another body to be raised instead of this it would not be a Resurrection but a Creation for non Resurrectio dici poterit ubi non resurgit quod cecidit That can't be call'd a Resurrection where one thing falls and another thing rises as Gregory long since pertinently observed Secondly His body was raised not by a word of power from the Father but by his own spirit So will ours Indeed the power of God shall go forth to unburrough sinners and fetch them forcibly out of their Graves but the Resurrection of the Saints is to be effected another way as I opened but now to you Even by his spirit which now dwelleth in them That very spirit of Christ which effected their spiritual Resurrection from sin shall effect their corporal Resurrection also from the Grave Thirdly His body was raised first he had in this as well as in other things the preheminence so shall the Saints in respect of the wicked have the preheminence in the Resurrection 1 Thes. 4.16 The dead in Christ shall rise first They are to attend the Lord at his coming and will be knockt up â—ooner than the rest of the world to attend on that service As the Sheriff with his men go forâ—h to meet the Judge before the Jaylor brings forth his prisoner Fourthly Christs body was marvelously improved by the Resurrection and so will ours It fell in weakness but was raised in power no more capable of sorrows pains and dishonours In like manner our bodies are sown in weakness but raised in strength sown in dishonour raised in glory Sown natural bodies raised spiritural bodies as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15.43 44. Spiritual bodies not properly but Analogically No distempers hang about glorified bodies nor are they thence forth subject to any of those natural necessities to which they are now tyed There are no flaws defects or deformities in the children of the Resurrection What members are now defective or deformed will then be restored to their perfect being and beauty for if the universal death of all parts be rescinded by the Resurrection how much more the partial Death of any single member As Turtullian speaks and from thence forth they are free from the Law of mortality they can die no more Luk. 20 35 36. Thus shall they be improved by their Resurrection Fifthly To conclude Christs body was raised from the Dead to be glorified and crowned with honour Oh it was a joyful day to him and so will the Resurrection of the Saints be to them the day of the gladness of their hearts It will be said to them in that morning awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust as Isa. 26.19 O how comfortable will be the meeting betwixt the glorified soul and its new raised body Much more comfortable than that of Iacobs and Iosephs after twenty years absence Gen. 46.29 Or that of Davids with Jonathan when he came out of the Cave to him 1 Sam. 20.41 Or that of the Father of the prodigal with his Son who was dead and is alive was lost and is found As he speaks Luk. 15. And there are three things will make it so First The gratifications of the Soul by the satisfaction of its natural appetite of union with its own body For even glorified souls in heaven have such an appetition and desire of re-union Indeed the Angels who are pure spirits as they never hâ—d union with so they have no inclination to matter but souls are otherwise tempered and disposed We are all sensible of its affection to the body now in its compounded state we feel the tender care it hath for the body the sympathy with it and loathness to be separated from it It 's said 1 Cor. 5.6 To be at home in the body And had not God implanted such an inclination to this its Tabernacle in it it would not have paid that due respect it ows the body while it inhabited in it nor have regarded what became of it when it left it This inclination remains still with it in heaven it reckons not it self compleatly happy till its old dear Companion and partner be with it and to that sence some understand those words Iob 14.14 All the daies of my appointed time i. e. of the time appointed â—or my body to remain in the Grave will I wait till my change viz. that which will be made by the Resurrection come for it 's manifest enough he speaks there of the Resurrection Now when this its inclination to its own body its longings and hankerings after it are gratified with a sight and enjoyment of it again oh what a comfortable meeting will this make it Especially if we consider Secondly The excellent temper and state in which they shall meet each other For as the body shall be raised with all the improvements and endownments imaginable which may render it amiable and every way desireable so the soul comes down immediatly from God out of Heaven shining in its holiness and glory It comes perfumed out of those Ivory Palaces with a strong scent of Heaven upon it And thus it re-enters its body and animates it again But Thirdly And principally that wherein the chief joy of this meeting consists is the end for which the glorified soul comes down to quicken and repossess it Namely to meet the Lord and ever to be with the Lord. To receive a full reward for all the labours and services it performed to God in this world This must needs make that day a day of Triumph and Exaltation It comes out of the grave as Ioseph out of his prison to be advanced to highest honour O do but imagine what an extasie of Joy and ravishing pleasure it will be for a soul thus to resume its own body and say as it were unto it come away my dear my ancient friend who servedst and sufferedst with me in the world come along with me to meet the Lord in whose presence I have bee ever since I parted with thee Now thy bountiful Lord hath remembred thee also and the day of thy glorification is come Surely it will be a joyful awaking For do but imagine what a Joy it is for dear friends to meet after long separation how do they use to give demonstrations of their love and delight in each other by Embraces Kisses Tears c. Or frame but to your selves a notion of perfect health when a sprightly vivacity runs through every part and the spirits do as it were dance before us when we go to any business Especially to such a business as the business of that day will be to receive a Crown and a Kingdom Do but imagine then what a Sun-shine morning this will be and how the pains and agonies cold sweats and bitter groans at parting will be recompenced by the joy of such a meeting And thus I have shewed you briefly the certainty of Christs Resurrection the nature and properties of it the threefold influence it hath on the
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.
sinners such a fair Foundation to rest their trembling Consciences upon While poor distressed Souls look to themselves they are perpetually puzled That 's the cry of distressed natural conscience Mica 6.6 Where with shall I come before the Lord the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how shall I prevent or anticipate the Lord and so Montanus renders it in quo preoccupabo Dominum conscience sees God arming himself with wrath to avenge himself for sin crys out O how shall I prevent him If he would accept the fruit of my body those dear pledges of nature for the sin of my Soul he should have them But now we see God coming down in flesh and so intimately uniting our flesh to himself that it hath no proper subsistance of its own but is united with the Divine person hence it 's easie to imagine what worth and value must be in that blood and how eternal love springing forth triumphantly from it flourishes into Pardon Grace and Peace Here is a way in which the sinner may see Justice and Mercy kissing each other and the latter exercised freely without prejudice to the former All others Consciences through the world lie either in a deep sleep in the Devils arms or else are rouling Sea sick upon the waves of their own fears and dismal presages O happy are they that have dropt Anchor on this ground and not only know they have peace but why they have it Vse 5. Oh how great concernment is it that Christ should have Vnion with our particular persons as well as with our common nature For by this Union with our nature alone never any man was or can be Saved Yea let me add that this Union with your natures is utterly in vain to you and will do you no good except he have union with your persons by faith also It is indeed infinite mercy that God is come so near you as to dwell in your flesh and that he hath fitted such an excellent Method to save poor sinners in And hath he done all this Is he indeed come home even to your own doors to seek Peace Doth he vail his unsupportable glory under flesh that he might treat thee more familiarly And yet do you refuse him and shut your hearts against him Then hear one word and let thine ears tingle at the sound of it thy sin is hereby aggravated beyond the sin of Devils who never sin'd against a Mediator in their own nature who never despised or refused because indeed they were never offered terms of Mercy as you are And I doubt not but the Devils themselves who now tempt you to reject will to all Eternity upbraid your folly for rejecting this great Salvation which in this excellent way is brought down even to your own doors Vse 6. If Jesus Christ have assumed our nature Then he is sensibly toucht with the infirmities that attend it and so hath pity and compassion for us under all our burdens And indeed this was one end of his assuming it that he might be able to have compassion on us as you read Heb. 2.17.18 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them hat are tempted O what a comfort is this to us that he who is our High-Priest in Heaven hath our nature on him to enable him to take compassion on us Vse 7. Seventhly Hence we see To what an height God intends to build up the happiness of man in that he hath layed the Foundation thereof so deep in the incarnating of his own Son They that intend to build high use to lay the Foundation low The happiness and glory of our Bodies as well as Souls is founded in Christs taking our flesh upon him For therein as in a Model or Pattern God intended to shew what in time he resolves to make of our Bodies For he will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transform our vile Bodies and make them one day conformable to the glorious Body of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.21 This flesh was therefore assumed by Christ that in it might be shewn as in a Pattern how God intends to honour and exalt it And indeed a greater honour cannot be done to the nature of man than what is already done it by this grace of union Nor are our persons capable of an higher glory than what consists in their conformity to this glorious head Indeed the flesh of Christ will ever have a distinct glory from ours in Heaven by reason of this Union For being the the Body which the word assumed it is two ways advanced singularly above the Flesh and Blood of all other men viz. Subjectively and Objectively Subjectively it is the Flesh and Blood of God Acts 20.28 And so hath a distinct and incommunicable glory of its own And Objectively it is the Flesh and Blood which all the Angels and Saints adore But though in these things it be supereminently exalted yet it is both the Medium and Pattern of all that glory which God designs to raise us to Vse 8. Lastly How wonderful a comfort is it that he who dwells in our Flesh is God! What Joy may not a poor believer make out of this What comfort one made out of it I will give you in his own words I see it a work of God saith he that experiences are all lost when Summons of improbation to prove our Charters of Christ to be counterfeit are raised against poor Souls in their heavy Tryals But let me be a sinner and worse than the chief of Sinners yea a guilty Devil I am sure my well beloved is God And my Christ is God And when I say my Christ is God I have said all things I can say no more I would I could build as much on this My Christ is God as it would bear I might lay all the world upon it God and Man in one Person Oh thrice happy conjunction As Man he is full of experimental sence of our Infirmities Wants and Burdens and as God he can support and and supply them all The aspect of Faith upon this wonderful Person how relieving how reviving how abundantly satisfying is it God will never divorce the believing Soul and its comfort after he hath marryed our nature to his own Son by the Hypostatical and our persons also by the blessed Mystical Union The SIXTH SERMON JOH VI. XXVII For him hath God the Father Sealed YOU have heard Christs compact or agreement with the Father in the Covenant of Redemption As also what the Father did in pursuance of the ends thereof in giving his Son out of his bosom c. Also what the Son hath done towards it in assuming Flesh. But though the glorious work be thus far advanced yet all he
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.
that have need of it unbelievers have no share in it They reject it Such have no part in it If then he neither dyed for himself as I proved before nor for Angels nor unbelievers either his blood must be shed with respect to believers or which is most absurd and never to be imagined shed as water upon the ground and totally cast away So that you see by all this it was for our Sakes as the Text speaks that he sanctified himself And now we may say Lord the Condemnation was thine that the Iustification might be mine The Agony thine that the Victory might be mine The Pain was thine and the Ease mine The Stripes thine and the Healing Balm issuing from them mine The Vinegar and Gall was thine that the Honey and Sweet might be mine The Curse was thine that the Blessing might be mine The Crown of Thorns was thine that the Crown of Glory might be mine The Death was thine the Life purchased by it mine Thou payedst the Price that I might enjoy the Inheritance We come next to the Inferences of truth deducible from this point Which follow Inference 1. If Jesus Christ did wholly set himself apart for believers How reasonable is it that believers should Consecrate and set themselves apart wholly for Christ Is he all for us and shall we be nothing for him What he was he was for you What ever he did was done for you And all that he suffered was suffered for you Oh then I beseech you Brethren by the mercys of God present your Bodys i. e. your whole selves for so body is there Synechdochically put to signifie the whole person I say present your bodys a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable Service Rom. 12.1 As your good was Christs end so let his glory be your end Let Christ be the end of your conversation Heb. 13.7 As Christ could say to me to live is you So do you say for us to live is Christ Phil. 1.21 O that all who profess Faith in Christ could subscribe Cordially to that profession Rom. 14.8 None of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself but whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die to to the Lord so then whether we live or die we are the Lords This is to be a Christian indeed What is a Christian but an holy dedicated thing to the Lord And what greater evidence can there be that Christ set himself apart for you than your setting your selves apart for him This is the marriage Covenant Hos. 3.3 Thou shalt be for me and not for another so will I be for thee Ah what a life is the life of a Christian Christ all for you and you all for him Blessed exchange Soul saith Christ all I have is thine Lord saith the Soul and all I have is thine Soul saith Christ my person is wonderful but what I am I am for thee My life was spent in labour and travel but I lived for thee And Lord saith the believer my person is vile and not worth thy accepting but such as it is it 's thine my Soul with all and every faculty my body and every member of it my gifts time and all my Talents are thine And see that as Christ bequeathed and made over himself to you so ye in the like manner bestow and make over your selves to him He lived not neither dyed as you hear for himself but you O that you in like manner would down with self and up with Christ in the room of it Woe woe is me saith one that the holy profession of Christ is made a stagâ—e garment by many to bring home a vain fame And Christ is made to serve mens ends This is to stop an Oven with a Kings Robes Except men Martyr and slay the body of sin in sanctified self-denyal they shall never be Christs Martyrs and faithful Witnesses Oh if I could be master of that house-Idol my self Mine own Mine own wit will credit and ease how blessed were I O but we have need to be redeemed from our selves rather than from the Devil and the world Learn to put out your selves and to put in Christ for your selves I should make a sweet bargain and give old for new if I could shuffle out Self and substitute Christ my Lord in place of my self to say not I but Christ not my will but Christs not my ease not my lusts not my credit but Christ Christ. O wretched Idol my self when shall I see thee wholly decourted and Christ wholly put in thy Room O if Christ had the full place and Room of my self that all my aims purposes thoughts and desires would coast and land upon Christ and not upon my self He set himself apart for you Believers and no others No not for Angels but for you will ye also set your selves apart peculiarly for Christ be his and no others Let not Christ and the world share and divide your Hearts in two halves betwixt them let not the world step in and say half mine You will never do Christ right nor answer this Grace till you can say as it is Psal. 73.25 whom have I in Heaven but thee and on Earth there is none that I desire in comparison of thee None but Christ none but Christ is a proper Motto for a Christian. He left the highest and best injoyments even those in his Fathers bosom to set himself apart for Death and sufferings for you are you ready to leave the bosom of the best and sweetest injoyments you have in this world to serve him if you stand not habitually ready to leave Father Mother Wife Children Lands yea and life too to serve him You are not worthy of him Mat. 10.37 He was so wholly given up to your service that he refused not the worst and hardest part of it even bleeding groaning dying work his love to you sweetned all this to him can you say so too do you account the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt as Moses did Heb. 11.26 He had so intirely devoted himself to your work that he could not be at rest till it was finished He was so intent upon it that he forgot to eat Bread Joh. 4.31 32. so it should be with you His service should be Meat and Drink to you to conclude He was so wholly given up to your work and service that he would not suffer himself to be in the least diverted or taken off from it And if Peter himself counsel him to favour himself he shall hear get thee behind me Satan Oh happy were it if our Hearts were but so engaged for Christ. In Gallens time it was proverbial when they would express the impossibility of a thing You may assoon take off a Christian from Christ. Thus you see what use you should make of Christs sanctifying himself for you Inference 2. If Christ have sanctified or consecrated himself for us
hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Iesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith That spirit that at first sanctified and since hath so often sealed comforted directed resolved guided and quickned your souls had not come to perform any of these blessed Offices upon your hearts if Christ had not died Thirdly All Eternal good things are the purchase of his blood Heaven and all the glory thereof is purchased for you that are Believers with this price Hence that glory whatever it be is called an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you to the lively hope whereof ye are begotten again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Not only present mercys are purchased for us but things to come also As it is 1 Cor. 3.22 Man is a prudent and prospecting creature and is not satisfied that it 's well with him for present unless he have some assurance it shall be well with him for time to come His mind is taken up about what shall be hereafter and from the good or evil things to come he raiseth up to himself vast hopes or fears Therefore to compleat our happiness and fill up the uttermost capacity of our souls all the good of eternity is put into the account and Inventory of the Saints Estate and Inheritance This happiness is ineffable It 's usually distinguisht into what is essential and what is accessory to it The essentials of it as we in our embodied state can conceive is either the Objective Subjective or Formal happiness to be enjoyed in Heaven The Objective happiness is God himself Psal. 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee If it could be supposed saith one that God should withdraw from the Saints in Heaven and say take Heaven and divide it among you but as for me I will withdraw from you the Saints would fall a weeping in Heaven and say Lord take Heaven and give it to whom thou wilt it 's no Heaven to us except thou be there Heaven would be a very Bokim to the Saints without God In this our glory in Heaven consists to be ever with the Lord. 1 Thes. 4.17 God himself is the chief part of a Saints inheritance in which sence as some will understand Rom. 8.17 they are called heirs of God The Subjective glory and happiness is the attemperation and suiting of the soul and body to God This is begun in sanctification perfected in glorification It consists in removing from both all that is indecent and inconsistent with a state of such compleat glory and happiness and in super-induceing and cloathing it with all Heavenly qualities The immunities of the body are its freedom from all natural infirmities which as they come in so they go out with sin Thenceforth there shall be no diseases deformities pains flaws monstrosities their good physitian death hath cured all this And their vile bodies shall be made like unto Christs glorious body Phil. 3.21 And be made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15.44 For agility like the Chariots of Aminadab For Beauty as the top of Lebanon for incorruptibility as if they were pure Spirits The Soul also is discharged and freed from all darkness and ignorance of mind being now able to discern all truths in God that Chrystal Ocean of truth The leaks of the memory stopt for ever The roving of its fancy perfectly cured The stubbornness and reluctancy of the will for ever subdued and retained in due and full subjection to God So that the Saints in glory shall be free from all that now troubles them They shall never sin more nor be once tempted so to do for no serpent hisses in that paradise They shall never grieve or groan more for God shall wipe all tears from their eyes They shall never be troubled more for God will then recompense tribulation to their troubles and to them that are troubled rest They shall never doubt more for fruition excludes doubting The Formal happiness is the fulness of satisfaction resulting from the blessed sight and enjoyment of God by a soul so attemper'd to him Psal. 17.15 When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness This sight of God in glory called the beatifical vision must needs yield ineffable satisfaction to the beholding soul in as much as it will be an intuitive vision The intellectual or mental eye shall see God 1 Ioh. 3.2 The corporeal glorified eye shall see Christ. Iob 19.26 27. What a ravishing vision will this be And how much will it exceed all reports and apprehensions we had here of it Surely the one half was not told us It will be a transformative vision it will change the beholder into its own image and likeness We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 As Iron put into the fire becomes all fiery so the soul by conversing with God is changed into his very similitude It will be an Appropriative vision whom I shall see for my self Job 19.26 27. In Heaven interest is clear and undoubted fear is cast out No need of marks and signs there for what a man sees and enjoys how can he doubt of It will be a ravishing vision these we have by faith are so how much more those in glory How was Paul transported when he was in a visional way wrapt up into the third Heaven and heard the unutterable things though he was not admitted into the blessed society but was with them as the Angels are in our assemblies a stander by a looker on If a spark do so inflame what is it to lie down like a Phoenix in her bed of Spices Like a Salamander to live and move in the fire of love It will also be an eternal vision vacabimus videbimus as Augustin said we shall then be at leisure for this imployment and have no diversions from it for ever No evening is mentioned to the seaventh days sabbath no night in the new Ierusalem And therefore Lastly It will be a fully satisfying vision God will then be all in all Etiam ipsa curiositas satietur curiosity it self will be satisfied The blessed soul will feel it self blessed filled satisfied in every part Ah what an happiness is here to look and love to drink and sing and drink again at the fountain head of the highest glory And if at any time its eye be turned from a direct to a reflex sight upon what it once was how it was wrought on how fitted for this glory how wonderfully distinguished by special grace from them that are howling in flames whilst himself is shouting aloud upon its bed of everlasting rest all this will enhaunce the glory And so also will the Accessories of this blessedness The place where God is enjoyed
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
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
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
it self upon its God and Father Father into thy hands God is the center of all gratious Spirits While they tabernacle here they have no rest but in the bosom of their God When they go hence their expectation and earnest desires are to be with him It had been working after God by gratious desires before it had cast many a longing look heaven-ward before but when the gratious soul comes near its God as it doth in a Dying hour then it even throws it self into his arms As a River that after many turnings and windings at last is arrived to the Ocean it pours it self with a central force into the bosom of the Ocean and there finishes its weary course Nothing but God can please it in this world and nothing but God can give it content when it goes hence It is not the amoenity of the place whither the gratious soul is going but the bosom of the blessed God who dwells there that it so vehemently pants after Not the Fathers house but the Fathers arms and bosom Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Whom have I in heaven but thee And oâ— earth there is none that I desire in comparison of thee Psal. 73.24 25. Thirdly It also implies the great value believers have for their souls That 's the pretious treasure And their main solicitude and chief care is to see it secured in a saâ—e hand Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit they are words speaking the believers care for his soul. That it may be safe what ever becomes of the vile body A believer when he comes nigh to death spends but few thoughts about his body where it shall be laid or how it shall be disposed of he trusts that in the hands of friends but as his great care all along was for his soul so he expresses it in these his very last breathings in which he commends it into the hands of God It is not Lord Jesus receive my body take care of my dust but receive my spirit Lord secure the Jewel when the Casket is broken Fourthly These words implie the deep sense that dying believers have of the great change that is coming upon them by death when all visible and sensible things are shrinking away from them and failing They feel the world and the best comforts in it failing Every creature and creature comfort failing For at death we are said to fail Luk. 16.9 Hereupon the soul clasps the closer about its God clings more close than ever to him Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Not that a meer necessity puts the soul upon God Or that it cleaves to God because it hath then nothing else to take hold on No no it chose God for its portion when it was in the midst of all its outword enjoyments and had as good security as other men have for the long enjoyment of them but my meaning is that although gratious souls have chosen God for their portion and do truly prefer him to the best of their comforts yet in this compounded state it lives not wholly upon its God but partly by faith and partly by sense Partly upon things seen and partly upon things not seen The creatures had some interest in their hearts alas too much but now all these are vanishing and it sees they are so I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the world said sick Hezeckiah hereupon it turns it self from them all and casts it self upon God for all its subsistance Expecting now to live upon its God intirely as the blessed Angels do And so in faith they throw themselves into his arms Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Fifthly It implies the attonement of God and his full reconciliation to believer by the blood of the great sacrifice Else they durst never commit their souls into his hands For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 12.29 i. e. of an absolute God a God unattoned by the offering up of Christ. The soul dare no more cast it self into the hands of God without such an attoning sacrifice than it dares approach to a devouring fire And indeed the reconciliation of God by Jesus Christ as it is the ground of all our acceptance with God for we are made accepted in the beloved So it 's plainly carried in the order or manner of the reconciled souls committing it self to him for it first casts it self into the hands of Christ then into the hands of God by him So Stephen when dying Lord Iesus receive my Spirit And by that hand it would be put into the Fathershand Sixthly And lastly It implies both the efficacy and excellency of Faith in supporting and relieving the soul at a time when nothing else is able to do it Faith is its conduct when it is at the greatest loss and distress that ever it met with It secures the soul when it is turned out of the body When heart and flesh fail this leads it to the rock that fails not It sticks by that soul till it see it safe through all the territories of Satan and safe Landed upon the shore of Glory and then is swallowed up in vision Many a favour it hath shewn the soul while it dwelt in its body The great service it did for the soul was in the time of its espousals to Christ. This is the marriage knot The blessed bond of union betwixt the soul and Christ. Many a relieving sight secret and sweet support it hath received from its faith since that but surely its first and last works are its most glorious works By faith it first ventured it self upon Christ. Threw it self upon him in the deepest sense of its own vileness and utter unworthiness when sense reason and multitudes of temptations stood by contradicting and discouraging the soul. By faith it now casts it self into his arms when it 's lanching out into vast eternity They are both noble acts of Faith but the first no doubt is the greatest and most difficult For when once the soul is interessed in Christ it 's no such difficulty to commit it self into his hands as when it had no interest at all in him It 's easier for a child to cast himself into the arms of its own Father in distress than for one that hath been both a stranger and enemy to Christ to cast it self upon him that he may be a Father and a friend to it And this brings us upon the second enquiry I promised to satisfie sc. What warrant or incouragement have gratious souls to commit themselves at death into the hands of God I answer much every way all things encourage and warrant its so doing For First This God upon whom the believer rolls himself at death is its Creator The Father of its being He created and inspired it and so it hath relation of a creature to a Creator yea of a creature now in distress to a faithful Creator
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
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Surely it cannot be supposed but he is able to save to the uttermost all them that come to God by him Seeing he ever lives to make intercession Heb. 7.25 Think how safe the people of God in this world are whose head is in Heaven It was a comfortable expression of one of the Fathers incouraging himself and others with this truth in a dark day Come said he why do we tremble thus do we not see our head above water If he live believers cannot die Ioh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also And let no mans heart suggest a suspicious thought to him that this wonderful advancement of Christ may cause him to forget his poor people groaning here below under sin and misery For the temper and disposition of his faithful and tender heart is not changed with his condition He bears the same respect to us as when he dwelt among us For indeed he there lives and acts upon our account Heb. 7.25 1 Ioh. 2.1 2. And how seasonable and comfortable will the meditations of Christs Exaltation be to the believer when sickness hath wasted thy Body wither'd its beauty and God is bringâ—ng theâ— to the dust of Death Ah think then that that vile Body shall be conformed to the glorious Body of Christ Pâ—al 3.21 As God hath glorified and highly exalted 〈◊〉 Son whose form was mar'd more than any mans so will he exalt thee also I do not say to a parity or equality in glory with Christ for in heaven he will be discerned and distinguished by his peculiar glory from all the Angels and Saints as the Sun is known by its excelling glory from the lesser Star But we shall be conform'd to this glorious head according to the proportion of members O whither will Love mount the believer in that day Having spoken this much of Christs exalted state to cast some general light upon it and engage your attentions to it I shall now according to the degrees of this his wonderful exaltation briefly open it under the forementioned heads viz. His Resurrection Ascension Session at the Fathers right hand and his return to Judge the World The THIRTY NINHTH SERMON MATTH XXVIII VI He is not here for he is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay WE have finished the Doctrine of Christs humiliation wherein the Sun of righteousness appeared to you as a setting Sun gone out of sight but as the Sun when it 's gone down to us begins a new day in another part of the world so Christ having finisht his course and work in this world rises again and that in order to the acting another glorious part of his work in the world above In his death he was upon the matter totally Eclipsed but in his Resurrection he begins to recover his light and glory again God never intended that the darling of his soul should be lost in an obscure Sepulchre An Angel descends from heaven to roll away the stone and with it the reproach of his death And to be the heavenly Herald to proclaim his Resurrection to the two Mary's whose love to Christ had at this time drawn them to visit the Sepulchre where they lately left him At this time the Lord being newly risen the keepers were trembling and become as dead men So great was the terrible Majesty and awful solemnity attending Christs Resurrection but to encourage these good souls the Angel prevents them with these good tidings He is not here for he is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay q. d. Be not troubled though you have not the end you came for one sight more of your dear though dead Iesus yet you have not lost your labour for to your eternal comfort I tell you he is risen as he said And to put it out of doubt come hither and satisfie your selves see the place where the Lord lay In which word we have both a Declaration and Confirmation of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead First A Declaration of it by the Angel both Negatively and Affirmatively Negatively he is not here Here indeed you laid him here you left him and here you thought to find him as you left him but you are happily mistaken he is not here However this giving them no satisfaction for he might continue dead still though removed to another place as indeed they suspected he was Ioh. 20.13 Therefore his resurrection is declared Positively and Affirmatively he is risen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word imports the active power or self quickening principle by which Christ raised himself from the state of the dead Which Luke takes notice of also Acts 1.3 Where he saith he shewed or presented himself alive after his Passion It was the divine nature or God-head of Christ which reviv'd and rais'd the man-hood Secondly Here is also a plain confirmation of Christs Resurrection and that first from Christs own Prediction he is risen as he said He â—oretold that which I declare to be now fulfill'd Let it not therefore seem incredible to you Secondly by their own sight come see the place where the Lord lay The Grave hath lost its guest it 's now empty death hath lost its prey It receiv'd but could not retain him Come see the place where the Lord lay Thus the Resurrection of Christ is declar'd and confirm'd Hence our Observation is DOCT. That our Lord Iesus Christ by the Almighty power of his own God-head revived and rose from the Dead to the terror and consternation of his enemies and the unspeakable consolation of Believers That our Lord Jesus Christ though laid was not lost in the Grave but the third day revived and rose again is a truth confirmed to us by many infallible proofs as Luke witnesseth Act. 1.3 We have Testimonies of it both from heaven and earth and both infallible From Heaven we have the Testimony of Angels and to the Testimony of an Angel all credit is due for Angels are holy Creatures and cannot deceive us The Angel tells the two Mary's in the Text he is risen We have Testimonies of it from men holy men who were eye witnesses of this truth to whom he shew'd himself alive by the space of forty days after his Resurrection by no less than nine solemn Apparitions to them Sometime five hundred Brethren saw him at once 1 Cor. 15.6 These were holy persons who durst not deceive and who confirmed their Testimony with their blood So that no point of Religion is of more confessed truth and infallible certainty than this before us And blessed be God it is so For if it were not then were the Gospel in vain 1 Cor. 15.14 Seeing it hangs the whole weight of our Faith hope and salvation upon Christ as risen from the dead If this were
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