the first was there is no power of hell can dissolve it He suffered once to bring us once unto God never to depart again as he suffered once for all so we are brought once for all We may be sensibly nearer at one time than another but yet we can never be separate nor cut off being once knit by Christ as the bond of our Union Neither Principalities nor Powers c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God because it holds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit The true life of a Christian is to eye Christ every step of his life both as his rule and as his strength looking to him as his pattern both in doing and suffering and drawing power from him for going through both for the look of Faith doth that fetches life from Jesus to enable it for all being without him able for nothing Therefore the Apostle doth still set this before his Brethren and here having mentioned his suffering in general the condition and end of it he specifies the particular kind of it that which was the utmost put to death in the flesh and then adds this issue out of it Quickned by the Spirit The strongest engagement and the strongest encouragement he our head crowned with Thorns and shall the body look for Garlands We redeemed from hell and Condemnation by him and can any such refuse any Service he calls them to they that are washt in the Lambs blood will follow him wheresoever he goes and following him through they shall find their Journeys end overpay all the troubles and sufferings of the way These are they said he to Iohn which came out of great tribulation tribulation and great tribulation yet they came out of it and glorious too arrayed in long white robes The scarlet Strumpet as follows in that Book died her Garments red in the blood of the Saints But this is their happiness that their Garments are washt white in the blood of the Lamb. Once take away sin and all suffering is light now that is done by this his once suffering for sin they that are in him shall hear no more of that as condemning them binding them over to suffer that wrath that is due to sin Now this puts an invincible strength into the Soul for all other things how hard soever Put to death This tâ—e utmost point and that which Men are most startled at to die and a violent death put to death and yet he hath led in this way who is the Captain of our Salvation In the flesh Under this second his humane Nature and Divine Nature and power are differenced Put to death in the flesh a very fit expression not only as is usual taking the flesh for the whole Manhood but because death is most properly spoken of that very person or his flesh the whole Man suffers death a dissolution or taking a pieces and the Soul suffers a separation or dislodging but death or the privation of life and sense particularly to the flesh or body but the Spirit here opposed to the flesh or body is certainly of a higher Nature and Power than is the Humane Soul which cannot of it self return and reinhabit and quicken the body Put to Death His death was both voluntary and violent that same power that restored his life could have kept it exempted from death but the design was for death he therefore took our flesh to put it off thus and offered it up as a Sacrifice which to be acceptable must of necessity be free and voluntary and in that sense he is said to have died even by that same Spirit that here in opposition to death is said to quicken him Heb. 9. 14. Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot unto God They accounted it an ill boding sign when the Sacrifices came constrainedly to the Altar and drew back and on the contrary were glad in the hopes of success when they came chearfully-forward but never Sacrifice came so willingly all the way and from the first step knew whether he was going Yet because no other Sacrifice would serve he was most content Sacrifices and burnt Offerings thou didst not desire Then said I loe I come c. Was not only a willing Sacrifice as Isaac bound peaceably and laid on the Altar but his own Sacrificer the Beasts if they came willingly yet offered not themselves but he offered up himself and thus not only by a willingness far above all those Sacrifices of Bullocks and Goats but by the eternal Spirit offered up himself Therefore he says in this regard I lay down my life for my sheep it is not pull'd from me but I lay it down and so it is often exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he died and yet this suites with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put to death yea it was also expedient to be thus that his death should be violent and so the more penal carry the more clear expression of a punishment and such a violent death as had both ignominy and a Curse tyed to it and this inflicted in a judicial way though as from the hands of Men most unjustly that he should stand and be Judged and Condemned to Death as a guilty Person carrying in that the Persons of so many that should otherwise have fallen under Condemnation as indeed guilty he was numbred with transgressors as the Prophet hath it bearing the sins of many Thus then there was in his Death external violence joyned with internal willingness But what is there to be found but Complications of Wonders in our Lord Jesus O! high inconceivable mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh nothing in this World so strange and sweet as that conjuncture God Man humanitas Dei what a strong Foundation of Friendship and Union betwixt the Persons of Man and God that their natures met in so close embraces in one Person And then look on and see so poor and despised an outward condition through his life yet having hid under it the Majesty of God all the brightness of the Fathers Glory And this the top of all that he was put to Death in the flesh the Lord of life dying the Lord of Glory cloathed with shame But it quickly appeared what kind of Person it was that died by this he was put to Death indeed in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit Quickned He was indeed too great a morsel for the Grave to digest for all its vast craving mouth and devouring appetite crying give give yet forced to give him up again as the fish that Prophet who in that was the figure of him the Chains of that Prison are strong but he was too strong a Prisoner to be held by them as our Apostle hath it in his Sermon that it was not possible that he should be kept by them They thought all was sure when they had rolled to the Stone and
not through fire and water yea through death it self yea were it through many deaths to go after him 2. Consider as its due so it is made easie by that his suffering for us our burden that pressed us to hell taken off is not all as nothing that is left to suffer or do our Chains that bounds us over to eternal Death being knock'd off shall we not walk shall we not run in his ways Oh! think what that Burden and Yoke was he hath eased us of how heavy how unsufferable it was and then we shall think what he so truly says that all he lays on is sweet his yoke easie and his burden light Oh! the happy change rescued from the vilest slavery and called to conformity and Fellowship with the Son of God 2. The Nature of this Conformity to shew the nearness of it is exprest in the very same terms as in the pattern it is not a remote resemblance but the same thing even suffering in the flesh But that we may take it right what suffering is here meant it is plainly this ceasing from sin so suffering in the flesh here is not the enduring of afflictions which is a part of a Christians Conformity with his head Christ Rom. 8. But this is a more inward and spiritual suffering it is the suffering and the dying of our Corruption the taking away the life of sin by the death of Christ and that death of his sinless flesh works in the Believer the death of sinful flesh that is the Corruption of his Nature which is so usually in Scripture called flesh Sin makes Man base drowns him in flesh and the lusts of it makes the very Soul become gross and earthly turns it as it were to flesh so the Apostle calls the very Mind that is unrenewed a carnal mind Rom. 8. And what doth the mind of a Natural Man hunt after and run out into from one day and year to another is it not on things of this base World and the concernment of his flesh What would he have but be accommodated to eat and drink and dress and live at ease he minds earthly things savours and relishes them and cares for them examin the most of your pains and time and your strongest desires and most serious thoughts if they go not this way to raise your selves and yours in your Worldly condition yea the highest projects of the greatest natural Spirits are but earth still in respect of things truly spiritual all their State Designs go not beyond this poor life that perishes in the flesh and is daily perishing even while we are busiest upholding it and providing for it present things and this lodge of clay this flesh and its interest take up most of our time and pains the most yea all till that change be wrought the Apostle speaks of till Christ be put on Rom. 13. put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and then the other will easily follow that follows in the Words make no provision for the flesh to fullfil it in the lusts thereof Once in Christ and then your necessary general care for this natural life will be regulated and moderated by the Spirit And for all unlawful and enormous desires of the flesh you shall be rid of providing for these instead of all provision for the life of the flesh in that sense there is another guest and another life for you now to wait on and furnish for in them that are in Christ that flesh is dead they are frâ—ed from its drudgery he that hath suffered in the flesh hath rested from sin Ceased from sin â—e is at rest from it a Godly Death as thâ—y that die in the Lord rest from their labours he that hath suffered in the flesh and is dead to it dies indeed in the Lord rests from the base turmoil of sin it is no longer his Master As our sin was the cause of Christs death his death is the death of sin in us and that not simply as he bear a moral pattern of it but the real working cause of it hath an effectual influence on the Soul kills it to sin I am crucified with Christ says S. Paul Faith so looks on the death of Christ that it takes the impression of it sets it on the heart kills it unto sin Christ and the Believer do not only become one in law so as his death stands for theirs but are in nature so as his death for sin causes theirs to it Rom. 6. 3. This suffering in the flesh being unto death and such a death Crucifying hath indeed pain in it but what then it must be so like his and the believer like him in willingly enduring it all the pain of his suffering in the flesh his love to us digested and went through it so all the pain to our nature in severing and pulling us from our beloved sins and our dying to them if his love be planted in our hearts that will sweeten it and make us delight in it love desires nothing more than likeness and shares willingly in all with the party loved and above all love this Divine Love is purest and highest and works strongliest that way takes pleasure in that pain and is a voluntary death as Plato calls love it is strong as death makes the strongest body fâ—ll to the ground so doth the love of Christ make the activest and liveliest sinner dead to his sin And as death fevers a Man from his dearest and most familiar friends thus doth the love of Christ and his death flowing from it fever the heart from its most beloved sins I beseech you seek to have your hearts set against sin to hate it to wound it and be dying daily to it Be not satisfy'd unless ye feel an abatement of it and a life within you disdain that base service and being bought at so high a rate think your selves too good to be slaves to any base lust you are called to a more excellent and more honourable service And of this suffering in the flesh we may safely say what the Apostle speaks of the sufferings with and for Christ that the partakers of these sufferings are co-heirs of glory with Christ if we suffer thus with him we shall also be glorified with him if we die with him we shall live with him for ever 3. The actual improvement of this Conformity Arm your selves with the same Mind or thoughts of this Mortification Death taken Naturally in its proper sense being an intire privation of life admits not of degrees but this figurative death this Mortification of the flesh in a Christian is gradual in so far as he is renewed and is animated and acted by the Spirit of Christ he is throughly mortified for this death and that new life joyned with it and here added ver 2. go together and grow together but because he is not totally renewed and there is in him of that corruption still that is here called flesh therefore is
for his Companion against evil and troubleous times if moral Integrity went so far as truly it did much in some men that had much of it that they scorn'd all hard Encounters and esteemed this a sufficient Bulwark a strength impregnable Hic murus Aheneus esto nil conscire sibi how much more the Christians good Conscience which alone is truly such 2. As the Christian may thus look inward and rejoyce in tribulation so there is another look upward that is here likewise mention'd that allays very much all the sufferings of the Saints If such be the will of God The Christian mind hath still one eye to this above the hand of men and all inferiour causes in suffering whether for the name of God or otherwise Looks on the Sovereign will of God and sweetly complies with that in all Neither is there any thing that doth more powerfully compose and quiet the mind than this makes it invincibly firm and content when it hath attained this resignment of it self to the will of God to agree to that in every thing This is the very thing wherein tranquility of spirit lies it is no riddle nor hard to understand yet few attain it And I pray you what is thus gained by our reluctancies and repinings but pain to our selves he doth what he will whether we consent or no our disagreeing doth not prejudge his Purposes but our own Peace if we will not be led we are drawn we must suffer if he will but if we will what he wills even in suffering that makes it sweet and easie when our mind goes along with his and we willingly move with that stream of Providence which will carry us with it though we row against it and we still have nothing but toyl and weariness for our pains But this hard Argument of Necessity is needless to the Child of God perswaded of the Wisdom and Love of his Father knows that to be truly best for him that his hand reaches Sufferings are unpleasant to the flesh and it will grumble but the Voice of the Spirit of God in his Children is that of that good King good is the Will of the Lord let him do with me as seems good in his eyes My foolish heart would think these things I suffer might be abated but my wise and heavenly Father thinks otherwise he hath his design of honour to himself and good to me in these which I would be loath to cross if I might I may do God more service by these advantages but doth not he know best what fits cannot he advance his Grace more by the want of these things I desire than I could do my self by having them cannot he make me a gainer by Sickness and Poverty and Disgraces and loss of Friends and Children by making up all in himself and teaching me more of his all-sufficiency yea even concerning the Affairs of my Soul I am to give up all to his good pleasure though desiring the light of his countenance above all things in this World yet if he see it fit to hide it sometimes if that be his will let me not murmur there is nothing lost by this obedient temper yea what way soever he deals with us there is much more advantage in it No Soul shall enjoy so much in all estates as that which hath devested and renounced it self and hath no will but Gods Verse 18. 18. For Christ hath also once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit THE whole Life of a Christian is a steady aiming at Conformity with Christ so that in any thing whether doing or suffering there can be no Argument so apposite and perswasive as his Example and no obedience either active or passive so difficult but the representment of that Example will powerfully sweeten it The Apostle doth not decline the often use of it here we have it thus for Christ also suffered Though the Doctrine of Christian suffering is the occasion of speaking of Christ's suffering yet he insists on it beyond the simple necessity of that Argument for its own excellency and further usefulness so we shall consider the double capacity 1. As an encouragement and engagement for Christians to suffer 2. As the great point of their Faith whereon all their Hopes and Happiness depends being the means of their reduction to God The sufferings of Christ being duely considered doth much temper all the sufferings of Christians especially such as are directly for Christ. 1. It is some known ease to the mind in any distress to look upon Examples of the like or greater distress in present or former times It diverts the eye from continual poreing on our own suffering and when we return to view it again it lessens it abates of the imagined bulk and greatness of it Thus publick thus Spiritual troubles and particularly the sufferings and tentations of the Godly by the consideration of this as their common lot their high way not new in the Person of any 1 Cor. 10. 13. If we trace the Lives of the most eminent Saints shall we not find every notable step that is recorded marked with a new cross one trouble following on another as the Waves do in an uncessant succession And is not this manifest in the Life of Abraham and of Iacob and the rest of God's Worthies in the Scriptures and doth not this make it an unreasonable absurd thought to dream of an exemption would any one have a new untroden way cut out for him free of Thorns and strewed with Flowers all along no contradictions nor hard measure from the World or imagine that there may be such a dexterity necessary as to keep its good will and the friendship of God too this will not be and its an universal conclusion all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution this is the Path to the Kingdom that which all the Sons of God the Heirs of it have gone in even Christ as that known word is one son without sin but none without suffering Christ also suffered The example and company of the Saints in suffering is very considerable but that of Christ is more than any other yea than all the rest together Therefore the Apostle having represented the former at large ends in this as the top of all Heb. 12. 1 2. There is a race set before us it is to be run and run with patience and without fainting now he tells us of a cloud of Witnesses a cloud made up of instances of Believers suffering before us and the heat of the day wherein we run is somewhat cooled even by that Cloud compassing us But the main strength of their comfort here lyes in beholding of Christ eying of his sufferings and their Issue The considering and contemplating of him will be the strongest cordial will keep you from wearying and fainting in the way v. 3.
sealed it that then the Grave had indeed shut her mouth upon him it appeared a done business to them and lookt very compleat-like in his Enemies eyes and very desperate like to his Friends his poor Disciples and Followers were they not near the point of giving over when they said This is the third day c. And we thought this had been he that should have delivered Israel And yet he was then with them who was indeed the Deliverer and Salvation of Israel that rolling of the Stone to the Grave was as if they had rolled it towards the East in the night to stop the rising of the Sun the next Morning much further above all their Watches and power was this Sun of Righteousness in his rising again That body that was enâ—omb'd was united to the Spring of Life the Divine Spirit of the Godhead that quickened it Obs. 1. Thus the Church which is likewise his Body when it seems undone is brought to the lowest Posture yet by vertue of that mystical Union with Jesus Christ as his Natural Body by personal Union with his Deity shall be preserved from destruction and shall be delivered and raised in due time Yet as he was nearest his exaltation in the lowest step of his Humiliation so is it with his Church when things are brought to the most hopeless appearance then shall light arise out of darkness Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses Therefore as we ought to seek more humble Sense of Sions distress so withal not to let go this hope that her mighty Lord will in the end be glorious in her deliverance and all her sufferings and low estate shall be as a dark Soil to set off the lusture of her restorement when the Lord shall visit her with Salvation As in the rising of Jesus Christ his Almighty Power and Deity was more manifested than if he had not died and therefore we may say confidently with the Psalmist to his Lord Psal. 71. Thou which hast shewed me greâ—t and sore troubles shall quicken me again and shall bring 〈◊〉 up from the depths of the Earth thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side Yea the Church comes more beautiful out of the deepest distress let it be oâ—erwhelmed with waves yet it sinks not but rises up as only washt And in this confidence we ought to rejoyce even in the midst of our sorrows and though we live not to see them yet even in beholding afar off to be gladed with the great things the Lord will do for his Church in these later times he will certainly make bare his holy Arm in the Eyes of the Nations and all the ends of the Earth shall see the Salvation of our God His King that he hath set on his holy Hill shall grow in his Conquests and Glory and all that rise against him shall he break with a Rod of Iron He was humbled once but his glory shall be for ever as many were astonished at him his Visage being mar'd more than any Man they shall be as much astonished at his Beauty and Glory so shall he sprinkle many Nations and Kings shall shut their mouths at him According as here we find that remarkable evidence of his Divine Power in rising from the dead put to death in the Flesh but quickened by the Spirit 2. Thus a believing Soul at the lowest when to its own sense it is given over unto death and swallowed up of it as it were in the Belly of Hell yet look up to this Divine Power him whose Soul was not left there will not leave thine there Yea when thou art most sunk in thy sad apprehensions and far off to thy thinking then is he nearest to raise and comfort thee as sometimes it grows darkest immediately before day Rest on his power and goodness which never failed any that did so It is he as David says that lifts up the Soul from the Gates of Death 3. Would any of you be cured of that common Disease the fear of Death look this way and you shall find more than you seek you shall be taught not only not to fear but to love it Consider 1. His Death He died by that thou that receivest him as thy life maist be sure of this that thou art by that his death freed from the second death and that 's the great Point let that have the name which was given to the other the most terrible of all terrible things and as the second death is removed this death that thou art to pass through is I may say beautified and sweetned the ugly Visage of it becomes amiable when ye look on 't in Christ and in his death that puts such a pleasing comeliness upon it that whereas others fly from it with affrightment the Believer cannot chuse but embrace it longs to lie down in that Bed of Rest since his Lord lay in it and hath warmed that cold Bed and purified it with his fragrant Body 2. But especially looking forward to his return thence quickened by the Spirit this being to those that are in him the certain pledge yea the effectual Cause of that blessed Reâ—urrection that is in their hopes there is that Union betwixt them that they shall rise by the communication and vertue of his rising not simply by his Power so the wicked to their grief shall be raised but they by his life as theirs Therefore is it so often re-iterated Io. 6. where he speaks of himself as living and Life-giving Bread to Belivers adds I will raise them up at the last day This comfort we have even for the house of Clay we lay down and for our more considerable part our immortal Souls this his death and rising hath provided for them at their dislodging entring into that Glory where he is Now if these things were lively apprehended and laid hold on Christ made ours and the first Resurrection manifest in us quickened by his spirit to newness of life certainly there would not be a more wellcome and refreshing thought nor a sweeter discourse to us than that of death and no matter for the kind of it were it a violent death so was his Were it that we account most judgement like amongst diseases the plague was not his death very painful and was it not an accursed death and by that curse endured by him in his is not the Curse taken away to the Believer Oh! how wellcome shall that day be that day of Deliverance to be out of this woâ—ful Prison I regard not at what Door I go out at being at once freed from so many deaths and set in to enjoy him who is my life Verses 19 20 21. 19. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison 20. Which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water 21. The like figure
main subject and scope in the foregoing Discourse that death was before called a suffering in the flesh which is in effect the same and therefore though the words may be drawn another way yet its strange that Interpreters have been so far wide of this their genuine and agreeable sense and almost all of them taken in some other intendment To be judged in the flesh In the present sense is to die to sin or that sin die in us and it s thus exprest 1. Suitably tably to the nature of it it is to the flesh a violent death and it is according to a Sentence judicially put against it that guilty and miserable life of sin is in the Gospel adjudged to death there that arrest and sentence is clear and full Rom. 6. 6 c. 8. 13. That sin must die that the Soul may live it must be crucified in us and we to it that we may partake of the Life of Christ and Happiness in him And this is called to be judged in the flesh to have this sentence executed 2. The thing is the rather spoke here under the term of being judged in counter-ballance of that Judgment mentioned immediately before v. 5. The last Judgment of quick and dead wherein they that would not be thus judged but mockt and despised those that were shall fall under a far more terrible Judgment and the sentence of a heavy death indeed everlasting death though they think they shall escape and enjoy liberty in living in sin And that to be judged according to men is I conceive added to signifie the connaturalness of the life of sin to man 's now corrupt nature That men do judge it a death indeed to be severed and pulled from their sins and that a cruel death and the Sentence of it in the Gospel a heavy Sentence a hard Saying to a carnal Heart that he must give up with all his sinful delights must die indeed in self-denial must be separated from himself which is to die if he will be joyned with Christ and live in him Thus men judge that they are judged to a painful death by the Sentence of the Gospel although it is that they may truely and happily live yet they understand it not so They see the death the parting with sin and all its pleasures but the life they see not nor can any know it till partaking of it it is known to him in whom it is it is hid with Christ in God And therefore the opposition here is very fiâ—ly thus represented that the death is according to men in the flesh but the life is according to God in the Spirit As the Christian is adjudged to this death in the flesh by the Gospel so he is lookt on and accounted by carnal men as dead for that he enjoyes not with them what they esteem their life and think they could not live without it one that cannot carrouse and swear with prophane Men is a silly dead Creature good for nothing and he that can bear wrongs and love him that injured him is a poor spiritless fool hath no mettal nor life in him in the World's account thus is he judged according to men in the flesh he is as a dead man but lives according to God in the Spirit dead to men and alive to God as ver 2. Now if this life be in thee it will act all life is in motion and is called an act but most of all active is this most excellent and as I may call it most lively life it will be moving towards God often seeking to him making still towards him as its principle and fountain holy and affectionate thoughts of him sometimes on one of his sweet attributes sometimes on another as the Bee amongst the Flowers And as it will thus act within so outwardly laying hold on all occasions yea seeking out ways and opportunities to be serviceable to thy Lord employing all for him commending and extolling his goodness doing and suffering chearfully for him laying out the strength of desires and parts and means in thy station to gain him Glory If thou be alone then not alone but with him seeking to know more of him and be made more like him if in company then casting about how to bring his name in esteem and to draw others to a love of Religion and Holiness by Speeches as it may be â—it and most by the true behaviour of thy carriage Tender over the Souls of others to do them good to thy utmost thinking each day an hour lost when thou art not busie for the honour and advantage of him to whom thou now livest thinking in the Morning now what may I do this day for my God How may I most please and glorifie him and use my strength and wit and my whole self as not mine but his and then in the evening reflecting O Lord have I seconded these thoughts in reality what glory hath he had by me this day whither went my thoughts and endeavours what busied them most have I been much with God have I adorned the Gospel in my converse with others And if finding any thing done this way to bless and acknowledge him the spring and worker of it If any step aside were it but to an appearance of evil or if any fit season of good hath escapt thee unprofitably to check thy self and to be grieved for thy sloth and coldness and see if more love would not beget more diligence Try it by sympathy and antipathy which follows the nature of things as we see in some Plants and Creatures that cannot grow cannot agree together and others that do favour and benefit mutually If thy Soul hath an aversion and reluctancy against holiness this is an evidence of this new Nature and Life Thy heart rises against wicked ways and speeches oaths and cursings and rotten communication yea thou canst not endure unworthy discourses wherein most spend their time findest no relish in the unsavory societies of such as know not God canst not sit with vain persons but findest a delight in those that have the image of God upon them such as partake of that Divine Life and carry the evidences of it in their carriage David did not disdain the fellowship of the Saints and that was no disparagement to him he implies in the name he gives them Psal. 16. The excellent ones the Magnifick or Noble and that word is taken from one that signifies a robe or noble Garment so he thought them Nobles and Kings as well as he and had robes royal and therefore Companions of Kings A spiritual eye looks on spiritual dignity and esteems and loves them that are born of God how low soever be their natural birth and breeding The Sons of God have of his Spirit in them and are born to the same inheritance where all shall have enough and they are tending homewards by the conduct of the same Spirit that is in them so that there must be amongst them a
whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ. THere is nothing that so much concerns a Christian to know as the excellency of Jesus Christ his Person and Works so that it is always pertinent to insist much on that Subject The Apostle having spoken of this Spirit or Divine Nature and the power of it raising him from the Dead takes occasion to speak of another work of that Spirit to wit the emission and publishing of his Divine Doctrine and that not as a new thing following his Death and Rising but as the same in substance by the same Spirit promulgate long before even to the first Inhabitants of the World Quickned by the Spirit that is in our days says the Apostle but then long before that by the same Spirit he went and preached to the Spirits that were in Prison This place is somewhat obscure in it self as it usually falls but made more so by the various fancies and contests of Interpreters aiming or pretending to clear it these I like never to make a noise of That dream of the descent of Christs Soul into Hell though they that are in it think this place founds somewhat that way yet it proves being examined no way sutable cannot by the strongest wresting be drawn to fit their purpose For 1. That it was to preach that he went thither they are not willing to avow though the end they give it is as groundless and imaginary as this is 2. They would have his business to be with the Spirits of the Faithful deceased before his coming here we see it s with the disobedient 3. And his Spirit here is the same with the sense of the foregoing words which means not his Soul but his eternal Deity 4. nor is it the Spirits that were in Prison as they read it but the Spirits in Prison which by the opposition of their former condition sometimes or formerly disobedient doth clearly speak their present condition as the just consequent and fruit of their disobedience Other misinterpretations I mention not taking it as agreeable to the whole strain of the Apostles words That Jesus Christ did before his appearing in the Flesh speak by his Spirit in his Servants to those of the foregoing Ages yea the Antientest of them declaring to them the way of life though rejected by the unbelief of the most part This is interjected in the mentioning of Christs sufferings and exaltment after them And after all the Apostle returns â—to that again and to exhortation which he strengthens by it But so as this discourse taken in is pertinently adapted to the present Subject The Apostles aim in it we may conceive to be this his main scope being to encourage his Brethren in the faith of Christ and way of holiness against all opposition and hardship so to instruct his Brethren in Christ's perpetual influence into his Church in all Ages even before his Incarnation as that they see withal the great unbelief of the World yea their opposing of Divine Truth and the small number of those that receive it and so not be discouraged by the fewness of their number and the hatred of the World finding that Salvation in Jesus Christ dead and risen again which the rest miss off by their own wilful refusal And this very point he insists on clearly in the following Chap. ver 3. 4. And those very ways of ungodliness there specified which Believers renounce was those that the World was guilty of in these days and in which they were surprised by the flood they Eat and Drank till the flood came upon them In the words of these three Verses we have three things 1. An assertion concerning the preaching of Christ and the persons he preacht to 2. The designment and dâ—scription of the time or age wherein that was and the particular way of God's dealing with them 3. The adapting or applying of the example to Christians The first in these words which I take together By thee which Spirit he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison which sometime were disobedient In these words we have a Preacher and his hearers Of the Preacher we shall find here 1. His ability 2. His activity in the use of it His ability altogether singular and matchless the very Spring of all abilities the Spirit of wisdome himself being the co-eternal Son of God That Spirit he preacht by was it by which he raised himself from the dead and without this Spirit there is no preaching Now he was as our Apostle calls him a Preacher of righteousness but it was the power of this Spirit for in him did this Spirit Preach The Son is the wisdom of the Father his Name is the Word not only for that by him all things were created as Iohn hath it the Son that power by which as by the word of his mouth all things were made but the Word likewise as revealing him declaring to us the counsel and will of God therefore by the same Evangelist in the same place called that light that illuminates the World without which Man called the lesser World the intellectual World were as the greater World without the Sun and all that bring aright the Doctrine of saving wisdom derive it necessarily from him all Preachers draw from this Soveraign Preacher as the Fountain of Divine light as all the Stars receive their light from the Sun and by that diffusing amongst them it is not diminisht in the Sun but only communicated to them remaining still full and entire in it as its source so doth the Spirit flow from Christ in a particular degree unto those he sends forth in his name and its in them that he preaches by the power and light of his Eternal Spirit Hither then must they all come that would be rightly supplyed and enabled for that work It is impossible to speak duly of him in any measure but by his Spirit there must be particular access and a receiving of instructions from him and a transfusion of his Spirit into ours Oh! were it thus with us how sweet were it to speak of him To be much in prayer much dependance on him and drawing from him would do much more in this than reading and studying seeking after arts and Tongues and Common Knowledge These not to be despised nor neglected Reading good and learning good but above all anoynting necessary that anoynting that teacheth all things And you that are for your own interest be earnest with this Lord this Fountain of Spirit to let forth more of it upon his messengers in these times you would receive back the fruit of it were ye busie this way you should find more life and refreshing sweetness in the word of life how weak and worthless so ever they were that brought it it should descend as sweet showers upon the Valleys and make them
Faith in that his Glory and then think thy self too good to serve any base lust look down on Sin and the World with a holy disdain being united to him who is so exalted and so glorious And let not thy mind creep here engage not thy Heart to any thing that Time and this Earth can afford Oh! why are we so little there where there is such a spring of delightful and high thoughts for us If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where he sits what mean you are ye such as will let go you interest in this once crucified and now glorified Jesus if not why are ye not more like it why does it not possess your hearts more ought it not to be thus should not our hearts be where our Treasure where our blessed Head is Oh! how unreasonable how unfriendly is it how much may we be ashamed to have room for earnest thoughts or desires or delights about any thing beside him Were this by these that have right in it much wrought upon the heart would there be found in them any ingagement to the poor things that are passing away would death be a terrible word yea would it not be one of the sweetest most rejoycing thoughts to solace and ease the heart under all pressures to look forward to that day of Liberty This inâ—ectious Disease may keep possession all the Winter and grow hot with the year again do not flatter your selves anâ— think its past you have yet remembring strokes to keep it in your eye But however shall we abide still herâ—â— or is there any thing duly weighed why we should desire it well if ye would be untied beforehand and so feel it less this is the only way look up to him who draws up all hearts that do indeed behold him then I say thy heart shall be removed beforehand and the rest is easie and sweet when that 's done all is gained And consider how he desires the compleating of our union Shall it be his begging and earnest desire and shall it not be ours too that where he is there we may be also with patient submission yet striving by desires and suits looking out for our release from this Body of Sin and death The End of the Third Chapter 1 Ep. St. Peter Chap. IV. Ver. 1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin THE main of a Christians duty lies in these two patience in suffering and avoidance of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they have a natural influence each into the other altho affliction simply doth not yet affliction sweetly and humbly carried doth purifie and disingage the heart from sin weans it from the world and the common wayes of it And again holy and exact walking keeps the Soul in a sound healthful temper and so enables it to patient suffering to bear things more easily as a strong body endures fatigue heat and cold and hardship with ease a small part whereof would surcharge a sickly constitution The conscience of Sin and careless unholy courses do wonderfully weaken a Soul and distemper it so that it is not able to endure much every little thing disturbs it Therefore the Apostle hath reason as to insist on these two points so much in this Epistle so to interweave so often the one with the other pressing jointly throughout the chearful bearing of all kind of afflictions and the careful forbearing all kind of Sin and out of the one discourse slides into the other so here And as the things agree in their nature so in their great Pattern and Principle jesus Christ and the Apostle still draws both from thence that of Patience ch 3. ver 18. that of Holiness here Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us c. The chief study of a Christian and the very thing that makes him to be a Christian is conformity with Christ. This is the Sum of Religion said that wise Heathen to be like him whom thou worshippest But the example being in it self too sublime is brought down to our view in Christ the brightness of God veil'd and veil'd in our own flesh that we may look on it The inaccessible Light of the Deity is so attempered in the humanity of Christ that we may read our Lesson by it in him and may direct our walk by it and that truly is our only way nothing but wandring and perishing in all other wayes darkness and misery out of him but he that follows me says he shall not walk in darkness And therefore is he set before us in the Gospel in so clear und lively colours that we may make this our whole endeavour to be like him Consider here 1. The high ingagement to this conformity 2. The nature of it 3. The actual improvement of it The ingagement lies in this that he suffered for us Of this before only in reference to this had he come down as some have mis-imagined it only to set us this perfect way of obedience and give us an example of it in our own nature this had been very much that the Son of God would descend to teach wretched man and the great King to descend into man and dwell in a Tabernacle of Clay to set up a School in it for such ignorant accursed creatures and did in his own person act the hardest lessons both in doing and suffering to lead us in both But the matter goes yet higher than this Oh! how much higher hath he suffered not simply as our rule but as our Surety and in our stead He suffered for us in the flesh We the more obliged to make his suffering our example because it was to us more than an example it was our ransom This makes the conformity reasonable in a double respect 1. It is due that we follow him who led thus as the Captain of our Salvation that we follow in suffering and in doing seeing both were so for us its strange how some Armies have addicted themselves to their head to be at his call night and day in Summer and Winter to refuse no travel or endurance of hardship for him and all only to pleasure him and serve his inclination and ambition as Caesar's trained bands especially the eldest of them a wonder what they endured in countermarches and tracing from one Country to another But besides that our Lord and Leader is so great and excellent and so well deserves following for his own worth this lays upon us an obligation beyond all conceiving that he first suffered for us that he endured such hatred of Men and such wrath of God the Father and went through death so vile a death to procure our life what can be too bitter to endure or too sweet to forsake to follow him Were this duly considered would we cleave to our lusts or to our ease would we
this great task to be gaining further upon it and overcoming and mortifying it every Day and to this tend the frequent Exhortations of this Nature Mortifie your members that are on the earth So Rom. 6. Likewise reekon your selves dead to sin and let it not reign in your mortal bodies Thus here Arm your selves with the same Mind or with this very thought Consider and apply that suffering of Christ in the flesh to the end that you with him suffering in the flesh may cease from sin Think it ought to be thus and seek that it may be thus with you Arm your selves There is still fighting and sin will be molesting you though wounded to death yet will it struggle for life and seek to wound its enemy will assault the graces that are in you Do not think if it be once struck and you have a hit near to the heart by the Sword of the Spirit that therefore it will stir no more No so long as you live in the flesh in these bowels there will be remainders of the life of this flesh your natural corruption Therefore ye must be Armed against it Sin will not give you rest so long as there is a drop of blood in its vein one spark of life in it and that will be so long as you have life here This old Man is stout and will fight himself to death and at the weakest it will rouze up it felt and act its dying Spirits as Men will do sometimes more eagerly then when they were not so weak nor so near death This the Children of God often find to their grief that corruptions which they thought had been cold dead stir and rise up again and set upon them A â—assion or Lust that after some great stroke lay along while as dead stirred not and therefore they thought to have heard no more of it though it shall never recoverfully again to be lively as before yet will revive in such a measure as to molest and possibly to foyl them yet again Therefore is it continually necessary that they live in Arms and put them not off to their dying day till they put off the body and be altogether free of the flesh you may take the Lord's promise for victory in the â—nd that shall not fail but do not promise your self ease in the way for that will not hold if at somtimes you be at under give not all for lost he hath often won the Day that hath been foiled and wounded in the fight but likwise take not all for won so as to have no more conflict when sometimes you have the better as in particular battels be not desperate when you loose nor secure when you gain them when it is worst with you do not throw away your Arms nor lay them away when you are at best Now the way to be armed is this the same mind how would my Lord Christ carry himself in this case and what was his business in all places and Companies was it not to do the will and advance the glory of his Father If I be injured and reviled consider how would he do in this would he repay one injury with another one reproach with another reproach No being reviled he reviled not again Well through his strength this shall be my way too Thus ought it to be with the Christian framing all his ways and words and very thoughts upon that model the mind of Christ and to study in all things to walk even as he walked 1. Studying it much as the reason and rule of Mortification 2. Drawing from it as the real Cause and Spring of mortification The pious Contemplation of his Death will most powerfully kill the love of sin in the Soul and kindle an ardent hatred of it The Believer looking on his Jesus crucified for him and wounded for his transgressions and taking in deep thoughts of his spotless Innocency that deserved no such thing and of his matchless love that yet endured it all for him then will he think shall I be a friend to that which was his deadly enemy shall sin be sweet to me that was so bitter to him and that for my sake shall I ever have a favourable thought or lend it a good look that shed my Lord's blood shall I live in that for which he died and died to kill it in me Oh! let it not be To the end it may not be let such really apply that Death to work this on the Soul for this is always to be added and is the main indeed by holding and fastning that Death close to the Soul effectually to kill the effects of sin in it to stiâ—â—e and crush them dead by pressing that death on the heart looking on it not only as a most compleat model but as having a most effectual vertue for this effect and desiring him intreating our Lord himself who communicates himself and the vertue of his death to the Believer that he would powerfully cause it to flow to us and let us feel the vertue of it It s then the only thriving and growing life to be much in the lively Contemplation and Application of Jesus Christ to be continually studying him and conversing with him and drawing from him receiving of his fullness grace for grace Wouldest thou have much power against sin and much increase of holiness let thine eye be much on Christ set thine heart on him let it dwell in him and be still with him When sin is like to prevail in any kind go to him tell him of the insurrection of his enemies and thy inability to resist and desire him to suppress them and to help thee against them that they may gain nothing by their stirring but some new wound If thy heart begin to be taken with and move towards sin lay it before him the beams of his love shall eat out that fire of these sinful lusts Wouldest thou have thy Pride and Passions and love of the World and self love kill'd go suit for the vertue of his death and that shall do it seek his Spirit the Spirit of Meekness and Humility and Divine Love Look on him and he shall draw thy heart heavenwards and unite it to himself and make it like himself And is not that the thing thou desirest Verses 2 3. Ver. 2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God 3. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatries THE Chains of sin are so strong and so fastened on our Nature that there is in us no power to break them off till a mightier and stronger Spirit than our own come into us The Spirit of Christ dropt inâ—o the Soul makes it able to break through an host and leap over a Wall as David speaks of himself furnisht with
you bear them by his Spirit and his Spirit most fit to support you under them yea to raise you above them they are ignominious and inglorious he is the Spirit of glory they are humane reproaches he the Divine Spirit the Spirit of Glory and of God that is the glorious Spirit of God And this is the advantage the less the Christian finds esteem and acceptance in the World the more he turns inward to see what 's there and there he finds a down weight counterpoise of excellency and glory even in this present condition as the pledge of the glory before him The reproaches be fiery but the Spirit of glory resteth upon you doth not give you a passing visit but stays within you and is indeed yours And in this he can take comfort and let the foul weather blow over let all the scoffs and contempts abroad pass as they come having a glorious Spirit within such a guest honouring him with his presence and abode and sweet fellowship and is indeed one with him So that rich Miser could say when they scorned him in the streets he went home to his bags and huggs himself there at that sight say they what they would How much more reasonably may the Christian say let them revile and bark I have riches and honour enough that they see not And this is it makes the World as they are a malicious party so to be an incompetent Judge of the Christians estate they see the rugged unpleasant outside only the right inside their eye cannot reach We were miserable indeed were our comforts such as they could see And as this is the constant estate of a Christian it is usually most manifested to him in the time of his greatest sufferings then as we said he readily turns inward and sees it most and accordingly finds it most God making this happy supplement and compensation that when they have least of the World they have most of himself when they are most covered with the World's disfavour this favour shines brightest to them as Moses in the Cloud in nearest access and speech with God when the Christian is most clouded with distresses and disgraces then doth the Lord often shew himself most clearly to him If you be indeed Christians you will not be so much thinking at any time how you may be free from all sufferings and despisings but rather how you may go strongly and cheerfully through them so here is the way seek real and firm interest in Christ and participance of Christ's Spirit and then a look to him will make all easie and delightful Thou wilt be ashamed within thy self to start back or give one foot at the encounter of a taunt or reproach for him thou wilt think for whom is it is it not for him who for my sake hid not his face from shame and spitting and further he died now how would I meet death for him that shrink at the blast of a scornful word If you would know whether this his Spirit is and resteth in you it cannot be better known than by that very love ardent love to him and high esteem of him and from thence a willingness yea a gladness to suffer any thing for him 2. This Spirit of Glory sets the heart on glory true glory makes heavenly things excellent in our thoughts and sets the World the better and worse the honour and dishonour of it at a low rate The Spirit of the World is a base ignoble Spirit even the highest pitch of it those that are projecting for Kingdoms these are poor designs to that of the Christian which ascend above all things under the Sun and above the Sun it self and therefore he is not shaken with threats nor taken with offers in these things Excellent is that answer St. Basil gives in the person of those Martyrs to that Emperour as making them as he thought great profers to draw them off why say they doest thou bid us so low as pieces of the World we have learnt to despise it all This is not stupid nor an affected stoutness of Spirit but a humble sublimeness that the natural Spirit of a Man cannot reach unto But wilt thou say still this stops me I do not find this Spirit in me if I did then I think I could be willing to suffer any thing To this for present no more but this dâ—est thou find desire that Christ may be glorified and couldâ—â—â—e content it were by thy suffering in any kind for him as called to it art thou willing to give up thine own interest and study and follow Christ's and that thou mightest sacrifice thine own credit and name to advance his art thou unwilling to do any thing that might dishonour him nor unwilling to suffer any thing might honour him or wouldest thou be thus Then be not disputing but up and walk on in his strength Now iâ— any say but his name is dishonoured by these reproaches true says the Apostle on their part it is so but not on yours They that reproach you do their best to make it reflect on Christ and his cause but thus it is only on their part you are sufferers for his name and so you glorifie it your faith and patience and victory by these do declare the Divine power of grace and the Gospel working They have made torturers ashamed and induced some beholders to share with them Thus though the prophane World intend it as far as they could reach to dishonour the profession of Christ yet it â—â—â—cks not but on the contrary he is glorified by your constancy And as the ignominy fastens not but the glory from the endurance so they are obliged and certainly are ready according to the Apostles zeal verse 16. To glorifie God on this behalf that as he is glorified in them so we may glorifie and bless him that he hath dignified us so that whereas we might have been left to a sad sinking task to have suffered for various guilts our God hath changed the tenure and nature of our sufferings and make them to be for the name of Christ. Thus doth not a spiritual mind swell on a conceit of constancy and courage which is the readiest way of self undoing But acknowledge all gift even suffering To you its given not onlâ— to believe but to suffer and so to bless him on that behalf Oh! this 〈◊〉 grows in suffering so Acts 5. 41. They went away rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name Consider it s but a shoâ— while and the wicked and their scoffs shall vanish they shall not be this shame will presently be done and this disgrace is of short date but the glory and Spirit of glory eternal what though thou shouldest be poor and defamed and despised and be the common mark of scorn and all injuries yet 't is hard at the end This is now thy part the scene shall be changed Kings here real ones are in deepest realty but strange