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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.
certainly he is thy beloved, since he is to thee the chiefest of ten thousand.
Secondly, a man worships Christ,1 not only by an act of his mind, but a man hath Christ likewise when he hath him in the deep affection of his heart, when he deeply affects him in his heart, as his chiefest good. The former was an act of the Judgment and understanding; this belongs to the heart, will, and affections. Plal. 73.25. Whom have I in heaven but thee, or in earth in comparison of thee, and Psal. 42.1• my soul pants or breathes after thee my God. He was then a ⟨p. 10⟩banished man from the congregation, and it was a weary sad time to him, his soul panted like a chased Dear, for the rivers of water, his soul was athirst for God! Oh when shall I come, and appear before him? this is such a longing desire, when a man wants Christ; As that it is called, hunger and thirst, Matth. 5. such a desire as cannot be satisfied, but with meeting with that which the soul doth hunger and thirst for; give an hungry man a house full of gold, and he is hungry still, but give him meat and then you satisfy him; So in this case, the soul that hungers after Christ, give him profit and pleasure, and you give him nothing, but his soul is fit to perish for want of Christ,2 this is a deep worship we put upon Christ; and in so affecting of him, we have him; when the soul hath the Lord Jesus, the highest and chiefest cause of rejoicing it hath, is, only its having of Christ Gal. 6.14. if he have his part in Christ, that is his Crown and his Portion, he counts it a goodly portion, his lot is fallen into a pleasant place; if we have him for our portion, we have enough, therein the soul is fully satisfied, and if we have lost him, we chiefly mourn for that, our chiefest care is to get him; and we mourn most bitterly for want of him,