triangle of judgments what shall I do but imitate them in their crying and conversion unto thee saying with him I have sinned I am in a great straight let me fall into the hands of thee O Lord for thy mercies are great O faith as thou hast an eye so thou hast an ear too wherefore give attention For thy King named thy Jesus because he shall save his People from their sins even he who only on Earth hath power to forgive sins makes his answer in the mouth of the Psalmist even to be the eccho of thy submissive Petition The Lord forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases and redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with loving kindness O miracle of goodness how experimentally and thankfully ought I with that penitent Saint to publish thy excelling mercy since I had no sooner said that is intended I will confess my transgression but thou forgavest me the iniquity of my sin Come hither come hither all yee true Israelites whom the sight of these Philistines and their armed Troops ready for the Battel have made you to tremble and to hide your selves Behold your Standard-Royal your Prince your true Jonathan for him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins who hath trodden the Wine-press of Gods wrath alone and of the People there was none with him And Jonathan-like with incredible pains hath assaulted the Adversaries our sins ruining their Fort viz. the curse of the Law for the strength of sin is the Law being made a curse for us where by dying he hath put to death all our Enemies according to that of the Apostle in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins having made peace through the blood of his Cross in the likeness of sinfull Flesh and by sin condemning sin in the Flesh. Further he is not only the God of the Valleys but of the Mountains also having not only overcome for us our infirmities but all even our Mountainous our scarlet transgressions witness his promise though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow Again I will be mercifull to their transgressions and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more To conclude this point this his great Victory as it tryumphs over all sins so it is not confined to some times or Persons as he so it being the same in efficacy yesterday to day and for ever as testifies St. John If any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World O all powerfull Victor upon whose thigh is written King of Kings Lord of Lords who art gone forth conquering and to conquer leading captivity captive and receiving gifts for Men forgiving all our trespasses and blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us taking it away and nailing it to thy Cross who hast spoyled these Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it My Soul thy off-spring like Jephtha's Daughter with the melodious harmony of gratefulness and praise runs forth to meet thee my Father my Saviour earnestly desiring to be offered up unto thee as a thanksgiving and with Manoah's Angel to ascend to thy presence in the flames of pious affections Did Moses Miriam and the rest with Timbrels and dances magnify their delivery and thy Conquest over the drown'd Egyptians and shall not my Musick of gratulation be tuned to an higher key my Song be raised to a loftier pitch whose numerous Enemies thou hast drentcht not in a red Sea of Water but of thy infinitely precious Blood Did the Virgins of Israel by their penetrating acclamations as it were engrave this glorious Inscription on their Champions forehead Saul hath slain his thousands David his ten thousands How ought my ejaculatory Prayers to pierce the Heavens and meet thy eares who for my sake hast slain not thousands but millions of thousands yea millions of millions Those protections were corporal these spiritual those by mediate Instruments this by thy Self those were temporary this eternal O omnipotent goodness since my finite beeing cannot extend nor proportion an acknowledgment requisite to thy infinite merit accept as in other duties thou art pleased my desire which continually sigheth for an infinite expression And as thou hast O thou which art that Stone cut out without hands that Corner-stone of thy Church by thy self bruised the Head of the Serpent that Goliah Sathan slain and disbanded all his Troops my sins yea choakt them in the Sea of thy blood be further pleased that their gall being broke that is their guilt and bitterness extracted they may for ever be covered with those crimson waves and be sunk down deep and intomb'd into that gulf of mercy that the eye of justice may never view them nor its power raise them again to my destruction How fitly and consonant to the word of truth is the Church upon Earth called militant her Children Souldiers their life a warfare and their spiritual graces the armour of God Amongst which how aptly is faith made our Shield and prefer'd before the rest in the Apostles Discipline Above all take the Shield of Faith For whereas the breast-plate safe guards that part the Helmet secures the Head the other pieces the inferiour Members the Shield of Faith is a moving an ubiquitary defence Sometime it interposes it self as you have formerly heard to save the Head that is the understanding and the rest of the Superiour faculties from the fiery darts which those spiritual wickednesses in high places throw down upon us Sometimes it is opposed breast high in defence of the affections against the deceitfull allurements and assaults of the World as shortly shall be shewed And in the conclusion of this spiritual combat when the Enemy groveling under our Feet puts forth his mortal sting of death c. descends and receives it where fixt it carries it in tryumph to our spiritual home so that O death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory But of this in its place The particular Church of Israel in her transmigration into Canaan is a type of the Church Universal seeking an Heavenly Canaan and warring for her spiritual inheritance As it was with them so with us There is during our whole lives peregrination no intermission of Armes every true Christian being environed about with implacable and malicious Enemies being in respect of malice as well as local position in the midst of the World so that every one of us hath cause to groan out Davids Lamentation Woe is me that I sojourn in Meseâ—k that I dwell
be unto God who gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Blessed Saviour and Soveraign Now I am assured that thou art a Rock upon which Man being built by faith becomes impregnable so high that he is far above Honours battery so strong as not to be taken by the assaults of bloody Persecutions so firm as not to be betrayed by covetousness nor undermined by voluptuousness The Siege of Troy one of the longest we read of continued but ten years and then she was buryed in her ashes whereas the Christians lasts a life an age and even then ascends a tryumphant Throne of Glory upon the Necks of his Enemies Every Christians life is a Book of the Battels of the Lord thou being as well nay more the Lord of Hosts in respect of our spiritual Fights and Victories as of our corporal those Enemies flâ—shly these spiritual those weak and mortal their Principalities Powers immortal those below and numerable these from above and innumerable O thy mercy in thy assistance O thy power in thy resistance Divine Monarch as it is thy sole act and gift our victory so let it be ours to retribute to thee alone the Glory The last Enemy that is to be destroyed is Death saith the Apostle so in these Meditations But why a double death to death Hath not the Martyrs Sword mortally wounded this Serpent Yes but yet he hisses still And therefore lest he may fright the fearfull we will add more wounds that so the weakest Christian may with Moses take this Serpent into his hand Yea more which is the Miracle it shall become a Staff an assistant in his Heavenly Journey As there is a violent and enforced death such is Martyrdome so there is a natural and timely dissolution In the one we dye in and for the Lord as hath been shewed in this other we dye in and to the Lord the one is ordinary the other is extraordinary the one common the other particular with both these Heads our Enemy Death playes the Tyrant and Sin the Executioner The Sting of Death is Sin 'T is an Observation that things common and universal are less admired or feared But what more general and frequent than Death what more frightfull and astonishing This is the Coloquintida that imbitters all humane pleasures So that oft-times the burthen of Man's sweetest Song is that dolefull complaint of the Children of the Prophet Mors in olla There 's Death in the Pot. This is the Water of Marach which the Children of Men murmur to taste of which will they nill they they must drink and dye But O my Soul behold a City of refuge for thee and all that are Children of the Prophets the Israel of God behold thy true Moses hast cast Lignum Vitae into this Spring of Sin to sweeten thy draught Thy spiritual Elisha hath cast Meat into this boyling Pot even himself broken and grownd by Gods justice that so he might correct the cursed effects of this wilde Wine which God created not For He is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven that a Man may eat thereof and not dye Wouldst thou have this more illustrated and proved Hear then thy Champions challenge to this allâ—conquering Enemy O Death I will be thy death view also his courage before and in the conflict I thirst The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Again I have a Baptisme to be baptized with and how am I streightned untill it be accomplisht Farther concerning the conflict it self hear the Psalmist in the Person of our Saviour The sorrows of Death compast me and the pains of Hell gat hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Lastly in the conclusion of this truth that thou mayest know that Christ being raised from the Dead dyeth no more Death hath no more dominion over him that he hath abolished Death and hath brought life and immortality to light for thee and all believers through the Gospel according to the Apostle Hear his Conquest and tryumph first Proclaimed by St. Paul Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Then published and revealed by himself I am he that liveth and was dead behold I am alive for ever more Amen and have the Keys of Hell and Death Lastly view his right conveighed to thee in that large and royal Pattent of his Word Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods Again God shall wipe away all tears from your Eyes and there shall be no more Death neither sorrows nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Having thus strongly under the royal Standard of Christ Jesus entrencht thy self O my Soul against this mortal and heart-torturing adversary Let thy faith placed even upon the Platform of sanctified reason wait for to make a challenge to the stoutest assailants of the Enemy The van-curriers of whom is fear and its concomitants Pompa mortis saith one well magis terret quam mors ipsa Against these Light-Horsemen discharge this murdering piece of the Apostles Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood Christ also himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject unto bondage Examples of worthies invisibly conveighs courage into magnanimous mindes wherefore if fear renew its force and re-assault thee interpose as a strong Barracado the ejaculation of dying Jacob. O Lord I wait for thy salvation The Meditation of patient Job All the days of my appointed time will I wait untill my change come The fervent supplication of devout Paul whose desire was to depart and to be with Christ. The next assaylant and assistant of Death is grief to part with things of this life The beauty goodness and love of a Wife The youth numerousness and hopefulness of Children The fidelity affection and society of friends The hundreds thousands yea Ingots of treasure now to be left together with all the pleasures honours and pomp of the World being as so many arrowes to pierce thorow with sorrow the heart of the natural Man so many racks to his distracted Soul yea so many deaths in Death if we respect its inforc'd disunion But the devout Soul having not only a natural but a supernatural affection hath if ever then the spirit of Heavenly wisdome and spiritual discerning concerning things that differ And therefore willingly chearfully and resolutely with Mary chooseth the better part forsaking her earthly Spouse for a Heavenly the Impes of nature for the Fruits of Grace for her works follow her She voluntarily
Garden rather express an excess of pain than an unwillingness to suffer rather declare his Humanity than contradict his Divinity might by these Speeches have been afresh molested and invited to a self-deliverance even in this entrance of death Further they might also thus suggest that he should not only by such 〈◊〉 giversation be freed from the present and unsupportable torment rescued from the all conquering Monarchy but also without controversie be received and acknowledged the Son of God the King of Israel Yea which is more miraculous than all the rest those that even now were impious Traitors will instantly become obedient Subjects those that ere while were execrable blasphemers will presently be changed into righteous converts those whom John rightly stiled a Generation of Vipers our Saviour a faithless Generation will in a moment be metamorphosed into believing Christians O blessed Redeemer had not our lives been more dear unto thee than thine own these Diabolical charms might have raised up such a self-love as would have forced a repreeval from death But thou O Lord searchest the heart yea thou knowest how exceeding full of hypocrisie the minds of these Men were So that if thou shouldest have descended from the Cross or sent unto them one from the dead they would neither have trusted in thee nor credited the other since they believed not Moses nor the Prophets Three hours measure out this last act of our Saviours sufferings That mass and full measure of sin which many thousand of years had treasured up must not be abolished or annihilated in an instant Why was not the infinite sufferings of Man deified though dated but for one minute of more rate price and estimation than the offences of Man mortall yea surely Wherefore then this overplus O it is the overflowing of this Fountain of love The immense disparity betwixt the offender and satisfier the Creature and Creator causeth this disproportion betwixt the debt and satisfaction Man cannot sin but finitely God cannot love but infinitely Man's actions to which his sin cleaves are finite God's Attributes one of which is his love are infinite O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God! Lord grant that I being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth all understanding that I may be filled with the fulness of God The friendship of Man is momentary fickle and unconstant as wanting measure perseverance and a true foundation But the mercy of God expressed to Man his most unworthy Creature is the very quintessence compleatment and perfection of all other loves being not defective in quantity for in him doth all fulness dwell nor in quality for it is the love of God nor in stability for he is Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end the great Jehovah who is not changed With whom is no variableness nor shaddow of turning And lastly the cause of it is his own free grace the ground of it Jesus Christ. So that the Foundation of God standeth sure as having this seal the Lord knoweth who are his The glorious and infinite Attributes of the Almighty are so many glasses through which at distance the Creature in some sort may perceive the Majesty of the Creator Amongst which none is more usefully transparent than that of his love The mirrour of which mirrour is the passion of our Saviour The Centre of all which is this very point of his death O gracious Lord was it not enough that thou forsookest the Heaven of Heavens thy Throne of Glory to live amongst Worms on this Dunghill Earth the unworthy foot-stool of thy greatness Nay further was it not sufficient that thou endurest the stings and persecutions of those Muck-worms suffering such insects even the corruption of nature to brawle and tryumph over thee but that thou would'st also pray forgive and dye for thy Persecutors For a righteous Man perhaps some would suffer but thou dyest for sinners the just for the unjust Lord Jesus let the apprehension of thy wonderfull affection be as delightfull to the taste of my Soul as thy last draught of Gall and Vinegar was displeasant to the relish of thy pallate As thy sense of my sin and thy Fathers wrath made thee cry aloud for assistance so let the sense of thy mercy my happiness make me lift up my voice in thankfulness Yea let me conclude my hours each day of my life with that comfortable and Swan-like ditty of thine Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Death is swallowed up in Victory 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 unto God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Finis coronat opus the last acts of our Saviour are not the least In the foregoing encounters he was a Combatant In these following actions a glorious and peaceful Conquerour The account cast up the compleatment concludes the operation He was buried O my Soul should thy faith be so weak-sighted as to make thy Saviours Death the utmost extent of thy prospects thou mightest then as one without hope uncomfortably weep with the Marys at the Foot of his Cross. But thanks be unto God thou mayest overlook that fear being assured that the Grave of thy Champion is not his Prison but his resting place the conclusion of the fight being the beginning of his victory Upon the Cross our blessed Saviour accepted the challenge of Death fulfilling that of the Prophet O Death I will be thy Death And here in the Sepulchre beginneth his Tryumph For No Man can enter into a strong Mans House and spoile his goods except he will first binde the strong Man and then he will spoyle his House The Grave is the Metropolis of Death which our General enters that so the place might both assure us of his Combate his Victory and add glory to his Tryumph Had'st thou O blessed Saviour been led into this Cytadel of Death as his Captive the Gives of corruption would soon have made thee his bond-slave But behold the greatness of thy Power the innocency of thy Person tramples on this last Enemy that is to be subdued and makes thy Tombe his Grave Death being swallowed up in Victory As the Suns Eclipse makes us the more acknowledge the brightness and benefit of his light so the clouding of our Saviour by death teacheth us his Disciples at once the felicity of his presence the uncomfortableness of his absence and the perfection of his Person The descents of Mans misery are the degrees to Christs victory As we in this World inherited sin so he upon Earth merited righteousness As we in the Grave are subjects to death so he in the Sepulchre makes death his subject
he became a Priest unto God not to offer up for himself or for others expiating Sacrifices because sin then was not for God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good But his sweet incense was Prayer proceeding not from want but from love and duty his Kids were the Calves of his Lips inflamed with praise and sparkling with admiration from the Altar of a pure heart an un-bloody Sacrifice But this Jubile continued not a Year a Moneth a Week I think scarcely a Day God's first Sabbath of rest I suppose was the utmost date of Mans freedome from sin For no sooner had temptation voluntary leave to enter through the sences into this holy Temple but the ambush of sin rushed out of Sathans imposture as the Grecians from their Horse and overthrew and polluted the Priest the Sacrifice and the Altar If the Clay works not according to the mind of the Potter no marvail if he bruise it to powder And if the Creature honour not the Creator 't is Justice in him to destroy it When the House of God is become a Den of Thieves the Priest of God an Idolater and servant to sin and the Altar of God dedicated to Sathan It must needs follow that the curse of God fore-threatned shall now be executed Yee shall surely die O wretched Man hath God pronounced that thou shalt die Be ascertained thou must die since his unchangable Decrees are shaddowed out unto us by the Laws of the Medes and Persians which alter not Must Man die and hath God enacted it who then can deliver us from this Body of Death Be of good comfort we have mercy for our Esther the Son of God for our Mordecay who hath without reversing qualified and fulfilled the decree of his Father Who now can lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifies who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us being the only Mediator betwixt God and Man All Priests since the fall within the Church of God were the Types of our high Priest Christ Jesus For no sooner was there a breach made betwixt God and Man the Creator and the Creature but mercy pleaded for a reconciliation and that reconciliation in Justice required a Mediator which is the Lord Jesus A principal part of whose Mediatorship is this his office of the Priesthood Before the Law typified in Melchizedeck in the Law pre-figured by Aaron and his Sons and in the Gospel really executed and fulfilled by himself The acts of this his office are chiefly two as being proportionable to the defect and necessity of Man the offendor viz. To satisfie to intercede Go forth now my Soul and bid defiance to all thy Enemies For the Shield of thy faith shall receive all their darts without any danger to thee retorting them back even into the adversaries faces Appear now with confidence before the judgment Seat of God bringing with thee to the Bar of Mercy thy Advocate Christ Jesus Thither summon Sin that Tyrant whom whilst thou weart a Traytor to thy Maker thou didst serve together with those Homicides Death and Hell Let him bring his Parent with him also even Sathan his Agent thy Accuser yea let thy own conscience be called as a Witness Lastly let the Law be prefer'd as thy Inditement Against all those let thy Saviour oppose himself and maugre their objections and accusations plead thy innocency that so thy righteousness may break forth as the light and thy judgment as the Noon-day For he shall trample thine and his Enemies under his feet and destroy them with the two-edged Sword of his Word Doth Sin challenge a right on thee Our Saviour answers That the old Man is crucified with him that the Body of Sin might be destroyed that hence-forth thou should'st not serve Sin Doth Death and Hell cry out we are thy wages The Almighty Conquerour replies O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory And that thou maist never hereafter fear 't is added Death and Hell shall be cast into the Lake of Fire Doth Sathan accuse thee behold thy Michael shall chase this malitious Dragon from the judgment Seat witness that voice of tryumph that the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down which accused them before our God Day and Night And as for thy conscience fear not its testimony since it ceases to accuse when Sin is not imputed For whosoever is born of God sinneth not Again a spotless and blameless conscience cannot be a blaming and condemning conscience But Christ through the eternal Spirit hath offered himself without spot to God that he might purge thy Conscience from dead works Wherefore having such an High Priest over the House of God draw thou neer with a free Heart in full assurance of Faith Lastly doth the severe justice of the Law threaten to swallow thee up strengthen and comfort thy self in Christ who hath redeemed thee from the curse of the Law being made a curse for thee for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree c. Yea let this following immunity The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus having made thee free from the Law of Sin and Death dismiss thy fears and silence all thy adversaries O my Saviour who art only the true Melchizedeck the compleatment of Aaron's Priest-hood and the end of the Law How much praise is thy due from me thy redeemed since to me is thy saying verified Blessed are those Eyes that see those things that I see And the Eares that hear those things that I hear Abraham saw thee in Isaac David saw thee in Solomon but I see thee in thy self yea in these and in all other thy Types I see thee also and that with much comfort and confirmation in thy Calling Vnction Bloody Sacrifice Sanctification Redemption Ascention and Intercession which were heretofore mysteriously bound up in the Levitical Priest-hood are now fulfilled and to me graciously manifested Lord Jesus since of thy free mercy thou hast made my deafness to hear and hast given me sight that was blinde for the strengthning of my faith As I have seen thee in thy types so let me see thee also in that eternal decree of thy Father So shall salvation appear Gods act and not Mans phantasie viz. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Thou art the Lamb slain that takes away the sins of the World Lastly let me behold the execution thereof wherein the Lord is both offered to me and accepted for me viz. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased O my Soul what canst thou now more desire as having the Decree of God for thy Foundation the merit
of sinfull Flesh and for sin to condemn sin in the Flesh which Victory He obtained by his Death For in that he dyed he dyed unto sin once so reckon we also our selves as being baptized into his Death to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Thus being made free from Sin we are become the Servants of righteousness neither hath Sin any more dominion over us as being not under the Law which is the strength of Sin but under Grace the moving cause of our Salvation Further this total and spiritual Leprosie is in Scripture tearmed a general pollution of the whole Man In which sence how many sweet and gracious promises doth the Old Testament offer to the faith of every true Believer poynting out unto us with the Angel when in a far more despicable and desperate estate than Hagar's Ismael a Spring a Well of living Water In that day which is the day there shall be a Fountain opened to the House of David and to the Inhabitants of the Spiritual Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness And lest with that Cripple in the Gospel we should be unable to make tryal of the Virtue nay because we are with that miserable Infant in the Prophet Dead in sins and trespasses Therefore he adds he will say unto us live which agrees with his immediate Word in St. John's Gospel The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Nay which is more he will become our spiritual Physician and Chyrurgion to heal to wash to cleanse to circumcise to anoint us witness this his own promise viz. Then will I sprinkle clean Water upon you and yee shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you a new Heart will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony Heart out of your Flesh and I will give you an Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and yee shall keep my judgments and do them O thou which art my Joshua my Jesus and hast cast out and destroyed my Cananitish lusts leaving only some few tributaries to try my obedience and to be as pricks in my sides that I might not sleep to death in security grant me thy strength of grace more and more to prevail over them though they have Chariots of Iron as being strong corruptions and inhabit the Valleys as being ambushed in a deep and deceitfull heart Enable me O Lord either to destroy them or to make them Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water to the House of my God that is serviceable to thy spiritual Building and Temple which I am Let Avarice be turned into a coveting of spiritual things Excess in thy Creatures to a repletion with thy Spirit Worldly sorrow which worketh death unto godly sorrow not to be repented of Love of Earth to a love of Heaven O my gratious Physitian what â—ee have I or is great enough for this spiritual cure or rather miracle a resurrection from the dead Lord thou hast given me all therefore I have nothing to give Yet though I cannot give I will do right and render as to Caesar so unto God what is his My Soul beares thy impress thy Image and is therefore passant in Heaven Wherefore when thou pleasest embanck it there in glory The greater an offence is the more severe and weighty the punishment This rule of proportion giving both a beeing and splendor to distributive Justice Whisperers and murmurers against a State are not prosecuted with so much rigour as the openly rebellious Nor according to the judgment of truth it self shall the ignorant Servant be beaten with as many stripes as the presumptuous offender Blessed Saviour even in this maxime of humane Justice there is though in weak and faint shaddowes a glimpse and representation of thine Mans well doing and best of action being but an imperfect imitation of thee a most pure and universal act which ballances our faults and retributes to each his due weight of punishment Thus righteously judging that if causeless anger be in danger of the judgment then approbrious and disgracefull speeches such as thou fool being a further degree and an accursed fruit of the former shall be in perril of an Hell-fire So Paul because a Persecutor through ignorance received mercy when as Julian an Apostate and wilfull sinner died a Blasphemer Lord I have laid this train to blow up my self O let thy conviction in justice like a storm before a calm forego thy absolution in mercy Righteous Judge if that thy mortal sentence hath already attached me as Adam's Son as Adam's Image yea I have pleaded guilty shall not my numberless actual transgressions meriting that other curse of thy Law make me therefore as deserving thy double curse liable to a double punishment Yes surely unless miserable wretch infiniteness and eternity will not admit of an addition If one single act the breach of one Injunction that which the Papists and others though erroneously would have no sin or at the most a venial sin that which is mine not by personal commission as not then in esse but as it were by consanguinity by imputation from Adam my root fountain and transactor If this O Lord as formerly it is sufficiently evinced hath not only arraigned me at the Bar of Justice but cast me as guilty of high Treason and worthy of eternal punishment and not only me but those without the Pale of the Church unless God be mercifull to them who have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgressions that is as some interpret actually How ponderous and excessively weighty shall my judgment appear in Justice scale How shall her Rods be converted into Scorpions How shall the same hand and power that inflicts in respect of durance an eternal yea in all respects if we measure by the Creatures weak apprehension an infinite suffering magnify it self in the augmentation of pain according to our encrease actuality and agedness of sin adding as it were infinite to infinite and making me to be unhappily so also that is capable of it and able to subsist under its just pressure O my God I walk in this my vale of misery like the Egyptians through the red Sea before me is thy clouded countenance and wrathfull indignation ready to give the watch word to my execution On the right hand and the left stand the towring and threatning Waves of my sinfull omissions commissions and deficiencies ready as the Psalmist speaks to swallow up and flowe over my Soul and behind me the pitchy darkness of horrour and punishment waites to entombe me for ever O my Saviour being thus like Abijah encompast with the Ambushes of my Enemies like fallen David immurde within his
of thy Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Where also we shall sit together with him and be then perfectly changed into the same Image from glory to glory Thus reckoning that the sufferings of this present life even Death it self are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Let us not faint for though our outward Man perish yet let our inward Man be renewed Day by Day being confident that our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory Looking as hath been shewed not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal Dread not then O my Darling this Lion Is not he faithfull who hath promised that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee That he will be thy guide even unto Death Or dost thou doubt his Power to whom belongs the issues from Death and at whose voice all that are in the Graves shall come forth Behold a Tree of Life indeed the spiritual Manna which do but feed on by faith and thou shalt not dye For He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever Was it with blessed Paul to live Christ and to dye is gain and shall thy cowardise and recoyling insinuate and imply a loss No let such thoughts as Impes of Sin first dye yea be annihilated since every true Believer is assured of a glorious change and an ineffable reward Corruption putting on incorruption and mortality immortality we dying no more but being made equal to the Angels For as we have been planted together in the likeness of Christs death so shall we be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Did many Worthies under the thunder of the Law and in the twilight of the Gospel as the Apostle witnesses undergo the exquisitest tortures not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection And shall we in this open day and Evangelical Revelation when by faith like Stephen we behold our Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God ready to receive us and having as he promised taken possession and prepared a place for us stand back like Saul And being neer our Coronation seek still to hide our selves under the rubbish of our Earthly Tabernacles No what was humility in him will be esteemed shamefull and distrustfull pusillanimity in us yea which is worse disobedience to the Almighties summons Let the wicked hang down their heads and cry to the Mountains and Rocks to cover them but let all of us that have obtained grace be faithfull be faithfull unto the death and he shall give us a Crown of Life lifting up our heads because the time of our redemption draws neer even that day of recompence when the Lord shall say well done good and faithfull Servant enter into thy Masters joy Not it into us because not enough capable but we into it that so we may be as it were swallowed up in that infinite Ocean of Glory What though the Soul and Body have been unseparable friends contemporaries in life and being associates in joy sympathisers in sorrow two in nature one in affection Do we not read of Jesse and his Darling David Of an Eliah and his beloved Elisha Of an Hanna and her long desired Samuel Of a Mordecai and his entirely affected Hester All which cheerfully consented to a disunion and separation that so the conjunction of hearts might appear inviolable which seeks not so much the presence as the happiness of each other And shall thy Soul O Earth be summoned not to play before a mortal King as David before Saul but to sing the Song of the Lamb even spiritual Hymns before the Throne of Glory Not to serve before the Arke as Samuel or to be the Paramour of an Assyrian Monarch as Esther but to be ravisht up with Eliah and Paul into Paradise To be the Eternal Spouse of Jesus Christ and to behold the splendour of God not vailed and in a type as under the Law but face to face as being changed into the same Image from glory to glory shall it I say be sent for by Gods Sergeant and thy Servant Death once unprofitable as Onesimus to Philemon but now most profitable to thee and all Saints and wilt thou delay and be unwilling to part intreating with the Levites Father-in-Law for one Day nay one Moneth or one Year longer exile from thy Heavenly home thy Crown of Glory O let such unwise and such unthrifty prorogations be far from thy thoughts farther from thy practise Rather let both Soul and Body unanimously sing the Song of Simeon and sigh out the vote of Paul crying out Oh how we desire to be dissolved That thy incompleat holiness O my Soul might be perfected and become compleat glory That thy faculties being not only unimprisoned but heightned may approve thee according to thy Saviours promise like yea equal unto the Angels in all spiritual excellencies and Heavenly Prerogatives Again how do I desire O sinfull corrupted and mortal lump of Clay thy reduction into thy first Atoms and matter that so sin which hath possest and accurst thee may dye and be intomb'd with thee as having no longer work or nourishment in thee That Heavens great Chymist the omnipotent Spirit of God may cherish encircle and hover over thee as once upon the Waters separating the pure from the impure and producing a body spotless perfect and immortal even like unto the glorious Body of thy Saviour That so being made a proportionable and capable Pallace for thy Soul thou mayest enjoy an eternal reunion with it and both an everlasting communion with God To conclude O Man Death is a necessary absolute and unchangable decree of God Therefore it is thy wisdome to make it voluntary For It is appointed unto Men once to dye saith the Apostle and then comes the Judgment Comes the judgment did I say at the mention of this word judgment my Soul recoyles again not daring to peep out of her earthly Cabbin For she knows that this general Assize is an undoubted truth an Article of her Creed annexed to that of the Ascention and Session of our Saviour at the right hand of his Father At which we left when we first entred upon the three Offices of our Lord. And therefore now it fitly and in order comes to be the practical object of our faith as being also the last act of our Saviours Kingly Office in the Kingdome of Grace This being his total victory and destruction of all his corporal and spiritual Enemies his Day of Tryumph reward and recompence to all
Lord makes a new Heaven and a new Earth according to his promise which I humbly conceive only extends to this Orbe of Earth and Water and to the Regions and Elements of the Aire and Fire these two last are most frequently in Scripture called Heaven That flaming and Aetherial Fire not Elementary in which the Lord Jesus shall descend and appear with the ten thousands of glorified Souls and Angels and which shall consume all the wicked that are then in the World and burn up their works shall accordingly as it is the nature and true effect and property of Fire to purge and purify each of the four Elements from all that dross and corruptible quality that hath intermixt and cleaved unto them by the righteous Judgment and curse of God for Mans sin Whence shall proceed that admirable change as to their qualities although not of their substance deserving the name in the Scripture promise of a new Heaven and of a new Earth As it is most excellently set forth by Saint Paul in these words For the earnest expectation of the Creature wait for the manifestation of the Sons of God For the Creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Because the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God For we know that the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together untill now The Elements then are made like unto the Heavenly supream Orbes pure lucid and incorruptible Hence I infer that these four Elements being thus wonderfully changed in their qualities and made incorruptible in which respectively the several parts and ingredients of our Bodies are laid up and reserved as being naturally a part of them There must necessarily follow the same and the like change and alteration in the matter and substance of our Bodies also Whence it will follow that although the first change in the Elements is supernatural and wonderfull that in our Bodies will naturally follow as an effect from that cause Our great God as in the first Creation caused the production of all things out of their first matter as so many streams from that Fountain so in this new and second birth of things he as a rational and natural Agent produceth this excellent change in the fore-mentioned qualities of our new-raised Bodies to be a necessary and certain effect flowing from the change of the principles out of which they are compounded It being more than probable that the Resurrection of our Bodies shall immediatly succeed the making of the new Heaven and the new Earth the Saints habitation as it was in the first Creation when the Lord made the Earth and all the Creatures first before he made Man the Lord and Possessor of it and them The premisses being granted I thence conclude that as Mortality is a necessary effect and consequent of corruption so the immortality of the Body to use the Apostles phrase is as necessary an effect and consequent of incorruption For that substance that can never more be corrupted may truly be said to be everlasting and according to the Apostles expression immortal Death signifying either in sensible or vegitable Creatures a putred and evil change or alteration as also a debasing diminishing and deforming separation as being the curse and fruit of Sin and abhorrent to nature Having hitherto discoursed of this marvellous change of our Bodies at the Resurrection and given some natural reasons thereof as a Philosopher I must now as a Christian ascend higher and prove this eminent change to proceed also from a far higher and nobler cause than meer nature even from the spiritual real and mystical union of our Persons through faith and the Eternal Spirit as Members to our Head the Lord Jesus who is God-Man blessed for ever As since sin God hath enacted this to be one of the Statutes of Nature It is appointed to Men once to dye And by another Law of Nature after Death hath dissolved this Microcosme of Soul from Body Every part of the body as hath been shewed returns to its proper Element so by the Law of Christ God-Man the Eternal Word that was made Flesh it is decreed and affirmed as an indubitable truth That he that believeth in him hath everlasting life And though he were dead yet shall he live Whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never dye From hence it is most cleer that in a spiritual sence the death of the Saints is no death they being so united by faith that although the Soul be divided from the Body and each Elementary part of the body be divided from the other yet neither Soul nor Body or any grain or part thereof can be separated from our head the Lord Jesus in whom who is eternal life is our life Though we are dead in a natural sence yet we live spiritually in and by his Spirit In which sence also the whole mystical body of Christ the universal Church and every Member thereof is said to be joyned to the Lord and is one Spirit as being by the Holy Ghost the ever-living God that fills all things the Spirit of the Father and the Son as by an unmeasurable and everlasting Ligament tyed and united to the Lord Jesus our head So that like as it is said of the Soul That it is tota in toto tota in qualibet parte So it may be said that the for ever blessed Spirit of God the Father and the Son in and by this ineffable union and in dwelling is wholly and spiritually both before and after death in our Souls and in our Bodies and in every part of them although never so far by reason of a natural death separated one from another Here note that although the Scripture declares that in God all things live move and have their being as he is their Creator and Preserver and in whom and by whom they act and have their subsistance yet the difference is very great betwixt that life of the Creatures on Earth and this life of the Saints both as to the nature and duration of it That flowing from his Almighty power and goodness as a Creator this from his Eternal love as our Father in Christ that life being temporary this life Eternal as flowing from the highest Principle our spiritual and real union unto God in Christ. For the further clearing and proof of which immortality as well of our Bodies as of our Souls consider the words of our blessed Saviour As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself I am the way the truth and the life because I live yee shall live also Thou hast given me power over all flesh that I should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given
other Members as looking upon this weak diseased and aged Body as upon an old and weather-beaten Tent. Knowing that If the Earthly House of this my Tabernacle were dissolved I have a building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens Groaning earnestly and desiring with the Apostle Paul to be cloathed upon with my House which is from Heaven with which if I be cloathed I shall not be found naked That this Mortality may be swallowed up of Life Let me not O Lord with the Worldling who hath his Portion only in this Life be troubled at the Knell of every passing Bell sigh at every striking of the Clock nor be afraid or unwilling to number my Days or to cast up the accompt of my years but greatly rejoyce at the end of every hour day and year as hastning my approach to and the enjoyment of Eternity Being most willing to have my Body interred that after a long time like the matter of China Vessels it may be raised and made lucid transparent and a Vessel of honour fit to be made use of in the Palace of Heaven Shall my Body be shining and glorious like the Sun let it not now O Lord be spotted with sin and changeable and inconstant in its motion and conversation like the Moon Shall it be bright like the Firmament and Stars O Lord let it be a fixt and not a falling Star nor cast down to the Earth by the Taile of the old Serpent the Devil neither let me be a Meteor and seem to out-shine others in a Religious profession and in a short time vanish only leaving behind me an hypocritical and pestilential stench like those wandering Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever O gracious and mercifull Redeemer shall this corruptible put on incorruptibility and this mortal put on immortality Let this supernatural change begin here as it doth in all thy sanctified ones and let even my Body as well as my Soul be thy dwelling place and the Temple of thy holy Spirit in which let no unclean lust lurk or wicked Spirit enter Make me holiness unto thee O Lord and perfect holiness in thy fear Give thy Angels charge over me to keep me in all my ways Let them bear me up in their hands lest I dash my Foot against a Stone cause me to tread upon the Lyon and the Addar the young Lyon and the Dragon Yea let them according to thy promise be shortly trampled under my Feet Let sin dye in me by vertue of thy Death and let the life and immortality of holiness spring up and flourish in me by vertue of thy Resurrection Hast thou O Lord stiled thy Church thy Dove thy undefiled one And declared that she is fair and that there is no spot in her And is that which is spoken of thy Church applyable to every living Member thereof O thou that art the Eternal truth make good this thy Word unto thy poor Servant thy Spouse although most unworthy to wash the Feet of the Servants of my Lord. And since thou hast promised that all things shall become new And declared that those that are in thee are new Creatures and hast covenanted to give me a new Heart and a new Spirit and to take out my Heart of Stone and to give me a Heart of Flesh to pour clean Water upon me and to make me clean and hast testified that thy blood doth cleanse me from all sin and that by thy righteousness alone I am justified O let all these true and precious promises be fulfilled in me and to me So shall the incorruptibility of my Person as in respect of sin usher in and assure me of the incorruptibility of my Soul and Body in glory Let me dye daily with blessed Paul as to all the evil lusts of the Flesh that I may not dye Eternally but live everlastingly in glorified Flesh. O Lord who art the life and my life let my sinfull mortality even here put on a spiritual and heavenly immortality For thou hast proclaim'd it whil'st thou wert upon Earth That the Day comes yea now is when the Dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live even to Eternity For He that believeth in thee hath already everlasting life Let my union and communion with thee through faith and the in-dwelling of thy holy Spirit begin to make my Face to shine here as did the Face of Moses and thy Proto-Martyr Stephen since thou hast declared that a Mans wisdome maketh his Face to shine Yea we are said to shine here also in a holy conversation since thou commandest us To let our light shine before Men. And hast held forth in thy Word that the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect Day and hast promised in thy Book That if we let not wickedness dwell in our Tabernacles our Age shall be cleerer than the Noon-day and we shall shine forth and be as the Morning Lord although I now live in the Flesh yet let me not I humbly and with importunity beseech thee live unto or after the Flesh since such are said to be dead while they live yea twice dead and pluckt up by the Roots And thou hast justly threatned that those that live after the Flesh shall dye and that Eternally But they that live in and after the Spirit shall live and that for ever and ever But since after this life there shall be no Devil to tempt no World to allure or persecute nor Sin to intice or corrupt Let me with mortified Paul desire to depart and to be with thee which is far better Yea since to live is Christ and to dye is gain Let me with perfect Job all the Dayes of this my appointed time humbly patiently and believingly wait until my glorious change come Amen Having exercised my faith and contemplation upon this ravishing and pleasing subject the glorification of the Bodies and Members of the Saints in general and in the Gross I shall now lastly proceed beseeching the assistance of his most Holy Spirit who is my light the light of Men and he who alone enlighteneth every one that cometh into the World to speak particularly though with much brevity of the glorification of the Five Sences I shall go so far as I shall receive light from the Scriptures and right reason taking that sober and lawfull liberty that is granted to all those that have meditated upon the like subjects where some things are more obscure than others and not so clearly and fully held forth in Gods Word humbly to offer what probably and rationally although not positively may be the truth as not repugnant to Scripture right reason or the Analogie
of his wrath and shalt Judge amongst the Heathen and shall fill the places with the dead Bodies and wound the Heads over many Countries When thou shalt put a two-edged Sword into the Hand of thy Saints to execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishment upon the People to bind their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron to execute the Judgment written this honour have all the Saints Yea is this thy victorious Kingdome and Government wherein righteousness peace holiness and purity shall be so greatly exercised and exalted by and under thy Saints upon Earth confirmed by thee in a Vision to thy Apostle John who declares that after Sathan was bound by thee a thousand years He saw Thrones and they to wit thy Saints sate upon them and Judgment was given unto them The Prodromus to which Sessions he saw Revelations the 19. from Verse the 11. unto the end of that Chapter And shall not both my Tongue and Heart in the certain belief that these wonderfull prophetical promises shall yea are now at the point to be made good unto thy Church and to be fulfilled praise and glorifie thee in the joyfull expectation thereof in those words which thy own Spirit Indicted on this subject and for this purpose O clap your Hands all yee People shout unto God with the voice of Tryumph for the Lord most High is terrible he is a great King over all the Earth He shall subdue the People under us and the Nations under our Feet he shall choose our Inheritance for us the excellency of Jacob whom he loved For God is the King of all the Earth sing yee praises with understanding God raigneth over the Heathen God sitteth upon the Throne of his Holiness The Princes of the People are gathered together even the People of the God of Abraham for the Shields of the Earth belongeth unto God he is greatly exalted O blessed Saviour who art that great Prophet promised by Moses yea the Lord God of the Prophets Hast thou foretold to us by them that after the binding and sealing up Sathan and all the Powers of Darkness in Hell the bottomless Pit thy Saints thy Church shall enjoy a Sabatisme a thousand years of rest and peace upon this Earth which I humbly expect when their six thousand years of trouble labour and persecution shall be expired typified and prefigured as I in all humility conceive in the Arks resting the 17. Day of the 7. Month as a Type of this rest in the six Days Creation and thy seventh Days rest and in thy appointing us a laborious Week and six Days of Work and every seventh Day to be a Sabbath a Day of rest to us and the Creatures And in the seventh Years rest to the Field and release to Servants the righteousness and holiness peace plenty and happiness of which their raign and Kingdome I but lately mentioned and evidenced by a few Scriptures of many that clearly hold it forth to us O let my Heart and Tongue in the assured faith of thy accomplishing this great work sing with joy the seventy-second Psalme The lively Prophesie of this thy peaceable Kingdome under thy Saints upon Earth under the Type of Solomon concluding with the Holy Psalmist Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wonderous works And blessed be his glorious Name for ever And let the whole Earth be filled with his Glory Amen O Lord the Judge of all the Earth hast thou promised to come unto us the second time without Sin unto Salvation but in flaming Fire to take vengeance of all that know thee not Hereby destroying them and Hypocrites together with the Apostatizing Nations called Gog and Magog as Sprung from a Scythian Root seduced from the true Faith by the deceits of Sathan at his loosing for a season The number of whom is as the Sand of the Sea and by him gathered together to incompass the Camp of thy Saints and the holy City thy true Church made up of Gentiles and Israelites Hast thou then promised a Resurrection of the Just even of all thine Elect ones and Martyrs and that They shall be Priests of God and of thee O Christ and that they shall raign with thee a thousand years For thou hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall raign upon Earth Even in that new Heaven and new Earth which thou wilt create shall our Salvation be then perfected and compleated in that first Resurrection the Redemption of our Bodies now sowen in Corruption but then raised in Incorruption sowen in dishonour but raised in Glory sowen in weakness but raised in Power sowen a natural Body but raised a spiritual Body and glorious like unto thee O Lord. For ever blessed Redeemer shall I according to Scripture-Chronology probably about twelve hundred and thirteen years hence with holy Daniel stand in the Lot at the end of the Days and in my glorified Body with the many myriades of Angels and glorious Saints upon the renewed Earth behold and enjoy thee personally a thousand years shall my Tongue then declare thy Acts and the wonders of thy love mercy and truth and praise thee with them for this thy great salvation as being in a sure possession of Glory O let my Heart and Tongue now praise thee in faith and assurance thereof Since Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Yea let me with thy Prophet and Apostle Tryumph over that last Enemy Death and singing say 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 Death is swallowed up in Victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through thee our Lord Jesus Christ. O thou whose Name is called the Word of God who art the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the only Potentate to whom all Judgment is committed by the Father and who art ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and of the dead we must therefore all appear before thy Judgment Seat when thy righteousness shall shine forth as the Light and thy Judgment as the Noon-Day in giving to every one according to their works And to all thine Elect called thy Sheep at thy right hand who are freely justified by thy righteousness according to the goodness of their thoughts words and deeds which and not any of their sins as being fully satisfied for and blotted out by thy Death and Merits shall then be remembred as being the fruits of thy own Grace That so thy Saints may be gradually rewarded according to their works not for their works both in the new Earth and highest Heavens with Eternal Life and Glory And inherit the Kingdome prepared for them before the Foundation of
unhappy Man had not ambition and infidelity Eclipsed the apprehensive brightness of thy understanding thou mightest have made thy Ring-leaders fall a mirrour to view thine own in O blindness the more blame-worthy the less to be pittied 〈…〉 self didst both willingly wilfully and speedily occasion 〈…〉 thy gracious God imprisoned all thy sences within his 〈◊〉 command all Judgments would have condemned thy ungrateful disobedience how much more blameable art thou that mightest have viewed it toucht it and delighted thy self with the fragrancy of that pleasant Fruit eternally without offence and yeâ— still desirest more even to tast thy Death O bitter sweet sweet in thy deceitful expectation bitter in thy accursed fruition O behold now what knowledge thou hast obtained thou knowest now the good thou hadst and hast lost the evil thou didst want and now enjoyest Momentary was thy imaginary pleasure certain and eternal thy procured curse O the Childishness of Man's perfectest age which sold the little World himself the great World about himself for such a knowledge which made him know good not more but less by knowing evil All things that are good in themselves in their first enjoying gain from us most estimation but Man here blest with the fruition of all happiness which joyntly met in him as in its Centre undervalues it even in the first possession exchanging pleasure for pain knowledge for ignorance Paradice for Hell and Life for Death But what neeâ— is there of my weak descriptions in delineating the lamentable 〈◊〉 of Man's fall Since if every Christian would but deal faithfully with himself and retire into his own Soul viewing it in thâ— state of Unregeneration he might in that too lively Picture of dâ—â—d Adam learn the chief point of wisdome to know himself I appeal to the witness of thy Conscience O Christian Reader whither thou findest not naturally the Supream faculties of thy Soul the Enemies of God and goodness the bond-slaves and willing Vassals of sin and Sathan the parts of thy Body the Members of wickedness and ready Instruments of ill Is not thy memory a magazine of evil unhospitable to goodness Thy imagination and intellect like the Northern Seas frozen with ignorance to whom the Sun of wisdome gives so dim a Light that thy highest knowledge is to know thou knowest nothing Is not wickedness the Centre of thy will towards which it moves with a natural swiftness all holy motions being contrary to its course Lastly do not generally the parts of the whole Man which did before by their concordance and harmonious obedience so sweetly express the due praise of the most glorious Creator now rebelliously jar with a hideous and cursed confusion But what need these questions I would to God every Mans unhappy experience did not affirm and ascertain this truth as there is none free from Death so none from sin the cause of Death we all alike come into this World all suck in corruption with their first breath no sooner have our Souls a Beeing but they are in a deep Consumption so that our life is but a continued dying a Prologue of Death according to that of Job 1.21 Naked came we into this World naked of goodness as well as Clothes and naked shall we return again except thou cloath us to Christ our beginnings our foundations are laid with untempered morter Can then our after-works be unlike the Original We must all say with David In â—in hath my Mother conceived me and I was shapen in iniquity 〈◊〉 the Root evil and can the Fruit be good Is the Fountain bitâ—er and can the streams be sweet Do Men gather Grapes of Thornes or Figges of Thistles Hath Adam fallen and was accursed and shall his Off-spring stand and be justified No assuredly There is none good no not one we are all wrapt up in the same condemnation O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us now having waded in the gulph of 〈◊〉 miseries from that depth behold the height of Gods mercy â—â—y mercies O Lord are great and reach unto the Heavens and â—â—y truth unto the Clouds Thou hast delivered my Soul from â—ell my Body from Death thy Mercies are above all thy Works â—onderful are they Who can express them This World is a Monarchy the great Emperor thereof is God no admits of no Equal nor Partners in his Government Kings â—rinces and all things else are either Subjects or Subject to â—â—m nay more his Creatures For by Him were all things Created â—hich are in Heaven and which are in Earth things visible and invisible Crimes of the highest nature are only accounted Treaâ—ons in terrene States but the least breach of those general Staâ—â—tes enacted by the Earths great Law-giver is not only Capital 〈◊〉 infinitely punishable had Man offended either his Superiors 〈◊〉 Angels or his equals as Man it had been possible to have reconciled the one by submission the other by satisfaction but having traâ—sgressed the Commandement of God no created and â—nite substance can repair his ruines for infinite is his Justice inâ—nite our sins and consequently infinite our punishment Thus wretched and miserable are we in our selves by reason of our â—all and thus destitute of redress from others by reason of the â—reatness of our fault and unrecoverableness of our loss and â—â—stly O Lord do we deserve to be so since wittingly willingly and wilfully we made our selves so Of Man's Redemption by Christ. GOD is both infinitely just and infinitely merciful as his Mercy hinders not the Execution of his Justice so his Justice bounds not the extent of his Mercy Man is here infinitely indebted to God and utterly unable to pay God's Justice requires payment his Mercy places his Son as principal in the Bond who fully satisfies his Justice and repeales the Judgment pronounced against our Souls and Bodies O gracious Father in this thy Son our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy love is infinite like thy self boundless as thy Divinity and so ineffable that the Tongues of Men and Angels are not able to express it Mercy implor'd hath its first motion or inducement from the suppliant but thy mercy first beheld us when we had no power to view thee being blinded by Sathan thy goodness raised us when we were dead and buried in sin and thy free love only procured thee to move in compassion towards us who were moved through transgression contrary to thee unvaluable and extraordinary gifts are assured although silent expressions of a fixed and ardent affection But who O Lord is able to value thy gift to declare much less apprehend thy love Friendship is reciprocal for a friend can no sooner exhibit any reality of benevolence but as it were by reflection he is presently apprehensive of the like from the receiver though not in quantity as being perhaps less able yet in quality as being
recovery by thy blessing upon the Medicine of a poor Widdow even after that the utmost endeavours of a skilful Doctor proved uneffectual The fifth and last dangerous encounter was with another Pursivant of Death a second painful and perilsome Ague From this Ague also after three very accute fits thou gavest me a happy and healthful recovery Lord what shall I render unto thee for these five most gracious recoveries and as it were new lives And for thy deliverance from many other lesser Distempers Yea what have I to return unto thee since all I am is thine and all my most spiritual Sacrifices are lame weak and sickly Lord although such were forbidden under the Law yet under thy Gospel we have a great High Priest which takes away the iniquity and infirmity of our holy things in whom thou hast declared even from Heaven that thou art well pleased with us And who is that compassionate Physician that came not to heal the whole but the sick Blessed Saviour heal now the infirmities of my Soul as thou hast done these of my Body That according to thy promise the dumb may sing and the lame may skip as the Lamb Yea open thou my Lips and my Mouth shall shew forth thy praise O Lord God what is Man that thou visistest him or the Son of Man that thou regardest him That as a Father and Nurse thou shouldest watch over us from Morning to Night and from Night to Morning That the left hand of thy gracious providence should be alwayes under my head and that the right hand of thy unchangeable and fervent love should continually imbrace me That thou shouldest lead me to Heaven by the Gates of Hell That thou shouldest wound me that thou mightest heal me Humble me that thou mightest exalt me That thou shouldest exercise me with sickness to teach me how to overcome Death The height and summ total of all sicknesses O for ever blessed be thy Name that gives me not only believingly but practically and feelingly to seal the truth of that cordial Word that saith That tribulation brings forth patience and patience experience and experience hope which makes us not ashamed Wherefore my heart which thou hast enlarged my lips which thou hast opened and my life which thou hast thus often renewed through Grace doth praise thee this Day for these and all others thy great Mercies and desires to perpetuate my thankful acknowledgment in this and the following Memorial to all Generations Amen The BETHESDA Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject TRue is that Axiome since the Curse Best things corrupted become worse Than others which are less refin'd By Man and Angels fall we find This truth confirm'd yea our best meatâ— Putrified are Diseases Seats Hence came my Surfeit by that food That pleas'd my tast was sweet and good This tempted me to an Excess That alwayes brings forth Putridâ—ess Which Nature striving to cast out By Vomit made me sick throughout This first assault Thou Lord withstood Of Death thus withering my Bud Of Childhood And by Friends advice Purg'd out my sickness and its rice Restoring health to me and joy To Parents grieved by my annoy All sins a surfeit and abuse Of what is good through our misuse A Lust rebelling to Excess And yet a want of Holiness Lord Vomit Purge me and supplie Thy Grace so shall I live not die Man's Life from Birth doth hasten on Towards Death by a Consumption Of moisture Radical like Lights We wast this Oyl by burning bright But Rheums and Coughs accession Addes Wings to Dissolution Such was my state for many Years Which ballanc't me 'twixt hopes and feares Vntil in Mercy thou though'st good To blesâ— the means drie up this Flood Of Mall-concocted humors So That it no more my Earth o're-flow O Lord the streames that drown'd my Soul Are wicked Lusts let Grace controle This Deluge lest it more and more Consume thy radicating store That Body Soul restor'd again May be it 'h full of Grace not wain As Art by Succors Forcers mount Waters upon a like accompt Rheum pumping Coughs raise it and Aire Above out of their place Hence are Those stiches pains and Plurisies Which us indanger and Disease Such was the cause such the effect Of my third sickness whose Aspect Prefigur'd and made way for Death By Stitches Coughs shortness of breath Yea all one Night to add to pain Thunders did roar and Lightnings flame When thus upon thy wrack I lay Lord thou didst turn my Night to Day And answered from thy glorious Throne My prayers teares my sighs and groans And blâ—st weak means refresht my Soul And on a suddain made me whole A wonder next a Miracle Was this my quick recovery Which merits Lord a Pyramid A Trophy that cannot be hid Of praise That Saints in after Days May bless love trust in thee alwayes Lord frothy Distillations Lustful Inflammations Shorten still thy Spirits breath Threatning to me a worser Death By pricks of Conscience and Heart grief O give unto my Soul relief Dry up O Lord these Springs of sin That do obstruct thy breathings in My sickly Soul Let Conscience be Freed from its pains as cleans'd by thee So shall my Soul and Body live And to Thee living praises give The Bodies Earth-quake Agues are Shaking us like a pent-up Aire Then breaking forth through our Earths pores It casts out Flames and Waters store Imbalming us with sweat as 't were To fit us for our Sepulchre Such was my two last Sicknesses Deaths prelude and a long recess Of Health which no Court-Pagentry Could flatter for to stay with me Nor yet my Office which transfer I did to God's Commissioner An all-controling Ague which Like the Familiar of a Witch Did haunt me at set-hours each Day At first till Mercy did allay And to each other chang'd my fit Lest I should be burnt up by it Here sometimes I as frozen lay Shaking for cold as Seamen say Those do neer the North pole Anon Burnt up as one i' th torrid Zone For eight Hours space at whose retreat I almost drowned was with sweat Thus alternative cold and heat Predominant were in the same seat And subject So the Scriptures tell Sinners tormented are in Hell Where weeping wailing gnashing Teeth Shew cold and heat and easless grief Out of this Aguish Hell in which I twice was cast some Years betwixt I cryed with David Jonah Then Thou savest me as thou did'st them Wherefore as they so I will bless Thee in my Heart Tongue Life and Verse O Lord I have since Life began Been sick of a Quotidian Which sometime doth me greatly shake With faithless fears which makes me quake Anon mad Anger boyles my blood Breaths out ill humors like a Flood O purge out quite this Malady And passions tune to Harmony So shall such holy temp'rament Give health to both with sweet content And fear
O have these fleshy eyes of ours such various presentations of pleasure to delight these Bodies of Clay with and can we imagine Faith the eye of the immortal Soul can be destitute of a subject worthy its view and contemplation O no my Soul The weakest-sighted Faith enjoys a far better and more excellent prospect viz. with Eagles eyes looking abroad upon the glorious Son of Righteousness and Son of God Jesus Christ. The Life of the Body gives the first power and motion to the Eye but this Heaven-aspiring sight gives the Soul its first Life Hear me saith God that is believe in me and your Soul shall live The Earthly Sun suffers sometimes an Eclipse so did ours once for all An interposition caused the one the other not any defect in his own Body or Light but a condense Darkness an Orb of Sin for a time obscured his brightness Women and Children whose shallow reach fathome not the depth of Natures works may with a flying fear hide themselves not daring to behold the labouring Sun when a learned Artist by Water or reflection searcheth out the cause and greatness of an Eclipse Worldly and carnal Men may mask their understanding with a wilfull ignorance But do thou O Lord which hides these things from the Wise and revealest them unto Babes make me to apprehend the reason and admire the infiniteness of thy suffering Earth affords not a neerer Union or Relation than friendship That mysterial incorporation and perfect conjunction of Wedlock is but an inclusive of this that being more particular this more general Society is the happiness of Mans life this is the height of that Conjunction and the perfection of that happiness He is either most miserable or undeserving that hath not had some taste of this reciprocal foelicity Since vice and vertue have both their favourites the one exceeding in number the other in worth Thus far hath my Meditations roved on Earth ascending this height of temporary delight that from such a rise my Soul may take a quick flight to Heaven The friendship of the World and all things else in it eminent or praiseâ—worthy are but dark shadowes of Heavenly things beames derived from that eternal Light to give Light to Man Doth not the Holy Spirit express the exceeding love of the eternal Father to us his Children by the tenderness of Earthly Parents His infinite and free mercy by the charity and friendship of the Samaritan stranger The ardent and unparallel'd affection of our Saviour Jesus Christ to us his Church by a Matrimonial and espousal love O all yee that have any illumination of Faith come and witness with me if there were ever or can be any love amity or affection like unto this which God hath shewed towards us Lord I would fain express thy acts of mercy the witness of thy love and object of my Faith but who is sufficient for these things or able to express what he cannot sufficiently conceive of How or where shall I begin when Lord my beginning was from thee Yea from all beginnings hast thou chosen me and in time hast thou called me void of love desire and freedome of will or any other congruity remote or sufficient to answer thee calling being the servant of Sathan and Bond-slave of Sin and therefore an Aliene from thee and the common wealth of Israel One not only sick but dead in sins and trespasses and therefore unable to move towards thee A natural Man perceiving not the things of God and therefore ignorant of thee Thy love alone was the cause of mine for herein is love not that we loved thee but that thou loved'st us first Nor foreknowledge of my after works or willingness to receive grace occasioned this free Election For not of works which I had done but according to thy mercy didst thou elect and save me From thy free and gracious predestination my faith with a devout affection makes haste to behold the Foundation thy dear Son Jesus Christ my Saviour O wonder O infinite Love O admirable friendship He whose glory and greatness the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain was inclosed within the Womb of a poor though pure Virgin God descends in humility from Heaven that Man might ascend Heaven in Glory becoming like to Man that Man might be like to him Not Rome the Metropolis of the World nor Jerusalem the glory of Judea must tryumph in the birth or be made more honourable by the first presence of Emanuel but Bethlem the least of the Cities of Juda. Which poor place either ignorant or regardless of so high a favour was not only void of thankfulness and common courtesie but of neighbourly hospitality A Stable a Manger and brute Beasts being the Palace the Cradle the company it prepared for the entertainment of the Worlds Saviour Behold here a mystery of mysteries He who knows no beginning now begins to be that his being in nature might give us a being in grace in glory And in his Infancy did our gracious Redeemer begin to suffer the entrance of his life being but the Prologue of his sorrow and the total thereof a continued passion His innocent Child-hood is made the subject of treason and nought but his slaughter must allay the Tyrants suspition What needed any unjustly or violently to have sought his Death who willingly came to Dye only living the life of Man that for Man he might be capable of Death This Herodian cruelty hath a deeper dye than Nero's Tyranny For he destroyed the World only in his wish but this Man by one act would have made not our Bodies only but our Souls mortal O sweet Jesus thou fleddest into Egypt not to preserve life but to die daily avoiding his merciless Power that thou mightest declare thy powerfull mercy Thy Death by which we live must not be constrained least ungrateful Man should esteem it no gift The strength and policy of Herod are unable to wrest that per-force from thee which thou purposest freely to give Infancy must not suffer for Man-hood since the greater includes the less but the lesser cannot comprehend the greater That perfection of Age that made Mans rebellion and sin more full more hatefull must make thy obedience and sufferings more compleat more acceptable Not Bethlem but Jerusalem the center of the World must be the Theatre of infinite mercy of merciless cruelty that thy passion being acted in the place wherein the Legal Ceremonies were celebrated the Types and Figure might more clearly point out the substance All those bloody Sacrifices being abolished by one Sacrifice of blood After this escape of danger in his Child-hood and reprieved of his life for a time did not the increase of his years multiply his sorrows No doubt he suffered as well as fulfilled the Law for us during those thirty years he obscured himself At twelve years of age we finde him disputing in the Temple when surely
And lest Hell should tryumph over us in punishment he in Person tryumphs over it with Victory In Person I say Although his Body lay still in the Grave since its local absence contradicts not his personal presence the inseparable union of the God-head with his Body and Soul even in Death permitting only a separation in nature not of natures a mutation of order no disunion If the Devils fear forced his Prince to supplicate when our Saviour sojourn'd on Earth what unexpressible terrors did then possess them when the Worlds Great Monarch reigned over Hell If in his humiliation they doubted his sudden judgment How did his exaltation assure them of their certain execution Here behold acted that Vision figuratively after manifested unto St. John of Sathans imprisonment for a thousand years although literally it was to be fulfilled many ages after For who hath the Key of the bottomless Pit of Heaven and Hell but he to whom all power is given both in Heaven and Earth He who openeth and no Man shutteth Or when should these Principalities be subdued if not at this general and most glorious Conquest Can any imagine this great Victory to be maymed or imperfect since he then led Captivity captive trampling over all those that resisted either his Power or our Salvation So conclude this what time since his coming doth so evidently demonstrate this truth to be by our Head in part fulfilled as the after events I mean the tranquility and delight of the Church amongst themselves those hundred years immediately succeeding his suffering What though the ten Persecutions did exceedingly rage against the Saints according to the 4th verse of that 20. of the Revelations The blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church Yea they did even then reign most gloriously with Christ. As the Kingdome of our Saviour and the brightness of the Church shined most perspicuously when the purity thereof brake forth in their profession and constancy so the miseries of Christians and the liberty of Sathan is never more apparent then when the damnableness and obscurity of capital Heresies Eclipse the visible face of the Church For in the first we may truly be said to live and tryumph even in death in the last their supposed freedome is the greatest slavery and their seeming life but a cursed and eternal deprivation Three Days continued though not compleat was the proportion of time allotted to measure out my Saviours last sleep Had he dyed and presently revived unbelieving Man would have tearmed such a Death but a Transe Yea the scandalous Rulers would have blasted the wonderfull Miracle of his Resurrection with an accusation of self-contradicting and not performance of his former protestation Destroy this Temple and within three Days I will build it up again Wherefore O my Soul that thy faith might be confirmed in the sure belief of his dying The Jews convicted by the truth of his performance and his own Power magnified by the Divinity of the act he is content to lodge as it were in a second Womb viz. of Clay that all things being perfected the third Day he might lead his the way to a birth of Glory The victorious Soul of my Saviour after the reliction of his Body having trampled upon Death tryumphed over Hell and took a full possession of Heaven that his actions as they were the means so they might be as it were the story and prophecy of our succeeding All the Souls of the faithfull when they part with this hollow Clay in like manner though through his right conculcate Death and Hell enjoying the new Jerusalem Behold he now proceeds by the raising of his Body to assure us that our Bodies shall be like our Souls immortal as our Souls shall be made like unto his most glorious through the re-creation of his beautifull Image in us The object of my Faith hath hitherto been a Night-piece full fraught with Persecution and suffering tears and strong cries dying and burial but now the all-flourishing Rayes of the Immortal Deity personally in the Son of Righteousness at his rising breaks forth changing that Darkness into Light To this may be applied that of the Psalmist Mourning may continue for a Night but joy comes in the Morning Noah's Ark the true Figure of a Christians faith must be drenched in the Waves and driven by the Wind a long time before it shall rest dry and safe upon the Mountains of Ararat The humiliation of my Saviour was his night wherein the humanity did most manifest it self So his exaltation in which his Resurrection hath a part is his Day wherein the brightness and power of his God-head did shew it self most apparently Adam the destroyer of Man first enjoyed a blessing a Paradise before he merited a Curse a Hell But the Messias the restorer of Man must first be made an execration before he can purchase for us a re-possession Not long since I besought all true believers to weep with Christ who wept not for himself but for them But now my Soul breaths forth a more pleasing request which I prefer not to all but to those only which are mourners in Sion That as they have grieved with Him and for themselves in him so now they would be filled with his solace and tryumph in his Victory That as they have sowed in tears they may now reap in joy Every Man was a debtor unto the Almighty untill Christ our surety paid the mortgage and redeemed our Souls He satisfied the debt on the Cross least we should doubt of the sufficiency of his satisfaction For behold here our acquittance and the Bonds rent even the Bonds of Death torne asunder in and by his Resurrection Have we not then cause to rejoyce for so great a deliverance The mirth of Moses Myriam and the Israelites was expressed in a Song of thanksgiving when the Egyptians were entombed in the Sea The joy of Barak and Debora was proclaimed in an Anthem of praise when Sisera and his Chariots were discomfited The Virgins of Israel were not silent when David overthrew Goliah And shall we that are delivered from the slavery of a spiritual Pharaoh sin from the tyranny of a hellish Sysera a strong Goliah Sathan the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr and over all the Children of disobedience be empty of gladness and gratefulness when all the Creatures land and praise our Moses our Barak our David our Jesus shall not all the People especially the redeemed of the Lord say Amen Let us now walk forth with those of Emmaus to meet our Saviour after the Resurrection of his Body Praying earnestly that through the Power of his Spirit he would open the eyes of our faith that we may believe confess and rejoyce in his Resurrection The infinite affection of this Saviour of ours is apparent in every action His love made him depart from glory when he descended from the bosome of his Father his love made him conceal his
all the Children of pride For The Seed of the Woman hath broken this Serpents Head And the Devil shall be cast into Hell What though he be the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr for his number Legions for his strength a Principality a Power a Lion and for the depth of Policy and malice stiled the Ruler of Darkness and also the accuser of the Brethren yet know he is but a Creature and thy Saviours Vassal For By Him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible or invisible whether they be Thrones Dominions Principalities or Powers And he that made him can make his Sword approach unto him And though the number of fallen Angels be great yet the number of the Elect Angels its likely are far greater at least their Power greater as the issue of that great battel in Heaven if literally takeâ— illustrates So that thy eyes being opened by faith there are more that are with us than against us Christ is that Lion of the Tribe of Judah our Sampson to destroy that roaring Lion the Devil the wisdome of the Father and the light that not only enlightens our darkness but dissipates and puts to flight the darkness and subtilties of Sathan the only Mediator betwixt God and Man the Son of God the lover and friend of Men The Brother of the Brethren To conclude he it is to thy comfort whom the Father hath set at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all those Principalities and Powers and all might and dominion Who hath spoiled these Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly tryumphing over them even on his Cross. Therefore rejoyce yee Heavens and yee that dwell therein for now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdome of our God and the Power of his Christ For The accuser of our Brethren is cast down which accused them before God day and night Do I expect thee O my Soul to be a companion of this Heavenly Quire Why then do I hear thee utter nothing but mourning and as it were keep time with sighs Such a Song admits not of a burthen I will not bear a part with thee since in thy tears as in a mirror I see Hanibal ad portas another Enemy at thy Gates At thy Gates did I say nay entred and within thee so that now thy sobs me-thinks are vocal and articulate groaning out nothing but such sad captive complaints as these I am carnal and sold under sin O wretch that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death O my Soul though thy fear questions yet let it not make thee despair of a Deliverer say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord whom he hath sent to be thy Saviour even in the midst of this fiery Furnace So that like those Votive Martyrs though with the Flesh thou obeyest and art invironed with sin yet with the Minde thou servest the Lord. I am not ignorant that like to the City of Ai there are behinde thee ambushes of thy first Parents transgression before thee the Armies of thy many actual offences on both hands of thee the wages of sins of commission and omission yea that the Infantry of thy in-bred and original corruptions have not only taken but begun to Fire thy out-works Yet fear not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord for these spiritual Egyptians thy Enemies which thou hast seen in this short day of thy life and travail thou shalt see no more for ever since the Chariot-wheels of their strength shall be taken off and in conclusion their selves shall be drowned and hid in that red Sea of thy Saviours pretious blood Wherefore armed with a holy and Jehu-like severity command as Joshua once the five Kings so these the heads and chief of these thy Enemies to be brought forth and let them be slain with a Christian magnanimity even with that two-edged Sword which proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Fear not with Gedeons stripling that Goliah-like transgression of Adam though as a second Briarius his many Armies of Pride Blasphemy Rebellion Unthankfulness Discontent Curiosity yea all manner of wickedness seem to threaten Heaven Neither quit thy ground though he brandish against thee that curse that Cherubs flaming Sword in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Let him strike yea let the stroke wound thee and bring thee upon thy knees yea let the wound send forth floods of penitent tears for this thy fall shall be thy rise this thy humiliation thy greatest exaltation This is that Weapon that gives both death and life For this thy misery is become the object of that infinite mercy which not only rescues thee but sheathes this his mortal Sword in this thy Enemies bowels Since by Man came death by Man came also the Resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive And lest he should again revive as Joab did to rebellious Absalom He again pierces his heart with these three Darts As by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all unto justification of life for as by one Mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous That as sin reigned unto death even so might grace reign thorough righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That Cloud is disperst But behold a greater storm arises even such a one as not only shakes and endangers the Battlements of a Christian conversation but blowes up the foundation When an Enemy besieges he ever is within view But if he take a Bulwork he gains possession and the loss seem irrecoverable Adams sin imputed like a furious adversary surrounds beleagures and shatters the whole Fort of Man But that Original corruption that holy David complains of as conceived and born in by propagation makes neerer approaches and undermines the Mud-walls of our Flesh taking possession of the Tryangular and chiefest Cyttadel which once yielded he fills every sconce of the sence with Armed Lusts and mounts through every Loop-hole a murdering piece which continually roares against Heaven And as for the Chief Commander Collonel and Mustar-master the understanding will and memory having put out their Eyes it makes them in the Dungeon of Ignorance grinde like Sampson at the Mill of Lust and fleshly desires Thus miserable and seemingly irrecoverable is our estate in Nature whilst our in-bred corruption that strong Man keeps the hold But let us not be discouraged for the Lord Jesus who is stronger than he is come upon him and hath overcome him taking from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and dividing his spoyles being sent by God in the likeness
bottomless Pit of Hell Death and Sin out of which eternal love in Christ free grace and infinite mercy hath taken thee Call upon and bless God for this infinite depth of mercy Yea exalt and magnify the height and depth the breadth and length of this love which passeth knowledge O my Soul the mighty Angels leaving their first state as ambitiously seeking a greater as the learned conceive were cast down for their pride and discontentedness from the highest Heaven into the deepest abyss of Hell And our first Parents for the like ambition and desire of bettering their condition were cast out of Paradise From which examples I have reason to think should Man have had a thought or design of or by himself to be possest of so glorious a life prerogative state and condition as our gracious God hath freely given us in Christ It had been so high and unwarrantable a sin and ambition as would have justly deserved as great a curse and punishment O from this experience of infinite love for God is love pray incessantly in return thereof not only to be enlarged and raised to the highest and greatest love and thankfulness that a Creature can be made capable of But that thou mayest hence-forth have no will but his which shall be thy great wisdome in all things submitting all thou hast and thy whole Man solely to his most gracious and All-wise dispose whose free gifts bounty and unconceivable liberality are not such as Creatures bestow on their favourites but such as becomes the Majesty and immensness of a God who gives to his Saints benefits and blessings temporal spiritual and eternal not only above their prayers hopes and expectations but as the Apostle expresses above what we can either ask or think O my Soul shall thy body be incorruptible and immortal defile it not with lust any more neither let sin abound because grace hath abounded Since thou must know that thy incorruptability and immortality must in a true Scripture and spiritual sence begin in this life although they are to be perfected in the next Therefore our Saviour saith He that believeth on him hath everlasting life And the Apostle affirmes that we are made to sit together in Christ in Heavenly places And Saint John declares 1 John 5.12 That he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life And blessed Paul affirms If Christ be in us the Body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Again dost thou live in Christ and Christ in thee Art thou even as to thy body the Habitation and Temple of the Holy Ghost and spiritually and inseparably united to God in Christ and is thy life hid with God in Christ Dally no more with sin for there can be no communion betwixt light and darkness And know this although thou canst not dye eternally yet thy backslidings in wilfull and presumptuous sinnings may through thy Spouse his righteous with-drawing and desertion cast thee into such a swoon and transe that thy life peace and Heaven here may as to thy feeling be turned into emnity death yea and to an Hell upon Earth Give not that subtil destroyer Sathan occasion or advantage by spiritual adulteries and reiterated Rebellions to sue out a divorse in the Court of thy Conscience betwixt thy Spouse and thee For know this that although Whom Christ loves he loves to the end And his gifts and calling are without Repentance and that though thy Husband hath loved thee with an everlasting love yet such a suite will be very troublesome and chargeable and may cost thy Spirit many and unexpressible sighs groans and lamentations And may as it were break thy bones or make thy Body a very Sceleton only fit for a Grave Lastly for as much as the Children of God were partakers of flesh and blood Did the Son of God himself likewise take part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death viz. the Devil to deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject unto bondage And did not take on him the nature of Angels but took on him the Seed of Abraham from which hypostatical union of the two natures in one Person and the union of thy Person to his Person by the Eternal Spirit is given unto thee eternal life in a far higher and more excellent way and manner than to the Elect Angels Did the Lord of Heaven and Earth the Heir of all things not only marry himself to thy nature but also unto thee For I am married unto you saith the Lord in the Prophet and is the honourable Ordinance of Marriage therefore called by the Apostle a great Mystery because even in Eves formation and in its first Institution it was to be a Type and lively Figure of this thy spiritual Marriage and union to the second Adam Hast thou through infinite mercy received assurance hereof that thou art thy Beloveds and that thy Beloved is thine Is the Marriage Day and Supper appointed and declared and in the interim hast thou an Espousal contract subscribed to by thy faith and by his Spirit O be exceeding watchfull and carefull of offending such a loving Spouse and glorious Bridegroom by any sinfull relapses and backslidings into any sin that may move him to jealousie For as jealousie is the rage of a Man so the anger and jealousie of thy God is said to burn like Fire against such unfaithfull and spiritual Adulteresses O as thou tenderest the love of thy God and of thy Spouse and thy peace of Conscience and thy Heaven upon Earth venture not to blot or blur so blessed an assurance and evidence of thy Eternal happiness union and life in him by sin or any presumptuous iniquity and rebellion Nor to crust it over by customary sinning or delay of repentance But by an holy chast and religious walking Keep it so fair written and legible that all other Saints but principly thy self at all times but especially in the time of trouble temptation and hour of death may read it Then though thy Eye-strings are broken the eye of thy faith shall behold it and see thy Name written in Heaven and in the Lambs Book of Life O blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who art the Resurrection and the Life and hast declared in thy Word of Truth that this my vile Body shall be raised and made a Heavenly and spiritual Body like to thine give me to behold this wonderfull change continually by faith the eye of my Soul then shall I not be abashed or dismayed at the baldness and gray-headedness of old age at my hollow Eyes wrinckled Cheeks blindness deafness my toothless Gums and pale countenance nor at the Palsiness lameness and decrepitness of my Hands Feet and
trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God When ye are troubled on every side be not distressed when ye are perplexed be ye not in despair Be not faithless but believing Say not with despairing Cain my iniquitie is greater than that it may be forgiven Nor go not with him out of the preference of the Lord. Destroy not your Souls which I died for With hopeless Saul who took a Sword and fell upon it Nor do as Judas who went and hanged himself Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither is he that loves not his brother He that loves not his Brother abideth in death Whosoever hates his Brother is a murtherer and ye know that no murtherer hath eternal life abiding in him Be ye not like the violent Man who inticeth his Neighbour and leadeth him into the way that is not good who shutteth his eyes to devise froward things moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass Nor like to Potiphar's wife nor to the strange Woman that flattereth with her lips nor to them who say Come with us let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause cast in thy lot amongst us let us all have one Purse Imitate not Jeroboam who did sin and who made Israel to sin You shall not hate your Brethren in your heart you shall in any wife reprove them and not suffer sin upon them He that speaketh flattery to his friends even the eyes of his Children shall fail And a flattering mouth worketh ruine Wo to the Sheppards of Israel that do feed themselves Should not the Sheppards feed the Flock Ye eat the fat and ye cloath you with the Wool ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the Flock The wicked in his pride do persecute the poor but they shall be taken in the devises that they have imagined He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity He that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword For they have shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets and God will give them blood to drink for they are worthy At the hand of Man at the hand of every Man's Brother will I require the life of Man whoso sheddeth Man's blood by Man shall his blood be shed For in the Image of God made I Man And blood defileth the Land And the Land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it Therefore whoso killeth any Person the Murderer shall be put to death Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer which is guilty of death But he shall be surely put to death If a Man cause a blemish in his Neighbour As he hath done so shall it be done unto him breach for breach eye for eye tooth for tooth As he hath caused a blemish in a Man so shall it be done unto him again Be ye not like unto unjust Zedekiah who put Jeremiah into Prison for speaking to him in the Name of the Lord. Not like cruel Herod who bound John in Prison and beheaded him for Herodias sake left you partake of their punishments If a Brother or Sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say Depart in peace be you warmed and filled Notwithstanding you give them not those things that are needful to the Body What doth it profit When I sit upon the Throne of my Glory I shall say unto such on my left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these my poor Saints ye did it not to me Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his I will be a swift witness saith the Lord against those that oppress the hireling in his wages the Widdow and the Fatherless and that turn aside the stranger from his right He that doth wrong shall receive from the wrong that he hath done And with me there is no respect of Persons Behold a flying Roll the length thereof is twenty Cubits and the breadth thereof ten Cubits This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole Earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off according to it And it shall enter into the House of the Thief and it shall remain in the midest of his House and shall consume it with the Timber thereof and the Stones thereof Therefore let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth Let no Man go beyond and defraud his Brother in any matter because that the Lord is the avenger of all such I speak to the shame of many is it so that there is not a wise Man amongst you No not one that shall be able to Judge between his Brethren But Brother goeth to Law with Brother and that before the Unbelievers Is any one will sue you at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also He that by Usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance he shall gather it for him that will pitty the poor Woe unto such who like the Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites make clean the out-side of the Cup and of the Platter but within they are full of Extortion and excess Therefore exact no more than is appointed you Woe unto them that joyn House to House and lay Field to Field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the middest of the Earth Of a truth many Houses shall be desolate even great and fair without Inhabitant Yea ten Acres of Vineyard shall yield one Bath and the Seed of an Omer shall yield one Epha Do violence to no Man neither accuse any falsly for a false witness shall not be unpunished A false witness shall perish Behold if a witness be a false witness and hath testified falsly against his Brother then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his Brother Bless and curse not Those That delight in cursing so let it come unto them As they delight not in blessing so let it be far from them As they have cloathed themselves with cursing as with a Garment so let it come into their bowels like Water and like Oyle into their bones He that uttereth slander is a Fool I will tear those in pieces
Almighty Saviour who delivered me out of the Belly of this Whale and gave me a reprieve from Death stood by me as he did by Paul in the storm and bad me be of good comfort since Sathan the Accuser of the Saints was cast out and overcome in his Victory his Indictment and Role of my Sins conceal'd and nailed upon his Cross That my Conscience was both cleansed and pacified through the washing of his all purifying blood And that Divine Justice was satisfied to the uttermost by his active and passive obedience and sufferings he being made sin for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in him Yea that he was made unto me of God righteousness and sanctification wisdom and redemption That my life was hid in him with God And that he had given unto me Eternal Life And that when he shall appear I shall appear also with him in Glory Blessed Saviour with these Cordials thou didst thou dost revive and rejoyce my Soul and in great mercy didst answer my Prayer and restored both my mind and body to perfect health For which I bless thy name and record thy praise here and in this following Hymn The REPRIEVE Ejaculation or Hymn LOrd how uncertain full of change Is our lives state now well anon Deaths Image as though man O strange Was Natures true Camelion Our Youth and Beauty like a Flower Withers as soon as lookt upon Much like the Gourd of Jonah's Bower An one Day liv'd Hephemeron Sin is the Nimrod and the first Tyrant that did both Worlds subject To Floods Stormes Earth-quakes and accurst Mutations Wars that Royal Theft My Microcosme a witness oft Was and is still of this sad truth Shaken and under Water brought With coughs rheums even from my Youth The effect of this Earth-quake at last Like others which presage no good Was to make Chasmes and Waters cast Out of my entrails ting'd with blood At which agast I trembling fell Into a clammy and cold sweat Was wrackt with thoughts of Death and Hell Of Sin and God's dread Judgment Seat Then my Physitian Lord thou wast Stopt by opening a Vain Of thy own Blood and my Soul cast Into that Bath which cur'd my pain Thus Gallen Esculapius Thou far excel'st mad'st me all whole And by o're-coming Death for us Cur'd both my Body and my Soul Thou gavest to both new life that I Being freed from fear of shame and death Might live in thee and never die And praise thee whil'st I have my breath Thou art Lord my Catholicon A certain Cure of each Disease The only Rock I rest upon My Joy my Cordial and my Peace Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's Fatherly and manifold goodness in delivering me from Death and giving me a merciful recovery out of five several dangerous sickness Viz. From a deadly Surfeit in my Childhood from an inclination to a Consumption for many Years in my Youth And in my elder days from a painful Cough and Plurisie From two dangerous Agues And from many other like Disasters Soliloquium or Discourse THe tremendious curse for Man's sin and rebellion against God his Creator is Death temporal and Eternal The Quarter-Master and Harbinger of Death is sickness who prepares as soon as we were born for even then we begin to die matter or food corrupt humors and innumerable diseases for this all devouring Monster together with unremovable quarters until according to the Proverb He hath eaten us out of House and home So that this our dying Life is but a living Death Lord as all have sinned in Adam so all in him are dead witness that thy just Statute and Sentence It is appointed unto all Men once to dye To which Law as acknowledging my self a sinful Son of Adam I humbly submit and have these five times entertained Deaths fore-runners or Vanguard The first of his Messengers was a short yet dangerous Surfeit in the time of my Childhood out of which by thy blessing upon the means used by a friendly Physitian I was speedily recovered The second was a continued defluxion of Rheum which caused a constant Cough and inclined me for many years in the entrance of my Manhood unto a Consumption By this correction Heavenly Father thou didst most wisely bridle order and allay the strong and indomitable Lusts of my Youth that beholding daily Death thy Sergeant at the Door I might fear to act wickedness and submit to thy Discipline This friend of Death which thy mercy and wisdome made in a sence a friend unto me by thy special providence and ordering me to use fit means was after many years space and at a time and in a place where that Disease was always before dangerously afflictive discharged also and I wonderfully and perfectly recovered The third assailant was a deadly Plurisie the consequent and usual effect of a long and violent Cough which by a terrible pain and stitch made my breathing the necessary Servant and Bellowes of Life painful which after divers Moneths suffering and fruitless use of many remedies Thou O Lord that hearest and answerest Prayer heard mine and by thy blessing upon a Plaister laid to my Stomack and a Purge didst in one Night and a Day free me from all pains Coughs and Distempers to the admiration of my self and Relations The fourth Allie and Spie of Death was a violent Ague whose eight Hours hot fits might well deserve the Name of a Feaver This ceaz'd upon me at Homby where thy providence O Lord by this thy Attachment freed me from a worse because illegal detainure These fiery Fits the very shaddows of Hell at a certain Hour every other Day for some Weeks like a well-ordered Regiment made their assaults and as so many Roman Rams or whole Cannon battered all my Rampires of Earth the out-works of Nature preparing and making a breach for their General Death to enter at But even then also O most gracious God and Father the only expert Physitian that curest both Body and Soul Thou freely without any Fee for alas I had nothing of merit to give thee Visited me and didst attend to my cry and pittied my many sighs and groans walking with me in this Fiery Furnace so that although I was often burning like Moses Bush yet I was not consumed Yea thou mad'st these Brats of sin and death instead of Destroyers my Refiners Diseases and afflictions being not punishments to thine and beginnings of Hell as to the wicked But like the Purges Vomits and Blood-lettings of a skilful and loving Father and Physician for prevention and for the cure not for the destruction of thy Children and Patients according to thy Word this shall be the fruit to take away their Sin Praised be thy Name O Lord that in much loving kindness and faithfulness hath alwayes afflicted me and didst then also after a few Weeks give me a perfect