Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bear_v	jesus_n	zachary_n	24	3	16.1861	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29689	A golden key to open hidden treasures, or, Several great points that refer to the saints present blessedness and their future happiness, with the resolution of several important questions here you have also the active and passive obedience of Christ vindicated and improved ... : you have farther eleven serious singular pleas, that all sincere Christians may safely and groundedly make to those ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament, that speak of the general judgment, and of that particular judgment, that must certainly pass upon them all immediately after death ... / by Tho. Brooks ...	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.; Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680. Golden key to open hidden treasures. Part 2.	1675 (1675)	Wing B4942; ESTC R20167	340,648	428

soul is his sufferings for it follows And he shall bear their Iniquities But Sixthly Christ gave himself for his peoples sins Gal. 1. 9. 6. Ephe. 5. 25. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Who gave himself for our sins Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might Redeem us from all Iniquities c. but the body only is not himself ergo The Apostle saith Phil. 2. 7. Christus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exinanivit Christ did empty or evacuate himself or as Tertullian expounds it Exhausit Te●t●llian Con●ra Marcian lib. 5. He drew out himself or was exhaust which agrees with the Prophesis of Daniel chap. 9. 26. M●ssias shall have nothing being brought to nothing by his death without life strength esteem honour c. Hence we conclude that if Christ were exhaust upon the Cross if nothing was left him that he suffered in body and soul that there was no part within or without free from the Cross but all was emptied and poured out for our Redemption Again We read That Christ through the eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14 offered himself to God Whatsoever was in Christ did either offer or was offered His eternal Spirit only did offer ergo His whole humane Nature both Body and Soul was offered Thus Origen witnesseth in these words Origen ●om 9 in Levit. Vide quo modo verus pontifex Jesus Christus adsumpt● batillocarnis humanae c. See how our true Priest Jesus Christ taking the censor of his humane flesh putting to the fire of the Altar that is His magnificent Soul wherewith he was born in the flesh and adding Incense that is an immaculate Spirit stood in the middest between the living and the dead Thus you see that he makes Christs soul a part in the Sacrifice Seventhly and lastly Christs love unto man in suffering for him was in the highest degree and greatest measure that could be as the Lord saith What could I have done any more for my Vineyard that I have not done unto it But if Christ had given his Body only and not his Soul for us he had not done for us all he could and so his love should have been greatly empaired and diminished ergo He gave his Soul also together with his Body to be the full price of our Redemption and certainly the travail and labour of Christs Soul was most acceptable unto God Isa 53. 12. Therefore I will give him a Portion with Isa 35. 12. the great because he hath poured out his Soul unto death c. and bare the sins of many Doubtless the sufferings of Christ in his Soul together with his Body doth most fully and amply commend and set forth Gods great love to poor Sinners Before I close up this particular take a few Testimonies of the Fathers which do witness with us for the sufferings of Christ both in Soul and Body Christ hath taken off us that which he should offer as Ambrose de Incarnat c. 6. proper for us to Redeem us and whatsoever Christ took off us he offered ergo He offered Body and Soul for he took both Another upon these words My Soul is heavy saith Anima Concil Hispalens 2. c. 13. passionibus obnoxia divinitas libra His Soul was subject to passions his Divinity was free c. If nothing were free but his Divine Nature than his Soul was subject to the proper and immediate passions thereof Perspicuum est sicut corpus flagellatum ita animam verè Hierom in 35. cap. Isa doluisse c. It is evident that as his body was whipped so his Soul was verily and truly grieved lest some part of Christs sufferings should be true some part false ergo Christs Soul as properly and truly suffered as his Body the Soul had her proper grief as the Body had whipping the whipping then of the body was not the proper grief of the soul Whole Christ gave himself and whole Christ offered himself ergo He offered his soul not only to suffer by way of compassion with his body as it may be Fulgen●ius ad Th●a●maud lib. 3. answered but he offered it as a Sacrifice and suffered all passions whatsoever incident to the soul The same Author expounds himself further thus Because this God took whole man therefore he shewed in truth in himself the passions of whole man and having a reasonable soul what infirmities soever of the soul without sin he took and bare If Christ then did take and bare all the passions of the soul without sin then the proper and immediate grief and anguish thereof and not the compassion only with the body To these let me add the consent of the reformed Churches French Confes Christ did suffer Harm p. 59. Sect. 6. both in body and soul and was made like unto us in all things Sin only excepted Thomas granteth that Christ Secundum genus passus est 3. Par. qu 46. Artic. 5. omnem passionem humanam in general suffered all humane sufferings as in his soul heaviness fear c. Now the Testimonies of the Fathers and the consent of the reformed Churches affirming the same that Christ was Crucified in his soul and that he gave his soul a price of Redemption for our souls Who can then doubt of this but that Christ verily properly immediately suffered in his soul in all the proper passions thereof as he endured pains and torments in his flesh and if you please this may go for an eighth argument to prove that Christ suffered in his soul Secondly That the sufferings of Christ in his soul were very high and great and wonderful both as to the punishment of loss and as to the punishment of sense all which I shall make evident in these four particulars First That Jesus Christ did suffer dereliction of God really that he was indeed deserted † Forsaken 1. By denying of protection 2. By withdrawing of solace Non solvit unionem sed subtraxit vision●m Leo. The Union was not desolved but the beams the influence was restrained forsaken of God is most evident Math. 27. 46. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But to prevent mistakes in this high point seriously consider 1. That I do not mean that there was nay such desertion of Christ by God as did desolve the union of the Natures in the person of Christ For Christ in all his sufferings still remained God and Man Nor 2. Do I mean an absolute desertion in respect of the presence of God For God was still present with Christ in all his sufferings and the God-head did support his Humanity in and under his sufferings but that which I mean is this That as to the sensible and comforting manifestations of Gods presence thus he was for a time left and forsaken of God God for a time had taken-away all sensible consolation and f●lt joy from Christs humane soul that so divine justice might in his sufferings be the more fully satisfied In this

3. 13. 15. He 's called the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead God's justice would be satisfied in the same nature that had sinned 16. God's son made of a woman Gal. 4. 4. 17 Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. The man Christ Jesus 18. The son of David Mat. 1. 1. Mar. 12. 35. How say the Scribes that Christ is the son of David In that the Scribes and Pharisees knew and acknowledged according to the Scripture that Christ should be the son of David that is should be born and descend of the stock and posterity of David according to the flesh Hence we may easily gather the truth of Christ's humane nature that he was ordained of God to be true man as well as God in one and the same person for else he could not be the son of David Now that he must be the son of David even the Scribes and the Pharisees knew and acknowledged as we see here and this was a truth which they had learned out of the Scriptures and not only they but even the common sort of Jews in our Saviour's time John 7. 42. some of the common people spake thus Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and the Messiah was then commonly called the son Rom. 1. 3. of David so then Christ being of the seed of David after the flesh he must needs be true man as well as God for which cause he was incarnate in the due time appointed of God that is to say he being the son of God from everlasting did in time become man taking our nature upon him together with the infirmities of our nature sin only excepted John 1. 14. Now thus you see that the 18 denominations that are given to Christ in the blessed Scriptures do abundantly demonstrate the certainty of Christ's humane nature But Thirdly Christ took the whole humane nature he was truly and compleatly man consisting of flesh and spirit body and soul yea that he assumed the entire humane nature with whatever is proper to it Christ took to himself the whole humane nature in both the essential parts of man soul and body the two essential and constitutive parts of man are soul and body where these two are there 's the true man now Christ had both and therefore he was true man First Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul the reasonable soul is the highest and noblest part of man this is that which principally makes the man and hath the greatest influence into his being and essence if therefore Jesus Christ had only a humane body without a humane soul he had wanted that part which is most essential to man and so he could not have been looked upon as true and perfect man O Sirs Christ redeemed and saved nothing but what he assumed the redemption and salvation reach no farther than the assumption our soul then would have been never the better for Christ had he not taken that as well as our body Hence said Augustine Aug de civ Dei lib. 10. c. 27. p. 586 Therefore he took the whole man without sin that he might heal the whole of which man consists of the plague of sin And Fulgentius to the same purpose As Fulgent ad Thrasymund lib. 1. p. 251. the Devil smote by deceiving the whole man so God saves by assuming the whole man If he will save the whole man from sin he will assume the whole man without sin saith Nazianzen The Scriptures do clearly evidence that Christ had a real humane soul Mat. 26. 38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death every word is emphatical my soul his sorrows pierced his soul Psal 22. 16. and sorrowful round about even to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is heavy round about Look as the soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction to death that is this sorrow will never be finished or intermitted but by death My soul is exceeding sorrowful then Christ had a true humane soul neither was his Deity to him for a soul as of old men of corrupt minds have fancied for then our bodies only had been redeemed by him and not our souls if he had not suffered in soul as well as in body The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul which was now beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold John 12. 27. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say The Greek word signifies a vehement commotion and perturbation as Herod's mind was troubled when he Mat. 2. 3. heard that a new King was born or as the Disciples were Mat. 14. 26. troubled when they thought they saw a spirit walking on the sea and cryed out for fear or as Zachary was troubled Luk. 1. 12. at the sudden sight of the Angel The rise and cause of Christ's soul-trouble was this the Godhead hiding it self from the humanitie's sense and the father letting out not only an apprehension of his sufferings to come but a present taste of the horrour of his wrath due to man for sin he is amazed overwhelmed and perplexed with it in his humanity and no wonder since he had the sins of all the Elect laid upon him by imputation to suffer for And so this wrath is not let out against his person but against their sins which were laid on him Now though Christ was here troubled or jumbled and puzzled as the word imports yet we are not to conceive that there was any sin in this exercise of his for he was like clean water in a clean vessel which being never so often stirred and shaken yet still keeps clean and clear neither are we to think it strange that the son of God should be put to such perplexities in this trouble as not to know what to say for considering him as man encompassed with our sinless infirmities and that this heavy weight of wrath did light upon him on a sudden it is no wonder that it did confound all his thoughts as man O Sirs look that as sin hath infected both the souls and bodies of the Elect and chiefly their souls where it hath its chief seat so Christ to expiate this sin did suffer unspeakable sorrows and trouble in his soul as well as torture in his body for my soul is troubled saith he Though some sufferings of the body be very exquisite and painful and Christ's in particular were such yet sad trouble of mind is far more grievous than any bodily distress as Christ also found who silently bare all his outward troubles but yet could not but cry out of his inward trouble Now is my soul troubled Isa 53. 10. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin when Christ suffered for us our sins were laid upon

and if so then what would become of us what would become of our salvation then our faith would be in vain and our hope would be in vain and our hearing preaching praying and receiving would all be in vain yea then all our Religion would vanish into a m●re fancy also when a man's conscience is awakened to see his sin and misery and he shall find guilt to lay like a load upon his soul and when he shall see that divine justice is to be satisfied and divine wrath to be pacified and the curse to be born and the Law to be fulfilled and his nature to be renewed his heart to be changed and his sins to be pardoned or ●ls● his soul can never be saved how can such a person venture his soul his all upon one that is but a m●re crcature certainly a mere man is no Rock no City of refuge and no sure foundation for a man to build his faith and hope upon woe to that man that ever he was born that has no Jesus but a Socinian's Jesus to rest upon oh 't is sad trusting to one who is man but not God flesh but not spirit as you love the eternal safety of your precious souls and would be happy for ever as you would escape Hell and get to Heaven lean on none rest on none but that Jesus who is God-man who is very God and very man Apollinaris held that Christ took not the whole nature of man but a humane body only without a soul and that the Godhead was instead of a soul to the Manhood Also Eutyches who confounded the two natures of Christ and their properties c. Also Apelles and the Manichees who denied the true humane body and held him to have an aerial or imaginary body Though the popular sort deified Alexander the great yet having Plutarch in vita got a clap with an Arrow he said ye stile me Jupiter's son as if immortal sed hoc vulnus clamat esse hominem this blood that issues from the wound proves me in the issue a man this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of man not of God and smelling the stench of his own flesh he asked his flatterers if the God's yielded such a scent so may it be said of Jesus Christ our Saviour though Myriads of Angels and Saints acclaim he is a God ergo immortal and a crew of Hereticks disclaim him to be man as the Marcionites averred that he had a phantastical body and Apelles who conceived that he had a sydereal substance yet the streams of blood following the arrow of death that struck him makes it good that he was perfect man of a reasonable soul and humane flesh subsisting And as this truth looks sowerly upon the above mentioned persons so it looks sowerly upon the Papists who by their Doctrine of the real presence of Christ's body in the Sacrament do overthrow one of the properties of his humane nature which is to be but in one place present at once This truth also looks sowerly upon the Lutherans or Ubiquitaries who teach that Christ's humane nature is in all places by vertue of the personal union c. I wonder that of all the old Errours swept down into this latter Age as into a sink of time this of the Socinians and Arrians should be held forth among the rest O sirs beware of their Doctrines shun their meetings and persons that come to you with the denial of the Divinity of Christ in their mouths this was John's Doctrine and Practise Irenaeus saith that after he was returned from his banishment and came to Ephesus he came to bathe himself and in the bath he found Cerinthus that said Christ had no being till he received it from the Virgin Mary upon the sight of whom John skipped out of the Bath and called his companions from thence saying let us go from this place lest the Bath should fall down upon us because Cerinthus is in it that is so great an enemy to God ye see his Doctrine see his words too 2 John 10 11. If any come to you having not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds What that Doctrine was if you cast your eye upon the Scripture you shall find it to be the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ shew no love where you owe nothing but hatred I hate every Psal 119. 113. false way saith David And I shall look upon Auxentius as upon a Devil so long as he is an Arrian said Hilarius We must shew no countenance nor give no encouragement to such as deny either ●ne divinity or humanity of Christ I have been the longer upon the Divinity and humanity of Christ 1. Because the times we live in require it 2. That poor weak staggering Christians may be strengthned established and setled in the truth as it is in Jesus 3. That I may give in my testimony and witness against all those who are poysoned and corrupted with Socinian and Arrian Principles which destroy the souls of men 4. That those in whose hands this book may fall may be the better furnished to make head against men of corrupt minds who by slight of hand and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. Sixthly As he that did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner was God-man so the punishments that Christ did sustain for us must be referred only to the substance and not unto the circumstances of punishment The punishment which Christ endured if it be considered in its substance kind or nature so 't was the same with what the sinner himself should have undergone Now the punishment due to the sinner was death the curse of the Law c. now this Christ underwent for he was made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. but if you consider the punishment which Christ endur'd with respect to certain circumstances adjuncts and accidents as the eternity of it desperation going along with it c. then I say it was not the same but equivalent Whether the work of man's redemption could have been wrought without the sufferings and humiliation of Christ is not determinable by men but that it was the most admirable way which wisdom justice and mercy could require cannot be denied And the reason is because though the enduring of the punishments as to the substance of them could and did agree with him as a surety yet the circumstances of those punishments could not have befallen him unless he had been a sinner and therefore every inordination in suffering was far from Christ and a perpetual duration of suffering could not befall him for the first of these had been contrary to the holiness and dignity of his person and the other had made void the end of his suretiship and Mediatorship which was so to suffer as yet to conquer and

by the Embassadours of King Hunnerick answered thus Being assured of God and my Lord Christ I tell you what Victor Uticens l. 3. Wand●l perfecat you may tell the King Let him burn me let him drive me to the Beasts let him torment me with all kind of torments I shall never consent to be an Arrian and though the Tyrant afterwards did torture him with very great tortures yet he could never work him over to Arianism The best remedy against the slavish fear of Tyrants is to set that great God up as the object of our fear who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell Mark He doth not say to destroy soul and body simply or absolutely so that they should be no more for that many that love their Lusts and prize the World above a Saviour would be contented withal rather than to run the hazard of a fierce hot persecution but to punish them eternally in Hell where the Worm never dyeth nor the Fire never goeth out Now by Hell in this Math. 10. 28. The Grave cannot be meant because the soul is not destroyed Eccles 12 7. Phil. 1. 3. with the body in the Grave as they both shall be if the person be wicked after the Morning of the Resurrection in Hell From the immortality of the soul we may infer the Eternity of mans future condition the soul being immortal it must be immortally happy or immortally miserable It was Luthers complaint of old We Luther Tim. 4. 33. 4. more fear the Pope with his Purgatory than God with his Hell and we trust more in the Absolution of the Pope from Purgatory than in the true Absolution of God from Hell and is it not so with many this day who bears their heads high in the Land and who look and long for nothing more than to see Room flourishing in the mid'st of us Take one Scripture more viz. 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. By which also he went and Preached unto the Spirits in Prison Spirits that is the Souls departed not Men but Spirits to keep an Analogy to the 18th ver Christ suffered being made dead in the flesh and made alive by the Spirit in which Spirit he had gon and Preached to them that are now Spirits in Prison because they disobeyed when the time was when the Patience of God once waited in the days of Noah Broughton in his Epistle to the Nobility of England August lib. 1. de civ dei cap. 17. which somtimes were disobedient When once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah That is Christ by his Spirit in the Ministry of Noah did Preach to the men of the Old World who are now in Hell In Noahs time they were on Earth but in Peters time they were in Hell Mark Christ did not Preach by his Spirit in his Ministry or any other way to Spirits who were in Prison or in Hell while he Preached to them There are no Sermons in Hell nor any Salvation there The loving kindness of God is abundantly declared on Earth but it shall never be declared in Hell Look as there is nothing felt in Hell but destruction so there is nothing found in Hell of the offers of Salvation One offer of Christ in Hell would turn Hell into a Heaven One of the Ancients hath reported the opinion of some in his time who thought that thou there be destruction in Hell yet not eternal destruction but that Sinners should be punished some a lesser others a longer time and that at last all shall be freed And yet saith he Origen was more merciful in this point than these men for he held that the Devil himself should be saved at last Of this opinion I shall say no more in this place then this one thing which he there said These men will be found to erre by so much the more fouly and against the right words of God so much the more perversly by how much they seem to themselves to judge more mercifully for indeed the justice of God in punishing of Sinners is as much above Isa 55. 7 8 9. the reach of mans thoughts as his mercies in pardoning them are O let not such who have neglected the great Heb. 2. 3. Salvation when they were on Earth ever expect to have an offer of Salvation made to them when they are in Hell consult these Scriptures Math. 25. 30. Math. 13. 41 42. Rev. 9. 2. 〈◊〉 Rev. 14. 19 20. Rev. 20. 1 2 3 7. I must make hast and therefore may not stand upon the opening of these Scriptures having said enough already to prove both out of the Old and New Testament that there is a Hell a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly men But The third Argument to prove that there is a Hell is this The beams of natural light in some of the Heathens have made such impressions on the heart of natural Conscience that several of them have had confused notions of a Hell as well as of a Judgment to come Though the poor blind Heathens were ignorant of Christ and the Gospel and the great work of Redemption c. yet by the light of Nature and reasonings from thence they did attain to the understanding of a Deity who was both just and good as also that the soul was immortal and that both rewards and punishments were prepared for the souls of men after this life according as they were found either vertuous or vicious Profound Bradwardine and Bradw de causa dei l. 1. c 1. c. several others have produced many proofs concerning their apprehensions of this truth What made the Heathen Emperour Adrian when he lay a dying cry out O animula vagula blandula c. O my little wretched wandring soul whether art thou now hasting c. Oh what will become of me live I cannot dye I dare not but some discoveries of Hell of wrath to come Look as these poor Heathens did feign such a place as the Elizean Fields where the Vertuous should spend an Eternity in pleasures so also they did feign a place called Tartarum or Hell where the Vicious should be Eternally tormented Tertullian and after him Chrysostom affirmeth that Poets and Phylosophers and all sorts of men speaking of a future retribution have said that many are punisht in Hell Plato is very plain that whoever are not expiated but prophane shall go into Hell to be tormented for their wickednesses with the greatest most bitter and terrible punishments for ever in that Prison in Hell And Jupiter speaking to the other Gods concerning the Grecians and Trojans saith If any shall so hardy be To aid each part in spight of me Him will I tumble down to Hell In that Infernal place to dwell So Horace speaking concerning Joves Thunder-bolts saith Quo bruta tellus vaga slumina Quo styx invisi horrida Taenari scdes c. With which Earth Seas the Stygian

nourish but they cannot heal others can enrich bu● they cannot secure others can adorn but cannot advance all do serve but none do satisfie they are like a beggars coat made up of many pieces not all enough either to beautifie defend or satisfie but there is enough in a suffering Christ to fill us and satisfie us to the full Christ has the greatest worth and wealth in him Look as the worth and value of many pieces of Silver is to be found in one piece of Gold so all the petty excellencies that are scattered abroad in the creatures we to be found in a bleeding dying Christ yea all the whole volume of perfections which is spread through heaven and earth is epitomized in him that suffered on the Cross nec Christus nec coelum patitur hyperbolen a man cannot hyperbolize in speaking of Christ and heaven but must entreat his hearers as Tully doth his readers concerning the worth of L. Crassus ut majus quiddam de iis quam quae scripta sunt suspicarentur 3. De oratore that they would conceive much more than he was able to express certainly it is as easie to compass the heavens with a span and contein the sea in a nut-shell as to relate fully a suffering Christ's excellencies or heaven's happiness O sirs there is in a crucified Jesus something proportionable to all the straits wants necessities and desires of his poor people He is bread to nourish them and a garment to John 6. 5 6 37. Rev. 13. 14. Mat. 9. 12. Isa 9. 6. Heb. 2. 10. Act. 5. 31. cover and adorn them a Physician to h●al them a Counseller to advise them a Captain to defend them a Prince to rule a Prophet to teach and a Priest to make attonement Act. 7. 37 38. Heb. 2. 17 18. cap. 4. 15 16. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Isa 9. 6 7. John 20. 17. Isa 28. 16. Rev. 22. 16. Eph. 1. 22 23. for them an Husband to protect a Father to provide a Brother to relieve a Foundation to support a Root to quicken a Head to guide a Treasure to enrich a Sun to enlighten and a Fountain to cleanse Now what can any Christian desire more to satisfie him and save him to make him holy and happy in both Worlds Shall the Romans and other Nations highly value those that have but ventur'd to lay down their lives for their Countrey and shall not we highly value the Lord Jesus Christ who hath actually laid down his life for his sheep I have John 10. 11 15 17. read of one who walking in the fields by himself of a sudden fell into loud cries and weeping and being asked by one that passed by and over-heard him the cause of his lamentation I weep saith he to think that the Lord Jesus Christ should do so much for us men and yet not one man of a thousand so much as mind him or think of him Oh what a bitter Lamentation have we cause to take up that the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered so many great and grievous things for poor sinners and that there are so few that sincerely love him or that highly value him most men preferring their lusts or else the Toys and Trifles of this world above him But Fifthly let the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ work us all into a gracious willingness to embrace sufferings for his sake and chearfully and resolutely to take up his Cross Mat. 16. 24. and follow him did Christ suffer who knew no sin and shall we think it strange to suffer who know nothing but sin shall he lie swelthering under his father's wrath and shall we cry out of men's anger was he crowned Godfrey of Bullen first King of Jerusalem refused to be crowned with a Crown of Gold saying that it became not a Christian to wear a Crown of Gold where Christ for our salvation had worn a Crown of thorns with thorns and must we be crowned with rose-buds was his whole life from the cradle to the cross made up of nothing but sorrows and sufferings and must our lives from the cradle to the grave be filled up with nothing but pleasures and delights was he despised and must we be admired was he debased and must we be exalted was he poor and must we be rich was he low and must we be high did he drink of a bitter cup a bloody cup and will no cups serve our turns but cups of consolation Let us not think any thing too much to do for Christ nor any thing too great to suffer for Christ nor any thing too dear to part with for such a Christ such a Saviour that thought nothing too much to do or too grievous to suffer that so he might accomplish the work of our Redemption He left heaven for us and shall not John 1. 18. we let go this world for him he left his father's bosom for us and shall not we leave the bosoms of our dearest Relations Psal 45. 10 11. Mat. 10. 37. for him he underwent all sorts of sufferings for us let us as readily encounter with all sorts of sufferings for him Paul was so inur'd to sufferings for Christ that ● Cor. 12. 10. 2 Cor. 11. 23 to verse 28. he could rejoice in his sufferings he gloried most in his chains and he looked upon his scars buffetings scourgings stoneings for Christ as his greatest triumphs And how ambitious were the primitive Christians of Martyrdom in the cause of Christ and of late in the times of the Marian Persecution how many hundreds chearfully and willingly laid down their lives mounting Eliah-like to heaven in fiery charriots And oh how will Christ own and honour such Christians at last as have Rev. 3. 21. not set on others but exposed themselves to hazards losses and sufferings for his sake as those brave souls who Rev. 12. 11. loved not their lives unto the death that is the despised their lives in comparison of Christ they exposed their Heb. 11 33 to 39. cap. 10. 34. bodies to horrible and painful deaths their temporal estates to the spoyl and their persons to all manner of shame and contempt for the cause of Christ in the days of that bloody persecutor Dioclesian the Christians shewed certatim Plo●iosa in certamina ruebatur c. Sulpitius as glorious power in the faith of Martyrdom as in the faith of Miracles the valour of the patients and the savageness of the persecutors striving together till both exceeding nature and belief bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers In all Ages and Generations they that have been born after the flesh have persecuted Gal. 4. 29. them that have been born after the spirit and the seed of the serpent have been still a multiplying of troubles upon the seed of the woman Would any man take the Churches picture saith Luther then let him paint a poor silly maid sitting in a wilderness compassed about with hungry