in the womb he was accounted by his supposed father to be but a bastard in his Cradle cruelly dealt withal exiled banished into Egypt tumbled and tossed up and down tempted in the wildernesse by the Devil In all places in the Temple in the Pharisees house in the City in the Countrey in the wildernesse within and without abused by all sorts of men the Scribes and Pharisees the high Priests and Rulers and by the multitude of people he did suffer in every action Did he preach where had he his learning Did he eat and drink a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber Did he keep company a friend of Publicans and sinners Did he cast out Devils 't was censured to be by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils In his life in his death in all things and in his sufferings two things are remarkable First that he suffered alone he trod the wine-presse alone he suffered solus Secondly he suffered totus he suffered for his Preaching for his works of mercy that for which he should have been applauded The Disciple that before hugg'd his Master and lay in his arms now for haste left his shirt behinde him he ran so hard that he left his linnen garment Thomas that before would dye with Lazarus he is now gone The sons of Zebedee that forsooth could drink of the cup that he drank of they were far enough off not onely his friends on earth but his best friend in Heaven he suffered a terrible withdrawing of his countenance he sees him not as he was wont to be in his glorious Majesty yet still he cryes Deus meus My God his best friends on earth fled and his best friend in Heaven hid his face from him he suffered totus his head buffetted his face spitted on his hands nailed and his feet bored his side pierced his glorious temples crowned with thorns he led Captivity captive to whom we pray Lord enter not into Captivity with thy servant he to whom the Saints cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts he to whom the blessed Spirits sing Hallelujahs to him that sits on the Throne upon him they cryed All Hail King of the Jews he that lashed the Nations with a rod of Iron to have his back beaten with a whip he suffered in all his outward senses What tastes he What sees he What hears he What smells he What feels he In all his faculties and members in his understanding the whole wrath of God in his memory what he was and what he had been in his judgment what strugling and irresolution Let this Cup passe and let it not passe he will have his will and he will not have his will he was astonished affrighted perplexed in an agony such an agony wherein he sweat drops of bloud of the reproches done to him if we consider ubi where He suffered at Jerusalem the stage of the world and where he did display all his works of mercy Quando at what time at the time of the Passeover at the concourse of most people that he might be a scorn to all and cum quibus with two thieves and between them both as the worst of the three and per quos by whom this was done by his own Countreymen those for whom this was done so gracelesse not so much as thanking him for what he did when he was at his last gasp upon the Cross beneath beneath him the Devil gaping for him on the one side a thief reviling him on the other none but a thief Hell wide open under him his friends flying from him round about him what sees he the earth trembling and quaking the rocks rending in pieces the mountains leaping the air thundering the clouds pouring down the Heavens as it were burning with lightning the Sun hiding his face as ashamed to see his Master so used at their hands for whom he thus suffered What hears he those that did it crying His bloud be upon us and our children and if there be any evil in us not to save us but to damn us when an Angel durst not shew his head or so much as peep out of Heaven upon him A preservation wrought by such a Saviour to free us from such a condition and bring us to such a condition by such a means he suffered both in body and soul I think I need not say more of it doth not this deserve to be prized as a great mercy But because the keeping of a Good Friday doth not consist so much by the making of a Tragical relation of his sufferings as it doth in something else this is not all that is to be done 'T is true our presenting him to your eyes is no more then needs but we must praise the Lord for his wondrous works Can we with the Israelites look up to this Brasen Serpent that it may cure our souls Here is an object of love of fear of joy of grief of affection and what not There is something of the solemnity lies in this to consider what God hath done for our souls I gave you a taste at the beginning how that Job after his sin comes home to the Preserver of men So this points us to the duty of the day and that is to make use of Christs sufferings and considering that Job in the midst of all his sufferings had his eye to the Preserver of men he deplored his sins and cast his eyes upon him I finde the holy Ghost more then once mentioning the duty of the day they shall look upon him whom they have pierced Zach. 12. and looking to the Author and Finisher of their faith Hebr. 12. looking with such eyes upon him as the lame man in the Gospel upon Paul and Barnabas to have some good from him Looking upon him as a Preserver as those Israelites did upon the Brasen Serpent to cure them not to wink with our eyes let no man think the work of a Good Friday to see him with our bodily eyes as the Papists in the sight of the Crucifix but the eyes we are to make use of are the eyes of our souls the beholding of Christ crucified in our thoughts Take him into your hearts and souls and there preserve him let him challenge a mansion room in thee thy whole heart Christ is to be made the sole object of this day if you celebrate his crucifying aright What kind of object Christ ought to be I will deliver in few words Our Saviour doth present himself as an object of the eye to behold him as an object of the ear as an object of trouble as an object of joy as an object of hope if upon our sin then he is an object of wonder an object of fear The motive of Christs sufferings it was his love the merit of Christs sufferings procures us pardon and the end of Christs sufferings was our salvation Give me leave to point my finger at each of these and that in a familiar way without danger of puzling our selves He
The Great Work of Redemption Deliver'd in Five SERMONS At St. Paul's and at the Spittle Aprill 1641. I. On the Passion of our Saviour By Dr. Soames Vicar of Staynes II. On our Saviours Resurrection By Dr. Morton Bishop of Durham III. An Appeal to Gods Mercy By Dr. Potter Bishop of Carlile IV. The Expectation of a Christian By Dr. Westfield Bishop of Bristol V. The Imperfection of a Christian in this Life By W. Price B. D. London Printed for J. Playford and are sold at his Shop in the Temple neer the Church door 1660. The Texts of the following Sermons First a Sermon on the Passion Job chap. 7. vers 20. I have sinned What shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men Second a Sermon on the Resurrection St. Matt. chap. 28. vers 6. He is not here for he is risen Third Sermon An Appeal to Gods mercy Psal 130. vers 4. But there is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared Fourth Sermon The Expectation of a Christian Philip. chap. 3. vers 20 21. But our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who shall change c. Fifth Sermon The Imperfect state of a Christian here 1 Cor. chap. 13. vers 9. For we know but in part and we prophesie but in part To the READER Christian Reader ALthough we should love the Ministers for the word yet sometimes yea very often men are occasioned to love the Word by the Worth of the Ministers that Deliver it a cracked Bell is not good to Call men together nor Ministers of cracked and blemished Reputations fit Instruments to perswade others to Holiness and therefore it is that the Names of these Reverend and Eminent Divines who spake and wrote these following Sermons are prefixt in the Title Page that the Honour and unblemished Reputation they have in the Churches of Christ and amongst all sincere and pious Christians may the more commend them to thee Thou hast Good Reader here unfolded and opened the Great and Glorious Mysteries of thy Salvation then which there is nothing more pleasant and comfortable more animating and enabling more ravishing and soul contenting to a true Christian then the frequent and most serious Meditation Thou hast here the Passion Resurrection and the Glorious Expectation of a Christian enlightned to thee by Stars in the Right hand of Christ of the First Magnitude Oh! that the Light held forth in the Ignominious and painfull Sufferings of thy Saviour may give thee a true sight and sense of thy sins and the greatness of them which nothing could expiate but the Pretious Blood of the Immaculate Lamb of God and that with a Broken and Contrite heart thou mayst cry out with Holy Job I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men Oh! that the Light also held forth in the Glorious Resurrection of Christ which is Arrham Resurrectionis nostrae which is the Earnest of our Resurrection may sustain and support thy spirits in these evill and last dayes knowing that this Body of thine now chiefly subject to many miseries and calamities through the Iniquity of the Times it may be to be cast into some loathsome Prison or put to a shamefull death yet this same Body of thine shall Rise and that by a lively faith thou mayst say with Job Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that though wormes destroy this Body of mine yet in this Flesh I shall see God with these mine Eyes and not other though my Reins be consumed within me yea thy hope and expectation shall not be cut off but all those afflictions which it pleaseth thy good God to permit Sathan or his Instruments to exercise thee with shall not be like idle Indifferents which do neither good nor harme but they shall all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work together for the Glory of God and the Dear Salvation of thy pretious Soul be perswaded therefore seriously to peruse these Sermons and the God of all Grace and Consolation sanctifie the Reading them to thee The Introduction made by Master Price before his Rehearsal of the Subsequent Sermons in Saint Pauls Church May 2. 1641. IT was a Constitution of those admired sons of Justice the Areopagi that such as pleaded before them should plead without Prefacing and without passion But I must crave your gracious pardon if at this time I transgresse beyond those bounds For I made account to have been so happy as to have been an Auditor but it fals out to be my unhappy lot now to be a Speaker The Speaker appointed for this dayes work being the prisoner of God upon his bed of sickness His place my great weakness is forced to undertake and therefore rolling my self upon the Almighty Providence of God I must indevour to go through this difficult travel more fit for an Angel crowned and invested with eternity then a mortal man and I am confident that my first summons to this work was since the preaching of the Passion Sermon in this place and therefore I hope you will not expect from me that curiosity of Introduction elegancy of expression volubility of tongue or exquisitenesse and readiness in delivery as otherwise you might A review of remarkable words or actions it is as ancient as it is profitable When God had done with the first dayes work he repeats it the second day What is the Book of Deuteronomy but the Law the second time repeated What are the Books of the Chronicles but a recapitulation of the Books of the Kings What is the New Testament but an open explication of that which is closely comprehended in the Old It was the request of the Jews when they heard Saint Paul preach of the Resurrection and the Resurrection is the chiefest Argument of the Sermons I am now to rehearse that they might hear it again the next Lords day Phil. 3.1 Repetition is like unto the third and last concoction that turns the meat into wholesome and nourishing sustenance In a word Repetition is a recollection so that I am to make a recollection of these Sermons whereof I may say as it is recorded of the men of Gibeath of Benjamin that they were such good Archers that they could shoot at an hairs breadth Such were these men in their several transcendent expressions though their Sermons were long I cannot say they were tedious many are brief and tedious but these were long and not tedious As Plinius secundus saith of Cicero his longest Orations were accounted the best They were not like Simon Magus expert in Sorcery but like Simon Peter faithful Shepherds They delivered not any Socinian or Pelagian doctrine in all their discourses their Bells were like the Bells of Aaron and so they did sound in our ears and for the manner of the setting forth of those discourses they were not affectatious of them they studied rather for Divinity then Rhetorick for sanantia rather then sonantia verba
suffered on the Crosse to make good our comforts he was bound to purchase our freedome And here first of all the work of the day doth challenge at our hands matter of admiration it is a duty the Heavens are called upon upon a lesse occasion Hear O ye Heavens and be astonished O earth Who is there that hath any thing of Heaven in him let him obstupescere he amazed and wonder it is a wonder in all the particulars of it First to wonder at the hainousness of that sin the nature of which was such that it could no otherwise be expiated but thus That which threw Adam out of Paradise the Angels out of Heaven Saul from his Kingdome that at this day pulls down Families and Nations and Kingdomes that makes some Nations an hissing and reproch to others pray God it doth not serve us so That which doth tumble a Kingdome into the dust pray God it do not serve us so It made the Son of God to bleed and to cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Which of us in the strongest temptation to any sin that is remembring the price of it could chuse but be intreated to hold his hand Consider in the strongest temptation to any sin it was the price of my Saviours bloud And secondly this serves for matter of gratulation to be thankful for Christs love that he would thus suffer and that we despair not though we find it not in our Ware-houses in our Closets in our Chambers in our Chests in our Cupboards or the like outward things Potiphar looks upon Joseph and sees all things thrive under him and therefore he loves him so Laban for the same reason loves Jacob But here is Gods love that he gave himself for us that 's the second A third Instruction is for admiration of that obligation God hath cast upon thee He that could have gloryed in thy destruction that he should glory in thy salvation what canst thou do but rejoyce But to wonder is nothing if we go no farther Therefore in the fourth place here is matter of thanksgiving which is a duty for every Ordinance Every ordinary blessing it calls for a Trophee a Pillar an Altar a Song a Sacrifice a Chronicle so did David Moses and other servants of God What thanks doth he expect for this dayes deliverance If among the Heathen he that delivers his Countrey from any potent enemies had such applauses and acclamations mille annos vivat he that slew a thousand of our enemies may he live a thousand years may his name be precious a thousand years How can we pour out our hearts before God without giving thanks for this dayes deliverance Neither is admiration or gratulation sufficient unlesse we blesse our selves in this day in the apprehension of him that was this Preserver with reference to our sins the bloud of Christ hath a vertue to bind up the bleeding soul and to make the bones that were broken to rejoice Is not this a matter of admiration gratulation and consolation therefore in the fear of God these are the thoughts that belong to this day let your contemplations be upon what he did these contemplations would preserve us from the sense of temporal calamities When Jacob saw the Ladders and the Angels ascending and descending he said Haec est porta coeli this is the gate of Heaven The gate of Heaven It is well saith one that Heaven hath a gate it is well for Gods children that there is a Preserver that their hopes are above with him whose care is to preserve things perishing here below among so many destructions from those that cry to our Jerusalem Down with it down with it even to the ground There is one above who is the Preserver who doth never keep back his mercy but when things look most desperately upon earth when the enemies hope to take them at a disadvantage and to fall upon them when there is none to deliver them then if we call upon him with David saying Remember the dayes of old and thy great mercies unto me then it is for our comfort that after a time God will have mercy upon us When the night is at the darkest the day is neerest at hand When the throws of a woman in travel are the greatest her deliverance is neerest When Moses saw the children of Israel in the greatest danger Now stand saith he and see the glory of the Lord the enemy that now threatens you shall see him no more The earth mourned Lebanon was ashamed Bashan and Carmel have all lost their fruit now will I exalt my self As if he should say mans misery that 's my opportunity When things are at the worst with Gods children and his Church then will he shew himself a Preserver The comfort of Christs Crosse that 's comfort to a soul wounded with misery Is there any of you here this day that is at his Golgotha with his strong cryes to God in the sight of his sins and the terrors of Gods wrath at the sight of Gods justice Are any such here then behold consolation that his bloud this day shed if thou dost but conceive it if there be but a true apprehension in thee that that bloud was shed for thee 't is enough for thy salvation that thy price is paid for thee by his death on the Crosse when his arms were extended both wayes as well to the thief that despised as to the good thief and in that prayer he put up upon the Crosse for the worst of his enemies for them that nailed him the worst of men Father forgive them for they know not what they do Those that nail me that crucifie me even for them I pray It is very probable that when the good thief saw Christs mercy extend so far to the worst of men he reasons thus with himself What! is there mercy for these why not for me Though a thief yet not such a wretch as these are thus to crucifie my Saviour Lord remember me when thou comest into Paradise and remember in that prayer of Christ there is forgivenesse for thee and in those arms stretched out there is a receptacle for thee in that bloud that came out of his wounds there is cure for thee rather then thou shalt dye he will dye for thee But beloved to enlarge the merits of Christ longer you will think I spread this plaister too far in the mean time not knowing whether we have any part in him or no. We must understand the Mystery of Christ as well as the History there is something to be done by way of examination to examine what title we have to this Saviour Look upon thy own sins bleed for them as well as Christ bled for thee Christ doth not actually save all For the resolution of which I cannot give you a better answer then what I told you of the Israelites concerning the Brasen Serpent that which gave them a cure gives me a capacity of this