blessed us and how should we blesse thee in so mighty and glorious attendants Neither hast thou O God meerly turn'd us over to the protection of those tutelary spirits but hast held us still in thine own hand having not so strongly defenced as without as thou hast done within Since that is wrought by thine Angels this by thy Spirit Oh the soveraign and powerfull influences of thy holy Ghost whereby wee are furnished with all saving graces strengthned against all temptations heartned against all our doubts and fears enabled both to resist and overcome and upon our victories crowned Oh divine bounty far beyond the reach of wonder So God the Father loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life So God the Son loved the world of his elect that he gave unto thē the holy Spirit of promise wherby they are sealed unto the day of redemption wherby according to the riches of his glory they are strengthned with might in the inner man by the vertue whereof shed abroad in their hearts they are enabled to cry Abba Father Oh gifts either of which are more worth then many worlds yet through thy goodnes ô Lord both of thē mine How rich is my soul through thy divine munificence how over-laid with mercies How safe in thine Almighty tuition How happy in thy blessed possession Now therefore I dare in the might of my God bid defiance to all the gates of hell Doe your worst ô all ye principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in high places doe your worst God is mine and I am his I am above your malice in the right of him whose I am It is true I am weak but he is omnipotent I am sinfull but he is infinite holinesse that power that holinesse in his gracious application is mine It is my Saviours love that hath made this happy exchange of his righteousnesse for my sin of his power for my infirmity Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Who shal separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword Nay in all these things we are more thē conquerors through him that loved us So as neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Lo where this love is placed were it our love of God how easily might the power of a prevalent temptation separate us from it or it from us for alas what hold is to be taken of our affections w ch like unto water are so much more apt to freeze because they have been heated but it is the love of God to us in Christ Jesus which is ever as himself constant and eternall He can no more cease to love us then to be himself he cannot but be unchangeable we cannot but be happy All this O deare Jesu hast thou done all this hast thou suffered for me And oh now for an heart that might be some ways answerable to thy mercies Surely even good natures hate to be in debt for love and are ready to repay favours with interest Oh for a soul sick of love yea sick unto death why should I how can I be any otherwise any whit lesse affected O Saviour this onely sicknesse is my health this death is my life and not to be thus sick is to be dead in sins and trespasses I am rock and not flesh if I be not wounded with these heavenly darts Ardent affection is apt to attract love even where is little or no beauty and excellent beauty is no lesse apt to enflame the heart where there is no answer of affection but when these two meet together what breast can hold against them and here they are both in an eminent degree Thou canst say even of thy poore Church though labouring under many imperfections Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck how fair is thy love my sister my Spouse And canst thou O blessed Saviour be so taken with the incurious and homely features of thy faithfull ones and shall not we much more be altogether enamoured of thine absolute and divine beauty of whom every beleeving soul can say My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand his head is as the most fine gold his eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters his cheekes are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers his lips like lillies dropping sweet smelling myrrhe c. It hath pleased thee O Lord out of the sweet ravishments of thy heavenly love to say to thy poor Church Turn away thine eyes from mee for they have overcome me but oh let mee say unto thee Turn thine eyes to me that they may overcome me I would be thus ravished thus overcome I would be thus out of my self that I might be all in thee Thou lovedst me before I had beeing Let me now that I have a beeing be wholly taken up with thy love Let me set all my soul upon thee that gavest me beeing upō thee who art the eternal absolute Self-beeing who hast said and only could say I am that I am Alas Lord we are nothing but what thou wilt have us and cease to be when thou callest in that breath of life w ch thou hast lent us thou art that incōprehensibly glorious infinite self-existing Spirit from eternity in eternity to eternity in and from whom all things are It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou wouldst condescend so low as to vouchsafe to be loved of my wretchednesse of whom thou mightest justly require and expect nothing but terrour and trembling It is my happinesse that I may be allowed to love a Majesty so infinitely glorious Oh let me not be so farre wanting to my own felicity as to bee lesse then ravished with thy love Thou lovedst me when I was deformed loathly forlorn and miserable shall I not now love thee when thou hast freed me and deckt me with the ornaments of thy Graces Lord Jesu who should enjoy the fruit of thine own favours but thy self How shamefully injurious were it that when thou hast trimm'd up my soul it should prostitute it self to the love of the world Oh take my heart to thee alone possesse thy self of that which none can claim but thy self Thou lovedst me when I was a professed rebell against thee and receivedst me not to mercy onely but to the indearment of a subject a servant a son vvhere should I place the improvement of the thankfull affections of my loyaltie and duty but upon thee Thou O God
of is verified that character which the divine Apostle gave of them long agoe Their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools and stil the best of us if we be but our selves may take up that complaint of Asaph So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and of Agur the son of Jake Surely I am more brutish then man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy and if any man will be challenging more to himself he must at last take up with Solomon I said I will be wise but it was farre from me But how defective soever we are in our selves there is wisdome enough in our head Christ to supply all our wants He that is the wisdome of the Father is by the Father made our wisdome In him are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge saith the Apostle So hid that they are both revealed and communicated to his own For God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ In and by him hath it pleased the Father to impart himself unto us He is the image of the invisible God even the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person It was a just check that he gave to Philip in the Gospel Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known mee Philip he that hath seen me hath seen the Father And this point of wisdome is so high and excellent that all humane skil and all the so much admired depths of Philosophy are but meer ignorance and foolishnesse in comparison of it Alas what can these profound wits reach unto but the very outside of these visible and transitory things as for the inward forms of the meanest creatures they are so altogether hid from them as if they had no beeing and as for spirituall and divine things the most knowing Naturalists are either stone-blinde that they cannot see them or grope after them in an Egyptian darknesse For the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned How much lesse can they know the God of Spirits who besides his invisibility is infinite and incomprehensible only he who is made our wisdome enlightneth our eyes with this divine knowledge No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him Neither is Christ made our wisdome onely in respect of heavenly wisdome imparted to us but in respect of his perfect wisdome imputed unto us Alas our ignorances and sinfull misprisions are many and great where should we appear if our faith did not fetch succour frō our all-wise and all-sufficient Mediator Oh Saviour we are wise in thee our head how weak soever we are of our selves Thine infinite wisdome and goodnesse both covers and makes up all our defects The wife cannot be poor whiles the husband is rich thou hast vouchsafed to give us a right to thy store we have no reason to be disheartned with our own spirituall wants whiles thou art made our wisdome It is not meer wisdome that can make us acceptable to God if the serpents were not in their kinde wiser then we we should not have been advised to be wise as serpents That God who is essentiall Justice as well as Wisedome requires all his to be not more wise then exquisitely righteous Such in themselves they cannot be For in many things we sin all such therefore they are and must be in Christ their head who is made unto us of God together with Wisdome Righteousnesse Oh incomprehensible mercy He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him what a marvellous and happy exchange is here we are nothing but sin Christ is perfect righteousnesse He is made our sin that we might he made his righteousnesse He that knew no sin is made sin for us that we who are all sin might be made Gods righteousness in him In our selves wee are not onely sinfull but sin In him we are not righteous onely but righteousnesse it self Of our selves we are not righteous we are made so In our selves we are not righteous but in him we made not our selves so but the same God in his infinite mercy who made him sin for us hath made us his righteousnesse No otherwise are we made his righteousnesse then he is made our sin Our sin is made his by Gods imputation so is his righteousnesse made ours How fully doth the second Adam answer and transcend the first By the offence of the first judgement came upon all men to condemnation by the righteousnesse of the second the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous righteous not in themselves so death passed upon all for that all have sinned but in him that made them so by whom we have received the atonement How free then and how perfect is our justification What quarrell may the pure and holy God have against righteousnesse against his own righteousnesse and such are we made in and by him what can now stand between us and blessedness Not our sins for this is the praise of his mercy that he justifies the ungodly Yea were wee not sinfull how were we capable of his justification sinfull as in the tearm from whence this act of his mercy moveth not as in the tearm wherein it resteth his grace findes us sinfull it doth not leave us so Far be it from the righteous Judge of the world to absolve a wicked soul continuing such He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord No but he kils sin in us whiles he remits it and at once cleanseth and accepts our persons Repentance and remission doe not lagge one after another both of them meet at once in the penitent soul at once doth the hand of our faith lay hold on Christ and the hand of Christ lay hold on the soul to justification so as the sinnes that are done away can be no barre to our happinesse And what but sinnes can pretend to an hindrance All our other weaknesses are no eye-sore to God no rub in our way to heaven What matters it then how unworthy wee are of our selves It is Christs obedience that is our righteousnes and that obedience cannot but be exquisitely perfect cannot but be both justly accepted as his and mercifully accepted as for us There is a great deal of difference betwixt being righteous and being made righteousnesse every
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 earthlie affairs to our own best advantage But when all this is done wo were to us if vve vvere 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 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 bottomlesse 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 fulnesse 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 vvhom be blessing honour glory and power for ever and ever Amen Allelujah THE CHRISTIAN LAID FORTH IN His whole Disposition and Carriage BY I. H. D. D. B. N. The CONTENTS The Exhortatory Preface § 1. THe Christians disposition § 2. His expence of the day § 3. His recreations § 4. His meals § 5. His nights rest § 6. His carriage § 7. His resolution in matter of Religion § 8. His discourse § 9. His devotion § 10. His sufferings § 11. His conflicts § 12. His death An Exhortatory Preface to the Christian Reader OVt of infallible rules and long experience have I gathered up this true character of a Christian A labour some will think might have been well spared Every man professes both to know and act this part Who is there that would not be angry if but a question should be made either of his skill or interest Surely since the first name giveÌ„ at Antioch all the beleeving world hath been ambitious of the honour of it How happy were it if all that are willing to wear the livery were as ready to doe the service But it fals out here as in the case of all things that are at once honourable and difficult every one affects the title few labour for the truth of the atchievement Having therefore leisure enough to look about me and finding the world too prone to this worst kind of hypocrisie I have made this true 〈◊〉 not more for direction then for tryall Let no man view these lines as a stranger but when he looks in this glasse let him ask his heart whether this be his own face yea rather when he sees this face let him examine his heart whether both of theÌ„ agree with their pattern And where he findes his failings as who shall not let him strive to amend them and never give over whiles he is any way lesse fair then his copy In the mean time I would it were lesse easie by these rules to judge even of others besides our selves or that it were uncharitable to say there are many Professors few Christians If words and forms might carry it Christ would have Clients 〈◊〉 but if holinesse of disposition and uprightnesse of carriage must be the proof wo is me In the midst of the Land among the people there is as the shaking of an Olive tree and as the gleaming grapes where the Vintage is done For where is the man that hath obtained the mastery of his corrupt affections and to be the Lord of his unruly appetite that hath his heart in heaven whiles his living carcass is stirring here upoÌ„ earth that can see the invisible and sâ—orâ—tly enjoy that Saviour to whom he is spiritually united That hath subdued his will and reason to his beleef that fears nothing but God loves nothing but goodnesse hates nothing but sin rejoyceth in none but true blessings Whose faith triumphs over the world whose hope is anchored in heaven whose charity knows no lesse bounds then God and men whose humility represents him as vile to himself as he is honourable in the reputation of God who is wise heaven-ward however he passes with the world who dares be no other then just whether he win or lose who is frugally liberall discreetly courageous holily temperate who is ever a thrifty menager of his houres so dividing the day betwixt his God and his Vocation that neither shall finde fault with a just neglect or an unjust partiality whose recreations are harmlesse honest warrantable such as may refresh nature not debauch it whose diet is regulated by health not by pleasure as one whose table shall be no altar to his belly nor snare to his soul who in his seasonable repose lies down and awakes with God caring only to relieve his spirits not to cherish sloth Whose carriage is meek gentle compliant beneficiall in whatsoever station In Magistracy unpartially just in the Ministery conscionably faithfull in the rule of his family wisely provident and religiously exemplary Shortly who is a discreet and loving yoke-fellow a tender and pious parent a dutious and awfull son an humble and obsequious servant an obedient and loyall subject Whose heart is constantly setled in the main truths of Christian Religion so as he cannot be removed in litigious points neither too credulous nor too Peremptory whose discourse is such as may be meet for the expressions of a tongue that belongs to a sound godly and charitable heart whose breast continually burns with the heavenly fire of an holy devotion whose painfull sufferings are overcome with patience and chearfull resolutions whose conflicts are attended with undaunted courage and crowned with an happy victory Lastly whose death is not so full of fear and anguish as of strong consolations in that Saviour who hath overcome and sweetned it nor of so much dreadfulnesse in it self as of joy in the present expectation of that blessed issue of a glorious immortality which instantly succeeds it Such is the Christian whom we doe here characterize and commend to the world both for trial and imitation neither know I which of these many qualifications can be missing in that soul who lays a just claim to Christ his Redeemer Take your hearts to task therefore my dear brethren into whose hands soever these lines shall come and as you desire to
stranger to us there is nothing wherewith we are so well acquainted yea we feel continually what it is and what it produceth It is that from whence all sense action motion floweth it is that which gives us to be what we are All this is Christ to the regenerate man It is one thing what he is or doth as a man another thing what he is or doth as a Christian As a man he hath eyes ears motions affections understanding naturally as his own as a Christian he hath all these from him with whom he is spiritually one the Lord Jesus and the objects of all these vary accordingly His naturall eyes behold bodily and materiall things his spirituall eyes see things invisible His outward eares hear the sound of the voice his inward ears hear the voice of Gods Spirit speaking to his soul His bodily feet move in his own secular ways his spirituall walk w th God in all the ways of his Commandements His naturall affections are set upon those things which are agreeable thereunto he loves beauty fears pain and losse rejoyces in outward prosperity hates an enemy his renued affections are otherwise and more happily bestowed now he loves goodnesse for its own sake hates nothing but sin fears onely the displeasure of a good God rejoyces in Gods favour which is better then life His former thoughts were altogether taken up with vanity and earthed in the world now he seeks the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Finally he is such as that a beholder sees nothing but man in him but God and his soul finde Christ in him both in his renued person and actions in all the degrees both of his life and growth of his sufferings and glory My little children saith Saint Paul of whom I travell in birth again untill Christ be formed in you Lo here Christ both conceived and born in the faithfull heart Formation follows conception and travell implies a birth Now the beleever is a new-born babe in Christ and so mutually Christ in him from thence he grows up to strength of youth and at last to perfection even towards the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ And in this condition he is dead with Christ He is buried with Christ He is alive again unto God through Christ he is risen with Christ and with Christ he is glorified Yea yet more then so his sufferings are Christs Christs sufferings are his He is in Christ an heir of glory and Christ is in him the hope of glory Dost thou not now finde cause my son to complain of thy self as I confesse I daily doe that thou art so miserably apt to forget these intimate respects between thy Christ and thee art thou not ashamed to think how little sense thou hast had of thy great happinesse Lo Christ is in thy bosome and thou feelst him not It is not thy soul that animates thee in thy renued estate it is thy God and Saviour and thou hast not hitherto perceived it It is no otherwise with thee in this case then with the members of thine own body there is the same life in thy fingers and toes that there is in the head or heart yea in the whole man and yet those lims know not that they have such a life Had those members reason as well as sense they would perceive that wherewith they are enlived thou hast more then reason faith and therefore maist well know whence thou hast this spiritual life therupon art much wanting to thy self if thou dost not enjoy so usefull and comfortable an apprehension Resolve therefore with thy self that no secular occasion shall ever set off thy heart from this blessed object and that thou wilt as soon forget thy naturall life as this spirituall and raise up thy thoughts from this dust to the heaven of heavens Shake of this naturall pusillanimity and meane conceit of thy self as if thou wert all earth and know thy self advanced to a celestiall condition that thou art united to the Son of God and animated by the holy Spirit of God so as the life which thou now livest in the flesh thou livest by the faith of the Son of God who loved thee and gave himself for thee See then and confesse how just cause we have to condemn the dead-heartednesse wherewith we are subject to be possessed and how many worthy Christians are there in the world who bear a part with us in this just blame who have yeelded over themselves to a disconsolate heartlesnesse and a sad dejection of spirit partly through a naturall disposition inclining to dumpishnesse and partly through the prevalence of temptation For Satan well knowing how much it makes for our happinesse chearfully to reflect upon our interest in Christ and to live in the joyfull sense of it labours by all means to withdraw our hearts from this so comfortable object and to clog us with a pensive kinde of spirituall fullennesse accounting it no small mastery if he can prevail with us so far as to be reave us of this habituall joy in the holy Ghost arising from the inanimation of Christ living and breathing within us So much the more therefore must we bend all the powers of our souls against this dangerous and deadly machination of our spirituall enemy and labour as for life to maintain this Fort of our joy against all the powers of darknesse 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 Neither is here more place for an heavenly joy then for height of spirit and raptures of admiration at that infinite goodnesse and 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 wherin to the Angels desire to look and 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 goe 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
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 mee be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me and not only to be meere spectators but even partners of this celestiall blisse together with himselfe The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one Oh the transcendent and incomprehensible blessednesse 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 ful everlasting accomplishment of the happy union of Christ the beleeving soule more fit for thankfull wonder and ravishment of Spirit then for any finite apprehension Now that we may looke a little further into the meanes by which this union is wrought Know my Sonne that as there are two persons betwixt whom this union is made Christ and the beleever so each of them concurres 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 doe so re-act upon each other that from their mutuall operation results this gracious union whereof wee treat Here is a spirituall marriage betwixt Christ and the soule The liking of one part doth not make up the match but the consent of both To this purpose Christ gives his spirit the soule 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 and in a way of correlation we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God And this spirit we have so received as that he dwells in us and so dwells 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 wee have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and reioice in hope of the glory of God so as now the life that wee live in the flesh we live by the faith of the sonne of God who dwells in our hearts by faith O the grace of faith according to St. Peters style truly precious justly recommended to us by S. Paul above all other graces incident into the soule as that which if not alone yet chiefly transacts all the maine affaires tending to salvation for faith is the quickning grace the directing grace the protecting grace the establishing grace the justifying grace the sanctifying and purifying grace faith is the grate that assents to apprehends applyes appropriates Christ and hereupon the uniting grace and which comprehends all the saving grace If ever therefore we looke for any consolation in Christ or to have any part in this beatificall union it must be the maine 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 engrafted in him as our stock and layd upon him as a sure foundation Hitherto wee have treated of this blessed union as in relation to Christ the head it remaines that we now consider of it as it stands in relation to the members of his mysticall body one towards another For as the body is united to the head so must the members be united to themselves to make the body truly compleat Thus the holy ghost by his Apostle As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so is Christ. From this entire conjunction of the members with each other arises that happy communion of Saints which wee professe both to beleeve and to partake of This mysticall body of Christ is a large one extending it self both to heaven and earth there is a reall union betwixt all those farre-spred limmes betweene the Saints in heaven betweene the Saints on earth between the Saints in heaven and earth We have reason to begin at heaven thence is the originall of our union and blessednesse There was never place for discord in that region of glory since the rebellious Angels were cast out thence the spirits of just men made perfect must needs agree in a perfect unity neither can it be otherwise for there is but one will in heaven one scope of the desires of blessed souls w ch is the glory of their God all the whole chore sing one song and in that one harmonious tune of Allelujah We poor parcell-sainted souls here on earth professe to bend our eyes directly upon the same holy end the honour of our Maker and Redeemer but alas at our best we are drawn to look asquint at our own aims of profit or pleasure Wee professe to sing loud praises unto God but it is with many harsh and jarring notes above there is a perfect accordance in an unanimous glorifying of him that sits upon the throne for ever Oh how ye love the Lord all ye his Saints Oh how joyfull ye are in glory The heavens shall praise thy wonders O Lord thy faithfulnesse also in the congregation of the Saints O what a blessed Common-wealth is that above The City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem ever at unity within it selfe therin the innumerable company of Angels and the generall Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven the spirits of just men made perfect and whom they all adore God the judge of all and Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament All these as one as holy Those twenty thousand chariots of heaven move all one way When those four beasts full of eyes round about the throne give glory and honour and thanks to him that sits upon the throne saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come then the four and twenty Elders fall down before him and cast their crownes before the throne No one wears his crown whiles the rest cast down theirs all accord in one act of giving glory to the Highest After the sealing of the Tribes A great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the
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 godly seed 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 wee enter into the Church one Faith which we professe in the Church and one Lord whom wee serve and who is the head and husband of the Church 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 bee much more one heart This is so justly supposed that the Prophet questions Can two walk together except they be agreed if we walk together in our judgements we cannot but accord in our wils This was the praise of the Primitive Christians and the pattern of their successours The multitude of them that beleeved were of one heart and of one soul 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 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 spirituall 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 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 judgement did it please our mercifull Saviour to connive in his domestique ples 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 clearely foretold his resurrection and after that were at a fault for the manner of his kingdome 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 respects not as followers onely but as friends And his great Apostle after hee had spent himself in his unweariable endeavours upon Gods Church and had sown the seeds of wholesom saving doctrine every where what ranke 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 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 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 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 peeces 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 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 when there was onely an emulatory magnifying of their own Teachers though agreeing and orthodoxe what think wee 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 hee not aske Is Christ multiplied Is Christ sub-divided Is Christ shred into infinities O God! what is become of Christianity How doe evill spirits men labour to destroy that Creed w ch we have always 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 he 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 In spight of all Devils there shall be Saints and those are and shall be as the scales of the Leviathan whose strong peeces of shields are his pride shut up together as with a close seal one is so near to another that no ayr can come betwixt them They are joyned one to another they stick together that they cannot be sundred In all the main principles of Religion there is an universall 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
and counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing how had I in some sort done despight unto the spirit of grace yet even then in despight of all my most odious unworthinesse didst thou spread abroad thine arms to receive me yea thou openedst thine heart to let me in O love passing not knowledge onely but wonder also O mercy not incident into any thing lesse then infinite nor by any thing lesse comprehensible But oh dear Lord when from the object of thy mercy I cast mine eyes upon the effects and improvement of thy divine favours and see what thy love hath drawn from thee towards the sons of men how am I lost in a just amazement It is that which fetcht thee down from the glory of the highest heavens from the bosome of thine eternall Father to this lower world the region of sorrow and death It is that which to the wonder of Angels cloathed thee with this flesh of ours and brought thee who thoughtst it no robbery to be equall with God to an estate lower then thine own creatures Oh mercy transcending the admiration of all the glorious spirits of heaven that God would bee incarnate Surely that all those celestiall powers should be redacted to either worms or nothing that all this goodly frame of creation should run back into its first confusion or be reduced to one single atome it is not so high a wonder as for God to become man those changes though the highest that nature is capable of are yet but of things finite this is of an infinite subject with which the most excellent of finite things can hold no proportion Oh the great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels Those heavenly spirits had ever since they were made seen his most glorious Deity and adored him as their omnipotent Creator but to see that God of spirits invested with flesh was such a wonder as had been enough if their nature could have been capable of it to have astonished even glory it self And whether to see him that was their God so humbled below themselves or to see humanity thus advanced above themselves were the greater wonder to them they onely know It was your foolish misprison O ye ignorant Listrians that you took the servants for the Master here onely is it verified which you supposed that God is come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men What a disparagement doe wee 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 bee some tearms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like unto 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 to become a man amongst mē was to stoop below al 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 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 days 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 also 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 part with 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 wearines danger contēpt 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 keys of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carried thee what sighs and groans and tears and blood 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 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 greater 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