he would never have mercy upon me and though I lived in the time of all manner of gratious dispensations I saw Sacrifices offered and Christ in the flesh and the Gospel preached yet how could all this choose but enrage me the more to have God as it were say look here Satan I have provided a remedy for sin but none for thine This set me upon revenge against God as far as I could reach him but alas alas had God entred into any Covenant with me at all had God put me on any terms though never so hard for the obtaining of mercy had Christ been but once offered to me what do you think would I have done c. O poor sinners your Damnation is Just if you refuse grace brought home by Christ himself to your very doors The Lord grant this may not be thy case who readest these lines Inference 4. Moreover here it follows that none doth or can love like Christ. His love to man is matchiess The freeness strength antiquity and immutability of it puts a luster on it beyond all examples Surely it was a strong love indeed that made him lay aside his glory to be found in fashion as a man to become any thing though never so much below himself for our Salvation We read of Ionathans love to David which passed the love of women Of Iacobs love to Rachel who for her sake endured the heat of summer and cold of winter Of Davids love to Absalom Of the Primitive Christians love to one another who could die one for another But neither had they that to deny that Christ had nor had he those inducements from the objects of his love that they had His love like himself is wonderful Inference 5. Did the Lord Jesus so deeply abase and humble himself for us what an engagement hath he thereby put on us to exalt and honour him who for our sakes was so abased It was a good saying of Bernard by how much the viler he was made for me by so much the dearer shall he be to me And O that all to whom Christ is dear would study to exalt and honour him these four ways First By frequent and delightful speaking of him and for him When Paul had once mentioned his name he knows not how to part with it but repeats it no less than ten times in the compass of ten verses in 1 Cor. 1. It was Lamberts motto none but Christ none but Christ. It 's said of Iohannes Molius that after his conversion he was seldom or never observed to mention the name Iesus but his eyes would drop so dear was Christ to him Mr. Fox never denied any begger that asked an alms in Christs name or for Jesus sake Iulius Palmer when all concluded he was dead being turned as black as a coal in the fire at last moved his scorched lips and was heard to say sweet Iesus and fell a asleep Plutarch tells us that when Titus Flaminius had freed the poor Graecians from the bondage with which they had been long ground by their oppressions and the Herald was to proclaim in their audience the Articles of peace he had concluded for them they so pressed upon him not being half of them able to hear that he was in great danger to have lost his life in the press at last reading them a second time when they came to understand distinctly how their case stood they so shouted for Joy crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour that they made the very heavens ring again with their acclamations and the very Birds fell down astonisht And all that night the poor Graecians with instruments of musick and songs of praise danced and sang about his Tent extolling him as a God that had delivered them But surely you have more reason to be exalting the Author of your Salvation who at a dearer rate hath freed you from a more dreadful bondage O ye that have escaped the eternal wrath of God by the humiliation of the Son of God extol your great Redeemer and for ever celebrate his praises Secondly By acting your faith on him for whatsoever lies in the promises yet unaccomplished In this you see the great and most difficult promise fulfilled Gen. 3.15 The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Which contained this mercy of Christs incarnation for us in it I say you see this fulfilled and seeing that which was most improbable and difficult is come to pass even Christ come in the flesh methinks our unbelief should be strangled for ever and all other promises the more easily believed It seemed much more improbable and impossible to reason that God should become a man and stoop to the condition of a creature than being a man to perform all that good which his incarnation and death procured Unbelief usually argues from one of these two grounds can God do this or will God do that It 's questioning either his power or his will but after this let it cease for ever to cavil against either His power to save should never be questioned by any that know what sufferings and infinite burdens he supported in our nature And surely his willingness to save should never be put to a question by any that consider how low he was content to stoop for our sakes Thirdly By drawing nigh to God with delight through the vail of Christs flesh Heb. 10.19.20 God hath made this flesh of Christ a vail betwixt the brightness of his glory and us It serves to rebate the insupportable glory and also to give admission to it as the vail did in the Temple Through this body of flesh which Christ assumed are all out-lets of grace from God to us and through it also must be all our returns to God again It 's made the great medium of our communion with God Fourthly By applying your selves to him under all temptations wants and troubles of what kind soever as to one that is tenderly sensible of your case and most willing and ready to relieve you Oh remember this was one of the inducements that perswaded and invited him to take your nature that he might be furnished abundantly with tender compassion for you from the sense he should have of your infirmities in his own body Heb. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethen that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people You know by this argument the Lord pressed the Israelites to be kind to strangers for saith he you know the heart of a stranger Exod. 23.9 Christ by being in our natures knows experimentally what our wants fears temptations and distresses are and so is able to have compassion O let your hearts work upon this admirable condescention of Christ till they be filled with it and your lips say Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The
the Church as breathed on earth till Christ gave him into its bosom by conversion and then no meer man ever did the Lord and his people greater service than he Men of all sorts Greater and smaller lights have been given to the Church Officers of all sorts were given it by Christ. Extraordinary and temporary as Prophets Apostles Evangelists ordinary and standing as Pastors and Teachers which remain to this day Eph. 4.8 9. And those stars are fixed in the Church heaven by a most firm establishment 1 Cor. 12.28 Thousands now in heaven and thousands on earth also are blessing Christ at this day for these his ascension gifts Fourthly Our Lord Jesus Christ ascended most comfortably for whilst he was blessing his people he was parted from them Luk. 24.50 51. Therein making good to them what is said of him Ioh. 13.1 Having loved his own he loved them to the end There was a great deal of love manifested by Christ in this very last act of his in this world The last sight they had of him in this world was a most sweet and encouraging one They heard nothing from his lips but love they saw nothing in his face but love till he mounted his triumphant Chariot and was taken out of their sight Surely these blessings at parting were sweet and rich ones For the matter of them they were the mercies which his blood had so lately purchased for them And for their extent they were not only intended for them who had the happiness to be upon the place with him from whence he ascended but they reach us as well as them and will reach the last Saint that shall be upon the earth till he come again For they were but representatives of the future Churches Matth. 28.20 And in blessing them he blessed us also And by this we may be satisfied that Christ carried an heart full of love to his people away with him to heaven since his love so abounded in the last act that ever he did in this world And left such a demonstration of his tenderness with them at parting Fifthly He ascended as well as rose again by his own power He was not meerly passive in that his ascension but it was his own act He went to heaven Therefore it 's said Act. 1.10 He went up viz. by his own dâ—vine power And this plainly evinceth hâ—m to be God for no meer Creature ever mounted it self from earth far above all heavens as Christ did Sixthly And lastly why did Christ ascend I answer his ascension was necessary upon many and great accounts For First If Christ had not ascended he could not have Interceded as now he doth in heaven for us And do but take away Christs intercession and you starve the hope of the Saints For what have we to succour our selves with under the daily surprises of sin but this that if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father mark that with the Father A friend upon the place One that abides there on purpose to transact all our affairs and as a surety for the peace betwixt God and us Secondly If Christ had not ascendâ—d you could not have entred into heaven when you die For he went to prepare a place for you Joh. 14.2 He was as I said before the first that entred into heaven directly and in his owâ— name and had he not done so we could not have entred when we die in his name The fore-runner made way for all that are coming on in their several generations after him Nor could your bodies have ascended after their Resurrection but in the vertue of Christs ascension For he ascended as was said before in the capacity of our head and representative To his Father and our Father For us and himself too Thirdly If Christ had not ascended he could not have been inaugurated and installed in the glory he now enjoys in heaven This world is not the place where perfect felicity and glory dwells And then how had the promise of the Father been made good to him Or our glory which consists in being with and conformed to him where had it been Ought not Christ to suffer and to enter into his glory Luk. 24.25 Fourthly If Christ had not ascended how could we have been satisfied that his payment on the Cross made full satisâ—action to God and that now God hath no more Bills to bring in against us How is it that the spirit convinceth the world of righteousness Ioh. 16.9 10. But from Christs going to the Father and returning hither no more which gives evidence of Gods full content and satisfaction both with his person and work Fifthly How should we have enjoyed the great blessings of the Spirit and Ordinances if Christ had not ascended And surely we could not have been without either If Christ had not gone away the Comforter had not come Joh. 16.7 He begins where Christ finished For he takes of his and shews it to us Joh. 16.14 And therefore it 's said â—oh 7.39 The Holy Ghost was not given because Iesus was not yet glorified He was then given as a sanctifying spirit but not given in that measure as afterward he was to furnish and qualifie men with gifts for service And indeed by Christs ascension both his sanctifying and his ministring gifts were shed forth more commonly and more abundantly upon men These fell from him when he ascended as Eliâ—ahs mantle did from him so that whatsoever good of conversion edification support or comfort you receive from spiritual Ordinances he hath shed forth that which you now see and feel It 's the fruit of Christs ascension Sixthly And lastly if Christ had not ascended how had all the Types and Prophesies that figured and fore-told it been fulfilled And the Scriptures cannot be broken Joh. 10.35 So that upon all these accounts it was expedient that he should go away It was for his glory and for our advantage Though we lost the comfort of his bodily presence by it yet if we loved him we would rejoyce because he went to the Father Joh 14.28 We ought to have rejoyced in his advancement though it had been to our loss but when it is so much for our benefit as well as his Glory it 's matter of joy on both sides that he is ascended to his Father and our Father to his God and to our God From the several blessings flowing to us out of Christs ascension it was that he charged his people not to be troubled at his leaving of them Ioh. 14. And hence learn Inference 1. Did Christ ascend into Heaven Is our Iesus our treasure indeed there Where then should the hearts of believers be but in Heaven where their Lord their Life is Surely Saints it is not good that your Love and your Lord should be in two several Countries said one that is now with him Up up after your Lover that he and you may be together Christians you ascended with him virtually when he
loved him even so believers hath he loved you Ioh. 17.22 what manner of love is this whoever loved as Christ loves whoever denyed himself for Christ as Christ denyed himself for us Hence we are informed that interest in Iesus Christ is the true way to all spiritual preferment in Heaven do you covet to be in the heart in the favour and delight of God get interest in Jesus Christ and you shall presently be there what old Israel said of the Children of his beloved Ioseph thy Children are my Children the same God saith of all the dear Children of Christ Gen. 48.5 9. you see among men all things are carryed by interest persons rise in this world as they are befriended preferment goes by favour 't is so in Heaven persons are preferred according to their interest in the beloved Eph. 1.6 Christ is the great favourite in Heaven his image upon your souls and his name in your prayers makes both accepted with God How worthy is Jesus Christ of all our love and delight you see how infinitely the Father delighteth in him how he ravishes the heart of God and shall he not ravish our hearts I present you a Christ this day able to ravish any soul that will but view and consider him O that you did but see this lovely Lord Jesus Christ then would you go home sick of love surely he is a drawing Saviour Ioh. 12 32. why do we lavish away our pretious affections upon vanity none but Christ is worthy of them when you spend your pretious affections upon other objects what is it but to dig for dross with golden Mâ—ttocks the Lord direct our hearts into the love of Christ. O that our hearts loves and delights might meet and concenter with the heart of God in this most blessed object O let him that left Gods bosom for you be embosomed by you though yours be nothing to Gods he that left Gods bosom for you deserves yours If Christ be the beloved darling of the Father's soul think what a grievous and unsufferable thing it is to the heart of God to see his dear Son despised slighted and rejected by sinners verily there is no such cut to the heart of God in the whole world unbelievers trample upon Gods darling tread under foot him that eternally lay in his bosom Heb. 10.29 smite the apple of his eye and how God will bear this that parable Matth 21.37 to the 40. will inform you surely he will miserably destroy such wretched sinners if you would â—tudy to do God the greatest despight there is none like this what a dismal word is that 1 Cor. 16.22 if any man love not our Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha i. e. let the great curse of God lye upon that man till the Lord come O sinners you shall one day know the price of this sin you shall feel what it is to despise a Jesus that is able to compel love from the hardest heart O that you would slight him no more O that this day your hearts might fall in love with him I tell you if you would set your love to sale none bids so fair for it as Christ. 2. Vse of Exhortation To Saints if Christ lay eternally in this bosom of love and yet was content to forsake and leave it for your sakes then 1. Be you ready to forsake and leave all the comforts you have on earth for Christ famous Galleacius left all for his enjoyment Moses left all the glory of Aegypt Peter and the other Apostles left all Luk. 18.28 but what have we to leave for Christ in comparison of what he left for us Surely Christ is the highest pattern of self-denyal in the world 2. Let this confirm your faith in prayer if he that hath such an interest in the heart of God intercede with the Father for you then never doubt of audience and acceptance with him surely you shall be accepted through the beloved Eph. 1.6 Christ was never denyed any thing that he asked Ioh. 11.42 the Father hears him always though you are not worthy Christ is and he ever lives to make intercession for you Heb. 7.25 3. Let this incourage thy heart O Saint in a dying hour and not only make thee patient in death but in a holy manner impatient till thou be gone for whither is thy soul now going but to that bosom of love whence Christ came Joh. 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am and where is he but in that bosom of glory and love where he lay before the world was ver 5. O then let every believer incourage his soul comfort ye one another with these words I am leaving the bosom of a creature I am going to the bosom of God To sinners exhorting them to embrace the bosom-Son of God poor wretches whatever you are or have been whatever guilt or discouragement at present you lye under embrace Christ who is freely offered you and you shall be as dear to God as the holiest and most eminent believer in the world but if you still continue to despise and neglect such a Saviour sorer wrath is treasured up for you than for other sinners even something worse than dying without mercy Heb. 10.28 O that these discoveries and overtures of Christ may never come to such a fatal issue with any of your souls in whose eyes his glory hath been this day opened The THIRD SERMON ISAI LIII XII Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he was numbred with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors IN this Chapter the Gospel seems to be epitomized the subject matter of it is the death of Christ and the glorious Issue thereof by reading of it the Eunuch of old and many Jews since have been converted to Christ. Christ is here considered absolutely and relatively absolutely and so his innocency is industriously vindicated ver 9. though he suffered grievous things yet not for his own sins for he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth but relatively considered in the capacity of a surety for us So the Justice of God is as fully vindicated in his sufferings vers 6. the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all how he came to sustain this capacity and relation of a surety for us is in these verses plainly asserted to be by his compact and agreement with his Father before the worlds were made ver 10 11 12. In this verse we have 1. His Work 2. His Reward 3. The Respect or Relation of each to the other 1. His Work which was indeed a hard work to pour out his soul unto death aggravated by the companions with whom being numbred with transgressors the capacity in which bearing all the
grace with full satisfaction to the Iustice of God the Apostle 2 Tim. 1.9 tells us we are saved according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began that is according to the gratious terms of this Covenant of Redemption and yet you see notwithstanding how strictly God stands upon satisfaction from Christ so then Grace to us and satisfaction to Justice are not so inconsistent as the Socinian Adversaries would make them what was debt to Christ is grace to us when you hear men cry out here 's Grace indeed pay me all and I will forgive you remember how all mouths are stopt with that one Text Rom. 3.24 being Iustified freely by his grace and yet he adds through the Redemption that is in Christ. Vse 5. Again hence Judge of the antiquity of the love of God to believers what an antient friend he hath been to us who loved us provided for us and contrived all our happiness before we were yea before the world was we reap the fruits of this Covenant now the seed whereof was sown from Eternity yea it is not only ancient but also most free no excellencies of ours could engage the love of God for as yet we were not Vse 6. Judge hence how reasonable it is that believers should embrace the hardest terms of obedience unto Christ who complyed with such hard terms for their salvation they were hard and difficult terms indeed on which Christ received you from the Fathers hand it was as you have heard to pour out his soul unto death or not to enjoy a soul of you here you may suppose the Father to say when driving this bargain with Christ for you My Son here be a company of poor miserable souls that have utterly undone themselves and now lye open to my Justice Justice demands Satisfaction for them or will satisfie it self in the eternal ruine of them what shall be done for these souls And thus Christ returns O my Father such is my love to and pitty for them that rather than they shall perish eternally I will be responsible for them as their Surety bring in all thy bills that I may see what they owe thee Lord bring them in all that there may be no after reckonings with them at my hand shalt thou require it I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it Upon me my Father upon me be all their debt But my Son if thou undertake for them thou must reckon to pay the last mite expect no abatements if I spare them I will not spare thee Content Father let it be so charge it all upon me I am able to discharge it and though it prove a kind of undoing to me though it impoverish all my riches empty all my treasures for so indeed it did 2 Cor. 8.9 though he were rich yet for our sakes became poor yet I am content to undertake it blush ungrateful believers O let shame cover your faces Judge in your selves now hath Christ deserved that you should stand with him for trifles that you should shrink at a few petty difficulties and complain this is hard and that is harsh O if you knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in this his wonderful condescention for you you could not do it Vse 7. Lastly How greatly are we all concerned to make it sure to our selves that we are of this number which the Father and the Son agreed for before the world was that we were comprehended in Christs bargain and compact with the Father Yea but you will say who can know that there were no witnesses to that bargain Yes We may know without ascending into Heaven or prying into unrevealed Secrets that our names were in that Covenant if 1. You are believers indeed for all such the Father then gave to Christ John 17.8 the men that thou gavest me for of them he spake immediately before they have believed that thou didst send me 2. If you savingly know God in Jesus Christ such were given him by the Father Joh. 17.6 I have manifested thy name unto the men thou gavest me by this they are discriminated from the rest vers 25. the world hath not known thee but thâ—se have known c. 3. If you are men and women of another world Joh. 17.16 they are not of the world as I am not of the world may it be said of you as of dying men that you are not men and women for this world that you are Crucified and dead to it Gal. 6.14 that you are strangers in it Heb. 11.13 14. 4. If you keep Christs word Joh. 17.6 thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word by keeping his word understand the receiving of the word in its sanctifying effects and influences into your hearts and your perseverance in the profession and practice of it to the end Joh. 17.17 sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth Joh. 15.7 if ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will blessed and happy is that soul upon which these blessed characters appear which our Lord Jesus hath laid so close together within the compass of a few Verses in this 17 of Iohn these are the persons the Father delivered unto Christ and he accepted from the Father in this blessed Covenant The FOURTH SERMON JOH III. XVI For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. YOU have heard of the gracious purpose and design of God to recover poor sinners to himself by Jesus Christ and how this design of love was laid and contrived in the Covenant of Redemption whereof we last spake Now according to the terms of that Covenant you shall hear from this Scripture how that design was by one degree advanced towards its accomplishment in Gods actual giving or parting with his own Son for us God so loved the world that he gave c. The whole precedent context is spent in discovering the nature and necessity of Regeneration and the necessity thereof is in this Text argued and inferred from the peculiar respect and eye God had upon believers in giving Christ for them they only reaping all the special and saving benefits and advantages of that gift God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish In the words are considerable The Original Spring or Fountain of our best mercies the love of God The love of God is either benevolent beneficient or complacential his benevolent love is nothing else but his desire and purpose of saving and doing us good so his purpose of grace to Iacob is called love Rom. 9.13 Iacob have I loved but this being before Iacob was could consist in nothing else but the gracious purpose of God towards him his beneficent love is his actual doing good to the persons beloved
or the bestowing the effects of his love upon us according to that purpose His complacential love is nothing else but that delight and satisfaction he finds in beholding the fruits and workings of that grace in us which he first intended for us and then actually collated or bestowed on us This love of benevolence is that which I have opened to you under the former head Gods compact with Christ about us or his design to save us on the Articles and terms therein specified The love of beneficence is that which this Scripture speaks off out of this fountain Christ flowed to us and both run into that of complacency for therefore he both purposed and actually bestowed Christ on us that he might everlastingly delight in beholding the glory and praise of all this reflected on himself by his redeemed ones This then is the fountain of our mercies The mercy flowing out of this fountain and that is Christ the mercy as he is Emphatically called Luk. 1.72 the marrow kernel and substance of all other mercies He gave his only begotten Son this was the birth of that love the like whereunto it never brought forth before therefore it 's exprest with a double emphasis in the Text the one is that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so he so loved the world here is a sic without a sicut how did he love it why he so loved it but how much the tongues of Angels cannot declare And moreover to encrease and aggravate the mercy he is stiled his only begotten Son to have given a Son had been wonderful but to give an only begotten Son that 's love unexpressible unintelligible The objects of this love or the persons into whose lap and arms the eternal love delivered Christ and that is the world this must respect the elect of God in the world such as do or shall actually believe as it is exegetically exprest in the next breath that whosoever believes in him should not perish those whom he calls the world in that he stiles believers in this expression and the word world is put to signifie the elect because they are scattered through all parts and are among all ranks of men in the world these are the objects of this love it is not Angels but men that were so loved he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover a friend of man but never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lover of friend of Angels or Creatures of another species The manner in which this never enough celebrated mercy flows to us from the Fountain of Divine love and that is most freely and spontaneously He gave not he sold or barely parted from but gave nor yet doth the Fathers giving imply Christ to be meerly passive for as the Father is here said to give him so the Apostle tells us Gal. 2.20 that he gave himself who loved me and gave himself for me the Father gave him out of good will to men and he as willingly bestowed himself on that Service Hence the Note is DOCT. That the gift of Christ is the highest and fullest manifestation of the love of God to sinners that ever was made from eternity to them How is this gift of God to sinners signalized in that place of the Apostle 1 Joh. 4.10 herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins why doth the Apostle so magnifie this gift in saying herein is love as if there were love in nothing else may we not say that to have a being a being among the rational creatures therein is love to have our life carryed so many years like a taper in the hand of Providence through so many dangers and not yet put out in obscurity therein is love to have food and rayment convenient for us beds to lye in relations to comfort us in all these is love yea but if you speak comparatively in all these there is no love to the love exprest in sending or giving Christ for us these be great mercies in themselves but set by this mercy they are all swallowed up as the light of Candles when brought into the Sun-shine no no herein is the love that God gave Christ for us And it is remarkable that when the Apostle would shew us in Rom. 5.8 what is the noblest fruit that most commends to men the root of Divine love that bears it he shews us this very fruit of it that I am now opening But God saith he commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us this is the very flower of that love The Method into which I will cast this precious point shall be this 1. To shew how Jesus Christ was given by the Father 2. How that gift is the fullest and richest manifestation of the love of God that was ever made to the world 3. And then draw forth the Uses of it How was Jesus Christ given by the Father and what is implyed therein You are not so to understand it as though God parted with his â—â—terest and propriety in his Son when he is said to give him he was as much his own as ever when men give they transfer propriety to another but when God had given him he was I say still as much his own as ever but this giving of Christ implyes 1. His designation and appointment unto death for us for so you read that it was done according to the determinate counsel of God Acts 2.23 look as the Lamâ—â—nder the Law was separted from the flock and set apart for a Sacrifice though it were still living yet it was intentionally and pâ—â—paratively given and consecrated to the Lord so Jesus Christ was by the counsel and purpose of God thus chosen and set apart for this Service and therefore in Esa. 42.1 God calls him his elect or chosen one 2. His giving Christ implys a parting with him or setting him as the French hath it at some distance from himself for a time there was a kind of parting betwixt the Father and the Son when he came to tabernacle in our flesh so he expresseth it Joh. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father this distance that his incarnation and humiliation set him at was properly as to his humanity which was really distant from the glory into which it is now taken up and in respect of manifestation of delight and love The Lord seemed to carry it as one at distance from him O this was it that so deeply pierced and wounded his Soul as is evident from that complaint Psal. 22.1 2. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou so far from the voice of my roaring O my God I cry in the day time and thou hearest not c. 3. Gods giving of Christ implies his delivering him into the
hands of Justice to be punished Even as condemned persons are by sentence of Law given or delivered into the hands of executioners So Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsell of God ye have taken and with wicked hands have slain And so he is said Rom. 8.32 To deliver him up to death for us all The Lord when the time was come that Christ must Suffer did as it were say O all ye roaring Waves of my incensed Justice now swell as high as heaven and go over his soul and body Sink him to the bottom let him go like Ionah his Type into the belly of Hell unto the roots of the Mountains Come all ye raging storms that I have reserved for this day of wrath beat upon him beat him down that he may not be able to look up Psal. 40.12 Go Justice put him upon the rack torment him in every part till all his bones be out of joynt and his heart within him be melted as wax in the midst of his bowels Psal. 22.14 And ye assembly of the wicked Jews and Gentiles that have so long gaped for his blood now he is delivered into your hands you are now permitted to execute your malice to the full I now loose your chain and into your hand and power is he delivered 4. Gods giving of Christ implys his application of him with all the purchases of his blood and setling all this upon us as an inheritance and portion Ioh. 6.32 33. My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world God hath given him as bread to poor starving creatures that by faith they might eat and live And so he told the Samaritaness Ioh. 4 10. If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living waters Bread and water are the two necessarys for the support of natural life God hath given Christ you see to be all that and more to the spiritual Life How this gift of Christ was the highest and fullest manifestation of the love of God that ever the world saw And this will be evidenced by the following particulars 1. If you consider how near and dear Jesus Christ was to the Father He was his Son his only Son saith the Text. The Son of his Love The darling of his soul. His other self Yea one with himself The express Image of his person The brightness of his Fathers glory In parting with him he parted with his own heart with his very bowels as I may say Yet to us a Son is given Esa. 9.6 And such a Son as he calls his dear Son Col. 1.13 A late writer tells us that he hath been informed that in the Famine in Germany a poor family being ready to perish with Famine the Husband made a motion to the Wife to sell one of the Children for bread to relieve themselves and the rest The Wife at last consents it should be so but then they began to think which of the four should be sold. And when the eldest was named they both refused to part with that being their first born and the beginning of their strength Well then they came to the second but could not yield that he should be sold being the very picture and lively image of his Father The third was named but that also was a child that best resembled the mother And when the youngest was thought on that was the Benjamin The child of their old age And so were content rather to perish altogether in the Famine than part with a child for relief And you know how tenderly Iacob took it when his Ioseph and Benjamin were rent from him What is a child but a piece of the parent wrapt up in another skin And yet our dearest children are but as strangers to us in comparison of the unspeakable dearness that was betwixt the Father and Christ. Now that he should ever be content to part with a Son and such an only one is such a manifestation of Love as will be admired to all Eternity And then 2. let it be considered to what he gave him even to death and that of the Cross to be made a curse for us To be the scorn and contempt of men To the most unparalell'd sufferings that ever were inflicted or born by any It melts our bowels it breaks our hearts to behold our children striving in the pangs of death But the Lord beheld his Son struggling under agonies that never any felt before him He saw him falling to the ground groveling in the dust sweating blood and amidst those agonies turning himself to his Father and with an heart rending cry beseeching him Father if it be pâ—ssible let this cup pass Luk. 22.42 To wrath to the wrath of an infinite God without mixture to the very torments of hell was Christ delivered and that by the hand of his own Father Sure then that love must needs want a name which made the Father of mercies deliver his own only Son to such miserys for us 3. It is a special consideration to enhance the love of God in giving Christ that in giving him he gave the richest Jewel in his Cabinet A mercy of the greatest worth and most inestimable value Heaven it self is not so valuable and precious as Christ is He is the better half of heaven And so the Saints account him Psal. 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee Ten thousand thousand worlds saith one as many worlds as Angels can number and then as a new world of Angels can multiply would not all be the balk of a ballance to weigh Christs Excellency Love and sweetness O what a fair one What an only one What an excellent lovely ravishing one is Christ. Put the Beauty of ten thousand Paradices like the garden of Eden into one put all Trees all Flowers all Smells all Colours all Tasts all Ioys all Sweetness all Loveliness in one O what a fair and excellent thing would that be And yet it should be less to that fair and dearest well beloved Christ than one drop of rain to the whole Seas Rivers Lakes and Fountains of ten thousand Earths Christ is heavens wonder and earths wonder Now for God to bestow the mercy of mercys the most precious thing in heaven or earth upon poor sinners and as great as lovely as excellent as his Son was yet not to account him too good to bestow upon us what manner of love is this 4. Once more let it be considered on whom the Lord bestowed his Son Upon Angels No but upon men Upon man his friend No but upon his enemies This is Love And on this consideration the Apostle lays a mighty weight in Rom. 5.8 9 10. But God saith he commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for
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
these are honourable scars and highly grace and commend it to his Spouse for whose dear sake he here received them They are marks of Love and Honour And he would be so drawn or rather he so drew himself that as oft as his people look'd upon that portraicture of him they may remember and be deeply affected with those things he here endured for their sakes These are the wounds my dear Husband Jesus received for me These are are the marks of that Love which passes the Love of creatures O see the Love of a Saviour This is that Heavenly Pelican that feeds his young with his own blood We have read of pitiful and tender women that have eaten the flesh of their own children Lamb. 4.10 But where is that woman recorded that gave her own flesh and blood to be meat and drink to her children Surely the Spouse may say of the Love of Christ what David in his Lamentations said of the Love of Ionathan thy Love to me was wonderful passing the Love of women But to prepare the point to be meat indeed and drink indeed to thy soul Reader I shall discuss briefly these three things and hasten to the application First What it is to remember the Lord Jesus in the Sacrament Secondly What aptitude there is in that Ordinance so to bring him to our remembrance Thirdly How the care and Love of Christ is discovered by leaving such a memorial of himself within us First What it is to remember the Lord Jesus in the Sacrament Remembrance properly is the return of the mind to an object about which it hath been formerly conversant And it may so return to a thing it hath conversed with before two waies speculatively and transciently or affectingly and permanently A speculative remembrance is only to call to mind the history of such a person and his sufferings That Christ was once put to death in the flesh An affectionate remembrance is when we so call Christ and his death to our minds as to feel the powerful impressions thereof upon our hearts Thus Matth. 26.75 Peter remembred the words of the Lord and went out and wept bitterly His very heart was melted with that remembrance his bowels were pained he could not hold but went out and wept abundantly Thus Ioseph when he saw his brother Benjamin whose sight refreshed the memory of former daies and endearments was greatly affected Gen. 43.29 30. And he lift up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin his mothers Son and said is this your younger brother of whom ye spake to me and he said God be gracious unto thee my Son And Joseph made haste for his bowels did yearn upon his brother and he sought where to weep and he entred into his Chamber and wept there Such a remembrance of Christ is that which is here intended This is indeed a gratious remembrance of Christ the former hath nothing of grace in it The time shall come when Iudas that betrayed him and the Iews that pierced him shall hystorically remember what was done Rev. 1.7 Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him They I say Iudas shall remember this is he whom I perfidiously betrayed Pilate shall remember this is he whom I sentensed to be hanged on the tree though I was convinced of his innocency Then the Souldiers shall remember this is that Face we spet upon that head we crowned with thorns Lo this is he whose side we pierced whose hands and Feet we once nailed to the Cross. But this remembrance will be their torment not their benefit It is not therefore a bare hystorical speculative but a gratious affectionate impressive remembrance of Christ that is here intended and such a remembrance of Christ supposes and includes First The saving knowledge of him We cannot be said to remember what we never knew nor to remember savingly what we never knew savingly There have been many previous sweet and gratious transactions dealings and intimacies betwixt Christ and his people from the time of their first happy acquaintance with him much of that sweetness they have had in former considerations of him and hours of communion with him are lost and gone For nothing is more volatile hazardous and inconstant than our Spiritual comforts but now at the Table there our old acquintance is renewed and the remembrance of his goodness and Love refreshed and revived We will remember thy Love more than wine the upright Love thee Cant. 1.4 Secondly Such a remembrance of Christ includes faith in it Without discerning Christ at a Sacrament there is no remembrance of him and without faith no discerning Christ there But when the pretious eye of faith hath espied Christ under that vail it presently calls up the affections saying come see the Lord. These are the wounds he received for me This is he that Loved me and gave himself for me This is his flesh and that his blood sic Occulos sic ille Manus c. so his Arms were stretched out upon the Cross to embrace me So his blessed Head hung down to kiss me Awake my Love rouze up my Hope flame out my Desires come forth O all ye powers and affections of my soul come see the Lord. No sooner doth Christ by his Spirit call to the Believer but faith hears and discerning the voice turns about like Mary saying Rabboni my Lord my Master Thirdly This remembrance of Christ includes suitable impressions made upon the affections by such a sight and remembrance of him And therein lies the nature of that pretious thing which we call communion with God Various representations of Christs are made at the Table Sometimes the soul there calls to mind the infinite wisdom that so contriv'd and laid the glorious and mysterious design and project of redemption The effect of this is wonder and admiration O the manifold wisdom of God! Eph. 3.10 O the depths the heights the length the breadth of this wisdom I can as easily span the heavens as take the just demensions of it Sometimes a representation of the severity of God is made to the soul at that Ordinance O how inflexible and severe is the Justice of God What no abatements No sparing mercy not to his own Son this begets a double impression on the heart First Just and deep indignation against sin Ah cursed sin 'T was thou usedst my dear Lord so For thy sake he underwent all this If thy vileness had not been so great his sufferings had not been so many Cursed sin thou wast the knife that stab'd him Thou the sword that pierced him Ah what revenge it works I remember it 's storied of one of the Kings of France that hearing his Bishop as I remember it was Remigius read the Historie of Christs trial and execution and hearing how barbarously they had used Christ he was moved with so tragical and pathetical a
thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled They shall then depend no more upon the stream but drink from the ever flowing fountain it self Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures For with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light shall we see light There they shall drink and praise and praise and drink for evermore All their thirsty desires shall be filled with compleat satisfaction O how desirable a state is heaven upon this account And how should we be restless till we come thither as the thirsty traveller is until he meet that cool refreshing spring he wants and seeks for This present state is a state of thirsting that to come of refreshment and satisfaction Some drops indeed come from that fountain by faith but they quench not the believers thirst Rather like water sprinkled on fire they make it burn the more but there the thirsty soul hath enough O bless God that Jesus Christ thirsted under the heat of his wrath once that you might not be scorched with it for ever If he had not cryed I thirst you must have cryed out of thirst eternally and never be satisfied Inference 6. Lastly Did Christ in the extremity of his sufferings cry I thirst Then how great beyond all compare is the love of God to Sinners Who for their sakes exposed the Son of his love to such extream sufferings Three considerations marvelously heighten that love of the Father First His putting the Lord Jesus into such a condition There is none of us would endure to see a Child of our own lie panting and thirsting in the extremity of torments for the fairest inheritance on earth Much less to have the soul of a child conflicting with the wrath of God and making such heart-rending complaints as Christ made upon the Cross if we might have the largest Empire in the world for it yet such was the strength of the love of God to us that he willingly gave Jesus Christ to all this misery and torture for us What shall we call this love O the height length depth and bredth of that love which passeth knowledge The love of God to Jesus Christ was infinitly beyond all the love we have to our children as the Sea is more than a spoonful of water and yet as dearly as he loved him he was content to expose him to all this rather than we should perish eternally Secondly As God the Father was content to expose Christ to this extremity so in that extremity to hear his bitter cries and dolorous complaints and yet not relieve him with the least refreshment till he fainted and died under it He heard the cries of his Son That voice I thirst pierced heaven and reacht the Fathers ear but yet he will not refresh him in his agonies nor abate him any thing of the debt he was now paying and all this for the love he had to poor sinners Had Christ been relieved in his sufferings and spared then God could not have pitied or spared us The extremity of Christs sufferings was an act of Justice to him and the greatest mercy to us that ever could be manifested Nor indeed though Christ so bitterly complains of his thirst was he willing to be relieved till he had finished his work O love unspeakable He doth not complain that he might be relieved but to manifest how great that sorrow was which his soul now felt upon our account Thirdly And it should never be forgotten that Jesus Christ was exposed to these extremities of sorrow for sinners the greatest of sinners who deserved not one drop of mercy from God This commends the love of God singularly to us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 Thus the Love of God in Jesus Christ still rises higher and higher in every discovery of it Admire adore and be ravished with the thoughts of this Love Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift The THIRTY FIFTH SERMON JOH XIX XXX When Iesus therefore had received the Vinegar he said it is Finished and bowed his head and gave up the Ghost IT is finished This is the sixth remarkable word of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross uttered as a Triumphant shout when he saw the glorious issue of all his sufferings now at hand It is but one word in the original but in that one word is contained the sum of all Joy The very spirits of all divine consolation The ancient Greeks reckoned it their excellency to speak much in a little To give a Sea of matter in a drop of language What they only sought is here found I find some variety and indeed variety rather than contrariety among expositors about the relation of these words Some are of opinion that the antecedent is the legal Types and Ceremonies And so make this to be the meaning It is finished that is all the Types and Prefigurations that shadowed forth the Redemption of souls by the blood of Christ are now fulfilled and accomplished And doubtless as this is in it self a truth so it 's such a truth as may not be excluded as alien to the true scope and sense of this place And though it be objected that many Types and Prefigurations remained at this time unsatisfied even all that looked to the actual death of Christ his continuance in the state of the dead and his resurrection yet it 's easily removed by considering that they are said to be finished because they were just finishing or ready to be finished And it is as if Christ had said I am now putting the last hand to it A few moments of time more will compleat and finish it I have the sum now in my hand which will fully satisfie and pay God the whole debt It is now but bow the head and the work is done and all the Types therein fulfilled So that this cannot exclude the fulfilling of the Types in the death of Christ from their just claim to the sense of this place But yet though we cannot here exclude this sense we cannot allow it to be the whole or principal sense For loe a far greater truth is contained herein even the finishing or complement of the whole design and project of our Redemption and therein of all the Types that prefigured it Both these judicious Calvin conjoyns making the compleating of redemption the principal and the fulfilling of all the Types the Collateral and less principal sense of it Yet it must be observed when we say Christ finished Redemption-work by his death the meaning is not that his death alone did finish it for his abode in the grave resurrection and ascention had all of them their joynt influence into it but these being shortly to follow are all included in the scope of this place According then to the principal scope of the place we observe DOCT.
those holy ones that rose at that time and appeared to many in the holy City Thus was the funeral of our Lord performed by men Thus was iâ— adorned by Miracles from heaven Vse And now we have seen Jesus interred He that wears at his girdle the Keys of Hell and Death himself locked up in the Grave What shall I say of him whom they now laid in the Grave Shall I undertake to tell you what he was What he did suffered and deserved Alas The tongues of Angels must pause and stammer in such a work I may truly say as Nazianzen said of Basil no tongue but his own can sufficiently commend and praise him He is a Sun of righteousness a fountain of life a bundle of Love Of him it might be said in that day Here lies the lovely Jesus in whom is treasured up whatsoever an angry God can require for his satisfaction or an empty creature for his perfection Before him was none like him and after shall none arise comparable to him If every leaf and spire of grass saith one nay all the Stars Sands and Atomes were so many Souls and Seraphims whose love should double in them every moment to all eternity yet would it fall infinitly short of what his worth and excellency exacts Suppose a creature compos'd of all the choice endowments that ever dwelt in the best of men since the Creation of the World in whom you find a meek Moses a strong Sampson a faithful Ionathan a beautiful Absolom a rich and wise Solomon nay and add to this the understanding strength agility splendor and holiness of all the Angels it would all amount but to a dark shadow of this incomparable Jesus Who ever weighed Christ in a pair of ballances saith another who hath seen the foldings and plyes the heights and depths of that glory which is in him O for such a heaven as but to stand afar off and see and love and long for him while times thred be cut and this great work of Creation dissolved O if I could yoke in among the thick of Angels and Seraphims and now glorified Saints and could raise a new Love song of Christ before all the world I am pained with wondering at new opened treasures in Christ. If every finger member bone and joynt were a torch burning in the hottest fire in hell I would they could all send out love praises high songs of praise for ever more to that plant of renown to that Royal and high Prince Jesus my Lord. But alas his love swelleth in me and finds no vent I marr his praises nay I know no comparison of what Christ is and what he is worth All the Angels and all the glorified praise him not so much as in halves Who can advance him or utter all his praise O if I could praise him I would rest content to die of Love for him O would to God I could send in my praises to my incomparable well beloved or cast my Love songs of that matchless Lord Jesus over the walls that they might light in his lap before men and Angels But whâ—n I have spoken of him till my head rive I have said just nothing I may begin again A God-head a God-head is a worlds wonder Set ten thousand thousand new made worlds of Angels and Elect men and double them in number ten thousand thousand thousand times let their hearts and tongues be ten thousand times more agile and large than the hearts and tongues of the Seraphims that stand with six wings before him when they have said all for the glorifying and praising of the Lord Jesus they have spoken little or nothing O if I could wear this tongue to the stump in extolling his highness But it is my daily sorrow that I am confounded with his incomparable Love Thus have his enamoured friends faintly expressed his excellencies and if they have therein done any thing they have shewn the impossibility of his due praises Come and see believing souls look upon dead Jesus in his winding-sheet by Faith and say Lo this is he of whom the Church said my beloved is White and Ruddy his ruddiness is now gone and a death pale hath prevailed over all his body but still as lovely as ever yea altogether lovely If David lamenting the death of Saul and Ionathan said Daughters of Ierusalem weep over Saul who cloathed you in Scarlet with other delights who put on ornaments of Gold upon your apparel Much rather may I say children of Sion weep over Jesus who cloathed you with righteousness and garments of Salvation This is he who quitted the throne of glory left the bosom of unspeakable delights came in a body of flesh produced in perfect holiness brake through many and great impediments thy great unworthiness the wrath of God and man by the strength of love to bring salvation home to thy soul. Can he that believingly considers this do less than faint at the sense of that love that brought him to the dust of death and cry out with that Father my Love was Crucified But I will insist no longer upon generals but draw down the particulars of Christs Funeral to your use in the following Corollaries Corollary 1. Was Christ buried in this manner then a decent and mournful Funeral where it can be had is laudable among Christians I know the souls of the Saints have no concernment for their bodies nor are they solicitous how the body is treated here yet there is a respect due to them as they are the Temples wherein God hath been serv'd and honoured by those holy souls that once dwelt in them As also upon the account to their relation to Christ even when they lie by the walls And the glory that will be one day put upon them when they shall be changed and made like unto Christs glorious body Upon such special accounts as these their bodies deserve an honourable treatment as well as upon the account of humanity which owes this honour to the bodies of all men To have no funeral is accounted a Judgement Eccles. 7.4 Or to be tumbled into a pit without any to lament us is lamentable We read of many solemn and mournful funerals in Scripture wherein the people of God have affectionatly paid their respects and honours to the dust of the Saints as men that were deeply sensible of their worth and how great a loss the world sustains by their remove Christs funeral had as much of decency and solemnity in it as the time would permit though he was a stranger to all pomp both in life and death Corollary 2. Did Ioseph and Nicodemus so boldly appear at a time of so much danger to beg the body and give it a funeral let it be for ever a caution to strong Christians not to despise or glory over the weak You see here a couple of poor low spirited and timorous persons that were afraid to be seen in Christs company when the
Soul and be satisfied In which words thrâ—e things fall under our consideration First The travailing pangs of Christ. So the Agonies of his soul and Torments of his body are fitly call'd not only because of the sharpness and acuteness of them being in that respect like the birth pangs of a travailing woman for so this word signifies But also because they forerun and make way for the birth which abundantly recompences all those labours I shall not here insist upon the the pangs and Agonies endured by Christ in the garden or upon the Cross which the Prophet stiles the travail of his Soul having in the former Sermons open'd it largely in its particulars but pass to the Second Thing considerable in these words and that is the assured fruits and effects of this his travail He shall see the travail of his Soul By seeing understand the fruition obtainment or enjoyment of the ends of his sufferings He shall not shed his blood upon an hazard His design shall not miscarry but he shall certainly see the ends he aimed at accomplisht And Thirdly This shall yield him great satisfaction as a woman forgets her sorrow for joy that a man is born into the world Joh. 16.21 He shall see it and be Satisfied As God when he had finished the work of Creation viewed that his work with pleasure and satisfaction so doth our exalted Redeemer with great contentment behold the happy issues of his hard sufferings It affords pleasure to a man to see great affairs by orderly conduct brought to happy issues Much more doth it yield delight to Iesus Christ to see the results of that most profound wisdom and love wherein he carried on Redemption work All runs into this DOCT. That all the blessed designs and ends for which the Lord Iesus Christ humbled himself to the death of the Cross shall certainly be attained to his full content and satisfaction My present business is not to prove that Christ shall certainly obtain what he died for nor to open the great satisfaction and pleasure which will rise to him out of those issues of his death but to point at the principal ends of his death making some brief improvements as we pass along First Then let us enquire into the designs and ends of Christs humiliation at least the main and principal ones and we shall find that as the sprinkling of the Typical blood in the Old Testament was done for four weighty Ends or Uses answerably the pretious and invaluable blood of the Testator and surety of the New Testament is shed for four weighty Ends also First That blood was shed and applied to deliver from danger Exod. 12.13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are and when I see the blood I will pass over you And the Plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the Land of Egypt Secondly That blood was shed to make an attonement betwixt God and the people Levit. 4.20 And he shall do with the Bullock as he did with the Bullock for a sin offering so shall he do with this and the Priest shall make an attonement for them and it shall be forgiven them Thirdly That blood was shed to purifie persons from their ceremonial pollutions Levit. 14.6 7. He shall dip the Cedar wood and Scarlet and Hysop with the living bird in the blood of the bird that was kill'd over the running water and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the Leprosie seven times and shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird loose in the open field Fourthly That blood was shed to ratifie and confirm the Testament or Covenant of God with the people Exod. 24.8 And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words These were the four main Ends of shedding and sprinkling that Typical blood Sutably there are four principal Ends of shedding and applying Christs blood As that Typical blood was shed to deliver from danger so this was shed to deliver from wrath even the wrath to come That was shed to make an attonement so was this That was shed to purifie persons from uncleanness so was this That was shed to confirm the Testament so was this As will appear in the particulars more at large End 1. First One principal design and End of shedding the blood of Christ was to deliver his people from danger the danger of that wrath which burns down to the lowest Hell So you find 1 Thes. 1.10 Even Iesus who delivered us from the wrath to come Here our misery is both specified and aggravated Specifi'd in calling it wrath a word of deep and dreadful signification The damned best undâ—rstand the importance of that word And aggravated in calling it wrath to come or coming wrath Wrath to come implies both the futurity and perpetuity of this wrath It 's wrath that shall certainly and inevitably come upon sinners As sure as the night follows the day As sure as the Winter follows the Summer so shall wrath follow sin and the pleasures thereof Yea it 's not only certainly future but when it comes it will be abiding wrath or wrath still coming When millions of years and Ages are past and gone this will still be wrath to come Ever coming as a râ—ver eâ—er flowing Now from this wrath to come hath lesâ—s delivered his people by his death For that was the price laid down â—or their redemption from the wrath of thâ— grâ—at and terrible God Rom. 5.9 Much more then being â—ustified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him The blood of Jesus was the price that ransomed man from his wrath And it was shed not only to deliver them from wrath to come but to deliver them freely fully distinguishingly and wonderfully from it First Freely by his own voluntary interposition and susception of the mediatorial office moved thereunto by his own bowels of compaossion which yearned over his Elect in their misery The Saints were once a lost generation thaâ— had sold themselves and their inheritance also and had not wherewithall to Redeem either but they had a near kinsman even their elder Brother by the Mothers side to whom the right of Redemption did belong who being a mighty man of wealth the heir of all things undertook to be their Goell and out of his own proper substance to Redeem both them and their inheritance Them to be his own inheritance Eph. 1.10 And heaven to be theirs 1 Pet. 1.4 All this he did most freely when none madâ— supplication to him No sighing of the prisoners came before him He design'd it for us before we had a being And when the purposes of his grace were come to their parturient fulness then did he freely lay out the infinite treasures of his blood to purchase our
and allayed if there be something ravishing and ingaging there is also something cloying and distasting the purer any delight is the more excellent Now there are no Christal streams flowing so purely from the Fountain no beams of light so unmixed from the Sun as the loves and delights of these holy and glorious persons were the holy holy holy Father embraced the thrice holy Son with a most holy delight and love 4. Consider the constancy of this delight it was from everlasting as in ver 23. and from Eternity it never suffered one moments interruption the ever-flowing Fountain of Gods delight and love never stopt its course never ebbed but as he speaks in the Text I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him once more consider the fulness of that delight the perfection of that pleasure I was delights so the word is in its original not only plural delights all delights but also in the abstract delight it self as afterwards from the abundance of his sorrows he was stiled a man of sorrows so here from the fulness of his delights as who should say even constituted and made up of pleasure and delight Once more let us consider it comparitively and this state will yet appear more glorious comparing it with either the choicest delights that one Creature takes in another or that God takes in the creature or that the creature takes in God measure these immense delights betwixt the Father and his Son by either of these lines and you shall find them all infinitely short For 1. Though the delights that creatures take in each other be sometimes a great delight such was Iacobs delight in Benjamin whose life is said to be bound up in the lads life a dear and high expression Gen. 44.30 such was that of Ionathan in David whose soul was knit with his soul and he loved him as his own soul 1 Sam. 13.1 and such is the delight of one friend in another there is a friend that is as a mans own soul Deut. 13.6 yet all this is but Creature-delight and can in no particular match the delights betwixt the Father and the Son for this is but a finite delight according to the measure and abilities of Creatures but that is infinite suitable to the infinite perfection of the Divine being this is always mixed that perfectly pure 2. Or if you compare it with the delight that God takes in the Creatures it is confessed that God takes great delight in some creatures the Lord takes pleasure in his Saints he rejoyces over them with singing and resteth in his love Zeph. 3.17 Isa. 62.5 but yet there is a great difference betwixt his delight in creatures and his delights in Christ for all his delight in the Saints is secondary and for Christs sake but his delights in Christ are primary and for his own sake we are accepted in the beloved Ephes. 1.6 he is beloved and accepted for himself 3. To conclude compare it once more with the delights that the best of creatures take in God and Christ and it must be confessed that is a choice delight and a transcendent love with which they love and delight in him Psal. 73.25 whom have I in Heaven but thee and on earth there is none that I desire besides thee what pangs of love what raptures of delight did the Spouse express to Christ oh thou whom my soul loveth but surely our delight in God is no perfect rule to measure his delight in Christ by for our love to God at the best is still imperfect that 's the burden and constant complaint of Saints but this is perfect ours is inconstant up and down ebbing and flowing but this is constant so then to conclude the condition and state of Iesus Christ before his Incarnation was a state of highest and matchless delight in the enjoyment of his Father The Uses follow Vse of Information What an astonishing act of love was this then for the Father to give the delight the darling of his soul out of his very bosom for poor sinners all tongues must needs pause and faulter that attempt the expression of this grace expressions being here swallowed up God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Joh. 3.16 here is a sic without a sicut so loved them how did he love them nay here you must excuse the tongues of Angels which of us would deliver a Child the Child of our delights an only Child to death for the greatest inheritance in the World what tender Parent can endure a parting pull with such a Child when Hagar was taking her last leave as she thought of her Ishmael Gen. 21.16 the text saith she went and sate her down over against him a good way off for she said let me not see the death of the Child and she sate over against him and lift up her voice and wept though she were none of the best Mothers nor he the best of Children yet she could not give up a Child O 't was hard to part what an out-cry did David make even for an Absalom wishing he dyed for him what a hole as I may say hath the death of some Children made in the hearts of some Parents which will never be closed up in this world yet surely never did any Child lye so close to a Parents heart as Christ did to his Fathers and yet he willingly parts with him though his only one the Son of his delights and that to death a cursed death for sinners for the worst of sinners O miranda dei philanthropia matchless love a love past finding out let all men therefore in the business of their redemption give equal glory to the Father with the Son Ioh. 5.23 if the Father had not loved thee he had never parted with such a Son for thee From one wonder let your souls turn to another for they are now in the midst of wonders adore and be for ever astonished at the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners that ever he should consent to leave such a bosom and the ineffable delights that were there for such poor worms as we are O heights depths length and bredth of unmeasurable love O see Rom. 5.6 7 8. read and wonder how is the love of Christ commended in ravishing circumstances to poor sinners you would be loath to leave a Creatures bosom a comfortable dwelling a fair estate for the best friend in the world your souls are loath to leave their bodies though they have no such great content there but which of you if ever you found by experience what it is to be in the bosom of God by Divine Communion would be perswaded to leave such a bosom for all the good that is in the world and yet Jesus Christ who was imbraced in that bosom after another manner than ever you were acquainted with freely left it and laid down the glory and riches he enjoyed there for your sakes and as the father
was but Typical of the Spirit by which Christ was consecrated or Sealed to his Offices Thirdly Christ was Sealed by the Fathers immediate testimony from Heaven whereby he was declared to be the Person whom the Father had solemnly designed and appointed to this work And God gave this extraordinary testimony of him at two remarkable seasons The one was Just at his entrance upon his Publique Ministry Matth. 3. ult The other but a little before his sufferings Matth. 17.5 This voice was not formed by such Organs and Instruments of speech as ours are but by creating a voice in the air which the people hear sounding thereby this God owned approved and as by a Seal ratified his work Fourthly Christ was Sealed by the Father in all those extraordinary miraculous works wrought by him in which the Father gave yet more full and convincing testimonies to the world that this was he whom he had appointed to be our Mediator These were convictive to the world that God had sent him And that his Doctrine was of God God annointed Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil for God was with him Acts 10.38 And so Ioh. 5.36 I have a greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me Therefore he still refer'd those that doubted of him or of his Doctrine to this Seal of his Father even the miraculous works he wrought in the power of God Matth. 11.3.4 5. And thus the Father Sealed him Lastly We will enquire why it was necessary Christ should be Sealed by his Father to this work And there are these three weighty reasons for it First Else he had not corresponded with the Types which prefigured him and in him it was necessary that they be all accomplished You know under the Law the Kings and High-Priests had their Inaugurations by solemn unctions in all which this consecration or Sealing of Christ to his work was shadow'd out And therefore you shall find Heb. 5.4 5. No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is call'd of God as was Aaron so also mark the necessary correspondency betwixt Christ and them Christ glorifi'd not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son Secondly Moreover hereby the hearts of believers are the more engaged to love the Father in as much as it appears hereby that the Fathers love and good will to them was the Original and Spring of their Redemption For had not the Father Sealed him such a Commission he had not come but now he comes in the Fathers name and in the Fathers love as well as his name and so all men are bound to ascribe equal glory and honour to them both As it is Ioh. 5.23 Lastly And Especially Christ would not come without a Commission because else you had no ground for your Faith in him How should we have been satisfied that this is indeed the true Messiah except he had opened his Commission to the world and shew'd his Fathers Seal annexed to it If he had come without his Credentials from heaven and only told the world that God had sent him and that they must take his bare word for it Who could have rested his Faith on that Testimony And that is the true meaning of that place Ioh. 5.31 If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true How so You will say doth not that contradict what he saith Ioh. 8.14 Though I bear record of my self yet my record is true Therefore you must understand truth not as it is opposed to reality but the meaning is if I had only given you my bare word for it and not brought other evidence from my Father my Testimony had not been Authentick and valid according to humane Laws But now all doubtings are precluded Let us next improve this Inference 1. Hence we infer the Vnreasonableness of Infidelity and how little the rejecters of Christ can have to pretend for their so doing You see he hath opened his Commission in the Gospel shewn the world his Fathers Hand and Seal to it given as ample satisfaction as reason it self could desire or expect yet even his own received him not Ioh. 1.11 And he knew it before hand and therefore complain'd by the Prophet Isa. 53.1 Who hath believed our Report c. Yea and that he is believed on in the world is by the Apostle put among the great mysteries of godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 A man that well considers with what convincing evidence Christ comes would rather think it a mysterie that any should not believe But O the bruitish obstinacy and Devilish enmity that is in nature to Jesus Christ Devilish did I say you must give me that word again for he compell'd their assent We know thee whom thou art And it is equally as wonderful to see the facility that is in nature to comply mean while with any even the most foolish imposture Let a false Christ arise and he shall deceive many As it is Matth. 24.24 Of this Christ complains and not without great reason Ioh. 5.43 I am come in my Fathers name and ye receive me not If another come in his own name him will ye receive q. d. You are incredulous to none but me Every deceiver every pitiful cheat that hath but wit or rather wickedness enough to tell you the Lord hath sent him though you must take his own single word for it He shall obtain and get Disciples but though I come in my Fathers name i. e. shâ—wing you a Commission Sign'd and Seal'd by him doing those Works that none but a God can do yet ye receive me not But in all this we must adore the Justice of God in permitting it to be so giving men up to such unreasonable obstinacy and hardness It is a sore plague that lies upon the world and a wonder that we all are not ingulphed in the same Infidelity Inference 2. If Christ were Sealed to his Work by his Father then how great is the sin of those that reject and despise such as are sent and Sealed by Iesus Christ for look as he came to us in his Fathers name so he hath sent forth by the same Authority Ministers in his name And as he acts in his Fathers so they in his Authority As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world Joh. 17.18 And so Ioh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so have I sent you You may think it a small matter to despise or reject a Minister of Christ a sin in the guilt whereof I think no Age hath been plunged deeper than this but hear and let it be a warning to you for ever in so doing you despise and put the slight both upon the Father
that sent Jesus Christ and upon Christ that sent them So that it is a rebellion that how ever it seems to begin low in some small piques against their persons or some little quarrels at their parts and Utterance Tones Methods or gestures yet it â—â—ns high even to the Fountain head of the most supream Authority You that set your selves against a Minister of Christ set your selves against God the Father and God the Son Luk. 10.16 He that heareth you heareth meâ— and he that despiseth you despised me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me God expects that yon behave your selves under the word spoken by us as if he himself spake it Yea he expects submission to his word in the mouths of his Ministers from the greatest on earth And therefore it was that God so severely punished Zedekiah because he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord 2 Câ—on 36.12 God was angry with a great King for not humbling himself before a poor Prophet Yet here you must distinguish both of Persons and of Acts. This reverence and submission is not due to them as men but as men in Office As Christs Embassadours and must involve that respect still in it Again we owe it not to them commanding or forbiding in their own names but in Christs Not in venting their own Spleen but the terrors of the Lord. And then to resist is an high rebellion and affront to the Soveraign Authority of Heaven And by the way this may instruct Ministers that the way to maintain that veneration and respect that is due to them in the consciences of their hearers is by keeping close to their Commission Inference 3. Hence also we infer How great an evil it is to intrude into the Office of the Ministry without a due call It 's more than Christ himself would do He glorified not himself The honours and advantages attending that Office have invited many to run before they were Sent. But surely this is an insufferable violation of Christs order Our Age hath abounded with as many Church-Levellers as state-Levellers I wish the Ministers of Christ might at last see and consider what they were once warned of by a faithful watch-man I believe saith he God hath permitted so many to intrude into the Ministers calling because Ministers have too much medled with and intruded into other mens callings Inference 4. Hence be convinced of the great efficacy that is in all Gospel-ordinances duly administred For Christ having received full Commission from his Father and by vertue thereof having instituted and appointed those ordinances in the Church all the power in heaven is engaged to make them good to back and second them to confirm and ratifie them Hence in the censures of the Church you have that great expression Matth. 18.18 Whatsoever ye bind or loose on earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven And so for the Word and Sacraments Matth. 28.18 19 20. All power in heaven and in earth is given to me God therefore c. They are not the appointments of men your Faith stands not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God That very power God the Father committed to Christ is the Fountain whence all Gospel institutions flow And he hath promised to be with his Offices not only the extraordinary Offices of that Age but with his Ministers in succeeding Ages to the end of the world O therefore when ye come to an odinance come not wiâ—h slight thoughts but with great reverence and great expectations remembring Christ is there to make all good Inference 5. Again here you have another call to admire the grace and love both of the Father and Son to your Souls It is not lawful to compare them but it 's duty to admire them Was it not wonderful grace in the Father to Seal a Commission for the death of his Son for the humbling of him as low as Hell and in that Method to save you when you might rather have expected he should have Sealed your Mittimus for Hell rather than a Commission for your Salvation He might rather have set his irreversible Seal to the sentence of your Damnation than to a Commission for his Sons humiliation for you And no less is the love of Christ to be wondred at that would accept such a Commission as this for us and receive this Seal understanding fully as he did what were the contents of that Commission that the Father delivered him thus Sealed And knowing that there could be no reversing of it afterwards Oh then love the Lord Jesus all ye his Saints for still you see more and more of his love breaking out upon you I commend to you a Sealed Saviour this day O that every one that reads these lines might in a pang of Love cry out with the enamored Spouse Cant. 8.6 Set me as a Seal upon thy heart as a Seal upon thy arm for Love is strong as Death Iealousie is cruel as the Grave the coals thereof are coals of fire which have a vehement flame Inference 6. Once more hath God Sealed Christ for you then draw forth the comfort of his Sealing for you and be restless till ye also be Sealed by him First Draw out the comfort of Christs Sealing for you Remember that hereby God stands ingaged even by his own Seal to allow and confirm what ever Christ hath done in the business of your Salvation And on this ground you may thus plead with God Lord thou hast Sealed Christ to this Office and therefore I depend upon it that thou allowest all that he hath done and all that he hath suffered for me and wilt make good all that he hath promised me If men will not deny their own Seals much less wilt thou Secondly Get your interest in Christ Sealed to you by the Spirit else you cannot have the comfort of Christs being Sealed for you Now the Spirit Seals two ways Objectively and Effectually the first is by working those graces in us which are the conditions of the promises The latter is by shining upon his own Work and helping the Soul to discern it Which follows the other both in order of nature and of time And these Sealings of the Spirit are to be distinguisht both ex parti Subjecti by their Subject or the quality of the Person Sealed which always is a Believer Eph. 1.13 For there can be no reflex till there have been a Direct Act of Faith Ex parte materiae By the matter of which that comfort is made Which if it be of the Spirit is ever consonant to the written Word Isa. 8.20 And partly ab effectis by its effects for it commonly produces in the Sealed Soul great care and caution to avoid Sin Eph. 4.30 Great Love to God Ioh. 14.22 Readiness to suffer any thing for Christ Rom. 5.3 4 5. Confidence in addresses to God 1 Ioh. 5.13 14. And great
satisfie God for us he must present himself before God as our surety in our stead as well as for our good else his obedience had signified nothing to us to this end he was made under the Law Gal. 4.4 comes under the same obligation with us and that as a surety For so he is called Heb. 7.22 Indeed his obedience and sufferings could be exacted from him upon no other account It was not for any thing he had done that he became a curse It was prophesied of him Dan. 9.26 the Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself and beeing dead the Scriptures plainly assert it was for our sins and upon our account So 1 Cor. 15.3 Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures And it 's well observed by our Divines who assert the vicegerency and substitution of Christ in his sufferings that all those Greek particles which we translate for when applied to the sufferings of Christ do note the meritorious deserving procuring cause of those sufferings So you find Heb. 10.12 He offered one Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for sins 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ once suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for sins Rom. 4.25 He was delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our offences Matth. 20.28 He gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for many And there are that confidently affirm this last particle is never used in any other sense in the whole book of God As an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth i. e. one in lieu of another Just as those whom the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that exchanged lives or gave life for life staking down their own to deliver anothers As Philumene did for Aristides And so the Poet Virgil speaks Si fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit And indeed this very consideration is that which supports the doctrine of Imputation the imputation of our sins to Christ and the imputation of Christs righteousness unto us For how could our sins be laid on him but as he stood in our stead or his righteousness be imputed to us but as he was our surety performing it in our place So that to deny Christs sufferings in our stead is to loose the corner stone of our Justification and overthrow the very pillar which supports our faith comfort and salvation Indeed if this had not been he would have been the righteous Lord but not the Lord our righteousness as he is stiled Ier. 33.16 So that it is but a vain distinction to say it was for our good but not in our stead For had it not been in our stead we could not have had the good of it Thirdly The internal moving cause of Christs satisfaction for us was his obedience to God and love to us That it was an act of obedience is plain from Phil. 2.8 He became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Now obedience respects a command and such a command Christ received to dye for us as himself tells us Joh. 10.18 I lay down my life of my self I have power to lay it down and power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father So that it was an act of obedience with respect to God and yet a most free and spontaneous act with respect to himself And that he was moved to it out of pity and love to us himself assures us Gal. 5.2 Christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and a Sacrifice to God upon this Paul sweetly reflected Gal. 2.20 who loved me and gave himself for me As the external moving cause was our misery so the internal was his own love and pity for us Fourthly The matter of Christs satisfaction was his active and passive obedience to all that the Law of God required I know there are some that doubt whether Christs active obedience have any place here and so whether it be imputed as any part of our righteousness It is confâ—ssed the Scripture most frequently mentions his passive obedience as that which made the attonement and procures our redemption Matth. 26.28 Matth. 20.28 Rom. 3.24 25. alibi but his passive obedience is never mentioned exclusively as the sole cause or matter of satisfaction But in those places where it 's mentioned by it self it 's put for his whole obedience both active and passive by an usual Trope and in other Scriptures it is ascribed to both as Gal. 4.4 he is said to be made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Now his being made under the Law to this end cannot be restrained to his subjâ—ction to the curse of the Law only but to the commands of it also So Rom. 5.19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous It were a manifest injury to this text also to restrain it to the passive obedience of Christ only To be short this twofold obedience of Christ stands opposed to a twofold obligation that fallen man is under the one to do what God requires the other to suffer what he hath threatned for disobedience We owe him active obedience as his creatures and passive obedience as his prisoners Suitably to this double Oblation Christ comes under the Commandment of the Law to fulfil it actively Matth. 3.15 and under the malediction of the Law to satisfie it passively And whereas it is objected by some if he fulfilled the whole Law for us by his active what need then of this passive obedience We reply great need because both these make up that one entire and compleat obedience by which God is satisfied and we justified It 's a good rule of Alsted obedientia Christi est una copulativa The whole obedience of Christ both active and passive make up one intire perfect obedience and therefore there is no reason why one particle either of the one or of the other should be excluded Fifthly the effect and fruit of this his satisfaction is our freedom ransom or deliverance from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins Such was the dignity value and compleatness of Christs satisfaction that in strict Justice it merited our redemption and full deliverence Not only a possibility that we might be redeemed and pardoned but a right whereby we ought to be so As the learned Dr. Twiss judiciously argues If he be made a curse for us we must then be redeemed from the curse according to justice so the Apostle argues Rom. 3.25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that God might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Iesus Mark the design and end of God in exacting satisfaction from Christ it was to declare his righteousness in
an high a very high and glorious state to be the head both of the world and of the Church the head of the world by way of dominion the head of the Church by way of union and special influence ruling the world for the good of his people in it He gave him to be the head over all things to the Church In this Scripture let these four things be seriously heeded First The dignity and authority committed to Christ. He hath put all things under his feet which implies full ample and absolute dominion in him and subjection in them over whom he raigns This power is delegated to him by the Father For besides the essential native ingenite power and dominion over all which he hath as God and is common to every person in the Godhead Psal. 22.28 there is a mediatory dispensed authority which is proper to him as Mediator which he receives as the reward or fruit of his suffering Phil. 2.8 Secondly The subject recipient of this authority which is Christ and Christ primarily and only He is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first receptacle of all authority and power Whatever authority any creature is cloathed with is but Ministerial and derivative whether it be Political or Ecclesiastical Christ is the only Lord Jude 4. the fountain of all power Thirdly The Object of this authority The whole creation All things are put under his feet He rules from Sea to Sea even to the utmost bounds of Gods creation Thou hast given him power over all flesh Joh. 17.2 all creatures rational and irrational animate and inanimate Angels Devils Men Winds Seas all obey him Lastly And Especially take notice of the finis cui end for which he governs and rules the universal Empire It is to the Church i. e. for the advantage comfort and Salvation of that chosen remnant he died for He purchased the Church and that he might have the highest security that his blood should not be lost God the Father hath put all things into his hand to order and dispose all as he pleaseth For the furtherance of that his design and end As he bought the persons of some so the services of all the rest and that they might effectually serve the end they are designed to Christ will order them all in a blessed subordination and subserviency thereunto Hence the Point is DOCT. That all the Affairs of the Kingdom of providence are ordered and determined by Iesus Christ for the special advantage and everlasting good of his redeemed people Joh. 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him Hence it comes to pass that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to purpose Rom. 8.28 That Jesus Christ hath a providential influence upon all the affairs of this world is evident both from Scripture assertions and rational observations made upon the actings of things here below The first Chap. of Ezek. contains an admirable Scheme or draught of providence There you see how all the wheels that is the motions and revolutions here on earth are guided by the spirit that is in them And vers 26. it 's all run up into the supream cause There you find one like the son of man which is Jesus Christ sitting upon the throne and giving forth orders from thence for the government of all And if it were not so how is it that there are such strong combinations and predispositions of persons and things to such ends and issues without any communications of counsels or holding of intelligence with one another as in Israels deliverance out of Aegypt and innumerable more instances have appeared Certainly if ten men from several places should all meet at one place and about one business without any fore-appointment among themselves it would argue their motions were secretly over-ruled by some invisible Agent How is it that such marvailous effects are produced in the world by causes that carry no proportion to them Amos 5.9 and 1 Cor. 1.27 And as often the most apt and likely means are rendred wholly ineffectual Psal. 33.16 In a word if Christ have no such providential influx how are his people in all ages preserved in the midst of so many millions of potent and malitious enemies amongst whom they live as sheep in the midst of wolves Luk. 10.3 How is it that the bush burns and yet is not consumed Exod. 3.2 But my business in this discourse is not to prove that there is a providence which none but Atheists deny I shall choose rather to shew by what Acts Jesus Christ administers this Kingdom And in what manner And what use may be made thereof As to the first he rules and orders the Kingdom of Providence by supporting permitting restraining limiting protecting punishing and rewarding those over whom he raigns providentially First He supports the world and all creatures in it by his power My Father works hitherto and I work Joh. 5.17 And in him that is in Christ all things consist Col. 1.17 It 's a considerable part of Christs glory to have a whole world of creatures oweing their beings and hourly conservations to him The parts of the world are not coupled and fastned together as the parts of an house whose beams are pinn'd and nail'd to each other but rather as several rings of Iron which hang together by the vertue of a loadstone This goodly fabrick was raised to the foundation when sin entred and had tumbled into everlasting confusion had not Christ stept in to shore up the reeling world For the sakes of his redeemed that inhabit it he doth and will prop it by his omnipotent power And when he hath gathered all his Elect out of it into the Kingdom above then will he set fire to the four quarters of it and it shall lye in white ashes Mean while he is given for a Covenant to the people to establish the earth Isai. 49.8 Secondly He permits and suffers the worst of creatures in his dominion to be and act as they do The deceived and the deceiver are his Job 12.16 Even those that fight against Christ and his people receive both power and permission from him Say not that it 's unbecoming the most holy to permit such evils which he could prevent if he pleased For as he permits no more than he will overrule to his praise so that very permission of his is holy and just Christs working is not confounded with the creatures Pure Sun-beams are not tainted by the noisom vapours of the dunghil on which they shine His holiness hath no fellowship with their iniquities nor are their transgressions at all excused by his permissions of them He is a rock his work is perfect but they have corrupted themselves Deut. 32.4 5. This holy permission is but the withholding of those restraints from their Lusts and denying those common assistances which
he is no way bound to give them Acts 14.16 He suffered all nations to walk in their own waies And yet should he permit sinful creatures to act out all the wickedness that is in their hearts there would neither remain peace nor order in the world And therefore Thirdly He powerfully restrains creatures by the bridle of providence from the commission of those things to which their hearts are propense enough Psal. 76.10 The remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain or gird up Leting forth just so much as shall serve his holy ends and no more And truly this is one of the glorious mysteries of providence which amazes the serious and considerate soul. To see the spirit of a creature fully set to do mischief Power enough as one would think in his hand to do it and a door of opportunity standing open for it and yet the effect strangely hindred The strong propensions of the Will are inwardly checkt as in the case of Laban Gen. 31.24 or a diversion and rub is strangely cast in their way as in the case of Senacharib 2 King 19.7 8. So that their hands cannot perform their enterprises Iulian had two great designs before him one was to conquer the Persians the other to root out the Galileans as he by way of contempt called the Christians but he will begin with the Persians first and then make a sacrifice of all the Christians to his Idols He doth so and perishes in the first attempt O the wisdom of providence Fourthly Jesus Christ limits the creatures in their acting assigning them their boundaries and lines of liberty to which they may but beyond it cannot go Rev. 2.10 Fear none of those things that ye shall suffer behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison and ye shall have tribulation for ten daies They would have cast them into their graves but it shall only be into prisons they would have stretcht out their hands upon them all no but only some of them shall be exposed They would have kept them there perpetually no it must be but for ten daies Ezek. 22.6 Behold the Princes of Israel were in thee every one to their power to shed blood They went as far as they had power to go not as far as they had will to go Four hundred and thirty years were determined upon the people of God in Aegypt and then even in that very night God brought them forth for then the time of the promise was come Acts 7.17 Fifthly The Lord Jesus providentially protects his people amidst a world of enemies and dangers It was Christ that appeared unto Moses in the flaming bush and preserved it from being consumed The bush signified the people of God in Aegypt The fire flaming on it the exquisite sufferings they there endured The safety of the bush amidst the flames the Lords admirable care and protection of his poor suffering ones None so tenderly careful as Christ. As birds flying so he defends Jerusalem Isai. 31.5 i. e. as they fly swiftly towards their nests crying when their young are in danger so will the Lord preserve his They are preserved in Christ Iesus Jude 1. as Noah and his family were in the Ark. Hear how a Worthy of our own expresses himself upon this point That we are at peace in our houses at rest in our beds that we have any quiet in our enjoyments is from hence alone Whose person would not be defiled or destroyed whose habitation would not be ruined whose blood almost would not be shed if wicked men had power to perpetrate all their conceived sin It may be the ruine of some of us hath been conceived a thousand times We are beholding to this providence of obstructing sin for our lives our families our estates our liberties and whatsoever is or may be dear to us For may we not say sometimes with the Psalmist Psal. 57.4 My soul is among Lyons and I lye even among them that are set on fire even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and their tongue a sharp sword And how is the deliverance of men contrived from such persons Psal. 58.6 God breaks their teeth in their mouths even the great teeth of the young Lyons He keeps this fire from burning some he cuts off and destroys Some he cuts short in their power Some he deprives of the instruments whereby alone they can work Some he prevents of their desired opportunities or diverts by other objects for their lusts And oftentimes causeth them to spend them among themselves one upon another We may say therefore with the Psalmist Psal. 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches Sixthly He punishes the evil doers and repaies by providence into their own lap the mischief they do or but intend to do unto them that fear him Pharaoh Senacharib both the Iulians and innumerable more are the lasting monuments of this righteous retribution 'T is true a sinner may do evil an hundred times and his daies be prolonged but oft-times God hangs up some eminent sinners in chains as spectacles and warnings to others Many a heavy blow hath providence given the enemies of God which they were never able to claw off Christ rules and that with a rod of Iron in the midst of his enemies Psal. 110.2 Seventhly and Lastly He rewards by providence the services done to him and his people Out of this treasure of providence God repays oftentimes those that serve him and that with an hundred fold reward now in this life Matth. 19.29 This active vigilant providence hath its eye upon all the wants straights and troubles of the creatures but especially upon such as Religion brings us unto What huge volumes of experiences might the people of God write upon this subject And what a pleasant History would it be to read the strange constant wonderful and unexpected actings of providence for them that have left themselves to its care Secondly We shall next enquire how Jesus Christ administers this providential Kingdom And here I must take notice of the means by which and the manner in which he doth it The means or instruments he uses in the governing the Providential Kingdom for he cannot be personally present with us himself are either Angels or Men the Angels are ministring creatures sent forth by him for the good of them that shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1.14 Luther tells us they have two offices superius canere inferius vigilare to sing above and watch beneath These do us many invisible offices of love They have dear and tender respects and love for the Saints To them God as it were puts forth his children to nurse and they are tenderly careful of them whilst they live and bring them home in their arms to their Father when they die And as Angels so Men are the servants of providence Yea bad men as well as good Cyrus on that account
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
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
absolutely and properly forgive sin but God only Mark 2.7 the primary and principal wrong is done to him Psalm 51.4 Against thee thee only i. e. thee mainly or especially I have sinned Hence sins are metonymically called debts debts to God Matth. 6.12 not that we owe them to God or ought to sin against him but as a pecuniary debt obliges him that owes it to the penalty if he satisfie not for it so do our sins And who can discharge the Debtor but the Creditor It 's a gratious act or discharge 1 even I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own name sake Isai. 43.25 And yet sin is not so forgiven as that God expects no satisfaction at all but as expecting none from us because God hath provided a surety for us from whom he is satisfied Eph. 1.7 In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace It 's a gratious discharge from the guilt of sin Guilt is that which pardon properly deals with Guilt is an obligation to punishment Pardon is the dissolving of that obligation Guilt is a chain with which sinners are bound and fettered by the Law pardon is that aqua-fortis that eats it asunder and makes the prisoner a free-man The pardoned soul is a discharged soul. Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods Elect It 's God that justifieth who shall condemn It 's Christ that died It 's Gods discharge of a believing penitent sinner Infidelity and impenitency are not only sins in themselves but such sins as bind fast all other sins upon the soul. By him all that believe are justified from all things Act. 10.43 So Act. 3.19 Repent therefore that your sins may be blotted out This is the method in which God dispenseth pardon to sinners Lastly It is for Christs sake we are discharged he is the meritorious cause of our remission As God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.32 It 's his blood alone that meritoriously procures our discharge This is a brief and true account of the nature of forgiveness Secondly Now to evince the possibility of forgiveness for such as ignorantly oppose Christ. Let these things be weighed First Why should any poor soul that is now humbled for its enmity to Christ in the daies of ignorance question the possibility of forgiveness when this effect doth not exceed the power of the cause nay when there is more efficacy in the blood of Christ the meritorious cause than is in the effect of it There 's power enough in that blood not only to pardon thy sins but the sins of the whole world were it actually applied 1 Iohn 2.2 There is not only a sufficiency but also a redundancy of merit in that pretious blood Surely then thy enmity to Christ especially before thou knewest him may not look like an unpardonable iniquity in thine eyes Secondly And as this sin exceeds not the power of the meritorious cause of forgiveness so neither is it any where excluded from pardon by any word of God Nay such is the extensiveness of the promise to believing penitents that this case is manifestly included and forgiveness tendered to thee in the promises Isai. 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Many such extensive promises there are in the Scriptures And there is not one parenthesis in all those blessed pages in which this case is excepted Thirdly And it is yet more satisfactory that God hath already actually forgiven such sinners and that which he hath done he may again do Yea therefore he hath done it to some and those eminent for their enmity to Christ that others may be incouraged to hope for the same mercy when they also shall be in the same manner humbled for it Take one famous instance of many it 's that of Paul in 1 Tim. 1.13 16. Who was before a blasphemer a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life It 's no small incouragement to a sick man to hear of some that have been recovered out of the same disease and that prevailing in an higher degree than in himself Fourthly Moreover It is encouraging to consider that when God hath cut off others in the way of their sin he hath hitherto spared thee What speaks this but a purpose of mercy to thy soul Thou shouldst account the long suffering of God thy Salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 Had he smitten thee in the way of thy sin and enmity to Christ what hope had remained But in that he hath not only spared thee but also given thee a heart ingenuously ashamed and humbled for thy evils doth not this speak mercy for thee Surely it looks like a gratious design of love to thy soul. Inference 1. And is there forgivenss with God for such as have been enemies to Christ his truths and people Then certainly there is pardon and mercy for the friends of God who involuntarily fall into sin by the surprisals of temptation and are broken for it as ingenious children for offending a good Father Can any doubt if God have pardon for enemies he hath none for children If he have forgiveness for such as shed the blood of Christ with wicked hands he hath not much more mercy and forgiveness for such as love Christ and are more afflicted for their sin against him than all the other troubles they have in the world Doubt it not but he that receives enemies into his bosom will much more receive and embrace children though offending ones How pensive do the dear children of God sometimes sit after their lapses into sin Will God ever pardon this Will he be reconciled again May I hope his face shall be to me as in former times Pensive soul if thou didst but know the largeness tenderness freeness of that grace which yearns over enemies and hath given forth thousands and ten thousands of pardons to the worst of sinners thou wouldst not sink at that rate Inference 2. Is there pardon with God for enemies how inexcusable then are all they that persist and perish in their enmity to Christ Sure their destruction is of themselves Mercy is offered to them if they will receive it Proclamation is made in the Gospel That if there be any among the enemies of Christ who repent of what they have been and done against him and are now unfeignedly willing to be reconciled upon the word of a King he shall find mercy But God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goâ—th on still in his trespasses Psal. 68.21 If
the Parent wrapt up in another Skin O the care the cost the pity the tenderness the pains the fears they have exprest for you It 's worse than Heathenish ingratitude not to return Love for Love This filial Love is not only in it self a duty but to be the root or spring of all your other dutys to them Thirdly Obedience to their commands is due to them by the Lords strict and special command Eph. 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and thy Mother which is the first Commandment with promise Filial obedience is not only founded upon the positive Law of God but also upon the Law of nature For though the subjection of Servants to Masters came in by sin yet the subjection of Children to Parents is due to them by natural right therefore saith the Apostle this is right i. e. right both according to natural and positive Law However this subjection and obedience is not absolute and universal God hath not devested himself of his own authority to cloath a Parent with it Your obedience to them must be in the Lord i. e. in such things as they require you to do in the Lords authority In things consonant to that divine and holy will to which they as well as you must be subject and therein you must obey them Yea even the wickedness of a Parent exempts not from obedience where his command is not so Nor on the other side must the holiness of a Parent sway you where his Commands and Gods are opposite In the former case the Canonists have determined that the command must be distinguisht from the person In the latter it 's a good rule My Parents must be loved but my God must be preferred Yield your selves therefore chearfully to obey all that which they lawfully enjoin and take heed that black character fixed on the Heathens who know not God be not found upon you disobedient to Parents Rom. 1.30 Remember your disobedience to their just commands rises higher much higher than an affront to their persons and authority it 's disobedience to God himself whose commands second and strengthen theirs upon you Fourthly Submission to their Discipline and rebukes is also your duty Heb. 12.9 We had Fathers of our flesh that corrected us and we gave them reverence Parents ought not to abuse their authority Cruelty in them is a great sin but wrath and rebellion in a Child against his Parents is monstrous It 's storied of Aelian that having been abroad at his return his Father asked him what he had Learned since he went from him he answered you will know shortly I have learned to bear your anger quietly and submit to what you please to inflict Two considerations should especially mould others into the like frame especially to their godly Parents The end for which and the manner in which they manifest their anger to their Children Their end is to save your souls from Hell They judge it better for you to hear the voice of their anger than the terrible voice of the wrath of God To feel their hand than his They know if you fall into the hands of the living God you will be handled in another manner And for the manner in which they rebuke and chasten it is with grief in their hearts and tears in their eyes Alas it 's no delight to them to cross vex or afflict you Were it not meer conscience of their duty to God and tender love to your souls they would neither chide nor smite And when they do how do they afflict themselves in afflicting you When their faces are full of anger their bowels are full of compassion for you and you have no more reason to blame them for what they do than if they cry out and violently snatch at you when they see you ready to fall from the top of a Rock Fifthly Faithfulness to all their interests is due to them by the natural and positive Law of God What in you lies you are bound to promote not waste and scatter their substance To assist not to defraud them Who so robbeth his Father or Mother and saith it is no transgression the same is the companion of a destroyer Prov. 28.24 This saith one as far excells your wronging another as parricide is a greater crime than man-slaughter or as Reubens incest was beyond common fornication God never meant you should grow up about your Parents as suckers about a Tree to impoverish the root But for a Child out of a covetousness after what his Parents have secretly to wish their death is a sin so monstrous as should not be once named much less found among persons professing Christianity To desire their death from whom you had your life is unnatural wickedness to dispose of their Goods much more of your selves without their consent is ordinarily the greatest injustice to them Children are obliged to defend the Estates and persons of their Parents with the hazard of their own As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are Children of the youth Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them They shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemy in the gates Psal. 127.5 Sixthly And more especially requital of all that love care and pains they have been at for you is your duty so far as God enables you and those things are requitable 1 Tim. 5.4 Let them learn to shew piety at home and to requite their Parents The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies to play the Stork to imitate that creature of whom it 's said that the young do tenderly feed the old ones when they are no longer able to fly abroad and provide for themselves Hence those that want bowels of natural affection to their Relations are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.30 worse than Storks O 't is a shame that Birds and Beasts should shew more tenderness to their Dams than Children to their Parents It 's a saying frequent among the Jews a Child should rather labour at the Mill than suffer his Parents to want And to the same sence is that other saying your Parents must be supplyed by you if you have it if not you ought to beg for them rather than see them perish It was both the comfort and honour of Ioseph that God made him an instrument of so much succour and comfort to his aged Father and distressed family Gen. 47.13 And you are also to know that what you do for them is not in the way of an alms or common Charity For the Apostle saith it is but your requiting them and that 's Justice not Charity And it can never be a full requital Indeed the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 12.14 That Parents lay up for their Children and not Children for the Parents and so they ought but sure if providence blast them and bless you an honourable
O then exercise this when you have lost that Admonition 2. Secondly Take the right method to recover the sweet light which you have sinned away from your souls Do not go about from one to another complaining nor yet sit down desponding under your burden But First Search diligently after the cause of Gods withdrawment Urge him hard by prayer to tell thee wherefore he contends with thee Iob. 10.2 Say Lord what have I done that so offends thy spirit what evil is it which thou so rebukest I beseech thee shew me the cause of thine anger Have I grieved thy spirit in this thing or in that Was it my neglect of duty or my formality in duties Was I not thankful for the sense of thy love when it was shed abroad in my heart O Lord why is it thus with me Secondly Humble your souls before the Lord for every evil you shall be convinced of Tell him it pierces your hearts that you have so displeased him And that it shall be a caution to you whilst you live never to return again to folly Invite him again to your souls and mourn after the Lord till you have found him If you seek him he will be found of you 2 Chron. 15.2 It may be you shall have a thousand Comforters come about your sad souls in such a time to comfor them This will be to you instead of God and that will repair your loss of Christ. Despise them all and say I am resolved to sit as a Widow till Christ return he or none shall have my love Thirdly Wait on in the use of means till Christ return O be not discouraged Though he tarry wait you for him for Blessed are all they that wait for him The THIRTY FOURTH SERMON JOH XIX XXVIII After this Iesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scriptures might be fulfilled saith I Thirst. IT is as truly as commonly said death is dry Christ found it so when he died When his spirits laboured in the agonies of death then he said I thirst This is the fifth word of Christ upon the Cross spoken a little before he bowed the head and yielded up the Ghost It is only recorded by this Evangelist and there are four things remarkable in this complaint of Christ viz. the person complaining The complaint he made The time when And the reason why he so complained First The person complaining Iesus said I thirst This is a clear evidence that it was no common suffering Great and resolute spirits will not complain for small matters The spirit of a common man will endure much before it utters any complaint Let us therefore see Secondly The affliction or suffering he complains of and that is Thirst. There are two sorts of thirst One natural and proper another spiritual and figurative Christ felt both at this time His soul thirsted in vehement desires and longings to accomplish and finish that great and difficult work he was now about And his body thirsted by reason of those unparalleled agonies it laboured under for the accomplishing hereof But it was the proper natural thirst he here intends when he said I thirst Now this natural thirst of which he complains is the raging of the appetite for humid nourishment arising from the scorching up of the parts of the body for want of moisture And amongst all the pains and afflictions of the body there can scarcely be named a greater and more intolerable one than extream thirst The most mighty and valiant have stooped under it Mighty Sampson after all his conquests and victories complains thus Judg. 15.18 And he was sore athirst and called on the Lord and said thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant and now shall I die for thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised Great Darius drank filthy water defiled wâ—th the bodies of the slain to relieve his thirst and protested never any drink was more pleasant to him Hence Isai. 41.17 Thirst is put to express the most afflicted state When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them i. e. when my people are in extream necessities under any extraordinary pressures and distresses I will be with them to supply and relieve them Thirst causes a most painful compression of the heart when the body like a sponge sucks and draws for moisture and there is none And this may be occasioned either by long abstinence from drink or by the labouring and expence of the spirits under grievous agonies and extream tortures which like a fire within soon scâ—rch up the very radical moisture Now though we find not that Christ tasted a drop of liquor since he sate with the Disciples at the Table after that no more refreshments for him in this world yet that was not the cause of this raging thirst but it is to be ascribed to the extream sufferings which he so long had conflicted with both in his soul and body These preyed upon him and drank up his very spirits Hence came this sad complaint I thirst Thirdly Let us consider the time when he thus complained When all things were now accomplished saith the Text i. e. when all things were even ready to be accomplished in his death A little a very little while before his expiration When the travailing throws of death began to be strong upon him And so it was both a sign of death at hand and of his love to us which was stronger than death that would not complain sooner because he would admit of no relief nor take the lest refreshment till he had done his work Fourthly and Lastly Take notice of the design and end of his complaint That the Scriptures might be fulfilled he saith I thirst i. e. that it might appear for the satisfaction of our faith that whatsoever had been predicted by the Prophets was exactly accâ—mplished even to a circumstance in him Now it was foretold of him Psal. 69.21 They gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and herein it was verified Hence the Note is DOCT. That such were the Agonies and extream sufferings of our Lord Iesus Christ upon the Cross as drank up his very spirits and made him cry I thirst If I said one should live a thousand years and every day die a thousand times the same death for Christ that he once died for me yet all this would be nothing to the sorrows Christ endured in his death At this time the Bridegroom Christ might have borrowed the word of his Spouse the Church Lam. 1.12 Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by See and behold if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Here we are to enquire into and consider the extremities and agonies Christ laboured
to make it good when the time of the Promise is come as at death it is It cannot be Multitudes of Promises the whole Covenant of Promises give security to the soul against the fears of rejection or neglect by God And the souls dependance upon God and hanging upon a promise it s every rolling it self upon God from the incouragement the word gives it adds to the ingagement upon God When he sees a poor soul that he hath made redeemed sanctified sealed and by solemn Promise engaged himself to receive coming to him at death rolling it self upon his faithfulness that promised saying as David 2 Sam. 23.5 Though Lord there be many defects in me yet thou hast made a Covenant with me well order'd in all things and sure and this is all my salvation and all my hope Lord I am resolved to send out my soul in an act of Faith I will venture it upon the credit of thy Promise How can God refuse such a soul How can he put it off when it so puts it self upon him Sixthly But this is not all the gratious soul sustains many intimate and dear relations to that God into whose hands it commends it self at death It 's his Spouse and the consideration of such a day of Espousals may well encourage it to cast it self into the bosom of Christ its head and husband It is a member of his body flesh and bones Eph. 5.30 It is his child he its everlasting Father Isai. 9.6 It 's his friend Hence forth saith Christ I call you not servants but friends Joh. 15.15 What confidence may these and all other the dear relations Christ owns to the renewed soul beget in such an hour as this is What husband can throw off the dear wife of his bosom who in distresses casts her self into his arms What Father can shut the door upon a dear child that comes to him for refuge saying Father into thy hands I commit my self Seventhly and Lastly The unchangableness of Gods love to his people gives confidence they shall in no wise be cast out They know Christ is the same to them at last he was at first The same in the pangs of death as he was in the comforts of life Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them to the end Ioh. 13.1 He doth not love as the world loves only in prosperity But they are as dear to him when their beauty and strength is gone as when it was in the greatest flowrish If we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord so then whether we live or die we are the Lords Rom. 14.8 take in all these things and weigh them both apart and together and see whether they amount not to a full evidence of the truth of this point that dying believers are both warranted and incouraged to commend their souls into the hands of God Whether they have not every one of them cause to say as the Apostle did 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day The improvements of all this you have in the following practical Diductions Diduction 1. Are dying believers only warranted and encouraged thus to commend their souls into the hands of God What a sad straight then must all dying unbelievers be in about their souls Such souls will fall into the hands of God but that 's their misery not their priveledge They are not put by faith into the hands of mercy but fall by sin into the hands of justice Not God but the Devil is their Father Iob. 8.44 Whither should the child go but to its own Father They have not one of those forementioned encouragements to cast themselves into the hands of God except the naked relation they have to God as their Creator and that 's as good as none without the new creation If they have nothing but this to plead for their salvation the Devil hath as much to plead as they It 's the new creature that brings the first creation into repute again with God O dismal O deplorable case A pool soul is turning out of house and home and knows not where to go It departs and immediately falls into the hands of justice The Devil stands by waiting for such a soul whom God will throw to him as a Dog for a crust Little ah little do the friends of such a one think whilst they are honouring his dust by a splendid and honourable funeral what a case that poor soul is in that lately dwelt there and what fearful straights and extremities it is now exposed to They will cry indeed Lord Lord open to us Matth. 7.22 But to how little purpose are their vain cries Will God hear him when he cries Iob. 27.9 It 's a lamentable case Diduction 2. Will God gratiously accept and faithfully keep what the Saints commit to him at death how careful then should they be to keep what God commits to them to be kept for him while they live You have a great trust to commit to God when you die and God hath a great trust to commit to you whilst you live you expect that he should faithfully keep what then you shall commit to his keeping and he expects you should faithfully keep what he now commits to your keeping O keep what God commits to you as you expect he should keep your souls when you commit them unto him If you keep his truths he will keep your souls Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee c. Rev. 3.10 Be faithful to your God and you shall find him faithful to you None can pluck you out of his hand see that nothing wrest his truths out of your hands If we deny him he also will deny us 2 Tim. 2.12 Take heed lest those estates you have gotten as a blessing attending the Gospel prove a temptation to you to betray the Gospel Religion saith one brings forth Riches but the Daughter devours the Mother How can you expect acceptance with God who have betrayed his truth and dealt perfidiously with him Diduction 3. If believers may safely commit their souls into the hands of God How confidently may they commit all lesser interests and lower concernments into the same hand Shall we trust him with our souls and not with our lives liberties or comforts Can we commit the treasure to him and not a trifle Whatever you enjoy in this world is but a trifle to your souls Sure if you can trust him for eternal life for your souls you may much more trust him for the daily bread for your bodies I know it is objected that God hath made over temporal things to his people upon conditional promises and an absolute faith can never be grounded upon conditional promises But what means this objection Let your faith be but suitable to these conditional promises
deliverance from wrath Secondly Christ by death hath delivered his people fully A full deliverance it is both in respect of Time and Degrees A full deliverance in respect of Time It was not a Reprieve but a deliverance He thought it not worth the shedding of his blood to respite the execution for a while Nay in the procurement of their eternal deliverance from wrath and in the purchase of their eternal inheritance he hath but an even bargain not a jot more than his blood was worth Therefore is he become the Author of Eternal Salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5.9 And as it is full in respect of Time so likewise in respect of Degrees He died not to procure a mitigation or abatement of the rigor or severity of the sentence but to rescue his people fully from all degrees of wrath So that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 All the wrath of God to the last drop was squeezed out into that bitter cup which Christ drank off and wrung out the very dregs thereof Thirdly This deliverance obtained for us by the death of Christ is a special and distinguishing deliverance Not common to all but peculiar to some and they by nature no better than those that are left under wrath Yea as to natural disposition moral qualifications and external endowments often times far inferiour to them that perish How often do we find a moral righteousness an harmless innocencie a pretty ingenuity a readiness to all offices of love in them that are notwithstanding less under the dominion of other Lusts and under the damning sentence of the Law whilst on the other side proud peevish sensual morose and unpollisht natures are chosen to be the subjects of this Salvation You see your calling brethren 1 Cor. 1.26 Fourthly And lastly it is a wonderful salvation It would weary the arm of an Angel to write down all the wonders that are in this salvation That ever such a Design should be laid such a project of grace contrived in the heart of God who might have suffered the whole species to perish That it should only concern man and not the Angels by nature more excellent than us that Christ should be pitcht upon to go forth upon this glorious Design That he should effect it in such a way by taking our nature and suffering the penalty of the Law therein That our deliverance should be wrought out and finisht when the Redeemer and his design seem'd both to be lost and perished These with many more are such wonders as will take up eternity it self to search admire and adore them Before I part from this first End of the Death of Christ give me leave to deduce two useful Corollaries from it and then proceed to a second Corollary 1. Hath Christ by Death delivered his people from the wrath to come How ingrate and disingenious a thing must it be then for those that have obtain'd such a deliverance as this to repine and gruâ—ge at those light afflictions they suffer for a moment upon Christs account in this world Alas What are these sufferings that we should grudge at them Are they like those which the Redeemer suffered for our deliverance Did ever any of us endure for him what he endured for us Or is there any thing you can suffer for Christ in this world comparable to this wrath to come which you must have endured had he not by the price of his own blood rescued you from it Reader wilt thou but make the comparison in thine own thoughts in the following particulars and then pronounce when thou hast duly compared First What is the wrath of man to the wrath of God What is the Arm of a creature to the Anger of a Deity Can man thunder with an arm like God Secondly What are the sufferings of the vile body here to the tortures of a Sâ—ul and Body in Hell The torments of the Soul are the very soul of tâ—rmenâ—s Thirdly What are the troubles of a moment to that wrath which after Millions of years are gone will still be call'd wrath to come O what compare betwixt a point of hasty Time and the interminable Duration of vast Eternity Fourthly What compare is there betwixt the intermitting sorrows and sufferings of this life and the continued uninterrupted wrath to come Our troubles here are not constant there are gratious relaxations lucid intervals here but the wrath to come allows not a moments ease or mitigation Fifthly What light and easie troubles are those which being put into the rank and order of adjuvant causes work under the influence and blessing of the first cause to the everlasting good of them that love God compared with that wrath to come out of which no good effects or issues are possible to proceed to the souls on which it lies Sixthly And lastly how much more comfortable is it to suffer in fellowship with Christ and his Saints for righteousness sake than to suffer with Devils and reprobates for wickedness sake Grudge not then O ye that are delivered by Jesus from wrath to come at any thing ye do suffer or shall suffer from Christ or for Christ in this world Corollary 2. If Jesus Christ hath delivered his people from the wrath to come how little comfort can any man take in his present enjoyments and accommodations in the world whilst it remains a question with him whether he be deliver'd from the wrath to come It 's well for present but will it be so still Man is a prospecting creature and it will not satisfie him that his present condition is comfortable except he have some hope it shall be so hereafter It can afford a man little content that all is easie and pleasant about him now whilst such passages and terrible hints of wrath to come are given him by his own conscience daily Oh methinks such a thought as this what if I am reserved for the wrath to come Should be to him as the fingers appearing upon the plaister of the wall were to Belteshazzar in the height of a frollick It 's a custom with some of the Indians when they have taken a prisoner whom they intend not presently to eat to bring him with great Triumph into the village where he dwelleth that hath taken him and placing him in the house of one that was slain in the Wars as it were to re-celebrate his funerals they give him his Wives or Sisters to attend on him and use at his pleasure They apparel him gorgeously and feed him with all the dainty meats that may be had affording him all the pleasure that can be devised when he hath past certain months in all these pleasures and like a Capon is made fat with delicate fare they assemble themselves upon some festival day and in great pomp bring him to the place of execution where they kill and eat him Such are all the
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
see his excellency and glory to the full than to enjoy the flower the bloom and chiefest excellency of the glory and riches of ten worlds And you know how the Queen of the South fainted at the sight of Solomon in his glory But this sight you shall have of Christ will change you into his likeness We shall be like him saith the Apostle for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 He will place us as it were in his own throne with him So runs the promise Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne and so 2 Tim. 2.12 If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him The Father set Christ on his right hand and Christ will set the Saints on his right hand So you know the sheep are placed by the Angels at the great day Matth. 25. and so the Church under the figure of the daughter of Aegypt whom Solomon married is placed on the Kings right hand in God of Ophyr Psal. 45. This honour have all the Saints O amazing Love What we set on thrones while as good as we by nature howl in flames O what manner of love is this These expressions indeed do not intend that the Saints shall be set in higher glory than Christ or that they shall have a parity of glory with Christ for in all things he must have the preheminence but they note the great honour that Christ will put upon the Saints as also that his glory shall be their glory in Heaven As the glory of the Husband redounds to the Wife and again their glory will be his glory 2 Thes. 1.10 And so it will be a social glory O it 's admirable to think whither free grace hath already mounted up poor dust and ashes To think how nearly we are related now to this Royal princely Jesus but how much higher are the designs of grace that are not yet come to their parturient fulness they look beyond all this that we now know Now are we the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be 1 Joh. 3.2 Ah what reason have you to honour Christ on earth who is preparing such honours for you in Heaven Inference 2. Is Iesus Christ thus enthroned in Heaven then how impossible is it that ever his interest should miscarry or sink on earth The Church hath many subtil and potent enemies True but as Haman could not prevail against the Iews whilst Hester their friend spake for them to the King no more can they whilst our Iesus sits at his and our Fathers right hand Will he suffer his enemies that are under his feet to rise up and pull out his eyes think you Surely they that touch his people touch the very Apple of his eye Zech. 2.8 He must reign till all his enemies are under his foot 1 Cor. 15.25 The enemy under his feet shall not destroy the children in his arms He sits in Heaven on purpose to manage all to the advantage of his Church Eph. 1.22 Are our enemies powerful lo our King sits on the right hand of power Are they subtil and deep in their contrivance he that sits on the Throne over-looks all they do Heaven over-looks Hell He that sits in the Heavens beholds and derides their attempts Psal 2.4 He may permit his enemies to straighten them in one place but it shall be for their enlargement in another For 't is with the Church as it is with the Sea what it loses in one place it gets in another and so really loses nothing He may suffer them also to distress us in outwards but that shall be recompenced with inward and better mercies and so we shall lose nothing by that A foot-stool you know is uâ—eful to him that treads on it and serves to lift him up the higher so shall Christs enemies be to him and his albeit they think not so What singular benefits the oppositions of his enemies occasion to his people I have else-where discovered to which I refer my Reader and pass to the Inference 3. Is Christ set down on the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven O with what awful reverence should we approach him in the duties of his Worship Away with light and low thoughts of Christ. Away with formal irreverent and careless frames in Praying Hearing Receiving yea in conferring and speaking of Christ. Away with all deadness and drowsiness in duties For he is a great King with whom you have to do A King to whom the Kings of the earth are but as little bits of clay Lo the Angels cover their faces in his presence He is an Adorable Majesty When Iohn had a vision of this inthroned King about sixty year after his ascension such was the over-powering glory of Christ as the Sun when it shineth in its strength that when he saw him he fell at his feet as dead and died it's like he had if Christ had not not laid his hand on him and said fear not I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Rev. 1.17 18. When he appeared to Saul in the way to Damascus it was in glory above the glory of the Sun which over powered him also and laid him as one dead upon the ground O that you did but know what a glorious Lord you Worship and Serve Who makes the very place of his Feet glorious where ever he comes Surely He is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are round about him There is indeed a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness or free liberty of speech allowed to the Saints Eph. 3.12 But no rudeness or irreverence We may indeed come as the Children of a King come to the Father who is both their awful soveraign and tender Father which double relation causes a due mixture of love and reverence in their hearts when they come before him You may be Free but not Rude in his presence Though he be your Father Brother Friend yet the distance betwixt him and you is infinite Inference 4. If Christ be so gloriously advanced in the highest Throne then none need to reckon themselves dishonoured by suffering the vilest things for his sake The very chains and sufferings of Christ have a glory in them Hence Moses esteemed the very reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.26 He saw such an excellency in the very worst things of Christ his reproaches and sufferings as made him leap out of his Honours and Riches into them He did not as one saith only endure the reproaches of Christ but counted them Treasures To be reckoned among his honours and things of value So Thuanus reports of Ludovicus Marsacus a noble Knight of France when he was led
Rock they refuse to return Will not your very Relations be your accusers To whom you have failed in all your relational duties Yea and every one whom you have tempted to sin abused defrauded over-reacht all these will be your accusers So that it is without dispute you will have accusers enough to appear against you Thirdly Being accused before Jesus Christ what will you plead for your selves Will you confess or will you deny the charge If you confess what need more Out of thine own mouth will I Iudge thee saith Christ Luk. 19.22 If you deny and plead not guilty thy Judge is the searcher of hearts and knows all things So that it will not at all help thee to make a lye thy last refuge This will add to the guilt but not cover it Fourthly If no defence or plea be left thee then what canst thou imagine should retard the Sentence Why should not Christ go on to that dreadful work Must not the Iudge of all the Earth do right Gen. 18.25 Must he not render to every man according to his deeds 2 Cor. 5.10 Yes no question but he will proceed to that Sentence how terrible so ever it be to you to think on it now or hear it then Fifthly To conclude if Sentence be once given by Christ against thy Soul what in all the world canst thou imagine should hinder the Execution Will he alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth No Psal. 89.34 Dost thou hope he is more merciful and pitiful than so Thou mistakest if thou expectest mercy out of that way in which he dispenses it There will be thousands and ten thousands that will rejoyce in and magnifie his mercy then but they are such as obeyed his call repented believed and obtained union with his person here but for unbelievers it 's against the settled Law of Christ and constitution of the Gospel to shew mercy to the despisers of it But it may be you think your tears your cryes your pleadings with him may move him these indeed might have done somewhat in time but they come out of season now Alas too late What the success of such pleas and cries will be you may see if you will but consult two Scriptures Iob 27.8 9. What is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him No no and Matth. 7.22 Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity And must it come to this Dismal Issue with you indeed God forbid it should Oh then Inference 3. If Christ be appointed of God to be the Judge of all How are all concerned to secure their interest in him and therein an eternity of happiness to their own souls by the work of regeneration Of all the business that men and women have in this world there is none so solemn so necessary and important as this O my Brethren this is a work able to drink up your Spirits whiâ—◠〈◊〉 do but think of the consequences of it Summon in then thy self-reflecting and considering powers get alone Reader and forgetting all other things ponder with thy self this deep dear and eternal concernment of thine Examine the state of thine own soul. Look into the Scriptures then into thine own heart and then to Heaven saying Lord let me not be deceived in so great a concernment to me as this O let not the trifles of time wipe off the impressions of Death Judgement and Eternity from thy heart O that long word Eternity that it might be night and day with thee That the awe of it may be still upon thy Spirit A Gentlewoman of this Nation having spent the whole Afternoon and a great part of the Evening at Cards in much mirth and jollity came home late at night and finding her waiting Gentlewoman reading she lookt over her shoulder upon the Book and said poor melancholy soul why dost thou sit here poring so long upon thy Book That night she could not sleep but lay sighing and weeping her servant asked her once and again what ailed her at last she burst out into tears and said O it was one word that I cast my eye upon in thy Book that troubles me there I saw that word Eternity How happy were I if I were provided for Eternity Sure it concerns us seeing we look for such things to be diligent that we may be found of him in Peace O let not that day come by surprizal upon you Remember that as Death leaves so Judgement will find you Inference 4. Is Jesus Christ appointed Judge of quick and dead then look to it all you that hope to be found of him in peace that you avoid those sins and live in the daily practice of those duties which the consideration of that day powerfully perswades you to avoid or practise For it not only presses us to holiness in actu primo in the being of it but in actu secundo in the daily exercise and practice of it Do you indeed expect such a day O then First See you be meek and patient under all injuries and abuses for Christs sake Avenge not your selves but leave it to the Lord who will do it Don't anticipate the work of God Be patient my Brethren to the coming of the Lord Jam 5.7 8 9. Secondly Be Communicative publick hearted Christians studying and devising liberal things for Christs distressed members And you shall have both an honourable remembrance of it and a full reward of it in that day Matth. 25.34 35. Thirdly Be watchful and sober keep the Golden bridle of moderation upon all your affections And see that ye be not over charged with the cares and love of this present life Luk. 21.34 35. Will you that your Lord come and find you in such a posture O let your moderation be known to all the Lord is at hand Phil. 4.5 Fourthly Improve all your Masters Talents diligently and faithfully Take heed of the Napkin Matth. 25.14 18. Then must you make up your account for them all Fifthly But above all be sincere in your profession Let your hearts be found in Gods Statutes that you may never be ashamed for this day will be the day of manifestation of all hidden things And nothing is so secret but that day will reveal it Luk. 12.1 2 3. Beware of Hypocrisie for there is nothing covered which shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be made known Thus I have finished through Divine aids the whole Doctrine of the Impetration of Redemption by Jesus Christ we shall winde up the whole in a General Exhortation and I have done The General USE AND now to close up all let me perswade all those for whom