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. VII. More Motives to encourage us in this work.

1 COnsider your looking on Jesus will maintain your communion with Jesus; and is not this worth the while? Why Christians! what is this communion with Christ, but very heaven aforehand? hereby we enjoy his person, and all sweet relation to his person, his death, and all the saving fruits, priviledges, and influences of his death; hereby we are brought into Christs banquetting-house,* 1.1 held in his galleries, his ban∣ner over us being love: hereby we are carried up into the Mount with Christ, that we may see him (as it were) transfigured, and may say with Peter, Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us here build Tabernacles. Oh it's an happy thing to have Christ dwell in our hearts, & for us to lodge in Christs bosome! Oh its an happy thing to main∣tain a reciprocal communication of affairs betwixt Christ and our souls! as thus; he bare our sins, take we his healing: he endured wounds for us, drink we the spiritual balsom that sprang out of his wounds; he took upon him our unrighteousness, do we cloath our selves with his righteousness: he endured pains for us, come we to him, and take his rest to our souls; he embraced our curse and condemnation, do we embrace his blessing, justification, and salvation. To this end do we look on Jesus, if he hide his face by desertions, rest not till we find him; if we find him, hold him fast, let him not go, di∣sturb him not out of our hearts by our corruptions. Thus if we would prize the pre∣sence

of Christ, how comfortably should we maintain and encrease our Communion with Christ.

2. Consider, that your daily necessities call for a frequent looking up unto Jesus; you have need of Christ, you have need that he pray in you, and need that he pray for you to your heavenly Father; you have need that he work in you, and need that he work for you his own blessed will; you have need that he present you and yours blameless before his Fathers presence in life, and death, and at the judgment day; there's not a moment in your life, wherein you stand not in continual need of Jesus Christ; And can a hungry man forget his bread? can the heart that pants for thirst forget the River? can a man in bonds forget freedom? can a child in distress forget a Father in honour and wealth? Oh then let your necessities drive you to Christ; and mind you of Christ; Is not he the fountain that supplies all wants? Christians! consult your own Experien∣ces; when you look up to Jesus, and lean on Jesus, are you not best at rest? O then why do you not always rest and lean upon him? sometime you say, his Bread is sweet, and his Cup is pleasant, how amiable is his Presence? At such a time you have never done won∣dering at him; O the sweet impression, that are even then on your spirits! why do you not then always look unto him? or at least, why are you not frequent in his disciples posture, who looked stedfastly towards Heaven as Christ went up?* 1.2 How richly might your idle hours, and spare time be laid out here, to the supply of all necessities, bodi∣ly, or spiritual?

3. Consider, that an eye, an heart on Christ, is one of your most unquestionable Evi∣dences of sincerity. Where your Treasure is, there will your hearts be also.* 1.3 If Christ be your Treasure, your hearts will be on Christ; and surely an heart set upon God in Christ is a true evidence of saving Grace. External actions are easiest discovered, but those of the heart are surest Evidences: when thy learning will be no good proof of thy Grace, when thy arguments from thy tongue and hand may be confuted, yet then will this Argument from the bent of thy heart prove thee sincere. Take a poor Christian that hath a weak judgment, a failing memory, a stammering tongue, yet if his heart be set on Christ, I had rather die in this mans condition, and have my soul in his souls case, than in the case of him without such an heart, though he had the most eminent gifts, and parts, and abilities of any in the world. Christians! as you would have a sure testimony of the love of God, and a sure proof of your title to glory, labour to get your hearts on Christ, O look on Jesus. You may be sure Christ will acknowledg that you really love him, when he sees your hearts are set upon him.

4. Consider, that your looking on Jesus, will strengthen patience under the Cross of Christ. This is the very particular Motive of the Text,* 1.4 Let us run with patience the Race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and finisher of our Faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross, despising the shame; and is set down at the right Hand of the Throne of God; for consider him that endured such contradicti∣on of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind. It is storied of a Martyr, that having offered him a Cup of spirits to sustain him, when he seemed to faint under his greatest Trial, he returned this answer, My Lord and Master had Gall and Vinegar given him to drink; as if he had been astonished to see himself fare better than Jesus Christ. How may it strengthen your patience in sufferings to think of Christs patience? What, are you served ill? Ay, but Jesus Christ was not ser∣ved so well; can you suffer so much as he hath done? I tell you nay. O then do you stay your murmurings and repinings, bear with patience the little you endure; and to this end, Consider him that hath endured the contradictions of sinners.

5. Consider, that a through-sight of Christ, will encrease your inward joy in Christ, Your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.* 1.5 A right sight of Christ, will make a right-sighted Christian glad at heart; I wonder not that you walk uncomfortably, if you never tried this Art of Christ-contemplation; can you have comfort from Christ, and never think of Christ? doth any thing in the world glad you, when you do not remember it? If you were possessed of all the Treasure in the Earth, if you had title to the highest Dignities, and never thought of them, sure they would never rejoyce you. Come look up unto Jesus, fix your eyes, thoughts, and hearts on that blessed ob∣jects, and then you may expect Davids experience,* 1.6 my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate of thee in the night watches. A frequent access to Christ in a way of meditation cannot but warm the soul in spiritual comforts. When the Sun in the spring draws near our part of the earth, how do all

things congratulate its approach? the earth looks green, the trees shoot forth, the plants revive, the birds sing sweetly, the face of all things smiles upon us, and all the creatures below rejoyce: Christians! if you would but draw near, and look on this Son of Righte∣ousness, Jesus Christ, what a spring of joy would be within you? how would your Gra∣ces be fresh and green? how would you forget your winter sorrows? how early would you rise (as those Birds in the spring) to sing the Praise of our great Creatour, and dear Redeemer.

6. Consider that your Eye on Jesus will preserve the vigour of all your Graces. As the body is apt to be changed into the temper of the air it breaths in, and the food it lives on, so will your spirits receive an alteration according to the Objects which they are exercised about. You that complain of deadness and dulness, that you cannot love Christ, nor rejoyce in his loves, that you have no life in Prayer, nor any other Duty, and yet you never tried this quickning course, or at least you were careless and uncon∣stant in it; what, are not you the cause of your own complaints? say, is not your life hid with Christ in God? O whether must you go but to Christ for it? If you would have light and heat, why then are you not more in the Sun-shine? if you would have more of that grace which flowes from Christ, why are you no more with Christ for it? for want of this recourse to Jesus Christ, your Souls are as candles that are not lighted, and your duties are as Sacrifices which have no fire; fetch one coal daily from this Altar, and see if your Offerings will not burn; keep close to this reviving Fire, and see if your affecti∣ons will not warm. Surely if there be any comfort of hope, if any flames of love, if any life of faith, if any vigor of dispositions, if any motions towards God, if any meltings of a softned Heart, they flow from hence; men are apt to bewail their want of desire, and hope, and joy, and faith, and love to Jesus Christ, whilest this very duty would nourish all these.

7. Consider, it's but equal that your hearts should be on Christ, when the heart of Christ is so much on you. Christ is our Friend, and in that respect he loves us, and bears us in his heart; and shall not he be ours? Surely this is ill requital; this is a great contra∣diction to the law of Friendship: But Christ is our Lord as well as Friend; and if the Lord of glory can stoop so low as to set his heart on sinful dust, one would think we should easily be perswaded to set our hearts on Jesus Christ. Christians! do you not perceive that the heart of Christ is set upon you! and that he is still minding you with tender love, even when you forget both your selves and him? Do you not find him following you with daily mercies, moving on your souls, providing for your bodies, and preserving both! doth he not bear you continually in the armes of love, and promise that all shall work together for your good? doth he not give his Angels charge over you, and suit all his dealings to your greatest advantage? and can you find in your hearts to cast him by? can you forget your Lord, who forgets not you? Fie upon this unkind Ingratitude! When the Lord speaks of his thoughts and respects to us, he gives this language, Can a woman forget her sucking-child,* 1.7 that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me. But when he speaks of our thoughts to him, the case is otherwise:* 1.8 can a Maid forget her Ornaments, or a Bride her Attire? yet my People have forgotten me days without number, q. d. you would not forget the cloaths on your backs, you would not forget your braveries, your Ornaments, your Attires, and are these of more worth than Christ? yet you can forget me day after day.

8. Consider, it's a command of Christ, that we should look to Jesus. Behold me, behold me; lo I, lo I; A command not only backt with Authority, but accompanied with special Ordinances appointed to this end: what is Baptism? and what is the Lords Sup∣per,* 1.9 but the representation of Jesus Christ? Is it not Christs command in his last Sup∣per, Do this in remembrance of me? and this do ye as oft as ye drink in remembrance of me? In this Ordinance we have Christ crucified before our Eyes, and can we forget him? Or, can we hold our eyes off him? can we see the Bread broken, & the Wine distinctly sever∣ed from the bread, and not call to mind (according to the Scripture) Christs Agony in the Garden, and on the Cross? can we take, and eat the bread? and take, and drink the cup, and not apprehend Christ stooping down from Heaven to feed our souls? At such a time if we forget the Lord Jesus Christ, it will argue our disaffection, our ingratitude, our disobedience every way.

* 1.109. Consider, it's both work and wages to look up unto Jesus. Hence David professed, it is good for me to draw near to thee, and my meditation of him shall be sweet: the word

imports a sweetness with mixture, like compound spices, or many flowers. Every thought of Jesus is sweet and pleasant, nay, it's better than wine,* 1.11 we will remember thy love more than Wine; there is more content in contemplating on Christ, more refreshing to the spi∣rit, than wine gives to the body, How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God?* 1.12 look in what kind soever you account a thing precious, so precious are the thoughts of God and Christ to a man, whose heart is in a right frame. Such a one loves every glance of Christ, and the more it sees, the more it loves; It is said of one Eudoxius, that he wished he might be admitted to come near the body of the Sun, to have a full view of it, though it devoured him; he was somthing rash in his wish: but there is somthing proportionable in a godly spirit, he so loves Christ, that he could be content to be swallowed up in the beholding of him. Certainly there is a blessing in this work; when we are bid to look un∣to Jesus, it is but to receive from Jesus: is it any thing else but to call and invite us to look on the most pleasing and delightful object? That in the beholding of it, it may con∣vey it self unto us, and we be delighted and filled with it? it is all one as if he should bid us sit down by a well of Life, and drink; or if he should bid us be as the Angels are, who are blessed in the beholding of this Jesus; why come then, if this be a blessed work, why will we unbless our selves? If the work will exalt us, why will we debase our selves, in not closing with it? If we might live above heaven, why will we live below? certain∣ly when thoughts of Christ are moving in us, Christ himself is not far off, he will come, and enter too; and how sweet is it for Christ to come and take up his habitation in our souls.

10. Consider how the Angels exceedingly desire to look on Jesus: they stoop down, and pry into the Nature, Offices, and graces of Jesus Christ: which things (saith the Apo∣stle) the Angels desire to look into. He alludes to the manner of the Cherubims looking down into the Mercy-Seat; this is the study,* 1.13 yea this is the delight and recreation of the Elect Angels to look on Jesus, and to look into the several scopes of our salvation by Jesus Christ, to behold the whole frame, and fabrick of it, to observe all the parts of it from the beginning to the end, to consider all the glorious Attributes of God, his Wisdome, Power, Justice, Mercy, all shining and glittering in it like bright Stars in the Firmament; this I say is their work, yea, this is their Festivity and Pastime. And shall not we imi∣tate the Angels? shall not we think it our honour to be admitted to the same priviledge with the Angels.

11. Consider that looking unto Jesus is the work of Heaven;* 1.14 it is begun in this life (saith Bernard) but it is perfected in that life to come; not only Angels, but the Saints in glory do ever behold the face of God and Christ; if then we like not this work, how will we live in Heaven? the dislike of this Duty is a bar against our entrance; for the life of a blessedness is a life of Vision; surely if we take no delight in this, heaven is no place for us.

12. Consider that nothing else is in comparison worth the minding or looking after. If Christ have not your hearts, who? or what should have them? O that any Christian should rather delight to have his heart among Thornes and Briers, than in the Bosom of his dearest Jesus! Why should you follow after drops, and neglect the Fountain? why should you fly after shadowes, and neglect him who is the true substance? if the mind have its currant from Christ toward other things, these things are not only of less con∣cernment, but destructive: they are gone far from me, and have walked after Vanity,* 1.15 and are become vain. How unworthy the world is of the look of Christians, especially when it stands in competition with Jesus, we have discussed before.

Many other Motives might be given, but let this suffice. I have done with the ex∣hortation; In the next place I shall lay open to you the particular way of this Duty, which all this while I have been perswading to.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Cant. 2.4.
• * 1.2

  Act. 1.10.
• * 1.3

  Matth. 6.21.
• * 1.4

  Heb. 11.1, 2, 3.
• * 1.5

  Joh 8.56.
• * 1.6

  Psa 63.5.
• * 1.7

  Isa. 49.15, 16.
• * 1.8

  Jer. 2 32.
• * 1.9

  1 Cor. 11.24 25.
• * 1.10

  Psa 73.28 Psal 104.34.
• * 1.11

  Cant. 1.4.
• * 1.12

  Psa. 139.17.
• * 1.13

  1 Pet. 1.12.
• * 1.14

  V••ta contem∣plativa incipit in hoc seculo, proficitur in futu••o. Bern.
• * 1.15

  Jer. 2.5.