VERSE 14
consider of all the sweet natures of God reconciled, and approve but the excellency of the things, which if we have the apprehension of in weak measure, they will make us better than most of your common blasphemers, and swearers, and scorners of goodness. He inwardly laugheth and scorns at all parts of religion. Though for shame of men he comforteth himself something, yet notwithstanding, infidelity reigneth in his heart.
Second. Again, that faith may set up a regiment in the soul, consider now that this is the grace that infuseth vigour and strength into all our graces; all are nothing without faith. Faith must fetch from Christ strength for patience and contentation. There is no other grace but hath his vigour from faith, as faith from the Spirit of God.
Therefore pour water upon the root, water the root of all other graces, cherish faith. Oh, this consideration that all springeth and have their life and vigour from faith, and that now the government of the church, by the Spirit of God under covenant of grace, is to fetch all out of ourselves! We must have a supernatural eye, and a supernatural hand to reach to heaven and fetch treasure out of Christ, and spiritual virtue to draw out of Christ and his promises, and have all. Every time, every thing, every word, every action whatsoever, is out of ourselves, and cometh from a principle that is in Christ. And therefore, considering the excellency and necessity of grace, labour for it, and let it be more and more planted in us, that according to our apprehension of the excellency and necessity of it, and misery without it, we may earnestly endeavour after it.
VERSE 14
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall be present* with you.
The apostle, in the former words, as we, heard at large, sets down the afflicted and comfortable condition of God's people; and because our nature is very unfit as to do good, so to suffer evil, therefore he opens a further spring of comfort to the end of the chapter.
Among others, as you heard the last day, this in the 13th verse is one.
'We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, and therefore I have spoken.' Here is a double comfort in whatsoever we suffer. 'We have a spirit of faith,' which is a spirit of strength wrought by the power of God itself, and laying hold likewise upon divine power.
And another ground of comfort is, 'We have the same spirit of faith,' and faith stirs up not only to believe,—the proper act of it,—but it stirs up speaking both to God in prayer and of God in praises, and for God in times of opposition. These things were more enlarged. I pass on now, only I add this, that before we speak we must believe. Mark the method, 'I believe, therefore I speak.' A man cannot speak to God in prayer, in praises, or speak of God aright, but he must believe what he speaks. You know it is monstrous that there should be a birth without conception, that a man should speak of that he doth not know, or speak of that he doth not believe. And we must labour to know and believe things in their own light by the Spirit. We must have a spirit of faith before we speak of spiritual things. This is a careless neglect that sometimes people will speak of good things, but they will speak of them in an human spirit, others in a diabolical spirit, by way of scoffing or blaspheming, as some never speak of God but they blaspheme and swear, nor ever speak of religion but with scorn, as if not grave enough for them; or if they speak sadly, they
speak of holy things with human spirits, not truly believing, as their hearts tell them, what they speak. Now the tongue must be the true messenger of the heart. The heart must indite, and the tongue write.
And therefore we must endeavour by all means to have a spirit of faith, and labour with these false hearts of ours to believe, and then to speak. Our hearts else will give the tongue the lie. Thou speakest these things, but thou dost not believe them. And indeed a man may see by the manner of men's speaking of holy things that they believe not what they speak. As he said, 'If thou didst believe these things, wouldst thou speak so of them?' (cc). So if a man did believe divine things, would he speak so irreverently, so slightly of them as they do?
And therefore we must labour to believe what we speak. If we speak to God or others of the state of grace, or the like, we must first have the Spirit of God; we must know the meaning of God, to speak of holy things in God's meanings. Were it not a bold part for a man to speak of another man's meaning, and never know his meaning? God discovers his meaning in the Scripture, and if we do not know his meaning; if we speak of certainty of salvation and of such matters, and of great spiritual things, and of knowing them by the Spirit of God, by his own Spirit; we speak of the love of God, and care and providence of God, and know not by his Spirit that he is this to us.
Indeed, it is presumption for us to speak anything of God, unless God discover it at first; to speak anything of our own condition in an intimate manner, as if we were so and so, when the Spirit of God doth not truly dictate so much to our souls. We see spiritual things with spiritual light, and we must speak of spiritual things with help of the Spirit, and must judge of spiritual things by the discovery of the Spirit, or else we had better say nothing all* than speak presumptuously. 'We believe, and then we speak.'
Obj. But you will say, Many divines speak excellent well for points of religion, and hold them, and yet their lives discover they have no
faith. And therefore there may be a spirit without faith.
Ans. Beloved, mark what I said before. They may speak of religious things in a human manner, and see spiritual things with a common light, but they cannot see spiritual things in their proper light without the Spirit of God. And they cannot speak of spiritual things in a spiritual manner without the Spirit of God. We must first believe, and then speak. Therefore our labour should be in the ground-work, to get faith in the heart. And when faith is gotten into the heart, it will quickly overpower all fears and doubts and despairings, and all rebellion. It is a victorious and conquering grace.
If we can get that, it will subdue the heart unto itself. And it will make us speak boldly, and speak of holy things, and to purpose; to speak to God and of God in divine things, and of God in oppositions.
So we must speak likewise for the good of others, by way of edification. And we must speak to our own hearts in times of temptation, speak to Satan by his solicitations. When Satan and our hearts shall speak to us, and judge us to be thus and thus, Thou art thus, and thus God saith by his Spirit, for saith faith, thus he hath told me, 'I am thy salvation,' he saith in Scripture, Ps. 35:3. 'If I believe, I shall not perish, but have everlasting life,' John 3:15. And he saith in particular to me by his Spirit, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee,'
Mat. 9:2. Therefore care not what our doubtful hearts, or Satan joined with them, saith. God saith thus, and the spirit of faith saith thus; 'and as I believe, so I speak.' So that if there be a spirit of faith, we shall speak to our own hearts, 'Why art thou so disquiet, O my soul; and why art thou troubled in me? trust in God,' Ps. 42:5. Faith will quail all the rising doubts of our own hearts and temptations of Satan. Satan saith thus and thus, but what saith God? what saith the spirit of faith in me? That saith thus. Alas! when our hearts shall rise against us, and Satan shall join with our accusing consciences and have not a spirit of faith to speak against our hearts, and against our
hearts accusing us, guilt is a clamorous thing. Oh, the conscience and Satan makes great ado. When he getteth guilt he is an excellent rhetorician and orator, to set colours on things. If we have not something to still our clamorous consciences, and to quiet the accusation of conscience, what will become of us? And therefore labour so to believe that we may speak, not only to God, but for God and profitably to us; but in defence of ourselves, against our own unbelieving hearts and Satan's temptations.
What is the reason that poor souls yield themselves to despair, and so to a desperate conclusion of themselves oftentimes? Oh they labour not for the Spirit of God to believe first in their own hearts, and to have a word to answer Satan's temptations. And therefore, of all things, labour for the spirit of faith, that we may believe, and believing, may be able to speak, to speak every way, to express ourselves for God, for ourselves, for the truth.
The next verse is, 'Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up with Jesus, and present us with him.'
Here is farther grounds of comfort, that God will raise us up by Christ, and present us with him. Paul comforted himself with this, that God should raise him by Christ, and present him with the believing Corinthians. Now this hath a double meaning: first, that God should raise him out of troubles, which are a kind of deaths, as in the beginning of the chapter he calls the troubles he was in 'a great death;' and then, that God would raise him at length out of the grave, and present him and them at the day of judgment, as his crown before the Lord.
This was his comfort. Now, for aught I see, the apostle may mean both subordinately one to another; for God doth raise us out of trouble by Jesus, and present us one to another in this world for our
comfort, and at length raise us out of the dust, and present us altogether, to be for ever together with the Lord. His comfort then is, that God will raise us up, and then he will present us with you. This is set down by the effect. 'God will do it; God that raised up Jesus will do it.' And the cause why God will do it is, because he hath raised up
Jesus. First, God that hath raised up Jesus will by Jesus raise up us, and present us with you. So that here is the comfort and the ground of it. The comfort is double. God will raise us up, and then God will present us with you. The ground of it is this, why he will do it, because he hath raised up Christ. God is the author of it, and he that hath raised up Christ will raise up you. There is such a connection and blessed union between Christ and us, that the same power that raised up Jesus out of the grave will raise us up likewise.
So that here is a comfort above comfort; but yet 'knowing' is prefixed.
'Knowing that God will raise us up, because he hath raised up Jesus.'
So that I may observe in the passage of it, that all comfort cometh into the soul by knowledge. God not only raiseth us up, and presents us one with another, by the same power that he hath raised up Jesus by, but we must know that it must be so, if we will have comfort.
Whatsoever cometh into the soul to strengthen it cometh through knowledge. As from the heavens come light, and through light all influences, and whatsoever is sweet from heaven, to make things flourish, comes with light, so all things that come to the soul to make it comfortable and cheerful, comes with the light of knowledge.
Indeed, all graces are nothing but knowledge digested, knowledge turned into affection and practice. What is anything but knowledge? any grace, but the performance of such a thing from such and such grounds? As we see in fruit, all that is in the fruit cometh from the juice that is [in] the root. And so the vigour and strength of everything is knowledge; I mean knowledge and a spirit of faith to believe what we know, to assent to it, and acknowledge it.
Light, you know, is very comfortable. Darkness is a state of fear. So ignorance is a state of doubting and fear. There is no good where ignorance is; but light and knowledge is a state of boldness. We believe, and speak, and are bold. Why? 'We know.'
And therefore the people that be careless of growing in knowledge, they be enemies of comfort and of grace. 'Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,' 2 Pet. 3:18. The most knowing
Christian is the most constant, courageous, comfortable, fruitful Christian, because together with divine light enlightening the soul, there goeth divine heat, enlarging the soul to every duty, and to all comforts whatsoever. So much for that.
We will speak a little of the comforts and places of the ground of the comfort. 'He will raise us up, and present us with you.' Troubles that be greater are called death, as in the first chapter of this epistle.* The Lord that delivered me from so great a death, and why? Specially for this end; because, as they be partial deaths, so likewise they agree with death. In this we despair of life and recovery. So when a trouble is great, as when a man is dead, the trouble is desperate. It is a death, there is no hope of recovery again. Now, saith Paul, though my troubles be great, yet notwithstanding God will raise me up, even out of death, and present me with you.
Quest. How knew Paul that God would do this?
Ans. It is like he knew it by a spirit of revelation, having nearer communion with God, as a more public person, than we have. But what is that to us? Can we say God will raise us up, and present us one to another, as Paul did? No, beloved, we cannot say so; but this we can say, God will raise me up out of this trouble, or if I die in it,
God will raise me out of the grave. This is the happy condition of a Christian. He is sure, if he be in trouble, either to be raised for the
good of the church, if he hath any service for him to do; else if I die, he will raise me up at the last day with all his people, to be for ever with him. If it be for the good of the church, and mine own good to live, I shall live still; if not, I shall be sure to be raised at the latter day; fall out what will fall out, all falleth out well for the children of God.
Now the holy apostle no question had reference to both. He had both in his view, raising out of trouble, and raising to eternal life; because he could never speak of any inferior deliverances but his mind would run on the future, and that did terminate all comforts. All comforts end in the resurrection. Usually when Paul maketh mention of an inferior thing, he mounteth higher, he mounts to the highest of all; he resteth not his thoughts till he hath thought of that, as in the end of this chapter he endeth in the resurrection, and endeth in comfort, speaking gloriously of it. So at this time no question but there was present all deliverances in this world, but especially eternal deliverance in the world to come. As 2 Tim. 4:17, 'The Lord delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, and can and will deliver for the time to come, and present me to his heavenly kingdom,' that I am sure of.
So that it were a very heavenly course for Christians, if they think of anything that cometh from the love of God to them, to take hints from that, to take notice of the issue of all. All deliverances are terminated in their last deliverance out of the grave, and all blessings are terminated in the last blessing, life everlasting. And take every thing as a pawn, a pledge, a beginning of that, for the same love that giveth eternal comforts, giveth comforts in this world; and the same
God that delivers out of the grave, delivers us out of troubles; and the same God that will bring us all to heaven, will bring friends together in this world, if it be for their good. And therefore if we will comfort ourselves solidly in any condition, extend our thoughts to the time to
come. Was it David's comfort when he said, 'One thing have I desired of the Lord'? Ps. 27:4. Was it his meaning to confine his thoughts on that only desire, and to dwell in the church for ever? No; 'that I dwell in the house of the Lord for ever,' here while I live, and in heaven for ever when I am gone, Ps. 23:6: 'Doubtless I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever;' here while I live, and for ever in heaven. Then they will be solid comforts. If the drops of comfort we have in holy things be carried on to the end of all, everlasting deliverance, by the resurrection, and eternal comforts in heaven, then they would be comforts indeed. It is a good disjunction when friends promise to meet again. Well, we shall meet either here or in heaven, and perhaps here and in heaven. The same God that will comfort us in heaven, if he seeth it good for us, he will comfort us here with the presence of one another.
'He will raise us up, and present us with you.' That is another of his comforts. But what comfort is that in this world, if he meaneth only the joy in the world to come? as I am persuaded it is that he mainly aims at, the other was but that that by meditation he raised his thoughts to. What comfort is it that friend shall be presented to friend, pastor to people, believers among friends!
There be divers kinds of communion, if absent, by letters, by real tokens, by message; but what are these to presence? Presence is the sweetest kind of communion that can be. Communion one with another in presence is in deed, in word, of communion in presence.
And therefore God will deliver us from trouble, and present us with you; for in presence every thing speaks comfort. Without discourse the very presence of a friend comforts. There is a quick and living power in the very face of a friend. The eye comforts, the speech comforts, all comforts, and nothing but comforts if they be hearty friends in the Lord.
And therefore saith Paul, this shall be my comfort and your comfort, that I shall be delivered out of this death, and presented with you, for your good, for my own comfort. And no question this is a beginning of heaven in this world. If there be any heaven on earth, it is the communion of saints; it is when many join together in an holy affection, that have not only general likings of the same things, but have the same spirit acting and living in them all, one and the same
Spirit of God stirring up approbation and dislike of the same thing, the same end for good causes. This is a special comfort, if there be any comfort in this world. And so Paul meaneth, when he saith, 'I shall be delivered, and presented to you.' And therefore we should take special care to improve communion by all means, considering it was so sweet a thing. O qui congressus, et gloria quanta fuerunt! when Paul was severed a great while. Paul came with abundance of blessings of God, and they came with abundance of desire to have heavenly discourse with St Paul.
Thus while we be in this world we must be exercised with these intermitting comforts. This is a life of separation; we shall enjoy a while, and then part, till we be in heaven, 'and then we shall be for ever with the Lord,' 1 Thess. 4:18. 'Therefore comfort one another with these words.' What is the comfort? 'We shall be for ever with the Lord.' If it be such a comfort to enjoy communion one with another, what is it to enjoy communion for ever with the Lord in heaven? That is the meeting time, when body and soul shall meet, when Christ and all his members shall meet, when all the members of the church from the first to the last shall all meet. These three blessed meetings shall be, Christ and we, and we one with another, and body and soul. Then is the meeting, then is the presenting. But all other meetings together are comfortable, as they be tastes of the last and everlasting meeting that shall be revealed. This may comfort us in the parting of friends, in the loss of friends by death. There will be a time of meeting again.
Our head will bring all the members together, as it is said of Christ, 'that he shall gather all to a head,' Eph. 4:15: that being Christ's office, to gather all the children of God together, from whom they were fallen; to gather them to the angels in* whom they were in terms of difference; to gather them together, one to another in love, and gathering to themselves in peace. This is Christ's work. This gathering together to a head belongeth to Christ. And though we be not together now, yet in heaven we shall be.
Now the ground of this is, God that hath raised up Jesus, will by Jesus do this. He considers of God as serveth his purpose. It is an act of a Christian, of a discreet and wise soul, to single out of God those attributes and those actions that suit to his present distress or present condition; as if a man be in perplexity, think of him as a God strong and wise; if a man be in any trouble, think of him as a good and powerful God; if a man be wronged, think of him as a God of vengeance. Thou God of vengeance, shew thyself! And when we be in any trouble and cast down, and dead, as troubled by others' deaths, then can God raise Christ out of the grave, who is our head. And out of the love that he loveth both mystical Christ and natural Christ, the Lord is gracious to all for his sake. He that loveth Christ as his own natural son loveth Christ mystical, all that be Christ's, with the same love that he loved Christ. As Christ himself prayeth he will embrace all such with the same love he loved himself withal, John 17:24, so God is well pleased and rests in his love, not only in his natural Son, but all that be his; and therefore out of love to his own Son, as he hath raised up him and set him in heavenly places, he will raise up all them that be his, and are engrafted into him. He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also. What is the consequence? Because he hath raised up Jesus, therefore by Jesus he will raise us out of trouble. The ground is, Christ is a public person, and so in heaven is a public person, a second Adam, and raised up as a second Adam;
and therefore be raised up as [a] public person, and as a second Adam, and a root of all believers. He hath taken heaven in our place as our husband, and we sit in heavenly places with him; and therefore God that raised up him will raise us up also. 'If Christ be risen, we shall rise.' There is no question of it, as he proveth at large,
'because I live ye shall live also,' John 14:19. I cannot follow the point, but it is a point you are acquainted with all, being an article of faith. Therefore see the ground of this comfort. God will raise up us and bring us together, because he hath raised Jesus. He is the firstfruits of them that slept. Now all the harvest is blessed in the firstfruits. Our first-fruits is Christ now. And therefore we shall be here raised out of little deaths, and at the resurrection out of the great death, and be for ever with the Lord, which may teach us this comfortable observation; to see all our comforts in Christ first; to see all we look for from God, first in Christ and then in ourselves. If we look for love from God, see his love on Christ first: 'He loveth us because he loveth him first,' and he loveth us in him. If we look to resurrection, ascension, or glory, see it in Christ first. If we look for the performance of any promise, see that promise in Christ first, for all are made for his sake, and made good in him, to Christ first and then to us. If we want any grace, see it in Christ first, for he hath fulness of the Spirit for our sakes: 'And of his fulness we have received, and grace for grace,' John 1:16. So that in both estates of humiliation and exaltation severally, see all first in Christ and then in ourselves. Look on Christ in state of humiliation, and see ourselves there. 'Christ was a curse for us,' died for us. All this is for us. And see all the evil that belongeth to us taken away by him in his state of humiliation. He humbled himself to death, and became a curse for us. And so in his state of exaltation in several degrees. See our resurrection in his resurrection, our ascension in his ascension, our sitting in heavenly places by his sitting in heavenly places. The ground is, the union I spake of before. And then God hath decreed
that we shall be made conformable to his Son. 'We must be conformable to Christ our elder brother.' We are chosen to be conformable to him. And therefore whatsoever was in him, there will be a conformableness in us thereunto. And we must be content to go to heaven as Christ went. 'He first suffered and then entered into glory,' 1 Peter 1:10, 11, he rose again, but he died first. We must be content to go to heaven by that way that our blessed head and Saviour hath gone before us. And if we do so, surely that God that raised him will raise us up too.
I beseech you, therefore, when we are to consider of any comfort, see it in Christ first, not only as a pattern to whom we must be conformed, but see it in Christ as a cause, because Christ will raise us up. We shall not only be raised because he is raised, and ascend because he is ascended, but God will raise us up with Jesus. Between God and us cometh Jesus, for all that comes from God comes from Jesus. So all that cometh from us to God must go through the mediation of Jesus. 'He that raised up Jesus will by Jesus raise us up.' Christ is not only a pattern of conformity, but likewise a cause.
And it is an improvement of the favour, that God doth us favour through such a one that standeth between him and us; that there should be so excellent a person as Christ to do all, to be a pattern of all, and cause of all. For can there be a better than he to raise us out of trouble here, and to heaven hereafter? Then he that is our own head, will he suffer his members to perish? And he that is so favourable with God, and one with God, that as a man layeth hold on us, and as God layeth hold on God, as a friend to him, being between both as a friend of both. As God, so we must trust him with all, with our rising again, with our ascension, with our glory in heaven. He is the Joseph between God and us. As he conveyed all favour to the patriarchs, from Egypt through Pharaoh,* so Christ is the high steward of all, that hath the dispensing of all his comforts by our
sweet head, that is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, to make us for ever one with him. So that there is comfort in the deriving of comfort by so sweet, so loving, so gracious a head as Jesus is.
But you will say, Will Christ raise us out of trouble likewise? Yes, by the same power and virtue. For the virtue of Christ's resurrection reacheth farther than to raise us from death, for it extendeth itself to all abasements in the world. God raiseth us out of all abasements by the power that he raised up Christ, and by the power that Christ raised up himself. And therefore we should comfort ourselves in the distress of the church and personal distresses. And first for the church. God raised up Christ the head of the church after three days, and when they had rolled a stone upon the grave, and set a watch too, and when Christ had been a surety to bear the sins of all the elect of the world from the beginning to the end; Christ having a stone upon his grave, so much mould, and such a stone, and his grave watched and sealed; and then having as a public person the sins of all the world, yet Christ rose up again for all this.
Beloved, Satan and his instruments labour to bury the church if they can, and to roll a stone on the church, that it should never rise up again. It was their plot of late,* and it is their purpose now, but that their power is a little broken. They would bury Christ and his church altogether, roll a stone on him, watch him that he should never rise again. This they do; and now in the third day he shall rise again.
There may be a limited time of Jacob's sorrow, but there will be a day of deliverance. He that raised up the head of the church, after the time he had appointed he should lie there under the bondage and captivity of death, he will raise up the body of Christ. Our times are not in our hands, nor in the devil's time, nor in man's time, but in God's time. Men may oppose his time, and be against his time. 'They shall cast you into prison for ten days.' It is certain and sure, which
may be a comfort to the church. The church beyond seas was lately under hatches, and the enemy had got her into the grave, and thought to have rolled the stone upon the church; but God, that raised up Jesus, hath raised up the church in some comfortable measure, which may put us in hope, that now there is time to set prayer on work. It puts encouragement into our hands. That that God hath done, encourageth us to pray to God for the finishing of his own good work. We have not only faith and promises, but performances to encourage us. We see the stone is rolled off as it were. This is our comfort, and this is the church's comfort to the end of the world. She may be for a while under the grave, but God will send his angels, his messengers, one or another, to take away the stone, and raise up the church, as in the parable of the dry bones,
Ezek. 37:1, seq. The church was 'as dry bones,' but 'the Spirit entered into them, and made them live.' So at length a spirit shall enter into the church, and it shall live. Babylon must fall; the church must rise.
Christ will enlarge his church to the end [of] the world. Heaven hath said it, and hell cannot disannul what God hath concluded. He that raised up Jesus will raise up the church out of all its troubles. And for ourselves, in all deaths and all our desperate troubles, sink not under them. Make use of the articles of faith. They are of wonderful enlarged sweetness. The sweet article of the resurrection and life everlasting have influence into all our lives. Make use of that; God, that doth the greater, will not he do the less, if for our good? Will
God raise my body out of the grave, and not out of this sickness? God that can raise me out of dust, cannot he raise me out of this trouble, and present me to my friends again? If for my good, he can do it.
And rise from inferior things to strengthen our faith, and the greatest things we have in faith for the time to come. Will God give me life everlasting, and not daily bread? Will God give heaven, and not provision to bring me thither? Will God raise me out of the dust,
when it is scattered I know not where, and get all my dust together, and quicken that dust, and not quicken me out of this, if it be for my good and the good of others? If he have any service to do for me, he will do it. And therefore, I beseech you, beloved, let us labour to strengthen our faith in the way to heaven, by that which is to come.
What made the apostles pass through thick and thin, break through all troubles between them and heaven, but [that] they thought God would deliver them? If he did not deliver them, he would deliver them to heaven, and present them to his heavenly kingdom. Having heaven in their eyes, time to come in heaven, resurrection in their eyes, and glorious times in their eyes, it will be of such force and influence into their hearts, that they shall go through all things between, and make this disjunction; either God will raise me out of this, or out of the grave, and present me to his heavenly kingdom. I beseech you, therefore, learn this, that in all our dejections we make use of that last and powerful work of God in raising from the dead.
Raising comforteth for what is past. Our Saviour Christ, our best part, our head, is in heaven, and we shall all draw to him in time. Let us not lose the benefit of such a meditation, of such a ground as this.
See all in Christ beforehand; all is done in Christ. Beloved, can we have a better pledge and pattern, than to see all we look for done in Christ beforehand? We look for the resurrection, Christ is raised; and ascension, Christ is ascended. We look for glory in heaven: Christ is glorified, Christ, and we in Christ; for when we think of Christ, we must think of ourselves in Christ. And therefore, when we hear the creed repeated, and the articles of religion, or anything of Christ, let us wrap up ourselves by the spirit of faith in Christ, see ourselves crucified in Christ, and dead in Christ, and raised in Christ, and set in heavenly places with Christ.
I but administer the heads to you, for your meditations to work upon. You see what excellent use the apostle maketh of his faith. It