A77357:606
The works of William Bridge, sometime fellow of Emmanuel College in CambridgeThe vvorks of William Bridge, sometime fellow of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge
The works of William Bridge, sometime fellow of Emmanuel College in Cambridge: now preacher of the Word of God at Yarmouth. The second volume. [sic] Viz. 1. Grace for grace; or, The overflowing of Christs fullness received by all saints. II. The spiritual actings of faith through natural impossibilities. III. Evangelical repentance.The vvorks of William Bridge, sometime fellow of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge: now preacher of the Word of God at Yarmouth. The second volumn. [sic] Viz. 1. Grace for grace; or, The overflowing of Christs fulness received by all saints. II. The spiritual actings of faith through natural impossibilities. III. Evangelical repentance.
London: printed by Peter Cole, 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.
Evidences of it.
The First is, Taken from our own Condition: §1Naturally we are lost sheep; so we are called by Christ. Man, in his natural state, is compared unto the lost son, the lost groat, and the lost sheep. Now you know when a sheep is lost, it does not lie where it is lost: if you lose your purse, or if you lose a ring, it will lie where it was lost unless it be taken up: but now, if a sheep be lost, the sheep wanders up and down, and doth not lie where it was lost, but wanders up and down over one mountain to another, through one thicket to another, through one dirty place to another: and of all creatures, the lost sheep does not seek the way home again: A dog lost will seek the way home again; a Cat, and such like creatures lost, will seek the way home again: but a sheep lost, does not seek the way home again. Now we are all lost sheep, wandering up and down: One, he wanders over the mountain of Pride: another through ⟨p. 224⟩the thicket of the World: another through some unclean Slough: but all wandering, and no man able to find his home, till he be first found. Therefore says our Saviour Christ,1 I came to seek, and to save those that are lost. He does not say barely, I came to save those that are lost; but I came to seek, and to save those that are lost. And truly, we must be sought all along. Says David, in the 119. Psalm and the last: Lord, I have gone astray like a lost sheep, O seek thy servant. We have need of continual seeking, as long as there is continual wandering: we have need of such a shepherd as may seek us out. But first of all the Kingdom of Heaven does seek us out before we do seek it: when we are found, then we seek, but we never seek, till we are first found.
The First is, Taken from our own Condition: §1Naturally we are lost sheep; so we are called by Christ. Man, in his natural state, is compared unto the lost son, the lost groat, and the lost sheep. Now you know when a sheep is lost, it does not lie where it is lost: if you lose your purse, or if you lose a ring, it will lie where it was lost unless it be taken up: but now, if a sheep be lost, the sheep wanders up and down, and doth not lie where it was lost, but wanders up and down over one mountain to another, through one thicket to another, through one dirty place to another: and of all creatures, the lost sheep does not seek the way home again: A dog lost will seek the way home again; a Cat, and such like creatures lost, will seek the way home again: but a sheep lost, does not seek the way home again. Now we are all lost sheep, wandring up and down: One, he wanders over the mountain of Pride: another through