that is not merely that we may have a sense of our being forgiven but it hath a farther aim viz. that we being delivered from anxious and tormenting fears about the pardon of our sins may love God and Christ more may obey more and our obedience may be more free ingenuous natural and constant as that is which flows from Love In a word Faith looks at the Divine Promises that thereby we may be partakers of the Divine Nature for to this end were the Promises given 2 Pet. i. 3. And to this end they are to be applied And when we partake of the Divine Nature our Wills become one with the Divine Will CHAP. VIII That Self-Resignation is that wherein consisteth the power of Godliness and that as it distinguisheth both from the insincere and the weak Christian. VIII THis Self-Resignation as is manifest by the last Chapter is that wherein consisteth the Power of Godliness 't is the great instance proof and expression of it By the Power of Godliness I do not mean that onely which is opposed to an empty form and slight appearnce of Godliness but also Godliness in its strength and vigour that which is powerful as well as sincere and real To suffer no Will to rule in us but what is agreeable to God's Will to regulate all our inordinate desires and unruly passions to cross their cravings and to have the love of the world and all Self-love overcome in us these are the worthy Atchievements of those Souls who are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might These are the mighty Acts of those Christians that quit themselves like men these are the Magnalia the Great things of Religion 1. This Self-Resignation is the onely expression of that power of Godliness that differeth from the false and insincere Christians These are as the Publicans and Sinners so the Pharisees and formal To die to their own will and through the Spirit to mortifie all the deeds of the body is death indeed to these and the King of Terrors The separation of their hearts from the lusts they have cleaved to is like the separation of Soul and body to them and their spirits and lives declare that as much as they may excell in some commendable things here they are sadly short And it is worth our observation that these people being inwardly conscious of their deficiency herein love to represent some outward Observances in Religion as high and hard matters some things that any carnal man may do if he please as well as they as the great instances of the power of Godliness The phrase is very common both in their Lips and Books but it is not therefore to be found in their spirits and lives They are not able to hide their being acted by and under the power of either sins of the flesh or of the spirit They cannot so artificially ape a Christian as not to bewray an inordinate affection to the world either the profits pleasures or honours of it and in too many instances a Will unresigned to his whose Disciples and Followers they pretend to be And from what hath been discoursed it therefore appears that the power of Godliness is but a word in fashion among them a meer sound named but not known and experimented by them There is a form of Godliness which may very well agree with the power of Self-will And men may discover a great zeal for this or that mode and way for these or those opinions and against some certain sins profess a great love to Christ faith in his merits and zeal for his honour they may speak in such a strain of words as is wonderfully taking with the vulgar have notable gifts in discoursing about the things of God and in praying to him and herein discover much life and affection They may strain at Gnats and be very scrupulous in some small and disputable things and yet be self-lovers seek rellish and please themselves be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God covetous envious proud high-minded unrighteous unfaithful unmerciful uncharitable and such as are any one of these for all their specious form are perfect strangers to the power of Godliness Now I would offer that Question of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what do ye more than others What excellent what difficult thing such as is worthy to be thought an instance of the power of Godliness do ye You constantly it may be frequent the publick Worship of God you hear God's Word and read the Bible and religious Books frequently you pray in your Closets and with your Families you do not run with the profane to their excess of riot these are good things and woe be to them that despise or neglect the external duties of Religion but if you do no more than this comes to what extraordinary thing do you May not any man void of the Spirit do the same Thou canst pray without the same form of words thou canst dispute and discourse about matters of Religion and in such a way as is apt to affect others thou canst deny thy self in some things which will not disadvantage thy more beloved sins thou dost reform in some things as to outward garb and deportment but in all this what dost thou more than others Shall the power of Godliness be placed in those things which meer outward notional Christians and unregenerate persons may be as ready and dextrous in as others Alas what are all these and the like to that which the Scripture calls cutting off the right hand plucking out the right eye selling all for the pearl of great price What are these to the mortifying of earthly members to the crucifying of the body of sin to the being dead to sin All which expressions are not to be look'd upon as high Metaphors or Hyperbolical Schemes of Speech but as sober realities and our necessary duty And these are the things wherein that power of Godliness shineth forth which distinguisheth between those that are indeed alive and those which have onely a name to live Thou shewest that thou hast read much and heard much hast had good Education hast kept good company and art of good natural parts but how hast thou prospered in Self-Resignation Art thou more crucified to the world Hast thou more power over thy Spirit Is the power of thy Self-will more broken Art thou more free and ingenuous in thy obedience God looks at the heart the temper and quality of the mind the difference between men and men is mainly within in the influences and impressions of Religion upon their spirits in its bettering their inward frame and by this means mending the outward conversation and course of life 2. Self-Resignation is likewise the onely proof of the power of Godliness in the second sense that as was said which differenceth strong from weak Christians those that are grown nearer to a perfect stature in Christ and others which though they be sincere are but
to us viz. the Jewish Law the Mosaical Rites and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross so should a Christian do with the law in his members or the law of sin and death The nailing it to the Cross of Christ is a most effectual means to take it out of the way The Cross of Christ I say is a proper instrument for the crucifying the old man and the body of sin and the consideration of Christ crucified a powerful Engine mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds to the beating down of all those fortifications sin hath raised in the Soul all imaginations all carnal reasonings and affections every high thing that would exalt it self against the knowledge of God and the obedience of Christ. St. Paul speaks his own experience of the success he found in the serious consideration of Christ crucified Gal. vi 14. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world That is the vanities and hurtful allurements of the world whether they be those of its riches honours or pleasures are become liveless and untempting to me have no energy or force to perswade me to an eager pursuit or fond embracement of them I am so little affected towards them so mortified to them as to place no part of my happiness in such things Now then the meditation on Christ crucified is a means greatly available to the subduing our Self-will and irregular appetites in that 1. His dying on the Cross as the Scripture declares that it was to make atonement and expiation for sin so it affirms that it was also designed to root out and destroy it This is asserted in many Texts Particularly in 1 Pet. ii 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed 2 Cor. v. 14 15. For the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 1 Pet. i. 18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation c. but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot Gal. i. 4. Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father Titus ii 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Rom. viii 3 4. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit 2. Christ's dying on the Cross was designed to be an exemplary pattern of our crucifying the body of sin As his Resurrection is a figure of the Spiritual Resurrection of Christians their rising up to a life holy heavenly and divine so his Death on the Cross is a figure and representation of that Spiritual Death that is to pass upon the old man And because this is a necessary important truth as well as pertinent to the point in hand I shall observe three passages of Scripture to this purpose and a little discant upon them First that in 1 Pet. iv 1. For asmuch 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 suffering in the flesh which the Apostle here tells us we are to imitate our Saviour in is not to be meerly understood of suffering afflictions in the body but of resembling the suffering and dying of Christ in dying unto sin This appears from what next follows he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Some Greek Copies leave out the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that hath suffered or died to the flesh the same with that phrase Rom. vi 2. dead to sin He that hath suffered or died to the flesh or he that hath suffered pain and smart in the flesh in the mortifying of his sinful life and the deeds of the body hath ceased from sin as he that is dead ceaseth from the actions that belong to the natural life This also appears from 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 not live any longer in the gratification of those fleshly appetites that captivate and inslave the greater part of mankind but on the contrary live a life of entire obedience and conformity to the Will of God A second passage to the like purpose is that in Philippians iii. 10. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Which last words are a key to the foregoing and this conformity to the death of Christ implies that it hath in it something of Pattern and exemplary Consideration to be spiritually resembled and imitated by a Christian. There is a knowing of the power of Christ's Resurrection and Sufferings without us as they refer to God the Father in purchasing his favour procuring the Pardon of our sins and Reconciliation with him For Christ was delivered to death for our offences and rose again for our justification Rom. iv 5. And besides there is the knowing of the power of Christ's Death and Resurrection within us there is something to be done and transacted in us that is answerable and bears conformity thereunto There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a partaking of his Sufferings in a spiritual sense when we are enabled by the power of God to suffer the pain and agonies that accompany the crucifying of the flesh or body of sin and to die unto sin as he died for it And there is a partaking of Christ's Resurrection in a spiritual sense when we are enabled to rise to a new and heavenly life when we seek and savour those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God Col. iii. 1. This is that excellent knowledge of Christ for which the Apostle counted all things but loss and dung ver 8. Had he rested in a mere speculative historical knowledge of the Death and Resurrection of Christ without him and been impatient of the energy and power of both within him had he not so known Christ dying and raised again to life as to be spiritually crucified with him
impetuously carried out to all iniquity with greediness so far as it is judged safe and that such or such a sin is not prejudicial to another more beloved sin or to any worldly advantage or Interest The Soul wherein Self-will is set up saith with proud Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him This is another abomination of desolation standing in the holy place erected in the Soul which should be holy to the Lord. Self-will it is an inward and mysterious Antichrist opposing and exalting it self above God it sits as God in the heart that inward temple of God shewing it self that it is God It is an Anti-God and will be obeyed in all things It sets up its threshold by God's threshold and its posts by God's posts In the Scripture the pleasing of our own will is frequently put in the general for all sin In Ecclesiastes xi 9. going on in sinful and wicked courses is exprest by walking in the way of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes In Ieremy mens wickedness is often stiled walking after the imagination of their own heart And in Isaiah lviij 13. doing of sinful actions is called doing thine own ways and finding thine own pleasure In Numbers xv 39. sinning against God is called seeking after thine own heart and thine own eyes And as Self-will is the Root of all Sin so is it likewise the Root of Misery both here and hereafter It being the root of the former it must needs be so of the latter also Sin and Misery being inseparable And as we shewed that the Happiness of Heaven as to the main consists in being transformed into the Divine Image or the having but one Will with God so by consequence the Hellish State doth chiefly consist in a perfect contrariety to God and the Soul's opposition to the Divine Will Therefore is the Devil a most miserable creature because he is made up of Self-will because the Will of God is most grievous to him he sets himself against it and goes about the world solliciting and endeavouring to draw others from complying with it And those with whom he prevails he by so doing makes them as miserable as himself If there were no Self-will there would be no Hell according to that of St. Bernard Cesset voluntas propria infernus non erit Let Self-will cease and there will be no Hell To suppose Self-Resignation in a damned and miserable Soul and Self-will in an happy and glorified one is to suppose the greatest contradictions and inconsistences There can be nothing of Self-Resignation in Hell and nothing of Self-will in Heaven In speaking to the fourth aud fifth Considerations it hath been shewed that it is impossible that that Soul should be miserable which is sincerely and intirely resigned to the Will of God and on the contrary that that Soul cannot but be miserable that wills contrary to him and therefore I shall proceed no farther upon this Argument CHAP. XI That the Love of Christ in dying for Sinners makes the Duty of Self-Resignation most highly reasonable and lays the greatest obligation upon us thereunto XI IN the eleventh place The Love of Christ in dying for us is most powerful to oblige Christians to this great Duty of Self-Resignation Christ's giving himself a Sacrifice and Offering to God in a way of atonement and expiation layeth the strongest engagement on Christians to offer up themselves as a Sacrifice to him in a way of Resignation and Obedience This improvement the Apostle makes of this Consideration 2 Cor. v. 14 15. The Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them What could he more express Should not live unto themselves not please themselves gratifie their own Self-will and Lusts but please Christ do his will give him the preheminence in all things Not seek our own but the things which are Iesus Christs Not minde and pursue our own ease profit and honour chiefly and above all but live to his honour and glory and prefer his Interest before our own The like inference the same Apostle makes in 1 Cor. vi 20. Ye are bought with a price viz. with the precious bloud of Iesus Christ therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's And what is the best way of glorifying God hath been shewed in the third Chapter The Death of Christ is the great manifestation of his Love by the bitterness of his Cup by the depth of his Sorrows and Sufferings for us we may make an Estimate of the exceeding height of his dear affection Behold and see was there any Sorrow like unto his Sorrow and therefore was there any Love like unto his Love Greater love hath no man than this said Christ himself that a man lay down his life for his friends but he laid down his life for us when Enemies Out of Love he left Heaven and the bosom of his Father and the glorious attendance of the Angels and humbled himself to a mean low and afflicted life upon Earth He who was rich became poor that we through his poverty might be rich Such was the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ. Out of Love he died he who was Lord of all the Lord of Glory the brightness of God's Glory and the express Image of his Person he humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross a death of the greatest pain and shame And notwithstanding the pains and sorrows both inward and outward which he felt were inexpressibly great yet after his Resurrection he would have gone into the Garden again gone over his Agony again and drunk that bitter Cup which made his Soul so sorrowful He would have gone to Calvary and been crucified again he would have poured out his life to death again and again if it had so pleased God had it been the will of his Father that he should repeat his Sorrows and Sufferings for the Redemption of man for he knew nothing but to be obedient and perfectly resigned to the Will of his Father This is that Love of Christ which passeth knowledge Love beyond compare Love beyond expressions or conceptions and can there be a more natural a more powerful engagement to Self-Resignation than such a Love Did Christ so freely give himself for thee and shouldest not thou most heartily and willingly give up thy self to him Was all of Christ turned into a Sacrifice for thee and shouldest not thou make an intire Oblation of thy self without any reserve to him It 's not only Ingenuity but Iustice wholly to live to him that died for thee and bought thee with so dear a price Did he suffer such unexpressible pains for us and shall not we be willing to endure some pain and smart which at first will be in denying the sollicitations of our fleshly mind
done and then especially when we are solicited by the Tempter within or without to sin Let us then say with holy David Thy vows are upon me O God I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments Neither hopes nor fears neither the terrours nor allurements of the world shall disswade me from a faithful obedience to them Vows prudently mannaged are of great use to secure us to Religion and this is the onely end of them To vow saith Cajetan is nothing else but to fix the mind and make it immoveable that it may not start back from the practice of Religion And as for those that are shye or slack thus to engage and devote themselves to God which I fear in most proceeds from a too dear affection to some sin or sins let them know that God's Vows are already upon them they are under the Obligation of the Baptismal Vow to renounce the Devil and all his works the vain pomp and glory of the world the covetous desires of the same and the carnal desires of the flesh so as not to follow nor be led by them So much is implied in being baptized in or into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And besides those that have received the Lord's Supper have thereby virtually renewed their Vow in Baptism In this other Sacrament we make a Profession that we offer and present unto God our selves our Souls and Bodies to be a Holy and Lively Sacrifice to him Than which there is nothing more due or reasonable considering the great Love of God in giving his Son for us the great Love of our Saviour Christ in his Death and Sufferings represented in this Sacrament and the great Blessings procured for us by the Bloud of that spotless Lamb. So that all of us young or old have already bound our Souls with a Bond as to vow is described Numb xxx being under the engagement of either one or both these Sacramental Vows and therefore in exhorting you to oblige your selves by solemn Vows to the duties of Religion I do not advise you to a new thing but onely to repeat what you have already done and if you intend to stand to the Vows you have made what should deter you from reiterating them whilst you have need of them But always remember when you vow to the Lord to do it with a trust and faith in his power and all-sufficient Grace and with a distrust of your own natural ability to perform your Vows And when at any time you have failed in the performance of them be deeply humbled before God and renew your Engagements with a greater sense of your weakness and falseness of heart and be more watchful over your selves and let your falls make you more narrowly look to your feet for the time to come 5. Fasting is another means to be used for the mortification of the body of Sin It is of great consequence and necessary to the health of the inward man to keep under the body to humble chastise and bring it into due subjection This was the practice of St. Paul himself who had not such unruly passions and appetites to tame as we have Religious Fasting is of great use to the subduing of the Body to the Spirit and to the starving of corruptions by cutting off their provision as the ungovernable beast is made tame by taking away his provinder And there are a sort of Devils that will not go out without Fasting added to Prayer and other means but 't is most especially of force for the casting out the Vnclean Devil And according as we find we stand in more or less need of this remedy we should oftener or seldomer make use of it CHAP. V. Of the great power and efficacy of Faith in God Faith in his Power and Goodness V. FIfthly The next Direstion I shall give in order to subduin gour Wills to the Will of God is that of our Saviour Have Faith in God Mark xi 22. Have faith in his Power and Goodness this will adde life to our prayers this will animate and strengthen all our endeavours Take heed of doubting whether the Lord's hand be not shortned that it cannot save whether his ear be not heavy that it cannot hear or his bowels shut up that he is not ready to help Take heed of questioning whether thine own Will and selfish desires be not stronger than can be subdued of entertaining suspicious thoughts that after all thy endeavours to win the Spiritual Canaan there will be no arriving at that Land of Rest but that at last thou shalt die in the Wilderness that there is none or but little hope of overcoming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Giant-like mind as the expression is in Ecclesiasticus xxiii 4. and those sons of Anak that thou findest vigorous and strong in thee For by this thine unbelief or weakness of faith thou greatly dishonourest either the Power or Goodness of God who is able and as willing as able to save the Soul that trusteth in him And by this means will the Chariot-wheels of thy Soul be taken off thou wilt extreamly discourage and infeeble thy self and blunt the edge of those weapons wherewith thou art to encounter thy Spiritual Enemies If thy Soul be upright in thee if thou art sincere and hearty in imploring the aids of God's Grace and the assistances of his Spirit and hast faith to be healed and delivered from the Lusts that fight against thee thou shalt undoubtedly see the salvation of the Lord. He will teach thine hands to war and thy fingers to fight he will gird thee with strength and thou shalt be more than conquerour through Christ that loveth thee Though thou hast no might against that great company that cometh against thee against flesh and bloud principalities and powers yet if thou waitest on the Lord and art of good courage he will strengthen thine heart he will strengthen thee with strength in thy soul and through him thou shalt do valiantly and tread down thine enemies He that is in thee will be greater than they that are in the world viz. the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life Take heed therefore of all such reasonings suggestions and principles as tend to beget a despondency and fainting of Spirit but lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees To the Soul that believes all things are possible Let Faith say unto any mountain of difficulty be thou removed and it shall be done Who art thou O great mountain before this blessed Grace and in the exercise of it thou shalt become a plain Thy Self-will and Lusts are therefore strong because thy Faith is weak and thou in that regard makest but a faint resistance But if thou wert strong in the Lord and in the power of his might if thou didst resist stedfast in faith thou shouldest see thine Adversaries flye before thee
and to rise with him to newness of life such a knowledge would not have availed him in the end The third passage is that in Rom. vi 4 5 6. Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection By this likeness of Christ's Death and likeness of his Resurrection it appears that there is a lively resemblance of both which a Christian is obliged to endeavour after Then it follows Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 3. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are very powerful to engage and enable us to the great duties of crucifying worldly lusts and mortifying corrupt affections as they are effectual to work in us the most heart-bleeding sorrow for sin the most vehement hatred and detestation of it and to raise the soul to the greatest degrees of love and ingenuous gratitude 1. To work in us the most heart-bleeding sorrow for sin Who can seriously consider Christ crucified Christ bleeding on the Cross bleeding from the sixth to the ninth hour from our twelve a Clock to three his bleeding Head crowned with sharp thorns his bleeding Hands and Feet and Side I say who can consider this and not bleed within Who can look upon him that was pierced and not be inwardly pierced himself not be prickt to the heart as they are said to be Acts ii 37. at the preaching of Christ crucified And when we consider that he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities or as the words are rendred by some of our transgressions and iniquities When we consider that we have crucified the Lord of Life and Glory that our sins nailed him to the Cross wounded him to the heart and put him to all the grief and pain he underwent how can it be that our hearts should not be wounded within us How can we forbear to express our sorrow for sin in some such words as those of Ieremiah My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears And can we consider his Agony in the Garden the exceeding sorrowfulness of his Soul his extream heaviness and sore amazement his strong crying and tears and his sweating great drops of bloud and not be melted into holy mournings and relentings for our sins and for all our unkind and unworthy behaviour towards Christ who thus suffered for us How hard is that heart which the so great and dolorous sufferings of our Saviour cannot melt and dissolve At the Passion of Christ besides other Prodigies it is said the rocks rent and are our hearts harder than rocks not to be affected with remorse at the consideration of Christ crucified It is Saint Hierom's observation When Christ died all creatures were his fellow-sufferers the sun was eclipsed the earth shook the rocks were cleft in sunder the veil of the Temple was rent in twain the graves opened Man alone for whom onely Christ died suffered not with him Certainly if the consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings for our sakes cannot prevail to melt our hearts into an holy sorrow for our sins nothing will ever do it And if it hath such a peculiar and soveraign efficacy to work an heart-bleeding sorrow for Sin it will consequently be very effectual to the disengaging us from it to the taking us off from all those vanities and lusts which were formerly most dear and pleasing to us If we are grieved at the heart for our Self-will Self-love and manifold disobediences we will not continue to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 2. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are effectual to work in us the most vehement hatred and detestation of Sin It appears from thence how hateful and abominable a thing Sin is to God who is original Rectitude and infinite Purity For how could he demonstrate a greater antipathy and displeasure against Sin than in being pleased to bruise and put to grief the Son of his love and to give up the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person to inexpressible dolours to the end he might make expiation for it If Sin were a sleight inconsiderable thing if it were not a thing of a most odious and vile nature a high injury to God and of sad and dismal consequence to man he would not have required such a Sacrifice for it This consideration must needs be most forceable to the working in us detestation of Sin whatsoever grace and favour it hath found in our eyes Suppose we our selves to have seen Christ in the last Scene of his Sufferings and to have accompanied him from the Garden of Gethsemene where he was in his Agony and sweat drops of bloud to the High Priests house thence to the Judgment Hall before Pilate thence to Mount Calvary in which places he was reproached spit upon the face scourged and at last nailed alive to the Cross And suppose him speaking to us as in another sence Pilate spake of him Behold your King Behold your Lord and Saviour See the wounds which your Sins have given me See how they have torn my flesh and despitefully used me But the unseen wounds the inward sorrows of my Soul are such as the heart of man cannot conceive as neither hath the eye seen nor the ear heard what may compare to them Thus have your lusts dealt with me and in all this see their cruelty If we had I say beheld our blessed Lord in his direful Sufferings and heard him thus expressing himself to us do we think we could still cherish and entertain hug and embrace those Enemies of his which have put him to all this shame and torment But if we have an inward knowledge and feeling of Christ crucified it will most undoubtedly inflame us into a just indignation against those Lusts which suckt the Life-bloud of Christ which slew and crucified the Lord of Glory We shall say concerning them what the Iews cried concerning him Away with them away with them they are not worthy to live Let these murderers of the just one die the death but let Iesus live and let the Life of Christ be manifested in us How can that be longer sweet to me which made Christ's Cup so exceeding bitter How can I delight in that which made his Soul sorrowful unto death How shall that be my pleasure which was his pain and put him to grief such grief that there was no sorrow like unto his sorrow How should I glory in that which put him to such an open shame 3. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are powerful to raise the Soul to the greatest degrees of Love and Gratitude We have already shewn