Ierusalems Wallâ— than for the binding up and healing of it self and in that Psal. that seem's to be the expression of his joy being exalted to the Throne and sitting peaceably on it yet he still thus prays for the peace of Ierusalem And the Penman of that 137. Psalm makes it an execrable oversight to forget Ierusalem ver 5. or to remember it coldly or secundarily no less will serve him than to prefer it to his chief joy Whatsoever else is top or head of his joy as the word is Ierusalems wellfare shall be its Crown shall be set above it And the Prophet whoever it was that wrote that poured out that Prayer from an afflicted Soul comforts himself in this that Zion shall be favoured my bones are consum'd c. But it matters not what becomes of me let me languish and wither away provided Sion flourish tho' I feel nothing but pains and troubles yet thou wilt arise and shew mercy to Sion I am content that satisfies me But where is now this Spirit of high sympathy with the Church sure if there were of it in us 't is now a fit time to act it If we be not altogether dead sure we will be stirr'd with the voice of those late stroaks of Gods hand and be driven to more humble and earnest prayer by it Men will change their poor base grumblings about their privacy Oh! what shall I do c. into strong cries for the Church of God and the publick deliverance of all these Kingdomes from the raging Sword but vile selfishness undoes us the most looking no further if themselves and theirs might be secur'd would regard little what became of the rest as one said when I am dead let the World be fir'd but the Christian mind is of a larger Sphere looks not only upon more than it self in present but even to after Times and Ages and can rejoyce in the good to come when it self shall not be here to partake of it is more dilated and liker unto God and to our head Iesus Christ. The Lord says the Prophet Esay in all his peoples affliction was afflicted himself and Jesus Christ accounts the sufferings of his Body the Church his own Saul Saul why persecutest thou me the heel was trod upon on earth and the head cryeth from Heaven as sensible of it and this in all our evils especially our spiritual Griefs is a high point of comfort to us that our Lord Jesus is not insensible of them This emboldens us to complain our selves and to put in our petitions for help to the Throne of Grace through his hand knowing that when he presents he will speak his own sense of our condition and move for us as it were for himself as we have it sweetly express'd Heb. 4. 15. 16. Now as it is our comfort so it is our pattern Love as Brethren Hence springs this feeling we speak oâ— Love is the cause of union and union the cause of sympathy and of that unanimity before they that have the same spirit uniting and animating them cannot but have the same Mind and the same feelings And this Spirit is derived from that head Christ in whom Christians live and move and have their being their new and excellent being and so in living in him they love him and are one in him they are Brethren as here the word is their fraternity holds in him he is head of it the first born among many Brethren Men are Brethren in two natural respects their Bodies of the same earth and their Souls breathed from the same God but this third fraternity that is founded in Christ is far more excellent and more firm than the other two for being one in him they have there taken in the other two for that in him is our whole Nature he is the Man Christ Iesus but to the advantage and 't is an infinite one being one in him we are united by the Divine Nature in him who is God blessed for ever and this is the highest certainly and the strongest union that can be imagin'd Now this is a great Mystery indeed as the Apostle says speaking of this same point the union of Christ and his Church whence their union and Communion one with another that make up that Body the Church is deriv'd In Christ every believer is born of God is his Son and so they are not only Brethren one with another that are so born but Christ himself own 's them as his Brethren both he which sanctifies and they who are sanctifiâ—d are all of one for which cause he is not asham'd to call them Brethren Sin broke all to pieces Man from God and one from another Christ's work in the World was Vnion to make up these breaches he came down and begun the union which was his work in the wonderful union made in his Person that was to work it made God and Man one and as the Nature of Man was reconciled so by what he performed the Persons of Men are united to God Faith makes them one with him and he makes them one with the Father and from these results this oneness amongst themselves concentring and meeting in Jesus Christ and in the Father through him they are made one together And that this was his great work we may read in his Prayer where it is the burden and main strain the great request he so iterates that they may be one as we are one ver 11. a high comparison such as Man durst not name but after him that so warrants us and again ver 21. that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us and so on So that certainly where this is it is the ground work of another kind of Friendship and love than the World is acquainted with or is able to judge of and hath more worth in one drachme of it than all the quintessence of civil or natural assection can amount to The friendship of the World the best of them are but tyed with chains of glass but this fraternal love of Christians is a Golden chain both more precious and more strong and lasting the other are worthless and brittle The Christian ows and pays a General Charity and good will to all but peculiar and intimate friendship he cannot have but with such as come within the compass of this fraternal love Which after a special manner flows from God and returns to him and abides in him and shall remain unto eternity Where this love is and abounds it will banish far away all those dissentions and bitternesses and those â—rivolous mistakings that are so frequent amongst the most it will teach wisely and gently to admonish one another where it is needful but further than that it will pass by many offences and failings and cover a multitude of sins and will very much sweeten Society and make it truly profitable therefore the Psalmist calls it both
Father which is in Heaven to love them that hate you and bless them that curse you 't is a kind of perfection ver 48. He makes his Sun to shine on the Righteous and the Wicked c. Be you like it howsoever Men behave themselves keep you your course and let your benign influence as you can do good to all And Jesus Christ sets in himself these things before us Learn of me not to heal the sick or raise the dead but Learn for I am meek and lowly in Heart And if you be his Followers this is your way as the Apostle here addeth hereunto are you called and this is the end of it agrecable to the way that you may inherit a blessing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowing that Understanding â—right the Nature of your holy calling and then considering it wisely and conforming to it They that have nothing beyond an external calling and profession of Christianity are wholly bliud in this point do not think what this imports a Christian. Could they be drawn to this it were much it were indeed all to know to what they are called and to answer it to walk like it but as one calls a certain sort of Lawyers indoctum doctorum genus we may call the most an unchristian kind of Christians But even they that are real partakers of this spiritual and effectual Call yet are much to seek in this often viewing their rule and laying it to their Life their hearts and words and actions and squaring by it and often posing themselves suits this my calling Is this like a Christian 'T is a main point in any civil Station to have a suitable convenient carriage to a Man's Station and condition that his actions become him but how many incongruities and solecisms do we commit forgetting our selves who we are and what we are called to to what as our duty and to what as our portion and inheritance and these indeed agree together we are called to an undefiled a holy Inheritance and therefore likewise to be Holy in our way to it for that contains all We are called to a better estate at home and called to be sitted for it while we are here to an Inheritance of light and therefore to walk as Children of light and so here to blessing as our inheritance and to blessing as our duty for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thereunto relates to both looks back to the one and forward to the other the way and the end both Blessing The fulness of this inheritance is reserv'd till we come to that Land where it lyeth there it abideth us but the earnests of that fulness of blessing are bestow'd on us here spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ they descend from those heavenly places upon the heart that precious name of our Lord Jesus powred on our hearts if we be indeed interessed in him as we pretend and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ we are put in possession of that blessing of forgiveness of sin and in terms of love and amity with the Father being reconciled by the blood of his Son and then blessed with the anointing of the Spirit the graces infus'd from Heaven now all these do so cure the bitter accursed distempers of our natural Hearts and so perfume it that it cannot well breath any thing but sweetness and blessing towards others being it self thus blessed of the Lord it eccho's blessing both to God and Men to his blessing of it and its words and whole carriage are as the smell of a Field that the Lord hath blessed as old Iacob said of his Son's Garments The Lord having spoke pardon to a Soul and instead of the curse due to sin bless'd it with a title to glory it easily and readily speaks pardon and not only pardon but blessing to the advantage even to these that outrage it most and deserve worst of it reflects still on that Oh! what deserv'd I at my Lords hands so many talents forgiven me shall I stick at forgiving a few pence And then call'd to inherit a blessing so every Believer an heir of blessing and not only are the spiritual blessings he hath received but even his largeness of blessing others is a pledge to him an evidence of that heirship as those that are bent to cursing though provok'd yet can look upon that as a sad mark that they are heirs of a curse Ps. 109. 18. shall they not that delight in cursing have then enough of it when they shall hear that doleful word go ye cursed c. And on the other side as for the Sons of blessing that spar'd it not to any the blessing they are Heirs to is a blessedness it self and they to be enter'd into it by that joyful speech come ye blessed of my Father c. Men can but bless one another in good wishes and the Lord in praises and applauding to his blessedness but the Lord's blessing is really making blessed an operative word brings the thing with it Inherit a Blessing Not called to be exempted from troubles and injuries here and to be extoll'd and favour'd by the World but on the contrary rather to suffer the utmost of their malice and be the mark of their arrows of wrongs and scoffs and reproaches but it matters not this weighs down all you are called to inherit a blessing which all their cursings and hate cannot prejudge you of for as this inheriting of blessing binds on the duty of blessing others upon a Christian so it encourages to go through the hardest contrary measure they receive from the World if the World should bless you and applaud you never so loud yet that blessing cannot be call'd an inheritance they fly away and dy out in the air have no substance at all much less that endurance that may make them an inheritance and more generally is their any thing here so to be called the surest inheritances are not more than for term of Life to any one Man their abiding is for others that succeed but he removes and when a Man is to remove from all he hath possess'd and rejoyc'd in here then fool indeed if nothing provided for the longer O! how much longer abode he must make elsewhere Will he not then bewail his madness that he was hunting a Shaddow all his Life time and may be turned out of all his quiet possessions and easie dwelling before that and in these times we may the more readily think of this but at the utmost at night when he should be for most rest when that sad night comes after this day of fairest prosperity the unbeleiving unrepenting sinner lies down in sorrow in a woful bed then must he whether he will or no enter possession to this inheritance of everlasting burnings he hath an inheritance indeed but he had better want it and himself too be turn'd to nothing Do you believe there are treasures that neither Thief breaks
good and pleasant that Bretâ—ren dwell together in unity it persumes all as the precious â—yntâ—â—â—â—â—â— c. But many that are called Christians are not indeed of this Brotherhood and therefore no wonder they know not what this love means but are either of restless unquiet Spirits biting and devouring one another as the Apostle speaks or at the best only civilly smooth and peaceable in their carriage but rather scorners than partakers of this spiritual love and fraternity are strangers to Christ not brought into acquaintance and union with him and therefore void of the life of Grace and the fruits of it whereof this is a chief one Oh! how few amongst multitudes that throng in as we do here together are indeed partakers of the glorious liberty of the Sons of God or ambitious of that high and happy estate As for you that know these things and have a portion in them that have your communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ I beseech you adorn your holy profession and testifie you selves the Disciples and the Brethren of Jesus Christ by this mutual love seek to understand better what it is and to know it more practically Consider that sourse of love that love that the Father hath shewed us in this that we should be called the Sons of God and so be Brethren and thence draw more of this sweet stream of love God is love says the Apostle therefore sure where there is most of God there is most of this Divine Grace this holy love Look upon and study much that infinite love of God and his Son Jesus Christ towards us he gave his only begotten Son the Son gave himself he sweeten'd his bitter cup with his tranâ—â—endent love and this he hath recommended to us that even as he loved us so should we love one another we know we cannot reach this highest pattern that 's not meant but the more we look on it the higher we shall reach in this love and shall learn some measure of such love on Earth as is in Heaven and that which so begins here shall be perfected there Be pitiful be courteous The Roots of Plants are hid under Ground so that themselves are not seen but they appear in their Branches and Flowers and Fruits which argue there is a Root and Life in them thus the Graces of the Spirit planted in the Soul though themselves invisible yet discover their Being and Life in the Tract of a Christian's Life their Words and Actions and the frame of their carriage thus Faith shews that it lives as the Apostle St. Iames teacheth at large and thus Love a Grace of so active a nature that it is still working and yet never weary your labour of love says the Apostle it labours but delight makes the hardest labour sweet and easie and so proper is action to it that all action is null without it 1 Cor. 13. yea it knits Faith and Action together is the link that unites them Faith worketh but 't is by it as the Apostle teaches us by Love so then where this Root is these Fruits will spring from it and discover it Pity and Courtesie They are of a larger extent in their full Sphere than the precedcing for from a general love due to all they act towards all to men or humanity in the general And this not from a bare natural tenderness which softer complexions may have nor from a prudent moral consideration of their own possible falling under the like or greater calamities but out of obedience to God who requires this mercifulness in all his Children and cannot own them for his unless in this they resemble him And it is indeed an evidence of a truly Christian mind to have much of this pity to the miseries of all being rightly principled and acting after a Pious and Christian manner towards the Sick and Poor of what condition soever yea most pitying the spiritual misery of ungodly men their hardness of heart and unbelief and earnestly wishing their conversion not repining at the long-suffering of God as if thou would'st have the Bridge out because thou art over as St. Augustine speaks but longing rather to see that long-suffering and goodness of God lead them to repentance being griev'd to see men ruining themselves and diligently working their own destruction going in any way of wickedness as Solomon speaks of one particularly as an Ox to the Shambles or a Fool to the correction of the Stocks Certainly the ungodly Man is an object of the highest pity But there is a special debt of this pity to those that we love as Brethren in our Lord Jesus these are most closely linkt by a peculiar fraternal love Their sufferings and calamities will move the Bowels that have Christian affection within them Nor is it an empty helpless pity but carries with it the real communication of our help to our utmost power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only Bowels that are moved themselves with pity but that move their hand to succour for by this word the natural affection of Parents and the tenderer of them the Mother are express'd who do not idly behold and beâ—oan their Children being sick or distress'd but provides all possible help their bowels are not only stirr'd but dilated and enlarged towards them And if our feeling bowels and helping hand are due to all and particularly to the Godly and we ought to pay this due in outward distresses how much more in their Soul-afflictions the rather because these are most heavy in themselves and least understood and therefâ—re least regarded yea sometimes more by natural Friends possibly by their bitter scoffes and taunts or by their flighting or at best by their misapplying of proper helps and remedies which as unfit Medicines do rather exasperate the Disease therefore they that do understand and can be sensible of that kind of wound ought so much the more to be tender and pitiful towards it and to deal mercifully and gently with it It may be very weak things sometimes trouble a weak Christian but there is in the Spirit of the Godly a humble condescention learn'd from Christ who broke not the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flax The least difficulties and scruples in a tender conscience should not be roughly encounter'd they are as a knot in a silken thread and require a gentle and wary hand to loose them Now this tenderness of bowels and inclinement to pity all especially Christians and them especially in their peculiar pressures is not a weakness as some kind of Spirits take it to be this even naturally is a generous pity in greatest Spirits Christian pity is not womanish yea 't is more than manly 't is divine there is of it natural most in the best and most ingenuous natures but where 't is spiritual 't is a prime lineament of the image of God and the more absolute and disengag'd it is in regard of those towards whom it acts the more like
that was posed lovest thou me Lord I appeal to thine own eye who seest my heart Lord thou knowest that I love thee at least I desire to love thee and to desire thee and that is love Willingly would I do thee more sutable service and honour thy name more and do desire more Grace for this that thou maist have more Glory and intreat the light of thy Countenance for this end that by seeing it my heart may be more weaned from the World and knit unto thy self thus it answers touching its inward frame and the work of holiness by the Spirit of holiness dwelling in it But to answer Justice touching the point of guilt it flies to the blood fetches all its answer thence turns over the matter upon it and answers for it for it doth speak and speaks better things than the blood of Abel speaks full payment of all that can be exacted from the sinner and that 's a sufficient answer The Conscience is then in this point once made speechless driven to a nonplus in it self hath from it self no answer to make then turns about to Christ and finds what to say Lord there is indeed in me nothing but guiltiness I have deserved death but I have fled into the City of refuge thou hast appointed there I resolve to abide to live and die there if Justice pursue me it shall send me there I take sanctuary in Jesus my arrest laid upon me will light upon him and he hath wherewithal to answer it He can straightway declare he hath pay'd all and can make it good hath the acquittance to shew yea his own liberty is a real sign of it he was in Prison and is let free which tells all is satisfied Therefore the answer here rises out of the resurrection of Iesus Christ. And in this very thing lies our peace and way and all our happiness Oh! its worth your time and pains to try your interest in this it is the only thing worthy your highest diligence But the most are out of their wits running like a number of distracted Persons and still in a deal of business but to what end they know not You are unwilling to be deceived in those things that at their best and surest do but deceive you when all is done But content to be deceived in that your great concernment You are your own deceivers in it gladly gull'd with shadows of faith and repentance false touches of sorrow and and false of Joy and are not careful to have your Souls really unbottom'd from themselves and built upon Christ to have him your treasure your righteousness your all and to have him your answer unto God your Father But if you will yet be advised let go all to lay hold on him lay your Souls on him and leave him not he is a tried Foundation Stone and he that trusts on him shall not be confounded Verse 22. 22. Who is gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him THIS is added on purpose to shew us further what he is how high and glorious a Saviour we have Here four points or steps of the Exaltment of Christ. 1. Resurrection from the Dead 2. Ascension into Heaven 3. Sitting at the right Hand of God 4. In that Posture his Royal Authority over the Angels The particulars clear in themselves Of the sitting at the right Hand of God you are not ignorant that it is a borrowed Expression drawn from Earth to Heaven to bring down some Notion of Heaven to us to signifie to us in our Language suitably to our Customs the Supream Dignity of Jesus Christ God and Man the Mediator of the New Covenant his matchless nearness unto his Father and the Sovereignty given him over Heaven and Earth And that of the subjection of Angels is but a more particular specifying of that his Dignity and Power as enthron'd at the Father's right Hand they being the most elevated and glorious Creatures so his Authority over all the World implyed in that subjection of the highest and noblest part of it His Victory and Triumph over the Angels of Darkness is an evidence of his Invincible Power and Greatness and matter of Comfort to his Saints but this here is his Supremacy over the glorious Elect Angels That there is amongst them Priority we find that there is a comely order in their differences cannot be doubted but to marshal their Degrees and Stations above is a point not only of vain fruitless Curiosity but of presumptuous intrusion whether these are names of their different particular Dignities or only different names of their general Excellency and Power as I think it cannot be certainly well determin'd so it imports us not to determine only this we know and are particularly taught from this place that whatsoever is their common Dignity both in names and differences they are all subject to our glorious Head Christ. What Confirmation they have in their Estate by him though piously asserted by Divines is not so infallibly clear from the alledged Scriptures which may bear another sense But this is certain that he is their King and they acknowledge him so and do incessantly admire and adore him they rejoyce in his glory and in the glory and happiness of Mankind through him they yield him most cheerful obedience and serve him readily in the good of his Church and each particular Believer as he deputes and imploys them Which is the thing here intended having in it these two 1 His Dignity above them 2. His Authority over them 1. Dignity that even that Nature which he stoopt below them to take on he hath carried up and raised it above them the very Earth the flesh of Man exalted in his Person above all those heavenly Spirits who are of so excellent and pure a Being in their Nature and from the beginning of the World cloathed with so transcendent Glory that a parcel of Clay is made so bright and set so high to outshine these bright flaming Spirits these Stars of the Morning that flesh being united to the Fountain of Light the blessed Deity in the Person of the Son In coming to fetch and put on this Garment he made himself lower than the Angels but carrying it with him at his return to his eternal Throne and sitting down with it there it is high above them as the Apostle teaches excellently and amply Heb. 1. 2. To which of them said he sit on my right Hand This they look upon with perpetual Wonder but not with envy nor repining no amongst all their eyes no such eye to be found yea they rejoyce in the infinite Wisdom of God in this Design and his infinite Love to poor lost Mankind its wonderful indeed to to see him filling the room of their fallen Brethren with new guests from Earth yea such as are born Heirs of Hell not only thus sinful Man raised to a participance of Glory with them
on us when they fall first upon our thoughts This way indeed of an imagined suffering the conquest before hand may be but imaginary and fail in the trial therefore be still humble and dependent on the strength of Christ and seek to be prefurnisht with much distrust of thy self and much trust in him with much denial of thy self and love to him And thus the preparing and training of the heart may prove useful and make it more dexterous when brought to conflicting in all both before hand and in time of the trial make thy Lord Jesus all thy strength That is our only way in all to be conquerours to be more than conquâ—rors through him that loved us Think it not strngae for it is not sure your thoughts to the experience and verdict of all times and to the warnings that the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and our Saviour himself hath given us from his own mouth and example shewed in his own person But the other point goes higher rejoyce though we think not the sufferings strange yet may we not well think that rule somewhat strange to rejoyce in them No it will be found as reasonable as the other being duly considered And upon the same ground 't wil bear both in as much as you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ. If the Children of God consider not their trials in their natural bitterness but in the sweet love from whence they spring and the sweet fruits that spring from them that we are our Lords gold and he tries us in the furnace to purifie us as in the former verse this may beget not only patience but gladness even in the sufferings But add we this and truly it compleats the reason of this way in our saddest sufferings that in them we are partakers of the sufferings of Christ. So then 1. Consider this twofold connexed participance of the Sufferings of Christ and of the after Glory 2. The present joy even in sufferings springing from that participance I need not tell you that this Communion in sufferings is not in point of expiation or satisfaction to Divine Justice which was the peculiar end of the sufferings of Christ personal not of the common sufferings of Christ mystical he bare our sin on his own body on the Tree and in bearing them took them away we bear his sufferings as his body united to him by his Spirit Those sufferings that were his personal burden we partake the sweet fruits of they are accounted ours and we acquitted by them but the endurance of them was his high and incommunicable task in which none at all were with him our Communion in these as fully compleated by himself in his natural body is the ground of our comfort and joy in these sufferings that are compleated in his mystical body the Church This is indeed our joy that we have so light a burden so sweet an exchange the weight of sin quite taken off our backs and only all bound on his cross and our crosses badges of our conformity laid on our shoulders and the great weight of them likewise held up by his hand that they overpress us not These fires of our trial may be corrective and purgative of the remaining power of sin and they are so intended but Jesus Christ alone in the sufferings of his own Cross was the burnt offering the propitiation for our sins Now although he hath perfectly satisfied for us and saved us by his sufferings yet this conformity with him in way of suffering is most reasonable As our holiness doth not stand in point of law nor come in at all in the matter of justifying us yet we are called and appointed to holiness in Christ as suiting us with him our glorious head and we do really receive it from him that we may be like him so these our sufferings bear a very congruous likeness with him though no way as accession to his in expiation yet as a part of his and therefore the Apostle says even in this respect that we are predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son were it fit that we should not follow where our Captain led and went first but that he should lead through ragged thorny ways and we pass about to get away through flow'ry meadows as his natural body shared with his head in his sufferings so ought his mystical with him as its head The buffetings and spitings on his face and thorny crown on his head a pierced side nailed hands and feet and if we be parts of him think we that a body finding nothing but ease and bathing in delights were agreeable to a head so tormented I remember what that pious Duke said at Ierusalem when they offer'd to crown him King there No Crown of Gold where Christ Iesus was Crowned with thorns This is the way we must follow or else resolve to leave him the way of the Cross is the royal way to the Câ—own He said it and remembred them of it again that they might take the deep impression of it remember what I said unto you the Servant is not greater than the Lord if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you if they have kept my saying they will keep yours also And particularly in point of reproaches if they called the Master â—eelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold a bitter scost an evil name reproaches for Christ why doth this â—ret thee it s a part of thy Lords entertainment while he was here thou art even in this a partaker of his sufferings and in this way is he bringing thee foreward to the partaking of his Glory That is the other thing when his Glory shall be revealed Now he is hid little of his Glory seen it was hid while he was on earth and now 't is hid up in Heaven where he is aâ—d for his body here his Church no pompous dress nor outward splendour and the particular parts of it the Saints poor despised creatures the very refuse of Men in outward respects and common esteem so he himself is not seen and his followers the more they are seen and lookt on by the Worlds eye the more meanness appears true that as in the days of humiliation some rays were breaking forth through the vail of his flesh and cloud of his low despiseable condition thus is it with his followers sometimes a glance of his Image strikes the very eye of the World and forces some acknowledgment and a kind of reverence in the ungodly But commonly Christ and his followers are covered with all the disgraces and ignominies the World can put on them But there is a day wherein he will appear and 't is at hand and then he shall be glorious even in his despised Saints and admired in them that believe how much more in the matchless brightness of his own glorious person In the mean time he is hid and they hid in him our life