savingly Inference 2. Have the believing meditations of Christ and his sufferings such heart melting influences the surely then proper order of raising the affections is to begin at the exercise of faith It grieves me to see how many poor Christians tug at their own dead hearts endeavouring to raise and affect them but cannot They complain and strive strive and complain pump and draw but no love to the Lord comes no brokenness of heart comes They go to this ordinance and that to one duty and another hoping that now the Lord will affect it and fill the sails but come back disappointed and ashamed like the troops of Tema Poor Christian hear me one word possibly it may do thy business and stand thee in more stead than all the methods thou hast yet used If thou wouldst indeed get an heart Evangelically melted for sin and broken with the kindly sense of the grace and love of Christ thy way is not to force thy affections nor to vex thy self and go about complaining of an hard heart but set thy self to believe reallize apply infer and compare by faith as you have been directed and see what this will do They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn This is the true way and proper method to raise the heart and break it Inference 3. Is this the way to get a truly broken heart then let those that have attained brokenness of heart this way bless the Lord whilst they live for so choice a mercy And that upon a double account First For as much as an heart so affected and melted is not attainable by any natural or unrenewed person If they would give all they have in the world it cannot purchase one such tear or groan over Christ. Mark what characters of special grace it bears in the description that 's made of it in that forementioned place Zech. 12.10 Such a frame as this is not born with us or to be acquired by us for it 's there said to be poured out by the Lord upon us I will pour on them c. There 's no hypocrisie or dissimulation in these mournings for they are compared to the mourning of a man for his only Son And sure the hearts of parents are not untouched when they behold such sights Nature is not the principle of it but faith For it 's there said they shall look on me i. e. believe and mourn Self is not the end and center of these sorrows It is not so much for damning our selves as for piercing Christ they shall look on me whom they have pierced and shall mourn so that this is sorrow after God and not a flash of nature as was discoursed from the former point And therefore you have cause to bless the Lord whilst you live for such a special mercy as this is And Secondly As it 's the right so it is the choisest and most pretious gift that can be given you for it 's rancked among the prime mercies of the new Covenant Ezek. 36.26 This shall be the Covenant A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh What wouldst thou have given sometimes for such an heart as now thou hast though it be not yet as thou wouldst have it And however you value and esteem it God himself sets no common value on it for mark what he â—aith of it Psal. 51.17 the sacrifices of God are a broken heart a broken and a contrite spirit O God thou wilt not despise i. e. God is more delighted with such an heart than all the sacrifices in the world One groan one tear flowing from faith and the spirit of Adoption is more to him than the Cattle upon a thousand hills And to the same sense he speaks again Isai. 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build to me and where is the place of my rest but to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word q. d. all the magnificent Temples and gloririous structures in the world give me no pleasure in comparison of such a broken heart as this Oh then for ever bless the Lord that hath done that for you which none else could do And what he hath done but for few besides you The TWENTY SIXTH SERMON ACT. II. XXIII Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain HAving considered in order the preparative acts for the death of Christ both on his own part and on his enemies part we now come to consider the death of Christ it self which was the principal part of his humiliation and the chief pillar of our consolation Here we shall in order consider First The kind and nature of the death he died Secondly The manner in which he bare it viz. patiently solitary and instructively droping divers holy and instructive lessons upon all that were about him in his seven last words upon the Cross. Thirdly The funeral solemnities at his burial Fourthly and Lastly The weighty ends and great designs of his death In all which particulars as we proceed to discuss and open them you will have an account of the deep abasement and humiliation of the Son of God In this text we have an account of the kind and nature of that death which Christ died as also of the causes of it both principal and instrumental First The kind and nature of the death Christ died which is here described more generally as a violent death Ye have slain him and more particularly as a most ignominious cursed dishonorable death ye have crucified him Secondly The causes of it are here likewise expressed and that both principal and instrumental The principal cause permitting ordering and disposing all things about it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God There was not an action or circumstance but came under this most wise and holy counsel and determination of God The Instruments effecting it were their wicked hands This foreknowledge and counsel of God as it did no way necessitate or enforce them to it so neither doth it excuse their fact from the least aggravation of its sinfulness It did no more compel or force their wicked hands to do what they did than the Mariners hoising up his sails to take the wind to serve his design compels the wind And it cannot excuse their action from one circumstance of sin because Gods end and manner of acting was one thing their end and manner of acting another His most pure and holy theirs most malitious and daringly wicked Idem quod duo faciunt non est idem To this purpose a grave Divine will expresses it In respect of God
of dearest love Joh. 13.23 now there was leaning on Iesus bosom one of his Disciples whom Iesus loved but Christ did not lean upon the Fathers bosom as that Disciple did on his but lay in it and therefore in Isa. 42.1 the Father calls him mine elect in whom my soul delighteth which is variously rendred the Septuagint quem suscepit whom my soul takes or wraps up others complacuit one that highly pleases and delights my very soul and 2 Cor. 8.9 he is said in this estate wherein I am now describing him to be rich and Phil. 2.7 to be equal with God and to be in the form of God i. e. to have all the glory and ensigns of the Majesty of God and the riches which he speaks of was no less then all that God the Father hath Joh. 16.15 all that the Father hath is mine and what he now hath in this his exalted state is the same he had before his humiliation Ioh. 17.5 now to glimpse out as we are able the unspeakable felicity of that state of Christ whilst he lay in that blessed bosom I shall consider it three ways negatively positively and comparatively Let us consider that state negatively by removing from it all those degrees of abasement and sorrow which his incarnation brought him under as First he was not then abased to the condition of a Creature which was a low stoop indeed and that which upon the matter undid him in point of reputation for by this saith the Apostle he made himself of no reputation Phil. 2.7 it emptied him of his glory for God to be made man is such an abasement as none can express but then not only to appear in true flesh but also in the likeness of sinful flesh as Rom. 8.3 O what is this Secondly Christ was not under the Law in this Estate I confess 't was no disparagement to Adam in the state of innocency to Angels in their state of glory to be under Law to God but it was an unconceivable abasement to the absolute independent being to come under Law yea not only under the obedience but also under the malediction and curse of the Law Gal. 4.4 but when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law Thirdly In this State he was not lyable to any of those sorrowful consequents and attendants of that frail and feeble state of humanity which he afterwards assumed with the nature as 1. He was unacquainted with griefs there was no sorrowing nor sighing in that bosom where he lay though afterwards he became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa. 53.3 a man of sorrows as if he had been constituted and made up of pure and unmixed sorrows every day conversing with griefs as with his intimate companions and acquaintance 2. He was never pinched with poverty and wants while he continued in that bosom as he was afterwards when he said the Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Ah blessed Jesus thou needest not to have wanted a place to have lain thine head hadst thou not left that bosom for my sake 3. He never under-went reproach and shame in that bosom there was nothing but glory and honour reflected upon him by his Father though afterwards he was despised and rejected of men Isa. 53.3 his Father never looked upon him without smiles and love delight and joy though afterwards he became a reproach of men and despised of the people Psal. 22.6 4. His holy heart was never offended with an impure suggestion or temptation of the Devil all the while he lay in that bosom of peace and love he never knew what it was to be assaulted with temptations to be besieged and battered upon by unclean spirits as he did afterwards Matth. 4.1 then was Iesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil It was for our sakes that he submitted to those exercises of Spirit to be in all points tempted like as we are that he might be unto us a merciful and faithful high-Priest Heb. 4.15 5. He was never sensible of pains and tortures in soul or body there were no such things in that blessed bosom where he lay though afterwards he groaned and sweat under them Isa. 53.5 the Lord embraced him from eternity but never wounded him till he stood in our place and room 6. There were no hidings or withdrawments of his father from him there was not a cloud from eternity upon the face of God till Iesus Christ had left that bosom it was a new thing to Christ to see frowns in the face of his Father a new thing for him to cry my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 7. There were never any impressions of his Fathers wrath upon him as there were afterwards God never delivered such a bitter cup of wrath into his hands before as that was Matth. 26.39 Lastly There was no death to which he was subject in that bosom all these things were new things to Christ he was above them all till for our sakes he voluntarily subjected himself unto them thus you see what that state was not Let us consider it positively what it was and guess by some particular considerations for indeed we can but guess 〈◊〉 the glory of it as 1. We cannot but conceive it to be a state of matchless happiness if we consider the persons enjoying and delighting each in other he was with God Ioh. 1.1 God you know is the Fountain Ocean and Center of all delights and joys Psal. 16.11 in thy presence is fulness of joy To be wrapt up in the soul and bosom of all delights as Christ was must needs be a state transcending apprehension to have the Fountain of love and delight letting out it self so immediatly and fully and everlastingly upon this only begotten darling of his soul so as it never did communicate it self to any judge what a state of transcendent felicity this must be great persons have great delights 2. Or if we consider the intimacy dearness yea oneness of those great persons one with another the nearer the union the sweeter the communion now Jesus Christ was not only near and dear to God but one with him I and my Father are one Joh. 10.30 one in nature will love and delight there is indeed a Moral union of souls among men by love but this was a natural oneness no Child is so one with his Father no Husband so one with the Wife of his bosom no Friend so one with his Friend no Soul so one with its body as Jesus Christ and his Father were one O what matchless delights must necessarily flow from such a blessed Union 3. Consider again the purity of that delight with which the blessed Father and Son embraced each other the best Creature-delights one in another are mixed debased
errour to debase it His most enviously observant hearers could find nothing to charge him He is the faithful and true witness Rev. 1.5 And he hath commanded his Ministers to conserve the simplicity and purity of the Gospel and not to blend and sophisticate it 2 Cor. 4.2 Seventhly and lastly He revealed the will of God perfectly and fully keeping back nothing needful to Salvation So he tells the Disciples Iob. 15.15 All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you He was faithful as a Son over his own house Heb. 3.6 Thus you have a brief account of what is implyed in this part of Christs Prophetical office and how he performed it Inference 1. If Jesus Christ who is now passed into the heavens be the great Prophet and Teacher of the Church hence we Justly infer the continual necessity of a standing Ministry in the Church For by his Ministers he now teacheth us and to that intent hath fixed them in the Church by a firm constitution there to remain to the end of the world Matth. 28. ult He teacheth men no more personally but Ministerially His Ministers supply the want of his personal presence 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead These offices he gave the Church at his Ascention i. e. when he ceased to teach them any longer with his own lips And so set them in the Church that their succession shall never totally fail For so that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath set 1 Cor. 12.28 Plainly implyes They are set by a sure establishment a firm and unalterable constitution even as the times and seasons which the Father hath put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own power It 's the same word And it 's well they are so firmly set and fixed there for how many adversaries in all ages have endeavoured to shake the very office it self Pretending that it 's needless to be taught by men and wresting such Scriptures as these to countenance their errour Ioel. 2.28 29. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and Daughters shall Prophesie c. And Ier. 31.34 They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them As to that of Ioel it is answered that if an Old Testament Prophesie may be understood according to a New Testament interpretation then that Prophesie doth no way oppose but confirm the Gospel Ministry How the Apostle understood the Prophet in that his Prophesie may be seen in Acts 2.16 When the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles And surely he must be a confident person indeed that thinks not an Apostle to be as good an Expositer of the Prophet as himself And for that in Ier. 31. we say First that if it conclude against ministerial teachings it must equally conclude against Christian Conferences Secondly We say that cannot be the sence of one Scripture which contradicts the same sence of other Scriptures But so would this Eph. 4.11 12. 1 Cor. 12.28 And thirdly We say the sence of that Text is not negative but comparative Not that they shall have no need to be taught any truth but no such need to be taught the first truths That there is a God And who is this true God They shall no more teach every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me To conclude God hath given Ministers to the Church for conversion and edification work till we all come into the unity of the Faith to a perfect man Ephes. 4. 11 12. So that when all the Elect are converted and all those Converts become perfect men when there is no errour in Judgement or practice and no seducer to cause it then and not till then will a Gospel-Ministry be useless But as it 's well observed there is not a man that opposes a Gospel Ministry but the very being of that man is a sufficient argument for the continuance of it Inference 2. If Christ be the great Prophet of the Church and such a Prophet then it follows That the weakest Christians need not be discouraged at the dulness and incapacity they find in themselves For Christ is not only a patient and condescending Teacher but he can also as he often hath done reveal that to babes which is hid from the wise and learned Matth. 11.25 The testimonies of the Lord are sure making wise the simple Psal. 19.7 Yea and such as you are the Lord delights to chuse that his grace may be the more conspicuous in your weakness 1 Cor. 1.26 27. You will have nothing of your own to glory in You will not say as a proud wretch once said Ego Deus meus I and my God did this Jesus Christ affects not social glory He will not divide the praise with any Well then be not discouraged Others may know more in other things than you but you are not incapable of knowing so much as shall save your souls if Christ will be your Teacher In other knowledge they excell you but if ye knew Jesus Christ and the truths as it is in him one drop of your knowledge is worth a whole Sea of their gifts One truth suckt by Faith and Prayer from the breast of Christ is better than ten thousand dry notions beaten out by wracking the understanding It 's better in kind the one being but natural the other Supernatural from the saving Illuminations and inward teachings of the Spirit And so is one of those better things that accompany Salvation It 's better in respect of effects Other knowledge leaves the heart as dry barren and unaffected as if it had it's seat in another mans head but that little you have been taught of Christ sheds down its gracious influences upon your affections and slides sweetly to your melting hearts So that as one prefer'd the most despicable work of a plain ruâ—tick Christian before all the Triumphs of Alexander and Caesar much more ought ye to prefer one saving manifestation of the Spirit to all the powerless Illuminations of natural men Inference 3. If Christ be the great Prophet and Teacher of the Church it follows that Prayer is a proper means for the increase of knowledge Prayer is the Goden Key which unlocks that treasure When Daniel was to expound that secret which was contained in the Kings Dream about which the Chaldean Magicians had rackt their brains to no purpose what course doth Daniel take Why he went to his house saith the Text Dan. 2.17 18. And made the thing known to Hananiah Mishael and Azariah his companions that they would desire mercies of the God of Heaven concerning this secret And then was the secret revealed to Daniel Luther was wont to say three things make a Divine Meditation Temptation and Prayer Holy Mr. Bradford was wont to
holiness in his Life Matth. 11.28 Learn of me I am meek and lowly And such his Ministers desire to approve themselves Phil. 4.9 What ye have heard and seen in me that do He Preacht to their eyes as well as ears His Life was a Comment on his Doctrine They might see holiness acted in his Life as well as sounded by his lips He Preacht the Doctrine and lived the Application Sixthly Lastly Iesus Christ was a Minister that minded and maintained sweet secret communion with God for all his constant publick labours If he had been Preaching and healing all the day yet he would redeem time from his very sleep to spend in secret Prayer Matth. 14.23 When he had sent the multitude away he went up into a Mountain apart to pray and was there alone O blessed pattern Let the keepers of the Vineyards remember they have a Vineyard of their own to keep A Soul of their own that must be lookt after as well as other mens Those that in these things imitate Christ are surely sent to us from him and are worthy of double honour They are a choice blessing to the people The TENTH SERMON LUKE XXIV XLV Then opened he their understandings c. KNowledge of Spiritual things is well distinguished into intelectual and practical The first hath its seat in the mind the latter in the heart This later Divines call a knowledge peculiar to Saints and in the Apostles Dialect it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip. 3.8 The eminency or excellency of the knowledge of Christ. And indeed there is but little excellency in all those pretty notions which furnish the Lips with discourse unless by a sweet and powerful influence they draw the conscience and will to the obedience of Christ. Light in the mind is necessarily antecedent to the sweet and heavenly motions and mountings of the affections For the farther any man stands from the light of truth the farther he must needs be from the heat of comfort Heavenly quicknings are begotten in the heart while the Sun of righteousness spreads the beams of truth into the understanding and the Soul sits under those its wings Yet all the light of the Gospel spreading and diffusing it self into the mind can never savingly open and change the heart without an other Act of Christ upon it and what that is the Text informs you Then opened be their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures In which words we have both an Act of Christ upon the Disciples understandings and the immediate end and scope of that Act. First Christs Act upon their understandings He opened their understandings By understanding is not here meant the mind only in opposition to the heart will and affections but these were opened by and with the mind The mind is to the heart as the door to the house What comes into the heart comes in at the understanding which is introductive to it and although truths sometimes goes no farther then the Entry never penetrates the hearts yet here this effect is undoubtedly included Expositers make this expression paralel to that in Acts 16.14 The Lord opened the heart of Lydia And it is well observed that it is one thing to open the Scriptures that is to expound them and give the meaning of them as Paul is said to do in Acts 18.3 And another thing to open the mind or heart as it is here There are as a learned man truly observes two doors of the Soul bard against Christ. The understanding by ignorance and the heart by hardness both these are opened by Christ. The former is opened by the Preaching of the Gospel the other by the internal operation of the Spirit The former belongs to the first part of Christs Prophetical office opened in the former the later to that special internal part of his Prophetical office to be opened in this Sermon And that it was not a naked Act upon their minds only but that their hearts and minds did work in fellowship being both touched by this Act of Christ is evident enough by the effects mentioned vers 52.53 They returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy and were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God It is confessed that before this time Christ had opened their hearts by conversion and this opening is not to be understood simply but secundum quid in reference to those particular truths in which till now they were not sufficiently informed and so their hearts could not be duly affected with them They were very dark in their apprehensions of the death and resurrection of Christ and consequently their hearts were sad and dejected about that which had befallen him vers 17. but when he opened the Scriptures and their understandings and heart together then things appeared with another face and they return blessing and praising God Secondly here is farther to be considered the design and end of this Act upon their understandings That they might understand the Scriptures Where let it be marked Reader that the teachings of Christ and his Spirit were never designed to take men off from the reading studying and searching of the Scriptures as some vain Notionists have pretended opposing those things which are subordinated But to make their studies and duties the more fruitful beneficial and effectual to their Souls Or that they might this way receive the end and blessing of all their duties God never intended to abolish his word by giving his Spirit And they are true Fanaticks as Calvin upon this place calls them that think or pretend so By this means he would at once impart more light and make that they had before more operative and useful to them especially in such a time of need as this was Hence we observe DOCT. That the opening of the mind and heart effectually to receive the truths of God is the peculiar prerogative and office of Iesus Christ. One of the great miseries under which lapsed nature labours is spiritual blindness Jesus Christ brings that eye-salve which only can cure it Rev. 3.18 I counsel thee to buy of me eye-salve that thou maist see Those to whom the Spirit hath applied it can say as it is 1 Ioh. 5.20 We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true even in his Son Iesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life To the Spiritual illumination of a Soul it suffices not that the object be revealed nor yet that man the subject of that knowledge have a due use of his own reason but it is further necessarie that the Grace and special assistance of the Holy Spirit be superadded to open and molifie the heart and so give it a due tast and relish of the sweetness of Spiritual truth By opening the Gospel he reveals truth to us and by opening the heart in us Now though this cannot be without that yet it 's much more excellent to have truth
revealed in us than to us This Divines call praecipuum illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 muneris Prophetici The principal perfective effect of the Prophetical office The special blessing promised in the new Covenant Heb. 8.10 I will put my Laws in their mind and write them in their hearts For Explication of this part of Christs Prophetical office I shall as in the former shew what is included in the opening of the understanding And by what acts Christ performs it Now to give you a brief account of what is included in this Act of Christ take it in the following particulars First It implys the transcendent nature of Spiritual things far exceeding the highest flight and reach of natural reason Jesus Christ must by his Spirit open the understandings of men or they can never comprehend such mysteries Some men have strong natural parts and by improvement of them are become Eagle-eyed in the mysteries of nature Who more acute than the Heathen sages yet to them the Gospel seemed foolishness 1 Cor. 1.20 Austin confesses that before his conversion he often felt his Spirit swell with offence and contempt of the Gospel and he despising it said dedignabar esse parvulus He scorned to become a child again Bradwardine that profound Doctor learned usque ad stuporem even to a wonder professes that when he read Pauls Epistles he contemned them because in them he found not a metaphysical wit Surely it 's possible a man may with Berengarius be able to dispute de omni scibili Of every point of knowledge To unravel nature from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hysop on the wall and yet be as blind as a Bat in the knowledge of Christ. Yea it 's possible a mans understanding may be improved by the Gospel to a great ability in the literal knowledge of it so as to able to expound the Scriptures orthodoxly and enlighten others by them as it is Matt. 7.22 The Scribes and Pharisees were well acquainted with the Scriptures of the old Testament yea such were their abilities and esteem among the people for them that the Apostle stiles them the Princes of this world 1 Cor. 2.8 And yet notwithstanding Christ truly calls them blind guides Matt. 23. Till Christ open the heart we can know nothing of him or of his will as we ought to know it So experimentally true is that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.14 15. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned But he that is spiritual Iudgeth all things yet he himself is Iudged of no man The spiritual man can Judge and discern the carnal man but the carnal man wants a faculty to Judge of the spiritual man As a man that carries a dark Lanthorn can see another by its light but the other cannot discern him Such is the difference betwixt persons whose hearts Christ hath or hath not opened Secondly Christ opening the understanding implys the insufficiency of all external means how excellent so ever they are in themselves to operate savingly upon men till Christ by his power open the soul and so makes them effectual What excellent Preachers were Isaiah and Ieremiah to the Jews the former spake of Christ more like an Evangelist of the new than a Prophet of the old Testament The later was a most convictive and pathetical Preacher yet the one complains Isai. 53.1 Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed the other laments the successlesness of his Ministry Ier. 6.28 The bellows are burnt the lead is consumed of the fire the founder melteth in vain Under the new Testament what people ever enjoyed such choice helps means as those that lived under the Ministry of Christ and the Apostles yet how many remained still in darkness Matt. 11.27 We have piped to you but ye have not danced we have mourned unto you but ye have not lamented Neither the delightful ayrs of mercy nor the doleful ditties of Judgment could affect or move their hearts And indeed if you search into the reason of it you will be satisfied that the choicest means can do nothing upon the heart till Christ by his spirit open it because ordinances work not as natural causes do for then the effect would always follow unless miraculously hindred and it would be equally wonderful that all that hear should not be converted as that the three Children should be in the fiery Furnace so long and yet not be burned no it works not as a natural but as amoral cause whose efficacy depends on the gracious and arbitrary concurrence of the spirit The wind bloweth where it listeth Joh. 3.8 The ordinances are like the pool of Bethesda Iohn 5.4 At a certain time an Angel came down and troubled the waters and then they had a healing vertue in them So the spirit comes down at certain times in the word and opens the heart and then it becomes the power of God to Salvation So that when you see souls daily sitting under excellent and choice means and remain dead still you may say as Martha did to Christ of her Brother Lazarus Lord if thou hadst been here they had not remained dead If thou hadst been in this Sermon it had not been so in effectual to them Thirdly it implys the utter impotency of man to open his own heart and thereby make the word effectual to his own conversion and Salvation He that at first said let there be light and it was so must shine into our hearts or they will never be savingly enlightned 2 Cor. 4.6 A double misery lies upon a great part of mankind viz. impotency and pride They have not only lost the true liberty and freedom of their wills but with it have so far lost their understanding and humility as not to own it But alas man is become a most impotent Creature by the fall So far from being able to open his own heart that he cannot know the things of the spirit 1 Cor. 2.14 Cannot believe Iohn 6.44 Cannot obey Rom. 8.7 Cannot speak one good word Matt. 12.34 Cannot thing one good thought 2 Cor. 3.5 Cannot do one good act Iohn 15.5 O what a helpless shiftless thing is a poor sinner suitably to this state of impotence conversion is in Scripture cal'd regeneration Iohn 3.3 A resurrection from the dead Eph. 2.5 A creation Eph. 2.10 A victory 2 Cor. 10.5 Which doth not only imply man to be purely passive in his conversion to God but a renitency and opposition made to that power which goes forth from God to recover him Lastly Christ opening the understanding imports his Divine power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Who but God knows the heart who but a God can unlock and open it at pleasure no meer Creature no not the Angels themselves who for their large understanding are Intelligencies
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
friendship For this end Christ offered up himself to God I say not for this end only but more especially hence it 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a propitiation and so the Seaventy render that place Num. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the propitiating Ram. But here I would not be mistaken as though the reconciliation were made only between us and God the Father by the blood of the Cross for we are reconciled by it to the whole Trinity Every sin being against the divine Majesty it must needs follow that the three persons having the same divine Essence must be all offended by the commission and so all reconciled by the expiation and remission of the same But reconciliation is said to be with the Father because though the works of the Trinity ad extra be undivided and what one doth all do and what is done to one is done to all yet by this form and manner of expression as a learned man well observes the Scriptures point out the proper offices of each person The Father receives us into favour the Son mediates and gives the ransom which procures it the Spirit applies and seals this to the persons and hearts of believers However being reconciled to the Father we are also reconciled to the Son and Spirit as they are one God in three persons And if it be objected that then Christ offered up a Sacrifice or laid down a price to reconcile us to himself I shall more fairly and directly meet with and satisfie that objection when I come to speak of Christs satisfaction which is one of the principal fruits of this his excellent Oblation For present this may inform you about the nature and pretious worth of Christs Oblation The uses whereof follow in these five practical Inferences Inference 1. Hence it follows that actual Believers are fully freed from the gilt of their sins and shall never more come under condemnation The Obligation of sin is perfectly abolished by the vertue of this Sacrifice When Christ became our Sacrifice he both bare and bare away our sins First It was laid upon him then expiated by him So much is imported in that word Heb. 9.28 Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many To bear the word is a full and emphatical word signifying not only to bear but to bear away So Joh. 1.29 behold the Lamb of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that taketh away the sins of the world Not only declaratively or by way of manifestation to the Conscience but really making a purgation of sin as it is in Heb. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word for word a purgation being made and not only declared Now how great a mercy is this that by him all that believe should be justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 What shall we call this grace Surely we should do somewhat more than admire it and faint under the sense of such a mercy Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Psal. 32.1 or Oh the blessedness or felicities of him that is pardoned who can express the mercies comforts happiness of such a state as this Reader let me beg thee if thou be one of this pardoned number to look over thy cancelled bonds and see what vast sums are remitted to thee Remember what thou wast in thy natural estate possibly thou wast in that black bill 1 Cor. 6.3 what and yet pardoned fully and finally pardoned and that freely as to any hand that thou hadst in the procurement of it what canst thou do less than fall down at the feet of free grace and kiss those feet that moved so freely towards so vile a sinner It is not long since that thy iniquities were upon thee and thou pinest away in them Their guilt could by no creature power be separated from thy soul. Now they are removed from thee as far as the East from the West Psal. 103.11 So that when the East and West which are the two opposite points of Heaven meet then thy soul and its guilt may meet again together O the unspeakable efficacy of Christs Sacrifice which extends to all sins 1 Joh. 1.7 the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sins sins past and present without exception And some Divines of good note affirm all sins to come also for saith Mr. Paul Baines original sin in which all future sins are as fruits in the root is pardoned and if these were not pardoned they would void and irritate former pardons And lastly it would derogate from the most plenary satisfaction of Christ. But the most say and I think truly that all the past sins of Believers are pardoned without revocation All their present sins without exception but not their sins to come by way of anticipation and yet for them there is a pardon of course which is applied on their repentance and application of Christs blood so that none of them shall make void former pardons O let these things slide sweetly to thy melting heart Inference 2. From this Oblation Christ made of himself to God for our sins we infer the inflexible severity of divine Iustice which could be no other way diverted from us and appeased but by the blood of Christ. If Christ had not presented himself to God for us Justice would not have spared us And if he do appear before God as our surety it will not spare him Rom. 8.32 He spared not his Son but delivered him up to death for us all If forbearance might have been expected from any surely it might from God who is very pitiful and full of tender mercy Jam. 5.11 yet God in this case spared not If one might have expected sparing mercy and abatement from any surely Christ might most of all expect it from his own Father yet you hear God spared not his own Son Sparing-mercy is the lowest degree of mercy yet it was denied to Christ. He abated him not a minute of the time appointed for his suffering nor one degree of wrath he was to bear Nay though in the Garden Christ fell upon the ground and sweet clodders of blood and in that unparallel'd Agony scrued up his spirit to the highest intention in that pitiful cry Father if it be possible let this cup pass and though he brake out upon the Cross in that heart rending complaint my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Yet no abatement Justice will not bend in the least but having to do with him on this account resolves to fetch its pennyworths out of his blood If this be so what is the case of thy soul Reader if thou be a man or woman that hast no interest in this Sacrifice For if these things be done in Christ a green tree what will be done to thee the dry tree Luk. 23.31 That is if God so deal with me that am not only innocent but like a green and fruitful
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
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
from themselves also Yea so great is the difference betwixt himself and himself as if he were not the same man And where is he that doth not so experience it Sometimes bold and couragious despising dangers and bearing down all discouragements in the strength of zeal and love to God at another time faint feeble and discouraged at every petty thing Whence is this but from the different administrations of the spirit who sometimes gives forth more and sometimes less of his gratious influence Thâ—se very men that flincht now when the spirit was more abundantly shed forth upon them could boldly own Christ before the Council and despised all dangers for his sake A little dog if his Master be by and encourage him will venture upon a greater beast than himself Though Peter stood at the door without when the other Disciple or one of the other Disciples as the Syriack turns it and Grotius approves it as the best that is one of the private Disciples that lived in Ierusalem went in so boldly Ioh. 18.16 17. We are strong or weak according to the degrees of assisting grace So that as you cannot take the just measure of a Christian by one act so neither must they judge of themselves by what they sometimes feel in themselves But when their spirits are low and their hearts discouraged they should rather say to their souls hope in God for I shall yet praise him it 's low with me now but it will be better Inference 6. Was the sword drawn against the Shepherd and he left alone to receive the mortal strokes of it How should all adore both the Iustice and Mercy of God so illustriously displayed herein Here is the Triumph of Divine justice and the highest Triumph that ever it had to single forth the chief Shepherd the man that is Gods fellow and sheath its sword in his breast for satisfaction No wonder it 's drawn and brandished with such a Triumph awake rejoycingly O sword against my Shepherd c. for in this blood shed by it it hath more glory than if the blood of all the men and women in the world had been shed And no less is the mercy and goodness of God herein signalized in giving the sword a commission against the man his fellow rather than against us Why had he not rather said Awake O sword against the men that are my enemies shed the blood of them that have sinned against me than smite the Shepherd and only scatter the sheep Blessed be God the dreadful sword was not drawn and brandished against our souls that God did not set it to our breasts that he had not made it fat with our flesh and bathed it in our blood that his fellow was smitten that his enemies might be spared O what manner of love was this Blessed be God therefore for Jesus Christ who received the fatal stroke himself and hath now so sheathed that sword in its scabbard that it shall never be drawn any more against any that believe in him Inference 7. Were the Sheep scattered when the Shepherd was smitten Learn hence that the best of men know not their own strength till they come to the trial Little did these holy men imagine such a cowardly spirit had been in them till temptation put it to the proof Let this therefore be a caution for ever to the people of God You resolve never to forsake Christ you do well but so did these and yet were scattered from him You can never take a just measure of your own strength till Temptation have tried it 'T is said Deut. 18.2 3. that God led the people so many years in the wilderness to prove them and to know i. e. to make them know what was in their hearts Little did they think such unbelief murmurings discontents and a spirit bent to backsliding had been in them till their straights in the wilderness gave them the sad experience of these things Inference 8. Did the dreadful sword of Divine Justice smite the Shepherd Gods own fellow and at the same time the flock from whom all his outward comforts arose were scattered from him Then learn that the holiest of men have no reason either to repine or despond though God at once should strip them of all their outward and inward comforts together He that did this by the man his fellow may much rather do it by the man his friend Smite my Shepherd there 's all comfort gone from the inner man Scatter the Sheep there 's all comfort gone from the outward man What refreshments had Christ in this world but such as came immediately from his Father or those holy ones now scattered from him In one day heâ— seth both heavenly and earthly comforts Now as God dealt by Christ he may at one time or other deal with his people You have your comforts from Heaven so had Christ in a fuller measure than ever you had or can have He had comforts from his little flock you have your comforts from the society of the Saints the Ordinances of God comfortable Relations c. Yet none of these are so firmly setled upon you but you may be left destitute of them all in one day God did take all comfort from Christ both outward and inward and are you greater than he God sometimes takes outward and leaves inward comfort sometimes he takes inward and leaves outward comfort but time may come when God may strip you of both This was the case of Iob a favorite of God who was blessed with outward and inward comforts Yet a time came when God stript him of all and made him poor to a Proverb as to all outward comfort and the venom of his arrows drank up his spirit and the inward comforts thereof Should the Lord deal thus with any of you how seasonable and relieving will the fâ—llowing considerations be First Though the Lord deal thus with you yet this is no new thing he hath dealt so with others yea with Jesus Christ that was his fellow If these things were done in the green tree in him that never deserved it for any sin of his own how little reason have we to complain Nay Secondly Therefore did this befall Jesus Christ before you that the like condition might be sanctified to you when you shall be brought into it For therefore did Jesus Christ pass through such varieties of conditions on purpose that he might take away the curse and leave a blessing in those conditions against the time that you should come into them Moreover Thirdly Though inward comforts and outward comforts were both removed from Christ in one day yet he wanted not support in the absence of both How relieving a consideration is this Ioh. 16.32 Behold saith he the hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be scatterâ—d every man to his own and shall leave me alone And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me With me by way of support
cause Eccles. 7.9 Anger resteth in the bosom of fools Seneca would allow no place for passion in a wise mans breast Wise men use to ponder consider and weigh things deliberately in their Judgements before they suffer their affections and passions to be stirred and engaged Hence comes the constancy and serenity of their Spirits As wise Solomon hath observed Prov. 17.27 A man of understanding is of an excellent or as the Hebrew is a cool Spirit Now wisdom filled the soul of Christ. He is wisdom in the abstract Pov. 8. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom Col. 2.3 Hence it was that he was no otherwise moved with the revilings and abuses of his enemies than a wise Physitian is with the impertinencies of his distempered and crazy patient Thirdly And as his patience flowed from that his perfect wisdom and knowledge so also from his foreknowledge He had a perfect prospect of all those things from eternity which befell him afterwards They came not upon him by way of surprizal And therefore he wondered not at them when they came as if some strange thing had happened He foresaw all these things long before Mark 8.31 And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and be killed Yea he had compacted and agreed with his Father to endure all this for our sakes before he assum'd our flesh Hence Isay 50.6 I gave my back to the siniters and my cheeks to them that pulled off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting Now look as Christ in Iob. 16.4 obviates all future offences his Disciples might take at sufferings for his sake by telling them before hand what they must expect These things saith he I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them So he foreknowing what himself must suffer and had agreed so to do he bare those sufferings with singular Patience Iesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him went forth and said unto them whom seek ye Joh. 18.4 Fourthly As his patience sprang from his foreknowledge of his sufferings so from his Faith which he exercised under all that he suffered in this world His Faith looked through all those black and dismal clouds to the joy proposed Heb. 12.2 He knew that though Pilate condemned God would Justifie him Isa. 50.4 5 6 7 8. And he set one over against the other He ballanced the glory into which he was to enter with the sufferings through which he was to enter into it He acted Faith upon God for divine support and assistance under sufferings as well as for glory the fruit and reward of them Psal. 16.7 8 9 10 11. I have set or as the Apostle varies it I foresaw the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth There 's Faith acted by Christ for strength to carry him through And then it follows My flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of Life In thy presence is fullness of Ioy at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever more There 's his Faith acting upon the glory into which he was to enter after he had suffered these things This fill'd him with peace Fifthly As his Faith eyeing the glory into which he was passing made him endure all things so the Heavenliness of his Spirit also fill'd him with a Heavenly tranquility and calmness of Spirit under all his abuses and injuries It 's a certain truth that the more heavenly any mans spirit is the more sedate composed and peaceful As the higher Heavens saith Seneca are more ordinate and tranquil There are neither clouds nor winds storms nor tempests they are the inferior Heavens that lighten and thunder The nearer the earth the more tempestuous and unquiet Even so the sublime and heavenly mind is placed in a calm and quiet station Certainly that heart which is sweetned frequently with heavenly delightful communion with God is not very apt to be imbittered with wrath or soured with revenge against men The peace of God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appease and end all strifes and differences as an Umpire So much that word Col. 3.15 Imports The heavenly spirit marvelously affects a sedate and quiet breast Now never was there such a heavenly soul on earth since man inhabited it as Christ was He had most sweet and wonderful communion with God He had meat to eat which others yea and those his greatest intimates knew not of The Son of Man was in heaven upon earth Ioh. 3.13 Even in respect of that blessed heavenly communion he had with God as well as in respect of his immense Deity And that his heart was in heaven when he so patiently endured and digested the pain and shame of the Cross is evident from Heb. 12.2 For the Ioy set before him he endured the Cross despised the shame See where his eye and heart was when he went as a Lamb to the slaughter Sixthly And lastly as his meekness and patience sprang from the heavenliness and sublimity of his spirit so from the compleat and absolute obedience of it to his Fathers will and pleasure He could most quietly submit to all the will of God and never regret at any part of the work assign'd him by his Father For you must know that Christs death in him was an act of obedience he all along eyeing his Fathers command and counsel in what he suffered Phil. 2.7 8. Ioh. 18.11 Psal. 40.6 7 8. Now look as the eyeing and considering of the hand of God in an affliction presently becalms and quiets a gracious soul as you see in David 2 Sam. 16.11 Let him alone it may be God hath bid him curse David so much more it quieted Jesus Christ who was privy to the design and end of his Father with whose will he all along complyed looking on Jews and Gentiles but as the Instruments ignorantly fulfilling Gods pleasure and serving that great design of his Father This was his patience and these the grounds of it Vse I might variously improve this point but the direct and main Use of it is to press us to a Christ-like patience in all our sufferings and troubles And seeing in nothing we are more generally defective and that defects of Christians herein are so prejudicial to Religion and uncomfortable to themselves I resolve to wave all other Uses and spend the remaining time wholly upon this branch Even a perswasive to Christians unto all patience in tribulations To imitate their Lamb-like Saviour Unto this Christians you are expresly call'd 1 Pet. 2.21.22 Because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin
neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when be suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that Iudgeth righteously Here 's your pattern A perfect pattern A lovely and excellent pattern Will you be perswaded to the imitation of Christ herein Methinks I should perswade you to it Yea every thing about you perswades to patience in your sufferings as well as I. Look which way you will upward or downward inward or outward backward or forward to the right hand or to the left You shall find all things perswading and urging the Doctrine of Patience upon you First Look upward when tribulations come upon you Look to that Soveraign Lord that commissionates and sends them upon you You know troubles do not rise out of the dust nor spring out of the ground but are framed in heaven Ier. 18.11 Behold I frame evil and devise a device against you Troubles and afflictions are of the Lords framing and devising to reduce his wandering people to himself Much like that device of Absalom in setting Ioabs field of Corn on fire to bring Ioab to him 2 Sam. 14.30 in the frame of your afflictions you may observe much of divine wisdom in the choice measure and season of your troubles Soveraignty in electing the instruments of your affliction In making them as afflictive as he pleaseth And in making them obedient both to his call in coming and going when he pleaseth Now could you in times of trouble look up to this Soveraign hand in which your souls bodies and all their comforts and mercies are how quiet would your hearts be Psal. 39.9 I was dumb and opened not my mouth because it is thy doing 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good O when we have to do with men and look no higher how do our Spirits swell and rise with revenge and impatiency But if you once come to fee that man as a Rod in your Fathers hand you will be quiet Psal. 46.10 Be still and know that I am God q. d. consider with whom you have to do Not with your fellow but with your God who can puff you to destruction with one blast of his mouth In whose hand you are as the clay in the potters hand It is for want of looking up to God in our troubles that we fret murmur and despond at the rate we do Secondly Look downward and see what is below you as well as up to that which is above you You are afflicted and you cannot bear it Oh! no trouble like your trouble Never man in such a case as you are Well well cast the eye of your mind downward and see who lie much lower than you Can you see none on earth in a more miserable state than your selves Are you at the very bottom and not a man below you Sure there be thousands in a sadder case than you on earth What is your affliction Have you lost a relation Others have lost all Have you lost an Estate and are become poor Well but there be some you read of Iob 30.4 5 6 7. Who cut up Mallows by the bushes and Iuniper roots for their meat They are driven forth from among men they cryed after them as after a Thief They dwell in the cliffs of the Vallies in caves of the earth and in the Rocks Among the bushes they brayed under the Nettles they were gather'd together What difference as to manner of Life do you find between the persons here described and the wild beasts that herd together in desolate places Are you persecuted and afflicted for Christs sake What think you of their sufferings Heb. 11.36 37. Who had trial of cruel mockings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the Sword they wandered about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented And are you better than they I know not what you are but I am sure these were such of whom the World was not worthy vers 38. Or are your afflictions more spiritual and inward Say not the Lord never dealt more bitterly with the soul of any than he hath with yours What think you of the case of David Heman Iob Asaph whose doleful crys by reason of the terrors of the Almighty are able to melt the stoniest heart that reads their stories The Almighty was a terror to them The Arrows of God were within them They roared by reason of the disquietness of their hearts Or are your afflictions outward and inward together An afflicted soul in an afflicted body Are you fallen like the Ship in which Paul sailed into a place where two Seas meet Well so it was with Paul Iob and many other of those worthies gone before you Sure you may see many on earth who have been or are in far lower and sadder states than your selves Or if not on earth doubtless you will yield there are many in Hell who would be glad to exchange conditions with you as bad as you think yours to be And were not all these moulded out of the same Lump with you Surely if you can see any creature below you especially any reasonable being you have no reason to return so ungratefully upon your God and accuse your maker of severity or charge God foolishly Look down and you shall see grounds enough to be quiet Thirdly Look inward you discontented Spirits and see if you can find nothing there that may quiet you Cast your eye into your own hearts Consider either the corruptions or the graces that are there Cannot you find weeds enough there that need such winter weather as this to rot them Hath not that proud heart need enough of all this to humble it That carnal heart need of such things as these to mortifie it That backsliding wandering heart need of all this to reduce and recover it to its God If need be ye are in heaviness 1 Pet. 1.6 Oh Christian didst thou not see need of this before thou camest into trouble Or hath not God shewn thee the need of it since thou wast under the Rod It 's much thou shouldst not see it but be assured if thou dost not thy God doth He knows thou wouldst be ruined for ever if he should not take this course with thee Thy corruptions require all this to kill them Thy Lusts will take all this it may be more than this and all little enough And as your corruptions call for it so do your Graces too Wherefore think ye the Lord planted the principles of Faith Humility Patience c. in your Souls What were they put there for nothing Did the Lord intend they should lie sleeping in their drowsy habits Or were they not planted there in order to exercise And how shall they be exercised without tribulations can you tell Doth not tribulation work patience and patience experience and experience hope Rom. 5.3 4. Is not the trial of your Faith
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
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
troubles as ever befell the nature of man and he did bear all other troubles with admirable patience but when it came to this when the flames of Gods wrath scorched his soul then he crys I thirst Davids heart was for courage as the heart of a Lion but when God exercised him with inward troubles for sin then he roars out under the anguish of it I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart My heart panteth my strength faileth me as for the light of mine eyes it is also gone from me Psal. 38.8 10. A wounded spirit who can bear Many have professed that all the torments in the world are but toys to it The racking fits of the Gout the grinding tortures of the Stone are nothing to the wrath of God set on upon the conscience What is the worm that never dies but the efficacy of a guilty conscience This worm feeds and nibbles upon the very inwards upon the tender and most sensible part of man and is the principal part of Hells horror In bodily pains a man may be relieved by proper medicines here nothing but the blood of sprinkling relieves outward pains the body may be supported by the resolution and courage of the mind here the mind it self is wounded O let none despise these troubles they are dreadful things Inference 3. How dreadful a place is Hell Where this cry is heard for ever I thirst There the wrath of the great and terrible God flames upon the damned for ever in which they thirst and none relieve them If Christ complain'd I thirst when he had conflicted but a few hours with the wrath of God what is their state then that are to grapple with it for ever When millions of years are past and gone ten thousand millions more are coming on There 's an everlasting thirst in Hell and it admits of no relief There are no full cups in Hell but an eternal unrelieved thirst Think on this ye that now add drunkenness to thirst who tumble in all sensual pleasures and drown nature in an excess of Luxury Remember what Dives said in Luk. 16.24 And he cryed and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame No cups of water no bowls of wine in Hell There that throat will be parched with thirst which is now drowned with excess The songs of the Drunkard turned into howlings If thirst in the extremity of it be now so unsufferable what is that thirst which is infinitly beyond this in measure and never shall be relieved Say not it's hard that God should deal thus with his poor creatures You will not think it so if you consider what he exposed his own dear Sou to when sin was but imputed to him And what that man deserves to feel that hath not only merited Hell but by refusing Christ the remedy the hottest place in Hell In this thirst of Christ we have the liveliest emblem of the state of the damned that ever was presâ—nted to men in this world Here you see a person labouring in extremity under the infinite wrath of the great and terrible God lying upon his soul and body at once and causing him to utter this doleful cry I thirst Only Christ endured this but a little while the damned must endure it for ever In that they differ As also in the innocency and ability of the persons suffering And in the end for which they suffer But surely such as this will the cry of those souls be that are cast away for ever O terrible thirst Inference 4. How much do nice and wanton Appetites deserve to be reproved The Son of God wanted a draught of cold water to relieve him and could not have it God hath given us variety of refreshing creatures to relieve us and we despise them We have better things than a cup of water to refresh and delight us when we are thirsty and yet are not pleased O that this complaint of Christ on the Cross I thirst were but believingly considered it would make you bless God for what you now despise And beget contentment in you for the meanest mercies and most common favours in this world Did the Lord of all things cry I thirst and had nothing in his extremity to comfort him and dost thou who hast a thousand times over forfeited all temporal as well as spiritual mercies contemn and slight the good creatures of God! What despise a cup of water who deservest nothing but a cup of wrath from the hand of the Lord O lay it to heart and hence learn contentment with any thing Inference 5. Did Iesus Christ upon the Cross cry I thirst then believers shall never thirst eternally Their thirst shall be certainly satisfied There is a three fold thirst gracious natural and penal The gracious thirst is the vehement desire of a spiritual heart after God Of this David speaks Psal. 42.1 2. As the heart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God And this is indeed a vehement thirst it makes the soul break with the longings it hath after God Psal. 119. It 's a thirst proper to believers who have tasted that the Lord is gratious Natural thirst is as before was noted a desire of refreshment by humid nourishment and it 's common both to believers and unbelievers in this world Gods dear Saints have been driven to such extremities in this life that their tongues have even failed for thirst When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst Isa. 41.17 And of the people of God in their Captivity it 's said Lam. 4.4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst The young children ask bread and no man breaketh it unto them They that feed delicatly are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills To this many that fear the Lord have been reduced A penal thirst is Gods just denying of all refreshment or relief to sinners in their extremities and that as a due punishment for their sin This believers shall never feel because when Christ thirsted upon the Cross he made full satisfaction to God in their room These sufferings of Christ as they were ordained for them so the benefits of them are truly imputed to them And for the natural thirst that shall be satisfied For in heaven we shall live without these necessities and dependencies upon the creature We shall be equal with the Angels in the way and manner of living and subsisting Luk. 20.36 And for the gratious thirsting of their souls for God it shall be fully satisfied So it s promised Matth. 5.6 Blessed are they which hunger and
that is believe they shall be made good to you so far as God sees them good for you Do you but labour to come up to those conditions required in you and thereby God will have more glory and you more comfort If your prayers for these things proceed from pure ends the glory of God not the satisfaction and gratification of your lusts If your desires after them be moderate as to the measure content with that proportion the infinite wisdom sees fittest for you If you take Gods way to obtain them and dare not strain Conscience or commit a sin though you should perish for want If you can patiently wait Gods time for enlargements from your straits and not make any sinful haste You shall be surely supplied And he that remembers your souls will not forget your bodies But we live by sense and not by faith Present things strike our affections more powerfully than the invisible things that are to come The Lord humble his people for this Diduction 4. Is this the priveledge of believers that they can commit their souls to God in a dying hour then how pretious how useful a grace is faith to the pleople of God both living and dying All the graces have done excellently but faith excels them all Faith is the Phoenix grace the Queen of graces Deservedly is it stiled pretious faith 2 Pet. 1.1 The benefits and priviledges of it in this life are unspeakable and as there is no comfortable living so no comfortable dying without it First While we live and converse here in the world all our comfort and safety is from it for all our union with Christ the fountain of mercies and blessings is by faith Eph. 3.17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith No faith no Christ. All our communion with Christ is by it He that cometh to God must believe Heb. 11.6 The souls life is wrapt up in this communion with God and that communion in faith All communications from Christ depend upon faith for look as all communion is founded in union so from our union and communion are all our communications All communications of quicknings comforts joy strength and whatsoever serves to the well-being of the life of grace are all through that faith which first knit us to Christ and still maintains our communion with Christ believing we rejoyce 1 Pet. 1.8 The inner man is renewed whilst we look to the things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 Secondly And as our life and all the supports and comforts of it here are dependent on faith so you see our death as to the safety and comfort of our souls then depends upon our faith He that hath no faith cannot commit his soul to God but rather shrinks from God Faith can do many sweet offices for your souls upon a death bed when the light of this world is gone and all joy ceases on earth It can give us sights of things invisible in the other world and those sights will breathe life into your souls amidst the very pangs of death Reader do but think what a comfortable foresight of God and the joys of salvation will be to thee when thine eye-strings are breaking Faith cannot only see that beyond the grave which will comfort but it can cling about its God and clasp Christ in a promise when it feels the ground of all sensible comforts trembling and sinking under thy feet My heart and my flesh faileth but God is the strength or rock of my heart and my portion for ever Reeds fail but the rock is firm footing Yea and when the soul can no longer tabernacle here it can carry the soul to God cast it upon him with Father into thy hands I commend my spirit O pretious faith Diduction 5. Do the souls of dying believers commend themselves into the hands of God Then let not the surviving relations of such sorrow as men that have not hope A Husband a Wife a Child is rent by death out of your arms well but consider into what arms into what bosom they are commended Is it not better for them to be in the bosom of God than in yours Could they be spared so long from Heaven as to come back again to you but one hour how would they be displeased to see your tears and hear your cries and sighs for them They would say to you as Christ said to the daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and your children I am in a safe hand I am out of the reach of all storms and troubles O did you but know what their state is who are with God you would be more than satisfied about them Diduction 6. Lastly I will close all with a word of counsel Is this the priviledge of dying believers to commend their souls into the hands of God Then as ever you hope for comfort or peace in your last hour see that your souls be such as may be then fit to be commended into the hands of an holy and just God See that they be holy souls God will never accept them if they be not holy Without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.24 He that hath this hope viz. to see God purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 Indeavours after holiness are inseparably connected with all rational expectations of blessedness Will you put an unclean filthy defiled thing into the pure hand of the most holy God O see they be holy and already accepted in the beloved or wo to them when they take their leaves of those tabernacles they now dwell in The gratious soul may confidently say then Lord Iesus into thy hands I commend my spirit O let all that can say so then now say Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The THIRTY SEVENTH SERMON JOH XIX XL XLI XLII Then took they the body of Iesus and wound it in linen cloaths with the spices as the manner of the Iews is to bury Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new Sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid There laid they Iesus therefore because of the Iews preparation day for the Sepulchre was nigh at hand YOU have heard the last words of dying Jesus commending his spirit into his Fathers hands and now the life of the world hangs dead upon a Tree The light of the world for a time muffled up in a dismal cloud The Son of Righteousness set in the region and shadow of Death The Lord is dead and he that wears the keys of the grave at his girdle is now himself to be lockt up in the grave All you that are the friends and Lovers of Jesus are this day invited to his â—â—neral Such a funeral as never was since Graves were first digged Come see the place where the Lord lay There are six remarkable particulars about this funeral in these three verses The preparations that were made for it and
ascended you shall ascend to him personally hereafter oh that you would ascend to him Spiritually in acts of Faith Love and desires daily Sursum Corda up with your hearts was the form used by the Ancient Church at the Sacrament How good were it if we could say with the Apostle Phil. 3.21 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour An heart ascendant is the best evidence of your interest in Christs ascension Inference 2. Did Christ go to Heaven as a fore-runner What haste should we make to follow him He ran to Heaven he ran thither before us Did he run to glory and shall we linger Did he flee as an Eagle towards Heaven and we creep like snails Come Christians lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you and run with patience the Race set before you looking unto Iesus Heb. 12.1 2. The Captain of our Salvation is entred within the gates of the new Ierusalem and calls to us out of Heaven to hasten to him proposing the greatest incouragements to them that are following after him saying he that overcomes shall sit with me in my Throne as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 How tedious should it seem to us to live so long at a distance from our Lord Jesus our Life Inference 3. Did Christ ascend so triumphantly leading Captivity Captive How little reason then have believers to fear their conquered enemies Sin Satan and every enemy was in that day led away in triumph dragged at Christs Chariot wheels Brought after him as it were in Chains 'T is a lovely sight to see the necks of those Tyrants under the foot of our Ioshuah He made at that day an open shew of them Col. 2.15 Their strength is broken for ever In this he shewed himself more than a conqueror for he conquered and triumphed too Satan was then trod under his feet And he hath promised to tread him under our feet also and that shortly Rom. 16.20 Some power our enemies yet retain the Serpent may bruise our heel but Christ hath crusht his head Inference 4. Did Christ ascend so munificently shedding forth so many mercies upon his people Mercies of inestimable value reserved on purpose to adorn that day O then see that you abuse not those most pretious ascension gifts of Christ but value and improve them as the choicest mercies Now the Ascension gifts as I told you are either the Ordinances and Officers of the Church for he then gave them Pastors and Teachers or the Spirit that furnisht the Church with all its gift Beware you abuse not either of these First Abuse not the Ordinances and Officers of Christ. This is a sin that no Nation is plunged deeper into the guilt of it thâ—n this Nation And no Age more than this Surely God hath written to us the great things of his Law and we have accounted them small things We have been loose wanton sceptical professors for the most part that have had nice and coy stomachs that could not relish plain wholesom truths except so and so modified to our humors For this the Lord hath a Controversie with the Nation and by a sore Judgement he hath begun to rebuke this sin already And I doubt before he make an end plain truths will down with us and we shall bless God for them Secondly But in the next place see that you abuse not the Spirit whom Christ hath sent from Heaven at his ascension to supply his bodily absence among us and is the great pledge of his care for and tender love to his people Now take heed that you dont vex him by your disobedience Nor greive him by your unkindnesses Nor quench him by your sinful neglects of duty or abuse of light O deal kindly with the Spirit and obey his voice Comply with his designs and yield up your selves to his guidance and conduct Methinks to be intreated by the Love of the Spirit Rom. 15.30 Should be as great an Argument as to be intreated for Christs sake Now to perswade all the Saints to be tender of grieving the Spirit by sin let me urge a few Considerations proper to the point under hand And Consid. 1. First He was the first and principal mercy that Christ received for you at his first entrance into Heaven It was the first thing he asked of God when he came to Heaven So he speaks Ioh. 14.16 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you No sooner had he set foot upon the place but the first thing the great thing that was upon his heart to ask the Father for us was that the Spirit might be forthwith dispatcht and sent down to his people So that the spirit is the first-born of mercies And deserves the first place in our hearts and esteems Consid. 2. Secondly The Spirit comes not in his own name to us though if so he deserves a dear welcome for his own sake and for the benefits we receive by him which are inestimable but he comes to us in the name and in the loves both of the Father and Son As one authorized and delegated by them Bringing his Credentials under both their hands and seals Ioh. 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father Mark I will send him from the Father and in Ioh. 14.26 The Father is said to send him in Christs name So that he is the messenger that comes from both these great and holy persons And if you have any Love for the God that made you any kindness for Christ that died for you shew it by your obedience to the Spirit that comes from them both and in both their names to us and who will be both offended and grieved if you grieve him O therefore give him an enterâ—ainment worthy of one that comes to you in the name of the Lord. In the Fathers name and in the Sons name Consid. 3. Thirdly But that is not the only consideration that should cause you to beware of grieving the Spirit because he is sent in the name of such great and dear persons to you but he deserves better entertainment than any of the Saints give him for his own sake and upon his own account and that upon a double score viz. Of his Nature and Office First On the account of his Nature for he is God Co-equal with the Father and Son in Nature and digniâ—y 2 Sam. 23.23 The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue the God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me So that you see he is God The rock of Israel God omnipotent for he created all things Gen. 1.2 God omnipresent filling all things Psal. 139.7 God omniscient who knows your hearts Rom. 9.1 Beware of him therefore and grieve him not for in so doing you grieve God Secondly Upon
with other Martyrs that were bound with Cords to Execution and he for his dignity was not bound he cryed give me my Chain too let me be a Knight of the same order Disgrace it self is honourable when 't is endured for the Lord of glory And surely there is as one phraseth it a little Paradise a young Heaven in sufferings for Christ. If there were nothing else in it but that they are endured on his account it would richly reward all we can endure for him but if we consider how exceeding kind Christ is to them that count it their glory to be abased for him that though he be alwaies kind to his people yet if we may so speak he overcometh himself in kindness when they suffer for him it should make men in Love with his reproaches Inference 5. If Christ sate not down to rest in Heaven till he had finished his work on earth then 't is in vain for us to think of rest till we have finished our work as Christ also did his How willing are we to find rest here To dream of that which Christ never found in this world nor any ever found before us O think not of resting till you have done working and done sinning Your life and your labours must end together Write saith the Spirit blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 Here you must have the Sweat and there the Sweet 'T is too much to have two Heavens Here you must be content to dwell in the Tents of Keder hereafter you shall be within the curtains of Solomon Heaven is the place of which it may be truly said That there the weary be at rest O think not of sitting down on this side Heaven There are four things will keep the Saints from sitting down on earth to rest viz. Grace Corruptions Devils and wicked men First Grace will not suffer you to rest here Its tendencies are beyond this world It will be looking and longing for the blessed hope A gratious person takes himself for a Pilgrim seeking a better Country and is alwaies suspicious of danger in every place and state It 's still beating up the sluggish heart with such language as that Mica 2.10 Arise depart this is not thy rest for it is polluted It s farther tendencies and continual Jealousies will keep you from sitting long still in this world Secondly Your Corruptions will keep you from rest here They will continually exercise your Spirits and keep you upon your watch Saints have their hands filled with work by their own hearts every day Sometimes to prevent sin and sometimes to lament it And allwaies to watch and fear to mortifie and kill it Sin will not long suffer you to be quiet Rom. 7.21 22 23 24. And if a bad heart will not break your rest here then Thirdly There is a busie Devil will do it He will find you work enough with his Temptations and suggestions and except you can sleep quietly in his arms as the wicked do there 's no rest to be expected Your adversary the Devil goeth about as a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour whom resist 1 Pet. 5.8 Fourthly Nor will his Servants and instruments let you be quiet on this side Heaven Their very name speaks their turbulent disposition My Soul saith the holy man is among Lyons and I lye even among them that are set on fire even the Sons of men whose teeth are Spears and Arrows Psal. 57.4 Well then be content to enter into your rest as Christ did into his He sweat then sate and so must you The FORTY SECOND SERMON ACT. X. XLII And he commanded us to Preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead CHrist enthroned in the highest glory in Heaven is there to abide for the effectual and successful government both of the World and of the Church untill the number given him by the Father before the World was and purchased by the blood of the Cross be gathered in and then cometh the Judgement of the great day which will perfectly separate the pretious from the vile put the redeemed in full possession of the purchase of his blood in Heaven and then shall he deliver up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all This last act of Christ namely his Judging the world is a special part of his Exaltation and honour bestowed upon him because he is the Son of man Joh. 5.27 In that day shall his glory as King and absolute Lord shine forth as the Sun when it shineth in its strength O what an honour will it be to the man Christ Jesus who stood arraigned and condemned at Pilates bar to sit upon the great white Throne surrounded with thousands and ten thousands of Angels Men and Devils waiting upon him to receive their final Sentence from his mouth In this will the glory of Christs Soveraignty and power be eminently and illustriously displayed before Angels and men And this is that great truth which He commanded to be Preached and testified to the people namely that it is he which is ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead Wherein we have four things to be distinctly considered viz. The Subject Object Fountain and Truth of this supream judiciary authority First The Subject of it Christ. It is he that iâ— ordained to be Iudge Judgement is the act of the whole undivided Trinity The Father and Spirit Judge as well as Christ in respect of authority and consent but it 's the act of Christ in respect of visible management and execution and so it 's his per proprietatem by propriety the Father having conferred it upon him as the Son of man but not his per appropriationem so as to exclude either the Father or Spirit from their authority for they Judge by him Secondly The Object of Christs Judiciary authority The quick and dead i. e. all that at his coming do live or ever had lived This is the Object personal All the men and women that ever sprang from Adam all the Apostate Spirits that fell from Heaven and are reserved in chains to the Judgement of this great day And in this personal object is included the real object viz. all the actions both secret and open that ever they did 2 Cor. 5.5 Rom. 2.16 Thirdly The Fountain of this delegated authority which is God the Father for he hath ordained Christ to be the Judge He is appointed sc. as the Son of man to this honourable office and work The word notes a firm establishment of Christ in that office by his Father He is now by right of redemption Lord and King He enacts Laws for government then he comes to Judge of mens obedience and disobedience to his Laws Fourthly And lastly here is the infallible Truth or unquestionable certainty of all this He
Rock they refuse to return Will not your very Relations be your accusers To whom you have failed in all your relational duties Yea and every one whom you have tempted to sin abused defrauded over-reacht all these will be your accusers So that it is without dispute you will have accusers enough to appear against you Thirdly Being accused before Jesus Christ what will you plead for your selves Will you confess or will you deny the charge If you confess what need more Out of thine own mouth will I Iudge thee saith Christ Luk. 19.22 If you deny and plead not guilty thy Judge is the searcher of hearts and knows all things So that it will not at all help thee to make a lye thy last refuge This will add to the guilt but not cover it Fourthly If no defence or plea be left thee then what canst thou imagine should retard the Sentence Why should not Christ go on to that dreadful work Must not the Iudge of all the Earth do right Gen. 18.25 Must he not render to every man according to his deeds 2 Cor. 5.10 Yes no question but he will proceed to that Sentence how terrible so ever it be to you to think on it now or hear it then Fifthly To conclude if Sentence be once given by Christ against thy Soul what in all the world canst thou imagine should hinder the Execution Will he alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth No Psal. 89.34 Dost thou hope he is more merciful and pitiful than so Thou mistakest if thou expectest mercy out of that way in which he dispenses it There will be thousands and ten thousands that will rejoyce in and magnifie his mercy then but they are such as obeyed his call repented believed and obtained union with his person here but for unbelievers it 's against the settled Law of Christ and constitution of the Gospel to shew mercy to the despisers of it But it may be you think your tears your cryes your pleadings with him may move him these indeed might have done somewhat in time but they come out of season now Alas too late What the success of such pleas and cries will be you may see if you will but consult two Scriptures Iob 27.8 9. What is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him No no and Matth. 7.22 Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity And must it come to this Dismal Issue with you indeed God forbid it should Oh then Inference 3. If Christ be appointed of God to be the Judge of all How are all concerned to secure their interest in him and therein an eternity of happiness to their own souls by the work of regeneration Of all the business that men and women have in this world there is none so solemn so necessary and important as this O my Brethren this is a work able to drink up your Spirits whiâ—◠〈◊〉 do but think of the consequences of it Summon in then thy self-reflecting and considering powers get alone Reader and forgetting all other things ponder with thy self this deep dear and eternal concernment of thine Examine the state of thine own soul. Look into the Scriptures then into thine own heart and then to Heaven saying Lord let me not be deceived in so great a concernment to me as this O let not the trifles of time wipe off the impressions of Death Judgement and Eternity from thy heart O that long word Eternity that it might be night and day with thee That the awe of it may be still upon thy Spirit A Gentlewoman of this Nation having spent the whole Afternoon and a great part of the Evening at Cards in much mirth and jollity came home late at night and finding her waiting Gentlewoman reading she lookt over her shoulder upon the Book and said poor melancholy soul why dost thou sit here poring so long upon thy Book That night she could not sleep but lay sighing and weeping her servant asked her once and again what ailed her at last she burst out into tears and said O it was one word that I cast my eye upon in thy Book that troubles me there I saw that word Eternity How happy were I if I were provided for Eternity Sure it concerns us seeing we look for such things to be diligent that we may be found of him in Peace O let not that day come by surprizal upon you Remember that as Death leaves so Judgement will find you Inference 4. Is Jesus Christ appointed Judge of quick and dead then look to it all you that hope to be found of him in peace that you avoid those sins and live in the daily practice of those duties which the consideration of that day powerfully perswades you to avoid or practise For it not only presses us to holiness in actu primo in the being of it but in actu secundo in the daily exercise and practice of it Do you indeed expect such a day O then First See you be meek and patient under all injuries and abuses for Christs sake Avenge not your selves but leave it to the Lord who will do it Don't anticipate the work of God Be patient my Brethren to the coming of the Lord Jam 5.7 8 9. Secondly Be Communicative publick hearted Christians studying and devising liberal things for Christs distressed members And you shall have both an honourable remembrance of it and a full reward of it in that day Matth. 25.34 35. Thirdly Be watchful and sober keep the Golden bridle of moderation upon all your affections And see that ye be not over charged with the cares and love of this present life Luk. 21.34 35. Will you that your Lord come and find you in such a posture O let your moderation be known to all the Lord is at hand Phil. 4.5 Fourthly Improve all your Masters Talents diligently and faithfully Take heed of the Napkin Matth. 25.14 18. Then must you make up your account for them all Fifthly But above all be sincere in your profession Let your hearts be found in Gods Statutes that you may never be ashamed for this day will be the day of manifestation of all hidden things And nothing is so secret but that day will reveal it Luk. 12.1 2 3. Beware of Hypocrisie for there is nothing covered which shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be made known Thus I have finished through Divine aids the whole Doctrine of the Impetration of Redemption by Jesus Christ we shall winde up the whole in a General Exhortation and I have done The General USE AND now to close up all let me perswade all those for whom
the dear Son of God came from the blessed bosom of the Father assumed flesh brake by the strength of his own Love through all discouragements and impediments laid down his own life a ransom for their Souls for whom he Lived Died Rose Ascended and lives for ever in Heaven to intercede to live holy to Christ as Christ lived and died wholly for them O Brethren never was the Heathen world acquainted with such arguments to deter them from sin never acquainted with such motives to urge them to holiness as I shall this day acquaint you with My request is to give up both your hearts and lives to glorifie the Father Son and Spirit whose you are by the holiness and heavenliness of them Other things are expected from you than from other men See that you turn not all this grace that hath founded in your ears into wantonness Think not because Christ hath done so much for you you may sit still much less indulge your selves in sin because Christ hath offered up such an excellent sacrifice for the expiation of it No no though Christ came to be a Curse he did not come to be a a Cloak for your sins If one died for all then were all dead that they that live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5.15 O keep your lives pure and clean Don't make fresh work for the blood of Christ every day If you live in the Spirit see that you walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 That is saith Cornelius à Lapide very solidly Let us shape and order our lives and actions according to the dictates instinct and impulses of the Spirit and of that grace of the Spirit put within us and planted in our hearts which tendeth to practical holiness Oh let the grace which is in your hearts issue out into all your Religious Civil and natural actions Let the Faith that is in your hearts appear in your prayers The Obedience of your hearts in hearing The Meekness of your hearts in suffering The Mercifulness of your hearts in distributing The Truth and Righteousness of your hearts in trading The Sobriety and Temperance of your hearts in eating and drinking These be the fruits of Christs sufferings indeed and they are sweet fruits Let grace refine enoble and elevate all your actions that you may say truly our conversation is in Heaven Let grace have the ordering of your tongues and of your hands the moulding of your whole conversation Let not Humility appear in some actions and Pride in others Holy seriousness in some companies and vain frothiness in others Suffer not the fountain of corruption to mingle with or pollute the streams of grace Write as exactly as you can after your Copy Christ. O let there not be as one well expresses it here a line and there a blanck Here a word and there a blot One word of God and two of the World Now a Spiritual rapture and then a fleshly Frollick This day a fair stride to Heaven and to morrow a slide back again towards Hell But be you in the fear of the Lord all the day long Let there be a due proportion betwixt all the parts of your conversation Approve your selves the servants of Christ in all things By pureness by knowledge by long suffering by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned by the Word of Truth by the power of God by the armour of Righteousness on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6.6 See then how accuratly you walk Cut off occasion from them that desire occasion and in well doing commit your selves to God and commend Religion to the World That this is your great concernment and duty I shall evidence to your conscience by these following considerations That of all persons in the world the Redeemed of the Lord are most obliged to be holy Most assisted for a life of holiness And that God intends to make great Vse of their lives both for the conviction and conversion of others Consid. First God hath most obliged them to live pure and strict lives I know the command obliges all men to it even those that cast away the cords of the commands and break Christs bonds asunder are yet bound by them and cannot plead a dispensation to live as they do Yea and it is not unusual for them to feel the obligations of the command upon their consciences even when their impetuous Lusts hurry them on to the violation of them but there are special ties upon your souls that oblige you to holiness of life more than others Many special and peculiar engagements you are under First from God Secondly from your selves Thirdly from your Brethren Fourthly from your enemies First God hath peculiarly obliged you to purity and strictness of Life Yea every person in the blessed Trinity hath cast his Cord over your Souls to bind up your hearts and lives to the most strict and precise obedience of his commands The Father hath obliged you and that not only by the common tie of Creation which is yet of great efficacy in it self for is it reasonable that God should create and form so excellent a piece and that it should be employed against him That he should plant the Tree and another eat the Fruit of it But besides this common engagement he hath obliged you to holiness of life First By his wise and merciful designs and counsels for your recovery and salvation by Jesus Christ. It was he that laid the corner stone of your salvation with his own hands The first motion sprang out of his breast If God had not designed the Redeemer for you the world had never seen him he had never left that sweet bosom for you It was the Act of the Father to give you to the Son to be Redeemed and then to give the Son to be a Redeemer to you Both of them stupenduous and astonishing Acts of grace And in both God acted as a most free Agent When he gave you to Christ before the beginning of time there was nothing out of himself that could in the least move him to it When the Father Son and Spirit sate as I may say at the Counsel Table contriving and laying the design for the salvation of a few out of many of Adams degenerate off-spring there was none came before them to speak one word for thee but such was the divine pleasure to insert thy name in that Catalogue of the saved Oh how much owest thou to the Lord for this And what an engagement doth it leave upon thy soul to obey please and glorifie him Secondly By his bountiful remunerations of your obedience which have been wonderful What service didst thou ever perform for him for which he hath not paid thee a thousand times more than it was worth Didst thou ever seek him diligently and not find him a bountiful rewarder none seek him in vain unless such only as seek him vainly Heb. 11.6
Didst ever give a cup of cold water in the name of a Disciple and not receive a Disciples reward Matth. 10.42 Hast thou not found inward peace and comfort flowing into thy soul upon every piece of sincere obedience Oh what a good Master do Saints serve You that are remiss and unconstant in your obedience you that are heartless and cold in duties hear how your God expostulates with you Ier 2.31 Have I been a Wilderness to Israel or a Land of darkness q. d. have I been a hard Master to you Have you any reason to complain of me To whom soever I have been straight handed surely I have not been so to you Are the fruits of sin like the fruits of obedience Do you know where to find a better Master Why then are you so shuffling and unconstant so sluggish and remiss in my work Surely God is not behind hand with any of you May you not say with David Psal. 119.56 This I had because I kept thy precepts There is fruits in holiness even present fruit It is a high favour to be imployed for God Reward enough that he will accept any thing thou dost But to return every Duty thou presentest to him with such comforts such quicknings such inward and outward blessings into thy bosom so that thou maist open the the treasury of thine own experiences view the varieties of encouragements and Love-tokens at several times received in Duties and say this I had and that I had by waiting on God and serving him Oh what an ingagement is this upon thee to be ever abounding in the work of the Lord Though thou must not work for Wages yet God will not let thy work go unrewarded For He is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love Thirdly Your Father hath further obliged you to this holiness and purity of life by signifying to you as he hath frequently done the great delight and pleasure he hath therein He hath told you that such as are upright in the way are his delight Pro. 11.20 That he would not have you forget to do good and to communicate for with such sacrifices he is well pleased Heb. 13.16 You know you cannot walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing except ye be fruitful in every good word and work Col. 1.10 And oh what a bond is this upon you to live holy lives Can you please your selves in displeasing your Father If you have the hearts of Children in you sure you cannot O you cannot grieve his spirit by loose and careless walking but you must grieve your own spirits too How many times hath God pleased you gratified and contented you and will not you please and content him This mercy you have asked of him and he gave it that mercy and you were not denyed in many things the Lord hath wonderfully condescended to please you and now there is but one thing that he desires of you and that most reasonable yea beneficial for you as well as pleasing to him 1 Phil. 27. Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Iesus Christ. This is the one thing the great and main thing he expects from you in this world and will not you do it Can you expect he should gratifie your desires when you make no more of grieving and displeasing him Well if you know what will please God and yet resolve not to do it but will rather please your flesh and gratifie the Devil than him pray pull off your vizards fall into your own rank among hypocrites and appear as indeed you are Fourthly The Father hath further obliged you to strictness and purity of conversation by his gratious promises made to such as so walk He hath promised to do great things for you if you will but do this one thing for him If you will order your conversation aright Psal. 50. ult He will be your Sun and Shield if you will walk before him and be upright Gen. 15.1 He will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from him that walketh uprightly Psal. 84.11 And he promises no more to you than he hath made good to others that have thus walked and stands ready to perform to you also If you look to enjoy the good of the promise you are obliged by all your expectations and hopes to order your lives purely and uprightly This hope will set you on work to purge your lives as well as your hearts from all pollutions 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Fifthly Yea He hath yet more obliged you to strict and holy lives by his confidence in you that you will thus walk and please him He expresseth himself in Scripture as one that dare trust you with his glory knowing that you will be tender of it and dare do no otherwise If but a man repose confidence in you and trust you with his concerns it greatly obliges you to be faithful What an engagement was that upon Abraham to walk uprightly when God said of him Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his Children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord q. d. as for this wicked generation whom I will speedily consume in my wrath I know they regard not my Laws they will trample my commands under foot they care not how they provoke me but I expect other things from Abraham and I am confident he will not fail me I know him he is a man of another spirit and what I promise my self from him he will make good And to the like purpose is that in Isa. 63.78 I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses For he said surely they are my people Children that will not lie or fail me so he was their Saviour Here you have an ample account of the endearing mercies of God to that people ver 7. and the Lords confident expectations of suitable returns from them ver 8. I said i. e. speaking after the manner of men in like cases I made full account that after all these endearments and favours bestowed upon them they would not offer to be disloyal and false to me I have made them sure enough to my self by so many bonds of Love Like to which is that expression Zeph. 3.7 I said surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction Oh how great are the expectations of God from such as you I know Abraham there 's no doubt of him And again they are Children that will not lie i. e. they will not fallere fidem datam Break their Covenant with me Or they are my people that will not shrink as
your lives be loose and defiled you will not only be a shame to your friends but the Song of your enemies You will make mirth in Hell And gratifie all the enemies of God This is that they watch for They are curious observers of your goings And that which makes them Triumph at your falls and miscarriages is not only that deep rooted enmity betwixt the two seeds but because all your miscarriages and evils are so many absolutions to their consciences and Justifications as they think of their waies and practices For look as your strictness and holiness doth as it were cast and condemn them as Noah Heb. 11.7 by his practice condemned the world their consciences fly in their faces when they see your holy and pure conversations It lays a damp upon them It works upon their consciences and causes many smart reflections So when you fall you as it were absolve their consciences loose the bonds of conviction you had made fast upon them and now there 's matter of Joy put before them Oh say they what ever these men talk we see they are no better than we They can do as we do They can Cozen and Cheat for advantage They can comply with any thing for their own ends 't is not conscience as we once thought but meer stomach and humor that made them so precise And oh what a sad thing is this Hereby you shed Soul-blood You fasten the bonds of death upon their souls You kill those convictions which for any thing you know might have made way to their conversion When you fall you may rise again but they may fall at your example and never rise more Never have a good opinion of the waies of God or of his people any more Upon this consideration David begs of God Psal. 5.8 Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness because of my enemies or as the Hebrew my observers make thy way straight before my face And thus you see how your very enemies oblige you to this holy and pure conversation also Now put all this together and see to what these particulars will amount You have heard how God the Father hath engaged you to this conversation purity by his designment of your Salvation Rewarding your obedience His pleasure in it His Promises to it And his great confidence in you that you will thus walk before him The Lord Iesus hath also engaged you thereunto by his death and sufferings whereby you were Redeemed from your vain conversations The Spirit hath engaged you by telling you plainly how much you will grieve and wrong him resist and quench him if you do not keep your selves pure Yea you are obliged further by your selves your clear illumination your high profession your many prayers and confessions your many censures and reprehensions of others do all strengthen your obligation to holiness Yea you are obliged further to this holy life by the shame grief and trouble your loose walking will bring upon your friends And the mirth it will make for and mischief it will do to your enemies Who will fall and break their necks where it may be you only stumbled and brake your shins Who are Justified and absolved as before you heard by your miscarriages And now what think you of all this Are you obliged or not to this purity of life Are all these bonds tied with such slip-knots that you can get loose and free your selves at pleasure from them If all these things are of no force with you if none of these bonds can hold you may it not be questioned notwithstanding your profession whether any spiritual principle any fear of God or love to Christ be in your souls or no O you could not play fast and loose with God if so you could not as Sampson snap these bonds assunder at your pleasure Consid. 2. Secondly As you are more obliged to keep the issues of life pure than others are so God hath given you greater assistances and advantages for it than others have God hath not been wanting to any in helps and means Even the Heathen who are without the Gospel will yet be speechless and inexcusable before God but how much more will you be so who besides their light of nature and the general light of the Gospel have first such a principle put within you Secondly such patterns set before you Thirdly such an assistant ready to help you Fourthly so many rods at your backs to quicken you and prevent your wandering If notwithstanding all these helps your live be still unholy First Shall men of such principles walk as others do Shall we lament for you as David once did for Saul saying there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away the shield of Saul as though he had not been anointed with oyl There the honour of a Christian was vilely cast away as though he had not been anointed with the Spirit You have received an unction from the holy one which teacheth you all things 1 Joh. 2.20 Another Spirit far above that which is in other men 1 Cor. 2.12 And as this Spirit which is in you is fitted for this life of holiness for ye are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus to good works Ephes. 2.10 So this holy Spirit a principle infused into your souls hath such a natural tendency to this holy life that if you live not purely and strictly you must offer violence to your own principles and a new nature A twofold help this principle affords you for a life of holiness 1. First It pulls you back from sin as in Ioseph How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God! And it also inclines you powerfully to obedience 'T is a curb to sin and a spur to holiness It is unpossible for all others to live spiritually and heavenly because they have no new nature to incline them thereunto And methinks it should be hard for you to live carnally and sensually and therein cross the very bent and tendency of the new creature which is formed in you How can you neglect Prayer as others do whiles the Spirit by divine pulsations is awaking and rousing up your sluggish hearts with such inward motions and whispers as that Psal. 27.8 Seek my face Yea whilst you fell during your omissions of duty something within that bemoans it self and as it were cryes for food pains and gripes you like an empty stomach and will not let you be quiet till it be relieved How can you let out your hearts to the world as other men do when all that while your Spirit is restless and akes like a bone out of joint And you can never be at ease till you come back to God and say as Psal. 116. Return to thy rest O my soul. Is it not hard yea naturally impossible to fix a stone and make it abide in the fluid air Doth not every creature in a restless motion tend to its proper Center and desire its own perfection So doth this new creature