into fafety, and fecure thee againft all imaginable dangers ? God forbid ! if it had not been for thy imitation, I cannot think that Chrift would have lived on earth fo many years, to have done fo many gracious meritorious works. 0 think of this. 2.Becaufe Chrift is the beft and the higheft exemplar of holinefs that ever the world had ; hence we muft needs conforme to Chrift (as the Apoftle argues) becaufe he i& the firft ·bor11e among Rom. 8, 19. many brethreu ; the firft in every kind is propounded as a patterne of the reft, now Chrift is the firft-borne, Cllrift is the head ofall the predeftinate, as the firft-borne wa5 wont to be the head in all families. The old faying i>, regu .td exemp!t1r, &c. a very deformity was fometimes counted an honour, if it were in imitation . of the Prince; it is ftoried of Nero, that having a wry neck, there wasfuch an ambition in men to follow the court, that it became the failiion and gallantry ofthofe times, to hold their necks awry; and !hall not Chrift the :King of Saints be much more imitated by his Saints? Chrift is the head ofthe bvdy, the beginning, the Col. t.tS• firft-borne from the de11a, in all things he httth the preheminence; and the rule is g<'neral, that, that_:which it firft, and beft in any kjnde, i& the ntle and meafure of all the .reft . Why fuch is Chrift , 0 then let him be the guide of our life, and of our manners. 3· Becanfe ChriG: doth not only give us an example, but he doth cheriili, fuccour, and affitlns by its eafinefs, complacency, and proportion to us. Some fweetly obferve, that {h.rifl:s pierJ (which we mull imitate) was even, con[lant, unblamable, ccmply-. ing wirh civil fociety, without awj affrightment of precedent, or -aithotlt any prodigious inftances ofaEtions, t,reater than the imitatiorJ of men. We are not commanded to imitate a life, whofe fiory tells us of extafies in prayer,-of abfrractions of fenfes, of extraordimiry faftings to the weakning of our fpirits, and difabling of aU animaloperations; no, no; but a life of jufrice, and temperance, and chafrity, and piety, and charity, and devotion; fuch a life as without which humane fociety cannot be conferved; -- And it is very remarkable, that belides th~ eafineife ofchis imitation, there is a vertt1e and efficacy in the life ofChrifi; a merit, and impetrationin the feveral palfages ofChrifis life, to work out our imitation of him. In the Bohemian bifiory ic is reported that U u u 2. Wincejl.tH4 (~ .•
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