---··--·-r-··- Chap.3.Sett.6. Look)ngunto 'fe[UI, Boo.k.IV.Part.3. 66r Parents, wife, children; Oh but love Chrift more than taefe; a frie1<1d would be an enemy, but that the blood ofChrift doth frame his heart ; a wife would be a trouble, but that the blood ofChrift doth frame her heart; all memes are conveyed co us through this channel; ~h ~ho would. not love. the fountaine? -confider of 1t a game and agame, our Jefus thought nothino too good for us, he parts with his life and blood, he pa~s with the fenfe and feeiing 9f the love of God, and all this for us, and for our fakes; ah my foul, how {hould'fr thou but love him in all things , and by all meanes? It is reported of Ignatim, that he fo continually meditated on the great things Cbrifr futfered for him, that .he was brought ent'1rely to lo~e him: and when be was demanded, why he would not forfake Chrifr, rather than to fuffer himfelfe to be torne and devoured of wild beafrs? he anfwered, that he could not forget him, becaufe of his fufferings ;. Oh his fufferingJ (faid he) <~re not tranfcient words,or remo·vable ,bjefJs, but they are inddib!e ch.traE!:ers,(o engraven in my hrar~, that all the twmentJ of earth can never race them out. And bemg commanded by that bloody tyrant Trajane to be r .pt and unbowelled, they found 'fefm {hrift written upon his heart in charatl:ers of gold. Here wai an heart worth gold; oh that it might be thus with us ! Ifmy hands were all of love, that I ~ould worl; nothing but love; ifmy eyes were all of love, that I could fee nothing but love; if my minde were all of love,that I could think ofnothing but love. all w~r~ too little to love that Chrifr, who hath thus immeafur~bly loved me; if I had a thou£:1nd hearts to befiow on Chrlft, and they moft enlarged and fcrued up to the highdl: pitch of affetl:ion, all thefe were infi niteiy fhort of what I owe to my dread Lord, and dearefr Saviour. Come let's joyne bands, he loved m, . a·nd theref ore ht m luve him : if we ,h[pute the former, I. argue. .from the Jewes , when he fhed but.a few tea res out of his eyes at La:;;:,arm grave, then[aid the {ewrs, ~eh. ld ~ow he loved him, Joh. lob, 11 . j6', • I r. 36. how much more trudy may It be fa ,d ofus for whom he · fhed both water and blood , and that from h1s he;trt,behold how he lovrd m; why then, ifour hearts be n6t Iron, yea if they be Iron, how fhould they choofe. but feele t he magnetical force of this loadfroae of love ? for to a · loadftone ·doth PPPP 3 Chrift t
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=