Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of Jesus as carrying on the great work of mans salvation from first to last / by Isaac Ambrose ...

SECT. V. Motives from our wants in case of neglect.

TO quicken us to this Duty, I shall propound some moving considerations; Ponder and weigh them with an impartial judgement; who knows but through the assi∣stance of Christ they may prove effectual with your hearts, and make you to resolve upon this excellent Duty of Looking unto Jesus.

Consider

• 1. Our wants, in case of our neglect.
• 2. Our riches, in case we are lively in this Duty.

1. For our wants; if Christ be not in view, there is nothing but wants.

Suppose first a Christless soul, a poor creature without any beam or ray of this Sun of righteousness, and what a sad condition is he in? I may say of such a one that—

1. He is without light: there is no oyl of saving knowledge, no star of spiritual light arising in his soul; ye were once darkness, saith the Apostle to his Ephesians: not only dark,* 1.1 but darkness it self; they were wholly dark, universally dark, having no mixture, nor glimpse (whilest without Christ) of spiritual light in them. Of such carnal wretches,* 1.2 saith our Saviour, they have not known the Father, nor me; they have not known the Father in his Word, nor Me in my Natures, Offices, Sufferings, Exal∣tations, Communications: very miserable is the carnal mans Ignorance of God and Christ, he hath no saving knowledge of Jesus.

* 1.32. Such a one is without Grace, without Holiness; Christ is our wisdom and sanctifi∣cation, as well as righteousness and redemption. Where Christ is not, there is no spiri∣tual wisdom, no inclination to the ways and works of sanctification.

3. Such a one is without contentation; the soul in this case finds nothing but empti∣ness and vanity, in the greatest abundance. Let a man have what the world can give, yet if he have not Christ, he is nothing worth; Christ is the marrow and fatness, the fulness and sweetness of all our endowments; separate Christ from them, and they are bitter, and do not please us; empty, and do not fill us.

* 1.44. Such a one is without any spiritual beauty; there is nothing in him but sores and swellings, and wounds and putrefaction; from the sole of his foot, to the crown of his head, there is nothing in him but loathsom and incurable maladies; hence the great∣est sinner is the foulest monster; bodily beauty without Christ is but as green grass upon a rotten grave; did man see his uncomliness and deformity without Jesus Christ, he would stile himselfe as the Prophet stiled Pashur,* 1.5 Magor-Missabib, fear round about, every way a terrour to himself.

5. Such a one is without peace: there is no true, spiritual, heavenly peace, no joy

and peace in the holy Ghost without Jesus Christ. Joram asking Jehu, is it peace?* 1.6 was answered, what hast thou to do with peace, so long as the whordomes of thy mother Jezabel, and her witchcrafts are so many? a Christless man asking, is it peace, O Messenger of God? he can look for no other but Jehu's answer, What hast thou to do, O carnal man, with peace, so long as thy lusts are so strong within thee, and thy estrangements from the Prince of peace, so great? the soul that is without Jesus Christ, is an enemy to the God of peace, a stranger to the Covenant of peace, uncapable of the Word of peace, an Alien to the way of peace: there is no peace to the wicked,* 1.7 saith my God.

6. Such a one is without acceptation, with God the Father: Christ onely is Gods beloved, and therefore as Josephs brethren might not look him in the face, unless they brought their brother Benjamin, so cannot we look God in the face with any confi∣dence or acceptance, unless we bring Christ with us in the armes of our faith; without Christ man is stubble, and God is a consuming fire to destroy him; man is a guilty ma∣lefactor, and God a severe Judge to condemn him; the whole of man without Jesus Christ is a very abomination in Gods presence.

7. Such a one is without life: he that hath not the Son, hath not life, saith John;* 1.8 Christ lives not in that soul, it is a dead soul, dead in sins and trespasses. As the dead see nothing of all that sweet and glorious light which the Sun casts forth upon them, so the dead in sin have no comfortable apprehension of Christ, though he shine in the Gospel more gloriously than the Sun at noon. And as the dead know not any thing;* 1.9 so the dead in sin know nothing at all of the wisdom of Christ guiding them, or of the holiness of Christ sanctifying them, or of the fulness of Christ satisfying them, or of the death of Christ mortifying their lusts, or of the resurrection of Christ quickning their souls, or of the dominion of Christ reigning in their hearts. O what a mise∣ry is this!

All this you may say is true to a Christless soul; but what evil to him that may have a title to Christ, and yet minds not Christ, makes not use of Christ, doth not look unto Jesus?

Such a case I confess may be; yea, as many Duties are neglected by some godly, so this main Duty is (I may tremble to think it) exceedingly neglected. But, O the sin, and sadness of those souls! O the wants attending such poor creatures! Consider them in these particulars.

1. They have not that wisdom, knowledge, discerning of Christ, as otherwise they might have. By looking, and serious observing of Christ, we gain more, and more knowledge of Christ; but if we will not look, how should we understand those great mysteries of grace? nor speak I only of speculative knowledge, but more especially of practical and experimental; without looking on Christ, we cannot expect that vertue should go out of Christ; there is but a poor character or cognizance of Christ upon them that are such; they have not so clear, and comfortable, and inward, and experimental a knowledge of Jesus Christ.

2. They do not so taste the goodness of Christ, as otherwise they might; Christ is no other unto them, whilst neglected by them, but as an eclipsed Star, with whose light they are not at all affected; Christ is not sweet to them in his Ordinances, they find not in them that delight and refreshment, that comfort and contentment, which they usually minister: they cannot say of Christ as the Spouse did, I sate down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste;* 1.10 they are in the case of Barzillai, who could not taste what he did eat, or what he did drink; nor could hear any more the voice of singing-men, or of singing-women: so they cannot taste the things of God, nor hear the spiritual melody which Christ makes to the souls of them that look up to him.

3. They have not that love to Christ, which Christs beholders have; they medi∣tate not upon Christ, as lovers on their love; they delight not themselves in Christ, as the rich man in his treasure, and the bride in the bridegroom, which they love; their thoughts are rather on the world than Christ; their palates are so distemper∣ed, that they have no pleasure in the choycest wine, they cannot say that their souls long after him; and no wonder, for how should they love Christ, who turn their eyes from him who is the fairest of ten thousands to other objects? Surely they have no flaming, burning love to Christ, that will give every base thing a kind of prehemi∣nence above Christ.

4. They have not that sense of Christs love, which those that exercise this Duty have; whilest the soul neglects Christ, it cannot possibly discern the love of Christ; it perceives not Christ applying the Doctrines of his love to the conscience: Christ appears not in his banquetting house, he enables not the soul to pray with confidence, he makes it not joyful in the house of prayer. And hence it is, that such souls move so slowly in Gods service; they are just like Pharaohs charrets, without wheels; O they perceive not the Love of Christ, either in the clear revelation of his secrets, or in the free communicati∣on of his graces, or in the sanctifying and sweetning of their tryals, or in sealing up the pardon of their sins: O they feel not those ravishing comforts, which usually Christ speaks to the heart, when he speaks from his heart in love. O the want! O the misery of this want!

5. They have not that experience of the power of Christ, which they have that are in the exercise of this Duty. Would you know wherein lies the power of Christ? I answer, in casting down the strong holds of sin, in overthrowing Satan, in humbling mens hearts, in sanctifying their souls, in purifying their consciences, in bringing their thoughts to the obedience of Christ, in making them able to endure afflictions, in causing them to grow and encrease in all Heavenly graces; and this power they par∣take of, who rightly and experimentally look up to Christ. But if this Duty be neglect∣ed, there is no such thing; hence we call this, the Duty of Duties, the chief Duty, the especial Duty; and for all other Duties, Means, Ordinances, if Christ be not in them, they are nothing worth; In every Duty this is the essential part, that we look through all, unto Jesus; it is only from Christ, that Vertue and Efficacy is communicate in spiritual Ordinances; there were many people in a throng about Christ, but the infirm woman that touched him, was she alone that felt efficacy come from him; we see many attend the Ordinances, frequent the Assemblies, but some few only find the inward power of Christ derived unto their souls. They that neglect, or are grosly ignorant of this great mistery of looking unto Jesus, are no beter then strangers to the power of Christ.

6. They have not that sense of the worth and excellency of Christ, that are unac∣quainted with this Duty; they are not so ravished with his Beauty, they are not so taken with the Sweetness and Pleasantness of the Face of Christ; he is not the fairest of ten thousands in their eyes; and hence it is, that they do not take pleasure, long after, delight or joy themselves in Christ: indeed these affections are the Evidences of our high esteem; they that rejoyce not in Christ, nor have any longings after Christ, they put a very unworthy price upon Christ.

7. They have not that sense either of their own wants, or of the worlds vanity, who are not in the practice of this Duty. In this glass we see that man is blind, and no Sun but Christ can Enlighten him; that man is naked, and no garment but Christ's can cloath him; that man is poor, and no treasure but Christ can make satisfaction for him; that man is empty, and none but Chrst can fill him; that man is distressed, perplexed, tormented, and none but Christ can quiet him. Why? all this, and much more than this appears in this glass of Jesus: the soul that looks here, cannot but com∣prehend an end of all other perfection; yea, the further it looks on the creature, the deeper and deeper vanities it discerns. But alas! there is no observation, no sense, no feeling either of mans wants, or of the worlds vanity, or of any sutable good in Christ, to them that are not in this Divine and Spiritual contemplation.

Thus far of their wants, that neglect this Duty of looking unto Jesus.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ephes. 3 8.
• * 1.2

  John 16.3.
• * 1.3

  1 Cor. 1.30.
• * 1.4

  Isa. 1.6.
• * 1.5

  Jer. 20.3.
• * 1.6

  2 Kings 9.22.
• * 1.7

  Isa. 57.21.
• * 1.8

  1 John 5.12. Ephes. 2.1.
• * 1.9

  Eccles 9 5
• * 1.10

  Cant. 2.3.