of Christs members with themselves First those in heaven HItherto we have treated of this blessed union as in relation to Christ the head It remains that we now consider of it as it stands in relation to the members of his mysticall body one towards another For as the body is united to the head so must the members be united to themselves to make the body truly compleat Thus the holy Ghost by his Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 12. As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so is Christ From this entire conjunction of the members with each other arises that happy communion of Saints which we professe both to beleeve and to partake of This mysticall body of Christ is a large one extending it self both to heaven and earth there is a reall union betwixt all those farre-spred lims between the Saints in heaven between the Saints on earth between the Saints in heaven and earth We have reason to begin at heaven thence is the originall of our union and blessednesse There was never place for discord in that region of glory since the rebellious Angels were cast out thence the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12. must needs agree in a perfect unity neither can it be otherwise for there is but one will in heaven one scope of the desires of blessed souls which is the glory of their God all the whole chore sing one song and in that one harmonious tune of Allelujah We poor parcell-sainted souls here on earth professe to bend our eyes directly upon the same holy end the honour of our Maker and Redeemer but alas at our best we are drawn to look asquint at our own aims of profit or pleasure We professe to sing loud praises unto God but it is with many harsh and jarring notes above there is a perfect accordance in an unanimous glorifying of him that sits upon the throne for ever Oh how ye love the Lord all ye his Saints Psal 31. 23. Oh how joyfull ye are in glory Psal 149. 5. The heavens shall praise thy wonders O Lord thy faithfulnesse also in the congregation of the Saints Psal 89. 5. O what a blessed Common-wealth is that above The City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem ever at unity within it self Psal 122. 3. and therein the innumerable company of Angels and the generall Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven the spirits of just men made perfect and whom they all adore God the judge of all and Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 12. 22. All these as one as holy Those twenty thousand chariots of heaven Psal 68. 17. move all one way When those four beasts full of eyes round about the throne give glory and honour and thanks to him that sits upon the throne saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come then the four and twenty Elders fall down before him and cast their crowns before the throne Rev. 4. 6 7 8 9 10. No one wears his crown whiles the rest cast down theirs all accord in one act of giving glory to the Highest After the sealing of the Tribes A great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white robes and palmes in their hands And cryed with a loud voice Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb And all the Angels stood about the throne and about the Elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God saying Amen Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto God for ever and ever Revel 7. 4 9 10 11 12. Lo those spirits which here below were habited with severall bodies different in shapes statures ages complexions are now above as one spirit rather distinguished then divided all united in one perpetuall adoration and fruition of the God oâ— spirits and mutually happy in God in themselves in each other SECT 20. The union of Christs members upon earth First in matter of judgement OUr copy is set us above we labour to take it out here on earth What do we but daily pray that the blessed union of souls which is eminent in that empyreall heaven may be exemplified by us in this region of mortality For having through Christ an accesse by one spirit unto God the Father being no more strangers and forainers but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2. 18 19. we cease not to pray Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Mat. 6. 10. Yea O Saviour â—hou who canst not but be heard hast prayed to thy Father for the accomplishment of this union That they â—â—â—y be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one Joh. 17. 22 23 What then is this union of the members of Christ here on earth but a spirituall onenesse arising from an happy conspiration of their thoughts and affections For whereas there are two main principles of all humane actions and dispositions the brain the heart the conjuncture of these two cannot but produce a perfect union from the one our thoughts take their rise our affections from the other in both the soul puts it self forth upon all matter of accord or difference The union of thoughts is when we minde the same things when we agree in the same truths This is the charge which the Apostle of the Gentiles layes upon his Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. 10. and in their persons upon 〈◊〉 Christians Now I beseech you brethreâ— by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing aâ—â— that there be no divisions among yoâ— but that ye be perfectly joyned togethâ—â— in the same minde and in the saâ—â— judgement And this is no other thâ—â— that one faith Eph. 4. 5. which make up the one Church of Christ upoâ— earth One both in respect of timâ— and places Of times so as the Fathers of the first world and the Patriarchs of the next and all Gods people in their ages that lookt togethâ—â— with them for the redemption of Israâ—â— are united with us Christians of the laâ—â— dayes in the same beleef and make 〈◊〉 one entire body of Christs Catholiâ— Church Luk. 2. 23. Of places 〈◊〉 as all those that truly professe thâ— name of Christ though scattered into the farthest remote regions of thâ— earth even those that walk with theâ—â— feet opposite to ours yet meet with us in the same center of Christian faith and make up one houshold of God Not that we can hope it possible that all Christians should agree in all truths whiles we are here our minds cannot but be more unlike to each others then our faces yea it is a rare
be blessing honour glory and power for ever and ever Amen Allelujah THE CHRISTIAN LAID Forth in his whole DISPOSITION AND CARRIAGE By J. H. D. D. B. N. London Printed by E. Cotes for John Sweeting at the Angell in Popes-head Alley 1652. The Contents The Exhortatory Preface § 1. THe Christians disposition § 2. His expence of the day § 3. His recreations § 4. His meals § 5. His nights rest § 6. His carriage § 7. His resolution in matter of religion § 8. His discourse § 9. His devotion § 10. His sufferings § 11. His conflicts § 12. His death An Exhortary Preface to the Christian Reader OVt of infallible rules and long experience have I gathered up this true character of a Christian A labour some will think might have been well spared Every man professes both to know and act this part Who is there that would not be angry if but a question should be made either of his skill or interest Surely since the first name given at Antioch all the beleeving world hath been ambitious of the honour of it how happy were it if all that are willing to wear the livery were as ready to do the service But it fals out here as in the case of all things that are at once honourable and difficult every one affects the title few labour for the truth of the atchievement Having therefore leisure enough to look about me and finding the world too prone to this worst kinde of hypocrisie I have made this true draught not more for direction then for tryall Let no man view these lines as a stranger but when he looks in this glasse let him ask his heart whether this be his own face yea rather when he sees this face let him examine his heart whether both of them agree with their pattern And where he findes his failings as who shall not let him strive to amend them and never give over whiles he is any way lesse fair then his copy In the mean time I would it were lesse easie by these rules to judg even of others besides our selves or that it were uncharitable to say there are many Professors few Christians If words and forms might carry it Christ would have Clients enow but if holinesse of disposition and uprightnesse of carriage must be the proof woe is me In the midst of the Land among the people there is as the shaking of an Olive tree and as the gleaning Grapes where the Vintage is done Esai 24. 13. For where is the man hath obtained the mastery of his corrupt affections and to be the Lord of his unruly appetite that hath his heart in heaven whiles his living carkasse is stirring here upon earth that can see the invisible and secretly enjoy that Saviour to whom he is spiritually united That hath subdued his will and reason to his beleefe that fears nothing but God loves nothing but goodnesse hates nothing but sin rejoyceth in none but true blessings Whose faith triumphs over the world whose hope is anchored in heaven whose charity knows no lesse bounds then God and men whose humility represents him as vile to himself as he is honorable in the reputation of God who is wise heaven ward however he passes with the world who dares be no other then just whether he win or lâ—se who is frugally liberall discreetly couragous holily temperate aâ— who is even a thrifty manager of his houres so dividing the day betwixt his God and his Vocation that neither shall finde fault with a just neglect or an unjust partiality whose recreations are harmlesse honest warrantable such as may refresh nature not debauch it whose diet is regulated by health not by pleasure as one whose table shall be no altar to his belly nor snare to his soul who in his seasonable repose lies down and awakes with God caring only to relieve his spirits not to cherish sloth Whose carriage is meek gentle compliant beneficiall in whatsoever station in Magistracy unpartially just in the Ministery conscionably faithful in the rule of his family wisely provident and religiously exemplary Shortly who is a discreet and loving yoke-fellow a tender and pious parent a dutious and awfull sonne an humble and obsequious servant an obedient and loyall subject Whose heart is constantly setled in the main truthes of Christian Religion so as he cannot be removed in litigious points neither too credulous nor too peremptory whose discourse is such as may be meet for the expressions of a tongue that belongs to a sound godly and charitable heart whose breast continually burnes with the heavenly fire of an holy devotion whose painfull sufferings are overcome with patience and chearfull resolutions whose conflicts are attended with undaunted courage and crowned with an happy victory Lastly whose death is not so full of fear and anguish as of strong consolations in that Saviour who hath overcome and sweetned it nor of so much dreadfulnesse in it selfe as of joy in the present expectation of that blessed issue of a glorious immortality which instantly succeeds it Such is the Christian whom we doe here characterize and commend to the world both for tryall and imitation neither know I which of these many qualifications can be missing in that soul who layes a just claim to Christ his Redeemer Take your hearts to task therefore my dear brethren into whose hands soever these lines shall come and as you desire to have peace at the last ransack them thoroughly not contenting your selves with a perfunctory and fashionable over-sight which wil one day leave you irremediably miserable but so search as those that resolve not to give over till you finde these gracious dispositions in your bosoms which I have here described to you so shall we be and make each other happy in the successe of our holy labours which the God of heaven blesse in both our hands to his owne glory and our mutual comfort in the day of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen THE CHRISTIAN SECT 1. His Disposition THE Christian is a man and more an earthly Saint an Angell cloathed in flesh the only lawfull Image of his Maker and Redeemer the abstract of Gods Church on earth a modell of heaven made up in clay the living Temple of the holy Ghost For his disposition it hath in it as much of heaven as his earth may make room for He were not a man if he were quite free from corrupt affections but these he masters and keeps in with a strait hand and if at any time they grow testâ—y and headstrong he breaks them with a severe discipline and will rather punish himself then not tame them He checks his appetite with discreet but strong denials and forbears to pamper nature lest it grow wanton and impetuous He walks on earth but converses in heaven having his eyes fixed on the invisible and enjoying a sweet communion with hâ—s God and Saviour Whiles all the rest of the world sits in darknesse he lives in
and must shew us how highly we are descended how royally we are allied how gloriously estated that only is it that must advance us to heaven and bring heaven down to us Through the want of the exercise whereof it comes to passe that to the great prejudice of our souls we are ready to think of Christ Jesus as a stranger to us as one aloof off in another world apprehended only by fits in a kinde of ineffectuall speculation without any lively feeling of our own interesse in him whereas we ought by the powerfull operation of this grace in our hearts to fidne so heavenly an appropriation of Christ to our souls as that every beleever may truly say I am one with Christ Christ is one with me Had we not good warrant for so high a challenge it could be no lesse then a blasphemous arrogance to lay claim to the royall bloud of heaven but since it hath pleased the God of heaven so far to dignifie our unworthinesse as in the multitudes of his mercies to admit and allow us to be partakers of the dâ—vine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. it were no other then an unthankfull stupidity not to lay hold on so glorious a priviledge and to go for lesse then God hath made us SECT 3. The kinde and manner of this union with Christ KNow now my son that thou art upon the ground of all consolation to thy soul which consists in this beatificall union with thy God and Saviour think not therefore to passe over this important mystery with some transient and perfunctory glances but let thy heart dwell upon it as that which must stick by thee in all extremities and chear thee up when thou art forsaken of all worldly comforts Do not then conceive of this union as some imaginary thing that hath no other being but in the brain whose faculties have power to apprehend and bring home to it self far remote substances possessing it self in a sort of whatsoever it conceives Do not think it an union meerly virtuall by the participation of those spirituall gifts and graces which God worketh in the soul as the comfortable effects of our happy conjunction with Christ Doe not think it an accidentall union in respect of some circumstances and qualities wherein we communicate with him who is God and man nor yet a metaphoricall union by way of figurative resemblance but know that this is a true reall essentiall substantiall union whereby the person of the beleever is indissolubly united to the glorious person of the Son of God know that this union is not more mysticall then certain that in naturall unions there may be more evidence there cannot be more truth neither is there so firm and close an union betwixt the soul and body as there is betwixt Christ and the beleeving soul for as much as that may be severed by death but this never Away yet with all gross carnality of conceit this union is true and really existent but yet spirituall if some of the Ancients have tearm'd it naturall and bodily it hath been in respect of the subject united our humanity to the two blessed natures of the Son of God met in one most glorious person not in respect of the manner of the uniting Neither is it the lesse reall because spirituall Spirituall agents neither have nor put forth any whit lesse vertue because sense cannot discern their manner of working Even the Loadstone though an earthen substance yet when it is out of sight whether under the Table or behinde a solid partition stirreth the needle as effectually as if it were within view shall not he contradict his senses that will say it cannot work because I see it not Oh Saviour thou art more mine then my body is mine my sense feels that present but so as that I must lose it my faith sees and feels thee so present with me that I shall never be parted from thee SECT 4. The resemblance of this union by the head and body THere is no resemblance whereby the Spirit of God more delights to set forth the heavenly union betwixt Christ and the beleever then that of the head and the body The head gives sense and motion to all the members of the body And the body is one not only by the continuity of all the parts held together with the same naturall ligaments and covered with one and the same skin but much more by the animation of the same soul quickning that whole frame in the acting whereof it is not the large extent of the stature and distance of the lims from each other that can make any difference The body of a childe that is but a span long cannot be said to be more united then the vast body of a giantly son of Anak whose height is as the Cedars and if we could suppose such a body as high as heaven it self that one soul which dwels in it and is diffused through all the parts of it would make it but one intire body Right so it is with Christ and his Church That one Spirit of his which dwels in and enlives every beleever unites all those far-distant members both to each other and to their head and makes them up into one true mystical body so as now every true beleever may without presumption but with all holy reverence and all humble thankfulnesse say to his God and Saviour Behold Lord I am how unworthy soever one of the lims of thy body and therefore have a right to all that thou hast to all that thou doest Thine eye sees for me thine ear hears for me thine hand acts for me Thy life thy grace thy happinesse is mine Oh the wonder of the two blessed unions In the personall union it pleased God to assume and unite our humane nature to the Deity In the spiritual and mysticall it pleases God to unite the person of every beleever to the person of the Son of God our souls are too narrow to blesse God enough for these incomprehensible mercies Mercies wherein he hath preferred us be it spoken with all godly lowliness to the blessed Angels of heaven Forverily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. Neither hath he made those glorious spirits members of his mystical body but his Saints whom he hath as it were so incorporated that they are become his body and he theirs according to that of the divine Apostle For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. SECT 5. This union set forth by the resemblance of the husband and wife NExt hereunto there is no resemblance of this mystery either more frequent or more full of lively expression then that of the conjugall union betwixt the husband and wife Christ is as the head so the husband of the Church The Church and every beleeving soul is
our best then unholy creatures full of pollution and spirituall uncleannesse It is his most holy Spirit that must cleanse us from all the filthinesse of our flesh and spirit 2. Cor. 7. 1. and work us daily to further degrees of sanctification He that is holy let him be holy still Rev. 22. 11. neither can there be any thing more abhorring from his infinite justice and holinesse then to justifie those souls which lie still in the loathsome ordure of their corruptions Certainly they never truly learnt Christ who would draw over Christs righteousnesse as a case of their close wickednesses that sever holinesse from justice and give no place to sanctification in the evidence of their justifying Never man was justified without faith and wheresoever faith is there it purifieth and cleanseth Act. 15. 9. But besides that the Spirit of Christ works thus powerfully though gradually within us That he may sanctifie and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word his holinesse is mercifully imputed to us That he may present us to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that we should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5. 26 27. so as that inchoate holinesse which by his gracious inoperation grows up daily in us towards a full perfection as abundantly supplyed by his absolute holinesse made no lesse by imputation ours then it is personally his when therefore we look into our bosoms we finde just cause to be ashamed of our impurity and to loath those dregs of corruption that yet remain in our sinfull nature but when we cast up our eyes to heaven and behold the infinite holinesse of that Christ to whom we are united which by faith is made ours we have reason to bear up against all the discouragements that may arise from the conscience of our own vilenesse and to look God in the face with an awfull boldnesse as those whom he is pleased to present holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight Col. 1. 22. as knowing that he that sanctifieth and they than are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2. 11. SECT 16. Christ made our Redemption REdemption was the great errand for which the Son of God came down into the world and the work which he did whiles he was in the world and that which in way of application of it he shall be ever accomplishing till he shall deliver up his Mediatory Kingdome into the hands of his Father in this he begins in this he finishes the great businesse of our salvation For those who in this life are enlightned by his wisdome justified by his merits sanctified by his grace are yet conflicting with manifold temptations and strugling with varieties of miseries and dangers till upon their happy death and glorious resurrection they shall be fully freed by their ever-blessed and victorious Redeemer He therefore who by vertue of that heavenly union is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification is also upon the same ground made unto us our full Redemption Redemption implies a captivity We are naturally under the wofull bondage of the Law of sinne of miseries of death The Law is a cruell exactor for it requires of us what we cannot now do and whips us for not doing it for the Law worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. and as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse Gal. 3. 10. Sinne is a worse tyrant then he and takes advantage to exercise his cruelty by the Law For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Rom. 7. 5. Upon sin necessarily followes misery the forerunner of death and death the upshot of all miseries By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. From all these is Christ our Redemption from the Law for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. From sin for we are dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 11. Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. From death and therein from all miseries 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 But thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Cor. 15. 55 56 57. Now then let the Law do his worst we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. The case therefore is altered betwixt the law and us It is not now a cruell Task-master to beat us to and for our work it is our Schoolemaster to direct and to whip us unto Christ It is not a severe Judge to condemn us it is a friendly guide to set us the way towards heaven Let sinne joyne his forces together with the Law they cannot prevail to our hurt For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 3 4. Let death joyn his forces with them both we are yet safe For the Law of the spirit of life hath freed us from the Law of sin and of death Rom. 8. 2. What can we therefore fear what can we suffer while Christ is made our Redemption Finally as thus Christ is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption so whatsoever else he either is or hath or doth by vertue of this blessed union becomes ours he is our riches Eph. 1. 7. our strength Psal 27. 1. 28. 7. our glory Eph. 1. 18. our salvation 1 Thes 5. 9. Esa 12. 2. our all Col. 3. 11. he is all to us and all is ours in him SECT 17. The externall priviledges of this union a right to the blessings of earth and heaven FRom these primary and intrinsecal priviledges therefore flow all those secondary and externall wherewith we are blessed and therein a right to all the blessings of God both of the right hand and of the left an interesse in all the good things both of earth and heaven Hereupon it is that the glorious Angels of Heaven become our Guardians keeping us in all our wayes and working secretly for our good upon all occasions that all Gods creatures are at our service that we have a true spirituall title to them All things are yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 22 23 and ye are Christs and Christ Gods But take heed my son of mislaying thy claim to what and in what manner thou ought'st not There is a civill right that must regulate our propriety to these earthly things
a beeing thou shouldst follow me with succeeding mercies who but thou who art infinite in goodnesse would love that which is not Our poor sensuall love is drawn from us by the sight of a face or a picture neither is ever raised but upon some pleasing motive thou wouldst make that which thou wouldst love and wouldst love that which thou hadst made O God was there ever love so free so gracious as this of thine Who can be capable to love us but men or Angels Men love us because they see something in us which they think amiable Angels love us because thou dost so But why dost thou O blessed Lord love us but because thou wouldst There can be no cause of thy will which is the cause of all things Even so Lord since this love did rise only from thee let the praise and glory of it rest only in thee SECT 2. How free of us that had made our selves vile and miserable YEt more Lord we had lost our selves before we were and having forfeited what we should be had made our selves perfectly miserable even when we were worse then nothing thou wouldst love us was there ever any eye enamoured of deformity Can there by any bodily deformity comparable to that of sin yet Lord when sin had made us abominably loathsome didst thou cast thy love upon us A little scurf of leprosie or some few nasty spots of morphew or but some unsavory sent sets us off and turns our love into detestation But for thee O God when we were become as foul and ugly as sin could make us even then was thy love inflamed towards us Even when we were weltring in our bloud thou saidst Live and washedst us and anointedst us and cloathedst us with a broidered work and deckedst us with ornaments and graciously espousedst us to thy self and receivedst us into thine own bosome Lord what is man that thou art thus mindfull of him and the son of man that thou thus visitest him Oh what are we in comparison of thine once glorious Angels They sinned and fell never to bâ—â—â—covered never to be loosed from those everlasting chains wherein they are reserved to the judgement of the great day Whence is it then O Saviour whence is it that thou hast shut up thy mercy from those thy more excellent creatures and hast extended it to us vile sinfull dust whence but that thou wouldst love man because thou wouldst Alas it is discouragement enough to our feeble friendship that he to whom we wisht well is miserable Our love doth gladly attend upon and enjoy his prosperity but when his estate is utterly sunk and his person exposed to contempt and ignominy yea to torture and death who is there that will then put forth himself to own a forlorn and perishing friend But for thee O blessed Jesu so ardent was thy love to us that it was not in the power of our extream misery to abate it yea so as that the deplorednesse of our condition did but heighten that holy flame What speak I of shame or sufferings Hell it self could not keep thee off from us Even from that pit of eternall perdition didst thou fetch our condemned souls and hast contrarily vouchsafed to put us into a state of everlasting blessednesse SECT 3. How yet free of us that were professed enemies THe common disposition of men pretends to a kinde of justice in giving men their own so as they will repay love for love and think they may for hatred return enmity nature it self then teacheth us to love our friends it is only grace that can love an enemy But as of injuries so of enmities thereupon grounded there are certain degrees some are sleight and triviall some main and capitall If a man do but scratch my face or give some light dash to my fame it is no great Mastery upon submission to receive such an offender to favour but if he have endeavoured to ruine my estate to wound my reputation to cut my throat not only to pardon this man but to hug him in my arms to lodge him in my bosome as my entire friend this would be no other then an high improvement of my charity O Lord Jesu what was I but the worst of enemies when thou vouchsafedst to embrace me with thy loving mercy how had I shamefully rebelled against thee and yeelded up all my members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sin how had I crucified thee the Lord of life how had I done little other then trod under foot thee the blessed Son of God and counted the bloud of the Covenant an unholy thing how had I in some sort done despight unto the spirit of grace yet even then in despight of all my most odious unworthynesse didst thou spread abroad thine arms to receive me yea thou openedst thine heart to let me in O love passing not knowledge only but wonder also O mercy not incident into any thing lesse then infinite nor by any thing lesse comprehensible SECT 4. The wonderfull effects of the love of Christ His Incarnation BUt oh dear Lord when from the object of thy mercy I cast mine eyes upon the effects and improvement of thy divine favours and see what thy love hath drawn from thee towards the sons of men how am I lost in a just amazement It is that which fetcht thee down from the glory of the highest heavens from the bosome of thine eternall Father to this lower world the region of sorrow and death It is that which to the wonder of Angels cloathed thee with this flesh of ours and brought thee who thoughtst it no robbery to be equall with God to an estate lower then thine own creatures Oh mercy transcending the admiration of all the glorious spirits of heaven that God would be incarnate Surely that all those celestiall powers should be redacted to either worms or nothing that all this goodly frame of creation should run back into its first confusion or be reduced to one single atome it is not so high a wonder as for God to become man those changes though the highest that nature is capable of are yet but of things finite this is of an infinite subject with which the most excellent of finite things can hold no proportion Oh the great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels Those heavenly spirits had ever since they were made seen his most glorious Deity and adored him as their omnipotent Creator but to see that God of spirits invested with flesh was such a wonder as had been enough if their nature could have been capable of it to have astonished even glory it self And whether to see him that was their God so humbled below themselves or to see humanity thus advanced above themselves were the greater wonder to them they only know It was your foolish misprision O ye ignorant Lystrians that you took the servants for the Master here only is it verified which you supposed that God is
come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men what a disparagement do we think it was for the great Monarch of Babylon for seven years together as a beast to converse with the beasts of the field Yet alas beasts and men are fellow-creatures made of one earth drawing in the same ayre returning for their bodily part to the same dust symbolizing in many qualities and in some mutually transcending each others so as here may seem to be some terms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like un to beasts and some beasts are in outward shape somewhat like unto men But for him that was and is God blessed for ever eternall infinite incomprehensible to put on flesh and become a man amongst men was to stoop below all possible disparities that heaven and earth can afford Oh Saviour the lower thine abasement was for us the higher was the pitch of thy divine love to us SECT 5. His love in his sufferings YEt in this our humane condition there are degrees One rules and glitters in all earthly glory another sits despised in the dust one passes the time of his life in much jollity and pleasure another wears out his dayes in sorrow and discontentment Blessed Jesu since thou wouldst be a man why wouldst thou not be the King of men since thou wouldst come down to our earth why wouldst thou not enjoy the best entertainment that the earth could yeeld thee Yea since thou who art the eternall Son of God wouldst be the son of man why didst thou not appear in a state like to the King of heaven attended with the glorious retinue of blessed Angels O yet greater wonder of mercies The same infinite love that brought thee down to the form of man would al so bring thee down being man to the form of a servant So didst thou love man that thou wouldst take part with him of his misery that he might take partwith thee of thy blessednesse thou wouldst be poor to enrich us thou wouldst be burdened for our ease tempted for our victory despised for our glory With what lesse then ravishment of spirit can I behold thee who wert from everlasting cloathed with glory and Majesty wrapped in rags thee who fillest heaven and earth with the majesty of thy glory cradled in a manger thee who art the God of power fleeing in thy mothers arms from the rage of a weak man thee who art the God of Israel driven to be nursed out of the bosome of thy Church thee who madest the heaven of heavens busily working in the homely trade of a foster-father thee who commandest the Devils to their chains transported and tempted by that foul spirit thee who art God all-sufficient exposed to hunger thirst wearinesse danger contempt poverty revilings scourgings persecution thee who art the just Judge of all the world accused and condemned thee who art the Lord of life dying upon the tree of shame and curse thee who art the eternall Son of God strugling with thy Fathers wrath thee who hadst said I and my Father are one sweating drops of bloud in thine agony and crying out on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me thee who hast the keyes of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carryed thee what sighs and groans and tears and bloud hast thou spent upon us wretched men How dear a price hast thou paid for our ransome What raptures of spirit can be sufficient for the admiration of thy so infinite mercy Be thou swallowed up O my soul in this depth of divine love and hate to spend thy thoughts any more upon the base objects of this wretched world when thou hast such a Saviour to take them up SECT 6. His love in preparing heaven for us BUt O blessed Jesu if from what thou hast suffered for me I shall cast mine eyes upon what thou hast done for my soul how is my heart divided betwixt the wonders of both and may as soon tell how great either of them is as whether of them is the greatest It is in thee that I was elected from all eternity and ordained to a glorious inheritance before there was a world we are wont O God to marvell at and blesse thy provident beneficence to the first man that before thou wouldst bring him forth into the world thou wert pleased to furnish such a world for him so goodly an house over his head so pleasant a Paradise under his feet such variety of creatures round about him for his subjection and attendance But how should I magnifie thy mercy who before that man or that world had any beeing hast so far loved me as to pre-ordain me to a place of blessednesse in that heaven which should be and to make me a co-heir with my Christ of thy glory And oh what an heaven is this that thou hast laid out for me how resplendent how transcendently glorious Even that lower Paradise which thou providedst for the harbour of innocence and holinesse was full of admirable beauty pleasure magnificence but if it be compared with this Paradise above which thou hast prepared for the everlasting entertainment of restored souls how mean and beggerly it was Oh match too unequall of the best peece of earth with the highest state of the heaven of heavens In the earthly Paradise I finde thine Angels the Cherubim but it was to keep man off from that Garden of Delight and from the tree of life in the midst of it but in this heavenly one I finde millions of thy Cherubim and Seraphim rejoycing at mans blessednesse and welcomming the glorified souls to their heaven There I finde but the shadow of that whereof the substance is here There we were so possessed of life that yet we might forfeit it here is life without all possibility of death Temptation could finde accesse thither here is nothing but a free and compleat fruition of blessednesse There were delights fit for earthly bodies here is glory more then can be enjoyed of blessed souls That was watered with four streams muddy and impetuous in this is the pure river of the water of life clear as Crystall proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb There I finde thee onely walking in in the cool of the day here manifesting thy Majesty continually There I see only a most pleasant Orchard set with all manner of varieties of flourishing and fruitfull plants here I finde also the City of God infinitely rich and magnificent the building of the wall of it of Jasper and the City it self pure gold like unto clear glasse and the foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones All that I can here attain to see is the pavement of thy celestiall habitation and Lord how glorious it is how be spangled with glittering starres for number for magnitude equally admirable What is
of those thoughts and dispositions which may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty who of a poor worm on earth hast made me an heir of the kingdome of heaven Wo is me how subject are these earthly principalities to hazard and mutability whether through death or insurrection but this Crown which thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible and shall sit immovably fast upon my head not for years not for millions of ages but for all eternity Oh let it be my heaven here below in the mean while to live in a perpetuall fruition of thee and to begin those Alelujahs to thee here which shall be as endlesse as thy mercy and my blessednesse SECT 1. The improvement of our love to Christ for the mercy of his deliverance of the tuition of his Angels of the powerfull working of his good Spirit HAdst thou been pleased to have translated me from thy former Paradise the most delightfull seat of mans originall integrity and happinesse to the glory of the highest heaven the preferment had been infinitely gracious but to bring my soul from the nether most hell and to place it among the Chore of Angels doubles the thank of thy mercy and the measure of my obligation How thankfull was thy Prophet but to an Ebedmelech that by a cord and rags let down into that dark dungeon helpt him out of that uncomfortable pit wherein he was lodged yet what was there but a little cold hunger stench closenesse obscurity Lord how should I blesse thee that hast fetcht my soul from that pit of eternall horrour from that lake of fire and brimstone from the everlasting torments of the damned wherein I had deserved to perish for ever I will sing of thy power unto thee O my strength will I sing for God is my deliverer and the God of my mercie But O Lord if yet thou shouldst leave me in my own hands where were I how easily should I be rob'd of thee with every temptation how should I be made the scorn and insultation of men and devils It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou hast given thine Angels charge over me Those Angels great in power and glorious in Majesty are my sure though invisible guard O blessed Jesu what an honour what a safety is this that those heavenly spirits which attend thy throne should be my champions Those that ministred to thee after thy temptation are ready to assist and relieve me in mine they can neither neglect their charge because they are perfectly holy nor fail of their victory because they are under thee the most powerfull I see you O ye blessed Guardians I see you by the eye of my faith no lesse truly then the eye of my sense sees my bodily attendants I do truly though spiritually feel your presence by you gratious operations in upon and for me and I do heartily blesse my God and yours for you and for those saving offices that through his mercifull appointment you ever do for my soul But as it was with thine Israelies of old that it would not content them that thou promisedst and wouldst send thine Angell before them to bring them into the Land flowing with milk and honey unlesse thy presence O Lord should also go along with them so is it still with me and all thine wert not thou with and in us what could thine Angels do for us In thee it is that they move and are The same infinite Spirit which works in and by them works also in me From thee it is O thou blessed and eternall Spirit that I have any stirrings of holy motions any breathings of good desires any life of grace any will to resist any power to overcome evill It is thou O God that girdest me with strength unto battell thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation thy right hand hath holden me up thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies Glory and praise be to thee O Lord which alwaies causest us to triumph in Christ who crownest us with loving kindnesse and tender mercies and hast not held us short of the best of thy favours Truly Lord hadst thou given us but a meer beeing as thou hast done to the lowest rank of thy creatures it had been more then thou owest us more then ever we could be able to requite to thy divine bounty for every beeing is good and the least degree of good is farre above our worthiness But that to our beeing thou hast added life it is yet an higher measure of thy mercy for certainly of thy common favours life is the most precious yet this is such a benefit as may be had and not perceived for even the plants of the earth live and feel it not that to our life therefore thou hast made a further accession of sense it is yet a larger improvement of thy beneficence for this faculty hath some power to manage life and makes it capable to affect those means which may tend to the preservation of it and to decline the contrary but this is no other then the brute creatures enjoy equally with us and some of them beyond us that therefore to our sense thou hast blessed us with a further addition of reason it is yet an higher pitch of munificence for hereby we are men and as such are able to attain some knowledge of thee our Creator to observe the motions of the heavens to search into the natures of our fellow-creatures to passe judgement upon actions and events and to transact these earthly affairs to our own best advantage But when all this is done wo were to us if we were but men for our corrupted reason renders us of all creatures the most miserable that therefore to our reason thou hast superadded faith to our nature grace and of men hast made us Christians and to us as such hast given thy Christ thy Spirit and thereby made us of enemies sons and heirs co-heirs with Christ of thine eternall and most glorious kingdome of heaven yea hast incorporated us into thy self and made us one spirit with thee our God Lord what room can there be possibly in these strait and narrow hearts of ours for a due admiration of thy transcendent love and mercy I am swallowed up O God I am willingly swallowed up in this bottomelesse abysse of thine infinite love and there let me dwell in a perpetuall ravishment of spirit till being freed from this clog of earth and filled with the fulness of Christ I shall be admitted to enjoy that which I cannot now reach to wonder at thine incomprehensible blisse and glory which thou laid up in the highest heavens for them that love thee in the blessed communion of all thy Saints and Angels thy Cherubim and Seraphim Thrones Dominions and Principalities and Powers in the beatificall presence of thee the ever-living God the eternall Father of Spirits Father Son holy Ghost one infinite Deity in three co-essentially co-eternally co-equally glorious persons To whom
a perpetuall light the heaven of heavens is open to none but him thither his eye pierceth and beholds those beams of inaccessible glory which shine in no face but his The deep mysteries of godlinesse which to the great Clerks of the world are as a book clasped and sealed up lye open before him fair and legible and whiles those book-men know whom they have heard of he knowes whom he hath beleeved He will not suffer his Saviour to be ever out of his eye and if through some worldly interceptions he lose the fight of that blessed object for a time he zealously retrives him not without an angry theck of his own mis-carriage and is now so much the more fixed by his former flackning so as he will hence forth sooner part with his soul then his Redeemer The termes of entirenesse wherein he stands with the Lord of life are such as he can feel but cannot expresse though hee should borrow the language of Angels it is enough that they two are one spirit His reason is willingly captivated to his faith his will to his reason and his affections to both He fears nothing that he sees in comparison of that which he sees not and displeasure is more dreadfull to him then smart Good is the adequate object of his love which he duly proportions according to the degrees of its eminence affecting the chief good not without a certain ravishment of spirit the lesser with a wise and holy moderation Whether he do more hate sin or the evill spirit that suggests it is a question Earthly contents are too mean grounds whereon to raise his joy these as he baulks not when they meet him in his way so he doth not too eagerly pursue he may taste of them but so as he had rather fast then surfet He is not insensible of those losses which casualty or enmity may inflict but that which lies most heavily upon his heart is his sin This makes his sleep short and troublesome his meals stomachlesse his recreations listlesse his every thing tedious till he finde his soul acquitted by his great Surety in heaven which done he feels more peace and pleasure in his calm then he found horrour in the tempest His heart is the store-house of most precious graces That faith whereby his soul is established triumphs over the world whether it allure or threaten and bids defiance to all the powers of darknesse not fearing to be foiled by any opposition His hope cannot be discouraged with the greatest difficulties but bears up against naturall impossiblities and knows how to reconcile contradictions His charity is both extensive and servent barring out no one that bears the face of a man but pouring out it self upon the houshold of faith that studies good constructions of men and actions and keeps it self free both from suspicion and censure Grace doth not more exalt him then his humility depresses him Were it not for that Christ who dwels in him he could think himself the meanest of all creatures now he knows he may not disparage the Deity of him by whom he is so gloriously inhabited in whose only right he can be as great in his own thoughts as he is despicable in the eyes of the world He is wise to God-ward however it be with him for the world and well knowing he cannot serve two masters he cleaves to the better making choice of that good part which can never be taken from him not so much regarding to get that which he cannot keep as to possesse himself of that good which he cannot lose He is just in all his dealings with men hating to thrive by injury and oppression and will rather leave behind something of his own then filch from anothers heap He is not close fisted where there is just occasion of his distribution willingly parting with those metals which he regards only for use not caring for either their colour or substance earth is to him no other then it self in what â—hiew so ever it appeareth In every good cause he is bold as a Lion and can neither fear faces nor shrink at dangers and is rather heartned with opposition pressing so much the more where he finds a large door open and many adversaries and when he must suffer doth as resolutely stoop as he did before valiantly resist He is holily temperate in the use of all Gods blessings as knowing by whom they are given and to what end neither dares either to mis-lay them or to mis-spend them lavishly as duly weighing upon what tearmes he receives them and fore-expecting an account Such an hand doth he carry upon his pleasures and delights that they run not away with him he knows how to slacken the reins without a debauched kind of dissolutenesse and how to straiten them without a sullen rigour SECT 2. His expence of the day HE lives as a man that hath borrowed his time and challenges not to be an owner of it caring to spend the day in a gracious and well-governed thrift His first mornings task after he hath lifted up his heart to that God who gives his beloved sleep shall be to put himself into a due posture wherein to entertain himself and the whole day which shall be done if he shall effectually work his thoughts to a right apprehension of his God of himself of all that may concern him The true posture of a Christian then is this He sees still heaven open to him and beholds and admires the light inaccessible he sees the all-glorious God ever before him the Angels of God about him the evill spirits aloof off enviously groyning and repining at him the world under his feet willing to rebell but forced to be subject the good creatures ready to tender their service to him and is accordingly affected to all these he sees heaven open with joy and desire of fruition he sees God with an adoring awfulnesse he sees the Angels with a thankfull acknowledgement and care not to offend them he sees the evill spirits with hatred and watchfull indignation he sees the world with an holy imperiousnesse commanding it for use and scorning to stoop to it for observance Lastly he sees the good creatures with gratulation and care to improve them to the advantage of him that lent them Having thus gathered up his thoughts and found where he is he may now be fit for his constant devotion which he fals upon not without a trembling veneration of that infinite and incomprehensible Majesty before whom he is prostrate now he climes up into that heaven which he before did but behold and solemnly pours out his soul in hearty thanksgivings and humble supplications into the bosome of the Almighty wherein his awe is so tempered with his faith that whiles he labours under the sense of his own vilenesse he is raised up in the confidence of an infinite mercy now he renues his feeling interest in the Lord Jesus Christ his blessed Redeemer and labours to get in every