the least of them but a world of light and what are all of them but a confluence of so many thousand worlds of beauty and brightnesse met in one firmament And if this floor of thine heavenly Palace be thus richly set forth oh how infinite glory and magnificence must there needs be within Thy chosen Vessell that had the priviledge to be caught up thither and to see that divine state whether with bodily or mentall eyes can expresse it no otherwise then that it cannot possibly be expressed No Lord it were not infinite if it could be uttered Thoughts go beyond words yet even these come far short also He that saw it sayes Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him SECT 7. His love in our redemption from death and hell YEt is thy love O Saviour so much more to be magnified of me in this purchased glory when I cast down mine eyes and look into that horrible gulf of torment and eternall death whence thou hast rescued my poor soul Even out of the greatest contentment which this world is capable to afford unto mankinde to be preferred to the joyes of heaven is an unconceivable advantage but from the depth of misery to be raised up unto the highest pitch of felicity addes so much more to the blessing as the evill from which we are delivered is more intolerable Oh blessed Jesu what an hell is this out of which thou hast freed me what dreadfull horror is here what darknesse what confusion what anguish of souls that would and cannot die what howling and yelling and shrieking and gnashing what everlasting burnings what never slaking tortures what mercilesse fury of unweariable tormentors what utter despair of any possibility of release what exquisitenesse what infinitenesse of pains that cannot yet must be endured Oh God if the impotent displeasure of weak men have devised so subtle engins of revenge upon their fellow-mortals for but petty offences how can we but think thine infinite justice and wisdome must have ordained such forms and wayes of punishment for hainous sins done against thee as may be answerable to the violation of thy divine Majesty Oh therefore the most fearfull and deplored condition of damned spirits never to be ended never to be abated Oh those unquenchable flames Oh that burning Tophet deep and large and those streams of brimstone wherewith it is kindled Oh that worm ever gnawing and tearing the heart never dying never sated Oh ever-living death oh ever renuing torments oh never pitied never intermitted damnation From hence O Saviour from hence it is that thou hast fetcht up my condemned soul This is the place this is the state out of which thou hast snatcht me up into thy heaven Oh love and mercy more deep then those depths from which thou hast saved me more high then that heaven to which thou hast advanced me SECT 8. Christs love in giving us the guard of his Angels NOw whereas in my passage from this state of death towards the fruition of immortall glory I am way-laid by a world of dangers partly through my own sinfull aptnesse to miscarriages and partly through the assaults of my spirituall enemies how hath thy tender love and compassion O blessed Jesu undertaken to secure my soul from all these deadly perils both without out and within without by the guardance of thy blessed Angels within by the powerfull inoperation of thy good Spirit which thou hast given me Oh that mine eyes could be opened with Elishaes servant that I might see those troops of heavenly souldiers those horses and chariots of fire wherewith thou hast encompassed me every one of which is able to chase away a whole host of the powers of darknesse Who am I Lord who am I that upon thy gracious appointment these glorious spirits should still watch over me in mine uprising and down lying in my going out and coming in that they should bear me in their arms that they should shield me with their protection Behold such is their majesty and glory that some of thy holiest servants have hardly been restrained from worshipping them yet so great is thy love to man as that thou hast ordained them to be ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Surely they are in nature far more excellent then man as being spirituall substances pure intelligences meet to stand before the throne of thee the King of glory What a mercy then is this that thou who wouldst humble thy self to be lower then they in the susception of our nature art pleased to humble them in their offices to the guardianship of man so far as to call them the Angels of thy little ones upon earth How hast thou blessed us and how should we blesse thee in so mighty and glorious attendants SECT 9. His love in giving us his holy Spirit 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 us 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 we 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 only begotten Son 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 them the holy Spirit of promise whereby they are sealed unto the day of redemption whereby according to the riches of his glory they are strengthened 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 goodnesse O Lord both of them 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 Do your worst O 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 â—ath 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
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
offer any thing to you which you are unwilling to receive nor put any thing upon you which you would disclaim as prejudiciall to your Creator and Redeemer It is abundant comfort to us that some part of us is in the fruition of that glory whereto we the other poor labouring part desire and strive to aspire that our head and shoulders are above water whiles the other lims are yet wading through the stream SECT 25. A recapitulation and sum of the whole Treatise TO winde up all my sonne if ever thou look for sound comfort on earth and salvation in heaven unglue thy self from the world and the vanities of it put thy self upon thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Leave not till thou findest thy self firmly united to him so as thou art become a limb of that body whereof he is head a Spouse of that husband a branch of that stem a stone laid upon that foundation Look not therefore for any blessing out of him and in and by and from him look for all blessings Let him be thy life and wish not to live longer then thou art quickned by him finde him thy wisdome righteousnesse sanctification redemption thy riches thy strength thy glory Apply unto thy self all that thy Saviour is or hath done Wouldst thou have the graces of Gods Spirit fetch them from his anointing Wouldst thou have power against spirituall enemies fetch it from his Soveraignty Wouldst thou have redemption fetch it from his passion Wouldst thou have absolution fetch it from his perfect innocence Freedome from the curse fetch it from his crosse Satisfaction fetch it from his sacrifice Cleansing from sin fetch it from his bloud Mortification fetch it from his grave Newnesse of life fetch it from his resurrection Right to heaven fetch it from his purchase Audience in all thy suits fetch it from his intercession Wouldst thou have salvation fetch it from his session at the right hand of Majesty Wouldst thou have all fetch it from him who is one Lord one God and Father of all who is above all through all and in all Eph. 4. 5 6. And as thy faith shall thus interesse thee in Christ thy head so let thy charity unite thee to his body the Church both in earth and heaven hold ever an inviolable communion with that holy and blessed fraternity Sever not thy self from it either in judgement or affection Make account there is not one of Gods Saints upon earth but hath a propriety in thee and thou mayst challenge the same in each of them so as thou canst not but be sensible of their passions and be freely communicative of all thy graces and all serviceable offices by example admonition exhortation consolation prayer beneficence for the good of that sacred community And when thou raisest up thine eyes to heaven think of that glorious society of blessed Saints who are gone before thee and are now there triumphing and reigning in eternall and incomprehensible glory bless God for them and wish thy self with them tread in their holy steps and be ambitious of that crown of glory and immortality which thou seest shining upon their heads AN HOLY RAPTURE OR A PATHETICALL MEDITATION OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST By J. H. B. N. The Contents § 1. THe love of Christ how passing knowledge how free of us before we were § 2. How free of us that had made our selves vile and miserable § 3. How yet free of us that were professed enemies § 4. The wonderfull effects of the love of Christ 1. His Incarnation § 5. 2. His love in his sufferings § 6. 3. His love in what he hath done for us and 1. in preparing heaven for us from eternity § 7. His love in our redemption from death and hell § 8. His love in giving us the guard of his Angels § 9. His love in giving us his holy Spirit § 10. Our sense and improvement of Christs love in all the former particulars and first in respect of the inequality of our persons § 11. A further improvement of our love to Christ in respect of our unworthinesse and of his sufferings and glory prepared for us § 12. 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 for the accomplishment of our salvation AN HOLYRAPTURE OR A Patheticall Meditation of the love of CHRIST SECT 1. The love of Christ how passing knowledge how free of us before we were WHat is it O blessed Apostle what is it for which thou dost so earnestly bow thy knees in the behalf of thine Ephesians unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Even this that they may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 14. 19. Give me leave first to wonder at thy suit and then much more at what thou suest for Were thine affections raised so high to thine Ephesians that thou shouldst crave for them impossible favours Did thy love so far over-shoot thy reason as to pray they might attain to the knowledge of that which cannot be known It is the love of Christ which thou wishest they may know and it is that love which thou sayest is past all knowledge What shall we say to this Is it for that there may be holy ambitions of those heights of grace which we can never hope actually to attain Or is it rather that thou supposest and prayest they may reach to the knowledge of that love the measure whereof they could never aspire to know Surely so it is O blessed Jesu that thou hast loved us we know but how much thou hast loved us is past the comprehension of Angels Those glorious spirits as they desire to look into the deep mystery of our redemption so they wonder to behold that divine love whereby it is wrought but they can no more reach to the bottome of it then they can affect to be infinite For surely no less then an endless line can serve to fadome a bottomelesse depth Such O Saviour is the abysse of thylove to miserable man Alas what dowe poor wrethed dust of the earth go about to measure it by the spans and inches of our shallow thoughts Far far be such presumption from us Onely admit us O blessed Lord to look at to admire and ad ore that which we give up for incomprehensible What shall we then say to this love Oh dear Jesu both as thine and as cast upon us All earthly love supposeth some kinde of equality or proportion at least betwixt the person that loves and is loved Here is none at all so as which is past wonder extreams meet without a mean For lo thou who art the eternall and absolute Being God blessed for ever lovedst me that had no being at all thou lovedst me both when I was not and could never have been but by thee It was from thy love that I had any being at all much more that when thou hadst given me
and must shew us how highly we are descended how royally we are allied how gloriously estated that only is it that must advance us to heaven and bring heaven down to us Through the want of the exercise whereof it comes to passe that to the great prejudice of our souls we are ready to think of Christ Jesus as a stranger to us as one aloof off in another world apprehended only by fits in a kinde of ineffectuall speculation without any lively feeling of our own interesse in him whereas we ought by the powerfull operation of this grace in our hearts to fidne so heavenly an appropriation of Christ to our souls as that every beleever may truly say I am one with Christ Christ is one with me Had we not good warrant for so high a challenge it could be no lesse then a blasphemous arrogance to lay claim to the royall bloud of heaven but since it hath pleased the God of heaven so far to dignifie our unworthinesse as in the multitudes of his mercies to admit and allow us to be partakers of the dâ—vine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. it were no other then an unthankfull stupidity not to lay hold on so glorious a priviledge and to go for lesse then God hath made us SECT 3. The kinde and manner of this union with Christ KNow now my son that thou art upon the ground of all consolation to thy soul which consists in this beatificall union with thy God and Saviour think not therefore to passe over this important mystery with some transient and perfunctory glances but let thy heart dwell upon it as that which must stick by thee in all extremities and chear thee up when thou art forsaken of all worldly comforts Do not then conceive of this union as some imaginary thing that hath no other being but in the brain whose faculties have power to apprehend and bring home to it self far remote substances possessing it self in a sort of whatsoever it conceives Do not think it an union meerly virtuall by the participation of those spirituall gifts and graces which God worketh in the soul as the comfortable effects of our happy conjunction with Christ Doe not think it an accidentall union in respect of some circumstances and qualities wherein we communicate with him who is God and man nor yet a metaphoricall union by way of figurative resemblance but know that this is a true reall essentiall substantiall union whereby the person of the beleever is indissolubly united to the glorious person of the Son of God know that this union is not more mysticall then certain that in naturall unions there may be more evidence there cannot be more truth neither is there so firm and close an union betwixt the soul and body as there is betwixt Christ and the beleeving soul for as much as that may be severed by death but this never Away yet with all gross carnality of conceit this union is true and really existent but yet spirituall if some of the Ancients have tearm'd it naturall and bodily it hath been in respect of the subject united our humanity to the two blessed natures of the Son of God met in one most glorious person not in respect of the manner of the uniting Neither is it the lesse reall because spirituall Spirituall agents neither have nor put forth any whit lesse vertue because sense cannot discern their manner of working Even the Loadstone though an earthen substance yet when it is out of sight whether under the Table or behinde a solid partition stirreth the needle as effectually as if it were within view shall not he contradict his senses that will say it cannot work because I see it not Oh Saviour thou art more mine then my body is mine my sense feels that present but so as that I must lose it my faith sees and feels thee so present with me that I shall never be parted from thee SECT 4. The resemblance of this union by the head and body THere is no resemblance whereby the Spirit of God more delights to set forth the heavenly union betwixt Christ and the beleever then that of the head and the body The head gives sense and motion to all the members of the body And the body is one not only by the continuity of all the parts held together with the same naturall ligaments and covered with one and the same skin but much more by the animation of the same soul quickning that whole frame in the acting whereof it is not the large extent of the stature and distance of the lims from each other that can make any difference The body of a childe that is but a span long cannot be said to be more united then the vast body of a giantly son of Anak whose height is as the Cedars and if we could suppose such a body as high as heaven it self that one soul which dwels in it and is diffused through all the parts of it would make it but one intire body Right so it is with Christ and his Church That one Spirit of his which dwels in and enlives every beleever unites all those far-distant members both to each other and to their head and makes them up into one true mystical body so as now every true beleever may without presumption but with all holy reverence and all humble thankfulnesse say to his God and Saviour Behold Lord I am how unworthy soever one of the lims of thy body and therefore have a right to all that thou hast to all that thou doest Thine eye sees for me thine ear hears for me thine hand acts for me Thy life thy grace thy happinesse is mine Oh the wonder of the two blessed unions In the personall union it pleased God to assume and unite our humane nature to the Deity In the spiritual and mysticall it pleases God to unite the person of every beleever to the person of the Son of God our souls are too narrow to blesse God enough for these incomprehensible mercies Mercies wherein he hath preferred us be it spoken with all godly lowliness to the blessed Angels of heaven Forverily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. Neither hath he made those glorious spirits members of his mystical body but his Saints whom he hath as it were so incorporated that they are become his body and he theirs according to that of the divine Apostle For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. SECT 5. This union set forth by the resemblance of the husband and wife NExt hereunto there is no resemblance of this mystery either more frequent or more full of lively expression then that of the conjugall union betwixt the husband and wife Christ is as the head so the husband of the Church The Church and every beleeving soul is
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
of Christs members with themselves First those in heaven HItherto we have treated of this blessed union as in relation to Christ the head It remains that we now consider of it as it stands in relation to the members of his mysticall body one towards another For as the body is united to the head so must the members be united to themselves to make the body truly compleat Thus the holy Ghost by his Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 12. As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so is Christ From this entire conjunction of the members with each other arises that happy communion of Saints which we professe both to beleeve and to partake of This mysticall body of Christ is a large one extending it self both to heaven and earth there is a reall union betwixt all those farre-spred lims between the Saints in heaven between the Saints on earth between the Saints in heaven and earth We have reason to begin at heaven thence is the originall of our union and blessednesse There was never place for discord in that region of glory since the rebellious Angels were cast out thence the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12. must needs agree in a perfect unity neither can it be otherwise for there is but one will in heaven one scope of the desires of blessed souls which is the glory of their God all the whole chore sing one song and in that one harmonious tune of Allelujah We poor parcell-sainted souls here on earth professe to bend our eyes directly upon the same holy end the honour of our Maker and Redeemer but alas at our best we are drawn to look asquint at our own aims of profit or pleasure We professe to sing loud praises unto God but it is with many harsh and jarring notes above there is a perfect accordance in an unanimous glorifying of him that sits upon the throne for ever Oh how ye love the Lord all ye his Saints Psal 31. 23. Oh how joyfull ye are in glory Psal 149. 5. The heavens shall praise thy wonders O Lord thy faithfulnesse also in the congregation of the Saints Psal 89. 5. O what a blessed Common-wealth is that above The City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem ever at unity within it self Psal 122. 3. and therein the innumerable company of Angels and the generall Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven the spirits of just men made perfect and whom they all adore God the judge of all and Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 12. 22. All these as one as holy Those twenty thousand chariots of heaven Psal 68. 17. move all one way When those four beasts full of eyes round about the throne give glory and honour and thanks to him that sits upon the throne saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come then the four and twenty Elders fall down before him and cast their crowns before the throne Rev. 4. 6 7 8 9 10. No one wears his crown whiles the rest cast down theirs all accord in one act of giving glory to the Highest After the sealing of the Tribes A great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white robes and palmes in their hands And cryed with a loud voice Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb And all the Angels stood about the throne and about the Elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God saying Amen Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto God for ever and ever Revel 7. 4 9 10 11 12. Lo those spirits which here below were habited with severall bodies different in shapes statures ages complexions are now above as one spirit rather distinguished then divided all united in one perpetuall adoration and fruition of the God oâ— spirits and mutually happy in God in themselves in each other SECT 20. The union of Christs members upon earth First in matter of judgement OUr copy is set us above we labour to take it out here on earth What do we but daily pray that the blessed union of souls which is eminent in that empyreall heaven may be exemplified by us in this region of mortality For having through Christ an accesse by one spirit unto God the Father being no more strangers and forainers but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2. 18 19. we cease not to pray Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Mat. 6. 10. Yea O Saviour â—hou who canst not but be heard hast prayed to thy Father for the accomplishment of this union That they â—â—â—y be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one Joh. 17. 22 23 What then is this union of the members of Christ here on earth but a spirituall onenesse arising from an happy conspiration of their thoughts and affections For whereas there are two main principles of all humane actions and dispositions the brain the heart the conjuncture of these two cannot but produce a perfect union from the one our thoughts take their rise our affections from the other in both the soul puts it self forth upon all matter of accord or difference The union of thoughts is when we minde the same things when we agree in the same truths This is the charge which the Apostle of the Gentiles layes upon his Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. 10. and in their persons upon 〈◊〉 Christians Now I beseech you brethreâ— by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing aâ—â— that there be no divisions among yoâ— but that ye be perfectly joyned togethâ—â— in the same minde and in the saâ—â— judgement And this is no other thâ—â— that one faith Eph. 4. 5. which make up the one Church of Christ upoâ— earth One both in respect of timâ— and places Of times so as the Fathers of the first world and the Patriarchs of the next and all Gods people in their ages that lookt togethâ—â— with them for the redemption of Israâ—â— are united with us Christians of the laâ—â— dayes in the same beleef and make 〈◊〉 one entire body of Christs Catholiâ— Church Luk. 2. 23. Of places 〈◊〉 as all those that truly professe thâ— name of Christ though scattered into the farthest remote regions of thâ— earth even those that walk with theâ—â— feet opposite to ours yet meet with us in the same center of Christian faith and make up one houshold of God Not that we can hope it possible that all Christians should agree in all truths whiles we are here our minds cannot but be more unlike to each others then our faces yea it is a rare
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.
a beeing thou shouldst follow me with succeeding mercies who but thou who art infinite in goodnesse would love that which is not Our poor sensuall love is drawn from us by the sight of a face or a picture neither is ever raised but upon some pleasing motive thou wouldst make that which thou wouldst love and wouldst love that which thou hadst made O God was there ever love so free so gracious as this of thine Who can be capable to love us but men or Angels Men love us because they see something in us which they think amiable Angels love us because thou dost so But why dost thou O blessed Lord love us but because thou wouldst There can be no cause of thy will which is the cause of all things Even so Lord since this love did rise only from thee let the praise and glory of it rest only in thee SECT 2. How free of us that had made our selves vile and miserable YEt more Lord we had lost our selves before we were and having forfeited what we should be had made our selves perfectly miserable even when we were worse then nothing thou wouldst love us was there ever any eye enamoured of deformity Can there by any bodily deformity comparable to that of sin yet Lord when sin had made us abominably loathsome didst thou cast thy love upon us A little scurf of leprosie or some few nasty spots of morphew or but some unsavory sent sets us off and turns our love into detestation But for thee O God when we were become as foul and ugly as sin could make us even then was thy love inflamed towards us Even when we were weltring in our bloud thou saidst Live and washedst us and anointedst us and cloathedst us with a broidered work and deckedst us with ornaments and graciously espousedst us to thy self and receivedst us into thine own bosome Lord what is man that thou art thus mindfull of him and the son of man that thou thus visitest him Oh what are we in comparison of thine once glorious Angels They sinned and fell never to bâ—â—â—covered never to be loosed from those everlasting chains wherein they are reserved to the judgement of the great day Whence is it then O Saviour whence is it that thou hast shut up thy mercy from those thy more excellent creatures and hast extended it to us vile sinfull dust whence but that thou wouldst love man because thou wouldst Alas it is discouragement enough to our feeble friendship that he to whom we wisht well is miserable Our love doth gladly attend upon and enjoy his prosperity but when his estate is utterly sunk and his person exposed to contempt and ignominy yea to torture and death who is there that will then put forth himself to own a forlorn and perishing friend But for thee O blessed Jesu so ardent was thy love to us that it was not in the power of our extream misery to abate it yea so as that the deplorednesse of our condition did but heighten that holy flame What speak I of shame or sufferings Hell it self could not keep thee off from us Even from that pit of eternall perdition didst thou fetch our condemned souls and hast contrarily vouchsafed to put us into a state of everlasting blessednesse SECT 3. How yet free of us that were professed enemies THe common disposition of men pretends to a kinde of justice in giving men their own so as they will repay love for love and think they may for hatred return enmity nature it self then teacheth us to love our friends it is only grace that can love an enemy But as of injuries so of enmities thereupon grounded there are certain degrees some are sleight and triviall some main and capitall If a man do but scratch my face or give some light dash to my fame it is no great Mastery upon submission to receive such an offender to favour but if he have endeavoured to ruine my estate to wound my reputation to cut my throat not only to pardon this man but to hug him in my arms to lodge him in my bosome as my entire friend this would be no other then an high improvement of my charity O Lord Jesu what was I but the worst of enemies when thou vouchsafedst to embrace me with thy loving mercy how had I shamefully rebelled against thee and yeelded up all my members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sin how had I crucified thee the Lord of life how had I done little other then trod under foot thee the blessed Son of God and counted the bloud of the Covenant an unholy thing how had I in some sort done despight unto the spirit of grace yet even then in despight of all my most odious unworthynesse didst thou spread abroad thine arms to receive me yea thou openedst thine heart to let me in O love passing not knowledge only but wonder also O mercy not incident into any thing lesse then infinite nor by any thing lesse comprehensible SECT 4. The wonderfull effects of the love of Christ His Incarnation BUt oh dear Lord when from the object of thy mercy I cast mine eyes upon the effects and improvement of thy divine favours and see what thy love hath drawn from thee towards the sons of men how am I lost in a just amazement It is that which fetcht thee down from the glory of the highest heavens from the bosome of thine eternall Father to this lower world the region of sorrow and death It is that which to the wonder of Angels cloathed thee with this flesh of ours and brought thee who thoughtst it no robbery to be equall with God to an estate lower then thine own creatures Oh mercy transcending the admiration of all the glorious spirits of heaven that God would be incarnate Surely that all those celestiall powers should be redacted to either worms or nothing that all this goodly frame of creation should run back into its first confusion or be reduced to one single atome it is not so high a wonder as for God to become man those changes though the highest that nature is capable of are yet but of things finite this is of an infinite subject with which the most excellent of finite things can hold no proportion Oh the great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels Those heavenly spirits had ever since they were made seen his most glorious Deity and adored him as their omnipotent Creator but to see that God of spirits invested with flesh was such a wonder as had been enough if their nature could have been capable of it to have astonished even glory it self And whether to see him that was their God so humbled below themselves or to see humanity thus advanced above themselves were the greater wonder to them they only know It was your foolish misprision O ye ignorant Lystrians that you took the servants for the Master here only is it verified which you supposed that God is
come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men what a disparagement do we think it was for the great Monarch of Babylon for seven years together as a beast to converse with the beasts of the field Yet alas beasts and men are fellow-creatures made of one earth drawing in the same ayre returning for their bodily part to the same dust symbolizing in many qualities and in some mutually transcending each others so as here may seem to be some terms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like un to beasts and some beasts are in outward shape somewhat like unto men But for him that was and is God blessed for ever eternall infinite incomprehensible to put on flesh and become a man amongst men was to stoop below all possible disparities that heaven and earth can afford Oh Saviour the lower thine abasement was for us the higher was the pitch of thy divine love to us SECT 5. His love in his sufferings YEt in this our humane condition there are degrees One rules and glitters in all earthly glory another sits despised in the dust one passes the time of his life in much jollity and pleasure another wears out his dayes in sorrow and discontentment Blessed Jesu since thou wouldst be a man why wouldst thou not be the King of men since thou wouldst come down to our earth why wouldst thou not enjoy the best entertainment that the earth could yeeld thee Yea since thou who art the eternall Son of God wouldst be the son of man why didst thou not appear in a state like to the King of heaven attended with the glorious retinue of blessed Angels O yet greater wonder of mercies The same infinite love that brought thee down to the form of man would al so bring thee down being man to the form of a servant So didst thou love man that thou wouldst take part with him of his misery that he might take partwith thee of thy blessednesse thou wouldst be poor to enrich us thou wouldst be burdened for our ease tempted for our victory despised for our glory With what lesse then ravishment of spirit can I behold thee who wert from everlasting cloathed with glory and Majesty wrapped in rags thee who fillest heaven and earth with the majesty of thy glory cradled in a manger thee who art the God of power fleeing in thy mothers arms from the rage of a weak man thee who art the God of Israel driven to be nursed out of the bosome of thy Church thee who madest the heaven of heavens busily working in the homely trade of a foster-father thee who commandest the Devils to their chains transported and tempted by that foul spirit thee who art God all-sufficient exposed to hunger thirst wearinesse danger contempt poverty revilings scourgings persecution thee who art the just Judge of all the world accused and condemned thee who art the Lord of life dying upon the tree of shame and curse thee who art the eternall Son of God strugling with thy Fathers wrath thee who hadst said I and my Father are one sweating drops of bloud in thine agony and crying out on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me thee who hast the keyes of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carryed thee what sighs and groans and tears and bloud hast thou spent upon us wretched men How dear a price hast thou paid for our ransome What raptures of spirit can be sufficient for the admiration of thy so infinite mercy Be thou swallowed up O my soul in this depth of divine love and hate to spend thy thoughts any more upon the base objects of this wretched world when thou hast such a Saviour to take them up SECT 6. His love in preparing heaven for us BUt O blessed Jesu if from what thou hast suffered for me I shall cast mine eyes upon what thou hast done for my soul how is my heart divided betwixt the wonders of both and may as soon tell how great either of them is as whether of them is the greatest It is in thee that I was elected from all eternity and ordained to a glorious inheritance before there was a world we are wont O God to marvell at and blesse thy provident beneficence to the first man that before thou wouldst bring him forth into the world thou wert pleased to furnish such a world for him so goodly an house over his head so pleasant a Paradise under his feet such variety of creatures round about him for his subjection and attendance But how should I magnifie thy mercy who before that man or that world had any beeing hast so far loved me as to pre-ordain me to a place of blessednesse in that heaven which should be and to make me a co-heir with my Christ of thy glory And oh what an heaven is this that thou hast laid out for me how resplendent how transcendently glorious Even that lower Paradise which thou providedst for the harbour of innocence and holinesse was full of admirable beauty pleasure magnificence but if it be compared with this Paradise above which thou hast prepared for the everlasting entertainment of restored souls how mean and beggerly it was Oh match too unequall of the best peece of earth with the highest state of the heaven of heavens In the earthly Paradise I finde thine Angels the Cherubim but it was to keep man off from that Garden of Delight and from the tree of life in the midst of it but in this heavenly one I finde millions of thy Cherubim and Seraphim rejoycing at mans blessednesse and welcomming the glorified souls to their heaven There I finde but the shadow of that whereof the substance is here There we were so possessed of life that yet we might forfeit it here is life without all possibility of death Temptation could finde accesse thither here is nothing but a free and compleat fruition of blessednesse There were delights fit for earthly bodies here is glory more then can be enjoyed of blessed souls That was watered with four streams muddy and impetuous in this is the pure river of the water of life clear as Crystall proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb There I finde thee onely walking in in the cool of the day here manifesting thy Majesty continually There I see only a most pleasant Orchard set with all manner of varieties of flourishing and fruitfull plants here I finde also the City of God infinitely rich and magnificent the building of the wall of it of Jasper and the City it self pure gold like unto clear glasse and the foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones All that I can here attain to see is the pavement of thy celestiall habitation and Lord how glorious it is how be spangled with glittering starres for number for magnitude equally admirable What is