holiness in his Life Matth. 11.28 Learn of me I am meek and lowly And such his Ministers desire to approve themselves Phil. 4.9 What ye have heard and seen in me that do He Preacht to their eyes as well as ears His Life was a Comment on his Doctrine They might see holiness acted in his Life as well as sounded by his lips He Preacht the Doctrine and lived the Application Sixthly Lastly Iesus Christ was a Minister that minded and maintained sweet secret communion with God for all his constant publick labours If he had been Preaching and healing all the day yet he would redeem time from his very sleep to spend in secret Prayer Matth. 14.23 When he had sent the multitude away he went up into a Mountain apart to pray and was there alone O blessed pattern Let the keepers of the Vineyards remember they have a Vineyard of their own to keep A Soul of their own that must be lookt after as well as other mens Those that in these things imitate Christ are surely sent to us from him and are worthy of double honour They are a choice blessing to the people The TENTH SERMON LUKE XXIV XLV Then opened he their understandings c. KNowledge of Spiritual things is well distinguished into intelectual and practical The first hath its seat in the mind the latter in the heart This later Divines call a knowledge peculiar to Saints and in the Apostles Dialect it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip. 3.8 The eminency or excellency of the knowledge of Christ. And indeed there is but little excellency in all those pretty notions which furnish the Lips with discourse unless by a sweet and powerful influence they draw the conscience and will to the obedience of Christ. Light in the mind is necessarily antecedent to the sweet and heavenly motions and mountings of the affections For the farther any man stands from the light of truth the farther he must needs be from the heat of comfort Heavenly quicknings are begotten in the heart while the Sun of righteousness spreads the beams of truth into the understanding and the Soul sits under those its wings Yet all the light of the Gospel spreading and diffusing it self into the mind can never savingly open and change the heart without an other Act of Christ upon it and what that is the Text informs you Then opened be their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures In which words we have both an Act of Christ upon the Disciples understandings and the immediate end and scope of that Act. First Christs Act upon their understandings He opened their understandings By understanding is not here meant the mind only in opposition to the heart will and affections but these were opened by and with the mind The mind is to the heart as the door to the house What comes into the heart comes in at the understanding which is introductive to it and although truths sometimes goes no farther then the Entry never penetrates the hearts yet here this effect is undoubtedly included Expositers make this expression paralel to that in Acts 16.14 The Lord opened the heart of Lydia And it is well observed that it is one thing to open the Scriptures that is to expound them and give the meaning of them as Paul is said to do in Acts 18.3 And another thing to open the mind or heart as it is here There are as a learned man truly observes two doors of the Soul bard against Christ. The understanding by ignorance and the heart by hardness both these are opened by Christ. The former is opened by the Preaching of the Gospel the other by the internal operation of the Spirit The former belongs to the first part of Christs Prophetical office opened in the former the later to that special internal part of his Prophetical office to be opened in this Sermon And that it was not a naked Act upon their minds only but that their hearts and minds did work in fellowship being both touched by this Act of Christ is evident enough by the effects mentioned vers 52.53 They returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy and were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God It is confessed that before this time Christ had opened their hearts by conversion and this opening is not to be understood simply but secundum quid in reference to those particular truths in which till now they were not sufficiently informed and so their hearts could not be duly affected with them They were very dark in their apprehensions of the death and resurrection of Christ and consequently their hearts were sad and dejected about that which had befallen him vers 17. but when he opened the Scriptures and their understandings and heart together then things appeared with another face and they return blessing and praising God Secondly here is farther to be considered the design and end of this Act upon their understandings That they might understand the Scriptures Where let it be marked Reader that the teachings of Christ and his Spirit were never designed to take men off from the reading studying and searching of the Scriptures as some vain Notionists have pretended opposing those things which are subordinated But to make their studies and duties the more fruitful beneficial and effectual to their Souls Or that they might this way receive the end and blessing of all their duties God never intended to abolish his word by giving his Spirit And they are true Fanaticks as Calvin upon this place calls them that think or pretend so By this means he would at once impart more light and make that they had before more operative and useful to them especially in such a time of need as this was Hence we observe DOCT. That the opening of the mind and heart effectually to receive the truths of God is the peculiar prerogative and office of Iesus Christ. One of the great miseries under which lapsed nature labours is spiritual blindness Jesus Christ brings that eye-salve which only can cure it Rev. 3.18 I counsel thee to buy of me eye-salve that thou maist see Those to whom the Spirit hath applied it can say as it is 1 Ioh. 5.20 We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true even in his Son Iesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life To the Spiritual illumination of a Soul it suffices not that the object be revealed nor yet that man the subject of that knowledge have a due use of his own reason but it is further necessarie that the Grace and special assistance of the Holy Spirit be superadded to open and molifie the heart and so give it a due tast and relish of the sweetness of Spiritual truth By opening the Gospel he reveals truth to us and by opening the heart in us Now though this cannot be without that yet it 's much more excellent to have truth
you are Put all this together and see what this second argument contributes towards your further conviction and perswasion to holiness of life Have you received a supernatural principle fitting you for and inclining you to holy actions resisting and holding you back from sin Hath God also set before you such eminent patterns to encourage and quicken you in your way Doth the Spirit himself stand ready so many waies to assist and help you in all difficulties That bloody Tyrant was convinced in his conscience of the worth and excellency of that servant of God and was forced to reverence him for his holiness So Darius Dan. 6.14 18 19 20. What conflicts had he in himself about Daniel whom he had condemned his conscience condemned him for condemning so holy and righteous a person Then the King went to his Palace and passed the night in fasting neither were instruments of Musick brought before him and his sleep went from him He goes early in the morning to the Dâ—n and cries with a lamentable voice O Daniel servant of the living God How much is this for the honour of holiness that it conquâ—rs the very persecutors of it and makes them stoop to the meanest servant of God! 'T is said of Henry the second of France that he was so daunted by the heavenly Majesty of a poor Taylâ—r that was burnt before him that he went home sad and vowed that he would never be present at the death of such men any more When Valence the Emperour came in person to apprehend Basil he saw such Majesty in his very countenance that he reel'd at the very sight of him and had fallen backward to the ground had not his servants stept in to support him O holiness holiness thou art a conquerour So much as you shew of it in your lives so much you preserve your interest in the consciences of your enemies Let down this and they despise you presently Fifthly And lastly God will use the purity of your conversations to Iudge and convince the world in the great day 'T is true the world shall be Judged by the Gospel but your lives shall also be produced as a Commentary upon it and God will not only shew them by the Word how they ought to have lived but bring forth your lives and waies to stop their mouths by shewing how others did live And this I suppose is intended in that Text 1 Cor. 6.2 The Saints shall Iudge the world yea we shall Iudge Angels that is our examples are to condemn their lives and practices as Noah Heb. 11.7 is said to condemn the world by building the Ark i. e. his faith in the threatning and obedience to the command condemned their supineness infidelity and disobedience They saw him every day about that work diligently preparing for a deluge and yet were not moved with the like fear that he was this left them inexcusable So when God shall say in that day to the careless world did you not see the care and diligence the holy zeal watchfulness and self denial of my people who lived among you How many times have they been watching and praying when you have been drinking or sleeping Was it not easie to reflect when you saw their pains and diligence have not I a soul to look after as well as they a Heaven to win or lose as well as they Oh how speechless and inexcusable will this render wicked men yea it shall not be only used to Judge them but Angels also How many shocks of temptations have poor Saints stood when as they fell without a Tempter They stood not in their integrity though created in such excellent natures how much then are you concerned on this very account also to walk exactly If not instead of Judging them you shall be condemned with them And thus you see what use your lives and actions shall be put to and are these inconsiderable uses Is the winning over souls to God a small matter Is the salving the honour and reputation of godliness a small matter Is the encouraging the hearts and strengthening the hands of Gods poor Ministers amidst their spending killing labours a small matter Is the awing of the consciences of your enemies and Judging them in the last day a light thing Which of these can you call so O then since you are thus obliged to holiness of life Thus singularly assisted for it and since there are such great dependencies upon it and uses for it both now and in the world to come see that ye be holy in all manner of conversation See that as ye have received Christ Iesus the Lord so ye walk in him Alwaies remembring that for this very end Christ hath redeemed or delivered you out of the hands of your enemies that you might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the daies of your lives Luk. 1.74 75. And to how little purpose will be all that I have preacht and you have heard of Christ if it be not converted into practical godliness This is the scope and design of it all And now Reader thou art come to the last leaf of this Treatise of Christ it will be but a little while and thou shalt come to the last Page or Day of thy life and thy last moment in that day Wo to thee wo and alas for ever if interest in this blessed Redeemer be then to get The world affords not a sadder sight than a poor Christless soul shivering upon the brink of Eternity To see the poor soul that now begins to awake out of its long dream at its entrance into the world of reallities to shrink back into the body and cry O I cannot I dare not die And then the tears run down Lord what will become of me O what shall be my eternal Lot This I say is a sad sight as the world affords That this may not be thy case relfect upon what thou hast read in these Sermons Judge thy self in the light of them Obey the calls of the Spirit in them Let not thy slight and formal Spirit float upon the surface of these truths like a feather upon the water but get them deeply infixed upon thy Spirit by the Spirit of the Lord turning them into life and power upon thee And so animating the whole course and tenour of thy conversation by them that it may proclaim to all that know thee that thou art one who esteemest all to be but dross that thou maist win Christ. FINIS An Alphabetical Table Referring to the Principal things contained in this Treatise A. ABilities of men to use Gods means what and how far page 122 123. Abuse Christ abused in a Court of Iudicatute p. 313 314 c. Accessories to the Saints happiness what p. 187 188. Accommodation of the body a Snare to the soul. p. 557. Adoption Civil and Spiritual p. 180. Adoration of Gods Iustice and Mercy in Christs death p. 475 476 381. Advancement of the humane nature by its
of dearest love Joh. 13.23 now there was leaning on Iesus bosom one of his Disciples whom Iesus loved but Christ did not lean upon the Fathers bosom as that Disciple did on his but lay in it and therefore in Isa. 42.1 the Father calls him mine elect in whom my soul delighteth which is variously rendred the Septuagint quem suscepit whom my soul takes or wraps up others complacuit one that highly pleases and delights my very soul and 2 Cor. 8.9 he is said in this estate wherein I am now describing him to be rich and Phil. 2.7 to be equal with God and to be in the form of God i. e. to have all the glory and ensigns of the Majesty of God and the riches which he speaks of was no less then all that God the Father hath Joh. 16.15 all that the Father hath is mine and what he now hath in this his exalted state is the same he had before his humiliation Ioh. 17.5 now to glimpse out as we are able the unspeakable felicity of that state of Christ whilst he lay in that blessed bosom I shall consider it three ways negatively positively and comparatively Let us consider that state negatively by removing from it all those degrees of abasement and sorrow which his incarnation brought him under as First he was not then abased to the condition of a Creature which was a low stoop indeed and that which upon the matter undid him in point of reputation for by this saith the Apostle he made himself of no reputation Phil. 2.7 it emptied him of his glory for God to be made man is such an abasement as none can express but then not only to appear in true flesh but also in the likeness of sinful flesh as Rom. 8.3 O what is this Secondly Christ was not under the Law in this Estate I confess 't was no disparagement to Adam in the state of innocency to Angels in their state of glory to be under Law to God but it was an unconceivable abasement to the absolute independent being to come under Law yea not only under the obedience but also under the malediction and curse of the Law Gal. 4.4 but when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law Thirdly In this State he was not lyable to any of those sorrowful consequents and attendants of that frail and feeble state of humanity which he afterwards assumed with the nature as 1. He was unacquainted with griefs there was no sorrowing nor sighing in that bosom where he lay though afterwards he became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa. 53.3 a man of sorrows as if he had been constituted and made up of pure and unmixed sorrows every day conversing with griefs as with his intimate companions and acquaintance 2. He was never pinched with poverty and wants while he continued in that bosom as he was afterwards when he said the Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Ah blessed Jesus thou needest not to have wanted a place to have lain thine head hadst thou not left that bosom for my sake 3. He never under-went reproach and shame in that bosom there was nothing but glory and honour reflected upon him by his Father though afterwards he was despised and rejected of men Isa. 53.3 his Father never looked upon him without smiles and love delight and joy though afterwards he became a reproach of men and despised of the people Psal. 22.6 4. His holy heart was never offended with an impure suggestion or temptation of the Devil all the while he lay in that bosom of peace and love he never knew what it was to be assaulted with temptations to be besieged and battered upon by unclean spirits as he did afterwards Matth. 4.1 then was Iesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil It was for our sakes that he submitted to those exercises of Spirit to be in all points tempted like as we are that he might be unto us a merciful and faithful high-Priest Heb. 4.15 5. He was never sensible of pains and tortures in soul or body there were no such things in that blessed bosom where he lay though afterwards he groaned and sweat under them Isa. 53.5 the Lord embraced him from eternity but never wounded him till he stood in our place and room 6. There were no hidings or withdrawments of his father from him there was not a cloud from eternity upon the face of God till Iesus Christ had left that bosom it was a new thing to Christ to see frowns in the face of his Father a new thing for him to cry my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 7. There were never any impressions of his Fathers wrath upon him as there were afterwards God never delivered such a bitter cup of wrath into his hands before as that was Matth. 26.39 Lastly There was no death to which he was subject in that bosom all these things were new things to Christ he was above them all till for our sakes he voluntarily subjected himself unto them thus you see what that state was not Let us consider it positively what it was and guess by some particular considerations for indeed we can but guess 〈◊〉 the glory of it as 1. We cannot but conceive it to be a state of matchless happiness if we consider the persons enjoying and delighting each in other he was with God Ioh. 1.1 God you know is the Fountain Ocean and Center of all delights and joys Psal. 16.11 in thy presence is fulness of joy To be wrapt up in the soul and bosom of all delights as Christ was must needs be a state transcending apprehension to have the Fountain of love and delight letting out it self so immediatly and fully and everlastingly upon this only begotten darling of his soul so as it never did communicate it self to any judge what a state of transcendent felicity this must be great persons have great delights 2. Or if we consider the intimacy dearness yea oneness of those great persons one with another the nearer the union the sweeter the communion now Jesus Christ was not only near and dear to God but one with him I and my Father are one Joh. 10.30 one in nature will love and delight there is indeed a Moral union of souls among men by love but this was a natural oneness no Child is so one with his Father no Husband so one with the Wife of his bosom no Friend so one with his Friend no Soul so one with its body as Jesus Christ and his Father were one O what matchless delights must necessarily flow from such a blessed Union 3. Consider again the purity of that delight with which the blessed Father and Son embraced each other the best Creature-delights one in another are mixed debased
learn hence what an horrid evil it is to use Christ or his Blood as a common and unsanctified thing Yet so some do as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.29 The Apostate is said to tread upon the Son of God as if he were no better than the dirt under his Feet and to count his Blood an unholy or common thing But woe to them that so do they shall be counted worthy of something worse then dying without mercy As the Apostle there speaks And as this is the Sin of the Apostate so is it also the Sin of all those that without Faith approach and so prophane the Table of the Lord unbeleivingly and unworthily handling those awfull things Such eat and drink judgement to themselves not discerning the Lords Body 1 Cor. 11.29 Whereas the body of Christ was a thing of the deepest sanctification that ever God created Sanctified as the Text tells us to a far more excellent and glorious purpose than ever any Creature in Heaven or Earth was sanctified It was therefore the great sin of those Corinthians not to discern it and not to behave themselves towards it when they saw and handled the signs of it as so holy a thing And as it was their great Sin so God declared his just indignation against it in those sore strokes inflicted for it As they discerned not the Lords body so neither did the Lord discern their bodies from others in the judgements that were inflicted And as one well observes God drew the Model and Plat-form of their punishment from the structure and proportion of their sin And truly if the moral and spiritual Seeds and originals of many of our outward afflictions and sicknesses were but duly sifted out possibly we might find a great part of them in the Bowels of this sin The just and righteous God will build up the breaches we make upon the honour of his Son with the ruines of that beauty strength and honour which he hath given our Bodies O then when you draw nigh to God in that ordinance take heed to sanctifie his name by a spiritual discerning of this most holy and most deeply sanctified Body of the Lord. Sanctified beyond all Creatures Angels or Men not only in respect of the Spirit which fill'd him without measure with inherent holiness but also in respect of its dedication to such a service as this It being set apart by him to such holy solemn ends and uses as you have heard And let it for ever be a warning to such as have lifted up their hands to Christ in an holy profession that they never lift up their Heel against him afterwards by Apostacy The Apostate treads on Gods dear Son and God will tread upon him for it Thou hast troden down all that err from thy Statutes Psal. 119.118 Inference 3. What a choice pattern of love to the Saints have we here before us calling all that are in Christ to an imitation of him Even to give our selves up to their service as Christ did Not in the same kind so none can give himself for them but as we are capable You see here how his Heart was affected to them that he would sanctifie himself as a Sacrifice for them See to what a height of duty the Apostle improves this example of Christ 1 Ioh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought also to lay down our lives for the Brethren Some Christians came up fairly to this pattern in the Primitive times Priscila and Aquila laid down their Necks for Paul Rom. 16.4 i. e. eminently hazarded their lives for him and even he himself could rejoyce if he were offered up upon the Sacrifice and service of their Faith Phil. 2.17 And in the next times what more known even to the Enemies of Christianity than their fervent love one to another Ecce quam mutuò se deligunt mori volunt pro alterutris See how they love one another and are willing to dye one for another But alas that Primitive Spirit is almost lost in this degenerate Age. Instead of laying down life how few will lay down twelve pence for them I remember it 's the observation of a late Worthy upon Matth. 95.40 that he is perswaded there is hardly that man to be found this day alive that fully understands and fully believes that Scripture O did men think what they do for them is done for Christ himself it would produce other effects than are yet visible Inference 4. Lastly if Christ sanctified himself that we might be sâ—nctied by or in the truth then it will follow by found consequence that true sanctification is a good evidence that Christ set apart himself to dye for us In vain did he â—anctifie himself as to you unless you be sanctified Holy Souls only can claim the benefit of the great Sacrifice O try then whether true holiness and that is only to be judged by its conformity to its pattern 1 Pet. 1.15 As he that called you is holy so be ye holy whether such an holyness as is and acts according to its measure like Gods holiness in the following perticulars be â—ound in you First God is universally holy in all his ways so Psal. 145.17 His works are all holy what ever he doth it 's still done as becomes an holy God He is not only holy in all things but at all times unchangeably holy Be ye therefore holy in all things and at all times too if ever ye expect the benefit of Christs sanctifying himself to dye for you O Brethren let not the Feet of your conversation be as the Feet of a lame man which are unequal Prov. 20.7 be not sometimes hot and sometimes cold at one time carefull at another time careless One day in a spiritual rapture and the next in a fleshly frolick but be ye holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.15 in all manner of conversation in every creek and turning of your lives And let your holiness hold out to the end Let him that is holy be holy still Rev. 22.11 not like the Hypocrites paint but as a true natural complexion Secondly God is examplarily holy Jesus Christ is the great pattern of holiness Be ye examples of holiness too unto all that are about you Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Matth. 5.16 as wicked men infect one another by their examples and diffuse their poison and malignity whereever they come so do ye diffeminate godliness in all places and companies and let those that frequently converse with you especially those of your own Families receive a deeper Dye and Tincture of heavenlyness every time they come nigh you as the cloth doth by every new dipping into the Fat. Thirdly God delights in nothing but holiness and holy ones he hath set all his pleasure in the Saints Be ye holy herein as God is holy Indeed there is this difference betwixt
Gods choice and yours He chooses not men because they are holy but that they may be so You are to chuse them for so your delightful Companions that God hath chosen and made holy Let all your delights be in the Saints even them that excel in vertue Psal. 16.3 Fourthly God abhors and hates all unholiness do ye so also that you may be like your Father which is in Heaven And when the Spirit of holiness runs down thus upon you a sweeter evidence the World cannot give that Christ was sanctified for you Holy ones may confidently lay the hand of their Faith on the head of this great Sacrifice and say Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us The EIGHTH SERMON I TIM II.V. And one Mediator betwixt God and Men the man Christ Iesus GReat and long preparations bespeak the solemnity and greatness of the work for which they are designed A man that had but seen the heaps of Gold Silver and Brass which David amassed in his time for the building of the Temple might easily conclude before one Stone of it was laid that it would be a magnificent Structure But lo here is a design of God as far transcending that as the substance doth the shadow For indeed that glorious Temple was but the Type and Figure of Jesus Christ Ioh. 2.19.21 and a weak adumbration of that living spiritual Temple which he was to build cementing the lively Stones thereof together with his own blood 1 Pet. 2.5 6. that the great God might dwell and walk in it 2 Cor. 6.16 the preparations for that Temple were but of few years but the consultations and preparations for this were from Eternity Prov. 8.31 and as there were preparations for this work which Christ dispatcht in a few years before the world began so it will be matter of eternal admiration and praise when this world shall be dissolved What this astonishing glorious work is this Text will inform you as to the general nature of it It is the work of mediation betwixt God and Man managed by the sole hand of the man Christ Jesus In this Scripture for I shall not spend time to examine the words in their contexture you have a description of Iesus the Mediator and he is here described three ways viz. by his work or office a Mediator by the singularity of his mediation one Mediator And by the nature and quality of his Person imploy'd in this singular way of Mediation the man and lastly his name 's Iesus Christ. First he is described by the work or office he is imploy'd about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator a middle Person So the word imports a fit indifferent and equal Person that comes between two Persons that be at variance to take up the difference and make Peace Such a middle equal indifferent Person is Christ. A days-man to lay his hand upon both to arbitrate and award justly and give God his due and that without ruine to poor man Secondly he is described by the singularity of his mediation One Mediator and but one though there be many Mediators of reconciliation among men and many Intercessors in a petitionary way betwixt God and Men yet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one only Mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and Men and 't is as needless and impious to make more Mediators than one as to make more Gods than one There is one God and one Mediator betwixt God and Men. Thirdly he is described by the nature and quality of his Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the man Christ Iesus This description of him by one nature and that the humane nature also wherein as you shall see anon the Lord especially consulted our encouragement and Comfort I say his being so described to us hath through the corruption of men been improved to the great dishonour of Jesus Christ both by the Arrians and Papists The former took occasion from hence to affirm that he was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer man The latter allow him to be the true God but on this weak ground affirm that he performed not the work of mediation as God but only a man Thus what the Spirit ordered for our comfort is wickedly retorted to Christs dishonour For I doubt not but he is described by his humane nature in this place not only because in this nature he paid that ransom which he speaks of in the words immediately following but especially for the drawing of Sinners to him seeing he is the man Christ Jesus One that cloathed himself in their own Flesh and to encourage the Faith of Believers that he tenderly resents all their wants and miseries and that they may safely trust him with all their concerns as one that will carefully mind them as his own and will be for them a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God Fourthly he is described by his names By his Appellative name Christ and his proper name Iesus The name Iesus notes his work about which he came and Christ the Offices to which he was anoynted and in the execution of which he is our Iesus In the name Iesus the whole Gospel is hid It is the light the food the medicine of the Soul as one speaks The note from hence is DOCT. That Iesus Christ is the true and only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Ye are come to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12.24 And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament c. Heb. 9.14 I might shew you a whole vein of Scriptures running this way but to keep a profitable and clear method I shall shew you First what is the sence of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator Secondly what it implys as it is applied to Christ. Thirdly how it appears that he is the true and only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Fourthly in what capacity he performed his Mediatory work First What is the sence and import of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator and the true sence and importance of it is a middle person or one that interposes betwixt two Parties at variance to make peace betwixt them So that Satan is medium disjungens a medium of discord so Christ is medium conjungens a medium of Concord and Peace And he is such a middler both in respect of his person and office in respect of his person he is a middler that is one that hath the same nature both with God and us true God and true man and in respect of his office or work which is to interpose or transact the business of reconciliation between us and God The former some call his substantial the latter his evergitical or operative meditation though I rather conceive that which is call'd his substantial mediation is but the aptitude of his person to execute the mediatorial function And that it doth not constitute two kinds of mediation his being a middle Person
can command or open the heart We may stand and knock at mens hearts till our own ake but no opening till Christ come He can fit a key to all the cross wards of the will and with sweet efficacy open it and that without any force or violence to it These things are carried in this part of his office Consisting in opening the heart Which was the first thing propounded for explication Secondly In the next place let us see by what acts Jesus Christ performs this work of his and what way and method he takes to open the heart of Sinners And there are two principal ways by which Christ opens the understandings and hearts of men viz. By His word And spirit First by his word to this end was Paul commissionated and sent to preach the Gospel Act. 26.18 To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God The Lord can if he pleases accomplish this immediately but though he can do it he will not do it ordinarily without means because he will honour his own institutions Therefore you shall observe that when Lydia's heart was to be opened there appeared unto Paul a man of Macedonia who prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us Act. 19.9 God will keep up the reputation of his ordinances among men And though he hath not tyed himself yet he hath tyed us to them Cornelius must send for Peter God can make the earth produce corn as it did at first without cultivation and labour but he that shall now expect it in the neglect of means may perish for want of bread Secondly But the ordinances in themselves cannot do it as I noted before and therefore Jesus Christ hath sent forth the Spirit who is his Pro Rex his vicegerent to carry on this work upon the hearts of his Elect. And when the Spirit comes down upon Souls in the administration of the ordinances he effectually opens the heart to receive the Lord Jesus by the hearing of faith He breaks in upon the understanding and conscience by powerful convictions and compunctions so much that word Iohn 16.8 imports he shall convince the world of Sin Convince by clear demonstration such as inforces assent so that the Soul can not but yeeld it to be so And yet the door of the heart is not opened till he have also put forth his power upon the will and by a sweet and secret efficacy overcome all it's reluctations and the Soul be made willing in the day of his power When this is done the heart is opened Saving light now shines in it and this light set up by the Spirit in the Soul is First a new light in which all things appear far otherwise than they did before The name of Christ and Sin the word Heaven and Hell have an other sound in that mans ears than formerly they had When he comes to read the same Scriptures which possibly he had read an hundred times before he wonders he should be so blind as he was to over look such great weighty and concerning things as he now beholds in them and saith where were mine eyes that I could never see these things before Secondly It is a very affecting light A light that hath heat and powerful influences in it which makes deep impressions on the heart Hence they whose eyes the great Prophet opens are said to be brought out of darkness into his marvelous light 1 Pet. 2.9 The Soul is greatly affected with what it sees The beams of light are contracted and twisted together in the mind and being reflected on the heart and affections soon cause them to smoak and burn Did not our hearts burn within us whilst he talked with us and opened to us the Scriptures Thirdly And it is a growing light Like the light of the morning which shines more and more unto a perfect Day Prov. 4.18 When the Spirit first opens the understanding he doth not give it at once a full sight of all truths or a full sence of the power sweetness and goodness of any truth but the Soul in the use of means grows up to a greater clearness day by day It 's knowledge grows extensively in measure and intensively in power and efficacy And thus the Lord Jesus by his Spirit opens the understanding Now the use of this follows in 5. practical deductions Inference 1. If this be the work and office of Jesus Christ to open the understandings of men Hence we infer the misery that lyes upon those men whose understandings to this day Iesus Christ hath not opened Of whom we may say as it is Deut. 29.4 To this day Christ hath not given them eyes to see Natural blindness whereby we are deprived of the light of this world is sad but spiritual blindness is much more sad See how dolefully their case is represented 2 Cor. 4.3 4. But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them He means a total and final concealment of the saving power of the word from them Why what if Jesus Christ withhold it and will not be a Prophet to them what is their condition truly no better than lost men It is hid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them that are to perish or be destroyed This blindness like the covering of the face or tying the handkerchief over the eyes is in order to their turning off into Hell More particularly because the point is of deep concernment let us consider First the Iudgement inflicted and that 's spiritual blindness A sore misery indeed Not anuniversal ignorance of all truths O no in natural and moral truths they are often times acute and sharpe sighted men but in that part of knowledge which wrape up eternal life Iohn 17.2 there they are utterly blinded As it 's said of the Iews upon whom this misery lies that blindness in part is happened to Israel They are learned and knowing persons in other matters but they know not Jesus Christ there is the grand and sad defect Secondly the subject of this Judgement the mind which is the eye of the soul. If it were but upon the body it would not be so considerable this falls immediately upon the soul the noblest part of man and upon the mind the highest and noblest faculty of the soul whereby we understand think and reason This in Scripture is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirit The intellectual rational faculty which Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the leading directive faculty which is to the soul what the natural eye 〈◊〉 to the body Now the soul being the most active and restless thing in the world always working and its leading directive power blind Judge what a sad and dangerous state such a soul is in Just like a fiery high metled
Horse whose eyes are out furiously carrying his rider among rocks pits and dangerous precipices I remember Chrysostom speaking of the loss of a soul saith that a loss of a member of the body is nothing to it for saith he if a man lose an eye Ear Hand or Foot there is another to supply its want Omnia Deus dedit duplicia God hath given us those members double animam verò unam but he hath not given us two souls that if one be lost yet the other may be saved Surely it were better for thee Reader to have every member of thy body made the seat and subject of the most exquâ—site racking torments than for spiritual blindness to befall thy soul. Moreover Thirdly Consider the indiscernableness of this Iudgement to the soul on whom it lies They know it not no more than a man knows that he is asleep Indeed it 's the spirit of a deep sleep poured out upon them from the Lord. Isa. 29.10 Like that which befel Adam when God opened his side and took out a Rib. This renders their misery the more remediless Because ye say you see therefore your sin remaineth Joh. 9.41 Once more Fourthly Consider the tendency and effects of it What doth this tend to but eternal ruine For hereby we are cut off from the only remedy The soul that 's so blinded can neither see sin nor a Saviour but like the Aegyptians during the palpable darkness sits still and moves not after its own recovery And as ruine is that to which it tends so in order thereto it renders all the ordinances and duties under which that soul comes altogether useless and ineffectual to its salvation He comes to the word and sees others melted by it but to him it signifies nothing O what a heavy stroke of God is this most wretched is their case to whom Jesus Christ will not apply this eye salve that they may see Did you but understand the misery of such a state if Christ should say to you as he did to the blind man Matth. 20.33 What wilt thou that I shall do for thee you would return as he did Lord that my eyes may be opened Inference 2. If Jesus Christ be the great Prophet of the Church then surely he will take special care both of the Church and the under shepherds appointed by him to feed them Else both the objects and instruments upon and by which he executes his office must fail and consequently this glorious office be in vain Hence he is said to walk among the golden Candlesticks Revel 1.13 and Rev. 2.1 to hold the Stars in his right hand Jesus Christ instrumentally opens the understandings of men by the preaching of the Gospel and whilst there is an elect soul to be converted or a convert to be farther illuminated means shall not fail to accomplish it by Inference 3. Hence you that are yet in darkness may be directed to whom to apply your selves for saving knowledge It 's Christ that hath the soveraign eye salve that can cure your blindness He only hath the key of the house of David he openeth and no man shutteth O that I might perswade you to set your selves in his way under the ordinances and cry to him Lord that my eyes may be opened Three things are marvelously incouraging to you so to do First God the Father hath put him into this Office for the cure of such as you be Isa. 49.6 I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my salvation to the ends of the earth This may furnish you with an argument to plead for a cure Why do you not go to God and say Lord didst thou give Jesus Christ a Commission to open the blind eyes Behold me Lord such a one am I a poor dark ignorant soul. Didst thou give him to be thy salvation to the ends of the earth No place nor people excluded from the benefit of this light and shall I still remain in the shadow of death O that unto me he might be a saving light also The best and most excellent work that ever thou wroughtest brings thee no glory till it come into the light O let me see and admire it Secondly It 's incouraging to think that Iesus Christ hath actually opened the eyes of them that were as dark and ignorant as you now are He hath revealed those things to babes that have been hid from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.25 The Law of the Lord is perfect making wise the simple Psal. 19.7 And if you look among those whom Christ hath enlightned you will not find many wise after the flesh many mighty or Noble but the foolish weak base and despised These are they on whom he hath glorified the riches of his grace 1 Cor. 26.27 Thirdly And is it not yet further incouraging to you that hitherto he hath mercifully continued you under the means of light Why is not the light of the Gospel put out Why are times and seasons of grace continued to you if God have no further design of good to your souls Be not therefore discouraged but wait on the Lord in the use of means that you may yet be healed If you ask what can we do to put our selves into the way of the spirit in order to such a cure I say that though you cannot do any thing that can make the Gospel effectual yet the spirit of God can make those means you are capable of using effectual if he please to concur with them And it is a certain truth that your inability to do what is above your power doth no way excuse you from doing what is within the compass of your power to do I know no act that is saving can be done without the concurrence of special grace yea and no act that hath a remote order and tendency thereunto without a more general concourse of Gods assistance but herein he is not behind hand with you Let me therefore advise First That you dilligently attend upon an able faithful and searching ministry Neglect no opportunity God affords you for how know you but that may be the time of mercy to your souls If he that lay so many years at the Pool of Bethesda had been wanting but that hour when the Angel came down and troubled the waters he had not been healed Secondly Satisfie not your selves with hearing but consider what you hear Allow time to reflect upon what God hath spoken to you What power is there in man more excellent or more appropriate to the reasonable nature than its reflexive and self considering power There is little hope of any good to be done upon your souls untill you begin to go alone and become thinking men and women Here all conversion begins I know a severer task can hardly be imposed upon a carnal heart It 's a hard thing to bring a man and himself together upon this acccount But this must be if ever the Lord
hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Iesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith That spirit that at first sanctified and since hath so often sealed comforted directed resolved guided and quickned your souls had not come to perform any of these blessed Offices upon your hearts if Christ had not died Thirdly All Eternal good things are the purchase of his blood Heaven and all the glory thereof is purchased for you that are Believers with this price Hence that glory whatever it be is called an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you to the lively hope whereof ye are begotten again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Not only present mercys are purchased for us but things to come also As it is 1 Cor. 3.22 Man is a prudent and prospecting creature and is not satisfied that it 's well with him for present unless he have some assurance it shall be well with him for time to come His mind is taken up about what shall be hereafter and from the good or evil things to come he raiseth up to himself vast hopes or fears Therefore to compleat our happiness and fill up the uttermost capacity of our souls all the good of eternity is put into the account and Inventory of the Saints Estate and Inheritance This happiness is ineffable It 's usually distinguisht into what is essential and what is accessory to it The essentials of it as we in our embodied state can conceive is either the Objective Subjective or Formal happiness to be enjoyed in Heaven The Objective happiness is God himself Psal. 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee If it could be supposed saith one that God should withdraw from the Saints in Heaven and say take Heaven and divide it among you but as for me I will withdraw from you the Saints would fall a weeping in Heaven and say Lord take Heaven and give it to whom thou wilt it 's no Heaven to us except thou be there Heaven would be a very Bokim to the Saints without God In this our glory in Heaven consists to be ever with the Lord. 1 Thes. 4.17 God himself is the chief part of a Saints inheritance in which sence as some will understand Rom. 8.17 they are called heirs of God The Subjective glory and happiness is the attemperation and suiting of the soul and body to God This is begun in sanctification perfected in glorification It consists in removing from both all that is indecent and inconsistent with a state of such compleat glory and happiness and in super-induceing and cloathing it with all Heavenly qualities The immunities of the body are its freedom from all natural infirmities which as they come in so they go out with sin Thenceforth there shall be no diseases deformities pains flaws monstrosities their good physitian death hath cured all this And their vile bodies shall be made like unto Christs glorious body Phil. 3.21 And be made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15.44 For agility like the Chariots of Aminadab For Beauty as the top of Lebanon for incorruptibility as if they were pure Spirits The Soul also is discharged and freed from all darkness and ignorance of mind being now able to discern all truths in God that Chrystal Ocean of truth The leaks of the memory stopt for ever The roving of its fancy perfectly cured The stubbornness and reluctancy of the will for ever subdued and retained in due and full subjection to God So that the Saints in glory shall be free from all that now troubles them They shall never sin more nor be once tempted so to do for no serpent hisses in that paradise They shall never grieve or groan more for God shall wipe all tears from their eyes They shall never be troubled more for God will then recompense tribulation to their troubles and to them that are troubled rest They shall never doubt more for fruition excludes doubting The Formal happiness is the fulness of satisfaction resulting from the blessed sight and enjoyment of God by a soul so attemper'd to him Psal. 17.15 When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness This sight of God in glory called the beatifical vision must needs yield ineffable satisfaction to the beholding soul in as much as it will be an intuitive vision The intellectual or mental eye shall see God 1 Ioh. 3.2 The corporeal glorified eye shall see Christ. Iob 19.26 27. What a ravishing vision will this be And how much will it exceed all reports and apprehensions we had here of it Surely the one half was not told us It will be a transformative vision it will change the beholder into its own image and likeness We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 As Iron put into the fire becomes all fiery so the soul by conversing with God is changed into his very similitude It will be an Appropriative vision whom I shall see for my self Job 19.26 27. In Heaven interest is clear and undoubted fear is cast out No need of marks and signs there for what a man sees and enjoys how can he doubt of It will be a ravishing vision these we have by faith are so how much more those in glory How was Paul transported when he was in a visional way wrapt up into the third Heaven and heard the unutterable things though he was not admitted into the blessed society but was with them as the Angels are in our assemblies a stander by a looker on If a spark do so inflame what is it to lie down like a Phoenix in her bed of Spices Like a Salamander to live and move in the fire of love It will also be an eternal vision vacabimus videbimus as Augustin said we shall then be at leisure for this imployment and have no diversions from it for ever No evening is mentioned to the seaventh days sabbath no night in the new Ierusalem And therefore Lastly It will be a fully satisfying vision God will then be all in all Etiam ipsa curiositas satietur curiosity it self will be satisfied The blessed soul will feel it self blessed filled satisfied in every part Ah what an happiness is here to look and love to drink and sing and drink again at the fountain head of the highest glory And if at any time its eye be turned from a direct to a reflex sight upon what it once was how it was wrought on how fitted for this glory how wonderfully distinguished by special grace from them that are howling in flames whilst himself is shouting aloud upon its bed of everlasting rest all this will enhaunce the glory And so also will the Accessories of this blessedness The place where God is enjoyed
he is no way bound to give them Acts 14.16 He suffered all nations to walk in their own waies And yet should he permit sinful creatures to act out all the wickedness that is in their hearts there would neither remain peace nor order in the world And therefore Thirdly He powerfully restrains creatures by the bridle of providence from the commission of those things to which their hearts are propense enough Psal. 76.10 The remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain or gird up Leting forth just so much as shall serve his holy ends and no more And truly this is one of the glorious mysteries of providence which amazes the serious and considerate soul. To see the spirit of a creature fully set to do mischief Power enough as one would think in his hand to do it and a door of opportunity standing open for it and yet the effect strangely hindred The strong propensions of the Will are inwardly checkt as in the case of Laban Gen. 31.24 or a diversion and rub is strangely cast in their way as in the case of Senacharib 2 King 19.7 8. So that their hands cannot perform their enterprises Iulian had two great designs before him one was to conquer the Persians the other to root out the Galileans as he by way of contempt called the Christians but he will begin with the Persians first and then make a sacrifice of all the Christians to his Idols He doth so and perishes in the first attempt O the wisdom of providence Fourthly Jesus Christ limits the creatures in their acting assigning them their boundaries and lines of liberty to which they may but beyond it cannot go Rev. 2.10 Fear none of those things that ye shall suffer behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison and ye shall have tribulation for ten daies They would have cast them into their graves but it shall only be into prisons they would have stretcht out their hands upon them all no but only some of them shall be exposed They would have kept them there perpetually no it must be but for ten daies Ezek. 22.6 Behold the Princes of Israel were in thee every one to their power to shed blood They went as far as they had power to go not as far as they had will to go Four hundred and thirty years were determined upon the people of God in Aegypt and then even in that very night God brought them forth for then the time of the promise was come Acts 7.17 Fifthly The Lord Jesus providentially protects his people amidst a world of enemies and dangers It was Christ that appeared unto Moses in the flaming bush and preserved it from being consumed The bush signified the people of God in Aegypt The fire flaming on it the exquisite sufferings they there endured The safety of the bush amidst the flames the Lords admirable care and protection of his poor suffering ones None so tenderly careful as Christ. As birds flying so he defends Jerusalem Isai. 31.5 i. e. as they fly swiftly towards their nests crying when their young are in danger so will the Lord preserve his They are preserved in Christ Iesus Jude 1. as Noah and his family were in the Ark. Hear how a Worthy of our own expresses himself upon this point That we are at peace in our houses at rest in our beds that we have any quiet in our enjoyments is from hence alone Whose person would not be defiled or destroyed whose habitation would not be ruined whose blood almost would not be shed if wicked men had power to perpetrate all their conceived sin It may be the ruine of some of us hath been conceived a thousand times We are beholding to this providence of obstructing sin for our lives our families our estates our liberties and whatsoever is or may be dear to us For may we not say sometimes with the Psalmist Psal. 57.4 My soul is among Lyons and I lye even among them that are set on fire even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and their tongue a sharp sword And how is the deliverance of men contrived from such persons Psal. 58.6 God breaks their teeth in their mouths even the great teeth of the young Lyons He keeps this fire from burning some he cuts off and destroys Some he cuts short in their power Some he deprives of the instruments whereby alone they can work Some he prevents of their desired opportunities or diverts by other objects for their lusts And oftentimes causeth them to spend them among themselves one upon another We may say therefore with the Psalmist Psal. 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches Sixthly He punishes the evil doers and repaies by providence into their own lap the mischief they do or but intend to do unto them that fear him Pharaoh Senacharib both the Iulians and innumerable more are the lasting monuments of this righteous retribution 'T is true a sinner may do evil an hundred times and his daies be prolonged but oft-times God hangs up some eminent sinners in chains as spectacles and warnings to others Many a heavy blow hath providence given the enemies of God which they were never able to claw off Christ rules and that with a rod of Iron in the midst of his enemies Psal. 110.2 Seventhly and Lastly He rewards by providence the services done to him and his people Out of this treasure of providence God repays oftentimes those that serve him and that with an hundred fold reward now in this life Matth. 19.29 This active vigilant providence hath its eye upon all the wants straights and troubles of the creatures but especially upon such as Religion brings us unto What huge volumes of experiences might the people of God write upon this subject And what a pleasant History would it be to read the strange constant wonderful and unexpected actings of providence for them that have left themselves to its care Secondly We shall next enquire how Jesus Christ administers this providential Kingdom And here I must take notice of the means by which and the manner in which he doth it The means or instruments he uses in the governing the Providential Kingdom for he cannot be personally present with us himself are either Angels or Men the Angels are ministring creatures sent forth by him for the good of them that shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1.14 Luther tells us they have two offices superius canere inferius vigilare to sing above and watch beneath These do us many invisible offices of love They have dear and tender respects and love for the Saints To them God as it were puts forth his children to nurse and they are tenderly careful of them whilst they live and bring them home in their arms to their Father when they die And as Angels so Men are the servants of providence Yea bad men as well as good Cyrus on that account
how apt are we to regret at providences as if it had no conducency at all to the glory of God or to our good Exod. 5.22 Yea to limit providence to our way and time thus the Israelites tempted God and limited the Holy One Psal. 78.20 41. How often also do we unbelievingly distrust providence as though it could never accomplish what we profess to expect and believe Ezek. 37.11 Our bones are dry our hope is lost we are cut off for our part So Gen. 18.13 14. Isai. 40.27 There are but few Abrahams among believers who against hope believed in hope giving glory to God Rom. 4.20 And it is but too common for good men to repine and fret at providence when their wills lusts or humours are crossed by it This was the great sin of Ionah Brethren these things ought not to be so Did you but seriously consider either the design of providence which is to bring about the gratious designs and purposes of God upon you which were laid before this world was Eph. 1.11 or that it is a lifting up of thy wisdom against his as if thou couldst better order thine affairs if thou hadst the conduct and management of them Or that you have to do herein with a great and dreadful God in whose hands you are as the clay in the Potters hand that may do what he will with you and all that is yours without giving you an account of any of his matters Iob 33.13 Or whether providence hath cast others as good by nature as your selves tumbled them down from the top of health wealth honours and pleasures to the bottom of Hell Or Lastly Did you but consider how often it hath formerly baffled and befool'd your selves Made you retract with shame your rash headlong censures of it and enforced you by the sight of its births and issues to confess your folly and ignorance as Asaph did Psal. 73.22 I say if such considerations as these could but have place with you in your troubles and temptations they would quickly mould your hearts into a better and more quiet frame O that I could but perswade you to resign all to Christ. He is a cunning workman as he he is called Prov. 8.30 and can effect what he pleaseth It 's a good rule de operibus Dei non est judicandum ante quintum actum Let God work out all that he intends have but patience till he hath put the last hand to his work and then find fault with it if you can You have heard of the patience of Iob and have seen the end of the Lord. Iam. 5.11 Inference 3. If Christ be Lord and King over the providential Kingdom and that for the good of his people let none that are Christs henceforth stand in a slavish fear of creatures It 's a good note that Grotius hath upon my text It 's a marvailous consolation saith he that Christ hath so great an Empire and that he governs it for the good of his people as an head consulting the good of the body Our Head and Husband is Lord General of all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth No creature can move hand or tongue without his leave or order The power they have is given them from above Ioh. 19.11 12. The serious consideration of this truth will make the feeblest spirit cease trembling and fall a singing Psal. 47.7 The Lord is King of all the earth sing ye praises with understanding that is as some well paraphase it every one that hath understanding of this comfortable truth Hath he not given you abundant security in many express promises that all shall issue well for you that fear him Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God And Eccles. 8.12 Verily it shall be well with them that fear God even with them that fear before him And suppose he had not yet the very understanding of our relation to such a King should in it self be sufficient security For he is the universal supream absolute meek and merciful victorious and immortal King He sits in glory at the Fathers right hand and to make his seat the easier his enemies are a footstool for him His love to his people is unspeakably tender and fervent He that touches them touches the apple of his eye Zech. And it 's hardly imaginable that Jesus Christ will sit still and suffer his enemies to thrust out his eyes Till this be forgotten the wrath of man is not feared Isai. 51.12 13. He that fears a man that shall die forgets the Lord his Maker he loves you too well to sign any order to your prejudice and without his order none can touch you Inference 4. If the Government of the world be in the hands of Christ then our engaging and entitling of Christ to all our affairs and business is the true and ready way to their success and prosperity if all depend upon his pleasure then sure it 's your wisdom to take him along with you to every action and business It 's no lost time that 's spent in prayer wherein we ask his leave and beg his presence with us And take it for a clear truth that which is not prefaced with prayer will be followed with trouble How easily can Jesus Christ dash all your designs when they are at the very birth and article of execution and break off in a moment all the purposes of your hearts It 's a Proverb among the Papists that Mass and Meat hinder no nan The Turks will pray five times a day how urgent soever their business be Blush you that enterprise your affairs without God I reckon that business as good as done to which we have gotten Christs leave and engaged his presence to accompany us to it Inference 5. Lastly Eye Christ in all the events of providence see his hand in all that befals you whether it be evil or good The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal. 111.2 How much good might we get by observation of the good or evil that befals us throughout our course First In all the evils of trouble and affliction that befal you eye Jesus Christ in it all And set your hearts to the study of these four things in affliction First Study his Soveraignty and Dominion For he creates and forms them They rise not out of the dust nor do they befal you casually But he raises them up and gives them their commission Jer. 18.11 Behold I create evil and devise a device against you He elects the instrument of your trouble He makes the rod as afflictive as he pleaseth He orders the continuance and end of your troubles And they will not cease to be afflictive to you till Christ say leave off it is enough The Centurion wisely considered this when He told him Luk. 7.8 I have souldiers under me and I say to one go and
Infancy to be hurried up and down and driven out of his own land as a vagabond Thirdly Our Lord Jesus Christ was yet more humbled in his life by that poverty and outward meanness which all along attended his condition He lived poor and low all his daies so speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 8.9 Though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor so poor that he was never owner of a house to dwell in but lived all his daies in other mens houses or lay in the open air His outward condition was more neglected and destâ—â—ute than that of the birds of the air or beasts of the earth so he told that Scribe who professed such readiness and resolution to follow him but was soon cooâ—â—d when Christ told him Matth. 8.20 The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head It was a common saving among the Jews when the Messiah comes he will not find a place to sit down in Sometimes he feeds upon barly bread and a broyled fish and sometimes he was hungry and had nothing to eat Mark 11.12 As for monies he was much a stranger to it when the Tribute mony was demanded of him he and Peter were not so well furnished to make half a crown betwixt them to pay it but must work a miracle for it Matth. 17. ult He came not to be ministred unto but to minister Matth. 20.28 Not to amass earthly treasures but to bestow Heavenly ones His great and Heavenly soul neglected and despised those things that too many of his own too much admire and prosecute He spent not a careful thought about those things that eat up thousands and ten thousands of our thoughts Indeed he came to be humbled and to teach men by his example the vanity of this world and pour contempt upon the ensnaring glory of it and therefore went before us in a chosen and voluntary poverty Yet he lived not a mendicant life neither but was sometimes fed by ordinary and sometimes miraculous and extraordinary waies He had wherewith to support that pretious body of his till the time was come to offer it up to God but would not indulge and pamper that flesh which he purposely assumed to be humbled in Fourthly Our Dear Jesus was yet further humbled in his life by the horrid temptations wherewith Satan assaulted him than which nothing could be more grievous to his holy hearâ— The Evangelist gives us an account of this in Luke 4. from the first to the 14. verse In which context you find how the bold and envious spirit meets the Captain of our Salvation in the field comes up with him in the wilderness when he was solitary and had not a Second with him verse 1. There he keeps him fasting forty daies and forty nights to prepare him to close with his Temptation All this while Satan was pointing and edging that Temptation with which at last he resolves to try the breast of Christ by an home-thrust Verse 2. By this time he supposes Christ was an hungry as indeed he was and now he thought it was time to make his assault which he doth in a very suitable Temptation at first and with variety of Temptations trying several Weapons upon him afterward But when he had made a thrust at him with that first Weapon in which he especially trusted command that these stones be made bread verse 3. and saw how Christ had put it by verse 4. Then he changes postures and assaults him wiâ—h Temptations to blasphemy even to fall down and worship the Devil But when he saw he could fasten nothing on him that he was as pure Fountain water in a Chrystal vial how much soever agitated and shaken no dregs or filthy sedement would rise but he remained pure still I say seeing this he makes a politick retreat quits the field for a season verse 13. yet leaves it cum animo revertendi with a resolution to return to him again And thus was our blessed Lord Jesus humbled by the Temptations of Satan and what can you imagine more burdensom to him that was brought up from eternity with God delighting in the holy Father to be now shut into a wilderness with a Devil there to be baited so many daies and have his ears filled though not defiled with horrid blasphemy Oh how was the case altered with Christ from what to what was he now come A chast woman would account it no common misery to be dog'd up and down and sollicited by some vile Russian though there were no danger of defilement A man would account it no small unhappiness to be shut up five or six weeks together with the Devil though appearing in an humane shape and to hear no language but that of Hell spoken all that time and the more holy the man is the more would he be afflicted to hear such blasphemies malignantly spet upon the holy and reverent name of God much more to be solicited by the Devil to joyn with him in it this I say would be accounted no small misery for a man to undergo How great an Humiliation then must it be to the great God to be humbled to this to see a slave of his house setting upon himself the Lord. His Jailor coming to take him prisoner if he can A base apostate Spirit daring to attempt such things as these upon him Surely this was a deep abasement to the Son of God Fifthly Our blessed Lord Jesus was yet more humbled in his life than all this and that that by his own sympathy with others under all the burdens that made them groan For he much more than Paul could say who is afflicted and I burn not He lived all his time as it were in an Hospital among the sick and wounded And so tender was his heart that every groan for sin or under the effects of sin pierced him so that it was truly said himself bare our sicknesses and took our infirmities Matth. 8.16 17. It was spoken upon the occasion of some poor creatures that were possessed by the Devil and brought to him to be dispossessed It 's said of him Joh. 11.33 That when he saw Mary weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled And verse 35. Iesus wept yes his heart flowed with pity for them that had not one drop of pity for themselves Witness his tears spent upon Ierusalem Luke 19.41 42. He foresaw the misery that was coming though they neither foresaw nor feared it O how it pierced him to think of the calamities hanging over that great City Yea he mourned for them that could not mourn for their own sins Therefore it 's said Mark 3.5 He was grieved for the hardness of the peoples hearts So that the commendation of a good Physitian that he doth as it were die with every patient was most applicable to our tender-hearted
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
from themselves also Yea so great is the difference betwixt himself and himself as if he were not the same man And where is he that doth not so experience it Sometimes bold and couragious despising dangers and bearing down all discouragements in the strength of zeal and love to God at another time faint feeble and discouraged at every petty thing Whence is this but from the different administrations of the spirit who sometimes gives forth more and sometimes less of his gratious influence Thâ—se very men that flincht now when the spirit was more abundantly shed forth upon them could boldly own Christ before the Council and despised all dangers for his sake A little dog if his Master be by and encourage him will venture upon a greater beast than himself Though Peter stood at the door without when the other Disciple or one of the other Disciples as the Syriack turns it and Grotius approves it as the best that is one of the private Disciples that lived in Ierusalem went in so boldly Ioh. 18.16 17. We are strong or weak according to the degrees of assisting grace So that as you cannot take the just measure of a Christian by one act so neither must they judge of themselves by what they sometimes feel in themselves But when their spirits are low and their hearts discouraged they should rather say to their souls hope in God for I shall yet praise him it 's low with me now but it will be better Inference 6. Was the sword drawn against the Shepherd and he left alone to receive the mortal strokes of it How should all adore both the Iustice and Mercy of God so illustriously displayed herein Here is the Triumph of Divine justice and the highest Triumph that ever it had to single forth the chief Shepherd the man that is Gods fellow and sheath its sword in his breast for satisfaction No wonder it 's drawn and brandished with such a Triumph awake rejoycingly O sword against my Shepherd c. for in this blood shed by it it hath more glory than if the blood of all the men and women in the world had been shed And no less is the mercy and goodness of God herein signalized in giving the sword a commission against the man his fellow rather than against us Why had he not rather said Awake O sword against the men that are my enemies shed the blood of them that have sinned against me than smite the Shepherd and only scatter the sheep Blessed be God the dreadful sword was not drawn and brandished against our souls that God did not set it to our breasts that he had not made it fat with our flesh and bathed it in our blood that his fellow was smitten that his enemies might be spared O what manner of love was this Blessed be God therefore for Jesus Christ who received the fatal stroke himself and hath now so sheathed that sword in its scabbard that it shall never be drawn any more against any that believe in him Inference 7. Were the Sheep scattered when the Shepherd was smitten Learn hence that the best of men know not their own strength till they come to the trial Little did these holy men imagine such a cowardly spirit had been in them till temptation put it to the proof Let this therefore be a caution for ever to the people of God You resolve never to forsake Christ you do well but so did these and yet were scattered from him You can never take a just measure of your own strength till Temptation have tried it 'T is said Deut. 18.2 3. that God led the people so many years in the wilderness to prove them and to know i. e. to make them know what was in their hearts Little did they think such unbelief murmurings discontents and a spirit bent to backsliding had been in them till their straights in the wilderness gave them the sad experience of these things Inference 8. Did the dreadful sword of Divine Justice smite the Shepherd Gods own fellow and at the same time the flock from whom all his outward comforts arose were scattered from him Then learn that the holiest of men have no reason either to repine or despond though God at once should strip them of all their outward and inward comforts together He that did this by the man his fellow may much rather do it by the man his friend Smite my Shepherd there 's all comfort gone from the inner man Scatter the Sheep there 's all comfort gone from the outward man What refreshments had Christ in this world but such as came immediately from his Father or those holy ones now scattered from him In one day heâ— seth both heavenly and earthly comforts Now as God dealt by Christ he may at one time or other deal with his people You have your comforts from Heaven so had Christ in a fuller measure than ever you had or can have He had comforts from his little flock you have your comforts from the society of the Saints the Ordinances of God comfortable Relations c. Yet none of these are so firmly setled upon you but you may be left destitute of them all in one day God did take all comfort from Christ both outward and inward and are you greater than he God sometimes takes outward and leaves inward comfort sometimes he takes inward and leaves outward comfort but time may come when God may strip you of both This was the case of Iob a favorite of God who was blessed with outward and inward comforts Yet a time came when God stript him of all and made him poor to a Proverb as to all outward comfort and the venom of his arrows drank up his spirit and the inward comforts thereof Should the Lord deal thus with any of you how seasonable and relieving will the fâ—llowing considerations be First Though the Lord deal thus with you yet this is no new thing he hath dealt so with others yea with Jesus Christ that was his fellow If these things were done in the green tree in him that never deserved it for any sin of his own how little reason have we to complain Nay Secondly Therefore did this befall Jesus Christ before you that the like condition might be sanctified to you when you shall be brought into it For therefore did Jesus Christ pass through such varieties of conditions on purpose that he might take away the curse and leave a blessing in those conditions against the time that you should come into them Moreover Thirdly Though inward comforts and outward comforts were both removed from Christ in one day yet he wanted not support in the absence of both How relieving a consideration is this Ioh. 16.32 Behold saith he the hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be scatterâ—d every man to his own and shall leave me alone And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me With me by way of support
cause Eccles. 7.9 Anger resteth in the bosom of fools Seneca would allow no place for passion in a wise mans breast Wise men use to ponder consider and weigh things deliberately in their Judgements before they suffer their affections and passions to be stirred and engaged Hence comes the constancy and serenity of their Spirits As wise Solomon hath observed Prov. 17.27 A man of understanding is of an excellent or as the Hebrew is a cool Spirit Now wisdom filled the soul of Christ. He is wisdom in the abstract Pov. 8. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom Col. 2.3 Hence it was that he was no otherwise moved with the revilings and abuses of his enemies than a wise Physitian is with the impertinencies of his distempered and crazy patient Thirdly And as his patience flowed from that his perfect wisdom and knowledge so also from his foreknowledge He had a perfect prospect of all those things from eternity which befell him afterwards They came not upon him by way of surprizal And therefore he wondered not at them when they came as if some strange thing had happened He foresaw all these things long before Mark 8.31 And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and be killed Yea he had compacted and agreed with his Father to endure all this for our sakes before he assum'd our flesh Hence Isay 50.6 I gave my back to the siniters and my cheeks to them that pulled off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting Now look as Christ in Iob. 16.4 obviates all future offences his Disciples might take at sufferings for his sake by telling them before hand what they must expect These things saith he I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them So he foreknowing what himself must suffer and had agreed so to do he bare those sufferings with singular Patience Iesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him went forth and said unto them whom seek ye Joh. 18.4 Fourthly As his patience sprang from his foreknowledge of his sufferings so from his Faith which he exercised under all that he suffered in this world His Faith looked through all those black and dismal clouds to the joy proposed Heb. 12.2 He knew that though Pilate condemned God would Justifie him Isa. 50.4 5 6 7 8. And he set one over against the other He ballanced the glory into which he was to enter with the sufferings through which he was to enter into it He acted Faith upon God for divine support and assistance under sufferings as well as for glory the fruit and reward of them Psal. 16.7 8 9 10 11. I have set or as the Apostle varies it I foresaw the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth There 's Faith acted by Christ for strength to carry him through And then it follows My flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of Life In thy presence is fullness of Ioy at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever more There 's his Faith acting upon the glory into which he was to enter after he had suffered these things This fill'd him with peace Fifthly As his Faith eyeing the glory into which he was passing made him endure all things so the Heavenliness of his Spirit also fill'd him with a Heavenly tranquility and calmness of Spirit under all his abuses and injuries It 's a certain truth that the more heavenly any mans spirit is the more sedate composed and peaceful As the higher Heavens saith Seneca are more ordinate and tranquil There are neither clouds nor winds storms nor tempests they are the inferior Heavens that lighten and thunder The nearer the earth the more tempestuous and unquiet Even so the sublime and heavenly mind is placed in a calm and quiet station Certainly that heart which is sweetned frequently with heavenly delightful communion with God is not very apt to be imbittered with wrath or soured with revenge against men The peace of God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appease and end all strifes and differences as an Umpire So much that word Col. 3.15 Imports The heavenly spirit marvelously affects a sedate and quiet breast Now never was there such a heavenly soul on earth since man inhabited it as Christ was He had most sweet and wonderful communion with God He had meat to eat which others yea and those his greatest intimates knew not of The Son of Man was in heaven upon earth Ioh. 3.13 Even in respect of that blessed heavenly communion he had with God as well as in respect of his immense Deity And that his heart was in heaven when he so patiently endured and digested the pain and shame of the Cross is evident from Heb. 12.2 For the Ioy set before him he endured the Cross despised the shame See where his eye and heart was when he went as a Lamb to the slaughter Sixthly And lastly as his meekness and patience sprang from the heavenliness and sublimity of his spirit so from the compleat and absolute obedience of it to his Fathers will and pleasure He could most quietly submit to all the will of God and never regret at any part of the work assign'd him by his Father For you must know that Christs death in him was an act of obedience he all along eyeing his Fathers command and counsel in what he suffered Phil. 2.7 8. Ioh. 18.11 Psal. 40.6 7 8. Now look as the eyeing and considering of the hand of God in an affliction presently becalms and quiets a gracious soul as you see in David 2 Sam. 16.11 Let him alone it may be God hath bid him curse David so much more it quieted Jesus Christ who was privy to the design and end of his Father with whose will he all along complyed looking on Jews and Gentiles but as the Instruments ignorantly fulfilling Gods pleasure and serving that great design of his Father This was his patience and these the grounds of it Vse I might variously improve this point but the direct and main Use of it is to press us to a Christ-like patience in all our sufferings and troubles And seeing in nothing we are more generally defective and that defects of Christians herein are so prejudicial to Religion and uncomfortable to themselves I resolve to wave all other Uses and spend the remaining time wholly upon this branch Even a perswasive to Christians unto all patience in tribulations To imitate their Lamb-like Saviour Unto this Christians you are expresly call'd 1 Pet. 2.21.22 Because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin
sort this is one Father forgive them c. In which we have first the mercy desired by Christ and that is forgiveness Secondly the persons for whom it is desired Them that is those cruel and wicked persons that were now in brewing their hands in his blood And Thirdly the motive or argument urged to procure that mercy from his Father for they know not what they do First The mercy prayed for that is forgiveness Father forgive Forgiveness is not only a Mercy a spiritual mercy but one of the greatest mercys a soul can obtain from God It is such a mercy that without it what ever else we have from God is no mercy to us So great a mercy is forgiveness that David calls him blessed or rather admires the blessednesses of him whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered This mercy this best of mercys he requests for them Father forgive them Secondly The persons for whom he requests forgiveness are the same that with wicked hands Crucified him Their fact was the most horrid that ever was committed by men They not only shed innocent blood but the blood of God the best of mercys is by him desired for the worst of sinners Thirdly The Motive or Argument urged to procure this mercy for them is this for they know not what they do As if he should say Lord what these poor Creatures do is not so much out of malice to me as the Son of God but it is from their ignorance Did they know who and what I am they would rather be nailed to the Cross themselves than do it To the same purpose the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2.8 Whom none of the Princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory Yet this is not to be extended to all that had an hand in the death of Christ but to the ignorant multitude among whom some of Gods Elect were who afterwards believed in him whose blood they spilt Acts 3.17 And now brethren I wote that through ignorance ye did it For them this Prayer of Christ was heard Hence the Notes are Doct. 1. That ignorance is the usual cause of enmity to Christ. Doct. 2. That there is forgiveness with God for such as oppose Christ out of ignorance Doct. 3. That to forgive enemies and beg forgiveness for them is the true Character and property of the Christian Spirit These observations contain so much practical truth that it will be worth our time to open and apply them distinctly DOCT. 1. That ignorance is the usual cause of enmity to Christ. These things saith our Lord will they do because they have not known the Father nor me Joh. 16.3 What things doth he mean Why kill and destroy the people of God and therein suppose they do God good service i. e. think to oblige and gratifie the Father by their butchering his Children So Ier. 9.3 They proceed from evil to evil and have not known me saith the Lord q. d. had they the knowledge of God that would check and stop them in their ways of wickedness and so Psal. 74.20 The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty Three things must be inquired into sc. what their ignorance of Christ was Whence it was And how it disposed them to such enmity against him First What was their ignorance who Crucified Christ Ignorance is twofold simple or respective Simple ignorance is not supposeable in these persons for in many things they were a knowing people But it was a respective particular ignorance Rom. 11.25 Blindness in part is happened to Israel They knew many other truths but did not know Jesus Christ. In that their eyes were held Natural light they had Yea and Scripture light they had But in this particular that this was the Son of God the Saviour of the world therein they were blind and ignorant But how could that be Had they not heard at least of his miraculous works Did they not see how his Birth Life and Death squar'd with the Prophesies both in time place and manner Whence should this their ignorance be when they saw or at least might have seen the Scriptures fulfill'd in him and that he came among them in a time when they were big with expectations of the Messiah 'T is true indeed they knew the Scriptures and it cannot but be supposed the fame of his mighty works had reacht their ears but yet First Though they had the Scriptures among them they misunderstood them and did not rightly measure Christ by that right rule You find Ioh. 7.52 How they reason with Nicodemus against Christ Art thou also of Galilee Search and see for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Here is a double mistake First they supposed Christ to arise out of Galilee whereas he was of Bethlehem though much conversant in the parts of Galilee And secondly they thought because they could find no Prophet had arisen out of Galilee therefore none should Another mistake that blinded them about Christ was from their conceit that Christ should not die but live for ever Ioh. 12.34 We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever and how sayest thou the Son of man must be lifted up Who is the Son of man That Scripture which probably they urge against the mortality of Christ is Esa 9.7 Of the increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end upon the Throne of David c. In like manner Ioh. 7.27 We find them in another mistake We know this man whence he is but when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is This likely proceeded from their misunderstanding of Mica 5.2 His going forth have been from of old from everlasting Thus were they blinded about the person of Christ by misinterpretations of Scripture-Prophesies Secondly Another thing occasioning their mistake of Christ was the outward meanness and despisableness of his condition They expected a pompous Messiah one that should come with State and Glory becoming the King of Israel But when they saw him in the form of a Servant coming in poverty not to be ministred unto but to minister they utterly rejected him We hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not Isa. 53.3 Nor is it any great wonder these should be scandalized at his poverty When the Disciples themselves had such carnal apprehensions of his Kingdom Mar. 10.37 38. Thirdly Add to this their implicit faith in the Learned Rabbies and Doctors who utterly misled them in this matter and greatly prejudiced them against Christ. Lo say they he speaketh boldly and they say nothing to him Do the Rulers know indeâ—d that this is the very Christ They pinn'd their faith upon the Rulers sleeves and suffer'd them to carry it whether they would This was their ignorance and these its causes Thirdly Let us see in the next place how this disposed them to such enmity against Christ.
Her beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone but was she content to part with him so No such thing By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will arise now and go about the City c. Thirdly Though God forsook Christ yet he returned to him again It was but for a time not for ever In this also doth his desertion parallel yours God may for several wise and holy reasons hide his face from you but not so as it 's hid from the damned who shall never see it again This cloud will pass away This night shall have a bright morning For saith thy God I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made As if he should say I may contend with him for a time to humble him but not for ever left instead of a sad child I should have a dead child Oh the tenderness even of a displeased Father Fourthly Though God forsook Christ yet at that time he could justifie God So you read Psal. 22.2 3. O my God saith he I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent but thou art holy Is not thy spirit according to thy measure framed like Christs in this Canst thou not say even when he writes bitter things against thee he is a holy faithful and good God for all this I am deserted but not wronged There is not one drop of injustice in all the Sea of my sorrows Though he condemn me I must and will Justifie him This also is Christ-like Fifthly Though God took from Christ all visible and sensible comforts inward as well as outward yet Christ subsisted by faith in the absence of them all His desertion put him upon the acting of his faith My God my God are words of faith The words of one that rolls upon his God And is it not so with you too Sence of love is gone sweet sights of God shut up in a dark cloud well what then Must thy hands presently hang down and thy soul give up all its hopes What! is there no faith to relieve in this case Yes yes and blessed be God for faith Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servants that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God Isai. 50.10 To conclude Sixthly Christ was deserted a little before the glorious morning of light and joy dawned upon him It was a little a very little while after this sad cry before he triumphed gloriously And so it may be with you Heaviness may endure for a night but joy and gladness will come in the morning You know how Mr. Glover was trasported with joy and cryed out as a man in a Rapture O Austin he is come he is come he is come meaning the Comforter who for some time had been absent from his soul. But I fear I am absolutely and finally forsaken Why so Do you find the characters of such a desertion upon your soul Be righteous Judges and tell me whether you find an heart willing to forsake God Is it indifferent now to you whether God ever return again or no Are there no mournings meltings hankerings after the Lord Indeed if you forsake him he will cast you off for ever But can you do so Oh no let him do what he will I am resolved to wait for him cleave to him mourn after him though I have no present comfort from him no assurance of my interest in him yet will I not exchange my poor weak hopes for all the good in this world Again You say God hath forsaken you but hath he let loose the bridle before you To allude to Iob. 30.11 Hath he taken away from your souls all conscientious tenderness of sin so that now you can sin freely and without any regret If so it 's a sad token indeed Tell me soul if thou judgest indeed God will never return in loving kindness to thee any more why dost thou not then give thy self over to the pleasures of sin and fetch thy comforts that way from the creatures since thou canst have no comfort from thy God Oh no I cannot do so If I die in darkness and sorrow I will never do so My soul is as full of fear and hatred of sin as ever though empty of joy and comfort Surely there are no tokens of a soul finally abandoned by its God Inference 4. Did God forsake his own Son upon the Cross then the dearest of Gods people may for a time be forsaken of their God Think it not strange when you that are the children of light meet with darkness yea and walk it â— Neither charge God foolishly Say not he deals hardly with you You see what befel Jesus Christ whom his soul delighted in It 's doubtless your concernment to expect and prepare for days of darkness You have heard the doleful cry of Christ my God my God why hast thou forsaken me You know how it was with Job David Hâ—man Asaph and many others the dear servants of God What heart-melting lamentations they have made upon this account And are you better than they Oh prepare for spiritual troubles I am sure you do enough every day to involve you in darkness Now if at any time this trial befall you mind these two seasonable Admonitions and lay them up for such a time Admonition 1. First Exercise the faith of adherence when you have lost the faith of evidence When God takes away that he leaves this That is necessary to the comfort this to the life of his people It 's sweet to live in views of your interest but if they be gone believe and roll on God for an interest Stay your selves on your God when you hâ—ve no light Isai. 50.10 Drop this anchor in the dark and do not reckon all gone when evidence is gone Never reckon your selves undone whilst you can adhere to your God Direct acts are noble acts of faith as well as reflexive ones Yea and in some respects to be preferred to them For First As your comfort depends on the evidencing acts of faith so your salvation upon the adhering act of faith Evidence comforts but affiance saves you And sure salvation is more than comfort Secondly Your faith of evidence hath more sensible sweetness but your faith of adherence is of more constancy and continuance The former is as a flower in its mouth the latter sticks by you all the year Thirdly Faith of evidence brings more joy to you but faith of adherence brings more glory to God For thereby you trust him when you cannot see him Yea you beleive not only without but against sence and feeling And doubtless that which brings glory to God is better than that which brings comfort to you
1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as to a faithful Creator It 's very true this single relation in it self gives little ground of encouragement unless the creature had conserved that integrity in which it was originally created And they that have no more to plead with God for acceptance but their relation to him as creatures to a Creator will doubtless find that word made good to their little comfort Isa. 27.11 It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour But now grace brings that relation into repute Holiness ingratiates us again and revives the remembrance of this relation So that believers only can plead this Secondly As the gratious soul is his creature so it is his redeemed creature One that he hath bought and that with a great price Even with the pretious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 This greatly encourages the departing soul to commit it self into the hands of God so you find Psal. 31.5 Into thy hands I commend my Spirit thou hast redeemed it O Lord God of truth Surely this is mighty encouragement to put it self upon God in a dying hour Lord I am not only thy creature but thy redeemed creature One that thou hast bought with a great price O I have cost thee dear For my sake Christ came from thy bosom and is it imaginable that after thou hast in such a costly way even by the expence of the pretious blood of Christ redeemed me thou shouldst at last exclude me Shall the ends both of Creation and Redemption of this soul be lost together Will God form such an excellent creature as my soul is in which are so many wonders of the wisdom and power of its Creator Will he be content when sin had marr'd the frame and defaced the glory of it to recover it to himself again by the death of his own dear Son and after all this cast it away as if there were nothing in all this Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit I know thou wilt have a respect to the work of thy hands Especially to a redeemed creature upon which thou hast been out so great sums of Love which thou hast bought at so dear a rate Thirdly Nay that 's not all the gratious soul may confidently and securely commit it self into the hands of God when it parts with its body at death not only because it is his creature his redeemed creature but because it is his renewed creature also And this lays a firm ground â—or the believers confidence of acceptecâ—a not that it is the proper cause or reason of its acceptance but as it is the souls best evidence that it is accepted with God and shall not be refused by him when it comes to him at death For in such a soul there is a double workmanship of God both glorious pieces though the last exceeds in glory A natural workmanship in the excellent frame of that noble creature the soul. And a gratious workmanship upon that again A new creation upon the old Glory upon Glory We are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus Eph. 2.10 The Holy Ghost came down from heaven on purpose to create this new workmanship To frame this new creature And indeed it is the Top and glory of all Gods works of wonder in this world And must needs give the believer encouragement to commit it self to God whether at such a time it shall reflect either upon the end of the work or upon the end of the workman both which meet in the salvation of the soul so wrought upon the end of the work in our glory By this we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 It is also the design and end of him that wrought it 2 Cor. 55. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God Had he not designed thy soul for glory the spirit should never have come upon such a sanctifying design as this Surely it shall not sail of a reception into glory when it 's cast out this Tabernacle Such a work was not wrought in vain neither can it ever perish When once sanctification comes upon a soul it so roots it self in the soul that where the soul goes it goes Gifts indeed they die All natural excellency and beauty that goes away at death Iob 4. ult But grace ascends with the soul. It is a sanctified when a separate soul. And can God shut the door of Glory upon such a soul that by grace is made meet for the inheritance O it cannot be Fourthly As the gracious soul is a renewed soul so it is also a Sealed Soul God hath sealed it in this world for that glory into which it is now to enter at death All gracious souls are sealed objectively i. e. they have those works of grace wrought on their souls which do as but now is said ascertain and evidence their Title to glory And many are sealed formally That is the spirit helps them clearly to discern their interest in Christ and all the promises This both secures heaven to the soul in it self and becomes also an earnest or pledge of the glory in the unspeakable joys and comforts that it breeds in the soul. So you find 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts Gods sealing us gives high security His objective seal makes it sure in it self his formal seal makes it so to us But if over and above all this he will please as a fruit of that his sealing to give us those heavenly unexpressible joys and comforts which are the fruit of his formal sealing work to be an earnest a foretast and hansel of that glory how can the soul that hath found all this doubt in the least of a rejection by its God when at death it comes to him surely if God have sealed he will not refuse you If he have given you his earnest he will not shut you out Gods earnest is not given in Jest. Fifthly Moreover every gratious soul may confidently cast it self into the arms of its God when it goes hence with Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit For as much as every gratious soul is a soul in Covenant with God and God stands obliged by his Covenant and Promise to such not to cast them out when they come unto him As soon as ever thy soul became his by regeneration that Promise became its own Heb. 13.5 I will never leave you nor forsake you And will he leave the soul now at a pinch when it never had more need of a God to stand by it than it hath then every gratious soul is entitled to that Promise Ioh. 14.3 I will come again and receive you to my self And will he fail
that is believe they shall be made good to you so far as God sees them good for you Do you but labour to come up to those conditions required in you and thereby God will have more glory and you more comfort If your prayers for these things proceed from pure ends the glory of God not the satisfaction and gratification of your lusts If your desires after them be moderate as to the measure content with that proportion the infinite wisdom sees fittest for you If you take Gods way to obtain them and dare not strain Conscience or commit a sin though you should perish for want If you can patiently wait Gods time for enlargements from your straits and not make any sinful haste You shall be surely supplied And he that remembers your souls will not forget your bodies But we live by sense and not by faith Present things strike our affections more powerfully than the invisible things that are to come The Lord humble his people for this Diduction 4. Is this the priveledge of believers that they can commit their souls to God in a dying hour then how pretious how useful a grace is faith to the pleople of God both living and dying All the graces have done excellently but faith excels them all Faith is the Phoenix grace the Queen of graces Deservedly is it stiled pretious faith 2 Pet. 1.1 The benefits and priviledges of it in this life are unspeakable and as there is no comfortable living so no comfortable dying without it First While we live and converse here in the world all our comfort and safety is from it for all our union with Christ the fountain of mercies and blessings is by faith Eph. 3.17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith No faith no Christ. All our communion with Christ is by it He that cometh to God must believe Heb. 11.6 The souls life is wrapt up in this communion with God and that communion in faith All communications from Christ depend upon faith for look as all communion is founded in union so from our union and communion are all our communications All communications of quicknings comforts joy strength and whatsoever serves to the well-being of the life of grace are all through that faith which first knit us to Christ and still maintains our communion with Christ believing we rejoyce 1 Pet. 1.8 The inner man is renewed whilst we look to the things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 Secondly And as our life and all the supports and comforts of it here are dependent on faith so you see our death as to the safety and comfort of our souls then depends upon our faith He that hath no faith cannot commit his soul to God but rather shrinks from God Faith can do many sweet offices for your souls upon a death bed when the light of this world is gone and all joy ceases on earth It can give us sights of things invisible in the other world and those sights will breathe life into your souls amidst the very pangs of death Reader do but think what a comfortable foresight of God and the joys of salvation will be to thee when thine eye-strings are breaking Faith cannot only see that beyond the grave which will comfort but it can cling about its God and clasp Christ in a promise when it feels the ground of all sensible comforts trembling and sinking under thy feet My heart and my flesh faileth but God is the strength or rock of my heart and my portion for ever Reeds fail but the rock is firm footing Yea and when the soul can no longer tabernacle here it can carry the soul to God cast it upon him with Father into thy hands I commend my spirit O pretious faith Diduction 5. Do the souls of dying believers commend themselves into the hands of God Then let not the surviving relations of such sorrow as men that have not hope A Husband a Wife a Child is rent by death out of your arms well but consider into what arms into what bosom they are commended Is it not better for them to be in the bosom of God than in yours Could they be spared so long from Heaven as to come back again to you but one hour how would they be displeased to see your tears and hear your cries and sighs for them They would say to you as Christ said to the daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and your children I am in a safe hand I am out of the reach of all storms and troubles O did you but know what their state is who are with God you would be more than satisfied about them Diduction 6. Lastly I will close all with a word of counsel Is this the priviledge of dying believers to commend their souls into the hands of God Then as ever you hope for comfort or peace in your last hour see that your souls be such as may be then fit to be commended into the hands of an holy and just God See that they be holy souls God will never accept them if they be not holy Without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.24 He that hath this hope viz. to see God purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 Indeavours after holiness are inseparably connected with all rational expectations of blessedness Will you put an unclean filthy defiled thing into the pure hand of the most holy God O see they be holy and already accepted in the beloved or wo to them when they take their leaves of those tabernacles they now dwell in The gratious soul may confidently say then Lord Iesus into thy hands I commend my spirit O let all that can say so then now say Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The THIRTY SEVENTH SERMON JOH XIX XL XLI XLII Then took they the body of Iesus and wound it in linen cloaths with the spices as the manner of the Iews is to bury Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new Sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid There laid they Iesus therefore because of the Iews preparation day for the Sepulchre was nigh at hand YOU have heard the last words of dying Jesus commending his spirit into his Fathers hands and now the life of the world hangs dead upon a Tree The light of the world for a time muffled up in a dismal cloud The Son of Righteousness set in the region and shadow of Death The Lord is dead and he that wears the keys of the grave at his girdle is now himself to be lockt up in the grave All you that are the friends and Lovers of Jesus are this day invited to his â—â—neral Such a funeral as never was since Graves were first digged Come see the place where the Lord lay There are six remarkable particulars about this funeral in these three verses The preparations that were made for it and
When thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrection of the Iust. It was the opinion of an eminent modern Divine that no man living fully understands and believes that Scripture Matth. 25.40 In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me How few Saints would be exposed to daily wants and necessities if that Scripture were but fully understood and believed Inference 3. Is Christ risen from the dead and that as a publick person and representative of believers How are we all concerned then to secure to our selves an interest in Christ and consequently to this blessed Resurrection What consolation would be left in this world if the hope of the Resurrection were taken away 'T is this blesed hope that must support you under all the Troubles of life and in the Agonies of Death The securing of a blessed Resurrection to your selves is therefore the most deep concernment you have in this world And it may be secured to your selves if upon serious heart examination you can discover the following Evidences Evidence 1. First If you are regenerated Creatures brought forth in a new nature to God for we are begotten again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead Christs Resurrection is the ground-work of our hope And the new birth is our title or evidence of our interest in it So that until our souls are partakers of the spiritual Resurrection from the death of sin we can have no assurance our bodies shall be partakers of that blessed Resurrection to life Blessed and holy saith the Spirit is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Rev. 20.6 Never let unregenerated souls expect a comfortable meeting with their bodies again Rise they shall by Gods terrible Citation at the sound of the last trump but not to the same end that the Saints arise nor by the same principle They to whom the spirit is now a principle of Sanctification to them he will be the principle of a joyful Resurrection See then that you get gratious souls now or never expect glorious bodies then Evid 2. If you be dead with Christ you shall live again by the life of Christ. If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Planted together some refer it to believers themselves Jews and Gentiles are planted together in Christ. So Erasmus believers grow together like branches upon the same root which should powerfully inforce the great Gospel duty of unity among themselves But I would rather understand it with reference to Christ and believers with whom believers are in other Scriptures said to suffer together and be glorified together to die together and live together to be Crucified together and buried together all noting the communion they have with Christ both in his death and in his life Now if the power of Christs death i. e. the mortifying influence of it have been upon our hearts killing their Lusts deading their affections and flatting their appetites to the Creature then the power of his life or Resurrection shall come like the animating dew upon our dead withered bodies to revive and raise them up to live with him in glory Evid 3. If your hearts and affections be now with Christ in Heaven your bodies in due time shall be there also and conformed to his glorious body So you find it Phil. 3.20 21. For our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body The body is here called vile or the body of our vileness Not as God made it but as sin hath marred it Not absolutely and in it self but relatively and in comparison of what it will be in its second edition at the Resurrection Then those scattered bones and dispersed dust like pieces of old broken battered Silver will be new cast and wrought in the best and newest fashion even like to Christs glorious body Whereof we have this evidence that our conversation is already heavenly The temper frame and disposition of our souls is already so therefore the frame and temper of our bodies in due time shall be so Evid 4. If you strive now by any means to attain the Resurrection of the dead no doubt but you shall then attain what you now strive for This was Pauls great ambition that by any means he might attain the Resurrection of the dead Phil. 3.11 He means not simply a Resurrection from the dead for that all men shall attain whether they strive for it or no. But by a metonymy of the Subject for the Ajunct he intends that compleat holiness and perfection which shall attend the state of the Resurrection so it is expounded vers 12. So then if God have raised in your hearts a vehement desire and assiduous endeavour aftâ—r a perfect freedom from sin and full Conformity to God in the beauties of holiness that very love of holiness your present pantings and tendencies after perfection speaks you to be persons designed for it Evid 5. If you are such as do good in your Generation If you be fruitful and useful men and women in the world you shall have part in this blessed Resurrection Ioh. 5.29 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life Now it is not every act materially good that entitles a man to this priviledge but the same requisites that the School-men assign to make a good prayer are also necessary to every good work The person matter manner and end must be good Nor is it any single good act but a series and course of holy actions that is here meant What a spur should this be to us all as indeed the Apostle makes it closing up the Doctrine of the Resurrection with this solemn exhortation 1 Cor. 15. Last with which I also close mine Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift The FORTIETH SERMON JOH XX. XVII Iesus saith unto her touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God IN all the former Sermons we have been following Christ through his Humiliation from the time that he left the blessed bosom of his Father and now having finished the whole course of his obedience on
the 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
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
the account of his Office and the benefits we receive by him We are obliged even on the score of gratitude and ingenuity to obey him For he is sent in the quality of an Advocate to help us to pray To indite our requests for us To teach us what and how to ask of God Rom. 8.26 He comes to us as a Comforter Ioh. 14.16 And none like him His work is to take of Christs and shew it to us i. e. to take of his death Resurrection Ascension yea of his very present Intercession in Heaven and shew it to us He can be with us in a moment he can as one well observes tell you what were the very last thoughts Christ was thinking in Heaven about you It was he that formed the body of Christ in the womb and so prepared him to be a sacrifice for us He filled that humanity with his unexampled fullness So fitting and anointing him for the discharge of his Office 'T is he thaâ— puâ—s efficacy into the Ordinances and without him they would be but a dead letter 'T was he that blessed them to your conviction and câ—nversion For if Angels had been the Preachers no conversion had followed without the Spirit 'T is he that is the vinculum unionis bond of union betwixt Christ and your souls without which you could never have had interest in Christ or Communion with Christ. 'T was he that so often hath helped your infirmities when you knew not what to say Comforted your hearts when they were overwhelmed wiâ—hin you and you knew not what to do Preserved you many thousand times from sin and ruine when you have been upon the slippery brâ—nk of it in temptations 'T is he in his sanctifying work that is the best evidence your souls have for Heaven It were endless to enumerate the mercies you have by him And now Reader dost thou not blush to think how unworthily thou hast treated such a friend For which oâ— all these his Offices or benefits dost thou grieve and quench him O grieve not the holy Spirit whom Christ sent assoon as ever he came to Heaven in his Fathers name and in his own name to perform all these Offices for you Inference 5. Is Christ ascended to the Father as our fore-runner then the door of Salvation stands open to all believers and by vertue of Christs ascension they also shall ascend after him far above all visible Heavens O my friends what place hath Christ prepared and taken up for you What a splendid habitation hath he provided for you God is not ashamed to be called your God for he hath prepared for you a City Heb. 11.16 In that City Christ hath provided mansions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resting places for your everlasting abode Ioh. 14.2 and keeps them for you till your coming O how August and glorious a dwelling is that where Sun Moon and Stars shall shine as much below your feet as they are now above your heads Yea such is the love Christ hath to the believer that as one saith if thou only hadst been the chosen of God Christ would have built that house for himself and thee Now it is for himself for thee and for many more who shall inherit with thee God send us a joyful meeting within the vail with our fore-runner and sweeten our passage into it with many a fore-sight and fore-tast thereof And mean time let the Love of a Saviour inflâ—me our hearts so that when ever we cast a look towards that place where our fore-runner is for us entred our souls may say with melting affections Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ and again Blessed be God for his unspeakable Gift The FORTY FIRST SERMON HEB. I.III. part of the Verse When he had by himself purged our sins sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on high CHrist being returned again to his Father having finished his whole work on earth is there bid by the Father to sit down in the seat of honour and rest A seat prepared for him at Gods right hand that makes it honourable and all his enemies as a footstool under his feet that makes it easie How much is the state and condition of Jesus Christ changed in a few days Here he groaned wept laboured suffered sweat yea sweat blood and found no rest in this world but when he comes to Heaven there he enters into rest Sits down for ever in the highest and easiest throne prepared by the Father for him when he had done his work When he had by himself purged our sins he sate down c. The scope of this Epistle is to demonstrate Christ to be the fulness of all Legal Types and Ceremonies and that whatever light glimered to the world through them yet it was but as the light of the day Star to the light of this Sun In this Chapter Christ the subject of the Epistle is described and particularly in this third verse he is described three ways First By his Essential and primaeval glory and dignity he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his Fathers glory the very splendor of glory the very refulgency of that Son of glory The primary reason of that appellation is with respect to his eternal and ineffable generation light of light as the Nicene Creed expresses it As a beam of light proceeding from the Sun And the secondary reason of it is with respect to men for look as the Sun communicates its light and influence to us by its beams which it projects so doth God communicate his goodness and manifest himself to us by Christ. Yea he is the express Image or Character of his person Not as the impressed Image of the Seal upon the Wax but as the engraving in the Seal it self Thus he is described by his essential glory Secondly He is described by the work he wrought here on earth in his humbled state and it was a glorious work and that wrought out by his own single hand when he had by himself purged our sins A work that all the Angels in Heaven could not do but Christ did it Thirdly and Lastly He is described by his glory the which as a reward of that work he now enjoys in Heaven When he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high i e. the Lord cloathed him with the greatest power and highest honour that Heaven it self could afford for so much this phrase of sitting down on the right hand of Majesty imports as will appear in the explication of this point which is the result of this clause viz. DOCT. That when our Lord Iesus Christ had finished his work on earth he was placed in the seat of the highest honour and authority at the right hand of God in Heaven This truth is transformingly glorious Stephen had but a glimpse of Christ at his Fathers right hand
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
Mr. Coverdale well translates filii non negantes such as will keep touch with me and will answer their Covenant engagements And again surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction And shall not all this engage you to God What! neither the antient and bountiful love of God in contriving your Redemption from eternity nor the bounty of God in rewarding all and every piece of service you have done for him Nor yet the pleasure he takes in your obedience and upright walking Nor the incouraging promises he hath made thereto nor yet his confident expectations of such a life from you whom he hath so many waies obliged and endeared to himself will you forget your antient friend Contemn his rewards take no delight or care to please him Slight his promises and deceive and fail his expectations Be astonished O ye Heavens at this And be horribly afraid Consider how God the Father hath fastned this five fold cord upon your Souls and shew your selves Christians yea to use the Prophets words Esa. 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves men Secondly You are yet farther engaged to this precise and holy life by what the Son hath done for you is not this pure and holy life the very aim and next end of his death Did he not shed his blood to redeem you from your vain conversations 1 Pet. 1.18 Was not this the design of all his sufferings that being delivered out of the hands of your enemies you might serve him in righteousness and holiness all the daies of your life Luk. 1.74 75. And is not the Apostles inference 2 Cor. 5.14 15. highly reasonable if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them Did Christ only buy your Persons and not your services also No no who ever hath thy time thy strength or any part of either I can assure thee Christian that Christ hath paid for it and thou givest away what is none of thine own to give Every moment of thy time is his Every Talent whether of grace or nature is his And dost thou defraud him of his own Oh how liberal are you of your pretious words and hours as if Christ had never made a purchase of them Oh think of this when thy life runs muddy and â—oul When the fountain of corruption flows out at thy tongue in idle frothy discourses or at thy hand in sinful unwarrantable actions doth this become the redeemed of the Lord Did Christ come from the bosom of his Father for this Did he groan sweat bleed endure the Cross and lay down his life for this Was he so well pleased with all his sorrows and sufferings his pangs and agonies upon the account of that satisfaction he should have in seeing the travail of his Soul Isa. 53.11 as if he had said Welcome Death welcome Agonies welcome the bitter cup and heavy burthen I chearfully submit to all this These are travailing pangs indeed but I shall see a beautiful birth at last These throws and Agonies shall bring forth many lively Children to God I shall have joy in them and glory from them to all Eternity This blood of mine these sufferings of mine shall purchase to me the Persons Duties Services and obedience of many thousands that will Love me and Honour me Serve me and Obey me with their Souls and Bodies which are mine And doth not this engage you to look to your lives and keep them pure Is not every one of Christs wounds a mouth open to plead for more holiness more service and more fruit from you Oh what will engage you if this will not But Thirdly This is not all as a man when he weigheth a thing casteth in weight after weight till the scales are counterpoised so doth God cast in engagement after engagement and argument upon argument till thy heart Christian be weighed up and won to this heavenly life And therefore as Elihu said to Iob cap. 36.22 Suffer me a little and I will shew thee what I have yet to speak on Gods behalf Some Arguments have already been urged on the behalf of the Father and Son for purity and cleanness of life and next I have something to plead on the behalf of the Spirit I plead now on his behalf who hath so many times helped you to plead for your selves with God He that hath so often refreshed quickened and comforted you he will be quenched grieved and displeased by an impure loose and careless conversation and what will you do then Who shall comfort you when the Comforter is departed from you When he that should releive your souls is far off Oh grieve not the holy Spirit of God by which you are sealed to the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 There is nothing grieves him more than impure practices For he is a holy Spirit And look as water damps and quenches the fire so doth sin quench the Spirit 1 Thes. 5.19 Will you quench the warm affections and burning desires which he hath kindled in your bosoms if you do it is a question whether ever you may recover them again to your dying day the Spirit hath a delicate Sence It is the most tender thing in the whole world He feels the least touch of sin and is grieved when thy corruptions within are stirred by temptations and break out to the defiling of thy life then is the holy Spirit of God as it were made sad and heavy within thee As that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes. 4.30 may be rendred For thereby thou both resistest his motions whereby in the way of a loving constraint he would lead and guide thee in the way of thy Duty yea thou not only resistest his motions but crossest his grand design which is to purge and sanctifie thee wholly and build thee up more and more to the perfection of holiness And when thou thus forsakest his conduct and crossest his design in thy soul then doth he usually with-draw as a man that is grieved by the unkindness of his friend He draws in the beams of his evidencing and quickning grace Packs up all his divine Cordials and saith as it were to this unkind and disingenious Soul Hast thou thus requited me for all the favours and kindnesses thou hast received from me Have I quickened thee when thou wast dead in transgressions did I descend upon thee in the Preaching of the Gospel and communicate life even the life of God to thee leaving others in the state of the Dead Have I shed forth such rich influences of grace and comfort upon thee Comforting thee in all thy troubles helping thee in all thy duties satisfying thee in all thy doubts and perplexities of soul saving thee and pulling thee back from so many destructive temptations and dangers What had been thy condition if I had not come unto thee Could the Word have converted thee without me
Could ministers could Angels have done that for the which I did And when I had quickned thee and made thee a living soul what couldst thou have done without my exciting and assisting grace Couldst thou go on in the way of Duty if I had not led thee How wouldst thou have waded through the deeps of spiritual troubles if I had not born thee up Whither had the Temptations of Satan and thine own corruptions carried thee before this day if I had not stood thy friend and come in for thy rescue in the time of need Did I ever fail thee in thy extremities Did I ever leave thee in thy dangers Have I not been tender over thee and faithful to thee And now for which of all these kindnesses dost thou thus wrong and abuse me Why hast thou wounded me thus by thy unkindness Ah thou hast requited my Love And now thou hast eat the fruit of thy doings Let the light now be darkness Thy Songs turned into howlings The joy of thine heart the light of thine eyes the health of thy countenance even the face of thy God and the joy of salvation be hid from thee This is the fruit of careless and loose walking To this sad issue it will bring thee at last and when it is come to this thou shalt go to Ordinances and Duties and find no good in them no life quickning comfort there When thy heart which was wont to be enlarged and flowing shall be clung up and dry when thou shalt kneel down before the Lord and cry as Elisha when with the mantle of Elijah he smote the water Where is the Lord God of Elijah So thou where is the God of Prayer Where is the God of Duties But there is no answer when like Sampson thou shalt go forth and shake thy self as at other times but thy strength is gone then tell me what thou hast done in resisting quenching and grieving the holy Spirit of God by impure and offensive practices And thus you see what engagements lie upon you from the Spirit also to walk uprightly and keep the issues of life pure I could willingly have enlarged my self upon this last branch but that I find a Judicious hand hath lately improved this Argument to which I shall refer the Reader Thus God hath obliged you to circumspect and holy lives Secondly You are under great engagements to keep your lives pure even from your selves as well as from your God As God hath bound you to purity of conversation so you have bound your selves And there are several things in you and done by you which wonderfully increase and strengthen your Obligations to practical holiness First Your clearer illumination is a strong bond upon your souls Eph. 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkness but now ye are light in the Lord walk as Children of the light You cannot pretend or plead ignorance of your Duty You stand convinced in your own consciences before God that this is your unquestionable Duty Christians will you not all yield to this I know you readily yield it We live indeed in a contentious disputing Age. In other things our opinions are different One Christian is of this Judgement another of that but doth he deserve the name of a Christian that dare once question this truth In this we all meet and close in oneness of mind and Judgement that it is our indisputable Duty to live pure strict and clean lives The grace of God which hath appeared to you hath taught you this truth clearly and convincingly 2 Tit. 11.12 You have received how you ought to walk and to please God 1 Thes. 4.1 Well then this being yielded the inference is plain and undeniable that you cannot walk as others in the vanity of their minds but you must offer violence to your own light You cannot suffer the corruptions of your hearts to break forth into practice but you must slight and put by the notices and rebukes of your own consciences Iam. 4.17 He that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Yea sin with a witness Aggravated sin Sin of a deeper tincture than that of the ignorant Heathens Sin that sadly wastes and violates conscience Certainly who ever hath you have no cloak for your sin Light and Lust strugling together great light and strong lusts these make the soul a troubled Sea that cannot rest Oh but when masterless Lusts over-bears Conscience this impresses horror upon the soul. This brake Davids heart Psal. 51.6 Thou hast put knowledge in my inner parts q. d. Ah Lord I went against the rebukes of conscience to the commission of this sin I had a watchful light set up within me I knew it was sin My light endeavoured lovingly to restrain me and I thrust it aside Besides what pleasure in sin can you have Indeed such as for want of light know not what they do or such whose consciences are seared and past feeling they may seek a littâ—e pleasure such as it is out of sin but what content or pleasure can you have so long as your light is ever breaking in upon you and smiting you for what you do This greatly increases your obligation to a precise holy life Again Secondly You are professors of holiness You have given in your names to Christ to be his Disciples and by this your engagement to a life of holiness are yet further strengthened 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity The name of Christ is called upon you and it 's a worthy name Jam. 2.7 It 's called upon you as the name of the Husband is called upon his Wife Isa. 4.1 Let thy name be called upon us Or as the name of a Father is called upon his Child Gen. 48.16 Let my name be called on them and the name of my Fathers Well then you bear the name of Christ as his Spouses or Children and will you not live sutably to your name Every place and relation every title of honour and dignity hath its decorum and becomingness Oh how will that worthy name of Christ be blasphemed through you If you adorn it not with becoming deportments Better you had never profest any thing than to set your selves by your profession in the eye and observation of the world and then to pour contempt on Jesus Christ by your scandalous conversations before the Chams of the world who will laugh at it I remember it was a Memento given to one of his name by Alexander Recordare nominis Allexandri Remember said he thy name Alexander and do nothing unworthy of that name O that 's a heavy charge Rom. 2.24 Through you is the name of God blasphemed among the Heathens Unhappy man that ever thou shouldst be a reproach to Christ. The herd of wicked men they are ignota capita men of no note or observation They may sin and sin again drink swear and tumble in all uncleanness and it passes away silently the world
your lives be loose and defiled you will not only be a shame to your friends but the Song of your enemies You will make mirth in Hell And gratifie all the enemies of God This is that they watch for They are curious observers of your goings And that which makes them Triumph at your falls and miscarriages is not only that deep rooted enmity betwixt the two seeds but because all your miscarriages and evils are so many absolutions to their consciences and Justifications as they think of their waies and practices For look as your strictness and holiness doth as it were cast and condemn them as Noah Heb. 11.7 by his practice condemned the world their consciences fly in their faces when they see your holy and pure conversations It lays a damp upon them It works upon their consciences and causes many smart reflections So when you fall you as it were absolve their consciences loose the bonds of conviction you had made fast upon them and now there 's matter of Joy put before them Oh say they what ever these men talk we see they are no better than we They can do as we do They can Cozen and Cheat for advantage They can comply with any thing for their own ends 't is not conscience as we once thought but meer stomach and humor that made them so precise And oh what a sad thing is this Hereby you shed Soul-blood You fasten the bonds of death upon their souls You kill those convictions which for any thing you know might have made way to their conversion When you fall you may rise again but they may fall at your example and never rise more Never have a good opinion of the waies of God or of his people any more Upon this consideration David begs of God Psal. 5.8 Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness because of my enemies or as the Hebrew my observers make thy way straight before my face And thus you see how your very enemies oblige you to this holy and pure conversation also Now put all this together and see to what these particulars will amount You have heard how God the Father hath engaged you to this conversation purity by his designment of your Salvation Rewarding your obedience His pleasure in it His Promises to it And his great confidence in you that you will thus walk before him The Lord Iesus hath also engaged you thereunto by his death and sufferings whereby you were Redeemed from your vain conversations The Spirit hath engaged you by telling you plainly how much you will grieve and wrong him resist and quench him if you do not keep your selves pure Yea you are obliged further by your selves your clear illumination your high profession your many prayers and confessions your many censures and reprehensions of others do all strengthen your obligation to holiness Yea you are obliged further to this holy life by the shame grief and trouble your loose walking will bring upon your friends And the mirth it will make for and mischief it will do to your enemies Who will fall and break their necks where it may be you only stumbled and brake your shins Who are Justified and absolved as before you heard by your miscarriages And now what think you of all this Are you obliged or not to this purity of life Are all these bonds tied with such slip-knots that you can get loose and free your selves at pleasure from them If all these things are of no force with you if none of these bonds can hold you may it not be questioned notwithstanding your profession whether any spiritual principle any fear of God or love to Christ be in your souls or no O you could not play fast and loose with God if so you could not as Sampson snap these bonds assunder at your pleasure Consid. 2. Secondly As you are more obliged to keep the issues of life pure than others are so God hath given you greater assistances and advantages for it than others have God hath not been wanting to any in helps and means Even the Heathen who are without the Gospel will yet be speechless and inexcusable before God but how much more will you be so who besides their light of nature and the general light of the Gospel have first such a principle put within you Secondly such patterns set before you Thirdly such an assistant ready to help you Fourthly so many rods at your backs to quicken you and prevent your wandering If notwithstanding all these helps your live be still unholy First Shall men of such principles walk as others do Shall we lament for you as David once did for Saul saying there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away the shield of Saul as though he had not been anointed with oyl There the honour of a Christian was vilely cast away as though he had not been anointed with the Spirit You have received an unction from the holy one which teacheth you all things 1 Joh. 2.20 Another Spirit far above that which is in other men 1 Cor. 2.12 And as this Spirit which is in you is fitted for this life of holiness for ye are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus to good works Ephes. 2.10 So this holy Spirit a principle infused into your souls hath such a natural tendency to this holy life that if you live not purely and strictly you must offer violence to your own principles and a new nature A twofold help this principle affords you for a life of holiness 1. First It pulls you back from sin as in Ioseph How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God! And it also inclines you powerfully to obedience 'T is a curb to sin and a spur to holiness It is unpossible for all others to live spiritually and heavenly because they have no new nature to incline them thereunto And methinks it should be hard for you to live carnally and sensually and therein cross the very bent and tendency of the new creature which is formed in you How can you neglect Prayer as others do whiles the Spirit by divine pulsations is awaking and rousing up your sluggish hearts with such inward motions and whispers as that Psal. 27.8 Seek my face Yea whilst you fell during your omissions of duty something within that bemoans it self and as it were cryes for food pains and gripes you like an empty stomach and will not let you be quiet till it be relieved How can you let out your hearts to the world as other men do when all that while your Spirit is restless and akes like a bone out of joint And you can never be at ease till you come back to God and say as Psal. 116. Return to thy rest O my soul. Is it not hard yea naturally impossible to fix a stone and make it abide in the fluid air Doth not every creature in a restless motion tend to its proper Center and desire its own perfection So doth this new creature
you out of the temptation If you attend his voice you may hear such a voice within you as that Ier. 44.4 Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate What mighty strivings were there in the heart of Spira as himself relates He heard as it were a voice within him saying Do not write Spira do not write To this purpose is that promise Isa. 30.20 21. Thine eyes shall behold thy teachers and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying this is the way walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left Here you have a twofold help to holiness the outward teaching of the Word ver 20. and the inward teachings of the Spirit ver 21. He shall say this is the way when ye are turning aside to the right hand or to the left Alluding to a Shepherd saith one who driving his Sheep before him whistles them in when he sees them ready to stray 2. Secondly When ye walk holily and closely with God in your duties the Spirit incourages you to go on by those inward comforts sealings and joys you have from him at such times How often hath he entertained your souls in publick Ordinances in private duties with his hidden Manna with marrow and fastness with incomparable and unspeakable comforts and all this to strengthen you in your way and encourage you to hold on 3. Thirdly When you are indisposed for duties and find your hearts empty and dry he is ready to fill them quicken and raise them so that oftentimes the beginnings and end of your Prayers hearing or meditations are as vastly different as if one man had begun and another ended the duty O then what assistances for a holy life have you Others indeed are bound to resist temptations as well as you but alas having no special assistance from the Spirit what can they do It may be they reason with the Temptation a little while and in their own strength resolve against it but how easie a conquest doth Satan make where no greater opposition is made to him than this Others are bound to hear meditate and pray as well as you else the neglect of these duties would not be their sin but alas what pitiful work do they make of it Being left to the hardness and vanity of their own hearts when you spread your Sails you have a gale but they lie wind-bound heart-bound and can do nothing Spiritually in a way of Duty Fourthly And lastly to mention no more you have a further advantage to this holy life by all the rods of God that are at any time upon you I might shew you in many particulars the advantages this way also but I shall only present these three to your observation at this time First By these you are clogged to prevent your straying and wandering Others may wander even as far as Hell and God will not spend a sanctified rod upon them to reduce or stop them but saith let them alone Hos. 4.17 But if you straggle out of the way of holiness he will clog you with one trouble or another to keep you within bounds 2 Cor. 12.7 Lest I should be lifted up a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet me So David Psal. 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy Word Afflictions are used by God as thorns by husbandmen to stop the gaps and keep you from breaking out of Gods way Hos. 2.6 I will hedge up her way with thorns and build a wall that she shall not find her paths A double alusion First to Cattle that are apt to stray I will hedge up thy way with thorns Secondly to the Sea which is apt to over-flow the Country I will build a wall to prevent inundations Holy Basil was a long time sorely afflicted with an inveterate head-ach he often prayed for the removal of it at last God removed it but in the room of it he was sorely exercised with the motions and temptations of Lust which when he perceived he heartily desired his head-ach again to prevent a worse evil You little know the ends and uses of many of your afflictions Are you exercised with bodily weaknesses it 's a mercy you are so and if these pains and infirmities were removed these clogs taken off you may with Basil wish for them again to prevent worse evils Are you poor why with that poverty God hath clogged your pride Are you reproached with those reproaches God hath clogged your ambition Corruptions are prevented by your afflictions And is not this a marvelous help to holiness of life Secondly By your afflictions your corruptions are not only clogged but purged By these God drys up and consumes that spring of sin that defiles your lives Esa. 27.9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away sin God orders your wants to kill your wantonness And makes your poverty poison to your pride They are Gods Physick to purge ill humours out of your souls When they fall by the sword and by famine and by captivity and by spoil it is to try them and to purge them and to make them white They are both purges and Lavatories to your souls Others have the same afflictions that you have but they do not work on them as on you they are to you as fire for purging and water for cleansing and yet shall not your lives be clean It 's true as one well observes upon that place of Daniel Christ is the only Lavatory and his blood the only fountain to wash away sin But in the virtue and efficacy of that blood sanctified afflictions are cleansers and purgers too A Cross without a Christ never made any man better but with Christ Saints are much the better for the cross Hath God as it were laid you out so many daies and nights a whitening and yet is not the hue of your conversation altred Hath he put you so many times into the furnace and yet is not your dross separated The more afflictions you have been under the more assistance you have had for this life of holiness Thirdly By all your troubles God hath been weaning you from the world the lusts loves and pleasures of it and drawing out your souls to a more excellent life and state than this He makes your sorrows in this life give a lufter to the glory of the next Who ever hath be sure you shall have no rest here and all that you may long more ardently for that to come He often makes you groan being burdened to be cloathed with your house from Heaven 1 Cor. 5.4 And yet will you not be weaned from the lusts customs and evils of it Oh what manner of persons should you be for heavenly and holy conversations You stand upon the higher ground You have as it were the wind and tide with you None are assisted for this life as
Thâ—se Priests were made without an Oath but this with an Oath by him that said unto him the Lord Sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever Because his Sacrifice is vertually continued in his living for ever to make intercession As it is vers 24. Yea he call'd him to his Regal office he was set upon the highest throne of Authority by his Fathers commission as it is Matth. 28.18 All power in heaven and earth is given to me To all this was Christ Sealed and Authorized by his Father What doth the Fathers Sealing of Christ to this work and office imply There are divers things implyed in it As First The validity and efficacy of all his mediatory acts For by vertue of this his Sealing what ever he did was fully ratified And in this very thing lies much of a believers comfort and security For as much as all acts done without commission and authority how great or able so ever the person that doth them is yet are in themselves null and void But what is done by commission and authority is Authentick and most allowable among men Had Christ come from heaven and entred upon his Mediatory work without a due call our Faith had been stumbled at the very threshold but this greatly satisfies Secondly It imports the great obligation lying upon Jesus Christ to be faithful in the work he was Sealed to For the Father in this commission devolves a great trust upon him and relies upon him for his most faithful discharge thereof And indeed upon this very accompt Christ reckons himself specially obliged to pursue the Fathers design and end Ioh. 9.4 I must work the works of him that sent me And Joh. 5.30 I seek not my own will but the will of the Father which sent me Sâ—ill his â—ye is upon that Work and Will of his Father And he reckons himself under a necâ—ssity of punctual and precise obedience to it And as a faithful servant will have his own will swallowed up in the Fathers will Thirdly It imports Christs compleat qualification or instumental fitnâ—ss to serve the Fathers design and end in our recovery Had not God known him to be every way fit and qualified for the Work he would never have Sealed him a commission for it Mâ—n may but God will not Seal an unfit or incapable person for his work And indeed what ever is desirable in a servant was eminently found in Christ. For faithfulness none like him Moses indeed was faithful to a Pin but still as a Servant but Christ as a Son Heb. 3.2 He is the faithful and true witnâ—ss Rev. 1.5 For Zeal none like him The Zeal of Gods house did eat him up Ioh. 2.16 17. He was so intent upon his Fathers work that he forgat to eat bread counting his work his meat and drink Ioh. 4.32 Yea and love to his Father carryed him on through all his work and made him delight in the hardest piece of his service For he served him as a Son Heb 3.5 6. All that ever he did was done in love For wisdom none like him The Father knew him to be most wise and said of him before he was imploy'd Behold my Servant shall deal prudently Isa 52.13 To conclude for self-denial never any like him he sought not his own glory but the glory of him that sent him Ioh. 8.50 Had he not been thus faithful Zealous full of love prudent and self-denying he had never been imployed in this great affair Fourthly It implys Christs sole authority in the Church to appoint and enjoyn what he pleaseth And this is his peculiar prerogative For the Commission God Sealed him in the Text is a single not a joynt Commission he hath Sealed him and none beside him Indeed there were some that pretended a call and commission from God but all that were before him were Thieves and Robbers that came not in at the door as he did Ioh. 10.8 And he himself foretels that after him some should arise and labour to deceive the world with a feigned Commission and a counterfeit Seal Matth. 24.24 There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. But God never commissionated any besides him neither is there any other name under heaven Acts 4.12 Thus you see how the validity of his Acts his obligation to be faithful His compleat qualifications and sole Authority in the Church are imported in his Sealing Next Let us enquire how God the Father Sealed Jesus Christ to this work and we shall find that He was Sealed by four acts of the Father First By Solemn designation to this work He singled him out and set him apart to it and therefore the Prophet Isaiah cap. 42. vers 1. Calls him Gods Elect. And the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2.4 Chosen of God This word which we render Elect doth not only signifie one that in himself is eximious worthy and excellent but also one that is set apart and designed as Christ was for the work of mediation And so much is carryed in Ioh. 10.36 Where the Father is said to sanctifie him i e. to separate and devote him to this Service Secondly He was Sealed not only by Solemn designation but also by Supereminent and unparalell'd Sanctification He was annointed as well as appointed to it The Lord filled him with the spirit and that without measure to qualify him for this Service So Isa. 61.1 2 3. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath annointed me to Preach c. Yea the spirit of the Lord was not only upon him but he was full of the Spirit Luk. 4.1 And so full as never was any beside him For God annointed him with the oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal. 45.7 Believers are his fellows or copartners of this Spirit They have an annointing also but not as Christ had In him it dwelt in its fullness in them according to measure It was poured out on Christ our head abundantly and ran down to the hem of his garment God gave not the Spirit to him by measure Ioh. 3.34 God filled Christs humane nature to the utmost capacity with all fulness of the Spirit of knowledge wisdom love c. Beyond all Creatures for the plenary and more effectual administration of his mediatorship He was full extensively with all kinds of grace And full intensively with all degrees of grace It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col 1.19 As light in the Sun or water in a Fountain that he might not only fill all things as the Apostle speaks Eph. 1.22 But that he might be prompt expedite and every way fit to discharge his own work which was the next and mediate end of it So that the holy oyl that was poured out upon the heads of Kings and Priests whereby they were consecrated to their offices
was but Typical of the Spirit by which Christ was consecrated or Sealed to his Offices Thirdly Christ was Sealed by the Fathers immediate testimony from Heaven whereby he was declared to be the Person whom the Father had solemnly designed and appointed to this work And God gave this extraordinary testimony of him at two remarkable seasons The one was Just at his entrance upon his Publique Ministry Matth. 3. ult The other but a little before his sufferings Matth. 17.5 This voice was not formed by such Organs and Instruments of speech as ours are but by creating a voice in the air which the people hear sounding thereby this God owned approved and as by a Seal ratified his work Fourthly Christ was Sealed by the Father in all those extraordinary miraculous works wrought by him in which the Father gave yet more full and convincing testimonies to the world that this was he whom he had appointed to be our Mediator These were convictive to the world that God had sent him And that his Doctrine was of God God annointed Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil for God was with him Acts 10.38 And so Ioh. 5.36 I have a greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me Therefore he still refer'd those that doubted of him or of his Doctrine to this Seal of his Father even the miraculous works he wrought in the power of God Matth. 11.3.4 5. And thus the Father Sealed him Lastly We will enquire why it was necessary Christ should be Sealed by his Father to this work And there are these three weighty reasons for it First Else he had not corresponded with the Types which prefigured him and in him it was necessary that they be all accomplished You know under the Law the Kings and High-Priests had their Inaugurations by solemn unctions in all which this consecration or Sealing of Christ to his work was shadow'd out And therefore you shall find Heb. 5.4 5. No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is call'd of God as was Aaron so also mark the necessary correspondency betwixt Christ and them Christ glorifi'd not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son Secondly Moreover hereby the hearts of believers are the more engaged to love the Father in as much as it appears hereby that the Fathers love and good will to them was the Original and Spring of their Redemption For had not the Father Sealed him such a Commission he had not come but now he comes in the Fathers name and in the Fathers love as well as his name and so all men are bound to ascribe equal glory and honour to them both As it is Ioh. 5.23 Lastly And Especially Christ would not come without a Commission because else you had no ground for your Faith in him How should we have been satisfied that this is indeed the true Messiah except he had opened his Commission to the world and shew'd his Fathers Seal annexed to it If he had come without his Credentials from heaven and only told the world that God had sent him and that they must take his bare word for it Who could have rested his Faith on that Testimony And that is the true meaning of that place Ioh. 5.31 If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true How so You will say doth not that contradict what he saith Ioh. 8.14 Though I bear record of my self yet my record is true Therefore you must understand truth not as it is opposed to reality but the meaning is if I had only given you my bare word for it and not brought other evidence from my Father my Testimony had not been Authentick and valid according to humane Laws But now all doubtings are precluded Let us next improve this Inference 1. Hence we infer the Vnreasonableness of Infidelity and how little the rejecters of Christ can have to pretend for their so doing You see he hath opened his Commission in the Gospel shewn the world his Fathers Hand and Seal to it given as ample satisfaction as reason it self could desire or expect yet even his own received him not Ioh. 1.11 And he knew it before hand and therefore complain'd by the Prophet Isa. 53.1 Who hath believed our Report c. Yea and that he is believed on in the world is by the Apostle put among the great mysteries of godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 A man that well considers with what convincing evidence Christ comes would rather think it a mysterie that any should not believe But O the bruitish obstinacy and Devilish enmity that is in nature to Jesus Christ Devilish did I say you must give me that word again for he compell'd their assent We know thee whom thou art And it is equally as wonderful to see the facility that is in nature to comply mean while with any even the most foolish imposture Let a false Christ arise and he shall deceive many As it is Matth. 24.24 Of this Christ complains and not without great reason Ioh. 5.43 I am come in my Fathers name and ye receive me not If another come in his own name him will ye receive q. d. You are incredulous to none but me Every deceiver every pitiful cheat that hath but wit or rather wickedness enough to tell you the Lord hath sent him though you must take his own single word for it He shall obtain and get Disciples but though I come in my Fathers name i. e. shâ—wing you a Commission Sign'd and Seal'd by him doing those Works that none but a God can do yet ye receive me not But in all this we must adore the Justice of God in permitting it to be so giving men up to such unreasonable obstinacy and hardness It is a sore plague that lies upon the world and a wonder that we all are not ingulphed in the same Infidelity Inference 2. If Christ were Sealed to his Work by his Father then how great is the sin of those that reject and despise such as are sent and Sealed by Iesus Christ for look as he came to us in his Fathers name so he hath sent forth by the same Authority Ministers in his name And as he acts in his Fathers so they in his Authority As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world Joh. 17.18 And so Ioh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so have I sent you You may think it a small matter to despise or reject a Minister of Christ a sin in the guilt whereof I think no Age hath been plunged deeper than this but hear and let it be a warning to you for ever in so doing you despise and put the slight both upon the Father