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A46734
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The excellency of Christ, or, The rose of Sharon shewing the art of taking Christ as the onely soveraign medicine of a sin-sick soul : accomodated both for those that are without and for those that are in Christ who are thereby instructed how they must be fitted to apply Christ unto themselves in 25 cases thereby instructed how they must be fitted to apply Christ unto themselves in 25 cases upon that excellent text in Cant. 2:1 ... / by Christopher Jelinger.
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Jelinger, Christopher.
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Wing J542; ESTC R29877
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comfort in Christ because these men were so eminent and you so pestred with a number of corruptions which you cannot master yet to your content I answer Solut. 1. That they also were subject to infirmities as we are for we may not thinke that they were holier then Elias who was a man subject to like passions as we are Iames 5.17 and therefore why may not you feele some true comfort too at last though not so much as they 2. That indeed sin allowed or too much yeelded unto keeps off comfort but you that are carefull Christians for to such I speake here doe not so If you say you feare you doe 3 Ob. Solut. I answer doe not you build upon needlesse and groundlesse feares but examine your hearts and they will tell you that you doe what you can to purifie your selves and to avoid sinne and all the occasions of it shutting the very windowes on high you eyes and stopping the fountaines of sinne below in the heart by a holy and carefull watching over your owne hearts thoughts and motions even as God himselfe did then stop the fountaines of the deep and the windowes of heaven when he would dry up the floud Gen. 8.3 And therefore what should let you why you should not cheare up your hearts with the serious consideration of this most comfortable doctrine that I have delivered unto you touching the most sweet and comfortable rose of Sharon Will you say that you meet with so many troubles crosses afflictions 4 Ob. reproaches calamities losses and the like that you cannot bee cheerfull Then I answer Solut. that all these things should not shake nor move you so as to make you refuse comfort and to walke sadly and dejectedly to the great disheartening and discouraging of others and the hurting of your owne soules whom you torture more then needeth by a number of selfe created vexations and troubles which by your pensivenesse and heavinesse you draw upon them for 1. All your afflictions of what sort 1 Ground Heb. 12.11 12. kind or degree so ever they be what are they but purgations to take away sin When God opened the windowes of heaven and powred downe seas of water even immeasurably and most dreadfully downe went all stately towers and lofty buildings and sumptuous monuments but as the waters rose so the Arke rose higher and higher still and was so much nearer heaven So when God sendeth flouds and seas of troubles downe goeth our pride security carnality impurity and a number of aspiring and rising corruptions and in stead thereof Christ rises and the poore soule rises like unto the Arke ever higher and higher sleighting and despising the world Like that woman cloathed with the Sun whereby we may understand Christ with his crosse and afflictions as hot as the Sun is said to have the Moon that is all sublunary earthly things under her feet Rev. 12.1 2. They are but like those charets and waggons 2 Ground which Ioseph sent for Iacob Gen. 45.27 for as they revived Iacob and brought him neare unto Ioseph so do afflictions revive and quicken us being dead and dull and bring us nearer unto Christ who is our Ioseph then we were before See 1 Pet. 1.7 8. 3. As Iacob made his sonne Ioseph a coat of divers colours 3 Ground because he loved him best Gen. 37.3 so Christ bestowes such various and sundry afflictions like a coat of many colours upon those whom he loveth best See Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten and therefore I say they are but signes of his dearest love 4. But last of all 4 Ground Christ himself the rose of Sharon I dare say is more sweet then all your inward or outward troubles can be bitter for he is as a sweet rose among all such thornes or thornlike like afflictions and he sweetens them though other roses cannot so sweeten the thornes among which they grow even as that Tree did sweeten the bitter waters of Meriba which otherwise no body could drinke Exod. 15.25 for he assures us that how ever we speed here and may be entertained in this world we shall rejoyce in him and live with him in glory at the last as you have heard that he will quicken us as a rose and revive us after death which is more then a rose can doe So as that needs we must gaine infinitely more by Christ then we can possibly lose by him And therefore as you take delight in a rose though it be among thorns so take comfort and joy in Christ though he be a rose among thornes that is surrounded with a number of pricking piercing and heart-cutting vexations If one should rob you of all that you possesse and you were made sure at the same time of an orient Jewell in a sure and a safe place more worth a thousand times then all that you lost I suppose you would not be so foolish as to take on and to vexe your selves about your losse but rather rejoice at so rare a Jewell whose prize doth so farre surmount the worth of all your other goods which are nothing at all comparable to so precious a Jewell And did not I assure you but now of Christ the rose of Sheron whose prize is above rubies and precious stones and whom yee can never lose againe after ye have made him once your owne and therefore I hope you will not be so foolish again hereafter as to grieve immoderately at any afflictions or losses of goods or good name by wrongs or revilings but rather rejoyce in Christ who being that Mat. 17.45 46. pearle of inestimable prize is better then a thousand livings and ten thousand earthly contentments and millions of gold and sweeter then all the pleasures all the friends husbāds wives fathers mothers brothers sisters c. in the world for they are many times rather bitter then sweet and doe more grieve then relieve us but he is ever sweet and is ready even then when they or any other thing doth crosse us most sweetly to comfort us being altogether as sweet and comfortable as a rose nay much more as hath been largely shewed already SECT 8. An exhortation to such as want Christ to seeke him in the Law and Gospell 4. THis point may serve to encline the wils of those men and women that formerly were averse from Christ to be for Christ 4 Vse generall serving to encline the wils of such as hitherto were averse and farre from Christ to seeke after Christ For he is most like unto a rose in Sharon field and so consequently most desirable as you have heard wherefore as in the summer time when roses are plentifully to be had every body almost will have a rose in his hand so let every one of you that hitherto wanted Christ labour to get him into his heart .. But this is too generall and therefore I 'le descend to particulars instructing
soule to make it lightsome serene and chearfull You will have all things common with you according to the m Omnia amicorum communia nature of true friendship which * Arist l. 8. Eth. c. 9. requireth a societie and consists of a societie 1. A common righteousnes I mean in the first place Ier. 23.6.1 Cor. 1.1 30.2 Cor. 5.21 2. A common Father Iohn 20.17 3. A common kingdome Ioh. 17.24 2 Pet. 1.11 4. A common throne in that celestiall kingdome Rev. 1.11 Now tell me what friend else can doe so much for you as this friend will doe for you Is there any that you know among all the friends you have and in whom you take most delight No No there can be none such but Christ none but Christ and therfore O that you were willing to forget even father mother brethren and sisters and all your kindred yea and all other friends besides that are carnall for this deare friend Christ his sake as it is written Hearken O daughter and consider and encline thine eare and forget also thine owne people and thy fathers house Psal 45.10 The Lord incline your hearts to doe it that so you also may be able to say in truth This Christ who is that pleasant rose of Sharoâ— is our friend also as well as yours ô ye daughters of Jerusalem Cant. 5.16 3. Consider Christs lovingnesse who for being like a rose Châ—â—â—â— lovingnesse and as red as a rose in regard of his bloudshed he must needs be most loving or else he would never shed his heart blood for us See how the Apostle reasoneth * 1 Ioh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God that is of Christ who is God as well as man because he laid down his life for us Great was the love of these two great friends * Val Max. lib. 4. Damon and Pythias who were even ready to dye one for another but greater was Christs who did lay down his Life for us being then none of his friends but his greatest Enemies Rom. 5.10 and therefore how loving ô how loving a Saviour say I must Christ needs be who out of his meere and free love would even unsoule himself for us men by death and depose his blessed life for us rebels that had justly expoâ—ed our selves to the stroke of death by our sinfull life O go go then unto this loving and gracious Saviour ye poore sinners go be not afraid of him for if he would have you die he would never have dyed himself for you and if he were minded to deny you that eternall life which every one of you should infinitely preferre before this present life which is but fraile and mortall and momentany he would never have laid down his own most precious life to deliver you from that death which is eternall or thus as Manoahs wife said once to her husband when he was afraid that they should should surely dye because they had seen God If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt offering at our hands and a meat offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us at those things nor would he at this time have told us such things as these Iudg. 13.22 23. so say I unto you if happily you be afraid least you dye and that for ever being damned by the Law of God for your sins in generall and for your unbeliefe in speciall because you have not yet by faith seen and beheld the Lord Christ as it is written he that beleeveth not is condemned already Iohn 3.18 if the were pleased to kill you he would not have offered himself as an offering unto God his Father upon the crosse neither would he have now shewed you all these things which you have heard related of him onely * Aug. in Psal 148. Crede Crede c. beleeve beleeve on him and then you shall not die but live For so God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3.16 wherefore * Ezech. 18.31 32. cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed and so going away from your sins go and draw neere to Christ by faith in his name which the Lord in mercy grant you For why will you dye ô house of Israel Or thus why will you dye ô ye poore sinners the Lord hath not pleasure in the death of him that dyeth wherefore turne your selves and turne in unto Christ by faith and live you The Lord of life put life in you that ye may live I humbly beseech his Majestie 4. Consider also my dearely beloved 4 Christs neeâ—fulnesse the needfulnesse of Christ who therefore resembles himself to arose that you may see what need you have of him For Roses as you know we can * The rose is chiefe of all flowers William Langham in his garden of health pag. 535. hardlyest spare of all flowers because they be so usefull and so medicinall whereby you may easily conceive how needfull then Christ himself is in whom as the Creator according to that often mentioned rule there must needs be more medicinallnesse and needfulnesse then possibly can be in a created Rose unto which he is pleased to compare his sacred self Take a view of some particular respects 1. See how needfull he is in regard of the life naturall 2. In regard of the life spirituall 3. In regard of the Life eternall 1. To begin with the life Naturall 1 Inregard of the life Naturall what is it without Christ but a cursed death for without him you are still under the curse Gal. 3.10 13 So as that your very meat and drink and wealth and store and fruits and bodies are all accursed see Deut. 28.15 16 17 18. till Christ who was made a curse for them that beleeve deliver you from that curse Gal. 3.10 and have you not cause enough to go to Christ to be freed from such a curse some Emperours and Kings have even prostrated themselves before the Popes of Rome being but excommunicated by Popes to be freed from their curse * Lob. Corion Câ—â—en lib. 4 p. 217. Nicolaus Vigniâ—â— An. 11â—77 Frederick Barbarossa that glorious and victorious Emperour of Rome did even suffer one of the Popes of Rome to tread upon his neck to have his absolution and to free his son who was then the Popes prisoner at Venice But you for your part need not goe to the Pope of Rome but onely to Christ by faith who is in the middest of us to be exempted from the curse of God upon your estates and bâ—dies as well as souls and you need not put your necks under the odious feet of an imperious and inâ—â—â—ing Pope but under the yoke of Christ who saith I am lowly and my yoke is easie and my burden is light Mâ—â— b. 11.29 30. and should ye not be