Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and publike, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes.
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Title
Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and publike, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes.
Author
Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664.
Publication
London :: Printed by John Field for Nathanaell Webb and William Grantham, at the Greyhound in Pauls Church-yard,
1650. [i.e. 1649]
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Subject terms
Christian life -- Early works to 1800.
Devotional exercises -- Early works to 1800.
Asceticism -- Early works to 1800.
Cite this Item
"Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and publike, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes." In the digital collection Early English Books Online 2. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A75287.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 20, 2024.
Pages
descriptionPage 290
SECT. 11. Examination of our desires after this Ordinance.
A Sixth grace which every worthy receiver must finde in him∣self, is Holy desires after this holy Ordinance; and by such marks as these he may try whether his desires be holy.
1. If they carry the soul after Christ, fellowship with Christ, communion with Christ, a fruition of Christ and his benefits.
2. If they spring from any sense of the want of Christ, or from sense of former sweetness or goodness in Christ, found in the use of the Ordinances.
3. If there accompany them an holy kinde of impatience in the want of the Ordinance: When shall I come and appear be∣fore God?
4. If nothing but Christ will content the soul: If Christ be desired for himself, and not for any base ends; If the soul be content with Christ, though he be cast into prison and banish∣ment.
5. If there follow a great and sweet contentment in the use of the Ordinances; if (as it was with Sampson drinking of the water that God sent him out of the hollow of the jaw) our spirits come again and revive upon it; so that sometimes the heart is filled with strange extasies, with excess of spiritual plea∣sures, with an heavenly kinde of satisfaction, contentation and delight.
6. If there follow after the Ordinance holy vows and wishes of infinite and eternal thankfulness; as also a growth and spring∣ing up as among the grass, or as willows by the water courses.