A75287:827
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.
1. We must eye the precious promises, and yet not so as that we must close with them, or rest on them alone, without seeking for, or closing with Christ in those promises; the Promise is but the Casket, and Christ the Jewel in it; the Promise is but the field, and Christ the Pearl hid in it, and to be chiefly looked at; the Promises are the means by which we are assured, not the things on which we are to rest: It were folly for a man to think he hath an interest in an Heiress Lands, because by some means or other he hath got the writings of her Estate into his hands; all know that the interest of the Lands goes with her person, and with relation of marriage to her, otherwise without a title to her self, all the writings may justly be fetched out of his hands again; so it is with the Promises, they hang all upon Christ, and without him there is no interest to be had in them.
1. We must eye the precious promises, and yet not so as that we must close with them, or rest on them alone, without seeking for, or closing with Christ in those promises; the Promise is but the Casket, and Christ the Jewel in it; the Promise is but the field, and Christ the Pearl hid in it, and to be chiefly look'd at; the Promises are the means by which we are assured, not the things on which we are to rest: It were folly for a man to think he hath an interest in an Heiress Lands, because by some means or other he hath got the writings of her Estate into his hands; all know that the interest of the Lands goes with her person, and with relation of marriage to her, otherwise without a title to her self, all the writings may justly be fetched out of his hands again; so it is with the Promises, they hang all upon Christ, and without him there is no interest to be had in them.
2. We must eye the inward graces to which the Promises are made, not that we must be too much carried away with the signs of Christ in our hearts, and not after Christ himself; as ⟨p. 119⟩pleasures that are lawful in themselves, may be unlawfully used, when our thoughts and intentions are too long, or too frequent, or too vehement in them; so that to dead the heart either to the present delighting in God, or pursuing after him with the joint strength of our Souls, as our only chiefest good; so an immoderate recourse unto signs (barely considered as such) is as unwarrantable, when thereby we are diverted, and taken off from a more constant actual exercise of daily thoughts of Faith towards Christ immediately, as he is set forth to be our Righteousness; and yet the minds of many are so wholly taken up with their own hearts, that as the Psalmist says of God, Christ is scarce in all their thoughts: Let these consider, what dishonour this will be to Christ, that his train and favourites (our Graces) should have a fuller court, and more frequent attendance from our hearts then himself, who is the King of glory: Now to rectify this error, the way is not wholly to reject all uses of such Evidences, but to order them rightly; as thus,—