A25241:492
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
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.
4. God teacheth sweetly and comfortably: Thou hast taught me, saith David, 1and then it follows, How sweet are thy words unto my taste? Yea, sweeter than the Honey to my Mouth? He rolled the word and promises as Sugar under his Tongue, and sucked from thence more sweetness than Sampson did from his Honey-comb: Luther said, he ⟨p. 86⟩would not live in Paradise if he must live without the Word; 2but with the Word (said he) I could live in Hell. When Christ put his hand by the hole of the door to teach the heart, her bowels were moved, and then her fingers drop upon the handles of the Lock sweet smelling myrrh, Cant. 5.5. The teachings of Christ left such a blessing upon the first motions of the Spouses heart, that with the very touch of them she is refreshed, her fingers drop myrrh, and her bowels are moved as the very monuments of his gracious teachings; So in Cant. 1.3.3 Because of the savour of thy Ointment, thy Name is as an Ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. Christ in Ordinances doth as Mary, open a Box of Ointments, which diffuseth a spiritual savour in Church-Assemblies, and this o•ly the spiritual Christian feels. Hence the Church is compared to a Garden shut up; a Fountain sealed; 4wicked men are not able to drink of her delicacies, or smell of her sweetness; a spiritual Sermon is a Fountain sealed up, the spiritual administration of a Sacrament is a Garden enclosed: Sometimes, O Lord, thou givest me a strange motion, or affection (said Augustine) which if it were but perfected in me, 5I could not imagine what it should be but eternal life. Christians! these are the teachings of God, and in reference to this, we shall no more teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord. Gods teaching is another kind of teaching than we can have from the hands of men, there is no man in the world can teach thus; and therefore they whom God teacheth, need not any other kind of teaching respectively or comparatively.