the Father in the Son by the spirit forming on creating that nature as if three Sisters should make a garment betwixt them which only one of them wears yet terminative it was the act of the Son only 'T was he only that was made flesh And when 't is said he was made flesh misconceive not as if there was a mutation of the Godhead into flesh for this was performed not by changing what he was but by assuming what he was not As Aug. well expresseth it As when the Scripture in a like expression saith he was made sin 2 Cor. 5.21 And made a curse Gall. 3.13 The meaning is not that he was turned into sin or into a curse no more may we think here the Godhead was turned into flesh and lost its own being and nature because it 's said he was made flesh This is the sum of the Assertion This assertion that the word was made flesh is strongly confirmed He dwelt among us and we saw his glory This was no Phantasm but a most real and indubitable thing For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pitcht his tent or Tabernacled with us And we are eye-witnesses of it Parralel to that Ioh. 1.1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life c. Declare we unto you Hence Note DOCT. That Iesus Christ did really assume the true and perfect nature of man into a personal union with his divine nature and still remains true God and true man in one person for ever The Proposition contains one of the deepest mysteries in godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 A mysterie by which apprehension is dazled invention astonished and all expression swallowed up If ever the tongues of Angels were desirable to explicate any word of God they are so here Great is the interest of words in this Doctrine We walk upon the brink of danger The least tread awry may ingulph us in the bogs of error Arrius would have been content if the Council of Nice would but have gratified him in a Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nestorians also desired but a Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These seemed but small and modest requests but if granted had proved no small prejudices to Jesus Christ and his truths I desire therefore the Reader would with greatest attention of mind apply himself to these truths 'T is a Doctrine hard to understand and dangerous to mistake I am really of his mind that said its better not touch the bottom than not keep within the circle melius est nescire centrum quà m non tenere circulum He did assume a true humane body that is plainly asserted Phil. 2.7 8 c. Heb. 2.14 16. In one place its call'd taking on him the seed of Abraham and in the Text Flesh. He did also assume a true humane soul that 's undeniable by its operations passions and expiration at last Matth. 26.38 and 27.50 And that both these natures make but one person is as evident from Rom. 1.3 4. Iesus Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead So Rom. 9.5 Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen But that you may have a sound and clear understanding of this mysterie I will 1. open the nature 2. the effects and 3. the reasons or ends of this wonderful union The nature of this union There be three illustrious and dazling unions in Scripture That of three persons in one God essentially That of two distinct natures and persons by one Spirit mystically And this of two distinct natures in one person Hypostatically This is my task to open at this time And for the more distinct and perspicuous management thereof I shall speak to it both Negatively and positively Think not when Christ assumed our nature that it was united consubstantially so as the three persons in the Godhead are united among themselves They all have but one and the same nature and will but in Christ are two distinct natures and wills though but one person Nor yet that they are united Physically as soul and body are united in one person For death actually dissolves that but this is indissoluble So that when his soul was expir'd and his body interred both soul and body were still united to the second person as much as ever Nor yet is it such a mystical union as is between Christ and Bâ—lievers Indeed that is a glorious union but though believers are said to be in Christ and Christ in them yet they are not one person with him They are not Christed into Christ or Goded into God as blasphemous Familists speaks But this Assumption of which I speak is that whereby the second person in the Godhead did take the humane nature into a personal union with himself by vertue whereof the manhood subsists in the second person yet without confusion both making but one person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Immanuel God with us So that though we truly ascribe a twofold nature to Christ yet not a double person For the humane nature of Christ never subsisted seperately and distinctly by any personal subsistance of its own as it doth in all other men but from the first moment of conception subsisted in union with the second person To explicate this mysterie more particularly let it be considered First The humane nature was united to the second person miraculously and extraordinarily being supernaturally fram'd in the womb of the Virgin by the over-shadowing power of the highest Luk. 1.34 35. By reason whereof it may truly and properly be said to be the fruit of the womb not of the loyns of man but not by man And this was necessary to exempt the assumed nature from the stain and pollution of Adams Sin which it wholly escaped in as much as he received it not as all others do in the way of ordinary generation wherein Original sin is propagated but this being extraordinarily produced was a most pure and holy thing Luk. 1.35 And indeed this perfect shining holiness in which it was produced was absolutely necessary both in order to its union with the Divine person and the design of that union which was both to satisfie for and to sanctifie us The two natures could not be conjoyned in the person of Christ had there been the least taint of sin upon the humane nature For God can have no fellowship with sin much less be united to it Or supposing such a conjunction with our sinful nature yet he being a sinner himself could never satisfie for the sins of others Nor could an unholy thing ever make us holy Such an high-Priest therefore became us as
of conversing with and enjoying God in Prayer is by acting faith on him through a Mediator so much of faith and Christ as is in a Duty so much comfort and true excellency there is in it and no more Oh then how indispensible is the knowledge of Christ to all that do adress themselves to God in any Duty Thirdly It 's fundamental to all comforts all the Comforts of believers are streams from this Fountain Jesus Christ is the very object-matter of a believers Joy Phil. 3.3 our rejoycing is in Christ Iesus take away the knowledge of Christ and a Christian is the most sad and melancholy creature in the world again let Christ but manifest himself and dart the beams of his light into their souls it will make them kiss the stakes sing in flames and shout in the pangs of death as men that divide the spoil Lastly this knowledge is fundamental to the eternal happiness of souls as we can perform no duty enjoy no comfort so neither can we be saved without it Joh. 17.3 this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent and if it be eternal life to know Christ then it is eternal Damnation to be ignorant of Christ as Christ is the door that opens Heaven so knowledge is the key that opens Christ. The excellent gifts and renowned parts of the Moral Heathens though they purchased to them great esteem and honour among men yet left them in a state of perdition because of this grand defect they were ignorant of Christ 1 Cor. 1.21 thus you see how fundamental the knowledge of Christ is and essentially necessary to all the graces duties comforts and happiness of souls Thirdly The knowledge of Christ is profound and large all other Sciences are but Shallows this a boundless bottomless Ocean no creature hath a line long enough to fathom the depth of it there is height length depth and breadth ascribed to it Eph. 3.14 yea it passeth knowledge there is a manifold wisdom of God in Christ Eph. 3.10 It is of many sorts and forms of many folds and plights it is indeed simple pure and unmixed with any thing but it self yet it is manifold in degrees kinds and Administrations though something of Christ be unfolded in one age and something in an other yet eternity if self cannot fully unfold him I see something said Luther which blessed Austin saw not and those that come after me will see that which I see not it is in the studying of Christ as in the planting of a new discovered Country at first men sit down by the Sea side upon the skirts and borders of the Land and there they dwell but by degrees they search farther and farther into the heart of the Country ah the best of us are yet but upon the borders of this vast Continent Fourthly The study of Jesus Christ is the most noble Subject that ever a soul spent it self upon those that rack and toture their brains upon other studys like Children weary themselves at a low game the Eagle plays at the Sun it self the Angels study this Doctrine and stoop down to look into this deep abyss what are the Truths discovered in Christ but the very secrets that from eternity lay hid in the bosom of God Eph. 3.8 9. Gods heart is opened to men in Christ Ioh. 1.18 this makes the Gospel such a glorious dispensation because Christ is so gloriously revealed therein 2 Cor. 3.9 and the studying of Christ in the Gospel stamps such a Heavenly glory upon the contemplating soul v. 18. Fitâ—hly It is the most sweet and comfortable knowledge to be studying Jesus Christ what is it but to be digging among all the veins and springs of comfort and the deeper you dig the more do those springs flow upon you how are hearts ravished with the discoveries of Christ in the Gospel what extasies meltings transports do gratious souls meet there doubtless Philips extasie Ioh. 1.45 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have found Jesus was far beyond that of Archimedes a believer could fit from Morning to Night to hear Discourses of Christ his mouth is most sweet Cant. 5.16 Secondly Let us compare this knowledge with all other knowledge and thereby the excellency of it will farther appear First All other knowledge is natural but this wholly supernatural Matth. 11.27 no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any the father save the Son and he to whom so ever the Son will reveal him the wisest Heathens could never make a discovery of Christ by their deepest searches into nature the most Eagle-eyed Philosophers were but Children in knowledge compared with the most illiterate Christians Secondly Oâ—her knowledge is unattainable by many all the helps and means in the world would never enable some Christians to attain the Learned Arts and Languages men of the best wits and most pregnant parts are most excellent in these but here is the mysterie and excellency of the knowledge of Christ that men of most blunt dull and contemptible parts attain through the teaching of the spirit to this knowledge in which the more acute and ingenious are utterly blind Matth. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes 1. Cor. 1.26 27. you see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise c. Thirdly Other knowledge though you should attain the highest degree of it would never bring you to Heaven being defective and lame both in the integrity of parts the principal thing viz. Christ being wanting and in the purity of its nature for the knowing Heathens grew vain in their imaginations 1 Rom. 21. and in the efficacy and influence of it on the heart and life they held the truth in unrighteousness their lusts were stronger than their light 1 Rom. 18. but this knowledge hath potent influences changing souls into its own image 2 Cor. 3.18 and so proves a saving knowledge unto men 1 Tim. 2.4 and thus I have in a few particulars pointed out the transcendency of the knowledge of Christ. The use of all this I shall give you in a few Inferences on which I shall not enlarge the whole being only praeliminary to the Doctrine of Christ only for the present I shall hence infer The â—â—sufficiency of the Doctrine of Christ to make men wise unto salvation Paul deâ—ired to know nothing else and indeed nothing else is of absolute necessity to be known a little of this knowledge if saving and effâ—ctual upon thy heart will do thy soul more service than all the vain speculations and profound parts that others so much glory in poor Christian be not dejected because thou seest thy self out-stript and excelled by so many in other
be Is it indeed worth no more than this in your eyes Surely you will not be long of that opinion Will you be of that mind think you when death and Judgement shall have throughly awakned you O no then a thousand worlds for a Christ. As its storied of our Crook-back'd Richard when he lost the field and was in great danger by his enemies that pressed upon him O now said he a Kingdom for an Horse Or think ye that any beside you in the world are of your mind You are deceived if you think so To them that believe he is precious through all the world 1 Pet. 2.7 And in the other world they are of a quite contrary mind Could you but hear what is said of him in heaven in what a dialect the Saved of the Lord do extoll their Saviour or could you but imagine the self revenges the self torments which the damned suffer for this their folly and what a value they would set upon one tender of Christ if it might but again be hoped for you would see that such as you are the only despisers of Christ. Beside methinks its astonishing that you should despise a mercy in which your own souls are so dearly so deeply so everlastingly concerned in as they are in this gift of God If it were but the soul of another nay less if but the body of another and yet less than that if but anothers beast whose life you could preserve you are obliged to do it but when it is thy self yea the best part of thy self thine own invaluable soul that thou ruinest and destroyest hereby Oh what a monster art thou to cast it away thus What! will you slight your own souls Care you not whether they be saved or whether they be damned Is it indeed an indifferent thing with you which way they fall at death Have you imagined a tollerable Hell Is it easie to perish Are you not only turned Gods enemies but your own too O see what monsters can sin turn men and women into O the stupifying besotting intoxicating power of Sin But perhaps you think that all these are but uncertain sounds with which we alarm you It may be thine own heart will Preach such Doctrine as this to thee Who can assure thee of the reallity of these things What shouldst thou trouble thy self about an invisible world or be so much concerned for what thine eyes never saw nor didst ever receive the report from any that have seen them Well though we cannot now shew you these things yet shortly they shall be shewn you and your own eyes shall behold them You are convinced and satisfied that many other things are real which you never saw But be assured that if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Which at first began to be spoken to us by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness Heb. 2.2 3 4. But if they be certain yet they are not near It will be a long time before they come poor soul how dost thou cheat thy self It may be not by twenty parts so long a time as thine own phancy draws it forth for thee Thou art not certain of the next moment And suppose what thou imaginest what is Twenty or Forty years when it is past yea what is a thousand years to the vast eternity Go trifle away a few days more sleep out a few nights more and then lie down in the dust it will not be long ere the Trump of God shall awaken thee and thine eyes shall behold Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven and then you will know the price of this sin O therefore if there be any sence of eternity upon you any pity or love for your selves in you if you have any concernments more than the beasts that perish despise not your own offered mercies slight not the richest gift that ever was yet opened to the world and a sweeter cannot be opened to all Eternity The FIFTH SERMON JOH I.XIV. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us c. YOU have heard the Covenant of Redemption opened The work therein propounded by the Father and consented to by the Son is such as infinitly exceeds the power of any meer Ceature to perform He that undertakes to satisfie God by obedience for the sin of man must himself be God And he that performeth such a perfect obedience by doing and suffering all that the Law required in our rooms must be man These two natures must be united in one person else there could not be a concourse or co-operation of either nature in his mediatory works How these natures are united in the wonderful person of our Immanuel is the first part of the great mysterie of of godliness A Subject studied and adored by Angels And the mysterie thereof is wrap'd up in this Text. Wherein we have First the incarnation of the Son of God plainly asserted Secondly that assertion strongly confirmed In the assertion we have three parts The person assuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word i. e. the second person or subsistent in the most glorious Godhead call'd the Word either because he is the scope and principal matter both of the prophetical and promisory word Or because he expounds and reveals the mind and will of God to men as vers 18. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared or expounded him The Nature assumed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flâ—sh i. e. the intire humane Nature consisting of a true humane soul and body For so this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Rom. 3.20 And the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which answers to it by a usual Metonymie of a part for the whole is used Gen. 6.12 And the word flesh is rather used here than man on purpose to aggravate the admirable condescention and abasement of Christ there being more of vileness weakness and opposition to spirit in this word than in that as is pertinently noted by some Hence the whole nature is denominated by that part and called flesh The Assumption it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was made not fuit he was as Socinus would render in design to overthrow the existence of Christs glorify'd body now in heaven But factus est it was made i. e. he took or assumed the true humane nature called flesh for the reason before rendred into the unity of his divine person with all its integral parts and essential properties and so was made or became a true and real man by that assumption The Apostle speaking of the same act Heb. 2.16 Uses another word He took on him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitly rendred he took on him or he assumed Which assuming though inchoative it was the work of the whole Trinity God
natures The humane nature doing what is humane viz. Suffering Sweating Bleeding Dying and his Divine nature stamping all these with infinite value and so both sweetly concur unto one glorious work and design of mediation Papists generally deny that he performs any of his mediatory works as God but only as man but how boldly do they therein contradict these plain Scriptures See 2 Cor. 5.19 Heb. 9.14.15 And so much as to the second thing propounded viz. the fruits of this Union The last thing to be opened is the grounds and reasons of this assumption And we may say touching that 1. That the humane nature was not assumed to any intrinsecal perfection of the Godhead but to make that humane nature it self perfect The Divine did not assume the humane nature necessarily but voluntarily not out of indigence but bounty not because it was to be perfected by it but to perfect it by causing it to lie as a pipe to the infinite all-filling Fountain of grace and glory of which it is the great receptacle 2. And so consequently to qualify and prepare him for a full discharge of his mediatorship in the offices of our Prophet Priest and King Had he not this double nature in the Unity of his person he could not have been our Prophet for as God he knows the mind and will of God Ioh. 1.18 Ioh. 3.13 And as man he is fitted to impart it suitably to us Deut. 18.15 16 17 18. Compared with Acts 3.22 As Priest had he not been man he could have shed no blood and if not God it had been no adaequate value for us Heb. 2.17 Acts 20.28 As King had he not been man he had been an Heterogenous and so no fit head for us And if not God he could neither rule nor defend his Body the Church These then were the designs and ends of that assumption Vse 1. Let all Christians rightly inform their minds in this truth of so great concernment in Religion and hold it fast against all subtil adversaries that would wrest it from them The Learned Hooker observes that the dividing of Christs Person which is but one and the confounding of his Natures which are two hath been the occasion of these errors which have so greatly disturbed the peace of the Church The Arrians deny'd his Deity leveling him with other meer men The Apollinarians maimed his humanity The Sabellians affirmed that the Father and Holy Ghost were incarnated as well as the Son and were forced upon that absurdity by another error viz. denying three distinct persons in the Godhead and affirming they were but three names The Euticheans confounded both natures in Christ denying any distinction of them The Seleusians affirmed that he uncloathed himself of his humanity when he ascended and hath no humane Body in Heaven The Nestorians so rent the two natures of Christ assunder as to make two distinct persons of them But ye Beloved have not so learned Christ. Ye know he is 1. true and very God 2. True and very man that 3. these two natures make but one person being united inseparably 4. That they are not confounded or swallowed up one in another but remain still distinct in the person of Christ. Hold ye the form of sound words which cannot be condemned Great things hang upon all these truths Oh suffer not a stone to be loosed out of the Foundation Vse 2. Adore the love of the Father and Son who bid so high for your Souls and at this rate were contented you should be recovered First The love of the Father is herein admirably conspicuous who so vehemently willed our salvation that he is content to degrade the darling of his Soul to so vile and contemptible a state which was upon the matter an undoing to him in point of reputation as the Apostle intimates Phil. 2.7 If two persons be at variance and the superiour who also is the wronged person begin to stoop first and say you have deeply wronged me yea your blood is not able to repair the wrongs you have done me however such is my love to you and willingness to be at peace with you that I will part with what is most dear to me in all the world for peace sake yea though I stoop below my self and seem as it were to forget my own relation and endearments to my own Son I will not suffer such a breach betwixt me and you Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son And how astonishing is the love of Christ that would make such a stoop as this to exalt us Oh 't is ravishing to think that he should pass by a more excellent and Noble Species of Creatures refusing the Angellical nature Heb. 2.16 To take Flesh. And not to solace and dispart himself in it neither not to experience sensitive pleasures in the body for as he needed them not being at the Fountain head of the highest joys so it was not at all in his design but the very contrary even to make himself a Subject capable of sorrows wounds and tears It was as the Apostle elegantly expresseth it in Heb. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he might sensibly tast what relish Death hath and what bitterness is in those pangs and agonies Now O that you would get your hearts suitably imprest and affected with these high expressures of the love both of the Father and Son How is the courage of some Noble Romans celebrated in the story for the brave adventures they made for the Common-wealth But they could never stoop as Christ did being so infinitly below him in personal dignity Vse 3. And here the infinite wisdom hath also left a famous and everlasting mark of it self which invites yea even chains the eyes of Angels and men to it self Had there been a general Council of Angels to advise upon a way of recovering poor sinners they would all have been at an everlasting demur and loss about it It could not have entred their thoughts though they are Intelligencies and most sagatious Creatures that ever mercy pardon and grace should find such a way as this to issue forth from the heart of God to the hearts of sinners Oh how wisely is the method of our recovery laid So that Christ may well be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 1.24 The power and wisdom of God For as much as in him the Divine wisdom is more glorified than in all the other works of God upon which he hath imprest it Hence it is that some of the School-men affirm though I confess my self unsatisfied with it that the incarnation of Christ was in it self so glorious a demonstration of Gods wisdom and power and thereupon so desirable in it self that though man had not sinned yet Christ would have been made man Vse 4. Hence also we infer the incomparable sweetness of the Christian Religion that shews poor
the High-Priests appearing in the Holy of Holies which was the figure of Heaven presenting to the Lord the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel which were on his breast and shoulders Exod. 28.9 12 28 29. to which the Church is supposed to allude in that request Cant. 8.6 set me as a seal upon thine heart as a seal upon thine arm Now the very sight of Christ our High-Priest in Heaven prevails exceedingly with God and â—urns away his displeasure from us As when God looks upon the Rainbow which is the sign of the Covenant he remembers the earth in mercy So when he looks on Christ his heart must needs be towards us upon his account and therefore in Rev. 4.3 Christ is compared to a Rainbow encompassing the Throne Secondly Christ performs his intercession-work in Heaven not by a naked appearing in the presence of God only but also by presenting his blood and all his sufferings to God as a moving plea on our account Whether he make any proper oral intercession there as he did on earth is not so clear some incline to it and think it 's countenanced by Zech. 1.12 13. where Christ our intercessor presents a proper vocal request to the Father in the behalf of his people Saying O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Ierusalem and on the Cities of Iudah against whom thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years and the Lord answered him with good and comfortable words And so Act. 2.23 As soon as he came to Heaven he is said and that as the first fruits of his Intercession to obtain the promise of the Holy-Ghost But sure I am an Interceding voice is by an usual prosopopeia attributed to his blood which in Heb. 12.24 is said to speak better things than the blood of Abel Now Abels blood and so Christs do cry unto God as the hire of the Labourers unjustly detained or the whole creation which is in bondage through our sins are said to cry and groan in the ears of the Lord. Iam. 5.4 Rom. 8.22 not vocally but efficatiously A rare illustration of this Efficatious Intercession of Christ in Heaven we have in that famous story of Amintas who appeared as an Advocate for his brother Aechylus who was strongly accused and very likely to be condemned to die Now Amintas having performed great services and merited highly of the Common-Wealth in whose service one of his hands was cut off in the Field he comes into the Court on his brothers behalf and said nothing but only lifted up his arm and shewed them cubitum sine manu an arm without an hand which so moved them without a word speaking that they freed his brother immediately And thus if you look into Revel 5.6 you shall see in what posture Christ is represented visionally there as standing between God and us And I beheld and loe in the midst of the Throne and four beasts and in the midst of the Elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain i. â— bearing in his glorified body the marks of his death and sacrifice Those wounds he received for our sins on earth are as it were still fresh bleeding in Heaven A moving and prevailing argument it is with the Father to give out the mercies he pleads for Thirdly and Lastly He presents the prayers of his Saints to God with his merits and desires that they may for his sake be granted He causes a cloud of incense to ascend before God with them Revel 8.3 All these were excellently Typed out by the going in of the High-Priest before the Lord with the names of the Children of Israel on his breast with the blood of the Sacrifice and his hands full of incense as the Apostle explains them in Heb. 7. and Heb. 9. Thirdly And that this Intercession of Christ is most potent successful and prevalant with God will be evinced both from the qualifications of this our Advocate from his great interest in the Father from the nature of the pleas he useth with God and from the relation and interest believers have both in the Father to whom and the Son by whom this intercession is made First our Intercessor in the Heavens is every way able and fit for the work he is ingaged in there What ever is desirable in an Advocate is in him eminently It is necessary that he who undertakes to plead the cause of another especially if it be weighty and intricate should be wise faithful tender-hearted and one that concerns himself in the success of his business Our Advocate Christ wants no wisdom to manage his work He is the wisdom of God yea only wise Jude 25. There 's much folly in the best of our duties we know not how to press an argument home with God but Christ hath the art of it Our business is in a wise hand He is no less faithful than wise therefore he is called a faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 2.17 He assures us we may safely trust our concerns with him Joh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you Q. D. do you think I will deceive you Men may cheat you but I will not your own hearts may and daily do deceive you but so will not I. And for tender heartedness and sensible resentments of our conditions there is none like him Heb. 4.15 For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin We have not one that cannot sympathize so it is in the Greek and on purpose that he might be the better able to sympathize with us he came as near to our conditions as the holiness of his nature could permit He suffered himself to be in all points tempted like as we are sin only excepted And then for his concernment and interest in the success of his suit he not only reckons but hath really made it his own interest Yea more his own than it is ours For now by reason of the mystical union all our wants and troubles are his Eph. 1.23 Yea his own glory and compleatness as mediator is deeply interessed in it And therefore we need not doubt but he will use all care and diligence in that work If you say so he may and yet not speed for all that for it depends on the fathers grant True but then Secondly Consider the great interest he hath in the Father with whom he so intercedes Christ is his dear Son Col. 1.13 the beloved of his soul Eph. 1.6 betwixt him and the Father with whom he intercedes there is an unity not only of nature but will and so he always hears him Ioh. 11.42 Yea and he said to this his dear Son when he came first to Heaven Ask of me and I will give thee Psal. 2.8 moreover Thirdly He must needs speed in his suit if you
House The next day Mr. Goodman the Minister of the Parish meeting the young man walking about his ground asked him how he did he answered very well but before the Minister was gone far from him his bowels fell out which he carried in his hands got to his house sent for Mr. Goodman bitterly bewailed his sin against his Father and so died And Dr. Taylor in his great exemplar tells us of another that upon discontent with his Father wisht the House might be on fire if ever he came any more into his Fathers House Afterwards coming in it was fired indeed and this wicked Son only consumed I could multiply instances of this nature for indeed the Righteous Judgement of God hath multiplied them But this only for a taste Thirdly Heathens will rise up in Judgement against you and condemn you They never had such precepts nor presidents as you and yet some of the better natured Heathens would have rather chosen death than to do as you do You remember the story of Croesus his dumb son whose dear affections could make him speak when he saw Croesus in danger though he never spake before yet then he could cry out O do not kill my Father But what speak I of Heathens the Stork in the heavens yea the Beasts of the earth will condemn the disobedience of Children Fourthly These are sins inconsistent with the true fear of God in whomsoever they are found That a man is indeed which he is in his family and among his relations He that is a bad child can never be a good Christian. Either bring testimonials of your godliness from your relations or it may be well suspected to be no better than counterfeit Never talk of your obedience to God whilst your disobedience to the just commands of Parents gives you the lie Fifthly A parting time is coming when death will break up the family and when that time comes Oh how bitter will the remembrance of these things be When you shall see a Father or a Mother lying by the wall what a cut will it be to remember your miscarriages and evils They are gone out of your reach you cannot now if you would give them any satisfaction for what you have done against them but oh how bitter will the remembrance of these things be at such a time Surely this will be more insupportable to you than their death if the Lord open your eyes and give you repentance and if not then Sixthly What a terrible thing will it be to have a Father or Mother come in as witnesses against you at Christs Bar As well as they loved you and as dear as you were to them in this world they must give evidence against you then Now what a fearful thing is it for you but to imagine your Parents to come before the Lord and say Lord I have given this child many hundred reproofs for sin I have counselled perswaded and used all means to reclaim him but in vain he was a child of disobedience nothing could work upon him What think you of this Inference 2. Have you such a pattern of obedience and tender love to Parents then children imitate your pattern as it becomes Christians and take Christ for your example Whatsoever your Parents be see that you carry it towards them becoming such as profess Christ. First If your Parents be godly O beware of grieving them by any unbecoming carriage Art thou a Christian indeed thou wilt then reckon thy self obliged in a double bond both of grace and nature to them O what a mercy would some children esteem it if they had Parents that feared the Lord as you have Secondly If they be carnal walk circumspectly in the most precise and punctual discharge of your Duties for how knowest thou O Child but hereby thou maist win thy Parents Wouldst thou but humbly and seriously intreat and perswade them to mind the waies of holiness speaking to them at fit seasons with all imaginable humility and reverence Insinuating your advice to duties or trouble for their evils rather by relating some pertinent History or proposing some excellent example leaving their own Consciences to draw the conclusion and make applicaâ—ion than to do it your selves it 's possible they may ponder your words in their hearts as Mary did Christs Luk. 2.49 51. And would you but back all this with your earnest cries to Heaven for them and your own daily example that they may have nothing from your selves to retort upon you and thus wait with patience for the desired effect O what blessed instruments might you be of their everlasting good Inference 3. To conclude let those that have such Children as fear the Lord and endeavour to imitate Christ in those daies account them a singular treasure and heritage from the Lord and give them all due incouragement to their duties How many have no Children at all but are as a dry tree And how many have such as are worse than none The very reproaches and break-hearts of their Parents that bring down their hoary heads with sorrow to the grave If God have given you the blessing of godly Children you can never be sufficiently sensible of or thankful for such a favour O that ever God should honour you to bring forth Children for Heaven What a comfort must this be to you what ever other troubles you meet with abroad when you come home among godly relations that are careful to sweeten your own family to you by their obedience Especially what a comfort is it when you come to die that you leave them within the Covenant Entitled to Christ and so need not be anxious how it shall be with them when you are gone Take heed of discouraging or damping such Children from whom so much glory is like to rise to God and so much comfort to your selves Thus let Christs pattern be improved who went before you in such eminent holiness in all his relations and left you an example that you should follow in his steps The THIRTY SECOND SERMON LUK. XXIII XLIII And Iesus said unto him verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise IN this Scripture you have the third excellent saying of Christ upon the Cross expressing the riches of free grace to the penitent Thief A man that had spent his life in wickedness and for his wickedness was now to lose his life His practice had been vile and profane but now his heart was broken for it he proves a Convert yea the first fruits of the blood of the Cross. In the former verse he manifests his faith Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom In this Christ manifests his pardon and gratious acceptance of him verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise In which Promise are considerable the Matter of it the Person to whom it is made the Time set for its Performance and the Confirmation of it for his
ascended you shall ascend to him personally hereafter oh that you would ascend to him Spiritually in acts of Faith Love and desires daily Sursum Corda up with your hearts was the form used by the Ancient Church at the Sacrament How good were it if we could say with the Apostle Phil. 3.21 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour An heart ascendant is the best evidence of your interest in Christs ascension Inference 2. Did Christ go to Heaven as a fore-runner What haste should we make to follow him He ran to Heaven he ran thither before us Did he run to glory and shall we linger Did he flee as an Eagle towards Heaven and we creep like snails Come Christians lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you and run with patience the Race set before you looking unto Iesus Heb. 12.1 2. The Captain of our Salvation is entred within the gates of the new Ierusalem and calls to us out of Heaven to hasten to him proposing the greatest incouragements to them that are following after him saying he that overcomes shall sit with me in my Throne as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 How tedious should it seem to us to live so long at a distance from our Lord Jesus our Life Inference 3. Did Christ ascend so triumphantly leading Captivity Captive How little reason then have believers to fear their conquered enemies Sin Satan and every enemy was in that day led away in triumph dragged at Christs Chariot wheels Brought after him as it were in Chains 'T is a lovely sight to see the necks of those Tyrants under the foot of our Ioshuah He made at that day an open shew of them Col. 2.15 Their strength is broken for ever In this he shewed himself more than a conqueror for he conquered and triumphed too Satan was then trod under his feet And he hath promised to tread him under our feet also and that shortly Rom. 16.20 Some power our enemies yet retain the Serpent may bruise our heel but Christ hath crusht his head Inference 4. Did Christ ascend so munificently shedding forth so many mercies upon his people Mercies of inestimable value reserved on purpose to adorn that day O then see that you abuse not those most pretious ascension gifts of Christ but value and improve them as the choicest mercies Now the Ascension gifts as I told you are either the Ordinances and Officers of the Church for he then gave them Pastors and Teachers or the Spirit that furnisht the Church with all its gift Beware you abuse not either of these First Abuse not the Ordinances and Officers of Christ. This is a sin that no Nation is plunged deeper into the guilt of it thâ—n this Nation And no Age more than this Surely God hath written to us the great things of his Law and we have accounted them small things We have been loose wanton sceptical professors for the most part that have had nice and coy stomachs that could not relish plain wholesom truths except so and so modified to our humors For this the Lord hath a Controversie with the Nation and by a sore Judgement he hath begun to rebuke this sin already And I doubt before he make an end plain truths will down with us and we shall bless God for them Secondly But in the next place see that you abuse not the Spirit whom Christ hath sent from Heaven at his ascension to supply his bodily absence among us and is the great pledge of his care for and tender love to his people Now take heed that you dont vex him by your disobedience Nor greive him by your unkindnesses Nor quench him by your sinful neglects of duty or abuse of light O deal kindly with the Spirit and obey his voice Comply with his designs and yield up your selves to his guidance and conduct Methinks to be intreated by the Love of the Spirit Rom. 15.30 Should be as great an Argument as to be intreated for Christs sake Now to perswade all the Saints to be tender of grieving the Spirit by sin let me urge a few Considerations proper to the point under hand And Consid. 1. First He was the first and principal mercy that Christ received for you at his first entrance into Heaven It was the first thing he asked of God when he came to Heaven So he speaks Ioh. 14.16 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you No sooner had he set foot upon the place but the first thing the great thing that was upon his heart to ask the Father for us was that the Spirit might be forthwith dispatcht and sent down to his people So that the spirit is the first-born of mercies And deserves the first place in our hearts and esteems Consid. 2. Secondly The Spirit comes not in his own name to us though if so he deserves a dear welcome for his own sake and for the benefits we receive by him which are inestimable but he comes to us in the name and in the loves both of the Father and Son As one authorized and delegated by them Bringing his Credentials under both their hands and seals Ioh. 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father Mark I will send him from the Father and in Ioh. 14.26 The Father is said to send him in Christs name So that he is the messenger that comes from both these great and holy persons And if you have any Love for the God that made you any kindness for Christ that died for you shew it by your obedience to the Spirit that comes from them both and in both their names to us and who will be both offended and grieved if you grieve him O therefore give him an enterâ—ainment worthy of one that comes to you in the name of the Lord. In the Fathers name and in the Sons name Consid. 3. Thirdly But that is not the only consideration that should cause you to beware of grieving the Spirit because he is sent in the name of such great and dear persons to you but he deserves better entertainment than any of the Saints give him for his own sake and upon his own account and that upon a double score viz. Of his Nature and Office First On the account of his Nature for he is God Co-equal with the Father and Son in Nature and digniâ—y 2 Sam. 23.23 The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue the God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me So that you see he is God The rock of Israel God omnipotent for he created all things Gen. 1.2 God omnipresent filling all things Psal. 139.7 God omniscient who knows your hearts Rom. 9.1 Beware of him therefore and grieve him not for in so doing you grieve God Secondly Upon
Ephesians Eph. 1.13 p. 67 1.22 p. 207 3.10 p. 5 5.2 p. 144 5.8 p. 611 6.1 p. 421 6.16 p. 247 Philippians Phil. 1.6 p. 486 Phil. 1.29 p. 364 2.7 p. 17 2.8 p. 169 222 2.9 p. 541 2.12 p. 190 3.11 p. 559 3.21 p. 63 3.3 p. 5 Colossians Col. 1.10 11. p. 588 1.14 p. 354 1.17 p. 210 1.18 p. 549 1.19 p. 71 3.3 p. 555 3.10 p. 4 3.15 p. 200 1 Thessalonians 1 Thes. 1.10 p. 524 4.16 p. 522 592 2 Thessalonians 2 Thes. 3.5 p. 189 1 Timothy 1 Tim. 2.5 p. 82 3.16 p. 52 5.4 p. 422 6.9 p. 307 6.17 p. 45 2 Timothy 2 Tim. 1.9 p. 32 2 Tim. 2.19 p. 612 2 Tim. 4.16 p. 379 Hebrews Heb. 1.1 p. 102 1.3 p. 575 1.14 p. 213 2.9 p. 60 2.16 p. 51 60 2.17 p. 55 7.25 p. 152 7.26 p. 72 7.27 p. 74 9.24 p. 93 9.23 p. 128 9.14 p. 140 10.11 p. 578 10.14 p. 139 10.20 p. 93 11.40 p. 143 12.24 p. 156 13.8 p. 143 Iames. Jam. 1.4 p. 389 4.5 p. 413 1 Peter 1 Pet. 1.6 p. 306 1.19 p. 142 2.22 23. p. 415 3.13 p. 405 4.19 p. 406 1 Iohn 1 Joh. 1.7 p. 148 1.9 p. 176 1 Joh. 2.1.2 p. 161 3.2 p. 186 4.10 p. 39 Iude. Jude ver 6. p. 377 592. Revelations Rev. 1.13 p. 144 2.10 p. 211 3.13 p. 501 5.6 p. 157 13.8 p. 98 143 22.2 p. 9 Reader THou art desired both to excuse the mis-spellings mis-pointings transposings and obscure impressions of several words especially in the Marginal notes And to understand that for brevity sake I have used these marks for To wit viz. for that is i. e. for as if he should say q. d. And lastly before thou readest to Correct these more gross mistakes in which thou wilt do right both to thy self and the Author CORRIGENDA PAge 2 Line 32 for as read of p 32 l. 24 after indeed add is p 47 l 18 blot out in p 61 l 28 r immediate p 62 l 11 heard sounding there p 66 l 26 blot out rather p 67 l 26 r effectively p 69 l 5 r farther p 83 l 9 r four wayes p 86 l 18 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 84 l ult after that add as 87 l 10 r concerning p 92 l 26 r immediate p 102 l 4 r mediately p 105 l 28 r plain in margent r peccatum p 130 marg r effiâ—aâ—itur p 135 marg r debitam and blot out p 159 l 2 add not p 160 l 2 r emptied p 166 l 26 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and l 30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 170 l 25 r obligation p 183 l 15 r is p 186 l 14 r troublers p 187 l 16 r his p 200 l 9 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in mâ—rg brabeutem p 210 l 17 r razed p 214 marg r volvuâ—tur p 220 l 3 r degrees p 227 l 33 r sinless p 230 marg r gravius p 233 l penult r oppressours p 259 l 25 add were p 269 l 2 r with us p 272 l penult r substantial p 274 l 29 for bond r bone p 293 l 2 r affections p 314 l r there p 327 l 23 r ingenuous p 330 l 36 l 36 for too r to p 332 l 23 r renew p 337 l 27 r affecting p 339 l 2 r then for the and the for then p 344 l 13 r crasis p 347 l 21 after law add was p 379 l penult add as p 381 l 14 dele though p 406 l 21 r by you p 419 l 11 r in like manner and l 12 r every affection p 428 l 21 r duties p 432 l 10 add be p 437 l 32 r go away p 442 l 13 for it r he p 444 l 16 add should p 461 l 6 r cut off p 458 l 8 add we p 467 l 16 r inventorum p 469 l 7 for we r He p 472 l 4 r in outward pains marg r Dantzick p 486 l 24 r finished p 487 l â—3 r followers p 498 l 15 r is p 500 r Deduction p 518 line ult for Rachel r Sarah p 525 l. 24 r lâ—ft p 551 l ult r. identical p 583 l 10 r gold p 602 l 7 r wholly p 609 l 1 r lovely p 610 l 34 add ill and for hast r shalt p 618 l 1 for a r or and l 3 blot a p 619 l 19 r lives p 624 l 23 for our r over Redemption hath 2 parts viz. meritorious IMPETRATION Part 1. and efficacious APPLICATION Part. 2. In the Impetration of it after a praeliminary commendation of the Subject Sermon 1. We therein consider I. The Redeemer who is considered 2 wayes viz. 1. As eternally delighting in his Fathers bosome 2. As prepared for this work by five eminent qualifications viz. 1. His Covenant with his Father 2. His Fathers donation of him 3. His Assumption of our Nature 4. His Commission under the great Seal 5. His solemn consecration to that Work II. The work of Mediation he came about opened in general III. The Offices fitting him for this work viz. 1. Prophet as such 1. Faithfully revealing Gods mind to men 2. Opening their understandings to receive it 2. Priest in which office are conâ—iderable 1. It s general nature and necessity 2. Its parts viz. 1. Oblation 2. Intercession 3. Its fruits viz. 1. Satisfaction 2. Acquisition 3. King whose Kingdom is either 1. Internal and spiritual 2. External and Providential IV. The Execution of them in his double state viz. of 1. Humiliation viz. in his 1. Conception and Birth 2. Life and Conversation 3. Death wherein we consider 1. The preparatives to it by 1. Blessing his Family 2. Instituting his Supper 3. Prayer in the Garden 4. Iudas his Treason 5. Tryal and sentence 6. Going to Golgotha 2. Execution of it on the Cross. 3. The manner of his suffering it viz. 1. Innocently 2. Solitarily 3. Patiently 4. Instructively in his 7 last words viz. 1. Word 2. Word 3. Word 4. Word 5. Word 6. Word 7. Word 4. Burial In all which among many others four great and principal ends were accomplished 2. Exaltation in the 4 famous steps or degrees thereof viz. 1. His wonderful Resurrection 2. His Triumphant Ascention 3. His Session at Gods right hand 4. His coming to judgement The FIRST SERMON I COR. II.II. For I determined not to know any thing among you save Iesus Christ and him Crucified THE former verse contains an Apologie for the plain and familiar manner of the Apostles preaching which was not as he there tells them with excellency of speech or of wisdom i. e. he studied not to gratifie their curiosity with Rhetorical strains or Philosophical niceties In this he gives the reason for I determined not to know any thing among you save Iesus Christ c.
wanting the Credidit vixit ut Christianus as an eminent Divine speaks O let the Keepers of the Vineyards look to and keep their own Vineyard we have an Heaven to win or lose as well as others Thirdly Let us take heed that we with-hold not our knowledge of Christ in unrighteousness from the people O that our lips may disperse knowledge and feed many let us take heed of the Napkin remembring the day of account is at hand Remember I beseech you the Relations wherein you stand and the obligations resulting thence Remember the great Shepherd gave himself for and gave you to the flock your time your gifts are not yours but Gods Remember the pinching wants of souls who are perishing for want of Christ and if their tongues do not yet their necessities do bespeak us as they did Ioseph Gen. 47.15 wherefore should we dye in thy presence give us food that we may live and not dye even the Sea-monsters draw forth their breasts to their young ones and shall we be cruel cruel to souls did not Christ think it too much to sweat blood yea to dye for them and shall we think it much to watch study preach pray and do what we can for their salvation O let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ. Secondly To the people that sit under the Doctrine of Christ daily and have the light of his knowledge shining round about them First Take heed ye do not reject and despise this light this may be done two ways first When you despise the means of knowledge by slight and low esteems of it Surely if you thus reject knowledge God will reject you for it Hosea 4.6 it is a despising of the richest gift that ever Christ gave to the Church and however it be a contempt and slight that begins low and seems only to vent it self upon the weak parts inartificial discourses and untaking tones and gestures of the speakers yet believe it it 's a daring sin that flyes higher than you are aware Luk. 10.16 he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Secondly You despise the knowledge of Christ when you despise the directions and loving constraints of that knowledge when you refuse to be guided by your knowledge your light and your lusts contest and struggle within you Oh 't is sad when your lusts master your light you sin not as the Heathens sin who know not God but when you sin you must slight and put by the notices of your own Consciences and offer violence to your own convictions And what sad work will this make in your souls how soon will it lay your consciences waste Secondly Take heed that you rest not satisfied with that knowledge of Christ you have attained but grow on towards perfection it 's the pride and ignorance of many professors when they have got a few raw and indigested notions to swell with self-conceits of their excellent-attainments and it 's the sin even of the best of Saints when they see veritas in profundo how deep the knowledge of Christ lyes and what pains they must take to dig for it to throw by the Shovel of Duty and cry dig we cannot To your work Christians to your work let not your candle go out sequester your selves to this study look what intercourses and correspondencies are betwixt the two worlds what communion soever God and souls maintain it is in this way count all therefore but dross in comparison of that excellency which is in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The SECOND SERMON PROV VIII XXX Then was I by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him THese words are a part of that excellent commendation of wisdom by which in this Book Solomon intends two things first grace or holiness Prov. 4.7 wisdom is the principal thing secondly Iesus Christ the fountain of that grace and look as the former is renowned for its excellency Iob 28.14 15. so the latter in this context wherein the spirit of God describes the most blessed state of Jesus Christ the wisdom of the Father from those eternal delights he had with his Father before his assumption of our nature then was I by him c. that long aevum was wholly swallowed up and spent in unspeakable delights and pleasures which delights were two-fold 1. The Father and Son delighted one in another from which delights the Spirit is not here excluded without communicating that their joy to any other for no creature did then exist save in the mind of God ver 30. 2. They delighted in the salvation of men in the prospect of that work though not yet extant ver 31. my present business lyes in the former viz. the mutual delights of the Father and Son one with and in another the account whereof we have in the Text wherein consider The glorious condition of the non-incarnated Son of God described by the person with whom his fellowship was then was I by him or with him so with him as never was any in his very bosom Ioh. 1.18 the only begotten Son was in the bosom of the Father an expression of the greatest dearness and intimacy in the World as if he should say wrapt up in the very soul of his Father embosomed in God This fellowship is illustrated by a Metaphor wherein the Lord will stoop to our capacities as one brought up with him the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes rendred a cunning workman or curious Artist as in Cant. 7.1 which is the same word and indeed Christ shewed himself such an Artist in the Creation of the World for all things were made by him and without him there was nothing made that was made Joh. 1.3 but Montanus and others render it nutricius and so Christ is here compared to a delightful child sporting before its Father the Hebrew root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our translation renders rejoycing before him signifies to laugh play or rejoyce so that look as Parents delight to see their Children sporting before them so did the Father delight in beholding this Darling of his bosom This delight is farther amplified by the perpetuity and uninterruptedness thereof I was day by day his delights rejoycing always before him these delights of the Father and the Son one in another knew not a moments interruption or diminution thus did these great and glorious persons mutually let forth their fullest pleasure and delight each into the heart of other they lay as it were imbosomed one in another entertaining themselves with delights and pleasures ineffable and unconceivable hence we observe DOCT. That the condition and State of Iesus Christ before his incarnation was a state of highest and most unspeakable delight and pleasure in the enjoyment of his Father Iohn tells us he was in the bosom of his Father to lye in the bosom is the posture
of dearest love Joh. 13.23 now there was leaning on Iesus bosom one of his Disciples whom Iesus loved but Christ did not lean upon the Fathers bosom as that Disciple did on his but lay in it and therefore in Isa. 42.1 the Father calls him mine elect in whom my soul delighteth which is variously rendred the Septuagint quem suscepit whom my soul takes or wraps up others complacuit one that highly pleases and delights my very soul and 2 Cor. 8.9 he is said in this estate wherein I am now describing him to be rich and Phil. 2.7 to be equal with God and to be in the form of God i. e. to have all the glory and ensigns of the Majesty of God and the riches which he speaks of was no less then all that God the Father hath Joh. 16.15 all that the Father hath is mine and what he now hath in this his exalted state is the same he had before his humiliation Ioh. 17.5 now to glimpse out as we are able the unspeakable felicity of that state of Christ whilst he lay in that blessed bosom I shall consider it three ways negatively positively and comparatively Let us consider that state negatively by removing from it all those degrees of abasement and sorrow which his incarnation brought him under as First he was not then abased to the condition of a Creature which was a low stoop indeed and that which upon the matter undid him in point of reputation for by this saith the Apostle he made himself of no reputation Phil. 2.7 it emptied him of his glory for God to be made man is such an abasement as none can express but then not only to appear in true flesh but also in the likeness of sinful flesh as Rom. 8.3 O what is this Secondly Christ was not under the Law in this Estate I confess 't was no disparagement to Adam in the state of innocency to Angels in their state of glory to be under Law to God but it was an unconceivable abasement to the absolute independent being to come under Law yea not only under the obedience but also under the malediction and curse of the Law Gal. 4.4 but when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law Thirdly In this State he was not lyable to any of those sorrowful consequents and attendants of that frail and feeble state of humanity which he afterwards assumed with the nature as 1. He was unacquainted with griefs there was no sorrowing nor sighing in that bosom where he lay though afterwards he became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa. 53.3 a man of sorrows as if he had been constituted and made up of pure and unmixed sorrows every day conversing with griefs as with his intimate companions and acquaintance 2. He was never pinched with poverty and wants while he continued in that bosom as he was afterwards when he said the Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Ah blessed Jesus thou needest not to have wanted a place to have lain thine head hadst thou not left that bosom for my sake 3. He never under-went reproach and shame in that bosom there was nothing but glory and honour reflected upon him by his Father though afterwards he was despised and rejected of men Isa. 53.3 his Father never looked upon him without smiles and love delight and joy though afterwards he became a reproach of men and despised of the people Psal. 22.6 4. His holy heart was never offended with an impure suggestion or temptation of the Devil all the while he lay in that bosom of peace and love he never knew what it was to be assaulted with temptations to be besieged and battered upon by unclean spirits as he did afterwards Matth. 4.1 then was Iesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil It was for our sakes that he submitted to those exercises of Spirit to be in all points tempted like as we are that he might be unto us a merciful and faithful high-Priest Heb. 4.15 5. He was never sensible of pains and tortures in soul or body there were no such things in that blessed bosom where he lay though afterwards he groaned and sweat under them Isa. 53.5 the Lord embraced him from eternity but never wounded him till he stood in our place and room 6. There were no hidings or withdrawments of his father from him there was not a cloud from eternity upon the face of God till Iesus Christ had left that bosom it was a new thing to Christ to see frowns in the face of his Father a new thing for him to cry my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 7. There were never any impressions of his Fathers wrath upon him as there were afterwards God never delivered such a bitter cup of wrath into his hands before as that was Matth. 26.39 Lastly There was no death to which he was subject in that bosom all these things were new things to Christ he was above them all till for our sakes he voluntarily subjected himself unto them thus you see what that state was not Let us consider it positively what it was and guess by some particular considerations for indeed we can but guess 〈◊〉 the glory of it as 1. We cannot but conceive it to be a state of matchless happiness if we consider the persons enjoying and delighting each in other he was with God Ioh. 1.1 God you know is the Fountain Ocean and Center of all delights and joys Psal. 16.11 in thy presence is fulness of joy To be wrapt up in the soul and bosom of all delights as Christ was must needs be a state transcending apprehension to have the Fountain of love and delight letting out it self so immediatly and fully and everlastingly upon this only begotten darling of his soul so as it never did communicate it self to any judge what a state of transcendent felicity this must be great persons have great delights 2. Or if we consider the intimacy dearness yea oneness of those great persons one with another the nearer the union the sweeter the communion now Jesus Christ was not only near and dear to God but one with him I and my Father are one Joh. 10.30 one in nature will love and delight there is indeed a Moral union of souls among men by love but this was a natural oneness no Child is so one with his Father no Husband so one with the Wife of his bosom no Friend so one with his Friend no Soul so one with its body as Jesus Christ and his Father were one O what matchless delights must necessarily flow from such a blessed Union 3. Consider again the purity of that delight with which the blessed Father and Son embraced each other the best Creature-delights one in another are mixed debased
is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 And such an one must he needs be whom the holy Ghost produces in such a peculiar way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That holy thing Secondly As it was produced miraculously so it was assumed integrally That is to say Christ took a compleat and perfect humane soul and body with all and every faculty and member pertaining to it And this was necessary as both Austin and Fulgentius have well observed that hereby he might heal the whole nature of that Leprosie of sin which had seiz'd and infected every member and faculty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He assumed all to sanctifie all as Damascen expresseth it He design'd a perfect recovery by sanctifying us wholly in Soul Body and Spirit And therefore assumed the whole in order to it Thirdly He assumed our nature as with all its integral parts so with all its Sinless infirmities And therefore it s said of him Heb. 2.17 That it behoved him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to all things that is all things natural not formally sinful as it 's limited by the same Apostle Heb. 4.15 to be made like unto his brethren But here our Divines do carefully distinguish infirmities into personal and natural Personal infirmities are such as befall particular persons from particular causes Such as Dumbness Blindness Lameness Leprosies Monstrosities and other deformities These it was no way necessary that Christ should not did he at all assume but the natural ones such as Hunger Thirst Weariness Sweating Bleeding Mortality c. Which though they are not in themselves formally and intrinsecally sinful yet are they the effects and consequents of sin They are so many marks that sin hath left of its self upon our natures And on that account Christ is said to be sent in the likeness of sinful Flesh Rom. 8.3 Wherein the gracious condescension of Christ for us is marvelously signallized That he would not assume our innocent nature as it was in Adam before the fall while it stood in all its primitive glory and perfection but after sin had quite defaced ruined and spoil'd it Fourthly The humane nature is so united with the Divine as that each nature still retains its own essential properties distinct And this distinction is not nor can be lost by that union So that the two understandings wills powers c. viz. The Divine and humane are not confounded but a line of distinction runs betwixt them still in this wonderful Person It was the Heresie of the Eutichians condemned by the Council of Chalcedon to affirm that there was no distinction betwixt the two natures in Christ. Against whom that Council determined that they were united 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any immutation or confusion Fifthly The union of the two natures in Christ is an inseparable Vnion So that from the first moment thereof there never was nor to Eternity shall be any Separation of them If you ask how the union remained betwixt them when Christs humane Soul and Body were separated from each other upon the Cross Is not death the dissolution of union betwixt Soul and Body True The natural union betwixt his Soul and Body was dissolved by death for a time but this Hypostatical union remained even then as intire and firm as ever For though his Soul and Body were divided from each other yet neither of them from the Divine Nature Divines assist our conception of this mysterie by an apt illustration A man that holds in his hand a Sword sheathed when he pleaseth draws forth the Sword but still holds that in one hand and the sheath in the other and then sheaths it again still holding it in his hand so when Christ dyed his Soul and Body retained their union with the Divine Nature though not during that space one with another And thus you are to form and regulate your conceptions of this great mysterie Some adumbrations and imperfect similitudes of it may be found in Nature Among which some commend that union which the Soul and Body have with each other They are of different natures yet both make one individual man Others fault this because both these united make but one compleat humane nature whereas in Christs person are two perfect natures and commend to us a more perfect emblem viz. that of the Cyens and the tree or stock which have two natures yet make but one tree But then we must remember that the Cyens wants a root of its own which is an integral part but Christ assumed our nature integrally This defect is by others supplyed in the Miscletoe and the Oak which have different natures and the Miscletoe subsists in union with the Oak still retaining the difference of nature and though making but one tree yet bears different fruits And so much to the first thing namely the nature of this Union For the effects or immediate results of this marvelous Union let these three be well considered First The two natures being thus united in the person of the mediator by vertue thereof the properties of each nature are attributed and do truly agree to the whole person so that it 's proper to say the Lord of glory was crucified 1. Cor. 2.8 And the blood of God redeemed the Church Acts 20.28 That Christ was both in heaven and in earth at the same time Ioh. 3.13 Yet we do not believe that one nature doth transfuse or impart its properties to the other or that it is proper to say the Divine nature Suffered Bled or Dyed or the humane is omniscient omnipotent omnipresent but that the properties of both natures are so ascribed to the person that it is proper to affirm any of them of him in the concrete though not abstractly the right understanding of this would greatly assist in reaching the true sence of the forenamed and many other dark passages in the Scriptures Secondly Another fruit of this Hypostatical union is the singular advancement of the humane nature in Christ far beyond and above what it is capable of in any other person it being hereby replenished and fill'd with an unparelell'd measure of Divine graces and excellencies in which respect he is said to be annointed above or before his fellows Psal. 45.8 And so becomes the object of adoration and Divine worship Acts 7.59 This the Socinians oppugn with this Argument He that is worshiped with a Divine worship as he is mediator is not so worshiped as God but Christ is worshiped as mediator But we say that to be worshiped as mediator and as God are not opposite but the one is necessarily included in the other and therein is farther included the ratio formalis sub quâ of that Divine religious worship Thirdly Hence in the last place follows as another excellent fruit of this Union the concourse and co-operation of each nature to his mediatory works For in them he acts according to both
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.
keep those his Father gave him in this world Ioh. 17.12 to raise up the Saints again in the last day Ioh. 1.54 are all these with many more I might name the effects of the meer humane nature Or were they not performed by him as God-man and besides how could he as Mediator be the object of our Faith and religious adoration if we are not to respect him as God-man But I long now to be at the Application of this And the first inference from it is this Inference 1. That it is a dangerous thing to reject Iesus Christ the only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Alas there is no other interpose and skreen thee from the devouring Fire the everlasting burnings Oh! it 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God And into his hands you must needs fall without an interest in the only Mediator Which of us can dwell with devouring Fire who can endure the everlasting burnings Esa. 33.14 you know how they singed and scorched the green Tree but what would they do to the dry Tree Luke 23.31 indeed if there were another plank to save after the Shipwrack any other way to be reconciled to God beside Jesus the Mediator somewhat might be said to excuse this folly but you are shut up to the Faith of Christ as to your last remedy Gal. 3.23 You are like starving Beggars that are come at the last door O take heed of despising or neglecting Christ if so there 's none to interceed with God for you the breach betwixt him and you can never be composed I remember here the words of Eli to his prophane Sons who caused men to abhor the offerings of the Lord 1 Sam. 2.25 If one man sin against another the Iudge shall Iudge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him the meaning is in common trespasses betwixt men the civil Magistrate takes cognisance of it and decides the controversie by his authority so that there is an end of that strife but if man sin against the Lord who shal intreat or arbitrate in that case Elies Sons had despised the Lords Sacrifices which were the sacred Types of Christ and the stated way that Men their had to act Faith on the Mediator in Now saith he if a man thus sin against the Lord by despising Christ shadowed out in that way who shall intreat for him what hope what remedy remains I remember it was the saying of Luther and he spake it with deep resentment nolo deum absolutum I will have nothing to do with an absolute God i. e. with God without a Mediator Thus the Divels have to do with God but will ye in whose nature Christ is come put your selves into their state and case God forbid Inference 2. Hence also be informed how great an evil it is to joyn any other Mediators either of reconciliation or meritorious intercession with Iesus Christ. O this is an horrid sin and that which both pours the greatest contempt upon Christ and brings the surest and forest destruction upon the Sinner I am ashamed my Pen should English what mine Eyes have seen in the writings of Papists ascribing as much yea more to the mediation of Mary than to Christ with no less than blasphemous impudence thus commenting upon Scripture What is that which the Lord saith I have trode the Wine-press alone and of the People there was no Man with me true Lord there was no man with thee but there was a Woman with thee who received all these wounds in her Heart which thou receivedst in thy Body I will not blot my Paper with more of this but refer the learned Reader to the Margent where he may if he have a mind to see more be informed not only what blasphemy hath dropt from single Pens but even from Concels to the reproach of Jesus Christ and his Blood How do they stamp their own sordid works with the peculiar dignity and value of Christs Blood and therein seek to enter at the Gate which God hath shut to all the World because Jesus Christ the Prince entred in thereby Ezek. 44.2 3. He entred into Heaven in a direct mediate way even in his own name and for his own sake this Gate saith the Lord shall be shut to all others And I wish men would consider it and fear lest while they seek entrance into Heaven at the wrong Door they do not for ever shut against themselves the true and only Door of happiness Inference 3. If Jesus Christ be the only Mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and Men then reconciled Souls should thankfully ascribe all the Peace favour and comforts they have from God to their Lord Iesus Christ when ever you have had free admission and sweet entertainment with God in the more publick ordinances or private duties of his worship when ye have had his smiles his Seals and with hearts warmed with comfort are returning from those duties say O my Soul thou maist thank thy good Lord Jesus Christ for all this Had not he interpos'd as a Mediator of reconciliation I could never have had access to or friendly communion with God to all eternity Immediately upon Adams sin the Door of Communion with God was lockt yea chain'd up and no more coming nigh the Lord. Not a Soul could have any access to him either in a way of communion in this World or of enjoyment in that to come It was Jesus the Mediator that open'd that Door again and in him it is that we have boldness and access with confidence Eph. 3.12 we can now come to God by a new and a living way consecrated for us through the Vayl that is to say his flesh Heb. 10.20 the Vayl had a double use as Christs flesh answerably hath It hid the glory of the Sanctum Sanctorum and also gave entrance into it Christs incarnation rebates the edge of the divine glory and brightness that we may be able to bear it and converse with it and it gives admission into it also O thank your dear Lord Jesus for your present and your future Heaven These are mercies which daily emerge out of the Ocean of Christs blood and come swiming in it to our Doors Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. Inference 4. If Jesus Christ be the true and only Mediator both of reconciliation and meritorious intercession betwixt God and Men how safe and secure then is the condition and state of Beleivers Surely as his mediation by sufferings hath fully reconciled so his mediation by intercession will everlastingly mantain that state of Peace betwixt them and God and prevent all future breaches Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 5.1 it 's a firm and lasting peace and the Mediator that made it lies as a lidger in Heaven to maintain it for ever and prevent new jarrs Heb. 9.24 there to appear in the presence of God for
sacrifice the meritorious cause so of necessity there must be faith the instrumental cause And these concauses do all sweetly meet in their influences and activities in our remission and tranquility of conscience and are all suo genere in their kind and place absolutely necessary to the procuring and applying of it What the near that the blood of Christ is shed if I have no interest in it no saving influences from it O be convinvinced this is the end the business of life Faith is the Phoenix grace as Christ is the Phoenix mercy He is the gift Joh. 4.10 And this is the work of God Ioh. 6.29 the death of Christ the offers and tenders of Christ never saved one soul in themselves without believing application But wo is me how do I see sinners either not at all toucht with the sense of sin and so being whole need not the Physitian or if any be sâ—â—â—g and wounded with guilt how do they lick themselves whole with their own duties and reformations as Physitians say of wounds let them but be kept clean and nature will find balsom of its own to heal them If it be so in spiritual wounds what need Christ to have left the Fathers bosom and come down to dye in the quality and nature of a Sacrifice for us O if men can but have health pleasure riches honours and any way make a shift to still a brawling conscience that it may not check or interrupt them in these enjoyments Christ may go where he will for them And I am assured till God shew you the face of sin in the glass of the Law Make the Scorpions and fiery Serpents that lurk in the Law and in your own consciences to come hissing about you and smiting you with their deadly stings till you have had some sick nights and sorrowful days for sin you will never go up and down seeking an interest in the blood of this sacrifice with tears But Reader if ever this be thy condition then wilt thou know the worth of a Christ. Then thou wilt have a value for the blood of sprinkling As I remember it 's storied of our Crook-back Richard when he was put to a rout in a field battel and flying on foot from his pursuing enemies he cried out O now said he a Kingdom for a Horse So wilt thou cry a Kingdom for a Christ. Ten thousand Worlds now if I had thâ—m for the blood of sprinkling Corollary 3. Is Christ your High-Priest and is his Priestood so indispensably necessary to your salvation then freely acknowledge your utter impotency to reconcile your selves to God by any thing you can do or suffer And let Christ have the whole glory of your recovery ascribed to him It 's highly reasonable that he that laid down the whole price should have the whole praise If any man think or say he could have made an attonement for himself he doth therein cast no light reproach upon that profound wisdom which laid the design of our redemption in the death of Christ. But of this I have spoken elsewhere And therefore Corollary 4. In the last place I rather choose to perswade you to see your necessity of this Priest and his most excellent sacrifice and accordingly to make use of it The best of you have polluted natures poisoned in the womb with sin those natures have need of this sacrifice They must have the benefit of this blood to pardon and cleanse them or be eternally damned Hear me ye that never spent a tear for the sin of nature if the blood of Christ be not springled upon your natures it had been better for you that you had been the generation of beasts the off-spring of Dragons or Toads They have a contemptible but not a vitiated sinful nature as you have Your Actual sins have need of this Priest and his sacrifice to procure remission for them If he take them not away by the blood of his cross they can never be taken away They will lie down with you in the dust They will rise with you and follow you to the Judgement seat crying we are thy works and we will follow thee All thy repentance and tears shouldst thou weep as many tears as there be drops in the Ocean can never take away sin Thy duties even the best of them need this sacrifice It is in the verture thereof that they are accepted of God And were it not God had respect to Christs offering he would not regard or look towards thee or any of thy duties Thou couldst no more come near God than thou couldst approach a devouring fire or dwell with everlasting burnings Well then say I need such a Priest every way Love him in all his offices See the goodness of God in providing such a sacrifice for thee Meat drink and air not more necessary to maintain thy natural life than the death of Christ is to give and maintain thy spiritual life O then let thy soul grow big whilst meditating of the usefulness and excellency of Christ which is thus displaied and unfolded in every branch of the Gospel And with a deep sence upon thy heart let thy lips say blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWELFTH SERMON HEB. X.XIV. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified AFter this more general view and consideration of the Priesthood of Christ method requires that we come to a nearer and more particular consideration of the parts thereof which are his Oblation and Intercession answerable to the double office of the High-Priest offering the blood of the Sacrifices without the holy place which Typed out Christs oblation and then once a year bringing the blood before the Lord into the most holy place presenting it before the Lord and with it sprinkling the mercy-seat wherein the intercession of Christ the other part or Act of his Priesthood was in a lively manner Typified to us My present business is to open and apply the Oblation of Christ. The efficacy and excellency whereof is excellently illustrated by a comparison with all other oblations in the precedent context and with a singular Encomium commended to us in these words from the singularity of it It is but one offering one not only specifically but one numerically considered But once offered and never more to be repeated For Christ dieth no more Rom. 6.9 He also commends it from the efficacy of it By it he hath perfected i. e. not only purchased a possibility of salvation but all that we need to our full perfection It brings in a most intire compleat and perfect righteousness All that remains to make us perfectly happy is but the full application of the benefits procured by this Oblation for us Moreover it 's here commended from the extensiveness of it Not being restrained to a few but applicable to all the Saints in all the ages and places of the world For this indefinite them that are sanctified is
and the wine is red noting a bloody trial It is full of mixture and he poureth out the same but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them i. e. they shall have the worst part of the Judgement for their share Thus afflictions and calamities are exprest by the metaphor of a cup great calamities by a deep and large cup. Afflictions compounded of many agravating circumstances by a mixed cup. And from the effect it hath on them that must drink it it 's called a cup of trembling Isai. 57.17 Thou hast drunken at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury the dregs of the cup of trembling Such a cup now was Christs cup. A cup of wrath a large and deep cup that contained more wrath than ever was drunk by any creature even the wrath of an infinite God A mixed cup. Mixed with Gods wrath and mans in the extremity And all the bitter agravating circumstances that ever could be imagined Great consternation and amazement this was the portion of his cup. By the passing of the cup from him understand his exemption from suffering that dreadful and horrid wrath of God which he foresaw to be now at hand For as the coming of the cup to a man doth in Scripture phrase note his bearing and suffering of evil as you find it Lam. 4.21 Rejoice and be glad O daughter of Edom that dwellest in the Land of Uz the cup also shall pass through unto thee thou shalt be drunken and make thy self naked Which is an ironical reproof of the Idumeans the Jews deadly enemies who wickedly insulted over them when the cup was at their mouths as if the Lord had said you have laughed and jear'd at my people when my hand was on them you rejoyced to see their calamities Well make your selves merry still if you can the cup shall pass through unto thee Thy turn is coming then laugh it thou canst So on the contrary the passing away of the cup notes freedom from or our escaping of those miseries And so Christs meaning in this conditional request is Father if it be thy will excuse me from this dreadful wrath my soul is amazed at it Is there no way to shun it Cannot I be excused O if it be possible spare me This is the meaning of it But then here 's the difficulty how Christ who knew God had from everlasting determined he should drink it who had compacted and agreeed with him in the covenant of redemption so to do who came as himself acknowledges for that end into the world Ioh. 18.37 Who foresaw this hour all along and professed when he spake of this bloody baptism with which he was to be baptised that he was straightned till it was accomplished Luk. 12.50 How I say to reconcile all this with such a petition that now when the cup was delivered to him it might pass or he be excused from suffering this is the knot this is the difficulty What! Did he now repent of the bargain Was all he said before but a flourish before he saw the enemy Doth he now begin to wish his bargain dry and that he had never undertaken such a work is that the meaning of it Nothing less No no Christ never repented of his engagement to the Father Never was willing to let the burden lie on us rather than on himself There was not such a thought in his holy and faithful heart but the resolution of this doubt depends upon a double distinction Which will clear his meaning in it First You must distinguish of prayers Some are absolute and peremptory and so to have prayed that the cup might pass would have been chargeable with such absurdities as were but now mentioned others are conditional and submissive prayers if it may be if the Lord please And such was this if thou be willing if not I 'le drink it But you will say Christ knew what was the mind of God in that case He knew what transactions had of old been betwixt his Father and him and therefore though he did not pray absolutely yet it 's strange he would pray conditionally it might pass Therefore in the Second place you must diftinguish of the natures according to which Christ acted He acted sometimes as God and sometimes as man Here he acted according to his humane nature Simply expressing and manifesting in this request the reluctancy it had at such sufferings Wherein he shewed himself a true man in shunning that which is destructive to his nature As Christ had two distinct natures so two dictinct wills And as one well observes in the life of Christ there was an intermixture of power and weakness of the divine glory and humane frailty At his birth a star shone but he was laid in a manger The Devil tempted him in the wilderness but there Angels ministred to him As man he was deceived in the figtree but as God he blasted it He was caught by the Souldiers in the Garden but first made them fall back So here as man he feared and shunned death but as God-man he willingly submitted to it It was as Deodati well expresses it A purely natural desire meer man by which for a short moment he apprehended and shunned death and torments but quickly recalled himself to obedience by a deliberate will to submit himself to God And besides that this desire was but conditional under the will of God accepted by Christ but from the comtemplation of which he was a while diverted by the extremity of horrors therefore there was no sin in it but only a short conflict of nature pesently overcome by reason and a firm will Or a small suspension quickly overcome by a most strong resolution Finally this sacred deliberation in Jesus was not made simply or in an instant but with a short time and with a counterpoise which is the natural property of the soul in its motions and voluntary actions In a word as there was nothing of sin in it it being a pure and sinless affection of nature so there was much good in it and that both as it was a part of his satisfaction for our sin to suffer inwardly such fears tremblings and consternations And as it was a clear evidence that he was in all things made like unto his brethren except sin And Lastly as it serves notably to express the grievousness and extremity of the sufferings of Christ whose very prospect and appearance at some distance was â—o dreadful to him If the Learned Reader desire to see what is farther said on this point let him read what the judicious and learned Parker in his excellent book de descensu hath collected upon that case Fourthly Let us consider the manner how he prayed and that was First Solitarily He doth not here pray in the audience of his Disciples as he had done before but went at a distance from them He had now private business to transact with God He
he turn not he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors Psal. 7.12 This laies the blood of every man that perishes in his enmity to Christ at his own door And vindicates the righteousness of God in the severest strokes of wrath upon them This also will be a cutting thought to their hearts eternally I might once have had pardon and I refused it The Gospel-Trumpet sounded a parly Fair and gratious terms were offered but I rejected them Inference 3. Is there mercy with God and forgiveness even for his worst enemies upon their submission how unlike to God then are all implacable spirits Some there are that cannot bring their hearts to forgive an enemy to whom revenge is sweeter than life 1 Sam. 24.16 If a man find his enemy will he let him go This is Hell-fire a fire that never goeth out how little do such poor creatures consider if God should deal by them as they do by others what words could express the misery of their condition It 's a sad sin and a sad sign a character of a wretched state whereever it appears Those that have found mercy should be ready to shew mercy and they that expect mercy themselves should not deny it others This brings us upon the third and last observation viz. DOCT. 3. That to forgive enemies and beg forgiveness for them is the true character and property of the Christian spirit Thus did Christ Father forgive them And thus did Stephen in imitation of Christ. Act. 7.59 60. And they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying Lord Iesus receive my spirit and he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge This suits with the rule of Christ Matth. 5.44 45. But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which dâ—spightfully use you and persecute you That ye may be the children of God your Father which is in Heaven Here I shall first open the nature of this duty and shew you what a forgiving spirit is and then the excellency of it how well it becomes all that call themselves Christians First Let us enquire what this Christian forgiveness is And that the nature of it may the better appear I shall shew you both what it is not and what it is First It consists not in a stoical insensibility of wrongs and injuries God hath not made men as insensible stupid blocks that have no sence or feeling of what is done to them Nor hath he made a Law inconsistent with their very natures that are to be governed by it But allows us a tender sense of natural evils though he will not allow us to revenge them by moral evils Nay the more deep and tender our resentments of wrongs and injuries are the more excellent is our forgiveness of them so that a forgiving spirit doth not exclude sense of injuries but the sense of injuries graces the forgiveness of them Secondly Christian forgiveness is not a politick concealment of our wrath and revenge because it will be a reproach to discover it or because we want opportunity to vent it This is carnal policy not Christian meekness So far from being the mark of a gratiâ—us spirit that it 's apparently the sign of a vile nature It is not Christianity to repose but depose injuries Thirdly Nor is it that moral vertue for which we are beholding to an easier and better nature and the help of moral rules and documents There are certain vertues attainable without the change of nature which they call Homilitical vertues because they greatly adorn and beautifie nature such as temperance patience justice c. these are of singular use to conserve peace and order in the world And without them as one aptly speaks the world would soon break up and its civil scocieties disband But yet though these are the ornaments of nature they do not argue the change of nature All graces in the exercise of them involve a respect to God And for the being of them they are not by natural acquisition but supernatural infusion Fourthly and Lastly Christian forgiveness is not an â—injurious giving up of our rights and properties to the Lusts of every one that hath a mind to invade them No these we may lawfully defend and preserve and are bound so to do though if we cannot defend them legally we must not avenge our wrongs unchristianly This is not Christian forgiveness But then positively It is a Christian lenity or gentleness of mind not retaining but freely passing by the injuries done to us in obedience to the command of God It is a lenity or gentleness of mind The grace of God demulces the angry stomach calms the tumultuous passions new-moulds our sowr spirits and makes them benign gentle and easie to be intreated Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness c. This gratious lenity inclines the Christian to pass by injuries so to pass them by as neither to retain them revengefully in the mind or requite them when we have opportunity with the hand Yea and that freely not by constraint because we cannot avenge our selves but willingly We abhor to do it when we can So that as a carnal heart thinks revenge its glory the gratious heart is content that forgiveness should be his glory I will be even with him saith nature I will be above him saith grace It is his glory to pass over transgression Prov. 19.11 And this it doth in obedience to the command of God their own nature inclines them another way The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy but he giveth more grace James 4.5 It lusteth to revenge but the fear of God represses those motions Such considerations as these God hath forbidden me Yea and God hath forgiven me as well as forbidden me prevail upon him when nature urges to revenge the wrong Be kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.32 This is forgiveness in a Christian sense Secondly And that this is excellent and singularly becoming the profession of Christ is evident In as much as This speaks your Religion excellent that can mould your hearts into that heavenly frame to which they are so averse yea contrarily disposed by nature It is the glory of Pagan morality that it can abscondere vitia hide and cover mens lusts and passions But the glory of Christianity lies in this that it can abscindâ—re vitia not hide but destroy and really mortifie the Lusts of nature Would Christians but live up to the excellent principles of their Religion Christianity shall be no more out-vied by heathenish morality The greatest Christian shall be no more challenged to imitate Socrates if he can We
the Parent wrapt up in another Skin O the care the cost the pity the tenderness the pains the fears they have exprest for you It 's worse than Heathenish ingratitude not to return Love for Love This filial Love is not only in it self a duty but to be the root or spring of all your other dutys to them Thirdly Obedience to their commands is due to them by the Lords strict and special command Eph. 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and thy Mother which is the first Commandment with promise Filial obedience is not only founded upon the positive Law of God but also upon the Law of nature For though the subjection of Servants to Masters came in by sin yet the subjection of Children to Parents is due to them by natural right therefore saith the Apostle this is right i. e. right both according to natural and positive Law However this subjection and obedience is not absolute and universal God hath not devested himself of his own authority to cloath a Parent with it Your obedience to them must be in the Lord i. e. in such things as they require you to do in the Lords authority In things consonant to that divine and holy will to which they as well as you must be subject and therein you must obey them Yea even the wickedness of a Parent exempts not from obedience where his command is not so Nor on the other side must the holiness of a Parent sway you where his Commands and Gods are opposite In the former case the Canonists have determined that the command must be distinguisht from the person In the latter it 's a good rule My Parents must be loved but my God must be preferred Yield your selves therefore chearfully to obey all that which they lawfully enjoin and take heed that black character fixed on the Heathens who know not God be not found upon you disobedient to Parents Rom. 1.30 Remember your disobedience to their just commands rises higher much higher than an affront to their persons and authority it 's disobedience to God himself whose commands second and strengthen theirs upon you Fourthly Submission to their Discipline and rebukes is also your duty Heb. 12.9 We had Fathers of our flesh that corrected us and we gave them reverence Parents ought not to abuse their authority Cruelty in them is a great sin but wrath and rebellion in a Child against his Parents is monstrous It 's storied of Aelian that having been abroad at his return his Father asked him what he had Learned since he went from him he answered you will know shortly I have learned to bear your anger quietly and submit to what you please to inflict Two considerations should especially mould others into the like frame especially to their godly Parents The end for which and the manner in which they manifest their anger to their Children Their end is to save your souls from Hell They judge it better for you to hear the voice of their anger than the terrible voice of the wrath of God To feel their hand than his They know if you fall into the hands of the living God you will be handled in another manner And for the manner in which they rebuke and chasten it is with grief in their hearts and tears in their eyes Alas it 's no delight to them to cross vex or afflict you Were it not meer conscience of their duty to God and tender love to your souls they would neither chide nor smite And when they do how do they afflict themselves in afflicting you When their faces are full of anger their bowels are full of compassion for you and you have no more reason to blame them for what they do than if they cry out and violently snatch at you when they see you ready to fall from the top of a Rock Fifthly Faithfulness to all their interests is due to them by the natural and positive Law of God What in you lies you are bound to promote not waste and scatter their substance To assist not to defraud them Who so robbeth his Father or Mother and saith it is no transgression the same is the companion of a destroyer Prov. 28.24 This saith one as far excells your wronging another as parricide is a greater crime than man-slaughter or as Reubens incest was beyond common fornication God never meant you should grow up about your Parents as suckers about a Tree to impoverish the root But for a Child out of a covetousness after what his Parents have secretly to wish their death is a sin so monstrous as should not be once named much less found among persons professing Christianity To desire their death from whom you had your life is unnatural wickedness to dispose of their Goods much more of your selves without their consent is ordinarily the greatest injustice to them Children are obliged to defend the Estates and persons of their Parents with the hazard of their own As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are Children of the youth Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them They shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemy in the gates Psal. 127.5 Sixthly And more especially requital of all that love care and pains they have been at for you is your duty so far as God enables you and those things are requitable 1 Tim. 5.4 Let them learn to shew piety at home and to requite their Parents The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies to play the Stork to imitate that creature of whom it 's said that the young do tenderly feed the old ones when they are no longer able to fly abroad and provide for themselves Hence those that want bowels of natural affection to their Relations are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.30 worse than Storks O 't is a shame that Birds and Beasts should shew more tenderness to their Dams than Children to their Parents It 's a saying frequent among the Jews a Child should rather labour at the Mill than suffer his Parents to want And to the same sence is that other saying your Parents must be supplyed by you if you have it if not you ought to beg for them rather than see them perish It was both the comfort and honour of Ioseph that God made him an instrument of so much succour and comfort to his aged Father and distressed family Gen. 47.13 And you are also to know that what you do for them is not in the way of an alms or common Charity For the Apostle saith it is but your requiting them and that 's Justice not Charity And it can never be a full requital Indeed the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 12.14 That Parents lay up for their Children and not Children for the Parents and so they ought but sure if providence blast them and bless you an honourable
part And his bearing it was no small part of the reparation or satisfaction he made for our sins More particularly to open the nature of this desertion of Christ by his Father there being much of intricacy and difficulty in it I shall proceed in the explication of it Negatively and Positively First Negatively when Christ cries out of Gods forsaking him he doth not mean that he had dissolved the personal union of the two natures Not as if the marriage knot which united our nature to the person of Christ was loosed or a divorce made betwixt them No for when he was forsaken of God he was still true and real Godman in one person Secondly When Christ bewails the Fathers forsaking him he doth not mean that he pulled away the prop of divine support from him by which he had till then endured the tortures and sufferings that oppressed him No though the Father deserted yet he still supported him And so much is intimated in these words of Christ Eli Eli which signifies my strong one my strong one God was with him by way of support when withdrawn as to manifestations of love and favour In respect of Gods supporting presence which was with Christ at this time it 's said Isai. 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I uphold and Joh. 16.32 I am not alone but the Father is with me So that this cannot be the meaning of it Thirdly Much less is it his meaning that God had left him as to inherent grace and sanctification Recalling that spirit of holiness which had anointed him above his fellows No no when he was forsaken he remained as holy as ever He had indeed less comfort but not less holiness than before Such a desertion had irritated and made void the very end of his death And his sacrifice could never have yielded such a fragrant odor to God as it did Eph. 5.2 Fourthly The love of God was not so withdrawn from Christ as that the Father had now no love for him nor delight in him That 's impossible he can no more cease to love Christ than to love himself His love was not turned into wrath Though his wrath only was now manifested to him as our surety and his love hid from him as his beloved Son Fifthly Nor was Christ forsaken by his Father finally upon what account soever it was that he was forsaken No it was but for a few hours that the dark cloud dwelt over his soul. It soon past away And the bright and glorious face of God shone forth again as bright as ever Psal. 22.1.24 compared Sixthly And lastly It was not a mutual desertion or a desertion on both parts the Father forsook him but he forsook not his Father When God withdrew he followed him crying my God my God Yet to speak positively of it though it did not dissolve the personal union nor cutting off divine supports nor remove his inherent grace nor turn his Fathers love into hatred nor continue for ever nor yet was it on both parts Christs forsaking God as well as God forsaking Christ yet I say it was First A very sad desertion the like unto which in all respects never was experienced by any nor can be to the end of the world All his other troubles were but small things to this they bare upon his body these upon his soul. They came from the hands of vile men this from the hand of a dear Father He suffered both in body and soul but the sufferings of his soul were the very soul of his sufferings Under all his other sufferings he opened not his mouth but this toucht the quick that he could not but cry out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Secondly As it was a sad so it was a poenal desertion inflicted on him for satisfaction for those sins of ours which deserved that God should forsake us for ever as the damned are forsaken by him So that this cry as one observes was like the perpetual shriek of them that are cast away for ever This was that Hell and the torments of it which Christ our surety suffered for us For look as there lies a twofold misery upon the damned in Hell viz. pain of sence and pain of loss So upon Christ answerably there was not only an impression of wrath but also a Substraction or withdrawment of all sensible favour and love Hence it 's said by himself Ioh. 12.27 And now my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is troubled The word signifies troubled as they that are in Hell are troubled Though God did not leave his soul in Hell as others are he having enough to pay the debt which they have not yet in the torments thereof at this time he was Yea in sufferings at this time in his soul equivalent to all that which our souls should have suffered there to all Eternity Thirdly It was a desertion that was real and not fictitious He doth not personate a deserted soul and speak as if God had withdrawn the comfortable sence and influence of his love from him but the thing was so indeed The God-head restrained and kept back for this time all its joys comforts and sence of love from the man-hood yielding it nothing but support This bitter doleful out-cry of Christ gives evidence enough of the reality of it He did not feign but feel the burdensomness of it Fourthly This desertion fell out in the time of Christs greatest need of comfort that ever he had in all the time of his life on earth His Father forsook him at that time when all earthly comforts had forsaken him and all outward evils had broken in together upon him When men yea the best of men stood afar off and none but barbarous enemies were about him When pains and shame and all miseries even weighed him down then even then to compleat and fill up his sufferings God stands afar off too Fifthly And lastly It was such a desertion as left him only to the supports of his Faith He had nothing else now but his Fathers covenant and promise to hang upon And indeed as a Juditious Author perninently observes the Faith of Christ did several ways act and manifest it self in these very words of complaint in the Text. For though all comfortable sights of God and sence of love were obstructed yet you see his soul cleaves fiducially to God for all that My God c. Though sense and feeling spake as well as Faith Yet Faith speaks first my God before sence speaks a word of his forsaking His Faith prevented the complaint of sence and though sence comes in afterward with a word of complaint yet here are two words of Faith to one of Sence It is my God my God and but one word of forsaking As his Faith spake first so it spake twice when sence and feeling spake but once Yea and as Faith spake first and twice as much as sence so it spake more confidently than Sence did He lays a
That Iesus Christ hath perfected and compleatly finished the great work of Redemption committed to him by God the Father To this great truth the Apostle gives a full testimony Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And to the same purpose speaks Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do Concerning this work and the finishing thereof by Jesus Christ upon the Cross we shall enquire what this work was how Christ finished it and what evidence can be produced for the finishing of it First What was the work which Christ finished by his death It was the fulfilling the whole Law of God in our room and for our Redemption as a Sponsor or surety for us The Law is a glorious thing The holiness of God that fiery attribute is engraven or stampt upon every part of it Deut. 33.2 From his right hand went a fiery Law The jealousie of the Lord watched over every point and tittle of it for his dreadful and glorious name was upon it It cursed every one that continued not in all things contained therein Gal. 3.10 Two things therefore were necessarily required in him that should perfectly fulfil it and both found in our surety and in him only viz. a subjective and effective perfection First A subjective perfection He that wanted this could never say it is finished Perfect working always follows a perfect being That he might therefore finiâ—h this great work of obedience and therein the glorious design of our Redemption loe in what shining and perfect holiness was he produced Luk. 1.35 That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God and indeed such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 So that the Law could have no exception against his person Nay it was never so honoured since its first promulgation as it was by having such a perfect and excellent person as Christ to stand at its Bar and give it due reparation Secondly There must be also an effective perfection or a perfection of working and obeying before it could be said it is finished This Christ had for he continued in all things written in the Law to do them He fulfilled all righteousness as it behoved him to do Matth. 3.15 He did all that was required to be done And suffered all that was requisite to be sufferâ—d He did and suffered all that was commanded or threatned in such perfection of obedience both active and passive that the pure eye of divine Justice could not find a flaw in it And so finished the work his Father gave him to do And this work finished by our Lord Jesus Christ was both a necessary difficult and pretious work First It was a necessary work which Christ finished upon the Cross. Necessary upon a threefold account It was necessary on the Fathers account I do not mean that God was under any necessity from his nature of redeeming us this or any other way For our Redemption is opus liberi consilii an effect of the free counsel of God but when God had once decreed and determined to redeem and save poor sinners by Jesus Christ then it became necessary that the counsel of God should be fulfilled Act. 4.28 To do whatsoever thy hand and counsel had before determined to be done Secondly It was necessary with respect to Christ. Upon the account of that previous compact that was betwixt the Father and him about it Therefore it 's said by Christ himself Luk. 22.22 Truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined i. e. as it was fore-agreed and covenanted under the necessity of fulfilling his engagement to the Father he came into the world and being come he still minds his engagement Joh. 9.3 I must work the works of him that sent me Thirdly Yea and it was no less necessary upon our account that this work should be finished For had not Christ finished this work sin had quickly finished all our lives comforts and hopes Without the finishing this work not a Son or Daughter of Adam could ever have seen the face of God Therefore it 's said Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life On all these accounts the finishing of this work was necessary Secondly As it was necessary this work should be finished so the finishing of it was exceeding difficult It cost many a cry many a groan many a tear many a hard tug before Christ could say it is finished All the Angels in Heaven were not able by their united strength to lift that burden one inch from the ground which Christ bare upon his shoulders yea and bare it away But how heavy a burden this was may in part appear by his propassion in the Garden and the bitter out-crys he made upon the Cross which in their proper places have been opened Thirdly and Lastly It was a most pretious work which Christ finished by his death That work was dispatched and finished in few hours which will be the matter of everlasting songs and triumphs to the Angels and Saints to all eternity O it was a pretious work The mercies that now flow out of this fountain viz. Justification Sanctification Adoption c. are not to be valued Besides the endless happiness and glory of the coming-world which cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive If the Angels sang when the foundation stone was laid what shouts what triumphs should there be among the Saints when this voice is heard It is finished Secondly Let us next inform our selves how and in what manner Jesus Christ finished this glorious work And if you search the Scriptures upon that account you will find that he finished it obedientially freely diligently and fully First This blessed work was finished by Jesus Christ most obediently Phil. 2.8 He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross. His obedience was the obedience of a servant though not servile obedience So it was foretold of him before he touched this work Isai. 50.5 The Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back i. e. my Father told me the very worst of it He told me what hard and heavy things I must undergo if ever I finished this design of redemption and I was not rebellious i. e. I heartily submitted to and accepted all those difficulties For there is a Meiosis in the words I was content to stoop to the hardest and most ignominious part of it rather than not finish it Secondly As Christ finished it obediently so he finished it freely Freedom and obedience in acting are not at all opposite to or exclusive of each other Moses his Mother nursed him in obedience to the command of Pharaohs daughter yet most
illumination Ier. 31.34 Gratious softness and tenderness of heart Ezek. 11.19 The awful dread and fear of God Ier. 32.40 The Copy or transcript of his Laws on your hearts in gratious correspondent principles Ier. 31.33 These things speak you the Children of the Covenant the persons on whom all these great things are settled Inference 2. To conclude it is the indispensible duty of all on whom Christ hath settled such mercies to admire his Love and walk answerably to it First Admire the Love of Christ. O how intense and ardent was the Love of Jesus who designed for you such an inheritance with such a settlement of it upon you These are the mercies with which his Love had travailed big from eternity and now he sees the travail of his soul and you also have seen somewhat of it this day Before this Love let all the Saints fall down astonished-humbly professing that they owe themselves and all they are or shall be worth to eternity to this Love Secondly And be sure you walk becoming persons for whom Christ hath done such great things Comfort your selves under present abasures with your spiritual priviledges Iam. 2.5 And let all your rejoycing be in Christ and what you have in him whilst others are blessing themselves in vanity Thus we have finished the state of Christs humiliation and thence proceed to the second state of his Exaltation HAving finished what I designed to speak to about the work of Redemption so far as it was carried on by Christ in his humbled state we shall now view that blessed work as it is further advanced and perfected in his State of Exaltation The whole of that work was not to be finished on earth in a state of suffering and abasure therefore the Apostle makes his Exaltation in order to the finishing of the remainder of his work so necessary a part of his Priesthood that without it he could not have been a Priest Heb. 8.4 If he were on earth he should not be a Priest i. e. if he should have continued alwaies here and had not been raised again from the dead and taken up into glory he could not have been a compleat and perfect Priest For look as it was not enough for the sacrifice to be slain without and his blood left there but after it was shed without it must be carried within the vail into the most holy place before the Lord Heb. 9.7 So it was not sufficient that Christ shed his own blood on earth except he carry it before the Lord into heaven and there perform his intercession work for us Moreover God the Father stood engaged in a solemn Covenant to reward him for his deep humiliation with a most glorious and illustrious advancement Isa. 49.5 6 7. And how God as it became him made this good to Christ the Apostle very clearly expresses it Phil. 2.9 Yea Justice required it should be so For how could our surety be detained in the prison of the Grave when the debt for which he was imprisoned was by him fully discharged so that the Law of God must acknowledge it self to be fully satisfied in all its claims and demands His Resurrection from the dead was therefore but his discharge or acquittance upon full payment Which could not in Justice be denyed him And indeed God the Father lost nothing by it for there never was a more glorious manifestation made of the name of God to the World than was made in that work Therefore it 's said Phil. 2.11 Speaking of one of the designs of Christs Exaltation it was saith the Apostle That every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father O how is the Love of God to poor sinners illustriously yea astonishingly displayed in Christs Exaltation When to shew the Complacency and delight which he took in our recovery he hath openly declared to the world that his exalting Christ to all that glory such as no meer creature ever was or can be exalted to was bestowed upon him as a reward for that work that most grateful work of our Redemption Phil. 2.9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him there is an Emphatical Pleonasmus in that word our English is too flat to deliver out the elegancy of the Original it is Super-Exaltation The Seriack renders it he hath multiplyed his Sublimity The Arabick he hath heightened him with an height Iustin he hath famously exalted him Higher he cannot raise him a greater Argument of his high satisfaction and content in the recovery of poor sinners cannot be given For this therefore God the Father shall have glory and honour ascribed to him in Heaven to all Eternity Now this singular Exaltation of Jesus Christ as it properly respects his humane nature which alone is capable of advancement for in respect of his divine nature he never ceased to be the most high So it was done to him as a common person and as the head of all believers their representative in this as well as in his other works God therein shewing what in due time he intends to do with the persons of his Elect after they in Conformity to Christ have suffered a while What ever God the Father intendeth to do in us or for us he hath first done it to the person of our representative Iesus Christ. And this if you observe the Scriptures carry in very clear and plain expressions through all the degrees and steps of Christs Exaltation viz. his Resurrection Ascension Session at the right hand of God And returning to Iudge the World Of which I purpose to speak distinctly in the following Sermons He rose from the Dead as a common person Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ saith the Apostle so that the Saints have Communion and fellowship with him in his Resurrection He Ascended into Heaven as a common person for so it 's said in Eph. 2.6 He hath raised us up or exalted us together with Christ. He sits at Gods right hand as a common person for so it follows in the next clause and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Iesus We sit there in our representative And when he shall come again to Judge the World the Saints shall come with him So it is Prophesied Zech. 14.6 The Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with thee And as they shall come with Christ from Heaven so they shall sit on Thrones with him judging by way of suffrage They shall be assessors with the Judge 1 Cor. 6.2 This deserves a special remark that all this honour is given to Christ as our head and representative for thence results abundance of comfort to the people oâ— God Carry it therefore along with you in your thoughts throughout the whole of Christs advancement Think when you shall hear that Christ is risen from the dead and is in all that glory and authority in Heaven How sure the salvation of his Redeemed is For if
Earth and risen again from the Dead we must in this Discourse follow him back again into Heaven and lodge him in that bosom of ineffable delight and love which for our sakes he so freely left For it was not his end in rising from the Dead to live such a low animal life as this is but to live a most glorious life as an enthroned King in Heaven upon which state he was now ready to enter as he tells Mary in the Text and bids her to tell it to the Disciples go tell my Brethren that I ascend to my Father c. In the former verses you find Mary waiting at Christs Sepulchre in a very pensive frame exceedingly troubled because she knew not what was become of Christ. Vers. 15. in the next verse Christ calls her by her name Mary she knowing the voice turned her selâ— and answered Rabboni And as a soul transported with joy rushes into his arms as desirous to clasp and embrace him but Iâ—sus said touch me not c. In which words we have Christs inhibition touch me not strange that Christ who rendred himself so kind and tender to all and not only admittted but commanded Thomas to put his finger into his wounds should sorbid Mary to touch him but this was not for want of love to Mary for he gives another reason for it presently I am not yet ascended i. e. say some the time for embracing will be when we are in Heaven Then and there shall be the place and time we shall embrace one another for ever more So Augustin Or thou detest too much upon my present state as if I had now attained the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 culminating point of my Exaltation When as yet I am not ascended so Camero and Calvin expound it Or lastly Christ would signifie hereby that it was not his pleasure in so great a juncture of things as this to spend time now in expressing this way her affections to him but rather to shew it by hasting about his service Which is The second thing observable viz. his injunction upon Mary to carry the tidings of his Resurrection to the Disciples in which injunction we have First The persons to whom this message was sent my Brethren so he calls the Disciples A sweet compellation and full of love much like that of Ioseph to his Brethren Gen. 45.4 Save only that there is much more tenderness in this than that for he twits them in the same breath with what they had done against him I am Ioseph your Brother whom ye sold but in this it is go tell my Brethren without the least mention of their Cowardize or unkindness And Secondly The message it self Tell my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I ascend It 's put in the present Tense as if he had been then ascending though he did not ascend in some weeks after this but he so expresses it to shew what was the next part of his work which he was to act in Heaven for them and how much his heart was set upon it and longed to be about it I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Not our Father or God in Common but mine and yours in a different manner Yours by right of dominion mine in reference to my humane nature not only by right of Creation though so too but also by special Covenant and Confaederation By Praedestination of my manhood to the grace of personal union by designation of me to the glorious office of Mediator My Father as I am God by eternal generation As man by collation of the grace of union And your Father by spiritual Adoption and regeneration Thus he is my God and your God my Father and your Father This is the substance of that comfortable message sent by Mary to the pensive Disciples Hence the Observation is DOCT. That our Lord Iesus Christ did not only rise from the Dead but also ascended into Heaven there to dispatch all that remained to be done for the compleating the Salvation of his people So much the Apostle plainly witnesseth Eph. 4.10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all Heavens i. e. all the aspectable Heavens A full and faithful account whereof the several Evangelists have given us Mark 16.19 Luk. 24.51 This is sometimes called his going away as Ioh. 16.7 Sometimes his being exalted Acts 2.33 Sometimes his being made higher than the Heavens Heb. 7.26 And sometimes his entring within the vail Heb. 6.19 20. All which are but so many Synonymous phrases expressing his ascension in a pleasant variety Now for the opening this act of Christ we will bind up the whole in the satisfaction of these six Questions First who ascended Secondly whence did he ascend Thirdly whither Fourthly when Fifthly how And lastly why did he ascend And these will take in what is needful for you to be acquainted with in this point First Who ascended This the Apostle answers Eph. 4.10 The same that descended viz. Christ. And himself tells us in the Text I ascend And though the ascension were of Christs whole person yet it was but a figurative and improper expression with respect to his divine nature but it agrees most properly to the humanity of Christ which really changed places and conditions by it And hence it is that it 's said Ioh. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father He goes away and we see him no more As God he is spiritually with us still even to the end of the world But as man the heavens must contain him till the restitution of all things Acts 3.21 Secondly Whence Christ ascended I answer more generally he is said to ascend from this world to leave the world That is the terminus à quo Joh. 16.28 But more particularly it was from mount Olivet near unto Ierusalem The very place where he began his last sorrowful Tragedy There where his heart began to be sadded there is it now made glad O what a difference was there betwixt the frame Christ was in in that Mount before his Passion and this he is now in at his ascension But Thirdly Whither did he ascend It 's manifest it was into the third Heavens The Throne of God and place of the blessed Where all the Saints shall be with him for ever It 's said to be far above all heavens That is the heavens which we see for they are but the pavement of that stately Palace of the great King He is gone saith the Apostle within the vail i. e. into the most holy Place And into his Fathers house Ioh. 14.2 And he is also said to go to the place where he was before Joh. 6.62 Back again to that sweet and glorious bosom of delight and Love from whence at his incarnation he
and it caused his face to shine as it had been the face of an Angel Act. 7.56 this his high advancement was foretold and promised before the work of redemption was taken in hand Psal. 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool And this promise was punctually performed to Christ after his resurrection and ascension in his supream exaltation far above all created beings in Heaven and earth Ephes. 1.20 21 22. We shall here open two things in the doctrinal part viz. what is meant by Gods right hand and what is implied in Christs sitting there with his enemies for a footstool First What are we to understand here by Gods right hand It 's obvious enough that the expression is not proper but figurative and borrowed God hath no hand right or left but it 's a condescending expression wherein God stoops to the Creatures understanding and by it he would have us to understand honour power and nearness First The right hand is the hand of honour the upper hand where we place those whom we highly esteem and honour So Solomon placed his Mother in a seat at his right hand 1 King 2.19 So in token of honour God sets Christ at his right hand which on that account in the Text is called the right hand of Majesty God hath therein exprest more favour delight and honour to Jesus Christ than ever he did to any creature To which of the Angels said he at any time sit thou on my right hand Heb. 1.13 Secondly The right hand is the hand of power we call it the weapon hand and the working hand And the setting of Christ there imports his exaltation to the highest authority and most supream dominion Not that God the Father hath put himself out of his Authority and advanced Christ above himself no for in that he saith he hath put all things under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him 1 Cor. 15.27 But to sit as an enthroned King at Gods right hand imports power Yea the most soveraign and supream power and so Christ himself calls the right hand at which he sits Matth. 26.64 hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power Thirdly And as it signifies honour and power so nearness in place as we use to say at ones elbow and so it is applied to Christ in Psal. 110.5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath that is the Lord who is very near thee present with thee he shall subdue thine enemies This is that then we are to understand by Gods right hand Honour power and nearness Secondly In the next place let us see what is implied in Christ sitting at Gods right hand with his enemies for his footstool And if we attently consider we shall find that it implies and imports divers great and weighty things in it As First It implies the Complement and Perfection of Christs work that he came into the world about After his work was ended then he sat down and rested from those labours Heb. 10.11.12 Every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but this man when he had once offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God Here he assigns a double difference betwixt Christ and the Levitical Priests they stand which is the posture of Servants he sits which is the posture of a Lord. They stand daily because their sacrifices cannot take away sin he did his work fully by one offering and after that sits or rests for ever in Heaven And this as accurate and judicious Dr. Reynolds observes was excellently figured to us in the Ark. which was a lively Type of Jesus Christ and particularly in this it had rings by which it was carried up and down till at last it rested in Solomons Temple with glorious and Triumphal sollemnity Psal. 132 8 9. 2 Chron. 5.13 So Christ while he was here on earth being anointed with the Holy Ghost and wisdom went about doing good Act. 10.38 and having ceased from his works did at last enter into his rest Heb. 5.10 which is the heavenly Temple Rev. 11.19 Secondly His sitting down at Gods right hand notes the high content and satisfaction of God the Faâ—her in him and in his work The Lord said to my Lord sit thou at my right hand the words are brought in as the words of the Father welcoming Christ to Heaven and as it were congratulating the happy accomplishment of his most difficult work And it is as if he had said O my Son what shall be done for thee this day thou hast finished a great work and in all the parts of it acquitted thy self as an able and faithful servant to me what honours shall I now bestow upon thee the highest glory in Heaven is not too high for thee come sit at my right hand O how well is he pleased with Christ and what he hath done He delighted greatly to behold him here at his work on earth and by a voice from the excellent glory he told him so when he called out of Heaven to him saying Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2 Pet. 1.17 and himself tells us Joh. 10.17 therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life c. for it was a work that the heart of God had been upon from eternity He took infinite delight in it Thirdly Christs sitting down at Gods right hand in Heaven notes the advancement of Christs humane nature to the highest honour even to be the object of adoration to Angels and men For it is properly his humane nature that is the subject of all this honour and advancement and being advanced to the right hand of majesty it 's become an object of worship and adoration Not simply as it is flesh and blood but as it is personally united to the second person and enthroned in the supream glory of Heaven O here 's the mysterie that flesh and blood should ever be advanced to the highest throne of Majesty and being there installed in that glory we may now direct our worship to him as God-man and to this end was his humanity so advanced that it might be adored and worshipped by all The Father hath commited all Iudgement to the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father And the Father will accept of no honour divided from his honour Therefore it 's added in the next clause he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him Joh. 5.22 23. Hence the Apostles in the salutations of their Epistles beg for grace mercy and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ and in their valedictions they desire the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Churches
p. 592 593. It is for Christs honour 595. Four Inferences from it p. 596 597. Justice it self discharges the believer p. 176. and p. 596. K. KIng what manner of King Christ is to the Saints p. 205.206 Kingly power of Christ exercised over believers p. 196 197. Kingdom of Christ in the soul how obtained p. 195 196. How Christ administers his spiritual Kingdom opened in five acts thereof p. 197 198. Spiritual priviledges of Christs Kingdom p. 201 202. Five discoveries of our subjection to Christs Kingdom p. 203 204. Know some know Christ yet as to themselves better they did not p. 8. Knowledge of Christ the very kernel of Scripture p. 3 4. His Knowledge fundamental to all graces duties and comforts p. 4 5. Knowledge of Christ very profound noble and sweet p. 5 6. It s preferrence to all other Knowledge in divers respects opened p. 6 7. Knowledge of Christ not to be concealed by thy dispensers of it p. 11. To whom we must go for knowledge p. 107. Eminent knowledge how it aggravates sin p. 304. L. LAw what need to pray for good Laws and good Executioners of them p. 322. Laziness in prayer condemned p. 292. Leaving our fears of God final leaving us how cured p. 457. Life how Christ was humbled in his life opened in divers particulars p. 237 238. Light divine light infused by Christ p. 102. Three excellent properties of it p. 118. Three great differences betwixt common and saving light p. 123 124. A Caution against unthankfulness for and abuse of light p. 125. Little words yea Syllable and Letters how great a weight may hang on them p. 53. Lives their preservation the effect of Christs care and watchful providence p. 216. Love how worthy Christ is of our love p. 21. Wherein Gods love was chiefly manifested p. 88 475. The love of the Father and Son not to be compared but admired p. 66. Christs love to the Saints the fairest pattern p. 79. The ardency of Christs love to Sinners p. 88. Saints obliged to love Christ p. 233. The great evidence of the strength of Christs love p. 225 226 c. M. MArks of persons given by the Father to Christ p. 36. Five marks to discover the Subjects of Christs Kingdom p. 203 204. no marks of grace more dangerous than those that come nearest true ones p. 333. Mediator Christ is so according to both his natures p. 90. What the import of the word is p. 84 85. Five things implyed in Christs being a Mediator p. 86 87 88. Christ the true and only Mediator evinced by three arguments p. 89 90. How dangerous to joyn any other Mediators with Christ. p. 92. Meekness under abuses Christ like p. 411. How dangerous to abuse meek spirits p. 415. A pattern of meekness proposed p. 416. Mercies of believers brought forth with great difficulty p. 354. Ministers the best rule to measure them and their doctrine by p. 108 109. A serious Caution to Ministers p. 10 11. How dangerous to despise Christs Ministers p. 64 65. How daring a sin to invade the office of the Ministry and why God permits it p. 65. Necessity of of a standing Ministry urged p. 104 105. Ministers their test and essential qualifications in six particulars p. 108 109. Misery of the ignorant opened in divers particulars p. 119 120. Moses and Christ compared p. 97. N. NAture our nature not united to Christ consubstantially Physically or Mystically p. 53 54. Necessary the finishing of Redemption work by Christ necessary on a threefold account p. 480 481 Necessity of a Priest evinced p. 131. Night Christs last night on earth how employed p. 266 28 283. O. OBedience to Christ must be universal p. 98 99. Obedience to Christ evidential of our interest in him p. 203 Oblation of Christ the fountain of our best mercies p. 150 151. The matter of Christs Oblation his own soul and body p. 141 842. The preciousness of that Oblation p. 142. Obligations to holiness from God the Father p. 604. Obligations to holiness from Christ. p. 608. Obligations to holiness from the spirit p. 609. Obligations from our selves p. 611 612. Obligations from our enemies p. 615. Offices what offices Christ was sealed to p. 68 69. Old men in an unconverted state objects of great pity p. 445. Opposition to Christ knowingly how dreadful p. 405. Ordinances of Christ the great efficacy and whence it arises p. 66. No power to operate on the heart in themselves p. 115 116. Ordinances not to be despised p. 64 65 571. Overplus of merit in Christ satisfaction Whence that overplus is p. 181 182. P. PAin there may be much pain but no curse in a believers death p. 351. Pains of Christ how great on the Cross p. 466. Christs pains in three respects greater than what the damned feel in Hell p. 468. Pardon God no loser in pardoning the greatest of sinners p. 176. Parents prayers for their Children how beneficial p. 262 26â— Patience of Christ almighty patience p. 388 389. Excellent properties of patience p. 389 390. The grounds and reasons of Christs patience 391 392 393. Eight excellent helps to patience p. 394 395 396. Pattern Christs desertion the pattern of ours in six respects p. 457 458. Patterns of holiness who are so p. 628. Perfection twofold Subjective and Effective both found in Christ. p. 479 480. Persecution followed Christ from the Cradle to the Cross p. 237. The greatest piety exempts not from it p. 244. Person of Christ extraordinary p. 73 74. Pilate who and what he was p. 318. Policy of Satan in chusing instruments p. 309. Poverty of Christ how great p. 239 240. Prayer a proper means to increase knowledge p. 107. Prayers of Saints presented by Christ p. 157. Christs last prayer what it was for the matter of it p. 285 286. What for quality p. 286 287. A singular relief against troubles to pray p. 289. Predication of the properties of each nature in concreto proper p. 57 58. Preferment spiritual by union with Christ. p. 21. Priesthood of Christ implyes six things p. 128 129. Priesthood of Christ defined p. 130. The necessity of Christs Priesthood evinced upon a double ground p. 131 132. He appears before God for us p. 168. Prejudices against Religion for its professors sake how unâ—ust p. 308. Price what Christs death being so called implyes p. 166. Properties of each nature distinct notwithstanding the hypostatical union in Christ. p. 56. Prophet Christ is so p. 97 98. Two parts of Christs prophetical office p. 96. The internal and principal part of it opened p. 113 114 c. Prosperity the ready way to attain it p. 219. Five things to be studied in it p. 220 221. Proverb of Sparta p. 419. Iewish Proverb p. 239. Proverb used in Gallens time p. 364. Providence its general influx on all creatures and their motion p. 209 210. Christ rules the providential Kingdom by seven acts p. 210 211. Its over-ruling wicked counsel p. 211