whatsoever piece of his workmanship hath this glorious stamp or pourtraiture erazed or defaced must needs remain useless naked and without honour To apply this to my own Soul Is it thus How miserable then and deformed is the Person of every Man by Adam with and in whom we have lost our God our selves and all our perfections Hast thou heard O my Soul of that material and obscure darkness which the Egyptians felt On thee there was and upon all natural Men there is the like obscurity Only they differ in this Man feels it not That darkness being no more empty of light than the mind of Man is vacant of the knowledge of God the worship of God and his own eternal happiness witness that of the Apostle The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto Him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that is by the light of the Spirit In Egypts deficiency of light no doubt it was a part of their torment to mistake one thing for another so in this sinfull deprivation such is the vanity of the mind that it calls good evil and evil good It takes sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet Salvation the contrary to damnation being in his understanding in the end only free from its mistake or fruition Noah was not more drunken with the strength of Wine than the understandings of wretched Men with the strength of sin to which the Prophet alludes saying They are drunken but not with Wine they stagger but not with strong Drink Neither was Eutichus more dead asleep when he fell even into Death then the prodigal Sons to whom justly God hath given the spirit of slumber Eyes that they should not see Eares that they should not hear Sin as sleep deprives Man of the true use of all those sences which should serve for the use of his Soul The Man possest in the Gospel is the miserable and true Figure of an unregenerate Soul We finde him possest with a Devil and tormented with a Legion of Devils And is not the accusing conscience of a wicked Man as a thousand Witnesses We read that he only lived unto himself avoided society the Tombes being the fittest mansions for such unsociableness His actions there were to be his own Executioner and enemy Night and Day crying and cutting himself with stones O my Soul proceed but to bring the substance to the shaddow and thou wilt confess how lively this Satanical lunary acts the tragical part of a depraved conscience Cain the first that received and took away life from Man affrighted with the terrour of his bloody conscience was forced to fear and flie the face of Man his own tongue bellowing out his own misery in that tormenting Exclamation My punishment is greater than I can bear The distempered and melancholy â—its of Saul which the Holy Ghost calls an evil spirit we are partly occasioned without doubt by the barking fury of his conscience Such Hell of minde being seldome without a Devil to add fuell to the flame and torment to the tormented Let Judas conclude all and by the conclusion of his life who went out and strangled himself preach to all the conclusion of that Soul which spurd with guilt thinks to flie from its self and from the uppermost Hell of despair leaps into the nethermost Hell of pain Bearing still about him what he shun'd even that only immortaliz'd Worm of insect sprung from corruption which then shall gnaw more furiously Eternity and despair of remedy doubling the unmeasurableness of the torture Should my thoughts now pass from the conscience some consciences would at least in their own conceits account themselves like those of Laodicea to be rich and increased with goods and to have need of nothing when as they are indeed wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked Therefore that we may all know that we are miserable the better to confess Gods mercy the more to thirst after his salvation we must know that there are hardned Pharaohs aswell as a despairing Judas As that Body is most dangerously diseased whose external parts the vital and animating spirits having as it were made a recess are left insensible and without feeling So that Soul is in a deadly that is damnable estate whose conscience the quickning power of the holy spirit being utterly with-drawn remains speechless and cauterized Of this condition were many before the Flood notwithstanding the preaching of righteous Noah After the Flood the Sodomites Under the Law Pharaoh and some of the Israelites in the Wilderness Under the Gospel the Scribes and Pharisees of whom our Saviour observes that God had blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts that they should not see with their eyes and be converted that he might heal them He is no friend that is not an eye a hand a tongue unto his friend to fore-see his peril and to fore-warn and assist him in danger Nor can that conscience be a faithfull inmate to the soul whose searching sight the sun-shine of the World hath bleard whose awakeing touch custome in sin hath deaded and whose sharp point and wounding edge the Devil hath rebated the delights of the Flesh prooving a Sibyls sop unto this Cerberus a Dalilah unto this Sampson That part which the Chyrurgion intends to cut off he first benums And those Persons whom the Lord determines to rescind from the visible Body of his Church he commonly hardens as were those spoken of by the Apostle whose Consciences were seared as with an hot Iron Lord let my conscience be neither like Nabal's heart dead as a stone within him Nor yet like Dives tongue tormented in merciless flames But like Peter's Cock never ceasing to crow until I weep bitterly Yea let it be my Nathan who am as David a sinner my Samuel who am disobedient as Saul So shall my conscience be unto me a happy copesmate one whose words are better unto me as a friend than her kisses as an enemy Of all the faculties of the Soul the will is most dependent its act and operation being moved by the determination or suggestion of the rest viz. the minde understanding and affections For before any thing is done by Man there is a consultation had in the Soul where after a disputation pro con at length this thing or that is agreed of to be the bonum which in due season the will as the â—ouls agent puts in execution Now there is Gods bonum such a one as we shall finde in holy Chronology exprest in the Frontispiece of every good Kings life Instance in Hezechiah He did that which was right or good in the sight of the Lord. And there is Mans bonum also so called not because positively or simply so in it self but in relation to purblinde Man who so esteemeth it Witness that sacred and historical annotation
That when there was no King in Israel every Man did that which was good in his own eyes In this last Scripture the truth of my former discourse is observable and confirmed as that a natural Mans will usually attends his judgment so that the minde and understanding being totally depraved and corrupted as before hath been declared it must consequently yea impulsively follow that the activity of the will keeps the same position In Adams Sons there is a continued Earth-quake The debauched faculties of the Soul being as so many pestilent and tumultuous Ayres within the Bowels of this wretched Microcosme which together with the impetuous violence of the will rends us belching forth continually Mans actual sins which are not only dead in themselves but also to others by example Doth a â—ountain send forth at the same place sweet Water and bitter Can the Fig-Tree bear Olive-berries or a Vine Figs They cannot Neither can an unsanctified minde be fâ—llowed with a will free and full of good resolutions Hence therefore O my Soul with all ability in thy self lessen not thy loss and poverty lest by such a proud and presumptuous bragging thou lose thy gain and forestall Gods charitable benevolence Lord I account my self to have no will because not a good one Therefore let thy own will anew beget me with the word of truth that I may be a kind of first fruits of thy Creatures Lord it is thou which workest in Men both to will and to do of thy good pleasure Therefore let me rather in an humble ignorance bury what proud Men say is Mans right for love it I cannot if mine Thy perfect justice giving to every one his due then for the nothing of my merit to lose the infiniteness of thy mercy To derogate from my own desert had I any is a plausible error a commendable humility But to detract or steal from thee horrible sacriledge and abominable heresie Let my humility strive to make proud natures something nothing rather than to suffer any vain boasting to arise from such imaginary abilities worth nothing So that though both shall as in themselves they are nothing end in nothing yet the company of a vertue shall in thy sight make the one to me something when the other shall be by thee adjudged as full of sin as it is wanting in worth Man in his first Creation was like to a strong and beautifull Cyttadell whose external and carnal part I may terme and that not unfitly a defencible Rampire or Earth-work his sences the Cinque-ports of this fortification his Soul an incorporeal part me-thinks resembles the habitable and innermost part of the Fort or to speak more plainly the Pallace of the Governour the Court of the Prince for so indeed it was even of the King of Kings before its unhappy and accursed defection Herein the principal faculties as so many expert Commanders did exercise their several offices The affections also the subject of my ensuing thoughts had their places of eminency and authority Love being the Leader of the Band or the Ensign-bearer and Fear the Sentinel to prevent sudden surprisals In this happy order freedome and condition was Man at first until the Apostate-Angel Sathan envying that felicity in others which himself had lost unlocked the sences by the beauty of the forbidden Fruit and after parly with the Guardians of the Soul tempted them with the fair promise of Dii eritis to be Traytours to their Soveraign that had made them little less than so For In his own Image created he them This beautiful structure being become the Cage of unclean Birds no wonder if the Holy one of Israel refuse to dwell there If the glory of Israel departed when the Ark was taken from amongst them sure I am the glory of Man vanishes when God forsakes him Histories and Politicians have observed the misery 〈◊〉 that Country I dare not call it a Government 〈◊〉 the Hydra-headed multitude give Laws unto themselves Experienced Souldiers can bear witness what Floods Tragedies and Disorder follows the unheading of 〈◊〉 Army and the Regiments Such Men for only he thâ—â— hath been delivered from such calamities can best judge of them will confess that both these are but weak deâ—scriptions of the wretchedness of the Soul deprived 〈◊〉 the life of God Nay the small remainders of those disâ—orders and corruptions which in comparison are but 〈◊〉 scars of those great wounds will inforce the best dayly with Holy Paul to cry out O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death This misery of Man this his civil War hath been briefly touched and discovered already in the former faculties of the Soul It now remains that I observe and that with brevity how the affections particularly stand affected O Love which weart once the Spirit the fervour the marrow of the Soul Its Embassadour to her Creator lying Ledger in the Court of Heaven as long as that happy and mutual amity remained unviolated How art thou now degenerated yea how wretchedly hast thou lost thy happiness by changing thy object There is no whit of life spirit or freedome in thee now For thou art dead and entombed in Earth nor neerness or relation to God no not in the least degree for the wicked saith the Apostle are haters of God Thou art now so far from being Mans Agent to God that if God in the infiniteness of his mercy would renew his peace with Man he must be his own Agent and thou his Patient witness St. John We love Him because he first loved us How comes it to pass that thou hast forsaken the living Fountain and hewen out unto thy self Cesterns that will hold no Water Is Earth to be compared with Heaven or the Creature with the Creator that thou hast forsaken the one to embrace and marry the other The Mole that of all other Creatures delights to undermine and root within the Earth wants the Organ of sight thereby illustrating this truth that where a carnal earthly or sensual love is there must needs be a blinde and ignorant understanding O Lord is this affection of love being rightly placed the Prince of all other our affections Is it the summe and compendium of thy whole Law Is it that which gives life to the actions of the Soul Is it the tryal of our Adoption That by which faith works Is it an old Commandement as being from the beginning a new Commandement as being renewed and straitly enforced in the Gospel Is it the mark of our perfection and of the truth O give me sighs give me words yea give me those unutterable groans of my Spirit raised by thy Spirit wherewith I may daily importune thy Majesty for the right fixing and direction of this affection of my Soul That so my love inflamed by thee may not henceforth be sub-lunary but like the Sun sending forth beams
righteous sentence pronounced upon them and the Apostate Angels and his translating his Saints from this Paradise of Earth to the Heaven of Heavens These objects and occasions of holy hatred anger and indignation against Sathan and Gods Enemies the wicked of unexpressable love joy delight praise and glorious tryumphing the holy Scriptures holds forth shall be in the state of glory And can we conceive holy zeal which is the height and crown of all these graces can be absent or unnecessary I shall further add that after our Lords yielding up his Mediatory Kingdome to the Father all the service and everlasting praises of the Saints in the remembrance of all Gods wonderfull works from the beginning unto Eternity in the Heavens Earth and Hell shall be heightned and winged with this holy zeal I shall assert this truth and conclude this ravishing Meditation with pointing at and refering the Reader to the frequent and zealous hallelujahs of the crowned Elders and glorified Saints in the Visions of Saint John set forth to us as the types and lively figures of our Heavenly and glorified condition Revelations Chapter the 4 th Verse the 8 th And the four Beasts rest not Day and Night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And the four and twenty Elders fell down before Him that sate on the Throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were Created Like to this are their zealous Songs and Thanksgivings upon divers occasions Chapter 5. Verse 8. untill the end of that Chapter and Chapter 7. Verse 9. unto the end thereof and Chapter 11. Verse 15. unto the end of that Chapter and Chapter the 14. Verse the 1. unto the end of the 5. Verse and Chapter the 15. Verse the third and the fourth besides many more to the end of that blessed Book which for brevity sake I omit These being sufficient to prove the use and exercise of this Seraphical grace of holy zeal by the Saints in their state of Glory O my Soul Is this most Heavenly grace of zeal so illustrious and exemplary in the Saints that have lived upon Earth Doth it shine forth with a Heavenly light here in the actings of holy Angels of our for ever blessed Saviour and of our Almighty Father and Creator Yea shall this grace out-live thy hope and thy faith be the Crown and compleatment of thy divine love and the height and perfection of all other thy graces in glory Endeavour then to follow their famous examples Rest not in the cold and middle Region of bare profession with the careless Gallioes of the World and frozen Church-professors The Demasses of this last and worst age but let thy holy zeal upon all occasions for the glory of thy God and purity of his Worship and Doctrine mount up even to the Firie Region and In his cause be Boanerges and like Gods Angels and Seraphins a Cole a flame of Fire So shalt thou excell and exceed others in this grace in thy glorified state as far as thou hast gone before them in this life And as thou hast been more gracious here so thou shalt be more glorious hereafter The larger thy Vessel the larger thy Receipt Every Vessel shall be full and overflow although much different in their measure All shall be Stars although not of the like Magnitude The Saints at the first Resurrection being rewarded according to their works although not for their works O Lord my God is divine zeal a holy flame a Pyramid-like Fire a Spring towards Heaven as to its own place Is my heart my Souls shop where it forges affections and this middle Region of my Body like the middle Region of the Aire cold and naturally void of this thy heavenly Fire Be pleased I humbly beseech thee to cause the same holy Spirit that once sate in the likeness of Fiery Tongues upon the heads of thy Apostles to rest upon unthaw and inflame my frozen heart and affections Then shall not its earthly and sinfull qualities of coldness hardness and ponderousness chill resist or smother the fervency and intensness of any of thy graces in me since thy Almighty Power that produces lightning in the cold middle Region of the Aire that melts the Rock and causes the Mountains Aetna Vesuvius and Hecla to breath forth flames of Fire can yea will because thou hast promised it bring forth and create in me a greater wonder even a new heart and a new spirit a heart of Flesh instead of a heart of Stone Then shall I be not only zealous in all my actings for thee but frequent and zealous in my praises to thee in this life of Grace and that of Glory to Eternity Amen All affections in this life as love fear zeal and the rest although sanctified in their heighths and intensiveness by reason of the weakness of the Organ and our decayed nature may put the whole Man to pain and in that respect are called Passions yet it shall cease to be so with us in our glorified condition Where whatsoever that flowes from Infirmity or Imperfection shall be done away In the new Jerusalem there shall be neither sorrow nor pain We shall then be as the Apostle exhorts not only when occasions shall be offered not to be angry without sin but without passion or disturbance Being herein like to God and the holy Angels whose Image shall then be perfectly renewed in us and who in the Scripture although I grant it to be meant not properly but Anthropopathos is often declared to be angry But as to the Elect Angels I conceive they may as truly be said to be angry witness that famous opposition of Balaam and that action of the Angel that with his drawn Sword was ready to destroy Jerusalem for David's Sin as to rejoyce greatly for the conversion of a sinner If then such accidental affections are testified to be in glorious Angels why not much rather in glorified Saints unless by cessation of so eminent a grace as holy anger we should irrationally conceive the Saints less perfect in this new life than in the other Especially since the sole object of this holy affection the Sin Blasphemy and Rebellion of wicked Souls and Devils to the dishonour of God shall continue and in that great and long day or time of their Judgment be more universally manifested to their view than ever as also afterward in Hell to Eternity Anger here though for Gods cause may possibly inflame the Eyes distort the Visage of a Saint but its lipe as the modest blush of a Virgin doth add beauty to her Face so shall this
they should not only brake Prison but carry her up in an holy extasie to these glorious Mansions O that this pious love and holy joy fixt to the Fiery Chariot of a true zeal moulding this Dust burning up this Chaff at least letting fall this fleshly Mantle would make me a second Elias in a speedy ascent and present fruition of my God But alass poor Soul how are thy Wings limed thy Feet lamed thy Chariot-wheels clog'd with Earth and Sins O by way of preparation since certainly Elias shall be parted from Elisha thy Soul from thy Body let the sharp beak of the Law pick and prune thy Wings the healing Oyl of the Gospel supple thy Feet and thy Heavenly Conversation of a Christian disburden thy motion that when the Whirlwind of Death shall make a separation thou mayest cheerfully and swiftly go up alive unto the Heavens The Body hath during these my last Meditations seemed to sleep in the dust But since the Body as hath been shewed shall have a glorious Resurrection at the last Day so it must be raised here also by my weak thoughts as the fit and next object of a Christians faith I believe then that at the shrill sound of the last Trumpet which is no other than the mighty and powerfull voice of our Arch-Angel Christ Jesus the innumerable Atoms of my Body shall incorporate and after the re-union of my Soul stand up a most glorious substance mortality putting on immortality and corruption incorruption This Worm-hill this mouldering Hutt of white and red Sands shall then inherit the name of an eternal mansion and become not as now a little Cage a loathsome Dungeon but the glorious Pallace of the Soul O surpassing glory of this re-animated Phaenix So excessively radiant that the Holy Spirit who is eloquence and truth it self pitches upon the most illustrious of visible Creatures the Sun the light to be the resemblance of this divine transfiguration The righteous shall shine like the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever The Jewish Temple seemes to be a resemblance of this Temple of God Man glorified in which the Body may be stiled the Sanctum the Soul through the inhabitation of the Holy Spirit the Sanctum Sanctorum Oh if that Earthly Temple transcended others and Heaven be Heaven because of the more special manifestation of Gods glorious presence there shall not each glorified Saint be a Heaven of Heavens It being a necessary and consequent Truth that the great God will more declare his excellency in his living members then in his inanimate works in his adopted Sons than in his inferiour Creatures and Mansions If an humble heart contrite for Sin be now Gods dwelling shall not a sanctified heart purified from Sin become then his Throne of Majesty Our Bodies which now Imprison and Eclipse the Soul's lustre shall then not only be coagile but like a Chrystaline Lanthorn transparent and coruscant not hiding but by a radiant concomitancy augmenting the others splendour For as in the Sun there is the containing and the contained the sphear and the light yet both conspire and meet in a heighth of brightness or as in sounds strings apart musical being struck together produce a harmony so though the Body and Soul are two distinct excellencies yet being united they shall mutually conveigh and reflect their beauty conducing to and effecting a joynt perfection of Glory Further whereas the Creator is now but in part magnified in Man because of the partial knowledge of our selves as concerning the admirable secrets and excellent curiosities of the humanity Then not only our understanding but our Eyes and other bodily sences shall coadjute to make each Saint a most exact Anatomist a most divine Phylosopher O let not then that better covetousness of secular knowledge make us bankrupts in spirituals Let not imprudent pursuits after the shadow make us over-run the substance Being confident of this that a true Christians life shall not prove then as it is now by the World accounted of a devourer of time folly and madness but a Tree of Life in the midst of Eternity Yea a Tree of Knowledge whose fruits shall be fully ripe in Heaven Perplex not thy self then vain Sophister in those scholasticals and endless labyrinths I mean those difficult and so much controverted Questions whether the Soul be ex traduce or immediately from God whether it be confined to a Throne or Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte Whether there be three distinct Souls in Man or only the rational How the Soul sees hears smells tasts touches by those sences Whether we see Intra mittendo or extra mittendo of the species Whether the course of the blood be circular or direct whether odours nourish or only refresh with many others of the like stamp Rather O wandering Disputant let thy chief study be to resolve these questions thus that in our Saviours sense thou art born of God that thou art wholly holy in every part both of Soul and Body that he the incomprehensible three in one is Soul of thy Soul and sees hears tasts smells and touches in thy chast looks devout attentions spiritual relishes faithfull imbracements and in the sweet savour of a pious conversation That thy holy love the blood of action and the life of practise is circular and endless having God to be its Centre that from him it may receive daily new Spirits and new fervour That thy Prayers which the learned call Gods perfume his incense do not only revive but by the powerfull attraction of saving grace feed thee to Eternal life Such thoughts as these O Man if practical shall make thee transcend the natural and become a divine Phylosopher These exercises which are the study of Angels and the liberal Arts of Heavens Academy end in the perfection of knowledge But to proceed O my Soul thou now groanest under a Body of Lead made up of corrupted flesh and stuft full with noisome humours either so fat as it sweats under its own burthen or so lean and weak that it needs wooden supports In its motion is so Worm-like that its contemptible if compared with the pace of most four-footed Creatures But in this thy melioration it shall become thy winged Chariot and be as swift as thy thoughts can imagine or thy wish desire even like lightning then which it shall be far more sprightfull passing in an instant from one end of the Heaven to the other thy whole body shall be then all feet not moving as now but incredibly swiftly guiding through those immeasurable spaces of the Empyrean Heavens These Locomotive Mussels if at all useful shall then only serve for the graver measures of Glory for our Bodies shall as the Apostle speaks be made like unto Christs glorious body not only
Lord makes a new Heaven and a new Earth according to his promise which I humbly conceive only extends to this Orbe of Earth and Water and to the Regions and Elements of the Aire and Fire these two last are most frequently in Scripture called Heaven That flaming and Aetherial Fire not Elementary in which the Lord Jesus shall descend and appear with the ten thousands of glorified Souls and Angels and which shall consume all the wicked that are then in the World and burn up their works shall accordingly as it is the nature and true effect and property of Fire to purge and purify each of the four Elements from all that dross and corruptible quality that hath intermixt and cleaved unto them by the righteous Judgment and curse of God for Mans sin Whence shall proceed that admirable change as to their qualities although not of their substance deserving the name in the Scripture promise of a new Heaven and of a new Earth As it is most excellently set forth by Saint Paul in these words For the earnest expectation of the Creature wait for the manifestation of the Sons of God For the Creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Because the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God For we know that the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together untill now The Elements then are made like unto the Heavenly supream Orbes pure lucid and incorruptible Hence I infer that these four Elements being thus wonderfully changed in their qualities and made incorruptible in which respectively the several parts and ingredients of our Bodies are laid up and reserved as being naturally a part of them There must necessarily follow the same and the like change and alteration in the matter and substance of our Bodies also Whence it will follow that although the first change in the Elements is supernatural and wonderfull that in our Bodies will naturally follow as an effect from that cause Our great God as in the first Creation caused the production of all things out of their first matter as so many streams from that Fountain so in this new and second birth of things he as a rational and natural Agent produceth this excellent change in the fore-mentioned qualities of our new-raised Bodies to be a necessary and certain effect flowing from the change of the principles out of which they are compounded It being more than probable that the Resurrection of our Bodies shall immediatly succeed the making of the new Heaven and the new Earth the Saints habitation as it was in the first Creation when the Lord made the Earth and all the Creatures first before he made Man the Lord and Possessor of it and them The premisses being granted I thence conclude that as Mortality is a necessary effect and consequent of corruption so the immortality of the Body to use the Apostles phrase is as necessary an effect and consequent of incorruption For that substance that can never more be corrupted may truly be said to be everlasting and according to the Apostles expression immortal Death signifying either in sensible or vegitable Creatures a putred and evil change or alteration as also a debasing diminishing and deforming separation as being the curse and fruit of Sin and abhorrent to nature Having hitherto discoursed of this marvellous change of our Bodies at the Resurrection and given some natural reasons thereof as a Philosopher I must now as a Christian ascend higher and prove this eminent change to proceed also from a far higher and nobler cause than meer nature even from the spiritual real and mystical union of our Persons through faith and the Eternal Spirit as Members to our Head the Lord Jesus who is God-Man blessed for ever As since sin God hath enacted this to be one of the Statutes of Nature It is appointed to Men once to dye And by another Law of Nature after Death hath dissolved this Microcosme of Soul from Body Every part of the body as hath been shewed returns to its proper Element so by the Law of Christ God-Man the Eternal Word that was made Flesh it is decreed and affirmed as an indubitable truth That he that believeth in him hath everlasting life And though he were dead yet shall he live Whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never dye From hence it is most cleer that in a spiritual sence the death of the Saints is no death they being so united by faith that although the Soul be divided from the Body and each Elementary part of the body be divided from the other yet neither Soul nor Body or any grain or part thereof can be separated from our head the Lord Jesus in whom who is eternal life is our life Though we are dead in a natural sence yet we live spiritually in and by his Spirit In which sence also the whole mystical body of Christ the universal Church and every Member thereof is said to be joyned to the Lord and is one Spirit as being by the Holy Ghost the ever-living God that fills all things the Spirit of the Father and the Son as by an unmeasurable and everlasting Ligament tyed and united to the Lord Jesus our head So that like as it is said of the Soul That it is tota in toto tota in qualibet parte So it may be said that the for ever blessed Spirit of God the Father and the Son in and by this ineffable union and in dwelling is wholly and spiritually both before and after death in our Souls and in our Bodies and in every part of them although never so far by reason of a natural death separated one from another Here note that although the Scripture declares that in God all things live move and have their being as he is their Creator and Preserver and in whom and by whom they act and have their subsistance yet the difference is very great betwixt that life of the Creatures on Earth and this life of the Saints both as to the nature and duration of it That flowing from his Almighty power and goodness as a Creator this from his Eternal love as our Father in Christ that life being temporary this life Eternal as flowing from the highest Principle our spiritual and real union unto God in Christ. For the further clearing and proof of which immortality as well of our Bodies as of our Souls consider the words of our blessed Saviour As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself I am the way the truth and the life because I live yee shall live also Thou hast given me power over all flesh that I should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given
other Members as looking upon this weak diseased and aged Body as upon an old and weather-beaten Tent. Knowing that If the Earthly House of this my Tabernacle were dissolved I have a building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens Groaning earnestly and desiring with the Apostle Paul to be cloathed upon with my House which is from Heaven with which if I be cloathed I shall not be found naked That this Mortality may be swallowed up of Life Let me not O Lord with the Worldling who hath his Portion only in this Life be troubled at the Knell of every passing Bell sigh at every striking of the Clock nor be afraid or unwilling to number my Days or to cast up the accompt of my years but greatly rejoyce at the end of every hour day and year as hastning my approach to and the enjoyment of Eternity Being most willing to have my Body interred that after a long time like the matter of China Vessels it may be raised and made lucid transparent and a Vessel of honour fit to be made use of in the Palace of Heaven Shall my Body be shining and glorious like the Sun let it not now O Lord be spotted with sin and changeable and inconstant in its motion and conversation like the Moon Shall it be bright like the Firmament and Stars O Lord let it be a fixt and not a falling Star nor cast down to the Earth by the Taile of the old Serpent the Devil neither let me be a Meteor and seem to out-shine others in a Religious profession and in a short time vanish only leaving behind me an hypocritical and pestilential stench like those wandering Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever O gracious and mercifull Redeemer shall this corruptible put on incorruptibility and this mortal put on immortality Let this supernatural change begin here as it doth in all thy sanctified ones and let even my Body as well as my Soul be thy dwelling place and the Temple of thy holy Spirit in which let no unclean lust lurk or wicked Spirit enter Make me holiness unto thee O Lord and perfect holiness in thy fear Give thy Angels charge over me to keep me in all my ways Let them bear me up in their hands lest I dash my Foot against a Stone cause me to tread upon the Lyon and the Addar the young Lyon and the Dragon Yea let them according to thy promise be shortly trampled under my Feet Let sin dye in me by vertue of thy Death and let the life and immortality of holiness spring up and flourish in me by vertue of thy Resurrection Hast thou O Lord stiled thy Church thy Dove thy undefiled one And declared that she is fair and that there is no spot in her And is that which is spoken of thy Church applyable to every living Member thereof O thou that art the Eternal truth make good this thy Word unto thy poor Servant thy Spouse although most unworthy to wash the Feet of the Servants of my Lord. And since thou hast promised that all things shall become new And declared that those that are in thee are new Creatures and hast covenanted to give me a new Heart and a new Spirit and to take out my Heart of Stone and to give me a Heart of Flesh to pour clean Water upon me and to make me clean and hast testified that thy blood doth cleanse me from all sin and that by thy righteousness alone I am justified O let all these true and precious promises be fulfilled in me and to me So shall the incorruptibility of my Person as in respect of sin usher in and assure me of the incorruptibility of my Soul and Body in glory Let me dye daily with blessed Paul as to all the evil lusts of the Flesh that I may not dye Eternally but live everlastingly in glorified Flesh. O Lord who art the life and my life let my sinfull mortality even here put on a spiritual and heavenly immortality For thou hast proclaim'd it whil'st thou wert upon Earth That the Day comes yea now is when the Dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live even to Eternity For He that believeth in thee hath already everlasting life Let my union and communion with thee through faith and the in-dwelling of thy holy Spirit begin to make my Face to shine here as did the Face of Moses and thy Proto-Martyr Stephen since thou hast declared that a Mans wisdome maketh his Face to shine Yea we are said to shine here also in a holy conversation since thou commandest us To let our light shine before Men. And hast held forth in thy Word that the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect Day and hast promised in thy Book That if we let not wickedness dwell in our Tabernacles our Age shall be cleerer than the Noon-day and we shall shine forth and be as the Morning Lord although I now live in the Flesh yet let me not I humbly and with importunity beseech thee live unto or after the Flesh since such are said to be dead while they live yea twice dead and pluckt up by the Roots And thou hast justly threatned that those that live after the Flesh shall dye and that Eternally But they that live in and after the Spirit shall live and that for ever and ever But since after this life there shall be no Devil to tempt no World to allure or persecute nor Sin to intice or corrupt Let me with mortified Paul desire to depart and to be with thee which is far better Yea since to live is Christ and to dye is gain Let me with perfect Job all the Dayes of this my appointed time humbly patiently and believingly wait until my glorious change come Amen Having exercised my faith and contemplation upon this ravishing and pleasing subject the glorification of the Bodies and Members of the Saints in general and in the Gross I shall now lastly proceed beseeching the assistance of his most Holy Spirit who is my light the light of Men and he who alone enlighteneth every one that cometh into the World to speak particularly though with much brevity of the glorification of the Five Sences I shall go so far as I shall receive light from the Scriptures and right reason taking that sober and lawfull liberty that is granted to all those that have meditated upon the like subjects where some things are more obscure than others and not so clearly and fully held forth in Gods Word humbly to offer what probably and rationally although not positively may be the truth as not repugnant to Scripture right reason or the Analogie
comfort declaring to them to the praise and glory of God thy experiences thy consolations and Divine manifestations And for as much as thou art zealous of spiritual gifts seek that thou maist excell to the edifying of the Church that spiritual Body of Christ whereof thou art a living Member And since God as the Apostle excellently observes hath set some in the Church First Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles then gifts of healing helps Governments diversities of Tongues Covet thou earnestly the best gifts For there are diversity of gifts but the same spirit But the manifestation of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 to every Man to profit withall To one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by 〈◊〉 same Spirit to another the gift of Healing by the same Spirit to another working of Miracles to another Prophesie to another discerning of Spirits to another diâ—vers kinds of Tongues to another the interpretation of Tongues but all worketh that one and the self same Spiâ—rit dividing to every Man severally as he will For 〈◊〉 the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body 〈◊〉 also is Christ. If they were all one Member where weâ—â— the Body The Eye cannot say to the Hand I have 〈◊〉 need of thee again the Head unto the Feet I have 〈◊〉 need of you Now we are the Body of Christ and Memâ—bers in particular Therefore O my Soul since 〈◊〉 Tongue as to all divine and spiritual gifts is now thâ— principal Agent and Expressor And shall be then 〈◊〉 as a Member of Christ mystical Body in this his glorious Kingdome thou shalt be plac'd in thy Function and respective administration be not spiritually idle but â—it and exercise thy Tongue continually in declaring to others according as it shall be revealed to thee by the Holy Spirit the Magnalia Dei the wonderfull ways and works of God Freely thou hast received freely give O my Soul shalt thou then be as one of Christs Viceroyes over all inferiour Creatures shall thy Dictates Orders and Commands be received and obeyed by them as the voice of God O let not then thy speech now to them be mixt with oaths and cursings according to the woâ—t and fashion of the wicked of the Earth whose behaviours towards the poor Brutes are more like to Devils than Men or Christians Yea let thy employment of them and rule over them be gentle milde and moderate not cruel or oppressive since the good Man with the Scripture is mercifull towards his Beast And 〈◊〉 tenderness of thy God towards them exprest as 〈◊〉 of the reasons of his commanding a seventh Days 〈◊〉 That thy Beast may rest as well as thee teaches what respect and considerate pitty and compassion he expects from thee towards them as being fellowâ—Creatures suffering what servitude they undergo for thy sin and from which they shall be freed and delivered in thy glorious liberty But instead of speaking evil of or to the inferiour Creatures do thou now as thou shalt do in the World to come with thy Heart and Tongue praise and glorifie thy God after the Example of holy David Psal. 148. throughout in and for them admiring his love and goodness to thee to them as also 〈◊〉 unexpressible yea unconceivable power and wisdome declared in their various formes wonderfull strength 〈◊〉 qualities excellent virtues and uses as being 〈◊〉 great end of theirs and thy Creation as the Lord â—â—clares to Job when he bids him behold Behemoth and â—â—â—iathan and leaves upon Record for our Instruction and Imitation so large a description of them and of others of his Creatures This holy exercise both of mind and voice in the contemplation of the Creatures was without doubt a chief employment of Adam in his innocency Let it be thine then in thy return and travailing to this second Paradise that what is begun by thee here in grace may be perfected there in Glory O glorious God and mercifull Father O infinite loâ—ing and gracious Saviour and Redeemer O holy and Eternal Spirit my Sanctifier three infinitely glorious Persons One Omnipotent onely wise and Eternal God Blessed blessed blessed from everlasting to everlasting who hath so highly honoured and dignified me a 〈◊〉 Worm and no Man As to love me freely in thy Eterâ—nally begotten and only beloved Son the Lord Jesus God-Man and in him from before all beginnings to elect me unto Eternal Life and Salvation Creating 〈◊〉 unto immortality and glory by giving me an immortaâ— Soul and a Body that shall assuredly be raised to life and glory by thy Almighty Power and by the virtue of the Resurrection of my Head and Saviour who hast miraculously raised me from a sinfull death unto a spiritual life in my effectual Calling through Adoption the Sanctification and Inhabitation of thy holy Spirit as 〈◊〉 freely justified me in thy Son the Lord my righteousâ—ness and by this blessed and inseparable union to 〈◊〉 in thy Son by the Holy Ghost given me assurance 〈…〉 Life and Glory which shall indubitably begâ—◠〈◊〉 my Soul at my dissolution and be compleat at the â—â—â—union of Soul and Body aâ— the Resurrection of the 〈◊〉 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise 〈◊〉 with my glory Awake my Heart awake my Tongue 〈◊〉 self will awake early and joyn with the Arch-Angels and Angels and the Church Tryumphant in Heaven and with the Holy Catholick Church upon Earth in 〈◊〉 Heavenly exercise of praise and thanksgiving O Lord whose only prerogative it is to search the heart knowest that these are the desires and petitions of 〈◊〉 Soul yet with holy Paul I cry out that to will is present with me through thy grace but how to perform know not Blessed Saviour give me of thy fulness so soâ—â— to receive grace for grace Yea be pleased to add 〈◊〉 to grace since thou alone workest in us both the will and the deed and the Heaven aspiring piercing 〈◊〉 of praise ariseth only from thy Divine Fire of Knowledge and holy affections Eternal Father let not this noble Instrument of thy Glory my Tongue be tuned to the vain and wanton Layes of the World and Sin lest thereby being crackt unstrung and made untunable for thy service here it and my whole Body with voluptuous Diveâ— be cast 〈◊〉 useless into the Fire of Hell where a drop of cold Water will not be 〈◊〉 to cool a flaming lascivious Tongue But let me O Lord be continually chaâ—â—ing the Magnâ—lia Dei and be singing those Evangelicalâ— and prophetical Songs of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders the figure and representative of thy holy Church saying and singing
of the Lord is Being wise unto that which is good but simple concerning evil For the wisdome of the World is foolishness with God and 't is earthlie sensual and devillish But the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie Wherefore if any of you lack wisdome let him ask of God which giveth to all Men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given you but let him ask in faith nothing wavering Put on humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any Man hath a quarrel against any even as I have forgiven you so do ye For before honour is humility And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted What doth the Lord require of you but to do justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God For God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble Yea I will hear the desire of the humble And although I inhabit Eternity I will dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit Wherefore learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall finde rest unto your Souls Blessed are you that are poor in spirit for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven That mourn for you shall be comforted That are meek for you shall inherit the Earth That hunger and thirst after righteousness for you shall be filled Blessed are you that are merciful for you shall obtain mercy That are pure in heart for you shall see God That are peace-makers for you shall be called the Children of God Blessed are you that are persecuted for righteousness sake for yours is the Kingdome of Heaven Blessed are you when Men shall revile you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Marriage is honourable in all and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Wherefore flee Fornication every sin that a Man doth is without the body But he that committeth Fornication finneth against his own body Know you not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have of God anâ— you are not your own For you are bougâ—â— with a price Therefore glorifie God in yoâ—â— bodies and spirits which are Gods Also 〈◊〉 you not my Members Will you then take 〈◊〉 Members and make them the Members of 〈◊〉 Harlot God forbid What know you 〈◊〉 that he that is joyned to an Harlot is 〈◊〉 body For two saith he shall be one Flesh But he that is joyned unto me is one spirit This is the will of God even your sanctificaâ—tion that you should abstain from fornication And that every one of you should know 〈◊〉 to possess his Vessel in sanctification anâ— honour not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles which know not God Ye 〈◊〉 heard that it was said by them of old 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not commit Adultery But I say 〈◊〉 to you whosoever looketh on a Woman to 〈◊〉 after her hath committed Adultery with 〈◊〉 already in his heart And whosoever toucheth another Man's Wife shall not be innocent Whoredome and Wine and new Wine takâ— away the heart and by means of a 〈◊〉 Woman a Man is brought to a piece of breâ—â— and the Adulteress will hunt for the precâ—â—â— life An Whore is a deep ditch and a straâ—â—â— Woman is a narrow Pit Her House inclinâ—â— unto death and her path unto the dead Lâ—â— not your heart incline to her ways go not stray in her paths for she hath cast down 〈◊〉 wounded yea many strong Men have beâ—â— slain by her her House is the way to Hell gâ—â—ing down to the Chambers of death 〈◊〉 that go unto her return again neither takâ— they hold of the path of life Know this thereâ—fore that no Whoremonger nor unclean Person nor covetous Man who is an Idolater hath any Inheritance in the Kingdome of God Blessed are ye that keep Judgment and thaâ— do righteousness at all times Offer to God thâ— sacrifices of righteousness and put your trusâ— in the Lord For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect thereof quietness and assurance for ever He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life righteousness and honour Therefore yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as Instruments of righteousness unto God For he that doth righteousness is righteous even as I am righteous but whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God And shall utterly perish in their own corruptions and receive the reward of unrighteousness and shall not inherit the Kingdome of God But the righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of my Father And they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect For he that walketh uprightly walketh surely and shall be saved For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth For the integrity of the upright shall guid them Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart But the hope of the hypocrite shall perish Remove from you the way of lying and let every one speak truth to his Neighbour For I am the Lord God of truth Give thanks for all things to God the Father in my name For he that offereth praise glorifieth me By me therefore offer the sacrifice of praise continually that is the fruit of your lips For every Creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving Praise ye therefore the Lord for it is good to sing praises to your God for it is pleasant and praise is comely These things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full Verily verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament but the World shall rejoyce but your sorrow shall be turned into Joy and your Joy no Man taketh from you For the Kingdome of God is not meaâ— and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Yea the fruit of my Spirit is love joy and
adversaries an Angel pointing out a living Fountain to all thirsty Hagars even that Spring of grace his Prophetical Office Thirsty I say for none but such taste present and perfect comfort and refreshâ—ing from hence Encouragement indeed all others may have from this Office which are not yet called to enâ—deavour and exercise themselves in the means which beget faith and repentance notwithstanding the resisting impossibility of their nature as beholding the free promise and enabling gift of God in Christ. But the Covenant and the blessing belongs and is effectual to those sensibly and chiefly That hunger and thirst after righteousness For they shall be filled To proceed then let all Men observe with me two spiritual streams or works flowing from this Office The first is the Divine Revelation of the will of God so far as it was necessary for his Church by the Mouths and Pens of the Prophets and Apostles and that through the immediate inspiration and instinct of the third Person in Trinity his most Holy Spirit All which issuing from the living Fountain the Lord Jesus who is in the midst of his Garden the Church as so many Rivolets do make glad the City and water the Paradise of God This is that work that is wâ—ought without us yet with an end to work within us and upon us all being according to St. Paul that Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles upon which the Church is built Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone O Eternal Beeing who art as mercifull as great a Father God to me thy unworthy Creature should I in this prospect of my weak faith carelesly oâ— silently pass by so high a favour so gracious a work of thine as this towards my Soul Thou mightest justly take my object or my sight or both from me for such unthankfulness Is the revelation of secrets the greatest expression of friendship And to be of the Kings Council the chiefest honours And shall not I as a Christian apprehend apply and be gratefull for such â—avours as these confer'd by a far greater Person in a far greater manner and measure upon a far unworthier object than ever they can sample If the Letters and mandates of Princes are received with so much reverence preserved with so much care esteemed honoured and obeyed How much more the Words and Scriptures of God the Prince of Princes Are Books but the Soul in Print the Beams of Mans wisdome what is this but the life of the Soul the Book of Wisdome and the Book of Books Here is the height of Metaphysicks as revealing what so ever can be known either of God or Angels The use and summe of both Phylosophies in the Creation and Decalogue The knowledge of Astronomy in Job The exactest Geography and truest Chronology in Genesis and Chronicles The mystery of Numbers in the Levitical Ceremonies Daniel and the Revelations The exercise of Rhetorick throughout the Prophets especially in Esay The marrow and art of Logick in Saint Paul's Epistles and in all which is above all as the Sun amongst the Planets the whole Body of Divinity Here are Politicks for the Statist in Ecclesiastes Oeconomicks for the House-keeper in Proverbs Instruction for the Woman from Solomon's Mother And David's Poesie for the Poets Lastly here 's wisdome for the ancient for it maketh wise unto Salvation Here 's a beautifull Spouse and love Canticles for the youthfull and religious Amorist And here is Milk from the Sacramental Teaâ—s for the new-born Babe Yea what can my heart seek Lord which thou hast not placed in this Book of Life in this library of my Soul It remains nâ—w only that I beseech from thee the true use thereof viz. the knowledge and worship of thee So shall I be not only a hearer and Reader but a doer of thy Word not deceiving my own Soul From this work of Gods Spirit iâ— the Word without us I proceed to that second work of the Spirit wrought within us viz. Sanctification being a conformation of our willâ— unto his O my Soul here is that thou seekest for The knowledge of the greatest happiness without possibility of fruition is not the least of torments And to behold the Crown Robes and Priviledges of a Christian without either visible means to obtain or a true propriety of weaâ—ing them makes but our misery more miserable Thou weart even now lifted up and cast down exalted with joy and humbled with sorrow For looking upward thou beholdest with holy Stephen Heaven open and the Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God But alass whilst thou weart ravisht with this Vision a multitude of thine Enemies not much unlike nor less cruel than his Persecutors thy original Corruptions have blind-folded thy eyes and manacled thy hands separating for the present both it from thee and thee from it But now be of good comfort though thou liest dead in sin and intranc'd in astonishment the Lord of life is come down unto thee Who manger all these Hell-hounds that watch over thee will give thee part in the first Resurrection He is thy spiritual Elisha and the Prince of the Prophets who will lay his Mouth to thy Mouth that so thou maist praise and confess him his Eyes to thy Eyes that thorough faith thou maist behold him his Hands upon thy Hands that in deeds thou mayest obey him yea his whole and living Body upon thy dead Body that so thou maist revive and live in him Behold there Him of whom his own saying concerning John the Baptist is evidently verified A Prophet yea and more than a Prophet even the God of the Spirits of all Prophets Who least thy weak and sinfull nature should fear to approach unto or lend an Eare unto his Word hath vailed his glorious Deity with humanity therein being typified by Moses when he covered his shining Face as well as prophesied of him saying A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you amongst your Brethren like unto me Like unto Moses indeed as being a Man an Israelite a Prophet full of Miracles meekness of the Spirit yet with this difference of degrees the one was comparatively the other perfectly full the one a Vessel the other a Fountain the one the Servant the other the Son according to that of the Apostle This Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who hath builded the House hath more honour than the House Moses being faithful as a Servant but Christ as a Son Next whereas O my Soul thou objectest the deadness of thy nature thy sleeping in sin I confess indeed thou art so But hearken unto thy Saviours Tryumph which doth not only pierce but give thee Eares Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light The hour being come and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live
speak of our last and general Enemy Death but that even in the chaws thereof the World hath laid a fourth ambush of blood-thirsty and persecuting Hamans and unbrotherly Amalekites to assault every true Christian in his peregrination to our Heavenly Canaan Of these therefore next in our Meditation Were the Soul of a Christian corporeal or could force bend her knees and elevate her hands with their Bodies to Idolatry could it determine and have an end by the Sword Gibbet Fire or chawes of wilde Beasts or be blasted and defaced by the scandalous reproaches of slanderous tongues surely the Israel of God had been as Sodom and Gomorrah a by-word a nothing without succession upon the Earth And as once the old World so it these Waters had overwhelmed it these streames had gone over our Souls They even the wicked of the World had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Then the proud Waters had gone over our Souls But blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their Teeth The Snare is broken and we are escaped escaped did I say yet the Lord knows many not without a fall without loss sometimes of their stuble-works sometimes of some gems ornaments and degrees of grace and spiritual comforts sometimes of their good name precious time and glorious professions Blessed Peter as thou wert the first of the Apostles so the first of Professors that denyed thy Master Glorious was thy confession thou art the Christ the Son of the living God Ignominious thy denyal I know not the Man Oh that the apprehension of Death should make thee deny thy life that thou shouldst more fear a Cross than value a Crown Yea the most Orient of Diadems that of Martyrdome But when the Lords back was towards thee and thy self-love had maskt his beautifull Image in thy heart I wonder not at thy tergiversation and counter motion As these spiritual desertions obscure Christ so they discover Man The same back-friend that would have counselled the Master perswades and obtains in Peter to save himself From what an incarnate Devil from Death No for who so will save his life shall lose it and thus to dye is to live for ever What then causeth this excentrical motion Surely self-love which declines that Centre of all things God and his glory This Daughter of the Philistims our flesh rather choosing to betray her Spouse her Sampson than she and her Fathers House this Cottage of Clay should be destroyed with the Fire of Persecution Sathan that Prince of this World is an exact Tyrant and therefore hath not only seeming rewards to inveigle some but racks and tortures to compell others to subject to his thraldome Such are those several sorts of Persecutions which for a time have made many of the Lords Worthies to seek quarter Peter fell not alone though as most eminent most eminently Blessed Saviour was not this the fury the Wolf that scattered the Sheep from thee the true Shepward of our Souls Where were the other ten Apostles when thou wast condemned and crucified I finde none but John present at thy Passion and he there rather as a Brother and Kinsman than as a Disciple For surely had he profest thee thou hadst not suffered alone innocently as it is written of thee Where were the seventy Disciples to whose faith and preaching thou gavest testimony with so many Miracles Where those many thousands which are said to believe which they themselves also testified by their acclamations confessions and frequent attendance Were they not all reduc'd to a few and as it were metamorphosed into the weakest Sex a few Women yea and those thine at distance too they stood afar off Sweet Jesus did the faith fail of these ocular witnesses these Champions of thy truth Yea after thy glorious ascension in the Apostles age do we finde a Demas In the Primitive and in succeeding times many holy Professors yea in this our age a devout Cranmer and others Who for a time shrunk from thee or rather from the chawes of this Devourer this opposite to nature this highest Pin of Sathans wracks this last and worst Enemy Death Disgraces slanders loss of goods yea all other bodily tortures included being but the attendants and degrees to this The Devil often in the Church makes his observation good that skin for skin yea all that a Man hath will he give for his life What need then have we O Lion of the Tribe of Judah which have not seen yet believe being therefore destitute of the sences testimony and want that Christian magnanimity that measure of grace and faith which those first Combatants enjoyed to fly unto thy Standard and to invoke thy assistance and strength against these worldly Enemies Which though invincible by nature and the flesh yet shall lye headless and vanquisht under the Sword of thy Word and Spirit Witness these holy Darts drawn out of that sacred Quiver thy most Holy Word already thrust through the sides and heart of this Absalom this Rebell and Traytor to our Souls so St. Peter most sweetly God hath given us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust Our Enemy the World marching against us in four battalions as hath been formerly shewed three of which also the Apostle St. John as God's sentinel for our safety hath faithfully given us warning of by this his discovery that all that is in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the World It is time for us now not only to prepare for but to begin the fight and that with courage and chearfulness the Alarum and on-set being given by Gods own Spirit animating and stirring up the affection of our godly zeal and anger thus Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him Know yee not that the friendship with this World is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World is an enemy of God Behold also a Banner even that which we have vowed to fight under in our Baptisme even the victorious Cross of Christ triumphantly displayed by that great Christian Champion St. Paul who thus encourages us by this his pious exclamation and example God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World See also our Leader the Spirit of God which if our faith second will make us trample upon the flesh and all the volptuous and carnal desires thereof For if we be led of the Spirit we are not under the Law viz. under the curse
exchanges Earth for Heaven even for the City of the ever living God the new Jerusalem her Earthly associates for the beatifical vision and presence of the glorious Trinity those many Myriads of Angels the general Assembly of the Church of the first-born and the spirits of all just Men made perfect As for the overplus of her treasure uninherited she hath and doth take order by good works as by so many Bills of Exchange for the receipt of them above herein obeying the precept and counsel of our Saviour to lay up treasure in Heaven Lastly a Sceptre is not a Bar neither doth the massy weight of a Crown nor felicity of terrene things depress the high-soaring affections of this Christian Soul King David's choice is hers rather To be a Door-keeper in the House of God than to dwell in the Tents of wickedness Neither is there fear of loss where it is The Fathers will to give a Kingdome For The Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of Hosts blessed is the Man that trusteth in thee Man being a compositum a sensible Creature is naturally deeply apprehensive of pain therefore impetuously an abhorror of separation Hence a third fearfull and violent assault of Death so powerfull and prevalent that it hath brought the strongest of Gods Warriours upon their knees and to a marvailous astonishment Hence as some interpret the reiterated and strong cries the wonderfull and bloody sweat of our great General Christ Jesus But because his apprehension and suffering are mysterious unconceivable and extraordinary see the conflict and hear the complaint of a dying sick Man Holy therefore truly royal Hezechiah I shall go saith he to the Gates of the Grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I shall behold Man no more with the Inhabitants of the World God will cut me off with pining sickness from Day even to Night wilt thou make an end of me I reckoned till Morning that as a Lion so will he break all my Bones Like a Crane or Swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a Dove I might further instance here the mournfull Lamentation of Job and David upon the like occasion But what need I when every one of us in our healths can witness that in our Meditation of our dissolution we have often felt strong sits of this dead Palsey I will therefore hast to the Allay or Antidote them O my Soul I confess I have undertaken a hard task to perswade against Natures prescription and sence For what more universal more common more necessary and therefore more natural than the marriage of Soul and Body What amity more ancient or more diffusive than this betwixt these two friends Yea what expresses the glory and regal Power of the one what gives an active beeing and lively existence to the other but this mutual communion and effectual union Neither wants there negative arguments to dishearten and weigh thee down my Soul in this thy Eagle-like flight as being the unwelcome concomitants fearfull consequents and direfull defects of this unwilling separation Such the darkning of the Sun Moon Light and Stars I mean the Eyes the obscuring of those that look out of the Windows viz. the receding of the Soul by reason of the debility of the optick Nerves as the holy Ghost elegantly expresses such the palsyness of our hands the keepers of our house of Clay the weakness and binding of the Legges the strong guard thereof the want of motion in the Teeth the mills and grinders of our food such the bringing low of the Daughters of Musick by deafness in the Eares and hollowness of voice such thy many and present fears equal if thou beest ancient unto thy gray haires white like the blossoming Almond-Tree The losing of the silver Cord viz. the evaporating of the natural and vital Spirits the drying up the marrow and the relaxing of the Nerves and sinews the ligaments of the Bones such the breaking of the golden Bowle Pitcher or Wheele at the Fountain or Cistern viz. the rending in two of the heart-string those last pangs disabling it to force the blood extracted from the Liver as being the Fountain into the Veins and to perform its circular motion But all these are but the associates and symptomes of Death the followers they are far more terrible and distractive such are the privation of life the Pallace of the Soul being now a dungeon of corruption the pale hue of the Face and Body the breathless Carcass now as it were mourning for her Spouses departure Such the strange deadness of the late sparkling Eyes yellowed now like unto a fallen Star To conclude the whole Microcosme of the Body deprived of her created light and of that Spirit that moved in her and informed her the Soul becomes nothing less than a motionless lump an obscure and deformed Chaos These considerations O my Soul at the first sight I confess render Death a terrible Goliah before whom most of the Armies of Israel turn their backs Yet do not thou fear for a stone or two chosen and taken out of those running and pure streams of Gods Word from that Rock hewen out without hands shall from the Sling of every faithfull David not only pierce his forehead but also swallow up terminate and intombe Death in death Is thy sick-Bed through the fury of this adversary as full of torture as the hot glowing Gridiron of holy Lawrence yet such a Metamorphosis will thy high-soaring Contemplations and the power of faith work in thee that the full sence and influx of Heavenly joyes and raptures shall make thee senseless of thy pains and sufferings Thy feavourish fits being but Eliah's Chariot thy cold sweats but thy passage through Jordan into the Heavenly Canaan Hast thou not seen a fierce flame in thy Chimny suddenly to damp and recoyle when the Sun shines full upon it Did any Conqueror feel or regard his wounds when about to ascend his tryumphal Chariot And can the weak blaze of Deaths consumption out-vie the shining of Gods face and not be swallowed up of glory Can Deaths wounds be felt in the neer apprehension nay fruition of Immortality Surely no. Thou mayest as being in nature mourn a day or two with Mary but when thy Christ approaches thus neer doubtless thou wilt forget thy grief and run not out of thy Doors but out of thy Body to meet him Swan-like singing with David As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Wherefore O my Soul or whosoever thou art that readest these Meditations amidst thy great pangs as the Apostle exhorts Look unto yea follow the example of Jesus the Author and finisher
in its splendour but in its voluntary motion and other glorified qualities Now as he ascended so said the Angels shall he descend not step by step but as it is most like with inconceivable celerity else could not the first Century have confessed him to be at the right hand of his Father in the highest Heavens a hundred of years not being sufficient according to Astronomical discoveries to have ascended so many millions of miles Nor could the Saints after the Judgment past under the expence of many years attain those Heavenly Mansions The glorified Soul being now to re-enter reassume and to be reunited to its own body chearfully takes possession and findes it raised filled and prepared by the Almighty Power of the Creator for its habitation Not as formerly a Prison hindring and streightning its faculties and their enlarged operations by reason of Organical deficiencies but made in every part member and sence capacious and proportionate to its utmost activity Not as formerly a natural weighty dull and earthly body but a Coelestial Heavenly and spiritual body Not as formerly occasioned by the curse of sin corruptible and mortal but incorruptible and immortal Not as formerly weak and infirm especially at Death pale noisome filthy and dishonourable but powerfull and shining with glory according to the Word of Truth declared by the Apostle It is sowne in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption it is sowne in dishonour it is raised in Glory it is sowne in weakness it is raised in Power it is sowne a natural Body it is raised a spiritual Body As we have borne the Image of the Earthly so shall we bare the Image of the Heavenly for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Hosea the thirteenth Vers. the fourteenth Death is swallowed up in Victory From the preceding Scripture is evidently proved that the glorification of our bodies shall principally consist First in being raised spiritual and heavenly bodies Secondly in being made shining and glorious Thirdly in their being incorruptible and immortal of all which more particularly and first of their spirituality and heavenliness Our present bodies although they are compounded of the four Elements yet are made up in an unequal mixture the proportion being much less of Water than of Earth and much less of Ayre than of Water and of Fire than of Ayre Therefore our Bodies have the denomination from Earth and not from any of the rest and are called in the foregoing Text Earthly Bodies And much different in their mixture from the Bodies of Fishes Fowles Meateors This also our natural motion declares For being placed in any one of the three other Elements and left at liberty by reason of our Earthly ponderousness we violently move towards the Centre of the Earth of which we were form'd and upon which is our habitation But our state place and condition being to be changed at the resurrection of the just our bodies that shall be a live at the Lords second coming shall be changed And though the same bodies for matter and substance as saith holy Job shall be raised yet much differing from what they were before as to their mixture and qualities And therefore are said to be raised Spiritual and Heavenly Bodies A further proof whereof the Holy Spirit gives us in that Text wherein he saith the Lord Jesus Christ shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself The same witnesses the beloved Apostle in that his blessed gradation and comparison of our present and future more glorious condition Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Whence note this Apostle or the rest did not yea could not with their then bodily eyes behold him as he was then risen from the dead he vailing his glory in condescention to their present state A second Heavenly and Spiritual quality of the Saints glorified Bodies is a swift and speedy local motion prophesied of as many interpret that place in the Prophet Isay They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with Wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Which I cannot better manifest to our weak apprehensions than by comparing it to a flash of lightning which in an instant passeth from the East to West and from one Port of the vast Canopy of Heaven to the other This quality also was manifested to be in our Saviours glorified Body upon Earth like to which we shall be raised by his swift passage from Jerusalem being many score miles to a Mountain in Galilee when he was seen of five hundred Brethren at once And from Jerusalem to the Sea of Tiberius when he did eat with Peter and the rest after the great draught of Fishes And from thence to Jerusalem again at his Ascention from Mount Olivet And which is also most demonstrable by his discent from Heaven to the Aire when he spoke to and was seen of Paul in the way to Damascus which without doubt was a personal not a visional appearance since the Apostle adds that to his other personal appearances saying last of all he was seen of me which had not it been real had been but a slender proof of our Saviours Resurrection To which end he there vouches it As our Souls are now like the Angels yea Angels in the Flesh so then our Bodies as to this Spiritual quality shall be raised like our Souls That so their future union may be lasting and compleat and this Marriage may continue and be indissolveable In which respect the Apostle saith they shall be raised not only spiritual but heavenly bodies as fitted to dwell in that place which for the matter Philosophers call a Quint-essence far more refined than any or all the four Elements and which the Scripture calls the Heaven of Heavens and the Inheritance of the Saints in light O my Soul shall thy Body at that great change and resurrection of the just be raised heavenly and spiritual like the body of our Lord be pure as the Essence of Angels as speedy and quick as to motion as the lightning and fitted to inhabit Heaven Have a high value and esteem of it and make not this Vessel of honour by sinning a Vessel of dishonour the Members of Christ the Members of a Harlot the Image of God and Christ the Image of Sathan the Temple of the Holy Ghost a Stie yea
me My Sheep hear my voice and I give unto them Eternal Life To these let us for further testimony add the expressions of the Apostle Paul The life which I now live in the Flesh I live by faith in the Son of God Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Our life is hid with Christ in God When Christ which is our life shall appear then shall we appear with him in Glory The first Man was made a living Soul the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit That was not first which is spirituall but that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual By one Spirit we are Baptized into one Body whether we be Jew or Gentile whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit He that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit By these bright Scripture-lights is evidently discovered and manifested to us that as the head in the natural body contains the animal spirit and conveyeth and gives animation to all the Members of the Body so the Lord Christ God-Man in one Person is the head of his Spiritual and mystical Body the Universal Church and that from him alone not only that spiritual life consisting in holiness and righteousness but also that eternal and immortal life in which both in Soul and Body we shall live in him and with him at the Resurrection for ever and for ever is given and communicated into every Member of his body the Church united to him in this life by a true faith and by the animation and in-dwelling of the Holy Ghost who is the life and spirit of God the Father and of God the Son Therefore in these and other Scriptures God the Father is sometimes called our life other-times Christ and the Holy Ghost is said to be our life thereby evidencing that this eternal life of the Saints hath its immediate rise and Original from the Trinity in Unity God blessed for ever Not by participation of the Essence of the God-head but by the real and spiritual union of their Persons as Members of Christs mystical Body unto the Person of Christ through faith and the inhabitation and vivification of the Holy Ghost The first of which viz. Faith shall cease and be swallowed up after death in fruition But the other shall continue to Eternity From what I have here offered although in great weakness for who is sufficient for these things I hope it is abundantly cleared that the eternal life of the Saints and the glorious incorruptability and immortality of their Bodies flowes from a far higher Principle or cause than from only meer nature made new refined and incorruptable And that though the Elements through their incorruptability are become Eviternal like the Superior Orbes and are in a natural possibility if God please so to continue without change or alteration Everlastingly yet in all this they fall far short of the Eternal duration of the glorified Souls and bodies of the Saints which have not only a perpetuity arising from the refined and incorruptible nature but an Eternity flowing from the spiritual real and inseparable union of their Persons through faith and the Holy Ghost to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ God-man as Members united to their Head In which respect besides the declared positive and unchangeable decree and promises of God who cannot lye as these Scriptures witness amongst many others formerly mentioned viz. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Who so eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last Day The Saints I say are placed and fixed in such a blessed and certain state and condition as living spiritually in God and God in them as hath been proved that it is as possible for God who is Eternal Life to perish and dye as for any of his Saints to dye or perish that live by and in his life according to that unanswerable Argument of our Lord and Saviour As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Because I live yee shall live also To conclude I humbly conceive that this Eternal Life of the Saints as to the reason and nature thereof far transcends the Eternal Life of the glorious Angels in that as far as is revealed in Scripture their life was given them by an act of Gods goodness will and power in their first Creation and is preserved continued and confirmed to the Elect Angels by an act of his grace And therefore those of them that kept not their first state are forever separated from God who is life and swallowed up into Eternal Death whereas the life even to the Saints proceeding from Gods spiritual inhabitation and communion with them is undeterminable unchangeable inseparable and is therefore Eternal O my Soul shall this thy impure mortal body immediately after the making of a new Heaven and a new Earth the refining of the four Elements of which it was formed and out of which it shall again be raised and reassumed appear at the Resurrection of the just as having its substance purified and made incorruptible Therefore according to the Scripture-phrase immortal and everlasting like as are the bright and superior Orbs Yea which is much more wonderfull shall this incorruptability everlastingness and immortality of thy soul and body be unchangeable and eternal because thy Person is spiritually and really united by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost unto the Person of Christ thy Head and unto God in Christ who is Eternal Life yea lastly doth this life excell and transcend as in respect of the cause and nature of it the life and being of all other Creatures even of the ever blessed Angels as being built not only as theirs is upon the Basis of Gods creating power and goodness which gives a beeing to all things but is establisht upon his declared promise and eternal truth and hath its unalterable duration from our dwelling and living in God and he in us and from that inseparable fellowship we have with the Father and the Son in the communion of the Holy Ghost O my Soul are these things true Have they been evidenst to thee out of the Scripture of truth O how oughtest thou in all humility and enlarged thankfulness to prostrate thy self at the foot-stool of thy infinite good gracious and mercifull God and Father in the Lord Jesus Christ admiring and adoring him First for the Revelation and manifestation by his Word and holy Spirit of so high ravishing and stupendious a mystery the wonder and praise of glorified Saints and Angels and the miracle of divine love Next let as the Prophet speaks one deep call unto another and from the sight of the
of Faith As an Introduction and substraction to what followes I shall premise First according to Scripture as hath been shewed Job chap. 19.25 That the same Bodies shall be raised that the Saints lived in here upon Earth as to their substance If so then the same parts members and senses shall then be raised and have a being also of which the Body consists and without which the Body is imperfect and incompleat and cannot be truly said to be the same Body Secondly that if necessarily and certainly they shall then have an existence in the Body then without doubt they must be for some most noble use and end For this is both a Scriptural and Natural Maxime That God and Nature made nothing in vain Yea the Scripture is cleer and express as to the glorious employment of some of them in this Heavenly life as of our Eyes and Eares as shall be shewed hereafter What reason then is there that we should exclude the exercise of the other Thirdly it is cleer and manifest that the glorified Soul when again united to the glorified Body shall not then act singly and by it self but organically as now it doth in and with the Body as having its seat and operation as to the understanding will and memorative faculties in the head and brain and as to the concupiscential appetite and affections in the heart and as to its external Instrument of expression and manifesting it self and mind to God Men and Angels in praises or otherwise it shall be with the Tongue as is proved by the discourse betwixt our Saviour and Moses and Elias and from many places in the Revelations and other Scriptures So also the Soul shall make use of the Feet to walk with although the whole Body as hath been shewed like the Wheels in Ezekiel's Vision shall swiftly descend or ascend according to the will and motion of the Spirit or Soul within them I say then it s now most truly as properly said that not the Body but our Souls in our Bodies see hear tast feel and smell Can it be rationally believed that the body that shall be raised in perfection shall be deprived of either the being or use of any one of its senses that the Soul should in respect of the want of them be less perfect in glory than it was in its state of misery yea be deprived of those actings or senses by its re-union to the body which it made use of in glory before its re-entry into the body Angels and therefore Souls after their manner have their seeing hearing feeling smelling and tasting when they took bodies and eat with Abraham Which senses they make use of at other times also for ought we know or are taught in Gods Word to the contrary The Scripture-allusion when it calls the Israelites Manna Angels food making more for it than against it as also when it saith that some things as wise Observers know yea many things on Earth are figures and patterns of things above in the Heavens from all which I conclude that should not the Soul re-united to the body have organically the use of all the senses it would be in that respect not so perfect in the glorified body as when it was in the corruptible body and streightned and deprived of so much of its freedome excellency and activity as it had and doth without doubt exercise as to most of the senses in the state of Glory before its re-union Fourthly if at the Resurrection of the just the glorified Saints shall then enter into the joy of their Lord and into their first degree of Glory and shall Raign as Kings and Priests with our Lord Jesus Christ personally upon the renewed Earth which he will then create according to his promise And if it be more than probable that the old furniture being all consumed the face and superficies of the Earth and Rivers for there shall be no Sea shall be beautified and adorned anew with such several kinds of vegetative and sensitive Creatures as shall be for the delight and benefit of the glorified Saints All which Creatures shall be new made and produced as they were in the first Creation out of the several refined and incorruptible Elements that so they may have a possibility if God please like them to be everlasting and be delivered from the curse vanity and bondage of Corruption that the first Adams sin had though unwillingly subjected them to into the glorious liberty of the Children of God by the second Adam the Lord Jesus Christ the restorer of all things lost by the first unto their primitive though far better condition And if so shall the great glory goodness wisdome and other excellencies of Christ declared and held forth in the sweet-smelling Aire and in the odoriferous and most rare perfumes breathed forth as being an Elixa compared with what they were from Spice and fruit-bearing Trees Plants and Flowers be clouded and as it were lost for want of the sense of smelling to conveigh them to the understanding that so it and the whole Man may therefore and in these his wondrous works praise adore admire and worship God especially since at this time this so greatly heightned and meliorated Book of Nature shall be a glorious if not the Scriptures being now fulfilled the only Book of God Again shall the new Wine spoken of by our blessed Saviour in the Kingdome of God and the promise of eating and drinking with him at his Table in his Kingdome The Tree of Life the sweet Springs Chrystal Rivers and Waters of Life or living Waters for so Springs are called spoken of and alluded to in the 22. of the Revelations and in many other Scriptures wherein I exclude not high and mysterious Allegories also to be held forth I say shall these be in vain and signify nothing Shall also all those most mellifluous Roots Fruits and Plants that in this blessed and new-birth of things shall be delivered from corruption and therefore shall not as now they do defile the body and turn into putrifaction nor leave after all the Concoctions of Nature a remainder of stinking dregs which since Sin Nature by an instinct of self-preservation is forced to expulse and exonerate it self off shall they I say want this pleasing and distinguishing sense of tasting to glorify all the attributes and wonderfull name of God in the use benefit and enjoyment of them If the delight and use of this and all other of the senses now is not only lawfull but commanded and the Saints may and do greatly glorify God in the fruition of them And these delighâ—â— are only in a Scripture-sence become sinfull and sensual to the wicked whose sin and mixture of corruption adulterates defiles and turns the use and exercise of the senses upon their several objects or subjects into sin shall they not be much more usefull and necessary to the Saints
here and be perfected in glory hereafter Amen Whether odours and sweet smells nourish is a great question amongst the learned Naturalists but that they do greatly preserve refresh and delight nature is denyed by none because sense and experience cannot be contradicted or deceived For my part since it is most clear and evident that noxious and poisonous scents vapours and pestilential Aire the effects of Comets and Earthquakes as also minerable and sulphurious breaths and damps in Mines and Cole-pits and in the Caverns of the Hill Vesuvius of Dragons and Serpents yea of long immured and unaired Prisoners have infected suffocated and suddenly killed Persons in the perfectest degree of health I conclude that if venomous and malignant smells and spirations have demonstrably and undeniably a secret and virulent Power to destroy life and nature Then assuredly by the rule of contraries and according to right reason not to spend time in the vouching of instances as of that Maid that was preserved in health strength and life many Moneths without taking any other nourishment by the constant smelling of a Rose and in Moses Eliahs and our Saviour living 40. Days without any visible Meat or Drink which although miraculous because extraordinary and above the customary course of nature yet not so totally miraculous as to exclude Gods making use of the Aire or same other invisible means of nourishment for the preservation and comfort of their natures such as I am assured was then partially if not totally their smelling and in-breathing of the sweet and wholsome Element of Aire I say again then assuredly by the rule of contraries and according to right reason redolent fragrant cordial and spiritual odours scents aires and smells do not only refresh and exhilerate but fortifie preserve and nourish our life and beings although subtilly and invisibly as being thin and airy and therefore more agreeable and suitable to feed strengthen and increase our natural and animal Spirits the innate life of our Bodies and the medium and conjugal Bonds and Ligaments with which our Souls whilst these Spirits continue are as it were bound and married to our flesh as seeming to be in love with them because of their likeness and of a spiritual nature like it self This secret and mysterious acting of nature and yet so necessary as without the vehiculum of all scents a sweet aire our bodily life cannot long continue I conceive hath occasioned these doubts and disputes which I have the longer insisted upon to manifest what a usefull and necessary Organ this sense of Smelling is of life to the Body as well as delight to the Soul in this state and therefore rationally must continue and have an exercise and a Beeing in our glorified Bodies hereafter From what hath been said of the sense of Tasting and of this of Smelling in order to our nourishment and as a Medium ordained of God as it was in Paradise for the more delightfull and necessary continuance of life I infer that it is probable that this sense of Smelling shall not only continue but have the same use and exercise although in a far more excellent way and manner after the Resurrection of our Bodies in Glory Secondly I argue the probability thereof from the many most excellent objects and subjects of this sense in the new Heaven and new Earth the blessed habitation of all the new-raised Saints such as the four refined and then made incorruptible Elements of Fire Aire Water and Earth together with the most odoriferous Plants Herbs Flowers Fruits and sweet-smelling and Spice-bearing Trees the beautifull furniture constant and natural perfume of this new Creation whose most excellent end Gods wisdome and glory and use the Saints delight health and nourishment would be lost and to little purpose should this sense of Smelling not then have a beeing and be exercised by us The Levitical and Ceremonial Oyntments Perfumes and Incense commanded by God to be made used and offered under the Law as principal Sacrifices and as Figures of saving Grace and Prayer and Types of our blessed Saviours most pleasing and acceptable Merits and Mediation shew of what high esteem odours spice and perfumes had then even in Religious Services If so it is most likely they shall have the honour to have a beeing and to be a special Ornament of this new Earth and of civil use for the delight and benefit of the Saints If such Creatures as the curse for sin hath made noxious and destructive to Mankinde shall after their Purification by Heavenly Fire have still a beeing or a re-existence such as the Elements yea ravenous and devouring Beasts as the Prophet seems to insinuate in those expressions wherein I exclude not a spiritual sense also that the Wolfe shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lion and the fatling together And the Cow and the Bear shall feed and their young ones shall lye down together The Lyon shall eat straw like the Oxe how much more shall the harmless Creatures aforementioned which under our innocency were innocent comforts and allayes in our misery have then a beeing and by the goodness of God be made concomitants and sweet increasers of our happiness From all which I infer that more than probably these Creatures shall have a beeing in this new Creation and consequently the necessary existence and exercise of the sense of Smelling in this our glorified condition O my Soul shall the sense of Smelling be not only continued at the Resurrection of thy Body but most excellently rarified perfected and glorified Shall it be then as now though in a far more inexpressible manner not only refreshing and delightfull but probably an additional accidental and invisible delighter preserver and nourisher of the life of the Compositum thy glorified Soul and Body O let it not now be vitiated and corrupted by sin and made the usherer in of lust curiosity and pride let not thy treasures be exhausted nor thy charity be impoverisht sinfully to please this sense by any too costly excess in the perfuming of thy body house meats or garments after the vain and profuse fashion use and custome of the prodigious and prodigal great ones of this World That by the Devilish witchcraft and accursed sorcery of Sin a true Circes are transformed into Beasts and Swine and who with the venemous Spider suck and gather a sinfull poison out of the choicest Flowers and sweetest Creatures abusing them to wantonness uncleanness and voluptuousness But let this so pleasing and usefull sense even now in the enjoyment of all the excelling sweets of nature not only delight refresh and cherish thy outward Man thy natural and animal Spirits but let it be a curious and heavenly Limbeck to draw forth raise up and extract out of the fragrant Redolencies of the numerous kinds of sweets such a Coelestial Spirit as may perfume thy whole Man with the Divine
ravishing contemplation of the infinite Power and Wisdome of thy Creator manifested in the multiplicity variety and unexpressible excellencies of smells and odours as also of his wonderfull mercy love and goodness in making them and communicating them to thee for thy use and benefit that as in a clear mirrour and by this blessed medium thou mayest behold and enjoy him who is essentially sweetness and by whom through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which grace as a spiritual internal and common sense and Architype of all thy Bodily senses beholds hears tasts smells imbraces and possesses him thou mayest I say in God alone be delighted refresht and nourisht unto Life Eternal O infinite holy ever glorious and Eternal Spirit who art the power and love the goodness holiness and sweetness of the Eternal Father and the Son as proceeding from all Eternity from them and who art co-equal co-eternal and co-essential with them in the unity of one Divine Essence and God-head who art the Comforter Counseller Preserver and Sanctifier of all the Elect and Children of God give me a new heart and a new spirit and make me a new Creature according as the Father hath promised in the new Covenant of grace so shall not only my Soul with all the faculties and affections thereof but my Body also with all its Members and Senses be meliorated renewed and sanctified and this rare wonderfull and curious sense of Smelling with the sinfulness of pride voluptuousness excess curiosity and vanity hath made not only unprofitable and destructive to me but of ill savour offensive and dishonorable to thee become like the laborious Bee a gatherer of sweetness out of every object thereof Of which various mixtures my Soul shall compound and make up an holy Incense in resemblance of that under the Law prefiguring this of love as in return for thy goodness of admiration in the acknowledgment of thy wisdome of adoration as declaring thy Omnipotency of praise and thanksgiving as glorifying thee for these thy manifold gifts and blessings and be not only Adamiz'd and like him as in Paradise before the Fall but Angeliz'd yea like my Lord and Saviour who from every object Creature and occasion observed and raised matter of honour and glory to God his Father and mine yea by such an holy exercise of this Sense my Soul as well as my Body shall be refresht delighted and nourisht in its Eternity of Life begun here and to be made perfect together with this sense at the first Resurrection of the Just in Glory I need not prove that the Sense of Feeling shall continue and have existence in the Saints glorified state since to deny it is tanto-mount as to affirm that their Bodies shall not have a beeing or which is equally absurd that they shall in this new life be sick of a dead Palsie This Sense being now and so without doubt shall be then one of the clearest signes and demonstrations of the life of the Body and hath in one respect a singular preheminency and difference above the rest of the Senses For whereas every other Sense hath its proper Seat and Organ This may be truly said to be like the Soul and to Organize and reside in every part and member of a living and perfect Body Neither is this Sense less necessary to motion than to life insomuch as that when a Body is totally deprived thereof it is insensible and moves not and is accompted no better than a dead Trunk and inanimate Corps I shall add further that this Sense as it is now so certainly it shall be then the Souls chief Instrument and Inquisitor to discern by and give Judgment with much pleasure and delight of those four principal Elementary qualities that are respectively inherent to and in all created things and bodies that consist of matter and are made up and compounded of the four Elements as to heat or coldness driness or moisture or of those remoter qualities and adjuncts soft or hard smooth or rough arising from them So that as the Soul united to the new-raised Body without Eyes and the Sense of Sighâ— may truly be said to be imperfect and blind as to all visible objects so should the Body want this Sense of Feeling the Soul may as truly be said to be incompleat and ignorantly dark as to its knowledge and understanding as to all Tangible subjects From what hath been said I assert that the Saints at the Resurrection shall in their glorified Bodies have both the continuance and exercise of this Sense of Feeling and that in an incomparable perfection as to what it is now I will not positively affirm that spiritual substances as Angels may be subjects of this glorified Sense that shall be spiritualiz'd with our Bodies which though now a Natural Body shall then according to the Word of Truth be raised a spiritual Body If so is it not probable that as now to our natural Bodies natural things are touchable so to our spiritual bodies spiritual substances as Angels may be Tangible Our Saviours expression to his Apostles not at all contraducing or excluding this inquiry or inference he affirming only that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as he had not denying that a spiritual glorified body may touch and feel a spiritual Beeing and Essence But should this not be I am assured we shall both touch and imbrace him and be imbrac'd by him I speak this according to the Scripture-phrase with all due and humble reverence who is far above all Creatures and Angels our Head our Spouse our Saviour the most glorious Lord Jesus Christ God-man in one Person as also Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Holy Patriarchs Kings Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and glorified Saints as also our formerly neer and dear Relations which then shall be known of us in that perfection of knowledge and in this our exaltation that so their salvation may add such an accidental joy to the augmentation of our blessedness as the Holy Angels are said by our Saviour to have now super-added to their happiness at the conversion of a sinner To these I shall annex and subjoyn other more inferiour subjects of this glorified Sense the then refined and well-tempered Aire and Elements the delightfull contact of Fowles Birds and Beasts now willingly subject and obedient to Man the super-excelling and numerous Trees Fruits and Plants the Arbors of soft and sweet-smelling Roses the banks of Lillies the beds of Violets the Carpets of all manner of rarest Herbs and Flowers with which this new Heaven and new Earth this renewed Paradise shall be even to perpetuity plentifully garnisht and adorned with to the great glory of God the Creator of Christ the Restorer and of the Holy Ghost the Efficient and to the unexpressible pleasure and delightfull use and benefit of the Elect and glorified Saints As the blessed Canticles that Song of Songs hath been and is reproacht and abused by wanton Amorists
and a learned Man was declared an Heretick for holding there was an Antipodes or a new World before its discovery so may possibly these my weak notions and contemplations although of a Divine subject because not heretofore searcht into by others that I know of and therefore if the Lord in his providence shall order them to come to a publick view I only recommend them to the devout perusal and judgment of holy humble regenerate and practical Christians who although in the Body do by divine Meditation as it were live out of the Body and have been so far changed into the Image of Christ and taught and renewed by his holy Spirit that they have brought their Bodies and Senses unto such a spiritual frame and exercise as is declared and exhorted to in the foregoing discourse These will rightly judge of this personal Raign of Christ with his Saints upon Earth and how uncharitably and unjustly and I may add ignorantly many in other respects learned religious and to be honoured have ignominiously and falsely branded this Doctrine as though it was New Epicureal and Sensual whereas the truth is it is a most antient and Primative Doctrine and nothing else but the declaration and affirmation of that glorious condition of Christ and his Saints that he himself the Holy Scriptures and Prophets indited and inspired by his Holy Spirit have throughout witnessed to and promised as by the Scriptures quoted in the Margin besides many others is sufficiently proved That he the second Adam should come to renew and restore all things in this lower Creation freed from the curse of sin to as good yea a far better condition than they had before the Fall When God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Now did not God make this so excellent a work for his Glory and for his Creature Man to enjoy and to serve praise and glorify him in the fruition thereof and in the admiration of him in this its excellency and goodness But did any of Man-kinde but only two Adam and Eve enjoy the Earth and the Creatures thereof in their Primitive and created excellencies and that but for a Day or two How then shall God have his end the Glory of his Power wisdome and goodness and Man the enjoyment of all his liberality and bounty and be Trumpets and witnesses of his excellencies in the Creatures How shall Gods promise be fulfilled Of making a new Heaven and a new Earth and restoring all things by his Son the Heir of all things If Man I mean all the Elect in his Soul Body and Senses shall not be renewed and live personally with Christ at this Renovation of all things for a thousand years according to the Scriptures to enjoy what God hath made and Christ hath purchased for them and to admire adore and glorify him in the Primitive end use and enjoyment of them These then that deny this and in a fervent I forbear to say ignorant hast because every Age hath its measure of light would seat the raised Saints in the highest Heavens before their time and before Gods promises and great designs be fulfilled what do they else in the declining of this great truth but force themselves upon false and Allegorical expositions of cleer and literal Scriptures making ineffectual his promise yea do they not affirm contrary to that undeniable maxime that God made these Heavens and this Earth and all the wonderfull Creatures and admirable Ornaments thereof in vain as not known nor made use of by them for whom at first he created it and again renewed it I might here add many more Arguments for the defence of this truth but I shall at this time no further digress but return to my former Method of Meditation upon this glorified Sense of Feeling Referring the Reader to those most excellent Treatises of Dr. Homes Mr. Archer and many others upon this Subject O my Soul shall this Sense be not only continued but exercised upon such excellent subjects in Glory shall it with thy Body be spiritualiz'd and as to its sensability incomparably exceed what it is now O be carefull not to effeminate or pollute it disdaining to vassalage it to pride covetousness lust or vanity But as it more than all the other Senses declares and manifests thy living in the body So let it by an innocent sober chast and holy acting testify Christs living in thee The Lord Jesus hath taken off all legal impositions such as Touch not taste not but not his Gospel and Spiritual restraining Therefore abuse not nor make use of this Christian liberty which he hath purchased for thee to fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh For if thou livest after the Flesh thou shalt dye but if through the Spirit thou mortifiest the deeds of the Flesh thou shalt live Take heed of covetousness which hath not only its seat in the Eye but in the Hand desire not with Mydas in the Poet that every thing thou touchest may become Gold but remember the issue and moral of the Fable his starving and perishing in his enjoyments Neither imbrace thou the bosome of a strange Woman for he that toucheth her shall not be innocent for her ways draw neer to death and her steps take hold of Hell she being compared by the spirit of God to a deep Ditch and to a narrow Pit out of which very few get out and are delivered For although as in the Poet Ixion-like in the height of thy lustfull pleasure thou thinkest to infold in thy Armes a Juno a Goddess The conclusion will be but the grasping of an Airy Cloud nay which is far worse a Pestilential vapour an inflam'd and killing Granado O my Soul since whilst thou art in this vain World and in this sinfull body thou art incompast about with Legions of evil spirits with innumerable snares and with secret and subtile temptations which with those in the Prophet call good evil and evil good which put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter which call light darkness and darkness light abusing lawfull things and turning them out of their right Channel by excess that so they may overflow and drown the Earth again with a far more dangerous Flood than that of Water which destroyed only a temporal Life even a deluge of sin and of flaming Fire long since foretold the cause of that Fire and without true repentance of Eternal Death watch thou therefore and pray lest thou fall into temptation and this sence be adulterated by thy pride excess and luxury and made instrumental to cause those good Creatures the soft Silks of Persia the warm Furs of Muscovia the fine Wools of Britan and Segovia given thee by God to cover thy sinfull nakedness to become a covering of sin and a Banner of pride and vanity Take heed also that this sense be not bewitched and overcome through voluptuousness and corrupt thee by an
the World After which act of thy remunerative Justice and thy Raign upon the renewed Earth with thy Saints a thousand years thou wilt I believe raise and Judge all the wicked called the Goats at thy left hand and the Apostate Angels according as thou hast declared in thy Word of Truth when every ungodly one shall be sentenced and punished proportionable and according to the evil of their thoughts words and actions then being all made manifest who with the Devils their Tempters and Tormenters shall by thy mighty Angels be cast into the Lake of Fire the Locall Hell unto Eternity This is the second Death O my King my Judge my Spouse shall this dreadfull time of Judgment fearfull indeed to the wicked but a most joyfull Day to the Godly certainly come upon the World according to thy Word Shall there be a long tract of time measured out in the acting and manifesting thy Judgments and magnifying the glory of thy remunerative and vindicative Justice to the World as well as there hath been a long space of proclaiming and holding forth the Golden Scepter of thy free Grace and incomprehensible love and mercy to the Sons of Men Is this truth one of the Articles of the Christian Faith and as certain to us as the Day of our death according to that unrepealable Statute It is appointed to Men once to dye and afterwards comes the Judgment Shall the Crowns dignities and rewards conferred upon thy Saints be one chief subject of praise and fill the Mouths of Men and Angels with continual Hallelujahs unto God not only whilst they rest upon the renewed Earth but also in the highest Heavens after the end of this long Day and the pouring out of thy wrath and execution of thy righteous Judgments upon wicked Men and Devils when thy glorious justice in both the parts thereof shall be finished and compleated according to that Prophesie of the Psalmist then perfectly fulfilled Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth O let both my Heart and Tongue now inure themselves to this Subject since I live by faith and not by sense and sing with the Elect ones in the Revelations that prophetical Song calculated for this time saying Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are his Judgments Praise our God all yee his Servants and yee that fear him both small and great Hallelujah for the Lord reigneth Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and hiâ— Wife hath made her self ready And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white for the fine Linnen is the righteousness of Saints Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. O King of Saints and King of Nations our Almighty Saviour and Conquerer who hast fulfilled the Law satisfied Divine Justice overcome the World Crucified Sin spoiled Principalities and Powers and wilt at the Resurrection of the Just and the Redemption of our Bodies destroy our last Enemy Death and after the Judging and Hellifying of wicked Men and Devils wilt in Tryumph ascend on high with thy Elect and lead Captivity Captive that the Glory which thy Father gave thee may be given them that they may be with thee where thou art and may behold the Glory which he hath given thee and possess an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us where we shall be ever with thee our Lord and see God face to face and in thee the perfections of all Creatures as in their first cause And know thee according to our measure as we are known by thee Blessed Mediator this is that time when all rule all authority and power being put down and under thee in the Kingdome of thy Saints and under thee in thy personal and glorious raign upon Earth All Enemies even Death it self being destroyed and put under thy Feet thou shalt deliver up the Kingdome so far as it is Mediatory personal and singly acted and managed by thee in thy humane appearance and Man-hood to God even the Father That so thou the Son as being also as Man the Son of God might be subject as to thy present kinde of administration unto him that put all things under thee that God may be all in all And the whole Universe and Creation both in Heaven and Earth especially thy spiritual Body thy Church may be immediately governed and influenced by him who is three in one God-blessed for ever To which mystical Body thy Spouse and Church as also to Angels thou still remainest Head and Lord for ever which being now perfectly and inherently sanctified and graciously admitted through the glorious inhabitation and communion of thy most holy and eternal Spirit to an immediate fellowship real and spiritual union although not essential with the Father Son and holy Ghost one God blessed for ever shall live eternally in the life of God and in whole and in part as respecting every individual Member and Vessel be always full yet always increasing in knowledge grace and glory as Eying and enjoying continually the Divine Nature and cast into an Ocean of infiniteness unto Eternity This is the Generation of them that seek thee that seek thy face O God of Jacob. Therefore let both my Heart and Tongue even now O Lord prepare and begin to praise thee as from Pisgath with beholding Canaan and by faith the eye of my Soul from the raised hill of holy Contemplation viewing this Saint Paul's third Heaven the Throne of God and of his glory and the many yea innumerable shining and starrified Mansions in thy Fathers house the places prepared by thee for thy Saints as also their Kingdome and State of endless glory happiness and blessedness In the ravishing Meditation of these things their translation and thy second most glorious and tryumphant Assention O let me sing and rejoyce in the words of thy Prophet David foretelling both thy Ascentions God is gone up with a shout the Lord with a sound of a Trumpet sing praises to God sing praises sing praises to our King sing praises Lift up your Heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in Battel Lift up your Heads O ye Gates even lift them up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord of Hosts He is the King of Glory Selah I have now by Divine assistance according to my weak-sightedness for all Men here know but in part and as in
be justified with God or how can he be clean that is born of a Woman Behold you were shapen in iniquity and in sin did your Mother conceive you By nature you are the Children of wrath And the Imaginations of your heart are only evil continually in you that is in your flesh dwelleth no good thing From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in you but wounds and bruises and putrified sores Ye have sinned and done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from my precepts Your iniquities are increased over your heads and your trespasses are grown up to the Heavens And the poyson of the Asps is under your Lips Wash you and make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine Eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now let us reason together though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red as Crimson they shall be as Wool Confess and forsake your sins and you shall finde mercy For I am faithful and just to forgive you your sins And my blood shall cleanse you from all sins Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest And you that come to me I will by no means cast out But if ye will still do wickedly ye shall be consumed And I will rain snares an horrible tempest And I will break the hairy Scalp of you that go on in iniquity Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you See I have set before you life and good and death and evil therefore choose life that ye may live He that hath received my Testimony hath set to his Seal that God is true The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him I am made unto you of God wisdome and righteousness and sanctification and redemption And to be sin for you that knew no sin that you might be made the righteousness of God in me I am the end of the Law for righteousness to every one of you that believeth And was made a curse for you that the blessing of Abraham might come to you and that ye might receive the promise of the spirit through faith in me which grace comes by hearing and hearing of the Word of God and is the gift of God Be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard for I in you am the hope of Glory But put on this hope for an Helmet and let it be as an Anchor of your Souls both sure and stedfast rejoycing therein firmly to the end And let every one of you that hath this hope in him purifie himself even as I am pure Above all things have servent charity for charity will cover the multitude of sins yea let all your things be done with charity without which though you speak with the tongues of Men and Angels you are become as sounding brass or a tinkling Cimbal And though you have the gift of Prophesie and understand all misteries and all knowledge And though you have all faith so that you could remove Mountains and have no charity you are nothing And though you bestow all your goods to feed the poor and though you give your Bodies to be burned and have not charity it profiteth nothing Charity suffereth long and is kinde charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not its self Is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own Is not easily provoked thinketh no evil Rejoiceth not in iniquitie but rejoiceth in the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Charitie never faileth Wherefore above all things put on charitie which is the bond of perfectness The end of the Commandement The royal Law And the fulfilling of the Law If ye therefore fulfill this royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self ye do well Yea I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you That you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth Rain on the just and on the unjust And put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both bodie and soul in Hell Whosoever doth not bear my Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple Verily I say unto you whosoever of you shall leave House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospel shall receive an hundred fold now in this time Houses and Brethren and Sisters and Mother and Children and Lands with persecutions and in the World to come everlasting life Every Man that striveth for the masterie is temperate in all things now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but you an incorruptible Therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight not as those that beat the Aire but keep under your Bodies and bring them into subjection And add to your knowledge temperance For the fruits of my Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no Law Add to your temperance patience And in your patience possess your Souls and bring forth fruit with patience And let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing Being followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises Ye have heard of the patience of Job Also take for an example your Brethren the Prophets of suffering affliction and of patience And run with patience the race which is set before you Be ye wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves And filled with the knowledge of my will in all wisdome and spiritual understanding That ye may walk worthy of me unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God See that ye walk circumspectlie not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil understanding what the will
with thy Neighbours Wife to defile thy self with her The Adulterer and Adulteress shall surely be put to death Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor abusers of themselves with Man-kind shall inherit the Kingdome of God Mortifie your Members which are upon the Earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the Children of disobedience And commit not Fornication as some of the Israelites committed and fell in one Day three and twenty thousand Without the new Jerusalem are Whoremongers who shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire which is the second Death Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts which are an abomination to the Lord. Wherefore hate all vain thoughts Let them not lodg within you for the thought of foolishness is sin I understand your thoughts afar off and am a discerner of the thoughts and intents of your hearts Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouths but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearers But fornication and all uncleanness let it not be once named amongst you as becometh Saints Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Be not therefore partakers with them I say unto you every idle word that Men shall speak they shall give account thereof at the Day of Judgment For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Whosoever looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart Wherefore with holy Job make a Covenant with thine Eyes that thou think not upon a Maid to lust after her For when thy Eye is evil thy Body also is full of darkness The Eyes of the wicked shall faile But chiefly them that walk after the Flesh in the lust of uncleanness Having Eyes full of Adultery and that cannot cease from sin and are reserved to the Day of Judgment to be punished and to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever The Night is far spent the Day is at hand therefore cast ye off the works of Darkness and put on the Armour of Light walking honestly as in the Day not in rioting and drunkenness not in Chambering and wantonness But put ye on me the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Let not Sathan who is a lyar from the beginning and the Father of lyes fill your hearts to sin against the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of truth that ye be not strucken with sudden Death as was Ananias and Saphira Ye shall not lye one unto another but every one speak the truth with his Neighbour For ye are Members one of another For I will destroy them that speak leasing and the mouth that speaketh lies shall be stopped The Earth mourneth and fadeth away the World languisheth and fadeth away the haughty People of the Earth do languish the Earth also is defiled under the Inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Laws changed the Ordinance broken the everlasting Covenant I am the Mediator of the new Covenant sealed unto you in my Sacraments of Baptisme and my Supper Tread not then under foot the Son of God nor count the blood of my Covenant wherewith ye are sanctified an unholy thing nor do despight unto my Spirit of grace For vengeance is mine I will recompence yea I will judge my people It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools Pay that which thou hast vowed The Lord thy God will surely require it of thee and it would be sin in thee That which is gone out of thy Lips thou shalt keep and perform to God and to Men lest thou be excluded my holy Hill and suffer alike Judgement with King Zedekiah for shall he escape that doth such things Or shalâ— he break the Covenant and be delivered Surely where the King dwelleth that made him King whose Oath he despised and whosâ— Covenant he break even with him in the midest of Babilon shall he die Thou shalt not desire thy Neighbours Wife neither shalt thou covet thy Neighbours House his Field or his Man servant or his Maid-servant his Oxe or his Ass or any thing that iâ— thy Neighbours Woe unto him that covered an evil covetousness to his House that he maâ— set his Nest on high that he may be delivereâ— from the power of evil He that maketh haâ— to be rich shall not be innocent No covetouâ— Man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Take heed and beware of Covetousness For woe unto him that buildeth his House by unrighteousness and his Chambers by wrong Beware of Ahab's sin and his punishment No Man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your Life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on Is not the life more than meat and the body than rayment For after all these things the Gentiles seek for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things Wherefore having food and rayment be therewith content for I have said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown Men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Wherefore love not the World nor the things that are in the World if any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that with-holdeth more than is meet and yet tendeth to poverty The liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself There is an evil which I have seen under the Sun and
Kingdome Nor are we only Kings but dignified above such expressions the Image of the only true God being renued and imprinted in us For through our Lord Jesus Christ 's most great and precious promises are given unto us that by them we should be partakers of the Divine Nature Hath Saul chosen David to be his Son in Law yea and he esteemed it an honour worth the hazarding of his life But behold what love the Father hath given to us that we should be called the Sons of God Was Mordecai so publickly honoured by Ahasuerus God doth far exceed in his free favours towards his Witness St. John saying I saw round about the Throne four and twenty Seats and upon the Seats four and twenty Elders sitting clothed with white Rayment having on their Heads Crowns of Gold Come hither O thou loytering Soul that carest not to ascend the Mount with Abraham and Isaac but stayest below with his Servants and Asses that choosest rather to stand still and become a barren and unmovable Pillar of Salt with the faithless Wife of Lot then with no less hast than good speed to travel toward Zoar a place of safety with her righteous Husband The Poets tell us a Fable of one Tantalus whose hunger-starved Mouth covetously gasped after Golden Apples which continually fled from him I would O half Believer thou hadst his hunger his thirst then would our Saviours loving invitation be joyfully obeyed If any Man thirst let him come unto me and drink such living Waters which shall not flie from but into the longing Soul Art thou Adam's Son O here behold a Tree of Life whose Root is only transplanted from Paradise to Heaven that so the Fruit might hang down to Earth Here is now no prohibition to restrain thy ambition but a commission to warrant thy affection Take and eat O take it even Christ in his Word and Sacraments not carnally as Adam but spiritually with the hand of thy Soul which is a saving and applying faith Next relish it by Meditation and digest it by prayer Then shall thine eyes be enlightned and thou shalt perceive thy nakedness that so Christ may cloath thee with his righteousness here and his glory hereafter Then shalt thou behold the vanity of earthly pleasures riches and honours confessing that God is all these yea all in all unto thee That the happiness of Divine knowledge consists most in fruition That it is better to acknowledge God to be Immanuel with Isaiah then Daniel's God with Darius To imbrace Christ in our armes by faith with Simeon than to see his Star afar of with Balaam To rejoyce in God our Saviour with the blessed Virgin then to confess Jesus to be the Son of the most high God with the Legion of Devils Then shall that virtual and spiritual Figure of God which according to our capacity the holy Spirit hath shadowed out by attributes in his Word and Works be appropriated unto us by Faith That so those glorious rayes of his to wit his Holiness his Justice his Power which before our Souls were Eagle-fighted our minds illuminated rather scortcht than cherished dazled than enlightned us meet all in the centre of his mercy Jesus Christ and from him as it were by reflection powerfully work upon us and comfortably refresh the whole Man renewing justifying and sanctifying thee here and glorifying thee hereafter All this while O my Soul thou hast been viewing the first draught of Faith rudely painted after a Landskip fashion and therefore ever beheld at distance Now observe a second model limb'd out more exactly having in every part a seeming perfection O that the Colours would be but as lasting as lively The defect then of this Pourtraiture is a false ground manifested and proved by its short continuance The truth of which since it cannot aptly or charitably be demonstrated or discovered by any extant piece I know lest I should seem to be my own Judge or judge my Brother I will with reverence look into our Ark the sacred Scriptures wherein as there is the two Tables of the Law for our instruction so there is a Pot of Manna to encourage and strengthen our obedience An Aaron's Rod to tell us what we have been are and should not be There I doubt not but to finde some Antiquities of the infant Age before the Law or the middle Age under the Law and some in the old Age of the World that last measure of time under the Gospel Which although dusted by death survived in those living characters for instruction and our purpose All humane judgments may erre Neither is there any Seat of Judicature upon Earth no not Peter's Chair altogether free from injustice and false opinions If it be the certain condition of Man to be uncertain in all his ways Nam humanum est errare it is his Custome to erre How can he then which is a stranger at home make a true discovery abroad He that stumbles in a known and even path cannot choose but fall headlong if he ascend craggy passages He that is ignorant of earthly things cannot be spiritually judicious The best oft-times are deceived by their own hearts For the heart of Man is deceitfull above all things who can know it much more by others Those which in the false Ballance of our understanding have seemed down weight being placed in the Scales of the Sanctuary have been found wanting as may appear in these following examples Who although they out-went the prospect of Men in the right way towards Heaven in the outward acts of Faith yet afterwards either stood still or wanting Oyl for their Lamps were benighted and strayed in the broad Paths of prosperity Cain the first draught of humanity that ever Man drew the first born to whom hereditarily belonged the blessing and the double portion the fourth part of the then visible Church and a sacrificing Priest before God viz. by his birth education offering proved to be a Member of the Church a Professor by his Prayers implyed as the inseparable Companions of Sacrifices the fruits of that profession are manifest so that to the superficial view of Man he seems not only practically Religious but also to parallel faithful Abel Yet behold in process of time his want of perseverence shewes his defect of Sincerity the murder of his Brother his former Hypocrisie and afterwards concluded of and punished with the Curse of God the Hatred of good men and his self Despairation Lots Wife was a member of the apparent Church and as it is probable forsook her native Country her Fathers Gods to be a sojourner a stranger in a remote Land with Abraham And no doubt while she lived in that sinful Sodom was a frequent Hearer of that Doctrine of Repentance which her Righteous husband Preached with so unhappy success Yea in conclusion she forsakes Sodom being not only aided by the presence but led by the hand of an Angel
And lest Hell should tryumph over us in punishment he in Person tryumphs over it with Victory In Person I say Although his Body lay still in the Grave since its local absence contradicts not his personal presence the inseparable union of the God-head with his Body and Soul even in Death permitting only a separation in nature not of natures a mutation of order no disunion If the Devils fear forced his Prince to supplicate when our Saviour sojourn'd on Earth what unexpressible terrors did then possess them when the Worlds Great Monarch reigned over Hell If in his humiliation they doubted his sudden judgment How did his exaltation assure them of their certain execution Here behold acted that Vision figuratively after manifested unto St. John of Sathans imprisonment for a thousand years although literally it was to be fulfilled many ages after For who hath the Key of the bottomless Pit of Heaven and Hell but he to whom all power is given both in Heaven and Earth He who openeth and no Man shutteth Or when should these Principalities be subdued if not at this general and most glorious Conquest Can any imagine this great Victory to be maymed or imperfect since he then led Captivity captive trampling over all those that resisted either his Power or our Salvation So conclude this what time since his coming doth so evidently demonstrate this truth to be by our Head in part fulfilled as the after events I mean the tranquility and delight of the Church amongst themselves those hundred years immediately succeeding his suffering What though the ten Persecutions did exceedingly rage against the Saints according to the 4th verse of that 20. of the Revelations The blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church Yea they did even then reign most gloriously with Christ. As the Kingdome of our Saviour and the brightness of the Church shined most perspicuously when the purity thereof brake forth in their profession and constancy so the miseries of Christians and the liberty of Sathan is never more apparent then when the damnableness and obscurity of capital Heresies Eclipse the visible face of the Church For in the first we may truly be said to live and tryumph even in death in the last their supposed freedome is the greatest slavery and their seeming life but a cursed and eternal deprivation Three Days continued though not compleat was the proportion of time allotted to measure out my Saviours last sleep Had he dyed and presently revived unbelieving Man would have tearmed such a Death but a Transe Yea the scandalous Rulers would have blasted the wonderfull Miracle of his Resurrection with an accusation of self-contradicting and not performance of his former protestation Destroy this Temple and within three Days I will build it up again Wherefore O my Soul that thy faith might be confirmed in the sure belief of his dying The Jews convicted by the truth of his performance and his own Power magnified by the Divinity of the act he is content to lodge as it were in a second Womb viz. of Clay that all things being perfected the third Day he might lead his the way to a birth of Glory The victorious Soul of my Saviour after the reliction of his Body having trampled upon Death tryumphed over Hell and took a full possession of Heaven that his actions as they were the means so they might be as it were the story and prophecy of our succeeding All the Souls of the faithfull when they part with this hollow Clay in like manner though through his right conculcate Death and Hell enjoying the new Jerusalem Behold he now proceeds by the raising of his Body to assure us that our Bodies shall be like our Souls immortal as our Souls shall be made like unto his most glorious through the re-creation of his beautifull Image in us The object of my Faith hath hitherto been a Night-piece full fraught with Persecution and suffering tears and strong cries dying and burial but now the all-flourishing Rayes of the Immortal Deity personally in the Son of Righteousness at his rising breaks forth changing that Darkness into Light To this may be applied that of the Psalmist Mourning may continue for a Night but joy comes in the Morning Noah's Ark the true Figure of a Christians faith must be drenched in the Waves and driven by the Wind a long time before it shall rest dry and safe upon the Mountains of Ararat The humiliation of my Saviour was his night wherein the humanity did most manifest it self So his exaltation in which his Resurrection hath a part is his Day wherein the brightness and power of his God-head did shew it self most apparently Adam the destroyer of Man first enjoyed a blessing a Paradise before he merited a Curse a Hell But the Messias the restorer of Man must first be made an execration before he can purchase for us a re-possession Not long since I besought all true believers to weep with Christ who wept not for himself but for them But now my Soul breaths forth a more pleasing request which I prefer not to all but to those only which are mourners in Sion That as they have grieved with Him and for themselves in him so now they would be filled with his solace and tryumph in his Victory That as they have sowed in tears they may now reap in joy Every Man was a debtor unto the Almighty untill Christ our surety paid the mortgage and redeemed our Souls He satisfied the debt on the Cross least we should doubt of the sufficiency of his satisfaction For behold here our acquittance and the Bonds rent even the Bonds of Death torne asunder in and by his Resurrection Have we not then cause to rejoyce for so great a deliverance The mirth of Moses Myriam and the Israelites was expressed in a Song of thanksgiving when the Egyptians were entombed in the Sea The joy of Barak and Debora was proclaimed in an Anthem of praise when Sisera and his Chariots were discomfited The Virgins of Israel were not silent when David overthrew Goliah And shall we that are delivered from the slavery of a spiritual Pharaoh sin from the tyranny of a hellish Sysera a strong Goliah Sathan the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr and over all the Children of disobedience be empty of gladness and gratefulness when all the Creatures land and praise our Moses our Barak our David our Jesus shall not all the People especially the redeemed of the Lord say Amen Let us now walk forth with those of Emmaus to meet our Saviour after the Resurrection of his Body Praying earnestly that through the Power of his Spirit he would open the eyes of our faith that we may believe confess and rejoyce in his Resurrection The infinite affection of this Saviour of ours is apparent in every action His love made him depart from glory when he descended from the bosome of his Father his love made him conceal his
glory when he maskt it with humanity and the same love makes him as it were dis-esteem his glory that he might confirm his Disciples The Rulers lye saying his Disciples came by Night and stole him away might perchance have been received generally as a truth Or else the believers might have proved as incredulous as Didimus Had not his bodily presence Non-plust falshood and controuled unbelief Forty Days the time appointed for his last sojourning on Earth being now expired Let my faith as it hath followed Him from Heaven so ascend with Him to Heaven The Angels that questioned the Disciples with a Why stand yee gazing did not intend the closing of the Souls eye but the bodies No act of Christ ever wanted a Witness the Foundation of Christianity thereby being as it were semented for ever Whereas all other fabulous Religions moulder away as layed with the untempered Morter of Mans devices The Wise-men and Sheepwards are Witnesses of his birth John and the multitude of his Baptization and Circumcision Pilate of his Innocency the Centurion of his Deity and Crucifixtion the Souldiers of his Resurrection and his Disciples of his Ascension The affection of Christ towards Man is like himself always the same That free and good will of his that brought Him down to suffer lifts Him up to mediate The unspeakable comfort and truth of which office since I am both unable and unworthy to express I refer my self and others to the Scripture of God Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right Hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Whilst the glorious Sun is clouded or eclipsed Man may with an open and undazled eye behold its luminous Orb But when free from all interpositions it shall re-ascend the top of its Meridian What seeing Organ is there that can behold it without being bleard with a review in sign of weakness or incombrance within it self as uncapable of such brightness The eternally begotten Son of the everlasting Father our Son of Righteousness and the only Son of Glory hath been made manifest to the eye of my faith whilst vail'd with an unglorified Humanity he continued his unchangable course through the darkness of suffering Cloudiness of Persecution and Eclipse of Death But now that he hath remounted his solsticial of Glory weak faith thou must with a humble and closed eye endeavour to admire which is thy homage to his Divinity what thou canst not conceive of not being discouraged as though thou hadst lost all with his bodily presence For as we possess light though the Sun be not visible his brightness being conveyed unto us in his beames So thy Saviour though corporeally absent he in his glorious rayes shines forth unto thee that thou mightest enjoy light warmth and comfort O how am I ravisht with this Vision 'T were the worst of unthankfulness to conceal such unspeakable favours With David therefore I must proclaim Mans Jubile Come hither all yee that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for our Souls But I beseech you bring with you Stephens as well as Davids Ear else you may perhaps as blinde Men know my happiness not see it that is not to receive and apply it as your own As in the Divine Essence there is three Persons each of which is God yet not three but one God so in the Person of Christ there is a Trinity of offices each of which is proper to whole Christ as to be King Prophet and Priest not many of them the Man-hood being seperated from the God-head as some would But in all Christ being one the same and all these O these are those solacing rayes I before spake of so beneficial to pernicious Man O suffer not O Lord the Bodies middle Region my Heart to be cold and uncompact like that of the Ayr lest thy beames shine thorough and not warm me But purifie it and create in it such a solidity and soundness by faith that it may be capable of their virtue and inflamed with zeal and gratefulness for and to the glory of thee the giver Christ Jesus is the Christians Sanctuary and these his offices the three precious and unexhaustible Fountains from whence Ezechiel's healing Waters plentifully flow Ghrist Jesus is our Physician and these three are those beautiful Boxes in which the pure balme of Gilead which cures all putrified sores is inclosed Is here a Physician Is here a mundifying River Is here a most approved Balme O my Soul thou must also finde out and that by Faith a diseased Patient a deadly wound a corrupted Cancer for The whole have no need of the Physician but the sick O my Saviour is there any Man living so sound that he hath no need of thee yea sure there are some whose stincking soares which the Devil and their own pride have skinned over Others whose wounds he hath too deeply searched pouring into them instead of comfortable Balsome the deadly corrasives of desperation O Lord the nature of every one of us at the first is to be Sathans Apothecary ayding him with ingredients even from our own corruption to stupifie our sence of sin and mortifie our Souls O thou which art the only skilful and spiritual Cheruâ—gion search with thy spirit and tent with thy Law my gangrened and ulcerated Soul that I may live though with an issue For though the stopping of Bodily issues often times procure death yet my death shall stop my issue The noblest knowledge of things is from their causes not from their effects Lord make me know the state and danger of my Disease from both but from the first even my fall in Adam This self-inspection is a grace by faith conveyed to us from the Prophetick office of Christ. And ought according to my method there to be handled But the agreeableness of the Meditation to this place and the profit which by Gods grace will flow to me in the Meditation to others in the perusal makes me insert here this Anatomy of a dead Man which cannot be too large since none can enough know himself In the profundity of a Well even at mid-day a Man may view the Stars And in the Sun-shine of prosperity if our Souls fathome this our depth of misery we shall free from all impediments more perfectly apprehend our Lucifer Christ Jesus God the universal Creator being perfection it self it must needs follow that the beauty and happiness of the Creature consists in being like to him It being always remembred that what in them hath its measure degree and proportion in Him is boundless unexpressable and infinite If the impression of Gods Image in his Creatures as the Kings Image upon their Coine only makes it Royal and gives it preheminence and excellence it must needs be granted that
the three Children heard Nabuchadnezzar the one had been as free from Idolatry as the other Could Pilate have given the like attention to the Jews perswasions that David gave to Abishai the Lords anointed had not been crucified To conclude had Solomons Gallant entertained the Harlots allurements no further then Joseph his Mistresses enticements Adultery would not have proved his ruine Lord though evil words by reason of the commonness of sence will perforce enter my Eares O suffer them not to Inne in my heart lest they make thy House of Prayer a Den of Thieves To proceed though this sence of Smelling next to be searched into hath no objects which properly in themselves considered can be said to be evil yet hath it since the Fall a sinfull property and inordinate which is always ready to assist the pride and inward corruption of the heart As he is as well a Traytor that lets in the Enemy as he that fights for him So this sence by an excessive admission is often-times guilty of as much evil as the others by a depraved and actual commission The Pride and immoderation contracted by this sence is to be gathered out of the judgment pronounced by the Lord in the Prophet Esay against it where he threatens thus That it shall come to pass that in stead of sweet smells there shall be stink and in stead of a girdle a rent Lord since thou hast created this sence for pleasure Let me not by a depraved use thereof gain thy displeasure But let me by the fragrancy of the Creature be made sensible of the excelling sweetness of the Creator that so by joyning Heaven and Earth together I may enjoy thee here and hereafter now and ever The taste which next ensues was given to Adam in his Innocency for two respects First for a distinguishment of the Creatures That as the Eye so the Pallate in such a rare diversity might glorifie the Creator Secondly for pleasure sake and to prevent loathing The regulated Appetite being thereby harmlesly incited to perform and that with a temperate delight the charitable act of nourishment This was the gift and the use thereof in the state of Innocency until Adam by tasting too much so extended and wracked this sence that it could never since be well set or finde a mean The taste now enticing the appetite and the appetite again encouraging to taste the whole Man is by this means irrecoverably plunged in intemperancy Instance in the People of Sodom one of whose capital offences was fulness of bread In the rich Glutton whose immoderation hatcht by this senses provocation caused the one to forget their end the other his brother O Lord is this sense thus propense to ill O let my Soul be fed with thy grace and taste thy sweetness that so my spiritual appetite being unmeasurably enlarged it may like Moses Rod devour the carnal Lastly that I may conclude with that ubiquitary sence the hand-maid of life I mean the touch Know O fallen Man that this is no less friend than the rest to wickedness Nay to give it the due it is not only a constant Conductour of sin in all actions wherein the Body is an Agent but also is a nourisher of sin until it grow exceeding sinfull Instance this in the long-continued and tall-grown lusts of Holy David For no sooner had Pride Security and Idleness lulled asleep the gracefull warders of his Soul and let in through his wandering Eyes lust and beauty but the will captived by such Potent Enemies obeys and enjoys What Sathanisme Hypocrisie Murder and Impenitency succeeded his touch as being hatched and pampered by its sensual fruition is known to all that are read in the Scriptures As lust so covetousness is much assisted and hath a secret confederacy with this sence There being in such Midasses a certain con-naturalness betwixt their Fingers and the Gold which so forceably moves the affections of the Soul that a real fulness seems with them a want their gross Arithmatick consisting only of Addition and Multiplication O mercifull Creator are my Eyes become skilfull perspectives and representative Mirrours to bring sin neer unto my Soul Are my Eares set wide open to feast lewdness Doth my Nostrils Spider-like suck Poyson from the sweets of thy Creatures Is my taste the Cook to drunkenness and gluttony And my touch the bed-fellow and companion of all uncleanness To conclude all is my whole Body con-natural with sin an abettor and open friend to all iniquity a Load-stone cleaving rather to the base mettal of sin than to the pure and tried gold of grace Clay it is indeed both in substance and quality as being hardned and not mollified by the rayes of thy mercies pressing always to its own Element of Earth though never so often elevated by the motions of thy good Spirit towards Heaven Lord what is Man that thou art mindfull of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Is it not Chaff and therefore to be blown to and fro with the tempest of thy wrath Is it not stubble and therefore apt fuell for that unquenchable Fire yea undoubtedly it is this yea worse and less then all this being not only vanity but lighter than vanity so vain is every Man O wretched Adam that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of sin and death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord my Soul guided by a Pillar of Fire thy spirit hath now with faint paces passed through a Vale of misery a Wilderness of sin full of temptations murmurings and rebellions It now remains that having received the Law in Mount Sinai even the sentence of Death in and against my self I now with the same Moses from Mount Nebo view the Land of Canaan the Gospel of Peace that promised possession of every true Israelite Lord let my misery though not my merit provoke thee to this mercy as being a Man naked and wounded and fallen among Thieves as being a wretch whose Navel conveying original corruption was not cut neither was my fleshly appetite suppled with the Water of Sanctification in the Day of my Nativity O pour into my gaping wounds the Oyle of consolation and the strengthening Wine of thy promises and binde them up with an humble assurance O have compassion on me and say unto me live That is forgive all my offences that am cast out into the open Fields to the lothing of my Person Cloath me also with broadered work Put a Jewel on my forehead and a beautifull Crown on my Head even the righteousness and merit of thy Son That so I may be practically enabled to meditate of these next objects of my faith viz. Satisfaction and intercession the two parts of my Saviours Priest-hood which according to order requireth my succeeding thoughts No sooner was Man created in the Image of God but
wonderfully delivered O thou which hast wrought all these things for me work in me an experimental and sensible knowledge a continued and enlarged thankfulness So shall I give to thee the praise and receive from thee the comfort of that benediction Blessed is he whose transgressions is forgiven and whose sin is covered No sooner had the power and wisdome of God puld off the Visard of the Chaos and discovered the form of Heaven and Earth but he adorned and clothed them with beautifull Creatures all his works having not only in their Beeing a naked existence but a fulness of goodness which is their perfection If these things which God made for the use of Man were exceeding good Surely Man whom he made for his own use and glory was in his first Creation in Nature and shall be in this second of Grace indued with a plenitude of excelling graces To be and not to be good is to be evil as wanting the Character of the Creator Who is a most pure Essence there is no mean betwixt good and evil every Soul being either conformed to the Image of God or deformed after the similitude of Sathan Now to them upon whose fore-heads the Seal of the living God is placed is given a two-fold righteousness the one inherent and imperfect not if simply considered as the work of the Spirit but as it is accompanied and mixed with the corruptions of nature Our best performances being like unto those strange births which receive their life and beeing from God their deformities from some defect or vice in nature But of this in another place The other is that infinitely perfect legal super-errogating and inherent righteousness of the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ which God the Father beholding his Sons sufferings and fulfilling the Law together with his own promise and Covenant which is a due debt in Justice imputes to them to whom in his unspeakable mercy he gives faith to receive and apply it This I call infinitely perfect as being the righteousness of God as well as Man by reason of the communication of properties from the union of nature I call it legal because the Law was the object and rule thereof Super-errogating because it super-abounds and is made the sole merrit of Saints Lastly I tearm it inherent as being the actual righteousness and obedience of the Man Christ Jesus All his sufferings by reason of the spontaneous and loving offer of himself being also the acts of his will as well as the passions of his nature O wonder of love O miracle of mercy O divine charity which in the lowest depth of our misery and swelling height of our Rebellion cloth'd not only our Bodies nakedness but our Souls as that first hid our outward pollutions from our selves so this our inward corruptions from God For ever blessed be thou O Lord for that union of thy Spirit and gift of faith by which I put on nay more am made one with Christ. What suggestion of Sathan or contradiction of depraved nature granting me a member of this Head a branch of this Vine can make it difficult to prove or dares deny my right to possess this spotless Robe As the union of Soul and Body of Head and Members produceth a sympathizing property and joynt-propriety to every thing so my union with Christ as being the Soul of my Soul the Head of his Church entitles me to and gives me whatsoever is his And no doubt as it is horrible blasphemy to account any part of the Lords humane Body as sinfull and unclean So it is unreasonable infidelity and shamefull impiety to think any true member of his mystical Body can be as in him unrighteous and defiled his perfect and abounding righteousness being like to that pretious and sacred anointing Oile which according to the Psalmist was poured on the head of Aaron and went down to the skirts of his Vesture This O this his innocency and merit is that white Robe which was given to them that were slain for the Word of God and the testimony which they held This is that glorious Sun which clothes the Church that Woman in travaile Yea this is that beautifull wedding garment wherewith Christ our Bridegroom invests every true invited and elected Guest The Linen Vestments of the Jewish High Priest were comely enough to minister in at the ordinary and daily Sacrifice But they were accounted too mean and poor when he entred into the holy of holiest The Rayment of Joseph a Prisoner though good enough perhaps for that place must be changed when he is presented before Pharaoh a King Yea the Prodigals Rags may serve him whilst he serves the Devil and feeds with the Swine of the World upon the husks of vanity Every true Christian is a Priest unto God the Sanctum is the Church militant wherein we minister and that but for a year Mans whole life being but a revolved year Again we are all Stewards to the World to whom our flesh in nature our Mistriss hath plighted her troth so that if we once became Josephs in denying her lusts we must with Joseph undergo slander affliction and imprisonment Lastly we are naturally Prodigals also Our portion is the common goods of the minde of the body of education The waisters and consumers of this our first patrimony are the Dallilahs of Sin Now though we may minister on Earth amongst our brethren cloth'd in the white Garments of a good report and profession though whilst we are imprisoned in affliction or spoyled by sin and Sathan the tatter'd Rags of sorrow and lamentation may serve us yet when we are converted and ascend afterwards into the Sanctum Sanctorum the Heaven of Heavens when we shall appear before the Lord Jesus our King and return unto God our Heavenly Father we must be cloth'd with the Golden Garments the clean Vestments the best Robes even that meritorious righteousness of our loving Saviour which being the Rayment of our elder Brother may assure us with Jacob of a blessing and acceptance here of Glory hereafter Away then from my thoughts that perfection and merit which some dream of in renewed nature That scant sacrilegious and unthankfull opinion of our Saviours active and passive obedience such Tenants as it were halt and disgracefully curtaile the ample and large Garments of our Lord that so vain pride might patch it up with the old Rags and rotten performances of Mans desert Lord thy Word teacheth me and my own infirmities inforces me to another yet better Plea Can Man be justified in thy sight or how can he be clean that is born of a Woman Behold even the Stars are not pure in thy Sight how much less Man that is a Worm We are all thy Creatures thy servants The observance of thy commands is the work we are made and hired for Now could we as thou know'st we cannot perfectly obey thy will there
O but sayest thou I am spiritually dead how then can I hear Know poor wretch that thy Saviours Ephata works as powerfully on the Soul as upon the Body Yea the Apostle reciting the prediction of Moses saith not him may you hear But him shall yee hear Even so be it Lord Jesus Christ that so loving me a Lazarus thou maist raise me though a Lazarus and be unto me a Jesus Notwithstanding these saving and comfortable promises me-thinks I feel my Soul still heavy and sorrowfull within me Objecting that these indeed are favourable and sweet expressions but they are too general considering her several defects grievous soars and Ulcers Requiring not only external and powerfull Baths and washings but particular application of Remedies and Medicines She confesseth that from these she is assured of the abilities and sufficiency of her spiritual Physician but she desires to have experience of his skill and to apply his several Medicaments unto her special infirmities Is this thy further request O my Soul Be strong and of a good courage Loe he calls thee Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Again I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance For The whole need not a Physitian but the sick Nay that thou mightest not have the least doubting or fear hearken to the voice of his Prophet seconded and expounded by himself and that in a full Auditory The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me there 's his calling to preach the Gospel to the Poor there 's his Office He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance unto the Captives and recovery of sight unto the blinde to set at liberty them that are bruised to wit thee O distressed Patient with all thy Diseases Well thou art now even by his own most gracious Call admitted into his presence Be not ashamed but with boldness approach unto his Throne of Grace unâ—bareing thy soares and discovering all thy spiritual wants That so the two estates in Adam fallen and in Christ risen being compared all may behold with thee a revival from death even that first resurrection spoken of in the Revelations As also the difference and disproportion that is betwixt a Man in grace and a Man in sin And lastly be ravisht in the apprehension of such infinite mercy which administers Plaisters to every soare and in the conclusion works a general cure effecting in a good measure though not in absolute perfection those two great works of mortification and vivication in us For the more accurate perception and meditation of which great works I presume in all humility of Soul to speak Dialogue-wise unto my Saviour and according to my weak ability to describe him answering in and according to his Word That so both my self and others may the better understand how excellently and powerfully a true faith begotten and strengthened by God's Spirit doth apprehend and apply the saving and spiritual promises Doth mortifie our corruptions silence all objections and overcome all kinde of temptations by degrees perfecting holiness in the love and fear of God O Gracious Saviour and skilfull Physician seeing thou calledst me I come although ashamed to come I have brought if not a dead yet a deadly sick Soul unto thee If illumination be the antecedent of faith and faith the eye of the Soul and seeing a symptome of life in how dangerous an estate am I who walk in the vanity of my minde having my understanding darkned being in my own apprehension alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in me because of the blindness of my heart Poor Soul faint not nor despair thou wast once dead but now thou art alive I finde no signes of death but of life in thee A Trunck or senceless Corps perceives not nor complains of its misery as thou dost Neither art thou hopelesly sick for in thee witness these strivings there is the strength of a renued nature to co-act with the work of Grace Take then these receipts out of my Book and apply them I am the true light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and am come for Judgment into this World that they which see not might see and they which see might be made blinde I am made unto thee wisdome and will enlighten thy darkness yea if thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord and finde the knowledge of God For I the Lord give wisdome and out of my Mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Again faith is the gift of God O then ask and thou shalt have seek and thou shalt finde knock and the treasury of all good and perfect gifts shall be opened and bestowed upon thee Even the holy Spirit whom thy Heavenly Father will give to them that aske Him The voice of my beloved Thy Mouth is most sweet yea thou art altogether lovely The roof of thy Mouth is like the best Wine that goeth down sweetly causing the Lips of those that are asleep to speak But alass Lord how can I be delighted in these thy gracious promises or take comfort in this cure as long as the tormenting worm of Conscience feeds upon my entrails inditeing bitter things against me and making me to possess the sins of my youth being both my Judge and Accuser O my Patient I confess this thy pain and grief is unsupportable for the Spirit of a Man may sustain his infirmity But a wounded Spirit who can bear Yet for thy comfort know that there is balme in Gilead for all wounds and a Physician there for all Diseases And I even I am he and there is no other God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal yea I will restore health unto thee and will heal thee of thy wounds And as for this gnawing Worm which thou complainest of know that it as other infects are generated of a putred matter even thy sin and corruption Yea it is nourisht therewith If then this cause of thy torture be withdrawn the effect will undoubtedly cease For I will forgive thy iniquity and will remember thy sins no more making them though as red as Scarlet to be as white as Snow Through my blood thou hast redemption even the forgivenesses of Sins If the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heyfer sprinkling the unclean Sanctified to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall my Blood that through the eternal Spirit offered my self without spot to God purge thy Conscience from dead works O my spiritual healer as thy Word assures me of thy ableness to cure so it also informs me of my uncapableness of cure In the sickness of the Body so
to be sick and heavy with Ahab yea to grieve and die with Nabal and Achitophel for being crossed in momentary honours in covetous desires in my estate or any other my designs And whereas the filial fear of God should be continually in my heart and before my eyes for Happy is the Man that feareth always following herein the blessed example of holy David whose daily Song was Fear the Lord all yee his Saints of pious Joshuah whose tender Heart feared and trembled at the words of the Law and of Religious Nehemiah who was zealous for the Commandements of the Lord. I have with those Collonies of strangers planted in the City of Samaria Feared the Lord and served my Gods that is My pleasures and vain lusts Or if at any time I have dreaded thee or been humbled it hath been either whilst thy Judgments have been threatned with the numerous Ninivites or when they have layn sore upon me with the Philistines or until they were removed with wicked Pharaoh Thus dear Saviour do all my affections degenerate and erre from that end for which thou hast plac'd them in my Soul O thou which by thy omnipotency didst convert Water into Wine work the like miracle in me also So changing me in quality relish and use that I may both now and hereafter be thought worthy to be admitted unto thy Table O spiritual Bridegroom Raise up thy dejected Spirits and disconsolate Soul For such is the goodness of my nature and the infiniteness of my mercy that these thy grievous maladies instead of provoking my displeasure move me unto pity and convert my justice into compassion I am the Physician of the Soul and come to heal not the whole but the sick I am he that grants Resurrection to the Dead in Sin as well as to the dead for sin And am as able to give Manasseth newness of life as Lazarus a new life Therefore be not faithless but believe Thou complainest to me of an evil and degenerated hatred that is ready upon all occasions to take up armes against God Good-men and goodness Indeed this is dangerous but not incurable Was not my Servant Paul a cruel Persecuter before a zealous Martyr yea and thousands of the Jews my Murderers before my Converts Be confident then that my love is also able to swallow up thy hatred and to perfect this grace of love in thy life which it hath begun in thy desires Further whereas thou art troubled and molested with the frequent inundations of carnal and worldly sorrows Know that the reason therof is the want of depth or scowring of the lower water-course even that Channel of thy Repentance which is as it were the drayn of this filthy Lake and muddy affection To the performance of which duty that thou maist be enabled and assured Know it is I that gives Repentance unto life not willing the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live Lastly Let not thy former slavish fear discourage thee since all things even these thy corruptions through my mercy shall work together for thy good My Law having by these terrors prepared thee for my Gospel which seeing by my grace thou hast received be assured that that perfect love which it produces casteth out fear and will free thee from all such base affrightments possessing thee of that legitimate fear which flows from duty and adoption In further assurance of which receive and apply this my promise They namely thee and all my faithfull shall be my People and I will be their God and I will give them one Heart and one Way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and their Childrens children O thou my spiritual Elisha what shall I render unto thee for this thy great cure wrought upon my Soul for this thy miraculous cleansing of my sinfull Leprosie Are the Talents of Ophir the fruit of my Body of my ground or of my Flocks a fit Sacrifice for thee No Thine is the Earth and the fulness thereof I will therefore imitate that religious Proselite Naaman and give Glory to the Lord God of Israel I will offer unto thee thanks-giving and pay my vows unto thee O most High Yea my understanding which thou hast enlightned my minde which thou hast instructed my conscience which thou hast pacified my memory which thou hast strengthened my affections which thou hast ordered and my stony heart which thou hast mollified and all things else that are within me shall bless thy Holy Name Yea I will invert the speech of thy Servant David and say who am I and what is my poor Soul that I should be able to offer unto thee thus willingly and after this sort Lord I confess all things come of thee and of thine own have I given unto thee wherefore let what 's mine of grace and thine of merit be thy only glory And now since I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Let not the Lord be angry and I will speak yet again Thou hast been pleased to give unto me light in darkness and to make known unto me thy great Salvation Thou hast filled me with thy goodness and mercy and laid up in my heart the infinite treasure of thy promises But what avails all this Lord when as the Thief Sathan may break through and steal the Moth my inâ—bred corruptions may devour and consume these my spiritual riches there being no defence nor power in me to resist For those Cinque ports and Windows of my Soul my sences stand wide open not only admitting but inviting my cruel Enemies to enter Yea every Member of my body is not only assistant to my adversaries Sin the World and the Devil but also takes up armes against me and seeks my destruction My eyes which from outward objects even thy beautifull works should be instruments of begetting admiration praise and worship to thee in my heart are full of vanity lust and adultery My eares which should only be open to thy Word are thereto deaf and receptacles of oaths blasphemies lies slanders and all obscenity And those other sences of tasting smelling touching which thou hast given to be helps in piety and thanksgiving through the more ample fruition of thy Creatures are become the factors of pride covetousness and epicurisme Further my Tongue which should speak of thy praise all the day long and sing aloud of thy righteousness hath mischief under it and speaketh proud things Is full of flattery and frames deceit And is fraught with naughtiness and lying Yea it is a Fire a World of iniquity setting on Fire the course of nature and is set on Fire of Hell So that that Member which was once my glory is now my shame Lastly my hands and feet which ought to be Barnabasses and Barjonasses Brethren and Sons of consolation
in respect of righteousness and charity towards my poor Brethren are rather like Simeon and Levy Brethren in cruelty full of iniquity and ready to shed blood So that O Lord having so many wide breaches in this Bulwark of my Soul through which mine Enemies continually enter how can I with quiet and comfort of heart relish and feed upon thy promises obey thy Commandements and cease to grieve thy holy spirit May I not justly fear the miserable lott of that wretched back-slider in thy Gospel into whom the unclean Spirit which was gone out returned bringing with him seven other Spirits worse than himself So that the last estate of that Man was worse than the beginning Wherefore sweet Jesus since thy Body as well as thy Soul suffered for me let thy Consolation Sanctification and Salvation be extended to both in me also that being not particularly but wholly thine and at one in my self and with thee I may wholly and only praise and serve thee That sin hath miserably metamorphosed thy Body and shamefully deformed mislead and corrupted thy Members is true O my well-beloved And no marvail For thou wast shapen in iniquity and in sin did thy Mother conceive thee And Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one Yet be not thou discouraged nor dismaid for though thou art a Naaman I will be thy Elisha Yea to save such sinners am I come What though thou beest even white over with Sins Leprosie I am thy High Priest to heal thee and pronounce thee clean Have I cured thy Soul doubt not the cure of thy Body since all my works are perfect And if I gave freely and unaskt forgiveness of sins together with health of Body to many whilst I walkt upon Earth shall I not much more give thee spiritually both also When as I rais'd up Lazarus I could have left his Soul still spiritually dead for I give many health of Body to whom I deny Salvation But to whom I grant spiritual life as unto thee I bestow all lesser things as included in the greater So that having said unto thee as once unto the Cripple Thy Sins are forgiven thee thou maist be confident that thou art healed of thy spiritual lameness strengthened to arise from thy couch of Sin and enabled to walk in the ways of godliness towards thy heavenly home as having the Image of holiness imparted upon all thy members and the marrow thereof running throughout all thy bones The Trees root being quickened the Body thereof must needs flourish And thy Soul being sanctified all the parts of thy outward Man must needs wax green in an holy conversation and bring forth fruits unto righteousness As a Fountain at the same place cannot send forth sweet Water and bitter no more can the members and consequently the actions which as streams proceed from a regenerate Soul be polluted and impure Notwithstanding what hath been said that thou maist be firmly established and assured of this truth receive apply and lay up these my gracious and particular promises Have thine Eyes been full of Sin vanity and Idolatry thou shalt now look to thy Maker and thine Eyes shall have respect unto the holy one of Israel Art thou spiritually blinde and canst make no good use of outward objects I will anoint thy Eyes with Eye salve that thou mayst see my goodness Are thine Eares closed up to my Word Now shall the Deaf hear the words of my Book and the Eyes of the blinde shall see out of obscurity and darkness Yea thine Eares shall hear a Word behind thee saying This is the way walk thou in it when thou turnest to the right hand or to the left Further have thy Nostrils been inlets and entertainers of vanity Exhautasting the sweet of my Creatures for the serving of sinfull pride and voluptuousness Henceforth thou shalt make them serviceable to thy Soul not thy sence only but thy minde also being by them delightfully recreated imitating herein my beloved Spouse in the Canticles Who from the natural perfumes of Spices and sweet Flowers and the distilling sweetness of fragrant Lillies doth affectionately meditate of and set forth the excellencies of my Word and Ordinances and the mellifluousness of my promises and instructions Yea thou thy self also shalt be sweet unto me in thy obedience and good works which are an odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing unto God Next thou complainest that thy Pallate is naturally the Cook and factor of Epicurisme Drunkenness and Gluttony be of good chear for thou shalt now experimentally confess That Man lives not by Bread only but by every Word that proceedeth out of the Mouth of God Neither shalt thou labour any more for the Meat which perisheth but for that Meat which endureth unto everlasting life which I the Son of Man will give unto thee for my Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed But in this spiritual nourishment remember that it is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flesh profiteth nothing Hast thou formerly pleased and glutted thy self with dainties even to my dishonour and the abuse of my Creatures Thou shalt now hunger and thirst after righteousness and be both blessed and filled For I am the Bread of Life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Yea thou shalt be able to make a spiritual as well as a natural use of my Creatures chearfully and tastingly saying with my Espoused Church that in respect of my delightfull and all-surpassing graces I am as the Apple Tree amongst the Trees of the Wood and that my Fruit is sweet unto thy taste And with my Servant David that my words and judgments are sweeter than the Hony and the Hony Combe Further hath thy Touch been a snare unto thee and administred fuell to thy corruption Have thy Hands and Feet been slow in my ways but swift to commit iniquity Hath thy Tongue been silent in my praises and a ready Advocate and Pleader for Sin Know my command is gone forth and my gracious Decree is now efficatious to strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees to make the lame Man leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb to Sing and say Praise the Lord call upon his Name declare his doings amongst the People make mention that his Name is exalted Now shall thy hands with my Spouse in the Canticles drop with the pretious and sweet smelling Myrrh of holy and fervent endeavours shaking off their former sinfull sloath and drowsiness Now shall all those Members which thou hast heretofore yielded as Servants to uncleannesse and to iniquity be Servants to righteousness unto holiness For whilst thou weart in the flesh The motions of Sin which were by the Law did work in thy Members to bring forth fruit unto Death
But now thou art delivered from the Law that being dead wherein thou weart holden that thou shouldest serve me in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter as being a Member of my Body of my Flesh and of my Bones Lastly Art thou ashamed of the nakedness of thy Body as being the Mirrour yea the effect of thy Souls wants Know that thou in the loynes of thy first Parents weart not more willing to lose and cast off that robe of righteousness than I am to restore and give thee a better As I then cloath'd thy naked Body so I will now cloath thy naked Soul Hast thou been a Prodigal behold thy Heavenly Father for my sake doth embrace thee in the armes of his mercy and covers thee with the best robe of my righteousness Hast thou been a vagrant and wanderer in the High-ways of sin and by-paths of iniquity an Alien to the Common-wealth of England Loe now thou art an invited Guest unto my Heavenly Pallace Eternal Feast and endless Nuptials being arrayed with the Wedding and glorious Garment of my Immaculate Holiness These are those Garments whose smell is like the smell of Lebanon and whose sent is Myrrh Aloes and Cassia Whose excelling sweetness doth overcome the stench of thy sins perfumes thy best actions and makest thee an acceptable Sacrifice to God Yea it makes thy Body like Moses and Stephen's face glorious upon Earth Is it not I that gives beautifull Garments to Sion and that cloath her Priests with Salvation That councel Men to buy of me white Rayments that they may be cloathed and that the shame of their nakedness do not appear That have promised to Him that overcometh The same shall be cloathed with white Rayment That appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the Garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness Wherefore O my redeemed be thou no longer solicitous and doubtfull of thy blessed estate only believe and thou shalt see the Salvation and glory of God O Lord thou hast opened my Lips therefore my Mouth shall shew forth thy praise I will greatly rejoyce in thee O Lord my Soul shall be joyfull in thee my God for thou hast cloathed me with the Garments of Salvation thou hast covered me with the Robe of Righteoousness Even as a Bridegroom decketh himself with Ornaments and a Bride adorneth her self with Jewels Therefore as thou hast freely given me all so I desire thankfully to enjoy all to thy glory To which end assist me with thy grace that these Eyes which thou hast enlightened may always devoutly behold and admire thy works That these Eares which thou hast opened may be for ever dutifully attentive to thy words And that these other sences which thou hast rightly disposed and ordered may continually obey thy will and exalt thy praise Yea these my weak hands which thou hast lifted up my feeble knees which thou hast strengthned my sliding feet which thou hast kept from falling shall readily observe thy precepts and run in the way of thy Commandments because thou hast enlarged my heart Finally Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory For of thee through thee and to thee are all things to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen I have here Dialogue-wise for the more profitable and particular handling of things briefly and plainly shewed how many rare and precious gems are treasured up in this Ark of the Covenant the Prophetical office of our Saviour as also how graciously and comfortably they are offered to and received by the hand of faith to the benefit and Jubile of every true Believer It remains now that according to my former method my Meditations pass on unto the last object and foundation of faith the Kingly office of our Saviour which is as it were the tegment and compleatment of our salvation For we are therefore reconciled and justified by our Priest taught and sanctified by our Prophet that we may obey and be protected and governed in this life by our King and be for ever glorified with him in the life to come If Men enter the presence of Earthly Princes with much civil reverence with what divine worship honour adoration and admiration O my Soul oughtest thou to enter the presence of the King of Kings and meditate upon his wonderfull acts and office This is one of those glorious mysteries which the Holy Angels desire to look into yea with which their sublime understandings are and shall be for ever delighted busied and ravished How fervent then should thy thoughts be yea in humility how earnestly shouldst thou like Jacob strive with God by Prayer to give thee this blessing also that with the Eye of thy faith together with those blessed spirits thou maist prie into this Supream and perfect Monarchy of the Prince of peace and righteousness A King is the desire of most Nations yea those Barbarians which are ignorant of all other rules of life and civility do notwithstanding acknowledge the Maxime of a Soveraignty and as bound by a Cannon Law of nature do willingly subject their Necks to this Yoak Is rule and dominion then necessary so desirable and profitable in civil societies So much conducing to the flourishing of a Common-wealth Surely it is much more requirable and beneficial for the well-governing and flourishing of the Church In which as in a Kingdome there is a mixture of good and bad Enemies within and without and those the most powerfull pernicious and malitious of all others As also many Laws to be observed rewards to be conferred corrections and punishments to be inflicted Granted then it must needs be for these respects sake that the Universal Church which is a Body a spiritual holy and glorious Monarchie must have a glorious a wise and omnipotent King and Protector Wouldst thou now O my Soul see him and know him Loe thy Mother and his Spouse calls thee and all other longing Souls to view his tryumphs in these words Goe forth even with fervent affections O yee Daughters of Zion that is all yee pure and fruitfull ones in the Church of God and behold that is apprehend with a lively faith King Solomon that is the Lord Jesus Christ the true Solomon with the Crown wherewith his Mother crowned him in the day of his espousals that is in his glorious state wherewith his Father hath invested him after that by his death and resurrection he hath redeemed and married us unto himself in holiness and righteousness And that thou maist have further knowledge assurance and testimony of this thy King and Saviour hear the joyfull Predictions and unerring demonstrations of the Prophets In the life of old Jacob we have that he spake at his death these faithfull words The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his Feet
irritation and condemnation thereof for they that are in Christ have crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts Yea this our victory and deliverance is assured to us in that it was a special end of that great and acceptable sacrifice offered to God by our Lord and great Captain Jesus Christ. Who as the Apostle witnesseth gave Himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil World Hast thou such encouragements O my Soul On then and assault the glittering front the foremost batallion of thy Enemy Let this Arrow taken out of the Apostles quiver give him the first encounter The love of Money is the root of all evil Let thy Saviours words be a trusty Scout to prevent ambushes beware of covetousness Yea let the victorious Sword of the Spirit give the deadly wound be not deceived not thieves nor covetous c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God Here be not discontented O my Soul nor stain the glory of thy Christian Victory by a worldly sadness as though an ignominious poverty must be the necessary consequent of forsaking the World and conculcating her trash No Christians have riches which the Men of this World know not of for they are infinite and unsearchable viz. The riches of faith James 2.5 Of good works 1 Tim. 6.18 Of liberality 2 Cor. 8.2 The true riches of grace of glory Luke 10.11 Rom. 9.23 These unvaluable treasures God who is rich in mercy and Christ Jesus the Conduit of his mercies gives unto us Rom. 10.12 2 Cor. 8.9 For his mercies sake Eph. 2.4 Sometimes immediatly by his Spirit most frequently mediatly by his Ministers Yet not without this Spirit Who as the Apostle speaks though poor in the esteem of Men yet make many rich Thanks be to God for these his incomparable gifts The next Troop of the Worlds Power that faith proceeds to encounter with is led by voluptuousness These its true as it were besiege the Christian Soul and encompass it And if at any time by her pious force she break thorow and discomfit their thickest rancks even then by asking quarter they oft-times obtain victory crying out unto the zealous and lust-destroying Warriour as once the Tribe of Judah to David thou art neer of Kin unto us and as David to Amasa thou art of my Bone and of my Flesh and with the Syrian King thy Brother Benhadad Therefore spare us let us live behold we are the delight of thine Eyes the Mistresses of thy Ear the darlings of thy Pallate the Paramours of thy touch the perfumes of thy Nostrils We are linckt in consanguinity with thy nature age complection and calling We are thy beloved thy life the life of thy life thy bosome companions Thus if they gain by these syrene Songs but a respit of execution they shortly presume to become Counsellors advising in the words of the Preacher Rejoyce O young Man in thy youth and let thy Heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes Thus these wicked and subtile lusts get possession But doth the faithfull Champion here want courage strength or Weapons No animated with divine assistance the regal Power of Christ he advances the shield of faith and makes his Enemies feel the edge of that Sword which they even now wounded him with viz. But know thou for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Yea he further adds inverting the words of the Prophet should I let go out of my hand you that God hath appointed to utter destruction my life should go for your life for that she or whosoever else lives in pleasure are dead whilst they live yea in their estates as well as in their Souls So witnesses the wise Man He that loveth pleasure shall be a Beggar and that spiritually as well as temporally the good Seed being choked therewith Further as Israel to Adonibezeâ—h so the Christian Victor as it were cuts off the Fingers and Toes the speed and power of his concupiscence by instancing the multitudes of Gods own People that were overthrown in the Wilderness which were for our example as the Apostle speaks to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted by calling to remembrance the recantation judgment and repentance of wise King Solomon Who having enjoyed not only a common but an experimental and moral use of all the delights of the Sons of Men yet condemns them all as vile and nothing worth vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Lastly by fore-seeing the evil and unseparable consequents and Copesmates of inordinate delights by the Apostle St. James his light viz. wantonness riotousness and cruelty To conclude every true Christian-Warriour is unconquerable as being intrenched and fortified within the promises of omnipotency it self Who thus assures us that they that walk in the Spirit shall not fulfill that is shall not be overcome by or yield to the lusts of the Flesh. Here some Laodicean some lack-warm Professor will perhaps sigh and with Lot's Wife be ready to look back towards their pleasures the Sodom of this World complaining that Christians by reason of so rigorous a prohibition are of all Men most miserable and as the World esteems them a sad stoical and melancholy generation of Men. Let such mount their Meditations with holy David and they shall enjoy with him a Heaven upon Earth Witness this his testimony and assurance applyable and proper to every faithfull Israelite Thou wilt shew me the way of life in thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore My Soul here closes up this second tryumph with a gratulatory Hymn of that blessed Psalmist How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! therefore the Children of Men put their trust in the shadow of thy Wings They shall be abundantly satisfyed with the fatness of thy House thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy pleasures For with thee is the Fountain of life in thy light shall we see light The Worlds third Squadron viz. Mundane honours renews and continues the Fight with which the chief General Sathan lays ambushes on the right hand by glorious Visions and Dreams of Signiories with large promises of rule and dominion tempting us as once our Saviour All these things will I give thee and as he did Balaam in the mouth of Balack I will Promote thee unto very great honour On the left hand he assaults us by threatning as also actual divesting and degrading us of our hereditary or acquired titles and preferments So he did to Moses Who as the Apostle witnesses refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the Children of God So also to Daniel and the Three Children
of thy Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Where also we shall sit together with him and be then perfectly changed into the same Image from glory to glory Thus reckoning that the sufferings of this present life even Death it self are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Let us not faint for though our outward Man perish yet let our inward Man be renewed Day by Day being confident that our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory Looking as hath been shewed not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal Dread not then O my Darling this Lion Is not he faithfull who hath promised that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee That he will be thy guide even unto Death Or dost thou doubt his Power to whom belongs the issues from Death and at whose voice all that are in the Graves shall come forth Behold a Tree of Life indeed the spiritual Manna which do but feed on by faith and thou shalt not dye For He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever Was it with blessed Paul to live Christ and to dye is gain and shall thy cowardise and recoyling insinuate and imply a loss No let such thoughts as Impes of Sin first dye yea be annihilated since every true Believer is assured of a glorious change and an ineffable reward Corruption putting on incorruption and mortality immortality we dying no more but being made equal to the Angels For as we have been planted together in the likeness of Christs death so shall we be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Did many Worthies under the thunder of the Law and in the twilight of the Gospel as the Apostle witnesses undergo the exquisitest tortures not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection And shall we in this open day and Evangelical Revelation when by faith like Stephen we behold our Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God ready to receive us and having as he promised taken possession and prepared a place for us stand back like Saul And being neer our Coronation seek still to hide our selves under the rubbish of our Earthly Tabernacles No what was humility in him will be esteemed shamefull and distrustfull pusillanimity in us yea which is worse disobedience to the Almighties summons Let the wicked hang down their heads and cry to the Mountains and Rocks to cover them but let all of us that have obtained grace be faithfull be faithfull unto the death and he shall give us a Crown of Life lifting up our heads because the time of our redemption draws neer even that day of recompence when the Lord shall say well done good and faithfull Servant enter into thy Masters joy Not it into us because not enough capable but we into it that so we may be as it were swallowed up in that infinite Ocean of Glory What though the Soul and Body have been unseparable friends contemporaries in life and being associates in joy sympathisers in sorrow two in nature one in affection Do we not read of Jesse and his Darling David Of an Eliah and his beloved Elisha Of an Hanna and her long desired Samuel Of a Mordecai and his entirely affected Hester All which cheerfully consented to a disunion and separation that so the conjunction of hearts might appear inviolable which seeks not so much the presence as the happiness of each other And shall thy Soul O Earth be summoned not to play before a mortal King as David before Saul but to sing the Song of the Lamb even spiritual Hymns before the Throne of Glory Not to serve before the Arke as Samuel or to be the Paramour of an Assyrian Monarch as Esther but to be ravisht up with Eliah and Paul into Paradise To be the Eternal Spouse of Jesus Christ and to behold the splendour of God not vailed and in a type as under the Law but face to face as being changed into the same Image from glory to glory shall it I say be sent for by Gods Sergeant and thy Servant Death once unprofitable as Onesimus to Philemon but now most profitable to thee and all Saints and wilt thou delay and be unwilling to part intreating with the Levites Father-in-Law for one Day nay one Moneth or one Year longer exile from thy Heavenly home thy Crown of Glory O let such unwise and such unthrifty prorogations be far from thy thoughts farther from thy practise Rather let both Soul and Body unanimously sing the Song of Simeon and sigh out the vote of Paul crying out Oh how we desire to be dissolved That thy incompleat holiness O my Soul might be perfected and become compleat glory That thy faculties being not only unimprisoned but heightned may approve thee according to thy Saviours promise like yea equal unto the Angels in all spiritual excellencies and Heavenly Prerogatives Again how do I desire O sinfull corrupted and mortal lump of Clay thy reduction into thy first Atoms and matter that so sin which hath possest and accurst thee may dye and be intomb'd with thee as having no longer work or nourishment in thee That Heavens great Chymist the omnipotent Spirit of God may cherish encircle and hover over thee as once upon the Waters separating the pure from the impure and producing a body spotless perfect and immortal even like unto the glorious Body of thy Saviour That so being made a proportionable and capable Pallace for thy Soul thou mayest enjoy an eternal reunion with it and both an everlasting communion with God To conclude O Man Death is a necessary absolute and unchangable decree of God Therefore it is thy wisdome to make it voluntary For It is appointed unto Men once to dye saith the Apostle and then comes the Judgment Comes the judgment did I say at the mention of this word judgment my Soul recoyles again not daring to peep out of her earthly Cabbin For she knows that this general Assize is an undoubted truth an Article of her Creed annexed to that of the Ascention and Session of our Saviour at the right hand of his Father At which we left when we first entred upon the three Offices of our Lord. And therefore now it fitly and in order comes to be the practical object of our faith as being also the last act of our Saviours Kingly Office in the Kingdome of Grace This being his total victory and destruction of all his corporal and spiritual Enemies his Day of Tryumph reward and recompence to all
hath adopted thee his Son and esteemed thee and stiled thee his Sister and Mother To conclude lest these foregoing degrees may admit of a division he vouchsafes thee this high favour to call thee the branch He the Vine thee a member He thy Head He the Husband thee the Spouse that so a union yea the perfectest of unions might be exprest and that sweetest of Petitions be fulfilled That all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Those that are joyned unto the Lord being one spirit and one body in Christ. Tell me then O my Soul can such a Lord whose love to thee made him serve thee become a cruel Inquisitor to condemn thee Will thy friend thy brother be an Achitophel a Cain to thee Is it a thing possible that thy everlasting Father instead of the Bread of Life will give thee to the torments of Hellish Scorpions No though Parents may forget the Sons of their Wombe yâ—â— will He not forget thee Is it unnatural for the Root to suffer the Branches to wither for want of sap For the Head to deny animation to the Members yea cannot there be a true conjunction in Marriage without the cement of affection And wilt thou dare to think that that Root of Jesse thy Head thy Spouse the God of Order and Nature will destroy the Principlse of nature and with-hold the sap of his Grace and Mercy his all-quickening Spirit of Life and Glory his Eternal free and unchangeable love from thee a branch a member a beloved No account it impious Infidelity to give such a thought the least entertainment Rather if thou wilt meditate of that day which indeed is a Christians duty all being commanded to watch because we know not at what hour our Lord will come pitch thy thoughts upon the Resurrection and that happy and blessed assumption of thy Soul and Body reunited to meet thy Judge and Saviour The Apostle testifying that we shall be all caught up together in the Clouds to meet our Lord in the Ayre and that then we shall be ever with the Lord For wheresoever the Carkass is there will the Eagles be gathered together Wherefore as the same Apostle exhorts Comfort both thy self and others with these words Rely also upon and apply those golden and royal declarations of thy Judge As that he will not condemne thee when thou art judged That he that believeth on him is not condemned but hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life That there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Since God doth justifie thee who is he that condemns thee That we are often times corrected here that we should not be condemned with the World Further is it possible that thou shouldest be saluted with so sweet an invitation and denomination as Come thou blessed of my Father and be accursed Canst thou be the Heir yea the Possessor of a Kingdome and also the Slave and Prisoner of Sathan Will the righteous Judge give to them Torments of Fire and Brimstone to whom he hath promised a Crown of Glory Art thou commanded to pray for to long for to wait for thy destroyer No surely but for him that hath promised to deliver us from the wrath to come To conclude even amongst Men none that is a Delinquent must presume to possess the Bench the Seat of Judicature But know you not saith the Apostle that the Saints shall judge the World yea Angels Wherefore doubtless they must be just yea are acquitted and made innocent both imputatively and inherently in their own Persons Further if this be not sufficient to animate and strengthen thy hope let thy faith make the last Article of the Creed thy object Where thou believest everlasting life to take its beginning or rather begin its perfection immediately after death and the last Judgment The time appointed for the full reward and coronation of the Saints I know there are many gracious promises of temporal blessings and those often-times fulfill'd and confer'd upon the Saints in this life Some whereof though few of many as being a remunerating act of Christs regal and judicial Office I will by the way recite not impertinently as being earnests to them of future glory sensible tokens of Fatherly love a Pilgrims Staff for our Faith to lean upon in our lifes peregrination This maxime being first undoubtedly to be believed that the same promises made to perfect obedience under the Law had at the first a respect and are now truly applicable to faithfull sincerity under the Gospel Such that Magazene of blessings in the 28. of Deuteronomy where to the largest and several appetites every true believing and sincere obeying Christian as well as to the sacrificing Jew a most plentifull feast and satisfaction is offered Is thy calling in the City or iâ— the Field thou shalt be blessed in them both Desirest thou riches and plenty of all the fruits of the Earth and a numerous posterity and a blessed use and enjoying of them Thou hast a Pattent a great Seat for these also Art thou a Man of action and great employment for the Church or the Common wealth yea hath thy vertues splendour a shadow of envious and malitious adversaries If thou hearkenest unto the voice of the Lord thy God thou shalt be blessed when thou comest in and blessed when thou goest out and the Lord shall cause them thine Enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face Wouldest thou have thy forfeited Charter renewed and all the Creatures yea the most honourable serviceable unto thee Behold the Lord shall give his Angels charge over thee yea they shall pitch their Tents about thee and the Heaven shall give Rain unto thy Land in due season Dost thou wish for to the further glory of God a long life and an honourable place and esteem amongst Men The Lord hath promised that he will set thee on high that he will make thee the head and not the taile and with long life will satisfie thee Yea more which is the compleatment of all he will shew thee his Salvation But a long life if imbittered with sickness is but a tedious Death True But if thou fear the Lord and depart from evil it shall be health to thy Navil and marrow to thy Bones Yea thy light shall break forth as the Morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily Further dost thou desire wisdome beauty strength The righteous have promises of all these so far forth as they still perfect their happiness Whose Daughters so fair as Jobs Those that mourn in Sion have assured unto them beauty for ashes If the Feet of the Saints are beautifull surely no part else is deficient But
to make all good in few words hear thy King by the Prophet Isaiah The Lord of Hosts will be for a Crown of glory and for a Diadem of beauty unto his People and for a Spirit of Judgment to him that sits in Judgment and for strength to them that turn the Battel to the Gate But this World is a Bed of Vipers a bundle of snares a stage of dangers True yet if thou trust in him he shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler from the noysome Pestilence Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under feet O read yee faithfully and digest this whole Psalme which I may truly stile the City of David for strength and beauty the fortress yea Paradise of every true Christian. But the godly have but a few friends I answer Comparatively they have but a few Enemies the whole Creation except Sathan and sinners being at peace with a reconciled Soul such as Job speaks of being in League with the very Stones and Beasts of the Field And the malice of the malignant turns all to their good Yea more if a Mans wayes please the Lord he will make even his Enemies to be at peace with him But to conclude a good Wife and good Children are amongst the chief blessings upon Earth They are so and have not the Saints strong and comfortable evidences for them if the Lord see them good witness those twine-like Psalmes the 117. and the 118. which for their excellency and comfort sake deserve the Readers more full and perfect Observation I will not be further tedious for the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of Hosts blessed is the Man that trusteth in thee Having given my Soul by faith a taste of some few of those many temporal promises treasured up in the Scripture being they are to be but as Sallets to provoke my spiritual appetite I will return to feed upon Eternity O my Soul what surer Antidote against the apprehension of the last Judgment whose sting is Eternal Death than the Meditation and assured hope of Eternity of life which is Glory in grain and the deifying of Humanity Surely if there be any Spiritual weight that depresseth the Soul it is Judgment If there be any Heavenly Magnes that attracts and quickens it 't is Immortality For toucht with this though encircled with corruption thou shalt continue moving with the Needle until fixed upon the lines of life thou constantly adhearing to the true Flower-de-luce Christ Jesus Amongst Moses unfeigned Metamorphoses we finde the Rod chang'd to a Serpent a devourer of the Magitian delusions So this hope a branch of the Tree of Life springing from the Root of Jesse swallows up Death in victory in Eternity What seems yea is a fearfull truth to all unbelieving Egyptians becometh a Chimera a Phantasme to every true Israelite If any word is expressive or an Epitome of God of Heaven of Glory and consequently of all felicity it is this of Life I am the way the truth and the life I am the Resurrection and the Life saith our Saviour and he that hath the Son that is believes in him hath life saith St. John Since then God is life he that hath life hath God and he that hath God hath all things even the conflux of simple and unmixt happiness And therefore most wisely and succinctly those holy Men Penners of the Creed called the Apostles have coucht and exprest the excessive treasures and immense pleasures of the Heavenly Paradise under that one word life everlasting Herein O my Soul is included and assured unto thee the sublimest of Heavenly fruitions called by the School-men the beatifical Vision Which so far as I am able to express it is the Souls full repletion and apprehension of the excellencies of the Divine Essence not by the back-parts only and mediately as Moses but primarily and immediately in himself Yea also the Body being in the very moment of its resurrection spiritualiz'd as witnesseth the Apostle shall there with open face see and look upon the word of life receiving fulness of pleasure and satisfaction by those sences which now are unprofitable and uncapable of such glorious manifestations Here since this last act of our faith and last Article of our Creed is so full of comfort and unspeakable animation after the hearty and humble acknowledgment of my ignorance and fervent supplicating the assistance of the only illuminating Spirit I will more largely and particularly eye this Crown this unvaluable price even so far as my faith hath visual beames from Scripture or consequent demonstration If the Soul of Man in this state of her nakedness and deformity hath been by some Christians though therein Heretical deifyed and by most of the Heathen Magi magnifyed even to the heighth of created excellencies surely in her renovation and perfect reassumption of that her first Image and those first created Ornaments she must needs be more splendid and more to be admired But is this beauty of the first Adam in his innocency the heighth of a Christians hope No. As our second Adam in his divine descent and generation infinitely transcends our first Parent in Nature so he hath prepared a far more excellent weight of glory for his Children by Adoption his Members by Spiritual mystical and supernatural union Witness his own Oracle and declarative rather than necessary Petition The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Blessed Lord what a word is this What a communication my minde is entraunced and my weak Meditations swell even to an Impossibility of expression Can I not now know my Soul in her humiliation in the weakness of a Creature How can I then describe and conceive of her in her exaltation in the glory of her Creator Let this be sufficient for me to believe hence that that glory with which she shall be filled according to her Spiritual Nature is for quality infinitely excellent because Gods yet allayed and fitted to be received for quantity finite and limited as in her Not as divided from the Divine Fountain but by vertue of Inhabitation in a gracious real and inseparable union communicated to and made hers according to our Saviours Prayer That we all may be one as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father that we may be one in them as also that the love wherewith the Father hath loved the Son may be in us and he in us Thus then the Souls of the Saints before the Resurrection and both Souls and Bodies after the Resurrection according to their several measures of grace here shall then have their divine plenitudes of Glory every Vessel being filled that is thrown into that Ocean of Life and Glory Further as a Wedge of
will from place to place like an Angel with incredible swiftness The Soul acting with a more enlarged and excellent advantage as to all its faculties and operations by the subserviency union and concomitancy of the Members and senses of our glorified bodies than it could do without them Of which in their due place with Gods assistance I shall treat more particularly O my Soul shall thy frail fleshly body be shining like the Stars and the Firmament in all its brightness glorious like the Sun yea like the brightest Son of Righteousness and be replenisht with the glory of God Shall it be thy radiant Garment and super-excelling Ornament Thy Chariot of Tryumph Yea more the completion of thy excellency and Coelestial happiness O give it now its due honour and inslave it not to Sathan and to sinfull lusts Thou shalt shortly be thine and the Angels glorious companion Debase it not so much as to put it to dig and delve in the Earth like a blinde Mole Nor to cloath it self with thick Clay nor to feed upon white and yellow dust which is the Serpents Meat and curse which shall within a short space of time shine like the Stars and Sun in the Heavens Yea suffer it not to be bespotted and defiled with uncleanness Nor to be joyned or united to an Harlot which conjoyn'd with thee shall be a perfect and glorious Image of God incarnate and for ever the Spouse of Christ and the Habitation and Temple of God the Holy Ghost What though as yet thou art in a state of humiliation ascend thou with our Lord into the Mount into the high Mountain of Divine and Heavenly Contemplation being both in Body and Soul raised from above the vanities of this low and evil World Let thy converse be with Moses and Elias the Law and the Prophets and by so doing thou shalt be transformed and transfigur'd yea thy face shall shine and thou shalt be changed into the Image of God from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. O Lord my God who art infinite in free grace and mercy in goodness bounty and liberality and hast abundantly manifested thy self to be all this to me a poor and miserable sinner in my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent in my nature to purchase for me not only salvation from everlasting death but such a shining and glorious state and condition of Soul and Body with thee unto Eternity give me a gratefull heart and an obedient life which is the real thankfulness of thy Children Yea let the Meditation and application by faith of this blessed and transcendent change not only ravish me in Spirit as Peter was at the sight of the representation thereof at our Lords Transfiguration but let me with holy Paul follow after it that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus as counting my self not to have apprehended and therefore through thy grace Let me forget those things that are behind and reach forth to the things that are before pressing towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Let me so run not as uncertainly so fight not as one that beateth the Aire but keep under this my Body and bring it into subjection least by any meanes when I have instructed others I my self should be a cast away Gracious God in order to this glorious and new life grant me to walk in newness of life that I being planted together with my Saviour in the likeness of his Death as to sin I may be also raised with and by him in the likeness of his Resurrection to Glory and having these precious promises let me through faith in them be by thee enabled to cleanse my self from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in thy fear for without holiness none shall see thy Face O Lord let my conversation be in Heaven although my body be on earth And since thy Word saith a Mans wisdome makes his Face to shine give me that true wisdome that is from above And since thou hast in infinite mercy given me this blessed hope that even my body shall shine and be glorious like the Stars and Sun after this life give me grace in this life to be a burning and shining light with John the Baptist and to be harmless and blameless a Son of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Amongst whom let me shine as a Light in the World that they seeing my good works may glorify thee my Heavenly Father Amen I proceed now to the third Heavenly excellency of our Bodies glorified after the Resurrection viz. Their incorruptibility and immortality In order to our more cleer understanding of this so wonderfull a change in which as saith the Apostle This Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality I shall from the ground of right reason and natural Philosophy humbly offer these considerations First that the body of Man is compounded although unequally of the four Elements And that at Death which is the dissolution of the Soul and Body The Spirit returns to him that gave it and the Body returns to the four Elements the first Principles of which it was compounded This is illustrated and proved from Scripture which witnesses that at the Resurrection The Sea gave up her Dead that is that part of the substance of the Bodies that were in it and Death and Hell that is the Earth or Grave delivered up the Dead that were in them Further this must be granted as an undeniable maxime that as none but God our Almighty Creator can make something of nothing so none but he can annihilate any Creature or any Atom of a Creature so as to make that something nothing If this be a certain truth as assuredly it is and that the Lord hath declared in his Word that the same Bodies in which the Soul lived here upon Earth shall again appear and be raised at the Resurrection as inspired Job attests saying I know that my Redeemer lives and that I shall stand at the latter Day upon Earth and though after my skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and my Eyes shall behold and not another though my Reines be consumed within me Then certainly at and after death that part of our Bodies that is a part of the four Elements from a Principle sympathy law and instinct of nature the compositum and structure being dissolved and separated shall return to that Element of which it is a part where it shall be kept and preserved by the all-governing Power and providence of God as in a Wombe or Treasury untill its new birth at the Resurrection In the next place consider that when the
bottomless Pit of Hell Death and Sin out of which eternal love in Christ free grace and infinite mercy hath taken thee Call upon and bless God for this infinite depth of mercy Yea exalt and magnify the height and depth the breadth and length of this love which passeth knowledge O my Soul the mighty Angels leaving their first state as ambitiously seeking a greater as the learned conceive were cast down for their pride and discontentedness from the highest Heaven into the deepest abyss of Hell And our first Parents for the like ambition and desire of bettering their condition were cast out of Paradise From which examples I have reason to think should Man have had a thought or design of or by himself to be possest of so glorious a life prerogative state and condition as our gracious God hath freely given us in Christ It had been so high and unwarrantable a sin and ambition as would have justly deserved as great a curse and punishment O from this experience of infinite love for God is love pray incessantly in return thereof not only to be enlarged and raised to the highest and greatest love and thankfulness that a Creature can be made capable of But that thou mayest hence-forth have no will but his which shall be thy great wisdome in all things submitting all thou hast and thy whole Man solely to his most gracious and All-wise dispose whose free gifts bounty and unconceivable liberality are not such as Creatures bestow on their favourites but such as becomes the Majesty and immensness of a God who gives to his Saints benefits and blessings temporal spiritual and eternal not only above their prayers hopes and expectations but as the Apostle expresses above what we can either ask or think O my Soul shall thy body be incorruptible and immortal defile it not with lust any more neither let sin abound because grace hath abounded Since thou must know that thy incorruptability and immortality must in a true Scripture and spiritual sence begin in this life although they are to be perfected in the next Therefore our Saviour saith He that believeth on him hath everlasting life And the Apostle affirmes that we are made to sit together in Christ in Heavenly places And Saint John declares 1 John 5.12 That he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life And blessed Paul affirms If Christ be in us the Body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Again dost thou live in Christ and Christ in thee Art thou even as to thy body the Habitation and Temple of the Holy Ghost and spiritually and inseparably united to God in Christ and is thy life hid with God in Christ Dally no more with sin for there can be no communion betwixt light and darkness And know this although thou canst not dye eternally yet thy backslidings in wilfull and presumptuous sinnings may through thy Spouse his righteous with-drawing and desertion cast thee into such a swoon and transe that thy life peace and Heaven here may as to thy feeling be turned into emnity death yea and to an Hell upon Earth Give not that subtil destroyer Sathan occasion or advantage by spiritual adulteries and reiterated Rebellions to sue out a divorse in the Court of thy Conscience betwixt thy Spouse and thee For know this that although Whom Christ loves he loves to the end And his gifts and calling are without Repentance and that though thy Husband hath loved thee with an everlasting love yet such a suite will be very troublesome and chargeable and may cost thy Spirit many and unexpressible sighs groans and lamentations And may as it were break thy bones or make thy Body a very Sceleton only fit for a Grave Lastly for as much as the Children of God were partakers of flesh and blood Did the Son of God himself likewise take part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death viz. the Devil to deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject unto bondage And did not take on him the nature of Angels but took on him the Seed of Abraham from which hypostatical union of the two natures in one Person and the union of thy Person to his Person by the Eternal Spirit is given unto thee eternal life in a far higher and more excellent way and manner than to the Elect Angels Did the Lord of Heaven and Earth the Heir of all things not only marry himself to thy nature but also unto thee For I am married unto you saith the Lord in the Prophet and is the honourable Ordinance of Marriage therefore called by the Apostle a great Mystery because even in Eves formation and in its first Institution it was to be a Type and lively Figure of this thy spiritual Marriage and union to the second Adam Hast thou through infinite mercy received assurance hereof that thou art thy Beloveds and that thy Beloved is thine Is the Marriage Day and Supper appointed and declared and in the interim hast thou an Espousal contract subscribed to by thy faith and by his Spirit O be exceeding watchfull and carefull of offending such a loving Spouse and glorious Bridegroom by any sinfull relapses and backslidings into any sin that may move him to jealousie For as jealousie is the rage of a Man so the anger and jealousie of thy God is said to burn like Fire against such unfaithfull and spiritual Adulteresses O as thou tenderest the love of thy God and of thy Spouse and thy peace of Conscience and thy Heaven upon Earth venture not to blot or blur so blessed an assurance and evidence of thy Eternal happiness union and life in him by sin or any presumptuous iniquity and rebellion Nor to crust it over by customary sinning or delay of repentance But by an holy chast and religious walking Keep it so fair written and legible that all other Saints but principly thy self at all times but especially in the time of trouble temptation and hour of death may read it Then though thy Eye-strings are broken the eye of thy faith shall behold it and see thy Name written in Heaven and in the Lambs Book of Life O blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who art the Resurrection and the Life and hast declared in thy Word of Truth that this my vile Body shall be raised and made a Heavenly and spiritual Body like to thine give me to behold this wonderfull change continually by faith the eye of my Soul then shall I not be abashed or dismayed at the baldness and gray-headedness of old age at my hollow Eyes wrinckled Cheeks blindness deafness my toothless Gums and pale countenance nor at the Palsiness lameness and decrepitness of my Hands Feet and
eating and drinking of the glorified Saints which was not at all in the question For if so it may be brought as well to prove that they shall in all things else be like the Angels which I humbly conceive no Man will or hath asserted since in many things were it proper to be treated of upon this subject I could shew a manifold difference betwixt the Angels and the glorified Saints This being sufficient and a clear and full answer to that objection I shall now proceed to speak more particularly although very succinctly as having in the six foregoing reasons or preliminaries spoken more than I intended and given sufficient satisfaction to my self and I hope to others both from Scripture and reason as to this Subject First as to the sight or sense of Seeing the Eye although by Oculists Naturalists and Anatomists it is now placed in the first rank of the bodies parts or members as a subject wherein the most excellent and wonderfull wisdome of God is greatly manifested and that not only as in respect of its curious fabrick but admirable way and manner of conveighing and representing objects to the Soul whether Extra or intra mittendo or by both is not my work now to dispute or determine yet then it shall as to its optick use and faculty be much more wonderfully bettered heighthned and enlarged and that first as to its objects Now the best Eye cannot immediately behold the Sun shining in its brightness any time with fixedness without twinckling trouble and danger of blindness and as though it was asham'd of its weakness is presently vailed with a tear Now a Daniel an Ezekiel cannot look upon or behold an Angel without astonishment and falling to the ground upon their faces as being not able to behold their created glory But after the Resurrection we shall with these Eyes as Job speaks not only behold the glorified Saints that shine as the Sun and are as so many millions of Suns but the glorious Angels and our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ the brightest Sun of righteousness and shall see God as he is yea we shall see him face to face and live This is that everlasting and glorious beatifical Vision of Father Son and Holy Ghost the for ever blessed Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity so much spoken of by the ancient Fathers in which as in a most bright cleer mirror the Saints shall behold their Eyes being herein assistants to their Souls all things God is pleased to reveal and so far as a created nature is capable of past and present and to come As also the natures virtues and qualities of all the Creatures not as now by their effects but in their cause Idea and truth yea the high and deep things of God The second excellency of this glorified sense of sight as to its strength in respect of objects that are far distant is That whereas now our Eyes without the help of Perspective-Glasses cannot discern or clearly distinguish and inform us of the things upon Earth some few miles off and are much inferiour to Eagles and Vultures of whom Naturalists report That when by high flying they are so lessened as not to be discerned by our Eyes yet they can behold a little quarry upon the ground and their prey although many miles distant from them and that now through the imbecility and weakness of our sight in a clear day we judge the skie to be of an azure colour whereas truly it hath no colour but is only so represented being only by a vaster distance and the intermediate Aire enlightened by the Sun and that distance beyond the extent of our weak Eyes upon the level of the Earth seems to be dark or black But hereafter at the Resurrection the Eye being the Instrument and Organ through and by which the Soul beholds all things shall be so strengthened that it shall thereby behold things very far distant Else it should lose by union with the body that excellency of sight it had as a Spirit before it re-entred into the Body It being clear and evident that the Angels and Spirits excell all other living Creatures as to the activity and extent of seeing That evil spirit the Devil being able to behold and represent to our blessed Saviour from the top of a high Mountain all the Kingdomes of the World that is of that Hemisphere and semi-circle of the Earth and the glory of them a most vast view and prospect so also the Angel of God called unto Hagar and afterwards to Abraham out of Heaven A third admirable excellency of the Eye glorified is the wonderfull life and beauty of it Now it is the chief Ornament and grace of the Face in Men or Women but then it shall super-excell what it is now as much as the Eye of a living Man transcends the Eye of one that is dead Which life splendor and beauty doth not only proceed from the glorification of the Eye as apart and member of the glorified body but from those spirit-full and sparkling rayes sent forth from the within glorious Souls which like the Sun-beams shining through and upon the purest Chrystal shall cause the Eye to shine with a most delightfull and unexpressible radiancy and splendor much like to that wonderfull and visional appearance of our Head and sample the Lord Jesus to Saint John of whom it is written That his Eyes were as a Flame of Fire O my Soul shall thy sence of seeing attain to such a height of perfection as to be able not only to behold glorified Saints and Angels but the much more resplendent face of thy glorious Saviour yea of God himself shall it be so greatly fortified as to surveigh like the Angels things remotely distant shall thy eyes be so beautifull and radiant as to shine and sparkle like the Stars of the first magnitude O resolve and endeavour by the assistance of Gods free grace not to vassalage and debase them by beholding Earthly vanities much less to make use and imploy them as the Pandors of Sathan and the Dung-ports of sinfull lusts and lasciviousness like the Men of this World Whose Eyes are full of Adultery and uncleanness But let them according to the end for which they were created be wholly employed in beholding and admiring the glory of God in his wonderfull works held forth in the bright-shining Stars and Planets and in the splendor of the Moon and Sun Let them be also helpfull Instruments to conveigh unto thee continual matter of praise and admiration as to the wisdome of thy Creator in the consideration and meditation not only as to the excellent and universal frame of Heaven and Earth but as to the great variety and beauty of each particular Creature so shall this their Heavenly and holy exercise prepare thee and them for a greater measure of perfect Glory O blessed Spouse and dear Saviour who hast said to thy Church
but such as shall be exceeding ravishing and delightfull and as Musick to the Soul even such unspeakable words as blessed Paul heard when he was caught up into Paradise Then shall we being placed in glory at the right hand of our righteous King and Saviour hear with boldness and without fear or astonishment that most joyfull sentence Come yee blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World Then shall we hear that great voice of God the Father who sits upon the Throne saying Behold I make all things new the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God Then shall these words which are faithfull and true be fulfilled God shall wipe away all teares from their Eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end I will give unto him that is athirst of the Fountain of the Water of Life freely he that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son To conclude I shall not say any thing as to the Musick of the Sphears as esteeming them to be only groundless dreams and phantasies of Heathens and Phylosophers I humbly conceive that as far as the glorious Heavens and Angels transcend and excells the nâ—w Earth and the Inhabitants thereof so far shall the ravishing and musical voices and sounds in this glorified state of the Saints excell all the pleasures and delights of this kind in this our low and corruptible condition O my Soul shall the sense of Hearing in the next life be as comprehensive and perfect in its kinde as the sense of Sight Shall it be made capable not only of Hearing and that with understanding also the Musick of Heaven the all-ravishing Hymns the mellifluous speech and voices of Angels the Language of Glory as also to hear him whose voice is as a Trumpet and as the noise of many Waters of him who is the Judge of Heaven and Earth the King of Kings the King of Saints and the King of Nations the Eternal Word the Lord Jesus Christ God-Man blessed for ever Yea shalt thou then O my Soul by the assistance of this glorified sense hear not as now the dreadfull and killing but the all delighting reviving exalting and transporting voice of the ever glorious Trinity even of the Eternal God Himself O let not this so excellent and usefull a sense be deboist so much as to be the Gate or in-let of vain and unprofitable discourses of wanton and lascivious words or of any kind of false slanderous or evil speeches all which are as so many Traytors to thee and Enemies unto thy God and Soveraign Nor let thy Eares be â—urfeited and excessively glutted with any kind of earthly Musick or with the pleasing sounds or voices of any of thy fellow-Creatures which although lawfull delightfull and refreshing to the natural and animal Spirits as being neer a Kin to them yet by the subtilty of Sathan the World and thy Flesh do frequently become snares and an undiscernable flattering and therefore the more dangerous Enemy and means to pollute thee with sin or to introduce some kind of fleshly lust or other But begin even now O my Soul to exercise every sense and member upon such objects and in such employments and actings as come neerest to those of Angels and glorified Saints This is to make this Earth a Paradise and to have even whilst thou art in this World as the Apostle exhorts thy conversation in Heaven To this end let thy delight be with holy David in the converse of the excellent ones upon Earth yea watch dayly at the Gates of Wisdome and wait at the Posts of her Doors yea with attention hang upon the Lips of her Teachers Be much in the exercises of the Church Tryumphant in praising God in the Assemblies of his Saints in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace and making Melody in your heart So shalt thou O my Soul by a sanctified spiritual and internal sense heâ—e frequently even in this thy state of humiliation the counsels and instructions of blessed Angels the voice of God and of his holy Spirit viz. thy Father and Comforter behind thee saying This is the way walk thou in it And the loving expressions and invitations of thy most sweet and gracious Spouse and Saviour who standing behind the Wall of thy Flesh and looking forth at the Windowes of several Providences and shewing himself through the Lattess of thy intervening and impeding weakness and infirmity will often speak unto thee saying Arise up my love my fair one and come away For loe the Winter is past of thy doubts fears sufferings and temptations The rain of thy teares and mourning is over and gone The Flowers of my saving gifts which evidence the Spring of my Grace appears on the Earth of thy renewed nature The time of the singing of Birds the earnest and witness of my Spirit and of thy conscience assuring thee of my love and salvation is come and the voice of me the true Turtle is heard in the Land even in thy Soul my Habitation The Figg-Tree putteth forth her green Figges and the Vines with the tender Grapes give a good smell viz. thou art fruitfull in all holy and good works Now therefore arise my love my fair one and come away and inherit the Kingdome prepared for thee before the Foundation of the World O my gracious Lord and Saviour who when thou wert upon Earth in the zeal of thy Spirit cryed out unto thy Auditors He that hath Eares to hear let him hear and didst declare and expound the Words of thy Prophet That there should be many that hear but understand not intimating to us thereby that there is a spiritual and internal sense of hearing that many want that have the bodily sence and Organ O thou which openedst the heart of Lidia as well as her Eares when she gave attention to Paul's preaching and said to the deaf Man in the Gospel Ephtata and his Eares were opened give me an understanding Eare as well as thou hast given me an Ear of Flesh that I may both hear and understand know and obey thy will declared unto me by the Ministers of thy Word Yea let my Eares be always open to receive entertain and retain the holy instructions consolations reproofes and encouragementâ— of any of thy faithfull Servants and my fellow-members and Brethren But let them through thy grace be turned away sealed up and guarded against the Syrene Songs of all Sin and Sinners And if by force or surpriâ—e oaths curâ—ing lying slandering blasphemies vain
excessive idle and inordinate use of the Down-beds of England of the hot Springs of Bathe of the fresh but wanton Aire of Hide-Park of the cool Baths and Aquaducts of Italy Remember that antient but true Proverb Latet anguis in Herba made good literally and vitiously in the Egyptian Cleopatra whose lusts even her unclean and immoderate indulging of this sense procured her Soul and Bodies destruction O my Soul let this sense fulfill the end for which it was made and become as before hath been observed thy Instrument and diligent Investigator to inquire into the wonders and bounty of God in the Elements other natural things and in all thy enjoyments That in the pleasing and sober exercise of this sense both thy body may be delighted and thou maist be assisted and instructed therefrom to glorify thy great and good God in all his mercies and attributes and in all thy liberal fruitions so shalt thou be like the blessed Angels who by their spiritual sense beholding and apprehending God in all his works are thereby inlarged and unwearied in his praises and be also a Companion with them hereafter in their Heavenly Hallelujahs and Coelestial Glory O Lord my God and Saviour who hath said in thy Word which Word is truth Behold I make all things new fulfill that promisary Word I beseech thee in me renew both my Soul and Body that this sense of senses this universal sense that possesses every part and member may not seem to be alive and yet not alive as being by nature and from my birth taken with and under a dead Palsie of Sin and in danger to be made past feeling through customary offending and the frequent stroaks and sharp launcings of thy Judgments the gnawings and bitings of Conscience and of my dangerous condition Is there no Balme in Gilead Is there no Physician there Lord Jesus thou alone art my Physician thou hast undertaken my Cure thou hast begun it and wilt certainly perfect it For thou art the Author and finisher of my Faith a God of perfection and immutable therefore thy Gifts and Calling are without Repentance O be thou graciously pleased to wash both Soul and Body in that Fountain opened in the House of David for Sin and for Vncleanness even in thy own most precious healing and purifying blood For thy blood O Lord Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and iniquity and that not only from the guilt as to Gods divine justice But from the filth of sin this my body of death and corrupt Lusts so shall I have a pure tender and feeling Conscience to avoid and eschew all evil and the like Sense of Feeling in my Body shall be so sanctified and regulated by it that neither costly pride nor penurious covetousness lustfull and itching concupiscence wastfull voluptuousness nor deceivable vanity shall vitiate corrupt or disorder it O my Lord since thou hast made a firme Covenant with me in Baptisme even an everlasting Covenant the sure mercies of David and hast contracted thy self to me in the Communion of thy Body and Blood I will now presume to say as thy Spirit hath taught me My Beloved is mine and I am his Kiss me with the kisses of thy Mouth for thy love is better than Wine Bring me into thy Banquetting-house and let thy Banner over me be love Stay me with Flaggons comfort me with Apples for I am sick of love let thy left Hand be under my Head and let thy right hand imbrace me Now I have found thee whom my Soul loveth I will hold thee and will not let thee go O set me as a Seal upon thy Heart as a Seal upon thy Arme so my love in thy strength is as strong as death Many Waters through thy grace shall not nor can quench my love neither can the Floods of Tentations Tribulations and Persecutions for thy sake drown it O let me be in thy Eyes as one that hath found favour so shall this Sense my Touch be spiritualiz'd by thee here and glorified with thee hereafter and be the Hand-maid and assistant to my Soul to distinguish and discover unto her thy bounty and goodness and all other thy excellencies in thy wonderfull works in nature and cease to be as in its unregenerate state a Pander to lust and Sathan For the works of the Flesh are Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness and without the new Jerusalem are Dogs and Whoremongers Lord do thou touch me with the Finger of thy sanctifying Spirit and let me lay hold and imbrace thee in the Armes of Faith and love and then this bodily sense shall be so metamorphosed by such a union and communion with thee that it shall be a real augmentation of my happiness and delight in this life and through thy free grace who proportionably rewards thy Saints receive from thee by the holy exercise of it here at the Resurrection an answerable increase of Glory Amen Having through Gods gracious assistance although in much weakness meditated and discoursed of the glorification of the Five Senses I shall conclude with the blessed and excellent use and exercise of the Tongue under which I comprehend the voice and articulate speech at our Resurrection in Glory which although not numbered amongst the Senses yet is not inferiour but transcends them all as being the Souls Orator and Interpreter to the glory of God of what is seen heard tasted smelt or touched by us And therefore it is styled by David His Glory as being that sweet and most melodious Instrument that utters and declares the wonderous works of God to his great praise and honour which is the principal end of our Creation Redemption and Glorification To this member I annex as necessary assistants the Aire Lips Teeth Throat and Lungs And as to the Speech Language or Dialect solely to be used by all the Saints at the Resurrection I humbly conceive it shall be the Primitive Hebrew Tongue as being certainly the Original Language of Adam in the Creation and before his Fall when he gave names to the Creatures according to their natures and in which God spake unto him and therefore is to be restored to us by Christ the second Adam The rise of all other Languages being a curse punishment and an effect of sin in their Original and the confusion at the building of the Tower of Babel Besides this Tongue had the great and special honour to be the Language of the Holy Ghost in the old Testament and in St. Matthew's Gospel and of our blessed Saviour the Eternal Word of God and of the blessed Angels in all their several missions and appearances throughout the Book of God So that in fine this Tongue hath the priviledge and prerogative of all other Languages and may be called the Language of the glorious Trinity Holy Angels and inspired Saints and Prophets yea the Language of Heaven I proceed next to the
a Glass darkly and imperfectly taken a view of the Land of Promise the Inheritance of the Saints in light and presented to the Lord and to his Spouse the Church what discoveries he hath in great mercy given me as concerning Eternal Life that last and great Article of the Christian faith begun visibly in the Saints glorified condition in the new Heaven and new Earth and continued unto Eternity in the Heaven of Heavens Wherein concluding with the glorification and blessed use and exercise of our Tongues in that happy state I thought it proper both as to the general subject I have been upon as being the Vision exercise and Tryumph of Faith and as to the subject matter both lauditory to God and declarative to one another about which our Tongues shall in our renewed life be imployed to declare in this life with all humility and thankfulness of Heart and Tongue to both which my Pen is but the Secretary in the Ejaculatory part of that Meditation what by faith I behold and am assured from the Word of Truth shall come to pass here and be injoyed by me and all Gods Elect in the life to come and shall be there a blessed Subject of our praises to all Eternity In which Song of 12. parts or Jacobs Laddar of 12. Staves whose foot stands upon Earth and top reaches to Heaven we may by faith ascend beginning here upon Earth in this present Year of our Lord 1666. by twelve successive Steps wonderfull and most signal periods noted afore in the Margint to the last and highest ascent the Glorification of the Saints in the Heavens Being now come to Hercules Pillars the Ne-plus ultra of Faith beyond which all sacred Scripture the light of Faith is silent I can proceed nor walk any further in these Contemplations lest walking without a Light I fall into the Darkness of Error It being alike sinfull curiosity and presumption to inquire what God will do after this silence When time shall be no longer as to ask what he did before time was and before this World was Created Wherefore I shall here conclude these my imperfect Meditations and with all humility and reverence return all Honour Glory and Praise to thee O glorious Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost one God blessed for ever for thy most gracious assistance by the light of thy Word and Spirit in this great Work a subject too weighty for Angels how much more for me a simple sinfull and weak Worm Lord I acknowledge that whatsoever is good right and true in this Treatise is of and from thee who art Goodness Light and Truth and to thee alone belongs the praise and that whatsoever therein is Hay or Stuble is mine who humbly takes shame therefore and Petitions for thy free pardon in my Lord Christ Jesus beseeching thee that in the assurance of thy love and mercy in him and in the faith light and assurance of thy glorious Truths herein declared out of thy Word I may with Holy Job all the Days of my appointed time wait until my Change come And with zealous Paul desire to depart and to be with Christ that so my faith and hope may be swallowed up in the possession of thee and Vision may be changed into fruition Thy Spirit and thy Bride say come And let him that heareth say come Thou O Lord that testifieth these things sayest Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all Amen Soli Deo Gloria An Advertisement by the Author to the Reader FOr the more cleer and fuller proof of the Twelve great things mentioned in the Conclusion of this Work I refer the Reader to my Treatise almost ready to be published Entitled An humble Exposition of most of the Scripture-Prophesies concerning Twelve great Periods to be fulfilled to the Church beginning to be manifested in the Year 1666. and concluding with the end of our Lords Mediatory Kingdome and the Translation of the Saints to the highest Heavens FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Of the Things contained in the TREATISE Intitulated MEDITATIONS ON FAITH A. THe Affections lose their appetite if ye do but change the object viz. Spiritual for Temporal Page 4 Christs Agony as described should much act upon our spirits Page 27 The use and abuse of the Affections Page 45 46 All Arts and Sciences are in the Scripture as Metaphysick Phylosophie Astronomy Chronologie Rhetorick c. Page 71 Christs answer to the soul complaining of her Affections Page 81 The Antiquity of the Scriptures Page 102 Of the Affections glorified Page 151 Of holy Anger glorified Page 160 A Soliloquium upon it Page 161 An Ejaculation upon it Page 161 A caution against blotting Assurance Page 185 B. The Body of man like the pool of Bethesda with its five Porches Page 22 The curse and judgement of the Body Page 52 The Souls complaint against the Body with Christs answer Page 88 89. c. Of the Body glorified Page 164 Of the spirituality and swiftness of our Bodies at the Resurrection Page 169 A soliloquium and ejaculation on those two qualities of the Body Page 170 The glorious shining of the Body at the Resurrection Page 171 A soliloquium on that shining of the Body Page 173 Item an ejaculation upon it Page 174 Of the Immortality of the Body glorified Page 175 C. The Certain condition of man is to be uncertain Page 8 A man may be a Conduit-pipe to others and be a Vessel of dishonour himself Page 15 17 Of Christs Death and Burial Page 33 34 His victory over Hell Page 35 His Resurrection Page 36 His Ascension Page 38 Man in respect of Conscience is as one possessed Page 42 A Contemplation on love Page 47 A Contemplation on the insatisfaction in Riches Honours Pleasures Wisdom Page 49 A Contemplation on fear Page 51 A Contemplation on the sinfulness of the Eyes Ears Nostrils Taste and Touch Page 56 Of Christs Priestly Office Page 57 The occasion of Christs Priest-hood Page 58 A Contemplation upon Christs Priest-hood Page 60 Of Christs satisfaction Page 61 Christs answer to the poor soul complaining of his Conscience Page 75 The souls general Complaint answered by Christ Page 85 86 The souls Complaint against her Senses Tongue and Members of her body and Christs answer to it Page 88 89 A meditation on the excellency of Christs person Page 99 Against Coveteousness Page 123 An Ejaculation upon the glorious Change of the body at the Resurrection Page 185 D. Demas described Page 14 A Dialogue between Christ and the poor complaining soul in many particulars which Christ answers and satisfies Page 74 Our victory by Christ over Death Page 130 Our victory over the fear of Death Page 132 Our victory over the pain and separation by Death Page 133 All things fall short of the Duration of glorified Bodies and Souls and the high
and found wisdome I am understanding I have strength I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall finde me A SCRIPTVRE-CATECHISME I am the only begotten Son of the Father the brightness of his glory the express Image of his Person upholding all things by the Word of my Power I was by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him rejoycing in the habitable parts of his Earth and my delights were with the Sons of Men. Blessed is the Man that heareth me waiting daily at my Gates waiting at the Posts of my Doors For who so findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me sinneth against his own Soul all that hate me love death But if ye set at naught my counsel I also will laugh at your Calamity I will mock when your fear cometh when your fear comes as Desolations and your destruction comes as a whirl-wind Then shall ye call upon me but I will not answer for that you hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord Therefore shall you eat of the fruit of your own way and be filled with your own devices But who so hearkneth to me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil Believe in God believe also in me I and the Father am one There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one For though there be many that are called Gods whether in Heaven or in Earth The Lord your God is one Lord and to you there is but one God the Father of whom are all things who Created the Heaven and the Earth And one Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World by whom are all things and you by him And one Spirit the Holy Ghost by whom you are sanctified I am the Way the Truth and the Life the Word of God that in the beginning was with God and was God the life and light of Men while ye have light believe in the light in me the Eternal Word that was made flesh and dwelt amongst you was conceived by the Holy Ghost and made of a Woman born of the Virgin Mary of the Seed of Abraham and of the Seed of David The beloved and only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and truth This is the work of God that ye believe on me whom he hath sent that was delivered to Pontius Pilate the Governor of Judea who gave Sentence scourged me and delivered me to be Crucified who that I might sanctifie you with my own Blood Suffered without the Gate being obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross dyed for your sins was buried and rose again the third Day according to the Scriptures for your Justification O look upon me whom you have pierced and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the Day of his fierce anger whose Soul being in an Agony in the Garden was exceeding sorrowful even unto death so that my sweat was as it were great drops of blood And I cryed out upon the Cross my God my God why hast thou forsaken me my Soul being then made an offering for sin yea sin for you and upon me the Lord laid the iniquities of you all Yet did he not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer his holy one to see corruption To as many of you as receive me and believe on my name I will give power to become the Sons of God For I the Lord am risen indeed And am ascended unto my Father and to your Father and to my God and your God and have led Captivity Captive spoyled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly tryumphing over them am received into Heaven and sit at the right hand of God having all power given me in Heaven and in Earth where I ever live to make intercession for you until I come in the Clouds in the same manner as I was taken up from you into Heaven the second time without sin unto salvation as being ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and dead For my Father judgeth no Man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son I am the head over all things to the Church which is my Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all The House and Church of the living God The Pillar and ground of the truth As your Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body so also is Christ. Therefore by one spirit be ye baptized into one body and be made to drink into one spirit the Cup of blessing which you bless is it not the Communion of my blood And the Bread which you break is it not the Communion of my Body For you being many are one Bread and one Body Wherefore let there be no schisme in the Body but let each of you as Members have the same care one for another to the increase of the body unto the edifying it self in love Be it known unto you that through me is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by me you that believe and are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses For God hath exalted me with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins and redemption through my blood according to the riches of his grace I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And who so ever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye For the hour cometh in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear my voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation If you then will be my Sheep hear my voice and I will know you and you shall follow me and I will give unto you eternal life and you shall never perish neither shall any Man pluck you out of my hand My Father which gave you unto me is greater than all and no Man is able to pluck you out of my Fathers hand For God so loved the World that he gave me his only begotten Son that who so ever of you believes in me should not perish but have everlasting life If ye love me ye will keep
continue you in the things that ye have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom ye have learned them For evil Men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Consider one another to provoke to love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is But exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the Day approaching Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace For there is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling One Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Since then you are the Body of Christ and Members in particular let there be no Schisme in the Body Now I hear that there be divisions amongst those that call themselves Christians For there must be Heresies also among you that those that are approved may be manifest among you which were spoken before of my Apostles that there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit Now by my Name I desire you that you all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions amongst you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment If you say then I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ Are ye not carnal Is Christ divided Who then is Paul And who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed Even as the Lord gave to every Man If then such an one as was Paul plants or as Apollo was watereth It is God that giveth the increase Therefore let no Man glory in Men But do you mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not Me but their own Belly and by good words and fair Speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Finally whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Virtue and if there be any praise think on these things And those things which ye have both known and received and heard and seen in me do And the Father himself that loveth you the God of Peace shall be with you Holy Father who hearest me always This is Life Eternal to know Thee the only true God and Me whom thou hast sent Keep through thy own Name those that thou hast given Me that they may be one as we are one That they all may be one as thou Father art in Me and I in Thee that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And that the World may know that thou hast sent Me and hast loved them as thou hast loved Me. 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 I have given to them the words which Thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from Thee and they have believed that Thou didst send me I pray for them I pray not for the World but for those that thou hast given me For they are Thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them I pray that thou wouldest keep them from the evil of the World and that my joy may be fulfilled in them Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth Finally Beloved Wife of my Youth and dear Children Farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of peace and love shall be with you For this cause I bow my Knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named That he would give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man That Christ may live in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with the fulness of God The God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is most pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us to him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages World without end The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen A Post-script of the Father to his Wife and Children concerning the foregoing Epistle with some further Exhortations to the practice thereof MY dearest heart and intirely affected Children the good and salvation of whose Souls I pray for and labour for as for my own I have I trust by the direction of the holy Spirit chosen in this manner to write unto you as hoping that what is delivered to you in the Person and words of our Lord and beloved Saviour For such is every word in the Epistle except some words not substantial necessary for connexion explanation and application requisit in a subject of such various matter You will with the more reverence and affection delight and obedience attend to and receive For although all the words therein were not uttered by his own mouth upon Earth yet were they all indited by his holy Spirit who spake by the Prophets and Apostles and is the Lord God of the holy Prophets So that if ye will not hear and obey him herein speaking to you by himself and by them Neither will you be perswaded though one arose and spake to you from Hell and from the dead Ye know after what manner I have been with you at all seasons And how I have kept nothing back that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and have taught you both in private and more publiquely Testifying unto you and
upright Thus sad Was that my Youthful State when from above Thou didst in thy Caroche of Faith and Love Dear Father draw me home and for my good Balsom'd and heal'd my wounds with thy Sons Blood O let those parts which thou hast doubly cur'd Be doubly thankful and hence-forth impour'd To contemplate walk in and act thy will Since real praise is thy Word to fulfill Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious preserving of me from any harm by Eight several Falls from my Horse Soliloquium or Discourse MY whole Life O Lord hath been a Circle a Map fill'd full with thy loving and extraordinary Providences which should I at any time forget I might justly deserve to be forgotten of thee In these eight merciful deliverances I bear witness and seal to that great and comfortable truth the constant and powerful Ministration of thy glorious Angels for the preservation of thy Children according to those comfortable promises That thy Angels are ministring Spirits for the good of thy Elect And that they shall hold them up in their hands lest they should dash their Feet against a stone Who else but they as thy blessed Instruments did put under their Hands and aleviate such and so many down-falls that they broke not into many pieces such a Venice Glass as my frail Body nor dislocated in the least any of the many wheels of so curious a Watch That is so soon and easily put into disorder as appears in the frequent and sad disasters of others that by such overthrows have lost their lives or the use of their Limbs O Lord great and special mercies call for from me great and singular praises which after the example of the Man after thy own heart I humbly offer to thee in this Psalm and thankful memorial of these thy many Preservations The OCTONARY Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject DEar Lord our Sins according to thy Curse Have burthened Earth and Creatures yea far worse Our God no wonder then thy Subjects pay Vengeance on them that do thee disobey And that the Horse so oft his Rider throwes For to regain his Freedome from such Foes Trampling them under Feet that he might see That which is burthensome to him Earth thee Eight times O Lord have I thus humbled lain Prostrate As oft Thou hast me rais'd again In goodness safe and sound O let these falls Be both from Sin and Mercy blessed calls Remembrancers The one these dangers brought And by the other my Salvation's wrought Blest Love and Wisdome that thus throwes me down To raise me up again unto a Crown Lord let this close be the Eccho of that sound Where Sin exceeds thy Grace much more abounds Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's merciful Preservation of me from any Harm when being a Childe and alone in my Fathers Coach the Horses running down a steep Hill the Boot flew open by a jolt in the way and I was cast out of the Coach upon the Ground and taken up without any the least hurt or maim Soliloquium or Discourse O Lord God who hast been a gracious Father to me in my Childhood as well as now in my elder Years How great cause have I to trust in thee continually and to celebrate thy praise to future Generations O that Men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the Children of Men. Although violent motions are not perpetual yet are they very often hurtful and destructive as is evidenst by the sad effects of Earth-quakes Whirl-winds and Hurricanes Thunders and Lightning yet all these yea Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour stormy Wind fulfilling O Lord thy Word shall praise thee and declare thy gracious Presence with thy Children as once in the Red Sea the Fiery Furnace and now with me the greatest of Sinners the least of Saints yea unworthy to be called thy Son else when I was cast violently out of a Coach by a Jolt that forc'd open the Boot the swifter and violent motions of the hinder Wheels had taken advantage of the much slower and heavy motion of my falling Body and run over and broken my Bones or pitcht me upon my Head to the destruction of my sense or life as hath often happened by such accidents But if an evil spirit was in the Horses as once in the Gadarine Swine which is frequently the occult cause of such sudden and usual frenzies of Beasts although taken notice of or observed by few Persons yet I am assured O Lord thy good Angels and providence was present to preserve me from any hurt in so eminent a danger Wherefore with thankful David all my Bones shall praise thee yea those Bones which thou hast kept from breaking shall rejoyce yea I will further record this thy great goodness in this following Hymn to all future Ages The HURRICANE Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject THy Mercy Lord is a continued Act As well as is thy self witness this Fact Of Love which doth succeed the four Last mention'd Blessings ush'ring many more O let my constant Praises imitate Thee in thy Daily goodness that Ingrate I may not prove yea let this Providence Make me more thankful as reminding hence Thy higher favours for my Soul hath bin Shut up and hurred in a Coach of Sin My Flesh full-oft in which my sinful Will As Charrioteer hath drove me down the Hill Of Worldly Pleasures on swift moving Wheels Of raging Passions Steeds whose Mouth neer feeles Religious Bit Pride Lust This Chariot mov'd With feerless speed Till Grace in thy Belov'd Cans'd thee as oft to scotch it on Some Stone some blest affliction By which thrown out cast down upon the Ground Thy Childe hath lain as in a spiritual swound From which thou still hast raised me by the Arme Of Mercy and Me sav'd from lustful harme O let me run no more in Sins career But draw me to Thee by thy Love and Fear Nor suffer me for to run down the Hill Again of Earths delights but let thy will Be mine so shall my changed Soul aspire Heaven like Elijah in a Coach of Fire True holy Zeal letting my Garment fall Of Sin that thou mayest be my All in All. Amen ARGVMENT Vpon God's gracious preserving and preventing me from falling Horse and Man into a deep Pit when I was riding in the Night the Moon only shining to a Horse-Race when being upon the brink of it I was stopt suddenly by the Call of my Friend that accompanied Me. Soliloquium or Discourse DAy unto Day and Night unto Night teacheth knowledge Thy Mercies O Lord are renewed to me every Morning and thy Providences are circular and without an end therefore let nulla Dies be sine linea no Day pass without my thankful remembrance and recording of thy many great and undeserved mercies Worldly yea too often sinful Pleasure is the Dallilah and flattering Mistriss of our Youth so that slavishly and unweariedly we court it Day
and Night else I would not have lost my sleep nor travelled all Night only to see such a transitory delight as a Horse Race where usually our precious time our wisdom and our Moneys run faster away from us than our Horses The night of Ignorance and the Moon-shine of Unsanctified Reason is of all times most dangerous to Youthful Travellers who when they dream that they are galloping on the palfrey of Pleasure towards Paradice are before they so much as think of it upon the edge yea often fall head-long into that bottomless Pit of Hell Lord thy Word saith It is not good for a Man to be alone yet Experience teaches me also that Companions in sinful Vanities are great Incendiaries Thy merciful Providence Lord at this time mad'st my Companion in Vanity the Instrument of this great Deliverance and also made thy Word good for had not my friend whose Elder Years and Experience gave him knowledge of the way and danger even in that instant of time cried out and stopt my career I had unrecoverably fallen both Horse and Man into a deep and horrible Pit even into Death Wherefore dear Lord let me hence-forth never be alone but let a truly enlightned Conscience which is my best and intimate Friend be alwayes present with me especially in the Night of Temptation to fore-warn me from falling into the dangerous Pit of Sin which to all thine is the Figure as well as the deserver of the bottomless Gulph of Hell Amen The PIT Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject LOrd in this Night-peece there is drawn to Life The Day-peece of our Youth wherein most rife It is for Vs to travel in the Night Of Ignorance and by the Moon-shine light Of our unhallowed reason After Sin And Pleasures till we fall are taken in Their Gulph and snares how oft in Holy Writ Is Death Hell and Affliction call'd a Pit Yea every Sin especially a Whore Which Man and Beast Soul Body doth devour What cause have I that in my Youthful Days Have scap't these dangers for to render praise To Thee Preserver of Body and Soul From Death Hell trouble and from Sins controul Thou went the Voice behind me that cryed stay Avoid each sinful Pit This is the way Conscience thou also gav'st me to fore-warn Me as a trusty Friend of every harm Wherefore I offer Soul and Body both A living Sacrifice to thee by Oath Covenanting for to serve Thee whil'st I live That doest new Life from Sin and danger give ARGUMENT Vpon God's merciful deliverance of me in Three great dangers of Drowning twice upon the River of Thames and a third time in Rutland when being a fishing alone I slipt from off a Tree into a River Soliloquium or Discourse O Incomprehensible Creator and loving Father how delightfully ravishing and comfortably supporting is the Meditation and experimental knowledge of thy gracious Omnipresence to thy Children whereas the thought and belief of it to the wicked thy Enemies is most terrible for to all such our God is a consuming Fire O Lord thou art not only the God of the Mountains and of the Vallies of the Earth but of the Rivers also and hast been mercifully present to deliver and preserve me as thou didst thy Servant David and Paul in Perils of Land and in Perils of Water else had I sunk down into the deep Waters Yea the Floods had gone over my Head and Soul as well as in these three dangers they fearfully washt my Body and Cloaths In the two distresses upon the Thames when the Water-men were all at a non-plus thy only powerful providence preserv'd steer'd and rowed me into safety In the third when my own Feet slipt and betrayed me and the Tree I held by broke and fail'd me thy Hand alone saved and drew me out of a watry muddy and perilsome Pit If every lesser mercy O Lord calls for a tribute of praise how much more such as these which are thy so suddain and opportune reprieves from Death since it is a truth although spoken by the Father of lies Skin for skin and all that a Man hath will he give for his life Wherefore since our lives preservation is the greatest corporal mercy open thou my Lips O Lord and my Mouth shall shew forth in these Lines yea sing forth thy praise for three so great deliverances in this following Psalm of Thanksgiving The TEMPEST Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject NOt humane Courage Wisdome did direct To use or build Boats Ships The Architect Of these our floating Chariots was the Lord Who fram'd the Earth Heavens he by his word To Noah first i' th Ark a Pattern drew Vnparallel'd that we might it renew In little which is now so often done That in one first bold Drake durst like the Sun Incircle Earth and Seas live and lie Within an Intch of Death and yet not die Vpon a spawn of one of these I plow'd The back of Themasies when loe aloud The Wind beats up a charge on Sins old Jar Retwixt these Elements Renews the War I interpos'd by chance these Combitants As strangers often fall into made Rants By which rash act the force and strokes I bore Of both Maâ—gre two seconds arm'd with Oares Who spent and wearied gave up to the Wind My wooden Fort who entring us to bind And drive along Thames jealous grew Of such bold Seasures claim'd us as her dew And enters with a troop of Waves our Hull Erects her watry Streamers fills us full With churlish Billowes ordering us to lie In her deep muddy Dungeon till we die The Wind inrag'd with this affront us tore From out her Bands and drove us to the shore Thereby declaring the third Elements right To us her Subjects as it were in spightâ— Thus far I take a Poet's liberty To shaddow forth my danger Now unty O Lord my Sailes the affections of my Soul That fill'd with thy free spirit without controle Of an unthankful calme I may lanch forth Into thy Sea of Mercy praise thy worth O Lord my Soul iâ—barkt in Flesh sailes in Continually a Sea of Lust and Sin On which the Prince of th' Aire that evil spright Blowes raiseth fearful Stormes by Day by Night Filling the Sailes of my Affections With evil Aires raising my Passions Like swelling Billowes sometimes watry Waves Of Worldly sorrow fills me then the braves Of Earthly joyes o're lades me till a Train Led by mad Anger casts them out again Next in the Whirl pool of sad doubts and fears My Bark is whirl'd about neer drown'd with tears But if a calme succeeds these stormes then he Sends forth his Sirens Women-like to me His Tritons â—errâ—ne Pleasures and Delights That harkning to their Songs and Charms I might In such security run foule upon The shelves of Lust call'd Love Presumption And Prides high Rocks or if I take not care Be swallowed up
in the Gulph of Despair Lord is it thâ—â— experimentally With my poor Soul are all these dangers nie Incumbent â—â— me during such sad stormes Sleep not dear Saviour in me command Calmes Be thou my Pilot Let thy Spirit Gales Fill constantly all my affections Sailes Let Faith my main most hope my Anchor be And all my Passions quieted by thee So sâ—all I scape all shelves all Syrens charmes All Rocks and Gulphs as imbrac'd in thy Armes Till that my â—ark brought in my Soul on shore May praise thee both for mercies evermore Amen The ANGLER O Lord thy third and great deliverance Of me from Drowning not the Lady chance The wicked's Goddess for my Tribute calls Of Pâ—â—ise deservedly since such sad falls Have Coffin'd Men in Water mud and Death Whereas 〈◊〉 thou gavest me a new breath Even then when Angling Tree Hands Feet betraid And cast me in a watry Pit no Aid Being neer and I alone then did thy Hand Double my strength and drew me out to Land Blest be thy Name for this and what thou didst So often for my Soul when that amidst Hâ—r Angling after Worldly pleasures she Did fall from her false Confidences Tree Into the deep and filthy Pits of sin And Vanity a state neer perishing Yea when unto this dangerous fall My Hands Feet Members did contribute all Then didst thou Lord appear to me alone And helpless Renew'd grace and heard'st my moane Gave to my hand of Faith thy hand of Love In Christ to draw and lift me out above Such dangers That with the wise Merchant I May fish for gems and the best Pearl buy Lord since in thee both soul and body live Accept these double Praises which they give Amen ARGUMENT Vpon a great Snow and God's gracious deliverance of Me and my Servant from being smothered and lost when many others perished therein in our Travel and return Home Soliloquium or Discourse PRaise the Lord Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour stormy Wind fulfilling his word what means this second deluge of Snow burying our Iland as it were in an Alablaster Sepulchre Why are the shewers of mercy descending in Earths refreshing Veins through the cold of the middle Region of the Air or rather of our evil hearts frozen and turned into Snow into a Judgment the Earth seeming to do Pennance for our sins and uncleanness Is our Land become a Romanist and Prelatick that she Cloaths her self with and so much delights in Surplices and white Vestures or hath the Sun as in Hezekiah's time reverted ten degrees whereby our Northern temperate Zone is become a frozen Polar clime Hath any Venetian Artist that can make Glass malliable in a few Hours christalliz'd the fluid Rivers and hardned soft Snow to bear without sinking the pulsation and burthens of Horse and Man or are the Clouds turn'd Levellers as having covered ditches and hedges the distinction of every Man's propriety and turned the surface of our Lands into a Salisbury Plain a Berry as well for Sheep as Rabbets Whence was that faith and courage that spirited me upon the providential call of my necessary return home like as Peter's walking upon the Water to amble over yea gallop upon the hollow Snow not fearing Pit Ditch or danger whence all these Wonders and above all my Preservation when so many perished and were smothered not in Beds of Feathers as by Tyrants some have been but in Beds of Snow Are they not from thee O Lord the great Creator and prime Agent in all the works and admirable Prodigies of nature the only Saviour and Preserver of Man and Beast and of me thy most unworthy Servant Who therefore desires Grace from thee to exalt thee and to perpetuate thy Praises in my own heart and in the hearts of others to all succeeding Generations that shall read this Memorial and sing this Song of Thanksgiving The SNOWIE LANDSKIP Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject LOrd let my Souls Eyes open be As well as Lips to praise That in each mercy I may see Thy Presence all my Days Thou wast my Guide o're snowie Plains Where was no track nor way Thou mad'st the sugarfied Rain As solid as the Clay On which I travell'd many Miles In safety without fear O're Hedge and Ditch o're Gates and Stiles For thou wast with me there Although I past o're many a Pit Fill'd and smooth'd o're with Snow Thou would'st not let me fall in it Though sin deserves a woe Yea many perishing that Day Were buried above Ground Loosing their Lines as well as way Being choaked smother'd drown'd Through all these dangers thou me led Secure unto my place With goodness as with Manna fed Thy Monument of Grace O Lord this World 's a Ball of Snow In Hand it melts away Full of deep Pits which overthrow All those that go astray Cover'd they are also from sight By Sathan and Men's guile With Snow that is pretence of right White Devils most beguile Wherefore O Lord let not my Eye Be dazled with such light But be enabled to espie Their Pits and works of Night Let not my Soul now travelling home Venture without a Guide Thy spirit and Word nor walk where none Of thine have gone aside Nor let me ride o're Hedge and Ditch I mean the sacred Bound Of righteous Laws which Devilish Itch Whole Nations doth confound Lord let these Prayers and Praises be Accepted in thy Son So shall my Soul and Body see Thy great Salvation Amen ARGUMENT Vpon the Lord's Deliverance of Me from a Company of Robbers when I and my Servant having a great Charge of Money was Way-laid by them at my return home in the Forrest of Rockingum about the Moneth of May. Soliloquium or Discourse IN the space of time in which the Sun had almost twice measured the vast Concave of Heaven and taken an exact and curious surveigh of both the Hemispheres of Sea and Land I poor slow Worm and Pilgrim had only paced about thirty Miles towards my home Rackt with my Journey roasted with heat and flowr'd over with sweat and dust when on the suddain my way led me into a most pleasant plain a second Temple or Arcadia for delight and pleasure to guard which from the hot Invasion of the Sun or the suddain irruption of Storms stood round in Rank and deep Filles Armies of sturdy Oakes over-lookt by their tall Chieftains bauld-headed with Age yea some of them possibly free Britains before the Conquest and never since subdued nor subjected instead of the harsh and War-like sounds of Drums and Trumpets there were elevated in their Armes as being Dwarfs several sets of Nature's Musitians cloathed with coloured Liveries of several sorts of Feathers after the America fashion whose diversity and sweetness of Notes and Songs warbled forth through living Cornets and intrals as much excells that of dead Sheeps Guts as the animate the inanimate and Nature doth Arâ—
and other such like Is it so O my Soul And hath the Lord so extraordinarily and abundantly blessed this Ordinance and condition unto thee as thou hast declared in thy foregoing Memorial and thankful Acknowledgment Let upon this occasion thy Meditation be further stirred up and inlarged and from this great temporal blessing and mystery behold declare and point out the far greater and excelling blessings which are and shall be enjoyed by thee and the Church the Spouse of Christ by our spiritual Marriage and Union unto Him As Marriage in the Institution and in the particular Application is the Holy Ordinance of God and the blessed effect of his gracious Providence and Eternal Decree All Marriages according to the Proverb being made in Heaven so is that great Architype thereof the Marriage of the Church and in it of every true believer unto Christ. The Father bringing every one of us to him as he did Eve to Adam For none comes to me but whom the Father draws saith our Saviour Christ yea our Election effectual Calling and Regeneration together with our Union by Faith and spiritual Espousal to Christ our Heavenly Husband is of and from the Eternal Decree Love and Election of God our Father As the Woman was of the Man and not the Man of the Woman and the Woman was Created for the Man and not the Man for the Woman so was the Church typified by Eve taken out of the side of the second Adam the Lord Jesus Christ that she might be made as being his Rib Beloved and neer to his heart Flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone his only Spouse and one with him as the Apostle Paul asserts Eph. the 5. ver 30. This was effectually done when being asleep in Death upon the Cross the Beeing and Redemption of his Church arose and sprung forth of his side in a Flood of infinite precious and Cordial Blood and Water To conclude this our spiritual Union and Marriage is by the Apostle called a great Mystery as being the blessed effect of the free grace of God who is assentially love and therefore it is as to the heighth and depth length and breadth thereof Incomprehensible and passing all understanding By vertue of this Espousal in Baptisme we as Wives amongst us change our names into his and instead of Adamites are called Christians And on our part promise to forsake Father and Mother and all things else for him and to honour love and obey him On the other part the Lord Jesus Christ thus betroth'd to us in holiness and everlasting righteousness becomes thereby our Lord Law-giver and Spouse our Pattern Protector and Saviour as in the Type Husbands amongst us are or ought to be unto their Wives and as they so he endowes us here not only with all temporal blesings so far as shall be for our good For Godliness hath the promises of this Life and of that Life which is to come But with the rich dowry of all the saving Graces of his holy Spirit Cloathing us with the white Robes of his perfect and immaculat righteousness As being made of God unto us righteousness wisdom sanctification and redemption Yea the Lord our righteousness And as for hereafter he gives us the earnest and assurance of being Co-heirs with him of Eternal Life and Glory Amen EPITHELAMIVM Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject BReath not this Aire Men of unchast desires No Fewels here for your unhallow'd Fires Lord I adore thy wisdome and thy love That shadow'st in blest Wedlock things above Teaching Vs that this Vnions Mystical And sets forth thine with Vs Before the Fall A crooked Kib thou streightnest gav'st it Life Mad'st it a Virgin pure first Adam's Wife That she of thy dear Spouse the Type might be Once crookt by sin but now made streight in Thee Yea in the chast delights of Marriage-Bed Her union thou holdst forth with thee her Head In which thou giv'st to her thy loves that she Be'ng first belov'd might flame in love to Thee Kissing her with the kisses of thy Mouth Quickned with sp'rit and life thy sacred Truth Thou also her incirclest in the Armes Of thy protection And her frees from harmes For why thy right hand-power doth her o're-spread And left hand-care supports her graceful head Her sp'rit'al senses ear tast smell touch sight Thou satisfi'st with ravishing delight Her piercing eye of Faith sees and applies Thy excellency hid from Worldly eyes Her eares be'ng fill'd with Musick of thy Voice Doth in thy Word and promises rejoyce Thou altogether lovely art unto Her inward touch whence mutual love doth flow She tasts thy Spice Myrrh Hony Milk and Wine Of Hope Joy Peace Delight all sweets Divine Thy Spicknard Camphire fills her smelling sence Also thy Cassida Aloes Frankinsence And fragrant Oyntments All which well express Thy love truth mercy wisdome holiness Thy power and goodness grace and righteousness Sweet Oders which her cherish and refresh In fine thy Nuptial-Bed is covered o're And pav'd with love and fill'd with Graces store Here in her thou shed'st incorrupted Seed Begets in her a Christ-like forme indeed Whence follows that which joyes both Heaven and Earth Divine Conception and thy Saints new-birth So that one Christ one Sp'rit one flesh and bone One Body is thy Church thus 't was made one Hence as of Faith and mutual love the effects Thou rul'st and in her dwell'st and her protects Cloaths her with Golden Robes thy righteousness Mak'st her within glorious through holiness Giv'st her the promises of this World's life And of that life to come and as thy Wife Crown'st her with Glory sets her on thy Throne With thee on Earth as thy beloved One Next to thy Fathers Kingdome her translates To live with God Thy Churches highest State Another Hymn upon the same blessed Subject being Meditations upon my Marriage-Day The TYPE BLest Miracle of Love whose sacred Rights Restores to Man his own and re-unites Natures Division Two Bodies were combin'd In Adam once Loe here two Souls I find Knit in a purer union How doth the smile of one Attend the others joy her sighs my groane If absence parts us like as though one breath Did fan two hearts both seem to suffer Death If distance Clouds our view the strength of Love Doth make our thoughts as well as Bodies move In visits to each other So though two parts We seem to be we still are one in Heart The Anti Type or Application MY Love my Spouse my Sav'our Can the Fires Sprung from weak Natures notions and desires Produce such Sympathies O let thy flame Spir'd by a purer spirit effect the same In my unworthy Soul The Loves of all Compar'd with that of thine the Original Are but as shades to substances the Ray Vnto its Globe of light as Night to Day Lord in my Baptisme
recovery by thy blessing upon the Medicine of a poor Widdow even after that the utmost endeavours of a skilful Doctor proved uneffectual The fifth and last dangerous encounter was with another Pursivant of Death a second painful and perilsome Ague From this Ague also after three very accute fits thou gavest me a happy and healthful recovery Lord what shall I render unto thee for these five most gracious recoveries and as it were new lives And for thy deliverance from many other lesser Distempers Yea what have I to return unto thee since all I am is thine and all my most spiritual Sacrifices are lame weak and sickly Lord although such were forbidden under the Law yet under thy Gospel we have a great High Priest which takes away the iniquity and infirmity of our holy things in whom thou hast declared even from Heaven that thou art well pleased with us And who is that compassionate Physician that came not to heal the whole but the sick Blessed Saviour heal now the infirmities of my Soul as thou hast done these of my Body That according to thy promise the dumb may sing and the lame may skip as the Lamb Yea open thou my Lips and my Mouth shall shew forth thy praise O Lord God what is Man that thou visistest him or the Son of Man that thou regardest him That as a Father and Nurse thou shouldest watch over us from Morning to Night and from Night to Morning That the left hand of thy gracious providence should be alwayes under my head and that the right hand of thy unchangeable and fervent love should continually imbrace me That thou shouldest lead me to Heaven by the Gates of Hell That thou shouldest wound me that thou mightest heal me Humble me that thou mightest exalt me That thou shouldest exercise me with sickness to teach me how to overcome Death The height and summ total of all sicknesses O for ever blessed be thy Name that gives me not only believingly but practically and feelingly to seal the truth of that cordial Word that saith That tribulation brings forth patience and patience experience and experience hope which makes us not ashamed Wherefore my heart which thou hast enlarged my lips which thou hast opened and my life which thou hast thus often renewed through Grace doth praise thee this Day for these and all others thy great Mercies and desires to perpetuate my thankful acknowledgment in this and the following Memorial to all Generations Amen The BETHESDA Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject TRue is that Axiome since the Curse Best things corrupted become worse Than others which are less refin'd By Man and Angels fall we find This truth confirm'd yea our best meatâ— Putrified are Diseases Seats Hence came my Surfeit by that food That pleas'd my tast was sweet and good This tempted me to an Excess That alwayes brings forth Putridâ—ess Which Nature striving to cast out By Vomit made me sick throughout This first assault Thou Lord withstood Of Death thus withering my Bud Of Childhood And by Friends advice Purg'd out my sickness and its rice Restoring health to me and joy To Parents grieved by my annoy All sins a surfeit and abuse Of what is good through our misuse A Lust rebelling to Excess And yet a want of Holiness Lord Vomit Purge me and supplie Thy Grace so shall I live not die Man's Life from Birth doth hasten on Towards Death by a Consumption Of moisture Radical like Lights We wast this Oyl by burning bright But Rheums and Coughs accession Addes Wings to Dissolution Such was my state for many Years Which ballanc't me 'twixt hopes and feares Vntil in Mercy thou though'st good To blesâ— the means drie up this Flood Of Mall-concocted humors So That it no more my Earth o're-flow O Lord the streames that drown'd my Soul Are wicked Lusts let Grace controle This Deluge lest it more and more Consume thy radicating store That Body Soul restor'd again May be it 'h full of Grace not wain As Art by Succors Forcers mount Waters upon a like accompt Rheum pumping Coughs raise it and Aire Above out of their place Hence are Those stiches pains and Plurisies Which us indanger and Disease Such was the cause such the effect Of my third sickness whose Aspect Prefigur'd and made way for Death By Stitches Coughs shortness of breath Yea all one Night to add to pain Thunders did roar and Lightnings flame When thus upon thy wrack I lay Lord thou didst turn my Night to Day And answered from thy glorious Throne My prayers teares my sighs and groans And blâ—st weak means refresht my Soul And on a suddain made me whole A wonder next a Miracle Was this my quick recovery Which merits Lord a Pyramid A Trophy that cannot be hid Of praise That Saints in after Days May bless love trust in thee alwayes Lord frothy Distillations Lustful Inflammations Shorten still thy Spirits breath Threatning to me a worser Death By pricks of Conscience and Heart grief O give unto my Soul relief Dry up O Lord these Springs of sin That do obstruct thy breathings in My sickly Soul Let Conscience be Freed from its pains as cleans'd by thee So shall my Soul and Body live And to Thee living praises give The Bodies Earth-quake Agues are Shaking us like a pent-up Aire Then breaking forth through our Earths pores It casts out Flames and Waters store Imbalming us with sweat as 't were To fit us for our Sepulchre Such was my two last Sicknesses Deaths prelude and a long recess Of Health which no Court-Pagentry Could flatter for to stay with me Nor yet my Office which transfer I did to God's Commissioner An all-controling Ague which Like the Familiar of a Witch Did haunt me at set-hours each Day At first till Mercy did allay And to each other chang'd my fit Lest I should be burnt up by it Here sometimes I as frozen lay Shaking for cold as Seamen say Those do neer the North pole Anon Burnt up as one i' th torrid Zone For eight Hours space at whose retreat I almost drowned was with sweat Thus alternative cold and heat Predominant were in the same seat And subject So the Scriptures tell Sinners tormented are in Hell Where weeping wailing gnashing Teeth Shew cold and heat and easless grief Out of this Aguish Hell in which I twice was cast some Years betwixt I cryed with David Jonah Then Thou savest me as thou did'st them Wherefore as they so I will bless Thee in my Heart Tongue Life and Verse O Lord I have since Life began Been sick of a Quotidian Which sometime doth me greatly shake With faithless fears which makes me quake Anon mad Anger boyles my blood Breaths out ill humors like a Flood O purge out quite this Malady And passions tune to Harmony So shall such holy temp'rament Give health to both with sweet content And fear
an Apprehension of Death The Reprieve folio 389 Vpon God's great Goodness and Bounty in giving him Sixteen Children by one and his only Wife The Bee-Hive folio 428 D Drowning Drought Dead Corps Câ—ncerning this Deliverance Three several times from Drowning The Tempest folio 359 The Angler folio 360 Vpon a great Drought and the Answer of Prayer in the Removal thereof Three Teaâ—â—â— successively viz. in the Teares 1637 1638 1639. The Lamentation folio 384 The Application and Petition folio 385 The Shower of Mercy folio 386 Vpon his sight of a dead Corps Earth's Jubilee folio 386 The Thanksgiving folio 387 The Tryumph folio 398 The Circle folio 399 E Evils of Diseases Viz. Surfeit Consumption Coughs Plurisie Agues c. Vpon his Recovery from a Surfeit from a Consumption from a Cough from a Plurisie and from Two dangerous Agues and other Diseases The Bethesda folio 393 F Fire Vpon God's preservation of his Houses Eleven times when aâ— Fire from being burnt or much dammaged The Extinguisher folio 406 G Gift Gain Vpon God's 〈…〉 goodness in giving him an Estate of above 3000. Pounds a Year and upon his Mercy in ordering the loss thereof to his much greater gain The Royal Exchange folio 432 H Horse Concerning his Recovery from several Hurts received by a Fall from his Horse in his Youth Youths Embleme folio 352 Concerning his Preservation from any harm by Eight other several Falls from his Horse The Octonary folio 353 I Infection Vpon God's gracious Preservation of his Horses and Stock from Infection in Years of a great Rot and Murrane The Shambles folio 403 K Killing Vpon GOD's Preserving him from Killing or being Kill'd in his Lodgings in Sommerset-House through a mistake The Invisible Guard folio 414 L Life Vpon God's gracious Preservation of him and his Families Life and Health in Years of great Sickness and Mortality The Protection folio 400 M Marriage Mistery Concerning the great and holy Mistery held forth in God's Ordinance of Marriage Epithelamium folio 378 N Noctious Disease of the small Pox. Vpon God's gracious deliverance of Him and his Wife Ten times from the Danger and Infection of that noctious Disease the small Pox when it broke out in their respective Families The House of Correction folio 418 O Oversight Vpon God's gracious preserving many Persons of his Family from being hurt or kill'd by the careless oversight of a Servant discharging a Gun laden with Bullets in the Room Providence folio 425 P Plague 〈…〉 from the Infection of the Plague The Antidote folio 351 Q Quarry-Pit Concerning his being preserved from falling Horse and Man into a deep Quarry-Pit in the Night The Pitt folio 357 R Robbers Concerning his deliverance from Robbers when Way-laid by them The Rescue folio 365 S Spider Vpon God's preservation of Him and his Wife from poisoning by a great Spider found at the bottom of their Cup. The Preservative folio 421 T Travel Concerning his deliverance in his Travel and Return to his House from being Smothered as others then were in a great Snow The Snowy Land-Skip folio 362 V Vices Concerning God's gracious preservation of Him from the Vices of the Times when left young without an Over-seer in the City of London The Metropolis folio 370 W Wife Concerning God's gracious providence and goodness to Him in the gift of a good Wife The good Wife folio 374 AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Of the Significant Titles prefixt to the several Poems with their respective Folioes for the more ready finding and turning to any of them A folio 351 THe Antidote folio 360 The Angler· B folio 333 The Bethesda C folio 399 The Circle folio 418 The House of Correction D folio 410 The Deliverance E folio 378 The Epithelamium folio 406 The Extinguisher folio 432 The Royal Exchange F  G folio 414 The Invisible Guard H folio 355 The Hurricane folio 428 The Bee-Hive I folio 386 Earths Jubilee K  L folio 362 The Snowy Landskip folio 384 The Lamentation M folio 370 The Metropolis N folio 348 The New-Birth O The Octonary folio 353 P The Pit folio 357 The Petition folio 385 The Protection folio 400 The Preservative folio 421 The Providence folio 425 Q  R The Remembrancer folio 349 The Rescue folio 365 The Reprieve folio 389 S The Shower of Mercy folio 386 The Shambles folio 403 T The Tempest folio 359 The Tipe and Anti-Tipe folio 379 The Thanksgiving folio 386 The Triumph folio 387 V folio 398 The Vmphire folio 381 W The good Wife folio 374 X  Y Youths Emblem folio 352 The ERRATAES of the Press which the Courteous Reader is desired to amend PAge 357. Line 26 for went wert p. 361. l. 23. f. in into p. 364. l. 11. f. Temple Tempe p. 366. Mar. f. Eclet Ephes. p. 368. l. 4. f. Meadoes Meanders l. 26. f and subjects of fit subjects for p. 369. l. 30. f. time true p. 372. l. 7. f. by but. l. 35. f. comfort consort p. 373. l. 28. f. be by p. 374. l. 33. f. fild foild p. 376. l. 26. f. and Ar. p. 379. l. 6. f. t was twins p. 381. l. 24. f. commenting Cementing p. 382. l. 22. f. draugt drought l. 25. f. Affection Affliction l. 33. f. this his p. 364. l. 33. f. for or l. 34. f. Hive Huwe p. 386. l. 5. f. wings winds l. 11. f. World would l. 31. f. morning mourning p. 387. l 6. f. feaversh feaverish l. 16. f. Health Heath p. 388. l. 16. f. preluge prelude p. 390. l. 23. f. disasters distempers p. 399. l. 3â— f. Chinicke Chimicke p. 403. Mar. f. Gen. Lamon p. 406. l. 4. f. varest rarest l. 31. f. downe downie p. 410. Maâ— f. Ecletias 1.7.3.1.3.7.8 f. Genes 10 Genes 19. p. 411. l. 28. leave out O. p. 416. l. 30. f. shakes shales p. 419. l. 5. f. your you p. 424. Mar. f. Psal. 6.43 Psal. 64.3 p. 427. Mar. f. Gen 15. â—7 Gen. 15.5 f. Gen. 22. p. Gen. 22.17 f. Gen. 46. Gen. 16. â— p. 430. Mar. f. Job 43. Job 42. p. 432. l. 14. f thinges Changes NOAH'S Dove OR AN EPISTLE OF PEACE Directed to his Intirely affected Brethren The PRESBYTERIAN AND CONGREGATIONAL MEN As a Probable means for their Agreement and Union IMPRIMAT Joseph Carill LONDON Printed for T. W. for Ed. Husband Printer for the House of Commons 1645. NOAH'S Dove OR AN EPISTLE OF PEACE Directed to his Entirely affected Brethren the Presbiterians and Congregational-men as a probable means for their Agreement and Union Sincerely Beloved I Have read of Two Children contending in the Womb of their Mother the one beloved the other hated but ye are both Jacob's both the Israel of God O far be it from such Brethren to rend and lacerate their Mothers bowels or to fall out in the way Are we not one Body and have we not all one spirit
Church the Body of Christ to which he hath promised his presence and spirit of truth to the end and therefore must as to each particular State or Church though not infallibly yet prudentially end and conclude by obedience either active or passive the discenting Churches whom the civil Magistrate after the Churches Excommunication is to order by Banishment or lesser punishment according as their Doctrines shall be more or less prejudicial to the State wherein they live Which since they suffer as evil doers is as to that Common-wealth a civil and necessary act of preservative Justice not an inforcing of Conscience or Persecution Thus fervently beseeching the blessing of the All-wise God upon my poor endeavours trusting that in the Bowels of love and charity I have in sincerity and plainness declared unto you the mind of Christ in all humility I conclude The unworthiest of all the Servants of the Lord Jesus J. H. FINIS Matth. 6.21 Matth. 6.20 Matth. 13.44 Hebr. 11.1 1 Cor. 9 2â— N. B. Historical Faith Ezek. 49.3 Genes 28.12 Genes 3.1 Numb 13. Revel 22.1 Psal. 75 6 7. Psal. 10.16 Psal. 82.6 Genes 41.45 Dan. 1.7 1 Sam. 18.21 Esth. â— 15 Luk. 12.32 2 Pet. 1.4 1 Ep. Joh. 3.1 Rev. 4.4 John 7.37 Esa. 7.14 Dan. 6.26 Luke 2.28 Num. 23.17 Luke 1.47 Mark 5.7 Temporary Faith Genes 4.3 Gen. 19.1 1 Sam. 10.1 1 Sam. 10.24 1 Sam. 10 10. 1 Sam. 11.15 1 Sam. 14.38 1 Sam. 15.24 1 Sam. 10.21 1 Sam. 10.27 1 Sam. 11.6 1 Sam. 28.3 1 Sam. 28.7 1 Sam. 28 1â— Acts 5.1 Psal. 94.9 Matth. 24.51 1 Cor. 2.10 Matth. 23.13 John 6.30 John 6.42 John 6.60 John 6.68 1 Cor. 1.20 Matth. 7.22 Miraculous Faith 1 Cor. 11.27 Matth. 22.39 John 4.16 1 Cor. 13.2 Matth. 10.1 Luke 10.17 John 7.6 Acts 4.30 Gen. 3.6 John 6.34 Rom. 8.7 Psal. 51.10 Ephes. 2.1 Rom. 1.20 Mat. 21.19 Mat. 7.19 Luk. 13.6 Joh. 13.1 Joh. 6.47 The means of Faith Rom. 12.3 Rom. 10.17 Ejaculation Christ the object of Faith Son of God Esay 55.3 Ejaculation Matt. 11.25 Esay 49.15 Mark 10.33 â— Canticles Ephes. 2.2 Ephes. 2.1 Ephes. 2.2 1 Joh. 4.10 Titus 3.5 Christ was born of the Virgin Mary Persecuted by Herod Luke 2.46 Mat. 4.1 Mat. 11.19 Mat. 12.24 2 Cor. 8.9 James 1.12 Psal. 110. â— Esay 43.2 John 1.14 Christs Agony in the Garden Mat. 25.39 Esay 50.6 Rom. 11.33 Mat. 26.67 John 19.1 Esay 53.5 Christs Condemnation by Pilate Psal. 84.6 Mat. 10.38 Ezek. 37.1 Rom. 5.15 Christ conceived by the Holy Ghost Rom. 5.16 Luke 15.7 Christs crucifying Ejaculation Luke 16.21 Job 16.2 Luke 19.38 Luke 23.21 Matt. 27.46 Matt. 28.42 Luke 16.31 Rom. 11.33 Ephes. 3.18 19. James 1.17 2 Tim 2.19 Of Christs Death Luke 23.34 Luke 23.46 1 Cor. 1â— 54 c. Christs burial Hosea 13.14 Mark 3.27 Christs victory over Hell Revel 20.1 Of Christs Resurrection Judg. 5.1 Christs Ascention Acts 1.11 Acts 7.56 Ezech. 47.8 Mat. 9.12 Ezek. 36.31 Mans misery by nature 1. In his mind 1 Cor. 2.14 2. In his understanding Esay 29.9 Acts 20.9 Rom. 10.8 3. In his Conscience Mark 5.2 Gen. 4.13 1 Sam. 18.10 Matt. 27.5 Revel 3.17 Matt. 13.14 In his will 2 Kings 18.3 Judges 17.6 Jam. 3.11 Jam. 1.13 The affections Gen. 1.27 Rom. 7.24 Of the disorder in the affections in particular Of Love 1 Joh. 4.19 Jerem 2 13. Contemplation Matt. 22.37 1 John 2.7 John 3.11 Of Joy In riches Men cannot joy Job 21.13 Job 27.16 Job 27.17 Nor in honours Eccles. 10.7 Nor in pleasures Job 21.12 1 Tim. 5.6 Not in wisdom 1 King 4.30 Eccl. 1.17 18. Contemplation Matt. 16.11 Psal. 51.12 Of Fear Dan. 5.6 Gen. 4.13 Mat. 27.5 Hebr. 5.7 1 Cor. 15.47 Gen. 3.8 Contemplation Psal. 2.10 114.7 Psal. 34.9 Psal. 119.110 Phil. 2.12 Rom. 11.29 Exod. 33.13 Exod. 34.6 Of the Body Of the Eyes sinfulness Gen. 3.6 Gen. 6.2 Gen. 9.22 2 Sam. 11.2 Of the Eares Acts 12.23 2 Chro 24.17 Exod. 32.1 Dan. 3.14 Matt. 27.24 1 Sam. 26.8 Prov. 7.21 Gen. 39.7 Contemplation Of the smelling Esay 3.24 Of Fasting Ezek. 16.49 Luke 12.16 Luke 16.19 Contemplation Of the Truth 2 Sam. 11.2 Contemplation Psal. 8.4 Psal. 1.4 Luke 3.17 Rom. 7.24 Luke 10.30 Ezek. 16.4 Of Christs Priestly office Gen. 1.31 Gen. 2.17 Dan. 6.12 Rom. 8.33 1 Tim. 2.5 Rom. 6.23 Psal. 37.6 Rom. 6.6 1 Cor. 15.55 Rev. 20.14 Rev. 12.10 John 5.18 Heb. 9.14 Heb. 10.21 22. Gala. 3.15 Rom. 8.2 Contemplation Rom. 10.4 Luke 23.20 (a) Heb. 5 6. (b) Exo. 30.30 (c) Heb. 9.7 (d) Heb. 9.14 (e) Heb 9.12 (f) Heb. 9.24 Heb. 1.5 Rev. 13.8 Mat. 3.17 Of Christs Intercession John 3.16 Rom. 5.19 John 2.17 Luke 13.19 Mat. 12 20. Rom. 8.26 Heb. 9.24 Heb. 7.25 Rom. 10.4 1 Cor. 1.30 John 14.6 Of Christs Satisfaction Psal. 8.4 Of Justification 1 King 19.11 Heb. 1â— 18 Verse 19. Verse 22. Verse 24. Exod. 34.7 Verse 8. Forgivenesses of Sins Psal. 32.1 1 Ep. Joh. 1.8 Mat. 6.12 Rom. 5.18 Heb. 2.15 Eph. 2.1 Rom. 5.10 Eph. 2.3 Psal. 32.1 Of imputative righteousness Gen. 1.31 Definition of imputative righteousness Exposition Proofs of our right to Christs imputative righteousness Psal. 133.2 Revel 6.11 Demonstrations from Scripture Revel 12.1 Mat. 22.11 Exod. 41.28 Gen. 41.14 Luke 15.22 Job 25.4 5 6. Luke 17.7 1 King 8.46 Esay 64.6 Luke 17.10 Luke 15.15 Rom. 8.16 17. Jerem. 33.16 1 Cor. 1.30 Rom. 10.4 General questions or objections answered 1 Quest. John 15.16 2 Quest. Mat. 21.42 Rom. 11.6 Exod. 32.12 Numb 14.16 Object â—â—m 5.18 Necessity of Justification 2 Kings 4.1 Exod. 32.11 Luke 5.20 Mat. 22.10 Rom. 7.24 Prophetical Office Mat. 5.6 Ephes. 2.20 Contemplation 2 Tim. 3.15 2 Kings 4.34 Numb 27.16 Acts 3.22 Heb. 3.3 Eph. 5.14 Joh. 5.25 Object Object Mat. 11.28 Mat. 9.13 Mat. 9.12 Luke 4.18 A DIALOGVE betwixt Christ and the Soul The Souls complaint against the mind and understanding Eph. 4.17 Christ. Joh. 1.9 John 9.39 1 Cor. 1.30 Psal. 18.28 Prov. 2.3 Eph. 2.8 Mat. 7.7 Jerem. 31.33 Luke 11.13 Soul Cant. 5.16.7.9 Against the Conscience Job 13.26 Christ. Prov. 18.14 Deut. 32.39 Jerem. 30.17 Jerem. 31.34 Esay 1.18 Colos. 1.14 Heb. 9.13 14. Soul Against hardness of heart Job 41.24 Mat. 13.15 Gen. 8.21 Gen. 6. â— Ezek. 18.30 Acts 3.19 Christ. Rom. 2.5 Acts 11.18 Ezek. 36.25 Psal. 114.8 Ezek. 36.26 27. Esay 57.15 Phil. 2.13 Col. 2.13 Rom. 9.15 Soules complaint of its unfaithful memory Psal. 46.1 Psal. 119.103 Psal. 119.16 Matth. 13.52 Jerem. 2.32 1 Kings 2.38 Luke 11.28 Deut. 6.8 9. Exod. 20.8 Jerem. 18.15 Eph. 2.12 Psal. 50.17 Job 8.13 Christ. Phil. 2.13 Rom. 8.32 Esay 49.13 Ezek. 16.60 62 63. Ezek. 20.43 John 14.26 Jerem. 31.33 Souls Complaint against her will Christ. Phil. 2.13 James 1.18 1 Cor. 1.31 Rom. 9.16 Souls complaint against her affections Against Love Mat. 22.37 Deut. 11.1 13. Prov. 8.17 1 John 2.15 John 3.16 2 Tim. 3.4 Rev. 3.16 Against Joy Rom. 4.17 John 15.11 Habac. 3.18 Cant. 1.4 Psal. 16.11 Mat.
of the Soul there are some conditions and estates so vitiated and overcome with maladies that they are forsaken of the Physician and left as desperate and past remedy In such a condition me-thinks I seem to be of whose heart by reason of festred corruption it may be said as Job of Leviathan That it is as firme as a Stone yea as hard as a piece of the nether Milstone of whom also thine own speech to the Jews may be verified That my heart is waxed gross and my eares are dull of hearing and my eyes are closed least at any time I should see with my eyes and hear with my eares and should understand with my heart and should be converted and thou shouldst heal me Is then Lord my heart such a Rock and the imaginations thereof wholly and continually evil How can then the pure streams of Repentance flow from thence which is the condition on my part in thy Covenant of mercy and pardon witness thy own words delivered by the Prophet Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine And that in thy Gospel preached by thy Apostle Repent yee and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Fear not my redeemed nor be dismaid as though any thing was impossible unto God What seems difficult because of thy nature shall be made easie through my grace Think not my Word which is the word of life shall become the savour of death unto any of mine Thou complainest that by it thou hast found thy hardness of heart which thou sayest excludes repentance and consequently pardon O be not deceived here 's no cause of despair but of hope and thankfulness since my Word hath wrought that blessed work upon thee for which I ordained it Having not only selected but prepared thee for my cure There is a reprobate and sick sort of Men I confess Who after their hardness and impenitent Hearts treasure up unto themselves wrath against the Day of wrath Such were those Jews whose insensibleness did sufficiently prove their deadness But thy Eares are bored to give my Word entrance Thy Eyes are opened to behold therein as in a Mirrour thy spots and many defects And thy Heart is agil and willing to know and accuse thy self Therefore thou shalt be converted and I will heal thee If there should be impossibilities imposed on thee in my Covenant how could I then be just And shall not the Judge of all the World do right Or if thy work should either precede or assist mine should not that act of thine though the least detract from my free mercy and make my grace no more grace O cursed be such Sathan-like pride of dust and ashes that thus lifts up it self against my omnipotency mercy and all other my attributes aspiring even unto my Throne of Glory O know that those commands proclaimed in the Old Testament by my Prophets were given as preparatives to the New What I require of thee is my due why I require it of thee is my mercy that so running from me as a Judge thou mightest run to me as a Saviour Who grants both to Jew and Gentile repentance unto life Which conversion since it hath wrought it on thee receive and apply what my mercy out of the same word hath extracted for thee Are thy thoughts only evil I will sprinkle clean Water upon thee and thou shalt be clean from all thy filthiness Is thy Heart a Stone which cannot relent I am he that turns the Rockie Heart into a Well as the Rock in Horeb into standing Water and the Flint into a Fountain of Waters Yea a new Heart also will I give thee and a new Spirit will I put within thee and I will take away thy stony Heart out of thy Flesh and I will give thee a Heart of Flesh. And I will put my Spirit within thee and cause thee to walk in my Statutes For I dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive him That so all my Enemies with shame here and torment hereafter may be inforced to confess that it is I that worketh in thee both to will and to do of my good pleasure quickning those that were dead in sins and trespasses As also that I am Lord Paramount over all my Creatures Having mercy on whom I will have mercy and whom I will I harden O my Lord Thou art my refuge and strength a very present help in time of trouble How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey to my Mouth O that they were so fixed in my mind and imprinted in my memory that they might remain with me for ever But blessed Saviour this is my misery that though for the present I may rejoyce with David yet for the future I cannot promise and say with him I will not forget thy Word For whereas in my Primitive nature thou didst indue my Soul with a serviceable and faithfull memory to be as it were her treasury or magazine from whence like that wise House-holder in thy Gospel she might upon all occasions bring forth things new and old I finde that Cyttadel battered and possest by my corruptions Who have fore-closed and lodged themselves therein So that the complaint of Jeremy is verified of me as well as of that People that have forgotten Thee Days without number O Lord if the Cistern be broken where shall the thirsty be refreshed my barrenness watered what doth it avail that my Eares as Buckets do continually draw up and are filled from thee the Fountain of life with quickning promises and saving directions if the receptacle and Cistern my memory be faulty and faithless As the Body which wants the retentive faculty and vomits up its sustenance giving neither time of Chilefaction to the Stomach nor of making blood to the Livour can receive little nourishment So that Soul which retains not the spiritual Manna thy Word in the memory that there it might be disgested by Meditation and converted into practice can never thrive in holiness and live spiritually It may be for the present I may say of thy Word as Shimei of Solomon's Thy saying is good When as soon after it will be forgotten and without thy mercy prove to me as that to him death and bitterness in the end Further this holy retention is not only of excellent and necessary use in thine but also highly by thee commended required and commanded Thine own Mouth pronouncing Him to be rather blessed that bears thee in his heart than her that bore thee in her Wombe a spiritual enjoying being far above a corporal Yea for this cause and to help this dangerous defect didst thou ingrave thy Law upon Tables and commanded it to be written upon the most perspicuous places of the House And in the glorious and holy Decalogue it self thou didst
that a general Assembly differs but in Name from a Conclave of Cardinals or Prelatical Synod that every Member of the Church is free and ought not in matters of Faith to conclude himself by Proxy that no Church hath power over another or brethren since the Apostles have dominion over the Consciences of their brethren that their platform of Church Government ought to be and is Jure Divino that the Evangelical Scripture sets forth theirs and no other Now dear Brethren give me your pardon and leave with Moses to step in betwixt your Combatings with his Abraham's words Why do ye contend being ye are Brethren it may be God giving a blessing and each of you in his hand I shall in my Preposition be a Medium to unite you only despise not my endeavours since the Lord hides many things from the wise and prudent and reveales them to Babes But to proceed I observe neither of you arrogate to your selves an infallibility but piously seek an Orthodox and prudential way of Government for the attaining and preserving GOD's truth blessed are your endeavours yea they shall be blessed Wherefore I ask the Presbiterians Why do ye extol and lift up a general Assembly above the rest of the Flock of Christ To the Independents I say Why do ye prefer the Judgment of one particular Congregation before the joynt Votes of all refined Christian Churches of the Kingdome surely the first will yield to me that where most of God's People are in their judgment there is the greatest measure of his Spirit and to such Assemblies principally and to their Votes are made all those gracious promises I need not quote the places concerning Christ's Spirit and Presence I mean to such a Multitude not of Men only but of purged and visible Believers The other I presume both from Grounds of Scripture and Reason will grant that could the Votes of all the reputed and received Members of Christ of their several Churches be joyntly taken and in one place they must be accepted and are but as the Vote of one great Congregation which though it hath an increase of Ministers and Elders yet according to a true definition for Essence is a Church and that more eminently though not more truly than the particular Congregations of whom it consists even as an Assembly made up of many Families called by the Apostles Churches of God is more excellent than its subdivisions But that I may make good by Scripture this incorporaing of Churches conjuncture and union of Votes I shall remember you of these Three Chief Proofs and Lights of Church Government both for Doctrine and manners The first shewes the Primitive and Apostolique way of ending Controversies in Doctrine by the summoning that great Assembly of the Members of the Churches of Jerusalem and Judea of which Churches read Acts 11.1 and Gallat 1.22 Therefore called a Multitude Acts 15.12 In which the Apostles although indued with an infallible Spirit and the Elders of the Churches did not only Vote and Decree matters though that in many cases wherein the People consents such Votes may be and are necessary expedient and lawful but the whole Church Verse 22. which compared with Acts 2. Verse 41. wherein Three Thousand are said to be converted and with Acts 4. Verse 4. wherein Five Thousand were by One Sermon converted clearly demonstrates that this Assembly was composed of many Congregations as further appeares from the Apostles Teaching and Preaching in every House Acts 5.42 How else could Eight Thousand Men besides Women and Children be taught and edified The like is proved from the Election and choice of the Seven Deacons by the Vote of the Multitude Acts 6.5 where the Apostles and Elders also were present yea those whom the Holy Ghost Acts 2.47 calls a Church in a Nationall respect he calls Churches Acts 9.31 in a Congregational consideration And lastly in Corinth there more than probably appeares to be many Congregations else whence or where were these discentions and divisions some saying I am of Paul others I am of Apollo of Cephas 1 Cor. 1.12 All the Members of which were commanded to meet in one Assembly for the Excommunication of the incestuous Persons 1 Cor. 5.4 Where note they were to meet to whom the Epistle was directed and who are admonished to mourn But the Epistle and Exhortation was directed to the whole Church of Corinth and not to the Elders only Ergo the whole Congregation when they shall desire it have a right to a Vote and censure Having thus fully proved by Scripture that in Cities and Provinces and consequently in Kingdomes the Members of particular Congregations may and were by command to meet for the deciding of any great difference yea the Apostles though of an infallible Spirit did not contradict but gave both approbation and institution to that liberty I shall with humblest submission offer this following preposition as a right and fit Medium of reconciliation That in all great Schismes and Heresies over-spreading whole Churches if the breach cannot be made up by advice argument and subordinate Discipline either Congregational or Presbyterian an Appeal be made to a general Assembly who after the stating disputing and voting such Points in difference together with the merit of the offence the Recusant Church or Churches notwithstanding continuing unsatisfied that then the Assembly adjourn that Sessions for Three Moneths in which time the Assembly Members of each Congregation to be ordered after Fasting and Prayer to state the Question and declare their Arguments and Judgment of the General Assembly to their particular Churches and so accordingly at that Meeting receive and bring up each Churches Vote and Sentence with the number because of the disproportion of Parishes summ'd up of those that affirm and those that discent that so at the next Session the Question may be decided and concluded by the major Vote both of Churches and Members which Scripture-way will not only by a Religious Policy from time to time discover the temper pulse and inclination of the whole Kingdome and consequently administer a great help and direction to Government but will give full satisfaction to all unless to obstinate Hereticks as being the Judgment and Vote even by the Pole of all the visible and undividual Christians of the Kingdome politically united as in one Congregation yea the disobedient will be left without excuse and justly lyable to their Sentence of Excommunication But put the Question a considerable number of Churches in the Kingdome give in their Vote with a new opinion hazarding a rent and division in the Nation I Answer that upon so sad an occasion our Church in imitation of the ancient calling of General Counsels upon the over-flowing of Heresie ought to desire the Judgment and assistance and that by additional Votes if it may be of all the reformed Churches in the World which comes neerest to the Judgment of the holy Catholick