A80611:364
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.
And as there is no spiritual motion in him, no act of grace, so it is another act of spiritual life, for a man to feed upon Christ; but do you think a dead man is able to feed upon Christ? you know what God said of the Idolatrous ⟨p. 165⟩people in old time, Esa. 44.11, 12.1 The same saith […] to every natural man; He feedeth, upon what? upon Christ? No, no, upon ashes; why upon ashes, ashes is far from feeding upon the living God, and yet truly a man feeds upon ashes; every soul that feeds not upon Christ hath some Idol for his God, and so falls down to worship it, some god of profit, or pleasure; and this is the estate of all wicked men, they feed upon ashes; upon ashes, it seems to me to be a borrowed speech, or similitude taken from children, or some women with child, that being sometimes taken with some ill humour, and distemper of stomach, they have an eager desire to feed upon ashes, and such like dry unsavoury meat; Children will be eating coals, and ashes, and so will sometimes women with child; so truly it is with every natural man, he is a natural Idolater, he worships something besides Gods, he feeds upon ashes, some dry and unsavoury, and unwholesome meat, which cannot profit him in the day of wrath, which gives not his soul any nourishment, for the soul of man is an immortal spirit, and we only feed it with profit, and pleasure, and credit, and these be but ashes, bodily food. The good things of this life are no more suitable to a mans soul, then ashes be to a mans body, and therefore Solomon so compares the estate of all the sons of Nature, Eccles. 3.21. Who knows the spirit of a man that goes upward, and the spirit of the beast that goes downward to the earth? his meaning is this; he complaining of the vanity that lies upon the sons of nature, he speaks not in the person of an Epicure (as some conceive) but his meaning is, Who knows; which of all the sons of men considers, or takes it to heart, that his soul goes up to any better place then the soul of a beast, which of all the sons of Nature feeds his soul upon better food, then the soul of a beast is fed upon? Do they not all feed, as if they all went to one place? and therefore upon the dust of the earth they feed;