3 1 2 Ì Want ofCbriFf matter ofeeat hurrriliation, Caute and matter of hu- miliation. How carnali man is with - our Chrifi. 0 Ifa.29 I I. CHAP.IV. Declaringmans great caufeofhumiliationfor being without Chrift, and alt difcovering the carafe ofmans under- valuing Chriff, JHe meditation ofmans alienation from Chrift in hisna- turall eftate, minifters matter ofHumiliation unto man, man in his naturali condition having nothing of Chrift within him ; and this is the mifery of all miferies to be emptyof Chrift Jefus, neither doth the want of any thing minifter finch caufe and matter of humiliation, as the want of Chrift. Hagar wept becaufe her bottle was empty of waters, Hannah was in great bitterneffe, becaufe her wombe was barren, Gut up from child-bearing. The women in the day of Famine cryed helpe ô King : C Ylicah ran too and fro, like a man betides himfelfe, when his Idoli, his ima- ginary God was taken and carried from him ; what is the. want ofchildren, ofbread and water, to the want ofChrifi? or the lour:. of an Idoli, an imaginary God, to the Joffe of the true God ? The want of all things is as nothing . in comparifon of the want of thrift: man that bathChrift bath great' matter of rejoycing in the want of every o- ther thing ; man that wants Chrift bath great caufe of humiliation, in the pretence of all worldly fùllnefly : And every man in his naturali eftate, is as empty of Chrift as the fooli(h Virgins lampes were of Pyle, or the tree which Chrift cucfed was of fruit, even wholly and alto- gether without Chrili. Without the life of Chrift, Chrift liveth not in them any more then the root doth live in -a dead and withered branch : Without the knowledge of Chrift, the myftery. of Chrift is a fealed ° Bootie, which they cannot open, or a booke written in a ftrange language which
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