Millions of glorified Saints and Angels to sound forth and speak of to one another the wonderfull works and providences of God past present and to come divulged in the large Mapps of our Creation Redemption and Glorification to his continual and everlasting praise and glory Shall it be a principal Engine and Actor as to that Office and Government thou shalt be placed in amongst thy fellow Saints in this glorious and universal Empire of the Lord Jesus raigning Personally as King and Mediator in this his Mediatory Kingdome upon the renewed Earth Yea lastly shall it be the Expressor of all thy Orders and Commands in the Execution of thy restored Dominion over the terrene and inferiour Creatures O with holy David that now glorified Saint Set a watch over thy Lips that thou offend not with thy Tongue and remember that authentick Declaration of thy Judge Lord and Saviour By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned and that of every idle word thou shalt give an accompt at the Day of Judgment Because out of the abundance of wickedness that is within the Heart the Mouth speaketh If any Man saith St. James offend not in word the same is a perfect Man and able also to bridle the whole Body Behold saith the same Apostle we put Bits into the Horses mouths that they may obey us and we turn about their whole Body Behold also the Ships which though they 〈◊〉 so great and are driven of fierce Winds yet are they twined about with a very small Helme whether so ever the Governor listeth Even so the Tongue is a little member and boasteth great things Behold how great a matter a little Fire kindleth And the Tongue is a Fire a World of iniquity so is the Tongue amongst our Members that it defileth the whole Body and setteth on Fire the course of nature And it is set on Fire of Hell For every kind of Beasts and of Birds and of Serpents and the things in the Sea is tamed and hath been tamed of Mankinde But the Tongue can no Man tame it is an unruly evil full of deadly poyson Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we Men which are made after the similitude of God shall out of the same Mouth proceed blessing and cursing O my Soul these things ought not so to be Doth a Fountain send forth at the same place sweet and bitter Can the Figg-Tree O my Soul bear Olive-Berries either a Vine Figgs so can no Fountain both yield salt Water and fresh Therefore If any Man seem to be religious and bridleth not his Tongue but deceiveth his own Heart this Mans Religion is vain Speak evil of no Man Let no corrupt communication proceed out of thy Mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the Hearers Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks Since evil Communications corrupt good Manners O my Soul is cursing swearing vain wanton and evil-speaking the Rant and Garb of the wicked yâ—â— the Language of Hell And is holy and a religious discourse and communication the Character and Dialâ—â—t of Saints upon Earth and praises and thanksgiving the exercise of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and of the glorious Angels Yea the Language of Heaven O let not thy Tongue learn or speak the Language of Ashdod but of Canaan not the blasphemous roaringâ— of the Devils and the damned but the sweet Anthemâ— of the Saints and Angels Yea begin thy Heaven upon Earth and be warbling and tuning this blessed and usefull Instrument thy Tongue to Psalmes Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in thy Heart to the Lord For it is good to sing praises to our God For it is pleasant and praise is comely O bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth theâ— with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfyeth thy Mouth with good things so that thy Youth is renewed like the Eagles O my Soul shall thy Tongue in the next glorious Life be thy Chronologer and Orator to Gods praise before and to thy fellow Saints of Gods works and providences past present and to come O be exercising and conning over thy Lesson in this Life And inâ—uâ—e it here to what it shall do hereafter Say to my friends relations and fellow Christians Come and hear all yee that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul Yea let thy Tongue be thy glory and as the Tongue of a ready Writer Let thy Mouth speak of wisdome and the Meditation of thy Heart of understanding Remember the Days of old meditate of all Gods works muse on the works of his Hands speak of the might of his terrible acts and declare his greatness Abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness and sing of his righteousness whilst thou livest â—raise the Lord yea sing praises unto thy God whilst thou hast any Beeing O my Soul shall the Saints in this glorious Empire of Christ in the new Heaven and new Earth be all Kings and yet as one â—tar differs from another in glory so they there shall have different degrees of gifts and graces offices and imployments every Vessel being full of grace and glory although of different measures and capacities not ruling or lording it over one another and yet of necessary and excellent use by reason of their various and different gifts manifestations and employments to add an encrease of happiness blessedness and glory to each other a pattern and resemblance of which joynt Kingship under one Head and King the Lord Jesus as was mentioned before is seen 〈◊〉 the natural Body and in the militant and mystical body of Christ The Saints glorified being like so many precious Stones which although of different bigness and value yet being judiciously set by a skilfull 〈◊〉 to radiate one upon other that they add luster each 〈◊〉 other and without any diminution to the worth of any individual Stone serve necessarily to the greater and fuller perfection of the Jewel Will it be thus O my Soul and will thy Tongue be then a principal Actor in this thy most honourable station and vocation Serve thy God with David in thy Generation not hiding any Talent God hath given thee with the slothfull Servant in the Earth Set not thy Candle under a Bushel but upon a Table that it may enlighten the whole House thy Family thy Friends thy fellow-Members yea all except Dogs or Swine that thou conversest with speaking unto them as the Saints no doubt shall do to one another in Glory to edification exhortation and
it is common among Men A Man to whom God hath given riches wealth and honour so that he wanted nothing for his Soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof but a stranger eateth it this is vanity and it is an evil disease Let every Man abide in the same Calling in which he was called Let none stand idle all the Day For an idle Soul shall suffer hunger And by much sloathfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands the House droppeth through Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom abundance of idleness Avoid ye therefore their sin lest ye be consumed as was that City upon which the Lord rained Brimstone and Fire from the Lord out of Heaven Seest thou a Man diligent in his business he shall stand before Kings he shall not stand before mean Men But drowsiness shall cloath a Man with rags Wherefore be not sloathful in business as private Persons Let him that Ruleth do it with diligence lest when I come and reckon with you the sloathful and unprofitable Servant be cast into utter Darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Be ye angry but sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Like Simeon and Levy Instruments of Cruelty are in their habitations for in their anger they slew a Man and in their self-will they digged down a wall Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Therefore be not hasty in Spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosome of fools Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment One of the works of the Flesh is hatred therefore thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart They that hate the righteous shall be desolate He that faith he is in the Light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even until now Whosoever hateth his Brother is a Murderer and ye know that no Murderer hath Eternal Life abiding in him Woe to them that hate good and love evil All they that hate me love death Use not your liberty for a Cloke of maliciousness But let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil-speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kinde one to another tender-hearted forgiving one to another even as God for my sake hath forgiven you The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out Water therefore leave off contention before it be medled with Walk honestly as in the Day not in strife and envying Let nothing be done through strife For where strife and envying is there is confusion and every evil work The Spirit that is in you lusteth to envy which slayeth the silly one and is the rottenness of the bones Charity suffereth long envyeth not Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speaking as new born babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord. Therefore if thine Enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap Coals of Fire on his head Be not over-come of evil but overcome evil with good Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate Only by pride cometh contention and where it cometh there cometh shame But with the lowly is wisdom Wherefore let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Be not high-minded but fear For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou hast not received Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as though thou hadst not received it Thus saith the Lord let not the wise Man glory in his wisdome neither let the mighty Man glory in his might let not the rich Man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord that exercise loving kindness Judgment and righteousness in the Earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. Pride cast the Angels out of Heaven Your first Parents out of Paradice and the wicked World into Hell For the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God Behold that which I have built I will break down and that which I have planted will I pluck up And seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not For behold I will bring evil upon all flesh How can ye believe who receive honour one of another and seek not the honour which comes from God only He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord for not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall finde rest to your Souls Whosoever shall humble himself as a little Child the same is greatest in the Kingdome of Heaven Whosoever exalts himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted Be ye not ambitious like Absalon and Adonijah least ye partake of their Judgments and violent deaths Give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in my Name For it is good to sing praise unto our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely Be ye not therefore guilty of the great sin of ingratitude with Hezekiah and the nine Lepers who rendered not again according to the benefits done unto them In these last times Men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blaspheamers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without natural affection despisers of those that are good Traytors from such turn away Whoso rewardeth evil for good evil shall not depart from his House Example in King Joash who remembred not the kindness which Jehojada the Father of Zacharias had done unto him but slew his Son Therefore his Servants conspired against him for the blood of the Son of Jehojada the Priest and slew him on his Bed Whoso loveth pleasure shall be a poor man he that loveth Wine and Oyl shall not be rich Woe unto the Land whose Princes eat in the morning But blessed is the Land whose Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness Woe unto you that are full for ye shall hunger Woe unto you
continue you in the things that ye have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom ye have learned them For evil Men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Consider one another to provoke to love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is But exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the Day approaching Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace For there is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling One Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Since then you are the Body of Christ and Members in particular let there be no Schisme in the Body Now I hear that there be divisions amongst those that call themselves Christians For there must be Heresies also among you that those that are approved may be manifest among you which were spoken before of my Apostles that there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit Now by my Name I desire you that you all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions amongst you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment If you say then I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ Are ye not carnal Is Christ divided Who then is Paul And who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed Even as the Lord gave to every Man If then such an one as was Paul plants or as Apollo was watereth It is God that giveth the increase Therefore let no Man glory in Men But do you mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not Me but their own Belly and by good words and fair Speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Finally whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Virtue and if there be any praise think on these things And those things which ye have both known and received and heard and seen in me do And the Father himself that loveth you the God of Peace shall be with you Holy Father who hearest me always This is Life Eternal to know Thee the only true God and Me whom thou hast sent Keep through thy own Name those that thou hast given Me that they may be one as we are one That they all may be one as thou Father art in Me and I in Thee that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And that the World may know that thou hast sent Me and hast loved them as thou hast loved Me. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which Thou hast given me I have given to them the words which Thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from Thee and they have believed that Thou didst send me I pray for them I pray not for the World but for those that thou hast given me For they are Thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them I pray that thou wouldest keep them from the evil of the World and that my joy may be fulfilled in them Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth Finally Beloved Wife of my Youth and dear Children Farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of peace and love shall be with you For this cause I bow my Knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named That he would give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man That Christ may live 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 heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with the fulness of God The God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is most pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us to him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages World without end The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen A Post-script of the Father to his Wife and Children concerning the foregoing Epistle with some further Exhortations to the practice thereof MY dearest heart and intirely affected Children the good and salvation of whose Souls I pray for and labour for as for my own I have I trust by the direction of the holy Spirit chosen in this manner to write unto you as hoping that what is delivered to you in the Person and words of our Lord and beloved Saviour For such is every word in the Epistle except some words not substantial necessary for connexion explanation and application requisit in a subject of such various matter You will with the more reverence and affection delight and obedience attend to and receive For although all the words therein were not uttered by his own mouth upon Earth yet were they all indited by his holy Spirit who spake by the Prophets and Apostles and is the Lord God of the holy Prophets So that if ye will not hear and obey him herein speaking to you by himself and by them Neither will you be perswaded though one arose and spake to you from Hell and from the dead Ye know after what manner I have been with you at all seasons And how I have kept nothing back that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and have taught you both in private and more publiquely Testifying unto you and
as being all witnesses externally or internally of thy essential and judicial power Is the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdome and will he with-hold no good thing from him that fears him O let my Soul bear a comfortable part in this affection Let my flesh tremble for fear of thee because thy Creature and let my heart be enlarged in love towards thee because thy Son Let my manifold sins humble me as beholding thee a righteous Judge and let my faith raise me as apprehending thee a merciful Saviour Let me work out my salvation with fear and trembling as considering my weakness and mutability and let me press towards the mark with confidence and assurance as believing thy free election omnipotency and immutability Lord if thou dost know me by name if I also have found grace in thy sight shew me now thy way how to know and see thee There is a place by thee O do unto me as thou didst unto Moses set me upon a Rock even my Rock Christ Jesus that so my life being hid in him through the Clists his wounds I may see thy glory passing by and hear and apply this thy loving Proclamation The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquities transgressions and sins I have now made a short progress through the Soul once a Paradice as being watered every where with grace even as the Garden of the Lord. But now being like Sodom and Gomorrah which the Lord destroyed even a furnace of brimstone and a vail of tears It now remains that I take a general view of the Body which is as it were the superficies of Man the Pallace the Shell the Garment of the Soul That so having observed their union in sin aswell as in nature from the joynt and voluntary acquired curse of imperfection I may be the more inlarged to magnifie Gods free gift of perfection As the Lord in the Creation made Man after his own Image as concerning the Soul that he might be capable of Divine Visions and enjoy a communion with him So also he made Man like himself as considering the Body in respect of Dominion and Majesty no Creature being like God but himself That according to the present Commandement one Man might love another as himself such a similitude of parts inducing a communion of hearts love being the fulfilling of the Law since the fall Because there needed not Law when love was perfect before the fall the defect of the one necessitating the constitution of the other Every member of the Body in the state of innocency being made willing and ready to perform all good actions respecting either God or Man by the quickning and agitating Power of this predominant affection in the Soul But what have I now to do with the state of Innocency that am now discoursing of Rebellion Our self-love in Adam hath depraved us of that true love which seated in the Soul moves the Body to act any goodness Of which miserable loss of ours that we may be more sensible it is necessary that as the Souls so the Bodies defects be particularly meditated on The curse and judgment of the Body is that it should be a ready instrument to execute the sinfull commands of the Soul these two parts constituting Man being as it were Master and Servant Husband and Wife Yet observe as in the happiest unions amongst us we shall finde that though the Nobler Sex hath the Superiority and Power of Rule yet so prevalent is the nature of conjugal love that it sweetly allures the superintendents will to joyn issue in many actions by that which is subjected So in Man though the Soul be the Head the Monarch yet by reason of the neer conjunction the Body oftentimes inclines the Soul to be active according to its disposition making good that Phylosophical maxime Mores animi sequuntur temperamentum corporis By this it appears that the Body is not only instrumentally but also in a kind potentially evil since the Fall being then changed in an instant of time from its beauty to deformity from its perfect composition which was equal ad pondus to an unequal mixture of the Elements and humours Hence followed termination of life millions of Diseases and Death the malady of Diseases Hence the necessity of daily nourishment and the peccancy and abounding of humours descryed in the four Complexions and those excess aided by the constant bent of nature to do ill do cause that aptness and proclivity of several Men to particular Vices as the cholerick to malice blood and anger the melancholy to desperation and discontent the sanguine to lust the flegmatick to sloath and idleness In this cursed depravation of our erring nature the sences which are the Bodies Pentarchie have no small proportion For what is the Eye the seat of the optick faculties but an open Window apt to give entrance to theevish lusts A two-leaved Door prepared by treacherous nature to receive in deadly Enemies The life of Man would be far calmer did not these riâ—ts let in tempests of pride and vanity The presumptuous opening of these made Eve open her hands to receive her mouth to taste the forbidden fruit For when the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the Eyes she took off the fruit thereof and did eat Mark here what assistance this sence gives to the temptation Had not the Sons of God made their Eyes Flood-gates to let in the deceitful beauty of the Daughters of Men an Idolatrous union could not so soon have procured a dis-union from God which moved the Lord to an effective repentance changing the Globe of Earth into an Orb of Water Ham's mocking and curse proceeded from a carnal discovery Sem and Japhets blessing from a dutifull and willing blindness Lastly Davids heart had never been his concupiscencies Captive had not Bathsheba bathed in his Eyes aswell as in the Fountain O thou which illuminates Mans darkness and hast the over-sight of my sight suffer not that sence which thou hast made to give my Body light to be the in-let of my Souls obscurity But if I cannot see but I must sin Lord let me cease to see carnally and be enabled to see spiritually that so the one may be swallowed up in the Vision of the other In the next place what are the Eares but the roads of Blasphemy the Labyrinths of obscenity an open passage to the mind through which Traytors as well as true subjects pass without examination or controulment Proud Herod had never been a God in heart had not he willingly consented to be one in Eare. Had not Joash hearkned to the Princes of Judah when they made obeysance unto him he had never left the house of the Lord and served Groves and Idols Had Aaron heard the People as
to be sick and heavy with Ahab yea to grieve and die with Nabal and Achitophel for being crossed in momentary honours in covetous desires in my estate or any other my designs And whereas the filial fear of God should be continually in my heart and before my eyes for Happy is the Man that feareth always following herein the blessed example of holy David whose daily Song was Fear the Lord all yee his Saints of pious Joshuah whose tender Heart feared and trembled at the words of the Law and of Religious Nehemiah who was zealous for the Commandements of the Lord. I have with those Collonies of strangers planted in the City of Samaria Feared the Lord and served my Gods that is My pleasures and vain lusts Or if at any time I have dreaded thee or been humbled it hath been either whilst thy Judgments have been threatned with the numerous Ninivites or when they have layn sore upon me with the Philistines or until they were removed with wicked Pharaoh Thus dear Saviour do all my affections degenerate and erre from that end for which thou hast plac'd them in my Soul O thou which by thy omnipotency didst convert Water into Wine work the like miracle in me also So changing me in quality relish and use that I may both now and hereafter be thought worthy to be admitted unto thy Table O spiritual Bridegroom Raise up thy dejected Spirits and disconsolate Soul For such is the goodness of my nature and the infiniteness of my mercy that these thy grievous maladies instead of provoking my displeasure move me unto pity and convert my justice into compassion I am the Physician of the Soul and come to heal not the whole but the sick I am he that grants Resurrection to the Dead in Sin as well as to the dead for sin And am as able to give Manasseth newness of life as Lazarus a new life Therefore be not faithless but believe Thou complainest to me of an evil and degenerated hatred that is ready upon all occasions to take up armes against God Good-men and goodness Indeed this is dangerous but not incurable Was not my Servant Paul a cruel Persecuter before a zealous Martyr yea and thousands of the Jews my Murderers before my Converts Be confident then that my love is also able to swallow up thy hatred and to perfect this grace of love in thy life which it hath begun in thy desires Further whereas thou art troubled and molested with the frequent inundations of carnal and worldly sorrows Know that the reason therof is the want of depth or scowring of the lower water-course even that Channel of thy Repentance which is as it were the drayn of this filthy Lake and muddy affection To the performance of which duty that thou maist be enabled and assured Know it is I that gives Repentance unto life not willing the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live Lastly Let not thy former slavish fear discourage thee since all things even these thy corruptions through my mercy shall work together for thy good My Law having by these terrors prepared thee for my Gospel which seeing by my grace thou hast received be assured that that perfect love which it produces casteth out fear and will free thee from all such base affrightments possessing thee of that legitimate fear which flows from duty and adoption In further assurance of which receive and apply this my promise They namely thee and all my faithfull shall be my People and I will be their God and I will give them one Heart and one Way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and their Childrens children O thou my spiritual Elisha what shall I render unto thee for this thy great cure wrought upon my Soul for this thy miraculous cleansing of my sinfull Leprosie Are the Talents of Ophir the fruit of my Body of my ground or of my Flocks a fit Sacrifice for thee No Thine is the Earth and the fulness thereof I will therefore imitate that religious Proselite Naaman and give Glory to the Lord God of Israel I will offer unto thee thanks-giving and pay my vows unto thee O most High Yea my understanding which thou hast enlightned my minde which thou hast instructed my conscience which thou hast pacified my memory which thou hast strengthened my affections which thou hast ordered and my stony heart which thou hast mollified and all things else that are within me shall bless thy Holy Name Yea I will invert the speech of thy Servant David and say who am I and what is my poor Soul that I should be able to offer unto thee thus willingly and after this sort Lord I confess all things come of thee and of thine own have I given unto thee wherefore let what 's mine of grace and thine of merit be thy only glory And now since I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Let not the Lord be angry and I will speak yet again Thou hast been pleased to give unto me light in darkness and to make known unto me thy great Salvation Thou hast filled me with thy goodness and mercy and laid up in my heart the infinite treasure of thy promises But what avails all this Lord when as the Thief Sathan may break through and steal the Moth my inâ—bred corruptions may devour and consume these my spiritual riches there being no defence nor power in me to resist For those Cinque ports and Windows of my Soul my sences stand wide open not only admitting but inviting my cruel Enemies to enter Yea every Member of my body is not only assistant to my adversaries Sin the World and the Devil but also takes up armes against me and seeks my destruction My eyes which from outward objects even thy beautifull works should be instruments of begetting admiration praise and worship to thee in my heart are full of vanity lust and adultery My eares which should only be open to thy Word are thereto deaf and receptacles of oaths blasphemies lies slanders and all obscenity And those other sences of tasting smelling touching which thou hast given to be helps in piety and thanksgiving through the more ample fruition of thy Creatures are become the factors of pride covetousness and epicurisme Further my Tongue which should speak of thy praise all the day long and sing aloud of thy righteousness hath mischief under it and speaketh proud things Is full of flattery and frames deceit And is fraught with naughtiness and lying Yea it is a Fire a World of iniquity setting on Fire the course of nature and is set on Fire of Hell So that that Member which was once my glory is now my shame Lastly my hands and feet which ought to be Barnabasses and Barjonasses Brethren and Sons of consolation
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
the World After which act of thy remunerative Justice and thy Raign upon the renewed Earth with thy Saints a thousand years thou wilt I believe raise and Judge all the wicked called the Goats at thy left hand and the Apostate Angels according as thou hast declared in thy Word of Truth when every ungodly one shall be sentenced and punished proportionable and according to the evil of their thoughts words and actions then being all made manifest who with the Devils their Tempters and Tormenters shall by thy mighty Angels be cast into the Lake of Fire the Locall Hell unto Eternity This is the second Death O my King my Judge my Spouse shall this dreadfull time of Judgment fearfull indeed to the wicked but a most joyfull Day to the Godly certainly come upon the World according to thy Word Shall there be a long tract of time measured out in the acting and manifesting thy Judgments and magnifying the glory of thy remunerative and vindicative Justice to the World as well as there hath been a long space of proclaiming and holding forth the Golden Scepter of thy free Grace and incomprehensible love and mercy to the Sons of Men Is this truth one of the Articles of the Christian Faith and as certain to us as the Day of our death according to that unrepealable Statute It is appointed to Men once to dye and afterwards comes the Judgment Shall the Crowns dignities and rewards conferred upon thy Saints be one chief subject of praise and fill the Mouths of Men and Angels with continual Hallelujahs unto God not only whilst they rest upon the renewed Earth but also in the highest Heavens after the end of this long Day and the pouring out of thy wrath and execution of thy righteous Judgments upon wicked Men and Devils when thy glorious justice in both the parts thereof shall be finished and compleated according to that Prophesie of the Psalmist then perfectly fulfilled Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth O let both my Heart and Tongue now inure themselves to this Subject since I live by faith and not by sense and sing with the Elect ones in the Revelations that prophetical Song calculated for this time saying Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are his Judgments Praise our God all yee his Servants and yee that fear him both small and great Hallelujah for the Lord reigneth Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and hiâ— Wife hath made her self ready And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white for the fine Linnen is the righteousness of Saints Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. O King of Saints and King of Nations our Almighty Saviour and Conquerer who hast fulfilled the Law satisfied Divine Justice overcome the World Crucified Sin spoiled Principalities and Powers and wilt at the Resurrection of the Just and the Redemption of our Bodies destroy our last Enemy Death and after the Judging and Hellifying of wicked Men and Devils wilt in Tryumph ascend on high with thy Elect and lead Captivity Captive that the Glory which thy Father gave thee may be given them that they may be with thee where thou art and may behold the Glory which he hath given thee and possess an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us where we shall be ever with thee our Lord and see God face to face and in thee the perfections of all Creatures as in their first cause And know thee according to our measure as we are known by thee Blessed Mediator this is that time when all rule all authority and power being put down and under thee in the Kingdome of thy Saints and under thee in thy personal and glorious raign upon Earth All Enemies even Death it self being destroyed and put under thy Feet thou shalt deliver up the Kingdome so far as it is Mediatory personal and singly acted and managed by thee in thy humane appearance and Man-hood to God even the Father That so thou the Son as being also as Man the Son of God might be subject as to thy present kinde of administration unto him that put all things under thee that God may be all in all And the whole Universe and Creation both in Heaven and Earth especially thy spiritual Body thy Church may be immediately governed and influenced by him who is three in one God-blessed for ever To which mystical Body thy Spouse and Church as also to Angels thou still remainest Head and Lord for ever which being now perfectly and inherently sanctified and graciously admitted through the glorious inhabitation and communion of thy most holy and eternal Spirit to an immediate fellowship real and spiritual union although not essential with the Father Son and holy Ghost one God blessed for ever shall live eternally in the life of God and in whole and in part as respecting every individual Member and Vessel be always full yet always increasing in knowledge grace and glory as Eying and enjoying continually the Divine Nature and cast into an Ocean of infiniteness unto Eternity This is the Generation of them that seek thee that seek thy face O God of Jacob. Therefore let both my Heart and Tongue even now O Lord prepare and begin to praise thee as from Pisgath with beholding Canaan and by faith the eye of my Soul from the raised hill of holy Contemplation viewing this Saint Paul's third Heaven the Throne of God and of his glory and the many yea innumerable shining and starrified Mansions in thy Fathers house the places prepared by thee for thy Saints as also their Kingdome and State of endless glory happiness and blessedness In the ravishing Meditation of these things their translation and thy second most glorious and tryumphant Assention O let me sing and rejoyce in the words of thy Prophet David foretelling both thy Ascentions God is gone up with a shout the Lord with a sound of a Trumpet sing praises to God sing praises sing praises to our King sing praises Lift up your Heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in Battel Lift up your Heads O ye Gates even lift them up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord of Hosts He is the King of Glory Selah I have now by Divine assistance according to my weak-sightedness for all Men here know but in part and as in
Tun'd Unto thy Praise and thy Great NAME Be blest by ALL that read the same Who shall by Favours shew'd to MEE Be mov'd to Love and Trust in THEE Accept dear Lord in Goodness what 's here Thine And in Thy MERCY Pardon what is Mine Yea Let this Humble Work a future BASIS be For SAINTS to raise Colums of Glory unto Thee Place this afore Occasional Meditations at Folio 347 AN EXHORTATORY EPISTLE TO THE Nobility and Gentry of Great Britain Right Honorable NOble and generous Spirits of this famous Island Whose Persons I truly love and honour both as Christians and of the same Nation with me as also for your excellent wits parts and gifts who equallize Tully and Virgil in Eloquence and Poetry Witness your many Romances Comedies Tragedies and amorous Works now extant O consider all you that are thus rarely accomplisht both by Art and Nature that you must shortly give an account of these deposited Talents and of your mis-spent time and stewardships at the neer approaching Sessions and Goal-delivery of your Souls out of the Prison of your Bodies and at the great Assize the dreadful Day of Judgment to our great God and to the Lord Jesus the Judge of the quick and the dead Who hath made all things for his Glory and the wicked for the Day of his Wrath. O will you not then blush for shame and be confounded at what you now pride your selves in when Sathan your Maecenas shall then be your Accuser and produce as evidence against you Item so many precious Hours lost such high strains and Veines of Witrun wast such excellent Language defiled and abused and such and such a happy Muse ravisht and debaucht in the compiling and publishing so many false and unhallowed Legions to stir up and inflame your own Lusts and the sleeping passions and corruptions of the Youth of both Sexes in these Nations So many Stage-Playes the Scoffers of goodness and holiness of conversation the Consumers of useful time and of the innate Virtue Modesty and Estates of all kindes of Persons as also so many Frothy and Airy amorous Verses Ditties and Songs the Nurses and Panders of all manner of loosness and uncleanness in all sorts of People Had these precious Stones and Gems these sparkling Diadems I mean your choice Indowments been set in Aaron's Brest-plate or been offered up as a gift to God who gave you them to be for the Ornament and praise of his Church his Temple How brightly would they have shin'd as in their proper Sphear for which he created them Whereas they are now by their fall from their Heavenly Orbe to this vile Earth of sin and vanity become like so many sliding Stars which whilst they pass through the darkned Aire of corrupted and deceived Observers give forth a false Light and suddenly are extinct leaving behind them nothing but a corrupting Belly and a Hellish and sulphurious stink to the view and in the Nostrils of all Divine Astronomers Is it your highest honour to be stiled Christians have you at your Installment in Baptisme vowed and promis'd to resist the Devil the World and the Flesh And will you by your wanton Poems and vain Sonnets offer Sacrifices to Sathan the God of this World and to his Idol the World and blot and blur your sacred and glorious Title and dishonour and prophane that holy Name by which you are called Hath the Lord Jehovah your gracious God and Almighty Saviour who was the first great Orator and Poet that wrote upon Earth given you an unparallel'd Example by the Pen of Moses in the whole Book of Deuteronomy the very Marrow of Divine Eloquence Deut. chap. 1. vers 3. and in that Elixar of Poesie that Song of the Lord 's own composing Deut. 32. to the end of the 43. vers Hath his choicest Saints lest you sublime patterns of Heavenly Poesie Witness the Songs of Moses and Meriam Exod. 15. unto the 22. vers and Psal. 90. Of Deborath and Barak Jud. 5. to the end Of King David 2 Sam. 22. from Vers. 2. to the end Besides his Book of Psalms upon divers subjects witness also the 11. Psalmes of Asaph beginning with the 73. Psal. and ending with the 82. Psal The Psalmes of Heman and Ethan the Ezrahites Psal. 88. and 89. The Canticles or Song of Songs written by King Solomon besides One Thousand and Five other Songs 1 Kings 4.32 The Songs written by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 5.1 and Chap. 26.1 the Song of Habakkuk Chap. 3. to the end And in the New Testament the Song of the blessed Virgin and of Simeon and the many Angelical and Heavenly Hymnes wherewith the mysterious Book of the Revelations is gloriously imbroidered Besides these excellent Presidents and Examples the sacred Scriptures are full of Precepts enjoyning and commanding this thankfull chearfull and singing temper to be in all his Saints in these words and the like Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth me Psal. 50.23 O come let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation Psal. 95.1 The like Psal. 96.1 98.1 Praise the Lord for it is good to sing praises unto our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely Psal. 147.1 In the New Testament we are commanded to rejoice ever-more 1 Thes. 51.6 and to sing with Grace in our hearts Psalmes and Hymnes and Spiritual Songs Col. 3.16 In which holy exercise our blessed Saviour hath given us his Example after his last Supper Math. 26.30 And that blessed Poet and singer of Israel that Man after God's own heart King David Who upon divers gracious providences deliverances and mercies as well private as publick penned many Psalmes As upon the occasion of his flight from his Son Absolon the slanderous words and treacherous actings of Cush the Benjamite the Psalm of thanksgiving before mentioned for his many deliverances from Saul and all his Enemies And at the Dedication of his House To these I shall add the Psalm penned by him when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech alias Achish King of Gath His Song of loves or commendation of Solomon's Queen the Egyptian The Tipe of the Gentile Church his penitential Psalm when Nathan had been with him after he had gone into Bathsheba his Poem concerning Doeg's false accusation of Abimelech the High Priest his Psalm upon the Ziphims discovery of him to Saul another when the Philistims took him in Gath Also his two thankful Memorials of his deliverance from Saul in the Cave and another for his preservation when Saul sent and they watched his House to kill him A third upon his Victory over Aram Naharaim Aram Zobath and against the Edomites A fourth concerning his abode in the Wilderness of Judah to these may yet further be observed the Song written for his Son Solomon and his Psalm for the Sabbath Day To these Scripture examples which are indeed the very sacred Rhetorick and Poesie of the
Grace ◠The Eye of Faith whose object is the only begotten infinitely Glorious and mercifull Son of God Christ Jesus with all his faithful Promises numberless Merits saving and incomprehensible Graces This then O my Soul is that Sight and Light in comparison of which all other is but Darkness or as Torch-lights to the Sun By this alone a true Christian shall as much transcend the rational as the rational the sensual Creature Doth the momentary splendour of terrene things entice us to affect and prefer them And shall the everlasting and perfectly glorious Vision of Heavenly things even of Him who gave Beauty Form and Beeing to thee and all things prove less deserving less effectual Was the carnal eyes of my First Parents so over-pleased with the transitory Beauty of an earthly Fruit that they forgot their Creator whose Image they bare and entered the death threatning the breach of his Commandement though open to the fury of a double Curse exchanging the eternity of Happiness for a momentary taste And shall not the Pearless splendour of Heavenly things animate me to prepare a hand a heart to receive and taste the Manna of Souls the Fruit of a Tree of Life not guarded with a Cherubs Fiery sword but obvious to all not rooted in Earth but sprang from Heaven being grafted into Humanity that his Living Fruit might become the saving and eternal nourishment of Man O Lord I earnestly cry out with those at Capernaum Give me evermore of this Food Have mercy upon my Infirmities for being Adam◠son I have a withered hand a carnal heart which carnality 〈◊〉 enmity with thee Therefore Create in me a clean Heart and renue a right Spirit within me Relieving my Spiritual wants with this apprehensive Grace by which supernatural gift I may be made able to apply thy saving Promises with all their dependances O Adam I cannot blame thee for the loss of this Grace since thou deprivest thy Posterity of those Treasures only which thou was possest of But in thy Innocency this thou hadst not yet wert thou not therefore defective for thy created purity needed not any imputative righteousness being of it self sufficient because accepted The beauty of thy first Purity was so far from Leprosie that not the least Stain was then apparent to deface its Candor Thy Innocency void of Sin and therefore required not a Saviour Thy Soul was the Resemblance of thy Creator and therefore a pleasing and most proper object for his All-glorious sight There was without Wrath Attonement without Enmity Mediation without Debt satisfaction without Jesus Application is unnecessary Infidelity was the first means of Death Faith is the only instrument of Life By the one came our Descent to Hell through the other our Ascent to Heaven That made us Fly from God offended this makes us Run unto Him appeased Man had his first Spring in the Creation his Summer in Paradise which should ever have continued had not his meridianal height suffered a declination So shortning his happiest dayes he changed both Place and Season As after the Fall Winter ensues so did his For what are our untimely times but as a Winter quarter wherein every Tree is Fruitless we being not seemingly but really dead in Sinnes and Trespasses And if there be any Sap in the Root or Understanding it serves for no other use nourishment or comfort but to leave us without excuse If any Leaves as Moral actions and outward Professions alas these may hide from men our Nakedness producing a supposition of Fruitfulness but cannot deceive God who shall cause such Leavy Fig-trees to wither O Saviour Jesus Christ my Years increase my Life decreaseth neither know I how soon thou wilt visite me by Death or Judgment when if only as outwardly glorious thou sendest me my Portion is with Hypocrites if defective of Fruit thy sentence hath already awarded me fit for the Fire Lord I am a stem of sinfull Adam sprung from a barren Root and therefore a Plant which but Cumbers this Ground O thou which only art Lord and Husband-man of Souls so shine on me by thy favour mould and manure me with thy Grace prune me with thy Fatherly chastisements that the old Man may be rooted up and the new Man spring up and grow that so the Winter of Sin past a Spring of Faith may ensue which in thee being only fruitfully perfect I may with a happy certainty expect an Autumn of Glory Whosoever believeth in me hath everlasting life are the words of our Saviour from whose graciousness every Soul may receive infinite encouragement to pursue the condition or instrumental means of so unvaluable a gift For what is more desired than life What more abhorred than deprivation Let this offer therefore of Immortality the height and accomplishment of Mans happiness like the streams of Paradise direct thee O wandering Soul unto the Eden of Glory In the midst whereof thou shalt finde the Spring of Faith the Fountain of Life even God himself From whom alone all Graces have their right ebulition and procession for God deals to every one the measure of Faith As in the first Creation he gave a Beeing to what was not so in Mans Regeneration his immediate Word wrought the one his written Word the other Pulpits are Heavenly Conduits from whence by Earthy Vessels the Ministers Voices as in smaller Pipes the Waters of Grace are conveyed into every open Ear. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God The life of the Body is the Soul the Soul of the Soul is Faith As the Infant lives not till God hath infused a Soul so the Christian lives not without his gift of Faith O thou whose gifts are the effects of thy free Mercy not our Merit and therefore without Repentance or Changeableness thou being Wisdome it self and therefore Unalterable Omnipotent and therefore above all contradiction and resistance give to me this Seal of thy love this first fruit of thy favour and my Conversion O bestow on me the Grace I ask because thou hast given unto me Grace to ask For thy bounty is not closed up because thou hast been liberal like to Man since thy love is without measure thou therefore give me because thou hast given Thy former favours being but earnests of thy future mercies The Body of Man like to the Pool of Bethesda hath five Porches or senses through which all external pleasure and delectation enters as it were to comfort the imprisoned Soul They being as so many Cranies dimly enlightning her Dungeon that so their poor and weak expressions might make her ambitious of a perfect liberty Amongst these the seeing faculty in comparison of the rest may be stiled the beautifull Gate for its Grace and Ornament and the Bodies mirrour wherein with delight it views the perfection of it self and others So that indeed the better half of Mans temporary felicities consists in outward objects
upwards towards thee and rays down-wards amongst my Brethren Then shall thy will be done by me on Earth as it is done in Heaven The ground and occasion of all true joy is either assured hope or a present fruition of some extraordinary benefit Now no natural Man can be said to possess this affection aright as being deficient in the ground thereof Sin making him uncapable to receive any thing as a blessing or benefit either from God or Man 'T is true wicked Men spend their Days in Wealth heaping up silver as the dust and preparing Rayment as the Clay But observe their riches cannot be properly tearmed their goods These may possess treasures but shall never enjoy them For The innocent shall divide his Silver and the just shall put on his Rayment It 's as certain that the wicked walk on every side when the vilest Men are exalted That Servants ride on Horse-back and Princes walk as Servants upon Earth But note also that honour is to them as the Hebrew word signifies weight heaviness not rejoycing producing as the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports Fear which excludes joy God giving worldly Men preferments Non ut honoraret sed ut onoraret Have they not pleasures also Yes verily if we understand them according to their acception or Etymology that is things pleasing them Look upon the description of them in Job drawn to the life and we shall view them Taking the Tymbrell and Harp and rejoycing at the sound of the Organ This their pleasure to be bold with that word pleasure that it may be the more bold with them is a pleasure wherein things seem what they are not The word delight me-thinks is very significant teaching us that true pleasure only springs from that true light and only doth give light life and joy to the Soul That so empty are all voluptuaries of these ingredients that I may say of them as St. Paul of the wanton Widdows They that live in pleasure are dead whilst they live Now death excludes joy therefore it is impossible that Man so dead should rejoyce Lastly To silence all Objections and to conclude the Earthly minded Man is the only melancholy Man The very subject and object of Lamentation Take the height and learn the nature of those that blaze like meteors being placed in the highest region of carnal Men I mean those that are second Adams in the knowledge of the Metaphysicks and both Philosophers Machivels in Policy and Solomons in the generality of humane Learning and see what they are But least it should seem presumption in thee O my Soul to censure or detract from such shining Lamps of the World Let the King of Israel who excell'd in wisdome all the Children of the East Country and all the wisdome of Egypt for he was wiser then all Men give up his experimental judgment proving by an undeniable argument a Majore ad minus what I formerly layed as my ground That no natural Man can possess a genuine joy Hear his own words I gave my Heart to know wisdome and to know madness and folly I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit For in much wisdome is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow O gracious Creator with what a deluge of misery is wretched Man over-whelmed In how deep an abyss of sorrow is he plunged Cannot riches honours pleasures wisdome the content and compleatment of the whole Worlds felicity excite or beget one true smile of joy in the Soul Nay do they not with Man stray from the end of their Creation administring instead of sollace vexation and infelicity O who but Man hath ruin'd Man who but himself is the Thief and betrayer of himself what occasioned the parting of this good from the Creature but the departing of Man from thee his Creator O thou In whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for ever more Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation that in thy light I may see light Then shall those streams of gladness accompany thy many benefits and continually and plentifully flow into my Soul when to others they shall be dryed up as being separated from thee the Fountain Be thou my Sun and let thy blessings as so many beames proceeding from thee irradiate and rejoyce my Soul that so I may see thee in them and them in thee and by such a double aspect of thee be moved to give a double praise unto thee of Glory in thy self of mercy to my Soul Fear is now become a continual Palsey of the Soul an Earth-quake of the Body The object of it is commonly either some eminent danger or unresistable force in a Superiour particularly apprehended with such a fear as did the Creatures observe Man before his own hands cancelled his large Pattent of Dominion And with the same affection though much more enlarged and in a far greater measure as looking through the perspective of reason doth natural Man adore and tremble at the feet of his Creator armed with the thunder of Omnipotency and breast-plate of Righteousness crown'd with Majesty and arrayed with Glory Who can behold the Lord God thus and live Let Belshazar's thoughts Cain's words and Judas last action express the terrour of those Souls that thus apprehend God Look upon the preying Claws of the Lion the Stubble in the midst of the Furnace the Malefactor quaking at the Bar of Justice and in them my Soul view thy fearfull estate by nature If any Soul as a sinner was ever endowed with so perfect an Organ as it could look abroad upon God as a Judge or discover one smile in the face of anger or mercy in the midst of incensed justice surely the first and second Adam would have done it one of which had the strength of nature the other of grace But alass even the Son of God when in the place of sinfull Man he stood before the Justice of God feared Witness the Apostle witness his exclamation though his astonishment and fear were temporary the wickeds eternal His occasioned by a recess of the Divinity and paternal comforts beyond the reach of his present sence Theirs is a cursed effect of sin and utter privation of that infused love from God that begets a love to God which indeed is the very form of a filial fear If then the second Adam which came from Heaven having put on our transgressions conceived that God had forsaken him No marvail if the first Adam of the Earth Earthy together with his off-spring personally and by nature sinful forsake and hide themselves from God flying from him to whom only they should flie fearing him as a Judge whom they should reverence as a Father perfect love casting out fear O my God! is there a necessity of fear must all the Creatures tremble before thee
until Shilo come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be Now it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda. Further Moses drawing neer to his dissolution Prophesies and that from the Mouth of God That God will raise them up a Prophet like unto him Now Moses was not only a Prophet but a King He was King in Jesurun In the next place hearken to the mellodious and foretelling Hymns of the royal Psalmist David who knowing that God had sworn with an Oath to him that of the Fruit of his Loynes according to the Flesh he would raise up Christ to set on his Throne At once beholds his Seed his Saviour and becomes the Herald of his King his Son thus Proclaiming I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion And again The Lord said unto my Lord set thou on my right hand until I make thine Enemies thy Foot-stool Of him also the Prophet Esay thus Prophesieth Vnto us a Childe is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his Shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end Zachary also remarkably points him out and that not only verbally but by certain actions of our King Rejoyce O Daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having Salvation lowly and riding upon an Ass and upon a Colt the Fole of an Ass. Lastly lest the testimonies of Men should seem weak the premulgation of Angels shall conclude and that undeniably this holy and comfortable truth Behold saith the Angel Gabriel to the blessed Virgin Thou shalt conceive in thy Wombe and bring forth a Son and shalt call his Name Jesus he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David And he shall reign over the House of Jacob for ever And of his Kingdome there shall be no end Again as his Birth and Kingdome over the Jews yea over the whole World was foretold by the Angel so correspondently they were proclaimed by an Angel and seconded by a multitude of the Heavenly Host saying unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. O my Soul I have hitherto like John by the finger of the Prophets pointed out unto thee thy King thy Saviour The Lamb of God which taketh away the Sins of the World It is expedient and time now that with Andrew thou follow him home and by the eye of thy faith takest a particular view of his excellencies administrations and government That thy heart being bedewed with those many comforts benefits and blessings which descend therefrom may with those ravished Jews in the Gospel cry out Hosanna blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Blessed be the Kingdome of our Father David that cometh in the Name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest And also sing with that Heavenly multitude Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanks-giving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen Proceed then O my Soul and diligently consider first how thy King governs amongst his Subjects Secondly how he rules and reigns over his Enemies and lastly how in that great Assize he shall execute his last Judgment and translate his Kingdome on Earth to Heaven there establishing and fixing a glorious and tryumphant Monarchy even for Eternity The wisest Heathen whose choisest flowers of learning and knowledge were gathered out of our Paradise of God the Scriptures stiled their Kings Pastors of the People That the Spirit of God useth the like Metaphor and that it might well be that they stole it from thence may be supposed from these places amongst others The Psalmist glorifying God for the deliverance of his People out of Egypt concludes thus Thou leddest thy People like a Flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron And the same Moses neer the ending of his life desires God to appoint his Successor That the People be not as Sheep which have no Shepward Michaiah Prophesying of Ahab's death and the overthrow of his Army saith That in a Vision he saw all Israel scattered a Sheep that have no Shepward And the Lord by the Prophet Esay promising his People a deliverance from their Captivity by the means of Cyrus even many years before his birth â—aith thus of him He is my Shepward and shall perform all my pleasure Surely as there is good cause to commend the Heathens choice and application of this Metaphor So a-above all to admire the infinite wisdome of the Spirit of God as the Original who under this similitude comprehends and discovers the whole duty of a religious Prince and Governor as that like a Shepheard he is to feed his People to lead them to fold and keep them from straying and to protect them from those Wolves and wicked Enemies that seek to destroy them See all this exprest in that woe pronounc'd by the Spirit of God against the Shepward of Israel that do feed only themselves Should not the Shepwards feed the Flock The diseased have yee not strengthned neither have you healed that that was sick neither have yee bound up that that was broken neither have yee brought again that that was driven away neither have yee sought that that was lost But with fierceness and with cruelty have yee ruled them Seeing then that the Lord himself commends unto us this humble vocation offering it as a Glass unto Princes his Vice-roys upon Earth therein to see their duties It will neither be unfit nor unprofitable to meditate and consider the office and actions of the Lord of Lords even our Lord Jesus Christ under the same Metaphor And the rather because St. Peter gives us a Precedent who stiles him the chief Shepward and Bishop of our Souls and more especially for these reasons First because God the Father so calls him often in Scripture witness that Prophesie of Ezekiel saying I will set up one Shepward over them he shall feed them Secondly he so names himself and with abundance of affection and delight and prosecutes and applies the similitude saying I am the good Shepward and know my Sheep and am known of mine And lastly whatsoever he in that Chapter or elsewhere applies to himself in the office of a Shepward doth most aptly agree with his Kingly administration But to make this more cleer Is it the duty of a King to govern and direct his People by good Laws Which though written yet are as it were his lively fixt and continued voice And is not this verified of our King the Shepward of
irritation and condemnation thereof for they that are in Christ have crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts Yea this our victory and deliverance is assured to us in that it was a special end of that great and acceptable sacrifice offered to God by our Lord and great Captain Jesus Christ. Who as the Apostle witnesseth gave Himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil World Hast thou such encouragements O my Soul On then and assault the glittering front the foremost batallion of thy Enemy Let this Arrow taken out of the Apostles quiver give him the first encounter The love of Money is the root of all evil Let thy Saviours words be a trusty Scout to prevent ambushes beware of covetousness Yea let the victorious Sword of the Spirit give the deadly wound be not deceived not thieves nor covetous c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God Here be not discontented O my Soul nor stain the glory of thy Christian Victory by a worldly sadness as though an ignominious poverty must be the necessary consequent of forsaking the World and conculcating her trash No Christians have riches which the Men of this World know not of for they are infinite and unsearchable viz. The riches of faith James 2.5 Of good works 1 Tim. 6.18 Of liberality 2 Cor. 8.2 The true riches of grace of glory Luke 10.11 Rom. 9.23 These unvaluable treasures God who is rich in mercy and Christ Jesus the Conduit of his mercies gives unto us Rom. 10.12 2 Cor. 8.9 For his mercies sake Eph. 2.4 Sometimes immediatly by his Spirit most frequently mediatly by his Ministers Yet not without this Spirit Who as the Apostle speaks though poor in the esteem of Men yet make many rich Thanks be to God for these his incomparable gifts The next Troop of the Worlds Power that faith proceeds to encounter with is led by voluptuousness These its true as it were besiege the Christian Soul and encompass it And if at any time by her pious force she break thorow and discomfit their thickest rancks even then by asking quarter they oft-times obtain victory crying out unto the zealous and lust-destroying Warriour as once the Tribe of Judah to David thou art neer of Kin unto us and as David to Amasa thou art of my Bone and of my Flesh and with the Syrian King thy Brother Benhadad Therefore spare us let us live behold we are the delight of thine Eyes the Mistresses of thy Ear the darlings of thy Pallate the Paramours of thy touch the perfumes of thy Nostrils We are linckt in consanguinity with thy nature age complection and calling We are thy beloved thy life the life of thy life thy bosome companions Thus if they gain by these syrene Songs but a respit of execution they shortly presume to become Counsellors advising in the words of the Preacher Rejoyce O young Man in thy youth and let thy Heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes Thus these wicked and subtile lusts get possession But doth the faithfull Champion here want courage strength or Weapons No animated with divine assistance the regal Power of Christ he advances the shield of faith and makes his Enemies feel the edge of that Sword which they even now wounded him with viz. But know thou for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Yea he further adds inverting the words of the Prophet should I let go out of my hand you that God hath appointed to utter destruction my life should go for your life for that she or whosoever else lives in pleasure are dead whilst they live yea in their estates as well as in their Souls So witnesses the wise Man He that loveth pleasure shall be a Beggar and that spiritually as well as temporally the good Seed being choked therewith Further as Israel to Adonibezeâ—h so the Christian Victor as it were cuts off the Fingers and Toes the speed and power of his concupiscence by instancing the multitudes of Gods own People that were overthrown in the Wilderness which were for our example as the Apostle speaks to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted by calling to remembrance the recantation judgment and repentance of wise King Solomon Who having enjoyed not only a common but an experimental and moral use of all the delights of the Sons of Men yet condemns them all as vile and nothing worth vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Lastly by fore-seeing the evil and unseparable consequents and Copesmates of inordinate delights by the Apostle St. James his light viz. wantonness riotousness and cruelty To conclude every true Christian-Warriour is unconquerable as being intrenched and fortified within the promises of omnipotency it self Who thus assures us that they that walk in the Spirit shall not fulfill that is shall not be overcome by or yield to the lusts of the Flesh. Here some Laodicean some lack-warm Professor will perhaps sigh and with Lot's Wife be ready to look back towards their pleasures the Sodom of this World complaining that Christians by reason of so rigorous a prohibition are of all Men most miserable and as the World esteems them a sad stoical and melancholy generation of Men. Let such mount their Meditations with holy David and they shall enjoy with him a Heaven upon Earth Witness this his testimony and assurance applyable and proper to every faithfull Israelite Thou wilt shew me the way of life in thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore My Soul here closes up this second tryumph with a gratulatory Hymn of that blessed Psalmist How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! therefore the Children of Men put their trust in the shadow of thy Wings They shall be abundantly satisfyed with the fatness of thy House thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy pleasures For with thee is the Fountain of life in thy light shall we see light The Worlds third Squadron viz. Mundane honours renews and continues the Fight with which the chief General Sathan lays ambushes on the right hand by glorious Visions and Dreams of Signiories with large promises of rule and dominion tempting us as once our Saviour All these things will I give thee and as he did Balaam in the mouth of Balack I will Promote thee unto very great honour On the left hand he assaults us by threatning as also actual divesting and degrading us of our hereditary or acquired titles and preferments So he did to Moses Who as the Apostle witnesses refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the Children of God So also to Daniel and the Three Children
who were deprived for a time of their Principalities for their refractoriness to Idolatry In defence against the first assault the pious Christian marching under Christs royal Standard victoriously opposes his Shield of faith with which and the Sword of the Spirit he disorders and puts to flight his Enemies reverberating and expulsing Sathans temptations with the blessed Virgins Antheme God scattereth the proud in the imaginations of their hearts and pulls down the mighty from their Seates and exalts them of low degree With the curse of the holy Prophet Isaiah Woe to the Crown of Pride Yea he concludes the Victory with that holy Maxime of St. James God resists the proud Now who amongst us shall be able to dwell with everlasting burning If the Lord condemns who can justify In pride in all these places the Spirit of God includeth ambition which essentially differs not being connatural and concomitant with her As for the temptation on the left hand the loss of any temporal dignities The valiant Christian poyses them with the glorious promises of Gods faithfull word whereby judging of their lightness he concurs with holy David that surely Men of low degree are vanity and Men of high degree are a lye to be laid in the Ballance they are altogether lighter than vanity And therefore returns this or the like counter-buff Get thee behind me Sathan for I value not thy threats since thou boasts of that which is not in thy power The haires of my Head are numbred the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth low and lifteth up But say the Lord should suffer thee as he did in Job to be the Instrument of my debasement I will kiss Gods Rod even in thy hand and say with that holy Man The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the Name of the Lord and with that tryumphing Apostle In all these things viz. disgraces and losses of what kinde soever I am more than a Conquerour through Christ that loved me For what things were gain to me those I count loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I will suffer the loss of all things accounting them but dung that I may win Christ. The highest favours of Princes from whom flow Earthly dignities are but shadowes of true honour Shadowes for they weakly express them and vanish when their Sun is set or clouded He that pours contempt upon Princes commands me not to rely upon them Put not your trust in Princes nor in the Son of Man in whom there is no help If not in them much less in their gifts For in that very day in an instant they their gifts and thoughts perish My happiness is a better hope My honour is more surely fixt than by Man or Devil to be extirpated or extinguisht Can all thy power O Enemy of Man frustrate my Election whereby from Eternity I am enroll'd a Peer of Heaven Can all thy policy or force dim the splendour or annihilate that title of being called and truly adopted the Son of God Canst thou disrobe me of my honourable red and white Garments of Justification and Sanctification in my Saviour O Father of lyes canst thou turn light into darkness and truth into falshood Deprive me of my Crown and nullify these glorious and infallible promises Fear not my little Flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdome Those that honour me I will honour If any Man serve me him will my Father honour Glory and honour and peace to every one that worketh good I am assured and conclude thou canst not And therefore I trample under foot thy power and vilify thine and the Worlds menaces and offers as believing in the royal might and truth of my Saviour That neither life nor death nor Angels Principalities Powers nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. Having thus routed and discomfitted the Wings and first Squadrons of the Enemy we must not rest here losing both our hopes and advantage A Christians whole life we have heard is a continued warfare To live unto the Lord and by self-denyal to overcome former temptations is a happy progress towards our Victory But to persevere to the end to dye for the Lord is the conclusion the Crown the tryumph of the Christian. By how much the Enemy is more powerfull and terrible by so much is the service more honourable and the conquest more glorious This last Phalanx of the Worlds force Persecutions are her Janizaries her Pretorian bands her last refuge in whom she puts her chiefest confidence led and marshalled by Sathans Lieutenant General described and set forth in the Revelations by him riding upon a red Horse destroying the fourth part of the World who may be also as expressing its mortal effects figuratively called Death whom Hell it self follows and attends Well is this the last and strongest of our worldly adversaries Yea have they begun already or will they shortly certainly assault us and notwithstanding our former Trophies contend with us for our Palme For all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecutions Let us like our English Martyrs with courage leaping and rejoycing run to kiss the Stake to meet our Opposers yea as the Apostle our tortures not accepting deliverance that we may obtain a better resurrection Are we hated by the World It is the surest mark of our Election by God So the word of truth Because yee are not of this World but I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hates you Have we mourning here It ushers in yea accompanies an unutterable and inseparable joy Yee shall be sorrowfull saith our Saviour but your sorrow shall be turned into joy and your joy shall no Man take from you Yea do we so far suffer for well doing that we are delivered over to Death as Malefactors Remember we are not without a companion in our sufferings our blessed Saviour was Crucifyed and reckoned amongst the Transgressors Now the Servant is not greater than the Lord if they have persecuted him they will also persecute you To conclude if we be conformable to Christ in his Death we shall also be like him in his Resurrection we shall have a change rather than a loss For He that loseth his life for his sake shall finde it viz. Immortality which is only the true life This is a faithfull saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him If we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us Thus then have I made good my proposition that this is the Victory that overcomes the World even our Faith Thanks
be unto God who gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Blessed Saviour and Soveraign Now I am assured that thou art a Rock upon which Man being built by faith becomes impregnable so high that he is far above Honours battery so strong as not to be taken by the assaults of bloody Persecutions so firm as not to be betrayed by covetousness nor undermined by voluptuousness The Siege of Troy one of the longest we read of continued but ten years and then she was buryed in her ashes whereas the Christians lasts a life an age and even then ascends a tryumphant Throne of Glory upon the Necks of his Enemies Every Christians life is a Book of the Battels of the Lord thou being as well nay more the Lord of Hosts in respect of our spiritual Fights and Victories as of our corporal those Enemies flâ—shly these spiritual those weak and mortal their Principalities Powers immortal those below and numerable these from above and innumerable O thy mercy in thy assistance O thy power in thy resistance Divine Monarch as it is thy sole act and gift our victory so let it be ours to retribute to thee alone the Glory The last Enemy that is to be destroyed is Death saith the Apostle so in these Meditations But why a double death to death Hath not the Martyrs Sword mortally wounded this Serpent Yes but yet he hisses still And therefore lest he may fright the fearfull we will add more wounds that so the weakest Christian may with Moses take this Serpent into his hand Yea more which is the Miracle it shall become a Staff an assistant in his Heavenly Journey As there is a violent and enforced death such is Martyrdome so there is a natural and timely dissolution In the one we dye in and for the Lord as hath been shewed in this other we dye in and to the Lord the one is ordinary the other is extraordinary the one common the other particular with both these Heads our Enemy Death playes the Tyrant and Sin the Executioner The Sting of Death is Sin 'T is an Observation that things common and universal are less admired or feared But what more general and frequent than Death what more frightfull and astonishing This is the Coloquintida that imbitters all humane pleasures So that oft-times the burthen of Man's sweetest Song is that dolefull complaint of the Children of the Prophet Mors in olla There 's Death in the Pot. This is the Water of Marach which the Children of Men murmur to taste of which will they nill they they must drink and dye But O my Soul behold a City of refuge for thee and all that are Children of the Prophets the Israel of God behold thy true Moses hast cast Lignum Vitae into this Spring of Sin to sweeten thy draught Thy spiritual Elisha hath cast Meat into this boyling Pot even himself broken and grownd by Gods justice that so he might correct the cursed effects of this wilde Wine which God created not For He is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven that a Man may eat thereof and not dye Wouldst thou have this more illustrated and proved Hear then thy Champions challenge to this allâ—conquering Enemy O Death I will be thy death view also his courage before and in the conflict I thirst The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Again I have a Baptisme to be baptized with and how am I streightned untill it be accomplisht Farther concerning the conflict it self hear the Psalmist in the Person of our Saviour The sorrows of Death compast me and the pains of Hell gat hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Lastly in the conclusion of this truth that thou mayest know that Christ being raised from the Dead dyeth no more Death hath no more dominion over him that he hath abolished Death and hath brought life and immortality to light for thee and all believers through the Gospel according to the Apostle Hear his Conquest and tryumph first Proclaimed by St. Paul Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Then published and revealed by himself I am he that liveth and was dead behold I am alive for ever more Amen and have the Keys of Hell and Death Lastly view his right conveighed to thee in that large and royal Pattent of his Word Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods Again God shall wipe away all tears from your Eyes and there shall be no more Death neither sorrows nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Having thus strongly under the royal Standard of Christ Jesus entrencht thy self O my Soul against this mortal and heart-torturing adversary Let thy faith placed even upon the Platform of sanctified reason wait for to make a challenge to the stoutest assailants of the Enemy The van-curriers of whom is fear and its concomitants Pompa mortis saith one well magis terret quam mors ipsa Against these Light-Horsemen discharge this murdering piece of the Apostles Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood Christ also himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject unto bondage Examples of worthies invisibly conveighs courage into magnanimous mindes wherefore if fear renew its force and re-assault thee interpose as a strong Barracado the ejaculation of dying Jacob. O Lord I wait for thy salvation The Meditation of patient Job All the days of my appointed time will I wait untill my change come The fervent supplication of devout Paul whose desire was to depart and to be with Christ. The next assaylant and assistant of Death is grief to part with things of this life The beauty goodness and love of a Wife The youth numerousness and hopefulness of Children The fidelity affection and society of friends The hundreds thousands yea Ingots of treasure now to be left together with all the pleasures honours and pomp of the World being as so many arrowes to pierce thorow with sorrow the heart of the natural Man so many racks to his distracted Soul yea so many deaths in Death if we respect its inforc'd disunion But the devout Soul having not only a natural but a supernatural affection hath if ever then the spirit of Heavenly wisdome and spiritual discerning concerning things that differ And therefore willingly chearfully and resolutely with Mary chooseth the better part forsaking her earthly Spouse for a Heavenly the Impes of nature for the Fruits of Grace for her works follow her She voluntarily
of thy Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Where also we shall sit together with him and be then perfectly changed into the same Image from glory to glory Thus reckoning that the sufferings of this present life even Death it self are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Let us not faint for though our outward Man perish yet let our inward Man be renewed Day by Day being confident that our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory Looking as hath been shewed not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal Dread not then O my Darling this Lion Is not he faithfull who hath promised that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee That he will be thy guide even unto Death Or dost thou doubt his Power to whom belongs the issues from Death and at whose voice all that are in the Graves shall come forth Behold a Tree of Life indeed the spiritual Manna which do but feed on by faith and thou shalt not dye For He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever Was it with blessed Paul to live Christ and to dye is gain and shall thy cowardise and recoyling insinuate and imply a loss No let such thoughts as Impes of Sin first dye yea be annihilated since every true Believer is assured of a glorious change and an ineffable reward Corruption putting on incorruption and mortality immortality we dying no more but being made equal to the Angels For as we have been planted together in the likeness of Christs death so shall we be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Did many Worthies under the thunder of the Law and in the twilight of the Gospel as the Apostle witnesses undergo the exquisitest tortures not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection And shall we in this open day and Evangelical Revelation when by faith like Stephen we behold our Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God ready to receive us and having as he promised taken possession and prepared a place for us stand back like Saul And being neer our Coronation seek still to hide our selves under the rubbish of our Earthly Tabernacles No what was humility in him will be esteemed shamefull and distrustfull pusillanimity in us yea which is worse disobedience to the Almighties summons Let the wicked hang down their heads and cry to the Mountains and Rocks to cover them but let all of us that have obtained grace be faithfull be faithfull unto the death and he shall give us a Crown of Life lifting up our heads because the time of our redemption draws neer even that day of recompence when the Lord shall say well done good and faithfull Servant enter into thy Masters joy Not it into us because not enough capable but we into it that so we may be as it were swallowed up in that infinite Ocean of Glory What though the Soul and Body have been unseparable friends contemporaries in life and being associates in joy sympathisers in sorrow two in nature one in affection Do we not read of Jesse and his Darling David Of an Eliah and his beloved Elisha Of an Hanna and her long desired Samuel Of a Mordecai and his entirely affected Hester All which cheerfully consented to a disunion and separation that so the conjunction of hearts might appear inviolable which seeks not so much the presence as the happiness of each other And shall thy Soul O Earth be summoned not to play before a mortal King as David before Saul but to sing the Song of the Lamb even spiritual Hymns before the Throne of Glory Not to serve before the Arke as Samuel or to be the Paramour of an Assyrian Monarch as Esther but to be ravisht up with Eliah and Paul into Paradise To be the Eternal Spouse of Jesus Christ and to behold the splendour of God not vailed and in a type as under the Law but face to face as being changed into the same Image from glory to glory shall it I say be sent for by Gods Sergeant and thy Servant Death once unprofitable as Onesimus to Philemon but now most profitable to thee and all Saints and wilt thou delay and be unwilling to part intreating with the Levites Father-in-Law for one Day nay one Moneth or one Year longer exile from thy Heavenly home thy Crown of Glory O let such unwise and such unthrifty prorogations be far from thy thoughts farther from thy practise Rather let both Soul and Body unanimously sing the Song of Simeon and sigh out the vote of Paul crying out Oh how we desire to be dissolved That thy incompleat holiness O my Soul might be perfected and become compleat glory That thy faculties being not only unimprisoned but heightned may approve thee according to thy Saviours promise like yea equal unto the Angels in all spiritual excellencies and Heavenly Prerogatives Again how do I desire O sinfull corrupted and mortal lump of Clay thy reduction into thy first Atoms and matter that so sin which hath possest and accurst thee may dye and be intomb'd with thee as having no longer work or nourishment in thee That Heavens great Chymist the omnipotent Spirit of God may cherish encircle and hover over thee as once upon the Waters separating the pure from the impure and producing a body spotless perfect and immortal even like unto the glorious Body of thy Saviour That so being made a proportionable and capable Pallace for thy Soul thou mayest enjoy an eternal reunion with it and both an everlasting communion with God To conclude O Man Death is a necessary absolute and unchangable decree of God Therefore it is thy wisdome to make it voluntary For It is appointed unto Men once to dye saith the Apostle and then comes the Judgment Comes the judgment did I say at the mention of this word judgment my Soul recoyles again not daring to peep out of her earthly Cabbin For she knows that this general Assize is an undoubted truth an Article of her Creed annexed to that of the Ascention and Session of our Saviour at the right hand of his Father At which we left when we first entred upon the three Offices of our Lord. And therefore now it fitly and in order comes to be the practical object of our faith as being also the last act of our Saviours Kingly Office in the Kingdome of Grace This being his total victory and destruction of all his corporal and spiritual Enemies his Day of Tryumph reward and recompence to all
to make all good in few words hear thy King by the Prophet Isaiah The Lord of Hosts will be for a Crown of glory and for a Diadem of beauty unto his People and for a Spirit of Judgment to him that sits in Judgment and for strength to them that turn the Battel to the Gate But this World is a Bed of Vipers a bundle of snares a stage of dangers True yet if thou trust in him he shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler from the noysome Pestilence Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under feet O read yee faithfully and digest this whole Psalme which I may truly stile the City of David for strength and beauty the fortress yea Paradise of every true Christian. But the godly have but a few friends I answer Comparatively they have but a few Enemies the whole Creation except Sathan and sinners being at peace with a reconciled Soul such as Job speaks of being in League with the very Stones and Beasts of the Field And the malice of the malignant turns all to their good Yea more if a Mans wayes please the Lord he will make even his Enemies to be at peace with him But to conclude a good Wife and good Children are amongst the chief blessings upon Earth They are so and have not the Saints strong and comfortable evidences for them if the Lord see them good witness those twine-like Psalmes the 117. and the 118. which for their excellency and comfort sake deserve the Readers more full and perfect Observation I will not be further tedious for the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of Hosts blessed is the Man that trusteth in thee Having given my Soul by faith a taste of some few of those many temporal promises treasured up in the Scripture being they are to be but as Sallets to provoke my spiritual appetite I will return to feed upon Eternity O my Soul what surer Antidote against the apprehension of the last Judgment whose sting is Eternal Death than the Meditation and assured hope of Eternity of life which is Glory in grain and the deifying of Humanity Surely if there be any Spiritual weight that depresseth the Soul it is Judgment If there be any Heavenly Magnes that attracts and quickens it 't is Immortality For toucht with this though encircled with corruption thou shalt continue moving with the Needle until fixed upon the lines of life thou constantly adhearing to the true Flower-de-luce Christ Jesus Amongst Moses unfeigned Metamorphoses we finde the Rod chang'd to a Serpent a devourer of the Magitian delusions So this hope a branch of the Tree of Life springing from the Root of Jesse swallows up Death in victory in Eternity What seems yea is a fearfull truth to all unbelieving Egyptians becometh a Chimera a Phantasme to every true Israelite If any word is expressive or an Epitome of God of Heaven of Glory and consequently of all felicity it is this of Life I am the way the truth and the life I am the Resurrection and the Life saith our Saviour and he that hath the Son that is believes in him hath life saith St. John Since then God is life he that hath life hath God and he that hath God hath all things even the conflux of simple and unmixt happiness And therefore most wisely and succinctly those holy Men Penners of the Creed called the Apostles have coucht and exprest the excessive treasures and immense pleasures of the Heavenly Paradise under that one word life everlasting Herein O my Soul is included and assured unto thee the sublimest of Heavenly fruitions called by the School-men the beatifical Vision Which so far as I am able to express it is the Souls full repletion and apprehension of the excellencies of the Divine Essence not by the back-parts only and mediately as Moses but primarily and immediately in himself Yea also the Body being in the very moment of its resurrection spiritualiz'd as witnesseth the Apostle shall there with open face see and look upon the word of life receiving fulness of pleasure and satisfaction by those sences which now are unprofitable and uncapable of such glorious manifestations Here since this last act of our faith and last Article of our Creed is so full of comfort and unspeakable animation after the hearty and humble acknowledgment of my ignorance and fervent supplicating the assistance of the only illuminating Spirit I will more largely and particularly eye this Crown this unvaluable price even so far as my faith hath visual beames from Scripture or consequent demonstration If the Soul of Man in this state of her nakedness and deformity hath been by some Christians though therein Heretical deifyed and by most of the Heathen Magi magnifyed even to the heighth of created excellencies surely in her renovation and perfect reassumption of that her first Image and those first created Ornaments she must needs be more splendid and more to be admired But is this beauty of the first Adam in his innocency the heighth of a Christians hope No. As our second Adam in his divine descent and generation infinitely transcends our first Parent in Nature so he hath prepared a far more excellent weight of glory for his Children by Adoption his Members by Spiritual mystical and supernatural union Witness his own Oracle and declarative rather than necessary Petition The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Blessed Lord what a word is this What a communication my minde is entraunced and my weak Meditations swell even to an Impossibility of expression Can I not now know my Soul in her humiliation in the weakness of a Creature How can I then describe and conceive of her in her exaltation in the glory of her Creator Let this be sufficient for me to believe hence that that glory with which she shall be filled according to her Spiritual Nature is for quality infinitely excellent because Gods yet allayed and fitted to be received for quantity finite and limited as in her Not as divided from the Divine Fountain but by vertue of Inhabitation in a gracious real and inseparable union communicated to and made hers according to our Saviours Prayer That we all may be one as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father that we may be one in them as also that the love wherewith the Father hath loved the Son may be in us and he in us Thus then the Souls of the Saints before the Resurrection and both Souls and Bodies after the Resurrection according to their several measures of grace here shall then have their divine plenitudes of Glory every Vessel being filled that is thrown into that Ocean of Life and Glory Further as a Wedge of
Iron cast into the Forge is as it were converted into Fire and the body and substance of the Sun is as it were hid and changed into the light that possesses it so shall the Soul and Body as being in God and God in it be absorpt and as it were transmuted into his Glory Thus much concerning the Souls external glory The internal if it be possible is yet a Sphere in altitude above this as bringing the Soul neerer to the assimilation apprehension and fruition of God The understanding will memory and affections in the Soul being as it were Impresses to speak improperly and according to the understanding of Men of the like infinite essentials in God For then the understanding faculty according to its created capacity shall be wonderfully elevated and enlarged and be repleat with a sufficient and compleat knowledge of all Creatures yea of God himself Which shall not then be acquired and gathered as now by a Retrogradation from the effect to the cause but then primarily by immediate Vision and mutual possession of God the cause of causes Be not then disconsolate O my Soul nor set thy Bodily Organs upon the Rack in the study of the Metaphysicks Mathematicks and Physicks farther than thy special calling requires mispending thy hours and neglecting that one thing necessary The knowledge of God and thy self The degrees of learning on Earth are reversed in Heaven begin here with God the beginning of all things and proceed to be Batchelor of Divinity on Earth and fear not but be assured that thou shalt commence a true Master of Arts yea a Doctor of Divinity in Heaven Then shalt thou know perfectly and not as now by supposition the essentials spiritualities and supreme excellencies and attributes of God and Angels The magnitudes altitudes motions and influences of the Heavenly Planets and fixed Stars There shall be no disputing Copernicans No ignorant Empedocles nor Aristotles The causes of the Aetnaean Fires the Flux and reflux of the Seas the Polaramorousness of the Loadstone and all other the Magnalia of Nature shall there be discovered to the Souls eye For as a Man placed in the Centre of the Sun having an Eye or Organ proportionable must needs see whatsoever it enlightens so the Soul of every Saint being fixed in God the Centre from whom all operations as so many lines or rayes are emitted must needs know all being finite and within his enlarged capability the whole frame and work of Nature perfection of knowledge being necessary to the perfection of Glory As the understanding so the will shall be replenished with Glory also being made then co-voluntary with God's and answering his in every particular as the impression doth the Seal or as the Image in the Glass the Original being according to it s created and limitted measure and proportion perfectly just and holy yea freely and constantly willing good without the least constraint or necessity This being no thraldome but a divine perfection of the will to will nothing but what is good The understanding which is the Leader and incliner as a Spring in a Watch the internal mover of the will being not left to it self and created sufficiency as in Adam but by an irrevocable mercifull natural and therefore necessary consequence and decree in Christ is doubly confirmed First positively as being for ever enlightened and filled with a height of wisdome truth and goodness flowing from the perpetual mystical union and co-habitation of Christs Spirit Secondly privatively as being in such a state of perfection glory and happiness as admits not of any temptation or inclination to mislead the one and thereby to defile the other From this ground also springs the Eternal station in goodness and consequently in blessedness of all other the faculties of the Soul Which like so many Stones in an Arch are unmoveable because every Stone is unmoveable Jesus Christ being the Head-Stone upon whom the whole Building depending becomes immutable O my God! I cannot pass this thought of Eternity without a Selah a note of admiration as seasonable although in respect of the benefit but a temporary acknowledgment Behold how wonderfull is that mercy which in Christ hath not deprest but elevated not extinguisht but inflam'd not diminished but encreased Mans excellency Innocent Adam being neither in his perfection nor duration so happy as we sinfull Adams by Regeneration Shall I therefore commend sin God forbid I extoll grace even that Miracle of thy love O Lord whose Mercy hath made Mans Sin Oyle to enflame thy love which in its own nature and ours was Water to quench thy pitty and drown a World Let it work one wonder more and turn my Rock into Springs of Tears to wash thy Feet in humble Repentance and Thankfulness that so my seldome falling here may be a Preludium of my never falling hereafter and Glory begun on Earth in Grace may be in thy Kingdome perfect and Eternal But to proceed and not to forget that faculty which makes me to remember viz. Memory that Magazine and Treasury of the Soul I wish I could say not of evil also Wherein now many things lye confused and obscured by latter Occurences unless discovered by external objects and circumstances or rak'd out by help of discourse Out of whose Postern many things are crowded out by trifles or fallen through its rifts and deficiencies or else worn out by time and age or stollen away by that arch Thief Sathan this faculty I say though now thus decayed and imperfect shall in that never-ending day of happiness be repaired and made Gods Ark over which not Cherubins but the Almighty shall hover filling it by means of the Souls divine and continued Vision of the Glass of the Trinity with a present sight and apprehension of the great glory of God and in it all things I will not call these kindes of actings of the Souls remembrance for those imperfect ways of its operation by recollection and recordation with other medial helps shall be then absorpt in this act of the understanding as being unnecessary and only fitted for the state of Corruption the Apostle teaching us that we shall then know as we are known not remember as we are known The chief Power of the Memory the retention remaining and becoming by this continual beatifical Revelation and Inspection indefatigable and invincible Yea in this Ark shall be always kept the Tables of Gods holy will the Manna of all his past and present mercies the Rod ever budding and flourishing with all his righteous Judgments and Declarations of his Justice As the Memory so each Affection except what habits or inmates sin and corruption have introduc'd such as the servility of fear the dolorous passion of sorrow shall then have not their part only but their full of Glory Then excesses though of the right hand while in this life prove the Soul a Prisoner and make both Soul and Body suffer being therefore properly
stiled passions shall in that life comparatively exceed but not subjectively the full and lasting gale in that Ocean filling the Sailes not sinking the bottome O my love which art now full of repentings and unconstant because unsatisfyed wishing with Alexander more Worlds to marry thy affections to which hadst thou beyond Arithmetical progression thou wouldst still prove a Harlot and they insufficient For though a Creature thou art fitted only for an infinite object not to comprehend it but to be comprehended of it Wherefore nothing finite can be adequal or proportionable to thy extension Hence even the Worlds darlings the wicked have this Monument of their lost happiness and primitive Creation remaining viz. they live and dye seeking and unsatisfyed But the Elect as they are restless in their search with the Spouse in the Canticles so at length they finde him whom their Soul loves But as yet He standeth behind our Wall he looketh forth at the Window shewing himself thorow the Lattess With him they enter into a mutual contract in Baptisme and receive continual pledges and love-tokens by his Spirit In this life by reason of seeming absence clowdings and intermissions our loves are violent yet pleasing passions But in the other that day of our Nuptials they shall be swallowed up in excelling fruitions Then shall we affect and enjoy in one the all of goodness and loveliness The love which is here different and divided according to the diversity of opinions and objects shall be in God one and concentred in him we both affecting and possessing the eminency of beauty the height of honours the Elixar of pleasures the perfection of wisdome So that the then glorified sences the Windows and ports of the affections though inconceivably enlarged shall then continually receive in even to overflowing spiritual and ravishing object of love and delight For In his presence is fulness of joy and at his right hand pleasures for evermore Lastly which ought most to ravish us neither this nor any other affection or faculty of the Soul shall be limitted or at their heighth of glory Not but that in the first entrance they shall have a present sufficiency and fulness for even in Heaven there shall be no Vacuum but as we have seen a Bladder filled with Wind afterward by a second influx far more extended yet at all times full And as our Saviour is said to increase more and more in knowledge yet from his conception full according to his organical reception so the glorified Saints like the Angels on Jacob's Ladder according to their several degrees shall mount and continually encrease and ascend to higher steps of Glory the influxe of all divine excellencies incessantly and at once both enlarging and filling all their faculties all their affections So then desire of more shall never torture us because ever full nor satiety cloy us because our joyes shall be ever new and encreasing The grounds of this Coelestial and Eternal growth of happiness excellency and glory arises both from Gods Word and Nature The Prophet telling us that those which are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament Our Saviour yet higher The righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father Let Solomon expound both the Path of the Just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day They as the Sun mounting towards their Meridional heighth God to whom they shall be perpetually approaching neerer and more and more like in glory but never shall nor can reach or equalize he being and dwelling in infinite and inaccessable lights Farther our Saviour teaches us that in Heaven we shall be like the Angels Now the Angels have accidental joyes in the repentance of sinners Accidental knowledge by the Church of the mysteries of our Redemption and no doubt if their joyes and wisdome have an accidental encrease through the Creature then much more from God the Fountain This being I conceive one meanes as respecting them subordinate and co-operating with Gods high and eternal decree for their confirmation in Christ it being impossible for that essence to fall away that is continually intent upon and replenisht with new fruitions and manifestations of Gods glory This being a blessedness both to Angels and Men that the Wings of Cherubins and Seraphins though they are without labour and wearisomness and with delight ascending yet they can never out-soar the infinite heights of the divine Majesty and incomprehensible fulness If the affection of love O my Soul shall be perfect in Heaven as hath been declared and perfect love casts out fear as saith the Apostle what place is then left for the affection of fear in glory I answer our divine love both now and then shall exclude all servile and slavish fear but not our filial Espousal and Reverential fear which if found in our sinless Mediator who was heard in that he feared and a duty of the glorious Angels that with this reverential fear serve and praise him and exhort all others to do it then also of glorified Saints who if commanded to fear God for ever and as long as the Sun and Moon endureth shall doubtless thus fear him everlastingly and in Heaven as well as here upon Earth For as love without this fear would be presumptuous so fear without love would be painfull and discouraging But both together are to the sanctified Soul as Ballast to a Ship to keep it steady and doth grandize elevate and enlarge each affection from the awfull apprehensions and adoration of so super-excelling an object of infinite glory as is the Trinity in Unity Jehovah God blessed for ever Further if this saving grace and sanctified affection of holy fear is by Solomon commended to us as the beginning and end of divine wisdome in the Saints on Earth shall they be denuded of it and excluded from it in Heaven Is it held forth in Scripture as the summe and implication of all religious duties and worship and the condition or rather qualification of those holy ones that have right to temporal spiritual and eternal promises in the Word and shall this grace then cease when with other graces it is to be Crown'd with Glory Is this pure affection the Salt to preserve from corrupting not only in the Marriage-state amongst Men but in the conjugal and spiritual union betwixt Christ and his Spouse the Church and shall it not be as lasting as that Union which is everlasting I conclude it shall though with this difference according to our differing condition not a fear of offending because we shall be then in a sinless condition Not such a fear as was in the Spouse in the Canticles because of sin and infirmities nor of Gods hiding his face and with-drawing his presence for former things are past away all things are made new we are entred into life
righteous sentence pronounced upon them and the Apostate Angels and his translating his Saints from this Paradise of Earth to the Heaven of Heavens These objects and occasions of holy hatred anger and indignation against Sathan and Gods Enemies the wicked of unexpressable love joy delight praise and glorious tryumphing the holy Scriptures holds forth shall be in the state of glory And can we conceive holy zeal which is the height and crown of all these graces can be absent or unnecessary I shall further add that after our Lords yielding up his Mediatory Kingdome to the Father all the service and everlasting praises of the Saints in the remembrance of all Gods wonderfull works from the beginning unto Eternity in the Heavens Earth and Hell shall be heightned and winged with this holy zeal I shall assert this truth and conclude this ravishing Meditation with pointing at and refering the Reader to the frequent and zealous hallelujahs of the crowned Elders and glorified Saints in the Visions of Saint John set forth to us as the types and lively figures of our Heavenly and glorified condition Revelations Chapter the 4 th Verse the 8 th And the four Beasts rest not Day and Night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And the four and twenty Elders fell down before Him that sate on the Throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were Created Like to this are their zealous Songs and Thanksgivings upon divers occasions Chapter 5. Verse 8. untill the end of that Chapter and Chapter 7. Verse 9. unto the end thereof and Chapter 11. Verse 15. unto the end of that Chapter and Chapter the 14. Verse the 1. unto the end of the 5. Verse and Chapter the 15. Verse the third and the fourth besides many more to the end of that blessed Book which for brevity sake I omit These being sufficient to prove the use and exercise of this Seraphical grace of holy zeal by the Saints in their state of Glory O my Soul Is this most Heavenly grace of zeal so illustrious and exemplary in the Saints that have lived upon Earth Doth it shine forth with a Heavenly light here in the actings of holy Angels of our for ever blessed Saviour and of our Almighty Father and Creator Yea shall this grace out-live thy hope and thy faith be the Crown and compleatment of thy divine love and the height and perfection of all other thy graces in glory Endeavour then to follow their famous examples Rest not in the cold and middle Region of bare profession with the careless Gallioes of the World and frozen Church-professors The Demasses of this last and worst age but let thy holy zeal upon all occasions for the glory of thy God and purity of his Worship and Doctrine mount up even to the Firie Region and In his cause be Boanerges and like Gods Angels and Seraphins a Cole a flame of Fire So shalt thou excell and exceed others in this grace in thy glorified state as far as thou hast gone before them in this life And as thou hast been more gracious here so thou shalt be more glorious hereafter The larger thy Vessel the larger thy Receipt Every Vessel shall be full and overflow although much different in their measure All shall be Stars although not of the like Magnitude The Saints at the first Resurrection being rewarded according to their works although not for their works O Lord my God is divine zeal a holy flame a Pyramid-like Fire a Spring towards Heaven as to its own place Is my heart my Souls shop where it forges affections and this middle Region of my Body like the middle Region of the Aire cold and naturally void of this thy heavenly Fire Be pleased I humbly beseech thee to cause the same holy Spirit that once sate in the likeness of Fiery Tongues upon the heads of thy Apostles to rest upon unthaw and inflame my frozen heart and affections Then shall not its earthly and sinfull qualities of coldness hardness and ponderousness chill resist or smother the fervency and intensness of any of thy graces in me since thy Almighty Power that produces lightning in the cold middle Region of the Aire that melts the Rock and causes the Mountains Aetna Vesuvius and Hecla to breath forth flames of Fire can yea will because thou hast promised it bring forth and create in me a greater wonder even a new heart and a new spirit a heart of Flesh instead of a heart of Stone Then shall I be not only zealous in all my actings for thee but frequent and zealous in my praises to thee in this life of Grace and that of Glory to Eternity Amen All affections in this life as love fear zeal and the rest although sanctified in their heighths and intensiveness by reason of the weakness of the Organ and our decayed nature may put the whole Man to pain and in that respect are called Passions yet it shall cease to be so with us in our glorified condition Where whatsoever that flowes from Infirmity or Imperfection shall be done away In the new Jerusalem there shall be neither sorrow nor pain We shall then be as the Apostle exhorts not only when occasions shall be offered not to be angry without sin but without passion or disturbance Being herein like to God and the holy Angels whose Image shall then be perfectly renewed in us and who in the Scripture although I grant it to be meant not properly but Anthropopathos is often declared to be angry But as to the Elect Angels I conceive they may as truly be said to be angry witness that famous opposition of Balaam and that action of the Angel that with his drawn Sword was ready to destroy Jerusalem for David's Sin as to rejoyce greatly for the conversion of a sinner If then such accidental affections are testified to be in glorious Angels why not much rather in glorified Saints unless by cessation of so eminent a grace as holy anger we should irrationally conceive the Saints less perfect in this new life than in the other Especially since the sole object of this holy affection the Sin Blasphemy and Rebellion of wicked Souls and Devils to the dishonour of God shall continue and in that great and long day or time of their Judgment be more universally manifested to their view than ever as also afterward in Hell to Eternity Anger here though for Gods cause may possibly inflame the Eyes distort the Visage of a Saint but its lipe as the modest blush of a Virgin doth add beauty to her Face so shall this
a Hell of unclean lusts But labour as much to be like Christ in holiness and righteousness as thou hopest and desirest to be like him in glory Let thy Members be spiritualized and heavenized and made Members of holiness unto righteousness And let thy conversation be in Heaven where thy habitation shall be For our life is hid in Christ with God and when he appeares we shall appear also with him in glory and be ever with the Lord. O omnipotent God and gracious Father in my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who in the beginning madest Man after thy own Image in holiness and in righteousness of body and soul as having from everlasting decreed that thy only begotten Son the Eternal Word should be made Flesh and become Man And therefore thou saidest let us make Man in our Image after our likeness for to thee all things past and future are as in their present being in thy great goodness pitty and with infinite compassions behold what a sad and miserable change Sathan and Sin have made in thy Image and Creature Thou hast made Man upright but they have sought out many inventions Yea every imagination of the thoughts of Mans heart are only evil continually Their hearts are deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know them Their bodies are become so like Sathan that they may well be called Devils incarnate Their Heads imagine mischief continually their Eyes are altogether set upon vanity their Eares are soon set open to let in all verbal uncleanness their Smell is fum'd with pride their Pallates are fur'd with gluttony and excess and their touch is the pander of lust and lasciviousness their Mouths Tongues and Throats are open Sepulchres their right hands are full of bribes iniquity and oppression and their Feet walk in the way of sinners and are swift in running to mischief In summe the whole Body is a Cage of unclean lusts and the wicked Instruments of all ungodliness and unrighteousness O mercifull Creator this is our sinfull condition by nature But thou hast promised to change these vile bodies and to make them glorious bodies like the body of our Lord. O begin I beseech thee this change and new Creation upon my body here since they only that are sanctified and made new Creatures shall be glorified They only that are raised and have part in this first Resurrection from sin shall be raised and have part in the second Resurrection to Glory Let it appear that I am born again of Water and the Spirit and that Christ is already formed in me and let all those senses and Members which have been the Members of uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity be now the Members and Servants of righteousnes unto holiness so shall my glory begin here in holiness and righteousness and be compleated hereafter in the perfection of Glory Amen I proceed next to the second excellency of our Bodies at the Resurrection They shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever Yea our blessed Saviour far transcends these expressions of the Angel in Daniel and saith The righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father Yea far higher yet They shall partake of the Glory of God which is far above all created Glory he declaring that The glory God hath given him he had given them All which is comprehended in the fore-recited Texts He shall make our vile Bodies like unto his glorious Body And that when he shall appear we shall be like him To this great truth the Apostle Paul further beares witness saying Whom he justifies them he also glorifies That those that suffer with Christ shall also be glorified together with him And that our light affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory That when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with Him in Glory Of this excelling and blessed state of the People of God in the darker times of the Church under the Law the Psalmist gives testimony saying Let the Saints be joyfull in Glory And of himself in particular Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and after receive me into Glory I shall conclude the proofs of this most comfortable encouraging and ravishing Doctrine with the evidence of blessed Peter When the chief Shepward shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fades not away The God of all grace hath called us into his Eternal Glory by Jesus Christ. Our blessed Saviour in his great love to us and for our encouragement in his service hath not only from his own Mouth and by his Spirit in the Mouths of his Ministers as hath been shewed verified this precious truth and illustrated it by sensible similitudes such as the Sun Stars and Firmament but became himself even in his state of humiliation a Sign Figure and example of this glorious shining condition and change of the Bodies of his Saints at the Resurrection in that his wonderfull and miraculous transfiguration in the presence of Peter James and John upon the Mount when his Face did shine as the Sun and his Rayment was white as the Light A sight so ravishing and delightfull that it made Peter although but a Spectator to forget Wife and Family and to look upon this World as a Dunghill saying unto our Lord Jesus Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias Consider then was this glorious change in our Saviour so superlatively delightfull to Peter to behold What shall it be to us in the fruition Certainly true is that Word of the Lord Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Our Souls are now immund or rather imprisoned with in a fleshly Wall or Jaile of whited Earth and like a poor Prisoner hath only the liberty to peep and look out at the Cinque-ports or windows of the sences Neither is it or can it now be seen or truly known by our selves or others But then that Image of God that Angel-like Spirit that most rich and inestimable Jewel purchased with the infinite precious blood of the Son of God and valued by him to be more worth than the whole World shall dwell and be housed in the body glorified as in a shining pure and transparent Chrystal Cabinet And shall be seen and known by Saints our selves and Angels as to its forme to its glorious operations and perfect beauty The resplendent body like a Concave Mathematical Glass not deminishing but magnifying and adding to its excellent glory and brightness And moves according to its
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
other Members as looking upon this weak diseased and aged Body as upon an old and weather-beaten Tent. Knowing that If the Earthly House of this my Tabernacle were dissolved I have a building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens Groaning earnestly and desiring with the Apostle Paul to be cloathed upon with my House which is from Heaven with which if I be cloathed I shall not be found naked That this Mortality may be swallowed up of Life Let me not O Lord with the Worldling who hath his Portion only in this Life be troubled at the Knell of every passing Bell sigh at every striking of the Clock nor be afraid or unwilling to number my Days or to cast up the accompt of my years but greatly rejoyce at the end of every hour day and year as hastning my approach to and the enjoyment of Eternity Being most willing to have my Body interred that after a long time like the matter of China Vessels it may be raised and made lucid transparent and a Vessel of honour fit to be made use of in the Palace of Heaven Shall my Body be shining and glorious like the Sun let it not now O Lord be spotted with sin and changeable and inconstant in its motion and conversation like the Moon Shall it be bright like the Firmament and Stars O Lord let it be a fixt and not a falling Star nor cast down to the Earth by the Taile of the old Serpent the Devil neither let me be a Meteor and seem to out-shine others in a Religious profession and in a short time vanish only leaving behind me an hypocritical and pestilential stench like those wandering Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever O gracious and mercifull Redeemer shall this corruptible put on incorruptibility and this mortal put on immortality Let this supernatural change begin here as it doth in all thy sanctified ones and let even my Body as well as my Soul be thy dwelling place and the Temple of thy holy Spirit in which let no unclean lust lurk or wicked Spirit enter Make me holiness unto thee O Lord and perfect holiness in thy fear Give thy Angels charge over me to keep me in all my ways Let them bear me up in their hands lest I dash my Foot against a Stone cause me to tread upon the Lyon and the Addar the young Lyon and the Dragon Yea let them according to thy promise be shortly trampled under my Feet Let sin dye in me by vertue of thy Death and let the life and immortality of holiness spring up and flourish in me by vertue of thy Resurrection Hast thou O Lord stiled thy Church thy Dove thy undefiled one And declared that she is fair and that there is no spot in her And is that which is spoken of thy Church applyable to every living Member thereof O thou that art the Eternal truth make good this thy Word unto thy poor Servant thy Spouse although most unworthy to wash the Feet of the Servants of my Lord. And since thou hast promised that all things shall become new And declared that those that are in thee are new Creatures and hast covenanted to give me a new Heart and a new Spirit and to take out my Heart of Stone and to give me a Heart of Flesh to pour clean Water upon me and to make me clean and hast testified that thy blood doth cleanse me from all sin and that by thy righteousness alone I am justified O let all these true and precious promises be fulfilled in me and to me So shall the incorruptibility of my Person as in respect of sin usher in and assure me of the incorruptibility of my Soul and Body in glory Let me dye daily with blessed Paul as to all the evil lusts of the Flesh that I may not dye Eternally but live everlastingly in glorified Flesh. O Lord who art the life and my life let my sinfull mortality even here put on a spiritual and heavenly immortality For thou hast proclaim'd it whil'st thou wert upon Earth That the Day comes yea now is when the Dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live even to Eternity For He that believeth in thee hath already everlasting life Let my union and communion with thee through faith and the in-dwelling of thy holy Spirit begin to make my Face to shine here as did the Face of Moses and thy Proto-Martyr Stephen since thou hast declared that a Mans wisdome maketh his Face to shine Yea we are said to shine here also in a holy conversation since thou commandest us To let our light shine before Men. And hast held forth in thy Word that the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect Day and hast promised in thy Book That if we let not wickedness dwell in our Tabernacles our Age shall be cleerer than the Noon-day and we shall shine forth and be as the Morning Lord although I now live in the Flesh yet let me not I humbly and with importunity beseech thee live unto or after the Flesh since such are said to be dead while they live yea twice dead and pluckt up by the Roots And thou hast justly threatned that those that live after the Flesh shall dye and that Eternally But they that live in and after the Spirit shall live and that for ever and ever But since after this life there shall be no Devil to tempt no World to allure or persecute nor Sin to intice or corrupt Let me with mortified Paul desire to depart and to be with thee which is far better Yea since to live is Christ and to dye is gain Let me with perfect Job all the Dayes of this my appointed time humbly patiently and believingly wait until my glorious change come Amen Having exercised my faith and contemplation upon this ravishing and pleasing subject the glorification of the Bodies and Members of the Saints in general and in the Gross I shall now lastly proceed beseeching the assistance of his most Holy Spirit who is my light the light of Men and he who alone enlighteneth every one that cometh into the World to speak particularly though with much brevity of the glorification of the Five Sences I shall go so far as I shall receive light from the Scriptures and right reason taking that sober and lawfull liberty that is granted to all those that have meditated upon the like subjects where some things are more obscure than others and not so clearly and fully held forth in Gods Word humbly to offer what probably and rationally although not positively may be the truth as not repugnant to Scripture right reason or the Analogie
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
and drink as our Saviour did thrice after his Resurrection probably to shew not only that his Body was truly raised and that his stay upon Earth was a figure and pattern of his Saints first degree of Glory here after their Resurrection as his was his first degree of glory and exaltation after his but also that they should accidentally and at pleasure as he did although not out of a positive and natural necessity eat drink and make use of the Creatures Shall thy body not only have a kinde of secondary nourishment as our first Parents had in Paradise conveighed unto it with a far more exceeding and extraordinary delight that they had because of the excelling transcendency of the subjects and their much more sanctified and spiritualiz'd condition But shall the Taste also administer to thee continually much delight and knowledge from the unexpressible sweetness and wonderfull variety of innumerable Vegitives as to their admirable natures and qualities to thy great content and ravishment and thy Creators glory O do not therefore now vitiate and pollute it with gluttony or drunkenness nor make it a slavish Handmaid to any fleshly and inordinate appetite Be wise and guide thy heart in the way be not amongst Wine-bibers amongst riotous eaters of flesh for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of the Eyes They that tarry long at the Wine they that go to seek mixt Wine Look not thou upon the Wine when it is red when it giveth its colour in the Cup when it moveth it self aright at the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder Thine Eyes shall behold strange Women and thy Heart shall utter perverse things yea thou shalt be as he that lyeth down in the midst of the Sea or as he that lyeth upon the top of a Mast They have striken me shalt thou say and I was not sick they have beaten me and I felt it not when I shall awake I will seek it yet again O my Soul in that new life thou shalt only eat and drink as the Apostle exhorts to the glory of God and more for pleasure and delight and that as to spiritual ends than for necessity but in this sinfull life if thou be given to appetite put a Knife to thy throat and watch over thy gust eating and drinking more for necessity than for pleasure as one that eats to live not lives to eat not making like those wicked ones reproved by the Apostle Paul thy Belly thy God But like thy for ever glorious and blessed Saviour at all seasonable Feastings do thou turn Water into Wine that is be a holy and Christian Phylosopher or Chymist extracting Life and Spirits out of every thing thou eatest or drinkest as tasting in the various gusts sweetness and vertues of the Creature the super-excelling sweetness wisdome and goodness of thy God the bountifull giver and the wonderfull Creator Do not with the Swinish and dropsical Drunkard turn Wine into Water but in thy Non-age so train up this Childish sense in all holy temperance and sobriety that it may be prepared and fitted for its sublimer exercise in thy Man-hood of Glory O my Lord and Saviour who art both our example and our Law-giver and therefore hast commanded us not to labour for the Meat that perisheth but for that Meat which endureth unto everlasting life and doth exhort and precaution us to take heed to our selves that our hearts be not over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness lest that Day either of Death or Judgment come upon us unawares and hast also declared by thy Apostle that Meats are for the Belly and the Belly is for Meats but God shall destroy them both and therefore didst exhort and teach us how to purify and spiritualize our fleshly gust and appetite by faith offering thy self to be drunk and eaten by us when thou saidest My Blood is Drink indeed my Flesh is Meat indeed affording to us such an excellent nourishment that who so by faith spiritually eateth thy Flesh and drinketh thy Blood shall not dye but live to Eternity Yea further thou holdest forth to us that thou art that Bread that camest down from Heaven of which the Manna in the Wilderness was but a Type which whosoever eateth by faith that is by believing in thee shall not dye but live for ever as also that thou art that Water of Life of which whosoever drinketh shall thirst no more O Lord I cry unto thee with the Emauites Lord ever give unto me to eat of this Bread and to drink of this living Spring then shall I be so fully satisfied that I shall never hunger or thirst more after any of the things of this World The lusts of the Flesh the lusts of the Eyes or the pride of life yea Lord I shall not only have enough for my self but such plenty as there-with to feast others also as being enabled to say with thy beloved Apostle That which was from the beginning which we have heaâ—d which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon yea that which we have tasted and our hands have handled of the Word of Life declare we unto you that yee may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son even with thee O Lord Jesus Christ Lord give unto thy Servant an internal taste as well as thou hast given me an external sense that I may with holy David both taste and see how good the Lord is and binde the one Apprentice to the other making it serviceable to my Soul and unto thee Then shall I enjoy a double relish and sweetness in every drop of drink and bit of meat as being a love-token from thee and an earnest of Eternal Life and nourishment in thee so shall my Earthly Pallate at no time injure deceive or pollute my spiritual sense as Noah's and Lot's did by ignorance surprise and the sweetness of the Grape but be kept in order and in obedience sharpning not blunting the edge of my Meditation and Charity as the full Meats of Nabal and Dives did watering and enlivening not drowning my piety and obedience as it is probable Wine and strong Drink did Nabal and Abihu O Lord it is true that the Beasts of the Field partake and have the use of this sense as well as Man O that they might not one Day shame and rise up in Judgment against the Epâ—curisme of many Men Doth nature moderate the Horse and the Oxen as to their eating and drinking O let the addition of thy grace so order and sanctify my taste and appetite that in their sweetness I may admire thy delectableness mercy wisdome and goodness so shall this sense begin my glory
comfort declaring to them to the praise and glory of God thy experiences thy consolations and Divine manifestations And for as much as thou art zealous of spiritual gifts seek that thou maist excell to the edifying of the Church that spiritual Body of Christ whereof thou art a living Member And since God as the Apostle excellently observes hath set some in the Church First Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles then gifts of healing helps Governments diversities of Tongues Covet thou earnestly the best gifts For there are diversity of gifts but the same spirit But the manifestation of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 to every Man to profit withall To one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by 〈◊〉 same Spirit to another the gift of Healing by the same Spirit to another working of Miracles to another Prophesie to another discerning of Spirits to another diâ—vers kinds of Tongues to another the interpretation of Tongues but all worketh that one and the self same Spiâ—rit dividing to every Man severally as he will For 〈◊〉 the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body 〈◊〉 also is Christ. If they were all one Member where weâ—â— the Body The Eye cannot say to the Hand I have 〈◊〉 need of thee again the Head unto the Feet I have 〈◊〉 need of you Now we are the Body of Christ and Memâ—bers in particular Therefore O my Soul since 〈◊〉 Tongue as to all divine and spiritual gifts is now thâ— principal Agent and Expressor And shall be then 〈◊〉 as a Member of Christ mystical Body in this his glorious Kingdome thou shalt be plac'd in thy Function and respective administration be not spiritually idle but â—it and exercise thy Tongue continually in declaring to others according as it shall be revealed to thee by the Holy Spirit the Magnalia Dei the wonderfull ways and works of God Freely thou hast received freely give O my Soul shalt thou then be as one of Christs Viceroyes over all inferiour Creatures shall thy Dictates Orders and Commands be received and obeyed by them as the voice of God O let not then thy speech now to them be mixt with oaths and cursings according to the woâ—t and fashion of the wicked of the Earth whose behaviours towards the poor Brutes are more like to Devils than Men or Christians Yea let thy employment of them and rule over them be gentle milde and moderate not cruel or oppressive since the good Man with the Scripture is mercifull towards his Beast And 〈◊〉 tenderness of thy God towards them exprest as 〈◊〉 of the reasons of his commanding a seventh Days 〈◊〉 That thy Beast may rest as well as thee teaches what respect and considerate pitty and compassion he expects from thee towards them as being fellowâ—Creatures suffering what servitude they undergo for thy sin and from which they shall be freed and delivered in thy glorious liberty But instead of speaking evil of or to the inferiour Creatures do thou now as thou shalt do in the World to come with thy Heart and Tongue praise and glorifie thy God after the Example of holy David Psal. 148. throughout in and for them admiring his love and goodness to thee to them as also 〈◊〉 unexpressible yea unconceivable power and wisdome declared in their various formes wonderfull strength 〈◊〉 qualities excellent virtues and uses as being 〈◊〉 great end of theirs and thy Creation as the Lord â—â—clares to Job when he bids him behold Behemoth and â—â—â—iathan and leaves upon Record for our Instruction and Imitation so large a description of them and of others of his Creatures This holy exercise both of mind and voice in the contemplation of the Creatures was without doubt a chief employment of Adam in his innocency Let it be thine then in thy return and travailing to this second Paradise that what is begun by thee here in grace may be perfected there in Glory O glorious God and mercifull Father O infinite loâ—ing and gracious Saviour and Redeemer O holy and Eternal Spirit my Sanctifier three infinitely glorious Persons One Omnipotent onely wise and Eternal God Blessed blessed blessed from everlasting to everlasting who hath so highly honoured and dignified me a 〈◊〉 Worm and no Man As to love me freely in thy Eterâ—nally begotten and only beloved Son the Lord Jesus God-Man and in him from before all beginnings to elect me unto Eternal Life and Salvation Creating 〈◊〉 unto immortality and glory by giving me an immortaâ— Soul and a Body that shall assuredly be raised to life and glory by thy Almighty Power and by the virtue of the Resurrection of my Head and Saviour who hast miraculously raised me from a sinfull death unto a spiritual life in my effectual Calling through Adoption the Sanctification and Inhabitation of thy holy Spirit as 〈◊〉 freely justified me in thy Son the Lord my righteousâ—ness and by this blessed and inseparable union to 〈◊〉 in thy Son by the Holy Ghost given me assurance 〈…〉 Life and Glory which shall indubitably begâ—◠〈◊〉 my Soul at my dissolution and be compleat at the â—â—â—union of Soul and Body aâ— the Resurrection of the 〈◊〉 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise 〈◊〉 with my glory Awake my Heart awake my Tongue 〈◊〉 self will awake early and joyn with the Arch-Angels and Angels and the Church Tryumphant in Heaven and with the Holy Catholick Church upon Earth in 〈◊〉 Heavenly exercise of praise and thanksgiving O Lord whose only prerogative it is to search the heart knowest that these are the desires and petitions of 〈◊〉 Soul yet with holy Paul I cry out that to will is present with me through thy grace but how to perform know not Blessed Saviour give me of thy fulness so soâ—â— to receive grace for grace Yea be pleased to add 〈◊〉 to grace since thou alone workest in us both the will and the deed and the Heaven aspiring piercing 〈◊〉 of praise ariseth only from thy Divine Fire of Knowledge and holy affections Eternal Father let not this noble Instrument of thy Glory my Tongue be tuned to the vain and wanton Layes of the World and Sin lest thereby being crackt unstrung and made untunable for thy service here it and my whole Body with voluptuous Diveâ— be cast 〈◊〉 useless into the Fire of Hell where a drop of cold Water will not be 〈◊〉 to cool a flaming lascivious Tongue But let me O Lord be continually chaâ—â—ing the Magnâ—lia Dei and be singing those Evangelicalâ— and prophetical Songs of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders the figure and representative of thy holy Church saying and singing
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
the Dead know not any thing neither have they any more reward for the memory of them is forgotten Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing done under the Sun Doubtless God is your Father though Abraham be ignorant of you and Israel acknowledge you not Unto whom you have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Me. Let no Man therefore beguile you of your reward in Voluntary Humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind An Angel when John fell at his feet to worship him said See thou do it not I am thy fellow-servant and of thy Brethren that have the testimony of Jesus worship God And an Angel said to Manoath if thou wilt offer a burnt-offering thou must offer it unto the Lord. I am the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh unto the Father but by Me that one Mediator betwixt God and Men. You know the Commandements 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 to them nor serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God Visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate Me And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep my Commandements Why then doth the Beast that rose up out of the Sea having seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten Crowns and upon his Heads the Names of Blasphemy And those that worship him and his Image and receive his Mark in their Forehead or in their Hand Reject the commandments of God that they may keep their own Traditions Blasphemously leaving out of their Decalogue in some of their Books this Commandement As hating the Light because their deeds are evil To whom will ye liken God Or what likeness will ye compare with him I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory will I not give to another nor my praise to graven Images They shall be turned back they shall be greatly ashamed that trust in graven Images God is not worshipped with Mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things They lavish Gold out of the Bag and weigh Silver in the Ballance and hire a Goldsmith and he maketh it a God Did not the Israelites thus worship God in the Golden Calf at Horeb In Mica's Teraphim and Images and in Jeroboam's Calves in Dan and Bethel Yea did not the Heathens formerly and do not the Pagans now profess that they worship not their Idols as believing them to be Gods But they worship their Gods in those Idol-Representations Wherefore confounded be all they that serve graven Images that boast themselves of Idols Worship him all ye Gods What is Man that he should be clean and he that is born of a Woman that he should be righteous Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one Behold you were shapen in iniquity and in sin did your Mothers conceive you And every Imagination of your Heart is evil and evil continually Yea by Nature you are all the Children of wrath and dead in trespasses and sins Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my sin There is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not If my Servant Job abhorred himself and repented in Dust and Ashes And David professeth that in my sight no Man living shall be justified And Daniel confessed to him belonged confusion of face because he had sinned against Me And Paul my chosen Vessel cried out O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death In me that is in my Flesh there dwelleth no good thing And my beloved John declares if ye say you have no sin ye deceive your selves and the truth is not in you Yea my self commanded my Apostles and all my Saints to acknowledg that when they have done all those things that are commanded them say Ye are unprofitable Servants We have done that which was our duty to do Then how dares that little Horn that hath a Mouth speaking great things and makes War with the Saints and for a time prevailes against them with his Abetters presume to assert and teach these damnable Doctrines That all Children after Baptism have no Original Sin And that in and by nature Man hath a free-will and is able and may with some help of grace keep and fulfill the whole Law And not only that some of them merit salvation and justifie themselves by their good works before God but do super-errogate and merit salvation for others also Wherefore let him that glorieth glory in the Lord For it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy To will is present with me saith my Servant Paul But how to performe that which is good I finde not For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure And your faith is the gift of God and so is Eternal Life The Dead shall hear the Voice of Me the Son of God and they that hear shall live For you hath God quickned together with me being dead in sins and trespasses Wherefore say with my Prophet Isaiah we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags In the Lord have I righteousness and strength In the Lord shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified For by the Law is the knowledge of sin But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of me unto all and upon all them that believe For there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God For I which knew no sin was made sin for you that you might be made the righteousness of God which is in me Who am the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believes And am made of God to you wisdome and righteousness and sanctification and redemption This know also that in these last days perilous times shall come for Men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents
Order of Melchizedeck I say dost thou now being on Earth neerer to their reproaches and yet not further off from thy power pass over their iniquities suffering thy self to be crucified by them whom thy Justice should have crucified to be sacrificed by the wrath of them whom thy anger hadst thou come to destroy not to save should have sacrificed Was Noah Lot Moses Elisha all Prophets all Types of Thee by thee aided and made victorious over their unbelieving and insulting adversaries and why dost not thou O Lord of all Prophets being now thine own Orator and yet despised demolish Corazin or Bethsaida with other Cities of Judea either by Water or Fire O Lord thou art still the same God then thy Justice was manifested but now thy mercy is magnified as appears by that Deploration over Jerusalem where the Floods of Waters are now converted to an Inundation of Teares the Fire and Brimstone to love-burning and pittying sighes though some murmuring ask From whence hast thou this Authority others blaspheming make thee a Sabbath-breaker and esteem thee as a Conjurer a Glutton a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners yet hast thou not now a devouring Gulf for such Repiners Teeth of wilde Beasts for such calumniating Blasphemers unless we behold that one alone bottomless Gulf of thy mercy most extended and most deep even to Man in the depth of his misery Father forgive them for they know not what they do O Christ Did fear dead thy revenge due to those Sinners against their own Souls No fear is a duty of the Creature ruled by thee not over-ruling thee Passion is incident to inferiours and therefore below thee which hast no Superior Did want of ability smother thy anger No thy Power is not extinguished no less than â—nfinite although in thy humiliation clouded during thy pleasure Lord why did those many Legions of Heavenly Souldiers suffer thy Enemies to carry thee their General away Captive those Bonds which could not resist Sampson's force fetter the Armes of thee the Almighty who gave him strength those Nailes fasten thee to the Cross who wert as able to deliver thy self as thou wert willing to suffer O Saviour my thankful Soul by way of confession replies thus The unmeasurableness of thy love patiently swallowed up all these contumelies and reproaches for love instead of revenge thou forgavest thine Enemies instead of calling for power to destroy Man thou proclamedst his Salvation crying out It is finished the Angels when thou wert attached by Judas although within thy Call must only be admiring Witnesses of thy Patience not Executors of those Traytors Lastly thy Mercy only manacled thy hands and nailed thee to thy Cross making Thee a Transgressor by the bearing of our Sins that we might become righteous through the Imputation of thy Merits according to that of Peter Who his own Self bare our Sins in his Body on the Tree that we being dead to Sin should live in Righteousness by whose Stripes we are healed These things gracious Saviour yea infinitely more hast thou done for us which since we cannot apprehend let us with reverence admire rejoycing that we have view'd thee in thy Birth to be our Kinsman in thy Life our Example in thy Death our Saviour after Death our Resurrection and Glory Lord what art thou not unto us a Balme for our Wounds a Laver for our Souls a Sacrifice for our Sins and the Life of our Death What hast thou not suffered for us Wert thou not humbled in thy Birth persecuted all thy Life and though innocent adjudged to Death that our Nature might be exalted our Life enlarged our Guilt acquitted Wert thou not scourged disrobed Crowned with Thorns lifted upon the Cross derided athirst forsaken and slain that we might be delivered from the Judgments of thy Father clothed with thy Righteousness Crowned with thy Glory lifted up into Heaven freed from the mocks of Sathan satisfied with the sweet draughts of thy Love received of thee for ever to Live Eternally What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon his Name saying Glory be to God in the Highest Peace on Earth good Will towards Men Praise and Honour and Glory and Power be unto Him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for evermore Soli Deo Gloria A Concluding Prayer O Eternal Infinite and Everlasting God by whom all things were Created that are made and in whom we Live Move and have our Beeing I thy poor Creature humbly beseech Thee to deal graciously with me thy Servant pardoning all my Offences and passing by all the errors wants and imperfections committed in these my feeble Meditations O Lord I praise Thee for thy favourable assistance of my weakness ever confessing thy gâ—eat Goodness in my Creation the Pride Incredulity and Weakness of my Nature in Man's Fall and thy Infinite Mercy in my Redemption O let the one rejoyce me the other humble me and the last make me obediently thankful in the observant performance of all thy Commands that so I may glorifie Thee which is the end of my Beeing repent and believe in Thee who art the Resurrection of my Fall and live with Thee Eternally which is the Compleatment of my Salvation and fulfilling of my Hope which is fixt in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all possible Praise Obedience and Thanksgiving now and for ever Amen Vpon several temporal Mercies Providences and Deliverances Graciously Vouchsafed By the Lord Infinite in Goodness To the most unworthy Author And to many also of his neer Relations EBENEZER HETHERTO hath GOD helped me 1 Sa. 7.12 Bethel the House of God Gen. 28.19 A Pillar of PRAISE Erected by An English JACOB unto the onely Infinite Eternal and Almighty JEHOVAH in all Sincerity Humility Reverence and filial fear Hallelujah Eternal FATHER Glorious SON and Holy GHOST Three Persons but One GOD in Essence who the HOST Of Heaven and Earth did'st make and art Goodness Power Justice Truth Love Wisdome Holiness To Thee with JACOB SAMUEL A PILLAR I ERECT to tell All Future AGES to thy PRAISE Thy MERCIES to Me all my DAYES Their 's like their Faith was of firm Stone Mine weak like Me a PAPER One O let thy Strength made Perfect be In my Great IMBECILITY Two Mites Goats Hair from Hearts most free Are JEWELS in Thy TREASURY LORD had I Men and Angels Tongues That KEY would be below the SONGS Of THANKS-GIVING I owe to THEE For what in CHRIST thou did'st for MEE From which Eternal Love forth Springs The Temporal Mercies which these Hymns Commemorate O let Free GRACE Be Adamantine and my BASE And IRON-HEART to THEE attract Seal'd by Thy SACRAMENTAL Act So shall my Person and these Sheets Which I prostrate at THY blest FEET Received be as being PERFVM'D By thy sweet SPIRIT and only
thy free Grace who delightest to do good as being full of Bowels of pitty and compassion and shews Mercy to whom thou wilt shew mercy Wherefore O Lord since thou art not like to ill-natur'd Man but givest without grudging yea hast promised more to them to whom thou hast already given much Add I beseech thee this Grace that I may exceed others in real thankfulness as thou hast made me to precede many others in this and the like favours In testimony of which great and special Mercy to me and mine in our preservation I humbly present to thee this Cordial acknowledgment in this and the following Psalm of Praise Amen The PROTECTION Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject WHen Sin becomes Vniversal No wonder Epedemical Diseases answer Justice call Making each House an Hospital Such was unhappy England's fate When a Vsurper Rul'd our State Then Lord unto my Family Thou wast a healthful Sanctu'ry Thy Mercies great Indulgency Freed us from this Mortality Made Vs to Goshen-like when fear Sickness and Death Triumphant elswhere Sad was these times whon Corn and Grass Like to their owners withered was For want of help to Inn alas And tend them yea to such a pass Were many Housholds brought before It ceast three parts were sick or more Good God! how free 's thy Grace how great Thy Love how sinful uncompleat Am I the Subject Stage and Seat Of Favours which I here repeat With Praise since thou protection grants To worst of Sinners least of Saints Feavers O Lord of Luxury Tumors of Pride and Vanity Dropsies of swelling Gluttony Agues of sad Apostacy Most Families do now infect Make Sick O do thou mine protect And let not an Egyptian Night Of Error now Eclipse the Light Of Goshen but let thy might Preserve their Families upright So shall our Houses Churches be And give all Glory unto Thee Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious Preservation of my Horses and other Cattle from dying in the time of a great Murrain under Oliver Cromwell's Government when many of my Neighbours were very much damnified Soliloquium or Discourse AS Achan's sin let Israel blood So Saul's guilt of blood made Israel fast perforce in three Years of Famine David's pride in Numeration concludes in Israel's humiliation and Pestilential substraction And the High presumption of the Princes of the Philistines in the captivating God's Ark ends in the shame and reproach Plague and destruction of the People of their principal Cities Ekron and Ashdod to all which Examples the Poet bears witness Delirent Reges plectuntur Achivi As Israel suffered for Korah Dathan's and Abiram's Rebellion So England was punished with several Judgments as I humbly conceive for Cromwel's unfaithfulness and ambition witness the great and strange Plague amongst Horses and other Cattle and which was very remarkable it raged most amongst his Troops the Pillars of his Pride Not but that in all these Inflictions the Peoples Sins was the principal cause and the Princes offence as it were the shooing-horn to pull them on them as the Holy Spirit witnesses as to Israels Plague The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them saying go and number Israel and Judah That is he permited Sathan to stand up against Israel and to provoke David to number Israel as it is clearly held forth in the first of the Chronicles Chapter the 21. Vers. 1. But to return This Plague or Murrain was so contagious that it cleaved unto the very Walls Planks and Mangers of Stables insomuch that the fresh and untainted Horses brought and placed in them to supply the former loss were presently infected and dyed alike Mortality was also amongst other Cattle So that it is hard to say whether the dying groans of Beasts and Horses or the Cryes of the Husband-men and Carriers and those whose livelyhood was swept away by this Beasom of destruction was the greater O most gracious God who in the midst of these general Losses and Complaints preserved my Stock untoucht and intire not for my righteousness sake which is as filthy Rags but for thy mercy sake Accept I beseech thee this my thankful acknowledgment of thy singular goodness and Fatherly providence amongst the rest of thy mercies which according to thy own example and thy Saints my duty and thy command I desire to record and declare to my Childrens Children and to all future Generations that when through the Redemption of my Saviour Jesus Christ thou shalt translate me to praise thee in the Heavenly Chore of glorious Saints and Angels They and thy People in succeeding Ages may continue to praise and bless thy Name here upon Earth and be incouraged by thy manifold favours to me thy poor Servant to fear love and trust in thee for ever Lord since thy Glory and the good of my own Soul and others is my only end in this Work Let it receive a blessing from thee Amen The SHAMBLES A Corolary Poem on the former Subject WHence is it that the stately Stalls for Horse Of Noble Men are empty And perforce The Grooms do idly wait bewaile the fate Of their dead Steeds who seem to lie in state Like some in our proud Age yea Gentry fear No course at Brackly will be run this Year For want of raceing Barbes And that their Hounds Will surfeit with much Horse-flesh be unsound For want of Exercise and Troopers cry Old pay will not suffice new Horse to buy Why are our Fields Vntill'd why doth our Grain Now sow it self before brought home again For want of Teames to Inn it And the Road Through Carriers loss of Horse so thinly's troad Yea Dairy-men and Graziers throw up Ground Because their Sheep and Cattle die unsound Our Oracle God's Word gives answer Thus All Plagues are fruits of sin And the first curse Which like the Jewish Leprosie infects All that is ours though Creatures innocent As be'ng on Vs in part a Punishment Thus Rulers righteously do confiscate Not only Rebels Lives but their Estate And Princes use for faults in the Non-age Of a beloved Son to whip his Page O let our sinless Brutes sad dying moanes Stir up in Vs Offenders hearty groanes For all our sins their Plague so shall this loss To Vs become a blessing not a Cross. Lord though my fault did greatly contribute Vnto this common harm yet at thy suite This Judgment thou on others laid Let fall Sparing my goods who was a principal Preserving unto Admiration My Stock in this so great Contagion Lord as thy Mercy here was singular So let my praise the common pitch as far Transcend That so thy favours magnitude May not bring forth make great ingratitude In Me Who for thy Preservation Offer my self for an Oblation Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious Providence in the seasonable quenching and preserving Eleven times four of my Houses then in my possession from being burnt