Christ Crucified - 72 Sermons on Isaiah 53

&c. where there is also a clear distinction made betwixt the inward working of Grace, and the outward Ministry. A third instance, and one that is beyond all exception, is in our blessed Lord Jesus, who spake as never man spoke, and preached with such power and life, that even carnal Hearers wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, for he preached with Authority and not as the Scribes, and yet Joh. 6.44. when they begin to murmur at Him, what says He? Murmure not at these things, none can come to me, except the Father draw him; none can Believe, except the powerful Grace of God work Faith in him, there must be a higher hand then ought ye see or hear, a more powerful work then any external Preaching of mine as Prophet of my Church, ere a Soul can believe on me; and though his Hearers were not free of the guilt of this their Unbelief, but had their own sinful accession unto their continuing in it, yet our Lord looks in on the sovereign way and work of Grace, and holds there, telling them that his external Ministry will not do the turn, but there must be an inward, powerful, immediate work of Grace for the working of Faith. We add a fourth instance, and it is of that chosen Vessel Paul, who labored more abundantly then all the rest of the Apostles, and yet when he is Preaching, Acts 28.25. and some believed, and others believed not, before he dismisses the multitude, he adds this one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this People, and say, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive, &c. where he expressly differenceth his external Preaching from God's inward working, and tells, that so long as there was a judicial stroke on the Hearts of the People untaken away, no external Preaching could do the turn as to their Conversion and bringing of them to Believe; which he also does to guard against any offense that might be taken at the unsuccesfulness of his Ministry by any who would be ready to say, what aileth these Folk that they will not receive the Gospel? to whom he answers, Isaiah long before told the reason of it, to wit, that there is a Plague on their Hearts and Minds which God must remove ere they can receive it.

2. To these plain and clear instances we may add two or three Grounds or Reasons, As 1. The exceeding greatness of the work of Conversion, O how great and difficult is it! Therefore it's set out by the similitudes and expressions of raising the dead, creating a new heart, of removing the stony heart, and the like, all tending to set out the necessity of an omnipotent Power or a powerful work of Grace, in the begetting of Souls to Christ; and if it be so great a work, what can the outward Ministry do, if the Power of God be not added? or what can the Man himself do here? can a M • n quicken, raise, creat, or beget himself? it's true, these comparisons are not to be extended and and applied in every respect, yet they hold out that Man being naturally dead, can no more contribute to his own quickening and raising, and to the b • getting of spiritual life in himself, then a dead M • n can contribute to his own quickening and raising to his natural life; for which cause, the Holy Ghost hath made choice of these expressions, even to hold out the exceeding greatness of the work. 2. Consider the condition that M • n are in when this work is wrought, and we will see they can contribute nothing to it, th • t they have no aptitude for it, except that they are subjects capable to be wrought upon, being as it is Eph 2.1. dead in sins and trespasses; being as to their Souls estate, and as to their Spiritual condition, like Adam 's Body before the Lord breathed in it the Breath of Life, and made him a living Soul; as his Body could not move, stir, nor act till then, no more can the Natural Man stir or act in the ways of God till a new principle of Spiritual Life be put in him. To clear it further, we would consider, that the Scripture speaks of these three in the Natural Man. 1. Of an utter inability and deadness as to that which is Good, Dead in Sins, Eph. 2.1. We are not sufficient (saith the Apostle, 2 Cor. 3.5.) of ourselves as of ourselves to think anything, not so much as a good thought. 2. The Scripture holds him out not only as unable for good, but perverse and bent to everything that is Evil, Col. 1.21. Alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works; the carnal mind being enmity against God, Rom. 8.7. it's plainly opposite to anything that is Good, and so to the way of Faith. 3. Man's Mind is not only naturally perverse and stuffed with Enmity, but in an incapacity to be healed while it remaineth such, Rom. 8.7. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and therefore in the work of Conversion, there is not only an amending, but also a renewing of our Nature called for; there is more requisite then the rectifying of something in the Man, even the creating of new Habits, and the infusing of the Principles of Spiritual Life and Motion into the Soul: It is true, in some Sense the whole Image of God is not absolutely removed, the faculties of the rational Soul still remain, for Man hath an Understanding and a Will, and some sort of Reason, but without any tendency to Spiritual Life, or to any action for God; he hath an Understanding, but it's wholly darkened; he hath a Will, but wholly perverse, and not in the least inclined to Good; he hath Affections, but wholly disordered and corrupted, and set wholly upon wrong Objects; so that it's with Man's Soul as to Good, as it is with spoiled Wine; Wine when wholesome, serves to cheer and refresh, but when it's spoiled, it's quite another thing, not only not conducing to Health, but it's noisome and hurtful: It's just so we say with Man's Soul, it's by the Fall quite spoiled and corrupted; it is not indeed annihilated or made to be nothing, for it retains the same faculties still; it hath (to speak so) the same quantity still, but as to it's qualities, it's utterly corrupted and carried close contrary to God; it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and renovation by Grace, is the taking away of the corrupt qualities in part in this Life, and wholly in the other Life, and the bringing in of new qualities for recovering the beauty of that Image of God which Man hath lost. 4. Consider the end that God hath in the administration of His Grace, and the Glory that He will needs have it getting in every gracious work, and more especially in the work of Conversion, and the silence, as to any boasting, that He will have all put unto that shall partake of it; His end in the administration of His Grace, is to bring down Pride, to stop all Mouths, and to remove all grounds of boasting from the Creature, that He only may have the glory of Conversion; that when ever that question is proposed, What hast thou O man, but what thou hast received? and if thou hast received it, why doest thou boast? who made thee to differ from another? the Soul may answer, it was not external Preaching, nor my own Free-will, nor anything in me, but the power of God's Grace, I have nothing but what I have received: It is on this ground that the Apostle Phil. 2.12, 13. presseth and encourageth Christians to their great work, Work out (saith he) your own salvation in fear and trembling, for it's God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure; the Lord leaveth not to Man the working of the Will in himself, and of him, saith the same Apostle 1 Cor. 30.31. are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made of God unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord, as he said before, verse. 29. that no flesh should glory in his presence; there is one ground of boasting that the Lord wi • l have removed in a Sinner's Justification and obtaining the Pardon of Sin by the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ; but there is another ground or matter of boasting that Man might have if he could reach out the Hand to believe and receive that Righteousness, and so put difference betwixt himself and another, which in Effectual Calling the Lord puts to silence and quite removes; that Man may h • ve it to say, I have not only Pardon of S • n, but Grace to Believe, freely bestowed upon me; God made me to differ, and He only; He opened my Heart as He did the Heart of Lydia: Thus the Lord will have all the weight of the whole work of our Salvation lying on His Grace, that the Mouths of all may be stopped, and that His Grace may shine gloriously, that we may have it to say with the Psalmist, Psal. 57.2. It's the Lord that performs all things for me, and with Paul, 1 Tim. 1.13, 14. I obtained mercy, and the Grace of God was exceeding abundant towards me.

The Uses are these. 1. It writes to us in great and legible Letters, the great emptiness and sinfulness of all Flesh, who not only do not good, but have sinned themselves out of a capacity to do good; all Men and Women have brought themselves thus lamentably low by Sin, that now if Heaven were to be had by a wish, sincerely and singly brought forth, yet it is not in their power to perform that condition; and though it now stands upon the streatching forth of the hand of Faith to receive Jesus Christ, yet of themselves they cannot even do this; how ought then Sinners to be deeply humbled, who have brought themselves to this woeful pass? I am afraid that many of you do not believe that ye are such as cannot Believe, nor do any Good till His Grace work effectually in you.

2. It teacheth you not to idolize any instrument or mean of Grace, how precious and promising soever; No Preaching, if it were of a Prophet, or an Apostle, yea of an Angel, will do the turn, without Grace come with it; there is a necessity of the revelation of God's Arm, and of the assistance of His Grace, not only to your Conversion, but to every duty ye go about; Ye should therefore fear and tremble when ye go about any Ordinance, lest the Arm of the Lord be not put forth in it.

3. It should make you more serious in dealing with God for His effectual blessing to every Mean and Ordinance, seeing without that no Ordinance can profit you.

4. It serves to reprove and repress Pride, 〈◊〉 to promove Humility in all such who 〈◊〉 •• tten good by the Gospel; Have ye Faith or any measure of Holiness? what have ye but what ye have received? from whence came your Faith and your Holiness? ye have them not of yourselves, these are not Fruits that grow upon the Tree of Nature, or in its Garden, but on the Tree, and in the Garden of Free-Grace, and ye have not yourselves to thank for them.

5. The main Use of it is for confirming and establishing you in the Faith of the Truth proponed in the Doctrine, and for confuting and overturning the contrary Error, that, as it were, in contempt of the Grace of God, exalts proud Nature, and gives Man's Free-will so great a hand in the work of Conversion; That the main thing that makes the difference shall not be attributed to the Grace of God, but to the Free-will of the Creature, which of itself choised the Grace of God offered when another rejected it: It may indeed seem strange that the Devil should so far have prevailed with Christians that profess the Faith of Original Sin, and of the necessity of a Savior, as to make them look at Grace as useless in this prime step of Conversion and renewing of a Sinner, that when the Grace of God and Man's Free-will come to be compared, Man's Will should have the preference and preeminence, the highest place and commendation in the work, and that the great weight of it should lie there, and that proud Nature should be thus bolstered up that it shall stand in need of nothing for the Man's Conversion, but the right use-making of what it hath in itself: And yet it's no wonder that the Devil drive this design vigorously, for what shorter cut can there be taken by him to ruin Souls, then to make them drink in this Error, that Nature and Free-will will do their turn? and so take them off from all dependence on Free-Grace, and on Jesus Christ, and give them ground of boasting in themselves; for when it is thus, of necessity they must ruin and perish; this should sure, make you loath this Error the more: And we are persuaded, that the day is coming, wherein the Truth opposite to this Error, shall be confirmed on the Souls and Consciences of all the Opposers of it, and wherein, the maintaining of this Error shall be found a confirmation of Mans Enmity at God's Grace, which is not subject to His Law, nor indeed can be.

But there are three Questions that may be moved here, to which we would speak a word. 1. If the Preaching of the Gospel cannot beget Faith, without the powerful work of God's Gra • e, what is the use of the Gospel, or wherefore serves it? 2. If Men cannot Believe without the work of Grace, which the Lord sovereignly dispenseth, why doth He yet find fault and expostulate with Men for their not Believing? 3. If Grace perform all, and Men can make no mean effectual, nor do any good without it, what then should Men do to come by Believing, and this work of His Grace?

For the first, We shall not say much unto it; only, seeing the Lord hath made choice of the Gospel to be the ordinary external Mean of Grace, and of the begetting of Faith, there is no reason to say that it's useless; for though it be not the main and only thing that turns the Sinner, but the Lord hath reserved it to Himself as His own Prerogative, to convert and change the Heart of a Rebel-sinner, yet he hath appointed it to be made use of, as He hath appointed Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for many good and notable ends, uses, and advantages that are reached and come by the preaching of it. As, 1. By it the Righteousness of God is manifested that before lay hid; Ye may by the preaching of the Gospel come to the knowledge of the Covenant of Redemption, and of the great design that the Lord hath laid down for bringing about the Salvation of lost Sinners, Rom. 1.17. Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith. 2. By it the Lord revealeth the Duty He calleth for from Men, as well as His Will concerning their Justification and Salvation; He lets them know what is wrong, what is right, what displeaseth Him, and what pleaseth Him. Yea, 3. By the preaching of the Gospel, He holdeth out what Men's ability is, or rather what is their inability, and by His external Calling gives them in it occasion to know this their inability in not giving obedience to His call; and this is no small advantage, when by it they have occasion to know the necessity of a Mediator, and to seek after another way of Justification then by their own works; for so it proves a notable mean to humble Men, to stop their Mouths, and to make them plead guilty before God. 4. It's profitable as the Lord is pleased to make use of it, to call and gather in so many as He hath ordained to Eternal Life; for though in itself it be not able to convert, yet having the Power of God going along with it, it is the instrument of Conversion, and the Lord ordinarily makes use of it to the begetting of Faith in them that Believe, as it is Rom. 10.17. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, preached; and 1 Cor. 1.24. it's called the power of God to salvation; and, it hath pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; for though God can work without it, yet He hath thought good to make use of it, to inform the Judgment, and to stir up the Affections of Hearers, and so it proves instrumental to the begetting of Faith in them. 5. If it do not promove the Salvation of all the Hearers of it, yet it promoves it in all the Elect, and serves to make others the more inexcusable, and in this respect it triumphs always, 2 Cor. 2.15, 16. In some it is the savor of life unto life, in others the savor of death unto death, leaving them the more inexcusable, and the more obnoxious to Wrath by their rejecting of the Counsel of God against themselves.

I know this will be excepted against; We come therefore to consider the second Question, which is this, How can the Call of the Gospel make Men inexcusable, seeing they cannot without the effectual Power of the Grace of God Believe? as Christ saith, John 6.44. No man can come to me, that is, no Man can believe in me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him; yea, why doth God find fault with Men for their Unbelief? for answer, it hath been no new thing for Men to start Questions and Objections against the Grace of God, and to be always striving to rub affronts and disgrace upon it, see Rom. 9.13, 14, &c. where this same Objection is started, and answered again and again; for when the Apostle hath said verse. 13. Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated, the Objection is moved, Is there unrighteousness with God then? Folks readily think that there is a sort of unrighteousness in God when He takes one and leaves another, especially considering, that the leaving of the other infers (though it be not any culpable cause of) the ruin of the Mans Soul; he answers first with a God forbid, as if it were an absurd thing so to assert; and then endeavors to answer it from God's Sovereignty, as being Debtor to none, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and, it's not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that shows mercy: In God's administration of Grace, He is Debtor to no Man, nor hath He any rule by which He proceedeth, but His own Sovereign Will; and if it shall yet be said, if God doth walk by His own Sovereign Will in giving Grace, Why doth he yet find fault or condemn, for who hath resisted his will? Why is God angry that Men will not Believe, since none can come to Christ against the Will of God? His Indignation riseth at this proud and petulant Objection, and He answers, But who art thou O man that repliest against God? shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? hath not the potter power over the clay, to make of the same lump, one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor? By the Apostle's doubling of this answer, and his not setting of himself to satisfy carnal Reason and Curiosity, there is ground given to silence us here; It's the Lord, He is our Potter, and we the Clay; it's He in whose Hand we are, who can do us no wrong, and this may sufficiently serve to put a stop to all reasoning and disputing against Him; Ye • we may add a word further, seeing the Apostle proceeds to another Reason; Therefore, 2. Consider whence it is that this inability to believe or turn to God doth come; not from God sure; for if He had not made Man perfect, there might be some ground for the Objection; but seeing He did make man upright, and he hath sought out many inventions, who is to be blamed? hath the Lord lost His right to exact His Debt, because Man hath played the Bankrupt and debauched, and turned Dyvour, and unable to pay? doth not this very objecting prove us guilty, and evidence that we have lost that which God gave to us, and made us with at the Beginning? When God made Adam, he had power to believe and give God credit as to every word revealed or to be revealed, and that now after the Fall, he and his Posterity want that power, they have not this privation from God's creating of them, but from their Fall, they by their Fall utterly incapacitating themselves for these Duties that they owe to God, and for this among the rest. 3. If there were no more but simple inability among them that hear this Gospel, they might have some pretext or ground of excuse, though it were not any real nor just excuse, as hath been shown, but it never comes to this as the only or main cause of their not Believing; There is always some maliciousness, perverseness, and pravity in the Will; it's not, I cannot, but I will not, it's a wiful and some way deliberate rejecting of the Gospel, that is the ground of Folks not Beli • ving; and what excuse, I pray, can ye have, who do not believe the Gospel, when it shall be found that ye maliciously and deliberately chose to reject it? To make this out, consider but these few things, 1. Men's neglecting of the very outward Mea • s, that through God's blessing prove instrumental in the begetting of Faith, as of Hearing, Reading, Prayer, Meditation, Self-searching, stirring up themselves to Repentance, &c. whereby the Lord ordinarily brings about and furthers the work of Faith. 2. Consider the carnal, careless, and lazy manner of Men's going about these Means and Duties, which to their own conviction are within the reach of that power which they have; ye might hear oftener and more attentively, ye might pray more frequently and more seriously then often ye do, ye want even much of that moral seririousness in Hearing, Prayer, Reading, &c. that ye have in other things of less concernment; ye will hear a Proclamation at the Cross with more attention, then a Preaching of the Gospel, ye will hear a Threatning from Man with more fear then ye will hear a Threatning from God's Word, ye will be more serious in seeking somewhat from Man, then in asking Grace from God; the reason is, because your Heart is more to the one nor to the other; can ye then rationally think that ye are excusable, when Believing is not a thing that is in your Heart, and that takes you up, but ye go about the Means that lead to it unconcernedly, carelessly, and negligently? 3. Consider how often ye do willingly choose some other thing then Christ, to spend your Time, and set your Affections upon, laying obstructions and bars in the way of God's Grace, setting up idols in the Heart, and filling Christ's room before hand with such things as are inconsistent with His Company, and all this is done willingly and deliberately; ye have said in your Hearts as these did, Jer. 2.25. We have loved strangers, and after them we will go; and will ye, or dare ye make that an excuse why ye could not come to Christ, because your Hearts were taken up with your Lusts and Idols? So then the matter will not hold here. that ye were unable and had not power to believe, but it will come to this, that your Conscience will have it to say, that ye willingly and deliberately chose to lie still in your Unbelief, and that ye preferred your Idols to Christ Jesus. 4. Consider, That sometimes ye have met with some more then an ordinary touch, motion, and work of the Spirit that hath been born in upon you, which ye have slighted and neglected, if not quenched and put out, which is your great guilt before the Lord: Is there any of you, but now and then at Preaching, or when in some great hazard, or under sickness or some other sad cross, ye have been under Convictions of Sin, and have had some little glances of the hazard ye were in of the Wrath of God, more then ordinarily ye had at other times? and I would ask you, have these been entertained and cherished, or rather have they not been slighted and worn out by you? and may ye not in this respect be charged with the guilt of resisting the Spirit of God, and marring the work of your own Conversion and Salvation? These things, and many moe, which will cry loud in the Consciences of Men and Women one day, will quite remove and take away this objection, that ye could not do better; Ye might have done better then ye did, ye might have abstained from many Evils that ye committed, and done many Duties that ye ommitted, and done them with more moral seriousness then ye did; but ye were perverse, and did willingly and deliberately choose to continue in your Natural condition, rejecting Christ, and the Offer of Salvation through Him: This also serves to refute and remove that profane Principle or Tenet that many have in their Minds and Mouths, That they have no more Grace then God hath given them; will ye dare to come before God in the great Day with any such Objection? no certainly, or if ye dare, God will aggrege your guilt by it, and beat it back again into your Throat; then, O! then all such Subterfuges will be no shelter to you before Him, nor in the least able to insconce your Souls against the strong Batteries of the Wrath of God, that will be as a Storm against the Wall.

SERMON XV.

MInisters have not done with their work when they have preached, and People have not done with their work when they have heard: That which is of greatest concernment follows, which either hath, in the want of it influence on the saddening of both Ministers and People, or in the obtaining of it, on their Consolation: This is the thing that we find Isaiah upon here, who having preached the Gospel, looks what Fruit it hath, and when he beholds the general unfruitfulness it had in his own time, and should have in our time, it weights him exceedingly, and indeed it's very sad that Isaiah should be so much weighted in foreseeing the unfruitfulness of the Gospel in our days, and that we ourselves should be so little weighted with it, and so senseless under it.

He casts in this word, To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? partly to confirm the former word, Who hath believed our report? and partly to help to make the right use of it, by drawing Men to the discovery of the Sovereign Hand of God in the matter, and of the necessity of His Grace for making the Gospel effectual in the Hearers of it wherever it comes, Who (saith he) hath believed our report? To whom is this preached Gospel made effectual for Faith and Salvation? It's but to very few, even to as many as have the Arm of the Lord, the effectual Power of His special Grace revealed to them, and no moe.

The last Doctrine we proposed, and began to speak of as the Scope, was, That believing and receiving of the Gospel, and the Lord's exercing a powerful work of His Grace with it, are ever still knit together; they are of equal extent; as many Believe as He stretcheth out His Hand of Power with the Word to work Faith in them, and as many lie still in Unbelief as His Hand of Power is not revealed unto, This is his Scope.

We took up this Doctrine in two Branches, First, That the most powerful Means cannot work nor beget Faith in the Hearers of the Gospel, except there be an inward powerful work of Grace on their Hearts accompanying them; and this we cleared, and spoke a little to •• o Q • estions in the Use, and left at a third, to wit, What the Hearers of the Gospel should do that have the Call and Offer of the Gospel, seeing without the effectual work of the Grace of God they cannot Believe? which we shall forbear to speak to, till we open the second Branch of the Doctrine, because this Question relates to both.

The second Branch then of the Doctrine is, That wherever the Lord applieth the powerful work of His Grace, there necessarily Faith and Conversion follow; or the stretching forth of God's Arm in the work of His Grace, hath always the work of Faith and Conversion, and the engaging of the Soul unto Jesus Christ following on it; and indeed if it be true that we cleared b • fore, to wit, That there are as many Unbelievers as there are Persons on whom Grace doth not thus powerfully work, or that they are all such that this work of Grace is not manifested on, then the work of Conversion and Believing is as broad as this work of Grace is, for the Prophet maketh them of equal extent, who is he that believeth? even he to whom the Arm of the Lord is revealed▪ and on the contrary, who is he that believeth not? even he to whom the Arm of the Lord is not revealed, and on whom this work of Grace is not manifested. By which we may see it to be very clear, that the Prophet hangs the Believing of the Gospel on the Lord's manifesting His Arm; so that where it is not manifested, this work of Faith is not brought forth, and where it is manifested, necessarily it is brought forth.

This being a Doctrine concerning the Efficacy of God's Grace, which ought not to lie hid from the Lord's People, we shall a little, first, clear it, and then secondly, confirm it to you.

First, For clearing of it's Meaning. 1. Ye would not take up our meaning in it so, as if we made every common work that lively means may have on the Hearers of the Gospel, to be Conversion; The preaching of the Word will sometimes make Folks tremble, as we see in Felix, and will waken Convictions and Terrors in them, and put them into an amazement, and yet leave them there; for all these Convictions may be, and often are resisted, as to any Saving Fruit at least, which we conceive to be that which Stephen points at, Acts 7.51. while he saith, Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye; and what he means by this is explained in the words following, Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted, &c. even their contending with the Word of the Lord in the mouths of His Servants: Yea, in that same place, where it's said, that they gnashed upon him with their teeth, it's insinuated that they came over the belly of the cutting Conviction which his Preaching had upon them: Nor do we 2. mean, That every common operation of the Spirit, whether illumination of the Mind, or a touch on the Affections (such as may be in Temporaries and Apostates, as is clear Mat. 13.20, 21. Heb. 6.4. and downward) is Conversion; There is a great difference betwixt a common work or gift of the Spirit (which in a large Sense ma • be c ••• ed Grace because freely given) an • the •• v • ng work of Grace, which before 〈◊〉 •••• e • a peculiar work: And ofttimes t •• t c • mmon operation of the Spirit is quenched and p • t out, therefore the Apostle 1 Thess. 5.19. exhorteth thus, Quench not the Spirit. 3. When we speak of an effectual bringing forth of Faith by this Grace of God, we would not have you thinking, that we suppose no reluctancy to be in the Man in so far as he is unrenewed, for though where Grace effectually worketh, Faith follows necessarily, yet Corruption being in the Man, it's disposed and apt to thwart with, and to oppose Grace; and the Will hath its averseness to yield: But the meaning of the Doctrine is this, That though there be such a strong power of Corruption in the Man to whom Grace comes, and on whom it is put forth, yet the power of Grace is such, that it powerfully masters and overcomes Corruption, and wins the Heart to believe in, and to engage with Christ; though (to speak so) there be something within that strives to keep the door shut on Christ; yet when it comes to that, Cant. 5.3. He puts in his fingers by the holl of the lock, and makes the myrrh to drop; the Heart is prevailed with so, as it is effectually opened, as the Heart of Lydia was to receive the Word that Paul preached: Thus, notwithstanding of Corruptions opposition, Grace gains its point, and the Lord never applies His Grace of purpose to gain a Soul, but he prevails. 4. When we speak of the power and effectualness of Grace in conquering and gaining the Heart and Will of the Sinner to believe in Jesus Christ, we do not mean that there is any force or violence done to the Will, or any exerting of a coactive power, violenting the Will contrary to its essential property of freedom, to close with Christ; But this we mean, that though Corruption be in the Heart, yet Grace being infused and acted by the Spirit, the pravity in the Will is sweetly cured, and the Will is moved and made to Will willingly and upon choice, by the power of the Spirit of Grace taking in that strong hold; This great work is wrought by an omnipotent swavity, and by a sweet omnipotency; and it needs not at all seem strange, for if Man in Nature, be, by the power of habitual Corruption, made necessarily to will Evil, so that notwithstanding he doth freely and willingly choose Evil; why should it be thought strange o • absurd to say, that when a principle of the Grace of God is infused into the Soul, and acted by the Spirit of God, If hath, that much influence, power, and efficacy as to prevail with the Will, it keeping still its own freedom, to make it willing to embrace Jesus Christ, and yet not at all thereby wrong that essential property of the Will? sure, Grace is as powerful as Corruption, and the Lord is as dextrous a worker, and can work as aggreeably to the nature of the Creature in this gracious work, as the Creature can in its own sinful actings. So then we say, when the Lord is pleased to apply the work of His Grace to convert a Sinner, that work is never frustrated, but it always hath necessarily the work of Faith, Renovation, and Conversion following on the back of it.

Secondly, We shall a little confirm the Doctrine, and the grounds of Confirmation are these, The 1. whereof is, The express Scriptures wherein this Truth is asserted, as John 6.44, 45. It is said in the 44. Verse, No man can come to me except the Father draw him, and on the contrary, it is as expressly set down verse. 45. It is written in the Prophets, they shall be all taught of God, every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me, and this being contradistinguished to external Preaching, and being that which is called drawing, v. 44. he knits Believing to it, and makes Believing, called coming, a necessary effect of it, that to whomsoever God gives that inward Lesson, they shall come; which confirms the Doctrine, that whomsoever the Lord teaches and schools by His Grace, and calls effectually, they do necessarily Believe. Another passage we have Phil. 2.12, 13. Work out the work of your salvation in fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure; where the Apostle makes the work of Grace not only to work ability to will and to do, but to work also to will and to do actually; and Grace never worketh to will, and leaves the Man unwilling, but necessarily supposeth the Man's closing willingly with Christ, with whom He worketh thus. A 2. Ground of confirmation is drawn from these Expressions whereby this work is set forth, and the Promises comprehending it in God's Covenant, wherein it's called the giving of a new heart, a heart of flesh, the writing of the law in the heart, the putting of his Spirit within his people, and causing them to walk in his statutes, &c. Jer. 31.33. Ezek. 36.26, 27. and it is impossible to conceive aright of the fulfilling of these Promises without the including of the effect; the giving of the new Heart, is not only a persuading to Believe, but the actual giving of the new Heart, whereof Faith is a special part, which Promise is peculiar to the Elect, though the offer of it be more large, and be further extended; and what can that Promise of God's writing the Law in the Heart be, but an effectual inclining of the Heart to the Will of God? or inward renovation contradistinguished to the external Ministry, that can only hold out His Will in a Book, and speak it to the Ear. 3. This may be cleared and confirmed from the nature of the work of Grace, which is such a mighty work and so powerful, as it is impossible it can be frustrated or disappointed; unless we could say that Grace in God, or the Grace of God is not so powerful as Corruption in us, which were Blasphemy; to this purpose the Apostle prayeth in behalf of the Christian Ephesians, chap. 1.19, 20. that they may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead; he speaketh so in this high strain, to set out both the exceeding stubbornness of our Nature that needs such a work, and the exceeding great power of the Grace of God that worketh irresistibly, not only in the Conversion of the Elect at first, but in all the after-acts of Believing, so Eph. 3.7. the same Apostle hath it, — according to the gift of the Grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power; and Col. 1.29. according to his working which worketh in me mightily; The Power that worketh in Believers is God's omnipotent Power, which worketh effectually and mightily; and if this Power be exercised in the continuing and promoving of Faith, as is said before, it must be much more exercised in the begetting of Faith; yea, and what need is there that He should exercise it, if not for this end, that where He exerciseth it, it may also prevail? A 4th. ground of Confirmation may be drawn from the Lord's great end which He hath before Him in this work, and that is the gaining of glory to His Grace, and to have the whole work of Conversion attributed to it; and if this be His end, He must and will prevail by His Grace in throughing the work in order to this end; if it were left indifferent to Man to yield o • not to yield to God as he pleaseth, the whole weight of the work of Conversion should not lie upon Grace, Mans Mouth should not be stopped, but when that question should be asked, who hath made thee to differ, and what hast thou O man, but what thou hast received? he should still have something to boast of, and the work of his Conversion, should at best be halfed betwixt Grace and his own Free-will; this would necessarily follow if Grace did not through the work, and so God should miss of His end. A 5th. ground of Confirmation is taken from the consideration of God's Decree, of the Covenant of Redemption betwixt Jehovah and the Mediator, and of the Power and Wisdom of God in carrying on this work, which we put together for brevities cause; From all which it will be clear, that there is, and must be a necessary connection betwixt the work of Grace on Believers and the Effect, and that it is not in the power of Mans Free-will to resist it, which indeed is not freedom but bondage. 1. Then, We say, That if we consider the Decree of Election, we will find that where Grace is applied, Faith and Conversion must follow; otherwise, if the work of Grace were not effectual to convert, God's Decree should be suspended on the Creatures Free-will, and be effectual or not effectual according as it pleased, and is that any little matter to make His Decree depend upon, and be effectual or not according to Man's pleasure? that which sickereth His Decree and makes it infrustrably to take effect, is, that He hath effectual Means to bring about His Decree. 2: If we consider the Covenant of Redemption, betwixt Jehovah and the Mediator, we will find that upon the one side the Mediator particularly undertaketh for them that are given to Him, that He shall loss none of them; and upon the other side, we have (to speak with reverence of the Majesty of God after the manner of Men) the Father's Obligation to make such Persons in due time Believers, that Christ the Mediator may see of the travel of His Soul and be satisfied, according to that Promise made to Him, Psal. 110.3. In the day of thy power thy people shall be willing; and that other, Isa. 53.11. He shall see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, &c. and accordingly Himself saith, John. 6.37. All that the Father hath given to me shall come unto me, where it is clear, that these who are given must necessarily come: and He also saith, John 10.16. Other sheep have I, which are not of this sold, them also I must bring; and it cannot be supposed without horror and blasphemy, that this determinate, solid, and sure transaction, having all its midses included in it, and being as to its end so peremptory, shall as to these midses and that end, and as to their throughing, not be in God's hand, but in the hand of Mans Free-will? if it were there, O! how unsicker and loose would the bargain and God's design in begetting Faith, and in bringing Souls through Grace to Glory be! 3. If we consider the Lord's Power in beginning and promoving, and His Wisdom in carrying on of this work, His Power whereby he raiseth the Dead, and His Wisdom whereby He leads from Death to Life; is it possible to conceive or imagine these to be applied by the Lord in the Conversion of a Sinner, but this Doctrine must needs hold, that the work of His Grace powerfully applied, hath always Faith and Conversion following on it, and that the Lord leaveth it not to the option of Elect Souls, to believe, or not to believe as they please? He must not, He cannot be frustrate of His end and design, but He must bring them to a cordial closure with Christ by Faith in order to their Salvation.

Use 1. The first Use serves to fix you in the Faith of this great Truth, and though we use not, neither is it needful to trouble you with long Questions and Debates; yet when the like of this Doctrine comes in our way, especially in such a time, wherein the pure Truths of God, and this among the rest, are troubled and called in question, it is requisite that a word be spoken for your confirmation and establishment; and we would hence have you fixed in the Faith of these two. 1. Of the impotency of Nature in the beginning or promoving ought of the work of Grace, which belongs to the first branch of the Doctrine. 2. Of the effectualness and irresistableness of Grace, that wherever God begets and brings in a Soul, He does it by His own powerful Grace, and wherever He applies that work, Faith and Conversion necessarily follow, which belongs to the second branch of the Doctrine; and we would the rather speak a little to this, because it is questioned by the Enemies of the Grace of God, then which, there is nothing they set themselves more to dethrone and debase, and to exalt and cry up Nature and Free-will, as if it did sit on the Throne, and Grace behooved to come and supplicate it, and as if it might accept or reject its Bill at pleasure as to the Conversion of a Sinner; In opposition to which, this Doctrine holds good, that wherever the Lord applies His Grace, He effectually throughs the work of Faith and Conversion, and there is no Soul that can utterly resist it; and wherever the Lord applies this Grace, the Grace that converts one cannot be frustrated by another; These things we hold in opposition to the direct assertion of the Enemies of Grace, whereby they make the work of Conversion, not ultimately to terminate on Grace, but on Man's Free-will, and how dangerous and damnable this Error is, may easily appear, For 1. It overturns and runs cross to the whole strain of the Gospel, for if we loose but this one Pin, in making Faith and Conversion not to depend on Grace, but on Free-will, then the whole Fabric of Grace falls down flat; then God should elect us, because we were to elect Him, contrary to the Scripture, which tells us, that He elects us, not we Him; and that our closing with Him by Faith, depends on His electing of us: It overturns our free Justification by Grace, for supposing Faith comes in in Justification, as it doth, none being justified but by Faith, and that Believing is of ourselves, and that it is in the power of Man's Free-will to close the Bargain, all is not here of Grace, our Justification is not free, but some-way depends on Free-will: It overturns the Perseverance of the Saints; for if Believing depend on Free-will, then our Perseverance depends on it also, for if the Mans Free-will change, he may fall back and break his neck in a manner, at the very threshold of Heaven; whereas if it be the work of Grace (as indeed it is) that brings forth Faith, and carries it on, and if this work of Grace cannot be frustrated or restrained by the malice and hardness of any Heart to which it is applied, because it cures the hardness and removes that malice; then certainly this Error cannot stand; and we are persuaded when we plead thus for Grace, we have the best end of the Debate, and the surest Ground to go upon, most for God's Honor, and most for the comfort of Believers. 2. This Error thwarts with the Glory of the Grace of God; for it is an Error that strikes at the richest and most radiant Diamond of the Crown of the Glory of Christ, it hangs Election and the effectualness of God's Decree as to effectual Calling, Faith, Justification, and Perseverance on the Person himself, and makes God and Christ to be in the Man's common debt, and reverence, to make His Decree effectual, whereas it is the glory of Grace to have all Flesh allanarly in its debt and common, as having loved freely, elected, called, justified, sanctified, and carried on the work of Grace til it end and be perfected in Glory, freely; which is the Song of the redeemed, Rev. 1.5, 6. Unto him who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion; If eternal love be free, then the expression or manifestation of it in making us Kings and Priests unto God, is also free, 3. This Error is exceeding destructive to the consolation of God's People; Is it not a comfortless Doctrine that founds their Believing and Perseverance on their own Free-will? if ye were to make the bargain of Grace, whether would ye think it more comfortable and sure, that the effectualness of Believing and Perseverance should hang on the Grace of God, or on your own Free-will? especially considering the pravity of your Will; doleful would your condition be, if Free-will were the Base or Foundation, and God used no more but external persuasion: how specious soever this opinion seem to be, because it puts it in Mans option to believe and convert himself, or not, as he pleaseth; yet it overturns the whole strain of the Gospel, and quite eclipseth the glory of Grace, and cuts the very throat of your Consolation, and is the great ground of Popery, Pelagianism, and Arminianism; to which ye would therefore so much the more advert, and we do the rather speak to it, that ye may be guarded against it, and that ye may be settled in the Truth, especially since the same Errors are a-reviving in another shape in these days, as is manifest in that foolry of Quakers, who talk of a Light within them, and talk so of that Light as if it were of power sufficient to convert and guide them, if it be not resisted. As also that other conceit of being above Ordinances, implies something of this same Error; which ye would set yourselves to abhor, as that which the Devil is again laboring to sow the Seed of amongst us, and labor to be confirmed in the Truth: For if there be any truth at all in Christianity, these are two main Truths, the utter inability that is in Men's Hearts by Nature to exercise Faith in Christ, and the efficacious and irresistible power of the Grace of God, in the begetting of Faith where it is begotten; which when we shall all appear before the Tribunal of God, will be found to be so, and none will have a Mouth opened to oppose them. And what absurdity, I pray, is there here, notwithstanding all the clamour of corrupt Men? that God hath reserved this work of converting Sinners by His Grace to Himself, and hath not put it in the hand of their own Free-will; which supposeth Men to have a stock within themselves, and hath many fearful effects following it, tending to the depreciating of the Grace of God, and to the drawing Men off from dependence on Christ, and to the giving of them ground of boasting in themselves, and of vanity and security, all which this Doctrine of God's Grace overthrows, and stops the Mouth of the Creature from all vain boasting, to the high exaltation of God's free, sovereign, and efficacious Grace, and to the great comfort of His People.

Use 3. The second Use serves to commend the Grace of God to the Hearers of the Gospel, and especially to Believers; There cannot be a greater commendation given to it, than this, that it works effectually, and indeed it could not be called Grace, I mean, Saving Grace, if it should want this effect, even to save such as it is applied to; but this highly commends Grace, that if, there be mighty Corruption in us, there is a strong arm of Grace put forth by Him for perfiting of that which concerns us, notwithstanding of this great strength of Corruption. And if ye think yourselves not to be Believers, and think this Doctrine to be hard, that ye cannot Believe without this Grace, and yet would fain Believe, consider that as none can believe, neither can Believers stand without Grace; so Grace can help you to do that which ye cannot do, which is the commendation of Grace, and should make it more lovely to you; this gives encouragement to any poor Soul that is as it were in the place of the breaking forth of Children, and layeth greater ground of confidence that they shall come speed, than if they had it in their own hand; and serves to obviat that grand objection of Souls that would fain be at closing with Christ, and cannot come to Him, here is a powerful Arm reached forth to draw them.

Use 3. The third Use serves to humble Believers who have anything of the work of Grace, and so, to work them up to thankfulness to Him that hath communicate ought of it to them: Is there any of you that have Grace, who hath made you to differ from others? it was not yourselves but free Grace, and therefore ye have reason to acknowledge it with thankfulness, and to say, if this same Doctrine had not been true, I would have been a stranger to God all my days, and remained under the dominion of Satan and Sin with these that are in Nature; and with David, Psal. 16.7. to say, I bless the Lord who hath given me counsel, my reins also instruct me in the night seasons; This counsel was not the common advice that all got from the Word preached, but the inward counsel of the Spirit that made his reins Instruct him, and made him inwardly to follow the advice that the Word gave him outwardly; and it is this inward work of the Spirit that keeps in the life of Grace, as well as begets it, as it is Psal. 73.23, 24. Nevertheless I am continually with thee, thou hast holden me by my right hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory; whom have I in heaven but thee, &c. my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever: the Psalmist glorieth in this, that the work of his throw-bearing, did not depend on his own flesh and heart, but on God, who was the strength of his heart and his portion forever: If Believers would consider what they were in their natural condition, and how much they are obliged to the Grace of God, that with power was applied in their Conversion, it would stop their Mouth as to boasting, make them admire Grace, and sound forth its praise: And they would think Graces sweet way of prevailing, to be no co-active forcing of their Will, but the greatest part of their freedom; and so far would it be from being looked on as a violenting or wronging of their Will, that it would be esteemed their truest and greatest liberty: We are persuaded that the Saints in Heaven count it no bondage that God hath so fully fred them from all Corruption, that they serve Him with delight, and do so necessarily; and shall any sojourning-Saints here below, count it a wronging of their Will, that God takes such pains on them, to subdue Corruption, and to bring them to some measure of conformity to them who are above? God forbid.

Use 4. The fourth Use of it is, To let us see, what great ground of encouragement there is here for the Hearers of the Gospel, to set about the work of Believing, and what ground there is to make them all utterly inexcusable who shall continue in their Unbelief; which may be thought somewhat strange, when we say that no means can be effectual for working of Faith, w • thout the effectual Grace of God be applied; But let these two be put together, 1. That though we be insufficient of ourselves, and though all outward means be of themselves ineffectual, that yet there is a sufficiency in the Grace of God: And 2. That this Grace shall be powerful to work Faith in the Hearers of the Gospel, if they make not themselves guilty of frustrating this Grace in the offer of it (as they may do); These then who will not believe, will be found most inexcusable. But to return to the main intent of this Use, We say, that the encouragement lies here, that though we be unable, we have an able Mediator, and Grace is powerful; and therefore we should with the greater encouragement set about the work of Believing, as the Apostle reasons, Phil. 2.12, 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure: Ye might possibly think it had been more encouraging to have said, ye are able of yourselves to will and to do; but certainly, Grace is a more encouraging motive then anything in the Creature; say not then, ye cannot will nor do, for that excuse is taken away by God's offering to work both in you by His Grace; But let me exhort all, both these that are begun to be Believers, and these that are to begin to believe, to be so far from disputing themselves from it, as that they rather encourage themselves to work out the work of their own Salvation with fear and trembling, because God's Grace which ye have in your offer, is so powerful to work the work, and will admit of no utter opposition from Corruption in you, if ye receive not the Grace of God in vain that is offered to you in the Gospel: If Grace were so weak as we might cast it back at our pleasure, and if it were but a helper in the work of Faith and Conversion, as Arminians make it, what encouragement could we have from it? and as to Practice, is not this Doctrine as encouraging? what advantage or comfort is it to undertake anything in our own strength, which is none at all? is not this much more encouraging, to undertake in the strength of God's Grace? knowing that the same work of Grace that begets Faith, is as effectual to carry it on, and to make us to persevere in it, and to enable us to every good word and work; let Grace work then, and take a proof of it, and ye shall find it powerful: The Lord Himself give you wisdom so to do for your Salvation and Consolation.

SERMON XVI.

IT's much to walk evenly and steadfastly under the pure Doctrine of Grace, and neither there-from to take occasion to give way to looseness and carnal liberty, nor to become faint and discouraged, and fearful at the way of God; corrupt Nature is ready to abuse the best things: That word which we have 2 Pet. 3.16. that there are many that wrest and pervert the Scriptures to their own destruction, holds true, not only of doctrinal Heresies, but it holds also true in respect of Men's Practice, or practical Errors; for some hearing of the impotency of Nature, and of the power and perfection of Grace in bringing about its designed effect, are ready to think that they need to do nothing, alleging, that if Grace undertake the work it will be wrought, and if not, it will not be wrought; and thus Atheism and Profanity steal in secretly upon the Heart, and the sweet Doctrine of Grace is abused and perverted by such, to their own destruction: There are others again, who it may be will not dare so to top with God, who yet have their own fainting and discouragement when they hear of this Doctrine, and think it hard that they themselves can do nothing, and fear that they will never win to believe, because they cannot do it of themselves, these also fail, and make not the right use of Grace.

Ye remember, the Question which we proposed to speak a little to on the last Doctrine, to wit, That seeing both these branches of it are true, That except Grace concur, the most powerful preaching of the Gospel will not beget Faith; and that wherever the work of Grace goes along with the Gospel, there Faith is begotten; what is called for from the Hearers of the Gospel as the Use of this Doctrine?

B • fore we come to answer this Question more particularly, we would 1. Premit this word in general, That none would account the Preaching or Hearing of the Word of God to be useless or fruitless, albeit that without the work of Grace, Men cannot yield the Fruit which it call • th for from them; for our blessed Lord Jesus, Isaiah and Paul, preached this Doctrine of Grace, and the necessity of the Lord's Arm to be revealed in the Conversion of Souls, and yet they taught the Word in season and out of season, and were gathering in some, and to some this Doctrine was made the savor of life unto • ife, though to others (through their enmity and corruption) it became the savor of death unto death: To conclude therefore, the inconsistency, or to deny the consistency of these two, to wit, Of the necessity of Preaching the Doctrine of Grace, and of the pressing in Preaching the practice of holy Duties, and the use of ordinary appointed M • ans, would reach this dreadful length, even to condemn the Prophets of old, yea, and our blessed Lord Jesus Himself who says, John 6.44. after He h d preached long, No man can come to me ex • ept the Father who hath sent me draw him and verse. 65 — Therefore I said unto you, that no man can come to me, unless it be given him of my Father. And will any think that His Hearers, who accounted this with some others, Hard sayings, and from that time went back, and walked no more with him, were excusable in their doing so? or that His Preaching was useless, needless, or impertinent, as having a tendency to tempt Men to abandon all use of Means, because He preached this Doctrine of the impossibility of believing in Him, without this pull and draught of His Fathers Arm?

But secondly, We shall a little more particularly in answer to the Question, speak First, To what Uses Folk would not make of this Doctrine, or what things they would abstain from, as tending to a wrong use of it. Secondly, To some Considerations for pressing this Doctrine, and removing from it the construction of hardness that we are ready to put upon it. Thirdly, To what is the native Use it calls for; And Lastly, to some Considerations to press this.

For the first, When we say to all that hears this Gospel that there is a necessity of a powerful work of Grace ere this Word can be profitable, ye would 1. Abstain from, and lay aside curiosity in seeking satisfying Answers to all these Objections that are moved against it, and absurdities that it's loaded with by the Devil and Mans proud Nature, and learn to stoop to, and reverence the sovereign Dominion of God, and His deep and unsearchable Wisdom and Knowledge, in this sovereign way of His Grace, as the Apostle doth, Rom. 11.33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out? ye would also consider that other word, Rom. 9.20. Who art thou that repliest against God? or expostulateth with Him, Shall the thing formed, say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? It's good to inquire and to seek to know the use the Lord calls for of this Doctrine with sobriety; but there is an enquiring to satisfy curiosity which the Lord abhorreth, as we may gather from Exod. 19 21. where the Lord being to deliver His ••• l saith to Moses, Go down, charge the people ( 〈◊〉 word of peremptory command) left they break thorough unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish: The Lord is not displeased that His People should endeavor to behold, and take Him up aright, but when their end is not good, but to satisfy an itch of Curiosity, it displeaseth Him: This may be useful in many cases, and particularly in this we have in hand, to teach us sobriety in seeking to know the way of God's Grace, as the Lord would have His People, Exod. 19. waiting for as much of His Mind as He thought fit to acquaint them with, and to write on the two Tables of Stone, but He would not have them breaking in over the Boundary or March which He did set to them, lest He should break thorough on them, and they should be made to perish; So would He have Men in their studying the knowledge of His Ways, and particularly of the way of His Grace, to keep His Measures, and to contain themselves within the limits that He pleaseth to set to them. 2. Abstain from carnal freting at, and expostulating with the way of God, whether in the highest degree of upbraiding Grace and snarling at it, that ye should not have the Stock in your own hand; or in an inferior degree, having a Heart inwardly discontent, that ye are not more able of yourselves then ye are, to believe, which is the thing that the Apostle opposeth, Rom. 9.20, 21. Should the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay. &c. especially since none can answer that question with any just reflection upon God; who is to be blamed for that defect or inability? or whence did that inability or defect in Mans Nature proceed? God was gracious, free and liberal in making Man perfect, and whose Fault is it that it is otherways? 3. Abstain from, and beware of drawing desperate conclusions as to the giving over the use of the Means, or of becoming more lazy and secure in the duties of Holiness, and in the practice of Piety, because of the necessity of this Grace; but on the contrary, be the more diligent and serious, that ye have so much need of Grace, and that of yourselves ye can do so little, or rather nothing that is truly good without it.

I know that profane Hearts are very fertile and broody of Arguments to plead this point of neglect of Means, and will readily say, what is the fruit of diligence, and the prejudice of laziness? the one will do us no good, and the other can do us no ill, seeing it's Grace that doth all the work: But 1. By your laziness ye mar your own fruitfulness, and that through your own fault, and make this addition to your guilt, that ye not only continue graceless, but do so through your sin willfully. 2. Ye may draw on to your natural impotency, habitual and judicial hardness of Heart, and blindness of Mind; it's on this very ground that many Ears are made heavy, many Eyes made blind, and many Hearts made fat, and is that a little or light matter? 3. Though ye may think this little, yet that which will bear the weight of your sentence at the Day of Judgment, will not be your natural impotency, or that G • ace was not made efficacious to y • ur Conversion, but this will be it, that when God sent out His Word to win you, and offered His Grace for enabling you to yield, ye did maliciously and deliberately reject it. So that it will never be suffered to come to this, I was unable; because the Word was willfully rejected before it came to this.

But secondly, Because there are some others possibly that have more seriousness in the use of Means, who, though they dare not quarrel with Grace, yet it weights and discour • ges them because they can do so little, and they are made heartless to essay, and hopeless to come speed, and it may be, that this is in some whom the Lord allows not to draw any such conclusion, but would rather have encouraged; we would say to such, that they would beware of fainting or being discouraged, as if that were impossible to God and His Grace which is impossible to them; they would by all means beware of sitting up, and • ackning their hand in Duty, because they can do so little: We know there are some that need not much to be spoken to for satisfying of them in this point, but there are others who are weighted with this Doctrine, to whom the Lord allows more tender usage, and would not have them to faint nor be discouraged; you that are such (if any be) may know that there is ground for us to press this, and that we may remove the construction of hardness from this sovereign way of God's Grace, wherein He hath thought fit to draw Men unto an absolute dependence on Himself: In the dispensing of it, we shall propose these few Considerations, 1. That (which was hinted at before) never a Man that hath heard this Gospel when he comes to count with God, shall have it to say, that the reason why he did not receive and embrace it, was his impotency and inability, but the real reason shall be found to be his willful rejecting of it; and upon the contrary it shall be found, that there was never one that would in earnest have had strength to run the way of God's Commandments, and Faith to grip to, and embrace Jesus Christ offered in this Gospel, that for want of ability came short; and if so, what reason is there to complain? if none want Faith but such as would not have Him, and if none that would have Him can complain of their want of Him, upon these two we have great ground of encouragement to them that have a sincere affection to be at Him, and there is no ground for Folk to sit up or fall lazy in pursuing after union and communion with Him in the use of Means: None shall have cause to complain of their want of Him, but such as with their own consent gave Him over; and any that would fain have had Him, shall not miss Him; for this real willingness to close with Christ, being a work of the Grace of God, and it being no less power that works this Will, than the power which doth effectuate the work of Conversion, and bring it to perfection; He that begins the work will perfect it according to His Promise, seeing there is nothing that He does begin but He does perfect it; and therefore in this case, Folk had more need to reflect upon their willingness to have Christ, and to close with Him on His own terms, than to dispute their impotency and inability. 2. Consider what they have been whom the Lord hath brought thorough, were they not such as had as much need of Grace as ye have? had they not the same corrupt Nature that ye have? were they not as impotent and unable to do for themselves? could any of themselves do more than ye can? consider them all that are before the Throne, was it not this same Grace of God and not their good Nature nor their Free-will that did the work? and they were not expressly or by name included in the Promises more than ye are; and ye are not expressly excluded more than they were; the Lord brought forward the work of Grace in them that same way that He dealeth with you; by the preaching of His Word He brought them first to know their sinfulness, impotency, and weakness, to know that there was need of a Savior, that their Salvation was not of themselves, neither was it in them to make right use of the Savior and Salvation offered, but in the power of His Grace, and what if He be doing so to thee? and if that condition be hard and hopeless now, it had been a hopeless and hard condition to these many that are now before the Throne. 3. Consider, That there is no question but Grace is effectual to carry on the work, and to make it go thorough; all the difficulty and dissatisfaction is, because God keeps the application in His own Hand, which the Man's Heart would have in its Hand, and which of them do ye think is most sure and encouraging? all your fainting and discouragement resolveth in this, because ye can do so little; If ye be in good earnest desirous to have Grace throughing the work of Faith and Conversion, would ye possibly make choice of another or better Hand than God's to put it in? is it not as suitable and sure, that His Wisdom should contrive and lay down the way, as it is to His Power to set it forward, and to the freedom of His Grace to make application of it, and all more suitable and sure than if it were in your own Hand? may ye not think shame to be discouraged on this ground, because anything ye do ye must needs get it from God, and that that should be an obstruction in the way of Godliness, which is a main encouragement to it? is the Lord an upbraider? is there any that can quarrel Him as nigardly in dispensing of His Grace? doth he not give to all men liberally and upbraideth no man? and doth it not become Him well to have the conduct and guiding of His own Grace? 4. Consider how many the Lord hath given Grace to already, and how He hath given it freely, surprizingly, and unexpectedly; if ye could bring forth any proof that never one got good of God, ye might have a pretext for your discouragement and scarring, but when as many as are before the Throne are pooofs of His being gracious to Sinners, when so many have gotten good of God before you; and when there are several who to your own certain knowledge, are daily get • ing good of Him sensibly, freely, and unexp • ct • dly, who were as indisposed to bel • eve as ye are, and as much fainted and discouraged as ye are; and when He says that He is found of them that sought him not; is it not as likely that a poor Body that is longing for His Grace shall be satisfied as well now as ever? according to that word Matth. 5.6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled; the Soul that would fain have Holiness shall get it: I know there will be a business made here, and an new Objection started, whether this longing or hunger be real or not? but if your longing and hunger be not real, it will not trouble you much to want; and it is not to encourage or comfort such that have no real longing, that all this is spoken; we know there is more need to make some vomit up the conceit of their ability, than to encourage them against any seen and felt inability; There are many alas! that think little of the Grace of God, with whom the error anent Universal Grace would aggree well, they having a presumptuous conceit of Faith, and that it is not so difficult a thing to believe as is alleged; we must profess that we have not much to say to such for their encouragement, only we would let them know, that there is a time coming when God will refute and silence them: But as for such as see their inability, and are put to any measure of suitable seriousness and longing in earnest after Believing, the Lord allows that they be strengthened and encouraged, and to such we would say this, If their missing of Jesus Christ weight them, if it be their burden that they cannot Believe, and if their longing, hunger, and thirst be some pain and piece of exercise to them, so as other things relish not with them, they are so taken up with that; and if they had their Souls choice, it would be this, even a satisfying fight of union and communion with Him; their longing and hunger is real, and we may turn over that just now cited word to them, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled; this hunger and thirst was never begotten without some spiritual Physic from Christ the great Physician, who hath provision for satisfying it, and as we use to say, of the natural Life, He sent never the Mouth but He sent the Meat with it, so we may say of this hunger, He that gives this spiritual Mouth, gives always the Meat with it; would to God there were many enlarged Apetites to receive, our Lord would no doubt be found ready to satisfy them all; if the Mouth were wide opened, the Affections enlarged, and the Soul sick under hunger and chirst for Christ and Holiness, that Sickness should not be found to be unto Death, but to the glory of the Grace of Him who is the great Healer.

For the third thing that we proposed, to wit, That seeing there are many ways how Folk may go wrong, and yet none should give over hope, what is the native use and exercise that this Doctrine calls for? I shall speak to this, first in general, and secondly, in some few steps or particular directions. 1. Then in general, ye would consider that place, Phil. 2.12, 13. Work out the work of your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure; where it is clear, that the exhortation given to them to work out their Salvation is drawn from this same Doctrine of the efficacious work of God's Grace, working in them to will and to do as the great Motive; God saith. He worketh in you to will and to do, therefore work ye out the work of your own Salvation: There are in this general exhortation four things implied, the first is the very entry or beginning of the work of Salvation, that is, the exercising of Faith in Jesus Christ, it is of God, therefore work at that work, as if He said, Believe to the saving of your Souls, as the word is Heb. 10. ult. For it's God that works the will in you. The second is the work of Repentance, this is also taken in here, for his bidding them work in fear and trembling, respects their sinfulness, and necessarily implieth Repentance. The third is their aiming at perfection in Holiness, the putting forth themselves in improving of all Means, and in the exercising of all Duties for that end, work out says He. And fourthly, It looks to the manner, that it be not carnally or in carnal confidence, but with fear and trembling; and if it should be asked, how doth that conclusion flow from this Doctrine, it's God's work, or He works in you to will and to do, therefore work ye out your Salvation? Folk would rather think that the conclusion should be, since God doth all this, do ye nothing: No, but the just contrary conclusion is drawn and it hangs on these two. 1. On the efficacy of Grace. it's God that works to will and to do, it's His Grace that strengtheneth you, and where. He works the will, He works the deed, where He begins a work, He will also through and effectuate it, therefore take ye encouragement to work; as if He had said, fight well, for ye have a brave second, though it be not proper to call Grace a second; set yourselves to the exercise of Holiness in earnest, and God will make it go with you. 2. On the consideration of sinfulness and weakness in them, which should make them work in fear and trembling, as if He had s id, seeing it is God, and the efficacy of His Grace that doth the work be not ye vain and presumptuous; the first part says, it's God that works and not ye, therefore be ye the more holily confident; the second part says, it's not ye but God, and therefore do the work with fear and trembling; and both tend to this, that Folk would be serious in minding and prosecuting the work of their Salvation from the first step to the last, in fear and trembling, on this ground, that though they have nothing in themselves, yet there is enough in God and in His Gr • ce to do their turn: How is it then, or what can be the reason, that we in our Hearts do draw the just contrary conclusion to that which the Spirit of God draws here from this ground? when we have the offer of Grace, and hear of the power and efficacy of it, it should as to our part provoke us to be more busy, reasoning thus with ourselves, that though our Corruption will soon overcome us, yet it wi l not, it cannot overcome Grace; and though the exercise of Faith be above our reach, yet it is not above the reach of Grace, though we be weak, yet Grace is strong, and therefore we will work it out: And upon the other side, we ought to con • inue humble, and in fear and trembling work it out, b • cause it's not we but Grace that doth the work: If Grace were well considered, there is nothing that would more str • ngthen Folks hands to work; and upon the other hand, there is nothing that would make Folks more watchful, and to walk in holy fear, considering that we are poor Beggers, and thorough our unwatchfulness, or conceit and presumption, may mar the outlettings of His Grace, especially if we grow secure, and ungrately forget what we receive from Him.

2. I come now to some steps or particular directions implied in this Use, because it will be asked, What then should Folk do? And before I touch on particulars, take these two Cave • ts in the entry to them. 1. That we can propose nothing to be done by you, n • ither can ye do anything of yourselves that is a gracious act or deed. 2. That we understand not that anything can be done by Men in their Natural state, that doth infer or procure, and far less deserve the giving of Grace to any; but seeing God hath given direction to us how to walk in order to the working out of our Salvation, we say 1. That it's safe to us to walk in the way He hath directed us to walk in, and in the use of the Means He hath prescribed, and much more safe then to lay them aside. 2. That there is greater suitableness betwixt the use of the Means, and the finding of Grace, then there is betwixt the neglect of Means and the finding of it. 3. That it aggrees well with God's way in bringing about the Conversion of Sinners, to bring them piece and piece forward; sometimes bringing them to the use of external Means, and to the performance of outward Duties, sometimes convincing them of Sin, and letting them see their need of Christ; sometimes discovering the worth that is in Christ, and bringing them to fall in love with Him, ere they actually close with Him; and making them in their practice to follow any peep or glimmering of light that is let out to them, and to go the length that light discovereth the way and makes it plain as to their duty.

Now for particular Directions, we would 1. Bid you study to be fixed and established in the Faith of these general Truths that relate to Mans Sinfulness and Misery, and Insufficiency in Himself, that in us, that is, in ou • fl • sh dwelleth no good thing; that naturally we are dead in Sins and Trespasses, and cannot quicken ourselves; and in the Faith of the necessity and powerfulness of Grace, and that it's Christ that must give and work Faith, and that Grace can do the turn, and prevail where it is put on work; ye would also consider, and believe the great hazard of missing Grace, and the advantage that cometh by it; ye would meditate on these things, and on the Scriptures that hold them out; and on the experiences of the Saints that confirm them, that ye may not only have a glance and transient view of them, but may be confirmed in the Faith of the truth of them. 2. Content not yourselves with a general Faith of the true • h of this Doctrine, but labor to be suitably affected with these things that ye believe; and though every affectedness be not special Grace, yet I speak to them that are ready to lay the blame and fault on the Grace of God, and yet were never affected with their own gracelesness: Ye would study to be affected with the gracelesness of your Nature, and let it put you to some sanctified disquiet and trouble, till with Ephraim, ye be made to smite upon your thigh, and till ye be put to a holy deliberation and consultation about your own condition; a Man that is under the hazard of a civil penalty, will think on it again and again, it will affect him, and he will not be at rest till he be without the reach of it; much more should ye be with the hazard that your Souls are in through Sin; ye are not excusable, so long as ye come not this length. 3. Add to this, Diligence in the use of all outward Means and Duties, whereby, and wherein the Lord useth to communicate His Grace, abounding always in the work of the Lord, as the Apostle exhorteth, 1 Cor. 15.58. Be diligent in secret Prayer, Reading, Meditation, Conference, Self-examination, Hearing, keeping good Company, and the like, which indeed Hypocrites may do, yet they cease not for that to be Duties. 4. Be sincere and serious in the use and performance of these Means and Duties, that which I mean, is a moral sincerity and seriousness, such as a Man will readily have in a civil Cause that he hath depending before a civil Judge, or in hearing of News, or the like, which is a thing that may be, and is often found in Men that are void of a principle of Grace, and yet Folk are very often defective in this, and make themselves exceeding guilty before God, because they come not this length. 5. Take heed and beware of entertaining anything that holds and bars out Grace, or of doing anything that may mar or quench the working or moving of Grace; If ye cannot get Christ entertained in your Heart as ye should, be sure to give it to no other; if ye cannot get Corruption thrust out, nor mortified, watch against the rising or harbouring of that which ye know to be Corruption; and against the incoming or rising of such evils, as ye know will keep or put away the Beloved; guard also against the neglecting of such Means, as by the neglect whereof ye may grieve His Spirit. 6. Study and seek after a composed frame of Spirit in your ordinary walk, and especially in Duties of Worship: Carnal Mirth and Jollity, loose Company, and suffering the Heart to go a whoring after the things of the World, do not only provoke Christ as they are sins, but indispose us for Duty, and mar the exercise of Grace where it is, and keep it back where it is not, therefore the wise man saith Eccles. 7.3. that sorrow is better then laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better; carnal Sorrow is not to be commended, but sober sadness, or a grave and composed frame of Spirit, is better then a light and unsettled frame, it being very hard, if not impossible to keep the Heart right even where there is Grace, but where there is some counterpoise or wither-weight; and it must be far more impossible to keep it right where the work of Grace is not, or but in the very first beginnings of it; and though I do not call this composedness of frame, Grace, yet it keeps Folk in some capacity, as it were, to receive Grace: It's said Lam. 3.27, 28. That it's good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth, he sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath born it upon him, he puts his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope; for though Crosses are not always blessed to Conversion, yet we may see now and then that sad times are the beginnings of better times, and even in Hypocrites their sad times ordin • rily are their best times; I neither desire nor allow any to bring Cros • es upon themselves, yet I would desire all to make the best use of any Cross they are under, and to be acquainting themselves with their Sin and Infirmities, and with their Hazard, and with such other things as may weight and compose them without fostering discouragement and a • xiety; and to love as well to speak and hear such things spoken of, as may provoke to sighing and sadness, as these that may provoke to laughter; I said of laughter (saith Solomon. Eccles. 2.2.) it is mad, and of mirth what doth it? and Prov. 14.13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness: though oft times our Laughter may not be so sinful, yet it readily more indisposeth us for any spiritual Duty, then Sorrow doth; the Heart is like a Clock, whereof, when the inner wheels are set a reeling, it is not soon righted and settled. 7. I would propose Ephraim 's example to you, Jer. 31.18, 19. and desire that ye would in the fight and sense ye have of your sinfulness, weakness, & fecklesness, be bemoaning yourselves and your sad condition to God, putting up that Prayer to Him, Turn thou me and I shall be turned; These words flowing from suitable sense are good; and then follows, after that I was turned, I repented; It's observable, that in the very entry he is graciously taken notice of by the Lord, Surely I have beard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; so it is with God's People when they consider how great Strangers they have been to God, how sinful and stubborn, and how impossible it is for them to mend themselves of themselves, they retire themselves into some corner, and there bemoan their case, and cry out, O! what a sinful nature is this, and when will it be got amended? I am as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, says Ephraim, and the Lord tells, He heard and observed it; when possibly he thought he was scarcely, if at all Praying, but rather sighing out as it were a short ej • culation to God, O! that I were amended; the last word of his Prayer is, Turn thou me and I shall be turned, or convert me, and I shall be converted; he sees that when all is done, he must cleanse his hands and leave the matter to God, I cannot, but thou canst work the work, and it ends sweetly in words of Faith, for thou art the Lord my God, and where words of Faith are after serious exercise, that exercise hath oft times Faith going along with it, hence are these words Lam. 3.20. If so be there may be hope: Psal. 119 Incline mine heart, open mine eyes, &c. and Luk. 9.13. How much more will your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him? it's good to pray for the efficacy of Grace, and to offer ourselves Subjects to be wrought upon, and Objects to receive what Grace offers to us.

As we began these Directions with a word of Caution, so we would close them; Do not think that these things in a Natural Man, following this sinful course, will bring forth Grace; neither conclude, that where these things only are discerned and no more in some Persons, that there Grace is wanting, it being to help such forward that we mainly speak to them: Only in sum, 1. Keep clean and clear the Light ye have. 2. Improve the strength bestowed. And 3. What ye have not, put it over on God, and seek from Him, who hath Grace to give for working that in you; and it would seem that in reason ye should refuse none of these three. 1. We say, Keep clean and clear your Light, for if ye detain the Truth of God in unrighteousness, and make as it were a Prisoner of it, by setting a guard of corrupt Affections about it, ye may bring on blindess. 2. Improve what strength ye have, for if ye improve not your strength, were it but in Natural parts and endowments, that makes you inexcusable when Spiritual and gracious qualifications are denied to you, for ye have procured this to yourselves; are there not many things that ye thought yourselves able for, that ye never seriously once essayed, much more might have been done as to Repentance, Love to God, Charity to others, and the like; and when ye have not stretched yourselves to the yondmost in these, there are sure many things left undone that ye might have done. 3. What ye dow not do, or find yourselves unable to do, put it on God to do for you, seriously, humbly, singly, and self-deniedly; for if ye come not to God with that which ye are unequal and unable for, ye are still on this side your duty and without excuse. Take these then together, Improve any strength ye have according to any measure of Light God hath given you, and coming to God through Jesus Christ, seek that ye want from him, and leave the acceptation of your Persons and of your Performances on Him: This is the result of all that we have spoken of this Doctrine of Grace, that ye may not take occasion from the way of God's dispensing Grace, to continue graceless, which if ye do, it will be ground of a most grievous challenge against you; but that ye may see an excellent consistency betwixt the sovereignty of Grace, and your going about the means appointed of God in order to Faith and Conversion, and the study of Holiness; and that ye may go on in the use of these Means, with an Eye to Grace, in the sense of your own insufficiency to think as of yourselves, so much as a good thought, leaving all your Duties at Christ's feet, walking before him with a stopped Mouth; when anything is wanting, standing at his Door and begging it from him, and when anything is received, cleansing, to say so, your own Hands of it, and giving him all the Thanks, Praise, and Glory of it. To him be Praise forever.

SERMON XVII.

IN the former Verse the Prophet hath asserted the rarity and scarcity of Believing the Gospel, and receiving of Jesus Christ offered therein, Who hath believed our report? saith he, who hath made Christ welcome? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? to whom hath this Gospel been made effectual by the Power of God for the engaging of their Hearts to him?

In these two Verses he gives a reason as it were of this, which runs upon these two. 1. The low appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of his outward condition, it hath no outward beauty, splendor nor greatness to commend it, but is attended with much meanness, and with many afflictions. 2. The itching humor of Men who are taken up with worldly grandeur, or greatness and glory, and make little account of anything that wants that; as if he said, it is no wonder that Christ get few to believe on him, and that few receive this Gospel, for he will not come with much worldly pomp and grandeur, which the Men of the World greatly affect and are much taken up with.

To open the words a little, we shall first consider the matter of this reason, and then the consequence of it; or what influence it hath on Men's offending at Christ, and continuing in their Unbelief; only we shall premit two or three words to both.

That which we premit first is this, That the He that is here spoken of, is our Lord Jesus Christ, who in the New Testament hath this Text applied to him, for albeit there be no He so expressly mentioned in this Chapter before, yet in the 13. Verse of the former Chapter, to which this relates, the He that is spoken of here, is called the Lord's Servant; and it's said of him that He shall be exalted and extolled, and made very high; and it is not unusual to speak of Christ singularly by a relative without an antecedent, as Cant. 1.2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; because Christ to Believers is so singular an one, that when ever he is spoken of by way of eminency and excellency, as here, they cannot mistake him, or take another for him. Secondly, This want of form and comeliness, is not to be understood of any personal defect in our Lord's Human Nature, but in respect of, and with reference to the tract of his Life, and what accompanied his Humiliation, to wit, That it was low and mean, without that external grandeur, pomp and splendor of outward things, which the world esteem to be comeliness and beauty. 3. Where it is said, He shall grow up before him, &c. It relates to the hearers of the report of the Gospel concerning him, or to the man that believes not the report spoken of before; And so relates to the words of the first verse. Who hath believed our report? Which is certainly meant of the man that hears of him, and to whom he seems nothing worth, because of his mean and low outward condition; for if we should apply it to God, we cannot see how it will so well infer the scope, and be the reason of the unbelief asserted formerly, for which end it is brought in here.

We come now to open the words a little, and here we would know that Christ's low condition is two ways set down in these two verses. 1. In the 2. verse. In respect of his want of the abundance of the things of this world. 2. In the 3. verse. In respect of the accession of outward crosses and afflictions; for not only doth he want credit, respect, and esteem, but he hath contempt, despite, and reproach; Not only wants he great riches, but he hath poverty, and is in a poor and low condition: The first verse. expresseth him negatively, to be no worldly great man; The second verse. expresseth him positively, to be a mean and despised man. 1. Then these words, He shall grow up as a plant out of a dry ground, are expounded by the words following, He hath no form nor comeliness; For as Shrubs or Scrogs growing up out of dry ground cryn and wither, when trees planted in a fat soil, are fresh, fair, and beautiful. So shall it be with Christ when he cometh forth (saith the Prophet) to the eyes of the world, he shall, as it were, be like a Scrab in a Moor edge: Our Lord had personal and much divine comeliness in him, as we may see, John 1.14. Where he saith that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth: But the comeliness here spoken of, is that outward state, pomp, and splendor which great men in the world use to have, which Christ wanted: This is confirmed by the following words, And when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him; There is in men naturally a delight and complacency in that which is beautiful to the natural eye; But (saith he) there shall be no such thing seen in Jesus Christ when he cometh, and therefore no great wonder that few believe on him: And that he saith We, it is either according to the phrase used in Scripture, to make some hard thing digest and go down the better with the hearers, whereof the speaker is not guilty; or it is his expressing what is the humor generally in all men naturally; as if he had said, had even we who are elect and godly no more but carnal eyes, we would think no more of Christ then other folk do, for we should get no satisfaction to carnal reason.

The second thing whereby his low condition is set out, is in these words, He is despised and rejected of men, &c. Not only shall he want that which carnal hearts and eyes seek and look after, but he shall be so very low, that men shall set him at naught, mock, and reject him: And what wonder then that he be not believed on? A man of sorrows; As for the tract of his life, it shall be spent in sorrows; And acquainted with grief; He shall not be a man that shall be a stranger to crosses, griefs, and heaviness, but he shall be familiarly acquainted with them, and they with him; And we hid as it were our faces from him; A consequent of the former; As men will not give their countenance to them whom they despise; So, saith he, we shall think shame to see or look at him; He shall be the object of men's contempt and scorn, and we shall not so much as countenance him; He shall be despised and set at naught by Herod and the Roman Soldiers; And we esteemed him not; That is, we the people of the Jews, who owe him more respect, esteemed him not; And hence he concludes, that it is no wonder that but few believe on him: And so in the words following he goes on to describe his Humiliation, and to remove the offense that might be taken at it, Surely he hath born our griefs, &c. As if he had said, there is no such cause to skar and stumble at Christ for his lowness and base outward condition; for it was not for himself, but for us that he became so low, and therefore it did not become us to think so little of him; His griefs and sorrows are human infirmities that he subjected himself to for our sake; For the wrath of God which he suffered for us is spoken of afterwards. And because there is great difference betwixt Christ's bearing of infirmities, and our bearing of infirmities, He being like to us in all things, except sin: I shall for clearing of this, name three distinctions given by Divines when they discourse of this purpose.

1. They distinguish and put difference betwixt the taking on of infirmities, and the contracting of infirmities; The taking on of infirmities, is the assuming of the effect without the cause; of the infirmity without the sinful defect: Contracting of infirmity is the drawing on of the defect, with, and by the cause; Now, we draw on the cause with the effect, Christ took on the effect, but he had no sinful defect in him to draw on such infirmities: He might have taken on the nature of man without the infirmities, if he had so pleased, but he took on the nature and infirmities without the cause. 2. They distinguish betwixt these infirmities which are simply natural, such as man might have had though he had never sinned, and these infirmities which flow from man's nature, as fallen and corrupted; The first sort may be called Passive, and look to suffering, as to be hungry, thirsty, weary, sensible of that which hurts the body; The second sort may be called Active, and are sinful, as flowing from sin, and tending to sin, as inclination to ill, and indisposition to good, dullness as to the uptaking of God's mind, &c. Our Lord took on the first sort of infirmities that are simply natural, and may be without sin; But he was free of the other that implies corruption in the nature; He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin saith the Apostle, Heb. 4.15. 3. They distinguish infirmities, in these that are called natural and common to all men, as men, and these that are personal and acquired, as flowing from some defect in generation, or are drawn on by some intemperance, grossness in the life and conversation; As some Families are subject to Diseases that come by Generation; Others draw on Diseases by Whoredom, Drunkenness, and the like; Now our Lord was free of these last, because being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin, there was no defect in His Generation; And being blameless in his life and conversation, he could acquire none of these infirmities; and therefore the infirmities which he bare are of the first sort; that is, such as are common to all men, and to men as men: And hence we think it probable which some say, That as our Lord was not sick, so he was not capable of sickness, being so perfect in his constitution or complexion; which makes for the glory of Grace, and saith, That our Lord behooved to die a violent death, there being no principle in him tending to a natural death, though notwithstanding he did most willingly to satisfy Justice for sinners. And this may serve to explain these words, That he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs.

We come now to observe some things from the words, And 1. From the condition our Lord is described to come to the world in; Observe, That the Messiah the Lord's Servant that was to redeem his people, was to become man, This is here supposed and Prophesied of, as the first step of his Humiliation, He is called a Man; And it is an aggravation of it that he was to be a man of sorrows; Or taking our Lord Messiah to be already come, we may take the Observation thus; That the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the eternal Father is also a true and real Man, A common truth, yet a truth fundamental to the Gospel, whereof we are not to think the less or the worse, because it is a common truth; When the fullness of time came (saith the Apostle, Gal. 4 4.) God sent forth his Son made of a Woman, made under the Law; Who, as it is, Philip. 2. Thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet took upon him the shape of a Servant, and was made in likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient, &c. So Heb. 2.14. It's said of him, That forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, &c. And verse. 11. Both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren; And verse. 16. He took not on him the nature of Angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham, wherefore in all thing it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren; He was made even like unto us in all things except sin: And if we look to the way of grace, there was good reason for this, that the Redeemer of sinners behooved to be Man. 1. If we consider the interposed or adjoined threatening to the Covenant of Works, The day thou eats thou shalt surely die; There must be a satisfaction to Justice, and the curse threatened must be born. 2. The curse must be born by man, the Nature that sinned must die, the Party offending must satisfy in his own Person, or in a Cautioner. And 3. By our Lord's becoming Man, 1. He came to have a right as being near of Kin to sinners, to redeem them. And 2. By this the Law hath right to pursue and exact the Debt of him: And 3. By this, Grace hath access to commend the Redeemer of sinners to sinners, Heb. 2.17, 18. And 4.15, 16. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to he made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, &c. And that we have such a Redeemer, it makes God, to say so, trystable, and Grace to have access, 1 Tim. 2.5. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, and this gives man access to step in to God. 4. This makes the mystery of Godliness to shine the more radiantly, and the wisdom and love of God to shine the more conspicuously thorough it, 1 Tim. 3.16. Without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness, God manifested in the flesh: And John 1.14. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, &c.

Use 1. It serves to be a prop and foundation to our Faith; We may say of this truth, as the Apostle, speaking of the Resurrection, 1 Cor. 1.15. says, If Christ he not risen, then our Preaching is vain, and your faith is vain; If Christ were not Man, our Preaching and your Hearing were in vain: 1. By this we have an evidence that our Lord is the true Messiah who was to become Man. 2. By this we see a clear way how he was liable to our debt, and how his satisfaction is communicable to us. And 3. In this also we see a main and most attractive Argument to draw sinners into Christ for the actual application of his purchase: Our Lord Jesus is Man, our Brother, and made of a Woman, made under the Law; O! this puts a sweetness and loveliness on the Mediator, to commend him to sinners, for the engaging of their hearts to him.

And therefore as a second Use of it, seeing there is a Man-Mediator, 1. We pray you, Men and Women, neglect not such a Salvation as is to be had by his becoming Man, but let this Argument prevail with you to make use of him, that he is a true Man: And we may say, when this Son of Man comes in the Clouds to Judge the World, it will be one of the greatest aggravations of the sin of unbelievers, that he came thus low as to be a Man for the good of men, and yet was not made use of by them. 2. Sinners that would be at him, may on this ground be confident and cheerful; The Steward of Grace is a Friend, he is a Man, their Brother, and claims Kindred to them that honestly aim to do the will of his Father; whosoever shall do the will of my Father, saith he, Mat. 12. The same is my brother, sister, and mother: Sinners wrong Christ and themselves ofttimes when they scar at this Cordial Consolation that by Christ's becoming Man is allowed on them; Indeed if we were immediately to go to God, who is a consuming fire, it were no wonder that we stood at a distance; but when God is in the Mediator Christ, God Man to reconcile the World to himself, as the word is, 2 Cor. 6. Let us, as the Apostle saith, Heb. 4. ult. come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. O! make this use of it, because he is a friend that sits on the Throne. —

2dly. Observe, That our Lord Jesus did not only become Man, but a Man in an exceeding low and afflicted condition; It had been much to the Son of God to have come in the shape of man, though he had been Emperor of the whole World, but he thought not that meet; for since it was his errand in his first coming, not to judge, but to save the World, He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; And therefore Joh. 13.12. He washeth the fee • of his Disciples: We may take both the branches of the Doctrine together, our Lord Jesus not only became Man, but He was a Man without all worldly grandeur and pomp, in a low and mean condition; And not only did he want that grandeur, but he had much affliction shame and sorrow in the place of it. Need we to prove this? Any who are acquainted with the History of the Gospel know it; He was for the whole tract of his life, not only in a low condition, but a man of sorrows, griefs, and afflictions; under much persecution, contempt and reproach; We might instance this, 1. In His Birth. 2. In His Life. And 3. In His Death, The meanness and lowness of his condition, and the afflictions he met with appear clearly in all these, wherein ye may behold the glory of grace and of truth; For the more low he became, the more doth the glory of grace shine, and the more also doth the glory of truth, in that he fulfilled all righteousness.

1. Then for his low condition, And that 1. In his birth, he was not born of any of the greatest Queens; However the birth of Mary was Noble, yet she was in a mean condition, for the time espoused to a Carpenter; He was not born in a great Palace, but in a common Inns, which too being taken up with Guests, His Mother was thrust out, or constrained to betake herself to a Stable, where our blessed Lord is brought forth, and laid in a Manger, Crib, or Stall, out of which the Beasts eat their meat for his Cradle; There the Lord and Heir of all things is laid, and hath no other Cradle, neither was the Room hung with rich Hangings and Tapestry, as the Rooms of great ones use to be. 2. In his life he was low, for no sooner is he born but his Mother is forced to flee away with him to Egypt; He dare not be seen; And when he returns, he co-habits with, and serves his supposed Father and his Mother, was obedient to them, ran their errands, and wrought their work; Therefore he is called, Mark 6. the Carpenter: There is no outward nor worldly pomp and grandeur here; And thus he was for the space of 30. years; And then when he came to his public Ministry, he hath no great folks for his followers and Disciples, but a few poor Fisher-men; over and above whom he exalts not himself loftily, but humbles himself to wash their feet, and to serve them: And to hold forth this a little further, ye may take notice of some Scripture-expressions to that purpose, as namely that of Luk. Chap. 9.58 Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head; That of John Chap. 1.10, 11. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not; He came unto his own, and his own received him not; Though he could have made a thousand Worlds at a word, yet so low was he, that he had not a foot of ground to lay claim to, or to lean his blessed head on; And if we look to Luke 8. we will find that he was provided for in his necessity by some few Women, such as Mary Magdalene; Joanna, Susanna and others, who ministered to him of their substance; He lived upon the charity of others; And yet 2 Cor. 8. By his poverty he made many rich: And when he went from place to place, his diet was often a-seeking, neither do we read of any great cheer he had, but of some Barley Cakes and Fishes; And often the Disciples were sent to seek for meat to him. And 3. when it comes to his death, O! How very low is he brought there? When he is crucified, they hang him up betwixt two thieves, as the most notorious Malefactor of the three; And he could hardly come under greater reproach then was cast upon him at his death; And as a dead man being really dead, he is laid in the grave and buried, as if death had gotten the victory over him; And so he dies a most shameful death, after he had lived a most mean and abject life.

2. For his afflicted condition, it is clear if we consider, what troubles did accompany him in his life, and at his death; No sooner was he born, but (as I said) he is persecuted by Herod, so that himself and his parents must needs flee down to Egypt, and they being but poor folks, behooved in so long a journey to meet with many difficulties; That they were but poor, may be seen by Mary's offering after her Purification: And when he came forth in his Public Ministry, at his very entry to it he was most terribly tempted of the Devil, taking occasion of his hunger after long fasting; And all along the exercise of it, what contradiction did he meet with from the Scribes and Pharisees? How did he travel on his feet from place to place? Often su • ject to weariness and fainting; sometimes men will not so much as give him lodging, which he suffers patiently, and rebukes his Disciples for their impatience and preposterous zeal, Luke 9. Many calumnies and reproaches were cast upon him, He was called Beelzebub, a Deceiver, a friend of Publicans and Sinners; How did some of his fr • ends according to the flesh snarl at him, and offer to bind him as a mad man? What plots and conspiracies were laid and made to take away his life? And when it came to the upshot of all, Peter shamefully denied him, and all the other Disciples forsook him, and fled; Many other things befell him, as may be seen in the History of his Sufferings, written by the Evangelists: We read that he wept thrice, to let us know that it was his frequent and familiar exercise, And a little before his death, we read that he was in a great agony, and did therein sweat blood, and offered prayers with strong cries and tears; but we read not that he did laugh, or that ever any worldly mirth was found in him, which clearly makes out this truth, That he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

For Use, It would take the tongues of Men and Angels to speak of it, it being the most remarkable and soul-refreshing Subject that ever the world heard of, even that of which the Angels sing, Luke 2.10, 11. Good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people, that unto you is born in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord: And this shall be a sign to you, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, lying in a manger; Sure we should not sing less, but more then Angels, Men being more concerned then Angels in these things; And therefore, 1. Behold, believe and wonder, that he that was rich became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich; that he that was Lord of all, became servant to all; that he that was the infinite God, the express image of his Fathers person, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet humbled himself and became of no reputation, and took on him the form of a servant, &c. Behold (we say) believe, and wonder at this, 1. In respect of the cause it came from, to wit, everlasting love, He did and suffered all this most willingly, there was no constraint on him; But as it is, Psal. 40. He delighted to do his Fathers will; He had power to lay down his life, and to take it up again. 2. In respect of the end, it was not to add to his own glory; for as God, his Glory being infinite, it was not, neither was capable of diminution or addition, but he became poor that we might be made rich, He was a man of sorrows, that we might be made to rejoice, he wept that we might laugh, he wanted that we might have: Is not this love stooping thus lo • to be wondered at? Was there ever the like heard of? That God the great Party offended should come so low to recover the despicable Parties offending; and that even while they were rank enemies to him? God commendeth his love to us, saith the Apostle, Rom. 5.8. that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; And saith himself, John 15. Greater love hath no man then this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; But when we were enemies Christ died for us; Were it then an unsuitable use of this Doctrine, to be beholding, believing, and wondering at his love, and to be often thinking and saying, What is man that God should be so mindful of him, as to send the Heir of all things his own Son into the world, as his great Ambassador and Commissioner, to negotiat a peace betwixt himself and rebel-sinners, which he was to purchase by becoming so very low, and by suffering so very much?

2. See in this the great evil and hurt of sin, and the difficulty of making peace betwixt God and a sinner who hath provoked God; Is it a little matter that made our Lord condescend and stoop so low? O! if folk knew the evil of sin; And that ere Justice could be satisfied, the Son of God behooved to become Man, and a deeply humbled Man; The Sword of his avenging Justice behooved to awake against him, and smite the man that was his fellow, rather then that sin should go unpunished, and Justice should want satisfaction: Beware lightly to boast and brag of mercy, or to think it easy to make your peace with God; And remember that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

3. See in this, much condescending in our blessed Lord Jesus, and a motive as well as a copy of patience in him, who is content to be made of a woman, made under the Law, who submits himself unto the Law, and takes on a mean and afflicted state of life in the world; It's a wonder that Christ's members should take so ill with a mean, suffering, and hard lot, seeing their lot is far, very far from the contempt, reproaches, sorrows, weights and griefs that accompanied their Head and Lord; And it's a shame that believers minds and hearts should be set so much on these things, that he who was and is their Lord and Master, and the Heir of all things, possessed so little of; or that they should place their happiness in whole or in part in the enjoyment of these things, or their misery in the want of them; More patience under the Cross, under watchings, weariness, reproaches, &c. would become us much better, our blessed Lord Jesus had a great many moe.

4. See this to be not only a motiv • to patience in respect of outward things, but a st • pping sto • e and ground of encouragement to go forward to Christ with every want spiritual and temporal; It's much that our Lord became Man, but it's more that he became a man under griefs, afflictions, sorrows, and temptations, and was subject to death itself; And that he hath bowels of sympathy from experience of these temptations, vexations, and sorrows, as they are sinless, as is clear from Heb. 2. and 4. at the close; He knows what hunger, thirst, poverty, contempt, reproach, and persecution are; He knows what it is to be set upon with the violence of a temptation, though there was no sin in him to comply with it.

5. See here a most real Savior, since he is a suffering Savior; Why did our Lord become thus low? But that he might come under the curse, in the several degrees of it, for the satisfying of Justice for our sins; And see in every piece of Christ's suffering a reality of the grace and love of God; A reality in the Covenant and bargain of Redemption; A reality in Christ's satisfying of Justice, and performing his engagement according to the tenor of that transaction: And seeing there is a reality in this Savior, and in his suffering and satisfying of Divine Justice, and in the price that he paid to the full; Put not this Savior again to open shame, as the word is, Heb. 6.6. Trode not the Son of God underfoot, neither account the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing; Do not despite to the Spirit of Grace, as it is, Heb. 10.29. He hath suffered enough already, let him not be a sufferer again; O! grieve him not by your unbelief, but give him credit by adventuring your souls on him upon his own terms; yourselves will have the advantage and he the glory; This is the pure simple truth of the Gospel; Do not only receive it as a truth, but receive him that it holds forth, and let your hearts close with him, and your Faith feed upon him, w • o bec • me poor, that ye through his poverty mig • t be made rich; Happy they for evermore who are made rich through his poverty, and miserable are they, and muc • more miserable eternally will they be whose practice saith that they think they have another way to be happy then by his sufferings and satisfaction, and so disdain and rej • ct both him and it.

SERMON XVIII.

IF our hearts were suitably tender, the reading of these words, knowing of whom they are spoken, would some way prick and wound them; It's hard to determine, (though it may be we should not make the comparison) whether there is more grace in our Lord's condescendence, or more wickedness and perverseness in the unkind and evil meeting that he gets from sinners; But surely there is much grace on the one side in his coming so low, and much wickedness and perverseness on the other side; For what meets he with, even blessed Jesus, who is the glory and praise of all his Saints, yea, the brightness of his Fathers glory? He is despised and rejected, and we esteemed him not; Even when he thus humbled himself and took on our nature, and was and is prosecuting the work of our salvation, and evidencing his grace in an inconceivable manner.

These are the two things that are spoken of here, 1. His condescending to be a man, and a mean man, and which is yet more, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; Which if we believed, and knew really what he were, that it was even he by whom all things were created, who is the beginning of the Creation of God, the first-born of every creature, yea, he for whom all things were created, for whose glory the world and all things in it were made and continue, He for whom all things are as their last end, and through whom they are preserved in their being, and governed in their operations, and shall be seen to tend to his glory in the close; we would certainly wonder more at this his condescendence: And yet alas, it is he that is despised and rejected, and that we hid as it were our faces from, and would not give him our countenance; It is he by whom the world was made that is despised, and we esteemed him not: And this is the second thing in the words which we are now to speak to, even the abominably unsuitable meeting that men give to our Lord Jesus, who hath so far condescended, as to leave some way his Fathers Glory, not to receive a Kingdom of this World, but to be trode upon in it as a Worm: He is despised and rejected, and we will not entertain him, nor make him welcome when he cometh; We esteem him not.

Only take this advertisement for clearing of the words, and for grounding of the Doctrine, that this that is spoken of Christ's Humiliation, and man's stumbling at it, is not precisely to be restricted to his Humiliation in his own person only, and men's stumbling at that, for it is given as the reason of men their stumbling and offending at Christ in all times; But it is to be extended to Christ in his Gospel and Ordinances throughout all ages, & so it comes in as the reason why so few believe on him; If ye ask the reason why men do not now believe and receive Christ in the offer of the Gospel? Here it is, for we esteemed him not, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant; He shall be mean and contemptible-like to the men of the world, and in an afflicted condition, therefore he is not esteemed, therefore he is not believed on.

These two are the main Doctrines to be spoken to here, 1. That Jesus Christ who thus condescends and humbles himself for the salvation of lost sinners is not esteemed of, but despised and undervalued, which is implied in the words, When we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him, and is more clearly holden out in the following words, He was despised, and we esteemed him not. 2. That this undervaluing and little esteeming of Jesus Christ, is the great ground of folks unbelief, or the reason why men do not believe on him, even because they think him not worthy the receiving; two very clear truths in the words and in experience, though as sad in their consequents.

As to the 1. which is this, that our Lord Jesus Christ is usually and ordinarily exceedingly undervalued, and little esteemed of by the men of the world to whom he is offered in the Gospel; There are two things implied and supposed here in and about the Doctrine, that will clear it, and be as two reasons of it, 1. That he hath no form nor comeliness, and no beauty wherefore he should be desired; which holdeth out this that men are ordinarily taken up with, and seek after worldly grandeur or greatness, splendor and beauty, that's it that filleth men's eyes, and is that which Christ wanted, This we say is one reason why Christ is so little thought of, even because he cometh not with external pomp, observation and grandeur, nor with great temporal gifts to his followers; That which mainly is desirable to natural men is that which hath earthly beauty in it, a very deceitful consideration and ground, though such an one as men are often carried away with, and therefore they despise and reject the Savior. 2. Which is another reason of the Doctrine, and also clearly implied, that our Lord Jesus Christ's Humiliation and coming so low for man's sake, his very condescending and stooping for their good, is the great ground of their stumbling at him, and because of that he is the less thought of; Even the very hight of his grace, and that great streach thereof, that the Son of God became thus low as to become Man, a mean Man, and a Man of sorrows, is a greater ground of stumbling to men then if he had never become thus low; Now these two being supposed, and thus explained, the Doctrine is clear, to wit, that Jesus Christ that became Man, and performed the satisfaction due to the Justice of God for our sins, is usually and ordinarily disesteemed and undervalued by them to whom he is offered in the Gospel; 1. It was so under the Old Testament, and is so likewise under the New; What is almost all the Gospel spent on? But to hold out Christ upon the one side to be a man of sorrows, and upon the other side to show that men esteemed him not: How was he undervalued at his birth when his Mother was thrust out to a Stable, and he laid in a Manger? And no sooner doth he appear in the exercise of his public Ministry, but his friends offend at him, and look on him as a distracted man, Mark 3. His Country-men contemn him, and were offended at him, Mark 6. Is not this (say they) the Carpenter, the Son of Mary, the brother of James and Joses? And how was he esteemed, or rather disesteemed and undervalued at his death; So that it is said, Acts 3.14. They denied the holy and just one, and desired that a murderer should be granted unto them; They rejected the Prince of Life, and chose Barabbas; And judging him not worthy to live, they cry away with him; Hence our Lord saith, Matth. 11. Blessed is he that is not offended in me, which insinuats that there were but very few to whom his Humiliation proved not a Stumbling-block. 2. If we consult experience we will find this to be true, how little is he thought of among Turks? amongst whom his precious Name is blasphemed, though they pretend more respect to him then mere Heathens do: How little is he thought of among the Jews? who call him a Deceiver: And if we come nearer, even to the Christian Church, and to such as profess their Faith of his being the Eternal Son of God, equal with the Father, that he is Judge of quick and dead, and that they look for Salvation through him, yet if it be put to a trial, how few are they that will be found to esteem of him aright? since there are but few that believe the report that is made of him, but few that receive him as he is offered in the Gospel, few that have but such respect to him as to prefer him to their Idols, and that give him the first and chief seat in their hearts: And if we consider how little eager pursuing there is after him that he may be enjoyed, and how indifferent folks are whether they have or want him; How many things men dote upon and prefer to Jesus Christ, as the Lord complains, Jer. 2.13. My people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and have digged to themselves cisterns, even broken cisterns that can hold no water, the thing will be clear beyond all debate. We may take in another Branch of the Doctrine here, when he saith, We esteemed him not; and it is this, that even Believers are in so far as unrenewed, inclined and not without culpable accession to this same sin of undervaluing of Jesus Christ; It's indeed true that the Apostle Peter saith in his 1 Epist. Chap. 2. Vers. 7. To you that believe he is precious; Which place, though it confirm the first part of the Doctrine, that to them that believe not he is not precious, but a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; albeit that Believers being compared with Unbelievers, have some precious esteem of Jesus Christ, yet if we consider the corrupt nature that in part cleaves to them, and the degree of their estimation of him, that it's but very little and low in respect of what it should be, and the many peevish fits, too's and fro's, up's and down's that they are subject to, with the many suspicions and jealousies they have of him; so that though they were just now fresh and lively in the exercise of their Faith, and of their estimation of Christ, yet within a little, even by and by, they give way again to their jealousies, the Doctrine will also hold true of them, we esteemed him not.

We shall give the second Doctrine (and then speak to the use of both jointly) which is this, That there is nothing more culpably accessory to the abounding of Unbelief, then the poor thoughts and little estimation that Men have of Jesus Christ; the undervaluing of him is the great ground and reason why they believe not on him; and on the contrary, if the Hearers of the Gospel had higher thoughts, and a more precious esteem of Christ, and valued him according to his invaluable worth, there would be more believing in him then there is: When the Gospel comes to invite Men to the Wedding, Matth. 22. when Christ is roosed and commended as to what he is, what he hath purchased, and what he freely offereth to Sinners, it's said, that those who were bidden made light of it, and went away, one to his farm, another to his merchandice, &c. when Christ was spoken of, and the offer of Life through him, they undervalued and despised it, and made light of the offer, and therefore turned their backs, for they thought more of the House, of the Oxen, of the Farm, and of the married Wife, then they thought of him: And Acts 17. when Paul is preaching Christ at Athens, the Philosophers and Orators, these learned Heads, despise and disdain him as a setter forth of some strange and uncouth god: If we compare this with its contrary, it will be further clear, to wit, wherever there is estimation of Christ, it proves a help to Faith and a ground of it; so where ever Christ is lightlied, disesteemed and undervalued, it breeds in Folk, and is a ground to them of these three. 1. It cools, or rather keeps cool their love and affection to him; where he is disesteemed and undervalued, he cannot be loved, and People in that case become like these that are brought in Jer. 44.17. saying, It was better with as when we did bake cakes to the queen of heaven; the Lord is counted by them to be as a wilderness and land of darkness, and they say, as it is Jer. 2.31. We are lords, and will come no more unto thee; and when Men esteem not Christ, they seek not after him, they care not for an interest in him, they trust not to him; when a Man valueth a Pearl, he will readily sell all that he hath that he may buy it, but that which is not esteemed, there will be no care to come by it. 2. It hath influence to obstruct Folks giving him credit, which is of the very essence of Faith; so then, where he is not esteemed of, he is not, he cannot be believed on; the former says, that we will not marry him, this says, we will not trow him, nor trust the reality of his offer: Where he is not esteemed of, he is not taken up to be real, in good earnest, and faithful in what he says; His offers are looked upon as having neither solidity nor reality in them, therefore Rev. 19. these two are put together, first its said, Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb; and then it is subjoined, these are the true and faithful sayings of God; so that when Christ is not esteemed of, he is not thought worthy the crediting and lippening to; And it's on this ground that the Lord founds his contraversie with his professing People, Jer. 2.5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity and are become vain? they undervalued his word, they thought him not worthy credit, and therefore they turned the back on him; the same is insinuated by the Lord, Micah 6.3. O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. 3. This little esteem of Christ weakens hope or expectation of any good that Men may have from him; when we esteem him not, there is no expectation of getting our need supplied, and our wants made up by him, nor of attaining in him the Happiness that we would be at, and therefore there are no serious addresses made to him for the same: These three, Love to him, Trust in him, hope from and through him, being the prime Graces in a Christian, when they are weakened, Unbelief most certainly in so far prevaileth; and it being Christ's worthiness, and the estimation thereof that gives ground to all these; then sure, when he is not esteemed but undervalued, these must also fall in their exercise, and be in utter non-entry where he is altogether undervalued: Now, laying all these together, there can hardly be anything more culpably accessory to the abounding of Unbelief then the undervaluing of precious Jesus Christ; it's impossible that he can be cordially welcomed where he is not at all esteemed of.

As for Uses of these Doctrines, they are of large extent, serving to make manifest a root of bitterness, and a great neck-break of multitudes of Souls, and which Men and Women will not easily be persuaded to believe. Let this therefore be the 1. Use of it, To discover a great Sin that is incident to the Hearers of this Gospel; among many other things that may be charged on them, this is one and not the least, even little estimation of Jesus Christ, so little, that when he is speaking, they count him scarce worthy the hearing; hence is the slumbering and sleeping of so many when he is preached of, which holds out something of the nature of all Men and Women; this despising, undervaluing, and thinking little of Christ, is a Sin that may for a long time cleave fast and close to the Hearers of the Gospel, and doth so to many to their very dying day. It may be ye will think this a strange and uncoath ch • rge, and that whoever disesteem him, ye do certainly esteem him much, but it were better ye were seriously and humbly saving with the Prophet here, He was despised and we esteemed him not: There are many who never once suspect themselves as guilty of, or chargeable with this evil; for whose conviction, let me speak but a few words, Is there not such a bitter root in you? If it be natural to all Men and Women, how comes it to pass that ye are free of it? Is there nothing of the seed of the Serpent in you? and if there be, will there not be hatred at the seed of the Woman in you? are ye any other sort of Hearers then they were to whom this is spoken? were they not Hearers of the Gospel as well as ye? nay he speaks here of Hearers of the Gospel in all Ages, and yet ye will disdain to take with this Sin, and will account it to be an uncouth, if not an unjust charge and imputation, to say of you that ye are undervaluers and despisers of Christ; but the reason of it is twofold, the first whereof is, Because ye know not what Christ's worth is, and therefore ye do neither esteem him, nor know that ye disesteem and undervalue him; whereas they who have win to some knowledge of his worth, are always, or very often complaining that they cannot get him suitably thought of and esteemed. The second Reason is, Because ye know not yourselves, and therefore ye take self-love and estimation of yourselves to be love to him and estimation of him; ye think yourselves so well, that ye cannot endure to think that ye want any Grace or good thing; and estimation of Christ being a good thing, and ye thinking that ye could not hold up your face and own the reproaching and despising of him, ye will not let it light that ye want this Grace and good thing, a precious esteem of him: But there is no greater evidence that ye are lying under the power of the deceit and delusion of your own Hearts, that your natural distemper and Feaver is not yet cooled and calmed, but that ye are still roving in Nature; and therefore, though ye be living in enmity at God and Christ, yet ye cannot be made sensible of it; we really think it somewhat strange, that Men and Women should live twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years under the Gospel, and yet never be brought to groan under this enmity, nor to lay to heart this Sin of undervaluing of Christ: But if it be a truth that none naturally do love and esteem him, then certainly many of you are grossly mistaken, that think ye esteem highly of him; Ah! your fancied esteem of him will be counted an undervaluing of him.

And if ye ask, What is that to undervalue Christ, or when is he undervalued? I answer, He is undervalued 1. When he is not matched with or married, when ye match with himself, whereof he maketh offer, is not closed with upon his own terms; for what I pray can hinder the ending of a Bargain, or finishing a Marriage contract, especially when it's so full, free, and rich on the Proposer and Suiters part, but either that Folk think it is not fit for them, or that they think nothing of it at all? and this is it that hinders closing with Christ, Matth. 22. They made light of it and went away, &c. and Psal. 81. My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. 2. When anything is made equal to Christ, much more when anything is preferred to him, he is undervalued and not esteemed of; when he gets little or none of Folks care and labor, little of their time, little of their love and delight, few or none of their thoughts, &c. but they are quite carried away after other things, for where the treasure is, there the heart will be also; and were Christ our Treasure, and precious in our esteem, our Hearts would be more set on him; but it's strange, sad, and even astonishing to think, how little our Spirits are exercised with the thoughts of Christ; how little they are taken up with longing for him and delighting in him, and yet we will think that we esteem him. 3. Our Lord is undervalued when he is not made use of, and employed, and lippened to as an able and sufficient Savior; If there be a learned and skillful Physician in a City in all or most Diseases, or an able Lawyer to plead all Causes; if Folk have Diseases to be cured, and Causes to be pleaded, and yet do not employ such a Physician or such a Lawyer, but go to some other, though far less skillful and able, they undervalue him; It is even so here, when Folks have many Sins, and they seek not to him for Pardon, many, not only Temporal wants, but also and mainly, many Spiritual wants, and do not acknowledge him in them, neither seek to him for supply of them, many predominant Evils, and they seek not to him to mortify them, many Snares and Temptations, and they do not make use of him to prevent and lead them by them, and many Spiritual Causes to be pleaded before God, or at his Bar, and they do not employ him as Advocate to plead for them. 4. He is undervalued when Folk think not themselves happy enough in him, nor sicker enough in bargaining with him, and when he doth not satisfy and fully content them, as if he were yea and nay, and as if all the promises were not yea and amen in him; when he is not credited entirely, and rested upon, he is not esteemed of, hence he complains John 5. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life: and Matth. 23. How often would I have gathered you and ye would not? he would, to say so with reverence, fain do them a good turn, but they will not lippen to him. O! how much undervaluing of Christ is there even among believers, when they hold and draw with him, entertain jealousies and suspicions of him, scarcely credit him, and when they do at any time credit him, are in a manner ready to take back their word again; How often are Creature-comforts overvalued by them? And how often are the consolations of God small with them? These and many other ways are they, even they, in some considerable measure and degree guilty of undervaluing of Christ.

Use 2. Take with this sin, acknowledge and seek pardon for it,; It were a good token of some tenderness, to be mourning for enmity against Christ, and for undervaluing of him, as well as for Drunkenness, Fornication, Theft, or any other gross sin; And where that gracious and right mourning that is spoken of, Zech. 12.10. comes, it will be in special for this undervaluing of Christ to the hight of piercing of him: We would ask any of you that think ye repent, if this sin of slighting him hath pierced you as it did these, Acts 2? It may be, some think themselves so cleanly and perfect that they have not many sins to mourn for, O! dreadful mistake; But though ye had no more, is not this enough that ever there should have been enmity in your bosom at Christ? And should not this prick you at the very heart that ever ye should have so undervalued him? But readily they that see fewest sins in themselves, will see and take with least of this sin.

Use 3. It serves to be a warning to all men in nature, to consider what their condition is; Do ye that have this enmity, and are undervaluers of Christ, know what is in your hearts? And do ye consider what posture ye will be found in, if Grace make not a change, in the day of Christ? ye will be found amongst these despisers and haters that would not have him to reign over them; How will you dar to appear, or in what posture will ye appear before him, when he whom ye despised, shall come in the glory of his Father with all the holy Angels with him, and shall sit upon the Throne of his glory? And yet appear ye must; How will the conscience then gnaw, and the heart be affrighted? How will challenges waken, yea, sting and prick you on this ground, that the Son of God, the Heir of all things, the Lord of lords, and King of kings, who proposed Marriage to you, was undervalued, and Marriage with him made light of, and that a thing of naught was put in his room and place? Will not this be a horrible challenge in that day? And if ye would consider what will be their posture that mocked and buffeted him, and plucked off his hair, that nodded with the head, and cried Aha, and bade him come down from the Cross, that did scourge him, and hang him up upon the Cross betwixt two Thieves; Such a posture will all of you be in who have despised and disesteemed him; ye will meet with that same sad sentence, Bring out these mine enemies that would not that I should reign ever them, and slay them before me; O! what a strange punishment suppose ye will that be, when the Savior of sinners shall stand by and look on till he see vengeance execute on sinners that despised him? Think on it, for there is such a day coming, when ye will all appear before him, and when your reckonings will be cast up; suffer not yourselves to be cheated into an opinion that it will be accounted a little sin to be found under this guilt of despising Christ, and let not one of you put it off himself, and over upon another; they will be found despisers of him that would never let it light, nay even many that have Preached him, and that would have been angry at profanity in others, as may be gathered from Mat. 7.22.

The 4. Use serves to commend this to you as a piece of your duty, to study to know Christ, and to have the suitable impression of Christ and of his worth as the great mean contributive to the bringing you to credit him, and believe on him, and to the removing a main obstruction that hinders your Faith, and that is the undervaluing of him; For if undervaluing of him be the great cause of unbelief, and that which mainly obstructs Faith; then the esteeming of him from a due impression of his worth, must be a great mean of, and help to Faith, and the more he be esteemed of, the more will he be believed on: It hath an attractive virtue to draw sinners to love him, a screwing virtue to screw up the affections towards him; and withal a fixing and establishing virtue to settle and stay the Soul upon him by believing; the soul that from the right impression of his worth esteems of him, knows that it may lippen to him, for he is holy and true; And hence it is, that the great thing that believers take to ground their prayers upon, is some excellency in God, someone or other of his Titles and Attributes upon which they fix, to bear them up under and against any difficulty that presseth hard upon them; This fixes also their hope and expectation of attaining of any good thing that they want through him: And therefore upon the one side we would commend to you the study of Christ's worth, and upon the other, an high estimation of him, as that which will fix your Faith, and Love, and Hope on him; This we see to be in a high degree in Paul, Philip. 3. I account all things (saith he) to be but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of him, and his transcendent worth, ye would not think it lost labor, to read and study these places of Scripture, that show what our Lord Jesus is in his Person, Nature, and Offices, that ye may have the Faith of his God-head fixed, and may be clear as to the excelling fullness that is in him; as namely that of Isai. 9.6. To us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, of whose Kingdom and Government there shall be no end; And to study his excellent Properties, his Eternity, Omnipotency, Faithfulness, Mercy, &c. common to him with the Father and Holy Ghost; and the excellent qualifications that as Mediator he is replenished with; being full of grace and truth, and in all things having the preeminency; See Col. 1. John 1.14. and Heb. 1.2, 3. &c. The reason why we press you to this, is not only that ye may have more clear Theory and Contemplation; But also and mainly that your affections may be delighted in him, and that your Faith may without hink or hesitation come to give him credit; Ignorance of Christ breeds disestimation, and disestimation makes you not to give him credit, and thus ye are kept at a distance from him; There is no study more pleasant, more precious, and more profitable. There is here then a task for you that ask what ye shall do; even to read and study the excellency of Jesus Christ, and to labor to have it well fixed in the imagination of the thoughts of your hearts; It will give you notable direction what to do, even that which is well-pleasing to God, and may be very profitable to you through his blessing.

Use 5. See here the great necessity and conveniency of studying the disestimation of Christ that is in us, as well as of studying the worth that is in him, and what he hath out of love suffered for us; These two are put together in the Text; it being needful for us to be as well acquainted with the one as with the other: We shall give you this use in two short Doctrines, The 1. whereof is, That it is a necessary duty for the hearers of the Gospel to study thoroughly, and to be convinced of, and clear in their disestimation of Christ, as well as of his worth and excellency, because it maketh up repentance, and maketh it flow, and thoroughly humbleth the sinner when he findeth this desperate wickedness and perverseness to be in himself, and maketh him kindly to loath and abhor himself; and unless this desperate wickedness be seen and felt, that great and bitter mourning spoken of, Zech. 12.10. will never flow forth.

The 2. is, That where folk have any just estimation of Christ and of his worth, and are sensible of the evil of unbelief, there will also be some sense of the sin of undervaluing of him, and the more sense they have of the evil of unbelief, they will be the more sensible of their undervaluing of him; And will with the Prophet here cry out, He was despised, and we esteemed him not: And from both these ye may see the necessity of studying to find out this corruption; the search and discovery whereof, will in-sight you in the evil and perverseness of your nature, and so deeply humble you; and also serve highly to commend Christ and his Grace to you; and without the discovery of this corruption, it's impossible ever to be humble thoroughly, or to have right thoughts of Christ and of his Grace.

Use 6. It serves to let us see the necessity of believing in Christ, and of the employing of him; because there is no other way to be free of the challenges of misprising and not esteeming of him, but by receiving of him, and believing on him.

A 7th Use may be added, and it's this, That the moe there be that despise Christ, and the greater difficulty there be in believing on him, the more reason have they to be thankful that he graciously works any suitable estimation of himself in, and brings them to believe on him; These who have gotten any glimpse of his Glory which hath lifted him high in their estimation to the drawing forth of their faith and love after him, would praise him for it; It's he, and only he that opened your eyes to see him, and gave you that estimation of him, and circumcised your hearts to love him; let him therefore have all the praise and glory of it; This is the Word of God, and himself bless it to you through Jesus Christ.

SERMON XIX.

THis is a most wonderful Subject that the Prophet is here discoursing of, even that which concerneth the sufferings of our blessed Lord Jesus, by way of prediction several hundreds of years before his Incarnation; It was much that he was to be a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; But this was more, that he was despised, and we esteemed him not; There is wonderful grace upon the one side, that our Lord became so very low, and wonderful contempt and enmity on the other side, that we despised him, and esteemed him not, even because of his lowness.

In the words now read, and forward, the Prophet sets himself to remove the offense that men took at our Lord's Humiliation, by showing them, that although he became so low, yet he was not to be the less esteemed of for that; And the ground which he lays down to remove the offense, is in the first words of the Text, which in sum is this, that there was nothing in himself wherefore he should have been brought so low, there was no sin in him, neither was there any guile found in his mouth, but he was graciously pleased to take on him that which we should have born; and therefore men ought not to stumble and offend at his stooping to bear that which would with its weight have crushed them eternally, and thereby to make their peace with God: in the 6. verse. he shows how it came to pass that he stooped so low, All we (saith he) like sheep have gone astray, and turned everyone of us to our own way, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all; We had lost ourselves, and God in the depth of his eternal wisdom, love, and good-will, found out the way to save us; wherein (to speak so) a Covenant was transacted betwixt God and the Mediator, who becomes Cautioner for our sins, which are transferred on him: From the 7. verse. to the 10. verse. he goes on in showing the execution of this transaction, and how the Cautioner performed all according to his engagement; And from the 10. verse. to the close, we have the promises made to him for his satisfaction: The scope is, as to remove the scandal of the Cross, so to hold out our Lord's pursuing the work of satisfaction to the Justice of God for elect sinners, and the good success he had in it.

In the 4, and 5. verses we have three things, 1. This ground asserted, Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows. 2. Men's enmity aggreged from this, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted; In the very mean time that he condescended to stoop so low for us, and to bear that which we should have born, we esteemed but little of him, we looked on him as a plagued man. 3. This is more fully explained, verse. 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, He was so handled for our sins, and the chastisement of our peace was on him, that which made our peace with God was on him, By his stripes we are healed, the stripes that wounded and killed him cured us.

We have here then, rather as it were a sad narration, then a Prophesy of the Gospel holding out a part of our Lord's sufferings, yet a clear foundation of the consolation of the people of God; it being the ground of all our Faith of the pardon of sin, of our peace with God, and of our confident appearing before him, that our Lord was content to be thus dealt with, and to give his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.

We shall clear the words in the assertion, which will serve to clear the words of the whole Chapter, and also of the Doctrines to be drawn from it. 1. The thing that Christ bare is called griefs and sorrows, by which we understand the effects that sin brings on men in the world, for its the same that in the 5. verse. is called his being wounded for our transgression, and bruised for our iniquity; It's a wounding that iniquity causeth, and meritoriously procureth; It's not sin itself, but the effect of sin, to wit, the punishment the sorrow and grief that sin brings with it, called griefs and sorrows; Partly because grief and sorrow is necessarily joined with sin, partly to show the extremity and exceeding greatness of this grief and sorrow, and the bitter fruits that sin hath with it. 2. How is it said that Christ hath born and carried their griefs and sorrows? By this we understand, not only Christ's removing of them, as he removed sickness and diseases, as it is said, Matth. 8.16, 17. But also and mainly his actual and real enduring of them, as the phrase is frequently used in Scripture; That man shall bear his iniquity, or he shall bear his sin, Levite. 5. and many other places; It sees out a real inflicting of the punishment that sin deserves, on him. 3. That it is said our griefs, and our sorrows, it is not needlessly or superfluously set down, but to meet with the offense that men take at Christ's humbling himself so low; As if he had said, What aileth you to stumble at Christ's coming so low, and being so afflicted? It was not for his own sins, but for ours, that he was so handled; And they are called our griefs and sorrows, 1. Because we by our sins procured them, they were our deserving, and due to us, the debt was ours, though he as our Cautioner took it on himself. 2. Because though the Elect have distinct reckonings, and peculiar sins, some moe, some fewer, some greater, some lesser, yet they are all put on Christ's account; there is a combination of them, a gathering of them all on him, as the word is, verse. 6. He hath laid on him, or made to meet on him the iniquities of us all.

The meaning then of the assertion is this; Surely this is the cause of Christ's Humiliation, and this makes him not only to become Man, but to be a mean poor Man, and to have a comfortless and afflicted life in the World, that he hath taken on him that Punishment, Curse and Wrath that was due to us for our Sins; and therefore he ought not to be offended and stumbled at.

Now because Socinians, the great Enemies of Christ's satisfaction, and of the comfort of his People, labor to elude this place, and to make Christ only an exemplary Savior, and deny that he really and actually did undergo these Griefs and Sorrows for the Sins of his Elect; We shall a little clear and confirm the exposition we have given; the question is not about the taking away of Sin, but about the manner of removing it; They say that it is by God's pardoning of it without a Satisfaction; We say it is by Christ's Satisfaction; So the difficulty in expounding the words, is whether to expound them of Christ's removing our Sorrows and Griefs from us, or of his bearing of them for our Sin, and so really taking it away: And that this Scripture means not of a simple removing of them, as he did remove Sickness, Matth 8.17. but by a real taking them on himself, and bearing of of them in order to the satisfaction of the Justice of God for our Sins: We shall give these Reasons to confirm it. 1. Because these words are to be understood of such a bearing of Sorrows and Griefs as made Christ to be contemptible and despised before others, This is clear from the scope, for they are given as a reason why Christ was rejected and despised as a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief, and why Men should not stumble at him for all that, because it was for them; now, if he had only removed Sorrows from them as he did Sicknesses, it had not been a cause of his Sorrow and Grief, nor of any Mans stumbling at him, but had been rather a cause of his exaltation in Men's esteem; But its given here as a cause of that which went before in the first part of the 3. Verse, and also as a reason why Men should not stumble at him, and withal as an aggravation of their guil • who did stumble at him: Now it's clear that the ground of the Jews despising and mocking of him, was nor his removing of Sicknesses and Diseases, but his seeming to be given over unto Deaths power. 2. Because that which is called here, bearing of sorrows and griefs, is in the words following, called, a being wounded for our transgressions, which imports not only that h • was wounded, but that our Iniquities were the cause of his being wounded, and that the desert of them was laid on him. 3. This wounding is holden forth, to be the stripes whereby we are healed; and all we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all; we did the wrong but he made the amends; and it was such a wounding as proves a cure to us, and makes way for our peace and reconciliation with God; and such, as without it, there is no healing for us, for by his stripes we are healed; it's by his swallowing up of the river and torrent of Wrath that was in our way and would have drowned us eternally, had not he interposed for us, that we escape. 4. Consider the parallel places to this in the New Testament, and we will find that this place holds our Christ's re • l and actual bearing of our Sorrows and and Griefs; I shall only name three, The 1. Is that of the 2 Cor. 5.21. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, which can be no other way exponed but of Christ's being made an Offering and Sacrifice for our Sins; he not being a Sinner himself, but becoming our Cautioner and engaging to pay our Debt, and to tell down the price for the satisfaction of Divine Justice; he is reckoned to be the Sinner, and our Sins are imputed to him, and he is dealt with as a Sinner. A 2d place is that of Gal. 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us, as it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree; The Sorrows and Griefs that Isaiah says here he should bear, are there exponed by the Apostle, to be, his being made a Curse, or his bearing of the Curse that we should have born; it's not meant simply of his removing the Curse from us, but it also sets out the manner how he removed, to wit, by his own bearing of it himself, being nailed to the Cross, according to the threatening given out before. The 3d. place is that of 1 Pet. 2.24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree; where there is a direct reference to this place of Isaiah, which is cited for confirmation of what the Apostle saith, and every word is full and hath a special signification and emphasis in it, He his own self bare, the same word that is here, and our sins, and in his own body, and on the tree; intimating the lowest step of his Humiliation, by whose stripes ye were healed, for ye were as sheep going astray, &c. by his bearing of our Sins the burden of Sin was taken off us, and we are set free.

I know that place of Matth. 8.17. hath its own difficulty, and therefore I shall speak a word for clearing of it; he hath spoken verse. 16. of Christ's healing all that were sick, and then subjoins in the 17. verse. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses; whereupon these enemies of Christ would infer, that this place of Scripture hath no other, nor further meaning, but of Christ's curing of some sick Folks, and of the deputed or committed power which he hath to pardon sins; but we suppose that the reasons which we have already given, make it clear, that this cannot be the meaning of the place, to which we shall add first. A Reason or two, and secondly, Give you the true meaning of it.

The Reasons why one cannot be the meaning of the place, are 1. Because Acts 8.32. this Scripture is spoken of as being daily a fulfilling by Christ, and therefore it could not be fulfilled in these few days wherein he was in the Flesh upon Earth. 2. Because this bearing of our Griefs and Sorrows is such a piece of Christ's Humiliation, as thereby he took on all the Griefs and Sorrows of all the Elect at once, both of these who lived in Isaiah his time, and of these who lived before, and since his time, and therefore cannot be restricted to the curing of Temporal Diseases in the days wherein he was on Earth, nay, not to the pardoning of the Sins of the Elect then living, there being many El • ct before and since comprehended in this his Satisfaction, which was most certainly a Satisfaction for the Sins of the Elect that were dead and to be born, as well as for the Sins of them that were then living.

2. For the meaning of the place, 1. We are not to look on Christ's curing of Sicknesses and Diseases, Matth. 8 16. as a proper fulfilling of this place, Isa 52.4. but as many Scriptures are spoken by way of allusion to other Scriprures, so is this; there is indeed some fulfilling of the one in the other, and some resemblance betwixt the one and the other, and the resemblance is this, even to show Christ's tenderness to the outward condition of Folks bodies, whereby he evidenced his tenderness and respect to the inward sad condition of their immortal Souls whereinto they were brought through their Sin; the great thing aimed at by the Prophet. 2. If we consider the Griefs and Sorrows that Christ bare and suffered complexly in their cause and eff • cts, he in healing of these Diseases and Sicknesses bare our Griefs and carried our Sorrows, because when he took on our Debt, he took it on with all the consequences of it; and so though Christ took on no Disease in his own Person, for we read not that he was ever sick, yet in taking on the Debt in common of the Elect, he virtually took on all Sicknesses and Diseases, or what they suffered in all Diseases or should have suffered, he took it on together; and hereby he had a right, to speak so, to the carrying of all Diseases, and in carrying of them he had respect to the cause of them, to wit, Sin; therefore to such as he cured, he says very often, Thy sins be forgiven thee; he studied to remove that in most of them he did deal with; and so looking on our Lord as taking on our Sins complexly with the cause, and as having a right to remove all the effects of Sin, evidencing itself in the removing of these Diseases whereof Sin was the cause, these words may be thus fulfilled; and so they are clear, and the Doctrine also; We have here no mere exemp • ary Savior that hath done no more but confirmed his Doctrine, and given us a copy how to do and behave, but he hath really and actually born our Sorrows and Griefs, and removed our Debt, by undergoing the punishment due to us for Sin.

Observe here 1. That Sin, in no Flesh, no, not in the Elect themselves, is without Sorrow and Grief; Tribulation and Anguish are knit to it, or it hath these following on it; or take the Doctrine thus, Wherever there is Sin, there is the cause of much Sorrow and Grief; no more can the native cause be without the effect, then Sin can be without Sorrow and Grief, it's the plain assertion of Scripture. Rom. 2.8, 9. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil; which one place, putting the four words together says, 1. That there is Sorrow most certainly and inseparably on every Soul that hath sinned, And 2. That this Sorrow is exceeding great (which may also be the reason why this Sorrow is set out in two words in the Text) therefore four words are used by the Apostle to express it: It's not our purpose here to dispute, whether God in his Justice doth by necessity of Nature punish the Sinner: These three things considered, will make out the Doctrine, which is, That there is a necessary connection betwixt S • n and Sorrow, and that this Sorrow must needs be very great; 1. If we consider the exceeding unsuitableness of Sin to the holy Law of God, and how it is a direct contrariety to that most pure and perfect Law. 2. If we consider the perfectly holy Nature of God himself, The righteous Lord saith the P • almist, Psal. 11.7. loveth righteousness; and the Prophet Hab. 1.13. says, He is of purer eyes then that be can behold evil, and he cannot look upon iniquity; and though we need no • to dispute God's Sovereignty, yet it is clear that he is angry with the wicked every day, Psal. 7.11. and he will by no means clear the guilty, Exod. 34.7. and tha • there is a greater suitableness in his inflicting Sorrow and Grief on a Sinner that walks contrary to him, then there is in showing him Mercy; and there is a greater suitableness in his showing Mercy to a humbled Sinner that is aiming to walk holily before him. 3. If we consider the revealed will of God in the Threatning, who hath said, the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die, we may say there is, as they speak in the Schools, a hypothetick necessity of grief and sorrow to follow on Sin, and that there is a necessary connection betwixt them; and this may very well stand with the Mediator his coming in and interposing to take that Grief and Sorrow from off us, and to lay it on himself; but it was once ours because of our Sin.

If it be ask • d w • at Grief and Sorrow this is? We said it's very great, and there is reason for it, for though our act of Sin. 1. As to the Subject that Sins, Man. And 2. As to the act of • in itself, a sinful thought word or deed that is soon gone, be finite; yet if we consider Sin, 1. In respect of the object • gainst whom, the infinite God. 2. In respect of the absolute purity of God's Law, a rule that bears ou • G • ds Image set down by infinite Wisdom, and that may be some way called infinitely pure; and Sin as being against this pure rule that infinite Wisdom hath set down; And 3. If we consider it in no respect of its nature, every sin being of this nature that though it cannot properly wrong the Majesty of God, yet as to the intention of the thing, and even of the Sinner, it wrongs him; Sin in these respects may be called infinite, and the wrong done to the Majesty of God thereby, may be called infinite; as these who built Babel, their intention in that work breathed forth infinite wrong to God, as having a direct tendency to bring them off from dependence on him; and so every Sin if it had its will and intent, would put God in subordination to it, and set itself in his room, and therefore Sin in some respect as to the wrong against God is infinite.

2. Observe, That the real and very great Sorrow that the Sins of the Elect deserved, our Lord Jesus did realty and actually bear and suffer; as we have exponed the words and confirmed the exposition given of them, ye have a clear confirmation of the Doctrine from them; 1. Griefs and Sorrows in the plural Number, show intensness of Sorrow and Grief. 2. That they are called ours, it shows our propriety in them, And 3. That it's said Christ bare them; These concur to prove the Doctrine; that the same Sorrow which the Sins of the Elect deserved Christ bare; It not only says that our Lord bare Sorrows, but the same Sorrows that by the Sins of the Elect were due to them, and so there was a proportionableness betwixt the Sorrows that he bare, and the Sorrows they should have endured; he took up the cup of Wrath that was filled for us, and that we would have been put to drink, and drank it out himself; suppose that our Lord had never died (as blessed be his Name, there is no ground to make the supposi • ion) the cup of S • rrow that the Elect would have drunken eternally, was the same cup that he drank our for them: It is true, we would distinguish betwixt these things that are essentially due to Sin as the punishment of it; and these things that are only accidentally due to it, the former Christ bare but not the latter; To clear both in a word or two, 1. These things essentially due to Sin as necessarily included in the Threatning. The day thou eatest thou shalt surely die; and in the curse of the Law according to that, Cursed is everyone that abides not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them, are Death and the Curse, these are essentially the desert of Sin; in which respect it was not only necessary that Christ should become Man and •• ffer, but that he should suffer to death or sh • uld die, and not only so, but that he should die the cursed death of the Cross, as the Threatning and Curse put together hold out; and as to all these things that he underwent and met with before, and at his death, they were the accomplishment of the Threatning due to us, and fulfilled in and by him in our room; so that as he himself saith, Luke 24.26. O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered into his glory? therefore he behooved to be in an Agony, and to sweat great drops of Blood, to be crucified and die, and to be laid in the Grave. 2. These things which we call accidentally due to Sin, are mainly two, 1. That horrible desperation of the damned in He • l, where they gnaw their tongues for pain and blaspheme God; This we say is not properly and essentially the desert of Sin, but only accidental; 1. In respect of the Creatures inability to bear the wrath that Sin deserveth, and hence ariseth not only a sinless horror which is natural, but a sinful desperation. 2. Add to this inability of the Creature, the enmity thereof, whereby it cometh to thwart with and contradict the will of God; hence the desperation not only ariseth but is increased: Now, our Lord Jesus not being simply a Creature or a Man, but God and Man in one Person, he was able to bear the sorrow and wrath due to the Elect for their Sin; and and there being no quarrel, nor ground of any quarrel betwixt God and him on his own account, though he had a natural and sinless horror at the cup of his Fathers displeasure when put to his head; yet he had no sinful desperation. The 2d. thing accidentally due to Sin, is the eternal duration of Wrath or of the Curse, because the Sinner being a mere Creature, cannot at one shoke meet with the infinite Wrath of God, and satisfy Justice at once, therefore the Lord hath in his Wisdom and Justice found out a way of supporting the Creature in its being, and continuing it forever under wrath, because it cannot, being finite, satisfy infinite Justice: But our Lord being God and Man, being of infinite worth or value, and of infinite strength, was also to satisfy Justice, and bear at once, that which the El • ct could never have born; yet he had the essentials of that which sin deserved, to wit, death and the curse to meet with, and did actually meet with them, as the hiding of his Fathers face, and the suspending and keeping back of that consolation, that by virtue of the personal union flowed from the God-head to the Man-head; And he also had the actual sense and feeling of the wrath of God, the awaked Sword of the Justice of God actually smiting him; so that men wondered how he could be dead so soon. We shall only add a word or two of reasons for clearing and confirming the Doctrine; and for proof of it, these three things concur, 1. That sins deserving by God's appointment, is to have sorrow following on it. 2 That by God's appointment according to the Covenant of Redemption, the Son of God undertook that same very debt that was due by the Elect. And 3. That it was God's design not to pass one of their sins without satisfaction made to Justice, but to put at the Cautioner for them all; for the declaration of the riches and glory of the free grace of God when the sinner is liberat, and not put to pay; An • for the declaration of the holy severity and justice of God, when not one farthing is owing, but the Cautioner must needs pay it, and that both these meeting together, there may be to all generations a standing and shining evidence of the unsearchable riches both of God's Grace and of his Justice.

This is a sweet Doctrine, and hath many massy, substantial, and soul refreshing uses: Out of this eater comes meat, and out of the strong comes sweet; This being the very marrow of the Gospel, holding out not only Christ's sufferings, but that he suffered not at random or by guess, but that he suffered the sorrows and griefs that we should have suffered; and though the equivalent might have been received, yet he would needs undergo the same sufferings in their essentials: Which may exceedingly confirm the Faith and Hope of believers in him, of their exemption and freedom from the wrath and curse of God, seeing he suffered the same that they should have suffered, had not he interposed betwixt them and it as their Cautioner and Surety.

Use 1. Hereby we may know what an evil and bitter thing sin is that hath such effects; Would God we could once prevail this far with you, as to make you take up and believe, that sin hath sorrow and grief inseparably knit to it, and that the sinner is miserable and liable to death, and to the curse of God, and there is no difference but this, that sinners are insensible how miserable they are, and so in greater capacity to be made obnoxious to that misery; Do ye mind this, O sinners, that God is angry with you every day? That indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish is to every soul of man that does evil? That God will by no means clear the guilty? Tremble to think upon it; Many of you pass as gay honest folks who will be found in this Roll: And would ye know your condition, and the hazard that ye run? It's of wrath and of the curse of God eternally with desperation and blasphemy; And if that be misery, sin is misery, or brings it; And the day comes when there shall be a storm from Heaven of Fire and Thunder; that will melt the Elements above you, and not leave a stone upon a stone of these stately buildings on earrh about you; in which day sinners will be confirmed in the belief of this truth, That it is an evil and bitter thing to depart from the living God.

To press this Use a little; There are two sorts of sinners, who, if they would soberly let the truth of this Doctrine sink in their minds, they would see their folly: The 1. sort are these who • lie quietly under bygone guilt unrepented of, as if the sorrow were past, bec • use the Act is so; but think not so, will the just God av • nge sin on his Son, and will he let it pass in you? Ye that will grant ye are sinners, and are under convictions of sin, ye had need to take heed what is following it; As ye treasure up sin, ye are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath; O! wrath is a heaping up in store for you. A 2. sort are these that go on in sin whatever be said to the effects of it; and will confidently put their hand to it, as if there were no sting in it at all, and drink it over as so much sweet liquor, but of these stolen drinks that seem sweet in secret, will be vomited up again with pain, torment and sorrow; and either it shall be grief and sorrow to you in the way of repentance, or eternal grief and sorrow when the cup of God's wrath shall be put in your hand, and held to your head for evermore.

Use 2. By this ye may see a necessity of making use of the Mediator Christ Jesus; It's God's great mercy that he hath given a Mediator, and that the Mediator is come, and that he hath taken on our debt: What had been our eternal perishing and wallowing in Hells torments with Devils, to his sufferings? Always this Doctrine saith that there is a necessity of making use of him, and receiving of him; And therefore either resolve to meet with this sorrow in your own persons, or betake you to him, that by his interposing it may be kept off you; Weigh these two, that sorrow, death, and the curse, necessarily follow sin; And that Jesus Christ h • th died and undergone that curse for elect sinners, and then ye will see a necessity of being found in him, that ye may be free of the curse; Which made Paul make that choice, Philip. 3 8, 9, I count all things dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him. Oft-times the allurements of the Gospel prevail not to bring sinners to Chri • t, but if it's allurements do not prevail, will not the consideration of the vengeance of God persuade you? However in these two Doctrines ye have in sum this, the curse of God following sin, and a free and full Savior holden out to you, by whom ye may evi • e the curse; ye are invited • o make him welcome; Choose you, death and life are set before you, whereby you are put to it whether ye will adventure to meet with the curse, or to make him welcome; Now God himself make you wise to make the right choice.

SERMON XX.

IF we had the Faith of that which the Prophet speaks here, and the through conviction who it is of whom he speaks, we would be in a holy transport of admiration and astonishment at the hearing of it; That it's he who is the Prince of life, that was bruised and wounded, and that these bruises, wounds and stripes are ours, were for us, and the price and satisfaction for our iniquities to Divine Justice; And yet that even he in the performing of all this, is vilipended and despised by these whose good he is thus pursuing and seeking after, O! how should it be wondered at?

These words (as we show) hold forth these three, 1. The cause or end of Christ's suffering Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows; which is to remove and take away the scandal that might arise from Christ's Humiliation, described in the foregoing words; He was low indeed but there was no guilt found in his mouth; It was for no quarrel that God had at himself, but he undertook our debt, and therefore carried our sorrows. 2. The aggravation of men's enmity, and desperate wickedness, that yet notwithstanding of all this, We esteemed him smitten of God, and a flicted. 3. We have the Exposition of the first part more clearly set down, But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, &c. Where more fully he expounds what in the beginning of the 4. verse. he asserted.

We expounded the first part of the words, and show that these griefs and sorrows held forth the due desert of sin, called ours, because they are the due and particular desert of our sins, and that which they procured, and that Christ's bearing of them, was not only meant of his taking away, or removing from us of sorrows and griefs, as he did diseases, but of his real undergoing of that which we should have undergone, even such a bearing as made others think him smitten and plagued of God, and such as wounded and bruised him, even such as made him become a curse for us, and such as procured healing to us; All which proves that it was a re • l undergoing of sorrow and grief.

We spoke to two Doctrines from this part, 1. That sin hath sorrow necessarily knit to it, and never wanteth sorrow following on it. 2. That Christ Jesus undertook these same sorrows, and really bare these same griefs that sin procured to the Elect, or that by sin were due to them.

That we may proceed to observe somewhat more, and for clearer access to the Doctrine, we shall speak a word to a Question that may be moved here.

What is meant by these words, our, we, and us? He hath born our griefs, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all, by his stripes we are healed? And the rather I would speak to this, because throughout the Chapter we will find these Pronouns very frequent. We know in Scripture our and us are sometimes extended to all mankind, so we are all lost in Adam, and sin hath a dominion over us all; And that part of the wor • s, verse. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray, may well be extended to all mankind: Sometimes it is to be restrict • d to God's Elect, and so all comprehends only such and all such; And in this respect our, us, and we, and all, are contradistinguished from many others in the World; and take not in all men, as Gal. 4.26. Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all; Which is spoken in opposition to th • bond woman and her children spoken of before; So that this our, us, and we, are not to be extended to all individual men in the W • rld, as if Christ had satisfied the Justice of God for all, but it is to be applied to God's Elect, separate in his purpose from others, and in God's design appointed to be redeemed and satisfied for by Christ; And the words being thus expounded they lead us to this Doctrine, that Jesus Christ in bearing the punishment of sin, had a particular and distinct respect to some definite sinners; for confirmation of it, we shall not go out of the Chap • er, the scope whereof we would clear a little; And if we look thorough the Chapter, we will find five grounds to clear these words are to be thus restricted.

For 1. We are to expound this universal with respect to God's purpose and Covenant, the contrivance of the Elects Redemption, and to the death of Christ, the execution of it, and so these words our, us, we, all are, and must be restricted to these, and in them we are to find out who they are: Now, who these are, we find clear, John 6.37, 39. In the 37. v. where he saith, All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me, And v. 39. This is the Fathers will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing; It's in a word these whom the Father hath given to Christ, and as many as are given will believe: And certainly these that are given to Christ to be redeemed by him, are the same whose iniquities the Father makes to meet on him; And these are distinguished from these not given, John 17.6, 11. And are called his sheep. Joh. 10.15, and 17. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, to wit, for my sheep: And all the strain of this Chapter being to show God's way of contriving and prosecuting the work of Redemption, and Christ's executing thereof according to the Covenant of Redemption; All this spoken of Christ's suffering must be expounded according to that engagement. 2. Whereas it is said, v. 8. For the transgressions of my people was he stricken; It is certain, this our and us and we for whom Christ was stricken, must be restricted to God's people; That is his peculiar people who are his by electing love, as Christ saith, Joh. 17.6. Thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; They are not his as all the World are his, but are contradistinguished from the world as his own peculiar, purposed, designed people; Sure all the World are not God's People in this sense, therefore they are called his sheep, and contradistinguished from these who are not his sheep, Joh. 10.17. And therefore we are to look on these words, our, us, and we, as of equivalent extent with the peculiar people of God; He carried the punishment of the sins of all God's people that are his peculiar election. 3. So v. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed; Hence we gather this, that these whose iniquities Ch • ist bare, are Christ's Seed, and for these he purposely laid down his life, as these whom he expected should be saved for satisfying of him for the travel of his soul, and for no moe, and these cannot certainly be all the World, there being such contradistinction betwixt Christ Mystical, or his Seed comprehending the Elect, And the Seed of the Serpent comprehending the Reprobat and Wicked, who are said to be of their father the Devil; These are Christ's Seed who are spiritually begotten of him, and these doubtless are not all the World, and for these only he suffered; So that our sins here, are the sins of all the Seed. 4. Look to v. 11. where it is said, By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities: Where it is clear whose sins they are that Christ bears; it's theirs who are justified by his knowledge, or by faith in his blood, and justification by faith in his blood, and redemption by his blood, are commensutable, and of equal extent: Now, it being certain as to the event, that not all the World, nor all in the visible Church, are justified by the Faith of Christ, it must also be certain that the sins of others who are not, nor shall not be justified, were never purposely born by Christ: And this ground as all the rest, will be the more clear, if we consider that it is given as an Argument why they must be justified, because he hath born their iniquities. A 5. ground may be gathered from the last words of the Chapter, He made intercession for the transgressors; Whence we may reason, that Christ's intercession and his satisfaction, are of equal extent, he satisfies for no moe then he intercedes for; Now, it was not for all the World, nor indefinitely and by guess for all in the visible Church that Christ did intercede, but for them that the Father had given him out of the world, John 17. v. 9. and v. 6. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me: And v. 10. All mine are thine, and thine are mine; Christ's death being the ground of his intercession, and it being by virtue of his death that he interceded, his death and intercession must be of the same extent; He intercedes for such and such sinners, because he hath paid a price for them, that there may be a good account made of them at the last day.

The 1. Use of it serves to clear a great and precious truth concerning God's Covenant and discriminating love whereby he hath put difference betwixt some and others. 2. It serves to stir them up who are thus differenced, to admire at, and to commend his love, who hath been graciously mindful of them when others are past by. 3. It serves also to clear other Scriptures, and this same Chapter, and to teach us, not to make common to all, the privileges bestowed on some peculiar ones; and to guard us against the vilifying and profaning of our Lord's sufferings, as if he had no special and peculiar design in them, or as if they might be frustrated in the design of them contrary to the promises made to him of the Father.

And therefore here to obviat an Objection which is made from the 6 verse. All we like sheep have gone astray; Whence some would infer, that it's all who like sheep have strayed, whose iniquities Christ hath born; We say, that, that all is not meant to comprehend them whose iniquities Christ hath born only, but to hold out the extent of straying; or, the meaning is not to show that his suffering and satisfying of Justice, extended to all that strayed; but to show that the Elect for whom he suffered had all of them strayed, as well as others; And this is like the reasoning which the Apostle hath, 2 Cor. 5.14. If one died for all, then were all dead; The meaning whereof is not, that Christ died for all that were dead, but this is the meaning, that all for whom Christ died were once dead: so here while it's said, All we like sheep have gone astray; It is to show that the Elect strayed and esteemed him not as well as others, and had Go • s curse lying on them as their due, all Christ interposed and took it off them as well as others. The Point might have also Use for Confirmation, but we do not follow these.

2. Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows, that is our griefs and sorrows who are his Elect, his People, his Seed, who flee to him for refuge, and are justified by his knowledge, or by Faith in him, and for whom he maketh intercession; H • nce Observe, that Believers would endeavor the strengthening of themselves in the Faith of this, that J • sus Christ hath born their griefs and sorrows, and hath satisfied Justice for t • en in particular; they would study to be in case on good ground with the Prophet, to say. Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows; To make it sure that they are in the Roll of Elect Believers, and Justified Persons; To say with the Apostle Paul, Gal. 3.13. He was made a curse for us; And with the same Apostle, 2 Cor. 5. ult. to say, He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; And to say with the Apostle Peter, 1 Pet. 2.24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree; they speak always by way of application; So in these places whereby we confirmed the Doctrine, that Christ really bare that punishment of the sins of the Elect, are expressed in an applicatory way; And that no • able place, Gal. 2.20. Where, as if it were not enough to say, he loved us, and gave himself for us, he draws it nearer and more home, and saith, Who loved me, and gave himself for me. But that ye may not mistake the point, my meaning is not, that everybody off hand should make application of Christ's death; O! the presumption and desperate security that destroys thousands of souls here; as if there were no such distinction as we held forth in the first Doctrine, nor any Barr to be put in the way of that fancied universal application of Christ's dying for all sinners; whereas we show that it was for his sheep, and these given to him of the Father only, that he died, and for no moe; But this is my meaning, that (as it is, 2 Pet. 1.10.) ye would give diligence to make your calling and election sure, and ••• t in an orderly way ye would s • cure and sicker your interest in Christ's death; Not to make this the first thing that ye apprehend for the foundation of your Faith, that he died for you in particular, for that were to come to the top of the Stairs, before ye begin to set foot on the first step; But the orderly way is to make sure your fleeing to Christ in the sense of sin, and your closing with him on his own terms, and your having the characters of his people engraven on you; And then from such premisses ye may draw this conclusion as the result thereof, Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows: Then ye may be satisfiedly confirmed in this, that when Christ transacted and bargained with the Father about the Elect, when he prayed, and took the Cup of his Fathers wrath and drank it out for them, he minded your names, and was made a curse in your room: The reason is drawn from the advantage of such a Doctrine, as having hanging on it the consolation of all the promises of God; for we can never comforta • lie apply, nor be delighted in the promises, till we co • e to make particular application of Christ's purpose and purchase in the work of Redemption: This is it that rids Marches, and draws a Line betwixt us and re • robat ungodly men, a • d that keeps from the fear of eternal death that pursues them; And it gives some ground of hope to lay hold on, and grip to, as to our enjoying of Christ's purchase: I kn • w there is noth • ng that f •• k had more need to be sober and warry in the search of, and in the securing themselves in, then this; yet by the same command that enjoineth us, to make our Covenant-state, our Calling and El • ction sure, we are bound to make our Redemption sure; And having at some length spoken of the way of making sure our believing, on the 1. verse. We may insist the less on this, of making sure our Redemption • y Christ.

The 1. Use serves for Information; To let you know, 1. That there are many prosessing Christians, that account this a curious, nice, and conceity thing, to study to be sure, and to make it sure, that Christ in his death and sufferings minded them in particular; Others may be think it impossible; And all may think it a right hard and difficult thing, and indeed so it is; But yet we would have you to consider, 1. That simply it is not impossible, • lse we should say, that the comfort of the people o • God were impossible. 2. That it is no curious thing, for the Lord doth not lay the obligation to curiosity on any, though we would wish that many had a holy curiosity to know God's mind towards them, that they might not live in the dark about such a concerning business. 3. That the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, Psal. 25.14. And even this same secret concerning Redemption is with them, and he will show them his Covenant: And indeed it were no small matter to have this manifested.

And therefore as a 2. Use of the point, we would commend to you the study of making this sure; for it hath many notable advantages attending it; it would provoke to humility, and to thankfulness to him that loved us, and washed us from ou • sins in his own blood; It would make a c • mfortable and cheerful Christian li • e; It would warm the heart with love to God, and to Jesus Christ who hath thus loved us as to give himself for us: When we commend this to you, it's no uncouth, nice, needlesl • curious, or unattainable thing, nor would we have you when ye cannot attain it, to fit down discouraged; neither would we have you take any extraordinary way to come by it; nor waiting for any new light but that which is in the Bible; nor would we have you resolving to do no other thing till ye attain to this: But this we would have you to do, even to make Faith in Christ sure, by fleeing to him, and casting your burden on him, by cordial receiving of him, and acquiescing in him; and then ye make all sure; The committing of yourselves to him to be saved by his price paid to Divine Justice, and resting on him as he is holden ou • in the Gospel, is the way to read your interest in his R • demption: And this is it that we have Gal. 3. and 2.19. Where it is disputed at length, that we are Heirs of Abraham by believing, and by the Law (saith the Apostle) I am dead to the Law, that I might live unto God: I am crucifi • d with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I live in the fl sh is by the Faith of the Son of God: Hence he concludes, Who loved me, and gave himself for me; And this he proves in the last words, I do not frustrate the grace of God, I do not disappoint it. I mar it not in its end and design; It is (as if he had said) seeking a lost sinner to save, and I give it a lost sinner to be saved; For though God's Decree be the first step to Salvation, and the work of Redemption follows on it, and then believing on both; yet to come to the knowledge of God's Decree of Election, and of our concern in the Covenant of Redemption, we look downward, and seek first to know if we have right to make application of that which was thought upon long since concerning us, and this we do by reflecting on the way we have come to believing: If we have been convinced and made sensible of sin, and of our lost condition by nature, if we have not smothered that conviction but cherished it; If we have not run to this or that duty for satisfying of Divine Justice, and for making of our peace there • by, but were necessitate to betake ourselves to Jesus Christ made offer of in the Gospel for the salvation of sinners, and if we have closed with him as he was offered: And if we have done so, we may th • nce conclude that he hath loved us, and given himself to save us; Because he hath humbled me for sin (may the serious soul say) and give • n me this fai • h to believe in him, and this is his promise which I rest upon, that I shall be saved. Or thou mayest try thy interest in his Redemption thus; Whether am I one of God's people or not? Whether do I walk like them? and so go thorough the marks and signs of holiness, asking • hy self, What sinceri • y is there in me? What Mortification? What Humility, Meekness, Love to God and his Children? A • d wha • fruits of Faith in new-obedience? These two F ith and Holiness are the Pillars that bear up the House of Assurance; Working and not resting on it, believe • ng and yet not growing vain and light because of it, but so much the rather studying Holiness; And to go on betwixt and with these two, till we come to read God's mind about our Election and Red • mption: For neither Believing nor Holiness can make any alteration in the bargain of Redemption, yet it will warrand our application of the bargain, • nd clear our interest in i • ; as the Apost e Peter plainly insinuats when he thus exhorts, Give diligence to make your calling and election sure; How is that? Will diligence mak • God alter his decree of Election, or make it any surer in itself? No, by no means, bu • it will assure us of it; For by so doing an entrance shall be ministered unto us abundantly into his everlasting Kingdom; by giving all diligence to add one grace to another, and one degree of grace to another, there shall be a wide door opened to us to go in to Heaven by; And there is no haz • rd in commending this Doct • ine to you all, even the study of Faith and Holiness, thereby to come to the knowledge of God's Secret Council concerning you.

And therefore as a third Use of th s point, know that all of you that prejudge y • urselves of this comfort of your interest in Christ's purchase, do bring the blame of it on yourselves: If any shall profanely object, if God hath purposed so many sh • ll get goo • of Christ's sufferings, and no moe, what will my Faith and Holiness do if I be • ot elected? And what can my unbelief and negligence prejudge me if I be elected? We show in the former Use, what Faith and Holiness will do; and we t • ll you here, what your unbelief and negligence will do, and it's this, it will seclude you from all the blessings of the Covenant, and bring you under the sentence of condemnation; for as the conditional promise looks to the believer and unbeliever; and so it is not Christ's purchase, nor the difference God hath made in his purpose of election, that is the cause why ye are damned and not justified; But ye are damned because ye transgressed God's Law and when salvation was offered to you through Christ, ye would not close with the offer; And ye are not justified, bec • use ye b • took not yourselves to him for righteou n • ss but continued in your sin, and in seeki • g righteousness by the Law: For although this universal be not true, That Christ died for all men, yet this universal is true that they are all justified that by faith flee unto Jesus Christ for refuge; Hence these two are put together, Joh. 6.37. All that the Father hath given me sha l come unto me, and him that cometh I will in no wise cast out; For I came down from Heaven not to do my own will, but the Fathers will that sent me; If it should be asked, what is the Fa • hers will? He answers, This is the Fathers will that sent me, that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing; There are (as if he had said) some committed to me to be redeemed by me, and I will lose none of them: And lest it should yet be objected, but I wot not if I be given to Christ to be redeemed by him; He adds, And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: In which words, we have two wills, to say so, both having the same promise and effect, the first he relates to the secret paction of Redemption, verse. 39. And the second is his revealed will p • inting at out duty, verse. 40. And so if any should say, I know not it I be given to Christ, I know not if I be elected; This answer is here given, What is that to thee? It's not to be searched into at the first hand, and broken in upon per sal • um, and at the broad side: That is God's secret will, and that which is his revealed will belongs to thee, and that is, to see that thou believe, and if thou believest, the same promise that is annexed to believing is annexed to election, and they sweetly tryst together, and are of equal extent, to wit, believing and to be given to Christ: And therefore let me commend it to you, to hold you content with God's revealed will; For it is not the ground of your Faith, I mean as to its first closing with Christ, That of all given to Christ he shall lose none; But this is the ground of it, That everyone that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, shall have everlasting life: And we may add this word as one motive amongst others to Faith and Holiness, that by your studying of these ye may turn over the words of the Prophet here to yourselves, and say, Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows; And that of the Apostle, Gal. 2. Who loved me, and gave himself for me; Also, that word of Peter cited before, His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree; And O! what consolation is there?

The 4. Use of it is, to commend the practice of this to the Believer that hath indeed fled to Jesus Christ; And to show the great privilege that they have who are such: The practice of it is, that Believers should seek to be established and confirmed in the particular application of Christ's death to themselves; not only to know that he suffered for the Elect and for Believers, but for them in particular, that as it is • ebb 4.16 They may come with boldness to the Throne of God, and confidently assert their int • rest; And as it is, Heb. 6. They may grow up to the full assurance of hope unto the end: We suppose there are many believers that dar not disclaim the Covenant and their interest in Christ, who yet are fearful to make this particular application, Jesus Christ hath loved me, and given himself for me; But if they could knit the effects with the cause from whence they came, they might attain to it; for the man that can say I am fled to Christ for refuge, he may also say, t • at he purposely laid down his life to pay my debt; And he is warranded of Christ to make this application of his particular intention towards him: Upon the other side, the more consolation be in this to Believers, it speaks the greater ground of terror to unbelievers, because of the prejudice they sustain by the want of this; And as many of you as make not Faith and Holiness your study, ye lie out of the reach of this consolation that flows from Christ's bearing the griefs and sorrows of his own; And therefore let the profane sen •• ess multitude that know not what it is to die to the Law, or to live to Holiness, as ye would not commit Sacrilege, stand a-back, and not dar to meddle with this redemption, till ye stoop and come in at this door of Faith and Holiness; And let as many as are in this way admit of the consolation, for it's the Lord's allowance upon you; But for others if ye presume to take hold of it, the Lord will wring it from you, and let you know to your cost that ye had nothing to do with it.

SERMON XXI.

THese words, and all this Chapter, look liker a piece of the History of the Gospel then a Prophecy of the Old Testament; The sufferings of the Messiah being so directly pointed at in them; We show that this first part of the 4. Verse holds forth the cause of his sufferings, and it is applied to our Lord, Matth. 8.17. and 1 Pet. 2.24. As for the second part of the Verse in these words, yet we esteemed him smitten of God, stricken and afflicted; any who are acquainted with the Gospel, cannot but know that it was fulfilled in him; and it is an aggravation of their sin who did so undervalue and despise him, that though he condescended to come so low for us, yet we slighted him, & even then when there was greatest love let out, we abused it and made it the rise of greatest malice: and for the 5. Verse, it is applied by Peter, 1 Pet. 21.24. This whole Chapter then being so Gospel like, and having a direct fulfilling in Christ, we may draw this general Doctrine from it.

That our Lord Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, and rose again the third day; is the very same Messiah that was prophesied of in the Old Test • meant, and was promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whom the Fathers before his coming in the Flesh were waiting for: And though this may be looked on as but a very common and useless Doctrine, yet it is the main ground and found • tion of our Faith; we take many things for granted, wherein if we were well tried and put to it, we would be found unsicker, and in this among the rest: Now for confirmation of it, this same one argument will make it out, we shall not follow it at length, but in the prosecu • ing of it shall astrict our selv s to this Chapter; the argument runneth thus, if in Christ Jesus, that which was prophesied of the Messiah, and promised to the Fathers, have its fulfilling and accomplishment; then he must be the same Messiah that was prophesied of, and promised to them; for these things spoken of the one and alone Messiah, can agree to no other. But whatever was prophesied and spoken or promised of the Messiah to the Fathers, to the least circumstance of it, was all fully accomplished and fulfiled in Christ; therefore the conclusion laid down in the Doctrine follows, to wit, that our blessed Lord Jesus is the same Messiah that was prophesied of, promised to the Fathers, and whom they before his coming were looking for: So that that question needs not now to be proposed art thou he that should come, or do we look • or another? Go, says Christ, Mat. 11.4 5.6. and tell John, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me; blessed is he, who because of my Humiliation is not stumbled: Now, not to make a rehearsal of the general Prophesies in Scripture, all of which have their exact fulfilling in Christ, we shall only speak to two things here for mak • ng out of the Argument proposed. 1. That this Chapter speaks of the Messiah. 2. That what is spoken in it, is literally fulfilled in Christ.

1. That this Chapter speaks of the Messiah; Though of old the blinded J • ws granted it, yet now they say that it speaks of some other; but that it speaks of him, these things will make it evident, 1. If we look to the 13. Verse of the former Chapter, where it is said, My servant shall deal prudent • y, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high; there our Lord Jesus is spoken of as the Fathers Servant or great Lord-Deputy; and the Jews themselves grant that this is mean'd of the Messiah, and there is nothing more clear then that what is spoken in this Chapter relates to him who is called the Lord's Servant in the former Chapter as we show at our entering to speak of it. 2 If we look to the description of his Person, it can aggree to no other, for it's said, There was no guile found in his mouth, he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so he open • d not his mouth▪ &c. he had no sin of his o • n, which can be said of no other, therefore this Chapt r speaks of him. 3. If we consider the end and effects of his Sufferings, they do also clear it; the end of his Sufferings for it's for the transgressions of his People, and as it is Dan. 9.26. He was to be cut off but not for himself; the effects, He shall see his feed, and by his knowledge justify many: And the New Testament is full to this purpose, there being no Scripture in all the Old Testament more made use of, nor oftener applied to Christ then this is.

2. What is spoken in this Chapter is really and literally fulfilled in Christ, and we may shortly draw what is in it to these five Heads; all which we will find clearly fulfi • led in him. 1. To his Suff • rings. 2. To the ground of his Sufferings. 3. To Men's account and estimation of him. 4. To the Promises made to him. 5. To the effects that followed on his Sufferings. 1. For his Sufferings it's said, that he should be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that he should be despised and rej • cted of men, and not be esteemed; that he should be looked on, as stricken, smitten of God and afflicted; that he should bear ou • sorrows and griefs; and be wounded for our transgressions, that he should be opp ess •• and afflicted; and brought as a lamb to the slaughter; that he should be numbered, among • t the transgressors; and that he should die and be buried make his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death; all which are clearly fulfille: in him; and the clearing of his Sufferings, whereof we spoke before, clears this, that not only he suffered, but that he was brought so low in suffering. 2 For the ground of his Sufferings, its • aid to be the sins of his own Elect, He bare our griefs and carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our transgr • ssions, and bruised for our iniquities; there was no guile found in his mouth; the greatest enemies of our Lord could impute nothing to him; Pilate was forced to say, that he found no fault in him; all which show that it was for the Transgressions of his People that he suffered. 3. As for Men's little esteem of him, it is also very clear, for He was despised and rejected of men; we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised and we esteemed him not; the World thought little of him, and we that are elect thought but little of him, and what is more clear in the Gospel then this? where it is told, that he was reproached, buffeted, spitted on, despised; they cri • d away with him, crucify him; He trusted in God, let him deliver him; but God hath forsaken him. 4. As for the Promises made to him, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands; He sh • ll see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied; and by his knowledge shall many be justified, &c. what mean all these but that he shall die and rise again, and have many Converts; that God's work shall thrive well in his hand, and that he shall have a glorious Kingdom and many Subjects? which is ca • led afterward, his having a portion with the great, and his dividing of the sooil with the strong: All this was accompl shed in Christ, when after his Resurrect • on many were win and brought in by the Gospel to believe on him; and though Jews and eathens concurred and conspired to cu • off all Christians, yet his Kingdom spread and hath continued these sixteen hundred years and above. 5. As for the effects that followed on his Sufferings, or the influence they have on the elect People of God; as m • ny Converts as have been and are in the World, as many Witnesses are there, that he is the Messiah; every converted, pardoned, and reconciled Soul seals this truth: Hence 1 John 5.7, 8 it is said, There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness on earth the Spirit in his efficacy, the Water in the sanctifying virtue of it, in changing and cleansing his People, and the Blood in the satifying and justifying virtue of it, and these three agree and concur in one, even this one, to wit, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and then it follows, He that believeth hath the witness in himself, because he hath gotten Pardon through him, and therefore can set to his Seal to this truth, and say, truly Christ is the Messiah.

The Use is, To exhort you to acquaint yourselves with these things that serve to confirm this truth; the book of the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, are much sp • nt upon it, even to hold out, and to prove Christ Jesus to be the true Messiah, and Savior of his People: If this be not made sure and sicker, we have an unstable ground for our Faith; and though it be sure in itself, yet so long as it is not so to us, we want the consolation of it; and there is a twofold prejudice that cometh through Folks want of thorough clearness in, and assurance of this truth. 1. To the generality of Hearers, there is this prejudice, that they are so careless and little solicitous to rest on him: And as it made the Jews to r • ject him, who to this day stumb • e at him on this same very ground, that they know him not to be the Messiah, the Christ of God, in whom is accomplished all that was spoken of the Messiah; to Christians not being through in it, they do not rest on him nor close with him as the true Messiah. 2. There is a prejudice also from it to Believers, who having only a glimring light of Christ's being the Messiah, come short of thar consolation that they might h • ve if they were through in the F • ith o • it; there is this great evil among Christians, that they study not to be solidly clear and through in this point to that if they were pu • to reason and debate with a Jew if there were not a witness within thems • lves of it, the truth of the Faith of many would be exceedingly shaken.

2. From this, That he never speaks of Christ's Sufferings, but he makes applic • tion of them he carried our Griefs, he was wounded for our Transgressions, &c. Observe, That Believers would look on Christ's Sufferings as undergone for them, and in their rooms and place; We cleared before, 1. That Christ suff • red for some peculiarly, and not for all; And 2. Th • t Believers would endeavor the clearing of their own interest in his Sufferings, and that they have a right to them; Now we shortly add this 3d. of kin to the former, That B lievers, and such as are fled to Christ for refuge, would look on his Suff • rings as come under for them; and these same Scriptures which we cited to confirm these, will confirm this: The reason why we would have you confirmed in this, is, Because, 1 It is only this that will make you suitably thankful, it is this which is a notable ground of that Song of Praise, Rev. 1.4. To him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, &c. 2. This is a ground of true, solid, and strong consolation, even to be comforted in the applicative Faith of Christ's purchase. 3. It is the Lord's allowance on his People, which they should reverently and thankfully make use of, even to look on Jesus Christ, as wounded, pierced, and lifted up on the Cross for them; and by doing this according to his allowance, there is a paved way made for application of all the benefits of his purchase.

3. From the scope (looking on the words as spoken to remove the scandal of the Cross) Observe (which may be a reason of the former) that folk will never take up Christ rightly in his sufferings, except they take him up as suffering for them, and in their room; This look of Christ, leads 1. To take up much of the glory of grace, and condescending love to sinners. 2. It leads to take up Christ's faithfulness, that came to the world on sinners errand according to the ancient transaction in the Covenant of Redemption, as he is brougbt in saying Psal. 40. Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will O God. 3. It leads to a stayed look of God's Holiness, Justice, and Goodness, in exacting satisfaction of his own Son, and in accepting of that satisfaction. 4. It gives a right view of the way of grace, and leads in to see it to be a most real thing; God the offended Party accepting of the price, and Christ paying it: Thus the Believers Faith gets a sight of Christ satisfying as if he saw his own debt satisfied by himself; It sees him undergoing the curse and justice inflicting it on him, that the Believer may go free.

The Use is, to show the necessity of studying the well-grounded application of Christ's sufferings as for us; much of the reason why Christ is not more pr • zed lies here, that he is not looked on as paying our debt; otherwise when challenges of the Law and of Justice take hold on the Soul, if Christ were seen interposing, and saying, A body hast thou prepared unto me; And if Justice were seen exacting, Christ performing, and God accepting his satisfaction, and that in sign and token that Justice is satisfied, he is raised from the dead, justified in the Spirit, and is entered in possession of Glory as Believers fore-runner in their name; it would afford precious and lovely thoughts of Jesus Christ, and humbling thoughts of ourselves; Therefore there is a necessity, if we would consider his sufferings aright, and prize and esteem him, that we endeavor to make particular application of them to ourselves on good grounds. 2. Upon the other hand, know, ye who have no ground to make this application, that ye cannot esteem aright of him or his sufferings, nor of the grace that shined in them, because ye have no title to, nor can while such, have any clearness of interest in them. 3. For you that would fain have a high esteem of Christ, and yet are all your days casting at this foundation, never think nor expect to win rightly to esteem of him, so long as ye scarr to make application of his purchase; And therefore that ye may love and praise him, and esteem rightly of him, labor to come up to the making of this application on solid and approved grounds.

4. More particularly from this part of the aggravation, Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted; We have a fourfold confirmation of truth, or four precious truths confirmed. 1. That our Lord Jesus in his sufferings did really suffer, and was really brought low in his sufferings, so as on-lookers thought him a most despicable man, and one that was stricken and smitten of God, and • fflicted: Of this we spoke on the beginning of the 4. verse. 2. We have here an evidence of the exceeding great freeness of grace, and of the love of Christ in his sufferings, in so far as he bare their sorrows, and paid their debt that counted him smitten; There was no good thing in us to deserve or procure his sufferings, But most freely he under-went these sufferings, and undertook our debt, Rom. 5.8. God commends his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; And v. 10. While we were yet enemies we were reconciled by the death of his Son: Can there be a greater proof of infinite and free love then appears in our Lord's sufferings? There was not only no merit on our side; but on the contrary, despising, rej • cting, being ashamed of him, reproaching him kicking against him, and rubbing of aff • onts on him; Paul and others having their hands hot in his blood.

Use 1. Consider here, behold and wonder at the free love of God, and rich condescending love of Christ, he stands not at the Barr and prays for them that were praying him to pray for them; But as it is in the end of the Chapter, it was for transgressors; It was even for some of them that were seeking to take away the life of the Prince of Life, and for other transgressors.

2. Know that in them to whom the benefit of Christ's death is applied, there is no more worth then there is in others who do not share of the benefit of it: It's the opinion not only of Heretics, but some way of many ignorant Professors; That these for whom Christ died were better then others; But here we see a proof of the contrary; He dies for them that accounted him smitten of God: And this he doth for two reasons, 1. To show the riches and freedom of his grace, that could overcome man's evil and malice, and outreach the hight of the desperate wickedness that is in man, and that that stands not (to speak so) on stepping-stones, but comes over the greatest gulfs of sin and enmity in the creature. 2. To comfort & encourage his followers when engaged to him, against and out over their grossest failings and greatest miscarriages; He that loved them when they were despising and rejecting him, and spitting in a manner in his very face, Will he now give up with them when they have some love to him, for this or that corrup • ion that stirreth or breaketh forth in them? Thus the Apostle reasons, Rom. 5.10. If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life: We were enemies when Christ gave himself for us, but thorough grace we are somewhat better now; Enmity and despite in us was then at an hight, now it is weakened, restrained, and in some measure mortified: And if while we were at the h • ght of enmity against him he died for us to reconcile us to God, How much more now being reconciled, may we expect peace and safety, and all the benefits of his purchase thorough him? Thus there is a notable consolation, from this bent of malice that was sometime in us, compared with the victory that grace hath now gotten over it; and the gradation is always comfortable, to wit, that these lusts that once did reign, and were without any gracious opposition made to them, or any protestation entered against them, prevailing it may be publicly, are now opposed and protested against; And if Christ stood not on the greater, will he stand on the lesser? And our Lord allows this sort of reasoning so much the more, that he may thereby strongly engage the heart of the believer against sin, and to the admiring of grace, and withal to the serious study of holiness.

3, It serves to let you know how much ye Believers are engaged and obliged to Grace, and what thanks you owe to it. 1. Look to what satisfies for your debt, ye pay not one farthing of it, our Lord Jesus paid all. 2. Look to the moving cause, it's to be attributed to nothing in you, but altogether to free grace: Some poor Dyvour may by his pleading prevail with an able and pitiful-hearted man to pay his debt; But there was no such externally moving cause in you to procure this of him, but he freely and willingly, and with delight paid your debt when ye were in the hight of malicious opposition to him, doing all that might scarr him from it; And had it been possible that man's malice, despising, and despite could have scarred him, he had never died for one sinner, but he triumphed openly in his grace over that and all that stood in his way. 3. We have here a confirmation of that truth that holds out man's malice and desperate wickedness, And can there be anything that evidenceth man's wickedness and malice more? Then 1. To have enmity against Christ. 2. To have it at such an hight as to despise him, and count him smitten and plagued of God. And 3. To be at the hight of malice even then when he out of love was condescending so low as to suffer and satisfy Justice for him; ye may possibly think that it was not ye that had such malice at Christ; But saith not the Prophet, We esteemed him smitten of God? Taking in himself and all the elect, which might give us this Observation, That there is nothing more desperately wicked, and filled with more enmity against Christ in his condescending love, and against God in the manifestation of his grace, then when even elect souls for whom he hath suffered, despise him, and count him smitten of God and afflicted: It's indeed very sad, yet very profitable, to walk under the deep apprehension, and soul-pressour of heart-enmity against God and Christ: Are there any of you that think ye have such sinful and wicked natures that dispose you to think little of Christ, to despise and reject him and his grace? God's Elect have this enmity in their natures; And if such natures be in the Elect, what must be in the Reprobat who live and die in this enmity? If this were seriously considered and laid to heart, O but folk would be humble, nothing would affect the soul more, and stound to the very heart, then to think that Christ suffered for me, through grace an Elect and a Believer, and that yet notwithstanding I should have so despised and rejected him, and accounted him smitten of God and afflicted; Let me exhort all of you to look back on your former walk, and to lay this enmity to heart, for the day is coming when it will be found to be a biting, and conscience gnawing sin to many.

4. In that he aggravates their enmity from this, Observe this truth which is also here confirmed, that there is nothing that gives sin a deeper Dye, then that it is against grace and condescending love, that is, against Christ when suffering for us, and offered to us; O! that makes sin to be exceeding sinful, and wonderfully abominable, and thus it is aggreged, Heb. 2. As greater then the contempt of Moses his Law; And Heb 6. It's accounted to be a crucifying the Son of God a-fresh, and a putting him to an open shame; And Heb. 10. it's called a trod • ng him underfoot, an accounting the blood of the Covenant to be an unholy thing, and a d • ing despite to the Spirit of Grace; These two last Scriptures look mainly to the sin against the Holy Ghost, yet so as there is somewhat of that which is said in them to be found in all unbelievers their despising of Christ; It's a sin some way hateful, even to the Publicans and Sinners to hate them that love us, to do ill to them that do good to us; How much more sinful and hateful is it to despise and hate him who loved us so as to give himself for us, and when he was giving himself for us? There are many sins against the Law that will draw deep, but this will draw deeper then they all, even sinning against Grace, and the Mediator interposing for sinners, and manifesting love to them; And the reckoning will run thus, Christ was manifested to you in this Gospel as the only remedy of sin, and set forth as crucified before your eyes, and made offer of to you in the Gospel, and yet ye despised him, and esteemed him not: And let me say it to Believers, that it's the greatest aggravation of their sin; It is true, in some respect that the sins of Believers are not so great as the sins of others, they not being committed with such deliberation and full bensil of will, nor from the dominion of sin, yet in this respect they are greater then the sins of others, because committed against special Grace and Love actually communicated; and therefore when the Believer considers that he hath requit Christ thus, it will affect him most of anything, if there be any suitable tenderness of frame.

5. From considering that it is the Prophet that expresseth this aggravation, we may Observe, that the Believer that is most tender, and hath best right to Jesus Christ and his satisfaction, and may upon best ground apply it, will be most sensible of his enmity, and of the abominable guilt that is in despising and wronging of Jesus Christ; Therefore the Prophet brings in himself as one of those that by Christ's stripes were healed, taking with his guilt, we despised and rejected him, we esteemed him not, we judged him smitten of God; The reason is, because interest in Jesus Christ makes the heart tender, and any wrong that's done to him to affect the sooner and the more deeply, the scurf that sometime was on the heart being in a measure taken away; and interest in Christ awakeneth and raiseth an esteem of him, and produceth a holy sympathy with him in all the concerns of his glory, even as the members of the body have a fellow-feeling with the head; Make a supposition, that a man in his madness should smite and wound his head, or wrong his Wife, his Father, or his Brother; when that fit of madness is over, he is more affected with that wrong then if it had been done to any other member of his body, or to other persons not at all, or not so nearly related to him: There is something of this pointed at, Zech. 12.10. They shall look unto him whom they have pierced, and mourn for him as a man doth for his only Son; As if he had said, the strokes they have given the head, shall then be very heavy and grievous to be born, and will be made to their feeling to bleed a-fresh; They thought not much of these woundings and piercings of him before, but so soon as their interest in him is clear, or they come cordially to believe in him, they are kindly affected with the wrongs done to him.

The Use is, That it's a mark, to try if there be indeed an interest in Christ, and if it be clear; The man whose interest is clearest, 1. His wrongs done to Christ will prick him most, if the wrongs be done by others they affect him; if by himself they some way faint him; Wholeness of heart under wronging of Christ, is too great an evidence that there is little or no ground for application of his satisfaction, but it's kindly like, when wrongs done to Christ affect most. 2. When not only challenges for sin against the Law, but for sins against Christ and Grace offered in the Gospel, do become a burden, and the greatest burden. 3. When the man is made to mind secret enmity at Christ, and is disposed to muster up aggravations of his sinfulness on that account, and cannot get himself made vile enough; When he hath an holy indignation at himself, and with Paul counts himself the chief of sinners; Even thou h the evil was done in ignorance, much more if it hath been against knowledge; It's no evil token when souls are made to heap up aggravations of their guilt for wrongs done to Christ, and when they cannot get suitable expressions sufficiently to hold it out, as it is an evil token to be soon satisfied in this; There are many that will take with no challenge for their wronging Christ, but behold here how the Prophet insists, both in the words before, in these, and in the following words, and he can no more win off the thoughts of it, then he can win off the thoughts of Christ's sufferings.

6. While the Prophet saith, when Christ was suffering for his own, and for the rest of his people's sins, We esteemed him not, but judged him smitten of God; Observe briefly, because we hasten to a close, that Jesus Christ is often exceedingly mistaken by men in his most glorious and gracious works, can there be a greater mistake then this? Christ suffering for our sins, and yet judged smitten and plagued of God by us; Or more home, even Christ Jesus is often shamefully mistaken in the work of his Grace, and in the venting of his love towards them whose good he is procuring, and whose iniquities he is bearing.

The Use of it serves 1. To teach us when we are ready to pass censure on Christ's work, to stand still, to animadvert on, and to correct ourselves, lest we unsuitably construct of him: He gets much wrong as to his public work, as if he were cruel, when indeed he is merciful, as if he had forgotten us, when when indeed he remembers us still: And as to his private work in particular persons, as if he did fail in his promise when he is most faithful, and bringing it about in his own way. And 2. (which is of affinity to the former) it's a warning to us not to take up hard constructions of Christ, nor to misconstruct his work, wh • ch when misconstructed, himself is mistaken and misconstructed: How many think that he is breaking when he is binding up, that he is wounding when he is healing, that he is destroying when he is humbling? Therefore we would su • pend passing censure till he come to the end and close of his work, and not judge of it by halves, and then we shall see there was no such ground for miscons • ructing of him, who is every day holding on in his own way, and steadily pursuing the same end that he did from the beginning; And let him be doing so: To him be praise forever.

SERMON XXII.

IT's hard to tell whether the Subject of this Verse, and almost of this whole Chapter, be more sad or more sweet; It's indeed a sad Subject to read and hear of the great Sufferings of our blessed Lord Jesus, & of the despiteful usage that he met with, and to see such a speat of Malice spewed and spitted out on that glorious face; so that when he is bearing our Griefs & carrying our Sorrows, we do even then account him plagued, smitten of God, and afflicted, and in a manner look upon it as well bestowed: Yet it's a most sweet Subject if we either consider the love it comes from, or the comfortable effects that follow it; that hath been the rise, the cause, and the occasion of much singing to many here below, and is the cause and occasion of so much singing among the redeemed that are this day before the Throne of God; and as the Grace of God hath overcome the malice of Men, so we are persuaded this cause of rejoicing hath a sweetness in it beyond the sadness, though often we mar our own Spiritual Mirth, and know not how to dance when he pipes unto us.

These words are an explication of the 4th. Verse, where it is asserted that Christ's Sufferings were not for himself but for us; from, and by which the Prophet having aggreged Men's malice, who, notwithstanding thereof esteemed him not, yea judged smitten of God, he comes again for furthering and carrying on of this Scope, to show more particularly the ground, end, and effects of Christ's Sufferings; where ye would remember what we hinted before in general, that Folks will never think nor conceive of Christ's Sufferings rightly, till they conceive and take him up as suffering for them; and when we consider this, we think it no wonder that the most part esteem but little of the Sufferings of Christ, because there are so few that can take him up under this notion, as standing in their room, and paying their debt, and as being put in Prison for them when they are let go free.

In this 5th. Verse, We have these three, 1. A further expression of Christ's Sufferings. 2. The cause of them, or the end that he had before him in them. 3. The benefits and fruits or effects of them.