Lectures Upon the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ
THE XXX. LECTURE OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
MATTH. CHAP. XXVIII.
[verse 5] But the Angel answered, and said to the women, Fear ye not: for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was crucified:
[verse 6] He is not here, for he is risen, as he said: come, see the place where the Lord was laid,
[verse 7] And go quickly, and tell his Disciples, that he is risen from the dead: and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him: loe, I have told you.
MARKE, CHAP. XVI.
[verse 6] But he said unto them, Be not so troubled: ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who hath been crucified: he is risen, he is not here: behold the place where they put him.
[verse 7] But go your way, and tell his Disciples, and Peter, that he will go before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.
W E heard the last day (Brethrē) that there were two companies of women, that came out of Jerusalem, to the grave of JESUS CHRIST: The first company came forth in the dawning of the day, before the rising of the Sun: The next company came forth somewhat later, I think about the rising of the Sun. In the first company were Marie Magdalene, and Marie the mother of James, and Salome, & others, who are not named: These came out of Jerusalem altogether: and as they drew near to the grave, they saw the great stone that was rolled to the door of the grave, rolled away. Mary Magdalene, as soon as she sees the stone to be rolled away, tarries no longer, but supponing it was done by men, and that they had stolen away the Lord's body by night: then in haste she runs home, and tells PETER and JOHN, and she says to them, They have stolen away the body of the Lord, and we know not where they have laid him. But the other women took more advisement, than Marie Magdalene, for they abode still, and when she was gone home, they entered into the grave, and they saw an Angel standing in the grave, in the likeness of a young man, clothed with a long white robe, sitting at the right side of the grave, at which sight they were wonderfullie astonished. And this Angel to my judgment, was even that same Angel that rolled away the stone from the grave: and with His bright look terrified the Guarde, and frighted them, lest they should have troubled the women. The women being astonished at the sight of the glorious Angel, He begins to speak to them of the Resurrection, and to tell them of these tidings. For the better understanding of the Oration of the Angel, we shall speak of it in these four partes: The first is a voice of comfort, a word of encouragement, Fear not, says the Angel. The next, having encouraged them, he begins to preach to them of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, testifying unto them, that the Lord was risen. And he confirms by one or two arguments that the Lord was risen. In the third part of his Oration, he gives a commandment to the women, to tell the Apostles, and namely Peter, that the Lord was risen : and more than that, that that same Lord should go before them into Galilee, and there they should see him. In the fourth and last part, he concludes this speech, and he says, Behold, I have told you. Then after the Oration of the Angel, we have the effect that the Oration wrought in the hearts of the women, to wit, they fear and rejoice exceedinglie, and they obey the voice of the Angel, and they run home with all haste to tell the Apostles, that the Lord was risen.
Now to return to the Oration of the Angel: It is short, but wondrous pitthie: As for the first part of the Oration, Fear not : (We spake of it the last day, and there we left off: therefore now we proceed to the seconde part, to that grave testimony, which the Angel gives to the Resurrection of Christ) Before he speaks, he conciliates authority to his person. Whosoever speaks in the name of Christ, should have an authority of person. The words are these: I know perfectly, that ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, that was crucified, says the Angel; he asks not, Whome seek ye? but he breaks off the speech, and he says, I know, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, that was crucified and buried, and by this knowledge he lets them see, that he was sent of God, and knew the purpose of the women, ere ever they revealed it to Him. What man is he? that knows the mind of a man, except that the Lord give him knowledge extraordinarily: No, all the Angels of Heaven will not know my mind, except the Lord reueile it: No man, nor Angel, can know the heart, and search the secrets thereof, but only GOD, that made the heart. So he lets them see, that he was sent of God: that the word might have the greater credit: for wherefore serves the authority of persons, but that the word they speak, may have the greater credit. Mark the lesson: There is never one that the Lord sends to be witnesses in the world of Christ, of His cross, and passion, of His resurrection, of the mercies and graces that pass all understanding, flowing from His Passion, and Resurrection, but either in one measure or other, He will have them decored with heavenly revelation, with power, even to go down to the secret thoughts of men's hearts, and to lay them open to them, that they may see their own vile hearts (for our hearts are not known, not to our own selves, until we go down, and pull off the veil off them) and all to this end, that we may see God, in that person that speaks: and the last end is this, that credit may be given to that gracious word: and should the word of life pass without credit? Paul 1. Cor. 14.24, 25. says, If a Prophet stand up to prophecy, or a Preacher to preach, and if an ignorant person come in, loadned with sin, and not feeling the burden (alas, there are too many of this sort) if this person come in, with the force of the word, he is dejected, and he falls down and glorifies God, and he will say, GOD is with that man that speaks, and if God were not with the man that speaks, the heart of the man would never be dejected: No, all the Kings under the Heaven could not deject the heart of the poorest beggar. So to end this in a word: The Lord will know well whom He sends to speak these glorious tithings, that Christ hath suffered, and is risen: and this is sure, these that He sends▪ He will give them power to pull down, if it were the heart of a King to the ground: yet the style he gives to Christ, would not be past by: mark it well, he says not, I know ye seek JESUS the Son of GOD: he says not so: but he says, I know ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was latelie crucified: So the Angel, in styling of Him, gives Him the basest and vylest names that he can: he names Him from a silly Town in IVRIE, JESUS OF NAZARETH: Then from that vile death of the Cross, That man that was crucified. I doubt not, but in this name he had a respect to the women, who knew these stiles which He had in the days of His flesh, when He was conversant here: they knew these stiles better than the stiles of His Godhead, which were from all eternity: Yet he hath a further respect to these stiles, to let us and these women see, that he was not ashamed of His infirmity, nor at the shameful death of the Cross: Noah, the Angels, to whom this death appertains not so much, as to us (says PETER, in his first EPISTLE, the first CHAPTER, and the eleventh VERSE) delight to look in to CHRIST, to look in to that infirmity, and to that death of the Cross. Alas, proud sinner! wilt thou be offended to look in to it? when Peter says, it is the delight of the holy Angels to look in to it: Because these Angels in the infirmity of CHRIST, they saw the power of GOD shining: in that foolishness of the Cross of CHRIST, they saw that wisdom of GOD and, in that justice of GOD, they found a passing me 〈…〉 and therefore now, and euerlastinglie, their delight is to look 〈◊〉 CHRIST, and His suffering: And as they delight to look in to CHRIST, and His suffering, so they shall give praise to Him: and more for that, than for the making of the world in His great wisdom and power.
Yet, if we will weigh and consider well, we shall find another respect, which the Angels have in naming Him after such base stiles, which is, That the glory of His Resurrection might appear the greater. It is even as he should have said, JESUS, of that sober Village NAZARETH, who was counted vile in the world, and was crucified, yet for that infirmity He is risen again, and is in the glory of the Heavens. So he names Him after these base stiles, to enlarge the glory of His Resurrection: for the humbler that He was, the Resurrection was the more glorious. It was indeed a great matter, and a wonder, to see a man, a worm, tread on by the Devil, tread on by death, (it was a wonder, to see Him, howe He was humbled,) that He should have risen again to such a wondrous glory. So that at the Name of Jesus all knees shall bow, Philipp. Chap. 2. verse. 10. But I leave this, and I go forward. Next comes on the tidings. The words of MATTHEW are these: First, He is not here. Then the next words, He is risen. The first word was an heavy word to these holy women: for appar • ntlie they conceived with Marie Magdalene, that His body was stolen away out of the sepulcher, and thought not that He was risen again. The next word they hear comforts them: The first word makes them exceeding heavy, but the seconde word makes them to rejoice, when he says, He is risen, He is not stolen away craftily, but by His own power He is risen.
In this anunciation, as in a picture, ye may observe the form which is used in proponing the EVANGEL and glad tidings of Salvation: The beginning is always in dolour and in sadness, but the ende is in joy and gladness. The first word that we hear, is, That the LORDE is come into the world, and suffered shame, reproaches, and ignominy, and at last, the shameful death of the Cross under PONTIVS PILATE: These are heavy tidings to us, to hear that our LORDE was so hardly, and so evil entr •• 〈◊〉 the world; and that in ende, He died the vile death of ••• osse for us, and was buried: And yet immediately it follows, That the same LORDE is risen, and ascended up in glory to the Heavens, and there sits at the right hand of GOD; and, that thorough His Passion, death, and Resurrection, our sins are forgiven us, we shall rise again, and get life everlasting: And these are joyful tidings.
Now to insist further: The first tidings which is told to the Church in this earth, are sad and heavy: Thou must suffer: And whosoever will strive to live godly in CHRIST, of necessity he must suffer affliction: There are sad tidings. But it follows, if thou suffer with Him, thou shalt reign with Him: These are glad tidings. Now I shall give you the words of the Scripture for my warrande: Christ (Matth. 16.21.) says the same to His Disciples, I am to go up to Jerusalem, and to suffer, and to be slain. And Peter took evil with it : These are sad tidings. But He says, I will rise again the third day : And this is joyful. And in the XVI. CHAPTER and XXXII. VERS. of JOHN, He says to them, The time will come when ye shall be scattered, and leave me alone : (Sadde tidings.) But I am not alone, for the Father is with me : Ioyfull tidings. Then He says to them, Ye shall be hated of all men for my Names sake : (That is sad tidings to them.) But they who continue to the ende, shall be saved : Gladde tithinges. And again, in the 16. Chapter of JOHN, and 33. verse. He says, Jn the world ye shall have affliction : (A sad word) But J have over-come the world : glad tidings. So ye see these tidings always begin with sadness, but they ende with joy. And as it is of the word, so it is of the disposition of the hearers: The sinner will first be sad: and then find such a joy as is unspeakable: and this shall be thy disposition, so long as thou art an hearer: But when thou shalt be a beholder, no heaviness of heart, but joy forever, and all tears shall be wiped away from thine eyes. While thou art hearing, thy tears shall be mingled with joy, but when thou art seeing there shall be perfect joy without tears. Thus far for the tidings. He is not content to tell them only, the Lord is risen : no, one word will not suffice them, but He confirms it by Christ's prediction, He said it before, the Lord was to suffer, and to rise the third day. Look the XVI. Chap. of Matth. So he confirms them by the Lord's own Testimony. These prophesies and predictions which are foretold of Christ, are much worth: for they have this use: When thou readest them in that old Testament, they seal up the word of the Gospel, of the manifestation of Christ in the flesh, of His suffering, and glorification, that that report of old is fulfilled. But before I leave this: I see the Lord will not let His own forget His word which He hath once told them: suppose they would forget it, yet the Lord will have it called to their remembrance. These women would have forgotten that which the chief Priests remembered, when they sought a guard of Pilate to watch the sepulcher. Sometimes it comes to pass, that the godly remembers not so much as the wicked, who hears the word to their destruction: but if thou be one of His, He will have it called to thy memory: but if thou be none of His, He will not regard, that when thou hearest, thou let it go in at thine one ear, and out at the other. Great grace they get, who are in Him: Well is that soul forever that is in Him. A man will think it a great thing, that a king will speak unto him: but it is a far greater thing, that the King of Heaven will speak to thee. There is some proportion betwixt the king and his subject, betwixt the king and the beggar: but there is no proportion betwixt GOD and thee: So then this is a great mercy, that He will bring that word that thou hast contemned to thy remembrance, and ere thou remember it not, He will send down an Angel from the Heaven, to call it to thy remembrance. We have not Angels now, as these women had then, but I say to thee, as many true and faithful Ministers, are as like many Angels: take away these men that preach the Gospel (indeed I grant properly this, to call all things spoken to remembrance, pertains to the Holy Spirit, John 14.26.) thou shalt forget the word of God that is preached, and thou shalt grow more blockish than a stock or a stone, and they that will not hear this word, He makes them like stones, and well were it to thee, albeit thou werest a King, if thou hearest not this word, that thou werest a stone. But mark the time, when He brings it to their remembrance, when the Lord is risen: this tenor of time is not ay kept, but sometimes ere the thing be done, He calls it to remembrance: for that is a part of our felicity, ever to be holden in memory of grace. Woe to thee, that is not holden in memory of it, but indeed it is more joyful to remember after it is done: and therefore at that great day, when we shall see all things fulfilled, which were foretold, our joy shall be perfected. I grant, that Hope hath joy, yet it hath heaviness joined with it, but sight hath perfect joy, without any heaviness: and when we shall see all these things, that were foretold us, when we shall see that glorious God, when we shall see every word that ever we read in the Gospel to be fulfilled, we shall remember them all with such joy as no tongue can tell. We glory here under Hope, but then our glory shall be in sight, and we shall have it in our hand, and as we shall rejoice then, we shall also glorify GOD perfectly all manner of ways, now we do it with great infirmity, but when we shall see Him, we shall glorify Him everlastingly▪ and this shall be a part of our song: Glory forever be to that true GOD, He promised me much, and now, I see He hath fulfilled it: and so we see, there is never one word, that we have heard, but that Holy and true GOD shall bring it to our memory, with such a joy as cannot be spoken.
This for the first argument: now follows the second argument: The Angel uses to confirm his speech: Come hither and see, says the Angel: The LORD is not here, if ye will not credit my word, believe your own eyes, and see it, is not this a great mercy, when thou wilt not believe His word, the Lord will let thee see: the Lord is not contented to let thee hear these glad tythings, but He will: bring them before thine eyes. What means these visible Sacraments, but to help the infirmity of the weak Faith, & besides the Sacraments, this word of God is not like the word of man, or of an Orator, like Demosthenes or Cicero, or any man in this world: No, that word in y e gospel in great simplicity hath a great Majesty shining in it: yea, it is visible, as the Apostle says in the first to the Corinthians 2.4. It hath an ocular demonstration, and when it speaks to thee of Heaven, it will draw thine eye to Heaven: and when it speaks to thee of the Cross, it will let thee see Christ crucified, and if it speak to thee of His glory, it shall let thee see Him in glory, and that is it which Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter 3. verse 1. He preaches Christ so to them, that he made them see Christ crucified before their eyes.
Now I come to the third part: it contains a commandment that he gives to the women. Tithings have ever some commandment joined with them, and commandment requires ever obedience: so when ever thou gettest tithings, thou gettest a commandment, do this, or thou shalt never get part nor portion of the tithings. No, Brethren, a Christian life is not an idle life, but practicke, if ever thou wouldest be partaker of these good tithings, look that thou strive to do that which He bids thee: Ruane says the Angel, home, this have I told you, Preach ye to the Apostles: Go tell the disciples, that He is risen. Go your way hastily, to testify the Resurrection. This glorious Resurrection requires an hasty preaching: and I say to you, that testimony that is given of Christ, requires expedition: and therefore if thou aimest to testify of the Lord, do it hastily: the glory He gets, would not be delayed.
The next part of the direction the Angel gives them, is that they tell the Apostles, that they go to Galilee, because Christ would be before them there.
The Papists think that they have gotten a great vantage of this, that Peters name was expressed, and not the rest. This special direction that is sent to Peter, imports no supremacy, but rather, if ye consider well, that he was inferior to them all. It imports this plainly, that Peter had done a great fault, by the threefold denial of the Lord. Alas, in this action he had an evil conscience, and if there had not been a particular direction to Him, he durst not for his life have come to CHRIST. Think ye, that a man that hath denied GOD, dare come to Him, except He be prevented: No, Peter durst not for his life have looked to the LORD: so this is their supremacy, that they mark of Peter above the rest. Now one thing: I think no man nor woman should doubt, why these women preached this Resurrection: The LORD gives, them a sp • ciall direction: first, from GOD, then from His Angel, and this commission might satisfy: so that the Apostles were bound to receive this commission, that was ordained by the LORD of Heaven. I mark this lesson, There is neither man, nor woman can speak in the Name of the Lord except they be sent. So says Paul to the Romans tenth Chapter, and fifteenth verse. None can preach, except he be sent ? How can one preach CHRIST, and if he be not sent by CHRIST? da • e a knave stand up in the midst of a city, or town, and make a proclamation in the name of the Prince, and not have a warrand, and darest thou stand up, and speak in the Name of the great GOD of Heaven, and have no warrand, Indeed it is the LORD who knows who is sent, & if thou werest never so admitted, and warranded by the Church, & the Lord in that great day shall never count of thy preaching, except thou have a warrand in thy conscience. Will He put His word in the mouth of every knave: No, that is a grace, to call JESUS the LORD: No, thou canst not call JESUS the Lord, except thou have the Spirit of Jesus as the Apostle says, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, the twelfth Chapter, and third verse. So whether we be Ministers, or others, who speak of JESUS, we should look that that Spirit be in the heart to direct us when we speak.
I mark next, it was not enough to have seen this resurrection, and never to have spoken one word of it: No, He commands them to testify to the Apostles, and the Apostles got this commandment to preach it again: for the Gospel is not a candle to put under a bushel, but to hold it up, and show it to the world: for it is the life, and the light of the world. PAUL says to Timothy in his second Epistle, the second Chapter, first verse, That that thou hast heard of me before many witnesses, the same deliver thou to faithful men, which shall be able to teach others also. No, it is not to be concredite to every knave: it is too precious a jewel to deliver to knaves: let them deliver it to them that are able to teach others: let the first deliver to the second, and the second to the third, and the third to the fourth, and the fourth to the fifth, and so let it ever sound in the world. Woe to that soul that impedes the course of the glorious Gospel: for what can there be, where it is not teached, but death: No, this Gospel is a stumbling block to the world. Tell them, says the Angel, He will meet them in Galilee : for Jury denied me: No, would CHRIST say, I will not appoint to meet with them in Jerusalem : for Jerusalem is not worthy of me, but I will meet them in Galilee, and so they met with Him, as ye shall see hereafter by God's grace. Then I see that all these tithings that tell us of things that are not seen: hath everyone of them a promise joined with them, y t we shall see them come to pass? Believe thou that He hath suffered, and thou shalt see that He hath suffered, and believe that He is in glory, & thou shalt see Him in glory. We saw Him not with our bodily eyes, but we have that blessing which the LORD pronounced to Thomas, John Chapter 20. verse 29. Blessed are they which never saw me, and yet do believe in me. Now blessed forever shall that soul be, that never saw the LORD, and yet believes in Him, and I speak to thee a sore word, if thou believest not, until thou see Him, thou shalt never see Him, if thou believest not that He died, until thou see that He died, thou shalt n • uer see Him, but to thy damnation. Hope under hope, and against Hope.
Brethren, many are the impediments that will stay us: so that we will say, I will never see Him: I hear much speaking of Heaven, but alas, I fear I shall never see it: I hear much spoken of life, but alas, I fear, I shall never see life.
And these are the temptations of the most godly men and women of this world, yet against all these temptations, believe God's promises, and hope for life: for PAUL says in the Epistle to the Romans. the fifth Chapter, and the fifth verse, Faith brings forth experience, and Hope makes not ashamed: because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts abundantly by the holy Ghost which is given unto us. No, let none of these temptations hinder us: that thing that holds back the infidels, shall work for the best to thee that fearest the Lord: & if thou fearest the Lord, I promise thee in y e name of GOD, all these temptations shall further thee, and thou shalt be partaker of Life. Now a word, and I shall ende: He signets & seals up, that which he hath told: I have told you it, says he: as he would say, It is true that I have told you, and I will seal it to be true, and ye sh • ll find it to be true, & therefore doubt not. So our lesson is this: Whēsoever thou comest to testify to the people of God, in pain of thy life look thou speak nothing but that which God bids thee speak: and that thou mayest say in conclusion, This is true that I have said: and that this is true, I will bide by it: and seal it up with my blood. The Angel had no blood: but if thou be not of that mind to shed thy blood, thou art but a deceiver. This is a great boldness to seal, to seal it up with thy blood: but if thou have it not sealed up in thine heart, thou shalt never seal it up with thy blood: and when it comes to the sealing thou shalt steal away. No, it is a great word to say with the Prophet David, I believed, and therefore I spake. Look thou speak nothing to the people of God, but that which thou striuest to believe. Howe is this assurance gotten? And will every wanton man get this assurance to stand, and seal it up with his blood? No, except thou strive night and day to get the Lord in thy presence, and not to have any joy but in His presence, thou shalt never have this assurance. Then, howe is it kept? The Lord hath appointed reading: Take heed to thy reading, says Paul to Timothy, in his first Epistle, the fourth CHAPTER, and 13. verse. and give thyself to meditation, and sh • we thy knowledge in that that thou hast read, and get not a knowledge only, but a sense to speak to others. Reading brings knowledge, and meditation brings feeling: and last is prayer. And if it be the duty of all men to pray, then especially the Minister is bound to pray, both for himself, and for them also to whom he is sent. So in a word: Read, meditate, and pray night and day, so far as is possible to thee to do. And if thou do these things, thou shalt seal it up with the effusion of thy blood, and thou shalt have more joy in thy death, than ever thou hadst in thy life: So that thy death shall be the beginning of thy life, and of that fullness of joy, which thou shalt poss • sse with Him in the Heavens forever: To Him, therefore, with the Father, and His blessed Spirit, be all Praise and Honor, forever: AMEN.
THE XXXI. LECTURE OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
MATTH. CHAP. XXVIII.
[verse 8] So they departed quickly from the sepulcher, with fear and great, joy, and did run to bring his disciples word.
MARKE, CHAP. XVI.
[verse 8] And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulcher: for they trembled, and were amazed: neither said they anything to any man: for they were afraid.
LUKE, CHAP. XXIIII.
[verse 1] NOw the first day of the week, early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, and brought the odors which they had prepared, and certain women with them.
[verse 2] And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher,
[verse 3] And went in, but found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
[verse 4] And it came to pass, that as they were amazed thereat, behold, two men suddenlie stood by them in shining vestures.
[verse 5] And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why seek ye him that liveth, among the dead?
[verse 6] He is not here, but is risen: remember howe he spake unto you, when he was yet in Galilee,
[verse 7] Saying, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
[verse 8] And they remembered his words,
[verse 9] And returned from the sepulcher, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the remnant.
[verse 10] Now it was Marie Magdalene, and Joanna, and Marie the mother of James, and other women with them, who told these things unto the Apostles.
[verse 11] But their words seemed unto them as a feigned thing, neither believed they them.
I Showed you from the beginning (well-beloved in the Lord Jesus) that there were two compainies of women, that came out of Jerusalem, to the grave of the Lord: First, one company, in the which was Mary Magdalene, & Mary the mother of James & Solome, with some others : Thē soon after that there came out another company of women, whose names we find not registrated. We have heard already of the History of the first women, we heard of their outcomming, we heard what they saw, and what they heard when they came to the grave of the Lord. Now this day we have the returning of the first company home to Jerusalem, set down in few words. Then we shall go to the History of the second company of women, wherein first we have their outcomming: Secondly, what they hear and see: and thirdly, their tidings to the Apostles, what they had heard and seen. And this History concerning the seconde company is written, by Luke, Chap. 24. verse. 2. Matthew writes concerning the first company, and Mark also: John speaks only of Marie Magdalene. Luke sets down the whole seconde company. But now to return to the home-coming of the first company of women: It is written by MATTHEW and MARKE, that when they had received direction of the Angel, They returned home with fear and great joy, to tell the eleven Apostles (for IVDAS was fallen away) what they had heard and seen. I note shortly these three things in these women: First, I see that there was a fear in them: Next, I see that they had an exceeding joy: And last of all, I see in them obedience to the voice of the Angel with all expedition. The fear was, because of the presence of that glorious Angel: The joy, because of the joyful news, to wit, That the LORDE was risen : The obedience, was, because of the commandment of the Angel, to run home, and tell the APOSTLES. All these three things are to be commended in them: And they teach us this lesson, howe we should depart from the presence of our GOD: when we meet to hear these glorious tidings, without the which there is no life: and without the hearing whereof, thou shalt never see Heaven. Let no man deceive himself: they teach us howe we should depart from the word: Depart with fear and reverence: that is the first: Then depart with joy: that is the seconde: And thirdly: depart with a mind to obey that which thou hast heard: and this is the last. We should fear, in respect of the presence of the Lord, whereat all the Angels were afraid: and, where two or three are gathered together in His Name, there is His presence. And if thou seest not His presence in the Congregation, it were better for thee that thou presentedst not thyself in the Congregation: The joy should be of the hearing of these tidings. Thou delitest to hear tidings: but all the tidings of the world is nothing to these, to wit, That Jesus is come into the world, and hath died for thee. And last of all: Depart with obedience: for thou gettest this commandment, When thou goest home, communicate these tidings to others, that thy joy may be increased. The light of the Gospel requires holiness and a godly conversation: that thou live soberlie in thine own person, justly with thy neighbor, and godly with thy God. When the day breaks out, and when the Sun rises, the light of the day is not for nothing, it cries upon thee, to thy labors, to fall to an honest conversation: Then much more, the Sun of righteousness, that light of lights, that LORDE, when He shines, and cries, Shake off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light: Shake off thy murder, thy adultery, and oppression, in pain of thy life: Thou wilt come out, and stick and slay a man in sight of the Sun: No, that murder shall not so much be laid to thy charge, as the contemning of GOD, who shined before thee when as thou slewest that man. We are fallen now to such a shameful murder, as was never heard of among the TVRKES. What will become of this Kingdom? Suppose there were none other sin, but this sin of blood, O, it cries for a vengeance. Mark this: sie upon thee, that in such a light, and in the sight of that great GOD, thou shouldest commit such villainy. But I go forward: and I enter to the History of the seconde company of women, who went out to the grave of the Lord. The first company saw but one Angel, but this saw two Angels: and therefore they are diverse. The History is very plain, and there can be no other thing almost marked, than that which is already touched: and therefore I shall go thorough it shortly, as God shall give the grace. This second company came out shortly after the first company: they draw near, They saw the stone away fro • the sepulcher, as the first did, And they enter into the grave, as the first • id, But they found not the body of the Lord Jesus, and they are very sad and heavy, supposing it had been stolen away: they see two Angels, whom they supposed to be two men, fearful to look on: the first company see but one Angel these see two, and the earthly witnesses grow in number: so the heavenly grow: there was but one Angel only who appeared to the first company, now this company see two Angels, and all this was for the greater certainty of the matter, and resurrection of Jesus Christ: they seeing two Angels, are afraid: therefore the Angels begin and comfort the women, by telling that Christ was risen, and bids them go tell the Apostles. Now we shall mark something of the part of the women, and then we shall come to the part of the Angels. As this carefulness of the Lord that was in these women, was worthy of praise: so the Apostles carelessness of their Lord cannot be praised: for it became them to have come out first: & as the couragiousnesse of these women is to be commended, so the Apostles cowardnesse merits no commendation: and the moe women testify of His Resurrection, that same brings the greater sh •• c to the Apostles. When thou art a man, and hast a calling, and will • let a Wife go before thee, it shames thee: and no doubt, the force of His Resurrection, was more powerful in the poor women, than it was in the very Apostles: for all this spiritual courage flows from the life of Christ: for except He had risen from the death, and that we got life thorough His life, we would never have life: yea, all the spiritual life, and quickness that was in the fathers of old, was by the virtue of Christ's Resurrection to come, and all this quickness of ours, is by the virtue of His Resurrection already past, if thou have that life begun, it shall be a sure earnestpennie that thou shalt rise in glory, and live a life, like to the glorious life of thy glorious Head and Savior Jesus Christ. Then I mark another thing in these women: They are subject to diverse perturbations of mind: they come out with sadness, and when they found not the body of the Lord Jesus, their dolour is increased: then when they see and hear the Angels, they are terrified, and last of all, they find joy. Wilt thou compare the godly with the ungodly, ye shall find sometimes in the hearts of the ungodly, greater peace than in the hearts of the godly: no pain, nor vexation in them, but they say, peace: peace, as the Apostle says in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, the fifth Chapter, and the third verse: but behold the end: when they have cried Peace, then a sudden destruction from the Heaven, shall overtake them, and their peace shall end in disquietness forever. The trouble of the godly ends in endless joy, the godly begins in sadness, goes forward in sadness, but ever in the ende they find joy, and the greater trouble thou be in, in the ende thou shalt find greater joy: and when thou shalt attain to that joy, the very remembrance of that trouble that thou haddest in this life, shall augment thy joy, and thou shalt rejoice, that ever thou hadst trouble here, if thou hadst been even burnt or martyred for CHRIST'S sake: and by the contrary: The wicked that have lived here in security, when they are thrust in Hell, in endless pain and displeasure, shall find that the remembrance of the joy that they had in this life shall augment their pain, and they shall curse the time that ever they lived here in such pleasure, and had this false peace on earth. This History is plain, and therefore I go forward: I come to the part of the Angel: the first speech is somewhat rough: Why do ye seek the living amongst the dead? Why do ye this? Then He comes on, and says, He is not here, He is risen. Then he confirms it by a reason: Remember, women, what He said to you, when He was with you in Galilee, Saide He not, that He behooved to be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and to rise again the third day. This is the meaning in effect. Then where He begins with a reproof, there must be a fault in them: No, the LORD will not reprove thee for nothing: I take their fault to be oblivion: for so the words of the Angel import: they had forgot that He should rise the third day, suppose He had told them.
Well, Brethren, I see this, It is the will of God, that we never forget His word, & more I see, If thou lettest it slip out of thy mind, as we do too readily: the Lord will reprove thee, but in His reproving & in His anger: He never forgets mercy & lenity: in reproving of the women, He makes the Angel to instruct and tell them that He was risen: so in reproving of thee, He will teach thee, and it learns us this lesson: Always in all reproofs, teach them whom thou reprouest: if thou reprove them, without a care to instruct them, thy reproof avails nothing at all. Then look, so soon as his anger goes away, and when he hath spoken two words, thereafter he says, He is not here, He is risen, Remember, He said to you, He behooved to suffer, and die, and rise the third day: So we learn this at the Angel, It may be, that God speak a word of anger, but it will soon go away, and the mercy remains forever: and when He hath laid His anger aside, He teaches in mercy: and I speak this to the child of God: Manie faults in us all, and now and then He speaks in anger, that His own perish not with the wicked world: He will waken them with some angry word, and think as thou wilt, and if thou be not wakened with some angry word, thou shalt die in thy stink, and canker of thy corrupt nature: and so long as we are here, there is ever some matter of anger: so that now and then He will speak to thee in anger (for we are as foolish children, thinking and speaking as children: and therefore have need to be chastised) but when we are perfect men, never an angry word, nor a gloome shall be, but always mercy and pleasure forever. Then I mark another thing in the Angel, Remember (says he) that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and to die, and the third day to rise again, as He shown to you. Well, then I see, the Lord He forgets not His own word, that He speaks, suppose the women had forgotten it: No, the Lord that speaks it, thinks never so light of it as thou doest: Thou wilt forget soon, and thou takest no thought of it: but that word that He speaks, either by Himself, or by His Ministers: He will never forget it. The word of a King is much, and of great might: then how weighty is the word that comes from the King of kings: Heaven and earth shall perish, ere one jot of that word perish, or fall to the ground: and as He forgets not, so He will have it called to the remembrance, not only of the godly, but also of the wicked: but mark the difference: When He brings it to the Elects memory: H • e brings it ever with great joy▪ as He did to these women. But as to the wicked, it is ever a doleful and woeful remembrance, with pain and grief and this is no small part and cause of the pain of Hell, that all the words which God spake to them whilst they lived, and which they contemned, shall be brought to their memory, that book of remembrance shall be holden ever before their eyes, that there they may see and read all the wicked works that they have done in their life: yea, the least evil word shall be laid to their charge: and then the conscience shall stand up and accuse them everlastingly: No, if thou be out with Christ, I say to thee, terrible shall that sight be, that thou shalt see,: for the least evil thought shall be laid to thy charge, let be evil deeds, and that forgetfulness of the word of God, whilst thou liuedst, shall be a great parte of thy pain and grief: but the forgetfulness of the godly shall be hid, as all the rest of their sins shall be hid in Him, and in that blood they shall be counted as clean, as if they had never sinned, nor had forgotten God's word.
Thus far for the part of the Angel: Now, I return to the women: When the Angel hath spoken, and informed them of the Resurrection: They return, and tell to the Apostles, what they had heard and seen : Mark this lesson, They cannot keep it within their breast, but they will communicate it to others, they will tell the Apostles: Brethren, after that once a man, or a woman hath conceived that spiritual joy, all the world will not hold their tongue: put them in a fire, they cannot but speak of it. Many Martyrs have proved this to be true, if it were but a woman, she must preach it to others: & I say more, if thou hast not pleasure one time or other, to speak with joy of Christ to others: to speak of His Passion, and Resurrection, thou never heardest with joy. We all have pleasure enough to talk with joy of vain and profane tales: but of that pleasure of pleasures, little or no delight have we to speak. I condemn not only the world, but also the children of GOD, and myself with the first. Alas, too little pleasure have we in our hearts to speak of Christ, and His Resurrection. But to whom go they? Go they to tell the wicked people? No, that people was not worthy of it: they steal in to the Apostles, and them who loved Christ, who were lurking in Jerusalem. So the lesson is this: A man that finds joy, will not communicate it to the profane man: he will know well, that he communicates it to such one as will have joy with him: if any man be sad, ye see they will not communicate it▪ but to them that will be sad with them: so it is with joy, they will not tell to every man the joy, but to such as will have joy with them. Look the twelfth Chapter to the Romans and the fifteenth verse : he wishes them To rejoice with them that rejoice, and to be sad with them who are sad. Mark this thing also. Is not this joy a precious thing? Nothing so precious in the world, as joy: and marvel ye not, that they should be so liberal of it? And if thou hadst all the world, it is nothing in respect of this joy, and yet they are liberal of it. Paul, Rom. chap. 1. verse. 11. he answers to this, J long, says he, to come to you, to impart some spiritual gift to strengthen you. No, this hurt not him, for he expones himself, saying, That I might be comforted, together with you, through our mutual faith, both yours and mine. So when he cometh to give grace, he got grace: No, it is a wonderful thing, when two holy bodies meet, what joy the one will pour into the heart of the other: Put all the Infideles together, they cannot minister this joy one to another. So in a word, Communication of joy shall not impair, but it shall enlarge the joy in thee. Whereto should one stand up to preach CHRIST, but that by his joy, he may minister joy to them that hear him. Now the LORD grant, that both Preachers and hearers may find in their hearts this joy, which is in CHRIST.
Now I go forward: As they go in the part where the Apostles lurked, they find before them that first company of women, who had returned from the sepulcher, Marie Magdalene, and Marie the mother of James, and Salome : and as they enter in, they find them telling these same news to the eleven Apostles: So that the eleven Apostles wanted not witnesses; women, after women, testifying, that the Lord was risen. Will ye consider this well, and ye shall see, that it imports a deadly security in the Apostles: alas, it should have been they, who should have come to the women, to have told them of the Resurrection of Christ. When He sends so women after women, it testifies, that they were in a dead security, and so it testifies a great mercy of the LORDE, who will not let them sleep in that carnal security.
Brethren, this same mercy of God towards His own, abideth as yet, for in us is nothing but sleeping, (and if thou feelest it not, thou feelest nothing) Pastors, people, and all sleeps in security, as the Apostles did: And I say to thee, that if the LORDE would let thee alone, and would send to thee no witnesses to waken thee, and to say to thee, Sinner, wake, and arise: No, there is none of us, but we would sleep to death. So look to the LORD'S mercy in this thy misery, He sends men to thee, He sends crosses and troubles to waken thee. Take men away, take away these clouds of wickedness, take away c • osses, I give the world their doom (no exception, from the King to the Beggar,) and if thou wantest witnessing, that CHRIST died, and rose again, thou shalt sleep to destruction. Thou thinkest that this needs not to be preached: but thou shalt see one day, that there was never anything so needful in the earth, as this preaching: and thou shalt curse the time that ever thou wast set in the world, except thou compt this preaching the greatest earnest that ever was.
So this is a token of great mercy towards them: and ye will wonder that they should be so sluggishe, who heard him so long, and that now they cannot be wakened. Alas! they were not as yet so well skilled, that Heauenlie wit was not as yet in their heads, and they had more of that wordly and fleshly wit, than of that Heauenlie wit: and this drew them to this security.
This is the nature of the Regenerate: Suppose the Regenerate in this world compt, in some measure, of the cross of Christ, and of the power of God: yet in the best of them, there is some lack, some infirmities, and wants, and they will think sometime the preaching of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ to be but vanity, and a dream of wives, as JOHN, PETER, MATTHEW, and the rest of the Apostles did: for none of them would believe this, That CHRIST was risen. We will think that there is some great folly in these tidings: (I will tell you my nature, and the nature of the best man or woman:) but when we shall see That joyful Morning, as DAVID calls it, then we shall say with SARAH, THE LORDE hath made me now to laugh indeed : She scorned, when she heard say, she should conceive, and bear a child: she thought she could not bear a child: and now when she sees it come to pass, she says, The LORDE makes me to laugh indeed. And so shall we say one day, that thing which we thought but jestes, then we shall say, I see this now, that I could not believe well enough, now I see it is true indeed.
So then, in despite of all natural wit, strive to get an hope above hope: and then shalt thou greatly wonder at that sight, and marvel forever, that there could be such a joy. Now blessed is that man, or that woman that gets a taste of it here for they shall be assured of it forever. But to go forward, I see, that it avails not much to speak to a sleeping person, that is loadned with sin, and feels it not, that is the worst estate in the world, never to groan under this mortality, under this burden of death: They can never say with the Apostle: Miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death. And if ye speak to these persons of the Resurrection & death of Christ, it availeth nothing to them. What did the Apostles? They thought it but a scorn: if the Apostles thought so, what wilt thou do, that sleepest in thy murder, in thine adultery, in thy theft, in thine oppression? If the Apostles slept, how! wilt thou sleep: a sleeping sinner must be once wakened, as PAUL says in the Epistle to the Romans the first Chapter, and eighteenth verse. The wrath of God is manifest from the Heaven, against all the unrighteousness of men : And I say, the wrath and the vengeance of GOD is manifest upon the sleeping sinner, and death comes on him, that never shall have an end. But PAUL in the Epistle to the Romans, the third CHAPTER, and the twenty and one VERSE: he comes on with other tithings, and says, That the righteousness of GOD through faith in Jesus Christ is made manifest to them that believe. And I will say to thee, that Jesus is come into the world, and died for thee, if thou believest thou shalt be freed of that burden of sin and wrath; and when a man hears this, he will think it the sweetest tithings that ever he heard: for the sinner will find life in that death, and that blood will sprinckle his conscience, as the Apostle says to the Hebrews, and thou wilt find a wonderful joy, when thy sins are remitted in Christ, of all joys under the Heaven, this is the greatest. The preaching of Christ avails to none, but to him who finds his soul loadned with sin.
Now one word, and so I shall ende: I see in the Apostles, and in their great infirmity, the great providence of GOD: they will neither believe, nor misbeleeue, but by His Providence: what ever was their part in it, the work was good, & of a good purpose: The LORD will not have them to believe the testimony of the first company, nor yet of the second company of women: No, no, He will not have them to believe, until they see it with their eyes, and feel it with their hands, and ere they pass out to others, He will speak to them, and let them see, that they may be persuaded that it was true.
I always tell you this, It is not a small thing to testify of the Resurrection of Christ, to preach His Passion and Resurrection: and wilt thou of a light knowledge preach it: No, beware thou speak this, or that, upon a report. Of all men that speaks in this earth, or is sent with a commission, a Minister hath most need to beware what he speaks: Speak he of the Passion, or Resurrection of CHRIST ere ever he speak, let him get a sight of Him, suppose not with the bodily eyes, lay hold on Him by Faith in thine heart. Think it not enough to be an hearing witness, but a seeing witness: and when thou hast gotten that persuasion, with what confidence wilt thou speak of His death: thou wilt speak with such euidencie, that the high hearts of men shall be humbled, finding such weight in thy words. The LORD give us grace, that when we stand up to speak of the Resurrection of CHRIST to others: we may have the persuasion of it in our own hearts, and that we may find His gracious Spirit working in us, and as we speak of Heaven, and these joys to others, so we may find some joy begin in our own hearts here, that after this life is ended, we may reign with Him in glory forever with CHRIST: To whom with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all honor, praise and glory, for evermore.
THE XXXII. LECTURE OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
LUKE, CHAP. XXIIII.
[verse 12] Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulcher, and looked in, and saw the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
JOHN, CHAP. XX.
[verse 3] Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they came unto the sepulcher.
[verse 4] So they ran both together, but the other disciple did out-run Peter, and came first to the sepulcher.
[verse 5] And he stouped down, and saw the linen clothes lying: yet went he not in.
[verse 6] Then came Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and saw the linen clothes lie,
[verse 7] And the kerchiefe that was upon his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by it self.
[verse 8] Then went in also the other disciple, who came first to the sepulcher, and he saw it, and believed.
[verse 9] For as yet they knew not the Scripture, That he must rise again from the dead.
[verse 10] And the disciples went away again unto their own home.
W E have heard these days past (beloved in the Lord Jesus) of the two companies of women, that went out of Jerusalem, toward the grave of the Lord, early in the morning. The one company that came first, wherein was Marie Magd. and Marie the mother of James, and Salome, with other women. And the next company of women, whose names are not expressed, nor registrate: We heard of their returning home again from the grave of the Lord: how they come to the place where the XI. Apostles were lurking, with some other disciples, who loved the Lord: We heard of y e preaching that the first company makes: & then the preaching of the second company, their preaching all testifying, that the Lord Jesus was risen. We heard last, what effect this preaching wrought in the hearts of the XI. Apostles, to wit, they thought it all but folly, fables, & a feigned report, & believed it not. It is an hard matter, to believe y e report of Christ, of His Passion & glorious resurrection. Thus far we heard the last day. Now to come to the Text y t we have read: We have first another effect which this report wrought: howbeit it wrought not faith, yet it had its own effect in 2. disciples at least, Peter & John, they are wakened by it, to seek to the grave of y e Lord, to see if it was so as the women reported. Well then, the report of the women is not altogether fruitless, at the least it wakens some of them up to run to the grave, to see if it was so as the womē had reported. This testifies clearly, y t even all the time y t these Apostles lay lurking like cowards, yet all that time there remained in them a seed of faith, a seed of godliness, & a sponke of love toward their Master Christ: Indeed it was smothered with the dross of the corruption of nature, but yet it was not quite put out: and therefore, as soon as these women come, and make report of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the seed begins to waken and draw spirits, and makes them to run to see if it was true y t He was risen. For it is true, that they who once have gotten faith in Christ, in whose heart this seed is once sown, howbeit for a time they will fall in a slumber, yea, in an heavy sleep, & that seed will be so hold̄ down, that it will not be seen to y e world, yea, they that have it, will not feel it thenselves: yet it is sure, that true seed of faith, sown once in the heart, will never be clean put out & extinguished altogether. It is true, it will be for a time lying dead in the heart without life or motion. The Lord will be lying in thee without working for a time, and taking a shape and fashion, as the birth in the mothers womb does, as the Apostle says; Galath Chap. 4. verse. 19. until Christ be formed in you. And all this time He lies without working, the man will seem then to be but dead: but as soon as that word soundes, which is the word of Life, the word of the Cross, and of the Resurrection of Jesus, then that man who appeared to be dead, will take life, and Jesus, who appeared to be dead in thee, will be quick. Howbeit they will not have faith, yet it will stir them up to seek Christ, and inquire whether it be so or not. In the History of the Acts, ( Chap. 17. verse. 11.) ye may read a vine example of this: There were certain of the IEWES in a Town called Berea, and they were in the same estate, they had no thought of Jesus, but were enemies unto Him: yet notwithstanding there was some good seed within them: And therefore they are said to be more Noble than the IEWES at Thessalonica. Now the Apostle PAUL comes in amongst them, and begins to preach CHRIST: then that little seed begins to stir, and they begin to be wakened, and they are thereby moved to read the old Testament, to see if it was true that PAUL preached or no: And then they finding it to be so as PAUL had spoken; many of them believed in CHRIST.
We have our lesson here: It is not good to be hasty in judgment, be loath to condeme any, howbeit thou see men fall, and lie long, yet judge not too hastilie of them, for who knows if there be a sponke in their hearts, which neither thou, nor they themselves know of: but try, whether the seed be or no: And thou shalt try it by this thing: Speak of the Death, Passion, and Resurrection of CHRIST unto them: if after long speaking there be no wakening, certainly that is a very evil token, that there is no good in that heart: if he be in such a deadly sleep, that nothing will waken him, that is a faithless heart, and an heart full of gall and bitterness, and replenished with iniquity: But if there be some quickening, although it were never so little, yea, suppose he believe not, and yet hath a readiness to hear, and say this, LORDE open mine eyes to see, and mine heart to believe: And if this be found in him, that is a good heart, and that birth shall come forth in its own time, for as the birth is not perfected in an instant in the mothers womb, so faith is not perfected at the first, but it grows by little & little.
Now when they are wakened, what do they? They run to the grave. They went not fair and softlie, but they ran to the grave. Now certainly this running must needs proceed of some motion in the heart; some motion behooved to stir them up: Ye see what motion moved Marie Magdalene to run home: she was in displeasure, because she mist the body of the LORD: for she thought it had been stolen away. It cannot be displeasure that moved them to run: No doubt it was joy in their hearts, which made their hearts light, and the light heart made the feet speedy: And if thou have joy, it will cause thee to run and seek Him. But from whence came this joy? I see no matter of joy, but in these tidings which they heard: But howe could they have joy, seeing they believed them not? I answer to this They would have believed, and fain would have had it so, and that was the thing which they moste desired: And ye know, that we hear that thing which we would fain have come to pass, we will have joy to hear of it, and our delight will be to see if it be so. And so suppose there was not a full faith in them, yet there was a bowing, and an inclination to faith. And it is a strange thing to bow the heart, for it will be as hard to bow the heart, as to bow a strong Oak. So the least bowing to yield to the report of Jesus, is wonderful, and there shall follow an unspeakable joy which passes all understanding. The least conception of that joy will be greater, than thou wilt have, yea, and make thee a King or a Queen. Seek ever to that Heauenlie affection, for the Beast hath this earthly affection: then seek thou after the Heauenlie, or thine estate shall be worse than the Beasts one day. So when the heart is wakened, thou wilt seek the Lord: but if thine heart be not bowed, it shall stand up like a wall, or a brazen pillar, and this shall be thine estate, Thou wilt have no joy, but sadness, at the hearing of these tidings: for the stiff heart receives no joy, but is in dolour, and there is no seeking of CHRIST there, to see whether He be there or not: So in a word, our lesson is this: Let not a stiff heart deprive thee of that solid joy which is in CHRIST: fie upon that heart.
Now to go forward: They run, and they ran together, striving who should be foremost, and who should come first to the grave, to understand the truth of these women's reports. Now our lesson is this: It is an happy thing to strive in good things, who should be readiest & farthest forwards: No, I shall never blame one to strive to be first at CHRIST: No, strive with thy father, and with thy mother: No, strive with all thy kindred, to be first in Heaven, and look that thou never give place to another to go before thee: but alas, our people strive far otherwise: we strive who should run fastest from the LORD, and fastest forward to a mischief, to murder, blood, and in oppression: this is all the strife in this country: Who strives to be first in Heaven? The LORD says, Matth. CHAPTER 11. VERSE 12. The Kingdom of Heaven suffer violence, and the violent take it by force, and possess it : The LORD meaneth, that we should strive to throng in, and to see who should be first in Heaven: Alas, how far are we from this godly striving, doleful experience teaches us this day in Scotland. Thou wilt possess another man's heritage, but who strives to possess that heavenly heritage. The LORD says in Luke, 13. Chapter, and verse 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate, Meaning, that we should strive with our whole kindred to be first in Heaven, suppose thou wilt let a King go in before thee at an earthly gate, yet strive to go in before him to Heaven, and strive to go in before all thy kindred. Paul that exhorted all men to run, he ran himself: he says, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, the ninth Chapter, and the twenty three verse : He ran, and he ran on, to be partaker of the Gospel that he preached to others, and he ran so fast, that he never looked behind him: No, if thou standest to count thy footsteps, another shall pass by thee, and thou shalt come behind: He says, He looked to that prize of the high calling of GOD, Philip. 3.14. If two be running here on the earth, striving to get the crown, the one will envy the other, and he will travel to get himself forward, and put his companion backward. This earthly race is with envy, and everyone would take the feet from another: Paul gives a reason hereof, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, the ninth Chapter, and the twenty four verse, and says There is but one crown : but it is not so with thee that runnest in that heavenly race, the one will not envy the other, the one will not put the other behind, he will not put him back, but he will take him by the hand & say, Go forward to the end, brother, and thou shalt get the crown: & this is it, that we should everyone exhort another to do, ever to go forward to Heaven, and everyone take another by the hand, to help him forward, because there is not a crown only, but many crowns: look how many run, there are as many crowns: wilt thou run, thou shalt get a crown, will I run, I shall get a crown, and will the third run he shall get a crown: never one who runs shall be destitute of a crown. PAUL in the second Epistle to Timothy, the fourth Chapter, and the 7. and eight verses, says, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, J have kept the faith: now henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord that righteous Judge will give to me at that day: No, he cannot be just, but He must give the crown to thee that hast run: And not only to me, says he, but unto all them also that love that His appearing : As he would say, to all them that will run with me: and I say to thee, if thou wilt run on, & lead thy neighbor by the hand, that is weaker than thou: it shall be so far from hindering thee from the crown, that thine honor and glory shall be augmented, when thou shalt come to Heaven. Paul says in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, the 2. Chapter, and the nineteenth verse, What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not ye it, even in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, at His coming : And therefore well is that soul that wins another to Heaven, be thou King, Lord, Gentleman, or Minister: if thou helpest many to Heauē, thou shalt get y e more glorious crown. To go forward: they run together, but in y e running, y e one is speedier than y e other, & John leaves Peter behind him, & outruns him, but when it comes to the grave, he only looks in, and sees the linen clothes lying, but he enters not in, to get knowledge, but seeing the linen clothes, he stands still: Peter that came behind him, enters first in into the grave, & sees the matter as it was: the windingsheete, as we call it, lying in one place, and the kerchiefe that was upon His head in another place by it self. To speak this by the way: it lets us understand this: Amongst the Jews that the windingsheete was not put over the whole body and head, as we use to do, but from the shoulders down, and the linen was about the head: after this manner Christ was wrapped. Wherefore should I speak of the vanity of the Papists: they will say to you, they have the same windingsheete, and this same kerchiefe remaining as relics: and they will have them in six or seven places at one time: is not this a great wonder it should have lasted so long, and yet should be kept in so many places at one time: and more they say, the vine picture of Christ is in that windingsheete, His body, they say, made such a dint, that His picture might be seen there: but think ye, if it were so, that the Evangelists, who register smaller things, would have hid and conceiled it. But I leave them to their vanity, as unworthy of any refutation, and I come to the matter. In this course and race of Peter, and John, to the grave, I see this course that we have in this life, is very vnequable: it keeps not always one constant tenor, nor we are not ay alike speedy: sometimes one runs fast, sometimes he will settle and weary, and go slowly forward, and whilst as he wearies, his neighbor will outrunne him, and ere they come to the end, he that came out last, will sometimes be first at the mark, and get the crown. Mark this well▪ it lets us see, that to be true which Paul writes in the ninth Chapter to the Romans, and the sixteenth verse, It is not in the hands of him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in the hands of the Lord that showeth mercy : when the Lord holds His hand to thee, thou wilt run, and when He takes His hand from thee, thou wilt stay behind, and he that dragled behind, will be before thee: this is the course we keep to that mark: we should not think, that all men should run alike: and suppose thou seest a dragling person, think not, that person will never come to the mark.
Peter gets the sight first, John, suppose he gote it not first, yet he gets it, and it is said in the Text, He saw, and he believed. Mark the lesson: Albeit there be many changes by the way, yet he or she that will persevere in dragling, shall not want the crown, as well as they that ran speedily, and came first. It stands not so much in the fast running, as in the persevering: it is not said, he or she that runs fast, shall be crowned, but he or she that continues to the end, shall be crowned: look ay thou pereseuere, if thou may not run, go: yet if thou may not go, fall down upon thine hands and feet, and creep as it were a snail, or worm, albeit it were but two foot in the day: & as ever thou wouldest be safe,lie not still: it stands thee upon life & death: thou must wear away, and night and day thou goest ever to this ende: and if this outward man decay, grow in the inward man: and as thou growest weak in this life, striu • to grow strong in that heavenly life, that thou art to go to. Paul in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, the fourth Chapter, and the sixteenth uerse, says, As the outward man decayed daily, so the inward man grew daily. So to end this in a word: As ever thou wouldest see Heaven, go either fast or else softly to that life. Well, it is said, They were ignorant of the Scripture, that told, He should rise again from the dead: and so because he saw, he believed : he should have believed, because he heard it: for he had the Scripture for his warrand: he and Peter should have grounded their Faith on the Scripture.
Take heed to this: The Apostle says, We live by Faith, and not by sight : yet how ever it be, that man or woman believe, they are blessed: and blessed art thou, man, or woman, that believest either for hearing or seeing: and suppose thou feelest him by the hands, and believest in Him, as Thomas did, that felt Him, thou art blessed: but that is an evil thing, when thou hast the word, and yet suspends thy faith, until thou seest.
It was an evil thing in Peter and John, that they let the word pass, and believed it not: it was an evil thing in Thomas, that he believed not, until he felt Christ: and I say to thee, it is a sure thing, if thou refusest to believe, until thou seest, thou aduentourest and hazardest thy life and salvation: and I say to thee, if thou contemnest this word, and say this, I will not believe until I see Him, I give thee thy doom, thou shalt never see Him to thy comfort nor salvation.
Therefore if He say to thee, and if He promise, He will give thee Heaven, believe it, and lay hold on it, although thou werest dying: and if He say to thee, that He will give thee life, depend and stick by His promise.
Thou honourest thy GOD in believing and depending on His promise: for thou canst not do Him greater honor, than to believe His promise.
And albeit thou see little appearance outwardly, and if thou believest the word, without doubt, thou shalt get a sight of Him one day to thy comfort and endless consolation.
Depend and wait on patiently with Abraham, and ever stick and lay hold on the promise, and I promise to thee in His Name, believe the promise of life, and thou shalt see life: believe in Him, and thou shalt see Him one day.
Blessed are they who believe in Him, and yet see Him not: blessed are they who walk by Faith: for one day they shall walk by sight. Strive to believe in His word, and look on Him, and Heaven and earth shall perish, ere thou wantest that sight of Him one day. Yet I may not pass by the words of JOHN: I see in him a wonderful plainness, and singleness of heart: which of us will be contented that another registrate our faults, that any other might read them. This man sinned this way, and that way? Then, who will write up his own faults, with his own hands, as he does? He says, he was ignorant. So then, if there were none other argument to tell us, that this Book is dyted by the SPIRITE of GOD, and that it is the word of GOD, this singleness of writing their own faults without affection or self-love, which ever would entice us to honor our selves, tells us sufficiently.
But naturally, rather than thou haddest thy Parentes, or thy kinsfolk ashamed, thou wouldest rather have GOD'S glory and justice smothered and defaced. But see if MOYSES spared to register the faults of LEVI, of whom he was descended: see if he spared? AARON: See if he spared himself: No, he tells his own fault, he tells his own infidelity. And again, see if DAVID spares himself: sets he not down his own adultery, and murder? JOHN registrates his own ignorance. Let GOD be glorified, and all creatures ashamed: for, to that ende were we created: for except He had respected His own glory, we should never have been made. Shoulde we not then seek His glory, although it were with our own shame? JOHN learns us here another good lesson, howe often soever we fail through ignorance: (Alas, we fail often through ignorance and misbelief, and ignorance brings on infidelity.) And therefore, whensoever we fail through ignorance, lay not the blame of thy blindness upon the Scripture: In pain of thy life say not, I am ignorant, because the Scripture is obscure and dark, as the Pope & his shavelings blasphemouslie allege: but I affirm, that it is so perfect, that all things appertaining to thy salvation are contained therein. And I say in despite of the Pope, thou who sayest it is obscure, one day thou shalt not be challenged so much for thine ignorance, as for thy blasphemy against GOD, when thou wilt stand up, and say, The Scripture of GOD is not perfect, but obscure and wanting: I tell you, one day these blasphemers (for all their out-crying) shall have their mouths sowed up, and they shall make an offer to speak, and to say. The Scripture of God was not perfect: but the conscience of them shall so strike them with fear and terror, that they shall not be able to answer one word. Woe to them that impair the authority of the Scripture: we may pingle with them a while here, but we remit them to that great day, that the Judge appear, and then they shall receive their reward for their blasphemy. But to leave them, What are these Scriptures that preach CHRIST'S Resurrection from the dead? In what part is His Resurrection foretold? In the 13. of the Acts Paul preaching of Christ, he confirms it by the old Scriptures: The first Scripture is out of the 55, of Isaiah, verse 3.24. Where He says, He will make an everlasting covenant with you of the sure mercies of David : Then he concludes, Therefore it behooved the Lord to rise from death : Mark the consequent: No, there is not such a thing, as that ever mercy had continued, if Christ had not risen. The Apostle says in the 2. Epistle to the Corinthians, the first CHAPTER, and the 20. VERSE, In Him are all the promises of God, Yea, and Amen, No, thou, or I should never have had Faith, nor any spiritual grace, if Christ had not risen: So, so oft as ever thou feelest a sponke or motion of that spiritual life within thee, thou mayest say, I am sure, that Jesus is risen from the death: for this is sure, all grace and life flows from the life of Jesus. So, if He had not risen, thou shouldest have had no life. He hath another Scripture, out of the sixteenth Psalm, at the tenth verse, Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave, neither wilt suffer thine Holy One, to see corruption. Then he concludes, therefore He is risen. How follows this? It follows well enough, for if He had not risen, His body behooved to rot, and to be corrupted, as ours rotte. And Peter in the second Chapter of the Acts, and verse 31. uses the same testimony: Likewise in the fifty three Chapter of Isaiah, and the 8. verse, where he prophecies of Christ, he says, And who is able to count His generation: for all His death He is that everlasting Essence: meaning, that albeit He died, He shall rise to life without end.
There is another Scripture, Then they should have believed without sight : But, alas, who is careful to get this knowledge of this Resurrection: and if we had a care to seek Christ, we would turn over these old Scriptures, to see the prophecies of Christ to come, & then we would come to the New Testament▪ to see these things accomplished, & so would meditate in y e Scriptures, night & day, to cōfirm our faith, & to get our hearts set & stablished on the LORD: for it is a matter of great difficulty, to get the heart established with grace: and if thine heart be not established and filled with that word, thou wilt never see CHRIST, nor get any grace in Him. So to ende this: I beseech you, as ever ye would see CHRIST, be diligent to seek the Scriptures, that ye may settle your hearts here upon Him, and believe in Him, that hereafter ye may see Him to your comfort and consolation at His seconde coming, when He shall appear in the clouds, with the millions of Angels: To Him be glory forever, Amen.
THE XXXIII. LECTURE OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
MARKE CHAP. XVI.
[verse 9] And when Jesus was risen again, early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Marie Magdalene, out of whom he cast seven devils:
JOHN CHAP. XX.
[verse 11] But Marie stood without at the sepulcher, weeping: and as she wept, she bowed her self into the sepulcher,
[verse 12] And saw two Angels in white, sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
[verse 13] And they said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She said unto them, They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
[verse 14] When she had thus said, she turned her self back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
[verse 15] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She supposing that he had been the Gardener, said unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
W EE have heard (Brethren) before, first of the out-coming of the first company of women to the grave of the Lord, and of their returning home again: Secondly, we heard of the out-coming of the second company of women, and their returning home again. Thirdly, and last of all, we heard how Peter and John, being wakened with the tidings which the women told them of His Resurrection, came out to the grave, to see if it was so, as the women had reported: They ran, and in running, they strive who shall be first: John out runs Peter, (whether it was because he was younger, and more able in his person, or whether he had greater joy in his mind, I leave that to any man to judge) and comes first to the grave, and looks in, and goes back again. Peter comes after him, and looks better about him, and seeing the winding-sheet in one part of the grave, and the linen cloth, wherewith the Lord's head was wrapped, to be in another part, he wonders at it, and thereafter goes into the grave. Then came JOHN again, who afore only looked in: and now the seconde time enters in, and when he saw, he believed, and went his way. Thus far we heard the last day.
Now in this Text, ye will see, MARIE MAGDALENE, of whom ye heard before, who came to the grave of the LORD, with the first company: and drawing near to the grave, saw that great stone removed: who hastilie ran home, thinking verily, that the body of the Lord had been stolen away, and wist not where it was laid. This same MARIE, as appears, hath followed after Peter and John, suppose she ran not with them, yet she came soon after: but before she came, they had gotten the sight of the grave, and went away: she coming to it, goes not in, but stands without, at the grave weeping. So this day we return to the History of MARIE MAGDALENE: and first, we shall speak of her mourning: And secondly, we shall speak of these things which she saw in the grave, and about the grave, and how she met with the LORD, for whom she mourned: and last, we shall speak of the effect that followed upon these sights, as GOD shall give the grace, and as the time shall permit. Then to begin at the first: it is said in the Text, Marie Magdalene stood without weeping, when she came to the grave. She enters not in the grave, nor looks not into it, but abode in that opinion, that the body of the Lord, was stolen away, she stands without, weeping and mourning. Now certainly, I must ascribe this to a wonderful love of this woman: there is no man that can express sufficiently this love, that she bare to Christ: No, well were we, if we could love Him half so well, as she did. Yet in this mourning, she sinneth, for all her love, her mourning passed measure: No, ye will not find scarcely in all the Scripture such a mourning as was in this woman: she mourns too much & almost desperately for the body of the Lord: she mourns in vain, where there was no cause of mourning, but cause of joy. The ground of all this mourning was ignorance and forgetfulness: she had forgotten that which He had told her, that He should rise again the third day: she remembered not, but the third day missing the body, she thinks it to be stolen away. Mark this: The godly, when they think they do best, they are oft miscarried with their own affections, they are mourning for Christ, and also loving Christ, and yet in the mean time they are sinning against Him. The ground of this in them, is ignorance and forgetfulness of the promises of the Lord, so that if ye would look into that word, ye need not be ignorant concerning God: & if thou mournest for ignorance, blame thyself, thou lookest not to the word: for if thou lookest into this word, and mournest, thou hast forgot, as Marie Magdalene did: and therefore thou deseruest to be casten in a perplexity. Yet to consider this somewhat better: First, when she came out to the grave, she ran home, and seeing the stone rolled away, she tells false tithings, and she once conceives a false opinion. Now she stands, and abides in this opinion, and will not go in to the grave, but stands without the grave, and mourns desperately for a time. Well, Brethren, after that once a wrong opinion & conceit enter into the head of any, it is not lightly removed again: thou mayest conceive it lightly, as Marie Magdalene did: but thou shalt not lay it down so lightly: Beware of opinions concerning God, & religion: & ere ever thou suffer an opinion to enter into thine head, consider it in the beginning: had she considered it well, she had not been over-come with it now. Therefore, let not opinions concerning GOD, Religion, and that Life to come, lightly enter into your heads. Now at last she bows her body, & goes in to the grave. When she hath gone forward for a season in this vain displeasure▪ at the last the Lord bows her heart: for if she had not bowed her heart, she should never have bowed her body, to have looked in to the grave: Mark the goodness of the LORDE towards His own: when they have gone forward a while in their own perplexity, the LORDE looks unto them, and will not let them go on so desparatelie to destruction: but He will bow thine heart first. The first grace is not the giving to thee the thing thou seekest, but the moving of thine heart to seek, is the first. No, He will not present Himself at the first before thee▪ but He will have thee to bow thyself to seek Him. And it lies not in the hands of any body to bow himself to seek Him: No, as life is of mercy, so seeking of life is of mercy: And if thou gettest an inclination to seek Christ and Heaven, that is the first grace: and He that hath g • uen thee the fi • st grace to seek, without doubt He will also give thee the seconde to find Him.
Now she looks in to the grave, and her looking in is not in vain, for looking in, she seeks; and seeking, she finds: And mark what she finds; she finds not a dead body, as she thought (she would have been glad to have found it) but she sees two gloriou • Angels, sitting in the grave, clothed in bright raiment, the one where His head had lain, and the other where His feet had lain. So our lesson is this, Bowe thy body, and thou shalt see, seek and thou shalt find: yea, I s • y to thee, if thou wilt bow thy body to seek, thou shalt get greater things than thou seekest. MARIE sought but Christ's dead body, and she finds Angels, bearing witness that He was risen. So in a word: Seek, and thou shalt find greater things than ever thou soughtest. Alas, we w • nt grace, for fault of seeking: And I testify this, that the world wants grace and salvation for fault of seeking, for their he • te, cannot bow down to seek. Now what sees she? She saw Angels. Peter and John saw something also: but what saw they when they went to the grave? They saw but a winding-sheet, lying in one place of the grave, and a kerchiefe in another: but MARIE saw not this only, which might have witness • d that the LORD was risen, and not stolen away: for if He had been stolen, they would have stolen the winding-sheet and the kerchiefe also. She sees a fairer sight than JOHN and PETER did: MARIE that was a woman, sees a more glorious sight than two Apostles saw: they see but linen clothes: Marie sees two Angels: and in this, she is preferred to the two Apostles. That which I say of her, I say of all these women, that they were preferred above the Apostles.
Mark this, ye that are women: All your s • xe is honored in these women: The first and the seconde company got the sight of Angels, which none of the Apostles got. And when I consider this their preferment, I find it stands in these two points chiefly: First, they get the first revelation: it is first told to them: and secondly, it is not told to them by men, but by Angels. In both these the Apostles are postponed, they get it told them by women, and then they get it told them in the seconde room: So that all women have a prerogative in these women. In this, That the LORDE gives this prerogative to this infirm sex, He shames the Apostles: and that to this ende, that all glory may be given to GOD.
Yet I will not pass by the sitting of the two Angels: Nothing here fell out rashlie, all was ordained, he that was appointed to sit at the head of the grave, he sat at the head: and he that was appointed to sit at the feet, sat at the feet: So the LORDE appointed, that not only they should speak with their tongue: but also by their placing, tell, that He was risen. And the Angel of GOD that sat at the head would say, Magdalene, here is the place where his head lay, he is risen. And the other that sat at the feet, would say, Here is the place where his feet lay, he is risen. It is even so yet in the world, they whom He sends to teache, He disposes them so, that by their sitting, their going, and standing, He will preach, and He will make their sitting to inform them, that He ordained to life and salvation: The Lord works all for the weal of His Elect: yea, the least circumstance is for the weal and salvation of His own.
Now to go forward: Marie hath seen a fair sight: but stays the grace here? and thinks the LORDE He hath done enough, because He hath let her see such a glorious sight? No, He will have them also to speak: They both with one voice, say, Why weepest thou ? When the LORDE begins once to bow the heart, He will let thee see grace: yea, He will not let thee see only: but He will also let thee hear. He would not only let her see dumb Angels, but He would have them also to speak unto her, that she might hear joyfullie: When He hath once begun, ere He leave, He will fill all the senses with grace, He shall fill the eye with sight, the ear with hearing, and in the ende, He shall fill thine heart fully with grace and mercy. Now what hears Marie ? The Angels say unto her, Woman, why mournest thou ? For, as she looked in to the grave, she wept bitterlie, the tears went never from her eyes, nor the sadness from her heart, till the LORDE Himself said, MARIE, why weepest thou ? Mark the words: The Angel no doubt rejectes her, because she wept without measure, and in vain, because she thought that the body of the LORDE had been stolen away: she wept for Him who was living. But as the Angel reproves her, so he pities her. Then, if thou weep for the LORD, He shall cause the Angels of Heaven to pity thee. Yet again: What say the Angels? They say not, Woman, fear not, as they did to the rest of the women that came before: And why say they not, Fear not ? She was so over-come with displeasure, and so sad hearted, that she was not afraid of the Angels, and was not astonied, as the other women: for they had not so sad an heart as she had: for her heart was so filled with sadness and displeasure, that fear could not get place. The Angel says, Woman why mournest thou ? because it was mourning that ailed her. The LORD gives always medicine according to the sore: If thou be sad, He will say, Why mournest thou? The Angel applies the medicine, and stilles her. A mourning body for CHRIST would be stilled: If thou weepest for CHRIST, suppose thou pass bounds, yet thou shalt not want stilling, though He should send his Angels to still thee: No, there was never any y t mourned for Christ, that wanted stilling: Nor there was never any child that got so sweet words to still them, as thou shalt get, who mournest for CHRIST. Then, Blessed are they (says CHRIST) that mourn, for they shall receive consolation, Matth. 5.4. If thou mourn for the love of the LORDE, thou shalt be stilled and comforted, and blessed shalt thou be one day. Alas, this is a laughing worl •• -woe unto it, few men or women are now mourning wi •• 〈◊〉 Magdalene : alas, what need have we of stilling: No, we are laughing, notwithstanding of all th • se judgments that approach fast, and are near at hand: they will cause us all mourn one day: But what says the Angels to her? Say they in an anger, Why seek ye the living amongst the dead? Behold the mercy of GOD to His children: she merited, if ye look to her fault, to have been reproved more sharply: she forgot the word of our Savior, and she would not look in to the grave, yet he reproves her not: he says not to her. Why seek ye Him that is living amongst the dead, as the Angel spake to the other women. This is our lesson in a word: The LORD looks not what thou meritest but He looks what thou needest: He will not speak according to thy merit, but according to thy need and necessity: for if thou mournest for the LORD, He will minister comfort to thee: No, He will not make a sorrowful heart more sorrowful: he is a cruel person that will do so: no, the Lord will not do so He will not bru • se the brok • n reed▪ neither will He quench the smoking flax▪ as it was prophesied of Him long before, Isaiah Chapter 42. and the third verse : But if thou be sad, He will raise thee up with such comfort, as cannot be told.
Now to go forward: When they have demanded: Why weepest thou? • he answers without any fear: as their sight terrifies her not, so neither is she terrified with their voice. What was the cause that she feared not? and that at the voice of the terrible Ang • lls she is not moved? Even because her heart was overcome and loadned with dolour and sadness, that there could be no place almost left to fear.
She says: They have stolen away the body of the Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. What could she do with it▪ & wherefore was she so careful? She tells what she would do with it: sh • e says to Himself: I would bury it: now all this came of a su • passing love: and therefore look not so much to her doing, as to her love. Learn at Marie Magdalene to love the LORD, and she may learn all the world.
This love and zeal of GOD is almost out of the hearts of men and women: and when I consider her great love, I find it is more than any natural affection, as father to son, or man to woman.
〈◊〉 •• cept, there had come a force & virtue out of that body, she could never have loved the Lord so well: No, except He loose our hearts with that love he bears to us, we cannot love Him: but when once He looses thine heart, thou wilt hate thyself to love Him: so what ever I discommend in her, I discommend not her love: No, I shall never discommend love, nor zeal in any person: Alas, we have too little of it, to discommend it: and I doubt not, but all these imperfections that were in her, were covered by the LORD JESUS whom she loved. Our comfort is this, if we love the LORD our GOD well, albeit we had a thousand imperfections, they shall be covered with the mantle of the righteousness of JESUS: yea, He shall meet thy love with unspeakable love.
Thus far for the sight, and hearing of the Angels: The Text says: as soon as she had spoken, She turns her about again : Men would think this an indiscreet behavior, to stand and hear two Angels, and then like a vain person, to turn her about. I will not excuse this altogether, but I impute this to the exceeding dolour and sadness, wherewith their soul was loadned: there must be many faults overseen in a sad person: I had rather bear with twenty faults in such a person, as to bear with one, in a vain person.
Now as she is speaking to the Angels: so the LORD comes near toward her back, and ere ever He came or she saw Him, He touches her with a secret and powerful presence of His Spirit: for I doubt not, as He came near her, but His Spirit both turns her about, and closes the mouth of the Angels: for He is the LORD both of man and Angel: and if He come, His presence must turn thee: and when He comes to speak, all the Angels must hold their tongue, and be dumb. Ye know, that JOHN the BAPTIST was a great light before the LORD came, and many followed him: but when CHRIST comes, JOHN closes his mouth, and as he says, John. Chap. 3. verse. 29. It is the bridegroom that hath the bride: and I stand, says he, & hear Him, and hearing Him, I rejoice with an joy unspeakable and glorious : No, it is the greatest joy under the Heaven to hear Him speak, and if thou hearest Him, thou wilt not desire to speak: she turns her, and she sees JESUS standing whom she sought, she sought Himself, and finds His Messengers, but at the last she finds Himself. In a word, we have our lesson: Seek ever the Lord, thou will not get Him at the first: (Thou wilt not get a King at the first) for He hath Messengers afore: and we His Ministers, are all His Messengers: and we all tell you, and I tell you, that CHRIST is coming, and blessed be that commer: I bid thee stand a while, and then the LORDE shall come at thy back: Happy and blessed art thou that shalt be asking for Him: thou shalt get such a joyful meeting as Marie Magdalene did: but woeful shall that meeting be to thee, who delitest not to hear, nor to speak of Him: for He shall come upon thee like a thief in the night. So, blessed art thou who art talking with His Messengers: for He shall call thee by name, as He did Marie, and that shall be the joyef • llest voice that ever thou heardest. I said before, that she got a preferment above the Apostles, in getting a sight of the Angels: but that was common to her with the other women: Here ye see further, she got a preferment above all women: she gets the first sight of Jesus, as MARKE says, after His Resurrection. And this argues, that her desire to see Him exceeded the desire of all the Apostles, and all the women. So thou that longest moste for the LORD shall see Him first, and joyefull shall that sight be to thee. Yet mark howe she receives it: She knows Him not. This is a marvelous thing: she never left Him, but followed Him from GALILE: and yet when the LORDE offers Himself unto her eyes, she knows Him not. This must be imputed to that great stupidity which was in her eyes, they were so dim, that she could not see. If the LORDE had any secrete dispensation in it, or in what form He appeared, I will not dispute.
Our lesson is this: There enters such a mist into our eyes, that suppose the LORDE offer Himself to be seen in the word, crucified, and glorified in His Gospel, yet thou wilt not see Him, till the beams which glance from His face, shine into thine heart, and scatter that cloud of darkness: and when that cloud is away, thou wilt see with such a sweetness, as cannot be uttered: and thou who diddest never see that sight, thou never sawest joy.
Now blessed is that soul that can behold the LORDE in the Mirrour, as it were coming behind, and happy is that soul that can delight to see Him in the Mirrour: for certainly they shall see Him one day face to face, and the LORDE will turn them about, as He did Marie, and then these vile bodies, shall be like unto His glorious body; and that face, which is now but vile, shall then glance as the Sun in the Noone day. So blessed are they that can awaite till the LORDE come: Thou never mettest with one in this world, who can make thee so joyefull as He will: and ever the greater languor that thou hast for Him, the greater shall be thy joy. Alas, we seek joy here, and there is but few who seek CHRIST, in whom is all true joy.
Well, Marie knew not the LORDE, but yet He knew her: No, thou mayst well forget Him, but He will not forget thee: but He shall cause thee to know Him ere thou go. He says to Marie, Woman, why mournest thou? At the first He lies aloof. He says not Marie, but like an uncouth man: He says to her, Woman, why mournest thou ? Then He says not, I know thou weepest for me : but He says, Why, weepest thou ? He says not, I know whom thou seekest : but, Whome seekest thou ? So then at the first He holds Him aloof with His own, He gives them not His familiar presence at the first: but as long as we are here on earth, His speech shall be a far off: As long as we live by faith, He looks to us as it were afar off: And this speech is to waken a languor and piece of sadness in us, till we meet with the LORDE: for the more thou mournest, the greater shall be thy joy. The Lord if He please, in an instant may take thee to the Heavens, but He will let thee lie here for a while, and the greater that thy sadness is in this life, the greater shall thy joy be in the life to come. O, that joy which that body shall have, who hath longed for the LORDE! Then, think long, and wait for that His bright and glorious coming, as Paul speaks: for no man shall get a crown, but th • y who have waited for Him.
Now I shall ende in a word: She supposing that he had been the Gardener of the Garden where the LORDE was buried, she said unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, that J may take him away • . Look if she loved Him not well when He was living, for in His death she could not be severed from Him, so did the love of JESUS contstrain her. In the twenty and fourth CHAPTER OF MATTHEW it is said, Wheresoever a dead carkeis is, thither will the Eagles be gathered together. Now she is a Mirrour of love and zeal. Alas, if thine heart could melt with love as hers did. Yet I see in her a marvelous stupidity: She knows Him neither by sight nor voice, her heart was so over-come with dolour & sadness. And this senselessenesse that fell on good Marie Magdalene, will often-times fall on the best man or woman in this life, That, as the Prophet says, in hearing, they will not hear, and in seeing, they will not see. So all tendes to this: Let everyone judge charitablie of another: Be loath to condemn any, for as lively as thou art, thou mayest fall down dead: and therefore wait on the LORDE, and the voice of the LORDE shall come unto thee, and call on thee, as He called on Marie : and that voice shall open both the eyes of thy body, and of thy soul: and He shall let thee see and feel that it is He: and that joy shall be complete, when thou shalt come and inherit that Kingdom which was prepared for thee before the foundation of the world. The LORDE grant it may be our only joy, and that we may hold up our eyes, and wait night and day for that blessed coming of JESUS, at the which time our joy begun, shall be perfected, and never have ende. To this LORDE JESUS, with the Father, and that blessed SPIRIT, be all Praise, Honor, and glory, forever and ever, AMEN.
THE XXXIV. LECTURE, OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
JOHN, CHAP. XX.
[verse 16] Jesus saith unto her, Marie. She turned her self, and said unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master.
[verse 17] Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not: for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my Brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and to your Father, and to my God, and your God.
[verse 18] Marie Magdalene came and told the Disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.
W EE heard these days p • st (beloved in CHRIST) howe that early in the morning, first one company of women came out of HIERVSALEM, to the grave of the LORD: and next after them another company: Thirdly, we heard of PETER and JOHN, two of the Apostles, howe they came out to the grave of the LORDE, being stirred up by the report of the women. And last, we heard of the outcomming of MARIE MAGDALENE to the grave of the LORDE the seconde time, following after the Disciples PETER and IOHNNE: after they were returned, she comes again to the grave: She offered not to look in, but stood mourning for a space without, thinking certainly, that the body of the LORDE had been stolen away: But at the last it pleased the LORDE to bow her mind, and then she bowed her body, and looked in to the grave, and saw two Angeles, the one at the head, and the other at thee feet of the grave where our LORDE had lain, sitting, clothed in bright raiment: and when she saw them, she was nothing afraid, as the other women: she was so filled with displeasure and sorrow, and her eyes were so dim with mourning, that she could not see. The Angels ask her, Why weepest thou ? She answers them, They have taken away the body of the LORDE, and I know not where they have laid it. Ye will marvel at this: there is nothing in her mind, but the dead body of the LORDE: and as she is not terrified with the sight of the Angels, so she is not terrified with their voice: and she turns her about from them: and finding Him standing beside her in His own proper person: and the LORDE said as the Angel had said before unto her, that is, Woman, why weepest thou? He calls her Woman ; speaking strangelie: and He proceeds further, and saith, Whome seekest thou? as though He had not known whom she had been seeking. MARIE supposing Him to have been the Gardener of that Yearde where the LORDE was buried, she says, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, that I may take him up, and bury him. Now, as said is, there is nothing else in her mind but that dead body of Jesus, which is an argument that she loved Him exceedingly, when He was living: I say, all that was in her was exceeding & vehement: in her was exceeding love to the Lord, & exceeding vehement desire to see Him, & exceeding displeasure for Him, & for stealing Him out of the grave, as she supposed: so that I may say, she was one of the violent ones, that Christ speaks of in the 11 of Matthew, that breaks up Heaven: he says there, That violence is done to the Kingdom of Heaven, and the violent possess it. She pulled Christ out of the hands of the Apostles and of the rest of the women, and went betwixt them and Him: and therefore she meets Him first, because she seeks Him before them. Thus far we heard the last day: now we follow out the rest of the History, and that thing that follows of the communing betwixt the Lord and her: the Lord leaves her not so lying in ignorance, & displeasure, but as He had before somewhat strangely and vncouthly talked with her: so now He comes on more homely, and He utters a more kindly word, and He names Her by her name, Marie, He speaks nothing but one word but a well chosen word, an homely word, the word of a Pastor, of a shepherd: naming her by her own name, as it is said in the 10. of John, The good shepherd will name his sheep by their name : this was a powerful word, as will be seen by the effects that were wrought in her: she saw not of before: it opened her eyes, to see, and her ears to hear: and in a word, it opened all her dead senses. Mark this lesson: When the Lord hath spoken to us for a time, as a stranger afar off, as though He knew us not: at last He will come on with an homely & kind word, and He will let thee see, that He knows thee by thy name, by thy face, by thine heart, and by thine actions: Read the 4. of John, speaking to the woman of Samaria, He speaks to her at the first, as though He had not known her, but at the last He begins and tells her of all that she had done, and that she was but an harlot lying presently in harlotry: she hearing that, she understands that He is a Prophet, and at last that He is Christ the Messias. Brethren, though the Lord speaks to us afar off, as a stranger that knows us not, and we answer, as though we knew Him not: yet stay still, & hear on, and thou shalt hear one word that shall do the deed: thy effectual calling will be performed with one word, it stands not in many words. When He will waken thee, one word will do the deed. Yet to come to her, as soon as she hearest the word, she comes, & turns her in an instant to Him again: so it seems, that she had turned her from Him, as she did from the Angels that spake to her before: she says, Rabboni : it is a Chaldaicke word, which in our language signifies Master, He speaks but one word, & she another: His word is a well chosen word, and so was hers: His word was homely: hers also was homely, His was the word of a Pastor: her word is the word of one of the flock, His word is the word of a Master, her word is the word of an obedient disciple: and last His word is the word of power to call her, His word testifies his calling, and the effect of His power. In this stands our calling, when the LORD names us by our name, and speaks kindly to us, and then we answer Him: We may not answer any way: No, thou must answer like one of the flock, like one that knows the voice of the shepherd: thou must answer like one that knows the voice of His Master: thou must answer like one that feelest the effect of His calling. When the Lord speaks homely, if thou answerest homely, there shall be exceeding joy, this is it that we call effectual calling. The thing that I note, is this shortly: As long as the LORD speaks strangely to us, we will hear Him strangely, and as long as He knows not us, we will not know Him, if it were a thousand years, we will not know Him: and this lets us see, that neither man nor woman can do ought, except He prevent them with grace: if He love thee not first, thou wilt never love Him, 1. John 4. and if He know not thee first, thou shalt never know Him: No, never a man will know the Lord, except He know them first: He says in the 4. Chapter to the Galatians, verse 9. Now seeing ye know God, then bethinking himself, he says, yea, rather are known of God : and therefore thou shouldest say, Lord, love me, that I may love thee, Lord, know me, that I may know thee, &c.
Now I go forward: When she hath uttered this word Rabboni, she goes forward to have embraced Him in her arms: He meets her, and says, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father : Some would marvel what moved the Lord Jesus to stay that woman that loved Him so entirely, to touch Him. We will hear hereafter, how a whole company took Him by the feet and adored Him, as ye may read, Matth. 28 8. and the disciples touched Him, as ye may read in the 24. of Luke, and the 39. verse, & Thomas put his hands in His side, in this same Chapter, and it cannot be said, that these touched Him, after that He ascended up to Heaven, that could not be possible: it is a marvel then, that He should be so strange to MARIE: I answer to this, and I take mine answer first, out of the reason, and next out of the commission He gives to Marie : for first, when He says to her, I am not gone up to my Father, and therefore touch me not now the meaning is this in effect: it is not time for thee to touch me now, till that time I be in glory, and then touch me by the arms of Faith, as much as thou canst or mayest: ye must consider, that she was too much addicted to His bodily presence, and she thought that He should have remained and dwelt with her on earth, as He did before: and therefore He would not let her come near Him, until He instructed her of a spiritual touching: that He was not to stay here, but to dwell with His Father in the Heavens: but after He hath instructed her, He lets her & the other women touch Him as much as they would: This is the first answer: The other, I take it out of the commission He gives her: the commission was, to tell the disciples, and He willes her to tell hastily: and therefore He will not let her come near to touch Him, until she have done her commission
Now let us mark some things in Marie Magdalene: Ye read in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, the fifth Chapter, and the fourteenth verse, PAUL says, The love of God constrains me, that is, the love of GOD binds up mine heart, and hand, and all my senses. Now would to GOD we could love Him half so well, as he did: he gives the reason: because He loved me, and died, and gave His life for me: I will consecrate me to His service, & it is little enough, thou shouldest do so, seeing He hath bought thee, and then He defines the service: he says now, I will know no man after the flesh, that is, for carnal respects, as for Country, land, kindred, or parentage. But I acknowledge them as new creatures, I will look to the grace of regeneration: this is the service of Christ, & if I have known CHRIST Himself after the flesh: yet I know Him no more: so, He had His friends, His kindred, and His Country as other men had: but since He is exalted above the Heavens: I will know Him no more, so I will compare Marie with Paul : a godly man, with a godly woman: she is like Him in this, that she loved the Lord exceeding well. He died to redeem Paul, & therefore He loved Him exceeding well: she loved Him, because He died for her: but when it comes to the service, Marie is not well learned: Paul touches Him by Faith in the Heavens: Marie looks not to the Heavens, but she goes to embrace Him in her bodily arms: in this she is behind, but she got better instruction hereafter.
Mark this lesson: There are some men that will love the Lord entirely: and yet when they come to His service, they will fail: for such is the grossenes of our nature, that we cannot incline to that spiritual service, which He chiefly requires. Papist • ie is full of this grossenes, they can do nothing, if they want His carnal presence, either in Himself, or in a stock, or a stone, or in a piece of bread: and therefore they dream a bodily presence of Him in the Sacrament: all their Religion is earthly, no Spirit, no grace in it. But accepted the Lord of that gross service of Marie that she offered: I am certain, He loved Marie better than the Pope, & all his shavelings: yet for as well as He liked Marie, He likes not this her service: He says to her, Touch me not : then how will he like of that person, that He loves not so well, that delites in gross and willful ignorance. The LORD keep us from such gross service, and make us to touch Him by Faith.
Another thing here: He will not suffer her to touch Him, before that she had gotten commission to her brethren. This lets us see, if the LORD have given us a commission, He will have us doing it with speed, not being entangled with anything: Paul says, in the second Epistle to Timothy, the second Chapter, and the fourth verse: No man that warreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, because he would please him that hath chosen him to be a soldier : if the embracing of a person may hinder thee, do it not: & if the saluting of a person in the journey may hinder thee, do it not. Ye read in 2. Kings, Chapter 4. verse 29 Where the Prophet Elisha sends his servant Gehazi to the Shunnamite, he says, Make haste Salute no man by the way, and if any salute thee, answer him not : and when Christ sends out His disciples, He bids them make hasle, and salute no man by the way, LUKE CHAPTER 10. VERSE 4. The LORD will not have us to decline neither to the right hand, nor to the left, if it were but a look, if it may hinder thee in the Lord's work, do it not. Paul received a commission, as ye may read, Philip. Chapter 3. verse 13. he ran so, that he never looked over his shoulder, but that he forgot that which was behind, and endeavored to that which was before, till he had ended his course : Ye remember of the wife of Lot, how she was forbidden by the Lord, to look back to Sodom : she would not go forward in her journey, but she would look back again, and therefore the Lord turned her in a pillar of salt: He would have them speedy in His work, and, Woe is them, that do the work of the Lord negligently, Ierem. 48.10.
Now, let us come to the commission, He says to her, Marie, Go and tell my brethren, Well, gets a woman the commission, where is Peter, & John, and Matthew, and the rest of the Apostles? always in the beginning, it is a woman that gets the commission. The last day, ye remember, I spake of sundry preferments of women, that they gote before all men: they gote the revelation of His Resurrection before all men in the world, and not by men, but by glorious Angels: but Marie is preferred to all men and women in this, that she first sees the Lord, and then she gets a revelation of the Lord, that the women got not: she gets the revelation of His ascension, and yet there is more, she got it not to her self alone, but He says: Tell the Apostles, tell them, says Christ, I go to my Father : So this is a special grace that women got, and especially, Marie, that was furthest casten down, possessed with seven devils. What should I say? The further thou be casten down: the higher shalt thou be exalted. But mark the words, He says, Tell my brethren. Notwithstanding of their sluggishness, notwithstanding they were offended in Him, yet He says, Tell my brethren. In the 22. Psalm verse 23. DAVID says, I shall preach to my brethren. The LORD accomplished here that prophecy: here He preaches to His brethren: ye read in Heb. 2.11.12. He that sanctifies, and we which are sanctified, are all of one, that is, we are of one common nature: and therefore He is not ashamed to call us brethren : and therefore he brings in this place of the 22. Psalm, saying, J will declare thy Name unto my brethren : the reason is this: He hath a common nature with us, and therefore He is not ashamed of us: mark it well. Now when He is risen, He calls them brethren, and now when He is in that passing glory, the LORD is not ashamed to call us brethren: if a man of small linage be exalted in this world, he will not know his father, or his mother: But the LORD that is exalted above all the Angels, is not the prouder: He is also humble to His brethren, as ever He was in the earth: He is not ashamed to call us poor wretches, His brethren, and sisters, that are here in the earth: No, if thou be not ashamed of Him first, He will never be ashamed of thee.
Now to come to the commission, He says, Tell them: I go to my Father, and to your Father, and to my God, and to your God : Tell them this: The commission that is given before by the Angels, tells that He was risen, but the commission that the LORD Himself gives to Marie, is of an higher degree of glorification: it is of His ascension: for, Tell them, says He, I go to my Father, and to your Father, and to my God, and to your God : The LORD, when He comes in proper person, brings ever a greater revelation, than was of before: All the light that the Angels, Prophets, or JOHN the BAPTIST revealed of Him, was but darkness, in respect of that light that Himself brought. Likewise, after His going to Heaven, the Apostles, the disciples, and Ministers: Ministers light to the end of the world: but in that great day, when the LORD shall come, thou shalt see a greater light: thou sawest never light comparable to that light. It is hard for thee now to believe, but sober things, but then thou shalt see great things (thou shalt have no stop) even things, that the eye hath not seen, neither hath entered in the heart of man.
Yet let us weigh the words better: I go up to my Father : I go not down, let them not seek me in the earth: I have been in it, as PAUL says to the Ephesians, the fourth CHAPTER, and the ninth VERSE, He descended into the lowest partes of the earth : I go now to the Heaven. The word imports, that He was to leave them, and that word was sad to them, and to Marie, and they took it heavy. I go, says He, to my Father, and to my God : He went not for His own well to the Father, that the Father might communicate His glory to Him: I go, says▪ He, to my Father, and to your Father, and to my God, and to your God: This imports, that as He went to His Father for His own glory and well, so He went for their glory and well, and as soon as He should get that glory, He should communicate it to them: and no doubt, this word, your Father, and your God raised their hearts to follow Him: suppose our bodies be here, our hearts are in the Heaven, and we are citizens there, albeit thy body were burnt, if thine heart be in the Heaven, thou art well, and if He had not gone to Heaven, neither had He gotten glory, neither had any glory been communicated unto us: but He going to that Father of glory, as the Apostle calls Him, and so, as the first begotten of GOD, being filled with glory, we are made partakers of His glory, as ye read in the first CHAPTER of this Gospel of John. The oil y t was poured down upon the head of AARON, stayed not there, but ran down to his bearde, his breast, his girdle, and the lowest partes of his garment: So the graces that were in Jesus Christ, our head, stayed not there, but flowed from Him, even to the meanest of all His members. The Lord, who is full of grace gives everyone of us a part here, and one day we shall be all filled with grace and glory forever and ever. Mark the words well: he calls Him first, Father, and then he calls Him God, which imports two natures in one person; The Father imports His Godhead, and that he calls Him his God, it imports that He is man: so that these two words import that Christ is both God & man▪ blessed forever. But mark the order: He says not, I go to your Father, and mine : No, but to my Father, and your Father. Ere ever He be our Father, He must be His Father. Ere ever He be our God, He must be the God of Christ, the man: for if it had not been for the blood of Christ, He had never been thy God: thou hast that bought unto thee with the blood of Christ, we come in under Christ our elder brother. Now when Marie hath received the commission, she tarries no longer, howbeit she was loath to depart from Him: yet because she saw that it was His will, she obeys. The godly would fain go and dwell with the Lord: Paul says, I have confidence in GOD, and J choose rather to remove out of this body, and to dwell with GOD, 2. Corint. Chap. 5. Faine would the godly soul be with GOD: and suppose it be pressed down with sin yet it breaks aye upward toward the Heavens, to be with the Lord that this mo • talitie may be swallowed up of Life : for, as long as we lie here, w • e live under the burden of sin. So fain would the godly be with Him, yet seeing it is his will, that we be Pilgrimes here a while, that our joy may be the greater, when we me • e with the LORDE, whom we have longed for, we are contented for a time.
Now when Marie departs, what does she? She told the D • sciples that she had seen the LORDE. She is preaching, and telling, The LORD is going to heaven, to your Father and your GOD. Now Brethren, seeing we are Pilgrimes, let us take heed we be well occupied, and look we discharge our commission: for there is no man nor woman but they have a commission: Thou that art a Preacher, preach both in time and out of time to His glory: and if thou discharge thy commission faithfully in thy calling, then even as Marie was welcome unto Him again, so shalt thou be also welcome, when thou shalt meet with the LORD, and He shall accept well of thee. The LORDE enable us to take heed to this, that seeing we must remain absent from our LORDE for a time here, we may ever cast us to be well occupied, and walk carefully in that calling that He hath placed us in: And then, when that the LORDE of Glory shall appear, whom we have served in this life, our souls and bodies shall enjoye the full fruition of His presence in Heaven: To whom be glory for evermore, Amen.
THE XXXV. LECTURE, OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
MATTH. CHAP. XXVIII.
[verse 9] And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus also met them, saying, God save you. And they came, and took him by the feet, and worshipped him.
[verse 10] Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go, and tell my Brethren, that they go into Galilee, and there shall ye see me.
MARKE CHAP. XVI.
[verse 10] And she went, and told them that had been with him, who mourned and wept.
[verse 11] And when they heard that he was alive, and had appeared to her, they believed it not.
B ELOVED BRETHREN, these days past we have heard first the History of Marie Magdalene, how she returned home, and how she came again to the grave of her LORD, and of her mourning and weeping at the grave, of her looking again in to the grave, of the sight of th'Angels meeting with her, of Christ's words unto her: first He spake aloof, and afar off unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou ? Then He speaks homelie unto her, calling her by her name, and says, Marie : She answers Him, Rabboni : as He had named her homelie, so she answered Him homelie: He named her like a Master, and she answered Him like a reverend Disciple: He calls her as a Sheepehearde, and she answers Him as one of His flock, knowing Him by His voice, she offers to embrace Him, but He preuentes her, and says unto her, Touch me not, for I am not ascended to my Father : perceiving her to be over much addicted to His bodily presence: before He will permit her to touch Him, He will have her first to believe in Him, and to touch Him in glory, by the hand of faith. Then He sends her in commission, Go to my Brethren, so calling His Disciples: A loving style: Tell them of other tidings than ever they have heard yet: They heard of my Resurrection, but they believed not: but now I go to the Heavens, to my Father, and to your Father, to my GOD, and to your GOD : And this is the commission: Marie receiving it, she executes it, and runs to the Disciples to tell them: and, as John says, she preaches to them the thing that she had heard of the LORDE. MARKE says, that when she came to them, she found them weeping : This was a weeping time, but shortly after followed a time of joy. This change of courses ye see in the world: for though thou be wanton and laugh here never so much, yet thou wilt weep soon after: But wilt thou weep and mourn here for a while, when there is matter of mourning, thou shalt laugh and rejoice shortly afterward. Now when Marie finds the Apostles weeping and mourning, she tells them, that the LORD is alive: she confirms it that He spake, and says, she saw Him with her eyes, But howe takes the Apostles with this commission? They remain faithless for all that she could say: they would not believe her: No, it is an hard matter to believe the Article of the Resurrection, That a man that is dead can rise again, and take life: flesh and blood will never dite this unto thee, that one that is dead can live again. The women who were more simple, and not so wise in wordly wit, as the Apostles were, are more ready to credit the Resurrection than the Apostles, who were strong, according to the flesh. The Resurrection is hard to be believed of any man: but this is sure, The Resurrection is hardest to be believed of them, who are wisest in this world: No, he that hath this wordly wisdom, he countes these Heauenlie and Spiritual things but folly, till he be made a fool, that he may be made wise, as the Apostle PAUL speaks, 1. CORIN. CHAP. 3. VERS. 18. That is, till he renounce this wordly wisdom, he shall never believe these Spiritual things. When I consider the words of MARKE, I find many faults in the Disciples: They were lying mourning: this was a vain mourning: What cause had they of mourning for Him whom they thought was dead, but yet was alive? So they had matter of joy, and not of mourning. And from whence proceeded this mourning? First, they were ignorant of the Scriptures, which had foretold that he should rise again: Then, they had forgotten the word which the LORDE had spoken unto them, That he should die, and rise again the third day : Yet there is worse in them than this: The first company of women, who told them of CHRISTES Resurrection, they would not believe them: Then the next company comes, neither would they believe them one word. And last, MARIE came, who not only met with the Angels, but also with the LORDE, and received a commission: and yet they would not believe her, notwithstanding she told them that she had seen Him. So there is not only an unbelief, but a stiffness in them. So that if ye will count these faults, their dolour is first without comfort, and secondly an ignorance of the Scriptures, and thirdly, a forgetfulness of the word of the LORDE: and last, there is an infidelity, that they would neither believe the women, who came from the Angels, nor MARIE, that came from the LORDE, and saw Him, and spake with Him: So that they are as new to enter to learn, as though they had never seen nor known Christ. Yet there was some good thing in them, for certainly, howbeit the dolour came of ignorance, forgetfulness, and incredulity, yet I am sure of this, that the love which they carried towards CHRIST caused them to mourn, for if they had not loved Him, they had not mourned for Him. No, there was none of the High Priests that wet their cheeks for His death. So of necessity, love caused them to mourn for Him. And this sponke of love, that was covered & kept down afore, in end it brake out, & burnt thorough all their imperfections. It is a wonder to see howe the LORDE will keep in a sponke of grace under an hundredth imperfections. And this should make us to be loath to judge, and to give out sentence: for all the evil that we see in any, it may be that the LORDE will let thee see, that there was some sponke of grace in that man covered; which sponk will break out in its own time.
Now I have ended the History of MARIE MAGDALENE, who loved the LORDE so well, and so entirelie. In the words following, to wit, in the Gospel of MATTHEW, there are two discourses: The first is, of the two companies of women, at their turning home again: as they met with the Angels afore, now they meet with the LORDE Himself: In the next discourse, we have a piece of an History of them that were set to keep the grave, who returned to the Scribes, and to the High Priests with these same tidings, He is risen again. Now I shall go thorough this day the first discourse, and piece of History, as GOD shall give us grace. Then to return to the women: It is said, that as they returned home, The LORDE met them: but Marie was returned before these women came forth: she had met with CHRIST, and returned home again. This company meets with the LORDE as they returned homeward. Ye will perhaps ask, what was the cause that He met with Marie Magdalene? No doubt this was the cause, She loved Him best, she loved Him above them all, and she had the greatest languor to see Him, and she rested never, till she had seen Him, and met with Him. What was the cause that these women saw Him afore the Apostles? No question their languor to see JESUS, was next to MARIE: The Apostles languor was last, and therefore they got the last sight of Him. Now the lesson is easy: Thou that longest moste for the LORDE JESUS, shalt see Him first, with MARIE MAGDALENE: A man will thirst for earthly things, and be disappointed of them: but it is impossible, if thou thirst for CHRIST, and to see thy LORDE, but thou shalt see Him: So, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be satisfied, Matth. Chapter 5. verse 5. So, if thou wouldest see CHRIST, first, long for Him (and thou shalt never get that blessedness, till thou seest Him) Then, if thou canst not be the first, in care and desire to see Him with Marie Magdalene, yet be next in care with the rest of the women: and if thou canst not attain to the first, nor second, look that thou be in the third room, at least, that thou long with the Apostles, and thou shalt get the third sight: for blessed are they that get any sight, yea, the last sight: Blessed are they that come either first, or last to Heaven, but think not, that this drawing near of ours, to Him, is the cause that He draws near to us: No, if He drew not near unto us first, we would never think of Him, let be to draw near unto Him.
So, Brethren, the cause wherefore our hearts do draw near unto the LORD, is not in us, but in Him, because He thirstes for us, and draws us unto Him: and wouldest thou have an argument, that the LORD is near unto thee: look if thine heart draws near unto Him, and if thou findest thine heart longing and thirsting for Him, then the LORD is near unto thee, and He is present with thee: and if thou findest no sense nor feeling of Him in thine heart, nor no desire of Him, nor no languour for His presence, in the which is sacietie of joy: and if thou have no languour, be sure, the Lord is far from thee, for if He be far from thee, albeit thou hadst all the world about thee, thou art but a miserable body.
When He meets with these women, He is not dumb, and He speaks not to the ear only, but also to the heart, He says, God save you : the word in the own language would be well marked, it signifies rejoice: Is not this a great thing, that He that hath joy to give thee, should bid thee rejoice: and no doubt, it was an effectual word, and it made them to have joy unspeakable. A man when He bids thee, rejoice, hath no power to work joy in thee, but the LORD is joy it self: who hath joy to give? but the LORD Himself? or who can give peace, but the LORD: as soon as He draws near to any person, and gives His presence to Him, to y e end that His presence may work, He gives a joyful word: the word of the Lord is of power, as Paul says, Rom. 1.16. The Gospel is the power of GOD unto salvation, unto everyone that believeth: So, if thou contemnest this word, that bids thee rejoice, thou shalt get no portion of that grace that is with Him: so this word is the only minister that ministers joy to the soul: all the things in the world, shall never minister joy to the soul that is afflicted. Whē He hath spoken this word (and no question it was very effectual) they are so filled with joy, that they tarie not to make answer, but they fell down at His feet, And embrace Him by the feet, and adore and worship Him, as Thomas did, when he put his hand in His side: he said, Thou art my Lord, and my God, JOHN Chapter 20. verse 28. He refuses not this honor, because He was their LORD and GOD. Ye see here, how effectual the presence of the LORD is, albeit it were but one word, Rejoice : the power that is in that word, works such a joy in the heart of a sinner, that the poor sinner must meet Him: the LORD cannot meet thee, but if thou feelest that joy, but thou must meet Him again, and strive to have Him in thine arms: No, sword, nor fire, nor hunger, nor nakedness, nor nothing can separate thee from Him, if thou feelest Him in thine heart, but thou must meet Him again, and cleave fast to Him. The feeling of this joy, which is through the presence and word of GOD, moves us to desire to embrace Him, and makes our conjunction with Him, whereupon arises our joy again, far greater than before: The joy that we have now, is but by Faith, and a far meeting, as far as is between the Heaven and the Earth: yet says Peter in his first Epistle, the first Chapter, and the eight verse: We not seeing Him, but believing in Him, rejoice with a joy unspeakable and glorious. So, believing in Him, we find joy: but when thou shalt see Him face to face: (Alas, lookest thou not for this) then thorough thy conjunction with Him by sight, there shall be praise, honor, and glory forever: No, such shall be thy joy, as eye never saw, ear never heard, nor never could enter into the heart of man: thou shalt wonder when thou seest it, that ever there could be such joy prepared for thee: and therefore measure it not by thy capacity.
Yet this would not be passed by: They go not to His throat, to His neck, or to His middle: but they fall down, and takes Him by the feet, and worships Him. Mark it, Brethren: a sinner will be homely indeed with his God, with CHRIST: No, there was never a creature so homely with another, as the sinner will be with the LORD. But mark it: This homelines will not be with misnourturnesse, and with an opinion of parity: albeit thou wilt be homely with Him, as with thy brother: yet thou mayest not make thyself as companion to Him, and count lightly of Him, but thou must be lowly, thine head must be reverenced: He is our Head, Ephes. Chapter. 1. verse 22. If therefore we ought to reverence Him: for He is in a wonderful sublimity, and highness, above His Church: and as this is true, that the soul which is joined with Him in this life by Faith, sees in Him such a Majesty, that it stoupes before Him: so much more when we shall see Him face to face in glory, and His Majesty fully revealed, we shall reverence Him, and in humility fall at His feet, singing, Holy, Holy, Holy, as ye have in the sixth Chapter of Isaiah, and in the Revelation. Now to go forward: While they are sitting at His feet, the LORD speaks to them, and suffers them to feel Him: and all to this ende, that they might believe He was risen, and living, Then He says to them, Fear not: this encouragement imports, that notwithstanding all their embracing of Him, and confidence, there was a piece of fear and lying back in them: I will not commend it, because the Lord hath discommended it. It is true indeed, our joining with Him by Faith, should be with such a confidence, that it should be without any fear or doubting, but with joy. This should be: but mark it again: There is such an holiness in that Majesty that we join with, there is no spot in Him, & then so long as we are here, there is such uncleanness, & such an evil conscience in us, that our Faith is joined with doubting and fear: so that, if thou hast not a recourse to Him, no peace for thee, we will fear that that Holy one consume us that are so unholy: but the Lord who knows thy fear, He comforts thee: thou knowest not thine own fear so well as the Lord does: thou feelest Him not so soon by Faith, but as soon He knows thy fear and thine heaviness, as He did the fear of the women, and He says to a sinner that fain would embrace Him: fear not, thou hast no cause of fear: My terrors have taken thy terrors away: And as the Apostle says, Heb. Chapter 4. verse 16. Let us go boldly to the throne of grace, with confidence, that we may receive mercy : & if thou hearest this voice, thou mayest go boldly, and He shall put away all te • rours and fear. But in that life to come when all matter of sear, as sin and corruption of nature, is away, albeit we shall see Him more clearly, and be conjoined with Him more perfectly, yet all fear shall be taken away, for perfect love castes out fear, as John saith in his first Epistle, Chap. 4. verse. 18.
Now to go to the commission, Go, and tell my Brethren, that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me : They would see me: bid them go before me into Galilee, and there they shall see me. There is here then a commission given unto the women to the Disciples: There was afore a commission sent unto the Disciples by the Angels: First, of a company of women, and afterward another company: and next, MARIE was sent from the Lord Himself. Now He sends a new commission, to tell them, that He was risen, yet they never believed. Here we see a marvelous patience, in suffering their incredulity so long. What King would have had ever the tenth part of this patience. With this He joins the loving style, Tell my Brethren. He says not, Tell these sluggishe and faithless bodies. His patience is joined with love unspeakable. All the world cannot express the lenity and patience of the LORDE towards His own: though they should be never so unbelieving, yet He calls them His Brethren. We should study night and day to know that the LORDE loves us: for our standing is not in our love toward Him, but in His love towards us: and if thou find thyself rooted in His love, as the Apostle speaks to the EPHESIANS, thou shalt never be separated thorough any occasion from that love that is in CHRIST. Then again, I see He hath a marvelous study to get them instructed. He says not, I have sent many already, and yet they will not believe: No, He sends every company after another till they believe, and till faith be wrought in their hearts. What means all this care to instruct them? The Lord was to send them forth to teach others, and therefore all His study is, (before they instruct others,) that they might believe themselves. No, if the Lord send thee to tell of His Death, His Resurrection, and Ascension to the Heavens, and of His coming again to Judgment, He will have a care that thou be instructed, and that thou believe that which thou deliuerest unto others. No, I will not give a penny for a Minister that hath no assurance, no feeling, nor no sight of the death and Resurrection of CHRIST, and that will stand up, and speak to the people of GOD. Besides this patience, this love, and this care that He hath to instruct them who are to be employed in His service, He shows a marvelous wisdom in humbling them thorough the teaching of the women: And therefore He will not send an Angel unto them, but infirm women, to school them, and shame them: and howbeit the commission bears not this in express words, yet He will have the women to say in effect, Fie upon you, ye are sluggishe bodies, ye should have taught us, and not we you. This is it that the Apostles should have understood: They understood His wonderful wisdom, He was to send them to the world. He was careful to instruct them, He sends not Angels to school them, but women, to learn them humility, that they never forget this, that they were schooled in the school of women: for as it is required that the servants of GOD have knowledge and a persuasion, so they must have humility, or else they cannot be faithful Preachers. Now one word, and so I shall ende, Bid them, says He, go to Galilee : He says not, Go to Jerusalem : No, the LORDE had turned His back on Jerusalem : for these who contemned Him when He was humbled in the flesh, the LORDE will despise them when He is glorified. Woe to them whom He forbiddes His servants to go unto: Woe to us, if He say once, Go not to EDINBVRGH: Woe is them, and woe to that Town where the Lord forbiddes His Messengers to go. Beware of this, that the Lord say not to His Messenger, Go to the North or South, but go not to EDINBVRGH, for then shall wrath and destruction light upon it. What confusion and destruction lighted upon Jerusalem, after that the Lord had once turned His back upon it? Yet says the Lord, Bid them go to Galilee, and there they shall seem: They believed not others, who told them of me, but there I shall speak unto them mine own self. This is the great mercy of the LORDE towards His Disciples, upon whom the LORDE should never have looked, if He had respected their infidelity: but albeit they were unfaithful, yet He remained faithful and merciful: for He could not deny Himself, but where there sins abounded, there His grace surmounted above them all: for, as the APOSTLE says, Where sin abounded, there grace abounded much more. Now all the world was full of sin when Christ came, yet grace superabounded. Now this was a meek dealing with them, that they should see mercy above their sins, to this ende, that they should by experience teach others: for he that feels both misery and mercy, is the best teacher in in the world. So being to send them to teach others, He lets them find grace to superabounde. PAUL, Roman. 5.20. says, Where sin abounded, there grace superabounded. Read the first Epistle to Timothy, Chap. 1. verse. 13. there the Apostle says, J was a blasphemer, and an evil liver, and a persecutor : this was his misery: and if the LORDE had never looked to him, he had never been an Apostle, nor a Christian man. But what says he thereafter? The grace of the LORDE JESUS superabounded: and for as high and weighty as my sin was, yet His mercy was greater, and it weighed it down. So then ye see the LORDE cares for them that lie in misery, to tell them of it. I tell you this day, ye are lying in misery, and He is careful that the Preacher have a sense both of misery, and of mercy, to tell of the wrath of GOD, which is manifest from the Heaven upon all impenitent sinners: And, if thou wilt repent thee, I assure thee, though thou were the greatest sinner that ever was, thou shalt have mercy: and therefore, if thou hast gone long on in sin, yet even for GOD'S cause at last, take up thyself: and I promise thee exceeding mercy in that bloody Sacrifice of our LORDE and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, who hath died both for thee, and me, and all penitent sinners: To Him therefore, with the Father and Holy Spirit, be all Honor and Glory for evermore, AMEN.
THE XXXVI. LECTURE OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
MATTH. CHAP. XXVIII.
[verse 11] Now when they were gone, behold, some of the watch came into the City, and shown unto the High Priests all the things that were done.
[verse 12] And they gathered them together, with the Elders, and took counsel, and gave large money unto the Soldiers,
[verse 13] Saying, Saye, His Disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
[verse 14] And if this matter come before the Governor to be heard, we will persuade him, and so use the matter, that ye shall not need to care.
[verse 15] So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is noised among the Jews unto this day.
MARKE, CHAP. XVI.
[verse 12] After that, he appeared unto two of them in another form, as they walked, and went into the country.
LUKE, CHAP. XXIIII.
[verse 13] And behold, two of them went that same day to a town, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlonges, called EMMAVS.
[verse 14] And they talked together of all these things that were done.
[verse 15] And it came to pass, as they communed together, and reasoned, that Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
[verse 16] But their eyes were holden, that they could not know him.
W EE heard hitherto in the History of the Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST, (Beloved in Him) of sundry witnesses of His Resurrection: First Angels, and next women: Namelie, MARIE MAGDALENE was the first that got the sight of Him after His Resurrection: and after her, other women got a sight of Him also, and a direction to His Disciples, to assure them, that He was risen again.
Now in this TEXT which we have read out of the Gospel of MATTHEW, we have a piece of History of another sort of witnesses, that testified of the Resurrection of JESUS; even of the men of war, who were sent out to watch the grave: they came not to the Disciples, but to the High Priests, and t • ey testify unto them of the Resurrection of JESUS. Then, in the History written by MARKE and LUKE, we return to the true witnesses, to wit, two of them that were His Disciples: He meets with them as they were journeying from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and thereafter these two tell the rest, that the Lord was risen. Now to go thorough these two pieces of History shortly, as God shall give the grace, and as time shall permit: When the women that had met with Jesus, had returned, Some of the soldiers that had watched the grave, returns home to Jerusalem, to tell the things that had fallen out: but they came not to the place where the Apostles were, but to the place where the High Priests were, from whom they were sent, and they tell the Lord was risen.
The History is plain: these witnesses are the soldiers that watched the grave: they have not such a commission as the other witnesses had: they are not sent by CHRIST, nor by His Angels, but run of their own accord: but yet they run by the special providence of GOD: No doubt, His providence directed them to the High Priests, and not so much to instruct them: for they were hardened, as to let them see, that they were disappointed of their expectation. They obtained of Pilate, to let men go out and to keep Him in the grave, and to have smothered His Resurrection, that it had never come to light and yet the LORD sends these same men to Jerusalem, as witnesses of that resurrection, that they would have smothered, as if they had been sent out by the High Priests, to this ende, that they should be witnesses: they could testify no better of it: the LORD turns it about so, that they could do no better, if the High Priests had hired and waged them, to be witnesses of His Resurrection. It is a vain thing to strive with GOD, and to hide that thing, that He will have brought to light: for hide it as thou wilt, in despite of thee He shall bring it to light, to thy shame, that He may be glorified.
Now to speak what they testified: they testified the same thing that the women had testified: they testified the truth, they testified All that was done, that JESUS was risen: yet there is a great difference between them, and the women: when the women understood, that He was risen, they came home with joy, the men of war came home with sadness, and with discontentment, and they preach this to them that were sad to hear it, and ashamed of it: they preach it not to the Apostles, as the women did, but to the High Priests.
Mark this Lesson: Look how ye tell tythings: there are some that will make good tithings of evil tithings, and evil tithings of good, as they please, albeit they be never so good, if they be not contented with them, they will make them evil: but be they never so evil, if they be contented with them, they will make them good, and tell them with joy.
Beware how ye tell tithings of the Church of ENGLAND of FRANCE, or of GERMANIE, or of other partes. Look when thou speakest of the prosperous estate of the Church, that thou speak it with joy: and when ye hear that the Church is troubled, speak that not with joy, but with sadness: Thou that art not content with the prosperous estate of CHRIST'S Church, thou wouldest have hid CHRISTES Resurrection, as the Scribes did: and if thou hadst been living with them. So in a word: if the Church be sad, tell it with sadness, and if she be joyful, tell thy tithings with joy: if thou speakest of JESUS, and His glory, speak of Him with joy and pleasure in thine heart.
Now to go forward: The High Priests, when they hear these news: they are nothing content therewith, but are ashamed: They call a Council of the High Priests, and the Senators of the people. The thing that they discern, is to bribe the men of ware that watched the grave, and to hire their tongues to lie: they gave them a great sum, to say, That the body of the Lord was stolen out of the grave by the disciples, in the night, whilst they slept : and lest the men of war should be affrighted for Pilate: and so refuse to lie: they prevent that: for say they, take no thought of Pilate : ye shall get no harm: If he hear of this, we will persuade him, and so keep you harmless. Well, these men were once disappointed, and yet leave they off? No, they will have His glory and Resurrection smothered: and because they could not get it by violence, now, they will smoother it by craft: No, that thing that they cannot do by violence, they shall seek to bring it about with lies: No, think ye, that these Traitours and Apostate Lord's do rest: No, that thing that they could not get done by violence, they seek to do it by craft.
Well, ye would marvel at this▪ ye would ask Whether or not they were assured that the LORD JESUS was risen, and believed the report of the men of war? I answer: It could not be, but they believed that He rose by a divine power: No, it could not be but they thought it: and if they had thought that the disciples had stolen His body away, they would have pursued them, and gotten the body again. Then seeing the arm of GOD raised Him up, and they knew that the Lord was risen: Is not this a wonder, that they repent not, but will oppone them to the power of God? No, wonder not at it. Men, who have once begun to fight against the Holy Spirit, and God Himself immediately, can scarcely ever repent, and turn back again, but rather goes forward to fulfill their sins, as the Apostle says, 1. Thess. 2.16. the wrath of God is come upon them to the full. This is not the first time they fought against God immediately, but they had often times done so before, and beginning, they leave not off, but go forward. So, learn this lesson: mark how dangerous a thing it is, once to begin to oppone thyself to God: if thou beginnest once to oppone thyself against that Majesty, the wrath of God shall so cease on thee, that thou shalt not get leave to go back, till thou be shut in hell: So Stephen Acts 7.31. speaks of these same Jews: O stiffnecked people! ye ever resist the Holy Spirit : that is, as ye have begun to sin against that Holy Spirit, so ye continue, ye cannot go back again: So that they are set out as a spectacle of God's judgment: and it should learn us to tremble, once to think evil against that Holy Majesty: these people may be a document to all them that oppone themselves to Him. The Lord save us from all sins, but namely, from this sin against the Holy Ghost, that can have no repentance.
Now to go forward: The soldiers against their own conscience, sell themselves miserably to lie: and it was a wonder, that the Jews knew it not to be a lie: the men who made this lie, were profane men of war, who commonly use to have little godliness or religion. Indeed, I grant, the Lord hath His own of all sortes: but seldom find ye, that men of war are either good or godly. Besides this, they were Ethnikes, and without God in the world: in a word, they were profane hearted men: then what wonder was it, that they sell their tongue & their conscience: No, if thine heart be profane, thou shalt soon sell thy tongue, and thy conscience to any man, and thou shalt soon sell thine hand to murder, albeit it were a King, as ye have heard of sundry. Our Kings Majesty had need to take heed to this, that there be no profane men about Him: for they will sell him, & his kingdom for a little price. It is said of Esau, Heb. 12 16. He sold his birthright, he sold Heaven, he sold his part of Paradise, for a mess of pottage. What was the ground of all this? The Apostle says, Let no profane man be among you, as Esau : prophanitie was the ground, and he brings in this, as an effect following prophanitie: if thou be profane, thou wilt sell thy conscience: and I say, this merchandise of buying and selling of consciences, that is so frequent in this Lande, tells, that this Land is overspread with prophanitie. The Apostle says, It is the will of God, that ye be holy : but Scotland may say, farewell holiness: Alas, if thou kept in thine heart holiness, thou wilt keep thy conscience: but if thou be profane like Esau, thou wilt sell thy conscience for a penny: So, I direct mine exhortation to all sortes of men: to Traffickers, be not profane but keep an holy heart, and thou shalt keep a good conscience, and if thou be a Judge, if thou be profane, thou wilt sell thy: conscience for a crown: art thou a Marchand, if thou wantest an holy heart, thou wilt sell thy conscience: a Minister, if his heart be not holy, he will soon sell his tongue, and his conscience. So in a word, Let us strive with our conscience, to have an holy heart: Alas, the ground of all this mischief in Scotland, is prophanitie of hearts. When they have sold their tongue, they went, and said, He was stolen away, and the Evangelists note it, That that fame remains amongst them unto this day. I think, ye should marvel, that such a false fame should have prevailed: God disappointed them before, but now He permits them to get the victory. Woe to that victory that is gotten against God: woe to that man that goes against God, if an evil action prosper with him, it is a token, that he shall be thrust in Hell. This was but a small victory: for no doubt, all that He appointed for life and salvation believed, that He rose. Now, Brethren, when they are away, the true persuasion remains in our hearts, that the LORD rose: so that ever truth in the end gets the victory. Ye would marvel that the people should credit that His body was stolen out of the grave: for if it was stolen, by whom was it stolen? They say, by His disciples: Is it likely, that they who were a company of timorous and abashed persons, durst have come out without armor against Pilate's guard: They say, whilst they were asleep, they took it away: then they slept very sound, that they could not hear such an huge stone taken away, and if they were sleeping when it was taken away, Why followed they not when they wakened: and no doubt, if it had been true, they would have followed, and have brought the disciples, and executed them. Ye would wonder now, why these people should not have believed: I answer, These people were appointed for damnation, and they hated the light: and therefore a lie gets soon place in their hearts: they that hate the truth, the Devil cannot make such a lie, but they will easily believe it. What is the cause, that the people believe the Pope, and that crew of the Antichristian kingdom. The cause is this: They hate the light: and therefore, as the Apostle says, Because they believed not the truth, the Lord makes them to believe lies. So our lesson is this in a word: love the truth, and thou shalt hate lies: they hate the truth, and their hearts drink in lies. The Lord set our hearts upon Him, and make us to believe the truth.
This for the first: we go to the second, and we shall enter in it, and leave the rest till the next day, because the time is almost spent already. We come again to better and more holy witnesses: There are two of the disciples of Christ, the name of the one is Cleopas, and the name of the other is not expressed: these were not two of the eleven disciples, but two of the common rank of disciples that used to follow the Lord. The same day, says the Text, to wit, the same day that He rose, the same day that the women went out, and did meet Him, and that same day, that these women returned and preached to the Apostles: These two disciples went on their journey, about threescore furlongs, which is seven mile of ours, or thereabout from Jerusalem : They are not going to seek Christ, but they leave Him, and as it were in a manner, they despared that ever they should see Him, & they were thinking all that time that they had spent with Him, was lost: yet suppose they were leaving Him, He leaves not them: These women sought Him, and they found Him: but these two disciples leave Him: but yet the Lord castes Him in their way. Well, Brethren, whoever finds the Lord, man, or woman, it is of grace: if thou hast found the Lord, thou hast gotten mercy, thou hast found mercy: for if thou findest Him, thou hast found Him, ere ever thou hast sought Him: or else if thou hast sought Him, thou hast not sought Him as thou oughtest: for Marie sought Him not as she should have done: and therefore the Angel said, Why seekest thou the living amongst the dead? So thou that seekest Him not, and findest Him, thank GOD: and thou that seekest Him, and seekest Him not as thou oughtest to have sought Him, if thou find Him, thank Him: for it is of grace that thou findest Him: for if He looked howe thou soughtest Him, thou wouldest never find Him. We fail often in seeking of Him: either we seek Him not with that measure of desire that we ought, (alas, the best of us all in this world, cannot seek Him with half a great desire) or if we seek Him, we fail, as the women did. And last of all, we seek Him not for that ende we should seek Him. We should seek Him for that life and that grace that is in Him, that we might be like Him, and partakers of that life. But all men for the most part seek Him for some wordly respect, as for a deliverance out of misery: and if thou be sick, thou wilt cry for thy health: & if thou be poor, thou wilt cry for riches: and if thou be hungry, thou wilt cry for meat: So that the seeking of Him is either for the belly, or some other wordly thing: scarcelie one among an hundredth will seek the Lord for himself, for Heaven and glory: and if one can come thus far to get a groan for Heaven, that will be in a sober measure, and with a great imperfection. We are by nature addicted to the things that are on the earth, and for them do we seek them: but Heauenlie things, that cannot be seen, we seek them not, we think them but folly. So I say, if we get a desire, we get it with such an imperfection, that it is a wonder. The thing that thou and I should moste seek for, is that seconde coming of CHRIST, to put an ende to this misery that is within us, and without us: so that this should be our saying, Come LORDE JESUS, and put an ende to this misery. But who cries for this coming? Yea, rather I hear men say, God keep me from that day. Alas! knowest thou not, that thy misery shall never have an ende until that day? The Apostle PAUL says, We that have gotten the first fruits of the Spirit, we sigh in our selves, waiting for the adoption, even the redemption of our bodies, Roman. Chapt. 8. verse. 23. We are now the Sons of GOD, but it appears not what shall be: but then it shall appear what thou art. Now the Godlyest is in moste misery: And alas, it appears, that the best of us hath that SPIRITE but soberlie, and not in that measure that we should have. And if we had it, we would sigh and cry, Come LORD JESUS come : that word would never go out of our mouths, and our eyes would never be from the Heavens, to look when our Lord would come and break their clouds, and these visible Heavens, and then take thee to Himself out of this veil of misery, to that endless joy. So to come to our purpose: Whether we see Him first, or last, it is of grace, that all glory may redound to Him.
Well, as they are journeying betwixt Jerusalem and Emmaus, they are talking as two men use to talk together, and all their talk was of CHRIST, and His crucifying: for this was but the third day after He was crucified. Ye see, Brethren, for all this leaving of the LORD, and despairing ever to see Him: yet here is a piece of godliness in their hearts, and a sponke of Hope that keeps them, that they drowned not into despare: for if they had not prevented, they would have perished with the rest of the Jews : and as they are thus wrestling betwixt Hope and Despare, the Lord takes them by the hand, to help them. It is a good thing, to have, if it were but one sponke of grace: yea, if it were but to speak of Him: For none can call Jesus the Lord, as the Apostle says, except he have gotteen the Spirit of Christ. So, hold on, and speak of Him, if thou canst do no more.
Yet to go forward: When they are talking, He comes in, and goes with them : Mark it, This is an argument, that the Lord heard what they were speaking, and as He hears them, He joins with them side for side. Well, take heed to thine heart, & to thy words, The Lord is nearer to thee than thou thinkest: walk, as if thou werest speaking to Him, and as if He heard thee, or saw thee: and when thou speakest, abhor not the presence of the Lord: Thou that wilt run to an hole, wilt abhor His presence: but ay say this, Lord be present at my speaking, what means all this baudrie talk and blasphemy? Even this, Thou seekest not to have thine heart sanctified by the presence of thy God: so, if thou wilt speak, say, Lord, be into mine heart, and Lord, rule my tongue, and open my mouth, & then when He openeth thy mouth, gracious words will come out. So in a word, seek that presence to sanctify your speech and actions. It is said, when He joins with them, Their eyes are so bound up, that they could not know Him : They know not His face, nor His voice: Mark says, That he appeared to them in another form, & Luke sets down in plain words how this was, to wit, not that He was of a diverse form indeed, but because their eyes were holden, & closed, that they could not know Him, so the change was in them, & not in Him, He remained in one form, and was ever like Himself: in all His appearance He never altered His presence, but He altered their eyes that beheld & looked vpō Him. I think some of you would ask. In what form appeared He? Was He naked? The soldiers got His clothes, Whether was He naked or not? No, I think not that He was naked, but He appeared with His Ioynes girded, as a man addressed to a journey, as He appeared to Marie cled like a Gardener: yet ye will ask, had He indeed clothes on Him or not: I have no warrant of that: always He appeared to them to be clothed indeed, & they thoght He had cloths on Him: these men thought He had clothes on: for their eyes were bound up. It is a wonder that they could not know Him, nor His voice, He altered not His voice, and yet they could not know Him: albeit it be natural by the sight of the eye to know one with whō we are acquainted, & it is natural by the ear to know the voice: yet this place lets us see, that the Lord hath a commandment of these gifts: & when He says, look that thou see not, thou shalt not see: and if He say to thee, look that thou know not thy father, thou shalt not know him: and more, if He say, know not the voice of thy wife, thou shalt not know her voice. All this tends to this, We should beg our eyes, our ears, and all at the hands of God, & ay for that gift that thou hast, thank God heartily, and say, Lord, I thank thee for this, that I can know the voice of one creature frō another: so all our lifetime should be a begging of His gifts, & if we move, we should thank our God. Now, if we should beg this natural sight, that we have, much more are we bound to beg the thing we have not, to beg a spiritual eye to see heavenly things, & then when thou gettest it, thou shouldest render thanks to Him. Now of graces this is the best, that the Lord gives, an eye to see that life, for if thou gettest one blencke, certainly thou shalt see Heaven, & that joy and glory, at the which one day, thou shalt wonder. Now, glory be given to Him for all His gifts: and even for this, that He hath given us these bodily eyes, I beseech Him to give everyone of us spiritual eyes, that we may get a blencke of Him here, and in the Heavens enjoy His presence for evermore, through Christ our Lord. To whom with the Father, and Holy Spirit, be all praise, and honor, for evermore.
THE XXXVII. LECTURE OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
LUKE CHAP. XXIIII.
[verse 17] And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk, and are sad?
[verse 18] And the one (named Cleopas) answered, and said unto him. Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass therein in these days?
[verse 19] And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Of Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet, mighty in deed and in word before God, and all the people:
[verse 20] And howe the high Priests, and our Rulers, delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
I N this History of the Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST (well-beloved in Him) we have heard hitherto of sundry witnesses, testifying His Resurrection from the death: The Angels began, and they testified His Resurrection to the women: The women testified it to the Disciples, who were conuened at Jerusalem, and namely to Peter and John. Then MARIE came forth the seconde time, and she meets with the LORD. Then there are other women, who came forth, and meets with the LORDE. And after these women, there comes other witnesses, to wit, enemies, who were sent to watch the grave by PILATE, and the High Priests, and they witnessed, That He was risen. But they sold their tongues to the high Priests, and the IEWES, to make a lie, and to affirm, that the LORDES DISCIPLES had come in the night, and stolen away His body while they slept: And after these witnesses, ye heard the last day, we returned to other two witnesses, who both were the Disciples of the LORDE; the one is named CLEOPAS, but the name of the other is not expressed. These two even in a manner, despairing that ever they should see the LORDE, they depart out of Jerusalem, where they were with the rest of the Disciples, to a Village not far off, called EMMAVS, and they were talking by the way of the things which immediately had fallen out before. The Lord, who saw them, and heard them, addresses Himself shortly to them, and goes with them, as a passenger going out the way: and He binds up their eyes, so that they could not know nor discern Him, suppose they had followed Him▪ and had been with Him long time before. Thus far we heard the last day. Now we follow out the rest of this History: and in this Text which presently we have read, we have the communication which was betwixt the Lord and them, while they went out the way, they knew Him not, and He makes Him not to know them: so each one of them is a stranger to others. The Lord begins the conference, and He demands of them first, What manner of communication it was that they had, while as they were in the way? And next, seeing their countenance sad, He demands of them, Wherefore they were so sad ? These are the two things which He demanded of them. Now to note something of them. As they walked out the way, ye see they have been sad, and their speech and communication by appearance hath been a monefull complaint, which they made concerning CHRIST: Not vain and idle talk, nor rejoicing in the tidings: but all their talk and speech came from sad and heavy hearts. But whilst they are sad, the LORD comes to them, and He comes to comfort them. Well is that soul that is sad and mourns for Christ, and His Church: for that soul shall get consolation out of Christ's mouth. But if where there is matter of mourning, thou be merry, then the Lord will not come to comfort thee. It is true, these men were sad for Christ without a cause, for that was the moste joyefull day that ever was, and therefore, they should especially have been joyefull that day: yet suppose they were sad without a cause, the Lord comes & comforts them. No, it is better thou be sad for Christ for a matter that is joyful, than to be glad in a sad matter: choose rather to be sad for Christ, than to be merry or over wanton: And if thou be sad, albeit there be no matter, the LORD will pity thee: but if thou laugh, rejoice, and take thy pastime, the LORDE will let thee laugh on for a time, but He will leave thee destitute of all consolation when thou hast need of it. I tell you this aye, There is no matter of laughing in this miserable Lande: it were better for us to mourn, and to be sad for sin, that we might get comfort from GOD.
Now to come forward. CHRIST perceiving these men to be sad, H • e draws near unto them, and He asks the cause of their heaviness, and what moved them to be so sad? and He desires them to reueile their mone and care unto Him. Suppose He makes Himself unknown unto them, and speaks to them as though He had no care, yet no question this is His will that they should reveal the cause of their care and sadness unto Him, that they might find comfort in Him.
Brethren, are ye sinners, are your hearts filled with care, it is the will of thy GOD and Savior JESUS CHRIST, that thou pour out thine heart to Him, & let Him see thy sadness. Mark this. It is no small matter to know GOD'S will: we are slow and slothful to turn us: we will consume our selves, and pine away in our sorrow and grief, ere we make our complaint and mone unto Him, who only may furnishe us with consolation: and He knows us well enough: and therefore He awaites not, till we first reveal our griefs unto Him, and pour them into His bosom: but He provokes us first, and He will enter in, and seek them out, as ye will hear: He sought them out of these men with great difficulty. Come ye to me, (says Christ, Matth. 11.28.) all ye that are weary, and I shall refr • sh you : I here is His will: If thou be wearied, come to Him, and get rest and ease to thy soul. If thou go not to Him, thou shalt never get rest nor ease, whether thy trouble be within thee, or without thee. Yea, not only by word invites and provokes He us, but also by His doing He draws us, John. Chap. 6. verse. 44. there He says, No man can come to me, except the Father draw him. It is His will, that thou shouldest come unto Him: but if He put not out His hand, and draw thee, thou wilt never come to Him in all thy life time. And therefore, whensoever ye hear this voice, Sinner, come unto me : then say this again unto the LORDE, LORDE draw me, put thine hand to mine heart, and draw me, or else J cannot come to thee. No, except the Lord put out His hand, and draw thine heart to Him, thou art not come. All the Kings in the world are not able to draw a sinner, except GOD only. Now consider their answer, and see this communing: The one named Cleopas, takes the speech in hand, (the other disciple is silent) and he answers the Lord very roughlie, not knowing with whom he had to do, thinking Him to have been a passenger, and stranger, walking out of the way, he says unto Him, Art thou a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which have fallen out within these few days. In these words, (because he took the Lord to be a stranger and passenger, going out of the way) ye cannot blame him in making such an answer: And as he took him to be a stranger, he answers well: for when such wonderful works fall out in any Countreye, it becomes no man to be ignorant of the wonderful works of GOD: and if ever there was a wonderful work, that work of the Crucifying of the Lord was moste wonderful: And if thou be ignorant of the wonderful works of GOD, thou merits a rebuke: And as Cleopas marveled, so will the godly marvel at thee, who canst neither be seeing nor hearing, nor consider the wonderful works of GOD. It is a wonder to see the illumination of a sinner, and the conversion of the heart of a man to GOD, and to see a regenerate man: yea, the raising of a dead man to life, is not so marvelous, as is the quickening of thee, who art dead in sin and trespasses, as the Apostle PAVLE says, to the EPHES. Chap. 1. verse. 21. And as the quikening and illumination of a sinner is a wonder, so also the blinding of a sinner is a wonder. Is it not marvelous, that though thou cry to him as thou wilt, and albeit heaven and earth should go together, he will neither hear nor see? As the Lord is more than wonderful to his own in mercy, to cause them to here and see, (thou wonderest li • tle at his mercy, but all the Angels wonder at it,) even so in blinding and hardening of the wicked, the LORDE is wonderful. Sittest thou here now, and seest not, nor hearest not the LORDE? All the world may wonder at thee. So the LORDE may be wondered at, either in mercy to his own, or in justice to the wicked: as the Apostle speaking in the eleventh Chap. to the Romans, he wonders at it, and from morning till evening we should wonder at that God and his works, at that mighty GOD, whom the Prophet calls Deum admirabilem.
To go forward. The Lord, who knew all things, (for all things are naked to His eyes) He knew better what was done, than Cleopas did, yet He will not take upon Him that He knew, He misknowes them, and He asks: What are these things : Mark it, Brethren: He got a rough and sharp answer before, and yet He leaves not off, He will not leave them, but He bears with their infirmities, and now He gives another pull to the heart, & deals again with them, that they should pour out their sadness and grief to Him: No, if thou pertainest to the Lord, He will not leave thee for an hard meeting: & suppose thou drawest abacke, He will give thee another pull, Albeit we be unfaithful, says the Apostle, yet the Lord abideth faithful : Change as thou wilt, the Lord shall never change, but remain ay constant in mercy to His own till they be perfected, and crowned with glory. Then Cleopas seeing him to be troubled with a stranger, at the last he must tell the words that he and his companion were speaking, as they went on the way: Mark this lesson: Repine as thou wilt, when the Lord draws thee, at the last thou must yield▪ But what is the cause, that any sinners will yield when the Lord draws? Even the secret operation of His Holy Spirit: and if he that drew them by the word, had not a secret power and operation by His Spirit in their hearts, they would never have yielded. Albeit the LORD would prove them by speech and language, albeit He would exhort them, admonish them, threaten them: yea, and scourge them to come to Him: and well is the soul, albeit it be scourged, yea if it were harled thorough the middes of Hell, if it were thorough never so great difficulties in the world, if once it get grace to come to Him: yet none outward thing will make us to come to Him, it is the inward draught of His Spirit, that makes us to come to Him, and draws us by the eye, by the ear, and by the hand: if He take us not by the hand, we can never come to Him. It is said in the 2. Chapter to the Romans, and the 4. verse, He draws the reprobate, and calls them, but all that calling is but outward: He will scourge them, and draw them outwardly, but He never puts the feeling of His holy Spirit in their hearts, and so they can never come to Him: & therefore whē the Lord is outwardly drawing and calling thee, say always this, Lord, draw thou mine heart inwardly by thine Holy Spirit, or else, it will be long ere it come to thee, if all the sicknesses, all crosses, troubles, scourges, judgments that can be, and all this preaching that I hear, will never cause me come to thee, except thou draw mine heart. Now to come to the words that Cleopas speaks: there is none of them, but they would be marked: he begins and rehearses to Him the whole sum of these things that he and his companion had been speaking, and he propones them summarily, & he says, All the things we have spoken, was Concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Alas, few of us take pleasure to talk of Him: therefore when the Lord comes & takes thee by the hand: look thou mayest say, Lord, I have been talking of thee in some measure: for as sure as the Lord laid to His ear to hear, what Cleopas, and his companion talked, as sure He lays to His ear, to hear what thou speakest. Then when he hath told the general, he lets the stranger know what a man Jesus was, and then he tells shortly, what had befallen him these two days, and after he speaks of the effects that it had wrought in his heart, and in the hearts of His disciples, to wit, that He was no Redeemer. This is the whole conference, & I shall go thorough this conference, as God shall give the grace, and as time shall permit: First, in describing of Him, he calls Him Jesus of Nazareth, That was the style he gave Him: Mark it: The first thing that he speaks to Him, is an untruth: he calls Him Jesus of Nazareth No doubt, he thought He had been borne at Nazareth, suppose they had the Prophecy, that He should be borne at Bethlehem in Judah, Micah Chapters. verse 2. and that He was borne there. The ground of this error that was amongst the Jews, was because of Joseph and Marie dwelt at Nazareth, and Jesus was brought up there with them, that false rumor spread, that Joseph was His father, and that He was borne there, but He was not borne there.
I grant, it is true, that after His resurrection, Peter in the Acts, and the Apostles themselves, called Him Jesus of Nazareth, as Cleopas here calls Him Jesus of Nazareth.
Also Paul in the twenty six Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and the ninth verse, calls Him Jesus of Nazareth, but neither Peter, nor Paul spake this of ignorance, as if He had been borne there, but because they to whom they spake, knew Him best under that name, they submitted themselves to their capacity.
But as for Cleopas, he knew no better: for he thought indeed, that Jesus had been borne at Nazareth : so the first word he speaks, is plain untruth: so ye see what it is to judge with the multitude: The Papists will send thee to believe that which the multitude believes, and makes the multitude a token of the true Church: but thou shalt be beguiled with the multitude, and if thou followest them, because they walk in the broad way, thou shalt perish with them.
Next, consider His description, He calls Him, Uir Propheta. Indeed He failed not in this style, He was a man, and was a man indeed, blood, and bone, as we are: yet there is a defect in this word, Cleopas knew no more, but that He was a man, he knew not that He was GOD and man in one person. It is true, Peter in the 2. of the Acts, calls Him Uir Propheta : yet he knew He was the Son of GOD, blessed forever: so as in the first words, there is an untruth, so in the next words there is a defect, I mark this, to let you see the ignorance that was in them, before the LORD ascended to the Heaven. It was a wonder, that they who walked so long with Him, should have been so ignorant: the third time he calls Him A Prophet. Indeed He was such a Prophet, as was never before, nor after Him: yet there is a fault here, he gives Him the greatest style he thought He had, but He had far greater stiles: for He is not a Prophet only, but also a Mediator, King, and High Priest: Then he comes on, and he tells what a Prophet He was, saying, that He was powerful in word and deed. Now would to GOD we could speak of Him in love, with this poor man that had little knowledge: indeed in this style he would let us see, that there was never such an one in word, nor work: never one wrought such miracles as He did, and never man spake, as He did, as His own very enemies testified of Him, John Chapter 7. yet will ye measure it with the knowledge of the man, there is a defect here also, he thoght He had been like the rest of the Prophets, who prophesied not by their own spirit, but by the Spirit of JESUS, yet was he ignorant that JESUS spake and wrought all by His own Spirit. Why should we not know these things: This is the difference between CHRIST, and all the Prophets: all these Prophets, and Moses himself were but servants: they spake never a word by their spirit, but by the Spirit of CHRIST, as Peter speaks in the first Epistle : Spake Moses, Isaiah, or Ezekiel in their own name? Dare any Minister speak in his own name: No, not under pain of his life, but JESUS is called the LORD of the house. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the third Chapter, He spake by His own Spirit, and these preachings were preached by His own Spirit, and He spake by His own authority, as ye may read in the seventh Chapter of Matthew.
An Herald, if He speaks in his name, should be hanged, but the King himself will speak in his own name: the LORD spake in His own Name, but the Prophets spake not in their own name: read these Prophecies, They say there, Thus saith the LORD : but ye shall find thus, when Christ comes, He says, Amen, amen, dico vobis: Verilie, verily J say unto you, in mine own Name and authority, and not in my Fathers only: This Cleopas knew not, but counted Him a Prophet like others, albeit more excellent than others: Cleopas thought He was potent by the Spirit of GOD, and so by another: but he knew not, that He spake in His own Name, and by His own authority, being equal with the Father.
Now to be short, he says, He was mighty before GOD and the whole people, That is to say, He had the approbation of the LORD from the Heaven, and what ever He spake, the LORD approved it: what ever He did, His Father approved it. Then again, He did never an action, but with the approbation of the people: But it would be asked, How approved they Him, seeing they persecuted Him, scorned Him, and crucified Him? I answer: Albeit that neither by word nor deed the Jews, nor the High Priests had approved Him: yet the conscience of the same High Priests, and Jews approved Him, and bare witness to them that He was GOD, so that sometimes they were compelled to say, Never man spake as He did, John Chapter 6. verse 46. and sometimes again, since the world began, was it not heard, that any man opened the eyes of one that was borne blind, John Chapter 9. verse 32.
So that all that they did to Him, was against conscience. I regard not what thou doest to me, if thou be bound in conscience to testify, that that is true which I speak, and that is good which I do: for in that day, thou who speakest against thy conscience, shalt not have one word to speak: thy conscience shall bind up thy mouth: so this is well said, that He had the approbation both of GOD, and man: but he thought He had this approbation as one of the Prophets, suppose in a greater measure.
But look the first Chapter to the Hebrews, and the fifth verse: For unto which of the Angels said he at any time, (let be Prophets) Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? Then he knew not that he had that approbation of that God who dwelt in him, God in him approved him. Roman. Chap. 1. verse. 4. it is said, He was declared mightily to be the Son of GOD. And 1. Timothy, Chap. 3. verse. 16. He was justified by the Spirit. And again it is said, Acts Chap. 2. verse. 22. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, with great works, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you. Cleopas knew little of this.
Now, Brethren, we have examined his words, and ye see here a great ignorance: In the first words an untruth, and ye see in all the words following there is some want. And to whom is it that he preaches? He preaches Christ to Christ, and he describes the Lord to the Lord: and yet the Lord hears him patiently. Ye will not believe how He will hear thy babbling, if in thine heart thou have a love to GOD: suppose thou babble He will hear thee, and if thou speak with love, suppose thou canst not pray as other men and women can: Babble on to Him, and speak on with a good heart, He will no more reject thee, than He did Cleopas : He is aye like to Himself. For what is all our language to Him, but a babbling: yea, all our knowledge is but babbling. So suppose we have not knowledge, nor a tongue to speak, yet let us not leave off to speak in love, & with our hearts, and He shall hear us, and give us a comfortable answer. Now I counted never so much of knowledge, as of an heart which loveth God: Keep an heart to thy God: come with faith and love to thy God, and thou wilt not think how He will delight in thee: if we come with love to the Lord, then we come boldly to the Throne of grace. And why? Because we come not in our own righteousness, or in our own perfection: we appear only in the merits of JESUS CHRIST: And suppose thou babble and be ignorant, yet if thou appear in Him, thou art full of knowledge: for His knowledge the Lord countes to be thine. O, what is it to be in Christ! He who hath Christ, hath all, though he were never so weak, he is strong in Him, My power, says the Lord, is perfect in infirmity. And therefore, says Paul, I will glory in my infirmity, that the power of God may be seen in me. 2. Cor. 12. Now a word, and so I ende. Cleopas begins to tell what was befallen to such a personage, who was mighty in word and deed: yet for all this, they handled Him most unworthily of any man, Our Priests and rulers, as PILATE first, they condemned Him to the death, without a cause, and next, they have crucified Him: if ye consider well the words, ye will find, that He speaks to them with a wonderful indignation, as if He had said,: albeit He was such a man, and so great a man in all respects, yet they condemned Him without a cause, and then they crucified Him. And what indignity was this, for as the Apostle says, Albeit He was the LORD of glory, yet most shamefully they crucified Him, 1. Cor. Chapter second, and the eight verse: Well, take up this in His words, What ever is done against Christ, it is an indignity, if we knew that Majesty we offend: if we saw▪ Him, we would count the least evil thought to be indignity against Him, by reason of the worthiness of His person. What ever was done against Christ, it was indignity: No, this world was not worthy of Him: and I say more, what ever evil is done to His members for His cause, it is an indignity, because there is a dignity in them.
It is another kind of thing to use a Christian man, as thou wilt, than to use a Turk: thou thinkest it a small thing to stick him: yet one day thou shalt know that he is a worthy personage: especially, if he suffer for Christ.
Take heed what the Apostle says, They crucified the King of glory, and the Lord of life: how agree these two together, the King of glory, and then, to be crucified: He countes that the greatest indignity was done to Him, that ever was done in the world: Then the Apostle says of His Saints, Heb. 11. They have persecuted them, and slain them with the sword, whom the world was not worthy of: And I say more, The godly, who see the worthiness of Jesus Christ, and of His Saints, and then s • es the indignity that is done against JESUS CHRIST, and His Saints, it is no wonder that they cannot comport with it.
Villane, if thou werest a King, that regardest not to offend Him, they cannot comporte with thee, the offending of Him is the sorest wound that ever came to their hearts: and when they see anything done against His Saints, they cannot comport with it: No, it could not be possible, that the godly could comport, or suffer these things vnl • sse they knew all these things were done by His providence. O villane, who boastest thou wilt do to the Saints of God, what thou pleasest, what art thou but His rod, and thou shalt be casten into the fire: and suppose thou set thyself against His glory, yet He shall make thee, in despite of thine heart, to serve to His glory. Then thou, who art the child of GOD, in such cases, shouldest say, I see the finger of GOD in this, for this tyranny could do nothing, without the providence of my GOD. Look how PETER speaks in the ACTS, Chap. 2. verse. 23. he says, They crucified him : But this is his comfort, That they did nothing, but according to the determinate counsel of GOD. And the godly know, that all comes from Him, and for His glory, and thou that wilt not glorify Him, He shall be glorified in thy destruction, and shame everlasting. Now to this glorious and blessed GOD, be glory forever and ever: AMEN.
THE XXXVIII. LECTURE OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
LUKE, CHAP. XXIIII.
[verse 21] But we trusted that it had been he that should have delivered Israel: and as touching all these things, today is the third day, that they were done.
[verse 22] Yea, and certain women among us, made us astonied, who came early unto the sepulcher.
[verse 23] And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of Angels, who said, that he was alive.
[verse 24] Therefore, certain of them who were with us, went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not.
[verse 25] Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken!
[verse 26] Ought not CHRIST to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
W EE continue yet (BRETHREN) in this History concerning the two Disciples of CHRIST, who that same day of His Resurrection, (not knowing of it) went out from the rest of the Disciples, that were conuened at Jerusalem, to a Village called EMMAVS, not far from Jerusalem. We have heard of their outgoing, and of their meeting with Christ: howbeit He knew them, yet He let them not know that He knew them: but He bound up their senses, their eyes, and their ears, that when they looked to Him, and heard Him speak, they knew him not: but they took him to be a passenger: and no question he appeared unto them in the habit and weed of a passenger. And meeting with them, he asks, what was their communication, and wherefore they were so sad, and discomforted? One of them, named CLEOPAS, takes the speech in hand, and begins to speak roughlie unto Christ, That he was come from Jerusalem, and knew not these things which were fallen out within few days. It is half a refusal of an answer. Yet the Lord will not leave them off, but he asks, What are these things which have fallen out? He answers, OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. Of him is the whole sum of their talk. Then he comes on, and he makes it more clear, to the passenger, as he thought: and first he lets him see what a man Jesus was. There was never such a man: He was a Prophet, mighty in word and deed. No man ever spake as he spake, and no man ever wrought such miracles as he wrought: so that he had an approbation both of God and man. Then next, he comes to these things which had befallen so worthy a person, such indignity as never was seen: he says, Our high Priests and Rulers have condemned him to die, and have dispatched him by the moste vile and ignominious death that could be: They have crucified that Prophet that was mighty in word and deed, like a villane. Thus far hitherto.
Now the rest of this narration that follows, contains three partes: the History is plain, and therefore we shall go shortly thorough it, Cleopas gathereth a sore and a comfortless conclusion upon the crucifying of Christ, a conclusion of despairing▪ that Jesus should have redeemed the world: it is said, We hoped that he should have redeemed Israel from their sins : But now He is taken away, and He is dead, and therefore our hope is gone, and we can look no more for Him to be our Redeemer.
Mark this, if he reasons well or not, Jesus is crucified, and therefore He cannot be our Redeemer, we cannot hope that ever He shall redeem the world: By the contrary, he should have reasoned, JESUS is crucified, and therefore He is the Redeemer: for as the Apostle Heb. Chapter 9. and twenty two verse says, Without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins : for if He had not suffered, He could not have been the Redeemer, and have redeemed us: but Cleopas and the other, knew not what the Redeemer should have suffered, they knew not what the Redeemer meant, and therefore being deceived with the false opinion that the people had concerning the Messias, that He should be like a King, Julius Caesar, the Emperor by an earthly power, to deliver them from the tyranny of the Romans.
This false opiniō made them to gather this, that He could not be the Redeemer, seeing that He was crucified. And indeed if this ground that they laid, had been true, He could not have delivered them being crucified. I spake of this the last day, if thou followest the multitude, and believest (as the Papists bid thee) as the multitude believe, and close thine eyes, thou shalt perish with the multitude. They will say, What ado hast thou with the Bible, thou hast no more ado, but believe as the Church believes▪ but I say unto thee, It shall happen unto thee, as it happened unto Cleopas: That thing that should be the matter of hope, it shall cut thee from hope, as it did this poor man Cleopas, yea, I say further, if thou believest with the multitude, thou shalt perish with the multitude. Fie, is not that rabble ashamed of this light, fie upon them: No, the vengeance from Heaven shall light upon them, except they repent.
Now to come to the second parte of the narration that he makes: ye have heard his conclusion: But now says Cleopas, This is the third day since he was crucified and dead : Yet we hear nothing: As he would say, once dead and ay dead: Mark what he would gather of this: It is the third day since he died, and we have not seen him, alas, I fear we shall never see him again: alas, he will never redeem Israel: He dare not speak this right out, but he keeps it in his mind. Is this a good conclusion, It is the third day since he died, therefore he cannot redeem Israel? He should have concluded, It is the third day, since he died, therefore he is risen in glory, to be the Redeemer of Israel. But the ignorant man knew not the Scriptures of GOD, as Christ says to him hereafter: for Christ had foretold, that he would rise the third day, and yet he had forgotten it: and so he concludes, I shall never see him: and he cannot be the Redeemer. Then ye see what it is to be ignorant of the Scriptures of GOD, and to forgette them: There is nothing concerning Christ, but it is fully set down in the old and new TESTAMENTES: So that if an Angel would come down from Heaven, he can tell no more in substance. Yet if thou wilt not look to them, but close thine eyes that thou see not, and stop thine ears, that thou hear not, and so forget them again before thou be well out of the Church; it is a wonder, that thou shouldest get any matter of hope. No, thou shalt find nothing but matter of desperation. Whosoever therefore would have matter of joy in the heart, and have joy in their distress, let them always have the Scriptures before their eyes. What needed these men to have been troubled, if they had kept the Scriptures before their eyes? So in a word: As thou wouldest have joy in trouble, keep the Scriptures in thy memory, for there is no joy, but in these Scriptures.
Now to go forward to the third parte of this Narration of Cleopas, concerning Christ. Before he comes to it, he makes a rehearsal of these same things which had happened that same day in the morning: for on the third day in the morning, there went out some women (he himself was not so ready: it had been better for himself to have said, I went out to the grave▪ and I saw, and I heard this) and they have made us, the Disciples of Christ, all astonied: for they told us, that they found not the body of CHRIST: But they told us that they found Angels, and that the Lord was risen, and alive: but for all this we believed not. Then some of us who were men, namely Peter and John, who went out, and they found this, that the LORDE was out of the grave. But mark his last words, But none of them saw the LORDE. Alas, these two DISCIPLES apparantlie hath come out of HIERVSALEM, ere MARIE MAGDALENE, and some other women, who went out that same day, had returned, & shown, that they had seen the Lord. They went away over soon to Emmaus. But look what he concluded: They saw Him not, therefore He was not risen: This is it that they would conclude, Because they could not see Him with their bodily eyes, therefore they looked never to see Him: As if we should have measured the Redeemer, & the Redemption by gross and carnal senses. Look if he concluded well? He should have concluded the contrary, We could not see Him with our eyes and senses, and therefore we believe He is the Redeemer: That is the conclusion that He should have gathered: for faith is the demonstration of things which are not seen as the Apostle speaks, Hebr. 11.1. This is a false conclusion, We cannot see Him with our bodily eyes, therefore we cannot hope to see Him. But by the contrary, We cannot see Him with our bodily eyes, therefore we believe and hope to see Him. Then we see this in CLEOPAS, and his fellow: suppose they were with CHRIST, and should have had an eye to have seen: yet they are mere carnal: for leaning only to the senses of the body, they are more natural than spiritual: and so they conclude, They should never see the Lord: for suppose they spake not this with their mouths, yet they thought it in their hearts, and they were standing betwixt hope and despair. No, if thou be but a natural man, thou shalt believe nothing, but that which thou conceiuest and feelest with thy senses: but for Heauenlie things, thou canst not believe them: Heaven and Hell will be but fables to thee, and all will be but folly unto thee. There are enough of these men in this Town: and therefore, as ever thou wouldest see Heaven, as thou wouldest live hereafter, and as thou wouldest reign in glory, seek to have spiritual senses, which may pass far beyond nature: a spiritual eye to see things Heauenlie, and a spiritual hand to feel things Heauenlie, or else thou shalt die and perish, and thou shalt never have life hereafter. Then in time, seek to be spiritual, and to seek Heaven and Heauenlie things. A bodily eye will never perceive these things. Ye see then, howe false a conclusion he hath gathered. Yet I perceive in the last part of his narration, something that smelles of the hope of Resurrection: an impediment in his heart, he is near to despair: almost he hath given over both faith, and hope of CHRIST, that ever they should see Him: yet he is fleeting above, he swatters and swims, he gives not clean over, he drowns not altogether: but, as ye may perceive, a sponke of faith and hope remains in him: and it bears him so above, that he says not, I despair. And where got he this? Even of the report of the women: suppose he believed not them, yet he durst not say, that they lied, or that it was untrue that they spake. Well, it is always good to hear of CHRIST, and if it were but a woman to speak of Him: for in the day of thy trouble, yea, if thou were betwixt hope and despair, that thing which thou hast heard, will be brought to thy remembrance, and keep thee from despair: But thou who hast not heard, thou shalt perish: and thou who hast heard, suppose thou beleeuedst not at the first, and conceiuedst it not: yet when thou art at the brink of desperation, that shall hold thee above, thou gettest further information.
Now go to the rest. We have heard this preaching of Cleopas, to the passenger as he supposed. Ye see he was careful to teach Him: and no question, all that he knew of Christ, he told it▪ Learn this lesson at Cleopas : All that knowledge which thou hast of Christ, tell it to another: and if thou have little, tell it to him that hath nothing: and it may be, thou shalt get further information, as Cleopas did: for the stranger instructed him in all things. Now CHRIST speaks, and He says to him, (not letting him know that He was Christ) O fools ! He that Christ calls a fool, is a fool indeed: And if He call thee a fool, thou art one. And then He says, Slowe of heart to believe concerning Christ the Messias. Before I come to the words, behold the clemency & mercy of the Lord: These two men were raving like fools, or as men in a fever: suppose they were His Disciples, they utter a plain distrust: and yet the Lord castes them not off: He saw a little spark in them▪ He saw a sponke of faith, and He goes not to put it out. So that it is true, that is spoken of Him, Isaiah, Chap. 42. He never brake the bruised reed, nor yet put out the smoking slaxe, but held it in, and quickened the sponkes thereof, where he found it, till it came to a perfection. No, He will never cast thee away for a little faith: but He will entertain it, and of a sponke, He will make a fire.
Yet to come to the words: He says, Fools, mad men, without any mind. And then He calls them, dull hearted. There are two things in man, A mind to see, and a will to embrace that which he seees: As for their mind, they were bereaved of mind: as for their will, they have not a will, nor an heart to embrace it: So, mark, what misbelief is? Alas, it leaves not one part of the whole, all the powers of the soul are vitiate by misbelief, Faith goes thorough all the powers of the soul, it first stands in an illumination, and sight of those things that concerns thy salvation, it decernes of things heavenly, and then goes down to the heart, and makes it to embrace JESUS CHRIST, and His benefits: even these heavenly things, that thou canst not see with the eyes of the body: Infidelity, by the contrary, begins and blinds the mind of the infidel, that he sees not, nor cannot see nor discern of things heavenly and spiritual: Albeit thou canst never discern so well of policy, as the Heathen could, yet in heavenly things thou art but mad, and out of their minds: Christ would call thee wood and mad: Look how Paul calls all the Philosophers, 1. Rom. In a word he calls them fools, and then infidelity goes from the mind, and fills the heart, and makes the heart astonied: if thou be an Infidel▪ thou art dull, and senseless: thou mayest lay hold on the world, but if thou gettest no better, thou shalt die in thy dullness and senslessenesse. So, wouldest thou know, whether thou art quick or not, and of a good conceiving: Try not thyself by earthly things, and say not, I understand the writing of this man, or that man, but if thou wouldest know, whether thou werest not dull & senseless or not, look if thou seest anything in Heaven, and heavenly things, and then thou art not dull and senseless: but if thou feelest not heavenly things, albeit thou werest a King, go thy way, thou art but a dull and senseless creature, the Ass, or the Dog is better than thou: there the style He gives them, wood men and mad men, without a mind. These men that can compass these things in the world, think themselves quick: but I say to thee, in the Name of this JESUS, if thou knowest not CHRIST, and heavenly things, thou art but a dull and senseless man, and seest not, nor understandest no more, than an Ass.
Mark every word that He speaks, whilst He calls them slow to believe all that the Prophets had spoken: He castes the Prophets in their teeth, He calls them slow to believe, not this thing, or that thing, not this man, or that man, but that which the Prophets had spoken.
It is evil, not to believe any that speaks the truth, but it is worse, not to believe a Prophet. Any man that is sent, or called of God, if thou believest Him not, that same calling of the man, augments thy judgment: look to it, If ye believe not a man that is called, that calling of his, shall augment thy judgment. Then He says, Believe ye not the things that they have spoken to you? hearest thou many things, and is this word oft beaten in thine ears, and hearest thou this day, the morne, and other morne, and yet, wilt thou not believe, the more heavy is thy judgment, the more thou hearest, if thou purposest not to believe, the greater is thy judgment. I give thee my counsel, if thou purposest not to believe, hear not a preaching, for all the preachings that thou hast heard, shall aggravate thy judgment, & a thousand times heavier shall thy judgment be, & better, that thou hadst heard never a preaching, except thou purpose to believe. Mark this: He uses a sharp form of rebuke, before He teach them, He tells them not what He was, He makes as though He were a stranger, and yet He calls them fools, and slow to believe.
Take heed to this, ye that will not suffer yourselves to be called foolish, and will not suffer your heart to be lanced, but ay wouldest have good words, and that will not hear yourselves to be called fools: there is the way to grace, there is the order of teaching, and hearing: and if thou teachest, call a fool, fool, albeit he we • e a King, call him mad, or else thou wilt beguile him, call a slow hearted body, foolish, that is the only way to come to light and knowledge.
Thou that wouldest preach, must do this, and thou that art an hearer: First, thou must get a sense of thy misery, and that thou art but foolish, as ever thou wouldest see Christ, strive to get a sight of the blindness of thy soul, and the hardness of thine heart: and if thou seest thy blindness, and misery, then thy desire will be wakened, and thou wouldest give ten thousand Kingdoms to be out of that damnable estate.
Now, I shall be short: When H • e hath begun thus roughly with them, and hath prepared their hearts to hear, then He begins to teach. Why should I call thee a fool▪ and an hard hearted body▪ except it be to teach thee: So He begins and teaches them a fair preaching, and no doubt, He made a large discourse, but here it is summarilie gathered up: He lays down His proposition, It behooved him to suffer, and to enter into his glory. There is the necessity: It behooved that the Lord Jesus by many and sore sufferings should enter into His glory. Mark this, who can tell it clearer than He Himself told it? So I will tell it again, Jesus by His suffering beho • ued to enter into His glory. JESUS CHRIST once leaving His glory, got no entry again into it, till He was so inanited as never creature was. The LORDE putteth to a necessity of suffering, saying, Jt behooved him to suffer : and so say I, There was such a necessity laid upon Him, that He behooved to suffer, and all the world could not save Him from it, being once come down into this world. Therefore, the LORDE by His Prophets had fore-told this necessity, That he should suffer death : and therefore, seeing He fore-tells it, it behooved him to suffer : All the world shall not bring it back again. The Lord as He had fore-told it, so He had ordained it from all eternity. Wilt thou call back again that that the LORDE hath decreede? Thou mayest reduce the decreet of man, but all the world cannot reduce the decreet of GOD. These are the causes of His suffering: but I shall come to a lower and a subordinate cause: I say to thee, thy sin made this necessity. The LORDE taking upon Him the burden of thy sin, and becoming Mediator; that immaculate Lamb, that had no sin, neither in body nor in soul, He taking once the burden of our sin upon Him, He was, in a manner, holden out of Heaven for a time, and He was made accursed: and therefore, before He suffered for sin, He could not get entry into Heaven, for wheresoever sin is, there is death, be it inherent within thee, if thou get not one to die for thee, thou must die: for this is plain talk, (but would to God it were well learned) death must ever follow sin, if thou lay it not on Him, and He die not for thee, thou shalt die forever. Thou makest but a pastime of harlotry, and murder, and theft: but I say, There is no satisfaction of thy harlotry and murder, but death: I say to thee, harlot, thou art dead: murderer, thou art but dead: albeit thou be a lord, I tell thee, thou art but dead, if thou get no relief in the Mediator, without satisfaction for thy sins, thou shalt never see Heauē. Christ saw not Heauē, after He took on our sin, till He was dead, and offe • ed His blood. The high Priest durst not enter into Sanctum sanctorum without a basen full of blood, under pain of death: Even so, Christ entered not into heaven, but with his own blood: And if thy sin held an innocent out of heaven, O miserable body! thinkest thou, that thou, who art altogether defiled, canst come to heaven? Nothing can enter there that is defiled. Murderer, thou shalt never see heaven, except thou go to Jesus, and lay on the burden of thy sin upon him, and say, Lord, take this burden from me: and if thou canst say this from thine heart, he will take it from thee.
Now Brethren, a question would be asked, If Jesus hath died for thy sins and mine, that we might get an entry? Thou mayest say to me, What to do have I to suffer, seeing the Lord hath prepared the way? What to do have I to suffer in soul or body? or why should I be afflicted, seeing the Lord hath made the way patent? I will not answer with the Papists: for they will say, Thou must pay one part: but I say to thee, in despite of thine heart, if thou pay any part, thou must pay the whole. But I answer, All these sufferings is no satisfaction to bring thee to Heaven. Then thou wilt say, Why should I suffer, if it help not to bring me to Heauē? I answer, All the afflictions which are laid on thee, are laid on thee for the slaughter of the remaining corruption: feelest thou not a remaining corruption within thee? All th'afflictions which are laid on thee, as sickness, want of goods, loss of friends, &c. all is laid on thee to slay that remaining corruption. Brethren, I will tell you plainly. The death of Jesus, and His suffering, is the only mean to enter into Heaven, in despite of all the Papists. Again I say, Look what need we have of His death, we have as much need of affliction in our own persons, to slay that sin which remains in us: Suppose there be many ways to slay sin, yet except thou be chastised and vexed with affliction outwardly and inwardly, as it pleases the Lord to lay it on thee, thou shalt never see Heaven. So cast thee not to sleep, but make thee for affliction and trouble to mortify thy sin, or else thou shalt never see Heaven. And well is thee that art afflicted, and made like Christ by thine afflictions. What words can be t • uer, than the words of Paul and Barnabas, Act. 14. It behooveth you to enter into heaven, by many tribulations. The Apostle says, there is a necessity. And again he says, Heb. 12.14. without holiness (affliction brings holiness) no man shall see the Lord. Well, thou that delitest to pol • ute thy body, I tell thee, if thou be not holy, thou shalt never see God. And I say more, Without affliction either in soul or body, thou shalt never be holy. Thou that sleepest securely, and hast mind of nothing, but thy dinner, and thy supper, good chiere, and good company: I tell thee once, twice, yea, thrice, thou shalt never be holy, and thou shalt never come to Heaven: and if thou sleepest on in this estate, thou art not one of His compt Book. Let him, or her, who is afflicted, thank God, and take it out of His hand, and say, The Lord hath sent it to sanctify me Lord give me thy Spirit, that I may be holy, that I may see thy blessed face one day, to my everlasting joy in Jesus: To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit, be glory for evermore, Amen.
THE XXXIX. LECTURE, OF THE RESVRRECTION OF CHRIST.
LUKE CHAP. XXIIII.
[verse 27] And he began at Moses, and at all the Prophets, and interpreted unto them in all the Scriptures the things which were written of him.
[verse 28] And they drew near unto the town which they went to, but he made as though he would have gone further.
[verse 29] But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is towards night, and the day is far spent. So he went in to tarry with them.
[verse 30] And it came to pass, as he sat at table with them, he took the bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave it to them.
[verse 31] Then their eyes were opened, and they knew him: and he was no more seen of them.
[verse 32] And they said between themselves, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and when he opened to us the Scriptures?
W EE insist yet (Beloved in Christ) in this part of History concerning the two Disciples of CHRIST, who in the day of His resurrection went out to HIERVSALEM, to a Village near by, called Emmaus. We heard these days past, what Cleopas, one of the two spake by the way, to Christ, whom he took to be a passenger, because his eyes were bound up, that he could not see Him, nor discern Him, neither by His voice, nor by His face. All his speech tēdes to this, Our hope is gone, we thought Jesus should have been the Redeemer, but He is dead, and continues under death. We entered in the answer which Jesus makes, speaking to Him like a passenger. The first entry is rough language: O fools, says He, and dull of heart, to believe all that the Prophets had spoken of Jesus! An hard entry. Thereafter He begins to instruct them and to teach them: The chief point of doctrine is first laid down in these words, Jt behooved that CHRIST should suffer, and by suffering, enter into his glory. Of this which we heard the last day▪ I repeat nothing. In this TEXT, as GOD shall give us grace, and as time shall suffer, we have the confirmation of this doctrine: He proves this necessity, that he behooved to suffer, by many testimonies: And then, in the seconde, we have howe He manifested Himself, and howe their eyes were opened, and howe He let them see, that He was Christ. And in the third parte we have the effects which it wrought in them, after that they knew Him to be their Lord and Master. Then to begin at the first, To prove that Christ suffered, and so entered into His glory. He searches the Scriptures, He begins at Moses, and from Moses he comes to the Prophets, interpreting unto them what Moses and the Prophets had spoken concerning CHRIST, interpreting that which concerned His Passion, and that which concerned His glory, after His Passion. The matter is set down summarilie: Here no Scriptures are expressed, neither such as were taken out of MOSES, or the PROPHETS: but summarilie it is said, That He proved all out of MOSES and the PROPHETS: There He alleged not a bare testimony: but He declared and expounded everyone of the Testimonies to these two Disciples. And then when He hath interpreted them, He gathered the conclusion, That it behooved himself to suffer.
Now, Brethren, we see in this place, what the preaching of the Gospel is in effect: it is none other thing, but the declaration of Moses, & the Prophets: Christ preaches here the Gospel to them, and yet He does nothing, but interpretes Moses and the Prophets. So the preaching of the Gospel, is nothing but the exponing of Moses and the Prophets: and this Evangel is a plain commentary of the Text of Moses: Moses wrote not one thing, and the Apostles another, but Moses wrote the same thing, that the Apostles wrote: only this is the difference: Moses wrote obscurely, the Apostles more clearly: Then mark well this: They that are preachers of the Gospel separate never the interpretation of the Gospel from the Text of Moses, and the Prophets. Some fantastic brains have thought the Olde Testament not needful since the Gospel was written: but all is vanity, Christ teached not that way: ye see, Christ takes His Text out of Moses, and interpretes Moses and the Prophets, and the Apostles wrote nothing of Christ, but that which they grounded upon Moses : and as for us, we should speak nothing, but that which we ground upon the writings of the Apostles: and next, we ground our preachings upon the Prophets, and thirdly, upon Moses, that is a ground, & that is a sure ground, and all the world cannot cast it down, that doctrine which is grounded upon the Apostles, the Prophets, and Moses, it is good, but if it be not grounded upon these three, I will not give thee one penny for it: Secondly, ye see, all the interpretation of Moses, is concerning Christ, and what befell Him, His suffering, and His glory after His passion, there is the chief corner stone, whereupon our Faith is built, and whereupon our Faith is grounded, and whereupon the doctrine of Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles is built, the corner stone, Christ, and therefore says the Apostle, being grounded upon the foundation of the Prophets, and the lowest stone Christ: and in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 3. verse 10. He says, No man can lay another ground, but that which is laid already : Jesus is the foundation and ground of all true doctrine and verity, Paul Rom. 10. calls Him the end of the Law, in Him is all the Law fulfilled, and He put an end to all these types and shadows in the Law: So there is the chief ground of our doctrine, Jesus Christ the lowest stone, upon Him is grounded the doctrine of Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles, and we build our doctrine upon Him.
I go forward: This for the first head, now follows the second part of the Text, how He begins to manifest Him, for as yet, they thought Him to be but a passenger, yet a gracious man, and blessed passenger, as ye will hear: they were loath to depart from Him: it is said, When they draw near to Emmaus, in a town where they thought to lodge all night, the Lord makes, as though He would have gone further, the words are, He faines, as though He were to go further, that village was not the end of His journey, the words give occasion of a question: Thought the LORD one thing, and spake He another, to speak one thing, and to think another, is a plain lie: I will not insist in this matter, the purpose of the Lord at this time was to enter into the village & town with them, and sit at Table with them, upon this condition, that they should be earnest with Him, urge Him, and in a manner contstrain Him, but this failing was in them, they not being earnest, He purposed to leave them, and to go further, then when it comes to the doing, and executing of His purpose, when He said, He would go further, He lied not, for He purposed so to do, if they had not been earnest with Him, and caused Him to abide: Then wherein can it be said, that He used simulation, except in this, that He show not them, that if they were earnest with Him, He would abide: No, if thou wouldest have Him to stay with thee, thou must be earnest to seek Him, and contstrain Him in a manner) I might let you see examples both in God, and godly men, that have shown a part of their purpose, and kept the rest to themselves: God said to Moses, I will slay this people, and none of them shall escape : He kept up this, except thou interceede: And again He says, Yet forty days and then Nineveh shall be destroyed : Lied the Lord? Not, albeit He kept up a part of His purpose, except they had repented: for if they had not repented, He had destroyed them. So the Lord bids Samuel conceal His purpose in anointing David, 1. Sam. 6.16.
This only is our lesson, Be not curious to seek that which the Lord hath not revealed to thee, but see thou study to do that which the Lord hath revealed: thou hast no warrand to seek that which He hath not revealed: O Scotland, thou hast no warrand whether GOD will stay with thee, or not, but thou hast this warrand, to entreat Him earnestly by prayer, and in a manner to contstrain Him to stay with thee: No, He will depart, if thou gettest not an heart to contstrain Him, He will not stay with thee if thou be not earnest to bid Him stay, thou hast no warrand that He will stay with thee: And I say to thee, if He be not better entertained in Scotland than He is, He shall leave thee: and woe to thee, Scotland, if He leave thee, this cold entertainment, may justly make thee to fear, that the Lord shall leave thee, Scotland Many in this Country of highest rank would put Him away, but if ever He depart, a heavy judgment shall light upon them. Now when He seemed, as though He would go further, in a manner they do Him violence, and they stick to Him, taking Him to be a man, a passenger, a gracious passenger, and therefore they are loath to sunder from Him, and they use arguments to move Him, they say, It is towards night, and the day is far spent, and where canst thou go? stay with us all night, then the Lord yielded, and tarried with them: Mark this: We use to say, Prayer will break hard weard, and it is true, repentance and supplication will hold off judgment, that would light upon us. The Lord says, in the eleventh Chapter of Matthew, and the twelfth verse: The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. What causes Him to tarie? violence is done to Him: and I say to thee, if thou enterest into Heaven, thou must do violence and take it by force: and I say more, if thou throngest not, & seekest it not night & day, thou shalt never enter in it: and if these disciples had not thronged on Him, and constrained Him, He had not remained with them: thou shouldest ever pray to God, and say Lord, leave us not, tarie with us, we may not sunder, if thou stickest not to Him, He shall leave thee. Then ye see, what it is to be human, they would not let Him walk in the night: but what reward got they? in stead of man, they receive God, and man blessed forever: so I say, humanity to man, hospitality to Pilgrimes, hath a great reward. The Apost. Heb. 13.2. says: That some received Angels into their houses unawares, when they thought they had received men. Abraham received Angels in his house, Gen. 16.3. Lot received Angels, Gen. 19.8. Now, Brethren, I say this to you, as ye would receive God, have mind of the poor, and now especially, in this extreme dearth, give them some part of that thou wouldest put in thine own mouth, & that which thou wouldest put on thy back: there is none of you, but ye will say, If ye had Christ here, I should feed Him, and if I saw Him naked, I should give Him clothes, the reprobate shall say the same in that day: We should have cled thee, if we had seen thee naked, &c. But what answers the Lord? Whē ye did it not to one of those little ones, ye did it not to me. Knew Abraham, or Lot, that these men that they received in their houses were Angels, and thought these two, that He was Christ: No, they thought Him but a passenger. We read, they that have shown humanity to men, received God, but we never read that any that never dealt humanely with men, & sought not to entertain them, got ever God to lodge with Him. So in a word, as thou wouldst not manifest thy love to God, be human, gentle and merciful to man. He who loves not his brother, whō he sees daily, how can he love God whom he never saw ? No, thou louedst Him never, say what thou will: fie upon that man, that hath no human entertainment in lodging of strangers. Now when He is gone in with them, He sits down at supper (for it was Euening) sitting down, He takes the bread and gives thanks. Take heed to this: ye with profane hands will pul, rent & swallow up y e Lord's benefits, without knowing of God, but the Lord of glory now sitting down as man, He would not break bread, until He had sanctified it by prayer: when He hath blessed the bread, He takes it, and distributes it to the disciples: so ye see, this is an Holy passenger, whilst He makes Him to be a passenger, He is Holy. Mark this, ye that are passengers, all His communing in the way, is holy: then when He sits down, He blessed the bread, ere He eat: how ever He makes Him to be a passenger, he dissembles never His holiness, but always He is holy, He is holy in the way, He is holy in the house, He is holy at the table, that holy Lord will never take on the habit of prophanitie, Mark this: Be what thou wilt, if thou be a Lord, traveling, albeit thou dissemblest thy rank, behave thyself as a commmon passenger, or as a merchant, &c. yet with the company thou art in, behave thyself holy, be holy in thy journey, be holy at the table, and in thy eating show that habit. Ye that travel, either in this Country, or to other countries see, how far men are from this: if they meet with an evil person, they will be as evil, if they meet with a filthy person, they are filthier, they will speak two filthy words for one: if one go to Germany, he will be an Ubiquiter, and in Rome a Papist, in Scotland a Christian, in as many places as many forms: so thou y t is a Passēger, as ever y u would look for rest hereafter, look y t thou be holy: a holy hearted mā in a company, will not only have great graces in himself, but also he will be gracious to y t company, & communicate these graces to them with whom He is in company: So dissemble as thou wilt, be ever holy, and as ever thou wouldest dwell with Jesus, be ever like Him in some measure in holiness: and well is us, if in word and deed we be holy pilgrims in this world. This would not be passed by, He sunders not from them in the house, He goes not to one house, and they to another, but He will go to one house with them, and will sit at the same table with them: then He will not stay still, till they give bread to Him, but He begins to give bread to them, and feeds them with His own hand: So ye see, Brethren, what it is, to be earnest to entreat the Lord, to stay with thee: Now certainly, He shall be more homely with thee, than thou canst be with Him: if thou beginnest to entreat Him, He will remain with thee, and feed thee with His own hand, and they that have found the Lord, they have seen such an homeliness, as they could never think of. In the 3. of the Revelation, verse 20. The Lord Jesus says, I will stand at the door, and I will knock, he that will open to me, I will come in, and sup with him. Once let me in, I shall be so homely, as thou never wouldest have thought, I shall insinuate me in thine heart & I shall not only sit at thy table, but I will sit in thine heart, and shall feed thine heart with joy, and food everlasting.
Now to go forward: the Lord, who no question bound up their eyes, before, opens them now : if He close thine eyes, the world cannot open them, He only can oppen them: The mean whereby He opens them, apparently was that form of prayer He used before He brake the bread: Next, they understood, that it was He by the distributing of the bread: for He used to feed them with His own hand: and therefore by these signs they are made to know Him. I see here, grace grows: after that once grace begins: none end of grace: after that once He hath invited them, He suppes with them, then He feeds them with His own hand, and then at the last, their eyes were opened: and judge ye, what joy that was to them: No doubt, that was the most joyful sight, that ever they saw. So, hold on, and entertain the Lord a while, and set Him at thy table, and never be glad to eat nor drink, except thou findest some presence of thy GOD (for it is a loathsome dinner, if thou wantest Him, and if thou entreatest Him on, thou shalt find in ende, an exceeding joy: Entertaine Him now, as a passenger, and in the ende, thou shalt see Him to thy comfort, thine eyes shall be opened to see Him, as He is.
Then it is said, as their eyes were opened, He was lifted from them, ye must not think, that the Lord made His body invisible, it is contrary to the order of nature, a thick body to be invisible, nor ye must not think, that He brake out at the house side, as the Papists dream: this departure was by the holding of their eyes, He was not changed in this form, or that form, but the change was in their eyes, so that, they see not howe He departes, or in what manner, as before, their eyes were holden, that they could not know Him. To leave this, ye would marvel, He gives them but one blencke: in an instant He goes away from them: why stays He not? No, it was not meet for them, that He should stay, nor yet was it possible for Him to stay after that manner that they would have had Him to have stayed, seeing now sufficiently they were assured that He was risen it was not needful that He should stay with them, as of before, as ye see, the Apostles in the 1. of the