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A58223 The pilgrims pass to the new Jerusalem, or, The serious Christian his enquiries after heaven with his contemplations on himself, reflecting on his happiness by creation, misery by sin, slavery by Satan, and redemption by Christ ... relating to those four last and great things of death, judgement, hell, and heaven ... / by M.R., Gent. M. R., Gent. 1659 (1659) Wing R47; ESTC R5428 94,586 254

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but for a time they did not last alwayes every Day hath his Night every Summer its Winter every Spring his Fall and every Life his Death and as some nights are darker then other some Autumns more unseasonable some Winters more sharp and some Death 's more yea much more cruel then others be some men fall like fruit others are cut down like trees some cut up as the flower others by the root some men dye onely others with torment which is two or more deaths in one but among all deaths that ever were suffer'd never any so strange never any so sad as our Saviours was for in it both pain and patience met in their extremities pain did her worst to overcome patience and patience her best to overcome pain and yet neither had pain the upper hand though it kil'd nor patience lost though Christ dyed such was his passion that the whole world cannot sample it with its parallel for Christs pain was such as never creature felt and his patience so great as for all the forrow he felt on the Cross he is not said to have utter'd a groan there so that it may easily be discerned that patience had the victory because pain could neither make her leave the field till she list nor bring her to any conditions but her own which were most honourable Though God be crucified Life be dead and Righteousness suster all effected yet nothing done to advance the contrary party For through his body Death slue it self and Sin and Satan took their deadly wounds for now the flesh hath lost her life and sin in that his throne and death with it his sting and the grave with this his power and hell with them her keys and the devil with all his victory whilst he hangs despicably on the tree of shame the powers of hell are dragg'd captive after the triumphant Chariot of his Cross Well might he therefore say 'T is finished for the Satisfaction is full Salvation sure Sin is nail'd Hell foil'd Satan chain'd the World baffled the Flesh wounded Death slain the Grave buried and every Adversary-power conquer'd by Christ Triumphant over all all is finished mans redemption compleated and that perfected he came about This is a true saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners But what is all this to us what is it to know that Christ is a Saviour if he be not ours what to know that he came to save the world if we are not one of the world he came to save what to know that his death is satisfactory to expiate the Justice of his Father if we have no interest in it I answer that as Christ hath done his part so must we do ours if ever we hope to have part in his sufferings he never came to save any that had no minde of salvation or to use those means which he hath appointed for all those that shall inherit eternal life as he did both do and suffer for us 't is requisite we should either do or suffer something for him His love to us and sufferings for us were unspeakable and they justly challenge our deepest affection and admiration that he should purchase our happiness at so dear a rate as his own Blood that God should be in Gore that man might be in Bliss the Prince of Life should dye that the Childe of Death might live that he should suffer on a Cross that we might not in Hell Did he sweat for our guilt and shall not we weep for our own and dissolve into love and tears for our dying Lord. O my soul shew thy affection to him that exprest so much to thee love him above thy life to serve him think milstones light to suffer for him make tortures pleasures hate sin more then death the Crown of pride as his Throns thy hearts lust as his spear thy iron neck and evil works and wayes as his nails their habit as his hammer which drives them home into his heart and his hands and feet Think not any thing enough thou sufferest for his sake that suffer'd so much for thine Though violent Tongues were laid on our Credit Hands of Rapine on our Estates of Bondage on our Persons of Blood on our Lives be so far from shrinking at it that hadst thou for one a thousand souls give all to his service a thousand bodies all to his suffering a thousand heads all to his study a thousand hearts bate not one to thy Saviour a thousand lives lay out all to his honour Hadst thou for two two thousand hands let them all do his business two thousand feet let them all go his errands if thou shouldst not thou wert unworthy of such a Saviour Now that we may know the cause or causes of Christs coming and understand our own duty in order to the making it a happy coming to us be pleased to take notice of these following particulars There are saith one four causes of mans salvation The Efficient cause The Meritorious cause The Instrumental cause And the Final cause First the Efficient cause which is the love of God 'T was Gods love to the world that caused him to send his Son into the world Had he not loved the world he would not have permitted his Son to dye for the world And he that denied us not his Son who is Heir of all things will not deny us any thing whereof he is heir Secondly the Meritorious cause That is Christ 'T was his Merits that purchast our happiness his Blood that gives us a right and title to that glorious undefiled and unfading Inheritance which he aforehand hath taken possession of Thirdly the Instrumental cause that is Faith Christ is the onely cure of our leprous souls Faith the hand to convey his merits to us Suppose a plaister of a soveraign nature were laid by a man dangerously wounded be the plaister never so excellent he may dye of his wounds if it be not applied to him for without an active hand to apply the plaister to the sore the worth of it is not at all available Christ saith one may be compared to sope Faith to the hand of the Landress though sope in it self be of a purifying nature yet without the hand of the Landress it does nothing The Apostle tells us that we are saved by Faith but that we may understand what that saving Faith is which the Apostle speaks of we are to present it first in the Negative what 't is not then in the Affirmative what it is Not an Historical Faith onely for that the Devils and damned in hell have that shall never receive any benefit at all by the death of Christ they know that Christ came into the world and that he suffered and that a day will come in which he shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire when he shal● take vengeance on all the ungodly of the earth and compleat their torments Not a Temporary
in Unity and Unity in Trinity There you shall see the Lamb with his train of Attendants Cherubims Seraphims Principalities Powers Thrones Dominions Archangels and Angels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and Confessours crying Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbath And there shall those good Angels which were your Guardians upon earth be your everlasting Companions in Heaven In a word 't is such a home where you shall be made perfectly happy Time shall not rust or diminish your glory nor adversity with her frowns ever approach near those Mansions for you shall be ever in the Sun-shine of Gods favour and your happiness as everlasting as his that made it Oh! did we but all consider the shortness of the sweetest pleasure here in comparison of those endless and eternal joyes that the Saints shall there partake of and the shortness and smallness of the longest and greatest misery or torture that can be endured here to the Worm that never dyes to the fire that is never quencht to those everlasting torments that shall in full viols be poured upon the wicked in Hell for ever we should think less of this world and more to be happy in a better And this brings me from the first particular observable to the second From being mindful of our home to our choice of Guides to conduct us thither Choose the best guides These guides are in the Old Testament called Seers in the New Overseers and these are they whom God hath appointed to lead us the way to that home to which many Saints are already gone in Soul and many more shall in Gods due time arive and be fully glorified both in soul and body These Seers or Overseers are those that open the Scriptures and make plain the way of the Lord and cause his paths to be known to the sons of men they are also for their dignity term'd Ambassadors of Christ Christs Stewards Publishers of glad Tidings proclaimers of Salvation Fellow-workers together with Christ and Ministers of the Gospel These God hath set up as lights that by their soundness of Doctrine and Integrity of life many Souls may be recalled from darkness unto his marvellous light they are Cities set upon a Hill for men to see and Candles lighted upon candlesticks to light the Traveller the way and these by their eminency are or at least ought to be Men of excellent qualifications and rare endowments Angelicall persons men made up of Heaven and if we take such for our guides we need not fear crooked paths but may be confident of our way But because all is not Gold that glisters nor all such as they seem it behoves us to be very cautious in the choise of our guides for if the blinde lead the blinde whither will they go The way to Hell is broad and easily found 't is a pleasant way beset with Roses able to intice the foolish Traveller who is ignorant that it leads to death And on the contrary the way to heaven seems to flesh and blood very uncomfortable a narrow sharp steep and unpleasant way very intricate long tedious troublesome and hard to finde in which many a passenger hath stumbled and many a blinde guide lost his way But that we may be warned by others harms and reach that which they fell short of let 's bear with the sharpness of the way and be incouraged by the happiness of the end The advice of a late ingenuous Author to this purpose is worthy your observation Regard not saith he how difficult the passage is but whither it tends nor how delicate the journey is but where it ends If it be easie suspect it if hard endure it He that cannot excuse a bad way accuseh this own sloth and he that sticks in a bad passage can never attain a good journeyes end It cannot be denyed but that many a passenger hath suffered by bad guides such as have let them go out of their way and made them believe the pleasantest way was the best and the poor Traveller not sensible of the mistake till it hath been too late to talk of returning But of such we are cautioned to beware and though they speak never so smoothly This is the way walk in it we are to turn our deaf ear to erring Charms of such blinde guides and witless Councellours And this brings me from the second particular observable to the third from the choice of our guides to our haste in setting out and perseverance in our course Set out betimes and hold out to the end As this Exhortation is two-fold so shall be my discourse upon it I shall in the first place apply my self to young men who like my self are but newly risen or scarce set out And in the next humbly address my self to aged persons who are or at least ought to be near their journeys end And first to young men let me request you to make God and Heaven the constant objects of your thoughts the one of your fear the other of your love so walk that ye displease not the one and ye need not fear the attaining of the other Are you setting out lose no time remember that many have squandred away the morning and have not reacht their journeyes end ere night and with those foolish Virgins for their tardiness have been excommunicated that place of repose where the early Traveller safely and in good time ariv'd An hour in the morning you know is worth two at night and God is better pleased with young Zeal then decreped Holiness Josiahs forwardness makes him renown'd to posterity and young Timothy's Piety eternizes his name to future generations Are you on your way persevere in your Christian course and think upon the end whilst ye are at the beginnings and even now upon the race have an eye to the recompence so shall the splendid glory of the one faciliate the irksome tediousness of the other Every true Christian saith a learned writer is a Traveller His life his walk Christ his way and Heaven his home his walk painful his way perfect his home pleasing Let 's not therefore loiter lest we come short of home nor wander lest we come wide of home but be content to travel hard and to be sure to walk aright so shall our safe way find its end at home and our painful walk make our home welcome We are all concerned to make our best use of time lest too late we lament the abuse of it yesterday cannot be recalled to morrow cannot be assured to day therefore is onely ours which if we slight we lose which lost is lost for ever Young men remember this I mean you whose bodies are strong and healthful not beset with any sickness or besieg'd with any diseases nor loaded with those common infirmities incident to old age consider that you know not how short your time is your Sun for any thing you know may go down in the morning and your night may fall ere noon Therefore be early
no heart unless harder then Adamant but must needs melt into tears at such a sight no malice except altogether implacable but would be appeas'd with such sharp and so underserved revenge I appeal to you all whether he be not an object of pitty rather then further cruelty and whether you have not greater reason to bewail his misery then increase it but this will not do No sorrows which are not mortal no sufferings which are not deadly no blood but the heart-blood can satisfie the malicious and therefore albeit crown'd with Thorns and flead with Whips they still cry Execution Execution Let him be crucified But Pilate notwithstanding these obstinate repulses again solicites them to save his life and that his arguments might be crown'd with success he changes his stile from a man of sorrows presents him as a king of sufferings that so his dignity might prevail where his miseries could not and that the majesty of the sufferer might aggravate his sufferings and their cruelty bespeaks them thus Behold your King behold a king deprived of his comforts spoiled of all his goods sold by his brethren apprehended by his subjects scourged as a villain derided as a fool Behold a King who hath no other use of majesty but to aggravate his misery Behold a King whose sufferings are as transcendent as his person Behold a King who hath suffered things bitterer then death Behold a King yea your King how he hath suffered every thing but death and shall that malice of yours pursue him even do death it self shall I crucifie your King will ye have me to bring innocent blood upon my own head as well as yours and be a sharer with you in so hateful a sin For my part I le have no hand in it and let me advise you to have none neither wherefore let me request you to desist from so bloody a design And if ye have no regard neither to his innocency sufferings nor majesty look upon your own reputations which will suffer much for putting such a person to death Do not you know I mean you that are the Doctors of the Law and the Elders of the People that the name of a King is sacred God owns it as one of his Titles and them as his Vicegerents that represent himself who is the great Monarch of Heaven and Earth and their persons as sacred as their names being subject to no Tribunal but that of Heaven no Judge but the highest Wherefore to offer violence to one that bears that Title were a piece of such unparallel'd cruelty for which your selves could produce no example nor the world a president all nations would cry shame at so horrid a fact and your own consciences would fly in your faces for committing so hainous a Crime A way then with so bloody a motion you that pretend your selves such Zealots stain not your hands with such blood nor your souls with the guilt of it left ye bring such an odium on your Nation which your selves nor posterity shall be ever able to take off But all his rhetorick will not serve turne for their guilty consciences told them that they had already done more then they could justifie Therefore the more he perswades the more they exclaim lest their King might have out-liv'd his wounds recover'd his losses and turn'd his Reed into a Scepter they earnestly importune the Judge to dispatch him Let him be be Crucified He is no King of ours If he were we should not thus prosecute him We have no King but Caesar and thou art not Caesars friend if thou let him go 'T is not his innocency nor his sorrows nor his majesty which thou so much plead'st for shall satisfie us 't is his deserved death which we sue for and nought but that shall excuse him Take thou no care if he dye unjustly the guilt shall lie on us not thee Wherefore act thou thy part perform thy office and we will ours as thou sittest in judgement to do justice express it by thy condemnation of this man Thou seest the proofs are clear and evidence perspicuous Therefore without any more delayes excuses or apologies pronounce the sentence we will see it executed Pilate finding all his reasons too short to convince unreasonable men is now brought to his last shift and that 's to make him a donative and freeman at the Petition of the People but they prefer Barrabbas a Rebel a Murderer before the Saviour of the World desire to have him Crucified who raised the dead to have the other released who destroyed the living Pilate now finding that all his projects were frustrated and no way left to save his life calls for water and washes his hands before them as innocent of his Blood but being a timerous Man affraid of the Jews lest they should mutiny or tel tales to his Master whereby he might lose either his place or Caesars favour delivers up the most unspottedperson in the world into the hands of malice to glut it self with revenge in the exercising the most exquisite torments and expatiating them to the longest thread of misery but as if all this did not adde enough to the sadness of his tragedy he must after all this dye and the worst of deaths the Cross onely inflicted on most notorious offenders and betwixt two infamous Thieves the worst sort of companions In order to which he is led forth of the holy now the bloody City Jerusalem to the place of execution bearing his own Cross his head adorn'd with his Crown of Thorns which was not at all pul'd off so it became the King of sufferings notto lay aside his imperial thorns til they were chang'd into Diadems of glory he advances Mount Calvary a place difficult in the ascent eminent apt forthe publication of shame a hil of death and dead bones where he is stript naked who cloaths the field with flowers and all the world with robes and the whole Globe with the Canopy of Heaven A gay spectacle to satisfie impious eyes who would not stay behinde but attend the hangman to see the catastrophe of this bloody tragedy he is now fastened to his Cross and heaven and earth all creatures in both vailed in blacks to lament his obsequies as if terrified at his sufferings whilst menand devils conspire to increase them that he might have no sense but that of misery How are all his senses at once tormented in him and he in all of them his eies in seeing nothing but what disconsolated and afflicted him either his enemies rejoycing at his sufferings or his friends those few poor friends he had lamenting his miseries His ears play'd upon from every side with whole volleys of fearful blasphemies If thou be the King of Israel descend from the Cross cry the Jews If thou be the Christ save thy self and us sayes one of his fellow sufferers For his smell I le not offend the nice and delicate with commemorating the noisomness of the place