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
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
hardship when he sends it Should not the memory of his many and long continued mercies more sweeten and endear our good God to us than some present crosses and adversities imbitter our thoughts of him and sowre our spirits with discontent Oh the heighth and excellency of Grace in this holy man He was Vir ante Evangelia Evangelicus A person of the true Evangelical and Christian spirit before Christ or his Gospel came into the world How had patience its perfect work in him There could not be a braver spectacle a more lovely sight on the whole earth for God and Angels to behold than such a Soul in the midst of such trials the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit being in the sight of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of great price If Seneca could say of Cato Behold a sight which that God who diligently observes the work of his own hands may fix his eye upon well may it be said of holy Iob. This honourable Elogium is given of him Chap. 2. 10. In all this Iob sinned not with his lips And the like in Chap. i. 22. where it is added nor charged God foolishly He did not speak unworthily of God or his disposals nor had he any disbecoming thoughts of him or them Nay he was so far from repining and fretting at the severest of them that as was said he took them gratefully at his hands As deformed and diseased a Creature as Iob was as to his outward man he was most sound fair and lovely within Though his Body lay among the ashes and potsherds yet was he as to the inward Constitution of his Soul as the wings of a Dove beautified with such interchangeable colours by the Sun shining upon her that they are as it were covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold In the Song of Hannah it is said that God raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill But here we have a far greater wonder God exalted Iob even when he debased him to the dust and made him in his lowest estate a glorious person more glorious to all ages than ever he would have been had there been nothing in his story but that he was for his Wealth and Honour the greatest of all the men of the East So that Iob even whilst he was of this low degree might rejoyce in that he was exalted to allude to that of St. Iames Chap. 1. 9. Great afflictions accompanied with an unconquerable patience canonize men and advance them to a peculiar degree of honour and glory above the rest of mankind Behold we count them happy that endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we call them blessed James v. 11. St. Chrysostom thus magnificently speaks of Iob's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Dunghill that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more stately than any Kingly Throne And of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Sores that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 richer than any jewels and precious stones nay that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more splendid and glorious than the very Sun-beams And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no King sitting upon his Throne is so illustrious as was Job then upon the Dunghill honourable and glorious That very Ash-heap or Dunghill where the illustrious debased Iob sate was a Throne of glory no Royal Seat of Majesty or Chair of State was so glorious here his patience was inthroned here the humble Greatness and Majesty of his mind shined forth and the Spirit of Glory rested on him What a pleasure was it to Heaven to see this Champion come off so bravely and to baffle all the attempts and arts that the Devil could use to break his spirit and force him to impatience and unworthy reflections upon God and his Providence God said twice to Satan Hast thou considered my servant Iob that there is none like him in all the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hast thou set thine heart upon my servant Iob Hast thou taken special notice of him God seemeth to glory and make his boast of this excellent person as a more worthy sight than any that presented it self to the view of observation in any part of the world But he was much more worthy of esteem and admiration after he had been proved by such sore trials when the trial of his faith and patience was found unto praise and honour and glory So great was his Patience so exemplary his Resignation that the holy Scripture sets a special mark both upon it and him Upon it James 5. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Iob upon him in that he is mentioned as one of God's three most peculiar Favourites Ezech. 14. And now having given some account of his woful afflictions and his great patience under them we will speak briefly of the reward this his submission and Resignation of himself to the Will of God was at last crowned with After the Apostle had said in the forementioned place Ye have heard of the patience of Iob it follows and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy And in the 42. Chapter of Iob we find him most amply rewarded even in this life In the seventh and eighth verses we read that he found such special favour in the eyes of God that his three friends who had added to the heavy weight of his afflictions and had not spoken of God that which was right as Iob had done could not atone his anger with a Burnt-offering without Iob's intercession in their behalf And in the tenth verse it is said that the Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his friends also the Lord gave Iob twice as much as he had before And in the twelfth verse that the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning for he had fourteen thousand Sheep and six thousand Camels and a thousand yoke of Oxen and a thousand She-asses whereas he had before but half this number of each of these as hath been shewn Thus in his Goods and Possessions which were either destroyed by fire or carried away by his thievish Neighbors the Sabeans and Chaldeans and so were never to be enjoyed by him more God gave him in these double But as to his Children he gave him the just number he had before viz. seven sons and three daughters v. 13. These it is likely were not doubled because though they were taken away by death yet they were not utterly lost but their spirits returned to God that gave them they were still alive with God where their Father should again meet them in the other life But there is this said concerning these new daughters of Iob which was not said of the former that in all the land were no women found so fair as they ver 15. And lastly we read in ver 16. that after this lived Iob an hundred and fourty years and
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