From William Perkins, Of the Right Knowledge of Christ Crucified (1596)

The right knowledge of [Christ crucified] is not to make often mention of his death and passion, and to call him our Saviour, or to handle the whole mystery of God incarnate soundly and learnedly, though that be a worthy gift of God, but first of all by the consideration of the Passion to be touched with an inward and a lively feeling of our sins, for which our Redeemer suffered of our sins, for which our Redeemer suffered the pangs of hell, and to grow to a thorough dislike of ourselves and our lives past, and from the ground of the heart to purpose a reformation and a conformity with Christ in all good duties that concern man. Secondly in the Passion, as in a mirror, to behold and in beholding to labour to comprehend the length, the breadth, the height, the depth of the love of the Father that gave his own dear son to death, and the goodness of the son that loved his enemies more than himself, that our hearts might be rooted and grounded in the same love, and be further inflamed to love God again.

This entry was posted in Renaissance England. Bookmark the permalink.