A75287:179
Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The…
Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and public, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes.Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and publike, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes.
London: printed by John Field for Nathanael Webb and William Grantham, 1649London: printed by John Field for Nathanaell Webb and William Grantham, 1649
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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. Through God (i.) Through the Spirit, who doth Spiritualize them. Through Christ, who presents them, and makes them acceptable to God.
1. Through the Spirit of God: Now the Spirit works on our Spirits, stirs up the regenerate part to the performance of our Duties; and therefore look how much there is of the Inner man, of the regenerate part, of the holy Spirit in Duty, so far it is sanctified, so far it is accepted, and no further. God is my witness (saith Paul) whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gospel of his Son: 1In every service we perform, our Spirit stirred up by Gods Spirit, must needs have a hand in it, or it is but the body and carcass of a right service: The soul, will, and affection, must go together with our Duties (that I mean by our Spirit) or the vitals are wanting. Ex. gr. If a man come to confess his sins, and yet slights them inwardly in his heart; if a man pray for reconciliation with God, and yet have no longing, and sighing in his heart after it; if he earnestly ask grace, or the Spirit of Mortification, and yet his heart doth not inwardly seek it, Now he prays not in the Spirit, and therefore God will not accept it; For God is a Spirit, 2and they that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and in Truth: In Spirit (i.) not only in the understanding and mind (Prayer is not a work of wit, or of memory) but also in will and affection: When all within us is opened, and explicate, and exposed to the view of the Lord; when we call in all our thoughts and affections, and recollect them together, as the lines in the Centre, or as the Sun-beams in a Burning-glass, That makes Prayer to be hot and fervent; whereas otherwise it is but a cold and dissipated thing, that hath no strength or efficacy in it.
1. Through the Spirit of God: Now the Spirit works on our Spirits, stirs up the regenerate part to the performance of our Duties; and therefore look how much there is of the Inner man, of the regenerate part, of the holy Spirit in Duty, so far it is sanctified, so far it is accepted, and no further. God is my witness (saith Paul) whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gospel of his Son: