of our souls we are readie to think of Christ Jesus as a stranger to us as one aloof off in another world apprehended onely by fits in a kind 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 finde 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 bee 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 divine nature it were no other then an unthankfull stupidity not to lay hold on so glorious a priviledge and to goe for lesse then God hath made us 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 Doe not then conceive of this union as some imaginary thing that hath no other beeing but in the braine 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 Doe 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 bee more evidence there cannot be more truth neither is there so firm and close an union betwixt the soul 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 grosse carnality of conceit this union is true and really existent but yet spirituall and 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 hee 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 mee that I shall never be parted from thee 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 onely 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 child that is but a span long cannot bee 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 entire 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 mysticall 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 the Deitie In the spirituall 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 lowlinesse to the blessed Angels of heaven For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Neither hath he made those glorious spirits members of his mysticall 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. 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 the Spouse of this heavenly Bridegroom whom hee marrieth unto himselfe for ever in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies and this match thus made up fulfils that decretive word of the Almighty They twain shal be one flesh O happy conjunction of the second Adam with her which was taken out of his most precious side Oh heavenly and compleat marriage wherein God the Father brings and gives the Bride All that the Father giveth me shall come
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 Lo those spirits which here below were habited with severalll 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 of spirits all mutually happy in God in themselves in each other Our copy is set us above we labour to take it out here on earth What doe we but daily pray that the blessed union of souls which is eminent in that empyrcall 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 we cease not to pray Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Yea O Saviour thou who canst not but be heard hast prayed to thy Father for the accomplishment of this union That they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one What then is this union of the members of Christ here on earth but a spirituall onenesse arising from an happy conspiratiō of their thoughts and affections for whereas there are two main principles of all humane actions and dispositions the brain and 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 lays upon his Corinthians and in their persons upon all Christians Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement And this is no other then that one faith which makes up the one Church of Christ upon earth One both in respect of times and places Of times so as the Fathers of the first world and the Patriarks of the next and all Gods people in their ages that lookt together with them for the redemption of Israel are united with us Christians of the last days in the same beleef and make up one entire body of Christs Catholik Church Of places so as all those that truly professe the name of Christ though scattered into the farthest remote regions of the earth even those that walk with their 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 wee are here our mindes 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 doe 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 Ruffians 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 joined together in the unity of spirit and maintenance of the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints 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 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 wild thoughts then Gerson said long since that the world now growne 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 selfe-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 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 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 unwarrantable 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 comely 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
uncharitablenesse of the refusers no lesse then in the error of the refused And if any vain and loose straglers will needs sever themselves and wilfully choose to goe ways of their own let them know that the union of Christs Church shall consist entire without them This great Ocean will be one collection of waters when these drops are lost in the dust In the mean time it highly concerns all that wish well to the sacred name of Christ to labour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and to renue and continue the prayer of the Apostle for all the professors of Christianity Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Far be it from us to think this union of the hearts of Gods Saints upon earth can be idle and ineffectuall but where ever it is it puts forth it self into a like-affectednesse of disposition into an improvement of gifts into a communication of outward blessings to the benefit of that happy consociation We cannot be single in our affections if we be lims of a Christian community What member of the body can complain so as the rest shall not feel it Even the head and heart are in paine when a joynt of the least toe suffers no Christian can be afflicted alone It is not Saint Pauls case onely Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not Our shoulders are not our own we must bear one anothers burdens There is a better kinde of spirituall good fellowship in all the Saints of God They hate a propriety of passions Rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep Their affections are not more communicative then their gifts and graces those as they are bestowed with an intuition of the common good so they are improved Wherefore hath this man quicknesse of wit that man depth of judgment this heat of zeal that power of elocution this skill that experience this authority that strength but that all should be laid together for the raising of the common stock How rich therefore is every Christian soul that is not onely furnished with its own graces but hath a speciall interest in all the excellent gifts of all the most eminent servants of God through the whole world Surely he cannot be poore whiles there is any spirituall wealth in the Church of God upon earth Neither are or can these gifts be in the danger of concealments they are still put forth for the publike advantage As therefore no true Christian is his own man so he freely lays out himself by example by admonition by exhortation by consolation by prayer for the universall benefit of all his fellow-members By example which is not a little winning and prevalent Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven saith our Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount and his great Apostle seconds his charge to his Philippians That ye may be blamelesse and harmlesse the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life Lo the world sits in darknesse and either stirs not or moves with danger good example is a light to their feet which directs them to walk in the ways of God without erring without stumbling so as the good mans actions are so many copies for novices to take out no lesse instructive then the wisest mens precepts By admonition the sinner is in danger of drowning Seasonable admonition is an hand reacht out that lays hold on him now sinking and draws him up to the shore The sinner is already in the fire seasonable admonition snatches him out from the everlasting burnings The charitable Christian may not forbear this oft times thanklesse but always necessary and profitable duty Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him By exhortation The fire of Gods Spirit within us is subject to many damps and dangers of quenching seasonable exhortation blowes it up and quickens those sparks of good motions to a perfect flame Even the best of us lies open to a certain deadnesse and obdurednesse of heart seasonable exhortation shakes off this perill and keeps the heart in an holy tendernesse and whether awfull or chearfull disposition Exhort one another daily whiles it is called to day lest any of you bee hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sin By consolation We are all naturally subject to droop under the pressure of afflictions seasonable comforts lift and stay us up It is a sad complaint that the Church makes in the Lamentations They have heard that I sigh there is none to comfort me and David sets the same mournfulditty upon his Shoshannim Reproach hath broken my heart and I am full of heavinesse and I looked for some to take pity and there was none and for comforters but I found none Wherefore hath God givē to men the tongue of the learned but that they might know to speak a word in season to him that is weary That they may strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees and say to them that are of a fearfull heart Be strong fear not The charge that our Saviour gives to Peter holds universally Thou when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren By prayer so as each member of Christs Church sues for all neither can any one bee shut out from partaking the benefit of the devotions of all Gods Saints upon earth There is a certain spirituall traffique of piety betwixt all Gods children wherein they exchange prayers with each other not regarding number so much as weight Am I weak in spirit and faint in my supplications I have no lesse share in the most fervent prayers of the holiest suppliants then in my own All the vigour that is in the most ardent hearts supplies my defects whiles there is life in their faithfull devotions I cannot goe away unblessed Lastly where there is a communion of inward graces and spirituall services there must needs much more be a communication of outward and temporall good things as just occasion requireth Away with those dotages of Platonicall or Anabaptisticall communities Let prieties be as they ought constantly fixed where the laws and civill right have placed them But let the use of these outward blessings be managed and commanded by the necessities of our brethren Withhold not thy goods from the owners therof when it is in the power of thy hand to doe it Say not unto thy neighbour Go and come again to morrow and I will give it when thou hast it by thee These temporall things