how apt are we to regret at providences as if it had no conducency at all to the glory of God or to our good Exod. 5.22 Yea to limit providence to our way and time thus the Israelites tempted God and limited the Holy One Psal. 78.20 41. How often also do we unbelievingly distrust providence as though it could never accomplish what we profess to expect and believe Ezek. 37.11 Our bones are dry our hope is lost we are cut off for our part So Gen. 18.13 14. Isai. 40.27 There are but few Abrahams among believers who against hope believed in hope giving glory to God Rom. 4.20 And it is but too common for good men to repine and fret at providence when their wills lusts or humours are crossed by it This was the great sin of Ionah Brethren these things ought not to be so Did you but seriously consider either the design of providence which is to bring about the gratious designs and purposes of God upon you which were laid before this world was Eph. 1.11 or that it is a lifting up of thy wisdom against his as if thou couldst better order thine affairs if thou hadst the conduct and management of them Or that you have to do herein with a great and dreadful God in whose hands you are as the clay in the Potters hand that may do what he will with you and all that is yours without giving you an account of any of his matters Iob 33.13 Or whether providence hath cast others as good by nature as your selves tumbled them down from the top of health wealth honours and pleasures to the bottom of Hell Or Lastly Did you but consider how often it hath formerly baffled and befool'd your selves Made you retract with shame your rash headlong censures of it and enforced you by the sight of its births and issues to confess your folly and ignorance as Asaph did Psal. 73.22 I say if such considerations as these could but have place with you in your troubles and temptations they would quickly mould your hearts into a better and more quiet frame O that I could but perswade you to resign all to Christ. He is a cunning workman as he he is called Prov. 8.30 and can effect what he pleaseth It 's a good rule de operibus Dei non est judicandum ante quintum actum Let God work out all that he intends have but patience till he hath put the last hand to his work and then find fault with it if you can You have heard of the patience of Iob and have seen the end of the Lord. Iam. 5.11 Inference 3. If Christ be Lord and King over the providential Kingdom and that for the good of his people let none that are Christs henceforth stand in a slavish fear of creatures It 's a good note that Grotius hath upon my text It 's a marvailous consolation saith he that Christ hath so great an Empire and that he governs it for the good of his people as an head consulting the good of the body Our Head and Husband is Lord General of all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth No creature can move hand or tongue without his leave or order The power they have is given them from above Ioh. 19.11 12. The serious consideration of this truth will make the feeblest spirit cease trembling and fall a singing Psal. 47.7 The Lord is King of all the earth sing ye praises with understanding that is as some well paraphase it every one that hath understanding of this comfortable truth Hath he not given you abundant security in many express promises that all shall issue well for you that fear him Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God And Eccles. 8.12 Verily it shall be well with them that fear God even with them that fear before him And suppose he had not yet the very understanding of our relation to such a King should in it self be sufficient security For he is the universal supream absolute meek and merciful victorious and immortal King He sits in glory at the Fathers right hand and to make his seat the easier his enemies are a footstool for him His love to his people is unspeakably tender and fervent He that touches them touches the apple of his eye Zech. And it 's hardly imaginable that Jesus Christ will sit still and suffer his enemies to thrust out his eyes Till this be forgotten the wrath of man is not feared Isai. 51.12 13. He that fears a man that shall die forgets the Lord his Maker he loves you too well to sign any order to your prejudice and without his order none can touch you Inference 4. If the Government of the world be in the hands of Christ then our engaging and entitling of Christ to all our affairs and business is the true and ready way to their success and prosperity if all depend upon his pleasure then sure it 's your wisdom to take him along with you to every action and business It 's no lost time that 's spent in prayer wherein we ask his leave and beg his presence with us And take it for a clear truth that which is not prefaced with prayer will be followed with trouble How easily can Jesus Christ dash all your designs when they are at the very birth and article of execution and break off in a moment all the purposes of your hearts It 's a Proverb among the Papists that Mass and Meat hinder no nan The Turks will pray five times a day how urgent soever their business be Blush you that enterprise your affairs without God I reckon that business as good as done to which we have gotten Christs leave and engaged his presence to accompany us to it Inference 5. Lastly Eye Christ in all the events of providence see his hand in all that befals you whether it be evil or good The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal. 111.2 How much good might we get by observation of the good or evil that befals us throughout our course First In all the evils of trouble and affliction that befal you eye Jesus Christ in it all And set your hearts to the study of these four things in affliction First Study his Soveraignty and Dominion For he creates and forms them They rise not out of the dust nor do they befal you casually But he raises them up and gives them their commission Jer. 18.11 Behold I create evil and devise a device against you He elects the instrument of your trouble He makes the rod as afflictive as he pleaseth He orders the continuance and end of your troubles And they will not cease to be afflictive to you till Christ say leave off it is enough The Centurion wisely considered this when He told him Luk. 7.8 I have souldiers under me and I say to one go and
been long preparing for it but the suddenness and greatness of the change is amazing to our thoughts For a soul to be now here in the body conversing with men living among sensible objects and within a few moments to be with the Lord. This hour on earth the next in the third heavens Now viewing this world and anon standing among an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of the Just made perfect O what a change is this What! but wink and see God! Commend thy soul to Christ and be transferred in the arms of Angels into the invisible world the world of Spirits To live as the Angels of God! To live without eating drinking sleeping To be lifted up from a bed of sickness to a Throne of Glory To leave a sinful troublesom world a sick and pained body and be in a moment perfectly cured and feel thy self perfectly well and free from all troubles and distempers You cannot think what this will be Who can tell what sights what apprehensions what thoughts what frames believing souls have before the bodies they left are removed from the eyes of their dear surviving friends Inference 2. Are believers immediatly with God after their dissolution Where then shall unbelievers be and in what state will they find themselves immediatly after death hath closed their eyes Ah what will the case of them be that go the other way To be pluckt out of house and body from among friends and comforts and thrust into endless miseries into the dark vault of Hell never to see the light of this world any more Never to see a comfortable sight Never to hear a joyful sound Never to know the meaning of rest peace or delight any more O what a change is here To exchange the smiles and honours of men for the frowns and fury of God To be cloathed with flames and drink the pure unmixed wrath of God who was but a few days since cloathed in silks and fill'd with the sweet of the creature how is the state of things altered with thee It was the lamentable cry of poor Adrian when he felt death approaching Oh my poor wandring soul alas whither art thou now going Where must thou lodge this night Thou shalt never jest more never be merry more Your term in your houses and bodies is out and there is another habitation provided for you but 't is a dismal one When a Saint dyes heaven above is as it were moved to receive and entertain him at his coming he is received into everlasting habitations Into the inheritance of the Saints in light When an unbeliever dies we may say of him alluding to Isa. 14.9 Hell from beneath is moved for him to meet him at his coming it stirreth up the dead for him No more sports nor plays no cups of wine nor beds of pleasure The more of these you enjoyed here the more intolerable will this change be to you If Saints are immediately with God others must be immediatly with Satan Inference 3. How little cause have they to fear death who shall be with God so soon after their death Some there are that tremble at the thoughts of death That cannot endure to hear its name mentioned That would rather stoop to any misery here yea to any sin than die because they are afraid of the exchange but you that are interessed in Christ need not do so You can lose nothing by the exchange The words Death Grave and Eternity should have another kind of sound in your ears And make contrary impressions upon your hearts If your earthly Tabernacles cast you out you shall not be found naked You have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And it is but a step out of this into that O what fair sweet and lovely thoughts should you have of that great and last change But what speak I of your fearlesness of death Your Duty lies much higher than that far Inference 4. If Believers are immediatly with God after their dissolution then it 's their Duty to long for their dissolution And cast many a longing look towards their Graves So did Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better The advantages of this exchange are unspeakable You have Gold for Brass Wine for Water Substance for shadows solid Glory for very Vanity O if the dust of this earth were but once blown out of your eyes that you might see the divine glory how weary would you be to live How willing to die But then be sure your title to heaven be sound and good Leave not so great a concernment to the last For though it is confessed God may do that in an hour that never was done all your days yet it is not common Which brings us to our Third and Last observation DOCT. 3. That God may though he seldom doth prepare men for glory immediately before their dissolution by death There is one parable and no more that speaks of some that were called at the last hour Matth. 20.9 10. And there is this one instance in the text and no more that gives us an account of a person so called We acknowledge God may do it his grace is his own He may dispense it how and where he pleaseth We must always salve divine prerogative Who shall fix bonds or put limits to free grace but God himself whose it is If he do not ordinarily shew such mercies to dying sinners as indeed it doth not yet it is not because he cannot but because he will not Not because their hearts are so hardned by long custom in sin that his grace cannot break them but because he most justly withholds that grace from them When blessed Mr. Bilney the martyr heard a Minister preaching thus O thou old sinner that hast lain these fifty years rotting in thy sin dost thou think now to be saved That the blood of Christ shall save thee O said Mr. Bilney what preaching of Christ is this If I had heard no other preaching than this what had become of me No no old sinners or young sinners great or small sinners are not to be beaten off from Christ but encouraged to repentance and faith For who knows but the bowels of mercy may yearn at last upon one that hath all along rejected it This thief was as unlikely ever to have received mercy but a few hours before he died as any person in the world could be But surely this is no encouragement to neglect the present seasons of mercy because God may shew mercy hereafter To neglect the ordinary because God sometimes manifests his grace in ways extraordinary Many I know have hardened themselves in ways of sin by this example of mercy But what God did at this time for this man cannot be expected to be done ordinarily for us And the reasons thereof are Reason 1. First Because God hath vouchsafed us the ordinary and standing means of
the High-Priests appearing in the Holy of Holies which was the figure of Heaven presenting to the Lord the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel which were on his breast and shoulders Exod. 28.9 12 28 29. to which the Church is supposed to allude in that request Cant. 8.6 set me as a seal upon thine heart as a seal upon thine arm Now the very sight of Christ our High-Priest in Heaven prevails exceedingly with God and â—urns away his displeasure from us As when God looks upon the Rainbow which is the sign of the Covenant he remembers the earth in mercy So when he looks on Christ his heart must needs be towards us upon his account and therefore in Rev. 4.3 Christ is compared to a Rainbow encompassing the Throne Secondly Christ performs his intercession-work in Heaven not by a naked appearing in the presence of God only but also by presenting his blood and all his sufferings to God as a moving plea on our account Whether he make any proper oral intercession there as he did on earth is not so clear some incline to it and think it 's countenanced by Zech. 1.12 13. where Christ our intercessor presents a proper vocal request to the Father in the behalf of his people Saying O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Ierusalem and on the Cities of Iudah against whom thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years and the Lord answered him with good and comfortable words And so Act. 2.23 As soon as he came to Heaven he is said and that as the first fruits of his Intercession to obtain the promise of the Holy-Ghost But sure I am an Interceding voice is by an usual prosopopeia attributed to his blood which in Heb. 12.24 is said to speak better things than the blood of Abel Now Abels blood and so Christs do cry unto God as the hire of the Labourers unjustly detained or the whole creation which is in bondage through our sins are said to cry and groan in the ears of the Lord. Iam. 5.4 Rom. 8.22 not vocally but efficatiously A rare illustration of this Efficatious Intercession of Christ in Heaven we have in that famous story of Amintas who appeared as an Advocate for his brother Aechylus who was strongly accused and very likely to be condemned to die Now Amintas having performed great services and merited highly of the Common-Wealth in whose service one of his hands was cut off in the Field he comes into the Court on his brothers behalf and said nothing but only lifted up his arm and shewed them cubitum sine manu an arm without an hand which so moved them without a word speaking that they freed his brother immediately And thus if you look into Revel 5.6 you shall see in what posture Christ is represented visionally there as standing between God and us And I beheld and loe in the midst of the Throne and four beasts and in the midst of the Elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain i. â— bearing in his glorified body the marks of his death and sacrifice Those wounds he received for our sins on earth are as it were still fresh bleeding in Heaven A moving and prevailing argument it is with the Father to give out the mercies he pleads for Thirdly and Lastly He presents the prayers of his Saints to God with his merits and desires that they may for his sake be granted He causes a cloud of incense to ascend before God with them Revel 8.3 All these were excellently Typed out by the going in of the High-Priest before the Lord with the names of the Children of Israel on his breast with the blood of the Sacrifice and his hands full of incense as the Apostle explains them in Heb. 7. and Heb. 9. Thirdly And that this Intercession of Christ is most potent successful and prevalant with God will be evinced both from the qualifications of this our Advocate from his great interest in the Father from the nature of the pleas he useth with God and from the relation and interest believers have both in the Father to whom and the Son by whom this intercession is made First our Intercessor in the Heavens is every way able and fit for the work he is ingaged in there What ever is desirable in an Advocate is in him eminently It is necessary that he who undertakes to plead the cause of another especially if it be weighty and intricate should be wise faithful tender-hearted and one that concerns himself in the success of his business Our Advocate Christ wants no wisdom to manage his work He is the wisdom of God yea only wise Jude 25. There 's much folly in the best of our duties we know not how to press an argument home with God but Christ hath the art of it Our business is in a wise hand He is no less faithful than wise therefore he is called a faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 2.17 He assures us we may safely trust our concerns with him Joh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you Q. D. do you think I will deceive you Men may cheat you but I will not your own hearts may and daily do deceive you but so will not I. And for tender heartedness and sensible resentments of our conditions there is none like him Heb. 4.15 For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin We have not one that cannot sympathize so it is in the Greek and on purpose that he might be the better able to sympathize with us he came as near to our conditions as the holiness of his nature could permit He suffered himself to be in all points tempted like as we are sin only excepted And then for his concernment and interest in the success of his suit he not only reckons but hath really made it his own interest Yea more his own than it is ours For now by reason of the mystical union all our wants and troubles are his Eph. 1.23 Yea his own glory and compleatness as mediator is deeply interessed in it And therefore we need not doubt but he will use all care and diligence in that work If you say so he may and yet not speed for all that for it depends on the fathers grant True but then Secondly Consider the great interest he hath in the Father with whom he so intercedes Christ is his dear Son Col. 1.13 the beloved of his soul Eph. 1.6 betwixt him and the Father with whom he intercedes there is an unity not only of nature but will and so he always hears him Ioh. 11.42 Yea and he said to this his dear Son when he came first to Heaven Ask of me and I will give thee Psal. 2.8 moreover Thirdly He must needs speed in his suit if you
Father As if Christ did not present our pleas and arguments as well as simple desires to God As if the choisest part of our prayers must be kept back because Christ presents our prayers to God No no Christs pleading is one thing ours another His and ours are not opposed but subordinated His pleading doth not destroy but makes ours successful God calls us to plead with him Isai. 1.18 come now let us reason together God as one observes reasoneth with us by his word and providences outwardly and by the motions of his Spirit inwardly but we reason with him by framing through the help of his Spirit certain holy arguments grounded upon allowed principles drawn from his nature name word or works And it is condemned as a very sinful defect in Professors that they did not plead the Churches cause with God Jer. 30.13 There is none to plead thy cause that thou maist be bound up What was Iacobs wrestling with the Angel but his holy pleading and importunity with God And how well it pleased God let the event speak As a Prince he prevailed and had power with God On which instance a Worthy thus glosseth Let God frown smite or wound Iacob is at a point a blessing he came for and a blessing he will have I will not let thee go saith he unless thou bless me His limbs his life might go but there is no going for Christ without a pawn without a blessing This is the man now what is his speed the Lord admires him and honours him to all generations What is thy name saith he q. d. I never met with such a man titles of honour are not worthy of thee Thou shalt be called not Iacob a shepherd with men but Iacob a Prince with God Nazianzen said of his sister Gorgonia that she was modestly impudent with God There was no putting her off with a denial The Lord on this account hath honoured his Saints with the title of his Recorders men fit to plead with him as that word mazkir signifies Isai. 62.6 Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence give him no rest it notes the office of him that recorded all the memorable matters of the King and used to suggest seasonable Items and Memorandums of things to be done By these holy pleadings the King is held in his Galleries as it is Cant. 7.5 I know we are not heard either for our much speaking or our excellent speaking 't is Christs pleading in Heaven that makes our pleading on earth available but yet surely when the spirit of the Lord shall suggest proper arguments in prayer and help the humble suppliant to press them home believingly and affectionately when he helps us to weep and plead to groan and plead God is greatly delighted in such prayers Thou saidst I will surely do the good Said Iacob Gen. 32.12 It 's thine own free promise I did not go on mine own head but thou bidst me go and encouragest me with this promise O this is taking with God When by the spirit of Adoption we can come to God crying Abba Father Father hear forgive pity and help me am I not thy Child thy Son or Daughter to whom may a Child be bold to go with whom may a Child have hope to speed if not with his Father Father hear me The Fathers of our flesh are full of bowels and pity their children and know how to give good things to them when they ask them when they ask bread or cloaths will they deny them And is not the Father of Spirits more full of bowels more full of pity Father hear me This is that kind of prayer which is melody in the ears of God Corollary 3. What an excellent pattern is here for all that have the charge and government of others committed to them whether Magistrates Ministers or Parents to teach them how to acquit themselves towards their relations when they come to die Look upon dying Jesus see how his care and love to his people flamed out when the time of his departure was at hand Surely as we are bound to remember our Relations every day and to lay up a stock of prayers for them in the time of our health so it becomes us to imitate Christ in our earnestness with God for them when we die Though we die our prayers die not with us They out-live us and those we leave behind us in the world may reap the benefit of them when we are turned to dust For my own part I must profess before the world that I have a high value for this mercy And do from the bottom of my heart bless the Lord who gave me a Religious and tender Father who often poured out his soul to God for me He was one that was inwardly acquainted with God and being full of bowels to his children often carried them before the Lord prayed and pleaded with God for them wept and made supplication for them This stock of prayers and blessings left by him before the Lord I cannot but esteem above the fairest inheritance on earth O it is no small mercy to have thousands of fervent prayers lying before the Lord filed up in Heaven for us And oh that we would all be faithful to this duty Surely our love especially to the souls of our Relations should not grow cold when our breath doth O that we would remember this duty in our lives and if God give opportunity and ability fully discharge it when we die considering as Christ did we shall be no more but they are in this world In the midst of a defiled tempting troublesom world It 's the last office of Love that ever we shall do for them After a little while we shall be no longer sensible how it is with them for as the Church speaks Isai. 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not what Temptations and troubles may befal them we do not know O imitate Christ your pattern Corollary 4. To Conclude Hence ye may see what an high esteem and pretious value Christ hath of Believers this was the treasure which he could not be quiet he could not die till he had secured it in a safe hand I come unto thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me Surely Believers are dear to Jesus Christ. And good reason for he hath paid dear for them Let his dying language this last farewel speak for him how he prized them The Lords portion is his people Jacob is the Lott of his inheritance Deut. 32.9 They are a peculiar treasure to him above all the people of the earth Exod. 19.5 What is much upon our hearts when we die is dear to us indeed O how pretious how dear should Jesus Christ be to us were we first and last upon his heart did he mind us did he pray for us did he so wrestle with God about us when the sorrows
savingly Inference 2. Have the believing meditations of Christ and his sufferings such heart melting influences the surely then proper order of raising the affections is to begin at the exercise of faith It grieves me to see how many poor Christians tug at their own dead hearts endeavouring to raise and affect them but cannot They complain and strive strive and complain pump and draw but no love to the Lord comes no brokenness of heart comes They go to this ordinance and that to one duty and another hoping that now the Lord will affect it and fill the sails but come back disappointed and ashamed like the troops of Tema Poor Christian hear me one word possibly it may do thy business and stand thee in more stead than all the methods thou hast yet used If thou wouldst indeed get an heart Evangelically melted for sin and broken with the kindly sense of the grace and love of Christ thy way is not to force thy affections nor to vex thy self and go about complaining of an hard heart but set thy self to believe reallize apply infer and compare by faith as you have been directed and see what this will do They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn This is the true way and proper method to raise the heart and break it Inference 3. Is this the way to get a truly broken heart then let those that have attained brokenness of heart this way bless the Lord whilst they live for so choice a mercy And that upon a double account First For as much as an heart so affected and melted is not attainable by any natural or unrenewed person If they would give all they have in the world it cannot purchase one such tear or groan over Christ. Mark what characters of special grace it bears in the description that 's made of it in that forementioned place Zech. 12.10 Such a frame as this is not born with us or to be acquired by us for it 's there said to be poured out by the Lord upon us I will pour on them c. There 's no hypocrisie or dissimulation in these mournings for they are compared to the mourning of a man for his only Son And sure the hearts of parents are not untouched when they behold such sights Nature is not the principle of it but faith For it 's there said they shall look on me i. e. believe and mourn Self is not the end and center of these sorrows It is not so much for damning our selves as for piercing Christ they shall look on me whom they have pierced and shall mourn so that this is sorrow after God and not a flash of nature as was discoursed from the former point And therefore you have cause to bless the Lord whilst you live for such a special mercy as this is And Secondly As it 's the right so it is the choisest and most pretious gift that can be given you for it 's rancked among the prime mercies of the new Covenant Ezek. 36.26 This shall be the Covenant A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh What wouldst thou have given sometimes for such an heart as now thou hast though it be not yet as thou wouldst have it And however you value and esteem it God himself sets no common value on it for mark what he â—aith of it Psal. 51.17 the sacrifices of God are a broken heart a broken and a contrite spirit O God thou wilt not despise i. e. God is more delighted with such an heart than all the sacrifices in the world One groan one tear flowing from faith and the spirit of Adoption is more to him than the Cattle upon a thousand hills And to the same sense he speaks again Isai. 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build to me and where is the place of my rest but to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word q. d. all the magnificent Temples and gloririous structures in the world give me no pleasure in comparison of such a broken heart as this Oh then for ever bless the Lord that hath done that for you which none else could do And what he hath done but for few besides you The TWENTY SIXTH SERMON ACT. II. XXIII Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain HAving considered in order the preparative acts for the death of Christ both on his own part and on his enemies part we now come to consider the death of Christ it self which was the principal part of his humiliation and the chief pillar of our consolation Here we shall in order consider First The kind and nature of the death he died Secondly The manner in which he bare it viz. patiently solitary and instructively droping divers holy and instructive lessons upon all that were about him in his seven last words upon the Cross. Thirdly The funeral solemnities at his burial Fourthly and Lastly The weighty ends and great designs of his death In all which particulars as we proceed to discuss and open them you will have an account of the deep abasement and humiliation of the Son of God In this text we have an account of the kind and nature of that death which Christ died as also of the causes of it both principal and instrumental First The kind and nature of the death Christ died which is here described more generally as a violent death Ye have slain him and more particularly as a most ignominious cursed dishonorable death ye have crucified him Secondly The causes of it are here likewise expressed and that both principal and instrumental The principal cause permitting ordering and disposing all things about it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God There was not an action or circumstance but came under this most wise and holy counsel and determination of God The Instruments effecting it were their wicked hands This foreknowledge and counsel of God as it did no way necessitate or enforce them to it so neither doth it excuse their fact from the least aggravation of its sinfulness It did no more compel or force their wicked hands to do what they did than the Mariners hoising up his sails to take the wind to serve his design compels the wind And it cannot excuse their action from one circumstance of sin because Gods end and manner of acting was one thing their end and manner of acting another His most pure and holy theirs most malitious and daringly wicked Idem quod duo faciunt non est idem To this purpose a grave Divine will expresses it In respect of God
full Satisfaction First The Matter or Substance of the Promise made by Christ viz that he shall be with him in Praradise By Paradise he means Heaven it self which is here shadowed to us by a place of delight and pleasure This is the receptacle of gratious souls when separated from their bodies And that Paradise signifies Heaven it self and not a third place as some of the Fathers fondly imagined is evident from 2 Cor. 12.2 4. where the Apostle calls the same place by the names of the third Heaven and Paradise This is the place of blessedness designed for the people of God so you find Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God i. e. to have the fullest and most intimate communion with Jesus Christ in Heaven And this is the substance of Christs promise to the Thief Thou i. e. thou in spirit or thou in thy noblest part thy soul which here bears the name of the whole person thou shalt be with me in Paradise Secondly The Person to whom Christ makes this excellent and glorious promise It was to one that had lived lewdly and profanely a very vile and wretched man in all the former part of his time and for his wickedness now justly under condemnation Yea to one that had reviled Christ after that sentence was executed on him However now at last the Lord gave him a penitent believing heart Now almost at last gasp he is soundly in an extraordinary way converted and being converted he owns and professes Christ amidst all the shame and reproach of his death Vindicates his innocency and humbly supplicates for mercy Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Thirdly The set time for the performance of this gratious Promise to him To day this very day shalt thou be with me in glory Not after the resurrection but immediately from the time of thy dissolution thou shalt enjoy blessedness And here I cannot but detect the cheat of those that deny an immediate state of glory to believers after death Who to the end this Scripture might not stand in full opposition to their as uncomfortable as unsound opinion loose the whole frame of it by drawing one pin yea by transposing but a comma putting it at the word day which should be at the word thee and so reading it thus verily I say unto thee to day referring the word day to the time that Christ made the promise and not to the time of its performance But if such a liberty as this be yielded what may not men make the Scriptures speak There can be no doubt but Christ in this expression fixes the time for his happiness To day shalt thou be with me Fourthly and Lastly You have here the Confirmation and Seal of this most comfortable Promise to him with Christs solemn asseveration verily I say unto thee Higher security cannot be given I that am able to perform what I promise and have not out promised my self for Heaven and the glory thereof are mine I that am faithful and true to my promises and never crackt or strained my credit with any I say it I solemnly confirm it verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou with me in Paradise Hence we have three plain obvious truths for our instruction and consolation Doct. 1. That there is a future eternal state into which souls pass at death Doct. 2. That all Believers are at their death immediatly received into a state of glory and eternal happiness Doct. 3. That God may though he seldom doth prepare men for this glory immediately before their dissolution by death These are the useful truths resulting from this remarkable word of Christ to the penitent Thief We will consider and inprove them in the order proposed DOCT. 1. That there is a future eternal state into which souls pass at death This is a principal foundation-stone to the hopes and happiness of souls And seeing our hopes must needs be as their foundation and ground work is I shall briefly establish this truth by these five Arguments The beeing of a God evinces it the Scriptures of truth plainly reveal it the Consciences of all men have resentments of it the incarnation and death of Christ is but a vanity without it And the immortality of humane souls plainly discovers it Arg. 1. The being of a God undeniably evinces a future state for humane souls after this life For if there be a God who rules the world which he hath made he must rule it by rewards and punishments equally and righteously distributed to good and bad Putting a difference betwixt the obedient and disobedient The Righteous and the wicked To make a species of creatures capable of moral government and not to rule them at all is to make them in vain and inconsistent with his glory who is the last end of all things To rule them but not suitably to their natures consists not with that infinite wisdom from which their beings proceeded and by which their workings are ruled and ordered To rule them in a way suitable to their natures viz. by rewards and punishments and not to perform or execute them at all is utterly incongruous with the veracity and truth of him that cannot lie This were to impose the greatest cheat in the world upon men and can never proceed from the holy and true God So then as he hath made a rational sort of creatures capable of moral government by rewards and punishments so he rules them in that way which is suitable to their natures promising it shall be well with the righteous and ill with wicked These promises and threatnings can be no cheat meerly intended to scare and fright where there is no danger or encourage where there is no real benefit but what he promises or threatens must be accomplished and every word of God take place and be fulfilled But it 's evident that no such distinction is made by the providence of God at least ordinarily and generally in this life but all things come alike to all and as with the righteous so with the wicked Yea here it goes ill with them that fear God they are oppressed They receive their evil things and wicked men their good Therefore we conclude the righteous Judge of the whole earth will in another world recompence to every one according as his work shall be Arg. 2. Secondly And as the very being of God evinces it so the Scriptures of truth plainly reveal it These Scriptures are the Pandect or System of the Laws for the goverment of men which the wise and holy Ruler of the world hath enacted and ordained for that purpose And in them we find promises made to the Righteous of a full reward for all their obedience patience and sufferings in the next life or coming world And threatnings made against the wicked of eternal wrath and anguish as the Just recompence of their sin
men are as it were asleep now in their bodies at Death they awake and find themselves in the world of realities Let this teach you both how to carry your selves towards dying persons when you visit them and to make every day some provision for that hour your selves Be serious be plain be faithful with others that are stepping into Eternity be so with your own souls every day O remember what a long word what an amazing thing Eternity is Especially considering DOCT. 2. That all believers are at their death immediately received into a State of glory and eternal happiness This day shalt thou be with me This the Atheist denies he thinks he shall die and therefore resolves to live as the Beasts that perish Beryllus and some others after him taught that there was indeed a â—uture state of happiness and misery for souls but that they pass not into it immediatly upon death and separation from the body but shall sleep till the Resurrection and then awake and enter into it But is not that soul asleep or worse that dreams of a sleeping soul till the Resurrection Are souls so wounded and prejudiced by their separation from the body that they cannot subsist or act separate from it Or have they found any such conceit in the Scriptures Not at all The Scriptures take notice of no such interval but plainly enough denies it 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Mark it no sooner parted from the body but present with the Lord. So Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better If his soul was to sleep till the Resurrection how was it far better to be dissolved than to live Sure Pauls state in the body had-been far better than his state after death if this were so for here he enjoyed much sweet communion with God by Faith but then he should enjoy nothing To confirm this dream they urge Ioh 14.3 If I go my way I will come again and receive you to my self As if the time of Christs receiving his people to himself should not come until his second coming at the end of the world But though he will then collect all believers into one body and present them solemnly to his Father yet that hinders not but he may as indeed he doth receive every particular believing soul to himself at death by the Ministry of Angels And if not how is it that when Christ comes to judgement he is attended with ten thousands of his Saints that shall follow him when he comes from heaven Iude 14. you see then the Scriptures put no interval betwixt the dissolution of a Saint and his glorification It speaks of the Saints that are dead as already with the Lord. And the wicked that are dead as already in Hell calling them Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 20. assuring us that Iudas went presently to his own place Acts 1.25 and to that sence is the Parable of Dives and Lazarus Luk. 16.22 But let us weigh these four things more particularly for our full satisfaction in this point Arg. 1. First Why should the happiness of believers be deferred since they are immediatly capable of enjoying it assoon as separated from the body Alas the soul is so far from being assisted by the body as it is now for the enjoyment of God that it 's rather clog'd and hindred by it so speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. our bodies prejudice our souls obstruct and hinder the fulness and freedom of their communion When we part from the body we go home to the Lord. Then the soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Cage or Snare Here I am prevented by an excellent Pen which hath judiciously opened this point To whose excellent observations I only add this that if the intanglements snares and prejudices of the soul are so great and many in its embodied estate that it cannot so freely dilate it self and take in the comforts of God by communion with him then surely the laying aside of that clog or the freeing of the soul from that burden can be no bar to its greater happiness which it enjoys in its separated state Arg. 2. Secondly Why should the happiness and glory of the soul be deferred unless God had some farther preparative work to do upon it before it be fit to be admitted into glory But surely there is no such work wrought upon it after its separation by death All that is done of that kind is done here When the compositum is dissolved all means duties and ordinances are ceased The working day is then ended and night come when no man can work Ioh. 9.3 To that purpose are those words of Solomon Eccles. 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor devise in the Grave whither thou goest So that our glorification is not deferred in order to our fuller preparation for glory If we are not fit when we die we can never be fit All is done upon us that ever was intended to be done For they are called Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of the Just made perfect Arg. 3. Thirdly Again why should our Salvation slumber when the damnation of the wicked doth not slumber God defers not their misery and surely he will not defer our glory If he be quick with his enemies he will not be slow and dilatory with his friends It cannot be imagined but he is as much inclined to acts of favour to his Children as to acts of Justice to his enemies these are presently damned Iud. 7. Acts 1.25 1 Pet. 3.19 20. and what reason why believers all believers as well as this in the Text should not be that very day in which they die with Christ in Glory Arg. 4. Fourthly And lastly how do such delays consist with Christs ardent desires to have his people with him where he is And with the vehement longings of their souls to be with Christ You may see those reflected flames of Love and desire of mutual enjoyment betwixt the Bridegroom and his Spouse in Revel 22.17 20. Delays make their hearts sick The expectation and Faith in which the Saints die is to be satisfied then and surely God will not deceive them I deny not but their glory will be more compleat when the body their absent friend is reunited and made to share with them in their happiness Yet that hinders not but mean while the soul may enjoy its glory whilst the body takes its rest and sleeps in the Dust. Inference 1. Are believers immediatly with God after their dissolution then how surprizingly glorious will Heaven be to believers Not that they are in it before they think of it or are fitted for it no they have spent many thoughts upon it before and
triumphant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 song of deliverance 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Deâ—truction Our Graves would not be so sweet and comfortable to us when we come to lie down in them if Jesus had not layen there before us and for us Death is a Dragon the Grave its Den a place of dread and terror but Christs goes into its Den there grapples with it and for ever overcomes it Disarms it of all its terror and not only makes it cease to be enemical but to become exceeding beneficial to the Saints A bed of rest and a perfumed bed They do but go into Christs bed where he lay before them For these ends he must be buried Secondly Next let us inquire what manner of funeral Christ had And if we intently observe it we shall find many remarkable properties in it First We shall find it to be a very obscure and private funeral Here was no external pomp or gallantry Christ affected it not in his life and it was no way suitable to the ends and manner of his death Humiliation was designed in his death And state is inconsistent with such an end Besides he dyed upon the Tree and persons so dying don 't use to have much ceremony and state at their funerals Three things shew it to be a very humble and obscure funeral as to what concerned outward glory with which the great ones of the earth are usually interred For First The dead body of the Lord was not brought from his own house as other mens commonly are but from the Tree They beg'd it of his Judge As who should say go bring the Corps from Tyburn Had they not obtained this favour from Pilate it must have been buried in Golgotha It had been tumbled into a pit digged under the Cross. Secondly As it was first beg'd then buried so it was attended with a very poor train A few sorrowful women followed the Bier Other men are accompanied to their Graves by their Relations and Friends The Disciples were all scattered from him Affraid to owne him dying and dead Thirdly And these few that were resolved to give him a funeral are forced by reason of the straights of time to do it in shuffling haste Time was short they take the next sepulcher they can get and hurry him away that evening into it For the preparation for the Passover was at hand This was the obscure â—uneral which the body of the Lord had Thus was the Prince of the Kings of the earth who hath the Keys of Death and Hell laid into his Grave Secondly Yet though men could bestow little honour upon it the heavens bestowed several marks of honour upon it Adorn'd it with divers Miracles which wiped off the reproach of his deaâ—h from him These Miracles were antecedent to his interment or concomitants of it First There was that extraordinary and preternatural Eclipse of the Sun Such an Eclipse as was never seen since it first shone in heaven The Sun fainted at the sight of such a ruful spectacle and cloathed the whole heaven in black The sight of this caused a great Philosopher who was then far from the place where this unparallel'd Tragedy was acting to cry out upon the sight of it either the God of nature now suffers or the frame of the world is now dissolved The same Dionysius writing to Apollophanes a Philosopher who would not embrace the Christian Faith thus goes about to convince him What thinkest thou saith he of the Eclipse when Christ was Crucified Were we not both of us then at Heliopolis and standing in the same place did we not see the Moon in a new manner following the Sun and not in the time of conjunction but from the ninth hour until the evening by a reason unknown in nature directly opposite to the Sun Didst thou not then being greatly terrified say unto me O my Dionysius what strange commutations of the heavenly bodies are these Such a preternatural Eclipse is remembred in no other History For it was not in time of conjunction but opposition the Moon being then at full From the sixth to the ninth hour the Sun and Moon were together in the midst of heaven but in the evening she appeared in the East her own place opposite to the Sun And then miraculously returning from East to West did not pass by the Sun and set in the West before it but kept it company for the space of three hours and then returned to the East again And whereas in all other natural Eclipses the Eclipse alwaies begins on the western part of the body of the Sun and that part is also first cleared it was quite contrary in this for though the Moon were opposite to the Sun and distant from it the whole breadth of heaven yet with a miraculous swiftness it overtook the Sun and darkned first the Eastern part of it and soon prevailed over its whole body Which caused darkness over all the the Land that is say some over the whole Earth or as others over the whole Land of Iewry Or as others over the whole Horizon and all places of the same altitude and latitude Which is most probable Secondly And as Christs funeral was adorned with such a miraculous Eclipse which put the heavens and earth into a mourning so the rocks did rend the vail of the Temple rent in twain from top to bottom The graves opened and the dead bodies of many Saints arose and went into the holy City and were seen of many The rending of the Rocks was a sign of Gods fierce indignation Nahum 1.6 And a discovery of the greatness of his power shewing them what they deserved and what he could do to them that had committed this horrid fact though he rather chose at this time to shew the dreadful effects of it upon inanimate Rocks than Rocky hearted sinners But especially it served to convince the world that it was none other but the Son of God that dyed Which was farther manifested by these concomitant Miracles As for the rending in twain of the vail It was a notable Miracle plainly shewing that all ceremonies were now accomplished and abolished No more vails now As also that believers have now most free access into heaven At that very instant when the vail rent the High Priest was officiating in the most holy place and the vail which hid him from the people being rent they might freely see him about his work in the holy of holies A lively Emblem of our High Priest whom now we see by faith in the heavens there performing his intercession work for us The opening of the Graves plainly shew'd the design and end of Christs going into it That it might not have dominion over the bodies of the Saints but being vanquisht and destroyed by Christ le ts go all that are his whom he ransomed from the Grave as a prey out of its paws A Specimen whereof was given in
another body to be raised instead of this it would not be a Resurrection but a Creation for non Resurrectio dici poterit ubi non resurgit quod cecidit That can't be call'd a Resurrection where one thing falls and another thing rises as Gregory long since pertinently observed Secondly His body was raised not by a word of power from the Father but by his own spirit So will ours Indeed the power of God shall go forth to unburrough sinners and fetch them forcibly out of their Graves but the Resurrection of the Saints is to be effected another way as I opened but now to you Even by his spirit which now dwelleth in them That very spirit of Christ which effected their spiritual Resurrection from sin shall effect their corporal Resurrection also from the Grave Thirdly His body was raised first he had in this as well as in other things the preheminence so shall the Saints in respect of the wicked have the preheminence in the Resurrection 1 Thes. 4.16 The dead in Christ shall rise first They are to attend the Lord at his coming and will be knockt up â—ooner than the rest of the world to attend on that service As the Sheriff with his men go forâ—h to meet the Judge before the Jaylor brings forth his prisoner Fourthly Christs body was marvelously improved by the Resurrection and so will ours It fell in weakness but was raised in power no more capable of sorrows pains and dishonours In like manner our bodies are sown in weakness but raised in strength sown in dishonour raised in glory Sown natural bodies raised spiritural bodies as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15.43 44. Spiritual bodies not properly but Analogically No distempers hang about glorified bodies nor are they thence forth subject to any of those natural necessities to which they are now tyed There are no flaws defects or deformities in the children of the Resurrection What members are now defective or deformed will then be restored to their perfect being and beauty for if the universal death of all parts be rescinded by the Resurrection how much more the partial Death of any single member As Turtullian speaks and from thence forth they are free from the Law of mortality they can die no more Luk. 20 35 36. Thus shall they be improved by their Resurrection Fifthly To conclude Christs body was raised from the Dead to be glorified and crowned with honour Oh it was a joyful day to him and so will the Resurrection of the Saints be to them the day of the gladness of their hearts It will be said to them in that morning awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust as Isa. 26.19 O how comfortable will be the meeting betwixt the glorified soul and its new raised body Much more comfortable than that of Iacobs and Iosephs after twenty years absence Gen. 46.29 Or that of Davids with Jonathan when he came out of the Cave to him 1 Sam. 20.41 Or that of the Father of the prodigal with his Son who was dead and is alive was lost and is found As he speaks Luk. 15. And there are three things will make it so First The gratifications of the Soul by the satisfaction of its natural appetite of union with its own body For even glorified souls in heaven have such an appetition and desire of re-union Indeed the Angels who are pure spirits as they never hâ—d union with so they have no inclination to matter but souls are otherwise tempered and disposed We are all sensible of its affection to the body now in its compounded state we feel the tender care it hath for the body the sympathy with it and loathness to be separated from it It 's said 1 Cor. 5.6 To be at home in the body And had not God implanted such an inclination to this its Tabernacle in it it would not have paid that due respect it ows the body while it inhabited in it nor have regarded what became of it when it left it This inclination remains still with it in heaven it reckons not it self compleatly happy till its old dear Companion and partner be with it and to that sence some understand those words Iob 14.14 All the daies of my appointed time i. e. of the time appointed â—or my body to remain in the Grave will I wait till my change viz. that which will be made by the Resurrection come for it 's manifest enough he speaks there of the Resurrection Now when this its inclination to its own body its longings and hankerings after it are gratified with a sight and enjoyment of it again oh what a comfortable meeting will this make it Especially if we consider Secondly The excellent temper and state in which they shall meet each other For as the body shall be raised with all the improvements and endownments imaginable which may render it amiable and every way desireable so the soul comes down immediatly from God out of Heaven shining in its holiness and glory It comes perfumed out of those Ivory Palaces with a strong scent of Heaven upon it And thus it re-enters its body and animates it again But Thirdly And principally that wherein the chief joy of this meeting consists is the end for which the glorified soul comes down to quicken and repossess it Namely to meet the Lord and ever to be with the Lord. To receive a full reward for all the labours and services it performed to God in this world This must needs make that day a day of Triumph and Exaltation It comes out of the grave as Ioseph out of his prison to be advanced to highest honour O do but imagine what an extasie of Joy and ravishing pleasure it will be for a soul thus to resume its own body and say as it were unto it come away my dear my ancient friend who servedst and sufferedst with me in the world come along with me to meet the Lord in whose presence I have bee ever since I parted with thee Now thy bountiful Lord hath remembred thee also and the day of thy glorification is come Surely it will be a joyful awaking For do but imagine what a Joy it is for dear friends to meet after long separation how do they use to give demonstrations of their love and delight in each other by Embraces Kisses Tears c. Or frame but to your selves a notion of perfect health when a sprightly vivacity runs through every part and the spirits do as it were dance before us when we go to any business Especially to such a business as the business of that day will be to receive a Crown and a Kingdom Do but imagine then what a Sun-shine morning this will be and how the pains and agonies cold sweats and bitter groans at parting will be recompenced by the joy of such a meeting And thus I have shewed you briefly the certainty of Christs Resurrection the nature and properties of it the threefold influence it hath on the
also You see how the Rivers in their course will not be checkt but bear down all obstacles in their way Saevior ab obice ibit A stop doth but make them rage the more and run the swifter afterwards There is a Central force in these natural motions which cannot be stopt And the like may you observe in the motions of a renewed soul Ioh. 4.14 It shall be in him as a Well of water springing up And is it not hard for you to keep it down or turn its course How hard did Ieremy and David find that work If you do not live holy lives you must cross your own new nature violate the Law that 's written in your own hearts and engraven upon your own bowels To this purpose a late Writer speaks Till you were converted saith he the flesh was predominant and therefore it was impossible for you to live any other than a fleshly life for every thing will act according to its predominant principle Should you not therefore live a spiritual life Should not the Law of God witten in your hearts be legible in your lives O should not your lives be according to the tendency of your hearts thus he Doubtless this is no swall advantage to practical holiness But Secondly Besides this principle within you have no small assistance for the purity of life by these excellent patterns before you The path of holiness is no untrodden path to you Christ and his Servants have beaten it before you The life of Christ is your Copy and it is a fair Copy indeed without a blot Oh what an advantage is this to draw all the lines of your actions according to his example This glorious grand example is often prest upon you for imitation Heb. 12.2 Looking to Iesus he hath left you an example that ye should tread in his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 His life is a living rule to his people and besides Christs example for you may say who can live as Christ did His example is quite above us you have a cloud of witnesses A cloud for its directive Use and these men of like passions temptations and constitutions with you who have gone before you in exemplary holiness The Holy Ghost intending therein your special help and advantage hath set many industrious pens awork to write the lines of the Saints and preserve for your use their holy sayings and heavenly actions He bids you take them for an example Jam. 5.10 Oh what excellent men are past on before you What renowned Worthies have led the way Men whose conversations were in Heaven whilst they Tabernacled on earth Whilst this lower world had their bodies the world above had their hearts their affections their actions their designs were all for Heaven Men that improved troubles and comforts losses and gains smiles and frowns and all for Heaven Men that did extract Heaven out of Spirituals out of Temporals out of all things their hearts were full of heavenly meditations their mouths of heavenly communications and their practices of heavenly inclinations O what singular help is this Where they followed Christ and kept the way they are propounded for your imitation and where any of them turned aside you have a mark set upon that action for your caution and prevention Doth any strange or unusual tryal befall you in which you are ready to say with the Church Lam. 1.12 Was there ever any sorrow like unto my sorrow Here you may see the same affliction accomplisht in your brethren 1 Pet. 5.9 Here 's store of good company to encourage you Doth the world and Devil endeavor to turn you from your duty by loading it with shameful scoffs or sufferings In this case you may look to Iesus who dispised the shame and to your Brethren who counted it their honour to be dishonoured for the name of Christ as the Original of the Text Act. 5.41 may be translated Is it a dishonour to thee to be rankt with Abraham Moses David and such as were the glory of the Ages they lived in Art thou at any time under a faint fit of discouragement and ready to despond under any burden oh how maist thou be animated by such examples when such a qualm comes over thy heart Some sparks of their holy courage cannot choose but steal into thy breast whilst thou considerest them In them God hath set before thee the possibility of overcoming all difficulties thou seest men of the same mould who had the same tryals discouragements and fears that thou now hast and yet overcame all How is thy unbelief checkt when thou saist Oh I shall never reach the end I shall one day utterly perish Why dost thou say so Why may not such a poor creature as thou art be carried through as well as they Had not they the same temptations and corruptions with you Were not they all troubled with a naughty heart an ensnaring world a busie Devil as well as you Alas when they put on the divine they did not put off the humane nature but complained and feared as you do and yet were carried through all Oh what an advantage have you this way They that first trusted in Christ had not such an help as you You stand upon their shoulders You have the benefit of their experiences You that are fallen into the last times have certainly the best helps to holiness And yet will not you live strictly and purely Will you put on the name and profession of Christians and yet be lofty in your spirits earthly in your designs neglective of duty frothy in your communions Pray from which of all the Saints did you learn to be proud Did you learn that from Christ or any of his From which of his Saints did you learn to be earthly and covetous passionate oâ— censorious over-reaching and crafty If you have read of any such evils committed by them have you not also read of their shame and sorrow their repentance and reformations If you have found any such blots in their lives it was left there designedly to prevent the like in yours Oh what an help to holiness is this Thirdly And this is not all You have not only a principle within you and a pattern before you but you have also an Omnipotent assistant to help and encourage you throughout your way Are you feeble and infirm and is every temptation even the weakest strong enough to turn you out of the way of your Duty Lo God hath sent his Spirit to help your infirmities Rom. 8.26 no matter then how weak you are how many and mighty your difficulties and temptations are as long as you have such an assistant to help you Great is your advantage for a holy life this way also For 1. First When a temptation to sin presses sore upon you he pleads with your consciences within whilst Satan is tempting without How often hath he brought such Scriptures to your remembrance in the very nick of opportunity as have saved
be Is it indeed worth no more than this in your eyes Surely you will not be long of that opinion Will you be of that mind think you when death and Judgement shall have throughly awakned you O no then a thousand worlds for a Christ. As its storied of our Crook-back'd Richard when he lost the field and was in great danger by his enemies that pressed upon him O now said he a Kingdom for an Horse Or think ye that any beside you in the world are of your mind You are deceived if you think so To them that believe he is precious through all the world 1 Pet. 2.7 And in the other world they are of a quite contrary mind Could you but hear what is said of him in heaven in what a dialect the Saved of the Lord do extoll their Saviour or could you but imagine the self revenges the self torments which the damned suffer for this their folly and what a value they would set upon one tender of Christ if it might but again be hoped for you would see that such as you are the only despisers of Christ. Beside methinks its astonishing that you should despise a mercy in which your own souls are so dearly so deeply so everlastingly concerned in as they are in this gift of God If it were but the soul of another nay less if but the body of another and yet less than that if but anothers beast whose life you could preserve you are obliged to do it but when it is thy self yea the best part of thy self thine own invaluable soul that thou ruinest and destroyest hereby Oh what a monster art thou to cast it away thus What! will you slight your own souls Care you not whether they be saved or whether they be damned Is it indeed an indifferent thing with you which way they fall at death Have you imagined a tollerable Hell Is it easie to perish Are you not only turned Gods enemies but your own too O see what monsters can sin turn men and women into O the stupifying besotting intoxicating power of Sin But perhaps you think that all these are but uncertain sounds with which we alarm you It may be thine own heart will Preach such Doctrine as this to thee Who can assure thee of the reallity of these things What shouldst thou trouble thy self about an invisible world or be so much concerned for what thine eyes never saw nor didst ever receive the report from any that have seen them Well though we cannot now shew you these things yet shortly they shall be shewn you and your own eyes shall behold them You are convinced and satisfied that many other things are real which you never saw But be assured that if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Which at first began to be spoken to us by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness Heb. 2.2 3 4. But if they be certain yet they are not near It will be a long time before they come poor soul how dost thou cheat thy self It may be not by twenty parts so long a time as thine own phancy draws it forth for thee Thou art not certain of the next moment And suppose what thou imaginest what is Twenty or Forty years when it is past yea what is a thousand years to the vast eternity Go trifle away a few days more sleep out a few nights more and then lie down in the dust it will not be long ere the Trump of God shall awaken thee and thine eyes shall behold Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven and then you will know the price of this sin O therefore if there be any sence of eternity upon you any pity or love for your selves in you if you have any concernments more than the beasts that perish despise not your own offered mercies slight not the richest gift that ever was yet opened to the world and a sweeter cannot be opened to all Eternity The FIFTH SERMON JOH I.XIV. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us c. YOU have heard the Covenant of Redemption opened The work therein propounded by the Father and consented to by the Son is such as infinitly exceeds the power of any meer Ceature to perform He that undertakes to satisfie God by obedience for the sin of man must himself be God And he that performeth such a perfect obedience by doing and suffering all that the Law required in our rooms must be man These two natures must be united in one person else there could not be a concourse or co-operation of either nature in his mediatory works How these natures are united in the wonderful person of our Immanuel is the first part of the great mysterie of of godliness A Subject studied and adored by Angels And the mysterie thereof is wrap'd up in this Text. Wherein we have First the incarnation of the Son of God plainly asserted Secondly that assertion strongly confirmed In the assertion we have three parts The person assuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word i. e. the second person or subsistent in the most glorious Godhead call'd the Word either because he is the scope and principal matter both of the prophetical and promisory word Or because he expounds and reveals the mind and will of God to men as vers 18. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared or expounded him The Nature assumed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flâ—sh i. e. the intire humane Nature consisting of a true humane soul and body For so this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Rom. 3.20 And the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which answers to it by a usual Metonymie of a part for the whole is used Gen. 6.12 And the word flesh is rather used here than man on purpose to aggravate the admirable condescention and abasement of Christ there being more of vileness weakness and opposition to spirit in this word than in that as is pertinently noted by some Hence the whole nature is denominated by that part and called flesh The Assumption it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was made not fuit he was as Socinus would render in design to overthrow the existence of Christs glorify'd body now in heaven But factus est it was made i. e. he took or assumed the true humane nature called flesh for the reason before rendred into the unity of his divine person with all its integral parts and essential properties and so was made or became a true and real man by that assumption The Apostle speaking of the same act Heb. 2.16 Uses another word He took on him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitly rendred he took on him or he assumed Which assuming though inchoative it was the work of the whole Trinity God
natures The humane nature doing what is humane viz. Suffering Sweating Bleeding Dying and his Divine nature stamping all these with infinite value and so both sweetly concur unto one glorious work and design of mediation Papists generally deny that he performs any of his mediatory works as God but only as man but how boldly do they therein contradict these plain Scriptures See 2 Cor. 5.19 Heb. 9.14.15 And so much as to the second thing propounded viz. the fruits of this Union The last thing to be opened is the grounds and reasons of this assumption And we may say touching that 1. That the humane nature was not assumed to any intrinsecal perfection of the Godhead but to make that humane nature it self perfect The Divine did not assume the humane nature necessarily but voluntarily not out of indigence but bounty not because it was to be perfected by it but to perfect it by causing it to lie as a pipe to the infinite all-filling Fountain of grace and glory of which it is the great receptacle 2. And so consequently to qualify and prepare him for a full discharge of his mediatorship in the offices of our Prophet Priest and King Had he not this double nature in the Unity of his person he could not have been our Prophet for as God he knows the mind and will of God Ioh. 1.18 Ioh. 3.13 And as man he is fitted to impart it suitably to us Deut. 18.15 16 17 18. Compared with Acts 3.22 As Priest had he not been man he could have shed no blood and if not God it had been no adaequate value for us Heb. 2.17 Acts 20.28 As King had he not been man he had been an Heterogenous and so no fit head for us And if not God he could neither rule nor defend his Body the Church These then were the designs and ends of that assumption Vse 1. Let all Christians rightly inform their minds in this truth of so great concernment in Religion and hold it fast against all subtil adversaries that would wrest it from them The Learned Hooker observes that the dividing of Christs Person which is but one and the confounding of his Natures which are two hath been the occasion of these errors which have so greatly disturbed the peace of the Church The Arrians deny'd his Deity leveling him with other meer men The Apollinarians maimed his humanity The Sabellians affirmed that the Father and Holy Ghost were incarnated as well as the Son and were forced upon that absurdity by another error viz. denying three distinct persons in the Godhead and affirming they were but three names The Euticheans confounded both natures in Christ denying any distinction of them The Seleusians affirmed that he uncloathed himself of his humanity when he ascended and hath no humane Body in Heaven The Nestorians so rent the two natures of Christ assunder as to make two distinct persons of them But ye Beloved have not so learned Christ. Ye know he is 1. true and very God 2. True and very man that 3. these two natures make but one person being united inseparably 4. That they are not confounded or swallowed up one in another but remain still distinct in the person of Christ. Hold ye the form of sound words which cannot be condemned Great things hang upon all these truths Oh suffer not a stone to be loosed out of the Foundation Vse 2. Adore the love of the Father and Son who bid so high for your Souls and at this rate were contented you should be recovered First The love of the Father is herein admirably conspicuous who so vehemently willed our salvation that he is content to degrade the darling of his Soul to so vile and contemptible a state which was upon the matter an undoing to him in point of reputation as the Apostle intimates Phil. 2.7 If two persons be at variance and the superiour who also is the wronged person begin to stoop first and say you have deeply wronged me yea your blood is not able to repair the wrongs you have done me however such is my love to you and willingness to be at peace with you that I will part with what is most dear to me in all the world for peace sake yea though I stoop below my self and seem as it were to forget my own relation and endearments to my own Son I will not suffer such a breach betwixt me and you Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son And how astonishing is the love of Christ that would make such a stoop as this to exalt us Oh 't is ravishing to think that he should pass by a more excellent and Noble Species of Creatures refusing the Angellical nature Heb. 2.16 To take Flesh. And not to solace and dispart himself in it neither not to experience sensitive pleasures in the body for as he needed them not being at the Fountain head of the highest joys so it was not at all in his design but the very contrary even to make himself a Subject capable of sorrows wounds and tears It was as the Apostle elegantly expresseth it in Heb. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he might sensibly tast what relish Death hath and what bitterness is in those pangs and agonies Now O that you would get your hearts suitably imprest and affected with these high expressures of the love both of the Father and Son How is the courage of some Noble Romans celebrated in the story for the brave adventures they made for the Common-wealth But they could never stoop as Christ did being so infinitly below him in personal dignity Vse 3. And here the infinite wisdom hath also left a famous and everlasting mark of it self which invites yea even chains the eyes of Angels and men to it self Had there been a general Council of Angels to advise upon a way of recovering poor sinners they would all have been at an everlasting demur and loss about it It could not have entred their thoughts though they are Intelligencies and most sagatious Creatures that ever mercy pardon and grace should find such a way as this to issue forth from the heart of God to the hearts of sinners Oh how wisely is the method of our recovery laid So that Christ may well be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 1.24 The power and wisdom of God For as much as in him the Divine wisdom is more glorified than in all the other works of God upon which he hath imprest it Hence it is that some of the School-men affirm though I confess my self unsatisfied with it that the incarnation of Christ was in it self so glorious a demonstration of Gods wisdom and power and thereupon so desirable in it self that though man had not sinned yet Christ would have been made man Vse 4. Hence also we infer the incomparable sweetness of the Christian Religion that shews poor
learn hence what an horrid evil it is to use Christ or his Blood as a common and unsanctified thing Yet so some do as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.29 The Apostate is said to tread upon the Son of God as if he were no better than the dirt under his Feet and to count his Blood an unholy or common thing But woe to them that so do they shall be counted worthy of something worse then dying without mercy As the Apostle there speaks And as this is the Sin of the Apostate so is it also the Sin of all those that without Faith approach and so prophane the Table of the Lord unbeleivingly and unworthily handling those awfull things Such eat and drink judgement to themselves not discerning the Lords Body 1 Cor. 11.29 Whereas the body of Christ was a thing of the deepest sanctification that ever God created Sanctified as the Text tells us to a far more excellent and glorious purpose than ever any Creature in Heaven or Earth was sanctified It was therefore the great sin of those Corinthians not to discern it and not to behave themselves towards it when they saw and handled the signs of it as so holy a thing And as it was their great Sin so God declared his just indignation against it in those sore strokes inflicted for it As they discerned not the Lords body so neither did the Lord discern their bodies from others in the judgements that were inflicted And as one well observes God drew the Model and Plat-form of their punishment from the structure and proportion of their sin And truly if the moral and spiritual Seeds and originals of many of our outward afflictions and sicknesses were but duly sifted out possibly we might find a great part of them in the Bowels of this sin The just and righteous God will build up the breaches we make upon the honour of his Son with the ruines of that beauty strength and honour which he hath given our Bodies O then when you draw nigh to God in that ordinance take heed to sanctifie his name by a spiritual discerning of this most holy and most deeply sanctified Body of the Lord. Sanctified beyond all Creatures Angels or Men not only in respect of the Spirit which fill'd him without measure with inherent holiness but also in respect of its dedication to such a service as this It being set apart by him to such holy solemn ends and uses as you have heard And let it for ever be a warning to such as have lifted up their hands to Christ in an holy profession that they never lift up their Heel against him afterwards by Apostacy The Apostate treads on Gods dear Son and God will tread upon him for it Thou hast troden down all that err from thy Statutes Psal. 119.118 Inference 3. What a choice pattern of love to the Saints have we here before us calling all that are in Christ to an imitation of him Even to give our selves up to their service as Christ did Not in the same kind so none can give himself for them but as we are capable You see here how his Heart was affected to them that he would sanctifie himself as a Sacrifice for them See to what a height of duty the Apostle improves this example of Christ 1 Ioh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought also to lay down our lives for the Brethren Some Christians came up fairly to this pattern in the Primitive times Priscila and Aquila laid down their Necks for Paul Rom. 16.4 i. e. eminently hazarded their lives for him and even he himself could rejoyce if he were offered up upon the Sacrifice and service of their Faith Phil. 2.17 And in the next times what more known even to the Enemies of Christianity than their fervent love one to another Ecce quam mutuò se deligunt mori volunt pro alterutris See how they love one another and are willing to dye one for another But alas that Primitive Spirit is almost lost in this degenerate Age. Instead of laying down life how few will lay down twelve pence for them I remember it 's the observation of a late Worthy upon Matth. 95.40 that he is perswaded there is hardly that man to be found this day alive that fully understands and fully believes that Scripture O did men think what they do for them is done for Christ himself it would produce other effects than are yet visible Inference 4. Lastly if Christ sanctified himself that we might be sâ—nctied by or in the truth then it will follow by found consequence that true sanctification is a good evidence that Christ set apart himself to dye for us In vain did he â—anctifie himself as to you unless you be sanctified Holy Souls only can claim the benefit of the great Sacrifice O try then whether true holiness and that is only to be judged by its conformity to its pattern 1 Pet. 1.15 As he that called you is holy so be ye holy whether such an holyness as is and acts according to its measure like Gods holiness in the following perticulars be â—ound in you First God is universally holy in all his ways so Psal. 145.17 His works are all holy what ever he doth it 's still done as becomes an holy God He is not only holy in all things but at all times unchangeably holy Be ye therefore holy in all things and at all times too if ever ye expect the benefit of Christs sanctifying himself to dye for you O Brethren let not the Feet of your conversation be as the Feet of a lame man which are unequal Prov. 20.7 be not sometimes hot and sometimes cold at one time carefull at another time careless One day in a spiritual rapture and the next in a fleshly frolick but be ye holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.15 in all manner of conversation in every creek and turning of your lives And let your holiness hold out to the end Let him that is holy be holy still Rev. 22.11 not like the Hypocrites paint but as a true natural complexion Secondly God is examplarily holy Jesus Christ is the great pattern of holiness Be ye examples of holiness too unto all that are about you Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Matth. 5.16 as wicked men infect one another by their examples and diffuse their poison and malignity whereever they come so do ye diffeminate godliness in all places and companies and let those that frequently converse with you especially those of your own Families receive a deeper Dye and Tincture of heavenlyness every time they come nigh you as the cloth doth by every new dipping into the Fat. Thirdly God delights in nothing but holiness and holy ones he hath set all his pleasure in the Saints Be ye holy herein as God is holy Indeed there is this difference betwixt
Gods choice and yours He chooses not men because they are holy but that they may be so You are to chuse them for so your delightful Companions that God hath chosen and made holy Let all your delights be in the Saints even them that excel in vertue Psal. 16.3 Fourthly God abhors and hates all unholiness do ye so also that you may be like your Father which is in Heaven And when the Spirit of holiness runs down thus upon you a sweeter evidence the World cannot give that Christ was sanctified for you Holy ones may confidently lay the hand of their Faith on the head of this great Sacrifice and say Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us The EIGHTH SERMON I TIM II.V. And one Mediator betwixt God and Men the man Christ Iesus GReat and long preparations bespeak the solemnity and greatness of the work for which they are designed A man that had but seen the heaps of Gold Silver and Brass which David amassed in his time for the building of the Temple might easily conclude before one Stone of it was laid that it would be a magnificent Structure But lo here is a design of God as far transcending that as the substance doth the shadow For indeed that glorious Temple was but the Type and Figure of Jesus Christ Ioh. 2.19.21 and a weak adumbration of that living spiritual Temple which he was to build cementing the lively Stones thereof together with his own blood 1 Pet. 2.5 6. that the great God might dwell and walk in it 2 Cor. 6.16 the preparations for that Temple were but of few years but the consultations and preparations for this were from Eternity Prov. 8.31 and as there were preparations for this work which Christ dispatcht in a few years before the world began so it will be matter of eternal admiration and praise when this world shall be dissolved What this astonishing glorious work is this Text will inform you as to the general nature of it It is the work of mediation betwixt God and Man managed by the sole hand of the man Christ Jesus In this Scripture for I shall not spend time to examine the words in their contexture you have a description of Iesus the Mediator and he is here described three ways viz. by his work or office a Mediator by the singularity of his mediation one Mediator And by the nature and quality of his Person imploy'd in this singular way of Mediation the man and lastly his name 's Iesus Christ. First he is described by the work or office he is imploy'd about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator a middle Person So the word imports a fit indifferent and equal Person that comes between two Persons that be at variance to take up the difference and make Peace Such a middle equal indifferent Person is Christ. A days-man to lay his hand upon both to arbitrate and award justly and give God his due and that without ruine to poor man Secondly he is described by the singularity of his mediation One Mediator and but one though there be many Mediators of reconciliation among men and many Intercessors in a petitionary way betwixt God and Men yet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one only Mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and Men and 't is as needless and impious to make more Mediators than one as to make more Gods than one There is one God and one Mediator betwixt God and Men. Thirdly he is described by the nature and quality of his Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the man Christ Iesus This description of him by one nature and that the humane nature also wherein as you shall see anon the Lord especially consulted our encouragement and Comfort I say his being so described to us hath through the corruption of men been improved to the great dishonour of Jesus Christ both by the Arrians and Papists The former took occasion from hence to affirm that he was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer man The latter allow him to be the true God but on this weak ground affirm that he performed not the work of mediation as God but only a man Thus what the Spirit ordered for our comfort is wickedly retorted to Christs dishonour For I doubt not but he is described by his humane nature in this place not only because in this nature he paid that ransom which he speaks of in the words immediately following but especially for the drawing of Sinners to him seeing he is the man Christ Jesus One that cloathed himself in their own Flesh and to encourage the Faith of Believers that he tenderly resents all their wants and miseries and that they may safely trust him with all their concerns as one that will carefully mind them as his own and will be for them a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God Fourthly he is described by his names By his Appellative name Christ and his proper name Iesus The name Iesus notes his work about which he came and Christ the Offices to which he was anoynted and in the execution of which he is our Iesus In the name Iesus the whole Gospel is hid It is the light the food the medicine of the Soul as one speaks The note from hence is DOCT. That Iesus Christ is the true and only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Ye are come to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12.24 And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament c. Heb. 9.14 I might shew you a whole vein of Scriptures running this way but to keep a profitable and clear method I shall shew you First what is the sence of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator Secondly what it implys as it is applied to Christ. Thirdly how it appears that he is the true and only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Fourthly in what capacity he performed his Mediatory work First What is the sence and import of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator and the true sence and importance of it is a middle person or one that interposes betwixt two Parties at variance to make peace betwixt them So that Satan is medium disjungens a medium of discord so Christ is medium conjungens a medium of Concord and Peace And he is such a middler both in respect of his person and office in respect of his person he is a middler that is one that hath the same nature both with God and us true God and true man and in respect of his office or work which is to interpose or transact the business of reconciliation between us and God The former some call his substantial the latter his evergitical or operative meditation though I rather conceive that which is call'd his substantial mediation is but the aptitude of his person to execute the mediatorial function And that it doth not constitute two kinds of mediation his being a middle Person
study upon his knees Those truths that are got by Prayer leave an unusual sweetness upon the heart If Christ be our Teacher it becomes all his Saints to be at his Feet Inference 4. If Christ be the great Prophet and Teacher of the Church We may thence discern and Iudge of Doctrines and it may serve us as a test to try them by For such as Christ is such are the Doctrines that flow from him Every errour pretends to derive it self from him but as Christ was holy humble heavenly meek peaceful plain and simple and in all things alien yea contrary to the wisdom of the world the gratifications of the flesh such are the truths which he teacheth They have his Character and Image ingraven on them Would you know then whether this or that Doctrine be from the Spirit of Christ or no Examine the Doctrine it self by this rule And whatsoever Doctrine you find to incourage and countenance sin to exalt self to be accommodated to earthly designs and interests to wrap and bend to the humours and Lusts of men in a word what Doctrine soever directly and as a proper cause makes them that profess it carnal turbulent proud sensual c. You may safely reject it and conclude this never came from Jesus Christ. The Doctrine of Christ is after godliness His truth sanctifies There is a gustus Spiritualis judicii a Spiritual taste by which those that have their sences exercised can distinguish things that differ The Spiritual man Iudgeth all things 1 Cor. 2.15 His ear tryes words as his mouth tasteth meats Job 34.3 Swallow nothing let it come never so speciously that hath not some relish of Christ and holyness in it Be sure Christ never reveal'd any thing to men that derogates from his own glory or prejudices and obstructs the ends of his own Death Inference 5. And as it will serve us for a test of Doctrines so it serves for a test of Ministers and hence you may Judge who are authorized and sent by Christ the great Prophet to declare his will to men Surely those whom he sends have his Spirit in their Hearts as well as his words in their Mouths And according to measures of grace received they faithfully endeavour to fullfil their Ministry for Christ as Christ did for his Father as my Father hath sent me saith Christ so send I you Joh. 20.21 They take Christ for their pattern in the whole course of their Ministration and are such as sincerely endeavour to imitate the great Shepherd in these six particulars following First Jesus Christ was a faithful Minister the faithful and true witness Rev. 1.5 He declared the whole mind of God to men Of him it was Prophetically said Psal. 40.10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy Salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation To the same sence and almost in the same words the Apostle Paul professed in Acts 20.20 I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you and vers 35. I have shewed you all things Not that every faithful Minister doth in the course of his Ministry anatomize the whole body of truth and fully expound and apply each particular to the People no that is not the meaning but of those Doctrines which they have opportunity of opening they do not out of fear or to accommodate and secure base low ends withhold the mind of God or so corrupt and abuse his words as to subject truth to their own or other mens Lusts. They Preach not as pleasing men but God 1 Thes. 2.4 For if we yet please men we cannot be the servants of Christ Gal. 1.10 Truth must be spoken though the greatest on earth be offended Secondly Jesus Christ was a tender hearted Minister Full of compassion to souls He was sent to bind up the broken in heart Isa. 61.1 He was full of bowels to poor sinners He grieved at the hardness of mens hearts Mark 3.5 He mourned over Ierusalem and said O Ierusalem Ierusalem how oft would I have gathered thy Children as a Hen gathers her brood under her wings Matth. 23.37 His bowels yearned when he saw the multitude as Sheep having no Shepherd Matth. 9.36 These bowels of Christ must be in all the under Shepherds God is my witness saith one of them how greatly I long after you all in or after the pattern of the bowels of Christ Iesus Phil. 1.8 He that shews a hard heart unaffected with the dangers and miseries of souls can never shew a commission from Christ to authorize him for ministerial work Thirdly Jesus Christ was a laborious painful Minister he put a necessity on himself to finish his work in his day A work infinitely great in a very little time Ioh. 9.4 I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work O how much work did Christ do in a little time on earth He went about doing good Acts 10.38 He was never idle When he sits down at Iacobs Well to rest himself being weary presently he falls into his work Preaching the Gospel to the Samaritaness In this must his Ministers resemble him Striving according to his working that worketh in them mightily Col. 1.28 29. An idle Minister seems to be a contradiction in adjecto as who should say a dark light Fourthly Iesus Christ delighted in nothing more than the success of his Ministry To see the work of the Lord prosper in his hand this was meat and drink to him When the seventy returned and reported the success of their first Embassie Lord even the Devils are subject to us through thy name Why saith Christ I behold Satan fall as lightning from heaven As if he had said you tell me no news I saw it when I sent you out at first I know the Gospel would make work where it came And in that hour Iesus rejoyced in Spirit Luk. 10.17 18 21. And is it not so with those sent by him Do'nt they value the success of their Ministry at an high rate it is not saith one the expence but the recoyling of our labours back again upon us that kills us Ministers would not die so fast nor be gray-headed so soon could they but see the travel of their Souls My littlle Children saith Paul of whom I travel again in birth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till Christ be formed in you Gal. 4.19 As for those that have the name of Shepherds only who visit the flock only once a year about shearing time who have the instruments of a foolish Shepherd â—fâ—rcipes mulctra the shears and pail Zech. 11.15 Woful will be their condition at the appearing of this great Shepherd Fifthly Iesus Christ was a Minister that lived up to his Doctrine His Life and Doctrine harmonized in all things He pressed to holiness in his Doctrine and was the great Pattern of
that any creature was ever yet set upon and inlarged to take in view the most spatious prospect both of sin and misery and difficulties of being saved that ever yet any poor humble soul did cast within it self yea joyn to these all the hindrances and objections that the heart of man can invent against it self and salvation lift up thine eyes and look to the utmost thou canst see and Christ by his intercession is able to save thee beyond the Horizon and utmost compass of thy thoughts even to the utmost Secondly Hence draw abundant encouragement against all heartstraightnings and deadness of spirit in prayer Thou complainest thy heart is dead wandring and contracted in duty O but remember Christs blood speaks when thou canst not it can plead for thee and that powerfully when thou art not able to speak a word for thy self to this sense that Scripture speaks Can. 3.6 Who is this that cometh out of the Wilderness in pillars of smoke perfumed with myrh and frankincense all the powders of the Merchant The duties of Christians go up many times as pillars or clouds of smoke from them more smoke than fire Prayers smoked and sullied with their offensive corruptions but remember Christ perfumes them with myrh c. he by his intercession gives them a sweet perfume Thirdly Christs intercession is a singular relief to all that come unto God by him against all sinful damps and slavish fears from the justice of God Nothing more promotes the fear of reverence Nothing more suppresseth unbelieving despondencies and destroys the spirit of bondage So you find it Heb. 10.19 20 21. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh And having an High-Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in full assurance of faith Or let us come unto God as a Ship comes with full sayl into the Harbour O what a direct and full gale of encouragement doth this intercession of Christ give to the poor soul that lay a ground or was wind-bound before Fourthly The intercession of Christ gives admirable satisfaction and encouragement to all that come to God against the fears of deserting him again by Apostacy This my friends this is your principal security against these matters of fear With this he relieves Peter Luk. 22.31.32 Simon saith Christ Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy fath fail not q. d. Satan will fan thee not to get out thy chaff but boult out thy flower His temptations are levell'd against thy faith but fear not my prayer shall break his designs and secure thy faith from all his attempt upon it Upon this powerful intercession of Christ the Apostle builds his triumph against all that threatens to bring him or any of the Saints again into a state of condemnation And see how he drives on that triumph from the resurrection and session of Christ at the Fathers right hand and especially from the work of intercession which he lives there to perform Rom. 8.34 35. Who is he that condemneth it 's Christ that died yea rather that 's risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ Fifthly It gives sweet relief against the defects and wants that yet are in our sanctification We want a great deal of faith love heavenly mindedness mortification knowledge We are short and wanting in all There are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remains or things wanting as the Apostle calls them 1 Thes. 3.10 Well if grace be but yet in it's weak beginnings and infancy in thy soul this may incourage that by reason of Christs intercession it shall live grow and expatiate it self in thy heart He is not only the author but the finisher of it Heb. 12.2 He is ever begging new and fresh mercies for you in Heaven and will never be quiet till all your wants be supplied He saves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the uttermost i. e. as I told you before to the last perfective compleating act of salvation So that this is a fountain of relief against all your fears Vse 3. Doth Christ live for ever to make intercession then let those who reap on earth the fruits of that his work in Heaven draw instruction thence about the following duties to which it leads them as by the hand First Do not forget Christ in an exalted state You see though he be in all the glory above at Gods right hand an enthron'd King he doth not forget you He like Ioseph remembers his brethren in all his glory But alas how oft doth advancement make us forget him as the Lord complains in Hosea 13.5 6. I did know thee in the Wilderness in the Land of great drought but when they came into Canaan According to their pastures so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me As if he had said O my people you and I were better acquainted in the Wilderness When you were in a low condition left to my immediate care living by daily faith Oh then you gave me many a sweet visit but now you are filled I hear no more of you Good had it been for some Saints if they had never known prosperity Secondly Let the intercession of Christ in Heaven for you encourage you to constancy in the good ways of God To this duty it sweetly encourages also Heb. 4.14 Seeing then that we have a great High-Priest that is passed into the Heavens Iesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Here is incouragement to perseverance on a double account One is that Jesus our head is already in Heaven and if the head be above water the body cannot drown The other is from the business he is there imployed about which is his Priesthood he is passed into the Heavens as our great High-Priest to intercede and therefore we cannot miscarry Thirdly Let it incourage you to constancy in prayer O do not neglect that excellent duty seing Christ is there to present all your petitions to God Yea to perfume as well as present them So the Apostle Heb. 4.16 infers from Christs intercession Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need Fourthly Hence be encouraged to plead for Christ on earth who continually pleads for you in Heaven If any accuse you he is there to plead for you And if any dishonour him on earth see that you plead his interest and defend his honour Thus you have heard what his intercession is and what benefits we receive by it Blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The FOURTEENTH
in its worth and dignity Since then there is not a whole world no not half but the far less part of the world redeemed by the blood of Christ which was sufficient for so many how great must be the surplusage and redundancy of merit Here our Divines rightly distinguish betwixt the substance and accidents of Christs death and obedience Consider that Christs suffering as to the substance of it it was no more than what the Law required For neither the justice nor love of the Father would permit that Christ should suffer more than what was necessary for him to bear as our surety but as to the circumstances the person of the sufferer the cause and efficacy of his sufferings c. it was much more than sufficient A super legale meritum a merit above and beyond what the Law required For though the Law required the death of the sinner who is but a poor contemptible creature it did not require that one perfectly innocent should die It did not require that God should shed his blood It did not require blood of such value and worth as this was I say none of this the Law required though God was pleased for the advancement and manifestation of his Justice and Mercy in the highest to admit and order this by way of commutation admitting him to be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ransomer by dying for us And indeed it was a most gratious relaxation of the Law that admitted of such a commutation as this for hereby it comes to pass that Justice is fully satisfied and yet we live and are saved which before was a thing that could not be imagined Yea now we are not only redeemed from wrath by the adequate compensation made for our sins by Christs blood and sufferings substantially considered but to a most glorious inheritance purchased by his blood considered as the blood of an Innocent as the blood of God and therefore as most excellent and efficatious blood above what the Law demanded And this is the meaning of Athanasius when he saith that Christ recompensed or made amends for small things with great He means not that sin considered absolutely and in it self is small O no but compared with Christs blood and the infinite excellency and worth of it it is so And Chrysostom to the same purpose Christ paid much more saith he than we owed and so much more as the immense Ocean is more than a small drop So that it was rightly determined by holy Anselme no man saith he can pay to God what he owes him Christ only paid more than he owed him And by this you see how rich a treasure there lies by Christ to bestow in a purchase for us beyond and above what he paid to redeem us even as much as his soul and body was more worth than ours for whom it was sacrificed and that is so great a sum that all the Angels in Heaven and men on earth can never compute and sum up so as to shew us the total of it And this was that inexhaustible treasure that Christ expended to procure and purchase the fairest inheritance for Believers Having seen the treasure that purchased let us next enquire into the inheritance purchased by it Secondly This inheritance is so large that it cannot be surveyed by creatures nor can the boundaries and limits thereof be described for it comprehends all things 1 Cor. 3.22 All is yours ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Revel 21.7 He that overcomes shall inherit all things And yet I do not think or say that Dominium fundatur in gratia that Temporal Dominion in founded in grace No that 's at the cast and dispose of providence but Christ by his death hath restored a right to all things to his people But to be more particular I shall distribute the Saints inheritance purchased by Christ into three heads All Temporal good things all Spiritual good things and all Eternal good things are theirs First All Temporal good things 1 Tim. 6.7 He hath given us all things richly to enjoy Not that they have the possession but the comfort and benefit of all things Others have the sting gall wormwood bayts and snares of the creature Saints only have the blessing and comfort of it So that this little which a Righteous man hath is in this among other respects better than the treasures of many wicked Which is the true key to open that dark saying of the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.10 as having nothing and yet possessing all things They only possess others are possessed by the world The Saints do uti mundo frui Deo use the world and enjoy God in the use of it Others are deceived defiled and destroyed by the world but these are refresht and furthered by it Secondly All Spiritual good things are purchased by the blood of Christ for them As justification which comprizes remission of sins and acceptation of our persons by God Rom. 3.24 Being Iustified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ. Sanctification is also purchased for them Yea both initial and progressive sanctification For of God he is made unto us not only wisdom and righteousness but sanctification also 1 Cor. 1.30 These two viz. our Justification and Sanctification are two of the most rich and shining robes in the wardrobe of free-grace How glorious and lovely do they render the soul that wears them These are like the Bracelets and Jewels Isaack sent to Rebecca Adoption into the family of God is purchased for us by this blood For ye are all the children of God by faith in Iesus Christ Gal 3.26 Christ as he is the Son is haeres natus the heir by nature as he is Mediator he is haeres constitutus the heir by appointment appointed heir of all things as it is Heb. 1.2 By this Sonship of Christ we being united to him by faith become Sons and if Sons then heirs O what a manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 That a poor beggar should be made an heir yea an heir of God and a joynt heir with Christ. Yea that very faith which is the bond of union and consequently the ground of all our communion with Christ is the purchase of his blood also 2 Pet. 1.1 To them that have obtained like pretious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. This most pretious grace is the dear purchase of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yea all that peace joy and spiritual comfort which are sweet fruits of faith are with it purchased for us by this blood So speaks the Apostle in Rom. 5.1 2 3. Being Iustified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ c. moreover the Spirit himself who is the Author Fountain and Spring of all these graces and comforts is procured for us by his death and resurrection Gal. 3.13 14. Christ
rule of contraries for the most part Where it fixes its marks of hatred we may usually find that which invites our respect and Love It should trouble us the less to be under the slights and disrespects of a blind world I could be even proud upon it said Luther that I see I have an ill name from the world And Ierome blessed God that counted him worthy to be hated of the world Labour to stand right in the Judgement of God and trouble not thy self for the rash and headlong censures of men Let wicked men said one cut the throat of my credit and do as they like best with it when the wind of their calumnies hath blown away my good name from me in the way to Heaven I know Christ will take my name out of the mire and wash it and restore it to me again Inference 7. From the whole of Christs Humiliation in his life learn you to pass through all the troubles of your life with a contented composed spirit as Christ your forerunner did He was persecuted and bare it meekly Poor and never murmured Tempted and never yielded to the Temptation Reviled and Reviled not again When ye therefore pass through any of these trials look to Jesus and consider him See how he that passed through those things before you managed himself in like circumstances yea not only beat the way by his pattern and example for you but hath in every one of those conditions left a blessing behind him for them that follow in his steps Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTIETH SERMON JOH XVII XI And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are WE now come to the Last and Lowest step of Christs Humiliation which was in his submitting to Death even the Death of the Cross. Out of this death of Christ the life of our souls springs up and in this blood of the Cross all our mercies swim to us The blood of Christ runs deep to some eyes The Judicious Believer sees multitudes multitudes of inestimable blessings in it By this Crimson Fountain I resolve to sit down and concerning the death of Christ I shall take distinctly into consideration the preparations made for it the nature and quality of it The Deportment and carriage of dying-Jesus The Funeral-solemnities with which he was buried And lastly the blessed designs and glorious ends of his death The preparatives for his death were six Three on his own part and three more by his enemies The preparations made by himself for it were the solemn recommendation of his friends to his Father The institution of a commemorative sign to perpetuate and refresh the memory of his death in the hearts of his people till he come again And his pouring out his soul to God by prayer in the garden which was the posture he chose to be found in when they should apprehend him This Scripture contains the first preparative of Christ for death whereby he sets his house in order prays for his people and blesses them before he dies The love of Christ was ever tender and strong to his people but the greatest manifestations of it were at parting And this he manifested two waies especially viz. in leaving singular supports and grounds of comfort with them in his last heavenly Sermon in Chap. 14.15 16. and in pouring out his soul most affectionately to the Father for them in this Heavenly Prayer Chap. 17. In this Prayer he gives them a Specimen or Sample of that his glorious intercession-work which he was just then going to perform in Heaven for them Here his heart overflowed for he was now leaving them and going to the Father the last words of a dying man are remarkable how much more of a dying Saviour I shall not lanch out into that blessed Ocean of pretious matter contained in this Chapter but take immediately into consideration the words that I have read wherein I find a weighty petition strongly followed and set home with many mighty Arguments First We have here Christs petition or request in behalf of his people Not only those on the place but all others that then did or afterwards should believe on him And the sum of what he here requests for them is that his Father would keep them through his name Where you have both the mercy and the means of attaining it The mercy is to be kept Keeping implies danger And there is a double danger obviated in this request danger in respect of sin and danger in respect of ruine and destruction To both these the people of God lie open in this world The means of their preservation from both is the name i. e. the power of God This name of the Lord is that strange Tower to which the Righteous flie and are safe Prov. 18.10 Alas it is not your own strength or wisdom that keeps you but ye are kept by the mighty power of God This protecting power of God doth not however exclude our care and diligence but implies it therefore he adds ye are kept by the mighty power of God through faith to Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 God keeps his people and yet they are to keep themselves in the Love of God Iude 21 to keep their hearts with all diligence Prov. 4.23 This is the sum of the petition Secondly The Arguments with which he urgeth and presses on this request are drawn partly from his own condition I am no more in the world i. e. I am going to die within very few hours I shall be separated from them in regard of my corporal presence Partly from their condition but these are in the world i. e. I must leave them in the midst of danger and partly from the joint interest that his Father and himself had in them Keep those that thou hast given me With several other most prevalent pleas which in their proper places shall be anon produced and displaied to illustrate and confirm this pretious truth which this Scripture affords us DOCT. That the Fatherly care and tender love of our Lord Iesus Christ was eminently discovered in that pleading prayer he poured out for his people at his parting with them It pertained to the Priest and Father of the family to bless the rest especially when they were to be separated from them by death This was a rite in Israel When good Iacob was grown old and the time was come that he should be gathered to his Fathers then he blessed Joseph Ephraim and Manasseth saying God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaack did walk the God which fed me all my life long unto this day the Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the Lads Gen. 48.15 16. this was a prophetical and patriarchical blessing Not that Iacob could bless as God blesses he could speak the words
foresaw a great trial then at hand yea and all the after trials of his people as well as that He knew how much they would be sifted and put to it in that hour and power of darkness that was coming He knew their faith would be shaken and greatly staggered by the approaching difficulties when they should see their Shepherd smitten and themselves scattered The Son of man delivered into the hands of Sinners and the Lord of Life hang dead upon the tree yea sealed up in the grave He foresaw what straights his poor people would fall into betwixt a busie Devil and a bad heart therefore he prays and pleads with such importunity and ardency for them that they might not miscarry Secondly He was now entring upon his intercession-work in Heaven and he was desirous in this prayer to give us a Specimen or sample of that part of his work before he left us that by this we might understand what he would do for us when he should be out of our sight For this being his last on earth it shews us what affections and dispositions he carried hence with him and satisfies us that he who was so earnest with God on our behalf such a mighty pleader here will not forget us or neglect our concerns in the other world Yet Reader I would have the alwaies to remember that the intercession of Christ in Heaven is carried at a much higher rate than this It 's performed in a way more suitable to that state of honour to which he is now exalted Here he used prostrations of Body cries and tears in his prayers There it 's carried in a more majestick and with more state becoming an exalted Jesus But yet in this he hath left us a special assistance to discover much of the frame temper and working of his heart now in Heaven towards us Thirdly and Lastly He would leave this as a standing monument of his Father-like care and love to his people to the end of the world And for this it is conceived Christ delivered this prayer so publickly not withdrawing from the Disciples to be private with God as he did in the Garden but he delivers it in their presence these things I speak in the world this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the â—ircumstance of place in the world doth plainly speak it to be a publick prayer And not only was it publickly delivered but it was also by a singular providence recorded at large by Iohn though omitted by the other Evangelists that so it might stand to all generations for a testimony of Christs tender care and Love to his people Fourthly If you ask how this gives evidence of Christs tender care and Love to his people which is the last enquiry I answer in few words For the thing is plain and obvious It appears in these two particulars First His Love and care manifest in the choice of mercies for them He doth not pray for health honour long life riches c. but for their preservation from sin spiritual joy in God sanctification and eternal glory No mercies but the very best in Gods treasure will content him He was resolved to get all the best mercies for his people the rest he is content should be dispensed promiscuously by providence But these he will settle as an heritage upon his children O see the Love of Christ Look over all your spiritual inheritance in Christ compare it with the richest fairest sweetest inheritance on earth and see what poor things these are to yours O the care of a dear Father O the love of a Saviour Secondly Besides what an evidence of his tenderness to you and great care for you was this that he should so intently and so affectionately mind and plead your concerns with God at such a time as this was even when a world of sorrow was heming him in on every side A cup of wrath mixed and ready to be delivered into his hand At that very time when the clouds of wrath grew black a storm coming and such as he never felt before when one would have thought all his care thoughts and diligence should have been imployed on his own account to mind his own sufferings no he doth as it were forget his own sorrows to mind our peace and comfort O Love unspeakable Corollary 1. If this be so that Christ so eminently discovered his care and love for his people in this parting hour Then hence we conclude the perseverance of the Saints is unquestionable Do you hear how he pleads how he begs how he fills his mouth with arguments how he chooseth his words and sets them in order how he winds up his Spirit to the very highest pin of zeal and fervency and can you doubt of success can such a Father deny the importunity and strong reasonings and pleadings of such a Son O it can never be He cannot deny him Christ hath the art and skill of prevailing with God He hath as in this appears the tongue of the Learned If the heart or hand of God were hard to be opened yet this would open them but when the Father himself loveth us and is inclined to do us good who can doubt of Christs success that which is in motion is the more easily moved The cause Christ manageth in Heaven for us is Just and Righteous The manner in which he pleads is powerful and therefore the success of his suit is unquestionable The Apostle professeth 2 Cor. 1.3 we can do nothing against the truth He means it in regard of the bent of his heart he could not move against truth and Righteousness And if a holy man cannot much less will a holy God If Christ undertake to plead the cause of his people with the Father and use his oratory with him there is no doubt but he carries it Every word in this prayer is a chosen shaft drawn to the head by a strong and skilful hand you need not question but it goes home to the white and hits the mark aimed at Doth he pray Father keep through thine own name those thou hast given me Sure they shall be kept if all the power in Heaven can keep them O think on this when dangers surround your souls or bodies When fears and doubts are multiplied within When thou art ready to say in thy hast all men are liers I shall one day perish by the hand of sin or Satan Think on that incouragement Christ gave to Peter Luke 22.31 I have prayed for thee Corollary 2. Again hence we learn that Argumentative prayers are excellent prayers The strength of every thing is in its joints There lies much of the strength of prayer also How strongly jointed how nervous and argumentative was this prayer of Christ Some there are indeed that think we need not argue and plead in prayer with God but only present the matter of our prayers to him and let Christ alone whose office it is to plead with the
Tree O let the place where you assemble to so see this sight of your crucified Jesus be a Bokim a place of lamentation Inference 3. Moreover hence it 's evident that the believing and affectionate remembrance of Christ is of singular advantage at all times to the people of God For it 's the immediate end of one of the greatest Ordinances that ever Christ appointed to the Church To have frequent recognitions of Christ will appear to be singularly efficatious and useful to Believers if you consider First If at any time thy heart be dead and hard this is the likeliest means in the world to dissolve melt and quicken it Look hither hard heart hard indeed if this hammer will not break it Behold the blood of Jesus Secondly Art thou easily overcome by Temptions to sin This is the most powerful pull back in the world from sin Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein We are crucified with Christ what have we to do with sin Such a thought as this when thy heart is yielding to Temptations How can I do this and crucifie the Son of God afresh Haâ—h he not suffered enough already on earth shall I yet make him groan as it were for me in Heaven look as David poured the water brought from the Well of Bethlehem on the ground though he was athirst for said he it is the blood of the men i. e. they eminently hazarded their lives to fetch it much more should a Christian pour out upon the ground yea despise and trample under foot the greatest profit or pleasure of sin saying nay I will have nothing to do with it I will on no terms touch it for it is the blood of Christ. It cost blood infinitely pretious blood to expiate it If there were a knife in your house that had been thrust to the heart of your Father you would not take pleasure to see that knife much less to use it Thirdly Are you afraid your sins are not pardoned but still stand upon account before the Lord what more relieving what more satisfying than to see the Cup of the New-Testament in the blood of Christ which is shed for many for the remission of sins Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it 's Christ that died Fourthly Are you staggered at the sufferings and hard things you must endure for Christ in this world doth the flesh shrink back from these things and cry spare thy self What is there in the world more likely to steel and fortifie thy spirit with resolution and courage than such a sight as this Did Christ face the wrath of men and the wrath of God too Did he stand as a pillar of brass with unbroken patience and stedfast resolution under such troubles as never met in the like height upon any mear creature till death beat the last breath out of his nostrils And shall I shrink for a trifle Ah he did not serve me so I will arm my self with the like mind 1 Pet. 2.2 Fifthly Is thy faith staggered at the promises canst thou not rest upon a promise Here 's that will help thee against hope to believe in hope giving glory to God For this is Gods seal added to his Covenant which ratifies and binds fast all that God hath spoken Sixthly Dost thou idle away pretious time vainly and live unusefully to Christ in thy generation what more apt both to convince and cure thee than such a remembrance of Christ as this O when thou considerest thou art not thine own thy time thy tallents are not thine own but Christs When thou shalt see thou art bought with a price a great price indeed and so art strictly obliged to glorifie God with thy soul and body which are his 2 Cor. 5.14 This will powerfully awake a dull sluggish and lazy spirit In a word what grace is there this remembrance of Christ cannot quicken What sin cannot it mortifie What duty cannot it animate O it is of singular use in all cases to the people of God Inference 4. Lastly Hence we infer Though all other things do yet Christ neither doth nor can grow stale Here 's an Ordinance to preserve his remembrance fresh to the end of the world The blood of Christ doth never dry up The beauty of this Rose of Sharon is never lost or withred He is the same yesterday to day and for ever As his body in the grave saw no corruption so neither can his Love or any of his excellencies When the Saints shall have fed their eyes upon him in Heaven thousands and millions of years he shall be as fresh beautiful and orient as at the beginning Other beauties have their prime and their fading time but Christs abides eternally Our delight in creatures is often most at first acquaintance when we come nearer to them and see more of them the edge of our delight is rebated But the longer you know Christ and the nearer you come to him still the more do you see of his glory Every farther prospect of Christ entertains the mind with a fresh delight He is as it were a new Christ every day and yet the same Christ still Blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTY SECOND SERMON LUK. XXII XLI XLII XLIII XLIV And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast and kneeled down and prayed saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done And there appeared an Angel unto him from Heaven strengthning him And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground THE hour is now almost come even that hour of sorrow which Christ had so often spoken of Yet a little a very little while and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners He hath affectionately recommended his Children to his Father He hath set his house in order and ordained a memorial of his death to be left with his people as you have heard There is but one thing more to do and then the Tragoedy begins He recommended us he must also recommend himself by prayer to the Father and when that is done he is ready let Iudas with the black guard come when they will This last Act of Christs preparation for his own death is contained in this Scripture wherein we have an account First Of his Prayer Secondly Of the Agony attending it Thirdly His relief in that Agony by an Angel that came and comforted him First The Prayer of Christ in a praying posture he will be found when the enemy comes He will be taken upon his knees He was pleading hard with God in prayer for strength to carry him through this heavy trial when they came to take him And this prayer was a very remarkable prayer both for the solitariness of it he withdrew about a stones cast vers 41. from his dearest intimates
Christs death was Justice and Mercy In respect of man it was murder and cruelty In respect of himself it was obedience and humility Hence our note is DOCT. That our Lord Iesus Christ was not only put to death but to the worst of deaths even the death of the Cross. To this the Apostle gives a plain testimony Phil. 2.8 He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross where his humiliation is both specified he was humbled to death and aggravated by a most emphatical reduplication even the death of the Cross. So Act. 5.30 Iesus whom ye slew and hanged upon a tree q. d. it did not suffice you to put him to a violent but you also put him to the most base vile and ignominious death you hanged him on a tree In this point we will discuss these three particulars viz. the nature or kind the manner and reasons of Christs death upon the tree First I shall open the kind or nature of this death by shewing you that it was a violent painful shameful cursed slow and succourless death First It was a violent death that Christ died Violent in it self though voluntary on his part He was cut off out of the land of the living Isai. 53.8 And yet he laid down his life of himself no man took it from him Joh. 10.17 I call his death violent because he died not a natural death i. e. he lived not till nature was consumed with age as it is in many who live till their balsamum radicale radical moisture like the oyl in the Lamp be quite consumed and then go out like an expiring Lamp It was not so with Christ. For he was but in the very flower and prime of his time when he died And indeed he must either die a violent death or not die at all partly because there was no sin in him to open a door to natural death as it doth in all others Partly because else his death had not been a sacrifice acceptable and satisfactory to God for us That which died of it self was never offered up to God but that which was slain when it was in its full strength and health The Temple was a Type of the body of Christ. Now when the Temple was destroyed it did not drop down as an antient structure decayed by time but was pulled down by violence when it was standing in its full strength Therefore he is said to suffer death and to be put to death for us in the flesh 1 Pet. 3.18 That 's the first thing It was a violent though a voluntary death For violent is not opposed to voluntary but to natural Secondly The death of the Cross was a most painful death Indeed in this death were many deaths contrived in one The Cross was a Rack as well as a Gibber The pains Christ suffered upon the Cross are by the Apostle emphatically stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.24 the pains of death but properly they signifie the pangs of travail yea the birth pangs the most acute sorrows of a travailing woman His soul was in travail Isai. 53. His body in bitter pangs and being as Aquinas speaks optime complectionatus of the most excellent Crisis exact and just temperament his sences were more acute and delicate than ordinary and all the time of his suffering so they continued not in the least blunted dulled or rebated by the pains he suffered The death of Christ doubtless contained the greatest and acutest pains imaginable Because these pains of Christ alone were intended to equalize all that misery which the sin of man deserved all that pain which the damned shall and the Elect deserved to feel Now to have pains meeting at once upon one person equivalent to all the pains of the damned Judge you what a plight Christ was in Thirdly The death of the Cross was a shameful death Not only because the crucified were stripped quite naked and so exposed as spectacles of shame but mainly because it was that kind of death which was appointed for the basest and vilest of men Their Free-men when they committed capital crimes were not condemned to the Cross. No that was looked upon as the death appointed for slaves Tacitus calls it servile supplicium the punishment of a slave and to the same sense Iuvenal speaks pone crucem servo put the Cross upon the back of a slave As they had a great esteem of a Free-man so they manifested it even when they had forfeited their lives in cutting them off by more honourable kinds of death This by hanging on the tree was alwaies accounted most ignominious To this day we say of him that 's hanged he dies the death of a dog And yet it 's said of our Lord Jesus Heb. 12.2 he not only endured the Cross but also despised the shame Obedience to his Fathers will and zeal for your Salvation made him digest the shame of it and despise the baseness that was in it Fourthly The death of the Cross was a cursed death Upon that account he is said to be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree Gal. 3.13 This refers to Deut. 21.23 His body shall not remain all night upon the Tree but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God The very Symbol of lifting them up betwixt heaven and earth carryed much shame in it For it implied this in it that the person so used was so execrable base and vile that he deserved not to tread upon the earth or touch the surface of the ground any more And the command for burying them that day doth not at all mitigate but rather aggravates this curse speaking the person to be so abominable that as he is lifted up into the air and hanging between heaven and earth as unworthy ever to set foot more upon the earth so when dead they were to hasten to bury him that such an abominable sight might be removed assoon as might be from before the eyes of men And that the earth might not be defiled by his lying on the surface of it when taken down However as the Learned Iunius hath Judiciously observed that this curse is only a Ceremonial curse For otherwise it 's neither in it self nor by the Law of nature or by civil Law more execrable than any other death And the main reason why the Ceremonial Law affixed the curse to this rather than any other death was principally with respect to the death Christ was to die And therefore Reader see and admire the providence of God that Christ should die by a Roman and not by a Iudaick Law For Crucifying or Hanging on the Tree was a Roman punishment and not in use among the Jews But the Scriptures cannot be broken Fifthly The death of the Cross was a very slow and lingering death They died leisurably
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
1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as to a faithful Creator It 's very true this single relation in it self gives little ground of encouragement unless the creature had conserved that integrity in which it was originally created And they that have no more to plead with God for acceptance but their relation to him as creatures to a Creator will doubtless find that word made good to their little comfort Isa. 27.11 It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour But now grace brings that relation into repute Holiness ingratiates us again and revives the remembrance of this relation So that believers only can plead this Secondly As the gratious soul is his creature so it is his redeemed creature One that he hath bought and that with a great price Even with the pretious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 This greatly encourages the departing soul to commit it self into the hands of God so you find Psal. 31.5 Into thy hands I commend my Spirit thou hast redeemed it O Lord God of truth Surely this is mighty encouragement to put it self upon God in a dying hour Lord I am not only thy creature but thy redeemed creature One that thou hast bought with a great price O I have cost thee dear For my sake Christ came from thy bosom and is it imaginable that after thou hast in such a costly way even by the expence of the pretious blood of Christ redeemed me thou shouldst at last exclude me Shall the ends both of Creation and Redemption of this soul be lost together Will God form such an excellent creature as my soul is in which are so many wonders of the wisdom and power of its Creator Will he be content when sin had marr'd the frame and defaced the glory of it to recover it to himself again by the death of his own dear Son and after all this cast it away as if there were nothing in all this Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit I know thou wilt have a respect to the work of thy hands Especially to a redeemed creature upon which thou hast been out so great sums of Love which thou hast bought at so dear a rate Thirdly Nay that 's not all the gratious soul may confidently and securely commit it self into the hands of God when it parts with its body at death not only because it is his creature his redeemed creature but because it is his renewed creature also And this lays a firm ground â—or the believers confidence of acceptecâ—a not that it is the proper cause or reason of its acceptance but as it is the souls best evidence that it is accepted with God and shall not be refused by him when it comes to him at death For in such a soul there is a double workmanship of God both glorious pieces though the last exceeds in glory A natural workmanship in the excellent frame of that noble creature the soul. And a gratious workmanship upon that again A new creation upon the old Glory upon Glory We are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus Eph. 2.10 The Holy Ghost came down from heaven on purpose to create this new workmanship To frame this new creature And indeed it is the Top and glory of all Gods works of wonder in this world And must needs give the believer encouragement to commit it self to God whether at such a time it shall reflect either upon the end of the work or upon the end of the workman both which meet in the salvation of the soul so wrought upon the end of the work in our glory By this we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 It is also the design and end of him that wrought it 2 Cor. 55. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God Had he not designed thy soul for glory the spirit should never have come upon such a sanctifying design as this Surely it shall not sail of a reception into glory when it 's cast out this Tabernacle Such a work was not wrought in vain neither can it ever perish When once sanctification comes upon a soul it so roots it self in the soul that where the soul goes it goes Gifts indeed they die All natural excellency and beauty that goes away at death Iob 4. ult But grace ascends with the soul. It is a sanctified when a separate soul. And can God shut the door of Glory upon such a soul that by grace is made meet for the inheritance O it cannot be Fourthly As the gracious soul is a renewed soul so it is also a Sealed Soul God hath sealed it in this world for that glory into which it is now to enter at death All gracious souls are sealed objectively i. e. they have those works of grace wrought on their souls which do as but now is said ascertain and evidence their Title to glory And many are sealed formally That is the spirit helps them clearly to discern their interest in Christ and all the promises This both secures heaven to the soul in it self and becomes also an earnest or pledge of the glory in the unspeakable joys and comforts that it breeds in the soul. So you find 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts Gods sealing us gives high security His objective seal makes it sure in it self his formal seal makes it so to us But if over and above all this he will please as a fruit of that his sealing to give us those heavenly unexpressible joys and comforts which are the fruit of his formal sealing work to be an earnest a foretast and hansel of that glory how can the soul that hath found all this doubt in the least of a rejection by its God when at death it comes to him surely if God have sealed he will not refuse you If he have given you his earnest he will not shut you out Gods earnest is not given in Jest. Fifthly Moreover every gratious soul may confidently cast it self into the arms of its God when it goes hence with Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit For as much as every gratious soul is a soul in Covenant with God and God stands obliged by his Covenant and Promise to such not to cast them out when they come unto him As soon as ever thy soul became his by regeneration that Promise became its own Heb. 13.5 I will never leave you nor forsake you And will he leave the soul now at a pinch when it never had more need of a God to stand by it than it hath then every gratious soul is entitled to that Promise Ioh. 14.3 I will come again and receive you to my self And will he fail
Lord they shall bring out the bones of the Kings of Iudah and the bones of his Princes c. And shall spread them before the Sun and Moon c. This is rather conceiv'd to be an act of Covetousness than Cruelty They shall ransack their Graves for the treasure that is hid there among their bones It 's possible the case so stands with many of you that you have no great matter to bestow upon your funerals nor are they like to be splendid no stately monuments no hidden treasures but if Christ be yours you carry that with you to your Graves which is better than all the Gold and Silver in the world What would you be the better if your Coffin were made of beaten Gold or your Grave-stone set thick with glittering Diamonds But if you die in the Lord i. e. interested in and united to the Lord you shall carry six grounds of Comfort with you to your Graves the least of which is not to be purchased with the wealth of both Indies First The first ground of comfort which a believer carries with him to the Grave is that the Covenant of God holds firmly with his very dust all the daies of its appointed time in the Grave So much Christ tells us Matth. 22.31 32. I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and of Iacob God is not the God of the Dead but the God of the Living q. d. Abraham Isaac and Iacob are naturally dead but in as much as God long after their deaths proclaimed himself their God still therefore they are all alive foederally alive to God They live that is their Covenant relation lives still Whether we live or whether we die saith the Apostle we are the Lords Rom. 14.7 8 9. Now what an encouragement is here I am as much the Lords in the state of the dead as I was in the state of the living Death puts an end to all other relations and bonds but the bond of the Covenant rots not in the Grave That dust is still the Lords Secondly As Gods Covenant with our very bodies is indissolvable so Gods love to our very dust is inseparable I am the God of Abraham God looks down from heaven into the Graves of his Saints with delight and looks on that pile of dust with complacency which those that once loved it cannot behold without loathing The Apostle is express Rom. 8.33 That death separates not the believer from the love of Gâ—d As at first it was not our natural comliness or beauty that drew or engaged his love to us so neither will he cease to love us when that beauty is gone and we become objects of loathing to all flesh When a Husband cannot endure to see a Wife or a Wife her Husband but saith of them that were once dear and pleasant as Abraham of his beloved Rachel bury my dead out of my sight Yet then the Lord delights in it as much as ever The Gold-Smith doth not value the dust of his Gold as Gold values the dust of his Saints for all these pretious particles are united to Christ. Thirdly As Gods love will be with you in the Grave so Gods providence shall take order about your Graves When it shall be dig'd for you And be sure he will not dig your Graves till you are fit to be put into them He will bring you thither in the best time Iob 5.26 Thou shalt come to thy Grave as a Shock of Corn in its season You shall be ripe and ready before God house you there It 's said of David that after he had served his generation by the will of God he fell asleep Acts 13.36 O what a holy and wise will is that will of God that so orders our death And how equal is it that our will should be concluded by it Fourthly If you be in Christ as Gods Covenant holds with you in the Grave his love is inseparable from your dust his providence shall give order when it shall be digged for you so in the next place his pardons have loosed all the bonds of guilt from you before you lie down in the Grave So that you shall not die in your sins Ah friends what a comfort is this That you are the Lords Free-men in the Grave Sin is a bad bed-fellow and a worse Grave-fellow It 's a grievous threatning Ioh. 8.24 You shall die in your sins Better be cast alive into a pit among Dragons and Serpents than dead into your Graves among your Sins O what a terrible word is that Iob 20.11 His bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall lie down with him in the dust But from the company of sin in the Grave all the Saints are delivered Gods full free and final pardons have shut guilt out of your Graves Fifthly When ever you come to your Graves you shall find the enmity of the Grave slain by Christ. It is no enemy nay you will find it friendly a priviledged place to you It will be as sweet to you that are in Christ as a soâ—t bed in a still quiet Chamber is to one that 's weary and sleepy Therefore it 's sâ—id 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Death is yours Yours as a priviledge Your friend There you shall find sweet rest in Jesus Be hurried pained troubled no more Sixthly To conclude if in Christ know this for your Comfort that your own Lord Jesus Christ keeps the Keys of all the Chambers of Death and as he unlocks the door of Death when he lets you in so he will open it again for you when you awake to let you out and from the time he opens to let you in till the time he opens to let you out he himself wakes and watches by you while you sleep there I saith he have the Keys of Death O it 's comfortable to hear the Keys gingle in his hand Rev. 1.18 O then as you expect peace or rest in the Chambers of Death get Union with Christ. A Grave with Christ is a comfortable place The THIRTY EIGHTH SERMON ISAIAH LIII II He shall see the Travel of his Soul and be satisfied WE are now arrived at the last particular which we designed to speak to in Christs state of humiliation namely the Designs and blessed Ends for which he was so deeply abased It 's inconsistent with the prudence of a common Agent to be at vast expences of time pains and cost and not to propound to himself a design worthy of all those expences And it is much less imaginable that Christ would so stupendiously abase himself by stooping from the bosom of his Father to the state of the dead where our last Discourse lefâ— him if there had not been some excellent and glorious thing in his eye the attainment whereof might give him a content and satisfaction equivalâ—nt to all the sorrowâ— and abasures he endured or it And so much is plainly carried in this Scripture He shall see the Travel of his
in the earth by an earthquake and the Oracle was consulted how it might be closed this answer was returned that breach can never be closed except something of great worth be thrown into it Such a breach was that which sin made it could never be reconciled but by the death of Jesus Christ the most excellent thing in all the Creation Inference 2. How sad is the state of all such as are not comprized in the Articles of peace with God! The impenitent unbeliever is excepted God is not reconciled to him and if God be his enemy how little avails it who is his friend For if God be a mans enemy he hath an Almighty enemy in him whose very frown is destruction Deut. 32.40 41 42. I lift up my hand to Heaven and say I live for ever If I whet my glittering sword and my hand take hold on judgement I will render vengeance to my enemies and I will reward them that hate me I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh and that with the blood of the slain and the Captives from the beginning of revenge upon the enemy Yea he is an unavoidable enemy Fly to the utmost parts of the earth there shall his hand reach thee as it is Psal. 139.10 The wings of the morning cannot carry thee out of his reach If God be your enemy you have an immortal enemy who lives for ever to avenge himself upon his adversaries And what wilt thou do when thou art in Sauls case 1 Sam. 28.15 16. Alas whither wilt thou turn To whom wilt thou complain But what wilt thou do when thou shalt stand at the Bar and see that God who is thine enemy upon the throne Sad is their case indeed who are not comprehended in the Articles of peace with God Inference 3. If Christ died to reconcile us to God give diligence to clear up to your own souls your interest in this reconciliation If Christ thought it worth his blood to purchase it it 's worth your care and pains to clear it And what can better evidence it than your conscientious tenderness of sin lest you make new breaches Ah if reconciled you will say as Ezra 9.14 And now our God seeing thou hast given us such a deliverance as this should we again break thy Commandments If reconciled to God his friends will be your friends and his enemies your enemies If God be your friend you will be diligent to please him Iohn 15.10 14. He that makes not peace with God is an enemy to his own soul. And he that is at peace but takes no pains to clear it is an enemy to his own comfort But I must pass from this to the third End of Christs death End 3. You have seen two of those beautiful births of Christs travail and lo a third cometh namely the sanctification of his people Typical blood was shed as you heard to purifie them that were unclean and so was the blood of Christ shed to purge away the sins of his people so speaks the Apostle expresly Ephes. 5.25 26. Christ gave himself for the Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it And so he tells us himself Joh. 17.19 And for their sakes I sanctifie my self i. e. consecrate or devote my self to death that they also might be sanctified through the truth Upon the account of this benefit received by the blood of Christ is that Doxology which in a lower strain is now sounded in the Churches but will be matter of the Lambs song in Heaven Rev. 1.5 6. To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood be glory and honour for ever Now there is a twofold evil in sin the guilt of it and the polution of it Justification properly cures the former Sanctification the latter but both Justification and Sanctification flow unto sinners out of the death of Christ. And though it 's proper to say the spirit sanctifies yet it is certain it was the blood of Christ that procured for us the spirit of sanctification Had not Christ died the spirit had never come down from Heaven upon any such design The pouring forth of Christs blood for us obtained the pouring forth of the spirit of holiness upon us Therefore the spirit is said to come in his name and to take of his and shew it unto us Hence it 's said 1 Joh. 5.6 he came both by blood and by water by blood washing away the guilt by water purifying from the filth of sin Now this fruit of Christs death even our sanctification is a most incomparable mercy For do but consider a few particular excellencies of holiness First Holiness is the Image and glory of God His image Coll. 3.10 and his glory Exod. 15.11 who is like unto thee O Lord glorious in holiness Now when the guilt and filth of sin is washt off and the beauty of God put upon the soul in sanctification O what a beautiful Creature is the soul now So lovely in the eyes of Christ even in its imperfect holiness that he saith Cant. 6.5 Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me So we render it but the Hebrew word signifies they have made me proud or puffed me up It 's a beam of divine glory upon the Creature enamouring the very heart of Christ. Secondly As it 's the souls highest beauty so it 's the souls best evidence for heaven Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matth. 5.8 And without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.14 No gifts no duties no natural endowments will evidence a righâ— in heaven but the least measure of true holiness will secure heaven to the soul. Thirdly As holiness is the souls best evidence for heaven so it 's a continual spring of comfort to it in the way thither The purest and sweetest pleasures in this world are thâ— results of holiness Till we come to live holily we never live comfortably Heaven is Epitomized in holiness Fourthly And to say no more It is the peculiar mark by which God hath visibly distinguished his own from other men Psal. 4.3 The Lord hath set apart him that is Godly for himself Q. D. this is the Man and that the Woman to whom I intend to be good for ever This is a man for me O holiness how surpassinâ—ly glorious art thou Inference 1. Did Christ die to sanctifie his people how deep then is the polution of sin that nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse it All the tears of a penitent sinner should he shed as many as there have fallen drops of rain since the Creation to this day cannot wash away one sin The everlasting burnings in Hell cannot purifie the flaming conscience from the least sin O guess at the wound by the largeness and length of this Tent that follows the mortal weapon sin Inference 2. Did Christ die to sanctifie his people Behold then the love
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Surely it cannot be supposed but he is able to save to the uttermost all them that come to God by him Seeing he ever lives to make intercession Heb. 7.25 Think how safe the people of God in this world are whose head is in Heaven It was a comfortable expression of one of the Fathers incouraging himself and others with this truth in a dark day Come said he why do we tremble thus do we not see our head above water If he live believers cannot die Ioh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also And let no mans heart suggest a suspicious thought to him that this wonderful advancement of Christ may cause him to forget his poor people groaning here below under sin and misery For the temper and disposition of his faithful and tender heart is not changed with his condition He bears the same respect to us as when he dwelt among us For indeed he there lives and acts upon our account Heb. 7.25 1 Ioh. 2.1 2. And how seasonable and comfortable will the meditations of Christs Exaltation be to the believer when sickness hath wasted thy Body wither'd its beauty and God is bringâ—ng theâ— to the dust of Death Ah think then that that vile Body shall be conformed to the glorious Body of Christ Pâ—al 3.21 As God hath glorified and highly exalted 〈◊〉 Son whose form was mar'd more than any mans so will he exalt thee also I do not say to a parity or equality in glory with Christ for in heaven he will be discerned and distinguished by his peculiar glory from all the Angels and Saints as the Sun is known by its excelling glory from the lesser Star But we shall be conform'd to this glorious head according to the proportion of members O whither will Love mount the believer in that day Having spoken this much of Christs exalted state to cast some general light upon it and engage your attentions to it I shall now according to the degrees of this his wonderful exaltation briefly open it under the forementioned heads viz. His Resurrection Ascension Session at the Fathers right hand and his return to Judge the World The THIRTY NINHTH SERMON MATTH XXVIII VI He is not here for he is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay WE have finished the Doctrine of Christs humiliation wherein the Sun of righteousness appeared to you as a setting Sun gone out of sight but as the Sun when it 's gone down to us begins a new day in another part of the world so Christ having finisht his course and work in this world rises again and that in order to the acting another glorious part of his work in the world above In his death he was upon the matter totally Eclipsed but in his Resurrection he begins to recover his light and glory again God never intended that the darling of his soul should be lost in an obscure Sepulchre An Angel descends from heaven to roll away the stone and with it the reproach of his death And to be the heavenly Herald to proclaim his Resurrection to the two Mary's whose love to Christ had at this time drawn them to visit the Sepulchre where they lately left him At this time the Lord being newly risen the keepers were trembling and become as dead men So great was the terrible Majesty and awful solemnity attending Christs Resurrection but to encourage these good souls the Angel prevents them with these good tidings He is not here for he is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay q. d. Be not troubled though you have not the end you came for one sight more of your dear though dead Iesus yet you have not lost your labour for to your eternal comfort I tell you he is risen as he said And to put it out of doubt come hither and satisfie your selves see the place where the Lord lay In which word we have both a Declaration and Confirmation of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead First A Declaration of it by the Angel both Negatively and Affirmatively Negatively he is not here Here indeed you laid him here you left him and here you thought to find him as you left him but you are happily mistaken he is not here However this giving them no satisfaction for he might continue dead still though removed to another place as indeed they suspected he was Ioh. 20.13 Therefore his resurrection is declared Positively and Affirmatively he is risen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word imports the active power or self quickening principle by which Christ raised himself from the state of the dead Which Luke takes notice of also Acts 1.3 Where he saith he shewed or presented himself alive after his Passion It was the divine nature or God-head of Christ which reviv'd and rais'd the man-hood Secondly Here is also a plain confirmation of Christs Resurrection and that first from Christs own Prediction he is risen as he said He â—oretold that which I declare to be now fulfill'd Let it not therefore seem incredible to you Secondly by their own sight come see the place where the Lord lay The Grave hath lost its guest it 's now empty death hath lost its prey It receiv'd but could not retain him Come see the place where the Lord lay Thus the Resurrection of Christ is declar'd and confirm'd Hence our Observation is DOCT. That our Lord Iesus Christ by the Almighty power of his own God-head revived and rose from the Dead to the terror and consternation of his enemies and the unspeakable consolation of Believers That our Lord Jesus Christ though laid was not lost in the Grave but the third day revived and rose again is a truth confirmed to us by many infallible proofs as Luke witnesseth Act. 1.3 We have Testimonies of it both from heaven and earth and both infallible From Heaven we have the Testimony of Angels and to the Testimony of an Angel all credit is due for Angels are holy Creatures and cannot deceive us The Angel tells the two Mary's in the Text he is risen We have Testimonies of it from men holy men who were eye witnesses of this truth to whom he shew'd himself alive by the space of forty days after his Resurrection by no less than nine solemn Apparitions to them Sometime five hundred Brethren saw him at once 1 Cor. 15.6 These were holy persons who durst not deceive and who confirmed their Testimony with their blood So that no point of Religion is of more confessed truth and infallible certainty than this before us And blessed be God it is so For if it were not then were the Gospel in vain 1 Cor. 15.14 Seeing it hangs the whole weight of our Faith hope and salvation upon Christ as risen from the dead If this were
When thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrection of the Iust. It was the opinion of an eminent modern Divine that no man living fully understands and believes that Scripture Matth. 25.40 In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me How few Saints would be exposed to daily wants and necessities if that Scripture were but fully understood and believed Inference 3. Is Christ risen from the dead and that as a publick person and representative of believers How are we all concerned then to secure to our selves an interest in Christ and consequently to this blessed Resurrection What consolation would be left in this world if the hope of the Resurrection were taken away 'T is this blesed hope that must support you under all the Troubles of life and in the Agonies of Death The securing of a blessed Resurrection to your selves is therefore the most deep concernment you have in this world And it may be secured to your selves if upon serious heart examination you can discover the following Evidences Evidence 1. First If you are regenerated Creatures brought forth in a new nature to God for we are begotten again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead Christs Resurrection is the ground-work of our hope And the new birth is our title or evidence of our interest in it So that until our souls are partakers of the spiritual Resurrection from the death of sin we can have no assurance our bodies shall be partakers of that blessed Resurrection to life Blessed and holy saith the Spirit is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Rev. 20.6 Never let unregenerated souls expect a comfortable meeting with their bodies again Rise they shall by Gods terrible Citation at the sound of the last trump but not to the same end that the Saints arise nor by the same principle They to whom the spirit is now a principle of Sanctification to them he will be the principle of a joyful Resurrection See then that you get gratious souls now or never expect glorious bodies then Evid 2. If you be dead with Christ you shall live again by the life of Christ. If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Planted together some refer it to believers themselves Jews and Gentiles are planted together in Christ. So Erasmus believers grow together like branches upon the same root which should powerfully inforce the great Gospel duty of unity among themselves But I would rather understand it with reference to Christ and believers with whom believers are in other Scriptures said to suffer together and be glorified together to die together and live together to be Crucified together and buried together all noting the communion they have with Christ both in his death and in his life Now if the power of Christs death i. e. the mortifying influence of it have been upon our hearts killing their Lusts deading their affections and flatting their appetites to the Creature then the power of his life or Resurrection shall come like the animating dew upon our dead withered bodies to revive and raise them up to live with him in glory Evid 3. If your hearts and affections be now with Christ in Heaven your bodies in due time shall be there also and conformed to his glorious body So you find it Phil. 3.20 21. For our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body The body is here called vile or the body of our vileness Not as God made it but as sin hath marred it Not absolutely and in it self but relatively and in comparison of what it will be in its second edition at the Resurrection Then those scattered bones and dispersed dust like pieces of old broken battered Silver will be new cast and wrought in the best and newest fashion even like to Christs glorious body Whereof we have this evidence that our conversation is already heavenly The temper frame and disposition of our souls is already so therefore the frame and temper of our bodies in due time shall be so Evid 4. If you strive now by any means to attain the Resurrection of the dead no doubt but you shall then attain what you now strive for This was Pauls great ambition that by any means he might attain the Resurrection of the dead Phil. 3.11 He means not simply a Resurrection from the dead for that all men shall attain whether they strive for it or no. But by a metonymy of the Subject for the Ajunct he intends that compleat holiness and perfection which shall attend the state of the Resurrection so it is expounded vers 12. So then if God have raised in your hearts a vehement desire and assiduous endeavour aftâ—r a perfect freedom from sin and full Conformity to God in the beauties of holiness that very love of holiness your present pantings and tendencies after perfection speaks you to be persons designed for it Evid 5. If you are such as do good in your Generation If you be fruitful and useful men and women in the world you shall have part in this blessed Resurrection Ioh. 5.29 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life Now it is not every act materially good that entitles a man to this priviledge but the same requisites that the School-men assign to make a good prayer are also necessary to every good work The person matter manner and end must be good Nor is it any single good act but a series and course of holy actions that is here meant What a spur should this be to us all as indeed the Apostle makes it closing up the Doctrine of the Resurrection with this solemn exhortation 1 Cor. 15. Last with which I also close mine Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift The FORTIETH SERMON JOH XX. XVII Iesus saith unto her touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God IN all the former Sermons we have been following Christ through his Humiliation from the time that he left the blessed bosom of his Father and now having finished the whole course of his obedience on
the account of his Office and the benefits we receive by him We are obliged even on the score of gratitude and ingenuity to obey him For he is sent in the quality of an Advocate to help us to pray To indite our requests for us To teach us what and how to ask of God Rom. 8.26 He comes to us as a Comforter Ioh. 14.16 And none like him His work is to take of Christs and shew it to us i. e. to take of his death Resurrection Ascension yea of his very present Intercession in Heaven and shew it to us He can be with us in a moment he can as one well observes tell you what were the very last thoughts Christ was thinking in Heaven about you It was he that formed the body of Christ in the womb and so prepared him to be a sacrifice for us He filled that humanity with his unexampled fullness So fitting and anointing him for the discharge of his Office 'T is he thaâ— puâ—s efficacy into the Ordinances and without him they would be but a dead letter 'T was he that blessed them to your conviction and câ—nversion For if Angels had been the Preachers no conversion had followed without the Spirit 'T is he that is the vinculum unionis bond of union betwixt Christ and your souls without which you could never have had interest in Christ or Communion with Christ. 'T was he that so often hath helped your infirmities when you knew not what to say Comforted your hearts when they were overwhelmed wiâ—hin you and you knew not what to do Preserved you many thousand times from sin and ruine when you have been upon the slippery brâ—nk of it in temptations 'T is he in his sanctifying work that is the best evidence your souls have for Heaven It were endless to enumerate the mercies you have by him And now Reader dost thou not blush to think how unworthily thou hast treated such a friend For which oâ— all these his Offices or benefits dost thou grieve and quench him O grieve not the holy Spirit whom Christ sent assoon as ever he came to Heaven in his Fathers name and in his own name to perform all these Offices for you Inference 5. Is Christ ascended to the Father as our fore-runner then the door of Salvation stands open to all believers and by vertue of Christs ascension they also shall ascend after him far above all visible Heavens O my friends what place hath Christ prepared and taken up for you What a splendid habitation hath he provided for you God is not ashamed to be called your God for he hath prepared for you a City Heb. 11.16 In that City Christ hath provided mansions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resting places for your everlasting abode Ioh. 14.2 and keeps them for you till your coming O how August and glorious a dwelling is that where Sun Moon and Stars shall shine as much below your feet as they are now above your heads Yea such is the love Christ hath to the believer that as one saith if thou only hadst been the chosen of God Christ would have built that house for himself and thee Now it is for himself for thee and for many more who shall inherit with thee God send us a joyful meeting within the vail with our fore-runner and sweeten our passage into it with many a fore-sight and fore-tast thereof And mean time let the Love of a Saviour inflâ—me our hearts so that when ever we cast a look towards that place where our fore-runner is for us entred our souls may say with melting affections Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ and again Blessed be God for his unspeakable Gift The FORTY FIRST SERMON HEB. I.III. part of the Verse When he had by himself purged our sins sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on high CHrist being returned again to his Father having finished his whole work on earth is there bid by the Father to sit down in the seat of honour and rest A seat prepared for him at Gods right hand that makes it honourable and all his enemies as a footstool under his feet that makes it easie How much is the state and condition of Jesus Christ changed in a few days Here he groaned wept laboured suffered sweat yea sweat blood and found no rest in this world but when he comes to Heaven there he enters into rest Sits down for ever in the highest and easiest throne prepared by the Father for him when he had done his work When he had by himself purged our sins he sate down c. The scope of this Epistle is to demonstrate Christ to be the fulness of all Legal Types and Ceremonies and that whatever light glimered to the world through them yet it was but as the light of the day Star to the light of this Sun In this Chapter Christ the subject of the Epistle is described and particularly in this third verse he is described three ways First By his Essential and primaeval glory and dignity he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his Fathers glory the very splendor of glory the very refulgency of that Son of glory The primary reason of that appellation is with respect to his eternal and ineffable generation light of light as the Nicene Creed expresses it As a beam of light proceeding from the Sun And the secondary reason of it is with respect to men for look as the Sun communicates its light and influence to us by its beams which it projects so doth God communicate his goodness and manifest himself to us by Christ. Yea he is the express Image or Character of his person Not as the impressed Image of the Seal upon the Wax but as the engraving in the Seal it self Thus he is described by his essential glory Secondly He is described by the work he wrought here on earth in his humbled state and it was a glorious work and that wrought out by his own single hand when he had by himself purged our sins A work that all the Angels in Heaven could not do but Christ did it Thirdly and Lastly He is described by his glory the which as a reward of that work he now enjoys in Heaven When he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high i e. the Lord cloathed him with the greatest power and highest honour that Heaven it self could afford for so much this phrase of sitting down on the right hand of Majesty imports as will appear in the explication of this point which is the result of this clause viz. DOCT. That when our Lord Iesus Christ had finished his work on earth he was placed in the seat of the highest honour and authority at the right hand of God in Heaven This truth is transformingly glorious Stephen had but a glimpse of Christ at his Fathers right hand
Vnion with the second Person p. 57. Adversaries to the Vnion of the two natures in Christ who and how p. 58 59. Affections how moved by remembring Christ. p. 270 271. Afflictions four things to be studied in them p. 220. how they provoke to holiness p. 622. Agonies of Christ in the Garden whether preternatural p. 288. the cause of it p. ibid. Amyntas his intercession for his Brother Aechylus p. 156. Appetite wanton Appetites reproved p. 473. Apollogy none left to them that perish under Gospel-offers p. 231. and p. 46 47. Apostolical dignity what it was p. 298. Aptitude of the Sacrament to refresh the memory of Christ. p. 272. Articles of peace with God what they are p. 532. how sad not to be comprized in those Articles p. 533. Arraignment of Christ at Pilats bar an evidence believers are never cast at Gods bar p. 324 325. Ascension of Christ to Heaven opened p. 563. the terms of Christs Ascension p. 564. the reason and ends of it p. 568 569. Ascriptions of Praise to Christ for all our mercies how reasonable p. 92 93. Assumption of our Nature opened p. 52. our nature was Assumed integrally p. 55. And with all its natural infirmities ibid. Reasons of Christs Assuming our Nature p. 58. B. BElievers are warranted and incouraged to commit their soul into Christs hands at death p. 493. Believers under highest obligations to set then selves apart for Christ. p. 75 76. Believers immediately received into glory upon their dissolution p. 437. Four Arguments to evince it p. 438 439. Blaspheamous suggestions and how best cured p. 246. Blood of Christ of infinite value p. 348. How it cools and cases a distressed Conscience p. 348. How sad to have it cry against us p. 160. Bodies of Saints intended to be made glorious pieces and how that appears p. 63. Bodies of Saints how to be disposed used and ordered p. 556. The due honour of our bodies to be preserved and why p. 556. Bosom of God what is and what is not there p. 19 20. Breach made between us and God by sin how dreadful p. 86. Bread the excellency of it p. 267. Burden of Christs sufferings how great it was p. 465 466 467. Burial Christs dead body had a decent though not a pompous Burial p. 506. Three Reasons why Christ must have a Burial p. 508. Christs Burial obscure as to the manner of its performance by his friends p. 509. Christs Funeral is adorned by several famous miracles from Heaven p. 510. Decent and mournful Burials laudable among Christians p. 514. C. CAre of Christ over his Church and Ministers p. 121. His Care for it manifest in Sacramental appointment many wayes p. 273. Care of Christ for his natural relations p. 418 419. Change made by death very great p. 495. Children how dear to Parents p. 420. Nothing of Christ in rebellious Children p. 424. Five Queries to convict such p. 425. Six Considerations to humble disobedient Children p. 426. And Chidren presented with a famous pattern p. 419. Conscientious Children to be incouraged p. 428 429. Christ an invitation to Study him p. 9 10. Christs delights in the Fathers bosom infinite p. 17 18. Christ had no sorrows or wants in the Fathers bosom p. 15 16. Christs self-denyal in leaving the Fathers bosom for us p. 20. Christs excellency p. 9. Christ made flesh what it imports p. 51 52. Christ is true God p. 100 101. Christ the Original of all light p. 101. The first receptacle of all power p. 101. The manner of his providential influence p. 214 215. Christ is most excellent soul-food p. 272. Christ and his blood never grow stale p. 278. His love beyond all comparison p. 274. Christ hath finished redemption work p. 482. How he hath wrought it out in six particulars p. 481 482. a Character of Christs excellency p. 512 513. Christs glorious Majesty p. 581 584. Church safe and why p. 583. Circumcision a great abasement to Christ and that two wayes p. 237 238. Comfortable indeed that he who assumed our Nature is God p. 63. Company the very best sometimes a burden p. 290. Commission of Christ great security to our faith p. 63. Committing the soul to Christ implyes six great things in it p. 494 495. Seven excellent grounds of encouragement to this last and great work p. 496 497 498. The Concourse or co-operation of both Natures in Christs Mediatory works p. 90. Confession when and why our duty p. 316 317. Confidence in men a folly p. 309. Conscience how overborn by fleshly interests p. 323. Rules to prevent it p. 323. It s inward troubles dreadful ibid. Consecration of Christ what it is p. 71 72. Constancy in Religion urged p. 363. Content with our present state how rational p. 188. Court that tryed Christ had no authority so to do p. 314. Covenant of Redemption p. 26 27. The Form Foederates and performance of that Cevenant opened p. 27 28. The new Covenant how Christs death confirmed and ratified it p. 536 537. Cross of Christ three sweet considerations to bear it cheerfully p. 351 352. The Cross of Christ a dignified Cross. p. 364. Cup What it signifies in Scripture p. 284. What the passing of it is p. 284 285. Curse that may prove the soarest curse from which men promise themselves much content p. 307. D. DEath fairly overcome and that in its own territories by the Resurrection of Christ. p. 553. Death of the Cross what it was opened in six properties p. 343 344 345. The manner of Crucifying p. 346 347. Why Christ was Crucified p. 347 348. Death Christ chose to meet it in a praying posture p. 281 c. Christs Death the worst death for kind p. 344. Death not to be feared by believers p. 555. Their duty to long for it p. 188. Souls not ordinarily wrought on at Death p. 442. Choice encouragements to believers against the fear of Death p. 518 519. Delight of Christ in the Fathers bosome how great pure and constant p. 17. How transcendent to all other delights in the World p. 18 19. Defect The finishing of Christs work how great a relief against the defects that attend our works p. 484. Deliverance from wrath obtained by Christ is free full peculiar wonderful p. 524. Three signes of a soul delivered from wrath to come p. 528 529. Desersion Christ deserted by his Father in time of greatest need p. 449. Desersions either absolute or respective ibid. Respective Desersions of four sorts p. 450. How Christ was not Deserted opened in six particulars p. 450. In what sense Christ was deserted opened in five particulars p. 451 452. Two special ends of Gods forsaking Christ p. 453. Christs Desersion more afflictive than all his other Sufferings five Reasons for it p. 455 456. Every time we sin we deserve to be eternally deserted p. 455. Desersion the greatest misery p. 456. Christs desersion the believers comfort p. 457. Despising Christ how intollerable to the Father p. 46
212 361 362. Purchase Christs blood purchased a rich inheritance for the Saints p. 180 181. Q. SIX Questions opening the difference betwixt suffering for Christ in this world and for sin in that to come p. 526. R. REconciliation with God its nature medium continuation properties and terms opened p. 530 531. Why effected by Christs death ibid. Redemption of souls costly p. 175. Rejecting knowledge how dangerous p. 11. Rejecting Christ most fatal p. 91 92. Relation of Christs sufferings to us p. 168. Religion Christian Religion incomparably sweet and satisfying to the Conscience p. 134 135. What cause men have to bless God for it ibid. Remembrance of Christ what it is opened at large p. 269 270. Two sorts of it ibid. What it includes p. 270 271. The usefulness of remembring Christ. p. 277 278. Rest no expectation of resting till we have done working and sinning p. 586. Four things break a Saints rest on earth p. 587. Resurrection of Christ the certainty of it p. 546. The absurdities following the denyal of it p. 546. The manner of his Resurrection opened in many particulars p. 547 548 c. Christs Resurrection was the Resurrection of the Saints head and representative p. 549. Resurrection of Saints the effect of Christs Resurrection three wayes p. 550 551. The agreement of our Resurrection with Christs opened in five particulars p. 551 552 553. Retracting what we have professed or done for Christ condemned by Pilates example p. 363. Revelations of Gods will by Iesus Christ various p. 101. Gradual p. 102. Plain p. 103. Powerful p. 103. Affectionate p. 104. Pure p. 104. Perfect p. 104. Righteousness how dangerous to joyn any thing of our own with Christs Righteousness in point of Iustification p. 177. S. SAcrament a special pledge of Christs care and love p. 273. Sacrament seasons heart melting seasons p. 276. Sacramental Bread and Wine whence their excellency p. 267. Saints their security for salvation from whence it is p. 262 263. Sanctification of Christ respects us p. 74 75. Our Sanctification the best evidence of our interest in a sanctified Iesus p. 80 81. Satisfaction to God necessary to our reconciliation p. 131. God stood upon full satisfaction p. 131. No meer man can satisfie God p. 132. Christs death made full satisfaction for sin p. 167. What divine satisfaction is p. 168. Five things imported in the satisfaction of Christ p. 168 169 170. Errors about the satisfaction of Christ refuted p. 171 172. Divers objections 173 c. of the Socinians answered about it p. 172 173 174. All thoughts of satisfying God by our selves to be abandoned p. 177. Sealing of Christ what it imports p. 69 70. How God the father sealed him p. 70 71. Why Christ must be sealed before he would act as Mediator p. 62 63. How many wayes the Spirit seals us p. 67. His sealing us an evidence of Christs being sealed for us p. 67. Security of believers argued from Christs Mediation p. 93. Self-denyal of Christ for us p. 20. Self-denyal for Christ how reasonable p. 22. Sentence given against Christ what it was Opened in six particulars p. 319 320. In what manner Christ received his Sentence p. 321. Services accidentally done for Christ unacceptable p. 362. Signes in the Sacrament of the Supper are of three sorts p. 272. Sin an infinite evil in it and how that appears p. 174. The horrid nature of sin opened p. 470. The deep pollution of sin p. 174. Sitting at Gods right hand what it imports opened in seven particulars p. 578 579 580. The Saints sitting with Christ what an advancement to them p. 582. Christ to be eyed in prayer as sitting at Gods right hand p. 584. Christ did not sit till he had finished his work Nor must we p. 586. Society we may have with such here whom we shall have no Society with in Heaven p. 309. Sorrow what it is p. 329. Sorrow distinguished into habitual actual natural supernatural p. 330. Souls how precious they are p. 440. Their sympathy with their bodies and their body with them p. 470. Spirit weighty considerations to keep Saints from grieving the Spirit p. 572. Stoop how low a stoop Christ made to recover us p. 224 225 226. Substance of Christs Mediatory Kingdom and the manner of administration distinguished p. 159 160. Substitution of Christ in our room as our Sacrifice necessary p. 159 160. The excellency and eternal efficacy of this Sacrifice opened p. 140 141 142 143 c. Success of Christs interest in the world unquestionable p. 366. Surety Christ is so and what his being so imports p. 85 86. Sufferings of Christ how great p. 466. They may affect natural hearts for three Reasons p. 330 331. Sufferings for Christ how glorious p. 526 527 58â— Sympathy of Christ with all that were burdened with sin or sorrow p. 241 242. T. TEars what they are p. 329. A double fountain of tears opened p. 330. Temptations of Christ fierce various and tedious p. 240 241. The great relief in temptation p. 246. Suitable temptations greatly hazard our ruine p. 305 306. Thief on the Cross his wonderful conversion p. 442 443. his example incourages none to delay conversion p. 443. Thirst proper and figurative p. 464. Thirst a great affliction p. 464. Christs thirst attributed to a double cause p. 466. Thirst in Hell what it is p. 472. Saints shall never thirst in Heaven p. 473 474. Throne how the Saints are confessors with Christ upon his throne p. 628. Time the preciousness of it and whence it results p. 435 436. Title affixed to the Cross of Christ what it was opened in six properties of it p. 358. The providence of God in the draught of Christs title remarkable in five things p. 360 361. Tryal of Christ for his life how managed p. 313. The inhumanity thereof p. 313 314. No man knows his own spiritual strength till it be put to the tryal p. 380. 381. Trust The Father and Son mutually trust each other p. 33. All our concerns to be trusted in the hands of Christ. p. 219 220. Trust in man how vain and foolish p. 309. V. THE Vicegerency of Christs sufferings p. 168. Understanding what it is and how opened p. 112 113. The proper office of Christ p. 114. Four things implyed in opening the understanding p. 114 115 116. Opening the understanding effected instrumentally by the word and spirit p. 117. The Union personal is extraordinary p. 54 55. How conserved when Christ was in the grave p. 57. How needful it is that Christ have union with our persons as well as natures p. 61. Unprincipled professors will become Apostates p. 305. Unbelievers where death will land them p. 440. Upbraid how those that perish under the Gospel will be upbraided by Iews Pagans and Devils p. 231 232. Uses that God will make of the Saints example in the day of judgement p. 628. Four uses he makes of it in this world p. 624 625 626. W. WEak