A57963:131
Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself
Christ dying and drawing sinners to himself, or, A survey of our Saviour in his soul-suffering, his loveliness in his death, and the efficacy thereof in which some cases of soul-trouble in week believers ... are opened ... delivered in sermons on the Evangel according to S. John Chap. XII, vers. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ... / by Samuel Rutherford.Christ dying and drawing sinners to himself, or, A survey of our Saviour in his soule-suffering, his lovelynesse in his death, and the efficacie thereof in which some cases of soule-trouble in weeke beleevers ... are opened ... delivered in sermons on the Evangel according to S. John Chap. XII, vers. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ... / by Samuel Rutherford.
London: printed by J.D. for Andrew Crooke, 1647
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. Pos. Therefore often the time of some extreme desertion and soul-trouble is,1 when Christ hath been in the soul with a full, high spring-tide of divine manifestations of himself. And if we consider the efficient cause of desertion, which is Gods wise dispensation: when Paul hath been in the third heaven, on an hyperbole, a great excess of revelations, God thinketh then good to exercise him with a messenger of Satan; which by the weakness and spiritual infirmity he was under, wanted not a desertion, less or more, what ever the messenger was; as it seems to be fleshly lust, after a spiritual vision. Paul was ready to think himself an Angel, not flesh and blood; and therefore, 2 Cor. 12.7. he saith twice in one Verse, This befell me, [Greek or Hebrew], That I should not be lifted up above ordinary Comets, up among the stars. But if we consider the material cause, it may be, that extreme and high overflowing of Christs love brake our weak and narrow vessels: Cant. 5.1. there is a rich and dainty feast of Christ, I am come into my garden, my Sister▪ my Spouse, I have gathered my myrrh with my spices, I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends, drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved. Yet in that Song, the Spirit of God speaketh of a sad desertion in the next words, I sleep, but mine heart waketh: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, &c. There is not only impiety, but want of humanity, that the Church had rather that wearied Jesus Christ should fall down and dye in the streets, in a rainy and snowy night, when his locks were wet with rain, then that he should come in and lodge in the soul. And let us not think that the thread and tract of the Scriptures coherence, one Verse following on another, as the Spirit of God hath ordered them, is but a cast of chance, or an humane thing: When the Spouse rideth on the high places of Jacob, and saith, Isai. 49.13. Sing, ⟨p. 45⟩O heaven, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains: for God hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted. Yet this was nothing to the afflicted people; Verse 14. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. When the Lord's Disciples,