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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,421	5	11.0632	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44344	A comment upon Christ's last prayer in the seventeenth of John wherein is opened the union beleevers have with God and Christ, and the glorious priviledges thereof ... / by that faithful and known servant of Christ, Mr. Thomas Hooker ... ; printed from the authors own papers written with his own hand, and attested to be such in an epistle by Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nye.	Hooker, Thomas, 1586-1647.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.	1656 (1656)	Wing H2643; ESTC R7774	293,622	460

the Children that thou hast given me then he shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father The Rule and Government of our Savior in al these outward Dispensations shal be at an end The end and scope of the Death and Obedience Ascention and Redemption wrought out by Christ that he must affectionately desire But this is so Therefore 2. By this means the perfection of his Body mystical and himself as mystical Christ is accomplished without this somthing would be wanting to make up the fulness thereof Eph. 1. last It 's said of the Church and is true of each Member for their measure It is the fulness of him who filleth all in all the hearts of al his Saints with al saving Graces If at the last day of that great assembling of the first-born there should be but the poorest Saint wanting and out of the way the mystical Body of Christ would so far want it's fulness if a finger or a joynt be lacking the Body would lack somthing of its ful integrity And therefore Eph. 4.13 God never leaves sending Officers they never leave gathering and perfecting the Body of Christ until we all arrive and meet at the unity of Faith and the acknowledgment of the Son of God The Head and Members should in reason be present one with another The Husband and Wife in comliness should co-habit in the same place and dwel together Christ is the Head his Faithful his Members Christ the Husband is gone into his own out of fair Countrey and therefore he cannot but affectionately desire the coming of his Bride unto him Nay rather than fail as we heard he wil come down from Heaven and fetch her John 14. I will take you to my self that where I am ye may be also 3. The compleat happiness of the Saints can only by this means be fully procured The Lord redeems not only from guilt and punishment and power of our sins and miseries but even from the presence of them And we cannot be wholly freed from the presence of the evil of the world before we be taken out of the World And therefore as the Lord hath advanced our Savior far above Principalities and Powers beyond the gun-shot of Satans temptations and the evils of this vale of Tears So the Lord Jesus provides that we may triumph with him as we have suffered with him Matth. 13.41 Therefore in the Parable while we live in the Field of the World and the Church is here Militant there wil be Tares which wil annoy and trouble But when the Lord shal send his Angels to gather out of his Kingdom al things that offend and them which do iniquity Then shal his Saints be translated into the Kingdom of the Father That which is the end of Christs Redemption the perfection of his Body the compleat happiness of his People that he must affectionately desire For the end ever carries and commands the affection of the Agent who works by Counsel and Reason USE 1. Of Instruction Hence al that are given to Christ must be raised from the dead and be in an immortal condition and in everlasting happiness As our Savior reasoned against the Sadduces God is the God of Abraham Isaac Jacob God is a God in Covenant with the Living Therefore Abraham Isaac and Jacob must live and that in Bodies and Souls because he is the God of both So those that must ever be with Christ they must have a Being and be raised out of the dust nor matters it though they were returned to the dust and that scattered into the four corners of the World into the Sea where they have been drowned into the Earth where they have been buried into the Fire where they have been burned The Lord wil send his Angels and he wil gather his Elect The Sea shal give up her dead the Fire and Earth their dead They shal be made immortal that so they may be ever with the Lord. USE 2. Of Reprehension It condemns both the Spirits and Practices of such who cannot abide the presence much less prize the communion and company of the Saints Christ is not at rest in Heaven without them and they are in a Hell count themselves in a Prison while the are in the place and the presence where they be Certainly Christ is deceived or thou art justly to be condemned as one who hast not the heart of Christ the Grace and Spirit of Christ in thee and that one day thou shalt find They shal ever be with Christ and thou that canst not indure their society in the Kingdom of Grace thou shalt never have their company in the Kingdom of Glory Such is the exquisite Constitution and Soveraign temper of the Irish Mold that there poysonous Vermin Toads and Spiders and such like they die presently if confined to the compass of the Earth and therefore they forthwith leave the Mold lest they lose their lives So here if thou countest it a kind of death to be confined to the holy Society and gracious and Spiritual communion of the Saints it 's certain Thou hast the poyson of a prophane and a graceless heart within thee They went out from us saies the Apostle because they were not of us had they been of us had they grown upon the same root the Lord Jesus knit one to another by the same Spirit They would never have departed from us When loos-hearted and wicked Hypocrites are hemmed in by the Communion of the Faithful at unawares they stand upon coals and sit upon Thorns like Fish out of their Element their hearts faint and die away presently as professedly contrary to the Spirit of our Savior as Light to Drakness Christs Wil is They should be where he is and their wil is To be any where else but where they are USE 3. Of Spiritual Comfort Hereby we may learn to support our selves in several occasions that would prejudice us in our Christian Course Hence we may fetch supply to bear up our hearts in al over-bearing pressures Comfort against al Opposition of our Spiritual Adversaries which may hinder our Happiness Against contempt of the World that would disparage our persons and Professions Against our own weaknesses and feebleness that might discourage us in a Christian Course The former Doctrine affords Spiritual refreshing against al these Against the fiercest of al opposition which al the Enemies of our Salvation can make against our progress and success in a Christian Course The Prayer of our Savior is above the Power of Hel and Devils though they rage above their malice and policy though they undermine above the corruption of mine own heart which would betray and deliver me as a prey into the hands of Devils and their Instruments This Prayer of our Savior shal carry the Cause against them all and thee to Heaven in despight of al. This Request wil not be denied this Wil of Christ nothing can resist The grant of the Father to our Savior none in

when it fils the mind as the Waters cover the Sea Habb 2.14 we may sail here in dayly search and when we know yet there is somthing stil beyond our knowledg as Eph. 3.19 That we know the Love of Christ that passeth knowledg This Name of Gods Fatherly Mercy is like that Book Rev. 5.1 2. So many Leaves and so thick written that we cannot turn over the Pages much less able to come to the ful knowing and conceiving of it So it is here The Name of Gods Mercy and Faithfulness it s writ so thick in al the waies and works of God in al the ordinances Nay in al the dispensations of God and his operations from election to our glorification affords so many ful vollums and so many fresh editions That we are stil new to seek unless the Lord Christ be pleased further to make known these unto us As the thing to be known is darke and difficult So we are shallow in our apprehensions As our Savior complained of his own brought up under his own Wing Luk. 24.25 O Fools and slow of Heart to know these depth's of Gods Grace and Mercy Our understandings like narrow mounh'd Vessels can take in little and that in a long time though never so much be discovered and laid before us And Therefore our Savior is constrained to deal with us as Masters with their Schollers which are dul and heavy of apprehension ever pointing at the word and putting the Fescue to the Letter Line upon Line and precept after precept here a little and there a little as the Prophet Isa 28.10 So it is with such Babe-like feeble ones as we be though we have Daily help yet we have daily need of new help to be continued to us As little ones they must be taken up dressed and tended daily because they are helpless in themselves But that which is the maine of al. The very Terms of the Covenant and the Office of our Savior and the condition of the State of Grace calls for this For al the Treasures of Wisdom and knowledg are hid in Christ and he keeps the Keyes in his own hand and Bosom and gives out our pittance and allowance what he sees fit We need our dayly direction and instruction in the things of Grace and eternal life more than our dayly Bread The Body needs the constant direction of the Eye and advise of the head for every thing it doth and that every moment It s thus in the natural it s the same in the spiritual and mistical Body So the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.5 Of our selves as of our selves we are not sufficient to think a good thought but our sufficiency is of God Without me ye can do nothing Joh. 15.4 5. He hath taught you in the morning he must teach you at Noone and at Night also He hath cleared up our doubts he must help us in the next again or els we shal be to seek as much as ever He must Water us every moment Adam hath the staff and stock in his own hand and he lost al and himself and his too Therefore now the Lord Jesus keeps the stock in his own care in his own hand gives us such allowance as he sees fit suitable for our good As Fathers when they see their Sons to lavish out their Patrimony and grow licencious they keep the revenewes and state in their own hands only allow them some yearly pension or annuity for their relief So here our Savior makes us live not of our yearly but our daily yea hourly annuities That Grace that helped thee the last month the last week the last day the last morning how to see God how to close with him and depend upon him and gain assurance from him wil not serve thee for the next occasion happily Either the work is more difficult the way more dark thine own indisposition makes thee more unfit thy temptations do more oppose thy corruptions grow more active and violent or thy unskilfulness forgetfulness bring thee to a loss that thou shalt not be able to see the way So that as Christ hath made known so he must make known for the present and so for the future The beggar when he hath got his almes one day he lives of that and spends it and he must have a new almes as a new day he is as fresh to seek and as free to beg as ever Christ is Gods Almner and we are his beggars So Paul He hath delivered doth deliver wil deliver Hath made known doth make known wil make known As the Moon every new Month nay every hour and minute must receive new light from the Sun So here Psal 36.9 In thy light we shal see light 2. Collection It s easie with Christ to darken the evidence of Gods love and mercy to the Soul and to cloud al our knowledg we have even in the clearest day to put us to a loss that we may be to seek for our assurance and knowledg of Gods Fatherly goodness when we think we are most sure of it Though he hath made known the name of the Father formerly unless he stil make it known for future unless he stil renew the knowledg we have we shal not be able to know what he have known So Elihu professeth Job 34.29 When he giveth quietness who then can cause trouble and when he hideth his Face who then can behold him whether it be done against a nation or against a man only q. d. It s not for want of skil that men do not compass this knowledg for their numbers or abilities never so many even a whole nation God can darken them al. And therefore it s said 1 King 10.3 When the Queen of Sheba came to try Solomon with some questions he told her al nothing was hid So that God can hide even the glimmering Starr-light of the knowledg of Human things from men Much more easie is it to conceive how this may be done in these high Heavenly hidden mysteries when its hard to know them when they are made known to us How impossible if the Lord wil with-hold them from us al our dexterity and Wisdom wil do nothing if Christ wil not direct Therefore the Church complained Lam. 3.44 That God had covered himself with a cloud that their Prayers could not come at him When God sent darkness into Egypt it was not al the Fires and Candles that could give any light but they sate three daies and three nights and stirred not out of their places Exod. 10.23 If the Sun of Righteousness wil with-hold or withdraw his beams it wil be dark night with us in our doubtings and dismayings notwithstanding al the Learning yea the experiences also we have had Yea Mercy and Grace may be present with us and yet not be perceived Philip saw the Father and yet knew not what he saw Beware here of three things which the Scripture mentions as the main Cause why 1. Take heed of Carnal Confidence and

Saints that can tel how to judg Psal 15. In whose eyes a vile person is despised If thou beest a wicked man a vicious proud stubborn froward person truly thou art a vile person and it a note of him that wil enter into God Tabernacle and dwel in his Holy Hil that he should despise thee as such though thou hadst never so much of al this earthly pomp the world can afford Dross is base though it be kept in the best place of the treasury Copper is yet vile and worthless though it be set upon the highest place of the Cupboard and not only man should so judg but God wil. The froward in spirit is abomination unto the Lord. Nay though thy place and priviledges be never so high and great they indeed may be glorious as having some impression of Gods power and authority painted upon them but yet if thy heart be void of Grace and thy life of Holiness Thou art wholly destitute of any true glory Thy place and the impression of Gods power must be honoured in thee bu● thy self art despicable and worthless as that King Jehoram that died undefired 2 Chro. 21.20 2. We here see the ready way and the Kings road in which we must walk if we would be truly glorious in the eyes of wise and in the account of our Savior that we may be sure to get such glory as wil go in Heaven Be truly savingly gracious then art thou truly glorious in the account of the Almighty and shalt be received into glory when this life shal not be But they must be grace of the right make and true stamp issuing from the glorious spirit of the Lord. It s not any of those counterfeits of morality civillity which carry a meer shew of Godlyness without the power of it nor yet the Gilt as I may so cal it of those higher Stroaks of Illuminations which appertaines to Apostates of whom the Apostle faith That they tasted of the Heavenly gift and the good word of the Lord and of the powers of the world to come this is hansome gilt and yet the heart base and leud therefore miserable therefore I ad that which followes of the Apostle and ye should ad it also We hope better things of you and those that accompany Salvation not gilt in appearance but true Gold in the substance of it not the ●ast of these but the truth of these somthing better than astonishing terrors than fleshy and groundless inlightenings and raptures better humiliations better evidences better and more real expressions of the power and conquering vertue of the saving work of God The Church is said to be al glorious within Psal 45. The workmanship of God created unto good works Eph. 2. would ye then be glorious servants in the families wherein ye dwel glorious Inhabitants in the Plantations where ye live glorious members of Churches and Congregations and leave your names for a glory and blessing behind you Do not catch at a shadow but get the body and that wil not fade away do not thing to keep the light in the room and shut out the Sun-beames or let the candle be carried away Be truly vertuous and it cannot be but glory wil be thy companion and that in the very consciences of the wicked though their mouthes it may be wil be-ly their Consciences for to maintain their own wayes So it was with David 2 Sam. 6 21.22 When he danced before the Lord Michal conceited he laid open himself unto contempt How glorious was the King this day c. He answers I● was before the Lord that I did it and if this be to be vile I wil be yet more vile and even of these Hand-maids I shal be had in hanor Lively faith is called Precious Faith 2. Pet. 1.6 Hebr. 11.4 By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain Would ye therefore pray more excellently hear more excellently confer more excellently than al the carnal men in the world get this Precious Faith then ye wil be Precious Christians and have precious comforts 2. How our Savior received this Answ He received this Grace as man not as God or as the second person properly for so he is equal to the Father and hath equal propriety in al the Attributes of the God-Head Besides the Grace here is that which is given to beleevers but so that cannot be He receives it therefore as man and that by gift saith the Text for our Savior acknowledgeth it 1. It is Given by the Grace of personal Union in that it pleased God the Father that the second person his beloved son should take our Nature into personal Union so that though he was a perfect person before that was assumed yet he remained one and the same person after it was assumed there he two Natures but one person still Thus the Apostle disputes and the connection implyes so much Col. 1.15 He is the image of the Invisible God i. e. as second person and so in him all things consist and by him al created and he is the Head of the Body the Church and the Issue of al is For it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwel i.e. al the fullness of al Grace is in Christ in that he is Head and so head as that he is also the invisible image of the Father In a word Look what the Human Nature did receive from the Son as a Son and begotten of the Father that it receives by gift also and firstly from the Father because what the Son doth as Son he doth it from the Father But the Human Nature received it as the highest gift that ever was given to be taken into personal union by the Son as the second person begotten of the Father What the Son as the Son begotten of the Father gives to the human Nature that the Father gives firstly But this personal union the Son as from the Father gives Therefore the Father gives it firstly Upon this ground is that Inference also or the Apostle Col. 2.9 10. The Apostle would have them walk in Christ in the power of his Grace and in the direction of his rule and government and he joyns these two together as the reason For in him dwels the fullness of the God-Head Bodily Nor by way of type but truly nor yet by communication of vertue which he doth to and in the Saints nor yet by sacramental relation as he doth accompany his ordinances but the very essence of the God-Head in the second person supports the Human Nature as one person with it This is the Union verse 10. Ye are complete in him who is the Head c. Compleat in al-Grace to inable in al the fulness of wisedom a●● Prophet and rule as a King to guid you in the waies of his Grace He is the Head from the former of al life and motion If the fullness of the God-Head personally then the fulness of al Grace dwels in him 2.

apprehended by us looks not at things as they are but as they appeare to us and may most familiarly and easily be conceived by us and so to lead us by the hand as it were to that fountain and first rise of all and so to the highest step and staire in Heaven which will point at eternity The Father is in Christ Christ in the faithful and so they come to be perfect in one We shal follow the method of our Savior and look at the words as they lie in the Text handle the several peeces that the frame of the whole may more throughly be searched into and more fully appear with what plainness may be in the Issue For there be some depths in some passages of the verse which are fitter to be admired than comprehended and exceed the reach and discovery of the most Judicious Jnterpreter that I can look into and indeed seem to be reserved for another world when the fruition of the good here mentioned will prove the best interpretation We will study to be wise unto sobriety I in them Christ is by his Spiritual Presence in a special manner in the Faithful This was signified to the Church of the Jews in the wilderness when the Arke the Type of the presence of our Savior incamped in the midst of all the tribes of Israel to watch over them when they rested Was a Pillar of cloud and fire to go before them for special guidance when they arose and marched in their travel and this Moses prized so highly That unless he went with them he would not go into Canaan the land of promise The presence of Christ is better than the Land of promise Exod. 33.15 If thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence Therefore our Savior is said to dwel between the Cherubims and there to give his Oracles his Answer to his people Isa 37.16 Psal 132.14 The Lord professeth This is my resting place here will I dwel for ever Therefore the faithful are said to receive Christ As ye have received Christ so walk in him Christ is said to be in them 2. Cor. 13.5 Know ye not that Christ is in you unless ye be reprobates To dwel in them Eph. 3.17 To live in them Gal. 2.20 Yea they live not but Christ only Open here three things 1. In what respect Christ is said to be in his 2. What kind of presence this is 3. After what manner communicated And here the grounds and the Reasons of the point wil be laid 1. In what respect Christ is said to be in his Answ If we look at our Savior meerly and only as the second Person in the glorious Trinity God blessed for ever not attending or considering his Human Nature as he filleth Heaven and Earth with his presence he then would have filled the hearts of the Sons of men in that manner being present with them as he is every where by his Omnipresence But the gracious spiritual expression of his presence had never been communicated to Adams posterity There was so great a distance such and so strong opposition betwixt the corrupt and polluted nature of man and the purity of the holy nature of the blessed God that there was no possibility that ever there should be any agreement and communion while man continued in that corrupt condition Can two walk together except they be agreed Am. 3.3 Much less dwel together Yea the Lord professeth Psal 5 4. Wickedness shal not dwel with him much less he in it When his pure eyes cannot endure to behold iniquity with any approbatiō he shal be thought to take up his abode there No. What commun●o● between light and darkness Christ and Belial that is there is none there can be none Therefore we must look at Christ as God-man as he had taken our nature into union with him and so in and by it had made way for the communication of himself to his By the nature of man he communicates his spiritual presence to the Sons of men By this life is provided for the world of Gods elect By this they come to be made partakers of it John 6.51 I am the liveing bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat this bread he shal live for ever But the question might have been what is that bread he answers The bread I wil give is my flesh which I wil give for the life of the world Because his humane nature is that mean whereby life was purchased and the conduit by which it was conveyed to lost man And therefore he adds Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man ye have no life And vers 56. He that eateth my flesh drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him So that there is no communion with Christ no sharing in his spiritual presence and special vertue but by his flesh Christ God and Man is our spiritual good otherwise he is not nay cannot be digested for the spiritual refreshing of the faithful soul 2. What kind of presence this is Answer In the words of the doctrine it is a spiritual presence not carnal or corporal in so much that the Apostle if he had known Christ after the flesh yet he knowes him no more after that manner 2. Cor. 5.16 For the flesh profits nothing sayes our Savior the words I speak are spirit and life John 6.63 Certain it is the bodily presence of our Savior is not here attended according to the conceit of the Capernaites and the Papists at this day as though it were possible for the very flesh of our Savior to be in al places or in many places according to the administrations of the ordinances which signify or represent the same Nor yet can the very flesh of our Savior in it self considered be truly availeable to purchase any spiritual good or communicate any spiritual vertue Yet this is certain and for ever to be observed that the humane nature taken with the deity and in vertue of the deity puts forth a power in the expression of his spritual presence whereof more anon And the Lord Christ is thus spiritually present in his Church as a head may be truly said to be really and rventually in the body For this is the office of our Savior and that in a proper and peculiar manner He is said to be the Head of his Church neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost The Father is the Father of the Church and Holy Spirit the Comfortēr of the Church but Christ hath this impropriate in him that He is the Head Eph. 4.15 Grow up in ●o him in al things which is the head even Christ And Chap. 5.23 He is the head of the Church and the Savior of the body Because this appertaines to him not as God onely for then al the persons had partaked thereof as common but as the second person in the Trinity sent of the Father working next in order from him and as so sent and workking terminating