A declaration of the true manner of knowing Christ crucified

Conformity in spiritual life is, not by doing that which Christ did upon the cross and afterward, but a doing of the like by a certain kind of imitation. And it hath four parts. The first is, a spiritual oblation. For as Christ in the garden & upon the cross, by prayer made with stung cries and tears, presented and resigned himself up to be a sacrifice of propitiation to the justice of his father for mans sin: so must we also in prayer present and resign our selves, our souls, our bodies, our understanding, will, memory, affections, and all we have to the service of God, in the general calling of a Christian, and in the particular callings in which he hath placed us. Take an example in David, Sacrifice and burnt offering (saith he) thou wouldest not, but ears thou hast pierced unto me, then said, lo I come: I desire to do thy will, O God, yea thy law is within my heart, Psal. 40. 7. The second is, ⟨p. 15⟩conformity in the cross two ways. For first, as he bare his own cross to the place of execution: so must we as good disciples of Christ deny our selves, take up all the crosses and afflictions that the hand of God shall lay upon us, if it be every day, and follow him. Again, we must become like unto him in the crucifying and mortifying the mass and body of sin which we carry about us, Gal. 5. 24. They which are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof. We must do as the Jews did, we must set up the crosses and gibbets whereon we are to fasten & hang this flesh of ours, that is, the sin & corruption that cleaves & sticks unto us, and by the sword of the spirit wound it even to death. This being don, we must yet go further, and labour by experience to see and feel the very death of it, and to lay it as it were in a grave never to rise again: and therefore we should daily cast new moulds upon it. The third is, a spiritual resurrection, whereby we should by Gods grace use means that we may every day more and more come out of our sins, as out of a loathsome grave, to live unto God in newness of life, as Christ rose from his grave. And because it is an hard matter for a man to come out of the grave or rather dungeon ⟨p. 16⟩of his sins, this work can not be done at once but by degrees, as God shall give grace.