visitation Lastly If your work be not finished when you come to die you can never finish your lives with comfort He that hath not finished his work with care can never finish his course with joy Oh what a dismal case is that soul in that finds it self surprized by death in an unready posture To lie shivering upon the brink of the grave saying Lord what will become of me O I cannot I dare not die For the poor soul to shrink back into the body and cry Oh it were better for me to do any thing than die Why what 's the matter Oh I am in a Christless state and dare not go before that awful Judgement-seat If I had in season made Christ sure I could then die with peace Lord what shall I do How dost thou like this Reader Will this be a comfortable close When one asked a Christian that constantly spent six hours every day in prayer why he did so He answered O I must die I must die Well then look it that ye finish your work as Christ also did his The THIRTY SIXTH SERMON LUK. XXIII XLVI And when Iesus had cried with a loud voice he said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost THese are the last of the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross with which he breatheth out his soul. They were Davids words before him Psal. 31.5 and for substance Stephens after him Act. 7.57 They are words full both of faith and comfort Fit to be the last breathings of every gratious soul in this world They are resolvable into these five particulars The Person depositing or committing The Lord Iesus Christ who in this as well as in other things acted as a common person as the head of the Church This must be remarked carefully for therein lies no small part of a believers consolation When Christ commends his soul to God he doth as it were bind up all the souls of the Elect in one bundle with it and solemnly present them all with his to his Fathers acceptance To this purpose one aptly sences it This commendation made by Christ turns to the singular profit and advantage of our souls in as much as Christ by this very prayer hath delivered them into his Fathers hand as a pretious treasure when ever the time comes that they are to he loosed from the bodies which they now inhabit Jesus Christ neither lived nor dyed for himself but for believers What he did in this very act refers to them as well as to his own Soul You must look therefore upon Christ in this last and solemn act of his life as gathering all the souls of the Elect together and making a solemn tender of them all with his own soul to God Secondly The depository or person to whom he commits this pretious treasure and that was his own Father Father into thy hands I commit Father is a sweet encouraging assuring Title Well may a Son commit any concernment how dear soever into the hand of a Father Especially such a Son into the hands of such a Father By the hands of the Father into which he commits his soul we are not to understand the naked or meer power but the Fatherly acceptation and protection of God Thirdly The depositum or thing committed into this hand my Spirit i. e. my soul now instantly departing upon the very point of separation from my body The soul is the most pretious of all treasures it 's call'd the darling Psal. 35.17 Or the only one i. e. that which is most excellent and therefore most dear and pretious A whole world is but a trifle if weighed for the price of one soul Matth. 16.26 This inestimable treasure he now commits into his Fathers hands Fourthly The Act by which he puts it into that faithful hand of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I commend We rightly render it in the present tense though the word be future For with these words he breathed out his Soul This word is of the same import with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I present or tender it unto thy hands It was in Christ an act of Faith A most special and excellent act intended as a president for all his people Fifthly And Lastly the last thing observable is the manner in which he uttered these words And that was with a loud voice He spake it that all might hear it and that his enemies who judged him now destitute and forsaken of God might be convinced that he was not so But that he was dear to his Father still and could put his soul confidently into his hands Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Taking then these words not only as spoken by Christ the Head of all believers and so commending their souls to God with his own but also as a pattern teaching them what they ought to do themselves when they come to die We observe DOCT. That dying believers are both warranted and encouraged by Christs example believingly to commend their pretious Souls into the hands of God Thus the Apostle directs the Faith of Christians to commit their souls to Gods tuition and Fatherly protection when they are either going into prisons or to the stake for Christ 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them saith he that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator This Proposition we will consider in these two main branches of it sc. what is implied and carryed in the souls commending it self to God by Faith when the time of separation is come And what warrant or encouragement gratious souls have for their so doing First What is implyed in this Act of a believer his commending or committing his soul into the hands of God at Death And if it be throughly weighed you will find these six things at least carried in it First It implies this evidently in it that the soul out-lives the body and fails not as to its being when its body fails It feels the house in which it dwelt dropping into ruins and looks out for a new habitation with God Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit The soul understands it self a more noble being than that corruptible body to which it was united and is now to leave in the dust It understands its relation to the Father of spirits and from him it expects protection and provision in its unbodied state and therefore into his hands it puts it self If it vanished or breathed into air and did not survive the body if it were annihilated at death it were but a mocking of God to say when we die Father into thy hand I commend my Spirit Secondly It implies the souls true rest to be in God See which way its motions and tendencies are not only in life but in death also It bends to its God It rolls it even puts
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
men are as it were asleep now in their bodies at Death they awake and find themselves in the world of realities Let this teach you both how to carry your selves towards dying persons when you visit them and to make every day some provision for that hour your selves Be serious be plain be faithful with others that are stepping into Eternity be so with your own souls every day O remember what a long word what an amazing thing Eternity is Especially considering DOCT. 2. That all believers are at their death immediately received into a State of glory and eternal happiness This day shalt thou be with me This the Atheist denies he thinks he shall die and therefore resolves to live as the Beasts that perish Beryllus and some others after him taught that there was indeed a â—uture state of happiness and misery for souls but that they pass not into it immediatly upon death and separation from the body but shall sleep till the Resurrection and then awake and enter into it But is not that soul asleep or worse that dreams of a sleeping soul till the Resurrection Are souls so wounded and prejudiced by their separation from the body that they cannot subsist or act separate from it Or have they found any such conceit in the Scriptures Not at all The Scriptures take notice of no such interval but plainly enough denies it 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Mark it no sooner parted from the body but present with the Lord. So Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better If his soul was to sleep till the Resurrection how was it far better to be dissolved than to live Sure Pauls state in the body had-been far better than his state after death if this were so for here he enjoyed much sweet communion with God by Faith but then he should enjoy nothing To confirm this dream they urge Ioh 14.3 If I go my way I will come again and receive you to my self As if the time of Christs receiving his people to himself should not come until his second coming at the end of the world But though he will then collect all believers into one body and present them solemnly to his Father yet that hinders not but he may as indeed he doth receive every particular believing soul to himself at death by the Ministry of Angels And if not how is it that when Christ comes to judgement he is attended with ten thousands of his Saints that shall follow him when he comes from heaven Iude 14. you see then the Scriptures put no interval betwixt the dissolution of a Saint and his glorification It speaks of the Saints that are dead as already with the Lord. And the wicked that are dead as already in Hell calling them Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 20. assuring us that Iudas went presently to his own place Acts 1.25 and to that sence is the Parable of Dives and Lazarus Luk. 16.22 But let us weigh these four things more particularly for our full satisfaction in this point Arg. 1. First Why should the happiness of believers be deferred since they are immediatly capable of enjoying it assoon as separated from the body Alas the soul is so far from being assisted by the body as it is now for the enjoyment of God that it 's rather clog'd and hindred by it so speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. our bodies prejudice our souls obstruct and hinder the fulness and freedom of their communion When we part from the body we go home to the Lord. Then the soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Cage or Snare Here I am prevented by an excellent Pen which hath judiciously opened this point To whose excellent observations I only add this that if the intanglements snares and prejudices of the soul are so great and many in its embodied estate that it cannot so freely dilate it self and take in the comforts of God by communion with him then surely the laying aside of that clog or the freeing of the soul from that burden can be no bar to its greater happiness which it enjoys in its separated state Arg. 2. Secondly Why should the happiness and glory of the soul be deferred unless God had some farther preparative work to do upon it before it be fit to be admitted into glory But surely there is no such work wrought upon it after its separation by death All that is done of that kind is done here When the compositum is dissolved all means duties and ordinances are ceased The working day is then ended and night come when no man can work Ioh. 9.3 To that purpose are those words of Solomon Eccles. 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor devise in the Grave whither thou goest So that our glorification is not deferred in order to our fuller preparation for glory If we are not fit when we die we can never be fit All is done upon us that ever was intended to be done For they are called Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of the Just made perfect Arg. 3. Thirdly Again why should our Salvation slumber when the damnation of the wicked doth not slumber God defers not their misery and surely he will not defer our glory If he be quick with his enemies he will not be slow and dilatory with his friends It cannot be imagined but he is as much inclined to acts of favour to his Children as to acts of Justice to his enemies these are presently damned Iud. 7. Acts 1.25 1 Pet. 3.19 20. and what reason why believers all believers as well as this in the Text should not be that very day in which they die with Christ in Glory Arg. 4. Fourthly And lastly how do such delays consist with Christs ardent desires to have his people with him where he is And with the vehement longings of their souls to be with Christ You may see those reflected flames of Love and desire of mutual enjoyment betwixt the Bridegroom and his Spouse in Revel 22.17 20. Delays make their hearts sick The expectation and Faith in which the Saints die is to be satisfied then and surely God will not deceive them I deny not but their glory will be more compleat when the body their absent friend is reunited and made to share with them in their happiness Yet that hinders not but mean while the soul may enjoy its glory whilst the body takes its rest and sleeps in the Dust. Inference 1. Are believers immediatly with God after their dissolution then how surprizingly glorious will Heaven be to believers Not that they are in it before they think of it or are fitted for it no they have spent many thoughts upon it before and
rose at that time also Yet it was by the vertue of Christs Resurrection that their Graves were opened and their bodies quickned In which respect he saith Ioh. 11.25 when he raised dead Lazarus I am the Resurrection and the life i. e. the principle of life and quickning by which the dead Saints are raised Fourthly And therefore it may be truly affirmed that though some dead Saints were raised to life before the Resurrection of Christ yet that Christ is the first-born from the dead as he is call'd Col. 1.18 For though Lazarus and others were raised yet not by themselves but by Christ. It was by his vertue and power not their own And though they were raised to life yet they died again Death recovered them again but Christ dieth no more Death hath no dominion over him He was the first that opened the womb of the Earth the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence Fifthly But lastly Christ rose as a publick or common person As the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 I desire this may be well understood â—or upon this account it is that our Resurrection is secured to us by the Resurrection of Christ and not a Resurrection only but a blessed and happy one for the first fruits both assured and sanctified the whole crop or harvest Now that Christ did rise as a publick person representing and comprehending all the Elect who are called the children of the Resurrection is plain from Eph. 2.6 Where we are said to be risen with or in him So that as we are said to die in Adam who also was a common person as the branches die in the death of the root so we are said to be raised from death in Christ who is the head root and representative of all his Elect seed And why is he called the first-born and first begotten from the dead but with respect to the whole number of the Elect that are to be born from the dead in their time and order also and as sure as the whole harvest follows the first fruits so shall the general Resurrection of the Saints to life eternal follow this birth of the first-born from the dead It shall surely follow it I say and that not only as a consequent follows an antecedent but as an effect follows its proper cause Now there is a three fold causality or influence that Christs Resurrection hath upon the Saints Resurrection of which it is both the meritorious efficient and exemplary cause First The Resurrection of Christ is the meritorious cause of the Saints Resurrection as it compleated his satisfaction and finished his payment and so our Justification is properly assigned to it as before was noted from Rom. 4.25 This his Resurrection was the receiving of the acquittance the cancelling of the bond And had not this been done we had still been in our sins as he speaks 1 Cor. 15.17 And so our guilt had been still a bar to our happy Resurrection But now the price being paid in his Death which payment was finished when he revived and the discharge then received for us now there is nothing lies in bar against our Resurrection to eternal life Secondly As it is the meritorious cause of our Resurrection so so it is the efficient cause of it also For when the time shall come that the Saints shall rise out of the dust they shall be raised by Christ as their head in whom the effective principle of their life is Your life is hid with Christ in God as it is Col. 3.3 As when a man awakes out of sleep the animal spirits seated in the brain being set at liberty by the digestion of those vapours that bound them up do play freely through every part and member of the body so Christ the believers mystical head being quickned the spirit of life which is in him shall be diffused through all his members to quicken them also in the morning of the Resurrection Hence the warm animating dew of Christs Resurrection is said to be to our bodies as the dew of the morning is to the withered languishing plants which revive by it Isa. 26.19 Thy dew is as the dew of Herbs and then it follows the earth shall cast forth her dead So that by the same Faith we put Christs Resurrection into the Premises we may put the believers Resurrection into the Conclusion And therefore the Apostle makes them convertibles reasoning forward from Christs to ours and back again from ours to his 1 Cor. 15.12 13. Which is also the sence of that Scripture Rom. 8.10 11. And if Christ be in you the body indeed is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness i. e. though you are really united to Christ by the Spirit yet your bodies must die as well as other mens but your souls shall be presently upon your dissolution swallowed up in life And then it follows vers 11. But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you i. e. though your bodies must die yet they shall live again in the Resurrection and that by vertue of the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in you and is the bond of your mystical union with him your head You shall not be raised as others are by a meer word of power but by the spirit of life dwelling in Christ your head which is a choice prerogative indeed Thirdly Christs Resurrection is not only the meritorious and efficient cause but it is also the exemplary cause or pattern of our Resurrection He being the first and best is therefore the pattern and measure of all the rest So you read Phil. 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Now the Conformity of our Resurrection to Christs stands in the following particulars Christs body was raised substantially the same so will ours His body was raised first so will ours be raised before the rest of the dead His body was wonderfully improved by the Resurrection so will ours His body was raised to be glorified and so will ours First Christs body was raised substantially the same that it was before and so will ours Not another but the same body Upon this very reason the Apostle usâ—s that idential expression 1 Cor. 15.53 This corruptible must put on incorruption and thâ— mortal immortality Pointing as it were to his own body when he spake it the same body I say and that not only Specifically the same for indeed no other Species of flesh is so priviledged but the same numerically that very body not a new or another body in its steed So that it shall be both the what it was and the who it was And indeed to deny this is to deny the Resurrection it self For should God prepare
When thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrection of the Iust. It was the opinion of an eminent modern Divine that no man living fully understands and believes that Scripture Matth. 25.40 In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me How few Saints would be exposed to daily wants and necessities if that Scripture were but fully understood and believed Inference 3. Is Christ risen from the dead and that as a publick person and representative of believers How are we all concerned then to secure to our selves an interest in Christ and consequently to this blessed Resurrection What consolation would be left in this world if the hope of the Resurrection were taken away 'T is this blesed hope that must support you under all the Troubles of life and in the Agonies of Death The securing of a blessed Resurrection to your selves is therefore the most deep concernment you have in this world And it may be secured to your selves if upon serious heart examination you can discover the following Evidences Evidence 1. First If you are regenerated Creatures brought forth in a new nature to God for we are begotten again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead Christs Resurrection is the ground-work of our hope And the new birth is our title or evidence of our interest in it So that until our souls are partakers of the spiritual Resurrection from the death of sin we can have no assurance our bodies shall be partakers of that blessed Resurrection to life Blessed and holy saith the Spirit is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Rev. 20.6 Never let unregenerated souls expect a comfortable meeting with their bodies again Rise they shall by Gods terrible Citation at the sound of the last trump but not to the same end that the Saints arise nor by the same principle They to whom the spirit is now a principle of Sanctification to them he will be the principle of a joyful Resurrection See then that you get gratious souls now or never expect glorious bodies then Evid 2. If you be dead with Christ you shall live again by the life of Christ. If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Planted together some refer it to believers themselves Jews and Gentiles are planted together in Christ. So Erasmus believers grow together like branches upon the same root which should powerfully inforce the great Gospel duty of unity among themselves But I would rather understand it with reference to Christ and believers with whom believers are in other Scriptures said to suffer together and be glorified together to die together and live together to be Crucified together and buried together all noting the communion they have with Christ both in his death and in his life Now if the power of Christs death i. e. the mortifying influence of it have been upon our hearts killing their Lusts deading their affections and flatting their appetites to the Creature then the power of his life or Resurrection shall come like the animating dew upon our dead withered bodies to revive and raise them up to live with him in glory Evid 3. If your hearts and affections be now with Christ in Heaven your bodies in due time shall be there also and conformed to his glorious body So you find it Phil. 3.20 21. For our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body The body is here called vile or the body of our vileness Not as God made it but as sin hath marred it Not absolutely and in it self but relatively and in comparison of what it will be in its second edition at the Resurrection Then those scattered bones and dispersed dust like pieces of old broken battered Silver will be new cast and wrought in the best and newest fashion even like to Christs glorious body Whereof we have this evidence that our conversation is already heavenly The temper frame and disposition of our souls is already so therefore the frame and temper of our bodies in due time shall be so Evid 4. If you strive now by any means to attain the Resurrection of the dead no doubt but you shall then attain what you now strive for This was Pauls great ambition that by any means he might attain the Resurrection of the dead Phil. 3.11 He means not simply a Resurrection from the dead for that all men shall attain whether they strive for it or no. But by a metonymy of the Subject for the Ajunct he intends that compleat holiness and perfection which shall attend the state of the Resurrection so it is expounded vers 12. So then if God have raised in your hearts a vehement desire and assiduous endeavour aftâ—r a perfect freedom from sin and full Conformity to God in the beauties of holiness that very love of holiness your present pantings and tendencies after perfection speaks you to be persons designed for it Evid 5. If you are such as do good in your Generation If you be fruitful and useful men and women in the world you shall have part in this blessed Resurrection Ioh. 5.29 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life Now it is not every act materially good that entitles a man to this priviledge but the same requisites that the School-men assign to make a good prayer are also necessary to every good work The person matter manner and end must be good Nor is it any single good act but a series and course of holy actions that is here meant What a spur should this be to us all as indeed the Apostle makes it closing up the Doctrine of the Resurrection with this solemn exhortation 1 Cor. 15. Last with which I also close mine Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift The FORTIETH SERMON JOH XX. XVII Iesus saith unto her touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God IN all the former Sermons we have been following Christ through his Humiliation from the time that he left the blessed bosom of his Father and now having finished the whole course of his obedience on
my heart O see with what a full consent the heart of Christ closeth with the Fathers Offers and Proposalls like some Eccho that answers your voice twice or thrice over So doth Christ here answer his Fathers call I come I delight to do thy will yea thy Law is in my heart And thus you see the Articles to which they both Subscribed or the Terms they agreed on I will briefly shew how these Articles and agreements were on both parts performed and that precisely and punctually to a tittle For 1. the Son having thus consented accordingly he applies himself to the discharge of his work He took a body in it fulfill'd all righteousness even to a tittle Math. 3.15 And at last his soul was made an offering for Sin So that he could say as it is Ioh. 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do He went through all the parts of his active and passive obedience chearfully and faithfully 2. The Father made good his engagements to Christ all along with no less faithfulness than Christ did his He promised to assist and hold his band and so he did Luke 22.43 And there appeared to him an Angell from heaven strengthening him That was one of the sorest brunts that ever Christ met with it was seasonable aid and succour He promised to accept him in his work and that he should be glorious in his eyes so he did For he not only declared it by a voice from heaven Luk. 3.22 Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased But it was fully declared in his resurrection and ascention which were a full discharge and Justification of him He promised him that he should see his seed and so he did for his very birth dew was as the dew of the morning and ever since his blood hath been fruitfull in the world He promised gloriously to reward and exalt him and so he hath Phil. 2.9 10 11. And that highly and supereminently giving him a name above every name in heaven and earth Thus were the Articles performed Lastly when was this compact made betwixt the Father and Son I answer It bears date form eternity Before this world was made then were his delights in us While as yet we had no existance but only in the infinite mind and purpose of God who had decreed this for us in Christ Jesus as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 1.9 What grace was that which was given us in Christ before the world began but this grace of redemption which from everlasting was thus contrived and designed for us in that way which hath been here opened Then was the council or consultation of peace betwixt them both As some sence that Scripture Zach. 6.13 Next let us apply it to our selves Vse The first Use that offers it self to us from hence is the abundant security that God hath given the Elect for their salvation and that not only in respect of the covenant of Grace made with them but also of this Covenant of redemption made with Christ for them which indeed the foundation of the covenant of Grace Gods single promise is security enough to our faith his covenant of grace adds ex abundanti further security but both these viewed as the effects and fruits of this covenant of redemption makes all fast and sure In the covenant of grace we question not the performance on Gods part but are often stumbled at the grand defects on our parts but when we look to the covenant of Redemption there 's nothing to stagger our faith both the foederates being infinitly able and faithfull to perform their parts so that there is no possibility of a failure there Happy were it if puzled and perplext Christians would turn their eyes from the defects that are in their own obedience to the fullness and compleatness of Christs obedience and see themselves compleat in him when most lame and defective in themselves Hence also be informed that God the Father and God the Son do mutually rely and trust to one another in the business of our redemption The Father relies upon the Son for the performance of his part as it is Isa. 42.1 Behold my servant whom I uphold Montanus turns it on whom I lean or depend As if the Father had said behold what a faithful Servant I have chosen in whom my soul is at rest I know he will go through with his work I can depend upon him And to speak plain the Father so far trusted Christ that upon the credit of his promise to come into the world and in the fulness of time to become a Sacrifice for the Elect he saved all the old Testament Saints whose faith also respected a Christ to come with reference whereunto it is said Heb. 11.39 40. That they received not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect i. e. without Jesus Christ manifested in the flesh in our times though believed on as to come in the flesh in their times And as the Father trusted Christ so doth Christ in like manner depend upon and trust his Father For having performed his part and left the world again he now trusteth his Father for the accomplishment of that promise made him Isa. 53.10 That he shall see his seed c. He depends upon his Father for all the Elect that are behind yet unregenerated as well as those already called that they shall be all preserved unto the heavenly Kingdom according to that Ioh. 17 11. And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come unto thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me And can it be imagined that the Father will fail his trust who every way accquitted himself so punctually to the Father It cannot be Vse 3. Moreover hence we infer the validity and unquestionable success of Christs intercession in heaven for believers You read Heb. 7.25 That he ever lives to make intercession And Heb. 12.24 That his blood speaks for good things for them Now that his blood shall obtain what it pleads in heaven for is undoubted and that from the consideration of this covenant of redemption for here you see that the things he now asks of his Father are the very same which his Father promised him and Covenanted to give him before this world was so that besides the interest of the person the very equity of the matter speaks its success and requires performance whatever he asks for us is as due to him as the wages of the hyrling when the work is ended if the work be done and done faithfully as the father hath acknowledged it is then the reward is due and due immediatly and no doubt but he shall receive it from the hands of a righteous God Vse 4. Hence in like manner you may be informed of the consistency of
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
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
sinners such a fair Foundation to rest their trembling Consciences upon While poor distressed Souls look to themselves they are perpetually puzled That 's the cry of distressed natural conscience Mica 6.6 Where with shall I come before the Lord the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how shall I prevent or anticipate the Lord and so Montanus renders it in quo preoccupabo Dominum conscience sees God arming himself with wrath to avenge himself for sin crys out O how shall I prevent him If he would accept the fruit of my body those dear pledges of nature for the sin of my Soul he should have them But now we see God coming down in flesh and so intimately uniting our flesh to himself that it hath no proper subsistance of its own but is united with the Divine person hence it 's easie to imagine what worth and value must be in that blood and how eternal love springing forth triumphantly from it flourishes into Pardon Grace and Peace Here is a way in which the sinner may see Justice and Mercy kissing each other and the latter exercised freely without prejudice to the former All others Consciences through the world lie either in a deep sleep in the Devils arms or else are rouling Sea sick upon the waves of their own fears and dismal presages O happy are they that have dropt Anchor on this ground and not only know they have peace but why they have it Vse 5. Oh how great concernment is it that Christ should have Vnion with our particular persons as well as with our common nature For by this Union with our nature alone never any man was or can be Saved Yea let me add that this Union with your natures is utterly in vain to you and will do you no good except he have union with your persons by faith also It is indeed infinite mercy that God is come so near you as to dwell in your flesh and that he hath fitted such an excellent Method to save poor sinners in And hath he done all this Is he indeed come home even to your own doors to seek Peace Doth he vail his unsupportable glory under flesh that he might treat thee more familiarly And yet do you refuse him and shut your hearts against him Then hear one word and let thine ears tingle at the sound of it thy sin is hereby aggravated beyond the sin of Devils who never sin'd against a Mediator in their own nature who never despised or refused because indeed they were never offered terms of Mercy as you are And I doubt not but the Devils themselves who now tempt you to reject will to all Eternity upbraid your folly for rejecting this great Salvation which in this excellent way is brought down even to your own doors Vse 6. If Jesus Christ have assumed our nature Then he is sensibly toucht with the infirmities that attend it and so hath pity and compassion for us under all our burdens And indeed this was one end of his assuming it that he might be able to have compassion on us as you read Heb. 2.17.18 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them hat are tempted O what a comfort is this to us that he who is our High-Priest in Heaven hath our nature on him to enable him to take compassion on us Vse 7. Seventhly Hence we see To what an height God intends to build up the happiness of man in that he hath layed the Foundation thereof so deep in the incarnating of his own Son They that intend to build high use to lay the Foundation low The happiness and glory of our Bodies as well as Souls is founded in Christs taking our flesh upon him For therein as in a Model or Pattern God intended to shew what in time he resolves to make of our Bodies For he will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transform our vile Bodies and make them one day conformable to the glorious Body of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.21 This flesh was therefore assumed by Christ that in it might be shewn as in a Pattern how God intends to honour and exalt it And indeed a greater honour cannot be done to the nature of man than what is already done it by this grace of union Nor are our persons capable of an higher glory than what consists in their conformity to this glorious head Indeed the flesh of Christ will ever have a distinct glory from ours in Heaven by reason of this Union For being the the Body which the word assumed it is two ways advanced singularly above the Flesh and Blood of all other men viz. Subjectively and Objectively Subjectively it is the Flesh and Blood of God Acts 20.28 And so hath a distinct and incommunicable glory of its own And Objectively it is the Flesh and Blood which all the Angels and Saints adore But though in these things it be supereminently exalted yet it is both the Medium and Pattern of all that glory which God designs to raise us to Vse 8. Lastly How wonderful a comfort is it that he who dwells in our Flesh is God! What Joy may not a poor believer make out of this What comfort one made out of it I will give you in his own words I see it a work of God saith he that experiences are all lost when Summons of improbation to prove our Charters of Christ to be counterfeit are raised against poor Souls in their heavy Tryals But let me be a sinner and worse than the chief of Sinners yea a guilty Devil I am sure my well beloved is God And my Christ is God And when I say my Christ is God I have said all things I can say no more I would I could build as much on this My Christ is God as it would bear I might lay all the world upon it God and Man in one Person Oh thrice happy conjunction As Man he is full of experimental sence of our Infirmities Wants and Burdens and as God he can support and and supply them all The aspect of Faith upon this wonderful Person how relieving how reviving how abundantly satisfying is it God will never divorce the believing Soul and its comfort after he hath marryed our nature to his own Son by the Hypostatical and our persons also by the blessed Mystical Union The SIXTH SERMON JOH VI. XXVII For him hath God the Father Sealed YOU have heard Christs compact or agreement with the Father in the Covenant of Redemption As also what the Father did in pursuance of the ends thereof in giving his Son out of his bosom c. Also what the Son hath done towards it in assuming Flesh. But though the glorious work be thus far advanced yet all he
should act in that assumed Body had been invallid and vain without a due call and Commission from the Father so to do Which is the import of the words now before you This Scripture is a part of Christs excellent reply to a self-ended generation who followed him not for any Spiritual excellencies that they saw in him or Soul advantages they expected by him but for bread Insteed of making his service their meat and drink they only served him that they might eat and drink Self is a thing may creep into the best hearts and actions but it only predominates in the Hypocrite These people had sought Christ from place to place and having at last found him they salute him with an impertinent complement Rabbi when camest thou hither vers 25. Christs reply is partly disswasive and partly directive He disswades them from puting the secondary and subordinate in the place of the principal and ultimate end Not to prefer their Bodies to their Souls Their fleshly accommodations to the glory of God Labour not for the meat that perisheth Wherein he doth not take them off from their lawful labours and callings but he disswades them first from minding these things too intently and secondly he disswades them from that odious Sin of making Religion but a pretence for the belly And it is partly directive and that in the main end and business of Life But labour for that meat which endures to Eternal Life To get bread for your Souls to live Eternally by And that he might engage their diligence in seeking it to purpose he shews them not only where they may have it Which the Son of Man shall give you but also how they may be fully satisfied that he hath it for them in the clause I have pitched on For him hath God the Father Sealed In these words are three parts observable First The Person Sealing or investing Christ with Authority and Power Which is said to be God the Father Though all the Persons in the Godhead are equal in nature dignity and power yet in their operation there is an order observed among them The Father sends the Son The Son is sent by the Father The Holy Ghost is sent by both Secondly The Subject in which God the Father lodges this Authority Him that is the Son of Man Jesus Christ he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first receptacle of it And he must here be understood exclusively God the Father hath so Sealed him as he never Sealed any other before him or that shall arise after him No name is given in heaven or earth but this name by which we are Saved Acts 4.12 The government is upon his shoulders Isa. 9. Thirdly Here is farther observable the way and manner of the Fathers delegating and committing this Authority to Christ. And that is by Sealing him Where we have both a Metonymie the Symbal of Authority being put for the Authority it self And a Metaphor Sealing which is a humane act for the ratifying and confirming an Instrument or grant being here applied to God Like as Princes by Sealed Credentials confirm the Authority of those that are sent by them As the Dutch Annatators well express the meaning of it Hence we Note DOCT. That Iesus Christ did not of himself undertake the work of our Redemption but was solemnly Sealed unto that work by God the Father When I say he did not of himself undertake this work I mean not that he was unwilling to go about it for his heart was as fully and ardently engaged in it as the Fathers was so he tells us Psal. 4.7 Loe I come to do thy will O God thy Law is in my heart But the meaning is he came not without a due call and full commission from his Father And so it is to be understood in opposition to intrusion not voluntary susception And this is the meaning of that Scripture Ioh. 8.42 I proceeded and came from God neither came I of my self but he sent me And this the Apostle plainly expresseth and fully clears Heb. 5.4 5. And no man taketh this honour to himself but he that is call'd of God as was Aaron so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son And on the account of these Sealed Credentials he received from his Father he is called the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession Heb. 3.1 i. e. One called and sent forth by the Fathers Authority Our present business then is to open Christs commission and view the great Seal of Heaven by which it was ratified And to preserve a clear Method in the explication of this great truth into which your Faith and comfort is resolved I shall First shew what was the work and office to which the Father Sealed him Secondly What his Sealing to this work doth imply Thirdly How and by what acts the Father Sealed him to it Fourthly Why it was necessary that he should be thus Sealed and authorized by his Father And then improve it in its proper Uses What was that office or work to which his Father Sealed him I answer more generally he was Sealed to the whole work of mediation for us thereby to recover and save all the elect whom the Father had given him So Ioh. 17.2 It was to give Eternal Life to as many as were given him It was to bring Iacob again to him Esa. 49.5 Or as the Apostle expresses it Pet. 3.18 That he might bring us to God More particularly in order to the sure and full effecting of this most glorious design he was Sealed to the offices of a Prophet Priest and King that so he might bring about and compass this work First God Sealed him a commission to Preach the glad tidings of Salvation to sinners This commission Christ opened and read in the audience of the people Luk. 4.18 19 20 21. And when he had opened the Book he found the place where it is written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath annointed me to Preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted to Preach deliverance to the Captives and the recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised To Preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the Book c. And he began to say unto them this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears He also Sealed him to the Priesthood and that the most excellent Authorizing him to execute both the parts of it viz. Oblatory and intercessory He call'd him to offer up himself a Sacrifice for us I have power saith he to lay down my Life this commandment have I received of my Father Joh. 10.18 And upon that account his offering up of his Blood is by the Apostle stiled an act of obedience as it is Phil. 2.8 He became obedient unto death He also call'd him to intercede for us Heb. 7.21 24 25.
Sacrifice he must be such as the Law required pure and spotless Fifthly His sanctifying himself for our sakes speaks the strength of his Love and largeness of his heart to poor sinners thus to set himself wholly and entirely apart for us So that what he did and suffered must all of it have a respect and relation to us He did not when consecrated for us live a moment do an act or speak a word but it had some tendency to promote the great design of our Salvation He was only and wholly and always doing your work when consecrated for your sakes His Incarnation respects you Esa. 9.6 For us a Child is born to us a Son is given And he would never have been the Son of man but to make you the Sons and Daughters of God God would not have come down in the likeness of sinful flesh in the habit of a man but to raise up sinful man into the likeness of God All the miracles he wrought were for you to confirm your Faith When he raised up Lazarus Joh. 11.42 Because of the people which stand by I said it that they might believe that thou hast sent me While he lived on earth he lived as one wholly set apart for us And when he dyed he dyed for us Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us When he hanged on that cursed tree he hang'd there in our room and did but fill our place When he was buried he was buried for us For the end of it was to perfume our Graves against we come to lie down in them And when he rose again it was as the Apostle saith for our Iustification Rom. 4.25 When he ascended into glory he protested it was about our business That he went to prepare places for us And if it had not been so he would have told us Ioh. 14.2 And now he is there it is for us that he there lives For he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 And when he shall return again to Judge the world he will come for us too He comes when ever it be to be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 2 Thes. 1.10 He comes to gather his Saints home to himself that where he is there they all may be in Soul and Body with him for ever Thus you see how as his Consecration for us doth speak him set a part for our use so he did wholly bestow himself time life death and all upon us Living and Dying for no other end but to accomplish this great work of Salvation for us Sixthly His sanctifying himself for us plainly speaks the Vicegerency of his death that it was in our room or stead When the Priest Consecrated the Sacrifice it was set apart for the people So it 's said of the scape Goat And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins puting them upon the head of the Goat And shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the Wilderness Levit. 16.21 Thus Isa. 53.6.7 He stood in our room to bear our burden And as Aaron laid the iniquities of the people upon the Goat so were ours laid on Christ. It was said to him in that day on thee be their Pride their Unbelief their hardness of heart their vain thoughts their earthly mindedness c. Thou art Consecrated for them to be the Sacrifice in their room His death was in our stead as well as for our good And so much his sanctifying himself for us imports Seventhly His sanctifying himself imports the extraordinariness of his Person For it speaks him to be both Priest Sacrifice and Altar all in one A thing unheard of in the world before So that his name might well be called wonderful I sanctifie my self I sanctifie according to both natures My self that is my humane nature which was the Sacrifice upon the Altar of my Divine nature For 't is the Altar that sanctifies the gift As the three offices never met in one Person before so these three things never met in one Priest before The Priests indeed Consecrated the bodies of Beasts for Sacrifice but never offered up their own Souls and Bodies as a whole burnt offering as Christ did And thus you have the import of this phrase I sanctifie my self for their sake Secondly I shall shew you briefly the habitude and respect that all this hath to us For unto us the Scriptures every where refer it So in 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us Eph. 5.2 He loved the Church and gave himself for it See Tit. 2.14 This will be made out by a three fold consideration of Christs Death And First Let it he considered that he was not offered up to God for his own Sins For he was most holy Isa 53.9 No iniquity was found in him Indeed the Priests under the Law offered for themselves as well as the people But Christ did not do so Heb. 7.27 He need not daily as those High-Priests to offer up Sacrifice first for his own Sins and then for the peoples And indeed had he been a sinner what value or efficacy could have been in his Sacrifice He could not have been the Sacrifice but would have needed one Now if Christ were most holy and yet put to death and cruel sufferings either his Death and sufferings must be an act of injustice and cruelty or it must respect others whose persons and cause he sustained in that suffering capacity He could never have suffered or dyed by the Fathers hand had he not been a sinner by imputation And in that respect as Luther speaks he was the greatest of sinners Or as the Prophet Isaiah speaketh all our sins were made to meet upon him Not that he was so intrinsecally but was made so sc. by imputation As is clear from 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us that had no sin So that hence it 's evident that Christs Death or Sacrifice is wholly a respective or relative thing Secondly It is not to be forgotten here that the Scriptures frequently call the death of Christ a price 1 Cor. 6.20 And a ransom Matth. 20.28 Or counterprice To whom then doth it relate but to them that were and are in bondage and captivity If it were to redeem any it must be captives but Christ himself was never in Captivity He was always in his Fathers bosom as you have heard but we were in cruel bondage and thraldom under the Tyranny of sin and Satan And it 's we only that have the benefit of this ransom Thirdly Either the death of Christ must relate to believers or else he must die in vain As for the Angels those that stood in their integrity needed no Sacrifice and those that fell are totally excluded from any benefit by it He is not a Mediator for them And among men
can command or open the heart We may stand and knock at mens hearts till our own ake but no opening till Christ come He can fit a key to all the cross wards of the will and with sweet efficacy open it and that without any force or violence to it These things are carried in this part of his office Consisting in opening the heart Which was the first thing propounded for explication Secondly In the next place let us see by what acts Jesus Christ performs this work of his and what way and method he takes to open the heart of Sinners And there are two principal ways by which Christ opens the understandings and hearts of men viz. By His word And spirit First by his word to this end was Paul commissionated and sent to preach the Gospel Act. 26.18 To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God The Lord can if he pleases accomplish this immediately but though he can do it he will not do it ordinarily without means because he will honour his own institutions Therefore you shall observe that when Lydia's heart was to be opened there appeared unto Paul a man of Macedonia who prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us Act. 19.9 God will keep up the reputation of his ordinances among men And though he hath not tyed himself yet he hath tyed us to them Cornelius must send for Peter God can make the earth produce corn as it did at first without cultivation and labour but he that shall now expect it in the neglect of means may perish for want of bread Secondly But the ordinances in themselves cannot do it as I noted before and therefore Jesus Christ hath sent forth the Spirit who is his Pro Rex his vicegerent to carry on this work upon the hearts of his Elect. And when the Spirit comes down upon Souls in the administration of the ordinances he effectually opens the heart to receive the Lord Jesus by the hearing of faith He breaks in upon the understanding and conscience by powerful convictions and compunctions so much that word Iohn 16.8 imports he shall convince the world of Sin Convince by clear demonstration such as inforces assent so that the Soul can not but yeeld it to be so And yet the door of the heart is not opened till he have also put forth his power upon the will and by a sweet and secret efficacy overcome all it's reluctations and the Soul be made willing in the day of his power When this is done the heart is opened Saving light now shines in it and this light set up by the Spirit in the Soul is First a new light in which all things appear far otherwise than they did before The name of Christ and Sin the word Heaven and Hell have an other sound in that mans ears than formerly they had When he comes to read the same Scriptures which possibly he had read an hundred times before he wonders he should be so blind as he was to over look such great weighty and concerning things as he now beholds in them and saith where were mine eyes that I could never see these things before Secondly It is a very affecting light A light that hath heat and powerful influences in it which makes deep impressions on the heart Hence they whose eyes the great Prophet opens are said to be brought out of darkness into his marvelous light 1 Pet. 2.9 The Soul is greatly affected with what it sees The beams of light are contracted and twisted together in the mind and being reflected on the heart and affections soon cause them to smoak and burn Did not our hearts burn within us whilst he talked with us and opened to us the Scriptures Thirdly And it is a growing light Like the light of the morning which shines more and more unto a perfect Day Prov. 4.18 When the Spirit first opens the understanding he doth not give it at once a full sight of all truths or a full sence of the power sweetness and goodness of any truth but the Soul in the use of means grows up to a greater clearness day by day It 's knowledge grows extensively in measure and intensively in power and efficacy And thus the Lord Jesus by his Spirit opens the understanding Now the use of this follows in 5. practical deductions Inference 1. If this be the work and office of Jesus Christ to open the understandings of men Hence we infer the misery that lyes upon those men whose understandings to this day Iesus Christ hath not opened Of whom we may say as it is Deut. 29.4 To this day Christ hath not given them eyes to see Natural blindness whereby we are deprived of the light of this world is sad but spiritual blindness is much more sad See how dolefully their case is represented 2 Cor. 4.3 4. But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them He means a total and final concealment of the saving power of the word from them Why what if Jesus Christ withhold it and will not be a Prophet to them what is their condition truly no better than lost men It is hid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them that are to perish or be destroyed This blindness like the covering of the face or tying the handkerchief over the eyes is in order to their turning off into Hell More particularly because the point is of deep concernment let us consider First the Iudgement inflicted and that 's spiritual blindness A sore misery indeed Not anuniversal ignorance of all truths O no in natural and moral truths they are often times acute and sharpe sighted men but in that part of knowledge which wrape up eternal life Iohn 17.2 there they are utterly blinded As it 's said of the Iews upon whom this misery lies that blindness in part is happened to Israel They are learned and knowing persons in other matters but they know not Jesus Christ there is the grand and sad defect Secondly the subject of this Judgement the mind which is the eye of the soul. If it were but upon the body it would not be so considerable this falls immediately upon the soul the noblest part of man and upon the mind the highest and noblest faculty of the soul whereby we understand think and reason This in Scripture is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirit The intellectual rational faculty which Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the leading directive faculty which is to the soul what the natural eye 〈◊〉 to the body Now the soul being the most active and restless thing in the world always working and its leading directive power blind Judge what a sad and dangerous state such a soul is in Just like a fiery high metled
Horse whose eyes are out furiously carrying his rider among rocks pits and dangerous precipices I remember Chrysostom speaking of the loss of a soul saith that a loss of a member of the body is nothing to it for saith he if a man lose an eye Ear Hand or Foot there is another to supply its want Omnia Deus dedit duplicia God hath given us those members double animam verò unam but he hath not given us two souls that if one be lost yet the other may be saved Surely it were better for thee Reader to have every member of thy body made the seat and subject of the most exquâ—site racking torments than for spiritual blindness to befall thy soul. Moreover Thirdly Consider the indiscernableness of this Iudgement to the soul on whom it lies They know it not no more than a man knows that he is asleep Indeed it 's the spirit of a deep sleep poured out upon them from the Lord. Isa. 29.10 Like that which befel Adam when God opened his side and took out a Rib. This renders their misery the more remediless Because ye say you see therefore your sin remaineth Joh. 9.41 Once more Fourthly Consider the tendency and effects of it What doth this tend to but eternal ruine For hereby we are cut off from the only remedy The soul that 's so blinded can neither see sin nor a Saviour but like the Aegyptians during the palpable darkness sits still and moves not after its own recovery And as ruine is that to which it tends so in order thereto it renders all the ordinances and duties under which that soul comes altogether useless and ineffectual to its salvation He comes to the word and sees others melted by it but to him it signifies nothing O what a heavy stroke of God is this most wretched is their case to whom Jesus Christ will not apply this eye salve that they may see Did you but understand the misery of such a state if Christ should say to you as he did to the blind man Matth. 20.33 What wilt thou that I shall do for thee you would return as he did Lord that my eyes may be opened Inference 2. If Jesus Christ be the great Prophet of the Church then surely he will take special care both of the Church and the under shepherds appointed by him to feed them Else both the objects and instruments upon and by which he executes his office must fail and consequently this glorious office be in vain Hence he is said to walk among the golden Candlesticks Revel 1.13 and Rev. 2.1 to hold the Stars in his right hand Jesus Christ instrumentally opens the understandings of men by the preaching of the Gospel and whilst there is an elect soul to be converted or a convert to be farther illuminated means shall not fail to accomplish it by Inference 3. Hence you that are yet in darkness may be directed to whom to apply your selves for saving knowledge It 's Christ that hath the soveraign eye salve that can cure your blindness He only hath the key of the house of David he openeth and no man shutteth O that I might perswade you to set your selves in his way under the ordinances and cry to him Lord that my eyes may be opened Three things are marvelously incouraging to you so to do First God the Father hath put him into this Office for the cure of such as you be Isa. 49.6 I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my salvation to the ends of the earth This may furnish you with an argument to plead for a cure Why do you not go to God and say Lord didst thou give Jesus Christ a Commission to open the blind eyes Behold me Lord such a one am I a poor dark ignorant soul. Didst thou give him to be thy salvation to the ends of the earth No place nor people excluded from the benefit of this light and shall I still remain in the shadow of death O that unto me he might be a saving light also The best and most excellent work that ever thou wroughtest brings thee no glory till it come into the light O let me see and admire it Secondly It 's incouraging to think that Iesus Christ hath actually opened the eyes of them that were as dark and ignorant as you now are He hath revealed those things to babes that have been hid from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.25 The Law of the Lord is perfect making wise the simple Psal. 19.7 And if you look among those whom Christ hath enlightned you will not find many wise after the flesh many mighty or Noble but the foolish weak base and despised These are they on whom he hath glorified the riches of his grace 1 Cor. 26.27 Thirdly And is it not yet further incouraging to you that hitherto he hath mercifully continued you under the means of light Why is not the light of the Gospel put out Why are times and seasons of grace continued to you if God have no further design of good to your souls Be not therefore discouraged but wait on the Lord in the use of means that you may yet be healed If you ask what can we do to put our selves into the way of the spirit in order to such a cure I say that though you cannot do any thing that can make the Gospel effectual yet the spirit of God can make those means you are capable of using effectual if he please to concur with them And it is a certain truth that your inability to do what is above your power doth no way excuse you from doing what is within the compass of your power to do I know no act that is saving can be done without the concurrence of special grace yea and no act that hath a remote order and tendency thereunto without a more general concourse of Gods assistance but herein he is not behind hand with you Let me therefore advise First That you dilligently attend upon an able faithful and searching ministry Neglect no opportunity God affords you for how know you but that may be the time of mercy to your souls If he that lay so many years at the Pool of Bethesda had been wanting but that hour when the Angel came down and troubled the waters he had not been healed Secondly Satisfie not your selves with hearing but consider what you hear Allow time to reflect upon what God hath spoken to you What power is there in man more excellent or more appropriate to the reasonable nature than its reflexive and self considering power There is little hope of any good to be done upon your souls untill you begin to go alone and become thinking men and women Here all conversion begins I know a severer task can hardly be imposed upon a carnal heart It 's a hard thing to bring a man and himself together upon this acccount But this must be if ever the Lord
equivalent to a universal and is as much as if he had said to all and every Saint from the beginning to the end of the world Lastly He commends it from its perpetuity It perfects for ever That is it is of everlasting efficacy It shall abide as fresh vigorous and powerful to the end of the world as it was the first moment it was offered up All runs into this sweet truth DOCT. That the Oblation made unto God by Iesus Christ is of unspeakable value and everlasting efficacy to perfect all them that are or shall be Sanctified to the end of the world Out of this fountain flow all the excellent blessings that believers either have or hope for Had it not been for this there had been no such things in rerum natura as Justification Adoption Salvation c. peace with God and hopes of glory pardon of sin and divine acceptation These and all other our best mercies had been but so many entia rationis meer conceits A man as one saith might have haply imagined such things as these as he may golden Mountains and Rivers of liquid gold and rocks of Diamonds but these things could never have had any real existance extramentem had not Christ offered up himself a Sacrifice to God for us It is the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot to God that purges the Conscience from dead works Heb. 9.14 That is from the sentence of condemnation and death as it is reflected by Conscience for our works sake His appearing before God as our Priest with such an offering for us is that which removes our guilt and fear together He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 Now for as much as the point before us is of so great weight in it self and so fundamental to our safety and comfort I shall endeavour to give you as distinct and clear an accompt of it as can consist with that brevity which I must necessarily use And therefore Reader apply thy mind attently to the consideration of this excellent Priest that appears before God and the Sacrifice he offers with the properties and adjuncts thereof The Person before whom he brings and to whom he offers it The Persons for whom he offers and the end for which this Oblation is made First The Priest that appears before God with an Oblation for us is Jesus Christ God-man The dignity of whose person dignified and derived an inestimable worth to the offering he made There were many Priests before him but none like unto him either for the purity of his person or the perpetuity of his Priesthood They were sinful men and offered for their own sins as well as the sins of the people Heb. 5.3 But he was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.2 He could stand before God even in the eye of his Justice as a Lamb without spot Though he made his soul an offering for sin yet he had done no iniquity nor was any guile found in his mouth Isa. 53.9 And indeed his offering had done us no good if the least taint of sin had been found on him They were mortal men that continued not by reason of death Heb. 7.23 But Christ is a Priest for ever Psal. 110.4 Secondly The Oblation or offering he made was not the blood of beasts but his own blood Heb. 9.12 And herein he transcended all other Priests that he had something of his own to offer He had a body given him to be at his own dispose to this use and purpose Heb. 10.10 He offered his body Yea not only his body but his soul was made an offering for sin Isa. 53.10 We had made a forfeiture of our souls and bodies by sin and it was necessary the Sacrifice of Christ should be answerable to the debt we owed And when Christ came to offer his Sacrifice he stood not only in the capacity of a Priest but also in the capacity of a surety and so his soul stood in the stead of ours and his body in the stead of our bodies Now the excellency of this Oblation will appear in the following adjuncts and properties of it This Oblation being for the matter of it the soul and body of Jesus Christ is therefore First Invaluably pretious So the Apostle stiles it 1 Pet. 1.19 Ye were redeemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the pretious blood of the Son of God And such it behoved him to offer For it being offered as an expiatory Sacrifice it ought to be aequivalent in its own intrinsick value to all the souls and bodies that were to be redeemed by it And so it was and more also for there was a redundancy of value an overplus of merit which went to make a purchase for the redeemed as will be opened in its place So that as one rich-Diamond is more worth than a thousand Pebbles one piece of Gold than a many Counters so the soul and body of one Christ is much more excellent than all the souls and bodies in the world And yet I dare not affirm as some do that by reason of the infinite pretiousness of Christs blood one drop thereof had been sufficient to have redeemed the whole world for if one drop had been enough why was all the rest even to the last drop shed Was God cruel to exact more from him than was needful and sufficient Besides we must remember that the passions of Christ which were inflicted on him as the curse of the Law these only are the passions which are sufficient for our redemption from the curse of the Law now it was not a drop of blood but death which was contained in the curse This therefore was necessary to be inflicted But surely as none but God can estimate the weight and evil of sin so none but he can comprehend the worth and pretiousness of the blood of Christ shed to expiate it And being so infinitely pretious a thing which was offered up to God it must Secondly Needs be a most compleat and alsufficient Oblation fully to expiate the sins of all for whom it was offered in all ages of the world The vertue of this Sacrifice reacheth backward as far as Adam and reacheth forward to the last person of of the Elect springing from him That the efficacy of it thus reached back to Adam is plain for on the account thereof he is stiled the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13.8 And to the same sence a Judicious Expositor understands those words of Christ. Joh. 8.58 before Abraham was I am And look as the Sun at mid-day extends his light and influence not only forward towards the West but also backward towards the East where he arose so did this most efficacious Sacrifice reach all the Elect in the vertue of it who died before Christ came in the flesh It is therefore but a vain cavil that some make against the
SERMON GAL. III. XIII Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us YOU have seen the general nature necessity and parts of Christs Priesthood viz. his Oblation and Intercession Before you part from this office it 's necessary you should further take into consideration the principal fruits and effects of his Priesthood Which are compleat Satisfaction and the Aquisition or purchase of an eternal inheritance The former viz. the satisfaction made by his blood is manifestly contained in this excellent Scripture before us wherein the Apostle having shewn before at the tenth verse that whosoever continues not in all things written in the Law to do them is cursed declares how notwithstanding the threats of the Law a Believer comes to be freed from the curse of it Namely by Christs bearing that curse for him and so satisfying Gods justice and discharging the Believer from all obligations to punishment More particularly in these words you have the Believers discharge from the curse of the Law and the way and manner thereof opened First The Believers discharge Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law The Law of God hath three parts Commands Promises and Threatnings or Curses The Curse of the Law is its condemning sentence whereby a sinner is bound over to deaâ—h even the death of soul and body The chains by which it binds him is the guilt of sin and from this none can loose the soul but Christ. This curse of the Law is the most dreadful thing imaginable It strikes at the life of the sinner Yea his best life the eternal life of the soul. And when it hath condemned it is inexorable No cries nor tears no reformations or repentance can loose the guilty sinner for it requirâ—s for its reparation that which no meer creature can give even an infinite satisfaction Now from this curse Christ frees the Believer That is he dissolves the obligation to punishment Cancels the hand-writing Looses all the bonds and chains of guilt So that the curse of the Law hath nothing to do with him for ever Secondly We have here the way and manner in an by which this is done And that is by a full price paid down and that price paid in the room of the sinner both making up a compleat and full satisfaction He pays a full price every way adequate and proportionable to the wrong So much this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate redeemed imports He hath bought us out or fully bought us That is by a full price This price with which he so fully bought or purchased our freedom from the curse is not only called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 20.28 a ransom But more emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Tim. 2.5.6 which might be translated an adequate or fully answerable ransom And so his freeing us by this price is not only expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast bought us to God by thy blood Rev. 5.9 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath fully perfectly bought us out And as the price or ransom paid was full perfect and sufficient in it self so it was paid in our room and upon our account So saith the Text by his being made a curse for us The meaning is not that Christ was made the very curse it self Changed into a curse no more than when the word is said to be made flesh the divine nature was converted into flesh but it assumed or took flesh and so Christ he took the curse upon himself Therefore it 's said 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us who knew no sin That is our â—in was imputed to our surety and laid upon him for satisfaction And so this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for implies a substitution of one in the place and stead of another Now the price being full and paid in lieu of our sins and thereupon we fully redeemed or delivered from the curse It follows as a fair and just deduction that DOCT. The death of Christ hath made a full satisfaction to God for all the sins of his Elect. He to wit our surety Christ was oppressed and he was afflicted saith the Prophet Isai. 53.7 it may be as fitly rendred and the words will bear it without the least force it was exacted and he answered But how being either way translated it establisheth the satisfaction of Christ may be seen in our learned Annotations on that place So Col. 1.14 in whom we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin Here we have the benefit viz. redemption interpreted by way of Apposition even the remission of sins and the matchless price that was laid down to purchase it the blood of Christ. So again Heb. 9.12 by his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal redemption for us Here 's eternal redemption the mercy purchased His own blood the price that procur'd it Now for as much as this Doctrine of Christs satisfaction is so necessary weighty and comfortable in it self and yet so much opposed and intricated by several enemies to it the method I shall take for the clearing establishing and preparing it for use shall be First To open the nature of Christs satisfaction and shew what it is Secondly To establish the truth of it and prove that he made full satisfaction to God for all the sins of the Elect. Thirdly To answer the most considerable Objections made against it And Lastly to Apply it First What is the satisfaction of Christ and what doth it imply I answer Satisfaction is the Act of Christ God-man presenting himself as our surety in obedience to God and love to us to do and suffer all that the Law required of us and thereby freeing us from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins First It is the Act of God-man no other was capable of giving satisfaction for an infinite wrong done to God But by reason of the union of the two natures in his wonderful person he could do it and hath done it for us The humane nature did what was necessary in its kind it gave the matter of the Sacrifice the divine nature stampt the dignity and value upon it which made it an adequate compensation So that it was opus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the act of God-man Yet so that each nature retained its own properties notwithstanding their joynt influence into the effect If the Angels in Heaven had laid down their lives or if the blood of all the men in the world had beeen poured out by Justice this could never have satisfied because that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worth and value which this Sacrifice hath would have still been wanting It was God that redeemed the Church with his own blood Act. 20.28 If God redeem with his own blood he redeems as God-man without any dispute Secondly If he
hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Iesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith That spirit that at first sanctified and since hath so often sealed comforted directed resolved guided and quickned your souls had not come to perform any of these blessed Offices upon your hearts if Christ had not died Thirdly All Eternal good things are the purchase of his blood Heaven and all the glory thereof is purchased for you that are Believers with this price Hence that glory whatever it be is called an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you to the lively hope whereof ye are begotten again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Not only present mercys are purchased for us but things to come also As it is 1 Cor. 3.22 Man is a prudent and prospecting creature and is not satisfied that it 's well with him for present unless he have some assurance it shall be well with him for time to come His mind is taken up about what shall be hereafter and from the good or evil things to come he raiseth up to himself vast hopes or fears Therefore to compleat our happiness and fill up the uttermost capacity of our souls all the good of eternity is put into the account and Inventory of the Saints Estate and Inheritance This happiness is ineffable It 's usually distinguisht into what is essential and what is accessory to it The essentials of it as we in our embodied state can conceive is either the Objective Subjective or Formal happiness to be enjoyed in Heaven The Objective happiness is God himself Psal. 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee If it could be supposed saith one that God should withdraw from the Saints in Heaven and say take Heaven and divide it among you but as for me I will withdraw from you the Saints would fall a weeping in Heaven and say Lord take Heaven and give it to whom thou wilt it 's no Heaven to us except thou be there Heaven would be a very Bokim to the Saints without God In this our glory in Heaven consists to be ever with the Lord. 1 Thes. 4.17 God himself is the chief part of a Saints inheritance in which sence as some will understand Rom. 8.17 they are called heirs of God The Subjective glory and happiness is the attemperation and suiting of the soul and body to God This is begun in sanctification perfected in glorification It consists in removing from both all that is indecent and inconsistent with a state of such compleat glory and happiness and in super-induceing and cloathing it with all Heavenly qualities The immunities of the body are its freedom from all natural infirmities which as they come in so they go out with sin Thenceforth there shall be no diseases deformities pains flaws monstrosities their good physitian death hath cured all this And their vile bodies shall be made like unto Christs glorious body Phil. 3.21 And be made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15.44 For agility like the Chariots of Aminadab For Beauty as the top of Lebanon for incorruptibility as if they were pure Spirits The Soul also is discharged and freed from all darkness and ignorance of mind being now able to discern all truths in God that Chrystal Ocean of truth The leaks of the memory stopt for ever The roving of its fancy perfectly cured The stubbornness and reluctancy of the will for ever subdued and retained in due and full subjection to God So that the Saints in glory shall be free from all that now troubles them They shall never sin more nor be once tempted so to do for no serpent hisses in that paradise They shall never grieve or groan more for God shall wipe all tears from their eyes They shall never be troubled more for God will then recompense tribulation to their troubles and to them that are troubled rest They shall never doubt more for fruition excludes doubting The Formal happiness is the fulness of satisfaction resulting from the blessed sight and enjoyment of God by a soul so attemper'd to him Psal. 17.15 When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness This sight of God in glory called the beatifical vision must needs yield ineffable satisfaction to the beholding soul in as much as it will be an intuitive vision The intellectual or mental eye shall see God 1 Ioh. 3.2 The corporeal glorified eye shall see Christ. Iob 19.26 27. What a ravishing vision will this be And how much will it exceed all reports and apprehensions we had here of it Surely the one half was not told us It will be a transformative vision it will change the beholder into its own image and likeness We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 As Iron put into the fire becomes all fiery so the soul by conversing with God is changed into his very similitude It will be an Appropriative vision whom I shall see for my self Job 19.26 27. In Heaven interest is clear and undoubted fear is cast out No need of marks and signs there for what a man sees and enjoys how can he doubt of It will be a ravishing vision these we have by faith are so how much more those in glory How was Paul transported when he was in a visional way wrapt up into the third Heaven and heard the unutterable things though he was not admitted into the blessed society but was with them as the Angels are in our assemblies a stander by a looker on If a spark do so inflame what is it to lie down like a Phoenix in her bed of Spices Like a Salamander to live and move in the fire of love It will also be an eternal vision vacabimus videbimus as Augustin said we shall then be at leisure for this imployment and have no diversions from it for ever No evening is mentioned to the seaventh days sabbath no night in the new Ierusalem And therefore Lastly It will be a fully satisfying vision God will then be all in all Etiam ipsa curiositas satietur curiosity it self will be satisfied The blessed soul will feel it self blessed filled satisfied in every part Ah what an happiness is here to look and love to drink and sing and drink again at the fountain head of the highest glory And if at any time its eye be turned from a direct to a reflex sight upon what it once was how it was wrought on how fitted for this glory how wonderfully distinguished by special grace from them that are howling in flames whilst himself is shouting aloud upon its bed of everlasting rest all this will enhaunce the glory And so also will the Accessories of this blessedness The place where God is enjoyed
over them First He imposes a new Law upon them and enjoyns them to be severe and punctual in their obedience to it The soul was a Belialite before and could endure no restraint It 's Lusts gave it Law We our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3 What ever the flesh craved and the sensual appetite whined after it must have cost what it would cost if damnation were the price of it it would have it provided it should not be present pay Now it must not be any longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Law to God but under Law to Christ. Those are the articles of peace which the soul willingly signes in the day of its admission to mercy Matth. 11.29 Take my yoak upon you and learn of me This Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus makes them free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Here 's much strictness but no bondage For the Law is not only written in Christs Statute-book the Bible but coppied out by his spirit upon the hearts of his subjects in correspondent principles which makes obedience a pleasure and self-denial easie Christs yoak is lined with Love so that it never galls the necks of his people 1 Joh. 5.3 His commandments are not grievous The soul that comes under Christs government must receive Law from Christ and under Law every thought of the heart must come Secondly He rebukes and chastises souls for the violations and trangressions of his Law That 's another act of Christs Regal authority whom he loves he rebukes and chastens Heb. 12.6 7. These chastisements of Christ are either by the rod of providence upon their bodies and outward comforts or upon their spirits and inward comforts Sometimes his rebukes are smart upon the outward man 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many among you are weakly and sick and many sleep They had not that due regard to his body that became them and he will make their bodies to smart for it And he had rather their flesh should smart than their souls should perish Sometimes he spares their outward and afflicts their inner man which is a much smarter rod. He withdraws peace and takes away joy from the spirits of his people The hidings of his face are sore rebukes However all is for emendation not for destruction And it is not the least priviledge of Christs Subjects to have a seasonable and sanctified rod to reduce them from the waies of sin Psal. 23.3 thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Others are suffered to go on stubbornly in the way of their own hearts Christ will not spend a rod upon them for their good Will not call them to account for any of their transgressions but will reckon with them for altogether in Hell Thirdly Another Regal Act of Christ is the restraining and keeping back his servants from iniquity and withholding them from those courses which their own hearts would incline and lead them to For even in them there is a spirit bent to backsliding but the Lord in tenderness over them keeps back their souls from iniquity and that when they are upon the very brink of sin my feet were almost gone my steps were well nigh slipt Psal. 73.2 Then doth the Lord prevent sin by removing the occasion providentially or by helping them to resist the temptation gratiouslyly assisting their spirits in the trial So that no temptation shall befall them but a way of escape shall be opened that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 And thus his people have frequent occasions to bless his name for his preventing goodness when they are almost in the midst of all evil And this I take to be the meaning of Gal. 5.16 This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Tempted by them ye may be but fulfil them ye shall not My spirit shall cause the temptation to die and wither away in the womb in the embrio of it so that it shall not come to a full birth Fourthly He protects them in his waies and suffers them not to relapse fom him into a state of sin and bondage to Satan any more Indeed he is restless in his endeavours to reduce them again to his obedience he never leaves tempting and soliciting for their return and where he finds a false professor he prevails but Christ keeps his that they depart not again Joh. 17.12 All that thou hast given me I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition They are kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Kept as in a Garrison according to the importance of that word None more solicited none more safe than the people of God They are preserved in Christ Iesus Jude 1. It is not their own grace that secures them but Christs care and continual watchfulness Our own graces left to themselves would quickly prove but weights sinking us to our own ruine As one speaks this is his Covenant with them Jer. 32.4 I will put my fear in their inwards and they shall not depart from me Thus a King he preserves them Fifthly As a King he rewards their obedience and encourages their sincere services Though all they do for Christ be duty yet he hath united their comfort with their duty This I had because I kept thy precepts Psal. 119.56 They are engaged to take this encouragement with them to every duty that he whom they seek is a bountiful rewarder of such as diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 O what a good master do the Saints serve Hear how a King expostulates with his Subjects Jer. 2.31 Have I been a barren wilderness on a land of darkness to you q. d. Have I been such a hard master to you Have you any reason to complain of my service To whomsoever I have been straight-handed surely I have not been so to you You have not found the waies or wages of sin like mine Sixthly He pacifies all inward troubles and commands peace when their spirits are tumultuous This peace of god Rules in their hearts Col. 3.15 it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 act the part of an Umpire in appeasing strife within When the tumultuous affections are up and in a hurry when anger hatred and revenge begin to rise in the soul this hushes and stills all I will hearken saith the Church what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace to his people and to his Saints Psal. 85.8 He that saith to the raging Sea be still and it obeys him he only can pacifie the disquieted spirit They say of Frogs that if they be croaking never so much in the night bring but a light among them and they are all quiet Such a light is the peace of God among our disordered affections These are Christs Regal acts And he puts them forth upon the souls of his people powerfully
Physitian This was one of those things that made him a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs For the more holy any is the more he is grieved and afflicted for the sins of others and the more tender any man is the more he is pierced with beholding the miseries that lie upon others And it is sure never any heart more holy or more sensible tender and compassionate than Christs Sixthly Lastly That which yet helped to humble him lower was the ungrateful and most base and unworthy entertainment the world gave him He was not received or treated like a Saviour but as the vilest of men One would think that he who came from Heaven to give his life a ransom for many Matth. 20.28 He that was not sent to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Joh. 3.17 He that came to disolve the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.8 knock off the chains open the prison doors proclaim liberty to the captives Isai. 61.1 I say when such a Saviour arrived O with what acclamations of Joy and demonstrations of thankfulness should he have been received One would have thought they should even kiss the ground he trod upon but instead of this he was hated Ioh. 15.18 He was despised by them Matth. 13.55 So reproached that he became the reproach of men as who should say a corner for every one to spet in A butt for every base tongue to shoot at Psal. 22.6 Accused of working his miracles by the power of the Devil Matth. 12.24 He was trod upon as a worm Psal. 22.6 They buffeted him Matth. 26.67 Smote him on the head Matth. 27.30 Arrayâ—d him as a fool verse 29. Spet in his face verse 30. Despised him as the basest of men this fellow said Matth. 26.61 One of his own followers sold him another forswear him and all forsook him in his greatest troubles All this was a great abasement to the Son of God who was not thus treated for a day or in one place but all his daies and in all places He endured the contradictions of sinners against himself In these particulars I have pointed out to you something of the humbled life Christ lived in the world From all which particulars some useful inferences will be noted Inference 1. From the first degree of Christs Humiliation in submitting to be circumcised and thereby obliging himself to fulfil the whole Law it follows That Iustice it self may set both hand and seal to the acquittances and discharges of Believers Christ hereby obliged himself to be the Laws pay-master to pay it its utmost demand To bear that yoak of obedience that never any before him could bear And as his circumcision obliged him to keep the whole Law so he was most precise and punctual in the observation of it So exact that the sharp eye of divine justice cannot espie the least flaw in it But acknowledges full payment and stands ready to sign the Believer a full acquittance Rom. 3.25 That God may be just and the Iustifier of him that believes in Iesus Had not Christ been thus obliged we had never been discharged Had not his obedience been an intire compleat and perfect thing our justification could not have been so He that hath a pretious treasure will be loth to adventure in a leaky vessel wo to the holiest man on earth if the safety of his pretious soul were to be adventured in the bottom of the best duty that ever he performed But Christs obedience and righteousness is tiâ—e and sound A bottom that we may safely adventure all in Inference 2. From the early flight of Christ into Aegypt we infer That the greatest innocency and piety cannot exempt from persecution and inâ—ury Who more innocent than Christ And who more persecuted The world is the world still I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them Joh. 17.14 The world lies in wait as a thief for them that carry this treasure they who are empty may sing before him he never stops them But persecution follows piety as the shadow doth the body 2 Tim. 3.12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer pâ—rsâ—cution Whosoever resolves to live holily must never expect to live quietly It 's godliness and godliness in Christ Iesus i. e. such as is derived from Christ true godliness and it 's true godliness as it 's manifested in practice All that will live godly that will exert holiness in their lives which convinces and galls the Consciences of the ungodly 'T is this enrages for there is an enmity and antipathy betwixt them and this enmity runs in a blood and it 's transmitted with it from generation to generation Gal. 4.29 As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Mark so it was and so still it is Cains Club is still carried up and down redded with the blood of Abel saith Bucholtzer but thus it must be to conform us unto Christ and oh that your Spirits as well as your Conditions may better harmonize with Christ. He suffered meekly quietly and self-denyingly be ye like him Let it not be said of you as it is of the Hypocrite whose lusts are only hid but not mortified by his duties that he is like a flint which seems cold but if you strike him he is all fiery To do well and suffer ill is Christ-like Inference 3. From the third particular of Christs Humiliation I infer that such as are full of grace and holiness may be destitute and empty of creature-comforts What an an over-flowing fulness of grace was there in Christ. And yet to what a low ebb did his outward comforts sometimes fall and as it fared with him so with many others now in glory with him whilst they were in the way to that glory 1 Cor. 4.11 Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and buffeted and have no certain dwelling place Their souls were richly cloathed with robes of Righteousness their bodies naked or meanly clad Their souls fed high even on hidden mannah their bodies hungry Let us be content said Luther with our hard fare for do we not feast with Angels upon that bread of life Remember when wants pinch hard that these fix no marks of Gods hatred upon you He hath dealt no worse with you than he did with his own Son Nay which of you is not better accommodated than Christ was if you be hungry or thirsty you have some refreshments you have beds to lie on the son of man had not where to lay his head The heir of all things had sometimes nothing to eat And remember you are going to a plentiful country where all your wants will be supplied Poor in the world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised 2 James 5. The meanness of your present will add to the luster of your future
of blessing but he knew the effect the real blessing it self depended upon God And though he blessed authoritatively yet not potestatively i. e. he could as the mouth of God pronounce blessings but could not confer them Thus he blessed his Children as his Father Isaack has also blessed him before he died Gen. 28.3 and all these blessings were delivered prayerwise Now when Jesus Christ comes to die he will bless his Children also And therein will discover how much dear and tender love he had for them having loved his own which were in the world he loved them to the end Joh. 13.1 the last Act of Christ in this world was an act of blessing Luk. 24.50 51. To prepare this point for use I will here open First The mercies which Christ requested of the Father for them Secondly The Arguments used by him to obtain these mercies Thirdly Why he thus pleaded for them when he was to die Fourthly and Lastly How all this gives full evidence of Christs tender care and love to his people First We will enquire what those mercies and special favours were which Christ beg'd for his people when he was to die And we find among others these five special mercies desired for them in this context First The mercy of preservation both from sin and danger so in the text Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me which is explained vers 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil We in ours and the Saints that are gone in their respective generations have reaped the fruit of this prayer How else comes it to pass that our souls are persecuted amidst such a world of Temptations and these assisted and advantaged by our own corruptions How is it else that our persons are not ruined and destroyed amidst such multitudes of potent and malitious enemies that are set on fire of Hell Surely the preservation of the burning bush of the three children amidst the flames of Daniel in the den of Lyons are not greater wonders than these our eyes do daily behold As the fire would have certainly consumed and the Lyons without doubt have rended and devoured had not God by the interposition of his own hand stopt and hindered the effect so would the sin that is in us and the malice that is in others quickly ruine our souls and bodies were it not that the same hand gardâ— and keeps us every moment To that hand into which this prayer of Christ delivered your souls and bodies do you owe all your mercies and Salvations both Temporal and Spiritual Secondly Another mercy he prays for is the blessing of union among themselves This he joins immediately with the first mercy of preservation and prays for it in the same breath vers 11. that they may be one as we are And well might he joyn them together in one breath for this union is not only a choise mercy in it self but a special means of that preservation he had prayed for before Their union one with another is a special means to preserve them all Thirdly A third desirable mercy that Christ earnestly prayed for was that his joy might be fulfilled in them vers 13. He would provide for their joy even when the hour of his greatest sorrow was at hand Yea he would not only obtain joy for them but a full joy that my joy may be fulfilled in them It is as if he had said O my Father I am to leave these dear ones in a world of troubles and perplexities I know their hearts will be subject to frequent despondencies O let me obtain the cordials of divine joy for them before I go I would not only have them live but live joyfully Provide for their fainting hours reviving cordials Fourthly And as a continued spring to maintain all the forementioned mercies He prays they all may be sanctified through the word of truth vers 17. i. e. more abundantly sanctified than yet they were by a deeper radication of gratious habits and principles in their hearts This is a singular mercy in it self to have holiness spreading it self over and through their sâ—uls as the light of the morning Nothing is for it self more desirable And it 's also a singular help to their perseverance union and spiritual joy which he had prayed for before and are all advanced by their increasing Sanctification Fifthly Lastly As the complement and perfection of all desireable mercies he prays that they may be with him where he is to behold his glory vers 24. This is their best and ultimate priviledge they are capable of The end of his coming down from Heaven and returning thither again All runs into this to bring many Sons and daughters unto glory You see Christ asks no trifles no small things for his people No mercies but the best that both worlds afford will suffice him on their behalf Secondly Let us see how he follows his requests and with what arguments he pleads with the Father for these things And among others I shall single out six choice ones which are urged in this Text or the immediate context First Argument is drawn from the joint interest that both himself and Father have in the persons for whom he prays All mine are thine and thine are mine vers 10. As if he should say Father behold and consider the persons I pray for they are not aliens but children yea they are thy children as well as mine The very same on whom thou hast set thy eternal love and in that love hast given them unto me So that they are both thine and mine Great is our interest in them and interest draws care and tenderness Every one cares for his own provides for and secures his own Propriety even amongst creatures is fundamental to our labour care and watchfulness They would not so much prize life health estates or children if they were not their own Lord these are thine own by many ties and titles O therefore keep comfort sanctifie and save them for they are thine What a mighty plea is this Surely Christians your Intercessor is skilful in his work your Advocate wants no eloquence or ability to plead for you The Second Argument and that a powerful one treads as I may say upon the very heel of the former in the next words And I am glorified in them q. d. My glory and honour is infinitely dear to thee I know thy heart is set intently upon the exalting and glorifying of thy Son now what glory have I in the world but what comes from my people Others neither can nor will glorifie me Nay I am daily blasphemed and dishonoured by them These are they from whom my active glory and praise in the world must rise 'T is true both thou and I have glory from other creatures objectively the works that we have made and imprest our power wisdom and goodness upon do so glorifies us And honour
of death compassed him about how much are we engaged not only to love him and esteem him whilst we live but to be in pangs of love for him when we feel the pangs of death upon us To be eyeing him when our eye-strings break To have hot affections for Christ when our hands and feet grow cold The very last whisper of our departing soul should be this Blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTY FIRST SERMON I COR. XI XXIII XXIV XXV The Lord Iesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying this Cup is the New-Testament in my blood this do as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me CHrist had no sooner recommended his dear charge to the Father but the time of his death hasting on he institutes his last Supper to be the lasting memorial of his death in all the Churches until the second coming therein graciously providing for the comfort of his people when he should be removed out of their sight And this was the second preparative act of Christ in order to his death he will set his house in order and then die This his second Act manifests no less love than the former It 's like the plucking off the ring from his finger when ready to lay his neck upon the block and delivering it to his dearest friends to keep that as a memorial of him Take this c. in remembrance of me In the words read are four things noted by the Apostle about this Last and Lovely Act of Christ. viz. the Author time institution and end of this holy and solemn ordinance First The Author of it The Lord Iesus it 's an effect of his Lordly power and royal authority Matth. 28.18 And Iesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in Heaven and earth go ye therefore The government is upon his shoulder Isai. 9.6 He shall bear the glory Zech. 6.13 Who but he that came out of the bosom of the Father and is acquainted with all the counsels that are there knows what will be acceptable to God And who but he can give creatures by his blessing their Sacramental efficacy and vertue Bread and Wine are naturally fit to refresh and nourish our bodies but what fitness have they to nourish souls Surely none but what they receive from the blessing of Christ that institutes them Secondly The time when the Lord Jesus appointed this ordinance In the same night in which he was betrayed It could not be sooner because the passover must first be celebrated nor later for that night he was apprehended It is therefore emphatically expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that same night that night for ever to be remembred He gives that night a cordial draught to his Disciples before the conflict He settles that night an Ordinance in the Church for the confirmation and consolation of his people in all generations to the end of the world By instituting in that night he gives abundant evidence of his care for his people in spending so much of that little very little time he had left on their account Thirdly The Institution it self in which we have the memorative significative instructive signs and they are Bread and Wine And the glorious mysteries represented and shadowed forth by them viz. Jesus Christ crucified the proper New-Testament nourishment of Believers Bread and Wine are choice creatures and do excellently shadow forth the flesh and blood of crucified Jesus And that both in their natural usefulness and manner of preparation Their usefulness is very great Bread is a creature necessary to uphold and maintain our natural life Therefore it 's called the staff of bread Isai. 3.1 Because as as a feeble man depends and leans upon his staff so doth our feeble spirits upon bread Wine was made to chear the heart of man Iudg. 9.13 They are both useful and excellent creatures Their preparations to become so useful to us is also remarkable The Corn must be ground in the Mill the Grapes torn and squeesed to pieces in the Wine-prefs before we can either have Bread or Wine And when all this is done they must be received into the body or they nourish not So that these were very fit creatures to be set apart for this use and end If any object it 's true they are good creatures but not pretious enough to be the signs of such profound and glorious Mysteries It was worth the creating of a new creature to be the sign of the new Covenant Let him that thus objects ask himself whether nothing be pretious without pomp The pretiousness of these Elements is not so much from their own natures as their use and end and that makes them pretious indeed A Loadstone at Sea is much more excellent than a Diamond because more useful A peniworth of wax applyed to the Label of a Deed and sealed may in a minute have its value raised to thousands of pounds These creatures receive their value and estimation on alike account Nor should it at all remain a wonder to thee why Christ should represent himself by such mean and common things when thou hast well considered that the excellency of the picture is in its similitude and conformity to the original and that Christ was in a low sad and very abased state when this picture of him was drawn he was then a man of sorrows These then as lively signs shadow forth a crucified Jesus Represent him to us in his red garments This pretious Ordinance may much more than Paul say to us I alwaies bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Iesus That 's the thing it signifies Fourthly Lastly Take notice of the use design and end of this institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in remembrance or for a memorial of me O there 's much in this Christ knew how apt our base hearts would be to lose him amidst such a throng of sensible objects as we here converse with And how much that forgetfulness of him and of his sufferings would turn to our prejudice and loss And therefore doth he appoint a sign to be remembred by as oft as ye do this ye shew forth the Lords death till he come Hence we shall observe suitable to the design of this discourse DOCT. That the Sacramental memorial Christ left with his people is a special mark of his care and love for them What! to order his picture as it were to be drawn when he was dying to be left with his Spouse to rend his own flesh and set abroch his own blood to be meat and drink for our souls O what manner of love was this 'T is true his Picture in the Sacrament is full of scars and wounds but
Historie to great indignation against Pilate the Jews and the rude and bloody Souldiers and could not contain himself but cried out as the Bishop was reading O that I had been there with my French-men I would have cut all their throats who so barbarously used my Saviour To allude to this When the Believer considers and remembers that sin put Christ to all that shame and ignominy that he was wounded for our transgressions he is filled with hatred of sin and cries out O sin I will revenge the blood of Christ upon thee thou shalt never live a quiet hour in my heart And Secondly It produces an humble adoration of the goodness and mercy of God to exact satisfaction for our sins by such bloody stripes from our surety Lord what if this wrath had seised on me as it did on Christ what had been my condition then If these things were done in the green tree what had been the cafe of the dry tree Sometimes representations and not common ones are made of the Love of Christ who assumed a body and soul on purpose to bear the wrath of God for our sins And when that surpassing Love breaks out in its glory upon the soul how is the soul transported and ravished with it crying out what manner of Love is this Here 's a Love large enough to go round the heavens and the Heaven of heavens Who ever loved after this rate to lay down his life for enemies O Love unutterable and unconceivable How glorious is my Love in his red garments Sometimes the fruits of his death are there gloriously displaied Even his satisfaction for sin and the purchase his blood made of the eternal inheritance And this begets thankfulness and confidence in the soul. Christ is dead and his death hath satisfied for my sin Christ is dead therefore my soul shall never die Who shall separate me from the Love of God These are the fruits and this is the nature of that remembrance of Christ here spoken of Secondly What aptitude or conducency is there in this Ordinance to bring Christ so to remembrance Much every way For it is a sign by him appointed to that end and hath as Divines well observe a threefold use and consideration viz. as it is memorative as it is significative and as it is instructive First As it is memorative and so it hath the nature and use of a pledge or token of Love left by a dying to a dear surviving friend And so the Sacrament as was said before is like a Ring pluckt off from Christs Finger or a Bracelet from his Arm or rather his Picture from his Breast delivered to us with such words as these as oft as you look on this rememember me Let this help to keep me alive in your remembrance when I am gone and out of your sight It conduces to it also Secondly As it is a significative sign most aptly signifying both his bitter sufferings for us and our strict and intimate union with him Both which have an excellent usefulness to move the heart and its deepest affections at the remembrance of it The breaking of the Bread and shedding forth the Wine signifies the former our eating drinking and incorporating them is a lively signification of the other Thirdly Moreover this Ordinance hath an excellent use and advantage for this affectionate remembrance of Christ as it is an instructive sign And it many waies instructs us and enlightens our mind particularly in these truths which are very affecting things First That Christ is the Bread on which our souls live proper meat and drink for Believers the most excellent New-Testament food It 's said Psal. 78.25 man did eat Angels food He means the manna that fell from Heaven Which was so excellent that if Angels who are the noblest creatures did live-upon material food they would choose this above all to feed on And yet this was but a Type and weak shadow of Christ on whom Believers feed Christ makes a royal feast of his own flesh and blood Isai. 25.6 all our delicates are in him Secondly It instructs us that the New-Testament is now in its full force and no sustantial alteration can be made in it since the the Testator is dead and by his death hath ratified it So that all the excellent promises and blessings of it are now fully confirmed to the believing soul. Heb. 9.16 17. All these and many more choice truths are we instructed in by this sign And all these waies it remembers us of Christ and helps powerfully to raise warm and affect our hearts with that remembrance of him Thirdly The last enquiry is how Christ hath hereby left such a special mark of his care for and love to his people And that will evidently appear if you consider these five particulars First This is a special mark of the care and Love of Christ in as much as hereby he hath made abundant provision for the confirmation and establishment of his peoples faith to the end of the world For this being an evident proof that the New-Testament is in its full force Matth. 26.28 this is the Cup of the New-Testament in my blood it tends as much to our satisfaction as the legal execution of a deed by which we hold and enjoy our estate So that when he saith take eat it is as much as if God should stand before you at the Table with Christ and all the promises in his hand and say I deliver this to thee as my deed What think you doth this promote and confirm the faith of a Believer if it do not what doth Secondly This is a special mark of Christs care and Love in as much as by this he hath made like abundant provision for the enlargement of his peoples joy and comfort Believers are at this Ordinance as Mary was at the Sepulcher with fear and great joy Matth. 28.8 Come Reader speak thy heart if thou be one that heartily lovest Jesus Christ and hast gone many daies possibly years mourning and lamenting because of the inevidence and cloudiness of thine interest in him that hast sought him sorrowing in this Ordinance and in that in one duty and another if at last Christ should take off that mask that cruel covering as one calls it from his face and be known of thee in breaking bread Suppose he should by his Spirit whisper thus in thine ear as thou sittest at his Table dost thou indeed so prize esteem and value me will nothing but Christ and his Love content and satisfie thee then as sweet lovely and desireable as I am know that I am thine Take thine own Christ into the arms of thy faith this day Would not this breed in thy soul a joy transcendent to all the joys and pleasures in this world what thinkest thou of it Thirdly Here is a signal mark of Christs care and Love in as much as this is one of the highest and best helps for the mortification of the
left some of them at the entring into the Garden and for Peter Iames and Iohn that went farther with him than the rest he bids them remain there while he went and prayed He did not desire them to pray with him or for him no he must tread the wine-press alone Nor will he have them with him possibly left it should discourage them to see and hear how he groaned sweat trembled and cried as one in an agony to his Father Reader there are times and cases when a Christian would not be willing the dearest and most intimate friend he hath in the world should be privy to what passes betwixt him and his God Secondly It was an humble prayer that 's evident by the postures into which he cast himself Sometimes kneeling and sometimes prostrate upon his face He creeps in the very dust lower he cannot fall and his heart was as low as his body He is meek and lowly indeed Thirdly It was a reiterated prayer he prays and then returns to the Disciples as a man in extremity turns every way for comfort so Christ prays Father let the cup pass but in that the Father hears him not though as to support he was heard Being denied deliverance by his Father he goes and bemoans himself to his pensive friends and complains bitterly to them my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death He would ease himself a little by opening his condition to them but alas they rather increase than ease his burden For he finds them asleep which occasioned that gentle reprehension from him Matth. 26.40 What could you not watch with me one hour What not watch with me who may expect it from you more than I could you not watch I am going to die for you and you cannot watch with me what cannot you watch wiâ—h me one hour alas what if I had required great matters from you What! not an hour and that the parting hour too Christ finds no ease from them and back again he goes to that sad place which he had stained and purpled with a bloody sweat and prays to the same purpose again O how he returns upon God over and over as if he resolved to take no denial but however considering it must be so he sweetly falls in with his Fathers will Thy will be done Fourthly and Lastly It was a prayer accompanied with a strange and wonderful agony so saith vers 44. and being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground Now he was red indeed in his apparel as one that trod the wine-press it was not a faint thin dew but a clotted sweat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clodders of blood falling to the ground It is disputed whether this sweat were natural or preternatural That some in extremity have sweat a kind of bloody thin dew is affirmed I remember Thuanus gives us two instances that come nearest to this of any thing I ever observed or heard of The one was a Captain who by a cowardly and unworthy fear of death was so overwhelm'd with anguish that a kind of bloody dew or sweat stood on all his body The other is of a young man condemned for a small matter to die by Sixtus the 5. who poured out tears of blood from his eyes and sweat blood from his whole body These are strange and rare instances and the truth of them depends upon the credit of the relator But certainly for Christ whose body had the most excellent crasis and temperament to sweat clotted blood or globs of blood as some render it and that in a cold night when others needed a fire within doors to keep them warm Ioh. 18.18 I say for him to sweat such streams through his garments falling to the ground on which he lay must be concluded a preternatural thing And indeed it was not wonderful that such a preternatual sweat should stream from all parts of his body if you do but consider what an extraordinary load pressed his soul at that time even such as no meer man ever felt or was able to stand under Even the wrath of a great and terrible God in the extremity of it Who saith the prophet Nahum cap. 1.6 can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him The effects of this wrath as it fell at this time upon the soul of Christ in the garden is largely and very emphatically exprest by the several Evangelists who wrote this tragedy Matthew tells us his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death Matth. 26.38 The word signifies beset with grief round about And it 's well exprest by that phrase of the Psalmist Psal. 116.3 The sorrows of death compassed me about the pains of Hell got hold upon me Mark varies the expression and gives it us in another word no less significant and full Mark 14.33 He began to be sore amased and very heavy Sore amazed it imports so high a degree of consternation and amazement as when the hair of the head stands up through fear Luke hath another expression for it in the text he was in an agony An agony is the labouring and striving of nature in extremity And Iohn gives it us in another expression Joh. 12.27 now is my soul troubled The original word is a very full word And it is conceived the Latines derive that word which signifies Hell from this by which Christs trouble is here expressed This was the load which oppressed his soul and so straightned it with fear and grief that his eyes could not vent or ease it sufficiently by tears but the innumerable pores of his body are set open to give vent by letting out streams of blood And yet all this while no hand of man was upon him This was but a praelude as it were to the conflict that was at hand This bloody sweat in which he prayed was but as the giving or sweating of the stones before a great rain Now he stood as it were arraigned at Gods bar and had to do immediately with him And you know it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God The uses of this follow in this order Inference 1. Did Christ pour out his soul to God so ardently in the garden when the hour of his trouble was at hand Hence we infer that prayer is a singular preparative for and relief under the greatest troubles 'T is sweet when troubles find us in the way of our duty The best posture we can wrestle with afflictions in is to engage them upon our knees The naturalist tells us if a Lyon find a man prostrate he will do him no harm Christ hastned to the garden to pray when Iudas and the Souldiers were hastning thither to apprehend him O when we are nigh to danger it 's good for us to
him and his truth when we are required lawfully so to do i. e. when we are before a lawful Magistrate and the questions are not curious or captious when we cannot hold our peace but our silence will be interpretatively a denying of the truth finally when the glory of God honour of his truth and edification of others is more attainable by our open confession than it can be by our silence then must we with Christ give direct plain and sincere answers It was the old Priscilian error to allow men to deny or dissemble their profession when an open confession would infer danger But you know what Christ hath said Matth. 10.33 Whosoever shall deny me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven Christ will repay him in his own coin It was a noble saying of couragious Zuinglius what deaths would I not choose What punishment would I not undergo Yea into what vault of Hell would I not rather choose to be thrown than to witness against my Conscience Truth can never be bought dear nor sold cheap The Lord Jesus you see owns truth with the eminent and instant hazard of his life The whole cloud of witnesses have followed him therein Revel 14.1 we our selves once openly owned the waies of sin And shall we not do as much for Christ as we then did for the Devil Did we then glory in our shame and shall we now be ashamed of our glory Do not we hope Christ will own us at the great day Why if we confess him he also will confess us O possess your thoughts with the reasonableness of this duty Inference 3. Once more hence it follows That to bear the revilings contradictions and abuses of men with a meek composed and even spirit is excellent and Christ like He stood before them as a Lamb he rendred not railing for railing he endured the contradictions of sinners against himself Imitate Christ in his meekness He calls you so to do Matth. 11.28 This will be convincing to your enemies comfortable for your selves and honourable for Religion And as for your innocency God will clear it up as Christs was You have heard the illegal trial of Christ how insolently it was managed against him well right or wrong innocent or guilty his blood is resolved upon 'T is bought and sold before hand And if nothing else will do it menaces and clamours shall constrain Pilate to condemn him Whence our second note was DOCT. 2. That though nothing could be proved against our Lord Iesus Christ worthy of death or of bonds yet was he condemned to be nailed to the Cross and there to hang till he died For the explication of this I shall open the following particulars First Who gave the Sentence Secondly Upon whom he gave it Thirdly What Sentence was it that was given Fourthly In what manner Christ received it First Who and what was he that durst attempt such a thing as this Why this was Pilate who succeeded Valerius Gratus in the Presidentship of Iudea as Iosephus tells us in which trust he continued about ten years This cruel cursed act of his against Christ was in the eighth year of his government Two years after he was removed from his place and Office by Vitelius President of Syria for his inhumane murdering of the innocent Samaritans This necessitated him to go to Rome to clear himself before Caesar. But before he came to Rome Tyberius was dead and Cajus in his room Under him saith Eusebius Pilate killed himself He was a man not very friendly or benevolent to the Jewish nation but still suspicious of their rebellions and insurrections this jealous humour the Priests and Scribes observed and wrought upon it to compass their design against Christ. Therefore they tell him so often of Christs sedition and stirring up the people and that if he let him go he is none of Caesars friend which were the very considerations that prevailed with him to do what he did But how durst he attempt such a wickedness as this however he had stood in the opinion of Caesar What I give Judgement against the Son of God for 't is evident by many circumstances in this trial that he had many inward fears and convictions upon him that he was the Son of God By these he was scared and sought to release him Ioh. 19.8 12. the fear of a Deity fell upon him his mind was greatly perplext and dubious about this prisoner whether he was a God or a man And yet the fear of Caesar prevailed more than the fear of a Deity he proceeds to give sentence O Pilate wast thou not afraid to Judge and Sentence an Innocent a known Innocent and one whom thou thy self suspectedst at least to be more than man But see in this predominancy of self-interest what men will not attempt and perpetrate to secure and accommodate self Secondly against whom doth Pilate give Sentence against a Malefactor No his own mouth once and again acknowledged him innocent Against a common prisoner No but one whose same no doubt had often reached Pilates ears even the wonderful things wrought by him which none but God could do One that stood before him as the picture or rather as the body of innocency and meekness Ye have condemned and killed the Just and he resisteth you not Iames 5.6 now was that word made good Psal. 94.21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the Righteous and condemn the innocent blood Thirdly But what was the sentence that Pilate gave We have it not in the form in which it was delivered But the sum of it was that it should be as they required Now what did they requires why crucifie him crucifie him So that in what formalities soever it was delivered this was the substance and effect of it I adjudge Iesus of Nazareth to be nailed to the Cross and there to hang til he be dead Which sentence against Christ was First A most unjust and unrighteous sentence the greatest perversion of Judgement and Equity that was ever known to the civilized world since seats of Judicature were first set up What! to condemn him before one accusation was proved against him And if what they accused him of that he said he was the Son of God had been proved it had been no crime for he really was so and therefore no blasphemy in him to say he was Pilate should rather have come down from his seat of Judgement and adore him that sit there to judge him Oh it was the highest piece of injustice that ever our ears heard of Secondly As it was an unrighteous sentence so it was a cruel sentence delivering up Christ to their wills This was that misery which David so earnestly deprecated Psal. 27.12 O deliver me not over to the will of mine enemies But Pilate delivers Christ over to the will of his enemies men full of enmity rage and malice whose greatest pleasure it was to glut
so with me I feel my heart really melted many times when I read the sufferings of Christ. I feel my heart raised and ravished with strange Joys and comforts when I hear the glory of Heaven opened in the Gospel Indeed if it were not so with me I might doubt the root of the matter is wanting But if to my knowledge affection be added A melting heart matched with a knowing head now I may be confident all is well I have often heard Ministers cautioning and warning their people not to rest satisfied with idle and unpractical notions in their understandings but to labour for impressions upon their hearts this I have attained and therefore what danger of me I have often heard it given as the mark of an Hypocrite that he hath light in his head but it sheds not down its influences upon the heart Whereas in those that are sincere it works on their hearts and affections So I find it with me therfore I am in a most safe estate O Soul of all the false signs of grace none more dangerous than those that most resemble true ones And never doth the Devil more surely and incurably destroy than when transformed into an Angel of light What if these meltings of thy heart be but a flower of nature What if thou art more beholding to a good temper of body than a gratious change of spirit for these things Well so it may be Therefore be not secure but fear and watch Possibly if thou wouldst but search thine own heart in this matter thou maist find that any other pathetical moving story will have the like effects upon thee Possibly too thou maist find that notwithstanding all thy raptures and joys at the hearing of Heaven and its glory yet after that pang is over thy heart is habitually earthly and thy conversation is not there For all thou canst mourn at the relations of Christs Sufferings thou art not so affected with sin that was the meritorious cause of the sufferings of Christ as to crucifie one corruption or deny the next temptation or part with any way of sin that is gainful or pleasurable to thee for his sake Why now Reader if it be so with thee what art thou the better fâ—r the fluency of thy affections Dost think in earnest that Christ hath the better thoughts of thee because thou canst shed tears for him when notwithstanding thou every day piercest and woundest him O be not deceived Nay for ought I know thou maist find upon a narrow search that thou puttest thy tears in the room of Christs blood and givest the confidence and dependance of thy soul to them and if so they shall never do thee any good Oh therefore search thy heart Reader be not too confident take not up too easily upon such poor weak grounds as these a soul undoing confidence Always remember the Wheat and Tares râ—semble each other in their first springing up That an Egg is not liker to an Egg than Hypocrisie in some shapes and forms into which it can cast it self is like a genuine work of grace O remember that among the Ten Virgins that is the reformed professors of Religion that have cast off and separated themselves from the worship and defilements of Anti-christ five of them were foolish There be first that shall be last and last that shall be first Matth. 19.30 Great is the deceitfulness of our hearts Ier. 17.9 And many are the subtilties and devices of Satan 2 Cor. 11.3 Many also are the astonishing examples of self deceiving souls recorded in the Word Remember what you lately read of Iudas Great also will be the exactness of the Last Judgement And how confident soever you be that you shall speed well in that day yet still remember that Trial is not yet past Your final Sentence is not yet come from the mouth of your Judge This I speak not to affright and trouble but to excite and warn you The loss of a soul is no small loss and upon such grounds as these they are every day cast away This may suffice to be spoken to the first observation built upon this supposition that it was but a pang of meer natural affection in them But if it were the effect of a better principle the fruit of their Faith as some Judge then I told you the observation from it would be this DOCT. 2. That the believing meditation of what Christ Suffered for us is of great force and efficacy to melt and break the heart It is the Promise Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born Ponder seriously here the Spring and Motive They shall look upon me It 's the eye of Faith that melts and breaks the heart The effect of such a sight of Christ they shall look and mourn Be in bitterness and sorrow True Repentance is a drop out of the eye of Faith And the measure or degree of that sorrow caused by a believing view of Christ. To express which two of the fullest instances of grief we read of are borrowed That of a tender Father mourning over a dear and only Son That of the people of Israel mourning over Iosiah that peerless Prince in the valley of Megiddo Now to shew you how the believing meditation of Christ and his suffering comes kindly and savingly to break and melt down the gracious heart I shall propound these four considerations of the heart breaking efficacy of Faith eyeing a Crucified Jesus First The very reallizing of Christ and his sufferings by Faith is a most affecting and melting thing Faith is a true Glass that represents all those his sufferings and agonies to the Life It presents them not as a fiction or idle tale but as a true and faithful Narative This saith Faith is a true and faithful saying that Christ was not only cloathed in our flesh He that is over all God blessed for ever the only Lord the Prince of the Kings of the Earth become a man but it is also most certain that in this body of his flesh he grappled with the infinite wrath of God Which fill'd his soul with horror and amazement That the Lord of Life did hang dead upon the Tree That he went as a Lamb to the slaughter And was as a Sheep dumb before the Shearer That he endured all this and more than any finite understanding can comprehend in my room and stead For my sake he there groaned and bled For my Pride Earthliness Lust Unbelief hardness of Heart he endured all this I say to reallize the sufferings of Christ thus is of great power to affect the coldest dullest heart You cannot imagine the difference there is in presenting things as realities with convincing and satisfying evidences and our looking on them as a fiction or uncertainty Secondly But Faith can apply as well as
reallize and if it do so it must needs overcome the heart Ah Christian canst thou look upon Jesus as standing in thy room to bear the wrath of a Deity for thee Canst thou think on it and not melt That when thou like Isaac wast bound to the Altar to be offered up to Justice Christ like the Ram was caught in the Thicket and offered in thy room When thy sins had raised a fearful tempest that threatned every moment to entomb thee in a Sea of wrath Iesus Christ was thrown over to appease that storm Say Reader can thy heart dwell one hour upon such a Subject as this Canst thou with Faith present Christ to thy self as he was taken down from the Cross drencht in his own blood and say these were the wounds that he received for me This is he that loved me and gave himself for me Out of these wounds comes that balm that heals my soul. Out of these stripes my peace When we hang'd upon the Cross he bore my name upon his breast like the high Priest It was love pure love strong love to my poor soul to the soul of an enemy that drew him down from Heaven and all the glory he had there to endure these sorrows in soul and body for me Oh you cannot hold up your hearts long to the piercing thoughts of this but your bowels will be pained and like Ioseph you will seek a place to vent your hearts in Thirdly Faith cannot only reallize and apply Christ and his death but it can reason and conclude such things from his death as will fill the soul with affection to him and break the heart in pieces in his presence When it views Christ as Dead it Infers is Christ dead for me then was I dead in Law Sentenced and condemned to die eternally 2 Cor. 5.14 If one die for all then were all dead How woful was my case when the Law had past Sentence on me I could not be sure when I lay down but that it might be executed before I rose Nothing but a puff of breath betwixt my soul and Hell Again is Christ dead for me then I shall never die If he be condemned I am acquitted Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It 's God that justifieth it 's Christ that died Rom. 8.34 My soul is escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowler I was condemned but am now cleared I was dead but am now alive O the unsearchable riches of grace O Love past finding out Again did God give Christ to such miseries and sufferings for me how shall he withhold any thing now from me He that spared not his own Son will doubtless with him freely give me all things Rom. 8.32 Now I may rest upon him for pardon peace acceptance and glory for my soul. Now I may relie upon him safely for provision protection and all supplies for my body Christ is the root of all these mercys He is more than all these he is nearer and dearer to God than any other gift Oh what a blessed happy comfortable state hath he now brought my soul into To conclude did Christ endure all these things for me then it 's past doubt he will never leave nor forsake me It cannot be that after he hath endured all this he will cast off the souls for whom he endured it Here the soul is Evangelically broken by the considerations of the mercys which emerge and flow to it out of the Sea of Christs blood Fourthly and Lastly Faith cannot only reallize apply and Infer but it can also compare the love of Christ in all this both with his dealings with others and with the souls dealing with Christ who so loved it To compare Christs dealings with others is most affected He hath not dealt with every one as with me Nay few there are that can speak of such mercies as I have from him How many are there that have no part nor portion in his blood That must bear that wrath in their own persons that he bare himself for me He hath kissed me over other mens shoulders He hath reached a pardon to me over other mens heads He espied me out and singled me forth to be the object of his love leaving thousands and millions still unreconciled Not that I was better than they for I was the greatest of sinners Far from righteousness As unlikely as any to be the object of such grace and love My companions in sin are left and I taken Now the soul is full The heart grows big too big to contain it self Yea Faith helps the soul to compare the love of Christ to it with the returns it haâ—h made to him for that love And what my soul hath thy carriage to Christ been since this grace that wants a name appeared to thee Hast thou returned love for love Love suitable to such love Hast thou prized valued and esteemed this Christ according to his own worth in himself or his kindness to thee Ah no I have grieved pierced wounded his heart a thousand times since that by my ingratitude I have suffered every trifle to justle him out of my heart I have neglected him a thousand times and made him say is this thy kindness to thy friend Is this the reward I shall have for all that I have done and suffered for thee Wretch that I am how have I requited the Lord this shames humbles and breakes the heart And when from such sights of faith and considerations as these the heart is thus affected it affords a good argument indeed that thou art gone beyond all the attainments of temporary believers Flesh and blood hath not revealed this Inference 1. Have the believing meditations of Christ and his sufferings such heart melting influences then sure there is but little faith among men Our dry eyes and hard hearts are evidences against us that we are strangers to the sighs of faith God be merciful to the hardness of your hearts How is Christ and his love flighted among men How shallow doth his blood run to some eyes Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes fountains of tears for this What monsters are carnal hearts We are as if God had made us without affections As if all ingenuity and tenderness were dried up Our ears are so accustomed to the sounds of Christ and his blood than now they are become as common things If a child die we can mourn over our dead but who mourns for Christ as for an only Son We may say of faith when men and women sit so unaffected under the Gospel as Martha said of Christ concerning her brother Lazarus if thou pretious faith hadst been here so many hearts had not been dead this day and in this duty Faith is that burning-glass which contracts the beams of the grace and love and wisdom and power of Jesus Christ together reflects these on the heart and makes it burn but without it we feel nothing
maintenance is their due Even Christ himself took care for his Mother Secondly You have had a brief account of the duties of this Relation next let us consider how Christs Example who was so subject to them in his life Luk. 2.51 and so careful to provide at his death enforces all those duties upon Children especially upon gratious Children And this it doth two ways both as it hath the obliging power of a Law and as he himself will one day sit in Judgement to take an account how we have imitated him in these things First Christs example in this hath the force and power of a Law yea a Law of Love or a Law lovingly constraining you to an imitation of him If Christ himself will be your pattern If God will be pleased to take Relations like yours and go before you in the discharge of relative Duties Oh how much are you obliged to imitate him and tread in all his footsteps This was by him intended as a president or pattern to facilitate and direct your Duties Secondly He will come to take an account how you have answered the pattern of obedience and tender care he set before you in the days of his flesh What will the disobedient plead in that day He that heard the groans of an afflicted Father or Mother will now come to reckon with the disobedient Child for them And the glorious example of Christs own obedience and tenderness for his Relations will in that day condemn and aggravate silence and shame such wretched Children as shall stand guilty before his Bar. Inference 1. Hath Jesus Christ given such a famous pattern of obedience and tenderness to Parents Then there can be nothing of Christ in stubborn rebellious and careless Children that regard not the good or comfort of their Parents The Children of disobedience cannot be the Children of God If providence direct this to the hand of any that are so my hearts desire and Prayer for them is that the Lord would search their souls by it and discover their evils to them whilst they shall read the following Queries First Query Have you not been guilty of slighting your Parents by irreverent words or carriages the old man or woman To such I commend the consideration of that Scripture Prov. 30.17 Which methinks should be to them as the hand writing that appear'd upon the plaister of the Wall to Belteshazar The eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother The Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it That is they shall be brought to an untimely end and the Birds of the air shall eat that eye that had never seen but for that Parent that was despised by it It may be you are vigorous and young they decayed and wrinkled with Age. But saith the Holy Ghost despise not thy Mother when she is old Prov. 23.22 Or when she is wrinkled as the Hebrew signifies It may be you are rich they poor owne and honour them in their poverty and despise them not God will requite it with his hand if you do Second Query Have you not been disobedient to the commands of Parents A Son of Belial is a Son of wrath if God give not Repentance to life Is not this the black brand set upon the Heathens Rom. 1.30 Have not many repented this upon a Ladder with an halter about their necks Woe to him that makes a Father or Mother complain as the Tree in the Fable that they are cloven assunder with the wedges that are cut out of their own bodies Third Query Have you not risen up rebelliously against and hated your Parents for chastening your bodies to save your souls from Hell Some Children saith one will not take that from a Parent which Beasts yea and salvage Beasts too Bears and Lions will take from their keepers What is this but to resist an Ordinance of God for your good And in rebelling against them to rebell against the Lord Well if they do not God will take the Rod into his own hand and him you shall not resist Fourth Query Have you not been unjust to your Parents and defrauded them First help to make them poor and then dispise them because they are poor O horrid wickedness What a complicated evil is this Thou art in the Language of Scripture a companion with destroyers Prov. 28.24 This is the worst of theft in Gods account You think you may make bold with them but how bold do you make with conscience and the command of God Fifth Query Are you not or have you not been ungrateful to Parents Leaving them to shift for themselves in those straights that you have helpt to bring them into Oh consider it Children this is an evil which God will surely avenge except ye repent What to be hardned against thine own flesh To be cruel to thine own Parents that with so much tenderness fed thee when else thou hadst perished I remember Luther gives us a story of one and oh that it might be a warning to all that hear it who having made over all he had to his Son reserving only a maintenance for himself at last his Son depised him and grudged him the very meat he eat and one day the Father coming in when the Son and his Wife were at dinner upon a Goose they shuffled the meat under the Table but see the remarkable vengeance of God upon this ungracious unnatural Son the Goose was turned into a monstrous Toad which seiz'd upon this vile wretch and kill'd him If any of you be guilty of these evils to humble you for them and reclaim you from them I desire these six Considerations may be lay'd to heart First That the effects of your obedience or disobedience will stick upon you and yours to many generations If you be obedient Children in the Lord both you and yours may reap the fruits of that your obedience in multitudes of sweet mercies for many generations So runs the Promise Eph. 6.23 Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou maist live long on the earth You know what an eye of favour God cast upon the Recabites for this Ier. 35.8 from the 14. to the 20. verse and as his blessings are by promise entailed on the obedient so his curse upon the disobedient Prov. 20.20 Whoso curseth his Father or his Mother his Lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness i. e. the Lamp of his life quencht by death yea say others and his soul also by the blackness of darkness in Hell Secondly Though other sins do this sin seldom escapes exemplary punishment even in this world Our English History tells us of a Yeoman of Leicestershire who had made over all he had to his Son to prefer him in marriage reserving only a bare maintenance at his Sons Table Afterward upon some discontent the Son bid his Father get out of his
been long preparing for it but the suddenness and greatness of the change is amazing to our thoughts For a soul to be now here in the body conversing with men living among sensible objects and within a few moments to be with the Lord. This hour on earth the next in the third heavens Now viewing this world and anon standing among an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of the Just made perfect O what a change is this What! but wink and see God! Commend thy soul to Christ and be transferred in the arms of Angels into the invisible world the world of Spirits To live as the Angels of God! To live without eating drinking sleeping To be lifted up from a bed of sickness to a Throne of Glory To leave a sinful troublesom world a sick and pained body and be in a moment perfectly cured and feel thy self perfectly well and free from all troubles and distempers You cannot think what this will be Who can tell what sights what apprehensions what thoughts what frames believing souls have before the bodies they left are removed from the eyes of their dear surviving friends Inference 2. Are believers immediatly with God after their dissolution Where then shall unbelievers be and in what state will they find themselves immediatly after death hath closed their eyes Ah what will the case of them be that go the other way To be pluckt out of house and body from among friends and comforts and thrust into endless miseries into the dark vault of Hell never to see the light of this world any more Never to see a comfortable sight Never to hear a joyful sound Never to know the meaning of rest peace or delight any more O what a change is here To exchange the smiles and honours of men for the frowns and fury of God To be cloathed with flames and drink the pure unmixed wrath of God who was but a few days since cloathed in silks and fill'd with the sweet of the creature how is the state of things altered with thee It was the lamentable cry of poor Adrian when he felt death approaching Oh my poor wandring soul alas whither art thou now going Where must thou lodge this night Thou shalt never jest more never be merry more Your term in your houses and bodies is out and there is another habitation provided for you but 't is a dismal one When a Saint dyes heaven above is as it were moved to receive and entertain him at his coming he is received into everlasting habitations Into the inheritance of the Saints in light When an unbeliever dies we may say of him alluding to Isa. 14.9 Hell from beneath is moved for him to meet him at his coming it stirreth up the dead for him No more sports nor plays no cups of wine nor beds of pleasure The more of these you enjoyed here the more intolerable will this change be to you If Saints are immediately with God others must be immediatly with Satan Inference 3. How little cause have they to fear death who shall be with God so soon after their death Some there are that tremble at the thoughts of death That cannot endure to hear its name mentioned That would rather stoop to any misery here yea to any sin than die because they are afraid of the exchange but you that are interessed in Christ need not do so You can lose nothing by the exchange The words Death Grave and Eternity should have another kind of sound in your ears And make contrary impressions upon your hearts If your earthly Tabernacles cast you out you shall not be found naked You have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And it is but a step out of this into that O what fair sweet and lovely thoughts should you have of that great and last change But what speak I of your fearlesness of death Your Duty lies much higher than that far Inference 4. If Believers are immediatly with God after their dissolution then it 's their Duty to long for their dissolution And cast many a longing look towards their Graves So did Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better The advantages of this exchange are unspeakable You have Gold for Brass Wine for Water Substance for shadows solid Glory for very Vanity O if the dust of this earth were but once blown out of your eyes that you might see the divine glory how weary would you be to live How willing to die But then be sure your title to heaven be sound and good Leave not so great a concernment to the last For though it is confessed God may do that in an hour that never was done all your days yet it is not common Which brings us to our Third and Last observation DOCT. 3. That God may though he seldom doth prepare men for glory immediately before their dissolution by death There is one parable and no more that speaks of some that were called at the last hour Matth. 20.9 10. And there is this one instance in the text and no more that gives us an account of a person so called We acknowledge God may do it his grace is his own He may dispense it how and where he pleaseth We must always salve divine prerogative Who shall fix bonds or put limits to free grace but God himself whose it is If he do not ordinarily shew such mercies to dying sinners as indeed it doth not yet it is not because he cannot but because he will not Not because their hearts are so hardned by long custom in sin that his grace cannot break them but because he most justly withholds that grace from them When blessed Mr. Bilney the martyr heard a Minister preaching thus O thou old sinner that hast lain these fifty years rotting in thy sin dost thou think now to be saved That the blood of Christ shall save thee O said Mr. Bilney what preaching of Christ is this If I had heard no other preaching than this what had become of me No no old sinners or young sinners great or small sinners are not to be beaten off from Christ but encouraged to repentance and faith For who knows but the bowels of mercy may yearn at last upon one that hath all along rejected it This thief was as unlikely ever to have received mercy but a few hours before he died as any person in the world could be But surely this is no encouragement to neglect the present seasons of mercy because God may shew mercy hereafter To neglect the ordinary because God sometimes manifests his grace in ways extraordinary Many I know have hardened themselves in ways of sin by this example of mercy But what God did at this time for this man cannot be expected to be done ordinarily for us And the reasons thereof are Reason 1. First Because God hath vouchsafed us the ordinary and standing means of
of your life as in the morning of the day If a man have any business to be done let him take the morning for it For in the after part of the day a hurry of business comes on so that you either forget it or want opportunity for it Thirdly Now because your life is immediately uncertain You are not certain that ever you shall attain the years of your Fathers There are graves in the Church yard just of your length And skulls of all sorts and sizes in Golgotha as the Jews proverb is Fourthly Now because God will not spare you because you are but young sinners little sinners if you die Christless If you are not as you think old enough to mind Christ surely if you die Christless you are old enough to be damned There 's the small spray as well as great logs in the fire of Hell Fifthly Now because your life will be the more eminently useful and serviceable to God when you know him betime and begin with him early Austin repented and so have many thousands since him that he began so late and knew God no sooner Sixthly Now because your life will be the sweeter to you when the morning of it is dedicated to the Lord. The first fruits sanctifie the whole harvest This will have a sweet influence into all your days Whatever changes straights or troubles you may afterwards meet with The THIRTY TIHRD SERMON MATTH XXVII XLVI And about the ninth hour Iesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lamasabachtani that is to say my God my God why hast thou forsaken me THis verse contains the fourth memorable saying of Christ upon the Cross. Words able to rend the hardest heart in the world It is the voice of the Son of God in an agony His sufferings were great very great before but never in that extremity as now When this heaven-rending and heart-melting out-cry brake from him upon the Cross Eli Eli lamasabachtani In which words are considerable the time matter and manner of this his sad complaint First The time when it was uttered about the ninth hour i. e. about three of the clock after noon For as the Jews divided the night into four quarters or watches so they divided the day in like manner into four quarters or greater hours Which had their names from that hour of the day that closed the quarter So that beginning their account of their lesser hours from six in the morning which with them was the first their ninth hour answered to our third after noon And this is heedfully marked by the Evangelists on purpose to shew us how long Christ hanged in distress upon the Cross both in soul and body which at least was three full hours Towards the end whereof his soul was so filled distressed and overwhelmed that this doleful cry brake from his soul in bitter anguish My God my God c. Secondly The matter of the complaint It is not of the cruel tortures he felt in his body nor of the scoffs and reproaches of his name he mentions not a word of these they were all swallowed up in the sufferings within as the River is swallowed up in the Sea or the lesser flame in the greater He seems to neglect all these and only complains of what was more burdensom than ten thousand Crosses Even his Fathers deserting him my God my God why hast thou forsaken me It is a more inward trouble that burdens him darkness upon his spirit the hidings of Gods face from him an affliction he was totally a stranger to till now Here he lays his hand in this complaint This was the pained place to which he points in this dolorous out-cry Thirdly The manner in which he utters his sad complaint and that was with a remarkable vehemency he cried with a loud voice not like a dying man in whom nature was spent but as one full of vigor life and sence He gathered all his spirits together stirred up the whole power of nature when he made this grievous out-cry There is in it also an emphatical reduplication which shews with what vehemency it was uttered Not singly my God but he doubles it my God my God as distressed persons use to do So Elisha when Eliâ—ah was separated from him by the Chariots and Horses of fire cries out my Father my Father Nay moreover to encrease the force and vehemency of this complaint here is an affectionate interrogation Why hast thou forsaken me Questions especially such as this are full of spirits It is as if he were surprised by the strangeness of this affliction and rouzing up himself with an unusual vehemency turns himself to his Father and cries why so my Father O what dost thou mean by this What hide that face from me that never was hid before What and hide it from me now in the depth of my other torments and troubles O what new what strange things are these Lastly here is an observable variation of the language in which this astonishing complaint was uttered For he speaks both Hebrew and Syriack in one breath Eli Eli lama are all Hebrew Sabachtani is a Syriack word used here for emphasis sake Hance we observe DOCT. That God in design to heighten the sufferings of Christ to the uttermost forsook him in the time of his greatest distress to the unspeakable affliction and anguish of his soul. This proposition shall be considered in three parts The desertion it self The design or end of it The effect and influence it had on Christ. First The desertion it self Divine desertion generally considered is Gods withdrawing himself from any not as to his Essence that fills Heaven and Earth and constantly remains the same But it 's the withdrawment of his favour grace and love When these are gone God is said to be gone And this is done two ways either absolutely and wholly or respectively and only as to manifestation In the first sense Devils are forsaken of God They once were in his favour and love but they have utterly and finally lost it God is so withdrawn from them as that he will never take them into favour any more In the other sense he sometimes forsakes his dearest Children i. e. he removes all sweet manifestations of his favour and love for a time and carries it to them as a stranger though his love be still the same And this kind of desertion which is respective temporary and only in regard of manifestation is justly distinguished from the various ends and designs of it into probational cautional castigatory and poenal Probational desertions are only for the proof and trial of grace Cautional desertions are designed to prevent sin Castigatory desertions are Gods rods to chastize his people for sin Poenal desertions are such as are inflicted as the just reward of sin for the reparation of that wrong sinners have done by their sins Of this sort was Christs desertion A part of the curse and a special
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
under upon the Cross which occasioned this sad complaint of thirst And then make application of it in the several inferences of truth diducible from it Now the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross were twofold viz. his Corporeal and Spiritual sufferings We shall open them distinctly and then shew how both these meeting together upon him in their fulness and extremity must needs consume his very radical moisture and make him cry I thirst To begin with the first First His Corporeal and more external sufferings were exceeding great acute and extream sufferings For they were sharp universal continual and unrelieved by any inward comfort First They were sharp sufferings For his body was racked or digged in those parts where sence more eminently dwells In the hands and feet the veins and sinews meet and there pain and anguish meet with them Psal. 22.16 They digged my hands and my feet Now Christ by reason of his exact and excellent temper of body had doubtless more quick tender and delicate senses than other men His body was so formed that it might be a capacious vessel to take in more sufferings than any other body can Sense is in some more delicate and tender and in others dull and blunt according to the temperment and vivacity of the body and spirits But in none as it was in Christ whose body was miraculously formed on purpose to suffer unparalelled miseries and sorrows in A body hast thou fitted me Heb. 10.5 Neither sin nor sickness had any way enfeebled or dulled it Secondly As his pains were sharp so they were universal not affecting one but every part They seized every member From head to foot no member was free from torture For as his head was wounded with thorns his back with bloody lashes his side with a spear his hands and feet with nails So every other part was stretched and distended beyond its natural length by hanging upon that cruel engine of torment the Cross. And as every member so every particular sence was afflicted his sight with vile wretches cruel murderers that stood about him His hearing with horrid blasphemies belcht out against him His tast with vinegar and gall which they gave to aggravate his misery his smell with that filthy Golgotha where he was crucified and his feeling with exquisite pains in every part So that he was not only sharply but universally tormented Thirdly These universal pains were continual not by fits but without any intermission He had not a moments ease by the cessation of pains Wave came upon wave one grief driving on another till all Gods waves and billows had gone over him To be in extremity of pain and that without a moments intermission will quickly pull down the stoutest nature in the world Fourthly And lastly as his pains were sharp universal and continual so they were altogether unrelieved by his understanding part If a man have sweet comforts flowing into his soul from God they will sweetly demulce and allay the pains of the body This made the Martyrs shout amidst the flames Yea even inferiour comforts and delights of the mind will greatly relieve the oppressed body It 's said of Possidonius that in a great fit of the Stone he solâ—ced himself with discourses of moral vertue and when the pain twinged him he would say O pain thou dost nothing though thou art a little troublesom I will never confess thee to be evil And Epicurus in the fits of the Colick refreshed himself ob memoriam inventorem i. e. by his invention in Philosophy But now Christ had no relief this way in the least Not a drop of comfort came from heaven into his soul to relieve it and the body by it But on the contrary his soul was filled up with grief and had an heavier burden of its own to bear than that of the body So that instead of relieving it increased unspeakably the burden of his outward man For Secondly Let us consider these inward sufferings of his soul how great they were and how quickly spent his natural strength and turned his moisture into the drought of Summer And First His soul felt the wrath of an angry God which was terribly imprest upon it The wrath of a King is as the roaring of a Lion but what is that to the wrath of a Deity See what a description is given of it in Nahum 1.16 Who can stand before his indignation And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him Had not the strength that supported Christ been greater than that of Rocks this wrath had certainly overwhelmed and ground him to powder Secondly As it was the wrath of God that lay upon his soul so it was the pure wrath of God without any allay or mixture Not one drop of comfort came from heaven or earth All the ingredients in his cup were bitter ones There was wrath without mercy yea wrath without the least degree of sparing mercy for God spared not his own Son Rom. 8.32 Had Christ been abated or spared we had not If our mercies must be pure mercies and our glory in Heaven pure and unmixed glory then the wrath which he suffered must be pure unmixed wrath Yea Thirdly As the wrath the pure unmixed wrath of God lay upon his soul so all the wrath of God was poured out upon him even to the last drop So that there is not one drop reserved for the Elect to feel Christs cup was deep and large it contained all the fury and wrath of an infinite God in it And yet he drank it up He bare it all so that to believing souls who come to make peace with God through Christ he saith Isa. 27.4 Fury is not in me In all the chastisements God inflicts upon his people there is no vindictive wrath Christ bare it all in his own soul and body on the Tree Fourthly As it was all the wrath of God that lay upon Christ so it was wrath aggravated in divers respects beyond that which the damned themselves do suffer That 's strange you will say can there be any sufferings worse than those the damned suffer upon whom the wrath of an infinite God is immediatly transacted Who holds them up with the arm of his power while the arm of his justice lies on eternally Can any sorrows be greater than these Yes Christs sufferings were beyond theirs in divers particulars First None of the damned were ever so near and dear to God as Christ was They were estranged from the womb but Christ lay in his bosom When he smote Christ he smote the man that was his fellow Zech. 13.7 But in smiting them he smites his enemies When he had to do in a way of satisfaction with Christ he is said not to spare his own Son Rom. 8.32 Never was the fury of God poured out upon such a person before Secondly None of the damned had ever so
large a capacity to take in the full sence of the wrath of God as Christ had The larger any ones capacity is to understand and weigh his troubles fully the more grievous and heavy is his burden If a man cast vessels of greater and lesser quantity into the Sea though all will be full yet the greater the vessel is the more water it contains Now Christ had a capacity beyond all meer creatures to take in the wrath of his Father And what deep and large apprehensions â—e had of it may be judged by the bloody sweat in the garden which was the effect of his meer apprehensions of the wrath of God Christ was a large vessel indeed As he is capable of more glory so of more sence and misery than any other person in the world Thirdly The damned suffer not so innocently as Christ suffered they suffer the just demerit and recompence of their sin They have deserved all that wrath of God which they feel and must feel for ever It is but that recompence which was meet But Christ was altogether innocent He had done no iniquity neither was guile found in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him When Christ suffered he suffered not for what we had done but his sufferings were the sufferings of a surety paying the debts of others The Messiah was cut off but not for himself Dan. 9.26 Thus you see what his external sufferings in his body and his internal sufferings in his soul were Thirdly In the last place it is evident that such extream sufferings as these meeting together upon him must needs exhaust his very spirits and make make him cry I thirst For let us consider First What meer external pains and outward afflictions can do These prey upon and consume our spirits So David complains Psal. 39.11 When thou with rebukes correctest man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away as a Moth i. e. look as a Moth frets and consumes the most strong and well wrought garment and makes it seary and rotten without any noise so afflictions wast and wear out the strongest bodies They make bodies of the firmest constitution like an old rotten garment They shrivel and dry up the most vigorous and flourishing body and make it like a bottle in the smoke Psal. 119.83 Secondly Consider what meer internal troubles of the soul can do upon the stongest body These quickly spend it's strength and devour the Spirits So Solomon speaks Prov. 17.22 A broken Spirit drieth the bones i. e. it consumes the very marrow with which they are moistned So Psal. 32.3 4. My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long For day and night thy hand was heavy on me my moisture or chief sap is turned into the drought of Summer What a spectacle of pity was Francis Spira become meerly through the anguish of his spirit A spirit sharpned with such troubles like a keen knife cuts through the sheath Certainly who ever hath had any acquaintance with troubles of soul knows by sad experience how like an internal flame it feeds and preys upon the very spirits so that the strongest stoop and quail under it But Thirdly When outward bodily pains shall meet with inward spiritual troubles and both in extremity shall come in one day how soon must the firmest body fail and wast away like a candle lighted at both ends Now strengâ—h fails a pace and nature must fall flat under this load When the Ship in which Paul sailed fell into a place where two Seas met it was quickly wrackt and so will the best constituted body in the world if it fall under both these troubles together The soul and body sympathize with each other under trouble and muâ—ually relieve each oâ—her If the body be sick and â—ull of pain the spirit supports chears and relieves it by reason and resolution all that it can And if the spirit be afflicted the body sympathizes and helps to bear up the spirit But now if the one be over-laid with strong pains more than it can bear and calls for aid from the other and the other be oppressed with intolerable anguish and cries out under a burden greater than it can bear so that it can contribute no help but instead thereof adds to its burden which before was above strength to bear Now nature must needs fail and the friendly union betwixt soul and body suffer a dissolution by such an overwhelming pressure as this So it was with Christ when outward and inward sorrows met in one day in their extremity upon him Hence the bitter cry I thirst Inference 1. How horrid a thing is Sin How great is that evil of evils Which deserves that all this should be inflicted and suffered for the expiation of it The sufferings of Christ for sin gives us the true account and fullest representation of its evil The Law saith one is a bright glass wherein we may see the evil of sin but there is the Red glass of the sufferings of Christ and in that we may see more of the evâ—l of sin than if God should let us down to Hell and there we should see all the tortures and torments of the damned If we should see them how they lie sweltering under Gods wrath there it were not so much as the beholding of sin through this Red glass of the sufferings of Christ. Suppose the bars of the bottomless pit were broken up and damned spirits should ascend from thence and come up among us with the chains of darkness rattling at their heels and we should hear the groans and see the gastly paleness and tremblings of those poor creatures upon whom the righteous God hath imprest his fury and indignation if we could hear how their consciences are lashed by the fearful scourge of guilt and how they shriek at every lash the arm of Justice gives them If we should see and hear all this it is not so much as what we may see in this Text where the Son of God under his sufferings for it crys out I thirst For as I shewed you before Christs sufferings in divers respects were beyond theirs O then let not thy vain heart slight sin as if it were but a small thing If ever God shew thee the face of sin in this glass thou wilt say there is not such another horrid representation to be made to a man in all the world Fools make a mock of sin but wise men tremble at it Inference 2. How afflictive and intolerable are inward troubles Did Christ complain so sadly under them and cry I thirst Surely then they are no such light matters as many are apt to make of them If they so scorcht the very heart of Christ dryed up the green tree preyed upon his very spirits and turned his moisture into the drought of Summer they deserve not to be sleighted as they are by some The Lord Jesus was fitted to bear and suffer as strong
but you must work to obey the commands of Christ into whose right ye are come by Redemption You must work to testifie your thankfulness to Christ for the work he finished for you You must work to glorifie God by your obedience Let your light so shine before men For these and divers other such ends and reasons your life must be a working life God preserve all his people from the gross and vile opinions of Antinomian Libertines who cry up grace and decry obedience Who under specious pretences of exalting a naked Christ upon the throne do indeed strip him naked of a great part of his glory and vilely dethrone him My pen shall not english what mine eyes have read Tell it not in Gath. But for thee Reader be thou a follower of Christ imitate thy pattern Yea let me perswade thee as ever thou hopest to clear up thine interest in him imitate him in such particulars as these that follow First Christ began early to work for God He took the mornning of his life the very top of the morning to work for God How is it said he to his Parents when he was but a child of about twelve years that ye sought me Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business Reader if the morning of thy life be not gone oh devote it to the work of God as Christ did If it be ply thy work the closer in the afternoon of thy life If a man have any great and necessary business to do it 's good doing in the morning afterwards a hurry of business and diversion comes on Secondly As Christ began betime so he followed his work close He was early up and he wrought hard so hard that he forgat to eat bread Joh. 31 32. So zealous was he in his Fathers work that his friends thought he had been besides himself Mark 3.21 So zealous that the zeal of Gods house eat him up He flew like a Seraphim in a flame of zeal about the work of God O be not ye like Snales What Augustus said of the young Roman well becomes the true Christian whatsoever he doth he doth it to purpose Thirdly Christ often thâ—ught upon the shortness of his time and wrought hard because he knew his working time would be but little So you find it Joh. 9.4 I most work the works of him that sent me whilst it is day the night cometh when no man can work O in this be like Christ. Rouze your hearts to diligence with this consideration If a man have much to write and be almost come to the end of his paper he will write close and pack much matter in a little room Fourthly He did much work for God and made little noise He wrought hard but did not spoil his work when he had wrought it by vain ostentation When he had exprest his Charity in acts of mercy and bounty to men he would humbly seal up the glory of it with this charge see ye tell no man of it Matth. 8.4 he affected not popular air All the Angels in Heaven could not do what Christ did and yet he called himself a worm for all that Psal. 22.6 O imitate your pattern Work hard for God and let not pride blow upon it when you have done It 's hard for a man to do much and not value himself for it too much Fifthly Christ carried on his work for God resolvedly No discouragements would beat him off though never any work met with more from first to last How did Scribes and Pharisees Jews Gentiles yea Devils set upon him by persecutions and reproaches violent oppositions and subtil temptations but yet on he goes with his Fathers work for all that He is deaf to all discouragements So it was foretold of him Isai. 42.4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged O that more of this spirit of Christ were in his people O that in the strength of love to Christ and zeal for the glory of God you would pour out your hearts in service and like a River sweep down all discouragements before you Sixthly He continued working whilst he continued living His life and labour ended together He fainted not in his work Nay the greatest work he did in this world was his last work O be like Christ in this be not weary of well doing Give not over the work of God while you can move hand or tongue to promote it And see that your last works be more than your first O let the motions of your soul after God be as all natural motions are swiftest when nearest the center Say not it is enough whilst there is any capacity of doing more for God In these things Christians be like your Saviour Inference 6. Did Christ finish his work Look to it Christians that ye also finish your work which God hath given you to do That you may with comfort say when death approaches as Christ said Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do and now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self Christ had a work committed to him and he finished it you have a work also committed to you O see that you be able to say it 's finished when your time is so O work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling and that I may perswade you to it I beseech you lay these considerations close to heart First If your work be not done before you die it can never be done when you are dead There 's no work nor knowledge nor device in the grave whither thou goest Eccles. 9.5 10. They that go down to the pit cannot celebrate the name of God Isai. 38.18 Death binds up the hand from working any more strikes dumb the tongue that it can speak no more for then the composition is dissolved The body which is the souls tool to work by is broken and thrown aside The soul it self presented immediately before the Lord to give an account of all its works O therefore seeing the night cometh when no man can work as Christ speaks Ioh. 9.4 make haste and finish your work Secondly If you finish not your work as the season of working so the season of mercy will be over at death Do not think you that have neglected Christ all your lives you that could never be perswaded to a laborious holy life that ever your cries and entreaties shall prevail with God for mercy when your season is past No no it 's too late Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him Job 27.9 The season of mercy is then over as the tree falls so it lies Then he that is holy shall be holy still and he that is filthy shall be filthy still Alas poor souls you come too late The Master of the house is risen up and the doors are shut Luk. 19.42 the season is over Happy had it been if ye had known the day of your
it self upon its God and Father Father into thy hands God is the center of all gratious Spirits While they tabernacle here they have no rest but in the bosom of their God When they go hence their expectation and earnest desires are to be with him It had been working after God by gratious desires before it had cast many a longing look heaven-ward before but when the gratious soul comes near its God as it doth in a Dying hour then it even throws it self into his arms As a River that after many turnings and windings at last is arrived to the Ocean it pours it self with a central force into the bosom of the Ocean and there finishes its weary course Nothing but God can please it in this world and nothing but God can give it content when it goes hence It is not the amoenity of the place whither the gratious soul is going but the bosom of the blessed God who dwells there that it so vehemently pants after Not the Fathers house but the Fathers arms and bosom Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Whom have I in heaven but thee And oâ— earth there is none that I desire in comparison of thee Psal. 73.24 25. Thirdly It also implies the great value believers have for their souls That 's the pretious treasure And their main solicitude and chief care is to see it secured in a saâ—e hand Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit they are words speaking the believers care for his soul. That it may be safe what ever becomes of the vile body A believer when he comes nigh to death spends but few thoughts about his body where it shall be laid or how it shall be disposed of he trusts that in the hands of friends but as his great care all along was for his soul so he expresses it in these his very last breathings in which he commends it into the hands of God It is not Lord Jesus receive my body take care of my dust but receive my spirit Lord secure the Jewel when the Casket is broken Fourthly These words implie the deep sense that dying believers have of the great change that is coming upon them by death when all visible and sensible things are shrinking away from them and failing They feel the world and the best comforts in it failing Every creature and creature comfort failing For at death we are said to fail Luk. 16.9 Hereupon the soul clasps the closer about its God clings more close than ever to him Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Not that a meer necessity puts the soul upon God Or that it cleaves to God because it hath then nothing else to take hold on No no it chose God for its portion when it was in the midst of all its outword enjoyments and had as good security as other men have for the long enjoyment of them but my meaning is that although gratious souls have chosen God for their portion and do truly prefer him to the best of their comforts yet in this compounded state it lives not wholly upon its God but partly by faith and partly by sense Partly upon things seen and partly upon things not seen The creatures had some interest in their hearts alas too much but now all these are vanishing and it sees they are so I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the world said sick Hezeckiah hereupon it turns it self from them all and casts it self upon God for all its subsistance Expecting now to live upon its God intirely as the blessed Angels do And so in faith they throw themselves into his arms Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Fifthly It implies the attonement of God and his full reconciliation to believer by the blood of the great sacrifice Else they durst never commit their souls into his hands For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 12.29 i. e. of an absolute God a God unattoned by the offering up of Christ. The soul dare no more cast it self into the hands of God without such an attoning sacrifice than it dares approach to a devouring fire And indeed the reconciliation of God by Jesus Christ as it is the ground of all our acceptance with God for we are made accepted in the beloved So it 's plainly carried in the order or manner of the reconciled souls committing it self to him for it first casts it self into the hands of Christ then into the hands of God by him So Stephen when dying Lord Iesus receive my Spirit And by that hand it would be put into the Fathershand Sixthly And lastly It implies both the efficacy and excellency of Faith in supporting and relieving the soul at a time when nothing else is able to do it Faith is its conduct when it is at the greatest loss and distress that ever it met with It secures the soul when it is turned out of the body When heart and flesh fail this leads it to the rock that fails not It sticks by that soul till it see it safe through all the territories of Satan and safe Landed upon the shore of Glory and then is swallowed up in vision Many a favour it hath shewn the soul while it dwelt in its body The great service it did for the soul was in the time of its espousals to Christ. This is the marriage knot The blessed bond of union betwixt the soul and Christ. Many a relieving sight secret and sweet support it hath received from its faith since that but surely its first and last works are its most glorious works By faith it first ventured it self upon Christ. Threw it self upon him in the deepest sense of its own vileness and utter unworthiness when sense reason and multitudes of temptations stood by contradicting and discouraging the soul. By faith it now casts it self into his arms when it 's lanching out into vast eternity They are both noble acts of Faith but the first no doubt is the greatest and most difficult For when once the soul is interessed in Christ it 's no such difficulty to commit it self into his hands as when it had no interest at all in him It 's easier for a child to cast himself into the arms of its own Father in distress than for one that hath been both a stranger and enemy to Christ to cast it self upon him that he may be a Father and a friend to it And this brings us upon the second enquiry I promised to satisfie sc. What warrant or incouragement have gratious souls to commit themselves at death into the hands of God I answer much every way all things encourage and warrant its so doing For First This God upon whom the believer rolls himself at death is its Creator The Father of its being He created and inspired it and so it hath relation of a creature to a Creator yea of a creature now in distress to a faithful Creator
1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as to a faithful Creator It 's very true this single relation in it self gives little ground of encouragement unless the creature had conserved that integrity in which it was originally created And they that have no more to plead with God for acceptance but their relation to him as creatures to a Creator will doubtless find that word made good to their little comfort Isa. 27.11 It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour But now grace brings that relation into repute Holiness ingratiates us again and revives the remembrance of this relation So that believers only can plead this Secondly As the gratious soul is his creature so it is his redeemed creature One that he hath bought and that with a great price Even with the pretious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 This greatly encourages the departing soul to commit it self into the hands of God so you find Psal. 31.5 Into thy hands I commend my Spirit thou hast redeemed it O Lord God of truth Surely this is mighty encouragement to put it self upon God in a dying hour Lord I am not only thy creature but thy redeemed creature One that thou hast bought with a great price O I have cost thee dear For my sake Christ came from thy bosom and is it imaginable that after thou hast in such a costly way even by the expence of the pretious blood of Christ redeemed me thou shouldst at last exclude me Shall the ends both of Creation and Redemption of this soul be lost together Will God form such an excellent creature as my soul is in which are so many wonders of the wisdom and power of its Creator Will he be content when sin had marr'd the frame and defaced the glory of it to recover it to himself again by the death of his own dear Son and after all this cast it away as if there were nothing in all this Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit I know thou wilt have a respect to the work of thy hands Especially to a redeemed creature upon which thou hast been out so great sums of Love which thou hast bought at so dear a rate Thirdly Nay that 's not all the gratious soul may confidently and securely commit it self into the hands of God when it parts with its body at death not only because it is his creature his redeemed creature but because it is his renewed creature also And this lays a firm ground â—or the believers confidence of acceptecâ—a not that it is the proper cause or reason of its acceptance but as it is the souls best evidence that it is accepted with God and shall not be refused by him when it comes to him at death For in such a soul there is a double workmanship of God both glorious pieces though the last exceeds in glory A natural workmanship in the excellent frame of that noble creature the soul. And a gratious workmanship upon that again A new creation upon the old Glory upon Glory We are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus Eph. 2.10 The Holy Ghost came down from heaven on purpose to create this new workmanship To frame this new creature And indeed it is the Top and glory of all Gods works of wonder in this world And must needs give the believer encouragement to commit it self to God whether at such a time it shall reflect either upon the end of the work or upon the end of the workman both which meet in the salvation of the soul so wrought upon the end of the work in our glory By this we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 It is also the design and end of him that wrought it 2 Cor. 55. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God Had he not designed thy soul for glory the spirit should never have come upon such a sanctifying design as this Surely it shall not sail of a reception into glory when it 's cast out this Tabernacle Such a work was not wrought in vain neither can it ever perish When once sanctification comes upon a soul it so roots it self in the soul that where the soul goes it goes Gifts indeed they die All natural excellency and beauty that goes away at death Iob 4. ult But grace ascends with the soul. It is a sanctified when a separate soul. And can God shut the door of Glory upon such a soul that by grace is made meet for the inheritance O it cannot be Fourthly As the gracious soul is a renewed soul so it is also a Sealed Soul God hath sealed it in this world for that glory into which it is now to enter at death All gracious souls are sealed objectively i. e. they have those works of grace wrought on their souls which do as but now is said ascertain and evidence their Title to glory And many are sealed formally That is the spirit helps them clearly to discern their interest in Christ and all the promises This both secures heaven to the soul in it self and becomes also an earnest or pledge of the glory in the unspeakable joys and comforts that it breeds in the soul. So you find 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts Gods sealing us gives high security His objective seal makes it sure in it self his formal seal makes it so to us But if over and above all this he will please as a fruit of that his sealing to give us those heavenly unexpressible joys and comforts which are the fruit of his formal sealing work to be an earnest a foretast and hansel of that glory how can the soul that hath found all this doubt in the least of a rejection by its God when at death it comes to him surely if God have sealed he will not refuse you If he have given you his earnest he will not shut you out Gods earnest is not given in Jest. Fifthly Moreover every gratious soul may confidently cast it self into the arms of its God when it goes hence with Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit For as much as every gratious soul is a soul in Covenant with God and God stands obliged by his Covenant and Promise to such not to cast them out when they come unto him As soon as ever thy soul became his by regeneration that Promise became its own Heb. 13.5 I will never leave you nor forsake you And will he leave the soul now at a pinch when it never had more need of a God to stand by it than it hath then every gratious soul is entitled to that Promise Ioh. 14.3 I will come again and receive you to my self And will he fail
to make it good when the time of the Promise is come as at death it is It cannot be Multitudes of Promises the whole Covenant of Promises give security to the soul against the fears of rejection or neglect by God And the souls dependance upon God and hanging upon a promise it s every rolling it self upon God from the incouragement the word gives it adds to the ingagement upon God When he sees a poor soul that he hath made redeemed sanctified sealed and by solemn Promise engaged himself to receive coming to him at death rolling it self upon his faithfulness that promised saying as David 2 Sam. 23.5 Though Lord there be many defects in me yet thou hast made a Covenant with me well order'd in all things and sure and this is all my salvation and all my hope Lord I am resolved to send out my soul in an act of Faith I will venture it upon the credit of thy Promise How can God refuse such a soul How can he put it off when it so puts it self upon him Sixthly But this is not all the gratious soul sustains many intimate and dear relations to that God into whose hands it commends it self at death It 's his Spouse and the consideration of such a day of Espousals may well encourage it to cast it self into the bosom of Christ its head and husband It is a member of his body flesh and bones Eph. 5.30 It is his child he its everlasting Father Isai. 9.6 It 's his friend Hence forth saith Christ I call you not servants but friends Joh. 15.15 What confidence may these and all other the dear relations Christ owns to the renewed soul beget in such an hour as this is What husband can throw off the dear wife of his bosom who in distresses casts her self into his arms What Father can shut the door upon a dear child that comes to him for refuge saying Father into thy hands I commit my self Seventhly and Lastly The unchangableness of Gods love to his people gives confidence they shall in no wise be cast out They know Christ is the same to them at last he was at first The same in the pangs of death as he was in the comforts of life Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them to the end Ioh. 13.1 He doth not love as the world loves only in prosperity But they are as dear to him when their beauty and strength is gone as when it was in the greatest flowrish If we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord so then whether we live or die we are the Lords Rom. 14.8 take in all these things and weigh them both apart and together and see whether they amount not to a full evidence of the truth of this point that dying believers are both warranted and incouraged to commend their souls into the hands of God Whether they have not every one of them cause to say as the Apostle did 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day The improvements of all this you have in the following practical Diductions Diduction 1. Are dying believers only warranted and encouraged thus to commend their souls into the hands of God What a sad straight then must all dying unbelievers be in about their souls Such souls will fall into the hands of God but that 's their misery not their priveledge They are not put by faith into the hands of mercy but fall by sin into the hands of justice Not God but the Devil is their Father Iob. 8.44 Whither should the child go but to its own Father They have not one of those forementioned encouragements to cast themselves into the hands of God except the naked relation they have to God as their Creator and that 's as good as none without the new creation If they have nothing but this to plead for their salvation the Devil hath as much to plead as they It 's the new creature that brings the first creation into repute again with God O dismal O deplorable case A pool soul is turning out of house and home and knows not where to go It departs and immediately falls into the hands of justice The Devil stands by waiting for such a soul whom God will throw to him as a Dog for a crust Little ah little do the friends of such a one think whilst they are honouring his dust by a splendid and honourable funeral what a case that poor soul is in that lately dwelt there and what fearful straights and extremities it is now exposed to They will cry indeed Lord Lord open to us Matth. 7.22 But to how little purpose are their vain cries Will God hear him when he cries Iob. 27.9 It 's a lamentable case Diduction 2. Will God gratiously accept and faithfully keep what the Saints commit to him at death how careful then should they be to keep what God commits to them to be kept for him while they live You have a great trust to commit to God when you die and God hath a great trust to commit to you whilst you live you expect that he should faithfully keep what then you shall commit to his keeping and he expects you should faithfully keep what he now commits to your keeping O keep what God commits to you as you expect he should keep your souls when you commit them unto him If you keep his truths he will keep your souls Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee c. Rev. 3.10 Be faithful to your God and you shall find him faithful to you None can pluck you out of his hand see that nothing wrest his truths out of your hands If we deny him he also will deny us 2 Tim. 2.12 Take heed lest those estates you have gotten as a blessing attending the Gospel prove a temptation to you to betray the Gospel Religion saith one brings forth Riches but the Daughter devours the Mother How can you expect acceptance with God who have betrayed his truth and dealt perfidiously with him Diduction 3. If believers may safely commit their souls into the hands of God How confidently may they commit all lesser interests and lower concernments into the same hand Shall we trust him with our souls and not with our lives liberties or comforts Can we commit the treasure to him and not a trifle Whatever you enjoy in this world is but a trifle to your souls Sure if you can trust him for eternal life for your souls you may much more trust him for the daily bread for your bodies I know it is objected that God hath made over temporal things to his people upon conditional promises and an absolute faith can never be grounded upon conditional promises But what means this objection Let your faith be but suitable to these conditional promises
that is believe they shall be made good to you so far as God sees them good for you Do you but labour to come up to those conditions required in you and thereby God will have more glory and you more comfort If your prayers for these things proceed from pure ends the glory of God not the satisfaction and gratification of your lusts If your desires after them be moderate as to the measure content with that proportion the infinite wisdom sees fittest for you If you take Gods way to obtain them and dare not strain Conscience or commit a sin though you should perish for want If you can patiently wait Gods time for enlargements from your straits and not make any sinful haste You shall be surely supplied And he that remembers your souls will not forget your bodies But we live by sense and not by faith Present things strike our affections more powerfully than the invisible things that are to come The Lord humble his people for this Diduction 4. Is this the priveledge of believers that they can commit their souls to God in a dying hour then how pretious how useful a grace is faith to the pleople of God both living and dying All the graces have done excellently but faith excels them all Faith is the Phoenix grace the Queen of graces Deservedly is it stiled pretious faith 2 Pet. 1.1 The benefits and priviledges of it in this life are unspeakable and as there is no comfortable living so no comfortable dying without it First While we live and converse here in the world all our comfort and safety is from it for all our union with Christ the fountain of mercies and blessings is by faith Eph. 3.17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith No faith no Christ. All our communion with Christ is by it He that cometh to God must believe Heb. 11.6 The souls life is wrapt up in this communion with God and that communion in faith All communications from Christ depend upon faith for look as all communion is founded in union so from our union and communion are all our communications All communications of quicknings comforts joy strength and whatsoever serves to the well-being of the life of grace are all through that faith which first knit us to Christ and still maintains our communion with Christ believing we rejoyce 1 Pet. 1.8 The inner man is renewed whilst we look to the things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 Secondly And as our life and all the supports and comforts of it here are dependent on faith so you see our death as to the safety and comfort of our souls then depends upon our faith He that hath no faith cannot commit his soul to God but rather shrinks from God Faith can do many sweet offices for your souls upon a death bed when the light of this world is gone and all joy ceases on earth It can give us sights of things invisible in the other world and those sights will breathe life into your souls amidst the very pangs of death Reader do but think what a comfortable foresight of God and the joys of salvation will be to thee when thine eye-strings are breaking Faith cannot only see that beyond the grave which will comfort but it can cling about its God and clasp Christ in a promise when it feels the ground of all sensible comforts trembling and sinking under thy feet My heart and my flesh faileth but God is the strength or rock of my heart and my portion for ever Reeds fail but the rock is firm footing Yea and when the soul can no longer tabernacle here it can carry the soul to God cast it upon him with Father into thy hands I commend my spirit O pretious faith Diduction 5. Do the souls of dying believers commend themselves into the hands of God Then let not the surviving relations of such sorrow as men that have not hope A Husband a Wife a Child is rent by death out of your arms well but consider into what arms into what bosom they are commended Is it not better for them to be in the bosom of God than in yours Could they be spared so long from Heaven as to come back again to you but one hour how would they be displeased to see your tears and hear your cries and sighs for them They would say to you as Christ said to the daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and your children I am in a safe hand I am out of the reach of all storms and troubles O did you but know what their state is who are with God you would be more than satisfied about them Diduction 6. Lastly I will close all with a word of counsel Is this the priviledge of dying believers to commend their souls into the hands of God Then as ever you hope for comfort or peace in your last hour see that your souls be such as may be then fit to be commended into the hands of an holy and just God See that they be holy souls God will never accept them if they be not holy Without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.24 He that hath this hope viz. to see God purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 Indeavours after holiness are inseparably connected with all rational expectations of blessedness Will you put an unclean filthy defiled thing into the pure hand of the most holy God O see they be holy and already accepted in the beloved or wo to them when they take their leaves of those tabernacles they now dwell in The gratious soul may confidently say then Lord Iesus into thy hands I commend my spirit O let all that can say so then now say Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The THIRTY SEVENTH SERMON JOH XIX XL XLI XLII Then took they the body of Iesus and wound it in linen cloaths with the spices as the manner of the Iews is to bury Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new Sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid There laid they Iesus therefore because of the Iews preparation day for the Sepulchre was nigh at hand YOU have heard the last words of dying Jesus commending his spirit into his Fathers hands and now the life of the world hangs dead upon a Tree The light of the world for a time muffled up in a dismal cloud The Son of Righteousness set in the region and shadow of Death The Lord is dead and he that wears the keys of the grave at his girdle is now himself to be lockt up in the grave All you that are the friends and Lovers of Jesus are this day invited to his â—â—neral Such a funeral as never was since Graves were first digged Come see the place where the Lord lay There are six remarkable particulars about this funeral in these three verses The preparations that were made for it and
those holy ones that rose at that time and appeared to many in the holy City Thus was the funeral of our Lord performed by men Thus was iâ— adorned by Miracles from heaven Vse And now we have seen Jesus interred He that wears at his girdle the Keys of Hell and Death himself locked up in the Grave What shall I say of him whom they now laid in the Grave Shall I undertake to tell you what he was What he did suffered and deserved Alas The tongues of Angels must pause and stammer in such a work I may truly say as Nazianzen said of Basil no tongue but his own can sufficiently commend and praise him He is a Sun of righteousness a fountain of life a bundle of Love Of him it might be said in that day Here lies the lovely Jesus in whom is treasured up whatsoever an angry God can require for his satisfaction or an empty creature for his perfection Before him was none like him and after shall none arise comparable to him If every leaf and spire of grass saith one nay all the Stars Sands and Atomes were so many Souls and Seraphims whose love should double in them every moment to all eternity yet would it fall infinitly short of what his worth and excellency exacts Suppose a creature compos'd of all the choice endowments that ever dwelt in the best of men since the Creation of the World in whom you find a meek Moses a strong Sampson a faithful Ionathan a beautiful Absolom a rich and wise Solomon nay and add to this the understanding strength agility splendor and holiness of all the Angels it would all amount but to a dark shadow of this incomparable Jesus Who ever weighed Christ in a pair of ballances saith another who hath seen the foldings and plyes the heights and depths of that glory which is in him O for such a heaven as but to stand afar off and see and love and long for him while times thred be cut and this great work of Creation dissolved O if I could yoke in among the thick of Angels and Seraphims and now glorified Saints and could raise a new Love song of Christ before all the world I am pained with wondering at new opened treasures in Christ. If every finger member bone and joynt were a torch burning in the hottest fire in hell I would they could all send out love praises high songs of praise for ever more to that plant of renown to that Royal and high Prince Jesus my Lord. But alas his love swelleth in me and finds no vent I marr his praises nay I know no comparison of what Christ is and what he is worth All the Angels and all the glorified praise him not so much as in halves Who can advance him or utter all his praise O if I could praise him I would rest content to die of Love for him O would to God I could send in my praises to my incomparable well beloved or cast my Love songs of that matchless Lord Jesus over the walls that they might light in his lap before men and Angels But whâ—n I have spoken of him till my head rive I have said just nothing I may begin again A God-head a God-head is a worlds wonder Set ten thousand thousand new made worlds of Angels and Elect men and double them in number ten thousand thousand thousand times let their hearts and tongues be ten thousand times more agile and large than the hearts and tongues of the Seraphims that stand with six wings before him when they have said all for the glorifying and praising of the Lord Jesus they have spoken little or nothing O if I could wear this tongue to the stump in extolling his highness But it is my daily sorrow that I am confounded with his incomparable Love Thus have his enamoured friends faintly expressed his excellencies and if they have therein done any thing they have shewn the impossibility of his due praises Come and see believing souls look upon dead Jesus in his winding-sheet by Faith and say Lo this is he of whom the Church said my beloved is White and Ruddy his ruddiness is now gone and a death pale hath prevailed over all his body but still as lovely as ever yea altogether lovely If David lamenting the death of Saul and Ionathan said Daughters of Ierusalem weep over Saul who cloathed you in Scarlet with other delights who put on ornaments of Gold upon your apparel Much rather may I say children of Sion weep over Jesus who cloathed you with righteousness and garments of Salvation This is he who quitted the throne of glory left the bosom of unspeakable delights came in a body of flesh produced in perfect holiness brake through many and great impediments thy great unworthiness the wrath of God and man by the strength of love to bring salvation home to thy soul. Can he that believingly considers this do less than faint at the sense of that love that brought him to the dust of death and cry out with that Father my Love was Crucified But I will insist no longer upon generals but draw down the particulars of Christs Funeral to your use in the following Corollaries Corollary 1. Was Christ buried in this manner then a decent and mournful Funeral where it can be had is laudable among Christians I know the souls of the Saints have no concernment for their bodies nor are they solicitous how the body is treated here yet there is a respect due to them as they are the Temples wherein God hath been serv'd and honoured by those holy souls that once dwelt in them As also upon the account to their relation to Christ even when they lie by the walls And the glory that will be one day put upon them when they shall be changed and made like unto Christs glorious body Upon such special accounts as these their bodies deserve an honourable treatment as well as upon the account of humanity which owes this honour to the bodies of all men To have no funeral is accounted a Judgement Eccles. 7.4 Or to be tumbled into a pit without any to lament us is lamentable We read of many solemn and mournful funerals in Scripture wherein the people of God have affectionatly paid their respects and honours to the dust of the Saints as men that were deeply sensible of their worth and how great a loss the world sustains by their remove Christs funeral had as much of decency and solemnity in it as the time would permit though he was a stranger to all pomp both in life and death Corollary 2. Did Ioseph and Nicodemus so boldly appear at a time of so much danger to beg the body and give it a funeral let it be for ever a caution to strong Christians not to despise or glory over the weak You see here a couple of poor low spirited and timorous persons that were afraid to be seen in Christs company when the
other disciples professed their readiness to die with him yet those flee and these appear for him when the trial comes indeed If God desert the strong and assist the weak the feeble shall be as David and the strong as tow I speak not this to discourage any man from striving to improve inherent grace to the utmost For it 's ordinarily found in experience that the degrees of assisting grace are given out according to the measures of inherent grace but I speak it to prevent a sin incident to strong Christians which is to despise the weak which God corrects by such instances and examples as this before us Corollary 3. Hence we may be assisted in discerning the depths of Christs humiliation for us And see from what to what his love brought him It was not enough that he who was in the form of God became a creature which was an infinite stoop nay to be made a man an inferior order of creatures Nay to be a poor man to spend his daies in poverty and contempt But also to be a Dead corps for our sake O what manner of love is this Now the deeper the humiliation of the Son of God was the more satisfactory to us it must needs be For as it shews us the hainousness of sin that deserves all this so the fulness of Christs satisfaction whereby he makes up that breach O it was a deep humiliation indeed How unlike himself is he now become Doth he look like the Son of God What the Son of God whom all the Angels adore to be shuffled by three or four persons into his Grave in an evening To be carried from Golgotha to the Grave in this manner And there lie as a captive to Death for a time Never was the like change of conditions never such an abasement heart of in the world Corollary 4. From this Funeral of Christ results the purest and strongest consolation and incouragement to believers against the fears of Death and the Grave If this be so that Jesus hath layen in Grave before you let me say then to you as the Lord spake to Iacob Gen. 46.2 3. Fear not to go down to Egypt for I will go down with thee and will surely bring thee up thence So here fear not believer to go down to the Grave for God will be with thee there and will surely bring thee up thence This consideration that Jesus Christ hath layen in the Grave himself gives manifold encouragement to the people of God against the terrors of the Grave First The Grave received but could not destroy Jesus Christ. Death swallow'd him as the Whale did Ionah his Type but could not digest him when it had swallow'd him but quickly delivered him up again Now Christ lying in the Grave as the common head and representative of believers what comfort should this inspire into their hearts For as it fared with Christs personal so it shall with Christs mystical It could not retain him it shall not for ever retain them This Resurrection of Christ out of his is the very ground of our hope for a Resurrection out of our Graves Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 Secondly As the union betwixt the body of Christ and the divine nature was not dissolved when that body was laid in the Grave so the union betwixt Christ and believers is not cannot be dissolved when their bodies shall be laid in their Graves It 's true the natural union betwixt his soul and body was dissolved for a time but the Hypostatical union was not dissolved no not for a moment That body was the body of the Son of God when it was in the Sepulchre In like manner the natural union betwixt our souls and bodies is dissolved by death but the mystical union betwixt us and Christ yea betwixt our very dust and Christ can never be dissolved Thirdly As Christs body when it was in the Grave did there rest in hope and was assuredly a partaker of that hope So it shall fare with the dead bodies of the Saints when they lay them down also in the dust My flesh also shall rest in hope saith Christ Psal. 16.9 10 11. In like manner the Saints commit their bodies to the dust in hope The righteous hath hope in his death Pro. 14.32 And as Christs hope was not a vain hope so neither shall their hope be in vain Fourthly And lastly Christs lying in the Grave before us hath quite changed and altered the nature of the Grave So that it is not what it was It was once a part of the Curse Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return was a part of the threatening and curse for sin The Grave had the nature and use of a prison to keep the bodies of sinners against the great Assizes and then deliver them up into the hands of a great and terrible God But now it 's no prison but a bed of rest Yea and a perfumed bed where Christ lay before us Which is a sweet consideration of the Grave indeed They shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds Isa. 57.2 O then let not believers stand in fear of the Grave He that hath one foot in heaven need not fear to put the other into the Grave Though I go down to the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Psal. 23. Indeed the Grave is a terrible place to them that are out of Christ. Death is the Lords Serjeant to arrest them The Grave is the Lords Prison to secure them When death draws them into the Grave it draws them thither as a Lion doth his prey into the den to devour it So you read Psal. 49.14 Death shall feed or prey upon them Death there raigns over them in its full power Rom. 5.14 And though at last it shall render them again to God yet it were better for them to lie everlastingly where they were than to rise to such an end For they are brought out of their Graves as a condemned Prisoner out of the Prison to go to execution But the case of the Saints is not so The Grave thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ is a priviledged place to them while they sleep there and when they awake it will be with singing When they awake they shall be satisfied with his likeness Corollary 5. Lastly Since Christ was laid in the Grave and his people reap such priviledges by it as ever you expect rest or comfort in your Graves see that you get Vnion with Christ now It was an ancient custom of the Jews to put rich treasures into the Graves with their friends as well as to bestow much upon their Sepulchers It 's said Hircanus opened Davids Sepulchre and took cut of it three thousand Talents of Gold and Silver And to this sence many interpret that act of the Chaldeans Ier. 8.1 At that time saith the
deliverance from wrath Secondly Christ by death hath delivered his people fully A full deliverance it is both in respect of Time and Degrees A full deliverance in respect of Time It was not a Reprieve but a deliverance He thought it not worth the shedding of his blood to respite the execution for a while Nay in the procurement of their eternal deliverance from wrath and in the purchase of their eternal inheritance he hath but an even bargain not a jot more than his blood was worth Therefore is he become the Author of Eternal Salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5.9 And as it is full in respect of Time so likewise in respect of Degrees He died not to procure a mitigation or abatement of the rigor or severity of the sentence but to rescue his people fully from all degrees of wrath So that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 All the wrath of God to the last drop was squeezed out into that bitter cup which Christ drank off and wrung out the very dregs thereof Thirdly This deliverance obtained for us by the death of Christ is a special and distinguishing deliverance Not common to all but peculiar to some and they by nature no better than those that are left under wrath Yea as to natural disposition moral qualifications and external endowments often times far inferiour to them that perish How often do we find a moral righteousness an harmless innocencie a pretty ingenuity a readiness to all offices of love in them that are notwithstanding less under the dominion of other Lusts and under the damning sentence of the Law whilst on the other side proud peevish sensual morose and unpollisht natures are chosen to be the subjects of this Salvation You see your calling brethren 1 Cor. 1.26 Fourthly And lastly it is a wonderful salvation It would weary the arm of an Angel to write down all the wonders that are in this salvation That ever such a Design should be laid such a project of grace contrived in the heart of God who might have suffered the whole species to perish That it should only concern man and not the Angels by nature more excellent than us that Christ should be pitcht upon to go forth upon this glorious Design That he should effect it in such a way by taking our nature and suffering the penalty of the Law therein That our deliverance should be wrought out and finisht when the Redeemer and his design seem'd both to be lost and perished These with many more are such wonders as will take up eternity it self to search admire and adore them Before I part from this first End of the Death of Christ give me leave to deduce two useful Corollaries from it and then proceed to a second Corollary 1. Hath Christ by Death delivered his people from the wrath to come How ingrate and disingenious a thing must it be then for those that have obtain'd such a deliverance as this to repine and gruâ—ge at those light afflictions they suffer for a moment upon Christs account in this world Alas What are these sufferings that we should grudge at them Are they like those which the Redeemer suffered for our deliverance Did ever any of us endure for him what he endured for us Or is there any thing you can suffer for Christ in this world comparable to this wrath to come which you must have endured had he not by the price of his own blood rescued you from it Reader wilt thou but make the comparison in thine own thoughts in the following particulars and then pronounce when thou hast duly compared First What is the wrath of man to the wrath of God What is the Arm of a creature to the Anger of a Deity Can man thunder with an arm like God Secondly What are the sufferings of the vile body here to the tortures of a Sâ—ul and Body in Hell The torments of the Soul are the very soul of tâ—rmenâ—s Thirdly What are the troubles of a moment to that wrath which after Millions of years are gone will still be call'd wrath to come O what compare betwixt a point of hasty Time and the interminable Duration of vast Eternity Fourthly What compare is there betwixt the intermitting sorrows and sufferings of this life and the continued uninterrupted wrath to come Our troubles here are not constant there are gratious relaxations lucid intervals here but the wrath to come allows not a moments ease or mitigation Fifthly What light and easie troubles are those which being put into the rank and order of adjuvant causes work under the influence and blessing of the first cause to the everlasting good of them that love God compared with that wrath to come out of which no good effects or issues are possible to proceed to the souls on which it lies Sixthly And lastly how much more comfortable is it to suffer in fellowship with Christ and his Saints for righteousness sake than to suffer with Devils and reprobates for wickedness sake Grudge not then O ye that are delivered by Jesus from wrath to come at any thing ye do suffer or shall suffer from Christ or for Christ in this world Corollary 2. If Jesus Christ hath delivered his people from the wrath to come how little comfort can any man take in his present enjoyments and accommodations in the world whilst it remains a question with him whether he be deliver'd from the wrath to come It 's well for present but will it be so still Man is a prospecting creature and it will not satisfie him that his present condition is comfortable except he have some hope it shall be so hereafter It can afford a man little content that all is easie and pleasant about him now whilst such passages and terrible hints of wrath to come are given him by his own conscience daily Oh methinks such a thought as this what if I am reserved for the wrath to come Should be to him as the fingers appearing upon the plaister of the wall were to Belteshazzar in the height of a frollick It 's a custom with some of the Indians when they have taken a prisoner whom they intend not presently to eat to bring him with great Triumph into the village where he dwelleth that hath taken him and placing him in the house of one that was slain in the Wars as it were to re-celebrate his funerals they give him his Wives or Sisters to attend on him and use at his pleasure They apparel him gorgeously and feed him with all the dainty meats that may be had affording him all the pleasure that can be devised when he hath past certain months in all these pleasures and like a Capon is made fat with delicate fare they assemble themselves upon some festival day and in great pomp bring him to the place of execution where they kill and eat him Such are all the
another body to be raised instead of this it would not be a Resurrection but a Creation for non Resurrectio dici poterit ubi non resurgit quod cecidit That can't be call'd a Resurrection where one thing falls and another thing rises as Gregory long since pertinently observed Secondly His body was raised not by a word of power from the Father but by his own spirit So will ours Indeed the power of God shall go forth to unburrough sinners and fetch them forcibly out of their Graves but the Resurrection of the Saints is to be effected another way as I opened but now to you Even by his spirit which now dwelleth in them That very spirit of Christ which effected their spiritual Resurrection from sin shall effect their corporal Resurrection also from the Grave Thirdly His body was raised first he had in this as well as in other things the preheminence so shall the Saints in respect of the wicked have the preheminence in the Resurrection 1 Thes. 4.16 The dead in Christ shall rise first They are to attend the Lord at his coming and will be knockt up â—ooner than the rest of the world to attend on that service As the Sheriff with his men go forâ—h to meet the Judge before the Jaylor brings forth his prisoner Fourthly Christs body was marvelously improved by the Resurrection and so will ours It fell in weakness but was raised in power no more capable of sorrows pains and dishonours In like manner our bodies are sown in weakness but raised in strength sown in dishonour raised in glory Sown natural bodies raised spiritural bodies as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15.43 44. Spiritual bodies not properly but Analogically No distempers hang about glorified bodies nor are they thence forth subject to any of those natural necessities to which they are now tyed There are no flaws defects or deformities in the children of the Resurrection What members are now defective or deformed will then be restored to their perfect being and beauty for if the universal death of all parts be rescinded by the Resurrection how much more the partial Death of any single member As Turtullian speaks and from thence forth they are free from the Law of mortality they can die no more Luk. 20 35 36. Thus shall they be improved by their Resurrection Fifthly To conclude Christs body was raised from the Dead to be glorified and crowned with honour Oh it was a joyful day to him and so will the Resurrection of the Saints be to them the day of the gladness of their hearts It will be said to them in that morning awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust as Isa. 26.19 O how comfortable will be the meeting betwixt the glorified soul and its new raised body Much more comfortable than that of Iacobs and Iosephs after twenty years absence Gen. 46.29 Or that of Davids with Jonathan when he came out of the Cave to him 1 Sam. 20.41 Or that of the Father of the prodigal with his Son who was dead and is alive was lost and is found As he speaks Luk. 15. And there are three things will make it so First The gratifications of the Soul by the satisfaction of its natural appetite of union with its own body For even glorified souls in heaven have such an appetition and desire of re-union Indeed the Angels who are pure spirits as they never hâ—d union with so they have no inclination to matter but souls are otherwise tempered and disposed We are all sensible of its affection to the body now in its compounded state we feel the tender care it hath for the body the sympathy with it and loathness to be separated from it It 's said 1 Cor. 5.6 To be at home in the body And had not God implanted such an inclination to this its Tabernacle in it it would not have paid that due respect it ows the body while it inhabited in it nor have regarded what became of it when it left it This inclination remains still with it in heaven it reckons not it self compleatly happy till its old dear Companion and partner be with it and to that sence some understand those words Iob 14.14 All the daies of my appointed time i. e. of the time appointed â—or my body to remain in the Grave will I wait till my change viz. that which will be made by the Resurrection come for it 's manifest enough he speaks there of the Resurrection Now when this its inclination to its own body its longings and hankerings after it are gratified with a sight and enjoyment of it again oh what a comfortable meeting will this make it Especially if we consider Secondly The excellent temper and state in which they shall meet each other For as the body shall be raised with all the improvements and endownments imaginable which may render it amiable and every way desireable so the soul comes down immediatly from God out of Heaven shining in its holiness and glory It comes perfumed out of those Ivory Palaces with a strong scent of Heaven upon it And thus it re-enters its body and animates it again But Thirdly And principally that wherein the chief joy of this meeting consists is the end for which the glorified soul comes down to quicken and repossess it Namely to meet the Lord and ever to be with the Lord. To receive a full reward for all the labours and services it performed to God in this world This must needs make that day a day of Triumph and Exaltation It comes out of the grave as Ioseph out of his prison to be advanced to highest honour O do but imagine what an extasie of Joy and ravishing pleasure it will be for a soul thus to resume its own body and say as it were unto it come away my dear my ancient friend who servedst and sufferedst with me in the world come along with me to meet the Lord in whose presence I have bee ever since I parted with thee Now thy bountiful Lord hath remembred thee also and the day of thy glorification is come Surely it will be a joyful awaking For do but imagine what a Joy it is for dear friends to meet after long separation how do they use to give demonstrations of their love and delight in each other by Embraces Kisses Tears c. Or frame but to your selves a notion of perfect health when a sprightly vivacity runs through every part and the spirits do as it were dance before us when we go to any business Especially to such a business as the business of that day will be to receive a Crown and a Kingdom Do but imagine then what a Sun-shine morning this will be and how the pains and agonies cold sweats and bitter groans at parting will be recompenced by the joy of such a meeting And thus I have shewed you briefly the certainty of Christs Resurrection the nature and properties of it the threefold influence it hath on the
Saints Resurrection and the conformity of ours unto his in these five respects His body rose substantially the same so shall ours His body was raised by the spirit so shall ours Not by the God-head of Christ as his was but by the Spirit who is the bond of our union with Christ. He was raised as the first begotten from the dead so the dead in Christ shall rise first His body was improved by the Resurrection so shall ours From the consideration of all which Inference 1. We Infer That if Christ was thus raised from the dead then death is fairly overcome and smallowed up in Victory Were it not so it had never let Christ escape out of the Grave The prey of the terrible had never been thus rescued out of its paws Death is a dreadful enemy it defies all the Sons and Daughters of Adam None durst cope with this King of terrors but Christ. And he by dying went into the very den of this Dragon fought with it and foiled it in the Grave its own territories and dominions and came off a Conqueror For as the Apostle speaks Acts 2.24 It was impossible it should hold or detain him Never did death meet with its over match before it met with Christ. And he conquering it for us and in our names rising as our representative now every single Saint triumphs over it as a vanquisht enemy 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. Thus like Ioshua they set the foot of faith upon the neck of that King and with an holy scorn deride its power O death where is thy Sting If it be objected that it 's said 1 Cor. 15.26 The last enemy that is to be destroyed is Death And if so then it should seem the Victory is not yet atchieved and so we do but boast before the Victory It is at hand to reply that the Victory over death obtained by Christs Resurrection is twofold either personal and incompleat or general and compleat He actually overcame it at his Resurrection in his own person perfectly and vertually for us as our head but at the general Resurrection of the Saints which his Resurrection as the first fruits assures them of then it 's utterly vanquisht and destroyed Till then it will exercise some little power over the bodies of the Saints in which respect it 's called the last enemy For sin the chief enemy that let it in that was conquered utterly and eradicated when they died but death holds their bodies in the Grave till the coming of Christ and then it is utterly to be vanquished For after that they can die no more Luk. 20.35 And then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written death is swallowed up in Victory Then and not till then will that conquest be fully compleated in our persons though it be already so in Christs incompleatly in ours and then compleatly and fully for ever For the same word which signifies Victory doth also signifie Perpetuity and in this place a final or perpetual conquest And indeed it drives but a poor trade for present smiting only with its Dart not with its Sting and that but the believers body only and the body but for a time remains under it neither So that there is no reason why a believer should stand in a slavish fear of it Inference 2. Is Christ risen and hath his Resurrection such a potent and comfortable influence into the Resurrection of the Saints Then it is the duty and will be the wisdom of the people of God so to Govern dispose and imploy their bodies as becomes men and women that understand what glory is prepared for them at the Resurrection of the Iust. Particularly First Be not fondly tender of them but imploy and use them for God here How many good duties are lost and spoiled by sinful indulgence to our bodies Alas we are generally more solicitous to live long than to live usefully How many Saints have active vigorous bodies yet God hath little service from them If your bodies were animated by some other souls that love God more than you do and burn with holy Zeal to his service more work would be done for God by your bodies in a day than is now done in a month To have an able healthy body and not use it for God for fear of hurting it is as if one should give you a strong and stately Horse upon condition you must not work or ride him Wherein is the mercy of having a body except it be imployed for God Will not its reward at the Resurrection be sufficient for all the pains you now put it to in his service Secondly See that you preserve the due honour of your bodies Possess them in Sanctification and honour 1 Thes. 4.4 O let not those eyes be now defiled with sin by which you shall see God Those ears be in-lets to vanity which shall hear the Alaleujahs of the blessed God hath designed honour for your bodies O make them not either the instruments or objects of sin There are sins against the body 1 Cor. 6.18 Preserve your bodies from those defilements for they are the Temples of God If any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy 1 Cor. 3.17 Thirdly Let not the contentment and accomodation of your bodies draw your souls into snares and bring them under the power of Temptations to sin This is a very common case O how many thousands of pretious souls perish eternally for the satisfaction of a vile body for a momenâ— Their Souls must because their bodies cannot suffer It is recorded to the immortal honour of those worthies in Heb. 11.35 That they accepted not deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection They might have had a Temporal Resurrection from death to life from reproach to honour from poverty to riches from pains to pleasure but upon such terms they Judged it not worth acceptance They would not expose their souls to secure their bodies They had the same natural affections that other men have They were made of as tender flesh as we are but such was the care they had of their souls and the hope of a better Resurrection that they listned not to the complaints and whinings of their bodies O that we were all in the same resolutions with them Fourthly Withhold not upon the pretence of the wants your own bodies may be in that which God and conscience bids you to communicate for the refreshment of the Saints whose present necessities require your assistance O be not too indulgent to your own flesh and cruel to others Certainly the consideration of that reward which shall be given you at the Resurrection for every act of Christian Charity is the greatest spur and incentive in the world to it And to that end it 's urged as a motive to Charity Luk. 14.13 14.
may find this case learnedly and solidly handled by Dr. Twisse Vindiciae graâ—iae Digress 8. Nulia alia ratione palam fâ—â—ripotest odium adversus peratum diciâ—um quam poenae commeritae inflictione Brad. de Justific p. 61. Hinc igitâ—r apparet quam neâ—essariâ—m fuit ut Christus mediator â—sset Deus homo nisi enim hâ—moâ—non fuisset iâ—oneum sacrificiâ—â— nisi Deus fuisset sacrificium illud non fuisseâ— sâ—ffâ—iâ—ntis virtutis Ames med p. 92. Synopsis purioris Theologiâ—e p. 318. Sacerdotium Christi est functio qua coram Deo appa et ut legem ab ipso acceptam nostro noniâ—e observeâ— scipsum victiman reconciliationis pâ—o nostris peccatis ipsi ofserat fua que apud Deam intercessione opâ—n ipsius perennem ac doâ—ationem spiritus sancti nobuÌ„ impetâ—et atque efficiter ap liâ—â— Certò aâ— statim morieris Dâ—ct Râ—ynoldâ— on Psâ—l 1.10 p. 409. Ob. Sol. Cor. 1. Cor. 2. Ponetâ— manum significaâ—s se scelera sua poenamque iis debitum conjicere in caput victimae Ut Graecis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genus est imprecationis Drusius Menochius Heroâ— 2.39 It is a rule that where there is a total and sufficient cause in act there the effect must needs follow But if they be partial causes then the causes which suceâ—d in order do not produce their compleat effect until the last cause be in act Cor. 3. Cor. 4. Serm. 12. Opens the excellency of our High-Priests Oblation being the first act or part of his Priestly Office Oblatâ—o Christi unica est non tantum specie sed etiam numero quia nulla potest esse Oblatio Christi nisi intercedente morte ipsius eoque falsa est Sacrificii incruentem incruentem distinctâ—o Trelcatus Instit. p. 79. Doct. Sic Oblationes iâ— vase mundo offerebantur Esa 66.20 Ravan Bilson and Fevardentius affirm that Christ only offered up his body not his soul upon this weak ground that if he had offered both he had not offered one but two Sacrifices Against whom the Learned Parker in his excellent book de dâ—s 〈◊〉 urgeth my text and thus frees it from that corrupt gloss Pulchrè quasi boloca stum non unum fuit Sacrificium quia ex plur bus partibus constabit Sacrificium Christi unicum dicitur non in oppositione corporis ad animam sed in oppositione corporis animae semel Oblati ad multa illa Sacrificia quae non semel sed multotiâ—s in Lege Mosis offerebantur Parker de descensu Lib. 111. p. 146. Id â—olù◠rationem poenae babere potest quod infligitur à judice legi convenienter Non convenit autâ—m legi quae mortem denunciat â—t ob ejus violationem id infligatâ—r tantum ex quo guttula sanguinâ—s manet Joh. Camero p. 364. Virtus gratia Christi qâ—ate tuâ— mundi redemptor est omnium aetatum communis fâ—iâ— Calv. in Loc. Causa physica precedit effâ—câ—uÌ„ sâ—um tempoâ—pore non iteâ— caâ—sa mo alis Cameâ—onis opera p. 361. Nâ—nâ— servatâ—r no â—est ita ut olin non fuâ—rit atque ut non â—it servator in aeternum Camer myrothâ—â— p 337. Dâ—â—on â—n Loc. Odoratus Deo tribultur quo itidem Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 complacencia gratia denotatur Sicut odore bono homo recreaâ—â—r coque delectatur pertinet hâ—c appellatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 odor quietis seu suavitatis quae crebrò Sacrificiisâ— Deo oblatis tribâ—itur Exod. 29. â— 25. Levit. 1.9 S. Glats Philolog Sacra Doccâ—t â—heâ—logâ— Christum pâ—o omnibus sufficienter pro Electis duntaxat Efficaciter mortâ—um esse Camero ubi supra p. 535. Mr. Strong Zanch de tribius Elohim Infer 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attollere vel sursum ferre Sic Syriac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 julavit sursum tulit Beza Grec Annot. in 1 Pet. 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infer 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita Theophilâ—ctus pul herimè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nolo Dâ—um absolutum Mr. William Lâ—ford Infer 3. Serm. 13. Opens the Intercession of Christ our High-Priest being the second Act or Part of Christs Priestly Office Redemptio quam operatus est fundamentum sit intercessionis ac propterea redemptioâ—em intercessionem tanquan duas individuas Christi Sacrificii partes Scriptura commemorare solet Ravenella ad verbum intercedere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ifferunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subjecta matâ—riâ non differunt Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proâ—riè perpetuitatem temporis significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non â—anc solam verùm etiam omnimodam â—â—â—fectionem Cameâ—â—â— Doct. See Dâ—odati and our English Annot. in Loc. Pet. Lombard Lib. 4. dist 45. Quid vâ—ò sibi veâ—it hic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro nobis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videndum est Reâ—â—icit ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portificis veteris qui i gressus intra velum dâ—cebatur apparere in consfectu Dei pro populo quatenus se cum sanguine hâ—rei piacularis presentabat Deo precibus suis supplex orabat uâ— propter sanguinem non illum hircinâ—m sed il o representatum Christi Mediatoris fundendum propitius esset peccatis suis populi Doct. Pereus in loc Voluntate ac desiderio s o ardenti quâ—nadmodum in terris antea secerat ita iâ— Coelis apud patrem morâ—is sâ—a vim atque â—fficatiam novis ad salutem appliâ—aâ—i postulâ—t Synops purior Theol. p. 346. Aelian Hist. lib 5 cap. 19. Deâ—daâ—i iâ— Loc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though he cannot weep or grieve now as he did on earth yet he can â—ove now as much as ever he loved and therefore he looks down from Heaven upon every particular mâ—mber He seeth that this man wantâ— this grace and that man wants that and the othâ—r is in danger of this corruption or that tempâ—atiâ—n Aâ—d iâ— daily caryiâ—g on the cure You see nâ—t your Physitian he stands out of your sight but he seeth you and it is he that doth all fâ—r you that is done â—â—xters Treatise of Coâ—version Vse 1. Vse 2. Goodwins Triumph p. 263. If Jesus be the Media or of the New covenant Believers may go with boldness and look the justice of God in the face for your debt is satisfied So long as a man is in debt he steals by the prison door in the dark but if his surety have paid the debt he dares come as you say and whet his knife at the Counter-door Christ your â—urety hath paid the debt you may go with boldness and look justice in the face the Devil and all the Serjeants of Hell in the face Mr. W. B. in his Treatise of Christ and the Covenant p. 98. Vse 3. He doth not forget us though he be exalted to his glory for he is not like the poor silly creature that cannot bear exaltation without being puffed up and forgeting both themselves their