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A93249 A heavenly conference between Christ and Mary after His resurrection. Wherein the intimate familiarity, and near relation between Christ and a believer is discovered. Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635. 1654 (1654) Wing S3736A; Thomason E1512_1; ESTC R209503 104,104 253

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again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant By the blood of Christ there is an everlasting Covenant God will be our God to death and in death and for ever For this relation being on Gods part extendeth it self from forgiveness of sins to life everlasting It is alwayes the blood of Christ is the blood of an everlasting Covenant I will marry thee to me for ever It holdeth sure on Gods part Let us therefore labor to maintain this assurance of salvation from Gods love 2. But for our comfort we must do our parts too though it begin with God It beginneth on Gods part He loveth us first and imbraceth us first and we must love again and imbrace again We must desire of God grace to answer relation Therefore I will prescribe some rules how we may say God is our God with comfort That we may have the comfort of it by making good our interest in him to make it good that we are Sonnes as well as to call him Father that we are his people as well as to call him our God his spouse as well as call him our Husband And because this cometh from God joyn this withall our endeavors Lord thou must begin I desire to shew my self as a spouse to thee but thou must discover thy self to me I desire to love thee but discover thy love first all I can do is but reflection Thou must shine on me first so desire God to reveal himself more and more in Christ Jesus and then we cannot but carry our selves to him as we should do in our Relation This day we must perform the relation on our sides there be two words that go to this heavenly bargain The Covenant consisteth of two parts Now de●ire God by his grace to inable us to do our part for he doth both And desire him according to his promise to teach us to love him and to write his Law in our hearts to do what is good and circumcise our hearts and give his holy spirit We aske no more then he hath promised and so go boldly to him Lord thou hast made a Covenant with us we cannot keep it without thee thou hast not only promised grace and gifts but the grace to perform the Covenant on our parts must come from thee And this God will do therefore in the use of means attend upon him and looking to him we shall have grace to do our parts and then maintain this assurance without which we cannot live as Christians should live That we may further maintain this Relation that God is our God Let us labor to get into Christ for it is in him that God is our Father and to grow up in Christ to growe more and more to grow up in faith and in all grace A gratious Christian never wanteth arguments of assurance of salvation It is the dead-hearted Christian the careless Christian therefore labor as to be in Christ so to grow up in the knowledge of Christ And so to know God in Christ labor to see the face of God in Christ for in him are all the beams of his love as the beames of the Sun in a glasse are gathered so the beams of all Gods love meet in Christ So lovely is God in Christ whatsoever we have in Christ it is from God in Christ And whatsoever we have from God it is through Christ therefore growe in the knowledge of Christ in faith in Christ To this end are the Sacraments that we might growe up in him and be fed into Christ And then we may make right use of it as the Ordinance that God hath sanctified for this end And as God doth take us out set a stamp upō us so labor to make choyce of God more more choice of God in Christ for there be the 2. objects of our faith love Chuse God for our God esteem him above all and renounce all other and resign our selves wholly to him for all is ours when God is ours He setteth us apart from other men taking us out and appropriateth us to himself chuseth us for his Jewels I beseech you labor daily to chuse God to be your God If we say we are Gods let us make choyce of him at the same time and appropriate him with our choyce He is mine in particular there is renunciation of all others I have served other Gods heretofore the world and the flesh and the favor of man have been my God but they shall be my God no more If we chuse him not and appropriate him as ours and renounce all other and give our selves to him we cannot say he is our God this we should practice every day In the solicitation of sin or despair for sin make use of this choice and appropriation and resignation If we be tempted to any sin why I am not mine own I am Gods I have chosen him to be my God I have appropriated my self to him I have renounced all other I have offered my self to him therefore what have I to do with sin with this temptation I have taken the Sacrament on it that God is mine and Christ is mine with all his benefits therefor e if there be any solicitatiō to sin make this use of it so we shal grow in assurance of our interest in God when we can make use of it on all occasions If when we be moved to any sin by Satan or our own flesh which is a Devil within us this is contrary to my Covenant this is contrary to the renewing of the Covenant so often renewed in the Sacrament therefore I will not commit it It is contrary to the State I am advanced to and contrary to my relation God is my Father and my God and therefore I must be his and what have I to do with sin what hath pride to do with a heart bequeathed to God what hath lust and filthiness what hath injustice or any thing else that is sinful to do in a heart that hath dedicated and consecrated it self to God who hath given up himself and all he can do and to whom we have given up all we have and shall we give our strength to sin and Satan his enemies Thus we should grow in assurance exercising the increase and knowledge of our interest I beseech you therefore let us use these and the like things to make God our God And if any temptation for sin be joyned as Satan cannot but solicit to sin so he laboreth when we have sinned to tempt to despair for sin for they be the two wayes by which Satan prevails Now fetch comfort against both from hence God is my God and my Father and Christ teacheth them to call him so and therefore notwithstanding sin I may go to God and call him Father The Disciples though their sin was great yet on their humility they were to
A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE BETWEEN CHRIST AND MARY AFTER HIS RESURRECTION WHEREIN The intimate familiarity and near relation between Christ and a Believer is discovered LONDON Printed for John Rothwel and are to be sold at the Fountain and Bear in Cheapside 1654. TO THE READER THe scope and business of this Epistle is not so much to commend the Workman whose name is a sweet savor in the Church As to give thee a short and summary view of the generalls handled in this Treatise Though much might be said of this eminent Saint If either detraction had fastened her venomous nails in his pretious name or the testimony of the Subscribers of this Epistle might give the Book a freer admission into thy hands This only we shall crave leave to mind the Reader of That this bright Star who sometimes with his light refreshed the souls of many of Gods people while he s●one in the ho●izon of our Church set as we may say between the evening of many shadowes and the morning of a bright hoped for Reformation which though it be for the present overcast yet being so agreeable to the mind of Jesus Christ and ushered in with the groans and prayers of so many of his Saints we doubt not but will in Gods own time break forth gloriously to the dissipating of those Clouds and foggs which at the present do eclipse and darken it Now as it is the wisdom of God in bringing about his own designs to raise up fit and suitable instruments for the work of every Generation So it is also the gratious dispensation of God to put seasonable words into the mouths of those his Servants who by faith do fix their eyes on him for the guidance of his blessed spirit as every judicious Reader may observe in the works of this reverend Divine who foreseeing as it were what a degeneracy of spirit Professors in his time were falling a pace into that itch of Questions and Disputings like anoxious humor beginning then to break forth among Professors like a skilful Physician applyed himself to preserve the vitalls and essentials of Religion That the souls of his hearers being captivated with the inward beauty and glory of Christ and being led into an experimental knowledge of heavenly truths their spirits might not evaporate and discharge themselves in endless gainless soul-unedifying and conscienceperplexing questions For as it is in nature a man that hath tasted the sweetness of honey will not easily be perswaded that honey is bitter But he that hath only taken it up upon credit may soon be baffled out of it because no act can go higher then its principle and so it is in Religion for those good souls that have imbraced the truths of Jesus Christ upon a supernatural principle and experimented not only the truth but the goodness of them in their own souls they are the clinched christians the good hold-fast men as Mr. Fox stiles some Christians in his dayes they are the even and steady walkers Whereas those that have only a form of godliness a slight tincture who have only out of novelty and curiosity or pride and ambition or other self ends professed Religion will prove giddy and unconstant like Clouds carried about with every blast and while they promise themselves liberty be a prey to the net of every fancy and opinion To the sound and practical Christian that is not squeesie stomacked will the truths in this treatise be grateful supposing therefore and desiring if thou are not thou may'st be such a one Here is offered to thy consideration a divine and heavenly Discourse betwixt Christ and Mary between a soul-burthened sinner and a burthen-removing Saviour Thou may'st here see how diligent Mary is to seek how ready Christ is to be found Mary hath her heart brim full of sorrow Christ Comes as it were leaping over the Mountains with comfort and bowels of compassion Mary was in a strong pang of affection nay her affections were wound so high that her expressions seem broken and her actions might seem to savor of irregularity were it not to that excellency of the object did warrant the height of her affection and the compassion of Christ was large enough not only to interpret for the best but also to pardon and cover all her infirmities The woman was better at her affections then expressions They have taken away my Lord she speaks at random names no body whether Jews or Disciples or Souldiers But see the strength of her faith she is not ashamed to call him Lord even in the lowest state of humiliation though Christ be reproached persecuted despised rejected dead buried yet he shall be Maries Lord. Again I know not where they have laid him she dreams of a bodily asportation and resting of Christ somewhere and speaks with indignation as if she looked upon it as an indignity or incivility nay of cruelty Saevitum est in cadavera saevitum est in ossa saevitum est in cineres Cyprian of the Roman Emperors cruelty to remove a dead body What was done to Christ Mary takes it as done to her and good heart she thinks she hath so much right to him that he should not be stirred without her knowledge And I know not where c. Now while Mary is seeking Christ who is never far absent from a seeking soul he stands at her back Christ is neerer to us many times then we think of Sometimes a poor soul wants the sight of comfort more then matter of comfort and is like Hagar weeping for water when the well is hard by seeking of Christ is the souls duty but Christ manifesting himself is the souls comfort Mary turned her self and she saw Jesus Gerson saith the Angels rose up at the presence of Christ which Mary seeing made her turn about but omitting that conjecture The original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes used for a turning of the face but most frequently for a turning of the whole body but to put it out of doubt here it is said exegetically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She turned her self back The same phrase the Steptuagint use of Lots wise looking back Many times Christ hath his face towards us when we have our backs upon him and therefore if thou wouldest finde Christ turn thy self to him Again here thou may'st see the true Joseph he knowes Mary when she knows not him but takes him for the Gardner Christ is alwayes before-hand with us in his grace he loves us before we love him and calls us before we call him Mary travails with desires to find Christ and Christ is full of yernings towards her like Joseph he could refrain no longer and because the general manifestation of Christ wrought little he calles her by her name Mary and she being a sheep of Christ knowes his voice and answers him with a title of dignity Rabboni that is to say my Master We may see here that discoveries of grace are not fruitless they stir