A New Canaan Full of Most Pleasant Gardens, Title page – Encomium
A Nevv Canaan Full of most Pleasant Gardens for the Souls Delight, lately discovered: OR, A Treatise shewing, that as the Children of Israel did live in the Earthly Canaan upon Milk and Honey, and other pleasant things wherewith that goodly Land did flow; So Gods Children may most comfortably live now also in a spiritual Canaan, here called A New Canaan, upon the sweet Experiences of,
1. The Love of Christ,
2. Mercies and Merits of Christ,
3. Delights to be taken in Christ,
4. Comforts to be tasted in Christ,
And that all their dayes. According to that famous Scripture, Cant. 2.3.
Together with, Heaven Won by Violence, upon Matth. 11.12.
And, A New and Living Way of Dying, upon, Heb. 11.13.
By Christopher Jelinger: And now Published with the Dedications thereof, by Christian Friends.
Printed in the Year, 1664.
To the Right Worshipful ALLEN PENNY Major, his Brethren the Magistrates, and all the Inhabitants of the Famous City of Exceter; Grace be unto you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Much honoured Sirs,
I Had provided for you another subject, long before this time, and it was sent up and undertaken by some to be Published and after that to be presented unto you, but hitherto it hath met with obstacles; and therefore whether it may have the happinesse to see the Light it self, and to be seen by your selves, or not, I resolved to procrastinate and put off the manifestation of my grateful mind toward you, for the many Civilities, Courtesies and Favours which you manifested and shewed unto me, when I first arrived at your famous City, out of my Native Countrey, and there first imbibed and learnt your English Language, and then there also preached in it; but forthwith to present unto you some other Tract, and this by Name, though my intent was and is, that it should do good to others also. For I humbly conceive, that it may be very aptly communicated unto many, it containing such things, as may very fitly be assimilated to Christs five loaves, wherewith were fed as you well know, five thousand men, beside women and Children, Matth. 14.21. For what think ye, Honoured Sirs, I pray you of these five things:
First, Of the sweet Experiences of Christs Love.
Secondly, His Mercy.
Thirdly, His Merits.
Fourthly, His Delights.
Fifthly, His Comforts?
Will they not serve as well to feed the Souls of those thousands of Men, Women and Children, which (as I suppose) are in, and near your City, as those five loaves the bodies of those five thousand Men, besides Women and Children? Will not they please them as well? Will not they fill them as well? and will there not be enough thereof left, when they are all filled for many, many thousands more, as after the filling of so many thousands, there were left and taken up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full, vers. 20. to fill many more?
Worthy Sirs, My Soul longs to do good to your Souls, and if by this Tract I may fulfil my desire, and thereby make you so wise to Salvation, as to labour with all your might after the enjoying of those five pleasant things, which I but now compared to those five miraculous loaves, wherewith Christ satiated so many thousands, for your soules delight; I care not though I my self be censured for pride and presumption, and be counted as Paul was, 2 Cor. 11.16, 17. a fool for my labour; my labour being but small, but your gain and comfort then exceeding great; for then it will be with you, as it was with the Children of Israel, when they lived in the Land of Canaan, and every one did sit under his Vine and under his Fig-tree, as the Lord had promised it, Mich. 4.4. both which, as *Habita est haec arbor (Ficus) etiam apud veteres commendatissima & primum secundum vitem locum obtinuit. Danaeus in Phys. Christ. fol. 138.Writers tell us, are chief among the trees and plants in our Eden; in that every one of you also will sit under his Vine, and under his Fig-tree: though every one of you properly have not his Vine and his Fig-tree, yet metaphorically under the shadow of Christ and of his sweetest MercieMercy (both which are like to both) according to my Text, I sate under his shadow with great delight; and will live most sweetly in that New Canaan, which in this Book I have discovered as a Land which aboundeth with the sweetest Figs, and Apples, and Grapes, and Wines of joy, of jocundity, of delight, of consolation, even to admiration, and wherein that sweetest Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Shadow, our Vine, our Fig-tree, our Apple-tree, our Tree of Life, Cant. 2.3. Isa. 25.4▪ John 15.1. Rev. 22.2. brings forth his pleasant fruit; not only every monethmonth, Rev. 22.2. but also every morning, For his compassions are new every morning, Lam. 3.23. So as that every day every one of you may then say, as the Spouse in my Text, in words at full, I sate down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit (this morning, or this day) was sweet to my taste. And as it was with St. *Hieron. Epist. 77.Jerome, when living in his Wilderness, he seemed to be in the Heavenly Jerusalem, where the Angels sing, so it will be with you; for you will then seem to your selves, to be in the same New Jerusalem, where the Angels sweetest Musick is, and where that sweetest Tree of Life, Christ corporally is, and where fulness of joy is, and where pleasures are for evermore, Psal. 16.11. though otherwise you are, as it were, in a wilderness, this world, wherein you are now sojourners, being but, as it were, a barren wilderness, wherein no water, that is the water of Life, is, it being only to be found in the New Canaan, which is here in part, and in the heavenly at full for ever.
O Sirs! How is it with you, when you hear me speak of these things? Is it not with you now as it was with Monica, blessed Austins Mother? who when she heard her Son most sweetly discourse of the joyes of Heaven, cried out and said, Evolemus; Quid facio hic? Let us flee hence; What do I here? That is, Are ye not even ready now to eccho forth the same words, after all these sayings of mine, concerning this New Canaan, and the Heavenly too, What do we here? Let us flee hence from the vain delights, namely, and sinful pleasures of this vile world, and get into this New Canaan as fast as we can, to live such a sweet and comfortable life here, as they do, who live therein, and a far sweeter in the Heavenly hereafter for ever.
But I am loath to detain you any longer here upon the Borders of that goodly Land; I would to God, you were all in it, and that I might even now leave you in it; and therefore I will humbly take leave of you, and commend you to the good blessing and grace of God, praying heartily, that he will bless you all, and these my Labours to you all, will elevate and lift up the light of his Countenance upon you, that your soules in this thing here may prosper, will behold you with his pleasant face, will grant you all his Grace, that from henceforth you may all live the life of Grace, living and spending the remainder of your breath in the foresaid New Canaan here upon earth, all your dayes with unutterable delight; and after your dayes here ended, with the ANCIENT OF DAYES in the Heavenly, and that in bliss and blessedness sedness, greatness and gladness, peace and prosperity, through all Eternity.
So prayeth, Your most humble Servant, CHRISTOPHER JELINGER.
Ejusdem Authoris ad Novam Canaan Poema Salutatorium.
SAlve laeta Canan, quam mens mea spectat ab alto,
Adventare polo, exultans ubi degit Iesus,
Coelorum Dominus, magno fulgore Coruscans,
Te mea Musa cupit nunc ostentare decenter,
Ʋt tua per totum cernatur gloria Regnum
Anglorum Regis, sanctos quod continet illos
Quorum delicias alter complectitur Orbis,
Et quas hic praesens noster Tractatus abunde
Expandit coram cunctis mortalibus illis,
Qui satagunt mecum coelestia quaerere Regna;
O mihi nunc adsis, sanctorum gloria, Christe
Et me sustenta, fratrem ne desere Frater,
Verum adsis, nostrum{que} leva, Deus alme laborem,
Dirigito in suaves hortos, & amaena Vireta
Quae sunt in superum Canaan dulciatq beata:
Luctus ubi est nullus, nec sors ingrata, nec ullum
Infandum Crimen, nec opum Vesana Cupido,
Nec morbi exangues, nec dirae Mort is imago;
Sed fons mellistuus, nec non spectacula grata
Et ver perpetuum; suaves ubi stumina circum
Funduntur flores longe, laudesque sonoroe,
Quas nunquam Orphaeae voces, nec Musica dulcis
Vatis Cyrrhoei arte imitari aequare{que} possit.
Atque tuum corpus Pulchrum spectatur ab Ang'lis
…unctis, qui sunt in coelis, sanctis{que} beatis,
Qui te circumstant, dextra laevaque canentes;
Lumine vestiti niveo, mireque micantes,
Qualis gemma micat; fulvum quae dividit aurum.
Magno nate Deo, bone Conditor, atque Redemptor,
Qui oethera suspendis, terram regis, aequora fundis.
Vis ne audire preces, quas fundo e pectoris imo?
Spero quod vis, noli ergo me spernere tristem,
Nec me languentem dubiis nunc defice rebus
Sed mihi Dux esto, ductans super aethera tecum.
Me miserum qui tam crebro tua numina posco,
Et tua tentabo gaudens vulgare subinde,
Sola Sophocleo miracula digna Cothurno,
Atque tuas laudes magnas celebrabo per orbem
Terrarum totum; dum spiritus hos regit artus.
foreign.