blessed us and how should we blesse thee in so mighty and glorious attendants Neither hast thou O God meerly turn'd us over to the protection of those tutelary spirits but hast held us still in thine own hand having not so strongly defenced as without as thou hast done within Since that is wrought by thine Angels this by thy Spirit Oh the soveraign and powerfull influences of thy holy Ghost whereby wee are furnished with all saving graces strengthned against all temptations heartned against all our doubts and fears enabled both to resist and overcome and upon our victories crowned Oh divine bounty far beyond the reach of wonder So God the Father loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life So God the Son loved the world of his elect that he gave unto thē the holy Spirit of promise wherby they are sealed unto the day of redemption wherby according to the riches of his glory they are strengthned with might in the inner man by the vertue whereof shed abroad in their hearts they are enabled to cry Abba Father Oh gifts either of which are more worth then many worlds yet through thy goodnes ô Lord both of thē mine How rich is my soul through thy divine munificence how over-laid with mercies How safe in thine Almighty tuition How happy in thy blessed possession Now therefore I dare in the might of my God bid defiance to all the gates of hell Doe your worst ô all ye principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in high places doe your worst God is mine and I am his I am above your malice in the right of him whose I am It is true I am weak but he is omnipotent I am sinfull but he is infinite holinesse that power that holinesse in his gracious application is mine It is my Saviours love that hath made this happy exchange of his righteousnesse for my sin of his power for my infirmity Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Who shal separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword Nay in all these things we are more thē conquerors through him that loved us So as neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Lo where this love is placed were it our love of God how easily might the power of a prevalent temptation separate us from it or it from us for alas what hold is to be taken of our affections w ch like unto water are so much more apt to freeze because they have been heated but it is the love of God to us in Christ Jesus which is ever as himself constant and eternall He can no more cease to love us then to be himself he cannot but be unchangeable we cannot but be happy All this O deare Jesu hast thou done all this hast thou suffered for me And oh now for an heart that might be some ways answerable to thy mercies Surely even good natures hate to be in debt for love and are ready to repay favours with interest Oh for a soul sick of love yea sick unto death why should I how can I be any otherwise any whit lesse affected O Saviour this onely sicknesse is my health this death is my life and not to be thus sick is to be dead in sins and trespasses I am rock and not flesh if I be not wounded with these heavenly darts Ardent affection is apt to attract love even where is little or no beauty and excellent beauty is no lesse apt to enflame the heart where there is no answer of affection but when these two meet together what breast can hold against them and here they are both in an eminent degree Thou canst say even of thy poore Church though labouring under many imperfections Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck how fair is thy love my sister my Spouse And canst thou O blessed Saviour be so taken with the incurious and homely features of thy faithfull ones and shall not we much more be altogether enamoured of thine absolute and divine beauty of whom every beleeving soul can say My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand his head is as the most fine gold his eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters his cheekes are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers his lips like lillies dropping sweet smelling myrrhe c. It hath pleased thee O Lord out of the sweet ravishments of thy heavenly love to say to thy poor Church Turn away thine eyes from mee for they have overcome me but oh let mee say unto thee Turn thine eyes to me that they may overcome me I would be thus ravished thus overcome I would be thus out of my self that I might be all in thee Thou lovedst me before I had beeing Let me now that I have a beeing be wholly taken up with thy love Let me set all my soul upon thee that gavest me beeing upō thee who art the eternal absolute Self-beeing who hast said and only could say I am that I am Alas Lord we are nothing but what thou wilt have us and cease to be when thou callest in that breath of life w ch thou hast lent us thou art that incōprehensibly glorious infinite self-existing Spirit from eternity in eternity to eternity in and from whom all things are It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou wouldst condescend so low as to vouchsafe to be loved of my wretchednesse of whom thou mightest justly require and expect nothing but terrour and trembling It is my happinesse that I may be allowed to love a Majesty so infinitely glorious Oh let me not be so farre wanting to my own felicity as to bee lesse then ravished with thy love Thou lovedst me when I was deformed loathly forlorn and miserable shall I not now love thee when thou hast freed me and deckt me with the ornaments of thy Graces Lord Jesu who should enjoy the fruit of thine own favours but thy self How shamefully injurious were it that when thou hast trimm'd up my soul it should prostitute it self to the love of the world Oh take my heart to thee alone possesse thy self of that which none can claim but thy self Thou lovedst me when I was a professed rebell against thee and receivedst me not to mercy onely but to the indearment of a subject a servant a son vvhere should I place the improvement of the thankfull affections of my loyaltie and duty but upon thee Thou O God
and counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing how had I in some sort done despight unto the spirit of grace yet even then in despight of all my most odious unworthinesse didst thou spread abroad thine arms to receive me yea thou openedst thine heart to let me in O love passing not knowledge onely but wonder also O mercy not incident into any thing lesse then infinite nor by any thing lesse comprehensible But oh dear Lord when from the object of thy mercy I cast mine eyes upon the effects and improvement of thy divine favours and see what thy love hath drawn from thee towards the sons of men how am I lost in a just amazement It is that which fetcht thee down from the glory of the highest heavens from the bosome of thine eternall Father to this lower world the region of sorrow and death It is that which to the wonder of Angels cloathed thee with this flesh of ours and brought thee who thoughtst it no robbery to be equall with God to an estate lower then thine own creatures Oh mercy transcending the admiration of all the glorious spirits of heaven that God would bee incarnate Surely that all those celestiall powers should be redacted to either worms or nothing that all this goodly frame of creation should run back into its first confusion or be reduced to one single atome it is not so high a wonder as for God to become man those changes though the highest that nature is capable of are yet but of things finite this is of an infinite subject with which the most excellent of finite things can hold no proportion Oh the great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels Those heavenly spirits had ever since they were made seen his most glorious Deity and adored him as their omnipotent Creator but to see that God of spirits invested with flesh was such a wonder as had been enough if their nature could have been capable of it to have astonished even glory it self And whether to see him that was their God so humbled below themselves or to see humanity thus advanced above themselves were the greater wonder to them they onely know It was your foolish misprison O ye ignorant Listrians that you took the servants for the Master here onely is it verified which you supposed that God is come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men What a disparagement doe wee think it was for the great Monarch of Babylon for seven years together as a beast to converse with the beasts of the field Yet alas beasts and men are fellow-creatures made of one earth drawing in the same ayre returning for their bodily part to the same dust symbolizing in many qualities and in some mutually transcending each others so as here may seem to bee some tearms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like unto beasts and some beasts are in outward shape somewhat like unto men But for him that was and is God blessed for ever eternall infinite incomprehensible to put on flesh and to become a man amongst mē was to stoop below al possible disparities that heaven and earth can afford Oh Saviour the lower thine abasement was for us the higher was the pitch of thy divine love to us Yet in this our humane condition there are degrees One rules and glitters in all earthly glory another sits despised in the dust one passes the time of his life in much jollity and pleasure another wears out his days in sorrow and discontentment Blessed Jesu since thou wouldst be a man why wouldst thou not be the King of men since thou wouldst come down to our earth why wouldst thou not enjoy the best entertainment that the earth could yeeld thee Yea since thou who art the eternall Son of God wouldst be the son of man why didst thou not appear in a state like to the King of heaven attended with the glorious retinue of blessed Angels O yet greater wonder of mercies The same infinite love that brought thee down to the form of man would also bring thee down being man to the form of a servant So didst thou love man that thou wouldst take part with him of his misery that he might take part with thee of thy blessednesse thou wouldst be poor to enrich us thou wouldst be burdened for our ease tempted for our victory despised for our glory With what lesse then ravishment of spirit can I behold thee who wert from everlasting cloathed with glory and majesty wrapped in rags thee who fillest heaven and earth with the majesty of thy glory cradled in a manger thee who art the God of power fleeing in thy mothers arms from the rage of a weak man thee who art the God of Israel driven to be nursed out of the bosome of thy Church thee who madest the heaven of heavens busily working in the homely trade of a foster-father thee who commandest the Devils to their chains transported and tempted by that foul spirit thee who art God all-sufficient exposed to hunger thirst wearines danger contēpt poverty revilings scourgings persecution thee who art the just Judge of all the world accused and condemned thee who art the Lord of life dying upon the tree of shame and curse thee who art the eternall Son of God strugling with thy Fathers wrath thee who hadst said I and my Father are one sweating drops of bloud in thine agony and crying out on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me thee who hast the keys of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carried thee what sighs and groans and tears and blood hast thou spent upon us wretched men How dear a price hast thou paid for our ransome What raptures of spirit can be sufficient for the admiration of thy so infinite mercy Be thou swallowed up O my soul in this depth of divine love and hate to spend thy thoughts any more upon the base objects of this wretched world when thou hast such a Saviour to take them up But O blessed Jesu if from what thou hast suffered for me I shall cast mine eyes upon what thou hast done for my soul how is my heart divided betwixt the wonders of both and may as soon tell how great either of them is as whether of them is the greater It is in thee that I was elected from all eternity and ordained to a glorious inheritance before there was a world we are wont O God to marvell at and blesse thy provident beneficence to the first man that before thou wouldst bring him forth into the world thou wert pleased to furnish such a world for him so goodly an house over his head so pleasant a Paradise under his feet such variety of creatures round about him for his subjection and attendance But how should I magnifie thy mercy who before
that man or that world had any beeing hast so far loved me as to pre-ordain me to a place of blessedness in that heaven which should be and to make me a co-heir with my Christ of thy glory And oh what an heaven is this that thou hast laid out for me how resplendent how transcendently glorious Even that lower Paradise which thou providedst for the harbour of innocence and holinesse was full of admirable beauty pleasure magnificence but if it be compared with this Paradise above which thou hast prepared for the everlasting entertainment of restored souls how mean and beggerly it was Oh match too unequall of the best peece of earth with the highest state of the heaven of heavens In that earthly Paradise I finde thine Angels the Cherubim but it was to keep man off from that Garden of Delight and from the tree of life in the midst of it but in this heavenly one I finde millions of thy Cherubim and Seraphim rejoycing at mans blessednesse and welcomming the glorified souls to their heaven There I finde but the shadow of that whereof the substance is here There we were so possessed of life that yet we might forfait it here is life without all possibility of death Temptation could finde accesse thither here is nothing but a free and compleat fruition of blessednesse There were delights fit for earthly bodies here is glory more then can be enjoyed of blessed souls That was watered with four streams muddy and impetuous in this is the pure river of the water of life clear as Crystall proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb There I finde thee onely walking in the cool of the day here manifesting thy Majesty continually There I see onely a most pleasant Orchard set with all manner of varieties of flourishing and fruitfull plants here I finde also the City of God infinitely rich and magnificent the building of the wall of it of Jasper and the City it selfe pure gold like unto cleare glasse and the foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones All that I can here attain to see is the pavement of thy celestiall habitation and Lord how glorious it is how bespangled with glittering starres for number for magnitude equally admirable What is the least of them but a world of light and what are all of them but a confluence of so many thousand worlds of beauty and brightnesse met in one firmament And if this floor of thine heavenly Palace be thus richly set forth oh how infinite glory and magnificence must there needs be within Thy chosen Vessell that had the priviledge to be caught up thither and to see that divine state whether with bodily or mentall eyes can expresse it no otherwise then that it cannot possibly be expressed No Lord it were not infinite if it could bee uttered Thoughts goe beyond words yet even these come far short also He that saw it says Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Yet is thy love O Saviour so much more to bee magnified of me in this purchased glory when I cast down mine eyes and look into that horrible gulf of torment and eternall death whence thou hast rescued my poor soul Even out of the greatest contentment which this world is capable to afford unto mankind to be preferred to the joys of heavē is an unconceivable advantage but from the depth of misery to be raised up unto the highest pitch of felicity addes so much more to the blessing as the evill from which we are delivered is more intolerable Oh blessed Jesu what an hell is this out of which thou hast freed me what dreadfull horror is here what darknesse what confusion what anguish of souls that would and cannot die what howling and yelling and shrieking and gnashing what everlasting burnings what never slaking tortures what mercilesse fury of unweariable tormentors what utter despair of any possibility of release what exquisitenesse what infinitenesse of paines that cannot yet must be endured Oh God if the impotent displeasure of weake men have devised so subtile engines of revenge upon their fellow-mortals for but petty offences how can wee but think thine infinite justice and wisdome must have ordained such forms and ways of punishment for hainous sins done against thee as may be answerable to the violation of thy divine Majesty Oh therefore the most fearfull and deplored condition of damned spirits never to be ended never to be abated Oh those unquenchable flames Oh that burning Tophet deep and large and those streams of brimstone wherewith it is kindled Oh that worm ever gnawing and tearing the heart never dying never sated Oh ever-living death oh ever renuing torments oh never pitied never intermitted damnation From hence O Saviour from hence it is that thou hast fetcht up my condemned soul This is the place this is the state out of which thou hast snatcht me up into thy heaven Oh love and mercy more deep then those depths from which thou hast saved me more high then that heaven to which thou hast advanced me Now whereas in my passage from this state of death towards the fruition of immortall glory I am way-laid by a world of dangers partly through my own sinfull aptnesse to miscarriages and partly through the assaults of my spirituall enemies how hath thy tender love and compassion ô blessed Jesu undertaken to secure my soul from all these deadly perils both without and within without by the guardance of thy blessed Angels within by the powerfull inoperation of thy good Spirit which thou hast given me Oh that mine eyes could be opened with Elishaes servant that I might see those troops of heavenly soldiers those horses and chariots of fire wherewith thou hast encompassed mee every one of which is able to chase away a whole host of the powers of darknes Who am I Lord who am I that upon thy gracious appointment these glorious spirits should still watch over me in mine uprising and down lying in my going out and comming in that they should bear me in their arms that they should shield me with their protection Behold such is their majesty and glory that some of thy holiest servants have hardly been restrained from worshipping them yet so great is thy love to man as that thou hast ordained them to be ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Surely they are in nature far more excellent then man as being spirituall substances pure intelligences meet to stand before the throne of thee the King of glory What a mercy then is this that thou who wouldst humble thy self to be lower then they in the susception of our nature art pleased to humble them in their offices to the guardianship of man so far as to call them the Angels of thy little ones upon earth How hast thou
any other then one Spouse In the Institution of Marriage did he not make one yet had he the residue of the spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed That which he ordained for us shall not the holy God much more observe in his own heavenly match with his Church Here is then one Lord one Faith one Baptisme One Baptisme by which wee enter into the Church one Faith which we professe in the Church and one Lord whom wee serve and who is the head and husband of the Church How much therefore doth it concern us that we who are united in one common beleef should be much more united in affection that where there is one way there should bee much more one heart This is so justly supposed that the Prophet questions Can two walk together except they be agreed if we walk together in our judgements we cannot but accord in our wils This was the praise of the Primitive Christians and the pattern of their successours The multitude of them that beleeved were of one heart and of one soul Yea this is the Livery which our Lord and Saviour made choice of whereby his meniall servants should be known and distinguished By this shall all men know that ye be my Disciples if ye have love to one another In vain shall any man pretend to a Discipleship if he do not make it good by his love to all the family of Christ. The whole Church is the spirituall Temple of God every beleever is a living stone laid in those sacred wals what is our Christian love but the morter or cement whereby these stones are fast joyned together to make up this heavenly building without which that precious fabrick could not hold long together but would be subject to dis-joynting by those violent tempests of opposition wherewith it is commonly beaten upon There is no place for any loose stone in Gods edifice The whole Church is one entire body all the lims must be held together by the ligaments of Christian love if any one will be severed and affect to subsist of it self it hath lost his place in the body Thus the Apostle That we being sincere in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ From whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love But in case there happen to be differences in opinion concerning points not essentiall not necessary to salvation this diversity may not breed an alienation of affection That charity which can cover a multitude of sins may much more cover many small dissensions of judgement We cannot hope to be all and at all times equally enlightned at how many and great weaknesses of judgement did it please our mercifull Saviour to connive in his domestique ples They that had so long sate at the sacred feet of him that spake as never man spake were yet to seek of those Scriptures which had so clearely foretold his resurrection and after that were at a fault for the manner of his kingdome yet he that breaks not the bruised reed nor quenches the smoaking flaxe fals not harshly upon them for so foul an error and ignorance but entertains them with all loving respects not as followers onely but as friends And his great Apostle after hee had spent himself in his unweariable endeavours upon Gods Church and had sown the seeds of wholesom saving doctrine every where what ranke and noisome weeds of erroneous opinions rose up under his hand in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Colosse Philippi and Thessalonica These he labours to root out with much zeal with no bitternesse so opposing the errors as not alienating his affection from the Churches These these must be our precedents pursuing that charge of the prime Apostle Finally be ye all of one minde having compassion one of another love as brethren be pitifull be courteous and that passionate and adjuring obtestation of the Apostle of the Gentiles If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde This is it that gives beauty strength glory to the Church of God upon earth and brings it nearest to the resemblance of that Triumphant part above where there is all perfection of love and concord in imitation whereof the Psalmist sweetly Behold how good and joyfull a thing it is brethren to dwel together in unity So much the more justly lamentable it is to see the manifold and grievous distractions of the Church of Christ both in judgement and affection Woe is me into how many thousand peeces is the seamlesse coat of our Saviour rent Yea into what numberlesse atomes is the precious body of Christ torn and minced There are more Religions then Nations upon earth in each Religion as many different conceits as men If Saint Paul when his Corinthians did but say I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Cephas could ask Is Christ divided when there was onely an emulatory magnifying of their own Teachers though agreeing and orthodoxe what think wee would he now say if he saw hundred of Sect-masters and Heresiarchs some of them opposite to other all to the Truth applauded by their credulous and divided followers all of them claiming Christ for theirs and denying him to their gain-sayers would hee not aske Is Christ multiplied Is Christ sub-divided Is Christ shred into infinities O God! what is become of Christianity How doe evill spirits men labour to destroy that Creed w ch we have always constantly professed For if we set up more Christs where is that one and if we give way to these infinite distractions where is the communion of Saints But he not too much dismaid my son notwithstanding all these cold disheartnings take courage to thy self He that is truth it self hath said The Gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church In spight of all Devils there shall be Saints and those are and shall be as the scales of the Leviathan whose strong peeces of shields are his pride shut up together as with a close seal one is so near to another that no ayr can come betwixt them They are joyned one to another they stick together that they cannot be sundred In all the main principles of Religion there is an universall and unanimous consent of all Christians and these are they that constitute a Church Those that agree in these Christ is pleased to admit for matter of doctrine as members of that body whereof he is the head and if they admit not of each other as such the fault is in the
hast so loved us that thou wouldst become the Son of man for our sakes that vve vvho are the sons of men might become the sons of God Oh that vve could put off the man to put on Christ that we could neglect and hate our selves for thee that hast so dearly loved us as to lay aside thine heavenly glory for us How shall I bee vile enough O Saviour for thee who for my sake being the Lord of life and glory wouldst take upon thee the shape of a servant How should I welcome that poverty which thy choice hath sanctified How resolutely shall I grapple with the temptations of that enemy vvhom thou hast foiled for me How chearfully should I passe through those miseries and that death which thou hast sweetned With vvhat comfortable assurance shall I look upon the face of that mercifull Justice vvhich thou hast satisfied But oh vvhat a blessed inheritance hast thou in thine infinite love provided for me an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for me so as when my earthly house of this Tabernacle shall be dissolved I have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens An house Yea a Palace of heavenly state and magnificence neither is it lesse then a kingdome that abides there for mee a kingdome so much more above these worldly Monarchies as heaven is above this clod of earth Now Lord vvhat conceits vvhat affections of mine can be in the least sort answerable to so transcendent mercy If some friend shall have been pleased to bestow some mean Legacy upon me or shall have feoffed me in some few acres of his Land how deeply doe I finde my self obliged to the love and memory of so kinde a Benenefactor Oh then Lord how can my soul be capable of those thoughts and dispositions vvhich may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty vvho of a poor worm on earth hast made me an heir of the kingdome of heaven Wo is me how subject are these earthly Principalities to hazard and mutability whether through death or insurrectiō but this Crown w ch thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible and shall sit immoveably fast upon my head not for years not for millions of ages but for all eternity Oh let it be my heaven here below in the mean vvhile to live in a perpetuall fruition of thee and to begin those Allelujahs to thee here vvhich shall be as endlesse as thy mercy and my blessednesse Hadst thou been pleased to have translated me frō thy former Paradise the most delightfull seat of mans originall integrity and happinesse to the glory of the highest heaven the preferment had been infinitely gracious but to bring my soul from the nethermost hell and to place it among the Chore of Angels doubles the thank of thy mercy and the measure of my obligation How thankfull was thy Prophet but to an Ebedmelech that by a cord and rags let down into that dark dungeon helpt him out of that uncomfortable pit wherein he was lodged yet what was there but a little cold hunger stench closenesse obscurity Lord how should I blesse thee that hast fetcht my soul from that pit of eternall horrour from that lake of fire and brimstone from the everlasting torments of the damned wherein I had deserved to perish for ever I will sing of thy power unto thee O my strength will I sing for God is my deliverer and the God of my mercie But O Lord if yet thou shouldst leave me in my own hands where vvere I how easily should I be rob'd of thee with every temptation how should I be made the scorn and insultation of men and devils It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou hast given thine Angels charge over me Those Angels great in power and glorious in Majesty are my sure though invisible guard Oh blessed Jesu what an honour what a safety is this that those heavenly spirits which attend thy throne should be my champions Those that ministred to thee after thy temptation are readie to assist and relieve me in mine they can neither neglect their charge because they are perfectly holy nor fail of their victory because they are under thee the most powerfull I see you O ye blessed Guardians I see you by the eye of my faith no lesse truly then the eye of my sense sees my bodilie attendants I do truly though spirituallie feel your presence by your gracious operations in upon and for me and I doe heartilie blesse my God and yours for you and for those saving offices that through his mercifull appointment you ever doe for my soul. But as it was with thine Israelites of old that it would not content them that thou promisedst and wouldst send thine Angel before them to bring them into the Land flowing with milk and hony unlesse thy presence O Lord should also goe along with them so is it still with me and all thine wert not thou with and in us what could thine Angels doe for us In thee it is that they move and are The same infinite Spirit which works in and by them works also in me From thee it is O thou blessed and eternall Spirit that I have any stirrings of holy motions any breathings of good desires any life of grace any will to resist any power to overcome evill It is thou O God that girdest me with strength unto battell thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation thy right hand hath holden me up thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies Glory and praise be to thee O Lord which alwaies causest us to triumph in Christ vvho crownest us with loving kindnesse tender mercies and hast not held us short of the best of thy favours Truly Lord hadst thou given us but a meer beeing as thou hast done to the lowest rank of thy creatures it had been more then thou owest us more then ever we could be able to requite to thy divine bountie for every beeing is good and the least degree of good is farre above our worthinesse But that to our beeing thou hast added life it is yet an higher measure of thy mercy for certainly of thy common favours life is the most precious yet this is such a benefit as may be had and not perceived for even the plants of the earth live and feel it not that to our life therefore thou hast made a further accession of sense it is yet a larger improvement of thy beneficence for this facultie hath some power to manage life and makes it capable to affect those means which may tend to the preservation of it and to decline the contrary but this is no other then the brute creatures enjoy equallie with us and some of them beyond us that therefore to our sense thou hast blessed us vvith a further addition of reason it is yet an higher pitch of munificence for hereby we are men and as
such are able to attain some knowledge of thee our Creator to observe the motions of the heavens to search into the natures of our fellow-creatures to passe judgement upon actions and events and to transact these earthlie affairs to our own best advantage But when all this is done wo were to us if vve vvere but men for our corrupted reason renders us of all creatures the most miserable that therefore to our reason thou hast superadded faith to our nature grace and of men hast made us Christians and to us as such hast given thy Christ thy Spirit and thereby made us of enemies sons and heirs co-heirs with Christ of thine eternall and most glorious kingdome of heaven yea hast incorporated us into thy self made us one spirit with thee our God Lord what room can there be possibly in these strait and narrow hearts of ours for a due admiration of thy transcendent love and mercy I am swallowed up O God I am willingly swallowed up in this bottomlesse abysse of thine infinite love and there let me dwell in a perpetuall ravishment of spirit till being freed from this clog of earth and filled with the fulnesse of Christ I shall be admitted to enjoy that which I cannot now reach to wonder at thine incomprehensible blisse and glory which thou laid up in the highest heavens for them that love thee in the blessed communion of all thy Saints and Angels thy Cherubim and Seraphim Thrones Dominions and Principalities and Powers in the beatificall presence of thee the ever-living God the eternall Father of spirits Father Son holy Ghost one infinite Deity in three co-essentially co-eternally co-equally glorious persons To vvhom be blessing honour glory and power for ever and ever Amen Allelujah THE CHRISTIAN LAID FORTH IN His whole Disposition and Carriage BY I. H. D. D. B. N. The CONTENTS The Exhortatory Preface § 1. THe Christians disposition § 2. His expence of the day § 3. His recreations § 4. His meals § 5. His nights rest § 6. His carriage § 7. His resolution in matter of Religion § 8. His discourse § 9. His devotion § 10. His sufferings § 11. His conflicts § 12. His death An Exhortatory Preface to the Christian Reader OVt of infallible rules and long experience have I gathered up this true character of a Christian A labour some will think might have been well spared Every man professes both to know and act this part Who is there that would not be angry if but a question should be made either of his skill or interest Surely since the first name giveÌ„ at Antioch all the beleeving world hath been ambitious of the honour of it How happy were it if all that are willing to wear the livery were as ready to doe the service But it fals out here as in the case of all things that are at once honourable and difficult every one affects the title few labour for the truth of the atchievement Having therefore leisure enough to look about me and finding the world too prone to this worst kind of hypocrisie I have made this true 〈◊〉 not more for direction then for tryall Let no man view these lines as a stranger but when he looks in this glasse let him ask his heart whether this be his own face yea rather when he sees this face let him examine his heart whether both of theÌ„ agree with their pattern And where he findes his failings as who shall not let him strive to amend them and never give over whiles he is any way lesse fair then his copy In the mean time I would it were lesse easie by these rules to judge even of others besides our selves or that it were uncharitable to say there are many Professors few Christians If words and forms might carry it Christ would have Clients 〈◊〉 but if holinesse of disposition and uprightnesse of carriage must be the proof wo is me In the midst of the Land among the people there is as the shaking of an Olive tree and as the gleaming grapes where the Vintage is done For where is the man that hath obtained the mastery of his corrupt affections and to be the Lord of his unruly appetite that hath his heart in heaven whiles his living carcass is stirring here upoÌ„ earth that can see the invisible and sâ—orâ—tly enjoy that Saviour to whom he is spiritually united That hath subdued his will and reason to his beleef that fears nothing but God loves nothing but goodnesse hates nothing but sin rejoyceth in none but true blessings Whose faith triumphs over the world whose hope is anchored in heaven whose charity knows no lesse bounds then God and men whose humility represents him as vile to himself as he is honourable in the reputation of God who is wise heaven-ward however he passes with the world who dares be no other then just whether he win or lose who is frugally liberall discreetly courageous holily temperate who is ever a thrifty menager of his houres so dividing the day betwixt his God and his Vocation that neither shall finde fault with a just neglect or an unjust partiality whose recreations are harmlesse honest warrantable such as may refresh nature not debauch it whose diet is regulated by health not by pleasure as one whose table shall be no altar to his belly nor snare to his soul who in his seasonable repose lies down and awakes with God caring only to relieve his spirits not to cherish sloth Whose carriage is meek gentle compliant beneficiall in whatsoever station In Magistracy unpartially just in the Ministery conscionably faithfull in the rule of his family wisely provident and religiously exemplary Shortly who is a discreet and loving yoke-fellow a tender and pious parent a dutious and awfull son an humble and obsequious servant an obedient and loyall subject Whose heart is constantly setled in the main truths of Christian Religion so as he cannot be removed in litigious points neither too credulous nor too Peremptory whose discourse is such as may be meet for the expressions of a tongue that belongs to a sound godly and charitable heart whose breast continually burns with the heavenly fire of an holy devotion whose painfull sufferings are overcome with patience and chearfull resolutions whose conflicts are attended with undaunted courage and crowned with an happy victory Lastly whose death is not so full of fear and anguish as of strong consolations in that Saviour who hath overcome and sweetned it nor of so much dreadfulnesse in it self as of joy in the present expectation of that blessed issue of a glorious immortality which instantly succeeds it Such is the Christian whom we doe here characterize and commend to the world both for trial and imitation neither know I which of these many qualifications can be missing in that soul who lays a just claim to Christ his Redeemer Take your hearts to task therefore my dear brethren into whose hands soever these lines shall come and as you desire to