Christ the fountain of lifeChrist the fountaine of life

So that take a survey of your own estates, by this means you would know whether you have Christ or no, whether you have life, or no? If you have the life of grace, there is some spiritual warmth in thy soul, some heat in thy soul; do but consider then the knowledge that is within thee: Is thy knowledge such as lets thee alone, and only puffs thee up, and makes thee to think goodly of thy self, if that be all the work of thy knowledge, thou art a dead-hearted Christian; if it cause thee to vanish away in empty contemplation, and thou therefore talkest, that thou mayest let others see thou hast knowledge as well as others; and if it be dead, and cold, and empty, and vanish away in empty notion, and speculation, and dead conference, then thy knowledge is barren in goodness, and that is an argument of no life in thy soul; but if there be any truth of life in thy soul, thy knowledge is warm and lively, thy knowledge that is in thee hath some zeal, and that sets an edge upon it, and makes it serviceable to God and thy brethren. I know not better how to express it, then from Revel, 1.14, 15. in the description of our blessed Saviour, His eyes were as a flame of fire. It is true, the eye is lightsome, but it doth not burn, they are not hot, but the eyes of Christ is as a flaming heat; and the meaning is, Christ is described just according to the state of the Church, to whom John was to write, as he had feet of brass; when he writes to a Church, that though burned in the fire, yet the more you burn it, the less it wastes, and the more pure it is, and by degrees the more bright; so where he speaks to a Church in persecution, and it is not consumed, then Christ hath feet like brass; but if he write to a Church of Thyatira, a Church of a warm spirit, then, thus faith he that hath eyes like a flame of fire, Revel. 2.9. meaning the knowledge that that Church had, which was full of zeal as well as of light, and according to the measure of its knowledge, ⟨p. 156⟩so it grew more in grace, and therefore the works were more at the last then at the first. As their knowledge grows, so grows their zeal; so that if thou hast that life in Christ which accompanies salvation, thy eyes are like a flame of fire, full of burning light, as well as brightsome knowledge.

So that take a survey of your owne estates, by this meanes you would know whether you have Christ or no, whether you have life, or no? If you have the life of grace, there is some spirituall warmth in thy soule, some heat in thy soule; doe but consider then the knowledge that is within thee: Is thy knowledge such as lets thee alone, and only puffes thee up, and makes thee to thinke goodly of thy selfe, if that be all the worke of thy knowledge, thou art a dead-hearted Christian; if it cause thee to vanish away in empty contemplation, and thou therefore talkest, that thou mayest let others see thou hast knowledge as well as others; and if it be dead, and cold, and empty, and vanish away in empty notion, and speculation, and dead conference, then thy knowledge is barren in goodnesse, and that is an argument of no life in thy soule; but if there be any truth of life in thy soule, thy knowledge is warme and lively, thy knowledge that is in thee hath some zeale, and that sets an edge upon it, and makes it serviceable to God and thy brethren. I know not better how to expresse it, then from