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
Vew here his face from the Jngravers mint And in his workes his life and Soule in Print The True Effigies of Sir James Harington Knight and Baronet HORAE CONSECRATAE OR Spiritual Pastime CONCERNING Divine Meditations Upon the great Mysteries of our Faith and Salvation Occasional MEDITATIONS and Gratulatory Reflexions upon particular Providences and Deliverances vouchsafed to the Author and his Family ALSO A SCRIPTURE-CATECHISME Dedicated to the Service of his Wife and Children AND NOW Published together with other Treatises mentioned in the following Page for Common Use. By Sir JAMES HARRINGTON Kt. and Baronet London Printed for the Author 1682. The Contents of the Six Treatises I. Treatise THe Vision Exercise and Triumph of Faith In which is discovered from the Elevated and Holy Mount of Divine Contemplation 1. The shadows of Faith 2ly The true Faith and its Object God in Christ more particularly The Lord Jesus Christ in his Incarnation Life Death Passion Resurrection Ascension and coming to Judgment with the Benefits accruing from them to every true Believer 3dly The lost and miserable condition of every man by Nature 4ly The Restauration of man by Grace considered as accomplish'd by Christ in and by his Priestly Prophetical and Kingly Offices 5ly A Prospect of Eternal Life considered in the Glorification of the Soul and Body particularly as to the Faculties and Affections of the Soul and as to the Senses and Members of the Body in the new Heaven and new Earth during Christs personal Reign upon Earth for a thousand years 6ly A Prophetical Vision of Faith holding forth twelve great works of God which will shortly begin to appear and shall be fulfilled in their Respective Seasons and to be ended in the Translation of the Saints to Heaven The Compleatment of Scripture Prophesies the particulars of which Twelve Magnalia Dei View in the next page all which is intermixt with Holy Soliloquies and Divine Ejaculations applicable and profitable to every true Believer II. Treatise A Scripture-Catechisme contained in an Epistle sent by the Authour in the Name and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ to his Wife and Children wherein in Scripture-phrases only is held forth the Doctrine and Duty of a true Christian A work of excellent use for private Families as an Appendix to Catechising III. Treatise Divine Meditations upon the Creation Mans Fall and Redemption by Christ presented by the Author to his Parents in the one and twentieth year of his Age. IV. Treatise A Pillar of Praise or Occasional Meditations upon many Remarkable Mercies and Deliverances vouchsafed by the Lord to the Author and his nearest Relations V. Treatise The Lords days Preeminence above all other days held forth in an humble answer to a paper or Quere given to the Author by King Charles the First concerning the Observation of the Lords day and Easter day VI. Noahs Dove or an Epistle of peace directed by the Author to his Fatherly affected Brethren the Presbyterians and Independents as a probable means for their Agreement and Union TWELVE MAGNALIA DEI Or Heads of the wonderful Works and Actings of God on Earth by the Lord Jesus Christ during his Mediatorie Kingdome not yet Accomplisht All which are Treated of in three Tracts of this Volume I. THe Raising of the Witnesses Rev. 11.3 unto the 13th II. The Victorious Kingdom of Christ appearing in the Burning of the City of Rome Rev. 18.8 9. III. The Total and Final Ruine of the Papacie and of the Papal Kings of the Earth her Popish Supporter Rev. 19.19 20 21. IV. The Return to Canan of the Ten Tribes and the Jews and their Conversion Rom. 11.25 to the end V. The total Overthrow of the Turkish Empire by the Israelites and the subduing of all open Enemies of the Saints by the reformed Nations Ezek. 38 39. Chapters Dan. 2.44 45. VI. The Binding and Casting of Satan and his Angels into the Bottomless Pit the Local Hell for one thousand years to begin as I humbly conceive about the six thousand year of the world according to a true Chronology and Account Rev. 20.1 2 3. VII The Conversion of the whole World to the profession of Christianity Psal. 67. to the end Rev. 11.15 VIII The Peaceable Kingdome of Christ to be exercised by his Saints in this World for one thousand years the time of Satans Imprisonment which will begin as I humbly conceive in the year of the World six thousand and one being Daniels first Monarchy Rev. 2.44 45. Chap. 7.17 18.26 27. Rev. 20.4 And the Churches Sabbatisme upon this Earth Heb. 4.9 IX The Loosing and the Re-casting Satan and his Angels into Hell after the destruction of Gog and Magog by Fire Rev. 20.7 8 9 10. Together with the Consuming and Renewing of the whole Elementary World at our Lords coming the second time to Judgment by the same Fire 2 Thes. 2.7 8 9. X. Christs coming to Judgment under which is comprehended the Change or Resurrection of all the Elect to Glory 1 Thes. chap. 3. v. 13. to the end And Christs Remunerative Act of Justice to them in their Reigning with him upon the Renewed Earth a thousand years Rev. 2.4 5 6. XI The Raising of all the Wicked to Judgment a thousand years after the Elect Rev. 20.5 and the Sentenceing them and the Wicked Angels Rev. 20.11 XII The Translation of all the Elect to Heaven 2 Cor. 5.1 and the delivering of Christs Mediator Kingdome to his Father 1 Cor. 15.24.28 A Synopsis of the General Heads of this Treatise THe Definition of Faith Page 3 Diverse sorts of Faith viz Historical 4 Temporary 8 Miraculous 15 The Means of Faith 21 The Object of Faith Christ 22 Christ Born of the Virgin Mary 24 Persecuted by Herod ibid. His Agony 27 His Condemnation by Pilate 28 Crucified 30 His Death 33 His Burial 34 His Victory over Hell 35 His Resurrection 36 His Ascension 38 I. Man by Nature miserable in his Soul viz. in his Mind in general 41 Understanding 42 Conscience ibid. Will 44 Affections 45 The disorder in them namely in Joy which cannot be in Riches 48 Honours ibid. Pleasures ibid. Wisdom 49 Fear 50 II. Mans misery in body In general 51 In particular the sinfulness in his Eyes 53 Ears 54 Smell ibid. Taste 55 Touch ibid. Christs Priests Office in general 57 Intercession in particular 60 Satisfaction by both 61 Of Justification 62 Forgiveness of sins 63 Imputative Righteousness 63 The Definition thereof 64 Proofs of our right to Christs Imputative Righteousness by Scripture Demonstrations 65 General Questions and Objections answered 67 A Dialogue between Christ and the soul 74 The souls particular eompalint Against the mind and understanding 74 Christ answ 75 Against the Conscience 75 Christ answ 75 Against hardness of heart 76 Christ answ 77 Against the memories 78 Christ answ 79 Against the will 80 Christ answ 80 Against the affections viz. Love 81 Joy 81 Christ answ 83 Her general complaint of her Vniversal unworthyness 84 Christ
his faithfull Saints and Servants For there as my Meditations must cease because faith shall be then fruition so also the Kingdome of Grace and Mediatorship shall determine according to that of the Apostle Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God even the Father when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that puts all things under Him that God may be all in all To proceed then the Christian Soul being about to take her Heavenly flight upon the apprehension of her particular together with the General Judgment starts back and trembling with a sudden fear thus revolves and laments Alas why haste I so fast unto the dreadfull Tribunal of a just and sin-revenging God Am I not an infinite offendor indited by Sathan witnessed against by conscience yea found guilty and convicted by self-confession Why flye I then so speedily to hear that sentence of condemnation Goe yee cursed into everlasting Fire Is not this that terrible day of the Lord spoken of A Day of trouble of distress of wastenesse and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess of Clouds and thick darkness The day of Battel the great Day of Gods wrath Surely if it be not it is the parallel the preludium thereof for as the Tree falls so it lies As Death leaves Judgment findes Oh how am I astonished when I but think of the horror and torment of that Hellish Tophet those everlasting burnings merited for me by my sins roomthy enough for Worlds of sinners For God hath made it deep and large never ceasing in its fiery vengeance for want of fuel as sometimes the burnings of Aetna for the Pile thereof is Fire and much Wood ever abounding and continuing in its fury and rigour of punishing For the breath of the Lord doth kindle it There 's weeping wailing and gnashing of Teeth The Worme that gnaws the Chain that enthrals the contempt that vilifies the Fire that torments and burns is without consumption All which therefore are infinite because everlasting Justice requiring that our deficient nature should for our infinite debt be thus eternally extended Nor is this Paena sensus this positive misery although endless easiless remediless all Is there not a far greater because more spiritual and intrinsical that Paena damni that death of the Soul the banishment separation and privation of Gods blessed face and of all hope of happiness for ever O the torture of these premeditations Lord if the thoughts of Hell be a Hell what will the infliction be Blest Saviour which once prayedst to be saved from this hour as being in all things tempted like us sin only excepted be my mercifull high Priest and royal Champion to deliver me in this hour and from this temptation yea let my faith in this her last act and motion be swiftest and strongest because neerest to thee her Centre O my Soul have not I often seen one small Cloud to hide the Sun from our Eyes and finde I not it true spiritually also that one dram of sorrow embitters a great measure of joy A few doubtings to eclipse and for a time obscure the bright beams of true believing But no wonder for this is the hour of darkness therefore the fittest time for the power of darkness to act its part Corruption and infidelity are now to bid adieu and to raise their Siege from the Soul and therefore give the sharpest assault and battery to the Bulworks of thy faith Wherefore let not thy vain fear betray the succours which both faith and reason offer but recollect thy self and consider Is not thy Saviour and King the same yesterday to day and for ever Are not his promises yea and Amen Are not his gifts and callings without repentance Hath he loved thee and will he not love thee to the end Hath he begun and is he not able to perfect Will he even at the point and in the height of his tryumph be overcome in thee one of his Members Hath he made thee yea new-made thee Hath he paid thy ransome with his precious heart-blood Yea with infinite sufferings preserved thee all thy life past from many-fold dangers and Enemies by his gracious providence And will he now to the dishonour of his omnipotency deliver up his glory his prize to his expiring and almost vanquisht adversary O far be from thee such weak and groundless imaginations but because infidelity and temptation are often-times deaf and seem to be of proof even against undeniable arguments and demonstrations mount against all thy scruples and timorous unbeliefs the Canon of Gods word which will quickly level all impediments and through the strongest barrocadoes of Sathans suggestions make way for a safe a happy passage and exit to thy Soul As an Introduction to which let these holy Lights and examples of departing Saints be premeditated of Such as that speech of dying Jacob Lord I wait for thy salvation such the obedience and chearfull dissolution of those two unparalleld Levites Moses and Aaron they went up to the tops of the Mount Hor and Nebo and dyed there such the cruel and voluntary Martyrdome though inspired by an extraordinary Spirit of valiant Sampson such also the last words of royal David He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered and sure for this is all my salvation The expressions also of Job Paul and others might be instanced but I will conclude with pious Simeon's devout wish Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation Further to thy establishment and comfort in that day when God shall judge the secrets of all Men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel consider what firme assurance thou hast of the favour and how neer relation thou hast to the Person of thy Judge For herein as the Apostle speaks is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this World Is not the same Lord Jesus Christ that sole and universal Tribune to whom the Father hath committed all Judgment and to whom all power is given both in Heaven and in Earth As being that Man whom God hath ordained to judge the World in righteousness even the Quick and the Dead And before whose Judgment Seat all must stand Is not he I say by the witness of his own word and undeniable truth so neerly allyed and endeared to thee that the strongest tyes of nature are by him figuratively taken up to shadow out rather then to fully express his indissoluble affection As that he is thy Master nay more O infinite love and humility thy servant That he is thy friend yea more O ineffable honour and exaltation thy brother yea more if this be not enough he
will from place to place like an Angel with incredible swiftness The Soul acting with a more enlarged and excellent advantage as to all its faculties and operations by the subserviency union and concomitancy of the Members and senses of our glorified bodies than it could do without them Of which in their due place with Gods assistance I shall treat more particularly O my Soul shall thy frail fleshly body be shining like the Stars and the Firmament in all its brightness glorious like the Sun yea like the brightest Son of Righteousness and be replenisht with the glory of God Shall it be thy radiant Garment and super-excelling Ornament Thy Chariot of Tryumph Yea more the completion of thy excellency and Coelestial happiness O give it now its due honour and inslave it not to Sathan and to sinfull lusts Thou shalt shortly be thine and the Angels glorious companion Debase it not so much as to put it to dig and delve in the Earth like a blinde Mole Nor to cloath it self with thick Clay nor to feed upon white and yellow dust which is the Serpents Meat and curse which shall within a short space of time shine like the Stars and Sun in the Heavens Yea suffer it not to be bespotted and defiled with uncleanness Nor to be joyned or united to an Harlot which conjoyn'd with thee shall be a perfect and glorious Image of God incarnate and for ever the Spouse of Christ and the Habitation and Temple of God the Holy Ghost What though as yet thou art in a state of humiliation ascend thou with our Lord into the Mount into the high Mountain of Divine and Heavenly Contemplation being both in Body and Soul raised from above the vanities of this low and evil World Let thy converse be with Moses and Elias the Law and the Prophets and by so doing thou shalt be transformed and transfigur'd yea thy face shall shine and thou shalt be changed into the Image of God from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. O Lord my God who art infinite in free grace and mercy in goodness bounty and liberality and hast abundantly manifested thy self to be all this to me a poor and miserable sinner in my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent in my nature to purchase for me not only salvation from everlasting death but such a shining and glorious state and condition of Soul and Body with thee unto Eternity give me a gratefull heart and an obedient life which is the real thankfulness of thy Children Yea let the Meditation and application by faith of this blessed and transcendent change not only ravish me in Spirit as Peter was at the sight of the representation thereof at our Lords Transfiguration but let me with holy Paul follow after it that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus as counting my self not to have apprehended and therefore through thy grace Let me forget those things that are behind and reach forth to the things that are before pressing towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Let me so run not as uncertainly so fight not as one that beateth the Aire but keep under this my Body and bring it into subjection least by any meanes when I have instructed others I my self should be a cast away Gracious God in order to this glorious and new life grant me to walk in newness of life that I being planted together with my Saviour in the likeness of his Death as to sin I may be also raised with and by him in the likeness of his Resurrection to Glory and having these precious promises let me through faith in them be by thee enabled to cleanse my self from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in thy fear for without holiness none shall see thy Face O Lord let my conversation be in Heaven although my body be on earth And since thy Word saith a Mans wisdome makes his Face to shine give me that true wisdome that is from above And since thou hast in infinite mercy given me this blessed hope that even my body shall shine and be glorious like the Stars and Sun after this life give me grace in this life to be a burning and shining light with John the Baptist and to be harmless and blameless a Son of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Amongst whom let me shine as a Light in the World that they seeing my good works may glorify thee my Heavenly Father Amen I proceed now to the third Heavenly excellency of our Bodies glorified after the Resurrection viz. Their incorruptibility and immortality In order to our more cleer understanding of this so wonderfull a change in which as saith the Apostle This Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality I shall from the ground of right reason and natural Philosophy humbly offer these considerations First that the body of Man is compounded although unequally of the four Elements And that at Death which is the dissolution of the Soul and Body The Spirit returns to him that gave it and the Body returns to the four Elements the first Principles of which it was compounded This is illustrated and proved from Scripture which witnesses that at the Resurrection The Sea gave up her Dead that is that part of the substance of the Bodies that were in it and Death and Hell that is the Earth or Grave delivered up the Dead that were in them Further this must be granted as an undeniable maxime that as none but God our Almighty Creator can make something of nothing so none but he can annihilate any Creature or any Atom of a Creature so as to make that something nothing If this be a certain truth as assuredly it is and that the Lord hath declared in his Word that the same Bodies in which the Soul lived here upon Earth shall again appear and be raised at the Resurrection as inspired Job attests saying I know that my Redeemer lives and that I shall stand at the latter Day upon Earth and though after my skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and my Eyes shall behold and not another though my Reines be consumed within me Then certainly at and after death that part of our Bodies that is a part of the four Elements from a Principle sympathy law and instinct of nature the compositum and structure being dissolved and separated shall return to that Element of which it is a part where it shall be kept and preserved by the all-governing Power and providence of God as in a Wombe or Treasury untill its new birth at the Resurrection In the next place consider that when the
they may have a like effect upon you as to your spiritual food and edification as the â—irst and second concoction hath in the stomack as to a good and perfect digestion and turning the Meat into a fit Chile to be sanâ—â—fied and made good blood and spirits besides an after chewâ—ng of the Cud by remeditation and practice in a Gospel and spiritual signification will much difference and distinguish you that 〈◊〉 clean Christians from those that are unclean who for want of the heat of Divine affections devour but not digest holy things To include I desire my great suffering condition abounding with sorrows hopes and fears and all kinds of Tentations discomforts and distractions my above Twenty removes to several Residences and more than seven years Exile and separation from my â—ooks dearest Friends and Relations my ignorance infirmities and sinfulness as being the greatest of sinners the least of Saints 〈◊〉 excuse and apologize for me to any of my Brethren of the â—hurches of Christ that shall with you read these Contemplations â—â— to any defects or errors therein as being one of the lowest â—â—rms in the School of Christ and therefore ready in all humility to submit any thing herein contained to the Judgement of the Saints that are learned or judicious and to give or receive light or satisfaction to or from any that differ from me in Opinion Which I cannot but expect because of the diversity and rarity of a great part of this subject which may be a reason that plowing with no man's Heifer in some things I may walk alone yet left not in the dark and without as seems to me a clear light of holy Scripture hoping that this Essay of mine as to those great future mysteries and periods of the Churches state may give some new light through the free condescention of God's spirit to me his poor Exile in Patâ—os as to the understanding of many Scripture Prophesies in my Judgment much mistaken by former Expositors both ancient and modern and that though my weak light be but as a rush Candle yet it may be an occasion of the inflaming and lighting up of great and shining Tapers both in this generation and in the Age to come Most loving gracious and faithful Consort and hopeful Children whom I greatly long after in the bowels of Jesus Christ And for whom in the words of the Apostle Paul I frequently pray that your love may aboâ—nd yet more and more in knowledge and in all Judgment that ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ Being filled with the Fruits of Righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.8 9 10 11. For this cause I bow my Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner Man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heigth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes. 3.14 15 16 17 18 19. Having the Eyes of your understanding enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his Calling and what the Riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us wards who believe according to the working of his mighty Power Ephes. 1.18 19. That you all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord may be changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Finally my dear Brethren Sisters and Fellow members in Christ for all other Relation and Denomination shall shortly be laid aside Farewell be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace And the God of peace and love shall be with you 2 Cor. 13.11 Amen Yours in all sincere and tender affection as doubly Obliged by Nature and by Grace W. W. This 29th of June 1666. Sweetnese of Forme Feature Heere 's Combinde Yet much below the Beautie of her minde The True Effigies of the Lady Katherine Harington Wife to Sir James Harington and Baronet AN EPISTLE TO THE ELECT LADY And her Children My true Yoke-fellow and Dearly beloved Children Whom I love in the Truth HEar ye the Instruction of a Father and attend to know understanding forget it not neither decline from the words of my Mouth First seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Wisdome is the principal thing the one thing needful and with all your gettings get understanding forsake her not and she shall preserve you Love her and she shall keep you Exalt her and she shall promote you she shall bring you to honour when you do embrace her she shall give to your Head an Ornament of grace a Crown of Glory shall she deliver unto you and the Years of your Life shall be many When you go your steps shall not be straitned and when you run you shall not stumble Take fast hold of Instruction let her not go keep her for she is your life Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who is the power of God and the wisdome of God God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last Days spoken unto us by his Son who he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Therefore ye ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that ye have heard lest at any time ye should let them slip For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation If he that despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not ye escape if ye turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven Hear ye therefore the word which the Lord Jesus speaketh unto you who spake by the Prophets and is the Lord God of the Holy Prophets since all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God even from him who is the Eternal Word of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works Counsel is mine
peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no Law The joy of the Lord is your strength Therefore rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Rejoyce in the Lord always again I say rejoyce Delight your selves also in the Lord and let his Commandements be your delights and he shall give you the desires of your heart Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dream and he shall be unto you for a Sanctuary Be ye in the fear of the Lord all the day long For it is the beginning of knowledge a Fountain of life to depart from the snares of death Yea by the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life Work out therefore your own salvation with fear and trembling perfecting holiness in the fear of God Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear Therefore fear not their fear for perfect love casteth out such fear But ye have received the spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing for I gave my self for you that I might redeem you from all iniquity and purifie unto my self a peculiar People zealous of good works Let therefore after my example and David's the zeal of my House eat you up and consume you And be like Phineas who was zealous for his God Be angry for sin as Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel but sin not Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath For whoso is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of Judgment Ye that love the Lord hate evil yea they hate those that hate me with a perfect hatred All that hate me love death Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the Flesh For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would But if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law Now the works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers drunkenness revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God He that believeth not shall be damned Therefore ye ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that ye have heard lest at any time ye should let them slip For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall ye escape if you neglect so great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by Me the Lord and was confirmed unto you by them that heard Me God also bearing them witness both with signes and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Take heed that your portion be not among the Unbelievers in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone Nor say with the Fool in your heart there is no God and the Lord will not do good neither will he do evil He that sacrificeth or gives worship unto any God save unto the Lord only he shall be utterly destroyed You shall have no other Gods before me Ye shall make you no Idols nor graven Images neither shall you set up any Image of them in your Land to bow down unto it For I am the Lord your God He that blasphemeth the Name of the Lord shall surely be put to death all the Congregation shall stone him Thou shalt not prophane the Name of thy God I am the Lord. It is a snare to the Man which devoureth that which is holy and after vowes to make inquiry An Hypocrite shall not come before God His hope shall perish The Congregation of the Hypocrites shall be desolate For what is the hope of an Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul If you turn away your Feet from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my Holy Day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shall honour him not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure nor speaking your own words Then shall you delight your selves in the Lord and I will give you to ride upon the high places of the Earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob my Servant for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary I am the Lord. I conceive that in all things some are superstitious therefore ye are my friends if ye do what I command you Ye shall not add unto the word that I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that ye may keep the Commandements of the Lord your God which I command you But shall with my Servant David hate every false way I know there are many that are neither cold nor hot and I will spue them out of my mouth He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Happy is the Man that feareth always but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief The Soul that doth ought presumptuously the same reproacheth the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from his People As also the Man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken to the Priest that standeth to minister before the Lord your God or unto the Judge even that Man shall die Wherefore pray with my Servant David Lord keep back thy Servants from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over us so shall you be innocent from the great Transgression Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain Let your communication be Yea yea Nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil He that being often reproved hardneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his Servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him
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
glory when he maskt it with humanity and the same love makes him as it were dis-esteem his glory that he might confirm his Disciples The Rulers lye saying his Disciples came by Night and stole him away might perchance have been received generally as a truth Or else the believers might have proved as incredulous as Didimus Had not his bodily presence Non-plust falshood and controuled unbelief Forty Days the time appointed for his last sojourning on Earth being now expired Let my faith as it hath followed Him from Heaven so ascend with Him to Heaven The Angels that questioned the Disciples with a Why stand yee gazing did not intend the closing of the Souls eye but the bodies No act of Christ ever wanted a Witness the Foundation of Christianity thereby being as it were semented for ever Whereas all other fabulous Religions moulder away as layed with the untempered Morter of Mans devices The Wise-men and Sheepwards are Witnesses of his birth John and the multitude of his Baptization and Circumcision Pilate of his Innocency the Centurion of his Deity and Crucifixtion the Souldiers of his Resurrection and his Disciples of his Ascension The affection of Christ towards Man is like himself always the same That free and good will of his that brought Him down to suffer lifts Him up to mediate The unspeakable comfort and truth of which office since I am both unable and unworthy to express I refer my self and others to the Scripture of God Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right Hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Whilst the glorious Sun is clouded or eclipsed Man may with an open and undazled eye behold its luminous Orb But when free from all interpositions it shall re-ascend the top of its Meridian What seeing Organ is there that can behold it without being bleard with a review in sign of weakness or incombrance within it self as uncapable of such brightness The eternally begotten Son of the everlasting Father our Son of Righteousness and the only Son of Glory hath been made manifest to the eye of my faith whilst vail'd with an unglorified Humanity he continued his unchangable course through the darkness of suffering Cloudiness of Persecution and Eclipse of Death But now that he hath remounted his solsticial of Glory weak faith thou must with a humble and closed eye endeavour to admire which is thy homage to his Divinity what thou canst not conceive of not being discouraged as though thou hadst lost all with his bodily presence For as we possess light though the Sun be not visible his brightness being conveyed unto us in his beames So thy Saviour though corporeally absent he in his glorious rayes shines forth unto thee that thou mightest enjoy light warmth and comfort O how am I ravisht with this Vision 'T were the worst of unthankfulness to conceal such unspeakable favours With David therefore I must proclaim Mans Jubile Come hither all yee that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for our Souls But I beseech you bring with you Stephens as well as Davids Ear else you may perhaps as blinde Men know my happiness not see it that is not to receive and apply it as your own As in the Divine Essence there is three Persons each of which is God yet not three but one God so in the Person of Christ there is a Trinity of offices each of which is proper to whole Christ as to be King Prophet and Priest not many of them the Man-hood being seperated from the God-head as some would But in all Christ being one the same and all these O these are those solacing rayes I before spake of so beneficial to pernicious Man O suffer not O Lord the Bodies middle Region my Heart to be cold and uncompact like that of the Ayr lest thy beames shine thorough and not warm me But purifie it and create in it such a solidity and soundness by faith that it may be capable of their virtue and inflamed with zeal and gratefulness for and to the glory of thee the giver Christ Jesus is the Christians Sanctuary and these his offices the three precious and unexhaustible Fountains from whence Ezechiel's healing Waters plentifully flow Ghrist Jesus is our Physician and these three are those beautiful Boxes in which the pure balme of Gilead which cures all putrified sores is inclosed Is here a Physician Is here a mundifying River Is here a most approved Balme O my Soul thou must also finde out and that by Faith a diseased Patient a deadly wound a corrupted Cancer for The whole have no need of the Physician but the sick O my Saviour is there any Man living so sound that he hath no need of thee yea sure there are some whose stincking soares which the Devil and their own pride have skinned over Others whose wounds he hath too deeply searched pouring into them instead of comfortable Balsome the deadly corrasives of desperation O Lord the nature of every one of us at the first is to be Sathans Apothecary ayding him with ingredients even from our own corruption to stupifie our sence of sin and mortifie our Souls O thou which art the only skilful and spiritual Cheruâ—gion search with thy spirit and tent with thy Law my gangrened and ulcerated Soul that I may live though with an issue For though the stopping of Bodily issues often times procure death yet my death shall stop my issue The noblest knowledge of things is from their causes not from their effects Lord make me know the state and danger of my Disease from both but from the first even my fall in Adam This self-inspection is a grace by faith conveyed to us from the Prophetick office of Christ. And ought according to my method there to be handled But the agreeableness of the Meditation to this place and the profit which by Gods grace will flow to me in the Meditation to others in the perusal makes me insert here this Anatomy of a dead Man which cannot be too large since none can enough know himself In the profundity of a Well even at mid-day a Man may view the Stars And in the Sun-shine of prosperity if our Souls fathome this our depth of misery we shall free from all impediments more perfectly apprehend our Lucifer Christ Jesus God the universal Creator being perfection it self it must needs follow that the beauty and happiness of the Creature consists in being like to him It being always remembred that what in them hath its measure degree and proportion in Him is boundless unexpressable and infinite If the impression of Gods Image in his Creatures as the Kings Image upon their Coine only makes it Royal and gives it preheminence and excellence it must needs be granted that
eating and drinking of the glorified Saints which was not at all in the question For if so it may be brought as well to prove that they shall in all things else be like the Angels which I humbly conceive no Man will or hath asserted since in many things were it proper to be treated of upon this subject I could shew a manifold difference betwixt the Angels and the glorified Saints This being sufficient and a clear and full answer to that objection I shall now proceed to speak more particularly although very succinctly as having in the six foregoing reasons or preliminaries spoken more than I intended and given sufficient satisfaction to my self and I hope to others both from Scripture and reason as to this Subject First as to the sight or sense of Seeing the Eye although by Oculists Naturalists and Anatomists it is now placed in the first rank of the bodies parts or members as a subject wherein the most excellent and wonderfull wisdome of God is greatly manifested and that not only as in respect of its curious fabrick but admirable way and manner of conveighing and representing objects to the Soul whether Extra or intra mittendo or by both is not my work now to dispute or determine yet then it shall as to its optick use and faculty be much more wonderfully bettered heighthned and enlarged and that first as to its objects Now the best Eye cannot immediately behold the Sun shining in its brightness any time with fixedness without twinckling trouble and danger of blindness and as though it was asham'd of its weakness is presently vailed with a tear Now a Daniel an Ezekiel cannot look upon or behold an Angel without astonishment and falling to the ground upon their faces as being not able to behold their created glory But after the Resurrection we shall with these Eyes as Job speaks not only behold the glorified Saints that shine as the Sun and are as so many millions of Suns but the glorious Angels and our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ the brightest Sun of righteousness and shall see God as he is yea we shall see him face to face and live This is that everlasting and glorious beatifical Vision of Father Son and Holy Ghost the for ever blessed Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity so much spoken of by the ancient Fathers in which as in a most bright cleer mirror the Saints shall behold their Eyes being herein assistants to their Souls all things God is pleased to reveal and so far as a created nature is capable of past and present and to come As also the natures virtues and qualities of all the Creatures not as now by their effects but in their cause Idea and truth yea the high and deep things of God The second excellency of this glorified sense of sight as to its strength in respect of objects that are far distant is That whereas now our Eyes without the help of Perspective-Glasses cannot discern or clearly distinguish and inform us of the things upon Earth some few miles off and are much inferiour to Eagles and Vultures of whom Naturalists report That when by high flying they are so lessened as not to be discerned by our Eyes yet they can behold a little quarry upon the ground and their prey although many miles distant from them and that now through the imbecility and weakness of our sight in a clear day we judge the skie to be of an azure colour whereas truly it hath no colour but is only so represented being only by a vaster distance and the intermediate Aire enlightened by the Sun and that distance beyond the extent of our weak Eyes upon the level of the Earth seems to be dark or black But hereafter at the Resurrection the Eye being the Instrument and Organ through and by which the Soul beholds all things shall be so strengthened that it shall thereby behold things very far distant Else it should lose by union with the body that excellency of sight it had as a Spirit before it re-entred into the Body It being clear and evident that the Angels and Spirits excell all other living Creatures as to the activity and extent of seeing That evil spirit the Devil being able to behold and represent to our blessed Saviour from the top of a high Mountain all the Kingdomes of the World that is of that Hemisphere and semi-circle of the Earth and the glory of them a most vast view and prospect so also the Angel of God called unto Hagar and afterwards to Abraham out of Heaven A third admirable excellency of the Eye glorified is the wonderfull life and beauty of it Now it is the chief Ornament and grace of the Face in Men or Women but then it shall super-excell what it is now as much as the Eye of a living Man transcends the Eye of one that is dead Which life splendor and beauty doth not only proceed from the glorification of the Eye as apart and member of the glorified body but from those spirit-full and sparkling rayes sent forth from the within glorious Souls which like the Sun-beams shining through and upon the purest Chrystal shall cause the Eye to shine with a most delightfull and unexpressible radiancy and splendor much like to that wonderfull and visional appearance of our Head and sample the Lord Jesus to Saint John of whom it is written That his Eyes were as a Flame of Fire O my Soul shall thy sence of seeing attain to such a height of perfection as to be able not only to behold glorified Saints and Angels but the much more resplendent face of thy glorious Saviour yea of God himself shall it be so greatly fortified as to surveigh like the Angels things remotely distant shall thy eyes be so beautifull and radiant as to shine and sparkle like the Stars of the first magnitude O resolve and endeavour by the assistance of Gods free grace not to vassalage and debase them by beholding Earthly vanities much less to make use and imploy them as the Pandors of Sathan and the Dung-ports of sinfull lusts and lasciviousness like the Men of this World Whose Eyes are full of Adultery and uncleanness But let them according to the end for which they were created be wholly employed in beholding and admiring the glory of God in his wonderfull works held forth in the bright-shining Stars and Planets and in the splendor of the Moon and Sun Let them be also helpfull Instruments to conveigh unto thee continual matter of praise and admiration as to the wisdome of thy Creator in the consideration and meditation not only as to the excellent and universal frame of Heaven and Earth but as to the great variety and beauty of each particular Creature so shall this their Heavenly and holy exercise prepare thee and them for a greater measure of perfect Glory O blessed Spouse and dear Saviour who hast said to thy Church
my words Faith without works is dead therefore follow peace with all Men and holiness without which no Man shall see God And be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Ye know the Commandments I am the Lord thy God thou shalt have no other Gods before me 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath or that is in the Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them c. 3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain c. 4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God 5. Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. 6. Thou shalt not kill 7. Thou shalt not commit Adultery 8. Thou shalt not steal 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour 10. Thou shall not covet thy Neighbours House c. This is the great Commandment That you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and your Neighbour as your self Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Verily verily I say unto you except you be born again of Water and the Spirit you cannot enter into the Kingdome of God For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me I am the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat and are dead He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever What though I am ascended where I was before It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are spirit and they are life I the Lord Jesus took Bread and blessed it and gave it to my Disciples and said Take eat this is my body And I took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins This do in remembrance of me For as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup you shew my Death till I come Lay up my word in your heart and in your soul And you shall teach them your Children speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way when you lye down and when you rise up And you shall write them upon the Door-posts of your houses and upon your Gates That your days may be prolonged and the days of your Children in the Land as the dayes of Heaven upon Earth Blessed are ye that read and hear my words my Sheep hear my voice Yea blessed are they that hear my word and keep it Let every one of you be swift to hear slow to wrath If any of you hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Wherefore he that hath Eares to hear let him hear My Mother and Brethren are ye that hear the Word of God and do it Be ye that good ground who with honest and good hearts having heard my word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience Let not the Book of my Law my Word depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate therein day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein for then shall you make your way prosperous then shall you have good success Meditate also of all my works Pray without ceasing And when you pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Also after this manner pray ye Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall finde Knock and it shall be opened unto you Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name according to his will he will give it unto you Therefore be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God But ask in faith nothing wavering And when you pray enter into your Closet and when you have shut your Door pray to the Father which is in secret and your Father who seeth in secret shall reward you openly Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Moreover if your Brother shall trespass against any of you go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever my Church shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven I gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of my Body Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of your double honour especially they that labour in word and doctrine Also they that have used the Office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in me Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Be afflicted and mourn and weep humble your selves in my sight and I will lift you up Can Man
not less loving But O merciful Creator thy love met with hatred the very object of thy favour was thy Enemy whom thou didst not reconcile with a gift as fearing his power or ability to resist thee since he was thy Creature thy Prisoner thy just sentence of Condemnation waiting but the watch-word of thy will to execute him O unexhausted Fountain of wisdome there was no weakness or deficiency in thee which Man destroyed might any whit disable or diminish thy workmanship in a second Creation since all thy works keep time with thy Word What caused thee then O powerful Maker to give Life where Death was due Heaven where Hell was deserved Pleasure and Joy where Pain and Torment was incurred Why didst thou give mercy and forgiveness to Man and denyedst it to Angels honouring the Humanity with a Personal Union which in Adam was a Traytor by Rebellion Lastly Why gavest thou thy only begotten Son to Death that we might be thy Adopted Sons in Life Lord my Soul shall answer with St. Paul God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved Vs even when we were dead in Sin hath quickened Vs together in Christ by Grace we are saved O only begotten Son of the Father the Word by which all things were made O light of the World God equal with the Father in Majesty why from such a height of Glory didst thou descend to this Vale of Misery forsaking Heaven for Earth making thy Foot-stool thy Throne being included in the Virgins Womb though the vast Universe cannot comprehend thee Lord thy own Spirit can best express the reason of this thy wonderful humiliation Jesus Christ came into this World to save Sinners Behold here God made Man Lord how low is the Foundation of thy Mercy laid although the height reach above the Clouds gracious Saviour who doth not in this Mirrour of thy Love perceive the powerfulness of thy Divinity as being the first and self-mover in this work of compassion thy mercy having its first motion from thy self according to that thy own protestation made unto thy Children I will love them freely But O my Soul now thou hast viewed this beautiful Gate of the Temple with admiration reverence and affection proceed for the birth of thy Saviour is but the beginning of his mercies All Princes are but Vice-Royes God only is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Yet who amongst them is not welcomed into his Kingdome with joyful Acclamations and royal Solemnities But loe here not only the King of Israel but the great Emperor of Heaven and Earth born in Bethelem the least of the Cities of Judah a City and yet affords no place but a Stable to lodge and entertain the Worlds Monarch Heaven must point him out by a Star Angels must preach him before any of his own acknowledge him and then Shepheards are his Heralds to Proclaim him The sequel and after-story of his Life is no less reproachfully miserable than this Prologue of his birth Poverty clothes Him with obscurity and affliction 30. Years in which space his very Infancy is not free from Persecution by Herod witness those Innocents of Bethelem who suffered for him who came to dye for them he flying into Aegypt from the wrath of Man that he might undergo the anger of God preserving himself not from pain but for pain O Lord had thy Loves Foundation been laid in Earth the hatred and ungratefulness of Man might have ruined thy proceedings and induc'd thee to have retrograded from thy purposed design but behold the Root of thy Mercy was in thy Self which brought forth the fruits of thy sufferings thy love being natural therefore immutable none of thy grievous pressures were obscured from thy view for thy praescience beheld as present all fore-past actions and future events so that thou wert not ignorantly or contrary to thy will overtaken by them no necessity did enforce thee to undergo so difficult a Task since constraint is only prevalent in a finite nature but thou art infinite comprehending all things circumscribed by nothing Lord Jesus let me admire since I cannot express this thy love and make me to love thee again in some measure that thus hast loved me without measure Here whilest my Soul full of wonder desires to stay and meditate thy goodness leads me still forwards and as it were reproves my lingring thus O Man bound not thy thoughts progress with the first mercies of thy Saviour to wit that Light shined in Darkness The Word became Flesh yea that the life of all things received life and the Son of God became the Son of Man behold more misteries of love not regarded the Creator rejected of his Creature He came unto his own and his own received him not He who ordained Holes for the Foxes Nests for the Birds of the Aire he who measured the Earth as with a span and clothes the Heavens as with a Garment he who is a self-moving Sphear whose Centre is every where whose circumference is no where He even the Saviour and Creator of Man hath not amongst Men whereon to rest his Head O admirable and unconceivable humiliation of greater force because not enforced freely not reciprocally undertaken being therefore of infinite merit before God and worthy of Man's eternal acknowledgment what could Man suffer which the Son of Man did not undergo nay what anger torment punishment or affliction could an infinitely inraged Deity inflict which God made Man did not endure for behold no sooner doth this Son of Righteousness whose light is in himself arise to be a light unto the Gentiles dissipating the mists of Superstition and Ignorance the morning of the Gospel succeeding the Evening of Idolatry no sooner did he appear to the glory of his People Israel dispersing those Clouds of Ceremonies which Vail'd the mercy Seat but that present Generation prefering Darkness before Light interposed unbelief to Eclipse his splendour witness John 3.19 And this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men loved Darkness rather than Light Also they retorted the beames of his Priestly Office saying None but God hath Power to forgive Sins They shuned the Light of his Gospel-Prophesie and Teaching witness that loving Lamentation O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen her Brood under her Wings but ye would not Lastly they denyed and rejected his Dominion with that abnegation We have no King but Caesar. Lord were the Children of Israel so severely punished for repining against Aaron though but a â—igure of Thee Was Heliodorus so suddenly and fearfully tormented for resisting the High Priest And doest thou who thus revengedst and defendest thy substitutes whilest thou wert in Heaven as being the summe of all Figures the substance of all shadows and an Eternal High-Priest according to the
thus sp'rit'aliz'd shall bring No trembling but what 's good 'gainst sin Yea Anger sanctified shall still Burn up and cast out what is ill ARGUMENT Vpon my sight of a dead Corps and the Contemplation that Death is the Compleatment of all Diseases and therefore will be the Lord knows how soon notwithstanding those my former Recoveries my last and incurable Sickness but not my Conquerer since Death is swallowed up in Victory Soliloquium or Discourse WHat a lively Moniter is this dead Carkass the Daily News of Mortality hath not moved me so much as the fight of this one Trophy of Death Reports deliver things by whole sayle and from others when the Eye more feelingly gathers a truth from many particulars as being its own Judge Witness and Informer The common sounds of Death Posts through our Eares without any stop whereas the Spectacle thereof by a self-application Innes even in our Hearts The distressed Soul being fled unbodied unhoused and the battered Citadel surrendered into the Enemies possession Loe how the Successors of sin do Patrizare trampling upon these mud Walls and demolishing this Mansion of Clay The Luminaries of the Body which used to shine with a living brightness like the Gelly of a sliding Meteor lyâ— now intombed in darkness And that ruddy hue which gave the name of flesh to this whited Earth hath either changed its colour or its place Every particular Member hath now left off its motion and rests manacled in a long and a breathless sleep Yea the whole Body is made ready for its Burial lies imbalmed in a cold sweat It 's better to be in the House of Mourning than of Mirth to be humble than secure whil'st my Eye amazedly wanders over these dead Limbs methinks in them I view the true Anatomy of my own fate and read in pale Characters that immutable Decree It is appointed to all Men once to dye O Lord since this is thy will and the Law of Nature give me grace to seek out my Enemy rather than suffer my Enemy to seek out me that so my preparation may lessen both my fear and danger Since the suddain assault of ambushments annoy more than the open force of pitched Battails and the unexpectedness of death's approach terrifies and hurts more than his merciless Dart Wherefore let me dye Daily with Saint Paul that when I cease to dye I may begin to live rather than dye but once and ever with the rich Glutton in the Gospel The light of the Body is the Eye and the Eye of the Soul is Faith the one of these I must lose the other I may lose O Lord which only givest light in darkness grant that when I cease to see Vanity I may begin to view thee not through a fleshly perspective as now but spiritually in a far more excellent manner And when my Soul is divested of these Rags of Flesh and freed from her dull and sleeping Earth shall appear naked in thy Presence Cloath her with the Robes of beauty and glory as having already given her a new Name the Wedding Garment the best Robe that so when Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and the numberless automes of my dust through thy power new-molded into a Body my Soul may make a re-entry from which incorruptible and inseparable Union of Parts may proceed an Eternal perfection of Immortality and Glory Amen The TRYVMPH A Corolary Poem on the former Subject OVt-face me not Grim Death as though thy hate Ingraved in this dead Corps could make my fate Vnhappy bright Mettals ag'd with rust Are polisht best by fretting them with dust And the Refiner melts with Fire his Ore To make it purer than it was before What though a poisonous Wasp thou art as Eved Of putrid matter Death by Christ is dead Or if that Natures Lyon still thou be A Sampson's Lyon sure thou art to me Tryumph not then so proudly o're this dust As though it was not laid up here in trust Nor vainly think that this sad Chaos can Make me believe no Life because no Man Bodies are but the Souls Seat which in case She leaves we live still though we change the place The naked Grain which from the Seeds-Man's hand Falls to be buried i' th furrow'd Land Corrupts then Springs in a new forme So we Once Mortal put on Immortality Thou being but God's Chinick to reverse Man to his first Materials that his Herse May be a Phoenix Nest from whence shall rise When our Sun shines a Bird of Paradize The CIRCLE Another Corolary Poem of Mortality TEll me fond Man what Joy thou hast In Courting Pleasures or to tast These Earthly vain delights since all Add but degrees unto thy fall No sooner Nature hath begun and done Her work in thee but it 's undone Ripe Years no sooner calls thee Man But Age makes thee a Babe again Thus Circular is Mans course our Birth Derived from Dust returns to Earth Being only Statutes made of Clay Once to be viewed then thrown away Experimental Figures wherein Features Are drawn thereby to Limn out rarer Creatures ARGUMENT Vpon God's merciful Preservation of Me and my Family in health in a time of a General Sickness and Mortality which broke forth under the Vsurpation of Oliver Cromwell Soliloquium or Discourse NAtions in the Holy Scriptures are compared to Seas which have their Calmes and Stormes their Ebbes and Flowings So these have their Peace and War health and sickness in a continual Vicissitude O that these changes would prepare us for our last great certain and yet uncertain Change England and I in England bear witness to all this as having seen and experimented its truth particularly that of health and sickness when of a suddain as in the Dream of Pharaoh's Kine our flourishing health was devoured by lean and macerating Diseases Wherefore let us humbly acknowledge that the Lord alone Raigns in Heaven and in Earth that he wounds and heals he bringeth down to the Grave and raiseth up and that to God the Lord belongs the Issues of Death O Almighty Saviour thou art not only stiled in Scripture The Lord and General of animate but also of animate Hosts As of the Stars Hail Snow and of Diseases which last sort of thy Militia during his Rule that ambitiously called himself our Protector I saw quarâ—ered under thy Sergeant Major Death's Colours for many Moneths in the Towns and Houses round about my Habitation During all which time thou O Lord didst most graciously give to me and my whole Family a Protection from these troublesome and unwelcome Guests Blessing us all with a happy and un-interrupted health O most liberal and bountiful God and Father singular favours such as this calls for from me singular praises and acknowledgments since not any goodness in us above our Neighbours caused this distinguishing mercy For we were and are sinful beyond others but
to me my confiscated Estate but greatly increased it giving to me four good Houses most pleasant Seats which I built and planted not as thou didst once to Israel together with a revenue of about Three Thousand Three Hundered Pounds a Year Lands of Inheritance And now Lord which is a favour above all the rest thou hast been pleased to exchange my earthly possession for an Eternal Inheritance purchast for me by the infinitely precious blood of thy own Son the Lord Jesus Christ And made sure unto me by thy deed and new Covenant of Grace Witnessed Sealed and delivered to me by the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth Thus Lord hast thou made my loss my gain and converted my earthly poverty into the riches of Heaven made me to thy people and to after Ages a Monument of thy mercy and a witness of thy faithfulness in preserving me when thou leadest me through the Fire and through the Water and deliverest me in Six and Seven troubles Yea whatsoever thou didst so largely promise to thine in the Ninety first Psalm by thy Prophet thou hast graciously fulfilled to me Wherefore I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon thy Name O Lord and pay my Vowes unto Thee in the mid'st of the Congregation of thy People Yea by this Paper-Herald I will proclaim and transmit to posterity the many great and unparallel'd favours to me and mine that so the future Generations of those that love and fear thee may trust in thee and praise and serve thee also until time shall be no more Amen The ROYAL EXCHANGE A Corolary Poem upon the former Subject WHen the Almighty Power the Eternal Light The Abyss of Wisdome living Spring Of Life and Goodness out of Nothing 's Night Brought forth the Seeds of every thing All Creatures were Created good no change From their first Law did then produce Any defect in all this lower Range Of Works prepared for Man's Vse Till Man their Lord by Deviation From God's blest Rule brought through his Curse A Change upon this Worlds Creation Yea Death of all things the worst Hence is it that the once pure Elements Corrupt imperfect are yea fight With one another not at all content With Natures bounds and their first right Yea limping Age succeeds our frolick Youth And poverty a prosp'rous State Disgrace high honours and disasters doth Dog our delights now love then hate Affects Vs This Day we speak high The next we cause have for to mourn Now we are well to Morrow sick and die Like Seas our Calmes fore-go a storm Thus living Creatures and Inanimate Prove and obey God's just Decree That Man that was unstedfast and ingrate Might plagu'd be with Inconstancy Of theirs and of his own Condition And as in a cleer Mirror see In order unto his Conversion Their Emptiness and Vanity These are Gods Hieroglyphicks in which we By a conjunct Experience May read all Creatures Mutability If fixt not in the Eternal Ens. Blest be our great Mathematician That from this low'r circumference Drawes all these lines and makes them meet again Fixt in our Centre God Immense Lord to my self and others thou hast me Order'd to be a Map of Change One of these teaching Figures never free From some removes These last more strange Then all forepast As from the second place Of honour in three Nations State To be the Object of this Worlds disgrace Of obliquy and highest hate That after Twenty Years hard service done Vpon my Countreys call wherein I lost Five Thousand Pounds yet askt no boon Nor wages whil'st I sate therein Should now a Prisoner be for life and dead As to the World to Children Wife From Saints and publick Worship separated My food and comfort joy and life That after divers Thousand Pounds a Year Possession in a Moments time I should deprived be of all and fear A starving both of me and mine That of four noble houses and sweet Seats In the prime places of this Ile I should no Hive have for my swarmes receit But live abroad as an Exile Dear Lord am I Elisha-like beset With Troops of troubles doth the World Like to his Servants crie He 's lost a Net Of Misery is on him hurl'd Lord open thou their Eyes and they shall see That more is with me than against That Changes have Exchanges sent from Thee By which my State is much advanst Instead of Mundane honors buble thou Hast me Adopted for thy Son And granted me to know it and to bow Both Knee and Heart for what is done Impris'nment for life and long restraint Thou hast converted made to be A freedome much inlarg'd of which I vaunt As now enjoying more of Thee For Thousands loss of Pounds and annual Rents And Houses like to Paradise Thou hast a Hundred-fold freed from events Giv'n me and life that never dies An House not made with Hands which is above Eternal built by Thee yea more A Crown a Kingdome where there 's no removes Assur'd reserv'd for me in store O! who is like to thee who but a God Can gifts confer so rich as these Who would not service do to thee whose Rod Is dipt in Hony and whose fees Are for our weakness sake set forth compar'd To Empires pretious Diadems But do as far exceed Terrene rewards As Monarchs do our common Men Let Worldly Princes then set a great rate Vpon their Crowns and Signories Wallow in pleasures I 'le not change my State Nor Prison for their Royalties Much less my future hopes and sure intaile On me O Lord through thy free grace Of an Eternal Kingdome not to faile In Heaven at th' end of my short Race Vntil which blessed Hour for which I wait The Dayes of my appointed time With Job my Prison I will dedicate Vnto thy Service as a place Divine To sing thy praises in for this Exchange Of Earth for Heaven So shall I be On Earth in Heaven until I change My Place but not my Company Amen Soli Deo Gloria AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Containing the Subject Matter of the foregoing Treatise to direct the Reader by the Folio to finde readily any of the distinct Meditations and Poems set forth therein Occasional Meditations Corolary Poems upon each immediatly foregoing Subject A Abortion COncerning the Authors Recovery from the danger of an Abortion and untimely Birth The New Birth folio 348 B Breaches Burning Concerning God's gracious prevention of Breaches betwixt him and his own Father and betwixt him and his Father-in-Law The Vmphire folio 381 Vpon God's preservation of him and his Servant from being Burnt in their Lodgings in Sommerset-House The Deliverance folio 410 C Coach Cough Children Concerning his preservation from any harm when being alone in a Coach he was violently cast out by the Jolt of the Coach-whâ—el upon a Stone The Huricane folio 355 Vpon his Recovery from a dangerous Cough and