A75287:936
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.
4. Confession.
O my soul, these are sweet motives: But alas, how dull is thy understanding, how dead thy affections? I clearly see there is no strength at all in thee. O how cold, and weak, and faint, and heartless are these thy wishes! O Christ! I would love thee, but I cannot; I find no ability in my self to love thee; I am no more able to love thee, then cold water is able to heat it self, O where be those scalding affections to Christ Jesus, which holy men have felt in all ages, and striven to express in their Soliloquies? O where is this holy, constant, conjugal love? O where ⟨p. 149⟩are those swellings, and throwings, and wrestlings, which others have felt in their bowels? O where be those holy fits, those pangs of love, those love-trances, those Seraphical flames of conjugal affection, which made the Spouse cry out,1 I am sick of love? Alas, I feel a distemper in my affections; I find it not so easy to love Christ, as many men think, surely it is a very hard and difficult thing to love the Lord Jesus.
O my soul, these are sweet motives: But alas, how dull is thy understanding, how dead thy affections? I clearly see there is no strength at all in thee. O how cold, and weak, and faint, and heartless are these thy wishes! O Christ! I would love thee, but I cannot; I finde no ability in my self to love thee; I am no more able to love thee, then cold water is able to heat it self, O where be those scalding affections to Christ Jesus, which holy men have felt in all ages, and striven to express in their Soliloquies? O where is this holy, constant, conjugal love? O where ⟨p. 149⟩