleased to feel the Pulses of my corrupted Soul and thou shalt finde that they beat not at all or if they do their motion is either exorbitant or full of intermissions Is it not thy command that I should love thee love my God with all my heart with all my soul with all my minde For thou wilt love them that love thee Is it not negative also thus Love not the World neither the things that are in the World For if thou lovest the World the love of the Father is not in thee What then Lord will become of me who have loved darkness rather than light and have been a lover of pleasures more than a lover of thee my God Further if at any time I be in love or ravisht with thee as beholding that excellent beauty which streams forth from all thy glorious attributes especially thy mercy how weak and of what short continuance are these flashes being like lightning which gone make but the night the darker So that in their so long absence I have just cause to fear their return doubting lest thou wilt say of me as once of the Laodiceans that because I am neither hot nor cold but luke-warm thou wilt therefore spite me out of thy mouth Again doth not thy Kingdome within us consist in righteousness in peace and in joy of the Holy Ghost which kinde of joy for the excellency thereof thou callest thine as also because of its procession from thee and from thy spirit it being that unparallel'd and unconceivable mirth which admits no mixture of sorrow no higher pitch of solace This this was it which so ravisht thy holy ones making them breath forth seraphically with Habakkuk I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation with the Spouse we will be glad and rejoyce in thee with David in thy presence is fulness of joy and with Peter we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious Now O Lord in what ranck shall I place my self who being carnal and sold under sin savours not the things that be of God but those that be of Men not rejoycing in thee but in my own vain and sinfull imaginations proudly boasting and rejoyceing with those reprehended by the Apostle in those few gifts thou hast indued me with as
a Hell of unclean lusts But labour as much to be like Christ in holiness and righteousness as thou hopest and desirest to be like him in glory Let thy Members be spiritualized and heavenized and made Members of holiness unto righteousness And let thy conversation be in Heaven where thy habitation shall be For our life is hid in Christ with God and when he appeares we shall appear also with him in glory and be ever with the Lord. O omnipotent God and gracious Father in my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who in the beginning madest Man after thy own Image in holiness and in righteousness of body and soul as having from everlasting decreed that thy only begotten Son the Eternal Word should be made Flesh and become Man And therefore thou saidest let us make Man in our Image after our likeness for to thee all things past and future are as in their present being in thy great goodness pitty and with infinite compassions behold what a sad and miserable change Sathan and Sin have made in thy Image and Creature Thou hast made Man upright but they have sought out many inventions Yea every imagination of the thoughts of Mans heart are only evil continually Their hearts are deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know them Their bodies are become so like Sathan that they may well be called Devils incarnate Their Heads imagine mischief continually their Eyes are altogether set upon vanity their Eares are soon set open to let in all verbal uncleanness their Smell is fum'd with pride their Pallates are fur'd with gluttony and excess and their touch is the pander of lust and lasciviousness their Mouths Tongues and Throats are open Sepulchres their right hands are full of bribes iniquity and oppression and their Feet walk in the way of sinners and are swift in running to mischief In summe the whole Body is a Cage of unclean lusts and the wicked Instruments of all ungodliness and unrighteousness O mercifull Creator this is our sinfull condition by nature But thou hast promised to change these vile bodies and to make them glorious bodies like the body of our Lord. O begin I beseech thee this change and new Creation upon my body here since they only that are sanctified and made new Creatures shall be glorified They only that are raised and have part in this first Resurrection from sin shall be raised and have part in the second Resurrection to Glory Let it appear that I am born again of Water and the Spirit and that Christ is already formed in me and let all those senses and Members which have been the Members of uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity be now the Members and Servants of righteousnes unto holiness so shall my glory begin here in holiness and righteousness and be compleated hereafter in the perfection of Glory Amen I proceed next to the second excellency of our Bodies at the Resurrection They shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever Yea our blessed Saviour far transcends these expressions of the Angel in Daniel and saith The righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father Yea far higher yet They shall partake of the Glory of God which is far above all created Glory he declaring that The glory God hath given him he had given them All which is comprehended in the fore-recited Texts He shall make our vile Bodies like unto his glorious Body And that when he shall appear we shall be like him To this great truth the Apostle Paul further beares witness saying Whom he justifies them he also glorifies That those that suffer with Christ shall also be glorified together with him And that our light affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory That when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with Him in Glory Of this excelling and blessed state of the People of God in the darker times of the Church under the Law the Psalmist gives testimony saying Let the Saints be joyfull in Glory And of himself in particular Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and after receive me into Glory I shall conclude the proofs of this most comfortable encouraging and ravishing Doctrine with the evidence of blessed Peter When the chief Shepward shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fades not away The God of all grace hath called us into his Eternal Glory by Jesus Christ. Our blessed Saviour in his great love to us and for our encouragement in his service hath not only from his own Mouth and by his Spirit in the Mouths of his Ministers as hath been shewed verified this precious truth and illustrated it by sensible similitudes such as the Sun Stars and Firmament but became himself even in his state of humiliation a Sign Figure and example of this glorious shining condition and change of the Bodies of his Saints at the Resurrection in that his wonderfull and miraculous transfiguration in the presence of Peter James and John upon the Mount when his Face did shine as the Sun and his Rayment was white as the Light A sight so ravishing and delightfull that it made Peter although but a Spectator to forget Wife and Family and to look upon this World as a Dunghill saying unto our Lord Jesus Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias Consider then was this glorious change in our Saviour so superlatively delightfull to Peter to behold What shall it be to us in the fruition Certainly true is that Word of the Lord Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Our Souls are now immund or rather imprisoned with in a fleshly Wall or Jaile of whited Earth and like a poor Prisoner hath only the liberty to peep and look out at the Cinque-ports or windows of the sences Neither is it or can it now be seen or truly known by our selves or others But then that Image of God that Angel-like Spirit that most rich and inestimable Jewel purchased with the infinite precious blood of the Son of God and valued by him to be more worth than the whole World shall dwell and be housed in the body glorified as in a shining pure and transparent Chrystal Cabinet And shall be seen and known by Saints our selves and Angels as to its forme to its glorious operations and perfect beauty The resplendent body like a Concave Mathematical Glass not deminishing but magnifying and adding to its excellent glory and brightness And moves according to its
but such as shall be exceeding ravishing and delightfull and as Musick to the Soul even such unspeakable words as blessed Paul heard when he was caught up into Paradise Then shall we being placed in glory at the right hand of our righteous King and Saviour hear with boldness and without fear or astonishment that most joyfull sentence Come yee blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World Then shall we hear that great voice of God the Father who sits upon the Throne saying Behold I make all things new the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God Then shall these words which are faithfull and true be fulfilled God shall wipe away all teares from their Eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end I will give unto him that is athirst of the Fountain of the Water of Life freely he that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son To conclude I shall not say any thing as to the Musick of the Sphears as esteeming them to be only groundless dreams and phantasies of Heathens and Phylosophers I humbly conceive that as far as the glorious Heavens and Angels transcend and excells the nâ—w Earth and the Inhabitants thereof so far shall the ravishing and musical voices and sounds in this glorified state of the Saints excell all the pleasures and delights of this kind in this our low and corruptible condition O my Soul shall the sense of Hearing in the next life be as comprehensive and perfect in its kinde as the sense of Sight Shall it be made capable not only of Hearing and that with understanding also the Musick of Heaven the all-ravishing Hymns the mellifluous speech and voices of Angels the Language of Glory as also to hear him whose voice is as a Trumpet and as the noise of many Waters of him who is the Judge of Heaven and Earth the King of Kings the King of Saints and the King of Nations the Eternal Word the Lord Jesus Christ God-Man blessed for ever Yea shalt thou then O my Soul by the assistance of this glorified sense hear not as now the dreadfull and killing but the all delighting reviving exalting and transporting voice of the ever glorious Trinity even of the Eternal God Himself O let not this so excellent and usefull a sense be deboist so much as to be the Gate or in-let of vain and unprofitable discourses of wanton and lascivious words or of any kind of false slanderous or evil speeches all which are as so many Traytors to thee and Enemies unto thy God and Soveraign Nor let thy Eares be â—urfeited and excessively glutted with any kind of earthly Musick or with the pleasing sounds or voices of any of thy fellow-Creatures which although lawfull delightfull and refreshing to the natural and animal Spirits as being neer a Kin to them yet by the subtilty of Sathan the World and thy Flesh do frequently become snares and an undiscernable flattering and therefore the more dangerous Enemy and means to pollute thee with sin or to introduce some kind of fleshly lust or other But begin even now O my Soul to exercise every sense and member upon such objects and in such employments and actings as come neerest to those of Angels and glorified Saints This is to make this Earth a Paradise and to have even whilst thou art in this World as the Apostle exhorts thy conversation in Heaven To this end let thy delight be with holy David in the converse of the excellent ones upon Earth yea watch dayly at the Gates of Wisdome and wait at the Posts of her Doors yea with attention hang upon the Lips of her Teachers Be much in the exercises of the Church Tryumphant in praising God in the Assemblies of his Saints in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace and making Melody in your heart So shalt thou O my Soul by a sanctified spiritual and internal sense heâ—e frequently even in this thy state of humiliation the counsels and instructions of blessed Angels the voice of God and of his holy Spirit viz. thy Father and Comforter behind thee saying This is the way walk thou in it And the loving expressions and invitations of thy most sweet and gracious Spouse and Saviour who standing behind the Wall of thy Flesh and looking forth at the Windowes of several Providences and shewing himself through the Lattess of thy intervening and impeding weakness and infirmity will often speak unto thee saying Arise up my love my fair one and come away For loe the Winter is past of thy doubts fears sufferings and temptations The rain of thy teares and mourning is over and gone The Flowers of my saving gifts which evidence the Spring of my Grace appears on the Earth of thy renewed nature The time of the singing of Birds the earnest and witness of my Spirit and of thy conscience assuring thee of my love and salvation is come and the voice of me the true Turtle is heard in the Land even in thy Soul my Habitation The Figg-Tree putteth forth her green Figges and the Vines with the tender Grapes give a good smell viz. thou art fruitfull in all holy and good works Now therefore arise my love my fair one and come away and inherit the Kingdome prepared for thee before the Foundation of the World O my gracious Lord and Saviour who when thou wert upon Earth in the zeal of thy Spirit cryed out unto thy Auditors He that hath Eares to hear let him hear and didst declare and expound the Words of thy Prophet That there should be many that hear but understand not intimating to us thereby that there is a spiritual and internal sense of hearing that many want that have the bodily sence and Organ O thou which openedst the heart of Lidia as well as her Eares when she gave attention to Paul's preaching and said to the deaf Man in the Gospel Ephtata and his Eares were opened give me an understanding Eare as well as thou hast given me an Ear of Flesh that I may both hear and understand know and obey thy will declared unto me by the Ministers of thy Word Yea let my Eares be always open to receive entertain and retain the holy instructions consolations reproofes and encouragementâ— of any of thy faithfull Servants and my fellow-members and Brethren But let them through thy grace be turned away sealed up and guarded against the Syrene Songs of all Sin and Sinners And if by force or surpriâ—e oaths curâ—ing lying slandering blasphemies vain
excessive idle and inordinate use of the Down-beds of England of the hot Springs of Bathe of the fresh but wanton Aire of Hide-Park of the cool Baths and Aquaducts of Italy Remember that antient but true Proverb Latet anguis in Herba made good literally and vitiously in the Egyptian Cleopatra whose lusts even her unclean and immoderate indulging of this sense procured her Soul and Bodies destruction O my Soul let this sense fulfill the end for which it was made and become as before hath been observed thy Instrument and diligent Investigator to inquire into the wonders and bounty of God in the Elements other natural things and in all thy enjoyments That in the pleasing and sober exercise of this sense both thy body may be delighted and thou maist be assisted and instructed therefrom to glorify thy great and good God in all his mercies and attributes and in all thy liberal fruitions so shalt thou be like the blessed Angels who by their spiritual sense beholding and apprehending God in all his works are thereby inlarged and unwearied in his praises and be also a Companion with them hereafter in their Heavenly Hallelujahs and Coelestial Glory O Lord my God and Saviour who hath said in thy Word which Word is truth Behold I make all things new fulfill that promisary Word I beseech thee in me renew both my Soul and Body that this sense of senses this universal sense that possesses every part and member may not seem to be alive and yet not alive as being by nature and from my birth taken with and under a dead Palsie of Sin and in danger to be made past feeling through customary offending and the frequent stroaks and sharp launcings of thy Judgments the gnawings and bitings of Conscience and of my dangerous condition Is there no Balme in Gilead Is there no Physician there Lord Jesus thou alone art my Physician thou hast undertaken my Cure thou hast begun it and wilt certainly perfect it For thou art the Author and finisher of my Faith a God of perfection and immutable therefore thy Gifts and Calling are without Repentance O be thou graciously pleased to wash both Soul and Body in that Fountain opened in the House of David for Sin and for Vncleanness even in thy own most precious healing and purifying blood For thy blood O Lord Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and iniquity and that not only from the guilt as to Gods divine justice But from the filth of sin this my body of death and corrupt Lusts so shall I have a pure tender and feeling Conscience to avoid and eschew all evil and the like Sense of Feeling in my Body shall be so sanctified and regulated by it that neither costly pride nor penurious covetousness lustfull and itching concupiscence wastfull voluptuousness nor deceivable vanity shall vitiate corrupt or disorder it O my Lord since thou hast made a firme Covenant with me in Baptisme even an everlasting Covenant the sure mercies of David and hast contracted thy self to me in the Communion of thy Body and Blood I will now presume to say as thy Spirit hath taught me My Beloved is mine and I am his Kiss me with the kisses of thy Mouth for thy love is better than Wine Bring me into thy Banquetting-house and let thy Banner over me be love Stay me with Flaggons comfort me with Apples for I am sick of love let thy left Hand be under my Head and let thy right hand imbrace me Now I have found thee whom my Soul loveth I will hold thee and will not let thee go O set me as a Seal upon thy Heart as a Seal upon thy Arme so my love in thy strength is as strong as death Many Waters through thy grace shall not nor can quench my love neither can the Floods of Tentations Tribulations and Persecutions for thy sake drown it O let me be in thy Eyes as one that hath found favour so shall this Sense my Touch be spiritualiz'd by thee here and glorified with thee hereafter and be the Hand-maid and assistant to my Soul to distinguish and discover unto her thy bounty and goodness and all other thy excellencies in thy wonderfull works in nature and cease to be as in its unregenerate state a Pander to lust and Sathan For the works of the Flesh are Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness and without the new Jerusalem are Dogs and Whoremongers Lord do thou touch me with the Finger of thy sanctifying Spirit and let me lay hold and imbrace thee in the Armes of Faith and love and then this bodily sense shall be so metamorphosed by such a union and communion with thee that it shall be a real augmentation of my happiness and delight in this life and through thy free grace who proportionably rewards thy Saints receive from thee by the holy exercise of it here at the Resurrection an answerable increase of Glory Amen Having through Gods gracious assistance although in much weakness meditated and discoursed of the glorification of the Five Senses I shall conclude with the blessed and excellent use and exercise of the Tongue under which I comprehend the voice and articulate speech at our Resurrection in Glory which although not numbered amongst the Senses yet is not inferiour but transcends them all as being the Souls Orator and Interpreter to the glory of God of what is seen heard tasted smelt or touched by us And therefore it is styled by David His Glory as being that sweet and most melodious Instrument that utters and declares the wonderous works of God to his great praise and honour which is the principal end of our Creation Redemption and Glorification To this member I annex as necessary assistants the Aire Lips Teeth Throat and Lungs And as to the Speech Language or Dialect solely to be used by all the Saints at the Resurrection I humbly conceive it shall be the Primitive Hebrew Tongue as being certainly the Original Language of Adam in the Creation and before his Fall when he gave names to the Creatures according to their natures and in which God spake unto him and therefore is to be restored to us by Christ the second Adam The rise of all other Languages being a curse punishment and an effect of sin in their Original and the confusion at the building of the Tower of Babel Besides this Tongue had the great and special honour to be the Language of the Holy Ghost in the old Testament and in St. Matthew's Gospel and of our blessed Saviour the Eternal Word of God and of the blessed Angels in all their several missions and appearances throughout the Book of God So that in fine this Tongue hath the priviledge and prerogative of all other Languages and may be called the Language of the glorious Trinity Holy Angels and inspired Saints and Prophets yea the Language of Heaven I proceed next to the
continue you in the things that ye have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom ye have learned them For evil Men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Consider one another to provoke to love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is But exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the Day approaching Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace For there is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling One Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Since then you are the Body of Christ and Members in particular let there be no Schisme in the Body Now I hear that there be divisions amongst those that call themselves Christians For there must be Heresies also among you that those that are approved may be manifest among you which were spoken before of my Apostles that there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit Now by my Name I desire you that you all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions amongst you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment If you say then I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ Are ye not carnal Is Christ divided Who then is Paul And who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed Even as the Lord gave to every Man If then such an one as was Paul plants or as Apollo was watereth It is God that giveth the increase Therefore let no Man glory in Men But do you mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not Me but their own Belly and by good words and fair Speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Finally whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Virtue and if there be any praise think on these things And those things which ye have both known and received and heard and seen in me do And the Father himself that loveth you the God of Peace shall be with you Holy Father who hearest me always This is Life Eternal to know Thee the only true God and Me whom thou hast sent Keep through thy own Name those that thou hast given Me that they may be one as we are one That they all may be one as thou Father art in Me and I in Thee that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And that the World may know that thou hast sent Me and hast loved them as thou hast loved Me. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which Thou hast given me I have given to them the words which Thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from Thee and they have believed that Thou didst send me I pray for them I pray not for the World but for those that thou hast given me For they are Thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them I pray that thou wouldest keep them from the evil of the World and that my joy may be fulfilled in them Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth Finally Beloved Wife of my Youth and dear Children Farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of peace and love shall be with you For this cause I bow my Knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named That he would give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man That Christ may live 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 heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with the fulness of God The God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is most pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us to him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages World without end The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen A Post-script of the Father to his Wife and Children concerning the foregoing Epistle with some further Exhortations to the practice thereof MY dearest heart and intirely affected Children the good and salvation of whose Souls I pray for and labour for as for my own I have I trust by the direction of the holy Spirit chosen in this manner to write unto you as hoping that what is delivered to you in the Person and words of our Lord and beloved Saviour For such is every word in the Epistle except some words not substantial necessary for connexion explanation and application requisit in a subject of such various matter You will with the more reverence and affection delight and obedience attend to and receive For although all the words therein were not uttered by his own mouth upon Earth yet were they all indited by his holy Spirit who spake by the Prophets and Apostles and is the Lord God of the holy Prophets So that if ye will not hear and obey him herein speaking to you by himself and by them Neither will you be perswaded though one arose and spake to you from Hell and from the dead Ye know after what manner I have been with you at all seasons And how I have kept nothing back that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and have taught you both in private and more publiquely Testifying unto you and
Ejaculation or Hymn upon the foregoing Subject O Blest Creator let my first Birth be A Figure of my second Birth to thee Sooner than many others 'T was thy grace That fir'd my heart during my youthful race And caus'd me seek the free refreshing Gales Of thy blest Spirit to cool and fill the Sailes Of its desires That from the noisome Wombe And dark some Jaile of Sin I might become A free-born Son to thee and change my place This Earth for Heaven the Birth of Sin for Grace 'T was thy free-free-love which did desire to see Blest Parent thy own Image born in Me. That pour'd clean Water on me washt away My Natures Blood and stench and didst allay My shivering doubts and feares by putting on Thy Lambs warm Skin the Imputation Of thy Sons righteousness that from that heat A life of grace might spring and be compleat Lord since thou mightest have made my Grave in Wombe Or by miscarrying cloâ—'d me in my Tombe Or made my life through sin a living Death A treasury of wrath Let my new Birth And life bring forth to thee the thankful fruit Of holiness So shall I Retribute Thy own in my poor Mite and to thy praise Live thankfulness sincerely all my Days Amen ARGUMENT The REMEMBRANCER A Psalm for the Lord's Day Being my thankful acknowledgment of the Lord 's many Mercies to me in my Formation and Beeing LOrd who giv'st in mercy great A seventh Day to meditate On thy works of Creation Give me grace to think upon Thy great goodness unto me Who didst bring From a nothing Me a something for to be Next that me thou hast not made As frail Flowers which quickly fade Nor a Toad a Dog a Swine Or a Creature Serpentine But a Beeing rational Fit to see And to know thee Great Creator of us all That I was no Innocent Organ-less Deficient Nor a Monster from my Birth Void of shape a shame to Earth Thus and worser had I been But thy love Was far above Such thy just reward of sin Thou art he that gav'st me light In a Land made free from night Of dark Antichristian Mists Pagans and Mahometists Where poor Infants with their breath Sucking are Infectious Air Live a Life far worse than Death Here thou didst unto me give In thy life new life to live Where so many love the Night And with Owles do hate the Light Yea like Fish in Jordan's streams Swim with ease Into dead Seas Sleep and perish in false Dreams Wherefore Lord upon thy Day I will praise thy Name for aye Till thy second Sabbath blest Gives to me Eternal Rest Where from World Sin Sathan free I shall ring And sweetly sing Hallelujah's out to thee ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious deliverance of me from the Infection of the Plague when being a Childe I was present in my Nurses Hand at the Bed-side of one that was sick and dyed thereof whereby many of that Town were infected and dyed Soliloquium or Discourse CHaritable Visits to our Neighbours many times prove uncharitable to our selves such proved this of my self Nurse and others to the sick Bed of the Vicar of the Town by which the Inhabitants were infected and many of his Parishioners followed him not only to but into the Grave whereof many were Children Plants of my Age and standing Cruel Death as an Enemy to time and Man-kinde Saturn-like delighting to devour tender Babes as well as aged Men which his enmity our good God converts to our good that so being fore-warn'd we might be fore-arm'd and alwayes prepared to encounter him as being both the most certain and the uncertain Adversaâ—y O my Soul hath Death often by sickness and danger shaken thy Glass and lest Summons and Suppenaes at thy Door and hath the great Numberer of thy Sands and Days from time to time sent thee Repreeves with King Phillip's Motto written on the back-side of them Mortalis es Is more than three Quarters of thy Years of Life posted away in Childhood Youth Man-hood sin and vanity O let the small remainder with Solomon be thy Ecclesiastes to preach this his experimental truth to thy Children and all following Generations Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity and vexation of Spirit that so thou despising all things under the Sun mayst soar aloft and enjoy that only chief good that is above the Sun thy God in Christ blessed for ever to whom in a thankful remembrance of this great signal and primitive mercy and deliverance I humbly present this following Ejaculation and thanks-giving The ANTIDOTE Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject FIâ— lazie Soul shall the Idolaters give Vnto dead Marbles praise and wilt thou live Vnthankful Shall God's Instrument thy Tongue Be tun'd to folly not unto his Song When in thy Youth an ignorant charity Led thee into Death's ambush He stood bie Could else one and the same infectious breath Preserâ—e thy Life which brought to others Death O in this mercy greater mercies see Death swallowing others swallow'd up of thee Lord since in dangers thou new life didst give Let Souls anew as well as Bodies live That fill'd with praise faith hope and fervent love Heart Tongue may bless thee here my Soul above Amen ARGUMENT Vpon a dangerous fall from a Horse when I was a Childe whereby I received three hurts one in the Head another in the Arme and a third in the Leg and upon God's mercy in my recovery thereof Soliloquium or Discourse SInful falls are a just cause of falls under Judgments my first fall in Adam could my Childhood have pleaded innocency as to all other deserved not only this but that which is infinitely worse a remediless fall into Hell The indulgency of my Parents in satisfying my childish desires and my too early venturousness together with the much mettle and ill qualities of my Horse were the external occasion of this my sad disaster which left me not only on the ground and cruelly hurt but for a time senseless and only fit to be carried in a Coach unto my Fathers House whose loving care prepared not only one to set my dislocated Bones but applyed Balsomes unto my wounds by which means through God's mercy I obtained health strength and a perfect recovery YOVTHS EMBLEME Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject O Gracious God and Father let my sense Be spiritualiz'd and from each Providence As Bees from Flowers suck sweetness then I shall Praise thee for greater mercies by this Fall Which was from thee a milde Correction For Adam's and my own Transgression For hadst thou judg'd severely I had fell Not only from my Horse but into Hell O Lord me thinks by this sad fall and fate Thou mind'st me of my Vnregenerate State When I indulg'd my will and rid upon A wanton Steed my loose affection Which gave me many falls wounded my Head My Reason-Faculties yea left me Dead And hurt in Arm and Leg senceless and mad Vnfit to act or walk
forgotten Goodness and Mercy The LAMENTATION Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject BRight Eye of Heaven how doth thine Ire From a smooth Brow dart forth thy Fire No Tropicks bound thy torred Zone Since Britains know no temperate one Why doth those living rayes which grace Thy Tellus brow now scorch her Face No Saturn thou yet the same heats Which gave thy off-spring life retreates Them into Death and makes them have Within themselves a wither'd Grave See how black Clouds of dust arise To blear thy Beames because the Skies Have none In Sack-cloath see thy Queen Sits having laid aside her green Her Spring-paint gone wrinkles appeares And shews her Ag'd five thousand Years Art thou not jealous for to see Thy love lye nak't forc Company Or art thou Spanioliz'd and would Through these new Inlets spie out Gold Doth Hell keep Jubill and desires Thee to shine there with lightsome Fires See Troopes of Blades whose strength did keep Whole Cities Townships scarce dare peep Or shew in Field yea in these feares Some not offending lose their Eares Whole Rivers scarce thy thirst doth bound Whilst Springs their heads hide under ground Tell me is Phaeton in place Or Daphne hath thy Twelve Moneths Race Fir'd thy Axtell for didst thou fear Our Springs hive would out-brave thy Sphear But whence this brightning hark my moan Is answer'd by a Thunders groan Wrath through that Planet burns Earth Skies Men's barren Hearts assimuliz's The Application and Petition DRead Lord I tremble and now see The cause of this Catastrophie Leaves had the Figg-Tree were prun'd Yet fruitless Vines yea like untun'd Instruments whose Notes do jar And only Briefs and Minnums are Of goodness full of stops which lie And discord makes not harmony Were the Microcosmes on which Thy love hath shin'd with a most rich Influx yet we thy Graces dew Dry up and lose both fruit and hue Lord let thy show'rs on both Worlds fall So shall thy Sun not scortch but all Things fructuate On us rain blood No evil Omen this but good On that unbowel Clouds of Rain So shall both Spring grow green again Yea once more Blood and Water shall Witness on Earth thy Peace to all Rivers shall flow then in each Place And to both prove the streames of Grace Blest Sp'rit upon these Waters move That both may yield Thee fruit praise love And those dry Chaps that want a Tongue Shall sing a close unto this Song Amen A thanksgiving for Rain after the forementioned great Drought Anno 1637 1638 1639. ARGUMENT The God that heareth Prayer heard ours And pitty seems to weep in showers The Shewer of Mercy MErcy If peace 'twixt Heaven and Vs Tell me why roars his Cannon thus Why do I hear where e're I come The Warlike Wings strike up their Drum Seest thou that Row so vastly bent As if the Centers point it meant To split through us that by one Doom The World might fall into its Tomb Or Chaos May be through Earths heart Nature two counter-poles World dart Because as some think she 's decay'd Her Poles worn out or over-way'd No drooping Soul that thunders noise Is Justice murmur 'cause my voice Prevailes with God The other sound Musters up Troops of blessings round The Orb. As for the threatning Bow It 's my Triumphant Arch no woe Portending since he means no harm Who turns the Bowes horns from his Arm. Witness those orient streaks which are The Ensigns of Earths Peace not War Since then the string is in thy power Dart up by force of love a shewer Of praise then by that Jacob's scale Let thy Soul mount with a fresh gale Take Heaven by force no danger fear 'T is freedome to be Captiv'd there Earths Jubily TEll me my Soul when did the Skies So become Morning to all Eyes Were ever teares so timely shed As these which strangely raise the Dead Mercy now puts on Justice Gown And smiles under the old Worlds frown Dame Earth grown frolick now attires Her front with liquid Pearls and desires To feast the Creatures by her lie Clear mirrons for to dress her by Young Hairs she busheth forth to hide Her baldness and like Autumes Bride Hath over her by Spike-men born A Canopie of swelling Corn. The Springs invited but she grown Feavereth to Southern Climes was gone For health yet presents her Queen By Proxie with a suit of green With which Earth spreads her lap and sets Thereon her fruits and delicates The feasts prepar'd then in each place Let us before we eat say Grace The Thanksgiving GOod God such a new World as this Deserves a second Genesis To preach thy power and love which thrice Hath made our health a Paradice O give us innocency too So place and blessing shall anew Through Christ by right of re-intaile Be ours and ours till Issue faile Lord make all Heads Fountains all Eyes Limbicks distilling like the Skies Through heat of love a weeping Rain Let hearts like Earth grow soft again So shall such mutual Harmony Shew grace as sin works sympathy And to thee Lord this truth return That Mercy melts though Justice burn Witness Earth Heaven my Heart Eyes Pen May they thus ever melt Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's merciful restoring me to health and graciously supporting and comforting me in a fearful Agony and Apprehension of Death by reason of a dangerous Cough which caused me to spit Blood Soliloquium or Discourse AS Pride War and Contention are the ungrateful Off-spring of Peace and Plenty so are sickness and affliction the succeeding and unhappy Daughters of health and prosperity This is not only my Observation but Experiment As having the fresh Spring of my Youth after an Halcion calme and time of health on a suddain turned almost into an Autumn or Fall of that leavy beauty and greenness which my Body which is but a Tree inverted was adorned with and that by an unexpected and dangerous Spout or Cattar of Rhumetick Rain seconded with a fearful Hurricane or Thunder-storm of a rending Cough which had not God been very gracious had undoubtedly â—ink both the Pilot and Vessel my Soul and Body I pumping out through the Lungs much Water and Blood But with the Marriners in Jonah's Ship or rather with Jonah in the Whales Belly I cryed and prayed unto my God even in this Agony and preluge of Death his Serjeant wherein Pompa mortis magis â—erret quam mors ipsa As an addition to these my inward fears and terrors arising from my dangerous condition was the apprehension of my Arch Enemy and Accuser Sathan preparing and ready to prefer at the Bar of Divine Justice a long Role and Inditement of my great offences attested too by my own Conscience which is more than a thousand witnesses as also the legal and just punishment of them Hell Eternal Death and Torment I say again with all humble and reiterated thankfulness I then petitioned my
Application and Justification Thus these whilst they think to deceive others the Devil deceives them Charity the most fruitful lasting and most eminent Grace begins first at home The affection which we bear to our selves being the best pattern for direction of our loves towards others Witness the approbation of our Saviour Christ whose abridgement of the whole Law being Charity the Rule of it was To love our Neighbours as our Selves From this Expression or short Paraphrase who concludes not a primary and most natural Duty necessarily to be implyed and commanded a self-loving though not a self-love as being the manner quantity and just weight of all our external actions Of this want are those guilty reproved by our Saviour who too publickly officious offer to pull out their neighbours Mote not being sensible of the Beam in their own Eyes Also the unhappy Miracle-worker must here plead Guilty of whom that Jewish saying falsly applyed to our Lord may be truly verified He saved others himself he cannot save Gods Power is the chiefest agent in effecting Miracles an Attribute most necessary to beget Fear Admiration and Humiliation But alas the Knowledge of Gods Omnipotency shall rather affright than comfort us without the apprehension and self-application of His love towards us in Him for whose Name sake he wrought such Signes Yea our Fear will prove slavish and servile our Admiration frightful and terrible our Humiliation distracted and desperate without the sense and feeling promise and assurance of his merciful Love For God is Love and works by Love His Love being the only cause of ours to Him and to others The truth of this made Paul account all Faith though able to remove Mountains nothing without Charity further intimating that how glorious soever such outsides might seem they would prove empty shells void of the kernel the substance and true essence of Faith Charity being the left hand of Faith as Faith the right eye of Charity There needs no other witness of this Faiths insufficiency than Judas Iscariot Who was elected to be one of the Select Disciples and dignified with the Highest of Callings even to be the Apostle of Jesus Christ. One who both under the Law and Gospel had participated of those initiating Sacraments Circumcision and Baptisme as also of that which was for Confirmation the Passeover Further he was a Preacher of the Covenant of Grace by Word as well as by Name by Deed as well as by Word as appears by our Saviours large Commission He gave them Power viz. his Twelve Disciples against Vnclean Spirits to cast them out and to Heal all manner of Sickness and all manner of Diseases The Execution of this the joynt Confession of the Twelve and of the Seventy Disciples doth manifest saying Lord even the Devils are subject unto us through thy Name Loe here Judas miraculously casting out Devils Will it not be a wonder yea and seem an untruth that this Saint is become a Devil No. Such a Faith to have such an End is but natural a stinted Faith wants enlargement to continue Through Faith in His Name we may do Miracles but through Faith in His Blood we and Judas only can be Saved The light and fruit of Faith and all other good Works must shine not to me nor to others alone but to both Men may be instruments of Heat to others and yet Cold themselves Many are made Executioners of Gods Power which never enjoy his Grace Nebuchadonezzar was his Rod Cirus his Servant Neither his Son Yea Miracles and proofs are not wanting in our dayes there being those I fear whose words have powerfully cast Sathan out of others their own Souls being not delivered from his Tyranny Stories the monuments of Art preserve in black and white what once was done in Colours by a Grecian Painter whose Skill was so much an Ape to Nature that his lively Draughts deceived the double sences of Birds causing them to prefer the shaddows of Fruits before the fruitful Substance The Devil in his subject is not less void of Art although they both differ in their ends the one Deceiving but to shew his Skill the other being Skilful to deceive Birds who have not reason to correct their Sence nor to discover the Shaddow of Shaddows one is only a Laughfing-stock of that Artists innocent Craft But Man whose incorporeal parts parallel the others Essence yea now transcend it by how much a positive is better than a depravation is the stage which Sathans derision tramples on The least of Scornes is not the least of Injuries the height of it the greatest of Cruelties Such is his for it wounds the wounded seeking to deprive those of Heaven whom he hath already defrauded of an earthly Paradise O my Soul thou art one of this worlds Common-wealth to whom this busie Impostor variously disguised offers his service Each mind at first whiles unhabituated is in that respect an empty Tablet on which some portraiture must be drawn A good and a bad Artist strive for the Employment Divers excellent beginnings are there Blurd by the one Divers bad ones amended by the other The good Models having only this advantage that once dry and fixt they may suffer a Blot never an utter Defacing Death lastly brings to light the work which challenges the Master and the Master it Wouldst thou then know what is Drawn and whom thou hast Imployed Let thy following Meditations search out and observe the Original which the shaddowes withdrawn most opportunely and in order meets thy next Contemplation The pleasingness of Objects begets a Delight the delight an affection the affection courts an enjoying Eve the Mother of Sin and of Man-kind before â—he took that Forbidden and Sacramental Fruit or tasted the Bitter-sweet saw that the Tree was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eyes The Scripture thereby intimating that had not the Flesh afforded entertainment to the Temptation nor the Eyes been windows to let in the superficial beauty of that knowing Fruit nor the mind brought forth and nourisht desires so rebelliously ambitious no powerful assault nor subtile stratagem of Sathan could have prevailed or been sufficient to enter a Cittadel so perfectly fram'd and strongly fortified As the Body so the Soul hath its several Objects according to which diversity it may be capable of a threefold sight in all which the cause medium and instrument of seeing with its object is most considerable In the first the sight of sence there is the Light proceeding from the Sun occasioning the operation 2. The fleshly nerves which contein the optick faculties imployed about all objects and visible substances In the second the sight of Reason there is the light of Nature 2. The luminary oâ— instrumental receptacle the mind of Man 3. The things obvious which are chiefly moral Justice Virtue and earthly Wisdom In the third viz. the spiritual and supernatural sight There is first the Light of
he wanted not opposition that time of his Youth being a gradation and introduction into a height of suffering and a private preparation to a publick Office and Ministry Which he no sooner enters but he is encountered by Temptations and those none of the least they being fortified with the greatest subtilty of Sathan which over-blown Man seconds the Devil heaping upon him whatsoever injuries humanity can possible be capable of beginning with his good Name which they seek to scandalize and make approbrious with their blasphemous tongues reporting him to be a Glutton a Wine bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners Disparaging his birth and calling him the Carpenter's Son affirming his miraculous power to be the effects of a Satanical confederacy saying that he cast out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils Poverty to all is a misery full of miseries yet not alike to all Circumstances alter much the state of things He is poor that is born so but he is truly poor that is made so since the one knows most of his misfortune is from and by reason of others When the others woful experience makes him more sensible of his woe A Man 's own censure more than the judgments of others makes him more or less unhappy Deprivation and loss is the extremity of poverty and most grievous to humanity But who can lose what he never had In nature want is as it were a part of Mans nature and therefore less wretched The first works most upon the body this last upon the Soul and therefore far more unsufferable by how much that purer substance hath a deeper apprehension of pain than the more gross and outward senses O my Soul is this outward indigency so full and overflowing with sorrow how infinite bound art thou unto him who being rich became poor that thou through his poverty might be made rich The greater the height the more miserable is the dejection The more eminent the state the more unsupportable the humiliation O behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto this sorrow wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce Wrath. Was he rich in beauty had he the dew of his youth from the Womb of the Morning Behold for our sakes he is become as a Root springing out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness And could we now view him as he was then there would be no beauty that we should desire him What thing so without measure glorious and unexpressible as the simple and infinite essence of the Godhead what Element more vile and base than Earth the principal ingredient of our bodily substance O miracle of love behold God is made Man the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us Immortality putting on mortality that mortality might become immortal A King of Caesar payes tribute to Caesar and will be subject to his Subjects The Master of all as a Servant to all washes the Feet of all his Disciples Is there any comparison betwixt Heaven and Earth a Crown of glory and a Crown of Thorns yet how willingly doth this not to be equal'd love accept of this unequal change Such Lord were the honours which the World gave thee The story and contemplation of my Saviours sufferings leads my Soul into a Garden not fraught with joy pleasure and delight but with grief sorrow and perturbation O who can by a true faith look upon his humbled Saviour and not be humbled in Spirit Who can behold the clodded drops of blood falling from his blessed Body with a drye Eye not sorrowing for the sin that caus'd this sorrow not shedding plenty of tears in apprehension of his love who shed plenty of blood in the imputation of our sin If his external parts were thus prest and opprest with pain how painfull were the pressures of his Soul the internal cause of this outward Agony Surely as the Power was infinite which sustain'd him so the Passions were infinite which he endured and are as far above the height of Mans expression as above the height of Mans sin In a Garden Adam sinned and Christ suffered Sathan in the one deceiving our first Parents by a Serpent in the other betraying our blessed Saviour by a Judas The unsupportable wrath of God the immense weight of Mans transgression and the ebbe and flow of his humane will being all expressed in that significant and passionate Prayer of his O my Father if it be possible let thus Cup pass from me He had now thrice bowed his blessed Knees to Earth to whom all knees do bow in Heaven and Earth when a wicked trayterous crue under the conduct of a most ungrateful Leader enter the lists adding affliction to his affliction and becoming a party against him took their parts Thus merciless and unthankful is the disposition of ignorant Man thus free and undeserved is the mercy of God Lord Jesus shall my faith lose sight here forsaking thee with thy Disciples No Lord I will yet follow thee even to the high Priests Hall not denying thee with Peter but confessing thee Can any better or more lively express thy cruel usage there than thine own spirit doth in the mouth of the Evangelical Prophet Isa I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that pulled off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting Loe how this Heavenly Chronologer by Divine Inspiration even as an Eye-witness describes the several cruelties inflicted on our Saviour Although the judgments of the Lord are unsearchable and his wayes past finding out yet such is his goodness towards his People that he reveales these his secret decrees before they come that when they are come we might with a more firme assurance believe them A Christians Faith hath a double confirmation as from the uncontrol'd truth of History so from the Divine testimony and presage of prophesie Some hundred years before his passion our Saviour by the mouth of the Prophet told us what he would do Now behold in the fulness of time his own Person and Act makes good his own Word Witness the true Relation of his sufferings Then did they spit in his face and buffetted him and others smote him with the palmes of their hands Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him thus by his stripes we are healed I am now in Spirit before the Judgment Seat of Pilate where I view the Judge of the World arraigned before a Judge of a Province and hear at once an unheard of injustice the most righteous of Men accused acquitted condemned If there be any power as well as form of godliness any lively and applying faith besides a bare Historical belief in you let the patient Perusers of these my thoughts unworthy this subject read no further before yee have called with me a private Sessions in your souls Where a diligent search and enquiry being made after sin and
That when there was no King in Israel every Man did that which was good in his own eyes In this last Scripture the truth of my former discourse is observable and confirmed as that a natural Mans will usually attends his judgment so that the minde and understanding being totally depraved and corrupted as before hath been declared it must consequently yea impulsively follow that the activity of the will keeps the same position In Adams Sons there is a continued Earth-quake The debauched faculties of the Soul being as so many pestilent and tumultuous Ayres within the Bowels of this wretched Microcosme which together with the impetuous violence of the will rends us belching forth continually Mans actual sins which are not only dead in themselves but also to others by example Doth a â—ountain send forth at the same place sweet Water and bitter Can the Fig-Tree bear Olive-berries or a Vine Figs They cannot Neither can an unsanctified minde be fâ—llowed with a will free and full of good resolutions Hence therefore O my Soul with all ability in thy self lessen not thy loss and poverty lest by such a proud and presumptuous bragging thou lose thy gain and forestall Gods charitable benevolence Lord I account my self to have no will because not a good one Therefore let thy own will anew beget me with the word of truth that I may be a kind of first fruits of thy Creatures Lord it is thou which workest in Men both to will and to do of thy good pleasure Therefore let me rather in an humble ignorance bury what proud Men say is Mans right for love it I cannot if mine Thy perfect justice giving to every one his due then for the nothing of my merit to lose the infiniteness of thy mercy To derogate from my own desert had I any is a plausible error a commendable humility But to detract or steal from thee horrible sacriledge and abominable heresie Let my humility strive to make proud natures something nothing rather than to suffer any vain boasting to arise from such imaginary abilities worth nothing So that though both shall as in themselves they are nothing end in nothing yet the company of a vertue shall in thy sight make the one to me something when the other shall be by thee adjudged as full of sin as it is wanting in worth Man in his first Creation was like to a strong and beautifull Cyttadell whose external and carnal part I may terme and that not unfitly a defencible Rampire or Earth-work his sences the Cinque-ports of this fortification his Soul an incorporeal part me-thinks resembles the habitable and innermost part of the Fort or to speak more plainly the Pallace of the Governour the Court of the Prince for so indeed it was even of the King of Kings before its unhappy and accursed defection Herein the principal faculties as so many expert Commanders did exercise their several offices The affections also the subject of my ensuing thoughts had their places of eminency and authority Love being the Leader of the Band or the Ensign-bearer and Fear the Sentinel to prevent sudden surprisals In this happy order freedome and condition was Man at first until the Apostate-Angel Sathan envying that felicity in others which himself had lost unlocked the sences by the beauty of the forbidden Fruit and after parly with the Guardians of the Soul tempted them with the fair promise of Dii eritis to be Traytours to their Soveraign that had made them little less than so For In his own Image created he them This beautiful structure being become the Cage of unclean Birds no wonder if the Holy one of Israel refuse to dwell there If the glory of Israel departed when the Ark was taken from amongst them sure I am the glory of Man vanishes when God forsakes him Histories and Politicians have observed the misery 〈◊〉 that Country I dare not call it a Government 〈◊〉 the Hydra-headed multitude give Laws unto themselves Experienced Souldiers can bear witness what Floods Tragedies and Disorder follows the unheading of 〈◊〉 Army and the Regiments Such Men for only he thâ—â— hath been delivered from such calamities can best judge of them will confess that both these are but weak deâ—scriptions of the wretchedness of the Soul deprived 〈◊〉 the life of God Nay the small remainders of those disâ—orders and corruptions which in comparison are but 〈◊〉 scars of those great wounds will inforce the best dayly with Holy Paul to cry out O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death This misery of Man this his civil War hath been briefly touched and discovered already in the former faculties of the Soul It now remains that I observe and that with brevity how the affections particularly stand affected O Love which weart once the Spirit the fervour the marrow of the Soul Its Embassadour to her Creator lying Ledger in the Court of Heaven as long as that happy and mutual amity remained unviolated How art thou now degenerated yea how wretchedly hast thou lost thy happiness by changing thy object There is no whit of life spirit or freedome in thee now For thou art dead and entombed in Earth nor neerness or relation to God no not in the least degree for the wicked saith the Apostle are haters of God Thou art now so far from being Mans Agent to God that if God in the infiniteness of his mercy would renew his peace with Man he must be his own Agent and thou his Patient witness St. John We love Him because he first loved us How comes it to pass that thou hast forsaken the living Fountain and hewen out unto thy self Cesterns that will hold no Water Is Earth to be compared with Heaven or the Creature with the Creator that thou hast forsaken the one to embrace and marry the other The Mole that of all other Creatures delights to undermine and root within the Earth wants the Organ of sight thereby illustrating this truth that where a carnal earthly or sensual love is there must needs be a blinde and ignorant understanding O Lord is this affection of love being rightly placed the Prince of all other our affections Is it the summe and compendium of thy whole Law Is it that which gives life to the actions of the Soul Is it the tryal of our Adoption That by which faith works Is it an old Commandement as being from the beginning a new Commandement as being renewed and straitly enforced in the Gospel Is it the mark of our perfection and of the truth O give me sighs give me words yea give me those unutterable groans of my Spirit raised by thy Spirit wherewith I may daily importune thy Majesty for the right fixing and direction of this affection of my Soul That so my love inflamed by thee may not henceforth be sub-lunary but like the Sun sending forth beams
as being all witnesses externally or internally of thy essential and judicial power Is the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdome and will he with-hold no good thing from him that fears him O let my Soul bear a comfortable part in this affection Let my flesh tremble for fear of thee because thy Creature and let my heart be enlarged in love towards thee because thy Son Let my manifold sins humble me as beholding thee a righteous Judge and let my faith raise me as apprehending thee a merciful Saviour Let me work out my salvation with fear and trembling as considering my weakness and mutability and let me press towards the mark with confidence and assurance as believing thy free election omnipotency and immutability Lord if thou dost know me by name if I also have found grace in thy sight shew me now thy way how to know and see thee There is a place by thee O do unto me as thou didst unto Moses set me upon a Rock even my Rock Christ Jesus that so my life being hid in him through the Clists his wounds I may see thy glory passing by and hear and apply this thy loving Proclamation The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquities transgressions and sins I have now made a short progress through the Soul once a Paradice as being watered every where with grace even as the Garden of the Lord. But now being like Sodom and Gomorrah which the Lord destroyed even a furnace of brimstone and a vail of tears It now remains that I take a general view of the Body which is as it were the superficies of Man the Pallace the Shell the Garment of the Soul That so having observed their union in sin aswell as in nature from the joynt and voluntary acquired curse of imperfection I may be the more inlarged to magnifie Gods free gift of perfection As the Lord in the Creation made Man after his own Image as concerning the Soul that he might be capable of Divine Visions and enjoy a communion with him So also he made Man like himself as considering the Body in respect of Dominion and Majesty no Creature being like God but himself That according to the present Commandement one Man might love another as himself such a similitude of parts inducing a communion of hearts love being the fulfilling of the Law since the fall Because there needed not Law when love was perfect before the fall the defect of the one necessitating the constitution of the other Every member of the Body in the state of innocency being made willing and ready to perform all good actions respecting either God or Man by the quickning and agitating Power of this predominant affection in the Soul But what have I now to do with the state of Innocency that am now discoursing of Rebellion Our self-self-love in Adam hath depraved us of that true love which seated in the Soul moves the Body to act any goodness Of which miserable loss of ours that we may be more sensible it is necessary that as the Souls so the Bodies defects be particularly meditated on The curse and judgment of the Body is that it should be a ready instrument to execute the sinfull commands of the Soul these two parts constituting Man being as it were Master and Servant Husband and Wife Yet observe as in the happiest unions amongst us we shall finde that though the Nobler Sex hath the Superiority and Power of Rule yet so prevalent is the nature of conjugal love that it sweetly allures the superintendents will to joyn issue in many actions by that which is subjected So in Man though the Soul be the Head the Monarch yet by reason of the neer conjunction the Body oftentimes inclines the Soul to be active according to its disposition making good that Phylosophical maxime Mores animi sequuntur temperamentum corporis By this it appears that the Body is not only instrumentally but also in a kind potentially evil since the Fall being then changed in an instant of time from its beauty to deformity from its perfect composition which was equal ad pondus to an unequal mixture of the Elements and humours Hence followed termination of life millions of Diseases and Death the malady of Diseases Hence the necessity of daily nourishment and the peccancy and abounding of humours descryed in the four Complexions and those excess aided by the constant bent of nature to do ill do cause that aptness and proclivity of several Men to particular Vices as the cholerick to malice blood and anger the melancholy to desperation and discontent the sanguine to lust the flegmatick to sloath and idleness In this cursed depravation of our erring nature the sences which are the Bodies Pentarchie have no small proportion For what is the Eye the seat of the optick faculties but an open Window apt to give entrance to theevish lusts A two-leaved Door prepared by treacherous nature to receive in deadly Enemies The life of Man would be far calmer did not these riâ—ts let in tempests of pride and vanity The presumptuous opening of these made Eve open her hands to receive her mouth to taste the forbidden fruit For when the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the Eyes she took off the fruit thereof and did eat Mark here what assistance this sence gives to the temptation Had not the Sons of God made their Eyes Flood-gates to let in the deceitful beauty of the Daughters of Men an Idolatrous union could not so soon have procured a dis-union from God which moved the Lord to an effective repentance changing the Globe of Earth into an Orb of Water Ham's mocking and curse proceeded from a carnal discovery Sem and Japhets blessing from a dutifull and willing blindness Lastly Davids heart had never been his concupiscencies Captive had not Bathsheba bathed in his Eyes aswell as in the Fountain O thou which illuminates Mans darkness and hast the over-sight of my sight suffer not that sence which thou hast made to give my Body light to be the in-let of my Souls obscurity But if I cannot see but I must sin Lord let me cease to see carnally and be enabled to see spiritually that so the one may be swallowed up in the Vision of the other In the next place what are the Eares but the roads of Blasphemy the Labyrinths of obscenity an open passage to the mind through which Traytors as well as true subjects pass without examination or controulment Proud Herod had never been a God in heart had not he willingly consented to be one in Eare. Had not Joash hearkned to the Princes of Judah when they made obeysance unto him he had never left the house of the Lord and served Groves and Idols Had Aaron heard the People as
of God for thy Salvation and the voice of God for thy acceptation Who but an experienced Christian can express the sweet of these yet how far short are his expressions of these streams of comforts which flow through the Priestly Office to every true Believer from the unexhaustible Fountain of Gods mercy What spots doth not this wash off What soares doth not this Jordan heal Yea what lameness and imperfection doth not this Bethesda cure O the consolation of Christs intercession in this imperfect state of grace Is my love weak and unstable as Water This love O Saviour is stronger than Death Is my obedience imperfect By thy obedience many are made righteous Is my zeal defective Lord Thy zeal of thy House hath eaten thee up Is my Faith small and subject to doubting O Saviour thou wilt give a blessing even to a grain of Faith as of Mustard-Seed And hast promised not to quench the smoaking Flax nor to break the bruised Reed Is my Prayer full of weakness ignorance and imperfection Thy Spirit it self maketh request for us with sighs which cannot be expressed Yea thou art entred into the very Heaven of Heavens to appear now in the sight of God ever living there to make Intercession for us To conclude Is my inherent righteousness imperfect And am I a transgressor of the Law Thy imputative righteousness is perfect and thou art a fulfiller of the Law For thou art the end of the Law for righteousness unto every one that believeth Yea that all further objections may be answered that all other defects may appear supplied behold here a gift as large as Mans wants and as full of mercy as he of sin Christ Jesus of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Our Saviour Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life that Jacob's Ladder whose foot as expressing his humanity toucheth the Earth and whose top as respecting his Divinity reacheth unto Heaven This threefold office may be considered as the parts of this Heavenly ascent Upon whose first degree my faith which is the eye the hand and the foot of the Soul hath begun to ascend It remains now that I mount the next staff belonging to his Priestly office which is satisfaction the inseparable consequent of which is Justification The parts of which forgiveness of sins and imputation of righteousness do necessarily follow the former Our mercifull High Priest and Redeemer satisfying by suffering that our sins for which he suffered might be forgiven fulfilling the Law is continually interceding that his righteousness might be to us imputed So that to our comfort and confirmation be it spoken that when faith hath gaind footing upon satisfaction and intercession it must needs have hand-hold on remission and imputation Can the Lord be less righteous than Man Doth not the cancelling of the Bond succeed the absolving of the debt The satisfaction and releasement of the Prisoner follow the not guilty of the Jury O the perfection of all the ways of God especially of this his great work towards the Children of Men wherein mercy and justice do sweetly kiss each other He being just towards Man in his fall into Death that he might be mercifull in raising him to life And that he might spare his adopted Sons he spares not his only begotten Son O what is Man that thou art mindfull of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him To proceed Justification by some Divines made an act of Christs Kingly office is that mercifull and yet just sentential act of God the Father whereby a believer is absolved from sin and death and the inherent righteousness of Christ is imputed unto the faithfull applyer for the attaining of life everlasting Hereby waving our debt and supplying our want at once delivering us from guilt and corruption Behold here is an Olive Branch which faith the Dove of the Soul brings home unto it in the time of Gods vengeance and in the midst of the great Waters of Sin Here 's a Golden Scepter held forth by the incensed King of Kings to every faithfull and humbled Esther Now I may say to my Soul as once the multitude to the blind Man See he calls thee Not in his strong Wind by which he rents the Mountains of pride Not in his Earth-quake by which he shakes secure and presumptuous sinners No nor yet in his consuming Fire with which he devours unexcusable Hypocrites But in his mercy even with a still small voice of compassion and pardon O my Soul Thou art not come unto the Mount that burnd with Fire and that might be touched nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest nor to hear the voice of those words which voice they that heard entreated that the Word should not be spoken to them any more But thou art come to Mount Sion and to an innumerable company of Angels and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of Sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel and to God the Judge of all whom thou maist hear with comfort proclaiming Himself unto thee as once before Moses thus The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Forgiving sin O what good news is this unto my Soul How truly is this called the glad tidings of the Gospel Tell me yee which shall hereafter read my thoughts even from the testimony of your own Souls For only experience can make you fit Judges in this case If there be any joy like to the joy of a justified sinner Any blessing like that of David Can I consider into how fearfull an estate sin hath cast me and unto what punishment Justice hath condemned me and not from thence proportion out and acknowledge the greatness of this deliverance Doth not the truth-speaking Word of God which is neither cruel nor partial tell me that I am a sinner For there is no Man that sinneth not That I am a debtor Since we must all pray forgive us our debts That I am a condemned Person For by the offence of one judgment came upon all Men to condemnation That I am a bond-slave to death and to him that hath the Power of Death the Devil all my life time being subject to bondage That I am a dead Man For We are all dead in sins and trespasses That I am an enemy to God and Christ and lastly by nature a Child of Wrath And shall I account remission of all my offences Satisfaction of all my arrearages Liberty from servitude Life in stead of death Nay more resurrection from death no mercy Can my powerfull Enemy be made my friend and Father my irefull Judge become my Mediator and Saviour and I not highly favoured gratiously yea
wonderfully delivered O thou which hast wrought all these things for me work in me an experimental and sensible knowledge a continued and enlarged thankfulness So shall I give to thee the praise and receive from thee the comfort of that benediction Blessed is he whose transgressions is forgiven and whose sin is covered No sooner had the power and wisdome of God puld off the Visard of the Chaos and discovered the form of Heaven and Earth but he adorned and clothed them with beautifull Creatures all his works having not only in their Beeing a naked existence but a fulness of goodness which is their perfection If these things which God made for the use of Man were exceeding good Surely Man whom he made for his own use and glory was in his first Creation in Nature and shall be in this second of Grace indued with a plenitude of excelling graces To be and not to be good is to be evil as wanting the Character of the Creator Who is a most pure Essence there is no mean betwixt good and evil every Soul being either conformed to the Image of God or deformed after the similitude of Sathan Now to them upon whose fore-heads the Seal of the living God is placed is given a two-fold righteousness the one inherent and imperfect not if simply considered as the work of the Spirit but as it is accompanied and mixed with the corruptions of nature Our best performances being like unto those strange births which receive their life and beeing from God their deformities from some defect or vice in nature But of this in another place The other is that infinitely perfect legal super-errogating and inherent righteousness of the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ which God the Father beholding his Sons sufferings and fulfilling the Law together with his own promise and Covenant which is a due debt in Justice imputes to them to whom in his unspeakable mercy he gives faith to receive and apply it This I call infinitely perfect as being the righteousness of God as well as Man by reason of the communication of properties from the union of nature I call it legal because the Law was the object and rule thereof Super-errogating because it super-abounds and is made the sole merrit of Saints Lastly I tearm it inherent as being the actual righteousness and obedience of the Man Christ Jesus All his sufferings by reason of the spontaneous and loving offer of himself being also the acts of his will as well as the passions of his nature O wonder of love O miracle of mercy O divine charity which in the lowest depth of our misery and swelling height of our Rebellion cloth'd not only our Bodies nakedness but our Souls as that first hid our outward pollutions from our selves so this our inward corruptions from God For ever blessed be thou O Lord for that union of thy Spirit and gift of faith by which I put on nay more am made one with Christ. What suggestion of Sathan or contradiction of depraved nature granting me a member of this Head a branch of this Vine can make it difficult to prove or dares deny my right to possess this spotless Robe As the union of Soul and Body of Head and Members produceth a sympathizing property and joynt-propriety to every thing so my union with Christ as being the Soul of my Soul the Head of his Church entitles me to and gives me whatsoever is his And no doubt as it is horrible blasphemy to account any part of the Lords humane Body as sinfull and unclean So it is unreasonable infidelity and shamefull impiety to think any true member of his mystical Body can be as in him unrighteous and defiled his perfect and abounding righteousness being like to that pretious and sacred anointing Oile which according to the Psalmist was poured on the head of Aaron and went down to the skirts of his Vesture This O this his innocency and merit is that white Robe which was given to them that were slain for the Word of God and the testimony which they held This is that glorious Sun which clothes the Church that Woman in travaile Yea this is that beautifull wedding garment wherewith Christ our Bridegroom invests every true invited and elected Guest The Linen Vestments of the Jewish High Priest were comely enough to minister in at the ordinary and daily Sacrifice But they were accounted too mean and poor when he entred into the holy of holiest The Rayment of Joseph a Prisoner though good enough perhaps for that place must be changed when he is presented before Pharaoh a King Yea the Prodigals Rags may serve him whilst he serves the Devil and feeds with the Swine of the World upon the husks of vanity Every true Christian is a Priest unto God the Sanctum is the Church militant wherein we minister and that but for a year Mans whole life being but a revolved year Again we are all Stewards to the World to whom our flesh in nature our Mistriss hath plighted her troth so that if we once became Josephs in denying her lusts we must with Joseph undergo slander affliction and imprisonment Lastly we are naturally Prodigals also Our portion is the common goods of the minde of the body of education The waisters and consumers of this our first patrimony are the Dallilahs of Sin Now though we may minister on Earth amongst our brethren cloth'd in the white Garments of a good report and profession though whilst we are imprisoned in affliction or spoyled by sin and Sathan the tatter'd Rags of sorrow and lamentation may serve us yet when we are converted and ascend afterwards into the Sanctum Sanctorum the Heaven of Heavens when we shall appear before the Lord Jesus our King and return unto God our Heavenly Father we must be cloth'd with the Golden Garments the clean Vestments the best Robes even that meritorious righteousness of our loving Saviour which being the Rayment of our elder Brother may assure us with Jacob of a blessing and acceptance here of Glory hereafter Away then from my thoughts that perfection and merit which some dream of in renewed nature That scant sacrilegious and unthankfull opinion of our Saviours active and passive obedience such Tenants as it were halt and disgracefully curtaile the ample and large Garments of our Lord that so vain pride might patch it up with the old Rags and rotten performances of Mans desert Lord thy Word teacheth me and my own infirmities inforces me to another yet better Plea Can Man be justified in thy sight or how can he be clean that is born of a Woman Behold even the Stars are not pure in thy Sight how much less Man that is a Worm We are all thy Creatures thy servants The observance of thy commands is the work we are made and hired for Now could we as thou know'st we cannot perfectly obey thy will there
O but sayest thou I am spiritually dead how then can I hear Know poor wretch that thy Saviours Ephata works as powerfully on the Soul as upon the Body Yea the Apostle reciting the prediction of Moses saith not him may you hear But him shall yee hear Even so be it Lord Jesus Christ that so loving me a Lazarus thou maist raise me though a Lazarus and be unto me a Jesus Notwithstanding these saving and comfortable promises me-thinks I feel my Soul still heavy and sorrowfull within me Objecting that these indeed are favourable and sweet expressions but they are too general considering her several defects grievous soars and Ulcers Requiring not only external and powerfull Baths and washings but particular application of Remedies and Medicines She confesseth that from these she is assured of the abilities and sufficiency of her spiritual Physician but she desires to have experience of his skill and to apply his several Medicaments unto her special infirmities Is this thy further request O my Soul Be strong and of a good courage Loe he calls thee Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Again I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance For The whole need not a Physitian but the sick Nay that thou mightest not have the least doubting or fear hearken to the voice of his Prophet seconded and expounded by himself and that in a full Auditory The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me there 's his calling to preach the Gospel to the Poor there 's his Office He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance unto the Captives and recovery of sight unto the blinde to set at liberty them that are bruised to wit thee O distressed Patient with all thy Diseases Well thou art now even by his own most gracious Call admitted into his presence Be not ashamed but with boldness approach unto his Throne of Grace unâ—bareing thy soares and discovering all thy spiritual wants That so the two estates in Adam fallen and in Christ risen being compared all may behold with thee a revival from death even that first resurrection spoken of in the Revelations As also the difference and disproportion that is betwixt a Man in grace and a Man in sin And lastly be ravisht in the apprehension of such infinite mercy which administers Plaisters to every soare and in the conclusion works a general cure effecting in a good measure though not in absolute perfection those two great works of mortification and vivication in us For the more accurate perception and meditation of which great works I presume in all humility of Soul to speak Dialogue-wise unto my Saviour and according to my weak ability to describe him answering in and according to his Word That so both my self and others may the better understand how excellently and powerfully a true faith begotten and strengthened by God's Spirit doth apprehend and apply the saving and spiritual promises Doth mortifie our corruptions silence all objections and overcome all kinde of temptations by degrees perfecting holiness in the love and fear of God O Gracious Saviour and skilfull Physician seeing thou calledst me I come although ashamed to come I have brought if not a dead yet a deadly sick Soul unto thee If illumination be the antecedent of faith and faith the eye of the Soul and seeing a symptome of life in how dangerous an estate am I who walk in the vanity of my minde having my understanding darkned being in my own apprehension alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in me because of the blindness of my heart Poor Soul faint not nor despair thou wast once dead but now thou art alive I finde no signes of death but of life in thee A Trunck or senceless Corps perceives not nor complains of its misery as thou dost Neither art thou hopelesly sick for in thee witness these strivings there is the strength of a renued nature to co-act with the work of Grace Take then these receipts out of my Book and apply them I am the true light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and am come for Judgment into this World that they which see not might see and they which see might be made blinde I am made unto thee wisdome and will enlighten thy darkness yea if thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord and finde the knowledge of God For I the Lord give wisdome and out of my Mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Again faith is the gift of God O then ask and thou shalt have seek and thou shalt finde knock and the treasury of all good and perfect gifts shall be opened and bestowed upon thee Even the holy Spirit whom thy Heavenly Father will give to them that aske Him The voice of my beloved Thy Mouth is most sweet yea thou art altogether lovely The roof of thy Mouth is like the best Wine that goeth down sweetly causing the Lips of those that are asleep to speak But alass Lord how can I be delighted in these thy gracious promises or take comfort in this cure as long as the tormenting worm of Conscience feeds upon my entrails inditeing bitter things against me and making me to possess the sins of my youth being both my Judge and Accuser O my Patient I confess this thy pain and grief is unsupportable for the Spirit of a Man may sustain his infirmity But a wounded Spirit who can bear Yet for thy comfort know that there is balme in Gilead for all wounds and a Physician there for all Diseases And I even I am he and there is no other God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal yea I will restore health unto thee and will heal thee of thy wounds And as for this gnawing Worm which thou complainest of know that it as other infects are generated of a putred matter even thy sin and corruption Yea it is nourisht therewith If then this cause of thy torture be withdrawn the effect will undoubtedly cease For I will forgive thy iniquity and will remember thy sins no more making them though as red as Scarlet to be as white as Snow Through my blood thou hast redemption even the forgivenesses of Sins If the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heyfer sprinkling the unclean Sanctified to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall my Blood that through the eternal Spirit offered my self without spot to God purge thy Conscience from dead works O my spiritual healer as thy Word assures me of thy ableness to cure so it also informs me of my uncapableness of cure In the sickness of the Body so
though I had not received them Further as thine have many objects of holy joy within them so have they many also without them David preferred Jerusalem above his chiefest joy And the spiritual prosperity and welfare of the Church was St. Paul's hope joy glory and Crown of rejoycing But such O Lord is the natural depravation of my affections that instead of wishing well unto Sion I am ready did not thy grace restrain me to persecute thee with Paul in thy members and to cry with those wicked concerning thy Jerusalem Rase it rase even to the Foundation thereof rejoycing on the contrary part with those reproved by Job and the Apostle who make Gold their hope and whose God is their Belly hungring and thirsting after momentary honours like Balaam and Haman taking the Timbrel and the Harp and rejoycing at the sound of the Organ Lastly as within and without so also above themselves they have their objects of joy even thy glory What else made that royal Prophet so piously nimble and so chearfull and publick a dancer before thy Ark what caused the Songs of Moses Myriam and Deborah yea what occasioned those joyfull expressions of thy blessed Mother of Simeon Zachary and Anna together with those two transcendent and affectionate wishes of St. Paul and Moses I say what but the joyfull magnifying of thy glory in vouchsafeing thy presence in destroying thy enemies in fulfilling thy promises and in the Salvation and Conversion of thy People But in me Lord instead of this lightsomeness in seeking of thy glory there is naturally the sinfull popularity of Absolom yea the hypocritical zeal of Jehu the vain-glorious formality of Magus and the self-seeking pride of Herod So that considering these wants and disorders in my affections no wonder if I distrust my self and cry out to thee with the Publican Lord have mercy upon me a sinner Poor Soul let not these fears and doubts discourage thee they make thy state the better not the worse Ignorance of want is the more dangerous when stomachless and silent as being thereby disabled both to ask and to receive relief Thy many complaints of defects are the true effects of those graces thou desirest Neither canst thou mourn because of no affection without some affection But to answer all thy objections weart thou emptiness it self am not I he that made Heaven and Earth of nothing Do I fill all things with my Essence and cannot I fill thee with my grace Can I be love it self for God is love and not be both willing and able to impart some rayes thereof to thee my Creature The fruits of my Spirit is love and joy which Spirit I give unto all that are mine What though the Chaos of thy corrupted nature yields no such fruits The Paradise of God in which thou art replanted doth as being watered with those Rivers of love which flow from me the Fountain Thou therefore loving me because I loved thee first as I am the only cause of thy love for I loved thee freely so I am the continuer For thou shalt abide in my love yea I will continue to love thee for whom I love I love unto the end Wherefore fear thou not the Eclipses thereof Natural Men do not more certainly expect the one than all my Saints the other As their Sun is not extinct no more is thine I thus ordaining it that in my absence thou mightest have a longing for my presence and in my presence mightest lovingly fear my absence these intermissions preceding the increase not the dimunishment of affection And since thou canst cry with David Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation doubt not but thou shalt also confess with him that my anger endureth but a moment weeping may endure for a Night but joy cometh in the Morning Again whereas thou objectest and bewailest the want of the true spiritual mirth Be not discouraged for this thy humble craving argues that thou art free from pride and self-conceitedness which usually so swells the hearts of natural Men that no place is left for grace Further it assures thee of a present possession for thou could'st never have heartily longed for that which thou never tasted nor have hated this false joy hadst not thou had some experience of the true Lastly thou hast an interest in my promise for I fill the hungry with good things As I am always filling so my servants are always hungry A good Archer is not by thee condemned for sometimes missing his Mark neither will I reject thee for some miscarriage since thy affections are bent towards me and thy constant aime is my glory To conclude Longest thou for the joys of Habakkuk David and the rest of my Saints continually petition me to be indued with the same Holy Spirit which my Father will give to them that aske him and to support thee in thy Prayers Remember and rely upon these my promises Aske and yee shall receive that your joy may be full For I am sent to comfort all that mourn to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with Songs and everlasting joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flie away Lord Kiss me with the kisses of thy Mouth for thy love is better than Wine But O diseased Creature that I am what shall I do or what will become of me The uncovering of one malady discovers more and my infirmities like the Oyl in the Widdows Cruse multiplies upon me So that in me is verified the complaint of thy Prophet The whole Head is sick and the whole Heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds bruses and putrified sores I had no sooner bewailed my want of love but my misgoverned hatred torments me No sooner I accused my self for worldly and exorbitant mirth but carnal sorrow and servile fear overwhelms me Whereas those that love thee hate evil yea every false way with the workers thereof and that with a perfect hatred My cursed nature with the fool hates knowledge Yea and him that rebukes being like to those wicked Israelites the Prophet Micah speaks of That hate the good and love the evil Whereas I should be humbled and penitently chatter thus with David I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my sin And also be so much affected for thy glory as to cry out yea to die with Phineas his Wife because the Ark of God was taken Or be able to say that Rivers of Waters have run down my Eyes because Men keep not thy Laws My carnal and sinful disposition is ready to make me mourn and hang down the head with Haman
to be sick and heavy with Ahab yea to grieve and die with Nabal and Achitophel for being crossed in momentary honours in covetous desires in my estate or any other my designs And whereas the filial fear of God should be continually in my heart and before my eyes for Happy is the Man that feareth always following herein the blessed example of holy David whose daily Song was Fear the Lord all yee his Saints of pious Joshuah whose tender Heart feared and trembled at the words of the Law and of Religious Nehemiah who was zealous for the Commandements of the Lord. I have with those Collonies of strangers planted in the City of Samaria Feared the Lord and served my Gods that is My pleasures and vain lusts Or if at any time I have dreaded thee or been humbled it hath been either whilst thy Judgments have been threatned with the numerous Ninivites or when they have layn sore upon me with the Philistines or until they were removed with wicked Pharaoh Thus dear Saviour do all my affections degenerate and erre from that end for which thou hast plac'd them in my Soul O thou which by thy omnipotency didst convert Water into Wine work the like miracle in me also So changing me in quality relish and use that I may both now and hereafter be thought worthy to be admitted unto thy Table O spiritual Bridegroom Raise up thy dejected Spirits and disconsolate Soul For such is the goodness of my nature and the infiniteness of my mercy that these thy grievous maladies instead of provoking my displeasure move me unto pity and convert my justice into compassion I am the Physician of the Soul and come to heal not the whole but the sick I am he that grants Resurrection to the Dead in Sin as well as to the dead for sin And am as able to give Manasseth newness of life as Lazarus a new life Therefore be not faithless but believe Thou complainest to me of an evil and degenerated hatred that is ready upon all occasions to take up armes against God Good-men and goodness Indeed this is dangerous but not incurable Was not my Servant Paul a cruel Persecuter before a zealous Martyr yea and thousands of the Jews my Murderers before my Converts Be confident then that my love is also able to swallow up thy hatred and to perfect this grace of love in thy life which it hath begun in thy desires Further whereas thou art troubled and molested with the frequent inundations of carnal and worldly sorrows Know that the reason therof is the want of depth or scowring of the lower water-course even that Channel of thy Repentance which is as it were the drayn of this filthy Lake and muddy affection To the performance of which duty that thou maist be enabled and assured Know it is I that gives Repentance unto life not willing the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live Lastly Let not thy former slavish fear discourage thee since all things even these thy corruptions through my mercy shall work together for thy good My Law having by these terrors prepared thee for my Gospel which seeing by my grace thou hast received be assured that that perfect love which it produces casteth out fear and will free thee from all such base affrightments possessing thee of that legitimate fear which flows from duty and adoption In further assurance of which receive and apply this my promise They namely thee and all my faithfull shall be my People and I will be their God and I will give them one Heart and one Way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and their Childrens children O thou my spiritual Elisha what shall I render unto thee for this thy great cure wrought upon my Soul for this thy miraculous cleansing of my sinfull Leprosie Are the Talents of Ophir the fruit of my Body of my ground or of my Flocks a fit Sacrifice for thee No Thine is the Earth and the fulness thereof I will therefore imitate that religious Proselite Naaman and give Glory to the Lord God of Israel I will offer unto thee thanks-giving and pay my vows unto thee O most High Yea my understanding which thou hast enlightned my minde which thou hast instructed my conscience which thou hast pacified my memory which thou hast strengthened my affections which thou hast ordered and my stony heart which thou hast mollified and all things else that are within me shall bless thy Holy Name Yea I will invert the speech of thy Servant David and say who am I and what is my poor Soul that I should be able to offer unto thee thus willingly and after this sort Lord I confess all things come of thee and of thine own have I given unto thee wherefore let what 's mine of grace and thine of merit be thy only glory And now since I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Let not the Lord be angry and I will speak yet again Thou hast been pleased to give unto me light in darkness and to make known unto me thy great Salvation Thou hast filled me with thy goodness and mercy and laid up in my heart the infinite treasure of thy promises But what avails all this Lord when as the Thief Sathan may break through and steal the Moth my inâ—bred corruptions may devour and consume these my spiritual riches there being no defence nor power in me to resist For those Cinque ports and Windows of my Soul my sences stand wide open not only admitting but inviting my cruel Enemies to enter Yea every Member of my body is not only assistant to my adversaries Sin the World and the Devil but also takes up armes against me and seeks my destruction My eyes which from outward objects even thy beautifull works should be instruments of begetting admiration praise and worship to thee in my heart are full of vanity lust and adultery My eares which should only be open to thy Word are thereto deaf and receptacles of oaths blasphemies lies slanders and all obscenity And those other sences of tasting smelling touching which thou hast given to be helps in piety and thanksgiving through the more ample fruition of thy Creatures are become the factors of pride covetousness and epicurisme Further my Tongue which should speak of thy praise all the day long and sing aloud of thy righteousness hath mischief under it and speaketh proud things Is full of flattery and frames deceit And is fraught with naughtiness and lying Yea it is a Fire a World of iniquity setting on Fire the course of nature and is set on Fire of Hell So that that Member which was once my glory is now my shame Lastly my hands and feet which ought to be Barnabasses and Barjonasses Brethren and Sons of consolation
hath adopted thee his Son and esteemed thee and stiled thee his Sister and Mother To conclude lest these foregoing degrees may admit of a division he vouchsafes thee this high favour to call thee the branch He the Vine thee a member He thy Head He the Husband thee the Spouse that so a union yea the perfectest of unions might be exprest and that sweetest of Petitions be fulfilled That all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Those that are joyned unto the Lord being one spirit and one body in Christ. Tell me then O my Soul can such a Lord whose love to thee made him serve thee become a cruel Inquisitor to condemn thee Will thy friend thy brother be an Achitophel a Cain to thee Is it a thing possible that thy everlasting Father instead of the Bread of Life will give thee to the torments of Hellish Scorpions No though Parents may forget the Sons of their Wombe yâ—â— will He not forget thee Is it unnatural for the Root to suffer the Branches to wither for want of sap For the Head to deny animation to the Members yea cannot there be a true conjunction in Marriage without the cement of affection And wilt thou dare to think that that Root of Jesse thy Head thy Spouse the God of Order and Nature will destroy the Principlse of nature and with-hold the sap of his Grace and Mercy his all-quickening Spirit of Life and Glory his Eternal free and unchangeable love from thee a branch a member a beloved No account it impious Infidelity to give such a thought the least entertainment Rather if thou wilt meditate of that day which indeed is a Christians duty all being commanded to watch because we know not at what hour our Lord will come pitch thy thoughts upon the Resurrection and that happy and blessed assumption of thy Soul and Body reunited to meet thy Judge and Saviour The Apostle testifying that we shall be all caught up together in the Clouds to meet our Lord in the Ayre and that then we shall be ever with the Lord For wheresoever the Carkass is there will the Eagles be gathered together Wherefore as the same Apostle exhorts Comfort both thy self and others with these words Rely also upon and apply those golden and royal declarations of thy Judge As that he will not condemne thee when thou art judged That he that believeth on him is not condemned but hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life That there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Since God doth justifie thee who is he that condemns thee That we are often times corrected here that we should not be condemned with the World Further is it possible that thou shouldest be saluted with so sweet an invitation and denomination as Come thou blessed of my Father and be accursed Canst thou be the Heir yea the Possessor of a Kingdome and also the Slave and Prisoner of Sathan Will the righteous Judge give to them Torments of Fire and Brimstone to whom he hath promised a Crown of Glory Art thou commanded to pray for to long for to wait for thy destroyer No surely but for him that hath promised to deliver us from the wrath to come To conclude even amongst Men none that is a Delinquent must presume to possess the Bench the Seat of Judicature But know you not saith the Apostle that the Saints shall judge the World yea Angels Wherefore doubtless they must be just yea are acquitted and made innocent both imputatively and inherently in their own Persons Further if this be not sufficient to animate and strengthen thy hope let thy faith make the last Article of the Creed thy object Where thou believest everlasting life to take its beginning or rather begin its perfection immediately after death and the last Judgment The time appointed for the full reward and coronation of the Saints I know there are many gracious promises of temporal blessings and those often-times fulfill'd and confer'd upon the Saints in this life Some whereof though few of many as being a remunerating act of Christs regal and judicial Office I will by the way recite not impertinently as being earnests to them of future glory sensible tokens of Fatherly love a Pilgrims Staff for our Faith to lean upon in our lifes peregrination This maxime being first undoubtedly to be believed that the same promises made to perfect obedience under the Law had at the first a respect and are now truly applicable to faithfull sincerity under the Gospel Such that Magazene of blessings in the 28. of Deuteronomy where to the largest and several appetites every true believing and sincere obeying Christian as well as to the sacrificing Jew a most plentifull feast and satisfaction is offered Is thy calling in the City or iâ— the Field thou shalt be blessed in them both Desirest thou riches and plenty of all the fruits of the Earth and a numerous posterity and a blessed use and enjoying of them Thou hast a Pattent a great Seat for these also Art thou a Man of action and great employment for the Church or the Common wealth yea hath thy vertues splendour a shadow of envious and malitious adversaries If thou hearkenest unto the voice of the Lord thy God thou shalt be blessed when thou comest in and blessed when thou goest out and the Lord shall cause them thine Enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face Wouldest thou have thy forfeited Charter renewed and all the Creatures yea the most honourable serviceable unto thee Behold the Lord shall give his Angels charge over thee yea they shall pitch their Tents about thee and the Heaven shall give Rain unto thy Land in due season Dost thou wish for to the further glory of God a long life and an honourable place and esteem amongst Men The Lord hath promised that he will set thee on high that he will make thee the head and not the taile and with long life will satisfie thee Yea more which is the compleatment of all he will shew thee his Salvation But a long life if imbittered with sickness is but a tedious Death True But if thou fear the Lord and depart from evil it shall be health to thy Navil and marrow to thy Bones Yea thy light shall break forth as the Morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily Further dost thou desire wisdome beauty strength The righteous have promises of all these so far forth as they still perfect their happiness Whose Daughters so fair as Jobs Those that mourn in Sion have assured unto them beauty for ashes If the Feet of the Saints are beautifull surely no part else is deficient But
to make all good in few words hear thy King by the Prophet Isaiah The Lord of Hosts will be for a Crown of glory and for a Diadem of beauty unto his People and for a Spirit of Judgment to him that sits in Judgment and for strength to them that turn the Battel to the Gate But this World is a Bed of Vipers a bundle of snares a stage of dangers True yet if thou trust in him he shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler from the noysome Pestilence Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under feet O read yee faithfully and digest this whole Psalme which I may truly stile the City of David for strength and beauty the fortress yea Paradise of every true Christian. But the godly have but a few friends I answer Comparatively they have but a few Enemies the whole Creation except Sathan and sinners being at peace with a reconciled Soul such as Job speaks of being in League with the very Stones and Beasts of the Field And the malice of the malignant turns all to their good Yea more if a Mans wayes please the Lord he will make even his Enemies to be at peace with him But to conclude a good Wife and good Children are amongst the chief blessings upon Earth They are so and have not the Saints strong and comfortable evidences for them if the Lord see them good witness those twine-like Psalmes the 117. and the 118. which for their excellency and comfort sake deserve the Readers more full and perfect Observation I will not be further tedious for the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of Hosts blessed is the Man that trusteth in thee Having given my Soul by faith a taste of some few of those many temporal promises treasured up in the Scripture being they are to be but as Sallets to provoke my spiritual appetite I will return to feed upon Eternity O my Soul what surer Antidote against the apprehension of the last Judgment whose sting is Eternal Death than the Meditation and assured hope of Eternity of life which is Glory in grain and the deifying of Humanity Surely if there be any Spiritual weight that depresseth the Soul it is Judgment If there be any Heavenly Magnes that attracts and quickens it 't is Immortality For toucht with this though encircled with corruption thou shalt continue moving with the Needle until fixed upon the lines of life thou constantly adhearing to the true Flower-de-luce Christ Jesus Amongst Moses unfeigned Metamorphoses we finde the Rod chang'd to a Serpent a devourer of the Magitian delusions So this hope a branch of the Tree of Life springing from the Root of Jesse swallows up Death in victory in Eternity What seems yea is a fearfull truth to all unbelieving Egyptians becometh a Chimera a Phantasme to every true Israelite If any word is expressive or an Epitome of God of Heaven of Glory and consequently of all felicity it is this of Life I am the way the truth and the life I am the Resurrection and the Life saith our Saviour and he that hath the Son that is believes in him hath life saith St. John Since then God is life he that hath life hath God and he that hath God hath all things even the conflux of simple and unmixt happiness And therefore most wisely and succinctly those holy Men Penners of the Creed called the Apostles have coucht and exprest the excessive treasures and immense pleasures of the Heavenly Paradise under that one word life everlasting Herein O my Soul is included and assured unto thee the sublimest of Heavenly fruitions called by the School-men the beatifical Vision Which so far as I am able to express it is the Souls full repletion and apprehension of the excellencies of the Divine Essence not by the back-parts only and mediately as Moses but primarily and immediately in himself Yea also the Body being in the very moment of its resurrection spiritualiz'd as witnesseth the Apostle shall there with open face see and look upon the word of life receiving fulness of pleasure and satisfaction by those sences which now are unprofitable and uncapable of such glorious manifestations Here since this last act of our faith and last Article of our Creed is so full of comfort and unspeakable animation after the hearty and humble acknowledgment of my ignorance and fervent supplicating the assistance of the only illuminating Spirit I will more largely and particularly eye this Crown this unvaluable price even so far as my faith hath visual beames from Scripture or consequent demonstration If the Soul of Man in this state of her nakedness and deformity hath been by some Christians though therein Heretical deifyed and by most of the Heathen Magi magnifyed even to the heighth of created excellencies surely in her renovation and perfect reassumption of that her first Image and those first created Ornaments she must needs be more splendid and more to be admired But is this beauty of the first Adam in his innocency the heighth of a Christians hope No. As our second Adam in his divine descent and generation infinitely transcends our first Parent in Nature so he hath prepared a far more excellent weight of glory for his Children by Adoption his Members by Spiritual mystical and supernatural union Witness his own Oracle and declarative rather than necessary Petition The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Blessed Lord what a word is this What a communication my minde is entraunced and my weak Meditations swell even to an Impossibility of expression Can I not now know my Soul in her humiliation in the weakness of a Creature How can I then describe and conceive of her in her exaltation in the glory of her Creator Let this be sufficient for me to believe hence that that glory with which she shall be filled according to her Spiritual Nature is for quality infinitely excellent because Gods yet allayed and fitted to be received for quantity finite and limited as in her Not as divided from the Divine Fountain but by vertue of Inhabitation in a gracious real and inseparable union communicated to and made hers according to our Saviours Prayer That we all may be one as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father that we may be one in them as also that the love wherewith the Father hath loved the Son may be in us and he in us Thus then the Souls of the Saints before the Resurrection and both Souls and Bodies after the Resurrection according to their several measures of grace here shall then have their divine plenitudes of Glory every Vessel being filled that is thrown into that Ocean of Life and Glory Further as a Wedge of
Iron cast into the Forge is as it were converted into Fire and the body and substance of the Sun is as it were hid and changed into the light that possesses it so shall the Soul and Body as being in God and God in it be absorpt and as it were transmuted into his Glory Thus much concerning the Souls external glory The internal if it be possible is yet a Sphere in altitude above this as bringing the Soul neerer to the assimilation apprehension and fruition of God The understanding will memory and affections in the Soul being as it were Impresses to speak improperly and according to the understanding of Men of the like infinite essentials in God For then the understanding faculty according to its created capacity shall be wonderfully elevated and enlarged and be repleat with a sufficient and compleat knowledge of all Creatures yea of God himself Which shall not then be acquired and gathered as now by a Retrogradation from the effect to the cause but then primarily by immediate Vision and mutual possession of God the cause of causes Be not then disconsolate O my Soul nor set thy Bodily Organs upon the Rack in the study of the Metaphysicks Mathematicks and Physicks farther than thy special calling requires mispending thy hours and neglecting that one thing necessary The knowledge of God and thy self The degrees of learning on Earth are reversed in Heaven begin here with God the beginning of all things and proceed to be Batchelor of Divinity on Earth and fear not but be assured that thou shalt commence a true Master of Arts yea a Doctor of Divinity in Heaven Then shalt thou know perfectly and not as now by supposition the essentials spiritualities and supreme excellencies and attributes of God and Angels The magnitudes altitudes motions and influences of the Heavenly Planets and fixed Stars There shall be no disputing Copernicans No ignorant Empedocles nor Aristotles The causes of the Aetnaean Fires the Flux and reflux of the Seas the Polaramorousness of the Loadstone and all other the Magnalia of Nature shall there be discovered to the Souls eye For as a Man placed in the Centre of the Sun having an Eye or Organ proportionable must needs see whatsoever it enlightens so the Soul of every Saint being fixed in God the Centre from whom all operations as so many lines or rayes are emitted must needs know all being finite and within his enlarged capability the whole frame and work of Nature perfection of knowledge being necessary to the perfection of Glory As the understanding so the will shall be replenished with Glory also being made then co-voluntary with God's and answering his in every particular as the impression doth the Seal or as the Image in the Glass the Original being according to it s created and limitted measure and proportion perfectly just and holy yea freely and constantly willing good without the least constraint or necessity This being no thraldome but a divine perfection of the will to will nothing but what is good The understanding which is the Leader and incliner as a Spring in a Watch the internal mover of the will being not left to it self and created sufficiency as in Adam but by an irrevocable mercifull natural and therefore necessary consequence and decree in Christ is doubly confirmed First positively as being for ever enlightened and filled with a height of wisdome truth and goodness flowing from the perpetual mystical union and co-habitation of Christs Spirit Secondly privatively as being in such a state of perfection glory and happiness as admits not of any temptation or inclination to mislead the one and thereby to defile the other From this ground also springs the Eternal station in goodness and consequently in blessedness of all other the faculties of the Soul Which like so many Stones in an Arch are unmoveable because every Stone is unmoveable Jesus Christ being the Head-Stone upon whom the whole Building depending becomes immutable O my God! I cannot pass this thought of Eternity without a Selah a note of admiration as seasonable although in respect of the benefit but a temporary acknowledgment Behold how wonderfull is that mercy which in Christ hath not deprest but elevated not extinguisht but inflam'd not diminished but encreased Mans excellency Innocent Adam being neither in his perfection nor duration so happy as we sinfull Adams by Regeneration Shall I therefore commend sin God forbid I extoll grace even that Miracle of thy love O Lord whose Mercy hath made Mans Sin Oyle to enflame thy love which in its own nature and ours was Water to quench thy pitty and drown a World Let it work one wonder more and turn my Rock into Springs of Tears to wash thy Feet in humble Repentance and Thankfulness that so my seldome falling here may be a Preludium of my never falling hereafter and Glory begun on Earth in Grace may be in thy Kingdome perfect and Eternal But to proceed and not to forget that faculty which makes me to remember viz. Memory that Magazine and Treasury of the Soul I wish I could say not of evil also Wherein now many things lye confused and obscured by latter Occurences unless discovered by external objects and circumstances or rak'd out by help of discourse Out of whose Postern many things are crowded out by trifles or fallen through its rifts and deficiencies or else worn out by time and age or stollen away by that arch Thief Sathan this faculty I say though now thus decayed and imperfect shall in that never-ending day of happiness be repaired and made Gods Ark over which not Cherubins but the Almighty shall hover filling it by means of the Souls divine and continued Vision of the Glass of the Trinity with a present sight and apprehension of the great glory of God and in it all things I will not call these kindes of actings of the Souls remembrance for those imperfect ways of its operation by recollection and recordation with other medial helps shall be then absorpt in this act of the understanding as being unnecessary and only fitted for the state of Corruption the Apostle teaching us that we shall then know as we are known not remember as we are known The chief Power of the Memory the retention remaining and becoming by this continual beatifical Revelation and Inspection indefatigable and invincible Yea in this Ark shall be always kept the Tables of Gods holy will the Manna of all his past and present mercies the Rod ever budding and flourishing with all his righteous Judgments and Declarations of his Justice As the Memory so each Affection except what habits or inmates sin and corruption have introduc'd such as the servility of fear the dolorous passion of sorrow shall then have not their part only but their full of Glory Then excesses though of the right hand while in this life prove the Soul a Prisoner and make both Soul and Body suffer being therefore properly
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
righteous sentence pronounced upon them and the Apostate Angels and his translating his Saints from this Paradise of Earth to the Heaven of Heavens These objects and occasions of holy hatred anger and indignation against Sathan and Gods Enemies the wicked of unexpressable love joy delight praise and glorious tryumphing the holy Scriptures holds forth shall be in the state of glory And can we conceive holy zeal which is the height and crown of all these graces can be absent or unnecessary I shall further add that after our Lords yielding up his Mediatory Kingdome to the Father all the service and everlasting praises of the Saints in the remembrance of all Gods wonderfull works from the beginning unto Eternity in the Heavens Earth and Hell shall be heightned and winged with this holy zeal I shall assert this truth and conclude this ravishing Meditation with pointing at and refering the Reader to the frequent and zealous hallelujahs of the crowned Elders and glorified Saints in the Visions of Saint John set forth to us as the types and lively figures of our Heavenly and glorified condition Revelations Chapter the 4 th Verse the 8 th And the four Beasts rest not Day and Night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And the four and twenty Elders fell down before Him that sate on the Throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were Created Like to this are their zealous Songs and Thanksgivings upon divers occasions Chapter 5. Verse 8. untill the end of that Chapter and Chapter 7. Verse 9. unto the end thereof and Chapter 11. Verse 15. unto the end of that Chapter and Chapter the 14. Verse the 1. unto the end of the 5. Verse and Chapter the 15. Verse the third and the fourth besides many more to the end of that blessed Book which for brevity sake I omit These being sufficient to prove the use and exercise of this Seraphical grace of holy zeal by the Saints in their state of Glory O my Soul Is this most Heavenly grace of zeal so illustrious and exemplary in the Saints that have lived upon Earth Doth it shine forth with a Heavenly light here in the actings of holy Angels of our for ever blessed Saviour and of our Almighty Father and Creator Yea shall this grace out-live thy hope and thy faith be the Crown and compleatment of thy divine love and the height and perfection of all other thy graces in glory Endeavour then to follow their famous examples Rest not in the cold and middle Region of bare profession with the careless Gallioes of the World and frozen Church-professors The Demasses of this last and worst age but let thy holy zeal upon all occasions for the glory of thy God and purity of his Worship and Doctrine mount up even to the Firie Region and In his cause be Boanerges and like Gods Angels and Seraphins a Cole a flame of Fire So shalt thou excell and exceed others in this grace in thy glorified state as far as thou hast gone before them in this life And as thou hast been more gracious here so thou shalt be more glorious hereafter The larger thy Vessel the larger thy Receipt Every Vessel shall be full and overflow although much different in their measure All shall be Stars although not of the like Magnitude The Saints at the first Resurrection being rewarded according to their works although not for their works O Lord my God is divine zeal a holy flame a Pyramid-like Fire a Spring towards Heaven as to its own place Is my heart my Souls shop where it forges affections and this middle Region of my Body like the middle Region of the Aire cold and naturally void of this thy heavenly Fire Be pleased I humbly beseech thee to cause the same holy Spirit that once sate in the likeness of Fiery Tongues upon the heads of thy Apostles to rest upon unthaw and inflame my frozen heart and affections Then shall not its earthly and sinfull qualities of coldness hardness and ponderousness chill resist or smother the fervency and intensness of any of thy graces in me since thy Almighty Power that produces lightning in the cold middle Region of the Aire that melts the Rock and causes the Mountains Aetna Vesuvius and Hecla to breath forth flames of Fire can yea will because thou hast promised it bring forth and create in me a greater wonder even a new heart and a new spirit a heart of Flesh instead of a heart of Stone Then shall I be not only zealous in all my actings for thee but frequent and zealous in my praises to thee in this life of Grace and that of Glory to Eternity Amen All affections in this life as love fear zeal and the rest although sanctified in their heighths and intensiveness by reason of the weakness of the Organ and our decayed nature may put the whole Man to pain and in that respect are called Passions yet it shall cease to be so with us in our glorified condition Where whatsoever that flowes from Infirmity or Imperfection shall be done away In the new Jerusalem there shall be neither sorrow nor pain We shall then be as the Apostle exhorts not only when occasions shall be offered not to be angry without sin but without passion or disturbance Being herein like to God and the holy Angels whose Image shall then be perfectly renewed in us and who in the Scripture although I grant it to be meant not properly but Anthropopathos is often declared to be angry But as to the Elect Angels I conceive they may as truly be said to be angry witness that famous opposition of Balaam and that action of the Angel that with his drawn Sword was ready to destroy Jerusalem for David's Sin as to rejoyce greatly for the conversion of a sinner If then such accidental affections are testified to be in glorious Angels why not much rather in glorified Saints unless by cessation of so eminent a grace as holy anger we should irrationally conceive the Saints less perfect in this new life than in the other Especially since the sole object of this holy affection the Sin Blasphemy and Rebellion of wicked Souls and Devils to the dishonour of God shall continue and in that great and long day or time of their Judgment be more universally manifested to their view than ever as also afterward in Hell to Eternity Anger here though for Gods cause may possibly inflame the Eyes distort the Visage of a Saint but its lipe as the modest blush of a Virgin doth add beauty to her Face so shall this
they should not only brake Prison but carry her up in an holy extasie to these glorious Mansions O that this pious love and holy joy fixt to the Fiery Chariot of a true zeal moulding this Dust burning up this Chaff at least letting fall this fleshly Mantle would make me a second Elias in a speedy ascent and present fruition of my God But alass poor Soul how are thy Wings limed thy Feet lamed thy Chariot-wheels clog'd with Earth and Sins O by way of preparation since certainly Elias shall be parted from Elisha thy Soul from thy Body let the sharp beak of the Law pick and prune thy Wings the healing Oyl of the Gospel supple thy Feet and thy Heavenly Conversation of a Christian disburden thy motion that when the Whirlwind of Death shall make a separation thou mayest cheerfully and swiftly go up alive unto the Heavens The Body hath during these my last Meditations seemed to sleep in the dust But since the Body as hath been shewed shall have a glorious Resurrection at the last Day so it must be raised here also by my weak thoughts as the fit and next object of a Christians faith I believe then that at the shrill sound of the last Trumpet which is no other than the mighty and powerfull voice of our Arch-Angel Christ Jesus the innumerable Atoms of my Body shall incorporate and after the re-union of my Soul stand up a most glorious substance mortality putting on immortality and corruption incorruption This Worm-hill this mouldering Hutt of white and red Sands shall then inherit the name of an eternal mansion and become not as now a little Cage a loathsome Dungeon but the glorious Pallace of the Soul O surpassing glory of this re-animated Phaenix So excessively radiant that the Holy Spirit who is eloquence and truth it self pitches upon the most illustrious of visible Creatures the Sun the light to be the resemblance of this divine transfiguration The righteous shall shine like the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever The Jewish Temple seemes to be a resemblance of this Temple of God Man glorified in which the Body may be stiled the Sanctum the Soul through the inhabitation of the Holy Spirit the Sanctum Sanctorum Oh if that Earthly Temple transcended others and Heaven be Heaven because of the more special manifestation of Gods glorious presence there shall not each glorified Saint be a Heaven of Heavens It being a necessary and consequent Truth that the great God will more declare his excellency in his living members then in his inanimate works in his adopted Sons than in his inferiour Creatures and Mansions If an humble heart contrite for Sin be now Gods dwelling shall not a sanctified heart purified from Sin become then his Throne of Majesty Our Bodies which now Imprison and Eclipse the Soul's lustre shall then not only be coagile but like a Chrystaline Lanthorn transparent and coruscant not hiding but by a radiant concomitancy augmenting the others splendour For as in the Sun there is the containing and the contained the sphear and the light yet both conspire and meet in a heighth of brightness or as in sounds strings apart musical being struck together produce a harmony so though the Body and Soul are two distinct excellencies yet being united they shall mutually conveigh and reflect their beauty conducing to and effecting a joynt perfection of Glory Further whereas the Creator is now but in part magnified in Man because of the partial knowledge of our selves as concerning the admirable secrets and excellent curiosities of the humanity Then not only our understanding but our Eyes and other bodily sences shall coadjute to make each Saint a most exact Anatomist a most divine Phylosopher O let not then that better covetousness of secular knowledge make us bankrupts in spirituals Let not imprudent pursuits after the shadow make us over-run the substance Being confident of this that a true Christians life shall not prove then as it is now by the World accounted of a devourer of time folly and madness but a Tree of Life in the midst of Eternity Yea a Tree of Knowledge whose fruits shall be fully ripe in Heaven Perplex not thy self then vain Sophister in those scholasticals and endless labyrinths I mean those difficult and so much controverted Questions whether the Soul be ex traduce or immediately from God whether it be confined to a Throne or Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte Whether there be three distinct Souls in Man or only the rational How the Soul sees hears smells tasts touches by those sences Whether we see Intra mittendo or extra mittendo of the species Whether the course of the blood be circular or direct whether odours nourish or only refresh with many others of the like stamp Rather O wandering Disputant let thy chief study be to resolve these questions thus that in our Saviours sense thou art born of God that thou art wholly holy in every part both of Soul and Body that he the incomprehensible three in one is Soul of thy Soul and sees hears tasts smells and touches in thy chast looks devout attentions spiritual relishes faithfull imbracements and in the sweet savour of a pious conversation That thy holy love the blood of action and the life of practise is circular and endless having God to be its Centre that from him it may receive daily new Spirits and new fervour That thy Prayers which the learned call Gods perfume his incense do not only revive but by the powerfull attraction of saving grace feed thee to Eternal life Such thoughts as these O Man if practical shall make thee transcend the natural and become a divine Phylosopher These exercises which are the study of Angels and the liberal Arts of Heavens Academy end in the perfection of knowledge But to proceed O my Soul thou now groanest under a Body of Lead made up of corrupted flesh and stuft full with noisome humours either so fat as it sweats under its own burthen or so lean and weak that it needs wooden supports In its motion is so Worm-like that its contemptible if compared with the pace of most four-footed Creatures But in this thy melioration it shall become thy winged Chariot and be as swift as thy thoughts can imagine or thy wish desire even like lightning then which it shall be far more sprightfull passing in an instant from one end of the Heaven to the other thy whole body shall be then all feet not moving as now but incredibly swiftly guiding through those immeasurable spaces of the Empyrean Heavens These Locomotive Mussels if at all useful shall then only serve for the graver measures of Glory for our Bodies shall as the Apostle speaks be made like unto Christs glorious body not only
Lord makes a new Heaven and a new Earth according to his promise which I humbly conceive only extends to this Orbe of Earth and Water and to the Regions and Elements of the Aire and Fire these two last are most frequently in Scripture called Heaven That flaming and Aetherial Fire not Elementary in which the Lord Jesus shall descend and appear with the ten thousands of glorified Souls and Angels and which shall consume all the wicked that are then in the World and burn up their works shall accordingly as it is the nature and true effect and property of Fire to purge and purify each of the four Elements from all that dross and corruptible quality that hath intermixt and cleaved unto them by the righteous Judgment and curse of God for Mans sin Whence shall proceed that admirable change as to their qualities although not of their substance deserving the name in the Scripture promise of a new Heaven and of a new Earth As it is most excellently set forth by Saint Paul in these words For the earnest expectation of the Creature wait for the manifestation of the Sons of God For the Creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Because the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God For we know that the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together untill now The Elements then are made like unto the Heavenly supream Orbes pure lucid and incorruptible Hence I infer that these four Elements being thus wonderfully changed in their qualities and made incorruptible in which respectively the several parts and ingredients of our Bodies are laid up and reserved as being naturally a part of them There must necessarily follow the same and the like change and alteration in the matter and substance of our Bodies also Whence it will follow that although the first change in the Elements is supernatural and wonderfull that in our Bodies will naturally follow as an effect from that cause Our great God as in the first Creation caused the production of all things out of their first matter as so many streams from that Fountain so in this new and second birth of things he as a rational and natural Agent produceth this excellent change in the fore-mentioned qualities of our new-raised Bodies to be a necessary and certain effect flowing from the change of the principles out of which they are compounded It being more than probable that the Resurrection of our Bodies shall immediatly succeed the making of the new Heaven and the new Earth the Saints habitation as it was in the first Creation when the Lord made the Earth and all the Creatures first before he made Man the Lord and Possessor of it and them The premisses being granted I thence conclude that as Mortality is a necessary effect and consequent of corruption so the immortality of the Body to use the Apostles phrase is as necessary an effect and consequent of incorruption For that substance that can never more be corrupted may truly be said to be everlasting and according to the Apostles expression immortal Death signifying either in sensible or vegitable Creatures a putred and evil change or alteration as also a debasing diminishing and deforming separation as being the curse and fruit of Sin and abhorrent to nature Having hitherto discoursed of this marvellous change of our Bodies at the Resurrection and given some natural reasons thereof as a Philosopher I must now as a Christian ascend higher and prove this eminent change to proceed also from a far higher and nobler cause than meer nature even from the spiritual real and mystical union of our Persons through faith and the Eternal Spirit as Members to our Head the Lord Jesus who is God-Man blessed for ever As since sin God hath enacted this to be one of the Statutes of Nature It is appointed to Men once to dye And by another Law of Nature after Death hath dissolved this Microcosme of Soul from Body Every part of the body as hath been shewed returns to its proper Element so by the Law of Christ God-Man the Eternal Word that was made Flesh it is decreed and affirmed as an indubitable truth That he that believeth in him hath everlasting life And though he were dead yet shall he live Whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never dye From hence it is most cleer that in a spiritual sence the death of the Saints is no death they being so united by faith that although the Soul be divided from the Body and each Elementary part of the body be divided from the other yet neither Soul nor Body or any grain or part thereof can be separated from our head the Lord Jesus in whom who is eternal life is our life Though we are dead in a natural sence yet we live spiritually in and by his Spirit In which sence also the whole mystical body of Christ the universal Church and every Member thereof is said to be joyned to the Lord and is one Spirit as being by the Holy Ghost the ever-living God that fills all things the Spirit of the Father and the Son as by an unmeasurable and everlasting Ligament tyed and united to the Lord Jesus our head So that like as it is said of the Soul That it is tota in toto tota in qualibet parte So it may be said that the for ever blessed Spirit of God the Father and the Son in and by this ineffable union and in dwelling is wholly and spiritually both before and after death in our Souls and in our Bodies and in every part of them although never so far by reason of a natural death separated one from another Here note that although the Scripture declares that in God all things live move and have their being as he is their Creator and Preserver and in whom and by whom they act and have their subsistance yet the difference is very great betwixt that life of the Creatures on Earth and this life of the Saints both as to the nature and duration of it That flowing from his Almighty power and goodness as a Creator this from his Eternal love as our Father in Christ that life being temporary this life Eternal as flowing from the highest Principle our spiritual and real union unto God in Christ. For the further clearing and proof of which immortality as well of our Bodies as of our Souls consider the words of our blessed Saviour As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself I am the way the truth and the life because I live yee shall live also Thou hast given me power over all flesh that I should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given
ravishing contemplation of the infinite Power and Wisdome of thy Creator manifested in the multiplicity variety and unexpressible excellencies of smells and odours as also of his wonderfull mercy love and goodness in making them and communicating them to thee for thy use and benefit that as in a clear mirrour and by this blessed medium thou mayest behold and enjoy him who is essentially sweetness and by whom through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which grace as a spiritual internal and common sense and Architype of all thy Bodily senses beholds hears tasts smells imbraces and possesses him thou mayest I say in God alone be delighted refresht and nourisht unto Life Eternal O infinite holy ever glorious and Eternal Spirit who art the power and love the goodness holiness and sweetness of the Eternal Father and the Son as proceeding from all Eternity from them and who art co-equal co-eternal and co-essential with them in the unity of one Divine Essence and God-head who art the Comforter Counseller Preserver and Sanctifier of all the Elect and Children of God give me a new heart and a new spirit and make me a new Creature according as the Father hath promised in the new Covenant of grace so shall not only my Soul with all the faculties and affections thereof but my Body also with all its Members and Senses be meliorated renewed and sanctified and this rare wonderfull and curious sense of Smelling with the sinfulness of pride voluptuousness excess curiosity and vanity hath made not only unprofitable and destructive to me but of ill savour offensive and dishonorable to thee become like the laborious Bee a gatherer of sweetness out of every object thereof Of which various mixtures my Soul shall compound and make up an holy Incense in resemblance of that under the Law prefiguring this of love as in return for thy goodness of admiration in the acknowledgment of thy wisdome of adoration as declaring thy Omnipotency of praise and thanksgiving as glorifying thee for these thy manifold gifts and blessings and be not only Adamiz'd and like him as in Paradise before the Fall but Angeliz'd yea like my Lord and Saviour who from every object Creature and occasion observed and raised matter of honour and glory to God his Father and mine yea by such an holy exercise of this Sense my Soul as well as my Body shall be refresht delighted and nourisht in its Eternity of Life begun here and to be made perfect together with this sense at the first Resurrection of the Just in Glory I need not prove that the Sense of Feeling shall continue and have existence in the Saints glorified state since to deny it is tanto-mount as to affirm that their Bodies shall not have a beeing or which is equally absurd that they shall in this new life be sick of a dead Palsie This Sense being now and so without doubt shall be then one of the clearest signes and demonstrations of the life of the Body and hath in one respect a singular preheminency and difference above the rest of the Senses For whereas every other Sense hath its proper Seat and Organ This may be truly said to be like the Soul and to Organize and reside in every part and member of a living and perfect Body Neither is this Sense less necessary to motion than to life insomuch as that when a Body is totally deprived thereof it is insensible and moves not and is accompted no better than a dead Trunk and inanimate Corps I shall add further that this Sense as it is now so certainly it shall be then the Souls chief Instrument and Inquisitor to discern by and give Judgment with much pleasure and delight of those four principal Elementary qualities that are respectively inherent to and in all created things and bodies that consist of matter and are made up and compounded of the four Elements as to heat or coldness driness or moisture or of those remoter qualities and adjuncts soft or hard smooth or rough arising from them So that as the Soul united to the new-raised Body without Eyes and the Sense of Sighâ— may truly be said to be imperfect and blind as to all visible objects so should the Body want this Sense of Feeling the Soul may as truly be said to be incompleat and ignorantly dark as to its knowledge and understanding as to all Tangible subjects From what hath been said I assert that the Saints at the Resurrection shall in their glorified Bodies have both the continuance and exercise of this Sense of Feeling and that in an incomparable perfection as to what it is now I will not positively affirm that spiritual substances as Angels may be subjects of this glorified Sense that shall be spiritualiz'd with our Bodies which though now a Natural Body shall then according to the Word of Truth be raised a spiritual Body If so is it not probable that as now to our natural Bodies natural things are touchable so to our spiritual bodies spiritual substances as Angels may be Tangible Our Saviours expression to his Apostles not at all contraducing or excluding this inquiry or inference he affirming only that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as he had not denying that a spiritual glorified body may touch and feel a spiritual Beeing and Essence But should this not be I am assured we shall both touch and imbrace him and be imbrac'd by him I speak this according to the Scripture-phrase with all due and humble reverence who is far above all Creatures and Angels our Head our Spouse our Saviour the most glorious Lord Jesus Christ God-man in one Person as also Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Holy Patriarchs Kings Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and glorified Saints as also our formerly neer and dear Relations which then shall be known of us in that perfection of knowledge and in this our exaltation that so their salvation may add such an accidental joy to the augmentation of our blessedness as the Holy Angels are said by our Saviour to have now super-added to their happiness at the conversion of a sinner To these I shall annex and subjoyn other more inferiour subjects of this glorified Sense the then refined and well-tempered Aire and Elements the delightfull contact of Fowles Birds and Beasts now willingly subject and obedient to Man the super-excelling and numerous Trees Fruits and Plants the Arbors of soft and sweet-smelling Roses the banks of Lillies the beds of Violets the Carpets of all manner of rarest Herbs and Flowers with which this new Heaven and new Earth this renewed Paradise shall be even to perpetuity plentifully garnisht and adorned with to the great glory of God the Creator of Christ the Restorer and of the Holy Ghost the Efficient and to the unexpressible pleasure and delightfull use and benefit of the Elect and glorified Saints As the blessed Canticles that Song of Songs hath been and is reproacht and abused by wanton Amorists
the World After which act of thy remunerative Justice and thy Raign upon the renewed Earth with thy Saints a thousand years thou wilt I believe raise and Judge all the wicked called the Goats at thy left hand and the Apostate Angels according as thou hast declared in thy Word of Truth when every ungodly one shall be sentenced and punished proportionable and according to the evil of their thoughts words and actions then being all made manifest who with the Devils their Tempters and Tormenters shall by thy mighty Angels be cast into the Lake of Fire the Locall Hell unto Eternity This is the second Death O my King my Judge my Spouse shall this dreadfull time of Judgment fearfull indeed to the wicked but a most joyfull Day to the Godly certainly come upon the World according to thy Word Shall there be a long tract of time measured out in the acting and manifesting thy Judgments and magnifying the glory of thy remunerative and vindicative Justice to the World as well as there hath been a long space of proclaiming and holding forth the Golden Scepter of thy free Grace and incomprehensible love and mercy to the Sons of Men Is this truth one of the Articles of the Christian Faith and as certain to us as the Day of our death according to that unrepealable Statute It is appointed to Men once to dye and afterwards comes the Judgment Shall the Crowns dignities and rewards conferred upon thy Saints be one chief subject of praise and fill the Mouths of Men and Angels with continual Hallelujahs unto God not only whilst they rest upon the renewed Earth but also in the highest Heavens after the end of this long Day and the pouring out of thy wrath and execution of thy righteous Judgments upon wicked Men and Devils when thy glorious justice in both the parts thereof shall be finished and compleated according to that Prophesie of the Psalmist then perfectly fulfilled Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth O let both my Heart and Tongue now inure themselves to this Subject since I live by faith and not by sense and sing with the Elect ones in the Revelations that prophetical Song calculated for this time saying Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are his Judgments Praise our God all yee his Servants and yee that fear him both small and great Hallelujah for the Lord reigneth Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and hiâ— Wife hath made her self ready And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white for the fine Linnen is the righteousness of Saints Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. O King of Saints and King of Nations our Almighty Saviour and Conquerer who hast fulfilled the Law satisfied Divine Justice overcome the World Crucified Sin spoiled Principalities and Powers and wilt at the Resurrection of the Just and the Redemption of our Bodies destroy our last Enemy Death and after the Judging and Hellifying of wicked Men and Devils wilt in Tryumph ascend on high with thy Elect and lead Captivity Captive that the Glory which thy Father gave thee may be given them that they may be with thee where thou art and may behold the Glory which he hath given thee and possess an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us where we shall be ever with thee our Lord and see God face to face and in thee the perfections of all Creatures as in their first cause And know thee according to our measure as we are known by thee Blessed Mediator this is that time when all rule all authority and power being put down and under thee in the Kingdome of thy Saints and under thee in thy personal and glorious raign upon Earth All Enemies even Death it self being destroyed and put under thy Feet thou shalt deliver up the Kingdome so far as it is Mediatory personal and singly acted and managed by thee in thy humane appearance and Man-hood to God even the Father That so thou the Son as being also as Man the Son of God might be subject as to thy present kinde of administration unto him that put all things under thee that God may be all in all And the whole Universe and Creation both in Heaven and Earth especially thy spiritual Body thy Church may be immediately governed and influenced by him who is three in one God-blessed for ever To which mystical Body thy Spouse and Church as also to Angels thou still remainest Head and Lord for ever which being now perfectly and inherently sanctified and graciously admitted through the glorious inhabitation and communion of thy most holy and eternal Spirit to an immediate fellowship real and spiritual union although not essential with the Father Son and holy Ghost one God blessed for ever shall live eternally in the life of God and in whole and in part as respecting every individual Member and Vessel be always full yet always increasing in knowledge grace and glory as Eying and enjoying continually the Divine Nature and cast into an Ocean of infiniteness unto Eternity This is the Generation of them that seek thee that seek thy face O God of Jacob. Therefore let both my Heart and Tongue even now O Lord prepare and begin to praise thee as from Pisgath with beholding Canaan and by faith the eye of my Soul from the raised hill of holy Contemplation viewing this Saint Paul's third Heaven the Throne of God and of his glory and the many yea innumerable shining and starrified Mansions in thy Fathers house the places prepared by thee for thy Saints as also their Kingdome and State of endless glory happiness and blessedness In the ravishing Meditation of these things their translation and thy second most glorious and tryumphant Assention O let me sing and rejoyce in the words of thy Prophet David foretelling both thy Ascentions God is gone up with a shout the Lord with a sound of a Trumpet sing praises to God sing praises sing praises to our King sing praises Lift up your Heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in Battel Lift up your Heads O ye Gates even lift them up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord of Hosts He is the King of Glory Selah I have now by Divine assistance according to my weak-sightedness for all Men here know but in part and as in
principle thereof Page 180 181 A soliloquium upon that Duration Page 182 The Destruction of Christs enemies Page 242 E. An Ejaculation for Grace Page 21 An Ejaculation on Christs sufferings Page 30 The sinfulness of the Eyes Page 53 The sinfulness of the Ears with a contemplation on them Page 54 Of Eternal life Page 146 The destruction of Christs Enemies Page 242 F. The Fundamental graces Page 2 The definition of Faith Page 3 The means of Faith Page 21 Christ the Son of God the object of Faith Page 22 The palsie of Fear Page 50 A contemplation on Fear Page 51 Of Forgiveness of sins Page 63 Our victory over the Fear of Death Page 132 133 The affection of Fear glorified Page 153 G. Of the understanding Glorified Page 148 Of the will Glorified Page 149 A contemplation upon them both Page 150 Of the Memory Glorified Page 150 Of the Affections Glorified Page 151 Of Love Glorified Page 151 Of Fear Glorified Page 153 A soliloquium on Love and Fear Glorified Page 155 Item an Ejaculation upon them Page 155 Of Anger Glorified Page 160 Of Joy Glorified Page 162 Of the Body Glorified Page 164 Of the Senses Glorified Page 188 The destruction of Gog and Magog and the World by fire at Christs second coming Page 243 H. Honour distinguished and defined Page 5 Many good qualities spoyled by Hypocrisie exemplyfied in Saul Page 9 Hypocrisie deciphered to the life Page 13 Historical faith Page 4 A short History of the life of Christ Page 24 25 A senceless Hard-heart most dangerous Page 43 44 Christs answer to the complaint of a hard Heart Page 76 Honour one of the worlds Darts to wound souls Page 119 Of the sense of Hearing glorified Page 199 An ejaculation upon the glorification of the sense of Hearing Page 203 I. Judas described Page 16 Infidelity the first means of Death Page 20 Joy distinguished and described Page 48 No true Joy in riches Page 48 No true Joy in honours Page 48 No true Joy in pleasures Page 48 No true Joy in humane wisdom Page 49 The consolation in Christs Intercession Page 60 Of Justification Page 62 The necessity of It Page 68 Of Imputative righteousness Page 62 The Definition and Exposition of it Page 64 Christs answer to the Soul complaining against Joy Page 81 82 Christs Kingly-Office at the last Judgment Page 139 A short Application of Comfort against fear of the last Judgment Page 142 Of Joy glorified Page 162 The Conversion of Israel Page 240 The day of Judgment beginning with the rewarding of the Saints and ending with the judging of the wicked Page 244 K. The happiness of Divine Knowledg consists mostly in Fruition Page 7 Of Christs Kingly-Office now Page 93 Kings called Pastours and the Application of it Page 96 97 Of Christs Kingly-office at the last Judgement Page 139 Of Christ Victorious Kingdom Page 242 The end of Christs Mediatory Kingdom Page 246 L. Mans natural Light is comparatively darkness Page 12 A lawful and useful Love of Self Page 16 Gods Love infinitely excels mans Page 33 The commendation and corruption of Love Page 47 Christs answer to the souls complaint against Love â—1 The commendation of Gods Laws Page 101 Lust one of the Worlds darts to wound souls Page 117 Of Life Eternal Page 146 Of the affection of Love glorified Page 151 A watch to be set on the Lips Page 233 M. Miraculous faith Page 15 Mans Misery by Nature Page 41 His Mind dark as with Egytian darkness Page 41 The earthly-minded Man the only Melancholy man Page 49 Christs answer to the poor Souls complaint against its unfaithful Memory Page 78 79 Of the Memory glorified Page 150 The end of Christs Mediatory Kingdom Page 246 N. All Natural Mysteries and the Knowledge of them shall be discovered and hightened at the Resurrection Page 149 O. An Objection that God might have confirmed man as he did the fallen Angels answered Page 68 The weak Believers Objections answered Page 73 The souls Objection it cannot hear because dead answered by Christ Page 73 The souls Objection that the expressions of Comfort in Scripture are too general answered by Christ Page 73 An Objection that professors being forbidden sensual pleasures are of all men most miserable answered Page 125 P. Poverty distinguished and deciphered Page 26 Of Christs Priestly-Office Page 57 Of his Prophetical-Office Page 70 All Revelations flows thence Page 70 A Contemplation upon it Page 70 Our Protection by Christ Page 106 Persecution one of the worlds Darts to wound profession of Religion Page 120 An Expostulation touching Persecution Page 121 Against sensual Pleasures Page 124 The forbidding sensual Pleasures doth not as the Laodicean thinks make Professors of all men most miserable Page 125 An Antidote against Persecution Page 128 The ruine of the Papacy Page 240 Q. General Questions answered 1. Why God doth not in the same instant call justifie sanctifie and glorifie his Elect 2. Why God doth not build up that wide breach which sin hath made in mans Nature Page 67 R. Imputative Righteousness defined and expounded Page 64 Proofs of our right in Christs Imputative Righteousness Page 65 Riches is one of the worlds Darts to wound souls Page 118 Proofs and comfort in the Resurrection Page 135 Of the Ruine of Rome Page 239 S. The Soul is never unimployed Page 1 The sinful use of Smelling Page 54 Of Christs Satisfaction Page 61 The Souls complaint against the Senses answered by Christ Page 88 89 The commendation of the Scriptures from the Authour Antiquity and Holiness thereof Page 101 102 103 Christs protection of us from Satan Page 107 His protection of us from Sin Page 108 109 110 111 112 Against Sensual pleasures Page 124 A Soliloquium on the affections of love fear glorified Page 155 Of the Senses glorified Page 188 Of the sense of Seeing glorified Page 195 A soliloquium upon that Sense Page 197 An ejaculation upon that Sense Page 198 Of the sense of Smelling glorified Page 210 A soliloquium upon that sense of Smelling glorified Page 213 An ejaculation upon the sense of Smelling glorified Page 214 T. Temporary faith Page 8 The sinfulness of the Taste Page 55 The sinfulness of the Touch Page 55 The souls complaint against the Tongue and Christs answer to it Page 88 89 Of the sense of Tasting glorified Page 205 A soliloquium upon the glorified sense of Tasting Page 207 An ejaculation upon it Page 209 Of the sense of Touching glorified Page 215 â—n inference whether spiritual bodies as Angels may not be Tangible by spiritual humane glorified bodies at the Resurrection Page 215 216 A soliloquium upon the Touch glorified Page 218 An ejaculation upon the Touch glorified Page 220 237 Of the Tongue glorified Page 222 A soliloquium upon the Tongue glorified Page 232 Against cursing swearing and wicked or vain Talking Page 234 The destruction of the great Turk Page 241 The binding of the Devil for a Thousand years Page 241
The Saints peaceable Reign for a Thousand years Page 243 The Translation of the Saints to Heaven Page 246 U. Christs answer to the poor soul complaining of his Understanding Page 7â— A Contemplation upon our Victory by Christ over Honours Covetousness Voluptuousness persecution Page 129 Of the Understanding glorified Page 148 Of Christs Victorious Kingdom Page 242 W. The excellency of the Word Page 1â— The great dependance of the Will on other faculties Page 4â— Against free Will Page 45 The souls complaint against the Will answered by Christ Page 8â— Christs victory over the World Page 11â— The Worlds darts by which it wounds souls Page 11â— Of the Will glorified Page 14â— A Watch to be set upon the Lips Page 238 Twelve Wonderful Works of God to be fulfilled Page 239 Of the raising of the Witnesses Page 23â— X.  Y. The binding of the Devil for a thousand Years Page 241 The Saints peaceable reign for a thousand Years Page â—43 Z. Of Zeal glorified Page 15â— Zeal not a simple grace but the intense degree of every gracâ— Page 156 A soliloquium on glorified Zeal Page 159 An ejaculation and commendation of glorified Zeal Page 159 FINIS Place this before the Scripture-Catechisme at Folio 259 THE EPISTLE TO HIS Entirely beloved Wife and Twelve dear Children and to their Childrens Children until the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. MOst affectionately indeared Wife and Children one with me by Nature and by Grace who therefore may challenge and lay claim to my especial care love and respects besides the discharge of my duty to God who hath placed you under my circumspection and government and commands my constâ—â—t utmost and unwearied endeavours in order to your Eternal Salvation What my continued pains and frequent watching over you have been whilst I was present with you your selves and the rest of my Family will witness as to Weekly Catechizing Morning and Evening expounding the Holy Scriptures and praying with you besides my constant Repetition of Sermons preparation and particular examination of you on the Lord's Day and Monthly Sacraments and often remembrance of you 〈◊〉 to your Daily exercise of private Prayers reading of the Scriptures and the Works of God's faithful Ministers O let not my above Twenty Years labours be in vain to any one of you â—ay which is far worse be a great aggrevation both of your sin and punishment should ye offend and rebel against so much light and means and neglect so great salvation But most dearly beloved I believe and hope better things of you and things that accompany Salvation although I thus speak And therefore during my above Seven Tears Exile and separation from you I have not ceased to put you in remembrance of your duty to God and to stir you up by Letters to the continuance in well doing since you shall reap Glory and Eternal Life if you faint not but persevere and continue therein constant to the end Witness that large Epistle sent unto you dated from Antwerp January the first 1665. Wherein from the Mouth of our most blessed Saviour as being in a manner all his words you are exhorted to and instructed in what things you are to believe and to practise what you are to imbrace and what to eschew as to grace and vertue and as to vice and error which I earnestly desire you yea charge you as a Husband and a Father to read often over or at least once a Quarter Which were it not all Scripture and through the grace and mercy of God skimmed and digested for your edification I should not by this recommendation have presumed to put so high a value upon it Since which time having by God's gracious assistance finished this Treatise of Faith being destitute of Worldly gifts to bestow up on you That in discharge of my duty to God and to you I may still continue and express my conjugal and paternal affection respectively to the Souls of you all I have directed and dedicated it to you and yours desiring and requiring your frequent and serious perusal of it as being for the subject matter the most sublime and holding forth the glorious knowledge of the only Infinite and most high God and the wonderful and high Mysteries of Man's Salvation as they are manifested in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ who is here lively represented both to the eye and to the exercise of your faith begining with the promise to Adam and Man's fall and misery and proceeding to his Incarnation Life Death and Passion Resurrection and Assension and the exercise of his Three-fold Office as Priest and the Prophet and King with all benefits from them with his Kingdom considered in its several degrees and administrations first as it was legal and spiritual under the Law Secondly purely spiritual under the Gospel Thirdly as it shall be victorious over Sathan and Worldly enemies in this latter Age of the World Fourthly peaceable holy and righteous during the Sabbatisms the Saints Reign a thousand years upon Earth Fifthly glorious after the Resurrection of the Elect and their Reign with Christ personally a Thousand Years upon the renewed Earth Sixthly Judicial begining at Christ's second coming under which the Saints are rewarded and all the wicked raised judged condemned and cast into the Local Hell together with the evil Angels Seventhly Eternally glorious when Christ's Mediatory Kingdom being expired delivered up to the Father that God may be all in all the Saints shall be translated into the highest Heavens that they may there Reign live with God and Christ the Head of the Saints and Angels for ever and for ever As the subject matter hath a preheminence as being a discourse of things most excellent above others the knowledge beliefe and saving application thereof to your souls is of all exercises the most excellent profitable and delightful since without faith and the true knowledge of God in Christ there is no light joy peace rest happiness to your souls here nor in the life to come salvation And to have revealed to you the great misteries and secret counsel of God together with their wonderful products to the end of the World and Scripture-manifestation which are bid from the ungodly but discovered by the light of his Word in the Prophets in and by his spirit to those that fear him is of all speculative knowledge to Christians the most pleasant useful and encouraging as being through an assured hope that Helmet of Salvation which will carry you victoriously through all difficulties and opposition to triumph in endless glory together with what I have â—â—re sum'd up as the substance and body of this Treatise I have â—lso intermixt methodically many Soliloquies and Ejaculatory Peâ—â—tions as necessary to conclude several principal heads in these Meditations which I earnestly desire you to make a frequent and sinâ—â—re use and application of praying you to make them yours as well as mine and beseech the Lord that
be justified with God or how can he be clean that is born of a Woman Behold you were shapen in iniquity and in sin did your Mother conceive you By nature you are the Children of wrath And the Imaginations of your heart are only evil continually in you that is in your flesh dwelleth no good thing From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in you but wounds and bruises and putrified sores Ye have sinned and done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from my precepts Your iniquities are increased over your heads and your trespasses are grown up to the Heavens And the poyson of the Asps is under your Lips Wash you and make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine Eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now let us reason together though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red as Crimson they shall be as Wool Confess and forsake your sins and you shall finde mercy For I am faithful and just to forgive you your sins And my blood shall cleanse you from all sins Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest And you that come to me I will by no means cast out But if ye will still do wickedly ye shall be consumed And I will rain snares an horrible tempest And I will break the hairy Scalp of you that go on in iniquity Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you See I have set before you life and good and death and evil therefore choose life that ye may live He that hath received my Testimony hath set to his Seal that God is true The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him I am made unto you of God wisdome and righteousness and sanctification and redemption And to be sin for you that knew no sin that you might be made the righteousness of God in me I am the end of the Law for righteousness to every one of you that believeth And was made a curse for you that the blessing of Abraham might come to you and that ye might receive the promise of the spirit through faith in me which grace comes by hearing and hearing of the Word of God and is the gift of God Be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard for I in you am the hope of Glory But put on this hope for an Helmet and let it be as an Anchor of your Souls both sure and stedfast rejoycing therein firmly to the end And let every one of you that hath this hope in him purifie himself even as I am pure Above all things have servent charity for charity will cover the multitude of sins yea let all your things be done with charity without which though you speak with the tongues of Men and Angels you are become as sounding brass or a tinkling Cimbal And though you have the gift of Prophesie and understand all misteries and all knowledge And though you have all faith so that you could remove Mountains and have no charity you are nothing And though you bestow all your goods to feed the poor and though you give your Bodies to be burned and have not charity it profiteth nothing Charity suffereth long and is kinde charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not its self Is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own Is not easily provoked thinketh no evil Rejoiceth not in iniquitie but rejoiceth in the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Charitie never faileth Wherefore above all things put on charitie which is the bond of perfectness The end of the Commandement The royal Law And the fulfilling of the Law If ye therefore fulfill this royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self ye do well Yea I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you That you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth Rain on the just and on the unjust And put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both bodie and soul in Hell Whosoever doth not bear my Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple Verily I say unto you whosoever of you shall leave House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospel shall receive an hundred fold now in this time Houses and Brethren and Sisters and Mother and Children and Lands with persecutions and in the World to come everlasting life Every Man that striveth for the masterie is temperate in all things now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but you an incorruptible Therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight not as those that beat the Aire but keep under your Bodies and bring them into subjection And add to your knowledge temperance For the fruits of my Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no Law Add to your temperance patience And in your patience possess your Souls and bring forth fruit with patience And let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing Being followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises Ye have heard of the patience of Job Also take for an example your Brethren the Prophets of suffering affliction and of patience And run with patience the race which is set before you Be ye wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves And filled with the knowledge of my will in all wisdome and spiritual understanding That ye may walk worthy of me unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God See that ye walk circumspectlie not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil understanding what the will
with thy Neighbours Wife to defile thy self with her The Adulterer and Adulteress shall surely be put to death Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor abusers of themselves with Man-kind shall inherit the Kingdome of God Mortifie your Members which are upon the Earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the Children of disobedience And commit not Fornication as some of the Israelites committed and fell in one Day three and twenty thousand Without the new Jerusalem are Whoremongers who shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire which is the second Death Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts which are an abomination to the Lord. Wherefore hate all vain thoughts Let them not lodg within you for the thought of foolishness is sin I understand your thoughts afar off and am a discerner of the thoughts and intents of your hearts Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouths but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearers But fornication and all uncleanness let it not be once named amongst you as becometh Saints Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Be not therefore partakers with them I say unto you every idle word that Men shall speak they shall give account thereof at the Day of Judgment For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Whosoever looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart Wherefore with holy Job make a Covenant with thine Eyes that thou think not upon a Maid to lust after her For when thy Eye is evil thy Body also is full of darkness The Eyes of the wicked shall faile But chiefly them that walk after the Flesh in the lust of uncleanness Having Eyes full of Adultery and that cannot cease from sin and are reserved to the Day of Judgment to be punished and to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever The Night is far spent the Day is at hand therefore cast ye off the works of Darkness and put on the Armour of Light walking honestly as in the Day not in rioting and drunkenness not in Chambering and wantonness But put ye on me the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Let not Sathan who is a lyar from the beginning and the Father of lyes fill your hearts to sin against the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of truth that ye be not strucken with sudden Death as was Ananias and Saphira Ye shall not lye one unto another but every one speak the truth with his Neighbour For ye are Members one of another For I will destroy them that speak leasing and the mouth that speaketh lies shall be stopped The Earth mourneth and fadeth away the World languisheth and fadeth away the haughty People of the Earth do languish the Earth also is defiled under the Inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Laws changed the Ordinance broken the everlasting Covenant I am the Mediator of the new Covenant sealed unto you in my Sacraments of Baptisme and my Supper Tread not then under foot the Son of God nor count the blood of my Covenant wherewith ye are sanctified an unholy thing nor do despight unto my Spirit of grace For vengeance is mine I will recompence yea I will judge my people It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools Pay that which thou hast vowed The Lord thy God will surely require it of thee and it would be sin in thee That which is gone out of thy Lips thou shalt keep and perform to God and to Men lest thou be excluded my holy Hill and suffer alike Judgement with King Zedekiah for shall he escape that doth such things Or shalâ— he break the Covenant and be delivered Surely where the King dwelleth that made him King whose Oath he despised and whosâ— Covenant he break even with him in the midest of Babilon shall he die Thou shalt not desire thy Neighbours Wife neither shalt thou covet thy Neighbours House his Field or his Man servant or his Maid-servant his Oxe or his Ass or any thing that iâ— thy Neighbours Woe unto him that covered an evil covetousness to his House that he maâ— set his Nest on high that he may be delivereâ— from the power of evil He that maketh haâ— to be rich shall not be innocent No covetouâ— Man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Take heed and beware of Covetousness For woe unto him that buildeth his House by unrighteousness and his Chambers by wrong Beware of Ahab's sin and his punishment No Man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your Life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on Is not the life more than meat and the body than rayment For after all these things the Gentiles seek for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things Wherefore having food and rayment be therewith content for I have said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown Men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Wherefore love not the World nor the things that are in the World if any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that with-holdeth more than is meet and yet tendeth to poverty The liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself There is an evil which I have seen under the Sun and
unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a forme of Godliness but denying the Power thereof from such turn away For of this sort are they which creep into Houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with sins led away with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth Now as Jannes and Jambres with-stood Moses so do these also resist the truth Men of corrupt mindes reprobate as concerning the faith But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest to all Men as theirs was The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good Therefore the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them For God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are cleerly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-head so that they are without excuse O righteous Father the World hath not known Thee but I have known Thee No Man cometh to the Father but by Me. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father For I and the Father am one Believe also my works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in him For in the beginning was I the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God All things were made by Me and without Me was not any thing made that was made In me was life and the life was the light of Men. I the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst you and ye beheld my glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth I am the image of the invisible God By me were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by Me and for Me I am before all things and by me all things consist There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one I spake unto my Apostles and true Ministers saying Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost What high blasphemers then are they that deny the Holy Ghost to be God The Spirit of God moved upon the Waters And by the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Spirit of his Mouth The Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of Me. For he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak He shall glorifie Me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Peter said unto Ananias In that thou hast lied to the Holy Ghost thou hast not lied unto Men but unto God Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto Men. The Grace of me the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost the Comforter Preserver and Sanctifier be with you all This is the will of God even your Sanctification that you should abstain from Fornication and that every one of you should know how to possess his Vessel in Sanctification and Honour Not in the lust of Concupiscence as the Gentiles that know not God Wherefore to avoid Fornication let every Man have his own Wife and every Woman her own Husband Have you not read that he that made Man in the beginning made them Male and Female I the Lord will bear witness against them that deal treacherously with the Wife of their Youth Is she not thy Companion and the Wife of thy Covenant And did not I make one yet had I the residue of the Spirit And wherefore one that I might seek a godly Seed Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the Wife of his Youth For I the Lord God of Israel hate putting away Therefore I say unto you whosoever shall put away his Wife except it be for Fornication and shall marry another committeth Adultery and whosoever marrieth her that is put away committeth Adultery The Husband is the Head of the Wife not of Wives as I am the Head of the Church Let every one therefore in particular so love his Wife even as himself And the Wife not the Wives see that she reverence her Husband Despise not Prophesyings quench not the Spirit He that heareth you that are my true Ministers heareth Me and he that despiseth you despiseth Me and he that despiseth Me despiseth him that sent Me. He that is of God heareth God's words My Sheep hear my voice He that knoweth God heareth my Ministers but he that is not of God heareth them not And as oft as you eat the Bread and Drink of the Cup in my Sacraments ye do it in remembrance of Me and shew my Death until I come Pray without ceasing The workers of iniquity call not upon the Lord. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill For verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandements and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdome of Heaven But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdome of Heaven Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are Gods Let every Soul be subject unto the higher Powers For there is no Power but of God The Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation For Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power Do that which is good and
not less loving But O merciful Creator thy love met with hatred the very object of thy favour was thy Enemy whom thou didst not reconcile with a gift as fearing his power or ability to resist thee since he was thy Creature thy Prisoner thy just sentence of Condemnation waiting but the watch-word of thy will to execute him O unexhausted Fountain of wisdome there was no weakness or deficiency in thee which Man destroyed might any whit disable or diminish thy workmanship in a second Creation since all thy works keep time with thy Word What caused thee then O powerful Maker to give Life where Death was due Heaven where Hell was deserved Pleasure and Joy where Pain and Torment was incurred Why didst thou give mercy and forgiveness to Man and denyedst it to Angels honouring the Humanity with a Personal Union which in Adam was a Traytor by Rebellion Lastly Why gavest thou thy only begotten Son to Death that we might be thy Adopted Sons in Life Lord my Soul shall answer with St. Paul God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved Vs even when we were dead in Sin hath quickened Vs together in Christ by Grace we are saved O only begotten Son of the Father the Word by which all things were made O light of the World God equal with the Father in Majesty why from such a height of Glory didst thou descend to this Vale of Misery forsaking Heaven for Earth making thy Foot-stool thy Throne being included in the Virgins Womb though the vast Universe cannot comprehend thee Lord thy own Spirit can best express the reason of this thy wonderful humiliation Jesus Christ came into this World to save Sinners Behold here God made Man Lord how low is the Foundation of thy Mercy laid although the height reach above the Clouds gracious Saviour who doth not in this Mirrour of thy Love perceive the powerfulness of thy Divinity as being the first and self-mover in this work of compassion thy mercy having its first motion from thy self according to that thy own protestation made unto thy Children I will love them freely But O my Soul now thou hast viewed this beautiful Gate of the Temple with admiration reverence and affection proceed for the birth of thy Saviour is but the beginning of his mercies All Princes are but Vice-Royes God only is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Yet who amongst them is not welcomed into his Kingdome with joyful Acclamations and royal Solemnities But loe here not only the King of Israel but the great Emperor of Heaven and Earth born in Bethelem the least of the Cities of Judah a City and yet affords no place but a Stable to lodge and entertain the Worlds Monarch Heaven must point him out by a Star Angels must preach him before any of his own acknowledge him and then Shepheards are his Heralds to Proclaim him The sequel and after-story of his Life is no less reproachfully miserable than this Prologue of his birth Poverty clothes Him with obscurity and affliction 30. Years in which space his very Infancy is not free from Persecution by Herod witness those Innocents of Bethelem who suffered for him who came to dye for them he flying into Aegypt from the wrath of Man that he might undergo the anger of God preserving himself not from pain but for pain O Lord had thy Loves Foundation been laid in Earth the hatred and ungratefulness of Man might have ruined thy proceedings and induc'd thee to have retrograded from thy purposed design but behold the Root of thy Mercy was in thy Self which brought forth the fruits of thy sufferings thy love being natural therefore immutable none of thy grievous pressures were obscured from thy view for thy praescience beheld as present all fore-past actions and future events so that thou wert not ignorantly or contrary to thy will overtaken by them no necessity did enforce thee to undergo so difficult a Task since constraint is only prevalent in a finite nature but thou art infinite comprehending all things circumscribed by nothing Lord Jesus let me admire since I cannot express this thy love and make me to love thee again in some measure that thus hast loved me without measure Here whilest my Soul full of wonder desires to stay and meditate thy goodness leads me still forwards and as it were reproves my lingring thus O Man bound not thy thoughts progress with the first mercies of thy Saviour to wit that Light shined in Darkness The Word became Flesh yea that the life of all things received life and the Son of God became the Son of Man behold more misteries of love not regarded the Creator rejected of his Creature He came unto his own and his own received him not He who ordained Holes for the Foxes Nests for the Birds of the Aire he who measured the Earth as with a span and clothes the Heavens as with a Garment he who is a self-moving Sphear whose Centre is every where whose circumference is no where He even the Saviour and Creator of Man hath not amongst Men whereon to rest his Head O admirable and unconceivable humiliation of greater force because not enforced freely not reciprocally undertaken being therefore of infinite merit before God and worthy of Man's eternal acknowledgment what could Man suffer which the Son of Man did not undergo nay what anger torment punishment or affliction could an infinitely inraged Deity inflict which God made Man did not endure for behold no sooner doth this Son of Righteousness whose light is in himself arise to be a light unto the Gentiles dissipating the mists of Superstition and Ignorance the morning of the Gospel succeeding the Evening of Idolatry no sooner did he appear to the glory of his People Israel dispersing those Clouds of Ceremonies which Vail'd the mercy Seat but that present Generation prefering Darkness before Light interposed unbelief to Eclipse his splendour witness John 3.19 And this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men loved Darkness rather than Light Also they retorted the beames of his Priestly Office saying None but God hath Power to forgive Sins They shuned the Light of his Gospel-Prophesie and Teaching witness that loving Lamentation O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen her Brood under her Wings but ye would not Lastly they denyed and rejected his Dominion with that abnegation We have no King but Caesar. Lord were the Children of Israel so severely punished for repining against Aaron though but a â—igure of Thee Was Heliodorus so suddenly and fearfully tormented for resisting the High Priest And doest thou who thus revengedst and defendest thy substitutes whilest thou wert in Heaven as being the summe of all Figures the substance of all shadows and an Eternal High-Priest according to the
Chore of Glory to Eternity Right honourable and renowned Gentlemen as I have presum'd to present and direct this weak Piece to your view so what I have above written in Zeal to God's glory and unfeigned love to your Souls shall be my Apology to the following subject As that my end therein is primarily the glory of God whose praises is my duty as well as his command to exalt in my own Soul and others as hath been declared and to perpetuate as much as in me lies to my Posterity and to all future Generations what great and free love mercy and goodness he hath shewed to me and mine herein endeavouring to imitate the Holy example of that Royal Psalmist King David who hath thus in Verse exprest both his resolution and practise Come unto me all ye that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul I say for my Soul as may appear in some degree in the alluzions and applications in several temporal mercies and personal deliverances commemorated in this Book I acknowledging to Angels and Men that God's Fatherly love in Christ and care of my poor Soul in supporting preserving and delivering it from Sin Sathan and the World my mighty Adversaries and from innumerable spiritual evils and temptations Do as far transcend to the glory of his free grace be it spoken my temporal and corporal deliverances and mercies as the Heaven is above the Earth and my unvaluable Soul is more precious than this poor Hut of Earth I sojourn in Here possibly some great Men or rare Wits who Eagle-like soar far above my mean parts and gifts may uncharitably sensure and object to say no more What doth this poor Man's Personal or spiritual mercies and deliverances concern us To such I answer Are you Christians and fellow-members of Christ's Body and will you not weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice As God commands you Can you be living Members although in the highest rank in this spiritual Body and not sympathize and be affected with the grief or weal of the lowest Christians its Feet O take heed lest such pride and insensibleness declare you to be no living Member of one Church However I am assured all those that fear God now and in Ages to come shall read with delight rejoice and praise God with me for his gracious providences and merciful deliverances recorded in this following Treatise Which I although cloathed in a plain and low stile in the Opinion it may be of some carping Momusses and over-curious Criticks whom nothing will please but what 's their own or what is like Sphynkes Ridles to be understood by a few Or that is not imbroidered with humane strains of Wit and Eloquence or bumbasted and imbossed with affected praises and needless Epithites For my part I have not endeavoured to humour such nor to drown matter in words but without affectation vaunting or racking in Prose or in Verse I have desired to keep to my own Genuine and natural Dialect And to be understood rather than to be so obscure as to need a Comment What you finde is good herein it flowes although through my Leaden Pipe from the Spirit of the Lord the unexhaustible Fountain of Grace and goodness what is incongruous or evil it is the sinful slime and filth which naturally cleaves to every humane Aquaeduct except the Holy Scripture Nam Humanum est Errare which being in voluntary is pardoned by the Lord I doubt not of yours unless I should be so uncharitable as to think you disdain to imitate so Divine a Pattern To conclude my Lords and Gentlemen I confess I was heartily grieved for my own and your great ingratitude when upon a diligent inquiry I could finde few or none Monuments or Returns of this Nature although I am assured all of you are vastly indebted to our great and gracious God for numberless spiritual and temporal blessings mercies and deliverances and which is worse many of you have great Incomes given you by him and to this end of wit parts and gifts with which you might and ought to make to him a just and thankful repayment especially since our liberal Heavenly Father expects from you but his own Coin lent you to improve to his glory and but a sincere praiseful and declared acknowledgments for real and unvaluable benefits This serious and sad consideration of my own and your sinfull Omissions stirred me up speedily lest I should dye ungratefull to Pen and publish this Work not only in discharge of my duty to the only great and glorious God my loving and merciful Father But as an humble Essay and Copy for you to write by which if but any one of you follow I shall rejoyce much because such an one hath received great good thereby and the Lord by him much glory But if none I shall weep in secret for your Ingratitude And have much joy and peace in that herein I have done my duty to God and to you But I hope better things of you In which charitable expectation I subscribe my self my Lords and Gentlemen Your most humble Servant In the Lord J. H. OCCASIONAL MEDITATIONS ARGUMENT Vpon the Lord's most gracious Sustentation of Me when I was Born a Moneth before my full time Soliloquium or Discourse EVery extraordinary acting of Nature is not only to be admired but to be observed by us wherefore was I so over-hasty to be Born which the wisest of the Heathen accounted the bginning of their misery Was I weary of my Eight Moneths Prison and ambitious of a freer Place and Air Or was my heart more hot than others and therefore sooner needed the refreshing fanning of my Lungs Or was the Womb weary of such a sinful burden or rather did my loving Mother's affectionate longing to see and enjoy me occasion this Abortion was it weakness in her or too early strength in me that relaxt or brake in Pieces the silver Bonds of the Womb was I by the care of the Nurse wrapt in the Skin of a Lamb as in a second Womb to preserve and renue my heat and life were some or all these the natural causes of my unexpected Birth and preservation yet it becomes me as a Christian to look far higher even to him who is the cause of causes the beeing of Beeings Natura Naturans God blessed for ever whose Eternal Will and Decree was the first cause the others but secondary Yea he was the Midwife that brought me forth thus sooner into this World of sin and misery In sense of which my sad condition as by a natural instinct with all other Infants the first thing I did then was to weep and cry How much more cause have I now and that experimentally with humble Paul to cry out O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death and to sigh out this my Prayer and spiritual Hymn unto the Lord The NEW BIRTH
upright Thus sad Was that my Youthful State when from above Thou didst in thy Caroche of Faith and Love Dear Father draw me home and for my good Balsom'd and heal'd my wounds with thy Sons Blood O let those parts which thou hast doubly cur'd Be doubly thankful and hence-forth impour'd To contemplate walk in and act thy will Since real praise is thy Word to fulfill Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious preserving of me from any harm by Eight several Falls from my Horse Soliloquium or Discourse MY whole Life O Lord hath been a Circle a Map fill'd full with thy loving and extraordinary Providences which should I at any time forget I might justly deserve to be forgotten of thee In these eight merciful deliverances I bear witness and seal to that great and comfortable truth the constant and powerful Ministration of thy glorious Angels for the preservation of thy Children according to those comfortable promises That thy Angels are ministring Spirits for the good of thy Elect And that they shall hold them up in their hands lest they should dash their Feet against a stone Who else but they as thy blessed Instruments did put under their Hands and aleviate such and so many down-falls that they broke not into many pieces such a Venice Glass as my frail Body nor dislocated in the least any of the many wheels of so curious a Watch That is so soon and easily put into disorder as appears in the frequent and sad disasters of others that by such overthrows have lost their lives or the use of their Limbs O Lord great and special mercies call for from me great and singular praises which after the example of the Man after thy own heart I humbly offer to thee in this Psalm and thankful memorial of these thy many Preservations The OCTONARY Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject DEar Lord our Sins according to thy Curse Have burthened Earth and Creatures yea far worse Our God no wonder then thy Subjects pay Vengeance on them that do thee disobey And that the Horse so oft his Rider throwes For to regain his Freedome from such Foes Trampling them under Feet that he might see That which is burthensome to him Earth thee Eight times O Lord have I thus humbled lain Prostrate As oft Thou hast me rais'd again In goodness safe and sound O let these falls Be both from Sin and Mercy blessed calls Remembrancers The one these dangers brought And by the other my Salvation's wrought Blest Love and Wisdome that thus throwes me down To raise me up again unto a Crown Lord let this close be the Eccho of that sound Where Sin exceeds thy Grace much more abounds Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's merciful Preservation of me from any Harm when being a Childe and alone in my Fathers Coach the Horses running down a steep Hill the Boot flew open by a jolt in the way and I was cast out of the Coach upon the Ground and taken up without any the least hurt or maim Soliloquium or Discourse O Lord God who hast been a gracious Father to me in my Childhood as well as now in my elder Years How great cause have I to trust in thee continually and to celebrate thy praise to future Generations O that Men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the Children of Men. Although violent motions are not perpetual yet are they very often hurtful and destructive as is evidenst by the sad effects of Earth-quakes Whirl-winds and Hurricanes Thunders and Lightning yet all these yea Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour stormy Wind fulfilling O Lord thy Word shall praise thee and declare thy gracious Presence with thy Children as once in the Red Sea the Fiery Furnace and now with me the greatest of Sinners the least of Saints yea unworthy to be called thy Son else when I was cast violently out of a Coach by a Jolt that forc'd open the Boot the swifter and violent motions of the hinder Wheels had taken advantage of the much slower and heavy motion of my falling Body and run over and broken my Bones or pitcht me upon my Head to the destruction of my sense or life as hath often happened by such accidents But if an evil spirit was in the Horses as once in the Gadarine Swine which is frequently the occult cause of such sudden and usual frenzies of Beasts although taken notice of or observed by few Persons yet I am assured O Lord thy good Angels and providence was present to preserve me from any hurt in so eminent a danger Wherefore with thankful David all my Bones shall praise thee yea those Bones which thou hast kept from breaking shall rejoyce yea I will further record this thy great goodness in this following Hymn to all future Ages The HURRICANE Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject THy Mercy Lord is a continued Act As well as is thy self witness this Fact Of Love which doth succeed the four Last mention'd Blessings ush'ring many more O let my constant Praises imitate Thee in thy Daily goodness that Ingrate I may not prove yea let this Providence Make me more thankful as reminding hence Thy higher favours for my Soul hath bin Shut up and hurred in a Coach of Sin My Flesh full-oft in which my sinful Will As Charrioteer hath drove me down the Hill Of Worldly Pleasures on swift moving Wheels Of raging Passions Steeds whose Mouth neer feeles Religious Bit Pride Lust This Chariot mov'd With feerless speed Till Grace in thy Belov'd Cans'd thee as oft to scotch it on Some Stone some blest affliction By which thrown out cast down upon the Ground Thy Childe hath lain as in a spiritual swound From which thou still hast raised me by the Arme Of Mercy and Me sav'd from lustful harme O let me run no more in Sins career But draw me to Thee by thy Love and Fear Nor suffer me for to run down the Hill Again of Earths delights but let thy will Be mine so shall my changed Soul aspire Heaven like Elijah in a Coach of Fire True holy Zeal letting my Garment fall Of Sin that thou mayest be my All in All. Amen ARGVMENT Vpon God's gracious preserving and preventing me from falling Horse and Man into a deep Pit when I was riding in the Night the Moon only shining to a Horse-Race when being upon the brink of it I was stopt suddenly by the Call of my Friend that accompanied Me. Soliloquium or Discourse DAy unto Day and Night unto Night teacheth knowledge Thy Mercies O Lord are renewed to me every Morning and thy Providences are circular and without an end therefore let nulla Dies be sine linea no Day pass without my thankful remembrance and recording of thy many great and undeserved mercies Worldly yea too often sinful Pleasure is the Dallilah and flattering Mistriss of our Youth so that slavishly and unweariedly we court it Day
Then to Heaven thy Marriage â—ed ARGUMENT Vpon God's goâ—dness and gracious Providence to me in his choice and gift of a rich beautiful fruitful and which is above all faithful and religious Wife Soliloquium or Discourse HAving expended above the third part of my life in a single condition both God and Nature taught me that it was not good for Man to be alone no not in innocency much less in a state of corruption and temptation Wherefore after many motions interviews and disappointments the good and all-wise ordering Providence of my most gracious God and Father chose for and gave to me as a fit loving and helpful consort and yoke fellow The eldest Daughter and Co-heir of a worthy Person that was a Knight Alderman and Lord-Major of London a Wife not only fruitful in Children but in many other blessings As being a builder up of my Family by a large Portion One of Natures best Pieces for beauty and proportion The Psalmists Olive and Vine for fruitfulness And which is above all and the rarest perfection of that Sex a Person chast faithful and religious For favor is deceitful and beauty is vain but a Woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised Of whom as far as my Observation reaches at this Day I can truly say with Solomon Many Daugâ—ters have done virtuously but she hath excelled them all An eminent Witness of this her Vertue was her publick spirit care and love to me and her family In her voluntary sale and parting with her Jointure and own Land yielding a considerable Revenue and an unparallel'd House and Seat for the payment of Debts and making provision for our Children yea which is much more to her perpetual honour she was blessed be God to be his great and chiefest Instrument for the restoring part of the estate to the Heir and for the maintenance of the Family to which during my above Eight Years separation she remains to be under God a most careful Supportress Which great blessing O Lord continue to me and the Family in giving her health and long life that she may eat the labour of her hands and see her Childrens Children and peace upon Israel And as my thankful and perpetual acknowledgment and remembrance of such a plenitude of blessings Accept this my humble Hymn of Praise in the hand of my dear Saviour in whom thou hast given me these and all other Mercies Amen The Good WIFE Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject O Lord that out of Man the Woman made And in blest Marriage her to him repaid Making two one a new That he and she Might be one Cabinet of Chastity A choice Elixar of Society And fruitful Seed plot of Posterity I bless thy Name that dost me dignifie Not only to declare and testifie Thy gracious wisdome in this mysterie Of Wedlock But me Tenant made in Fee To these rich blessings by thy choice and lone Of all these Mercies Treasur'd up in one When in this Worlds couzening Lottery Where for one Prize a hundred Blanks do lie My self I ventur'd Thou O Lord draw'st out For me a Ring of Gold set all about With precious Stones One was a Diamond Of Chastity next it in the same round Saphires of Faith and Hope with the Onyx Stone Of Sun-like Charity divinely shone A fift was a fair Rubie of sweet modesty Joyn'd with a Jasper of Fidelity An Emrauld next was set of Constancy With a rich Topaz of true Prudency Sweet Ametists of Loves which loyal are Incircled this Ring and Jewel rare And for to give a splendor to each Eye All those were fill'd with much Humility With this thou didst me Wed givest me to wear Till now neer Six and Thirty Year Blest be thy Grace no Hearts dividing far Disturbing Vs by a Domestick War She is O Lord that blessed Vine by which Thou dost o're-spread my House and it inrich With Sixteen hopeful Branches unto whom Drie Breasts thou gavest not nor miscarrying Womb Yea thou allaidst to her the curse of Sin The pains of births and breeding she was in And which doth much exceed all Earthly wealth Thou gavest Vs both a great degree of health Pelican-like thy Instrument of good Did feed her young ones thrice with her own Blood When others lessen portions through expence She made hers greater by her Providence And was thy help during my happy faâ—e To more than double our Patern Estate And when thou mouldrest it to nought her pains Was thy blest means for to restore again A part of what was lost that she might be Mother and Father to her Family To Vs from Parents Lord descends our Land But prudent Wives are gifts from thy own Hand What 's wanting here to her perfection View in her Picture drawn by Solomon Lord hast thou multiplied thy loves And thus By doubling Vnits caus'd an Overplus Of blessings Let me not divide by Sin Thy Mercies nor substract them in And by Ingratitude Let my sum be Addition of Praises unto Thee And pious fruits so shall my Tongue and Life Be one like Soul and Body Man and Wife A living Sacrifice of Thankfulness A free-will Offering till I thee possess And in that Vnion there most clearly see Of holy Marriage the great Mystery Amen ARGUMENT Vpon the great and Holy Mystery held forth to Vs by God in Marriage Soliloquium or Discourse MArriage is honourable amongst all Men and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will Judge Wherefore Wives submit your selves unto your own Husbands as unto the Lord For the Husband is the Head of the Wife as Christ is the Head of the Church Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ so let Wives be unto their own Husbands in every thing Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it so ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies For no Man ever hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church For we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones For this cause shall a Man leave his Father and Mother and be joyned unto his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh. This is a great mystery but I speak of Christ and his Church Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himself and let the Wife see that she reverence her Husband Thus far the Apostle Eph. chap. 5. vers 22 23 24 25 28 29 30 31 32 33. From whose words especially his conclusion This is a great mystery I infer that Marriage although not in a strict and Popish sence yet as to a larger meaning and construction of the Word may be called a Sacrament as holding forth by outward and visible signes and things spiritual mysteries and instructions Of this nature in Scripture and many instances as the Ark Rain-bow Red Sea Rock Manna
recovery by thy blessing upon the Medicine of a poor Widdow even after that the utmost endeavours of a skilful Doctor proved uneffectual The fifth and last dangerous encounter was with another Pursivant of Death a second painful and perilsome Ague From this Ague also after three very accute fits thou gavest me a happy and healthful recovery Lord what shall I render unto thee for these five most gracious recoveries and as it were new lives And for thy deliverance from many other lesser Distempers Yea what have I to return unto thee since all I am is thine and all my most spiritual Sacrifices are lame weak and sickly Lord although such were forbidden under the Law yet under thy Gospel we have a great High Priest which takes away the iniquity and infirmity of our holy things in whom thou hast declared even from Heaven that thou art well pleased with us And who is that compassionate Physician that came not to heal the whole but the sick Blessed Saviour heal now the infirmities of my Soul as thou hast done these of my Body That according to thy promise the dumb may sing and the lame may skip as the Lamb Yea open thou my Lips and my Mouth shall shew forth thy praise O Lord God what is Man that thou visistest him or the Son of Man that thou regardest him That as a Father and Nurse thou shouldest watch over us from Morning to Night and from Night to Morning That the left hand of thy gracious providence should be alwayes under my head and that the right hand of thy unchangeable and fervent love should continually imbrace me That thou shouldest lead me to Heaven by the Gates of Hell That thou shouldest wound me that thou mightest heal me Humble me that thou mightest exalt me That thou shouldest exercise me with sickness to teach me how to overcome Death The height and summ total of all sicknesses O for ever blessed be thy Name that gives me not only believingly but practically and feelingly to seal the truth of that cordial Word that saith That tribulation brings forth patience and patience experience and experience hope which makes us not ashamed Wherefore my heart which thou hast enlarged my lips which thou hast opened and my life which thou hast thus often renewed through Grace doth praise thee this Day for these and all others thy great Mercies and desires to perpetuate my thankful acknowledgment in this and the following Memorial to all Generations Amen The BETHESDA Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject TRue is that Axiome since the Curse Best things corrupted become worse Than others which are less refin'd By Man and Angels fall we find This truth confirm'd yea our best meatâ— Putrified are Diseases Seats Hence came my Surfeit by that food That pleas'd my tast was sweet and good This tempted me to an Excess That alwayes brings forth Putridâ—ess Which Nature striving to cast out By Vomit made me sick throughout This first assault Thou Lord withstood Of Death thus withering my Bud Of Childhood And by Friends advice Purg'd out my sickness and its rice Restoring health to me and joy To Parents grieved by my annoy All sins a surfeit and abuse Of what is good through our misuse A Lust rebelling to Excess And yet a want of Holiness Lord Vomit Purge me and supplie Thy Grace so shall I live not die Man's Life from Birth doth hasten on Towards Death by a Consumption Of moisture Radical like Lights We wast this Oyl by burning bright But Rheums and Coughs accession Addes Wings to Dissolution Such was my state for many Years Which ballanc't me 'twixt hopes and feares Vntil in Mercy thou though'st good To blesâ— the means drie up this Flood Of Mall-concocted humors So That it no more my Earth o're-flow O Lord the streames that drown'd my Soul Are wicked Lusts let Grace controle This Deluge lest it more and more Consume thy radicating store That Body Soul restor'd again May be it 'h full of Grace not wain As Art by Succors Forcers mount Waters upon a like accompt Rheum pumping Coughs raise it and Aire Above out of their place Hence are Those stiches pains and Plurisies Which us indanger and Disease Such was the cause such the effect Of my third sickness whose Aspect Prefigur'd and made way for Death By Stitches Coughs shortness of breath Yea all one Night to add to pain Thunders did roar and Lightnings flame When thus upon thy wrack I lay Lord thou didst turn my Night to Day And answered from thy glorious Throne My prayers teares my sighs and groans And blâ—st weak means refresht my Soul And on a suddain made me whole A wonder next a Miracle Was this my quick recovery Which merits Lord a Pyramid A Trophy that cannot be hid Of praise That Saints in after Days May bless love trust in thee alwayes Lord frothy Distillations Lustful Inflammations Shorten still thy Spirits breath Threatning to me a worser Death By pricks of Conscience and Heart grief O give unto my Soul relief Dry up O Lord these Springs of sin That do obstruct thy breathings in My sickly Soul Let Conscience be Freed from its pains as cleans'd by thee So shall my Soul and Body live And to Thee living praises give The Bodies Earth-quake Agues are Shaking us like a pent-up Aire Then breaking forth through our Earths pores It casts out Flames and Waters store Imbalming us with sweat as 't were To fit us for our Sepulchre Such was my two last Sicknesses Deaths prelude and a long recess Of Health which no Court-Pagentry Could flatter for to stay with me Nor yet my Office which transfer I did to God's Commissioner An all-controling Ague which Like the Familiar of a Witch Did haunt me at set-hours each Day At first till Mercy did allay And to each other chang'd my fit Lest I should be burnt up by it Here sometimes I as frozen lay Shaking for cold as Seamen say Those do neer the North pole Anon Burnt up as one i' th torrid Zone For eight Hours space at whose retreat I almost drowned was with sweat Thus alternative cold and heat Predominant were in the same seat And subject So the Scriptures tell Sinners tormented are in Hell Where weeping wailing gnashing Teeth Shew cold and heat and easless grief Out of this Aguish Hell in which I twice was cast some Years betwixt I cryed with David Jonah Then Thou savest me as thou did'st them Wherefore as they so I will bless Thee in my Heart Tongue Life and Verse O Lord I have since Life began Been sick of a Quotidian Which sometime doth me greatly shake With faithless fears which makes me quake Anon mad Anger boyles my blood Breaths out ill humors like a Flood O purge out quite this Malady And passions tune to Harmony So shall such holy temp'rament Give health to both with sweet content And fear
which from the middle story my vil'd heart Flamed through my Eyes Balcons and fill the highest part My mind with smokie darkness so that Flakes of Fire Indangered thence my Neighbours House yet hath not thy just Ire Good God left me thus foolishly by my own act To be burnt down but in remembrance of my firm contract To thy dear Son my Spouse thou didst bind up restrain Sathan that unclean Sp'rit the Wind that blew that Flame Yea pour'd by th' hand of faith thereon my Saviour's blood Which dampt those Fires repair'd and made thy Structure good Lord am I a Bankrupt unable to repay My Debt of Gratitude for favours every Day Deliverances from many Dangers Temporal What shall I render for these Mercies spiritual Lord I am wholly thine by right of Creation And thy Son's purchase constant preservation Wherefore accept thy own my all Let it suffice Since Soul and Body is thy living Sacrifice Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious preserving of me from being Burnt in my Lodgings in Summerset House Soliloquium or Discourse DAy unto Day uttereth Speech and Night unto Night sheweth knowledge as to the constant gracious and wonderful Providences of the Lord for the preservation of his People Amongst whom to the praise and glory of his free grace be it spoken I have had a large share witness the foregoing Records and this deliverance when in the conclusion of some Hours spent alone in Fasting and Prayers and I ready to arise from my Knees and to change my Cushion for my Bed at Ten a Clock at Night I heard a great crack as of a Pistol issuing from behind the Hangings and corner of the Chamber within two Yards of me at which suddain noise I arose up and pulled back the Hangings saw a Barrel full of small-Cole all of a flame occasioned by the innocent carelesness and thrift of my Fire-maker who had cast back some live small Coales into the Tub the breaking of whose burnt Hoops gave me this timely Alarm which had it been delayed but a few Minutes I and my Servant had been a Bed and asleep and lockt up in my Bed-Chamber within that Dining-Room And the Hangings that hung over the Barrel certainly Fired together with that Room and that whole stately Structure O Lord whilst we are faithfully imployed in thy service and worship we are assuredly under thy Almighty Protection who hast promised to those that make thee their Refuge That there shall no evil befall them nor any Plague come neer their dwellings That thy Angels shall take charge of them to keep them in all their ways that they shall bear them up in their hands lest they dash their Foot against a Stone O how sweet how comfortable how incouraging to thy People is the most firm belief of the constant presence watchful and powerful assistance of thy glorious Angels whom thou hast made Ministring Spirits for the good of thy Elect As thy Servant at this time found by experience Such gracious Providences as this being most probably timed acted and discovered by an Angel as the laying of the Train and kindling of the Fire and inflaming of the Barrel might possibly be the malicious contrivance of a wicked Spirit Who as the Scriptures witness are as constantly Instruments of evil to Man-kinde although the wicked World are ignorant thereof as the others are of all good to thy Children Lord probably it was the Devils will and design that the Barrel should not have flamed forth so soon by a quarter of an Hour and then without any noise that so the Chamber being empty and we a Bed and asleep and the Hangings on Fire we might have been first certainly smothered and afterwards burnt A Roman-like Obsequie But thy All-wise providence suffered him as thou didst his Guy Faulkes to bring his Plot to an accomplishment and then ordered thy Angel thus strangely and opportunely to discover to thy greater glory his disappointment and thy Servants wonderful Salvation and serious Observation of this thy most Fatherly love care and watchfulness over me thy poor Child and Creature Blessed God and Father how hast thou through our Adoption in Christ meliorated our condition so that our greatest Enemies in all their malicious actings against us are now made but Carriers to convey thy love-tokens unto us yea all our troubles and dangers are so many choice and faith-strengthning experiences of thy Power Goodness and mercy so that now instead of fearing of them we can rejoyce and triumph in and over them And give to our selves and others a satisfying reason why thou sufferest Devils and Diabolical Men thus to act rage and persecute thy Saints when thou couldest in a moment cast them all into Hell Why thou leadest us into various Temptations afflicts us with Diseases sufferest us to be Daily incompast about with troubles and dangers when in an instant thou couldest renew and make again this Earth our Paradice Is it not O Lord as well as to exercise and brighten our Graces and to purge out our sins that in and by these Trials thou mightest also have a frequent and fit occasion to manifest thy self unto us in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ in all thy glorious Attributes of Power and Wisdome Justice and Faithfulness Love Mercy and Goodness Thus O Lord this great danger of Burning was to me the Mother of a far greater mercy thy wonderful preservation and shall now and for ever be the subject of my praise and thanks-giving which I humbly present to thy most gracious Majesty in this Memorial and the following Poem Amen The DELIVERANCE A Corolary Poem on the former Subject O Lord how aptly doth thy sacred Word compare Men unto Travellers whose toilsome Journeys are Begun even from the Womb whence natures pass they have And make some short some longer steps unto the Grave Our common home fulfilling thy Decree most just For sin That Earthly Bodies shall return to Dust But is this all 's held forth by this comparison No our Life and Way like theirs is tiresome O're Hills through Vailes now high then low through passages That cragged Woody are untrode where Ambushes Of sundry mischiefs troubles Thief-like us engage Such hath my course been Lord throughout my Pilgrimage Instance amongst the rest of my Life 's Narrative This following danger and thy loves preservative Who would have thought dead small Coals laid some yards from fire Vnused for five Hours space should as it were conspire Behind my Hangings without sight or scent of fume Or crackling me and a great Pallace to consume Or that my harmless Maid should ignorantly lay A train o're Night to burn us all before next Day By her too careless thrift in casting back some Coales Inkindled when she made my Fire Who could controle But thou O Lord this dreadful fate of causes set Within few Minutes to produce a sad effect Thou forcest the dead Barrels Hoops i' th nick of time To sound
and Night else I would not have lost my sleep nor travelled all Night only to see such a transitory delight as a Horse Race where usually our precious time our wisdom and our Moneys run faster away from us than our Horses The night of Ignorance and the Moon-shine of Unsanctified Reason is of all times most dangerous to Youthful Travellers who when they dream that they are galloping on the palfrey of Pleasure towards Paradice are before they so much as think of it upon the edge yea often fall head-long into that bottomless Pit of Hell Lord thy Word saith It is not good for a Man to be alone yet Experience teaches me also that Companions in sinful Vanities are great Incendiaries Thy merciful Providence Lord at this time mad'st my Companion in Vanity the Instrument of this great Deliverance and also made thy Word good for had not my friend whose Elder Years and Experience gave him knowledge of the way and danger even in that instant of time cried out and stopt my career I had unrecoverably fallen both Horse and Man into a deep and horrible Pit even into Death Wherefore dear Lord let me hence-forth never be alone but let a truly enlightned Conscience which is my best and intimate Friend be alwayes present with me especially in the Night of Temptation to fore-warn me from falling into the dangerous Pit of Sin which to all thine is the Figure as well as the deserver of the bottomless Gulph of Hell Amen The PIT Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject LOrd in this Night-peece there is drawn to Life The Day-peece of our Youth wherein most rife It is for Vs to travel in the Night Of Ignorance and by the Moon-shine light Of our unhallowed reason After Sin And Pleasures till we fall are taken in Their Gulph and snares how oft in Holy Writ Is Death Hell and Affliction call'd a Pit Yea every Sin especially a Whore Which Man and Beast Soul Body doth devour What cause have I that in my Youthful Days Have scap't these dangers for to render praise To Thee Preserver of Body and Soul From Death Hell trouble and from Sins controul Thou went the Voice behind me that cryed stay Avoid each sinful Pit This is the way Conscience thou also gav'st me to fore-warn Me as a trusty Friend of every harm Wherefore I offer Soul and Body both A living Sacrifice to thee by Oath Covenanting for to serve Thee whil'st I live That doest new Life from Sin and danger give ARGUMENT Vpon God's merciful deliverance of me in Three great dangers of Drowning twice upon the River of Thames and a third time in Rutland when being a fishing alone I slipt from off a Tree into a River Soliloquium or Discourse O Incomprehensible Creator and loving Father how delightfully ravishing and comfortably supporting is the Meditation and experimental knowledge of thy gracious Omnipresence to thy Children whereas the thought and belief of it to the wicked thy Enemies is most terrible for to all such our God is a consuming Fire O Lord thou art not only the God of the Mountains and of the Vallies of the Earth but of the Rivers also and hast been mercifully present to deliver and preserve me as thou didst thy Servant David and Paul in Perils of Land and in Perils of Water else had I sunk down into the deep Waters Yea the Floods had gone over my Head and Soul as well as in these three dangers they fearfully washt my Body and Cloaths In the two distresses upon the Thames when the Water-men were all at a non-plus thy only powerful providence preserv'd steer'd and rowed me into safety In the third when my own Feet slipt and betrayed me and the Tree I held by broke and fail'd me thy Hand alone saved and drew me out of a watry muddy and perilsome Pit If every lesser mercy O Lord calls for a tribute of praise how much more such as these which are thy so suddain and opportune reprieves from Death since it is a truth although spoken by the Father of lies Skin for skin and all that a Man hath will he give for his life Wherefore since our lives preservation is the greatest corporal mercy open thou my Lips O Lord and my Mouth shall shew forth in these Lines yea sing forth thy praise for three so great deliverances in this following Psalm of Thanksgiving The TEMPEST Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject NOt humane Courage Wisdome did direct To use or build Boats Ships The Architect Of these our floating Chariots was the Lord Who fram'd the Earth Heavens he by his word To Noah first i' th Ark a Pattern drew Vnparallel'd that we might it renew In little which is now so often done That in one first bold Drake durst like the Sun Incircle Earth and Seas live and lie Within an Intch of Death and yet not die Vpon a spawn of one of these I plow'd The back of Themasies when loe aloud The Wind beats up a charge on Sins old Jar Retwixt these Elements Renews the War I interpos'd by chance these Combitants As strangers often fall into made Rants By which rash act the force and strokes I bore Of both Maâ—gre two seconds arm'd with Oares Who spent and wearied gave up to the Wind My wooden Fort who entring us to bind And drive along Thames jealous grew Of such bold Seasures claim'd us as her dew And enters with a troop of Waves our Hull Erects her watry Streamers fills us full With churlish Billowes ordering us to lie In her deep muddy Dungeon till we die The Wind inrag'd with this affront us tore From out her Bands and drove us to the shore Thereby declaring the third Elements right To us her Subjects as it were in spightâ— Thus far I take a Poet's liberty To shaddow forth my danger Now unty O Lord my Sailes the affections of my Soul That fill'd with thy free spirit without controle Of an unthankful calme I may lanch forth Into thy Sea of Mercy praise thy worth O Lord my Soul iâ—barkt in Flesh sailes in Continually a Sea of Lust and Sin On which the Prince of th' Aire that evil spright Blowes raiseth fearful Stormes by Day by Night Filling the Sailes of my Affections With evil Aires raising my Passions Like swelling Billowes sometimes watry Waves Of Worldly sorrow fills me then the braves Of Earthly joyes o're lades me till a Train Led by mad Anger casts them out again Next in the Whirl pool of sad doubts and fears My Bark is whirl'd about neer drown'd with tears But if a calme succeeds these stormes then he Sends forth his Sirens Women-like to me His Tritons â—errâ—ne Pleasures and Delights That harkning to their Songs and Charms I might In such security run foule upon The shelves of Lust call'd Love Presumption And Prides high Rocks or if I take not care Be swallowed up