the Will of God being the grand purpose of his heart in all he doth delivers him into a holy Rest and maintains an inclination to work still without repining because he is assured his work is not in vain in the Lord. So far as the Will of God appears he is quiet with joy because the pleasure of his work lies in doing God's Will and not his own Communion with God makes up every Breach with an All-sufficiency Disappointments do lock him up within the Sanctuary of God and keeps the Soul at home in the pure tastes of that Communion with God in which it lives Psal 73. 17 25. in a readiness to every good work His good Actions though small as a Cup of cold Water or successless as Isaiah's preaching seemed to him to be Isa 49. 4. yet those works cannot be lost because Communion with God cannot be lost in the vertue of which those works were done through Jesus Christ But while I am thus travelling The Soul sensible of a cold Fit through the Consideration of several P 〈…〉 s redounding to a Believer 〈…〉 way of fruitfulness therein I feel methinks many cold fits to seize upon me as it was in the day that Abraham was troubled with the Fowls which fell upon the Carcases which God commanded him to divide for confirmation of his Promise which Abraham drove away till the Sun went down and when a deep sleep and horrour of great darkness fell upon him then even then did a fresh assurance of the Covenant break forth upon him as Gen. 15. 13. So while I am pursuing after this Salvation of God I find the Clouds gather about me I find not the same sensible Entertainment of the Salvation of God in my heart as sometimes I have done my Soul is filled with guilt and weakness and therefore am forced to retire back from the pursuing the necessary and practical Meditations about the Conversation of Godliness for a season lest I leave an Enemy at my back that is ready to invade me which Enemy if it please the Lord to scatter by his Spirit I shall be more able to attempt the Meditations of the works of Holiness and have fresh Activity to put on the Garments of Fruitfulness in the Service which I owe to Jesus Christ my Lord than methinks for present I am Inward Rejoycing and Peace has been much bruised for certain days by weakness guilt and distraction that has seized on my heart there it lies like a Mountain of Lead when my thoughts would turn inwards I hear nothing but Outcries of Accusation and Guilt possessing my heart I can find no shelter at home I am forced to fly abroad for a Lodging for Company and Food I am now invited to renew my self a Nest above my own heart my heart is grown hard dark and weak it prevails against my former sense of Divine Presence and while it is thus filled with the clamours of Death and Confusion methinks I hear the Spirit and Bridegroom say Come arise this is not your Rest lanch forth through the Ocean of Free Grace and let not thy expectation hanker towards thy self though thy flesh fail and thy heart fail yet God is the strength of thy heart and thy portion for ever My work is to go forth and Oh that I could make a fair Escape to him who stands upon the Shoar to receive me it is not a few Meditations that will do it it needs a Redeemer's hand to fetch me out and pull me up The delight of the New Man is The Soul flies out of all manner of selfish help to Jesus Christ only to be under the Government of the Spirit only and all the Issues of the Spirit flow from the heart of Christ only by which the heart of a Believer is made new in him This Newness lies especially in the Spirit of a Believer which complies with the Spirit of God in the Witness of Adoption even whiles the contradiction of defiled Nature warreth against it And upon the single Interest of this Consideration and Union betwixt Christ and the Soul yielding it self to the renewing of his Spirit doth Faith go forth and claim Forrein Aid viz. the Aid of Jesus Christ to whom it is united in Conveyance of which Aid Christ first takes the Soul more closely into the vertue of that Union that every crumb of his help may truly savour of that Relation which is betwixt him and the Soul through the New Covenant and gives out no saving and effectual Aid otherwise than as the Product and Off-spring of that Union that so Christ may be all in all as the Treasury and efficient Cause of all Relief and that the Soul through spiritual Union only might derive that Relief to it self by Faith and as the Foundation of the Union lies on free Grace so the Application thereof and the abundant help arising thence is carried on through the method of free Grace only for Faith can converse with nothing in order to the Life of the New Man but Free Grace only in the Promse The very nature of free Promises do present to the Soul the consideration of all Relief to lie originally in God and that the Soul is invited thither only to fetch it and cannot possibly return empty for the dispensation of which Grace to the Sons of Men God manifests himself in the Person of the Son who dwells in Humane Nature displaying the Evidence of this Grace in the Gospel and by his Spirit persuades the believing Soul to accept and improve it And the Soul being thus persuaded that his life lies in Christ upon a free Covenant grounded in God's Decree established on free Promises may not stay to ask leave of his guilty heart whether he be fit to lay hold upon this Deliverance but must rather consider the freeness of Grace Pardon and Righteousness which is in this new and living way which God hath made and not Man If Elijah had poured only on the parched Earth that was under his feet he could have had no Argument of Moysture to arise from thence but having by faith prayed to him who governed the Clouds down came Rain and the Drought vanished Guilt of Sin is like a Hedge or a Wall that can easily keep the heart in Impenitency and Unbelief but when Faith working by Repentance seizeth on Jesus Christ it gives Wings to the Soul of a Believer to fly up above all those hindrances of natural Guilt and Weakness and though Sin and Death remain in his Flesh yet he is got beyond the Captivity of the Law of Sin which can no more keep him from the Freedom wherewith Christ hath made him free than a Hedge can keep an Eagle from soaring up in the Air. The Sap which feeds Guilt is Unbelief now when the Sap is withdrawn the Tree dies away by degrees although it remains in its place for a season so is it with the Old Man it combers the heart a while but
one of his People in Jesus Christ and my heart assenting to and being somewhat refreshed in those Truths of God about the nature and advantagious effects of this misterious Union and considering how greatly the Faith and Improvement of this astonishing Privilege would conduce to carry on the ends of my Covenant with God and his for so he persuaded my heart to believe with me I thought it necessary to employ a present providential Retirement this 29th of January 1663. and so from time to time as God shall permit and assist me to improve this Gospel-truth of a Believer's Union with God in Christ for my Soul 's further Nourishment Strength and Establishment as the principal In-let both of new Life and all spiritual Chear Vigour and Activity My Enquiry now then is how to set up this Myrror so before the eyes of my Mind that I may by Application thereof be throughly transformed into the same Image and to clear the Pipes that the Life and Spirit of this Union with Christ and the Father in him may enter into my Soul and make me effectually a partaker thereof live thereby and act therein Breath O Almighty Spirit upon my thoughts fetch in my heart and prostrate it at the feet of thy infinite Grace and Power for Purging Help and Healing for Light Life and Blessing in this most necessary Travel of my Soul How long shall I view Mysteries of Life without a suitable living Transformation When shall the Light of Life appear When shall Christ be so formed in me that the Man-child of Power and Glory may be brought forth ruling and new-forming my poor Soul Say Oh say to my Soul I am come yea I am come not only to make thee to understand but understandingly to receive the Mystery of this Union and to be efficaciously united and actually live in the Motions and Exercise of this Union-life So be it O my God who art the Spirit of all Grace So be it 1. The Son of God emptied himself This Vnion is pure in its nature in descending to assume and be united to the Nature of Man and therein to the likeness of sinful Flesh and so works up every adopted Child through emptying it from all the Wisdom and Strength of the first Adam and from all the Guilt and Pollution derived thence to the Participation of Union with him in the Spirit No unclean thing can enter in thither there can be no Union but under Consideration of perfect Purity essected by the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ He took on him our Nature and was personally united thereto By which means the sin of our Nature was imputed to his Person but could never be united to his Person for he was still sinless while he bare the likeness of sinful Flesh Heb. 4. 15. And therefore the real spiritual Union which Believers have with him is in the nature of it pure and sinless and their persons as they stand in that Union without spot Col. 1 22. for in that respect they are wholly brought over from the Stock of the first Adam into the Second adn return back no more although the polluted Nature of the first Adam sticks in their flesh till its dissolution and compleat change And from thence it follows that the Spirit of Christ in applying this mystical Union with him to the Soul by faith draws the Soul of a Believer having sprinkled it from the Conscience of Guilt into a most quick and lively distaste of all Pollution and so divides between that which is born of the Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit throwing aside the Pollutions of the Flesh that the Union may be purely made in the Spirit through faith Gal. 2. 20. for He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit Hence it is that while Guilt and sinful Pollution invades the Soul even of a Believer the Application of this Union lies suspended and during that season a Believer abides dark and weak and though he be in a state of Union yet he cannot have the comfort of it but is as a strong Man that cannot find his hands And now O my Soul consider thy own state consider the Centre of thy happiness the Call of the Gospel the privilege and necessity of being transplanted into the pure Stock of the second Adam and what thou art to do in the strength of Free Grace for entring into and of being made partaker of this wonderful Privilege and most secure Rest 2. This whole Work is wrought It is inconsistent with Vnmortifiedness by the Lord both in what his eternal Purpose of Grace did decree and was carried on in the Person of Christ for thee and also in that which he worketh in thee by his Spirit to make thee actually interested established and daily growing up in the Light Life and Vertue of this Union-state with God in Christ Thy Nature is dead in sins thou art wholly polluted and without strength but the least serious Conviction of this doth import some step of Free Grace towards thee nourish it and so rowl all thy Guilt upon the Lamb of God be laborious diligent and frequent in this weighty Exercise There is no seeking this Union with any Idol in the heart Ezek. 14. 3. for that provoketh to Jealousie even an impure thought may not lodge in this Bed a dry earthly sapless frame of heart cannot be refreshed there because this Bed is green Cant. 1. 16. but such is the Bounty of Free Grace that through the Sense and Conviction of this Indisposition of heart it leads the Soul to Jesus Christ and sprinkles it with his Blood Oh this efficacious Remedy and doth wash it again in pure Water removes away the filthy Garments gives it Access into the King's Presence The pure in heart shall see God But thy innumerable Impurities O my Soul and the continual Recursion of Guilt and Darkness Hypocrisies loathsome Uncleannesses Unmindfulness of God Back-sliding and impenitent stupifying Fits are so many and so often and many times so captivating this Sincerity and Strength and spiritual Taste that no Balm can be found nor any thing to help but the free Bounty and Atonement of him who is Michael thy Prince And even this is my Case at present Oh how little doth my heart relish and digest these things while I am musing and writing them I am estranged from inward Converse with God this day and yet cannot soakingly relent I mention the Blood of Sprinkling without prizing it at its due value Oh let the watchful Eye and tender Heart of him whose Compassions fail not consider and visit me But however O my Soul this is thy Work Let not Evil lodge within thee be separate touch no unclean thing declare thy Chastity by crying out and then the Promise lies fair and free before thee I will receive you 2 Cor. 6. 17. yea cry out and thou shalt be rescued for thy Redeemer is strong Here
Reconciliation brings let it not rest in the Understanding but pass along into some real transforming Impression on the Will that it may be won home to God in Christ the Centre of thy new State Get within the Scope and Spirit of the matter for there lies Christ attending to meet thee In Reading Observe and get into the Soul as it were of him who 2. Reading was the Writer whether Moses David Paul or any other as if thy self had been the Pen-man by the Inspiration of the Spirit Use the Scriptures as if this had been the first day they had been penned as if thou hadst seen the persons and hadst been in the place with them when they spake and wrote it as if thou hadst seen Christ when he spake did and suffered what thou readest and as if the Scriptures had been sent only to thee to win and work thee up to a Reconcilement with God Labour to see the Wisdom and Goodness of God in the Seals of the 3. Seals Covenant Their end is to realize invisible things to enforce the Obligation and Union between Christ and thee to the strongest Evidence and Application By Baptism thou art taken in and by the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper thou art fed and nowrished up in this Union There was no other end than this as the main Union with Christ as the Head and with his People as the Members of his Body The vertue is inward Oh for more faith and sight in this Mystery TOKENS among Men do oblige and are very forcible they carry in them the Mind of the Giver and the Token being candidly accepted the Mind of the Giver is accepted and in that Token there meets Consent and Union betwixt Giver and Reciever They have as it were a magnetick force and a confirming force also as the experience of such things do shew Thus it is with those mysterious Tokens between Christ and his People Muse them and improve them so And as all Ordinances are the Galleries of Intercourse between God and 4. Prayer his People in Christ so Prayer hath in this Work an Eminency 't is the very Intercession of God's own Spirit in them 't is the private Retirement in which the Soul is brought into the Presence-Chamber and hath private Conference with Christ and the Father in him The very nature of Prayer is a Thirst after the living God Psal 63. 1. 'T is the very breathing of the Soul's Union with God and the means whereby it is preserved fortified carried on and confirmed and whereby the sweetness and nourishing vertue of it to the Soul is improved enjoyed and increased Let thy Prayers then be inward and single hearted chiefly aiming at and prizing this Union And refer all other things of a remote nature to the wisdom of him to whom thou art united Speak to him as one who is in his bosom and consider him as thy only Helper and thy most sure Friend Come reverently believingly with Resignation of thine heart to his and so creep forwards into an humble intimacy and familiarity with thy God This Union only begets the true Cry Abba Father and nourisheth it And if Faith can but enter with all its glorious Train how would this This Divine Vnion quickned and stirring in the Soul by faith Union shine forth Faith springs from this Union in order of Nature but in order of time 't is brought forth with it There can be no Faith or any other Grace till the God of all Grace hath took the Soul into actual Union with himself and so Faith is the Fruit of this Union Neither can there be any Union without some exercise of Faith in which the life of this Union begins to stir for there can be no Union between God who is living and the Soul which by Nature is dead in distance and sin till Faith which is the first spark of life in the new Creature do capacitate the Soul for its Union with God in Christ The Spirit of this Union by every spiritual means doth hold out Nourishment for Faith to grow by and Faith by those means settles the Soul more and more in the bosom warmth and efficaciousness of its Union with Christ and the Father in him In which Interest and Efficaciousness Faith grows up and puts the Soul upon high and noble exercise enables it and acts it forth to mighty attempts so that the actual Union of God to in and with the Soul is the first Principle of its life and Faith is the first Motion of that life There can be no Life without some Motion no natural Motion without some Life which quality of Motion does more and more declare that there is Life as the cause thereof The Soul being made alive to God Ephes 2. 1. Rom. 6. 11. lives Apprehending Christ as the primary Means of this Vnion by faith Gal. 2. 20. Habbak 2. 4. The Primary Means in the hand of God's Free Grace which accomplisheth this Union is Christ who hath taken the common Nature of Man into Union with his Person and in that Nature the fulness of the Godhead dwelling therein bodily he doth by his Spirit breath the Spirit of Life into those who by the Election of Grace are given to him as his Posterity and therefore as the ends of the Earth are given to him for a Possession Psa 2. 8. so he is called the Creator of the ends of the Earth Isa 40. 28. and Creator of this Peace and Union Ephes 2. 16 17. Isa 57. 19. and the everlasting Father also Isa 9. 6. by whom as Mediator the living God and the enlivened Soul which was dead and sinful before are made one viz. in the Life and Purity of the Mediator He reconciles them removing the Enmity in his own Body on the Cross He unites by receiving the Souls and Bodies of the Elect into his own Propriety They are actually his in their new Creation and Regeneration Joh. 17. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 17. and being his they are the Fathers also I in them and thou in me and they in us Joh. 17. 21 23. The Secondary Mens is the Word And the Word as the Secundary Means of this Vnion of Reconciliation and Promise 2 Cor. 5. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 4. and Faith closing with Christ thereby Gal. 3. 25. Ephes 1. 13. and all this wrought by the Spirit in a way of quickning and efficacy Rom. 8. 10 11. conveyed into the Soul and maintained there by Faith the free Gift of God Which Faith being thus born bred Renders Faith vigorous and spirited converseth most with this Union in the Discoveries and Application thereof and by its much Converse there is capacitated to dart the Rays Influence and vertue of this Union into all the rest of the Graces of the Spirit without which influence no Grace comes up to its true and proper exercise And in regard the whole Soul is taken into this Union by Faith and the Body also
DIVINE CONTEMPLATIONS AND Spiritual Breathings OF Mr. HENRY DORNEY Comprised in I. Practical DISCOURSES 1. Of the Nature Means and Method of Salvation on Isa 45. 17. 2. How to find God a Sanctuary in time of Trouble With the manner of the Author 's entring into Covenant with God on Rev. 1. 5. 3. Of Union with Christ on Joh. 17. 23. 4. Of Glorifying God on 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. With an Appendix how to pursue a Lawful Thing Lawfully II. His LETTERS III. His Last and Dying Speeches and Prayers Also an Account of his Life at the Close of the Preface LONDON Printed by James Rawlins for John Wright at the Crown on Ludgate-Hill 1684. THE PREFACE WHEN we see any extraordinary Effect 't is usual for us to enquire the Cause whether it be in things Natural Artificial or Moral Every new Appearance in the Heavens invites us to consider its Reason Any useful Engine framed by exquisite Art tempts the Curious to examine its inward Springs and Movements And when we observe a Person to manage his Province or Affairs succesfully we are willing to know the Rules and Measures by which he guides himself There is the like Tendency in the renewed Soul when it sees any one of extraordinary Elevation in Religion and Holiness to consider the inward Principles that act them The AVTHOR was observed to be a Person of great Wisdom and singular Holiness equally admired and loved by those who knew him And some who had the happiness to be intimately acquainted with him and have heard with what Clearness and inward Sense he would discourse of the sublimest things in Religion have been ready to say what was once said of Christ Whence hath this Man this Learning Whence did he derive his Knowledge and Holiness But the following DISCOVRSES lay open unto us the inward Springs of them both It hath been observed that there is nothing more influential upon the Divine Life than a constant and deep Impression of our own Corruption and Impotence together with a continual Dependance upon the Redeemer's Grace both which were in an eminent degree visible in him There is throughout the whole of his Discourses an admirable Depression of Sin and Self with an Exaltation of Christ and Divine Grace and a believing Admiration of his Person with a continual living upon him in the Exercises of Faith and Love And indeed there is no true Spring of Holiness but Faith in the Mediator the Purchaser of all Grace and the Spirit the Conveyer of it from which some having turned away have made Shipwrack both of Faith Holiness and even of Moral Vertue too There hath not been there cannot be any steady and firm Principle of Holiness but Faith in Christ Jesus the abundant Efficacy of which upon the Divine Life the AVTHOR was a very sensible and full Instance of If there be any thing in the following DISCOVRSES which may recede from Theological Accuracy you must know that he was but a private Person The Manner of his Phrase is somewhat peculiar yet such as he found most proper to express his inward Sentiments and whereas he could as he said to a Friend have altered and refined the Phrase yet he did rather let it alone writing it only for his own private use judging too that as he had his in Meditations a very special Assistance from the Spirit of God so the words which cloathed them were most genuine natural and agreeable to his purpose And indeed there is such a lively and sensible Affection in his Style that nothing else but an intimate feeling and experience of the things themselves could suggest which doth at the same time equally instruct and move In the Discourse of finding God a Sanctuary he doth in a very express manner enter into Covenant with God which may both encourage and direct in the performance of it Some holy Divines in their practical Discourses have advised to this but there are few who have put it in practice nay many have alledged this as the reason of their backwardness to it the sense that they had of their inability to perform it and the making it in so solemn a manner and then transgressing the same it might but involve them in the greater difficulties of Mind But the AVTHOR doth it in that way and manner as to take off the force of this Objection which doth much arise from the ignorance of the nature of the Gospel-Covenant wherein God calls us to nothing but what he hath promised his Grace shall enable us to perform He addresseth himself unto it in a very great sense of his own weakness and the Riches of Divine Grace relying on that to enable him to perform the Covenant on his part By which means his entring into Covenant was so far from being a Snare to him of which he was very cautious as that it became a mighty Support to his Faith and Assurance So that his Sins and Infirmities which were more discernable to himself than others did not make him as he said to question his Interest in the Covenant he found that an undue way of procedure but did excite him by a fresh Application of the Blood of Sprinkling according to the Tenure of that new Covenant to seek out both their Pardon and Mortification there being a Provision of Righteousness and Strength in it through him who is the Mediator and Head of it His LETTERS are but a very few in comparison of those multitudes that he wrote of the like nature and import more of which could not be procured And for Brevity sake the Preface and Close are sometimes omitted with what related to Civil Affairs He had a most earnest desire to do good So that what was said of Timothy may be well applied to him That he did naturally care for the Good of Men. And therefore he would both by his Exhortations when present and his Letters when absent endeavour to promote the spiritual Welfare of those who were blest with his Acquaintance As to his last and DYING SPEECHES and PRAYERS they were taken from him without his Observation by those who were constantly with him and were greatly affected therewith In which there may be some things a little abrupt by reason of his great weakness and pains diverting him But they have in them that deep savour of Religion and express so powerful a sense of Divine Grace as 't is thought they would not be unacceptable to serious Persons To conclude What is here exposed to view was without the AVTHOR's design and at the desire of Relations and Friends who being greatly affected therewith judged it might leave some good Impressions on those who read it wherein we have an useful Systeme of practical Divinity written with an inward Sense and Experience manifesting the vigorous and lively actings of Grace and giving us a clear and distinct Anatomy of his excellent Spirit How sublimely doth he soar in his Contemplations viewing Christ both in his Person and
spirit and sence of this short word Saved Isa 49. 6. reacheth The meaning of Salvation far even to the ends of the Earth It importeth a state of security from the evil of sin Mat. 1. 21. of Enemies Luk. 1. 71. of Satan 2 Tim. 2. 26. of Hell Wrath Condemnation 1 Thes 1. 10. from the evil of all distress in this life c. Gen. 48. 16. and hereafter 1 Thes 1. 10. It importeth an investiture and possession of all real good in this life and in that to come viz. Conversion Calling Acts 11. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 9. Justification Sanctification Adoption Strength Acceptation with God Blessing Manifestation of God Knowledge of the Truth and every good thing that may tend to enable the heirs of life to dispatch their work quit themselves victorious and lead them at last to their Fathers house Act. 4. 12. 1 Joh. 1. 9. Jer. 31. 9. Jer. 15. 20. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Psal 28. 9. Isa 35. 4. Act. 11. 14. Deut. 33. 29. the walls whereof are God's part thereby for discharging of which he is made a high Priest and so he procures it and maintains it in the power of a King and reveals it as a Prophet all which Offices he was anointed to and qualified for in his own Person And by reason of that Essential Union with the Godhead in which he stood the Father delights in and owns him as Son of Man and doth every way suit with him as the Father of such a Son who is both God and Man The Spirit also which proceedeth from the Father and the Son doth through the same Union of the Divine Essence also suit with him and operate by and through him as the Spirit of him who is both God and Man in one Person Hence ariseth the Perfection and absolute Compleatness of the Mediatorship I am not alone saith Christ but I and the Father that sent me Joh. 8. 16. And the comforting Spirit shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Joh. 16. 14. For the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily Col. 2. 9. and joyntly and carries on the work of Mediatorship which was personally untertook by the Eternal Son who is made Emanuel And this answers the Question which Philip made Shew us the Father Hast thou not seen me saith Christ He that hath seen me viz. by the eye of Faith as I really am and ought to be looked upon hath seen the Father Joh. 14. 7. Every Action and Revelation of himself is the Revelation of the Father Son and Spirit in the distinguishable working of each Person and yet united in the same God who worketh all in all Christ suffered as the Son of such a Father and the Father in this design of Mediatorship was cloathed with a true Fatherly Relation to the incarnate suffering Son and the Eternal Spirit which proceedeth from the Father and the Son did put forth his Almighty Essential Vertue in the offering up of the Body of Christ upon the Cross Which Union of Father Son and Spirit in God our Saviour Tit. 2. 13. appears in Joh. 17. and Heb. 9. 14. So that all the Persons in the saving of Man doth as it were concenter and work together in the Person of the Mediator The Will of the Father Joh. 4. 34. The Mercy of the Son Heb. 4. 13 14. And the Power of the Spirit Heb. 9. 14. and Rom. 1. 4. All which being one in the Divine Essence of God meet together in the Person of the Son who is according to the Eternal Decree God and Man through his Union with and in the Godhead God thus manifested in the Flesh and as Father Son and Spirit laying the foundation of Mediatorship in Jesus Christ the Eternal Son God and Man doth also in and with him carry it on as a Father to and Spirit of him who is God-man And for this cause the Gospel is called the Word of Truth in respect not only of the Matter of it but the legal Testimony that it receives from these three Witnesses as the Declaration of the Counsel of their own Essential Will and Purpose And in regard the Son of God in the Name and Co-working of Father Son and Spirit undertook the Mediatorship by taking Man's Nature every mortal person that has the nature of Man stands alike near to him in the Dispensation of the Gospel-Call It puts aside other Mediators The Angels are Spirits and have not Humane Nature in which to mediate for Man Christ himself is nearer to us than they are he is Man The Spirits of Just Men made perfect cannot mediate for us for though they are Humane yet they want living Bodies but Christ has his Humane Body with him and therefore is nearer to Men who are cloathed with Flesh Neither can one mortal Man mediate as a Mediator 'twixt God and Man because though he have the Humane Nature in him yet it is in him personally and not representing the whole Race of Man as the pure Nature of Christ the second Adam doth And besides Mortal Man is but Man but Christ is both God and Man that he might lay his hand on both parties God and Man to reconcile them together as they are reconciled in the Person of the Mediator Col. 1. 19 20 21 22. Promises cannot mediate for Man has no right to them but through Christ first Duties cannot mediate because they are loathsome without a foregoing Interest in Christ Graces cannot mediate because they are Fruits of Reconciliation through the Mediator the Fruit cannot be the cause of the Root from whence they come So that as Jesus Christ in being Mediator took our Nature viz. that Humane Nature that is in every person of Mankind into immediate Union with the Godhead dwelling in his Person so this Jesus Christ God and Man in the Relation he bears to the Father and Spirit and they to him in their mutual concurrence in this great work of his Mediation with him having sealed and anointed him thereto that he might compleatly effect it he is the true immediate Object of a Believer's eye and he who renouncing all other names and helps flies thither shall be saved by him Act. 4. 12. He that seeth the Son and believeth on him shall have everlasting life His appearing in the Promises doth make them a Convoy to bring the Soul to him which would otherwise be no better Guides than the Light to a blind Man His presence in Duties makes them the way and door of approach which would otherwise be no better Guides by single gazing on and using of them than a Lanthorn in a Man's hand can be a Guide by gazing on it and leading himself round about in a Circle by the light thereof not minding the way or the door to find which that light was appointed and intended The Graces of his Spirit are the Beams of that Excellency that is in his Person and the Streams which flow from the Fountain which are subject to
my own management and power to exercise the same This is the true Life of Faith this is the way of walking up and down in the Name of the Lord. When I actually acknowledge every Measure of Spiritual Strength to hold its Tenure from Jesus Christ singly and wholly and rest confidently upon him for it and that because he hath promised both Grace Glory and every good thing judging him faithful who hath promised and owning him thereon for my Inheritance and my self nothing but what he is for me Then I may be said to trust Jesus Christ and to trust in him only I trust him upon his Word to be All for me which I would spiritually be and I trust in him to enjoy the same through the Faith of my Interest in him and his abounding Grace and Unction This cuts the heart of Self-Pride spiritual Surfeiting and Slothfulness when I live every moment at the mercy of another even Jesus Christ both for Justifying Righteousness and every Influence thereof by the immediate Breathings of his Spirit according to his good pleasure having not the power so much as to make one Hair white or black but I must wholly work by his Hands see by his Eyes and in his Light behold the Light What more powerful Inducement can there be to Self-denial than this Boasting is excluded because Christ in his own Person and by his own Spirit doth whatsoever is done for me or in me Here lies the Mystery and Labour of Faith which the meer Notion thereof can never reach unto so as to improve the same to a self-denying Activity for God in the paths of Godliness and Travel towards Zion There is in our dear Lord Jesus Christ spiritually not personally communicated to Believers a two-fold Excellency to his Redeemed as he is their Portion His Essential Power Righteousness Goodness and Perfection in the Godhead and his proper Humane Nature personally united thereunto Col. 2. 9. and neither of these considered as such can be communicated unto the Children of Men his Person cannot be divided imparted or broken And there is another Excellency flowing from the former by way of Influence and inward Vertue communicated to the hearts of the Redeemed by Regeneration which formeth reneweth and quickneth the New Man the new Creature in the Soul The first of these though it cannot in a strict sense be communicated yet it is wholly by Covenant given to the Saints Isa 49. 8. So that God in his vast Essential Infiniteness is their God and his ve-Body that was dead and is now alive was also given to the Elect Isa 9. 6. and is become theirs by Covenant and they enjoy it in that Right though it remains personally to be his own and not theirs but for them to all Eternity the Excellency of which God and Man in the Perfection of both Natures is so far reckoned and imputed theirs by covenant-Covenant-Union and Mystical Ingrafture as may perfectly deliver them from all Evil and fill them with all Righteousness Purity and Perfection which Creature-capacity can take in for the enjoying of the Glory of God So that the Person of the Mediator remains distinct from the persons of the Redeemed and are not mixed but united through the Spirit in the Covenant and his Personal Assumption of the Humane Nature by Faith exercised therein Hence it is that the Interest The Advantages of Christ's being without us personally and yet spiritually in us who believe which the Saints have in Christ is enjoyable by them singly through believing which Enjoyment through the spiritual Nature of the Union is as certain strong and sure as whatsoever they enjoy in their own persons by sense and feeling Ephes 3. 17. Rom. 4. 16. And thus Christ as to the Perfection of his Person being without us and above us and yet by the Communication of the Spirit through Faith made near to us and dwelling in us yields much privilege and unspeakable advantage to a Believer viz. 1. The Excellency of a Believer's Portion in Christ is hereby more distinctly viewed the Soul has hereby room to go round about the unspotted Lustre of his Person and View him from head to foot as the Church in the Canticles doth Cant. 5. 10. as the choicest of ten thousands whereas the Glory of the same Christ as far as it appears only in the heart by Operation is much dimmed and sullyed with the defilement that is there and continual Conflicts but considering him seperated far away from sin and sinners Heb. 7. 26. furnished with utmost Perfection and cloathed with Garments of compleat Victory and Beauty in the behalf of his Redeemed This fills their hearts with joy and their mouths with singing 2. He is thereby become also the livelier Object of their Love for the eye affects the heart and nourisheth spiritual Enflamedness towards him Distance 'twixt the Soul and so excellent an Object I say distance of this sort between the Eye and its Object through Propriety in him enamours the Mind and withall it provokes desire towards him Cant. 6. 11. and makes the Soul of a Believer cry out for more nearness Come O my Beloved this desire quickens expectation to rejoyce in hope and leaves no room for a loathing wearisome Fulness in the heart 3. This objective enjoyment of Christ gives foundation for a kindly refuge in him it rationally leads the inward Man to depart from all other selfs and run to this objective self Jesus Christ through the drawing vertue of spiritual Union with him Cant. 1. 4. and thus was Christ typed out by the Cities of Refuge 4. This Enjoyment of Christ by way of Object is also a Fountain of Recovery when the Soul is foiled it can fetch fresh righteousness fresh pardon and be anointed again and again with fresh Oyl Psal 92. 10. as David speaks and seventy seven times a day yea every moment as oft as the heart pants after him 5. 'T is also a Fountain of Ease by pouring out a Complaint into his bosom 'T is great refreshment to have a Friend to whom one may declare ones misery were it only to receive pity from his hands Job 16. 14. but in Christ looked upon by Faith there is a power as well as pity to help be the Affliction and Burden what it will be Heb. 5. 2. and how great soever 6. 'T is a Fountain also of Confidence and hence doth the Prophet Micah in the name of the people of God argue against the Triumph of the Enemy Mic. 7. 7 8. I will look unto the Lord c. and therefore Rejoyce not over me O my enemy though I fall I shall rise again And Christ himself doth teach his people Confidence by his own Example in the day of his suffering Isa 50. 8. Rom. 8. 33 34. in that his Father was near to justifie him 7. Christ thus taken up helps against the solitariness of our Journey towards Heaven a Believer has a friend to talk with by
not return ashamed but be kept in the more wakeful pursuits after him and while I follow him I am with him in my desire and if I desire him he desires me and there we meet Cant. 7. 10. in the Communion of desires till the shadows flee away A Sluggard indeed desireth and hath not because his hands refuse to labour Prov. 21 25. but a laborious desire after Christ enjoys him in the eye of Faith and Scripture-evidence Rev. 21. 6. and 22. 17. Joh. 7. 38. and therefore in the patience and faith of the Scriptures I have hope And what though some outward disadvantage has been occasioned which yet I know not of by this Retirement to seek him who knows my Soul loveth him will not he some way or other repay that loss and heal that breach O Lord pardon pity and care for him who in love to thy self and thy holy Will desires to seek the Kingdom of God first c. A DISCOURSE of UNION with CHRIST Joh. 17. 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one WHen I consider this true Loves Knot uttered by Christ himself and the wondrous Union in these three words I Thou and They declared by Christ at his passage from Earth to Heaven as the contrived Counsel of the eternal God Father Son and Spirit and when I find up and down in the Scriptures that the Elect when once they are quickned by the Spirit into the state of Regeneration are said to have their Life in God Col. 3. 3. and that God lives in them dwells in them and they in him 2 Cor. 6. 16. 1 Joh. 4. 13. that their works are wrought in God Joh. 3. 21. that God worketh in them 1 Cor. 12. 6. that God walks in them 2 Cor. 6. 16. that they walk with God and in his Name Gen. 5. 24. Mic. 4. 5. that Christ speaks in them and they in him 2 Cor. 13. 3. and 12. 19. I say when I consider such like expressions plentifully scattered by the holy Spirit in the Scriptures I conclude there is some admirable Union betwixt the Father of Glory and every one of his elect Seed in Christ which is a Mystery so spiritual a sacred Palace so secret that the most exquisite parts of Nature can never enter in to view it as it is 't is new Jerusalem under a Vail into which Flesh and Blood cannot enter But seeing Christ has said To you it is given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of God Mark 4. 11. I would humbly wait for the power of the Spirit to transform and fit me and the manifestation of the Spirit to teach me that so enquiring I may enter and entring may possess this purchased Possession at least in the First Fruits and Earnest thereof and although methinks I shrivle up before the mysterious heat and lustre of this Gospel yet being commanded to seek the Lord and being under a Promise of help Jer. 31. 9. I wait on God for Strength and Wisdom to attempt this Enquiry methinks these steps do offer themselves The infinitely wise God decreed to make Mankind and the visible World to be his Habitation and the Creatures to serve him Man is made in a state of Righteousness and so stands upon his own legs and as it were in a moment he begins to totter and falls from that state into a state of sin and misery God so permitting it that his Justice and Mercy might the more be exalted a Remnant of undone Mankind are decreed to Salvation in a way of Mercy And that the Justice of God against Sin and Sinners may be preserved and yet the Elect Remnant saved God himself in the Person of the eternal Son assumes the Nature of Mankind into the Union of his Person and in that Nature pays to his own Justice all the Debt which this elect Remnant among the rest of fallen Mankind had involved themselves into in performing whereof he unites himself so near to them and they so near to himself that what he did for them was reckoned by Justice it self accountable to the Behoof and Concernment of each elected person as much as if every one of them had compleatly satisfied Justice in their own persons and the Union is so near betwixt him and them that whereas he is the express Image of the Father and having all power committed to him he stamps upon them the Image of God anew viz. Righteousness and true Holiness which becomes theirs only through Union with him and do only exist in their existing in him which existence is wrought by the holy Spirit forming him spiritually in their hearts as it formed him bodily in the Virgin 's Womb which Formation of Christ in their hearts becomes a mystical spiritual and true Union betwixt him and them which same Spirit works Faith in them that they may be made living Subjects and suitably capacitated for this mutual Union betwixt them also and him And thus the Lord of Life having enlivened to himself a living Spouse they enjoy each other by an unutterable nearness of spiritual In-dwelling in each other so near that the Spirit of God who manageth the Match sticks not to say that the Church and so every particular person thereof is a Member of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and not only that but he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Ephes 5. 30. 1 Cor. 6. 15 17. Hence it comes to pass that from the very moment that the Soul hath accepted of Jesus Christ being seized upon to that purpose by the Spirit of Regeneration proceeding from the Father through the Son and received by believing that believing person so effectually visited by the Call of the Gospel doth now and never before become a new Man and though Sins and Temptations never so many do batter and bruise yet his House cannot fall nor his State be altered because God himself has laid his Foundation on a Rock and has drawn the Soul's Consent by believing to lay it there too and this Rock is Christ in whom the Almighty God receives this believing and renewed person into that Union and true real nearness which lies shadowed forth in the Scriptures of Truth under the terms of Father and Child 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. Husband and Wife Ephes 5. 25. c. Vine and Branches yea as one Body consisting of Head and Members and many such like similitudes in the Scriptures to set forth this wonderful Nearness and Union from whence it followeth that no Action State or Condition of such a renewed Person whether it be inward or outward is so entirely his own and of private Concernment to himself alone as it was before his sins were more entirely his own damage before now they wound his Relation and grieve Christ Ephes 4. 30. he sinned before against the Law of God he now sins in all his miscarriages against Christ also 1 Cor. 8. 12. and against the Law of his
Intermission and stoppage without the constant supply which they receive from the Sun and the Fountain And therefore a Biliever's eye and aim must be tending to an immediate pitching on and closing with himself as the proper course and sure way and only orderly means to find rest and safety to the Soul The next thing to be considered is to enquire how the Eye of Faith The Aim of Faiths Eye desirous to attain its Mark. is to be levelled at and exercised upon this perfect and glorious Object so as to change the Soul from bearing the burthen of its own guilt and to get power against the defiling nature and power of sin and so to carry on the change from Glory to Glory after the Image of Jesus Christ by the vertue of his Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. The Dispensation of the Gospel is the Glass the Glory of the Lord there appearing is that which Faith fixeth and feedeth upon it passeth through the Glass and seizeth upon Jesus Christ represented therein and there stays till it hath enamoured the Soul into the same likeness The Glory of Christ begets an Image of Glory in the heart of a Believer of the same nature with its self Indeed there is a transient closing with the Promises as with a Neighbour who can tell where the Souls Friend dwelleth and so do the Ordinances and so far the Spirit of the Father lodgeth in them for the help of the diligent seeker to draw him to Christ The first motion also of that diligent seeking proceedeth from the Father who worketh with the Son by the Spirit to draw the Soul in true method to the Person of the Son as Mediator in whom the Father Son and Spirit gives the Soul a satisfactory Meeting Joh. 5. 17. c. 6. 44 45. and c. 14. 23. But the Knot of Union by which the Soul partakes of the Life and Glory of God is not perfectly knit till the Soul actually enters into the Fellowship of Christ the Mediator 1 Cor. 1. 9. and for this very end serves the preaching of the Gospel in the Dispensation of it Col. 1. 28. The Soul being thus ushered in treats with and fixeth on Christ absolutely and immediately and lays hold on his Personal Worth only as the Foundation of its hope and help The Soul has gained a great deal of Beauty in Christ's Eye when once 't is brought by his Spirit to leave its own Idols and forsake its own Country and to trust singly under the shadow of his Wings there Blessedness begins as Boaz said to Ruth Ruth 2. 12. And here the Soul closeth with the All-sufficiency of the Mediator pondering the large extent thereof And whereas the Soul is usually more troubled with the Aggravations of sin and the Circumstances thereof than about the sin it self and about its insincerity and want of feeling remorse and sufficient detestation against sin in its repentance and much molested with the stain that Guilt leaves on the Conscience and finding that neither remove of Guilt nor power of Cleansing nor freedom from its just Accusation can be got from the Consultations of a â—ounded Spirit it falls nakedly on the All-sufficiency of the Mediator and there it beholds him as one able to take away all sins in their whole extent His Body was given him for that end and although his own Body was pure yet it was in the likeness of the flesh of sin or sinful flesh and depravation of Nature received from Adam that as far as any motions of sin or capacity of sinning is found in Mankind he did bear the likeness of that State And so is called the second Adam not only as one representing the Elect Seed of Grace but also as being the Superadequate Antidote to conquer and remove all Poyson that entred upon Mankind by the sin of the first Adam The Nature of the second Adam is made as perfectly holy as the first was defiled by sin and became perfectly sinful as appears in Rom. 5. And in regard the strength and slaying power of sin lies in the Law his Humane Nature was made under the Law subjected to the whole Law as far as it had to do with sinful Man for this end that he might redeem them who were under the Law from being under any condemning or accusing Sentence or sting of punishment from thence which he bringeth about by obeying it satisfying for the breach thereof made by sinful Man Sin is therefore sin because 't is against the Law he therefore is made under the Law and that to fulfil its Commands and bear its doom Though sin be finite in the Transgressor yet 't is infinite in respect of the Object the infinite God But the Obedience and Suffering of Christ was of an infinite extent in respect of the Person because 't was the Act of God-man and in the Vertue also because 't was a contrived Remedy in the Council of God's Love to outstretch the injury that was done to the infinite Divine Majesty by finite Man Hence it is that this Remedy carries with it the Terms of Abounding Grace Rom. 5. 17 20. and unsearchable Riches Ephes 3. 8. The All-sufficiency lies also in this that 't is a free Gift considering that the Gifts of God's Love are infinite as his Nature is the thoughts of which do by Faith bring in a Foundation for infinite Justification and Righteousness and makes way to the rest of the purchased Possession that lies in the Person of the same Redeemer the infiniteness of his Goodness and Drift in this design which could never suffer disappointment the infiniteness of his Wisdom that could never mistake the infiniteness of his Love that can never cease nor Power fail And since the Nature of the Salvation of God is infinite it is brought down into the Person of God-man and from him into the Ordinances and so by the Spirit into the heart of Man retaining still its infinite Nature In Jesus Christ the infinite God is made Flesh in the Ordinances he speaks by Man's Voice in the faith of the heart he dwelleth carrying the Soul by the Operation of his Spirit to look upon him and hear his Voice in the steps of his Condescention to the true enjoyment of himself 'T is comfortable to have the Testimony Faith taking a right Method of a good Conscience Prov. 15. 15. and power over Corruption and Soul-disquiet thereby but I must not begin there God begins my Righteousness and Freedom in himself and brings it forth in the Person of Jesus Christ I must begin it there also and as it is perfected in him I must perfectly suck it thence continuing perpetually at that Breast Heb. 10. 14. never expecting to have it mended by any thing I could do though it were the obeying of the whole Law Gal. 2. 16. for my Obedience is but the Obedience of a stained Nature that has already broken that righteous Law When Guilt Defilement and Weakness of a foolish
depraved heart lies upon me as a lump of Lead I get nothing by talking with it as Solomon saith of the Fool Answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou be like him Prov. 26. 4. for this talking with Guilt and Weakness draweth my Soul which is made free indeed by the Son of God to the likeness of that Guilt and Weakness and my justified Conscience begins again to lick up the old Vomit of Fear and Bondage but my work is then to cast my self by naked Reliance on Jesus Christ who justifieth the Ungodly Rom. 4. 5. as being compassed about with the Guard of God's free everlasting Justification in the Person of Jesus Christ and having the shelter of this Guard then I may return and plead with Guilt and hear the complaints of my heart and the accusations of my Conscience and give them Answers from the fulness of Christ's Atonement and thus again the Fool if such a term may be used in this comparison is answered lest he should be wise in his own conceit Prov. 26. 5. I mean that the Spirit of Bondage which by the advantage of my own sin pleads rationally against my Peace till Faith comes with the Tongue of the Learned and pleads the Mystery of Free Grace against the Plea of Reason and the Righteousness of Christ and his Holiness against Sin and Guilt Nothing prevailed against Sampson till he betrayed the Vow of God that was upon him so nothing can prevail against the Peace of Justification till Guilt divide between the Soul and naked Reliance upon the personal Perfection of Christs Sacrifice and Mediatorship The Soul that lays his Foundation thus will not boast in himself Rom. 3. 27. nor wrong the Visits of God's favourable Countenance by Pride and Wantonness nor yet despair when Storms arise because his foundation is upon a Rock and his safety is not at all any of his own Handy-work As far as he beholds this All-sufficiency of Christ's Mediatorship the eye affects the heart to security and strength and crumbles all Self-sufficiency to powder and blows away the Egyptian Locusts of Guilt and Fears into the Red Sea and restores Pacification and Quiet to the Conscience and from this glorious Sanctuary the Soul comes forth to do the Actions of a new Life by the vertue of another Spirit the Spirit of Love and a sound Mind and worketh the Works of God in the World and takes pleasure in obeying the Truth and if it were possible it would actually keep the whole Law in as much as being now eternally knit to Christ's Person by Faith the Law by the Spirit of Christ is written in the heart This naked Reliance on Christ's Person was the great endeavour and left to us as the experience of the Apostles A Faith of which nature was exercised eminently by the holy Men of old Abraham Rom. 4. 20. David Psal 71. 16. Paul 1 Cor. 2. 2. and Phil. 3. 8 9. There were two foundational Reasons mentioned why the Soul is wholly to cast it self on the naked personal Merit of Jesus Christ viz. because he began our Righteousness and he only perfected the same for ever and those reasons well weighed have great strength and motive-vertue in them to beget Faith and besides 't is commanded as the absolute Condition of Salvation Act. 16. 31. Believe and thou shalt be saved in opposition to which Unbelief is made in the dispensation of the Gospel the reason of dying under the guilt of sin Joh. 8. 24. For the Gospel doth so perfectly hold out Jesus Christ to be the Propitiation for all the sins of the World through the value of his Death and open freeness of the Tender thereof that the very Hinge of Salvation and Damnation is turned upon the Faith of the heart therein or Unbelief thereof as being the most necessary and suitable Requisites for the stating of the Soul into an actual condition of Life or Death eternally Yea Christ pronounceth forgiveness of sins to the Palsie-man Luk. 5. 20. upon the meer Account of Believing And the Apostle Paul declares the Righteousness of God to be upon all that believe without making any difference upon any other respect Rom. 3. 22. This one thing saved the Thief upon the Cross when he had not opportunity to make Satisfaction for all the Wrongs and Robberies he had done This makes the Apostle Paul so laborious to preserve this Mystery from the least mixture of Legal Righteousness Gal. 5. 2. Because a Believer's State and Life is wholly by Grace 1 Cor. 15. 10. which entirely treats with the Faith of a Believer and not with his Works of Righteousness or Sin the one cannot help nor the other hinder because they are as the Elements of another World as they are called Gal. 4. 3. and can neither mend nor hurt that Justification by Jesus Christ revealed from Heaven to a Believer no more than Earthly Food can feed a Spirit or a material Sword wound an Angel And reason is because the Person of Christ is the Ark where Righteousness and Pardon is kept and conveyed singly by the Spirit of Grace to Faith which is the Acceptance of the same and so it is sure from any personal qualifications on Man's part to hinder it where 't is by the Spirit of Believing accepted Rom. 4. 16. This Justification of a sinner by Faith in the Personal Satisfaction and Righteousness of Jesus Christ is that which lays a firm ground for Assurance of Perseverance because the guilt of sin is done away and pardoned at the first believing on Jesus Christ and if they be then done away their guilt cannot really return for the pardon of sins and remembring them no more are joyned together Heb. 8. 12. Neither can sins committed after the Souls Conversion to God by Faith in Jesus Christ hazard the final state of such an one because his person was made accepted at the first closing with Christ by Faith and Pardon of sins is but the Consequent of the Acceptation of his Person Ephes 1. 6. Rev. 1. 5. So that Christ having espoused a sinner to himself by Faith doth wash him from his filth and presents him to himself at length without Spot Ephes 5. 25 26 27. and the person being recieved upon the account of meer Grace sin has no equal Plea against such an one because the strength of his Plea must be by the Law and Grace having supplanted the Accusation of the Law Joh. 1. 17. the Trial depends in another Court where sin is cast out Rom. 6. 17. And if sin could not at first hinder the Acceptation of the person much less can it procure a Dis-acceptation afterwards Rom. 5. 10. And besides the person of every Convert is considered in his true Interest through Grace in the Person of Jesus Christ in whom all Accusations are fully answered Faith having got this Foundation Encouragment and Rightful Interest in the Remission of Sins Righteousness Life and Peace sets it self by
last and perfect Fulness Col. 2. 19. Ephes 1. 23. And that Jesus Christ may make this express Word of his effectual to accomplish the design of his love to the Souls of his Redeemed he guides them by his Spirit to the most advantagious improvement thereof that not one Jot of his Word may be lost The whole Scriptures are the Inspiration of the Spirit of God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ Heb. 1. 1. Col. 3. 16. 2 Tim. 3. 16. given to reveal the way of Salvation which is carried on by a way of History and Doctrine in both which the State of Mankind is discovered in reference to its Innocency Fall and Recovery The State of Innocency and the Fall comprehended all Mankind in the Persons of Adam and Eve the State of Recovery respects only a part of Mankind saved out of that universal Loss by Christ according to the Election of Grace and therefore he is called the second Adam Rom. 5. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 45. who infuseth the Gift and Operation of Righteousness to his Seed as the first Adam had infused the Guilt and enthralling corrupting Power of Sin into his Seed As the Fall was a perfect Fall so the Recovery to the Remnant recovered is a perfect Recovery compleated fully in God's Decree before the World was Ephes 1. 4. and actually solemnized at Christ's Suffering Col. 2. 15. which becomes applicable to every individual person of that number by the Spirit of Faith and Holiness and whereby they are fully and really freed from the matter of Guilt through Union with Christ albeit the afflicting sense and fear of Guilt appears many times through the weakness of Faith in that Union and through the incumbring defilement of Sin in them who are redeemed holds on a Conflict in the Flesh till the last Enemy viz. Death be destroyed and so Mankind stands divided the Persons of them who only bear the Image of the first Adam corrupted by the Serpent's Poyson and they who bear the Image of the second Adam and in the latter every redeemed person carries also a Sub-Division in his own heart for a time viz. the grand Principle of his renewed State and the afflicting Stain and Enmity of the first Adam's Nature remaining in the Flesh And in reference to these two Contraries viz. the Good and Bad Persons of Mankind and the different Principles of Good and Evil the Scripture doth display all the Threatnings and Comforts Reproofs and Encouragements Judgments and Promises Instructions and Rebukes that are found in that blessed Volume with manifestations of God's power and goodness to the one and his power and wrath against the other So that whatsoever is spoken of any one person is spoken of all persons in the same State and whatsoever is spoken of any Action or Qualification in any person is spoken of alike Actions and Qualifications in every person who is in the same state to the end of the World even as long as Mankind remains and as far as the Line of each State whether it be good or bad reacheth so far doth every person continuing in that State bear his proportionable share through the Grave to Eternity When the Spirit of God speaketh any thing in the Word it first looks through the State in which any person is and so deals with that particular person according to the state in which he is whether it be a state of Sin or Grace and so acts towards him according to the rules and method of such a state Hence 't is that comforts or afflictions or teachings that are one and the same in their own nature are exceeding different in the end and use which the Spirit makes of them through the different state of Light or Darkness Life or Death in which all men lie So that by this means the same Word is a savour of Life to one which is a savour of Death to another The general threatnings against Ungodliness concerns every particular ungodly Man The particular punishment inflicted upon any one ungodly Man shews what is equally due to the rest of ungodly Men. And although one evil Man may not commit the same wicked Action as another doth yet he has the Nature and the same evil State which is the Root of that Action and as it brings forth Actions equivolently evil it is by the Spirit of God equally sentenced to Punishment And as in all visible Actions the state of the person in the Scriptures is first considered so in all Actions the nature and spirit of that Action as it holds relation to the state of the person acting is regarded by the Spirit of God in the Word before the Action it self and involves every one within the Guilt of that Action if it be wicked or within the Blessing of that Action if it be good in whom the nature and spirit of such an Action worketh From this ground Christ calls wicked Anger Murther and unchast Lustings Adultery Matth. 5. 21 28. And from this ground a gracious desire and intention has the blessing of a gracious Action 2 Cor. 8. 12. And when the Action is one and the same and yet the Spirit and inward Mind of them who execute that Action different the Action is not accounted the same but different as in the case of Cain's killing Abel and Phineas's killing Zimri it was Murther in the one and Righteousness in the other So that Actions may agree and yet the spirit of that Action in the Actors not agree and the spirit of one Action may agree with the spirit of another Action or the spirit of one that acts may agree in some particular Action with the spirit of another who acts the same thing and yet the difference of their grand state disagree as appears in the case of David's Uncleanness through Lust and the Sin of his Son Ammon for the Repentance of the one is recorded but not of the other So that in the use of the Scriptures we are to consider how far Actions agree and how far the spirit or immediate inward working which produceth Actions agrees and how the grand state of persons do agree that we may know how to make use of the Reproofs and Punishments Promises and Rewards that we find given to others in Scripture As concerning the state of Godliness there is no Godly Man has any peculiar privilege which is not common to all who are in the same state because the Covenant is made to them all alike in Jesus Christ in whom God is become their God upon the equal terms of Free Grace and Christ is as well the Head of one Member as of another and all the privileges which can flow from such a common relation run down rightfully to every person within that relation viz. Justification Adoption Reconciliation Sanctification Preservation Instruction and such like Operations of the Spirit that issue from that relation and which tend to a living enjoyment thereof and the advancing of that state to perfection
All Commands also and Duties bear with them an equal Engagement to every person alike related within the state of Covenant-Interest because those Commands and Duties relate to the same Interest in which all the people of God are one Joh. 17. 20. Matth. 28. 20. So that this Interest in God which is helpful in one case is applicable to all alike cases wherein the Saints who enjoy that Interest are concerned which makes every Promise to have a kind of Infiniteness as God is infinite From this Ground the same Promise that armed Joshua against fear through the presence and faithfulness of God Josh 1. 5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee is used likewise to every Saint to arm him against Covetousness and fear of Want Heb. 13. 5. And thus the Experience of one Saint becomes advantagious to another through their mutual Interest in the same Root of Spiritual Life in Christ by which they are one with him and Co-partners each with other of the same Grace From this Ground there is no Member of Christ that can say he has not need of anothers help because the Spirit of God by which they are united into one Body conveys its operation through one to another as it pleaseth him 1 Cor. 12. 11. which Spirit of God is the new Life of the Weak as well as of the Strong as he pleaseth to manifest his Power and Vertue in the one or the other more or less by which they are strong or weak that so they might love pity and sympathize each with other being all interested in the same Life and whereby they are all one Body and Members one of another Rom. 12. 5. Hence it is that all things spoken in the Scriptures are of true and proper use to every Child of God as far as their condition agrees with or stands in need of that Help Comfort Counsel or Reproof mentioned there which is the scope of the Spirit of God in all those Promises Instructions or Reproofs recorded in the Scriptures as if they and their particular Cases had been first or only in the eye of God when that word was spoken or that instance given be it what it will What I say to you saith Christ Matth. 13. 37. I say to all watch for whatsoever things were written afore time to others were written for our learning as the Apostle tells the Church of the Romans Rom. 15. 4 5. That we through patience and comfort of the same scriptures might have the same enjoyment and ground of hope as they had being equally interested in the same God who by his Spirit breaths Grounds and Influence of the same Grace of Patience and Consolation as it did to them to whom the Spirit through the Scripture had formerly spoken And thus the same Word being the Inspiration of the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and the sound thereof is gone forth into all the World and the spirit drift scope and use of the words of Life to the end of the Earth as far as the Spirit which breathed it begets any Soul into the Life of Union with God in Jesus Christ who is the Eternal Word and Mind of the Eternal Father from whom all the Children of Adoption receive their Being and Birth through the Gospel of that only begotten Son of God spiritually shed abroad into their hearts So that every one who is Christ's may say the History of the Scriptures is for me the Prophets are mine the Apostles are mine and all their Prophesies and Preachings all Promises Reproofs and Comforts Counsels Warnings and Examples the Gospel under Moses his Vail and as it shines in the Teachings and Miracles of Christ and his Apostles all things all persons Paul Apollos Cephas Life and Death are the Inventory of my Happiness things past present and to come are mine and for my use and advantage because the Spirit which worketh in and by all these is mine and Christ to whom I come and whom I serve is mine and Christ is God's and his God and Father is mine because I am his Heir and Co-heir with him Let such a privilege cause the Soul to cry out Breath O Spirit open your selves O blessed Scriptures and water me with all manner of Teaching Let mysterious Grace possess my Understanding powerful Wisdom from God in the Scriptures make me wise to Salvation Let Strength and Vertue from on high renew both Spirit Soul and Body to all power of a spiritual mind that I may comprehend with all Saints what is the heighth length depth and breadth of the love of God in Christ and be built amongst them upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ himself being my Corner-stone and his Power enlivening me to every good word and work through that common Salvation wrought by him for every Member of his Body among whom I also am allowed to claim my share in the Inheritance of Light through the faith and patience of the Scriptures and Testimony of Jesus my Lord. Abraham's Faith was exercised upon the Covenant which God made with him saying I will be thy God and the God of thy seed which Faith was further confirmed by the Sign of Circumcision that was added to that Covenant and tried yet further by offering up his Son in all which he had the faithfulness of God and his free Grace and Power in his eye and saw Christ's day a far off therein although 't is like he saw not distinctly the very manner of Christ's coming in the Flesh and the manner of his Death and Resurrection yet his faith in the substance of the Covenant of God's free Grace and in his wisdom and power to accomplish the same in his own way and time led him to embrace that Covenant so dispensed and to that measure discovered deriving Interest in God to his Soul and the Righteousness of Justification thereby which the Spirit doth record in the Scriptures to be the same justifying Exercise of Faith which in the fulness of time should and so did more distinctly put forth its self upon Christ dead and risen and upon the power and truth of God therein to confirm and actually execute in the Person of Christ the Branches and Method of that Covenant relating to the taking away Sin applying Righteousness and uniting Man to God in the Mystery of Grace and Salvation and therefore 't is said the same Righteousness is now imputed to Believers as was to him because the nature of their Faith and the substance of the Object of that Faith is one and the same In the exercise of which they walk in his steps Rom. 4. 12. and so are justified with believing Abraham and inherit his Blessing Gal. 3. 9. And thus the Scriptures in the spiritual use thereof do run through all visibly different Dispensations Administrations Instances and Cases of the Saints with one and the same invisible scope and secret tendency agreeable to the state of Godliness and relating to all persons within
Glory of God and the day of refreshing which is promised to appear Even so come Lord Jesus And now if I might out of all these Considerations but take home to my own heart a few Chips to kindle mine own Fire and be really resigned one Inch nearer to Christ I should think the Meditations of this day happily given in What else doth my Soul long for Some Crumbs of this glorious Banquet that my Soul may inwardly commend the Feast and say The Lord hath done great things for me Yea Lord let thy Kingdom come and thy Will be done I wait and cry Amen Amen How to find God a SANCTVARY in time of Trouble With the manner of the AVTHOR'S entring into Covenant with God PErceiving a dark Cloud and tempestuous Storm to be rising and being called to enter into the Chambers of Divine Protection Isa 26. 20. and finding it the practise of the Lord's people Psal 57. 1. and 143. 9. and Jesus Christ having declared himself a Shelter from the Storm Isa 32. 2. and inviting me to enter into his Rest Matth. 11. 29. I judge it my duty to follow his Voice and betake my self to the Horns of the Altar but being hindred by my own Guiltiness and Unbelief am forced either to wander into Desolation of Mind or else to endeavour to cut my way through the Incumbrances of my own darkness by the Sword of the Spirit If the Lord shall be pleased to favour me and bless this Attempt I shall be safe under his Wings And seeing nothing makes Calamities terrible but Guilt of sin I judge it my duty to set my main Battery against that Strong Hold And to that end having chosen out for my help that blessed Word Rev. 1. 5. He that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Which Scripture yields excellent Relief to that Soul that can mix it with Faith The words He that hath loved us do import the Ground of a Sinner's Union with Christ for such is the nature of Love and we must be one also with him before ours can be made his and his made ours And the words our sins and his own blood How Christ's blood doth wash being compared together shews that from Union with him flows a transferring of our sins upon him and as it were mixing them without any personal stain with his Blood and so made his Our Infection by his own Will entred as it were by Imputation and Burthen into the Blood of the unspotted Lamb. He suffered himself who was personally without sin to be all over laden with the real Imputation of the loathsome Nature and absolute Guilt of our sins and so became sin for us and yet his Blood remained pure and himself without sin The word Washed alludeth to legal Washings for Purification He removed our sins from us making them no longer ours but his own as the filth of a Garment is washed whereby the Garment becomes clean so our sins passed away Zach. 3. 4. by Imputation and burthen of the Curse into the living Body and Life-blood of Jesus Christ And so the Sinner as the original and principal Malefactor and Christ as Surety do stand both of them before God the righteous Judge and both in some kind equally liable to Sentence for if Christ had not been able to have freed himself from those sins they would have sunk him and the Sinner too And herein the Metaphor of washing a Garment comes short of this Mystery for the filth being gone from the Garment into the Water the Garment is thereby actually cleansed though the Water be never cleansed from the filth that it borrowed of the Garment because the Water and the Garment are two seperated things but in this mystical Washing the Person washed and the Blood washing are joyned together in the Union of Christ's Mystical Person so that if Christ who is the Surety miscarry in his work all they whose hope of Redemption lies only through Mystical Union in their Interest in him must needs perish with him and if he prevail they are delivered for this Washing at his Agony and Death was in some sence Inchoative and yet accounted perfect and was so as it stood in relation to and connexion with his Resurrection which made him a compleat and perfect Author of Eternal Salvation Heb. 5. 9. But how Christ could bear our How a pure Christ was made Sin for us sins and be made Sin for us and yet be personally pure this is a great wonder and he must be without sin all the while else he could not have done away our sins One Contrary expels another but he doth it not at a distance as the Light of the Sun drives away Darkness before it but he enters sinlesly into the state of our Sin that we might enter into the state of his Righteousness He cures not as a Physician who cures by Medicines but was himself touch'd with our infirmities he was made Sin for us he espoused not only the punishment of our Sins to himself but was married also to our Guilt and to all the dreadful workings of it so far as that it made him sick and sorrowful even to the very death He had the guilt of our delight in sin without any delight in it He made himself guilty of all our sins but had none of his own nor no defilement to his Nature by ours If one Man be guilty of another's sin he is defiled himself without lessening the defilement of the other Man because the Guilt is not translated from the one to the other but extendeth and spreadeth its poysonous nature from the one to the other and so fills as it were both Vessels without any remove of the Guilt but Christ's Nature being capable of no personal Infection gives liberty and scope to the Guilt of a Sinner to vent it self wholly into the bottomless and endless Satisfaction Merit and Righteousness of Christ the Mediator till the last drop of it be gone and the Fountain dried up through Union with his spotless Nature Our sins touched him as to an experimental sence of the filth and burthen of them He bare our sins in the Body of his Flesh but that Flesh being personally united to the Godhead remained pure and uncapable of any Corruption through the purity of that personal Union But how unexpressibly far he took in the sense and burthen of all sin and made it his own in the utmost measure and how infinitely pure he still remained the knowledge of this the Angels desire to look into and must be reserved till the Saints come to know as they are known of him Sin dwells in our Nature habitually and actually but lay upon him by Imputation and so passively his Nature bare our sin but could not act it But how should a Sinner come to enjoy Redemption from his Sins by a Mediator thus wonderfully qualified and so admirably sustaining a sinner's guilt This is worth the Enquiry I
Relation to him Ezek. 16. 38. he bare his own guilt before with distraction and horrour now Christ bears it from him before his very eyes and melts his heart into remorse at the sight of such a spectacle Zach. 12. 10. Ten thousand Rivers of Oyl could not expiate one Sin before but now they all pass away as a Cloud driven before the Wind and efficacy of the one Sacrifice of Christ to whom and to which by faith he is united his sins made him wander still farther and farther from God before now they are made contrary to their own nature to scourge him into the fresh Application of Jesus Christ by whom he draws near to God Psal 89. 30 31. 1 Pet. 3. 18. in all his Affliction he was alone before now Christ is his Partner Isa 63. 9. Christ is truly touched with his Calamities Zach. 1. 12. his smart is as the pricking of the Apple of Christ's Eye Zach. 2. 8. As for Losses in temporal things they were before Judgments upon him they are now gracious Trials of his faith and patience and means of purging him and drawing him into a nearer reliance on the Heir of all things So that his Losses and Crosses do not now tend to undo him but to awaken and transform him 1 Sam. 30. 6. in the midst of his fears he is not forsaken 2 Cor. 4. 9. but through this Union with Christ he is still in safe hands Psal 27. 1. Isa 43. 2. Dan. 3. 17 18 25. Temptations of Satan and his fury cannot destroy him because the Prince of Life to whom a renewed person is united has cast out the Prince of this World and tempers his poysonous Temptations into a phisical Potion curbing noxious humours in order to health Joh. 12. 31. working the Soul to more Humility Faith Prayer and patient Recumbency on God and Contentment in him 2 Cor. 12. 7 8 9 10. The meer civil Actions of such a person though the same still in themselves yet in respect of the change of the Agent they have some different Consideration otherwise than they had before He sets about them with other motives other dispositions and other ends than he had before which appears in that although the thing be done or spoken never so well to the contentment of others yet if Christ to whom this new Creature is united be not served with singleness of heart therein this renewed Soul akes as much as if the Action it self had been done never so much amiss And whence comes this smiting of heart but from this Union with God in Jesus Christ 2 Sam. 24. 10. in that the proper sway and tendency of such Convictions do bring the Soul still nearer and nearer to God through Jesus Christ which gives a spiritual Discovery of the unseen and living Breath and Pulse of this Union Ezek. 20. 37. And this seems to have relation to that expression used by the Lord to his people of old The quarrel of my Covenant Levit. 26. 25. threatning to punish them for their sins as they were contrary not only to the Law of Righteousness but also contrary to the Law of Covenant-Relation Yea all the Labours Anxieties and solicitous Exigents in the affairs and business of a renewed person do run along through the Sympathy of Christ and by reason of this near Union cannot but be Copartner therein and looks to it that one way or other the incumbrance shall usher in advantage he condescends to be as one weak with them that are weak as one troubled with them who are troubled that he may discipline the Grace and exercise the Faith of his people whereby he glides them along into some unavoidable necessity of Resignation of themselves and their Cares into the Arms of his divine Power and so ripens in them the Application of this Union betwixt him and them in their hearts And his design being to bring his People as a chast Virgin to himself he aims rather at the carrying on of that drift than at the answering the natural desires of his people about Ease or Deliverance any otherwise than as may suit with that end of his in making of them partakers of his holiness and whispers secretly into their ear the Servant is not to be above his Master I trod the dirty and toilsome way before you and am treading over again every step of it with you and in you you must be conformable to my Death and shall be conformable to my Resurrection Come along with me and your burthens shall not break you because it cannot break me your own projects may fail but in me you are Heirs of Blessing and Deliverance and shall not go without it Heb. 6. 15. I will give you rest Matth. 11. 28. He relieved not his own Body against the Treachery of Judas and the Company that came to apprehend him although he was the Omnipotent God and had all Power in his hands because it suited not with the design of Man's Redemption and as it fared with that Body of his that was in personal Union with the Godhead so doth it fare in some proportion with each Member of his mystical Body Their burthens and perplexities do not at all import that his hand is shortned or that he is really absent or had forgotten them no more than his Divine Nature could be separated from the Humane Nature when the stress of his sorrow made him cry out My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me As that Union carried him through so will this Union carry through his Members also It being now about three years since that God was pleased to cast Some Considerations in order to the fresh Application and Improvement of this Grace of Vnion with God in Christ the aforesaid Meditations into my heart and since that time having been for a season a Stranger in a strange Land beyond the Sea and there passed through a dark Vale of Privation and Distance from those Ordinances and that Society which I formerly enjoyed and having there also layen in the Shadow of Death through a long and lingring Sickness of my Body and being now some Months past returned back to my own Native Country where the good hand of God which never left me quite desolate caused me to review the Solemn Covenant which through his Grace I entred into the 30th December 1660. which Covenant being yesterday renewed and having therein solemnly given up my self again to the Lord and accepted of him in the Tenders of his Grace to be my God and Saviour and to own him in all the Relations of his condescending Grace and Love and also to submit willingly to his blessed Yoke Rule and Will expressed by his Spirit in his Word I find still much longing in my Soul to know him more inwardly that I might the more enjoy him and be the more serviceable to him and to that purpose having perused over again the foregoing Meditations concerning the Union between God and all and every
then I must stop that I may adventure to cast my self before him who has the Golden Scepter in his hand before I go any further who knows but that he will reach it forth and I shall find favour in his sight I come to thee O Lord. 3. This Union it self which I 'T is only and wholly of God's Free Grace would come at and actually live in is beyond and indeed another thing than the Notion of it 'T is the voluntary and delightful Captivity of my Will and Affections through the Knowledge of him who has called me to this Glory and Vertue it is my true Dwelling-place the very Foundation of my Rest and Repose the Palace of my Triumph the very Spring and Rise of Self-abhorring which makes Self-loathing metalsom and vigorous by issuing it self into the Soul's Participation of the Purity Light and Strength of the Divine Nature and into a sincere open-hearted Resignation thereunto It is begun and carried on wholly by the Free Grace of God it sprang from his electing and predestinating Favour who worketh it according to the Counsel of his own Will Ephes 1. 4 10 11. Rom. 8. 29. 'T is the scope of his free and gracious Covenant I will be your God and you shall be my people The actual In-stating of my Soul into it ariseth from the free Call of God 1 Cor. 1. 9. The overcoming and destroying all difficulties that may obstruct it is throughly managed in the Person of Christ who has made both one and died to bring me to God As for the Application and Enjoyment of this Union-state his Prayer Joh 17. 21. and Promise Joh. 14. 20. do stand in force day and night without ceasing to obtain it for me and effect it in me His Blood has confirmed the Covenant for it and has put into it the vertue and force of a Will and Testament which cannot be disannulled Joh. 17. Luk. 22. 20. compared with 1 Pet. 3. 18. and Heb. 9. 17. and the Manifestation of this is only by his Word and Spirit proclaiming and testifying this good Will of God to Men 1 Joh. 3. 24. whereby he doth effectually bring in this Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 8 9. and effecteth Union thereupon 1 Cor. 6. 20. Yea are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods So that I am wholly God's Workmanship who has ordained this Union and created me in Christ for it I believe Lord help my Unbelief How little do I see How little do I taste and applyingly possess this bottomless Privilege which the glorious Angels desire to look into 4. Having considered the Purity Improve then by Meditation of this Union and the Inconsistency that is betwixt this Union and Guilt and unmortified sinful Pollutions as to the comfortable Application of it and also the divine Spring the free Grace and Bounty of God in creating and carrying it on into which thoughts and considerations the God of all Grace is only able to put seasoning and heart-framing force to make way for the Application of it Now O my Soul compel thy self to the serious Meditation of it 1. The Reallity of this Vnion be persuaded the matter is real It is invisible but real wondrous incomprehensible but real and true God has made thy sins thy burthen his Holiness and his new Stamp thy greatest and most deliberate desire Whence comes this but from the Spirit of Christ in whom the perfection of Enmity against Sin lies and in whom all the Treasures of Grace are laid How comes his Spirit to work an influence of the same nature in thee but as thou art taken into Union with him as a Member of his Body partaking of the vital Influences of the Head And seeing the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in him whose Spirit dwells in thee Col. 2. 9 10. and the Divine Nature of the Father Son and Spirit one and the same 1 Joh. 5. 7. thou becomest in a way of Adoption and according to the created Capacity thou art in really at present an Heir together with Christ of the Glory of God and shall rightfully through free Grace fully possess that Inheritance These are mine saith the Lord Mal. 3. 17. I am thy God in me thou shalt be saved Isa 45. 7. Thy Maker is thy Husband Isa 54. 5. What is this but Union with him Now O my Soul meditate again Am I indeed brought in by Christ to Union with God Are we no longer two but one Spirit Can such a thing be I do not doubt it but admire it What! He that made Heaven and Earth and all Men upon Earth he who is the very Life of the whole Creation he to whom Abraham Moses and David and all the Worthies of old prayed whom they served and adored who carried them through all Trials to whose Truth Wisdom Love and glorious Power they did bear witness and do still testifie it to all Ages Is he my own God Is this God really mine Is it the Word of his own Mouth I am thy God How unsearchable is this Union is he whom Simeon embraced in his Arms and said My eyes have seen thy Salvation is he mine He who wrought all those Miracles who healed Diseases cast out Devils forgave Sins on Earth is he mine He who had compassion on the Leper and healed him He who had compassion on the Multitude and fed them who spied out Nathaniel visited Zacheus raised the Dead is he mine He who preached the Gospel from Heaven who did bear my Sins in the Garden upon the Cross in his own Body who did sweat Blood and was pierced through for Sins for Sinners is he mine His Satisfaction mine His Compassion mine Those tender Bowels mine Was I then comprized in his Prayer And is this Joseph yet alive and his Nature not changed but glorified to the perfection of Power and Sympathy Is he mine and am I indeed his He who comforted his Disciples buried their Sins and Miscarriages and blessed them immediately at his Ascention and in the full warmth of his Love ascended and sate at the Right Hand of the Majesty on high where Love never ceaseth Is this and none but this the Judge whom I expect even my Lord and my God he whom Paul saw whom all the Apostles did preach who converted the Gentiles has kept alive the efficacy of his Word to this day he who is the faithful Witness is he my own He who is exalted to give Repentance and Remission of Sins is he mine to teach purge justifie and quicken me As near as the Head to the Body the Root to the Tree and Branches as near and dear as the Husband to the Wife doth he call me his own Flesh and Bones Doth he live and breath in me and I in him Oh for more Faith Reverence Thanksgiving with all manner of becoming Thoughts Words and Deeds concerning him and concerning the reality of such a Privilege Oh when
shall the Shadows fly away Be very serious in exercising faith to represent the truth and reality of this Union-state that there is such a thing and in that Exercise dilate your thoughts in an awful serious comfortable Reverence and reverent love of God manifested in the Flesh to be Emanuel God with us Pursue this Meditation till you even make this Union as visible as may be to the eye of your faith Consider the Nature of it is unchangeable 2. The Nature of this Vnion it was made in God's Decree before all time and constituted for Eternity The Bond is God's Faithfulness and his Love which many Waters cannot quench an indissolvable Marriage an Ingrasture into the Fulness Fountain and Perfection of Life 'T is the Purchase Possession and unwithering Inheritance of him who is Yesterday to day and for ever 'T is Union reciprocal Christ is thine and thou art his My Beloved is mine and I am his What shall I give thee saith Christ Not only a Kingdom but my self What shall I render saith the Soul Not only my Praises but my whole self Possess me rule me fill me take my heart and give me thine let thy love be shed into my heart with a ravishing Inundation and let my love be passionate pure and find no Object elsewhere but thee 'T is an Union that has distinguishing Excellency in it a Remnant chosen out of many between which Remnant and the rest nothing made the difference but the free Choice of God An Union created of Contraries made up of unreconciled Parties who were at-the extreamest Enmity and now become of the most absolute and passionate Amity so it is in Christ and so it is in the Seed of it in all the Persons united to him An Union in which the Party wronged voluntarily began to love first 1 Joh. 4. 19. and wooed the offending Party to a Reconcilement An Union in all respects wonderfully made it issued from that peremptory yet deliberate Sentence I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy And what thoughts are sufficient for these things The Privileges of this Union are 3. The Privileges of this Vnion all on the Sinner's side Christ is exalted to give and Sinners called up to receive And what must Sinners receive who are received into this Union Come in O my Soul for thy share for the Treasury is unspeakably rich Through this Emanuel-knot of Union God is not ashamed to be called the God of poor Sinners only as he changeth their state he changeth their names they are now in proper true Appellation Saints though sin remains in them they are beloved who were not beloved they are Sons and Daughters of God every one is a Prince by a second Birth they are took out of Prison and do sit at the King's Table their filthy Garments removed away and are cloathed with white Rayment they are delivered from the Pit and return thither no more they have a goodly Heritage God himself is their Portion all the Power Truth Wisdom Goodness and Mercy that ever God made known to and for his People in all Ages is their Inheritance all the Promises and Providences which God made and wrought at any time are for their use experience teaching and comfort all the Directions Examples and Precepts in the Scripture and all the Reproofs and Threatnings there are for their Learning Consolation nud Discipline to purge strengthen and guard them till the Old Man be quite destroyed till they arrive beyond Sin Change and Hazard their Society is with the Spirit of the Father and the Son with the Image of Christ in his People the Mind of Christ in his Word the Breath Presence and Blessing of Christ in his Ordinances their Sufferings Difficulties and Fears have lost their destroying deadly Sting their Life is Christ in them the Hope of Glory their End is Peace their Death is their Gain however it is for a season with their outward or inward Man they are never otherwise than the Blessed of the Lord and Objects of his Delight Care Good Will and Protection Jer. 32. 38 41. Isa 27. 3. and after this Life that unutterable Blessedness which they are to enjoy when they shall be ever with the Lord Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can any heart to the full understand much less can my Meditation reach it or Pen declare it only I may say it is an exceeding EXCELLENT ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY Consider these Privileges O my Soul make the most of them This prize is in thy hand be not as a Fool that has no heart muse the matter peruse the Scriptures and muse it again and again these are not vain glosses the thing is real glorious and great have often and large thoughts of this Union with Christ let the Application of it dwell upon thee day and night And that thou maist come up to 4. Improve this Vnion by Exercise a clearer Vision of this Fountain of Life and drink aboundantly of the Water thereof visit it often pry modestly reverently and seriously into it not for Curiosity but for Transformation 't is thy Portion and now more abstractly than ever all thy Portion a Portion that hath seven Portions in it all Portion in it Mat. 19. 29. He that by faith overcometh and wins this Prise shall inherit all things Rev. 21. 7. for I saith the faithful Witness will be his God and he shall be my Son Here is the Union and the Privilege also Familiarize this Mystery of Union with Christ by remembring and having recourse to it in the use of all Ordinances of Worship in all Christian Duties in all use of Gifts in all conditions of Life and all Seasons day and night in the exercise of every Grace Send up many Ejaculatory Visits Be upon thy Watch continually Let this word always ring in your ear without me ABSTRACTED from me you can do nothing Joh 15. 5. Beware of cooling beware of dismay Remember this Union is grounded on God's eternal unchangeable Love his faithfulness upholds it 't is as the Sun in the Firmament thou hast but a little time to take hold of it the ruin of this Union is the only thing which thy Enemies World Flesh and Devil aim at And now O my precious Soul rowze up thy self to Exercise Thy labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Use every Ordinance to further this Union In Ordinances In hearing the Word digest all the 1. Hearing Matter into these two Heads as the main ultimate scope of whatever thou hearest either removing Obstructions which keep God and thee a sunder or a Supply of some uniting Power to bring God and thee together Come to the Word with expectation to meet the Lord himself there deliver thy SELF to the Word in the hand of God hear his Voice through Man's Words account the Physitian of Souls wiser than thy self lie before him as a meer Patient refuse no Potion which the Word of
the Prince of this World who works in the Children of Disobedience and thereby freedom to serve God in Holiness and Righteousness This is set forth in Ephes 2. the state of Sin and Death in vers 1 2 3 12. Redemption vers 4 5 6. and of Holiness vers 21 22. And all briefly put together in Ephes 5. 8. Sometimes ye were darkness but now ye are light in the Lord walk as children of light From the Consideration of each of these there followeth divers Questions for the trying of the state of the Soul and knowing in what plight it now stands Indeed the Glory of primitive Innocency is out-shined by the super-abundant Grace and Image of Christ 1 Cor. 15. 47 48 49 as the Glory of the second Temple exceeded the Glory of the first Hag. 2. 9. yet the losing of that is much to be bewailed because we did so sinfully lose it Now then O my Soul canst thou take up Ezekiel's Lamentation over Tyrus Ezek. 27. 12. c. Thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God wast perfect in thy ways c. but thine heart was lifted up and as David mourned for Saul and Jonathan's death though access was thereby made for his own Advancement 2 Sam. 1. 19. c. The beauty of Israel is fallen c. and say How are the mighty fallen the Shield of the Mighty vilely cast away c. How is the Gold of primitive Innocency become dim And how is Mankind that was purer than the Snow now become black as a Coal as Jeremiah lamented over Jerusalem Lam. 4. 1 7 8. c. I. Canst thou say Alas I am become vile Job 40. 4. In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing no Truth Wisdom Righteousness and thy Nature is only evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. II. Dost thou consider the nature of thy sinfulness and how it doth pollute weaken deceive and enslave thee viz. Dost thou know that thou carriest up and down in thy Nature all the Seeds of all Sins that all the Idolatry Superstitions Blasphemy all the Murthers Uncleanness Violence Injuriousness Hatred Envy Cruelty Falshood c. that ever you read of in the Scriptures or other Histories or that ever your ears heard or eyes saw that the Seed and Spice of it all is in your own heart that all those black Lists Rom. 1. 29 to the end Rom. 3. 11 c. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Gal. 5. 19 20 c. Ephes 2. 12. and 4. 18 19. 2 Tim. 3. 2. and such like Your Nature is in some degree or other tainted with it And because this may seem harsh and strange 1. Consider As far as any Man has the Nature of Adam he has the Corruption of that Nature and as far as all are equal in their Descent from Adam so far are all equal in the Corruption of that Descent all guilty every mouth must be stopped Death came upon all Rom. 3. 19. and 5. 12 18. 2. Consider That though Restraining Grace or Mortifying Grace may curb weaken and subdue sinful Corruption yet it retains its dwelling in the Flesh Rom. 7. 25. And though the Righteousness of Christ be imputed to the Person yet the corrupt Nature of that Person has still a Subsistence till Corruption put on Incorruption till which time corrupt Nature loseth not its Sinfulness but its Dominion Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am said Paul On this account the state of the Person may be changed but corrupt Nature still remains 3. Consider The natural Seed of every sin is a departure from God and a violation of his Authority and therefore he that is guilty of one Sin violates the Authority of God and has a seminal Guilt of all Sin Jam. 2. 10 11. As he who has one true Grace has the Seed of all because it shews he is united to Christ and one with him in Spirit who is the Fountain of all Grace So that where-ever we see Sin we see the Corruption and Pollution of our Nature that dwelleth in us Natural Conscience Education Constitution Profession of Religion Moral Considerations of Fear Shame or the like may curb the working of Corruption in some measure but cannot extinguish the Pollution of Sin from the heart But more particularly in reference to God Is there not great Ignorance and Contempt of him Are not Sins of thoughts more slighted than Sins visible And is there not more Shame for a small Miscarriage in the sight of Man than great Miscarriages in the sight of God What customary Ignorance of all his Attributes How little is he the Object of the Heart's Love Desire Esteem and Meditation Is not the Heart more intent on other things How little is he the Motive and End of what we do Is serving and pleasing him the Hearts design in all things In Worship is not the Heart formal cold and wandring Are not Convictions stifled and the Impressions of the Word of God quickly gone Is there serious Preparation for the Ordinances and due Meditation afterwards Is the Heart glad when the Word reproves as well as when it hears words of comfort As for Men Is not the Course of the World the Opinion of others and their Esteem of great value Are their sins my burthen Is there not Envy Hatred want of Sympathy evil Surmises c. As for my own Soul Is not my heart rash vain inconsiderate my Understanding dark my Affections loose and scattered and Memory slippery and all out of order Do you not discern the weakning Nature of Sin that it sucks the strength of the Soul the deceitfulness of it the deadning blinding and destructive nature of it and the perfection of divine Wrath that attends it And now doth all this make thee O my Soul cry out O wretched man that I am and doth it make thee a burthen to thy self Job 7. 20. as Job cried out Dost thou see a bottomless Deceipt and Desolation in thy Nature as it is in its self corrupted and by Circumstances aggravated And being totally Refugeless Dost thou lay the Hope of thy Help upon a mighty Redeemer If so thou hast attained one Round at least of that blessed Ladder which leads thee up to the Fruition of that renewed State in which thou art God's and he is thine Job 33. 23 to 31. 1 King 8. 38. III. In laying hold on Christ for Redemption 1. Do I see I cannot help my self nor any other Creature help me Isa 59. 16. Psal 49. 7. that none can redeem his Brother nor give to God a Ransom for him 2. That Salvation is only of God Hos 14. 3. his Arm c. 3. That in free Mercy he sent Christ to save Joh. 3. 16. 4. That Christ undertook this Salvation Heb. 10. 7. and performed it Heb. 9. 12. 5. That I am partaker of it by meer faith Ephes 2. 8. 6. Do I lay my whole weight upon this Saviour Isa 64. 8. 7. Doth my heart account him willing Isa 63. 9.
Peace and Comfort in the Fountain of Freedom and Goodness We find our comforts and expectations here little better than a Bed of Thorns because this is not the Rest that is designed for the People of God and 't will be some help to us under this disquieting exercise and condition to remember that while we are passing through we are held in the hand of him who has a fellow-feeling of our Case who did once pass through the difficulties and drank of the Brook in the way but now lifts up his head and so is become the Foundadation of our Hope that such poor Wretches as we are shall one day through saith and patience arrive where our Fore-runner is entred Only let us now cling upon him till we become transformed into his Likeness and be compleatly dressed with the white Robe of his Righteousness that in him and only in him we may be found without spot In the mean space let us pray and abound therein for our selves and one another to our gracious God who will at length perfect that which concerneth us To him I commend you c. 1668. To T. M. P. N o 91. I Put you both together in my Letter because I have understood that you are now no longer two but one I was very glad to hear that all your prudential Demurs had at last resolved themselves into a Consummation of this long intended Union My hearty desire for you both is that the Blessing and Guidance of the Lord may render your mutual Society a real and constant Comfort to each other and mutual advantage in reference to all Soul-Concernments There is no Condition in this World so desirable but is attended with Temptations and Trials and therefore 't is needful as you have given your selves to each other so also that you give up your selves particularly and joyntly as Yoke-fellows together unto the sweet Yoak and belessed Will of our Lord Jesus Christ One of the greatest Resemblances that we find in Scripture whereby the Love of Christ is set forth to Believers is this state of Marriage And whatever Content therefore you find in this changed Condition let it steer your thoughts to that glorious Mystery of Christ's espousing our Nature that we might become partakers of the Image of God in him and long for that appearing of his when the full solemnizing of the mystical Marriage betwixt Christ and his Church will come and the Union in all degrees be perfected I commend you to the good hand of the Lord c. 1668. To C. M. P. N o 92. THe Present is to acquaint you that my Cousin J. B. died Tuesday last and was this Evening buried God was pleased to order it so that I had notice of his sickness till after his death which was and is a great trouble to me but I understand Means were not wanting for his Recovery His Master much bewails the loss of so faithful a Servant He had as I understand some darkness upon his Spirit till a little before his death and then uttered as well as he could these words Eye hath not seen nor ear heard c. the things which God hath prepared for them that love him and so died almost immediately and has left a sweet savour behind him and a Warning for us his Friends that we make ready and be not found unprepared when the like Summons come unto us We see by daily experience that Life-time and Health is not in our own keeping and therefore are concerned to improve it well while it continues c. The gracious Presence of the Lord be with you c. 1668. To E. D. N o 93. SInce my former God has been pleased to draw a Cloud upon my poor Family Tuesday last little Tho. fell sick and on Wednesday Morning died and is this day to be buried a great and suddain stroak which doth almost overwhelm my dear Wife who goes up and down lamenting and often crying out that she has sinned away her sweet Babe into the Grave You may see in short how 't is with us at present I need not add more for I know what tender Love your self did bear to this sweet and heart-taking Infant Only I desire both you and my dear Sister and our Friends there to pray for us that this stroak may be blest to us all and that my desolate dear Wife may be guided through her present Confusion of Spirit to the only and right Refuge I delivered her your Letter which was very acceptable and therefore pray write her something again and I desire my Sister would do the same 'T is good to help in time of need Her heart is much broken and my Affliction not a little and I believe it is for some further good that God intends to us both a few Lines from you whom I know she doth dearly value will be very seasonable No Affliction is at present joyous but grievous but afterwards comes the sweet and wholsome Fruit and this is the Portion of them who take hold of the full and sure Covenant and the crucified risen Christ who dies no more There is nothing will so wean Affections hence and from the mischief of Creature-love as the Study of Christ viewing him in the Gospel pondering his excellent Person and his glorious Mediatory Office for us and so pitch the Affections on him to be inflamed with his Love in our own Propriety in him And therefore not only with the Bowels of an Earthly Father but in the Bowels of Jesus Christ I intreat and in his Name do charge you to study and muse day and night the unmeasurable endless Love of God who sent his Son the infinite unwearied and endless Love of Christ who came died rose again and lives for ever to be your only Portion and to make you even you a delightful Portion to him and to render you through the Blood of Sprinkling and the Communion and Influence of that one Spirit of the Father and Son an Object of his Delight and a Monument of his pardoning Grace and his purifying Vertue to all Eternity To him I commend you 1668. To E. D. N o 94. BOth my self and my Wife are very sensible of this sore Storm with which the Lord is pleased to exercise your faith and patience at this time But Christ is in the Vessel and therefore you cannot perish in the Fire and in the Water in every cold and hot fit he is with you and has a tender sense of every jot of your pain and sickness t is a Father's Chastisement and Trial and all his aim is to purifie and fit you for an Object of his eternal delight I know his everlasting Arms are under you and though the Dispensation be dark yet he is doing you good with all his heart according to his Covenant and with all his Soul He enclined your heart of his own Grace to chuse him because he chose you first and will yet chuse you in the Furnace
Office with his Ordination to Fitness for and Discharge of it Whence his Faith is maintained and strengthned accompanied with a sense of his Guilt and Impotence which every where he expresseth frequently bewailing the Corruption of Nature How doth that Faith exert it self in great love to desires after and delight in Christ with an exact and universal Obedience to his commanding Will and a meek and patient Resignation to his afflicting Will. The whole of which very clearly manifests his most serious and earnest Concernment about eternal things and serves to disprove those who believe that Religion is nothing else but a grand piece of Hypocrisie Such Instances tend to check the growing Infidelity and Atheism of the present Age wherein Religion is thought to be but an Artifice of State the Policy of Princes entertained only by the many and rejected by the more Intelligent It serves also to awaken those that are sincere to a more vigorous Exercise of Grace What one hath attained to others may the same Principles of Holiness lie open to all And that what is said may be more convincing a CHARACTER of the AVTHOR is adjoyned wherein the efficacy of his Meditations is most sensibly exemplified drawn up in the Straits of time by a private hand who was intimately acquainted with him throughout his Life and if in it there be any thing defective 't is not to be imputed to him whose CHARACTER it is but the Imperfection or Vnskilfulness of the Hand that did attempt to draw it who hath composed it without the Methods of Art or curious Ornaments of Phrase But suited it to the plainness of the AVTHOR expressed both in his Life and the following Composures J. H. T. R. THE LIFE OF Mr. HENRY DORNEY HE was born in the Year 1613. at Vley in the County of Gloucester and was the fifth Child and Son of Mr. Thomas Dorney Gent. and Joanna his Wife both very religious and had a numerous Issue in all eleven Children towards whom they had a most tender and Parental Care and were industriously diligent in bringing them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Their eldest Son was bred a Scholar at Oxford and placed at the Inns of Court and after he became a Barrister continued in the Practice of the Law until he died Their second and third Sons deceased in their Infancy and Minority Their fourth Son also was bred a Scholar and entred upon the Ministerial Function dying in the Flower of his Age whom the Lord was pleased to bless with a great degree of profound Learning and Insight into sacred Mysteries beautified with a super-abundant measure of Divine Grace who kept a constant Dyary of his Life But it is the fifth Son Mr. Henry Dorney who is the Subject of this following CHARACTER After he had been Religiously educated by his Parents and furthered in Learning at Country-Schools he was about the fourteenth Year of his Age brought up to London where he spent much of his time with them in Attendance on the publick Ordinances of God's Word and Worship at the Morning and Weekly Lectures beside the Solemnities of Worship on the Lord's Day At which time as judged began the work of God's Grace effectually to seize on his heart And after a short Continuance in London he retired again into the Country in the Pursuance of Humane Learning and was at length setled at Newbury Free-School where in a Years time or little more he thrived so swift in Learning that he became compleatly fit for the University But for some Cogent Reasons his Father with his own Consent he being always very obsequious thought it more convenient to dispose of him to a Trade In Attendance on which and all along in the variety of outward Changes in the Course of his Life and amidst his busiest Secular Affairs and Employments he yet kept the Rudiments of his School-Learning applying himself with great diligence as he had spare time to perfect his Studies in the Original Tongues wherein he was very expert and accurate especially in the Hebrew and retained an exact knowledge of them to his dying day With respect to his Natural His Natural Abilities Abilities he had a quick Fancy and Invention a ripe Wit a tenacious Memory a large Understanding and a profound Judgment His natural Temper was Grave His Natural Temper Amiable Affable he had Sweetness mixt with Gravity and Chearfulness mixt with Seriousness much condemning an affected Melancholy and Reservedness He had an undaunted Courage tempered with Meekness and seldom if ever seen discomposed with Passion of any sort He was plain-hearted kind sociable not at all Loquacious or given to much Talk yet not sparing to speak when and where he saw it needful and had a Call thereto He affected not Moroseness on the one hand nor was he complemental on the other yet courteous towards all and used Flattery to none either in Speech or Action When he approached to God His Religious Duties in Duty it seemed to be with a great Awe upon his Spirit withdrawing his Mind from every thing that might distract him especially in Prayer endeavouring to do what he did as in God's sight with spiritual Vigour and Activity according to his own Saying that We must not be Drones in God's Work but be rouzed and enlivened in all the Services we perform to him which also should be chiefly inward with as little outward appearance as may be He was one devoted to Prayer which took up a great part of his spare time both in the Day and in the Night when he was awake and not hindred by Weakness and other Bodily Distempers And he was wont to say to this effect when he discerned not the like readiness in others who were more addicted to Conference We alas at least some of us know a great deal notionally but its Prayer in the Spirit is the Work we should chiefly mind And when he had been desired to declare his Opinion of any difficult Scripture wherein he had a deep Insight he spake to this purpose If you would know the true meaning of such or such a Scripture pray over it that being the most effectual Means to come to know the Mind of God's Spirit in his Word And he had such a holy Intimacy and Familiarity with God that he would speak to him in Prayer as if one Cordial Friend were speaking to another yet with great Humiliation Prostration and Reverence And when the Frame of his Soul was never so little out of order he seemed to be very much troubled until he could get into some place of Retirement for the re-gaining of his former delightful Frame of Communion with God And this he would be often speaking of to his most inward Friends And his manner was when he prayed alone not to use his Voice at all but all his striving in Prayer was inward saying that Bodily Exercise profited little and more especially in secret Prayer And also
that state in all times and Ages and stands answerable to the nature of all future cases and experiences of the Saints which makes the whole Scriptures which were written aforetime to be of a perpetual present use from the beginning to the end of that Volumne so said Moses of old Deut. 4. 2. and so said John many hundred years after Rev. 22. 18 19. So that all Scripture is given for a perpetual profit by Doctrine Reproof Exhortation and Instruction in Righteousness in order to the perfecting of the Saints 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. And this brings in again the Consideration of the wonderful Condescention of God who though he be invisible yet he doth in a sort become visible in the Word there the Life of God is manifested even that hidden Life which enlivens the new Man it exposeth it self to be seen heard and handled by the thoughts of Worm-like Man 1 Joh. 1. 1 2 3. God who was pleased to manifest himself in the Flesh has carried on a correspondent method in a way suitable to Humanity ever since the Restoration was promised to the Seed of the Woman The Spirit brings forth all its special Operations in the exercise of Man's Nature Reason Understanding Will Affections and Passions The Scriptures seem to bespeak nothing oft-times but meer Man whereas that Humane way was only fitted as a Sheath for the Sword of the Spirit to be carried in through all several cases that could fall out in Man's condition God who brought forth all things out of himself doth still manage them and uphold them for he is the Life As his Purpose and Power created the Being of all things so his Providence and Wisdom doth create the continual disposing and ordering of all things I create Jerusalem a rejoycing saith the Lord Isa 65. 18. And therefore having created a new thing in the Earth that a Woman should compass a Man Jer. 31. 22. he works creatingly in the discovery and application of that Mystery and stoops down into all the Sences Passions and Affections of Humane Nature and brings forth the Mystery of the new Creation under the vail and external use of the matter of the first Creation which runs through the whole History of outward Providences and through every Branch of Moses's Law in all the Sacrifices every part of the Tabernacle and Temple and through every Dispensation and among all the Faculties of the rational Soul as the power of Life striving against Death and Light against Darkness which is the scope of what we find spoken to Man or of or by Man in the Scriptures which is spoken not to shew only what Man 's natural thoughts are but how the Spirit of God works in their thoughts words and actions or how the Spirit of Satan naturally and sinfully works in them which is delivered to us by the Spirit of God sometimes by the Rules of Doctrine and Worship sometimes by Comforts Instructions Exhortations Reproofs and Threatnings and sometimes by Examples and Experiences acted upon the persons of Good and Bad and acting in them This Operation of the Spirit of the Father and the Son begets all the Convincements Heart-searchings Prayers Groans Cries Sighs Comforts Encouragements and Conquests which we find exercised in the hearts of the people of God throughout the Scriptures as in a Glass shewing the Combat betwixt the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman and establishing Faith and Assurance of the Victory by Jesus Christ who is the Captain of their Salvation And God has recorded these things in this manner in the Word that all the people of God may read the whole of their present State and Work acted in the Scriptures by the Inspiration of the Spirit which now breaths Workings of a like nature in their hearts The least Groan cannot be lost 't is part of the Lambs War and therefore there is a Blessing in it If the infinite Purity Power and Holiness of God did reveal it self only to the Understanding it would either distract or confound the Soul or harden it by a desperate Dispondency and therefore the infinite Excellency of God descends into the Humane Nature of Christ that it might overshadow and work in the hearts of the Saints who are his Mystical Body by the Spirit in the Scriptures in the way of an Instinct and new Principle arising from that spiritual Closure made betwixt him and them in the Gospel The rejection of the Gospel and The Glory of Christs Condescention despising the Word doth chiefly arise from an aptness to stumble at the Condescention of God he sees a necessity to bow down lower to save poor Man than the Pride of Man's heart knows how to digest and therefore the broken and contrite ones get most of his company Isa 57. 15. the Soul who loves him and believes his Condescention in the design and truth thereof can never be too low for relief The manner of Christ's coming into the Flesh and the despicableness of his Person in his Life and Death seriously considered and the Ordinances which he blest and left to us gives no encouragement to the Wisdom of the Flesh The way of carnal Wisdom is to do great things by great means but the Wisdom of God doth great things by small and despicable means 1 Sam. 16. 7. 2 King 5. 10 11. and so confoundeth the Wisdom of the Wise as the Apostle argues 1 Cor. 1. from v. 20. forwards Were the truth of this Mystery of God's Condescention truly taken up it would spoil that repining dejection which torments the Saints about their unworthiness and thankfulness would accompany all their Groans towards him he is as low as the lowest and their way cannot be hid from him though he be high and lofty and the Creator of the ends of the earth Isa 40. 27 28 29. and 57. 15. The very Kernel of the Gospels Glory lies in the extreamness of his Condescention in the way of saving Man his design is to exalt his Glory to the highest Heavens by the unspeakable lowness of his stooping throughout all the day of Grace He doth by his Spirit wait weep strive grieve sigh suffer and complain in the hearts of his people and figuratively he is said to do such things also himself on their behalf their weak Faith is mighty through him who works it and who carries his Lambs in his Arms. His infinite Greatness is not at all the cause of any estranged distance betwixt him and Mankind in this day of Grace but the carnal and unbroken Pride and fulness of a self-righteous careless ignorant unbelieving heart He setteth the Solitary in Families and stoopeth down to deliver them who are sensible of their Chains but the Rebellious dwelleth in a dry Land Psal 68. 6. Oh let this Truth visit me and save me Here is a Rest indeed O my confused heart he that heard the moan of Ephraim hears thy moan hears thy confused cries picks up all thy sighs and