of Grace upon our souls when our souls feed on Ambrosian dainties then are we entred into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which then is in us as well as above us and consists in Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy-Ghost Rom. 14.17 and therefore if now as well as hereafter you would live as it were in Heaven then get the Assurance of Heaven then beg it then seek after it by the means shewn for it and never be at rest till ye be so blest for then oh the extaticall leaps of your rejoycing hearts oh the dancings of your gladded spirits oh the gloryings of your ravâ—shed souls which then you will be able to tell of saying O what a Heaven did I feel in me when my Beloved spake to me and assured me that my poor soul should be saved undoubtedly Oh how sweet was that voice that word that saying to my soul O how was my soul then even heavened in God embosomed in Christ extatized in the Spirit and elevated to the highest horizon of divine consolation To say no more this entrance gotten by Assurance is the sweetest the deliciousest the pleasantest thing that ever beatified and warmed the heart of man upon earth for a very Paradise it is and a Heaven upon earth wherein I now desire to leave you upon earth and therefore I do so press it to make you press for it that you may gain it beseeching you by the mercies of God that you will after all this sadly and seriously consider all this and remember the sad condition wherein you formerly lived living in doubts and that if you love your souls you will now even heaven your selves upon earth ensouling your selves in God sunning your selves in Christ and emparadising your selves in that ever and over-glorious Assurance of salvation which I have so urged by believing and those other blessed means which have been foreshewn shewing your selves to be not hearers only but doers also and such doers as are excitated by the Word suscitated by the Spirit animated with heat of zeal elevated with height of hope and even ready to soar up upon the wings of confidence and joy beyond that flaming hill where the stars are and to enter that holy hill above where fulness of joy is unutterable tranquility blessed immortality immortal felicity to be enjoyed thorow all eternity To God alone be all praise laud and glory Fifteen Soul-solacing CONFERENCES WITH CHRIST Touching Sins and the World's Conquest by Faith Making use of the joys of Heaven and of Christ's sweetest Promises Love Death Offices Intercession and overcoming the World c. According to the High and Noble Art of fighting the great fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 Fitted for all such gracious Souls as do most heartily defire to see the death of their strong and mighty Corruptions and a thorow Conquest of this vile and troublesom World By Christopher Jelinger M. A. LONDON Printed in the year 1664. The first Conference Tending to the right happy subduing of sin by the Word of Promise Mich. 7.19 Believer Psal 42.11 WHy art thou cast down O my soul why art thou so disquieted within me Soul Disquieted within me say ye Nay wonder that I am not even overwhelmed Believ What is the matter Soul Ah! sin sin Ps 38.3 4 6. which is as an heavie burthen even too heavie for me to bear it makes me grieve all the day long Believ I do not blame thee O my soul that thou art troubled takest on for sin For * a Cor. 7.10 godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation * Possidon in Vit. Aug. c. 27. attribuit haec verba Ambr not to be repented of but thou grievest too much as if thou wer'st without hope whereas thou servest a good and a gracious Lord who pittieth them that are his as a Psal 103.12 13. Father pittieth his children and removes our transgressions from us as far as the East is from the West Soul I grant that God is very pittiful but I doubt whether he will have mercy on me because it is written * Prov. 28.13 who so confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy but I am as full of sin still as the ground is full of piles of grass the sea-shore full of sands and the Ocean full of drops of water so that I cannot say that sin is forsaken and therefore I can expect no mercy Believ No mercy what doest thou then make of David whose words but now were cited did he not commit both murther and adultery and yet thou seest he doth not forsake his own mercy though he was not able quite to forsake his own sinful lusts Soul Will you compare your self with David who though he did fall grievously commiting murther and adultery yet was not full of adultery for he repented of that sin and of murther also and after that ye do not read that he fell so again but I your poor soul am as I said but now full of sin even sometimes full of envy then of pride then of lusts and therefore I must needs be hopeless Believ Hopeless I perceive O my Soul that thou doest utterly forget and bury in oblivion the sacred words sweetest consolation Soul What consolation Believ â— Tim. 1.15 16. That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom Paul was chief who yet obtained mercy Soul It should seem you will compare your self with Paul also who though he was bad before his conversion yet was not so afterward for he tells us that he was even * Gal. 6.14 crucified to the world and the world crucified to him but you are not so dead to the world for you take pleasure even too much pleasure and joy in the things of this world and are oft times mightily transported with the world and the fashions of it unto which ye do too much conform your self in your diet apparel discourse yea and ye cannot deny but ye are too eager in the pursuit of the profits and deceitful riches of this world forgetting both what the first and best Christians did before you and what you ought to do after them vilipending and despising all the worlds stately pomp and fading glory and therefore I am so perplexed Believ I do not equal my self with Paul but only comfort thee O my soul with his example for though I be not equally mortified to this vile world with him yet canst not thou deny but I do truly endeavour to be crucified to the world and I would have thee know that Paul was not an Angel neither though an eminent Saint but a sinner both before and after his conversion an impenitent sinner I mean first and a repentant sinner after for therefore he saith in the fore-quoted place Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chief mark I am and not I have been and again Rom. 7.15 that which I allow not I do mark do and not I
A Cluster of sweetest GRAPES FOR SAINTS Brought from the Heavenly Canaan OR The Saints Assurance gotten and to be had in this Life by the several means specified in this Tract upon 1 Pet. 1.9 And fifteen Soul-solacing Conferences with Christ touching Sins and the World's Conquest according to the high and noble Art of fighting the great fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 Fitted for all such gracious Souls as do most heartily desire to see the death of their strong and mighty corruptions a thorow victory gotten over this vile and troublesome World By Christopher Jelinger M. A. LONDON Printed in the year 1664. Epigramma Authoris Auspicatorium ad JESVM CHRISTVM REGEM REGVM Dominum suum Clementissimum CHrist◠Decus Coeli Coelorum Gloria Christe Unica Progenies ex Deitate Patris Adveniat nobis Regnum quod nomine Coeli Scripturae dicunt adveniatque salus Monstretur nobis facies tua Maxime Regum Et tendat sursum quicquid ad ima ruit Adveniat quoque laeta Canan quae dulcia semper Tundit mella probis angelicisque viris Tempora decedant quibus heu FIDUCIA nobi◠Defuit veniant tempora grata Tuis Adveniat nova Lux veniant Saturnia Saec'la Quae exhilarent Sanctos Optime Christe tuos Accedatque piis FIDUCIA Magna salutis Et gustent Justi gaudia magna Poli Adveniat cunctis etiam sperantibus in te Fons vitae semper dulcibus Uber aquis Ambrosios libent Coelesti è Nectare Rores Qui Coelum sitiunt justitiamque Dei Adveniat porro Coelestis Musica Christe Et nos nunc recreent Jubila Grata Poli Quae nec Julaeae voces nec tibia possit Musica Cyrrhaeis assimilare Modis Et te collaudent spes O fidissima Mundi Omnia quae existunt Lux Polus arva fretum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the truly Vertuous Lady the Lady Margaret Courtney Grace Peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ MADAM I Cannot but be mindful of you also in the publishing of my several Treatises Your gracious carriage and good report which you have among good and gracious people and your exemplary forwardness to come to our Lectures when they were up and the great respect which I have and fervent love which I bear to your Noble Family since I came first acquainted with it hath in a manner constrained me so to do and by name to dedicate unto you these Soul-solacing Conferences with Christ which I have penn'd and upon the earnest request of others published for the good of all such gracious souls as do desire no better talk than such as is contained in one of these Books and doubtless is most pleasing to Christ Christ you know did soon draw near to those * Luk. 24.15 Emauntish Pilgrims who did but talk of him and therefore much more will not be far from us also if we shall not only talk so of him but also with him especially when he shall see that we do most heartily desire to see the death of our sins and to live above this vile and evil world as Conqueror of it and not conquered by it Oh! that doth his very heart good and therefore how Oh how should we confer and talk and commune with him about it even day and night that we may oppose it with all our might prospering and prevailing against it to our souls delight Madam Christ will be exceeding glad of our talk if we shall so talk with him as here we are taught of the conquest of this world that we may reign with him in the other world His heavenly Highness therefore gives us hearts to speak as we ought to speak that after we have spoken with him here we may be spoken unto by him hereafter to triumph with him for ever So prayeth Your most humble servant in Christ Christopher Jelinger To the Worshipful THOMAS REYNEL Esq And Justice of the Peace Grace and Mercy be multiplyed WORSHIPFVL MAay it please you to give me leave to dedicate and to present this little Tract of The Saints Assurance unto you as to a Person so enobled with Grace as that by God's Grace enabling you I hope you wil not only Patronize it but also promote my grand design in it which is to stir up all that shall read it to the gaining of the said Assurance thorow Gods assistance Worthy Sir you see what a Subject I am faln upon even a Subject which will subject our fears eject our doubts and deject all adverse powers which in the want of this Assurance are wont illaqueate our very intellects to captivate our wills and to subjugate all the powers of our souls Souls therefore will never do well till they be heavened with it for my part when I take a full circle of my self and a thorow view of my condition do find without it my very being to be a burden my life a * Sustaining the loss of the light of God's countenance loss my heart a hell for Oh the hellish horrors that a man shall feel in his heart when this Assurance is far from his heart But when it is in it O what a glad man is he Heaven being in his heart his heart in Heaven Oh Sir what a Heaven what a Paradise what a beatitude did circumscribe that holy * Father when St. Hierom as he writes of himself he was as it were in medio Angelorum choro in the very midst of the quire of Angels hearing them sing as he was in Eremo in a Wilderness and may not we be so too yes verily if we would but labour as we ought for this Assurance treading into the Vestigaes or footsteps of those blessed Hebrews who were so assured of their salvation and eternal bliss according to that memorable expression of the Apostle Heb. 10.34 Knowing mark knowing in your selvs that you have in Heaven a better and more enduring substance for then as they thereby were so we thereby shall come to the innumerable company of Angels c. Heb. 12.22 Confess I must that it is as hard a thing to acquire and to gain this Assurance as any thing I know in the world and you know Sir how the Church of Rome doth fulminate and thunder out her * Council Trid. sess 6. c. 9. 16. Anathema's against us for maintaining this Assurance to be had in this life but I am not discouraged from this treating on it by either for against the one I know that I am defensated and born up by God's never-failing Truth against the other by his power and therefore I say for all this let us O let us labour and labour hard because our work is so hard strive as for life to be perswaded in our hearts that without fail and doubt we shall enter into life Life here is sweet but that above is sweeter the Assurance of it the sweetest thing in all this world's circumference for when a man hath
in this life For the better managing of which Use I shall tender to you 1. Directives or Mediums 2. Incentives 1. Directives to wit these 1 Directives 1. Labour to be born again if ye are not 1 Direct for so were those blessed Saints here who were so assured of their salvation as you may see v. 3. Hath begotten us again Give me leave therefore to insist upon Regeneration a little while And 1. Let me intrat you to imbibe receive and take inwardly the word of Regeneration whereby we are born again as it is written 1 Pet. 1.23 Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever where note that this Regenerating word of God is partly Law partly Gospel 1. As Law and so it doth three things 1. It discovereth unregeneracie and unregenerate men and shewes what manner of men they are like a glass Jam. 1.23 as for example by that famous place â—â—m 3.10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. where it describeth them what throats mouths tongues feet they have I pray you read the place It is storied of Luther that a certain Jew would have poysoned him but was discovered by his picture sent to Luther by a faithful friend warning him to beware of such a man when he did see him such a faithful friend is the law which so discovers unregeneracie which would kill us by such a portracture that we may escape it and live 2. It puts life into sin as you may read Rom. 7.8 9. I was alive without the law once but when the commandement came sin revived and I dyed this is a notable place I pray you let me open it a little sin revived that is it began to stir to tear Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata to irrit to exite to do what is forbidden and to affright withall as some understand the place so that I felt it Before the law comes home close sin is as it were dead like a dead adder or Lion and so quiet but when the law comes it is like an adder which is alive so it bites and * 1 Cor. 15.56 stings and like a living Lion so it roars and so it terrifieth and makes men afraid to ‖ Deducit enim talis metus ad poenitentiam Clem. Alex. strom l. 2. p. 58. bring them to repentance and Regeneration 3. It killeth according to the fore-alledged place Rom. 7.9 Sin revived and I died that is I felt and saw that I was dead and damned by the law whereas before I was alive that is I thought as sure that I should be saved as any man alive Thus the law kills men and makes them sensible of the miserable sad and damnable condition wherein they are whilest they are in the state of unregeneracie according to that dreadful place John 3.3 Read it 2. As Gospel so the regenerating word of God holds forth one sweet precious promise or other like an orient pearl to revive the dying drooping spirits of men when the law hath brought them as it were to deaths door as for example That most refulgent and reviving promise in Ezek. 36.26 And new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stonie heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh Thus the Gospel opens a †Hos 2.15 door of hope for poor creatures condemned by the law that though they are and must be prisoners and condemned prisoners yet they may be prisoners of hope Zac. 9.12 that is may not be without some hopes of mercy and of a gracious deliverance Thus the law kills but the Gospel saves The law cometh bringing Damnation but the Gospel comes bringing salvation the law cometh with a dagger to stab those that are alive but the Gospel cometh with a plaister to cure those that are stab'd and lie for dead as Christ himself came to save those that were lost so the Gospel cometh to bring men to Christ that they may not be lost for when souls come to Christ being born again by the word of Christ Christ comes to them and when he comes salvation comes for he cometh bringing Salvation Zach. 9.9 Read the place that those which were under the sentence of Damnation may attain to the state of Salvation even the Salvation of their souls according to my text Now this regenerating word of God you must take and apply every one of you and not put it off or let it lie as dead saying Am not I such an unregenerate man now have not I such filthy hands which have touched the unclean thing Such a throat such feet such a mouth and such a tongue which hath talked so filthily c. But yet may not I hope that the Lord will shew me mercy and regenerate me also as well as others Giving me a new heart c. 3. Betake your selves to your * Matth. 6.6 and I allude to Esa 26.20 Chamber and spend at least one day as a day of ‖ Jejuniis orationibus vacato Ignatius fasting I have done the same upon the same account if you think that the time of your regeneration is near come as I hope it is and that the pangs of the new birth are at the door and shut your door and there and then see your selves convert according to Psal 4.4 thus rendered in your English meetre And in your Chamber quietly See you your selves convert 4. Begin to be in pain there as a woman in travel for the pangs of Child-birth must go before the Child's-birth and you must make this †Dr. Preston on Gods Alsuff account that if you never yet received the spirit of bondage you also never received the spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 and many there are who because they have withstood the troubles of their mindes and the terrors of the spirit of bondage have withstood their Salvation wherefore let me intreat you to take the pains to be in pains for a little season that you may be at ease to an endless duration and for a small moment to be in heaviness through some necessary perturbations that for ever you may be in joy and gladness through unspeakable consolations O let even all your joy be turned into sorrow now and your * Esto sicut Rex in corde tuo sublimis risui jubens vade ut vadat dic tu fletui veni ut veniat Clim Grad 15. laughter into grief that all your grief and sorrow had for sin now may be turned into laughter hereafter For blessed are ye that weep now for you shall laugh saith Christ Luke 6.21 5. Then cry out and 1. For Anguish 2. For and to the spirit 1. For Anguish as a * I allude to that famous place in Esa 26.17 Like as a Woman with child that draweth neer the time of her