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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A09388 A declaration of the true manner of knowing Christ crucified Perkins, William, 1558-1602. 1596 (1596) STC 19685; ESTC S114522 18,203 44

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confusedly to know Christ to be our Redeemer but we must learn to see know and acknowledge him in euery particular gift and blessing of God If men vsing the creatures of meate and drinke could when they beholde them withall by the eye of faith behold in them the merit of Christs passion there would not be so much excesse and ryot so much surfetting and drunkennes as there is and if men could consider their houses and lands c. as blessings to them and that by the fountaine of blessing the merits of Christ there should not be so much fraud and deceit so much iniustice and oppression in bargaining as there is That which I haue now said of meats drinks apparrell must likewise be vnderstoode of gentrie and nobilitie in as much as noble-birth without newe birth in Christ is but an earthly vanitie the like may be said of physicke sleepe health libertie yea of the very breathing in the ayre And to goe yet further in our Recreations Christ must be knowne For all recreation stands in the vse of things indifferent and the holy vse of all things indifferent is purchased vnto vs by the blood of Christ. For this cause it is very meete that Christian men and women should with their earthly recreations ioyne spirituall meditation of the death of Christ and from the one take occasion to bethinke themselues of the other If this were practised there should not be so many vnlawfull sports and delights and so much abuse of lawfull recreation as there is The third benefit is that all crosses afflictions iudgements whatsoeuer cease to be curses and punishments to them that are in Christ and are onely meanes of correction or triall because his death hath taken away not some fewe parts but all and euery part of the curse of the whole lawe Now in all crosses Christ is to be knowne of vs on this manner We must iudge of our afflictions as chastisements or trialls proceeding not from a reuenging iudge but from the hand of a bountifull and louing father and therefore they must be conceiued in and with the merit of Christ and if we doe other wise regard them we take them as curses and punishments of sinne And hence it follows that subiection to Gods hand in all crosses is a marke and badge of the true Church The last benefit is that death is properly no death but a rest or sleepe Death therefore must be knowne and considered not as it is set forth in the law but as it is altered and changed by the death of Christ when death comes we must then looke vpon it through Christs death as through a glasse and thus it will appeare to be but a passage from this life to euerlasting life Thus much of the merit of Christ crucified Now followes his vertue which is the power of his Godhead whereby he creates new hearts in all them that beleeue in him and makes them new creatures This vertue is double the first is the power of his death wherby he freed himself from the punishment and imputation of our sinnes and the same vertue serueth to mortifie and crucifie the corruptions of our minds wills affectiōs euē as a corasive doth wast consume the rottē dead flesh in any part of mans body The second is the vertue of Christs resurrection which is also the power of his Godhead wherby he raised himselfe from death to life the very same power serueth to raise those that belong to Christ from their sinnes in this life and from the graue in the day of the last iudgement Now the knowledge of this double vertue must not be onely speculative that is barely conceiued in the braine but it must be experimental because we ought to haue experience of it in our hearts and liues and we should labour by all meanes possible to feele the power of Christs death killing mortifying our sinnes the vertue of his resurrection in the putting of spirituall life into vs that we might be able to say that we liue not but that Christ liues in vs. This was one of the most excellent and principall things which Paul sought for who saith I haue counted all things losse and doe iudge them to be dung that I may know him and the vertue of his resurrection Phil. 3. 10. And he saith that this is the right way to know and learne Christ to cast off the old man which is corrupt through deceiueable lusts and to put on the nevve man which is created in righteous and true holines Eph. 4. 24. The third benefite is the example of Christ. We deceiue our selues if we thinke that he is onely to be knowne of vs as a Redeemer and not as a spectacle and patterne of all good duties to which we ought to conforme our selues Good men indeede that haue beene or in present are vpon the earth the seruants of God must be followed of vs but they must be followed no otherwise then they follow Christ and Christ must be followed in the practise of euery good dutie that may concerne vs without exception simply and absolutely 1. Cor. 11. 1. Our conformitie with Christ stands either in the framing of our inward and spirituall life or in the practise of outward and morall duties Conformitie in spirituall life is not by doing that which Christ did vpon the crosse and afterward but a doing of the like by a certaine kind of imitation And it hath foure parts The first is a spirituall oblation For as Christ in the garden vpon the crosse by prayer made with stong cryes and teares presented and resigned himself vp to be a sacrifice of propitiation to the iustice of his father for mans sinne so must we also in praier present and resigne our selues our soules our bodies our vnderstanding will memorie affections and all we haue to the seruice of God in the generall calling of a Christian and in the particular callings in which he hath placed vs. Take an example in David Sacrifice and burnt offering saith he thou vvouldest not but eares thou hast pearced vnto me then said loe I come I desire to doe thy will O God yea thy law is vvithin my heart Psal. 40. 7. The second is conformitie in the crosse two waies For first as he bare his owne crosse to the place of exequution so must we as good disciples of Christ denie our selues take vp all the crosses and afflictions that the hand of God shall lay vpon vs if it be euery day and follow him Againe we must become like vnto him in the crucifying and mortifying the masse and bodie of sinne which we carrie about vs Gal. 5. 24. They vvhich are Christs have crucified the flesh vvith the affections and lusts thereof We must doe as the Iewes did we must set vp the crosses and gybbets wheron we are to fastē hang this flesh of ours that is the sinne corruption that cleaues sticks vnto vs and
bleede for thine owne offences casting downe and humbling thy selfe with Ezra saying O my God I am confounded and ashamed to lifte vp mine eyes unto thee my God for mine iniquities are increased and my trespasse is growen vp into heauen c. When thou readest that Christ was taken and bounde thinke that thy very sinnes brought him into the power of his enemies and were the verie bondes wherewith hee was tyed thinke that thou shouldest haue beene bounde in the very same manner vnlesse he had beene a suretie and pledge for thee thinke also that thou in the selfe same manner art bounde and tyed with the chaines of thine owne sinnes and that by nature thy will affections and whole spirit is tyed and chained to the will of the deuill so as thou canst doe nothing but that which he willeth lastly thinke and beleeue that the bondes of Christ serue to purchase thy liberty from hell death and damnation When thou hearest that hee was brought before Annas and Caiaphas thinke it was meete that thy surety and pledge who was to suffer the condemnation due unto thee should by the high priest as by the mouth of God be condemned and wonder at this that the very coessentiall eternall sonne of God euen the very soueraigne iudge of the world stands to be iudged and that by wicked men perswading thy selfe that this so great confusion comes of thy sinnes Whereupon being further amazed at thy fearefull estate humble thy selfe in dust and ashes and pray God so to soften thy stony heart that thou maist turne to him and by true faith lay holde on Christ who hath thus exceedingly abased himselfe that his ignominy may be thy glory and his arraignment thy perfect absolution When thou readest that Barrabas the murderer was preferred before Christ though hee exceeded both men and angels in holinesse thinke it was to manifest his innocency and that thy very sinnes pulled upon him this shamefull reproch and in that for thy cause he was esteemed worse then Barrabas thinke of thy selfe as a most heynous and wretched sinner and as Paul saith the head of all sinners When thou readest that he was openly and iudicially condemned to the cursed death of the crosse consider what is the wrath and fury of God against sinne and what is his great and infinite mercy to sinners and in this spectacle looke upon thy selfe and with grones of hearte cry out and say O good God What settest thou heare before mine eyes I euen I haue sinned I am guiltie and worthy of damnation Whence comes this chaunge that thy blessed sonne is in my roome but of thy unspeakeable mercy Wretch that I am how haue I forgotten my selfe and thee also my God O sonne of God how long hast thou abased thy selfe for mee Therefore giue me grace O God that beholding mine owne estate in the person of my Sauiour thus condemned I may detest and loath my sinnes that are the cause thereof and by a liuely faith embrace that absolution which thou offerest me in him who was condemned in my stead and roome O Iesu Christ Sauiour of the worlde giue me thy holy and blessed spirite that I may iudge my selfe and be as vile and base in mine owne eyes as thou wast vile before the Iewes also vnite me unto thee by the same spirite that in thee I may be as worthy to be accepted before God as I am worthy in my selfe to be detested for my sinnes When thou readest that he was clad in purple and crowned with thornes mocked and spitt vpon behold the everlasting shame that is due unto thee be ashamed of thy selfe and in this point conforme thy selfe to Christ and be content as he was to be reproched abused and despised so it be for a good cause When thou readest that before his crucifying he was stript of all his cloathes thinke it was that he being naked might beare thy shame on the crosse and with his most pretious and rich nakednes couer thy deformitie When thou readest the complaint of Christ that he was forsaken of his father consider how he suffered the pangs and torments of hell as thy pledge and suretie Learne by his vnspeakable torments what a fearefull thing it is to sinne against God and beginne to renownce thy selfe and detest thy sinnes and to walke as a childe of light according to the measure of grace receiued When thou commest to die set before thine eyes Christ in the middest of all his torments on the crosse in beholding of which spectacle to thy endles comfort thou shalt see a paradise in the middest of hell God the father reconciled vnto thee thy Sauiour reaching out his hands vnto thee to receiue thy soule vnto him and his crosse as a ladder to aduance it to eternall glorie Whereas he cried aloud with a strong voyce at the point of death it was to shew that he died willingly without violence or constraint from any creature and that if it had so pleased him he could haue freed himselfe from death and haue cast his very enemies to the very bottome of hell When thou readest that he commended his soule into the handes of his father consider that thy soule also so be it thou wilt beleeue in him is deliuered vp into the hands of God and shall be preserued against the rage and malice of all thine enemies and hereupon thou maiest be bolde to commend thy spirite into the hands of God the father When thou readest of his death consider that thy sinnes were the cause of it and that thou shouldest haue suffered the same eternally vnlesse the Sonne of God had come in thy roome againe consider his death as a ransome and apprehend the same by faith as the meanes of thy life for by death Christ hath wounded both the first and second death and hath made his crosse to be a throne or tribunall seate of iudgement against all his and thine enemies When thou readest of the trembling of the earth at the death of Christ thinke with thy selfe it did in his kinde as it were groane vnder the burden of the sinnes of men in the worlde and by his motion then it signified that euen thou and the rest deserued rather to be swallowed of the earth and to goe downe into the pit aliue then to haue any part in the merit of Christ crucified When thou readest of his buriall thinke it was to ratifie his death and to vanquish death euen in his owne denne Applie this buriall to thy selfe and beleeue that it serues to make thy graue a bedde of downe and to free thy bodie from corruption Lastly pray to God that thou maiest feele the power of the spirite of Christ weakning and consuming the bodie of sinne euen as a deade corps rots in the graue till it be resolued to dust When thou hast thus perused and applied to thy selfe the historie of the Passion of Christ goe yet further and labour by faith to see Christ crucified in all the workes of God either in thee or vpon thee Beholde him at thy table in meate and drinke which is as it were a liuely sermon and a daily pledge of the mercie of God in Christ. Beholde him in all thine afflictions as thy partner that pitieth thy case and hath compassion on thee Behold him in thy most daungerous temptations in which the deuill thundereth damnation behold him I say as a mightie Sampson bearing away the gates of his enemies vpon his owne shoulders and killing more by death then by life crucifying the deuill euen then when he is crucified by death killing death by entrance into the graue opening the graue and giuing life to the dead and in the house of death spoiling him of all his strength and power Beholde him in all the afflictions of thy brethren as though he himselfe were naked hungrie sicke harbourlesse and doe vnto them all the good thou canst as to Christ himselfe If thou wouldest behold God himselfe looke vpon him in Christ crucified who is the ingrauen image of the fathers person and know it to be a terrible thing in the time of the trouble of thy conscience to thinke of God without Christ in whose face the glorie of God in his endlesse mercie is to be seene 2. Cor. 4. v. 6. If thou wouldest come to God for grace for comfort for saluation for any blessing come first to Christ hanging bleeding dying vpon the crosse without whome there is no hearing God no helping God no sauing God no God to thee at all In a word let Christ be all things without exception vnto thee Coloss. 3. 11. for when thou praiest for any blessing either temporall or spirituall be it whatsoeuer it will be or canbe thou must aske it at the hands of God the father by the merit and mediation of Christ crucified now looke as we aske blessings at Gods hand so must we receiue them of him and as they are receiued so must we possesse and vse them daily namely as gifts of God procured to vs by the merit of Christ which gifts for this very cause must be wholly imploied to the honour of Christ. FINIS Esai 53. 11 Ioh. 17. 2. 1. Cor. 2. 2. Gal. 6. 14. Phil. 3. 5. ●d 15. 19. 2. King 4. 34 2. King 13. 21. Coloss. 13. Eph. 1. 4. Eph. 1. 17 cap. 1. 9. Consider Colost 3. 11. 2. 10. b Calvin 〈…〉 Gal. c. 6. 2. Ezra 9.