A heavenly conference between Christ and Mary after His resurrection. Wherein the intimate familiarity,…

There is not a Christian but will be in himself apprehensive of being thrown into Hell every day. There is a spring of corruption in him, and should God take a forfeiture of his daily rebellions, his conscience tells him, it were just. And therefore we must every day live upon this branch of his priestly office, his mediation. We must live by faith in this branch ¹of Christ, and make use of it continually; for this will keep us from hell. And therefore if we sin every day, go to God, in the name of Christ, and desire him to pardon us. This is to feed on Christ, and therefore we should more willingly come to the Sacrament. When we be in heaven, we shall need a Mediator no longer; for we shall be perfectly holy. We cannot think of these things too much, they be the life of Religion, and of comforts, and it may teach us to make a true use of Christ in all our conditions. Poor ⟨p. 111⟩souls that are not acquainted with the Gospel, they think God will cast them into hell for every sin, and they live as if they had not an high Priest in Heaven to appear for them.

1. 1To rely on Christ is to feed upon him.

The matter of the message is, Christ ascendeth to God, as a common Father, and God to him and them. He doth not say, I ascend to ¹the Father, that were no great comfort; for what were that to them? or to my Father only: neither doth he say, I ascend to our Father, for that is true in the order of it; for he is not in equal respect the God and Father of Christ, and the God and Father of us. And therefore he speaks of himself in the first place. I go to my God and your God. For he is first, and specially Christs Father, and Christs God, and then ours; as we shall see in the particulars. We have a common Father, and a common God, with Christ. God the Father is Christs Father, by eternal generation, as he is God and man: we have therefore the nature