to me saith Christ wherein God the Son receives the Bride as mutually partaking of the same nature and can say This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh wherein God the holy Ghost knits our wils in a full and glad consent to the full consummation of this blessed wedlock And those whom God hath thus joyned together let no man no Devill can put asunder What is there then which an affectionate husband can withhold from a dear wife He that hath given himself to her what can be deny to impart He that hath made himself one with her how can he be divided from his other-self Some wilde fancies there are that have framed the linkes of marriage of so brittle stuffe as that they may be knapt in sunder upon every sleight occasion but he that ordained it in Paradise for an earthly representation of this heavenly union betwixt Christ and his Church hath made that and his own indissoluble Here is no contract in the future which upon some intervenient accidents may be remitted but I am my welbeloveds and my welbeloved is mine And therefore each is so others that neither of them is their own Oh the comfortable mystery of our uniting to the Son of God! The wife hath not the power of her own body but the husband We are at thy disposing ô Saviour we are not our own Neither art thou so absolutely thine as that we may not through thine infinite mercy claim an interesse in thee Thou hast given us such a right in thy self as that wee are bold to lay challenge to all that is thine to thy love to thy merits to thy blessings to thy glory It was wont of old to be the plea of the Roman wives to their husbands Where thou art Caius I am Caia and now in our present marriages we have not stuck to say With all my worldly goods I thee endow And if it be thus in our imperfect conjunctions here upon earth how much more in that exquisite one-nesse which is betwixt thee ô blessed Saviour and thy dearest Spouse the Church What is it then that can hinder us from a sweet and heavenly fruition of thee Is it the loathsome condition of our nature Thou sawst this before and yet couldst say when we were yet in our bloud Live Had we not been so vile thy mercy had not been so glorious thy free grace did all for us Thou washedst us with water and anointedst us with oyle and cloathedst us with broidered work and girdedst us about with fine linnen and coveredst us with silk and deckedst us with ornaments and didst put bracelets upon our hands and a chain on our neck and jewels on our fore-heads and eare-rings on our ears and a beautifull crown on our heads What we had not thou gavest what thou didst not find thou madest that we might be a not-unmeet match for the Lord of life Is it want of beauty Behold I am black but comely what ever our hiew be in our own or others eyes it is enough that we are lovely in thine Behold thou art fair my beloved behold thou art faire yea pleasant Thou art beautifull O my love as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem How fair and how pleasant art thou O Love for delights But oh Saviour if thou take contentment in this poor unperfect beauty of thy Spouse the Church how infinite pleasure should thy Spouse take in that absolute perfection that is in thee who art all lovelinesse and glory And if she have ravished thy heart with one of her eyes how much more reason hath her heart to be wholly ravished with both thine which are so full of grace and amiablenesse and in this mutuall fruition what can there be other then perfect blessednesse The Spirit of God well knowing how much it imports us both to know and feel this blessed union whereof himself is the onely worker labours to set it forth to us by the representations of many of our familiar concernments which we daily finde in our meats and drinks in our houses in our gardens and orchards That which is nearest to us is our nourishment What can bee more evident then that the bread the meat the drinke that we receive is incorporated into us and becomes part of the substance whereof we consist so as after perfect digestion there can be no distinction betwixt what we are and what wee took Whiles that bread was in the bing and that meat in the shambles and that drink in the vessell it had no relation to us nor we to it yea whiles all these were on the Table yea in our mouths yea newly let down into our stomacks they are not fully ours for upon some nauseating dislike of nature they may yet go the same way they came but if the concoction be once fully finished now they are so turned into our blood and flesh that they can be no more distinguished from our former substance then that could be divided from it self now they are dispersed into the veins and concorporated to the flesh and no part of our flesh and blood is more ours then that which was lately the bloud of the grapes and the flesh of this fowl or that beast Oh Saviour thou who art truth it selfe hast said I am the living bread that came down from heaven My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and thereupon hast most justly inferred He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in mee and I in him and as a necessary consequent of this spirituall manducation Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life Lo thou art bread indeed not the common bread but Manna not the Israelitish Manna alas that fell from no higher then the region of clouds and they that ate it died with it in their mouths but thou art the living bread that came down from the heaven of heavens of whom whosoever eats lives for ever Thy flesh is meat not for our stomacks but for our souls our faith receives and digests thee and 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 appetite 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 mee think of thine whensoever I feed on the bread and meat that is set before mee and feel
his sacrifices unto God his faith listens and looks in at the door of heaven to know how they are taken Every man shows fair in prosperity but the main triall of the Christian is in suffering any man may steer in a good gale and clear sea but the Mariners skill will be seen in a tempest Herein the Christian goes beond the Pagans not practise onely but admiration We rejoyce in tribulation saith the chosen Vessel Lo here a point transcending all the affectatiō of Heathenism Perhaps some resolute spirit whether out of a naturall fortitude or out of an ambition of fame or earthly glory may set a face upon a patient enduring of losse or pain but never any of those heroick Gentils durst pretend to a joy in suffering Hither can Christian courage reach knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed Is he bereaved of his goods and worldly estate he comforts himself in the conscience of a better treasure that can never be lost Is he afflicted with sicknesse his comfort is that the inward man is so much more renued daily as the outward perisheth Is he slandered and unjustly disgraced his comfort is that there is a blessing which will more then make him amends Is he banished he knows he is on his way home-ward Is he imprisoned 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 triall here upon earth 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 perpetuall 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 doe 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 these spirituall powers nothing lesse then death can put an end to this quarrell nor nothing below victory He is not so carefull 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 findes a courteous salutation for stabs kisses for height of enmity offices of love Life could never befriend him so much as Death offers to doe 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 senger 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 § 1. How to be happy in the apprehending of Christ. 2 Tim. 1. 12. 1 Tim. 2. 5 1 Joh. 2. 1. Joh. 14. 1. Luther in Gal. § 2. The honour and happiness of being united to Christ. Job 17. 14. Gen. 2. 23. Eph. 5. 30. 2 Pet. 1. 4. § 3. The kind and manner of this union with Christ. § 4. The resemblāce of this union by the head body Heb. 2. 16. 1 Cor. 12. 12. § 5. This union set forth by the resemblāce of the husband and wife Esa. 62. 5. Hose 2. 19. Ephe. 5. 31. Gen. 2. 24. Gen. 2. 22. Joh. 6. 37. Joh. 1. 14. Gen. 2. 23. Cant. 6. 3. Cant. 2. 16. 1 Cor. 7. 4. Ezek. 16. 6. 〈…〉 16. 〈…〉 11 Cant. 1. 5. Cant. 1. 16 Cant. 6. 3. Cant. 7. 6. Cant. 5. 16. Cant. 4. 9. § 6. The resemblāce of this union by the nourishment and the body Joh. 6. 51. 55. 56. 54. § 7. This union resēbled by the brāch and the stock the foundation and the building Joh. 15. 5 6 Rom. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 6. 1 Cor. 3. 11 2 Pet. 2. 5. § 8. The certainty indissolublenesse of this union Heb. 13. 8. Jam. 1. 17. Mal. 2. 16. Eph. 5. 29. 1 Joh. 3. 16. Joh. 13. 1. Mal. 2. 16. Rev. 22. 2. Joh. 17. 20 21 22. § 9. The priviledges benefits of this union The first of them Life Col. 3. 4. Phil. 1. 21. Gal. 2. 20. 2 Cor. 13. 5 Gen. 25. 22. Rom. 7. 18 Rom. 7. 22 Col. 3. 1. Gal. 4. 19.
CHRIST MYSTICALL OR The blessed union of Christ and his Members Also AN HOLY RAPTVRE OR A Patheticall Meditation of the Love of Christ. Also The Christian laid forth in his whole Disposition and Carriage By J. H. D. D. B. N. LONDON Printed by M. Flesher and are to be sold by William Hope Gabriel Beadle and Nathaniel Webbe 1647. TO The only Honour and Glory of his blessed Saviour and Redeemer And to the comfort and benefit of all those members of his Mysticall Body which are still labouring and warfaring upon earth I. H. their unworthiest servant humbly dedicates this fruit of his old age The CONTENTS § 1. HOw to be happy in the apprehending of Christ. § 2. The honour and happinesse of being united to Christ. § 3. The kinde and manner of our union with Christ. § 4. The resemblance of this union by the head and members of the body § 5. This union set forth by the resemblance of the husband and wife § 6. This union resembled by the nourishment the body § 7. The resemblance of this union by the branch and the stock the foundation and the building § 8. The certainty and indissolublenesse of this union § 9. The priviledges and benefits of this union The first of them life § 10. A complaint of our insensiblenesse of this mercy and an excitation to a chearfull recognition of it § 11. An incitement to a joy and thankfulnesse for Christ our life § 12. The duties we owe to God for his mercy to us in this life which we have from Christ. § 13. The improvement of this life in that Christ is made our Wisdome § 14. Christ made our Righteousnesse § 15. Christ made our Sanctification § 16. Christ made our Redemption § 17. The externall priviledges of this union a right to the blessings of earth and of heaven § 18. The means by which this union is wrought § 19. The union of Christs members with themselves First those in heaven § 20. The union of Christs members upon earth First in matter of judgement § 21. The union of Christians in matter of affection § 22. A complaint of Divisions and notwithstanding them an assertion of unity § 23. The necessary effects and fruits of this union of Christian hearts § 24. The union of the Saints on earth with those in heaven § 25. A recapitulation and sum of the whole Treatise I Have with much comfort and contentment perused these divine and holy Meditations entituled Christ Mysticall An holy Rapture and The Christian laid forth or characterised in his whole disposition and carriage and relishing in them much profitable sweetnesse and heavenly raptures of spirituall devotion I doe license them to be Printed and published JOHN DOVVNAME CHRIST MYSTICALL OR THE BLESSED Union of CHRIST and his Members THERE is not so much need of Learning as of Grace to apprehend those things which concern our everlasting peace neither is it our brain that must be set on work here but our heart for true happinesse doth not consist in a meer speculation but a fruition of good However therefore there is excellent use of Scholar-ship in all the sacred imployments of Divinity yet in the main act which imports salvation skill must give place to affection Happy is the soul that is possessed of Christ how poor so ever in all inferiour endowments Ye are wide O ye great wits whiles you spend your selves in curious questions and learned extravagancies ye shal find one touch of Christ more worth to your souls then all your deep and laboursome disquisitions one dram of faith more precious then a pound of knowledge In vain shall ye seek for this in your books if you misse it in your bosomes If you know all things and cannot truly say I know whom I have beleeved you have but knowledge enough to know your selves truly miserable Wouldst thou therefore my son finde true and solid comfort in the houre of temptation in the agony of death make sure work for thy soul in the days of thy peace Finde Christ thine and in despight of hell thou art both safe and blessed Look not so much to an absolute Deity infinitely and incomprehensibly glorious alas that Majesty because perfectly and essentially good is out of Christ no other then an enemy to thee thy sinne hath offended his justice which is himself what hast thou to doe with that dreadfull power which thou hast provoked Look to that mercifull and all-sufficient Mediator betwixt God and man who is both God and man Jesus Christ the righteous It is his charge and our duty Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me Yet look not meerly to the Lord Jesus as considered in the notion of his own eternall beeing as the Son of God co-equall and co-essentiall to God the Father but look upon him as he stands in reference to the sons of men and herein also look not to him so much as a Law-giver and a Judge there is terror in such apprehension but look upon him as a gracious Saviour and Advocate and lastly look not upon him as in the generality of his mercy the common Saviour of mankind what comfort were it to thee that all the world except thy selfe were saved but look upon him as the dear Redeemer of thy soul as thine Advocate at the right hand of Majesty as one with whom thou art â—hrough his wonderfull mâ—rcy inseparably united Tâ—us thus look upon him firmly and fixedly so as he may never be out of thine eiâ—s and what ever secular objects interpose themselves betwixt thee and him look through them as some slight mists and terminate thy sight still in this blessed prospect Let neither earth nor heaven hide him from thee in whatsoever condition And whiles thou art thus taken up see if thou canst without wonder and a kinde of ecstaticall amazement behold the infinite goodness of thy God that hath exalted thy wretchednesse to no lesse then a blessed and indivisible Union with the Lord of glory so as thou who in the sense of thy miserable mortality maist say to corruption Thou art my father and to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister canst now through the priviledge of thy faith hear the Son of God say unto thee Thou art bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Surely as we are too much subject to pride our selves in these earthly glories so we are too apt through ignorance or pusillanimity to undervalue our selves in respect of our spirituall condition wee are far more noble and excellent then we account our selves It is our faith that must raise our thoughts to a due estimation of our greatnesse and must shew us how highly we are descended how royally we are allied how gloriously estated that onely 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 readie to think of Christ Jesus as a stranger to us as one aloof off in another world apprehended onely by fits in a kind 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 finde 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 bee 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 divine nature it were no other then an unthankfull stupidity not to lay hold on so glorious a priviledge and to goe for lesse then God hath made us 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 Doe not then conceive of this union as some imaginary thing that hath no other beeing but in the braine 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 Doe 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 bee more evidence there cannot be more truth neither is there so firm and close an union betwixt the soul 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 grosse carnality of conceit this union is true and really existent but yet spirituall and 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 hee 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 mee that I shall never be parted from thee 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 onely 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 child that is but a span long cannot bee 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 entire 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 mysticall 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 the Deitie In the spirituall 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 lowlinesse to the blessed Angels of heaven For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Neither hath he made those glorious spirits members of his mysticall 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. 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 the Spouse of this heavenly Bridegroom whom hee marrieth unto himselfe for ever in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies and this match thus made up fulfils that decretive word of the Almighty They twain shal be one flesh O happy conjunction of the second Adam with her which was taken out of his most precious side Oh heavenly and compleat marriage wherein God the Father brings and gives the Bride All that the Father giveth me shall come
my self nourished by that repast let me mind that better sustenance which my soul receives from thee and finde thee more one with me then that bodily food Look but into thy Garden or Orchard and see the Vine or any other fruit-bearing tree how it grows 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 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 onely 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 bough 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 wheras 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 are cut off and are graffed with choice cions of the good olive those impes grow and are now by this insition no lesse embodyed in that stock then if they had sprouted out by a natural 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 stocke 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 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 insition we can be no more severed then he can be severed from himself Look but upon thy house that from vegetative creatures thou maist turne 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 chiefe corner stone elect and precious neither can there be any other foundation laid then that which is laid on him we are lively stones built up to a spirituall 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 unmoveable 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 dis-joyned from thy foundation then the stones of thy foundation can be dis-united 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 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 wee 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 Sonne 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 perilous luxations 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 blows it may suffer yea perhaps some bruises and gashes but no bone can be shattered in peeces much lesse dissevered from the rest of the body 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 married in truth and righteousnesse to that celestiall husband and made up into one flesh with the Lord of glory 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
make our breasts the Temples of thy holy Ghost 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 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 poore souls a life of thine own yet made ours a life begun in grace and ending in eternall glory Never did the holy God give a priviledge where he did not expect a duty hee 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 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 applyes 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 beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God and not in this case onely but upon whatsoever occasion the faithfull man hath this Urim in his breast may coÌ„sult 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 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 beeing without him Thou needest not be told my son how much thou valuest life Besides thine 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 What ransome can be set upon it that a man would stick to give though mountains of gold though thousands of â—â—ms or ten thousand rivers of oyl Yea how readily doe we expose our dear lims not to hazard onely but to losse for the preservation of it Now alas what is our life It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away And if we doe thus value a perishing life that is going out every moment what price 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 Vessel What things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ Yea doubtless 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 doe 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 always saith he bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body 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 knows and feels the infinite happinesse that offers it self to be enjoyed by him in the Lord Jesus Lastly if Christ bee thy life then thou art so devoted to him that thou livest as in him and by him so to him also aiming onely 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 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 shall be ashamed but that with all boldnesse as always so now 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 Our naturall life is not worthy to be its own scope we doe not live meerly that we may live our spirituall life Christ is the utmost and most perfect end of all our living without the intuition whereof we would not live or if we should our naturall life were no other then a spirituall death Oh Saviour let me not live longer then I shall be enlived by thee or then thou shalt be glorified by me And what rule should I follow in all the carriage of my life but thine thy precepts thine examples that so I may live thee as well as preach thee and in both may finde thee as thou hast truly laid forth thy self the way the truth and the life the way wherein I shall walk the truth which I shall beleeve and professe and the life which I shall enjoy In all my morall actions therefore teach me to square my self by thee what ever I am about to doe or speak or affect let me think If my Saviour were now upon earth would he doe this that I am now putting my hand unto would he speak these words that I am now uttering would he be thus disposed as I now feel my self Let me not yeeld my self to any thought word or action which my Saviour would be ashamed to own Let him be pleased so to manage his own life in me that all the interesse he hath given me in my self may bee wholly surrendred to him that I may be as it were dead in my self whiles he lives and moves in me By vertue of this blessed union as Christ is become our life so that which is the highest improvement not onely of the rationall but the supernaturall and spirituall life is he thereby also made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption Not that he onely workes these great things in and for us this were too cold a construction of the divine bounty but that he really becomes all these to us who are true partakers of him Even of the wisest men that ever nature could boast
regenerate soul hath an inherent justice or righteousnesse in it self He that is righteous let him be righteous still saith the Angel But at the best this righteousness of ours is like our selves full of imperfection If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand Behold we are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this How should a man be just with God If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand So then hee that doth righteousnesse is righteous but by pardon and indulgence because the righteousnesse he doth is weak and imperfect he that is made righteousnesse is perfectly righteous by a gracious acceptation by a free imputation of absolute obedience Wo were us if wee were put over to our own accōplishments for Cursed is every one that cōtinueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them and If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Lo if there be truth in us we must confesse we have sinne in us and if we have sin we violate the Law and if we violate the Law we lye open to a curse But here is our comfort that our surety hath paid our debt It is true we lay forfaited to death Justice had said The soul that sinneth shall die Mercy interposeth and satisfies The Son of God whose every drop of bloud was worth a world payes this death for us And now Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercessiō for us Our sin our death is laid upon him and undertaken by him He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisements of our peace were upon him and with his stripes we are healed His death his obedience is made over to us So then the sin that we have committed and the death that we have deserved is not ours but the death which he hath endured and the obedience that he hath performed is so ours as he is ours who is thereupon made of God our righteousnesse Where now are those enemies of grace that scoffe at imputation making it a ridiculous paradox that a man should become just by another mans righteousnesse How dare they stand out against the word of truth which tels us expresly that Christ is made our righteousnesse What strangers are they to that grace they oppugn How little do they consider that Christ is ours his righteousnesse therefore by which we are justified is in him our own Hee that hath borne the iniquitie of us all hath taught us to call our sinnes our debts those debts can be but once paid if the bounty of our Redeemer hath staked down the sums required and cancelled the bonds and this payment is through mercy fully accepted as frō our own hands what danger what scruple can remain What doe we then weak souls tremble to think of appearing before the dreadfull tribunall of the Almighty we know him indeed to be infinitely and inflexibly just we know his most pure eyes cannot abide to behold sin we know wee have nothing else but sinne for him to behold in us Certainly were we to appear before him in the meer shape of our own sinfull selves we had reason to shake and shiver at the apprehension of that terrible appearance but now that our faith assures us we shall no otherwise bee presented to that awfull Judge then as cloathed with the robes of Christs righteousnesse how confident should we be thus decked with the garments of our elder brother to carry away a blessing whiles therefore we are dejected with the conscience of our own vilenesse we have reason to lift up our heads in the confidence of that perfect righteousnesse which Christ is made unto us and we are made in him At the barre of men many a one is pronounced just who remains inwardly foule and guilty for the best of men can but judge of things as they appear not as they are but the righteous Arbiter of the world declares none just whom he makes not holy The same mercy therefore that makes Christ our righteousnesse makes him also our sanctification of our selves wretched men what are we other at 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 and work us daily to further degrees of sanctification He that is holy let him be holy stil neither can there be anything 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 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 wrinckle or any such thing but that wee should bee holy and without blemish so as that inchoate holinesse which by his gracious inoperation grows up daily in us towards a full perfection is abundantly supplyed by his absolute holinesse made no lesse by imputation ours then it is personally his When therefore we look into our bosomes we finde just cause to bee ashamed of our impurity and to loath those dregs of corruption that yet remain in our sinfull nature but when vve east up our eyes to heaven and behold the infinite holinesse of that Christ to whom we are united which by faith is made ours vvee 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 vvhom he is pleased to present holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight as knowing that he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one Redemption vvas the great errand for vvhich the Sonne of God came down into the vvorld and the vvorke vvhich hee did vvhiles hee vvas in the vvorld and that vvhich in vvay of application of it hee shall bee 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
that man or that world had any beeing hast so far loved me as to pre-ordain me to a place of blessedness in that heaven which should be and to make me a co-heir with my Christ of thy glory And oh what an heaven is this that thou hast laid out for me how resplendent how transcendently glorious Even that lower Paradise which thou providedst for the harbour of innocence and holinesse was full of admirable beauty pleasure magnificence but if it be compared with this Paradise above which thou hast prepared for the everlasting entertainment of restored souls how mean and beggerly it was Oh match too unequall of the best peece of earth with the highest state of the heaven of heavens In that earthly Paradise I finde thine Angels the Cherubim but it was to keep man off from that Garden of Delight and from the tree of life in the midst of it but in this heavenly one I finde millions of thy Cherubim and Seraphim rejoycing at mans blessednesse and welcomming the glorified souls to their heaven There I finde but the shadow of that whereof the substance is here There we were so possessed of life that yet we might forfait it here is life without all possibility of death Temptation could finde accesse thither here is nothing but a free and compleat fruition of blessednesse There were delights fit for earthly bodies here is glory more then can be enjoyed of blessed souls That was watered with four streams muddy and impetuous in this is the pure river of the water of life clear as Crystall proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb There I finde thee onely walking in the cool of the day here manifesting thy Majesty continually There I see onely a most pleasant Orchard set with all manner of varieties of flourishing and fruitfull plants here I finde also the City of God infinitely rich and magnificent the building of the wall of it of Jasper and the City it selfe pure gold like unto cleare glasse and the foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones All that I can here attain to see is the pavement of thy celestiall habitation and Lord how glorious it is how bespangled with glittering starres for number for magnitude equally admirable What is the least of them but a world of light and what are all of them but a confluence of so many thousand worlds of beauty and brightnesse met in one firmament And if this floor of thine heavenly Palace be thus richly set forth oh how infinite glory and magnificence must there needs be within Thy chosen Vessell that had the priviledge to be caught up thither and to see that divine state whether with bodily or mentall eyes can expresse it no otherwise then that it cannot possibly be expressed No Lord it were not infinite if it could bee uttered Thoughts goe beyond words yet even these come far short also He that saw it says Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Yet is thy love O Saviour so much more to bee magnified of me in this purchased glory when I cast down mine eyes and look into that horrible gulf of torment and eternall death whence thou hast rescued my poor soul Even out of the greatest contentment which this world is capable to afford unto mankind to be preferred to the joys of heavē is an unconceivable advantage but from the depth of misery to be raised up unto the highest pitch of felicity addes so much more to the blessing as the evill from which we are delivered is more intolerable Oh blessed Jesu what an hell is this out of which thou hast freed me what dreadfull horror is here what darknesse what confusion what anguish of souls that would and cannot die what howling and yelling and shrieking and gnashing what everlasting burnings what never slaking tortures what mercilesse fury of unweariable tormentors what utter despair of any possibility of release what exquisitenesse what infinitenesse of paines that cannot yet must be endured Oh God if the impotent displeasure of weake men have devised so subtile engines of revenge upon their fellow-mortals for but petty offences how can wee but think thine infinite justice and wisdome must have ordained such forms and ways of punishment for hainous sins done against thee as may be answerable to the violation of thy divine Majesty Oh therefore the most fearfull and deplored condition of damned spirits never to be ended never to be abated Oh those unquenchable flames Oh that burning Tophet deep and large and those streams of brimstone wherewith it is kindled Oh that worm ever gnawing and tearing the heart never dying never sated Oh ever-living death oh ever renuing torments oh never pitied never intermitted damnation From hence O Saviour from hence it is that thou hast fetcht up my condemned soul This is the place this is the state out of which thou hast snatcht me up into thy heaven Oh love and mercy more deep then those depths from which thou hast saved me more high then that heaven to which thou hast advanced me Now whereas in my passage from this state of death towards the fruition of immortall glory I am way-laid by a world of dangers partly through my own sinfull aptnesse to miscarriages and partly through the assaults of my spirituall enemies how hath thy tender love and compassion ô blessed Jesu undertaken to secure my soul from all these deadly perils both without and within without by the guardance of thy blessed Angels within by the powerfull inoperation of thy good Spirit which thou hast given me Oh that mine eyes could be opened with Elishaes servant that I might see those troops of heavenly soldiers those horses and chariots of fire wherewith thou hast encompassed mee every one of which is able to chase away a whole host of the powers of darknes Who am I Lord who am I that upon thy gracious appointment these glorious spirits should still watch over me in mine uprising and down lying in my going out and comming in that they should bear me in their arms that they should shield me with their protection Behold such is their majesty and glory that some of thy holiest servants have hardly been restrained from worshipping them yet so great is thy love to man as that thou hast ordained them to be ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Surely they are in nature far more excellent then man as being spirituall substances pure intelligences meet to stand before the throne of thee the King of glory What a mercy then is this that thou who wouldst humble thy self to be lower then they in the susception of our nature art pleased to humble them in their offices to the guardianship of man so far as to call them the Angels of thy little ones upon earth How hast thou
tempting variety he puts his knife to his throat neither dares he feed without fear as knowing who over-looks him Obscenity detraction scurrility are barred from his table neither doe any words sound there that are lesse savoury then the dishes Lastly he so feeds as if he sought for health in those viands and not pleasure as if he did eat to live and rises not more replenished with food then with thankfulnesse In a due season he betakes himself to his rest he presumes not to alter the Ordinance of day and night nor dares confound where distinction is made by his Maker It is not with him as with the brute creatures that have nothing to look after but the meer obedience of nature he doth not therefore lay himself down as the swine in the stye or a dog in a kennell without any further preface to his desired sleep but improves those faculties which he is now closing up to a meet preparation for an holy repose for which purpose he first casts back his eye to the now-expired day and seriously considers how he hath spent it and will be sure to make his reckonings even with his God before he part Then he lifts up his eyes and his heart to that God who hath made the night for man to rest in and recommends himself earnestly to his blessed protection and then closeth his eyes in peace not without a serious meditation of his last rest his bed represents to him his grave his linnen his winding sheet his sleep death the night the many days of darknesse and shortly he so composeth his soul as if he lookt not to wake till the morning of the resurrection After which if he sleep he is thankfully chearfull if he sleep not his reins chasten and instruct him in the night season and if sleep be out of his eyes yet God and his Angels are not Whensoever he awakes in those hands he findes himself and therefore rests sweetly even when he sleeps not His very dreams however vain or troublesome are not to him altogether unprofitable for they serve to bewray not onely his bodily temper but his spirituall weaknesses which his waking resolutions shall endevour to correct He so applies himself to his pillow as a man that meant not to be drowned in sleep but refreshed not limiting his rest by the insatiable lust of a sluggish and drowzie stupidnesse but by the exigence of his health and abilitation to his calling and rises from it not too late with more appetite to his work then to a second slumber chearfully devoting the strength renued by his late rest to the honour and service of the giver His carriage is not strange insolent surly and overly contemptuous but familiarly meek humble courteous as knowing what mold he is made of and not knowing any worse man then himself He hath an hand ready upon every occasion to be helpfull to his neighbour as if he thought himself made to do good He hates to sell his breath to his friend where his advice may be usefull neither is more ambitious of any thing under heaven then of doing good offices It is his happinesse if he can reconcile quarrels and make peace between dissenting friends When he is chosen an Umpire he will be sure to cut even betwixt both parties and commonly displeaseth both that he may wrong neither If he be called forth to Magistracy he puts off all private interests and commands friendship to give place to justice Now he knows no couzens no enemies neither couzens for favour nor enemies for revenge but looks right forward to the cause without squinting aside to the persons No flattery can keep him from brow-beating of vice no fear can work him to discourage vertue Where severity is requisite he hates to enjoy anothers punishment and where mercy may be more prevalent he hates to use severity Power doth not render him imperious and oppressive but rather humbles him in the awfull expectation of his account If he be called to the honour of Gods Embassie to his people he dares not but be faithfull in delivering that sacred Message he cannot now either fear faces or respect persons it is equally odious to him to hide and smother any of Gods counsell and to foist in any of his own to suppresse truth and to adulterate it He speaks not himself but Christ and labours not to tickle the ear but to save souls So doth he goe before his flock as one that means to feed them no lesse by his example then by his doctrine and would condemn himself if he did not live the Gospel as well as preach it He is neither too austere in his retirednesse nor too good-cheap in his sociablenesse but carries so eaven an hand that his discreet affablenesse may be free from contempt and that he may win his people with a loving conversation If any of his charge be mis-carried into an errour of opinion he labours to reclaim him by the spirit of meeknesse so as the mis-guided may reade nothing but love in his zealous conviction if any be drawn into a vicious course of life he fetches him back with a gentle yet powerfull hand by an holy importunity working the offender to a sense of his own danger and to a saving penitence Is he the master of a family he dares not be a Lion in his own house cruelly tyrannizing over his meanest drudge but so moderately exercises his power as knowing himself to be his apprentices fellow-servant He is the mouth of his meiny to God in his daily devotions offering up for them the calves of his lips in his morning and evening sacrifice and the mouth of God unto them in his wholesome instructions and godly admonitions he goes before them in all good examples of piety and holy conversation and so governs as one that hath more then meer bodies committed to his charge Is he the husband of a wife He carries his yoak even not laying too much weight upon the weaker neck His helper argues him the principall and he so knows it that he makes a wise use of his just inequality so remembring himself to be the superiour as that he can be no other then one flesh He maintains therefore his moderate authority with a conjugall love so holding up the right of his sexe that in the mean time he doth not violently clash with the britler vessel As his choice was not made by weight or by the voice or by the hiew of the hide but for pure affection grounded upon vertue so the same regards hold him close to a constant continuance of his chast love which can never yeeld either to change or intermission Is he a father of children he looks upon them as more Gods then his own and governs them accordingly He knows it is onely their worse part which they have received from his loins their diviner half is from the father of lights and is now become the main part of his charge