them with acting out of Fancy or humour or any thing but a fixed and stable Principle Besides what hath been spoken by way of Direction in answer to the Question some further Improvment of this Doctrine may be made Vse 2 1. By way of Information If true Christians may give an account of their Christianity 1. They then are no true Believers no true Christians of whose Religion no good account can be given either how they came by it or whereon it is grounded 1. How they came by it when they pretend to be Saints but cannot in the least tell how they came to be Saints have found no real change in themselves are the same they have alwayes been they have they think loved God and believed in Christ and had hopes of Heaven ever since they can remember but know not how any of these things were wrought in them or by what means such a Faith I dare say is but a Fancy and so is their Hope and their Love and whatever Grace they pretend to 2. Whereon it is grounded 1. When their Faith is not rightly grounded it is no better than a Fancy When it is built on the Authority of a Church or the Traditions of men and not on the Word of God or on the Word misunderstood or misapplied or divided or maimed when they believe Promises without respect to Commands believe Christ is their Saviour and yet never receive him to be their Lord believe they shall See God though they be not pure in Heart follow not after Holiness and such indeed is the Faith and Hope of Prophane Worldlings and whoever live in Contradiction to Gods Commands and yet expect the benefit of his Promises 2. When their Practice is not rightly grounded it is no better than Folly how fair soever and plausible it may seem When men set up a Religion meerly of mans devising contrive new wayes of Worshipping God which he himself never appointed and so indeed impose upon him and prescribe to him what they think must certainly please him This is unreasonable for men to think that their Inventions or others Traditions can be more acceptable to God than his own Institutions that Sacrifice can go further than Obedience would have done They would themselves be served according to their own minds and not their Servants pleasure and why should not God They would not have their Commands neglected that their Servants Will might be performed and how foolish is it then to adhere to their own Inventions though with the slighting of Gods Institutions and yet how few be there that are so addicted to Humane Observances but they are careless of Gods Appointments Gods Commands being the Great and only Warrantable reason of all Divine Worship whatever Worship is uncommanded cannot be but unreasonable 2. How great is their sin that Question nay Deride the Grace that is in Believers as not being a real thing count the most Serious powerfull Godliness to be no better than Humour of Fancy All the Religion they own consists but in a few outward Forms or some moral Actions and whatever is above this they look upon as not real and so they leave us a Lamentably empty Religion when they condemn our Faith as Fancy our Practice as Folly and casheer all our Comforts as meer Delusions This usually proceeds either 1. From the Atheism and Infidelity of such mens Hearts some Question all Religion and so the true Religion among the rest they are themselves for none and therefore Quarrel with all they think all Religion is but Fancy or Policy and so the Christian Religion too They do not really believe the Grounds of Christianity and therefore laugh at them that do 2. Or from Pride and Conceitedness of their own Wisdom and Reason they magnifie their own Notions are in love with their own Wisdom and so contemn all else like the Athenians Acts. 17.18.32 that laugh'd when they heard of Jesus and the Resurrection The high Opinion they have of their Reason makes them deny the reality of Faith what they cannot themselves comprehend they will not believe nor allow others to do it they will scarce allow of any thing between Demonstration and Fancy and this makes them Innovate so much in Religion and Scoff at the Faith by which they should be Saved 3. Or from Ignorance of Spiritual things and their not Experiencing the Power of Grace in their own Hearts They will believe nothing in Religion but what they have themselves felt They never found the Light of Divine Truths shining into their dark Minds and overcoming their Carnal Reason nor the Power of Grace renewing their Wills and subjecting them to Gods Will breaking the force of their sinfull Inclinations mortifying their Lusts regulating their Affections changing the habitual temper and disposition of their Spirits nor the Efficacy of Faith in the Purification of their Hearts their resting upon the Promises cleaving to Christ and fetching in supplies of the Spirit from him nor the Love of God shed abroad in their Hearts enlarging them in Duties quickning them in his wayes supporting them under Burthens strengthning them against Temptations and comforting them under Afflictions and therefore they Question all these things and take them to be nothing else but canting Phrases and unaccountable Fancies A man that never was at Rome or Constantinople might at the same rate deny there ever were such places one that never tasted Honey might deny it to be sweet or a blind man laugh at Colours because he never saw them though contrary to the Experience of thousands that had with as much reason as they who live meerly by Sense and never Experienced any better pleasures deny a higher Principle by which Believers are acted and more Spiritual Comforts which they enjoy Vse 2 Of Exhortotion 1. Labour to Experience the reality of your Religion in your selves So live as that you may not be deceived and may know that you are not So act Grace as that you may feel it working and from thence conclude the Principle to be in you and may tast the sweetness of the comforts it brings with it Labour to be fully satisfied that you do not live by Fancy and act by Fancy think you believe and hope when you do not that Grace in you is as real a Principle as Reason is 1. This becomes you as reasonable Creatures as such you should know the reason of your own Actings upon what Grounds you do what you do and believe what you believe You would think a man very weak and foolish in the concernments of this present Life that could give himself no account of his own Actions or expectations should have high hopes of great things but not tell why he entertained them How unreasonable then is it for a man to hope for greater things in the other Life to engage in a Religious Course be diligent in Duties deny himself as to his Worldly Interest and yet not know why he doth so 2. It
mans Conscience in the sight of God Paul's Preaching this is the principal thing to be aimed at and it is the proper source of all profitable Preaching To conclude You that are Ministers suffer a Word of Exhortation Men Brethren and Fathers you are called to an high and holy Calling your Work is full of Danger full of Duty and full of Mercy You are called to the winning of Souls an Employment near a-kin unto our Lords work the saving of Souls and the nearer your spirits be in conformity to his holy temper and frame the fitter you are for and the more fruitfull you shall be in your work None of you are ignorant of the begun departure of our Glory and the daily advance of its departure and the sad appearances of the Lords being about to leave us utterly Should not these Signs of the times rowse up Ministers unto greater seriousness What can be the reason of this sad Observation that when formerly a few Lights raised up in the Nation did shine so as to scatter and dispell the darkness of Popery in a little time yet now when there are more and more Learned men amongst us yet the Darkness comes on apace Is it not because they were men filled with the Holy Ghost and with Power and many of us are only filled with Light and Knowledge and inefficacious Notions of Gods Truth Doth not always the Spirit of the Ministers propagate it self amongst the People A lively Ministry and lively Christians Therefore be serious at heart believe and so speak feel and so speak and as you teach so doe and then People will feel what you say and obey the Word of God And lastly for People It is not unfit that you should hear of Ministers Work and Duty and Difficulties you see that all is of your Concernment All things are for your sakes as the Apostle in another case Then only I intreat you 1. Pity us We are not Angels but men of like Passions with your selves Be fuller of Charity than of Censure We have all that you have to do about the saving of our own Souls and a great Work besides about the saving of yours We have all your difficulties as Christians and some that you are not acquainted with that are only Ministers Temptations and Tryals 2. Help us in our Work If you can do any thing help us in the work of Winning Souls What can we do say you O! a great deal Be but won to Christ and we are made Make haste to Heaven that you and we may meet joyfully before the Throne of God and the Lamb. 3. Pray for us How often and how earnestly doth Paul begg the Prayers of the Churches and if he did so much more should we begg them and you grant them for our Necessities and Weaknesses are greater than his 2 Thess 3.1 2. Finally Brethren pray for us that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not Faith THE CHAMBER of IMAGERY IN THE Church of ROME laid open OR AN Antidote against Popery Quest How is the Practical Love of Truth the best Preservative against Popery SERMON X. 1 PET. II.III. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious WHen false Worship had prevailed in the Church of old unto its Ruine God shewed and represented it unto his Prophet under the name and appearance of a Chamber of Imagery Ezek. 8.11 12. For therein were pourtraied all the Abomination wherewith the Worship of God was defiled and Religion corrupted Things relating unto Divine Truth and Worship have had again the same event in the world especially in the Church of Rome And my present Design is to take a view of the Chambers of their Imagery and to shew what was the occasion and what were the Means of their Erection and in them we shall see all the Abomination wherewith the Divine Worship of the Gospel hath been corrupted and Christian Religion ruined Unto this end it will be necessary to lay down some such Principles of Sacred Truth as will demonstrate and evince the Grounds and Causes of that Transformation of the Substance and Power of Religion into a Lifeless Image which shall be proved to have fallen out amongst them And because I intend their benefit principally who resolve all their Perswasion in Religion into the Word of God I shall deduce these Principles from that Passage of it in the first Epistle of the Apostle Peter Chap. 2. and the three first Verses The first Verse contains an Exhortation unto or an Injunction of universal Holiness by the laying aside or casting out whatever is contrary thereunto wherefore lay aside all Malice and all guile and hypocrisie and envy and all evil speaking the Rule whereof extends unto all other vicious habits of Mind whatever And in the Second there is a Profession of the Means whereby this End may be attained namely how any one may be so strengthened in Grace as to cast out all such sinful Inclinations and Practises as are contrary unto the Holiness required of us which is the Divine Word compared therefore unto Food which is the Means of preserving Natural Life and of increasing its strength As new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Hereon the Apostle proceeds to declare the Condition whereon our profiting growing and thriving by the Word doth depend and this is an experience of its Power as it is the Instrument of God whereby he conveys his Grace unto us if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious See 1 Thes 1.5 Therein lies the first and chief Principle of our ensuing Demonstration and it is this All the Benefit and Advantage which any men do or may receive by the Word or the Truths of the Gospel depend on an experience of its Power and Efficacy in communicating the Grace of God unto their Souls This Principle is evident in it self and not to be questioned by any but such as never had the least real sence of Religion on their own Minds Besides it is evidently contained in the Testimony of the Apostle before laid down Hereunto three other Principles of equal Evidence with it self are supposed and virtually contained in it 1. There is a Power and Efficacy in the Word and the Preaching of it Rom. 1.16 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it 〈…〉 Pâ—â—â—r of God unto salvation It hath a divine Power the Power of God accompanying it and put forth in it unto its proper Ends for the Word of Gâ—d is quick and powerful Heb. 4.12 2. The Power that is in the Word of God consists in its efficacy to communicate Grace of God unto the Souls of man in and by it they taste that 〈◊〉 Lord is gracious that is is efficacy unto its proper Ends. These are Salvation with all things requisite
without 'em a Prov. 1.32 The Prosperity of Fools destroyes ' em What doth Religion in this Case The Truth is there needs a great exercise of Religion to carry us safe thrô Freedom from Affliction b Job 1.5 Jobs extraordinary devotion upon his Childrens ordinary rejoycing in their prosperous Condition may Convincingly instruct us that there 's more danger in Freedom from Affliction than we are willing to suspect and it is more difficult to love and fear and trust God when we have the world than when we want it so that without Serious Godliness 't is impossible to withstand the insinuating and pleasing Temptation of flattering Prosperity and unless Faith be in Exercise we cannot do it with it What then is an afflicted Condition to be preferr'd Some that have had experience of both say Yes they have been afraid to come from under their Afflictions some sick Persons have been even afraid of Health thô they desir'd it lest what they got in their Sickness they should lose in their Health But yet the continuance of Afflictions breaks the Spirits and hinders that chearful serving and praising of God which is or should be the Life of a Christian thô many are better'd by Afflictions yet none are allowed to pray for Afflictions but against them and use all good means to avoid or remove them 't is one thing makes Heaven desirable the putting an end to all our Afflictions In short c Heb. 12.11 no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous whatever be the after-fruit of it This therefore is clogg'd with Vanity But what doth Religion in this Case Serious Godliness by Afflictions becomes more Serious God makes great use of Afflictions for the working and promoting of Piety and in this I think all experienced Christians are agreed they reckon sanctified Afflictions among the choicest Providences of their lives I commend the enlargement of this by your own Thoughts out of your own experiences And thus including these three Cases as in a large Parenthesis there 's one Case more that I would cautiously speak to which the Church Catholick truly so called may have more cause than ever tremblingly to consider and to seek more satisfying resolution than I can give for it's determination VI. What man upon Earth can peremptorily assert whether Peace or Persecution be just at such a time infallibly best for the Church of Christ 'T is easily granted that we must at all times pray for and endeavour the universal both outward and spiritual Peace of the Church and this that we may at all times do any thing but Sin to avoid or put an end to Persecution but let 's consider each as in the former instances That the Peace of the Church is beyond Expression desirable he is no Christian that denyes it those that are the greatest troublers of the Churches Peace do usually proclaim their Friendship to it calling their Affection to a party Love to the Church and the welfare of their party the Peace of the Church Now thô their Charity is too narrow to contract the Church into a party their Notion of Peace is large enough they would have it commensurate with the Church So that I need not be large to prove what no body denies Outward Prosperity was so much the Blessing of the Old Covenant that some confine it to that but others upon better Grounds expect more under the Gospel for d Luk. 1.74 75. this was no inconsiderable end of Christs coming into the World to deliver us out of the hands of our worldly Enemies to serve him without affrighting fears of men in Holiness before God and Righteousness before men all the dayes of our Life Which Prosperity when the Church hath enjoyed according to Christs purchase and Promise then they have walkt in the filial fear of the Lord and in the encouraging e Acts 9.31 Comforts of the Holy Ghost were multiplyed in number of Converts and increase of their Graces that were formerly converted But here as we use to say of pleasant weather 'T is pity fair weather should do any harm so 't is pity the Churches Prosperity should do any harm But alas the Church of Christian as little bear continual Prosperity as long Adversity a Calm is sometimes as dangerous as a Storm Many are the Temptations and Snares of a Prosperous condition it breeds Hypocrites Errors and Heresies spring up like Weeds in rank ground Professors are apt to grow Remiss and Careless Wanton and Secure to be too fond of the Present and to hanker after more Temporal Happiness than God judges good for them How hardly were the very Apostles awakened from dreaming of Christs temporal Kingdom and the very best of 'em from suing for great Offices at Court O the Divisions among Brethren when Pride makes them quarrelsome When the World favours the Church the Church slides into the World then their worldliness spoils their Christianity and their Christianity palliates their worldliness and so those things are mixt which can never be compounded But now Serious Godliness is the best Preservative against Surfeiting on Prosperity 'T is Grace in the Exercise and Growth that powerfully enables and necessarily provokes to improve the Churches Peace to all Spiritual advantages The Church of the Jews was never in such a flourishing condition as in Solomon's Reign and is it not well worthy our observation that the Posterity of his Servants who became Proselytes to the Jewish Religion were several Ages after his death doubly recorded by a Neh. 7.57.60 the Spirit of God above the Proselytes of former Ages 'T is Serious Godliness that keeps them humble and always upon their Watch against flattering Temptations that keeps them low in their own eyes and from despising others and what on this side great Grace could make David who had a b 1 Chron. 22.14 greater Summe of ready Money than ever any had in the World either before or since preferr that little of Scripture that was penn'd in his time before an innumerable Treasure c Psal 119.72 He had also a List of Worthies d 2 Sam. 23. never the like in the World yet he e Psal 16.3.119.63 preferrs the Communion of Saints before ' em To have our Conversation in Heaven when 't is best with us upon Earth this can only be effected by the Power of Godliness believe it Christians this is no easie matter What then Is a State of Persecution more Eligible Before I dare speak a word to this I must premise this Caution Let not Persecutors take encouragement to be more outragious in their Persecution and then scornfully tell you this is good for 'em their Pastors tell 'em 't is sometimes better for 'em than Peace This is like Julian who in every thing he did with a deep Reach and greater Malice than former Emperors to undermine and worm out the Christian Religion he still twitted the Christians with some advice
Object of it is real the Ground of it certain the Actings of it sensible to himself and the Effects of it evident to others This I shall endeavour to do I. As for the Object of a Believers Faith and Hope that good which he believes shall be and expects after this life a state of glory for the spirits of just men He that shall deny that such a thing is must not own the Name of Christian when even the light of Nature will go so far toward the proving of it for 1. That shews us that the Soul is immortal as being of a spiritual nature and independent on the Body in its most proper and noble Operations the actings of the Understanding and Will 2. That there is a reward after this life for them that do well no less than on the contrary Punishment for evil doers This the generality of the Pagan World that knew not distinctly wherein that Reward did consist yet have granted the thing and who is not instructed by his own Conscience in the knowledge of it The work of the Law written in the Heart †Rom. 2.15 and the secret pleasure and satisfaction men take in their own Innocence or good actions proves a reward on the one hand as well as the fears and horrors which the Consciences of the most slie and secret sinners subject them to speak the punishment they expect on the other And if these things were only impressions made upon mens Fancies in their tender years it were strange that all the Reason they grow up to exercise and all the Art many obstinate Sinners make use of on purpose to obliterate them and to impress the contrary upon their Minds together with a thousand other Species printed on their Imaginations by their Employments their Pleasures and all the various Occasions and accidents of their Lives should never be able to rid them of these so unpleasing Sentiments 3. Something may be said even from natural Reason to prove this reward to consist in the enjoyment of God and so not only to evince the reality of some Happiness but of this in particular in the other life For 1. It will scarce be denyed but that the soul of Man is capable of enjoying God as its Sovereign good i. e. of most intensely delighting and entirely acquiescing in him as a good suitable to the spiritual Nature and sufficient for the vast capacity of an immortal Soul Some of the Heathen came near this when they stated mans Happiness as consisting in the Contemplation of the highest being And indeed the very Nature and Operations of the Soul and its apprehending spiritual Objects amounts to little less than a demonstration of this 2. The enjoyment of God is the greatest good any Creature can be capable of God is in himself absolutely the greatest good because an infinite one and comprehensive of all Perfection and there can be no greater good than to be possessed of him that is the greatest 3. The reward and happiness of an holy Soul can be nothing less than the greatest good and therefore must needs be the enjoyment of God himself this appears in that 1. Less than the greatest good cannot satisfie mans Soul and then to be sure cannot make it happy when its happiness consists in its being fully satisfied All the riches and pleasures of this World and delights of Sense can never be to the Soul instead of God because they are unsuitable to its nature which is spiritual to its duration which is immortal and to those appetites God hath implanted in it It 's very capacity of enjoying God is attended with a secret Inclination to it insomuch that many times when a man may not have an explicit and distinct knowledge of the good he wants yet being unsatisfied with what he hath though never so great he finds a want of something else and because he wants it he desires it though he know not clearly what it is to make him happy 2. It is most congruous to the Wisdom and goodness of God to appoint the greatest good to be the Happiness of the noblest of his Creatures not that they deserve it but because he may be most glorified by it and because he hath given them a nature capable of it As he suits the good of other Creatures to the capacities he hath given them so he doth the good of man None but Angels and men are capable of enjoying or actively glorifying him and God having capacitated them for that sutes their good to their Capacity It had not been agreeable to the Wisdom of God for man to have had only some inferiour good in this Life assigned to him as his chief Happiness when he had made him capable of an higher Thus much hath been said and more might even from Reason it self to prove the reality of those things Believers look for in the other Life How much might be said from Scripture with respect to which only they are the Objects of Faith but this I referre to the next head the ground of a Christian Faith 2. That is certain The same things sometimes may both be believed with a Divine Faith and known too by natural Reason but then the Medium whereby they are known and the ground whereon they are believed are very different the one is some rational argument the other the Word of God In the case before us the being of Eternal Life the present Object of Faith we speak of may be proved by reason but then so far it is not the Object of Faith but of Knowledge but withall it may be proved by Scripture and so it is the Object of Faith and as such I am now to speak of it and so to shew that the ground on which a Christian believes Eternal Life is most certain and that is no other than the Word of God particularly the Promise of the Gospel The Scripture therefore is the ground of the Faith of Eternal Life 1. As it reveals it for that it doth more fully and clearly though something a man may know of future Happiness by his natural light as before was said yet the fairest and most distinct notion he hath of it is by Revelation in the Word that tells us plainly what is that great good in which mans Happiness consists 1 Joh. 3.2 Seeing God as he is and being like him Life and Immortality are brought to light especially by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 not only more distinctly discovered than ever Nature could discern them but than God himself had revealed them in the Old Testament 2. As it shews the way to it the terms on which it is to be obtained sets before us Eternal Life as in Christ it not only tells us of the thing it self but shews how man sinfull man may attain to the enjoyment of it declares true Holiness to be the way in which he is to walk and Christ the Door by which he is to enter 3. As it secures it upon
divine disposal and thereupon tasts some sweets in their bitterness and resolves to submit thereunto as her duty and finding her self to have been barren and unfruitful in the knowledg of the Lord Jesus Christ i 2 Pet. 1.8 to bring forth fruit unto holiness which ends in eternal life k Rom. 6.22 Instances of such fruitful Meditation may be seen in Mr. Oliver's Present forecited chap. 5. Further Faith doth exercise it self 2. In Prayer to God that being the Mouth of Faith in God through Christ in whose prevailing Name Christians are concern'd to lift up their hearts unto him for relief in all their straits Those good Wives who own the Religion of the Bible should not with the Heathen in their pains make their Prayers to Lucina or with the Papists to the Virgin Mary or their S. Margaret but unto him alone in whom they believe l Rom. 10.14 and who alone heareth prayers m Psal 65.2 Chrysostome did greatly complain in his time that the tender mind of a Virgin on her Marriage-day should be diverted from minding the things of Christ with immoderate sports and devices of Mirth and from eying of God who alone could effectually give joy to a married couple * L. Viv. de Christian Foem l. 2. p. 148 149. And therefore she should then rather implore his aid as she hath need to do all along in a married state but much more peculiarly and fervently when having conceiv'd and grown big the hour of her child-bed pangs is approaching that her heart is sore pained within her and the terrors of death are fallen upon hâ—r n Psal 55.4 should her precious Faith fervently utter her most necessary and affectionate requests unto him who hath freely given by his Apostle the good word of support in my Text with those of the like import elsewhere and is able to save to the uttermost deliver effectually and keep in perfect peace all that fly to him and stay themselves upon him in that good work he hath appointed them unto Thus of the principal Grace a Divine or Christian Faith There is also 2. A Moral or Conjugal Faith which is more distinctly called fidelity or faithfulness a Grace much strengthned from the former and in a Wife doth more peculiarly respect her Husband as we may particularly gather from our Apostle in this Epistle o 1 Tim. 5.12 compar'd with that which he speaks more generally of it elsewhere p Tit. 2.10 for the adorning of the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things The Wife hath plighted her Troth to her Husband according to the flesh unto whom the Lord hath in the Marriage-Covenant joyn'd her and she is obliged to be constantly faithful in all conjugal duties to him with whom she hath trusted her self and that by Vertue of the Covenant of her God Neither is it enough to be really faithful but also to seem so or be seen as much as may be so to be * Tertull. Not that any Christian woman should be like some of those in the Great Moguls Countrey ‖ Purchas Pilgrim l. 1. p. 225. who to gain the repute of modest loving and faithful Wives will have their own Corps burnt together with their deceased Husbands but she should shew her real fidelity as in an honest and prudent concealment of her Husbands secrets so in avoiding all just suspicion by any familiar converse with others of being false to his Bed and religiously keeping till death the Matrimonial Obligation not deserting her dear yoke-fellow when reduced to straits For so 't is storied of the King of Pontus his Wife that she disguised her self to follow her banish'd Husband saying There she reckon'd was her Kingdom her Riches and Countrey wheresoever she could find her Husband * L. Viv. de Christ Foem l. 2. p. 157 158. The Wife of a certain Count of Castile when the King had detained her Husband in Prison went to visit him whom she perswaded to put on her cloaths and leave her there in his stead Of which Fact the King hearing did much wonder at the fidelity of the Countess and sent her to her Husband wishing he had such Wives for himself and Sons I might produce more Instances but I hasten If Christian Servants should perform the Offices of their Relation as unto the Lord with all good fidelity q Tit. 2.10 Col. 3.22 much more should the Christian Wife who hath solemnly entred into the Covenant of the Lord with her Husband in all faithfulness fill up her Relation towards him with whom she is become one flesh Yet in too many what a defection is there from this Faith Wat a violation of this good fidelity in our degenerate and decrepit Age which unless God give timely repentance of may not only hazard the Temporal but will also the Eternal salvation of many adulterous child-bearers who yet less impudent than some others wipe their mouth it may be and unless their sharp throws face them to confess their falsity would be thought to be most genuine Daughters of the Church when indeed they hasten its ruine in a spurious brood The next Grace required here in my Text is 2. Charity or Love This in a good Wife I take as I did Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that which is Christian and Conjugal respecting Christ and her Husband Be sure every Christian Wife should 1. Love the Lord Jesus Christ considered both personally and mystically She should sincerely love Christ in himself and in his members Her Faith towards him should work by Love r Gal. 5.6 1. It behoves her to give the Primacy of her affection unto Christ himself She is oblig'd above all most entirely and heartily to love the Lord Jesus Christ her spiritual Husband For they come under the Apostolical Benediction who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity or with incorruption Å¿ Eph. 6.24 Our Lord Jesus loves such and is much affected with their doleful condition as with that of his friend Lazarus t John 11.3 11 35. This indeed is a good evidence of a genuine Faith and shews it self to be of a right stamp when there is an holy care to keep all Christs Commandments u John 14.15 Hence Charity is compared by one to an ever-turning spq always providing and labouring for him in whom she resteth Let this be the chief care of the Christian Wife and she may upon good grounds conclude Christ is hers and she is his w Cant. 2.15 and say in all trouble as the good woman when bloody Bonner threatned her in the Popish persecution to take away her Husband and Son Christ is mine Husband and better to me than Ten Sons you cannot strip me of him Now if the good Wife hath Christ present with her in her Travail as they who love him with a prevailing love certainly have in all their affliction she hath All having him who will command deliverance