House The next day Mr. Goodman the Minister of the Parish meeting the young man walking about his ground asked him how he did he answered very well but before the Minister was gone far from him his bowels fell out which he carried in his hands got to his house sent for Mr. Goodman bitterly bewailed his sin against his Father and so died And Dr. Taylor in his great exemplar tells us of another that upon discontent with his Father wisht the House might be on fire if ever he came any more into his Fathers House Afterwards coming in it was fired indeed and this wicked Son only consumed I could multiply instances of this nature for indeed the Righteous Judgement of God hath multiplied them But this only for a taste Thirdly Heathens will rise up in Judgement against you and condemn you They never had such precepts nor presidents as you and yet some of the better natured Heathens would have rather chosen death than to do as you do You remember the story of Croesus his dumb son whose dear affections could make him speak when he saw Croesus in danger though he never spake before yet then he could cry out O do not kill my Father But what speak I of Heathens the Stork in the heavens yea the Beasts of the earth will condemn the disobedience of Children Fourthly These are sins inconsistent with the true fear of God in whomsoever they are found That a man is indeed which he is in his family and among his relations He that is a bad child can never be a good Christian. Either bring testimonials of your godliness from your relations or it may be well suspected to be no better than counterfeit Never talk of your obedience to God whilst your disobedience to the just commands of Parents gives you the lie Fifthly A parting time is coming when death will break up the family and when that time comes Oh how bitter will the remembrance of these things be When you shall see a Father or a Mother lying by the wall what a cut will it be to remember your miscarriages and evils They are gone out of your reach you cannot now if you would give them any satisfaction for what you have done against them but oh how bitter will the remembrance of these things be at such a time Surely this will be more insupportable to you than their death if the Lord open your eyes and give you repentance and if not then Sixthly What a terrible thing will it be to have a Father or Mother come in as witnesses against you at Christs Bar As well as they loved you and as dear as you were to them in this world they must give evidence against you then Now what a fearful thing is it for you but to imagine your Parents to come before the Lord and say Lord I have given this child many hundred reproofs for sin I have counselled perswaded and used all means to reclaim him but in vain he was a child of disobedience nothing could work upon him What think you of this Inference 2. Have you such a pattern of obedience and tender love to Parents then children imitate your pattern as it becomes Christians and take Christ for your example Whatsoever your Parents be see that you carry it towards them becoming such as profess Christ. First If your Parents be godly O beware of grieving them by any unbecoming carriage Art thou a Christian indeed thou wilt then reckon thy self obliged in a double bond both of grace and nature to them O what a mercy would some children esteem it if they had Parents that feared the Lord as you have Secondly If they be carnal walk circumspectly in the most precise and punctual discharge of your Duties for how knowest thou O Child but hereby thou maist win thy Parents Wouldst thou but humbly and seriously intreat and perswade them to mind the waies of holiness speaking to them at fit seasons with all imaginable humility and reverence Insinuating your advice to duties or trouble for their evils rather by relating some pertinent History or proposing some excellent example leaving their own Consciences to draw the conclusion and make applicaâ—ion than to do it your selves it 's possible they may ponder your words in their hearts as Mary did Christs Luk. 2.49 51. And would you but back all this with your earnest cries to Heaven for them and your own daily example that they may have nothing from your selves to retort upon you and thus wait with patience for the desired effect O what blessed instruments might you be of their everlasting good Inference 3. To conclude let those that have such Children as fear the Lord and endeavour to imitate Christ in those daies account them a singular treasure and heritage from the Lord and give them all due incouragement to their duties How many have no Children at all but are as a dry tree And how many have such as are worse than none The very reproaches and break-hearts of their Parents that bring down their hoary heads with sorrow to the grave If God have given you the blessing of godly Children you can never be sufficiently sensible of or thankful for such a favour O that ever God should honour you to bring forth Children for Heaven What a comfort must this be to you what ever other troubles you meet with abroad when you come home among godly relations that are careful to sweeten your own family to you by their obedience Especially what a comfort is it when you come to die that you leave them within the Covenant Entitled to Christ and so need not be anxious how it shall be with them when you are gone Take heed of discouraging or damping such Children from whom so much glory is like to rise to God and so much comfort to your selves Thus let Christs pattern be improved who went before you in such eminent holiness in all his relations and left you an example that you should follow in his steps The THIRTY SECOND SERMON LUK. XXIII XLIII And Iesus said unto him verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise IN this Scripture you have the third excellent saying of Christ upon the Cross expressing the riches of free grace to the penitent Thief A man that had spent his life in wickedness and for his wickedness was now to lose his life His practice had been vile and profane but now his heart was broken for it he proves a Convert yea the first fruits of the blood of the Cross. In the former verse he manifests his faith Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom In this Christ manifests his pardon and gratious acceptance of him verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise In which Promise are considerable the Matter of it the Person to whom it is made the Time set for its Performance and the Confirmation of it for his
those holy ones that rose at that time and appeared to many in the holy City Thus was the funeral of our Lord performed by men Thus was iâ— adorned by Miracles from heaven Vse And now we have seen Jesus interred He that wears at his girdle the Keys of Hell and Death himself locked up in the Grave What shall I say of him whom they now laid in the Grave Shall I undertake to tell you what he was What he did suffered and deserved Alas The tongues of Angels must pause and stammer in such a work I may truly say as Nazianzen said of Basil no tongue but his own can sufficiently commend and praise him He is a Sun of righteousness a fountain of life a bundle of Love Of him it might be said in that day Here lies the lovely Jesus in whom is treasured up whatsoever an angry God can require for his satisfaction or an empty creature for his perfection Before him was none like him and after shall none arise comparable to him If every leaf and spire of grass saith one nay all the Stars Sands and Atomes were so many Souls and Seraphims whose love should double in them every moment to all eternity yet would it fall infinitly short of what his worth and excellency exacts Suppose a creature compos'd of all the choice endowments that ever dwelt in the best of men since the Creation of the World in whom you find a meek Moses a strong Sampson a faithful Ionathan a beautiful Absolom a rich and wise Solomon nay and add to this the understanding strength agility splendor and holiness of all the Angels it would all amount but to a dark shadow of this incomparable Jesus Who ever weighed Christ in a pair of ballances saith another who hath seen the foldings and plyes the heights and depths of that glory which is in him O for such a heaven as but to stand afar off and see and love and long for him while times thred be cut and this great work of Creation dissolved O if I could yoke in among the thick of Angels and Seraphims and now glorified Saints and could raise a new Love song of Christ before all the world I am pained with wondering at new opened treasures in Christ. If every finger member bone and joynt were a torch burning in the hottest fire in hell I would they could all send out love praises high songs of praise for ever more to that plant of renown to that Royal and high Prince Jesus my Lord. But alas his love swelleth in me and finds no vent I marr his praises nay I know no comparison of what Christ is and what he is worth All the Angels and all the glorified praise him not so much as in halves Who can advance him or utter all his praise O if I could praise him I would rest content to die of Love for him O would to God I could send in my praises to my incomparable well beloved or cast my Love songs of that matchless Lord Jesus over the walls that they might light in his lap before men and Angels But whâ—n I have spoken of him till my head rive I have said just nothing I may begin again A God-head a God-head is a worlds wonder Set ten thousand thousand new made worlds of Angels and Elect men and double them in number ten thousand thousand thousand times let their hearts and tongues be ten thousand times more agile and large than the hearts and tongues of the Seraphims that stand with six wings before him when they have said all for the glorifying and praising of the Lord Jesus they have spoken little or nothing O if I could wear this tongue to the stump in extolling his highness But it is my daily sorrow that I am confounded with his incomparable Love Thus have his enamoured friends faintly expressed his excellencies and if they have therein done any thing they have shewn the impossibility of his due praises Come and see believing souls look upon dead Jesus in his winding-sheet by Faith and say Lo this is he of whom the Church said my beloved is White and Ruddy his ruddiness is now gone and a death pale hath prevailed over all his body but still as lovely as ever yea altogether lovely If David lamenting the death of Saul and Ionathan said Daughters of Ierusalem weep over Saul who cloathed you in Scarlet with other delights who put on ornaments of Gold upon your apparel Much rather may I say children of Sion weep over Jesus who cloathed you with righteousness and garments of Salvation This is he who quitted the throne of glory left the bosom of unspeakable delights came in a body of flesh produced in perfect holiness brake through many and great impediments thy great unworthiness the wrath of God and man by the strength of love to bring salvation home to thy soul. Can he that believingly considers this do less than faint at the sense of that love that brought him to the dust of death and cry out with that Father my Love was Crucified But I will insist no longer upon generals but draw down the particulars of Christs Funeral to your use in the following Corollaries Corollary 1. Was Christ buried in this manner then a decent and mournful Funeral where it can be had is laudable among Christians I know the souls of the Saints have no concernment for their bodies nor are they solicitous how the body is treated here yet there is a respect due to them as they are the Temples wherein God hath been serv'd and honoured by those holy souls that once dwelt in them As also upon the account to their relation to Christ even when they lie by the walls And the glory that will be one day put upon them when they shall be changed and made like unto Christs glorious body Upon such special accounts as these their bodies deserve an honourable treatment as well as upon the account of humanity which owes this honour to the bodies of all men To have no funeral is accounted a Judgement Eccles. 7.4 Or to be tumbled into a pit without any to lament us is lamentable We read of many solemn and mournful funerals in Scripture wherein the people of God have affectionatly paid their respects and honours to the dust of the Saints as men that were deeply sensible of their worth and how great a loss the world sustains by their remove Christs funeral had as much of decency and solemnity in it as the time would permit though he was a stranger to all pomp both in life and death Corollary 2. Did Ioseph and Nicodemus so boldly appear at a time of so much danger to beg the body and give it a funeral let it be for ever a caution to strong Christians not to despise or glory over the weak You see here a couple of poor low spirited and timorous persons that were afraid to be seen in Christs company when the
So that no man can be his own Priest to reconcile himself to God by what he can do or suffer And therefore one that is able by doing and suffering to reconcile him must undertake it or we perish Thus you see plainly and briefly the general nature and necessity of Christs Priesthood From both these several useful Corollarys or practical deductions offer themselves Corollary 1. This shews in the first place the incomparable excellency of the reformed Christian Religion above all other Religions known to or professed in the world What other Religions seek the Christian Religion only finds even a solid foundation for true peace and settlement of conscience While the Iews seek it in vain in the Law the Mahumetan in his external and ridiculous observances the Papist in his own merits the Believer only finds it in the blood of this great sacrifice this and nothing less than this can pacifie a disâ—â—â—â—sed conscience labouring under the weight of its own guilt Conscience demands no less to satisfie it than God demands to satisfie him The grand inquest of conscience is Is God satisfied If he be satisfied I am satisfied Woful is the state of that man that feels the worm of conscience nibling on the most tender part of the soul and hath no relief against it That feels the intollerable scalding wrath of God burning within and hath nothing to cool it Hear me you that slight troubles of conscience that call them fancies and melancholly whimsies if you ever had had but one sick night for sin if you had ever felt that shame fear horror and despair which are the dismal effects of an accusing and condemning conscience you would account it an unspeakable mercy to hear of a way for the discharge of a poor sinner from that guilt You would kiss the feet of that messenger that could bring you tydings of peace You would call him blessed that should direct you to an effectual remedy Now whoever thou art that pinest away in thine iniquities that droopest from day to day under the present wounds and dismal presages of conscience know that thy soul and peace can never meet till thou art perswaded to come to this blood of sprinkling The blood of this sacrifice speaks better things than the blood of Abel The blood of this sacrifice is the blood of God Act. 20.28 invaluably pretious blood 1 Pet. 1.18 one drop of it infinitely excels the blood of all other creatures Heb. 10.4 5 6. Such is the blood that must do thee good Lord I must have such blood saith conscience as is capable of giving thee full satisfaction or it can give me no peace The blood of all the Cattle upon a thousand Hills cannot do this What is the blood of beasts to God The blood of all the men in the world can do nothing in this case What is our polluted blood worth No no it 's the blood of God that must satisfie both thee and me Yea Christs blood is not only the blood of God but it 's blood shed in thy stead and in thy place and room Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us And so it becomes sin pardoning blood Heb. 9.22 Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Rom. 3.26 And consequently conscience pacifying and soul quieting blood Col. 1.20 Eph. 2.13 14. Rom. 3.26 O bless God that ever the news of this blood came to thine ears With hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven admire that grace that cast thy lot in a place where this joyful sound rings in the ears of poor sinners What had thy case been if thy mother had brought thee forth in the desarts of Arabia or in the wastes of America or what if thou hadst been nursed up by a Popish father who could have told thee no other remedy when in distress for sin but to go such a pilgrimage to whip and lash thy self to satisfie an angry God! Surely the pure light of the Gospel shining upon this generation is a mercy never to be duly valued never to be enough prized Corollary 2. Hence also be informed of the necessity of faith in order to a state and sense of peace with God For to what purpose is the blood of Christ our sacrifice shed unless it be actually and personally applyed and appropriated by faith You know when the sacrifices under the Law were brought to be slain he that brought it was to put his hand upon the head of his sacrifice and so it was accepted from him to make an attonement Lev. 1.4 Not only to signifie that now it was no more his but Gods the propriety being transferred by a kind of manumission nor yet that he voluntarily gave it to the Lord as his own free act but principally it noted the putting off his sins and the penalty due to him for them upon the head of the sacrifice and so it implyed in it an execration as if he had said upon thy head be the evil So the Learned observe the Ancient Aegyptians were wont expresly to imprecate when they sacrificed If any evil be coming upon us or upon Aegypt let it turn and rest upon this head laying their hand at these words on the sacrifices head And upon that ground saith the Historian none of them would eat of the head of any living creature You must also lay the hand of faith upon Christ your sacrifice not to imprecate but apply and appropriate him to your own souls he having been made a curse for you To this the whole Gospel tends even to perswade sinners to apply Christ and his blood to their own souls To this he invited us Matth. 11.28 Come unto me ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest For this end our sacrifice was lifted up upon the Altar Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Effects of the Law not only upon the conscience filling it with torments but upon the whole person bringing death upon it are here shadowed out by the stingings of fiery Serpents and Christ by the brazen Serpent which Moses exalted for the Israelites that were stunâ— to look unto And as by looking to it they were healed so by believing or looking to Christ in faith our souls are healed Those that looked not to the Brazen Serpent died infallibly so must all that look not to Jesus our sacrifice by faith It 's true the death of Christ is the meritorious cause of remission but faith is the instrumental applying cause and as Christs blood is necessary in its place so is our faith in its place also For to the actual remission of sin and peace of conscience there must be a co-operation of all the causes of remission and peace As there is the grace and love of God for an efficient and impulsive cause and the death of Christ our
he goeth to another come and he cometh meaning that as his souldiers were at his beck and command so diseases were at Christs beck to come and go as he ordered them Secondly Study the wisdom of Christ in the contrivance of your troubles And his wisdom shines out many waies in them It 's evident in choosing such kinds of troubles for you This and not that because this is more apt to work upon and purge out the corruption that most predominates in you In the decrees of your troubles Suffering them to work to such an height else not reach their end but no higher least they overwhelm you Thirdly Study the tenderness and compassions of Christ over his afflicted O think if the Devil had but the mixing of my cup how much more bitter would he make it There would not be one drop of mercy no not of sparing mercy in it which is the lowest of all sorts of mercy But here is much mercy mixed with my troubles There is mercy in this that it is no worse Am I afflicted it 's the Lords mercy I am not consumed Lam. 3.22 it might have been Hell as well as this There is mercy in his supports under it Others have and I might have been left to sink and perish under my burdens Mercy in deliverance out of it This might have been everlasting darkness that should never have had a morning O the tenderness of Christ over his afflicted Fourthly Study the love of Christ to thy soul in affliction Did he not love thee he would not sanctifie a rod to humble or reduce thee but let thee alone to rot and perish in thy sin Rev. 3.19 whom I love I rebuke and chasten This is the device of love to recover thee to thy God and prevent thy ruine O what an advantage would it be thus to study Christ in all your evils that befal you Secondly Eye and study Christ in all the good you receive from the hand of providence Turn both sides of your mercies and view them in all their lovely circumstances First Eye them in their suitableness How conveniently Providence hath ordered all things for thee Thou hast a narrow heart and a small estate suitable to it Hadst thou more of the world it would be like a large sail to a little boat which would quickly pull thee under water Thou hast that which is most suitable to thee of all conditions Secondly Eye the seasonableness of thy mercies how they are timed to an hour Providence brings forth all its fruits in due season Thirdly Eye the peculiar nature of thy mercies Others have common thou special ones Others have but a single thou a double sweetness in thy enjoyments one natural from the matter of it another spiritual from the way in which and end for which it comes Fourthly Observe the order in which providence sends you your mercies See how one is linked strangely to another and is a door to let in many Sometimes one mercy is introductive to a thousand Fifthly and Laslty Observe the constancy of them they are new every morning Lam. 3.23 How assiduously doth God visit thy soul and body Think with thy self if there were but a suspension of the care of Christ for one hour that hour would be thy ruine Thousands of evils stand round about thee watching when Christ will but remove his eye from thee that they may rush in and devour thee Could we thus study the providence of Christ in all the good and evil that befalls us in the world then in every state we should be content Phil. 4.11 Then we should never be stopt but furthered in our way by all that falls out Then would our experiences swell to great volumes which we might carry to Heaven with us And then should we answer all Christs ends in every state he brings us into Do this and say Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The EIGHTEENTH SERMON PHIL. II. VIII And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross. YOU have heard how Christ was invested with the Offices of Prophet Priest and King for the carrying on the blessed design of our Redemption the excution of these Offices necessarily required that he should be both deeply abased and highly exalted He cannot as our Priest offer up himself a Sacrifice to God for us except he be humbled and humbled to death He cannot as a King powerfully apply the vertue of that his Sacrifice except he be exalted yea highly exalted Had he not stooped to the low estate of a man he had not as a Priest had a Sacrifice of his own to offer as a Prophet he had not been fit to teach us the will of God so as that we should be able to bear it as a King he had not been a suitable head to the Church And had he not been highly exalted that Sacrifice had not been carried within the vail before the Lord. Those discoveries of God could not have been universal effectual and abiding The Government of Christ could not have secured protected and defended the Subjects of his Kingdom The infinite wisdom prospecting all this ordered that Christ should first be deeply humbled then highly exalted both which states of Christ are presented to us by the Apostle in this context He that intends to build high lays the foundation deep and low Christ must have a distinct glory in Heaven transcending that of Angels and men For the Saints will know him from all others by his glory as the Sun is known from the lesser Stars And as he must be exalted infinitely above them so he must first in order thereunto be humbled and abased as much below them His form was mar'd more than any mans and his visage more than the Sons of men The ground colours are a deep sable which afterward are laid on with all the splendor and glory of Heaven Method requires that we first speak to this state of Humiliation And to that purpose I have read this Scripture to you which pesents you the Sun under an almost total eclipse He that was beautiful and glorious Isai. 4.2 Yea glorious as the only begotten of the Father Ioh. 1.14 yea the glory Iames 2.1 Yea the splendor and brightness of the Fathers glory Heb. 1.3 was so vail'd clouded and debased that he looked not like himself a God no nor scarce as a man for with reference to this humbled state it 's said Psal. 22.6 I am a worm and no man q. d. rather write me worm than man I am become an abject among men as that word Isai. 53.3 signifies This humiliation of Christ we have here expressed in the nature degrees and duration or continuance of it First The nature of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he humbled himself The word imports both are all and voluntary abasement Real he did not personate a humbled man nor act the part of one in
Canaan Many a man lost his life and much blood shed the very land flowing with milk and honey was first made to flow with blood e're Israel could inherit the promise Seven nations were destroyed e're the Land of Canaan was divided to the Israelites Act. 13.19 Sin makes mercy so deadly hard to bring forth To Christen every pretious child every Benâ—amin Benoni every son of Gods right hand a son of sorrow and death to her that brings him forth Adams sweets had no bitter till he transgressed Gods will One mercy did not die to bring forth another till he died But oh how should this raise the value of â—ur mercies What the price of blood the price of pretious blood the blood of the Cross O what an esteem should this raise Things as the same ingenious Author adds are prized rather as they come than as they are Far fetcht and dear bought makes all the price and gives all the worth with us weak creatures Upon this ground the Scripture when it speaks of our great fortune tells the great price it cost as eying our weakness who look more at what things cost than at what they are And as knowing if any thing will take with us this will To him that loved us and washed us from our sin in his own blood Rev. 1.5 Man is a Legal creature and looks much at what is given for a thing What did this cost Why it cost Christs own blood Colour is more than the cloth with us and scarlet colour is a general taking colour and therefore is Christs garments dipt in blood and he admired in this habit Who is this that comes from Edom with garments dyed red from Bozra Beware then you abuse not not any of the mercies that Christ brought forth with so many bitter pangs and throws And let all this endear Christ more than ever to you and make you in a deep sense of his grace and love to say Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTY SEVENTH SERMON LUK. XXIII XXXVIII And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latine and Hebrew This is the King of the Iews BEfore I pass on to the manner of Christs death I shall consider the Title affixed to the Cross in which very much of the wisdom of providence was discovered It was the manner of the Romans that the equity of their proceedings might the more clearly appear to the people when they crucified any man to publish the cause of his death in a Table written in Capital Letters and placed over the head of the crucified And that there might be at least a shew and face of Justice in Christs death he also shall have his title or superscription The worst and most unrighteous actions labour to cover and shroud themselves under pretensions of equity Sin is so shameful a thing that it cares not to own its name Christ shall have a Table written for him also This writing one Evangelist calls the Accusation Matth. 27.37 Another calls it the Title Joh. 19.19 Another the Inscription or Superscription so the Text. And another the Superscription of his Accusation Mark 15.26 In short it was a fair legible writing intended to express the fact or crime for which the person died This was their usual manner though sometime we find it was published by the voice of the common Cryer As in the case of Attalus the martyr who was led about the Amphitheater one proclaiming before him This is Attalus the Christian. But it was customary and usual to express the crime in a written Table as the Text expresses it Wherein these three things offer themselves to your consideration First The Character or Description of Christ contained in that writing And he is described by his Kingly dignity This is the King of the Iews That very office which but a little before they had reproached and derided bowing the knee to him in mockery saying Hail King of the Iews the providence of God so orders it that therein he shall be vindicated and honoured This is the King of the Iews Or as the other Evangelists compleat it This is Iesus of Nazareth the King of the Iews Secondly The person that drew his Character or Title It was Pilate he that but now condemned him he that was his Iudge shall be his Herald to proclaim his glory For the Title is honourable Surely this was not from himself for he was Christs enemy but rather than Christ should want a tongue to clear him the tongue of an enemy shall do it Thirdly The time when this honour was done him it was when he was at the lowest ebb of his glory when shame and reproach were heaped on him by all hands When all the Disciples had forsaken him and were fled Not one left to proclaim his innocency or speak a word in his vindication Then doth the providence of God as strangely as powerfully overrule the heart and pen of Pilate to draw this Title for him and affix it to his Cross. Surely we must look higher than Pilate in this thing and see how providence serves it self by the hands of Christs adversaries Pilate writes in honour of Christ and stiftly defends it too Hence our observation is DOCT. 1. That the dignity of Christ was openly proclaimed and defended by an enemy and that in the time of his greatest reproaches and Sufferings To open this mystery of providence to you that you may not stand idly gazing upon Christs Title as many then did we must first consider the nature and quality of this Title Secondly what hand the providence of God had in this matter Thirdly and then draw forth the proper Uses and improvements of it First To open the nature and quality of Christs Title or Inscription let it be throughly considered and we shall find First That it was an extraordinary Title varying from all examples of that kind and directly crossing the main design and end of their own custom For as I hinted before the end of it was to clear the equity of their proceedings and shew the people how justly they suffered those punishments inflicted on them for such crimes But Lo here is a Title expressing no crime at all and so vindicating Christs innocency This some of them perceived and moved Pilate to change it not this is but this is he that said I am the King of the Jews In that as they conceived lay his Crime O how strange and wonderful a thing was this But what shall we say It was a day of wonders and extraordinary things As there was never such a person Crucified before so there never was such a Title affixed to the Cross before Secondly As it was an extraordinary so it was a publick Title both written and published with the greatest advantages of spreading it self far and near among all people that could be For it was written in three Languages and those most known
when not by way of comfort Thy God Christian can in like manner support thee when all sensible comforts shrink away together from thy soul and body in one day Lastly It deserves a remark that this comfortless forsaken condition of Christ immediately preceded the day of his greatest glory and comfort Naturalists observe the greatest darkness is a little before the dawning of the morning 'T was so with Christ it may be so with thee It was but a little while and he had better company than theirs that forsook him Act therefore your faith upon this that the most glorious light usually follows the thickest darkness The louder your Groans are now the louder your Triumphs hereafter will be The Horror of your present will but add to the Luâ—ter of your future state The TWENTY NINTH SERMON ISAI LIII VII He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth HOW our Lord Jesus Christ carried on the work of our Redemption in his humbled state both in his incarnation life and death hath in part been discovered in the former Sermons I have shewed you the kind or nature of that death he died and am now engaged by the method proposed to open the manner of his death The solitariness or loneliness of Christ in his sufferings was the subject of the last Sermon The patience and meekness of Christ in his sufferings comes in order to be opened in this This Chapâ—er treats wholly of the sufferings of Christ and the blessed fruits thereof Hornebeck tells us of a Learned Jew that ingeniously confessed this very Chapter converted him to the Christian Faith And such delâ—ght he had in it that he read it more than a thousand times over Such is the clearness of this Prophesie that he who Pen'd it is deservedly stiled the Evangelical Prophet I cannot allow time to analize the Chapter but my work lying in the seventh verse I shall speak to these two branches or parâ—s of it viz. The grievous sufferings of Christ and the glorious ornament he put upon them First Christs grievous sufferings he was afflicted and he was oppressed brought to the slaughter and shorn as a sleep i. â— he lost both fleece and blood Life and the comforts of Lifâ— He was oppressed the word signifies both to Answer and oppress humble or depress The other word rendred afflicted signifies to exact and afflict and so implys Christ to stand before God as a surety before the Creditor who exacts the utmost satisfaction from him by causing him to suffer according to the utmost rigour and severity of the Law It did not suffice that he was shorn as a Sheep i. e. that he was stript and deprived oâ— his riches ornaments and comforts but his blood and life must go for it also He is brought to the slaughter These were his grievous Sufferings Secondly Here is the glorious ornament he put upon those grievous sufferings even the ornament of a meek and patient Spirit He opened not his mouth But went as a sheep to be shorn or a Lamb to the slaughter The Lamb goes as quietly to the slaughter-house as to the fold By this lively and lovely similitude the patience of Christ is here expressed to us Yet Christs duâ—â—ness and silence is not to be understood Simply and universally as though he spake nothing at all when he suffered for he uttered many excellent and weighty words upon the Cross as you shall hear in the following Discourses but it must be understood respectively i. e. he never opened his mouth repiningly passionately or revengefully uâ—â—er his greatest tortures and highest provocations Whence the noâ—e is DOCT. That Iesus Christ supported the burden of his sufferings with admirable patience and meekness of Spirit It is a true observation that meekness inviteth injury but allways to its own cost And it was evidently verified in the sufferings of Christ. Christs meekness triumphed over the affronts and injuries of his enemies much more than they triumphed over him Patience never had a more glorious triumph than it had upon the Cross. The Meekness and Patience of his Spirit amidst injuries and provocations is excellently set forth in 1 Pet. 2.22 23. Who did no Sin neither was guile found in his mouth Who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously In this point we have these three things to open Doctrinally First the burden of sufferings and provocations that Jesus Christ was oppressed with Secondly the meekness and admirable patience with which he supported that burden Thirdly the causes and grounds of that perfect patience which he then exercâ—sed First The burden of sufferings and provocations which Christ supported was very great For on him met all sorts and kinds of trouble at once and those in their highest degrees and fullest strength Troubles in his soul and these were the soul of his troubles His soul was laden with Spiritual horrors and troubles as deep as it could swim Mar. 14.33 He began to be sore amazed and very heavy The wrath of an infinite dreadful God beat him down to the dust His body full of pain and exquisite tortures in every part Not a member or sense but was the â—eat and subject of torment His name and honour suffered the vilest indignities blasphemies and horrid reproaches that the malâ—gnity of Satan and wicked men could belch our against it He was call'd a Blasphemer Seditions one that had a Devil a Gluttonâ— a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Hariots The Carpenters Son this fellow He that was Gods Fellow as you heard lately now this Fellow Contempt was poured upon all his Offices Upon his Kingly Office when they crowned him with Thorns arrayed him in purple bowed the knee in mockery to him and cry'd hail King of the Jews His Prophetical Office when they blinded him and then bid him Prophesie who smote him His Priestly Office when they reviled him upon the Cross saying he saved others himself he cannot save They scourged him Spit in his face Smote him on the head and face Besides the very kind of death they put him to was reproachful and ignominious as you heard before Now all this and much more than this meeting at once upon an innocent and dignified person One that was greater than all That lay in the bosom of God And from eternity had his smiles and honours Upon one that could have crushed all his enemies as a moth I say for him to bear all this without the least discomposure of Spirit or breach of Patience is the highest triumph of Patience that ever was in the world It was one of the greatest wonders of that wonderful day Secondly And that is the next thing we have to consider even this almighty patience
been long preparing for it but the suddenness and greatness of the change is amazing to our thoughts For a soul to be now here in the body conversing with men living among sensible objects and within a few moments to be with the Lord. This hour on earth the next in the third heavens Now viewing this world and anon standing among an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of the Just made perfect O what a change is this What! but wink and see God! Commend thy soul to Christ and be transferred in the arms of Angels into the invisible world the world of Spirits To live as the Angels of God! To live without eating drinking sleeping To be lifted up from a bed of sickness to a Throne of Glory To leave a sinful troublesom world a sick and pained body and be in a moment perfectly cured and feel thy self perfectly well and free from all troubles and distempers You cannot think what this will be Who can tell what sights what apprehensions what thoughts what frames believing souls have before the bodies they left are removed from the eyes of their dear surviving friends Inference 2. Are believers immediatly with God after their dissolution Where then shall unbelievers be and in what state will they find themselves immediatly after death hath closed their eyes Ah what will the case of them be that go the other way To be pluckt out of house and body from among friends and comforts and thrust into endless miseries into the dark vault of Hell never to see the light of this world any more Never to see a comfortable sight Never to hear a joyful sound Never to know the meaning of rest peace or delight any more O what a change is here To exchange the smiles and honours of men for the frowns and fury of God To be cloathed with flames and drink the pure unmixed wrath of God who was but a few days since cloathed in silks and fill'd with the sweet of the creature how is the state of things altered with thee It was the lamentable cry of poor Adrian when he felt death approaching Oh my poor wandring soul alas whither art thou now going Where must thou lodge this night Thou shalt never jest more never be merry more Your term in your houses and bodies is out and there is another habitation provided for you but 't is a dismal one When a Saint dyes heaven above is as it were moved to receive and entertain him at his coming he is received into everlasting habitations Into the inheritance of the Saints in light When an unbeliever dies we may say of him alluding to Isa. 14.9 Hell from beneath is moved for him to meet him at his coming it stirreth up the dead for him No more sports nor plays no cups of wine nor beds of pleasure The more of these you enjoyed here the more intolerable will this change be to you If Saints are immediately with God others must be immediatly with Satan Inference 3. How little cause have they to fear death who shall be with God so soon after their death Some there are that tremble at the thoughts of death That cannot endure to hear its name mentioned That would rather stoop to any misery here yea to any sin than die because they are afraid of the exchange but you that are interessed in Christ need not do so You can lose nothing by the exchange The words Death Grave and Eternity should have another kind of sound in your ears And make contrary impressions upon your hearts If your earthly Tabernacles cast you out you shall not be found naked You have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And it is but a step out of this into that O what fair sweet and lovely thoughts should you have of that great and last change But what speak I of your fearlesness of death Your Duty lies much higher than that far Inference 4. If Believers are immediatly with God after their dissolution then it 's their Duty to long for their dissolution And cast many a longing look towards their Graves So did Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better The advantages of this exchange are unspeakable You have Gold for Brass Wine for Water Substance for shadows solid Glory for very Vanity O if the dust of this earth were but once blown out of your eyes that you might see the divine glory how weary would you be to live How willing to die But then be sure your title to heaven be sound and good Leave not so great a concernment to the last For though it is confessed God may do that in an hour that never was done all your days yet it is not common Which brings us to our Third and Last observation DOCT. 3. That God may though he seldom doth prepare men for glory immediately before their dissolution by death There is one parable and no more that speaks of some that were called at the last hour Matth. 20.9 10. And there is this one instance in the text and no more that gives us an account of a person so called We acknowledge God may do it his grace is his own He may dispense it how and where he pleaseth We must always salve divine prerogative Who shall fix bonds or put limits to free grace but God himself whose it is If he do not ordinarily shew such mercies to dying sinners as indeed it doth not yet it is not because he cannot but because he will not Not because their hearts are so hardned by long custom in sin that his grace cannot break them but because he most justly withholds that grace from them When blessed Mr. Bilney the martyr heard a Minister preaching thus O thou old sinner that hast lain these fifty years rotting in thy sin dost thou think now to be saved That the blood of Christ shall save thee O said Mr. Bilney what preaching of Christ is this If I had heard no other preaching than this what had become of me No no old sinners or young sinners great or small sinners are not to be beaten off from Christ but encouraged to repentance and faith For who knows but the bowels of mercy may yearn at last upon one that hath all along rejected it This thief was as unlikely ever to have received mercy but a few hours before he died as any person in the world could be But surely this is no encouragement to neglect the present seasons of mercy because God may shew mercy hereafter To neglect the ordinary because God sometimes manifests his grace in ways extraordinary Many I know have hardened themselves in ways of sin by this example of mercy But what God did at this time for this man cannot be expected to be done ordinarily for us And the reasons thereof are Reason 1. First Because God hath vouchsafed us the ordinary and standing means of
it self upon its God and Father Father into thy hands God is the center of all gratious Spirits While they tabernacle here they have no rest but in the bosom of their God When they go hence their expectation and earnest desires are to be with him It had been working after God by gratious desires before it had cast many a longing look heaven-ward before but when the gratious soul comes near its God as it doth in a Dying hour then it even throws it self into his arms As a River that after many turnings and windings at last is arrived to the Ocean it pours it self with a central force into the bosom of the Ocean and there finishes its weary course Nothing but God can please it in this world and nothing but God can give it content when it goes hence It is not the amoenity of the place whither the gratious soul is going but the bosom of the blessed God who dwells there that it so vehemently pants after Not the Fathers house but the Fathers arms and bosom Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Whom have I in heaven but thee And oâ— earth there is none that I desire in comparison of thee Psal. 73.24 25. Thirdly It also implies the great value believers have for their souls That 's the pretious treasure And their main solicitude and chief care is to see it secured in a saâ—e hand Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit they are words speaking the believers care for his soul. That it may be safe what ever becomes of the vile body A believer when he comes nigh to death spends but few thoughts about his body where it shall be laid or how it shall be disposed of he trusts that in the hands of friends but as his great care all along was for his soul so he expresses it in these his very last breathings in which he commends it into the hands of God It is not Lord Jesus receive my body take care of my dust but receive my spirit Lord secure the Jewel when the Casket is broken Fourthly These words implie the deep sense that dying believers have of the great change that is coming upon them by death when all visible and sensible things are shrinking away from them and failing They feel the world and the best comforts in it failing Every creature and creature comfort failing For at death we are said to fail Luk. 16.9 Hereupon the soul clasps the closer about its God clings more close than ever to him Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Not that a meer necessity puts the soul upon God Or that it cleaves to God because it hath then nothing else to take hold on No no it chose God for its portion when it was in the midst of all its outword enjoyments and had as good security as other men have for the long enjoyment of them but my meaning is that although gratious souls have chosen God for their portion and do truly prefer him to the best of their comforts yet in this compounded state it lives not wholly upon its God but partly by faith and partly by sense Partly upon things seen and partly upon things not seen The creatures had some interest in their hearts alas too much but now all these are vanishing and it sees they are so I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the world said sick Hezeckiah hereupon it turns it self from them all and casts it self upon God for all its subsistance Expecting now to live upon its God intirely as the blessed Angels do And so in faith they throw themselves into his arms Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Fifthly It implies the attonement of God and his full reconciliation to believer by the blood of the great sacrifice Else they durst never commit their souls into his hands For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 12.29 i. e. of an absolute God a God unattoned by the offering up of Christ. The soul dare no more cast it self into the hands of God without such an attoning sacrifice than it dares approach to a devouring fire And indeed the reconciliation of God by Jesus Christ as it is the ground of all our acceptance with God for we are made accepted in the beloved So it 's plainly carried in the order or manner of the reconciled souls committing it self to him for it first casts it self into the hands of Christ then into the hands of God by him So Stephen when dying Lord Iesus receive my Spirit And by that hand it would be put into the Fathershand Sixthly And lastly It implies both the efficacy and excellency of Faith in supporting and relieving the soul at a time when nothing else is able to do it Faith is its conduct when it is at the greatest loss and distress that ever it met with It secures the soul when it is turned out of the body When heart and flesh fail this leads it to the rock that fails not It sticks by that soul till it see it safe through all the territories of Satan and safe Landed upon the shore of Glory and then is swallowed up in vision Many a favour it hath shewn the soul while it dwelt in its body The great service it did for the soul was in the time of its espousals to Christ. This is the marriage knot The blessed bond of union betwixt the soul and Christ. Many a relieving sight secret and sweet support it hath received from its faith since that but surely its first and last works are its most glorious works By faith it first ventured it self upon Christ. Threw it self upon him in the deepest sense of its own vileness and utter unworthiness when sense reason and multitudes of temptations stood by contradicting and discouraging the soul. By faith it now casts it self into his arms when it 's lanching out into vast eternity They are both noble acts of Faith but the first no doubt is the greatest and most difficult For when once the soul is interessed in Christ it 's no such difficulty to commit it self into his hands as when it had no interest at all in him It 's easier for a child to cast himself into the arms of its own Father in distress than for one that hath been both a stranger and enemy to Christ to cast it self upon him that he may be a Father and a friend to it And this brings us upon the second enquiry I promised to satisfie sc. What warrant or incouragement have gratious souls to commit themselves at death into the hands of God I answer much every way all things encourage and warrant its so doing For First This God upon whom the believer rolls himself at death is its Creator The Father of its being He created and inspired it and so it hath relation of a creature to a Creator yea of a creature now in distress to a faithful Creator
that was mainly in two particulars viz. the begging and perfuming of the body His body could not be buried till by begging his friends had obtain'd it is as a favour from his Judge The dead body was by Law in the power of Pilate who adjudged it to death as the bodies of those that are hanged are in the power of the Judge to dispose of them as he pleases And when they had gotten it from Pilate they winde it in fine linen cloaths with Spices But what need of Spices to perfume that blessed body His own Love was perfume enough to keep it sweet in the remembrance of his people to all generations However by this they will manifest as they are able the dear affection they have for him The bearers that carried his body to its Grave Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus two secret Disciples They were both men of estate and honour None could imagine that these would have appeared at a time of so much danger with such boldness for Christ. That ever they would have gone openly and boldly to manifest their love to Christ when dead who were afraid to come to him except by night when he was living But now a spirit of Zeal and courage is come upon them when those that made greater and more open confessions of him are gone Thirdly The attendants who followed the Hearse were the women that followed him out of Galilee Among whom the two Marys and the Mother of Zebedes children whom Mark calls Salome are only named Fourthly The Grave or Sepulcher where they laid him It was in Iosephs new Tomb which he had prepared in the garden near unto Golgotha where our Lord died Two things are remarkable about this Tomb. It was anothers Tomb and it was a new Tomb. It was anothers For as he had not an house of his own wherein to lay his head whilst he lived so he had not a Tomb of his own to lay his body in when dead As he lived in other mens houses so he lay in another mans Tomb. And it was a new Tomb wherein never man was yet laid Doubtless there was much of providence in this for had any other been laid there before him it might have proved an occasion both to shake the Credit and slur the glory of his Resurrection by pretending it was some former body and not the Lords that rose out of it In this also divine providence had a respect to that Prophesie Esa. 53.9 Which was to be fulfill'd at this funeral He made his Grave with the rich because he had done no violence c. Fifthly The disposition of the body in that Tomb. 'T is true there is no mention made of the groans and tears with which they laid him in his Sepulcher yet we may well presume they were not wanting in plentiful expressions of their sorrow that way For as they wept and smote their breasts when he dyed Luk. 23.48 So do doubt they laid him with melting hearts and flowing eyes in his Tomb when dead Sixthly And lastly the last remarkable particular in the Text is the solemnity with which his funeral rites were performed and they were all suitable to his humbled state It was indeed a funeral as decently order'd as the straights of time and state of things would then permit but there was nothing of pomp or outward state at all observed Few marks of honour set by men upon it Only the heavens adorned it with diverse miraculous works which in their proper place will be spoken to Thus was he laid in his Grave where he continued for three incompleat daies and nights in the territories of Death in the Land of darkness and forgetfulness Partly to correspond with Ionah his Type and partly to ascertain the world of the reality of his Death Whence our observation is DOCT. That the dead Body of our Lord Iesus Christ was decently interr'd by a small number of his own Disciples and continued in the state of the dead for a time This Observation containing matter of fact and that so plainly and faithfully delivered to us by the Pens of the several Evangelists we need do no more to prepare it for our use than to satisfie these two inquiries why had Christ any funeral at all since his Resurrection was so soon to follow his Death And what manner of funeral Christ had First Why had Christ any funeral at all since he was to rise again from the dead within that space of time that other men commonly have to lie by the wall before their interment and had it continued longer unburied it could see no corruption having never been tainted by sin Why though there was no need of it at all upon that account that a funeral is needful for other bodies yet there were these four weighty ends and Reasons of it Reason 1. First It was necessary Christ should be buried to ascertain his death else it might have been looked upon as a Cheat. For as they wâ—re ready enough to impose so gross a Cheat upon the world at his Resurrection That the Dâ—sciples came by night and stole him away much more would they have denied at once the reality both of his death and Resurrection had he not been so perfumed and interred but this cut off all pretentions For in this kind of embalming his mouth ears nostrils were all filled with their Spices and odours Bound up in Linen and laid long enough in the Tomb to give full assurance to the world of the certainty of of his death So that there could be no latent principle of life in him Now since our eternal life is wrapt up in Christs death it can never be too firmly established To this therefore we may well suppose providence had special respect in his burial and the manner of it Reason 2. Secondly He must be buried to fulfill the Types and Prophesies that went before His abode in the Grave was prefigured by Ionahs abode three daies and nights in the belly of the Whale Matth. 12.40 So must the Son of man be three daies and threee nights in the heart of the earth Yea the Prophet had described the very manner of his funeral and long before he was born foretold in what kind of Tomb his body should be laid Isa. 53.9 He made his Grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death Pointing by that expression at this Tomb of Ioseph who was a rich man and the Scriptures cannot be broken Reason 3. Thirdly He must be buried to compleat his humiliation this being the lowest step he could possibly descend in his abased state They have brought me to the dust of Death Lower he could not be laid and so low he must lay his blessed head else he had not been humbled to the lowest Reason 4. Fourthly But the great end and reason of his interment was the conquering of Death in its own dominion and territories which victory over the Grave furnisheth the Saints with that
other disciples professed their readiness to die with him yet those flee and these appear for him when the trial comes indeed If God desert the strong and assist the weak the feeble shall be as David and the strong as tow I speak not this to discourage any man from striving to improve inherent grace to the utmost For it 's ordinarily found in experience that the degrees of assisting grace are given out according to the measures of inherent grace but I speak it to prevent a sin incident to strong Christians which is to despise the weak which God corrects by such instances and examples as this before us Corollary 3. Hence we may be assisted in discerning the depths of Christs humiliation for us And see from what to what his love brought him It was not enough that he who was in the form of God became a creature which was an infinite stoop nay to be made a man an inferior order of creatures Nay to be a poor man to spend his daies in poverty and contempt But also to be a Dead corps for our sake O what manner of love is this Now the deeper the humiliation of the Son of God was the more satisfactory to us it must needs be For as it shews us the hainousness of sin that deserves all this so the fulness of Christs satisfaction whereby he makes up that breach O it was a deep humiliation indeed How unlike himself is he now become Doth he look like the Son of God What the Son of God whom all the Angels adore to be shuffled by three or four persons into his Grave in an evening To be carried from Golgotha to the Grave in this manner And there lie as a captive to Death for a time Never was the like change of conditions never such an abasement heart of in the world Corollary 4. From this Funeral of Christ results the purest and strongest consolation and incouragement to believers against the fears of Death and the Grave If this be so that Jesus hath layen in Grave before you let me say then to you as the Lord spake to Iacob Gen. 46.2 3. Fear not to go down to Egypt for I will go down with thee and will surely bring thee up thence So here fear not believer to go down to the Grave for God will be with thee there and will surely bring thee up thence This consideration that Jesus Christ hath layen in the Grave himself gives manifold encouragement to the people of God against the terrors of the Grave First The Grave received but could not destroy Jesus Christ. Death swallow'd him as the Whale did Ionah his Type but could not digest him when it had swallow'd him but quickly delivered him up again Now Christ lying in the Grave as the common head and representative of believers what comfort should this inspire into their hearts For as it fared with Christs personal so it shall with Christs mystical It could not retain him it shall not for ever retain them This Resurrection of Christ out of his is the very ground of our hope for a Resurrection out of our Graves Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 Secondly As the union betwixt the body of Christ and the divine nature was not dissolved when that body was laid in the Grave so the union betwixt Christ and believers is not cannot be dissolved when their bodies shall be laid in their Graves It 's true the natural union betwixt his soul and body was dissolved for a time but the Hypostatical union was not dissolved no not for a moment That body was the body of the Son of God when it was in the Sepulchre In like manner the natural union betwixt our souls and bodies is dissolved by death but the mystical union betwixt us and Christ yea betwixt our very dust and Christ can never be dissolved Thirdly As Christs body when it was in the Grave did there rest in hope and was assuredly a partaker of that hope So it shall fare with the dead bodies of the Saints when they lay them down also in the dust My flesh also shall rest in hope saith Christ Psal. 16.9 10 11. In like manner the Saints commit their bodies to the dust in hope The righteous hath hope in his death Pro. 14.32 And as Christs hope was not a vain hope so neither shall their hope be in vain Fourthly And lastly Christs lying in the Grave before us hath quite changed and altered the nature of the Grave So that it is not what it was It was once a part of the Curse Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return was a part of the threatening and curse for sin The Grave had the nature and use of a prison to keep the bodies of sinners against the great Assizes and then deliver them up into the hands of a great and terrible God But now it 's no prison but a bed of rest Yea and a perfumed bed where Christ lay before us Which is a sweet consideration of the Grave indeed They shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds Isa. 57.2 O then let not believers stand in fear of the Grave He that hath one foot in heaven need not fear to put the other into the Grave Though I go down to the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Psal. 23. Indeed the Grave is a terrible place to them that are out of Christ. Death is the Lords Serjeant to arrest them The Grave is the Lords Prison to secure them When death draws them into the Grave it draws them thither as a Lion doth his prey into the den to devour it So you read Psal. 49.14 Death shall feed or prey upon them Death there raigns over them in its full power Rom. 5.14 And though at last it shall render them again to God yet it were better for them to lie everlastingly where they were than to rise to such an end For they are brought out of their Graves as a condemned Prisoner out of the Prison to go to execution But the case of the Saints is not so The Grave thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ is a priviledged place to them while they sleep there and when they awake it will be with singing When they awake they shall be satisfied with his likeness Corollary 5. Lastly Since Christ was laid in the Grave and his people reap such priviledges by it as ever you expect rest or comfort in your Graves see that you get Vnion with Christ now It was an ancient custom of the Jews to put rich treasures into the Graves with their friends as well as to bestow much upon their Sepulchers It 's said Hircanus opened Davids Sepulchre and took cut of it three thousand Talents of Gold and Silver And to this sence many interpret that act of the Chaldeans Ier. 8.1 At that time saith the
pleasures and enjoyments of the wicked which feed them for the day of slaughter How little stomach can a man have to those dainties that understands the end and meaning of them Give not sleep therefore to thine eyes Reader till thou have got good evidence that thou art of that number whom Iesus hath delivered from wrath to come Till thou canst say he is a Jesus to thee This may be made out to thy satisfaction three waies First If Iesus have delivered thee from sin the cause of wrath thou maist conclude he hath delivered thee from wrath the effect and fruit of sin Upon this account the sweet name of Iesus was imposed upon him Matth. 1.21 Thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shall save his people from their sins Whilst a man lies under the dominion and guilt of sin he lies exposed to wrath to come and when he is delivered from the guilt and power of sin he is certainly delivered from the danger of this coming wrath Where sin is not imputed wrath is not threatened Secondly If thy soul do set an inestimable value on Iesus Christ and be endeared to him upon the account of that inexpressible grace manifested in this deliverance it 's a good sign thy soul hath a share in it Mark what an Epithite the Saints give Christ upon this account Col. 1.12 13. Giving thanks to the Father who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of his Dear Son Christ is therefore Dear and dear beyond all compare to his saved ones I remember it 's storied of the poor enthralled Grecians that when Titus Flamminius had restored their ancient liberties and proclamation was to be made in the Market place by an Herald They so prest to hear it that the Herald was in great danger of being stifled and prest to death among the people but when the Proclamation was ended there were heard such shouts and joyful acclamations that the very birds of the air fell down astonished with the noise while they continued to cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour and all the following night they continued dancing and singing about his Pavilion If such a deliverance so indeared them to Titus How should the great deliverance from wrath to come endear all the Redeemed to love their dear Iesus This is the native effect of mercy on the soul that hath felt it Thirdly To conclude a disposition and readiness of mind to do or endure any thing for Christs sake upon the account of this deliverance from the wrath to come is a good evidence you are so delivered Col. 1.10 11. That we may walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing being fruitful in every good work There 's readiness to do for Christ. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with Ioyfulness There 's a chearful readiness to endure any thing for Christ. And how both these flow from the sence of this great deliverance from wrath the 12. vers will inform you which was but now cited Oh then be serious and assiduous in the resolution of this grand case Till this be resolved nothing can be pleasant to thy Soul End 2. As the Typical blood was shed and sprinkled to deliver from danger so it was shed to make attonement Levit. 4.20 He shall expiate We translate attone the sin The word imports both And the true meaning is that by the blood of the Bullock all whose efficacy stood in its relation to the blood of Christ signified and shadowed by it the people for whom it was shed should be reconciled to God by the expiation and remission of their sins And what was shadowed in this Typical blood was really designed and accomplisht by Jesus Christ in the shedding of his blood Reconciliation of the Elect to God is therefore another of those beautiful births which Christ travailed for So you find it expresly Rom. 5.10 If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son This if is not a word of doubting but argumentation The Apostle supposes it as a known truth or principle yielded by all Christians that the death of Christ was to reconcile the Elect to God And again he affirms it with like clearness Col. 1.20 And having made peace by the blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things And that this was a main and principal end designed both by the Father and Son in the humiliation of Christ is plain from 2 Cor. 5.18 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself God filled the humanity with grace and authority The Spirit of God was in him to qualifie him The authority of God was in him by Commission to make all he did valid The grace and love of God to mankind was in him and one of the principal effects in which it was manifested was this design upon which he came viz. to reconcile the world to God Upon which ground Christ is called the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 Now Reconciliation or attonement is nothing else but the making up of the ancient friendship betwixt God and men which sin had dissolved and so to reduce these enemies into a state of concord and sweet agreement And the means by which this blessed design was effectually compassed was by the death of Christ which made compleat satisfactâ—on to God for the wrong we had done him There was a breach made by sin betwixt God and Angels but that breach is never to be repaired or made up Since as Christ took not on him their nature so he never intended to be a mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and them That will be an Eternal breach But that which Christ designed as the end of his deaâ—h was to reconcile God and man Not the whole species but a certain number whose names were given to Christ. Here I must briefly open First how Christs death Reconciles Secondly why this Reconciliation is brought about by his death rather than any other way Thirdly what are the Articles according to which it 's made And Fourthly what manner of Reconciliation this is First How Christ Reconciles God and men by his death And it must needs be by the satisfaction his Death made to the Justice of God for our sins And so reparation being made the enmity ceases Hence it 's said Isa. 53.5 The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes are we healed That is as our English Annotators well sense it He was chastized to procure our peace by removal of our sins that set God and us assunder the guilt thereof being discharged with the price of his blood Now this Reconciliation is made and continued betwixt God and us three waies namely by the oblation of Christ which was the price that procured it and so we were virtually or meritoriously reconciled By the application of Christ and his benefits to
of a Saviour He loved us and washed us from our sin in his own blood He did not shed the blood of beasts as the Priests of old did but his own blood Heb. 9.12 And that no common but pretious blood 1 Pet. 1.19 The blood of God one drop of which out values the blood that runs in the veins of all Adams posterity And not some of that blood but all to the last drop He bled every vein dry for us and what remain'd lodg'd about the heart of dead Jesus was let out by that bloody Spear which pierced the Pericardium so that he bestow'd the whole treasure of his blood upon us And thus liberal was he of his blood to us when we were enemies This then is that heavenly Pelican that feeds his young with his own blood O what manner of love is this But I must hasten End 4. As Christ dyed to sanctifie his people So he dyed also to confirm the New Testament to all those sanctified ones So it was in the Type Exod. 24.8 And so it is in the truth This is the New Testament in my blood Matth. 26.28 i. e. ratified and confirmed by my blood For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator Heb. 9.16 So that now all the blessings and benefits bequeathed to believers in the last Will and Testament of Christ are abundantly confirmed and secured to them by his death Yea he died on purpose to make that Testament in force to them Men make their Wills and Testaments and Christ makes his What they bequeath and give in their Wills is a free and voluntary act they cannot be compell'd to do it And what is bequeathed to us in this Testament of Christ is altogether a free and voluntary donation Other Testators use to bequeath their Estates to their Wives and Children and near relations so doth this Testator all is settled upon his Spouse the Church Upon believers his children A stanger intermedles not with these mercies They give all their goods and estates that can that way be conveyed to their friends that survive them Christ giveth to his Church in this New Testament three sorts of Goods First All Temporal good things 1 Tim. 6.1 Matth. 6.33 i. e. the comfort and blessing of all though not the possession of much As having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 Secondly All Spiritual good things are bequeath'd to them in this Testament as Remission of sin and acceptation with God which are contained in their Justification Rom. 3.24 25 26. Sanctification of their natures both initial and progressive 1 Cor. 1.30 Adoption into the family of God Gal. 3.26 The Ministry of Angels Heb. 1.14 Interest in all the Promises 2 Pet. 1.4 Thus all spiritual good things are in Christs Testament conveyed to them And as all Temporal and Spiritual so Thirdly All Eternal good things Heaven Glory and eternal life Rom. 8.10.11 No such bequests as these were ever found in the Testaments of Princes That which Kings and Nobles settle by will upon their Heirs are but trifles to what Christ hath conferred in the New Testament upon his people And all this is confirmed and ratified by the death of Christ so that the promise is sure and the Estate indefeasible to all the Heirs of Promise How the death of Christ confirmed the New Testament is worth our Enquiry The Socinians as they allow no other end of Christs death but the confirmation of the New Testament so they affirm he did it only by way of Testimony or witness bearing in his death But this is a vile derogation from the efficacy of Christs blood to bring it down into an equality with the blood of Martyrs As if there were no more in it than was in their blood But know Reader Christ died not only or principally to confirm the Testment by his blood as a witness to the truth of those things but hiâ— death ratified it as the death of a Testator which makes the New Testament irrevocable And so Christ is called in this Text. Look as when a man hath made his Will and is dead that Will is presently in force and can never be recall'd Besides the will of the dead is sacred with men They dare not cross it It 's certain the last will and Testament of Christ is most sacred and God will never annul or make it void Moreover it is not with Christ as with other Testators who die and must trust the performance of their wills with their Executors but as he died to put it in force so he lives again to be the Executor of his own Testament And all power to fulfill his Will is now in his own hands Rev. 1.18 Inference 1. Did Christ die to confirm the New Testament in which such Legacies are bequeathed to believers How are all believers concerned then to prove the Will of dead Jesus My meaning is to clear their Title to the mercies contained in this blessed Testament And this may be done two waies By clearing to your selves your Covenant Relations to Christ. And by discovering those special Covenant impressions upon your hearts to which the Promises therein contained do belong First Examine your Relations to Christ. Are you his Spouses have you forsaken all for him Psal. 45.10 Are you ready to take your lot with him as it falls in prosperity or adversity Ier. 2.2 And are you Loyal to Christ Thou shalt be for me and not for another Hos. 3.3 Do you yield obedience to him as your Head and Husband Eph. 6.24 Then you may be confident you are interested in the benefits and blessings of Christs last Will and Testament for can you imagine Christ will make a Testament and forget his Spouse It cannot be If he so loved the Church as to give himself for her much more what he hath is settled on her Again are you his spiritual seed his children by regeneration Are you born of the Spirit Ioh. 3. Do you resemble Christ in holiness 1 Pet. 1.14 15. Do you find a reverential fear of Christ carrying you to obey him in all things Mal. 1.6 Are you led by the Spirit of Christ as many as are so led they are the Sons of God Rom. 8.14 To conclude have you the Spirit of Adoption inabling you to cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 That is helping you in a gratious manner with reverence mixt with filial confidence to open your hearts spiritually to your Father on all occasions If so you are children and if children doubt not but you have a rich Legacie in Christs last Will and Testament He would not seal up his Testament and forget his dear children Secondly You may discern your interest in the New Testament or Covenant for they are substantially the same thing by the new Covenant impressions that are made on your hearts which are so many clear evidences of your right to the benefits it contains Such are Spiritual
Saints Resurrection and the conformity of ours unto his in these five respects His body rose substantially the same so shall ours His body was raised by the spirit so shall ours Not by the God-head of Christ as his was but by the Spirit who is the bond of our union with Christ. He was raised as the first begotten from the dead so the dead in Christ shall rise first His body was improved by the Resurrection so shall ours From the consideration of all which Inference 1. We Infer That if Christ was thus raised from the dead then death is fairly overcome and smallowed up in Victory Were it not so it had never let Christ escape out of the Grave The prey of the terrible had never been thus rescued out of its paws Death is a dreadful enemy it defies all the Sons and Daughters of Adam None durst cope with this King of terrors but Christ. And he by dying went into the very den of this Dragon fought with it and foiled it in the Grave its own territories and dominions and came off a Conqueror For as the Apostle speaks Acts 2.24 It was impossible it should hold or detain him Never did death meet with its over match before it met with Christ. And he conquering it for us and in our names rising as our representative now every single Saint triumphs over it as a vanquisht enemy 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. Thus like Ioshua they set the foot of faith upon the neck of that King and with an holy scorn deride its power O death where is thy Sting If it be objected that it 's said 1 Cor. 15.26 The last enemy that is to be destroyed is Death And if so then it should seem the Victory is not yet atchieved and so we do but boast before the Victory It is at hand to reply that the Victory over death obtained by Christs Resurrection is twofold either personal and incompleat or general and compleat He actually overcame it at his Resurrection in his own person perfectly and vertually for us as our head but at the general Resurrection of the Saints which his Resurrection as the first fruits assures them of then it 's utterly vanquisht and destroyed Till then it will exercise some little power over the bodies of the Saints in which respect it 's called the last enemy For sin the chief enemy that let it in that was conquered utterly and eradicated when they died but death holds their bodies in the Grave till the coming of Christ and then it is utterly to be vanquished For after that they can die no more Luk. 20.35 And then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written death is swallowed up in Victory Then and not till then will that conquest be fully compleated in our persons though it be already so in Christs incompleatly in ours and then compleatly and fully for ever For the same word which signifies Victory doth also signifie Perpetuity and in this place a final or perpetual conquest And indeed it drives but a poor trade for present smiting only with its Dart not with its Sting and that but the believers body only and the body but for a time remains under it neither So that there is no reason why a believer should stand in a slavish fear of it Inference 2. Is Christ risen and hath his Resurrection such a potent and comfortable influence into the Resurrection of the Saints Then it is the duty and will be the wisdom of the people of God so to Govern dispose and imploy their bodies as becomes men and women that understand what glory is prepared for them at the Resurrection of the Iust. Particularly First Be not fondly tender of them but imploy and use them for God here How many good duties are lost and spoiled by sinful indulgence to our bodies Alas we are generally more solicitous to live long than to live usefully How many Saints have active vigorous bodies yet God hath little service from them If your bodies were animated by some other souls that love God more than you do and burn with holy Zeal to his service more work would be done for God by your bodies in a day than is now done in a month To have an able healthy body and not use it for God for fear of hurting it is as if one should give you a strong and stately Horse upon condition you must not work or ride him Wherein is the mercy of having a body except it be imployed for God Will not its reward at the Resurrection be sufficient for all the pains you now put it to in his service Secondly See that you preserve the due honour of your bodies Possess them in Sanctification and honour 1 Thes. 4.4 O let not those eyes be now defiled with sin by which you shall see God Those ears be in-lets to vanity which shall hear the Alaleujahs of the blessed God hath designed honour for your bodies O make them not either the instruments or objects of sin There are sins against the body 1 Cor. 6.18 Preserve your bodies from those defilements for they are the Temples of God If any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy 1 Cor. 3.17 Thirdly Let not the contentment and accomodation of your bodies draw your souls into snares and bring them under the power of Temptations to sin This is a very common case O how many thousands of pretious souls perish eternally for the satisfaction of a vile body for a momenâ— Their Souls must because their bodies cannot suffer It is recorded to the immortal honour of those worthies in Heb. 11.35 That they accepted not deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection They might have had a Temporal Resurrection from death to life from reproach to honour from poverty to riches from pains to pleasure but upon such terms they Judged it not worth acceptance They would not expose their souls to secure their bodies They had the same natural affections that other men have They were made of as tender flesh as we are but such was the care they had of their souls and the hope of a better Resurrection that they listned not to the complaints and whinings of their bodies O that we were all in the same resolutions with them Fourthly Withhold not upon the pretence of the wants your own bodies may be in that which God and conscience bids you to communicate for the refreshment of the Saints whose present necessities require your assistance O be not too indulgent to your own flesh and cruel to others Certainly the consideration of that reward which shall be given you at the Resurrection for every act of Christian Charity is the greatest spur and incentive in the world to it And to that end it 's urged as a motive to Charity Luk. 14.13 14.
came Fourthly When did Christ ascend was it presently as soon as he rose from the dead No not so for after his Resurrection saith Luke he was seen of them forty daies speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God And truly the care and love of Christ to his people was very manifest in this his stay with them He had ineffable glory prepared for him in heaven and awaiting his coming but he will not go to possess it till he had settled all things for the good of his Church here For in this time he confirmed the truth of his Resurrection gave charge to the Apostles concerning the Discipline and order of his house or Kingdom which was but needful since he intended that their Acts should be rules to future Churches So long it was necessary he should stay And when he had set all things in order he would stay no longer lest he should seem to affect a terrene life And besides he had work of great concernment to do for us in the other world He desired to be no longer here than he had work to do for God and souls A good pattern for the Saints Fifthly How did Christ ascend into Heaven Here it 's worthy our Observation that Christ ascended as a publick person or fore-runner in our names and upon our accounts So it 's said expresly Heb. 6.20 Speaking of the most holy place within the vail whither saith he the fore-runner is for us entred His entring into heaven as our fore-runner implies both his publick capacity and precedency First His publick capacity as one that went upon our business to God So he himself speaks Ioh. 14.2 I go before to prepare a place for you To take possession of heaven in our names The fore-runner hath respect to others that were to come to heaven after him in their several generations for whom he hath taken up mansions which are kept for them against their coming Secondly It notes precedency He is our fore-runner but he himself had no fore-runner Never any entred into heaven before him but such as entred in the name and through the vertue of his merits He was the first that ever entred heaven directly immediately in his own name and upon his own account But all the Fathers who died before him entred in his name To the holiest of them all God would have said as Elisha to Iehoram 2 King 3.14 Were it not that I had respect to the person of my Son in whose name and right you come I would not look upon you You must back again heaven were no place for you No not for you Aâ—raham nor for you Moses Secondly He ascended Triumphantly into heaven To this good Expositors refer that which in the Type is spoken of David when he lodged the Ark in its own place with musical instruments and shoutings but to Christ in the Antitype when he was received up Triumphantly into glory Psal. 47.5 God is gone up with a shout the Lord with the sound of a Trumpet sing praises to God sing praises sing praises unto our King sing praises A Cloud is prepared as a Royal Chariot to carry up this King of Glory to his Princely pavillion A Cloud received him out of their sight And then a Royal guard of mighty Angels surround the Chariot if not for support yet for greater state and solemnity of their Lords ascension And oh what Jubilations of the blessed Angels were heard in heaven How was the whole City of God moved at his coming For look as when he brought his first begotten into the world he said let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. 1.6 So at his return thither again when he had finished Redemption work there were no less demonstrations given by those blessed Creatures of their delight and joy in it The very heavens ecchoed and resounded on that account Yea the Triumph is not ended at this day nor ever shall It 's said Dan. 7.13.14 I saw saith the Prophet in the night visions and behold one like the Son of man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the ancient of daies and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him This Vision of Daniels was accomplisht in Christs ascension when they i. e. the Angels brought him to the ancient of daies i. e. to God the Father who to express his welcome to Christ gave him glory and a Kingdom And so it is and ought to be expounded The Father received him with open arms rejoycing exceedingly to see him again in heaven therefore God is said to receive him up into glory 1 Tim. 3.16 For that which with respect to Christ is called ascension is with respect to the Father called assumption He went up and the Father received him Yea received him so as none ever was received before him or shall be received after him Thirdly Christ Ascended munificiently shedding forth abundantly inestimable gifts upon his Church at his ascension As in the Roman Triumphs they did Spargere missilia bestow their largesses upon the people so did our Lord when he ascended wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high he led Captivity Captive and gave gifts unto men The place to which the Apostle refers is Psal. 68.17.18 where you have both the triumph and munificence with which Christ went up excellently set forth together The Chariots of God saith the Psalmist are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led Captivity Captive thou hast received gifts for men Yea for the rebellious also that God might dwell among them Which words in their literal sense are a Celebraâ—ion of that famous victory and triumph of David ever the enemies of God recorded 2 Sam. 8. These conquered enemies bring him several sorts of presents all which he dedicated to the Lord. The spiritual sense is that just so our Lord Jesus Christ when he had overcome by his death on the Crâ—ss and now triumphed in his ascension he takes the parts and gifts of his enemies and gives them by their conversion to the Church for its use and service Thus he received gifts even for the rebellious i. e. sanctâ—fies the natural gifts and â—aculties of such as hated his people before dedicating them to the Lord in his peoples service Thus as one observes Tertullian Origen Austin and Ierome came into Canaan laden with Aegyptian Gold Meaning they came into the Church richly furnished wiâ—h natural learning and abilities Austin was a Manichee Cyprian a Magician learned Bradwardine a scornful proud naâ—urallist who once said when he read Pauls Epistles dedignabar esse parvulus He scorned such childish things but afterwards became a very useful man in the Church of God And even Paul himself was as fierce an enemy to