The excellency of a gracious spirit Delivered in a treatise upon the 14. of…The excellency of a gracious spirit Deliuered in a treatise upon the 14. of…

Thus Luther, who was a man ¹whose spirit was exceeding full in his love unto, and walking after the Lord Jesus Christ while he lived; and when he came to die, his spirit ⟨p. 386⟩was as full of comfort, and joy, as before it was full of zeal, and courage; these expressions brake from him; O my heavenly Father, O God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort, I give thee thanks that thou hast revealed thy Son Jesus Christ to me, whom I have believed, whom I have professed, whom I have loved, whom I have honoured, whom the Bishop of Rome, and the rest of the rout of wicked men have persecuted, and contemned; and now I beseech thee; O my Lord Jesus Christ, receive my soul, my heavenly Father; although my body is to be laid down, yet I certainly know that I shall for ever remain with thee, neither can I by any be pulled out of thy hands. The grace of Gods Spirit oftentimes appears most in the glory of it, when death approacheth, because grace and glory is then about to meet. That soul that hath followed God fully here, when it comes to depart out of the body, it only changeth the place, nor the company; which was the ⟨p. 387⟩speech of a late reverend holy Divine of ours, a little before his death. I shall change my place, saith he, but not my company: meaning, that as he had conversed with God, and followed after the Lord here in this World, he was now going to converse with him, and to follow after him more fully in a better World. Death to such a soul, it is but Gods calling of it, from the lower gallery of this World, to the upper gallery of Heaven, to walk with him there. Here the converse that Jesus Christ hath with the souls of his people, is compared to that converse, that friends have one with another, in their walkings together in their galleries, Cant. 7. 5. The King is held in the galleries: he doth not only walk with his Beloved there, but is as it were bound, he is kept there by the bands of love, and when death comes, then the soul is called up, to the upper room, to heaven, there to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth.

Thus Luther, who was a man ¹