you out of the temptation If you attend his voice you may hear such a voice within you as that Ier. 44.4 Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate What mighty strivings were there in the heart of Spira as himself relates He heard as it were a voice within him saying Do not write Spira do not write To this purpose is that promise Isa. 30.20 21. Thine eyes shall behold thy teachers and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying this is the way walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left Here you have a twofold help to holiness the outward teaching of the Word ver 20. and the inward teachings of the Spirit ver 21. He shall say this is the way when ye are turning aside to the right hand or to the left Alluding to a Shepherd saith one who driving his Sheep before him whistles them in when he sees them ready to stray 2. Secondly When ye walk holily and closely with God in your duties the Spirit incourages you to go on by those inward comforts sealings and joys you have from him at such times How often hath he entertained your souls in publick Ordinances in private duties with his hidden Manna with marrow and fastness with incomparable and unspeakable comforts and all this to strengthen you in your way and encourage you to hold on 3. Thirdly When you are indisposed for duties and find your hearts empty and dry he is ready to fill them quicken and raise them so that oftentimes the beginnings and end of your Prayers hearing or meditations are as vastly different as if one man had begun and another ended the duty O then what assistances for a holy life have you Others indeed are bound to resist temptations as well as you but alas having no special assistance from the Spirit what can they do It may be they reason with the Temptation a little while and in their own strength resolve against it but how easie a conquest doth Satan make where no greater opposition is made to him than this Others are bound to hear meditate and pray as well as you else the neglect of these duties would not be their sin but alas what pitiful work do they make of it Being left to the hardness and vanity of their own hearts when you spread your Sails you have a gale but they lie wind-bound heart-bound and can do nothing Spiritually in a way of Duty Fourthly And lastly to mention no more you have a further advantage to this holy life by all the rods of God that are at any time upon you I might shew you in many particulars the advantages this way also but I shall only present these three to your observation at this time First By these you are clogged to prevent your straying and wandering Others may wander even as far as Hell and God will not spend a sanctified rod upon them to reduce or stop them but saith let them alone Hos. 4.17 But if you straggle out of the way of holiness he will clog you with one trouble or another to keep you within bounds 2 Cor. 12.7 Lest I should be lifted up a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet me So David Psal. 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy Word Afflictions are used by God as thorns by husbandmen to stop the gaps and keep you from breaking out of Gods way Hos. 2.6 I will hedge up her way with thorns and build a wall that she shall not find her paths A double alusion First to Cattle that are apt to stray I will hedge up thy way with thorns Secondly to the Sea which is apt to over-flow the Country I will build a wall to prevent inundations Holy Basil was a long time sorely afflicted with an inveterate head-ach he often prayed for the removal of it at last God removed it but in the room of it he was sorely exercised with the motions and temptations of Lust which when he perceived he heartily desired his head-ach again to prevent a worse evil You little know the ends and uses of many of your afflictions Are you exercised with bodily weaknesses it 's a mercy you are so and if these pains and infirmities were removed these clogs taken off you may with Basil wish for them again to prevent worse evils Are you poor why with that poverty God hath clogged your pride Are you reproached with those reproaches God hath clogged your ambition Corruptions are prevented by your afflictions And is not this a marvelous help to holiness of life Secondly By your afflictions your corruptions are not only clogged but purged By these God drys up and consumes that spring of sin that defiles your lives Esa. 27.9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away sin God orders your wants to kill your wantonness And makes your poverty poison to your pride They are Gods Physick to purge ill humours out of your souls When they fall by the sword and by famine and by captivity and by spoil it is to try them and to purge them and to make them white They are both purges and Lavatories to your souls Others have the same afflictions that you have but they do not work on them as on you they are to you as fire for purging and water for cleansing and yet shall not your lives be clean It 's true as one well observes upon that place of Daniel Christ is the only Lavatory and his blood the only fountain to wash away sin But in the virtue and efficacy of that blood sanctified afflictions are cleansers and purgers too A Cross without a Christ never made any man better but with Christ Saints are much the better for the cross Hath God as it were laid you out so many daies and nights a whitening and yet is not the hue of your conversation altred Hath he put you so many times into the furnace and yet is not your dross separated The more afflictions you have been under the more assistance you have had for this life of holiness Thirdly By all your troubles God hath been weaning you from the world the lusts loves and pleasures of it and drawing out your souls to a more excellent life and state than this He makes your sorrows in this life give a lufter to the glory of the next Who ever hath be sure you shall have no rest here and all that you may long more ardently for that to come He often makes you groan being burdened to be cloathed with your house from Heaven 1 Cor. 5.4 And yet will you not be weaned from the lusts customs and evils of it Oh what manner of persons should you be for heavenly and holy conversations You stand upon the higher ground You have as it were the wind and tide with you None are assisted for this life as
or the bestowing the effects of his love upon us according to that purpose His complacential love is nothing else but that delight and satisfaction he finds in beholding the fruits and workings of that grace in us which he first intended for us and then actually collated or bestowed on us This love of benevolence is that which I have opened to you under the former head Gods compact with Christ about us or his design to save us on the Articles and terms therein specified The love of beneficence is that which this Scripture speaks off out of this fountain Christ flowed to us and both run into that of complacency for therefore he both purposed and actually bestowed Christ on us that he might everlastingly delight in beholding the glory and praise of all this reflected on himself by his redeemed ones This then is the fountain of our mercies The mercy flowing out of this fountain and that is Christ the mercy as he is Emphatically called Luk. 1.72 the marrow kernel and substance of all other mercies He gave his only begotten Son this was the birth of that love the like whereunto it never brought forth before therefore it 's exprest with a double emphasis in the Text the one is that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so he so loved the world here is a sic without a sicut how did he love it why he so loved it but how much the tongues of Angels cannot declare And moreover to encrease and aggravate the mercy he is stiled his only begotten Son to have given a Son had been wonderful but to give an only begotten Son that 's love unexpressible unintelligible The objects of this love or the persons into whose lap and arms the eternal love delivered Christ and that is the world this must respect the elect of God in the world such as do or shall actually believe as it is exegetically exprest in the next breath that whosoever believes in him should not perish those whom he calls the world in that he stiles believers in this expression and the word world is put to signifie the elect because they are scattered through all parts and are among all ranks of men in the world these are the objects of this love it is not Angels but men that were so loved he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover a friend of man but never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lover of friend of Angels or Creatures of another species The manner in which this never enough celebrated mercy flows to us from the Fountain of Divine love and that is most freely and spontaneously He gave not he sold or barely parted from but gave nor yet doth the Fathers giving imply Christ to be meerly passive for as the Father is here said to give him so the Apostle tells us Gal. 2.20 that he gave himself who loved me and gave himself for me the Father gave him out of good will to men and he as willingly bestowed himself on that Service Hence the Note is DOCT. That the gift of Christ is the highest and fullest manifestation of the love of God to sinners that ever was made from eternity to them How is this gift of God to sinners signalized in that place of the Apostle 1 Joh. 4.10 herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins why doth the Apostle so magnifie this gift in saying herein is love as if there were love in nothing else may we not say that to have a being a being among the rational creatures therein is love to have our life carryed so many years like a taper in the hand of Providence through so many dangers and not yet put out in obscurity therein is love to have food and rayment convenient for us beds to lye in relations to comfort us in all these is love yea but if you speak comparatively in all these there is no love to the love exprest in sending or giving Christ for us these be great mercies in themselves but set by this mercy they are all swallowed up as the light of Candles when brought into the Sun-shine no no herein is the love that God gave Christ for us And it is remarkable that when the Apostle would shew us in Rom. 5.8 what is the noblest fruit that most commends to men the root of Divine love that bears it he shews us this very fruit of it that I am now opening But God saith he commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us this is the very flower of that love The Method into which I will cast this precious point shall be this 1. To shew how Jesus Christ was given by the Father 2. How that gift is the fullest and richest manifestation of the love of God that was ever made to the world 3. And then draw forth the Uses of it How was Jesus Christ given by the Father and what is implyed therein You are not so to understand it as though God parted with his â—â—terest and propriety in his Son when he is said to give him he was as much his own as ever when men give they transfer propriety to another but when God had given him he was I say still as much his own as ever but this giving of Christ implyes 1. His designation and appointment unto death for us for so you read that it was done according to the determinate counsel of God Acts 2.23 look as the Lamâ—â—nder the Law was separted from the flock and set apart for a Sacrifice though it were still living yet it was intentionally and pâ—â—paratively given and consecrated to the Lord so Jesus Christ was by the counsel and purpose of God thus chosen and set apart for this Service and therefore in Esa. 42.1 God calls him his elect or chosen one 2. His giving Christ implys a parting with him or setting him as the French hath it at some distance from himself for a time there was a kind of parting betwixt the Father and the Son when he came to tabernacle in our flesh so he expresseth it Joh. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father this distance that his incarnation and humiliation set him at was properly as to his humanity which was really distant from the glory into which it is now taken up and in respect of manifestation of delight and love The Lord seemed to carry it as one at distance from him O this was it that so deeply pierced and wounded his Soul as is evident from that complaint Psal. 22.1 2. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou so far from the voice of my roaring O my God I cry in the day time and thou hearest not c. 3. Gods giving of Christ implies his delivering him into the
the Father in the Son by the spirit forming on creating that nature as if three Sisters should make a garment betwixt them which only one of them wears yet terminative it was the act of the Son only 'T was he only that was made flesh And when 't is said he was made flesh misconceive not as if there was a mutation of the Godhead into flesh for this was performed not by changing what he was but by assuming what he was not As Aug. well expresseth it As when the Scripture in a like expression saith he was made sin 2 Cor. 5.21 And made a curse Gall. 3.13 The meaning is not that he was turned into sin or into a curse no more may we think here the Godhead was turned into flesh and lost its own being and nature because it 's said he was made flesh This is the sum of the Assertion This assertion that the word was made flesh is strongly confirmed He dwelt among us and we saw his glory This was no Phantasm but a most real and indubitable thing For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pitcht his tent or Tabernacled with us And we are eye-witnesses of it Parralel to that Ioh. 1.1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life c. Declare we unto you Hence Note DOCT. That Iesus Christ did really assume the true and perfect nature of man into a personal union with his divine nature and still remains true God and true man in one person for ever The Proposition contains one of the deepest mysteries in godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 A mysterie by which apprehension is dazled invention astonished and all expression swallowed up If ever the tongues of Angels were desirable to explicate any word of God they are so here Great is the interest of words in this Doctrine We walk upon the brink of danger The least tread awry may ingulph us in the bogs of error Arrius would have been content if the Council of Nice would but have gratified him in a Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nestorians also desired but a Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These seemed but small and modest requests but if granted had proved no small prejudices to Jesus Christ and his truths I desire therefore the Reader would with greatest attention of mind apply himself to these truths 'T is a Doctrine hard to understand and dangerous to mistake I am really of his mind that said its better not touch the bottom than not keep within the circle melius est nescire centrum quà m non tenere circulum He did assume a true humane body that is plainly asserted Phil. 2.7 8 c. Heb. 2.14 16. In one place its call'd taking on him the seed of Abraham and in the Text Flesh. He did also assume a true humane soul that 's undeniable by its operations passions and expiration at last Matth. 26.38 and 27.50 And that both these natures make but one person is as evident from Rom. 1.3 4. Iesus Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead So Rom. 9.5 Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen But that you may have a sound and clear understanding of this mysterie I will 1. open the nature 2. the effects and 3. the reasons or ends of this wonderful union The nature of this union There be three illustrious and dazling unions in Scripture That of three persons in one God essentially That of two distinct natures and persons by one Spirit mystically And this of two distinct natures in one person Hypostatically This is my task to open at this time And for the more distinct and perspicuous management thereof I shall speak to it both Negatively and positively Think not when Christ assumed our nature that it was united consubstantially so as the three persons in the Godhead are united among themselves They all have but one and the same nature and will but in Christ are two distinct natures and wills though but one person Nor yet that they are united Physically as soul and body are united in one person For death actually dissolves that but this is indissoluble So that when his soul was expir'd and his body interred both soul and body were still united to the second person as much as ever Nor yet is it such a mystical union as is between Christ and Bâ—lievers Indeed that is a glorious union but though believers are said to be in Christ and Christ in them yet they are not one person with him They are not Christed into Christ or Goded into God as blasphemous Familists speaks But this Assumption of which I speak is that whereby the second person in the Godhead did take the humane nature into a personal union with himself by vertue whereof the manhood subsists in the second person yet without confusion both making but one person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Immanuel God with us So that though we truly ascribe a twofold nature to Christ yet not a double person For the humane nature of Christ never subsisted seperately and distinctly by any personal subsistance of its own as it doth in all other men but from the first moment of conception subsisted in union with the second person To explicate this mysterie more particularly let it be considered First The humane nature was united to the second person miraculously and extraordinarily being supernaturally fram'd in the womb of the Virgin by the over-shadowing power of the highest Luk. 1.34 35. By reason whereof it may truly and properly be said to be the fruit of the womb not of the loyns of man but not by man And this was necessary to exempt the assumed nature from the stain and pollution of Adams Sin which it wholly escaped in as much as he received it not as all others do in the way of ordinary generation wherein Original sin is propagated but this being extraordinarily produced was a most pure and holy thing Luk. 1.35 And indeed this perfect shining holiness in which it was produced was absolutely necessary both in order to its union with the Divine person and the design of that union which was both to satisfie for and to sanctifie us The two natures could not be conjoyned in the person of Christ had there been the least taint of sin upon the humane nature For God can have no fellowship with sin much less be united to it Or supposing such a conjunction with our sinful nature yet he being a sinner himself could never satisfie for the sins of others Nor could an unholy thing ever make us holy Such an high-Priest therefore became us as
Gods choice and yours He chooses not men because they are holy but that they may be so You are to chuse them for so your delightful Companions that God hath chosen and made holy Let all your delights be in the Saints even them that excel in vertue Psal. 16.3 Fourthly God abhors and hates all unholiness do ye so also that you may be like your Father which is in Heaven And when the Spirit of holiness runs down thus upon you a sweeter evidence the World cannot give that Christ was sanctified for you Holy ones may confidently lay the hand of their Faith on the head of this great Sacrifice and say Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us The EIGHTH SERMON I TIM II.V. And one Mediator betwixt God and Men the man Christ Iesus GReat and long preparations bespeak the solemnity and greatness of the work for which they are designed A man that had but seen the heaps of Gold Silver and Brass which David amassed in his time for the building of the Temple might easily conclude before one Stone of it was laid that it would be a magnificent Structure But lo here is a design of God as far transcending that as the substance doth the shadow For indeed that glorious Temple was but the Type and Figure of Jesus Christ Ioh. 2.19.21 and a weak adumbration of that living spiritual Temple which he was to build cementing the lively Stones thereof together with his own blood 1 Pet. 2.5 6. that the great God might dwell and walk in it 2 Cor. 6.16 the preparations for that Temple were but of few years but the consultations and preparations for this were from Eternity Prov. 8.31 and as there were preparations for this work which Christ dispatcht in a few years before the world began so it will be matter of eternal admiration and praise when this world shall be dissolved What this astonishing glorious work is this Text will inform you as to the general nature of it It is the work of mediation betwixt God and Man managed by the sole hand of the man Christ Jesus In this Scripture for I shall not spend time to examine the words in their contexture you have a description of Iesus the Mediator and he is here described three ways viz. by his work or office a Mediator by the singularity of his mediation one Mediator And by the nature and quality of his Person imploy'd in this singular way of Mediation the man and lastly his name 's Iesus Christ. First he is described by the work or office he is imploy'd about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator a middle Person So the word imports a fit indifferent and equal Person that comes between two Persons that be at variance to take up the difference and make Peace Such a middle equal indifferent Person is Christ. A days-man to lay his hand upon both to arbitrate and award justly and give God his due and that without ruine to poor man Secondly he is described by the singularity of his mediation One Mediator and but one though there be many Mediators of reconciliation among men and many Intercessors in a petitionary way betwixt God and Men yet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one only Mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and Men and 't is as needless and impious to make more Mediators than one as to make more Gods than one There is one God and one Mediator betwixt God and Men. Thirdly he is described by the nature and quality of his Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the man Christ Iesus This description of him by one nature and that the humane nature also wherein as you shall see anon the Lord especially consulted our encouragement and Comfort I say his being so described to us hath through the corruption of men been improved to the great dishonour of Jesus Christ both by the Arrians and Papists The former took occasion from hence to affirm that he was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer man The latter allow him to be the true God but on this weak ground affirm that he performed not the work of mediation as God but only a man Thus what the Spirit ordered for our comfort is wickedly retorted to Christs dishonour For I doubt not but he is described by his humane nature in this place not only because in this nature he paid that ransom which he speaks of in the words immediately following but especially for the drawing of Sinners to him seeing he is the man Christ Jesus One that cloathed himself in their own Flesh and to encourage the Faith of Believers that he tenderly resents all their wants and miseries and that they may safely trust him with all their concerns as one that will carefully mind them as his own and will be for them a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God Fourthly he is described by his names By his Appellative name Christ and his proper name Iesus The name Iesus notes his work about which he came and Christ the Offices to which he was anoynted and in the execution of which he is our Iesus In the name Iesus the whole Gospel is hid It is the light the food the medicine of the Soul as one speaks The note from hence is DOCT. That Iesus Christ is the true and only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Ye are come to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12.24 And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament c. Heb. 9.14 I might shew you a whole vein of Scriptures running this way but to keep a profitable and clear method I shall shew you First what is the sence of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator Secondly what it implys as it is applied to Christ. Thirdly how it appears that he is the true and only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Fourthly in what capacity he performed his Mediatory work First What is the sence and import of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator and the true sence and importance of it is a middle person or one that interposes betwixt two Parties at variance to make peace betwixt them So that Satan is medium disjungens a medium of discord so Christ is medium conjungens a medium of Concord and Peace And he is such a middler both in respect of his person and office in respect of his person he is a middler that is one that hath the same nature both with God and us true God and true man and in respect of his office or work which is to interpose or transact the business of reconciliation between us and God The former some call his substantial the latter his evergitical or operative meditation though I rather conceive that which is call'd his substantial mediation is but the aptitude of his person to execute the mediatorial function And that it doth not constitute two kinds of mediation his being a middle Person
So that no man can be his own Priest to reconcile himself to God by what he can do or suffer And therefore one that is able by doing and suffering to reconcile him must undertake it or we perish Thus you see plainly and briefly the general nature and necessity of Christs Priesthood From both these several useful Corollarys or practical deductions offer themselves Corollary 1. This shews in the first place the incomparable excellency of the reformed Christian Religion above all other Religions known to or professed in the world What other Religions seek the Christian Religion only finds even a solid foundation for true peace and settlement of conscience While the Iews seek it in vain in the Law the Mahumetan in his external and ridiculous observances the Papist in his own merits the Believer only finds it in the blood of this great sacrifice this and nothing less than this can pacifie a disâ—â—â—â—sed conscience labouring under the weight of its own guilt Conscience demands no less to satisfie it than God demands to satisfie him The grand inquest of conscience is Is God satisfied If he be satisfied I am satisfied Woful is the state of that man that feels the worm of conscience nibling on the most tender part of the soul and hath no relief against it That feels the intollerable scalding wrath of God burning within and hath nothing to cool it Hear me you that slight troubles of conscience that call them fancies and melancholly whimsies if you ever had had but one sick night for sin if you had ever felt that shame fear horror and despair which are the dismal effects of an accusing and condemning conscience you would account it an unspeakable mercy to hear of a way for the discharge of a poor sinner from that guilt You would kiss the feet of that messenger that could bring you tydings of peace You would call him blessed that should direct you to an effectual remedy Now whoever thou art that pinest away in thine iniquities that droopest from day to day under the present wounds and dismal presages of conscience know that thy soul and peace can never meet till thou art perswaded to come to this blood of sprinkling The blood of this sacrifice speaks better things than the blood of Abel The blood of this sacrifice is the blood of God Act. 20.28 invaluably pretious blood 1 Pet. 1.18 one drop of it infinitely excels the blood of all other creatures Heb. 10.4 5 6. Such is the blood that must do thee good Lord I must have such blood saith conscience as is capable of giving thee full satisfaction or it can give me no peace The blood of all the Cattle upon a thousand Hills cannot do this What is the blood of beasts to God The blood of all the men in the world can do nothing in this case What is our polluted blood worth No no it 's the blood of God that must satisfie both thee and me Yea Christs blood is not only the blood of God but it 's blood shed in thy stead and in thy place and room Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us And so it becomes sin pardoning blood Heb. 9.22 Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Rom. 3.26 And consequently conscience pacifying and soul quieting blood Col. 1.20 Eph. 2.13 14. Rom. 3.26 O bless God that ever the news of this blood came to thine ears With hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven admire that grace that cast thy lot in a place where this joyful sound rings in the ears of poor sinners What had thy case been if thy mother had brought thee forth in the desarts of Arabia or in the wastes of America or what if thou hadst been nursed up by a Popish father who could have told thee no other remedy when in distress for sin but to go such a pilgrimage to whip and lash thy self to satisfie an angry God! Surely the pure light of the Gospel shining upon this generation is a mercy never to be duly valued never to be enough prized Corollary 2. Hence also be informed of the necessity of faith in order to a state and sense of peace with God For to what purpose is the blood of Christ our sacrifice shed unless it be actually and personally applyed and appropriated by faith You know when the sacrifices under the Law were brought to be slain he that brought it was to put his hand upon the head of his sacrifice and so it was accepted from him to make an attonement Lev. 1.4 Not only to signifie that now it was no more his but Gods the propriety being transferred by a kind of manumission nor yet that he voluntarily gave it to the Lord as his own free act but principally it noted the putting off his sins and the penalty due to him for them upon the head of the sacrifice and so it implyed in it an execration as if he had said upon thy head be the evil So the Learned observe the Ancient Aegyptians were wont expresly to imprecate when they sacrificed If any evil be coming upon us or upon Aegypt let it turn and rest upon this head laying their hand at these words on the sacrifices head And upon that ground saith the Historian none of them would eat of the head of any living creature You must also lay the hand of faith upon Christ your sacrifice not to imprecate but apply and appropriate him to your own souls he having been made a curse for you To this the whole Gospel tends even to perswade sinners to apply Christ and his blood to their own souls To this he invited us Matth. 11.28 Come unto me ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest For this end our sacrifice was lifted up upon the Altar Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Effects of the Law not only upon the conscience filling it with torments but upon the whole person bringing death upon it are here shadowed out by the stingings of fiery Serpents and Christ by the brazen Serpent which Moses exalted for the Israelites that were stunâ— to look unto And as by looking to it they were healed so by believing or looking to Christ in faith our souls are healed Those that looked not to the Brazen Serpent died infallibly so must all that look not to Jesus our sacrifice by faith It 's true the death of Christ is the meritorious cause of remission but faith is the instrumental applying cause and as Christs blood is necessary in its place so is our faith in its place also For to the actual remission of sin and peace of conscience there must be a co-operation of all the causes of remission and peace As there is the grace and love of God for an efficient and impulsive cause and the death of Christ our
the High-Priests appearing in the Holy of Holies which was the figure of Heaven presenting to the Lord the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel which were on his breast and shoulders Exod. 28.9 12 28 29. to which the Church is supposed to allude in that request Cant. 8.6 set me as a seal upon thine heart as a seal upon thine arm Now the very sight of Christ our High-Priest in Heaven prevails exceedingly with God and â—urns away his displeasure from us As when God looks upon the Rainbow which is the sign of the Covenant he remembers the earth in mercy So when he looks on Christ his heart must needs be towards us upon his account and therefore in Rev. 4.3 Christ is compared to a Rainbow encompassing the Throne Secondly Christ performs his intercession-work in Heaven not by a naked appearing in the presence of God only but also by presenting his blood and all his sufferings to God as a moving plea on our account Whether he make any proper oral intercession there as he did on earth is not so clear some incline to it and think it 's countenanced by Zech. 1.12 13. where Christ our intercessor presents a proper vocal request to the Father in the behalf of his people Saying O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Ierusalem and on the Cities of Iudah against whom thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years and the Lord answered him with good and comfortable words And so Act. 2.23 As soon as he came to Heaven he is said and that as the first fruits of his Intercession to obtain the promise of the Holy-Ghost But sure I am an Interceding voice is by an usual prosopopeia attributed to his blood which in Heb. 12.24 is said to speak better things than the blood of Abel Now Abels blood and so Christs do cry unto God as the hire of the Labourers unjustly detained or the whole creation which is in bondage through our sins are said to cry and groan in the ears of the Lord. Iam. 5.4 Rom. 8.22 not vocally but efficatiously A rare illustration of this Efficatious Intercession of Christ in Heaven we have in that famous story of Amintas who appeared as an Advocate for his brother Aechylus who was strongly accused and very likely to be condemned to die Now Amintas having performed great services and merited highly of the Common-Wealth in whose service one of his hands was cut off in the Field he comes into the Court on his brothers behalf and said nothing but only lifted up his arm and shewed them cubitum sine manu an arm without an hand which so moved them without a word speaking that they freed his brother immediately And thus if you look into Revel 5.6 you shall see in what posture Christ is represented visionally there as standing between God and us And I beheld and loe in the midst of the Throne and four beasts and in the midst of the Elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain i. â— bearing in his glorified body the marks of his death and sacrifice Those wounds he received for our sins on earth are as it were still fresh bleeding in Heaven A moving and prevailing argument it is with the Father to give out the mercies he pleads for Thirdly and Lastly He presents the prayers of his Saints to God with his merits and desires that they may for his sake be granted He causes a cloud of incense to ascend before God with them Revel 8.3 All these were excellently Typed out by the going in of the High-Priest before the Lord with the names of the Children of Israel on his breast with the blood of the Sacrifice and his hands full of incense as the Apostle explains them in Heb. 7. and Heb. 9. Thirdly And that this Intercession of Christ is most potent successful and prevalant with God will be evinced both from the qualifications of this our Advocate from his great interest in the Father from the nature of the pleas he useth with God and from the relation and interest believers have both in the Father to whom and the Son by whom this intercession is made First our Intercessor in the Heavens is every way able and fit for the work he is ingaged in there What ever is desirable in an Advocate is in him eminently It is necessary that he who undertakes to plead the cause of another especially if it be weighty and intricate should be wise faithful tender-hearted and one that concerns himself in the success of his business Our Advocate Christ wants no wisdom to manage his work He is the wisdom of God yea only wise Jude 25. There 's much folly in the best of our duties we know not how to press an argument home with God but Christ hath the art of it Our business is in a wise hand He is no less faithful than wise therefore he is called a faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 2.17 He assures us we may safely trust our concerns with him Joh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you Q. D. do you think I will deceive you Men may cheat you but I will not your own hearts may and daily do deceive you but so will not I. And for tender heartedness and sensible resentments of our conditions there is none like him Heb. 4.15 For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin We have not one that cannot sympathize so it is in the Greek and on purpose that he might be the better able to sympathize with us he came as near to our conditions as the holiness of his nature could permit He suffered himself to be in all points tempted like as we are sin only excepted And then for his concernment and interest in the success of his suit he not only reckons but hath really made it his own interest Yea more his own than it is ours For now by reason of the mystical union all our wants and troubles are his Eph. 1.23 Yea his own glory and compleatness as mediator is deeply interessed in it And therefore we need not doubt but he will use all care and diligence in that work If you say so he may and yet not speed for all that for it depends on the fathers grant True but then Secondly Consider the great interest he hath in the Father with whom he so intercedes Christ is his dear Son Col. 1.13 the beloved of his soul Eph. 1.6 betwixt him and the Father with whom he intercedes there is an unity not only of nature but will and so he always hears him Ioh. 11.42 Yea and he said to this his dear Son when he came first to Heaven Ask of me and I will give thee Psal. 2.8 moreover Thirdly He must needs speed in his suit if you
Christ as many of his other enemies did of whom it 's said 1 Cor. 2.8 That had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory But he did it for mony to make his market of Christ. He sold Christ as a man would sell an Ox or a Sheep to the Butcher for profit He was fully of the mind of the Pope whose motto was the smell or savor of gain is sweet let it rise out of what it will If he can get any thing by Christs blood it shall be a vendible commodity with him What will ye give me saith he and I will betray him Matth. 26.15 Fourthly He sells him and he sells him at a low rate too which shewed how vile an esteem he had of Christ. He is content to part with him for thirty pieces of silver If these pieces or sheckles were the sheckles of the sanctuary they amounted but to three pounds fifteen shillings But it 's supposed they were the common sheckles which were mostly used in buying and selling and then his price that he put upon the Saviour of the world was but one pound seaventeen shillings and six pence A goodly price as the Prophet calls it that he was valued at Zech. 11.12 13. I confess it 's a wonder he asked no more knowing how much they longed for his blood and â—hat they offered no more for him but how then should the Scriptures have been fulfilled O what a sale was this to sell that blood which all the Gold and Silver in the world is not worth one drop of for a trifle Still the wickedness of this fact rises higher and higher Fifthly He left Christ in most Heavenly and excellent imployment when he went to make this soul undoing bargain For if he went away from the Table as some think then he left Christ instituting and administring those Heavenly Signs of his body and blood There he saw or might have seen the bloody work he was going about acted as in a figure before him If he sate out that Ordinance as others suppose he did Then he left Christ singing an Heavenly hymn and preparing to go where Iudas was preparing to meet him When the Lord Jesus was in the most serious and heavenly exercise the wretch slinked away from him into the City or else went under pretence to buy some necessaries But his design was not to buy but to sell whatever his pretences were Nay Sixthly What he did was not done by the perswasions of any The High-Priest sent not for him and without doubt was surprised when he he came to him on such an errand For it could never enter into any of their hearts that any of his own Disciples could ever be drawn into a confederacy against him No he went as a Voluntier offering himself to this work which still heightens the sin and makes it out of measure sinful Seaventhly The manner in which he executes his treasonable design adds further malignity to the fact He comes to Christ with fawning words and carriages Hail Master and kist him Here 's hony in the tongue and poyson in the heart Here 's hatred hid under lying lips This was the man and this was his fact Let us enquire Thirdly The cause and motives of this wickedness how he came to attempt and perpetrate such a villany Maldonate the Iesuit criminates the Protestant Divines for affirming that God had an hand in ordering and overruling this fact But we say that Satan and his own Lust was the impulsive cause of it That God as it was a wicked treason permitted it And as it was a delivering Christ to death was not only the permitter but the wise and holy director or orderer of it and by the wisdom of his providence overruled it to the great good and advantage of the Church in respect of which happy issue Iudas his treason is called faelix scelus a happy wickedness Satan inspired the motion Luk. 22.3 4. Then entred Satan into Judas sirnamed Iscariot and he went his way c. his own Lusts like dry tinder kindled presently his heart was covetous there was predisposed matter enough for the Devil to work on so that it was but touch and take Vers. 25. They covenanted to give him mony and he promised c. The holy God disposed and ordered all this to the singular benefit and good of his people Acts 4.28 they did whatsoever his hand and counsel had before determined to be done And by this determinate counsel of God was he taken and slain Acts 2.23 Yet this no way excuses the wickedness of the Instruments For what they did was done from the power of their own lusts most wickedly what he did was done in the unsearchable depth of his own wisdom most holy God knows how to serve his own ends by the very sins of men and yet have no communion at all in the sin he so overrules If a man let go a Dog out of his hand in pursuit of a Hare the Dog hunts meerly for a prey but he that let him go uses the sagacity and nimbleness of the Dog to serve his own ends by it Iudas minded nothing but his own advantage to get mony God permitted that Lust to work but overruled the issue to his own eternal glory and the salvation of our souls Fourthly Lastly but what was the end and issue of this fact As to Christ it was his death for the hour being come he doth not meditate an escape nor put forth the power of his Godhead to deliver himself out of their hands Indeed he shewed what he could do when he made them go back and stagger with a word He could obtain more than twelve legions of Angels to have been his life-guard one of whom had been sufficient to have coped with all the Roman legions but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled or our Salvation accomplished No he resists not but Iudas delivering him into their hands at that time was his death And what got he as a reward of his wickedness It ended in the ruine both of his soul and body For immediately a death-pang of despair seized his Conscience which was so intollerable that he ran to the halter for a remedy And so falling headlong he burst assunder and all his bowels gushed out Acts 1.18 And now he that had no bowels for Christ hath none for himself As for his soul it went to its own place vers 25. Even the place appointed for the son of perdition as Christ calls him Iohn 17.12 His name retains an odious stench to this day and shall to all generations It 's a by-word A Proverb of reproach This was his end We will next improve it Corollary 1. Hence in the first place we learn that the greatest professors had need be jealous of their own hearts and look well to the grounds and principles of their professions One of the Antients would have had this Epitaph engraven upon
Canaan Many a man lost his life and much blood shed the very land flowing with milk and honey was first made to flow with blood e're Israel could inherit the promise Seven nations were destroyed e're the Land of Canaan was divided to the Israelites Act. 13.19 Sin makes mercy so deadly hard to bring forth To Christen every pretious child every Benâ—amin Benoni every son of Gods right hand a son of sorrow and death to her that brings him forth Adams sweets had no bitter till he transgressed Gods will One mercy did not die to bring forth another till he died But oh how should this raise the value of â—ur mercies What the price of blood the price of pretious blood the blood of the Cross O what an esteem should this raise Things as the same ingenious Author adds are prized rather as they come than as they are Far fetcht and dear bought makes all the price and gives all the worth with us weak creatures Upon this ground the Scripture when it speaks of our great fortune tells the great price it cost as eying our weakness who look more at what things cost than at what they are And as knowing if any thing will take with us this will To him that loved us and washed us from our sin in his own blood Rev. 1.5 Man is a Legal creature and looks much at what is given for a thing What did this cost Why it cost Christs own blood Colour is more than the cloth with us and scarlet colour is a general taking colour and therefore is Christs garments dipt in blood and he admired in this habit Who is this that comes from Edom with garments dyed red from Bozra Beware then you abuse not not any of the mercies that Christ brought forth with so many bitter pangs and throws And let all this endear Christ more than ever to you and make you in a deep sense of his grace and love to say Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTY SEVENTH SERMON LUK. XXIII XXXVIII And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latine and Hebrew This is the King of the Iews BEfore I pass on to the manner of Christs death I shall consider the Title affixed to the Cross in which very much of the wisdom of providence was discovered It was the manner of the Romans that the equity of their proceedings might the more clearly appear to the people when they crucified any man to publish the cause of his death in a Table written in Capital Letters and placed over the head of the crucified And that there might be at least a shew and face of Justice in Christs death he also shall have his title or superscription The worst and most unrighteous actions labour to cover and shroud themselves under pretensions of equity Sin is so shameful a thing that it cares not to own its name Christ shall have a Table written for him also This writing one Evangelist calls the Accusation Matth. 27.37 Another calls it the Title Joh. 19.19 Another the Inscription or Superscription so the Text. And another the Superscription of his Accusation Mark 15.26 In short it was a fair legible writing intended to express the fact or crime for which the person died This was their usual manner though sometime we find it was published by the voice of the common Cryer As in the case of Attalus the martyr who was led about the Amphitheater one proclaiming before him This is Attalus the Christian. But it was customary and usual to express the crime in a written Table as the Text expresses it Wherein these three things offer themselves to your consideration First The Character or Description of Christ contained in that writing And he is described by his Kingly dignity This is the King of the Iews That very office which but a little before they had reproached and derided bowing the knee to him in mockery saying Hail King of the Iews the providence of God so orders it that therein he shall be vindicated and honoured This is the King of the Iews Or as the other Evangelists compleat it This is Iesus of Nazareth the King of the Iews Secondly The person that drew his Character or Title It was Pilate he that but now condemned him he that was his Iudge shall be his Herald to proclaim his glory For the Title is honourable Surely this was not from himself for he was Christs enemy but rather than Christ should want a tongue to clear him the tongue of an enemy shall do it Thirdly The time when this honour was done him it was when he was at the lowest ebb of his glory when shame and reproach were heaped on him by all hands When all the Disciples had forsaken him and were fled Not one left to proclaim his innocency or speak a word in his vindication Then doth the providence of God as strangely as powerfully overrule the heart and pen of Pilate to draw this Title for him and affix it to his Cross. Surely we must look higher than Pilate in this thing and see how providence serves it self by the hands of Christs adversaries Pilate writes in honour of Christ and stiftly defends it too Hence our observation is DOCT. 1. That the dignity of Christ was openly proclaimed and defended by an enemy and that in the time of his greatest reproaches and Sufferings To open this mystery of providence to you that you may not stand idly gazing upon Christs Title as many then did we must first consider the nature and quality of this Title Secondly what hand the providence of God had in this matter Thirdly and then draw forth the proper Uses and improvements of it First To open the nature and quality of Christs Title or Inscription let it be throughly considered and we shall find First That it was an extraordinary Title varying from all examples of that kind and directly crossing the main design and end of their own custom For as I hinted before the end of it was to clear the equity of their proceedings and shew the people how justly they suffered those punishments inflicted on them for such crimes But Lo here is a Title expressing no crime at all and so vindicating Christs innocency This some of them perceived and moved Pilate to change it not this is but this is he that said I am the King of the Jews In that as they conceived lay his Crime O how strange and wonderful a thing was this But what shall we say It was a day of wonders and extraordinary things As there was never such a person Crucified before so there never was such a Title affixed to the Cross before Secondly As it was an extraordinary so it was a publick Title both written and published with the greatest advantages of spreading it self far and near among all people that could be For it was written in three Languages and those most known
will deliver it you again in that day whiter than the snow in Salmon Inference 7. Did Pilate give this Title to cast the reproach of his death upon the Jews and clear himself of it How natural is it to men to transfer the fault of their own actions from themselves to others For when he writes this is the King of the Jews he wholly charges them with the crime of crucifying their King and it is as if he had said hereafter let the blame and fault of this action lye wholly upon your own heads who have brought the guilt of his blood upon your selves and children I am clear you have extorted it from me O where shall we find a spirit so ingenious to take home to it self the shame of its own actions and charge it self freely with its own guilt Indeed it 's the property of renewed gratious hearts to remember confess and freely bewail their own evils to the glory of God and that 's a gratious heart indeed which in this case judgeth that the glory which by confession goeth to the name of his God is not so much glory lost to his own name but it 's the power of grace moulding our proud natures into another thing that must bring them to this The TWENTY EIGHTH SERMON ZECH. XIII VII Awake O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of Hosts smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones IN the former Sermons we have opened the nature and kind of the death Christ died even the cursed death of the Cross. Wherein nevertheless his innocency was vindicated by that honourable Title providentially affixed to his Cross. Method now requires that we take into consideration the manner in which he endured the Cross and that was solitarily meekly and instructively His solitude in suffering is plainly expressed in this Scripture now before us It cannot be doubted but the Prophet in this place speaks of Christ if you consider Matth. 26.31 Where you shall find these words applyed to Christ by his own accommodation of them Then said Iesus unto them all ye shall be offended because of me this might for it is written I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered Besides the Title here given Gods Fellow is too big for any creature in Heaven or Earth beside Christ. In these words we have four things particularly to consider First the Commission given to the Sword by the Lord of Hosts Secondly the person against whom it is Commissionated Thirdly the dismal effect of that stroke Fourthly and lastly the gracious mitigation of it First The Commission given to the Sword by the Lord of Hosts Awake O Sword and smite saith the Lord of Hosts The Lord of Hosts at whose beck and command all the Creatures are Who with a word of his mouth can open all the Armories in the World and command what weapons and instruments of death he pleaseth Calls here for the Sword Not the Rod gently to chasten But the Sword to destroy The Rod breaks no bones but the Sword opens the door to death and destruction The Strokes and thrusts of the Sword are mortal And he bids it awake It signifies both to rouze up as one that awakes out of sleep and to rouze or awake with triumph and rejoycing So the same word is rendred Iob. 31.29 Yea he commands it to awake and smite And it is as if the Lord had said come forth of thy Scabbard oh Sword of Justice thou hast been hid there a long time thou hast as it were been asleep in thy Scabbard now awake and glitter thou shalt Drink Royal Blood such as thou never shedst before Secondly The person against whom it is commissionated My Shepherd and the man that is my fellow This Shepherd can be no other than Christ who is often in Scripture stiled a Shepherd yea the chief Shepherd the Prince of Pastors Who redeemed feeds guides and preserves the flock of Gods Elect 1 Pet. 5.4 Ioh. 10.11 This is he whom he also stiles the man his fellow Or his neighbour as some render it And so Christ is in respect of his equality and unity with the Father both in essence and will His next neighbour His other self You have the sence of it in Phil. 2.6 He was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God Against Christ his fellow his next neighbour the delight of his Soul the sword here receives its Commission Thirdly You have here the dismal consequent of this deadly stroke upon the Shepherd And that is the scattering of the Sheep By the Sheep understand here that little flock the Disciples which followed this Shepherd till he was smitten i. e. apprehended by his enemies and then they were scattered i. e. dispersed they all forsook him and fled And so Christ was left alone amidst his enemies Not one durst make a stand for him or owne him in that hour of his danger Fourthly And lastly here is a gracious mitigation of this sad dispersion I will turn my hand upon the little ones By little ones he means the same that before he called Sheep but the expression is designedly varied to shew their feebleness and weakness which appeared in their relapse from Christ. And by turning his hand upon them understand Gods gracious reduction and gathering of them again after their sad dispersion so that they shall not be lost though scattered for the present For after the Lord was risen he went before them into Galilee as he promised Matth. 26.31 And gather'd them again by a gracious hand so that not one of them was lost but the Son of perdition The words thus opened I shall observe suitably to the Method I have proposed DOCT. That Christs dearest friends forsook and left him alone in the time of his greatest distress and danger This Doctrine containing only matter of fact and that also so plainly deliver'd by the pens of the several faithful Evangelists I need spend no longer time in the proof of it than to refer you to the several Testimonies they have given to it But I shall rather chuse to fit and prepare it for Use by explaining these four Questions First Who were the Sheep that were scattered from their Shepherd and left him alone Secondly What evil was there in this their scattering Thirdly What were the grounds and causes of it Fourthly And lastly what was the Issue and event of it First Who were these Sheep that were dispersed and scattered from their Shepherd when he was smitten It 's evident they were those pretious Elect Souls that he had gathered to himself who had long followed him and dearly Loved him and were dearly beloved of him They were persons that had left all and followed him and till that time faithfully continued with him in his Temptations
much more pretious than of Gold that perishes 1 Pet. 1.7 O look inward and you will be quiet Fourthly Look outward and see who stands by and observes your carriage under trouble Are there not many eyes upon you Yea many envious observers round about you It was Davids request Psal. 5.8 Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness because of mine Enemies or as the Hebrew word there might be rendred because of mine observers or watchers There 's many an envious eye upon you To the wicked there can scarcely be an higher gratification and pleasure than to see your carriage under trouble so like their own For hereby they are confirmed in their prejudices against Religion and in their good opinion of themselves These may talk and profess more than we but when they are tryed and put to it it appears plainly enough their Religion enables them to do no more than we do They talk of Heavens glory and their future expectancies but it is but talk for it 's apparent enough their hopes cannot ballance a small affliction with all the happiness they talk of Oh how do you dishonour Christ before his enemies when you make them think all your Religion lies in talking of it Consider who looks on Fifthly Look backward and see if there be nothing behind you that may hush and quiet your impatient Spirits Consult the multitude of experiences past and gone Both your own and others Is this the first straight that ever you were in if so you have reason to be quiet yea to bless God that hath spared you so long when others have had their days fill'd up with sorrow But if you have been in troubles formerly and the Lord hath helped you if you have past through the fire and not been burnt Through the waters and not drowned If God hath stood by you and hitherto helped you O what cause have you to be quiet now and patiently wait for the salvation of God Did he help you then and cannot he do so now Did he give waters and cannot he give bread also Is he the God of the Hills only and not the God of the Vallies also O call to mind the days of old the years of the right hand of the most high These things I recall to my mind therefore have I hope Lam. 3.21 Have you kept no records of past expâ—riences â— How ungrateful then have you been to your God and how injurious to your selves if you have read them over in such a day as this for to that end they were given you O when you shall consider what a God he hath been to you at a pinch How faithfully Iehovah ereth hath stood by you That this is not the first time your hearts and hopes have been Low as well as your condition and yet God hath raised you again surely you will find your present troubles made lighâ— by a glance back upon your past experiences Sixthly Look forward to the end of your troubles yea look to a double end of them the end of their duration and the end of their operation Look ye to the end of their duration and that 's fast by you They shall not be everlasting troubles if you be such as fear the Lord. The God of all Grace who hath call'd us into his eternal glory by Iesus Christ after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect 1 Pet. 5.10 These light afflictions are but for a moment 2 Cor. 4.18 It is no more comparatively with that vast eternity that is before you Alas what are a few days and nights of sorrows when they are past Are they not swallow'd up as a spoonful of water in the vast Ocean But more especially look to the end of their operation What do all these afflictions tend to and effect Do they not work out an exceeding weight of Glory Are you not by them made partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. Is not this all the fruit to take away your sins What and be impatient at this Fret and repine because God is this way perfecting your happiness O ungrateful soul Is this a due requital of that love that disdains not to stoop to so Low an imployment as to scoure and clense your souls that they might be shining vessels of honour to all Eternity O look forward to the end of your troubles The end of their duration and operation Seventhly Look to the right hand and see how you are shamed convinced and silenced by other Christians and it may be such too as never made that profession you have done and yet can not only patiently bear the afflicting hand of God but are blessing praising and admiring God under their troubles whilst you are sinning against and dishonouring him under smaller ones It may be you will find some poor Christians that know not where to have their next bread and yet are speaking of the bounty of their God while you are repining in the midst of plenty Ah if there be any ingenuity in you let this shame you If this will not then Eighthly Look to your left hand and there you shall see a sad sight and what one would think should quiet you There you may see a company of wicked graceless wretches carrying themselves under their troubles but too like your selves What do they more than fret and murmur despond and sink mix sin with their afflictions when the Rod of God is upon them It 's time for thee to leave off when thou seest how near thou art come to them whom thou hopest thou shalt never be ranked and numbred with Reader such considerations as these I am perswaded would be of singular use to thy soul at such a time but above all thine eyeing the great pattern of patience Iesus Christ whose Lamb-like carriage under a trial with which thine is not to be named the same day is here recommended to thee Oh how should this transform thee into a Lamb for meekness also The THIRTIETH SERMON LUK. XXIII XXXIIII Then said Iesus Father forgive them for they know not what they do THE manner in which Christ dyed hath already been opened in the Solitude and Patience in which he dyed The third to wit the Instructiveness of his Death now follows in these seven excellent and weighty sayings which dropt from his blessed Lips upon the Tree whilst his sacred blood dropt on the earth from his wounded hands and feet so that on the Cross he exercised both his Priestly and Prophetical Office together redeeming us by his blood and instructing us by his words These seven words of Christ upon the Cross are his last words with which he breathed out his Soul The last words of a dying man are remarkable the Scripture puts a remark upon them 2 Sam. 23.1 Now these be the last words of David How remarkable then are the last words of Christ These words are seven in number three directed to his Father and four more to those about him Of the former
maintenance is their due Even Christ himself took care for his Mother Secondly You have had a brief account of the duties of this Relation next let us consider how Christs Example who was so subject to them in his life Luk. 2.51 and so careful to provide at his death enforces all those duties upon Children especially upon gratious Children And this it doth two ways both as it hath the obliging power of a Law and as he himself will one day sit in Judgement to take an account how we have imitated him in these things First Christs example in this hath the force and power of a Law yea a Law of Love or a Law lovingly constraining you to an imitation of him If Christ himself will be your pattern If God will be pleased to take Relations like yours and go before you in the discharge of relative Duties Oh how much are you obliged to imitate him and tread in all his footsteps This was by him intended as a president or pattern to facilitate and direct your Duties Secondly He will come to take an account how you have answered the pattern of obedience and tender care he set before you in the days of his flesh What will the disobedient plead in that day He that heard the groans of an afflicted Father or Mother will now come to reckon with the disobedient Child for them And the glorious example of Christs own obedience and tenderness for his Relations will in that day condemn and aggravate silence and shame such wretched Children as shall stand guilty before his Bar. Inference 1. Hath Jesus Christ given such a famous pattern of obedience and tenderness to Parents Then there can be nothing of Christ in stubborn rebellious and careless Children that regard not the good or comfort of their Parents The Children of disobedience cannot be the Children of God If providence direct this to the hand of any that are so my hearts desire and Prayer for them is that the Lord would search their souls by it and discover their evils to them whilst they shall read the following Queries First Query Have you not been guilty of slighting your Parents by irreverent words or carriages the old man or woman To such I commend the consideration of that Scripture Prov. 30.17 Which methinks should be to them as the hand writing that appear'd upon the plaister of the Wall to Belteshazar The eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother The Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it That is they shall be brought to an untimely end and the Birds of the air shall eat that eye that had never seen but for that Parent that was despised by it It may be you are vigorous and young they decayed and wrinkled with Age. But saith the Holy Ghost despise not thy Mother when she is old Prov. 23.22 Or when she is wrinkled as the Hebrew signifies It may be you are rich they poor owne and honour them in their poverty and despise them not God will requite it with his hand if you do Second Query Have you not been disobedient to the commands of Parents A Son of Belial is a Son of wrath if God give not Repentance to life Is not this the black brand set upon the Heathens Rom. 1.30 Have not many repented this upon a Ladder with an halter about their necks Woe to him that makes a Father or Mother complain as the Tree in the Fable that they are cloven assunder with the wedges that are cut out of their own bodies Third Query Have you not risen up rebelliously against and hated your Parents for chastening your bodies to save your souls from Hell Some Children saith one will not take that from a Parent which Beasts yea and salvage Beasts too Bears and Lions will take from their keepers What is this but to resist an Ordinance of God for your good And in rebelling against them to rebell against the Lord Well if they do not God will take the Rod into his own hand and him you shall not resist Fourth Query Have you not been unjust to your Parents and defrauded them First help to make them poor and then dispise them because they are poor O horrid wickedness What a complicated evil is this Thou art in the Language of Scripture a companion with destroyers Prov. 28.24 This is the worst of theft in Gods account You think you may make bold with them but how bold do you make with conscience and the command of God Fifth Query Are you not or have you not been ungrateful to Parents Leaving them to shift for themselves in those straights that you have helpt to bring them into Oh consider it Children this is an evil which God will surely avenge except ye repent What to be hardned against thine own flesh To be cruel to thine own Parents that with so much tenderness fed thee when else thou hadst perished I remember Luther gives us a story of one and oh that it might be a warning to all that hear it who having made over all he had to his Son reserving only a maintenance for himself at last his Son depised him and grudged him the very meat he eat and one day the Father coming in when the Son and his Wife were at dinner upon a Goose they shuffled the meat under the Table but see the remarkable vengeance of God upon this ungracious unnatural Son the Goose was turned into a monstrous Toad which seiz'd upon this vile wretch and kill'd him If any of you be guilty of these evils to humble you for them and reclaim you from them I desire these six Considerations may be lay'd to heart First That the effects of your obedience or disobedience will stick upon you and yours to many generations If you be obedient Children in the Lord both you and yours may reap the fruits of that your obedience in multitudes of sweet mercies for many generations So runs the Promise Eph. 6.23 Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou maist live long on the earth You know what an eye of favour God cast upon the Recabites for this Ier. 35.8 from the 14. to the 20. verse and as his blessings are by promise entailed on the obedient so his curse upon the disobedient Prov. 20.20 Whoso curseth his Father or his Mother his Lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness i. e. the Lamp of his life quencht by death yea say others and his soul also by the blackness of darkness in Hell Secondly Though other sins do this sin seldom escapes exemplary punishment even in this world Our English History tells us of a Yeoman of Leicestershire who had made over all he had to his Son to prefer him in marriage reserving only a bare maintenance at his Sons Table Afterward upon some discontent the Son bid his Father get out of his
thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled They shall then depend no more upon the stream but drink from the ever flowing fountain it self Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures For with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light shall we see light There they shall drink and praise and praise and drink for evermore All their thirsty desires shall be filled with compleat satisfaction O how desirable a state is heaven upon this account And how should we be restless till we come thither as the thirsty traveller is until he meet that cool refreshing spring he wants and seeks for This present state is a state of thirsting that to come of refreshment and satisfaction Some drops indeed come from that fountain by faith but they quench not the believers thirst Rather like water sprinkled on fire they make it burn the more but there the thirsty soul hath enough O bless God that Jesus Christ thirsted under the heat of his wrath once that you might not be scorched with it for ever If he had not cryed I thirst you must have cryed out of thirst eternally and never be satisfied Inference 6. Lastly Did Christ in the extremity of his sufferings cry I thirst Then how great beyond all compare is the love of God to Sinners Who for their sakes exposed the Son of his love to such extream sufferings Three considerations marvelously heighten that love of the Father First His putting the Lord Jesus into such a condition There is none of us would endure to see a Child of our own lie panting and thirsting in the extremity of torments for the fairest inheritance on earth Much less to have the soul of a child conflicting with the wrath of God and making such heart-rending complaints as Christ made upon the Cross if we might have the largest Empire in the world for it yet such was the strength of the love of God to us that he willingly gave Jesus Christ to all this misery and torture for us What shall we call this love O the height length depth and bredth of that love which passeth knowledge The love of God to Jesus Christ was infinitly beyond all the love we have to our children as the Sea is more than a spoonful of water and yet as dearly as he loved him he was content to expose him to all this rather than we should perish eternally Secondly As God the Father was content to expose Christ to this extremity so in that extremity to hear his bitter cries and dolorous complaints and yet not relieve him with the least refreshment till he fainted and died under it He heard the cries of his Son That voice I thirst pierced heaven and reacht the Fathers ear but yet he will not refresh him in his agonies nor abate him any thing of the debt he was now paying and all this for the love he had to poor sinners Had Christ been relieved in his sufferings and spared then God could not have pitied or spared us The extremity of Christs sufferings was an act of Justice to him and the greatest mercy to us that ever could be manifested Nor indeed though Christ so bitterly complains of his thirst was he willing to be relieved till he had finished his work O love unspeakable He doth not complain that he might be relieved but to manifest how great that sorrow was which his soul now felt upon our account Thirdly And it should never be forgotten that Jesus Christ was exposed to these extremities of sorrow for sinners the greatest of sinners who deserved not one drop of mercy from God This commends the love of God singularly to us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 Thus the Love of God in Jesus Christ still rises higher and higher in every discovery of it Admire adore and be ravished with the thoughts of this Love Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift The THIRTY FIFTH SERMON JOH XIX XXX When Iesus therefore had received the Vinegar he said it is Finished and bowed his head and gave up the Ghost IT is finished This is the sixth remarkable word of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross uttered as a Triumphant shout when he saw the glorious issue of all his sufferings now at hand It is but one word in the original but in that one word is contained the sum of all Joy The very spirits of all divine consolation The ancient Greeks reckoned it their excellency to speak much in a little To give a Sea of matter in a drop of language What they only sought is here found I find some variety and indeed variety rather than contrariety among expositors about the relation of these words Some are of opinion that the antecedent is the legal Types and Ceremonies And so make this to be the meaning It is finished that is all the Types and Prefigurations that shadowed forth the Redemption of souls by the blood of Christ are now fulfilled and accomplished And doubtless as this is in it self a truth so it 's such a truth as may not be excluded as alien to the true scope and sense of this place And though it be objected that many Types and Prefigurations remained at this time unsatisfied even all that looked to the actual death of Christ his continuance in the state of the dead and his resurrection yet it 's easily removed by considering that they are said to be finished because they were just finishing or ready to be finished And it is as if Christ had said I am now putting the last hand to it A few moments of time more will compleat and finish it I have the sum now in my hand which will fully satisfie and pay God the whole debt It is now but bow the head and the work is done and all the Types therein fulfilled So that this cannot exclude the fulfilling of the Types in the death of Christ from their just claim to the sense of this place But yet though we cannot here exclude this sense we cannot allow it to be the whole or principal sense For loe a far greater truth is contained herein even the finishing or complement of the whole design and project of our Redemption and therein of all the Types that prefigured it Both these judicious Calvin conjoyns making the compleating of redemption the principal and the fulfilling of all the Types the Collateral and less principal sense of it Yet it must be observed when we say Christ finished Redemption-work by his death the meaning is not that his death alone did finish it for his abode in the grave resurrection and ascention had all of them their joynt influence into it but these being shortly to follow are all included in the scope of this place According then to the principal scope of the place we observe DOCT.
visitation Lastly If your work be not finished when you come to die you can never finish your lives with comfort He that hath not finished his work with care can never finish his course with joy Oh what a dismal case is that soul in that finds it self surprized by death in an unready posture To lie shivering upon the brink of the grave saying Lord what will become of me O I cannot I dare not die For the poor soul to shrink back into the body and cry Oh it were better for me to do any thing than die Why what 's the matter Oh I am in a Christless state and dare not go before that awful Judgement-seat If I had in season made Christ sure I could then die with peace Lord what shall I do How dost thou like this Reader Will this be a comfortable close When one asked a Christian that constantly spent six hours every day in prayer why he did so He answered O I must die I must die Well then look it that ye finish your work as Christ also did his The THIRTY SIXTH SERMON LUK. XXIII XLVI And when Iesus had cried with a loud voice he said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost THese are the last of the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross with which he breatheth out his soul. They were Davids words before him Psal. 31.5 and for substance Stephens after him Act. 7.57 They are words full both of faith and comfort Fit to be the last breathings of every gratious soul in this world They are resolvable into these five particulars The Person depositing or committing The Lord Iesus Christ who in this as well as in other things acted as a common person as the head of the Church This must be remarked carefully for therein lies no small part of a believers consolation When Christ commends his soul to God he doth as it were bind up all the souls of the Elect in one bundle with it and solemnly present them all with his to his Fathers acceptance To this purpose one aptly sences it This commendation made by Christ turns to the singular profit and advantage of our souls in as much as Christ by this very prayer hath delivered them into his Fathers hand as a pretious treasure when ever the time comes that they are to he loosed from the bodies which they now inhabit Jesus Christ neither lived nor dyed for himself but for believers What he did in this very act refers to them as well as to his own Soul You must look therefore upon Christ in this last and solemn act of his life as gathering all the souls of the Elect together and making a solemn tender of them all with his own soul to God Secondly The depository or person to whom he commits this pretious treasure and that was his own Father Father into thy hands I commit Father is a sweet encouraging assuring Title Well may a Son commit any concernment how dear soever into the hand of a Father Especially such a Son into the hands of such a Father By the hands of the Father into which he commits his soul we are not to understand the naked or meer power but the Fatherly acceptation and protection of God Thirdly The depositum or thing committed into this hand my Spirit i. e. my soul now instantly departing upon the very point of separation from my body The soul is the most pretious of all treasures it 's call'd the darling Psal. 35.17 Or the only one i. e. that which is most excellent and therefore most dear and pretious A whole world is but a trifle if weighed for the price of one soul Matth. 16.26 This inestimable treasure he now commits into his Fathers hands Fourthly The Act by which he puts it into that faithful hand of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I commend We rightly render it in the present tense though the word be future For with these words he breathed out his Soul This word is of the same import with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I present or tender it unto thy hands It was in Christ an act of Faith A most special and excellent act intended as a president for all his people Fifthly And Lastly the last thing observable is the manner in which he uttered these words And that was with a loud voice He spake it that all might hear it and that his enemies who judged him now destitute and forsaken of God might be convinced that he was not so But that he was dear to his Father still and could put his soul confidently into his hands Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Taking then these words not only as spoken by Christ the Head of all believers and so commending their souls to God with his own but also as a pattern teaching them what they ought to do themselves when they come to die We observe DOCT. That dying believers are both warranted and encouraged by Christs example believingly to commend their pretious Souls into the hands of God Thus the Apostle directs the Faith of Christians to commit their souls to Gods tuition and Fatherly protection when they are either going into prisons or to the stake for Christ 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them saith he that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator This Proposition we will consider in these two main branches of it sc. what is implied and carryed in the souls commending it self to God by Faith when the time of separation is come And what warrant or encouragement gratious souls have for their so doing First What is implyed in this Act of a believer his commending or committing his soul into the hands of God at Death And if it be throughly weighed you will find these six things at least carried in it First It implies this evidently in it that the soul out-lives the body and fails not as to its being when its body fails It feels the house in which it dwelt dropping into ruins and looks out for a new habitation with God Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit The soul understands it self a more noble being than that corruptible body to which it was united and is now to leave in the dust It understands its relation to the Father of spirits and from him it expects protection and provision in its unbodied state and therefore into his hands it puts it self If it vanished or breathed into air and did not survive the body if it were annihilated at death it were but a mocking of God to say when we die Father into thy hand I commend my Spirit Secondly It implies the souls true rest to be in God See which way its motions and tendencies are not only in life but in death also It bends to its God It rolls it even puts
it self upon its God and Father Father into thy hands God is the center of all gratious Spirits While they tabernacle here they have no rest but in the bosom of their God When they go hence their expectation and earnest desires are to be with him It had been working after God by gratious desires before it had cast many a longing look heaven-ward before but when the gratious soul comes near its God as it doth in a Dying hour then it even throws it self into his arms As a River that after many turnings and windings at last is arrived to the Ocean it pours it self with a central force into the bosom of the Ocean and there finishes its weary course Nothing but God can please it in this world and nothing but God can give it content when it goes hence It is not the amoenity of the place whither the gratious soul is going but the bosom of the blessed God who dwells there that it so vehemently pants after Not the Fathers house but the Fathers arms and bosom Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Whom have I in heaven but thee And oâ— earth there is none that I desire in comparison of thee Psal. 73.24 25. Thirdly It also implies the great value believers have for their souls That 's the pretious treasure And their main solicitude and chief care is to see it secured in a saâ—e hand Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit they are words speaking the believers care for his soul. That it may be safe what ever becomes of the vile body A believer when he comes nigh to death spends but few thoughts about his body where it shall be laid or how it shall be disposed of he trusts that in the hands of friends but as his great care all along was for his soul so he expresses it in these his very last breathings in which he commends it into the hands of God It is not Lord Jesus receive my body take care of my dust but receive my spirit Lord secure the Jewel when the Casket is broken Fourthly These words implie the deep sense that dying believers have of the great change that is coming upon them by death when all visible and sensible things are shrinking away from them and failing They feel the world and the best comforts in it failing Every creature and creature comfort failing For at death we are said to fail Luk. 16.9 Hereupon the soul clasps the closer about its God clings more close than ever to him Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Not that a meer necessity puts the soul upon God Or that it cleaves to God because it hath then nothing else to take hold on No no it chose God for its portion when it was in the midst of all its outword enjoyments and had as good security as other men have for the long enjoyment of them but my meaning is that although gratious souls have chosen God for their portion and do truly prefer him to the best of their comforts yet in this compounded state it lives not wholly upon its God but partly by faith and partly by sense Partly upon things seen and partly upon things not seen The creatures had some interest in their hearts alas too much but now all these are vanishing and it sees they are so I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the world said sick Hezeckiah hereupon it turns it self from them all and casts it self upon God for all its subsistance Expecting now to live upon its God intirely as the blessed Angels do And so in faith they throw themselves into his arms Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Fifthly It implies the attonement of God and his full reconciliation to believer by the blood of the great sacrifice Else they durst never commit their souls into his hands For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 12.29 i. e. of an absolute God a God unattoned by the offering up of Christ. The soul dare no more cast it self into the hands of God without such an attoning sacrifice than it dares approach to a devouring fire And indeed the reconciliation of God by Jesus Christ as it is the ground of all our acceptance with God for we are made accepted in the beloved So it 's plainly carried in the order or manner of the reconciled souls committing it self to him for it first casts it self into the hands of Christ then into the hands of God by him So Stephen when dying Lord Iesus receive my Spirit And by that hand it would be put into the Fathershand Sixthly And lastly It implies both the efficacy and excellency of Faith in supporting and relieving the soul at a time when nothing else is able to do it Faith is its conduct when it is at the greatest loss and distress that ever it met with It secures the soul when it is turned out of the body When heart and flesh fail this leads it to the rock that fails not It sticks by that soul till it see it safe through all the territories of Satan and safe Landed upon the shore of Glory and then is swallowed up in vision Many a favour it hath shewn the soul while it dwelt in its body The great service it did for the soul was in the time of its espousals to Christ. This is the marriage knot The blessed bond of union betwixt the soul and Christ. Many a relieving sight secret and sweet support it hath received from its faith since that but surely its first and last works are its most glorious works By faith it first ventured it self upon Christ. Threw it self upon him in the deepest sense of its own vileness and utter unworthiness when sense reason and multitudes of temptations stood by contradicting and discouraging the soul. By faith it now casts it self into his arms when it 's lanching out into vast eternity They are both noble acts of Faith but the first no doubt is the greatest and most difficult For when once the soul is interessed in Christ it 's no such difficulty to commit it self into his hands as when it had no interest at all in him It 's easier for a child to cast himself into the arms of its own Father in distress than for one that hath been both a stranger and enemy to Christ to cast it self upon him that he may be a Father and a friend to it And this brings us upon the second enquiry I promised to satisfie sc. What warrant or incouragement have gratious souls to commit themselves at death into the hands of God I answer much every way all things encourage and warrant its so doing For First This God upon whom the believer rolls himself at death is its Creator The Father of its being He created and inspired it and so it hath relation of a creature to a Creator yea of a creature now in distress to a faithful Creator
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
and it caused his face to shine as it had been the face of an Angel Act. 7.56 this his high advancement was foretold and promised before the work of redemption was taken in hand Psal. 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool And this promise was punctually performed to Christ after his resurrection and ascension in his supream exaltation far above all created beings in Heaven and earth Ephes. 1.20 21 22. We shall here open two things in the doctrinal part viz. what is meant by Gods right hand and what is implied in Christs sitting there with his enemies for a footstool First What are we to understand here by Gods right hand It 's obvious enough that the expression is not proper but figurative and borrowed God hath no hand right or left but it 's a condescending expression wherein God stoops to the Creatures understanding and by it he would have us to understand honour power and nearness First The right hand is the hand of honour the upper hand where we place those whom we highly esteem and honour So Solomon placed his Mother in a seat at his right hand 1 King 2.19 So in token of honour God sets Christ at his right hand which on that account in the Text is called the right hand of Majesty God hath therein exprest more favour delight and honour to Jesus Christ than ever he did to any creature To which of the Angels said he at any time sit thou on my right hand Heb. 1.13 Secondly The right hand is the hand of power we call it the weapon hand and the working hand And the setting of Christ there imports his exaltation to the highest authority and most supream dominion Not that God the Father hath put himself out of his Authority and advanced Christ above himself no for in that he saith he hath put all things under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him 1 Cor. 15.27 But to sit as an enthroned King at Gods right hand imports power Yea the most soveraign and supream power and so Christ himself calls the right hand at which he sits Matth. 26.64 hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power Thirdly And as it signifies honour and power so nearness in place as we use to say at ones elbow and so it is applied to Christ in Psal. 110.5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath that is the Lord who is very near thee present with thee he shall subdue thine enemies This is that then we are to understand by Gods right hand Honour power and nearness Secondly In the next place let us see what is implied in Christ sitting at Gods right hand with his enemies for his footstool And if we attently consider we shall find that it implies and imports divers great and weighty things in it As First It implies the Complement and Perfection of Christs work that he came into the world about After his work was ended then he sat down and rested from those labours Heb. 10.11.12 Every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but this man when he had once offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God Here he assigns a double difference betwixt Christ and the Levitical Priests they stand which is the posture of Servants he sits which is the posture of a Lord. They stand daily because their sacrifices cannot take away sin he did his work fully by one offering and after that sits or rests for ever in Heaven And this as accurate and judicious Dr. Reynolds observes was excellently figured to us in the Ark. which was a lively Type of Jesus Christ and particularly in this it had rings by which it was carried up and down till at last it rested in Solomons Temple with glorious and Triumphal sollemnity Psal. 132 8 9. 2 Chron. 5.13 So Christ while he was here on earth being anointed with the Holy Ghost and wisdom went about doing good Act. 10.38 and having ceased from his works did at last enter into his rest Heb. 5.10 which is the heavenly Temple Rev. 11.19 Secondly His sitting down at Gods right hand notes the high content and satisfaction of God the Faâ—her in him and in his work The Lord said to my Lord sit thou at my right hand the words are brought in as the words of the Father welcoming Christ to Heaven and as it were congratulating the happy accomplishment of his most difficult work And it is as if he had said O my Son what shall be done for thee this day thou hast finished a great work and in all the parts of it acquitted thy self as an able and faithful servant to me what honours shall I now bestow upon thee the highest glory in Heaven is not too high for thee come sit at my right hand O how well is he pleased with Christ and what he hath done He delighted greatly to behold him here at his work on earth and by a voice from the excellent glory he told him so when he called out of Heaven to him saying Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2 Pet. 1.17 and himself tells us Joh. 10.17 therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life c. for it was a work that the heart of God had been upon from eternity He took infinite delight in it Thirdly Christs sitting down at Gods right hand in Heaven notes the advancement of Christs humane nature to the highest honour even to be the object of adoration to Angels and men For it is properly his humane nature that is the subject of all this honour and advancement and being advanced to the right hand of majesty it 's become an object of worship and adoration Not simply as it is flesh and blood but as it is personally united to the second person and enthroned in the supream glory of Heaven O here 's the mysterie that flesh and blood should ever be advanced to the highest throne of Majesty and being there installed in that glory we may now direct our worship to him as God-man and to this end was his humanity so advanced that it might be adored and worshipped by all The Father hath commited all Iudgement to the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father And the Father will accept of no honour divided from his honour Therefore it 's added in the next clause he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him Joh. 5.22 23. Hence the Apostles in the salutations of their Epistles beg for grace mercy and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ and in their valedictions they desire the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Churches
Fourthly It imports the soveraignty and supremacy of Christ over all The investiture of Christ with authority over the Empire of both worlds For this belongs to him that sits down upon this throne When the Father said to him sit at my right hand he did therein deliver to him the dispensation and oeconomy of the Kingdom Put the awful scepter of government into his hand and so the Apostle interprets and understands it 1 Cor. 15.25 He must raign till he have put all his enemies under his feet And to thâ—s purpose the same Apostle accommodates if not expounds the words of the Psalmist thou madest him a little lower than the Angels i. e. in respect of his humbled state on earth thou Crownnedst him with glory and honour and didst set him over the work of thy hands thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet Heb. 2.7 8. He is over the spiritual Kingdom the Church absolute Lord there Matth. 28.18 19 20. He also is Lord over the providential Kingdom the whole world Psal. 110.2 and this providential Kingdom being subordinate to his spiritual Kingdom he orders and rules this for the advantage and benefit of that Ephes. 1.22 Fifthly To sit at Gods right hand with his enemies for a footstool implies Christ to be a Conqueror over all his enemies To have ones enemies under his feet notes perfect conquest and compleat victory As when Iosuah set his foot upon the necks of the Kings So Tamberline made proud Bajazet his footstool They trampled his name and his Saints under their feet and Christ will tread them under his feet 'T is true indeed this victory is yet incompleat and inconsummate for now we see not yet all things put under him saith the Apostle but we see Iesus Crowned with glory and honour and that 's enough Enough to shew the power of his enemies is now broken and though they make some opposition still yet it is to no purpose at all for he is so infinitely above them that they must fall before him It is not with Christ as it was with Abiâ—ah against whom Ieroboam prevailed because he was young and tenderhearted and could not withstand them His incapacity and weakness gave the watchful enemy an advantage over him I say 't is not so with Christ he is at Gods right hand And all the power of God stands ready bent to strike through his enemies as it is Psal. 110.5 Sixthly Christs sitting in Heaven notes to us the great and wonderful change that is made upon the state and condition of Christ since his ascention into Heaven Ah 't is far otherwise with him now than it was in the days of his humiliation here on earth quantum mutatus ab illo Oh what a wonderful change hath Heaven made upon him It were good as a Worthy of ours speaks to compare in our thoughts the Abasement of Christ and his Exaltation together as it were in Columes one over against the other he was born in a Stable but now he raigns in his Royal Palace Then he had a Manger for his Cradle but now he sits on a Chair of State Then Oxen and Asses were his companions now thousands of Saints and ten thousand of Angels minister round about his throne Then in contempt they called him the Carpenters Son now he obtains by inheritance a more excellent name than Angels Then he was led away into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil now it is proclaimed before him let all the Angels of God worship him Then he had not a place to lay his head on now he is exalted to be heir of all things In his state of Humiliation he endured the contradiction of sinners in his state of Exaltation he is adored and admired of Saints and Angels Then he had no form nor comliness and when we saw him there was no beauty why we should desire him now the beauty of his countenance shall send forth such glorious beams that shall dazel the eyes of all the Coelestial inhabitants round about him c. O what a change is here Here he sweat but there he sits Here he groaned but there he triumphs Here he lay upon the ground there he sits in the throne of glory When he came to Heaven his Father did as it were thus bespeak him My dear Son what an hard travail hast thou had of it What a world of wo hast thou past through in the strength of thy love to me and mine Elect Thou hasâ— been hungry thirsty and weary scourged crucified and reproached ah what bad usage has thou had in the ungrateful world Not a days rest and comfort since thou wentest out from me but now thy suffering days are accomplisht now thy rest is come rest for evermore Henceforth sit at my right hand Henceforth thou shalt groan weep or bleed no more Sit thou at my right hand Seventhly Christs sitting at Gods right hand implies the advancement of believers to the highest honour For this session of Christs respects them and there he sits as our representative in which regard we are made to sit with him in heavenly places as the Apostle speaks Ephes. 2.6 How secure may we be saith Tertullian who do now already possess the Kingdom meaning in our head Christ. This saith another is all my hope and all my confidence namely that we have a portion in that flesh and blood of Christ which is so exalted and therefore where he reigns we shall reign where our flesh is glorified we shall be glorified Surely it 's matter of exceeding joy to believe that Christ our head our flesh and blood is in all this glory at his Fathers right hand Thus we have opened the sence and importance of Christs siâ—ting at his Fathers right hand Hence we Infer Inference 1. Is this so great an honour to Christ to sit enthroned at Gods right hand What honour then is reserved in Heaven for those that are faithful to Christ now on the earth Christ prayed and his prayer was heard Joh. 17.24 That we may be with him to behold the glory that God hath given him and what heart can conceive the felicity of such a sight it made Stephens face shine as the face of an Angel when he had but a glimpse of Christ at his Fathers right hand Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty Isai. 33.17 which respected Hezekiah in the Type Christ in the truth But this is not all though this be much to be spectators of Christ in his Throne of glory we shall not only see him in his Throne but also sit with him inthroned in glory To behold him is much but to sit with him is more I remember it was the saying of a heavenly Christian now with Christ I would far rather look but through the hole of Christs door to see but the one half of his fairest and most comly face for he looks like Heaven suppose I should never win in to
takes little notice of it Their wicked actions make but little noise in the world but the miscarriages of professors are like a Blazing Comet or an Eclipsed Sun which all men gaze at and make their observations upon Oh then what manner of persons ought you to be who bear the worthy name of Christ upon you Thirdly But more than this You have obliged your selves to this life of holiness by your own Prayers How many times have you lifted up your hands to Heaven and cryed with David Psal. 119.5 Oh that my waies were directed to keep thy Statutes Order my steps in thy Word and let no iniquity have dominion over me vers 133. Were you in earnest with God when you thus prayed Did you mean as you said or did you only complement with God If your hearts and tongues agreed in this request doubtless it 's as much your Duty to endeavour as to desire those mercies and if not yet do all those prayers stand on record before the Lord and will be produced against you as witnesses to condemn you for your hypocrisie and vanity How often also have you in your Prayers lamented and bewailed your careless and uneven walkings You have said with Ezra chap. 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and even blush to look up unto thee And do not your confessions oblige you to greater circumspection and care for time to come Will you confess and sin And sin and confess Go to God and bewail your evils and when you have bewailed them return again to the commission of them God forbid you should thus dissemble with God play with sin and dye your iniquities with a deeper tincture Fourthly And lastly to add no more you have often reproved or censured others for their miscarriages and falls which adds to your own obligation to walk accuratly and evenly Have you not often reproved your erring brethren or at least privately censured them if not duly reproved them for to these left handed blows of secret censurings we are more apt than to the fair and open strokes of just and due reproofs and will you practise the same things you criminate and censure others for Thou that teachest another saith the Apostle teachest thou not thy self Rom. 2.21 So say I thou that censurest or rebukest another condemnest thou not thy self Will your rebukes ever do good to others whilst you alow in your selves what you condemn in them And as these reproofs and censures can do them no good so they do you much evil by reason of them you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self condemned persons and out of your own mouths God will Judge you For you need no other witness than your selves in this case Your own tongues will fall upon you Your censures and reproofs of others will leave you without plea or Apologie if you look not to your lives with greater care And yet will you be careless still Fear you not the displeasure of God nor the wounding and disquieting your own consciences Surely these things are of no light value with you if you be Christians indeed Thirdly You are yet further engaged to practical holiness upon the account of your brethren who are not a little concerned and interested therein For if through the neglect of your hearts your lives be defiled and polluted this will be thrown in their faces and many innocent and upright ones both reproached and grieved upon your account This mischievous effect holy David earnestly deprecated Psal. 69.5 6. Oh God thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of Hosts be ashamed for my sake Let not them that seek thee be confounded for my sake O God of Israel q. d. Lord thou knowest what a weak and foolish creature I am And how apt to miscarry if left to my self and should I through my foolishness act unbecoming a Saint how would this shame the faces and sad the hearts of thy people They will be as men confounded at the report of my fall The fall of one Christian is matter of trouble and shame to all the rest And when they shall hear the sad and unwelcome news of your scandalous miscarriages which will certainly be the effect of a neglected heart and life they will say as David concerning Saul and Ionathan tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Askelon c. Or as Tamar concerning Ammon and we whither shall we cause our shame to go And for them they shall be as the fools in Israel Thy loose and careless life will cause them to estrange themselves from thee and look shy upon thee as being ashamed to owne thee and canst thou bear that Will it not grieve and pierce your very hearts to see a cloud of strangeness and trouble over the countenances of your brethren To see your selves disowned and lightly esteemed by them This very consideration struck a great favorite in the Persian Court to the very heart It was Vstazanes who had been Governour to Sapores in his minority And this man for fear denied the Christian Faith and complied with the Idolatrous worship of the King And one day saith the Historian sitting at the Court-gate he saw Simon the aged Arch-Bishop of Selucia drawing along to prison for his constancy in the Christian Faith and though he durst not openly owne the Faith he had basely denied and confess himself a Christian yet he could not choose but rise and express his reverence to this holy man in a respective and honourable salutation but the zealous good man frowned upon him and turned away his face from him as thinking such an Apostate unworthy of the least respect from him this presently struck Vstazanes to the heart and drew from him many tears and groans and thus he reasoned with himself Simon will not owne me and can I think but that God will disclaim me when I appear before his Tribunal Simon will not speak unto me will not so much as look upon me and can I look for so much as a good word or look from Jesus Christ whom I have so shamefully betrayed and denyed Hereupon he threw of his rich Courtly robes and put on mourning apparel and professed himself a Christian and died a Martyr O 't is a piercing thing to an honest heart to be cast out of the favour of Gods people If you walk loosely neither God nor his people will look kindly upon you Fourthly And lastly Your very enemies engage you to this pure and holy life upon a double ground You are obliged by them two waies viz. as they are your bold censurers and your watchful observers They censure you as hypocrites and will you give them ground and matter for such a charge they say only your tongues are more holy than other mens and shall they prove it from your practice They also observe you diligently Lie at catch and are highly gratified by your miscarriages If