Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

¹3. Let us quicken, provoke, and incense our sluggish, drowsy souls to conform to Christ. If we will but strictly observe our hearts, we shall find them very backward to this duty, and therefore let us call upon our souls as David did, Bless the Lord O my soul, ²and let all that is within me bless his holy Name; let us work upon our souls by reasoning with our own hearts, as if we discoursed with them thus, O my heart, or O my soul, if in the deep counsels of eternity this was Gods great design to make his Son like thee, that thou also mightest be like his Son, how then shouldest thou but endeavour to conform? and what says the Apostle? For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the Image of his Son: this was one of his great purposes from eternity; this law God set down, before he made the world, that I should conform to his Son: and what, O my soul, wouldst thou break the eternal bands of predestination? O, God forbid! Again, if this was one of the ends of Christ's coming, to destroy the works of the devil, to deface all Satan's works, especially his work in me, his Image in me, and to set his own stamp on my soul; how then should I but endeavour to conform? I read but of two ends of Christ's coming into the world in relation to us, whereof the first was to redeem his people, and the other was to purify his people; He gave himself for us, ³that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works: the one is the work of his merit▪ which goeth upward, to the satisfaction of his Father; the other is the work of his Spirit and grace, which goeth downwards to the sanctification of his Church▪ in the one he bestoweth his righteousness on us by imputation, on the other he fashioneth his Image in as by renovation; and what, O my soul, wouldst thou destroy the end of Christ's coming in the flesh? or wouldst thou miss of that end for which Christ came in relation to thy good; O, God forbid! Again, consider the example of the Saints before thee; if this was their holy ambition to be like their Jesus, emulate them in this, for this is a blessed emulation; it is observable how the heathens themselves had learnt a rule very near to this; Seneca