life to maintain this Fort of our joy against all the powers of darkness and if at any time we finde our selves beaten off through the violence of temptation we must chide our selves into our renued valour and expostulate the matter with our shrinking courage with the man after Gods own heart Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Psal 42. 11. 43. 5. SECT 11. An incitement to joy and thankfulnesse for Christ our life NEither is here more place for an heavenly joy then for height of spirit and raptures of admiration at that infinite goodnes mercy of our God who hath vouchsafed so far to grace his elect as to honour them with a speciall inhabitation of his ever-blessed Deity Yea to live in them and to make them live mutually in and to himself What capacity is there in the narrow heart of man to conceive of this incomprehensible favour to his poor creature Oh Saviour this is no small part of that great mystery wherinto the Angels desire to look 1 Pet. 1. 12. can never look to the bottome of it how shall the weak eyes of sinfull flesh ever be able to reach unto it When thou in the estate of thine humane infirmity offeredst to go down to the Centurions house that humble commander could say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof What shall we then say that thou in the state of thine heavenly glory shouldst vouchsafe to come down and dwell with us in these houses of clay and to make our breasts the Temples of thy holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. When thine holy mother came to visit the partner of her joy thy fore-runner then in the womb of his mother sprang for the joy of thy presence Luk. 1. 44. though distermined by a second womb how should we be affected with a ravishment of spirit whom thou hast pleased to visit in so much mercy as to come down into us and to be spiritually conceived in the womb of our hearts and thereby to give a new and spirituall life to our poor souls a life of thine own yet made ours a life begun in grace and ending in eternall glory SECT 12. The duties we owe to God for his mercy to us in this life which we have from Christ NEver did the holy God give a priviledge where he did not expect a duty he hath more respect to his glory then to throw away his favours The life that ariseth from this blessed union of our souls with Christ as it is the height of all his mercies so it cals for our most zealous affections and most effectuall improvement Art thou then thus happily united to Christ and thus enlived by Christ how entire must thou needs be with him how dear must thy valuations be of him how heartily must thou be devoted to him The spirit of man saith wise Solomon Prov. 20. 27. is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly and therefore cannot but be acquainted with his own inmates and finding so heavenly a guest as the Spirit of Christ in the secret lodgings of his soul applies it self to him in all things so as these two spirits agree in all their spirituall concernments The spirit it self saith the holy Apostle Rom. 8. 16. beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God and not in this case only but upon whatsoever occasion the faithfull man hath this Urim in his breast and may consult with this inward Oracle of his God for direction and resolution in all his doubts neither can he according to the counsell of the Psalmist Psal 4. 4. commune with his own heart but that Christ who lives there is ready to give him an answer Shortly our souls and we are one and the soul and life are so near one that the one is commonly taken for the other Christ therefore who is the life and soul of our souls is and needs must be so intrinsecall to us that we cannot so much as conceive of our spirituall being without him Thou needest not be told my son how much thou valuest life Besides thiâ—e own sense Satan himself can tell thee and in this case thou maist beleeve him Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Job 2. 4. What ransome can be set upon it that a man would stick to give though mountains of gold Psal 49. 7. though thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyle Micah 6. 7. Yea how readily do we expose our dear lims not to hazard only but to losse for the preservation of it Now alas what is our life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. 14. And if we do thus value a perishing life that is going out every moment what pâ—ice shall we set upon eternity If Christ be our life how precious is that life which neither inward distempers nor outward violences can bereave us of which neither can be decayed by time nor altered with crosse events Hear the chosen Vessell Phil. 3. 7 8. What things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ Yea doubtlesse I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and as one that did not esteem his own life dear to him in respect of that better alwayes saith he Act. 20. 24 bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body 2 Cor. 4. 10. How chearfully have the noble and conquering armies of holy Martyrs given away these momentany lives that they might hold fast their Jesus the life of their souls and who can be otherwise affected that knowes and feels the infinite happinesse that offers it self to be enjoyed by him in the Lord Jesus Lastly if Christ be thy life then thou art so devoted to him that thou livest as in him and by him so to him also aiming only at his service and glory and framing thy self wholly to his will and directions Thou canst not so much as eat or drink but with respect to him 1. Cor. 10. 31. Oh the gracious resolution of him that was rapt into the third heaven worthy to be the pattern of all faithfull hearts According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shal be ashamed but that with all boldnesse as alwayes so new also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain Phil. 1. 20 21. Our naturall life is not worthy to be its own scope we do not live meerly that we may live
our spirituall right neither gives us possession of them nor takes away the right and propriety of others Every man hath and must have what by the just Lawes of purchase gift or inheritance is derived to him otherwise there would follow an infinite confusion in the world we could neither enjoy nor give our own and only will and might must be the arbiters of all mens estates which how unequall it would be both reason and experience can sufficiently evince This right is not for the direption or usurpation of that which civill titles have legally put over to others there were no theft no robbery no oppression in the world if any mans goods might be every mans But for the warrantable and comfortable injoying of those earthly commodities in regard of God their originall owner which are by humane conveyances justly become ours The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse of it in his right what ever parcels do lawfully descend unto us we may justly possesse as we have them legally made over to us from the secondary and immediate owners There is a generation of men who have vainly fansied the founding of Temporall dominion in Grace and have upon this mistaking outed the true heirs as intruders and feoffed the just and godly in the possession of wicked inheritors which whether they be worse Common-wealths-men or Christians is to me utterly uncertain sure I am they are enemies to both whiles on the one side they destroy all civill propriety and commerce and on the other reach the extent of the power of Christianity so far as to render it injurious and destructive both to reason and to the Lawes of all well-ordered humanity Nothing is ours by injury and injustice all things are so ours that we may with a good conscience enjoy them as from the hand of a munificent God when they are rightfully estated upon us by the lawfull convention or bequest of men In this regard it is that a Christian man is the Lord of the whole Universe and hath a right to the whole creation of God how can he challenge lesse he is a son and in that an heir and according to the high expression of the Holy Ghost a co-heir with Christ As therefore we may not be high-minded but fear so we may not be too low-hearted in the under-valuing of our condition In God we are great how mean soever in our selves In his right the world is ours what ever pittance we enjoy in our own how can we go less when we are one with him who is the possessour of heaven and earth It were but a poor comfort to us if by vertue of this union we could only lay claim to all earthly things alas how vain and transitory are the best of these perishing under our hand in the very use of them and in the mean while how unsatisfying in the fruition All this were nothing if we had not hereby an interesse in the best of all Gods favours in the heaven of heavens and the eternity of that glory which is there laid up for his Saints far above the reach of all humane expressions or conceits It was the word of him who is the eternall word of his Father Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Joh. 17. 24. and not only to be meer spectators but even partners of all this celestiall blisse together with himself The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one Joh. 17. 22. Oh the transcendent and incomprehensible blessedness of the beleevers which even when they enjoy they cannot be able to utter for measure infinite for duration eternall Oh the inexplicable joy of the fun and everlasting accomplishment of the happy union of Christ and the beleeving soul more fit for thankfull wonder and ravishment of spirit then for any finite apprehension SECT 18. The means by which this union is wrought NOw that we may look a little further into the means by which this union is wrought Know my Son that as there are two persons betwixt whom this union is made Christ and the beleever so each of them concurs to the happy effecting of it Christ by his spirit diffused through the hearts of all the regenerate giving life and activity to them the beleever laying hold by faith upon Christ so working in him and these do so re-act upon each other that from their mutuall operation results this gracious union whereof we treat Here is a spirituall marriage betwixt Christ and the soul The liking of one part doth not make up the match but the consent of both To this purpose Christ gives his Spirit the soul plights her faith What interesse have we in Christ but by his Spirit what interesse hath Christ in us but by our faith On the one part He hath-given us his holy Spirit saith the Apostle 1 Thes 4. 8. and in a way of correlation we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God 1 Cor. 2. 12. And this spirit we have so received as that he dwels in us Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 5. 2. Gal. 2. 20. and so dwels in us as that we are joyned to the Lord and he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit On the other part we have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God so as now the life that we live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God who dwels in our hearts by faith Ephes 3. 17. O the grace of faith according to Saint Peters style 2 Pet. 1. 1. truly precious justly recommended to us by Saint Paul Ephes 6. 16. above all other graces incident into the soul as that which if not alone yet chiefly transacts all the main affairs tending to salvation for faith is the quickning grace Gal. 2. 20. Rom. 1. 17. the directing grace 2 Cor. 5. 7. the protecting grace Ephes 6. 16. the establishing grace Rom. 11. 20. 2 Cor. 1. 24. the justifying grace Rom. 5. 1. the sanctifying and purifying grace Act. 15. 9. faith is the grace that assents to apprehends applies appropriates Christ Heb. 11. 1. and here upon the uniting grace and which comprehends all the saving grace If ever therefore we look for any consolation in Christ or to have any part in this beatificall union it must be the main care of our hearts to make sure of a lively faith in the Lord Jesus to lay fast hold upon him to clasp him close to us yea to receive him inwardly into our bosomes and so to make him ours and our selves his that we may be joyned to him as our head espoused to him as our husband incorporated into him as our nourishment engraffed in him as our stock and laid upon him as a sure foundation SECT 19. The union
thing for a man to hold constant to his own apprehensions Lord God! what a world do we meet with of those who mis-call themselves severall Religions indeed severall professions of one and the same Christianity Melchites Georgians Maronites Jacobites Armenians Abysines Cophti Nestorians Russians Mengrellians and the rest that fill up the large Map of Christianography all which as whiles they hold the head Christ they cannot be denyed the priviledge of his members so being such they are or should be indissolubly joyned together in the unity of spirit and maintenance of the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Jude 3. It is not the variety of by-opinions that should or can exclude them from having their part in that one Catholick Church and their just claim to the communion of Saints whiles they hold the solid and precious foundation it is not the hay or stubble 1 Cor. 3. 12. which they lay upon it that can set them off from God or his Church But in the mean time it must be granted that they have much to answer for to the God of peace and unity who are so much addicted to their own conceits and so indulgent to their own interesse as to raise and maintain new Doctrines and to set up new Sects in the Church of Christ varying from the common and received truths labouring to draw Disciples after them to the great distraction of souls and scandall of Christianity With which sort of disturbers I must needs say this age into which we are fallen hath been and is above all that have gone before us most miserably pestered What good soul can be other then confounded to hear of and see more then an hundred and fourscore new and some of them dangerous and blasphemous opinions broached and defended in one once famous and unanimous Church of Christ Who can say other upon the view of these wilde thoughts then Gerson said long since that the world now grown old is full of doting fancies if not rather that the world now near his end raves and talks nothing but fancies and frenzies How arbitrary soever these self-willed fanaticks may think it to take to themselves this liberty of thinking what they list and venting what they think the blessed Apostle hath long since branded them with an heavy sentence Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and by fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple But notwithstanding all this hideous variety of vain and heterodoxall conceptions he who is the truth of God and the Bridegroom of his Spouse the Church hath said Cant. 6. 9. My Dove my undefiled is one One in the main essentiall fundamentall verities necessary to salvation though differing in divers mis-raised Corollaries inconsequent inferences unnecessary additions feigned traditions unwarrantahle practises the body is one though the garments differ yea rather for most of these the garment is one but differs in the dressing handsomely and comly set out by one disguised by another Neither is it nor ever shall be in the power of all the fiends of hell the professed make-bates of the world to make Gods Church other then one which were indeed utterly to extinguish and reduce it to nothing for the unity and entity of the Church can no more be divided then it self It were no lesse then blasphemy to fasten upon the chaste and most holy husband of the Church any other then one Spouse In the Institution of Marriage did he not make one yet had he the residue of the spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a goodly seed Mal. 2. 15. That which he ordained for us shall not the holy God much more observe in his own heavenly match with his Church Here is then one Lord one Faith one Baptisme One Baptisme by which we enter into the Church one Faith which we professe in the Church and one Lord whom we serve and who is the head and husband of the Church SECT 21. The union of Christians in matter of affection HOw much therefore doth it concern us that we who are united in one common beleef should be much more united in affection that where there is one way there should be much more one heart Jer. 32. 39. This is so justly supposed that the Prophet Amos 3. 3. questions Can two walk together except they be agreed if we walk together in our judgments we cannot but accord in our wils This was the praise of the Primitive Christians and the pattern of their successors The multitude of them that beleeved were of one heart and of the soul Acts 4. 32. Yea this is the Livery which our Lord and Saviour made choice of whereby his meniall servants should be known and distinguished By this shall all men know that ye be my Disciples if ye have love to one another Joh. 13. 35. In vain shall any man pretend to a Discipleship if he do not make it good by his love to all the family of Christ The whole Church is the spiritull Temple of God every beleever is a living stone laid in those sacred wals what is our Christian love but the morter or cement whereby these stones are fast joyned together to make up this heavenly building without which that precious fabrick could not hold long together but would be subject to dis-joynting by those violent tempests of opposition wherewith it is commonly beaten upon There is no place for any loose stone in Gods edifice the whole Church is one entire body all the lims must be held together by the ligaments of Christian love if any one will be severed and affect to subsist of it self it hath lost his place in the body Thus the Apostle Eph. 4. 15 16. That we being sincere in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love But in case there happen to be differences in opinion concerning points not essentiall not necessary to salvation this diversity may not breed an alienation of affection That charity which can cover a multitude of sins may much more cover many small dissensions of judgement We cannot hope to be all and at all times equally enlightned at how many and great weaknesses of judgment did it please our mercifull Saviour to connive in his domestick Disciples They that had so long sate at the sacred feet of him that spake as never man spake were yet to seek of those Scriptures which had so clearly foretold his resurrection Joh. 20. 9. and after that were at a fault for the manner of his kingdome Acts 1. 6.
yet he that breaks not the bruised reed nor quenches the smoaking flaxe fals not harshly upon them for so foul an error and ignorance but entertains them with all loving respect not as followers only but as friends Joh. 15. 15. And his great Apostle after he had spent himself in his unweariable endeavours upon Gods Church and had sown the seeds of wholesome and saving doctrine every where what rank and noisome weeds of erroneous opinions rose up under his hand in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Colosse Philippi and Thessalonica These he labours to root out with much zeal with no bitternesse so opposing the errors as not alienating his affection from the Churches These these must be our precedents pursuing that charge of the prime Apostle 1 Pet. 3. 8. Finally be ye all of one minde having compassion one of another love as brethren be pitifull be courteous and that passionate and adjuring obtestation of the Apostle Phil. 2. 1 2. of the Gentiles If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde This is it that gives beauty strength glory to the Church of God upon earth and brings it nearest to the resemblance of that triumphant part above where there is all perfection of love and concord in imitation whereof the Psalmist sweetly Behold how good and joyfull a thing it is brethren to dwel together in unity Psal 133. 1. SECT 22. A complaint of divisions and notwithstanding them an assertion of unity SO much the more justly lamentable it is to see the manifold and grievous distractions of the Church of Christ both in judgement and affection Woe is me into how many thousand pieces is the seamlesse coat of our Saviour rent Yea into what numberlesse atomes is the precious body of Christ torn and minced There are more Religions then Nations upon earth and in each Religion as many different conceits as men If Saint Paul when his Corinthians did but say I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Cephas could ask Is Christ divided 1 Cor. 1. 12 13. when there was only an emulatory magnifying of their own teachers though agreeing and orthodox what think we would he now say if he saw hundred of Sect-masters and Heresiarchs some of them opposite to other all to the Truth applauded by their credulous and divided followers all of them claiming Christ for theirs and denying him to their gain-sayers would he not ask Is Christ multiplied Is Christ sub-divided Is Christ shred into infinites O God! what is become of Christianity How do evill spirits and men labour to destroy that Creed which we have alwayes constantly professed For if we set up more Christs where is that one and if we give way to these infinite distractions where is the communion of Saints But be not too much dismaid my son notwithstanding all these cold disheartnings take courage to thy self He that is truth it self hath said The Gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church Mat. 16. 18. In spight of all Devils there shall be Saints and those are and shall be as the scales of the Leviathan whose strong pieces of shields are his pride shut up together as with a close seal one is so near to another that no air can come betwixt them They are joyned one to another they stick together that they cannot be sundred Job 41. 15 16 17. In all the main principles of Religion there is an universal and unanimous consent of all Christians and these are they that constitute a Church Those that agree in these Christ is pleased to admit for matter of doctrine as members of that body whereof he is the head and if they admit not of each other as such the fault is in the uncharitablenesse of the refusers no lesse then in the error of the refused And if any vain and loose straglers will needs sever themselves and wilfully choose to go wayes of their own let them know that the union of Christs Church shall consist entire without them this great Ocean will be one collection of waters when these drops are lost in the dust In the mean time it highly concerns all that wish wel to the sacred name of Christ to labour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4. 3. and to renue and continue the prayer of the Apostle for all the professors of Christianity Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 15. 5 6. SECT 23. The necessary effects and fruits of this union of Christian hearts FAr be it from us to think this union of the hearts of Gods Saints upon earth can be idle and ineffectuall but where ever it is it puts forth it self in a like-affectednesse of disposition into an improvement of gifts into a communication of outward blessings to the benefit of that happy consociation We cannot be single in our affections if we be lims of a Christian community What member of the body can complain so as the rest shall not feel it Even the head and heart are in pain when a joynt of the least toe suffers no Christian can be afflicted alone It is not Saint Pauls case only Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not 2 Cor. 11. 29. Our shoulders are not our own we must bear one anothers burdens Gal. 6. 2. There is a better kinde of spirituall good fellowship in all the Saints of God They hate a propriety of passions Rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. Their affections are not more communicative then their gifts and graces those as they are bestowed with an intuition of the common good so they are improved Wherefore hath this man quicknesse of wit that man depth of judgement this heat of zeal that power of elocution this skill that experience this authority that strength but that all should be laid together for the raising of the common stock How rich therefore is every Christian soul that is not only furnished with its own graces but hath a speciall interest in all the excellent gifts of all the most eminent servants of God through the the whole world Surely he cannot be poor whiles there is any spirituall wealth in the Church of God upon earth Neither are or can these gifts be in the danger of concealment they are still put forth for the publick advantage As therefore no true Christian is his own man so he freely layes out himself by example by admonition by exhortation by consolation by prayer for the universall benefit of all his fellow members By example which is not a a little winning
come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men what a disparagement do we think it was for the great Monarch of Babylon for seven years together as a beast to converse with the beasts of the field Yet alas beasts and men are fellow-creatures made of one earth drawing in the same ayre returning for their bodily part to the same dust symbolizing in many qualities and in some mutually transcending each others so as here may seem to be some terms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like un to beasts and some beasts are in outward shape somewhat like unto men But for him that was and is God blessed for ever eternall infinite incomprehensible to put on flesh and become a man amongst men was to stoop below all possible disparities that heaven and earth can afford Oh Saviour the lower thine abasement was for us the higher was the pitch of thy divine love to us SECT 5. His love in his sufferings YEt in this our humane condition there are degrees One rules and glitters in all earthly glory another sits despised in the dust one passes the time of his life in much jollity and pleasure another wears out his dayes in sorrow and discontentment Blessed Jesu since thou wouldst be a man why wouldst thou not be the King of men since thou wouldst come down to our earth why wouldst thou not enjoy the best entertainment that the earth could yeeld thee Yea since thou who art the eternall Son of God wouldst be the son of man why didst thou not appear in a state like to the King of heaven attended with the glorious retinue of blessed Angels O yet greater wonder of mercies The same infinite love that brought thee down to the form of man would al so bring thee down being man to the form of a servant So didst thou love man that thou wouldst take part with him of his misery that he might take partwith thee of thy blessednesse thou wouldst be poor to enrich us thou wouldst be burdened for our ease tempted for our victory despised for our glory With what lesse then ravishment of spirit can I behold thee who wert from everlasting cloathed with glory and Majesty wrapped in rags thee who fillest heaven and earth with the majesty of thy glory cradled in a manger thee who art the God of power fleeing in thy mothers arms from the rage of a weak man thee who art the God of Israel driven to be nursed out of the bosome of thy Church thee who madest the heaven of heavens busily working in the homely trade of a foster-father thee who commandest the Devils to their chains transported and tempted by that foul spirit thee who art God all-sufficient exposed to hunger thirst wearinesse danger contempt poverty revilings scourgings persecution thee who art the just Judge of all the world accused and condemned thee who art the Lord of life dying upon the tree of shame and curse thee who art the eternall Son of God strugling with thy Fathers wrath thee who hadst said I and my Father are one sweating drops of bloud in thine agony and crying out on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me thee who hast the keyes of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carryed thee what sighs and groans and tears and bloud hast thou spent upon us wretched men How dear a price hast thou paid for our ransome What raptures of spirit can be sufficient for the admiration of thy so infinite mercy Be thou swallowed up O my soul in this depth of divine love and hate to spend thy thoughts any more upon the base objects of this wretched world when thou hast such a Saviour to take them up SECT 6. His love in preparing heaven for us BUt O blessed Jesu if from what thou hast suffered for me I shall cast mine eyes upon what thou hast done for my soul how is my heart divided betwixt the wonders of both and may as soon tell how great either of them is as whether of them is the greatest It is in thee that I was elected from all eternity and ordained to a glorious inheritance before there was a world we are wont O God to marvell at and blesse thy provident beneficence to the first man that before thou wouldst bring him forth into the world thou wert pleased to furnish such a world for him so goodly an house over his head so pleasant a Paradise under his feet such variety of creatures round about him for his subjection and attendance But how should I magnifie thy mercy who before that man or that world had any beeing hast so far loved me as to pre-ordain me to a place of blessednesse in that heaven which should be and to make me a co-heir with my Christ of thy glory And oh what an heaven is this that thou hast laid out for me how resplendent how transcendently glorious Even that lower Paradise which thou providedst for the harbour of innocence and holinesse was full of admirable beauty pleasure magnificence but if it be compared with this Paradise above which thou hast prepared for the everlasting entertainment of restored souls how mean and beggerly it was Oh match too unequall of the best peece of earth with the highest state of the heaven of heavens In the earthly Paradise I finde thine Angels the Cherubim but it was to keep man off from that Garden of Delight and from the tree of life in the midst of it but in this heavenly one I finde millions of thy Cherubim and Seraphim rejoycing at mans blessednesse and welcomming the glorified souls to their heaven There I finde but the shadow of that whereof the substance is here There we were so possessed of life that yet we might forfeit it here is life without all possibility of death Temptation could finde accesse thither here is nothing but a free and compleat fruition of blessednesse There were delights fit for earthly bodies here is glory more then can be enjoyed of blessed souls That was watered with four streams muddy and impetuous in this is the pure river of the water of life clear as Crystall proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb There I finde thee onely walking in in the cool of the day here manifesting thy Majesty continually There I see only a most pleasant Orchard set with all manner of varieties of flourishing and fruitfull plants here I finde also the City of God infinitely rich and magnificent the building of the wall of it of Jasper and the City it self pure gold like unto clear glasse and the foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones All that I can here attain to see is the pavement of thy celestiall habitation and Lord how glorious it is how be spangled with glittering starres for number for magnitude equally admirable What is
of those thoughts and dispositions which may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty who of a poor worm on earth hast made me an heir of the kingdome of heaven Wo is me how subject are these earthly principalities to hazard and mutability whether through death or insurrection but this Crown which thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible and shall sit immovably fast upon my head not for years not for millions of ages but for all eternity Oh let it be my heaven here below in the mean while to live in a perpetuall fruition of thee and to begin those Alelujahs to thee here which shall be as endlesse as thy mercy and my blessednesse SECT 1. The improvement of our love to Christ for the mercy of his deliverance of the tuition of his Angels of the powerfull working of his good Spirit HAdst thou been pleased to have translated me from thy former Paradise the most delightfull seat of mans originall integrity and happinesse to the glory of the highest heaven the preferment had been infinitely gracious but to bring my soul from the nether most hell and to place it among the Chore of Angels doubles the thank of thy mercy and the measure of my obligation How thankfull was thy Prophet but to an Ebedmelech that by a cord and rags let down into that dark dungeon helpt him out of that uncomfortable pit wherein he was lodged yet what was there but a little cold hunger stench closenesse obscurity Lord how should I blesse thee that hast fetcht my soul from that pit of eternall horrour from that lake of fire and brimstone from the everlasting torments of the damned wherein I had deserved to perish for ever I will sing of thy power unto thee O my strength will I sing for God is my deliverer and the God of my mercie But O Lord if yet thou shouldst leave me in my own hands where were I how easily should I be rob'd of thee with every temptation how should I be made the scorn and insultation of men and devils It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou hast given thine Angels charge over me Those Angels great in power and glorious in Majesty are my sure though invisible guard O blessed Jesu what an honour what a safety is this that those heavenly spirits which attend thy throne should be my champions Those that ministred to thee after thy temptation are ready to assist and relieve me in mine they can neither neglect their charge because they are perfectly holy nor fail of their victory because they are under thee the most powerfull I see you O ye blessed Guardians I see you by the eye of my faith no lesse truly then the eye of my sense sees my bodily attendants I do truly though spiritually feel your presence by you gratious operations in upon and for me and I do heartily blesse my God and yours for you and for those saving offices that through his mercifull appointment you ever do for my soul But as it was with thine Israelies of old that it would not content them that thou promisedst and wouldst send thine Angell before them to bring them into the Land flowing with milk and honey unlesse thy presence O Lord should also go along with them so is it still with me and all thine wert not thou with and in us what could thine Angels do for us In thee it is that they move and are The same infinite Spirit which works in and by them works also in me From thee it is O thou blessed and eternall Spirit that I have any stirrings of holy motions any breathings of good desires any life of grace any will to resist any power to overcome evill It is thou O God that girdest me with strength unto battell thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation thy right hand hath holden me up thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies Glory and praise be to thee O Lord which alwaies causest us to triumph in Christ who crownest us with loving kindnesse and tender mercies and hast not held us short of the best of thy favours Truly Lord hadst thou given us but a meer beeing as thou hast done to the lowest rank of thy creatures it had been more then thou owest us more then ever we could be able to requite to thy divine bounty for every beeing is good and the least degree of good is farre above our worthiness But that to our beeing thou hast added life it is yet an higher measure of thy mercy for certainly of thy common favours life is the most precious yet this is such a benefit as may be had and not perceived for even the plants of the earth live and feel it not that to our life therefore thou hast made a further accession of sense it is yet a larger improvement of thy beneficence for this faculty hath some power to manage life and makes it capable to affect those means which may tend to the preservation of it and to decline the contrary but this is no other then the brute creatures enjoy equally with us and some of them beyond us that therefore to our sense thou hast blessed us with a further addition of reason it is yet an higher pitch of munificence for hereby we are men and as such are able to attain some knowledge of thee our Creator to observe the motions of the heavens to search into the natures of our fellow-creatures to passe judgement upon actions and events and to transact these earthly affairs to our own best advantage But when all this is done wo were to us if we were but men for our corrupted reason renders us of all creatures the most miserable that therefore to our reason thou hast superadded faith to our nature grace and of men hast made us Christians and to us as such hast given thy Christ thy Spirit and thereby made us of enemies sons and heirs co-heirs with Christ of thine eternall and most glorious kingdome of heaven yea hast incorporated us into thy self and made us one spirit with thee our God Lord what room can there be possibly in these strait and narrow hearts of ours for a due admiration of thy transcendent love and mercy I am swallowed up O God I am willingly swallowed up in this bottomelesse abysse of thine infinite love and there let me dwell in a perpetuall ravishment of spirit till being freed from this clog of earth and filled with the fulness of Christ I shall be admitted to enjoy that which I cannot now reach to wonder at thine incomprehensible blisse and glory which thou laid up in the highest heavens for them that love thee in the blessed communion of all thy Saints and Angels thy Cherubim and Seraphim Thrones Dominions and Principalities and Powers in the beatificall presence of thee the ever-living God the eternall Father of Spirits Father Son holy Ghost one infinite Deity in three co-essentially co-eternally co-equally glorious persons To whom