:,... 118 The rare Jewel ofCbrif1ian Contentment. with J efus Cbrift , and if they be happy yC'u muft needs be haPpy • Oh how beneath a ChtiHian is aMurmuring Spirit, if ·he co~fiders his Relations-in which be llaDds.• Secor,dly, A Chrifiian lhould C<?nfider, Th~:t M1srmHring ~tnd Difconwmdnefs is below tb~ bigb Dtgnitits that God h.ub put upon him : Do but confider rhe high D1gnit-y that God hath put upon thee ; the meaneet Chrillm1 in the world is a Lord of Heaven and Earth ; he bath made ui Kings unto himtdf, Kings unto God , not Kings unto men to rule over them, and yet I fay every Chrillian is a Lord of Heaven and Earth, yea ,of life and death. That is, As Chrill he is a Lord of all-, fo he hath made rbore that are-his Members to be Lords ·of all,Ali are yo~tn, faith ~he Apoflle, even ·li te and death, every .th ing is yours. It•s a very Hrange exprellion, that death fuould be theirs, Death js yours, rhat is, you are .as it were Lords oter it , you have that that ihal_l make dc:ath ~o be you1 fer rant, y-our flave, even death it felf, your greatefi enemies are turned to be your fia.ves. Faith makes aChritlian to be: as Lord over art , to be lifted up in excellencie above all creatures that ever God made,except the Angels; yea, and in fome r.eipeCt above them, I fay, the pooreR: CbriHian tbat lives is rai[ed to an ellate above all tbe Creatures in the vvorld, except Angefs; yea, and above tbem in divers refpeCts too, and yet diicontenced, that thou who wert to be a firebrand-of Hell, a.nd might ha.ve been fcorching and yelling ar.d roaring there to all eternity, yet th1t God thould raife thee eo have a .higher excellencie in thee than there is in 'aU the 1vorks of the Crea-ticn that e·ver he made,exce·pt APgds,and-otherChrifiians that are in thy condition ; yea, and thou arr neater the Divine Nature than the Angels, becaufe thy nature is joyned in an hvpo!hticalunion to the Divi;1e Nature, and in that refpeCt thy nature is more honored rhan the nature of the · Angels. And the d=atb of Chrift is thine, he died fot thee, and not for the Angels , and therefore thou art like to be raifed above the Angels, in divers refpe&s : yea. , thou art in fuch an ellate as this is , t_hou that art [et ap~rt to the end thar God might manifefr to all eternity what the infinite power of a Dei.. ty is able toraife a Creature too; for that's the condition of a Saint, a Beleever., bis condition is fuch as be is fet apart eo the · end
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=