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
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
Christ so earnest in prayer that he prayed himself into a very agony Let the people of God blush to think how unlike their Spirits are to Christ as to their prayer frames O what lively sensible quick deep and tender apprehensions and sense of those things about which he prayed had Christ Though he saw his very blood starting out from his hands and his cloaths died in it yet being in an agony he prayed the more earnestly I do not say Christ is imitable in this No but his fervour in prayer is a pattern for us and serves severely to rebuke the laziness dulness torpor formality and stupidity that is in our prayers How often do we bring the Sacrifice of the dead before the Lord How often do our lips move and our hearts stand still Oh how unlike Christ are we his prayers were pleading prayers full of mighty arguments and ferverous affectations O that his people were in this more like him Inference 5. Was Christ in such an agony before any hand of man was upon him meerly from the apprehensions of the wrath of God with which he now contested then surely it 's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God for our God is a consuming fire Ah what is divine wrath that Christ so staggered when the cup came to him Could not he bear and dost thou think to bear it Did Christ sweat clots of blood at it and dost thou make light of it Poor wretch if it staggered him it will confound thee If it made him groan it will make the howl and that eternally Come sinner come dost thou make light of the threatnings of the wrath of God against sin Dost thou think there 's no such great matter in it as these zealous Preachers make of it Come look here upon my text which shews thee the face of the Son of God standing as full of purple drops under the sense and apprehension of it as the drops of dew that hung upon the grass Hark how he cries Father if it be possible let this cup pass O any thing of punishment rather than this Here what he tells the Disciples My soul saith he is sorrowful even to death amazed very heavy Fools make a mock of sin and the threatnings that lie against it Inference 6. Did Christ meet death with such a heavy heart let the hearts of Christians be the lighter for this when they come to die The bitterness of death was all squeez'd into Christs cup. He was made to drink up the very dregs of it that so our death might be the sweeter to us Alas there 's nothing now left in death that 's frightful or troublesom beside the pain of disolution that natural evil of it I remember it 's storied of one of the Martyrs that being observed to be exceeding jocund and merry when he came to the stake one asked him what was the reason his heart was so light when death and that in such a terrible form too was before him O said he my heart is so light at my death because Christs heart was so heavy at his death Inference 7. To conclude what cause have all the Saints to love their dear Lord Jesus with an abounding love Christian open the eyes of thy faith and fix them upon Christ in the posture he lay in the garden drencht in his own blood and see whether he be not lovely in these his dyed garments He that suffered for us more than any creature could or did may well challenge more love than all the creatures in the world O what hath he suffered and suffered upon thy account it was thy pride earthliness sensuality unbelief hardness of heart that laid on more weight in that day that he sweat blood The TWENTY THIRD SERMON MAT. XXVI XL VII XL VIII XLIX And while he yet spake lo Judas one of the twelve came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief Priests and Elders of the people Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign saying whomsoever I shall kiss the same is he hold him fast And forthwith he came to Iesus and said hail Master and kissed him THE former Sermons give you an account how Christ improved every moment of his time with busie diligence to make himself ready for his death He hath commended his charge to the Father Instituted the blessed memorial of his death Poured out his soul to God in the Garden with respect to the grievous sufferings he should undergo And now he is ready and waits for the coming of the enemies being first in the field And think you that they were idle on their parts No no their malice made them restless They had agreed with Iudas to betray him Under his conduct a band of Souldiers are sent to apprehend him The hour so long expected is come For while he yet spake saith the text loe Judas one of the twelve came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves These words contain the first preparative act on their part for the death of Christ even to betray him and that by one of his own Disciples Now they execute what they had plotted vers 14 15. and in this paragraph you have an account First Of the Traytor who he was Secondly Of the Treason what he did Thirdly Of the Manner of its execution how it was contrived and affected Lastly Of the Time when they put this Hellish plot in execution First We have here a description of the Traytor and it is remarkable how carefully the several Evangelists have described him both by his name sirname and office Iudas Iudas Iscariot Iudas Iscariot one of the twelve that he might not be mistaken for Iude or Iudas the Apostle God is tender of the names and reputations of his upright hearted Servants His office one of the twelve is added to aggravate the fact and to shew how that prophesie was accomplished in him Psal. 41.9 Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me Lo this was the Traytor and this was his name and office Secondly You have a description of the Treason or an account what this man did He led an armed multitude to the place where Christ was Gave them a signal to discover him and encouraged them to lay hands on him and hold him fast This was that Hellish design which the Devil put into his heart working upon that principle or lust of covetousness which was predominant there What will not a carnal heart attempt if the Devil suit a temptation to the predominant lust and God withhold restraining grace Thirdly You have here the way and manner in which this Hellish plot was executed It was managed both with force and with fraud He comes with a multitude armed with swords and staves in case he should meet with any resistance And he comes to him with a kiss which was
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
Lord they shall bring out the bones of the Kings of Iudah and the bones of his Princes c. And shall spread them before the Sun and Moon c. This is rather conceiv'd to be an act of Covetousness than Cruelty They shall ransack their Graves for the treasure that is hid there among their bones It 's possible the case so stands with many of you that you have no great matter to bestow upon your funerals nor are they like to be splendid no stately monuments no hidden treasures but if Christ be yours you carry that with you to your Graves which is better than all the Gold and Silver in the world What would you be the better if your Coffin were made of beaten Gold or your Grave-stone set thick with glittering Diamonds But if you die in the Lord i. e. interested in and united to the Lord you shall carry six grounds of Comfort with you to your Graves the least of which is not to be purchased with the wealth of both Indies First The first ground of comfort which a believer carries with him to the Grave is that the Covenant of God holds firmly with his very dust all the daies of its appointed time in the Grave So much Christ tells us Matth. 22.31 32. I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and of Iacob God is not the God of the Dead but the God of the Living q. d. Abraham Isaac and Iacob are naturally dead but in as much as God long after their deaths proclaimed himself their God still therefore they are all alive foederally alive to God They live that is their Covenant relation lives still Whether we live or whether we die saith the Apostle we are the Lords Rom. 14.7 8 9. Now what an encouragement is here I am as much the Lords in the state of the dead as I was in the state of the living Death puts an end to all other relations and bonds but the bond of the Covenant rots not in the Grave That dust is still the Lords Secondly As Gods Covenant with our very bodies is indissolvable so Gods love to our very dust is inseparable I am the God of Abraham God looks down from heaven into the Graves of his Saints with delight and looks on that pile of dust with complacency which those that once loved it cannot behold without loathing The Apostle is express Rom. 8.33 That death separates not the believer from the love of Gâ—d As at first it was not our natural comliness or beauty that drew or engaged his love to us so neither will he cease to love us when that beauty is gone and we become objects of loathing to all flesh When a Husband cannot endure to see a Wife or a Wife her Husband but saith of them that were once dear and pleasant as Abraham of his beloved Rachel bury my dead out of my sight Yet then the Lord delights in it as much as ever The Gold-Smith doth not value the dust of his Gold as Gold values the dust of his Saints for all these pretious particles are united to Christ. Thirdly As Gods love will be with you in the Grave so Gods providence shall take order about your Graves When it shall be dig'd for you And be sure he will not dig your Graves till you are fit to be put into them He will bring you thither in the best time Iob 5.26 Thou shalt come to thy Grave as a Shock of Corn in its season You shall be ripe and ready before God house you there It 's said of David that after he had served his generation by the will of God he fell asleep Acts 13.36 O what a holy and wise will is that will of God that so orders our death And how equal is it that our will should be concluded by it Fourthly If you be in Christ as Gods Covenant holds with you in the Grave his love is inseparable from your dust his providence shall give order when it shall be digged for you so in the next place his pardons have loosed all the bonds of guilt from you before you lie down in the Grave So that you shall not die in your sins Ah friends what a comfort is this That you are the Lords Free-men in the Grave Sin is a bad bed-fellow and a worse Grave-fellow It 's a grievous threatning Ioh. 8.24 You shall die in your sins Better be cast alive into a pit among Dragons and Serpents than dead into your Graves among your Sins O what a terrible word is that Iob 20.11 His bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall lie down with him in the dust But from the company of sin in the Grave all the Saints are delivered Gods full free and final pardons have shut guilt out of your Graves Fifthly When ever you come to your Graves you shall find the enmity of the Grave slain by Christ. It is no enemy nay you will find it friendly a priviledged place to you It will be as sweet to you that are in Christ as a soâ—t bed in a still quiet Chamber is to one that 's weary and sleepy Therefore it 's sâ—id 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Death is yours Yours as a priviledge Your friend There you shall find sweet rest in Jesus Be hurried pained troubled no more Sixthly To conclude if in Christ know this for your Comfort that your own Lord Jesus Christ keeps the Keys of all the Chambers of Death and as he unlocks the door of Death when he lets you in so he will open it again for you when you awake to let you out and from the time he opens to let you in till the time he opens to let you out he himself wakes and watches by you while you sleep there I saith he have the Keys of Death O it 's comfortable to hear the Keys gingle in his hand Rev. 1.18 O then as you expect peace or rest in the Chambers of Death get Union with Christ. A Grave with Christ is a comfortable place The THIRTY EIGHTH SERMON ISAIAH LIII II He shall see the Travel of his Soul and be satisfied WE are now arrived at the last particular which we designed to speak to in Christs state of humiliation namely the Designs and blessed Ends for which he was so deeply abased It 's inconsistent with the prudence of a common Agent to be at vast expences of time pains and cost and not to propound to himself a design worthy of all those expences And it is much less imaginable that Christ would so stupendiously abase himself by stooping from the bosom of his Father to the state of the dead where our last Discourse lefâ— him if there had not been some excellent and glorious thing in his eye the attainment whereof might give him a content and satisfaction equivalâ—nt to all the sorrowâ— and abasures he endured or it And so much is plainly carried in this Scripture He shall see the Travel of his
overcome especially by a poor Creature as I am that am able to do nothing no not to raise one penny towards the discharge of that great debt I owe to God for here thou wilt find upon thy Union with Christ that there is merit enough in his blood and mercy enough in his bowels to justifie and save such an one as thou art Yea and I will add for thine incouragement that it is a righteous thing with God to justifie and save thee that canst not pay him one penny of all the vast sums thou owest him when by the same rule of justice he condemns the most strict self-righteous Pharisee that thinks thereby to quit scores with him It is righteous for a judge to cast him that hath paid 99 l. of the 100. which he owed because the payment was not full and to acquit him whose surety hath paid all though himself did not and freely confess that he cannot pay one farthing of the whole debt 2. If thou be a self-deceiving soul that easily takest up thy satisfaction about thine interest in Christ look to it as thou valuest thy soul Reader that a fond and groundless conceit of thine interest in Christ do not effectually and finally obstruct a true and saving interest in him This is the common and fatal errour in which multitudes of souls are insnared and ruined for look as a conceit of great wisdom hinders many from the attaining of it so a groundless conceit that Christ is already thine may prove the greatest obstacle betwixt Christ and thee but here thou wilt meet with many Rules that will not deceive thee tryals that will open thy true condition to thee Thou sometimes reflectest upon the state of thy soul and enquirest is Christ mine may I depend upon it that my condition is safe thy heart returns thee an answer of peace it speaks as thou wouldst have it but remember friend and mark this line Thy final sentence is not yet come from the mouth of thy judge and what if after all thy self flattering hopes and groundless confidences a sentence should come from him quite cross to that of thine own heart where art thou then what a confounded person wilt thou be Christless speechless and hopeless all at once O therefore build sure for Eternity take heed lest the loss of thine eternal happiness be at last imputed by thee to the deceitfulness and laziness of thine own heart lest thy heart say to thee in Hell as the heart of Apollodorus seemed in his sufferings to say to him I am the cause of all this misery to thee 3. If thou be one whose heart is eagerly set upon this vain world I beseech thee take heed lest it interpoe it self betwixt Christ and thy soul and so cut thee off from him for ever O beware lest the dust of the earth getting into thine eyes so blind thee that thou never see the beauty or necessity of Christ. The God of this world so blinds the eyes of them that believe not And what are the sparkling pleasures that dazle the eyes of some and the distracting cares that wholly divert the minds of others but as a Napkin drawn by Satan over the eyes of them that are to be turned off into Hell 1 Cor. 4.3 4. Some general aims and faint wishes after Christ thou mayest have but alas the world hath centered thy heart intangled thy affections and will daily find new diversions for thee from the great business of life So that if the Lord break not this snare thou wilt never be able to deliver thy soul. 4. If thou be a loose and careless professor of Christ I beseech thee let the things thou shalt read in this Treatise of Christ convince shame and reclaim thee from thy vain conversation Here thou wilt find how contrary thy conversation is to the grand designes of the death and resurrection of Christ. O methinks as thou art reading the deep humiliation and unspeakable sorrows Christ underwent for the expiating of sin thou shouldst thenceforth look upon sin as a tender Child would upon that knife that stab'd his Father to the heart Thou shouldst never whet and sharpen it again to wound the Son of God afresh To such loose and careless professors I particularly recommend the last general use of this discourse containing many great motives to reformation and strict Godliness in all that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus 5. If thou hast been a prophane and vain person but now art pardoned and dost experience the super-abounding riches of grace my request to thee is that thou love Jesus Christ with a more fervent love than ever yet thou hadst for him Here thou wilt find many great incentives many mighty arguments to such a love of Christ poor soul consider what thou hast been what the morning of thy life was What treasures of guilt thou laidst up in those dayes and then think can such a one as I receive mercy and that mercy not break my heart can I read my pardon and mine eyes not drop What mercy for such a wretch as I a pardon for such a Rebel O what an ingenuous thaw should this cause upon thy heart if it do not what a strange heart is thine Did the love of Christ break through so many impediments to come to thee Did it make its way through the Law through the wrath of God through the grave through thine own unbelief and great unworthiness to come to thee O what a love was the love of Christ to thy soul And is not thy love strong enough to break through the vanities and trifles of this world which intangle it to go to Christ how poor how low and weak is thy love to Christ then 6. Lastly Art thou one that hast through mercy at last attained assurance or good hope through grace of thy interest in Christ Rejoice then in thy present mercy and long ardently to be with thine own Christ in his glory There be many things dispersed through this Treatise of Christ to animate such joy and excite such longings It was truly observed by a worthy Author whose words I have mentioned more freely than his name in this discourse that it is in a manner as natural for us to leap when we see the New Ierusalem as it is to laugh when we are tickled Ioy is not under the souls command when Christ kisseth it And for your desires to be with Christ what considerations can you find in this world strong enough to reine them in O when you shall consider what he hath done suffered and purchased for you where he is now and how much he longs for your coming your very hearts should groan out those words Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for of Christ. Having delivered my message to the Reader in general I have somewhat more particularly to
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
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
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
illumination Ier. 31.34 Gratious softness and tenderness of heart Ezek. 11.19 The awful dread and fear of God Ier. 32.40 The Copy or transcript of his Laws on your hearts in gratious correspondent principles Ier. 31.33 These things speak you the Children of the Covenant the persons on whom all these great things are settled Inference 2. To conclude it is the indispensible duty of all on whom Christ hath settled such mercies to admire his Love and walk answerably to it First Admire the Love of Christ. O how intense and ardent was the Love of Jesus who designed for you such an inheritance with such a settlement of it upon you These are the mercies with which his Love had travailed big from eternity and now he sees the travail of his soul and you also have seen somewhat of it this day Before this Love let all the Saints fall down astonished-humbly professing that they owe themselves and all they are or shall be worth to eternity to this Love Secondly And be sure you walk becoming persons for whom Christ hath done such great things Comfort your selves under present abasures with your spiritual priviledges Iam. 2.5 And let all your rejoycing be in Christ and what you have in him whilst others are blessing themselves in vanity Thus we have finished the state of Christs humiliation and thence proceed to the second state of his Exaltation HAving finished what I designed to speak to about the work of Redemption so far as it was carried on by Christ in his humbled state we shall now view that blessed work as it is further advanced and perfected in his State of Exaltation The whole of that work was not to be finished on earth in a state of suffering and abasure therefore the Apostle makes his Exaltation in order to the finishing of the remainder of his work so necessary a part of his Priesthood that without it he could not have been a Priest Heb. 8.4 If he were on earth he should not be a Priest i. e. if he should have continued alwaies here and had not been raised again from the dead and taken up into glory he could not have been a compleat and perfect Priest For look as it was not enough for the sacrifice to be slain without and his blood left there but after it was shed without it must be carried within the vail into the most holy place before the Lord Heb. 9.7 So it was not sufficient that Christ shed his own blood on earth except he carry it before the Lord into heaven and there perform his intercession work for us Moreover God the Father stood engaged in a solemn Covenant to reward him for his deep humiliation with a most glorious and illustrious advancement Isa. 49.5 6 7. And how God as it became him made this good to Christ the Apostle very clearly expresses it Phil. 2.9 Yea Justice required it should be so For how could our surety be detained in the prison of the Grave when the debt for which he was imprisoned was by him fully discharged so that the Law of God must acknowledge it self to be fully satisfied in all its claims and demands His Resurrection from the dead was therefore but his discharge or acquittance upon full payment Which could not in Justice be denyed him And indeed God the Father lost nothing by it for there never was a more glorious manifestation made of the name of God to the World than was made in that work Therefore it 's said Phil. 2.11 Speaking of one of the designs of Christs Exaltation it was saith the Apostle That every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father O how is the Love of God to poor sinners illustriously yea astonishingly displayed in Christs Exaltation When to shew the Complacency and delight which he took in our recovery he hath openly declared to the world that his exalting Christ to all that glory such as no meer creature ever was or can be exalted to was bestowed upon him as a reward for that work that most grateful work of our Redemption Phil. 2.9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him there is an Emphatical Pleonasmus in that word our English is too flat to deliver out the elegancy of the Original it is Super-Exaltation The Seriack renders it he hath multiplyed his Sublimity The Arabick he hath heightened him with an height Iustin he hath famously exalted him Higher he cannot raise him a greater Argument of his high satisfaction and content in the recovery of poor sinners cannot be given For this therefore God the Father shall have glory and honour ascribed to him in Heaven to all Eternity Now this singular Exaltation of Jesus Christ as it properly respects his humane nature which alone is capable of advancement for in respect of his divine nature he never ceased to be the most high So it was done to him as a common person and as the head of all believers their representative in this as well as in his other works God therein shewing what in due time he intends to do with the persons of his Elect after they in Conformity to Christ have suffered a while What ever God the Father intendeth to do in us or for us he hath first done it to the person of our representative Iesus Christ. And this if you observe the Scriptures carry in very clear and plain expressions through all the degrees and steps of Christs Exaltation viz. his Resurrection Ascension Session at the right hand of God And returning to Iudge the World Of which I purpose to speak distinctly in the following Sermons He rose from the Dead as a common person Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ saith the Apostle so that the Saints have Communion and fellowship with him in his Resurrection He Ascended into Heaven as a common person for so it 's said in Eph. 2.6 He hath raised us up or exalted us together with Christ. He sits at Gods right hand as a common person for so it follows in the next clause and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Iesus We sit there in our representative And when he shall come again to Judge the World the Saints shall come with him So it is Prophesied Zech. 14.6 The Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with thee And as they shall come with Christ from Heaven so they shall sit on Thrones with him judging by way of suffrage They shall be assessors with the Judge 1 Cor. 6.2 This deserves a special remark that all this honour is given to Christ as our head and representative for thence results abundance of comfort to the people oâ— God Carry it therefore along with you in your thoughts throughout the whole of Christs advancement Think when you shall hear that Christ is risen from the dead and is in all that glory and authority in Heaven How sure the salvation of his Redeemed is For if
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
p. 592 593. It is for Christs honour 595. Four Inferences from it p. 596 597. Justice it self discharges the believer p. 176. and p. 596. K. KIng what manner of King Christ is to the Saints p. 205.206 Kingly power of Christ exercised over believers p. 196 197. Kingdom of Christ in the soul how obtained p. 195 196. How Christ administers his spiritual Kingdom opened in five acts thereof p. 197 198. Spiritual priviledges of Christs Kingdom p. 201 202. Five discoveries of our subjection to Christs Kingdom p. 203 204. Know some know Christ yet as to themselves better they did not p. 8. Knowledge of Christ the very kernel of Scripture p. 3 4. His Knowledge fundamental to all graces duties and comforts p. 4 5. Knowledge of Christ very profound noble and sweet p. 5 6. It s preferrence to all other Knowledge in divers respects opened p. 6 7. Knowledge of Christ not to be concealed by thy dispensers of it p. 11. To whom we must go for knowledge p. 107. Eminent knowledge how it aggravates sin p. 304. L. LAw what need to pray for good Laws and good Executioners of them p. 322. Laziness in prayer condemned p. 292. Leaving our fears of God final leaving us how cured p. 457. Life how Christ was humbled in his life opened in divers particulars p. 237 238. Light divine light infused by Christ p. 102. Three excellent properties of it p. 118. Three great differences betwixt common and saving light p. 123 124. A Caution against unthankfulness for and abuse of light p. 125. Little words yea Syllable and Letters how great a weight may hang on them p. 53. Lives their preservation the effect of Christs care and watchful providence p. 216. Love how worthy Christ is of our love p. 21. Wherein Gods love was chiefly manifested p. 88 475. The love of the Father and Son not to be compared but admired p. 66. Christs love to the Saints the fairest pattern p. 79. The ardency of Christs love to Sinners p. 88. Saints obliged to love Christ p. 233. The great evidence of the strength of Christs love p. 225 226 c. M. MArks of persons given by the Father to Christ p. 36. Five marks to discover the Subjects of Christs Kingdom p. 203 204. no marks of grace more dangerous than those that come nearest true ones p. 333. Mediator Christ is so according to both his natures p. 90. What the import of the word is p. 84 85. Five things implyed in Christs being a Mediator p. 86 87 88. Christ the true and only Mediator evinced by three arguments p. 89 90. How dangerous to joyn any other Mediators with Christ. p. 92. Meekness under abuses Christ like p. 411. How dangerous to abuse meek spirits p. 415. A pattern of meekness proposed p. 416. Mercies of believers brought forth with great difficulty p. 354. Ministers the best rule to measure them and their doctrine by p. 108 109. A serious Caution to Ministers p. 10 11. How dangerous to despise Christs Ministers p. 64 65. How daring a sin to invade the office of the Ministry and why God permits it p. 65. Necessity of of a standing Ministry urged p. 104 105. Ministers their test and essential qualifications in six particulars p. 108 109. Misery of the ignorant opened in divers particulars p. 119 120. Moses and Christ compared p. 97. N. NAture our nature not united to Christ consubstantially Physically or Mystically p. 53 54. Necessary the finishing of Redemption work by Christ necessary on a threefold account p. 480 481 Necessity of a Priest evinced p. 131. Night Christs last night on earth how employed p. 266 28 283. O. OBedience to Christ must be universal p. 98 99. Obedience to Christ evidential of our interest in him p. 203 Oblation of Christ the fountain of our best mercies p. 150 151. The matter of Christs Oblation his own soul and body p. 141 842. The preciousness of that Oblation p. 142. Obligations to holiness from God the Father p. 604. Obligations to holiness from Christ. p. 608. Obligations to holiness from the spirit p. 609. Obligations from our selves p. 611 612. Obligations from our enemies p. 615. Offices what offices Christ was sealed to p. 68 69. Old men in an unconverted state objects of great pity p. 445. Opposition to Christ knowingly how dreadful p. 405. Ordinances of Christ the great efficacy and whence it arises p. 66. No power to operate on the heart in themselves p. 115 116. Ordinances not to be despised p. 64 65 571. Overplus of merit in Christ satisfaction Whence that overplus is p. 181 182. P. PAin there may be much pain but no curse in a believers death p. 351. Pains of Christ how great on the Cross p. 466. Christs pains in three respects greater than what the damned feel in Hell p. 468. Pardon God no loser in pardoning the greatest of sinners p. 176. Parents prayers for their Children how beneficial p. 262 26â— Patience of Christ almighty patience p. 388 389. Excellent properties of patience p. 389 390. The grounds and reasons of Christs patience 391 392 393. Eight excellent helps to patience p. 394 395 396. Pattern Christs desertion the pattern of ours in six respects p. 457 458. Patterns of holiness who are so p. 628. Perfection twofold Subjective and Effective both found in Christ. p. 479 480. Persecution followed Christ from the Cradle to the Cross p. 237. The greatest piety exempts not from it p. 244. Person of Christ extraordinary p. 73 74. Pilate who and what he was p. 318. Policy of Satan in chusing instruments p. 309. Poverty of Christ how great p. 239 240. Prayer a proper means to increase knowledge p. 107. Prayers of Saints presented by Christ p. 157. Christs last prayer what it was for the matter of it p. 285 286. What for quality p. 286 287. A singular relief against troubles to pray p. 289. Predication of the properties of each nature in concreto proper p. 57 58. Preferment spiritual by union with Christ. p. 21. Priesthood of Christ implyes six things p. 128 129. Priesthood of Christ defined p. 130. The necessity of Christs Priesthood evinced upon a double ground p. 131 132. He appears before God for us p. 168. Prejudices against Religion for its professors sake how unâ—ust p. 308. Price what Christs death being so called implyes p. 166. Properties of each nature distinct notwithstanding the hypostatical union in Christ. p. 56. Prophet Christ is so p. 97 98. Two parts of Christs prophetical office p. 96. The internal and principal part of it opened p. 113 114 c. Prosperity the ready way to attain it p. 219. Five things to be studied in it p. 220 221. Proverb of Sparta p. 419. Iewish Proverb p. 239. Proverb used in Gallens time p. 364. Providence its general influx on all creatures and their motion p. 209 210. Christ rules the providential Kingdom by seven acts p. 210 211. Its over-ruling wicked counsel p. 211
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE OPENED OR A Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory Wherein the IMPETRATION of our Redemption by Jesus Christ is orderly unfolded as it was begun carryed on and finished by his Covenant-transaction mysterious Incarnation solemn Call and Dedication Blessed Offices deep Abasement and super-eminent Advancement In all which the great supernatural mysterie of the wisdom and Love of God in his most gracious plenary and wonderful Salvation of sinners by Iesus Christ is distinctly explicated and in its several parts as well as generally Applyed for the winning of Vnbelievers to him and the confirmation of all that do believe in him By Iohn Flavell Preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at Dartmouth in Devon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.8 Praesiat paâ—cula ex meliore scientia degustasse quam de ignobiliore multa Cael. Rodig LONDON Printed by Rob. White for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1673. To his much Honoured and Beloved Kinsman Mr. Iohn Flavell of London Merchant and his vertuous Consort The Author wisheth Grace Mercy and Peace My dear and honoured Friends IF my Pen were both able and at leisure to get glory in Paper it would be but a paper-glory when I had gotten it but if by displaying which is the design of these papers the transcendent excellency of Iesus Christ I may win glory to him from you to whom I humbly offer them or from any other into whose hands providence shall cast them that will be glory indeed and an occasion of glorifying God to all Eternity It is not the design of this Epistle to complement but to benefit you Not to blazon your excellencies but Christs Not to acquaint the world how much you have endeared me to your self but to increase and strengthen the endearments betwixt Christ and you upon your part I might indeed this being a proper place for it pay you my acknowledgements for your great kindnesses to me and mine of which I assure you I have and ever shall have deep resentments but you and I are Theatre enough to one another and can satisfie our selves with the inclosed comforts and delights of our mutual love and friendship but let me tell you the whole world is not a Theatre large enough to shew the glory of Christ upon or unfold the one half of the unsearchable riches that lye hid in him These things will be far better understood and spoken of in Heaven by the noon day Divinity in which the immediately illuminated Assembly do there preach his praises than by such a stammering tongue and scribling pen as mine which doth but mar them Alas I write his praises but by Moon-light I cannot praise him so much as by halves Indeed no tongue but his own as Nazianzen said of Basil is sufficient to undertake that task What shall I say of Christ The excelling glory of that object dazles all aphension swallows up all expression When we have borrowed metaphors from every Creature that hath any excellency or lovely property in it till we have stript the whole Creation bare of all its ornaments and cloathed Christ with all that glory when we have worn our tongues to the stumps in ascribing praises to him alas we have done nothing when all is done Yet wo is me how do I every day behold reasonable souls most unreasonably disaffected to my lovely Lord Iesus denying love to one who is able to compel love from the stoniest heart yea though they can never make so much of their love would they set it to sale as Christ bids for it It 's horrid and amazing to see how the minds of many are captivated and insnared by every silly trifle And how others can indifferently turn them with a kind of spontaneity to this object or to that as their fancy strikes among the whole universe of beings and scarce ever reluctate recoil or nauseate till they be perswaded to Christ and then 't is as easie to melt the obdurate rocks into sweet syrrup as their hearts into divine love How do the great men of the world ambitiously court the honours and pleasures of it the Merchants of the earth trade and strive for the dear bought treasures of it whilst the price of Christ alas ever too low falls every day lower and lower upon the Exchange of this world I speak it as a sad truth if there were no quicker a trade as dead as they say it is for the perishing treasures of the earth than there is for Christ this day in England the Exchange would quickly be shut up and all the Trading Companies dissolv'd Dear Sir Christ is the Peerless Pearl hid in the field Mat. 13.46 will you be that wise Merchant that resolves to win and compass that treasure whatever it shall cost you Ah Sir Christ is a commodity that can never be bought too dear My dear Kinsman my flesh and my blood my soul thirsteth for your salvation and the salvation of your family Shall you and I resolve with good Joshua that whatever others do we and our families will serve the Lord. That we will walk as the redeemed of his blood shewing forth his vertues and praises in the world that as God hath made us one in name and one in affection so we may be one in Christ. That it may be said of us as it was of Austin and Alippius long ago that they were sanguine christi conglutinati glued together by the blood of Christ. For my own part I have given in my name to him long since woe to me if I have not given in my heart also for should I deceive my self in so deep a point as that how would my profession as a Christian my calling as a Minister yea these very Sermons now in your hands rise in judgement to condemn me which God forbid And doubtless Sir your eyes have seen both the vanity of all Creatures and the necessity and infinite worth of Christ. You cannot forget what a vanity the world appeared to you when in the year 1668. you were summoned by the messengers of death as you and all that were about you then apprehended to shoot the gulf of vast eternity when a malignant Feaver and Pleuresie whereof your Physitian hath given an account to the world did shake the whole frame of the Tabernacle wherein your soul through mercy yet dwells and long may it dwell there for the service and praise of your great deliverer I hope you have not nor ever will forget how the vain world then appeared to your eye when you looked back as it were over your shoulder and saw how it shrunk away from you Nor will you ever forget the awful apprehensions of Eternity that then seized your spirit or the value you then had for Christ which things I hope still do and ever will remain with you And for you Dear Cousin as it becomes a daughter of Sarah let your soul be adorned with the excellencies of
learn hence what an horrid evil it is to use Christ or his Blood as a common and unsanctified thing Yet so some do as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.29 The Apostate is said to tread upon the Son of God as if he were no better than the dirt under his Feet and to count his Blood an unholy or common thing But woe to them that so do they shall be counted worthy of something worse then dying without mercy As the Apostle there speaks And as this is the Sin of the Apostate so is it also the Sin of all those that without Faith approach and so prophane the Table of the Lord unbeleivingly and unworthily handling those awfull things Such eat and drink judgement to themselves not discerning the Lords Body 1 Cor. 11.29 Whereas the body of Christ was a thing of the deepest sanctification that ever God created Sanctified as the Text tells us to a far more excellent and glorious purpose than ever any Creature in Heaven or Earth was sanctified It was therefore the great sin of those Corinthians not to discern it and not to behave themselves towards it when they saw and handled the signs of it as so holy a thing And as it was their great Sin so God declared his just indignation against it in those sore strokes inflicted for it As they discerned not the Lords body so neither did the Lord discern their bodies from others in the judgements that were inflicted And as one well observes God drew the Model and Plat-form of their punishment from the structure and proportion of their sin And truly if the moral and spiritual Seeds and originals of many of our outward afflictions and sicknesses were but duly sifted out possibly we might find a great part of them in the Bowels of this sin The just and righteous God will build up the breaches we make upon the honour of his Son with the ruines of that beauty strength and honour which he hath given our Bodies O then when you draw nigh to God in that ordinance take heed to sanctifie his name by a spiritual discerning of this most holy and most deeply sanctified Body of the Lord. Sanctified beyond all Creatures Angels or Men not only in respect of the Spirit which fill'd him without measure with inherent holiness but also in respect of its dedication to such a service as this It being set apart by him to such holy solemn ends and uses as you have heard And let it for ever be a warning to such as have lifted up their hands to Christ in an holy profession that they never lift up their Heel against him afterwards by Apostacy The Apostate treads on Gods dear Son and God will tread upon him for it Thou hast troden down all that err from thy Statutes Psal. 119.118 Inference 3. What a choice pattern of love to the Saints have we here before us calling all that are in Christ to an imitation of him Even to give our selves up to their service as Christ did Not in the same kind so none can give himself for them but as we are capable You see here how his Heart was affected to them that he would sanctifie himself as a Sacrifice for them See to what a height of duty the Apostle improves this example of Christ 1 Ioh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought also to lay down our lives for the Brethren Some Christians came up fairly to this pattern in the Primitive times Priscila and Aquila laid down their Necks for Paul Rom. 16.4 i. e. eminently hazarded their lives for him and even he himself could rejoyce if he were offered up upon the Sacrifice and service of their Faith Phil. 2.17 And in the next times what more known even to the Enemies of Christianity than their fervent love one to another Ecce quam mutuò se deligunt mori volunt pro alterutris See how they love one another and are willing to dye one for another But alas that Primitive Spirit is almost lost in this degenerate Age. Instead of laying down life how few will lay down twelve pence for them I remember it 's the observation of a late Worthy upon Matth. 95.40 that he is perswaded there is hardly that man to be found this day alive that fully understands and fully believes that Scripture O did men think what they do for them is done for Christ himself it would produce other effects than are yet visible Inference 4. Lastly if Christ sanctified himself that we might be sâ—nctied by or in the truth then it will follow by found consequence that true sanctification is a good evidence that Christ set apart himself to dye for us In vain did he â—anctifie himself as to you unless you be sanctified Holy Souls only can claim the benefit of the great Sacrifice O try then whether true holiness and that is only to be judged by its conformity to its pattern 1 Pet. 1.15 As he that called you is holy so be ye holy whether such an holyness as is and acts according to its measure like Gods holiness in the following perticulars be â—ound in you First God is universally holy in all his ways so Psal. 145.17 His works are all holy what ever he doth it 's still done as becomes an holy God He is not only holy in all things but at all times unchangeably holy Be ye therefore holy in all things and at all times too if ever ye expect the benefit of Christs sanctifying himself to dye for you O Brethren let not the Feet of your conversation be as the Feet of a lame man which are unequal Prov. 20.7 be not sometimes hot and sometimes cold at one time carefull at another time careless One day in a spiritual rapture and the next in a fleshly frolick but be ye holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.15 in all manner of conversation in every creek and turning of your lives And let your holiness hold out to the end Let him that is holy be holy still Rev. 22.11 not like the Hypocrites paint but as a true natural complexion Secondly God is examplarily holy Jesus Christ is the great pattern of holiness Be ye examples of holiness too unto all that are about you Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Matth. 5.16 as wicked men infect one another by their examples and diffuse their poison and malignity whereever they come so do ye diffeminate godliness in all places and companies and let those that frequently converse with you especially those of your own Families receive a deeper Dye and Tincture of heavenlyness every time they come nigh you as the cloth doth by every new dipping into the Fat. Thirdly God delights in nothing but holiness and holy ones he hath set all his pleasure in the Saints Be ye holy herein as God is holy Indeed there is this difference betwixt
the Empyrean Heaven the City of God wihther Christ ascended Where the great assembly are met Paradise and Canaan were but the Types of it More excelling and trascending the Royal Palaces of earthly Princes than they do a â—idgeon hold The company also with whom he is enjoyed adds to the glory A blissful society indeed Store of good neighbours in that City There we shall have familiar converse with Angels whose appearances now are insupportable by poor mortals There will be sweet and full closings also betwixt the Saints Luther and Zuinglius are there agreed here they could not fully close with one another And no wonder for they could not fully close with themselves But there is perfect harmony and unity All meeting and closing in God as lines in the Center This is a blessed glimpse of your inheritance Thirdly All this is purchased for Believers hence it 's call'd the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 All is yours for ye are Christs that is the tenure 1 Cor. 3.23 So Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Only those that are Sons are Heirs Rom. 8.17 The unrighteous shall not inherit 1 Cor. 6.9 It 's the Fathers good pleasure to give the Kingdom to the little flock Luk. 12.32 Inference 1. Hath Christ not only redeemed you from wrath but purchased such an eternal inheritance also by the overplus of his merit for you Oh how well content should Believers then be with their lot of providence in this life be it what it will Content did I say I speak too low overcome ravisht filled with praises and thanksgivings how low how poor how afflicted soever for present they are O let not such a thing as grumbling repining freting at providence be found or once named among the expectants of this Inheritance Suppose you had taken a beggar from your door and adopted him to be your Son and made him Heir of a large inheritance and after this he should contest and quarrel with you for a trifle could you bear it how to work the Spirit of a Saint into contentment with a Low condition here I have laid down several rules in another discourse to which for present I refer the Reader Inference 2. With what weaned affections should the people of God walk up and down this world content to live and willing to die For things present are theirs if they live and things to come are theirs if they die Paul expresses himself in a frame of holy indifferencie Phil. 1.23 Which to choose I know not Many of them that are now in fruition of their inheritance above had vitam in patientia mortem in desiderio life in patience and death in desire while they tabernacled with us Oh cried one what would I give to have a bed made to my wearied soul in Christs bosom I cannot tell you what sweet pain and delightful torments are in his love I often challenge time for holding us assunder I profess to you I have no rest till I be over head and ears in Loves Ocean If Christs Love that fountain of delights were laid open to me as I would wish O how drunken would this my soul be I half call his absence cruel and the mask and vail on his face a cruel covering that hideth such a fair fair face from a â—ick soul. I dare not challenge himself but his absence is a mountain of Iron upon my heavy heart O when shall we meet How long is it to the dawning of the marriage day O sweet Lord Jesus take wide steps O my Lord come over mountains at one stride O my beloved flee like a Roe or young Hart upon the mountains of seperation O if he would fold the Heavens together like an old cloak and shovel time and days out of the way and make ready in hast the Lambs wife for her husband Since he looked upon me my heart is not mine own Who can be blamed for desiring to see that fair inheritance which is purchased for him But truly should God hold up the soul by the power of faith from day to day to such sights as these who would be content to live a day more on earth How should we be ready to pull down the Prison walls and not having patience to wait till God open the door As the Heathen said Victurosque dii celant ut vivere durant And truly the wisdom of God is in this specially remarkable in giving the new creature such an admirable crasis and even temper as that Scripture 2 Thes. 3.5 expresses The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and patient waiting for of Christ. Love inflames with desire patience allays that fervor So that fervent desires as one happily expresses it are allaied with meek submission Mighty love with strong patience And had not God twisted together these two principles in the Christians constitution he had framed a creature to be a torment to it self to live upon a very rack Inference 3. Hence we infer the impossibility of their Salvation that know not Christ nor have interest in his blood Neither Heathens nor meerly nominal Christians can inherit I know some are very indulgent to the Heathen and many formal Christians are but too much so to themselves but union by faith with Jesus Christ is the only way revealed in Scripture by which we hope to come to the heavenly inheritance I know it seems hard that such brave men as some of the Heathens were should be damned but the Scripture knows no other way to glory but Christ put on and applied by faith And it is the common suffrage of modern sound Divines that no man by the sole conduct of nature without the knowledge of Christ can be saved There is but one way to glory for all the world Ioh. 14.6 No man cometh to the Father but by me Gal. 3.14 The blessing of Abraham comes upon the Gentiles through faith Scripture asserts the impossibility of being or doing any thing that is truly evangelically good out of Christ. Joh. 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing and Heb. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God Scripture every where connects and chains Salvation with vocation Rom. 8.30 and vocation with Gospel Rom. 10.14 To those that plead for the Salvation of Heathens and profane Christians we may apply that tart rebuke of Bernard that while some labour to make Plato a Christian he feared they therein did prove themselves to be Heathens Inference 4. How greatly are we all concerned to clear up our Title to the heavenly inheritance It 's horrible to see how industrious many are for an inheritance on earth and how careless for Heaven By which we may plainly see how vilely the noble soul is depressed by sin and sunk down into flesh minding only the concernments of the flesh Hear me ye that labour for
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
foresaw a great trial then at hand yea and all the after trials of his people as well as that He knew how much they would be sifted and put to it in that hour and power of darkness that was coming He knew their faith would be shaken and greatly staggered by the approaching difficulties when they should see their Shepherd smitten and themselves scattered The Son of man delivered into the hands of Sinners and the Lord of Life hang dead upon the tree yea sealed up in the grave He foresaw what straights his poor people would fall into betwixt a busie Devil and a bad heart therefore he prays and pleads with such importunity and ardency for them that they might not miscarry Secondly He was now entring upon his intercession-work in Heaven and he was desirous in this prayer to give us a Specimen or sample of that part of his work before he left us that by this we might understand what he would do for us when he should be out of our sight For this being his last on earth it shews us what affections and dispositions he carried hence with him and satisfies us that he who was so earnest with God on our behalf such a mighty pleader here will not forget us or neglect our concerns in the other world Yet Reader I would have the alwaies to remember that the intercession of Christ in Heaven is carried at a much higher rate than this It 's performed in a way more suitable to that state of honour to which he is now exalted Here he used prostrations of Body cries and tears in his prayers There it 's carried in a more majestick and with more state becoming an exalted Jesus But yet in this he hath left us a special assistance to discover much of the frame temper and working of his heart now in Heaven towards us Thirdly and Lastly He would leave this as a standing monument of his Father-like care and love to his people to the end of the world And for this it is conceived Christ delivered this prayer so publickly not withdrawing from the Disciples to be private with God as he did in the Garden but he delivers it in their presence these things I speak in the world this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the â—ircumstance of place in the world doth plainly speak it to be a publick prayer And not only was it publickly delivered but it was also by a singular providence recorded at large by Iohn though omitted by the other Evangelists that so it might stand to all generations for a testimony of Christs tender care and Love to his people Fourthly If you ask how this gives evidence of Christs tender care and Love to his people which is the last enquiry I answer in few words For the thing is plain and obvious It appears in these two particulars First His Love and care manifest in the choice of mercies for them He doth not pray for health honour long life riches c. but for their preservation from sin spiritual joy in God sanctification and eternal glory No mercies but the very best in Gods treasure will content him He was resolved to get all the best mercies for his people the rest he is content should be dispensed promiscuously by providence But these he will settle as an heritage upon his children O see the Love of Christ Look over all your spiritual inheritance in Christ compare it with the richest fairest sweetest inheritance on earth and see what poor things these are to yours O the care of a dear Father O the love of a Saviour Secondly Besides what an evidence of his tenderness to you and great care for you was this that he should so intently and so affectionately mind and plead your concerns with God at such a time as this was even when a world of sorrow was heming him in on every side A cup of wrath mixed and ready to be delivered into his hand At that very time when the clouds of wrath grew black a storm coming and such as he never felt before when one would have thought all his care thoughts and diligence should have been imployed on his own account to mind his own sufferings no he doth as it were forget his own sorrows to mind our peace and comfort O Love unspeakable Corollary 1. If this be so that Christ so eminently discovered his care and love for his people in this parting hour Then hence we conclude the perseverance of the Saints is unquestionable Do you hear how he pleads how he begs how he fills his mouth with arguments how he chooseth his words and sets them in order how he winds up his Spirit to the very highest pin of zeal and fervency and can you doubt of success can such a Father deny the importunity and strong reasonings and pleadings of such a Son O it can never be He cannot deny him Christ hath the art and skill of prevailing with God He hath as in this appears the tongue of the Learned If the heart or hand of God were hard to be opened yet this would open them but when the Father himself loveth us and is inclined to do us good who can doubt of Christs success that which is in motion is the more easily moved The cause Christ manageth in Heaven for us is Just and Righteous The manner in which he pleads is powerful and therefore the success of his suit is unquestionable The Apostle professeth 2 Cor. 1.3 we can do nothing against the truth He means it in regard of the bent of his heart he could not move against truth and Righteousness And if a holy man cannot much less will a holy God If Christ undertake to plead the cause of his people with the Father and use his oratory with him there is no doubt but he carries it Every word in this prayer is a chosen shaft drawn to the head by a strong and skilful hand you need not question but it goes home to the white and hits the mark aimed at Doth he pray Father keep through thine own name those thou hast given me Sure they shall be kept if all the power in Heaven can keep them O think on this when dangers surround your souls or bodies When fears and doubts are multiplied within When thou art ready to say in thy hast all men are liers I shall one day perish by the hand of sin or Satan Think on that incouragement Christ gave to Peter Luke 22.31 I have prayed for thee Corollary 2. Again hence we learn that Argumentative prayers are excellent prayers The strength of every thing is in its joints There lies much of the strength of prayer also How strongly jointed how nervous and argumentative was this prayer of Christ Some there are indeed that think we need not argue and plead in prayer with God but only present the matter of our prayers to him and let Christ alone whose office it is to plead with the
Father As if Christ did not present our pleas and arguments as well as simple desires to God As if the choisest part of our prayers must be kept back because Christ presents our prayers to God No no Christs pleading is one thing ours another His and ours are not opposed but subordinated His pleading doth not destroy but makes ours successful God calls us to plead with him Isai. 1.18 come now let us reason together God as one observes reasoneth with us by his word and providences outwardly and by the motions of his Spirit inwardly but we reason with him by framing through the help of his Spirit certain holy arguments grounded upon allowed principles drawn from his nature name word or works And it is condemned as a very sinful defect in Professors that they did not plead the Churches cause with God Jer. 30.13 There is none to plead thy cause that thou maist be bound up What was Iacobs wrestling with the Angel but his holy pleading and importunity with God And how well it pleased God let the event speak As a Prince he prevailed and had power with God On which instance a Worthy thus glosseth Let God frown smite or wound Iacob is at a point a blessing he came for and a blessing he will have I will not let thee go saith he unless thou bless me His limbs his life might go but there is no going for Christ without a pawn without a blessing This is the man now what is his speed the Lord admires him and honours him to all generations What is thy name saith he q. d. I never met with such a man titles of honour are not worthy of thee Thou shalt be called not Iacob a shepherd with men but Iacob a Prince with God Nazianzen said of his sister Gorgonia that she was modestly impudent with God There was no putting her off with a denial The Lord on this account hath honoured his Saints with the title of his Recorders men fit to plead with him as that word mazkir signifies Isai. 62.6 Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence give him no rest it notes the office of him that recorded all the memorable matters of the King and used to suggest seasonable Items and Memorandums of things to be done By these holy pleadings the King is held in his Galleries as it is Cant. 7.5 I know we are not heard either for our much speaking or our excellent speaking 't is Christs pleading in Heaven that makes our pleading on earth available but yet surely when the spirit of the Lord shall suggest proper arguments in prayer and help the humble suppliant to press them home believingly and affectionately when he helps us to weep and plead to groan and plead God is greatly delighted in such prayers Thou saidst I will surely do the good Said Iacob Gen. 32.12 It 's thine own free promise I did not go on mine own head but thou bidst me go and encouragest me with this promise O this is taking with God When by the spirit of Adoption we can come to God crying Abba Father Father hear forgive pity and help me am I not thy Child thy Son or Daughter to whom may a Child be bold to go with whom may a Child have hope to speed if not with his Father Father hear me The Fathers of our flesh are full of bowels and pity their children and know how to give good things to them when they ask them when they ask bread or cloaths will they deny them And is not the Father of Spirits more full of bowels more full of pity Father hear me This is that kind of prayer which is melody in the ears of God Corollary 3. What an excellent pattern is here for all that have the charge and government of others committed to them whether Magistrates Ministers or Parents to teach them how to acquit themselves towards their relations when they come to die Look upon dying Jesus see how his care and love to his people flamed out when the time of his departure was at hand Surely as we are bound to remember our Relations every day and to lay up a stock of prayers for them in the time of our health so it becomes us to imitate Christ in our earnestness with God for them when we die Though we die our prayers die not with us They out-live us and those we leave behind us in the world may reap the benefit of them when we are turned to dust For my own part I must profess before the world that I have a high value for this mercy And do from the bottom of my heart bless the Lord who gave me a Religious and tender Father who often poured out his soul to God for me He was one that was inwardly acquainted with God and being full of bowels to his children often carried them before the Lord prayed and pleaded with God for them wept and made supplication for them This stock of prayers and blessings left by him before the Lord I cannot but esteem above the fairest inheritance on earth O it is no small mercy to have thousands of fervent prayers lying before the Lord filed up in Heaven for us And oh that we would all be faithful to this duty Surely our love especially to the souls of our Relations should not grow cold when our breath doth O that we would remember this duty in our lives and if God give opportunity and ability fully discharge it when we die considering as Christ did we shall be no more but they are in this world In the midst of a defiled tempting troublesom world It 's the last office of Love that ever we shall do for them After a little while we shall be no longer sensible how it is with them for as the Church speaks Isai. 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not what Temptations and troubles may befal them we do not know O imitate Christ your pattern Corollary 4. To Conclude Hence ye may see what an high esteem and pretious value Christ hath of Believers this was the treasure which he could not be quiet he could not die till he had secured it in a safe hand I come unto thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me Surely Believers are dear to Jesus Christ. And good reason for he hath paid dear for them Let his dying language this last farewel speak for him how he prized them The Lords portion is his people Jacob is the Lott of his inheritance Deut. 32.9 They are a peculiar treasure to him above all the people of the earth Exod. 19.5 What is much upon our hearts when we die is dear to us indeed O how pretious how dear should Jesus Christ be to us were we first and last upon his heart did he mind us did he pray for us did he so wrestle with God about us when the sorrows
of death compassed him about how much are we engaged not only to love him and esteem him whilst we live but to be in pangs of love for him when we feel the pangs of death upon us To be eyeing him when our eye-strings break To have hot affections for Christ when our hands and feet grow cold The very last whisper of our departing soul should be this Blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTY FIRST SERMON I COR. XI XXIII XXIV XXV The Lord Iesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying this Cup is the New-Testament in my blood this do as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me CHrist had no sooner recommended his dear charge to the Father but the time of his death hasting on he institutes his last Supper to be the lasting memorial of his death in all the Churches until the second coming therein graciously providing for the comfort of his people when he should be removed out of their sight And this was the second preparative act of Christ in order to his death he will set his house in order and then die This his second Act manifests no less love than the former It 's like the plucking off the ring from his finger when ready to lay his neck upon the block and delivering it to his dearest friends to keep that as a memorial of him Take this c. in remembrance of me In the words read are four things noted by the Apostle about this Last and Lovely Act of Christ. viz. the Author time institution and end of this holy and solemn ordinance First The Author of it The Lord Iesus it 's an effect of his Lordly power and royal authority Matth. 28.18 And Iesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in Heaven and earth go ye therefore The government is upon his shoulder Isai. 9.6 He shall bear the glory Zech. 6.13 Who but he that came out of the bosom of the Father and is acquainted with all the counsels that are there knows what will be acceptable to God And who but he can give creatures by his blessing their Sacramental efficacy and vertue Bread and Wine are naturally fit to refresh and nourish our bodies but what fitness have they to nourish souls Surely none but what they receive from the blessing of Christ that institutes them Secondly The time when the Lord Jesus appointed this ordinance In the same night in which he was betrayed It could not be sooner because the passover must first be celebrated nor later for that night he was apprehended It is therefore emphatically expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that same night that night for ever to be remembred He gives that night a cordial draught to his Disciples before the conflict He settles that night an Ordinance in the Church for the confirmation and consolation of his people in all generations to the end of the world By instituting in that night he gives abundant evidence of his care for his people in spending so much of that little very little time he had left on their account Thirdly The Institution it self in which we have the memorative significative instructive signs and they are Bread and Wine And the glorious mysteries represented and shadowed forth by them viz. Jesus Christ crucified the proper New-Testament nourishment of Believers Bread and Wine are choice creatures and do excellently shadow forth the flesh and blood of crucified Jesus And that both in their natural usefulness and manner of preparation Their usefulness is very great Bread is a creature necessary to uphold and maintain our natural life Therefore it 's called the staff of bread Isai. 3.1 Because as as a feeble man depends and leans upon his staff so doth our feeble spirits upon bread Wine was made to chear the heart of man Iudg. 9.13 They are both useful and excellent creatures Their preparations to become so useful to us is also remarkable The Corn must be ground in the Mill the Grapes torn and squeesed to pieces in the Wine-prefs before we can either have Bread or Wine And when all this is done they must be received into the body or they nourish not So that these were very fit creatures to be set apart for this use and end If any object it 's true they are good creatures but not pretious enough to be the signs of such profound and glorious Mysteries It was worth the creating of a new creature to be the sign of the new Covenant Let him that thus objects ask himself whether nothing be pretious without pomp The pretiousness of these Elements is not so much from their own natures as their use and end and that makes them pretious indeed A Loadstone at Sea is much more excellent than a Diamond because more useful A peniworth of wax applyed to the Label of a Deed and sealed may in a minute have its value raised to thousands of pounds These creatures receive their value and estimation on alike account Nor should it at all remain a wonder to thee why Christ should represent himself by such mean and common things when thou hast well considered that the excellency of the picture is in its similitude and conformity to the original and that Christ was in a low sad and very abased state when this picture of him was drawn he was then a man of sorrows These then as lively signs shadow forth a crucified Jesus Represent him to us in his red garments This pretious Ordinance may much more than Paul say to us I alwaies bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Iesus That 's the thing it signifies Fourthly Lastly Take notice of the use design and end of this institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in remembrance or for a memorial of me O there 's much in this Christ knew how apt our base hearts would be to lose him amidst such a throng of sensible objects as we here converse with And how much that forgetfulness of him and of his sufferings would turn to our prejudice and loss And therefore doth he appoint a sign to be remembred by as oft as ye do this ye shew forth the Lords death till he come Hence we shall observe suitable to the design of this discourse DOCT. That the Sacramental memorial Christ left with his people is a special mark of his care and love for them What! to order his picture as it were to be drawn when he was dying to be left with his Spouse to rend his own flesh and set abroch his own blood to be meat and drink for our souls O what manner of love was this 'T is true his Picture in the Sacrament is full of scars and wounds but
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
Historie to great indignation against Pilate the Jews and the rude and bloody Souldiers and could not contain himself but cried out as the Bishop was reading O that I had been there with my French-men I would have cut all their throats who so barbarously used my Saviour To allude to this When the Believer considers and remembers that sin put Christ to all that shame and ignominy that he was wounded for our transgressions he is filled with hatred of sin and cries out O sin I will revenge the blood of Christ upon thee thou shalt never live a quiet hour in my heart And Secondly It produces an humble adoration of the goodness and mercy of God to exact satisfaction for our sins by such bloody stripes from our surety Lord what if this wrath had seised on me as it did on Christ what had been my condition then If these things were done in the green tree what had been the cafe of the dry tree Sometimes representations and not common ones are made of the Love of Christ who assumed a body and soul on purpose to bear the wrath of God for our sins And when that surpassing Love breaks out in its glory upon the soul how is the soul transported and ravished with it crying out what manner of Love is this Here 's a Love large enough to go round the heavens and the Heaven of heavens Who ever loved after this rate to lay down his life for enemies O Love unutterable and unconceivable How glorious is my Love in his red garments Sometimes the fruits of his death are there gloriously displaied Even his satisfaction for sin and the purchase his blood made of the eternal inheritance And this begets thankfulness and confidence in the soul. Christ is dead and his death hath satisfied for my sin Christ is dead therefore my soul shall never die Who shall separate me from the Love of God These are the fruits and this is the nature of that remembrance of Christ here spoken of Secondly What aptitude or conducency is there in this Ordinance to bring Christ so to remembrance Much every way For it is a sign by him appointed to that end and hath as Divines well observe a threefold use and consideration viz. as it is memorative as it is significative and as it is instructive First As it is memorative and so it hath the nature and use of a pledge or token of Love left by a dying to a dear surviving friend And so the Sacrament as was said before is like a Ring pluckt off from Christs Finger or a Bracelet from his Arm or rather his Picture from his Breast delivered to us with such words as these as oft as you look on this rememember me Let this help to keep me alive in your remembrance when I am gone and out of your sight It conduces to it also Secondly As it is a significative sign most aptly signifying both his bitter sufferings for us and our strict and intimate union with him Both which have an excellent usefulness to move the heart and its deepest affections at the remembrance of it The breaking of the Bread and shedding forth the Wine signifies the former our eating drinking and incorporating them is a lively signification of the other Thirdly Moreover this Ordinance hath an excellent use and advantage for this affectionate remembrance of Christ as it is an instructive sign And it many waies instructs us and enlightens our mind particularly in these truths which are very affecting things First That Christ is the Bread on which our souls live proper meat and drink for Believers the most excellent New-Testament food It 's said Psal. 78.25 man did eat Angels food He means the manna that fell from Heaven Which was so excellent that if Angels who are the noblest creatures did live-upon material food they would choose this above all to feed on And yet this was but a Type and weak shadow of Christ on whom Believers feed Christ makes a royal feast of his own flesh and blood Isai. 25.6 all our delicates are in him Secondly It instructs us that the New-Testament is now in its full force and no sustantial alteration can be made in it since the the Testator is dead and by his death hath ratified it So that all the excellent promises and blessings of it are now fully confirmed to the believing soul. Heb. 9.16 17. All these and many more choice truths are we instructed in by this sign And all these waies it remembers us of Christ and helps powerfully to raise warm and affect our hearts with that remembrance of him Thirdly The last enquiry is how Christ hath hereby left such a special mark of his care for and love to his people And that will evidently appear if you consider these five particulars First This is a special mark of the care and Love of Christ in as much as hereby he hath made abundant provision for the confirmation and establishment of his peoples faith to the end of the world For this being an evident proof that the New-Testament is in its full force Matth. 26.28 this is the Cup of the New-Testament in my blood it tends as much to our satisfaction as the legal execution of a deed by which we hold and enjoy our estate So that when he saith take eat it is as much as if God should stand before you at the Table with Christ and all the promises in his hand and say I deliver this to thee as my deed What think you doth this promote and confirm the faith of a Believer if it do not what doth Secondly This is a special mark of Christs care and Love in as much as by this he hath made like abundant provision for the enlargement of his peoples joy and comfort Believers are at this Ordinance as Mary was at the Sepulcher with fear and great joy Matth. 28.8 Come Reader speak thy heart if thou be one that heartily lovest Jesus Christ and hast gone many daies possibly years mourning and lamenting because of the inevidence and cloudiness of thine interest in him that hast sought him sorrowing in this Ordinance and in that in one duty and another if at last Christ should take off that mask that cruel covering as one calls it from his face and be known of thee in breaking bread Suppose he should by his Spirit whisper thus in thine ear as thou sittest at his Table dost thou indeed so prize esteem and value me will nothing but Christ and his Love content and satisfie thee then as sweet lovely and desireable as I am know that I am thine Take thine own Christ into the arms of thy faith this day Would not this breed in thy soul a joy transcendent to all the joys and pleasures in this world what thinkest thou of it Thirdly Here is a signal mark of Christs care and Love in as much as this is one of the highest and best helps for the mortification of the
corruptions of his people Nothing tends more to the killing of sin than this doth Christs blood as it's food to faith so it 's poyson to our Lusts. O what a Pill is wrapt up in that Bread what an excellent Potion is in that Cup to purge the soul One calls that Table an Altar on which our corruptions are sacrificed and slain before the Lord. For how can they that there see what Christ suffered for sin live any longer therein Fourthly Moreover his care and Love appear in providing such bellows as these to excite and blow up his peoples Love into a lively flame When Ioseph made himself known to his Brethren I am Ioseph your Brother whom ye sold be not grieved Oh what a showr of tears and dear affections was there How did they fall upon each others necks so that the Aegyptians wondred at the matter How doth the soul if I may so speak passionately love Jesus Christ at such a time O what a Christ is my Christ the fairest among ten thousand What hath he done what hath he suffered for me what great things hath my Jesus given and what great things hath he forgiven me a world a thousand worlds cannot shew such another Here it 's melted down by Love at his feet It 's pain'd with Love Fifthly To conclude Christs care and Love are farther manifested to his people in this Ordinance as it is one of the strongest bonds of union betwixt themselves that can bee 1 Cor. 10.17 We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread And though through our corruptions it falls out that that which was intended for a bond of union proves a bond of contention yet in as much as by this it appears how dearly Christ Loved them for as much also as here they are sealed up to the same inheritance their dividing corruptions here slain their Love to Christ and consequently to each other here improved it is certainly one of the strongest ties in the world to wrap up gratious hearts in a bundle of Love And thus I have dispatcht the doctrinal part of this point The improvement of it is in the following Inferences Inference 1. Did Christ leave this Ordinance with his Church to preserve his remembrance among his people then surely Christ foresaw that notwithstanding what he is hath done suffered and promised yet to do for his people they will for all this be still apt to forget him A man would think that such a Christ should never be one whole hour together out of his peoples thoughts and affections that where ever they go they should carry him up and down with them in their thoughts desires and delights That they should let their thoughts work towards Christ as the longing thoughts of her that is with Child do work after that she longs for That they should lie down with Christ in their thoughts at night and when they awake be still with him That their very dreams in the night should be sweet visions of Christ and all their words savour of Christ. But O the baseness of these hearts Here we live and converse in a world of sensible objects which like a company of thieves rob us of our Christ and lay the dead Child in his room Woe is me that it should be so with me who am so obliged to Love him though he be in the highest glory in Heaven he doth not forget us he hath graven us upon the palms of his hands we are continually before him He thinks on us when we forget him The whole honour and glory paid him in Heaven by the Angels cannot divert his thoughts one moment from us but every trifle that meets us in the way is enough to divert our thoughts from him Why do we not abhor and loath our selves for this What is it a pain a burden to carry Christ in our thoughts about the world as much a burden if thy heart be spiritual as a Bird is burdened by carrying his own wings Will such thoughts intrude unseasonably and thrust greater things than Christ out of our minds For shame Christian for shame let noâ— thy heart play the wanton and gad from Christ after every vanity In Heaven nothing else takes up the thoughts of Saints to eternity and yet there is no tireing no saciety O learn to live nearer that heavenly life Never leave praying and striving till thou canst say as it is Psal. 63.5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips whilst I remember thee on my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches Inference 2. Hence also we infer that Sacrament seasons are heart melting seasons because therein the most affecting and heart-melting recognitions and representations of Christ are made As the Gospel offers him to the ear in the most sweet affecting sounds of grace so the Sacrament to the eye in the most taking visions that are on this side Heaven There hearts that will not yield a tear under other Ordinances can pour out floods Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn Yet I dare not affirm that every one whose heart is broken by the believing sight of Christ there can evidence that it is so by a dropping eye No we may say of tears as it 's said of Love Cant. 8.7 If some Christians would give all the treasures of their house for them they cannot be purchased Yet they are truly humbled for sin and seriously affected with the grace of Christ. For the support of such I would distinguish and have them to do so also betwixt what is essential to spiritual sorrow and what is contingent Deep displeasure with thy self for sin hearty resolutions and desires of the compleat mortification of it this is essential to all spiritual sorrow but tears are accidental and in some constitutions rarely found If thou have the former trouble not thy self for want of the later though 't is a mercy when they kindly and undisâ—embledly flow from a heart truly broken And surely to see who it is that thy sins have pierced How great how glorious how wonderful a person that was that was so humbled abased and brought to the dust for such a wretched thing as thou art cannot but tenderly affect the considerating soul. If it was for a lamentation in the Captivity that Princes were hanged up by the hands and the faces of the Elders were not reverenced Lam. 5.12 And if at the death of Abner David could lament and say a Prince and a great man is fallen in Israel this day 2 Sam. 3.38 If he could so pathetically lament the death of Saul and Ionathan saying Daughters of Israel weep over Saul who cloathed you in scarlet The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places Ah how much more should it affect us to see the beauty of Heaven fallen the Prince of life hang dead upon a
Tree O let the place where you assemble to so see this sight of your crucified Jesus be a Bokim a place of lamentation Inference 3. Moreover hence it 's evident that the believing and affectionate remembrance of Christ is of singular advantage at all times to the people of God For it 's the immediate end of one of the greatest Ordinances that ever Christ appointed to the Church To have frequent recognitions of Christ will appear to be singularly efficatious and useful to Believers if you consider First If at any time thy heart be dead and hard this is the likeliest means in the world to dissolve melt and quicken it Look hither hard heart hard indeed if this hammer will not break it Behold the blood of Jesus Secondly Art thou easily overcome by Temptions to sin This is the most powerful pull back in the world from sin Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein We are crucified with Christ what have we to do with sin Such a thought as this when thy heart is yielding to Temptations How can I do this and crucifie the Son of God afresh Haâ—h he not suffered enough already on earth shall I yet make him groan as it were for me in Heaven look as David poured the water brought from the Well of Bethlehem on the ground though he was athirst for said he it is the blood of the men i. e. they eminently hazarded their lives to fetch it much more should a Christian pour out upon the ground yea despise and trample under foot the greatest profit or pleasure of sin saying nay I will have nothing to do with it I will on no terms touch it for it is the blood of Christ. It cost blood infinitely pretious blood to expiate it If there were a knife in your house that had been thrust to the heart of your Father you would not take pleasure to see that knife much less to use it Thirdly Are you afraid your sins are not pardoned but still stand upon account before the Lord what more relieving what more satisfying than to see the Cup of the New-Testament in the blood of Christ which is shed for many for the remission of sins Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it 's Christ that died Fourthly Are you staggered at the sufferings and hard things you must endure for Christ in this world doth the flesh shrink back from these things and cry spare thy self What is there in the world more likely to steel and fortifie thy spirit with resolution and courage than such a sight as this Did Christ face the wrath of men and the wrath of God too Did he stand as a pillar of brass with unbroken patience and stedfast resolution under such troubles as never met in the like height upon any mear creature till death beat the last breath out of his nostrils And shall I shrink for a trifle Ah he did not serve me so I will arm my self with the like mind 1 Pet. 2.2 Fifthly Is thy faith staggered at the promises canst thou not rest upon a promise Here 's that will help thee against hope to believe in hope giving glory to God For this is Gods seal added to his Covenant which ratifies and binds fast all that God hath spoken Sixthly Dost thou idle away pretious time vainly and live unusefully to Christ in thy generation what more apt both to convince and cure thee than such a remembrance of Christ as this O when thou considerest thou art not thine own thy time thy tallents are not thine own but Christs When thou shalt see thou art bought with a price a great price indeed and so art strictly obliged to glorifie God with thy soul and body which are his 2 Cor. 5.14 This will powerfully awake a dull sluggish and lazy spirit In a word what grace is there this remembrance of Christ cannot quicken What sin cannot it mortifie What duty cannot it animate O it is of singular use in all cases to the people of God Inference 4. Lastly Hence we infer Though all other things do yet Christ neither doth nor can grow stale Here 's an Ordinance to preserve his remembrance fresh to the end of the world The blood of Christ doth never dry up The beauty of this Rose of Sharon is never lost or withred He is the same yesterday to day and for ever As his body in the grave saw no corruption so neither can his Love or any of his excellencies When the Saints shall have fed their eyes upon him in Heaven thousands and millions of years he shall be as fresh beautiful and orient as at the beginning Other beauties have their prime and their fading time but Christs abides eternally Our delight in creatures is often most at first acquaintance when we come nearer to them and see more of them the edge of our delight is rebated But the longer you know Christ and the nearer you come to him still the more do you see of his glory Every farther prospect of Christ entertains the mind with a fresh delight He is as it were a new Christ every day and yet the same Christ still Blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTY SECOND SERMON LUK. XXII XLI XLII XLIII XLIV And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast and kneeled down and prayed saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done And there appeared an Angel unto him from Heaven strengthning him And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground THE hour is now almost come even that hour of sorrow which Christ had so often spoken of Yet a little a very little while and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners He hath affectionately recommended his Children to his Father He hath set his house in order and ordained a memorial of his death to be left with his people as you have heard There is but one thing more to do and then the Tragoedy begins He recommended us he must also recommend himself by prayer to the Father and when that is done he is ready let Iudas with the black guard come when they will This last Act of Christs preparation for his own death is contained in this Scripture wherein we have an account First Of his Prayer Secondly Of the Agony attending it Thirdly His relief in that Agony by an Angel that came and comforted him First The Prayer of Christ in a praying posture he will be found when the enemy comes He will be taken upon his knees He was pleading hard with God in prayer for strength to carry him through this heavy trial when they came to take him And this prayer was a very remarkable prayer both for the solitariness of it he withdrew about a stones cast vers 41. from his dearest intimates
themselves towards their Parents according to the Laws of Nature and Grace Christ was not only subject and obedient to his Parents whilst he lived but manifested his tender care even whilst he hanged in the torments of Death upon the Cross. Then saith he to the Disciple Behold thy Mother The words contain an affectionate recommendation of his distressed Mother to the care of a dear Disciple a bosom friend wherein let us consider the design manner and season of this recommendation First The design and end of it which doubtless was to manifest his tender respects and care for his Mother who was now in a most distressed comfortless state For now was Simeons Prophesie Luk. 2.35 fulfilled in the trouble and anguish that fill'd her soul. Yea a sword also shall pierce through thine own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed Her soul was pierced for him both as she was his Mother and as she was a Mystical member of him her head her Lord. And therefore he commends her to the beloved Disciple that lay in his bosom saying Behold thy Mother i. e. let her be to thee as thine own Mother Let thy love to me be now manifested in thy tender care for her Secondly The manner of his recommending her is both affectionate and mutual It 's very affectionate and moving Behold thy Mother q. d. Iohn I am now dying leaving all humane society and relations And entring into a new State where neither the dutys of natural relations are exercised nor the pleasures and comforts of them enjoyed It 's a state of dominion over Angels and men not of subjection and obedience this I now leave to thee Upon thee do I devolve both the honour aud duty of being in my stead and room to her as to all dear and tender care over her Iohn Behold thy Mother and as it 's affectionate so it 's mutual verse 26. And to his Mother he said Woman behold thy Son not Mother but Woman intimating not only the change of state and condition with him but also the bequest he was making of her to the Disciple with whom she was to live as a Mother with a Son And all this he designs as a pattern to others Thirdly The season or time when his care for his Mother so eminently manifested it self was when his departure was at hand and he could no longer be a comfort to her by his bodily presence yea his love and care then manifested themselves when he was full of anguish to the very brim both in his soul and body yet all this makes him not in the least unmindful of so dear a relation Hence the Doctrinal Note is DOCT. That Christs tender care of his Mother even in the time of his greatest distress is an excellent pattern for all gratious Children to the end of the world There are three great foundations or bonds of relation on which all family government depends Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants The Lord hath planted in the souls of men affections sutable to these relations and to his people he hath given grace to regulate those affections appointed dutys to exercise those graces and seasons to discharge those dutys So that as in the motion of a wheel every spoke takes its turn and bears a stress in every manner in the whole round of a Christians conversation like affection grace and duty at one season or other comes to be exercised But yet grace hath not so far prevailed in the sanctification of any mans affections but that there will be excesses or defects in the exercise of them towards our relations yea and in this the most eminent Saints have been eminently defective But the pattern I set before you this day is a perfect pattern As the Church finds him the best of Husbands so to his Parents he was the best of Sons and being the best and most perfect is therefore the rule and measure of all others Christ knew how those corruptions we draw from our Parents are returned in their bitter fruits upon them again to the wounding of their very hearts and therefore it pleased him to commend obedience and love to Parents in his own example to us It was anciently a Proverb among the Heathen in sola Sparta expedit senescere It 's good to be an old man or woman only in Sparta The ground of it was the strict Laws that were among the Spartans to punish the rebellions and disobedience of Children to their aged Parents And shall it not be good to be an old Father or Mother in England where the Gospel of Christ is Preached and such an argument as this now set before you urged an argument which the Heathen world was never acquainted with Shall Parents here be forced to complain with the Eagle in the Fable that they are smitten to the heart by an arrow winged with their own Feathers Or as a Tree rived in pieces by the wedges that were made of its own body God forbid To prevent such sad occasions of Complaints as these I desire all that sustain the relation of Children into whose hands providence shall cast this discourse seriously to ponder this example of Christ proposed for their imitation in this point Wherein we shall first consider what dutys belong to the relation of Children secondly how Christs example enforces those dutys and then sutably apply it First Let us examine what dutys pertain to the relation of Children And they are as truly as commonly branched out into the following particulars First Fear and Reverence are due from Children to their Parents by the express command of God Lev. 19.3 Ye shall fear every man his Mother and his Father The Holy Ghost purposely inverts the order and puts the Mother first because she by reason of her blandishments and fond indulgence is most subject to the irreverence and contempt of Children God hath cloathed Parents with his authority They are instrusted by God with and are accountable to him for the souls and bodys of their Children And he expects that you reverence them although in respect of outward estate or honour you be never so much above them Ioseph though Lord of Egypt bowed down before his aged Father with his face to the earth Gen. 48.12 Solomon the most magnificent and glorious King that ever sway'd a Scepter when his Mother came to speak with him for Adonijah he rose up to meet her and bowed himself to her and caused a seat to be set for the Kings Mother and set her upon his right hand 1 King 2.19 Secondly Dear and tender Love is due from Children to their Parents And to shew how strong and dear that love ought to be it 's joined with the Love you have for your own lives As appears in that injunction to deny both for Christs sake Matth. 10.37 The bonds of nature are strong and strict betwixt Parents and Children What is a Child but a piece of
men are as it were asleep now in their bodies at Death they awake and find themselves in the world of realities Let this teach you both how to carry your selves towards dying persons when you visit them and to make every day some provision for that hour your selves Be serious be plain be faithful with others that are stepping into Eternity be so with your own souls every day O remember what a long word what an amazing thing Eternity is Especially considering DOCT. 2. That all believers are at their death immediately received into a State of glory and eternal happiness This day shalt thou be with me This the Atheist denies he thinks he shall die and therefore resolves to live as the Beasts that perish Beryllus and some others after him taught that there was indeed a â—uture state of happiness and misery for souls but that they pass not into it immediatly upon death and separation from the body but shall sleep till the Resurrection and then awake and enter into it But is not that soul asleep or worse that dreams of a sleeping soul till the Resurrection Are souls so wounded and prejudiced by their separation from the body that they cannot subsist or act separate from it Or have they found any such conceit in the Scriptures Not at all The Scriptures take notice of no such interval but plainly enough denies it 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Mark it no sooner parted from the body but present with the Lord. So Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better If his soul was to sleep till the Resurrection how was it far better to be dissolved than to live Sure Pauls state in the body had-been far better than his state after death if this were so for here he enjoyed much sweet communion with God by Faith but then he should enjoy nothing To confirm this dream they urge Ioh 14.3 If I go my way I will come again and receive you to my self As if the time of Christs receiving his people to himself should not come until his second coming at the end of the world But though he will then collect all believers into one body and present them solemnly to his Father yet that hinders not but he may as indeed he doth receive every particular believing soul to himself at death by the Ministry of Angels And if not how is it that when Christ comes to judgement he is attended with ten thousands of his Saints that shall follow him when he comes from heaven Iude 14. you see then the Scriptures put no interval betwixt the dissolution of a Saint and his glorification It speaks of the Saints that are dead as already with the Lord. And the wicked that are dead as already in Hell calling them Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 20. assuring us that Iudas went presently to his own place Acts 1.25 and to that sence is the Parable of Dives and Lazarus Luk. 16.22 But let us weigh these four things more particularly for our full satisfaction in this point Arg. 1. First Why should the happiness of believers be deferred since they are immediatly capable of enjoying it assoon as separated from the body Alas the soul is so far from being assisted by the body as it is now for the enjoyment of God that it 's rather clog'd and hindred by it so speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. our bodies prejudice our souls obstruct and hinder the fulness and freedom of their communion When we part from the body we go home to the Lord. Then the soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Cage or Snare Here I am prevented by an excellent Pen which hath judiciously opened this point To whose excellent observations I only add this that if the intanglements snares and prejudices of the soul are so great and many in its embodied estate that it cannot so freely dilate it self and take in the comforts of God by communion with him then surely the laying aside of that clog or the freeing of the soul from that burden can be no bar to its greater happiness which it enjoys in its separated state Arg. 2. Secondly Why should the happiness and glory of the soul be deferred unless God had some farther preparative work to do upon it before it be fit to be admitted into glory But surely there is no such work wrought upon it after its separation by death All that is done of that kind is done here When the compositum is dissolved all means duties and ordinances are ceased The working day is then ended and night come when no man can work Ioh. 9.3 To that purpose are those words of Solomon Eccles. 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor devise in the Grave whither thou goest So that our glorification is not deferred in order to our fuller preparation for glory If we are not fit when we die we can never be fit All is done upon us that ever was intended to be done For they are called Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of the Just made perfect Arg. 3. Thirdly Again why should our Salvation slumber when the damnation of the wicked doth not slumber God defers not their misery and surely he will not defer our glory If he be quick with his enemies he will not be slow and dilatory with his friends It cannot be imagined but he is as much inclined to acts of favour to his Children as to acts of Justice to his enemies these are presently damned Iud. 7. Acts 1.25 1 Pet. 3.19 20. and what reason why believers all believers as well as this in the Text should not be that very day in which they die with Christ in Glory Arg. 4. Fourthly And lastly how do such delays consist with Christs ardent desires to have his people with him where he is And with the vehement longings of their souls to be with Christ You may see those reflected flames of Love and desire of mutual enjoyment betwixt the Bridegroom and his Spouse in Revel 22.17 20. Delays make their hearts sick The expectation and Faith in which the Saints die is to be satisfied then and surely God will not deceive them I deny not but their glory will be more compleat when the body their absent friend is reunited and made to share with them in their happiness Yet that hinders not but mean while the soul may enjoy its glory whilst the body takes its rest and sleeps in the Dust. Inference 1. Are believers immediatly with God after their dissolution then how surprizingly glorious will Heaven be to believers Not that they are in it before they think of it or are fitted for it no they have spent many thoughts upon it before and
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
another body to be raised instead of this it would not be a Resurrection but a Creation for non Resurrectio dici poterit ubi non resurgit quod cecidit That can't be call'd a Resurrection where one thing falls and another thing rises as Gregory long since pertinently observed Secondly His body was raised not by a word of power from the Father but by his own spirit So will ours Indeed the power of God shall go forth to unburrough sinners and fetch them forcibly out of their Graves but the Resurrection of the Saints is to be effected another way as I opened but now to you Even by his spirit which now dwelleth in them That very spirit of Christ which effected their spiritual Resurrection from sin shall effect their corporal Resurrection also from the Grave Thirdly His body was raised first he had in this as well as in other things the preheminence so shall the Saints in respect of the wicked have the preheminence in the Resurrection 1 Thes. 4.16 The dead in Christ shall rise first They are to attend the Lord at his coming and will be knockt up â—ooner than the rest of the world to attend on that service As the Sheriff with his men go forâ—h to meet the Judge before the Jaylor brings forth his prisoner Fourthly Christs body was marvelously improved by the Resurrection and so will ours It fell in weakness but was raised in power no more capable of sorrows pains and dishonours In like manner our bodies are sown in weakness but raised in strength sown in dishonour raised in glory Sown natural bodies raised spiritural bodies as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15.43 44. Spiritual bodies not properly but Analogically No distempers hang about glorified bodies nor are they thence forth subject to any of those natural necessities to which they are now tyed There are no flaws defects or deformities in the children of the Resurrection What members are now defective or deformed will then be restored to their perfect being and beauty for if the universal death of all parts be rescinded by the Resurrection how much more the partial Death of any single member As Turtullian speaks and from thence forth they are free from the Law of mortality they can die no more Luk. 20 35 36. Thus shall they be improved by their Resurrection Fifthly To conclude Christs body was raised from the Dead to be glorified and crowned with honour Oh it was a joyful day to him and so will the Resurrection of the Saints be to them the day of the gladness of their hearts It will be said to them in that morning awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust as Isa. 26.19 O how comfortable will be the meeting betwixt the glorified soul and its new raised body Much more comfortable than that of Iacobs and Iosephs after twenty years absence Gen. 46.29 Or that of Davids with Jonathan when he came out of the Cave to him 1 Sam. 20.41 Or that of the Father of the prodigal with his Son who was dead and is alive was lost and is found As he speaks Luk. 15. And there are three things will make it so First The gratifications of the Soul by the satisfaction of its natural appetite of union with its own body For even glorified souls in heaven have such an appetition and desire of re-union Indeed the Angels who are pure spirits as they never hâ—d union with so they have no inclination to matter but souls are otherwise tempered and disposed We are all sensible of its affection to the body now in its compounded state we feel the tender care it hath for the body the sympathy with it and loathness to be separated from it It 's said 1 Cor. 5.6 To be at home in the body And had not God implanted such an inclination to this its Tabernacle in it it would not have paid that due respect it ows the body while it inhabited in it nor have regarded what became of it when it left it This inclination remains still with it in heaven it reckons not it self compleatly happy till its old dear Companion and partner be with it and to that sence some understand those words Iob 14.14 All the daies of my appointed time i. e. of the time appointed â—or my body to remain in the Grave will I wait till my change viz. that which will be made by the Resurrection come for it 's manifest enough he speaks there of the Resurrection Now when this its inclination to its own body its longings and hankerings after it are gratified with a sight and enjoyment of it again oh what a comfortable meeting will this make it Especially if we consider Secondly The excellent temper and state in which they shall meet each other For as the body shall be raised with all the improvements and endownments imaginable which may render it amiable and every way desireable so the soul comes down immediatly from God out of Heaven shining in its holiness and glory It comes perfumed out of those Ivory Palaces with a strong scent of Heaven upon it And thus it re-enters its body and animates it again But Thirdly And principally that wherein the chief joy of this meeting consists is the end for which the glorified soul comes down to quicken and repossess it Namely to meet the Lord and ever to be with the Lord. To receive a full reward for all the labours and services it performed to God in this world This must needs make that day a day of Triumph and Exaltation It comes out of the grave as Ioseph out of his prison to be advanced to highest honour O do but imagine what an extasie of Joy and ravishing pleasure it will be for a soul thus to resume its own body and say as it were unto it come away my dear my ancient friend who servedst and sufferedst with me in the world come along with me to meet the Lord in whose presence I have bee ever since I parted with thee Now thy bountiful Lord hath remembred thee also and the day of thy glorification is come Surely it will be a joyful awaking For do but imagine what a Joy it is for dear friends to meet after long separation how do they use to give demonstrations of their love and delight in each other by Embraces Kisses Tears c. Or frame but to your selves a notion of perfect health when a sprightly vivacity runs through every part and the spirits do as it were dance before us when we go to any business Especially to such a business as the business of that day will be to receive a Crown and a Kingdom Do but imagine then what a Sun-shine morning this will be and how the pains and agonies cold sweats and bitter groans at parting will be recompenced by the joy of such a meeting And thus I have shewed you briefly the certainty of Christs Resurrection the nature and properties of it the threefold influence it hath on the
ascended you shall ascend to him personally hereafter oh that you would ascend to him Spiritually in acts of Faith Love and desires daily Sursum Corda up with your hearts was the form used by the Ancient Church at the Sacrament How good were it if we could say with the Apostle Phil. 3.21 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour An heart ascendant is the best evidence of your interest in Christs ascension Inference 2. Did Christ go to Heaven as a fore-runner What haste should we make to follow him He ran to Heaven he ran thither before us Did he run to glory and shall we linger Did he flee as an Eagle towards Heaven and we creep like snails Come Christians lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you and run with patience the Race set before you looking unto Iesus Heb. 12.1 2. The Captain of our Salvation is entred within the gates of the new Ierusalem and calls to us out of Heaven to hasten to him proposing the greatest incouragements to them that are following after him saying he that overcomes shall sit with me in my Throne as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 How tedious should it seem to us to live so long at a distance from our Lord Jesus our Life Inference 3. Did Christ ascend so triumphantly leading Captivity Captive How little reason then have believers to fear their conquered enemies Sin Satan and every enemy was in that day led away in triumph dragged at Christs Chariot wheels Brought after him as it were in Chains 'T is a lovely sight to see the necks of those Tyrants under the foot of our Ioshuah He made at that day an open shew of them Col. 2.15 Their strength is broken for ever In this he shewed himself more than a conqueror for he conquered and triumphed too Satan was then trod under his feet And he hath promised to tread him under our feet also and that shortly Rom. 16.20 Some power our enemies yet retain the Serpent may bruise our heel but Christ hath crusht his head Inference 4. Did Christ ascend so munificently shedding forth so many mercies upon his people Mercies of inestimable value reserved on purpose to adorn that day O then see that you abuse not those most pretious ascension gifts of Christ but value and improve them as the choicest mercies Now the Ascension gifts as I told you are either the Ordinances and Officers of the Church for he then gave them Pastors and Teachers or the Spirit that furnisht the Church with all its gift Beware you abuse not either of these First Abuse not the Ordinances and Officers of Christ. This is a sin that no Nation is plunged deeper into the guilt of it thâ—n this Nation And no Age more than this Surely God hath written to us the great things of his Law and we have accounted them small things We have been loose wanton sceptical professors for the most part that have had nice and coy stomachs that could not relish plain wholesom truths except so and so modified to our humors For this the Lord hath a Controversie with the Nation and by a sore Judgement he hath begun to rebuke this sin already And I doubt before he make an end plain truths will down with us and we shall bless God for them Secondly But in the next place see that you abuse not the Spirit whom Christ hath sent from Heaven at his ascension to supply his bodily absence among us and is the great pledge of his care for and tender love to his people Now take heed that you dont vex him by your disobedience Nor greive him by your unkindnesses Nor quench him by your sinful neglects of duty or abuse of light O deal kindly with the Spirit and obey his voice Comply with his designs and yield up your selves to his guidance and conduct Methinks to be intreated by the Love of the Spirit Rom. 15.30 Should be as great an Argument as to be intreated for Christs sake Now to perswade all the Saints to be tender of grieving the Spirit by sin let me urge a few Considerations proper to the point under hand And Consid. 1. First He was the first and principal mercy that Christ received for you at his first entrance into Heaven It was the first thing he asked of God when he came to Heaven So he speaks Ioh. 14.16 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you No sooner had he set foot upon the place but the first thing the great thing that was upon his heart to ask the Father for us was that the Spirit might be forthwith dispatcht and sent down to his people So that the spirit is the first-born of mercies And deserves the first place in our hearts and esteems Consid. 2. Secondly The Spirit comes not in his own name to us though if so he deserves a dear welcome for his own sake and for the benefits we receive by him which are inestimable but he comes to us in the name and in the loves both of the Father and Son As one authorized and delegated by them Bringing his Credentials under both their hands and seals Ioh. 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father Mark I will send him from the Father and in Ioh. 14.26 The Father is said to send him in Christs name So that he is the messenger that comes from both these great and holy persons And if you have any Love for the God that made you any kindness for Christ that died for you shew it by your obedience to the Spirit that comes from them both and in both their names to us and who will be both offended and grieved if you grieve him O therefore give him an enterâ—ainment worthy of one that comes to you in the name of the Lord. In the Fathers name and in the Sons name Consid. 3. Thirdly But that is not the only consideration that should cause you to beware of grieving the Spirit because he is sent in the name of such great and dear persons to you but he deserves better entertainment than any of the Saints give him for his own sake and upon his own account and that upon a double score viz. Of his Nature and Office First On the account of his Nature for he is God Co-equal with the Father and Son in Nature and digniâ—y 2 Sam. 23.23 The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue the God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me So that you see he is God The rock of Israel God omnipotent for he created all things Gen. 1.2 God omnipresent filling all things Psal. 139.7 God omniscient who knows your hearts Rom. 9.1 Beware of him therefore and grieve him not for in so doing you grieve God Secondly Upon
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
the dear Son of God came from the blessed bosom of the Father assumed flesh brake by the strength of his own Love through all discouragements and impediments laid down his own life a ransom for their Souls for whom he Lived Died Rose Ascended and lives for ever in Heaven to intercede to live holy to Christ as Christ lived and died wholly for them O Brethren never was the Heathen world acquainted with such arguments to deter them from sin never acquainted with such motives to urge them to holiness as I shall this day acquaint you with My request is to give up both your hearts and lives to glorifie the Father Son and Spirit whose you are by the holiness and heavenliness of them Other things are expected from you than from other men See that you turn not all this grace that hath founded in your ears into wantonness Think not because Christ hath done so much for you you may sit still much less indulge your selves in sin because Christ hath offered up such an excellent sacrifice for the expiation of it No no though Christ came to be a Curse he did not come to be a a Cloak for your sins If one died for all then were all dead that they that live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5.15 O keep your lives pure and clean Don't make fresh work for the blood of Christ every day If you live in the Spirit see that you walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 That is saith Cornelius à Lapide very solidly Let us shape and order our lives and actions according to the dictates instinct and impulses of the Spirit and of that grace of the Spirit put within us and planted in our hearts which tendeth to practical holiness Oh let the grace which is in your hearts issue out into all your Religious Civil and natural actions Let the Faith that is in your hearts appear in your prayers The Obedience of your hearts in hearing The Meekness of your hearts in suffering The Mercifulness of your hearts in distributing The Truth and Righteousness of your hearts in trading The Sobriety and Temperance of your hearts in eating and drinking These be the fruits of Christs sufferings indeed and they are sweet fruits Let grace refine enoble and elevate all your actions that you may say truly our conversation is in Heaven Let grace have the ordering of your tongues and of your hands the moulding of your whole conversation Let not Humility appear in some actions and Pride in others Holy seriousness in some companies and vain frothiness in others Suffer not the fountain of corruption to mingle with or pollute the streams of grace Write as exactly as you can after your Copy Christ. O let there not be as one well expresses it here a line and there a blanck Here a word and there a blot One word of God and two of the World Now a Spiritual rapture and then a fleshly Frollick This day a fair stride to Heaven and to morrow a slide back again towards Hell But be you in the fear of the Lord all the day long Let there be a due proportion betwixt all the parts of your conversation Approve your selves the servants of Christ in all things By pureness by knowledge by long suffering by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned by the Word of Truth by the power of God by the armour of Righteousness on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6.6 See then how accuratly you walk Cut off occasion from them that desire occasion and in well doing commit your selves to God and commend Religion to the World That this is your great concernment and duty I shall evidence to your conscience by these following considerations That of all persons in the world the Redeemed of the Lord are most obliged to be holy Most assisted for a life of holiness And that God intends to make great Vse of their lives both for the conviction and conversion of others Consid. First God hath most obliged them to live pure and strict lives I know the command obliges all men to it even those that cast away the cords of the commands and break Christs bonds asunder are yet bound by them and cannot plead a dispensation to live as they do Yea and it is not unusual for them to feel the obligations of the command upon their consciences even when their impetuous Lusts hurry them on to the violation of them but there are special ties upon your souls that oblige you to holiness of life more than others Many special and peculiar engagements you are under First from God Secondly from your selves Thirdly from your Brethren Fourthly from your enemies First God hath peculiarly obliged you to purity and strictness of Life Yea every person in the blessed Trinity hath cast his Cord over your Souls to bind up your hearts and lives to the most strict and precise obedience of his commands The Father hath obliged you and that not only by the common tie of Creation which is yet of great efficacy in it self for is it reasonable that God should create and form so excellent a piece and that it should be employed against him That he should plant the Tree and another eat the Fruit of it But besides this common engagement he hath obliged you to holiness of life First By his wise and merciful designs and counsels for your recovery and salvation by Jesus Christ. It was he that laid the corner stone of your salvation with his own hands The first motion sprang out of his breast If God had not designed the Redeemer for you the world had never seen him he had never left that sweet bosom for you It was the Act of the Father to give you to the Son to be Redeemed and then to give the Son to be a Redeemer to you Both of them stupenduous and astonishing Acts of grace And in both God acted as a most free Agent When he gave you to Christ before the beginning of time there was nothing out of himself that could in the least move him to it When the Father Son and Spirit sate as I may say at the Counsel Table contriving and laying the design for the salvation of a few out of many of Adams degenerate off-spring there was none came before them to speak one word for thee but such was the divine pleasure to insert thy name in that Catalogue of the saved Oh how much owest thou to the Lord for this And what an engagement doth it leave upon thy soul to obey please and glorifie him Secondly By his bountiful remunerations of your obedience which have been wonderful What service didst thou ever perform for him for which he hath not paid thee a thousand times more than it was worth Didst thou ever seek him diligently and not find him a bountiful rewarder none seek him in vain unless such only as seek him vainly Heb. 11.6
Didst ever give a cup of cold water in the name of a Disciple and not receive a Disciples reward Matth. 10.42 Hast thou not found inward peace and comfort flowing into thy soul upon every piece of sincere obedience Oh what a good Master do Saints serve You that are remiss and unconstant in your obedience you that are heartless and cold in duties hear how your God expostulates with you Ier 2.31 Have I been a Wilderness to Israel or a Land of darkness q. d. have I been a hard Master to you Have you any reason to complain of me To whom soever I have been straight handed surely I have not been so to you Are the fruits of sin like the fruits of obedience Do you know where to find a better Master Why then are you so shuffling and unconstant so sluggish and remiss in my work Surely God is not behind hand with any of you May you not say with David Psal. 119.56 This I had because I kept thy precepts There is fruits in holiness even present fruit It is a high favour to be imployed for God Reward enough that he will accept any thing thou dost But to return every Duty thou presentest to him with such comforts such quicknings such inward and outward blessings into thy bosom so that thou maist open the the treasury of thine own experiences view the varieties of encouragements and Love-tokens at several times received in Duties and say this I had and that I had by waiting on God and serving him Oh what an ingagement is this upon thee to be ever abounding in the work of the Lord Though thou must not work for Wages yet God will not let thy work go unrewarded For He is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love Thirdly Your Father hath further obliged you to this holiness and purity of life by signifying to you as he hath frequently done the great delight and pleasure he hath therein He hath told you that such as are upright in the way are his delight Pro. 11.20 That he would not have you forget to do good and to communicate for with such sacrifices he is well pleased Heb. 13.16 You know you cannot walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing except ye be fruitful in every good word and work Col. 1.10 And oh what a bond is this upon you to live holy lives Can you please your selves in displeasing your Father If you have the hearts of Children in you sure you cannot O you cannot grieve his spirit by loose and careless walking but you must grieve your own spirits too How many times hath God pleased you gratified and contented you and will not you please and content him This mercy you have asked of him and he gave it that mercy and you were not denyed in many things the Lord hath wonderfully condescended to please you and now there is but one thing that he desires of you and that most reasonable yea beneficial for you as well as pleasing to him 1 Phil. 27. Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Iesus Christ. This is the one thing the great and main thing he expects from you in this world and will not you do it Can you expect he should gratifie your desires when you make no more of grieving and displeasing him Well if you know what will please God and yet resolve not to do it but will rather please your flesh and gratifie the Devil than him pray pull off your vizards fall into your own rank among hypocrites and appear as indeed you are Fourthly The Father hath further obliged you to strictness and purity of conversation by his gratious promises made to such as so walk He hath promised to do great things for you if you will but do this one thing for him If you will order your conversation aright Psal. 50. ult He will be your Sun and Shield if you will walk before him and be upright Gen. 15.1 He will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from him that walketh uprightly Psal. 84.11 And he promises no more to you than he hath made good to others that have thus walked and stands ready to perform to you also If you look to enjoy the good of the promise you are obliged by all your expectations and hopes to order your lives purely and uprightly This hope will set you on work to purge your lives as well as your hearts from all pollutions 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Fifthly Yea He hath yet more obliged you to strict and holy lives by his confidence in you that you will thus walk and please him He expresseth himself in Scripture as one that dare trust you with his glory knowing that you will be tender of it and dare do no otherwise If but a man repose confidence in you and trust you with his concerns it greatly obliges you to be faithful What an engagement was that upon Abraham to walk uprightly when God said of him Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his Children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord q. d. as for this wicked generation whom I will speedily consume in my wrath I know they regard not my Laws they will trample my commands under foot they care not how they provoke me but I expect other things from Abraham and I am confident he will not fail me I know him he is a man of another spirit and what I promise my self from him he will make good And to the like purpose is that in Isa. 63.78 I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses For he said surely they are my people Children that will not lie or fail me so he was their Saviour Here you have an ample account of the endearing mercies of God to that people ver 7. and the Lords confident expectations of suitable returns from them ver 8. I said i. e. speaking after the manner of men in like cases I made full account that after all these endearments and favours bestowed upon them they would not offer to be disloyal and false to me I have made them sure enough to my self by so many bonds of Love Like to which is that expression Zeph. 3.7 I said surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction Oh how great are the expectations of God from such as you I know Abraham there 's no doubt of him And again they are Children that will not lie i. e. they will not fallere fidem datam Break their Covenant with me Or they are my people that will not shrink as
212 361 362. Purchase Christs blood purchased a rich inheritance for the Saints p. 180 181. Q. SIX Questions opening the difference betwixt suffering for Christ in this world and for sin in that to come p. 526. R. REconciliation with God its nature medium continuation properties and terms opened p. 530 531. Why effected by Christs death ibid. Redemption of souls costly p. 175. Rejecting knowledge how dangerous p. 11. Rejecting Christ most fatal p. 91 92. Relation of Christs sufferings to us p. 168. Religion Christian Religion incomparably sweet and satisfying to the Conscience p. 134 135. What cause men have to bless God for it ibid. Remembrance of Christ what it is opened at large p. 269 270. Two sorts of it ibid. What it includes p. 270 271. The usefulness of remembring Christ. p. 277 278. Rest no expectation of resting till we have done working and sinning p. 586. Four things break a Saints rest on earth p. 587. Resurrection of Christ the certainty of it p. 546. The absurdities following the denyal of it p. 546. The manner of his Resurrection opened in many particulars p. 547 548 c. Christs Resurrection was the Resurrection of the Saints head and representative p. 549. Resurrection of Saints the effect of Christs Resurrection three wayes p. 550 551. The agreement of our Resurrection with Christs opened in five particulars p. 551 552 553. Retracting what we have professed or done for Christ condemned by Pilates example p. 363. Revelations of Gods will by Iesus Christ various p. 101. Gradual p. 102. Plain p. 103. Powerful p. 103. Affectionate p. 104. Pure p. 104. Perfect p. 104. Righteousness how dangerous to joyn any thing of our own with Christs Righteousness in point of Iustification p. 177. S. SAcrament a special pledge of Christs care and love p. 273. Sacrament seasons heart melting seasons p. 276. Sacramental Bread and Wine whence their excellency p. 267. Saints their security for salvation from whence it is p. 262 263. Sanctification of Christ respects us p. 74 75. Our Sanctification the best evidence of our interest in a sanctified Iesus p. 80 81. Satisfaction to God necessary to our reconciliation p. 131. God stood upon full satisfaction p. 131. No meer man can satisfie God p. 132. Christs death made full satisfaction for sin p. 167. What divine satisfaction is p. 168. Five things imported in the satisfaction of Christ p. 168 169 170. Errors about the satisfaction of Christ refuted p. 171 172. Divers objections 173 c. of the Socinians answered about it p. 172 173 174. All thoughts of satisfying God by our selves to be abandoned p. 177. Sealing of Christ what it imports p. 69 70. How God the father sealed him p. 70 71. Why Christ must be sealed before he would act as Mediator p. 62 63. How many wayes the Spirit seals us p. 67. His sealing us an evidence of Christs being sealed for us p. 67. Security of believers argued from Christs Mediation p. 93. Self-denyal of Christ for us p. 20. Self-denyal for Christ how reasonable p. 22. Sentence given against Christ what it was Opened in six particulars p. 319 320. In what manner Christ received his Sentence p. 321. Services accidentally done for Christ unacceptable p. 362. Signes in the Sacrament of the Supper are of three sorts p. 272. Sin an infinite evil in it and how that appears p. 174. The horrid nature of sin opened p. 470. The deep pollution of sin p. 174. Sitting at Gods right hand what it imports opened in seven particulars p. 578 579 580. The Saints sitting with Christ what an advancement to them p. 582. Christ to be eyed in prayer as sitting at Gods right hand p. 584. Christ did not sit till he had finished his work Nor must we p. 586. Society we may have with such here whom we shall have no Society with in Heaven p. 309. Sorrow what it is p. 329. Sorrow distinguished into habitual actual natural supernatural p. 330. Souls how precious they are p. 440. Their sympathy with their bodies and their body with them p. 470. Spirit weighty considerations to keep Saints from grieving the Spirit p. 572. Stoop how low a stoop Christ made to recover us p. 224 225 226. Substance of Christs Mediatory Kingdom and the manner of administration distinguished p. 159 160. Substitution of Christ in our room as our Sacrifice necessary p. 159 160. The excellency and eternal efficacy of this Sacrifice opened p. 140 141 142 143 c. Success of Christs interest in the world unquestionable p. 366. Surety Christ is so and what his being so imports p. 85 86. Sufferings of Christ how great p. 466. They may affect natural hearts for three Reasons p. 330 331. Sufferings for Christ how glorious p. 526 527 58â— Sympathy of Christ with all that were burdened with sin or sorrow p. 241 242. T. TEars what they are p. 329. A double fountain of tears opened p. 330. Temptations of Christ fierce various and tedious p. 240 241. The great relief in temptation p. 246. Suitable temptations greatly hazard our ruine p. 305 306. Thief on the Cross his wonderful conversion p. 442 443. his example incourages none to delay conversion p. 443. Thirst proper and figurative p. 464. Thirst a great affliction p. 464. Christs thirst attributed to a double cause p. 466. Thirst in Hell what it is p. 472. Saints shall never thirst in Heaven p. 473 474. Throne how the Saints are confessors with Christ upon his throne p. 628. Time the preciousness of it and whence it results p. 435 436. Title affixed to the Cross of Christ what it was opened in six properties of it p. 358. The providence of God in the draught of Christs title remarkable in five things p. 360 361. Tryal of Christ for his life how managed p. 313. The inhumanity thereof p. 313 314. No man knows his own spiritual strength till it be put to the tryal p. 380. 381. Trust The Father and Son mutually trust each other p. 33. All our concerns to be trusted in the hands of Christ. p. 219 220. Trust in man how vain and foolish p. 309. V. THE Vicegerency of Christs sufferings p. 168. Understanding what it is and how opened p. 112 113. The proper office of Christ p. 114. Four things implyed in opening the understanding p. 114 115 116. Opening the understanding effected instrumentally by the word and spirit p. 117. The Union personal is extraordinary p. 54 55. How conserved when Christ was in the grave p. 57. How needful it is that Christ have union with our persons as well as natures p. 61. Unprincipled professors will become Apostates p. 305. Unbelievers where death will land them p. 440. Upbraid how those that perish under the Gospel will be upbraided by Iews Pagans and Devils p. 231 232. Uses that God will make of the Saints example in the day of judgement p. 628. Four uses he makes of it in this world p. 624 625 626. W. WEak