manu Coeli excepto timore Coeli was an antient Maxim of the Hebrew Doctors implying that God himself cannot absolve and free men from the religious fear and observance of himself and a most obedient regard to his holy Will What the Apostle saith of Love that it is an old and yet a new Commandment is true also of this high and holy Commandment of Self-Resignation It is a new Commandment not as if it were first brought in by Christ as was said for men were never free to will their own wills to walk in the ways of their own hearts but it is new as the Commandment of Love is new in that it was enlivened and inforced anew by Christ had its power and virtue renewed and increased and the engagement to it heightned both by the Doctrin and Example of our Saviour Both tending to the advancement of Self-Resignation in a way beyond any Doctrin or Example of Life that ever appeared before or since in the world And therefore it is also the Law of the new Creation and by virtue thereof its Obligation is now doubled The Consideration of God as our second Creator mightily inforceth our engagement to this Duty For 1. The relation of the New-Creature is more noble and honourable In the second Creation the Image of God is repaired in the soul and man that was a disfigured and disordered thing by reason of his Apostasie and fall from God is restored now to that better and more excellent state As he is a New-Creature he partakes of the Spirit and is heavenly and spiritual Which is far more than having a natural Being by which as the Apostle speaks he is of the earth earthy 2. It is also a sweeter relation there is a most dear Love to be admired rather than to be express'd manifested herein 1 John iii. I. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God Abba Father comes more freely from the lips and heart of the New-Creature Such may draw near to God with a filial freedom and humble boldness 3. Besides it is a more advantageous relation For if children saith the Apostle then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. And the Inheritance they are heirs to is uncorruptible and undefiled reserved in the heavens for them such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard and the glory and advantages of which no heart can conceive Of which according to the abundant grace of the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ they are begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead 4. This new Creation impowers capacitates and enables us for this Duty These things might be largely insisted upon but thus much is briefly intimated that the Obligation to Self-Resignation may appear more from the notion of a New-Creature than from that of a Creature And to this purpose is that of the Apostle Eph. ii 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works created unto intire obedience to the Will of God the Foundation and also the Sum and Abridgment whereof is Self-Resignation CHAP. II. That Self-Resignation is that which doth eminently difference a good man from the Devil and the wicked And that mere external Performances do not distinguish between the one and the other II. SElf-Resignation is that which doth eminently difference a good man from the Devil and the wicked The Angels that would not continue in Resignation that would have another will of their own that rended their wills from the will of God they are the evil and miserable Angels and still they are impetuously acted by a boisterous Self-Will and are impatient of having it checked Belial is the Devils name and that word signifies without Yoke and the Children of Belial are for a boundless lawless liberty they set themselves against the Lord and his Christ saying Let us break their bands insunder and cast away their cords from us They altogether break the yoke and burst the bonds are impatient of restraint Wicked men in whose hearts the Apostate Spirit worketh are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of disobedience they are not for intire subjection to the Divine Will though wise good sure and perfect but addicted to their own will which is childish vain perverse and boisterous and all for gratifying their many foolish and hurtful desires and longings They are all for walking after the imagination and stubbornness of their own hearts a phrase often used in the Prophesie of Ieremiah and for fulfilling the wills of the flesh and of the mind Whereas the children of God are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of obedience 1 Pet. i. 14. not conformed to their former lusts but to the will of God as it was said of David Acts xiii 22,36 And here it is fit to advertise and admonish Christians that it is a piece of Mystery-Wickedness a policy of Satan in all ages to set up and magnifie some pieces of Outward Religion and put such a value upon them as from them to denominate men Good and Religious and so men are reputed Saints and the Children of God by such and such Opinions and Notions such Expressions such Observances such things as may be performed by very bad men So that on these different Forms are founded different Parties and Sects and each magnifies its own mode and thereupon men are tempted and invited to associate and link themselves with one or other because hereby they shall be reputed Religious and apologized for by those of that rank and way and all others shall be unsainted and decried But in the mean while the main thing is little minded that which doth intrinsecally and eminently difference the good from the wicked and that is Self-Resignation that which our Saviour makes the essential Character of a true Christian Self-Denial Now this Doctrin of denying and resigning our selves the Doctrin of the inward Cross of being dead to self-desires and self-interest is very unacceptable and grievous to the Pharisaical and formal Christians they would fain live to themselves please themselves being lovers of their own selves covetous proud incontinent fierce heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God as the Apostle speaks of some who hereby denied the Power of Godliness whereof yet they had a Form Now it is a good service done to Religion to endeavour both by Life and Doctrin to rescue it from these abuses from being thought to consist in such outward shews and to place the Kingdom of God where it should be It is for the interest of the pure and undefiled Religion and for the advancement of real Holiness to lessen the credit of such appearances viz. such an habit tone form of words mere Outward performances to lessen the repute of any sort of Mock-Holiness a mere outward Profession and Observance of only the externals of Religion be they
godliness that tend to the real bettering of Man and transforming him into the Divine Image such as are most powerful to the subduing our own Wills as divided from God's and the bringing them unto a conformity to the Will of God But alas these great practical Truths have been too commonly either sparingly or but coldly and insignificantly not fully clearly and vigorously recommended The great noise and ado in the Christian World hath been about the lighter matters of the Law Mint Annise and Cummin Meats and Drinks wherein the Kingdom of God doth not consist The great talk and zeal hath been about things less necessary and more obscure and doubtful men doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings and evil surmisings It pleaseth men to hear of speculative Doctrins and to be entertained with a luscious Preaching of the Gospel made up all of Promises and these wholly unconditional it gratifies them to hear what is done without them rather than what is to be done within them and the necessity of sincere and entire obedience to our Saviours Precepts urged upon them All would reign with Christ but they would not suffer with him they would hear only of Christs dying for sin of his being crucified for them but to hear of their dying to sin and their own corrupt will of their being crucified with him and suffering their wills to be resigned to the will of the Father as Christs was to hear of making an entire oblation of themselves to God this is a hard saying few will bear it 't is very unpleasing to flesh and blood 't is too spiritual a Gospel for the carnal mind to relish But how unpleasing soever it be it is not therefore to be forborn for if we should seek to please men we should not be the servants of Christ. If we should gratifie and humour insincere people in their soft and delicate self-chosen Religion and their willing their own will we should not be faithful to their souls whose grand interest and necessary concernment it is to know and practise this first and great Lesson in the School of Christ. Self-Resignation is a great part of the Doctrin that is according to godliness They are the wholsom or healing words of our Lord Jesus Christ viz. He that doth not take up his Cross and come after me cannot be my disciple Nor is he worthy of me This is healing Doctrin that alone can cure the inward Distempers of our Souls and therefore absolutely necessary to be taught and prest with all authority It matters not that the carnally minded and delicate Christian doth not relish it We that are the Ministers of the Gospel are to imitate careful and prudent Physicians who when they come to their Patients do not ask them what they love best and then prescribe them what is most pleasing to their Palates though most hurtful but informing themselves well of the case of the diseased they appoint what they judge most proper for them though it be no whit grateful or acceptable to them But howsoever the resigning their wills to the will of God be as loathsom Physick to the carnal it is to the truly spiritual both meat and drink as it was to their great Master It is their constant Diet the savoury Meat which their Souls love and live by They esteem the fore-mentioned and the like words of their Saviours mouth more than their necessary food to borrow Iob's expression Chap. xxiii 12. And this so little minded so much neglected Doctrin of Self-Resignation is that which I design to treat of and with all seriousness to recommend to those that name the name of Christ. For the more distinct understanding whereof we must know that Self-Resignation doth relate either First to the Commands of God particularly such Commands as are difficult to nature and grievous to flesh and bloud for to obey in lesser and more easie instances is no worthy proof of our Resignation and thus considered it implieth an entire Obedience to the Preceptive Will of God Or Secondly it relates to hard Trials great hardships and sufferings such as God doth allot and appoint to humble us and to know what is in our hearts And thus considered it implieth a meek patience and quiet submission to the divine Disposals and Will of Providence But I shall not speak to these two distinctly but joyn them both together in this Aphorism wherein is comprized the grand Fundamental and Mystery of Practical Religion viz. That a Christian is to resign his Will wholly to the Will of God to make an entire Oblation of himself to him In discoursing on which we shall first present you with several weighty Considerations that do most effectually recommend to us this Self-Resignation And secondly set down such Helps and Directions as are most proper to attain it SECT I. Considerations recommending the Duty of SELF-RESIGNATION to our most serious and diligent Practice CHAP. I. That it is the Law of our Creation both first and second The Consideration of God as a second Creator shewed mightily to inforce our Engagement to this Duty upon a four-fold account 1. SElf-Resignation is the Law of our Creation our necessary condition and property both as we are Creatures and as New-Creatures as we are made and as we are renewed after God's Image It is not a new thing introduced first by Christ 't is not an Institution peculiar to the times of the Gospel so that for almost four thousand years Man was not obliged to it but it is our unchangable property arising from our dependence upon God and relation to him There is a Law written within us that requires this nor can any thing free us from our Obligation hereunto We were made by God for himself and therefore must needs be under an eternal Obligation to yield universal Obedience to him This is an old Commandment which man had from the beginning rooted in and interwoven with his very Being all the Duties enjoined therein are Branches of the everlasting Righteousness and are of an eternal and unchangable nature 'T is the Character of Angels that they do his Commandments hearkening to the voice of his word and that they do his will And the Self-Resignation of Angels their doing God's Will in Heaven is the model of Mens Resignation and Obedience on Earth for our Saviour hath taught us thus to pray Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Angels and Men are under the same Moral Obligation of Religion the same Law for substance concerns both Love is the sum of the whole Law and Angels are to love God with all their might as well as Men and one Angel is to love another as himself Religion obligeth every rational and understanding Creature and the Quintessence of Religion is Resignation and therefore it is impossible this could ever have not been or should ever for the future cease to be our Duty Omnia sunt in
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boils or bubbles forth a good matter We are to judge thereof by the passionateness and earnestness of our desires not by any thing that is obvious to sense not by the loudness or length of Prayer be it without or with a form of words though it were as long as that prayer of Baals Priests from morning to noon or as that prayer among the Papists of fourty hours by which they amuse the weak and injudicious in spiritual things There may be as much yea more of the Spirit of Prayer when there are no words at all There are times when the Spirit maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered affections too quick and strong for expressions and which would cool if put into words Thus Hannah spake in her heart to God her voice was not heard but she poured out her Soul before the Lord and God heard who knoweth the secrets of the heart and the mind of the Spirit These inward breathings of the Soul are ever very precious to God and find favour with him When a Soul prayeth out of a deep sense and feeling of its wants and is full of affectionate breathings after God and hath the most ardent and inflamed desires after Spiritual things this is true praying with fervency and in the Holy Ghost And the silence of the Soul is louder and much sooner reacheth the ears of the Almighty than the greatest loudness and volubility of speech If we would therefore obtain this best and most divine of all blessings let us pray for it with the greatest ardour of affection we may be assured that God will never cast away so rich a Pearl as this upon those that declare themselves insensible of its worth by asking it in a cold and formal manner And the more to excite and quicken our desires after it let us know that if God accepts our prayers and gives us this holy temper of Spirit he doth infinitely more for us than what Herod promised the daughter of Herodias If he gives thee this Empire over thine own Will he bestows that on thee which incomparably excells the greatest earthly Kingdom The Kingdom of God as hath been said is then within us here and we are thereby made meet for his Kingdom of Glory hereafter And who that duly considers this can be flat and heavy in his prayers for this Grace Secondly Our Prayers must be also in Faith Thus S. Iames tells us we must ask this Spiritual Wisdom in the following verse But let him ask in faith nothing wavering That is we must believe that as God is able so he is as willing and ready to give us what we ask if we ask according to his will as S. Iohn qualifies it 1 Ep. v. 14. And it is according to his Will and pleaseth him highly that we ask Spiritual Wisdom This Faith is the ground of all address to God Heb. xi 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And this he will assuredly be in his own time which is always the best God may sometimes make as if he did not hear that we may seek him more diligently and pray more fervently that he may prove our patience and just valuation of his blessings and that we may be the more thankful for them when we have them prize them the more and improve them the better but if we persevere in earnest and believing praying we shall undoubtedly in due time obtain And as for such spiritual good things as are necessary to Salvation we are to pray for them with such a faith as to assure our selves that God will give them if we ask aright his most gracious nature and promises assuring us that he cannot deny them to such askers CHAP. III. That in order to our being entirely resigned to the Divine Will we must be willing pati Deum to suffer God and abide the power of his Spirit working in us III. THirdly Having poured out thy Soul before God in humble and earnest Prayer thou must be willing pati Deum to suffer God and abide the power of his Spirit working in thee To this purpose there is an observable passage in St. Austin on Psalm cli 3. Magni languores sed major medicus c. Be the maladies of thy Soul never so great yet there is a Physician that is greater and who never fails to cure for to an all-powerful Physician nothing is incurable onely thou must patiently suffer thy self to be cured Do not thrust back his hand when he begins to touch thy sores and search thy Souls wounds He well knows what he is a doing do not hinder and resist when it begins to pain be not so delicate and tender to thine own hurt but with a quiet patience bear for a while the anguish when he cuts and lanceth considering that the present pain makes way for thy future health and soundness Let not Christ and his holy Spirit have cause to say of thee as it was said of Babylon we would have healed him but he would not be healed Vt corpus redimas ferrum patieris ignes For the health and safety of the body in case of a Gangreen or other dangerous disease how do men endure a tedious course of Physick and much torment Vt valeas animo quicquam tolerare negabis And for the health of thy Soul infinitely more considerable than a little longer life and ease of the body which is all that Physick or Chirurgery can at any time effect but can never secure wilt thou not endure the pain of being cured of its diseases which let alone will make thee eternally miserable Let us be therefore entreated as ever we would obtain this Divine temper of Self-Resignation to take heed of quenching the Spirit of resisting the holy Ghost as the Jews did and paid dear for it Take we heed of stifling any of his Convictions and rejecting his Motions Let us not seek to shift off and put by serious and awakening thoughts working in us as the usual practice of sinners is by diverting to the vain entertainments and false pleasures of the world and the flesh nor endeavour to drown the voice of Conscience which is the voice of God and to be heard with a reverend regard If we would have Christ sit as a Purifier and refiner in the midst of us to purge us as gold and silver that we may offer our selves unto the Lord an offering in righteousness we must abide the day of his coming But alas I must needs observe by the way there are but few of the Christian Profession who are thus patient and will endure the refining and purifying work of the Spirit Most would with Simon Magus have the Holy Ghost in his Gifts such as may make them seem some great ones and procure admiration to them but few would have the renewing of the Holy Ghost and the Sanctification of the Spirit unto
hardship when he sends it Should not the memory of his many and long continued mercies more sweeten and endear our good God to us than some present crosses and adversities imbitter our thoughts of him and sowre our spirits with discontent Oh the heighth and excellency of Grace in this holy man He was Vir ante Evangelia Evangelicus A person of the true Evangelical and Christian spirit before Christ or his Gospel came into the world How had patience its perfect work in him There could not be a braver spectacle a more lovely sight on the whole earth for God and Angels to behold than such a Soul in the midst of such trials the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit being in the sight of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of great price If Seneca could say of Cato Behold a sight which that God who diligently observes the work of his own hands may fix his eye upon well may it be said of holy Iob. This honourable Elogium is given of him Chap. 2. 10. In all this Iob sinned not with his lips And the like in Chap. i. 22. where it is added nor charged God foolishly He did not speak unworthily of God or his disposals nor had he any disbecoming thoughts of him or them Nay he was so far from repining and fretting at the severest of them that as was said he took them gratefully at his hands As deformed and diseased a Creature as Iob was as to his outward man he was most sound fair and lovely within Though his Body lay among the ashes and potsherds yet was he as to the inward Constitution of his Soul as the wings of a Dove beautified with such interchangeable colours by the Sun shining upon her that they are as it were covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold In the Song of Hannah it is said that God raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill But here we have a far greater wonder God exalted Iob even when he debased him to the dust and made him in his lowest estate a glorious person more glorious to all ages than ever he would have been had there been nothing in his story but that he was for his Wealth and Honour the greatest of all the men of the East So that Iob even whilst he was of this low degree might rejoyce in that he was exalted to allude to that of St. Iames Chap. 1. 9. Great afflictions accompanied with an unconquerable patience canonize men and advance them to a peculiar degree of honour and glory above the rest of mankind Behold we count them happy that endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we call them blessed James v. 11. St. Chrysostom thus magnificently speaks of Iob's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Dunghill that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more stately than any Kingly Throne And of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Sores that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 richer than any jewels and precious stones nay that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more splendid and glorious than the very Sun-beams And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no King sitting upon his Throne is so illustrious as was Job then upon the Dunghill honourable and glorious That very Ash-heap or Dunghill where the illustrious debased Iob sate was a Throne of glory no Royal Seat of Majesty or Chair of State was so glorious here his patience was inthroned here the humble Greatness and Majesty of his mind shined forth and the Spirit of Glory rested on him What a pleasure was it to Heaven to see this Champion come off so bravely and to baffle all the attempts and arts that the Devil could use to break his spirit and force him to impatience and unworthy reflections upon God and his Providence God said twice to Satan Hast thou considered my servant Iob that there is none like him in all the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hast thou set thine heart upon my servant Iob Hast thou taken special notice of him God seemeth to glory and make his boast of this excellent person as a more worthy sight than any that presented it self to the view of observation in any part of the world But he was much more worthy of esteem and admiration after he had been proved by such sore trials when the trial of his faith and patience was found unto praise and honour and glory So great was his Patience so exemplary his Resignation that the holy Scripture sets a special mark both upon it and him Upon it James 5. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Iob upon him in that he is mentioned as one of God's three most peculiar Favourites Ezech. 14. And now having given some account of his woful afflictions and his great patience under them we will speak briefly of the reward this his submission and Resignation of himself to the Will of God was at last crowned with After the Apostle had said in the forementioned place Ye have heard of the patience of Iob it follows and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy And in the 42. Chapter of Iob we find him most amply rewarded even in this life In the seventh and eighth verses we read that he found such special favour in the eyes of God that his three friends who had added to the heavy weight of his afflictions and had not spoken of God that which was right as Iob had done could not atone his anger with a Burnt-offering without Iob's intercession in their behalf And in the tenth verse it is said that the Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his friends also the Lord gave Iob twice as much as he had before And in the twelfth verse that the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning for he had fourteen thousand Sheep and six thousand Camels and a thousand yoke of Oxen and a thousand She-asses whereas he had before but half this number of each of these as hath been shewn Thus in his Goods and Possessions which were either destroyed by fire or carried away by his thievish Neighbors the Sabeans and Chaldeans and so were never to be enjoyed by him more God gave him in these double But as to his Children he gave him the just number he had before viz. seven sons and three daughters v. 13. These it is likely were not doubled because though they were taken away by death yet they were not utterly lost but their spirits returned to God that gave them they were still alive with God where their Father should again meet them in the other life But there is this said concerning these new daughters of Iob which was not said of the former that in all the land were no women found so fair as they ver 15. And lastly we read in ver 16. that after this lived Iob an hundred and fourty years and
saw his sons and his sons sons even four generations After which the happy days he enjoyed here concluded in an unspeakably more happy Eternity And thus as Satan said doth Iob serve God for nought so we see that his great Patience and exemplary Submission to the Will of God under the sorest and severest trials was not in vain in the Lord but abundantly recompenced But before I conclude this Example of Resignation I must take notice that so great was Iob's Patience that some of the Rabbins of old and some of late have imagined the account that we have of him to be rather a moral fiction a Romance and Parable than a real History So very averse are men to think any higher degrees of goodness attainable than what they themselves are willing to come up to But that we may not doubt whether it were a true History besides other arguments that in Ezech. xiv 14. 20. doth evidently prove it so to be There it is twice said Though these three men Noah Daniel and Iob were in it they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness intimating that if there were any hope or help for a Nation none were more likely to prevail than these three persons most dear to God for their singular Piety A like expression there is Ier. xv 1. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind could not be to this people Now Noah and Daniel Moses and Samuel being no imaginary but real persons why should it be thought that Iob onely was so Let it be farther considered that in Iam. 5. 10 11. we are directed to the Prophets and to Iob as examples of Patience Now the Prophets being no fictions but such as really spake in the name of the Lord how should Iob come to be joyned with them if there were never such a one in being Surely are not exhorted to the imitation of one who never was nor encouraged to a real duty by an imaginary and feigned reward If this Story were a mere fiction the argument to patience which St. Iames useth in those words Ye have heard of the patience of Iob and have seen the end of the Lord c. might have been thus excepted against by those suffering Christians to whom he there speaketh viz. What do you tell us of one Iob of his patience and reward there was never such a person there were never such things practised as are said of him and therefore how can what you have told us concerning him signifie any thing to our encouragement CHAP. X. Of the Example of ELI X. A third Example shall be that of Eli. He was both the High-Priest and Judge the chief of both Capacities Sacred and Civil and judged Israel fourty years But being greatly faulty in not using his power to the restraining his two sons Hophni and Phinehas that rendred the Service of God and the Priesthood vile by their Covetousness Luxury and Uncleanness God sent Samuel with this sad message to him namely that he would judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knew of but did not restrain by his authority That his two sons should die on one day that the dignity of the Priesthood should be taken from his Family and given to another This sentence though most righteous was so severe that it is said that both the ears of every one that heard of the execution of it should tingle 1 Sam. iii. 11. And it was an irreversible sentence for God saith that he hath sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever ver 14. A dreadful expression of his great displeasure And now how was Eli affected with this message His Resignation of himself and free Submission to the Will of God is exprest ver 18. in that speech of his It is the Lord Let him do what seemeth him good or what is good in his eyes Let him do not what I but what he thinks best who is both infinitely wise and just and knoweth better than I how to dispose of all for his own glory He is holy in all his ways and therefore 't is fit his will should take place His heart did not fret against the Lord nor was he cut to the heart when this sad cutting message was brought him which was no less than the cutting off of his arm and the arm of his fathers house As it is exprest Chap. ii 31. And he gave proof of it For when he heard that his two sons were slain in Battel which was the sign God gave of the approching ruine of his house Chap. ii 34. he seemed to bear this unconcernedly in comparison of the following tidings For when he heard that the Ark of God was taken that sad word strikes him backward and made him sink down in a deadly swound Then he fell off from his Seat and brake his neck with the fall Chap. iv 18. The good old man was so resigned to the Will of God as to his own concerns that he could patiently bear the departure of the glory of his house but the departure of the Glory from Israel of the Ark which was the token of God's special favour and residence among them this he could not bear CHAP. XI Of the Example of DAVID XI THe fourth Example I shall propose of Self-Resignation is holy David a man after God's own heart that would fulfill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all his wills as it is Acts xiii 22. He was eminent for obedience to the Divine Commands he delighted to do the will of God yea his law was within his heart Psal. xl 11. And had respect unto all his Commandments Psal. cxix 6. And he was likewise eminent for a patient submissive temper under great trials and sufferings That was an exceeding great trial when with his houshold and loyal Subjects he was forced to fly with all speed out of Ierusalem for the saving his life from the bloudy machinations of his own Son Absolom We have the Story in 2 Sam. 15 16. Chapters Absolom his third son by birth but now his eldest and therefore Heir apparent to the Crown being impatient to stay for it till the natural death of his Father designed first by flattering civilities to insinuate himself into the hearts of the people and afterwards by armed power to force his way into his Throne For his person he was of a very lovely aspect and taking presence so that in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absolom for his beauty from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him He had also a fair and smooth tongue was of a winning and insinuating behaviour so that he stole away the hearts of the men of Israel And having so done it was an easie business to get himself chosen and proclaimed King which was done by the men of Israel and
nature being designed for an extraordinary end viz. The making atonement and expiation for the sins of the world He bare our sins in his own body on the tree was wounded for our iniquities bruised for our sins And he was a Person far from deserving the least of sufferings by any the least default For he was spotlesly innocent and ever lived in most perfect Obedience to the Will of God Yet notwithstanding the unspeakable greatness of his Sufferings and his non-desert of them he did not in the least complain of his Father for giving him up to them but intirely submitted to and acquiesced in his will and pleasure The Cup that my Father gives me to drink saith he shall I not drink it Not as I will but as thou willest And the Resignation of his Soul was also exprest by the most wonderful Meekness Charity he discovered towards his bloudy Enemies even in the midst of their unsufferable abuses and barbarous cruelties He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep dumb before the shearers he opened not his mouth Wherein also David was a Type of our Saviour viz. in his behaviour towards the reviling Shimei already mentioned But the Resignation of our Blessed Saviour which was of all others incomparably the greatest I shall not farther inlarge on because I have discoursed already of it and shall have yet farther occasion to speak more in another Chapter I will onely add that this is the Copy we are to eye most though we are incompassed about with a great cloud of other Witnesses and noble Examples of this Vertue CHAP. XIII Of the Example of the Apostle Saint PAUL XIII THe sixth and last Example I shall mention is Blessed Paul A follower of Christ as he stiles himself 1 Cor. xi 1. And he imitated him in nothing more than in Self-Resignation The very first words he spake at his Conversion did speak the great preparedness of his Soul for this Grace Lord said he what wilt thou have me to do Acts ix 6. There then shone round about him a light from Heaven above the brightness of the Sun but a more glorious light shined into his heart and as that light struck his Body down to the earth so did this his Soul and humbled it to the lowest degree of Self-abasement and submissive compliance with the Will of God Lord what wilt thou have me to do was as well the language of his heart as the voice of his lips And whatsoever the Will of God was that he should either do or suffer afterward he was most pliable and yielding to it He would will or act nothing but according to the Will of Christ. To him to live was Christ Phil. i. 21. His own proper will was swallowed up in his will so that he did not so much live as Christ lived in him Gal. ii 20. None of the holy Writers spake more frequently or vigorously than St. Paul of the necessity of our being crucified to the world and of having the world crucified unto us of crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts of mortifying through the Spirit the deeds of the body as being the onely way to eternal life of putting off the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts By all which expressions is meant the subduing our own will and every inordinate affection whatsoever is contrary to the Will of God and opposite to Self-Resignation These things this excellent Apostle doth inculcate and press with all seriousness and in expressions of greater significancy of a more spiritual force and fuller energy than any forms of speech that occur in the Old Testament And what he thus teacheth and exhorts to he was an eminent Example of the Practice of He himself was crucified with Christ he suffered the loss of all things and accounted all other gains and advantages but losse and dung that he might win Christ that he might know the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Phil. iii. 8 10. He professed that it is most reasonable and becoming us that if Christ died for us we should live to him and not to our selves or the pleasing our own wills and that the Love of Christ doth with a sweet force constrain hereunto and that the mercies of God do powerfully engage us to make an entire oblation of our selves to him which is our reasonable service Rom. xii 1. And I say his practice and behaviour was fully agreeable to these his professions At his first Conversion God shewed him how great things he must suffer for his names sake but the hardships he was to endure did not at all startle him The Holy Ghost witnessed in every City that bonds and afflictions did await him but saith he none of these things trouble me nor count I my life dear unto my self and what is dearer than life so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Iesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Acts xx 24. And therefore he went to Ierusalem where he was to expect very great afflictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bound in Spirit constrained by a holy violence ver 22. Nor could he be perswaded by those Disciples at Tyre that by revelation from the Spirit told him that he would incur much hazard by going up to Ierusalem and therefore advised him not to go Nor was he wrought upon by those other Disciples who endeavoured by their tears added to their earnest entreaties to stay him But his answer to them was What mean you to weep and to break mine heart for I am ready not to be bound onely but also to die at Ierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus Acts xxi 13. And by the stedfast purpose of his Soul to be resigned to the Will of God herein did he at last win them over to the same Resignation ver 14. And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The will of the Lord be done And what severe trials he was exercised with how many and great things he suffered we have an account in 1 Cor. iv 11 c. 2 Cor. vi 4 5. and Chap. xi 23 c. in which place are mentioned together above twenty instances of his sufferings So far was he from living a self-pleasing life that if he pleased himself in any thing it was in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake Chap. xii 10. So far was he from impatience and shrinking at those disposals of Providence that he rejoyced in his sufferings while he filled up that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ in his flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church Col. i. 24. But there is one passage in St. Paul's Writings which I had chiefly in mine eye when I thought him next to our blessed Saviour most worthy to be presented as a Pattern
and to rise with him to newness of life such a knowledge would not have availed him in the end The third passage is that in Rom. vi 4 5 6. Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection By this likeness of Christ's Death and likeness of his Resurrection it appears that there is a lively resemblance of both which a Christian is obliged to endeavour after Then it follows Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 3. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are very powerful to engage and enable us to the great duties of crucifying worldly lusts and mortifying corrupt affections as they are effectual to work in us the most heart-bleeding sorrow for sin the most vehement hatred and detestation of it and to raise the soul to the greatest degrees of love and ingenuous gratitude 1. To work in us the most heart-bleeding sorrow for sin Who can seriously consider Christ crucified Christ bleeding on the Cross bleeding from the sixth to the ninth hour from our twelve a Clock to three his bleeding Head crowned with sharp thorns his bleeding Hands and Feet and Side I say who can consider this and not bleed within Who can look upon him that was pierced and not be inwardly pierced himself not be prickt to the heart as they are said to be Acts ii 37. at the preaching of Christ crucified And when we consider that he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities or as the words are rendred by some of our transgressions and iniquities When we consider that we have crucified the Lord of Life and Glory that our sins nailed him to the Cross wounded him to the heart and put him to all the grief and pain he underwent how can it be that our hearts should not be wounded within us How can we forbear to express our sorrow for sin in some such words as those of Ieremiah My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears And can we consider his Agony in the Garden the exceeding sorrowfulness of his Soul his extream heaviness and sore amazement his strong crying and tears and his sweating great drops of bloud and not be melted into holy mournings and relentings for our sins and for all our unkind and unworthy behaviour towards Christ who thus suffered for us How hard is that heart which the so great and dolorous sufferings of our Saviour cannot melt and dissolve At the Passion of Christ besides other Prodigies it is said the rocks rent and are our hearts harder than rocks not to be affected with remorse at the consideration of Christ crucified It is Saint Hierom's observation When Christ died all creatures were his fellow-sufferers the sun was eclipsed the earth shook the rocks were cleft in sunder the veil of the Temple was rent in twain the graves opened Man alone for whom onely Christ died suffered not with him Certainly if the consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings for our sakes cannot prevail to melt our hearts into an holy sorrow for our sins nothing will ever do it And if it hath such a peculiar and soveraign efficacy to work an heart-bleeding sorrow for Sin it will consequently be very effectual to the disengaging us from it to the taking us off from all those vanities and lusts which were formerly most dear and pleasing to us If we are grieved at the heart for our Self-will Self-love and manifold disobediences we will not continue to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 2. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are effectual to work in us the most vehement hatred and detestation of Sin It appears from thence how hateful and abominable a thing Sin is to God who is original Rectitude and infinite Purity For how could he demonstrate a greater antipathy and displeasure against Sin than in being pleased to bruise and put to grief the Son of his love and to give up the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person to inexpressible dolours to the end he might make expiation for it If Sin were a sleight inconsiderable thing if it were not a thing of a most odious and vile nature a high injury to God and of sad and dismal consequence to man he would not have required such a Sacrifice for it This consideration must needs be most forceable to the working in us detestation of Sin whatsoever grace and favour it hath found in our eyes Suppose we our selves to have seen Christ in the last Scene of his Sufferings and to have accompanied him from the Garden of Gethsemene where he was in his Agony and sweat drops of bloud to the High Priests house thence to the Judgment Hall before Pilate thence to Mount Calvary in which places he was reproached spit upon the face scourged and at last nailed alive to the Cross And suppose him speaking to us as in another sence Pilate spake of him Behold your King Behold your Lord and Saviour See the wounds which your Sins have given me See how they have torn my flesh and despitefully used me But the unseen wounds the inward sorrows of my Soul are such as the heart of man cannot conceive as neither hath the eye seen nor the ear heard what may compare to them Thus have your lusts dealt with me and in all this see their cruelty If we had I say beheld our blessed Lord in his direful Sufferings and heard him thus expressing himself to us do we think we could still cherish and entertain hug and embrace those Enemies of his which have put him to all this shame and torment But if we have an inward knowledge and feeling of Christ crucified it will most undoubtedly inflame us into a just indignation against those Lusts which suckt the Life-bloud of Christ which slew and crucified the Lord of Glory We shall say concerning them what the Iews cried concerning him Away with them away with them they are not worthy to live Let these murderers of the just one die the death but let Iesus live and let the Life of Christ be manifested in us How can that be longer sweet to me which made Christ's Cup so exceeding bitter How can I delight in that which made his Soul sorrowful unto death How shall that be my pleasure which was his pain and put him to grief such grief that there was no sorrow like unto his sorrow How should I glory in that which put him to such an open shame 3. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are powerful to raise the Soul to the greatest degrees of Love and Gratitude We have already shewn
that there never was a Love like the Love of Christ comparable to that Love he exprest in giving himself an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for us Now not to part with our Lusts for him who parted with Life it self for us not to put our selves to some smart and pain in crucifying the Lusts of the Flesh in denying our Self-will and taking up the Cross and following him who hath to amazement denied himself and taken upon him the greatest of Sufferings for our sakes this would be an instance of the unworthiest and vilest ingratitude and the greatest unkindness imaginable done to Christ. This will be more grievous to him than all his Sufferings from the Iews and Romans it being a frustration and disappointment of him in the great design which we shewed he had in submitting to those Sufferings But a Soul truly sensible of the Love of Christ in giving himself for us can think nothing too dear and precious to part with for him cannot look upon his Commands of Self-denial and Self-Resignation as grievous and unsufferable I will adde that the particular circumstances of Christ's last Sufferings have a special force to the enabling a Christian against such and such particular sins as prevail most among men and which are the fruitfullest sprouts and branches that grow out of that cursed stock of Self-will As 1. Self-esteem An over-dear valuing a man's self his fame and regard in the world a seeking the praise and respects of men and being disturbed at their disrespects Now of how great efficacy must it needs be to the subduing this corruption to consider him who endured such contradictions of sinners against himself and how he was exercised with all manner of scorns and derisions all sorts or abuses reproaches injuries and indignities that the wit and malice of his enemies could devise to render him base and despicable before men He was called a blasphemer a deceiver an enemy to Caesar or traiterous person a seditious stirrer up of the people and all this about the time of his last Passion as before he was called a Samaritan or Heretick and Beelzebub And as an expression of their contempt they spit upon his Face that sacred Face which the glorious Angels delighted to look upon which Abraham and many Kings and Prophets and righteous persons did desire to see What indignity like to this Then they smote him on the Face adding father contempt accompanied with pain to the disgrace of having his Face besmeared with their filthy spittle And withall they covered his Face saying Prophesie unto us thou Christ who it is that smote thee Thus contumeliously did they use the Anointed of the Lord and as in the last passage they mockt at his Prophetical so did they afterwards at his Kingly Office putting on him a gorgeous Robe platting Thorns into the form of a Crown and putting it on his head and a Reed for a Sceptre into his hand and then bowing the knee before him saying Hail King of the Iews These are some few instances of the many dishonours and disgraceful indignities done unto him I might adde that the kind of Death he suffered was as ignominious as painful the death of slaves and vile offenders and to adde to the disgrace they crucifie him between two Thieves Yea even when he was bleeding upon the Cross they would not forbear to deride and revile him expressing their scorn both in words was gestures Nor were they that did thus the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rude rabble onely but the chief Priests Scribes and Elders Now consider this O Christian how it fared with Christ thy great Lord and Master what affronts what dishonours and reproaches he endured and how unconcernedly and undisturbedly he bare them how he despised the shame how little he cared either for the applause or contempt of the world how he chose rather to be reputed and dealt with as the most abject and basest of men than to be glorious in the world and to shine in its vain honours And will not this prevail with thee to set thy self against thy Pride and Self-esteem Surely it is not possible that thou who art infinitely beneath thy blessed Saviour shouldest set a high value on thy self and affect the praises of men or be greatly concerned at the contemptuous behaviour and affronts of the world when thou seriously considerest how Christ was used reproached contemned and despised and with what calmness and sedateness of spirit he bore it The disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his Lord Matth. x. 24. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord ver 25. 2. As for that lust of Self-pleasing the love of ease and pleasure an averseness to endure hardships a studious care to gratifie the cravings of our fleshly appetites is there not enough in the consideration of Christ crucified to cure also this distemper of the Soul Did not Christ out of dear compassion towards men leave his Fathers house where was all fulness and all joy and humbled himself to become man and took upon him the form of a servant He endured cold and heat hunger and thirst wearisome labours long fastings and faintness he bare our griefs and carried our sorrows and as hath been shewn endured inexpressibly worse griefs and sorrows than any of ours Now how can we consider this and be any longer dearly affected to our Carkasses sollicitous for the pleasing of our appetites and pampering our Bodies curious about Meats and Drinks and studious for that which is most delicious and grateful to the flesh And as for the impure pleasures of the world no consideration can be more powerful to extinguish in us all desires to them than that of Christ upon the Cross. 3. Revenge and Hatred Who can harbour these Lusts in his Soul that considers that Christ laid down his life for his enemies And that almost the last words he spake on the Cross amidst that shame and torment they put him to were a prayer for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke xxiii 34. 4. Covetousness or the Love of Money Who that considers that though Christ was rich yet he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich and that it was this lust that betrayed the Lord of Life to his merciless enemies can find it difficult to mortifie and subdue his inclinations to it To conclude this To the serious Christian the word of the Cross of Christ is sharper than any two-edged sword to the destroying all our evil and corrupt affections But I fear that it is not considered as it ought by most of us Christians generally consider the Sufferings of Christ onely as they were designed to expiate sin and in reference to what he hath done for them without them not to the extirpation of sin not to the crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts And hence it is that