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A93880 The teachings of Christ in the soule. Opened in a sermon before the Right Honble House of Peers, in Covent-garden-Church, upon the solemne day of their monthly fast, March 29. 1648. / By Peter Sterry, M.A. sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge: and now preacher of the Gospel in London. Published by order of that House. Sterry, Peter, 1613-1672. 1648 (1648) Wing S5486; Thomason E433_30; ESTC R204205 36,001 61

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cried My Lord and my God his eye being on the Divinity while his hand was upon the Humanity But he that attributes any thing in Spirituall things to man in the other consideration as he is in himselfe he makes him a member of that man of sin who sets himself up in the Temple of God shewing himself 2 Thess 2. 4. The Text being thus opened is easily divided into two parts a Rule Be not ye called Masters the reason of the Rule for ye have one Master even Christ The Doctrine THe Words thus opened and divided afford us from both parts this one Doctrine Doctr. Jesus Christ is the onely Master in Christianity Jesus Christ is Emmanuel God with us Mat. 1. 23. The Creatour in union with the Creature The Divine nature joyned with the Humane in one Person God living in the nature and forme of man man living in the person and power of God This Christ is Lord of all as the Scripture speaks and so he is a Master But I speak not of him now in this sence as a Master in power but in precepts as a Master over servants but Disciples I will give you one Proofe of the Doctrine and one Reason for it Proofe The Proofe is that place Matth. 11. 27. All things are delivered to me of my Father and no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him There is nothing worth the knowing but God alone Let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth me Jer. 9. 24. There is nothing capable of being Known but God or by the Knowing of him first For all other things are meer Representations of him and relate to him Prov. 16. 4. God hath made all things for himself that is to resemble him and returne to him No knowledge can bring into your soules substance or satisfaction life or immortality besides this This is Eternall life to Know thee the only true God John 17. 3. Thou art a good Christian if thou Knowest thy God thy Father from whence thou camest in whose house thou dwellest to whom thou must returne But no man can Know the Father except he be taught by the Son Reason The Reason of the Doctrine is the Office of Christ Our Saviour hath a three-fold Office of 1. King 2. Priest 3. Prophet It belongs to him by all these Offices to be our onely Master 1. Christ hath the Office of a King Psal 2. 6. God saith I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Christ is a King of God's making and appointing the King of Saints a King in his Church which is the true mount Sion Saul the first King of the Jewes was taller by the head than the rest of his Brethren Jesus Christ is higher by the head than all the Creatures his head is ever above all Clouds in the light of the Divine nature The head of Christ is God 1 Cor. 11. 3. Thus is Christ crowned King by the Godhead And by this Title hath he the Law of all Truth and Goodnesse in his own Breast For he is an absolute supream King God calls Christ my King a King in my likenesse in my stead Therefore Moses speaks to Jesus Christ in a Figure after this manner Deut. 33. 3. All his Saints are in thine hand to be trained up and form'd by thee O Lord Jesus they sate at thy feet as Paul at the feet of Gamaliel they received the words from thy mouth It is a Spirituall Kisse from the mouth of Jesus Christ upon the soul that can alone set the stamp of a Truth or a Law upon any thing there They received the words from my mouth Christ is our only Master by his Kingly office 2. Christ hath the Office of a Priest Psal 110. 4. Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech Some Divines tell us from the 7. of the Hebrews that this Melchisedech was the Holy Ghost or Jesus Christ in the Spirit appearing to Abraham in the Form of a Man Both are much at one But however this be it appears clearly from the Chapter that this Order of Priesthood was absolute incommunicable immortall The Priesthood and Kingdome of Christ are both peculiar to himself For he hath a peculiar anointing to them both Psal 45. 7. God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyle of gladnesse above thy Fellows The anointing which Jesus Christ hath is the powring forth of the Divine nature upon the Humane This makes him both Priest and King after an eminent and singular manner Now it was one of the Principall works of the Priest to teach men the Knowledge of God So you may read Mal. 2. 7. For the Priests lips should keep Knowledge and they should Seek the Law at his Mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts This was the duty of Priests under the Law as the Type But this is the dignity of Christ alone in the Gospel as the Truth to that Type He is the Messenger the Angel of the Lord of Hosts This is the living Spring of Knowledge which is ever full and flowes forth upon those Soules that hang on his lips even the Spirit of our Lord Jesus The Office and aptnesse of Christ to Teach his Communicative nature in Divine things is sweetly exprest Cant. 5. 13. His Lips like Lillys dropping sweet-smelling Myrrhe The Appearances and Discoveries of Christ to the Soule are those Lips with which he Kisseth the Spirits of Men. Lillys are Flower-de-luces Flowers of Divine light Myrrhe is an Embalming spice of sweet savour preserving from corruption The Lips of Christ his layings forth of himself to the Soul are exceeding faire with the brightnesse of heavenly Truths They drop upon the Soule in the pretiousnesse and power of those Truths like Myrrhe carrying the sweet savour of Life and Immortality along with them This is the second Office of Christ his Priesthood by vertue of which he is our only Master 3. Christ hath the Office of a Prophet Act. 3. 27. Moses truly said to the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your Brethren like unto me Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you The Lord Jesus is a Prophet like Moses because he is a Man but unlike him because he is God as well as Man He is like Moses because Moses was the shadow of this rising Sun which went before him Yet he is unlike because he is the Sun it self The name of a Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Signifies two things in the Office 1. To fore-tell things to come 2. To tell forth the Hidden truths of God from the Secret of his Spirit to the Ears or Souls of Men. A Prophet in the latter of these senses is that Prophet of which I now principally speak And in this sense are Prophets spoken of 1 Cor. 14. 29. Let the Prophets
speak two or three and let the rest judge Ver. 30. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace Ver. 31. For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted A Prophet is the Oracle of God for the delivery of Divine Discoveries to men And in this sense God speaketh of Christ Hebr. 1. 2. God hath spoken in these last times by his Sonne Glorious truths laid up in God concerning Himselfe and the Heavenly estate of things are revealed first to Jesus Christ and by him to us The Lord Jesus is God-man God and Man in Vnion As God he possesseth eternally all Divine Truths in Himself then by vertue of the Vnion he drawes forth these Truths out of the Depth of the Divine nature into the Humane as it were to the top of the water that they may be visible there Divine Truths can live no where but in the Divine nature neither can they appeare to us but in the Humane nature Therefore can there be a Spirituall Discovery no where but in Jesus Christ where he goes along with it and carryes it on in his owne Person Because in Him alone is the Vnion betweene both Natures Object But you may say May we heare no Person in Divine things May no man speak to us the things of God besides Jesus Christ Were there not Prophets before his Being in the flesh Have there not been Prophets and Teachers in the Church since his fleshly comming Ans You shall have an Answer to this Objection from the mouth of an Angel Rev. 19. 10. Saint John would have worshipt the Angel which ministred to him the revelations of Jesus Christ But he forbade it in these words See thou doe it nor I am thy fellow-servant and of thy Brethren that have the Testimony of JESUS worship God For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophesie Prophesie is a Discovery of Divine things by a Divine light This is that which is called a Revelation Ephes 1. 17. The Spirit of Wisdome and Revelation in the Knowledge of Him that is Jesus Christ And 1 Cor. 14. 30. If any thing be revealed to another let the first hold his peace Nothing can come to us in a Divine light except it come in Christ and his Appearance For this is that which makes the Day in Divine things Ye are Children of the Light and of the Day We are to take nothing for a Divine Light a Prophesie or a Revelation except the Lord Jesus give his Testimony to it by his Appearance in it Worship God saith the Angel I am a servant who beare the Image of the Living God which is the Appearance of Jesus Christ in me I am no more than the Precious Stones were under the Law on which a Light from Heaven shone forth to give answers from God I am onely the Lanthorne that carry the Light in me which sends forth its Beames to you The Prophet saith To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to these they have no Light in them Esay 8. 20. This he speaketh of the Prophets No Light that is no Morning All Prophesies or Spirituall Discoveries before Christ appeared were as Morning light which flowes from the Sun though that be not yet seene it selfe All since Christ are as Beames falling from his Face S. Paul calls all Gospel-discoveries The Glory of God in the Face of Christ 2. Cor. 4. 6. Thus much for the Answer to this Objection and the Reason of the Point The Application Use 1 FOr Humiliation Right Honourable Can you weep with your Saviour one houre You have set this Day and many your Saviour hath set this Yeere and many such Yeeres apart to this end Long did our Lord Jesus pipe to us with the sweet sounds of Peace Plenty Pleasures But we danced not to the Musick of his Love Now he hath long wept to us he comes forth cloth'd with red garments riding on the pale horse of Death in the midst of us If we now mourne not to him it is a Rebellion as the sinne of Witchcraft it is to make merry with Devils and exalt our selves with Lucifer My Lords If a sense of your Saviour's frownes and the sorrowes of your people have wrought your soules to a mourning temper I humbly beg two things of you One that you would mourne seriously the other that you would mourne spiritually 1. Mourne seriously The Lord Jesus is our Master He sets us serious Lessons of Sorrow Let us raise our Spirits to their Watch-tower to a wakefull temper What doe we now see The Lord Jesus making three Kingdomes in a view as three Wine-presses Himselfe treading them where the Grapes are men the Wine the precious blood and the deare lives of many thousands of men Yet his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Still he seemes to be gathering together under his feet the remaining Clusters to tread them into streams of blood till there be none left till the dry land of Peace or Hope be no more to be seene but a deluge of blood swallow up all But What doe we see The Lord Jesus making three Kingdomes as Bottles filling them first with the winde of Vanity and Pride then with the Wine of their owne Fury and his Wrath so dashing them in pieces one against another till they become as broken Pot-sheards Yet his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Still he seemes to be hissing fot a troupe of fiercer spirits from the darke and fiery corners of hell below to enter into these Pot-sheards that they may make a more confused and crueller Warre each with other Are these things Dreames and Fancies or are they seriously thus We reade of a Law which God made among the Jewes Levit. 23. 29. that if any one afflicted not himselfe on a solemne day of Humiliation that soule should be cut off from his people O God! let not this curse fall upon my Spirit or upon any Spirit here present this day to be so far cut off from being a living member of Jesus Christ or a naturall member of his native countrey as to mourne but in shew or slightly now when the Lord Jesus riseth upon us in such a Cloud of deepe and reall Sorrowes If any man at this time regardlesse of that storme which he sees in his Saviour's face or of the sufferings of his Brethren shall make himselfe red with Wine and Laughter when Jesus Christ is red with anger and blood is it not O God because thou hast made the heart of that man fat for a sudden Slaughter Let us then mourne seriously 2. Mourne spiritually Imitate Jesus Christ make him your Master this way in your Griefes We reade of him Mar. 14. 33 34. He began to be heavy and sore amazed And he said My soule is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death Alas our Brethren our Country
of colours It must have pleni-potency an all-sufficiency a Divinity of certainty and clearnesse in and of it self No other thing can ever make the soul fully sure without trembling or wavering A man must be of necessity double-minded and like a wave of the Sea as Saint James speaks Iames 1. till he come to the Corner stone the Bottom reason of truth because the whole Building of truth stands on this That only is a Demonstrating Principle an assuring a quieting truth which is so first of all that there lies no appeale from it to any it self being the Fountain which gives testimony to all truths but receives or needs a testimony from none 2. Immediate truths These are such as have an immediate Vnion with the Soul that there may be no dispute about their Evidence or diminution or danger of corruption by any second hand Saint Paul calls it a Demonstration of power when the first Light the first Truths communicate themselves nakedly to the naked soule of man both being uncloth'd of any intervening representations or reports Thus the Soul receives the Light of truth in the dignity of its strength in the excellenty of its might as Iacob speaks of his First-born The power of Truth is the first and highest Appearance which is proper perfect substantiall All inferiour appearances are Truth in its weakness and shadowy God made man and woman One that they might have a Holy Seed a Sead of God in the Hebrew Malac. 2. 15. The first Truth as the Man the Soule as the Woman must be espoused and married joyn'd without a Deputy or a Third they must be immediately entirely One that they may have a Seed of God a race of Truths cleer and Sure having the full brightnesse of a Demonstration shining in their faces If any thing come between your understanding or belief and the first Truths you doe not trust to their Testimony but to the report of some other thing concerning them The men of Samaria said to the Woman Now we believe not because of thy saying For we have heard Him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world Iohn 4. 42. If thy Soul will have any one truth in the demonstration of power it must be able to say to the Principle of Truth the highest Truth Now I believe not because of any other testimony proof or evidence For I have heard and seen and handled thee in my self and so I know that thou art indeed in substance and power the anointing Truth the only Light and Anointing of all truths 2. Quest What is the Spirit Answ The Spirit is a name of essence or subsistence in God of the divine Nature or one of the three divine Persons I wil speak of it now as it signifies the essence or nature of God God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth Iohn 4. 24. The Spirit is God unveil'd and shining out in his true Appearance above all the shadows types and Images of him in the Creatures The Flesh profits not but the Spirit quickneth Ioh. 6. 63. Thus our Saviour opposeth the Created and Uncreated part of things in his owne Person under the names of Flests and Spirit Divines say that every Creature even the highest A●●el hath something of materiality darknesse grosnesse composition carnality and so it is Flesh compared with God who only is a Spirit as the Spirit is a name of unity simplicity purity The Spirit then is God in the simplicity of his own Person abstracted from all mixture or composition with the Creature 3. Quest What is the Demonstration of the Spirit God in his Spirituall appearance to the Soul is the first Truth For He is above All. He is the Immediate Truth For he alone is most intimate with all things Nothing can unite it selfe to the Soul so inwardly so immediately as God For all things are by Him This is the onely Demonstration of every of any Truth the Spirituall appearance of God in the Soul holding forth that Truth in his own Light When Saint Paul had spoken of the Demonstration of the Spirit he adds that your faith might be not in the Wisdome of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. The Demonstration of the Spirit is above nature reason and all Principles of Wisdome or Truth in any Creature It is the power of God as God bringing forth the discovery of himself and all Truths as particular discoveries in that Vniversall One like branches in the stock of a tree or beames in the body of the Sun In thy light shall we see light Psal 36. 9. In the manifestation of God within us shall we see the manifestation of each Truth You are Light in the Lord Ephes 5. 8. Every Person every appearance is Light hath a power of evidencing and manifesting it self so far only as it is in the Light of God 4. Quest How is the Demonstration of the Spirit appropriated to Jesus Christ Answ Saint Paul shall answer this question Acts 3. 3. Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which we now see The Spirituall manifestation of God is the onely distinguishing character the demonstration of every spirituall truth This appearance is the Promise the great and last promise of the Father the great and last expectation of all the Saints The Lord Jesus received this manifestation of God in the Person of the Holy Ghost immediately We all receive it or wait for it in the Person of Jesus Christ by His Mediation This Spirit or this Spirituall shining out of the divine Majesty is the onely Seale of truth Ephes 1. 13. Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise in the former part of the Verse were these words after that ye received the word of truth They were sealed that is the truth of the Gospel was sealed in and to and on them by the Seale of the Spirit which is the Ingraving of the first Truth upon each truth or heart The Lord Jesus is the Angel that hath this Seale of the living God in his hand Revel 7. 2. For He himself is first sealed with it and all other Members of this Truth or Disciples of this Master are sealed by and in Him Him hath the Father sealed Joh. 6. 27. The Father is the Sealer primitively by power and authority The Son as he is the second Person in the Trinity is the Image which the Father sets on when he seals Heb. 1. 3. the expresse Image of his Person the Sealing Image The Holy Spirit is the Impression of this Image in and by the Father In this sense the Holy Ghost is said to be received as the Wax receives Impression of the Image in sealing So he is called the Sealing wherewith we are sealed in that fore-quoted place of the Ephesians The Person of the Lord Jesus as he is Mediatour God-man is the Sealer by place and
himself 2 Cor. 3. 1. Need we Epistles of Commendations to you or from you ver 2. Ye are our Epistles written in our hearts ver 3. Ye are manifestly declared the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with Inke but with the Spirit of the living God not on tables of stone but on hearts of flesh These are the Commendatory Letters which a true Apostle the true Church carry about with them these are the Commission by vertue of which they challenge their authority The Epistle that is the Gospell that is the Discovery of Christ shining thorow them into the hearts of men by the Spirit These are the onely life power authority discovery of the true Church the Manifestation of Christ and the Ministery of the Spirit to the hearts of men We reade Gal. 4. 25 26. of two Hierusalems one above the other below that now is subject to temporary appearances in this world or that now is whose time is now whose being and glory is of this world These are the Two Churches one in the outward forme the other in the Spirit To be subject to the Hierusalem below to the Church in the outward forme for the outward forme's sake is a bondage For that Church is in bondage with her children This Church is but our Mother-in-law The Hierusalem which is above the Church in the unity of the Spirit is the true Mother of us all That Church is our right Mistresse which is our true Mother This is the Mount Sion that cannot be toucht that is not obvious to sense or subject to a carnall discerning Here is the great Congregation of the first-borne the meeting of all good Spirits in this one Spirit Heb. 12. 18 22 23. To be subject to the authority of this Church is to be truly free For this Church is seene onely in the Spirit and in that Spirit justifies her selfe This Spirit is the seale of the living God upon her Thus the Authority of the Church is none or t is that of Christ and his Spirit in her 3. Master Miracles Divines distinguish between Mirandum and Miraculum a thing to be admired and a Miracle That is to be admired which is unusuall or unknowne which proceeds from some unwonted or undiscovered cause in nature That onely is a Miracle which is above Nature which transcends the course and power of Nature which hath the Divine Nature putting forth it selfe in the vigour of its abstracted Being You have Miracles described Mark 16. 20. They went forth and preached the Lord working with them and confirming the Word by signes following That onely is a Miracle or a signe from heaven for confirmation of the truth which hath the Lord Jesus working and appearing in it joyntly with some creature There is no way of confirming the Appearances of Christ but onely by the multiplying of those Appearances How then shall I know which is a Miracle I must have a Spirit large as the sand of the Sea that can put a Girdle about the whole Compasse of Nature in her widest extent I must fathom her in the utmost of her Power before I can say of any thing This is supernaturall this is a Miracle Or else he that saith He sees a Miracle must say he sees God as he is above all creatures comming downe in his owne likenesse into some particular Creature and making a change of it by that Discovery of himselfe in it The waters saw thee O God and were driven backward saith the Psalmist of the Miracles wrought in the passage of the Children of Israel out of Aegypt No man can discerne a Miracle 'till he discover God which can never be done but by the Eye of God in the Soul of man Jesus Christ is the Head-miracle For in him first the Face of God is seen in union with the Creature as in a glasse Each Miracle is the same Appearance over again in severall shapes as the same Soul which shines out in the Head shewing it self in the various Members and parts of the body Therefore is the Working of Miracles a Gift of the Spirit and the working of a Miracle is by the faith of Christ 1 Cor. 12. 9 10. Mat. 17. 20. But let us passe from Miracles to the Letter of the Scriptures 4. Master Letter of the Scriptures Nothing is to be said of these but reverendly They are to be set below the Spirit alone It is in comparison with this Spirit that themselves undervalue themselves and testifie of themselves these things 1. The Scriptures in the Letter are Dead But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we might serve him in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Rom. 7. 6. The Law and the Letter are every where made of equall dignity power and extent Both as they are alone are old and dead The Scriptures thus taken signifie nothing except you bring some living Power or Principle to them to quicken them Lay them before a dead man and they are as dead as he 2. The Scriptures in the Letter are Killing 2 Cor. 3. 6. The Letter Killeth but the Spirit quickneth The Letter of the Scripture Kils two waies by confounding and condemning us It hath so much darknesse upon it so much difficulty in it it is subject to so many disputes to such variety of interpretations that it troubles and distracts our Vnderstanding making it able to see nothing to settle no where This indeed is the proper end and best effect of the Letter to put out quite all our Light that we may wait for a higher Light from Heaven which may restore the Letter without us and Reason within us as by a Regeneration Saint Paul saith I by the Law am dead to the Law Galat. 2. 19. Happy is he who can say in like manner I by the Letter am blind and dead to the Letter that the Spirit may shine thorow the Letter upon me and fulfill the law of the Letter in mee 3. The Letter of the Scripture is an Outward thing Rom. 2. 1. Saint Paul teacheth us that he is not a Jew who is one outwardly in the Letter but he that is one inwardly in the Spirit The Letter and the Spirit are opposed as inward and outward The Spirit is called a Sword Ephes 6. 17. The Scriptures are the Scabbard in which that Sword is laid up and out of which it is drawn The Spirit in the same place is called the Word of God This is the inward Word the Scriptures are the outward The Spirit is a Person the Scriptures are a Garment fitted to that Person and receiving their warmth from him before they can give any to us Yet every Principle and Power of falshood as well as truth can cloth it self with this Garment He is not a Jew that is one outwardly in the Letter Each Principle and Spirit makes the Scriptures appear to it selfe in its owne Likenesse Spirituall wickednesses
will come by his Spirit into your Spirits he will come as an uniting quickning informing transforming Spirit into your soules He will give you an Understanding to Know him a Will to Love him a Power to Abide in him Jesus Christ comes to a man as Life from the dead as Eternall life spreading it self through the Soule 3. Object How shall I judge of this Spirit in another man Answ Saint Paul replies Rom. 14. 14. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant that is a man in his relation to God He hath a Master of his owne to whom he stands or falls Doe as the Father hath done leave all judgment to the Son to his manner and measure of appearing in thee So judge not that ye be not judged Judge not the Spirit by carnall Principles lest you be judged as evil doers and busie-bodies by the Spirit 4. Object Men may deceive themselves and abuse the world under this pretence saying I have the Spirit Answ What hath this Objection peculiar in the case of the Spirit The Jewes cry up The Temple of the Lord to cry down the Lord of the Temple May not men pretend falsly to Reason Miracles as well as the Spirit May there not be Apocryphall Scriptures as well as Apocryphall Spirits false Churches false Christs and false Gods What strange thing is there in this Hath not Saint Paul determin'd the state and manner of men universally in the world so far as they are not in Christ Deceiving and deceived 2 Tim. 3. 13. We read of the Law of the Spirit of life The Spirit is no further my Law then it is my Life The Spirit in another man is but the Letter to me which is old and dead till it be justified and quickened by the Spirit in my own breast If I then be deceived I deceive my own soul 5. Object But how ill is the Consequence of Impostures in this kind what confusions doe they beget Answ The best things counterfeited are most dangerous as the Idol-gods for many years drowned almost the whole world in Temporary deceits and desolations in eternall flames yet is this no disparagement to no argument against the Divine Nature The Counterfeiting of Mony brings confusion upon a Common-wealth yet men cannot traffique without Money 'T is true the aping of the Spirit the setting up of mockspirits is a darknesse a snare a storm upon the spirits of men in civill and religious affairs yet can we have no commerce with Spirituall things without the Spirit Ephes 2. 18. We have accesse to God in one Spirit There is no Communion with God but in the Unity of the Spirit These three the Father the Spirit the Soule are made One in every act of Spirituall life or enjoyment Hear then the voice of Jesus Christ calling you by his Spirit Come to me and I will give you Light Certainty Rest Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that commeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4. 4. This is the bread of Heaven that alone feeds and satisfies the understanding this Eternall Word that comes forth from the Father and every word as it comes forth from this Word every Appearance as it springs up in this Appearance Oh! that He would Kisse our Souls with the Kisses of His mouth and so seal Truth upon our Vnderstandings The Philosopher describes Truth to be that which sistit intellectum stayes the Vnderstanding If you lay your Souls to rest upon any Opinion or Principle besides the sweet Breathings of this Master your Souls will sink thorow them So let them sink thorow every Creature till they fall below all into the Spirit of Jesus Christ This Spirit is the golden Girdle of Truth which will bind you fast and hold you in on every side This Spirit is the bed which God makes on which you may safely repose your selves Here an eternall Certainty shall be under you to sustain you an Infinite Cleernesse round about you as Curtains of Light shining upon you and shewing you all things in their lustre Use 3 For Exhortation It is often said that great Persons are much flatter'd They seldome know truth because they see with the eyes and hear with the ears of others Right Hon ble I humbly commend to you a Master who is Truth it self I beseech you to hear with his ears to see with his eyes to make his Person your book in which you shall read the stories of God and Eternity to make his face your glasse in which you shall see how glorious you are in him how to make your selves gracious for him If you are willing to be his Disciples I will point out to you some of those Lessons which he teacheth There are two Lessons which are most principall and most difficult They are hardest to be understood or believed But when these are learned they make all the rest easie They are these two 1. The Lovelinesse 2. The Love of Jesus Christ 1. Lesson The Lovelinesse of Jesus Christ I do not now wish that I had the skill of a powerfull Oratour to write the Lovelinesse of my Saviour upon your fancies with well-chosen words But I pray that He the Lord Jesus himself would write with the Spirit of the living God upon your hearts somthing any thing one Iota one tittle of his own Lovelinesse then I am sure you would go from this place as the Eunuch did from Philip rejoycing and praising God The Lord said Psal 27. 8. Seek ye my face Divines well interpret this of Christ The Face is the beauty and majesty of man Jesus Christ is the naked face of the Godhead He is called a Branch or a Flower Zach. 3. 8. Jesus Christ is the Godhead branch'd forth into its diversities of glories the Flower of the Divine nature ful-blown John 1. 1. The word was with God Prov. 8. I saith Wisdome was as one bred up with him that is God I was his delight Our Saviour's Person is the Word in which all things are exprest the Wisdome in which all things have their form and fulnesse God is a Spirit of an infinite capacity yet he entertains himself eternally with the musick of this Word and the beauties of this Wisdome God pleaseth himself to the heighth with the lovelinesse in the Person of Christ and satisfies himself to the full with the Varieties in that lovelinesse Do you not now begin to perceive something extraordinary in the Person of the Lord Could you not exchange the whole world for a Sight a tast of him When the Sop and the Devill were entred into Judas Jesus Christ saith Now is the Son of man glorified and the Father is glorified in him John 13. 31. Jesus Christ descends into the darkest shape the lowest state of things among the Creatures Yet by His presence He puts a glory upon it he makes it fit for the Father to glorifie himself with it because he finds himself and his own Heaven in it 1 Cor. 6.