over them First He imposes a new Law upon them and enjoyns them to be severe and punctual in their obedience to it The soul was a Belialite before and could endure no restraint It 's Lusts gave it Law We our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3 What ever the flesh craved and the sensual appetite whined after it must have cost what it would cost if damnation were the price of it it would have it provided it should not be present pay Now it must not be any longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Law to God but under Law to Christ. Those are the articles of peace which the soul willingly signes in the day of its admission to mercy Matth. 11.29 Take my yoak upon you and learn of me This Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus makes them free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Here 's much strictness but no bondage For the Law is not only written in Christs Statute-book the Bible but coppied out by his spirit upon the hearts of his subjects in correspondent principles which makes obedience a pleasure and self-denial easie Christs yoak is lined with Love so that it never galls the necks of his people 1 Joh. 5.3 His commandments are not grievous The soul that comes under Christs government must receive Law from Christ and under Law every thought of the heart must come Secondly He rebukes and chastises souls for the violations and trangressions of his Law That 's another act of Christs Regal authority whom he loves he rebukes and chastens Heb. 12.6 7. These chastisements of Christ are either by the rod of providence upon their bodies and outward comforts or upon their spirits and inward comforts Sometimes his rebukes are smart upon the outward man 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many among you are weakly and sick and many sleep They had not that due regard to his body that became them and he will make their bodies to smart for it And he had rather their flesh should smart than their souls should perish Sometimes he spares their outward and afflicts their inner man which is a much smarter rod. He withdraws peace and takes away joy from the spirits of his people The hidings of his face are sore rebukes However all is for emendation not for destruction And it is not the least priviledge of Christs Subjects to have a seasonable and sanctified rod to reduce them from the waies of sin Psal. 23.3 thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Others are suffered to go on stubbornly in the way of their own hearts Christ will not spend a rod upon them for their good Will not call them to account for any of their transgressions but will reckon with them for altogether in Hell Thirdly Another Regal Act of Christ is the restraining and keeping back his servants from iniquity and withholding them from those courses which their own hearts would incline and lead them to For even in them there is a spirit bent to backsliding but the Lord in tenderness over them keeps back their souls from iniquity and that when they are upon the very brink of sin my feet were almost gone my steps were well nigh slipt Psal. 73.2 Then doth the Lord prevent sin by removing the occasion providentially or by helping them to resist the temptation gratiouslyly assisting their spirits in the trial So that no temptation shall befall them but a way of escape shall be opened that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 And thus his people have frequent occasions to bless his name for his preventing goodness when they are almost in the midst of all evil And this I take to be the meaning of Gal. 5.16 This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Tempted by them ye may be but fulfil them ye shall not My spirit shall cause the temptation to die and wither away in the womb in the embrio of it so that it shall not come to a full birth Fourthly He protects them in his waies and suffers them not to relapse fom him into a state of sin and bondage to Satan any more Indeed he is restless in his endeavours to reduce them again to his obedience he never leaves tempting and soliciting for their return and where he finds a false professor he prevails but Christ keeps his that they depart not again Joh. 17.12 All that thou hast given me I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition They are kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Kept as in a Garrison according to the importance of that word None more solicited none more safe than the people of God They are preserved in Christ Iesus Jude 1. It is not their own grace that secures them but Christs care and continual watchfulness Our own graces left to themselves would quickly prove but weights sinking us to our own ruine As one speaks this is his Covenant with them Jer. 32.4 I will put my fear in their inwards and they shall not depart from me Thus a King he preserves them Fifthly As a King he rewards their obedience and encourages their sincere services Though all they do for Christ be duty yet he hath united their comfort with their duty This I had because I kept thy precepts Psal. 119.56 They are engaged to take this encouragement with them to every duty that he whom they seek is a bountiful rewarder of such as diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 O what a good master do the Saints serve Hear how a King expostulates with his Subjects Jer. 2.31 Have I been a barren wilderness on a land of darkness to you q. d. Have I been such a hard master to you Have you any reason to complain of my service To whomsoever I have been straight-handed surely I have not been so to you You have not found the waies or wages of sin like mine Sixthly He pacifies all inward troubles and commands peace when their spirits are tumultuous This peace of god Rules in their hearts Col. 3.15 it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 act the part of an Umpire in appeasing strife within When the tumultuous affections are up and in a hurry when anger hatred and revenge begin to rise in the soul this hushes and stills all I will hearken saith the Church what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace to his people and to his Saints Psal. 85.8 He that saith to the raging Sea be still and it obeys him he only can pacifie the disquieted spirit They say of Frogs that if they be croaking never so much in the night bring but a light among them and they are all quiet Such a light is the peace of God among our disordered affections These are Christs Regal acts And he puts them forth upon the souls of his people powerfully
Historie to great indignation against Pilate the Jews and the rude and bloody Souldiers and could not contain himself but cried out as the Bishop was reading O that I had been there with my French-men I would have cut all their throats who so barbarously used my Saviour To allude to this When the Believer considers and remembers that sin put Christ to all that shame and ignominy that he was wounded for our transgressions he is filled with hatred of sin and cries out O sin I will revenge the blood of Christ upon thee thou shalt never live a quiet hour in my heart And Secondly It produces an humble adoration of the goodness and mercy of God to exact satisfaction for our sins by such bloody stripes from our surety Lord what if this wrath had seised on me as it did on Christ what had been my condition then If these things were done in the green tree what had been the cafe of the dry tree Sometimes representations and not common ones are made of the Love of Christ who assumed a body and soul on purpose to bear the wrath of God for our sins And when that surpassing Love breaks out in its glory upon the soul how is the soul transported and ravished with it crying out what manner of Love is this Here 's a Love large enough to go round the heavens and the Heaven of heavens Who ever loved after this rate to lay down his life for enemies O Love unutterable and unconceivable How glorious is my Love in his red garments Sometimes the fruits of his death are there gloriously displaied Even his satisfaction for sin and the purchase his blood made of the eternal inheritance And this begets thankfulness and confidence in the soul. Christ is dead and his death hath satisfied for my sin Christ is dead therefore my soul shall never die Who shall separate me from the Love of God These are the fruits and this is the nature of that remembrance of Christ here spoken of Secondly What aptitude or conducency is there in this Ordinance to bring Christ so to remembrance Much every way For it is a sign by him appointed to that end and hath as Divines well observe a threefold use and consideration viz. as it is memorative as it is significative and as it is instructive First As it is memorative and so it hath the nature and use of a pledge or token of Love left by a dying to a dear surviving friend And so the Sacrament as was said before is like a Ring pluckt off from Christs Finger or a Bracelet from his Arm or rather his Picture from his Breast delivered to us with such words as these as oft as you look on this rememember me Let this help to keep me alive in your remembrance when I am gone and out of your sight It conduces to it also Secondly As it is a significative sign most aptly signifying both his bitter sufferings for us and our strict and intimate union with him Both which have an excellent usefulness to move the heart and its deepest affections at the remembrance of it The breaking of the Bread and shedding forth the Wine signifies the former our eating drinking and incorporating them is a lively signification of the other Thirdly Moreover this Ordinance hath an excellent use and advantage for this affectionate remembrance of Christ as it is an instructive sign And it many waies instructs us and enlightens our mind particularly in these truths which are very affecting things First That Christ is the Bread on which our souls live proper meat and drink for Believers the most excellent New-Testament food It 's said Psal. 78.25 man did eat Angels food He means the manna that fell from Heaven Which was so excellent that if Angels who are the noblest creatures did live-upon material food they would choose this above all to feed on And yet this was but a Type and weak shadow of Christ on whom Believers feed Christ makes a royal feast of his own flesh and blood Isai. 25.6 all our delicates are in him Secondly It instructs us that the New-Testament is now in its full force and no sustantial alteration can be made in it since the the Testator is dead and by his death hath ratified it So that all the excellent promises and blessings of it are now fully confirmed to the believing soul. Heb. 9.16 17. All these and many more choice truths are we instructed in by this sign And all these waies it remembers us of Christ and helps powerfully to raise warm and affect our hearts with that remembrance of him Thirdly The last enquiry is how Christ hath hereby left such a special mark of his care for and love to his people And that will evidently appear if you consider these five particulars First This is a special mark of the care and Love of Christ in as much as hereby he hath made abundant provision for the confirmation and establishment of his peoples faith to the end of the world For this being an evident proof that the New-Testament is in its full force Matth. 26.28 this is the Cup of the New-Testament in my blood it tends as much to our satisfaction as the legal execution of a deed by which we hold and enjoy our estate So that when he saith take eat it is as much as if God should stand before you at the Table with Christ and all the promises in his hand and say I deliver this to thee as my deed What think you doth this promote and confirm the faith of a Believer if it do not what doth Secondly This is a special mark of Christs care and Love in as much as by this he hath made like abundant provision for the enlargement of his peoples joy and comfort Believers are at this Ordinance as Mary was at the Sepulcher with fear and great joy Matth. 28.8 Come Reader speak thy heart if thou be one that heartily lovest Jesus Christ and hast gone many daies possibly years mourning and lamenting because of the inevidence and cloudiness of thine interest in him that hast sought him sorrowing in this Ordinance and in that in one duty and another if at last Christ should take off that mask that cruel covering as one calls it from his face and be known of thee in breaking bread Suppose he should by his Spirit whisper thus in thine ear as thou sittest at his Table dost thou indeed so prize esteem and value me will nothing but Christ and his Love content and satisfie thee then as sweet lovely and desireable as I am know that I am thine Take thine own Christ into the arms of thy faith this day Would not this breed in thy soul a joy transcendent to all the joys and pleasures in this world what thinkest thou of it Thirdly Here is a signal mark of Christs care and Love in as much as this is one of the highest and best helps for the mortification of the
triumphant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 song of deliverance 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Deâ—truction Our Graves would not be so sweet and comfortable to us when we come to lie down in them if Jesus had not layen there before us and for us Death is a Dragon the Grave its Den a place of dread and terror but Christs goes into its Den there grapples with it and for ever overcomes it Disarms it of all its terror and not only makes it cease to be enemical but to become exceeding beneficial to the Saints A bed of rest and a perfumed bed They do but go into Christs bed where he lay before them For these ends he must be buried Secondly Next let us inquire what manner of funeral Christ had And if we intently observe it we shall find many remarkable properties in it First We shall find it to be a very obscure and private funeral Here was no external pomp or gallantry Christ affected it not in his life and it was no way suitable to the ends and manner of his death Humiliation was designed in his death And state is inconsistent with such an end Besides he dyed upon the Tree and persons so dying don 't use to have much ceremony and state at their funerals Three things shew it to be a very humble and obscure funeral as to what concerned outward glory with which the great ones of the earth are usually interred For First The dead body of the Lord was not brought from his own house as other mens commonly are but from the Tree They beg'd it of his Judge As who should say go bring the Corps from Tyburn Had they not obtained this favour from Pilate it must have been buried in Golgotha It had been tumbled into a pit digged under the Cross. Secondly As it was first beg'd then buried so it was attended with a very poor train A few sorrowful women followed the Bier Other men are accompanied to their Graves by their Relations and Friends The Disciples were all scattered from him Affraid to owne him dying and dead Thirdly And these few that were resolved to give him a funeral are forced by reason of the straights of time to do it in shuffling haste Time was short they take the next sepulcher they can get and hurry him away that evening into it For the preparation for the Passover was at hand This was the obscure â—uneral which the body of the Lord had Thus was the Prince of the Kings of the earth who hath the Keys of Death and Hell laid into his Grave Secondly Yet though men could bestow little honour upon it the heavens bestowed several marks of honour upon it Adorn'd it with divers Miracles which wiped off the reproach of his deaâ—h from him These Miracles were antecedent to his interment or concomitants of it First There was that extraordinary and preternatural Eclipse of the Sun Such an Eclipse as was never seen since it first shone in heaven The Sun fainted at the sight of such a ruful spectacle and cloathed the whole heaven in black The sight of this caused a great Philosopher who was then far from the place where this unparallel'd Tragedy was acting to cry out upon the sight of it either the God of nature now suffers or the frame of the world is now dissolved The same Dionysius writing to Apollophanes a Philosopher who would not embrace the Christian Faith thus goes about to convince him What thinkest thou saith he of the Eclipse when Christ was Crucified Were we not both of us then at Heliopolis and standing in the same place did we not see the Moon in a new manner following the Sun and not in the time of conjunction but from the ninth hour until the evening by a reason unknown in nature directly opposite to the Sun Didst thou not then being greatly terrified say unto me O my Dionysius what strange commutations of the heavenly bodies are these Such a preternatural Eclipse is remembred in no other History For it was not in time of conjunction but opposition the Moon being then at full From the sixth to the ninth hour the Sun and Moon were together in the midst of heaven but in the evening she appeared in the East her own place opposite to the Sun And then miraculously returning from East to West did not pass by the Sun and set in the West before it but kept it company for the space of three hours and then returned to the East again And whereas in all other natural Eclipses the Eclipse alwaies begins on the western part of the body of the Sun and that part is also first cleared it was quite contrary in this for though the Moon were opposite to the Sun and distant from it the whole breadth of heaven yet with a miraculous swiftness it overtook the Sun and darkned first the Eastern part of it and soon prevailed over its whole body Which caused darkness over all the the Land that is say some over the whole Earth or as others over the whole Land of Iewry Or as others over the whole Horizon and all places of the same altitude and latitude Which is most probable Secondly And as Christs funeral was adorned with such a miraculous Eclipse which put the heavens and earth into a mourning so the rocks did rend the vail of the Temple rent in twain from top to bottom The graves opened and the dead bodies of many Saints arose and went into the holy City and were seen of many The rending of the Rocks was a sign of Gods fierce indignation Nahum 1.6 And a discovery of the greatness of his power shewing them what they deserved and what he could do to them that had committed this horrid fact though he rather chose at this time to shew the dreadful effects of it upon inanimate Rocks than Rocky hearted sinners But especially it served to convince the world that it was none other but the Son of God that dyed Which was farther manifested by these concomitant Miracles As for the rending in twain of the vail It was a notable Miracle plainly shewing that all ceremonies were now accomplished and abolished No more vails now As also that believers have now most free access into heaven At that very instant when the vail rent the High Priest was officiating in the most holy place and the vail which hid him from the people being rent they might freely see him about his work in the holy of holies A lively Emblem of our High Priest whom now we see by faith in the heavens there performing his intercession work for us The opening of the Graves plainly shew'd the design and end of Christs going into it That it might not have dominion over the bodies of the Saints but being vanquisht and destroyed by Christ le ts go all that are his whom he ransomed from the Grave as a prey out of its paws A Specimen whereof was given in
When thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrection of the Iust. It was the opinion of an eminent modern Divine that no man living fully understands and believes that Scripture Matth. 25.40 In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me How few Saints would be exposed to daily wants and necessities if that Scripture were but fully understood and believed Inference 3. Is Christ risen from the dead and that as a publick person and representative of believers How are we all concerned then to secure to our selves an interest in Christ and consequently to this blessed Resurrection What consolation would be left in this world if the hope of the Resurrection were taken away 'T is this blesed hope that must support you under all the Troubles of life and in the Agonies of Death The securing of a blessed Resurrection to your selves is therefore the most deep concernment you have in this world And it may be secured to your selves if upon serious heart examination you can discover the following Evidences Evidence 1. First If you are regenerated Creatures brought forth in a new nature to God for we are begotten again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead Christs Resurrection is the ground-work of our hope And the new birth is our title or evidence of our interest in it So that until our souls are partakers of the spiritual Resurrection from the death of sin we can have no assurance our bodies shall be partakers of that blessed Resurrection to life Blessed and holy saith the Spirit is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Rev. 20.6 Never let unregenerated souls expect a comfortable meeting with their bodies again Rise they shall by Gods terrible Citation at the sound of the last trump but not to the same end that the Saints arise nor by the same principle They to whom the spirit is now a principle of Sanctification to them he will be the principle of a joyful Resurrection See then that you get gratious souls now or never expect glorious bodies then Evid 2. If you be dead with Christ you shall live again by the life of Christ. If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Planted together some refer it to believers themselves Jews and Gentiles are planted together in Christ. So Erasmus believers grow together like branches upon the same root which should powerfully inforce the great Gospel duty of unity among themselves But I would rather understand it with reference to Christ and believers with whom believers are in other Scriptures said to suffer together and be glorified together to die together and live together to be Crucified together and buried together all noting the communion they have with Christ both in his death and in his life Now if the power of Christs death i. e. the mortifying influence of it have been upon our hearts killing their Lusts deading their affections and flatting their appetites to the Creature then the power of his life or Resurrection shall come like the animating dew upon our dead withered bodies to revive and raise them up to live with him in glory Evid 3. If your hearts and affections be now with Christ in Heaven your bodies in due time shall be there also and conformed to his glorious body So you find it Phil. 3.20 21. For our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body The body is here called vile or the body of our vileness Not as God made it but as sin hath marred it Not absolutely and in it self but relatively and in comparison of what it will be in its second edition at the Resurrection Then those scattered bones and dispersed dust like pieces of old broken battered Silver will be new cast and wrought in the best and newest fashion even like to Christs glorious body Whereof we have this evidence that our conversation is already heavenly The temper frame and disposition of our souls is already so therefore the frame and temper of our bodies in due time shall be so Evid 4. If you strive now by any means to attain the Resurrection of the dead no doubt but you shall then attain what you now strive for This was Pauls great ambition that by any means he might attain the Resurrection of the dead Phil. 3.11 He means not simply a Resurrection from the dead for that all men shall attain whether they strive for it or no. But by a metonymy of the Subject for the Ajunct he intends that compleat holiness and perfection which shall attend the state of the Resurrection so it is expounded vers 12. So then if God have raised in your hearts a vehement desire and assiduous endeavour aftâ—r a perfect freedom from sin and full Conformity to God in the beauties of holiness that very love of holiness your present pantings and tendencies after perfection speaks you to be persons designed for it Evid 5. If you are such as do good in your Generation If you be fruitful and useful men and women in the world you shall have part in this blessed Resurrection Ioh. 5.29 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life Now it is not every act materially good that entitles a man to this priviledge but the same requisites that the School-men assign to make a good prayer are also necessary to every good work The person matter manner and end must be good Nor is it any single good act but a series and course of holy actions that is here meant What a spur should this be to us all as indeed the Apostle makes it closing up the Doctrine of the Resurrection with this solemn exhortation 1 Cor. 15. Last with which I also close mine Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift The FORTIETH SERMON JOH XX. XVII Iesus saith unto her touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God IN all the former Sermons we have been following Christ through his Humiliation from the time that he left the blessed bosom of his Father and now having finished the whole course of his obedience on
Ephesians Eph. 1.13 p. 67 1.22 p. 207 3.10 p. 5 5.2 p. 144 5.8 p. 611 6.1 p. 421 6.16 p. 247 Philippians Phil. 1.6 p. 486 Phil. 1.29 p. 364 2.7 p. 17 2.8 p. 169 222 2.9 p. 541 2.12 p. 190 3.11 p. 559 3.21 p. 63 3.3 p. 5 Colossians Col. 1.10 11. p. 588 1.14 p. 354 1.17 p. 210 1.18 p. 549 1.19 p. 71 3.3 p. 555 3.10 p. 4 3.15 p. 200 1 Thessalonians 1 Thes. 1.10 p. 524 4.16 p. 522 592 2 Thessalonians 2 Thes. 3.5 p. 189 1 Timothy 1 Tim. 2.5 p. 82 3.16 p. 52 5.4 p. 422 6.9 p. 307 6.17 p. 45 2 Timothy 2 Tim. 1.9 p. 32 2 Tim. 2.19 p. 612 2 Tim. 4.16 p. 379 Hebrews Heb. 1.1 p. 102 1.3 p. 575 1.14 p. 213 2.9 p. 60 2.16 p. 51 60 2.17 p. 55 7.25 p. 152 7.26 p. 72 7.27 p. 74 9.24 p. 93 9.23 p. 128 9.14 p. 140 10.11 p. 578 10.14 p. 139 10.20 p. 93 11.40 p. 143 12.24 p. 156 13.8 p. 143 Iames. Jam. 1.4 p. 389 4.5 p. 413 1 Peter 1 Pet. 1.6 p. 306 1.19 p. 142 2.22 23. p. 415 3.13 p. 405 4.19 p. 406 1 Iohn 1 Joh. 1.7 p. 148 1.9 p. 176 1 Joh. 2.1.2 p. 161 3.2 p. 186 4.10 p. 39 Iude. Jude ver 6. p. 377 592. Revelations Rev. 1.13 p. 144 2.10 p. 211 3.13 p. 501 5.6 p. 157 13.8 p. 98 143 22.2 p. 9 Reader THou art desired both to excuse the mis-spellings mis-pointings transposings and obscure impressions of several words especially in the Marginal notes And to understand that for brevity sake I have used these marks for To wit viz. for that is i. e. for as if he should say q. d. And lastly before thou readest to Correct these more gross mistakes in which thou wilt do right both to thy self and the Author CORRIGENDA PAge 2 Line 32 for as read of p 32 l. 24 after indeed add is p 47 l 18 blot out in p 61 l 28 r immediate p 62 l 11 heard sounding there p 66 l 26 blot out rather p 67 l 26 r effectively p 69 l 5 r farther p 83 l 9 r four wayes p 86 l 18 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 84 l ult after that add as 87 l 10 r concerning p 92 l 26 r immediate p 102 l 4 r mediately p 105 l 28 r plain in margent r peccatum p 130 marg r effiâ—aâ—itur p 135 marg r debitam and blot out p 159 l 2 add not p 160 l 2 r emptied p 166 l 26 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and l 30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 170 l 25 r obligation p 183 l 15 r is p 186 l 14 r troublers p 187 l 16 r his p 200 l 9 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in mâ—rg brabeutem p 210 l 17 r razed p 214 marg r volvuâ—tur p 220 l 3 r degrees p 227 l 33 r sinless p 230 marg r gravius p 233 l penult r oppressours p 259 l 25 add were p 269 l 2 r with us p 272 l penult r substantial p 274 l 29 for bond r bone p 293 l 2 r affections p 314 l r there p 327 l 23 r ingenuous p 330 l 36 l 36 for too r to p 332 l 23 r renew p 337 l 27 r affecting p 339 l 2 r then for the and the for then p 344 l 13 r crasis p 347 l 21 after law add was p 379 l penult add as p 381 l 14 dele though p 406 l 21 r by you p 419 l 11 r in like manner and l 12 r every affection p 428 l 21 r duties p 432 l 10 add be p 437 l 32 r go away p 442 l 13 for it r he p 444 l 16 add should p 461 l 6 r cut off p 458 l 8 add we p 467 l 16 r inventorum p 469 l 7 for we r He p 472 l 4 r in outward pains marg r Dantzick p 486 l 24 r finished p 487 l â—3 r followers p 498 l 15 r is p 500 r Deduction p 518 line ult for Rachel r Sarah p 525 l. 24 r lâ—ft p 551 l ult r. identical p 583 l 10 r gold p 602 l 7 r wholly p 609 l 1 r lovely p 610 l 34 add ill and for hast r shalt p 618 l 1 for a r or and l 3 blot a p 619 l 19 r lives p 624 l 23 for our r over Redemption hath 2 parts viz. meritorious IMPETRATION Part 1. and efficacious APPLICATION Part. 2. In the Impetration of it after a praeliminary commendation of the Subject Sermon 1. We therein consider I. The Redeemer who is considered 2 wayes viz. 1. As eternally delighting in his Fathers bosome 2. As prepared for this work by five eminent qualifications viz. 1. His Covenant with his Father 2. His Fathers donation of him 3. His Assumption of our Nature 4. His Commission under the great Seal 5. His solemn consecration to that Work II. The work of Mediation he came about opened in general III. The Offices fitting him for this work viz. 1. Prophet as such 1. Faithfully revealing Gods mind to men 2. Opening their understandings to receive it 2. Priest in which office are conâ—iderable 1. It s general nature and necessity 2. Its parts viz. 1. Oblation 2. Intercession 3. Its fruits viz. 1. Satisfaction 2. Acquisition 3. King whose Kingdom is either 1. Internal and spiritual 2. External and Providential IV. The Execution of them in his double state viz. of 1. Humiliation viz. in his 1. Conception and Birth 2. Life and Conversation 3. Death wherein we consider 1. The preparatives to it by 1. Blessing his Family 2. Instituting his Supper 3. Prayer in the Garden 4. Iudas his Treason 5. Tryal and sentence 6. Going to Golgotha 2. Execution of it on the Cross. 3. The manner of his suffering it viz. 1. Innocently 2. Solitarily 3. Patiently 4. Instructively in his 7 last words viz. 1. Word 2. Word 3. Word 4. Word 5. Word 6. Word 7. Word 4. Burial In all which among many others four great and principal ends were accomplished 2. Exaltation in the 4 famous steps or degrees thereof viz. 1. His wonderful Resurrection 2. His Triumphant Ascention 3. His Session at Gods right hand 4. His coming to judgement The FIRST SERMON I COR. II.II. For I determined not to know any thing among you save Iesus Christ and him Crucified THE former verse contains an Apologie for the plain and familiar manner of the Apostles preaching which was not as he there tells them with excellency of speech or of wisdom i. e. he studied not to gratifie their curiosity with Rhetorical strains or Philosophical niceties In this he gives the reason for I determined not to know any thing among you save Iesus Christ c.
should act in that assumed Body had been invallid and vain without a due call and Commission from the Father so to do Which is the import of the words now before you This Scripture is a part of Christs excellent reply to a self-ended generation who followed him not for any Spiritual excellencies that they saw in him or Soul advantages they expected by him but for bread Insteed of making his service their meat and drink they only served him that they might eat and drink Self is a thing may creep into the best hearts and actions but it only predominates in the Hypocrite These people had sought Christ from place to place and having at last found him they salute him with an impertinent complement Rabbi when camest thou hither vers 25. Christs reply is partly disswasive and partly directive He disswades them from puting the secondary and subordinate in the place of the principal and ultimate end Not to prefer their Bodies to their Souls Their fleshly accommodations to the glory of God Labour not for the meat that perisheth Wherein he doth not take them off from their lawful labours and callings but he disswades them first from minding these things too intently and secondly he disswades them from that odious Sin of making Religion but a pretence for the belly And it is partly directive and that in the main end and business of Life But labour for that meat which endures to Eternal Life To get bread for your Souls to live Eternally by And that he might engage their diligence in seeking it to purpose he shews them not only where they may have it Which the Son of Man shall give you but also how they may be fully satisfied that he hath it for them in the clause I have pitched on For him hath God the Father Sealed In these words are three parts observable First The Person Sealing or investing Christ with Authority and Power Which is said to be God the Father Though all the Persons in the Godhead are equal in nature dignity and power yet in their operation there is an order observed among them The Father sends the Son The Son is sent by the Father The Holy Ghost is sent by both Secondly The Subject in which God the Father lodges this Authority Him that is the Son of Man Jesus Christ he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first receptacle of it And he must here be understood exclusively God the Father hath so Sealed him as he never Sealed any other before him or that shall arise after him No name is given in heaven or earth but this name by which we are Saved Acts 4.12 The government is upon his shoulders Isa. 9. Thirdly Here is farther observable the way and manner of the Fathers delegating and committing this Authority to Christ. And that is by Sealing him Where we have both a Metonymie the Symbal of Authority being put for the Authority it self And a Metaphor Sealing which is a humane act for the ratifying and confirming an Instrument or grant being here applied to God Like as Princes by Sealed Credentials confirm the Authority of those that are sent by them As the Dutch Annatators well express the meaning of it Hence we Note DOCT. That Iesus Christ did not of himself undertake the work of our Redemption but was solemnly Sealed unto that work by God the Father When I say he did not of himself undertake this work I mean not that he was unwilling to go about it for his heart was as fully and ardently engaged in it as the Fathers was so he tells us Psal. 4.7 Loe I come to do thy will O God thy Law is in my heart But the meaning is he came not without a due call and full commission from his Father And so it is to be understood in opposition to intrusion not voluntary susception And this is the meaning of that Scripture Ioh. 8.42 I proceeded and came from God neither came I of my self but he sent me And this the Apostle plainly expresseth and fully clears Heb. 5.4 5. And no man taketh this honour to himself but he that is call'd of God as was Aaron so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son And on the account of these Sealed Credentials he received from his Father he is called the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession Heb. 3.1 i. e. One called and sent forth by the Fathers Authority Our present business then is to open Christs commission and view the great Seal of Heaven by which it was ratified And to preserve a clear Method in the explication of this great truth into which your Faith and comfort is resolved I shall First shew what was the work and office to which the Father Sealed him Secondly What his Sealing to this work doth imply Thirdly How and by what acts the Father Sealed him to it Fourthly Why it was necessary that he should be thus Sealed and authorized by his Father And then improve it in its proper Uses What was that office or work to which his Father Sealed him I answer more generally he was Sealed to the whole work of mediation for us thereby to recover and save all the elect whom the Father had given him So Ioh. 17.2 It was to give Eternal Life to as many as were given him It was to bring Iacob again to him Esa. 49.5 Or as the Apostle expresses it Pet. 3.18 That he might bring us to God More particularly in order to the sure and full effecting of this most glorious design he was Sealed to the offices of a Prophet Priest and King that so he might bring about and compass this work First God Sealed him a commission to Preach the glad tidings of Salvation to sinners This commission Christ opened and read in the audience of the people Luk. 4.18 19 20 21. And when he had opened the Book he found the place where it is written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath annointed me to Preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted to Preach deliverance to the Captives and the recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised To Preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the Book c. And he began to say unto them this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears He also Sealed him to the Priesthood and that the most excellent Authorizing him to execute both the parts of it viz. Oblatory and intercessory He call'd him to offer up himself a Sacrifice for us I have power saith he to lay down my Life this commandment have I received of my Father Joh. 10.18 And upon that account his offering up of his Blood is by the Apostle stiled an act of obedience as it is Phil. 2.8 He became obedient unto death He also call'd him to intercede for us Heb. 7.21 24 25.
Sacrifice he must be such as the Law required pure and spotless Fifthly His sanctifying himself for our sakes speaks the strength of his Love and largeness of his heart to poor sinners thus to set himself wholly and entirely apart for us So that what he did and suffered must all of it have a respect and relation to us He did not when consecrated for us live a moment do an act or speak a word but it had some tendency to promote the great design of our Salvation He was only and wholly and always doing your work when consecrated for your sakes His Incarnation respects you Esa. 9.6 For us a Child is born to us a Son is given And he would never have been the Son of man but to make you the Sons and Daughters of God God would not have come down in the likeness of sinful flesh in the habit of a man but to raise up sinful man into the likeness of God All the miracles he wrought were for you to confirm your Faith When he raised up Lazarus Joh. 11.42 Because of the people which stand by I said it that they might believe that thou hast sent me While he lived on earth he lived as one wholly set apart for us And when he dyed he dyed for us Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us When he hanged on that cursed tree he hang'd there in our room and did but fill our place When he was buried he was buried for us For the end of it was to perfume our Graves against we come to lie down in them And when he rose again it was as the Apostle saith for our Iustification Rom. 4.25 When he ascended into glory he protested it was about our business That he went to prepare places for us And if it had not been so he would have told us Ioh. 14.2 And now he is there it is for us that he there lives For he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 And when he shall return again to Judge the world he will come for us too He comes when ever it be to be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 2 Thes. 1.10 He comes to gather his Saints home to himself that where he is there they all may be in Soul and Body with him for ever Thus you see how as his Consecration for us doth speak him set a part for our use so he did wholly bestow himself time life death and all upon us Living and Dying for no other end but to accomplish this great work of Salvation for us Sixthly His sanctifying himself for us plainly speaks the Vicegerency of his death that it was in our room or stead When the Priest Consecrated the Sacrifice it was set apart for the people So it 's said of the scape Goat And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins puting them upon the head of the Goat And shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the Wilderness Levit. 16.21 Thus Isa. 53.6.7 He stood in our room to bear our burden And as Aaron laid the iniquities of the people upon the Goat so were ours laid on Christ. It was said to him in that day on thee be their Pride their Unbelief their hardness of heart their vain thoughts their earthly mindedness c. Thou art Consecrated for them to be the Sacrifice in their room His death was in our stead as well as for our good And so much his sanctifying himself for us imports Seventhly His sanctifying himself imports the extraordinariness of his Person For it speaks him to be both Priest Sacrifice and Altar all in one A thing unheard of in the world before So that his name might well be called wonderful I sanctifie my self I sanctifie according to both natures My self that is my humane nature which was the Sacrifice upon the Altar of my Divine nature For 't is the Altar that sanctifies the gift As the three offices never met in one Person before so these three things never met in one Priest before The Priests indeed Consecrated the bodies of Beasts for Sacrifice but never offered up their own Souls and Bodies as a whole burnt offering as Christ did And thus you have the import of this phrase I sanctifie my self for their sake Secondly I shall shew you briefly the habitude and respect that all this hath to us For unto us the Scriptures every where refer it So in 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us Eph. 5.2 He loved the Church and gave himself for it See Tit. 2.14 This will be made out by a three fold consideration of Christs Death And First Let it he considered that he was not offered up to God for his own Sins For he was most holy Isa 53.9 No iniquity was found in him Indeed the Priests under the Law offered for themselves as well as the people But Christ did not do so Heb. 7.27 He need not daily as those High-Priests to offer up Sacrifice first for his own Sins and then for the peoples And indeed had he been a sinner what value or efficacy could have been in his Sacrifice He could not have been the Sacrifice but would have needed one Now if Christ were most holy and yet put to death and cruel sufferings either his Death and sufferings must be an act of injustice and cruelty or it must respect others whose persons and cause he sustained in that suffering capacity He could never have suffered or dyed by the Fathers hand had he not been a sinner by imputation And in that respect as Luther speaks he was the greatest of sinners Or as the Prophet Isaiah speaketh all our sins were made to meet upon him Not that he was so intrinsecally but was made so sc. by imputation As is clear from 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us that had no sin So that hence it 's evident that Christs Death or Sacrifice is wholly a respective or relative thing Secondly It is not to be forgotten here that the Scriptures frequently call the death of Christ a price 1 Cor. 6.20 And a ransom Matth. 20.28 Or counterprice To whom then doth it relate but to them that were and are in bondage and captivity If it were to redeem any it must be captives but Christ himself was never in Captivity He was always in his Fathers bosom as you have heard but we were in cruel bondage and thraldom under the Tyranny of sin and Satan And it 's we only that have the benefit of this ransom Thirdly Either the death of Christ must relate to believers or else he must die in vain As for the Angels those that stood in their integrity needed no Sacrifice and those that fell are totally excluded from any benefit by it He is not a Mediator for them And among men
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
sacrifice the meritorious cause so of necessity there must be faith the instrumental cause And these concauses do all sweetly meet in their influences and activities in our remission and tranquility of conscience and are all suo genere in their kind and place absolutely necessary to the procuring and applying of it What the near that the blood of Christ is shed if I have no interest in it no saving influences from it O be convinvinced this is the end the business of life Faith is the Phoenix grace as Christ is the Phoenix mercy He is the gift Joh. 4.10 And this is the work of God Ioh. 6.29 the death of Christ the offers and tenders of Christ never saved one soul in themselves without believing application But wo is me how do I see sinners either not at all toucht with the sense of sin and so being whole need not the Physitian or if any be sâ—â—â—g and wounded with guilt how do they lick themselves whole with their own duties and reformations as Physitians say of wounds let them but be kept clean and nature will find balsom of its own to heal them If it be so in spiritual wounds what need Christ to have left the Fathers bosom and come down to dye in the quality and nature of a Sacrifice for us O if men can but have health pleasure riches honours and any way make a shift to still a brawling conscience that it may not check or interrupt them in these enjoyments Christ may go where he will for them And I am assured till God shew you the face of sin in the glass of the Law Make the Scorpions and fiery Serpents that lurk in the Law and in your own consciences to come hissing about you and smiting you with their deadly stings till you have had some sick nights and sorrowful days for sin you will never go up and down seeking an interest in the blood of this sacrifice with tears But Reader if ever this be thy condition then wilt thou know the worth of a Christ. Then thou wilt have a value for the blood of sprinkling As I remember it 's storied of our Crook-back Richard when he was put to a rout in a field battel and flying on foot from his pursuing enemies he cried out O now said he a Kingdom for a Horse So wilt thou cry a Kingdom for a Christ. Ten thousand Worlds now if I had thâ—m for the blood of sprinkling Corollary 3. Is Christ your High-Priest and is his Priestood so indispensably necessary to your salvation then freely acknowledge your utter impotency to reconcile your selves to God by any thing you can do or suffer And let Christ have the whole glory of your recovery ascribed to him It 's highly reasonable that he that laid down the whole price should have the whole praise If any man think or say he could have made an attonement for himself he doth therein cast no light reproach upon that profound wisdom which laid the design of our redemption in the death of Christ. But of this I have spoken elsewhere And therefore Corollary 4. In the last place I rather choose to perswade you to see your necessity of this Priest and his most excellent sacrifice and accordingly to make use of it The best of you have polluted natures poisoned in the womb with sin those natures have need of this sacrifice They must have the benefit of this blood to pardon and cleanse them or be eternally damned Hear me ye that never spent a tear for the sin of nature if the blood of Christ be not springled upon your natures it had been better for you that you had been the generation of beasts the off-spring of Dragons or Toads They have a contemptible but not a vitiated sinful nature as you have Your Actual sins have need of this Priest and his sacrifice to procure remission for them If he take them not away by the blood of his cross they can never be taken away They will lie down with you in the dust They will rise with you and follow you to the Judgement seat crying we are thy works and we will follow thee All thy repentance and tears shouldst thou weep as many tears as there be drops in the Ocean can never take away sin Thy duties even the best of them need this sacrifice It is in the verture thereof that they are accepted of God And were it not God had respect to Christs offering he would not regard or look towards thee or any of thy duties Thou couldst no more come near God than thou couldst approach a devouring fire or dwell with everlasting burnings Well then say I need such a Priest every way Love him in all his offices See the goodness of God in providing such a sacrifice for thee Meat drink and air not more necessary to maintain thy natural life than the death of Christ is to give and maintain thy spiritual life O then let thy soul grow big whilst meditating of the usefulness and excellency of Christ which is thus displaied and unfolded in every branch of the Gospel And with a deep sence upon thy heart let thy lips say blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWELFTH SERMON HEB. X.XIV. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified AFter this more general view and consideration of the Priesthood of Christ method requires that we come to a nearer and more particular consideration of the parts thereof which are his Oblation and Intercession answerable to the double office of the High-Priest offering the blood of the Sacrifices without the holy place which Typed out Christs oblation and then once a year bringing the blood before the Lord into the most holy place presenting it before the Lord and with it sprinkling the mercy-seat wherein the intercession of Christ the other part or Act of his Priesthood was in a lively manner Typified to us My present business is to open and apply the Oblation of Christ. The efficacy and excellency whereof is excellently illustrated by a comparison with all other oblations in the precedent context and with a singular Encomium commended to us in these words from the singularity of it It is but one offering one not only specifically but one numerically considered But once offered and never more to be repeated For Christ dieth no more Rom. 6.9 He also commends it from the efficacy of it By it he hath perfected i. e. not only purchased a possibility of salvation but all that we need to our full perfection It brings in a most intire compleat and perfect righteousness All that remains to make us perfectly happy is but the full application of the benefits procured by this Oblation for us Moreover it 's here commended from the extensiveness of it Not being restrained to a few but applicable to all the Saints in all the ages and places of the world For this indefinite them that are sanctified is
the Empyrean Heaven the City of God wihther Christ ascended Where the great assembly are met Paradise and Canaan were but the Types of it More excelling and trascending the Royal Palaces of earthly Princes than they do a â—idgeon hold The company also with whom he is enjoyed adds to the glory A blissful society indeed Store of good neighbours in that City There we shall have familiar converse with Angels whose appearances now are insupportable by poor mortals There will be sweet and full closings also betwixt the Saints Luther and Zuinglius are there agreed here they could not fully close with one another And no wonder for they could not fully close with themselves But there is perfect harmony and unity All meeting and closing in God as lines in the Center This is a blessed glimpse of your inheritance Thirdly All this is purchased for Believers hence it 's call'd the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 All is yours for ye are Christs that is the tenure 1 Cor. 3.23 So Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Only those that are Sons are Heirs Rom. 8.17 The unrighteous shall not inherit 1 Cor. 6.9 It 's the Fathers good pleasure to give the Kingdom to the little flock Luk. 12.32 Inference 1. Hath Christ not only redeemed you from wrath but purchased such an eternal inheritance also by the overplus of his merit for you Oh how well content should Believers then be with their lot of providence in this life be it what it will Content did I say I speak too low overcome ravisht filled with praises and thanksgivings how low how poor how afflicted soever for present they are O let not such a thing as grumbling repining freting at providence be found or once named among the expectants of this Inheritance Suppose you had taken a beggar from your door and adopted him to be your Son and made him Heir of a large inheritance and after this he should contest and quarrel with you for a trifle could you bear it how to work the Spirit of a Saint into contentment with a Low condition here I have laid down several rules in another discourse to which for present I refer the Reader Inference 2. With what weaned affections should the people of God walk up and down this world content to live and willing to die For things present are theirs if they live and things to come are theirs if they die Paul expresses himself in a frame of holy indifferencie Phil. 1.23 Which to choose I know not Many of them that are now in fruition of their inheritance above had vitam in patientia mortem in desiderio life in patience and death in desire while they tabernacled with us Oh cried one what would I give to have a bed made to my wearied soul in Christs bosom I cannot tell you what sweet pain and delightful torments are in his love I often challenge time for holding us assunder I profess to you I have no rest till I be over head and ears in Loves Ocean If Christs Love that fountain of delights were laid open to me as I would wish O how drunken would this my soul be I half call his absence cruel and the mask and vail on his face a cruel covering that hideth such a fair fair face from a â—ick soul. I dare not challenge himself but his absence is a mountain of Iron upon my heavy heart O when shall we meet How long is it to the dawning of the marriage day O sweet Lord Jesus take wide steps O my Lord come over mountains at one stride O my beloved flee like a Roe or young Hart upon the mountains of seperation O if he would fold the Heavens together like an old cloak and shovel time and days out of the way and make ready in hast the Lambs wife for her husband Since he looked upon me my heart is not mine own Who can be blamed for desiring to see that fair inheritance which is purchased for him But truly should God hold up the soul by the power of faith from day to day to such sights as these who would be content to live a day more on earth How should we be ready to pull down the Prison walls and not having patience to wait till God open the door As the Heathen said Victurosque dii celant ut vivere durant And truly the wisdom of God is in this specially remarkable in giving the new creature such an admirable crasis and even temper as that Scripture 2 Thes. 3.5 expresses The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and patient waiting for of Christ. Love inflames with desire patience allays that fervor So that fervent desires as one happily expresses it are allaied with meek submission Mighty love with strong patience And had not God twisted together these two principles in the Christians constitution he had framed a creature to be a torment to it self to live upon a very rack Inference 3. Hence we infer the impossibility of their Salvation that know not Christ nor have interest in his blood Neither Heathens nor meerly nominal Christians can inherit I know some are very indulgent to the Heathen and many formal Christians are but too much so to themselves but union by faith with Jesus Christ is the only way revealed in Scripture by which we hope to come to the heavenly inheritance I know it seems hard that such brave men as some of the Heathens were should be damned but the Scripture knows no other way to glory but Christ put on and applied by faith And it is the common suffrage of modern sound Divines that no man by the sole conduct of nature without the knowledge of Christ can be saved There is but one way to glory for all the world Ioh. 14.6 No man cometh to the Father but by me Gal. 3.14 The blessing of Abraham comes upon the Gentiles through faith Scripture asserts the impossibility of being or doing any thing that is truly evangelically good out of Christ. Joh. 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing and Heb. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God Scripture every where connects and chains Salvation with vocation Rom. 8.30 and vocation with Gospel Rom. 10.14 To those that plead for the Salvation of Heathens and profane Christians we may apply that tart rebuke of Bernard that while some labour to make Plato a Christian he feared they therein did prove themselves to be Heathens Inference 4. How greatly are we all concerned to clear up our Title to the heavenly inheritance It 's horrible to see how industrious many are for an inheritance on earth and how careless for Heaven By which we may plainly see how vilely the noble soul is depressed by sin and sunk down into flesh minding only the concernments of the flesh Hear me ye that labour for
a debased state but was really and indeed humbled and that not only before men but God As man he was humbled really as God in respect of his manifestive glory And as it was real so also voluntary It is not said he was humbled but he humbled himself He was willing to stoop to this low and abject state for us And indeed the voluntariness of his humiliation made it most acceptable to God and singularly commends the love of Christ to us That he would choose to stoop to all this ignominy sufferings and abasement for us Secondly The degrees of his humiliation it was not only so low as to become a man a man under law but he humbled himself to become obedient to death even the death of the Cross. Here you see the depth of Christs humiliation both specified it was unto death and aggravated even the death of the Cross. Not only to become a man but a dead corpse and that too hanging on the tree Dying the death of a malefactor Thirdly The duration or continuance of this his humiliation It continued from the first moment of his incarnation to the very moment of his vivification and quickning in the grave So the terms of it are fixed here by the Apostle From the time he was found in fashion as a man that is from his incarnation unto his death on the Cross which also comprehends the time of his abode in the grave So long his humiliation lasted Hence the observation is DOCT. That the state of Christ from his Conception to his Resurrection was a state of deep abasement and humiliation We are now entring upon Christs humbled state which I shall cast under three general heads viz. his Humiliation in his incarnation in his life and in his death My present work is to open Christs Humiliation in his incarnation imported in these words he was found in fashion as a man By which you are not to conceive that he only assumed a body as an assisting form to appear transiently to us in it and so lay it down again It is not such an apparition of Christ in the shape of a man that is here intended but his true and real assumption of our nature which was a special part of his Humiliation as will appear by the following particulars First The Incarnation of Christ was a most wonderful humiliation of him in as much as thereby he is brought into the ranck and order of creatures who is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 This is the astonishing mysterie 1 Tim. 3.16 that God should be manifest in the flesh That the eternal God should truly and properly be called the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 It was a wonder to Solomon that God would dwell in that stately and magnificent Temple at Ierusalem 2 Chron. 6.18 But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee how much less this house which I have built But it 's a far greater wonder that God should dwell in a body of flesh and pitch his Tabernacle with us Ioh. 1.14 It would have seemed a rude blasphemy had not the Scriptures plainly revealed it to have thought or spoken of the eternal God as born in time The worlds Creator as a Creature The Ancient of daies as an Infant of daies The Heathen Chaldeans told the King of Babel that the dwelling of the Gods is not with flesh Dan. 2.11 But now God not only dwells with flesh but dwells in flesh Yea was made flesh and dwelt among us For the Sun to fall from its Sphear and be degraded into a wandring Attom For an Angel to be turned out of Heaven and be converted into a silly fly or worm had been no such great abasement for they were but Creatures before and so they should abide still though in an inferiour order or species of creatures The distance betwixt the highest and lowest species of creatures is but a finite distance The Angel and the worm dwell not so far assunder But for the infinite glorious Creator of all things to become a creature is a mystery exceeding all humane understanding The distance betwixt God and the highest order of creatures is an infinite distance He is said to humble himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven What a humiliation then is it to behold the things in the lower world But to be born into it and become a man Great indeed is the mysterie of Godliness Behold saith the Prophet Isai. 40.15 18. The nations are as the drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing All nations before him are as nothing and they are accounted to him less than nothing and vanity If indeed this great and incomprehensible Majesty will himself stoop to the state and condition of a creature we may easily believe that being once a creature he would expose himself to hunger thirst shame spetting death or any thing but sin For that once being man he should endure any of these things is not so wonderful as that he should become a man This was the low stoop a deep abasement indeed Secondly It was a marvelous humiliation to the Son of God not only to become a creature but an inferiour creature a man and not an Angel Had he took the Angelical nature though it had been a wonderful abasement to him yet he had staid if I may so speak nearer his own home and been somewhat liker to a God than now he appeared when he dwelt with us For Angels are the highest and most excellent of all created Beings For their nature they are pure spirits for their wisdom Intelligencies For their dignity they are called principalities and powers For their habitations they are stiled the Heavenly Host and for their imployment it is to behold the face of God in Heaven The highest pitch both of our holiness and happiness in the coming world is expressed by this we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels Luk. 20.36 As man is nothing to God so he is much inferiour to the Angels So much below them that he is not able to bear the sight of an Angel though in an humane shape rendring himself as familiarly as may be to him Iudg. 13.22 When the Psalmist had contemplated the Heavens and viewed the Coelestial bodies the glorious Luminaries the Moon and Stars which God had made he cries out Psal. 8.5 what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him Take man at his best when he came a perfect and pure piece out of his Makers hand in the state of innocency yet he was inferiour to Angels They alwaies bare the image of God in a more eminent degree than man as being wholly spiritual substances and so more lively representing God than man could do whose noble soul is immerst
NINETEENTH 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 THis Scripture hath been once already under consideration and indeed can be never enough considered It holds forth the humbled state of the Lord Jesus during the time of his abode on earth The sum of it was delivered you before in this point DOCT. That the state of Christ from his Conception to his Resurrection was a state of deep abasement and humiliation The Humiliation of Christ was proposed to us under the three general heads or branches of his Humiliation in his Incarnation his Humiliation in his life and his Humiliation in his death How he was humbled by Incarnation hath been opened above in the eighteenth Sermon How he was humbled in his life is the design of this Sermon yet expect not that I should give you here an exact History of the life of Christ. The Scriptures speak but little of the private part of his life and it is not my design to dilate upon all the memorable passages that the Evangelists those faithful Narrators of the life of Christ have preserved for us but only to observe and improve those more observable particulars in his life wherein especially he was humbled and such are these that follow First The Lord Jesus was humbled in his very Infancy by his Circumcision according to the Law For being of the stock of Israel he was to undergo the Ceremonies and submit to the Ordinances belonging to that people and thereby to put an end to them for so it became him to fulfil all Righteouness Luk. 2.21 And when eight daies were accomplished for the Circumcising of the Child his name was called Iesus Hereby the Son of God was greatly humbled especially in these two respects First In that hereby he obliged himself to keep the whole Law though he were the Law-maker Gal. 5.3 For I testifie again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law The Apostles meaning is he is a debtor in regard of duty because he that thinks himself bound to keep one part of the Ceremonial Law doth thereby bind himself to keep it all for where all the parts are inseparably united as they are in the Law of God we pull all upon us by engaging or medling with any one And he that is a debtor in duty to keep the whole Law quickly becomes a debtor in regard of penalty not being able to keep any part of it Christ therefore coming as our surety to pay both those debts the debt of duty and the debt of penalty to the Law he by his circumcision obliges himself to pay the whole debt of duty by fulfilling all Righteousness and though his obedience to it was so exact and perfect that he contracted no debt of penalty for any transgression of his own yet he obliges himself to pay that debt of penalty we had contracted by suffering all the pains due to transgressors This was that intollerable yoak that none were able to bear but Christ. Acts 15.10 And it was no small abasure of Christ to bind himself to the Law as a Subject made under it For he was the Law-giver above all Law and herein that Soveraignty of a God one of the choice flowers in the Crown of Heaven was obscured and vailed by his subjection Secondly Hereby he was represented to the world not only as a Subject but also as a Sinner For though he was pure and holy yet this ordinance passing upon him seemed to imply as if corruption had indeed been in him which must be cut off by mortification For this was the mysterie principally intended by circumcision It served to mind and admonish Abraham and his seed of the natural guiltiness uncleanness and corruption of their hearts and natures So Jer. 4.4 Circumcise your selves unto the Lord and take away the foreskins of your hearts ye men of Judah i. e. the sinfulness and corruption of them Hence the rebellious and unmortified are called stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart as it is Acts 7.51 and as it served to convince of natural uncleanness so it signified and sealed the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh as the Apostle phraseth it Col. 2.11 Now this being the end of God in the institution of this ordinance for Abraham and his ordinary seed Christ in his infancy by submitting to it did not only vail his Soveraignty by subjection but was also represented as a sinner to the world though most holy and pure in himself Secondly Christ was humbled by persecution and that in the very morning of his life He was banisht almost as soon as born Matth. 2.13 Flee into Aegypt saith the Angel to Ioseph and be thou there until I bring thee word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him Ungrateful Herod was this entertainment for a Saviour what raise the Country against him as if a destroyer rather than a Saviour had landed upon the coast what deny him the protection of those Laws under which he was born and that before he had broken the least punctilio of them the child of a beggar may claim the benefit and protection of Law as his birthright and must the Son of God be denied it But herein he fulfilled the Scriptures whilst venting his own lusts For so it was foretold Ier. 31.15 And this early persecution was not obscurely hinted in the title of the 22 Psalm that psalm which looks rather like an History of the new than a prophecy of the old Testament For as it contains a most exact description of Christs sufferings so it 's fitted with a most suitable Title To the chief Musitian Aiâ—eleth Shabar which signifies the Hind of the morning or that Deer which the Hunter rouzes betime in the morning and singles out to hunt down that day And so they did by him as the 16. verse will tell you for saith he Dogs have compassed me the Assemble of the wicked have enclosed me Upon which Musculus sweetly and ingeniously descants O what sweet Venison saith he is the flesh of Christ abundantly sweeter to the believing soul than that which the Nobles of this world esteem most delicate And lest it should want the highest and richest favour to a delicate palate Christ our Hart was not only killed but hunted to the purpose before he was killed even as great men use by hunting and chasing before they cut the throat of the deer to render its flesh more sweet tender and delicate Thus was Christ hunted betimes out of the Country he was born in And no doubt but where such dogs scent and wind the Spirit of Christ in any they would pursue them also to destruction did not a gratious providence rate them off But to return how great an Humiliation is this to the Son of God not only to become an Infant but in his
rule of contraries for the most part Where it fixes its marks of hatred we may usually find that which invites our respect and Love It should trouble us the less to be under the slights and disrespects of a blind world I could be even proud upon it said Luther that I see I have an ill name from the world And Ierome blessed God that counted him worthy to be hated of the world Labour to stand right in the Judgement of God and trouble not thy self for the rash and headlong censures of men Let wicked men said one cut the throat of my credit and do as they like best with it when the wind of their calumnies hath blown away my good name from me in the way to Heaven I know Christ will take my name out of the mire and wash it and restore it to me again Inference 7. From the whole of Christs Humiliation in his life learn you to pass through all the troubles of your life with a contented composed spirit as Christ your forerunner did He was persecuted and bare it meekly Poor and never murmured Tempted and never yielded to the Temptation Reviled and Reviled not again When ye therefore pass through any of these trials look to Jesus and consider him See how he that passed through those things before you managed himself in like circumstances yea not only beat the way by his pattern and example for you but hath in every one of those conditions left a blessing behind him for them that follow in his steps Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTIETH SERMON JOH XVII XI And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are WE now come to the Last and Lowest step of Christs Humiliation which was in his submitting to Death even the Death of the Cross. Out of this death of Christ the life of our souls springs up and in this blood of the Cross all our mercies swim to us The blood of Christ runs deep to some eyes The Judicious Believer sees multitudes multitudes of inestimable blessings in it By this Crimson Fountain I resolve to sit down and concerning the death of Christ I shall take distinctly into consideration the preparations made for it the nature and quality of it The Deportment and carriage of dying-Jesus The Funeral-solemnities with which he was buried And lastly the blessed designs and glorious ends of his death The preparatives for his death were six Three on his own part and three more by his enemies The preparations made by himself for it were the solemn recommendation of his friends to his Father The institution of a commemorative sign to perpetuate and refresh the memory of his death in the hearts of his people till he come again And his pouring out his soul to God by prayer in the garden which was the posture he chose to be found in when they should apprehend him This Scripture contains the first preparative of Christ for death whereby he sets his house in order prays for his people and blesses them before he dies The love of Christ was ever tender and strong to his people but the greatest manifestations of it were at parting And this he manifested two waies especially viz. in leaving singular supports and grounds of comfort with them in his last heavenly Sermon in Chap. 14.15 16. and in pouring out his soul most affectionately to the Father for them in this Heavenly Prayer Chap. 17. In this Prayer he gives them a Specimen or Sample of that his glorious intercession-work which he was just then going to perform in Heaven for them Here his heart overflowed for he was now leaving them and going to the Father the last words of a dying man are remarkable how much more of a dying Saviour I shall not lanch out into that blessed Ocean of pretious matter contained in this Chapter but take immediately into consideration the words that I have read wherein I find a weighty petition strongly followed and set home with many mighty Arguments First We have here Christs petition or request in behalf of his people Not only those on the place but all others that then did or afterwards should believe on him And the sum of what he here requests for them is that his Father would keep them through his name Where you have both the mercy and the means of attaining it The mercy is to be kept Keeping implies danger And there is a double danger obviated in this request danger in respect of sin and danger in respect of ruine and destruction To both these the people of God lie open in this world The means of their preservation from both is the name i. e. the power of God This name of the Lord is that strange Tower to which the Righteous flie and are safe Prov. 18.10 Alas it is not your own strength or wisdom that keeps you but ye are kept by the mighty power of God This protecting power of God doth not however exclude our care and diligence but implies it therefore he adds ye are kept by the mighty power of God through faith to Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 God keeps his people and yet they are to keep themselves in the Love of God Iude 21 to keep their hearts with all diligence Prov. 4.23 This is the sum of the petition Secondly The Arguments with which he urgeth and presses on this request are drawn partly from his own condition I am no more in the world i. e. I am going to die within very few hours I shall be separated from them in regard of my corporal presence Partly from their condition but these are in the world i. e. I must leave them in the midst of danger and partly from the joint interest that his Father and himself had in them Keep those that thou hast given me With several other most prevalent pleas which in their proper places shall be anon produced and displaied to illustrate and confirm this pretious truth which this Scripture affords us DOCT. That the Fatherly care and tender love of our Lord Iesus Christ was eminently discovered in that pleading prayer he poured out for his people at his parting with them It pertained to the Priest and Father of the family to bless the rest especially when they were to be separated from them by death This was a rite in Israel When good Iacob was grown old and the time was come that he should be gathered to his Fathers then he blessed Joseph Ephraim and Manasseth saying God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaack did walk the God which fed me all my life long unto this day the Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the Lads Gen. 48.15 16. this was a prophetical and patriarchical blessing Not that Iacob could bless as God blesses he could speak the words
therefore will get the fairest hand he can to manage it with the less suspicion Corollary 11. Did Iudas one of the twelve do this Then certainly Christians may approve and join with such men on earth whose faces they shall never see in Heaven The Apostles held communion a long time with this man and did not suspect him O please not your selves therefore that you have communion with the Saints here and that they think and speak charitably of you All the Churches shall know saith the Lord that I am he that searcheth the heart and reins and will give to every man as his work shall be Rev. 2.23 In Heaven we shall meet many that we never thought to meet there and miss many we were confident we should see there Corollary 12. Lastly Did Iudas one of the twelve a man so obliged raised and honoured by Christ do this Cease then from man be not too confident but beware of men Trust ye not in a friend put no confidence in a guide keep the door of thy lips from her that lieth in thy bosom Mica 7.5 Not that there is no sincerity in any man but because there is so much hypocrisie in many men and so much corruption in the best of men that we may not be too confident nor lay too great a stress upon any man Peters modest expression of Sylvanus is a pattern for us Sylvanus a faithful brother unto you as I suppose 1 Pet. 5.12 The time shall come saith Christ that brother shall betray brother to death Matth. 10.11 Your Charity for others may be your duty but your too great confidence may be your snare Fear what others may do but fear thy self more The TWENTY FOURTH SERMON LUK. XXIII XXIII XXIV And they were instant with loud voices requiring that he might be crucificed and the voices of them and of the Chief-Priests prevailed And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required JVdas hath made good his promise to the High-Priest and delivered Jesus a prisoner into their hands These Wolves of the evening no soonner seize the Lamb of God but they thirst and long to be sucking his pretious inuocent blood Their revenge and malice admits no delay as fearing a rescue by the people When Herod had taken Peter he committed him to prison intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people Acts 12.4 but these men cannot sleep till they have his blood and therefore the preparation of the Passover being come they resolve in all haste to destroy him yet lest it should look like a downright murder it shall be formalized with a trial This his trial and condemnation are the two last acts by which they prepared for his death and are both contained in this context in which we may observe First The Enditement Secondly The Sentence to which the judge proceeded First The Enditement drawn up against Christ wherein they accuse him of many things but can prove nothing They charge him with sedition and blasphemy but faulter shamefully in the proof However what is wanting in evidence shall be supplied with clamour and importunity For saith the Text they were instant with loud voices requiring that he might be crucified and their voices prevailed when they can neither prove the sedition or blasphemy they charged him with then crucifie him crucifie him must serve the turn instead of all witnesses and proofs Secondly The Sentence pronounced upon him Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required i. e. he sentenced Christ to be nailed to the Cross and there to hang till he was dead From both these we observe these two doctrinal conclusions Doct. 1. First That the trial of Christ for his life was managed most malitiously and illegally against him by his unrighteous Iudges Doct. 2. Secondly Though nothing could be proved against our Lord Iesus Christ worthy of death or of bonds yet was he condemned to be nailed to the Cross and there to hang till he died I shall handle these two points distinctly in their order beginning with the first namely DOCT. 1. That the trial of Christ for his life was managed most malitiously and illegally against him by his unrighteous Iudges Reader here thou maist see the Judge of all the world standing himself to be judged He that shall judge the world in righteousness judged most unrighteously He that shall one day come to the throne of judgement attended with thousands and ten thousands of Angels and Saints standing as a prisoner at mans bar and there denied the common right which a thief or murderer might claim and is commonly given them To manifest the illegallity of Christs trial let the following particulars be heedfully weighed First That he was inhumanely abused both in words and actions before the Court met or any examination had been taken of the fact For as soon as they had taken him they forthwith bound him and led him away to the High-priests house Luk. 22.54 and there they that held him mocked him and smote him blindfolded him stroke him on the face and bid him prophesie who smote him and many other things blasphemously spake they against him vers 63 64 65. how illegal and barbarous a thing was this When they were but binding Paul with thongs he thought himself abused contrary to law and asked the Centurion that stood by is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned q. d. is this legal What punish a man first and judge him afterwards But Christ was not only bound but horribly abused by them all that night dealing with him as the Lords of the Philistines did with Sampson to whom it was a sport to abuse him No rest had Jesus that night no more sleep for him now in this world O it was a sad night to him And this under Caiphas's own roof Secondly As he was inhumanely abused before he was tried so he was examined and judged by a Court that had no Authority to try him Luk. 22.66 as soon as it was day the elders of the people and the Chief-Priests and the Scribes came together and led him into their Concil This was the Ecclesiastical Court The great Sanhedrim which according to its first constitution should consist of seventy grave honourable and learned men to whom were to be referred all doubtful matters too hard for inferiour Courts to decide And these were to Judge impartially and uprightly for God as men in whom was the Spirit of God According to Gods counsel to Moses Numb 11.16 c. In this Court the Righteous and innocent might expect relief and protection And that is conceived to be the meaning of Christs words Luk. 13.33 It cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem that is their Righteousness and Innocency may expect protection But now contrary to the first constitution it consisted of a pack fo malitious Scribes and Pharisees men full of revenge malice and all
unrighteousness And over these Caiphas a head fit for such a body at this time precided And though there was still some face of a Court among them yet their power was now abridged by the Romans that they could not hear and determine judge and condemn in Capital matters as formery For as Iosephus their own Historian informs us Herod in the beginning of his reign took away this power from them and that Scripture seems to confirm it Joh. 18.31 It is not lawful for us to put any man to death And therefore they bring him to Pilates Bar. He also understood him to be a Galilean and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee and at that time in Ierusalem he is sent to him and by him remitted to Pilate Thirdly As he was at first heard and judged by a Court that had no authority to Judge him so when he stood at Pilates bar he was accused of perverting the Nation and denying tribute to Caesar than which nothing was more notoriously false For as all his Doctrine was pure and heavenly and malice it self could not find a flaw in it so he was alwaies observant of the Laws under which he lived and scrupulous of giving the least just offence to the civil powers Yea he not only paid the Tribute himself though he might have pleaded exemption but charged it upon others as their duty so to do Matth. 22.24 give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and yet with such palpable untruths is Christ charged Fourthly Yea and what is most abominable and unparallel'd to compass their malitious designs they industriously labour to suborn false witnesses to take away his life not sticking at the grossest perjury and manifest injustice so they might destroy him So you read Matth. 25.59 Now the Chief-Priests and Elders and all the council sought salse witnesses against Iesus to put him to death Abominable wickedness For such men and so many to complot to shed the blood of the innocent by known and studied perjury What will not malice against Christ transport men to Fifthly Moreover the carriage of the Court was most insolent and base towards him during the trial For whilst he stood before them as a prisoner yet uncondemned sometimes they are angry at him for his silence and when he speaks and that pertinently to the point they smite him on the mouth for speaking and scoff at what he speaks To some of their light frivolous and ensnaring questions he is silent not for want of an answer but because he heard nothing worthy of an answer And to fulfil what the Prophet Isaiah had long before predicted of him 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 Isai. 53.7 as also to leave us a president when to speak and when to be silent when we for his name sake shall be brought before Governours for such reasons as these he sometimes answers not a word and then they are ready to condemn him for a mute Answerest thou nothing saith the High-Priest what is it that these witness against thee Matth. 26.62 hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee saith Pilate Matth. 27.13 And when he makes his defence in words of truth and soberness they smite him for speaking Joâ— 18.22 And when he had thus spoken one of the Officers which stood by stroke Iesus with the palm of his hand saying answerest thou the High-Priest so And what had he spoken to exasperate them Had he spoken impertinently Not at all What he said was but this when they would have had him insnare himself with his own lips Iesus answered I spake openly in the world I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither the Iews alwaies resort and in secret have I said nothing Why askest thou me ask them that heard me behold they know what I said q. d. I am not obliged to accuse and ensnare my self but you ought to proceed secundum allegata probata according to what is alledged and proved Did he deserve a blow on his mouth for this O who but himself could have so patiently digested such abuses under all this he stands in perfect innocency and patience making no other return to that wretch that smote him but this if I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil but if well why smitest thou me Sixthly Lastly To instance in no more He is condemned to die by that very mouth which had once and again professed he found no fault in him He had heard all that could be alledged against him and saw it was a perfect piece of malice and envy When they urge Pilate to proceed to sentence him why faith he what evil hath he done Matth. 27.23 nay in the preface to the very sentence it self he acknowledges him to be a just person Matth. 27.24 When Pilate saw he could prevail nothing but that rather a tumult was made he took water and washed his hands before the multitude and said I am innocent of the blood of this just person see ye to it Here the innocency of Christ brake out like the Sun wading out of a cloud convincing the conscience of his Judge that he was just and yet he must give sentence on him for all that to please the people Inference 1. Was Christ thus used when he stood before the great Council the Scribes and Elders of Israel then surely great men are not alwaies wise neither do the aged understand Iudgement Job 32.9 Here were many great men many aged men many politick men in Council but not one wise or good man among them In this Council were men of parts and learning men of great abilities and by so much the more pernicious and able to do mischief Wickedness in a great man in a learned man is like poyson given in wine which is the more operative and deadly Christs greatest enemies were such as these Heathen Pilate had more pity for him than superstitious Caiphas Luther tells us that his greatest adversaries did not rise out of the Ale-houses or Brothel-houses but out of Monasteries Convents and Religious-houses Inference 2. Hence also we learn That though we are not obliged to answer every captious idle or ensnaring question yet we are bound faithfully to own and confess the truth when we are solemnly called thereunto It 's true Christ was sometimes silent and as a deaf man that heard not but when the question was solemnly put art thou the Christ The Son of the Blessed Iesus said I am Mark 14.61 62. He knew that answer would cost his life and yet he dare not deny it On this account the Apostle saith he witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate I Tim. 6.13 Herein Christ hath ruled out the way of our duty and by his own example as well as precept obliged us to a sincere confession of
this very ground Solomon concludes and very rationally that God will call over things hereafter at a more righteous Tribunal And moreover I saw under the Sun the place of Iudgement that wickedness was there and the place of righteousness that iniquity was there I said in my heart God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work Eccles. 3.16 17. Some indeed on this ground have denied the divine providence but Solomon draws a quite contrary conclusion God shall Iudge surely he will take the matter into his own hand he will bring forth the righteousness of his people as the light and their just dealing as the noon day It 's a mercy if we be wronged in one Court that we can appeal to another where we shall be sure to be relieved by a just impartial Judge Be patient therefore my brethren saith the Apostle until the coming of the Lord. Jam. 5.6 7 8. Inference 3. Again here you see how Conscience may be over-born and run down by a fleshly interest Pilates Conscience bid him beware and forbear his interest bid him act his fear of Caesar was more than the fear of God But oh what a dreadful thing is it for Conscience to be ensnared by the fear of man Prov. 29.25 To guard thy soul Reader against this mischief let such considerations as these be ever with thee First Consider how dear those profits or pleasures cost which are purchased with the loss of inward peace there is nothing in this word good enough to recompence such a loss or ballance the misery of a tormenting Conscience If you violate it and prostitute it for a fleshly lust it will remember the injury you did it many years after Gen. 42.21 Iob. 13.26 It will not only retain the memory of what you did but it will accuse you for it Matth. 27.4 It will not fear to tell you that plainly which others dare not whisper It will not only accuse but it will also condemn you for what you have done This condemning voice of Conscience is a very terrible voice You may see the horror of it in Cain the vigor of it in Iudas the doleful effects of it in Spira It will from all these its offices produce shame fear and despair if God give not repentance to life The shame it works will so confound you that you will not be able to look up Iob. 31.14 Psal. 1.5 The fear it works will make you wish for a hole in the rock to hide you Isai. 2.9 10 15 19. And its despair is a death pang The cutting off of hope is the greatest cut in the world O who can stand under such a load as this Prov. 18.14 Secondly Consider the nature of your present actions they are seed sown for eternity and will spring up again in suitable effects rewards or punishments when you that did them are turned to dust Gal. 6.7 what a man sows that shall he reap and as sure as the harvest follows the seed time so sure shall shame fear and horror follow sin Dan. 12.2 What Zeuxis the famous Limner said of his work may much more truly be said of ours eternitati pingo I paint for eternity said he when one asked him why he was so curious in his work Ah how bitter will those things be in the account and reckoning which were pleasant in the acting and committing 'T is true our actions physically considered are transient how soon is a word or action spoken or done and there is an end of it but morally considered they are permanent being put upon Gods book of account O therefore take heed what you do So speak and so act as they that must give an account Thirdly Consider how by these things men do but prepare for their own torment in a dying hour There 's bitterness enough in death you need not add more gall and wormwood to add to the bitterness of it What is the violencing and wounding of Conscience now but the sticking so many pins or needles in your death-bed against you come to lie down on it this makes death bitter indeed How many have wisht in a dying hour they had rather lived poor and low all their daies than to have strained their Consciences for the world Ah how is the face and aspect of things altered in such an hour No such considerations as these had any place in Pilates heart for if so he would never have been courted or scared into such an act as this Inference 4. Did Christ stand arraigned and condemned at Pilates Bar then the believer shall never be arraigned or condemned at Gods Bar. This sentence that Pilate pronounced on Christ gives evidence that God will never pronounce sentence against such For had he intended to have arraigned them he would never have suffered Christ their surety to be arraigned and condemned for them Christ stood at this time before a higher Judge than Pilate He stood at Gods Bar as well as his Pilate did but that which Gods own hand and Counsel had before determined to be done And what God himself at the same timeâ— did Though God did it Justly and Holily dealing with Christ as a Creditor with a Surety Pilate most wickedly and basely dealing with Christ as a corrupt Judge that shed the blood of a known innocent to pacifie the people But certain it is that out of his Condemnation flows our Justification And had not Sentence been given against him it must have been given against us Oh what a melting consideration is this that out of his agony comes our Victory out of his condemnation our Justification out of his Pain our Ease out of his Stripes our Healing out of his Gall and Vinegar our Hony out of his Curse our Blessing out of his Crown of Thorns our Crown of Glory out of his Death our Life if he could not be released it was that you might If Pilate gave sentence against him it was that the great God might never give sentence against you If he yielded that it should be with Christ as they required it was that it might be with our souls as well as we can desire And therefore Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift The TWENTY FIFTH SERMON LUK. XXIII XXVII XXVIII c. And there followed him a great company of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented him But Iesus turning unto them said Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children THE sentence of death once given against Christ the execution quickly follows Away they lead him from Gabbatha to Golgotha longing as much to be nailing him to the Cross and feeding their eyes with his torments as the Eagle doth to be tearing the flesh and drinking the blood of that Lamb she hath seised in her Tallons and is carrying away to the top of some rock to devour The Evangelist here observes
Christs death was Justice and Mercy In respect of man it was murder and cruelty In respect of himself it was obedience and humility Hence our note is DOCT. That our Lord Iesus Christ was not only put to death but to the worst of deaths even the death of the Cross. To this the Apostle gives a plain testimony Phil. 2.8 He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross where his humiliation is both specified he was humbled to death and aggravated by a most emphatical reduplication even the death of the Cross. So Act. 5.30 Iesus whom ye slew and hanged upon a tree q. d. it did not suffice you to put him to a violent but you also put him to the most base vile and ignominious death you hanged him on a tree In this point we will discuss these three particulars viz. the nature or kind the manner and reasons of Christs death upon the tree First I shall open the kind or nature of this death by shewing you that it was a violent painful shameful cursed slow and succourless death First It was a violent death that Christ died Violent in it self though voluntary on his part He was cut off out of the land of the living Isai. 53.8 And yet he laid down his life of himself no man took it from him Joh. 10.17 I call his death violent because he died not a natural death i. e. he lived not till nature was consumed with age as it is in many who live till their balsamum radicale radical moisture like the oyl in the Lamp be quite consumed and then go out like an expiring Lamp It was not so with Christ. For he was but in the very flower and prime of his time when he died And indeed he must either die a violent death or not die at all partly because there was no sin in him to open a door to natural death as it doth in all others Partly because else his death had not been a sacrifice acceptable and satisfactory to God for us That which died of it self was never offered up to God but that which was slain when it was in its full strength and health The Temple was a Type of the body of Christ. Now when the Temple was destroyed it did not drop down as an antient structure decayed by time but was pulled down by violence when it was standing in its full strength Therefore he is said to suffer death and to be put to death for us in the flesh 1 Pet. 3.18 That 's the first thing It was a violent though a voluntary death For violent is not opposed to voluntary but to natural Secondly The death of the Cross was a most painful death Indeed in this death were many deaths contrived in one The Cross was a Rack as well as a Gibber The pains Christ suffered upon the Cross are by the Apostle emphatically stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.24 the pains of death but properly they signifie the pangs of travail yea the birth pangs the most acute sorrows of a travailing woman His soul was in travail Isai. 53. His body in bitter pangs and being as Aquinas speaks optime complectionatus of the most excellent Crisis exact and just temperament his sences were more acute and delicate than ordinary and all the time of his suffering so they continued not in the least blunted dulled or rebated by the pains he suffered The death of Christ doubtless contained the greatest and acutest pains imaginable Because these pains of Christ alone were intended to equalize all that misery which the sin of man deserved all that pain which the damned shall and the Elect deserved to feel Now to have pains meeting at once upon one person equivalent to all the pains of the damned Judge you what a plight Christ was in Thirdly The death of the Cross was a shameful death Not only because the crucified were stripped quite naked and so exposed as spectacles of shame but mainly because it was that kind of death which was appointed for the basest and vilest of men Their Free-men when they committed capital crimes were not condemned to the Cross. No that was looked upon as the death appointed for slaves Tacitus calls it servile supplicium the punishment of a slave and to the same sense Iuvenal speaks pone crucem servo put the Cross upon the back of a slave As they had a great esteem of a Free-man so they manifested it even when they had forfeited their lives in cutting them off by more honourable kinds of death This by hanging on the tree was alwaies accounted most ignominious To this day we say of him that 's hanged he dies the death of a dog And yet it 's said of our Lord Jesus Heb. 12.2 he not only endured the Cross but also despised the shame Obedience to his Fathers will and zeal for your Salvation made him digest the shame of it and despise the baseness that was in it Fourthly The death of the Cross was a cursed death Upon that account he is said to be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree Gal. 3.13 This refers to Deut. 21.23 His body shall not remain all night upon the Tree but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God The very Symbol of lifting them up betwixt heaven and earth carryed much shame in it For it implied this in it that the person so used was so execrable base and vile that he deserved not to tread upon the earth or touch the surface of the ground any more And the command for burying them that day doth not at all mitigate but rather aggravates this curse speaking the person to be so abominable that as he is lifted up into the air and hanging between heaven and earth as unworthy ever to set foot more upon the earth so when dead they were to hasten to bury him that such an abominable sight might be removed assoon as might be from before the eyes of men And that the earth might not be defiled by his lying on the surface of it when taken down However as the Learned Iunius hath Judiciously observed that this curse is only a Ceremonial curse For otherwise it 's neither in it self nor by the Law of nature or by civil Law more execrable than any other death And the main reason why the Ceremonial Law affixed the curse to this rather than any other death was principally with respect to the death Christ was to die And therefore Reader see and admire the providence of God that Christ should die by a Roman and not by a Iudaick Law For Crucifying or Hanging on the Tree was a Roman punishment and not in use among the Jews But the Scriptures cannot be broken Fifthly The death of the Cross was a very slow and lingering death They died leisurably
Which still increaseth and aggravateth the misery of it If a man must die a violent death it 's a favour to be dispatcht As they that are pressed to death beg for more weight And it 's a favour to those that are hanged to be smitten on the breast or plucked by the heels by their friends On the contrary to hang long in the midst of tortures to have death coming upon us with a slow pace that we may feel every tread of it as it comes on is a misery The Tyrant that heard the poor Martyr was dead under his first torments said as one disappointed Evasit He hath escaped me For he intended to have kept him much longer under torments And it was the cruel counsel of another to his executioner Let him die so as he may feel himself how he dies And surely in this respect it was worse for Christ than any other that was ever nailed to the Tree For all the while he hanged there he remained full of life and acute sence His life departed not gradually but was whole in him to the last Other men die gradually and towards their end their sence of pain is much blunted They faulter fumble and expire by degrees but Christ stood under â—he pains of death in his full strength His life was whole in him This was evident by the mighty outcry he made when he gave up the Ghost Which argued him then to be full of strength contrary to the experience of all other men Which made the Centurion when he heard it to conclude Surely this was the Son of God Mark 15.37 39. Sixthly It was a succourless and helpless death to Christ. Sometimes they gave to malefactors amidst their torments Vinegar and Myrh to blunt dull and stupifie their Sences And if they hanged long would break their bones to dispatch them out of their pains Christ had none of this favour Instead of Vinegar and Myrh they gave him Vinegar and Gall to drink to aggravate his torments And for the breaking of his bones he prevented it by dying before they come to break his legs For the Scriptures must be fulfilled which saith not a bone of him shall be broken This now was the kind and nature of that death he died Even the violent painful shameful cursed slow and succourless death of the Cross. An Ancient punishment both among the Romans and Carthaginians But in honour of Christ who died this death Constantine the great abrogated it by Law ordaining that none should ever be Crucified any more because Christ died that Death Secondly As to the manner of the execution They that were condemned to the death of the Cross saith a Learned Antiquary of our own bare their Cross upon their own shoulders to the place of execution Then was stript of all their cloaths for they suffered naked And then were fastned to the Cross with nails The manner how that was done one gives us in these words They stretch him out meaning Christ like another Isaac upon his own burden the Cross that so they might take measure of the holes And though the Print of his blood upon it gave them the true length of his body yet how strictly do they take it longer than the truth Thereby at once to Crucifie and rack him Then being nailed like as Moses lifted up the Serpent so was the Son of man lifted up And when the Cross with the Lord fastned on it fell into its socket or basis it Jerked the whole and every part of his sacred body And the whole weight hanging on his nailed hands the wounds by degrees grew wider and wider till at last he expired in the midst of those tortures And that the equity of their proceedings might the better appear to the people the cause of the punishment was written in Capital Letters and fixed to the Tree over the head of the Malefactor Of this appendant to this kind of death I shall speak distinctly in the next Sermon before I come to handle the manner of his death there being so much of providence in that circumstance as invites us to spend more than a few transient thoughts upon it Mean while in the next place Thirdly We will enquire briefly into the reasons why Christ died this rather than any other kind of death And amongst others these three are obvious First Because Christ must bear the curse in his death and a curse by Law affixed to no other kind of death as it was to this The Learned Masius upon Iosuah 2.29 Commenting upon the death of the King of Ai who was hanged on the Tree until evening tells us that the principal reason of the malediction and execrableness of this death was because the death of Christ was prefigured in that mysterie Christ came to take away the curse from us by this death and so must be made a curse On him must all the curses of the Moral Law lie which were due to us And that nothing might be wanting to make it a full curse the very death he died must also have a Ceremonial curse upon it Secondly Christ died this rather than any other kind of death to fulfil the Types and prefigurations that of old were made with respect to it All the Sacrifices were lifted up from the earth upon the Altar But especially the brassen Serpent prefigured this death Numb 21.9 Moses made a Serpent of Brass and put it upon a pole And saith Christ Ioh. 3.14 As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that so he might correspond with that lively Type made of him in the wilderness Thirdly Christ died this rather than any other death because it was predicted of him and in him must all the predictions as well as Types be fully accomplished The Psalmist spake in the person of Christ of this death as plainly as if he had rather been writing the History of what was done than a Prophesie of what was to be done so many years afterwards Psal. 22.16 17. For dogs have compassed me about the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me Which hath a manifest reference to the distâ—ntion of all his members upon the Tree which was as a rack to him So Zech 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced Yea Christ himself had foretold the death he should die in the forecited Ioh. 3.14 Saying he must be lifted up i. e. hanged between heaven and earth And the Scriptures must be fulfilled Thus you have a brief account both of the kind manner and reasons of this death of Christ. The improvement of it you have in the following Inferences of truth diducible from it Inference 1. Is Christ dead And did he die the violent painful shameful cursed slow and succourless death of the Cross Then surely there is forgiveness with
God and plenteous redemption for the greatest of Sinners that by Faith apply the blood of the Cross to their poor guilty Souls So speaks the Apostle Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins And 1 Ioh. 1.7 The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin Two things will make this demonstrable First That there is sufficient efficacy in this blood of the Cross to expiate the greatest Sins Secondly That the efficacy of it is designed and intended by God for believing sinners How clearly do both these propositions lie in the Word First That there is sufficient efficacy in the blood of the Cross to expiate and wash away the greatest sins This is manifest for it is pretious blood as it 's call'd 1. Pet. 1.18 Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the pretious blood of the Son of God This pretiousness of the blood of Christ rises from the union it hath with that person who is over all God blessed for ever And on that account is stiled the blood of God Acts 20.28 And so it becomes Royal Princely blood Yea such for the dignity and efficacy of it as never was created or shall ever run in any other veins but his The blood of all the creatures in the world even a Sea of humane blood bears no more proportion to the pretious and excellent blood of Christ than a dish of common water to a Rivâ—r of liquid Gold On the account of its invaluable pretiousness it becomes satisfying and reconciling blood to God So the Apostle speaks Col. 1.20 And having made peace through the Blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven The same blood which is Redemption to them that dwell on earth is Confirmation to them that dwell in Heaven Before the efficacy of this blood guilt vanishes and shrinks away as the the shadows before the glorious Sun Every drop of it hath a voice and speaks to the soul that sits trembling under its guilt better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12.24 It sprinkles us from an evil i. e. an unquiet and accusing conscience Heb. 10.22 For having enough in it to satisfie God it must needs have enough in it to satisfie conscience Conscience can demand no more for its satisfaction nor will it take less than God demands for his satisfaction And in this blood is enough to give both satisfaction Secondly As there is sufficient Efficacy in this blood to expiate the greatest guilt so it 's as manifest that the vertue and efficacy of it is intended and designed by God for the Use of believing sinners Such blood as this was shed without doubt for some weighty end That some might be the better for it Who they are for whom it is intended is plain enough from Acts 13.39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses That the remission of the sins of believers was the great thing designed in the pouring out of this pretious blood of Christ appears from all the Sacrifices that figured it to the ancient Church The sheding of that Typical blood spake a design of pardon And the putting of their hands upon the head of the Sacrifice spake the way and Method of believing by which that blood was then applyed to them in that way and is still applyed to us in a more excellent way Had no pardon been intended no Sacrifices had been appointed Moreover let it be considered this blood of the Cross is the blood of a surety that came under the same obligations with us and in our name or stead shed it and so of course frees and discharges the principal offender or debtor Heb. 7.22 Can God exact satisfaction from the blood and death of his own Son the surety of Believers and yet still demand it from Believers It cannot be Who saith the Apostle shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that Iustifieth Who shall condemn It is Christ that died Rom. 8.33 34. And why are faith and repentance prescribed as the means of pardon Why doth God every where in his word call upon sinners to repent and believe in this blood Encouraging them so to do by so many pretious promises of remission and declaring the inevitable and eternal ruine of all impenitent and unbelieving ones who despise and reject this blood What I say doth all this speak but the possibility of a pardon for the greatest of sinners and the certainty of a free full and final pardon for all believing sinners O what a Joyful sound is this What ravishing voices of peace pardon grace and acceptance come to our ears from the blood of the Cross The greatest guilt that ever was contracted upon a trembling shaking Conscience can stand before the efficacy of the blood of Christ no more than the sinner himself can stand before the Justice of the Lord with all the guilt upon him Reader The word assures thee what ever thou hast been or art that sins of as deep a die as thine have been washt away in this blood I was a blasphemer a persecutor in urious but I obtained mercy saith Paul 1 Tim. 1.13 but it may be thou wilt object this was a rare and singular instance and it 's a great question whether any other sinner shall find the like grace that he did No question of it at all if you believe in Christ as he did for he tells us vers 16. For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter belief on him to life everlasting So that upon the same grounds he obtained mercy you may obtain it also Those very men who had an hand in the sheding of Christs blood had the benefit of that blood afterwards pardoning them Act. 2.36 There is nothing but unbelief and impenitency of heart bars thy soul from the blessings of this blood Inference 2. Did Christ die the cursed death of the Cross for believers then though there may be much of pain there is nothing of curse in the death of the Saints It still wears its dart by which it strikes but hath lost its sting by which it hurts and destroys A Serpent that hath no sting may hiss and affright but we may take him in our hand without danger Death poured out all its poison and lost its sting in Christs side when he became a curse for us But what speak I of the innocency and harmlesness of death to believers It is certainly their friend and great benefactor As there is no curse so there are many blessings in it Death is yours 1 Cor. 3.22 Yours as a special priviledge and favour Christ hath not only conquered it but is more than a conqueror
for he hath made it beneficial and very serviceable to the saints When Christ was nailed to the tree then he said as it were to death which came to grapple with him there O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction And so he was for he swallowed up death in victory Spoiled it of its power So that it drives but a poor trade now among believers frighting some weak ones among them though it cannot hurt them at all Inference 3. If Christ died the cursed death of the Cross for us how cheerfully should we submit to and bear any cross for Iesus Christ He had his cross and we have ours but what feathers are ours compared with his His cross was a heavy cross indeed yet how patiently and meekly did he support it He endured his cross we cannot endure or bear ours though they be not to be named with his Three things would marvellously strengthen us to bear the cross of Christ and bring up a good report upon it in the world First That we shall carry it but a little way Secondly Christ bears the heaviest end of it Thirdly innumerable blessings and mercies grow upon the Cross of Christ. First We shall bear it but a little way It should be enough to me saith a holy one that Christ will have joy and sorrow halfers of the life of the saints And that each of them should have a share of our daies as the night and day are kindly partners of time and take it up betwixt them But if sorrow be the greediest halfer of our days here I know joys day shall dawn and do more than recompence all our sad hours Let my Lord Jesus since he will do so weave my bit and span length of time wiâ—h white and black well and wo. Let the rose be neighbour with the thorn When we are over the water Christ shall cry Down Crosses and up Heaven for evermore Down Hell and down Death and down Sin and down Sorrow and up Glory up Life up Joy for evermore 'T is true Christ and his Cross are not separable in this life how be it Christ and his Cross part at Heavens door For there is no house-room for crosses in Heaven One tear one sigh one sad heart one fear one loss one thought of trouble cannot find lodging there Sorrow and the saints are not married together or suppose it were so Heaven shall make a divorce Life is but short and therefore crosses cannot be long Our sufferings are but for a while 1 Pet. 5.10 They are but the sufferings of the present time Rom. 8.18 Secondly As we shall carry the Cross of Christ but a little way so Christ himself bears the heaviest end of it There is a fellowship in sufferings betwixt Christ and his saints And as one happily expresses he saith of their crosses half mine He divideth sufferings with them and takes the largest share to himself O how sweet a sight saith one sweetly is it to see a cross betwixt Christ and us To hear our Redeemer say at every sigh at every blow and every loss of a Believer half mine For they are called the sufferings of Christ and the reproach of Christ. Col. 2.24 Heb. 11.26 As when two are partners and owners of a Ship half of the gain and half of the loss belongeth to either of the two So Christ in our sufferings is half gainer and half loser with us yea the heaviest end of the black tree lyeth on your Lord. It falleth first upon him and but rebounds from him upon you the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Psal. 69.9 Nay to speak as the thing is Christ doth not only bear half or the better part but the whole of our cross and burden Yea he bears all and more than all for he bears us and our burden too or else we should quickly sink and faint under it Thirdly As we have not far to carry it and Christ carries the haviest part yea all the burden for us yea us and our burden too So in the last place it's reviving to think what an innumerable multitude of blessings and mercies are the fruit and off-spring of a sanctified cross Since that tree was so richly watered with the blood of Christ what store of choice and rich fruits doth it bear to believers Our sufferings saith one are washed in the blood of Christ as well as our souls For Christs merits bought a blessing to the crosses of the sons of God Our troubles owe us a free passage through him Devils and men and crosses are our debtors and death and all storms are our debtors to blow our poor tossed bark over the water fraught-free and to set the Travellers in their own known ground Therefore we shall die and yet live I know no man hath a velvet cross but the cross is made of what God will have it but verily how be it it be no warrantable market to buy a cross yet I dare not say O that I had liberty to sell Christs cross lest therewith also I should sell joy comfort sence of love patience and the kind visits of a Bridegroom I have but small experience of sufferings for Christ but let my Judge and witness in Heaven lay my soul in the ballance of Justice If I find not a young Heaven and a little Paradise of glorious comforts and soul delighting love kisses of Christ in suffering for him and his truth My prison is my palace my sorrow is with child of Joy My losses are rich losses my pain easie pain my heavy days are holy days and happy days I may tell a new tale of Christ to my friends Oh what owe I to the file and to the hammer and to the furnace of my Lord Jesus who hath now let me see how good the wheat of Christ is that goes through his mill and his oven to be made bread for his own Table Grace tried is better than grace and more than grace It 's glory in the Infancy Who knows the truth of grace without a trial O how little getteth Christ of us but what he winneth to speak so with much toil and pains And how soon would faith freeze without a Cross bear your Cross therefore with joy Inference 4. Did Christ die the death yea the worst of deaths for us Then it follows that our mercies are brought forth with great difficulties and that which is sweet to us in the fruition was costly and hard to Christ in the acquisition Surely upon every mercy we have this motto is written The price of blood Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood upon which a late neat Writer delivers himself thus The way of grace is here considerable life comes through death God comes in Christ and Christ comes in blood the choicest mercies come through the greatest miseries prime favours come swiming in blood to us Through a red sea Israel came to
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
sort this is one Father forgive them c. In which we have first the mercy desired by Christ and that is forgiveness Secondly the persons for whom it is desired Them that is those cruel and wicked persons that were now in brewing their hands in his blood And Thirdly the motive or argument urged to procure that mercy from his Father for they know not what they do First The mercy prayed for that is forgiveness Father forgive Forgiveness is not only a Mercy a spiritual mercy but one of the greatest mercys a soul can obtain from God It is such a mercy that without it what ever else we have from God is no mercy to us So great a mercy is forgiveness that David calls him blessed or rather admires the blessednesses of him whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered This mercy this best of mercys he requests for them Father forgive them Secondly The persons for whom he requests forgiveness are the same that with wicked hands Crucified him Their fact was the most horrid that ever was committed by men They not only shed innocent blood but the blood of God the best of mercys is by him desired for the worst of sinners Thirdly The Motive or Argument urged to procure this mercy for them is this for they know not what they do As if he should say Lord what these poor Creatures do is not so much out of malice to me as the Son of God but it is from their ignorance Did they know who and what I am they would rather be nailed to the Cross themselves than do it To the same purpose the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2.8 Whom none of the Princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory Yet this is not to be extended to all that had an hand in the death of Christ but to the ignorant multitude among whom some of Gods Elect were who afterwards believed in him whose blood they spilt Acts 3.17 And now brethren I wote that through ignorance ye did it For them this Prayer of Christ was heard Hence the Notes are Doct. 1. That ignorance is the usual cause of enmity to Christ. Doct. 2. That there is forgiveness with God for such as oppose Christ out of ignorance Doct. 3. That to forgive enemies and beg forgiveness for them is the true Character and property of the Christian Spirit These observations contain so much practical truth that it will be worth our time to open and apply them distinctly DOCT. 1. That ignorance is the usual cause of enmity to Christ. These things saith our Lord will they do because they have not known the Father nor me Joh. 16.3 What things doth he mean Why kill and destroy the people of God and therein suppose they do God good service i. e. think to oblige and gratifie the Father by their butchering his Children So Ier. 9.3 They proceed from evil to evil and have not known me saith the Lord q. d. had they the knowledge of God that would check and stop them in their ways of wickedness and so Psal. 74.20 The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty Three things must be inquired into sc. what their ignorance of Christ was Whence it was And how it disposed them to such enmity against him First What was their ignorance who Crucified Christ Ignorance is twofold simple or respective Simple ignorance is not supposeable in these persons for in many things they were a knowing people But it was a respective particular ignorance Rom. 11.25 Blindness in part is happened to Israel They knew many other truths but did not know Jesus Christ. In that their eyes were held Natural light they had Yea and Scripture light they had But in this particular that this was the Son of God the Saviour of the world therein they were blind and ignorant But how could that be Had they not heard at least of his miraculous works Did they not see how his Birth Life and Death squar'd with the Prophesies both in time place and manner Whence should this their ignorance be when they saw or at least might have seen the Scriptures fulfill'd in him and that he came among them in a time when they were big with expectations of the Messiah 'T is true indeed they knew the Scriptures and it cannot but be supposed the fame of his mighty works had reacht their ears but yet First Though they had the Scriptures among them they misunderstood them and did not rightly measure Christ by that right rule You find Ioh. 7.52 How they reason with Nicodemus against Christ Art thou also of Galilee Search and see for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Here is a double mistake First they supposed Christ to arise out of Galilee whereas he was of Bethlehem though much conversant in the parts of Galilee And secondly they thought because they could find no Prophet had arisen out of Galilee therefore none should Another mistake that blinded them about Christ was from their conceit that Christ should not die but live for ever Ioh. 12.34 We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever and how sayest thou the Son of man must be lifted up Who is the Son of man That Scripture which probably they urge against the mortality of Christ is Esa 9.7 Of the increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end upon the Throne of David c. In like manner Ioh. 7.27 We find them in another mistake We know this man whence he is but when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is This likely proceeded from their misunderstanding of Mica 5.2 His going forth have been from of old from everlasting Thus were they blinded about the person of Christ by misinterpretations of Scripture-Prophesies Secondly Another thing occasioning their mistake of Christ was the outward meanness and despisableness of his condition They expected a pompous Messiah one that should come with State and Glory becoming the King of Israel But when they saw him in the form of a Servant coming in poverty not to be ministred unto but to minister they utterly rejected him We hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not Isa. 53.3 Nor is it any great wonder these should be scandalized at his poverty When the Disciples themselves had such carnal apprehensions of his Kingdom Mar. 10.37 38. Thirdly Add to this their implicit faith in the Learned Rabbies and Doctors who utterly misled them in this matter and greatly prejudiced them against Christ. Lo say they he speaketh boldly and they say nothing to him Do the Rulers know indeâ—d that this is the very Christ They pinn'd their faith upon the Rulers sleeves and suffer'd them to carry it whether they would This was their ignorance and these its causes Thirdly Let us see in the next place how this disposed them to such enmity against Christ.
maintenance is their due Even Christ himself took care for his Mother Secondly You have had a brief account of the duties of this Relation next let us consider how Christs Example who was so subject to them in his life Luk. 2.51 and so careful to provide at his death enforces all those duties upon Children especially upon gratious Children And this it doth two ways both as it hath the obliging power of a Law and as he himself will one day sit in Judgement to take an account how we have imitated him in these things First Christs example in this hath the force and power of a Law yea a Law of Love or a Law lovingly constraining you to an imitation of him If Christ himself will be your pattern If God will be pleased to take Relations like yours and go before you in the discharge of relative Duties Oh how much are you obliged to imitate him and tread in all his footsteps This was by him intended as a president or pattern to facilitate and direct your Duties Secondly He will come to take an account how you have answered the pattern of obedience and tender care he set before you in the days of his flesh What will the disobedient plead in that day He that heard the groans of an afflicted Father or Mother will now come to reckon with the disobedient Child for them And the glorious example of Christs own obedience and tenderness for his Relations will in that day condemn and aggravate silence and shame such wretched Children as shall stand guilty before his Bar. Inference 1. Hath Jesus Christ given such a famous pattern of obedience and tenderness to Parents Then there can be nothing of Christ in stubborn rebellious and careless Children that regard not the good or comfort of their Parents The Children of disobedience cannot be the Children of God If providence direct this to the hand of any that are so my hearts desire and Prayer for them is that the Lord would search their souls by it and discover their evils to them whilst they shall read the following Queries First Query Have you not been guilty of slighting your Parents by irreverent words or carriages the old man or woman To such I commend the consideration of that Scripture Prov. 30.17 Which methinks should be to them as the hand writing that appear'd upon the plaister of the Wall to Belteshazar The eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother The Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it That is they shall be brought to an untimely end and the Birds of the air shall eat that eye that had never seen but for that Parent that was despised by it It may be you are vigorous and young they decayed and wrinkled with Age. But saith the Holy Ghost despise not thy Mother when she is old Prov. 23.22 Or when she is wrinkled as the Hebrew signifies It may be you are rich they poor owne and honour them in their poverty and despise them not God will requite it with his hand if you do Second Query Have you not been disobedient to the commands of Parents A Son of Belial is a Son of wrath if God give not Repentance to life Is not this the black brand set upon the Heathens Rom. 1.30 Have not many repented this upon a Ladder with an halter about their necks Woe to him that makes a Father or Mother complain as the Tree in the Fable that they are cloven assunder with the wedges that are cut out of their own bodies Third Query Have you not risen up rebelliously against and hated your Parents for chastening your bodies to save your souls from Hell Some Children saith one will not take that from a Parent which Beasts yea and salvage Beasts too Bears and Lions will take from their keepers What is this but to resist an Ordinance of God for your good And in rebelling against them to rebell against the Lord Well if they do not God will take the Rod into his own hand and him you shall not resist Fourth Query Have you not been unjust to your Parents and defrauded them First help to make them poor and then dispise them because they are poor O horrid wickedness What a complicated evil is this Thou art in the Language of Scripture a companion with destroyers Prov. 28.24 This is the worst of theft in Gods account You think you may make bold with them but how bold do you make with conscience and the command of God Fifth Query Are you not or have you not been ungrateful to Parents Leaving them to shift for themselves in those straights that you have helpt to bring them into Oh consider it Children this is an evil which God will surely avenge except ye repent What to be hardned against thine own flesh To be cruel to thine own Parents that with so much tenderness fed thee when else thou hadst perished I remember Luther gives us a story of one and oh that it might be a warning to all that hear it who having made over all he had to his Son reserving only a maintenance for himself at last his Son depised him and grudged him the very meat he eat and one day the Father coming in when the Son and his Wife were at dinner upon a Goose they shuffled the meat under the Table but see the remarkable vengeance of God upon this ungracious unnatural Son the Goose was turned into a monstrous Toad which seiz'd upon this vile wretch and kill'd him If any of you be guilty of these evils to humble you for them and reclaim you from them I desire these six Considerations may be lay'd to heart First That the effects of your obedience or disobedience will stick upon you and yours to many generations If you be obedient Children in the Lord both you and yours may reap the fruits of that your obedience in multitudes of sweet mercies for many generations So runs the Promise Eph. 6.23 Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou maist live long on the earth You know what an eye of favour God cast upon the Recabites for this Ier. 35.8 from the 14. to the 20. verse and as his blessings are by promise entailed on the obedient so his curse upon the disobedient Prov. 20.20 Whoso curseth his Father or his Mother his Lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness i. e. the Lamp of his life quencht by death yea say others and his soul also by the blackness of darkness in Hell Secondly Though other sins do this sin seldom escapes exemplary punishment even in this world Our English History tells us of a Yeoman of Leicestershire who had made over all he had to his Son to prefer him in marriage reserving only a bare maintenance at his Sons Table Afterward upon some discontent the Son bid his Father get out of his
visitation Lastly If your work be not finished when you come to die you can never finish your lives with comfort He that hath not finished his work with care can never finish his course with joy Oh what a dismal case is that soul in that finds it self surprized by death in an unready posture To lie shivering upon the brink of the grave saying Lord what will become of me O I cannot I dare not die For the poor soul to shrink back into the body and cry Oh it were better for me to do any thing than die Why what 's the matter Oh I am in a Christless state and dare not go before that awful Judgement-seat If I had in season made Christ sure I could then die with peace Lord what shall I do How dost thou like this Reader Will this be a comfortable close When one asked a Christian that constantly spent six hours every day in prayer why he did so He answered O I must die I must die Well then look it that ye finish your work as Christ also did his The THIRTY SIXTH SERMON LUK. XXIII XLVI And when Iesus had cried with a loud voice he said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost THese are the last of the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross with which he breatheth out his soul. They were Davids words before him Psal. 31.5 and for substance Stephens after him Act. 7.57 They are words full both of faith and comfort Fit to be the last breathings of every gratious soul in this world They are resolvable into these five particulars The Person depositing or committing The Lord Iesus Christ who in this as well as in other things acted as a common person as the head of the Church This must be remarked carefully for therein lies no small part of a believers consolation When Christ commends his soul to God he doth as it were bind up all the souls of the Elect in one bundle with it and solemnly present them all with his to his Fathers acceptance To this purpose one aptly sences it This commendation made by Christ turns to the singular profit and advantage of our souls in as much as Christ by this very prayer hath delivered them into his Fathers hand as a pretious treasure when ever the time comes that they are to he loosed from the bodies which they now inhabit Jesus Christ neither lived nor dyed for himself but for believers What he did in this very act refers to them as well as to his own Soul You must look therefore upon Christ in this last and solemn act of his life as gathering all the souls of the Elect together and making a solemn tender of them all with his own soul to God Secondly The depository or person to whom he commits this pretious treasure and that was his own Father Father into thy hands I commit Father is a sweet encouraging assuring Title Well may a Son commit any concernment how dear soever into the hand of a Father Especially such a Son into the hands of such a Father By the hands of the Father into which he commits his soul we are not to understand the naked or meer power but the Fatherly acceptation and protection of God Thirdly The depositum or thing committed into this hand my Spirit i. e. my soul now instantly departing upon the very point of separation from my body The soul is the most pretious of all treasures it 's call'd the darling Psal. 35.17 Or the only one i. e. that which is most excellent and therefore most dear and pretious A whole world is but a trifle if weighed for the price of one soul Matth. 16.26 This inestimable treasure he now commits into his Fathers hands Fourthly The Act by which he puts it into that faithful hand of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I commend We rightly render it in the present tense though the word be future For with these words he breathed out his Soul This word is of the same import with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I present or tender it unto thy hands It was in Christ an act of Faith A most special and excellent act intended as a president for all his people Fifthly And Lastly the last thing observable is the manner in which he uttered these words And that was with a loud voice He spake it that all might hear it and that his enemies who judged him now destitute and forsaken of God might be convinced that he was not so But that he was dear to his Father still and could put his soul confidently into his hands Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Taking then these words not only as spoken by Christ the Head of all believers and so commending their souls to God with his own but also as a pattern teaching them what they ought to do themselves when they come to die We observe DOCT. That dying believers are both warranted and encouraged by Christs example believingly to commend their pretious Souls into the hands of God Thus the Apostle directs the Faith of Christians to commit their souls to Gods tuition and Fatherly protection when they are either going into prisons or to the stake for Christ 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them saith he that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator This Proposition we will consider in these two main branches of it sc. what is implied and carryed in the souls commending it self to God by Faith when the time of separation is come And what warrant or encouragement gratious souls have for their so doing First What is implyed in this Act of a believer his commending or committing his soul into the hands of God at Death And if it be throughly weighed you will find these six things at least carried in it First It implies this evidently in it that the soul out-lives the body and fails not as to its being when its body fails It feels the house in which it dwelt dropping into ruins and looks out for a new habitation with God Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit The soul understands it self a more noble being than that corruptible body to which it was united and is now to leave in the dust It understands its relation to the Father of spirits and from him it expects protection and provision in its unbodied state and therefore into his hands it puts it self If it vanished or breathed into air and did not survive the body if it were annihilated at death it were but a mocking of God to say when we die Father into thy hand I commend my Spirit Secondly It implies the souls true rest to be in God See which way its motions and tendencies are not only in life but in death also It bends to its God It rolls it even puts
that is believe they shall be made good to you so far as God sees them good for you Do you but labour to come up to those conditions required in you and thereby God will have more glory and you more comfort If your prayers for these things proceed from pure ends the glory of God not the satisfaction and gratification of your lusts If your desires after them be moderate as to the measure content with that proportion the infinite wisdom sees fittest for you If you take Gods way to obtain them and dare not strain Conscience or commit a sin though you should perish for want If you can patiently wait Gods time for enlargements from your straits and not make any sinful haste You shall be surely supplied And he that remembers your souls will not forget your bodies But we live by sense and not by faith Present things strike our affections more powerfully than the invisible things that are to come The Lord humble his people for this Diduction 4. Is this the priveledge of believers that they can commit their souls to God in a dying hour then how pretious how useful a grace is faith to the pleople of God both living and dying All the graces have done excellently but faith excels them all Faith is the Phoenix grace the Queen of graces Deservedly is it stiled pretious faith 2 Pet. 1.1 The benefits and priviledges of it in this life are unspeakable and as there is no comfortable living so no comfortable dying without it First While we live and converse here in the world all our comfort and safety is from it for all our union with Christ the fountain of mercies and blessings is by faith Eph. 3.17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith No faith no Christ. All our communion with Christ is by it He that cometh to God must believe Heb. 11.6 The souls life is wrapt up in this communion with God and that communion in faith All communications from Christ depend upon faith for look as all communion is founded in union so from our union and communion are all our communications All communications of quicknings comforts joy strength and whatsoever serves to the well-being of the life of grace are all through that faith which first knit us to Christ and still maintains our communion with Christ believing we rejoyce 1 Pet. 1.8 The inner man is renewed whilst we look to the things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 Secondly And as our life and all the supports and comforts of it here are dependent on faith so you see our death as to the safety and comfort of our souls then depends upon our faith He that hath no faith cannot commit his soul to God but rather shrinks from God Faith can do many sweet offices for your souls upon a death bed when the light of this world is gone and all joy ceases on earth It can give us sights of things invisible in the other world and those sights will breathe life into your souls amidst the very pangs of death Reader do but think what a comfortable foresight of God and the joys of salvation will be to thee when thine eye-strings are breaking Faith cannot only see that beyond the grave which will comfort but it can cling about its God and clasp Christ in a promise when it feels the ground of all sensible comforts trembling and sinking under thy feet My heart and my flesh faileth but God is the strength or rock of my heart and my portion for ever Reeds fail but the rock is firm footing Yea and when the soul can no longer tabernacle here it can carry the soul to God cast it upon him with Father into thy hands I commend my spirit O pretious faith Diduction 5. Do the souls of dying believers commend themselves into the hands of God Then let not the surviving relations of such sorrow as men that have not hope A Husband a Wife a Child is rent by death out of your arms well but consider into what arms into what bosom they are commended Is it not better for them to be in the bosom of God than in yours Could they be spared so long from Heaven as to come back again to you but one hour how would they be displeased to see your tears and hear your cries and sighs for them They would say to you as Christ said to the daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and your children I am in a safe hand I am out of the reach of all storms and troubles O did you but know what their state is who are with God you would be more than satisfied about them Diduction 6. Lastly I will close all with a word of counsel Is this the priviledge of dying believers to commend their souls into the hands of God Then as ever you hope for comfort or peace in your last hour see that your souls be such as may be then fit to be commended into the hands of an holy and just God See that they be holy souls God will never accept them if they be not holy Without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.24 He that hath this hope viz. to see God purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 Indeavours after holiness are inseparably connected with all rational expectations of blessedness Will you put an unclean filthy defiled thing into the pure hand of the most holy God O see they be holy and already accepted in the beloved or wo to them when they take their leaves of those tabernacles they now dwell in The gratious soul may confidently say then Lord Iesus into thy hands I commend my spirit O let all that can say so then now say Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The THIRTY SEVENTH SERMON JOH XIX XL XLI XLII Then took they the body of Iesus and wound it in linen cloaths with the spices as the manner of the Iews is to bury Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new Sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid There laid they Iesus therefore because of the Iews preparation day for the Sepulchre was nigh at hand YOU have heard the last words of dying Jesus commending his spirit into his Fathers hands and now the life of the world hangs dead upon a Tree The light of the world for a time muffled up in a dismal cloud The Son of Righteousness set in the region and shadow of Death The Lord is dead and he that wears the keys of the grave at his girdle is now himself to be lockt up in the grave All you that are the friends and Lovers of Jesus are this day invited to his â—â—neral Such a funeral as never was since Graves were first digged Come see the place where the Lord lay There are six remarkable particulars about this funeral in these three verses The preparations that were made for it and
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
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
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
not so then would the holy and divinely inspired Apostles be found false witnesses 1 Cor. 15.15 For they all with one mouth constantly and to the death affirmed it If Christ be not risen then are believers yet in their sins 1 Cor. 15.17 For our Justification is truly ascribed to the Resurrection of Christ Rom. 4.25 While Christ was dying and continued in the state of the dead the price of our Redemption was all that while but in paying the payment was compleated when he revived and rose again Therefore for Christ to have continued alwaies in the state of the dead had been never to have compleatly satisfiâ—d hence the whole force and weight of our Justification depends upon his Resurrection Nay had not Christ risen the dead had perished 1 Cor. 15.17 Even the dead who dyed in the Faith of Christ and of whose salvation there now remains no ground to doubt Moreover Had he not revived and risen from the dead how could all the Types that prefigured it have been satisfied Surely they must have stood as insignificant things in the Scriptures and so must all the predictions of his Resurrection by which it was so plainly foretold See Matth. 12.40 Luk. 24.46 Psal. 16.10 1 Cor. 15.4 To conclude had he not risen from the dead how could he have been install'd in that glory whereof he is now possessed in heaven and which was promised him before the world was upon the account of his death and sufferings For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14.9 And that in this state of dominion and glorious advancement he might powerfully apply the vertues and benefits of his blood to us which else had been as a pretious Cordial spilt upon the ground So then there remains no doubt at all of the certainty of Christs Resurrection it was so and upon all accounts it must needs be so for you see how great a weight the Scriptures hang upon this nail And blessed be God it 's a nail fastned in a sure place I need spend no more words to confirm it but rather choose to explain and open the nature and manner of his Resurrection which I shall do by shewing you four or five properties of it And the first is this First Christ rose from the dead with awful Majesty So you find it in Matth. 28.2 3 4. And behold there was a great Earthquake for the Angel ef the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sate upon it his countenance was like lightning and his rayment white as Snow and for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men Humane infirmity was not able to bear such heavenly Majesty as attended the business of that morning Nature â—ank under it This Earthquake was as one calls it Triumphale Signum A sign of Triumph or token of Victory given by Christ not only to the Keepers and the neighbouring City but to the whole world that he had overcome Death in its own dominions and like a conqueror lifted up his head above all his enemies So when the Lord fought from heaven for his people and gave them a glorious though but Temporal deliverance see how the Propheâ—ess drives on the triumph in that Rhetorical Song Iudg. 5.4 5. Alluding to the most awful appearance of God at the giving of the Law Lord when thou wentest out of Seir when thou marchedst out of the field of Edome the Earth trembled and the heavens droped the clouds also droped water The mountains melted before the Lord even that Sinai from before the lord God of Israel Our Lord Jesus went out of the Grave in like manner and marched out of that bloody field with a pomp and Majesty becoming so great a conqueror Secondly And to increase the splendor of that day and drive on the Triumph his Resurrection was attended with the Resurrection of many of the Saints who had slept in their Graves till then and then were awakned and raised to attend the Lord at his rising So you read Matth. 27 52 53. And the Graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many This wonder was designed both to adorn the Resurrection of Christ and to give a specimen or handsel of our Resurrection which also is to be in the vertue of his This indeed was the Resurrection of Saints and none but Saints the Resurrection of many Saints yet it was but a special Resurrection intended only to shew what God will one day do for all his Saints And for present to give Testimony of Christs Resurrection from the dead They were seen and known of many in the City who doubtless never thought to have seen them any more in this world To enquire curiously as some do who they were what discourse they had with those to whom they appeared and what became of them afterwards is a vain thing God hath cast a vail of silence and secresie upon these things that we might content our selves with the written Word and he that will not believe Moses and the Prophets neither will he believe though one arise from the dead as these Saints did Thirdly As Christ rose from the dead with those Saâ—ellites or attendants who accompanied him at his Resurrection so it was by the power of his own God-head that he quickned and raised himself and by the vertue of his Resurrection were they raised also who accompanied him It was not the Angel who rolled back the stone that revived him in the Sepulchre but he râ—sumed his own life so he tells us Ioh. 10.18 I lay down my life that I might take it again Hence in 1 Pet. 3.18 He is said to be put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit i. e. by the power of his God-head oâ— divine nature which is opposed there to flesh or his humane nature By the eternal Spirit he offered himself up to God when he dyed Heb. 9.14 i. e. by his own God-head not the third person in the Trinity for then it could not have been ascribed to him as his own act that he offer'd up himself And by the same spirit he was quickned again And therefore the Apostle well observes Rom. 1.4 That he was declared to be the Son of God with power by his Resurrection from the dead Now if he had been raised by the power of the Father or Spirit only and not by his own how could he be declared by his Resurrection to be the Son of God What more had appeared in him than in others For others are raised by the power of God if that were all So that in this respect also it was a marvellous Resurrection Never any did or shall rise as Christ rose by a self-quickning principle For though many dead Saints
rose at that time also Yet it was by the vertue of Christs Resurrection that their Graves were opened and their bodies quickned In which respect he saith Ioh. 11.25 when he raised dead Lazarus I am the Resurrection and the life i. e. the principle of life and quickning by which the dead Saints are raised Fourthly And therefore it may be truly affirmed that though some dead Saints were raised to life before the Resurrection of Christ yet that Christ is the first-born from the dead as he is call'd Col. 1.18 For though Lazarus and others were raised yet not by themselves but by Christ. It was by his vertue and power not their own And though they were raised to life yet they died again Death recovered them again but Christ dieth no more Death hath no dominion over him He was the first that opened the womb of the Earth the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence Fifthly But lastly Christ rose as a publick or common person As the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 I desire this may be well understood â—or upon this account it is that our Resurrection is secured to us by the Resurrection of Christ and not a Resurrection only but a blessed and happy one for the first fruits both assured and sanctified the whole crop or harvest Now that Christ did rise as a publick person representing and comprehending all the Elect who are called the children of the Resurrection is plain from Eph. 2.6 Where we are said to be risen with or in him So that as we are said to die in Adam who also was a common person as the branches die in the death of the root so we are said to be raised from death in Christ who is the head root and representative of all his Elect seed And why is he called the first-born and first begotten from the dead but with respect to the whole number of the Elect that are to be born from the dead in their time and order also and as sure as the whole harvest follows the first fruits so shall the general Resurrection of the Saints to life eternal follow this birth of the first-born from the dead It shall surely follow it I say and that not only as a consequent follows an antecedent but as an effect follows its proper cause Now there is a three fold causality or influence that Christs Resurrection hath upon the Saints Resurrection of which it is both the meritorious efficient and exemplary cause First The Resurrection of Christ is the meritorious cause of the Saints Resurrection as it compleated his satisfaction and finished his payment and so our Justification is properly assigned to it as before was noted from Rom. 4.25 This his Resurrection was the receiving of the acquittance the cancelling of the bond And had not this been done we had still been in our sins as he speaks 1 Cor. 15.17 And so our guilt had been still a bar to our happy Resurrection But now the price being paid in his Death which payment was finished when he revived and the discharge then received for us now there is nothing lies in bar against our Resurrection to eternal life Secondly As it is the meritorious cause of our Resurrection so so it is the efficient cause of it also For when the time shall come that the Saints shall rise out of the dust they shall be raised by Christ as their head in whom the effective principle of their life is Your life is hid with Christ in God as it is Col. 3.3 As when a man awakes out of sleep the animal spirits seated in the brain being set at liberty by the digestion of those vapours that bound them up do play freely through every part and member of the body so Christ the believers mystical head being quickned the spirit of life which is in him shall be diffused through all his members to quicken them also in the morning of the Resurrection Hence the warm animating dew of Christs Resurrection is said to be to our bodies as the dew of the morning is to the withered languishing plants which revive by it Isa. 26.19 Thy dew is as the dew of Herbs and then it follows the earth shall cast forth her dead So that by the same Faith we put Christs Resurrection into the Premises we may put the believers Resurrection into the Conclusion And therefore the Apostle makes them convertibles reasoning forward from Christs to ours and back again from ours to his 1 Cor. 15.12 13. Which is also the sence of that Scripture Rom. 8.10 11. And if Christ be in you the body indeed is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness i. e. though you are really united to Christ by the Spirit yet your bodies must die as well as other mens but your souls shall be presently upon your dissolution swallowed up in life And then it follows vers 11. But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you i. e. though your bodies must die yet they shall live again in the Resurrection and that by vertue of the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in you and is the bond of your mystical union with him your head You shall not be raised as others are by a meer word of power but by the spirit of life dwelling in Christ your head which is a choice prerogative indeed Thirdly Christs Resurrection is not only the meritorious and efficient cause but it is also the exemplary cause or pattern of our Resurrection He being the first and best is therefore the pattern and measure of all the rest So you read Phil. 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Now the Conformity of our Resurrection to Christs stands in the following particulars Christs body was raised substantially the same so will ours His body was raised first so will ours be raised before the rest of the dead His body was wonderfully improved by the Resurrection so will ours His body was raised to be glorified and so will ours First Christs body was raised substantially the same that it was before and so will ours Not another but the same body Upon this very reason the Apostle usâ—s that idential expression 1 Cor. 15.53 This corruptible must put on incorruption and thâ— mortal immortality Pointing as it were to his own body when he spake it the same body I say and that not only Specifically the same for indeed no other Species of flesh is so priviledged but the same numerically that very body not a new or another body in its steed So that it shall be both the what it was and the who it was And indeed to deny this is to deny the Resurrection it self For should God prepare
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.
Mr. Coverdale well translates filii non negantes such as will keep touch with me and will answer their Covenant engagements And again surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction And shall not all this engage you to God What! neither the antient and bountiful love of God in contriving your Redemption from eternity nor the bounty of God in rewarding all and every piece of service you have done for him Nor yet the pleasure he takes in your obedience and upright walking Nor the incouraging promises he hath made thereto nor yet his confident expectations of such a life from you whom he hath so many waies obliged and endeared to himself will you forget your antient friend Contemn his rewards take no delight or care to please him Slight his promises and deceive and fail his expectations Be astonished O ye Heavens at this And be horribly afraid Consider how God the Father hath fastned this five fold cord upon your Souls and shew your selves Christians yea to use the Prophets words Esa. 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves men Secondly You are yet farther engaged to this precise and holy life by what the Son hath done for you is not this pure and holy life the very aim and next end of his death Did he not shed his blood to redeem you from your vain conversations 1 Pet. 1.18 Was not this the design of all his sufferings that being delivered out of the hands of your enemies you might serve him in righteousness and holiness all the daies of your life Luk. 1.74 75. And is not the Apostles inference 2 Cor. 5.14 15. highly reasonable if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them Did Christ only buy your Persons and not your services also No no who ever hath thy time thy strength or any part of either I can assure thee Christian that Christ hath paid for it and thou givest away what is none of thine own to give Every moment of thy time is his Every Talent whether of grace or nature is his And dost thou defraud him of his own Oh how liberal are you of your pretious words and hours as if Christ had never made a purchase of them Oh think of this when thy life runs muddy and â—oul When the fountain of corruption flows out at thy tongue in idle frothy discourses or at thy hand in sinful unwarrantable actions doth this become the redeemed of the Lord Did Christ come from the bosom of his Father for this Did he groan sweat bleed endure the Cross and lay down his life for this Was he so well pleased with all his sorrows and sufferings his pangs and agonies upon the account of that satisfaction he should have in seeing the travail of his Soul Isa. 53.11 as if he had said Welcome Death welcome Agonies welcome the bitter cup and heavy burthen I chearfully submit to all this These are travailing pangs indeed but I shall see a beautiful birth at last These throws and Agonies shall bring forth many lively Children to God I shall have joy in them and glory from them to all Eternity This blood of mine these sufferings of mine shall purchase to me the Persons Duties Services and obedience of many thousands that will Love me and Honour me Serve me and Obey me with their Souls and Bodies which are mine And doth not this engage you to look to your lives and keep them pure Is not every one of Christs wounds a mouth open to plead for more holiness more service and more fruit from you Oh what will engage you if this will not But Thirdly This is not all as a man when he weigheth a thing casteth in weight after weight till the scales are counterpoised so doth God cast in engagement after engagement and argument upon argument till thy heart Christian be weighed up and won to this heavenly life And therefore as Elihu said to Iob cap. 36.22 Suffer me a little and I will shew thee what I have yet to speak on Gods behalf Some Arguments have already been urged on the behalf of the Father and Son for purity and cleanness of life and next I have something to plead on the behalf of the Spirit I plead now on his behalf who hath so many times helped you to plead for your selves with God He that hath so often refreshed quickened and comforted you he will be quenched grieved and displeased by an impure loose and careless conversation and what will you do then Who shall comfort you when the Comforter is departed from you When he that should releive your souls is far off Oh grieve not the holy Spirit of God by which you are sealed to the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 There is nothing grieves him more than impure practices For he is a holy Spirit And look as water damps and quenches the fire so doth sin quench the Spirit 1 Thes. 5.19 Will you quench the warm affections and burning desires which he hath kindled in your bosoms if you do it is a question whether ever you may recover them again to your dying day the Spirit hath a delicate Sence It is the most tender thing in the whole world He feels the least touch of sin and is grieved when thy corruptions within are stirred by temptations and break out to the defiling of thy life then is the holy Spirit of God as it were made sad and heavy within thee As that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes. 4.30 may be rendred For thereby thou both resistest his motions whereby in the way of a loving constraint he would lead and guide thee in the way of thy Duty yea thou not only resistest his motions but crossest his grand design which is to purge and sanctifie thee wholly and build thee up more and more to the perfection of holiness And when thou thus forsakest his conduct and crossest his design in thy soul then doth he usually with-draw as a man that is grieved by the unkindness of his friend He draws in the beams of his evidencing and quickning grace Packs up all his divine Cordials and saith as it were to this unkind and disingenious Soul Hast thou thus requited me for all the favours and kindnesses thou hast received from me Have I quickened thee when thou wast dead in transgressions did I descend upon thee in the Preaching of the Gospel and communicate life even the life of God to thee leaving others in the state of the Dead Have I shed forth such rich influences of grace and comfort upon thee Comforting thee in all thy troubles helping thee in all thy duties satisfying thee in all thy doubts and perplexities of soul saving thee and pulling thee back from so many destructive temptations and dangers What had been thy condition if I had not come unto thee Could the Word have converted thee without me
in Hell for ever Rom. 2.5 6 7 8 9 10. Thou treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Iudgement of God Who shall render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil c. So 2 Thes. 1.4 5 6 7. So that we our selves glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure Which is a manifest token of the righteous Iudgement of God That ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye also suffer Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire c. To these plain testimonies multitudes more might be added if it were needful Heaven and Earth shall pass away but these words shall never pass away Arg. 3. Thirdly As the Scriptures reveal it so the Consciences of all men have some resentments of it Where is the man whose Conscience never felt any impressions of hope or fear from a future world If it be said these may be but the effects and force of discourse or education we have read such things in the Scriptures or have heard it by Preachers and so raise up to our selves hopes and fears about it I demand how the Consciences of the Heathens who have neither Scriptures nor Preachers came to be imprest with these things Doth not the Apostle tells us Rom. 2.15 That their Consciences in the mean while work upon these things Their thoughts with reference to a future state accuse or else excuse i. e. their hearts are cheared and encouraged by the good they do and terrified with fears about the evils they commit Whereas if there were no such things Conscience would neither accuse or excuse for good or evil done in this world Arg. 4. Fourthly The incarnation and death of Christ is but a vanity without it What did he propose to himself or what benefit have we by his coming if there be no such future state Did he take our nature and suffer such terrible things in it for nothing If you say Christians have much comfort from it in this Life I answer the comforts they have are raised by faith and expectation of the happiness to be enjoyed as the purchase of his blood in Heaven And if there be no such heaven to which they are appointed No Hell from which they are redeemed they do but comfort themselves with a Fable and bless themselves in a thing of nought Their comfort is no greater than the comfort of a Beggar that dreams he is a King and when he awakes finds himself a Beggar still Surely the ends of Christs death were to deliver us from the wrath to come 1 Thes. 1.10 Not from an imaginary but a real Hell to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 To be the Author of eternal Salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5.9 Arg. 5. Fifthly and lastly The immortality of humane souls puts it beyond all doubt The soul of a man vastly differs from that of a Beast which is but a material form and so wholly depending on must needs perish with the matter But it is not so with us Ours are reasonable spirits that can live and act in a separated state from the body Eccles. 3.21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of a Beast that goeth downward to the earth So that look as if a man dispute whether man be rational that his very disputing it proves him to be so so our disputes hopes fears and apprehensions of eternity prove our souls immortal and capable of that state Inference 1. Is there an Eternal State into which souls pass after this Life How pretious then is present time upon the improvement whereof that State depends O what a huge weight hath God hanged upon a small wyer God hath set us here in a State of Tryal according as we improve these few hours so will it fare with us to all Eternity Every day every hour nay every moment of your present time hath an influence into your Eternity Do ye believe this What and yet squander away pretious time so carelesly so vainly How do these things consist When Seneca heard one promise to spend a week with a friend that invited him to recreate himself with him He told him he admired he should make such a rash promise what said he cast away so considerable a part of your Life How can you do it Surely our prodigallity in the expence of time argues we have but little sence of great Eternity Inference 2. How rational are all the difficulties and severities of Religion which serve to promote and secure a future Eternal Happiness So vast is the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity things seen and not seen as yet the present vanishing and future permanent state that he can never be justly reputed a wise man that will not let go the best enjoyment he hath on earth if it stand in the way of his eternal happiness Nor can that man ever escape the just censure of notorious folly who for the gratifying of his appetite and present accommodation of his flesh le ts go an eternal glory in heaven Darius repented heartily that he lost a Kingdom for a draught of water O said he for how short a pleasure have I sold a Kingdom It was Moses choice and his choice argued his wisdom he chose rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin which are but for a season Heb. 11.25 Men do not account him a fool that will adventure a Penny upon a probability to gain ten thousand pounds But sure the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity is much greater Inference 3. If there certainly be such an Eternal State into which souls pass immediately after Death How great a change then doth Death make upon every man and woman O what a serious thing is it to die It 's your passage out of the swift river of Time into the boundless and bottomless Ocean of Eternity You that now converse with sensible objects with men and women like your selves enter then into the world of Spirits You that now see the continual revolutions of daies and nights passing away one after another will then be fixed in a perpetual NOW O what a serious thing is Death You throw a cast for Eternity when you die If you were to cast a Dye for your natural life oh how would your hand shake with fear how it would fall but what is that to this The souls of
men are as it were asleep now in their bodies at Death they awake and find themselves in the world of realities Let this teach you both how to carry your selves towards dying persons when you visit them and to make every day some provision for that hour your selves Be serious be plain be faithful with others that are stepping into Eternity be so with your own souls every day O remember what a long word what an amazing thing Eternity is Especially considering DOCT. 2. That all believers are at their death immediately received into a State of glory and eternal happiness This day shalt thou be with me This the Atheist denies he thinks he shall die and therefore resolves to live as the Beasts that perish Beryllus and some others after him taught that there was indeed a â—uture state of happiness and misery for souls but that they pass not into it immediatly upon death and separation from the body but shall sleep till the Resurrection and then awake and enter into it But is not that soul asleep or worse that dreams of a sleeping soul till the Resurrection Are souls so wounded and prejudiced by their separation from the body that they cannot subsist or act separate from it Or have they found any such conceit in the Scriptures Not at all The Scriptures take notice of no such interval but plainly enough denies it 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Mark it no sooner parted from the body but present with the Lord. So Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better If his soul was to sleep till the Resurrection how was it far better to be dissolved than to live Sure Pauls state in the body had-been far better than his state after death if this were so for here he enjoyed much sweet communion with God by Faith but then he should enjoy nothing To confirm this dream they urge Ioh 14.3 If I go my way I will come again and receive you to my self As if the time of Christs receiving his people to himself should not come until his second coming at the end of the world But though he will then collect all believers into one body and present them solemnly to his Father yet that hinders not but he may as indeed he doth receive every particular believing soul to himself at death by the Ministry of Angels And if not how is it that when Christ comes to judgement he is attended with ten thousands of his Saints that shall follow him when he comes from heaven Iude 14. you see then the Scriptures put no interval betwixt the dissolution of a Saint and his glorification It speaks of the Saints that are dead as already with the Lord. And the wicked that are dead as already in Hell calling them Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 20. assuring us that Iudas went presently to his own place Acts 1.25 and to that sence is the Parable of Dives and Lazarus Luk. 16.22 But let us weigh these four things more particularly for our full satisfaction in this point Arg. 1. First Why should the happiness of believers be deferred since they are immediatly capable of enjoying it assoon as separated from the body Alas the soul is so far from being assisted by the body as it is now for the enjoyment of God that it 's rather clog'd and hindred by it so speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. our bodies prejudice our souls obstruct and hinder the fulness and freedom of their communion When we part from the body we go home to the Lord. Then the soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Cage or Snare Here I am prevented by an excellent Pen which hath judiciously opened this point To whose excellent observations I only add this that if the intanglements snares and prejudices of the soul are so great and many in its embodied estate that it cannot so freely dilate it self and take in the comforts of God by communion with him then surely the laying aside of that clog or the freeing of the soul from that burden can be no bar to its greater happiness which it enjoys in its separated state Arg. 2. Secondly Why should the happiness and glory of the soul be deferred unless God had some farther preparative work to do upon it before it be fit to be admitted into glory But surely there is no such work wrought upon it after its separation by death All that is done of that kind is done here When the compositum is dissolved all means duties and ordinances are ceased The working day is then ended and night come when no man can work Ioh. 9.3 To that purpose are those words of Solomon Eccles. 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor devise in the Grave whither thou goest So that our glorification is not deferred in order to our fuller preparation for glory If we are not fit when we die we can never be fit All is done upon us that ever was intended to be done For they are called Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of the Just made perfect Arg. 3. Thirdly Again why should our Salvation slumber when the damnation of the wicked doth not slumber God defers not their misery and surely he will not defer our glory If he be quick with his enemies he will not be slow and dilatory with his friends It cannot be imagined but he is as much inclined to acts of favour to his Children as to acts of Justice to his enemies these are presently damned Iud. 7. Acts 1.25 1 Pet. 3.19 20. and what reason why believers all believers as well as this in the Text should not be that very day in which they die with Christ in Glory Arg. 4. Fourthly And lastly how do such delays consist with Christs ardent desires to have his people with him where he is And with the vehement longings of their souls to be with Christ You may see those reflected flames of Love and desire of mutual enjoyment betwixt the Bridegroom and his Spouse in Revel 22.17 20. Delays make their hearts sick The expectation and Faith in which the Saints die is to be satisfied then and surely God will not deceive them I deny not but their glory will be more compleat when the body their absent friend is reunited and made to share with them in their happiness Yet that hinders not but mean while the soul may enjoy its glory whilst the body takes its rest and sleeps in the Dust. Inference 1. Are believers immediatly with God after their dissolution then how surprizingly glorious will Heaven be to believers Not that they are in it before they think of it or are fitted for it no they have spent many thoughts upon it before and