Christus in corde, or, The mystical union between Christ and believers considered in its…

The first mark of this union is poverty of spirit. Every man naturally is poor in spirituals, his humane nature lies in the ruins of the fall; there is a Tohu and Bohu, a voidness and Spiritual emptiness in it; his mind is empty of spiritual light, and hath only some few relics left to make him a man; his will is void of divine freedom, and hath only such fragments of liberty, as may declare him a free agent; his affections have lost their wings, and creep only upon the things here below; corruption is very strong, and there is a mere Vacuum of grace: it is with him, as if the Divine Image or likeness had never been stamped upon him; a vast debt of original and actual guilt lies upon him, and he hath nothing to pay; or, if Divine Justice seize him, he hath nothing to say against it; he is shut up under wrath and cannot but deserve it: Thus every man, is very poor in spirituals; yet, alas! he is not naturally poor in spirit; no, on the contrary he presumes all is well; he is, as he dreams, ⟨p. 277⟩happy in his ruins, full in his emptiness, seeing in his darkness, free in his chains, and rich in his debts and wants; a man poor in spirit, is one who is poor in sense and reflection upon his poverty; he considers his lost and undone condition; he feels and groans under his spiritual wants; the deep sense of them makes his heart cry out, Oh! I am lost, I am in the ruins of the fall, there I must lie, unless Christ lift me up, and bring forth a new Creation out of the Chaos; my mind is dark, my will fettered with corruption; so it must be, unless Christ shine into my heart, and make me free indeed; my poor affections lie in the dust and vanity of this lower world, and there is no help, unless Christ come and raise them up to the things above. I find nothing but an emptiness and voidness of grace; neither is there any hope, unless the Spirit of Christ communicate a furniture of graces and comforts; my debts are great and never to be discharged, unless the blood of Christ, which paid for the sin of a world, do it for me. After some such manner as this he lies at the feet of Christ; he is poor, empty, forlorn, destitute in himself; the very frame of his heart prays for a Saviour; such an one is in a right posture for him. His poverty cries for an Alms out of the infinite treasures in Christ; his ⟨p. 278⟩weariness pants after the true rest which is in a Mediator;

The first mark of this union is poverty of spirit. Every man naturally is poor in spirituals, his humane nature lies in the ruines of the fall; there is a Tohu and Bohu, a voidness and Spiritual emptiness in it; his mind is empty of spiritual light, and hath only some few reliques left to make him a man; his will is void of divine freedom, and hath only such fragments of liberty, as may declare him a free agent; his affections have lost their wings, and creep only upon the things here below; corruption is very strong, and there is a meer Vacuum of grace: it is with him, as if the Divine Image or likeness had never been stamp'd upon him; a vast debt of original and actual guilt lies upon him, and he hath nothing to pay; or, if Divine Justice seize him, he hath nothing to say against it; he is shut up under wrath and cannot but deserve it: Thus every man, is very poor in spirituals; yet, alas! he is not naturally poor in spirit; no, on the contrary he presumes all is well; he is, as he dreams,