A25241:1257
Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…
Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of Jesus as carrying on the great work of mans salvation from first to last / by Isaac Ambrose ...
London: printed for Richard Chiswel, 1680
Book 5 › Chapter 5 › Section 9: Of conforming to Jesus in that respect.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Because Christ is the best and highest Exemplar of holiness that ever the world ever had: hence we must needs conform to Christ (as the Apostle argues) because he is the first-born among many Brethren; 1the first in every kind is propounded as a pattern of the rest; now Christ is the first-born. Christ is the head of all the predestinate, as the first-born was wont to be the head in all Families. The old saying is, Regis ad exemplar, &c. A very deformity was sometimes counted an honour, if it were in imitation of the Prince. It is storied of Nero, that having a wry neck, there was such an ambition in men to follow the Court, that it became the fashion and Gallantry of those times, to hold their necks awry; and shall not Christ, the King of Saints, be much more imitated by his Saints?2 Christ is the head of the body, the beginning, the first-born from the dead, in all things he hath the preeminence; and the rule is general, that, that which is first and best ⟨p. 331⟩in any kind, is the rule and measure of all the rest. Why such is Christ; O then let him be the guide of our life, and of our manners.
2. Because Christ is the best and highest Exemplar of holiness that ever the world ever had: hence we must needs conform to Christ (as the Apostle argues) because he is the first-born among many Brethren; 1the first in every kind is propounded as a pattern of the rest; now Christ is the first-born. Christ is the head of all the predestinate, as the first-born was wont to be the head in all Families. The old saying is, Regis ad exemplar, &c. A very deformity was sometimes counted an honour, if it were in imitation of the Prince. It is storied of Nero, that having a wry neck, there was such an ambition in men to follow the Court, that it became the fashion and Gallantry of those times, to hold their necks awry; and shall not Christ, the King of Saints, be much more imitated by his Saints?2 Christ is the head of the body, the beginning, the first-born from the dead, in all things he hath the preheminence; and the rule is general, that, that which is first and best