NINETEENTH SERMON PHIL. II. VIII And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the cross THis Scripture hath been once already under consideration and indeed can be never enough considered It holds forth the humbled state of the Lord Jesus during the time of his abode on earth The sum of it was delivered you before in this point DOCT. That the state of Christ from his Conception to his Resurrection was a state of deep abasement and humiliation The Humiliation of Christ was proposed to us under the three general heads or branches of his Humiliation in his Incarnation his Humiliation in his life and his Humiliation in his death How he was humbled by Incarnation hath been opened above in the eighteenth Sermon How he was humbled in his life is the design of this Sermon yet expect not that I should give you here an exact History of the life of Christ. The Scriptures speak but little of the private part of his life and it is not my design to dilate upon all the memorable passages that the Evangelists those faithful Narrators of the life of Christ have preserved for us but only to observe and improve those more observable particulars in his life wherein especially he was humbled and such are these that follow First The Lord Jesus was humbled in his very Infancy by his Circumcision according to the Law For being of the stock of Israel he was to undergo the Ceremonies and submit to the Ordinances belonging to that people and thereby to put an end to them for so it became him to fulfil all Righteouness Luk. 2.21 And when eight daies were accomplished for the Circumcising of the Child his name was called Iesus Hereby the Son of God was greatly humbled especially in these two respects First In that hereby he obliged himself to keep the whole Law though he were the Law-maker Gal. 5.3 For I testifie again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law The Apostles meaning is he is a debtor in regard of duty because he that thinks himself bound to keep one part of the Ceremonial Law doth thereby bind himself to keep it all for where all the parts are inseparably united as they are in the Law of God we pull all upon us by engaging or medling with any one And he that is a debtor in duty to keep the whole Law quickly becomes a debtor in regard of penalty not being able to keep any part of it Christ therefore coming as our surety to pay both those debts the debt of duty and the debt of penalty to the Law he by his circumcision obliges himself to pay the whole debt of duty by fulfilling all Righteousness and though his obedience to it was so exact and perfect that he contracted no debt of penalty for any transgression of his own yet he obliges himself to pay that debt of penalty we had contracted by suffering all the pains due to transgressors This was that intollerable yoak that none were able to bear but Christ. Acts 15.10 And it was no small abasure of Christ to bind himself to the Law as a Subject made under it For he was the Law-giver above all Law and herein that Soveraignty of a God one of the choice flowers in the Crown of Heaven was obscured and vailed by his subjection Secondly Hereby he was represented to the world not only as a Subject but also as a Sinner For though he was pure and holy yet this ordinance passing upon him seemed to imply as if corruption had indeed been in him which must be cut off by mortification For this was the mysterie principally intended by circumcision It served to mind and admonish Abraham and his seed of the natural guiltiness uncleanness and corruption of their hearts and natures So Jer. 4.4 Circumcise your selves unto the Lord and take away the foreskins of your hearts ye men of Judah i. e. the sinfulness and corruption of them Hence the rebellious and unmortified are called stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart as it is Acts 7.51 and as it served to convince of natural uncleanness so it signified and sealed the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh as the Apostle phraseth it Col. 2.11 Now this being the end of God in the institution of this ordinance for Abraham and his ordinary seed Christ in his infancy by submitting to it did not only vail his Soveraignty by subjection but was also represented as a sinner to the world though most holy and pure in himself Secondly Christ was humbled by persecution and that in the very morning of his life He was banisht almost as soon as born Matth. 2.13 Flee into Aegypt saith the Angel to Ioseph and be thou there until I bring thee word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him Ungrateful Herod was this entertainment for a Saviour what raise the Country against him as if a destroyer rather than a Saviour had landed upon the coast what deny him the protection of those Laws under which he was born and that before he had broken the least punctilio of them the child of a beggar may claim the benefit and protection of Law as his birthright and must the Son of God be denied it But herein he fulfilled the Scriptures whilst venting his own lusts For so it was foretold Ier. 31.15 And this early persecution was not obscurely hinted in the title of the 22 Psalm that psalm which looks rather like an History of the new than a prophecy of the old Testament For as it contains a most exact description of Christs sufferings so it 's fitted with a most suitable Title To the chief Musitian Aiâ—eleth Shabar which signifies the Hind of the morning or that Deer which the Hunter rouzes betime in the morning and singles out to hunt down that day And so they did by him as the 16. verse will tell you for saith he Dogs have compassed me the Assemble of the wicked have enclosed me Upon which Musculus sweetly and ingeniously descants O what sweet Venison saith he is the flesh of Christ abundantly sweeter to the believing soul than that which the Nobles of this world esteem most delicate And lest it should want the highest and richest favour to a delicate palate Christ our Hart was not only killed but hunted to the purpose before he was killed even as great men use by hunting and chasing before they cut the throat of the deer to render its flesh more sweet tender and delicate Thus was Christ hunted betimes out of the Country he was born in And no doubt but where such dogs scent and wind the Spirit of Christ in any they would pursue them also to destruction did not a gratious providence rate them off But to return how great an Humiliation is this to the Son of God not only to become an Infant but in his
say to you of this place You are a people that were born under and bred up with the Gospel It hath been your singular priviledge above many Towns and Parishes in England to enjoy more than 60 years together an able and fruitful Gospel Ministry among you The dews of Heaven lay upon you as it did upon Gideons Fleece when the ground was dry in other places about you You have been richly watered with Gospel showers You with Capernaum have been exalted to Heaven in the means of Grace And it must be owned to your praise that you testified more respect to the Gospel than many other places have done and treated Christs Ambassadors with more civility whilst they prophesied in Sackcloth than some other places did These things are praise worthy in you But all this and much more than this amounts not to that which Jesus Christ expects from you and which in his name I would now perswade you to and oh that I the least and unworthiest of all the Messengers of Christ to you might indeed prevail with all that are Christless among you 1. to answer the long continued calls of God to you by a through and sound Conversion that the long suffering of God may be your salvation and you may not receive all this grace of God in vain O that the damned might never be set a wondering to see a people of your advantages for Heaven sinking as much below many of themselves in misery as you now are above them in means and mercy Dear friends my hearts desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved Oh that I knew how to engage this whole Town to Jesus Christ and make fast the marriage knot betwixt him and you albeit after that I should presently go to the place of silence and see man no more with the Inhabitants of the World Ah sirs methinks I see the Lord Jesus laying the merciful hand of an holy violence upon you methinks he calls to you as the Angel to Lot saying arise lest ye be consumed and while he lingred the men laid hold upon his hand the Lord being merciful unto him And they brought him without the City and said escape for thy life stay not in all the plain escape to the Mountain lest thou be consumed Gen. 19.15 How often to allude to this hath Jesus Christ in like manner laid hold upon you in the Preaching of the Gospel and will you not fly for refuge to him Will you rather be consumed than endeavour an escape A beast will not be driven into the fire and will not you be kept out The merciful Lord Jesus by his admirable patience and bounty hath convinced you how loath he is to leave or loose you To this day his arms are stretched forth to gather you and will you not be gathered Alas for my poor neighbours Must so many of them perish at last what shall I do for the daughter of my people Lord by what Arguments shall they be perswaded to be happy what will win them effectually to thy Christ they have many of them escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour They are a people that love thine Ordinances they take delight in approaching to God thou hast beautified many of them with lovely and obliging tempers and dispositions Thus far they are come there they stick and beyond this no power but thine can move them O thou to whose hand this work is and must be left put forth thy saving power and reveal thine arm for their salvation thou hast glorified thy name in many among them Lord glorifie it again 2. My next request is that you will all be perswaded whether converted or unconverted to set up all the duties of Religion in your families and govern your Children and Servants as men that must give an account to God for them in the great day O that there were not a prayerless Family in this Town How little will your Tables differ from a manger where beasts feed together if God be not owned and acknowledged there in your eating and drinking And how can you expect blessings should dwell in your Tabernacles if God be not called upon there Say not you want time for it or that your necessities will not allow it for had you been more careful of those duties it 's like you had not been exposed to such necessities besides you can find time to be idle you can waste a part of every day vainly Why could not that time be redeemed for God Moreover you will not deny but the success of all your affairs at home and abroad depends upon the blessing of God and if so think you it is not the right way even to temporal prosperity to engage his presence and blessing with you in whose hand your all is Say not your Children and servants are ignorant of God and therefore you cannot comfortably joyn with them in those duties For the neglect of these duties is the cause of their ignorance and it is not like they will be better till you use Gods means to make them so Besides prayer is a part of natural worship and the vilest among men are bound to pray else the neglect of it were none of their sin O let not a duty upon which so many and great blessings hang fall to the ground upon such silly not to say wicked pretences to shift it off Remember death will shortly break up all your families and disband them and who then think you will have most comfort in beholding their dead The day of account also hastens and then who will have the most comfortable appearing before the just and holy God Set up I beseech you the ancient and comfortable duties of reading the Scriptures singing of Psalms and Prayer in all your dwelling places and do all these conscientiously as men that have to do with God and try the Lord herewith if he will not return in a way of mercy to you and restore even your outward prosperity to you again How ever to be sure far greater encouragements than that lye before you to oblige you to your duties 3. More especially I have a few things to say to you that have attended on the Ministry or are under my oversight in a more particular manner and then I have done And First I cannot but with deep resentments observe to you the goodness of our God yea the riches of his goodness Who freely gave Jesus Christ out of his own bosom for us and hath not withheld his spirit Ordinances and Ministers to reveal and apply him to us Here 's love that wants an Epithete to match it Who engaged my heart upon this transcendent subject in the course of my Ministry among you A subject which Angels study and admire as well as we Who so signally protected and overshadowed our Assembly in those dayes of trouble wherein these truths were delivered to you You then sate down under
sacrifice the meritorious cause so of necessity there must be faith the instrumental cause And these concauses do all sweetly meet in their influences and activities in our remission and tranquility of conscience and are all suo genere in their kind and place absolutely necessary to the procuring and applying of it What the near that the blood of Christ is shed if I have no interest in it no saving influences from it O be convinvinced this is the end the business of life Faith is the Phoenix grace as Christ is the Phoenix mercy He is the gift Joh. 4.10 And this is the work of God Ioh. 6.29 the death of Christ the offers and tenders of Christ never saved one soul in themselves without believing application But wo is me how do I see sinners either not at all toucht with the sense of sin and so being whole need not the Physitian or if any be sâ—â—â—g and wounded with guilt how do they lick themselves whole with their own duties and reformations as Physitians say of wounds let them but be kept clean and nature will find balsom of its own to heal them If it be so in spiritual wounds what need Christ to have left the Fathers bosom and come down to dye in the quality and nature of a Sacrifice for us O if men can but have health pleasure riches honours and any way make a shift to still a brawling conscience that it may not check or interrupt them in these enjoyments Christ may go where he will for them And I am assured till God shew you the face of sin in the glass of the Law Make the Scorpions and fiery Serpents that lurk in the Law and in your own consciences to come hissing about you and smiting you with their deadly stings till you have had some sick nights and sorrowful days for sin you will never go up and down seeking an interest in the blood of this sacrifice with tears But Reader if ever this be thy condition then wilt thou know the worth of a Christ. Then thou wilt have a value for the blood of sprinkling As I remember it 's storied of our Crook-back Richard when he was put to a rout in a field battel and flying on foot from his pursuing enemies he cried out O now said he a Kingdom for a Horse So wilt thou cry a Kingdom for a Christ. Ten thousand Worlds now if I had thâ—m for the blood of sprinkling Corollary 3. Is Christ your High-Priest and is his Priestood so indispensably necessary to your salvation then freely acknowledge your utter impotency to reconcile your selves to God by any thing you can do or suffer And let Christ have the whole glory of your recovery ascribed to him It 's highly reasonable that he that laid down the whole price should have the whole praise If any man think or say he could have made an attonement for himself he doth therein cast no light reproach upon that profound wisdom which laid the design of our redemption in the death of Christ. But of this I have spoken elsewhere And therefore Corollary 4. In the last place I rather choose to perswade you to see your necessity of this Priest and his most excellent sacrifice and accordingly to make use of it The best of you have polluted natures poisoned in the womb with sin those natures have need of this sacrifice They must have the benefit of this blood to pardon and cleanse them or be eternally damned Hear me ye that never spent a tear for the sin of nature if the blood of Christ be not springled upon your natures it had been better for you that you had been the generation of beasts the off-spring of Dragons or Toads They have a contemptible but not a vitiated sinful nature as you have Your Actual sins have need of this Priest and his sacrifice to procure remission for them If he take them not away by the blood of his cross they can never be taken away They will lie down with you in the dust They will rise with you and follow you to the Judgement seat crying we are thy works and we will follow thee All thy repentance and tears shouldst thou weep as many tears as there be drops in the Ocean can never take away sin Thy duties even the best of them need this sacrifice It is in the verture thereof that they are accepted of God And were it not God had respect to Christs offering he would not regard or look towards thee or any of thy duties Thou couldst no more come near God than thou couldst approach a devouring fire or dwell with everlasting burnings Well then say I need such a Priest every way Love him in all his offices See the goodness of God in providing such a sacrifice for thee Meat drink and air not more necessary to maintain thy natural life than the death of Christ is to give and maintain thy spiritual life O then let thy soul grow big whilst meditating of the usefulness and excellency of Christ which is thus displaied and unfolded in every branch of the Gospel And with a deep sence upon thy heart let thy lips say blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWELFTH SERMON HEB. X.XIV. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified AFter this more general view and consideration of the Priesthood of Christ method requires that we come to a nearer and more particular consideration of the parts thereof which are his Oblation and Intercession answerable to the double office of the High-Priest offering the blood of the Sacrifices without the holy place which Typed out Christs oblation and then once a year bringing the blood before the Lord into the most holy place presenting it before the Lord and with it sprinkling the mercy-seat wherein the intercession of Christ the other part or Act of his Priesthood was in a lively manner Typified to us My present business is to open and apply the Oblation of Christ. The efficacy and excellency whereof is excellently illustrated by a comparison with all other oblations in the precedent context and with a singular Encomium commended to us in these words from the singularity of it It is but one offering one not only specifically but one numerically considered But once offered and never more to be repeated For Christ dieth no more Rom. 6.9 He also commends it from the efficacy of it By it he hath perfected i. e. not only purchased a possibility of salvation but all that we need to our full perfection It brings in a most intire compleat and perfect righteousness All that remains to make us perfectly happy is but the full application of the benefits procured by this Oblation for us Moreover it 's here commended from the extensiveness of it Not being restrained to a few but applicable to all the Saints in all the ages and places of the world For this indefinite them that are sanctified is
remission of sin to believers and lest we should lose the Emphatical word he doubles it to declare I say his righteousness Every one can see how his mercy is declared in remission but he would have us take notice that his justification of Believers is an act of Justice and that God as he is a just God cannot condemn the believer since Christ hath satisfied his debts This attribute seems to be the main bar against remission but now it 's become the very ground and reason why God remits Oh how comfortable a text is this Doth Satan or Conscience set forth thy sin in all its discouraging circumstances and aggravations God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation Must justice be manifested satisfied and glorified So it is in the death of Christ ten thousand times more than ever it could be in thy damnation Thus you have a brief account of the satisfaction made by Jesus Christ. Secondly We shall gather up all that hath been said to establish the truth of Christs satisfaction Proving the reality of it that it is not an improper catechristical fictitious satisfaction by divine acceptilation as some have very diminutively called it but real proper and full and as such accepted by God For his blood is the blood of a surety Heb. 7.22 who came under the same obligations of the Law with us Gal. 4.4 and though he had no sin of his own yet standing before God as our surety the iniquities of us all were laid upon him Isai. 53.6 and from him did the Lord with great severity exact satisfaction for our sins Rom. 8.32 punishing them upon his soul. Matth. 27.46 and upon his body Act. 2.23 and with this obedience of his Son is fully pleased and satisfied Eph. 5.2 And hath in token thereof raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand 1 Tim. 3.16 And for his righteousness sake acquitted and discharged believers who shall never more come into condemnation Rom. 8.1 34. All this is plain in Scripture and our faith in the satisfaction of Christ is not built on the wisdom of man but the everlasting sealed truth of God Yet such is the perverse nature of man and the pride of his heart that whilst he should be humbly adoring the grace of God in providing such a surety for us he is found accusing the justice and diminishing the mercy of God and raising all the objections which Satan and his own heart can invent to overturn that blessed foundation upon which God hath built up his own honour and his peoples salvation Thirdly In the next place therefore we shall reject those doctrines and remove the principal of those objections that are found militating against the satisfaction of Christ. And in the first place we reject with deep abhorrence that doctrine which ascribes to man any power in whole or in part to satisfie God for his own or other mens sins This no meer creature can do by active obedience were it so compleat that he could never sin in thought word or deed any more but live the most holy life that ever any lived For all this would be no more than his duty as a creature Luk. 17.10 and so can be no satisfaction for what he is by nature or hath done against God as a sinner Nor yet by sufferings For we have offended an infinite God and can never satisfie him by our finite sufferings We also with like detestation reject that doctrine which makes the satisfaction of Christ either impossible or fictitious and inconsistent with grace in the free pardon of sin Many are the cavils raised against Christs satisfaction the principal are such as these that follow The Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction is absurd for Christ say we is God if so then God satisfies himself then which what can be more absurd to imagine I Answer God cannot properly be said to satisfie himself for that would be the same thing as to pardon simply without any satisfaction But there is a twofold consideration of Christ. One in respect of his Essence and divine nature in which sence he is the object both of the offence and of the satisfaction made for it Another in respect of his person and oeconomy or office in which sense he properly satisfies God being in respect of his manhood another and inferior to God Ioh. 14.28 the blood of the man Christ Jesus is the matter of the satisfaction The divine nature dignifies it and makes it of infinite value A certain family hath committed treason against the King and are all under the condemnation of the Law for it the Kings Son moved with pity and love resolves to satisfie the Law and yet save the Family in order whereunto he marries a daughter of the family whereby her blood becomes Royal blood and worth the blood of the whole family whence she sprang this Princess is by her Husband executed in the room of the rest In this case the King satisfies not himself for the wrong but is satisfied by the death of another equivalent in worth to the blood of them all This similitude answers not to all the particulars as indeed nothing in nature doth or can but it only shews what it was that satisfied God and how it became so satisfactory If Christ satisfied by paying our Debt then he should have endured eternal torments For so we should and the damned shall We must distinguish betwixt what is essential and what is accidental in punishment The primary intent of the Law is reparation and satisfaction he that can make it at one intire payment as Christ could and did ought to be discharged He that cannot as no meer creature can ought to lye for ever as the damned do under sufferings If God will be satisfied for our sin before he pardon them how then is pardon an Act of Grace Pardon could not be an act of pure grace if God received satisfaction from us but if he pardon us upon the satisfaction received from Christ though it be of debt to him it is of grace to us For it was grace to admit a surety to satisfie more grace to provide him and most of all to apply his satisfaction to us by uniting us to Christ as he hath done But God loved us before Christ died for us for it was the love of God to the world that moved him to give his only begotten Son Could God love us and yet not be reconciled and satisfied Gods complacential love is indeed inconsistent with an unreconciled state He is reconciled to every one he so loves But his benevolent love consisting in his purpose of Good may be before actual reconciliation and satisfaction Temporal death as well as eternal is a part of the curse if Christ have fully satisfied by bearing the curse for us how is it that those for whom he bare it dye as well as others As Temporal death is a
sweetly suitably First Powerfully whether he restrains from sin or impels to duty he doth it with a soul determining efficacy For his Kingdom is not in word but in power 1 Cor. 4.20 And those whom his Spirit leads go bound in the spirit to the fulfilling and discharge of their duties Acts 20.22 And yet Secondly He rules not by compulsion but most sweetly His Law is a Law of Love written upon their hearts The Church is the Lambs wife Rev. 19.7 A bruised reed he shall not break and smoaking flax he shall not quench Isa. 42.2 3. I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ saith â—he Apostle 2 Cor. 10.1 for he delighteth in free not in forced obedience He rules children not slaves And so his Kingly power is mixed with Fatherly love His yoak is not made of Iron but Gold Thirdly He rules them suitably to their natures in a rational way Hos. 11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man with bands of Love i. e. in a way proper to convince their reason and work upon their ingenuity And thus his internal Kingdom is administred by his Spirit who is his prorex or vicegerent in our hearts Thirdly And Lastly we will open the priviledges pertaining to all the Subjects of this Spiritual Kingdom And they are such as follow First Those souls ever whom Christ raigns are certainly and fully set free from the curse of the Law If the Son make you free then are you free indeed Joh. 8.36 I say not they are free from the Law as a rule of life such a freedom were no priviledge to them at all but free from the rigorous exactions and terrible maledictions of it to hear our liberty proclaimed from this bondage is the joyful sound indeed The blessedst voice that ever our ears heard And this all that are in Christ shall hear if we be led by the Spirit we are not under the Law Gal. 5.18 Blessed are the people that hear this joyful sound Psal. 89.15 Secondly Another priviledge of Christs Subjects is freedom from the dominion of sin Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not raign over them for they are not under the Law but under grace One Heaven cannot bear two Suns Nor one soul two Kings When Christ takes the throne sin quits it It 's true the being of sin is there still It 's defiling and troubling power remains still but its dominion is abolished O joyful tydings O welcome day Thirdly Another priviledge of Christs Subjects is protection in all troubles and dangers to which their souls or bodies are exposed This man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our Land and when he shall tread in our Palaces Mica 5.5 Kings owe protection to their Subjects None so able so faithful in that work as Christ. All thou gavest me I have kept and none is Lost. Joh. 17.12 Fourthly Another priviledge of Christs Subjects is a merciful and tender bearing of their burdens and infirmities They have a meek and patient King Tell the daughter of Syon thy King cometh meek and lowly Matth. 21.5 Matth. 11.29 Take my yoak and learn of me for I am meek and lowly The meek Moses could not bear the provocations of the people Numb 11.12 but Christ bears them all He carries the Lambs in his arms and gently leads them that be with young Esa. 42.11 He is one that can have compassion upon the ignorant and them that are out of the way Fifthly Again Sweet peace and tranquility of soul is the priviledge of the Subjects of this Kingdom For this Kingdom consisteth in Peace and Ioy in the Holy-Ghost Rom. 14.17 And till souls come under his Scepter they shall never find peace Come unto me ye that are weary I will give you rest Yet do not mistake I say not they have all actual peace at all times No they often break that peace by sin but they have the root of peace the ground-work and cause of peace If they have not peace yet they have that which is convertible into peace at any time They also are in a state of peace Rom. 5.11 being justified by faith we have peace with God This is feast every day A mercy which they only can duly value that are in the depths of trouble for sin Sixthly Lastly Everlasting Salvation is the priviledge of all over whom Christ raigns Prince and Saviour are joyned together Acts 5.31 He that can say thou shalt guide me with thy counsels may add what follows and afterwards bring me to glory Psal. 73.24 Indeed the Kingdom of grace doth but breed up children for the Kingdom of glory And to speak as the thing is it 's the Kingdom of Heaven here begun The difference betwixt them is not specifical but only gradual and therefore this as well as that bears the name of the Kingdom of Heaven The King is the same and the Subjects the same The Subjects of this are shortly to be translated to that Kingdom Thus I have named and indeed but named some few of those inestimable priviledges of Christs Subjects We next apply it Inference 1. How great is their sin and misery who continue in bondage to sin and Satan and refuse the Government of Christ Who had rather sit under the shadow of that bramble than under the sweet and powerful government of Christ. Satan writes his Laws in the blood of his Subjects grinds them with cruel oppression Wears them out with bondage to divers Lusts and rewards their service with everlasting misery And yet how few are weary of it and willing to come over to Christ Behold said one of Christs Heralds Christ is in the field sent of God to recover his right and your liberty His Royal Standard is pitcht in the Gospel and proclamation made that if any poor sinners weary of the Devils Government and laden with the miserable chains of his Spiritual bondage so as these Irons of his sins enter into his very soul to afflict it with the sense of them shall thus come and repair to Christ he shall have protection from Gods Justice the Devils wrath and sins dominion in a word he shall have rest and that glorious Isai. 11.10 And yet how few stir a foot towards Christ but are willing to have their ears boared and be perpetual slaves to that cruel Tyrant O when will sinners be weary of their bondage and sigh after deliverance If any such poor soul shall read these lines let him know and I do proclaim it in the name of my Royal Master and give him the word of a King for it he shall not be rejected by Christ. Ioh. 6.37 Come poor sinners come the Lord Jesus is a merciful King and never did nor will hang up that poor penitent that puts the rope about his own neck and submits to mercy Inference 2. How much doth it concern us to enquire and know whose government we are under and who is King over our Souls Whether Christ
he turn not he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors Psal. 7.12 This laies the blood of every man that perishes in his enmity to Christ at his own door And vindicates the righteousness of God in the severest strokes of wrath upon them This also will be a cutting thought to their hearts eternally I might once have had pardon and I refused it The Gospel-Trumpet sounded a parly Fair and gratious terms were offered but I rejected them Inference 3. Is there mercy with God and forgiveness even for his worst enemies upon their submission how unlike to God then are all implacable spirits Some there are that cannot bring their hearts to forgive an enemy to whom revenge is sweeter than life 1 Sam. 24.16 If a man find his enemy will he let him go This is Hell-fire a fire that never goeth out how little do such poor creatures consider if God should deal by them as they do by others what words could express the misery of their condition It 's a sad sin and a sad sign a character of a wretched state whereever it appears Those that have found mercy should be ready to shew mercy and they that expect mercy themselves should not deny it others This brings us upon the third and last observation viz. DOCT. 3. That to forgive enemies and beg forgiveness for them is the true character and property of the Christian spirit Thus did Christ Father forgive them And thus did Stephen in imitation of Christ. Act. 7.59 60. And they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying Lord Iesus receive my spirit and he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge This suits with the rule of Christ Matth. 5.44 45. But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which dâ—spightfully use you and persecute you That ye may be the children of God your Father which is in Heaven Here I shall first open the nature of this duty and shew you what a forgiving spirit is and then the excellency of it how well it becomes all that call themselves Christians First Let us enquire what this Christian forgiveness is And that the nature of it may the better appear I shall shew you both what it is not and what it is First It consists not in a stoical insensibility of wrongs and injuries God hath not made men as insensible stupid blocks that have no sence or feeling of what is done to them Nor hath he made a Law inconsistent with their very natures that are to be governed by it But allows us a tender sense of natural evils though he will not allow us to revenge them by moral evils Nay the more deep and tender our resentments of wrongs and injuries are the more excellent is our forgiveness of them so that a forgiving spirit doth not exclude sense of injuries but the sense of injuries graces the forgiveness of them Secondly Christian forgiveness is not a politick concealment of our wrath and revenge because it will be a reproach to discover it or because we want opportunity to vent it This is carnal policy not Christian meekness So far from being the mark of a gratiâ—us spirit that it 's apparently the sign of a vile nature It is not Christianity to repose but depose injuries Thirdly Nor is it that moral vertue for which we are beholding to an easier and better nature and the help of moral rules and documents There are certain vertues attainable without the change of nature which they call Homilitical vertues because they greatly adorn and beautifie nature such as temperance patience justice c. these are of singular use to conserve peace and order in the world And without them as one aptly speaks the world would soon break up and its civil scocieties disband But yet though these are the ornaments of nature they do not argue the change of nature All graces in the exercise of them involve a respect to God And for the being of them they are not by natural acquisition but supernatural infusion Fourthly and Lastly Christian forgiveness is not an â—injurious giving up of our rights and properties to the Lusts of every one that hath a mind to invade them No these we may lawfully defend and preserve and are bound so to do though if we cannot defend them legally we must not avenge our wrongs unchristianly This is not Christian forgiveness But then positively It is a Christian lenity or gentleness of mind not retaining but freely passing by the injuries done to us in obedience to the command of God It is a lenity or gentleness of mind The grace of God demulces the angry stomach calms the tumultuous passions new-moulds our sowr spirits and makes them benign gentle and easie to be intreated Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness c. This gratious lenity inclines the Christian to pass by injuries so to pass them by as neither to retain them revengefully in the mind or requite them when we have opportunity with the hand Yea and that freely not by constraint because we cannot avenge our selves but willingly We abhor to do it when we can So that as a carnal heart thinks revenge its glory the gratious heart is content that forgiveness should be his glory I will be even with him saith nature I will be above him saith grace It is his glory to pass over transgression Prov. 19.11 And this it doth in obedience to the command of God their own nature inclines them another way The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy but he giveth more grace James 4.5 It lusteth to revenge but the fear of God represses those motions Such considerations as these God hath forbidden me Yea and God hath forgiven me as well as forbidden me prevail upon him when nature urges to revenge the wrong Be kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.32 This is forgiveness in a Christian sense Secondly And that this is excellent and singularly becoming the profession of Christ is evident In as much as This speaks your Religion excellent that can mould your hearts into that heavenly frame to which they are so averse yea contrarily disposed by nature It is the glory of Pagan morality that it can abscondere vitia hide and cover mens lusts and passions But the glory of Christianity lies in this that it can abscindâ—re vitia not hide but destroy and really mortifie the Lusts of nature Would Christians but live up to the excellent principles of their Religion Christianity shall be no more out-vied by heathenish morality The greatest Christian shall be no more challenged to imitate Socrates if he can We
you out of the temptation If you attend his voice you may hear such a voice within you as that Ier. 44.4 Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate What mighty strivings were there in the heart of Spira as himself relates He heard as it were a voice within him saying Do not write Spira do not write To this purpose is that promise Isa. 30.20 21. Thine eyes shall behold thy teachers and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying this is the way walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left Here you have a twofold help to holiness the outward teaching of the Word ver 20. and the inward teachings of the Spirit ver 21. He shall say this is the way when ye are turning aside to the right hand or to the left Alluding to a Shepherd saith one who driving his Sheep before him whistles them in when he sees them ready to stray 2. Secondly When ye walk holily and closely with God in your duties the Spirit incourages you to go on by those inward comforts sealings and joys you have from him at such times How often hath he entertained your souls in publick Ordinances in private duties with his hidden Manna with marrow and fastness with incomparable and unspeakable comforts and all this to strengthen you in your way and encourage you to hold on 3. Thirdly When you are indisposed for duties and find your hearts empty and dry he is ready to fill them quicken and raise them so that oftentimes the beginnings and end of your Prayers hearing or meditations are as vastly different as if one man had begun and another ended the duty O then what assistances for a holy life have you Others indeed are bound to resist temptations as well as you but alas having no special assistance from the Spirit what can they do It may be they reason with the Temptation a little while and in their own strength resolve against it but how easie a conquest doth Satan make where no greater opposition is made to him than this Others are bound to hear meditate and pray as well as you else the neglect of these duties would not be their sin but alas what pitiful work do they make of it Being left to the hardness and vanity of their own hearts when you spread your Sails you have a gale but they lie wind-bound heart-bound and can do nothing Spiritually in a way of Duty Fourthly And lastly to mention no more you have a further advantage to this holy life by all the rods of God that are at any time upon you I might shew you in many particulars the advantages this way also but I shall only present these three to your observation at this time First By these you are clogged to prevent your straying and wandering Others may wander even as far as Hell and God will not spend a sanctified rod upon them to reduce or stop them but saith let them alone Hos. 4.17 But if you straggle out of the way of holiness he will clog you with one trouble or another to keep you within bounds 2 Cor. 12.7 Lest I should be lifted up a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet me So David Psal. 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy Word Afflictions are used by God as thorns by husbandmen to stop the gaps and keep you from breaking out of Gods way Hos. 2.6 I will hedge up her way with thorns and build a wall that she shall not find her paths A double alusion First to Cattle that are apt to stray I will hedge up thy way with thorns Secondly to the Sea which is apt to over-flow the Country I will build a wall to prevent inundations Holy Basil was a long time sorely afflicted with an inveterate head-ach he often prayed for the removal of it at last God removed it but in the room of it he was sorely exercised with the motions and temptations of Lust which when he perceived he heartily desired his head-ach again to prevent a worse evil You little know the ends and uses of many of your afflictions Are you exercised with bodily weaknesses it 's a mercy you are so and if these pains and infirmities were removed these clogs taken off you may with Basil wish for them again to prevent worse evils Are you poor why with that poverty God hath clogged your pride Are you reproached with those reproaches God hath clogged your ambition Corruptions are prevented by your afflictions And is not this a marvelous help to holiness of life Secondly By your afflictions your corruptions are not only clogged but purged By these God drys up and consumes that spring of sin that defiles your lives Esa. 27.9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away sin God orders your wants to kill your wantonness And makes your poverty poison to your pride They are Gods Physick to purge ill humours out of your souls When they fall by the sword and by famine and by captivity and by spoil it is to try them and to purge them and to make them white They are both purges and Lavatories to your souls Others have the same afflictions that you have but they do not work on them as on you they are to you as fire for purging and water for cleansing and yet shall not your lives be clean It 's true as one well observes upon that place of Daniel Christ is the only Lavatory and his blood the only fountain to wash away sin But in the virtue and efficacy of that blood sanctified afflictions are cleansers and purgers too A Cross without a Christ never made any man better but with Christ Saints are much the better for the cross Hath God as it were laid you out so many daies and nights a whitening and yet is not the hue of your conversation altred Hath he put you so many times into the furnace and yet is not your dross separated The more afflictions you have been under the more assistance you have had for this life of holiness Thirdly By all your troubles God hath been weaning you from the world the lusts loves and pleasures of it and drawing out your souls to a more excellent life and state than this He makes your sorrows in this life give a lufter to the glory of the next Who ever hath be sure you shall have no rest here and all that you may long more ardently for that to come He often makes you groan being burdened to be cloathed with your house from Heaven 1 Cor. 5.4 And yet will you not be weaned from the lusts customs and evils of it Oh what manner of persons should you be for heavenly and holy conversations You stand upon the higher ground You have as it were the wind and tide with you None are assisted for this life as