〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nocumenta Documenta Schola cruis Schola lucis Detrimenta corpotum incrementa virtutum Greg. Iam. 1.17 and hee will not suffer his faithfulnesse to faile towards them Psal 99.32 23. Christ can scourge his friends for and from their sinnes as well as for the exercise of their graces and yet love them dearly constantly and ardently In him is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Not so much as a shadow colour of alteration or mutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will in no wise cast you out Joh. 6.37 and he that escapes the Lords affliction may suspect his owne adoption 1 Qui excipiturd munero flagellatorum excipitur à numero filiorum Trees are rooted the more firmely by shaking m Deus unicum habet filium sine peccato nullum sine flagello The Persian Kings shunned familiarity with their Subjects and were seldome seene that they might be the more honoured n Persona Regis sub specie Majestatis occulitur Iust l. 1. so Christ serv's Christiās 1. 'T is not length of time that can worke or occasion an alteration in his love It 's everlasting I have loved thee with an everlasting love Hos 2.19 Jer. 31.3 Behold I will betroth thee unto me for ever Wee may through tract and length of time forget and be forgotten As Joseph forgot his Brethren and was forgotten of them Length of time may either wholly weare out out affections or else coole and lessen their heat and strength towards our familiars But Christ's love tak's not cold is not cooled towards his 't is alwayes firme free full fervent Heb. 13.5 Hee hath said I will ne'r leave thee nor forsake thee The words are emphaticall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a duplication of the subject of the Promise I will not leave I will not forsake and a multiplication of Negatives o Est negationis conduplicatio ut fit vehementior pollicitatio Estius in locum there are five negatives in the promise by which he intimates he will not yea he will not surely he will not forsake his servants he will never totally reject them he will not utterly forsake them I will not leave you comfortlesse or as Orphanes as children without parents p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non descrit etiamsi dese rere videatur non deserit etiamsi deserat Austin Nam non dicessit Deus quando recessit Secondly no distance of place were it never so great yea although 't were as great as that which is betwixt the lowest earth and highest heaven yet cannot this part Christ and Christians or impare the strength of his affections towards them worke the least alteration in his love yea even now although his glorious Majesty possesseth the heavens yet his heart is where 't was 't is towards his Saints on earth You blessed babes and friends of Christ your head in the heavens prayes for you pleads for you takes notice of you and all your sufferings he 's in Heaven enter'd before you but 't is to make way for you fit a place for you and preserve your roomes till you come assure your selves he cannot forget you doe not you forget him Thirdly nor can strength of deformity worke a change in his love he can love Job on the dunghill with his filthy carcase Jerymiah in the d'ungeon with his rotten ragges q Anima quae nunc pannoso vestitu servili habitu tegi putatur in regno Coelorum Regina nobilis Regi astans reperitur Basil l. de vera Virg. Lazarus whil'st begging with his running sores Jonah in the Whale's belly though his head 's bound up with weeds Abel tumbling in his own bloud Paul and Silas in the stocks with contemptible chaines as he is no respecter of persons so neither is hee a respecter of conditions hee ne'r withholds his affection from his people in affliction CHAP. III. Of the degrees or rather the immensities of of Christ's unsearchable love INfinitnesse ha's no demensities by finite considerations Christ's love is of an infinite nature There 's a measure in every thing sait's our Proverb but Christ's love out-vies the worlds Proverb 't is without me asure ha's no measure in it It 's nothing above Geometrie that 's an Art that may teach to measure the earth but the Heavens are not so farre from the Earth as the degrees of Christ's love are above all Arts and parts of men Can you measure him who ha's measur'd the waters in the hollow of his hand Isaiah 40.12 and meeted out Heaven with a span Christ's love's immense knowing Christians can tell you so and that no mortall can describe its measure we 'l illustrate its greatnesse a little as the earthlinesse of the instrument will permit and leave the rest to be revealed in Heaven to all heavenly minds THe degrees of love as well as the truth strength force and ardencie thereof are as the relation is in which it acts which may be shadowed out thus First Christ loves more then friends there may be a knitting of soules among friends as in Jonathan and David but did you ever heare of a knitting of natures 1 Sam. 18.1 vide 2 Sam 1.26 friends of Christ Christ hath knit your natures to his you are one nature as well as one flesh are you glad on 't can the two natures of two friends be united in one person Christ hath don 't this is the mystery of perfect love The Law commands love thy neighbour as thy selfe but extends no farther but Christ hath done a great deale more marke beleeving soule Christ's love to thee hath excell'd the love of friends For Christ lov'd thee not onely as himselfe as his Father commanded but also more then himselfe as his love constrain'd Hath hee not given his owne life to save thine was not his soule wearie to the death to refresh thine under the powers of that death which is death indeed 't is the second death I meane to which the first is but a shadow Hee was as a sheep led to the slaughter to free his sheep from such shambles I lay downe my life for my sheep that 's the heavenly voice doe you heare it you sheep of Christ Joh. 10.15 Can Paul crie up some that would for his good have pull'd out their right eyes so well they lov'd him oh sanctified soules you have greater cause to crie up Christ for hee would and did draw out both his eyes yea his precious soule to doe you good both now and in your latter end also so well be lov'd you and he is the same hee was you blessed babes of Christ Secondly Friends may peradventure die for friends and that 's the greatest love that man can shew Joh. 15.13 but Christ's love is more he died for foes r Non existentes immo resistentes Ber. sup Cant. ser 20. Rom. 5.8 Christ can bleed freely to make a resisting rebell live sweetly the life
1. By the price they put on glory the thoughts they have of Heaven page 113. 2. By the language they speak page 114. 3. A strangers mind motion is home-ward though he lacks nothing page 116 c. The practice of S t s making good this principle and how Ibid. 4. Strangers in a strange Land content themselves only with things needful page 119. 5 Strangers ingage not themselves too much in the affairs of the natives of strange Lands page 123. How little cause Saints have to love this strange Land or be loth to leave it 1. Till then they 're far from their best friends chiefest favours they are in a farre Countrey whilst from their Fathers house page 124. Other considerations to loosen the Saints from the world p. 125 126. 2. They should not love it be loth to leave it for till then they 'l be foiled vex'd soil'd with filthy sins page 127. Saints being strangers what they should be and doe whilst ranging through this earthly region p. 128. CHAP. 4. SAints have their appointed time of change To be changed what 'T is to have a different manner of being 't is the cessation of a person or thing from being what it once was page 130. The sundry sorts of changes what in 3 particulars p. 131 132 133. 134 To be gloriously chang'd what page 135. A three-fold imployment for Saints in order to a disposing of them for their last greatest and best of changes page 136 c. Saints have need to be chang'd two reasons of that p. 140 c. CHAP. 5. GLory what page 182. What things concur to make up everlasting glory page 183 c. To be glorified compleatly what page 196 c. The glory of the soule in heaven what page 197 c. What the glory of the body shall bee in the Kingdome of heaven page 199 c. What the glory is that soule body shall possesse joyntly p. 206 c. The adjuncts of glory what page 224 c. The Errata Part 1. PAge 1. l. 3. r. acts are p. 6. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 8. l. 12. r. p. 8. l. 2. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 3. l. 10. r. usuall p. 30. r. crucis p. 34. l. 11. r. meted p. 55. l. r. his p. 65. l. 25. r. on p 67. r. risisse p. 80. r. rebellis p. 93. r. nisi p. 114. l. 10. r. shee p. 65. r. nobis p. 73. murorum p. 30. r. numero p. 42. r. Aethyopissam quandam p. 56. l. 12 r. promisory p. 80. r. protegentis dele via Part 2. Page 33. r. in cum p. 62. r. perfecte p. 56. r. absentia p. 68. r. judicant p. 3. l. 19. r. Center p. 56. l. 21. r. Ieopardy p. 59. l. 26. r. Ishmael Part 3. Page 8. l. 7. r p. 12. l. t. r he p. 14. l. 2. r. thy p. 34. l. 23. r. afflictions p. 47. l. 8. r. loth p. 46. l. 2. dele to p. 54. l. 21. r. it s so l. 22. p. 61. l. 24. â— this p. 80. l. 20. r. doubtfull p. 106. l. 8. r. wearie p. 116. l. r. r. those p. 52 l. 14. r. soule p. 158. l. 3. r hearing p. 182. l. 10. dele to p. 183. l. 1 dele where p. 206. l. 4. r. eternally p. 167. r. exosumer esse Christo p. 212. r. Coacreatae Some other lesser faults there bee which the Printer Corrector desire the Reader to relieve with his penne THE YERNINGS OF Christs bowells towards his languishing FRIENDS Joh. 13.1 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end * Quum dilex isset suos qui erant c. Montanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligo simpliciter amo CHAP. I. Of the sence of the words and their usefulnesse unto all Christ-obeying Christians WHere affection is the spring of action and operation love is perfect to perpetuitie Christ act's as he is he 's with out end so is his love Things of Heaven are all lasting everlasting you may guesse at their beginnings but never at their endings The word in the originall * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies to love something by adhering to it with the mind and heart a Suidas seu aliquem amore complector cum aliquo amicitiam colo as 1 Joh. 2 10. Mat. 6.24 cha 22.37 Mark 10.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to be content and satisfied with it as that a man desires nothing else b Me aut amabis aut quo contentus sum diliges Cic. Others say 't is more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as comâ—ounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valdè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acquiesco quae enim diligimus in iis acquiescimus Alsied in Lexic signisicat contentum esse acquiescere Casaub in Mar. 10.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud LXX Interpretes non semper pro diligere sed pro amicis blandisque verbis compellare laudare sumitur ut Cant. 1.14.2 Paral. 18.2 'T is hearty love Christ is said* to love the young man viz. hee spake friendly to him and dealt gently with him as the word there imports Blessed Messiah the Saints Saviour at his last departure from them adhered to them with all his might soule mind and strength and was so fully satisfied with them tooke such great content in them as that he desir'd no other portion besides them And thus speaking sweetly and kindly to them call's them his owne c Peculiaritèr destinatus Thess 1. v. 5. peculiaris ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cujus est certa quaedam minime cum caeteris communis idea Cajet 1 Cor 11.6 vide Bezam in loc The Lord Christ is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's owne Sonne quod sit filius Dei per aeternam generationem as being his peculiar portion His owne every word of Christ hath its weight every word drop's sweetnesse as the hony combe Christians you see your blessed lot you are Christ's owne and Christ is your owne This comfortable kind of speaking to Christians is very usefull in Scripture as Jesus Christ is the faithfull's owne so the faithfull are Jesus Christ's own Rom. 14.4 God is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beleeving Christians owne master he shall be holden up by his owne Master for God is able to make him stand Christians have you had experience of the powerfull workings of Gods love towards you and on your Spirits and doe you feare a finall falling a partiall or totall declining from Jesus Christ and his sweetest wayes of soule-ravishing contentments Remember God's your owne he both can and will make you stand Those that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion that shall never be removed In generall consider Christ hath and may claime title to all by a right of dominion and so all then are Christs owne as he 's Lord of all creatures
eyes from the things of your peace lest you discover your selves to bee lost to whom the glorious Light of the glorious Gospell is hid to whom the way of peace is unknowne for God will put resplendent glory upon his Justice in the fall of some as well as rise of others the damnation of some as well as salvation of others Thirdly doth not his wisdome and Mercy deserve to be sharers in the glory too doubtlesse his wisdome was infinitely seene in this h Sapientiae Dei quasi perdix fovet filios quos non peperit quasi gallina congregat pullas sub alis quafi Aqulla provocat ad volandum Bern. sent for who but the Lord himselfe and what but the wisdome of a God could find out such a way to satisfie his Justice and propagate his mercy that austerity and lenity should dwell together in the same brest That 's a mirrour of Miracles and are not his mercies above all his workes who dare deny it Mercy and Judgements doe proceed from God as honie and the sting come from the Bee Honie comes from the Bee naturally is not forced but comes sweetly and freely But the sting comes forth by provocation stimulation So Mercy comes from God sweetly and freely i MagnaÌ„ injuriâ—â— Deo facit qui diffidet de ejus miserecordia Aug. without forcing for who can extort from him force him k Bonitas invicti non vincitur infiniti miserecordia non finitur Fulgent 't is as naturall for God to doe good as to be good it 's as impossible for him to cease to doe as to cease to be Mercy is his delight Now acts of Justice are more strange acts to him l Tua quidem malitia mensuram habet Dei autem miserecordia mensuram non haber tua malitia circumscripta est c. Chyes hom 3. de poenitent and they are called his strange Acts in the Scriptures Judgement comes not from him till he be provok'd and incenced by us against our persons And there is this reason of Gods proceeding in this kind the motive or moving cause to his mercy is in himselfe but the motive or moving cause to acts of Justice is without himselfe within us m Deus Pater miserieordiarum sed quòd judicat condemnat nos eum quodammodo cogim us Bern. de nat Dom So that when the proper cause which is sin in us is removed then that reall product of sinne that fruit and effect of sinne which is an incurring of the Lords displeasure is no more existent Hence those sayings of the Lord to Asa The Lord is with you while yee are with him but if you forsake him hee forsakes you When wee keep up society with God and Christ he cannot be against us nor can he ever forsake us untill he be forsaken of us n Deus nifi deserentem se non deserit non nos deserit fons si nos fontem non deseramus Aug. in Johan 32. Tu me non deseris nisi prius ego te deseram Aug. in solilo c. 14. you see the cause and the effect Then who is a God like to our God that forgives iniquitie transgression and sinne and is not angrie for ever because he delights in Mercy You have seen you children of Light the fitnesse worthinesse and sufficiency of your Saviours person parts and courage to suffer for you and how truly hee hath made o're what he hath been and don even to you for your good Doth not this speake you beloved doe you not see God in the face and acts of Christ smiling upon you Consider was he thus fit to suffer for you and is hee now fit to reigne for you Then account him most fit to reigne in you and to be exalted by you But we 'l glimpse out the glory of this great worke a little more First that highest Majesty should bow it selfe to lowest indignity we are but as wormes to him o Altus est Deus humilis est Christianus si vult ut altus Deus vicinetur illi ille humilis fiat magna mysteria fratres Deus super omnia est Erigis te non illum tangis humilias te ipse ad te descendit Aug. in Psal 34. What that the glorious God should seeke for a Harmony with unglorious man fallen man man that had lost all his comelinesse man that is borne like a bruit that he who had for his associates a glorified God glorified Angels should veile his glory come downe from Heaven become flesh and be like other men yea the meanest of them even a servant Is not this glorious all glorious is not this love expressed drawne out ad vivum to the life Secondly the cohabitation of two natures in one and the same person with harmony Is it not the property of contrarieties to disagree not to exist peaceably in one and the same subject Fire ye know resists water when injected with a fiery hissing yet Christ you see hath effected and accomplish'd this naturall impossibility He made his Godhead and manhood to dwell together in one person with peace and strong was the union Herein even in this sense was that fulfilled in him which was typed out concerning him by the pillar of God the cloudy pillar there was Light and darknesse two contraries in one pillar Were not our natures darkenes it self till he joyned his Light with them in one person Thirdly in that mans rising by Christ and living the life of grace and glory should bee contrived both by Father and Sonne from all eternity even before man was and had fallen by sinne from his God Christ's bloud was effectuall before existent p Sanguis Christi profuit antequam fuit Bern. that hee should be and not be at one and the same time be in God and yet not in the wombe or world God hath chosen you in Christ saith the Apostle before the foundation of the world then certainly before you had being in the world This Christ was for the good of Christians and thus Christians were through the goodnesse of God and Christ Christians you were in Gods favour before your generation before you were begotten and conceiv'd and God discovers it unto you and that you are beloved hee speakes you beloved by Regeneration This may fitly be called a third part of the workes glimpsed glory q Qui in factis Dei rationem non videt infirmitatem suam considerans cur non videat rationem videt Greg. in Job c. 9. 4. In that there is now such a firme league of friendship betwixt God and his people as if they had never been ad oddes in a way of enmitie Christ and his people are good friends now they speake together conferre together teed together dwell together lodge together and live together r Omne bonum concordiae cognatum est Spond in homilia 2. Now saith Christ my Father is pleased all is well and wee are well pleased