the least of them but a world of light and what are all of them but a confluence of so many thousand worlds of beauty and brightnesse met in one firmament And if this floor of thine heavenly Palace be thus richly set forth oh how infinite glory and magnificence must there needs be within Thy chosen Vessell that had the priviledge to be caught up thither and to see that divine state whether with bodily or mentall eyes can expresse it no otherwise then that it cannot possibly be expressed No Lord it were not infinite if it could be uttered Thoughts go beyond words yet even these come far short also He that saw it sayes Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him SECT 7. His love in our redemption from death and hell YEt is thy love O Saviour so much more to be magnified of me in this purchased glory when I cast down mine eyes and look into that horrible gulf of torment and eternall death whence thou hast rescued my poor soul Even out of the greatest contentment which this world is capable to afford unto mankinde to be preferred to the joyes of heaven is an unconceivable advantage but from the depth of misery to be raised up unto the highest pitch of felicity addes so much more to the blessing as the evill from which we are delivered is more intolerable Oh blessed Jesu what an hell is this out of which thou hast freed me what dreadfull horror is here what darknesse what confusion what anguish of souls that would and cannot die what howling and yelling and shrieking and gnashing what everlasting burnings what never slaking tortures what mercilesse fury of unweariable tormentors what utter despair of any possibility of release what exquisitenesse what infinitenesse of pains that cannot yet must be endured Oh God if the impotent displeasure of weak men have devised so subtle engins of revenge upon their fellow-mortals for but petty offences how can we but think thine infinite justice and wisdome must have ordained such forms and wayes of punishment for hainous sins done against thee as may be answerable to the violation of thy divine Majesty Oh therefore the most fearfull and deplored condition of damned spirits never to be ended never to be abated Oh those unquenchable flames Oh that burning Tophet deep and large and those streams of brimstone wherewith it is kindled Oh that worm ever gnawing and tearing the heart never dying never sated Oh ever-living death oh ever renuing torments oh never pitied never intermitted damnation From hence O Saviour from hence it is that thou hast fetcht up my condemned soul This is the place this is the state out of which thou hast snatcht me up into thy heaven Oh love and mercy more deep then those depths from which thou hast saved me more high then that heaven to which thou hast advanced me SECT 8. Christs love in giving us the guard of his Angels NOw whereas in my passage from this state of death towards the fruition of immortall glory I am way-laid by a world of dangers partly through my own sinfull aptnesse to miscarriages and partly through the assaults of my spirituall enemies how hath thy tender love and compassion O blessed Jesu undertaken to secure my soul from all these deadly perils both without out and within without by the guardance of thy blessed Angels within by the powerfull inoperation of thy good Spirit which thou hast given me Oh that mine eyes could be opened with Elishaes servant that I might see those troops of heavenly souldiers those horses and chariots of fire wherewith thou hast encompassed me every one of which is able to chase away a whole host of the powers of darknesse Who am I Lord who am I that upon thy gracious appointment these glorious spirits should still watch over me in mine uprising and down lying in my going out and coming in that they should bear me in their arms that they should shield me with their protection Behold such is their majesty and glory that some of thy holiest servants have hardly been restrained from worshipping them yet so great is thy love to man as that thou hast ordained them to be ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Surely they are in nature far more excellent then man as being spirituall substances pure intelligences meet to stand before the throne of thee the King of glory What a mercy then is this that thou who wouldst humble thy self to be lower then they in the susception of our nature art pleased to humble them in their offices to the guardianship of man so far as to call them the Angels of thy little ones upon earth How hast thou blessed us and how should we blesse thee in so mighty and glorious attendants SECT 9. His love in giving us his holy Spirit NEither hast thou O God meerly turn'd us over to the protection of those tutelary spirits but hast held us still in thine own hand having not so strongly defenced us without as thou hast done within Since that is wrought by thine Angels this by thy Spirit Oh the Soveraign and powerfull influences of thy holy Ghost whereby we are furnished with all saving graces strengthned against all temptations heartned against all our doubts and fears enabled both to resist and overcome and upon our victories crowned Oh divine bounty far beyond the reach of wonder So God the Father loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life So God the Son loved the world of his elect that he gave unto them the holy Spirit of promise whereby they are sealed unto the day of redemption whereby according to the riches of his glory they are strengthened with might in the inner man by the vertue whereof shed abroad in their hearts they are enabled to cry Abba Father Oh gifts either of which are more worth then many worlds yet through thy goodnesse O Lord both of them mine how rich is my soul through thy divine munificence how over-laid with mercies How safe in thine Almighty tuition How happy in thy blessed possession Now therefore I dare in the might of my God bid defiance to all the gates of hell Do your worst O all ye principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in high places doe your worst God is mine and I am his I am above your malice in the right of him whose I am It is true I am weak but he is omnipotent I am sinfull but he is infinite holinesse that power that holinesse in his gracious application is mine It is my Saviours love that â—ath made this happy exchange of his righteousnesse for my sin of his power for my infirmity Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect
It is God that justifieth Who shall 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 then conquerours 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 which like unto water are so much more apt to freez 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 SECT 10. Our sense and improvement of Christs love in all the former particulars and first in respect of the inequality of the persons ALL this O dear Jesu hast thou done all this hast thou suffered for men And oh now for an heart that might be some wayes 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 only 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 poor 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 bee 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 cheeks 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 me for they have overcome me but oh let me say unto thee Turn thine eyes to me that they may overcome me I would be thus ravished thus overcome I would be thus ravish 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 upon thee who art the eternall and absolute Self-being 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 which thou hast lent us thou art that incomprehensibly glorious and 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 far wanting to my own felicity as to be lesse then ravished with thy love SECT 11. A further inforcement of our love to Christ in respect of our unworthiness and his sufferings and prepared glory 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 only but to the indearment of a subject a servant a son where should I place the improvement of the thankfull affections of my loyalty and duty but upon thee Thou O God hast so loved us that thou wouldst become the Son of man for our sakes that we who are the sons of men might become the sons of God Oh that we 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 be 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 whom thou hast foiled for me How â—hearfully should I passe through â—hose miseries and that death which â—hou hast sweetned With what comfortable assurance shall I look upon the face of that mercifull Justice which thou hast satisfied But oh what a blessed inheritance hast thou in â—ine infinite love provided for me 〈◊〉 inheritance incorruptible and unâ—â—filed and that fadeth not away reâ—erved in heaven for me so as when â—â—y earthly house of this Tabernacle â—hall be dissolved I have a building of God an house not made with â—ands eternall in the heavens An â—ouse Yea a Palace of heavenly â—â—ate and magnificence neither is it â—esse then a kingdome that abides there â—or me a kingdome so much more â—bove these worldly Monarchies as â—eaven is above this clod of earth Now Lord what conceits what 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 do I finde my self obliged to the love and memory of so kinde a Benefactor O then Lord how can my soul be capable
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 respect not as followers only but as friends Joh. 15. 15. And his great Apostle after he had spent himself in his unweariable endeavours upon Gods Church and had sown the seeds of wholesome and saving doctrine every where what rank 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 1 Pet. 3. 8. 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 Phil. 2. 1 2. 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 Psal 133. 1. SECT 22. A complaint of divisions and notwithstanding them an assertion of 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 pieces 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 and 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 1 Cor. 1. 12 13. when there was only an emulatory magnifying of their own teachers though agreeing and orthodox what think we 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 he not ask Is Christ multiplied Is Christ sub-divided Is Christ shred into infinites O God! what is become of Christianity How do evill spirits and men labour to destroy that Creed which we have alwayes 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 be 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 Mat. 16. 18. In spight of all Devils there shall be Saints and those are and shall be as the scales of the Leviathan whose strong pieces of shields are his pride shut up together as with a close seal one is so near to another that no air can come betwixt them They are joyned one to another they stick together that they cannot be sundred Job 41. 15 16 17. In all the main principles of Religion there is an universal 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 uncharitablenesse of the refusers no lesse then in the error of the refused And if any vain and loose straglers will needs sever themselves and wilfully choose to go wayes of their own let them know that the union of Christs Church shall consist entire without them this great Ocean will be one collection of waters when these drops are lost in the dust In the mean time it highly concerns all that wish wel to the sacred name of Christ to labour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4. 3. and to renue and continue the prayer of the Apostle for all the professors of Christianity Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 15. 5 6. SECT 23. The necessary effects and fruits of this union of Christian hearts FAr be it from us to think this union of the hearts of Gods Saints upon earth can be idle and ineffectuall but where ever it is it puts forth it self in a like-affectednesse of disposition into an improvement of gifts into a communication of outward blessings to the benefit of that happy consociation We cannot be single in our affections if we be lims of a Christian community What member of the body can complain so as the rest shall not feel it Even the head and heart are in pain when a joynt of the least toe suffers no Christian can be afflicted alone It is not Saint Pauls case only Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not 2 Cor. 11. 29. Our shoulders are not our own we must bear one anothers burdens Gal. 6. 2. There is a better kinde of spirituall good fellowship in all the Saints of God They hate a propriety of passions Rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. Their affections are not more communicative then their gifts and graces those as they are bestowed with an intuition of the common good so they are improved Wherefore hath this man quicknesse of wit that man depth of judgement this heat of zeal that power of elocution this skill that experience this authority that strength but that all should be laid together for the raising of the common stock How rich therefore is every Christian soul that is not only furnished with its own graces but hath a speciall interest in all the excellent gifts of all the most eminent servants of God through the the whole world Surely he cannot be poor whiles there is any spirituall wealth in the Church of God upon earth Neither are or can these gifts be in the danger of concealment they are still put forth for the publick advantage As therefore no true Christian is his own man so he freely layes out himself by example by admonition by exhortation by consolation by prayer for the universall benefit of all his fellow members By example which is not a a little winning
offer any thing to you which you are unwilling to receive nor put any thing upon you which you would disclaim as prejudiciall to your Creator and Redeemer It is abundant comfort to us that some part of us is in the fruition of that glory whereto we the other poor labouring part desire and strive to aspire that our head and shoulders are above water whiles the other lims are yet wading through the stream SECT 25. A recapitulation and sum of the whole Treatise TO winde up all my sonne if ever thou look for sound comfort on earth and salvation in heaven unglue thy self from the world and the vanities of it put thy self upon thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Leave not till thou findest thy self firmly united to him so as thou art become a limb of that body whereof he is head a Spouse of that husband a branch of that stem a stone laid upon that foundation Look not therefore for any blessing out of him and in and by and from him look for all blessings Let him be thy life and wish not to live longer then thou art quickned by him finde him thy wisdome righteousnesse sanctification redemption thy riches thy strength thy glory Apply unto thy self all that thy Saviour is or hath done Wouldst thou have the graces of Gods Spirit fetch them from his anointing Wouldst thou have power against spirituall enemies fetch it from his Soveraignty Wouldst thou have redemption fetch it from his passion Wouldst thou have absolution fetch it from his perfect innocence Freedome from the curse fetch it from his crosse Satisfaction fetch it from his sacrifice Cleansing from sin fetch it from his bloud Mortification fetch it from his grave Newnesse of life fetch it from his resurrection Right to heaven fetch it from his purchase Audience in all thy suits fetch it from his intercession Wouldst thou have salvation fetch it from his session at the right hand of Majesty Wouldst thou have all fetch it from him who is one Lord one God and Father of all who is above all through all and in all Eph. 4. 5 6. And as thy faith shall thus interesse thee in Christ thy head so let thy charity unite thee to his body the Church both in earth and heaven hold ever an inviolable communion with that holy and blessed fraternity Sever not thy self from it either in judgement or affection Make account there is not one of Gods Saints upon earth but hath a propriety in thee and thou mayst challenge the same in each of them so as thou canst not but be sensible of their passions and be freely communicative of all thy graces and all serviceable offices by example admonition exhortation consolation prayer beneficence for the good of that sacred community And when thou raisest up thine eyes to heaven think of that glorious society of blessed Saints who are gone before thee and are now there triumphing and reigning in eternall and incomprehensible glory bless God for them and wish thy self with them tread in their holy steps and be ambitious of that crown of glory and immortality which thou seest shining upon their heads AN HOLY RAPTURE OR A PATHETICALL MEDITATION OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST By J. H. B. N. The Contents § 1. THe love of Christ how passing knowledge how free of us before we were § 2. How free of us that had made our selves vile and miserable § 3. How yet free of us that were professed enemies § 4. The wonderfull effects of the love of Christ 1. His Incarnation § 5. 2. His love in his sufferings § 6. 3. His love in what he hath done for us and 1. in preparing heaven for us from eternity § 7. His love in our redemption from death and hell § 8. His love in giving us the guard of his Angels § 9. His love in giving us his holy Spirit § 10. Our sense and improvement of Christs love in all the former particulars and first in respect of the inequality of our persons § 11. A further improvement of our love to Christ in respect of our unworthinesse and of his sufferings and glory prepared for us § 12. The improvement of our love to Christ for the mercy of his deliverance of the tuition of his Angels of the powerfull working of his good Spirit for the accomplishment of our salvation AN HOLYRAPTURE OR A Patheticall Meditation of the love of CHRIST SECT 1. The love of Christ how passing knowledge how free of us before we were WHat is it O blessed Apostle what is it for which thou dost so earnestly bow thy knees in the behalf of thine Ephesians unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Even this that they may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 14. 19. Give me leave first to wonder at thy suit and then much more at what thou suest for Were thine affections raised so high to thine Ephesians that thou shouldst crave for them impossible favours Did thy love so far over-shoot thy reason as to pray they might attain to the knowledge of that which cannot be known It is the love of Christ which thou wishest they may know and it is that love which thou sayest is past all knowledge What shall we say to this Is it for that there may be holy ambitions of those heights of grace which we can never hope actually to attain Or is it rather that thou supposest and prayest they may reach to the knowledge of that love the measure whereof they could never aspire to know Surely so it is O blessed Jesu that thou hast loved us we know but how much thou hast loved us is past the comprehension of Angels Those glorious spirits as they desire to look into the deep mystery of our redemption so they wonder to behold that divine love whereby it is wrought but they can no more reach to the bottome of it then they can affect to be infinite For surely no less then an endless line can serve to fadome a bottomelesse depth Such O Saviour is the abysse of thylove to miserable man Alas what dowe poor wrethed dust of the earth go about to measure it by the spans and inches of our shallow thoughts Far far be such presumption from us Onely admit us O blessed Lord to look at to admire and ad ore that which we give up for incomprehensible What shall we then say to this love Oh dear Jesu both as thine and as cast upon us All earthly love supposeth some kinde of equality or proportion at least betwixt the person that loves and is loved Here is none at all so as which is past wonder extreams meet without a mean For lo thou who art the eternall and absolute Being God blessed for ever lovedst me that had no being at all thou lovedst me both when I was not and could never have been but by thee It was from thy love that I had any being at all much more that when thou hadst given me
come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men what a disparagement do we 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 be some terms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like un to 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 become a man amongst men was to stoop below all 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 SECT 5. His love in his sufferings 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 dayes 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 al so 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 partwith 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 wearinesse danger contempt 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 keyes of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carryed thee what sighs and groans and tears and bloud 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 SECT 6. His love in preparing heaven for us 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 greatest 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 blessednesse 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 the 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 forfeit 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 in the cool of the day here manifesting thy Majesty continually There I see only 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 self pure gold like unto clear 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 be spangled with glittering starres for number for magnitude equally admirable What is
Were we left to our selves or could we be so much as in conceit sundred from the body whereof we are alas we are but as other men subject to the same sinfull infirmities to the same dangerous and deadly miscarriages but since it hath pleased the God of heaven to unite us to himself now it concerns him to maintain the honour of his own body by preserving us entire Can they acknowledge the faithfull soul marryed in truth and righteousnesse to that celestiall husband and made up into one flesh withthe Lord of glory and can they think of any Bils of divorce written in heaven can they suppose that which by way of type was done in the earthly Paradise to be really undone in the heavenly What an infinite power hath put together can they imagine that a limited power can disjoyn Can they think sin can be of more prevalence then mercy Can they think the unchangeable God subject to after thoughts Even the Jewish repudiations never found favour in heaven They were permitted as a lesser evill to avoid a greater never allowed as good neither had so much as that toleration ever been if the hard-heartednesse and cruelty of that people had not enforced it upon Moses in a prevention of further mischief what place can this finde with a God in whom there is an infinite tendernesse of love and mercy No time can be any check to his gracious choice the inconstant minds of us men may alter upon sleight dislikes our God is ever himself Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. with him there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Jam. 1. 17. Divorces were ever grounded upon hatred Mal. 2. 16. No man saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 29. ever yet hated his own flesh much lesse shal God do so who is love it self 1 Joh. 3. 16. His love and our union is like himself everlasting Having loved his own saith the Disciple of Love Joh. 13. 1. which were in the world he loved them to the end He that hates putting away Mal. 2. 16. can never act it so as in this relation we are indissoluble Can they have received that bread which came down from heaven and flesh which is meat indeed and that bloud which is drink indeed can their souls have digested it by a lively faith and converted themselves into it and it into themselves and can they now think it can be severed from their own substance Can they finde themselves truly ingraffed in the tree of life and grown into one body with that heavenly plant and as a living branch of that tree bearing pleasant and wholesome fruit acceptable to God Rev. 22. 2. and beneficiall to men and can they look upon themselves as some withered bough fit only for the fire Can they finde themselves living stones surely laid upon the foundation Jesus Christ to the making up of an heavenly Temple for the eternall inhabitation of God and can they think they can be shaken out with every storm of Temptation Have these men ever taken into their serious thoughts that divine prayer and meditation which our blessed Redeemer now at the point of his death left for an happy farewell to his Church in every word whereof there is an heaven of comfort Joh. 17. 20 21 22. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve in me through their word That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one with us And the glory that thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me Oh heavenly consolation oh indefeasible assurance what room can there be now here for onr diffidence Can the Son of God pray and not be heard For himself he needs not pray as being eternally one with the Father God blessed for ever he prayes for his and his prayer is That they may be one with the Father and him even as they are one They cannot therefore but be partakers of this blessed union and being partakers of it they cannot be dissevered And to make sure work that glory which the Father gave to the Son of his Love they are already through his gracious participation prepossessed of here they have begun to enter upon that heaven from which none of the powers of hell can possibly eject them Oh the unspeakably happy condition of beleevers Oh that all the Saints of God in a comfortable sense of their inchoate blessednesse could sing for joy and here beforehand begin to take up those Hallelujahs which they shall ere long continue and never end in the Chore of the highest Heaven SECT 9. The priviledges and benefits of this union The first of them Life HAving now taken a view of this blessed union in the nature and resemblances of it it will be time to bend thine eyes upon those most advantageous consequents and high priviledges which do necessarily follow upon and attend this heavenly conjunction Whereof the first is that which we are wont to account sweetest Life Not this naturall life which is maintained by the breath of our nostrils Alas what is that but a bubble a vapour a shadow a dream nothing as it is the gift of a good God worthy to be esteemed precious but as it is considered in its own transitorynesse and appendent miseries and in comparison of a better life not worthy to take up our hearts This life of nature is that which ariseth from the union of the body with the soul many times enjoyed upon hard termes the spirituall life which we now speak of arising from the union betwixt God and the soul is that wherein there can be nothing but perfect contentment and joy unspeakable and full of glory Yea this is that life which Christ not only gives but is he that gave himself for us gives himself to us and is that life that he gives us When Christ which is our life shall appear saith the Apostle Col. 3. 4. And Christ is to me to live Phil. 2. 21. and most emphatically Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Lo it is a common favour that in him we live but it is an especiall favour to his own that he lives in us Know you your own selves saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 5. how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates and wheresoever he is there he lives we have not a dead Saviour but a living and where he lives he animates It is not therefore Saint Pauls case alone it is every beleevers who may truly say I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me now how these lives and the authors of them are distinguished is worth thy carefullest consideration Know then my son that every faithfull mans bosome is a Rebeceaes womb Gen 25. 22. wherein there are twins a rough Esau
a beeing thou shouldst follow me with succeeding mercies who but thou who art infinite in goodnesse would love that which is not Our poor sensuall love is drawn from us by the sight of a face or a picture neither is ever raised but upon some pleasing motive thou wouldst make that which thou wouldst love and wouldst love that which thou hadst made O God was there ever love so free so gracious as this of thine Who can be capable to love us but men or Angels Men love us because they see something in us which they think amiable Angels love us because thou dost so But why dost thou O blessed Lord love us but because thou wouldst There can be no cause of thy will which is the cause of all things Even so Lord since this love did rise only from thee let the praise and glory of it rest only in thee SECT 2. How free of us that had made our selves vile and miserable YEt more Lord we had lost our selves before we were and having forfeited what we should be had made our selves perfectly miserable even when we were worse then nothing thou wouldst love us was there ever any eye enamoured of deformity Can there by any bodily deformity comparable to that of sin yet Lord when sin had made us abominably loathsome didst thou cast thy love upon us A little scurf of leprosie or some few nasty spots of morphew or but some unsavory sent sets us off and turns our love into detestation But for thee O God when we were become as foul and ugly as sin could make us even then was thy love inflamed towards us Even when we were weltring in our bloud thou saidst Live and washedst us and anointedst us and cloathedst us with a broidered work and deckedst us with ornaments and graciously espousedst us to thy self and receivedst us into thine own bosome Lord what is man that thou art thus mindfull of him and the son of man that thou thus visitest him Oh what are we in comparison of thine once glorious Angels They sinned and fell never to bâ—â—â—covered never to be loosed from those everlasting chains wherein they are reserved to the judgement of the great day Whence is it then O Saviour whence is it that thou hast shut up thy mercy from those thy more excellent creatures and hast extended it to us vile sinfull dust whence but that thou wouldst love man because thou wouldst Alas it is discouragement enough to our feeble friendship that he to whom we wisht well is miserable Our love doth gladly attend upon and enjoy his prosperity but when his estate is utterly sunk and his person exposed to contempt and ignominy yea to torture and death who is there that will then put forth himself to own a forlorn and perishing friend But for thee O blessed Jesu so ardent was thy love to us that it was not in the power of our extream misery to abate it yea so as that the deplorednesse of our condition did but heighten that holy flame What speak I of shame or sufferings Hell it self could not keep thee off from us Even from that pit of eternall perdition didst thou fetch our condemned souls and hast contrarily vouchsafed to put us into a state of everlasting blessednesse SECT 3. How yet free of us that were professed enemies THe common disposition of men pretends to a kinde of justice in giving men their own so as they will repay love for love and think they may for hatred return enmity nature it self then teacheth us to love our friends it is only grace that can love an enemy But as of injuries so of enmities thereupon grounded there are certain degrees some are sleight and triviall some main and capitall If a man do but scratch my face or give some light dash to my fame it is no great Mastery upon submission to receive such an offender to favour but if he have endeavoured to ruine my estate to wound my reputation to cut my throat not only to pardon this man but to hug him in my arms to lodge him in my bosome as my entire friend this would be no other then an high improvement of my charity O Lord Jesu what was I but the worst of enemies when thou vouchsafedst to embrace me with thy loving mercy how had I shamefully rebelled against thee and yeelded up all my members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sin how had I crucified thee the Lord of life how had I done little other then trod under foot thee the blessed Son of God and counted the bloud of the Covenant an unholy thing how had I in some sort done despight unto the spirit of grace yet even then in despight of all my most odious unworthynesse didst thou spread abroad thine arms to receive me yea thou openedst thine heart to let me in O love passing not knowledge only but wonder also O mercy not incident into any thing lesse then infinite nor by any thing lesse comprehensible SECT 4. The wonderfull effects of the love of Christ His Incarnation BUt oh dear Lord when from the object of thy mercy I cast mine eyes upon the effects and improvement of thy divine favours and see what thy love hath drawn from thee towards the sons of men how am I lost in a just amazement It is that which fetcht thee down from the glory of the highest heavens from the bosome of thine eternall Father to this lower world the region of sorrow and death It is that which to the wonder of Angels cloathed thee with this flesh of ours and brought thee who thoughtst it no robbery to be equall with God to an estate lower then thine own creatures Oh mercy transcending the admiration of all the glorious spirits of heaven that God would be incarnate Surely that all those celestiall powers should be redacted to either worms or nothing that all this goodly frame of creation should run back into its first confusion or be reduced to one single atome it is not so high a wonder as for God to become man those changes though the highest that nature is capable of are yet but of things finite this is of an infinite subject with which the most excellent of finite things can hold no proportion Oh the great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels Those heavenly spirits had ever since they were made seen his most glorious Deity and adored him as their omnipotent Creator but to see that God of spirits invested with flesh was such a wonder as had been enough if their nature could have been capable of it to have astonished even glory it self And whether to see him that was their God so humbled below themselves or to see humanity thus advanced above themselves were the greater wonder to them they only know It was your foolish misprision O ye ignorant Lystrians that you took the servants for the Master here only is it verified which you supposed that God is
of those thoughts and dispositions which may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty who of a poor worm on earth hast made me an heir of the kingdome of heaven Wo is me how subject are these earthly principalities to hazard and mutability whether through death or insurrection but this Crown which thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible and shall sit immovably fast upon my head not for years not for millions of ages but for all eternity Oh let it be my heaven here below in the mean while to live in a perpetuall fruition of thee and to begin those Alelujahs to thee here which shall be as endlesse as thy mercy and my blessednesse SECT 1. The improvement of our love to Christ for the mercy of his deliverance of the tuition of his Angels of the powerfull working of his good Spirit HAdst thou been pleased to have translated me from thy former Paradise the most delightfull seat of mans originall integrity and happinesse to the glory of the highest heaven the preferment had been infinitely gracious but to bring my soul from the nether most hell and to place it among the Chore of Angels doubles the thank of thy mercy and the measure of my obligation How thankfull was thy Prophet but to an Ebedmelech that by a cord and rags let down into that dark dungeon helpt him out of that uncomfortable pit wherein he was lodged yet what was there but a little cold hunger stench closenesse obscurity Lord how should I blesse thee that hast fetcht my soul from that pit of eternall horrour from that lake of fire and brimstone from the everlasting torments of the damned wherein I had deserved to perish for ever I will sing of thy power unto thee O my strength will I sing for God is my deliverer and the God of my mercie But O Lord if yet thou shouldst leave me in my own hands where were I how easily should I be rob'd of thee with every temptation how should I be made the scorn and insultation of men and devils It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou hast given thine Angels charge over me Those Angels great in power and glorious in Majesty are my sure though invisible guard O blessed Jesu what an honour what a safety is this that those heavenly spirits which attend thy throne should be my champions Those that ministred to thee after thy temptation are ready to assist and relieve me in mine they can neither neglect their charge because they are perfectly holy nor fail of their victory because they are under thee the most powerfull I see you O ye blessed Guardians I see you by the eye of my faith no lesse truly then the eye of my sense sees my bodily attendants I do truly though spiritually feel your presence by you gratious operations in upon and for me and I do heartily blesse my God and yours for you and for those saving offices that through his mercifull appointment you ever do for my soul But as it was with thine Israelies of old that it would not content them that thou promisedst and wouldst send thine Angell before them to bring them into the Land flowing with milk and honey unlesse thy presence O Lord should also go along with them so is it still with me and all thine wert not thou with and in us what could thine Angels do for us In thee it is that they move and are The same infinite Spirit which works in and by them works also in me From thee it is O thou blessed and eternall Spirit that I have any stirrings of holy motions any breathings of good desires any life of grace any will to resist any power to overcome evill It is thou O God that girdest me with strength unto battell thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation thy right hand hath holden me up thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies Glory and praise be to thee O Lord which alwaies causest us to triumph in Christ who crownest us with loving kindnesse and tender mercies and hast not held us short of the best of thy favours Truly Lord hadst thou given us but a meer beeing as thou hast done to the lowest rank of thy creatures it had been more then thou owest us more then ever we could be able to requite to thy divine bounty for every beeing is good and the least degree of good is farre above our worthiness But that to our beeing thou hast added life it is yet an higher measure of thy mercy for certainly of thy common favours life is the most precious yet this is such a benefit as may be had and not perceived for even the plants of the earth live and feel it not that to our life therefore thou hast made a further accession of sense it is yet a larger improvement of thy beneficence for this faculty hath some power to manage life and makes it capable to affect those means which may tend to the preservation of it and to decline the contrary but this is no other then the brute creatures enjoy equally with us and some of them beyond us that therefore to our sense thou hast blessed us with a further addition of reason it is yet an higher pitch of munificence for hereby we are men and as such are able to attain some knowledge of thee our Creator to observe the motions of the heavens to search into the natures of our fellow-creatures to passe judgement upon actions and events and to transact these earthly affairs to our own best advantage But when all this is done wo were to us if we were but men for our corrupted reason renders us of all creatures the most miserable that therefore to our reason thou hast superadded faith to our nature grace and of men hast made us Christians and to us as such hast given thy Christ thy Spirit and thereby made us of enemies sons and heirs co-heirs with Christ of thine eternall and most glorious kingdome of heaven yea hast incorporated us into thy self and made us one spirit with thee our God Lord what room can there be possibly in these strait and narrow hearts of ours for a due admiration of thy transcendent love and mercy I am swallowed up O God I am willingly swallowed up in this bottomelesse abysse of thine infinite love and there let me dwell in a perpetuall ravishment of spirit till being freed from this clog of earth and filled with the fulness of Christ I shall be admitted to enjoy that which I cannot now reach to wonder at thine incomprehensible blisse and glory which thou laid up in the highest heavens for them that love thee in the blessed communion of all thy Saints and Angels thy Cherubim and Seraphim Thrones Dominions and Principalities and Powers in the beatificall presence of thee the ever-living God the eternall Father of Spirits Father Son holy Ghost one infinite Deity in three co-essentially co-eternally co-equally glorious persons To whom
a perpetuall light the heaven of heavens is open to none but him thither his eye pierceth and beholds those beams of inaccessible glory which shine in no face but his The deep mysteries of godlinesse which to the great Clerks of the world are as a book clasped and sealed up lye open before him fair and legible and whiles those book-men know whom they have heard of he knowes whom he hath beleeved He will not suffer his Saviour to be ever out of his eye and if through some worldly interceptions he lose the fight of that blessed object for a time he zealously retrives him not without an angry theck of his own mis-carriage and is now so much the more fixed by his former flackning so as he will hence forth sooner part with his soul then his Redeemer The termes of entirenesse wherein he stands with the Lord of life are such as he can feel but cannot expresse though hee should borrow the language of Angels it is enough that they two are one spirit His reason is willingly captivated to his faith his will to his reason and his affections to both He fears nothing that he sees in comparison of that which he sees not and displeasure is more dreadfull to him then smart Good is the adequate object of his love which he duly proportions according to the degrees of its eminence affecting the chief good not without a certain ravishment of spirit the lesser with a wise and holy moderation Whether he do more hate sin or the evill spirit that suggests it is a question Earthly contents are too mean grounds whereon to raise his joy these as he baulks not when they meet him in his way so he doth not too eagerly pursue he may taste of them but so as he had rather fast then surfet He is not insensible of those losses which casualty or enmity may inflict but that which lies most heavily upon his heart is his sin This makes his sleep short and troublesome his meals stomachlesse his recreations listlesse his every thing tedious till he finde his soul acquitted by his great Surety in heaven which done he feels more peace and pleasure in his calm then he found horrour in the tempest His heart is the store-house of most precious graces That faith whereby his soul is established triumphs over the world whether it allure or threaten and bids defiance to all the powers of darknesse not fearing to be foiled by any opposition His hope cannot be discouraged with the greatest difficulties but bears up against naturall impossiblities and knows how to reconcile contradictions His charity is both extensive and servent barring out no one that bears the face of a man but pouring out it self upon the houshold of faith that studies good constructions of men and actions and keeps it self free both from suspicion and censure Grace doth not more exalt him then his humility depresses him Were it not for that Christ who dwels in him he could think himself the meanest of all creatures now he knows he may not disparage the Deity of him by whom he is so gloriously inhabited in whose only right he can be as great in his own thoughts as he is despicable in the eyes of the world He is wise to God-ward however it be with him for the world and well knowing he cannot serve two masters he cleaves to the better making choice of that good part which can never be taken from him not so much regarding to get that which he cannot keep as to possesse himself of that good which he cannot lose He is just in all his dealings with men hating to thrive by injury and oppression and will rather leave behind something of his own then filch from anothers heap He is not close fisted where there is just occasion of his distribution willingly parting with those metals which he regards only for use not caring for either their colour or substance earth is to him no other then it self in what â—hiew so ever it appeareth In every good cause he is bold as a Lion and can neither fear faces nor shrink at dangers and is rather heartned with opposition pressing so much the more where he finds a large door open and many adversaries and when he must suffer doth as resolutely stoop as he did before valiantly resist He is holily temperate in the use of all Gods blessings as knowing by whom they are given and to what end neither dares either to mis-lay them or to mis-spend them lavishly as duly weighing upon what tearmes he receives them and fore-expecting an account Such an hand doth he carry upon his pleasures and delights that they run not away with him he knows how to slacken the reins without a debauched kind of dissolutenesse and how to straiten them without a sullen rigour SECT 2. His expence of the day HE lives as a man that hath borrowed his time and challenges not to be an owner of it caring to spend the day in a gracious and well-governed thrift His first mornings task after he hath lifted up his heart to that God who gives his beloved sleep shall be to put himself into a due posture wherein to entertain himself and the whole day which shall be done if he shall effectually work his thoughts to a right apprehension of his God of himself of all that may concern him The true posture of a Christian then is this He sees still heaven open to him and beholds and admires the light inaccessible he sees the all-glorious God ever before him the Angels of God about him the evill spirits aloof off enviously groyning and repining at him the world under his feet willing to rebell but forced to be subject the good creatures ready to tender their service to him and is accordingly affected to all these he sees heaven open with joy and desire of fruition he sees God with an adoring awfulnesse he sees the Angels with a thankfull acknowledgement and care not to offend them he sees the evill spirits with hatred and watchfull indignation he sees the world with an holy imperiousnesse commanding it for use and scorning to stoop to it for observance Lastly he sees the good creatures with gratulation and care to improve them to the advantage of him that lent them Having thus gathered up his thoughts and found where he is he may now be fit for his constant devotion which he fals upon not without a trembling veneration of that infinite and incomprehensible Majesty before whom he is prostrate now he climes up into that heaven which he before did but behold and solemnly pours out his soul in hearty thanksgivings and humble supplications into the bosome of the Almighty wherein his awe is so tempered with his faith that whiles he labours under the sense of his own vilenesse he is raised up in the confidence of an infinite mercy now he renues his feeling interest in the Lord Jesus Christ his blessed Redeemer and labours to get in every