and the seed of promise the old man and the new the flesh and the spirit and these have their lives distinct from each other the new man lives not the life of the old neither can the old man live the life of the new it is not one life that could maintain the opposite struglings of both these corrupt nature is it that gives and continues the life of the old man It is Christ that gives life to the new we cannot say but the old man or flesh is the man too For I know saith the chosen Vessell Rom. 7. 18. that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing but the spiritual part may yet better challenge the title For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Rom. 7. 22. That old man of ours is derived from the first Adam as we sinned in him so he liveth in us The second Adam both gives and is the life of our regeneration like as he is also the life of our glory the life that followes our second resurrection I am saith he the resurrection and the life What is it then whereby the new creature lives surely no other then the Spirit of Christ that alone is it that gives beeing and life to the renued soul Life is no stranger to us there is nothing wherewith we are so well acquainted yea we feel continually what it is and what it produceth It is that from whence all sense action motion floweth it is that which gives us to be what we are All this is Christ to the regenerate man It is one thing what he is or doth as a man another thing what he is or doth as a Christian As a man he hath eyes ears motions affections understanding naturally as his own as a Christian he hath all these from him with whom he is spiritually one the Lord Jesus and the objects of all these vary accordingly His naturall eyes behold bodily and materiall things his spirituall eyes see things invisible his outward ears hear the sound of the voice his inward ears hear the voice of Gods Spirit speaking to his soul his bodily feet move in his own secular wayes his spirituall walk with God in all the wayes of his Commandements His naturall affections are set upon those things which are agreeable thereunto he loves beauty fears pain and losse rejoyces in outward prosperity hates an enemy his renued affections are otherwise and more happily bestowed now he loves goodnesse for its own sake hates nothing but sin fears only the displeasure of a good God rejoyces in Gods favour which is better then life his former thoughts were altogether taken up with vanity and earthed in the world now he seeks the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 3. 1. Finally he is such as that a beholder sees nothing but man in him but God and his soul finde Christ in him both in his renued person and actions in all the degrees both of his life and growth of his sufferings and glory My little children saith Saint Paul Gal. 4. 19. of whom I travell in birth again untill Christ be formed in you Lo here Christ both conceived and born in the faithfull heart Formation followes conception and travell implies a birth Now the beleever is a new-born babe in Christ 1 Cor. 3. 1. 2 Pet. 2. 2. and so mutually Christ in him from thence he grows up to 1 Joh. 2. 14. strength of youth at last to perfection even towards the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ Ephes 4. 13. 2 Cor. 13. 9. Heb. 1. 6. And in this condition he is dead with Christ Rom. 6. 8. He is buryed with Christ Rom. 6. 11. He is alive again unto God through Christ Col. 3. 1. he is risen with Christ Rom. 8. 17. and with Christ he is glorified Yea yet more then so his Col. 1. 24. sufferings are Christs Christs sufferings are his Rom. 8. 17. He is in Christ an heir of glory Col. 1. 27. and Christ is in him the hope of glory SECT 10. A complaint of our insensiblenesse of this mercy and an excitation to a chearfull recognition of it DOst thou not now finde cause my son to complain of thy self as I confesse I daily do that thou art so miserably apt to forget these intimate respects between thy Christ and thee art thou not ashamed to think how little sense thou hast had of thy great happinesse Lo Christ is in thy bosome and thou feelest him not It is not thy soul that animates thee in thy renued estate it is thy God and Saviour and thou hast not hitherto perceived it It is no otherwise with thee in this case then with the members of thine own body there is the same life in thy fingers and toes that there is in the head or heart yea in the whole man and yet those lims know not that they have such a life Had those members reason as well as sense they would perceive that wherewith they are enlived thou hast more then reason faith and therefore mayest well know whence thou hast this spirituall life and thereupon art much wanting to thy self if thou dost not enjoy so usefull and comfortable an apprehension Resolve therefore with thy self that no secular occasion shall ever set off thy heart from this blessed object and that thou wilt as soon forget thy naturall life as this spirituall and raise up thy thoughts from this dust to the heaven of heavens Shake off this naturall pusillanimity and mean conceit of thy self as if thou wert all earth and know thy self advanced to a celestiall condition that thou art united to the Son of God and animated by the holy Spirit of God so is the life which thou now livest in the flesh thou livest by the faith of the Son of God who loved thee and gave himself for thee Gal. 2. 20. See then and confesse how just cause we have to condemn the dead-heartednesse wherewith we are subject to be possessed and how many worthy Christians are there in the world who bear a part with us in this just blame who have yeelded over themselves to a disconsolate heartlesnesse and a sad dejection of spirit partly through a naturall disposition inclining to dumpishnesse and partly through the prevalence of temptation For Satan well knowing how much it makes for our happinesse chearfully to reflect upon our interest in Christ and to live in the joyfull sense of it labours by all means to withdraw our hearts from this so comfortable object and to clog us with a pensive kinde of spirituall sullennesse accounting it no small mastery if he can prevail with us so far as to bereave us of this habituall joy in the holy Ghost arising from the inanimation of Christ living and breathing within us So much the more therefore must we bend all the powers of our souls against this dangerous and deadly machination of our spirituall enemy labour as for
our spirituall right neither gives us possession of them nor takes away the right and propriety of others Every man hath and must have what by the just Lawes of purchase gift or inheritance is derived to him otherwise there would follow an infinite confusion in the world we could neither enjoy nor give our own and only will and might must be the arbiters of all mens estates which how unequall it would be both reason and experience can sufficiently evince This right is not for the direption or usurpation of that which civill titles have legally put over to others there were no theft no robbery no oppression in the world if any mans goods might be every mans But for the warrantable and comfortable injoying of those earthly commodities in regard of God their originall owner which are by humane conveyances justly become ours The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse of it in his right what ever parcels do lawfully descend unto us we may justly possesse as we have them legally made over to us from the secondary and immediate owners There is a generation of men who have vainly fansied the founding of Temporall dominion in Grace and have upon this mistaking outed the true heirs as intruders and feoffed the just and godly in the possession of wicked inheritors which whether they be worse Common-wealths-men or Christians is to me utterly uncertain sure I am they are enemies to both whiles on the one side they destroy all civill propriety and commerce and on the other reach the extent of the power of Christianity so far as to render it injurious and destructive both to reason and to the Lawes of all well-ordered humanity Nothing is ours by injury and injustice all things are so ours that we may with a good conscience enjoy them as from the hand of a munificent God when they are rightfully estated upon us by the lawfull convention or bequest of men In this regard it is that a Christian man is the Lord of the whole Universe and hath a right to the whole creation of God how can he challenge lesse he is a son and in that an heir and according to the high expression of the Holy Ghost a co-heir with Christ As therefore we may not be high-minded but fear so we may not be too low-hearted in the under-valuing of our condition In God we are great how mean soever in our selves In his right the world is ours what ever pittance we enjoy in our own how can we go less when we are one with him who is the possessour of heaven and earth It were but a poor comfort to us if by vertue of this union we could only lay claim to all earthly things alas how vain and transitory are the best of these perishing under our hand in the very use of them and in the mean while how unsatisfying in the fruition All this were nothing if we had not hereby an interesse in the best of all Gods favours in the heaven of heavens and the eternity of that glory which is there laid up for his Saints far above the reach of all humane expressions or conceits It was the word of him who is the eternall word of his Father Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Joh. 17. 24. and not only to be meer spectators but even partners of all this celestiall blisse together with himself The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one Joh. 17. 22. Oh the transcendent and incomprehensible blessedness of the beleevers which even when they enjoy they cannot be able to utter for measure infinite for duration eternall Oh the inexplicable joy of the fun and everlasting accomplishment of the happy union of Christ and the beleeving soul more fit for thankfull wonder and ravishment of spirit then for any finite apprehension SECT 18. The means by which this union is wrought NOw that we may look a little further into the means by which this union is wrought Know my Son that as there are two persons betwixt whom this union is made Christ and the beleever so each of them concurs to the happy effecting of it Christ by his spirit diffused through the hearts of all the regenerate giving life and activity to them the beleever laying hold by faith upon Christ so working in him and these do so re-act upon each other that from their mutuall operation results this gracious union whereof we treat Here is a spirituall marriage betwixt Christ and the soul The liking of one part doth not make up the match but the consent of both To this purpose Christ gives his Spirit the soul plights her faith What interesse have we in Christ but by his Spirit what interesse hath Christ in us but by our faith On the one part He hath-given us his holy Spirit saith the Apostle 1 Thes 4. 8. and in a way of correlation we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God 1 Cor. 2. 12. And this spirit we have so received as that he dwels in us Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 5. 2. Gal. 2. 20. and so dwels in us as that we are joyned to the Lord and he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit On the other part we have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God so as now the life that we live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God who dwels in our hearts by faith Ephes 3. 17. O the grace of faith according to Saint Peters style 2 Pet. 1. 1. truly precious justly recommended to us by Saint Paul Ephes 6. 16. above all other graces incident into the soul as that which if not alone yet chiefly transacts all the main affairs tending to salvation for faith is the quickning grace Gal. 2. 20. Rom. 1. 17. the directing grace 2 Cor. 5. 7. the protecting grace Ephes 6. 16. the establishing grace Rom. 11. 20. 2 Cor. 1. 24. the justifying grace Rom. 5. 1. the sanctifying and purifying grace Act. 15. 9. faith is the grace that assents to apprehends applies appropriates Christ Heb. 11. 1. and here upon the uniting grace and which comprehends all the saving grace If ever therefore we look for any consolation in Christ or to have any part in this beatificall union it must be the main care of our hearts to make sure of a lively faith in the Lord Jesus to lay fast hold upon him to clasp him close to us yea to receive him inwardly into our bosomes and so to make him ours and our selves his that we may be joyned to him as our head espoused to him as our husband incorporated into him as our nourishment engraffed in him as our stock and laid upon him as a sure foundation SECT 19. The union
offer any thing to you which you are unwilling to receive nor put any thing upon you which you would disclaim as prejudiciall to your Creator and Redeemer It is abundant comfort to us that some part of us is in the fruition of that glory whereto we the other poor labouring part desire and strive to aspire that our head and shoulders are above water whiles the other lims are yet wading through the stream SECT 25. A recapitulation and sum of the whole Treatise TO winde up all my sonne if ever thou look for sound comfort on earth and salvation in heaven unglue thy self from the world and the vanities of it put thy self upon thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Leave not till thou findest thy self firmly united to him so as thou art become a limb of that body whereof he is head a Spouse of that husband a branch of that stem a stone laid upon that foundation Look not therefore for any blessing out of him and in and by and from him look for all blessings Let him be thy life and wish not to live longer then thou art quickned by him finde him thy wisdome righteousnesse sanctification redemption thy riches thy strength thy glory Apply unto thy self all that thy Saviour is or hath done Wouldst thou have the graces of Gods Spirit fetch them from his anointing Wouldst thou have power against spirituall enemies fetch it from his Soveraignty Wouldst thou have redemption fetch it from his passion Wouldst thou have absolution fetch it from his perfect innocence Freedome from the curse fetch it from his crosse Satisfaction fetch it from his sacrifice Cleansing from sin fetch it from his bloud Mortification fetch it from his grave Newnesse of life fetch it from his resurrection Right to heaven fetch it from his purchase Audience in all thy suits fetch it from his intercession Wouldst thou have salvation fetch it from his session at the right hand of Majesty Wouldst thou have all fetch it from him who is one Lord one God and Father of all who is above all through all and in all Eph. 4. 5 6. And as thy faith shall thus interesse thee in Christ thy head so let thy charity unite thee to his body the Church both in earth and heaven hold ever an inviolable communion with that holy and blessed fraternity Sever not thy self from it either in judgement or affection Make account there is not one of Gods Saints upon earth but hath a propriety in thee and thou mayst challenge the same in each of them so as thou canst not but be sensible of their passions and be freely communicative of all thy graces and all serviceable offices by example admonition exhortation consolation prayer beneficence for the good of that sacred community And when thou raisest up thine eyes to heaven think of that glorious society of blessed Saints who are gone before thee and are now there triumphing and reigning in eternall and incomprehensible glory bless God for them and wish thy self with them tread in their holy steps and be ambitious of that crown of glory and immortality which thou seest shining upon their heads AN HOLY RAPTURE OR A PATHETICALL MEDITATION OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST By J. H. B. N. The Contents § 1. THe love of Christ how passing knowledge how free of us before we were § 2. How free of us that had made our selves vile and miserable § 3. How yet free of us that were professed enemies § 4. The wonderfull effects of the love of Christ 1. His Incarnation § 5. 2. His love in his sufferings § 6. 3. His love in what he hath done for us and 1. in preparing heaven for us from eternity § 7. His love in our redemption from death and hell § 8. His love in giving us the guard of his Angels § 9. His love in giving us his holy Spirit § 10. Our sense and improvement of Christs love in all the former particulars and first in respect of the inequality of our persons § 11. A further improvement of our love to Christ in respect of our unworthinesse and of his sufferings and glory prepared for us § 12. The improvement of our love to Christ for the mercy of his deliverance of the tuition of his Angels of the powerfull working of his good Spirit for the accomplishment of our salvation AN HOLYRAPTURE OR A Patheticall Meditation of the love of CHRIST SECT 1. The love of Christ how passing knowledge how free of us before we were WHat is it O blessed Apostle what is it for which thou dost so earnestly bow thy knees in the behalf of thine Ephesians unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Even this that they may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 14. 19. Give me leave first to wonder at thy suit and then much more at what thou suest for Were thine affections raised so high to thine Ephesians that thou shouldst crave for them impossible favours Did thy love so far over-shoot thy reason as to pray they might attain to the knowledge of that which cannot be known It is the love of Christ which thou wishest they may know and it is that love which thou sayest is past all knowledge What shall we say to this Is it for that there may be holy ambitions of those heights of grace which we can never hope actually to attain Or is it rather that thou supposest and prayest they may reach to the knowledge of that love the measure whereof they could never aspire to know Surely so it is O blessed Jesu that thou hast loved us we know but how much thou hast loved us is past the comprehension of Angels Those glorious spirits as they desire to look into the deep mystery of our redemption so they wonder to behold that divine love whereby it is wrought but they can no more reach to the bottome of it then they can affect to be infinite For surely no less then an endless line can serve to fadome a bottomelesse depth Such O Saviour is the abysse of thylove to miserable man Alas what dowe poor wrethed dust of the earth go about to measure it by the spans and inches of our shallow thoughts Far far be such presumption from us Onely admit us O blessed Lord to look at to admire and ad ore that which we give up for incomprehensible What shall we then say to this love Oh dear Jesu both as thine and as cast upon us All earthly love supposeth some kinde of equality or proportion at least betwixt the person that loves and is loved Here is none at all so as which is past wonder extreams meet without a mean For lo thou who art the eternall and absolute Being God blessed for ever lovedst me that had no being at all thou lovedst me both when I was not and could never have been but by thee It was from thy love that I had any being at all much more that when thou hadst given me
the least of them but a world of light and what are all of them but a confluence of so many thousand worlds of beauty and brightnesse met in one firmament And if this floor of thine heavenly Palace be thus richly set forth oh how infinite glory and magnificence must there needs be within Thy chosen Vessell that had the priviledge to be caught up thither and to see that divine state whether with bodily or mentall eyes can expresse it no otherwise then that it cannot possibly be expressed No Lord it were not infinite if it could be uttered Thoughts go beyond words yet even these come far short also He that saw it sayes Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him SECT 7. His love in our redemption from death and hell YEt is thy love O Saviour so much more to be magnified of me in this purchased glory when I cast down mine eyes and look into that horrible gulf of torment and eternall death whence thou hast rescued my poor soul Even out of the greatest contentment which this world is capable to afford unto mankinde to be preferred to the joyes of heaven is an unconceivable advantage but from the depth of misery to be raised up unto the highest pitch of felicity addes so much more to the blessing as the evill from which we are delivered is more intolerable Oh blessed Jesu what an hell is this out of which thou hast freed me what dreadfull horror is here what darknesse what confusion what anguish of souls that would and cannot die what howling and yelling and shrieking and gnashing what everlasting burnings what never slaking tortures what mercilesse fury of unweariable tormentors what utter despair of any possibility of release what exquisitenesse what infinitenesse of pains that cannot yet must be endured Oh God if the impotent displeasure of weak men have devised so subtle engins of revenge upon their fellow-mortals for but petty offences how can we but think thine infinite justice and wisdome must have ordained such forms and wayes of punishment for hainous sins done against thee as may be answerable to the violation of thy divine Majesty Oh therefore the most fearfull and deplored condition of damned spirits never to be ended never to be abated Oh those unquenchable flames Oh that burning Tophet deep and large and those streams of brimstone wherewith it is kindled Oh that worm ever gnawing and tearing the heart never dying never sated Oh ever-living death oh ever renuing torments oh never pitied never intermitted damnation From hence O Saviour from hence it is that thou hast fetcht up my condemned soul This is the place this is the state out of which thou hast snatcht me up into thy heaven Oh love and mercy more deep then those depths from which thou hast saved me more high then that heaven to which thou hast advanced me SECT 8. Christs love in giving us the guard of his Angels NOw whereas in my passage from this state of death towards the fruition of immortall glory I am way-laid by a world of dangers partly through my own sinfull aptnesse to miscarriages and partly through the assaults of my spirituall enemies how hath thy tender love and compassion O blessed Jesu undertaken to secure my soul from all these deadly perils both without out and within without by the guardance of thy blessed Angels within by the powerfull inoperation of thy good Spirit which thou hast given me Oh that mine eyes could be opened with Elishaes servant that I might see those troops of heavenly souldiers those horses and chariots of fire wherewith thou hast encompassed me every one of which is able to chase away a whole host of the powers of darknesse Who am I Lord who am I that upon thy gracious appointment these glorious spirits should still watch over me in mine uprising and down lying in my going out and coming in that they should bear me in their arms that they should shield me with their protection Behold such is their majesty and glory that some of thy holiest servants have hardly been restrained from worshipping them yet so great is thy love to man as that thou hast ordained them to be ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Surely they are in nature far more excellent then man as being spirituall substances pure intelligences meet to stand before the throne of thee the King of glory What a mercy then is this that thou who wouldst humble thy self to be lower then they in the susception of our nature art pleased to humble them in their offices to the guardianship of man so far as to call them the Angels of thy little ones upon earth How hast thou blessed us and how should we blesse thee in so mighty and glorious attendants SECT 9. His love in giving us his holy Spirit NEither hast thou O God meerly turn'd us over to the protection of those tutelary spirits but hast held us still in thine own hand having not so strongly defenced us without as thou hast done within Since that is wrought by thine Angels this by thy Spirit Oh the Soveraign and powerfull influences of thy holy Ghost whereby we are furnished with all saving graces strengthned against all temptations heartned against all our doubts and fears enabled both to resist and overcome and upon our victories crowned Oh divine bounty far beyond the reach of wonder So God the Father loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life So God the Son loved the world of his elect that he gave unto them the holy Spirit of promise whereby they are sealed unto the day of redemption whereby according to the riches of his glory they are strengthened with might in the inner man by the vertue whereof shed abroad in their hearts they are enabled to cry Abba Father Oh gifts either of which are more worth then many worlds yet through thy goodnesse O Lord both of them mine how rich is my soul through thy divine munificence how over-laid with mercies How safe in thine Almighty tuition How happy in thy blessed possession Now therefore I dare in the might of my God bid defiance to all the gates of hell Do your worst O all ye principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in high places doe your worst God is mine and I am his I am above your malice in the right of him whose I am It is true I am weak but he is omnipotent I am sinfull but he is infinite holinesse that power that holinesse in his gracious application is mine It is my Saviours love that â—ath made this happy exchange of his righteousnesse for my sin of his power for my infirmity Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect
a perpetuall light the heaven of heavens is open to none but him thither his eye pierceth and beholds those beams of inaccessible glory which shine in no face but his The deep mysteries of godlinesse which to the great Clerks of the world are as a book clasped and sealed up lye open before him fair and legible and whiles those book-men know whom they have heard of he knowes whom he hath beleeved He will not suffer his Saviour to be ever out of his eye and if through some worldly interceptions he lose the fight of that blessed object for a time he zealously retrives him not without an angry theck of his own mis-carriage and is now so much the more fixed by his former flackning so as he will hence forth sooner part with his soul then his Redeemer The termes of entirenesse wherein he stands with the Lord of life are such as he can feel but cannot expresse though hee should borrow the language of Angels it is enough that they two are one spirit His reason is willingly captivated to his faith his will to his reason and his affections to both He fears nothing that he sees in comparison of that which he sees not and displeasure is more dreadfull to him then smart Good is the adequate object of his love which he duly proportions according to the degrees of its eminence affecting the chief good not without a certain ravishment of spirit the lesser with a wise and holy moderation Whether he do more hate sin or the evill spirit that suggests it is a question Earthly contents are too mean grounds whereon to raise his joy these as he baulks not when they meet him in his way so he doth not too eagerly pursue he may taste of them but so as he had rather fast then surfet He is not insensible of those losses which casualty or enmity may inflict but that which lies most heavily upon his heart is his sin This makes his sleep short and troublesome his meals stomachlesse his recreations listlesse his every thing tedious till he finde his soul acquitted by his great Surety in heaven which done he feels more peace and pleasure in his calm then he found horrour in the tempest His heart is the store-house of most precious graces That faith whereby his soul is established triumphs over the world whether it allure or threaten and bids defiance to all the powers of darknesse not fearing to be foiled by any opposition His hope cannot be discouraged with the greatest difficulties but bears up against naturall impossiblities and knows how to reconcile contradictions His charity is both extensive and servent barring out no one that bears the face of a man but pouring out it self upon the houshold of faith that studies good constructions of men and actions and keeps it self free both from suspicion and censure Grace doth not more exalt him then his humility depresses him Were it not for that Christ who dwels in him he could think himself the meanest of all creatures now he knows he may not disparage the Deity of him by whom he is so gloriously inhabited in whose only right he can be as great in his own thoughts as he is despicable in the eyes of the world He is wise to God-ward however it be with him for the world and well knowing he cannot serve two masters he cleaves to the better making choice of that good part which can never be taken from him not so much regarding to get that which he cannot keep as to possesse himself of that good which he cannot lose He is just in all his dealings with men hating to thrive by injury and oppression and will rather leave behind something of his own then filch from anothers heap He is not close fisted where there is just occasion of his distribution willingly parting with those metals which he regards only for use not caring for either their colour or substance earth is to him no other then it self in what â—hiew so ever it appeareth In every good cause he is bold as a Lion and can neither fear faces nor shrink at dangers and is rather heartned with opposition pressing so much the more where he finds a large door open and many adversaries and when he must suffer doth as resolutely stoop as he did before valiantly resist He is holily temperate in the use of all Gods blessings as knowing by whom they are given and to what end neither dares either to mis-lay them or to mis-spend them lavishly as duly weighing upon what tearmes he receives them and fore-expecting an account Such an hand doth he carry upon his pleasures and delights that they run not away with him he knows how to slacken the reins without a debauched kind of dissolutenesse and how to straiten them without a sullen rigour SECT 2. His expence of the day HE lives as a man that hath borrowed his time and challenges not to be an owner of it caring to spend the day in a gracious and well-governed thrift His first mornings task after he hath lifted up his heart to that God who gives his beloved sleep shall be to put himself into a due posture wherein to entertain himself and the whole day which shall be done if he shall effectually work his thoughts to a right apprehension of his God of himself of all that may concern him The true posture of a Christian then is this He sees still heaven open to him and beholds and admires the light inaccessible he sees the all-glorious God ever before him the Angels of God about him the evill spirits aloof off enviously groyning and repining at him the world under his feet willing to rebell but forced to be subject the good creatures ready to tender their service to him and is accordingly affected to all these he sees heaven open with joy and desire of fruition he sees God with an adoring awfulnesse he sees the Angels with a thankfull acknowledgement and care not to offend them he sees the evill spirits with hatred and watchfull indignation he sees the world with an holy imperiousnesse commanding it for use and scorning to stoop to it for observance Lastly he sees the good creatures with gratulation and care to improve them to the advantage of him that lent them Having thus gathered up his thoughts and found where he is he may now be fit for his constant devotion which he fals upon not without a trembling veneration of that infinite and incomprehensible Majesty before whom he is prostrate now he climes up into that heaven which he before did but behold and solemnly pours out his soul in hearty thanksgivings and humble supplications into the bosome of the Almighty wherein his awe is so tempered with his faith that whiles he labours under the sense of his own vilenesse he is raised up in the confidence of an infinite mercy now he renues his feeling interest in the Lord Jesus Christ his blessed Redeemer and labours to get in every
life to maintain this Fort of our joy against all the powers of darkness and if at any time we finde our selves beaten off through the violence of temptation we must chide our selves into our renued valour and expostulate the matter with our shrinking courage with the man after Gods own heart Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Psal 42. 11. 43. 5. SECT 11. An incitement to joy and thankfulnesse for Christ our life NEither is here more place for an heavenly joy then for height of spirit and raptures of admiration at that infinite goodnes mercy of our God who hath vouchsafed so far to grace his elect as to honour them with a speciall inhabitation of his ever-blessed Deity Yea to live in them and to make them live mutually in and to himself What capacity is there in the narrow heart of man to conceive of this incomprehensible favour to his poor creature Oh Saviour this is no small part of that great mystery wherinto the Angels desire to look 1 Pet. 1. 12. can never look to the bottome of it how shall the weak eyes of sinfull flesh ever be able to reach unto it When thou in the estate of thine humane infirmity offeredst to go down to the Centurions house that humble commander could say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof What shall we then say that thou in the state of thine heavenly glory shouldst vouchsafe to come down and dwell with us in these houses of clay and to make our breasts the Temples of thy holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. When thine holy mother came to visit the partner of her joy thy fore-runner then in the womb of his mother sprang for the joy of thy presence Luk. 1. 44. though distermined by a second womb how should we be affected with a ravishment of spirit whom thou hast pleased to visit in so much mercy as to come down into us and to be spiritually conceived in the womb of our hearts and thereby to give a new and spirituall life to our poor souls a life of thine own yet made ours a life begun in grace and ending in eternall glory SECT 12. The duties we owe to God for his mercy to us in this life which we have from Christ NEver did the holy God give a priviledge where he did not expect a duty he hath more respect to his glory then to throw away his favours The life that ariseth from this blessed union of our souls with Christ as it is the height of all his mercies so it cals for our most zealous affections and most effectuall improvement Art thou then thus happily united to Christ and thus enlived by Christ how entire must thou needs be with him how dear must thy valuations be of him how heartily must thou be devoted to him The spirit of man saith wise Solomon Prov. 20. 27. is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly and therefore cannot but be acquainted with his own inmates and finding so heavenly a guest as the Spirit of Christ in the secret lodgings of his soul applies it self to him in all things so as these two spirits agree in all their spirituall concernments The spirit it self saith the holy Apostle Rom. 8. 16. beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God and not in this case only but upon whatsoever occasion the faithfull man hath this Urim in his breast and may consult with this inward Oracle of his God for direction and resolution in all his doubts neither can he according to the counsell of the Psalmist Psal 4. 4. commune with his own heart but that Christ who lives there is ready to give him an answer Shortly our souls and we are one and the soul and life are so near one that the one is commonly taken for the other Christ therefore who is the life and soul of our souls is and needs must be so intrinsecall to us that we cannot so much as conceive of our spirituall being without him Thou needest not be told my son how much thou valuest life Besides thiâ—e own sense Satan himself can tell thee and in this case thou maist beleeve him Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Job 2. 4. What ransome can be set upon it that a man would stick to give though mountains of gold Psal 49. 7. though thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyle Micah 6. 7. Yea how readily do we expose our dear lims not to hazard only but to losse for the preservation of it Now alas what is our life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. 14. And if we do thus value a perishing life that is going out every moment what pâ—ice shall we set upon eternity If Christ be our life how precious is that life which neither inward distempers nor outward violences can bereave us of which neither can be decayed by time nor altered with crosse events Hear the chosen Vessell Phil. 3. 7 8. What things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ Yea doubtlesse I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and as one that did not esteem his own life dear to him in respect of that better alwayes saith he Act. 20. 24 bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body 2 Cor. 4. 10. How chearfully have the noble and conquering armies of holy Martyrs given away these momentany lives that they might hold fast their Jesus the life of their souls and who can be otherwise affected that knowes and feels the infinite happinesse that offers it self to be enjoyed by him in the Lord Jesus Lastly if Christ be thy life then thou art so devoted to him that thou livest as in him and by him so to him also aiming only at his service and glory and framing thy self wholly to his will and directions Thou canst not so much as eat or drink but with respect to him 1. Cor. 10. 31. Oh the gracious resolution of him that was rapt into the third heaven worthy to be the pattern of all faithfull hearts According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shal be ashamed but that with all boldnesse as alwayes so new also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain Phil. 1. 20 21. Our naturall life is not worthy to be its own scope we do not live meerly that we may live
our spirituall life Christ is the utmost and most perfect end of all our living without the intuition whereof we would not live or if we should our naturall life were no other then a spirituall death Oh Saviour let me not live longer then I shall be enlived by thee or then thou shalt be glorified by me And what rule should I follow in all the carriage of my life but thine thy precepts thine examples that so I may live thee as well as preach thee and in both may finde thee as thou hast truly laid forth thy self the way the truth and the life Joh. 14. 6. the way wherein I shall walk the truth which I shall beleeve and professe and the life which I shall enjoy In all my morall actions therefore teach me to square my self by thee what ever I am about to doe or speak or affect let me think If my Saviour were now upon earth would he do this that I am now putting my hand unto would he speak these words that I am now uttering would he be thus disposed as I now feel my self Let me not yeeld my self to any thought word or action which my Saviour would be ashamed to own Let him be pleased so to manage his own life in me that all the interesse he hath given me in my self may be wholly surrendred to him that I may be as it were dead in my self whiles he lives and moves in me SECT 13. The improvement of this life in that Christ is made our wisdome BY vertue of this blessed union as Christ is become our life so that which is the highest improvement not only of the raâ—ionall but the supernaturall and spirituall life is thereby also made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. Not that he only works these great things in and for us this were too cold a construction of the divine bounty but that he really become all these to us who are true partakers of him Even of the wisest men that ever nature could boast of is verified that character which-the divine Apostle gave of them long agoe Rom. 1. 21 22. Their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools and still the best of us if we be but our selves may take up that complaint of Asaph Psal 73. 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and of Agur the son of Jake Prov. 30. 2 3. Surely I am more brutish then man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy and if any man will be challenging more to himself he must at last take up with Solomon Eccl. 7. 23. I said I will be wise but it was far from me But how defective soever we are in our selves there is wisdome enough in our head Christ to supply all our wants He that is the wisdome of the Father is by the Father made our wisdome In him are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge saith the Apostle Col. 2. 3. So hid that they are both revealed and communicated to his own For God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. In and by him hath it pleased the Father to impart himselfe unto us He is the image of the invisible God Col. 1. 15. even the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person Heb. 1. 3. It was a just check that he gave to Philip in the Gospell Joh. 14 9. Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip he that hath seen me hath seen the Father And this point of wisdome is so high and excellent that all humane skill and all the so much admired depths of Philosophy are but meer ignorance and foolishnesse in comparison of it Alas what can these profound wits reach unto but the very outside of these visible and transitory things as for the inward forms of the meanest creatures they are so altogether hid from them as if they had no beeing and as for spirituall and divine things the most knowing Naturalists are either stone-blinde that they cannot see them or grope after them in an Egyptian darknesse For the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. How much lesse can they know the God of Spirits who besides his invisibility is infinite and incomprehensible only he who is made our wisdome enlightneth our eyes with this divine knowledge No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him Mat. 11. 27. Neither is Christ made our wisdome only in respect of heavenly wisdome imparted to us but in respect of his perfect wisdome imputed unto us Alas our ignorances and sinfull misprisions are many and great where should we appear if our faith did not fetch succour from our all-wise and all-sufficient Mediator Oh Saviour we are wise in thee our head how weak soever we are of our selves Thine infinite wisdome and goodnesse both covers and makes up all our defects The wife cannot be poor whiles the husband is rich thou hast vouchsafed to give us a right to thy store we have no reason to be disheartned with our owne spirituall wants whiles thou art made our wisdome SECT 14. Christ made our righteousnesse IT is not meer wisdome that can make us acceptable to God if the serpents were not in their kinde wiser then we we should not have been advised to be wise as serpents That God who is essentiall Justice as well as Wisdome requires all his to be not more wise then exquisitely righteous Such in themselves they cannot be For in many things we sin all such therefore they are and must be in Christ their head who is made unto us of God together with Wisdome Righteousnesse Oh incomprehensible mercy He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. what a marvellous and happy exchange is here we are nothing but sin Christ is perfect righteousnesse He is made our sin that we might be made his righteousnesse He that knew no sin is made sin for us that we who are all sin might be made Gods righteousnesse in him In our selves we are not only sinfull but sin In him we are not righteous only but righteousnesse it self Of our selves we are not righteous we are made so In our selves we are not righteous but in him we made not our selves so but the same God in his infinite mercy who made him sin for us hath made us his righteousnesse No otherwise are we made his righteousnesse then he is made our sin Our sin is made his by Gods imputation so
our best then unholy creatures full of pollution and spirituall uncleannesse It is his most holy Spirit that must cleanse us from all the filthinesse of our flesh and spirit 2. Cor. 7. 1. and work us daily to further degrees of sanctification He that is holy let him be holy still Rev. 22. 11. neither can there be any thing more abhorring from his infinite justice and holinesse then to justifie those souls which lie still in the loathsome ordure of their corruptions Certainly they never truly learnt Christ who would draw over Christs righteousnesse as a case of their close wickednesses that sever holinesse from justice and give no place to sanctification in the evidence of their justifying Never man was justified without faith and wheresoever faith is there it purifieth and cleanseth Act. 15. 9. But besides that the Spirit of Christ works thus powerfully though gradually within us That he may sanctifie and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word his holinesse is mercifully imputed to us That he may present us to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that we should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5. 26 27. so as that inchoate holinesse which by his gracious inoperation grows up daily in us towards a full perfection as abundantly supplyed by his absolute holinesse made no lesse by imputation ours then it is personally his when therefore we look into our bosoms we finde just cause to be ashamed of our impurity and to loath those dregs of corruption that yet remain in our sinfull nature but when we cast up our eyes to heaven and behold the infinite holinesse of that Christ to whom we are united which by faith is made ours we have reason to bear up against all the discouragements that may arise from the conscience of our own vilenesse and to look God in the face with an awfull boldnesse as those whom he is pleased to present holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight Col. 1. 22. as knowing that he that sanctifieth and they than are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2. 11. SECT 16. Christ made our Redemption REdemption was the great errand for which the Son of God came down into the world and the work which he did whiles he was in the world and that which in way of application of it he shall be ever accomplishing till he shall deliver up his Mediatory Kingdome into the hands of his Father in this he begins in this he finishes the great businesse of our salvation For those who in this life are enlightned by his wisdome justified by his merits sanctified by his grace are yet conflicting with manifold temptations and strugling with varieties of miseries and dangers till upon their happy death and glorious resurrection they shall be fully freed by their ever-blessed and victorious Redeemer He therefore who by vertue of that heavenly union is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification is also upon the same ground made unto us our full Redemption Redemption implies a captivity We are naturally under the wofull bondage of the Law of sinne of miseries of death The Law is a cruell exactor for it requires of us what we cannot now do and whips us for not doing it for the Law worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. and as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse Gal. 3. 10. Sinne is a worse tyrant then he and takes advantage to exercise his cruelty by the Law For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Rom. 7. 5. Upon sin necessarily followes misery the forerunner of death and death the upshot of all miseries By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. From all these is Christ our Redemption from the Law for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. From sin for we are dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 11. Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. From death and therein from all miseries O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Cor. 15. 55 56 57. Now then let the Law do his worst we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. The case therefore is altered betwixt the law and us It is not now a cruell Task-master to beat us to and for our work it is our Schoolemaster to direct and to whip us unto Christ It is not a severe Judge to condemn us it is a friendly guide to set us the way towards heaven Let sinne joyne his forces together with the Law they cannot prevail to our hurt For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 3 4. Let death joyn his forces with them both we are yet safe For the Law of the spirit of life hath freed us from the Law of sin and of death Rom. 8. 2. What can we therefore fear what can we suffer while Christ is made our Redemption Finally as thus Christ is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption so whatsoever else he either is or hath or doth by vertue of this blessed union becomes ours he is our riches Eph. 1. 7. our strength Psal 27. 1. 28. 7. our glory Eph. 1. 18. our salvation 1 Thes 5. 9. Esa 12. 2. our all Col. 3. 11. he is all to us and all is ours in him SECT 17. The externall priviledges of this union a right to the blessings of earth and heaven FRom these primary and intrinsecal priviledges therefore flow all those secondary and externall wherewith we are blessed and therein a right to all the blessings of God both of the right hand and of the left an interesse in all the good things both of earth and heaven Hereupon it is that the glorious Angels of Heaven become our Guardians keeping us in all our wayes and working secretly for our good upon all occasions that all Gods creatures are at our service that we have a true spirituall title to them All things are yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 22 23 and ye are Christs and Christ Gods But take heed my son of mislaying thy claim to what and in what manner thou ought'st not There is a civill right that must regulate our propriety to these earthly things
thing for a man to hold constant to his own apprehensions Lord God! what a world do we meet with of those who mis-call themselves severall Religions indeed severall professions of one and the same Christianity Melchites Georgians Maronites Jacobites Armenians Abysines Cophti Nestorians Russians Mengrellians and the rest that fill up the large Map of Christianography all which as whiles they hold the head Christ they cannot be denyed the priviledge of his members so being such they are or should be indissolubly joyned together in the unity of spirit and maintenance of the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Jude 3. It is not the variety of by-opinions that should or can exclude them from having their part in that one Catholick Church and their just claim to the communion of Saints whiles they hold the solid and precious foundation it is not the hay or stubble 1 Cor. 3. 12. which they lay upon it that can set them off from God or his Church But in the mean time it must be granted that they have much to answer for to the God of peace and unity who are so much addicted to their own conceits and so indulgent to their own interesse as to raise and maintain new Doctrines and to set up new Sects in the Church of Christ varying from the common and received truths labouring to draw Disciples after them to the great distraction of souls and scandall of Christianity With which sort of disturbers I must needs say this age into which we are fallen hath been and is above all that have gone before us most miserably pestered What good soul can be other then confounded to hear of and see more then an hundred and fourscore new and some of them dangerous and blasphemous opinions broached and defended in one once famous and unanimous Church of Christ Who can say other upon the view of these wilde thoughts then Gerson said long since that the world now grown old is full of doting fancies if not rather that the world now near his end raves and talks nothing but fancies and frenzies How arbitrary soever these self-willed fanaticks may think it to take to themselves this liberty of thinking what they list and venting what they think the blessed Apostle hath long since branded them with an heavy sentence Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and by fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple But notwithstanding all this hideous variety of vain and heterodoxall conceptions he who is the truth of God and the Bridegroom of his Spouse the Church hath said Cant. 6. 9. My Dove my undefiled is one One in the main essentiall fundamentall verities necessary to salvation though differing in divers mis-raised Corollaries inconsequent inferences unnecessary additions feigned traditions unwarrantahle practises the body is one though the garments differ yea rather for most of these the garment is one but differs in the dressing handsomely and comly set out by one disguised by another Neither is it nor ever shall be in the power of all the fiends of hell the professed make-bates of the world to make Gods Church other then one which were indeed utterly to extinguish and reduce it to nothing for the unity and entity of the Church can no more be divided then it self It were no lesse then blasphemy to fasten upon the chaste and most holy husband of the Church any other then one Spouse In the Institution of Marriage did he not make one yet had he the residue of the spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a goodly seed Mal. 2. 15. That which he ordained for us shall not the holy God much more observe in his own heavenly match with his Church Here is then one Lord one Faith one Baptisme One Baptisme by which we enter into the Church one Faith which we professe in the Church and one Lord whom we serve and who is the head and husband of the Church SECT 21. The union of Christians in matter of affection HOw much therefore doth it concern us that we who are united in one common beleef should be much more united in affection that where there is one way there should be much more one heart Jer. 32. 39. This is so justly supposed that the Prophet Amos 3. 3. questions Can two walk together except they be agreed if we walk together in our judgments we cannot but accord in our wils This was the praise of the Primitive Christians and the pattern of their successors The multitude of them that beleeved were of one heart and of the soul Acts 4. 32. Yea this is the Livery which our Lord and Saviour made choice of whereby his meniall servants should be known and distinguished By this shall all men know that ye be my Disciples if ye have love to one another Joh. 13. 35. In vain shall any man pretend to a Discipleship if he do not make it good by his love to all the family of Christ The whole Church is the spiritull Temple of God every beleever is a living stone laid in those sacred wals what is our Christian love but the morter or cement whereby these stones are fast joyned together to make up this heavenly building without which that precious fabrick could not hold long together but would be subject to dis-joynting by those violent tempests of opposition wherewith it is commonly beaten upon There is no place for any loose stone in Gods edifice the whole Church is one entire body all the lims must be held together by the ligaments of Christian love if any one will be severed and affect to subsist of it self it hath lost his place in the body Thus the Apostle Eph. 4. 15 16. That we being sincere in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love But in case there happen to be differences in opinion concerning points not essentiall not necessary to salvation this diversity may not breed an alienation of affection That charity which can cover a multitude of sins may much more cover many small dissensions of judgement We cannot hope to be all and at all times equally enlightned at how many and great weaknesses of judgment did it please our mercifull Saviour to connive in his domestick Disciples They that had so long sate at the sacred feet of him that spake as never man spake were yet to seek of those Scriptures which had so clearly foretold his resurrection Joh. 20. 9. and after that were at a fault for the manner of his kingdome Acts 1. 6.
yet he that breaks not the bruised reed nor quenches the smoaking flaxe fals not harshly upon them for so foul an error and ignorance but entertains them with all loving respect not as followers only but as friends Joh. 15. 15. And his great Apostle after he had spent himself in his unweariable endeavours upon Gods Church and had sown the seeds of wholesome and saving doctrine every where what rank and noisome weeds of erroneous opinions rose up under his hand in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Colosse Philippi and Thessalonica These he labours to root out with much zeal with no bitternesse so opposing the errors as not alienating his affection from the Churches These these must be our precedents pursuing that charge of the prime Apostle 1 Pet. 3. 8. Finally be ye all of one minde having compassion one of another love as brethren be pitifull be courteous and that passionate and adjuring obtestation of the Apostle Phil. 2. 1 2. of the Gentiles If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde This is it that gives beauty strength glory to the Church of God upon earth and brings it nearest to the resemblance of that triumphant part above where there is all perfection of love and concord in imitation whereof the Psalmist sweetly Behold how good and joyfull a thing it is brethren to dwel together in unity Psal 133. 1. SECT 22. A complaint of divisions and notwithstanding them an assertion of unity SO much the more justly lamentable it is to see the manifold and grievous distractions of the Church of Christ both in judgement and affection Woe is me into how many thousand pieces is the seamlesse coat of our Saviour rent Yea into what numberlesse atomes is the precious body of Christ torn and minced There are more Religions then Nations upon earth and in each Religion as many different conceits as men If Saint Paul when his Corinthians did but say I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Cephas could ask Is Christ divided 1 Cor. 1. 12 13. when there was only an emulatory magnifying of their own teachers though agreeing and orthodox what think we would he now say if he saw hundred of Sect-masters and Heresiarchs some of them opposite to other all to the Truth applauded by their credulous and divided followers all of them claiming Christ for theirs and denying him to their gain-sayers would he not ask Is Christ multiplied Is Christ sub-divided Is Christ shred into infinites O God! what is become of Christianity How do evill spirits and men labour to destroy that Creed which we have alwayes constantly professed For if we set up more Christs where is that one and if we give way to these infinite distractions where is the communion of Saints But be not too much dismaid my son notwithstanding all these cold disheartnings take courage to thy self He that is truth it self hath said The Gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church Mat. 16. 18. In spight of all Devils there shall be Saints and those are and shall be as the scales of the Leviathan whose strong pieces of shields are his pride shut up together as with a close seal one is so near to another that no air can come betwixt them They are joyned one to another they stick together that they cannot be sundred Job 41. 15 16 17. In all the main principles of Religion there is an universal and unanimous consent of all Christians and these are they that constitute a Church Those that agree in these Christ is pleased to admit for matter of doctrine as members of that body whereof he is the head and if they admit not of each other as such the fault is in the uncharitablenesse of the refusers no lesse then in the error of the refused And if any vain and loose straglers will needs sever themselves and wilfully choose to go wayes of their own let them know that the union of Christs Church shall consist entire without them this great Ocean will be one collection of waters when these drops are lost in the dust In the mean time it highly concerns all that wish wel to the sacred name of Christ to labour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4. 3. and to renue and continue the prayer of the Apostle for all the professors of Christianity Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 15. 5 6. SECT 23. The necessary effects and fruits of this union of Christian hearts FAr be it from us to think this union of the hearts of Gods Saints upon earth can be idle and ineffectuall but where ever it is it puts forth it self in a like-affectednesse of disposition into an improvement of gifts into a communication of outward blessings to the benefit of that happy consociation We cannot be single in our affections if we be lims of a Christian community What member of the body can complain so as the rest shall not feel it Even the head and heart are in pain when a joynt of the least toe suffers no Christian can be afflicted alone It is not Saint Pauls case only Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not 2 Cor. 11. 29. Our shoulders are not our own we must bear one anothers burdens Gal. 6. 2. There is a better kinde of spirituall good fellowship in all the Saints of God They hate a propriety of passions Rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. Their affections are not more communicative then their gifts and graces those as they are bestowed with an intuition of the common good so they are improved Wherefore hath this man quicknesse of wit that man depth of judgement this heat of zeal that power of elocution this skill that experience this authority that strength but that all should be laid together for the raising of the common stock How rich therefore is every Christian soul that is not only furnished with its own graces but hath a speciall interest in all the excellent gifts of all the most eminent servants of God through the the whole world Surely he cannot be poor whiles there is any spirituall wealth in the Church of God upon earth Neither are or can these gifts be in the danger of concealment they are still put forth for the publick advantage As therefore no true Christian is his own man so he freely layes out himself by example by admonition by exhortation by consolation by prayer for the universall benefit of all his fellow members By example which is not a a little winning
come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men what a disparagement do we think it was for the great Monarch of Babylon for seven years together as a beast to converse with the beasts of the field Yet alas beasts and men are fellow-creatures made of one earth drawing in the same ayre returning for their bodily part to the same dust symbolizing in many qualities and in some mutually transcending each others so as here may seem to be some terms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like un to beasts and some beasts are in outward shape somewhat like unto men But for him that was and is God blessed for ever eternall infinite incomprehensible to put on flesh and become a man amongst men was to stoop below all possible disparities that heaven and earth can afford Oh Saviour the lower thine abasement was for us the higher was the pitch of thy divine love to us SECT 5. His love in his sufferings YEt in this our humane condition there are degrees One rules and glitters in all earthly glory another sits despised in the dust one passes the time of his life in much jollity and pleasure another wears out his dayes in sorrow and discontentment Blessed Jesu since thou wouldst be a man why wouldst thou not be the King of men since thou wouldst come down to our earth why wouldst thou not enjoy the best entertainment that the earth could yeeld thee Yea since thou who art the eternall Son of God wouldst be the son of man why didst thou not appear in a state like to the King of heaven attended with the glorious retinue of blessed Angels O yet greater wonder of mercies The same infinite love that brought thee down to the form of man would al so bring thee down being man to the form of a servant So didst thou love man that thou wouldst take part with him of his misery that he might take partwith thee of thy blessednesse thou wouldst be poor to enrich us thou wouldst be burdened for our ease tempted for our victory despised for our glory With what lesse then ravishment of spirit can I behold thee who wert from everlasting cloathed with glory and Majesty wrapped in rags thee who fillest heaven and earth with the majesty of thy glory cradled in a manger thee who art the God of power fleeing in thy mothers arms from the rage of a weak man thee who art the God of Israel driven to be nursed out of the bosome of thy Church thee who madest the heaven of heavens busily working in the homely trade of a foster-father thee who commandest the Devils to their chains transported and tempted by that foul spirit thee who art God all-sufficient exposed to hunger thirst wearinesse danger contempt poverty revilings scourgings persecution thee who art the just Judge of all the world accused and condemned thee who art the Lord of life dying upon the tree of shame and curse thee who art the eternall Son of God strugling with thy Fathers wrath thee who hadst said I and my Father are one sweating drops of bloud in thine agony and crying out on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me thee who hast the keyes of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carryed thee what sighs and groans and tears and bloud hast thou spent upon us wretched men How dear a price hast thou paid for our ransome What raptures of spirit can be sufficient for the admiration of thy so infinite mercy Be thou swallowed up O my soul in this depth of divine love and hate to spend thy thoughts any more upon the base objects of this wretched world when thou hast such a Saviour to take them up SECT 6. His love in preparing heaven for us BUt O blessed Jesu if from what thou hast suffered for me I shall cast mine eyes upon what thou hast done for my soul how is my heart divided betwixt the wonders of both and may as soon tell how great either of them is as whether of them is the greatest It is in thee that I was elected from all eternity and ordained to a glorious inheritance before there was a world we are wont O God to marvell at and blesse thy provident beneficence to the first man that before thou wouldst bring him forth into the world thou wert pleased to furnish such a world for him so goodly an house over his head so pleasant a Paradise under his feet such variety of creatures round about him for his subjection and attendance But how should I magnifie thy mercy who before that man or that world had any beeing hast so far loved me as to pre-ordain me to a place of blessednesse in that heaven which should be and to make me a co-heir with my Christ of thy glory And oh what an heaven is this that thou hast laid out for me how resplendent how transcendently glorious Even that lower Paradise which thou providedst for the harbour of innocence and holinesse was full of admirable beauty pleasure magnificence but if it be compared with this Paradise above which thou hast prepared for the everlasting entertainment of restored souls how mean and beggerly it was Oh match too unequall of the best peece of earth with the highest state of the heaven of heavens In the earthly Paradise I finde thine Angels the Cherubim but it was to keep man off from that Garden of Delight and from the tree of life in the midst of it but in this heavenly one I finde millions of thy Cherubim and Seraphim rejoycing at mans blessednesse and welcomming the glorified souls to their heaven There I finde but the shadow of that whereof the substance is here There we were so possessed of life that yet we might forfeit it here is life without all possibility of death Temptation could finde accesse thither here is nothing but a free and compleat fruition of blessednesse There were delights fit for earthly bodies here is glory more then can be enjoyed of blessed souls That was watered with four streams muddy and impetuous in this is the pure river of the water of life clear as Crystall proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb There I finde thee onely walking in in the cool of the day here manifesting thy Majesty continually There I see only a most pleasant Orchard set with all manner of varieties of flourishing and fruitfull plants here I finde also the City of God infinitely rich and magnificent the building of the wall of it of Jasper and the City it self pure gold like unto clear glasse and the foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones All that I can here attain to see is the pavement of thy celestiall habitation and Lord how glorious it is how be spangled with glittering starres for number for magnitude equally admirable What is
of those thoughts and dispositions which may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty who of a poor worm on earth hast made me an heir of the kingdome of heaven Wo is me how subject are these earthly principalities to hazard and mutability whether through death or insurrection but this Crown which thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible and shall sit immovably fast upon my head not for years not for millions of ages but for all eternity Oh let it be my heaven here below in the mean while to live in a perpetuall fruition of thee and to begin those Alelujahs to thee here which shall be as endlesse as thy mercy and my blessednesse SECT 1. The improvement of our love to Christ for the mercy of his deliverance of the tuition of his Angels of the powerfull working of his good Spirit HAdst thou been pleased to have translated me from thy former Paradise the most delightfull seat of mans originall integrity and happinesse to the glory of the highest heaven the preferment had been infinitely gracious but to bring my soul from the nether most hell and to place it among the Chore of Angels doubles the thank of thy mercy and the measure of my obligation How thankfull was thy Prophet but to an Ebedmelech that by a cord and rags let down into that dark dungeon helpt him out of that uncomfortable pit wherein he was lodged yet what was there but a little cold hunger stench closenesse obscurity Lord how should I blesse thee that hast fetcht my soul from that pit of eternall horrour from that lake of fire and brimstone from the everlasting torments of the damned wherein I had deserved to perish for ever I will sing of thy power unto thee O my strength will I sing for God is my deliverer and the God of my mercie But O Lord if yet thou shouldst leave me in my own hands where were I how easily should I be rob'd of thee with every temptation how should I be made the scorn and insultation of men and devils It is thy wonderfull mercy that thou hast given thine Angels charge over me Those Angels great in power and glorious in Majesty are my sure though invisible guard O blessed Jesu what an honour what a safety is this that those heavenly spirits which attend thy throne should be my champions Those that ministred to thee after thy temptation are ready to assist and relieve me in mine they can neither neglect their charge because they are perfectly holy nor fail of their victory because they are under thee the most powerfull I see you O ye blessed Guardians I see you by the eye of my faith no lesse truly then the eye of my sense sees my bodily attendants I do truly though spiritually feel your presence by you gratious operations in upon and for me and I do heartily blesse my God and yours for you and for those saving offices that through his mercifull appointment you ever do for my soul But as it was with thine Israelies of old that it would not content them that thou promisedst and wouldst send thine Angell before them to bring them into the Land flowing with milk and honey unlesse thy presence O Lord should also go along with them so is it still with me and all thine wert not thou with and in us what could thine Angels do for us In thee it is that they move and are The same infinite Spirit which works in and by them works also in me From thee it is O thou blessed and eternall Spirit that I have any stirrings of holy motions any breathings of good desires any life of grace any will to resist any power to overcome evill It is thou O God that girdest me with strength unto battell thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation thy right hand hath holden me up thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies Glory and praise be to thee O Lord which alwaies causest us to triumph in Christ who crownest us with loving kindnesse and tender mercies and hast not held us short of the best of thy favours Truly Lord hadst thou given us but a meer beeing as thou hast done to the lowest rank of thy creatures it had been more then thou owest us more then ever we could be able to requite to thy divine bounty for every beeing is good and the least degree of good is farre above our worthiness But that to our beeing thou hast added life it is yet an higher measure of thy mercy for certainly of thy common favours life is the most precious yet this is such a benefit as may be had and not perceived for even the plants of the earth live and feel it not that to our life therefore thou hast made a further accession of sense it is yet a larger improvement of thy beneficence for this faculty hath some power to manage life and makes it capable to affect those means which may tend to the preservation of it and to decline the contrary but this is no other then the brute creatures enjoy equally with us and some of them beyond us that therefore to our sense thou hast blessed us with a further addition of reason it is yet an higher pitch of munificence for hereby we are men and as such are able to attain some knowledge of thee our Creator to observe the motions of the heavens to search into the natures of our fellow-creatures to passe judgement upon actions and events and to transact these earthly affairs to our own best advantage But when all this is done wo were to us if we were but men for our corrupted reason renders us of all creatures the most miserable that therefore to our reason thou hast superadded faith to our nature grace and of men hast made us Christians and to us as such hast given thy Christ thy Spirit and thereby made us of enemies sons and heirs co-heirs with Christ of thine eternall and most glorious kingdome of heaven yea hast incorporated us into thy self and made us one spirit with thee our God Lord what room can there be possibly in these strait and narrow hearts of ours for a due admiration of thy transcendent love and mercy I am swallowed up O God I am willingly swallowed up in this bottomelesse abysse of thine infinite love and there let me dwell in a perpetuall ravishment of spirit till being freed from this clog of earth and filled with the fulness of Christ I shall be admitted to enjoy that which I cannot now reach to wonder at thine incomprehensible blisse and glory which thou laid up in the highest heavens for them that love thee in the blessed communion of all thy Saints and Angels thy Cherubim and Seraphim Thrones Dominions and Principalities and Powers in the beatificall presence of thee the ever-living God the eternall Father of Spirits Father Son holy Ghost one infinite Deity in three co-essentially co-eternally co-equally glorious persons To whom
is his righteousnesse made ours How fully doth the second Adam answer and transcend the first By the offence of the first judgement came upon all men to condemnation by the righteousnesse of the second the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Rom. 5. 18. As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5. 19. righteous not in themselves so death passed upon all for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. but in him that made them so by whom we have received the atonement Rom. 5. 11. How free then and how perfect is our justification What quarrell may the pure and holy God have against righteousnesse against his own righteousnesse and such are we made in and by him what can now stand between us and blessednesse Not our sins for this is the praise of his mercy that he justifies the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. Yea were we not sinfull how were we capable of his justification sinfull as in the term from whence this act of his mercy moveth not as in the term wherein it resteth his grace findes us sinfull it doth not leave us so Far be it from the righteous Judge of the world to absolve a wicked soul continuing such He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 17. 15. No but he kils sin in us whiles he remits it and at once cleanseth and accepts our persons Repentance and remission do not lag one after another both of them meet at once in the penitent soul at once doth the hand of our faith lay hold on Christ and the hand of Christ lay hold on the soul to justification so as the sins that are done away can be no bar to our happinesse And what but sins can pretend to an hindrance All our other weaknesses are no eye-sore to God no rub in our way to heaven What matters it then how unworthy we are of our selves It is Christs obedience that is our righteousnesse and that obedience cannot but be exquisitely perfect cannot but be both justly accepted as his and mercifully accepted as for us There is a great deal of difference betwixt being righteous and being made righteousnesse every regenerate soul hath an inherent justice or righteousnesse in it self He that is righteous let him be righteous still saith the Angell Rev. 22. 11. But at the best this righteousnesse of ours is like our selves full of imperfection If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand Psal 130. 3. Behold we are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this Ezra 9. 15. How should a man be just with God If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand Job 9. 2 3. So then he that doth righteousnesse is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. but by pardon and indulgence Because the righteousnesse he doth is weak and imperfect he that is made righteousnesse is perfectly righteous by a gracious acceptation by a free imputation of absolute obedience Wo were us if we were put over to our own accomplishments for Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3. 10. Deut. 27. 16. and If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 Joh. 1. 8. Lo if there be truth in us we must confesse own have sin in us and if we have sin we violate the Law and if we violate the Law we lye open to a curse But here is our comfort that our surety hath paid our debt It is true we say forfeited to death Justice had said The soul that sinneth shall die Ezek. 18. 4. Mercy interposeth and satisfies The Son of God whose every drop of bloud was worth a world payes this death for us And now 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 Rom. 8. 33. 34. Our sin our death is laid upon him and undertaken by him He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisements of our peace were upon him and with his stripes we are healed Esa 53. 5. His death his obedience is made over to us So then the sin that we have committed and the death that we have deserved is not ours but the death which he hath endured and the obedience that he hath performed is so ours as he is ours who is thereupon made of God our righteousnesse Where now are those enemies of grace that scoffe at imputation making it a ridiculous paradox that a man should become just by another mans righteousnesse How dare they stand out against the word of truth which tels us expresly that Christ is made our righteousnesse What strangers are they to that grace they oppugn How little do they consider that Christ is ours his righteousnesse therefore by which we are justified is in him our own He that hath borne the iniquity of us all Esa 53. 6. hath taught us to call our sins our debts Mat. 6. 12. those debts can be but once paid if the bounty of our Redeemer hath staked down the sums required and cancelled the bonds and this payment is through mercy fully accepted as from our own hands what danger what scruple can remain What doe we then weak souls tremble to think of appearing before the dreadfull tribunall of the Almighty we know him indeed to be infinitely and inflexibly just we know his most pure eyes cannot abide to behold sin we know we have nothing else bnt sinne for him to behold in us Certainly were we to appear before him in the meer shape of our own sinfull selves we had reason to shake and shiver at the apprehension of that terrible appearance but now that our faith assures us we shall no otherwise be presented to that awfull Judge then as cloathed with the robes of Christs righteousnesse how confident should we be thus decked with the garments of our elder brother to carry away a blessing whiles therefore we are dejected with the conscience of our own vilenesse we have reason to lift up our heads in the confidence of that perfect righteousnesse which Christ is made unto us and we are made in him SECT 15. Christ made our Sanctification AT the bar of men many a one is pronounced just who remains inwardly foul and guilty for the best of men can but judge of things as they appear not as they are but the righteous Arbiter of the world declares none just whom he makes not holy The same mercy therefore that makes Christ our righteousnesse makes him also our sanctification of our selves wretched men what are we other at