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A77888
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A treatise of divine meditation, by that faithful servant of Jesus Christ Mr. John Ball, late minister of the Gospel at Whitmore in Staffordshire. Published by Simeon Ashe, preacher of the Gospel at Austins, London.
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Ball, John, 1585-1640.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing B575; Thomason E1875_1; ESTC R209786
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79,889
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304
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satisfie desire than salt water quencheth thirst Oh that true love like a strong stream which the further it is from this head of eternity would run into it with greater violence In Gods love there is no mixture of sorrow no want of delight fulness of pleasure all manner of contentment Alas alas that ever so many cold winds of temptation should blow betwixt God and our hearts to make our affections cooler unto him What dull metal is this wee are made of wee have the fountain of felicity and eternity and yet complain of want and weariness Do wee freeze in the fire and starve at a feast Have wee God to injoy and yet pine and hang down the head Let mee have my God and let mee never want him so shall my joyes bee lasting pure incomprehensible for possessing him that is the pure eternal and an all-sufficient good how should I not finde fulness of joy and contentment in him Oh my soul fear the Lord and stand in awe of his Majesty for hee is a great God and terrible a King above all Gods At his presence the earth trembleth the mountains quake and the foundations of the world are shaken The Angels cannot behold his glory the Sun and Moon are not clean in his sight Fear the Lord and depart from iniquity harbour no wicked plot in thy breast contrive not evil in thy thoughts for thou hast to deal with a God that is light of hearing who dwelleth in thy heart and knoweth thy Imaginations long before And what needs any other evidence when the Judge is witness His eyes are as flaming fire his feet are as burning brass hee will tread down the wicked in his wrath and vex them that hate him Serve the Lord with fear and commit thy self to him in well doing Trust in the Lord at all times Hab. 1.12 Psa 55.18 19. and stay upon his mercy Hee is the everlasting Rock constant in promises ever present for our aid unchangeable in love and favour No place can hinder God from doing us good distance or difficulty may bee impediments to all the creatures to stay their help but God at a blush fills all places to comfort or confound as it pleaseth him Hee that is freed from dimensions may pierce and penetrate enter and pass whither hee pleaseth without probability or possibility of resistance Hee hath created the world and yet is not weary his provision is no whit abated his power nothing diminished Let him carry us which way hee will make the passages never so troublesome and perillous yet the same hand that makes them hard will make them sure and if wee bee faithful to him will master all the difficulties for us Let him cast us into such great miseries of long continuance that hee seem to forsake us as if hee would not return to our help yet wee know that hee is everlasting the Holy One of Israel who cannot leave them for ever that rely upon him O God as I have trusted thee with the beginning so will I trust thee with the finishing of my glory And though never so many or main hinderances of my salvation offer themselves and after all hopes threaten to defeat mee yet faithful art thou who hast promised who wilt also do it Quest I would now hear how wee must proceed to meditate on the Love of God Answ Wee must consider of the efficient cause subject end objects effects properties and kinds of this Love what is like what opposite unto it The Love of God signifieth either that love whereby God loveth us Joh. 5.48 1 Joh. 3.17 1 Joh. 2.15 or that affection whereby wee being united unto God do rest in him with pleasure and delight Of this Theological virtue first in order not the first in fruit and continuance the greatest the end of the Commandement the bond of perfection the fulfilling of the Law I purpose to meditate by the grace of God This Love is a grace supernatural and is neither in us by nature nor can bee acquired by our endeavour Yea the measure of love is not defined according to the endeavour of the received but the pleasure and will of the Spirit measuring and pouring it into every one The author or principal cause of Divine Love is God himself by his blessed Spirit renewing and regenerating our hearts to the love of his Majesty Love is the fruit of the Spirit a Gal. 5.22 b Joh. 4.7 Eph. 6.23 He that loveth is born of God Love is of God and God is love Hee loveth us in his well-beloved and is the ever-springing fountain of all love in us The Spirit openeth our eyes to see and behold the incomprehensible goodness of God without which there is no love For of a thing unknown there is no desire The same Spirit infuseth the grace of love whereby wee are enabled to love God and quickened unto it Rom. 5.5 whereas of our selves we are destitute of all power and ability to every spiritual duty And the Spirit sheddeth abroad the love of God in our hearts whereby they are warmed to love God again The means which the Spirit useth for this purpose is the Word of Grace revealing the incomparable love of God in Jesus Christ towards us most miserable wretches The less principal cause of love is man renewed by the Spirit 1 Joh. 4.7 Deut. 30.6 Man regenerate doth love the Lord not of himself but by the grace of God The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Faith well rooted will a Gal. 5.6 Quantum cognoscimus tantum diligimus animate quicken and move love Faith and Love are both graces supernatural infused at once in the same instant of time but in order of working Faith hath the precedency and kindleth Love From this it followeth that the subject of Love is a renewed heart inlightened with the true saving knowledge of God purified by Faith and seasoned by Grace For Love is a spiritual affection in the reasonable part presupposing knowledge and affiance whereby the soul goeth forth to imbrace the good it apprehendeth The end of Love is the possession of God as the chief good Love as wee see makes man and woman one and so it doth couple us to God It is a weight whereby the heart is inclined toward God and wholly carried unto him The object of Charity is God in Christ God is to bee loved not only as hee is good merciful gracious long-suffering and bountiful and as hee doth love and daily lade us with his blessings But also as hee is wise just and powerful even as hee doth chastize and visit us with severe corrections For as the true love of children towards their Parents doth effect this that they love their Parents and perswade themselves that they bee beloved of them though they bee reprehended crossed corrected and cannot obtain what they will so true Love
freeman for evermore Those Saviours were meer men but Christ our Redeemer is God and Man They delivered their people by force of arms but Christ by his death first payed the price of our Redemption and then God by his great power rescued us from the hands of the Devil They brought their Redeemed into an earthly Canaan but Christ our Redeemer hath prepared for us an heavenly Inheritance They saved them that were oppressed and evil-intreated against their wills but Christ set us free who had voluntarily sold our selves into the state of slavery Quest How are these things to bee applied unto the heart Answ Upon consideration of these things wee must stir up our selves to seek the knowledge of Christ Jesus fly unto him with sound affiance rejoyce in God and sing praises to his name Oh my soul is deliverance from spiritual thraldome to bee found in Jesus Christ then enquire after him and seek to know him with gladness The Name Jesus is sweet honey in the mouth melody in the ear a Jubile in the heart What a servant were hee that knew not his Masters Name is not hee unworthy the benefit of Redemption that will not vouchsafe to enquire who hath paid his Ransome Oh my soul fly unto Christ in whom thou shalt finde deliverance from all spiritual thraldome God hath made Christ an Adam Head Root Store-house in whom are treasured all those good things which from him are communicated unto us Wee love to thrust amongst them with whom wee may finde benefit and profit Seek this above all that thou mayest bee by Faith in Christ Should Bankrupts hear of any that should answer their creditors for them they would quickly resort to him how much more shouldest thou resort to this Mediatour and Surety who will answer the debt of those that come unto him by Faith seek to bee ingrafted into him strive by Faith to grow up in him for the more nearly wee are united with any thing the more wee partake of the virtue and operation of it Those that are nearest the fire partake in the heat of it more than those that are further removed Thou seest men seek to bee made one person in law to bee most nearly joyned to such as may bring them in wealth Oh my soul why dost thou not seek more earnestly by a spiritual marriage to become one with him in whom is every good blessing Behold hee sueth unto thee not that hee might bee enriched by thee for thou hast nothing to give hee stands in need of nothing but that hee might answer thy debt set thee at liberty adorn thee with grace and endow thee with eternal life O my soul what great cause hast thou to love the Lord and rejoyce in his mercy God hath given his Son to dye for us before we asked it Christ hath when wee could not through our gracelesness once ask him fulfilled all Righteousness and discharged us from the danger of sin Wee take it as love in men if spoken to they will do small matters for us Hee that will bear a blow for us in our behalf bee bound for us in great summs of mony specially hee that will lye by it for our good But how much more art thou to acknowledge this grace of Christ who hath been thy Surety paid for thy deliverance not silver or gold but his precious blood The insensible creatures are called upon to rejoyce for the Redemption of Gods people when they were redeemed from Babel the joy did put them into an extrasie they knew not whether they were asleep or awake But this spiritual Redemption doth as far out-strip that temporal freedome as Heaven is above the Earth or hell worse than the house of bondage Sing unto the Lord oh my soul make a joyful noise unto the God of thy salvation What cause hast thou to praise him who hath visited and redeemed thee with such a Redemption Thou mayest remember the day when thou wast in thraldome to the burning wrath of God and stoodest under the condemnation of the Law when it was death to bee held to the duties of godliness in which is the exercise of true freedome and sin did hold thee so fast that though thou sawest the mischief of it and proposedst sometimes a new course yet thou couldest not return to it as before when this lust and that passion did tyrannize over thee and fears of conscience and death did hold thee in thraldome But now the Lord hath looked upon thee in mercy his wrath is appeased the Law is answered Satan is cast down and thou art received into special favour to walk with him Oh Lord I am ashamed that I should bee so senseless at the remembrance of this unspeakable love so forgetful of this undeserved kindness move the scales from mine eyes I pray thee and take the veil from my heart which will not let mee rejoyce in so excellent mercy Quest Shew how wee must proceed in Meditation on the Resurrection of Christ Ans Wee must consider the Subject Antecedents Causes End Time Place and things that happened with it the effects properties and consequents what is like and what unlike My soul desires to think upon the Resurrection of Christ in which I may behold the reconciled face of God Dear Father direct my mind rightly to conceive of this high mystery to the glory of thy Name and the comfort of my soul To rise from the sleep of sin is to leave or desist from evil Hee that is fallen prostrate ariseth when he gathers up himself Hee that layeth himself down to rest ariseth when hee is raised from sleep Hee that is dead ariseth when the soul is knit to the body The Resurrection of Christ is the first degree of his exaltation wherein the soul being united again to his body hee was raised up to spiritual and immortal life It is a motion partly natural partly supernatural Natural in respect of the subject bound and means For Christ rose so out of the grave that hee is said to bee there no more and he rose by means proper to a natural body that being removed which might seem to hinder Nor was this Resurrection in a moment but in certain succession of time which is required to every natural motion Nevertheless this motion is supernatural in respect of the cause efficient and the end The Divine Nature of Christ could not suffer nor dye nor rise again but hee was raised to life in respect of that nature that died for our sins or in respect of the body which for a time was separated from the soul and laid in the grave This was prefigured by types foretold by the Prophets of the Old Testament and most clearly spoken to his Disciples by our Saviour himself signifying unto them that the Son of Man must suffer at Jerusalem and bee buried and the third day rise again The principal cause of the Resurrection was the Divine Nature most strictly united with the Humanity In