A44344:245
A comment upon Christ's last prayer in the seventeenth of John wherein is opened…
A comment upon Christ's last prayer in the seventeenth of John wherein is opened the union believers have with God and Christ, and the glorious privileges thereof ... / by that faithful and known servant of Christ, Mr. Thomas Hooker ... ; printed from the authors own papers written with his own hand, and attested to be such in an epistle by Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nigh.A comment upon Christ's last prayer in the seventeenth of John wherein is opened the union beleevers have with God and Christ, and the glorious priviledges thereof ... / by that faithful and known servant of Christ, Mr. Thomas Hooker ... ; printed from the authors own papers written with his own hand, and attested to be such in an epistle by Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nye.
London: printed by Peter Cole, 1656
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.
Look back therefore men, Brethren, and Fathers, beloved and blessed of the Lord, unto the days forepast, even from that first birth, unto this present hour: The goodness of the Lord, how hath it grown up, and gone along with you from time to time? view the succession of those sweet and tender compassions, which have been renewed and multiplied upon you, as your years, and days, and months, and moments of your life.
Look back therefore men, Bretheren, and Fathers, beloved and blessed of the Lord, unto the daies forepast, even from that first birth, unto this present hour: The goodness of the Lord, how hath it grown up, and gone along with you from time to time? view the succession of those sweet and tender compassions, which have been renewed and multiplied upon you, as your years, and daies, and months, and moments of your life.
Know it was from the care, and through the virtue of the prayers of Christ, that you came into this world, that he first time of your breathing had not been the first time of your damning. He hath rocked your Cradles, nursed you at your Mothers Breasts, trained you up in your tender years, taken care of you, and then prayed for you, when you did not, could not, pray for your selves: Oh the Riches of that Mercy!
Know it was from the care, and through the vertue of the prayers of Christ, that you came into this world, that he first time of your breathing had not been the first time of your damning. He hath rocked your Cradles, nursed you at your Mothers Breasts, trained you up in your tender years, taken care of you, and then prayed for you, when you did not, could not, pray for your selves: Oh the Riches of that Mercy!
Will not every Man say, cannot each Man confess it, had I continued in such a place, conversed with such wretched company, with whom I was sometimes linked and confederate, had not the Lord freed me from those snares, delivered me from those temptations: had he not born with the baseness of my Heart, but taken the advantage against me, and snatched me away, when I was posting down to Hell, in the eager pursuit of such and such base lusts; there had been no possibility, but I had perished. Oh the Riches of that Mercy!