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
Mr. Coverdale well translates filii non negantes such as will keep touch with me and will answer their Covenant engagements And again surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction And shall not all this engage you to God What! neither the antient and bountiful love of God in contriving your Redemption from eternity nor the bounty of God in rewarding all and every piece of service you have done for him Nor yet the pleasure he takes in your obedience and upright walking Nor the incouraging promises he hath made thereto nor yet his confident expectations of such a life from you whom he hath so many waies obliged and endeared to himself will you forget your antient friend Contemn his rewards take no delight or care to please him Slight his promises and deceive and fail his expectations Be astonished O ye Heavens at this And be horribly afraid Consider how God the Father hath fastned this five fold cord upon your Souls and shew your selves Christians yea to use the Prophets words Esa. 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves men Secondly You are yet farther engaged to this precise and holy life by what the Son hath done for you is not this pure and holy life the very aim and next end of his death Did he not shed his blood to redeem you from your vain conversations 1 Pet. 1.18 Was not this the design of all his sufferings that being delivered out of the hands of your enemies you might serve him in righteousness and holiness all the daies of your life Luk. 1.74 75. And is not the Apostles inference 2 Cor. 5.14 15. highly reasonable if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them Did Christ only buy your Persons and not your services also No no who ever hath thy time thy strength or any part of either I can assure thee Christian that Christ hath paid for it and thou givest away what is none of thine own to give Every moment of thy time is his Every Talent whether of grace or nature is his And dost thou defraud him of his own Oh how liberal are you of your pretious words and hours as if Christ had never made a purchase of them Oh think of this when thy life runs muddy and â—oul When the fountain of corruption flows out at thy tongue in idle frothy discourses or at thy hand in sinful unwarrantable actions doth this become the redeemed of the Lord Did Christ come from the bosom of his Father for this Did he groan sweat bleed endure the Cross and lay down his life for this Was he so well pleased with all his sorrows and sufferings his pangs and agonies upon the account of that satisfaction he should have in seeing the travail of his Soul Isa. 53.11 as if he had said Welcome Death welcome Agonies welcome the bitter cup and heavy burthen I chearfully submit to all this These are travailing pangs indeed but I shall see a beautiful birth at last These throws and Agonies shall bring forth many lively Children to God I shall have joy in them and glory from them to all Eternity This blood of mine these sufferings of mine shall purchase to me the Persons Duties Services and obedience of many thousands that will Love me and Honour me Serve me and Obey me with their Souls and Bodies which are mine And doth not this engage you to look to your lives and keep them pure Is not every one of Christs wounds a mouth open to plead for more holiness more service and more fruit from you Oh what will engage you if this will not But Thirdly This is not all as a man when he weigheth a thing casteth in weight after weight till the scales are counterpoised so doth God cast in engagement after engagement and argument upon argument till thy heart Christian be weighed up and won to this heavenly life And therefore as Elihu said to Iob cap. 36.22 Suffer me a little and I will shew thee what I have yet to speak on Gods behalf Some Arguments have already been urged on the behalf of the Father and Son for purity and cleanness of life and next I have something to plead on the behalf of the Spirit I plead now on his behalf who hath so many times helped you to plead for your selves with God He that hath so often refreshed quickened and comforted you he will be quenched grieved and displeased by an impure loose and careless conversation and what will you do then Who shall comfort you when the Comforter is departed from you When he that should releive your souls is far off Oh grieve not the holy Spirit of God by which you are sealed to the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 There is nothing grieves him more than impure practices For he is a holy Spirit And look as water damps and quenches the fire so doth sin quench the Spirit 1 Thes. 5.19 Will you quench the warm affections and burning desires which he hath kindled in your bosoms if you do it is a question whether ever you may recover them again to your dying day the Spirit hath a delicate Sence It is the most tender thing in the whole world He feels the least touch of sin and is grieved when thy corruptions within are stirred by temptations and break out to the defiling of thy life then is the holy Spirit of God as it were made sad and heavy within thee As that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes. 4.30 may be rendred For thereby thou both resistest his motions whereby in the way of a loving constraint he would lead and guide thee in the way of thy Duty yea thou not only resistest his motions but crossest his grand design which is to purge and sanctifie thee wholly and build thee up more and more to the perfection of holiness And when thou thus forsakest his conduct and crossest his design in thy soul then doth he usually with-draw as a man that is grieved by the unkindness of his friend He draws in the beams of his evidencing and quickning grace Packs up all his divine Cordials and saith as it were to this unkind and disingenious Soul Hast thou thus requited me for all the favours and kindnesses thou hast received from me Have I quickened thee when thou wast dead in transgressions did I descend upon thee in the Preaching of the Gospel and communicate life even the life of God to thee leaving others in the state of the Dead Have I shed forth such rich influences of grace and comfort upon thee Comforting thee in all thy troubles helping thee in all thy duties satisfying thee in all thy doubts and perplexities of soul saving thee and pulling thee back from so many destructive temptations and dangers What had been thy condition if I had not come unto thee Could the Word have converted thee without me
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
Tree O let the place where you assemble to so see this sight of your crucified Jesus be a Bokim a place of lamentation Inference 3. Moreover hence it 's evident that the believing and affectionate remembrance of Christ is of singular advantage at all times to the people of God For it 's the immediate end of one of the greatest Ordinances that ever Christ appointed to the Church To have frequent recognitions of Christ will appear to be singularly efficatious and useful to Believers if you consider First If at any time thy heart be dead and hard this is the likeliest means in the world to dissolve melt and quicken it Look hither hard heart hard indeed if this hammer will not break it Behold the blood of Jesus Secondly Art thou easily overcome by Temptions to sin This is the most powerful pull back in the world from sin Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein We are crucified with Christ what have we to do with sin Such a thought as this when thy heart is yielding to Temptations How can I do this and crucifie the Son of God afresh Haâ—h he not suffered enough already on earth shall I yet make him groan as it were for me in Heaven look as David poured the water brought from the Well of Bethlehem on the ground though he was athirst for said he it is the blood of the men i. e. they eminently hazarded their lives to fetch it much more should a Christian pour out upon the ground yea despise and trample under foot the greatest profit or pleasure of sin saying nay I will have nothing to do with it I will on no terms touch it for it is the blood of Christ. It cost blood infinitely pretious blood to expiate it If there were a knife in your house that had been thrust to the heart of your Father you would not take pleasure to see that knife much less to use it Thirdly Are you afraid your sins are not pardoned but still stand upon account before the Lord what more relieving what more satisfying than to see the Cup of the New-Testament in the blood of Christ which is shed for many for the remission of sins Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it 's Christ that died Fourthly Are you staggered at the sufferings and hard things you must endure for Christ in this world doth the flesh shrink back from these things and cry spare thy self What is there in the world more likely to steel and fortifie thy spirit with resolution and courage than such a sight as this Did Christ face the wrath of men and the wrath of God too Did he stand as a pillar of brass with unbroken patience and stedfast resolution under such troubles as never met in the like height upon any mear creature till death beat the last breath out of his nostrils And shall I shrink for a trifle Ah he did not serve me so I will arm my self with the like mind 1 Pet. 2.2 Fifthly Is thy faith staggered at the promises canst thou not rest upon a promise Here 's that will help thee against hope to believe in hope giving glory to God For this is Gods seal added to his Covenant which ratifies and binds fast all that God hath spoken Sixthly Dost thou idle away pretious time vainly and live unusefully to Christ in thy generation what more apt both to convince and cure thee than such a remembrance of Christ as this O when thou considerest thou art not thine own thy time thy tallents are not thine own but Christs When thou shalt see thou art bought with a price a great price indeed and so art strictly obliged to glorifie God with thy soul and body which are his 2 Cor. 5.14 This will powerfully awake a dull sluggish and lazy spirit In a word what grace is there this remembrance of Christ cannot quicken What sin cannot it mortifie What duty cannot it animate O it is of singular use in all cases to the people of God Inference 4. Lastly Hence we infer Though all other things do yet Christ neither doth nor can grow stale Here 's an Ordinance to preserve his remembrance fresh to the end of the world The blood of Christ doth never dry up The beauty of this Rose of Sharon is never lost or withred He is the same yesterday to day and for ever As his body in the grave saw no corruption so neither can his Love or any of his excellencies When the Saints shall have fed their eyes upon him in Heaven thousands and millions of years he shall be as fresh beautiful and orient as at the beginning Other beauties have their prime and their fading time but Christs abides eternally Our delight in creatures is often most at first acquaintance when we come nearer to them and see more of them the edge of our delight is rebated But the longer you know Christ and the nearer you come to him still the more do you see of his glory Every farther prospect of Christ entertains the mind with a fresh delight He is as it were a new Christ every day and yet the same Christ still Blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTY SECOND SERMON LUK. XXII XLI XLII XLIII XLIV And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast and kneeled down and prayed saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done And there appeared an Angel unto him from Heaven strengthning him 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 THE hour is now almost come even that hour of sorrow which Christ had so often spoken of Yet a little a very little while and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners He hath affectionately recommended his Children to his Father He hath set his house in order and ordained a memorial of his death to be left with his people as you have heard There is but one thing more to do and then the Tragoedy begins He recommended us he must also recommend himself by prayer to the Father and when that is done he is ready let Iudas with the black guard come when they will This last Act of Christs preparation for his own death is contained in this Scripture wherein we have an account First Of his Prayer Secondly Of the Agony attending it Thirdly His relief in that Agony by an Angel that came and comforted him First The Prayer of Christ in a praying posture he will be found when the enemy comes He will be taken upon his knees He was pleading hard with God in prayer for strength to carry him through this heavy trial when they came to take him And this prayer was a very remarkable prayer both for the solitariness of it he withdrew about a stones cast vers 41. from his dearest intimates
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
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
learn hence what an horrid evil it is to use Christ or his Blood as a common and unsanctified thing Yet so some do as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.29 The Apostate is said to tread upon the Son of God as if he were no better than the dirt under his Feet and to count his Blood an unholy or common thing But woe to them that so do they shall be counted worthy of something worse then dying without mercy As the Apostle there speaks And as this is the Sin of the Apostate so is it also the Sin of all those that without Faith approach and so prophane the Table of the Lord unbeleivingly and unworthily handling those awfull things Such eat and drink judgement to themselves not discerning the Lords Body 1 Cor. 11.29 Whereas the body of Christ was a thing of the deepest sanctification that ever God created Sanctified as the Text tells us to a far more excellent and glorious purpose than ever any Creature in Heaven or Earth was sanctified It was therefore the great sin of those Corinthians not to discern it and not to behave themselves towards it when they saw and handled the signs of it as so holy a thing And as it was their great Sin so God declared his just indignation against it in those sore strokes inflicted for it As they discerned not the Lords body so neither did the Lord discern their bodies from others in the judgements that were inflicted And as one well observes God drew the Model and Plat-form of their punishment from the structure and proportion of their sin And truly if the moral and spiritual Seeds and originals of many of our outward afflictions and sicknesses were but duly sifted out possibly we might find a great part of them in the Bowels of this sin The just and righteous God will build up the breaches we make upon the honour of his Son with the ruines of that beauty strength and honour which he hath given our Bodies O then when you draw nigh to God in that ordinance take heed to sanctifie his name by a spiritual discerning of this most holy and most deeply sanctified Body of the Lord. Sanctified beyond all Creatures Angels or Men not only in respect of the Spirit which fill'd him without measure with inherent holiness but also in respect of its dedication to such a service as this It being set apart by him to such holy solemn ends and uses as you have heard And let it for ever be a warning to such as have lifted up their hands to Christ in an holy profession that they never lift up their Heel against him afterwards by Apostacy The Apostate treads on Gods dear Son and God will tread upon him for it Thou hast troden down all that err from thy Statutes Psal. 119.118 Inference 3. What a choice pattern of love to the Saints have we here before us calling all that are in Christ to an imitation of him Even to give our selves up to their service as Christ did Not in the same kind so none can give himself for them but as we are capable You see here how his Heart was affected to them that he would sanctifie himself as a Sacrifice for them See to what a height of duty the Apostle improves this example of Christ 1 Ioh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought also to lay down our lives for the Brethren Some Christians came up fairly to this pattern in the Primitive times Priscila and Aquila laid down their Necks for Paul Rom. 16.4 i. e. eminently hazarded their lives for him and even he himself could rejoyce if he were offered up upon the Sacrifice and service of their Faith Phil. 2.17 And in the next times what more known even to the Enemies of Christianity than their fervent love one to another Ecce quam mutuò se deligunt mori volunt pro alterutris See how they love one another and are willing to dye one for another But alas that Primitive Spirit is almost lost in this degenerate Age. Instead of laying down life how few will lay down twelve pence for them I remember it 's the observation of a late Worthy upon Matth. 95.40 that he is perswaded there is hardly that man to be found this day alive that fully understands and fully believes that Scripture O did men think what they do for them is done for Christ himself it would produce other effects than are yet visible Inference 4. Lastly if Christ sanctified himself that we might be sâ—nctied by or in the truth then it will follow by found consequence that true sanctification is a good evidence that Christ set apart himself to dye for us In vain did he â—anctifie himself as to you unless you be sanctified Holy Souls only can claim the benefit of the great Sacrifice O try then whether true holiness and that is only to be judged by its conformity to its pattern 1 Pet. 1.15 As he that called you is holy so be ye holy whether such an holyness as is and acts according to its measure like Gods holiness in the following perticulars be â—ound in you First God is universally holy in all his ways so Psal. 145.17 His works are all holy what ever he doth it 's still done as becomes an holy God He is not only holy in all things but at all times unchangeably holy Be ye therefore holy in all things and at all times too if ever ye expect the benefit of Christs sanctifying himself to dye for you O Brethren let not the Feet of your conversation be as the Feet of a lame man which are unequal Prov. 20.7 be not sometimes hot and sometimes cold at one time carefull at another time careless One day in a spiritual rapture and the next in a fleshly frolick but be ye holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.15 in all manner of conversation in every creek and turning of your lives And let your holiness hold out to the end Let him that is holy be holy still Rev. 22.11 not like the Hypocrites paint but as a true natural complexion Secondly God is examplarily holy Jesus Christ is the great pattern of holiness Be ye examples of holiness too unto all that are about you Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Matth. 5.16 as wicked men infect one another by their examples and diffuse their poison and malignity whereever they come so do ye diffeminate godliness in all places and companies and let those that frequently converse with you especially those of your own Families receive a deeper Dye and Tincture of heavenlyness every time they come nigh you as the cloth doth by every new dipping into the Fat. Thirdly God delights in nothing but holiness and holy ones he hath set all his pleasure in the Saints Be ye holy herein as God is holy Indeed there is this difference betwixt
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
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
how apt are we to regret at providences as if it had no conducency at all to the glory of God or to our good Exod. 5.22 Yea to limit providence to our way and time thus the Israelites tempted God and limited the Holy One Psal. 78.20 41. How often also do we unbelievingly distrust providence as though it could never accomplish what we profess to expect and believe Ezek. 37.11 Our bones are dry our hope is lost we are cut off for our part So Gen. 18.13 14. Isai. 40.27 There are but few Abrahams among believers who against hope believed in hope giving glory to God Rom. 4.20 And it is but too common for good men to repine and fret at providence when their wills lusts or humours are crossed by it This was the great sin of Ionah Brethren these things ought not to be so Did you but seriously consider either the design of providence which is to bring about the gratious designs and purposes of God upon you which were laid before this world was Eph. 1.11 or that it is a lifting up of thy wisdom against his as if thou couldst better order thine affairs if thou hadst the conduct and management of them Or that you have to do herein with a great and dreadful God in whose hands you are as the clay in the Potters hand that may do what he will with you and all that is yours without giving you an account of any of his matters Iob 33.13 Or whether providence hath cast others as good by nature as your selves tumbled them down from the top of health wealth honours and pleasures to the bottom of Hell Or Lastly Did you but consider how often it hath formerly baffled and befool'd your selves Made you retract with shame your rash headlong censures of it and enforced you by the sight of its births and issues to confess your folly and ignorance as Asaph did Psal. 73.22 I say if such considerations as these could but have place with you in your troubles and temptations they would quickly mould your hearts into a better and more quiet frame O that I could but perswade you to resign all to Christ. He is a cunning workman as he he is called Prov. 8.30 and can effect what he pleaseth It 's a good rule de operibus Dei non est judicandum ante quintum actum Let God work out all that he intends have but patience till he hath put the last hand to his work and then find fault with it if you can You have heard of the patience of Iob and have seen the end of the Lord. Iam. 5.11 Inference 3. If Christ be Lord and King over the providential Kingdom and that for the good of his people let none that are Christs henceforth stand in a slavish fear of creatures It 's a good note that Grotius hath upon my text It 's a marvailous consolation saith he that Christ hath so great an Empire and that he governs it for the good of his people as an head consulting the good of the body Our Head and Husband is Lord General of all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth No creature can move hand or tongue without his leave or order The power they have is given them from above Ioh. 19.11 12. The serious consideration of this truth will make the feeblest spirit cease trembling and fall a singing Psal. 47.7 The Lord is King of all the earth sing ye praises with understanding that is as some well paraphase it every one that hath understanding of this comfortable truth Hath he not given you abundant security in many express promises that all shall issue well for you that fear him Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God And Eccles. 8.12 Verily it shall be well with them that fear God even with them that fear before him And suppose he had not yet the very understanding of our relation to such a King should in it self be sufficient security For he is the universal supream absolute meek and merciful victorious and immortal King He sits in glory at the Fathers right hand and to make his seat the easier his enemies are a footstool for him His love to his people is unspeakably tender and fervent He that touches them touches the apple of his eye Zech. And it 's hardly imaginable that Jesus Christ will sit still and suffer his enemies to thrust out his eyes Till this be forgotten the wrath of man is not feared Isai. 51.12 13. He that fears a man that shall die forgets the Lord his Maker he loves you too well to sign any order to your prejudice and without his order none can touch you Inference 4. If the Government of the world be in the hands of Christ then our engaging and entitling of Christ to all our affairs and business is the true and ready way to their success and prosperity if all depend upon his pleasure then sure it 's your wisdom to take him along with you to every action and business It 's no lost time that 's spent in prayer wherein we ask his leave and beg his presence with us And take it for a clear truth that which is not prefaced with prayer will be followed with trouble How easily can Jesus Christ dash all your designs when they are at the very birth and article of execution and break off in a moment all the purposes of your hearts It 's a Proverb among the Papists that Mass and Meat hinder no nan The Turks will pray five times a day how urgent soever their business be Blush you that enterprise your affairs without God I reckon that business as good as done to which we have gotten Christs leave and engaged his presence to accompany us to it Inference 5. Lastly Eye Christ in all the events of providence see his hand in all that befals you whether it be evil or good The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal. 111.2 How much good might we get by observation of the good or evil that befals us throughout our course First In all the evils of trouble and affliction that befal you eye Jesus Christ in it all And set your hearts to the study of these four things in affliction First Study his Soveraignty and Dominion For he creates and forms them They rise not out of the dust nor do they befal you casually But he raises them up and gives them their commission Jer. 18.11 Behold I create evil and devise a device against you He elects the instrument of your trouble He makes the rod as afflictive as he pleaseth He orders the continuance and end of your troubles And they will not cease to be afflictive to you till Christ say leave off it is enough The Centurion wisely considered this when He told him Luk. 7.8 I have souldiers under me and I say to one go and
condition Inference 4. From the fourth particular of Christs Humiliation in his life by Satans Temptations we infer That those in whom Satan hath no interest may have most trouble from him in this world Joh. 14.30 The Prince of this world cometh and hath nought in me Where he knows he cannot be a Conqueror he will not cease to be a Troubler This bold and daring spirit adventures upon Christ himself for doubtless he was filled with envy at the sight of him and would do what he could though to no purpose to obstruct the blessed design in his hand And it was the wisdom and love of Christ to admit him to come as near him as might be and try all his darts upon him that by this experience he might be filled with pity to succour them that are tempâ—ed And as the set on Christ so much more will he adventure upon us and but too oft comes off a Conqueror Sometimes he shoots the fiery darts of blasphemous injections These fall as flashes of lightning on the dry thaâ—ch which instantly sets all in a combustion And just so is it attended with an after thunder-clap of inward horror which shivers the very heart and strikes all into confusion within Divers rules are prescribed in this case to relieve poor distressed ones One adviseth to think seriously on that which is darted suddainly and to do by your hearts as men use to do with young horses that are apt to start and boggle at every thing in the way we bring them close to the things they fright at make them look on them and smell to them that time and better acquaintance with such things may teach them not to start Others advise to diversions of the thoughts as much as may be to think quite another way These rules are contrary to one another and I think signifie but little to the relief of a poor soul so distressed The best rule doubtless is that of the Apostle Eph. 6.16 Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Act your faith my friends upon your tempted Saviour who passed through Temptations before you and particularly exercise faith on three things in Christs Temptations First Believingly consider how great variety of Temptations were tried upon Christ and of what an horrid blasphemous nature that was fall down and worship me Secondly Believingly consider that Christ came off a perfect Conqueror in the day of his tryal Beat Satan out of the field For he saw what he attempted on Christ was as impossible as to batter the body of the Sun with Snow-balls Thirdly Lastly believe that the benefits of those his victories and conquests are for you and that for your sakes he permitted the Tempter to come so near him As you find Heb. 2.18 Heb. 4.15 If you say true Christ was tempted as well as I but there 's a vast difference betwixt his Temptations and mine For the Prince of this world came and found nothing in him Ioh. 14.30 He was not internally defiled though externally assaulted but I am defiled by them as well as troubled This is a different case True it is so and must be so or else it had signified nothing to your relief For had Christ been internally defiled he had not been a fit Mediator for you Nor could you have had any benefit either by his Temptations or Sufferings for you But he being Tempted and yet still holy bearing the burden and still escaping the defilement of sin hath not only satisfied for the sins you commit when tempted but also gotten an experimental sense of the misery of your condition which is in him though now in glory as aspiring of pity and tender compassion to you Remember poor Tempted Christian the God of peace shall shortly tread Satan under thy feet Rom. 16.20 Thou shalt set thy foot on the neck of that enemy And as soon as both thy feet are over the threshold of glory thou shalt cast back a smiling look and say now Satan do thy worst Now I am there where thou canst not come Mean while till thou be out of his reach let me advise thee to go to Jesus Christ and open the matter to him Tell him how that base spirit falls upon thee yea sets upon thee even in his presence Intreat him to rebuke and command him off Beg him to consider thy case and say Lord dost not thou remember how thy own heart was once grieved though not defiled by his assaults I have grief and guilt together upon me Ah Lord I expect pity and help from thee thou knowest the heart of a stranger the heart of a poor Tempted one This is singular relief in this case O try it Inference 5. Was Christ yet more humbled by his own sympathy with others in their distresses Hence we learn that a compassionate spirit towards such as labour under burdens of sin or affliction is Christ-like and truly excellent This was the spirit of Christ O be ye like him Put on as the Elect of God bowels of mercy Col. 3.12 Weep with them that weep and rejoyce with them that do rejoyce Rom. 12.15 It was Cain that said am I my brothers keeper Blessed Paul was of a contrary temper 2 Cor. 11.29 Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not Three things promote sympathy in Christians one is the Lords pity for them he doth as it were suffer with me in all their afflictions he was afflicted Isai. 63.9 Another is the relation we sustain to Gods afflicted people They are members with us in one body and the members should have the same care one of another 1 Cor. 12.25 The last is we know not how soon our selves may need from others what others now need from us Restore him with the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Gal. 6.1 Inference 6. Did the world help on the Humiliation of Christ by their base and vile usage of him Learn hence That the Iudgment the world gives of persons and their worth is little to be regarded Surely it dispenses its smiles and honours very praeposterously and unduly In this respect among others the Saints are stiled such persons of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11.38 i. e. it doth not deserve to have such choise spirits as these are left in it since it knows not how to use or treat them It was the complaint of Salvian above eleven hundred years ago If any of the Nobility saith he do but begin to turn to God presently he looseth the honour of Nobility O in how little honour is Christ among Christian people when Religion shall make a man ignoble So that as he adds many are compelled to be evil lest they should be esteemed vile And indeed if the world give us any help to discover the true worth and excellency of men by it is by the
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
in Hell for ever Rom. 2.5 6 7 8 9 10. Thou treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Iudgement of God Who shall render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil c. So 2 Thes. 1.4 5 6 7. So that we our selves glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure Which is a manifest token of the righteous Iudgement of God That ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye also suffer Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire c. To these plain testimonies multitudes more might be added if it were needful Heaven and Earth shall pass away but these words shall never pass away Arg. 3. Thirdly As the Scriptures reveal it so the Consciences of all men have some resentments of it Where is the man whose Conscience never felt any impressions of hope or fear from a future world If it be said these may be but the effects and force of discourse or education we have read such things in the Scriptures or have heard it by Preachers and so raise up to our selves hopes and fears about it I demand how the Consciences of the Heathens who have neither Scriptures nor Preachers came to be imprest with these things Doth not the Apostle tells us Rom. 2.15 That their Consciences in the mean while work upon these things Their thoughts with reference to a future state accuse or else excuse i. e. their hearts are cheared and encouraged by the good they do and terrified with fears about the evils they commit Whereas if there were no such things Conscience would neither accuse or excuse for good or evil done in this world Arg. 4. Fourthly The incarnation and death of Christ is but a vanity without it What did he propose to himself or what benefit have we by his coming if there be no such future state Did he take our nature and suffer such terrible things in it for nothing If you say Christians have much comfort from it in this Life I answer the comforts they have are raised by faith and expectation of the happiness to be enjoyed as the purchase of his blood in Heaven And if there be no such heaven to which they are appointed No Hell from which they are redeemed they do but comfort themselves with a Fable and bless themselves in a thing of nought Their comfort is no greater than the comfort of a Beggar that dreams he is a King and when he awakes finds himself a Beggar still Surely the ends of Christs death were to deliver us from the wrath to come 1 Thes. 1.10 Not from an imaginary but a real Hell to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 To be the Author of eternal Salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5.9 Arg. 5. Fifthly and lastly The immortality of humane souls puts it beyond all doubt The soul of a man vastly differs from that of a Beast which is but a material form and so wholly depending on must needs perish with the matter But it is not so with us Ours are reasonable spirits that can live and act in a separated state from the body Eccles. 3.21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of a Beast that goeth downward to the earth So that look as if a man dispute whether man be rational that his very disputing it proves him to be so so our disputes hopes fears and apprehensions of eternity prove our souls immortal and capable of that state Inference 1. Is there an Eternal State into which souls pass after this Life How pretious then is present time upon the improvement whereof that State depends O what a huge weight hath God hanged upon a small wyer God hath set us here in a State of Tryal according as we improve these few hours so will it fare with us to all Eternity Every day every hour nay every moment of your present time hath an influence into your Eternity Do ye believe this What and yet squander away pretious time so carelesly so vainly How do these things consist When Seneca heard one promise to spend a week with a friend that invited him to recreate himself with him He told him he admired he should make such a rash promise what said he cast away so considerable a part of your Life How can you do it Surely our prodigallity in the expence of time argues we have but little sence of great Eternity Inference 2. How rational are all the difficulties and severities of Religion which serve to promote and secure a future Eternal Happiness So vast is the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity things seen and not seen as yet the present vanishing and future permanent state that he can never be justly reputed a wise man that will not let go the best enjoyment he hath on earth if it stand in the way of his eternal happiness Nor can that man ever escape the just censure of notorious folly who for the gratifying of his appetite and present accommodation of his flesh le ts go an eternal glory in heaven Darius repented heartily that he lost a Kingdom for a draught of water O said he for how short a pleasure have I sold a Kingdom It was Moses choice and his choice argued his wisdom he chose rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin which are but for a season Heb. 11.25 Men do not account him a fool that will adventure a Penny upon a probability to gain ten thousand pounds But sure the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity is much greater Inference 3. If there certainly be such an Eternal State into which souls pass immediately after Death How great a change then doth Death make upon every man and woman O what a serious thing is it to die It 's your passage out of the swift river of Time into the boundless and bottomless Ocean of Eternity You that now converse with sensible objects with men and women like your selves enter then into the world of Spirits You that now see the continual revolutions of daies and nights passing away one after another will then be fixed in a perpetual NOW O what a serious thing is Death You throw a cast for Eternity when you die If you were to cast a Dye for your natural life oh how would your hand shake with fear how it would fall but what is that to this The souls of
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
O then exercise this when you have lost that Admonition 2. Secondly Take the right method to recover the sweet light which you have sinned away from your souls Do not go about from one to another complaining nor yet sit down desponding under your burden But First Search diligently after the cause of Gods withdrawment Urge him hard by prayer to tell thee wherefore he contends with thee Iob. 10.2 Say Lord what have I done that so offends thy spirit what evil is it which thou so rebukest I beseech thee shew me the cause of thine anger Have I grieved thy spirit in this thing or in that Was it my neglect of duty or my formality in duties Was I not thankful for the sense of thy love when it was shed abroad in my heart O Lord why is it thus with me Secondly Humble your souls before the Lord for every evil you shall be convinced of Tell him it pierces your hearts that you have so displeased him And that it shall be a caution to you whilst you live never to return again to folly Invite him again to your souls and mourn after the Lord till you have found him If you seek him he will be found of you 2 Chron. 15.2 It may be you shall have a thousand Comforters come about your sad souls in such a time to comfor them This will be to you instead of God and that will repair your loss of Christ. Despise them all and say I am resolved to sit as a Widow till Christ return he or none shall have my love Thirdly Wait on in the use of means till Christ return O be not discouraged Though he tarry wait you for him for Blessed are all they that wait for him The THIRTY FOURTH SERMON JOH XIX XXVIII After this Iesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scriptures might be fulfilled saith I Thirst. IT is as truly as commonly said death is dry Christ found it so when he died When his spirits laboured in the agonies of death then he said I thirst This is the fifth word of Christ upon the Cross spoken a little before he bowed the head and yielded up the Ghost It is only recorded by this Evangelist and there are four things remarkable in this complaint of Christ viz. the person complaining The complaint he made The time when And the reason why he so complained First The person complaining Iesus said I thirst This is a clear evidence that it was no common suffering Great and resolute spirits will not complain for small matters The spirit of a common man will endure much before it utters any complaint Let us therefore see Secondly The affliction or suffering he complains of and that is Thirst. There are two sorts of thirst One natural and proper another spiritual and figurative Christ felt both at this time His soul thirsted in vehement desires and longings to accomplish and finish that great and difficult work he was now about And his body thirsted by reason of those unparalleled agonies it laboured under for the accomplishing hereof But it was the proper natural thirst he here intends when he said I thirst Now this natural thirst of which he complains is the raging of the appetite for humid nourishment arising from the scorching up of the parts of the body for want of moisture And amongst all the pains and afflictions of the body there can scarcely be named a greater and more intolerable one than extream thirst The most mighty and valiant have stooped under it Mighty Sampson after all his conquests and victories complains thus Judg. 15.18 And he was sore athirst and called on the Lord and said thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant and now shall I die for thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised Great Darius drank filthy water defiled wâ—th the bodies of the slain to relieve his thirst and protested never any drink was more pleasant to him Hence Isai. 41.17 Thirst is put to express the most afflicted state When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them i. e. when my people are in extream necessities under any extraordinary pressures and distresses I will be with them to supply and relieve them Thirst causes a most painful compression of the heart when the body like a sponge sucks and draws for moisture and there is none And this may be occasioned either by long abstinence from drink or by the labouring and expence of the spirits under grievous agonies and extream tortures which like a fire within soon scâ—rch up the very radical moisture Now though we find not that Christ tasted a drop of liquor since he sate with the Disciples at the Table after that no more refreshments for him in this world yet that was not the cause of this raging thirst but it is to be ascribed to the extream sufferings which he so long had conflicted with both in his soul and body These preyed upon him and drank up his very spirits Hence came this sad complaint I thirst Thirdly Let us consider the time when he thus complained When all things were now accomplished saith the Text i. e. when all things were even ready to be accomplished in his death A little a very little while before his expiration When the travailing throws of death began to be strong upon him And so it was both a sign of death at hand and of his love to us which was stronger than death that would not complain sooner because he would admit of no relief nor take the lest refreshment till he had done his work Fourthly and Lastly Take notice of the design and end of his complaint That the Scriptures might be fulfilled he saith I thirst i. e. that it might appear for the satisfaction of our faith that whatsoever had been predicted by the Prophets was exactly accâ—mplished even to a circumstance in him Now it was foretold of him Psal. 69.21 They gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and herein it was verified Hence the Note is DOCT. That such were the Agonies and extream sufferings of our Lord Iesus Christ upon the Cross as drank up his very spirits and made him cry I thirst If I said one should live a thousand years and every day die a thousand times the same death for Christ that he once died for me yet all this would be nothing to the sorrows Christ endured in his death At this time the Bridegroom Christ might have borrowed the word of his Spouse the Church Lam. 1.12 Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by See and behold if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Here we are to enquire into and consider the extremities and agonies Christ laboured
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
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
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
not so then would the holy and divinely inspired Apostles be found false witnesses 1 Cor. 15.15 For they all with one mouth constantly and to the death affirmed it If Christ be not risen then are believers yet in their sins 1 Cor. 15.17 For our Justification is truly ascribed to the Resurrection of Christ Rom. 4.25 While Christ was dying and continued in the state of the dead the price of our Redemption was all that while but in paying the payment was compleated when he revived and rose again Therefore for Christ to have continued alwaies in the state of the dead had been never to have compleatly satisfiâ—d hence the whole force and weight of our Justification depends upon his Resurrection Nay had not Christ risen the dead had perished 1 Cor. 15.17 Even the dead who dyed in the Faith of Christ and of whose salvation there now remains no ground to doubt Moreover Had he not revived and risen from the dead how could all the Types that prefigured it have been satisfied Surely they must have stood as insignificant things in the Scriptures and so must all the predictions of his Resurrection by which it was so plainly foretold See Matth. 12.40 Luk. 24.46 Psal. 16.10 1 Cor. 15.4 To conclude had he not risen from the dead how could he have been install'd in that glory whereof he is now possessed in heaven and which was promised him before the world was upon the account of his death and sufferings For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14.9 And that in this state of dominion and glorious advancement he might powerfully apply the vertues and benefits of his blood to us which else had been as a pretious Cordial spilt upon the ground So then there remains no doubt at all of the certainty of Christs Resurrection it was so and upon all accounts it must needs be so for you see how great a weight the Scriptures hang upon this nail And blessed be God it 's a nail fastned in a sure place I need spend no more words to confirm it but rather choose to explain and open the nature and manner of his Resurrection which I shall do by shewing you four or five properties of it And the first is this First Christ rose from the dead with awful Majesty So you find it in Matth. 28.2 3 4. And behold there was a great Earthquake for the Angel ef the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sate upon it his countenance was like lightning and his rayment white as Snow and for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men Humane infirmity was not able to bear such heavenly Majesty as attended the business of that morning Nature â—ank under it This Earthquake was as one calls it Triumphale Signum A sign of Triumph or token of Victory given by Christ not only to the Keepers and the neighbouring City but to the whole world that he had overcome Death in its own dominions and like a conqueror lifted up his head above all his enemies So when the Lord fought from heaven for his people and gave them a glorious though but Temporal deliverance see how the Propheâ—ess drives on the triumph in that Rhetorical Song Iudg. 5.4 5. Alluding to the most awful appearance of God at the giving of the Law Lord when thou wentest out of Seir when thou marchedst out of the field of Edome the Earth trembled and the heavens droped the clouds also droped water The mountains melted before the Lord even that Sinai from before the lord God of Israel Our Lord Jesus went out of the Grave in like manner and marched out of that bloody field with a pomp and Majesty becoming so great a conqueror Secondly And to increase the splendor of that day and drive on the Triumph his Resurrection was attended with the Resurrection of many of the Saints who had slept in their Graves till then and then were awakned and raised to attend the Lord at his rising So you read Matth. 27 52 53. And the Graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many This wonder was designed both to adorn the Resurrection of Christ and to give a specimen or handsel of our Resurrection which also is to be in the vertue of his This indeed was the Resurrection of Saints and none but Saints the Resurrection of many Saints yet it was but a special Resurrection intended only to shew what God will one day do for all his Saints And for present to give Testimony of Christs Resurrection from the dead They were seen and known of many in the City who doubtless never thought to have seen them any more in this world To enquire curiously as some do who they were what discourse they had with those to whom they appeared and what became of them afterwards is a vain thing God hath cast a vail of silence and secresie upon these things that we might content our selves with the written Word and he that will not believe Moses and the Prophets neither will he believe though one arise from the dead as these Saints did Thirdly As Christ rose from the dead with those Saâ—ellites or attendants who accompanied him at his Resurrection so it was by the power of his own God-head that he quickned and raised himself and by the vertue of his Resurrection were they raised also who accompanied him It was not the Angel who rolled back the stone that revived him in the Sepulchre but he râ—sumed his own life so he tells us Ioh. 10.18 I lay down my life that I might take it again Hence in 1 Pet. 3.18 He is said to be put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit i. e. by the power of his God-head oâ— divine nature which is opposed there to flesh or his humane nature By the eternal Spirit he offered himself up to God when he dyed Heb. 9.14 i. e. by his own God-head not the third person in the Trinity for then it could not have been ascribed to him as his own act that he offer'd up himself And by the same spirit he was quickned again And therefore the Apostle well observes Rom. 1.4 That he was declared to be the Son of God with power by his Resurrection from the dead Now if he had been raised by the power of the Father or Spirit only and not by his own how could he be declared by his Resurrection to be the Son of God What more had appeared in him than in others For others are raised by the power of God if that were all So that in this respect also it was a marvellous Resurrection Never any did or shall rise as Christ rose by a self-quickning principle For though many dead Saints
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.
p. 592 593. It is for Christs honour 595. Four Inferences from it p. 596 597. Justice it self discharges the believer p. 176. and p. 596. K. KIng what manner of King Christ is to the Saints p. 205.206 Kingly power of Christ exercised over believers p. 196 197. Kingdom of Christ in the soul how obtained p. 195 196. How Christ administers his spiritual Kingdom opened in five acts thereof p. 197 198. Spiritual priviledges of Christs Kingdom p. 201 202. Five discoveries of our subjection to Christs Kingdom p. 203 204. Know some know Christ yet as to themselves better they did not p. 8. Knowledge of Christ the very kernel of Scripture p. 3 4. His Knowledge fundamental to all graces duties and comforts p. 4 5. Knowledge of Christ very profound noble and sweet p. 5 6. It s preferrence to all other Knowledge in divers respects opened p. 6 7. Knowledge of Christ not to be concealed by thy dispensers of it p. 11. To whom we must go for knowledge p. 107. Eminent knowledge how it aggravates sin p. 304. L. LAw what need to pray for good Laws and good Executioners of them p. 322. Laziness in prayer condemned p. 292. Leaving our fears of God final leaving us how cured p. 457. Life how Christ was humbled in his life opened in divers particulars p. 237 238. Light divine light infused by Christ p. 102. Three excellent properties of it p. 118. Three great differences betwixt common and saving light p. 123 124. A Caution against unthankfulness for and abuse of light p. 125. Little words yea Syllable and Letters how great a weight may hang on them p. 53. Lives their preservation the effect of Christs care and watchful providence p. 216. Love how worthy Christ is of our love p. 21. Wherein Gods love was chiefly manifested p. 88 475. The love of the Father and Son not to be compared but admired p. 66. Christs love to the Saints the fairest pattern p. 79. The ardency of Christs love to Sinners p. 88. Saints obliged to love Christ p. 233. The great evidence of the strength of Christs love p. 225 226 c. M. MArks of persons given by the Father to Christ p. 36. Five marks to discover the Subjects of Christs Kingdom p. 203 204. no marks of grace more dangerous than those that come nearest true ones p. 333. Mediator Christ is so according to both his natures p. 90. What the import of the word is p. 84 85. Five things implyed in Christs being a Mediator p. 86 87 88. Christ the true and only Mediator evinced by three arguments p. 89 90. How dangerous to joyn any other Mediators with Christ. p. 92. Meekness under abuses Christ like p. 411. How dangerous to abuse meek spirits p. 415. A pattern of meekness proposed p. 416. Mercies of believers brought forth with great difficulty p. 354. Ministers the best rule to measure them and their doctrine by p. 108 109. A serious Caution to Ministers p. 10 11. How dangerous to despise Christs Ministers p. 64 65. How daring a sin to invade the office of the Ministry and why God permits it p. 65. Necessity of of a standing Ministry urged p. 104 105. Ministers their test and essential qualifications in six particulars p. 108 109. Misery of the ignorant opened in divers particulars p. 119 120. Moses and Christ compared p. 97. N. NAture our nature not united to Christ consubstantially Physically or Mystically p. 53 54. Necessary the finishing of Redemption work by Christ necessary on a threefold account p. 480 481 Necessity of a Priest evinced p. 131. Night Christs last night on earth how employed p. 266 28 283. O. OBedience to Christ must be universal p. 98 99. Obedience to Christ evidential of our interest in him p. 203 Oblation of Christ the fountain of our best mercies p. 150 151. The matter of Christs Oblation his own soul and body p. 141 842. The preciousness of that Oblation p. 142. Obligations to holiness from God the Father p. 604. Obligations to holiness from Christ. p. 608. Obligations to holiness from the spirit p. 609. Obligations from our selves p. 611 612. Obligations from our enemies p. 615. Offices what offices Christ was sealed to p. 68 69. Old men in an unconverted state objects of great pity p. 445. Opposition to Christ knowingly how dreadful p. 405. Ordinances of Christ the great efficacy and whence it arises p. 66. No power to operate on the heart in themselves p. 115 116. Ordinances not to be despised p. 64 65 571. Overplus of merit in Christ satisfaction Whence that overplus is p. 181 182. P. PAin there may be much pain but no curse in a believers death p. 351. Pains of Christ how great on the Cross p. 466. Christs pains in three respects greater than what the damned feel in Hell p. 468. Pardon God no loser in pardoning the greatest of sinners p. 176. Parents prayers for their Children how beneficial p. 262 26â— Patience of Christ almighty patience p. 388 389. Excellent properties of patience p. 389 390. The grounds and reasons of Christs patience 391 392 393. Eight excellent helps to patience p. 394 395 396. Pattern Christs desertion the pattern of ours in six respects p. 457 458. Patterns of holiness who are so p. 628. Perfection twofold Subjective and Effective both found in Christ. p. 479 480. Persecution followed Christ from the Cradle to the Cross p. 237. The greatest piety exempts not from it p. 244. Person of Christ extraordinary p. 73 74. Pilate who and what he was p. 318. Policy of Satan in chusing instruments p. 309. Poverty of Christ how great p. 239 240. Prayer a proper means to increase knowledge p. 107. Prayers of Saints presented by Christ p. 157. Christs last prayer what it was for the matter of it p. 285 286. What for quality p. 286 287. A singular relief against troubles to pray p. 289. Predication of the properties of each nature in concreto proper p. 57 58. Preferment spiritual by union with Christ. p. 21. Priesthood of Christ implyes six things p. 128 129. Priesthood of Christ defined p. 130. The necessity of Christs Priesthood evinced upon a double ground p. 131 132. He appears before God for us p. 168. Prejudices against Religion for its professors sake how unâ—ust p. 308. Price what Christs death being so called implyes p. 166. Properties of each nature distinct notwithstanding the hypostatical union in Christ. p. 56. Prophet Christ is so p. 97 98. Two parts of Christs prophetical office p. 96. The internal and principal part of it opened p. 113 114 c. Prosperity the ready way to attain it p. 219. Five things to be studied in it p. 220 221. Proverb of Sparta p. 419. Iewish Proverb p. 239. Proverb used in Gallens time p. 364. Providence its general influx on all creatures and their motion p. 209 210. Christ rules the providential Kingdom by seven acts p. 210 211. Its over-ruling wicked counsel p. 211
212 361 362. Purchase Christs blood purchased a rich inheritance for the Saints p. 180 181. Q. SIX Questions opening the difference betwixt suffering for Christ in this world and for sin in that to come p. 526. R. REconciliation with God its nature medium continuation properties and terms opened p. 530 531. Why effected by Christs death ibid. Redemption of souls costly p. 175. Rejecting knowledge how dangerous p. 11. Rejecting Christ most fatal p. 91 92. Relation of Christs sufferings to us p. 168. Religion Christian Religion incomparably sweet and satisfying to the Conscience p. 134 135. What cause men have to bless God for it ibid. Remembrance of Christ what it is opened at large p. 269 270. Two sorts of it ibid. What it includes p. 270 271. The usefulness of remembring Christ. p. 277 278. Rest no expectation of resting till we have done working and sinning p. 586. Four things break a Saints rest on earth p. 587. Resurrection of Christ the certainty of it p. 546. The absurdities following the denyal of it p. 546. The manner of his Resurrection opened in many particulars p. 547 548 c. Christs Resurrection was the Resurrection of the Saints head and representative p. 549. Resurrection of Saints the effect of Christs Resurrection three wayes p. 550 551. The agreement of our Resurrection with Christs opened in five particulars p. 551 552 553. Retracting what we have professed or done for Christ condemned by Pilates example p. 363. Revelations of Gods will by Iesus Christ various p. 101. Gradual p. 102. Plain p. 103. Powerful p. 103. Affectionate p. 104. Pure p. 104. Perfect p. 104. Righteousness how dangerous to joyn any thing of our own with Christs Righteousness in point of Iustification p. 177. S. SAcrament a special pledge of Christs care and love p. 273. Sacrament seasons heart melting seasons p. 276. Sacramental Bread and Wine whence their excellency p. 267. Saints their security for salvation from whence it is p. 262 263. Sanctification of Christ respects us p. 74 75. Our Sanctification the best evidence of our interest in a sanctified Iesus p. 80 81. Satisfaction to God necessary to our reconciliation p. 131. God stood upon full satisfaction p. 131. No meer man can satisfie God p. 132. Christs death made full satisfaction for sin p. 167. What divine satisfaction is p. 168. Five things imported in the satisfaction of Christ p. 168 169 170. Errors about the satisfaction of Christ refuted p. 171 172. Divers objections 173 c. of the Socinians answered about it p. 172 173 174. All thoughts of satisfying God by our selves to be abandoned p. 177. Sealing of Christ what it imports p. 69 70. How God the father sealed him p. 70 71. Why Christ must be sealed before he would act as Mediator p. 62 63. How many wayes the Spirit seals us p. 67. His sealing us an evidence of Christs being sealed for us p. 67. Security of believers argued from Christs Mediation p. 93. Self-denyal of Christ for us p. 20. Self-denyal for Christ how reasonable p. 22. Sentence given against Christ what it was Opened in six particulars p. 319 320. In what manner Christ received his Sentence p. 321. Services accidentally done for Christ unacceptable p. 362. Signes in the Sacrament of the Supper are of three sorts p. 272. Sin an infinite evil in it and how that appears p. 174. The horrid nature of sin opened p. 470. The deep pollution of sin p. 174. Sitting at Gods right hand what it imports opened in seven particulars p. 578 579 580. The Saints sitting with Christ what an advancement to them p. 582. Christ to be eyed in prayer as sitting at Gods right hand p. 584. Christ did not sit till he had finished his work Nor must we p. 586. Society we may have with such here whom we shall have no Society with in Heaven p. 309. Sorrow what it is p. 329. Sorrow distinguished into habitual actual natural supernatural p. 330. Souls how precious they are p. 440. Their sympathy with their bodies and their body with them p. 470. Spirit weighty considerations to keep Saints from grieving the Spirit p. 572. Stoop how low a stoop Christ made to recover us p. 224 225 226. Substance of Christs Mediatory Kingdom and the manner of administration distinguished p. 159 160. Substitution of Christ in our room as our Sacrifice necessary p. 159 160. The excellency and eternal efficacy of this Sacrifice opened p. 140 141 142 143 c. Success of Christs interest in the world unquestionable p. 366. Surety Christ is so and what his being so imports p. 85 86. Sufferings of Christ how great p. 466. They may affect natural hearts for three Reasons p. 330 331. Sufferings for Christ how glorious p. 526 527 58â— Sympathy of Christ with all that were burdened with sin or sorrow p. 241 242. T. TEars what they are p. 329. A double fountain of tears opened p. 330. Temptations of Christ fierce various and tedious p. 240 241. The great relief in temptation p. 246. Suitable temptations greatly hazard our ruine p. 305 306. Thief on the Cross his wonderful conversion p. 442 443. his example incourages none to delay conversion p. 443. Thirst proper and figurative p. 464. Thirst a great affliction p. 464. Christs thirst attributed to a double cause p. 466. Thirst in Hell what it is p. 472. Saints shall never thirst in Heaven p. 473 474. Throne how the Saints are confessors with Christ upon his throne p. 628. Time the preciousness of it and whence it results p. 435 436. Title affixed to the Cross of Christ what it was opened in six properties of it p. 358. The providence of God in the draught of Christs title remarkable in five things p. 360 361. Tryal of Christ for his life how managed p. 313. The inhumanity thereof p. 313 314. No man knows his own spiritual strength till it be put to the tryal p. 380. 381. Trust The Father and Son mutually trust each other p. 33. All our concerns to be trusted in the hands of Christ. p. 219 220. Trust in man how vain and foolish p. 309. V. THE Vicegerency of Christs sufferings p. 168. Understanding what it is and how opened p. 112 113. The proper office of Christ p. 114. Four things implyed in opening the understanding p. 114 115 116. Opening the understanding effected instrumentally by the word and spirit p. 117. The Union personal is extraordinary p. 54 55. How conserved when Christ was in the grave p. 57. How needful it is that Christ have union with our persons as well as natures p. 61. Unprincipled professors will become Apostates p. 305. Unbelievers where death will land them p. 440. Upbraid how those that perish under the Gospel will be upbraided by Iews Pagans and Devils p. 231 232. Uses that God will make of the Saints example in the day of judgement p. 628. Four uses he makes of it in this world p. 624 625 626. W. WEak
a memorable passage that fell out in their way to the place of execution and that is the Lamentations and Wailings of some that followed him out of the City who expressed their pity and sorrow for him most tenderly and compassionately All hearts were not hard all eyes were not dry There followed him a great company of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented him c. In this Paragraph we have two parts viz. the Lamentation of the Daughters of Ierusalem for Christ and Christs reply to them First The Lamentation of the Daughters of Ierusalem for Christ. Concerning them we briefly enquire who they were and why they mourned First Who they were The text calls them Daughters i. e. Inhabitants of Ierusalem For it is an Hebraism as Daughters of Zion Daughters of Israel And it 's like the greatest part of them were women and they were many of them a troop of mourners that followed Christ out of the City towards the place of his execution with Lamentations and Wailings What the principle and ground of these their Lamentations was is not agreed upon by those that have pondred the story Some are of opinion their Tears and Lamentations were but the effects and fruits of their more tender and ingenious natures which were moved and melted with so tragical and sad a spectacle as was now before them It 's well observed by a judicious Author that the Tragical story of some great and noble personage full of hero'cal vertue and ingenuity yet inhumanely and ungratefully used will thus work upon ingenious spirits who read or hear of it which when it reaches no higher is so far from being faith that it is but a carnal and fleshly devotion springing from fancy which is pleased with such a story and the principles of ingenuity stirred towards one who is of a Noble Spirit and yet abused Such stories use to stir up a principle of humanity in men unto a compassionate love which Christ himself at his suffering found fault with as being not spiritual nor raised enough in those women that went weeping to see the Messiah so handled Weep not for me saith he that is weep not so much for this to see me so unworthily handled by those for whom I die This is the principle from which some conceive these tears to flow But Calvin attributes it to their faith looking upon these mourners as a remnant reserved by the Lord in that miserable dispersion and though their faith was but weak yet they judge it credible that there was a secret seed of godliness in them which afterwards grew to maturity and brought forth fruit And to the same sence others give their opinion also Secondly Let us consider Christs reply to them Weep not for me ye Daughters of Jerusalem c. Strange that Christ should forbid them to weep for him yea for him under such unparalell'd sufferings and miseries If ever there was a heart-melting object in the world it was here O who could hold whose heart was not petrified and more obdure than the senseless rocks This reply therefore of Christ undergoes a double sence and interpretation suitable to the different construction of their sorrows Those that look upon their sorrows as meerly natural take Christs reply in a negative sense prohibiting such tears as those They that expound their sorrows as the fruit of faith tell us though the form of Christs expression be negative yet the sense is comparative as Matth. 9.13 I will have mercy and not sacrifice i. e. mercy rather than sacrifice So here weep rather upon your own account than mine Reserve your sorrows for the calamities coming upon your selves and your children You are greatly affected I see with the misery that is upon me but mine will be quickly over yours will lie long In which he shews his merciful and compassionate disposition who was still more mindful of others troubles and burdens than of his own And indeed the days of calamity coming upon them and their children were doleful days What direful and unpresidented miseries befel them at the breaking up and devastation of the City who hath not read or heard And who can refrain from tears that hears or reads it Now if we take the words in the first sense as a prohibition of their meerly natural and carnal affections expressed in Tears and Lamentations for him no otherwise than they would have been upon any other like Tragical story then the observation from it will be this Doct. 1. That melting affections and sorrows even from the sense and consideration of the sufferings of Christ are no infallible signs of grace If you take it in the latter sense as the fruit of their faith as tears flowing from a gratious principle then the observation will 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 I shall rather choose to prosecute both these branches than to decide the controversie Especially since the notes gathered from either are so useful to us And therefore I shall begin with the first viz. DOCT. 1. That melting affections and sorrows even from the sence of Christs sufferings are no infallible marks of grace In this point I have two things to do to prepare it for use First To shew what the melting of the affections by way of grief and sorrow is Secondly That they may be so melted even upon the account of Christ and yet the heart remain unrenewed First What the melting of the affections by way of grief and sorrow is Tears are nothing else but the juice of a mind oppressed and squeesed with grief Grief compresses the heart the heart so compressed and squeez'd vents it self sometimes in tears sighs groans c. and this is two fold gratious and wholly supernatural or common and altogether natural The gratious melting or sorrow of the soul is likewise two fold habitual or actual Habitual godly sorrow is that gratious disposition inclination or tendency of the renewed heart to mourn and melt when any just occasion is presented to the soul that calls for such sorrow It is expressed Ezek. 36.26 By taking away the heart of stone and giving an heart of flesh That is an heart impressive and yielding to such arguments and considerations as move it to mourning Actual sorrow is the expression and manifestation of that its inclination upon just occasions and it 's expressed two ways either by the internal effects of it which are the heaviness shame loathing resolution and holy revenge begotten in the soul upon the account of sin or also by more external and visible effects as sighs groans tears c. The former is essential to godly sorrow the latter contingent and accidental Much depending upon the natural temperature and constitution of the body Natural and common meltings are nothing else but the effects of a better temper the fruit of a more ingenious
spirit and easier constitution which shews it self on any other as well as upon spiritual occasions As Austin said he could weep plentifully when he read the story of Dido The history of Christ is a very tragical and pathetical history and may melt an ingenious nature where there is no renewed principle at all So that Secondly Our affections may be melted even upon the score and account of Christ and yet that is no infallible evidence of a gratious heart And the reasons for it are The first Reason because we find all sorts of affections acted and vented by such as have been no better than temporary believers The stony ground hearers in Matth. 13.20 received the word with joy and so did Iohn's hearers also who for a season reâ—oyced in his light Joh. 3.35 Now if the affection of joy under the word may be exercised why not of sorrow also If the comfortable things revealed in the Gospel may stir up the one by a parity of reason the sad things it reveals may answerably work upon the other Even those Israelites whom Moses told that they should fall by the sword and not prosper for the Lord would not be with them because they were turned away from the Lord yet when Moses rehearsed the message of the Lord in their ears they mourned greatly Numb 14.39 I know the Lord pardoned too many of them their iniquites though he took vengeance on their inventions and yet it 's as true that with many of them God was not well pleased 1 Cor. 10.5 Many instances of their weeping and mourning before the Lord we find in the sacred story and yet their hearts were not stedfast with God The second Reason is because though the objects about which our affections and passions are moved may be spiritual yet the motives and principles that set them on work may be but carnal and natural ones When I see a person affected in the hearing of the word or prayer even unto tears I cannot presently conclude surely this is the effect of grace For it 's possible the pathetical qualâ—ty of the subject matter the rhetorick of the speaker the very affecting tone and modulation of the voice may draw tears as well as faith working upon the spirituality and deep concernment the soul hath in those things Whilst Austin was a Manichee he sometimes heard Ambrose and saith he I was greatly affected in hearing him even unto tears many times howbeit it was not the Heavenly nature of the subject but the abilities and rare parts of the speaker that so affected him And this was the case of Ezekiels hearers Ezek. 33.32 Again The third Reason is these motions of the affections may rather be a fit and mood than the very frame and temper of the soul. Now there is a vast difference betwixt these There are times and seasons when the roughest and most obdure hearts may be pensive and tender but that is not its temper and frame but only a fit a pang a transient passion so the Lord complains of them Hos. 6.4 O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee for your goodness is as a morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away and so he complains Psal. 78.34 35 36. When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God And they remembred that God was their rock and the most high God their Redeemer nevertheless they did flatter him with their lips and lyed unto him with their tongues For had this been the gratious temper of their souls it would have continued with them they would not have been up and down off and on hot and cold with God as they were Therefore we conclude that we cannot infer a work of grace upon the heart simply and meerly from the meltings and thaws that are sometimes upon it And hence for your use I shall Infer that Inference 1. If such as sometimes feel their hearts thawed and melted with the consideration of the sufferings of Christ may yet be deceived What cause have they to fear and tremble whose hearts are as unrelenting as the Rocks Yielding to nothing that is proposed or urged upon them How many such are there of whom we may say as Christ speaks of the inflexible Jews We have Piped unto you but ye have not Danced We have mourned unto you but ye have not lamented Matth. 11.17 They must inevitably come short of Heaven that come so short of those that do come short of Heaven If those perish that have rejoyced under the Promises and mourned under the threats of the Word What shall become of them that are as unconcerned and untouched by what they hear as the Seats they sit on or the dead that lie under their feet Who are given up to such hardness of heart that nothing can touch or affect them One would think the consideration of the sixth Chapter to the Hebrews should startle such men and women and make them cry out Lord what will become of such a sensless stupid dead creature as I am If they that have been enlightned and have tasted the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come may notwithstanding such high raised affections as these so fall away that it shall be impossible to receive them again by Repentance what shall we then say or think of his Estate to whom the most penetrating and awakening truths are no more than a Tale that is told The Fire and Hammer of the Gospel can neither melt nor break them they are Iron and Brass Ier. 6.28.29 Inference 2. If such as these may eternally miscarry Then let all look carefully to their foundation and see that they do not bless themselves in a thing of nought It 's manifest from 1 Cor. 10.12 That many souls stand exceeding dangerously who are yet strongly conceited of their own safety And if you please to consult those Scriptures in the margent you shall find vain confidence to be a ruling folly over the greatest part of men and that which is the utter overthrow and undoing of multitudes of Professors Now there is nothing more apt to beget and breed this vain soul undoing confidence than the stirrings and meltings of our affections about spiritual things whilst the heart remains unrenewed all the while For as a grave Divine hath well observed such a man seems to have all that is required of a Christian and herein to have attained the very end of all knowledge which is operation and influence upon the heart and affections Indeed thinks such a poor deluded soul if I did hear read or pray without any inward affections with a dead cold and unconcerned heart or if I did make shew of Zeal and affection in dutys and had it not well might I suspect my self to be a self-cozening Hypocrite but it s not