A80611:254
Christ the fountain of lifeChrist the fountaine of life
Christ the fountain of life: or, Sundry choice sermons on part of the fifth chapter of the first Epistle of St. John. Preached by that learned judicious divine, and faithful minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. John Cotton B.D. now preacher at Boston in New-England. Published according to Order.Christ the fountaine of life: or, Sundry choyce sermons on part of the fift chapter of the first Epistle of St. John. Preached by that learned judicious divine, and faithfull minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. John Cotton B.D. now preacher at Boston in New-England. Published according to Order.
London: printed by Robert Ibbitson, 1651
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.
First, if you look at the grace of God as it works in the heart,1 and exercises it self in the conversion of a sinner, you shall find, that when the soul discerns any life of grace in its heart, that sin is now pardoned, and God is pleased to frame it anew, and to give it a new life; at that time the heart is taken up with these two contrary effects; it is both enlarged with no small measure of joy, that ever God should redeem him from such a desperate condition as his soul lay in, and yet withal full of grief of heart, that ever he should have so much displeased that God, that hath done so much for him; and so plain, as that you shall evidently discern the voice of your own joy, from the voice of your own grief. I know not better how to instance in it, then to fetch a resemblance from the return of the Children of Israel, from captivity to Jerusalem, read Psal. 126.2, 3, 4. When God turned the captivity of his people, this was their affection; then was their mouth filled with laughter, and their tongue with singing, &c. Now the same people that so rejoice to see themselves redeemed by the Arm of the Lord, when they do rejoice to see themselves set at liberty from the captivity, they do at the same time as sadly grieve and weep, to consider the unkindness they have put upon God, and their unworthiness of such a mercy from him, as you may read, Jer. 50. 4, 5. speaking of the same people, and of the same time, their return from ⟨p. 111⟩the captivity; and he tells you, They shall come, going and weeping shall they go, and seek the Lord God, and ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward; If the Psalmist speaks of it, he saith, they were out of, and beyond themselves for joy, as in a comfortable dream; the news seemed to be too good to be true, and they rejoiced with exceeding great joy, and if the Prophet Jeremiah speak of the very same people, and the same time, and the very same action; he tells you, They go to Jerusalem, weeping, they go to seek the Lord, and ask the way to Zion; they rejoice at the greatness of the mercy, and weep in sense of their unworthiness of it. And truly this kind of combination shall you find stirring in every soul that is converted to God, when the pardon of its sin is sealed to its heart;