Sermon after Acts 2. 33. he then received it and visibly powred him out So Ephes 4. 8. it is said He ascended up on high and gave gifts unto men for the work of the Ministery ver 15 and for the joynting in of the Saints to the encrease of the body of Christ ver 16. that is for the converting of elect sinners and making them Saints And the gifts there mentioned some of them remain unto this day in Pastors and Teachers c. And this spirit is still in our preaching and in your hearts in hearing in praying c and perswades you of Christs love to this very day and is in all these the pledge of the continuance of Christs love still in Heaven unto sinners All our Sermons and your Prayers are evidences to you that Christs heart is still the same towards sinners that ever it was for the Spirit that assists in all these comes in his name and in his stead and works all by commission from him And doe none of you feele your hearts moved in the preaching of these things at this and other times and who is it that moves you it is the Spirit who speakes in Christs name from heaven even as himselfe is said to speake from heaven Heb. 12. 25. And when you pray it is the Spirit that endites your prayers and that makes intercession for you in your own hearts Rom. 8. 26. which Intercession of his is but the evidence and eccho of Christs Intercession in heaven The Spirit prayes in you because Christ prays for you he is an Intercessor on earth because Christ is an Intercessor in Heaven As he did take off Christs words and used the same that he before had uttered vvhen he spake in and to the Disciples the vvords of life so he takes off Christs prayers also when he prayes in us hee takes but the vvords as it were out of Christs mouth or heart rather and directs our hearts to offer them up to God He also follovvs us to the Sacrament and in that Glasse shews us Christs face smiling on us and through his face his heart and thus helping of us to a sight of him vve goe away rejoycing that we savv our Saviour that day Then secondly all those vvorks both of miracles and conversion of sinners in answer to the Apostles prayers are a demonstration of this What a handsell had Peters first Sermon after Christs Ascension when three thousand soules were converted by it The Apostles you know went on to preach forgivenesse through Christ and in his Name and to invite men to him and what signes and wonders did accompany them to confirme that their preaching and all were the fruits of Christs Intercession in heaven So that what he promised Iohn 14. 12. as an evidence of his minding them in heaven was abundantly fulfilled They upon their asking did greater works then he so Acts 4. 29 30. at the prayers of Peter And Heb. 2. 3 4. the Apostle makes an argument of it How shall we escape sayes he if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witnesse both with signes and wonders and with divers miracles c. Yea let me adde this that take all the New Testament and all the Promises in it and expressions of Christs love it was written all since Christs being in heaven by his Spirit and that by commission from Christ and therefore all that you find therein you may build on as his very heart and therein see that what he once said on earth he repealeth not a word now he is in heaven his mind continues the same And the consideration hereof may adde a great confirmation to our faith herein Thirdly some of the Apostles spake with him since even many yeeres after his Ascension Thus Iohn and Paul of which the last was in heaven with him and they both doe give out the same thing of him Paul heard not one Sermon of Christs that we know of whilst on earth and received the Gospel from no man Apostle or other but by the immediate Revelation of Jesus Christ from heaven as he speaks Gal. 1. 11 12. But he was converted by Christ himselfe from heaven by immediate speech and conference of Christ himselfe with him and this long after his Ascension And in that one instance Christ abundantly shewed his heart and purpose to continue to all sorts of sinners to the end of the world Thus in two places that great Apostle telleth us the first is 1 Timoth. 1. 13. I was a persecuter a blasphemer sayes he but I obtained mercie and the grace of our Lord namely Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant and upon this he declares with open mouth as it were from Christs own selfe who spake to him from Heaven that this is the faithfullest saying that ever was uttered that Christ came into the World to save sinners whereof I am chiefe sayes he ver 15. And to testifie that this was the very scope of Christ in thus converting of Paul himselfe and Pauls scope also in that place to Timothy to shew so much appears by what follows v. 16. For this cause I obtained this mercie that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to all them that should hereafter beleeve on him unto life everlasting It is expresse you see to assure all sinners unto the end of the world of Christ heart towards them this was his drift For this very cause sayes Paul The second place I alledge in proofe of this is the story of Pauls conversion where he diligently inserts the very words that Christ spake to him from heaven Acts 26. 16. which were these I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a witnesse to send thee to the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me Brethren these are Christs words since he went to Heaven and he tels Paul hee appeared unto him to testifie thus much This for Pauls conference with him Then againe sixty yeares after his Ascension did the Apostle Iohn receive a Revelation from him even when all the Apostles were dead for after all their deaths was that book written and that Revelation is said to be in a more immediate manner the Revelation of Iesus Christ so Chap. 1. 1. then any other of the Apostles writings and you read that Christ made an Apparition of himselfe to him and said I am he that was dead and am alive and live for evermore Chap. 1. 18. Now let us but consider Christs last words in that his last book the last that Christ hath spoken since he went to Heaven or that hee is to utter till the day of Judgement
this worke of Intercession for us and that in heaven to be added to all the former For the first I will proceede therein by degrees First It is one part of his Priest-hood You must know that Christ is not entred into heaven simply as a fore-runner which hath been explained to take up places for you but as a Priest also Made a Priest after the order of Melchisedec which is more then simply a Forerunner Yea his sitting at Gods right hand is not onely as a King armed with power and authority to save us but he sits there as a Priest too Thus Heb. 8. 1. We have such an High Priest who is set downe at the right hand of the Majesty on high In the old Leviticall Priest-hood Two parts of the High-Priests office the High-Priests office had two parts both which concurred to make them High-Priests First Oblation or offering the Sacrifice Secondly Presentation of it in the Holy of Holies with Prayer and Intercession unto God to accept it for the sinnes of the people The one was done without the other within the Holy of Holies This you may see in many places especially Levit. 16. 11 15 16. where you have the Law about the High Priests entring into the Holy of Holies he was not to come into the holy place till first he had offered a Sacrifice for himselfe and the people ver 11. and 15. and this without Then secondly when he had killed it he was to enter with the bloud of it into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the Mercie-seat therein with it ver 14 17. and to go with Incense and cause a cloud to arise over the Mercie-seat And this you have also Heb. 13. 11. it is said that The bloud of those beasts that were burnt without the Camp was brought into the Sanctuary by the High-Priest And in that 16. of Levit. you shall finde the Atonement made as well by the bloud when brought into the Holy place ver 16. as by the killing of the beast ver 11. Both these were acts of the High-priesthood for Atonement And this was done in a Type of the Priestly office of Christ and the parts thereof So Heb. 9. 23. he cals all those transactions under the Ceremoniall Law the patterns of things heavenly instancing in this part of Christs office ver 24. For Christ sayes he is not entred into the Holy places made without hands as that was which are the figures of the true but into heaven it selfe to appear in the presence of God for us Now then in answer to this Type there are two distinct parts of Christs Priesthood First 1. Christs offering up himselfe the offering himselfe a Sacrifice up to death as Heb. 9. 26. which answers to the killing of the Sacrifice without the Holy of Holies for answerably he was crucified without the City Heb. 13. 12. Secondly 2. Entring into the Heavens to Intercede he carryed this his bloud into the Holy of Holies namely the Heavens Heb. 9. 12. where he appeares ver 24. and there also prayes in the force of that bloud And the Type of those prayers was that cloud of Incense made by the High-Priest so it is expresly interpreted Rev. 8. 3. c. The Angel Christ is said to have had much Incense to offer it with the prayers of all the Saints Which Incense is his owne prayers in heaven which he continually puts up when the Saints pray on earth and so perfumes all their prayers and procures all blessings for them Both these parts of his Prist-hood the Apostle Iohn mentions in his first Epistle Both proved Chap. 2. ver 2. where as he cals Jesus Christ a propitiation for our sins that is an Oblation or Sacrifice offered up for us So likewise he cals him our Advocate both going to make up this his office And indeed this latter of Intercession and bringing his bloud into the Holy of Holies or heaven is but the same action continued That bloud which he offered with tears and strong cryes on the Crosse where he likewise interceded the same bloud he continues virtually to offer up with prayers in the heavens and makes Atonement by both onely with this difference On earth though he interceded yet he more eminently offered up himselfe In heaven he more eminently intercedes and doth but present that Offering Secondly this was so necessary a part of his Priest-hood that without it he had not been a compleat Priest Without Intercession he had not been a perfect Priest Thus Heb. 8. 4. If he were on earth he should not be a Priest That is If he should have abode on earth he should not have been a compleat Priest Paul saith not that if he had offered that his sacrifice on earth he had not been a Priest for that was necessary but that if he had staid still on earth after he had offered it he had not been a Priest that is a perfect Priest for he had then left his office imperfect and had done it but by halves seeing this other part of it the work of Intercession lay still upon him to be acted in heaven Thus the High-priest his Type if he had only offered Sacrifice without the Holy of holies had not been a perfect High-Priest For to enter into the Holy of holies and to act the part of a Priest there This the peculiar work of the High-Priest who was in this Christs Type was the proper peculiar work of the High-Priest as such Which shews that Christ had not been an High-Priest if he had not gone to heaven and Priested it there too as I may so speak as well as upon earth Yea if Christ had not gone to heaven and were not now become a Priest there then the Leviticall Priest-hood were still in force and should share the honour with him and the High-priest must continue still to goe into the Holy of holies To this purpose you may observe that so long as Christ was on earth though risen the Types of the Law held in force and were not to give way till all the truth signified by their Ministery was fully accomplisht and so not untill Christ was gone into heaven as a Priest and there had begun to doe all that which the High-priest had done in the Holy of holies and as his Type fore-signified And this is plainly the meaning of what follows in that Heb. 8. ver 4. as the reason or demonstration why that Christ should not have been a Priest if he had not gone to heaven not onely as a King but as a Priest too as he had affirmed ver 1. Seeing sayes he that there are Priests upon earth that doe offer gifts according to the Law The force of the Reason lyes thus There are already Priests and that of a Tribe he was not of that offer gifts on earth before he came into the world And therefore if that had beene all his Priest-hood to be a Priest on earth
taken from this that God hath put all power into his hand to doe what ever hee will hath made him his King to doe what pleaseth him either in Heaven Earth or Hell yea to doe all that God himselfe ever meanes to doe or all that God desires to doe And certainly if his Father hath beene so gracious to him as to bestow so high and absolute a soveraignty on him as to accomplish and effect what ever he meanes to do surely his purpose was never to deny Christ any request that he should after this make he would never have advanced the Humane nature to that absolutenesse else Those two great Monarchs made great grants and largesses the one to Esther the other to Herodias daughter but yet they were limited only to the halfe of their Kingdoms so Mar. 6. and Est 5. 6. and the royall power in their Kingdomes they meant still to retain and reserve wholly to themselves But God having placed Christ on his Throne bids him ask even to the whole of his Kingdome for God hath made him a King sitting on his Throne with him not to share halves but to have all power in heaven and earth He hath committed all judgement to the Sonne to save and condemne whom ever he will and so farre as the Kingdome of God goes or is extended he may doe any thing So Iohn 5. 21. As the Father raiseth up the dead so the Sonne quickneth whom he will for as the Father hath life in himselfe so hath he given to the Sonne to have life in himselfe ver 26. and hath in like manner given authority to execute judgement also as the Sonne of man namely of himselfe ver 27. as he had said He had given him to have life in himselfe ver 26. not dependently as we have but independently so to execute judgement also ver 27. So that Christs will is as free and himselfe as absolute a Monarch and King of himselfe as God himselfe is He indeed hath it not à seipso but in seipso not à seipso originally but from his Father but in seipso independently Now then Though Christ as King can command all things yet to honour his Father he intercedes for what himselfe commands if he who is King may and doth of himselfe command all that is done as absolutely as God himselfe doth I speak in respect of the execution of things downward by second causes if he over and above to honour his Father will aske all that himselfe hath power to doe what will not be done Qui rogat imperare potest He that can and doth command what ever he would have done and it is straight done if he shall ask and entreat what will not be done As a King who sues for Peace backt with a potent Army which is able to win what he entreats for must needs treat more effectually So doth Christ sue for every thing with power to effect it Remember that he is said here in the Text first to be at Gods right hand and then to intercede He treats the salvation of sinners as a mighty Prince treats the giving up some Towne to him which lyes seated under a Castle of his which commands that Towne hee stands treating with the Governour having his Ordnance ready for the battery and to bring all into subjection That this is a consideration upon which God denyes him nothing as 2 Cor. 10. 4. And this is a consideration that God himselfe took in that 2. Psal when he made him that promise Ask I will give thee why he made so large a grant He had said before ver 6. I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion which made him one would think past asking and above the condition of an Intercessour Now God sayes of him He is My King not in respect of his commanding God that were blasphemie to think but it is spoken in respect of commanding all below him God having set him in his Throne to doe as much as he himselfe would or meanes to have done sayes He is my King to rule all not so much under me as for me and in my stead yet absolutely and in himselfe The Father judgeth no man Now when the Father had first made and constituted him thus great a King then he bids him Ask to whom he had first given this absolute power to command We may without blasphemy say of this God-man that God hath not onely not the heart as being his Father but not the power to crosse any thing he doth Thus fast hath he God unto him Onely he who in respect of this his power is to be honoured as the Father as Iohn 5. 23. yet to honour his Father who gave this power originally to him as Mediatour He is to ask for that which of himselfe he yet can doe And therefore sayes God though thou art a King so ver 6. and all my Kingdome even the utmost ends of the earth are thine inheritance by a naturall right now that thou art my Sonne as verse 8. yet because thou art My King of my appointing and I have set thee on the Throne as the word is ver 6. and Thou art my Son and I have begotten thee therefore acknowledge my grant in all Ask of me and I will give thee the utmost ends of the earth for thy inheritance I cannot deny thee but I would have thee aske And therefore Christ asks Yet still withall remember that he asks who can command the thing to be done and yet as he must ask ere the thing be done so if he aske it must needs be granted These are the termes betweene this Father and this Sonne who in a word had not beene so great a Father if he had not had a Sonne thus great that himselfe could not deny what this Sonne would have done it is for his owne honour to have such a Sonne So Iohn 5. 23. That they might honour the Sonne as they honour the Father therefore All judgement is committed to him Now then if he who hath so much power will joyne the force of entreaty with a Father that so loves him if he who is The Word of his Father that commands creates and upholds all as Heb. 1. He spake and it was done if he will become a Word to his Father and speak a word for us and aske all that he means to doe how forcible will such words be Therefore observe Christs manner of praying How forcible Christs prayers and intercestion must needs be by an inference from the prevalencie of ours Iohn 17. which Prayer is a plat-form of Intercession in Heaven ver 24. Father I will that they whom thou hast given mee be where I am He prays like a King who is in joint commission with God If God puts that honour upon our Prayers that we are said to have power with God as Iacob Hos 12. 3. that if God be never so angry yet by taking hold of his strength
with which Christ was to deal after his ascending for them And because when before his death he had spoken of his going to his Father their hearts had been troubled Iohn 14. 28. they thinking it was for his owne preferment onely as Christs speech there implyes they did therefore he here distinctly addes I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God He had in effect spoken as much before in the words fore-going Goe tell my Brethren but that was onely implicitely therefore more plainly and explicitely he sayes it for their further comfort I goe to my Father and your Father And consider that Christ being now newly risen and having as yet not seen his Disciples and being now to send a message his first message a Gospel of good tidings to them and that in a briefe sentence by a woman he chooseth out this as the first word to be spoken from him now when he was come out of the other world at their first heare-say of his return he utters forth at once the bottome the depth of all comfort the summe of all joy then which the Gospel knows no greater nor can go higher So as if Christ should intend now at this day to send good news from Heaven to any of you it would be but this I am here an Advocate interceding with my Father and thy Father All is spoken in that Even He could not speake more comfort who is the God of comfort Now therefore let us apart consider these two relations which afford each of them their proper comfort and assurance both that Christ is ascended and intercedes with his own Father and also with Our Father and therefore how prevailing must this Intercession be First 1. That Christ intercedes with his Father Christ intercedes with his Father who neither will nor can deny him any thing To confirme this you have a double Testimony and of two of the greatest witnesses in Heaven both a Testimony of Christs owne whilst he was on Earth and Gods own word also declared since Christ came to Heaven The 1. in the 11. of Iohn whilst Christ was here on earth and had not as then fully performed that great service which he was to finish which since he having done it must needs ingratiate him the more vvith God his Father When Lazarus was now foure dayes dead Martha to move Christ to pittie her first tels him that if he had been there before her brother dyed that then he had not dyed and then as having spoke too little shee adds yea thou canst if thou pleasest remedie it yet But I know sayes she ver 22. that even now though he be so long dead what ever thou wilt ask of God God will give it thee Here was her confidence in Christs Intercession though this were a greater worke then ever yet CHRIST had done any And Christ seeing her faith in this he confirmes her speech when he came to raise him and takes a solemn occasion to declare that God had never denyed him any request that he had ever put up to him first thanking God particularly that he had heard him in this ver 41. Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me He had it seems prayed for the thing at her entreaty and now before the thing was done he being assured his prayer was heard gives thanks so confident was he of his being heard And then secondly shews upon what this his confidence at this time was grounded his constant experience that God had never denyed him any request for it follows ver 42. And I know that thou hearest me alwayes and therefore was so bold as to expresse my confidence in this before the thing was done but because of them who stood by I said it As if hee had said Though I gave this publique thanks for being heard onely in this one miracle and at no time the like so publiquely yet this is no new thing but thus it hath been alwayes hitherto in all the miracles I have wrought and requests I have put up which made me so to give thanks before-hand and this is not the first time that God hath heard me thus which I speak that they might beleeve Thus he was never denyed on earth from the first to the last For this was one of his greatest miracles and reserved unto the last even a few dayes before his crucifying And now he hath performed the service designed him and is come to heaven let us secondly heare God himselfe speake what hee meanes to doe for him You heard before when he came first to heaven what God said to him and how he welcommed him with a Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot-stool And before Christ opened his mouth to speak a word by way of any request to God which was the office that he was now to execute God himselfe prevented him and added Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee Ask of me and I will give thee Psal 2. ver 8. He speaks it at Christs first comming up to heaven when he had his King on his holy hill as ver 6. Christ was new glorifyed which was as a new begetting to him To day have I begotten thee And this is as if he had said I know you will ask me now for all that you have dyed for and this I promise you before-hand before you speak a word or make any request unto me you shall ask nothing but it shall be granted and this I speak once for all as a boone and a grace granted you upon your birth-day as the solemnest celebration of it for such was his Resurrection and Ascensision and sitting at Gods right hand This day have I begotten thee Ask of mee and I will give thee So full of joy was his Fathers heart that he had his Sonne in Heaven with him whom he had begotten from everlasting and ordained to this glory who was lately dead and in a manner lost and therefore now as it were new begotten Gods heart was so full that he could not hold from expressing it in the largest favours and grants And whereas Kings upon their own birth-dayes use to grant such favours to their favourites So Herod on his birth-day to the Daughter of Herodias promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask Mat. 14. 7. God himselfe having no birth-day nor being of himselfe capable of it yet having a Sonne who had he honours him with that grace upon that day and if Q. Esther a Subject yea a slave in her originall condition was so prevalent for the Iews her People and Nation when their case was desperate and when there was an irrevocable decree past and that not to be altered for their ruine and destruction then what will not Christ so great a Sonne even equall with his Father prevail for with his Father for his brethren be their case for the time past never so desperate be there never so
many threatnings gone out against them never so many presidents and examples of men condemned before for the like sins and in the like case yet Christ can prevaile against them all CHAP. IX The potencie of Christs Intercession demonstrated in that he intercedes with God who is Our Father How Gods heart is as much inclined to heare Christ for us as Christs is to intercede SEcondly Christ is an Advocate for us with Our Father You may perhaps think there is little in that but Christ puts much upon it yea so much as if that God would however grant all that Christ himselfe means to ask whether Christ asked it or no. This you have expresly in Iohn 16. 26 27. At that day sayes Christ you shall ask in my name and I say not to you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himselfe loveth you To open this place where he sayes at that day The day he meanes through this whole Chapter is that time vvhen the holy Ghost should be shed upon them for throughout his discourse he stil speaks of the fruits of his Ascension and of giving the Comforter vvhich vvas done upon his ascending and vvas the first fruits of his priestly office in Heaven Thus Peter informs us Act. 2. 33. He being sayes he exalted by the right hand of God and having received namely by asking Ask and I will give thee of the Father the promise of the holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which you now see and heare Now of that time vvhen he shall be in Heaven he sayes I say not that I will pray for you vvhich is not meant that Christ prays not for us in heaven but rather those very vvords are the highest intimation that he vvould and doth pray for us that can be When men vvould most strongly intimate their purpose of a kindnesse they mean to doe for one they use to say I doe not say that I love you or that I will doe this or that for you which is as much as to say I will surely doe it and doe it to purpose But Christs scope here is as in the highest manner to promise them that he would pray for them so withall further to tell them for their more abundant assurance and security that besides their having the benefit of his prayers God himselfe so loves them of himselfe that indeed that alone were enough to obtaine any thing at his hands which they shall but ask in his name so as he needs not pray for them and yet he will too But now in this case if he himselfe pray for them and they themselves in his name and both unto a Father who of himselfe loveth them and who hath purposed to grant all before either he or they should ask vvhat hope must there needs be then of a good successe this is both the meaning of this place and a great truth to be considered on by us to the purpose in hand That it is the meaning of the place the manner of Christs speech implies I say not that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himselfe loveth you It is such a speech as Christ used upon a cleane contrary occasion Iohn 5. 45. Doe not thinke sayes he that I will accuse you to the Father there is one who accuseth you even Moses c. He there threatens the obstinate and accursed Pharisees with condemnation Never stand thinking that it is I sayes he who am your onely enemie and accuser that will procure your condemnation and so prosecute the matter against you meerely for my own interest no I shall not neede to doe it though I should not accuse you your owne Moses in whom you trust he is enough to condemne you he will doe your errand sufficiently you would be sure to be damned by his words and sayings I shall not neede to trouble my selfe to come in and enter my action against you too Moses and his Law would follow the suit and be enough to condemne you to Hel. So as this Speech doth not implie that Christ will not at all accuse them no he meanes to bring in his action against them too for he after sayes If he had not spoke to them they had had no sinne and therefore he meant to bring the greatest accusation of all Now in an opposite though parallel speech here to comfort his Disciples he sayes I say not that I will pray for you that God may save you I who your selves shall see will dye for you I say not that I will pray for you not I. But though I speake this to insinuate in the highest manner that I will for if I spend my blood for you will I not spend my breath for you yet the truth is that the case so stands that but for Gods own ordination I should not neede to doe it for the Father himselfe loves you that is the Father of his own motion and proper good will taken up of himselfe towards you and not wrought in him by me doth love you and beares so much love to you as he can deny you nothing for he is your Father as well as mine How much more then shall you be saved when I shall strike in too and use all my interest in him for you Christ on purpose useth this speech so to dash out of their hearts that conceit which harboureth in many of ours who look upon God in the matter of Salvation as one who is hardly entreated to come off to save sinners and with whom Christ through the backwardnesse of his heart hath so much adoe and we are apt to think that when he doth come off to pardon he doth it only meerly at Christs entreaty and for his sake having otherwise no innate motion in himselfe sufficient to encline his heart to it but that it is in this transaction by Christ with him as a Favourite procures a Pardon for a Traitor whose person the King cares not for only at his Favourites suit and request he grants it which else he would never have done You are deceived sayes Christ it is otherwise my Fathers heart is as much towards you and for your salvations as mine is Himselfe of himselfe loveth you And the truth is that God took up as vast a love unto us of himselfe at first as ever he hath borne us since and all that Christ doth for us is but the expression of that love which was taken up originally in Gods owne heart Thus we find that out of that love he gave Christ for us So Iohn 3. 16. God so loved the world of elect that he gave his onely begotten Sonne to dye c. Yea Christs death was but a meanes to commend or set forth that love of his unto us So Rom. 5. 8. it was God also that did himselfe give the persons unto Christ and under-hand set him on work to mediate for them God was in Christ reconciling the World to himselfe He onely used
vvould have mee to doe for you and I have left my Spirit to be your Secretary and the Enditer of all your Petitions Hitherto you have asked nothing that is little in my name he blames them that they have asked him no more to doe for them but now ask and you shall receive And if otherwise you vvill not beleeve yet you shall beleeve your own eyes ask you shall see your selves answered presently and so Beleeve me sayes he for the very works sake Ioh. 14. 11. He speaks it of the works he would do for them in answer to their prayers when hee was gone which should be as so many Epistles of his heart returned in answer unto theirs For it follows ver 12. Hee that beleeveth on me shall do greater works then I because I goe to my Father So that it is manifest he speakes of the works done after his Ascension And how vvere they to get and procure them to be done By Prayer so it follows ver 13. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name that will I doe Hee speakes it of the time when he is gone And again he sayes in ver 14. If you shall ask any thing in my name I will doe it Let me but heare from you be it every weeke every day every houre you shall be sure of an answer Open your mouthes wide I will fill them And those your Prayers shall be as continuall tokens both of your hearts towards me and my answers shall be the like of mine to you And because Christ bids them direct their Letters their Prayers to the Father onely to send them in his name as Iohn 16. 23. and so they might perhaps not so cleerly know and discern that his heart was in the answer to them but his Fathers hand onely therefore hee adds twice in the 14. of Iohn I will doe it I will doe it He speakes like one as forward to doe for them as his Father is or should be and as desirous to have them knovv and take notice of his hand in it And it is as if he had said Though you ask the Father in my name yet all comes through my hands and I will doe it there must be my hand to the warrant for every thing that is done and my heart shall not be wanting In the fift place yet further to evidence his love he not onely bids them thus to pray to him and in his name upon all occasions but he assureth them that he himselfe will pray for them and observe but the manner of his telling them this it is in the most insinuating perswasive expressions to convey his heart in to them that men use to utter when they would intimate the deepest care and purpose to doe a thing Chap. 16. 26. At that day namely after his Ascension ye shall ask c. sayes he and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you no not I. I mentioned it afore I wil but add this illustration to it It is such a speech as men use when they would expresse the greatest reason that another hath to rest confident and assured of their love I doe not love you no not I. It is an expressing a thing by its contrary which is most emphaticall As when we say of a man that hath the greatest good turn done him that can be You are shrewdly hurt It is such an expression as Paul used to the Corinthians I converted your soules when you thought not of it I caught you with guile forgive mee this wrong So sayes Christ here I say not that I will pray for you when the truth is that it is the chiefest work that he doth in heaven He lives ever to intercede as he ever lives so to intercede ever and never to hold his peace till sinners are saved But the work of Christ in heaven is a subject deserves and will take up a distinct and large discourse I wil therefore speak no more of it now neither will I mention any more particulars out of this his Sermon Reade but over those 3. Chapters the 14 15 and 16. for in them you have the longest Sermon of his that is recorded and he stood the longest upon this theme of any other because indeed his heart was more in it then in any point that he ever preached on Onely if any object and say He spake all this to his Disciples to quiet and pacifie them and so more in respect to their trouble then otherwise he would have spoken In the sixt place reade but the next Chapter the 17. and you shall see that he presently goes apart and alone to his Father and speaks over all again unto him that which he had said unto them He sayes as much behind their backs of them as he had said before their faces to them Reade it and you will finde that he was the same absent that present with them He was therefore not onely hearty in what he had said but his heart was full of it That Chapter you know contains a Prayer put up just before his suffering and there he makes his Will his last request for in such a style it runs Father I will ver 24. which Will he is gone to see executed in Heaven And Arminius said true in that that this Prayer is left us by Christ as a summary of his intercession for us in Heaven he spake as he meant to doe in Heaven and as one that had done his worke and was now come to demand his wages I have finished thy work sayes he ver 4 c. And whereas he speakes a word or two for himself in the first 5. verses he speaks five times as many for them for all the rest of the Chapter is a Prayer for them He useth all kind of Arguments to move his Father for his children I have finished the work which thou gavest me to doe sayes he and to save them is thy work which remains to be done for mee by thee and they are thine and thou gavest them me and I commend to thee but thine owne And all mine are thine and thine are mine He insinuates that he of himselfe had not added a man but useth all his interest onely for those that the Father had given him and what a motive is this and he professeth he wil not open his mouth for a man more I pray not for the world sayes he I will not open my lips for any one sonne of perdition but I employ all my Blood my Prayers and my whole interest with thee but for those thy selfe hast given me And sayes he though thou hast given me a personall glory which I had before the World was yet there is another glory which I account of almost as much and that is in their being saved I am glorifyed in them sayes he ver 10. and they are my joy ver 13. and therefore I must have them with mee where ever I am ver 24. Thou
all I know thy workes thy labour and thy patience c. Rev. 22. He therewithall hath an act of memory and recalls how himself was once affected and how distressed whilst on earth under the same or the like miseries For the memory of things here below remaines still with him as with all spirits in either of those two other worlds heaven or hell Son remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill c. sayes Abraham to the soule of Dives in hell Luke 16. 25. Remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome said the good theefe to Christ And Revel 1. I am hee sayes Christ that was dead and am alive Hee remembers his death still and the sufferings of it and as he remembers it to put his Father in mind thereof so he remembers it also to affect his owne heart with what we feele And his memory presenting the impression of the like now afresh unto him how it was once with him hence he comes feelingly and experimentally to know how it is now with us and so affects himselfe therewith as Dido in Virgil Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco Having experience of the like miseries though a Queene now I know how to succour those that are therein As God said to the Israelites when they should be possessed of Canaan their own land Exo. 23. 9. Ye know the hearts of strangers seeing ye were strangers c. and therefore doth command them to pitty strangers and to use them well upon that motive So may it be said of CHRIST that he doth know the hearts of his children in misery seeing himselfe was once under the like Or as the Apostle exhorts the Hebrews Heb. 13. 3. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them that suffer adversity as being your selves in the body and so ere you die may come to suffer the like So Christ the Head of the body which is the fountaine of all sense and feeling in the body doth remember them that are bound and in adversity having himselfe beene once in the body and so he experimentally compassionates them And this is a further thing then the former We have gained this further That Christ hath not onely such affections as are reall and proper to an humane nature but such affections as are stirred up in him from experience of the like by himselfe once tasted in a fraile nature like unto ours And thus much for the way of letting in all our miseries into Christs heart now so as to strike and affect it with them §. II. A more particular disquisition What manner of affection this is The Seat thereof whether in his spirit or soule onely or the whole humane nature Some Cautions added BUt concerning this Affection it selfe of pity and compassion fellow-feeling and sympathie or suffering with as the Text calls it which is the product result or thing produced in his heart by these there still remaines another thing more particularly to be inquired into namely What manner of affection this is For that such an affection is stirred up in him besides and beyond a bare act of knowledge or remembrance how once it was with himselfe is evident by what we find in the Text. The Apostle sayes not onely that he remembers how himselfe was tempted with the like infirmities that we are though that be necessarily supposed but that he is struck and toucht with the feeling of our infirmities to the producing of which this act of remembrance doth but subserve And he tels us Christ is able and his heart is capable of thus being toucht And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a deep word signifying to suffer with us untill we are relieved And this affection thus stirred up is it which moveth him so cordially to helpe us Now concerning this affection as here thus expressed how far it extends and how deep it may reach I think no man in this life can fathome If Cor Regis the heart of a King be inscrutable as Solomon speaks the heart of the King of Kings now in glory is much more I will not take upon me to intrude into things which I have not seen but shall endeavour to speak safely and therefore warily so far as the light of Scripture and right reason shall warrant my way I shall set it forth three wayes 1. Negatively 2. Positively 3. Privatively 1. Negatively It is certaine that this affection of sympathie or fellow-feeling in Christ is not in all things such a kind of affection as was in him in the dayes of his flesh Which is cleare by what the Apostle speaks of him and of his affections then Heb. 5. 7. Who in the dayes of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryings and teares was heard in that which he feared Where we see his converse and state of life here below to be called by way of difference and distinction from what it is now in heaven The dayes of his flesh By flesh meaning not the substance of the humane nature for he retaines that still but the fraile quality of subjection to mortality or passibility So Flesh is usually taken as when all flesh is said to be grasse It is spoken of mans nature in respect to its being subject to a fading wearing and decay by outward casualties or inward passions So in this Epistle Chap. 2. 14. For as much as the children we his brethren did partake of flesh and bloud that is the frailties of mans nature he himselfe also took part of the same And accordingly the Apostle instanceth in the following words of that 14. verse as in death which in the dayes of his flesh Christ was subject to so also in such fraile passions and affections as did work a suffering in him and a wearing and wasting of his spirits such as passionate sorrow joyned with strong cryes and teares both which he mentioneth and also feare in those words He was heard in that which he feared Now these dayes of his flesh being over and past for this was onely as sayes the Apostle in the dayes of his flesh hence therefore all such concomitant passionate overflowings of sorrow feare c. are ceased therewith and he is now no way capable of them or subjected to them Yet 2. Positively why may it not be affirmed that for substance the same kinde of affection of pittie and compassion that wrought in his whole man both body and soule when he was here workes still in him now he is in heaven If this Position be allayed with those due cautions and considerations which presently I shall annexe For if for substance the same flesh and blood and animall spirits remaine and have their use for though Christ in Luke 24. 29. mentioned only his having flesh and bones after his resurrection unto Thomas and the other Disciples because these two alone were to be the object of his Touch and Feeling yet Blood