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A45274 Holy raptures, or, Patheticall meditations of the love of Christ together with A treatise of Christ mysticall, or, The blessed union of Christ and his members : also, The Christian laid forth in his whole disposition & carriage / by Jos. Hall ... Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656. 1652 (1652) Wing H385A; ESTC R40927 65,290 228

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his spirit cannot be lockt in God and his Angels cannot be lockt out Is he dying To him to live is Christ and to dye is gain Is he dead He rests from his labours and is crowned with glory Shortly he is perfect gold that comes more pure out of the fire then it went in neither had ever been so great a Saint in heaven if he had not passed through the flames of his tryall here upon earth SECT 11. His conflicts HE knows himself never out of danger and therefore stands ever upon his guard neither of his hands are empty the one holds out the shield of faith the other manageth the sword of the spirit both of them are employed in his perpetual conflict He cannot be weary of resisting but resolves to dye fighting He hath a ward for every blow and as his eye is quick to discern temptations so is his hand and foot nimble to avoid them He cannot be discouraged with either the number or power of his enemies knowing that his strength is out of himself in him in whom he can do all things and that there can be no match to the Almighty He is carefull not to give advantage to his vigilant adversary and therefore warily avoids the occasions of sinne and if at any time he be overtaken with the suddainnesse or subtilty of a temptation he speedily recovers himself by a serious repentance and fights so much the harder because of his foil He hates to take quarter of the spirituall powers nothing lesse then death can put an and to to this quarrell nor nothing below victory SECT 12. His death HE is not so careful to keep his soul within his teeth as to send it forth well addressed for happinesse as knowing therefore the last brunt to be most violent he rouzeth up his holy fortitude to encounter that King of fear his last enemy Death And now after a painfull sicknesse and a resolute expectation of the fiercest assault it fals out with him as in the meeting of the two hostile brothers Jacob and Esau in stead of grapling he finds a courteous salutation for stabs kisses for height of enmity offices of love Life could never befriend him so much as Death offers to do That tenders him perhaps a rough but a sure hand to lead him to glory and receives a welcome accordingly Neither is there any cause to marvell at the change The Lord of life hath wrought it he having by dying subdued death hath reconciled it to his own and hath as it were beaten it into these fair tearms with all the members of his mysticall body so as whiles unto the enemies of God Death is still no other then a terrible executioner of divine vengeance he is to all that are in Christ a plausible and sure convoy unto blessednesse The Christian therefore now laid upon his last bed when this grim messenger comes to fetch him to heaven looks not so much at his dreadfull visage as at his happy errand and is willing not to remember what death is in it self but what it is to us in Christ by whom it is made so usefull and beneficiall that we could not be happy without it Here then comes in the last act and employment of faith for after this brunt passed there is no more use of faith but of vision that heartens the soul in a lively apprehension of that blessed Saviour who both led him the way of suffering and is making way for him to everlasting glory That shews him Jesus the Authour and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God That clings close unto him and lays unremoveable hold upon his person his merits his blessednesse upon the wings of this faith is the soul ready to mount up toward that heaven which is open to receive it and in that act of evolation puts it self into the hands of those blessed Angels who are ready to carry it up to the throne of Glory Sic O sic juvat vivere sic perire FINIS Luther in Gal. Hier. Zanch. loc com 8. de Symbolo Apost
and must shew us how highly we are descended how royally we are allied how gloriously estated that only is it that must advance us to heaven and bring heaven down to us Through the want of the exercise whereof it comes to passe that to the great prejudice of our souls we are ready to think of Christ Jesus as a stranger to us as one aloof off in another world apprehended only by fits in a kinde of ineffectuall speculation without any lively feeling of our own interesse in him whereas we ought by the powerfull operation of this grace in our hearts to fidne so heavenly an appropriation of Christ to our souls as that every beleever may truly say I am one with Christ Christ is one with me Had we not good warrant for so high a challenge it could be no lesse then a blasphemous arrogance to lay claim to the royall bloud of heaven but since it hath pleased the God of heaven so far to dignifie our unworthinesse as in the multitudes of his mercies to admit and allow us to be partakers of the d●vine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. it were no other then an unthankfull stupidity not to lay hold on so glorious a priviledge and to go for lesse then God hath made us SECT 3. The kinde and manner of this union with Christ KNow now my son that thou art upon the ground of all consolation to thy soul which consists in this beatificall union with thy God and Saviour think not therefore to passe over this important mystery with some transient and perfunctory glances but let thy heart dwell upon it as that which must stick by thee in all extremities and chear thee up when thou art forsaken of all worldly comforts Do not then conceive of this union as some imaginary thing that hath no other being but in the brain whose faculties have power to apprehend and bring home to it self far remote substances possessing it self in a sort of whatsoever it conceives Do not think it an union meerly virtuall by the participation of those spirituall gifts and graces which God worketh in the soul as the comfortable effects of our happy conjunction with Christ Doe not think it an accidentall union in respect of some circumstances and qualities wherein we communicate with him who is God and man nor yet a metaphoricall union by way of figurative resemblance but know that this is a true reall essentiall substantiall union whereby the person of the beleever is indissolubly united to the glorious person of the Son of God know that this union is not more mysticall then certain that in naturall unions there may be more evidence there cannot be more truth neither is there so firm and close an union betwixt the soul and body as there is betwixt Christ and the beleeving soul for as much as that may be severed by death but this never Away yet with all gross carnality of conceit this union is true and really existent but yet spirituall if some of the Ancients have tearm'd it naturall and bodily it hath been in respect of the subject united our humanity to the two blessed natures of the Son of God met in one most glorious person not in respect of the manner of the uniting Neither is it the lesse reall because spirituall Spirituall agents neither have nor put forth any whit lesse vertue because sense cannot discern their manner of working Even the Loadstone though an earthen substance yet when it is out of sight whether under the Table or behinde a solid partition stirreth the needle as effectually as if it were within view shall not he contradict his senses that will say it cannot work because I see it not Oh Saviour thou art more mine then my body is mine my sense feels that present but so as that I must lose it my faith sees and feels thee so present with me that I shall never be parted from thee SECT 4. The resemblance of this union by the head and body THere is no resemblance whereby the Spirit of God more delights to set forth the heavenly union betwixt Christ and the beleever then that of the head and the body The head gives sense and motion to all the members of the body And the body is one not only by the continuity of all the parts held together with the same naturall ligaments and covered with one and the same skin but much more by the animation of the same soul quickning that whole frame in the acting whereof it is not the large extent of the stature and distance of the lims from each other that can make any difference The body of a childe that is but a span long cannot be said to be more united then the vast body of a giantly son of Anak whose height is as the Cedars and if we could suppose such a body as high as heaven it self that one soul which dwels in it and is diffused through all the parts of it would make it but one intire body Right so it is with Christ and his Church That one Spirit of his which dwels in and enlives every beleever unites all those far-distant members both to each other and to their head and makes them up into one true mystical body so as now every true beleever may without presumption but with all holy reverence and all humble thankfulnesse say to his God and Saviour Behold Lord I am how unworthy soever one of the lims of thy body and therefore have a right to all that thou hast to all that thou doest Thine eye sees for me thine ear hears for me thine hand acts for me Thy life thy grace thy happinesse is mine Oh the wonder of the two blessed unions In the personall union it pleased God to assume and unite our humane nature to the Deity In the spiritual and mysticall it pleases God to unite the person of every beleever to the person of the Son of God our souls are too narrow to blesse God enough for these incomprehensible mercies Mercies wherein he hath preferred us be it spoken with all godly lowliness to the blessed Angels of heaven Forverily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. Neither hath he made those glorious spirits members of his mystical body but his Saints whom he hath as it were so incorporated that they are become his body and he theirs according to that of the divine Apostle For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. SECT 5. This union set forth by the resemblance of the husband and wife NExt hereunto there is no resemblance of this mystery either more frequent or more full of lively expression then that of the conjugall union betwixt the husband and wife Christ is as the head so the husband of the Church The Church and every beleeving soul is
makes thee ours and us thine our materiall food in these corruptible bodies runs into corruption thy spirituall food nourisheth purely and strengthens us to a blessed immortality As for this materiall food many a one longs for it that cannot get it many a one hath it that cannot eat it many eat it that cannot digest it many digest it into noxious and corrupt humours all that receive it do but maintain a perishing life if not a languishing death but this flesh of thine as it was never withheld from any true apperite so it never yeelds but wholesome and comfortable sustenance to the soul never hath any other issue then an everlasting life and happinesse O Saviour whensoever I sit at mine own Table let me think of thine whensoever I feed on the bread and meat that is set before me and feel my self nourished by that repast let me minde that better sustenance which my soul receives from thee and finde thee more one with me then that bodily food SECT 7. This union resembled by the branch and the stock the foundation and the building LOok but into thy Garden or Orchard and see the Vine or any other fruit-bearing tree how it growes and fructifies The branches are loaden with increase whence is this but that they are one with the stock and the stock one with the root were either of these severed the plant were barren and dead The branch hath not sap enough to maintain life in it self unlesse it receive it from the body of the tree nor that unlesse it derived it from the root nor that unlesse it were cherished by the earth Lo Joh. 15. 5 6. I am the Vine saith our Saviour Ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered were the branch and the body of the tree of different substances and only closed together in some artificiall contiguity no fruit could be expected from it it is only the abiding in the tree as a living lim of that plant which yeelds it the benefit and issue of vegetation No otherwise is it betwixt Christ and his Church the bow and the tree are not more of one piece then we are of one substance with our Saviour and branching out from him and receiving the sap of heavenly vertue from his precious root we cannot but be acceptably fruitfull But if the Analogie seem not to be so full for that the branch issues naturally from the tree and the fruit from the branch whereas we by nature have no part in the Son of God take that clearer resemblance which the Apostle fetches from the stock and the griffe or cion The branches of the wilde olive Rom. 11. are cut off and are graffed with choice cions of the good olive those imps grow and are now by this insition no lesse embodyed in that stock then if they had sprouted out by a naturall propagation neither can be any more separated from it then the strongest bough that nature puts forth In the mean time that cion alters the nature of that stock and whiles the root gives fatnesse to the stock and the stock yeelds juice to the cion the cion gives goodnesse to the plant and a specification to the fruit so as whiles the impe is now the same thing with the stock the tree is different from what it was so it is betwixt Christ and the beleeving soul Old Adam is our wilde stock what could that have yeelded but either none or sowre fruit we are imped with the new man Christ that is now incorporated into us we are become one with him our nature is not more ours then he is ours by grace now we bear his fruit and not our own our old stock is forgotten all things are become new our naturall life we receive from Adam our spirituall life and growth from Christ from whom after the improvement of this blessed incision we can be no more severed then he can be severed from himself Look but upon thy house that from vegetative creatures thou maist turn thine eyes to those things which have no life if that be uniform the foundation is not of a different matter from the wals both those are but one piece the superstructure is so raised upon the foundation as if all were but one stone Behold Christ is the chief corner stone 1 Pet. 2. 6. elect and precious neither can there be any other foundation laid then that which is laid on him 1 Cor. 3. 11. 2 Pet. 2. 5. we are lively stones built up to a spiritual house on that sure and firm foundation some loose stones perhaps that lye unmortered upon the battlements may be easily shaken down but whoever saw a squared marble laid by line and levell in a strong wall upon a well-grounded base flye out of his place by whatsoever violence since both the strength of the foundation below and the weight of the fabrick above have setled it in a posture utterly unmovable Such is our spirituall condition O Saviour thou art our foundation we are laid upon thee and are therein one with thee we can no more be disjoyned from thy foundation then the stones of thy foundation can be disunited from themselves So then to sum up all as the head and members are but one body as the husband and wife are but one flesh as our meat and drink becomes part of our selves as the tree and branches are but one plant as the foundation and wals are but one fabrick so Christ and the beleeving soul are indivisibly one with each other SECT 8. The certainty and indissolublenesse of this union WHere are those then that goe about to divide Christ from himself Christ reall from Christ mysticall yeelding Christ one with himself but not one with his Church making the true beleever no lesse separable from his Saviour then from the entirenesse of his own obedience dreaming of the uncomfortable and self-contradicting paradoxes of the totall and finall Apostasie of Saints Certainly these men have never thorowly digested the meditation of this blessed union whereof we treat Can they hold the beleeving soul a lim of that body whereof Christ is the head and yet imagine a possibility of dissolution Can they affain to the Son of God a body that is unperfect Can they think that body perfect that hath lost his lims Even in this mysticall body the best joynts may be subject to strains yea perhaps to some painfull and perillous luxation but as it was in the naturall body of Christ when it was in death most exposed to the cruelty of all enemies that upon an over-ruling providence not a bone of it could be broken so it is still and ever with the spirituall some scourgings and blowes it may suffer yea perhaps some bruises and gashes but no bone can be shattered in pieces much lesse dissevered from the rest of the body
life to maintain this Fort of our joy against all the powers of darkness and if at any time we finde our selves beaten off through the violence of temptation we must chide our selves into our renued valour and expostulate the matter with our shrinking courage with the man after Gods own heart Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Psal 42. 11. 43. 5. SECT 11. An incitement to joy and thankfulnesse for Christ our life NEither is here more place for an heavenly joy then for height of spirit and raptures of admiration at that infinite goodnes mercy of our God who hath vouchsafed so far to grace his elect as to honour them with a speciall inhabitation of his ever-blessed Deity Yea to live in them and to make them live mutually in and to himself What capacity is there in the narrow heart of man to conceive of this incomprehensible favour to his poor creature Oh Saviour this is no small part of that great mystery wherinto the Angels desire to look 1 Pet. 1. 12. can never look to the bottome of it how shall the weak eyes of sinfull flesh ever be able to reach unto it When thou in the estate of thine humane infirmity offeredst to go down to the Centurions house that humble commander could say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof What shall we then say that thou in the state of thine heavenly glory shouldst vouchsafe to come down and dwell with us in these houses of clay and to make our breasts the Temples of thy holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. When thine holy mother came to visit the partner of her joy thy fore-runner then in the womb of his mother sprang for the joy of thy presence Luk. 1. 44. though distermined by a second womb how should we be affected with a ravishment of spirit whom thou hast pleased to visit in so much mercy as to come down into us and to be spiritually conceived in the womb of our hearts and thereby to give a new and spirituall life to our poor souls a life of thine own yet made ours a life begun in grace and ending in eternall glory SECT 12. The duties we owe to God for his mercy to us in this life which we have from Christ NEver did the holy God give a priviledge where he did not expect a duty he hath more respect to his glory then to throw away his favours The life that ariseth from this blessed union of our souls with Christ as it is the height of all his mercies so it cals for our most zealous affections and most effectuall improvement Art thou then thus happily united to Christ and thus enlived by Christ how entire must thou needs be with him how dear must thy valuations be of him how heartily must thou be devoted to him The spirit of man saith wise Solomon Prov. 20. 27. is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly and therefore cannot but be acquainted with his own inmates and finding so heavenly a guest as the Spirit of Christ in the secret lodgings of his soul applies it self to him in all things so as these two spirits agree in all their spirituall concernments The spirit it self saith the holy Apostle Rom. 8. 16. beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God and not in this case only but upon whatsoever occasion the faithfull man hath this Urim in his breast and may consult with this inward Oracle of his God for direction and resolution in all his doubts neither can he according to the counsell of the Psalmist Psal 4. 4. commune with his own heart but that Christ who lives there is ready to give him an answer Shortly our souls and we are one and the soul and life are so near one that the one is commonly taken for the other Christ therefore who is the life and soul of our souls is and needs must be so intrinsecall to us that we cannot so much as conceive of our spirituall being without him Thou needest not be told my son how much thou valuest life Besides thi●e own sense Satan himself can tell thee and in this case thou maist beleeve him Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Job 2. 4. What ransome can be set upon it that a man would stick to give though mountains of gold Psal 49. 7. though thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyle Micah 6. 7. Yea how readily do we expose our dear lims not to hazard only but to losse for the preservation of it Now alas what is our life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. 14. And if we do thus value a perishing life that is going out every moment what p●ice shall we set upon eternity If Christ be our life how precious is that life which neither inward distempers nor outward violences can bereave us of which neither can be decayed by time nor altered with crosse events Hear the chosen Vessell Phil. 3. 7 8. What things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ Yea doubtlesse I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and as one that did not esteem his own life dear to him in respect of that better alwayes saith he Act. 20. 24 bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body 2 Cor. 4. 10. How chearfully have the noble and conquering armies of holy Martyrs given away these momentany lives that they might hold fast their Jesus the life of their souls and who can be otherwise affected that knowes and feels the infinite happinesse that offers it self to be enjoyed by him in the Lord Jesus Lastly if Christ be thy life then thou art so devoted to him that thou livest as in him and by him so to him also aiming only at his service and glory and framing thy self wholly to his will and directions Thou canst not so much as eat or drink but with respect to him 1. Cor. 10. 31. Oh the gracious resolution of him that was rapt into the third heaven worthy to be the pattern of all faithfull hearts According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shal be ashamed but that with all boldnesse as alwayes so new also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain Phil. 1. 20 21. Our naturall life is not worthy to be its own scope we do not live meerly that we may live
our best then unholy creatures full of pollution and spirituall uncleannesse It is his most holy Spirit that must cleanse us from all the filthinesse of our flesh and spirit 2. Cor. 7. 1. and work us daily to further degrees of sanctification He that is holy let him be holy still Rev. 22. 11. neither can there be any thing more abhorring from his infinite justice and holinesse then to justifie those souls which lie still in the loathsome ordure of their corruptions Certainly they never truly learnt Christ who would draw over Christs righteousnesse as a case of their close wickednesses that sever holinesse from justice and give no place to sanctification in the evidence of their justifying Never man was justified without faith and wheresoever faith is there it purifieth and cleanseth Act. 15. 9. But besides that the Spirit of Christ works thus powerfully though gradually within us That he may sanctifie and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word his holinesse is mercifully imputed to us That he may present us to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that we should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5. 26 27. so as that inchoate holinesse which by his gracious inoperation grows up daily in us towards a full perfection as abundantly supplyed by his absolute holinesse made no lesse by imputation ours then it is personally his when therefore we look into our bosoms we finde just cause to be ashamed of our impurity and to loath those dregs of corruption that yet remain in our sinfull nature but when we cast up our eyes to heaven and behold the infinite holinesse of that Christ to whom we are united which by faith is made ours we have reason to bear up against all the discouragements that may arise from the conscience of our own vilenesse and to look God in the face with an awfull boldnesse as those whom he is pleased to present holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight Col. 1. 22. as knowing that he that sanctifieth and they than are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2. 11. SECT 16. Christ made our Redemption REdemption was the great errand for which the Son of God came down into the world and the work which he did whiles he was in the world and that which in way of application of it he shall be ever accomplishing till he shall deliver up his Mediatory Kingdome into the hands of his Father in this he begins in this he finishes the great businesse of our salvation For those who in this life are enlightned by his wisdome justified by his merits sanctified by his grace are yet conflicting with manifold temptations and strugling with varieties of miseries and dangers till upon their happy death and glorious resurrection they shall be fully freed by their ever-blessed and victorious Redeemer He therefore who by vertue of that heavenly union is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification is also upon the same ground made unto us our full Redemption Redemption implies a captivity We are naturally under the wofull bondage of the Law of sinne of miseries of death The Law is a cruell exactor for it requires of us what we cannot now do and whips us for not doing it for the Law worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. and as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse Gal. 3. 10. Sinne is a worse tyrant then he and takes advantage to exercise his cruelty by the Law For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Rom. 7. 5. Upon sin necessarily followes misery the forerunner of death and death the upshot of all miseries By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. From all these is Christ our Redemption from the Law for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. From sin for we are dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 11. Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. From death and therein from all miseries O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Cor. 15. 55 56 57. Now then let the Law do his worst we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. The case therefore is altered betwixt the law and us It is not now a cruell Task-master to beat us to and for our work it is our Schoolemaster to direct and to whip us unto Christ It is not a severe Judge to condemn us it is a friendly guide to set us the way towards heaven Let sinne joyne his forces together with the Law they cannot prevail to our hurt For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 3 4. Let death joyn his forces with them both we are yet safe For the Law of the spirit of life hath freed us from the Law of sin and of death Rom. 8. 2. What can we therefore fear what can we suffer while Christ is made our Redemption Finally as thus Christ is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption so whatsoever else he either is or hath or doth by vertue of this blessed union becomes ours he is our riches Eph. 1. 7. our strength Psal 27. 1. 28. 7. our glory Eph. 1. 18. our salvation 1 Thes 5. 9. Esa 12. 2. our all Col. 3. 11. he is all to us and all is ours in him SECT 17. The externall priviledges of this union a right to the blessings of earth and heaven FRom these primary and intrinsecal priviledges therefore flow all those secondary and externall wherewith we are blessed and therein a right to all the blessings of God both of the right hand and of the left an interesse in all the good things both of earth and heaven Hereupon it is that the glorious Angels of Heaven become our Guardians keeping us in all our wayes and working secretly for our good upon all occasions that all Gods creatures are at our service that we have a true spirituall title to them All things are yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 22 23 and ye are Christs and Christ Gods But take heed my son of mislaying thy claim to what and in what manner thou ought'st not There is a civill right that must regulate our propriety to these earthly things
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 ●hearfully should I passe through ●hose miseries and that death which ●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 ●ine infinite love provided for me 〈◊〉 inheritance incorruptible and un●●filed and that fadeth not away re●erved in heaven for me so as when ●●y earthly house of this Tabernacle ●hall be dissolved I have a building of God an house not made with ●ands eternall in the heavens An ●ouse Yea a Palace of heavenly ●●ate and magnificence neither is it ●esse then a kingdome that abides there ●or me a kingdome so much more ●bove these worldly Monarchies as ●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