himself but not the Goad So it is with every one that Persecutes a Believer he kicks against the Pricks he kicks against the Goad he kicks against Christ and he hurts himself more than the Believer For he damns his own Soul while he hurts or perhaps kills the Believers Body And therefore a Believer is compared to a great and a burdensom Stone and to a hearth of fire among Wood and to a torch of fire in a sheaf of Corn Zechar. xii 3 6. And as a Man that strikes a great heavy Stone with his Fist is himself more hurt by striking than the Stone is by being struck And as a Hearth or a Torch of Fire burns up the Wood or the Sheaf of Corn that is thrown upon it to put it out So every Man that Persecutes a Believer is himself more hurt than the Believer is For whenever a Persecution is raised against a Believer Christ steps in between it and him and he takes the greatest part of it upon himself and lets only a little of it to light upon him And he that Persecutes Christ must needs come by the worst on 't you may be sure as he that strikes against a Stone a Hearth or a Torch of Fire And therefore as Christ partakes with a Believer in his Sufferings So a Suffering Believer has the Honour to be a partaker of the Sufferings of Christ and he fills up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ in his Flesh for his Bodies sake which is the Church 1 Pet. iv 13. compared with Colos i. 24. And therefore whenever thou callest a Believer a Hypocrite because his good Life reproaches by bad Life thou dost really call Christ a Hypocrite whenever thou callest a Believer a troublesom balling Fellow because he always tells thee of and reproves thee for thy Sin thou dost really call Christ a troublesom balling Fellow Whenever thou laughest at a Believer in Church at Home in the Streets or any where else thou dost really Laugh at Christ and thy Laughter will certainly end in Weeping and Wailing and gnashing of Teeth And whenever thou preferrest a Rich Sinner before a Poor Believer thou dost really and truly prefer the Devil who dwelleth and worketh in that Rich Sinner before Christ who dwelleth and worketh in that Poor Believer And how ought this to terrify and to keep all wicked Men from abusing Believers because they thereby abuse Christ himself and provoke him to take Vengeance on them And how ought this to comfort and to cherish all Poor Believers under all the Abuses which are put upon them by a base ungrateful World because Christ himself is at the same time abused with them and crucified with them and partakes of all their Afflictions and helps them under them and inables them to bear them and brings them out of them and rewards them for them with unspeakable Joy and Glory Fifthly and Lastly If every Believer be crucified with Christ Then let all here present who love to have the Word of God plainly expounded and applied home to their Hearts and Consciences Let all such serious Persons turn to the 2 Kings iv 34 35. and there you will find that when the Shunamite's Child was Dead the Prophet Elisha went and lay upon him and put his Mouth upon his Mouth and his Eyes upon his Eyes and his Hands upon his Hands and he stretched himself upon him and his Flesh waxed warm and he came to life And just thus let every Believer here present do by Christ crucified Let him by Faith stretch and spread himself upon the Cross of Christ and put his Mouth to Christ's Mouth and his Eyes to Christ's Eyes and his Hands to Christ's Hands and his Heart to Christ's Heart and thereby he will feel in himself the Death of Sin and the Life of Grace to warm and inflame his dead Heart If a Believer finds that he is apt to offend with his Mouth let him by Faith put his Mouth upon the Mouth of Christ crucified and Christ will make one of the Seraphims to fly unto him having a live Coal in his Hand taken from the Altar and he will lay it upon his Mouth and say unto him Lo this hath touched thy Lips and thine Iniquity is taken away and thy Sin is purged Isa vi 6 7. If a Believer finds that he is apt to offend with his Eyes let him by Faith put his Eyes upon the Eyes of Christ crucified and Christ will cause him to make a Covenant with his Eyes so that he shall not think upon a Maid because of the Destruction and the strange Punishment which God brings upon the Adulterer above all other Sinners Job xxxi 1 3. If a Believer finds that he is apt to offend with his Hands let him by Faith put his Hands upon the Hands of Christ crucified and Christ will take his Hands and will thrust them into his pierced Side and will put his Fingers into the Print of the Nails and will make him leave off smiting with the Fist of Wickedness and as ready to relieve as he was before to oppress the Poor Job xx 25 27. If a Believer finds that he is apt to offend with his Heart let him by Faith put his Heart upon the Heart of Christ crucified and Christ will take his Heart and purify it by Faith Acts xv 9. And so he may do with all the other Members of his Body and the Faculties of his Soul and he shall certainly have the same Success with them all For if Elisha restored a natural Life to a Child that was naturally Dead by applying the Parts of his Body to the Parts of that Child's Body then shall not the God of Elisha shall not the Lord Jesus Christ restore a spiritual Life to a Soul that is spiritually Dead when it is applied and united to him by a lively Faith And when a Believer does thus truly believe in Christ crucified and does thus experimentally feel himself to be crucified with him the Death of Christ mortifying his Body of Sin and the Life of Christ quickning his dead Soul Then the Believer finds what it is indeed to be crucified with Christ then his Soul is ravished with Joy and his Heart is filled with Comfort And when he lies sick upon his Death-Bed and the Devil comes and tells him of the Law which he has broken He presently tells the Devil again that he is crucified with Christ and Christ has long since blotted out the Law with all its Hand-writing and nailed it to his Cross and therefore the Law can affect him no more than a Bill or a Bond that has been long since paid and cancelled Colos ii 14. And when the Devil comes and tells him farther that he will drag him into Hell to receive the due Wages of his Sin eternal Death He presently tells the Devil again that he is not only crucified with Christ and dead with Christ and buried with Christ but that he has also long since descended into Hell with Christ and there spoiled all his Principalities and Powers and made a Shew of them openly triumphing over them in the Cross of Christ Colos ii 15. Oh! What will you give ye Mockers and Scoffers to have a true Interest in these two Texts of Scripture and to be able to apply them truly to your own Souls when you say the Creed in your Life-time and are ready to despair when ye come to die But when a Believer comes to die who does believe with full Assurance of Faith that he is freed from the Curse of the Law the Power of Sin the Sting of Death the Captivity of the Devil and the Fear of Hell How can such a one though never so much persecuted and tried with cruel Mockings How can he but stand with great Boldness before the Face of those that have afflicted him and made no Account of his Labours and bear his Testimony against them How can he be afraid to die though Death come upon him with all its Terror Yea how can he but even long to die and desire to be dissolved that as he has been crucified with Christ he may be also glorified with Christ and find Death to be nothing else to him but what Christ himself found it a short and a quick Passage to a Joyful and a Glorious Resurrection Which God of his infinite Mercy grant to every one of us here present for Christ his Sake who was crucified for our Offences and was raised again for our Justification If ye know these Things happy are ye if ye do them otherwise your Knowledge will be your utter Undoing Which that it may never be The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen FINIS ADVERTISEMENT A Farewell Sermon Preached at St. Mary Woolnoth in Lombard-Street on Gal. 4. 16. A Sermon of the absolute Necessity of Family-Duties on Joshua 24. 15. Both by David Jones Studient of Christ-Church Oxon.
Root be plucked up the Branches can no longer Subsist but presently Dry and Wither John xv 5 6. Christ is the Representer of all Believers And when their Representer is Crucified they themselves are Crucified with him For Goliath was the Champion and the Representer of all the Philistines And when he was conquer'd by David they also were conquer'd with him and made Servants to Israel 1 Sam. xvii 9. Christ is the Surety of all Believers and has paid off all the Debts which they owed to Almighty God by fulfilling the Righteousness of the Law in his Life and by suffering the Curse of the Law at his Death And what a Man's Surety does we all know is the same in Law as if the Man himself does it Heb. vii 22. And for these and the like Reasons which we meet with in Scripture we are not only Crucified with Christ which seems very hard to a Natural Man But what seems to him much harder we are also at this very Time risen together with Christ from the Dead Yea and what seems to him much harder still we also at this very Time do sit together with Christ in Heavenly Places on God's right Hand by virtue of our Union and Communion with him who is our Head our Representer and our Surety Ephes ii 6. And indeed whatever Christ is and has is all ours His Incarnation Passion Resurrection Ascention and Intercession is all ours His Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Himself is all ours Whatever he had did and suffer'd was for our Sake and in our Stead For if it had been for himself then he had only paid his own and not our Debt As when a Man who is indebted himself is also Surety for another the Payment of his own personal Debt does not at all discharge his Suretiship But Christ had no personal Debt of his own to pay For he is God and therefore he is the Lord of the whole Law as well as the Sabbath and therefore he is not a Debtour to the Law either in the whole or in part save only as he freely made himself under the Law at his Circumcision To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons Mat. xii 8. compared with Galat. iv 4 5. And that is the first Doctrine with it's Proof The Application of it is this First of all If Christ was Crucified for our Sake and in our Stead by the foreknowledge and determinate Council of God Then this shews us the miserable Condition of every Man in the State of Nature For as that Debt must needs be extraordinary great which nothing but the greatest nothing but an infinite Sum of Mony can discharge So the Misery of Man in a Natural State must needs be extraordinary great must needs be the greatest that can be when nothing but the greatest Ransom nothing but an infinite Price nothing but the Blood of God and the Crucifixion and Death of Christ can recover a Natural Man from that otherwise irrecoverable Misery And now Christ is once Dead he dieth no more neither remaineth there any more Sacrifice for Sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries Rom. vi 9. compared with Heb. x. 26 27. And how then darest thou wilfully habitually and finally sin against Christ when there is no more Sacrifice and no more Satisfaction to be made or accepted for that Sin of thine but thou must of necessity be undone unavoidably undone for it for ever Again This shews us that we should as St. Paul did determine not to know any thing among you but Jesus Christ and him Crucified that is we should resolve in all our Preaching to insist chiefly if not only upon the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ For if our Natural Misery be so great that before we have done any actual Fault we are Born in Sin and the Children of God's Wrath And if nothing can redeem us from this our Natural Misery but only the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ Then certainly we ought to determine and to resolve in all our Preaching to set forth Jesus Christ so evidently Crucified before the Eyes of all our Hearers as if he were now hanging upon the Cross here in all our Sight That so we may look upon him whom we have pierced and mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son and be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his First-born Zechar. xii 10. Oh my beloved Brethren the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ ought not to be Preached only upon Good-Friday But as we ought to die daily so we ought to have the dying of Jesus Christ daily before our Eyes His Death and our own Death should be our daily and our whole Study And then we could scarce ever do amiss For if a Minister could always look upon Jesus Christ crucified upon the Cross could he ever neglect to feed his Lambs and to feed his Sheep instructing the Young by Catechizing and the Old by Preaching Could he ever think it too much to Catechize and to Preach to that Parish for which he sees Christ is Crucified before his Eyes Could he ever think it too much to Catechize and to Preach to that Parish in his own Person for which he sees Christ is crucified in his own Person For who can ever think his own personal catechizing or preaching to be worth more than Christ's own personal Crucifixion and Death I speak to wise Men. Judg ye what I say But be sure to judge righteous Judgment Be sure to judge that ye your selves do not love Christ in Reality and in Truth unless ye personally feed his Lambs by catechising the young and personally feed his Sheep by preaching to the old People committed to your Charge John 21. 15 16 17. And if ye do not love the Lord Jesus Christ ye all know that ye are cursed with a Curse ye are Anathema Maran-atha 1 Cor. 16. 22. Again This shews us the great Love of God and of Christ to poor miserable Sinners For if God had had ten thousand Sons and he had only given us one of them to be crucified for us this had been very great Love indeed But when God had only one Son only begotten and only beloved was it not the Heighth of Love to give him to be crucified for us Men for us Sinners for us Enemies for us Rebels in actual and open War against Heaven and him And was it not the Heighth of Love for that Son of his to suffer himself to be crucified for us Yea verily For greater Love hath no Man than this that a Man lay down his Life for his Friends Joh. 15. 13. And how then canst thou find in thy Heart to sin against Christ who was crucified for thee Canst thou be so ungrateful as to cut his Throat who saved thee from hanging Dost thou not call to mind how Christ sweated and prayed and bled and died for
If any one says ill of thee thou art dead and dost not hear it and if any one does ill to thee thou art dead and dost not feel it And as a true Believer who is crucified with Christ is thus crucified and dead to the World so is the World crucified and dead to him Gal. 6. 14. It is dead to him that is it has no Life no Relish no Beauty and no Pleasure in it But it is as unsavoury and as unpleasant to him as a dead Carcase that stinks and rots upon the Earth Now take me a Man whose whole Delight is in Hunting and Horse-Racing and present him with the best dead Dog or the best dead Horse that ever was full of Stench and Rottenness and does he take any Delight in them Or take me a Man whose whole Delight is in Women and present him with the best dead Woman that ever was the greatest Beauty the greatest Wit and the greatest Fortune and does he take any Delight in her or does not her Stench and Rottenness make him to loath her and to have her buried under Ground out of his Sight and smelling And if thou art a true Believer and crucified with Christ it will be just thus with thee too The whole World and what is most excellent in it will be crucified and dead to thee Thy very Knowledge and Learning which once made thee so great in thine own and other Men's Eyes will become dead to thee and thou wilt reckon it all Ignorance and Nonsense in Comparison with the Wisdom of Christ crucified Yea and thy very Goodness and Righteousness by which thou didst once hope to be saved will become dead to thee and thou wilt reckon it all Dross and Dung and as filthy as a menstruous Rag in Comparison with the Righteousness of Christ crucified Isa lxiv. 6. compared with Phil. iii. 8 9. And now let every Man and Woman here present lay their Hands to their Hearts and consider seriously not after the Manner of Hypocrites and Dissemblers with God whether they be thus crucified with Christ yea or no and whether they be thus crucified to the World and the World be thus crucified to them yea or no. I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this Day yea and I appeal even to your own heardened and seared Consciences who thus publickly proclaim your Sins like Sodom whether you be in this crucified Condition yea or no. Oh how scandalous is your Behaviour when you are out of Church when it is thus notoriously wicked when you are in it And how can any of your Hearers believe a word of what you Preach to them or give the least Attention to your Sermons when you your selves do thus openly Laugh and Scoff at the most tremendous and the most fundamental Article of our Religion the Crucifixion of the blessed Jesus Was ever the Cross of Christ esteemed a greater Stumbling-block or Folly than it is at this very moment Oh how can you be so light and vain when God is so Angry as to put Christ to Death the Death of the Cross for those very Sins which you now make a mock of Oh my beloved Brethren I beg of you all for Christs sake that you would learn to be Serious and in order to that that you would do this one thing for me and if the greatest Enemy that I have among you all should desire me to do ten Thousand times as much for him I would readily do it for him upon my Knees with all my Heart I beg of you all for Christ his sake that whenever you see a dead Corps or hear a Passing-bell or are at a Funeral not to spend that precious Time of your Life in the House of Mourning about meer toys and trifles in hearing and telling News or some idle and impertinent Stories but spend it all in making such serious and such seasonable Reflexions as these upon your selves and those that are with you Every Believer is Crucified with Christ And every one that is Crucified with Christ must be like this Dead Corps here before us He must be Crucified to the World and the World must be Crucified to him Am I thus Or art thou thus Or is any one of us thus O Lord make us all thus that are not thus already for Christ his sake And I do here tell you all in the Presence of Almighty God that if you seriously and constantly make these and the like wholesom Reflexions upon your selves and those that are with you at Funerals you will gain more by them in a short Time than you lose by the Death of your Friend though your loss of him be never so great Try this Conscienciously when you will and I will be bound to be your Bond-Slave if you do not find it to be true Thirdly If every Believer be Crucified with Christ then no Believer has any just Reason to complain of the Original Sin which he derives from Adam For if he Sinned with Adam before he was Born he was also Crucified with Christ before he was Born And not only the Original Sin which comes from Adam is pardoned by the Crucifixion of Christ but all the actual and personal Sins of a Believer are also pardoned by it And as the pardon which a Believer has by Christ's Crucifixion exceeds the Sin which he has by Adam's Transgression So the Righteousness which he has by Christ exceeds the Righteousness which he lost by Adam For Adam's Righteousness was at best but the Righteousness of a meer Man But the Righteousness of Christ is the Righteousness of a more noble and divine Person It is the Righteousness of him that is God as well as Man And therefore it is expresly called the Righteousness of God Rom. iii. 22. compared with 2 Cor. v. 21. And pray mark it is not the Mercy that pardons all Sins greater than the Curse that only intails one Sin upon us And is not the Righteousness of God greater and better than the Righteousness of Man And consequently what just Reason of Complaint has any Believer for what he lost in Adam seeing Christ has made him a gainer by his loss Fourthly If every Believer be Crucified with Christ then Christ is Crucified with every Believer in all the Losses and Crosses and Troubles which fall upon him in this World For says Christ unto Saul while he persecutes the Believers Act. ix 4 5. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me I am Jesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the Pricks Where you see that though Christ was then in Heaven and so could not possibly be Persecuted in his own Person by sinful Men upon Earth Yet he looked upon the Persecution of Believers to be his own Persecution Christ is Persecuted when a Believer is Persecuted Christ is Crucified when a Believer is Crucified And as it happens with an Ox or an Ass that kicks against the Pricks or against the Goad he hurts