and to thy glorious Father so that I poore worme dust dung even I might be one even as thou art in the Father and the Father in thee that I might be one in both Ob height depth bredth and length of thy love how incomprehensible is thy grace how heavenly my consolation And how hast thou wrought all this for me O my God my Lord my gracious Redeemer where shall I seek words or thoughts to set out this mercy wonderfull is thy love in all the rest and that my soule knoweth right well but in this how farre beyond all possibility of apprehension all expressions of wonder That my miserable mortality might be clothed upon and I be borne anew in the divine nature thou didst strip thy selfe of those robes of divine Majesty in which thou knewest it to be no robberie to be equall to God and wast borne in my weake nature and found in the servileforme of my fleshly infirmities Thou gavest thy body thou gavest thy soule for my sinne thou wast bound thou wast mockt thou wast scourged condemned nailed and dead on the crosse Thou oh mirrhor oh infinite miracle of mercy thou the love of the Father didst taste not onely gall and vineger but even wrath hel for me the child of wrath and brand of hell Oh my dead soule canst thou see all this and want coÌ„fort Can one cup of wine cheere thy heart and shall not such fruit of such a Vine fill thee with joyes unspeakeable and glorious Oh what is thy portion wheÌ„ such is the price what thine inheritance when such the purchase Rejoyce then oh my soule rejoyce evermore in such a Lord and such a love for whatsoever thou hast lost thou hast gained Christ lost but dung with him thou receivest whatsoever is truly good and partest for him with nothing but what in some respect is evill Have I lost Parents Children friends lands livings yet I have not lost Christ nor my Lord will not lose mee If I lose my life with the rest yet shall I not lose the life of Christ he is my life hee in life and death is my advantage Let Father Mother Brother Sister Wife Children forsake and hate me yet the Lord Jesus will never leave me never cease to love me and hee is better than a world of friends and kindred Oh my Lord to be in heaven without thee were exile but a sicke bed a loathsome prison with thee is an heavenly Paradise Why then should I be troubled seeing thou hast made mee to dwell in thee by faith and thou vouchsafest to dwel in me by thy blessed Spirit Onely thou my Saviour who hast loved mee to death make me ever to live in thee and in thy love thou who hast dyed for mee plant thy death in mee and burie my corruptions in thy grave Tho who wast crucified for me crucifie the world to me the flesh in mee and graft in mee the life of thy resurrection make oh make me to reâ—oyce in the fellowship of thy sufferings and in thy good time change this crowne of thornes into that of glory CHAP. XXI Comforts which flow from the holy Ghost AGaine with those former drawn from the two first persons of the blessed Trinity annexe the consolations of Gods holy Spirit who dwelleth in the faithfull Sweete and excellent are these comforts Neither is it in vaine that in specialty the holy Ghost is called the Comforter as being that person who is sent by the Father and the Sonne by himselfe to worke this effect in us Let us then remember that this blessed Spirit doth not onely dwell in us by his gifts faith love c. but personally which is evidently expressed Ephes. 1.13,14 You are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which or rather who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke cannot in ordinarie construction of Grammar agree with that of Spirit the one being of the neuter the other of the masculine but the gender purposely changed against use to shew that the person of the blessed Spirit is with us in us and so continues and stayes as an earnest of our inheritance and our full redemption in which respect wee are called his Temples 1 Corinth 6. 19. Thus also when the holy Ghost is promised us Ioh. 16. 13 14. our Saviour alters the gender and useth the masculine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee the Spirit of Truth and againe he not it shall glorifie me to shew that the very third person of Trinitie is given us yet hee dwels not in us as sometime in the Temple made with hands but as the soule rather dwels in the body so doth the holy Ghost dwel in the faithfull quickening sustaining leading them on to the rest of their soules and Lieging with us Look as in the body the hart and Head produce life sense and motion by the vitall and animall spirits which being sent by them and diffused into every particular member quicken and move it So the Spirit of Christ flowing from him into his mysticall bodie fils every part with life sense and motion It is the Spirit saith our Saviour so his Apostle that quickens Therefore is he called our life and they that live in the Spirit walk also or move in the Spirit There is also spirituall sense a taste whereby wee perceive the sweetnesse of God of the grace of God and the word of his grace whereby the spirituall man savours the things of the Spirit a spirituall touch and tendernesse when the Lord takes away the heart of stone and gives an heart of flesh a spirituall eye whereby the spirituall man discernes all things a spirituall hearing delighting in the Word and promise of God more than any musicall harmony a spirituall sent whereby the verie name of Christ is as an Oyntmeâ—t powred forth Now the holy Ghost doth not onely worke this comfort in us by faith giviâ—g us power to apprehend things absent or to come but applieth them more immediately by this verie sense so that the soule shall even feele with joy unspeakeable the consolations of God flow into it Thus the blessed Spirit doth first speake peace unto us from God and then gives oâ—r spirits an open eare to heare his voyce and know our peace that so we may come to finde our selves children of God and heires with Christ. Thus he doth not only spread a Table for us and there sets forth that Bread of heaven in the holy Ordinances of God but gives us power to eate making them more sweete to us than the hony-combe and thus brings us on to more fulnesse of growth and eternall life thorough Christ. Hence commeth it that a Christian can rejoyce in tribulation because this holy spirit sheds abroad in our harts that love of God which is better than life and gives us so palpable a sense of it that it beareth downe all other feelings before it See
wee hold fast what is harder to beleeve If God dyed for man shall not man live with God Shall not a mortall live aeternally for whom hee dyed who liveth aeternally Verily the afflictions of this life are so farre from being worthy of the glory which is purchased for us in the life to come that rather they are nothing to those comfortable nay glorious privileges which wee presently enjoy For what can any earthly misery which at the furthest proceedeth to a temporall death shew comparable with this union with God and glorious fellowship with the Father through Christ Wee are united to God by affinity by a spirituall and therefore indissoluble bond of marriage he hath married our nature nay our persons hath set his owne image on us given us his even the divine nature and so as he is our flesh so we flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone We are united to him by a spirituall consanguinity to the Father as our father Ioh. 20.17 to the Sonne as our brother Heb. 2.11 nay as members to the Head Eph. 5. 30. And because all fleshly and mixt union is no way comparable to that simple union of Spirits We are one Spirit with him 1 Cor. 6.17 that as there is no union like that of the Trinity of persons in the unity of the God-head so wee also should be united spiritually to our God That as the Father is in Christ and Christ in the Father so wee may bee one in them Goe to now Let all the world conspire against us to load our harts with affliction let sinfull flesh joyne with the world and all the infernal spirits with both if thou hast tasted this cordiall if ever thou hast truly relished the sweetnesse of the Lord Jesus the strength of thy heart all they shall effect is but this somewhat the sooner and closer to knit thy soule unto God in Christ and by with-drawing earthly sensuall to heap upon thee spirituall and eternall comforts CHAP. XX. The more close applying of this comfort by meditation NOw that wee may thoroughly digest this cordiall and finde some heart and strength in it let us quicken it by some such meditation Oh my soule is there any thing to bee compared unto the Lord Jesus Is not al in the world nay all the world and a world of worlds in respect of him losse and dung Hadst thou received no other pledge of Gods love no other comfort but Christ alone were noâ— this sufficient abundant nay an infinite testimony of his eternall love and a conâ—â—lation beyond all miserie But when hee is given thee what is not given thee when thou hast him who is Lord of all thou hast all things with gim Oh if thou hadst knowledge of this love of Christ which passeth knowledge what trouble what earthly griefe coâ—ld dismay thee how wholsome how pleasant how delectable how heavenly is the least tast of it O sweete gracious glorious Saviour whether I look up to thee my head in heaven or down to my selfe thy most unworthy meÌ„ber on earth whether I consider what great things thou hast done for my poore soule or how thou hast done theÌ„ I cannot but find infinit love in thee infinit coÌ„fort in thy love Thou art that true light all other borrowed from thee Thou art the brightnesse of thy fathers glorie making and sustaining all things Thou art the expresse Image of thy fathers person God equall to thy father The mighty God the everlastâ—ng Father the Prince of peace Thou art the King of glorie the King of Kings and Lord of Lords how faire how pleasant how full of ravishing delights is thy love Thy cheekes as a bed of spices as sweet flowers thy lips like Lillâ—es dropping sweet-smelling mirrhe thy mouth most sweet Thou art altogether lovely How is it then that I have found favour in thy sight who although once framed by thee after thine image yet wilfully giving up my selfe unto sinne and Satam became the most deformed the most abject the most polluted and silthy off-scouring of the world Oh my Lord I am â—nfinitely unable to conceive either thy glorious excelleÌ„ce or my lothsome vilenesse yet hast thou set thine heart upon such an one to love mee and expressed that love by such effects that neither I can finde words to utter it nor thoughts to apprehend it yet faine would I kindle and inflame my cold heart in the sight and sense of it If I cast downe mine eye to look upon my bottomlesse miserie I see my selfe shut up and imprisoned in unbeleefe bound in the chains of death condemned to hell where the pit had shut her mouth upon me my lifâ— consuming in poasting vanity my soule deligâ—tiâ—g in â—he service of such a mastâ—r whose wages is endlesse misâ—ry a slave in the world to Satan by disobedience and after in the other worlâ— a companion to him in infiniâ—e torment Snares fire brimstone and an horrible tempest this was the portion of my cup. And as my state was infinitely fearefull so altogether helpelesse No creature had either power or pitty to succour mee nay mine owne soule so farre from compassion of it selfe that it rejoyced and triumphed in this depth of hellish misery From this and farre greater calamitie then in this or any word can be expressed hast thou graciously rescued me Thou reachedst forth thy hand and hast plâ—cked me out of the belly of hel Thou hast drawne me out of the horrible pit where no stay was hast set my feet upon the rocke in a large place Now if I lift up mine eyes to take view of that glory to which thou hast so graciously advaÌ„ced me I find my tongue and heart yet farre more unaable to utter or conceive it Hadst thou left me to my self now after this deliveraÌ„ce in health and safety yet oh how wonderful had thy grace bin But this great this infinit mercy was a smal thing in thine eies O Lord God but hast promoâ—ed me to an inappeheÌ„sible height of glory with thy selfe Thou hast preferred mee to thy service and thy service is liberty nay thy service is a kingdome even to reigne on earth And as if all this were too little thou hast made me a sonne with thee to the same Father the Father of lights and what estate is any thing but dung to this Thou hast annexed me as an heire with thy selfe who art the heire of all things so that by thee I the most base drudge of sinne and Satan am lifted up to a throne crown to an immortall crown of glory such as never eye saw neuer eare heard neuer entred into the heart of man Thou hast washt me set thine owne beautious image upon me thou hast reconciled justified fully redeemed me raised and set mee with thy selfe in heavenly places and with all this and above all this thou hast knit and united me to thy selfe