as he himself required with which his Justice is fully satisfied and his Wrath appeased And this was that Oblation of himself of his own most precious Body and Blood when he poured out his soul unto death to be an offering for sin upon the Altar of the Cross Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Hebr. 9.11 12. And without looking any further that one Epistle to the Hebrews may satisfie us in this Point the main Design of it being to convince the Jews that Jesus Christ was such an High-Priest as we are speaking of Who was once offered to bear the sins of many and who shall appear unto them that look for him the second time without sin unto salvation Secondly as our blessed Saviour hath offered this holy spotless and most acceptable Sacrifice of himself unto God for us so doth he likewise continually intercede for us at his right hand pleading the merits of his most precious Death and Passion in our behalf that we thereby may be delivered from the Curse of the Law and receive the adoption of Sons Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Hebr. 9.24 and Hebr. 7.25 He tells us That he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them So Rom. 8.34 Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us And if any man sin saith S. John we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.1 Thus then it is evident that our blessed Saviour is by the holy Evangelists and Apostles that have given us a true and faithful account of him represented to be as great an High-Priest as it was possible that the Messias could be for who can be higher than he that is set down at the right hand of God And this naturally brings me to the Consideration of his last and highest Office which is that of a King For surely he that is exalted unto the right hand of God can be no less than a King in the highest Degree a King of Saints and Angels a King of Kings and Lord of Lords Let the Jews perswade themselves what they please concerning the greatness of the Kingdom of their imaginary Messias whom they fondly dream is yet to come into the world though they cannot deny that the time prefixed for his coming by the Prophets is long since past yet a greater King they cannot imagine him to be than we know and are fully assured by the unanimous Testimony of most faithful and unexceptionable Witnesses that our blessed Saviour already is who is and ever shall be a King upon Gods holy hill of Sion whom he hath exalted and set at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and put all things under his feet and given him to be the head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.20 21 22. That our blessed Saviour was to be such a King as this the Angel Gabriel expresly foretold to the Virgin Mary at his Conception Luk. 1.31 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Which words plainly imply that he was not to be a temporal King a King of this World whose Kings and Kingdoms shall all perish and come to an end but a spiritual King of a Kingdom which is everlasting Such a King as this our Lord owned himself to be I appoint unto you a Kingdom saith he to his Disciples as my father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Luk. 22.29 30. A King even Pilate himself seemed positively to declare him by the Superscription upon his Cross Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews which he would by no means alter at the request of the chief Priests Such a King he most powerfully demonstrated himself to be by his triumphant Resurrection from the Dead Such a King he yet more fully proved himself to be by his most glorious Ascension into Heaven Having first told his Disciples that all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth he shews them the truth of it by ocular Demonstration visibly in their sight ascending up into Heaven to take Possession of his eternal Kingdom sending moreover two Angels to comfort them and assure them that he the same Jesus which was taken up from them into heaven shall so come in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven Act. 1.11 And after all this according to his Promise as a King that was ascended on high that had led captivity captive and received gifts for men he bestows upon them a gift fit for the King of Heaven to bestow upon his choicest Favourites even that of the Holy Ghost upon the Day of Pentecost thereby to the astonishment of all that beheld them impowering them to work Miracles and to speak with Tongues in order to the accomplishing that great work about which he employed them which was to proclaim him over all the World to be such a King such a Saviour and to gather him a Church out of all the Nations of the Earth declaring that unto all those that will believe and obey him and receive him for their Soveraign Lord and King he will most assuredly be the authour of eternal salvation having redeemed them from the Curse of the Law and purchased for them the adoption of sons and that when at the last day he shall come again in the Glory of his Father to judge the world in righteousness he shall then as an omnipotent King whose Power nothing can resist execute Vengeance upon all his Enemies and reward all his faithful and obedient Subjects with everlasting Felicity receiving them into his heavenly Kingdom there to Reign together with him in Glory as Kings and Priests unto God for ever thus I have proved to you I hope beyond all Contradiction except such as proceeds from wilful and obstinate Malice or notorious Ignorance or Prejudice which must
Predictions of the Prophets the Messias was to be born in Bethlehem For so we read Mic. 5.2 But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall be come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting Now that the Jews did expect the Messias should be born in that City is plain from the answer which the Scribes and chief Priests gave to Herod when being troubled at the News which the wise men of the East brought him of a King being born unto the Jews he enquired of them where Christ should be born they answered with one accord In Bethlehem of Judea grounding their answer upon this Prediction of the Prophet Micah And so Joh. 7.42 when the people were divided in their Opinions concerning our Saviour and many said Of a truth this is the Prophet Others said This is the Christ But some said perhaps not knowing where our Saviour was born or else maliciously pretending not to know it shall Christ come out of Galilee Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the Town of Bethlehem where David was By these passages it appears that the Jews did unanimously confess and acknowledge that the Messias or Christ was to be born in Bethlehem And that our blessed Saviour was born there both S. Matthew and S. Luke have fully assured us The manner and occasion of his being born there is most punctually recorded by the latter and it will be worth our while to take a short view of it being a thing wonderfully effected by the secret and over-ruling Providence of God contrary to all likelihood and probability that the prediction of the Prophet concerning this matter might be fulfilled For had not our Saviour been born in Bethlehem the Jews had then had an invincible Argument against us to prove him not to be the Messias And that he should be born there was very unlikely until within a few days before it came to pass For both Joseph and the blessed Virgin Mary dwelt together at Nazareth about twenty Miles from Bethlehem from the time when at the Salutation of the Angel Gabriel she conceived our Saviour until the time of her Delivery was at hand excepting only those three Months which she spent with her Cousin Elizabeth in the Hilly Countrey from whence we read expresly that she returned to her own house Luk. 1.56 In all probability therefore our Saviour was likely to be born at Nazareth had not God unexpectedly ordered the matter otherwise which accordingly he did For when her full time drew near by a Decree of Augustus Caesar both Joseph and she no doubt much against their Wills as not being then very able to undertake a Journey are constrained to go to be taxed in the Town belonging to their Family which was Bethlehem And so it was saith S. Luke that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered And she brought forth her first-born son and wrapped him in swadling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the Inn Luk. 2.6 7. Thus did God in his great Wisdom order this matter so that all the Family of David being called together at the same time as it were on purpose to be Witnesses of our Saviour's Birth we might not want sufficient evidence to prove that our blessed Lord was not only born of the House of David but also in the Town of Bethlehem The next Circumstance to be considered in the coming of the Messias is the manner of his Birth and this was to be wonderful for he was to be born of a pure Virgin a thing which never did nor ever shall happen to any man in the World besides This was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah chap. 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel which as S. Matthew tells us being interpreted is God with us and that in a peculiar and miraculous manner so as he never was with any other Creature but man with us by a personal and eternal Union Now that this is an express Prophecy of the Birth of the Messias is so clear that it affords no tolerable grounds for any Objections to be made against it For unto whom can that great name Immanuel properly belong but unto that ever blessed Person that was to mediate betwixt God and Man and reconcile them together Or upon whom can we imagine that God would bestow the honour of such a Birth if not upon the Messias who was undoubtedly to be honoured with far more glorious Privileges than any other of the Sons of men besides Since then God by his Prophet did foretel that such a wonder as this should be effected that a Virgin should conceive and bear a son we cannot with any probability imagine that any other person should be so born but only the Messias And that he is here meant is yet more fully evident from the Character which the Prophet gives of him afterwards Chap. 9.6 Vnto us a child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful Councellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace These high Titles can be applied to no other person but to the Messias which is yet more clear by what follows in the next Verse Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever Certainly none other person but the Messias was to sit for ever upon the Throne of David even by the Confession of the Jews themselves It is true that there is not any one thing in all the Gospel which the Jews are more unwilling to believe than this that our Saviour came into the world by such a miraculous Birth as this this one Circumstance being in a manner of it self sufficient to convince any reasonable person that whosoever was so born could be none else but the Messias And therefore rather than they will give credit to it they deny that either in this place or any other in the Old Testament God ever foretold that the Messias should be born of a pure Virgin whereby they rob him of one of the highest and most honourable Privileges that God bestowed upon him upon Earth And for proof of this against all sense and reason they affirm that the Hebrew word in this Prophecy which we translate Virgin doth not always signifie so but is sometimes used for a married Woman and that it ought to be so rendered in this place Which is a most malicious and false Assertion and contains two notorious errors and absurdities the one visible only to the Learned the other easily discernible by men
to come in this mean and contemptible Condition For since it is manifest from the Writings of the Prophets that the Messias was to be a most mighty King of the increase of whose Government and Peace there should be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice for ever if this great person was to be born of mean Parents in a Stable and afterwards all his life time to continue in a Condition answerable to that obscure Birth not to enjoy so much as an house of his own wherein to hide his head to be despised and hated by his own Countreymen and persecuted unto Death it was necessary that God by his Prophets should foretel this also or else it could never have been expected that when he did come any Man living should have been able to discern him in so strange a Disguise God having no where revealed any such thing But if God hath revealed this also as clearly as any of the aforementioned Circumstances and hath by his Prophets as plainly foretold the Humiliation of the Messias as his Exaltation then it is evident that our Saviour's coming in that mean Condition in which we confess he did is so far from being any Objection against us that joyned with the former Circumstances and with what I shall further insist upon it is an unanswerable Argument to prove that he is the true Messias seeing he came exactly in such a Quality and Condition as God by his Prophets foretold the Messias should come in And that God did foretel that the Messias should appear in this low and despicable State besides other places of Scripture we have the whole 53d Chap. of the Prophecy of Isaiah to convince us which of all others is the most full and plain Prophecy both of the Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ And it is a wonderful thing that the Jews even to this day should continue so obstinate as not to believe it though this very obstinacy and unbelief of theirs is a very strong Confirmation of our Faith since even this also is expresly foretold by the Prophet and that in the very first words of the Chapter He ushers in his Prophecy with an admiration at the stupidity and unbelief of his People who he foresaw would not receive it Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And then in the two following Verses he gives an exact Description of this mean Condition in which the Messias was to come He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not Now if this be truly as we affirm it is a Prophecy of the Messias it is manifest that it agrees exactly with the manner of our Saviour's appearing in the world And though the modern Jews deny it to be a Prophecy of him yet we have sufficient Arguments to prove that it is I shall instance only in these two First it is very unreasonable to imagine that God would suffer every punctilio of this Prophecy to be completely accomplished and fulfilled in the person of one who owned and declared himself to be the Messias except the Prophecy were really intended of the Messias and he in whom it was so fulfilled were that very person whom it meant Now that there is not one tittle of this Prophecy which was not fulfilled in the person of our Saviour who professed himself to be the Messias and applied this Prophecy to himself is evident in the account the Evangelists have given us of him and then it follows not only that this is a Prophecy of the Messias but also that our Saviour is the Messias whom it points at The second Argument to prove this to be a Prophecy of the Messias is the unanimous Opinion of many of the ancient Rabbies and Doctors of the Jews before and about our Saviour's time who all acknowledge this whole Chapter together with the latter end of the former to be a Prophecy of the Messias And therefore if the modern Jews will not acknowledge as much they differ as much from their own Writers as from us and no reason can be assigned for their so doing but their obstinate prejudice that will not suffer them to apply any passage of Scripture to the Messias that seems to be inconsistent with worldly Pomp and Grandeur Thus I have proved to you that our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the true Messias from these two Circumstances the time when he came into the world and the manner how The same truth may be yet further evinced from the reason and end of his coming but this I shall leave until another opportunity SERMON III. GAL. IV. 4 5. But when the fulness of the time c. YE may remember that when formerly I began to handle this portion of Scripture I laid down this Proposition as the Foundation of my Discourse That our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the true Messias whom God hath long since sent forth into the world and that none other is to be expected This I undertook to prove chiefly by these Arguments with which the Apostle furnishes us here in my Text taken from the Consideration of the time when the manner how and the end wherefore he came into World The two former of these Circumstances the time when and the manner how our Saviour came into the World I have already handled and in the doing of it have sufficiently cleared the truth of this Proposition That our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Messias but to make it yet more evident there remains one Circumstance more to be considered and that is the reason and end of his coming which the Apostle comprises in these words To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons It was not for nothing that so great a person as the Messias was to come into the World No he had a mighty work to do which none was able to perform but himself for he was to interpose betwixt the Divine Vengeance and Sin which is its proper Object to redeem all Mankind from the Curse of the Law to which we were become obnoxious and to reconcile us again unto God and to purchase for us the adoption of Sons This was a work worthy of the Messias and what the Scriptures plainly foretold that he should accomplish and that he might effect it it was necessary First That he should most fully and clearly reveal to us the whole Will of God concerning us and that he should instruct and teach us how to behave our selves acceptably in his sight
needs be weak and groundless that our blessed Saviour is the true Messias whom God hath long since sent forth into the World and that none other is to be expected by us and this I have done according to my propounded method chiefly by those Arguments with which my Text furnishes us taken from the Consideration of the time when the manner how and the reason and end wherefore he came into the World And in the doing of it I have insisted more or less upon all the material Circumstances mentioned by the Prophets as it were so many infallible Notes and Characters by which the Messias was to be known and discerned from all the rest of Mankind and shewed you that every one of them is exactly fulfilled to a tittle in the person of our Saviour and that it is absolutely impossible that they ever should agree to any other person whatsoever the time prefixed by God for the coming of the Messias being long since past so that it is now beyond the Power of Omnipotence it self to recal it If then our blessed Saviour be the true Messias whom God out of his great love to Mankind hath sent into the World to reconcile it unto himself redeem us from the Curse of the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons and that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life woe be to all those that receive him not as such How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but that of the Lord Jesus Christ In him therefore let us stedfastly believe committing the keeping of our souls unto him in well-doing as unto a faithful Redeemer that is both mighty and willing to save us owning him to be our great Prophet that hath revealed unto us the whole Will of God by our firm Belief of all his Divine Doctrine owning him to be our great High Priest who by the Sacrifice of himself once offered hath made an atonement for our Sins and ever liveth to make Intercession unto God for us by our relying wholly upon his merits for Salvation owning him to be our Soveraign our Almighty Lord and King able to defend and protect us in this World and to reward us in the next by yielding a constant impartial and universal Obedience to all his most holy Laws and Commandments Thus if we own him here before men he will hereafter own us before his Father which is in Heaven and when those that have rejected him shall be covered with eternal Shame and Confusion blacker than that darkness into which they must be for ever banished from the Presence of the Lord he shall cloath us with the glorious Robe of his own righteousness and admit us into the everlasting Happiness of his heavenly Kingdom to those Pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore SERMON IV. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods INgratitude is a Crime so base and unnatural so repugnant to the Dictates of reason that no Man of a generous Spirit can endure to be guilty of it The slightest Favour we receive from any of our Friends if it proceed from an hearty Intention to do us good deserves at least our kind acceptance and thanks But such a Signal and extraordinary Obligation may be laid upon us even by an earthly Benefactor that we can do no less than devote our lives and fortunes to his Service and think it little enough for an acknowledgment of his kindness But still the greatest Benefits that we can receive from the hand of Man are nothing in comparison of the least of those which we receive daily from the hand of God from whom alone comes every good and perfect gift Every Favour of his is inestimable that we breath his Air that we drink his Water that we tread upon his Earth that we seed upon his Creatures that we behold his Light that he created us and brought us out of the dark Abyss when before we had no Being and that he still preserves and protects us these Mercies sufficiently declare that all that we have all that we are except what we made our selves by sin we have and are from him and that therefore he most justly Challenges a right both to our Bodies and our Souls all that we can do or suffer for him is inconsiderable in comparison of the good we have received from him And yet all these Mercies which I have already mentioned are nothing to that which is behind his Redemption of us by the Death of his only begotten Son whereas otherwise we had been lost and undone for ever This surely was the utmost Effort of infinite Love and Goodness a Mercy which the more it is considered the more it will be admired and will be the eternal Subject of our wonder as well as of our Praise and Thanksgiving in Heaven And now what doth God require of us as an acknowledgment of this unconceivable Favour Not thousands of rams nor ten thousands of rivers of oyl 't is only this that we will glorifie him that hath redeemed us For ye are bought c. Which words contain these three things 1. God's Mercy towards us he hath bought us with a Price and so we are his by right of Purchase 2. The Duty which thereupon he requires us to perform to him we must therefore glorifie him 3. The manner how we must do it in our Body and in our Spirit forasmuch as he hath redeemed and purchased both of them and both are his For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods Let us take a view of God's mercy towards us first and when we have had a true Prospect of that we shall be the better enabled to discern how great an Obligation lies upon us to perform that Duty which thereupon the Apostle in the name of God requires of us To take a view of God's mercy is an hard Task though it is a very pleasant one to take a full view of it is indeed impossible for either Men or Angels since his mercy is as himself is infinite and the greatest instance of his mercy which the Scripture makes mention of is that which he hath shewed to Mankind 'T is true he created Creatures of an higher order and nobler nature than Man even the glorious Angels of Light whom he ordained to be the immediate Attendants about his Throne and advanced to the highest Honour and Felicity in his heavenly Kingdom These as they were the First-born of the Creation so they received a double Portion from their Creator and whereas he made Man only the Lord of his Footstool here below he admitted them to be Inhabitants of his Palace above and assigned to them everlasting Mansions of Light and Glory Thus far God's Love
came in a very Mean and despicable Condition so poorly provided for that he had not so much as a House wherein he might lay his Head nor a cradle wherein he might rest but was forced to be content with a Stable for the one and a Manger for the other And all the rest of his Life was answerable to this Mean beginning He was continually affronted and abused and persecuted by the Chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees and by almost all Men with whom he conversed and after all this he was most perfidiously betrayed by one of his own Disciples denied by another of them and forsaken by all the rest and at the last most barbarously murdered by bloudy and sinful Men. And if God dealt thus hardly with his only begotten Son in whom he was ever well-pleased it would be unreasonable for his Disciples and Followers to expect to fare so much better than their Lord as to be wholly exempted from Afflictions in this Life If the Captain of our Salvation was not made perfect but through sufferings surely then we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven except we drink more or less of the same Cup. This our blessed Lord hath assured us shall be the Portion of all that will follow him Luke 14.26 27. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple And whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple And In the World ye shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And this the holy Apostles afterwards found true by their own Experience They were all hated and maligned and persecuted whithersoever they went and not one of them died a natural Death but S. John the Disciple whom our Saviour seemed to love above the rest and perhaps was therefore pleased to exempt him from suffering a violent Death as the other did And thus it fared afterwards with their Successours the Bishops and Pastours of the primitive Church yea and not only with them but with the greatest part of their Flock too Every one that was known to profess the Faith of Christ was persecuted as a Traytour and to be a Christian was to be a capital Offender And though at present by the blessing of God the Light of the Gospel shines amongst us gloriously yet even amongst Christians themselves those few rare Examples of Piety those Persons that are extraordinarily strict and careful to live answerable to their Profession in all Holy Conversation and Godliness are generally hated and scorned and looked upon with an evil Eye and suffer more Sorrow and Affliction in the World than other Men. And now I have given you an Account of all those dangerous Enemies and those manifold and great Difficulties and Troubles which the Righteous Man hath to overcome in his way to Heaven And from what I have said it is sufficiently evident that he shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him great pains and striving to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation he shall enter into the Kingdom of God And if the Righteous be thus scarcely saved I need not insist much upon the other Proposition nor spend many words to shew you that the wicked the ungodly and the sinner shall most certainly be damned For this follows from the former Doctrine by an undeniable consequence and therefore the Apostle takes it for granted appeals to your own Judgment and leaves it to your selves to determine the question in the words of my Text If the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear If the Righteous that hath undergone so many Troubles hath taken so much pains to subdue and mortifie his Lusts hath with so much Constancy and Resolution turned away his Eyes and his Heart from the bewitching Baits and ensnaring Pomps and Vanities of this sinful World hath with so much Courage and Faith resisted the Temptations of Satan and quenched all the fiery Darts of the Wicked hath with so much Patience and Meekness born his Cross and indured the Afflictions and sufferings of this present Life is after all these painful and glorious Performances even when he hath gained a full and compleat Victory over all his Spiritual Enemies and is a Triumphant Conquerour over Principalities and Powers still but an unprofitable Servant and dares not appear before God's Tribunal trusting in his own Righteousness but in that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith how then shall the Ungodly and the Sinner that hath taken no pains at all to fight the good Fight of Faith that hath let loose the Reins to his Lusts that hath yielded himself a Slave to his Passions that hath put God out of all his Thoughts hath set-his Heart and Affections wholly upon the things which are on Earth and glutted himself with sensual Pleasures hath harkned to the wicked suggestions of the Devil hath walked according to the Course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience hath enjoyed his good things in this Life and hath not come into trouble like other Men be able to stand before the Righteous Judge of all the Earth when he shall be summoned to give an account of all his Actions done in the flesh The case is plain he shall not be able to stand at all but shall be overwhelmed with everlasting Confusion and Misery and Despair The Vngodly saith the Psalmist shall not stand in the Judgment nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous For the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous but the way of the Vngodly shall perish Psal 1.5 6. If then we desire to stand in that great Day and to lift up our Heads with joy at the coming of our Saviour let us resolve and labour with all our Might now to stand and fight the Lords Battles Manfully against all the Enemies of our Souls Ye see in what Circumstances we are how great Opposition every faithful Champion of Jesus Christ is like to meet with in this troublesome Wilderness before he can arrive at his heavenly Canaan But though the difficulties which threaten us be great yet they are not insuperable but we may by the Assistance of God's holy Spirit who is ready to help our Infirmities overcome them if we will Let not any thing then discourage nor affright us from our perseverance in well-doing but let us animate our selves by the Example of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs and Confessours to run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Authour and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the Right-hand of the Throne of God Let us consider him that endured such Contradiction of Sinners against