Looking unto Je{u!. Book. IV. 52.3 --------------------------------- foul,wouldft thou break the eternal bands ofpredeftination?O,God forbid! Againe, if this was one of the ends of Chrifts coming, to defi:roy the works of the devil , to deface all Sathans works, efpecially his work in me, his image in me, and to fet his own ftamp on my foul; how chen iliould I but endeavour to conforme ? I reade but of two end\ of Chrifts coming into the world in ~elation to us, whereof the firfl: was to redeem his people, and the other was to purifie his _people; he gave himfe!fr JoY m that he miJ,ht redeem m from all iniquity, -t~nd purifie unto him- Tir. ~.14; felfe, a pecet!iar people, z.ealoUJ of guod work! : the one is the work ofhis merit, which goeth upward, . to the fatisfad:ion of his Father; the other is the work of his Spirit and grace, wbich goeth downwards to the fand:ification of his Church ; in the one he beftoweth his righceoufneffe on us by imputation, on the othe-r he failiioneth his image in us by renovation : and what, 0 my foul, woufd{l: thou ddl:roy the end of Chrifts coming in the flefh ? or wouldft thou mitre of that end for which Chrifi came in relation to thy good ? O,God forbid ! againe, confider the example of the Saints before thee; if this was their holy ambition to be like their Jefus, emulate them in this, for this is a bleffed emulation; it is obfervable bow the heathens themfelves had learnt a rule very neare to this; S tntca advi fed that every man fbould propound co bimf:lfe,. the example offome wife, and vertuous per- Sellec. cp. 11 • . fonage, as C tlro, or Socratu, or the ltke; and really to take his life as the di reCtion of all their ad:ions; but 1s not the life ofJefus far more precious, and infinitely more worthy of imitation ? W.! rea de in hift ory ofone C eci'id a virgin, who accuftomed her fdfe to the beholding of Cbrifr for imitation, and to that purpofe fhe ever carryed in her breft fome pieces of the Gofpel, which ihe had gathered out of all the Evangeli!ts, and thereon night and day fhe was either readir,g, or medttating . this work {he carried on in fuch a circulation, r,'lac at laO: fbe gr~w perfeCt in it, and fo enjoyed Chnft and the Gofp<:l, not only in her brefl: but alfo in tbefecrets ofherheart; asappeared brher loveofChnfl: , and confidence in Cbrift, and familiarity wich Chri!t; as a! fob}' her conte~pt of the world, and all its glory, tor Chrifi his fake; There 1s fome refemblance of this in the Sponfe, when fbe refolv, ed of C.hrift, he (h1llllye all night betwixt my- lmfts, q. d. hdhall Clnt.J, q, be as neare me as neare may be, my meditation of him (and by X xx 2 confe- _ J
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